Shoppers check selves out // New high-tech registers use customers as grocery clerks

MORROW, Ga. Shoppers wheel their carts up slowly and eye the newcheck-out lane in the Kroger Food Store with a good deal ofsuspicion.

There is nobody to ring up the groceries. Nobody to say, "Pricecheck register six." Nobody to say, "Have a nice day."

It is the shopper and a video screen. One-on-one. This isself-service check-out.

Welcome to high-tech grocery shopping.

It's a little like going to the video arcade for a can of peas.

"One older lady came in and had a ball with it," said Pete Wenz,an engineer with CheckRobot, the Florida company that designed thedo-it-yourself check-out system.

The new system, called Expressit, made …

A Gutsy Russian Effort at Worlds

STUTTGART, Germany - Limping slowly on a severely wounded knee, Nikolai Kryukov dragged himself up the stairs, stopped when he reached the top and raised his hand to salute the judges on the floor exercise.

All that work to get a 0.0.

A disabling injury to one of Russia's best gymnasts, along with a similarly bad break for teammate Anton Golotsutskov, left the Russians without a complete team in qualifying Monday and in danger of missing team finals at the world gymnastics championships.

"No good," said Maxim Deviatovski, one of the few Russians to make it through unscathed.

Russia finished the first day with 362.175 points, in third place and a full …

Dollar gains on support from Russian official

The dollar mostly rose Monday after the Russian finance minister voiced his support for the currency, even as the U.S. government said foreigners' dollar-denominated holdings fell in April. Sliding stock markets also fueled dollar buyers.

The 16-nation euro dropped to 1.3841 from 1.4010 late Friday, while the British pound slipped to $1.6342 from $1.6450.

However, the dollar slipped to 97.98 Japanese yen from 98.24 yen.

Russian Finance Minister Kudrin said over the weekend it was too early to think of a reserve- currency alternative to the dollar, said UBS analysts, and he said the greenback was in good shape before the start of a meeting of …

The Game Goes On!

What strike?

The dreams of the Alsip Dodgers and the Alsip Braves havenothing to do with arbitration or free agency. Team members are moreinterested in baseball caps than salary caps. They love the game.

The Alsip …

Belarus freezes plan to give up uranium stockpile

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Belarus has suspended an effort to fully give up its Soviet-era stockpile of highly enriched uranium with U.S. assistance in response to new American sanctions, the government said Friday.

Belarus will make sure the material is stored securely in line with its international commitments, the Foreign Ministry said.

The U.S. has conducted a longtime effort to secure nuclear materials in former Soviet nations to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

"We are disappointed with Belarus' announcement," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heide Bronke Fulton said in Washington. "We hope that Belarus intends to meet its stated objective of the …

Fed cuts key rate by quarter-point and says economic activity remains weak

The Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate by a quarter-point, a smaller move than the aggressive easing it undertook earlier this year.

The Fed action, announced Wednesday after a two-day regular meeting, pushed the federal funds rate down to 2 percent, its lowest level since late 2004. It marked the seventh consecutive rate cut by the central bank since it began easing credit conditions last September to combat the growing …

Bread making not so difficult, after all

"That's so difficult and time-consuming," people say when I givethem a loaf of homemade bread.

Not so. Bread-making stymies many a cook, but in truth, there isnothing to fear.

Probably the most common cause of bread failure is one simplemistake, killing the yeast with too-hot water. Better to err on theside of water that is too cool - though the bread won't rise as fastas it would have with lukewarm water. Remember the old saw aboutflicking a drop of liquid onto the wrist to see if a baby's bottleis warm enough? That's the temperature you want for bread. If it istoo hot for your wrist, or for a baby, it is too hot for bread.

Another good way to make bread is …