City officials are exploring a massive rehabilitation of the Boston Common, considering whether to carve out portions of the country's oldest public park for a dog park and a full-scale commercial restaurant.

The City Council's special Committee on the Boston Common might also recommend that the city get help in operating the park by forming a conservancy that would do private fund-raising and some maintenance of the park, according to a draft report of the recommendations.

For nearly a year, the City Council has been looking for ways to improve the Common, which they say has been underfunded, ill-maintained, and riddled with brown-bag drinkers and drug users.

Source: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/18/councilors_craft_ideas_for_commons_amenities_funding/

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Officials in Alaska, one of three states yet to certify winners in the November 4 U.S. Senate races, say they hope to have nearly all ballots counted on Tuesday.

And officials in Minnesota, home of one of the other unresolved races, intend to rule Tuesday whether certain rejected absentee ballots should be considered in a recount scheduled to start Wednesday.

By Friday, when vote counting was stopped for the weekend, Mark Begich (D) had 47.37 percent of votes counted; Ted Stevens (R) had 47.02 percent. The two were separated by 1,022 votes out of more than 290,000 cast, according to the Alaska Division of Elections Web site.

In Minnesota, vote totals last week showed Republican Sen. Norm Coleman 206 votes ahead of his Democratic challenger, Al Franken.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/17/senate.election/index.html

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A giant Saudi oil tanker seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean is nearing the coast of Somalia, the US Navy says.

The Sirius Star is the biggest tanker ever to be hijacked, with a cargo of 2m barrels - a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output - worth more than $100m.

The vessel was captured in what the navy called an "unprecedented" attack 450 nautical miles (830km) off the Kenyan coast on Saturday.

Its international crew of 25 is said to be safe.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7734733.stm

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