A call about a possible weapon at a middle school prompted police to put armed officers on rooftops, close nearby streets and lock down the school. All over a giant burrito.

Someone called authorities Thursday after seeing a boy carrying something long and wrapped into Marshall Junior High.

The drama ended two hours later when the suspicious item was identified as a 30-inch burrito filled with steak, guacamole, lettuce, salsa and jalapenos and wrapped inside tin foil and a white T-shirt.

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"There needs to be security before the kids walk through the door," said Heather Black, whose son attends the school.

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The burrito was part of [eighth grader Michael] Morrissey's extra-credit assignment to create commercial advertising for a product.

"We had to make up a product and it could have been anything. I made up a restaurant that specialized in oddly large burritos," Morrissey said.

San Francisco's KYCY-AM plans to convert to an all-podcast format, the first over-the-air radio station to embrace the Internet's nascent but expanding do-it-yourself broadcasting phenomenon.

Radio industry powerhouse Infinity Broadcasting Corp., which owns KYCY, announced Wednesday that it will dump the station's lineup of syndicated talk shows on May 16 and replace it with amateur podcasts, homespun audio programs posted on the Web for downloading into iPods or similar portable digital audio players.

Infinity will promote the station, at 1550 AM, as "KYouRadio'' and stream the podcasts on the Web.

This interview was conducted on April 19 at Giap’s residence in Hanoi to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and the liberation of southern Vietnam from foreign occupation on April 30.

Q) What do you think the South Korean government should do now for the relations between the two nations?

A) We remember that South Korean troops committed wrongdoings in southern Vietnam during the war. The thing is that the South Korean government and people should not forget what its troops had done during the Vietnam War.

During 1968 the pattern of Korean operations did not change materially from that of previous years; the Korean troops continued to engage in extensive small unit actions, ambushes, and battalion and multi-battalion search and destroy operations within or close to their tactical areas of responsibility. Over-all these operations were quite successful. An analysis of an action by Korean Capital Division forces during the period 2329 January 1968 clearly illustrates the Korean technique. After contact with an enemy force near Phu Cat, the Koreans "reacting swiftly . . . deployed six companies in an encircling maneuver and trapped the enemy force in their cordon. The Korean troops gradually tightened the circle, fighting the enemy during the day and maintaining their tight cordon at night, thus preventing the enemy's escape. At the conclusion of the sixth day of fighting, 278 NVA had been KIA with the loss of just 11 Koreans, a kill ratio of 25.3 to 1."

Later in 1968 a Korean 9th Division operation titled BAEK Ma 9 commenced on 11 October and ended on 4 November with 382 enemy soldiers killed and the North Vietnamese 7th Battalion, 18th Regiment, rendered ineffective. During this operation, on 25 October, the eighteenth anniversary of the division, 204 of the enemy were killed without the loss of a single Korean soldier.

Sheik Saleh Al Luhaidan, seen in video seated to the right of the crown prince, is chief justice of Saudi Arabia's Supreme Judicial Council. His sermons and words carry great significance.

In an audiotape secretly recorded at a government mosque last October and obtained by NBC News, Luhaidan encourages young Saudis to go to Iraq to wage war against Americans.

"If someone knows that he is capable of entering Iraq in order to join the fight, and if his intention is to raise up the word of God, then he is free to do so," says Luhaidan in Arabic on the tape.

He warns Iraq is risky because "evil satellites and drone aircraft" watch the borders. But he says going is religiously permissible.

"The lawfulness of his action is in fighting an enemy who is fighting Muslims and came for war," says Luhaidan.

The sheik also says those donating money to the fight in Iraq should be sure it actually helps the cause.

For example, the 9- and 10-year-old daughters are being invited to participate in 17 hands-on activities such as working with microscopes, slicing brains, doing skull comparisons, seeing what goes on in the operating room, playing surgeon, dentist or nurse for a day, and visiting the intensive care unit nursery, where they can set up blood pressure cuffs and operate the monitors.

They can learn about earthquake and disaster preparedness, how to use a fire extinguisher, how to operate several types of equipment -- even fire a laser.

And what do the boys get to do?

Learn about "gender equity in fun, creative ways using media, role playing and group games" -- after which, the boys can get a bit of time in with a microscope or learn how the heart works.

"Hedwig and the Angry Inch," John Cameron Mitchell's cult off-Broadway musical about transsexuals and love lost and found, may not be for everyone.

Inundated with sexually suggestive gestures and lines, the musical in no way appears to make young female audiences’ hearts leap with joy, except for the fabulous rock music that is sure to please everyone.

With Cho Seung-woo playing the title role, however, the show seemed to have a mixed effect on audiences (who were overwhelmingly young females) packing the Live Theater in Taehangno, Seoul, as of Tuesday night’s performance, which was good and bad at the same time.

A separate criminal complaint charged Tongsun Park, a South Korean businessman who was at the center of a congressional influence-peddling scandal in the 1970s, with acting as an unregistered agent of Hussein's government and trying to bribe a U.N. official for relief from economic sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Thursday's action, announced by David Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, represents the largest round of criminal charges against individuals accused of abusing the $64 billion U.N. oil-for- food program. Recently Samir Vincent, an Iraqi American businessman, pleaded guilty to illegally lobbying U.S. officials on behalf of Hussein's government and agreed to cooperate with Kelley's investigation.

The oil-for-food program was created in December 1996 to offset the consequences of sanctions by allowing Iraq to sell oil to purchase food, medicines and other humanitarian goods; it ended after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. The Iraqi government raised more than $2 billion illicitly through the program, which has become the focus of a U.N. probe, six congressional inquiries and a federal criminal investigation.

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The federal complaint charges that Iraqi authorities reached an agreement with Park and an unnamed coconspirator, who is cooperating with federal authorities, in October 1992 to lobby U.S. and U.N. officials to grant it relief from U.N. sanctions. Kelley declined to name Park's coconspirator, but court papers released in January said that Samir Vincent had also engaged in lobbying U.S. and U.N. officials between 1992 and 2003.

Over the following five years, Park presented Baghdad's case to U.N. officials and foreign delegates and solicited as much as $10 million from Iraqi authorities "to take care of his expenses and his people," the complaint said. Iraq ultimately paid Park only $2 million, and Park's coconspirator said some of that money was intended for a U.N. official, the complaint said.

More than a quarter of a century later, the South Korean businessman is back in the news, the subject of a federal arrest warrant that alleges he acted as an intermediary with corrupt U.N. officials in an oil-for-food conspiracy orchestrated by then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The criminal complaint charges that Park received at least $2 million from Iraq, much of it in cash delivered by diplomatic pouch from Baghdad.

Dubbed the "Oriental Gatsby" by the media because of his lavish Georgetown parties, Park put together an impressive list of friends and clients over the years, including former Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega, U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) and former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards. His charm was legendary, as was his habit of disbursing white envelopes stuffed with as much as $20,000 in cash to congressmen as part of a lobbying campaign financed by South Korean intelligence.

The question facing the Pentagon and Congress is whether the Raptor's superior abilities, and the affection of pilots and Air Force leaders, is enough to justify a more than $70 billion investment at the same time the military is stretched thin by ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Critics contend that the Air Force, long dominated by fighter pilots, is exaggerating the threat it faces from enemy fighters at a time when warfare has changed and low-tech weapons such as shoulder-fired missiles are a greater threat. The service, they say, should be deploying more unmanned aircraft and replacing an aging bomber fleet.

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The Air Force and Lockheed Martin Corp., the main contractor, say the Raptor is essential in either scenario. They tout it as an insurance policy in any conflict against China or a resurgent Russia, and to counter increasingly sophisticated surface-to-air missiles with longer range and better targeting capabilities. "We have made it look so easy for so long, people don't realize how hard it is to establish air dominance," Brig. Gen. S. Taco Gilbert III, the Air Force's deputy director of strategic planning, said in an interview. "Iraq is not a good example of what we'll see in the future."

The aging fleet of F-15 Eagles, which the Raptor will replace, is being bypassed technologically, Gen. John P. Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, said in a recent interview in his Pentagon office.

Citing the latest planes being developed in Europe and Russia, he said, "I do not relish the idea of some of the technology I saw in the Eurofighter . . . in the hands of certain nations. I think certain models of the [Russian built] Sukhoi are already superior to the F-15."

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In 2002, the Air Force gave the Raptor a makeover, adding the "A" to F-22, and touting added capabilities for attacking ground targets. The changes are estimated to add billions to the program's cost and take years to complete.

The Raptor's new focus opened a new line of criticism. "It appears by making the F/A-22 more of a multi-role combat aircraft, the Air Force is blurring the distinction between the Raptor and Joint Strike Fighter," a recent Congressional Research Service report on the program noted. In fact, the cheaper F-35 strike fighter will have a "superior payload," carrying 14,600 pounds of bombs compared with the Raptor's 2,000, the report said.

Furthermore, although the Army has successfully demonstrated that Stryker vehicles can be transported on C-130 aircraft during training events, routine use of the C-130 for airlifting Stryker vehicles, for other than short-range missions with limited numbers of vehicles, would be difficult in theaters where U.S. forces are currently operating. Therefore, the intended capability of Stryker brigades to be transportable by C-130 aircraft would be markedly reduced. The Army’s operational requirements and information the Army provided to Congress created expectations that a Stryker vehicle weight of 38,000 pounds—and a similar weight for Future Combat System vehicles—would allow routine C-130 transport in tactical operations. Consequently, congressional decision makers do not have an accurate sense or realistic expectations of the operational capabilities of Stryker vehicles and Future Combat Systems.

Kim Sook, director general of the North American Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said after returning from a trip to Washington that the governments of the allied powers came to a definite understanding about the controversial "balancer" strategy.

Kim said he met with congressional representatives and officials of the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon and explained what the balancer role means while staying in Washington since last Tuesday.

"I told them that we want to play an active and positive role in the peace and prosperity of Northeast Asia on the firm basis of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, which is quite different from the `balance of power’ concept of the late 19th century," he said in a radio program.

Roh said South Korea will strengthen its role as a “balancing power” in Northeast Asia to prevent possible disputes in the region.

“To that end, we will seek to set up a regional security structure through close cooperation with the U.S. and other neighboring nations,” he said.

Answer: The basis of its national security policy being pursued by the Participatory Government rests on promoting self-reliant defense capabilities on the foundation of the ROK (Republic of Korea)-U.S. alliance, which constitutes the very cooperative self-reliant defense.

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Under today’s circumstances prevailing in Northeast Asia, where the situation is unstable and the future is unclear, the international order we should aspire to is not one of a confrontational setup like during the Cold War, but a stable, cooperative system ensuring peace and reciprocal developments.

Roh came to power in 2002 on a campaign promising a foreign policy independent from the U.S., winning a surprise victory helped by an Internet campaign backed by younger and liberal voters.

The "balancer" idea is also driven by South Korea's economic stake in China, which happens to be North Korea's chief backer.

South Korea has been talking lately about boosting military exchanges with China, and has joined Beijing in opposing a permanent seat for Japan on the U.N. Security Council - something Washington supports.

"When Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid accuse you of arrogance, it's like being told by a pig that you stink,'' said GOP consultant Mike Collins.

Montreal ad executive at the heart of the federal sponsorship scandal says Liberal organizers pressed him into secretly donating more than a million dollars to them through various covert methods that included envelopes full of cash, fake invoices and putting phony employees on his payroll.

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Mr. Brault also said he made disguised payments to provincial political parties, in contravention of Quebec law. He illicitly gave at least $100,000 to the Parti Québécois and $50,000 to Jean Charest's provincial Liberals.

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He said Benoît Corbeil, the executive director of the party's Quebec wing, once asked for a $400,000 donation and promised that he would get him a $3-million sponsorship contract. The commission Mr. Brault would earn on that contract was to compensate for the donation.

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While some of his allegations cannot be independently verified, many others were buttressed by scores of bogus invoices, cashed cheques, annotations in agenda books and other records the inquiry's forensic accountants dug up.

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Mr. Brault said at least five Liberals were put on his payroll at the request of party organizers, though he would only describe one, Maria Lyne Chrétien, the prime minister's niece, as a person he would have needed to hire.

This week, as the world awaits the selection of a successor to John Paul, millions of Chinese Catholics are waiting anxiously to find out whether the new pope will usher in a new era in the Vatican's uneasy relations with Beijing.

The Chinese government recognizes the pope but has rejected the Vatican's jurisdiction over its flock in China and its authority to appoint bishops for more than half a century.

The Vatican estimates that China is home to 12 million Catholics, only a third of whom worship in the country's legal, government-sanctioned churches. So millions of Catholics across the nation who are not part of the official "patriotic church" remembered the pope and expressed fealty to the Vatican last weekend in private homes and makeshift, illegal churches.

They are the legions of recovering Catholics, people for whom the radiant and positive aspects of this most intense of faiths still hold powerful sway but who just can't abide by the ridiculous and outdated and often homophobic and sexist doctrines hurled forth like so much flaccid manna from the unhappy red-robed automatons of Vatican City.

Meanwhile, the Mexican government yesterday again condemned what it called "vigilantism" along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, demanding the U.S. government ensure that the Minuteman volunteers do not abuse Mexican nationals crossing into the United States.

Mexican Consul Miguel Escobar told reporters his government "considers it unacceptable that certain people are detaining Mexican migrants."

In Iraq, a controversial television program is broadcasting confessions by individuals accused of responsibility for the wave of violence in the country. The program is popular with many Iraqis, tired of the continuing instability two years after the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

A man, appearing disheveled and uncomfortable, sits on a wooden chair in a dim room of what appears to be a police station.

As an interrogator peppers him with questions, the man says he was part of a gang that kidnapped and murdered Iraqis during the past two years in order to create a split between Shi'ite and Sunni Iraqis. But he says his acts were not holy war. They were blasphemous.

Police say his name is Ramzi Hashem and he carried out the bombing nearly two-years ago at a Shi'ite shrine in Najaf that killed senior Shi'ite cleric Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim and 100 followers.

During the interrogation Ramzi Hashem also admits to committing rapes and taking drugs. Prisoners in other interviews on the program say they were paid an average of $150 per killing and after committing 12 murders were given the title of prince (emir) and paid a salary.

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The hour-long program is called Terrorists in the Hands of Justice. It appears nightly on the government-owned Iraqia network.

It has gripped the attention of the general public, angry over the violence that has killed thousands of Iraqi civilians and 1,200 foreign troops.

The cardinals — who are sworn to secrecy on their deliberations — are to review any papers the pope may have left for them.

One may reveal to the college the name of a mysterious cardinal John Paul said he had named in 2003 but had never publicly identified. The name of the cardinal was held "in pectore," or "in the heart" — a formula that has been used when the pope wants to appoint a cardinal in a country where the church is oppressed.

Navarro-Valls said Tuesday he didn't know if the pope had included any mention of the "in pectore" cardinal in any documents given to the cardinals to read. He said if he had any information, he would make it public.

The Vatican might be ready to cut ties with Taiwan in order to establish diplomatic relations with China, a senior Hong Kong bishop has said.

Joseph Zen said the Holy See might change allegiances if Beijing was "willing to grant real freedom to the church in mainland China".

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Bishop Zen, a vocal critic of Beijing's policies, said that he hoped someone could explain to the Chinese government that the Vatican just wanted religious peace.

"It has no political ambitions whatsoever," Bishop Zen said. "The Pope appoints bishops everywhere, and nobody is offended. We hope the Chinese government can understand this."

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[Vatican denies of change of position] But analysts say there is little doubt that if the Vatican were to sever ties with Taiwan it would be a major blow to the island - which is now recognised by just 25 nations.

The Vatican is Taiwan's only remaining ally in Europe.

Bishop Zen told Reuters news agency that there was already an understanding that one day the Holy See would have to sever its ties with Taiwan in preference for mainland China.

How valuable is this information? "I think it's fun to talk about," the political analyst James Carville said, "but I mean, you see a guy in a pickup truck with a rifle and a Confederate flag, and you know how he's going to vote anyway." But upon further reflection Mr. Carville acknowledged the value of the surveys. "It actually does have some merit, especially when used in conjunction with other information about consumer habits. It can be a very accurate predictor."

The Saab is a Democratic car, according to both CNW and Scarborough, which found that Saab owners were about twice as likely to be Democrats. It's an upscale car an affluent Democrat can drive without feeling guiltily ostentatious while also reveling in a different sort of status symbol, said the president of Scarborough, Bob Cohen.