Dallas-area mayor, teen daughter are shot dead

The mayor of an upscale suburb of Dallas and her teenage daughter were found shot to death at their home, city officials said Wednesday.

Police discovered the bodies of Coppell Mayor Jayne Peters, 55, and Corrine Peters, 19, around 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, city spokeswoman Sharon Logan said. Police found no signs of forced entry, Logan said.

"It appears that both suffered gunshot wounds to the head," said Logan.

Police officers went to their home after the usually prompt mayor failed to arrive at a city council meeting and did not call to explain her absence, Logan said.

The circumstances of the shootings remained unclear. The Dallas …

READINGS: BOOK REVIEWS

READINGS

BOOK REVIEWS

THE OCEAN CARBON CYCLE AND CLIMATE Mick Follows and Temel Oguz, Eds., 2004, 395 pp., $199.00, hardbound, Kluwer Academic/Springer-Verlag, ISBN 1-4020-2085-6

This edited volume represents the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute titled "The Ocean Carbon Cycle and Climate" that was held at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, 6-15 August 2002. Based on the ocean carbon studies of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study and the World Ocean Circulation Experiment of the 1990s, the purpose of the Advanced Study Institute and subsequent book were to provide an overview of our present understanding of the ocean carbon cycle, its …

Police seek clues to South Korean warehouse fire that killed 40

Police questioned company officials Tuesday to determine the cause of a devastating fire at a cold storage warehouse that left 40 people dead and 10 others injured, some with severe burns.

The fire and accompanying explosions ripped through the nearly completed warehouse in Icheon, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the capital, on Monday, spewing toxic fumes over the surrounding industrial zone.

The badly charred bodies were found hours later in the basement, where fire official Kim Jung-geun said some of the workers had been injecting urethane foam into the walls of the facility.

Police were questioning officials from more than 10 …

Mideast talks yield 'not an inch'

A Palestinian rocket barrage, an Israeli army incursion in Gazaand a fresh land dispute in Jerusalem marred the first Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in seven years Wednesday.

Instead of building on the momentum of last month's high-profilepeace conference in the U.S., the two sides traded barbs andaccusations -- and wrapped up a 90-minute session without anyachievements.

An Israeli official described the atmosphere as "tense," and aPalestinian official reported "not an inch" of progress. …

After they had great time, should she call him up?

Dear Diane: Last month, I met a fine man at a two-day conventionhere in Washington, D.C. He showed me one of the best times I've hadin a long, long time, treated me beautifully, and made me feel like Iwas the most special woman in the world.

I found myself very attracted to him. He invited me to his roomand I went, but was hoping that what happened wouldn't. I did notcome to the convention looking for someone. I wasn't prepared forthis and neither was he.

I was disappointed, and it showed.

The next day, I sought him out and we had a quiet, casualconversation before we returned home, he to Vermont and I toVirginia. No mention was made of the latter part …

Tropical Storm Downgraded to Depression

SAN JOSE DEL CABO, Mexico - Tropical Storm Paul weakened to a tropical depression Wednesday as it swirled toward Mexico's mainland at the tip of the Baja California peninsula.

About 100 residents who were evacuated to government shelters in Cabo San Lucas returned to their homes, relieved the sun had re-emerged and they had been spared by Paul, which earlier in the week had been the season's third hurricane to threaten the region.

By the late afternoon, Paul had maximum sustained wind speeds of 35 mph and was 110 miles southeast of Los Mochis, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

The depression was forecast to continue weakening as it moved toward mainland Mexico at …

PCB chief to meet ICC officials

Pakistan cricket chief Ijaz Butt is to meet International Cricket Council officials later this month in a bid to solve their dispute over venues for the World Cup in 2011.

The ICC ruled in April that matches couldn't be staged in Pakistan as originally planned after an attack by gunmen on the Sri Lankan team bus in March that killed six policemen and a driver. The ICC has since re-allocated Pakistan's matches among the three other co-hosts _ India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

However, the Pakistan Cricket Board has launched a legal challenge in a Pakistani court against the ICC's moves and has also sought to have its allocation of games played at a neutral venue in the United …