Nature Protection

John Curtis, keeper of the Middle East collections at the British Museum says they make up "the finest collection of ancient carved ivories that have ever been found at an archaeological excavation" and are in good condition, possibly because of Christie's efforts.

"Face cream in fact is quite a good thing to clean (artifacts) with. Obviously conservators now wouldn't use that but I don't think it's done (the pieces) any harm," he continued, adding that in fact it was quite resourceful of Christie to think of applying her Innoxa face cream to the fragile, dirty pieces.

"Agatha, who was very conscious of being fifteen years older than her husband, traveled everywhere with her moisturizer and it was just the right consistency for cleaning artifacts," said Henrietta McCall, author of "The Life of Max Mallowan: Archaeology and Agatha Christie."

Christie's interest in archaeology, according to McCall, went deeper than support for her husband's work and even formed the backdrop to works such as "Murder in Mesopotamia," in which the culprit turns out to be an archaeologist..

Several of the characters in the book can be traced to the people Christie knew from a dig in Ur in what is now modern Iraq -- including the murder victim, which McCall believes is based on the wife of archaeologist Leonard Woolley.

"She made a wonderful quote on archaeology and crime detection, that they are very similar because you have to clear away the debris to reveal the shining truth," said McCall.

And Christie's elaborate plotting and clue building came in handy when piecing together broken artifacts.

According to archaeologist Charlotte Trumpler, "Christie was of course fascinated by puzzles, by the little archaeological fragments, and she had a gift for piecing them together very patiently." Trumpler co-curated a 2001-2 traveling exhibition "Agatha Christie and Archaeology: Mystery in Mesopotamia" alongside Henrietta McCall.

But though Christie played an important part in her husband's work, even financing many of his expeditions, she was, according to McCall, very modest about her contributions.

She was fiercely proud of Mallowan, whom Curtis at the British Museum describes as one of the best-known archaeologists of the post-WWII period. But Trumpler believes that Christie's contribution to archaeology was larger than she imagined.

Her black and white photographs of excavation sites are still used by archaeologists and researchers today, he said.

Christie's readiness to muck in and help her husband, says Trumpler, stemmed from her desire to be a devoted wife but also from a fascination with the Middle East that stayed with her for many years.

"Everyone thinks Agatha Christie was a bit like the character Miss Marple, that she lived in England and was into knitting and looking after the garden," said Trumpler. "But she had such a fascinating life apart from being an author."

Democrats take aim at Bush in debat.

In a mostly cordial televised debate, Democrats vying to replace President Bush brushed aside their own differences on Thursday and roundly condemned his handling of the economy, Iraq and immigration policies.

"This president is a miserable failure," said former House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri, repeating the line twice and blaming Bush for the loss of American jobs and prestige.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who achieved front-runner status after a summer surge in the polls and in fund raising, had expected to be a primary target of his rivals. But the contenders spent most of their time assailing the president's policies rather than each other.

They welcomed Bush's decision to finally seek U.N. help in stabilizing postwar Iraq, but argued that he should have done it earlier and suggested his delay has jeopardized U.S. relations around the world.

Now Bush must "go back to the very people he humiliated," said Dean, who by the luck of the draw got the first question at a televised debate among eight of the nine Democrats seeking the party's presidential nomination.

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who had cast himself as the early front-runner, said that "the swagger of a president who says 'bring 'em on' does not bring our troops peace or safety." Added Gephardt: "We have a president who has broken up alliances that Democratic and Republican presidents have put together over 70 years."

The gathering at the University of New Mexico was broadcast live on public television with a Spanish translation available and will be aired Saturday on Univision, the nation's largest Spanish-language network, in a nod to the rising influence of Hispanic voters. New Mexico has a large Hispanic population -- about 42 percent -- and a Hispanic governor, Democrat Bill Richardson.

In his opening remarks, Richardson challenged "Hispanics across the country to mobilize and energize our communities for next year's election."

Among the issues put to the contenders were proposals to overhaul immigration laws, particularly to allow the estimated 3 million undocumented immigrants from Mexico to remain in the United States. Relaxing current law drew broad support from the Democratic rivals.

"This country is a melting pot, a fabric," Gephardt said.

"Immigration for me is not just another issue. It's me, it's my family," said Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, noting that his ancestors, like those of most Americans, had come from overseas.

"He (Bush) has used 9-11 as an excuse for not doing what he promised to do in reforming immigration laws," Lieberman added.

Hispanics, who number 38.8 million according to the latest census, represent about 7 percent of the voting population nationwide. In 2000, about 7.5 million Hispanics were registered to vote.

The candidates did air some differences on trade and on tax policies.

Gephardt, who counts organized labor as a crucial constituency, continued his attack on his rivals for supporting free-trade pacts.

The candidates sparred briefly over whether their respective positions on trade agreements would protect workers rights and environmental standards.

Several of the Democratic contenders advocate rolling back Bush tax cuts, but Lieberman said he disagreed "with Governor Dean and others" who advocate undoing the full Bush tax plan to pay for other priorities, including universal health care coverage. Gephardt has also called for such a repeal.

Lieberman said that only cuts benefiting upper-income taxpayers be repealed and suggested the health insurance plans advocated by Dean and Gephardt were too expensive.

"Why would we want to keep anything of the Bush tax plan?" asked Gephardt in response. "It's a miserable failure."

The candidates joined in criticizing Bush's tax cuts and suggested that his policies had help eliminate U.S. jobs.

Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina also suggested that Bush's attempts to woo Hispanic voters was shallow.

"The president goes around the country speaking Spanish. The only Spanish he speaks when it comes to jobs is 'hasta la vista'," Edwards said, borrowing a line made famous by actor and California GOP gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Kerry noted pointedly that the stock market had risen sharply over the past month. "You know, it's interesting that the Standard & Poor's went up to 1,000, and the Dow went up to 9,400, which proves that good things happen when George Bush is on vacation, folks."

Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie belittled the Democratic forum. "They are a party divided," he said. "They have differing positions on everything from Iraq to tax cuts...The one thing they were unified on was their negativity and their attacks on the president."

The eight candidates -- the ninth, Al Sharpton was delayed in New York by poor weather and could not participate -- stood at individual podiums arranged in a semicircle on the stage. All eight wore dark suits; all the men but Dean wore red ties. He preferred blue.

Former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, the only woman candidate, reminded the audience that Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, remained at large. "We haven't been looking for him because we got off on the wrong track (in Iraq)," she said.

Lieberman, who like Gephardt was an early supporter of the war with Iraq, said he would send more U.S. troops to help safeguard those there now and to help stabilize the country.

Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, the only senator seeking the nomination who voted against the Iraq war resolution last fall, said he voted that way because "I thought it was the wrong war against the wrong enemy."

Despite his consistent opposition to the war, Graham said he would support the administration's request for an estimated $60 billion to $70 billion to help cover continuing costs.

"We have an obligation to support those troops," Graham said.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who voted against the war resolution in the House, declared: "It is time to bring the troops home. It is time to bring the U.N. in and get the U.S. out."

The event was moderated by PBS correspondent Ray Suarez and Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas.

Florida Hurricane Katrina.

Rain began to fall and the wind picked up Thursday as the outer bands of Tropical Storm Katrina reached South Florida.

The storm's center is predicted to make landfall, possibly at hurricane strength, in the evening Thursday or early Friday.

More than 5 million people in Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade counties were warned to prepare for hurricane conditions as Katrina slowed over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and gained strength.

Gov. Jeb Bush urged Florida residents to take Katrina seriously, even if the storm does not develop into a major hurricane.

"I assure you, this is a dangerous storm," Bush said in Tallahassee. "This storm will bring a lot of rainfall over an extended period of time."

He added that Katrina could pose the most danger as torrential rain continues after the center passes.

A 170-mile stretch of coastline between Vero Beach and Florida City is under a hurricane warning, which means winds of at least 74 mph are expected.

But the biggest trouble will be rain, up to 20 inches in some spots, said state meteorologist Ben Nelson.

The forecast calls for Katrina to make landfall between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. But forecasters warned that the storm could wobble at the last minute to the north or south.

Katrina then is predicted to slice across the Florida peninsula through the Everglades before entering the Gulf of Mexico late Friday and regaining hurricane strength.

If Katrina makes landfall near Fort Lauderdale, it would be the city's first direct hit since Hurricane Cleo 41 years ago.

From there, the track was more difficult to predict, but Bush and other officials urged residents of Florida's west coast and Panhandle to prepare.

Some gas stations along the Interstate 95 corridor between Miami and Fort Lauderdale were reportedly running dry, and people were stocking up on bottled water, plywood and other supplies. Bush said gas shortages could occur in Katrina's wake.

In Hollywood, near Fort Lauderdale, Alberto Soddu was buying plywood to cover some of his windows that aren't protected by shutters.

"After the (Hurricane) Andrew experience, I am taking it seriously," he told CNN. "It's coming."

At 1 p.m. ET, Katrina's core winds had increased from to 65 mph. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, told CNN the storm has a "very good chance" of strengthening into a Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane by the time it reaches Florida.

"People need to take it very seriously," Mayfield said.

Officials in Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, warned residents to expect street flooding, downed trees and power lines and inoperative traffic lights.

Boat owners were urged to move their vessels inland. Drawbridges in Broward and Palm Beach counties were locked in the down position at noon.

In Miami-Dade County, Mayor Carlos Alvarez recommended that people living in low-lying areas and mobile homes voluntarily evacuate and use a public shelter at a local middle school. Shelters opened this afternoon as many South Florida residents evacuated the barrier islands.

As forecast, the storm slowed as it neared South Florida. Forecasters said that means it could hang over the area much longer, creating the potential for 6 to 12 inches of rain.

Schools were closed in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and students in Palm Beach county were sent home early.

Florida Power and Light, which serves 1.6 million customers in South Florida, activated its emergency center in Miami on Wednesday.

"Flooding may affect underground facilities, and outages might be prolonged as a result," said Geisha Williams, FPL's vice president of distribution.

At noon Thursday, Katrina's center was about 40 miles off the coast, between Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. It was moving west at about 6 mph, and expected to slow down, according to the National Hurricane Center.

"It's going to give the storm more time to strengthen," Ed Rappaport of the National Hurricane Center said of Katrina's slow speed.

The hurricane center's latest five-day forecast shows Katrina curving to the north after it enters the Gulf, which would take it directly into the Panhandle, at hurricane strength, by late Sunday. Because of the erratic nature of tropical systems, such long-term predictions often change.

A tropical storm watch remains in effect for the central Florida coast, from Vero Beach north to Titusville, including Merritt Island, and for the Florida Keys from Seven Mile Bridge to Florida City. A tropical storm watch means tropical storm conditions are possible within 36 hours.

Katrina is the 11th named storm of the busy 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, with more than three months left to go. By contrast, in the past 60 years, the average number of named storms in an entire season was just 10, according to statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The large number of early storms prompted forecasters to update their estimates of hurricane activity this year, projecting that as many as 21 named storms might develop. Historically, the busiest months for tropical activity are September, August and October, respectively.

With oil prices surging, Katrina's gathering strength is causing concern among energy traders, who fear the storm will slow oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for up to a quarter of U.S. oil output.

Government computer blunders common.

The FBI's failure to roll out an expanded computer system that would help agents investigate criminals and terrorists is the latest in a series of costly technology blunders by government over more than a decade.

Experts blame poor planning, rapid industry advances and the massive scope of some complex projects whose price tags can run into billions of dollars at U.S. agencies with tens of thousands of employees.

"There are very few success stories," said Paul Brubaker, former deputy chief information officer at the Pentagon. "Failures are very common, and they've been common for a long time."

The FBI said earlier this month it might shelve its custom-built, $170 million "Virtual Case File" project because it is inadequate and outdated. The system was intended to help agents, analysts and others around the world share information without using paper or time-consuming scanning of documents.

Officials said commercial software might accomplish some of what the FBI needs.

The bureau's mess -- the subject of an investigation by the Justice Department and an upcoming congressional hearing -- was the latest black eye among ambitious technology upgrades by the government since the 1990s.

The Internal Revenue Service sought $388 million last year for its $1.7 billion "Business System Modernization" program, which congressional investigators said continues to be over budget and 15 months late. The plan will modernize the IRS systems for collecting taxes, auditing returns and helping taxpayers with questions.

The Federal Aviation Administration has doubled its cost estimates to $1.69 billion for its "Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System" since 1996, according to the Transportation Department's inspector general. The new system would replace the outdated computers that control air traffic within five to 50 miles of airports.

While these are current examples, the problem has lingered for years.

"The government is just as inept in buying computers as it is in using them for accounting," declared a 1994 report, called "Computer Chaos," from a Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee. "The system is indeed broken and it is time to fix it."

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont , the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the FBI's computer overhaul "a train wreck in slow motion." Critics said the FBI's case illustrated government's propensity to build its software from scratch, which can dramatically increase a project's complexity and cost.

"They do have a tendency to reinvent the wheel," said James X. Dempsey, an expert on national security for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based civil liberties group.

Yet some industry experts praised the FBI for its decision, saying that its potential $170 million loss paled in comparison to other government technology blunders. They also noted that FBI Director Robert Mueller acted properly to pull the plug when he realized the system wouldn't work as envisioned.

"To the FBI's credit, it could have been worse," Brubaker said. "They should build off-ramps early in the process, so if they think things are going south, they can push the reset button."

Experts note some services, such as tracking terrorists, are unique to the federal government, making it unlikely that commercial products would work without extensive modification.

"If you're in the commercial sector, there is some possibility that a packaged application might serve your purpose," said Nancy Harvey, chief executive of TenFold Corp., a small Utah-based company that builds specialized computer systems. "But it's unlikely that Robert Mueller can find an off-the-shelf product called 'Find Terrorist.' He probably has to build the application he really needs."

Harvey and others said that while government technology blunders frequently make headlines, large-scale computer upgrades in the private industry fail almost as often. But these corporate blunders aren't publicized by congressional committees, federal investigators and inspectors general, they noted.

"Ever since there's been IT (information technology), there have been problems," said Allan Holmes, Washington bureau chief for CIO, a magazine published for information executives. "The private sector struggles with this as well. It's not just ... the federal government that ... can't get it right. This is difficult."

Supreme Court accepts Pledge of Allegiance case.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a case involving whether schoolchildren can be allowed to recite the Pledge of Allegiance voluntarily, putting a family's custody dispute at the forefront of a constitutional legal battle.

At issue is whether the Pledge of Allegiance should be banned from public schools for its use of the words "under God." Constitutional scholars have debated for years whether the pledge serves as both a patriotic oath and a form of public prayer.

Court arguments in the case will be heard next year, with a ruling expected by June.

In other action by the Supreme Court Tuesday:

• Justices rejected the Bush administration's request to consider whether the federal government can punish doctors for recommending or even discussing the use of marijuana for their patients.

• The court announced it will hear a case regarding police searches of cars entering the United States across the Mexican and Canadian borders.

In the Pledge case, Michael Newdow, an atheist, sued the Sacramento County, California, school district where his daughter attended, saying that teacher-led recitation by students violates his 9-year-old child's religious liberty.

Legal precedent makes reciting the pledge a voluntary act, but Newdow argues it is unconstitutional for students to be forced to hear it, saying the teacher-led recitations carry the stamp of government approval.

"I believe in the Constitution," Newdow told CNN last year. "The Constitution says that government isn't supposed to be infusing religion into our society, and so I asked to have that upheld."

In June 2002, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals drew sharply divided public opinion when it banned the teacher-led pledge for nearly 10 million schoolchildren in the nine Western states under its jurisdiction.

In striking down the pledge, the judges ruled that "the coercive effect of the policy here is particularly pronounced in the school setting given the age and impressionability of schoolchildren."

The ban was put on hold until the high court issues a final ruling. The First Amendment bans government "establishment of religion," but the Supreme Court twice previously has declared the pledge constitutional.

The federal government, local school officials and Newdow all asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, but only the separate appeal by the school district was accepted.

The Bush administration opposes the ban, and the court allowed the government to argue its position separately. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft pointed to religious references in the national anthem and the national motto, "In God We Trust," saying they are mostly ceremonial, and added, "Our religious heritage has been recognized and celebrated for hundreds of years."

Complicating matters is Newdow's legal standing to bring the case because of a custody dispute between him and the child's mother. The two never married. The mother, Sandra Banning, said she believes the pledge is a "patriotic expression" and said her daughter does not object to reciting it.

The court also agreed to hear that aspect of the case.

Newdow was stripped of custody in February 2002, but a judge two weeks ago restored partial custody, boosting the chances the court would accept the case for review.

Banning and U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, the government's chief lawyer before the court, have filed briefs arguing Newdow's lack of custody should disqualify him from bringing the suit.

"If, as the non-custodial parent," wrote Olson in a petition, "Newdow believes the mother's educational decisions are causing harm to the child, the proper remedy is for him to resort to family court and seek a modification of the custody agreement."

The court also announced Justice Antonin Scalia took no part in consideration of the pledge case.

Newdow had asked Scalia to recuse himself from hearing the appeal. At a Religious Freedom Day rally in January, Scalia reportedly said any changes to the pledge should be done "democratically," through the legislatures and not the courts.

He also reportedly said removing references to God from public forums would be "contrary to our whole tradition." Cameras were not allowed at the event at which Scalia spoke.