Prater told police the match ignited when he pulled a package from his pocket during the flight from Washington, D.C.

Prater pleaded not guilty Thursday in East Boston District Court to a fugitive charge. He was held on $5,000 bail and ordered to return to Georgia within five days to clear the warrant. It was unclear if he had hired an attorney.

The 69-year-old woman from Berlin first crashed into three cars while trying to pull out of a supermarket car park on the Baltic resort island of Usedom.

Then, she accidentally stepped on the accelerator and sped across a lawn before crashing into a nearby house, police said. She was taken to hospital in an ambulance but that vehicle was then hit by a truck.

“She was actually fortunate that no one was seriously hurt in any of the accidents,” said Zinnowitz police spokesman Axel Falkenberg. “The accidents were a little bit like dominos toppling.”

(Reporting by Franziska Scheven; Editing by Jon Boyle)

The wheelchair had been traveling at about four miles per hour. Vehicles on German motorways must clock at least 37 miles per hour, and there is no upper speed limit on some sections.

Motorists spotted the woman and notified authorities, who escorted her to safety.

“She told us she got lost and wanted to avoid taking a big detour,” a police spokesman in the southern city of Nuremberg said.

“He mentioned he had hitchhiked,” Clinton police Detective Matt Fawbush said. “I wish I knew how he traveled that far. It’s mind-boggling.”

Hentz has a son in Middletown, Pa., where police found him on a street after midnight Wednesday, Fawbush said.

He was examined at Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa., and released, according to the hospital.

Hentz lives alone in a retirement apartment in Clinton, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City. A daughter reported him missing Monday around 2 p.m. MDT.

“We received information from the family he may be seeking transportation back to Pennsylvania, where he’s from,” Fawbush said. “We had checked bus depots, airports. Pretty much nothing as far as leads and tips.”

Fawbush said he had no other details on Hentz’ cross-country journey. Police in Middletown, Pa., did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

“Nice people? A truck driver? We don’t know how he did it,” Fawbush said.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Aldrin, who followed U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong onto the moon in July 1969, said the lottery would be run through his ShareSpace Foundation, which he set up to promote interest in science and space travel in schools.

Details of the competition are still sketchy, Aldrin said at a space investment conference on Wall Street on Tuesday, with the legal status of selling lottery tickets still to be resolved.

He said the idea was to offer the top prize of a flight into earth’s orbit, but it was not yet decided on what spacecraft.

Aldrin added that the winner would have to be over 18 years old and in good physical condition. The prize would not be transferable or saleable on eBay.

The airline, a unit of AMR, this week unveiled a version of its Web site for women (http://www.aa.com/women). The site aims to increase the number of women booking flights on American by 2 percent or more, said an AMR executive on Tuesday.

The site, as well as changes to American’s planes and travel clubs, is the latest effort by a U.S. airline to distinguish itself in a competitive industry that has spent the last five years slashing costs and tweaking services.

“We obviously have a vast interest in women,” said Peggy Sterling, AMR vice president of safety, security and environmental. “There is an untapped resource.”

Sterling said nearly 50 million travellers, or just under half of its passengers, are women. By increasing that number by just 2 percent, AMR could gain an additional $94 million a year in revenue, she said.

The Web site features articles and tips for women on travel safety and security. It also encourages feedback and suggestions from women. Sterling said a recent redesign of American’s 767-300 business class included changes such as lower storage bins that may appeal to women.

U.S. airlines have been scrutinising their operations for ways to exploit any potential advantage. For example, American and other carriers, like UAL’s United Airlines, have upgraded their business cabins and begun charging for in-flight perks that used to be free.

AMR has two other dedicated Web sites that cater to Spanish speakers and to gay and lesbian travellers. One airline expert said he expects more airlines to follow AMR’s example as a means to bolster ridership.

“You turn over every stone. We’ll see a lot of this happening,” said Terry Trippler, airline expert at travel club myvacationpassport.com.

“Right now competition is stiff out there,” he said. “It’s going to get a lot tougher.”

The 47-year-old male pilot was on the flight deck of an Airbus A340-600 plane preparing to leave Heathrow Airport for New York when police boarded, having been tipped off by an airport worker.

“Virgin Atlantic can confirm that the pilot who was questioned by police on 31st March …will not be charged with any offence,” Virgin said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It is believed that a diet being followed by the pilot caused the initial positive reading during a preliminary breath test,” Virgin said.

“Subsequent blood tests later confirmed that the amount of alcohol in his blood was the equivalent to that of a non-drinker.”

The pilot, whose name was withheld, is free to resume his duties immediately, Virgin said.

“He used what was described to me as rude language,” Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said about Friday’s incident on Northwest Flight 1190.

“At some point during the boarding process, he left the cockpit, went into the front lavatory, locked the door and continued his conversation.

“Passengers who were boarding the aircraft could hear his end of the conversation through the lavatory door.”

When the captain emerged from the bathroom, a passenger confronted him about his behaviour, reportedly prompting more cursing by the pilot of the B757 aircraft.

Local police questioned the captain, whose name was not released, and determined there was no cause to conduct a sobriety test, Gregor said.

But Northwest cancelled the flight and flew the pilot back to his base in Detroit. The airline said it expected to get the last of the delayed passengers to their destinations by Sunday.

“Northwest is conducting a review of the matter and has apologised to its customers for the inconvenience,” the company said in a statement. “Northwest has provided impacted customers with meals and hotels. In recognition of the inconvenience, they will receive compensation from Northwest Airlines.”

According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, the woman said she was trying to sleep in her seat when the man sat down in an empty seat next to her. She said he touched her, and then got up and left. She then realized what had happened, and told flight attendants, according to the affidavit.

The crew moved the man to a seat near the front of the plane until the end of the flight. Northwest Airlines Corp. said the flight crew asked that police meet the flight from Seattle when it arrived early Monday in Minneapolis.

“The NWA employee has been suspended pending a review of the incident. Northwest is cooperating fully with law enforcement authorities on this matter,” the company said in a statement.

Northwest declined to say what job Gonzalez holds with the airline.

The FBI said Gonzalez was detained after his initial appearance in federal court on Monday.

The booming eastern province of Zhejiang, with 1,859 recorded infections by the end of last year, started enforcing the rules on Thursday, the Beijing News said.

“Condoms or condom-vending machines must be placed in hotels, bars and designated public places, or the managers will be fined 5,000 yuan ($650),” the report said.

The Chinese government originally stigmatised AIDS as a disease of the decadent, capitalist West — a problem of gays, sex workers and drug users. Traditionally, none of these officially existed in communist China.

It has belatedly woken up to the problem, and health experts have warned the virus is now moving into the general population.

But a lack of sex education and unwillingness to talk about sex still hampers the fight, health experts say.

The Internet news service Alfa Chile said tourists and performers visiting the world famous Vina del Mar song festival at the Pacific beach resort have exhausted supplies of the sexual energizer produced by the ethnic Mapuches.

The Mapuches from Chile’s south are famous for the fierce resistance they put up against Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.

“The Mapuche Viagra increases the desire, the libido and the sexual appetites of men and women,” Italo Diaz, a pharmacist at the Mapuche pharmacy Makelawen, told Reuters. “The compound is a Mapuche secret.”

Enthusiastic tourists have found the price for palwen at 2000 pesos per bottle (about $3.70) irresistible and Diaz is trying desperately to restock.

The cruise ship passengers told police they jumped on Wagner Segura, 20, to defend themselves when he pointed a .38 caliber revolver at them near the Caribbean port of Limon on Wednesday, and somehow snapped his neck, regional police director Luis Hernandez said.

Segura died instantly and two other unidentified thieves, one of whom was armed with a knife, fled the scene, Hernandez said.

“One of the tourists was a former Marine and he was probably the one who broke (Segura’s) neck,” Hernandez said. “His neck was completely snapped.”

No charges will be filed against the tourists because police viewed the incident as an act of self-defense. Police questioned and released the group, which rejoined the cruise and left Cost Rica.

The Americans were passengers aboard the Carnival cruise ship Legend. They got off their tour bus to take photos in a notoriously rough neighborhood a short drive from Limon.

After the attack, they put Segura’s body on their bus and found a police officer in Limon to report the incident.

It will be on the Urumiyeh lake in Western Azerbaijan province, a municipality official identified only as Aghai said.

Under Iran’s strict Islamic law, mixing with men in public is forbidden. Strict sex segregation actually protects women rather than restricting their rights, officials argue.

“There will be no men on the Arezou (Wish) island. Public transport, restaurants and other facilities will be staffed only by women,” Aghai said.

Parts of Iranian beaches are reserved for women, where they can remove their headscarves and wear swimming costumes. Women have forced their way into the national sports stadium, defying strict sex segregation. There are several parks for women only.

In public women have to cover their body in long loose coats and their hair with headscarves. The chador, literally meaning ‘tent’, an all-enveloping, usually black cloth is obligatory in some government offices.

Authorities have not released the name of the resident or the victim, identified only as a white male, but are treating the death as suspicious, said Sgt. Neville Gittens.

The resident had just come back from a two-week visit in Humboldt County when he made the grisly discovery Monday, Gittens said.

“That is really sad, just terrible,” said Kiersten Frey, who has lived on the block for more than 10 years. “It’s usually pretty mellow around here.”

The resident’s orange-and-white tabby cat seen prowling the investigation scene was taken away by animal control officials but was unharmed, said Animal Care and Control Lt. Le-Ellis Brown.

Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle