Cardinal leads pilgrimage to Lourdes

In the 15 decades since a teenage girl named Bernadette Soubirous first saw apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France, the site of her spiritual ecstasy has become the most visited shrine in all of Christendom. Bernadette is its patron saint.

Over the next several days, Cardinal Francis George and a group of nearly 200 pilgrims from the Chicago Archdiocese are among the flocks of faithful gathering at Lourdes, which annually attracts around 6 million travelers.

They're in the Pyrenees foothills on Lourdes' 150th anniversary to pray and immerse themselves in waters said to have miraculous healing and rejuvenating powers.

Many of those who seek them out are …

Black delegates at GOP convention decline 78 percent

After seating a record number of African American delegates in 2004, last week's Republican NationalConvention in St. Paul, Minn. had the lowest Black representation in 40 years, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Blacks and the 2008 Republican Convention, a guide released last week by the nonpartisan research institution that focuses on minority issues, said that African Americans will comprise only 1.5 percent of the total number of GOP delegates, substantially below the record setting 6.7 percent in 2004.

The 36 Black delegates in 2008 represent a 78.4 percent decline from the 167 Black delegates at the 2004 GOP convention.

Based on …

Brown's 10th-inning single drives in winning run for Oakland

Emil Brown singled home the winning run in the 10th inning, and the Oakland Athletics beat the Baltimore Orioles 2-1 on Monday night.

With two outs, Daric Barton singled against Jim Johnson (0-1), and Frank Thomas followed with a walk to set up Brown's third hit of the game.

Joey Devine (3-0) pitched a scoreless 10th for the win, handing Baltimore its third consecutive defeat.

Ramon Hernandez tied the score in the ninth with a slow RBI groundout to shortstop. Melvin Mora doubled to start the inning and advanced to third on Kevin Millar's long flyout.

Oakland closer Huston Street blew his second save in 11 chances. He had converted his …

Tyco mistrial just minutes before verdict Judge's ruling follows letter, phone call to controversial juror

NEW YORK -- With the jury close to reaching a verdict, a judgedeclared a mistrial in the grand-larceny case against two former Tycoexecutives Friday after a juror apparently received an intimidatingletter and phone call for supposedly siding with the defense.

Judge Michael Obus aborted the trial after six months, citingintense pressure on juror No. 4, Ruth B. Jordan. "It is certainly ashame that this has to be done at this time," the judge told jurors.

Prosecutors said they would quickly seek a retrial against formerTyco International chief executive L. Dennis Kozlowski and formerchief financial officer Mark Swartz, who were accused of looting thecompany of $600 …

ADP and CSi complete form collaborative effort

ADP Claims Services Group and CSi Complete recently announced a collaborative effort to integrate CSi Complete research on collision repair satisfaction and other critical repair cycle metrics into ADP Dispatch, a web-based claims management application that streamlines scheduling of appraisal resources on claims. The research will be a Key Performance Metrics module in ADP's web-based claims management application that improves productivity through realtime, …

Glance: Comparison of e-reader prices

Amazon.com Inc. is releasing two new models of its Kindle e-reader. Both are smaller and lighter than the current Kindle, and one is cheaper because it shuns 3G cellular network access in favor of Wi-Fi for downloading books on the fly.

Here is a look at how Kindle retail prices stack up against those for other electronic readers and Apple Inc.'s …

German Football Results

Results from the 25th round of the Bundesliga, the German first-division football league (home team listed first):

Saturday's Games

Cologne 1, Bayern Munich 1

Werder Bremen 2, Stuttgart 2

Hamburg 1, Hertha Berlin 0

Eintracht Frankfurt 1, Schalke 4

Freiburg 1, Hannover 2

Wolfsburg 4, Bochum 1

Borussia Dortmund 3, Borussia Moenchengladbach 0

Sunday's Games

Nuremberg 3, Bayer …