Mets catcher Paulino arrives at camp after delays

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — New York Mets catcher Ronny Paulino arrived in camp after a three-week delay because of visa problems caused by his 50-game suspension for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs.

"It was a long process, but finally I am here," Paulino said Saturday. "There's nothing I can do about it, just have to make adjustments and get ready to play. I've been working out at the stadium of the team I played winter ball with (in the Dominican Republic)."

After Saturday's workout, Paulino is scheduled to catch a minor-league game Sunday. The former Marlins catcher said it should not take long for him to learn the pitchers on the Mets staff.

"When I …

Karzai says Western troops could stay 10 years

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told a global meeting Thursday that he will soon convene a peace conference in his country to lure Taliban fighters to renounce violence, but he still expects foreign troops to stay for up to a decade.

Karzai called on delegates from about 70 nations and world bodies to support a plan to reintegrate Taliban insurgents into mainstream society with offers of housing and jobs in the police, army or agriculture.

"We must reach out to all our countrymen, especially our disenchanted brothers who are not part of al-Qaida or other terrorist networks," Karzai told the conference aimed at plotting an eventual Western exit from …

McCaskey gets first look at camp

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. Former Bears president Michael McCaskey arrivedin town for the first time since being bumped up to chairman of theboard of directors.

"I'm enjoying it more," McCaskey said of his new job. "There'sless attention paid to day-to-day stuff and more attention paid tolong-term stuff."

McCaskey said he is not insulted that the relationship between themayor's office and new president Ted Phillips has yieldedsignificantly more progress on the new stadium than under hisleadership.

"It's just a question of timing," McCaskey said. "I don't thinkthe city was ready to talk earlier. Now they are."

What does a chairman do in Platteville?

"I'm …

Column: Colts season continues to unravel

The first time he played in the NFL, Curtis Painter cost the Indianapolis Colts a shot at an undefeated season.

Maybe that's why the Colts have seemed determined ever since to keep him off the field at all costs.

He didn't take a single snap all last year. When it became clear that Peyton Manning wasn't going to be able to start this season, management hastily grabbed a quarterback out of a retirement home rather than give the ball to the third-year pro.

But now Painter is going to start a game behind center for the Colts. On Monday night at Tampa Bay, with the entire nation watching.

Well, almost the entire nation. Those in Indianapolis might be better served …

AP: Gannett slashes CEO's pay package by 60 pct

Gannett Co. slashed its chief executive's pay package by 60 percent last year, passing along the financial misery that has tormented the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as its stock price and profit shrank amid an industrywide drop in advertising revenue.

CEO Craig Dubow was granted 2008 compensation valued at $3.1 million, based on The Associated Press' analysis of figures Gannett filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday. That's down from 2007 compensation of $7.9 million, which included estimates provided by the company of restricted stock and stock options that overstate what they are currently worth.

As big as the decline in Dubow's …

Deaf people are warned over fire alarms

Cheddar Valley's deaf community is being targeted to make surethey do not become the victims of a fire in their own homes.

Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service is reaching out to thedeaf community during Deaf Awareness Week, which is running untilJuly 4.

The theme of the week is Look At Me and it is being co-ordinatedby the UK Council on Deafness.

The Fire Service in Devon and Somerset will continue its alreadyvaluable work, by continuing to communicate with hearing impairedpeople and stressing the importance of fitting and testingspecialist smoke alarms and equipment.

With an estimated one million adults within the UK unable to hearan ordinary smoke …

Senators Warn Against War With Iran

WASHINGTON - Republican and Democratic senators warned Tuesday against a drift toward war with an emboldened Iran and suggested the Bush administration was missing a chance to engage its longtime adversary in potentially helpful talks over next-door Iraq.

"What I think many of us are concerned about is that we stumble into active hostilities with Iran without having aggressively pursued diplomatic approaches, without the American people understanding exactly what's taking place," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told John Negroponte, who is in line to become the nation's No. 2 diplomat as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's deputy.

Obama, a candidate for president in 2008, …