New York City

Ms. Subways promotion revived for centennial

Miss, er, Ms. Subways rides again.

For the first time in 28 years, the city’s 220-mile underground rail network has a human face, that of Caroline Sanchez-Bernat. The 29-year-old actress edged out three other contenders on Monday for the title of Ms. Subways, a promotion revived for the transit system’s centennial celebration this week.

Sanchez-Bernat was crowned with a tiara and sash at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, owned by Ellen Hart Strum, a 1959 Miss Subways.

The new winner’s photo will be posted in the subway, just as were those of the 300-plus women who held the title between 1941 and 1967.

On Wednesday, the new Ms. Subways will take part in a 100th anniversary re-enactment of the New York subway’s inaugural trip, from City Hall to Harlem. She will appear in transit-system advertising and gets to ride free for a year.

One of the finalists missed the crowning ceremony. She was delayed on the subway.

Ohio

Seventh child dies after apartment fire

A seventh child who had been pulled from a burning apartment building died early Monday.

The youngsters died after a fire broke out Sunday afternoon in a Toledo apartment. The victims were five sisters, their brother and a girl cousin, ages 6 months to 7 years, said an aunt, Natalie McGowan.

No adults were in the building when firefighters arrived, and it was unclear whether adults were inside when the blaze broke out. The cause of the fire had not been determined Monday night.

California

Spacecraft to pass moon of Saturn

Space scientists ata NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena hope to get their first close-up view of one of the solar system’s most confounding objects tonight as the Cassini spacecraft passes within 745 miles of Saturn’s smoggy moon Titan.

Using an array of infrared and radar imaging instruments, Cassini will attempt to peer through methane clouds to glimpse a landscape that always has been shrouded from Earth-based observers.

Scientists have speculated that within Titan’s orange haze, gasoline-type substances might fall like rain on a frozen landscape of rock-hard ice and hydrocarbon pools resembling a toxic chocolate sundae.

The craft also could function as a time machine, opening a window on Earth’s early history. As the only other body in the solar system with a nitrogen atmosphere, Titan’s surface chemistry is thought to be similar to Earth’s billions of years ago, said Toby Owen, a Cassini scientist from the University of Hawaii.

Georgia

Hate crimes law thrown out by court

The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state’s hate crimes law Monday, saying the measure was so broadly worded that it could even be used to prosecute a rabid sports fan for picking on somebody wearing a rival team’s cap.

The 7-0 ruling came in the case of a white man and woman convicted of beating two black men in Atlanta.

It was the first application of the 2000 law, which called for up to five extra years in prison for crimes in which the victim is chosen because of “bias or prejudice.”

Forty-eight states have hate crimes laws, but Georgia’s was the only one that did not specify which groups qualified for protection.

Maryland

First bear hunt in 51 years conducted

Maryland’s first bear hunt in 51 years began at dawn Monday — and ended unexpectedly Monday night as the nearly 400 hunters threatened to exceed a state-imposed limit of 30 bears.

By late in the day, 20 bears had been registered at state checking stations, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Calling the one-day harvest rate “overwhelming,” the DNR expressed concern that allowing the hunt to continue a second day would exceed the limit.

The hunt in far western Maryland, scheduled to last up to six days, was intended to cull a growing bear population. The Fund for Animals and the Humane Society of the United States lost a legal battle to stop the hunt.

Animal-welfare advocates dispute the state’s population estimate of 500 bears, compared with a handful in the 1950s. They also disagree with the DNR’s assertion that the hunt is needed to reduce human-bear conflicts, such as the 17 highway deaths of bears in Maryland this year.

Cuba

Businesses to quit accepting U.S. dollars

Cuba announced Monday that U.S. dollars will no longer be accepted at stores or other businesses on the communist island starting next month in a move that will radically change the way business has been done there over the past decade.

The measure called for all transactions to be done in a local currency known as convertible Cuban pesos, starting Nov. 8.

Cubans and others on the island will still be allowed to hold U.S. dollars in unlimited quantities. But beginning Nov. 8 they must be changed into convertible pesos to be used at businesses across the island.

Beijing

Powell negotiates on rights, N. Korea

Secretary of State Colin Powell won agreement from top Chinese officials Monday to resume joint discussions on human rights issues, but he failed to persuade them to open a dialogue with old rival Taiwan.

China angrily removed human rights from the U.S.-China agenda last spring when the United States introduced a resolution critical of Beijing before the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Powell told reporters after high-level discussions here that the two countries “will start talks about resuming our human rights dialogue.” He said he wants official discussions to touch on U.S. concerns about the detention of journalists and restrictions on civil liberties, among other issues.

On North Korea, Chinese officials told Powell they believed it was possible for six-nation negotiations on nuclear disarmament to resume in the next few months. North Korea boycotted a meeting that was to have taken place in September. The six nations are the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas.

Powell is in South Korea today.