News In Brief

EXPLOSIVE DISCOVERY You'd have thought there was a bomb scare by the way Carol Perez's neighbors reacted when she put out the trash and left for work. There was. In the Maitland, Fla., resident's rubbish was a souvenir World War II shell that she knew was empty - but no one else did. "I understand someone being scared, in retrospect," she said after the street was cordoned off and Army experts declared the thing harmless.

BORN IN CAPTIVITY Years from now, when a certain Australian fills out forms that ask his place of birth, he will have to answer: in jail. Yet his mother was innocent of any crime. As we pick up the story, she arrived at the police station in Trentham, near Melbourne, last Thursday in clear need of help since she was in labor. But matters had reached the point that Constable Peter Hawkins realized there wasn't time to take her to a hospital. An empty cell with a bed was available, however. Happily, so was a nearby midwife.

Ranking the 20th century's greatest baseball players Most of his best-known records have been eclipsed by later stars, but Babe Ruth still ranks as the greatest baseball player of the 20th century, according to the group representing the most-serious scholars of the game. Ruth outpointed New York Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig in a vote announced by the 6,000-member Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Its survey put Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens atop the list of those who are still active. But he finished 34th among all 20th-century players. The century's Top 10, as voted by SABR:

1. Babe Ruth

2. Lou Gehrig

3. Ted Williams

(tie) Hank Aaron

5. Stan Musial

6. Joe DiMaggio

7. Ty Cobb

8. Willie Mays

9. Rogers Hornsby

10. Honus Wagner

(tie) Walter Johnson

- Associated Press