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Lights out for ‘Friday Night?’

(AP) — Another beloved TV show is close to the chopping block. And yet again, its loyal fans are attempting to stave off the execution.

With the writers strike over, a number of shows are in limbo as network executives plot their new schedules. Most notably, the fate of Friday Night Lights hangs in the balance.

The hourlong drama, based on the 1990 book by H.G. Bissinger, focuses on a high school football team in Dillon, Texas. It’s a deftly written (and elegantly scored) series about a small town in which football is both a blessing and a curse.

For its first season, the Writers Guild Awards nominated it for best drama series. A critic for The New York Times has gushed: I love `Friday Night Lights.’

Some reports have suggested NBC wants to bring back Friday Night Lights, which was in the midst of its second season when the strike halted production. Variety has reported a decision from the network likely will not be made for several months.

With such a window, it’s clear: Blog now or forever hold your peace.

To that end, www.SaveFridayNightLights.tv has been created. The site’s goal: inundate NBC entertainment chief Ben Silverman with letters, online petitions, even plastic footballs.

FNL hasn’t had it easy. Some viewers were initially confused about the series. The book had been adapted into a 2004 movie by the same name, and when it hit the tube, it was oddly scheduled not on its namesake day, but Wednesday. Being up against American Idol didn’t help, either.

For the second season, it was switched to the more obvious Friday night, but ratings only improved to 6.2 million viewers after 5.9 million in the previous season.

The site for VH1’s Best Week Ever has also opened a petition to save FNL: www.bestweekever.tv/category/save-friday-night-lights.

Such tactics have a checkered rate of success. Way back in 1984, CBS renewed Cagney and Lacey after a letter-writing campaign. But acclaimed shows such as Fox’s Arrested Development, the CW’s Veronica Mars and NBC’s Freaks and Geeks weren’t saved by online petitions.

Sometimes, a gimmick has helped. Fans sent 40,000 pounds of peanuts to CBS after Jericho was canceled, prompting the network to bring the show back for a second season. The network did, though, slash the show’s budget. When the new season premiered last week, it drew 7 million viewers.

Devotees of the USA Network’s The 4400 have sought to follow in the footsteps of Jericho. Since the series was canceled after its fourth season in December, more than 6,000 bags of sunflower seed bags have been shipped to USA.

Friday Night Lights hopes its plastic footballs will score a touchdown for the series. As of Wednesday, SaveFridayNightLights.tv claimed there were 6,250 minifootballs in the air.
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Ivanovic out as seeds tumble in Qatar

DOHA, Qatar — Injured Ana Ivanovic, the top seed in a major event for the first time in her career, has been forced to withdraw from the Qatar Open after only one match.

And the tournamen was dealt further blows when Russian second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and sixth-seeded American Venus Williams followed Ivanovic out of the event following defeats on Thursday.

Kuznetsova lost 6-3 7-6 against 15th-seeded Austrian Sybille Bammer in galeforce conditions while Dominika Cibulkova surprised Willians 6-3 6-3 and Vera Zvonareva defeated fellow Russian Dinara Safina (11) 7-5 6-3.

Australian Open finalist Ivanovic suffered damage to her left ankle on Wednesday just four points from the end of a straight sets win over Olga Govortsova.

Ivanovic collapsed after trying to turn just behind the baseline, sat there in tears with the pain for several minutes and considered quitting on the spot.

However, despite only being able to move with a limp she was persuaded that she might be able to finish the match, which she did by ripping three trademark ground stroke winners.

But she knew then that the reprieve may be temporary. It’s still painful, she said at the post-match press conference. It definitely hurts a lot and I’ll have to see tonight. The physio did a great job and I will try to recover as best I can.

It means that Ivanovic is now doubtful for the Dubai Open, which starts on Monday, although the Serb remains optimistic of competing in that event.

The injury is not as bad as I thought, she said after returning from the local hospital in Doha. There is no fracture. It is an ankle sprain. But it is pretty painful and it is hard to step on it.

I am definitely very disappointed. It’s a disappointing way to end the tournament and I thought I was in good shape. Conditions were tough but I was happy with my game and I though I was playing well. I thought I was in with a chance of another title.

Ivanovic’s withdrawal means a walk-over into the quarterfinals for Agnieszka Radwanska, the 15th seed from Poland.

Bammer, the only mother playing regularly on the WTA Tour, triumphed after an 18-point second set tie-break that saw Kuznetsova earn four set points.

She made a good pass to save the first set point and a forehand down the line saved the second — and Bammer hit two more well-driven winners at 6-7 and 7-8 to avoid being taken to a decider.

I fought, but I did not really start fighting till the end, admitted Kuznetsova. I guess I just got adjusted to it by then. But I should have started fighting earlier.

Asked if she thought play should be postponed when the wind was so strong, Kuznetsova said: I think so, yes. But you don’t think about this when you are on the court. E-mail to a friend

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McCanns seek footage of Maddy ’sighting’

LONDON, England (CNN) — The family of Madeleine McCann wants to see surveillance video footage from a French diner where a Dutch tourist reported seeing the missing British girl, a family spokesman said Thursday.

Clarence Mitchell said the family was aware of reports that French police concluded the girl was not Madeleine, but he said the family wanted to hear directly from French investigators before discounting the report.

We want to see the video of this girl, Mitchell told CNN.

We want to hear from the French police about what they have investigated and what they have decided. This line that French police have discounted that it is Madeleine is not official so we’re still waiting to hear whether French police believe this to be the case.

A Dutch tourist told authorities earlier this month that she saw Madeleine at a roadside restaurant near Montpellier, France.

On Wednesday, the Associated Press quoted an unnamed police official as saying police took the sighting seriously but determined the girl was not Madeleine.

The tourist, Melissa Fering, told Dutch television that she had a clear view of the girl and was shocked to realize she resembled Madeleine. She said the girl even had the well-publicized defect which Madeleine had in one of her eyes.

I saw the eyes of this child and I freezed ice cold, Fering said in the interview.

Fering said she wanted to be sure the girl was Madeleine, so she approached the girl and said her name.

When she heard her name she looked up and kept on dancing a little bit, Fering said. There was a man in her company. … When we called her name he quickly closed her jacket, put a cap on her head, and gone he was.

Madeleine went missing on May 3, days before her fourth birthday. Her family, who were vacationing with her in Portugal, has said she disappeared from their room at a resort while they dined in a nearby restaurant.

Despite a global search and the attention of celebrities like Virgin Chairman Richard Branson, author J.K. Rowling and soccer star David Beckham, there have been no major breaks in the case.

Portuguese investigators named the McCanns as official suspects in the case in September. The parents deny any involvement in the disappearance, saying they believe Madeleine may have been abducted by pedophiles and taken to North Africa.

There have been numerous reported sightings of Madeleine since her disappearance. Last year, a video surfaced of a Moroccan woman carrying a child that looked very similar to Madeleine on her back, but authorities determined that the little girl was the woman’s child.
found here.

Oil prices hold steady near $100

SINGAPORE (AP) — Oil prices held steady Thursday after rising to a record above $101 a barrel overnight as investors poured more cash into crude and other commodities as a hedge against inflation.

U.S. crude inventories were expected to rise for a sixth straight week in data due Thursday from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery added 8 cents to $99.78 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore.

The March contract, which expired Wednesday, rose as high as $101.32 a barrel, a new trading record, before settling up 73 cents at a record $100.74.

Oil futures had pushed briefly past an all-time high Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered its forecast for U.S. economic growth this year, convincing energy investors that the central bank will slash interest rates further.

Investors are going into commodities for a safe haven because they think commodities may perform better than equities and also may be hedges against inflation, said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin Gertz in Singapore.

The Fed said damage from the housing slump and problems in the credit markets will slow economic growth to between 1.3 percent and 2 percent this year, down from a previous forecast for GDP growth of between 1.8 percent and 2.5 percent.

Oil investors can interpret such news in one of two ways: Selling on concerns that the economy, and thus demand for oil, is cooling; or buying on the prospect that interest rates will fall, weakening the dollar and feeding new buying of oil futures. On Wednesday, they definitively chose the latter view. Watch investors speculate on OPEC cutting output

The Fed was … the catalyst to get us going here, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

The contract for March delivery of light sweet crude, which was expiring later Wednesday, rose 73 cents to settle at a record $100.74 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier rising as high as $101.32, a new trading record. On Tuesday, the contract jumped $4.51 a barrel.

Falling rates tend to weaken the dollar, and crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar. Also, oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the greenback is falling. In the moments after the Fed released its forecast, oil prices spiked sharply higher.

This is unbelievable, Flynn said.

Earlier, crude prices fluctuated in part due to low trading volumes. Trading in the expiring March contract was about 10 percent of the level of trading in April crude oil, which will become the front-month contract on Thursday. When volumes are low, price moves can be exaggerated. April crude settled unchanged at $99.70 a barrel after rising as high as $100.86 earlier.

Oil prices are still within the range of inflation-adjusted highs set in early 1980. Depending on how the adjustment is calculated, $38 a barrel then would be worth $96 to $103 or more today.

Two new U.S. economic reports Wednesday suggested the economy is cooling. The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, rose by 0.4 percent last month, more than economists expected. The Commerce Department, meanwhile, said construction of new homes and apartments rose by 0.8 percent in January, but that applications for building permits, an indicator of future activity, fell by 3 percent.

The reports come a week after the Energy Department, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the International Energy Agency all lowered their oil demand growth forecasts for this year.

But the prospect that the Fed will reduce rates proved too strong, feeding a new buying frenzy, analysts said.

This is all about momentum and driving (prices) higher right now, Flynn said.

Despite the return of $100 oil, and now $101 oil, there are concerns that high oil prices — and the higher gasoline and heating oil prices they spawn — are sowing the seeds of their own destruction by contributing to the economic slowdown.

The price gains raise questions about their sustainability in the face of eroding fundamental strength, said Antoine Halff, an analyst a Newedge USA LLC in a research note.

Other energy futures fell Wednesday. March gasoline slipped 1.79 cents to settle at $2.5852 a gallon on the Nymex, while March heating oil fell 0.68 cent to settle at $2.7546 a gallon. March natural gas fell 1.2 cents to settle at $8.965 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, April Brent crude fell 14 cents to settle at $98.42 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
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E. Timor’s Ramos-Horta speaks

DARWIN, Australia (AP) — East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was slowly being returned to consciousness by doctors who have kept him sedated since he was shot in an assassination attempt last week, his spokesman said Thursday.

Ramos-Horta has undergone surgery five times since the February 11 shooting in Dili, the East Timorese capital, and has been heavily sedated at a hospital in northern Australia to help him stay still and avoid pain.

Suspected rebels shot Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, near his home on February 11.

Doctors are pleased with the progress of his recovery and were allowing him to regain consciousness, said Luke Gosling, a Ramos-Horta aide who is with him in Darwin.

He is slowly waking up, said Gosling. He has started saying a few words to close family.
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