Lartmada

MOSCOW - A powerful bomb ripped through a bus in central Russia Wednesday morning, killing eight people and wounding at least 53 in what one official called a terror attack.

Investigators were trying to determine whether the explosive device was carried by a passenger or had been planted somewhere on the bus in the city of Togliatti, according to Russian news agencies.

The explosion occurred near a bus stop in the city center as people were going to work. A group of college students had gotten off at the stop just seconds before the blast, and about 20 students were among the wounded, NTV reported.

Windows were blown out of the long green bus, and its roof partially detached from the force of the explosion, which shattered windows of nearby buildings.

Valery Matkovsky, a local emergency official, said that eight people died and at least 53 were injured, mainly from burns and shrapnel wounds. Russian media said that one child was among the dead.

There is a month before crucial parliamentary elections and similar violence has occurred before other votes.

“Due to (the blast’s) character, its consequences, the main version being considered is a terrorist attack,” Yuri Rozhin, director of the regional division of the Federal Security Service, said in televised comments.

In 1999, just three months before national elections, several residential buildings in Moscow and other Russian towns exploded, killing hundreds. The government blamed militants from Chechnya, where two wars have been fought against separatist rebels.

Opposition activists and Kremlin critics said the government used the blasts to justify sending federal troops back into Chechnya, launching the second war in a decade in the region.

The Volga River city of Togliatti is home to Russia’s largest carmaker, AvtoVAZ and has long had a reputation for gang violence as various groups competed for control over the lucrative factory, now state-owned. A factory spokesman could not say whether there were factory workers among the victims.

Vadim Blagodarny, a local 20-year-old photographer, said people walked around in shock in the minutes after the blast, as investigators picked through the carnage.

“If it had gone off just a minute earlier, it would have been much, much worse,” he said.

Security at the scene was tight, and some local photographers were either detained or had their equipment confiscated.

The head of the country’s main security agency recently warned of the potential for pre-election violence and said police would bolster security and surveillance nationwide before the Dec. 2 vote.

KAMPUNG HULU CHUCHOH, Malaysia - It’s easy to visit Western Malaysia and feel as if you’re in India or China, or even somewhere in the United States.

All that changed for us when we left our plush hotel overlooking the Petronas towers for a homestay in Hulu Chuchoh, an ethnic Malay Islamic “kampung” or village amid palm, rubber, tapioca and coffee plantations 40 miles from Kuala Lumpur.

Moving in with Partiwi Zainal and her family meant sweating out two nights sleeping without air conditioning. But sitting in their living room the other night, learning congkak, a game played with marbles and a wooden box that looks like an oversized tray for deviled eggs, I realized what a special opportunity this was to learn about each other’s cultures first-hand instead of what we read in the news or hear on television.

Partiwi, her husband, Mohd Hilel; and their daughter, Lena, 12, the only one of five children still living at home; are a thoroughly modern Muslim Malay family.

At 49, her black hair, long neck and angular face hidden most of the time behind one of her dozens of brightly-colored headscarves, Partiwi looks more like a woman in her late 30s, especially when she switches to her black scarf with a brim and climbs on her motorbike to take her daughter to school.

Lena starts regular classes starting at around 7 a.m., then comes home for lunch and goes back for Islamic instruction from 2:30 p.m. to around 6 p.m.

Her uniform is a white scarf and tunic over a long, green skirt. At home, she relaxes like any teenager, in T-shirts and sweat pants, and spends her time reading, watching television and text-messaging her friends on her cellphone.

Mohd, 52, is a teacher, but since he suffered a stroke a few years ago, Partiwi does all the driving. A few years ago, the village chief came up with the idea to organize the Banghuris Homestay as a way for local people to supplement their incomes and introduce foreign visitors to Malay culture.

Partiwi signed up and did some remodeling to the pink stucco house where she raised her family. Little by little, she’s been making improvements.

Our bedroom is off the dining room. Next to it is a room with no furniture used as a prayer room and also for ironing.

Recently, Partiwi installed an air conditioner in her living room where we played the game. “Maybe next year, the bedroom,” she said.

Many families here operate cottage industries in their backyards. Partiwi showed us hers: a small bakery where she makes cookies and snacks from the tapioca she grows. The chickens running around the driveway supply the eggs.

“You want to follow me?” she asked us on our first afternoon. The village heads often organize programs (fishing, rubber-tree tapping demonstrations, etc.) for visitors who come in groups, but we were on our own. Partiwi’s invitation to “follow me” was the cue for getting in her Toyota for outings that proved far more fun than preprogrammed activities.

We stopped first at her aunt’s tapioca chip and snack factory. Partiwi opened her truck, and we helped her unload big plastic bags filled with snacks she delivered to her aunt for packaging under a brand called “Mr. Rizac.”

Several women sat in a small room sorting and bagging chips, “like Pringles,” Partiwi said, only made from tapioca, a root vegetable that resembles a long sweet potato.

Next it was a visit to Sam J Frozen Foods for a look at women stretching and molding dough into roti canai, an Indian flat bread used in all sorts of dishes; curry puffs and other breakfast foods people used to make at home when they had more time. Sam J looked to be in her 60s. By now, I was beginning to notice that most of these businesses were women-owned and run.

“In an Islamic country?” I asked Partiwi. “Of course. Women here don’t stay in the house.”

Highlights from our two days with Partiwi:

• Going to the car wash - basically guys with a hose and buckets set up in a parking lot.

• Sitting on the front porch sweating in the 90-degree heat and humidity, and flagging down the motorcycle ice-cream truck. I think there might be a good business in importing lime creamsicles.

• Sharing a meal with the other homestay guests, two Muslim teachers and a 16-year-old student. They ate with their hands; we with fork and spoon.

• Figuring out how to brush our teeth without using a sink. The bathroom was otherwise well-equipped with shower and western toilet.

• Walking around the village. Everyone greeted us, asked where we were from and wanted to know what we thought of Malaysia.

“Very nice country,” I said. “Especially the Malay people.”

As it turns out, we can all get along.

A Republican state legislator resigned his seat today amid revelations he had sex with a man he met at an erotic video store while in Spokane on a GOP retreat.

In a written statement, Rep. Richard Curtis, of La Center, said that while he believes he’s done a lot of good during his time in the Legislature, “events that have recently come to light have hurt a lot of people.”

“I sincerely apologize for any pain my actions may have caused,” he wrote. “This has been damaging to my family, and I don’t want to subject them to any additional pain that might result from carrying out this matter under the scrutiny that comes with holding public office.”

Three days earlier, Curtis had insisted to his local newspaper that he was not gay and that sex was not involved in what he said was an extortion attempt by a man last week.

But in police reports, Curtis said he was being extorted by a man he had sex with in a Spokane hotel room. The other man contends Curtis reneged on a promise to pay $1,000 for sex.

House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, said that as more “troubling” details began to emerge “it has become clear that he can no longer effectively represent the constituents who elected him.”

His resignation was delivered to Gov. Christine Gregoire this afternoon. A Republican successor will be chosen by county Republican leaders, and will serve until the 2008 election.

Numerous efforts to reach Curtis or his lawyer, John Wolfe, by phone have been unsuccessful.

Curtis, 48, told police he was the victim of an extortion attempt by Cody Castagna at the posh Davenport Tower hotel on Oct. 26, search warrant documents said. Castagna, 26, of nearby Medical Lake, told police that Curtis had agreed to pay him for sex, then reneged.

Curtis is married and has children, according to his legislative Web site. He was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2004.

Curtis was among state GOP lawmakers in Spokane Oct. 24-26 for a retreat to discuss the upcoming legislative session. He went to the Hollywood Erotic Boutique early on Oct. 26 and met Castagna, who accompanied him to the hotel, police documents said.

The two arrived at the hotel around 3:30 a.m. and had sex, after which Curtis fell asleep, according to documents released Tuesday.

Curtis alleged Castagna took his wallet and later offered to return it for $1,000. Curtis said he only had $200 and left an envelope with the money at the hotel desk, the documents said.

Police reports said Castagna allegedly called Curtis and demanded an additional $800, and threatened to expose Curtis. But Curtis had already contacted police, who listened to the call and then met with Castagna.

There have been no arrests in the case. Today, Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz said a decision about possible criminal charges in the alleged extortion case was weeks away.

Castagna, who appeared Tuesday at a Spokane news conference with his lawyer, David Partovi, said Curtis gave him his wallet to hold as collateral “for the money that he promised me.” Partovi refused to let his client tell reporters what he did for the money, noting Castagna had already spoken voluntarily with police.

“Cody Castagna admitted threatening to publicly expose Richard Curtis’ gay lifestyle to his wife unless Richard Curtis provided the disputed money,” the police documents said.

Partovi refused to let Castagna respond to a question about whether he threatened to “out” Curtis.

The lawyer noted extortion “is a violent Class B felony” and declared that his client “didn’t do anything wrong, at that level anyway.”

On Monday, Curtis told The Columbian newspaper of Vancouver, Wash., that he did not solicit sex.

“I committed no crime,” he said. “I did not solicit sex. I was trying to help somebody out.”

Curtis said, “I am not gay.”

In his initial statement to Spokane police on Oct. 26, Curtis admitted having sex with Castagna, but said he did not offer to pay for sex. He said he gave him $100 as gas money, but said he did not consider that paying for sex, according to the police reports.

Police reports said Curtis initially contacted a friend in the Washington State Patrol, in Western Washington, to investigate the case because he feared the Spokane authorities would talk to the media. But patrol officials referred the case to Spokane police.

The police reports added that Curtis told officers he only wanted his wallet back “and wanted to keep the incident as low key as possible.” He did not want to pursue charges against Castagna, the report said.

The next day, police reports said, Curtis told a detective by phone that he was in Cle Elum because he had wrecked his car on the drive home.

Curtis also told the detective he “would have to tell his wife the truth and he would have to get a divorce attorney.”

AP writers Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane and Curt Woodward in Olympia contributed to this report.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is setting up a distribution network for social networking applications, adding a new twist in the Internet search leader’s brewing rivalry with rapidly maturing startup Facebook Inc.

Although Google confirmed its plans late Tuesday, its new social networking platform won’t be unveiled until later this week.

Google hopes to build a one-stop shop for software developers who create tools that make it easier to share music, pictures, video and other personal interests on social networking sites like Facebook and News Corp.’s MySpace.com.

The popularity of these applications, also known as “widgets,” has grown dramatically since Facebook opened its Web site to accommodate outside developers five months ago.

Facebook now hosts more than 8,000 widgets, helping to boost its worldwide audience to about 50 million users and elevate its market value to $15 billion after Microsoft Corp. paid $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in the Palo Alto-based company last week.

Microsoft trumped Google in the bidding for a piece of Facebook. Google’s bigger social networking ambition is believed to be one of the reasons Facebook decided to deepen its partnership with Microsoft instead.

Google now hopes to attract many of the same applications thriving on Facebook to its own network, dubbed “OpenSocial.”

The system is set up so the participating software developers will only have to code their applications once. Google will then ensure they are compatible with all the Web sites in its network.

The early participants in OpenSocial include social networking destinations like LinkedIn, hi5.com, Friendster and Ning, as well as the Web sites of business software specialists Salesforce.com Inc. and Oracle Corp.

Google also will feature the applications on its own social network, Orkut, which hasn’t attracted much traffic outside South America.

OpenSocial’s combined audience will exceed 100 million users, according to Google.

The list of developers feeding applications to Google include three of Facebook’s most popular Widget suppliers - Slide, RockYou and iLike.

Mountain View-based Google won’t try to make money from the OpenSocial network right away but hasn’t ruled out the possibility of eventually inserting ads into the applications.

“There is no question Google will benefit from this,” Joe Kraus, a Google product manager, said in a Tuesday interview. “Google’s role is highly intertwined with the Web, so anything that makes the Web a better experience tends to help Google.”

While Google muscles into the social networking scene, Facebook appears to be gearing up to grab some of the advertising revenue that has been pouring into Google. Facebook is expected to discuss its plans for its own advertising network during a Nov. 6 event scheduled in New York.

Facebook already has proven to be thorn in Google’s side by recently hiring away some of its top engineers.

NILES, Mich. - Talk about being in a pickle: A judge gave a 35-year-old man probation in a case that police said involved an assault with pickles.

According to police reports, the problems began when Bobby Lee Bolen was hanging out at his then-friend Jody Lee’s home in Buchanan on Aug. 20.

Bolen went to the refrigerator and helped himself to some pickles. According to the report, Lee told Bolen he couldn’t afford to feed everyone and not to eat his pickles. Bolen then began yelling and swearing and stormed out, according to the report.

Later, Bolen barged back into the house and argued with Lee, police said. Lee told police Bolen slammed him down on the couch, threw two large pickles at him and said, “Here’s your damn pickles.”

Bolen also shoved former friend J.W. Romanski III and beat Lee with a telephone when he tried to call 911, according to police reports.

“If this is not the silliest case I’ve ever seen in this courtroom, it certainly is in the Top 10,” Berrien Trial Court Judge Scott Schofield said.

Bolen’s sentence included 54 days in jail with credit for 54 days served and one year of probation.

SAMMAMISH - The Eastlake soccer players posed for the pictures, each with a finger raised to the sky. When the flashes ended, they huddled together and broke out in a chant of “Undefeated!”

Yet, as the Wolves celebrated a 5-1 victory in the KingCo 4A championship game, one of them was missing. Sophomore Kory Spotts, the team’s leader with 10 goals, was in a nearby hospital after a painful collision near midfield in the first half.

The severity of her leg injury was unknown immediately after the game. She was taken to an ambulance in a stretcher early in the second half. But before her injury, she showed how much she means to the undefeated Wolves.

In the 16th minute, Spotts put a shot from about 25 yards over Redmond’s all-KingCo goaltender, Kat Donovan, for the Wolves’ first goal.

“We just needed a goal. We know we can score, and I think getting the first one was the shot of confidence the girls needed,” said Eastlake coach Chuck Grieble, who added, “After that, you saw what happened.”

The Wolves broke out, as they’ve done so many times this season. Emma Levy scored in the 34th minute, and then Emily Hurd and Mackenzie Garrett scored in the final minute of the first half to put Eastlake ahead 4-0.

Eastlake (14-0-0) won the conference for the first time since 2003 and clinched a spot in the state tournament, which begins next week. The Wolves finished third in 4A last season.

Erin Handschin scored Redmond’s goal in the 55th minute, only the sixth Eastlake has allowed this season. The Mustangs (8-4-4) play Woodinville Thursday, with the winner advancing to the state tournament.

Loser out

Woodinville 3, Inglemoor 2

Stine Schoening scored her second goal in the 66th minute to keep the Falcons alive. Woodinville, the defending state champion, plays Redmond on Thursday, with the winner heading to state. Schoening tied it at 2 with a goal in the 52nd minute and scored the winning goal on her own rebound. Sam Bellefeuille also scored for Woodinville. Amanda Campbell and Taylor Mitchell scored for Inglemoor.

Tom Wyrwich: 206-515-5653 or twyrwich@seattletimes.com

NEW YORK - Unlike those crinkled bucks in your wallet, the Morgan silver dollars for sale on Mike Lavanga’s Web site have surged in value since they stopped being minted in the early 20th century.

The antique coins, with Lady Liberty’s profile on the face and an eagle on the back, are increasingly looking like good buys to foreigners, whose cash is strengthening against the dollar.

Lavanga, of Lawrenceville, N.J., said sales to buyers outside the United States have increased this year by 65 percent from 2006 and have doubled as a percentage of total sales on his Web site, www.mikescoins.com. Lavanga’s wife, Karen Vincent, an attorney who sells shoes and purses on eBay, has also attracted more bids from such places as England, France and Italy.

The economy has slowed and the dollar is weakening - not usually a winning combination for small U.S. retailers. But many of those who sell their goods online are finding that buyers from other countries are gradually making up a larger portion of sales. Exchange rates may not be a deciding factor when one buys boots, bangles or home-run baseballs, but they are certainly working to foreigners’ advantage these days.

On average, the dollar has fallen about 10 percent against major world currencies over the last year. The euro has been hitting a series of records versus the dollar, and is now worth $1.44 - up from $1.27 a year ago and 98 cents five years ago. The British pound has also gained on the dollar to reach multidecade highs, rising to $2.06 from $1.90 a year ago and $1.56 five years ago.

U.S. goods for people who live in such places as Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia are getting cheaper. The trend, several years in the making, has been a boon to large American companies that export overseas and those with foreign operations, whose revenue is magnified once it’s converted into dollars. The Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit fell 2.4 percent in August to its lowest level in seven months, thanks in large part to record sales of American products abroad.

While they don’t get the same conversion benefit as multinational corporations, many small U.S. retailers have also been luring more foreign buyers, especially for expensive items for which the exchange rate makes more of a difference.

Kai Chen sells turquoise necklaces and other jewelry online out of Dallas and expects the business to pull in about $60,000 in revenue this year. Chen said international shipments have risen from 10 percent of total shipments last year to about 20 percent this year. And in dollar amounts, the portion of international sales is even higher, he said - foreign buyers make up more than 30 percent of revenue, because they tend toward the more expensive items, like electronic gadgets and jewelry.

Those sales have grown even with an increase in postal rates, Chen added. In spring 2007, the United States Postal Service raised various international shipping rates by an average of 13 to 19 percent.

In Burlington, Vt., Pete Jewett runs Go Trading Post with his business partner Pete Bruhn. Locals sell them their unwanted stuff so the guys can sell it at a profit on eBay.

Bruhn and Jewett’s international sales as a percentage of total sales have risen from about 1.5 percent last year to about 5 percent this year, as bidders from the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand and other countries snap up such items as German war pins, collectible miniature cottages, Palm Pilots and $500 bundles of old reggae records.

When they started in 2004, Jewett said, “we joked about the fact that even if the economy tanked, we could do OK by shipping stuff overseas.”

Now, as the housing market slumps, he’s seen more locals dropping their belongings off. If the item is anything over $500, there’s a 25 percent chance it’s being sent to another country, Jewett said.

American bidders still make up most of eBay sales, but the portion of foreign bidders of U.S. goods is growing. Spokeswoman Kim Rubey said U.S. exports to other countries through the auction site have increased 30 percent year over year. That’s been fueled particularly by exports to the United Kingdom, which have increased 50 percent year over year, and to Australia, which have jumped 60 percent.

David Kohler, president and CEO of the California-based sports memorabilia auction site SCP Auctions, said he’s not sure if it’s the dollar’s doing, “but there’s definitely more of a foreign presence than a year ago and than the year prior.”

SCP’s last auction, which sold about $3.4 million in items including the baseball Barry Bonds hit to break Hank Aaron’s home-run record, saw an uptick in interest from bidders in the United Kingdom and Japan, as well as Canada.

“They love the hockey up there,” Kohler said.

DES MOINES, Iowa - A hunter is recovering after he was shot in the leg at close range by his dog, who stepped on his shotgun and tripped the trigger, an official said Tuesday.

James Harris, 37, of Tama, was hit in the calf Saturday, the opening day of pheasant season, said Alan Foster, a spokesman with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

“He had surgery and is doing pretty well,” he said. “He took between 100-120 pellets in about a 4-inch circle to his calf.”

Harris was listed in good condition Tuesday, officials at University Hospitals in Iowa City said.

Harris was hunting with a group about three miles north of Grinnell. The group shot a bird, and when Harris went to get it, he put his gun on the ground and crossed a fence. As he crossed the fence, his hunting dog stepped on the gun, Foster said.

The gun was about 3 feet away from his leg.

“The muzzle velocity is so great that the pellets don’t have a chance to spread out,” he said.

No one else was hurt, and the dog was not injured.

Foster said no citations have been issued.

FORT LEWIS - Eight Army soldiers and one spouse have become U.S. citizens in a ceremony at Fort Lewis.

Six of the eight soldiers who took the oath of citizenship Monday have been assigned overseas or are being sent next month. The ninth person is the wife of a soldier stationed at the post south of Tacoma.

They were told by Emilio Gonzalez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, “You’ve earned your citizenship already, almost to the point that this ceremony seems trite.”

Gonzalez is a naturalized citizen from Cuba who spent 26 years in the Army.

Non-citizens can enlist in the U.S. military if they hold a green card, and more than 35,000 members of the armed forces have become U.S. citizens in the past six years.

NEW YORK - Major League Baseball had this message for Alex Rodriguez and agent Scott Boras: Shame on you.

Boras announced during Game 4 of the World Series on Sunday night that A-Rod was opting out of the final three seasons of his contract with the New York Yankees. The timing left baseball officials livid, and Boras apologized Monday evening, just after Rodriguez filed with the players’ association and became a free agent for the first time since 2000.

“We were very disappointed that Scott Boras would try to upstage our premier baseball event of the season with his announcement,” Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

“There was no reason to make an announcement last night other than to try to put his selfish interests and that of one individual player above the overall good of the game,” DuPuy said. “Last night and today belong to the Boston Red Sox, who should be celebrated for their achievement, and to the Colorado Rockies, who made such an unbelievable run to the World Series.”

Boras said causing a distraction was an unintended consequence.

“I apologize to the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies and their players, Major League Baseball and its players, and baseball fans everywhere for that interference,” he said in a statement. “The teams and players involved deserved to be the focus of the evening and honored with the utmost respect. The unfortunate result was not my intent, but is solely my fault. I could have handled this situation better, and for that I am truly sorry.”

Red Sox fans sure took notice fast. After their team won the title for the second time in four seasons, they stood behind the visitors’ dugout at Coors Field and chanted: “Don’t sign A-Rod!”

“Kind of strange timing,” Red Sox President Larry Lucchino said after Boston completed its sweep of Colorado.

New York, which failed to make the World Series in all of Rodriguez’s seasons, maintained it will not attempt to re-sign A-Rod now that he has opted out.

“No chance,” Hank Steinbrenner, a son of owner George Steinbrenner, said Monday at Legends Field. “Not if it’s made official.”

Rodriguez signed his record $252 million, 10-year contract with Texas before the 2001 season. By cutting the deal short, he will have earned $180 million over seven seasons in signing bonus, salaries and his assignment bonus from when he was traded. In addition, he has earned $3.65 million in award bonuses and is in line to gain as much as $1.8 million more for postseason awards this year.

Terminating the contract saved the Texas Rangers $21.3 million they owed the Yankees over the next three years, payments agreed to at the time of the 2004 trade.

Hank Steinbrenner did not make much of Boras’ timing on the announcement.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “But I’m sure there’s a lot of people that aren’t very happy about it. Other baseball people, the commissioner’s office, the Red Sox.”

Hank Steinbrenner said the team left messages with Rodriguez, and “we really wanted to meet with him.”

“We wanted him to stay a Yankee. We wanted to let him know how much we wanted him,” he said. “The bottom line is … do we really want anybody that really doesn’t want to be a Yankee? How the heck can you do that? Compare him with [Derek] Jeter. Jeter, since he was a little kid, all he ever wanted to do was play shortstop for the Yankees. That’s what we want.”

New York was preparing to offer Rodriguez a four- or five-year extension worth between $25 million and $30 million annually and had hoped to meet with A-Rod to present the offer.

“We expressed our interest in keeping him in pinstripes, and requested the opportunity to convey those feelings to him directly with the Steinbrenner family in an open, face-to-face dialogue,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said in a statement.

Cashman sounded as if Rodriguez’s stay in the Bronx was over.

“Alex was a key part of our success over the last four seasons, and I appreciate having the opportunity to work with him,” he said. “I only wish we could have raised a championship trophy together during his time here, which was the ultimate goal we all shared.”

Also among the 57 players who filed for free agency were Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera, catcher Jorge Posada and first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz; Minnesota outfielder Torii Hunter; Colorado pitchers Jeremy Affeldt and Jorge Julio; and San Francisco’s Barry Bonds. Also filing were former Mariners Jeff Cirillo (Arizona) and Jose Mesa (Philadelphia).