Disaster training offered

I refuse to believe I brought this horrific weather pattern with me.

William Hanken of Nova Scotia received an early morning jolt in his Napa hotel room at the corner of First and Main streets. The south brick wall of the neighboring Opera House crashed through the roof and into his room right around 5:15 a.m.

The developer of a proposed 44-home subdivision in Browns Valley insists his plan conforms to city requirements and the desires of buyers in today's real estate market.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A century later, the people who felt the ground rock that Wednesday morning tell the story best.

Strutting her stuff as a fashion model was perhaps the last thing on Connie Schmitt's mind when she first learned she had cancer, but what a difference a year makes. Schmitt beat sarcoma, a type of cancer that attacks the soft tissue of the body, and was among the 45 cancer-survivors-turned-models at Queen of the Valley Foundation's Reach for the Stars event Saturday.

Quinlan Dulaney, 4, searches through the tall, wet grass at Kennedy Park during the Napa Active 20-30 Club's Easter Egg Hunt. In addition to candy, toys and novelty items hidden in the park, over 200 golden tickets stashed inside random easter eggs could be redeemed for a free book to promote literacy.

In Browns Valley, surrounded by homes, sit 11 acres of meadow turned lushly green by the spring rains.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Mayor Bill Bell is black. So are Police Chief Steven W. Chalmers, City Manager Patrick Baker and a majority of the City Council. Durham's population is almost as black as it is white.

MILWAUKEE -- Two boys missing for almost a month apparently drowned in an icy park lagoon near where they were last seen, and authorities said Saturday foul play was not suspected.

LODI -- Ten months ago, FBI agents arrested a father and son and detained two Muslim clerics, suggesting the men were participants in activities linked to terrorism.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mara D. Bellaby recently visited the remnants of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as part of a series of stories commemorating the 20th anniversary of the April 26, 1986, explosion of a plant reactor, the world's worst nuclear accident.

N'DJAMENA, Chad -- Thousands rallied Saturday in Chad's capital to support the president following a defeated rebel attack, while the oil minister threatened to shut down the country's oil pipeline unless the government is compensated for frozen oil revenues.

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Baton-wielding police beat protesting Nepali journalists Saturday as thousands of people marched peacefully in the capital to demand the restoration of democracy.