The World's New Architectural Wonders

Texture is the defining element in 2010

Form plus function is Architecture 101. But a building that not only is a bright spark on the landscape but also has a surface as idiosyncratic as its structure, well, that's Architecture 2010. The year that film embraced a third dimension, architecture found a fourth: texture. From the screen-printed filigree of Calais's Fashion and Lace Museum to the latticework of Guangzhou's TV Tower to Johannesburg's serpentine Soccer City Stadium, glittering in earthy hues that reflect the country's terrain, texture adds majesty and grace to complexes that are already anatomically arresting. The other big news? This was the year of the museum. These pages are filled with cultural edifices high and low, and it's heartening to know that such institutions still have the cash to build (or complete, for these wonders were years in the making) splashy structures that celebrate civilization—and are as interesting inside as out.

Guangzhou TV Tower

Guangzhou, China

Dubbed both the supermodel and the twisted lady, Guangzhou's 2,000-foot-tall TV tower is a woman above all: "Most skyscrapers bear male features—they're introverted, rectangular, and repetitive," Information Based Architects' Mark Hemel has said. "We wanted a female tower that is complex, transparent, curvy, and gracious." His team created a slender hourglass of steel columns that twist into a tightly woven "waist" 560 feet above the ground. This middle area doesn't have floors or walls; instead, there's an open-air staircase where visitors can see the latticework construction up close. Gusts blow through the steel mesh in certain cross sections; elsewhere, glass panels enclose a movie theater, two rotating restaurants, and shops.

Soccer City

Johannesburg, South Africa

In Jo'burg, where soccer is more religion than sport, Soccer City, the venue for this summer's World Cup, is an appropriately dazzling temple devoted to the worship of headers and punts. And since 2010 marks the first time any African nation has hosted the tourney, architect Bob van Bebber, of Johannesburg-based Boogertman Urban Edge, sought to rep the whole continent with a multihued melting pot that would loom large but feel familiar to fans in each of the stadium's 94,000 seats. He modeled his 7,000-ton steel-and-concrete arena after the calabash, a gourd that has varied uses—musical instrument, beer stein, motorcycle helmet—and that is found all over the continent's 11 billion square miles. Furthering the melting-pot motif is an earthen-colored exterior set into a "fire pit" of lights. "The design was inspired by ideas about shared experiences: drinking, pattern making, storytelling," says Van Bebber. "We wanted to bring divided cultures together not only for this world event but for the future."

Design Museum Holon

Holon, Israel

Curvaceous and expressionist, Ron Arad's Design Museum in downtown Holon defies Bauhausian efficiencies in an area of the world molded around that movement's strict, practical lines. Arad's brazenly decorative design comprises five Cor-Ten steel ribbons oxidized to different shades of reddish-orange. After wrapping around a courtyard (shown here), the steel strips bind together to create the walls of the museum's small lower gallery, reminding the visitor that "the building envelope is not just a pretty space, it's a structure," says Arad. One band swells into a ramp that connects the museum's two levels; inside, an "immersive design environment" is punctuated by interactive and digital exhibitions accessible through an underground entrance "cave." As for Arad, his ultimate commission was to create a second Bilbao—an obscure city brought to the forefront by a postcard-worthy piece of architecture—and in this capricious rotunda of steel, he may have done just that.

Cooper Union

New York City

A deconstructionist cube slashed with a jagged hook-shaped gash, the bold new Cooper Union centers around a 20-foot-wide grand staircase that ascends to a rooftop atrium; that glass topper also serves as a skylight for the 175,000-square-foot superstructure (75 percent of which is naturally lit). Home to the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Morphosis's iconic design has operable insulating stainless steel panels, radiant heating and cooling, and a "green" roof that entitled it to an LEED Gold rating and makes it 40 percent more energy efficient. In the spirit of Peter Cooper, who founded the institution in 1859 to foster free access to the arts in New York, a public gallery shows architectural exhibits and a 200-seat auditorium hosts open art lectures.

Za Koenji Public Theatre

Tokyo, Japan

Bright with neon wattage and bustling with Lady Gaga–like Harajuku fashionistas, Tokyo is not known for subtlety. But the aesthetic is less flashy and more fanciful on the outskirts of Suginami City, where rising Japanese architect Yoko Ito settled on an otherworldly, craterlike look for his Za Koenji Public Theatre. "I tried to create an impression of an enclosed tent cabin, or playhouse," Ito says. A thin, sheeny skin of black steel stretched over a scalloped silhouette, the 36,000-square-foot construction certainly dwarfs low-lying neighbors, but its crenated sloped roof and dotty apertures hint at its role as an outlet for community performing arts. Ito designed three stories and three basements to comply with stringent height restrictions. One concert hall is flat and flexible; another, created specifically for rehearsals of the Awa Odori dance festival, has a revolutionary concrete floor that bounces back from the liveliest cartwheels and steps.

Calais Fine Arts and Lace Museum

Calais, France

"Lace evokes those incomparable designs which the branches and leaves of trees embroider across the sky." So said fashion goddess Coco Chanel, who would be chuffed to see that same sky embroidery glimmering in the glass-and-steel facade of the Calais Fine Arts and Lace Museum, an homage to the millions of yards of frills and tulles threaded in Calais since the early 1800s. With an exterior that looks screen printed by a Jacquard loom's punch cards, the undulating L-shaped construction references the northeastern French town's industrial past, when Calais reigned as the world's lace capital. Inside, the sunlit space is filled with fashion magazines, costumes, and lace—from the seventeenth-century trim trendy with Louis XIV and the like to the traditional, flowery fabric in this photo's foreground. "We wanted to pay tribute to the generations of men and women who worked this difficult and mysterious trade," said Alain Moatti of the French architectural firm Moatti et Rivière. "The structure is an homage to lace—to its sensuality

David Mikael Taclino
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2 more glaciers gone from Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park has lost two more of its namesake moving icefields to climate change, which is shrinking the rivers of ice until they grind to a halt, the U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday.
Warmer temperatures have reduced the number of named glaciers in the northwestern Montana park to 25, said Dan Fagre, an ecologist with the agency.
He warned the rest of the glaciers may be gone by the end of the decade.
"When we're measuring glacier margins, by the time we go home the glacier is already smaller than what we've measured," Fagre said.
The latest two to fall below the 25 acre threshold were Miche Wabun and Shepard. Each had shrunk by roughly 55 percent since the mid-1960s. The largest remaining glacier in the park is Harrison Glacier, at about 465 acres.
On a local scale, fewer glaciers means less water in streams for fish and a higher risk for forest fires. More broadly, Fagre said the fate of the glaciers offers a climate barometer, indicating dramatic changes to some ecosystems already under way.
While the meltoff shows the climate is changing, it does not show exactly what is causing temperatures to rise.
In alpine regions around the world, glacier melting has accelerated in recent decades as temperatures increased. Most scientists tie that warming directly to higher atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
Some glaciers, such as in the Himalayas, could hold out for centuries in a warmer world. But more than 90 percent of glaciers worldwide are in retreat, with major losses already seen across much of Alaska, the Alps, the Andes and numerous other ranges, according to researchers in the United States and Europe.
In some areas of the Alps, ski resorts set atop glaciers have taken drastic measures to stave off the decline, such as draping glaciers in plastic sheeting to keep them cooler.
It could prove a losing battle: Scientists working for the United Nations say the last period of widespread glacial growth was more than three decades ago, lasting only for a few years.
Since about 1850, when the Little Ice Age ended, the trend has been steadily downward.
The area of the Rocky Mountains now within Glacier National Park once boasted about 150 glaciers, of which 37 were eventually named.
Fagre said a handful of the park's largest glaciers could survive past 2020 or even 2030, but by that point the ecosystem would already be irreversibly altered.
Fagre said geological evidence points to the continual presence of glaciers in the area since at least 5000 B.C.
"They've been on this landscape continually for 7,000 years, and we're looking at them disappear in a couple of decades," he said.
A glacier needs to be 25 acres to qualify for the title. If it shrinks more, it does not always stop moving right away. A smaller mass of ice on a steep slope would continue to grind its way through the mountains, but eventually could disappear completely.
Smaller glaciers and warmer temperatures could lower stream flows, which in turn prompt fishing restrictions and hobble whitewater rafting businesses, said Denny Gignoux, who runs an outfitting business in West Glacier. Tourism is a $1 billion-a-year industry in the area.
"What happens when all these threats increase?" Gignoux asked. "We're losing a draw to Glacier."
A report released Wednesday by two environmental groups highlighted the threat to tourism of fewer glaciers. The study by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and Natural Resources Defense Council included an analysis of weather records that showed Glacier was 2 degrees hotter on average from 2000 to 2009, compared with 1950 to 1979.
David Mikael Taclino
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Nike airs Tiger Woods TV ad on eve of Masters

Nike Inc aired a television commercial on Wednesday featuring disgraced golf superstar Tiger Woods, his first new TV spot since a sex scandal prompted some sponsors to distance themselves from the tour legend.
The ad will run Wednesday and Thursday on the Golf Channel and Walt Disney Co's ESPN.
It will be Woods's first new TV commercial following startling revelations he had had a string of extramarital affairs.
Woods took nearly five months off from golf after the scandal came to light last year, but is making a highly anticipated return at the Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia, starting Thursday.
A spokesman for Woods could not be reached to comment.
The black-and-white spot shows Woods looking directly into the camera while the voice of his late father Earl Woods, in an older recording, speaks in the background, asking "Tiger?".
"I want to find out what your thinking was, I want to find out what your feelings are, and did you learn anything?" his father asks. Tiger does not speak in the ad.
The ad ends with the image of a Nike swoosh.
"We support Tiger and his family. As he returns to competitive golf, the ad addresses his time away from the game using the powerful words of his father," said Nike spokesman Derek Kent.
The ad was filmed several weeks ago at Isleworth Country Club, a golf course near Woods's Florida home.
Nike has been a strong backer of Woods, who earned $100 million annually from his endorsements before the scandal. Other supporters have been videogame publisher Electronic Arts and trading card and memorabilia company Upper Deck.
Some sponsors -- Accenture, AT&T and PepsiCo's Gatorade -- dumped him as a spokesman, while others like Procter & Gamble's Gillette have removed him from their marketing.
Woods said at a Monday news conference that he understood why some sponsors had dropped him and he hoped to show he would be profitable for those that remain.
"Hopefully I can prove to the other companies going forward that I am a worthy investment, that I can help their company grow," he said.

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US author says China media can't cover Google book

A writer for The New Yorker will not promote his new book about Google during a China visit after being warned the media are restricted from writing about the company, which angered the government by moving its search engine off the mainland to avoid censorship.
In a phone interview late Wednesday, Ken Auletta said the book's China-based publisher told him his visit next month no longer made sense, because even if Chinese media show up for his events, they won't be able to report anything.
E-mails from Auletta's publishing contacts for the China book, seen Wednesday by The Associated Press, point out the restrictions with concern.
"It's disappointing, not to mention outrageous," Auletta said. He said he wouldn't know where to begin to appeal to the Chinese government. "It sounds like a faceless decision. It doesn't sound like one person you appeal to ... It just sounds like '1984.'"
Auletta's book, "Googled: The End of the World as We Know It," came out in the U.S. last fall, and a Chinese publisher bought the rights.
But that was before Google kicked off a tussle with the Chinese government in January, threatening to shut down its China-based search engine unless the Communist Party loosened its restrictions on free speech.
Google then moved its search engine last month to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, a former British colony with broader legal and political freedoms.
Since then, reporters and editors for China's state-run media have said they've been restricted in what they write about Google, being told to treat the company's move as a business dispute and to paint Google's motives as political.
"The Chinese government recently asked the media not to report anything regarding Google ... It is not likely that they can report the author's visit and the book at this sensitive time," said an e-mail Tuesday from Jian-Mei Wang with the Bardon-Chinese Media Agency to Betsy Robbins, Auletta's agent outside the United States.
Another e-mail Tuesday to Robbins from Li Yinghong with the state-owned China Citic Press said, "We heard from local media who had interest in interviewing the author the local authorities don't like any news and reports about Google at such time due to the company's decision of exit of Chinese market."
Li, reached by phone Wednesday night, said he couldn't comment.
A man answering phones for the propaganda department of the Communist Party late Wednesday said his office didn't know about any media restrictions on covering Google. He didn't give his name, as is common with Chinese officials.
Auletta said he didn't know whether this means his book won't be published in China at all.
The book includes an account of Google agreeing to censor its search results in China, and how uncomfortable co-founder Sergey Brin was with the decision. The book describes a 2008 meeting where a shareholder proposed that Google abandon China unless it stopped censoring the search engine. The move almost passed but for one abstention, from Brin himself.
Auletta said there had been no mention of cutting such details out of the book's Chinese edition. "This is the first inkling I've gotten of any problem with the book in China," he said.
Auletta already had his visa for what will be his first trip to China and still plans to visit Shanghai for other reasons in May, he said.

David Mikael Taclino
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Megan Fox protests school budget cuts with comedy

Megan Fox and her sometime boyfriend, actor Brian Austin Green, are protesting California school budget cuts in a new video online.
In a video posted Wednesday on the comic Web site FunnyorDie.com, Fox urges viewers to "call, write and annoy the governor until he cries for his mommy."
She says more than $17 billion has been cut from state educational programs over the past two years, and Green says the "terminators in Sacramento" plan to cut another $2.5 billion.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said last month that budget cuts have caused a 17 percent jump in the number of school districts facing financial uncertainty.
Fox and Green's 3 1/2-minute video had been viewed more than 66,500 times by Wednesday afternoon.

David Mikael Taclino
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Cibulkova advances at Florida tennis

Third-seeded Dominika Cibulkova defeated Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the 200,000 dollar WTA MPS Group Championships on Wednesday.
It was the first time in four career meetings that Slovakia's Cibulkova had beat Kudryavtseva.
Fifth-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova held off American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-2. Mattek-Sands fought off five match points before losing. Sixth-seeded Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak beat Ayumi Morita, 2-6 6-3, 6-2.

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NBA: Officials missed last-second foul at Utah

The NBA announced Wednesday officials missed a foul in the final seconds of Utah's overtime victory over Oklahoma City the previous night.
"On the final play of last night's Oklahoma City-Utah game, the officials missed a foul committed by the Jazz's C.J. Miles on the Thunder's Kevin Durant during a 3-point shot attempt," NBA president of league and basketball operations Joel Litvin said in a statement.
Deron Williams' jumper with 1.1 seconds left in the overtime gave the Jazz a 140-139 lead and Miles clinched the win with a block on Durant's shot at the buzzer. Durant believed he was fouled and he and several teammates stayed on the court pleading for a call that never came before the officials were escorted to the tunnel by security.
Durant, a 90 percent foul shooter, would have shot three free throws with a chance to put the Thunder ahead with less than a second to play had a foul been called.
The loss knocked Oklahoma City into the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference entering Wednesday, but the Thunder were ready to move on with a game against the Denver Nuggets looming.
"Somebody has to lose the great games in order for it to be a great game, and unfortunately we lost. ... There's a lot of games that we won the tough games and that one, we lost," Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said. "We didn't get the stop at the very end of the game, regardless of the play at the end."
The missed call came four days after Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics was fined $25,000 for criticizing officials for calling fouls against Durant's defenders as though he were Michael Jordan — and using a profanity during that criticism.
"I think referees are great at what they do," Brooks said. "I've talked to them as a player. I've always had good relationships with them and I still do. One of the things that they do, and they do it well, is they call the game the same whether it's the first minute or the last minute of the game.
"They have a tough job. It's a tough job to be able to make the correct call and they do it high-90 percent of the time."
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan could not recall a specific instance when the league acknowledged an officiating mistake after the fact — though it has happened during each of the last two postseasons.
"That's part of basketball," Sloan said before Utah's game in Houston. "I don't think you can spend all your time worrying about that. Once it's over, you might be upset a little bit at the moment, but life goes on. You can't do anything about it."
Sloan said he's put the ending and the controversial ending behind him.
"I don't know if it benefits you to continue to harp on it, or talk about it," he said. "The job now is to forget about that, and that's what you try to teach guys. Forget about the game last night, because you're going to have to play a different team in a different setting, different situation."
When he looked back at the tape of the game, Brooks said he questioned his team's decision not to foul prior to Williams' game-winning shot. The Jazz were not in the bonus and would not have shot free throws.
"We had a chance to foul and we did not do that. I don't know if that would have changed him from making his shot, but we didn't get the stop," Brooks said.

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U.S. panel sifts subprime wreckage, blames Greenspan

The wreckage of Wall Street's subprime mortgage machine was laid bare on Wednesday by a U.S. congressional panel that pointed the finger at Alan Greenspan for not stopping it from running out of control.
The former Federal Reserve chairman -- once revered as the oracle of economic wisdom -- defended his legacy before the panel, which also heard a former Citigroup (C.N) executive say he had warned of the subprime danger.
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission kicked off three days of hearings with a look at securitization of subprime mortgages, in which risky home loans were bundled and resold in the secondary debt market.
At the peak of America's real estate bubble, Wall Street firms were securitizing huge amounts of subprime loans, putting bad assets on financial institutions' books and unmanageable debts on the shoulders of many homeowners.
It all came crashing down two years ago, triggering a devastating wave of foreclosures, paralysis in capital markets, and the worst financial crisis in generations. Since then, the market for subprime mortgage debt has virtually vanished.
"The Fed utterly failed to prevent the financial crisis," said commission member Brooksley Born at a hearing where Greenspan, other regulators and banking executives testified.
In reply to Born and other commission members, Greenspan, who is 84 and retired as Fed chairman in 2006, said:
"Did we make mistakes? Of course, we made mistakes ...
"Managers of financial institutions, along with regulators, including but not limited to the Federal Reserve, failed to comprehend the underlying size, length and potential impact" of market risks that contributed to the 2007-2009 crisis.
CITI EXEC SAYS HE WARNED RUBIN
But former Citigroup executive Richard Bowen told the panel that he alerted senior managers to the dangers.
"I warned extensively of the scope of the problems identified, beginning in June 2006," said Bowen, formerly a senior vice president at CitiMortgage Inc.
He said he e-mailed former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, then chairman of Citigroup's executive committee, in November 2007, warning of "the risks of loss to the shareholders of Citigroup." He said he also requested an investigation.
More on this will come out on Thursday, when the commission is scheduled to hear from Rubin himself, as well as former Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince. The government pumped $45 billion in emergency capital into Citigroup during the crisis.
On Friday, the commission will hear from former executives and regulators of housing finance giant Fannie Mae (FNM.N).
The commission's hearings were not expected to unearth revelations that significantly alter the tale of the crisis, which is fairly well understood by now. But its proceedings could add momentum to a push for a regulatory overhaul.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a sweeping financial reform bill in December. The Senate will begin debate soon on legislation backed on March 22 by a key committee.
(For a Factbox on Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd's bill, double-click on [ID:nN15206128])
President Barack Obama, building on his healthcare reform victory, is targeting fast action on financial reform.
"Everyone gets the urgency of this, two years on. I think they get it on the Hill. I think they get it in the business community," Neal Wolin, deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury, told a White House briefing on Wednesday.
OBAMA TO PUSH FOR REFORM
Obama is expected to push regulatory restructuring as his top domestic priority when Congress returns on Monday from its Easter vacation. Administration officials said a bill could get through the Senate and to the White House by late May.
The question of Wall Street executive pay surfaced at the hearing, with commission Vice Chairman Bill Thomas grilling former Citigroup executive Thomas Maheras over the tens of millions of dollars he made while working there.
"You made a lot of money. Do you believe now, looking back on that situation, that you earned all of it?" Thomas asked.
Maheras said he was "paid very handsomely," but that it was consistent with market norms and reflected Citi's strong performance, at least until 2007 when he got no bonus.
Maheras was co-CEO of Citi Markets & Banking when he left the firm in October 2007. A year later, the U.S. government had to pump $45 billion into Citi to keep it from collapsing, in part because of problems with collateralized debt obligations, a business line Maheras was closely involved with.
"I did lose a lot of sleep," Maheras said, adding though that Citi's big losses came after he had left the firm.
Thomas said, "But you were there as part of the problem."
Maheras said, "I was."
The Senate bill ranges across many topics, including the problem of Wall Street executives receiving huge paychecks, even when their firms lose money, and the issue of how to fix the broken securitization business.
Critics have accused loan originators, bundlers and others along the securitization chain of undermining loan discipline, obscuring risks behind complex debt structures and reaping huge fees and profits in the process.
WALL STREET DROVE SUBPRIME GROWTH-EXEC
At the commission hearing, Patricia Lindsay, a former executive at mortgage firm New Century Financial Corp, made clear her view about which end of the complicated subprime mortgage securitization chain drove its expansion.
"The growth in the subprime industry grew because of the securitizations on Wall Street ... Loans were just sold in droves to Wall Street. There was a huge demand for the product ... because of the returns," she said.
The SEC, addressing such concerns, on Wednesday proposed making mortgage-backed securities issuers disclose more about underlying loans and keep 5 percent of the risk in some cases.
In related news, Goldman Sachs (GS.N) rebutted allegations on

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Wednesday that it had benefited unduly from government help and bet against its own clients during the crisis.
The Wall Street firm said in its annual shareholder letter that it did not intentionally "bet against" securities in the mortgage market during the crisis, dismissing suggestions that it unfairly made money by placing bets against its clients.

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GM posts $4.3 billion loss, says 2010 profit possible

General Motors Co posted a net loss for 2009, but said it was possible to make a profit this year and that it was laying the foundation to return to public ownership.
GM reported a $4.3 billion 2009 net loss covering the period from its emergence from bankruptcy in July through the end of the year in the automaker's first full account of its new balance sheet as a restructured company.
The automaker said it had repaid $2.8 billion of its loans from the U.S. Treasury and Export Development Canada by the end of March and planned to repay the remaining $5.6 billion by June "at the latest."
GM, which received $50 billion of U.S. taxpayer support for the restructuring, has aimed to move faster to jump-start sales and launch an initial public offering that would allow the U.S. government to reduce its majority stake in the automaker.
GM Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said he was "incredibly encouraged" by the company's progress in the first quarter toward a profit in 2010 and said GM would never again find itself in the financial position it experienced before the bankruptcy.
"There is nothing that I've seen in the first quarter -- which you'll see in a month's time -- that changes my opinion that there is a good chance that we will be profitable this year," Liddell said in a conference call.
After accumulating losses of about $88 billion from 2005 through the first quarter of 2009, GM's predecessor company fell into a government-supported bankruptcy. The U.S. Treasury currently holds a stake of more than 60 percent in the new GM.
The U.S. Treasury expects GM eventually to be strong enough to attract sufficient investment and return to profitability. It had no comment on GM's financial statement on Wednesday.
GM GENERATES CASH FROM JULY-DECEMBER
"I think they've got a modest to good chance of becoming profitable in one of the quarters this year," said Mike Boudreau, of the turnaround firm O'Keefe & Associates, citing improvements in the economy and reduced structural costs.
GM generated $1 billion of operating cash during the period from its emergence from bankruptcy until the end of the year, but said significant work remained.
In the results released on Wednesday, GM said its losses from July to the end of 2009 included a $2.6 billion pretax loss related to a United Auto Workers union retiree healthcare program and $1.3 billion for foreign currency adjustments.
For the fourth quarter, GM reported a $3.4 billion net loss and revenue of $32.3 billion.
GM ended 2009 with $36.2 billion in cash, compared with $14.2 billion at the end of 2008.
The restructuring helped the new GM eliminate debt and build its cash, but the automaker's sales overall remain under pressure after its elimination of unprofitable brands.
GM is shutting down the Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer brands and has sold the Swedish Saab brand to Spyker Cars (SPYKR.AS).
The automaker's U.S. sales were up 17 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier when the industry was hitting its lowest levels since the early 1980s and GM was sliding toward bankruptcy.
However, GM's U.S. market share of 18.7 percent in the first quarter was down from 19.6 percent for all of 2009, a year in which it lost 2.5 percentage points of U.S. share.
Chief Executive Ed Whitacre, who replaced CEO Fritz Henderson in December, has shaken up senior management including its sales and marketing teams in recent months to push for a faster turnaround.
GM's global market share dropped to 11.6 percent in 2009, down from 12.4 percent in 2008, with sales overall at about 7.5 million vehicles last year including medium and heavy trucks.
Liddell said GM did not need U.S. auto industry sales to increase significantly in 2010 from last year for the company to be profitable this year.
U.S. auto industry sales fell to about 10.4 million vehicles in 2009, the worst result since the early 1980s. Most industry experts expect sales to increase to a range of 11.5 million vehicles to 12.5 million in 2010.

David Mikael Taclino
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Abuse scandal means tough checks for future pope

The sex abuse crisis engulfing the Catholic Church will mean more vigorous background checks when it comes to appointing cardinals, and future popes. Among the requirements: no taint of scandal and the ability to speak comfortably to the world and the media.
While leading Catholic conservatives have vigorously defended Benedict XVI from accusations that he was complicit in covering up sex abusers, they have also pointed to management failures.
As a model for the future pope, the church will need to consider someone "able to talk to the world and the media, not be destroyed by it," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.
Even as the clerical sex abuse crisis has swept across Europe in recent months — touching even Benedict — the Vatican has responded with the disarray and media ineptitude that's been symptomatic of the German-born pope's five-year papacy.
The church was rocked by scandal again Wednesday, when Norwegian officials revealed that a 58-year-old Catholic bishop who resigned last year did so after admitting he molested a child two decades earlier.
As churchmen have closed ranks to defend Benedict, even some of his biggest supporters have pointed to the need for change.
Leading Catholic conservatives such as George Weigel in the United States and Vittorio Messori in Italy have vigorously defended Benedict from accusations he was involved in covering up sex abusers while serving as archbishop of Munich and later as a Vatican official. But they have both underlined management shortcomings in the papacy, with the Italian noting a "certain naivete."
One test will come when the pope names new cardinals, with Vatican insiders suggesting this will happen in November.
The Holy See will need to carry out a vigorous vetting process to try to ensure that none of the new cardinals are tainted by the sex abuse scandal — a potentially monumental task considering the scope of the crisis.
The number of cardinals under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave for a new pope — a cardinal's principal responsibility — now stands at 108 and will dip to 101 by November from a possible total of 120.
Such traditional cardinal seats as New York, Washington, Florence and Prague will be in line for new red hats. It is up to the pope to decide exactly how many new cardinals are named.
One archdiocese to watch is Dublin, where Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has won praise for seeking to root out those responsible for decades of child abuse in Ireland.
In 2007, he was passed over for cardinal in favor of Sean Brady in the northern seat of Armagh. Brady, though, has recently faced calls for his resignation following revelations that he participated in interviews with two victims of a pedophile priest but did not notify police.
After Pope John Paul II's 27-year papacy, Benedict was elected for what was widely considered a "transition" papacy. He was considered a known quantity who on sex abuse had just condemned "filth" in the church, had cracked down on abusive priests — and was therefore considered to have an exemplary record.
Now questions have been raised about his handling of abusive priests while he was archbishop of Munich and head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. His supporters say he did nothing wrong.
Authoritative accounts from the secret conclave indicated there was opposition to Benedict, although in the current crisis no cardinal has stepped forth and expressed regrets over the choice.
When the search begins for a successor to Benedict, Vatican experts say the need for someone with no skeletons in the closet on abuse might give advantage to cardinals who didn't head a diocese.
In choosing top officials, the church may give preference to a younger generation of conservative clergy, looking beyond the current church leadership that has been so sullied by the scandal. Just this week, Benedict tapped a 58-year-old Mexican-born prelate, Jose Gomez, as the next archbishop of Los Angeles, a post that traditionally gets a red hat.
As a priest, Gomez was a member of the conservative Opus Dei movement favored by the Vatican. He takes over in February from current archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was dogged by the abuse scandal, agreeing in 2007 to a record-setting $660 million settlement with more than 500 alleged victims.
Gomez himself was criticized Tuesday by victim support groups who accuse him of being unresponsive to their concerns about several clergy abuse cases. Church officials have said appropriate actions were taken against the priests.
Lost in the drumbeat of accusations and the Vatican's counterattack have been indications that change is indeed being placed on the agenda for a future pope.
Last month, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily newspaper, gave space to an Italian woman, historian Lucetta Scaraffia, who argued that a greater feminine presence in the church "would have been able to rip the veil off the code of silence" on clerical sex abuse.
An influential European cardinal, Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, recently said there is need for "dialogue" about priestly celibacy, but stopped short of saying it should be lifted and did not make a direct link to sex abuse, which the Vatican rejects.
The idea that Benedict might step down over the crisis has been roundly dismissed as speculation raised only by those bent on destroying his papacy.
Still, Benedict himself seemed to consider the possibility that popes might not serve unlimited terms. With people living longer "one also would consider new norms," he said in a 2004 interview with an Italian religious affairs magazine, Famiglia Cristiana, a year before his election.

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Pain from torrent in Rio falls heavily on slums

Rodrigo de Almeira had dug for 15 hours through mud and debris, and he looked like it. Auburn mud covered his head, his ripped shirt, his torn jeans and his rubber sandals.
When asked Wednesday if he had been able to save anyone from the massive landslide in the slum where he lives, he silently shook his head. Of the 138 people confirmed dead from Rio's heaviest rains on record, at least 18 died in his shantytown, Pleasure Hill.
"Right there at least 15 people I know died," Almeira said, staring at a massive mound of mud and debris. Wood planks — remnants of the shacks engulfed by the landslide — poked through the mud as 30 rescue workers gingerly dug at it with picks and shovels, still looking for survivors.
"We found a guy alive this morning, so we had hope," said Almeira, 28. "He didn't make it, we were told he died on his way to the hospital."
Because of the continuing rains, steep hillsides and loose earth, officials said there had been few successful rescues. One man, Carlos Eduardo Silva dos Santos, 24, was pulled alive from under a concrete wall in western Rio. Firefighters said they had no count on how many people had been rescued.
The death toll could easily rise. An official with Rio's fire department said at least 60 people were missing Wednesday afternoon. And although the rain that poured down without interruption from Monday afternoon through Wednesday morning had finally begun to let up, it was raining again Wednesday night and more rain was expected through the weekend.
Nearly all the deaths occurred in landslides that engulfed the slums, yet another reminder that life in one of the world's most famous playgrounds is much different for the poor than it is for the rich.
Residents of the slums often endure dangers such as the frequent shootouts between police and heavily armed drug gangs, and when heavy rain falls on slopes crowded with poorly built shacks, nature itself can deal out death.
Almeira and other slum residents say they have nowhere else to go if they want jobs in Rio's richer areas.
"The government wants to forcefully remove the residents living in danger, and that is understandable," said Leandro Ribeiro, another slum resident. "But where are we supposed to go? Some people have been living here for 30 years. This is their home."
Mayor Eduardo Paes said he was taking a tougher stand on forced relocations. He announced that 1,500 families were going to be removed from their homes on Pleasure Hill and in Rochina, one of Latin America's largest slums.
"I don't want to spend next summer sleepless, worrying if the rains are going to kill somebody," he told reporters, without saying when the relocations would occur.
Rio was in chaos after the record rains fell this week. Trees and power lines were knocked down, enormous craters were seen in the streets, wastewater flowed down to the city's white sand beaches and it was nearly impossible to get anywhere in the city of 6 million people.
In Rochina, officials said 16 inches (41 centimeters) of rain had fallen so far this month — three times the amount normally expected for all of April. Similar figures were seen across Rio's metropolitan area.
The Rio state Civil Defense department said at least 11,000 people were forced from their homes by punishing rain that filled streets with raging torrents and ground Brazil's second-biggest city to a halt the previous day.
"When the man upstairs sends us this much rain, there isn't a thing that anyone can do," Pedro Souza said as he tried to unclog a sewer drain with a broom outside an apartment building in Copacabana.
Rio de Janeiro state Gov. Sergio Cabral declared a three-day mourning period, and children were kept from schools for a second straight day.
The sun emerged in parts of Rio, but by late afternoon intermittent rains began, raising fears that more water would dislodge saturated ground and cause more slides, the mayor said.
Officials said potential mudslides threatened at least 10,000 houses in the city.
Some criminals took advantage of traffic jams caused by the flooding to rob stranded motorists, police reported.
Julia Freitas, a 25-year-old university student, told O Globo newspaper she was approached in her car by a group of men offering help.
"When I rolled down my window, one put a shard of glass to my neck and took my watch, cell phone and purse," Freitas said.
Officials downplayed the possibility of similar downpours derailing World Cup matches in 2014 or the Olympics in 2016, noting that those events are not scheduled to be held during the nation's rainy season.

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U.S. Air, United in merger talks

UAL Corp's United Airlines (UAUA.O) is in merger talks with US Airways (LCC.N) in a deal that could create the second-largest carrier in the United States, a source familiar with the matter said.
The discussions, aimed at cutting costs and competing with a combined Delta-Northwest, have been going on for "a couple" of weeks, and could fizzle or lead to talks with other carriers, the source said.
This would not be the first time the two airlines have tried to merge: in 2000, they announced a $4.3 billion deal that fell apart on opposition from labor unions and the Department of Justice.
In 2008, sources had told Reuters that US Airways was in parallel talks with United and Continental Airlines Inc (CAL.N) about a possible merger, when Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) was merging with Northwest to create the world's largest airline.
The talks ended as United chose to pursue an alliance with Continental instead.
Airline industry consultant Michael Boyd said United's talks with US Airways might be intended to signal to Continental that they are ready to renew merger talks.
"If you take a look at those two carriers, there's a tremendous amount of overlap," Boyd said, referring to United and Continental. "This is likely to get Continental, which would be a better fit, out of the barn to start talking."
US Airways shares surged 26 percent to $8.61 after the closing bell. United's stock jumped more than 8 percent to $20.51. Shares of other airlines also rose.
The New York Times first reported the news late on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the situation.
ONE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST CARRIERS
A deal between US Airways and United would create one of the world's largest airlines, but analysts are skeptical. The deal would lack support from the pilots union, a major force that has derailed mergers in the past.
Speaking at the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit in February, Capt. John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilots Association union, suggested the union would back a merger between Continental and United, which he indicated made more sense than one between United and US Airways.
Representatives of the union were not immediately available for comment.
Antitrust issues will also likely come up again: the two carriers would end up with a large number of hubs and extensive operations in the Washington area.
CONSOLIDATION NEEDED
Many airline executives have called for consolidation, saying it is a necessity for the industry to return to profitability.
The airline industry has lost $50 billion in the past 10 years, including $11 billion in 2009, according to the International Air Transport Association. The industry has been struggling with high fuel prices and a pullback in consumer spending amid a weak economy.
Both UAL and US Airways told Reuters separately in February they were open to a merger. Speaking at the Reuters Summit, UAL Chief Financial Officer Kathryn Mikells said: "UAL has been supportive of consolidation for a long time. It is something we will continue to look at."
Speaking at the same summit, US Airways Chief Financial Officer Derek Kerr said: "Consolidation is one of the major ways this industry can become profitable."
When asked why US Airways was not approaching another carrier, Kerr said at the time: "It's difficult for the No. 5 player to make a move on No. 1 through 4."
The four largest U.S. carriers are Delta, American Airlines (AMR.N), United and Continental.
US Airways and Continental declined to comment.
UAL spokeswoman Jean Medina also declined to comment, but added: "We've been consistent on our position on consolidation generally for several years, and that position is well known."
United Chief Executive Glenn Tilton and US Air CEO Doug Parker have both been vocal proponents of consolidation.

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US woman silently pleads not guilty in terror case

With a shake of the head, a pregnant Colorado woman pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a charge of helping foreign terrorists who authorities say were plotting to kill a Swedish artist.
Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31, entered the silent plea to avoid giving prosecutors a sample of her voice. The government evidence includes hard drives and other computer files that may contain voice recordings, and her lawyer did not want to provide a sample for comparison.
"If there's any voice recordings, I would not want to be creating evidence against her," said lawyer Jeremy Ibrahim, who spent several years at the Justice Department.
Paulin-Ramirez, then a single mother and nursing student, left Colorado for Ireland in the fall with her 6-year-old son to join a Pennsylvania woman she had met online, then married an Algerian terrorism suspect the day she arrived, according to the indictment unsealed Friday. E-mails between the American women suggest a mutual intent to support a Muslim jihad, or holy war, authorities charge.
Co-defendant Colleen LaRose faces a life term on accusations that she pledged to carry out the murder of artist Lars Vilks, who angered Muslims with a drawing depicting the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body. The lesser charge filed against Paulin-Ramirez carries a maximum 15-year term.
Paulin-Ramirez, who is 12 weeks pregnant, agreed Wednesday to be detained until her trial, which could be many months away. The judge declined to set a date, given the complex nature of the case.
In court, she wore a prison jumpsuit and wire-frame eyeglasses, and her face appeared fuller than in past photos. Her straight blond hair hung loose down her back.
Ibrahim stressed that his client had chosen to return to Philadelphia after learning about the charges.
"She came voluntarily. She didn't choose to fly to any other state, or any other country," he said after the brief hearing.
He had met with her in prison Saturday, a day after she was arrested landing at Philadelphia International Airport, and described her as distraught over her son. The boy has been placed with social services.
Ibrahim also noted that his client had been released by Irish authorities after an anti-terrorism sweep last month that included her, her husband and five others. Hours after the roundup, the LaRose indictment was unsealed in Philadelphia. But Paulin-Ramirez was later released.
"That tells me that, at least in Ireland, there was no evidence the Irish authorities had of an illegal act," Ibrahim said.
LaRose had returned to Philadelphia in October and cooperated with authorities for a time, although it's not clear whether she is still doing so, according to Rep. Charles Dent. He represents her district and serves on House intelligence and homeland security committees.
LaRose, 46, of Pennsburg, has also pleaded not guilty to the four charges lodged against her, including the plot to kill Vilks. He was never harmed.
Neither American woman had friends or family members attend their court appearances in Philadelphia. Ibrahim suggested his client's family could not afford to make the trip from Leadville, Colo.
Acquaintances describe both women as isolated, troubled individuals who spent increasing amounts of time on the Internet, where LaRose allegedly used the online name "Jihad Jane."
There is no evidence the women ever met before they moved to Ireland to join what LaRose hoped, according to the indictment, would be "a training camp as well as a home."
In court Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams did not object to Paulin-Ramirez's silent plea. Prosecutors have otherwise declined to comment on the case.
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Taliban release video of captured US soldier

The Taliban released a video Wednesday of a man identified as an American soldier captured in Afghanistan last June, showing him pleading for his freedom and to be returned home.
In the video, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl says he wants to return to his family in Idaho and that the war in Afghanistan is not worth the number of lives that have been lost or wasted in prison. It is the first he has been seen since the Taliban released a video of him on Christmas Day.
The seven-minute video of Bergdahl shows him sporting a beard and doing a few push-ups to demonstrate he's in good physical condition. There was no way to verify when the footage was taken or if he is still alive.
Pentagon officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Bergdahl disappeared June 30 while based in eastern Afghanistan and is the only known American serviceman in captivity. The Taliban claimed his capture in a video released in mid-July that showed the young soldier appearing downcast and frightened.
In the sometimes choppy video issued Wednesday, Bergdahl talks about his love for his family, his friends, motorcycles and sailing.
"I'm a prisoner. I want to go home," he says in the video, which was made available by Washington-based Site Intelligence Group, which monitors militant Web sites. "This war isn't worth the waste of human life that has cost both Afghanistan and the U.S. It's not worth the amount of lives that have been wasted in prisons, Guantanamo Bay, Bagram, all those places where we are keeping prisoners."
At times speaking haltingly, as if holding back emotions, Bergdahl — clad in what appeared to be an Army shirt and fatigues — clasped his hands together and pleaded: "The pain in my heart to see my family again doesn't get any smaller. Release me. Please, I'm begging you, bring me home."
He added that he is strong and is "given the freedom to exercise" and to be a human being, even though he is a prisoner.
Lt. Col. Tim Marsano of the Idaho National Guard said Wednesday that Bergdahl's family was not aware of the new video. But he said the community of Hailey has reminders all over town of Bergdahl's capture, including signs wishing for his safe return and yellow ribbons.
"The community has definitely not forgotten Bowe Bergdahl, and the family continues to appreciate the support," said Marsano. "It's been a difficult nine months. With the support of family, friends and community members, they are doing as well as anyone could expect in this kind of situation."
U.S. officials have said that there were indications as recently as late January that Bergdahl was still alive.
At the end of the video, a speaker, reportedly Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, demands the release of a limited number of prisoners in exchange for the American.
Military officials had notice prior to the first video of Bergdahl released by the Taliban last summer, giving them time to alert his family before its public release. It was unclear Wednesday whether military officials knew this new video was coming.
Bergdahl, who was serving with a unit based in Fort Richardson, Alaska, was 23 when he vanished just five months after arriving in Afghanistan. He was serving at a base in Paktika province near the border with Pakistan in an area known to be a Taliban stronghold.

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Bangkok under state of emergency

Bangkok was under a state of emergency on Thursday after anti-government protesters stormed the Thai parliament, but the demonstrators remained defiant and said they were ready for "war".
Lawmakers fled and several senior government figures were rescued by military helicopter after the red-shirted supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra forced their way into the parliamentary compound briefly on Wednesday.
The protesters idolise ousted former premier Thaksin and tens of thousands of them have been rallying in the Thai capital for weeks, at one point splashing their own blood at key locations in a grisly show of defiance.
To contain the growing crisis, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva invoked emergency rule Wednesday, banning public gatherings of over five people and giving broad powers to police and military in Bangkok and surrounding areas.
"The state of emergency aims to resolve the situation and bring a return to normal," Abhisit told a nationally televised news conference.
The premier, who has cancelled a trip to the US for a nuclear security summit next week due to the unrest, said the mass rallies were unconstitutional and had tarnished the country's image, eroding investor confidence.
It is the fourth time since 2008 that emergency law has been declared in the capital because of political turmoil.
But thousands of protesters flouted the decree, waving flags and cheering as their leaders railed against Abhisit's government from their rally stage close to a clutch of luxury hotels and giant shopping malls.
"We have to prepare for another war. If the military comes you should not panic -- just stay put," Reds leader Veera Musikapong told protesters.
Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters have refused to leave the city's main commercial district, where they have been since Saturday, disrupting traffic and causing major stores to shut.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban urged people with relatives rallying in banned areas "to tell them to leave immediately," adding that authorities would provide transportation for demonstrators from outside Bangkok.
The United States Wednesday rebuked the protesters.
"We respect the right of freedom of expression," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley, but he added "forcibly entering government buildings is not an appropriate means of protest."
Security forces have so far refrained from using force to disperse the red-clad movement, who have vowed to keep up their demonstrations despite the emergency decree.
The Reds have been emboldened after the police and army backed down on Tuesday following a tense standoff in the capital's tourist heartland.
The Red Shirts say the government is illegitimate because it came to power with army backing through a parliamentary vote in December 2008 after a court decision ousted Thaksin's allies from power.
The mainly poor and rural followers of Thaksin, a billionaire telecoms tycoon who lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption, fervently support the populist policies he introduced before his ouster in a 2006 coup.
Thaksin sought to rally his supporters on Wednesday in a brief message through the micro-blogging service Twitter, praising their "courage, patience and unity."
The military has mounted a heavy security response, deploying 50,000 personnel at one point to try to contain the protests, which drew as many as 100,000 people on March 14.
But the government wants to avoid a repeat of last April's clashes with Red Shirts that left two people dead, six months after riot police took on the rival Yellow Shirts in bloody scenes outside parliament.

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FBI arrests Calif man for alleged Pelosi threats

A California man angry about health care reform allegedly made threatening and harassing phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, including at least one call in which he got through and spoke to her directly, law enforcement officials said.
Gregory Lee Giusti, 48, was arrested Wednesday at his San Francisco home, said Joseph Schadler, spokesman for the FBI's San Francisco office. Schadler would not disclose the charges against Giusti, saying they were under seal until his first appearance before a federal magistrate, scheduled for Thursday.
The arrest came a day after a Washington state man was arrested for allegedly leaving threatening voicemails for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, and as other Democratic lawmakers have faced vicious verbal attacks over their support of the historic health care overhaul.
Several federal officials said Giusti made dozens of calls to Pelosi's homes in California and Washington, as well as to her husband's business office. They said he recited her home address and said if she wanted to see it again, she would not support the health care overhaul bill that since has been enacted.
One official said the man is believed to have spoken directly with Pelosi at least once.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
Giusti has been in trouble previously for making threats. In 2004, he pleaded no contest in San Mateo County, just south of San Francisco, to a felony charge of making criminal threats and was sentenced to a year in jail and three years of supervised probation.
The 2004 arrest occurred on a commuter train after Giusti was kicked off for not paying his fare, Steve Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, said. Giusti became enraged, started screaming and threatened to kill the conductor, who called in the sheriff, Wagstaffe said.
A statement from Pelosi's spokesman Wednesday praised the efforts of law enforcement and said the House Speaker would have no further comment "at this time."
On Tuesday, Pelosi told reporters in San Francisco that "people have been active in expressing their disagreement." Sometimes those expressions have risen "to the level of threats or violence," she said, explaining that she was not allowed to comment on her own situation.
Rose Riggs, a neighbor of Giusti in a public housing complex in the city's Tenderloin district, said she saw two plainclothes and two uniformed officers take him away in zip-tie cuffs. Riggs, 62, said Giusti was known for engaging in heated political debates with others in the building.
"He was not one of my favorite people. He had a real attitude problem," she said.
Neighbor Greg Little, 53, said he also saw officers take Giusti away.
"He was real quiet when they took him out. He wasn't combative," Little said.
Sister Lorna Walsh, community operations manager of the Mercy Housing complex where Giusti lives, said he had lived in the subsidized housing for almost 10 years. She would not comment further.
On Tuesday, federal authorities in Washington state announced charges against Charles Alan Wilson, 63, for allegedly made threatening calls to Murray. Officials said he left voicemails for the senator, including ones in which he's accused of saying "there's a target on your back now" and "it only takes one piece of lead."
Charges also have been filed against a Philadelphia man who allegedly made a YouTube video threatening Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.

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Arkansas teen accuses mom of Facebook harassment

The mother of a 16-year-old boy said she was only being a good mom when she locked him out of his Facebook account after reading he had driven home at 95 mph one night because he was mad at a girl. His response: a harassment complaint at the local courthouse.
"If I'm found guilty on this it is going to be open season" on parents, Denise New said Wednesday.
New, of Arkadelphia, a small college town an hour southwest of Little Rock, said many of her son's postings didn't reflect well on him, so after he failed to log off the social networking site one day last month, she posted her own items on his account and changed his password to keep him from using it again. But her son claims what she posted wasn't true, and that she's damaging his reputation.
"The things he was posting in Facebook would make any decent parent's eyes pop out and his jaw drop," Denise New said. "He had been warned before about things he had been posting."
Lane New, who lives with his grandmother, filed a complaint with prosecutors who approved a harassment charge March 26. Neither New would say Wednesday which items on his Facebook site the boy had found slanderous.
"I probably made maybe three, maybe four actual postings — the rest of it was a conversation between my son, me and his personal friends," Denise New said.
In his handwritten complaint to prosecutors, Lane New asked that his mother have no contact with him and wrote, "Denise first hacked my Facebook and changed my password. She also changed the password to my e-mail so I could not change it. She posted things that involve slander and personal facts about my life."
Denise New acknowledged changing both passwords to keep her son from getting access to his Facebook page. She denied hacking into the account.
"He left it logged in on my computer," she said. "It's not like I stole his laptop."
Denise New said the boy had written on his Facebook page that he had gone to Hot Springs one night and drove 95 mph on the way home because he was upset with a girl. Several other posts on his site also bothered her, but she refused to elaborate.
She said he has since opened a new Facebook account.
Prosecutor Todd Turner declined to comment because the boy is a minor. His office issued a statement later saying the woman's alleged statements about her son justified the harassment charge — though he would not describe the comments.
Denise New said Lane moved in with his grandmother abou

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t five years ago, after she went through a difficult divorce, was having mental health problems and didn't feel she could provide her son with the supervision he needed.
She faces a hearing on the misdemeanor at the Clark County Courthouse on May 12.

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Crews close to rescue attempt of 4 W.Va. miners

A federal official says he is confident that two safety citations issued on the day of the West Virginia mine explosion didn't factor into the blast.
Kevin Stricklin, an administrator from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said the citations occurred in an area away from the site of the explosion.
Stricklin says crews are getting close to entering the mine to search for four missing miners. He says there is a possibility that rescue crews could enter the mine as soon as Wednesday night.
Dangerous gases have prevented rescuers from venturing into the Upper Big Branch coal mine to search for any survivors earlier. The explosion killed at least 25 workers. Two people survived.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
MONTCOAL, W.Va. (AP) — A federal official says crews are getting close to entering a West Virginia mine to search for four missing miners.
Kevin Stricklin, an administrator from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said there is a possibility that rescue crews could enter the mine as soon as Wednesday night.
Dangerous gases have prevented rescuers from venturing into the Upper Big Branch coal mine to search for any survivors earlier. The explosion killed at least 25 workers. Two people survived.
It's the worst U.S. mining disaster in a generation.


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Crusading Chinese lawyer gives up activism

A crusading Chinese rights lawyer whose disappearance more than a year ago caused an international outcry said Wednesday that he is abandoning his once prominent role as a government critic in hopes he'll be allowed to reunite with his family.
In an exclusive interview, his first since he resurfaced two weeks ago, Gao Zhisheng said he did not wish to discuss his disappearance and whether he had been held and mistreated by the authorities. He appeared thinner and more subdued than the stocky, pugnacious civil rights defender of the past, though he said his health was fine.
Nevertheless, Gao said, the ordeal had taken a toll on him and his wife and two children, who secretly fled China early last year to escape relentless harassment by police.
"I don't have the capacity to persevere. On the one hand, it's my past experiences. It's also that these experiences greatly hurt my loved ones. This ultimate choice of mine, after a process of deep and careful thought, is to seek the goal of peace and calm," Gao, sitting straight-backed, told The Associated Press at a tea house near his apartment in northern Beijing.
His eyes brimmed with tears several times when he discussed his family, especially when he described seeing their shoes when he returned home for the first time Tuesday.
"I completely lost control of my emotions, because to me these are the three dearest people in the world and now, we're like a kite with a broken string," he said.
Among the most dauntless of a group of human rights lawyers, Gao was a thorn in the authoritarian government's side for much of the past decade. He advocated constitutional reform and took on sensitive cases involving evangelical Christians and members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group. He was jailed, tortured and watched by police until he went missing 14 months ago. Vague statements from the government as to his whereabouts drew protests by international human rights groups, the U.S. and British governments and the U.N.'s torture investigator.
The more than hourlong meeting seemed partly intended to dispel concerns over the 44-year-old Gao's health and state of mind since he disappeared in February 2009. He showed flashes of his previously defiant self, mixing praise for the government's building of the economy while calling for democracy.
But his desire not to talk about the past and his often roundabout answers raised questions about the current conditions of his freedom and whether he is still under police surveillance.
Gao said his meeting with the AP was "a chat," not an interview — which is forbidden under terms of a 2006 parole for a subversion conviction. He hinted at a compromise with authorities, a relinquishing of his past activism in exchange for contact with his family and perhaps one day a reunion.
"You know that past life of mine was abnormal, and I need to give up that former life. I hope I can become part of the peaceful life of the big family," Gao said.
He later added: "You know the main basis for choosing to give up is for the sake of family feelings," he said. "I hope I can reunite with them. My children need me by their side growing up."
Gao's sudden resurfacing March 18 added to the confusion about him. For a few days, he spoke with friends, family and the media by mobile phone, saying he was at Mount Wutai, a well-known Buddhist retreat, and wanted to be left alone. That explanation was so out of character for the normally garrulous Gao that it brought speculation from friends and supporters that he was being pressured by the authorities.
Gao acknowledged that his seeming turnabout is sure to dishearten his backers and asked for their understanding. "Everybody will be disappointed. Some people were really involved, concerned, supportive, making appeals. So when they read my words they will definitely feel disappointed. To them, I apologize. I'm extremely sorry," he said.
His previous imprisonment and run-ins with police — including a time in 2007 when security forces gave him electric shocks to his genitals and placed cigarettes in his eyes — helped him survive the last 14 months.
"I have a special characteristic and that's no matter the circumstances I can control my feelings or my emotions," said Gao. "It's like a mechanical function, and I don't allow it to move and turn. I just exist as a material thing."
Despite his retreat from the front lines, Gao said he was inspired by the Myanmar democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, though in her years in jail and under house arrest her family knew where she was, unlike him. Even without his forceful presence, he expected a new crop of rights lawyers to push ahead promoting legal rights and democracy, undeterred by his troubles.
"Just because of the repression I experienced, don't think that other people won't do what I did. That's not human nature," Gao said. "If there's one more of me or one less of me in the field, it doesn't matter. These years we've heard that a lot of others are eager to try. I still want to talk with them and hope they can learn a lesson from me."

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