SYDNEY - The Australian manufacturer of electronic shark deterrent devices says a model that was eaten by a shark off the coast of South Africa had malfunctioned.Sea Change Technology Director Rod Hartley said at an inquest into the death of a man who was killed by a great white shark in South Australia in 2005, that the failed South African test was the result of a problem with the electrode's configuration, the Sydney Daily Telegraph ... [full story]

SAN FRANCISCO - A research team in Sweden said Charles Darwin was wrong about the genetic basis for the yellow skin of some chickens.Greger Larson, a research fellow at Uppsala University in Sweden and at Durham University in Britain, said yellow-skinned chickens have a different version of a gene than their white-skinned cousins.Darwin believed that all chickens came from a wild species known as the red junglefowl but when the research team looked for a ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - A White House aide resigned Friday after admitting to plagiarism in a column he wrote for a Fort Wayne, Ind., newspaper.Tim Goeglein admitted he had copied much of an essay that appeared in a Dartmouth College publication about a decade ago, and claimed the writing as his own in a column for the News-Sentinel, The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette reported Friday.Goeglein made the admission in an e-mail to The Journal Gazette Friday. "I ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - The nation's state attorneys general are reportedly divided over a city gun ban case to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 18. Stateline.org reported Friday that attorneys general from 31 states have filed a legal brief urging the justices to overturn Washington, D.C.'s 32-year-old ban on handguns. Meanwhile, attorneys general from five states -- Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York -- are asking the high court to leave ... [full story]

AREZZO, Italy - A police officer who fatally shot a soccer fan, a death that prompted riots in Italy, may be charged with murder, officials said.Agent Luigi Spaccatorella, 35, said he did not intend to kill Lazio soccer fan and Rome DJ Gabriele Sandri, 26, when his gun fired accidentally, ANSA reported Friday. After a preliminary investigation into the November 2007 incident, prosecutors reportedly said they would attempt to indict Spaccatorella on charges of murder.Spaccatorella reportedly ... [full story]

DEARBORN, Mich. - Ford Motor Co. has recalled 9.6 million vehicles built between 1992 and 2004 to repair a faulty cruise-control deactivation switch that poses a fire hazard. The switches pose a fire risk, the company said in a statement. The service action "is a quick repair," that will be done at no charge to owners.The recall includes vehicles dating back to 1992; Lincoln Town Cars, Mercury, Ford and other model year cars, pickups and ... [full story]

AHRWEILER, Germany - A secret nuclear bunker used in West Germany during the Cold War has been opened to the public.The entrance to the Government Documentation Center, near the town Ahrweiler, is marked by a 30-foot high concrete wall in the forest of the Ahr Valley, Deutsche Welle reported. "The bunker was a part of the system of nuclear threats on both sides. And our children don't even know what the Cold War means, so I ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey Friday refused to pursue contempt of Congress charges against current and former presidential aides.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had called on Mukasey to open a grand jury investigation. The House earlier voted to pursue contempt of Congress charges against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriett Miers for not responding to subpoenas issued as part of Congress' investigation into the U.S. attorney ... [full story]

A health advisory for contact with marine water at Cannon Beach in Clatsop County was lifted today by the Oregon Department of Human Services, in conjunction with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. The advisory was issued Tuesday, after water samples at Cannon Beach showed higher-than-normal levels of enterococcus, a type of fecal bacteria, in the marine water. Subsequent testing showed the contamination had subsided and the waters ... [full story]

Brig. Gen. Raymond C. Byrne, Oregon Army National Guard will be honored at a formal Retirement ceremony on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 3 p.m. at the Anderson Readiness Center, 3225 State Street, NE, Salem, Ore. His most recent assignment is the Assistant Adjutant General (Army) position, as such he acts as The Adjutant General in his absence. Brig. Gen. Byrne assumed duties as the Acting Adjutant General for the Oregon National Guard on October ... [full story]