ATLANTA - It may be two weeks into spring, but it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Cold temperatures in much of the country have those celebrating Easter this weekend swapping out frills, bonnets and sandals for coats, scarves and socks. Baseball fans are huddled in blankets, and instead of spring planting, backyard gardeners are bundling their crops.

The National Weather Service was predicting record lows Sunday for parts of the Southeast and Midwest, and an unseasonably cold weekend for much of the Northeast. Snow was forecast in parts of Ohio, Michigan and New England.

"Our musicians are worried about their fingers," said the Rev. Michael Bingham, pastor of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Columbia, S.C., where Sunday lows were predicted to be in the low 20s. The church's sunrise Easter service usually held in a courtyard will be moved indoors.

In Chicago, kids bundled in winter clothing for an Easter egg hunt at the Glessner House Museum. The high temperature in the city reached just 32 degrees on Saturday - matching a record set in 1936 for lowest high temperature. In early April, the Windy City's average high is 54 degrees.

"It was freezing," said Clare Schaecher, the museum's education director. "All the little kids had boots on and some of them were trying to wear their spring dresses. It was awful."

In Morrison, Colo., officials were forced to cancel an annual sunrise service scheduled for Sunday at the Red Rocks Amphitheater because seats and stairways were covered in ice.

In Washington, D.C., visitors to the nation's capital awoke Saturday to see cherry blossoms coated with snow. Snow also fell in metro Atlanta Friday night, and even in parts of West Texas and the Texas Panhandle.

Heavier snow in Ohio postponed Saturday's doubleheader between the Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners. The doubleheader had been scheduled because Friday's home opener in Cleveland was postponed.

In Nashville, Tenn., a forecast low of 22 degrees Sunday would beat the current record set on March 24, 1940, when the morning temperature was 24 degrees.

"We're going to be in record territory, for sure," said Jim Moser, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Nashville.

Farmers were worried about the impact the weather could have on crops. Blueberries could be particularly affected, said Stanley Scarborough, production manager of Sunnyridge Farms, which has fields in Baxley and Homerville, Ga.

Scarborough said the majority of the state's blueberry crop, a variety called rabbit-eye, is normally harvested around June 1. This year, the bushes bloomed early because of a wave of warm temperatures last week. Scarborough the blueberries are not able to withstand freezing temperatures.

"At 26 or 27 degrees, you would probably lose half of the Georgia crop," valued at about $20 million to $25 million dollars, Scarborough said.

In Alabama, growers scrambled to protect early blooming peach orchards. State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said if temperatures stay at 28 to 29 degrees for two hours, there could be "very severe" damage to the crop.

"If we stay there for four hours, we could possibly lose the peach crop," he said.

Open-air maternity ward delivers babies amid Solomon Islands tsunami debris

GIZO, Solomon Islands (AP) - As flies buzzed around a basket of bloody gauze, Moana Saito nursed her newborn daughter, delivered Saturday in an open air maternity ward near the epicenter of the Solomon Islands' earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Swaddled in tie-dyed muslin, the baby rested in Saito's arms as she recovered on a wooden cot under a blue tarpaulin stretched over a metal clothes line.

"It's lucky it's not raining," said the attending nurse, Vaelin Gagahe, who delivered Saito's baby. The nurse has delivered three babies in two days at the makeshift network of tarpaulins and tents that sprung up to replace Gizo's hospital, partially destroyed by Monday's tsunami.

Health officials warn that without proper sanitation, the number of child deaths in the disaster zone could rise significantly. Unhygienic conditions and a lack of clean water have contributed to isolated cases of diarrhea and dysentery in some refugee camps, and international aid workers were scrambling to dig latrines and set up water purifiers.

Earlier this week, the United Nations warned that up to 30,000 children could be affected by the disaster, including 15,000 under the age of five.

"These children are highly vulnerable to hunger, disease and the disruption of their normal lives and protective social systems, and require urgent lifesaving assistance to survive," the U.N. said in a statement.

Saito's husband, a ship captain, was helping to unload relief supplies from a boat that arrived in Gizo early Saturday and had not yet seen his daughter - the couple's first surviving child. They had a boy in 2004, but he died shortly after birth.

The 23-year-old mother went into labor just before dawn in the hillside camp where she and hundreds of others have taken refuge away from their low-lying homes, many of which were badly damaged by the 8.1 magnitude quake and the killer waves that followed.

Saito's home was only partially damaged, but like many others, she has been too afraid to return because of the many aftershocks - including several registering magnitude 6 or higher - that have rattled the region since Monday.

She and her husband have no tent, and have been sleeping in the open air. She is not sure whether they will return home now that their baby daughter has arrived.

According to the U.N., an average of 20 children die per 1,000 live births in the Solomons - a rate that exceeds many South Pacific nations, but is well below that of neighboring Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.

There were no official estimates of the number of cases of diarrhea and dysentery. Stefan Knollmeyer of Australian aid group AusAID said he was optimistic that basic sanitation measures - such as pit toilets, water purification tablets and soap - could contain the problem.

The United Nations has set the death toll from Monday's disaster at 34 people, while Solomons' official toll is 28. However, many villagers have been burying the dead as they find them, and some deaths may never be reported to officials.

Knollmeyer said the current estimates seem accurate based on AusAID's survey so far.

"It may go up another 10. There are still reports of missing people, but it's not going to jump (much higher)," he told The Associated Press from a command center in Gizo.

He said up to 7,000 people had been left homeless by the disaster - far fewer than originally feared. Earlier this week, the premier of the western province, Alex Lokopio, said as many as 40,000 of the region's 90,000 people may have lost their homes.

Meanwhile, aid continued to flow into the region after days of delays caused by transport bottlenecks and government bureaucracy. Two large boats docked in Gizo early Saturday carrying supplies and about two dozen troops from Australia and New Zealand, including five medics and six sanitation experts.

More than 2,500 tarpaulins and 1.2 tons of rice have been distributed to the camps around Gizo and some of the surrounding islands, and more supplies are on the way.

Relief has been slow to reach the region's outlying islands, however, and villagers have complained they are running low on food, shelter and other emergency supplies.

Black market money exchange thrives in Zimbabwe, where soda costs $40 at official rate

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - The economic chaos engulfing Zimbabwe has turned even a mundane task such as renting a car into an unachievable dream for the average law-abiding citizen.

A car rental company on Saturday quoted a day rate of 690,000 Zimbabwe dollars to hire a basic model, plus a deposit of 25 million Zimbabwe dollars. This is the equivalent of a staggering $2,760 per day - plus a deposit of $100,000 - at the official exchange rate, but only about $35 and $1250, respectively, on the black market.

The figures provide an insight into the growth of the black market economy in this once-prosperous southern African nation, which is reeling under inflation of more than 1,700 percent and suffering from shortages of most basic goods.

The number of Zimbabwe dollars that bought a three-bedroom house with a swimming pool and tennis court in 1990 today - at official exchange rates - would buy a single brick. A lifetime public worker's monthly pension cannot buy a loaf of bread.

The independent Consumer Council estimates regular supermarket goods increased in price by between 50 and 200 percent last month alone. The official government mouthpiece, the Herald newspaper, warned last week that inflation would hit 2,500 percent by the end of April.

President Robert Mugabe blames sanctions, drought and Zimbabwe's former colonizer Britain for the collapse of an economy based on exports of agricultural and mineral products.

Others blame land grabs, in which Mugabe encouraged blacks to force out most of the 5,000 white commercial farmers who owned 40 percent of all agricultural land and produced 75 percent of agricultural output.

Zimbabwe's main foreign currency comes from an estimated 3.5 million of its nationals living abroad, replacing tobacco exports, tourism and mining revenues slashed in six years of political and economic turmoil.

Much of the hard currency sent home from Zimbabweans abroad ends up on the black market - and gives even impoverished villagers the benefit of black market deals, making most of the population lawbreakers, analysts say.

Currency violations carry the penalty of a fine or imprisonment, which are invoked often - mainly by political and business rivals seeking to settle grudges.

Many Zimbabweans are prepared to run the risk, saying they have no choice considering the official rate of 250 Zimbabwe dollars to the U.S. dollar, and the black market rate of 20,000 Zimbabwe dollars to the U.S. dollar.

For instance, a pack of six wax candles, traditionally used by rural poor but now essential in urban homes during frequent power outages, sold for 47,000 Zimbabwe dollars, which was $188 by the official rate, or $2.35 at the unofficial one.

A can of soda costs 10,000 Zimbabwe dollars, or $40 at the official rate, and 50 cents at the black market rate. The price of a bottle of imported Scotch whisky was around 500,000 Zimbabwe dollars, or $2,000 officially and $25 by the black market.

A Zimbabwean motorist wanting to rent a car Saturday was told that the 25 million Zimbabwe dollar deposit on a Volkswagen Chico was payable in cash - bundles of it - or a bank certified check on a day banks were closed for Easter.

"When we accept cash, it's obviously coming from the black market. We don't ask questions or we'd be out of business," said an official of the rental company who asked not to be identified in case of investigation by central bank inspectors.

"Everyone does it. That's the way it works," he said. "It doesn't make any sense to change at the bank. Do you think our politicians do that?"

If a foreign tourist bought a small, locally made chocolate Easter egg at 22,000 Zimbabwe dollars on his international credit card, charged by law at the official rate, it would set him back $88. But if he changed money on the street, he would get it for just over $1.

Va. lab works to ID Sept. 11 victims using DNA from bone fragments, but process is painstaking

NEW YORK (AP) - New DNA technology developed by a Virginia laboratory to help identify years-old remains of Sept. 11 victims is working for all but the smallest slivers of bones, a scientist says.

But identifying a Sept. 11 victim still takes weeks of painstaking review and often depends on factors like the quality of DNA samples originally provided by families from items like toothbrushes, a city spokeswoman said Saturday.

"The last thing we want to do is submit an ID to someone and have it not turn out to be an ID," said Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office.

The city announced earlier this week that remains of five victims, including a city firefighter, had been identified. But more than 1,100 victims still do not have identifiable remains.

Last fall, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Hirsch told victims' families that a new procedure for extracting DNA from remains would likely lead to new identifications.

That procedure, which extracts calcium from bone over a period of about a week, has yielded purer DNA samples than previous tests of bones badly damaged by extreme heat and time, said Mike Cariola, vice president for forensic operations at Lorton, Va.-based Bode Technology Group.

"The procedure works for the remains that we test" with the exception of the tiniest of bone fragments, weighing 100 milligrams or less, he said. "I don't think there's any DNA to be found in these, they're so small."

Cariola said two to five scientists at the lab work full time creating DNA profiles to send to the city to find possible matches.

Two forensic biologists, one part-time staffer and three anthropologists ultimately conduct a series of reviews to check the quality of the DNA profile provided by the Bode lab against the samples the city maintains, Borakove said.

More than 10,000 remains have been recovered in all, including more than 1,200 found in the past 18 months in and around the World Trade Center site.

Family members say recent identifications have brought both hope and anxiety. Charles Wolf, whose wife's remains were never recovered after she died in the trade center, prefers not to dwell on the unknown.

"I just go on living," he said. "Until someone calls and say we found something of Katherine's, I don't want to think about it. … I'm not interested in setting myself up for anticipation."

Man giving away house in northern Ohio, but taker has to move it

BELLEVUE, Ohio (AP) - Mike Bassett wants to give away a house, a big house, with a fireplace, built-in cabinets, a bay window, two full bathrooms and walk-in closets.

There's just one catch - the lucky recipient has to move it.

Bassett says if he doesn't have a taker by July 1, he will raze the structure to make way for more parking for his supermarket and gas station next door in the town 45 miles southeast of Toledo.

"I hate to tear it down," Bassett, 54, of Port Clinton, said Friday. "It's a beautiful house."

He said that in the past week he's received about 20 inquiries about the house, which was used for offices until last June.

Connie Roberts, marketing director for Bassett's Market, estimated that moving the house will cost $50,000 to $80,000, depending on where it's going and other factors.

Bassett, whose family has been in the grocery business since 1898, said he'd like to donate the house to charity and would like to see donors provide a lot and pay for the move.

"We would love to host a fundraiser - or a series of fundraisers - if that's what it takes to get the home moved," Roberts said. "And if we get a nonprofit group, we would go out of our way to help them out."

Bassett estimates the 3,600-square-foot house is worth $125,000 to $150,000 without the property. One woman offered to buy it for $200,000 if he'd leave it in its place, he said.

4 rescued, including 2 children, after boat goes over 150-foot dam in Texas

HOUSTON (AP) - A boat carrying four people, including two boys ages 5 and 7, careened off a 150-foot dam on the Colorado River and became wedged near the bottom, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The boaters were rescued Friday and two of them, including one child, were airlifted to a nearby hospital, Coast Guard spokesman Adam Eggers said. He did not know their names or conditions.

The recreation-style boat submerged into whitewater-speed rapids after going over the falls near Bay City, Eggers said. The Coast Guard's Houston office received a call from the Matagorda County Sheriff's Office before sunset Friday requesting help for the boaters.

"Our best guess is that they either lost steering or their engine died," he said. "If your engine dies, there's no way to stop yourself from going over the dam."

A Coast Guard helicopter rescued the boys first before going back for the men. The two not airlifted were treated near the scene, Eggers said.

Child recuperating at Chicago hospital from rare infection related to smallpox vaccine

CHICAGO (AP) - A 2-year-old Indiana boy who contracted a rare and life-threatening infection from his soldier father's smallpox vaccination is recovering, a hospital spokesman said.

Doctors have relied on some untested measures to save the boy's life, including skin grafts and an experimental drug that has never been used to treat a human patient, officials said. The boy's pox lesions left him with the equivalent of second-degree burns, requiring grafts to let the underlying skin heal.

"Everyone has been a little bit astonished that he has recovered as well as he has," hospital spokesman John Easton said Saturday. The boy should be should be upgraded to serious from critical condition soon, he added.

The boy has been in pediatric intensive care at the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital for the past month with a virulent rash over 80 percent of his body. He developed the rash after coming in contact with his father, who had recently been vaccinated for smallpox before he was to be deployed overseas by the Army.

The boy is not suffering from smallpox, but from the related virus which is used to convey immunity to the much deadlier disease.

Health officials say there is no infection risk for the general population because the virus can be spread only through close physical contact.

The child suffered from eczema, which is a known risk factor for such an infection, doctors said.

The military resumed smallpox vaccinations in 2002 because of bioterrorism fears.

Experts hope sound connections can help deaf dolphin's unborn calf in Florida Keys

KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) - A marine mammal rehabilitation facility opened a dolphin "chat line" of sorts Saturday, hoping to teach a deaf dolphin's unborn calf to communicate.

Castaway, as the stranded Atlantic bottlenose dolphin is named, has been recovering at the Marine Mammal Conservancy since Jan. 30. A battery of tests has confirmed she is deaf.

Dolphins need to hear echoes of sounds they produce to find food, socialize and defend themselves against predators.

"We asked ourselves `How do we get the calf to speak when we have a deaf mother?"' said Robert Lingenfelser, the conservancy's president.

They decided to electronically connect Castaway's habitat with a lagoon at Dolphins Plus, a research and interactive educational facility a few miles down the Keys Overseas Highway. Underwater speakers and microphones were installed at both locations and connected via phone lines.

Castaway should deliver her calf in about a month.

"Even before it is born, we want the calf to have an idea of what normal dolphin vocalization is," Lingenfelser said.

On the Net:

Marine Mammal Conservancy: http://www.marinemammalconservancy.org

Police: 9-month-old girl ejected from SUV during police chase in Texas, killing her

ALVARADO, Texas (AP) - A woman led police on a 25-mile high speed chase until she crashed into a concrete median, killing her 9-month-old daughter in the collision, authorities said.

Alexxus Riza was thrown Friday night from the SUV, which rolled several times under an Interstate 35 overpass, said Trooper Dub Gillum of the Texas Department of Public Safety. The vehicle struck a traffic light before hitting the concrete barrier, officials said.

Aimee Andrea Riza, 36, of Keene, sustained minor injuries and was charged with manslaughter, evading arrest, resisting arrest and reckless driving, Gillum said.

"She was combative after the crash when they tried to extract her out of the vehicle," he said. "The officers had to wrestle her to get her under control."

A motorist had called the Somervell County Sheriff's Department to report a reckless driver. When Riza refused to stop, authorities chased her through two counties at speeds up to 110 mph, Gillum said.

Authorities used spikes, tried to block intersections ahead and backed off the SUV hoping it would slow down. But Riza continued to drive until she crashed, traveling on the rims after the SUV's tires were deflated, Gillum said.

With no other place to go, Miami sex offenders are allowed to live under a bridge

MIAMI (AP) - Because an ordinance intended to keep predators away from children made it nearly impossible for them to find housing, five convicted sex offenders are living under a noisy highway bridge with the state's grudging approval.

The five men under the Julia Tuttle Causeway are the only known sex offenders authorized to live outdoors in Florida, said state Corrections Department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.

They have fishing poles to catch food, cook with small stoves, use battery-powered TVs and radios and keep their belongings in plastic bags. Javier Diaz, 30, has trouble charging the GPS tracking device he is required to wear; there are no power outlets nearby.

"You just pray to God every night, so if you fall asleep for a minute or two, you know, nothing happens to you," said Diaz, who arrived this week. He was sentenced in 2005 to three years' probation for lewd and lascivious conduct involving a girl under 16.

The conditions are a consequence of laws passed here and elsewhere around the country to bar sex offenders from living near schools, parks and other places children gather. Miami-Dade County's 2005 ordinance - adopted partly in reaction to the case of a convicted sex offender who raped a 9-year-old Florida girl and buried her alive - says sex offenders must live at least 2,500 feet from schools.

"They've often said that some of the laws will force people to live under a bridge," said Charles Onley, a research associate at the federally funded Center for Sex Offender Management. "This is probably the first story that I've seen that confirms that."

Forced to contend with rats, some of the men sleep on raised cardboard mats. Some have been staying under the bridge for weeks.

"This is not an ideal situation for anybody, but at this point we don't have any other options," said Plessinger. "We're still looking. The offenders are still actively searching for residences."

She said the problem would have to be addressed.

"If we drive these offenders so far underground or we can't supervise them because they become so transient, it's not making us safer," Plessinger said.

County Commissioner Jose Diaz said he had no qualms about the ordinance he created.

"My main concern is the victims, the children that are the innocent ones that these predators attack and ruin their lives," he said. "No one really told them to do this crime."

The whoosh of cars passing overhead echoes loudly under the causeway, which runs over Biscayne Bay, connecting Miami and Miami Beach.

About 100 feet away are the bay's blue-green waters, where a family with young children played in the water this week. In the near distance, luxury condominiums rise from the coastline.

Javier Diaz said he and the other men fear for their lives, especially because of "crazy people who might try to come harm sex offenders."

The five committed such crimes as sexual battery, molestation, abuse and grand theft. Many of the offenses were against children. The state moved the men under the bridge from their previous home - a lot next to a center for sexually abused children and close to a day care center - after they were unable to find affordable housing that did not violate the sex-offender ordinance.

Twenty-two states and hundreds of municipalities have sex offender residency restrictions, according to a California Research Bureau report from last August.

- Associated Press writer Matt Sedensky contributed to this report.

FAA: Northwest flight canceled after pilot's outburst

ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) - A Northwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Detroit was canceled after authorities said a pilot was yelling obscenities during a mobile phone conversation as passengers boarded.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police responded after being called at McCarran International Airport about the pilot Friday afternoon, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said Saturday.

The pilot was apparently in a heated mobile phone conversation in the cockpit, then went into a lavatory, where he locked the door and continued the conversation as passengers boarded, Gregor said.

"Passengers who were boarding the aircraft could hear his end of it," Gregor said.

Authorities were told that the pilot, when confronted by a passenger, cursed at the passenger, Gregor said.

There were 180 passengers and five crew on the flight to Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Northwest Airlines Corp. said in a statement.

The name of the captain, who Gregor said was a veteran pilot, wasn't released.

Gregor said Northwest decided to remove the pilot from the flight and return him to his home base in Detroit for an investigation. He said it was up to Northwest to determine what would happen to the pilot.

Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest said the flight was canceled due to reports of inappropriate language by a crew member. Northwest also issued an apology to passengers and said the incident was under review.

"Customers on the flight were accommodated on other flights to their destinations," the airline said.

Northwest said it provided passengers with meals and hotels during their additional time in Las Vegas. Most were expected to be on flights by Saturday, Northwest said, and a few were booked on flights Sunday.

The FAA plans to follow up with Northwest about the incident, Gregor said.

'Superman' costume, other Hollywood items sold in auction

CALABASAS, Calif. (AP) - The outfit worn by Christopher Reeve in the movie "Superman," the creature from "Alien" and scripts, posters and other costumes from Hollywood past fetched more than $2 million at a Thursday auction.

Memorabilia dealer Profiles in History auctioned off more than 700 items including the Superman leotard, which fetched $115,000, and a Winkie Guard costume from "The Wizard of Oz," which sold for the same amount, the company announced.

The biggest draw, however, was the latex creature suit used in the 1979 Ridley Scott film "Alien," which went for $126,500.

Other items sold included Marilyn Monroe's personal script from "The Seven Year Itch," which brought $69,000; Val Kilmer's Batman costume from "Batman Forever," for $63,000; and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine claws from "X2: X-Men United" for $40,250.