Comment: Hint hint...

The teams first came to widespread attention in April 2000 after they were used in a headline-grabbing raid to snatch Cuban youngster Elian Gonzalez from relatives in Miami and return him to his father in Cuba.

In a bid to gain control over the Mexico border, President George W. Bush ordered 6,000 National Guard troops to help the Border Patrol guard the international line in May. Since then, apprehensions have fallen by more than 40 percent.

The special response team members on active duty in the deserts south of Tucson, Arizona, believe they may play a larger role interdicting determined smugglers forced to cross through ever-more remote areas as authorities choke off easily crossed routes.

"They are going to have go to those isolated areas," one team leader, who asked not to identified for reasons of operational security, told Reuters during a patrol just yards from Arizona's border with the Mexican state of Sonora.

"Specialty teams like ours are going to have to be deployed there ... to work that traffic."

UNITS SET FOR MORE ACTION

The Border Patrol will not say how many agents are in the units. Some are members of Bortac, the patrol's federal special response team, while others belong to teams drawn from sectors across the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) southwest border.

Aside from their policing role, the teams also have been deployed to quell riots and to help following natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans last year.

The volunteer units are often brought in by helicopter or make miles-long hikes to deploy in remote desert wilderness areas and along jagged mountain ridgelines that are beyond the reach of Border Patrol agents in sports utility vehicles and on dirt bikes.

Whereas Border Patrol agents will typically track intruders, following their trails until they catch up with them, the special teams stake out known routes and stage "soft" ambushes for often heavily armed smugglers.

"We will go in hard, often with a flash-bang grenade to maintain the element of surprise," one unit member said as he sat in pitch darkness training a night vision scope on a cactus-studded trail leading up from Mexico.

"Even if they have weapons, it can turn a lethal situation into a non-lethal situation," he said.

Team members say they encounter increasingly well-organized gangs in Mexico, who mount counter-surveillance operations using their own night vision optics to spot their pursuers.

With the high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse poised to step up tempo in coming months, the special team members say they are confident in their abilities to meet the challenge.

"If the smoke is there, then there's probably fire somewhere else," Panell said in a phone interview from New Orleans. "At this point, it is extremely alarming. We fought that battle 50 years ago, and we won. Why is this happening again?"

Easley would not comment much on the allegations Wednesday, saying it is a personnel issue. She acknowledged that she has investigated the claim. And she confirmed that the bus driver did not run her route Wednesday, nor would she today.

Asked if the driver would work for the rest of the year, Easley said, "I'm not going to answer the questions. "» You're getting all that you're going to get from me. I'm sorry."

Red River Elementary School Principal Jamie Lawrence tried to rectify the seating situation when it was brought to her attention. But it was ultimately handled at the Central Office, Patricia Sessoms said.

Sessoms aunt, Iva Richmond, is the mother of two of the children, ages 14 and 15, and foster parent to three others, ages 5, 6 and 10. Janice Williams, who is the mother of the other four children, is Richmond's neighbor. All nine children catch the bus at a stop on Ashland Road.

Sessoms will join Richmond and Williams in their meeting with Easley today. Sessoms said they would ask for bus driver Delores Davis' immediate termination. Davis, who originates her bus route in Martin, has called Richmond to apologize, Sessoms said. A message left on Davis' answering machine late Wednesday afternoon was not immediately returned.

After Richmond and Williams filed complaints with the School Board, Transportation Supervisor Jerry Carlisle asked Davis to make seat assignments for her passengers, Sessoms said.

"But she still assigned the black children to the back of the bus," she added.

And the nine children had to share only two seats, meaning the older children had to hold the younger ones in their laps.

A new solution reached Monday by School Board officials has a black bus driver driving across town to pick up the nine black children.

"I think the whole school system needs to be reviewed in Red River Parish," Sessoms said.

Sessoms, who has two children at Red River Elementary, said she has no problems with her bus driver. "I have a wonderful bus driver," she added. Sessoms' request to have her young children sit near the front because of their ages was granted.

School Board member Gene Longino said Wednesday evening that he had not heard about the situation involving the nine children.

"I don't know anything about that. "» Until something formally comes to the School Board members through the superintendent, we don't know the details," Longino said.

School Board President Ricky Cannon was at work Wednesday evening and unavailable for comment. Board member J.B. McElwee also was not at home. Calls to the homes of Cleve Miller, Kassandria Wells White, Karen Womack and Jessie Webber were not answered.

However, the research, by academics from the universities of Bath and Oxford, has found that only 13 percent of self-harming incidents reported by the pupils had resulted in a hospital visit.

Although poisoning is the most common form of self-harm reported in hospitals, the study revealed that cutting was the more prevalent form of self-harm (64.5 percent), followed by overdosing (31 per cent).

"The study shows that deliberate self-harm is common amongst teenagers in England, especially in girls who are four times more likely to self-harm than boys," said Dr Karen Rodham from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath.

"Until now, most studies of deliberate self-harm in adolescents in the UK have been based on the cases that reach hospital.

"We have found that the true extent of self-harm in England is significantly wider than that."

Professor Keith Hawton from the Center for Suicide Research at the University of Oxford, who directed the project, said the study would help devise ways of addressing the problem and identifying those at most risk.

"In many cases, self-harming behavior represents a transient period of distress, but for others it is an important indicator of mental health problems and a risk of suicide," he said in a statement.

COMMON MOTIVES

The study showed the most frequent motive expressed by both males and females was as a means of coping with distress.

For both sexes there was an increase in deliberate self-harm with increased consumption of cigarettes or alcohol, and all categories of drug use.

Self-harm was more common in pupils who had been bullied and was strongly associated with physical and sexual abuse in both sexes.

The majority of those who said they harmed themselves said it was an impulsive act rather than something they had thought about for a long time.

The vast majority of pupils said their friends were the people they felt that they could talk to about things that bothered them and those who had harmed themselves most often turned to friends.

"This responsibility places a great burden on adolescents to support their peers, yet most adolescents have not in any way been coached in how best to do this," said Hawton.

"Attention to this aspect of support for adolescents should be an essential part of mental health education in schools, and it is great to see the development of the wellness programs currently being trialled in some schools.

A day earlier, the Bush administration's Gulf Coast coordinator, Don Powell, said $44 billion has been spent to get the still-battered region back on its feet. A far larger sum - more than $110 billion - has been designated for the massive rebuilding project. Of that money, approximately $17 billion will help rebuild an estimated 204,000 homes in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Bush spoke on the South Lawn of the White House after meeting in the Oval Office with a New Orleans-area man who lost his home in the storm. Rockey Vaccarella, 41, of Meraux in St. Bernard Parish, has been traveling the Gulf Coast region to mark the Katrina anniversary.

Nearly a year after the hurricane, criticism lingered.

In a report entitled "Broken Promises,'' House and Senate Democratic leaders described what they called "the failed response'' of the administration since the hurricane hit.

Released Wednesday by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her Senate counterpart, Harry Reid, D-Nev., the report asserted that "thousands of families are still waiting'' for FEMA trailers and that a significant proportion of money that FEMA has spent there "has been waste, fraud and abuse.''

"The Republican Congress didn't enact needed housing money for homeowners in Louisiana until June, 10 months after Katrina - and the money has still failed to reach these homeowners,'' it said.

For his part, Bush promised to continue working to make sure the federal government's efforts in the rebuilding effort are efficient.

"I told Rockey the first obligation of the federal government is to write a check big enough to help the people down there,'' Bush said. "And I told him that to the extent that there's still bureaucratic hurdles, and the need for the federal government to help eradicate those hurdles, we want to do that.''

Vaccarella said he wanted to thank Bush for the federally provided trailers that have provided temporary housing to many in the region who lost homes, but also to keep the pressure on.

"I wanted to remind the president that the job's not done and he knows that,'' Vaccarell said. "I just don't want the government and President Bush to forget about us.''

The president was designating Tuesday, the Katrina anniversary, as a National Day of Remembrance to honor those who lost lives and property and those who helped rescue victims, said spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Bush is spending two days in the Gulf region next week to mark the anniversary. He will be in Mississippi on Monday, to have lunch with community leaders, walk through a neighborhood, and deliver a speech on the rebuilding effort, before traveling to New Orleans, where he was scheduled to have dinner with state and local official and spend the night. On Tuesday, Bush is attending a service of prayer and remembrance, conducting a roundtable discussion on an effort headed by first lady Laura Bush to restock Gulf Coast libraries. He also will give a speech and visit with local residents, Perino said.

The marine corps announcement is in contrast to predictions by US commanders a few months ago that American force levels in Iraq could be reduced from about 130,000 to 100,000 by the end of the year. Those plans were shelved as sectarian violence worsened.

A mobile brigade due to return to base in Alaska last month after a year in Iraq had its tour extended by four months and was sent to Baghdad, to help Iraqi government forces slow the slide towards civil war. There are now 138,000 American troops in Iraq, of which 22,000 are marines - mostly in Anbar province.

"All that happy talk about getting down to 100,000 by the end of this year, that's not on the cards for this year," said John Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity.org, a military thinktank in Washington.

"Instead, they might bump up the numbers even further ... They are going to do whatever it takes to keep a lid on this damn thing in Baghdad, because if there's anywhere it's going to fly off the handle it's in Baghdad. And if ethnic cleansing takes on a life of its own, people in this town are going to say it's time to leave."

The marine corps will be drawing on its 59,000-strong "individual ready reserve" - recent veterans who have returned to civilian life but who still have up to four years remaining of the military obligation they signed up to when they enlisted. The compulsory mobilisation of the reserve is normally ordered only in case of national emergency, but this year there were not enough reservist volunteers to fill the gaps in marine ranks.

Guy Stratton, who is in charge of the marine's mobilisation programme, said that the most urgent need was for engineers, intelligence officers, military police and communication specialists.

"Since this is going to be a long war, we thought it was judicious and prudent at this time to be able to use a relatively small portion of those marines to help us augment our units," Colonel Stratton said.

Typically marines sign up for eight years, spending four in active service. If they then return to civilian life in the individual ready reserve, the marine corps has the right to call them back to active duty for the remaining four years.

Gary Anderson, a retired marine colonel and now a Pentagon adviser on Iraq, said the call-up reflected the strain the Iraq war was putting on the force. "We're in Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and we still have commitments in the Far East. I think if Iraq was the only game in town, it would be different," he said.

"Quite frankly some of these guys have gone to Iraq two or three times, and they feel they've done their bit ... It's going to put a strain on them. Both people and equipment are getting worn out. There's an old saying - long wars ruin armies, and I think that's an accurate statement."

Jack Reed, a Democratic senator on the armed services committee, said the marines and army were "stretched perilously thin and the equipment is seriously degraded".

But Mr Pike dismissed claims that the armed services were not ready as exaggerations based on peace-time standards. Instead, he said, resources were being focused on immediate combat needs.

"In wartime, if a wheel's not squeaking, it's not going to get greased," he said, adding: "The current troop level in Iraq can be sustained indefinitely ... If the army asked for bigger numbers, Congress would approve it, and the president would sign off on it, as long as the war seems to be winnable."

In April, the company yanked its best-selling ReNu with MoistureLoc solution from sale worldwide after numerous contact-lens wearers were infected with the condition, a painful inflammation of the cornea that can lead to blindness.

As of June 30, the CDC researchers had identified 164 confirmed cases of Fusarium keratitis infection across the United States. Of the total, 55 patients needed corneal transplants.

Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the experts said victims were about 20 times more likely than control patients to have used ReNu with MoistureLoc.

"The findings from this investigation indicate that this outbreak of Fusarium keratitis was associated with use of ReNu with MoistureLoc contact-lens solution," they wrote in the journal's August 23-30 edition.

"Contact-lens users should not use ReNu with MoistureLoc."

Bausch and Lomb has been hit with a number of US lawsuits from aggrieved users of its MoistureLoc solution, which made worldwide sales of about 100 million dollars last year.

After inspecting a Bausch and Lomb plant in South Carolina, the US Food and Drug Administration said in May that it could not determine a link to the spate of serious eye infections.

The company has insisted that the solution, as supplied from the factory, was as "safe and effective as anything else on the market".

The CDC experts' report left open the possibility that the solution had become contaminated in users' homes, but said poor hygiene was not a likely cause of the infections.

"Our findings, together with the results of environmental testing, suggest that exposure to Fusarium was likely the result of extrinsic contamination of contact-lens solution bottles or lens cases occurring outside of the manufacturing or storage processes, perhaps in patients' homes," they said.

"However, suboptimal contact lens hygiene practices appear unlikely as the major explanation for the outbreak."

"This study makes the point that while peat lands are typically viewed as very wet and stagnant places, they do burn in continental regions, especially late in the season when water tables are depressed," said Merritt Turetsky, assistant professor of plant biology and fisheries and wildlife at MSU. "When peat lands burn, they can release a huge amount of mercury that overwhelms regional atmospheric emissions. Our study is new in that it looks to the soil record to tell us what happens when peat soil burns, soil that has been like a sponge for mercury for a long time."

Normal atmospheric conditions naturally carry the mercury emitted from burning fossil fuel and other industry northward, where it eventually settles on land or water surfaces. The cold, wet soils of the boreal forest region in Alaska and northern Canada have been efficient resting places for mercury.

"When we walk across the surface of a peat land, we are standing on many thousands of years of peat accumulation," Turetsky said. "This type of wetland is actually doing us a service. Peat lands have been storing mercury from the atmosphere since well before and during the Industrial Revolution, locking it in peat where it's not causing any biological harm, away from the food web."

In addition to industrial activity, climate change also appears to be disrupting mercury's cycle. Increasingly, northern wetlands are drying out. Forest fires are burning more frequently, more intensely, and later in the season, which Turetsky believes will make peat lands more vulnerable to fire. In May, Turetsky co-wrote another Geophysical Research Letters paper that documented recent changes in North American fires and suggested that more frequent summer droughts and severe fire weather have increased burn areas.

"We are suggesting that environmental mercury is just like a thermometer. Levels will rise in the atmosphere with climate change, but due to increasing fire activity in the north and not solely due to warming," said Jennifer Harden, soil scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey and co-author of the study.

In this month's paper, Turetsky, with co-authors Harden and James Crock of the U.S. Geological Survey; Hans Friedli and Lawrence Radke of the National Center for Atmospheric Research; and Mike Flannigan and Nicholas Payne of the Canadian Forest Service, measured the amount of mercury stored in soils and vegetation of forests and peat lands, then used historical burn areas and emission models to estimate how much of that mercury is released to the atmosphere at a regional scale during fires.

The group has spent more than five years studying prescribed burns in addition to natural fires to measure the influence of burning on terrestrial mercury storage. They also have sampled smoke plumes to measure atmospheric mercury levels as fires blaze.

Their findings indicated that drier conditions in northern regions will cause soil to relinquish its hold on hundreds of years of mercury accumulation, sending that mercury back into the air at levels considerably higher than previously realized.

"We're talking about mercury that has been relatively harmless, trapped in peat for hundreds of years, rapidly being spewed back into the air," Turetsky said. "Some of it will fall back onto soils. Some will fall into lakes and streams where it could become toxic in food chains.

"Our findings show us that climate change is complex and will contribute to the pollution of food chains that are very far away from us, in remote regions of the north."

The research was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Center of Atmospheric Research (supported by the National Science Foundation), and the Electric Power Research Institute. Turetsky's May paper in Geophysical Research Letters was funded by NASA. Turetsky's work also is supported by the MSU Michigan Agricultural Research Station.

The declaration allows state agencies to spend money and resources to help local jurisdictions fight wildfires.

Meanwhile, a group of wind-driven fires near Dayton in southeast Washington doubled in size in about 24 hours to nearly 40 square miles.

Thirty-five residents evacuated from a nursing home were allowed to return because the smoke had cleared, and some residents of 200 evacuated homes also came back, said Ray Steiger, information officer at the fire complex.

But residents of dozens of homes near the Coppei River south of Waitsburg, some on pricey 5-acre lots, and some people living along the Tucannon River were warned to be ready to evacuate.

Red flag warnings or fire weather watches also were posted for parts of Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Utah, the National Fire Information Center said.

An evacuation order was issued Wednesday for 25 to 30 homes in a subdivision east of Billings, Mont., as a nearby wildfire grew to at least 3,300 acres, said Mary Apple, fire information officer with the Billings Dispatch Center. The blaze destroyed two homes, a barn and several outbuildings Tuesday.

The fire, fueled by timber and grass, was reported Tuesday morning; the cause was not yet known.

In California, a fire that had burned 480 acres, or about three- quarters of a square mile, forced the closure of trails to the summit of El Capitan, one of the best-known granite monuments that tower over the Yosemite Valley.

The fire, which started Monday, was believed to have been accidentally set by humans. It was about 30 percent contained Wednesday.

North of Reno, Nev., a vehicle struck a wall during a police training exercise Wednesday and sparked a 50-acre brush file that destroyed several vehicles and sheds.

In Nevada's Elko County, a week's worth of fires had blackened more than 360 square miles. The largest active fire burned nearly 36 square miles, including three cabins, a trailer and an outbuilding.

In Utah, a firefighter who was killed battling a blaze in the Fishlake National Forest was taken to the cemetery on a fire truck Wednesday.

More than 1,000 people, including Gov. Jon Huntsman, came to the funeral for Spencer Koyle, 33, who died Aug. 17. He was scouting a fire when it suddenly trapped him, authorities said.

"There were a lot of tears," said Susan Marzec, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman.

The fire continued to burn Wednesday about 15 miles north of the funeral in Holden. It covered nearly 8,000 acres, or 12 1/2 square miles, and was 15 percent contained.

So far this year, wildfires have blackened 6.8 million acres, or 10,600 square miles, compared to 6.7 million acres at this same time last year, the center said.