URLs in order (of this document):

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/analysis_finds_states_legislat.html

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/heaven_can_wait_rzIVCJVENUl8mgCezXBUCJ

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/25/st.louis.airport/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/25/wikileaks.documents/index.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110425/us_nm/us_wildfires_texas_1

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_austria_buried_treasure

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42724462/ns/today-today_news/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42738702/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

Analysis finds state's legislative redistricting has big impact on female lawmakers

Published: Monday, April 25, 2011, 11:24 AM Updated: Tuesday, April 26, 2011, 8:25 AM

Matt Friedman/Statehouse Bureau By Matt Friedman/Statehouse Bureau

Follow

Share17

Share Email Print

quigley.JPGTony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerAssemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Hudson) will not be seeking reelection because of a
shift in legislative district boundaries.

TRENTON — Female lawmakers bore the brunt of recent legislative district redistricting process, according to a Rutgers University
analysis released this morning.

“In a state where 28 percent of the current Legislature is female, women make up 70 percent of the legislators who will retire from
the legislature as a result of redistricting,” says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics. “The impact
of the new map has been especially harsh on incumbent Democratic assemblywomen, with one quarter of them leaving the
legislature.”

Walsh said women have made progress in winning seats in the Legislature in recent years, but “that progress may now be slowed.”

The number of women running for state Senate this year, however, is at record levels, with 23 seeking seats in the primaries. There
are 50 women running in primaries for the state’s 80 Assembly seats, down from a peak of 51 in 2007.

The study cites five women who are not seeking reelection because of the state’s shifting legislative district boundaries: Denise
Coyle (R-Somerset), Joan Quigley (D-Hudson), Caridad Rodriguez (D-Hudson), Joan Voss (D-Bergen) and Elease Evans (D-
Passaic).
Evans, however, announced she would retire from the Assembly two weeks before the commission that redrew the districts settled
on a new map. In the same district, Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Passaic) is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination
for state Senate in a district she’s expected to easily carry.

Three weeks ago, Democrats prevailed in the once-in-a-decade process to redraw the state’s 40 legislative districts. The 11-
member commission – made up of five Democrats, five Republicans and one independent tiebreaker – voted to adopt the
Democratic map 6-5.

Of the 11 commissioners, three were women.

^For this I kind of worked backward a bit, first explaining that the process of redistricting is done every so often and then getting to
the issue of the women. The reason I began with the information from the end of the article was that I didn’t think many of us were
even aware of the changes to the state’s legislative districts. I then included all of the key data regarding female politicians, linking
together the most closely related ideas even if they were separate in the article so that my paragraph would be more concise.

------------------------------------

Heaven can wait

McGreevey priest bid is rejected

By CHUCK BENNETT and JOSH MARGOLIN

Last Updated: 12:15 PM, April 25, 2011

Posted: 6:53 AM, April 25, 2011

More Print

EXCLUSIVE

Don't call him Father Jim just yet.

Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey -- who shocked the nation in 2004 when he announced he was a "gay American"
and stepped down from office -- has been denied his bid to join the priesthood of the Episcopal Church, The Post has
learned.

Church leaders, who have long embraced gay parishioners and clergy, were bothered by McGreevey's bitter divorce,
sources told The Post.

"It was not being gay but for being a jackass -- [McGreevey] didn't come out of the whole divorce looking good," said a
source with the Episcopal Diocese of Newark.

LIMBO: New Jersey ex-Gov. Jim McGreevey's nasty divorce had Episcopal Church leaders thinking twice.
Some leaders also were wary of McGreevey's sudden embrace of their faith after his scandal and feared the church was
being used, the source added.

After resigning as governor, "he was sort of looking for every angle to make a complete redo of his professional life," said
another church source. "He ran to the church for some kind of cover, which isn't fully appropriate. Even if he's a good guy,
he should wait five to 10 years to get over his issues."

Multiple sources noted that it's very common for first-time aspirants to be told they need to continue with their studies or
charitable work before being allowed to join the clergy.

Reached by telephone, McGreevey, citing the confidentiality of the priesthood process, declined to comment.

Bishop Mark Beckwith of the Newark Diocese declined to comment through a spokeswoman.

After the rejection, McGreevey, 53, told friends he was counseled that he "needs more seasoning," a source said.

McGreevey converted from Catholicism after leaving office. He began studies at the General Theological Seminary in
Manhattan in 2007 and graduated last spring with a master's in divinity.

Since embracing religion, he has been working at Integrity House, a mental-health and drug-addiction treatment center in
Newark.

He continues to live in Plainfield, NJ, with his lover since 2005, Australian real-estate executive Mark O'Donnell.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/heaven_can_wait_rzIVCJVENUl8mgCezXBUCJ#ixzz1Kerl4xdl

^This one was simple and straightforward, so I mostly just went through and summarized what I found to be the most important
details in my own words and linked them into a paragraph, including the quotes from the church sources because they really added
flavor to the story and got the point across effectively.

-------------------------------------------

Director: St. Louis airport's recovery 'miraculous' after tornado

See show times »

American Morning

By the CNN Wire Staff

April 25, 2011 8:38 p.m. EDT

Click to play
Why no one died when tornado hit

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: The airport expects to operate a full flight schedule on Tuesday

Only Cape Air is still out of service

(CNN) -- The main airport in St. Louis is expected to operate a full flight schedule Tuesday, less than four days after a powerful
tornado tore through the facility, airport officials said.

But restoration efforts are far from over at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, where the Friday night storm shattered windows
and ripped off part of a roof.

"It obviously just took a couple of minutes for the damage to occur," Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge told CNN's
"American Morning." "It will take weeks, maybe a couple of months, to clean up all of it."

Still, Hamm-Niebruegge said efforts to get the facility up and running again have been "miraculous."

American Airlines returned to service on Monday, officials said, leaving only Cape Air among the airport's 13 airlines still out of
service because of storm damage. Cape Air will resume flights on Tuesday, airport officials said in a statement Monday evening.

American and Cape Air were among the hardest hit after the storm, which devastated the airport's C concourse.

The tornado damaged 750 homes near the airport, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said. And preliminary National Weather Service
estimates released Saturday show the tornado packed winds between 111 and 165 miles per hour when it hit the airport.

There were no fatalities reported -- a fact that Nixon characterized as "absolutely amazing."

At the airport, Hamm-Niebruegge said the facility's design -- and the way people responded to warnings -- played a key role.

"It is a historic building, and it's built very, very well. I think that had a part to do with it, but we also had very early warnings," she
said.

Besides damage to homes and the airport, the strong winds also hit businesses and tore through the roof of a Ferguson, Missouri
church, where dozens had gathered on Good Friday to watch the movie "Passion of the Christ."

Officials have said inspections of buildings will take several days and hauling off debris will take longer.
Elsewhere in Missouri, storms over the weekend left behind water on the runways at a regional airport, forcing authorities to shut
down the facility temporarily.

The Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, located about 100 miles south of St. Louis, has been shut down since Sunday, administrative
coordinator Katrina Atkins said.

Crews were activating a pumping system to remove the standing water Monday, she said, but authorities had not determined when
the airport would reopen.

CNN's Tom Laabs contributed to this report.

^I highlighted (on a printed page) all of the things I wanted to mention and started to cross them out as I wrote my summary,
because I felt they should be arranged in a different order than the way they were presented in the news. It seems that
organizations often like to form patterns in their articles by touching on one topic, then returning to it later, while alternating among
several. To report a story briefly in a one-page or shorter paragraph, it’s necessary to lump the related facts together and mention
only the key ones, or list them all quickly. I knew I wanted to begin with a reference to the various different natural catastrophes that
have been going on, and then arrange my selected details about this particular airport that made a headline. I again included my
favorite quotes and the specific instance of the churchgoers because those things spiced it up and gave it more impact. I also
wanted to insert another reference to the ongoing concerns over air traffic controllers, since the subject of air travel was relevant to
the news story.

-------------------------------------------

Military documents reveal details about Guantanamo detainees, al Qaeda

GUANTANAMO BAY

April 25, 2011|By Tim Lister, CNN

The documents obtained by WikiLeaks provide details on almost all of the 779 detainees held at Gitmo since 2002.

Nearly 800 classified U.S. military documents obtained by WikiLeaks reveal extraordinary details about the alleged terrorist
activities of al Qaeda operatives captured and housed at the U.S. Navy's detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The secret documents have been made available to several news organizations, including the New York Times and the
Washington Post -- and some have been published by WikiLeaks, an organization that facilitates the anonymous leaking of
secret information.

CNN was not among the news organizations granted early access to the latest files.

The documents shed light on the way detainees behaved while at Guantanamo and on how they were assessed in terms of
their danger to the United States. They are intelligence assessments of nearly every one of the 779 individuals who have
been held at Guantanamo since 2002, according to the Post.

The American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement that the documents underscore a need for an independent judicial
review of the cases of those being held at Guantanamo.
"These documents are remarkable because they show just how questionable the government's basis has been for
detaining hundreds of people, in some cases indefinitely, at Guantanamo," said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's
National Security Project, in the statement. "The one-sided assessments are rife with uncorroborated evidence,
information obtained through torture, speculation, errors and allegations that have been proven false.

"These documents are the fruit of the original sin by which the rule of law was scrapped when Guantanamo detainees were
first rounded up," Shamsi said. "if the government had followed the law, it would have established a meaningful and
prompt process to separate the innocent from those who are legally detainable."

The classified files described some of the detainees as being compliant while others threatened violence against guards.
One stated he would fly planes into houses.

They also paint in great detail a portrait of al Qaeda as it grew stronger in Afghanistan in the 1990s, prepared for the
September 11 attacks and scattered in their aftermath.

Among the files already published by WikiLeaks and examined by CNN is that of Ahmed Khalfan Gailani, recently
convicted by a New York court of taking part in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania in 1998. The file, from 2006
when Gailani was transferred to Guantanamo, includes details of his time as a bodyguard and cook to Osama bin Laden
shortly before the 9/11 attacks. Gailani is cited as telling interrogators that the al Qaeda leader had a "normal diet" and
usually ate with about 15 bodyguards.

The document says Gailani later became one of al Qaeda's few forgers of travel documents. He also opted for training in
using explosives to avoid front-line combat.

A document from July 2008 profiles another bodyguard for bin Laden, Sanad Yislam al Kazimi, who stated that he "would
have been willing to die for UBL" (the shorthand used for the al Qaeda leader). It says al Kazimi may have had knowledge
of al Qaeda's nuclear and chemical programs.

Al Kazimi escaped from Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and returned to Yemen, where he continued to
train for terrorist attacks, according to the document.

He was arrested in 2002 after being lured to Dubai while planning an attack on Port Rashid in the United Arab Emirates. It
adds that while at Guantanamo, al Kazimi made "numerous threats against U.S. personnel including the President."

Al Kazimi reportedly said "he would like to tell his friends in Iraq to find the interrogator, slice him up, and make a
shwarma (a type of sandwich) out of him, with the interrogator's head sticking out of the end of the shwarma."

Another Yemeni, Abdu Ali Sharqawi, is described as a "senior al Qaeda facilitator" with links to the 9/11 plotters.

He was allegedly responsible for arranging the travel of Yemeni jihadists to Afghanistan in the 1990s, and when he also
moved to Afghanistan, he became a confidant of bin Laden's.

The 11-page document about his activities says that "on occasion detainee hiked mountain trails with UBL, who hiked
them on a daily basis."
Sharqawi told his interrogators that bin Laden had been in good health, even though he had one kidney. The document
suggests that al Qaeda had plenty of money in the aftermath of September 11, asserting that "detainee received and
passed on over $500,000" while helping jihadists to escape Afghanistan.

According to the Washington Post, the documents provide detailed insight into Osama bin Laden's thinking and
movements immediately after 9/11.

"Among other previously unknown meetings, the documents describe a major gathering of some of al Qaeda's most
senior operatives in early December 2001 in Zormat, a mountainous region of Afghanistan between Kabul and Khost," the
newspaper reports. "There, the operatives began to plan new attacks, a process that would consume them, according to
the assessments, until they were finally captured."

The documents show that detainees' accounts were extensively cross-checked against each other, with at least four
detainees confirming that al Kazimi was a bodyguard to bin Laden.

Among the more remarkable statements is one from a detainee who claimed that bin Laden had written to Yemen's
president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, before the September 11 attacks, requesting the release of al Kazimi (who'd been detained in
1995) and another man from jail. A short time later, they were freed and went to Afghanistan.

The documents include substantial detail about the travel of the detainees.

In one instance, a Spanish jihadist by the name of Ahmad Abd Al Rahman Ahmad, after spending time in Britain and
France, is instructed to travel to Afghanistan via Iran. The document notes: "Travel through Iran is a known modus
operandi for al Qaeda operatives to get into Afghanistan via a chain of safe-houses and operatives."

According to the New York Times, the documents show that most of the 172 prisoners still held at Guantanamo have been
rated as a "high risk" of posing a threat to the United States and its allies if released without adequate rehabilitation. But
they also show that many others who have been released or transferred to other countries were also designated "high
risk," the newspaper says.

Detainees are assessed "high," "medium" or "low" in terms of their intelligence value, the threat they pose while in
detention and the continued threat they might pose to the United States if released.

The newspaper says the documents include details about detainees' illnesses and behavior at Guantanamo, including
"punching guards, tearing apart shower shoes, shouting across cell blocks." But the documents appear to shed little light
on interrogation tactics at Guantanamo, which have drawn widespread criticism.

The New York Times says the documents lay bare "the patchwork and contradictory evidence that in many cases would
never have stood up in criminal court or a military tribunal."

The British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, also reports that the documents suggest that much of the evidence used to
detain jihadist suspects was flimsy. It says that "people wearing a certain model of Casio watch from the 1980s were
seized by American forces in Afghanistan on suspicion of being terrorists, because the watches were used as timers by al
Qaeda." Most were subsequently release for lack of evidence.

Others, according to the New York Times, were not so fortunate despite a lack of evidence.
One man detained in May 2003 insisted that he was a shepherd and, according to his debriefers at Guantanamo Bay, knew
nothing of "simple military and political concepts." Yet a military tribunal declared him an "enemy combatant" anyway, and
he was not sent home until 2006, the Times reports.

"It's not too late to change course and we need more legal process, not less, to make sure we're holding the right people,"
Shamsi said. "The cases of the remaining Guantanamo detainees cry out for independent judicial review."

The U.S. Defense Department condemned the release of the documents, known as DABs.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell and Ambassador Daniel Fried, the Obama administration's special envoy on
detainee issues, said in a statement: "The Guantanamo Review Task Force, established in January 2009, considered the
DABs during its review of detainee information. In some cases, the Task Force came to the same conclusions as the
DABs. In other instances the Review Task Force came to different conclusions, based on updated or other available
information."

WikiLeaks gained international prominence after leaking thousands of papers about the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
Earlier this year it released a huge cache of secret American diplomatic papers.

^This was one of the very long articles packed with specific details and information, so I was just able to fit it onto one page, and the
radio team can feel free to omit several lines if they need to. For all of the articles, I highlighted what jumped out at me after reading
it as being necessary to a fair synopsis, but for this one that step was especially significant. The bulk of my facts came from the first
and last several paragraphs of news, with much of the middle able to be summed up within a couple of sentences because it
detailed some of the individuals’ files. I did want to cover some specifics, but not too many. The main things to convey were the
release of the documents, the types of information they contain, and the critical reactions to the methods used to detain people,
obtain information, and determine the threats posed by individuals.

-----------------------------------------

Rains lift mandatory evacuations in fire-scarred Texas

Reuters

By Elliott Blackburn – Mon Apr 25, 7:50 pm ET

LUBBOCK, Tex (Reuters) – Texans returned to some of the most heavily scorched parts of the state on Monday after rains helped
firefighters smother thousands of acres of wildfire.

State officials late in the afternoon reopened a key highway near north Texas' Possum Kingdom Lake, where four fires together
burned 127,000 acres, 167 homes and two churches, according to the latest estimates from the Texas Forest Service.

Upscale, lakefront neighborhoods appeared to have suffered the most damage. Sheriff's deputies planned to watch for looting as
residents trickled back in.

Rains of up to three inches over parts of the charred and rugged countryside helped douse the flames and the danger, forest service
spokesman Joe Brewer said.
"It pretty well dampened things down enough that our people in the field are confident they pretty much got it," Brewer said.

Firefighters should see help from several days of cooler temperatures and light winds, though not rain, National Weather Service
Meteorologist Eric Martello said.

Dry, windy conditions and acres of grassland that thrived in last year's wet conditions fueled wildfires that have burned more than
1.8 million acres and 900 structures since the first of the year, according to the state forest service.

Fires still burn in steep canyons in far West Texas, outside of Fort Davis, and on more forgiving but populated terrain north of the
city of San Angelo.

Low winds and a boost in humidity helped fire crews make significant strides across the state over the weekend, according to the
forest service. But the danger had not passed with the latest helpful weather, forest service spokesman Joe Mazzeo said.

"We can't say that because of the winds, and it's so unpredictable," Mazzeo said. "The biggest concern today is the possibility of
new starts, new fires."

(Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Jerry Norton)

^This article was somewhat similar to the Missouri airport one, and I think I may have changed the order of fact delivery even more
because weather conditions were discussed in a few different places. I had to provide the key background information before
explaining why they were able to douse many of the fires, allow evacuated residents to return, reopen major highways, and so forth.
My last bit of detail brought up the locations of the fires that are, or were, still burning.

----------------------------------------

Austrian authorities reveal find of buried treasure (How would you like to unearth some 650-year-old treasures while
digging in your backyard?)

AP

This photo provided by Austria's federal conservation authority shows a brooch that was among hundreds of pieces of
ancient jewelry and other precious AP – This photo provided by Austria's federal conservation authority shows a brooch
that was among hundreds …

Austrian man discovers buried treasure Slideshow:Austrian man discovers buried treasure

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press – Fri Apr 22, 2:18 pm ET

VIENNA – A man turning dirt in his back yard stumbled onto buried treasure — hundreds of pieces of centuries-old jewelry
and other precious objects that Austrian authorities described Friday as a fairy-tale find.
Austria's department in charge of national antiquities said the trove consists of more than 200 rings, brooches, ornate belt
buckles, gold-plated silver plates and other pieces or fragments, many encrusted with pearls, fossilized coral and other
ornaments. It says the objects are about 650 years old and are being evaluated for their provenance and worth.

While not assigning a monetary value to the buried bling, the enthusiastic language from the normally staid Federal Office
for Memorials reflected the significance it attached to the discovery.

"Fairy tales still exist!" said its statement. "Private individual finds sensational treasure in garden."

It described the ornaments as "one of the qualitatively most significant discoveries of medieval treasure in Austria."

Click image to see photos of buried treasure

AP/Bundesdenkmalamt/Bettina Sidonie, Handout

The statement gave no details and an automated telephone message said the office had closed early on Good Friday. But
the Austria Press Agency cited memorials office employee Karin Derler as saying the man came across the "breathtaking"
objects years ago while digging in his back yard to expand a small pond.

The weekly Profil magazine identified the man only as Andreas K. from Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna, and said he
asked not to be named.

While he found the ornaments in 2007, Andreas K. did not report it to the memorials office until after rediscovering the dirt-
encrusted objects in a basement box while packing up after selling his house two years ago, said Profil. The soil had dried
and some had fallen off, revealing precious metal and jewels underneath.

He initially posted photos on the Internet, where collectors alerted him to the potential value of the pieces, leading him to
pack them in a plastic bag and lug them to the memorials office, the magazine said in its Friday edition.

Neither Profil nor the memorials office statement said when Andreas K. first alerted Austrian authorities and it was unclear
why they waited until Friday to announce the discovery.

Memorials office president Barbara Neubauer told Profil the objects were a "sensational find."

The magazine said the finder was not interested in cashing in on the trove and was considering loaning the collection to
one of Austria's museums.

^That story actually was very interesting, but I wound up using a different one (below.)
--------------------------------------

British tourist who caught falling baby: I'm no hero

'I guess I was hoping someone else would catch her, but I was the one who was there'

Image: Helen Beard, Jerry Demmings

John Raoux / AP

Helen Beard, right, was honored Friday for saving the life of a 1-year-old child in Orlando, Fla., with a Medal of Merit by Orange
County Sheriff Jerry Demmings, left.

By Barbara Liston

updated 4/22/2011 7:29:39 PM ET

ORLANDO, Fla. — British tourist Helen Beard doesn't feel like a hero even after being feted on Friday for catching a 1-year-old girl
who fell from a fourth-story balcony at an Orlando resort hotel.

"Absolutely not. I did what needed to be done. I didn't want a fuss. Anyone would have done it," Beard, 44, of Worksop, England,
said in an interview with Reuters.

Beard said she was sitting poolside at the Econo Lodge Inn & Suites, keeping an eye on her 10-year-old son and her partner as
they swam, when a scream attracted attention to 1-year-old Jah-Nea Myles dangling from the balcony.

"I think you just act instinctively. I ran. I knew I needed to catch her. I had to do something. I guess I was hoping someone else
would catch her, but I was the one who was there," Beard said.

Beard said she dashed through the pool gate and ran to a spot right underneath the child who, she said, "seemed to grip on for
ages. I saw her tumble."

The baby's mother told investigators that she left her daughter in the care of friends, who said they didn't notice Jah-Nea slip out of
the room.

As even Beard's family back home in England knows — they texted her after news of the incident flashed around the world — Beard
caught Jah-Nea and held her for a moment before the little girl slipped unharmed from her arms.

The toddler was not seriously hurt, though she did hit her head on the rail of a third-floor balcony during the fall.

At a ceremony on Friday to thank Beard, local authorities awarded her a Medal of Merit, a citation rarely given to anyone outside of
law enforcement.

"Mrs. Beard showed unusual instinct and initiative when she exited from the swimming pool area and was able to catch the child as
she fell, thus saving her from extreme physical injuries and/or death," said Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings at the presentation.
Beard was also presented with a Guardian Angel award created especially for her by the Florida Department of Children and
Families.

Beard, who works as a data analyst for the National Health Service in England, said all she wants now is to step back from the
spotlight and enjoy the rest of her two-week vacation at Orlando's theme parks.

"I just want to get back to the holiday," she said.

^I took the definite feature-story approach on that one due to its “happy ending to a near-tragedy” nature. It was short enough that I
was able to work in most of the details, though not all, as well as some more quotes because they often tend to contribute a lot of
emotion and genuine feeling; this was a very emotional incident. I did a bit of rearranging again, so that everything flowed logically
from the point at which I began telling the story, until it had been covered fully enough.

Turkmenistan goes crazy for horse holiday

Nation of 5 million people holds its Akhal-Teke horse breed in hallowed regard

Image: Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov

Alexander Vershinin / AP

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov smiles as he rides a horse with a dove on his shoulder in the
capital Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on Sunday, April 24. Wearing a blue caftan and shaggy sheepskin hat, Turkmenistan's
president looked every part the accomplished horse-riding tribesman as he effortlessly cantered on his jewel-adorned
stallion before cheering crowds.

By ALEXANDER VERSHININ

updated 4/24/2011 11:35:36 AM ET

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan — Wearing a blue caftan and shaggy sheepskin hat, Turkmenistan's president looked every
part the accomplished horse-riding tribesman as he effortlessly cantered on his jewel-adorned stallion before cheering
crowds. The crowning touch came when a white dove gracefully landed on his right shoulder.

Turkmenistan, a mainly Muslim and energy-rich Central Asian nation of 5 million people, holds its slim and graceful Akhal-
Teke horse breed in hallowed regard, a cultural trait enthusiastically embraced by President Gurbanguli
Berdymukhamedov.

Over the weekend, the country was whipped up into a frenzy of equine-mania that featured a horse show, the grand
inauguration of four new race tracks and, more soberly, an academic conference.

By performing before hundreds of cheering and flag-waving spectators at the presidential equestrian complex before a
prize-giving ceremony Saturday, Berdymukhamedov once again cemented his well-worn action man credentials.

And as state media helpfully noted, the landing of the dove on his shoulder is "an ancient symbolic omen of a blessing
from above."
Horses similar to the Akhal-Teke have been used by Central Asian peoples for thousands of years and are believed to have
been ridden by the armies of Alexander the Great. The purity of the breed has long been a source of pride among the
nomadic tribes that occupied the desert lands now covered by Turkmenistan.

The horses have always been popular in the former Soviet nation, but the pitch and scale of enthusiasm is something new.

Shortly after Turkmenistan gained independence, late eccentric President Saparmurat Niyazov banned the export of Akhal-
Teke horses in an effort to preserve the breed, although many still found their way to Russia and the West.

Berdymukhamedov, 53, who came to power after Niyazov's death in late 2006, has not reversed that ban, but instead has
taken a different tack in attempting to amplify the horse's cultural status.

Including a fifth new race track set to open later this year, the government has plowed more than $300 million into creating
sumptuous racing venues.

On Saturday, cars were handed out as gifts at the third annual horse show, dubbed a beauty contest, in which the animals
were evaluated for elegance and purebred qualities, as well as fineness of movement and ability to obey a variety of
instructions.

Only on msnbc.com

Security fit for a king on tap for royal wedding

Why gas prices rise faster than they fall

Life Inc.: Office bullying abounds

Google exec to start Egypt campaign

Did your team just win? Better buckle up

Squid camouflage catches Pentagon's eye :D ^____^

International experts from countries including the U.S., France, China and Russia gathered Friday in the Turkmen capital,
Ashgabat, for a scientific conference devoted to discussing the latest efforts to develop the breed.

On a less ambitious scale, Berdymukhamedov this year ordered a series of competitions in which contestants had to
weave and sculpt the most skillful likenesses of Turkmen horses.

According to the state-run Turkmen Atlary equine association, the country boasts around 3,000 Akhal-Teke horses, of
which 500 are owned by the president.

Berdymukhamedov is not normally distinguished by a florid turn of phrase, but breathless enthusiasm filters through
clearly in an epigraph penned by him in a newly issued book about the Akhal-Teke called "The Flight of the Heavenly
Horses."
"We shall not allow attention toward our horses to falter by one iota, for they are our pride and glory, the source of our
inspiration," he wrote.

Ovlyaguly Sheripov, a prominent Akhal-Teke breeder and the owner of Saturday's horse show winner, said Turkmen
horses could in the future be auctioned off to international buyers.

"That said, the best stock will always remain in Turkmenistan," Sheripov said.

^ As with most of the others, I had highlighted my chosen facts/sentences and ordered them in the sequence that seemed most
sensible to me; for this I highlighted almost everything, so it too ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated. Essentially I broke all
the information down into two sections: first came the descriptions of the various components of the event itself, and then the
background info pertaining to the particular breed of horse, and what makes it special to the people of Turkmenistan.

(Personally I found this one very intriguing and the lavish words about the breed, with which I was already somewhat familiar,
reminded me strongly of the Saluki.)

--------------------------------------------

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2011/news/story?id=6422183:

Coach: Antti Niemi to start Game 6

Sharks goalie Antti Niemi will be back in net for Game 6 in Los Angeles on Monday night.

2011 Stanley Cup playoffs

NHL Playoffs As the final 16 teams fight to raise Lord Stanley's Cup, get all of your scores and analysis for every matchup on
ESPN.com. Complete coverage »

"He's ready to go back in and we have a ton of confidence in him," Sharks coach Scott McLellan said Sunday. "Any time he's had a
bad game he's come back. The thing with him is he hasn't had two within a five-game span in a long time. He'll need to polish it up,
just like the rest of us do."

Niemi was pulled in Game 5 on Saturday night after giving up three goals on four shots in a 3-1 loss to the Kings. Antero Niittymaki
was solid in relief. Niemi, who won a Stanley Cup in Chicago last season, was also pulled in Game 3.

McLellan blamed defensive breakdowns for the Kings' first two goals, although he didn't defend Los Angeles' third goal by Dustin
Penner, who had been scoreless since March 13, two weeks after he was acquired from Edmonton.

"I've got to stay on top of the crease when they get the puck. That's pretty much all I can take from the game," Niemi said. "Just be a
little bit more challenging when they've got a chance to shoot. It takes just careful preparation and getting ready and not thinking
about it too much."
The Sharks lead the best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinals series 3-2.

Information from ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

^This one was apparently written by someone knowledgeable about hockey, so each concise sentence conveyed a lot of the
important (or semi-important) information in relatively few words. I first just took the general facts regarding the Stanley Cup and the
San Jose Sharks in order to set up the situation for those who don’t know that it’s taking place; then I talked about Niemi’s couple of
bad games and his comeback. I wanted to include most of the coach’s quote about Niemi’s readiness because it was well-spoken
and showed great understanding; it really expressed more about the story than the other specific facts and numbers did.

------------------------------------

http://weblogs.variety.com/technotainment/2011/04/nintendo-confirms-wii-successor-coming-in-2012.html:

Nintendo confirms Wii successor coming in 2012

By: Chris

Published: Mon, April 25, 2011, 7:51 AM

| Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBack ( 0 )

Share

Most companies ignore the rumor mill – sometimes to the point of it being embarrassing. Nintendo, however, is willing to
admit when its secrets are spilled.

The company has confirmed the rumors that it plans to unveil a successor to the Wii at this year's E3 (the annual trade
show of the video game industry). The new system will be out in 2012.

In a three-paragraph statement (which began with the stiffly formal "To whom it may concern:"), the company announced
the product, without giving away any details about functionality or even its name.

It was similarly tightlipped on an earnings call.

"As for the details of exactly what it will be, we have decided that it is best to let people experience it for themselves at
E3," said Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's president and CEO. "So I won't talk about specific details today, but it will offer a new
way of playing games within the home."

Launched in 2006, the Wii has sold more than 86 million units worldwide. Compared against the Xbox 360 and PlayStation
3, though, the system has grown long in the tooth, due to its lack of high definition graphics and weak multiplayer
component.

Combined with weakness in the handheld market, that has started to impact Nintendo's earnings. The company had a net
profit of 77.6 billion yen ($946 million) in its just completed fiscal year – a 66 percent drop from a year ago.
Rumors about a new home console from the company have been swirling for weeks now, with some developers privately
acknowledging they were expecting software development kits for the system imminently.

Read more: http://weblogs.variety.com/technotainment/2011/04/nintendo-confirms-wii-successor-coming-in-

2012.html#ixzz1KYFM606A

Visit Variety.com to become a Variety subscriber.

^The first half of my summary deals with the key points from the first half of the article, explaining that the rumor has been confirmed
but that little is yet known about what the new product will be like. To provide as many enticing facts as possible, I included the
CEO’s quote and the name of the trade show. I then decided that we should hear the second half of the story as well, to understand
why it’s important to the company that their unreleased, in-production gaming system be a success and hopefully maintain
popularity better than its predecessor did.