Dallas Tx

A team of 18 doctors began a complicated separation surgery Saturday in an attempt to give 2-year-old conjoined twins from Egypt a chance at independent lives. The risks are high: One or both of the boys may die, and even if they survive, some brain damage is possible. "Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim have begun the first stage of their surgery that will physically separate them and -- we all hope -- will give them the opportunity to grow and develop like other brothers," said Dr.

City officials here are proud of their newly expanded and renovated Convention Center. It has just over 1 million square feet of exhibition space, and Hall F is the largest column-free exhibition space in the United States at 203,000 square feet. "It's so large that you could park six American Airlines 777s -- largest in the fleet -- inside the room without touching each other or any wall," said Greg Elam, senior vice president of communications at the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Charles D. McKinley had himself shipped from New York to Dallas in an airline cargo crate, startling his parents -- and a deliveryman -- when he broke out of the box outside their home. "My husband asked him, 'Man, what are you doing in this crate?' He said he was coming home," his mother told a Dallas television station. Federal officials want to know how the stowaway bypassed airport security.

About 50 protesters upset over the firing of Dallas' first black police chief marched to City Hall and demanded the removal of the mayor and city manager. Some in the crowd shouted "Amen" as rally organizer Darren Reagan listed demands, including the recall of Mayor Laura Miller and the removal of City Manager Ted Benavides. The protesters accuse the two of orchestrating the dismissal of Chief Terrell Bolton.

The bogus drug busts are notorious: Mexican immigrants were jailed, went broke or got deported, only to have the evidence against them fall apart. The bricks of white powder they were charged with peddling turned out to be plaster of Paris--not cocaine or speed, as police had claimed. In all, more than 70 arrests have come unstrung this winter in a very public crescendo of bad cop work and shoddy prosecution. Now Dallas is in an uproar. Federal investigators are probing the police department.

The natural food chain is causing problems at the Dallas Zoo, where a wild bobcat has killed two of the zoo's African dwarf antelopes, officials said. Traps have been set and zoo employees using tranquilizer dart guns have been prowling the grounds since the bobcat was spotted near the remains of two dik-dik antelopes at daybreak recently. The bobcat has been seen several times since the attack.

Record-setting heat continued to bake the region as northern Texas entered its 66th day without rain. Dallas hit 111 degrees--an all-time high for the day and the highest temperature ever recorded in the city in September, the National Weather Service said. The previous record for the month was 109, set in 1980; the highest ever was 113, set in June of the same year.

Texans can't even get relief from the heat in the cool of the night. The temperature barely dropped to an overnight low of 82, giving Dallas a record run of 24 consecutive days when it hasn't dropped below 80. And the daytime temperature hit 101 by midafternoon, the 21st consecutive day of highs above 100. That kind of sustained heat, without a true cool-down after the sun sets, can be deadly, said Charles Gaylor, a field agent for the Dallas County medical examiner's office.

An intense heat wave that has sent temperatures soaring up to 110 degrees has killed at least 15 people in the Dallas area, including seven since Sunday. Officials said Monday that five people succumbed to the heat Sunday, when thermometers hit an 18-year high of 110 degrees, and that another two people died Monday. They said they were investigating to see whether two other deaths might also be heat-related.

If the two-airport system unfolds in Orange County the way it did in this city, then officials here have a message: Prosperity will be unparalleled but peace will be hard to come by. Provided there's a lesson to be learned from the experience at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and nearby Love Field--the dual airport system repeatedly touted as a model for Orange County--a major airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station would likely bring an explosion in employment and population.