Hurricane Katrina Photos

"The Swingin' Years"

A musical expression called "Rock n' Roll" was just developing in 1956 when Chuck Cecil started a radio show, calling it "Swingin' Years." The idea was to perpetuate the memory of swing music by Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, The Dorseys, Artie Shaw, Guy Lombardo, Count Basie... original records 1935 to 1955. 49 years later, Cecil is still spinning yarns and the 78 r.p.m. records.

The "Swingin' Years" is heard each Saturday and Sunday morning, from 6am to 9am on KJAZZ 88.1 FM. The Swingn' Years is produced in the home of Edna and Chuck Cecil.

New Stadium in 2011

An artists rendition released May 16, 2008 shows what a new retractable roof will look after its completion at Vancouver's BC Place Stadium in 2011. The stadium is home to the CFL's BC Lions and will also become the new home of the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer team. The stadium will also be the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.
REUTERS/HO/BC Government

"Watch the Birdie"

China's Lin Dan plays a shot against Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei during the semifinal of the Thomas Cup badminton championships in Jakarta May 16, 2008.
REUTERS/Crack Palinggi (INDONESIA)

"Give Me a Hand"

Jeremy Thrush (top R) of the Hurricanes beats Troy Flavell (L) of the Blues to the ball during the Super 14 rugby match at Eden Park in Auckland May 16, 2008. The Blues won the match 19-17.

REUTERS/Nigel Marple (NEW ZEALAND)

"The Eye of the Beholder"

Andy Irons of Hawaii rides a wave during the fourth round of the Billabong Pro surfing tournament on the legendary reef break in Tehaupoo, Tahiti, May 15, 2008.
REUTERS/Joseba Etxaburu (FRENCH POLYNESIA)

Angelino Heights: A tour of homes from another era

Seven classic Victorian and Craftsman homes in Angelino Heights, the first L.A. suburb in 1886, will welcome visitors this weekend. The restored private residences on and around Carroll Avenue will be open for the rare tour Saturday and Sunday. The event is being held in conjunction with the 2008 centennial celebration of the late artist and author Leo Politi, whose work will be on display at the Craftsman-style house where he lived in the neighborhood. Here’s a peek inside two houses that will be open for the self-guided walking tours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the ticket table in the 1300 block of Carroll Avenue. http://www.ahtrolley.org/events.html

Opening Tomorrow

An 'absolutely excellent' flight high above the Alps

BEX, SWITZERLAND -- A Swiss pilot strapped on a jet-powered wing and leaped from a plane Wednesday for the first public demonstration of the homemade device, turning figure-eights and soaring high above the Alps. Yves Rossy's performance capped five years of training and many more years of dreaming.

"This flight was absolutely excellent," the former fighter pilot and extreme-sports enthusiast said after touching down on an airfield near the eastern shore of Lake Geneva. Rossy, 48, had stepped out of a Swiss-built Pilatus Porter aircraft at 7,500 feet and unfolded the rigid 8-foot wing strapped to his back before jumping.

Passing from free fall to a gentle glide, Rossy, clad in a heat-resistant suit, triggered four jet turbines and accelerated to 186 mph, about 65 mph faster than a falling sky-diver.

The crowd below gasped and cheered.

So far, Rossy and his sponsors, including the Swiss watch company Hublot, have poured more than $285,000 into building the device.

Steering with his body, Rossy dived, turned and rose again, performing what appeared to be effortless loops. After one last wave to the crowd, he executed a perfect 360-degree roll. Later he said, "That was to impress the girls."

Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House sells for $16.84 million

The Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, designed by Richard Neutra in 1946, was bought by an undisclosed buyer for $16.84 million, including the purchase premium, on Tuesday as part of Christie's Post-War & Contemporary Art auction in New York. Although the winning bid was at the low end of the $15 million to $25 million estimate, the Kaufmann property (above) still commanded the highest price of the American modernist houses recently sold as architectural collectibles. In 2003, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House was sold in a Sotheby's auction for $7.5 million. In 2006, Wright auctioned Pierre Koenig's Case Study House No. 21 for nearly $3.2 million. The five-bedroom Kaufmann House on 2.1 acres was first immortalized in a 1947 Julius Shulman image taken poolside at dusk. The home was commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr., a Pittsburgh department store owner who hired Frank Lloyd Wright to build the iconic Fallingwater in 1935 in Pennsylvania. Kaufmann died in 1955 and the Palm Springs property changed hands (Barry Manilow once called it home) and underwent tacky renovations. In 1992, architectural historian Beth Edwards Harris and her then-husband, Brent Harris, purchased the home for $1.5 million and retained the L.A. architecture firm Marmol Radziner & Associates, whose meticulous restoration stayed true to Neutra's original design.

The Four-Wheeled Outlaw

It looks like a motorcycle. It sounds like a motorcycle. And it is a motorcycle. Sort of.

GG Motorrad Technik's new GG Quadster is actually a four-wheeled BMW K1200S -- only its body's been replaced with a double-wide backside and front end.

The Quadster is like a centaur, with the heart of a motorcycle and the suspension of a car. It uses the same fuel-injected, liquid-cooled, inline four-cylinder motor as the 2008 K1200S. It's just set inside a billet aluminum chassis and suspended on four tires using a Formula 1-style, race car-inspired double A-arm and premium coil-over shocks. A high-end ATV for the street, it's unlike anything else on the road.

Unfortunately, the chance of seeing the GG Quadster on a California street anytime soon is like that of seeing a centaur. The state of California follows federal policy, which defines a motorcycle as having no more than three wheels. That makes the Swiss quadricycle unregisterable here.

According to the California Highway Patrol, riding an unregistered vehicle such as the Quadster on the street is grounds for a pullover and possibly an impound. The Department of Motor Vehicles, however, says it's more likely to prompt a ticket; it's punishable with a $150 fine for the first offense, $250 for the second and $1,000 or 90 days of imprisonment for the third violation within a single year.

That's a lot of trouble and a lot of dough for the average Joe. But it isn't average Joes who are purchasing the new $65,500 GG Quadster. So far, there are two buyers: Michael Jordan, who lives in Illinois where a Quad has already been registered, and a wealthy San Diego businessman.

2008 Saturn Astra XR: Call it Euro brash

The new Saturn Astra -- comes in three- and five-door models. This three-door model in up-level XR trim, equipped with optional leather seats ($745), an upgraded audio system ($595) and 18-inch alloy wheels ($495) slathered with fantastic Dunlop summer performance tires. Delivered, our test car priced out at $20,330.

"Nest of Spies"

Based on a long-running French spy character who actually predates James Bond, "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" is a loving spoof of Cold War espionage thrillers, done with a spot-on re-creation of the look, sound and feel of a genuine 1950s Technicolor production. Men wear sharp suits, the women wear slinky dresses and everyone can dance the mambo reasonably well.

The film, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, counts as its No. 1 asset an impeccable sense of where to draw the line, always letting its eyebrow arch only just enough. Thankfully, Jean Dujardin plays the lead character more as a rakish Inspector Clouseau bumbler than a sexed-up Austin Powers libertine, so instead of the fart jokes and gay panic (well, there's still a little gay panic), "OSS 117" pushes its subtextual irony to skewer the cultural imperialism that was always lurking beneath the surface of thrillers from the Cold War era. Light and fun, if also a little slight, "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" is like a pleasant sorbet to wash away the aftertaste of the pre-summer clunkers.

Mark Olsen

"OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies." Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes. In French with English subtitles. At Landmark's Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A., (310) 281-8223.

"Speed Racer" provides drama

Of his approach to “Speed Racer,” actor Matthew Fox says: “You have to believe, and then your belief in it will be contagious.”

Watch for an exhibition to be opening near you

The legendary George Barris, who has designed cars for more than 1,000 films and television projects, is showcasing many of his creations -- including the Batmobile, the Munsters' Koach (pictured above), the Beverly Hillbillies' car, the Love Bug, General Lee from "The Dukes of Hazzard" and the cars from "Starsky and Hutch" and "Vanishing Point".

Andre: You'll always be a Hall of Famer in my heart

Andre Dawson, the slender slugger with the cannon arm will be on the ballot again in 2009, and his entry to Baseball's Hall of Fame will be determined by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Dawson's highest percentage of votes received was 65.9 percent in 2008. During Ryne Sandberg's induction speech at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in July 2005, he mentioned former teammates he respected because they played the game right. Dawson was high on that list.

"No player in baseball history worked harder, suffered more or did it better than Andre Dawson," Sandberg said of the rifle-armed outfielder known as "The Hawk." "He's the best I've ever seen.

"I watched him win an MVP for a last-place team in 1987 [with the Cubs], and it was the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen in baseball," Sandberg said. "He did it the right way, the natural way, and he did it in the field and on the bases and in every way, and I hope he will stand up here someday."

In 21 big-league seasons, beginning in 1976 with the Montreal Expos, Dawson batted .279 with 438 home runs, 1,591 RBIs and stole 314 bases. Dawson was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1977 and won the NL Most Valuable Player Award in 1987, his first season with the Chicago Cubs, when he hit .287 and led the league with 49 home runs and 137 RBIs.

Dawson joined the Cubs in an unusual way. After nine years in Montreal, he wanted to find a team that played on grass, unlike the artificial turf at Olympic Stadium. He approached the Cubs and general manager Dallas Green with a fill-in-the-blank contract. Dawson signed on March 9, 1987, for a base salary of $500,000 with $250,000 in incentives if he made the All-Star team, started in the All-Star Game and won the NL MVP. He did all three.

It was one of the best bargains in baseball.

Special Note: Thank you, Andre, it has been such a pleasure to watch you play with that "burning intensity" that thrilled Cub fans everywhere. We will always have a special place for you in our hearts. Every year I've watched all the Cubs games on WGN TV and whenever my beloved Cubbies were in a jam and needed that hit to score a run there was no one that I would rather see advancing to the plate than "the hawk." You are a solid gold Hall of Famer.

Chicago Legend: "Mr. Cub"

On this day in 1970, Ernie Banks hit his 500th career home run off Pat Jarvis in the Chicago Cubs 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves at Wrigley Field.

Courage as shown through the lens of the camera

Joseph S. Miko, a former cameraman whose extensive footage of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution was smuggled out of Budapest and is considered a significant piece of the documentary record of the historic national uprising against Soviet oppression, has died. He was 87.

Some of the footage that Miko shot of the massive crowds of demonstrators and fighting in the streets of Budapest was shown on "The 20th Century," a CBS documentary series narrated by Walter Cronkite. More than four decades later, Miko and his footage were featured in a segment of the four-part History Channel special "Caught on Film."

Miko's footage, which he stored in his garage for decades before donating 177 minutes' worth to the Hungarian National Film Archive in 1993, has also been used in the recent documentaries"Freedom's Fury" and "Torn From the Flag."

Ol' Blue Eyes is staging a comeback

A new era is beginning in the career of Frank Sinatra even if the Chairman of the Board isn't here to participate.

The iconic singer died May 14, 1998, and the 10th anniversary is being marked with a flurry of activity, including a new U.S. postage stamp with his likeness, lavish new CD and DVD collections, a major revival of his films on television and high-profile media appearances by his children.

This month, Sinatra's voice will be everywhere and his legacy difficult to ignore. Turner Classic Movies will be airing about four dozen Sinatra films this month on Wednesdays and Sundays. Warner Home Video has four new lavish DVD collections headed to stores with 17 Sinatra films in all.

Nancy Sinatra said that the voice of her father has never really gone away and that the fascination with it represents curiosity about the American journey. It's all there, she said: showbiz and politics, fame and heartbreak, talent and style. "His life was the story of the 20th century," she said. "He went from megaphones to fiber optics, and he was the biggest star all the way. No one else has done that."

Dangerous Desire and Evelyn Nesbit

BY THE time she was 16, Evelyn Nesbit was the face of her age, a stunning beauty with a "heart-stopping scarlet stare," a famous artist's and photographer's model whose image, in the earliest years of the 20th century, was used to sell everything from soap to chocolate, sewing machines to powdered toothpaste. "Women wanted to be her; men wanted to own her. She became a maddening object of desire, and tragically, a victim of her own beguiling beauty during the 'gaudy spree,' which she would help bring to a stunningly shameful end," writes Paula Uruburu in "American Eve." The author identifies a pattern that has shaped the lives of many female stars: Clara Bow, Marilyn Monroe and, more recently, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, who await their own endgames.

Rodeo Drive rocket ship

Versace Lamborghini Murcielago LP640

Price: $500,000
Number: 21 (20 coupes, one roadster)
Fashion spiff: Versace’s Greek key motif in leather upholstery, same skins that are used in Versace furniture, fitted luggage

Excitement at Mission Bay

A three-minute drive from SeaWorld, the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina offers a waterfront location. The San Diego hotel is in the process of completing a $65-million renovation project.

Black and White Can Be Dramatic

Deidre Davidson’s photo is part of the Redondo Beach Art Group’s exhibit ‘Impressions of the Marsh,’ at the Madrona Marsh through May 17.

He's aHEAD of the game!!!

A combination picture shows FC Bellinzona's Paolo Carbone (L) heading FC Vaduz's Gaspar (R) during their Challenge League soccer match in Vaduz May 8, 2008.
REUTERS/Miro Kuzmanovic (LIECHTENSTEIN)

She's back for another dose of Vegas

It has been close to a year since Robin Leach first blogged about rumors that Cher would be joining Elton John and Bette Midler as a headliner at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. Even before the Midler show was announced, Cher's name was in the mix. Now, with Midler's "The Showgirl Must Go On" opening February 20, the official announcement of Cher's residency was finally made.

Cher last said goodbye to Las Vegas an epic four times on her "farewell" tour between 2002 and 2005. Cher's drawing power is going to be tested starting May 6 with 200 shows set to take place over the next three years, with prices ranging from $95 to $250. If things go well, expect more shows to be added, because as the Review-Journal's Mike Weatherford notes, "The first stint that runs through May 31 offers four shows per week, leaving room for the singer to add more if she chooses."


http://www.cherworld.com/gallery/

We knew it would happen . . . it was just a matter of time

SUNSET AT THE NORTH POLE

This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point. A scene you will probably never get to see in person, so take a moment and enjoy it and, you also see the sun below the moon.

In 'Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History,' Ted Sorensen provides a fascinating look at the Kennedy White House and American Politics

A GREAT speechwriter is a master of timing, as well as a maker of phrases.

Now in his 80th year, Ted Sorensen -- whom John F. Kennedy once referred to as his "intellectual blood bank" -- has as firm a grip on those qualities as ever, which is one of the reasons "Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History" is not only a fascinating memoir but also this election year's most important political book.

Despite the subtitle's characteristic modesty, part of what makes "Counselor" so important is that its author was at the very center of so much that was important in American history and politics during the second half of the 20th century. Thus, this book contains significant new information and insights into Kennedy's ambiguous relationship with Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the civil rights and Cuban missile crises, and the origins of the space program. What truly elevates Sorensen's account above other political memoirs, however, is not so much its candor but its spirit: "Counselor" is at bottom a love story -- the author's expression of his deep and abiding love for American ideals, for their expression in American politics, for his remarkable mother and father (and his anything-but-prosaic Nebraskan roots) and, perhaps most of all, for Jack Kennedy.

'Miss Saigon' at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center

What can you say about a show whose mostly eagerly awaited entrance is that of a helicopter? "Miss Saigon," Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's lush pop opera update of "Madame Butterfly," makes a Madonna concert look like a high school musical. And it's flying high -- if mechanically -- at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, courtesy of the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities.

Stephanie A. Coltrin's assured direction makes the most of Lucky Cardwell's bold set design, a barrage of Communist red and gold, seamy neon signage and chain-link militarism. The production's stage pictures are delivered with vigor and craft by an ensemble of 30, dressed in Mela Hoyt-Heydon's vivid costumes. Musical director Alby Potts makes the most of Schönberg's powerful choral numbers.

The principals are mostly "Saigon" veterans from Broadway or the show's national tours. Eric Kunze does what he can with the limited role of Chris, an American soldier who finds solace in the arms of Kim, a young Vietnamese beauty displaced by her country's war. As his doomed love, the clear-voiced Jennifer Paz gives Kim a stillness and integrity; the show is hers, and she takes it with modesty and grace. If Civic Light Opera regular Kevin Bailey is a little uncomfortable as the Engineer, a French-Vietnamese hustler, he at least has the old-fashioned instincts of a good ham. The standout is Bonifacio Deoso Jr. as Kim's cousin, who gives a performance of intensity and feeling. He seems alive, a real achievement in this juggernaut.

Civic Light Opera's excellent production delivers high-end spectacle with the company's characteristic energy and style. But the show, one of impresario producer Cameron Mackintosh's string of mega-hits ("Cats," "Les Misérables," "Phantom"), is another thing. This is musical as global bland. It's like going on a trip in which you see everything from the window of the bus, the indigenous population speaks excellent English and someone even writes your postcards for you.

In short, "Saigon" asks nothing of your imagination, buffeting audiences with its orchestrated expertise until, like Kim, we submit. There is little wit to Richard Maltby Jr. and Boublil's lyrics: the innocent Kim has "legs unparted / heart uncharted;" later, the Engineer sings of her son, "This kid is OK / He's our entrée / To the U.S.A." Not exactly Johnny Mercer. Occasionally talent punctures the seamless grandeur; Harrison White, as Chris' Army buddy, gives an impassioned turn in "Bui-Doi" (Dust of Life), a plea to recognize the mixed-race children born from the Vietnam conflict. But in the end, a story about the brutal effect of ideologies on individuals muffles its sharpest critique.

"Saigon's" beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The women sitting behind me sobbed with pleasure and agreed they'd happily watch it again.

(Reviewed in the Los Angeles Times by Charlotte Stoudt)

"Everything Old is New Again"

"Nice Work If You Can Get It," a new musical comedy headlined by Harry Connick Jr., with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin and book by Joe DiPietro ( "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change"), will open in March at a Broadway theater to be announced. Grammy and Emmy Award-winning Connick, a 2006 best actor Tony nominee for "The Pajama Game," plays a Long Island playboy embroiled with gold diggers and bootleggers. The show will have a pre-Broadway run at Boston's Colonial Theatre Dec. 16 to Jan. 11.

Landmark status sought for Westwood's Crest Theater

Owner Robert Bucksbaum stands inside his single-screen Crest Theater in Westwood. Opened in 1940, the structure is on its way to being declared a historic-cultural monument.

Photo Magic

Monk on the Ubein bridge in Mandalay, Myanmar, on a rainy fading afternoon. With a heavy psp treatment on the original pic. Photo by Eric Lafforgue on Flickr.

On a clear night . . .

WHEN NIGHT FALLS ON THE NILE: Cairo's Qasr el Nil Bridge offers a respite from the overcrowded city, along with spectacular views. Courting couples come, as do husbands and wives who want to remember their days of romance and hope.

The Bulb Keeps Burning . . . for 107 years

He calls it the long-lived lightbulb of Livermore.

That's actually something of an understatement.

At 107 years and counting, the low-watt wonder with the curlicue carbon filament has been named the planet's longest continuously burning bulb by both Guinness World Records and Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

As objet d'art and enduring symbol of American reliability and ingenuity, it's been lauded by senators and presidents.

It boasts a website -- www.centennialbulb.org, drawing a million hits a year -- a historical society and even a webcam that allows curious fans to check on it 24 hours a day.

The Livermore lightbulb, you see, never gets turned off, which many suspect is the secret to its longevity.

Hanging 18 feet above the floor at the end of a black cloth-covered cord, the little light with the filament the width of a No. 2 pencil lead is unprotected by any lampshade.

Firefighters won't even dust it. Touch it, jokes one captain, and "you get your fingers chopped off."

They guard their light with a surge protector and have a diesel generator and a battery as backups. To them, the bulb is the embodiment of their always-on-duty ethic.

For years, Tom Bramell (shown above) was known around the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department as the keeper of the bulb, the unofficial curator and caretaker who fielded queries from the public and visits from tourists. Over time, he developed a boyish wonder at its craftsmanship and spunk. From a vantage point directly beneath the bulb, Bramell says, its filament even spells the word "on."

Livermore's bulb has burned for nearly a million hours. Even now, in its old age, Bramell will stack it against any New Age fluorescent, halogen or high-pressure sodium bulb out there.

"That bulb predates the atomic bomb and the birth of the automobile," said the onetime deputy chief. "I thought that for sure it was going to go out 35 years ago, but it fooled me. It fooled everyone."

Major League Baseball's Record for Complete Games Will Stand Forever

One of the Major League Baseball records that no current player will ever even remotely approach belongs to the immortal Cy Young, for who the award given to the best pitcher in each league every year is named. The mark in question is Young's complete game total of 749, however, even if Young had thrown a quarter of that amount of complete games, his record would stand forever. Incredibly, or perhaps not so, in this age of relief specialists, the highest active player on the all-time complete game list is New York's Roger Clemens. The Rocket has thrown just four complete games in the last nine full seasons, and his 118 puts him at 327th place on the career roster.

Young had 103 more complete games than the number two hurler behind him, James "Pud" Galvin, who pitched from 1875 until 1892 and finished 646 of his starts. Galvin in turn completed 92 more games than Tim Keefe, another pre-1900 mounds-man who possesses the third most all time. Then comes Walter Johnson and Kid Nichols tied at 531; Johnson toiled for the Senators during the first quarter of the last century, while Nichols bridges the gap from the 1800s to the 1900s.

The only pitcher in the top twenty-one on this list that can be considered part of the modern era is the great lefty Warren Spahn, who retired after the 1965 campaign with 382 complete game efforts. The disparity between the way the game was played prior to the advent of the dominating closers and set-up men and the way it is now is obvious in the statistics. Jack Morris is the most recent pitcher to retire that was able to make the top two-hundred career wise in finishing games he started. Jack retired in 1994 with 175, a sum that today would almost seem to be unassailable, yet that put him at only 181st on this inventory.

A Towering Absurdity

This rendering shows what the finished Central Los Angeles High School No. 9 should look like. The $230-million project is slated for completion this fall and the school will open in the fall of 2009.

Siberian lake is warming up

Russian and American scientists have demonstrated for the first time that Lake Baikal in frigid Siberia has warmed rapidly over the last half a century.

An international team reported Wednesday in the journal Global Change Biology that the water temperature of Baikal, the world's largest freshwater lake by volume, had increased 2.18 degrees Fahrenheit and the amount of chlorophyll had grown by 300%.

From Times Staff and Wire Reports

Sanity May Prevail ????

After years in the slow lane, cars may finally be taking back the roads from sport utility vehicles and trucks.

Soaring gasoline prices and flagging consumer confidence drove the industry to new depths last month, with shoppers -- when they did buy -- going for fuel-efficient, smaller cars. In a month that saw the lowest overall U.S. vehicle sales in 13 years, carmakers saw light-truck and SUV sales plummet 17.4% compared with April 2007, according to Autodata Inc., while passenger cars were up 5.2%.

Champions League Soccer Coming

A general view shows Moscow's Luzhniki stadium May 2, 2008, as it is prepared for this month's Champions League soccer final that will be fought out between Manchester United and Chelsea. Moscow is as ready as it can be to cope with the influx of thousands of British fans expected when the Russian capital hosts the final, a city official said on Friday.

REUTERS/Mikhail Voskresensky (RUSSIA)

"The Royal Pretender Myth"

MOSCOW -- For nine decades after Bolshevik executioners gunned down Czar Nicholas II and his family, there were no traces of the remains of Crown Prince Alexei, the hemophiliac heir to Russia's throne.

Some said the delicate 13-year-old had somehow survived and escaped; others believed his bones were lost in Russia's vastness, buried in secret amid fear and chaos as the country lurched into civil war.

Now an official says DNA tests have solved the mystery by identifying bone shards found in a forest as those of Alexei and his sister, Grand Duchess Maria.

Above, Czar Nicholas II with his family in 1917, from left, Princesses Olga and Maria, Empress Alexandra, Princess Anastasia, Crown Prince Alexei and Princess Tatiana.

The remains of their parents -- Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra -- and three siblings, including the czar's youngest daughter, Anastasia, were unearthed in 1991 and reburied in the imperial resting place in St. Petersburg. The Russian Orthodox Church made all seven of them saints in 2000.

Despite the earlier discoveries and ceremonies, the absence of Alexei's and Maria's remains gnawed at descendants of the Romanov dynasty, history buffs and royalists. Even if Wednesday's announcement is confirmed and widely accepted, many descendants of the royal family are unlikely to be fully assuaged; they seek formal "rehabilitation" by the government.

"The tragedy of the czar's family will only end when the family is declared victims of political repression," said German Lukyanov, a lawyer for royal descendants.

Nicholas abdicated in 1917 as revolutionary fervor swept Russia, and he and his family were detained. They were shot by a firing squad on July 17, 1918, in the basement of the Yekaterinburg house where they were being held.

Rumors persisted that some of the family had survived and escaped. Claims by women to be Anastasia were particularly prominent, although there were also pretenders to Alexei's and Maria's identities.

"It was 99.9 percent clear they had all been killed; now with these shards, it's 100 percent," said Nadia Kizenko, a Russian scholar at the University at Albany, State University of New York. "Those who regret this news will be those who liked the royal pretender myth."

Kung Fu Panda

"Never Again"

OSWIECIM, POLAND -- Some 10,000 young Jews, Poles and World War II survivors took part in the March of the Living on Thursday, an annual event at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau that honors the memory of some 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

This year's march, the 17th, started with the blowing of the shofar, or ram's horn, at the iron gate -- crowned with the words "Arbeit Macht Frei," or "Work Sets You Free" -- that leads into the former camp of Auschwitz.

The misleading inscription was to suggest to inmates they were coming to work, not die here.

The Israeli army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, led the long column of marchers, accompanied by some camp survivors carrying the Torah and fellow Israeli troops in uniform.

"Each and every one of us should do our utmost to ensure: Never again," Ashkenazi said.

"Oh Persepolis"

Iranian Parviz Tanavoli's "The Wall (Oh Persepolis)" fetched $2.84 million at a Dubai art sale, an auction record for a Middle Eastern artist.

"The Wall," a nearly 2-meter-tall bronze sculpture covered in hieroglyphics, was the highlight of Christie's International's auction of modern and contemporary art this week, its fourth in the city. London-based Christie's said it sold more than $20 million of art, mainly by Arab and Iranian artists. Six works by Iranian artists were among the seven priciest lots sold.

Auction houses are expanding into emerging markets in Russia, China and the Middle East, tapping newfound wealth in some of the world's fastest-growing economies.

A gallery visitor walks past a polished bronze sculpture called 'Heech' by Parviz Tanavoli at Sotheby's auction house in London.