Pa. officials honor longtime voters

PITTSBURGH - Christine McConnell cast her first ballot just 10years after women received the right to vote and more than fourdecades before the nation's voting age was lowered to 18.

She hasn't missed an election or a primary since 1930 - even whenshe objected to the county's shift from paper ballots to votingmachines.

McConnell is one of 9,100 Pennsylvanians honored with a place inthe state's "Voter Hall of Fame" for participating in at least 50consecutive elections.

The Committee for Study of the American Electorate estimates thatjust three of every 10 people between the ages of 18 and 24 vote inthe average election, a fact that baffles McConnell. She said …

Arbour to Coach 1,500th for Islanders

Al Arbour traded in his whistle for a sweater and a brown leather jacket. Too many years have passed for him to lead his team on the ice for practice, but not so many that he can't spend one more night behind the bench for the New York Islanders

Arbour, the Hall of Fame coach who guided the Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier-led Islanders to four straight Stanley Cup titles from 1980-83, has been given a gift by the team 13 years after he said goodbye for the second time.

On Saturday night he will step back into his familiar role as coach for one more game _ No. 1,500 with the franchise that he helped make famous.

Current Islanders coach Ted Nolan will …

Best Sellers-Audio

(Sales data compiled by Nielsen/SoundSan.)

1. Lasers, Lupe Fiasco. 1st & 15th/Atlantic/AG.

2. Give The Drummer Some, Travis Barker. Lasalle/Interscope/IGA.

3. Late Nights & Early Mornings, Marsha Ambrosius. J/RMG.

4. Pink Friday, Nicki Minaj. Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Motown/UMRG.

5. Loud, Rihanna. SRP/Def …

FOX HITS THE BULL'S EYE WITH COMMITTED ACTION OFFERING

FOX HITS THE BULL'S EYE WITH COMMITTED ACTION OFFERING

Quick: Name the best three action shows on TV. What's that? You couldn't even name two? Me neither.

Problem No. 1: There aren't enough pure action shows on the air today. The action shows that do make it to TV are almost always tinged with other genres: sci-fi in Fringe, drama in Sons of Anarchy, some of both in Lost, comedy in Chuck.

Problem No. 2: Contemporary television shows are episodic. Successive installments rely largely on viewers knowing what's already transpired. Miss a week and you might as well wait for the show to come out on DVD.

Finally, Fox has realized enough is enough, and that's where …

GOP Senators Revive Border Security Plan

WASHINGTON - With a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the dustbin, Senate Republicans sought Wednesday to win passage of its most popular piece, a $3 billion plan to beef up security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The budget-busting GOP measure would be added - over White House opposition - to a pending bill to fund the budget for the Department of Homeland Security.

But Republican sponsors such as Judd Gregg of New Hampshire said securing U.S. borders is as important a priority as fighting terrorism and the war in Iraq.

The move comes in the wake of the collapse in the Senate of President Bush's immigration plan, a carefully negotiated compromise combining …

Australia reviews emergency calls after teen dies

Officials promised Friday to overhaul Australia's ambulance dispatch system after a coroner said it had failed a teenager who became lost while trekking in 2006 and called a emergency response number seven times before dying of thirst.

David Iredale, a 17-year-old student from one of Sydney's toniest high schools, died soon after making a final call from his mobile phone to plead for an ambulance during a trek in the rugged Blue Mountains west of the city, coroner Carl Milovanovich found.

After investigating Iredale's death, Milovanovich said the call system had failed the teenager because operators were too rigidly preoccupied with getting an address for …

Latin leaders talk of peace, poverty

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras Six Central American presidents concludedtheir summit with a treaty calling for efforts to work for peace andfight poverty and drug trafficking in the poverty-stricken region.

The leaders, in two days of talks, did not reach agreement on aplan to reduce their armies.

"First, Guatemala and El Salvador should achieve peace,"Honduran President Rafael Leonardo Callejas said. "While thesenations do not have peace, it is difficult to think about militaryreductions."

El Salvador hopes to end its 12-year civil war by Christmas, butGuatemala's president recently decided to slow talks to end hiscountry's conflict, in which the military has …