The Record, Bergen County, NJ

Design Chosen for African Burial Site

NEW YORK - A spiraling, sunken court with a 24-foot-high chamber meant to encourage reflection has been chosen as the memorial design for a site where the remains of hundreds of slaves and free blacks were found 14 years ago. The design for the African Burial Ground, by architect Rodney Leon of Aarris Architects, was unveiled Friday at a news conference at the federal building that rises next to the site in lower Manhattan.

Building a Better Pool Shark

Around New Jersey

Newark to fix dangerous road NEWARK - The city is expected to begin work on improvements to a dangerous stretch of highway where five people have died in accidents in the past six months.

People in the News

First lady's day Former first lady Barbara Bush told Columbia College graduates they shouldn't feel limited to the homemaker lifestyle she chose in the 1950s or the career-at-all-costs track that followed in the 1960s and 1970s.

A Family Cries for Justice ; Questions Haunt the Slaying of Bergen Man in El Salvador

WEST NEW YORK - The words on the pin worn by Maria Soto capture more than any other the fiery spirit of her brother, Gilberto: "Si Se Puede."

Wedding Bells Just Gave Her the Blues ; Runaway Bride Back with Red-Faced Family

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Distressed, out of cash and in disguise, a missing Georgia bride-to-be turned up on a seedy stretch of Route 66 and told authorities Saturday she'd been abducted, then copped to the truth - she fled the pressure of her looming wedding. Jennifer Wilbanks, 32, was picked up by police after a bus trip that took her through Las Vegas, Nev., to a payphone outside an Albuquerque 7-Eleven where she called her fiance, John Mason, and 911 late Friday and said she had been freed by ...

Mcgreevey Aide Survives the Mess Over Xanadu ; Back with Law Firm That Handles the Account

The $1.3 billion Xanadu makeover of the Meadowlands became a top priority in the final days of James E. McGreevey's troubled tenure as New Jersey's governor. Michael DeCotiis, his chief legal adviser at the time, fretted over the fine print.

Sex Selection of Babies Forces New Debate ; More Parents Choose Controversial Technology

Dr. Zalman Levine had a decision to make. The mother sitting before him confessed that she cried herself to sleep each night, mourning the child she'd never had. Of course she loved her sons, now 3 and 6 years old, but the lack of a daughter consumed her. Only with a girl, she said, could she replicate the intense bond she had shared with her own mother.

Hometown: Forget 'I Do.' How About 'I'm Sorry.' ; Neighbors Relieved but Mighty Peeved

DULUTH, Ga. - They searched woods and alleys, crawled in sewage drains and stayed up late looking for a local woman who went missing four days before her wedding. When residents of this Atlanta suburb learned that Jennifer Wilbanks ran away because she had cold feet, they thanked God she was safe - then shook their heads at her act.

Turkey Eager to Fix Ties with Europe, U.S. ; Relations Are Strained Over Leader's Criticism of Israel

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused his Israeli counterpart of "terrorism," compared Israel's crackdown against Palestinians to the Spanish Inquisition and said Israeli actions fuel anti-Semitism. But today, Erdogan, whose party has its roots in Turkey's Islamic movement, heads to Jerusalem in a trip aimed not just at repairing relations but also at boosting Turkey's image in the United States and in Europe, where debate is raging over whether to let Tur...

Poland Tried to Stop 1979 Papal Visit

ROME - Poland's government did everything possible to block a 1979 trip by Pope John Paul II to his native land that rallied opponents of Communist rule, a Polish official said in comments published Saturday. Leon Kieres, head of Poland's National Remembrance Institute, also told the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica that Polish secret services began reporting on the future pope, Karol Wojtyla, as early as 1946, when he was ordained.

Orthodox Easter

Vietnam Celebrates Victory with Veterans, Upscale Goods ; 30 Years Since War with U.S., Economics Is Unifying Force

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam -Vietnam marked the 30th anniversary of the war's end with a colorful parade of floats - some emblazoned with American business logos - down the same boulevard where North Vietnamese tanks rolled to victory against a U.S.-backed government. Hundreds of aging veterans, their chests decked with medals, watched from the sidelines as uniformed soldiers and costumed dancers waving red national flags marched toward the Reunification Palace. The legendary Gen. Vo Nguyen Gia...

Iraqi Insurgents Unleash More Deadly Bombs ; Two Days of Bloody Attacks Kill at Least 65 Across Country

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents unleashed a second day of deadly bombings in Iraq's capital Saturday, staging a series of sophisticated assaults that killed at least 65 people over two days. At least 17 Iraqis and one U.S. soldier were killed Saturday. The military also announced that six other U.S. soldiers had been killed and six wounded in Iraq since Thursday.

Mother Mallard Can't Duck Her Celebrity

WASHINGTON - Break out the cigars. The Treasury ducklings are hatching. The brown mallard, which became Washington's newest tourist attraction a block from the White House, began hatching her ducklings Saturday afternoon.

Obese Can Benefit From Even 20-Pound Loss ; Study Also Links a Woman's Shape to Ills

WASHINGTON - When the fat get even fatter, their risk of death jumps, too, especially if they have an apple-shaped waistline. So concludes a study of 90,000 women in the United States, the first to look closely at the alarming trend of extreme obesity, being at least 90 pounds overweight.

9 Decades After Lynching, Calls for Amends ; 'Waco Horror' Prompts Demands for City's Apology, Historic Marker

WACO, Texas - Nearly 90 years after a black teenager was stabbed, burned and hanged in front of some 15,000 Waco residents, some black residents are calling for the city to make amends. The slaying was just one of the 4,700 lynchings in the South from the late 1800s to early 1900s, but it was one of the few photographed in progress, capturing images of a mob dragging 17- year-old Jesse Washington from the courthouse, cutting him with knives and dangling him over a fire.

Who Says You Can't Teach Old Folks New Tongues? ; Retirees Shatter Stereotypes by Learning Foreign Languages

WASHINGTON - Every Tuesday, Andy Mayer, 77, leads Hilda Mintzes, 84, and others in a Latin study group. They tackle Ovid's "The Art of Love," translating line by line - "Your eyes will not be permitted to see her ankles" - and practice language exercises about Caesar. What Mayer and his students at the Institute for Learning in Retirement here also are doing is smashing stereotypes about language learning and the age at which it is possible to learn. Mintzes loves it: "There is something abou...

Surrogate Mom Who Had Quints Leaves Hospital

PHOENIX - The surrogate mother who delivered quintuplets last week left the hospital Saturday, a spokeswoman said. Teresa Anderson, 25, delivered five boys by Caesarean section Tuesday for a childless couple she met on the Internet. One of the babies was born with a defective heart; the others were said to be doing fine.

Bush to Keep Pushing Social Security Changes ; He's Upbeat, but the Polls Aren't

WASHINGTON - President Bush's 60-day nationwide road show launched to raise support for his drive to create private Social Security investment accounts is over, but he has no plans to stop traveling the country or pitching his ideas. For one thing, Bush has his new proposal to fix most of Social Security's long-term fiscal problems by cutting benefits now promised to future retirees in all but the lowest income brackets.