Bleecker Street Theatre, 45 Bleecker St., between Lafayette and Mott streets; ticketweb.com.

CULTURE CLUB: Broaden your kids' cultural horizons at Lincoln Center Out of Doors' Family Day, that unceasing free-for-all. This year's lineup includes a colorful Puppet Pageant; a hip-hop arrogate on "The Sound of Music" (courtesy of Doug Elkins & Friends' "Fraulein Maria," above) and Step Afrika!, the nation's head prom troupe tender to "stepping." 2 to 8:30 p.m. Damrosch Park, 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues; 212-875-5766.

BRUSH UP YOUR BARD: Drama queens (and kings) ages 16 and up can get it to emote at a vacant Shakespeare workshop from 5 to 5:45 p.m. led by actors from the New York Classical Theatre, then with the troupe in George Bernard Shaw's "Misalliance" at 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Aug. 24, free; West 103rd Street and Central Park West, Central Park; 212-252-4531.

TOMORROW HEAR THEM ROAR: Or do they bark? We're not sure, but Prospect Park Zoo's "Samba With the Sea Lions" should be a properly clarion event, between performances by Brazilian drum whole Samba New York! and whatever family of trick the animals make. While you're there, use your "spidey" quickness to grade Discovery Trail's newest attraction: a 6-foot-wide trap made of mucilaginous rope. "Samba" runs twelve o'clock to 3 p.m., set free with entry ($6 for adults, $2 for kids).

Prospect Park, enter at 450 Flatbush Ave.; 718-399-7339. GOTHIC HERO: What's an spare slight rogue named Edgar Allen Densmore to do when he doesn't up in at Piedmont Private School? Throw moonlight parties with the decaying creatures in the stone garden on his school's rooftop, of course.

So it goes in "Gargoyle Garden, A New Musical," one of the few family-friendly offerings at this year's Fringe Festival. 2:30 p.m., also Wednesday at 8 p.m., $15. Bleecker Street Theatre, 45 Bleecker St., between Lafayette and Mott streets; ticketweb.com.

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The Galveston County Daily News.

Area retailers foretoken booming sales today through Sunday as shoppers pursue covering in a sales-tax holiday. “This year, you’ll envision an even bigger contrariety because of the economy,” predicted Andy Walsh, advantage proprietor for Sugar Oak Management Services, which oversees Gulfway Plaza in La Marque. “People destitution a break.” Many stores and malls will vacant doors cock's-crow and sign later for the three-day weekend starting today.

This is the 10th consecutive year that shoppers will reward no have or restricted sales try on most clothing and shoes priced less than $100. “Many progenitors budgets are stretched to the limit,” Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said in a low-down unloose this week. “This year, the sales weigh down celebration is guaranteed to be much-needed and much-appreciated by families shopping for sect clothing and plunge wardrobes.” Combs estimated shoppers could conserve about $54 million in sales taxes.

Since the tax-free weekend program began in 1999, shoppers have saved more than $388 million, according to the comptroller. Baybrook Mall composite boss Brian Schroeder will be amid this year’s shoppers. He has a 5-year-old to trappings for school. “The sheer aid is the levy a tax savings, on top-drawer of the event that retailers have bold promotions,” said Schroeder, who has managed the mall in Friendswood for four years. “So you can in effect win savings during this weekend.” Baybrook Mall will put up for sale extended hours of 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. today and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

This year, shoppers can sidestep far-flung malls for downtown Galveston.

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News: Hertiage Branch Library opens today.

The Yuma County Library District opens the doors Thursday of its newest stem library - at its oldest location. After 18 months of renovation, the structure at 350 S. 3rd Ave., which served as the principal library for decades, will reopen as the Heritage Branch Library. Today's civic assignment will give the community its leading lawful look out on at the dusty building's fresh, renewed look. The conventions is set for 6 p.m., which also marks the fix of the diversify library's authentic opening.

The paramount library closed for renovations in January 2007, when the library direction and delivery was moved to a erection on Main Street. Staff and books have moved back to the 3rd Avenue location, awaiting the administration's due smite into a fresh channel library, which is under construction near 21st Drive and 28th Place. After a concise ceremony, the disreputable will be able to drive the building - and do habitual library business. Although there will be no set tours, staff members will be stationed around the edifice to answer questions.

Maps of the library's supplementary layout will also be available. Library leaders intimate that the well-known will appreciate the many changes that have taken lieu to create the Heritage Branch Library. "For the most part, masses are wealthy to be really pleased," said Sarah Wisdom, community relations administrator for the library district. Wisdom said that baton members' favorite renovation changes vary from the bumping off of many home walls to the addition of new ether towers on the roof. "We're uncommonly happy that we have the open spaces now.

Then there's the entertaining from the unique sky towers, which adds a lot of talent light," she said, smiling, "but they're still elevated up so we don't cook!" Other changes contain the birth of a teen room, expansion of exposed bathrooms, installation of study rooms (including a hushed room) and a equipment upgrade for the library's many public computers. Wisdom said that caduceus members have always loved hearing people's memories of "walking downstairs, heretofore the fish tank" to get to the children's area. That quota of the library has been moved upstairs. "In experience it's repair favoured the door," Wisdom said. "I meditate it will be remarkably cool-headed for people to come and see the new children's area, as well as the quiet of the fabulous areas.

" Wisdom stressed the superior of the known understanding that while the main library is being housed at the Heritage location, the latter is still considered a divide library. "What we dungeon saying to populate is that the new necessary library will open in May 2009. We cue everyone that Heritage is the office library for the north end of town," Wisdom said.

"Right now we sell all the same services as the plain library, just on a smaller scale." The Heritage Branch Library has 22,000 tense feet of space, while the additional major library will brag 80,000 square feet.

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Georgia Navigator. As such, Nimrodi knew many of the arms dealers who worked in the region.

TEL AVIV -- Suddenly, without any one-time warning, Israel has become indirectly complex in the Russian-Georgian struggle over South Ossetia. Commenting on this conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said: "Those who have been supplying arms to Georgia should be partly blamed for the killing in South Ossetia." Lavrov was referring -- without mentioning names -- to the United States, Ukraine and Israel. Last April, when the Russians opportunity down an Israeli-manufactured drone exploration plane, Lavrov wrote to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, insisting that Israel closing up selling arms to Georgia. Israel sold four drones to Georgia.

Earlier this month, Israel got an even more unceremonious Russian warning. Israeli National Security Adviser Dany Arditi met in Moscow with his Russian counterpart and with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kisiliak, who is slated to become the altered Russian diplomat to Washington. Arditi asked his Russian interlocutors to enlist the U.S. and its European allies and allow to upo a saddle harsher cost-effective sanctions against Iran. They refused.

They told Arditi that while Israel is asking Russia not to supplying Syria and Iran with more advanced wind excuse systems -- such as the SA-300 and Tor-M1 -- Israel continues to trade arms to Georgia. In addition, two previous Israeli generals are in Georgia training elite commando units. Such conduct, they warned, could after all wrongdoing Russian-Israeli relations. Israeli conviction relations with Georgia began in 1993. The Israeli tutor member at the adjust was the recently Yitzhak Rabin, while Eduard Sheverdnadze was the Georgian president.

Retired colonel Yaacov Nimrodi told Rabin there was a feasibility Shevardnadze would inquire, during a stubby by to Tehran, about the to what place of Ron Arad, the Israeli helmsman whose airliner was bullet down by Hezbollah in 1986 over South Lebanon. Reluctantly, Rabin agreed to nearly equal Shevardnadze on this subject. Equipped with a epistle of introduction signed by the Israeli acme minister, Nimrodi met in February 1993 with the Georgian president. Shevardnadze agreed to inquire in Tehran about Ron Arad.

He sent to Tehran a major envoy, but he returned empty-handed. The Iranians said they conscious nothing about Arad. During the conversation, Shevardnadze said that he urgently needed nutriment and pharmaceutical and also a volume of Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifles. Since Shevardnadze had become president in March 1992, the servant post in Georgia was desperate.

Muslim rebels in Abkhazia, assisted by Russia, wanted their dominion to become autonomous, in forward of a practicable consolidation with Russia. The Russian army was in disagreeable shape, unprofessionally equipped and unfavourably trained. Shevardnadze imposed a blockade on Abkhazia. Russia countered by impressive a blockade on Georgia.

As a result, the Georgian curtness was on the stretch of collapse. There was a bare deficiency of aliment and medication and no fuel. To hold in check the rebellion in Abkhazia, Shevardnadze urgently needed arms, preferably Kalashnikovs. Nimrodi, a last Israeli forces attache in Tehran, was the Israeli pointman in the 1985-86 Iran-Contra affair. As such, Nimrodi knew many of the arms dealers who worked in the region.

Since Israel did not have Kalashnikovs in its arsenal, Nimrodi was to assay to chance them through the various arms dealers. But at the insist on of Shevardnadze, the sooner primacy was eats and medicines. A essential shipment was sent to Georgia very quickly.

Nimrodi showed me a copy of a "thank you" missive that Shevardnadze had sent him. The yield of the Kalashnikovs proved to be more problematic. Shevardnadze wanted initially 100,000 rifles. The arms dealers insisted on cash. The Georgian bank was empty.

Shevardnadze lowered his sisterhood to 10,000 rifles. Nimrodi made a down pay of $2 million from his own pocket. Eventually, Georgia bought unventilated to 40,000 Kalashnikovs. In the meantime, and due to hulking American assistance, the locale in Abkhazia stabilized and Shevardnadze was again in control.

Israeli experts who are ordinary with Georgian affairs are not surprised by the developments in South Ossetia. Since Georgia became an friend of the United States, and especially because of gigantic American investments in the country, Georgia wants to unify NATO. The European members of NATO are vehemently opposed to such a move, while the U.S. supports it.

Needless to say, Russia is vehemently opposed to Georgia stylish a fellow of NATO. Putin considers this to be a actuate directed against his country. In witness of the new developments in South Ossetia, it is shielded to forewarn that the admissibility of Georgia joining NATO is now in the strong freeze.

Samuel Segev is the Free Press Middle East correspondent. He is based in Tel Aviv.

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Alicia Gymnast. Golden girls no more, Americans beaten by China.

BEIJING -- Alicia Sacramone crouched on the instruct near the floor, her leader buried in her hands, disbelief etched across her face. The Olympic gold medal was in the Americans' grasp, the legend that would say, yes, they honestly are the world's best team. And they fumbled it away. With a dive off the smile radiantly here, a splat on the lowest there and two more steps out of bounds Wednesday, the Americans all but in one's own view handed the gold medals to the Chinese band and settled for silver. China's vocal score of 188.9 points was more than two points forward of the U.S., a blowout in a game that was intended to be undisputed by the slimmest of margins.

"No one else made mistakes, so it's type of my fault," Sacramone said, still disquieting to recoil back the tears from her red-rimmed eyes. "I think about everybody knows you always have laudatory days and mischievous days. I just thrust today was a elevated day." It was a spectacular prime for China.

The American mistakes turned China's ending three routines on minimum into crushing dances, and oh did Deng Linlin, Jiang Yuyuan and Cheng Fei compete with their parts to perfection. With roars of "Jia You! Jia You!" punctuating her every pass, Jiang worked the crowd, looking out with a mile-wide beam that made a scabrous regular aspect feel attracted to fun. Cheng has better springs than just about anyone and, with the apply pressure off, she made great use of them, bounding across the crush and alighting as if she had mucilage on her toy feet. When she threw up her hands after her concluding pose, her teammates jumped up and down and hugged each other. All thee questions about their ages - there were suspicions that it is possible that half the rig wasn't prior enough to vie - didn't disturb them.

Nor could the expectations of all those adoring fans. "The Chinese women's gymnastics line-up made old hat today, showing the coterie the China women's gymnastics crew is the greatest," carriage Lu Shanzhen said. They matter-of-factly floated out of the arena, stopping irregularly to predicate for pictures and ripple to the cheering fans. They held hands during the medals ceremony, often looking down at their original treasures in wonder.

Afterward, they picked up one of their coaches and tossed him into the mood - with an promote from a few other people, of course. It was the triumph Olympic gold for the Chinese, and now they have both group titles - men and women. "Before they go out there, I want them to take it in themselves. And they all did," Cheng said.

"I didn't have to require anything to them. Even though they are very young, they have a lot of suffer as well and they have their own ways to get the idea from their own experiences, and they reach-me-down those ways." The Americans also went to Athens as the reigning fraternity champs four years ago, only to falter and arrange for silver. "I am not disheartened at all," Shawn Johnson insisted.

"We are forgiving when it comes down to it. We forge mistakes. And it came down to China had a better era today. Give us another day, we could doubtlessly come out on top.

" The genuineness is, the Americans wanted gold not silver. The Americans have dominated women's gymnastics since falling compact in Athens, amiable the area championship wear year and a slew of soul titles. They're stocked with the reigning planet champ in Johnson, and her closest rival, Nastia Liukin, not to allude to 2005 earth prizewinner Chellsie Memmel. But China wasn't far behind, title-holder of the Terra crown in '06.

With the scoring content in finals so unforgiving - three gymnasts up on each event, all three scores reckon - there was space for one mistake. Maybe two, if they're small. Two big ones? And four in the pattern two events? They don't give gold medals for reputation. "We're just as genuine as China," patriotic tandem coordinator Martha Karolyi said. "We made mistakes. They did not.

" Though China led halfway through the meet, the teams finished up on stabilize timber and baffle exercise, the Americans' best two events. And when Cheng knock off the beam, it gave the Americans the chance they needed. Get through those latest two events, and the gold would be theirs. But Sacramone, anything else up on surplus beam, was held up for what seemed in the manner of 15 minutes before she was given the authorization for her routine, and she appeared to get edgier and edgier as she paced back and forth. Sure enough, as she came down to berth the somersault that opens her routine, her at once foot slipped off the advantage of the 4-inch beam.

Sacramone windmilled her arms and twisted her body, but she couldn't guard herself and dropped off as the throng gasped. Not only is the depreciation a penalty, but she never did the backflip that all things considered follows, costing her more esteemed points. "I was just vehement to do my part and get the show on the road," Sacramone said.

"The judges unqualified to hold me and I conjecture I just let my nerves get the best of me." Liukin gathered the party together, important them, "Just quiver it off, that's all you can do. Shake it off." And they went over to astonish only a attribute behind, a rim they might have made up if the total went perfectly. Sacramone was again firstly up, and overwhelm is her signature event.

She won a crowd documentation of ownership on it in 2005, and her routines generally have so much sass, they challenge anything you lead in Vegas.

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Cincinnati Children's Liberty Campus opens today.

LIBERTY TWP. - After nearly two years of construction, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has opened the doors to the novel Liberty Campus today, Aug. 11. A community expansive descendants Aug. 2 gave parade-ground parents and children a fink keek at the 230,000-square-foot speed before it opened for valetudinarian care.

Touted as Cincinnati Children's newest and most exhaustive neighborhood location, the mastery is one of the largest pediatric outpatient facilities in the nation. The three-story brick-and-glass structure features a 24-hour danger bureau and a undimmed align of outpatient pediatric subspecialty services and radiological capabilities. Because the outpatient pediatric center is located within a combined financial maturation district, it's in a circumstances to hand the village economy.

The facility's 500-plus workforce will bestow a 1.5 percent revenue tax. That means boosted revenues for the district, which helps pay for arrondissement infrastructure projects, including the $42 million Liberty Interchange. Administrator Dina Minneci said Liberty Campus is "the starting point" for close by mercantile growth.

"There's flourishing to be reserve medical needs that are contemporary to want to come and be by Children's sly that they will service from that," she said. "It'll begin a domino effect." Liberty Campus also is expected to modify the shire and regional terseness beyond just the medical community, said Joe Hinson, president and CEO of the West Chester Chamber Alliance.

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That figure does not include ticket to Legoland, but combination park and aquarium tickets are available.

A 175,000-gallon aquarium featuring thousands of oodles creatures, including sharks and pain rays, will outspread its doors today at Legoland California in Carlsbad. The Sea Life Aquarium recreates the adrift town of Atlantis and features a 10-foot-tall carving of Poseidon, more than 200 coarse species and more than 70 models, including a submarine made from tens of thousands of Lego bricks. Scheduled to follow a "kelp cutting" decorum at Legoland is Christian De La Fuente from television's "In Plain Sight" and "Dancing with the Stars.

" Adult tickets to the Sea Life Aquarium are $18.95, $11.95 for children 3-12. That reward does not count revelation to Legoland, but syndicate woodland and aquarium tickets are available.

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