"Play ball!" Major League umpires won't shout those magical words in the Southland for nearly two more months. Can't wait that long? Then plan a jaunt to Arizona, where the Angels and 11 other teams will play in the Cactus League. In late March, they'll be joined by the Dodgers, who are moving their spring training from Florida to Arizona. It's all just a short flight -- or an easy drive -- from L.A. Ticket prices are a real steal, starting around $5 for lawn seating to $25 for a seat behind home plate. Check out schedules at cactusleague.com and springtrainingonline.com.

O.C. toll road hearing draws thousands

Several thousand people turned out today for a California Coastal Commission hearing that will decide whether to approve a six-lane tollway through San Onofre State Beach, a popular preserve known for its ocean setting and famous surf spots.

Commission officials estimated that about 3,000 people--both toll road supporters and opponents--had filled Wyland Hall, a large pavilion at the Del Mar Fairgrounds that had been set aside for the toll road hearing.
They sat in rows of chairs and banks of bleachers at the back of the hall to hear what could turn into a daylong discussion about the Foothill South project.

"This is the largest turnout we have ever had," said Sarah Christie, the commission's legislative director.

Estimated to cost at least $875 million, the Foothill South would run 16-miles from Oso Parkway in Rancho Santa Margarita to I-5 at Basilone Road south of San Clemente. The highway would course through the northern half of San Onofre and pass over the Trestles marine estuary, which is a nature preserve. About 320 of the park's 2,100 acres would be taken for the road.

The controversy has generated intense public interest across the state. Local governments in Southern California have voted to support or oppose the highway. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed the project in January and other high-ranking state officials have taken positions on the road.

Before the hearing even began this morning„ such surfing-related companies, as Billabong, Etnies, Vans, Reef, and GFH Boards bused hundreds of tollway opponents to the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Cars of protesters bore painted signs that read, "Honk to Save Trestles," and "Save the Park."

Popular among the opposition were blue T-shirts that stated "Save the Park, Stop the Tollroad."

"There are only so many state parks left and we really should not pave over them," said Mike Matey, 40, of San Diego, who frequently camps and surfs at San Onofre. "I can't trust what the TCA says about the impacts of the highway on our coast."

Just outside Wyland Hall there was a carnival atmosphere. Hundreds of people milled about, sometimes shoulder to shoulder. Booths set up by the Sierra Club, the Surfrider Foundation and other environmental groups dispensed anti-tollroad literature while concessionaires sold hot dogs, burgers, coffee, mochas and lattes.

Heading inside the pavilion was Armando Esparza, secretary for Laborers' Union Local 652, which is affiliated with the Southern California District Council of Laborers. He was part of a group of more than 100 union members and tollway supporters from Orange County, the Inland Empire, and Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

"Maybe at the end of the day, this project will mean more jobs, but it also will help relieve congestion," Esparza said. "Look at our freeways now--the 91 and the 710. They are all congested. People are now coming in from San Diego County to work in Orange County. That creates a bottleneck on the 5."

55 charged in welfare fraud scheme

More than 50 people were charged in a $3 million child-care scam that involved bogus corporations and child-care facilities set up to receive state welfare funds, the Los Angeles County district attorney said Thursday.

In what prosecutors described as the largest such fraud case in the state, and possibly the nation, alleged ring-leader Demetrius Eugene, 36, created six bogus child-care facilities under the name of Home Sweet Home Day Care Inc. and listed family members and friends as care providers.
According to Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, Eugene and fellow defendants recruited individuals qualified for state "welfare-to-work" programs, which provide child-care support for welfare recipients transitioning into employment.

One arm of Eugene's corporation provided false employment to parents, while the other claimed to provide child-care to those parents to collect state funds, prosecutors said.

The "welfare-to-work" candidates signed fake time cards for themselves and attendance sheets for their children at the operation's headquarters in Los Angeles, and received roughly $300 per child per month in return, authorities said. At most of the facilities, there was no evidence that child-care services were ever provided.

Cooley said the case was an indication of a complete lack of accountability and verification in the welfare transition program run by the state Department of Education.

"It's not just this crime, the way they perpetrated it, or how much money they got. It's really about the fact that it could have been prevented," Cooley said. "It will occur again and we won't be able to detect it."

Dist. Atty. James Baker, who worked on the case, said the ring is one of hundreds of child-care fraud operations that are referred each year to the county Department of Public Social Services.

"This might be one of the most sophisticated," he said. "They were able to fool the child-care agencies that they were legitimate."

The 55 defendants named in five separate complaints include nearly 50 parents, most of whom said they knew about the scheme, prosecutors said.

Eugene, a former employee of the California Department of Corporations, had little difficulty turning the day care center he inherited from his mother into a corporation, Baker said.

Most of the fraud alleged in the complaints occurred between 2000 and 2004, Baker said.

Among those charged in the case was Kmond Day, 32, who received his child-care license from a state agency and set up a facility shortly before he was convicted of drug trafficking. But even after Day was sent to prison, the state continued to provide welfare funds to his care center.

Day and his wife received more than $400,000 in state funds, authorities said.

"He surely wasn't there taking care of children, he was in federal prison." Cooley said.

Two buses involved in crash in South Los Angeles

An accident involving a transit bus, a school bus and three cars in South Los Angeles has left six people injured.

The crash happened about 4:20 p.m. on Manchester Avenue near Western Avenue. A city fire spokeswoman says no students were on the school bus nor was anyone aboard the Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus.

Six people had minor injuries but none of them were taken to a hospital.

The crash is under investigation.

This time, Microsoft may meet its match in Google

WASHINGTON -- Bill Gates worried that something like Google would come along before it even existed.

In 1995, the Microsoft leader recognized how a powerful Internet player could topple his company from the high-tech pyramid and launched an attack on all potential threats. Netscape, Sun Microsystems and other competitors paid the price.
So did Microsoft. Its tactics triggered a landmark antitrust case that handcuffed the software giant for a decade, hampering its ability to respond when the real Web boogeyman appeared: Google Inc.

But today the shackles are off. Largely unconstrained by the antitrust problems that have dogged it since the late 1990s, Microsoft is the aggressor again.

Its surprise $44.6-billion offer for Yahoo Inc. capped off a year in which Microsoft proved that it was serious about the Internet and willing to throw around its cash hoard.

Yahoo's board of directors has decided to reject the offer, a person familiar with the matter said Saturday. The person, who is close to Yahoo management, said the company planned to tell Microsoft in a letter Monday that the deal undervalues the Internet company and fails to offset its risk if regulators were to overturn the merger.

Although Yahoo doesn't want to sell to Microsoft, it has few alternatives. Many analysts expect Microsoft to sweeten its offer, and Yahoo to accept it.

If it wins Yahoo, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant will have pulled off by far the largest acquisition in its 33-year history to try to keep Google from getting further ahead.

"Microsoft tends to be a reactive company," said Mark Anderson, an entrepreneur and author of an industry newsletter that counts Gates and Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer among its subscribers. "They also tend to always be focused on their competition, even down to the individuals that run divisions on both sides."

Google is lobbying against a potential Yahoo deal, saying Microsoft can't be trusted. Microsoft counters that it isn't the dominant player in Web advertising as it is in operating systems and office productivity software.

Pulling for former foe

Fearful of the new giant on the block, some of Microsoft's old enemies are rooting for it.

For years, Chris Tolles had a front-row seat to the brutal side of the so-called Beast from Redmond. The software developer worked at companies that went head-to-head with Microsoft, including Sun and Netscape.

But now he's running Topix, a Silicon Valley company that offers local news and other information online. Google launched a competing product last week.

"Creating a valid competitor for Google would be very helpful to the industry," Tolles said. "That's the irritating part: I'm rooting for Microsoft."

Microsoft, which declined to comment, doesn't enjoy the underdog role.

After its previous attempts to acquire Yahoo or strike a partnership were rebuffed, Microsoft made an unsolicited bid for the company Jan. 31 and announced it the next day. The half-cash, half-stock bid valued the struggling Internet company at $31 a share -- 62% more than its stock's closing price Jan. 31. But with the slump in Microsoft's share price since then, the offer's value has declined to $29.08 a share. Investors expect Microsoft to offer more.

"We keep at things," Ballmer told employees when the bid was announced. "We don't start and stop."

It's been a long, eventful struggle since Microsoft began its online push.

In a lengthy memo sent to Microsoft executives May 26, 1995, Gates warned that the young World Wide Web could spawn a competitor to threaten the software giant's computing dominance. He assigned the Internet "the highest level of importance."

Funeral horses stampede, overturn hearse

LONDON (Reuters) - A hearse overturned when the horses pulling it to a south London cemetery stampeded, dragging the carriage and coffin past appalled relatives and sending floral tributes flying.

"It was dreadful," a mourner told the South London Press. "The horses dragged the carriage to the cemetery on its side, tossing the coffin all over the place and destroying all the flowers inside.

"Some people got very angry and had to be restrained by other mourners... It is understandable given the circumstances. I'm horrified that something like this could happen."

Police were called to calm angry mourners so that the funeral last month could go ahead.

The carriage appeared to have clipped a mini-roundabout as it entered Lambeth Cemetery for the funeral, the local council which administers the graveyard said Friday.

Police say Florida woman strapped beer in with seat belt but not baby

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - Florida police arrested a motorist they said had a 24-pack of beer strapped in with a seat belt but had a 16-month-old girl unrestrained in the back seat with the toddler's mother.

Tina Williams was pulled over in St. Augustine on Sunday for allegedly running a red light.

A 24-pack of Busch beer was strapped in with the passenger-side seat belt, said an arrest report. The girl was in the back seat with 20-year-old Amber Tedrick, who is the toddler's mother.

Williams, 46, said she didn't know why the child wasn't restrained.

Williams refused to take a breath test and a deputy found two metal pipes commonly used to smoke drugs in her purse, authorities said.

Williams was charged with driving under the influence, child abuse, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving without a licence, a jail official said. She remained in the St. Johns County jail Tuesday after bail was set at $31,000.

The jail did not have the name of her lawyer. It was not clear if Tedrick would face any charges but the child was released to her care, the Florida Times-Union newspaper reported.

Drunk threatened city with TV remote

CANBERRA (Reuters) - A drunken man's threat to blow up half a city with his television remote control forced Australian police to declare a state of emergency at a luxury golf resort, a local court heard Thursday.

Geoffrey Martin Fryatt, 57, a resident of the Fairways Golf and Lifestyle Retreat in Brisbane, was arrested by elite paramilitary police after terrifying neighbors with a knife and threatening to detonate a store of chemicals with the TV remote.

"One push of the button will blow up half of Brisbane," Fryatt shouted in the standoff last May before police in the Queensland state capital opened fire with rubber bullets.

Fryatt's lawyer told the Brisbane District Court that his client lost control after losing much of his life savings in a fraud carried out by his finance broker, local media said.

"People are genuinely scared of sudden explosions," the judge said, sentencing Fryatt to a year's probation. "Frightening members of the public with threats of bombs and bomb hoaxes has a much greater impact than it once did," she said.

Fryatt accepted probation, but said he was concerned it could interrupt plans to travel overseas to do humanitarian aid work, the Brisbane Times newspaper reported.

"Let's get you right before we send you off to a third world country," the judge said.

Minnesota man who robbed woman and licked toes put on probation

MINNEAPOLIS - A man who robbed a woman of her keys and cellphone, then licked her toes, was sentenced Wednesday to five years' probation.

Carlton Jermaine Davis, 26, faces 21 months in prison if he fails to complete probation for the robbery charge in Ramsey County District Court.

A criminal complaint said Davis approached the woman around 1 a.m. on Sept. 9 as she was leaving work and forced her to put her phone and purse inside a bag.

Then he told her: "Now I'm going to suck your feet."

Police arrested Davis a few minutes later about four blocks away.

Have you heard? Hospitals to ban gossiping

BELGRADE (Reuters) - A ban on grumpiness, gossiping, mini-skirts and rudeness is what the doctor orders to improve patient care in Serbia's hospitals, according to new rules issued by the country's Health Ministry.

The rules, posted on the ministry's Web site, say staff are not allowed to criticize their hospital or their superiors, and should not accept gifts for their services.

Hospital staff are often bribed with cash or gifts for attention or better treatment.

"There needs to be ground rules for decency," a ministry spokesman said.

Serbia's public health system crumbled during the conflicts of the 1990s, with patients' relatives having to provide everything from bandages and antibiotics to food.

Funding improved as stability returned but bribery, often involving hundreds of euros, is still widespread.

Woman just misses hit when falling ice explodes through bedroom ceiling

CALGARY - A Calgary woman narrowly avoided getting hit by several chunks of ice that crashed through her bedroom ceiling Thursday morning, likely dropped from a passing airplane.

The city fire department says the woman was in the room and only a few steps away when debris "exploded" from the roof shortly before 9:30 a.m.

Fire crews found several chunks of ice about 15 centimetres long on the bed, along with pieces of shingles, plywood, drywall and insulation.

The best guess is the "frozen liquid" fell from a passing airplane. And fire department spokesman Jeff Budai says he can't think of anything else that would cause such damage.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is looking into the incident and confirms that a couple of airplanes were in the area at the time.

Winnipeg group breaks ball hockey record set by Edmonton players

WINNIPEG - A group of friends in Winnipeg has made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

University student Chris Watchorn and more than 30 friends have been deemed to have played the longest marathon ball-hockey game - 100 hours and two minutes. The game was played last spring, and Watchorn only received the official confirmation of his world record this week. The new record shattered the previous mark of 30 hours set by a group in Edmonton in 2004.

Watchorn says the long game was hard on his body, but the official recognition is great.

He says the main goal was to raise money for cancer research, and he and friends managed to gather $25,000.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland should consider giving up driving on the left to reduce accidents by foreigners accustomed to right side motoring, a senior politician said Friday.

Donie Cassidy, the leader of Ireland's upper chamber Senate, cited Sweden -- which moved to the right in 1967 -- as an example of a country that switched decades after most of Europe did.

Ireland's economic growth over the past decade has attracted tens of thousands of workers especially from central and eastern European countries. It is also a popular tourist destination for visitors from the United States.

"We have all of these people coming in from Europe and from America and (because of) the roads that they are used to driving on in their own countries it is a huge difficulty when they start driving here," Cassidy told public broadcaster RTE.

"I know when I go to America it takes me five or six days to adjust."

Motoring body the AA said the idea was "completely impractical."

As another remedy, Cassidy suggested in the Senate on Thursday that people from countries driving on the right should observe a 50 mile per hour speed limit, compared with speeds up to 120 km permitted for Irish drivers.

Besides Ireland, many former British colonies such as India and Australia keep to the left as does Japan.

Afghan mission becomes election fodder with tabling of confidence bill

OTTAWA - The future of Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan has been tossed into the election incubator.

The minority Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper introduced a confidence motion Friday that proposes extending Canada's "current responsibility for security in Kandahar" by almost three years.

"It requires other parties to make a simple decision," government House leader Peter Van Loan told a news conference. "Either you support the military mission in Afghanistan or you don't."

Van Loan's tough talk sets up the Afghanistan question as a possible spring election trigger when the matter comes to a vote in Parliament next month.

It was the second confidence motion introduced by Van Loan in as many days, establishing the combative House leader as the Dr. Kevorkian of a minority government apparently determined to euthanize itself.

The opposition Liberals have consistently said they want Canada's combat role to end on schedule when the current mandate expires next February, but they maintain Canadian troops should stay on in Kandahar to help train Afghan forces and provide security for humanitarian projects.

It's a scenario that was explicitly rejected in the panel report on the mission delivered last month by former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley. Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, has also dismissed the concept.

But the Liberals are sticking to their guns, saying Canada's combat role must end.

"Our position is that combat aspect of the mission has a deadline, which is February 2009," Dion said Friday in Vancouver.

The government motion proposes an "increasing emphasis on training" in coming years and suggests "Canada's combat role should be commensurately reduced."

The extension is also predicated on NATO finding another 1,000 troops for southern Afghanistan and helicopters and unmanned drones to assist Canadian troops there, as recommended in the Manley report. The Liberals back those recommendations.

NATO defence ministers were meeting Friday in Vilnius, Lithuania, where France suggested it might be prepared to come to Canada's aid in Kandahar.

Ottawa responded by sending the prime minister's chief of staff, Ian Brodie, to Paris for followup discussions.

But French officials have suggested a firm commitment won't be made before April, and they can't provide the entire 1,000-soldier contingent that Canada is seeking.

The Manley panel suggested the government wait until after NATO's critical planning session in Bucharest scheduled for April before putting the mission's future to Parliament.

That suggests the Conservative and Liberal positions could converge at some point - a point emphasized Friday by Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff - but not necessarily before the arbitrary end-of-March deadline set for a vote by the government.

"We have a motion that we cannot accept today," said Dion. "We'll come with our own proposal next week, and we'll let the Parliament (do) its job."

While both Van Loan and Dion said they're looking for compromise, both seemed to indicate it had to come on their terms.

Critics pointed out the Conservative ultimatum could now force Canada into an election campaign during this crucial period of NATO decision making.

"The prime minister has to explain how he's manoeuvred and levered us into a situation in which it is possible . . . that we'll be in Bucharest without a Canadian government," said Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff. "And who's responsible for that? Stephen Harper."

Green party leader Elizabeth May said in a release that Harper may be jeopardizing Canadian soldiers by "further polarizing the mission."

"When the Taliban realize that our continued presence in Afghanistan depends on the results of an election, their insurgents will undoubtedly target Canadian soldiers in a move to influence public opinion in our country," said May.

Both Conservatives and Liberals insist they don't want to fight a campaign on the issue.

"In terms of prompting an election, I don't think any political strategist - and I've spent my bit of time in back rooms - would be there going, 'Hey, have an election on Afghanistan, that's a real winner for you,"' said Van Loan.

Yet a former Harper adviser gave a more nuanced assessment this week.

"Afghanistan is a risky thing to force an election on, but I actually think it could work out reasonably well for the government," political scientist Tom Flanagan said Thursday in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"They are the only party that's clearly in favour of the mission now, so there would be four parties denouncing it," - and splitting the vote on the left.

He noted that roughly 45 per cent of Canadians say they'd consider voting Conservative, about the same number as supports an ongoing Afghan mission. Flanagan posits they're the same constituency, and theoretically more than enough for a Tory majority.

Yet Flanagan raised the same concern as the Green party's May, saying Taliban insurgents might see a Canadian election as the perfect opportunity for a "Tet offensive" - an allusion to the 1968 Viet Cong offensive that turned American opinion against the Vietnam War.

"That's obviously got to be a concern (for the government)," said Flanagan.

The more salient question is why either Tories or Grits would want to fight an election at this time.

The Tories have generally maintained a slim lead for months in public opinion surveys - albeit firmly in minority government territory - and yet have recorded below Liberal support in two recent polls by Harris-Decima Research and pollster Nick Nanos.

What seems more likely is that the Afghan question falls into the ongoing Conservative campaign to castigate Dion as a weak leader unprepared for the big job.

Van Loan missed no opportunities to work that theme Friday when he unveiled the latest confidence motion.

"At the end of the day this is a question of leadership," Van Loan said to close the news conference. "It needs strong leadership, not dithering. That's what we're providing."

Canadians have been in Afghanistan since 2002 in a mission which has cost the lives of 78 soldiers and a diplomat. It's estimated that the mission will have cost $6.3 billion by the end of next February.

Greek cabbie demands steep fare for cellphone sex video

ATHENS (AFP) - A young Greek actress who forgot her cellphone in an Athens cab found herself blackmailed for 1,500 euros (2,200 dollars) when the driver threatened to post sex footage stored inside the phone on the Internet, the Greek police department said on Friday.

The 30-year-old driver was arrested on Thursday after the unnamed actress gave him the demanded sum in marked currency.

The taxi driver, also unidentified, who had initially tried to peddle the sex footage to a reporter, told police he was facing "serious financial difficulties."

The behaviour of taxi drivers in Greece usually tops visitors' grudge lists with complaints ranging from boorish conduct and rip-off pricing to general uncleanliness.

The union representing Athens' some 15,000 taxi drivers has repeatedly promised to organise behavioural seminars for its members but the effect on the street has been minimal.

British mapmakers battle-scarred by blunder

LONDON (AFP) - The Duke of Wellington's descendants could be forgiven for wanting to put the boot in after blundering mapmakers said he led the 1066 invasion of England, newspapers reported Saturday.

William the Conqueror is usually credited with leading the Norman invasion and winning the Battle of Hastings.

But locals in Battle, near Hastings on the southern English coast, got a surprise when they got their hands on the new Battle Town Map And Guide.

The guide said it was Britain's 1815 Battle of Waterloo hero the Duke of Wellington who fought king Harold II's forces.

"I'm obviously living in the wrong place or time," said Fred Carver, from the Battle Museum of Local History.

"Or we have been rather misguided in thinking William the Conqueror ever came here. How it occurred I have no idea," he was quoted as saying in The Daily Telegraph.

The town council did not get the chance to proof-read the guide before it went to print and only found out about the historical howler when they and advertisers received copies this week.

"We are aware there is an error on the Battle map and guide," said managing director Les Ball.

"We will be going to press shortly, with any errors rectified accordingly."

Leatherback turtle swims from Indonesia to Oregon in epic journey

BANGKOK, Thailand - Scientists tracked a leatherback turtle that swam from Indonesia to the United States in an epic 20,000-kilometre journey as it searched for food - research they hope will boost international efforts to save the endangered species.

Leatherbacks, which can grow up to 2.75 metres in length, have roamed the oceans for 100 million years. But researchers at the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service in California say commercial fishing makes the oceans too dangerous for the globe-trotting sea turtles, which face extinction if no action is taken.

"Migrations of this magnitude expose animals to a multitude of risks from fisheries on the high seas," Scott Benson and Peter Dutton, scientists with the service, co-wrote in a paper that appeared last month in the peer-reviewed Chelonian Conservation and Biology.

"Effective conservation requires a better understanding of migratory routes and destinations to understand and mitigate the risks at sea," they wrote.

The leatherback is the world's most endangered sea turtle. In a telephone interview Friday, Benson estimated fewer than 5,000 adult females now live in the Pacific region. Males cannot be easily counted because they don't come ashore. Conservationists estimate the breed could become extinct within 30 years.

Turtles "face a myriad of risks from things like ingesting debris like plastic, to travelling through areas that are used by multinational fisheries - fisheries that would catch (the turtles) in the course of trying to catch fish," Benson said.

Benson and Dutton went to Indonesia in 2001 hoping to track some turtles using satellite transmitters, confirm their transpacific route and prompt action to prevent their extinction. Their research showed the animals ranged from the South China Sea to the Sea of Japan to the North Pacific.

One adult female began her journey in 2003 on a nesting beach in Jamursbamedi in Papua province, Benson said. He and Dutton tracked the leatherback and her hunt for food for 647 days until the transmitter's battery ran out just off Hawaii. During her travels she swam as far as the state of Oregon.

"It's the old adage of not putting all your eggs in one basket," Benson said.

"If a foraging ground was bad one year, maybe another foraging ground would be good. Some portion of the population would always be able to find food."

Peter Pritchard, a turtle expert and director of the Chelonian Research Institute in Florida, said he wasn't surprised to learn how far the turtle travelled.

"It's possible and only limited by the geography of the world," Pritchard said Friday.

"They are masters of the ocean. There is a tremendous amount of muscle in the front."

"This is a powerful fishing machine and remarkable diving machine."

Benson called for action to protect leatherback turtles as they roam the seas.

"It will be the responsibility of many countries to ensure the species survives in the Pacific Ocean for future generations," he said.

"It's an animal that doesn't recognize international boundaries. You can protect the nesting beaches but if you can't protect the animal in the water, you haven't done anything."

Philadelphia traffic judge apologizes to man nagged for years over twin's tickets

PHILADELPHIA - A judge in Philadelphia has apologized to a man who was hounded for 17 years by officials trying to get his twin brother to resolve $1,800 in unpaid tickets and fines.

The problems all started for 40-year-old Edward Harris in October 1990 when his twin brother, Edwin Harris, received eight tickets for moving violations.

Edwin Harris pleaded guilty in traffic court in September 1991 and was ordered to pay $1,501, but never paid and later drifted south and lost touch with his brother.

In the fall of 1992, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation confusing Edward Harris with his brother, told him his license would be suspended for nonpayment of tickets.

Eventually, the department got things cleared up and withdrew the suspension threat, but every year or so, it would rediscover Edwin Harris' unpaid tickets and threaten to suspend his twin's license.

Edward Harris had enough and in November he decided to take his story to the Philadelphia Daily News - a move that eventually led to this week's apology by the judge.

Forget checking out the scene where truck packed with coins crashed

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - Forget checking out the crash site where a truck packed with coins crashed.

That's the word from RCMP Staff Sgt. Dale Einarson after a vehicle containing mostly quarters crashed Thursday night on Highway 1, just west of Kamloops, B.C.

Einarson said the coins were being transported to Vancouver from the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg when it tumbled down a nine-metre embankment.

"We certainly don't want people going out there to observe the scene," Einarson said.

The driver and passenger in the truck were not injured

Christine Acquino, spokeswoman for the Mint, cited security reasons for not disclosing the value of the spilled load.

She said the quarters feature snowboarding designs that are part of the Olympic collection that will be released Feb. 20.

"The design has been launched for over a year now so there's no secret on the design," Acquino said.

RCMP Const. Randi Love said a Mountie is guarding the winding section of the Trans-Canada Highway, "just due to the fact that there's money involved."

B.C. man who hits deer in Ont. wanted on failure to pay child support

DRYDEN, Ont. - A man's run-in with a deer is going to cost him - dearly.

A B.C. man is in custody after he was picked up by Dryden police on Highway 17 in northwestern Ontario on Wednesday night.

The man had just hit a deer and was waiting for help.

Raymond Thomson was likely not pleased when police arrived.

An investigation revealed Thomson was wanted for failure to pay child support.

Former caddie Shiv Chowrasia clinches Indian Masters with 5-under 67

NEW DELHI - Former caddie Shiv Chowrasia of India clinched the Indian Masters title with a 5-under-67 Sunday at the Delhi Golf Club.

The 29-year-old had a bogey-free final round to win his maiden European Tour title. He finished at 9-under 279, two strokes ahead of Ireland's Damien McGrane. Chowrasia surged into the lead with three birdies over the first four holes.

"This is the biggest achievement of my life, it's beyond my expectations," said Chowrasia, the son of a greenskeeper at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club.

"I can't describe my emotions as it hasn't quite sunk in yet," he said. "Playing the last few holes, I realized the title was within my grasp.

"Playing safe and keeping my calm was important at that stage, so I kept my cool," he said.

McGrane shot a 70 with three bogies and five birdies to finish two shots ahead of Jose Manuel Lara. The Spaniard had a 72.

Overnight leader Raphael Jacquelin of France shot a 74 to leave him five strokes back, in tied fourth with local Digvijay Singh.

World No. 4 and two-time U.S. Open champion Ernie Els shot a 71 and finished in a five-way tie for the sixth along with Thomas Bjorn, Gaurav Ghei, Maarten Lafeber and Ross McGowan.

Els was unable to recover from a disappointing opening round, which featured a quadruple-bogey 9.

The US$2.5 million Indian Masters was jointly sanctioned by the Asian Tour on which Chowrasia plays regularly, but without previously winning a title.