William Broyles Jr. to adapt "Edgar Sawtelle"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Screenwriter William Broyles Jr., who was Oscar-nominated for "Apollo 13," will adapt the bestselling novel "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" for Universal Pictures.

Based on the novel by David Wroblewski, the story centers on a mute teenager, who, after the mysterious death of his father, runs away into the backwoods of Wisconsin with three of the extraordinary dogs his family raises and trains.

Universal picked up the rights to the 2008 novel last year. Tom Hanks and his Playtone partner Gary Goetzman are producing, while Oprah Winfrey and Kate Forte are producing via Harpo Films.

Broyles worked with Playtone on "Castaway," "Apollo 13" and "The Polar Express." Other credits include "Flags of our Fathers," "Jarhead" and "Unfaithful."

Three charged over Egypt Coptic attack

NAGAA HAMMADI, Egypt — Egyptian police on Saturday charged three men with premeditated murder over the shooting deaths of six Coptic Christians in a Christmas Eve attack, a judicial source said.

North Qena prosecutor has charged the three suspects with "premeditated murder, putting the life of citizens in danger and damage to public and private property," a judicial source said.

Police arrested the three on Friday after the shooting in the southern town of Nagaa Hammadi in which six Coptic Christians and one Muslim policeman were killed.

The alleged gunmen, all Muslims, raked pedestrians with gunfire along a stretch of road that houses two churches and many shops in an attack that sparked sectarian clashes in neighbouring villages.

On Saturday, police also announced the arrest of 20 Muslims and Christians in the neighbouring town of Bahgura, where Christian houses and shops had been set on fire the day before.

Wednesday's attack in Nagaa Hammadi was the deadliest since 20 Copts were killed in sectarian clashes in 2000, also in southern Egypt.

Copts, who account for up to 10 percent of Egypt's population of 80 million, complain or routine harassment and systematic discrimination.

In the capital on Saturday, around 600 people demonstrated against the sectarian clashes in the south, brandishing placards denouncing "the shocking silence of the authorities" and demanding "security for all Egyptians."

A judicial source said a group of Copts, Muslims and opposition Kefaya members had also filed an official complaint against the security services, accusing them of failing to protect religious buildings.

9-11 named 'defining moment' of 21st century's first decade

OTTAWA — A new survey suggests the first decade of the new century will be remembered for one cataclysmic event - the 9-11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

A Canadian Press-Harris Decima poll finds 43 per cent of Canadians naming the attacks as the defining moment of the decade, twice as many who chose the election of America's first black president in 2008.

Pollster Doug Anderson says 9-11 is the one event that Canadians likely remember exactly where they were when it occurred.

And he says it is a moment that still impacts Canadian lives today since it directly led to the war in Afghanistan, where Canadians still are fighting.

Canadians named social networking the technological innovation of decade, and the police procedural, CSI, the decade's top TV show.

Iraq sends forces to oil well seized by Iran

BAGHDAD — Iraq deployed security forces Saturday near a remote oil well seized by Iran, officials said, and its government pressed Tehran to withdraw its forces from the area along their disputed southern border.

U.S. officials applauded Iraq for standing its ground against Iran — an uneasy ally that analysts said was aiming to remind its neighbor of its economic and political pull in its takeover of the oil well Thursday. The site is located in one of the largest oil fields in Iraq and has about 1.5 billion barrels in reserves.

The standoff was a dramatic display of the occasionally tense relations between the two oil-rich nations that fought an eight-year war in the 1980s but now share common ground in Shiite-led governments.

"Again, we ask Iran to be committed to the good relations that they announced with Iraq and its nation, and to withdraw its forces immediately," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Al-Arabiyah TV. "This is the demand of Iraq, and we call Iran to be committed with that."

Iran, however, appeared undeterred.

In a statement, the Iranian military denied it violated Iraq's sovereignty and cited a 1975 border agreement in claiming the oil well as part of Iran's territory.

"Our forces are on our own soil and, based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran," the Iranian military said in a statement to Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam satellite television.

Iraqi army and police reinforcements were sent to a staging ground about a half-mile (1 kilometer) from well No. 4 at the al-Fakkah oil field, according to two Iraqi officials close to the site. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

One of the Iraqi officials said Iranian soldiers came and went from the oil well throughout Saturday. They were gone by the evening, leaving behind an Iranian flag mounted at the well, the official said.

The oil field, parts of which both countries claim as theirs, is located about 200 miles (about 320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad. It was unclear how many troops were involved, and Iraqi forces barred journalists from approaching the area.

The standoff spurred an emergency meeting of Iraq's national security council and high-level diplomatic talks between Baghdad and Tehran. U.S. officials, already worried about Iran's growing influence in the region, praised what they described as Baghdad's quick but measured response to the dispute.

"It does speak to the overall view here that they are not going to be pushed around by Iran," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill told reporters.

Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Hasan Kazemi Qomi, said he would use "diplomatic and technical mechanisms" to soothe tensions. And a spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry accused foreign media of trying to "disrupt good relations" between Tehran and Baghdad.

Experts said it is doubtful that Iran is seeking to provoke Iraq, its only other Shiite-led ally in the Middle East.

Instead, Iran appears to be reasserting its place as having the world's second-largest oil reserves at a time when Iraq is looking to cash in on their own, said Alex Vatanka of the Mideast Institute, a Washington think-tank.

Oil fields along the disputed border have been frozen for years because of Iraq's longtime inability to entice investors to drill. Iraq is planning to open some oil fields over the next decade and has held two rounds of bidding this year — the first since the war — to develop some sites. Al-Fakkah was among three fields that were combined in one offer in the first round of bidding in June, but the proposal fell through.

At the same time, Iran's leaders may be feeling more isolated as the result of its domestic political unrest and international disapproval of its nuclear program.

"They are not looking for conflict — this is their way of projecting power," Vatanka said. "They are saying, 'Because we're isolated, because we have internal problems, it doesn't mean you can go in here and sign a deal on an oil field that is very close to our border without consulting us.'"

Once bitter enemies, Iraq and Iran settled into a more positive, albeit tenuous, relationship after a Shiite-led government came to power following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. U.S. military officials say Iran continues to fund and train fighters in Iraq and send weapons and equipment over the border — although less frequently now than in the past.

Adm. Mike Mullen, America's top military official said the oil well incident must be resolved between Iran and Iraq, and there were no plans by the United States to intervene.

In Baghdad during a two-day visit to Iraq, Mullen said Saturday that he remains worried about Iran's influence in the Middle East.

Associated Press Writers Anne Gearan and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.

Miss World: Gibraltar's Kaiane Aldorino crowned

JOHANNESBURG — Kaiane Aldorino from Gibraltar was named the new Miss World at a glittering two-hour pageant that put South Africa in the spotlight and featured traditional dancers and drummers.

The leggy brunette, dressed in white-lace evening gown, was crowned as silver confetti rained down onstage around her. She clapped her hands to her mouth when her name was announced.

"I have no words," she said when asked to describe how she felt. "I am really happy."

The 23-year-old administrative clerk from the British territory on the tip of the Iberian peninsula was a crowd favorite after winning the swimsuit competition.

She joined seven other contestants in the final round of the show. The loudest cheers were reserved for Miss South Africa, Tatum Keshwar who was the second runner-up.

First runner-up was Miss Mexico, Perla Beltran Acosta.

Aldorino did not give an indication of what her immediate plans were now that she had won the prestigious title.

"I will try to do the best that I can now that I have opportunity and advantage," she said in a brief interview with The Associated Press after the event.

Gibraltar, known as The Rock, is a quirky, multicultural British outpost of 30,000 people, most of whom speak perfect Spanish and even own property along Spain's southern Mediterranean coast. An estimated 12,000 people cross over from Spain daily to work and many more to visit.

Spain ceded sovereignty of Gibraltar to Britain in a 1713 treaty, but has persistently sought its return, claiming the territory as a natural and historic part of its geography. The outcropping is in the Strait of Gibraltar, for centuries a strategic waterway linking the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Wearing her crown of tiny jeweled blue flowers, Aldorino said had been impressed with South Africa, which was hosting its seventh Miss World final.

"It has a lot to offer," she said.

South Africa is taking advantage of the world's attention as the country gears up to host the World Cup in June.

Saturday's show, which was televised across the world, gave a taste of South Africa's rich cultural heritage and natural attractions.

The 112 contestants were welcomed at the start by Zulu dancers and the ululating African female performers. There were clips from the finalists time in South Africa — showing the beauties cuddling cheetahs and lions, on pristine white beaches and even playing soccer.

"It is a wonderful opportunity for South Africa to showcase that they can host a world-class event and also a great tourist opportunity to show off the best that South Africa has in store," Keshwar said.

Netanyahu: Building halt proves Israel wants peace

JERUSALEM — Israel's prime minister on Sunday criticized the Palestinians' rejection of his West Bank settlement freeze, saying it raised questions about their commitment to peace.

Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the freeze, while painful, shows the world that Israel is serious about pursuing a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu announced the 10-month freeze on building new homes in West Bank settlements in an attempt to restart peace talks, which broke down a year ago.

The Palestinians say the Israeli move is not genuine, since it does not include east Jerusalem or 3,000 homes already under construction in the West Bank. The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem as parts of a future independent state. They say they will not resume talks until all settlement construction ceases.

While failing to please the Palestinians, the settlement freeze has also infuriated Jewish settlers and their backers in Netanyahu's hard-line coalition. In new unrest Sunday, police said they were pelted with eggs when they tried to enter the settlement of Kedumim in the northern West Bank to search for unauthorized construction.

Speaking to his Cabinet, Netanyahu noted that he had met with settler leaders last week to try to ease tensions.

"This is not an easy decision for them (the settlers), it is not an easy decision for us," he said. "The decision was taken because we see it as serving the wider interests of Israel and today it is also clear — to whomever it was not yet clear already — who wants peace and who today is acting as if they are opposed to peace. The state of Israel wants peace in the clearest possible sense."

Seeking to calm the concerns of Israeli hard-liners, Netanyahu repeated his stance that the freeze is a "one-time, temporary decision," and that construction will continue in full afterward. "This suspension is for its stated timeframe and not beyond. In the Cabinet decision, we made it clear that upon the conclusion of the period of suspension, construction will resume," Netanyahu said.

Some 300,000 settlers live in the West Bank, in addition to 180,000 Jewish Israelis living in east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed soon after.

The settlers have been struggling to regain their strength since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, uprooting all 8,000 settlers who were living there.

The settlers perceive the construction freeze as a betrayal by Netanyahu, a former ally. At the same time, they are wary of being portrayed as violent extremists.

Agrium to nominate slate of directors to CF board

NEW YORK — In its latest maneuver to acquire a rival in the fertilizer business, Agrium Inc. said Wednesday it plans to nominate a slate of candidates for election to the CF Industries Holdings Inc. board next year.

The Canadian company also challenged CF to remove an anti-takeover defense known as a poison pill and allow CF stockholders to decide whether to accept Agrium's offer.

Last month, in a nonbinding tender offer, Agrium said that shareholders controlling 62 percent of CF Industries stock backed its $5 billion buyout offer. CF Industries' management has opposed the offer.

The poison pill is in place at CF to block unwanted takeovers and makes it difficult for Agrium to succeed in its takeover without Agrium's management being persuaded on the deal as well. If the poison pill is triggered by Agrium acquiring the tendered shares, current shareholders get a chance to buy more shares at a bargain price, making a takeover prohibitively expensive.

Agrium's offer includes $45 in cash and one Agrium common share per CF share.

Agrium's move to grab CF board seats is the latest development in the fertilizer industry's takeover tussle, which began when CF made its first $3.6 billion bid for another rival fertilizer company Terra Industries Inc. in January.

A month later, Agrium offered to buy CF in an effort to block CF's effort to buy Terra. Agrium's offer is conditioned on CF stopping its pursuit of Terra.

The industry's hunger for consolidation intensified at the start of the year when fertilizer company share prices had been beaten down. As the economy declined, struggling farmers scaled back demand for fertilizer, driving down prices that fertilizer companies charge as well as the price of their shares.

Share prices have since recovered with an improving outlook for the industry, but still remain far below last year's levels.

Shares of Agrium rose $3.14, or 5.5 percent, to $60.11 Wednesday after rising to a 52-week high of $60.57 earlier in the session. CF shares climbed $4.37, or 5.1 percent, to $90.27. Terra shares were unchanged at $39.

Activist group posting 573,000 9/11 pager messages

NEW YORK — An activist group has begun posting 573,000 pager messages purportedly sent on Sept. 11, 2001, from "Second World Trade Center tower collapses" to "I'm ok & love you..xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox."

The group, Wikileaks, says some of the messages were sent by federal and local officials, but most appear to be from regular people, including frantic New Yorkers trying to reach loved ones in and around the World Trade Center.

Wikileaks was posting the messages for most of the day Wednesday and expected to finish early Thursday.

The messages range from "DO NOT GET ON THE PATH TRAIN...THE WORLD TRADE CENTER IS ON FIRE" to "President has been rerouted wont be returning to washington but not sure where he will go."

One says, "THIS IS MYRNA, I WILL NOT REST UNTIL YOU GO HOME, THE SECOND TOWER IS DOWN, I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO KEEP CALLING YOU AFTER EVERY EVENT. PLS JUST GO HOME."

Some are unrelated to the terrorist attacks: "Paul, Jerry and I feel that we can expect around 200 people for the Pig Picking. Call if you want to. Keith"

Wikileaks says its goal is to promote transparency by putting leaked documents online. Its repository includes manuals, lawsuits and numerous government documents.

Daniel Schmitt, a Wikileaks spokesman from Berlin, said the pager messages were submitted to the site anonymously several weeks ago.

"From the context information that the source provided we have strong reasons to believe that this is valid data," Schmitt said.

Schmitt said publishing the messages "is one more building block to getting a full picture of what happened on that day." He noted that none of the messages appear to lend credence to conspiracy theories that suggest the U.S. government was behind the attacks or had advance knowledge of them.

New York City's police and fire departments said they could not confirm that any of the messages were actual department communications. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Administration declined to comment on the messages.

Most of the pages come from three companies, Metrocall, Skytel and Arch.

USA Mobility Inc., which merged Arch and Metrocall systems in 2004, issued a statement Wednesday saying it was "troubled to learn that paging messages, including communications involving government officials, appear to have been intercepted and publicly disclosed in clear violation of federal criminal law."

"We hope and expect that persons who engage in unlawful electronic surveillance will be apprehended and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," the statement said.

Skytel did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Many messages show New Yorkers desperately trying to connect on a day when phone service was spotty.

"CALL YOUR WIFE AT HOME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE."

"PLEASE CALL STAN AT HOM."

"PLEASE CALL YOUR MOTHER."

Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.

Anglican leader urges 'convergence' with Catholics

ROME — Church of England leader Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, said Thursday the "glass is half-full" in relations with the Catholic Church despite strains over a Vatican overture to disaffected Anglicans.

Speaking ahead of a meeting Saturday with Pope Benedict XVI, who last month approved a new structure for allowing groups of Anglicans into the Catholic fold, Williams said the two churches had "unfinished business" to resolve, but that "the ecumenical glass is genuinely half-full."

"The strong convergence... about what the Church of God really is, is very striking," he said in a lecture at Rome's Gregorian University, questioning "whether this unfinished business is as fundamentally church-dividing as our Roman Catholic friends generally assume and maintain."

While appearing conciliatory, Williams also laid down a "challenge to recent Roman Catholic thinking" on women priests, the issue behind many Anglicans' wish to leave the Church of England in preference for Catholicism.

The archbishop, noting the "sharpness of division" among Anglicans on the question of the ordination of women, said they had managed to "maintain a degree of undoubtedly impaired communion among themselves" by taking a broader view.

So he asked: "Is there a way of recognising that somehow the corporate exercise of a Catholic and evangelical ministry remains intact even when there is dispute about the standing of female individuals?"

The Vatican unveiled the new framework for the conversions on November 9 in what was described by The Times of London as "potentially the most explosive development in Anglican-Catholic relations since the Reformation."

The move, which could attract hundreds of Anglicans from around the world who oppose women and openly gay clergy, was a response to what the Vatican called "repeated and insistent" petitions.

The meeting between the pope and Williams, who is in Rome to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Willebrands -- a Dutch cardinal who was a pioneer in Catholic ecumenism -- was scheduled long before the controversy.

Born, not made? Sprinters have longer toes than other runners, study finds

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Want to run faster? Grow your toes.

Researchers from British Columbia and the United States have found that longer toes, as well as unique ankle structure, may give sprinters a leg up on other runners.

In a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, researchers from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., and Pennsylvania State University examined the feet and ankles of 12 college sprinters, as well as 12 non-athletes of similar height.

"The Achilles tendon lever arm was much shorter in the sprinters," Sabrina Lee, a post doctoral fellow in biomechanics at Simon Fraser University, said in an interview.

"We also found that the toes were much longer in the sprinters and the two together are actually beneficial for acceleration."

The study found that the only way a sprinter can speed up at the beginning of a race is through contact with the ground.

Long toes provide sprinters with an added advantage, because they can maintain maximum contact with the ground just a little bit longer than other runners.

"Longer toes especially prolonged the time of contact, giving greater time for forward acceleration by propulsive ground reaction force," says the study, co-authored by Stephen Piazza at Pennsylvania State.

Lee and Piazza found that, on average, the sprinting group had an edge of about a centimetre over the non-sprinters - 8.2 centimetres for the runners compared with 7.3 centimetres.

They also used ultrasound imaging to study ankle motion and found that the distance between the Achilles tendon and centre of rotation of the ankle is about 25 per cent shorter in sprinters.

Because the lever arms are shorter, the study found, the muscles compact slower, allowing sprinters to produce greater force.

Piazza said the findings might lend credence to the argument that great sprinters are born, not made.

"When I describe this study to people who have experience with track, and especially experience with sprinters, that tends to be the conclusion that they come to," he said in an interview.

"They think that since we're talking about things like the length of your toes and your ankle joint structure, that it seems like these are things that would be determined by your genetics."

Marek Jedrzejek, track and field coach at the University of British Columbia, said he hasn't yet seen the study, but its findings make sense.

"If you know Michael Phelps, the swimmer, or (Ian) Thorpe, the swimmer from Australia, their feet are quite big naturally," he said.

"If we put that analogy to the track, that could have some advantage to that, too."

Piazza said he hasn't yet examined what effects the study's findings might have on other sports.

While the research might lead some aspiring runners to go about trying to lengthen their own toes, Lee cautioned against that idea.

"It's important to remember that what we found is just one of the many factors that affect sprint performance," she said, adding that muscle fibre types and cardiovascular effects also play a role.

Lee said it's also unclear what effect training can have on how foot bones are shaped.

Piazza said little has been published on foot shapes and sprinting when it comes to humans, but work involving the animal world suggests cheetahs, greyhounds and ostriches are built for fast running.

The study is titled, "Built for Speed: Musculoskeletal Structure and Sprinting Ability."