Army manipulated general's photo

The Associated Press on Friday suspended the use of photos provided by the Defense Department after the Army distributed a digitally altered photo of the U.S. military's first female four-star general.

The image of Army Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody is the second Army-provided photo the AP has eliminated from its service in the last two months.

The AP said that adjusting photos and other imagery, even for aesthetic reasons, damages the credibility of the information distributed by the military to news organizations and the public.

"For us, there's a zero-tolerance policy of adding or subtracting actual content from an image," said Santiago Lyon, …

A walk in the woods ; In brief [Edition 2]

NORTH WEALD: Enjoy a stroll in the great outdoors and discoversome of the wildlife that lives right on your doorstep.

Visitors to the Epping Forest Burial Park in Kiln Road, NorthWeald, can find out more about the fungi the thrive in our woods ona walk this …

Thome Stays at 499 As ChiSox Beat Angels

CHICAGO - Jim Thome had to wait at least one more day to enter the 500 home-run club. Thome went 0-for-4 Friday night as the Chicago White Sox beat Bartolo Colon and the Los Angeles Angels 5-3.

Thome hit No. 499 on Wednesday against his former team, Cleveland. He struck out in the first against Colon (6-7), got robbed of a hit in the third when first baseman Casey Kotchman made a diving stop of his grounder and struck out again the fourth. Against reliever Ervin Santana in the sixth, he popped out on a 3-0 pitch.

Sidelined about seven weeks with an irritated right elbow, Colon was shaky and had little help from his teammates. He lasted 4 2-3 innings in his first start …

Judge: OK for Gitmo inmate to use military attys

Military lawyers can defend a Guantanamo detainee in federal court against charges that he participated in the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa, a federal judge said Tuesday, as long as the lawyers' superior officers approve.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan urged the government to try to determine within a week whether Marine Col. Jeffrey Colwell and Air Force Maj. Richard Reiter would be permitted to defend Ahmed Ghailani. Both were seated in the Manhattan courtroom.

"I don't see any reason I would not grant their permission to appear," Kaplan said, saying he would be surprised if the Defense Department did not approve.

He also …

Youngsters' show has professional ring to it ; Review: Half A Sixpence Carmarthen Youth Opera Lyric Theatre, Carmarthen

IT had it all -- great acting, fluent dance moves, superb singingand non-stop entertainment.

As I watched Carmarthen Youth Opera's performance of the newversion of the musical Half a Sixpence at the Lyric Theatre, Iquickly forgot it was being played by young people and not by aprofessional touring company.

The Youth Opera had a lot to live up to after last year'sacclaimed performance of Beauty and the Beast (which people arestill talking about!) But the audience on our evening were more thanimpressed as I'm sure they were for the rest of the week.

There was no faulting Cuan Wyn Rowlands's performance as the leadcharacter Kipps. It was a very …

The paradigm shift has started

Almost since Scottsh Inventor John Boyd Duntop made the first pneumatic tire In 1887 (followed by the first puncture), the search has been on for an alternative to air to fill tires.

Nevada-based Amerityre was founded in 1995 as the American tire Corporation. During its initial years, it developed polyurethane foam tires based on the company's proprietary polyurethane chemical formulations. Since the tires were fabricated using a closed cell polyurethane material, they could never go flat - which led to the registration of the Flatfree trademark. Today these tires are used in applications such as bicycles, wheelchairs, lawn and garden products, golf carts and commercial …

Smarter electric grid could be key to saving power

The glowing amber dot on a light switch in the entryway of George Tsapoitis' house offers a clue about the future of electricity.

A few times this summer, when millions of air conditioners strain the Toronto region's power grid, that pencil-tip-sized amber dot will blink. It will be asking Tsapoitis to turn the switch off _ unless he's already programmed his house to make that move for him.

This is the beginning of a new way of thinking about electricity, and the biggest change in how we get power since wires began veining the landscape a century ago.

For all the engineering genius behind the electric grid, that vast network ferrying energy from …