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MANILA (AFP) – A rare rat species last seen over a century ago in the mountainous northern Philippines has been rediscovered by a team of American and Filipino biologists, a report said Sunday.

Lawrence Heaney, team leader and curator at the Chicago-based Field Museum of Natural History, said the rare dwarf cloud rat was last seen by British scientists some 112 years ago.

He said the rat was dead when the team found it in a canopy of a large tree whose branches were covered by thick moss, orchids and ferns at a national park in Mount Pulag in northern Luzon, the Philippine Daily Inquirer said.

The animal was described as small “with reddish brown fur, a black mask around its large dark eyes, small round ears, a broad and blunt snout and a long tail covered with dark hair,” the report said.

“It is the animal whose existence had baffled biologists for so many years,” Heaney said.

The animal has been preserved and is being prepared for shipment to Chicago for further studies.

The discovery proved a theory that the rare species lived only in high canopies with mature mossy forests in areas with an elevation of between 2,200- 2,700 metres (7,200-8,850 feet) above sea level. Mount Pulag is Luzon’s highest peak at 2,922 metres above sea level.

“The cloud rats are one of the most spectacular cases of adaptive radiation by mammals anywhere in the world,” Heaney said.

A British researcher, John Whitehead, first saw the rat in 1896 in another mountain region in the north, but little was known about the species.

“Since then the species became a mystery,” Heaney said
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ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A man survived a 500-foot fall into a strip mine Friday, astounding rescuers who spent hours on a risky descent into the abyss to bring him back out.

Police said Nathan Bowman was trespassing on coal company property around 1 a.m. Friday when he slipped and fell into the Springdale Pit, an inactive mine about 700 feet deep, 3,000 feet long and 1,500 feet wide.

Bowman tumbled down a jagged slope and then free-fell several hundred feet, his descent broken by a rock ledge not far from the bottom of the pit, said Coaldale Police Chief Timothy Delaney, who helped direct the rescue effort.

“If you look at that drop, there was no way somebody could survive that,” Delaney said.

Bowman, 23, of Tamaqua, was in serious condition Friday night at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem. The extent and nature of his injuries was not clear, although rescuer John Fowler said it appeared he suffered a number of fractures.

Bowman and a friend were walking around the pit when he went over the side. The friend called 911, and Coaldale police and firefighters began a frantic search, according to Delaney.

State police got into the act several hours later, using a helicopter, floodlights and thermal imaging to try to pinpoint Bowman’s location in the pit, about 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

“It got really, really dangerous,” Delaney said. “My guys were fantastic; they were heroes, risking their lives in total darkness.”

The search was called off at daybreak. Shortly thereafter, Delaney went to the offices of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co., which owns the Springdale Pit, to notify officials of the situation.

“I said, ‘Let’s take a ride over there and show me where it occurred,’” said Fowler, 40, a project manager at the company.

Their luck was better this time.

“Within about three minutes, we found him,” Fowler said. “I thought I could hear a muffled call for help. We yelled to him and asked him where he was, and he said he thought he was on a ledge.”

Fowler, who moonlights as a state firefighter instructor, and a Coaldale police sergeant scouted a relatively safe route to Bowman and stayed with him until more help arrived.

Two firefighters rappelled down to the ledge, loaded Bowman onto a basket and tied themselves to it. Then all three were painstakingly hoisted up.

Bowman was lucid when he arrived at the top of the pit late Friday morning, wanting his harness loosened, asking that someone call his brother and expressing fear about riding in a medical helicopter, said Sarah Curran Smith, a vice president at Lehigh Coal.

Bowman’s survival is “pretty unbelievable,” she said. “I think the universe has bigger plans for Nathan. I hope he realizes that.”

Bowman faces charges including defiant trespass, according to Delaney
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TIJUANA, Mexico – Massive gunbattles broke out between suspected drug traffickers who fired at each other while speeding down heavily populated streets of this violent border city early Saturday, killing 13 people and wounding nine.

All of the dead were believed to be drug traffickers, possibly rival members of the same cartel who were trying to settle scores, said Rommel Moreno, the attorney general of Baja California state, where Tijuana is located.

“Evidently this is a confrontation between gangs,” Moreno told reporters.

Eight suspects and one federal police officer were injured in the pre-dawn shootings, none gravely, said Agustin Perez Aguilar, a spokesman for the state public safety department. The suspects are being held on suspicion of weapons possession among other possible charges.

Police recovered 21 vehicles, many with bullet holes or U.S. license plates; a total of 54 guns; and more than 1,500 spent shell casings at various points in the city where the battles broke out, Perez Aguilar said.

At one point, the alleged traffickers fired at one another as their sport utility vehicles sped down a busy six-lane boulevard lined with restaurants, car repair shops, medical offices and strip malls.

Bullet holes could be seen in the walls of a factory building and on the perimeter wall of a housing complex along the road, but no bystander deaths were reported. It was not clear how long the gunbattles lasted.

A mall security guard who did not want to give his name for fear of reprisals said he heard hundreds of gunshots fired, some of which passed near him.

“I hit the ground,” the guard said. When he got up again, he said he saw bullet holes in the wall behind him, a dead man lying in a pool of blood and 11 abandoned, bullet-ridden SUVs on the street.

The first shootout claimed seven victims. Three subsequent gunbattles – one outside a hospital – claimed five more, police said. The body of a man police believe to be the 13th victim turned up at a city hospital.

Tijuana, a sprawling metropolis just across the border from San Diego, California, is pervaded by frequent violence, much of it blamed on drug cartels battling for control of lucrative trafficking routes. The city is home to the Arellano-Felix drug cartel.

In January, eight people died in a gunbattle at a Tijuana safe-house apparently used by drug hit men to hold kidnapped rivals. In that confrontation, hit men holed up inside the house battled police and soldiers with automatic weapons for three hours.

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SEATTLE – Timothy Garon’s face and arms are hauntingly skeletal, but the fluid building up in his abdomen makes the 56-year-old musician look eight months pregnant.

His liver, ravaged by hepatitis C, is failing. Without a new one, his doctors tell him, he will be dead in days.

But Garon’s been refused a spot on the transplant list, largely because he has used marijuana, even though it was legally approved for medical reasons.

“I’m not angry, I’m not mad, I’m just confused,” said Garon, lying in his hospital bed a few minutes after a doctor told him the hospital transplant committee’s decision Thursday.

With the scarcity of donated organs, transplant committees like the one at the University of Washington Medical Center use tough standards, including whether the candidate has other serious health problems or is likely to drink or do drugs.

And with cases like Garon’s, they also have to consider – as a dozen states now have medical marijuana laws – if using dope with a doctor’s blessing should be held against a dying patient in need of a transplant.

Most transplant centers struggle with the how to deal with people who have used marijuana, said Dr. Robert Sade, director of the Institute of Human Values in Health Care at the Medical University of South Carolina.

“Marijuana, unlike alcohol, has no direct effect on the liver. It is however a concern … in that it’s a potential indicator of an addictive personality,” Sade said.

The Virginia-based United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system, leaves it to individual hospitals to develop criteria for transplant candidates.

At some, people who use “illicit substances” – including medical marijuana, even in states that allow it – are automatically rejected. At others, such as the UCLA Medical Center, patients are given a chance to reapply if they stay clean for six months. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.

Garon believes he got hepatitis by sharing needles with “speed freaks” as a teenager. In recent years, he said, pot has been the only drug he’s used. In December, he was arrested for growing marijuana.

Garon, who has been hospitalized or in hospice care for two months straight, said he turned to the university hospital after Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center told him he needed six months of abstinence.

The university also denied him, but said it would reconsider if he enrolled in a 60-day drug-treatment program. This week, at the urging of Garon’s lawyer, the university’s transplant team reconsidered anyway, but it stuck to its decision.

Dr. Brad Roter, the Seattle physician who authorized Garon’s pot use for nausea, abdominal pain and to stimulate his appetite, said he did not know it would be such a hurdle if Garon were to need a transplant.

That’s typically the case, said Peggy Stewart, a clinical social worker on the liver transplant team at UCLA who has researched the issue. “There needs to be some kind of national eligibility criteria,” she said.

The patients “are trusting their physician to do the right thing. The physician prescribes marijuana, they take the marijuana, and they are shocked that this is now the end result,” she said.

No one tracks how many patients are denied transplants over medical marijuana use.

Pro-marijuana groups have cited a handful of cases, including at least two patient deaths, in Oregon and California, since the mid-to-late 1990s, when states began adopting medical marijuana laws.

Many doctors agree that using marijuana – smoking it, especially – is out of the question post-transplant.

The drugs patients take to help their bodies accept a new organ increase the risk of aspergillosis, a frequently fatal infection caused by a common mold found in marijuana and tobacco.

But there’s little information on whether using marijuana is a problem before the transplant, said Dr. Emily Blumberg, an infectious disease specialist who works with transplant patients at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital.

Further complicating matters, Blumberg said, is that some insurers require proof of abstinence, such as drug tests, before they’ll agree to pay for transplants.

Dr. Jorge Reyes, a liver transplant surgeon at the UW Medical Center, said that while medical marijuana use isn’t in itself a sign of substance abuse, it must be evaluated in the context of each patient.

“The concern is that patients who have been using it will not be able to stop,” Reyes said.

Dale Gieringer, state coordinator for the California chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, scoffed at that notion.

“Everyone agrees that marijuana is the least habit-forming of all the recreational drugs, including alcohol,” Gieringer said. “And unlike a lot of prescription medications, it’s nontoxic to the liver.”

Reyes and other UW officials declined to discuss Garon’s case.

But Reyes said that in addition to medical concerns, transplant committees – which often include surgeons, social workers, and nutritionists – must evaluate whether patients have the support and psychiatric health to cope with a complex post-operative regimen for the rest of their lives.

Garon, the lead singer for Nearly Dan, a Steely Dan cover-band, remains charged with manufacturing weed. He insists he was following the state law, which limits patients to a “60-day supply” but doesn’t define that amount.

“He’s just a fantastic musician, and he’s a great guy,” said his girlfriend, Leisa Bueno. “I wish there was something we could do legally. … I’m going to miss him terribly if he passes.”
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SAN FRANCISCO – The last time anyone saw Hugues de la Plaza alive, he was out celebrating a promotion with a few friends at a nightclub.

Later that night, the gregarious audio engineer with U.S. and French citizenship made a drunken call to a friend and they made plans to see a movie the next day. Some six hours later, a neighbor noticed blood dripping from the doorknob and porch at de la Plaza’s apartment building.

Police found de la Plaza lying in a pool of blood in his living room, an open laptop on a coffee table and a broken wine glass nearby. Suicide, San Francisco police say.

The French, however, aren’t so sure.

To de la Plaza’s parents, Francois and Mireille de la Plaza, who live in Paris, the San Francisco police appeared too busy or uninterested to fully investigate their only son’s death. They lobbied the French government, which has taken the unusual step of ordering Parisian detectives to investigate and conduct their own forensic tests.

De la Plaza, 36, was found last June with stab wounds to his neck, chest and stomach. Strands of hair were stuck to the fingers of his left hand. And yet, neither a bloody weapon nor a suicide note were found. Blood was tracked from the kitchen, through the living room and out the front door.

Nothing was missing from the apartment, and a security camera in the front of the building showed de la Plaza coming home alone. His doors were locked.

The homicide detectives’ theory – which strikes his family and friends as unlikely, even absurd – was that de la Plaza took drugs, stabbed himself, then washed or disposed of the knife before dying.

An autopsy found that de la Plaza had no drugs in his system and his blood alcohol level was just above the legal limit. However, the medical examiner’s report said his injuries were “not inconsistent with self-inflicted stab wounds.”

And while police have pointed to the locked doors as evidence of suicide, a former girlfriend said the apartment’s back door was only locked with a doorknob lock and someone leaving could have closed the locked door behind them.

De La Plaza’s parents are astonished.

“In France we see CSI and all these American programs, so everyone thinks American police work this way. So when we tell stories of our situation, no one believes it,” said Francois de la Plaza, 71, sitting next to his wife during a recent visit to San Francisco. The interview was translated by a family friend.

Mark Bartscher, the man de la Plaza called at 2 a.m. to make plans to see “Hairspray” at Dolores Park, said his friend didn’t sound like someone about to take his own life.

“He did sound drunk on the phone, but definitely not depressed,” Bartscher said. “After all, he was making plans for the next day.”

French officials say that if their investigators find anything of interest from tests on the blood, hair and electronics taken from the apartment, it will still be up to San Francisco police to decide if a homicide investigation should be opened.

The homicide detectives assigned to the case declined interview requests because the case is still open. But a police spokesman, Sgt. Neville Gittens, said the department has so far cooperated with the French.

“The opinion in homicide is ‘We don’t have anything to hide. If they want to send somebody, send somebody,’” Gittens said. “They’re not going to do better than we can do coming from another country.”

Friends said de la Plaza was an avid online dater and that his computer could hold clues to his death.

A former girlfriend, Melissa Nix, said the French government paid for tests on de la Plaza’s computer and cell phone that showed he’d logged on at 2:38 a.m. and that the power cord had been yanked from the machine. She said there is more work that can be done, like finding out who he e-mailed.

And she said de la Plaza got queasy at the sight of the smallest amount of blood and never would have chosen to commit suicide in such a gory manner.

Nix has testified before the city’s police commission and filed a complaint with the city about the investigation, but she said police stopped speaking with her months ago.

“Homicide has tried to spin this as a suicide while maintaining, deceptively I believe, that they were pursuing this as a homicide. I’ve lost all confidence in the homicide department,” said Nix, a reporter for the Sacramento Bee.

Last summer, after police told the de la Plazas their suicide theory, the family hired private investigator John Murphy. He said in an interview that he is convinced de la Plaza was murdered.

For one thing, Murphy said, a couple who lived next door to de la Plaza told him they heard doors open and close three times after he came home that night, and that footsteps were heard in an alleyway that connected to de la Plaza’s back door.

Murphy said police never interviewed the couple.

Criminal law professor Erin Murphy of the University of California, Berkeley, agrees that police could have done a lot more.

“There are a lot of questions that haven’t been answered that could be by looking at his e-mails, or what was he searching for on Google before he died?” she said. “There are all of these kinds of questions, and it’s unfortunate, but as time goes on they are more difficult to answer.”

Whether the French detectives find new evidence, the de la Plazas are relieved that attention is finally being paid to their son’s case.

“This is unbelievable for us,” said Francois de la Plaza, his eyes tearing.

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WASHINGTON – In fury and despair, patients harmed by Lasik eye surgery told federal health advisers Friday of severe eye pain, blurred vision and even a son’s suicide. The advisers recommended that the government warn more clearly about the risks of the hugely popular operations.

About 700,000 Americans a year undergo the elective laser surgery. Like golf star and famed Lasik recipient Tiger Woods, they’re hoping to throw away their glasses, just as the ads say.

And while the vast majority benefit – most see 20-20 or even better – about one in four people who seeks Lasik is not a good candidate. A small fraction, perhaps 1 percent or fewer, suffer serious, life-changing side effects: worse vision, severe dry eye, glare, inability to drive at night.

“Too many Americans have been harmed by this procedure and it’s about time this message was heard,” David Shell of Washington told the Food and Drug Administration’s scientific advisers before their recommendation that the FDA provide clearer warnings.

Shell held up large photographs that he said depict his blurred world, showing halos around objects and double vision, since his 1998 Lasik.

“I see multiple moons,” he said angrily. “Anybody want to have Lasik now?”

Colin Dorrian was in law school when dry eye made his contact lenses so intolerable that he sought Lasik, even though a doctor noted his pupils were pretty large. Both the dry eye and pupil size should have disqualified Dorrian, but he received Lasik anyway – and his father described six years of eye pain and fuzzy vision before the suburban Philadelphia man killed himself last year.

“As soon as my eyes went bad, I fell into a deeper depression than I’d ever experienced, and I couldn’t get out,” Gerard Dorrian read from his son’s suicide note.

Matt Kotsovolos, who worked for the Duke Eye Center when he had a more sophisticated Lasik procedure in 2006, said doctors classify him as a success because he now has 20-20 vision. But he said, “For the last two years I have suffered debilitating and unremitting eye pain. … Patients do not want to continue to exist as helpless victims with no voice.”

The sober testimonies illustrated that a decade after Lasik hit the market, there still are questions about just how often patients suffer bad outcomes from the $2,000-per-eye procedure.

But one thing is clear, said Dr Jayne Weiss of Detroit’s Kresge Eye Institute, who chairs the FDA advisory panel: “This is a referendum on the performance of Lasik by some surgeons who should be doing a better job.”

The FDA advisers – a group of mostly glasses-wearing eye doctors – recommended that the agency make more clear the warnings it already provides for would-be Lasik patients:

• Add photographs that illustrate what people suffering certain side effects actually see, such as the glare that can make oncoming headlights a huge “starburst” of light.

• Clarify how often patients suffer different side effects, such as dry eye. Some eye surgeons say 31 percent of Lasik patients have some degree of dry eye before surgery, and it worsens for about 5 percent afterward. Other studies say 48 percent of Lasik recipients suffer some degree of dry eye months later.

• Make more understandable the conditions that should disqualify someone from Lasik, such as large pupils or severe nearsightedness.

• And spell out that anyone whose nearsightedness is fixed by Lasik is guaranteed to need reading glasses in middle age, something that might not be needed if they skip Lasik.

That’s a big reason why Weiss, the glasses-wearing ophthalmologist, won’t get Lasik even though she offers it to her patients.

“I can read without my glasses and … operate without my glasses, and I love that,” she said. “The second aspect is I would not tolerate any risk for myself. … Does that mean Lasik is good or not good? It means Lasik is good but not for everyone.”

Lasik is marketed as quick and painless: Doctors cut a flap in the cornea – the eye’s clear covering – aim a laser underneath it and zap to reshape the cornea for sharper sight.

The FDA agrees with eye surgeons’ studies that only about 5 percent of patients are dissatisfied with Lasik. What’s not clear is exactly how many of those suffer lasting severe problems and how many just didn’t get quite as clear vision as they had expected.

The most meticulous studies come from the military, where far less than 1 percent of Lasik recipients suffer serious side effects, said Dr. David Tanzer, the Navy’s Medical Corps commander. That research prompted Lasik to be cleared last year both for Navy aviators and NASA astronauts.

“The word from the guys that are out there standing in harm’s way, whose lives depend on their ability to see, are asking you to please not take this away,” said Lt. Col. Scott Barnes, a cornea specialist at Fort Bragg who described Army troops seeking Lasik after losing their glasses in combat.

No one’s actually considering restrictions on Lasik – but the FDA is pairing with eye surgeons to begin a major study next year to better understand who has bad outcomes.

“Millions of patients have benefited” from Lasik, said Dr. Peter McDonnell of Johns Hopkins University, a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmologists. “No matter how uncommon, when complications occur, they can be distressing. … We’re dedicated to doing everything in our power to make the Lasik procedure even better for all our patients.”
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WASHINGTON - President Bush said tax rebates will start going out Monday, earlier than previously announced, and should help Americans cope with rising gasoline and food prices, as well as aid a slumping economy.

Democrats said they were glad the rebate checks were about to go out, but suggested that multinational oil companies were not among the businesses the stimulus package was originally designed to help.

“Starting Monday, the effects of the stimulus will begin to reach millions of households across our country,” Bush said Friday in remarks on the South Lawn of the White House.

Those first rebates will be directly deposited into people’s bank accounts. The Internal Revenue Service had been saying direct deposits wouldn’t start until next Friday. Bush said paper checks would begin going out on May 9, a week earlier than previously announced.

“The money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we’re seeing at the gas pump, the grocery store, and also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown,” Bush said.

Bush’s emphasis on fuel and food prices differed from other comments he’s made since signing the economic stimulus legislation, intended to aid the economy by boosting overall consumer spending – which accounts for roughly two-thirds of the nation’s economic activity.

Bush has suggested the rebates could trigger a spending spree. “When the money reaches the American people, we expect they will use it to boost consumer spending,” he said last month.

By saying expressly that people could use these one-time checks to pay for such necessities as food and gas, Bush underscored the deepening challenges facing the economy.

Democrats were quick to pick up on the change of focus.

“It’s galling to think that taxpayers’ stimulus checks will be lining the pockets of OPEC. The sad truth is that the average American family will spend almost their entire stimulus check on higher gas prices this year,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.

OPEC is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“Unless the administration gets OPEC to increase oil supply, American consumers are going to be in for a scorching summer of $4 gasoline with no relief in sight,” Schumer said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed that people “need this rebate to cope with the rising cost of gas and groceries.” She said that, while the rebates would help to get the economy moving, there was a need for a second stimulus package “and we have begun some conversation with the administration and Republicans.”

As he had earlier in the week, Bush used the word “slowdown” to describe the state of the economy. He has denied that the nation is in a recession, although many economists say it is.

“It’s obvious our economy is in a slowdown. But, fortunately, we recognized the signs early and took action,” Bush said.

The rebates – up to $600 for an individual, $1,200 for a couple and an additional $300 for each dependent child – are the centerpiece of the government’s $168 billion stimulus package, enacted in February. Roughly 130 million households are expected to get them.

Bush made the comments before boarding his helicopter at the start of a day trip to Connecticut.

People must file a tax return for their 2007 income to be eligible for a rebate check.

The IRS now says all checks for those who filed tax returns on time are scheduled to be deposited or mailed by July 11.

The economy – burdened by the collapse of home prices, a financial and credit crisis, and now rising energy and food prices – grew at an anemic 0.6 percent in the final three months of last year and is believed to have gotten even weaker in the first three months of this year.

The government will report on the first quarter’s performance next week.

With the economy faltering, the nation’s unemployment rate has climbed to 5.1 percent, the highest since September 2005, when it suffered from the devastating blows of the Gulf Coast hurricanes. Job losses in the first three months of this year neared the quarter-million mark.

Foreclosures have surged to record highs and financial companies have taken multibillion losses on mortgage investments that soured. The situation has sent a tremor through Wall Street and has sent the administration, Congress and presidential contenders looking for ways to provide relief.

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TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) – Senate lawmakers in Florida have voted to ban the fake bull testicles that dangle from the trailer hitches of many trucks and cars throughout the state.

Republican Sen. Cary Baker, a gun shop owner from Eustis, Florida, called the adornments offensive and proposed the ban. Motorists would be fined $60 for displaying the novelty items, which are known by brand names like “Truck Nutz” and resemble the south end of a bull moving north.

The Florida Senate voted last week to add the measure to a broader transportation bill, but it is not included in the House version.

In a spirited debate laced with double entendre, Senate lawmakers questioned whether the state should curtail freedom of expression in vehicle accessories.

Critics of the ban included the Senate Rules Chairman, Sen. Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican whose truck sported a pair until his wife protested.

The bill’s sponsor doubted it would succeed.

“It’s probably not going to make it through the process,” Baker said on Thursday. “It won’t be much of story in a few days.”
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NEW YORK – Oil prices rose sharply Friday on news that a ship under contract to the U.S. Defense Department fired warning shots at two boats in the Persian Gulf. Retail gas prices as expected rose further into record territory, nearing $3.60 a gallon.

Crude prices rose on initial reports that a U.S. ship had fired on two Iranian boats; the news raised concerns that a conflict between U.S. and Iranian forces could cut oil supplies from the region. A Navy spokeswoman said the origin of the boats was unclear.

The news was enough to send light, sweet crude for June delivery up to $119.55 before the contract retreated to settle up $2.46 at $118.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The incident worried investors because at first it appeared to be the latest in a series of encounters between U.S. forces and Iranian boats in the Gulf. Early this month, the USS Typhoon fired a flare at an Iranian boat that came within about 200 yards of the ship. In January, several Iranian boats made what the Navy described as provocative moves near a U.S. ship in the Strait of Hormuz. And in December the USS Whidbey Island fired warning shots at a small Iranian boat officials said was rapidly approaching the ship.

On Friday, oil prices were already up before the report on news of a pipeline attack in Nigeria and a looming refinery strike in Scotland.

In Nigeria, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said its fighters hit an oil pipeline late Thursday, the fourth conduit the group has attacked in the past week. MEND said the pipeline belongs to a Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture. A Shell spokesman confirmed one of its pipelines had been hit, but provided no additional details.

Earlier this week, Shell said an earlier attack cut its Nigerian oil production by about 170,000 barrels a day.

Separately, workers at an ExxonMobil Corp. joint venture in Nigeria cut production by an unspecified amount to demand more pay.

Adding to the supply concerns, BP PLC said it will shut down a 700,000 barrel-a-day pipeline system that carries oil from the North Sea to refineries in the U.K. on Saturday in anticipation of a strike at Scotland’s Grangemouth refinery expected to begin Sunday. The refinery supplies power and steam to the pipeline; if it shuts down, the pipeline can’t operate.

Oil’s rise came as the dollar strengthened. A stronger dollar typically encourages selling by making commodities such as oil less effective hedges against inflation, and by making oil more expensive to overseas investors. Analysts say the dollar’s steady decline over the past year is the chief culprit behind this year’s rapid rise in oil prices.

But, noted Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill., “that connection between oil and the dollar can be broken easily by supply issues,” which drove trading on Friday.

At the pump, meanwhile, gas prices rose another 2.1 cents Friday to a record national average of $3.577 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices have been following oil futures higher, but are also rising due to concerns about whether gasoline supplies are adequate to meet peak summer driving demand.

Analysts expect gas prices to continue rising for at least another month to $3.70 to $4 a gallon. To a large extent, how high gas prices peak depends on what oil does.

Lately, analysts have recently raised their oil price predictions to $125 to $130 a barrel. Earlier this week, the expiring May crude contract rose as high as $119.90 as investors scrambled to square positions.

However, the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates less sharply next week than originally thought. Because rate cuts tend to weaken the dollar, a smaller than expected cut could push the dollar higher, and send oil prices down.

In other Nymex trading Friday, May gasoline futures rose 3.51 cents to settle at $3.0537 a gallon after earlier rising to a new trading record of $3.0815, and May heating oil futures rose 4.45 cents to settle at $3.3028 a gallon. May natural gas futures rose 17.3 cents to settle at $10.963 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude futures rose $2 to settle at $116.34 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange
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Motorola has launched yet another style icon in the mobile market of India. The new entry is Motorola Z10, which comes with fascinating looks and astounding features. It is a 3G phone which operates on a Symbian 9.2 operating system. The hi-tech HSPDA cell phone provides fast internet service and Broadband multitasking capabilities to the user. It is also aided with EDGE technology, enabling quick data transfer. Apart from this, it has highly stylish video and media features, making it a complete package.

Design
Motorola Z10 is a smartphone with fashionable looks. It comes in a slide up design, with easy navigational keys on top. With comfy 109 x 50 x 16.5 mm dimensions, it weighs merely 115 g. The display screen is 2.2 inches in size and exhibits images in 16M colors, with a spectacular resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. Moreover, the style gadget requires less care as the screen is scratch resistant, relieving you off your worries. Besides, this chic looking phone is available in two exotic colors, black and chrome.

Features
Motorola Z 10 boasts of striking features. The cell phone comes with polyphonic ringtones, which can be easily downloaded. It also has a 3.5 MP camera with a flash, which is capable of performing video functions. You can share your pictures around with the help of Bluetooth. Moreover, it offers practically unlimited storage space with an in built memory of 77 MB and TI 2420 multimedia processor. Motorola Z10 is a complete entertainment package, as it houses exciting games and multipurpose MP3 player too. The standard battery provides a back up time of 350 hours, with a talk time of 5 hours.

Technical Specifications

General
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 2100
Size
Dimensions 109 x 50 x 16.5 mm
Weight 115 g
Display
Type TFT, 16M colors
Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches
Scratch-resistant display
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, MP3
Customization Download
Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records Practically unlimited
Card slot microSD (TransFlash)
77 MB internal memory
TI 2420 multimedia processor
Data
GPRS Class12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 – 48 kbps
HSCSD No
EDGE Class 12
3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
WLAN No
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, v2.0 miniUSB
Features
OS Symbian OS v9.2, UIQ 3.2
Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML
Games Yes
Colors Black, Chrome
Camera 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus, video(QVGA 30fps), xenon flash; secondary VGA video call camera
Java MIDP 2.0
MP3/AAC/AAC+ player
Battery
Standard battery Li-Ion 1030 mAh
Stand-by Up to 380 h
Talk time Up to 5
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