■CUBA
Cigar roller aims for record
Jose Castelar began rolling cigars when he was five. Now, at 64, the Cuban expert hopes to finish rolling a 20m stogie by tomorrow to garner his fourth world record from the Guinness Book of Records. “I can’t tell you exactly how far I’ll get, but my goal is to beat my former record of 20.41m,” Castelar, knicknamed “Cueto,” said on Sunday. He rolls his mega-cigar out of premium tobacco leaves, making a long, slender tube about 4cm across. He works non-stop, eight hours a day since he began his record-seeking attempt on Saturday. Nothing distracts him, not even the hustle and bustle of the 28th International Tourism Fairground that is going up near his workplace at the colonial fortress of San Carlos de la Cabana. His mega-cigar, once finished, will be shown at the fair.
■UNITED STATES
Subway cars jump tracks
Transit officials say two Manhattan subway cars jumped the tracks about 30m north of a station near Central Park. Officials say the 400 passengers on the train were safely evacuated. The cars derailed at 4:23pm on Sunday just north of the 57th Street and 7th Avenue stop on the N train line, which was traveling south from Astoria, Queens, to Brooklyn. Firefighters removed the passengers from the tunnel in about an hour, evacuating them on a “rescue train.” Two people reported minor injuries, but did not require treatment.
■UNITED STATES
Gretchen Wilson graduates
Country music singer Gretchen Wilson has a mantel full of awards in her Lebanon home. Her first radio single, Redneck Woman, spent five weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and it earned her a 2005 Grammy. Her debut album sold 4.5 million copies. Despite all her successes, the 34-year-old songwriter was one of 20 percent of Tennesseans without a high school diploma. But no longer. Wilson, who dropped out in ninth grade, passed her General Educational Development high school equivalency exam in April and will don a cap and gown during a May 15 graduation ceremony.
■UNITED STATES
No smoking at pipe show
There will be no indoor smoking at a large convention for pipe smokers in Illinois. A new state law bans smoking in public places. That’s taken some of the steam out of this weekend’s Chicagoland International Pipe Tobacciana Show in St. Charles, Illinois. The event draws 4,000 pipe collectors from more than 60 countries. Organizers tried to get around the new law by arguing their gathering was a private club meeting. Police and health officials said no. Instead, a large smoking tent has been set up 4.6m away from the convention center. Convention-goer Al Shinogle of Denver likens it to a wine tasting without the wine.
■UNITED STATES
Parenting skills on the wane
Nearly a third of US parents know surprisingly little about typical infant development and this lack of understanding can rob their babies of much-needed mental stimulation, researchers said on Sunday. “There are numerous parenting books telling people what to expect when they’re pregnant,” said Heather Paradis of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. “But once a baby is born, an astonishing number of parents are not only unsure of what to anticipate as their child develops, but are also uncertain of when, how or how much they are to help their babies reach various milestones, such as talking, grabbing, discerning right from wrong, or even potty-training.”
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