Bush takes crusade south

People

Bush takes crusade south

First lady Laura Bush arrived in Panama Thursday afternoon for a two-day visit to promote breast-cancer research. She and Panama's first lady, Vivian Fernández de Torrijos, visited a public library in Panama City and learned about an educational exchange program between Panama and the United States. Today, she will participate in an event in which Panama will formally join a regional alliance for breast-cancer awareness and research. The U.S., Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico are already members. Bush helped launch the program in 2007.

Curry fails to summit

The "Today" show's Ann Curry, 52, didn't make it to the top of Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro. Altitude sickness and forbidding weather forced the NBC morning show's crew to stop about 3,000 feet short of the 19,000-foot summit. They had hoped to hit the top for today's show. Curry reported to her "Today" show colleagues Thursday that she was heading back down. Said Curry: "Here's the bottom line: I just did not want to live with any one of us having any kind of serious injury just to get us live from the top of this mountain."

Lawmaker is expecting

U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., is pregnant with her first child. Sanchez, 39, is due May 21 and plans to marry her boyfriend of a year and a half, consultant Jim Sullivan, her spokeswoman said Thursday. Sanchez, who is divorced, was just re-elected to a fourth term representing southeastern Los Angeles County. At least one other congresswoman is pregnant. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., who is married to former Rep. Max Sandlin of Texas, is due Dec. 23.

Second acts

"Impossible" chef is back

After getting dumped from Food Network's "Dinner: Impossible" series in March — turns out he'd exaggerated all sorts of details about himself — Robert Irvine is making a comeback. Production of six new episodes starring Irvine will begin this month and start airing in March, Food Network officials said. The show challenges its chef to prepare meals under extreme conditions. Irvine had hosted the show for four seasons when, in February, the St. Petersburg Times reported that his claims of having earned a bachelor's degree in food and nutrition from the University of Leeds and having been picked by the Queen of England to be an elite Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, among other things, were untrue.

Oops

Baby born during flight

Finnair officials said a Swedish woman gave birth to a girl 33,000 feet over Kazakhstan on a flight from Bangkok, Thailand, to Helsinki, Finland. The Finnish national carrier's spokesman Christer Haglund said mother and baby are fine. Two doctors and two nurses were among the 227 passengers on the 11-hour flight on the MD-11 aircraft. They assisted the birth Thursday with the aid of a satellite link to a medical service. It was the first time a baby had been born on a Finnair flight.

Let's eat!

That's a lot of kimchi

Thousands donned aprons and hair nets Thursday outside Seoul's City Hall in a bid to make the world's biggest batch of kimchi, the spicy pickled cabbage that is Korea's best-known dish. Kimchi traditionally is prepared in the fall during an annual rite called the "kimjang," and packed into giant pickling jars and buried to ferment. Kimchi comes in hundreds of varieties and is eaten with most Korean meals, but the most common form is Napa cabbage slathered with red pepper and garlic. On Thursday, some 2,200 volunteers made 143 tons of kimchi from 58,000 heads of cabbage, said Kim Sung-tae, a Seoul government official. Kimchi making is not a category in the Guinness World Records.

Passages

Lawrence Wheatley, 73, an enigmatic Washington, D.C., jazz pianist and composer who led jam sessions for more than 40 years but refused to allow his music to be recorded, died Oct. 19 of vascular disease at his D.C. home.

Today in History

1922: Rebecca Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

1942: The Alaska Highway was formally opened.

1967: President Johnson signed the Air Quality Act.

1980: 87 people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas.

Today's Birthdays

Actor Joseph Campanella, 81. Actress Marlo Thomas, 71. Actress Juliet Mills, 67. Actress Goldie Hawn, 63. Gospel singer Steven Curtis Chapman, 46. Baseball player Ken Griffey Jr., 39. Actress Jena Malone, 24.

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