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By NINA BERNSTEIN
The New York Times
Published: May 14, 2008

He was a carefree Italian with a recent law degree from a Roman university. She was “a totally Virginia girl,” as she puts it, raised across the road from George Washington’s home. Their romance, sparked by a 2006 meeting in a supermarket in Rome, soon brought the Italian, Domenico Salerno, on frequent visits to Alexandria, Va., where he was welcomed like a favorite son by the parents and neighbors of his girlfriend, Caitlin Cooper.

Ms. Cooper, 23, who had promised to show her boyfriend another side of her country on this visit — meaning Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon — eventually learned that he had been sent in shackles to a rural Virginia jail. And there he remained for more than 10 days, locked up without charges or legal recourse while Ms. Cooper, her parents and their well-connected neighbors tried everything to get him out.

Mr. Salerno’s case may be extreme, but it underscores the real but little-known dangers that many travelers from Europe and other first-world nations face when they arrive in the United States — problems that can startle Americans as much as their foreign visitors.

“We have a lot of government people here and lobbyists and lawyers and very educated, very savvy Washingtonians,” said Jim Cooper, Ms. Cooper’s father, a businessman, describing the reaction in his neighborhood, the Wessynton subdivision of Alexandria. “They were pretty shocked that the government could do this sort of thing, because it doesn’t happen that often, except to people you never hear about, like Haitians and Guatemalans.”  [Italics mine; thoughtlessness his.]

Each year, thousands of would-be visitors from 27 so-called visa waiver countries are turned away when they present their passports, said Angelica De Cima, a spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection, who said she could not discuss any individual case. In the last seven months, 3,300 people have been rejected and more than 8 million admitted, she said.

Though citizens of those nations do not need visas to enter the United States for as long as 90 days, their admission is up to the discretion of border agents. There are more than 60 grounds for finding someone inadmissible, including a hunch that the person plans to work or immigrate, or evidence of an overstay, however brief, on an earlier visit.

While those turned away are generally sent home on the next flight, “there are occasional circumstances which require further detention to review their cases,” Ms. De Cima said. And because such “arriving aliens” are not considered to be in the United States at all, even if they are in custody, they have none of the legal rights that even illegal immigrants can claim.

Government officials have acknowledged that intensified security since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has sometimes led to the heavy-handed treatment of foreigners caught in a bureaucratic tangle or paperwork errors. But despite encouraging officers to resolve such cases quickly, excesses continue to come to light.

One recent case involved an Icelandic woman who was refused entry at Kennedy Airport because, a dozen years earlier, she had overstayed her visa by three weeks. The woman, Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, was deported Dec. 10 after what she described as 24 hours of interrogation and humiliating treatment — locked in a cell and barred from making phone calls. The Department of Homeland Security later issued a letter of regret.

In questioning Mr. Salerno, customs agents seemed to suspect that he intended to work here. Ms. Cooper, a copy editor for an educational publication, said she was in the airport lobby when an agent called to ask about Mr. Salerno’s income and why he visited so often.

The youngest son of a prosperous contractor in Calabria, Mr. Salerno helps out in his brother’s law firm in Rome and is able to visit the United States several times a year. Neighbors said he joined volunteers in refurbishing the Wessynton recreation center in 2006, then became one of its summer attractions, kicking a soccer ball with the kids and playing tennis with the adults.

“He just is a very open, fun and helpful guy,” said Christopher M. Porter, a resident of Wessynton.

Ms. Cooper said that at the airport, when she begged to know what was happening to Mr. Salerno, an agent told her, “You know, he should try spending a little more time in his own country.”

Another agent eventually told her to go home because Mr. Salerno was being detained as an asylum-seeker.

“The border patrol officer said to my face that Domenico said he would be killed if he went back to Italy,” she recalled, voicing incredulity that, in his halting English, he could express such a thought. “Also, who on earth would ever seek asylum from Italy?”

Twelve hours later, when Mr. Salerno was granted a five-minute phone call, he called Ms. Cooper and denied saying anything of the kind. Instead, he said, the asylum story seemed to be retaliation for his insisting on speaking to his embassy.

After being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was taken to the Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover, Va., where he ended up in a barracks with 75 other men, including asylum-seekers who told him they had been waiting a year.

Ten days after he landed in Washington, Mr. Salerno was still incarcerated, despite efforts by Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, and two former immigration prosecutors hired by the Coopers.

“He’s just really scared,” Ms. Cooper said in an interview last Thursday. “He asked me if Virginia has the death penalty.”

Luis Paoli, a lawyer hired by the Coopers, said there was no limit on detention while waiting for an asylum interview. But even after officials agreed the asylum issue had been a mistake, Mr. Salerno was not released.

“Now an innocent European, who has never broken any laws, committed any crimes, or overstayed his visa, is being held in a county jail,” Ms. Cooper wrote in an e-mail message to The New York Times last Wednesday, prompting a reporter’s inquiries.

Less than 24 hours later, immigration officials intervened and arranged to deliver Mr. Salerno to Dulles, where last Friday he flew to Rome. Ms. Cooper, who said she was now considering moving to Italy, was by his side.

Mr. Salerno was still shaken. “In America,” he said, “there are so many good people and beautiful people that don’t deserve to be showing these terrible things to the world.”

Tue May 13, 2008
By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - In the classic Hollywood western, a cowboy portrayed by John Wayne gallops across the sagebrush steppe and rocky ridges of the American West with only his horse for a companion.

What the films don't show is the cowboy buying and hauling hay for his horse, or what happens to the horse when it is too aged, infirm or irascible to ride.

Those more mundane details are at the heart of a debate about growing cases of mistreatment of horses in the United States, at a time when hay and grain prices are skyrocketing and when options for disposing of unwanted horses are dwindling.

Just a year ago, the sale of an average horse suitable for recreation -- one with neither prized bloodlines nor a performance record to heighten its status -- would have fetched several thousand dollars.

Today, prices in some cases have dropped to just hundreds of dollars, largely because of higher costs for their maintenance and transport.

The situation for marginal horses -- horses whose poor physical condition or disposition makes them targets for slaughter -- is even worse, after a court ruling sought by animal-rights groups effectively shut down the U.S. horse slaughter industry last year.

The result is that a growing number of unwanted horses are being starved or turned loose to fend for themselves in the U.S. West, according to animal welfare advocates.

"What concerns me is a fate worse than slaughter," said Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University and an authority on the handling of livestock such as horses. "We've got people turning horses loose in fields, dropping horses off in the night -- my worst nightmares are coming true."  

Such images have strong resonance in the West, the land of the rider on the range immortalized in art by Frederic Remington and in popular culture by actors such as the late President Ronald Reagan.

Far from Kentucky, where thoroughbreds race the Churchill Downs, owning a horse in the West is a middle-class occupation. The average horse owner rides for recreation and keeps their horse on their own land or land rented for the purpose, rather than at a commercially run barn.

Horses eat hay made from either grass or alfalfa, or a mix of both, and a modest amount of grain. Prices fluctuate, but in east central Idaho, hay prices have risen to $145 from $120 per ton a year ago, a jump of 21 percent. In northern Idaho it costs $220 per ton and as much as $300 per ton in parts of California. Feeding a horse can cost $2,000 a year or more.

TURNED LOOSE

The West is also the region where the historic practice of releasing domesticated horses into the wild -- first by Spanish explorers and last by ranchers -- gave rise to the herds of Mustangs, or feral horses, that still inhabit the vast public lands of Western states.

But the romantic concept of freeing a tamed horse to roam the West's wide open spaces bears no resemblance to the reality, said Kirk Miller, livestock investigator in Idaho and Montana for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"They have no survival instinct in the wild, no clue as to what's dangerous to eat, no knowledge of how to grub for food under the snow," he said.

Miller and Colorado State's Grandin are among animal experts who say the campaign led by the Humane Society of the United States to end domestic horse slaughter was well-intentioned but misguided.

Now the tens of thousands of American horses marked for slaughter are shipped to Canada and Mexico, where long, stressful journeys end in what some horse advocates say can be unduly painful deaths.

Most horses are slaughtered for human consumption, with Europe and Asia providing markets for their meat.

Some horse associations are siding with the Humane Society in its fight to end export of horses for slaughter altogether. But others are seeking to re-establish processing in the United States to broaden the outlet for unwanted horses and to ensure the animals are killed by a mechanical method approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Keith Dane, director of equine protection for the Humane Society, said for Americans to have their horses killed for their meat would be akin to sending their pet dogs to slaughter for human consumption.

But unlike its canine counterpart, a horse weighs an average of 1,000 pounds and disposal of its carcass after Humane Society-recommended euthanasia has become burdensome. Where permitted by law and where able, owners can bury carcasses on their own land or pay several hundred dollars in assorted fees to deposit the remains at a local landfill.

Those complications may be behind what state livestock officials and federal land managers in the West say is a spike in the number of horses shot dead and dumped on public lands.

Scot Dutcher, animal protection chief with the Colorado Department of Agriculture, said the abandoned horse cases officials are addressing now is a ripple compared to the wave that may come.

"If it becomes illegal to export horses for slaughter, we'll be dealing with an equine tsunami," he said.

Meanwhile, officials at some sale barns in Montana are asking owners of especially old or underweight horses to pay the auction house if the animals do not bring a sufficient price.

And horse rescues, nonprofit groups that rehabilitate and place unwanted and often abused horses, are reporting a rise in the number of calls they are fielding and the number of horses they turn away for lack of resources.

"I could have 500 horses here tomorrow," said Brent Glover, head of Orphan Acres, an Idaho rescue operation that can maintain a maximum of 130 horses.

You can thank "president" shrub and his briliant economics policies for this - he's directly responsible.  Idiot breeders ain't helpin' either.

5/13/2008, 3:20 p.m. EDT
By JEFF KAROUB
The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — A lawyer representing a Muslim woman who sued a judge for dismissing her small-claims court case after she refused to remove her veil said he's prepared to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It's an unfortunate ruling," Nabih Ayad said of U.S. District Judge John Feikens' ruling Monday against Ginnnah Muhammad's claims that her constitutional right to freedom of religion and civil right to court access were violated.

Hamtramck Judge Paul Paruk requested she remove her niqab — a scarf and veil that covers her head and most of her face — during an October 2006 hearing.

"One could easily see the ... continuous litigants that are going to step into district court with this (veil) on," Ayad said Tuesday. "This issue is going to come up over and over again."

She was contesting a $3,000 charge from a rental-car company to repair a vehicle she said thieves had broken into. She offered to remove her veil before a female judge, but Paruk is the only judge in the district court in Hamtramck, a city surrounded by Detroit.

Feikens wrote that while Muhammad could not appeal Paruk's decision based on state law, she could have received state court review and filed a counter claim to the company's suit against her.

Ayad said state law also prevents cases under $3,500 from being filed in the state's general civil division.

"She can't file in state court," he said. "It is, basically, an appeal."

Ayad said Feikens' ruling circumvents the constitutional violations, and would appeal within 30 days.

"I feel the judge's ruling really left a citizen of this community feeling that her belief in the justice system has been stripped from her," Ayad said. "I always felt that this is a decision that ... has a very good chance of going to the appeals court, maybe even the Supreme Court."

Michigan attorney general spokesman Rusty Hills said the AG's office was pleased by the ruling.

Assistant state attorney general Margaret Nelson, who represented Paruk, argued during last month's hearing before Feikens that the case should be dismissed because his decision wasn't based on religion. She said he needed to "fully observe" Muhammad to properly determine the facts.

"It was a temporary, necessary, limited action (that had) only incidental impact on the practice of her religion," Nelson said.

The state said the case was a contract dispute between Muhammad and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. The company countersued her later in October 2006 and ultimately won a judgment of $2,083. Muhammad has appealed that decision in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Feikens wrote the U.S. Supreme Court has found that governmental actions that substantially burden a religious practice must be justified by a compelling interest. But the high court later modified the standard, explaining the right to free exercise of religion doesn't relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law that is generally applied.

Feikens wrote that determining if Paruk observes a valid and neutral policy would require a detailed examination of how he manages his courtroom. And, Feikens wrote, that kind of review would "increase friction in the relationship between our state and federal courts."

"I find, therefore, that respect for the relationship between our state and federal courts weighs heavily against exercising jurisdiction over Muhammad's declaratory judgment action for violation of her right to free exercise of religion," the opinion said.

May 13, 2008 1:08 PM EDT

DETROIT (AP) -- A federal judge in Detroit has dismissed the case of a Muslim woman who sued a judge for demanding she remove her veil in court.

The judge ruled Monday against Ginnnah Muhammad's claims that her rights to freedom of religion and court access were violated.

Judge Paul Paruk requested she remove her veil during a 2006 hearing in the town of Hamtramck. She was contesting a $3,000 charge from a rental-car company to repair a vehicle she said thieves had broken into.

Paruk told her he needed to see her face to judge her truthfulness and gave her a choice: Take off the veil or have the case dismissed. She kept it on and sued the judge last year alleging he violated her religious and civil rights.

Stupid cow.

By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press Writer
13 May 2008

CLYDE, Texas (AP) -- Behind guarded, ornate gates at the end of a rural road, a self-proclaimed prophet warns his followers about the end of time and rails against a dangerous and unclean world outside their West Texas compound.

The women are covered in long skirts and long-sleeve shirts. Many of the children have different mothers and share the same father.

But this isn't the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' ranch, which authorities raided last month in Eldorado after receiving reports that underage girls were being forced to marry much older men.

This is the House of Yahweh: a different, even darker sect that the state has been investigating for years. Authorities in February charged the group's 73-year-old leader with performing polygamous weddings and forcing about 40 children - some as young as 11 - to work jobs at his 44-acre compound.

"If a bunch of adults want to get together and follow some con man and throw their lives away, that's their right in this country," said Callahan County District Attorney Shane Deel. "But to me, when you do that to children and they don't have a chance, that's where the biggest concern is."

If convicted on the most serious charges, Yisrayl Hawkins faces up to 20 years in prison.

Another sect leader, Yedidiyah Hawkins, goes to court this summer on charges of sexually abusing a teenager, bigamy and welfare fraud.

Questions have also been raised about at least two deaths within the sect.

A 7-year-old died in 2003 after her mother and another member performed home surgery on her infected leg. Both women were convicted of injury to a child.

And in 2006, a woman bled to death after giving birth because she was prevented from going to the hospital, according to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by her husband.

Although members deny they practice polygamy, former members say Yisrayl Hawkins has at least two dozen wives - and state records show he fathered two babies last year with women ages 19 and 22.  ...

Yisrayl Hawkins, who has pleaded not guilty in his criminal case, told The Associated Press that he and his church are misunderstood and persecuted because of their religious beliefs.

"We have nothing to hide," said the bearded, white-haired Hawkins, who declined to address specific allegations against him and his sect.

The House of Yahweh compound, about 120 miles northeast of the FLDS ranch, has wind generators, a cafeteria, a food-processing plant and dozens of tractor-trailer rigs holding canned goods. It also has a few stores carrying homemade toiletries and clothing.

Unlike the FLDS members who stay on the 1,700-acre ranch, most House of Yahweh followers members live in mobile homes surrounding the sect's compound, which is occupied only by a few caretakers. Other members own homes nearby or live in trailer parks owned by Hawkins in Abilene.

"Anyone can come here and can leave at any time," Hawkins said.

After the April 3 raid on the FLDS ranch, Child Protective Services took more than 460 children into custody.

Child-welfare officials said they cannot comment on possible investigations of House of Yahweh members unless youngsters have been removed. Only one such case has occurred: Four children living in Yedidiyah Hawkins' home are now in foster care.

Yisrayl Hawkins was born Buffalo Bill Hawkins but legally changed his name. He founded the House of Yahweh in 1980 - three years after the former Abilene police officer was fired for having beer in his patrol car. The group moved to rural Clyde several years later so they would have room to celebrate weeklong Old Testament feasts.

Hawkins began preaching polygamy in the early 1990s, saying women had to accept it or leave and forfeit heaven, several former members said.

"It's definitely a cult that follows mind-control techniques," said Miryam Martin, a House of Yahweh member from 1986 to 2000. "So many people's lives have been destroyed by what's been going on over there."

But Tanah Hawkins, a member for 20 years, said its Scripture-based beliefs offer something missing in mainstream churches. She blames disgruntled former members for the criminal investigations.

"When people leave the House of Yahweh, they go out and feed the rumors and add more lies," she said. "But I actually pray for them."

The sect claims to have hundreds of members scattered worldwide. One group in Kenya gained international attention in 2006 by building nuclear fallout shelters, believing Hawkins' apocalyptic prophecy.

Former members describe Hawkins as a zealot whose teachings are a blend of Old Testament directives on diet and cleanliness, New Testament beliefs in Jesus, and Hawkins' own prophecies rooted in the Book of Revelation.

Hundreds of his followers have legally changed their last names to Hawkins - including Yedidiyah and Tanah. Many have taken biblical first names that - like their leader's - include the letter "y."

Some former members also say Hawkins' followers tithe nearly a third of their incomes to the church. Many purchase the church's organically grown food, herbal drinks and dairy products, believing similar items available elsewhere are "unclean."

Public records show Yisrayl Hawkins owns at least $2.1 million in land, housing and mobile homes.

Nowhere is his influence more apparent than in the sect's 1,200-seat warehouse-like sanctuary, where a dozen poster-size pictures of Hawkins adorn the front wall.

Worshippers must first remove their shoes, and feet and hands are then sprayed with disinfectant before they come in. Men and women are seated on separate sides of an 8-foot wall dividing the sanctuary. Women wear long clothing and veils for modesty, and everyone wears gloves for cleanliness.

Some authorities fear Hawkins will lead his group to a tragic end like David Koresh, who the government said urged his Branch Davidian followers to set their compound on fire and kill themselves in 1993, when federal authorities tried to end a 51-day siege. Survivors blame the deaths on federal agents.

Concerned about a similar confrontation, police did not arrest Hawkins until nearly three months after obtaining the warrant - when they spotted him driving through town.

Bail was initially set at $10 million, partly because of a perceived threat in a sermon.

"I'm not asking much out of you - I'm just asking that you be willing to die rather than leave this house," Hawkins told his congregation in November.

A judge later relented, and Hawkins was released on $100,000 bond after testifying that his security guards are unarmed and suicide is counter to the church's teachings.

City Council also to pursue Kilpatrick's removal from office
By Zachary Gorchow and Naomi R. Patton
Free Press Staff Writers
May 13, 2008

The Detroit City Council has just voted to launch a two-track effort to remove Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office by both beginning its own process and asking Gov. Jennifer Granholm to oust him.

The vote was 5-4 as the council made an historic move to topple a mayor.

A delicate majority in favor of removing Kilpatrick managed to hold together overnight.

Voting yes were Council President Ken Cockrel Jr and Councilmembers Sheila Cockrel, Brenda Jones, Kwame Kenyatta and JoAnn Watson. Voting no were Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers and Councilmembers Barbara-Rose Collins, Martha Reeves and Alberta Tinsley-Talabi.

Both processes are expected to take months. The council set an initial public hearing for its removal hearings of June 13.

The independent attorney hired by the council to assist with its investigation, Bill Goodman, estimated that it would take two months for the council to complete removal hearings and then – if the council actually votes to oust Kilpatrick – another year for the mayor’s appeals to play out in the courts.

How long it will take Granholm to determine Kilpatrick’s fate is unclear. Despite today’s vote, the council must still submit to the governor’s office a formal sworn statement requesting she remove Kilpatrick from office.

The law giving Granholm the power to remove elected local officials does not give a timetable for action.

The last time a governor conducted removal hearings on a local official was 1982 – for a West Bloomfield Township official accused of public drunkenness. Gov. William Milliken ordered the official to quit drinking or be removed.

by Edith Honan
May 12, 2008

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York man who says he was denied a seat on a five-hour jetBlue flight and was instead told to "hang out" in the plane's bathroom has sued the airline for $2 million, saying he suffered "extreme humiliation."

When Gokhan Mutlu arrived to check in for a jetBlue flight from San Diego to New York in February he was told the flight was full, according to the lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.

But Mutlu was allowed to board after a jetBlue flight attendant agreed to give up her seat and travel in an airline employee "jump seat." It was not clear in the lawsuit whether the flight attendant was working.

However 90 minutes into the flight, the pilot told Mutlu the flight attendant was uncomfortable and he would have to give up his seat and "hang out" in the bathroom for the remainder of the flight, the lawsuit said.

The pilot "became angry at (Mutlu's) reluctance" and said Mutlu "should be grateful for being onboard," the lawsuit said. When Mutlu volunteered to sit in the "jump seat," he was told it was reserved for airline personnel.  

At one point, the airplane experienced turbulence and Mutlu sat on the toilet seat without a seat belt, causing him "tremendous fear," the lawsuit said.

JetBlue was not immediately available for comment.

Mon May 12, 2008
By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ratcheted up the pressure on Myanmar on Monday, saying he was extremely frustrated by the junta's slow delivery of aid to more than 1.5 million victims of Cyclone Nargis.

"Today is the eleventh day since ... Nargis hit Myanmar," Ban told reporters. "I want to register my deep concern -- and immense frustration -- at the unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis."

In his most critical comments on Myanmar's military government to date, Ban said that despite repeated attempts to contact the junta's senior general, Than Shwe, he had been unable to speak with him and had sent him a letter.

"We are at a critical point," he said. "Unless more aid gets into the country very quickly, we face an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today's crisis."

"I therefore call, in the most strenuous terms, on the government of Myanmar to put its people's lives first. It must do all that it can to prevent this disaster from becoming even more serious."

U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters a problem with visas for U.N. relief officials had improved somewhat. He said a total of 34 Myanmar visas were being granted to U.N. aid workers, though more would be needed.

France's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix raised the issue at a meeting of the Security Council. He told reporters that Paris fully supported Ban's statement about the government of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"We share that frustration," he said. "If there is no progress (on aid delivery)...we will again raise that issue in the Security Council and will consider submitting a text."

Western diplomats said the French were considering asking the 15-nation council to adopt a nonbinding statement calling on Myanmar to lift all restrictions on foreign aid workers.

But if Myanmar continues to ignore international appeals, Paris might want the council to go a step further and adopt a legally binding resolution, the diplomats said, adding that the council might return to the issue on Tuesday.

BRITAIN, FRANCE BACK BAN'S CRITICISM

Last week, France called on the council to invoke a U.N. concept known as the "responsibility to protect" to authorize foreign delivery of aid shipments to Myanmar's population without the junta's authorization.

However, a number of countries, including Britain, said this concept was conceived for situations like genocide or war crimes, not natural disasters.

British Ambassador John Sawers, the Security Council's current president, said some members felt Myanmar's humanitarian crisis was not an appropriate issue for the council. Diplomats say China, Russia, Vietnam, South Africa and Indonesia were among those.

Western members of the Security Council strongly disagree.

"The cyclone there 11 days ago took tens of thousands of lives, but the inability to get aid through is risking hundreds of thousands of lives," Sawers said.

He also condemned Myanmar senior general Than Shwe's refusal to speak with Ban Ki-moon.

"I think it's shocking, frankly, that at a time of natural disaster like this, when the whole international community under the leadership of the United Nations is lined up to help, that the leaders of that country are not prepared to engage in discussions as to how that help can best be deployed."

13 May 2008

Is something lurking just over the sun's eastern limb? Yesterday's impressive display suggests the answer is yes. Amateur astronomers in Europe and North America witnessed fountains of hot, magnetized gas surging over the eastern edge of the sun. "My hard drive is full of movies," says Didier Favre of Brétigny sur Orge, France, who counted no fewer than seven eruptions.

Veteran observer Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK, took the picture above. "This is the first time I've ever seen material moving visually away from the surface of the Sun," he says. "What a treat!"

Readers, if you have a solar telescope, train it on the eastern edge of the sun. "The area," says Lawrence, "appears full of promise."

UPDATE: Observers are reporting a sunspot (or proto-sunspot) emerging from the direction of yesterday's prominence: #1, #2, #3.

more images: from Britta Suhre of Dortmund, Germany; from Monty Leventhal of Sydney, Australia; from Les Cowley of eastern England; from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky; from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from C. Miller and J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from Malcolm Park of London, England.