TZINTZUNTZAN, Mexico

Mexico celebrates its Day of Dead with flowers, offerings

Associated Press

With traditional flower-decked altars dedicated to deceased relatives and friends, Mexicans celebrated the first of two Day of the Dead holidays yesterday, remembering those who died as children.

A second celebration today is traditionally held for deceased adults.

Yellow cempasuchitl flowers - whose bright color is thought to guide the dead back to loved ones - surrounded photographs of the deceased placed near gravesides or at home altars.

At the graveyard in the largely Indian west Mexico town of Tzintzuntzan children played among the tombs as adults decorated graves with candles and flowers.

Many residents brought small cook stoves and food to prepare a graveside meal during their vigil at the tombs of their relatives.

Some placed trails of flower petals leading to their doors, to mark the way home for the spirits of the dead.

The tradition appears rooted in pre-Hispanic beliefs that life is brief and transitory, and that the spirits of the dead went neither to a paradise or hell, but wandered for years before entering Mictlan, the "land of the dead.''

And the dead were indeed present yesterday. In front of their photographs, relatives placed candles, ''dead bread'' pastry and the favorite food and drink of the deceased, to give him or her a warm welcome.

Traditions vary throughout Mexico, reflecting customs inherited from the country's 62 Indian groups.

"Rather than a U.S.-style holiday of Halloween or witches, this is a nostalgic commemoration for our dear departed,'' columnist David Fernandez Hummel wrote for the government news agency Notimex.

KEY LARGO, Fla.

Florida bans shark-feeding expeditions

Associated Press

A Florida commission yesterday banned shark feeding expeditions, saying the practice by some scuba boat operators could be altering the animals' natural behavior.

The seven-member Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission stressed that there is no evidence connecting the feedings to the recent shark attacks in the state's waters.

They said the ban, which takes effect Jan. 1, is solely aimed at assuring the sharks do not become more dangerous.

Opponents of ''interactive diving,'' in which scuba-diving tourists watch dive leaders feed chunks of fish to sharks, say the practice teaches the animals to associate people with food.

Shark dives bring thousands of tourists and millions of dollars to the state.

Scuba boat operators and divers who oppose the ban argued that the practice does not a pose a danger to the public. They have sued to overturn the ban.

''There is no scientific evidence to support the ban,'' said Erich Ritter, a scientist at the Shark Research Institute in Princeton, N.J.

John Stewart, a spokesman for the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association, said if shark feedings posed a danger to the public, a diver would have been attacked on one of the tours. There have been no such attacks.

''Wouldn't the shark go after the person who is two feet away?'' Stewart said.

Since 1994, the number of Florida shark attacks has exceeded 20 in every year except 1996, according to the International Shark Attack File. The number peaked in 2000, when there were 38, including one death. There have been 36 so far this year.

The increase in attacks since 1994 is due in part to the enhanced ability to report the attacks, said the organization's director, George Burgess.

In July a bull shark ripped the arm off 9-year-old Jessie Arbogast as he swam near Pensacola. Surgeons reattached his arm, but severe blood loss left the Mississippi boy brain-damaged.

CHARLESTON, W.Va.

Charleston student can't form anarchy club

Associated Press

A judge ruled yesterday that a 15-year-old sophomore cannot form an anarchy club or wear T-shirts opposing the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan because it would disrupt school.

Katie Sierra was suspended from Sissonville High School for three days for promoting the club. She was also told she could not wear T-shirts with messages such as: "When I saw the dead and dying Afghani children on TV, I felt a newly recovered sense of national security. God Bless America."

In a complaint filed with her mother, Sierra argued her right to free speech was being denied.

Circuit Court Judge James Stucky agreed that free speech is "sacred" but he found that such rights are "tempered by the limitations that they ... not disrupt the educational process."

Sierra said she'll pursue the dispute.

"I don't want war. I'm not for Afghanistan," Sierra said. "I think that what we're doing to them is just as bad as what they did to us, and I think it needs to be stopped."

James Withrow, lawyer for the Kanawha County Board of Education, argued that an anarchy club was inappropriate because students "do not feel that their school is a safe place anymore."

"Anarchy is the antithesis of what we believe should be in schools," Withrow said.

Sierra's attorney, Roger Forman, said she is "being punished for expressing her opinion."