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Nation & World National Enquirer buys rival tabloids by Seth Sutel Associated Press i New York—In a deal that would can bine the best-known supermarket tabloids, American Media Inc.—which owns the National Enquirer, the Star and the Wfeekly Vvbrld News—is buy ing the publisher of the Globe, the Sun and the National Examiner for $ 105 million. The deal to buy Globe Communi cations Corp. was announced Tuesday. It is the first acquisition by Amer ican Media since it was purchased in May for $300 million by a New York investment firm headed by former Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Alt man. The combined company will be “ate of the largest publishers of celebri ty-driven content in the world,” with annual revenue of $400 million, said David Pecker, chairman of American Media. Facing declining circulation, the National Enquirer has been trying to improve its credibility by moving away from stories about Elvis sightings and alien abductions. Other parts of the American Me dia family are sticking to more tradi tional tabloid fare. A recent issue of Weekly World News has a story about the exact day the world will end and another about UFOs being piloted by angels and demons. Pecker said American Media’s goal has been to “differentiate and distin guish each of the print properties from one anodier, and that same strategy will be applied to the Globe properties.” The Globe this week has cover age of the JonBenet Ramsey case and the breakup of radio slwckjock Howard Stem’s marriage, while the Sun touts features on the world’s biggest cat and a clairvoyant’s prediction that the Vir gin Maiy would appear at Lourdes this year. The two companies will consoli date their Florida properties and es tablish a combined headquarters at the Globe’s main building in Boca Ratoa American Media is based in Lantana. BUSINESS IS EXPLODING WEALTH THROUGH THE INTERNET EARN A FREE CAR ' ! AND HOUSE PAYMENT 1-877-999-0555 (toll free) ID Number: 2051# OR www.nfli.net/2051 arolina ommunications _ 0 with this * advertisement 933-0863 1 2002 Greene Street in Five Points [Council! HI London 211 Paris 229 * Barcelona 274 Amsterdam 255 From Columbia eac] way based on a rt pup chase. Fares do not include taxes, are valid for departures in November and are subject to change. Restrictions apply. 1-800-2CQUNCIL t Planning Trips for Generations X, Y, and Z. •V -i— (800) 777-0112 | [TRAVEL We've Been There, ' Bh 11 idi w rjRXrjff " . ' a! ,v^Br4*iH I'f I I 1 r*f-»i I n I Animal experts study two-headed turtle Staff Reports Associated Press Charlotte, N.C. — Even the heads of animal experts here shake in disbelief at the sight of a two-headed turtle believed to be the only living one on public dis play nationwide. “The amazing thing isn’t that it ex ists, [but] it’s that it’s alive,” said Eric Stine, animal curator at Charlotte’s Na ture Museum, where the turtle now lives. Bicephalic turtles, often caused when two embryos are fused together, usually live only a month or so. But this yellow-bellied slider turtle, half called Peanut Butter and the other half Jelly, was found in Charlotte’s Free dom Park in spring 1998. Today, it’s three inches long and fits into the palm of a hand. Catherine Payne, the turtle’s previ ous caretaker, donated Peanut Butter and Jelly to the museum last November be cause she was worried she wouldn’t be able to take care of it when she started classes at Gaston College. “And I knew that they would be in a better environment,” Payne said. “I knew they would take care of them and raise them right.” The turtle couldn’t go on display un til a special terrarium was built, with a I warm light for basking and shallow wa ter. The turtle is a study in diverging wills. Peanut Butter takes two steps forward toward dinner, dragging Jelly along. Then Jelly does the same thing, in the other di rection. X-rays show the turtle has two spines. Stine thinks it also has two hearts and two sets of lungs. Museum workers hope it will live to a ripe old age — 25 years, if it achieves the average life span of sliders in the wild. It also might grow to eight pounds if it’s female, and three pounds if it’smale. Museum workers don’t yet know the turtle’s gender, or whether it’s both, and won’t know for another year or so. At that point, they can determine whether it’s growing long fingernails, which the males wiggle right in front of the female’s face as part of the mating ritual. The amazing thing isn’t that it exists, [but] that it’s alive.' Eric Stine animal curator Charlotte Nature Museum Bush from page 6 to the governor and his security officer.” Bush, 53, was treated at the scene and later traveled to New Hampshire, where he was delivering his third edu cation speech today. He said he felt fine. “If I needed to, I could go out and run three miles,” Bush said Monday evening after landing in New Hampshire. Staff Sgt. Roscoe Hughey, a 39-year old Texas Department of Public Safety agent who was following Bush on a bi cycle, received bruises to his left side, DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said. He was treated at the Brackenridge Hospi tal emergency room and released sever al hours later, a hospital spokeswoman said. The DPS declined to say how many other officers were accompanying Bush. Witness Ernest Bedford, 50, a city pipeline inspector who was working near by, said about 15 police officers showed up at the scene within a minute. Bedford said he didn’t hear any brakes squeal, just “a big, loud bang.” When he looked up, Bush was in the clear, but “the other guy was reaching his hand up out of the debris,” Bedford said. Bush used Hughey’s cellular tele phone to call DPS officials at the Gov ernor’s Mansion, and they called 911, said Linda Edwards, Bush’s press secre tary. “The governor stayed with Roscoe until he was in the ambulance,” Edwards said. “fm very lucky and so is the DPS agent,” Bush said. • Special to The Gamecock Cleanup crews remove debris before righting a trailer that overturned Monday along a hiking trail near downtown Austin, Texas. Presidential candidate George W. Bush suffered minor injuries when he dove off the path to avoid the wreck. — _ liiliiMWBBMBMBBBBW