BRUSSELS – Environmentalists on Monday said an international deal to reduce catches of Atlantic bluefin tuna didn't go far enough to protect the species from extinction.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas decided at a meeting Sunday in Brazil to limit 2010 catch quotas to 13,500 tons to prevent overfishing of the much sought-after tuna, the European Union said.
The commission sets annual fishing limits in an effort to save the fish stock from extinction.
Signatory countries had previously agreed to cut catches from 28,500 tons to 22,000 this year, but scientists and environmental groups argued a total ban was needed to salvage a viable tuna stock.
"Only a zero catch limit could have maximized the chances that Atlantic bluefin tuna could recover to the point where the fishery could exist in the future," said Susan Lieberman, from the Pew Environment Group.
Raul Romeva, who sits on the European Parliament's fisheries committee said European delegates to the Brazil meeting "deserve to be condemned" for agreeing to continue fishing the sushi favorite.
The European Union's fisheries commissioner, Joe Borg, said the cuts would "mark decisive progress in managing and conserving" the bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
"Our goal is to ensure the return to a healthy bluefin tuna stock and a viable and sustainable fishery for our fleet," he said in a statement.
EU nations have been divided on how to protect dwindling tuna stocks off their coasts.
Mediterranean members Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Italy, France and Spain blocked an attempt by the European Commission in September to impose a temporary ban on catching tuna.
Stocks of the bluefin species have been in steady decline for years with Japan taking some 80 percent of bluefin exports to satisfy demands for the finest raw fish ingredient.
The tuna's uncertain status has driven up prices and prompted fishermen to sidestep stringent quotas to fish illegally for big profits.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) –
The Philadelphia Phillies kept their championship hopes alive by beating the New York Yankees 8-6 Monday to force a sixth game in the best-of-seven World Series.

Chase Utley belted two home runs to support the pitching of Cliff Lee, the same combination that produced victory in last week's Fall Classic opener.

"It's the World Series, it's a do-or-die game," Utley told reporters after last year's World Series winners cut the Yankees' lead to 3-2 ahead of Wednesday's Game Six.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, whose team needs to sweep two games in New York to retain the MLB trophy, hoped Utley could stay in his groove.

"Chase, when he gets hot, definitely he can get hot and stay hot for a month or two," said Manuel. "Knock on wood."

A New York fightback that produced four runs in the last two innings fell short as Phillies reliever Ryan Madson struck out Mark Teixeira, representing the tying run, to end it.

Utley blasted a three-run homer in the first inning and a solo shot in the seventh, giving him a total of five round-trippers in the championship showdown to tie the Series record set by Reggie Jackson for the Yankees in 1977.

The Phillies charged to an early 6-1 lead after Utley's first-inning contribution, followed by another three-run burst in the third against New York starter and loser A.J. Burnett.

Burnett, pitching on three days' rest for the first time this season, went two innings plus four batters, giving up six runs on four hits, four walks and one hit batsman.

The Yankees, who scored one run in the first, added another in the fifth but looked beaten after Utley and Raul Ibanez connected for solo homers in the seventh off reliever Phil Coke to push Philadelphia's lead to 8-2.

'DANGEROUS HITTER'

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said he was not surprised by Utley's heroics. "He's a very dangerous hitter, and he puts up great numbers every year."

Girardi said the seventh-inning runs were a back breaker.

"Those were tack-on runs that hurt us, obviously," he said. "We ended up with six runs tonight. We still had a chance in the ninth inning to possibly come back and tie it up or take the lead, but when you look back at it, those runs hurt us."

New York finally knocked Lee out of the game in the eighth with a three-run rally keyed by a two-run double from Alex Rodriguez.

Phillies reliever Park Chan-ho closed the door on New York to end the eighth and gave way to Madson for the ninth.

Jorge Posada doubled high off the wall in right to lead off the final frame for the Yanks and went to third on a pinch-hit single by Hideki Matsui.

Madson got Derek Jeter to bounce into a double play that scored Posada. Johnny Damon gave New York another chance to tie by singling to center, but the hard-throwing Madson struck out slugger Mark Teixeira to put the victory in the books.

The series goes back to New York for Game Six.

Philadelphia will send Pedro Martinez to the mound in another elimination game, while the Yankees are leaning toward starting Game Three winner Andy Pettitte on three days' rest needing one victory to claim their 27th World Series crown.

(Editing by Alastair Himmer)

BOSTON – A court hearing for a winner of the reality TV show "Big Brother" on drug charges has been postponed.
Adam Jasinski (jah-ZIN'-skee), of Delray Beach, Fla., is charged with attempting to sell 2,000 oxycodone pills. He was scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Boston on Thursday, but his detention hearing has been postponed until Oct. 30.
Jasinski was arrested in North Reading, Mass., last weekend after he allegedly showed a government witness two plastic bags filled with oxycodone.
Jasinski won $500,000 on "Big Brother 9" in April 2008. A federal drug agent says the 31-year-old told him that he had been using his winnings on the CBS reality show to buy thousands of oxycodone pills and resell them along the East Coast.

Christening Gift

"O Thou who, through holy Baptism, hast given unto Thy servant remission of sins, and hast bestowed upon him (her) a life of regeneration: Do Thou, the same Lord and Master, ever tgraciously illumine his (her) heart with the light of Thy countenance. Maintain the shield of his (her) faith unassailed by the enemy [i.e., Satan]. Preserve pure and unpolluted the garment of incorruption wherewith Thou hast endued him (her), upholding inviolate in him (her), by Thy grace, the seal of the Spirit, and showing mercy unto him (her) and unto us, through the multitude of Thy mercies..."

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dress in white clothing to perform and to undertake baptism. Traditionally, the proselyte wears a white jumpsuit, white socks and white underclothing. The person performing the ordinance wears either a white jumpsuit or white slacks and white shirt. Historically, women and girls wore white dresses with weights sewn in at the hems to prevent the clothing from floating during the ceremony.

LONG BEACH, Calif. – There's nothing pacific about the ocean off Southern California these days. A battle over how to establish marine reserves along the coast has roiled the waters with the competing interests of environmentalists, fishermen and seaside businesses.
The fight was coming slowly to a head Thursday as a panel elicited final information before making a recommendation to the California Fish and Game Commission on one of three hotly debated plans for a Marine Protected Area in the Southern California Bight.
Stretching from Point Conception northwest of Los Angeles to the Mexican border, the 250-mile-long arc of alternately scenic and heavily urbanized coast embraces islands and reefs in waters prized for fishing, recreation, conservation and research.
Panel chairwoman Catherine Reheis-Boyd said it would be a tough decision.
"We know what the law says but we also understand the human side of this," she said.
Environmentalists put forward the most restrictive plan while the fishing industry reluctantly backed a proposal it viewed as moderating economic impacts. A third plan was considered middle-of-the-road.
Hundreds of people with a stake in the decision packed lengthy meetings leading up to the decision, which is likely to be substantially affirmed when it goes to the commission in December.
Some feared extensive bans on fishing with serious financial consequences for commercial and sport fishing operators, harbor businesses and even tourism.
Environmentalists pushed for stringent protections to prevent the decline of hard-pressed species and argued that the concept of Marine Protected Areas has been successful elsewhere in the world, ultimately benefiting fishing.
Discussions elicited by the panel were highly detailed: Comments on the size and shape of protection areas on just one small stretch of coast elicited concerns about kelp, abalone, bass, a company's water intake pipe and Native American heritage sites.
Differences in the plans outwardly appeared small, but a fishing industry representative said in an interview that some locations are so significant that putting them off limits would have a huge impact.
"What most people don't stop to think is that fish don't live and spread themselves evenly in the ocean, they congregate in choice areas," said Vern Goehring, manager of the California Fisheries Coalition, an association of 27 commercial and recreational fishing organizations.
Kaitlin Gaffney, Pacific ecosystem protection director for Ocean Conservancy, said in an interview that the environmentalists' proposal was "efficient," protecting exactly the habitat that needs to be protected while leaving open areas for consumptive uses.
"It's a slam dunk on the science," she said.
The controversy stems from the state's 1999 Marine Life Protection Act, which found that existing protected areas had been established on a piecemeal basis and without sound scientific guidelines.
California's 1,100-mile coast was divided into five regions for re-evaluation and new Marine Protected Areas have so far been established in two of them, the central and north-central coasts.
For Southern California, three work groups created plans for a checkerboard of locations in state waters — three miles out but including islands — to protect marine life and habitat with a range of restrictions on use. Individual sites will receive various types of designation such as state marine reserve or marine conservation area.
The California Fisheries Coalition, which claims its members have a $5.5 billion impact on the state's economy, objected to the process as focusing too much on fishing and not on other things that impact the ocean, such as coastal development, water pollution and shipping.

"The way this process is being implemented the last five years is it only considers one variable affecting the ocean, and that's fishing," Goehring said.

"What we've been arguing is that the enhanced protections or regulations need to be allocated according to the degree of threat and the degree of impact," he said.

Goehring said all the proposals would have huge direct impact on fishing operators that would spread to shore-based businesses.

The coalition, however, backed one that sought "to make it so that no one fish, no one fishery, no one community or no one business takes an overwhelming hit."

Gaffney said the Marine Life Protection Act is a broad ecosystem protection law.

"I don't think it's really sort of a site-by-site trade-off — a fish here for a business. It's a much broader question about how do you do the best job of conservation for Southern California," she said.

President Barack Obama has sought to kill several high-priced weapons systems. Here's how he's faring on Capitol Hill on the most controversial items:
F-22 fighter — Obama has threatened to veto any bill to fund the fighter jet. Both the House and Senate are complying.
F-35 fighter — Lawmakers think they've skirted a veto threat over their efforts to continue funding a second engine for the Air Force's next-generation fighter.
C-17 cargo jet — Obama's opposition to this popular Boeing Co. aircraft has seemed soft. Congress is set to fund production of perhaps 10 additional planes.
VH-71 presidential helicopter — With a veto threat, Obama seems poised to kill off this troubled and over-budget replacement for the presidential helicopter fleet. Some House supporters of the helicopter are fighting on.

SAN FRANCISCO – When an earthquake collapsed two 50-foot sections of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge during the 1989 World Series, the nightmares of hundreds of thousands of commuters who cross the Depression-era span each day were brought to life.
On this 20-year anniversary of the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that killed 63 people, injured almost 3,800 and caused up to $10 billion damage, the bridge reconstruction has become the largest public works project in California history and is still years from completion.
Although thousands of buildings, highway bridges and landmarks such as San Francisco City Hall have been fortified, other earthquake safety problems are far from fully addressed in this region where experts say another major temblor is certain to strike.
Some schools that the state says are at risk of collapse still have not been repaired. And vulnerable apartment buildings that house hundreds of thousands of people have not been seismically retrofitted by their owners.
Millions were tuned in on television to watch Game 3 of the "Bay Bridge World Series" between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics when the shaking began. The broadcast went dark, with the vast audience riveted to their TVs, and then sportscaster Al Michaels' audio returned with reports that a strong earthquake had struck.
"The Loma Prieta earthquake is always referred to as a wakeup call and we're fortunate over the last 20 years that we've had no other major earthquakes," said Jack Boatwright, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "Much work has been done but we cannot rest in these efforts."
It took only four years during the Great Depression to build the Golden Gate and Bay bridges, but the reconstruction of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge has been plagued by costly delays and political gridlock over its unconventional design. Originally the cost was put at $1.3 billion with a 2004 completion; that has ballooned to $7.2 billion with a 2013 opening.
"What this region and the state is trying to do here is unique," said Bart Ney, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation, who is managing the project. "We're trying to build a world class structure, an architectural icon and a seismic innovation all at one time in one of the most seismically challenged areas of the world. Because of the complexity of all of that, it's taken us a long time to do it."
Some bridge experts, however, say the decision to rebuild rather than strengthen the existing bridge was a pricey mistake.
A team of 40 researchers sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Caltrans to study the Oct. 17, 1989 earthquake's effects on the bridge recommended in 1992 that the current bridge be retrofitted, not replaced, for an estimated cost of $230 million.
But a 1996 study by Caltrans' Seismic Advisory Board disagreed with these findings, saying the cost of replacing the bridge was comparable with retrofitting it.
The new span wound up costing billions of dollars and is less quake resistant than the existing bridge, said Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, a civil engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
"You are going to get a bridge, in my opinion, that is less safe than the existing east span. The bridge didn't need to be replaced," said Astaneh-Asl, who was the lead investigator in the NSF and Caltrans five-year study of the seismic performance of the bridge's east span, and who submitted an alternative design after officials chose to replace it. "This replacement is worse than what we have."
The signature part of the new eastern span is a single-tower, self-anchored suspension bridge larger than any other in the world. It uses leverage to support the roadway by using a cable looped over the tower and anchored into the ends of the roadway itself. On traditional suspension bridges, like the Golden Gate, the main cables are connected to huge concrete blocks embedded in the ground at each end of the span.
If one section of the new self-anchored bridge fails in an earthquake, Astaneh-Asl said, the entire structure could fail.
But Caltrans' Ney said the new bridge is the safest of the designs that were aesthetically pleasing to local leaders and others who had a say in the final choice.
"We originally pitched a concrete viaduct bridge, which we know how to build well, and the community, leaders and the media criticized it as a vanilla design," Ney said. "If the community doesn't want it, we have to listen."
While cost and delays have been troubling, Ney said there is no question the right decision was made. "The bridge is 70 years old," he said. "It's reaching the end of its life span."

Meantime, another large earthquake is destined to occur — scientists in 2008 said there is a 63 percent probability of a comparable quake in the Bay area over the next 30 years. And the Bay Bridge is not the only complicated public safety project to move slowly.

In 2003, years after a newspaper investigation exposed thousands of vulnerable public school buildings in California, a state audit determined California schools could need at least $5 billion in seismic work.

But in many districts, expensive retrofitting projects are not feasible in these challenging economic times.

In 2006, a voter-approved measure set aside $200 million to help districts with seismic projects, but only five school districts have applied. To date, only one grant has been awarded, $3.6 million to San Ramon Valley High School in Contra Costa County to retrofit its gymnasium.

State officials who compiled a list of the 25 almost quake-vulnerable school buildings are baffled about why more districts have not sought money, which can be used to determine seismic risk or do repairs.

"We can't really speak to why schools have not applied," Eric Lamoureux, spokesman for the Department of General Services, said. "We have done significant outreach to districts about the availability of the funds."

At Oakland Technical High School the school auditorium and girls' gymnasium have been identified by the state as older building types in danger of collapse or damage during a major earthquake.

Oakland said the grant would not cover all the repair costs, leaving the cash-strapped district on the hook to complete the project.

"If you include finishing and structural work, the grant would cover only 50 percent of our costs," Troy Flint, a spokesman for Oakland Unified School District said.

Many of the structures that collapsed during Loma Prieta and Southern California's Northridge earthquake in 1994 were so-called "soft-story" buildings — those built with garage or commercial space on the first floor providing little support in a strong temblor.

While unreinforced masonry buildings have been retrofitted in San Francisco, a recent Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) study found that thousands of Bay Area residents are still living in soft-story dwellings that have not been retrofitted.

"The problem is that the economy stinks, so some of these programs people thought about making mandatory ... it's just terrible timing," said Jeanne Perkins, earthquake preparedness manager for ABAG.

Only one city in the Bay area, Fremont, has passed mandatory retrofitting for these unsafe buildings, according to the ABAG study.

Berkeley has a law mandating that owners get an evaluation and a plan to fix their buildings, but does not require that the work actually be done.

In Oakland, 26,000 of the city's 163,000 units would become uninhabitable in a 7-magnitude earthquake on the Hayward fault, ABAG's research found. Oakland has mandated an audit of its soft-story buildings.

San Francisco has the largest number of soft-story apartments, at least 12,400 multiunit buildings with tens of thousands of units, according to the ABAG study. So far, the city has been unable to find a way to mandate owners to strengthen their properties, but Mayor Gavin Newsom directed the city's Department of Building Inspection to write an ordinance making upgrades to these unsafe buildings mandatory.

"It's in process," said the mayor's spokesman Nathan Ballard. "We are convening a task force, working with building owners to ensure it's done right."

There is a long tradition of sitting Presidents courting, relying on and even plotting with their predecessors, and the latest chapter is set to unfold Friday afternoon when former President George Herbert Walker Bush, accompanied by former Secretary of State James Baker, greets Barack Obama as he steps off a Marine Corps helicopter in College Station, Texas.
At Bush's invitation, the 44th Commander in Chief is paying a long-planned visit to the home of Bush's presidential library to mark the 20th anniversary of the voluntarism initiative begun by the former President in 1989. (See TIME's 2008 Person of the Year: Barack Obama.)
After being introduced by Bush, Obama will speak on community service before 2,500 people in Rudder Auditorium on the campus of Texas A&M University. Obama is expected to pay tribute to Bush's Points of Light Initiative, a community-service and charitable works program he launched in the early days of his presidency in 1989. Joining the two men on stage will be Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense and former president of the university, who has worked for both Presidents.
The meeting has been in the works for months, almost since the earliest days of the Obama Administration, and postponed at least once. It is just the most recent display of bipartisan goodwill between current and past holders of the highest office in the land. These alliances often span vast differences in both ideology and age: Richard Nixon paid a secret visit to Bill Clinton, 33 years his junior, to discuss Russia policy in 1993; Herbert Hoover met with John F. Kennedy, 38 years his junior, before he was inaugurated in 1960. Bush, at 85, is 37 years older than Obama, who is 48.
The two men met for the first time in January when Bush's son, George W. Bush, invited all the former Presidents, as well as Obama, to the White House. Earlier this year, the White House issued a proclamation marking the 20th anniversary of another Bush initiative, the Americans with Disabilities Act - a gesture that did not go unnoticed in Bush country. (See TIME's White House photo blog.)
The political benefits of this stop are easy to spot - though it would be easy to overestimate them too. It does not hurt Obama to be seen in the Lone Star state with Bush and Baker, two of the state's favorite sons, not to mention Gates, a Kansan who in College Station is something of an iconic figure. And as Republican criticism of his busy legislative program has increased, Obama may benefit from a joint appearance with a popular former Republican President elsewhere in the country.
But it is more likely that Obama, as he considers his options in Afghanistan, would benefit most from any private conversation he can work in on the subject with Bush, who was considered a foreign policy maestro, not to mention Baker, who along with Brent Scowcroft (and Gates), helped Bush chart a solid and centrist foreign policy from 1989 to 1993.
Longtime Bush observers were not surprised that the former President initiated Friday's visit. Bush is the informal leader of the four living ex-Presidents (Carter, Bush, Clinton and Bush) in part because, as President, he paid uncommon attention and courtesy to the four living Presidents who preceded him in office. Bush already enjoys a good relationship with Clinton. If Bush is not the most active former President, he is certainly the gamest: he jumped out of an airplane to mark his 85th birthday last summer, as he said recently, "to remind people that getting older doesn't mean you have to slow down."
See pictures of Barack Obama's college years.
See pictures of Barack Obama's nation of hope.
View this article on Time.comRelated articles on Time.com:Clinton and Bush Share Stage Bush Starts a McCain-Obama Brawl Presidents Do Lunch Wednesday POTUS to Chat With Powell POTUS Chats With Powell

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The 6-year-old boy at the center of the runaway balloon saga got sick twice on national television when he and his father were asked during separate TV interviews what he meant about his comment that "we did this for a show."
Sheriff Jim Alderman says his investigators believe there was no hoax, but will seek a new interview with the family after the CNN broadcast to clarify the statement.
During an ABC interview, Falcon Heene (HEE'-nee) said Friday: "Mom, I feel like I'm going to vomit." He then left the room with his mother and could be heard gagging.
During a live interview on NBC shown simultaneously on Friday, Falcon threw up into a container when his father was answering the same question.
Falcon vanished around the time that a homemade helium balloon floated away from his home, setting off a national uproar as authorities scoured the plains of northern Colorado for the youngster.

WASHINGTON – Health officials say influenza is circulating unusually early this year with cases in every state — and nearly all the infections are swine flu.
The highest concentrations of flu cases are in the Southeast and a few other states. The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday also came with good news: Testing of vaccines for swine flu show that they work with a single dose and take effect rapidly.
Supplies of swine flu vaccine are expected to be available in mid-October. But the seasonal flu vaccine is available now, and officials are encouraging people to get it.
Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC says the swine flu broke out in the spring and "never went away." Currently 98 percent of the flu viruses circulating are swine flu. Schuchat says cases are mainly in children and young adults.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fighting the swine flu may have gotten more manageable.
Australian and U.S. researchers said Thursday that one dose of the new swine flu vaccine looks strong enough to protect adults — and can begin protection within 10 days of the shot.
Australian drug maker CSL Ltd. published results of a study that found 75 percent to 96 percent of vaccinated people should be protected with a single dose — the same degree of effectiveness as the regular winter flu shot. That's remarkable considering scientists thought it would take two doses.
U.S. data to be released Friday confirm those findings and show the protection starts rapidly, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told The Associated Press.
"This is quite good news," Fauci said.
The dose question has an important ramification: It means people will have to line up for influenza vaccinations twice this year instead of three times — once for the regular winter flu shot and a second time to be inoculated against swine flu, what doctors call the 2009 H1N1 strain.
Thursday's swine flu vaccine reports center on adults; studies in children aren't finished yet.
But scientists had feared that people of all ages would need two shots about a month apart because the new H1N1 strain is so genetically different from normally circulating flu strains that most of the population has little if any immunity.
Chinese manufacturers gave the first hint a week ago that one dose could be enough. But different manufacturers make different formulations of the vaccine, so more evidence was needed.
Thus the CSL study, rushed out by the New England Journal of Medicine late Thursday, is welcome news. In a study of 240 adults, half younger than 50 and half over, one shot prompted the same kind of immune response indicating protection that is seen with regular flu vaccine. And a standard 15-microgram dose — not the double dose that also was tested — was enough.
CSL, which is one U.S. vaccine supplier, found the same side effects in its study that people experience with regular flu vaccine, which is no surprise since this shot is merely a recipe change from the annual standby. About 45 percent of recipients had mild reactions such as a headache, sore arm or redness at the shot site.
On Friday, the NIH is set to release results of its own studies of hundreds of adults that confirm that one shot works, Fauci said. Plus, the U.S. work shows that people are protected eight to 10 days after that inoculation, he said.
One dose means tight supplies of H1N1 vaccine won't be stretched so thin after all. The U.S. has ordered 195 million doses, based on the hope that 15 micrograms was indeed the right dose. Had it taken twice that dosage, or two shots apiece, half as many people could have received the vaccine.

The winter flu vaccine is widely available now, and U.S. health authorities urged people to get it out of the way now before swine flu shots start arriving in mid-October.

Despite all the headlines about swine flu, which has become the main influenza strain circulating in the world, doctors do expect some garden-variety flu to hit this fall too — the kind that every year kills 36,000 Americans and hospitalizes 200,000.

"Take some individual responsibility to stay healthy during the flu season," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who scheduled her own seasonal shot for Friday. Waiting to get the first inoculation out of the way "is not in anybody's best interest," added Dr. Nancy Nielsen, past president of the American Medical Association. She said busy doctors need to have completed regular vaccinations by the time they have to deal with H1N1 shots.

___

On the Net:

Flu information: http://www.flu.gov

LOS ANGELES – Larry Gelbart, the award-winning writer whose sly, sardonic wit helped create such hits as Broadway's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," the films "Tootsie" and "Oh, God!" and television's "M-A-S-H," is dead.
Gelbart died at his Beverly Hills home Friday morning after a long battle with cancer, said Creative Artists Agency, which represented him. He was 81.
His wife of 53 years, Pat Gelbart, told The Associated Press Friday that after being married for so long, "we finished each other's sentences." She declined to specify the type of cancer he had.
"It wasn't a surprise. He had cancer, we've known that. We didn't know what the outcome would be, the result, whatever. And so here we are and we were sort of prepared for this," she said. "It's enough to be able to be resourceful and go forward."
Gelbart, who won a Tony for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," an Emmy for "M-A-S-H" and was nominated for two Oscars, is most likely best remembered for the long-running TV show about Army doctors during the Korean War.
Carl Reiner, his longtime friend and colleague, called Gelbart "the Jonathan Swift of our day."
"It's a great, great, great, great, great, great loss. You can't put enough `greats' in front of it," said Reiner, who directed "Oh, God!" from Gelbart's Oscar-nominated script. "The mores of our time were never more dissected and discussed. He had the ability to make an elaborate joke given nothing but one line."
"M-A-S-H" debuted on CBS in 1972, when the nation was still embroiled in the Vietnam War, and some viewers were initially puzzled or offended by its depiction of the cynical, wisecracking physicians who worked frantically to save the lives of soldiers.
By its second season it had caught on, however, and it remained one of television's top-10 rated shows for a decade, until its final episode in 1983. Along the way, it won numerous awards including the Emmy for best comedy series.
"What attracted me to `M-A-S-H' was the theme song, `Suicide is Painless,'" Gelbart once remarked. "It was written in a very minor key and appealed to me emotionally."
The show, based on a book and the 1970 Robert Altman film of the same name, starred Alan Alda. Gelbart was brought into the project by producer-director Gene Reynolds who worked with him shaping the show.
After writing 97 half-hour episodes and winning an Emmy, Gelbart quit during the show's fourth season, saying he was "totally worn out."
But Pat Gelbart recalled the fondness with which people in the industry regarded him.
"Strangely enough, the thing that transpired in his rise to success was that everybody he worked with — co-writers, producers, actors, actresses — had nothing but a good word to say about him. He was never considered anything but reasonable, considerate, and never did anything untoward," she said. "I thought that was a singular kind of wonderful and most rare part of him. He didn't try to be a goody two-shoes. He just had that kind of character."
His entry into the entertainment business 30 years before had been worthy of a TV script itself.
Gelbart's father was a Los Angeles barber with a clientele of Hollywood notables, including Danny Thomas. While cutting Thomas' hair one day, he bragged of his 16-year-old son's writing ability and the comedian asked to see some of his work. Soon Thomas had hired Gelbart to write for his radio show.
"A comedy prodigy does not exist. A kid can make other kids laugh, but to make adults laugh with sophisticated humor at that age, it's not heard of," Reiner said Friday. "He had an unerring ear and eye for humor. He had a funny mother, which helps, and a father who loved jokes."
He went on to write gags for Bob Hope, Jack Paar, Red Buttons, Jack Carson, Eddie Cantor and Joan Davis. In 1953 he accepted Sid Caesar's offer of $1,000 a week to work for "Caesar's Hour," joining a legendary writing team that included Reiner, Mel Brooks and Neil Simon.

"He's the fastest of the fast, the wittiest man in the business," Brooks once said of him.

Deciding to expand his horizons, Gelbart also co-authored a revue, "My L.A.," which was a local hit in 1948.

His first foray to Broadway was far less successful. His 1961 play, "The Conquering Hero" closed after seven performances.

His next Broadway show, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," written with Burt Shevelove, enjoyed a far better fate the following year. Based loosely on the Roman plays of Plautus with songs by Stephen Sondheim, the show was a runaway hit, resulting in road companies and a 1966 movie with Zero Mostel and Phil Silvers.

After the play's success, Gelbart decided to move with his wife and five children to England, quipping that he wanted "to escape religious freedom in America."

They remained there for nine years, and his only notable work during that time was a script, written with Shevelove, for the 1966 black comedy, "The Wrong Box."

By the time he returned to Hollywood, however, he had a broader view of the world that he said helped him tackle "M-A-S-H."

"I make jokes all the time," Gelbart once said of his penchant for comedy. "It's a tic — a way of making myself comfortable. I can't imagine not having humor to lean on."

Gelbart also returned to the theater with "Sly Fox," which transformed Ben Jonson's Elizabethan "Volpone" to Gold Rush San Francisco. Starring George C. Scott as the devious miser, it was a solid success.

"Mastergate," a scathing treatment of the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals, flopped in 1989, but Gelbart scored the same year with "City of Angels," a musical spoof of Hollywood movies and crime novels.

His films "Oh, God!" with George Burns as a philosophical deity, and "Tootsie," with Dustin Hoffman as a cross-dressing actor, both brought him Academy Award nominations, and the HBO movie "Barbarians at the Gate," about Wall Street chicanery, brought another Emmy.

Larry Simon Gelbart was born in Chicago, moving to Los Angeles while in high school.

He married singer and actress Pat Marshall in 1956 and they raised their two children, Becky and Adam, and her three by a previous marriage, Cathy, Gary and Paul. Cathy died of cancer at age 50.

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AP writer Bob Thomas contributed to this report.

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Space shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts took a cross-country detour and landed safely in California on Friday after stormy weather prevented them from returning home to Florida for the second day in a row.
Discovery swooped through the sky and touched down at Edwards Air Force Base an hour before sunset, ending its delivery trip to the international space station.
"Welcome home, Discovery," Mission Control radioed. "Congratulations on an extremely successful mission."
Stormy weather made it too risky to bring Discovery back to its home port Thursday, and conditions were even worse Friday. So flight director Richard Jones opted for the clear flying conditions of the Mojave Desert.
NASA prefers Florida landings because the cross-country ferry trip, which involves transporting the shuttle atop a modified jumbo jet, costs $1.7 million and takes more than a week.
Thunderstorms also delayed the beginning of Discovery's mission. The shuttle blasted off Aug. 28 and logged 5.7 million miles.
Discovery and its crew, led by commander Rick Sturckow, dropped off tons of supplies and equipment, including a $5 million treadmill named after Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert. That was his consolation prize after pushing for naming rights to a new space station room. NASA chose Tranquility for the yet-to-be-launched room, even though Colbert won the online vote.
The treadmill will be assembled later this month. The space station's newest resident, Nicole Stott, who rode up on Discovery, is expected to break it in as the first runner.
Coming back aboard Discovery was the astronaut whom Stott replaced, Timothy Kopra. He spent nearly two months in orbit and said he was looking forward to seeing his wife and two children, and enjoying a sip of beer.
Also hitching a ride back was Buzz Lightyear. The 12-inch action figure flew up in mid-2008 as part of an educational program. The doll will return to Walt Disney World for a tickertape parade at the beginning of October.
Discovery's crew performed three spacewalks at the space station, installing a fresh tank of ammonia coolant, new antennas and cabling for Tranquility, the living quarters that's due to arrive early next year. One cable connector could not be hooked up, and that ended up being one of the few snags of the 14-day shuttle flight. NASA is devising repairs for the next shuttle visitors in November.
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On the Net:
NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission(underscore)pages/shuttle/main/index.html

VENICE (Reuters) –
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Venice on Monday to attend the world premiere of Oliver Stone's documentary about him and his strained relations with the United States.

"South of the Border" is a sympathetic portrait of the leader, casting him as a champion of the poor who has stood up to Washington.

Chavez, surrounded by bodyguards, strolled with Stone on the Lido red carpet and signed autographs like a movie star ahead of the premiere at the Venice film festival.

"What's happening in Latin America is like a Renaissance," the Venezuelan leader told reporters.

Chavez landed in Venice after visiting Iran and Turkmenistan.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

MEXICO CITY – Heavy rains have flooded hundreds of homes in the Mexico City metropolitan area and turned streets into rivers that dragged cars in their currents.
Officials say the downpour briefly closed Mexico City's airport and swamped four subway stations that were out of operation on Monday.
In the suburb of Tlalnepantla, a water drain broke, knocking down walls and sending cars floating down streets with water 5 feet (1 1/2 meters) deep.
Drought-plagued Mexico City has been begging for rain. Officials say up to 84 millimeters (3.5 inches) fell Sunday, but it was not enough to fill dams and allow an end to water rationing.

JAKARTA, Indonesia – The U.S. Geological Survey says a 6.1-magnitude earthquake has hit off the eastern coast of the main Indonesian island of Java.
Sutiyono from Indonesia's Meteorological and Geophysics Agency said there were no reports of causalities or damage. He also said no tsunami warning was triggered. Sutiyono, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.
The temblor struck late Monday at a depth of about 10 miles (15 kilometers) about 385 miles (620 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Jakarta.
Last week, a 7.0-magnitude quake shook Java, killing at least 64 people. Rescuers are still searching for bodies, but there is little hope of finding survivors.