Miami

NEW YORK — A small Miami-based company says the U.S. government has given it permission to lay the first optical communications fiber from the U.S. to Cuba. That could drastically cut the cost of calling the island nation and make the Internet more accessible to Cubans.

The Treasury Department could not immediately confirm that TeleCuba Communications Inc. has received approval. The Obama administration eased long-standing restrictions on telecom links to Cuba in April.

TeleCuba says its cable will be operating by the middle of 2011. It still needs final permission from the Cuban government to land the cable. Also, while the cable could make calling very cheap, the Cuban government will set rates, and could keep restrictions on Internet access as well.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Prison officials say a convicted sex offender on death row for kidnapping, raping and burying a Florida girl alive has died of natural causes.

After John Evander Couey abducted 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford from her bedroom in 2005, many states passed laws named after her that impose restrictions on sex offenders.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger says Couey died of natural causes Wednesday at a Jacksonville hospital. The 51-year-old had been sentenced to death in 2007.

Plessinger says Couey had been ill for some time. She declined to provide any specifics, citing a federal law protecting the privacy of hospital patients.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Prison officials say a convicted sex offender on death row for kidnapping, raped and burying a Florida girl alive has died of natural causes.

After John Evander Couey abducted 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford from her bedroom in 2005, many states passed laws named after her that impose restrictions on sex offenders.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger says Couey of natural causes Wednesday at a Jacksonville hospital. The 51-year-old had been sentenced to death in 2007.

Plessinger says Couey had been ill for some time. She declined to provide any specifics, citing a federal law protecting the privacy of hospital patients.

Miami has more than its share of nice Jewish girls -- but few of them can sing like Tel Aviv-born Tim [that's not a typo] Yehezkely, who consis...

Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable television networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Sept. 14-20. Days and start times (EDT) are in parentheses:

1. NFL Football: Buffalo vs. New England (Monday, 7 p.m.), ESPN, 10.22 million homes, 14 million viewers.

2. NFL Football: San Diego vs. Oakland (Monday, 10:17 p.m.), ESPN, 8.77 million homes, 11.94 million viewers.

3. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.62 million homes, 4.75 million viewers.

4. "Hannah Montana" (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.), 3.487 million homes, 5.06 million viewers.

The St. Louis Cardinals missed their first chance to win the NL Central. Now, they can clinch it on Thursday without even stepping on the diamond.

Houston rookie Bud Norris shut out St. Louis for the second time and the Astros delayed the Cardinals' division championship celebration for at least another day with a 3-0 win on Wednesday night.

The magic number for St. Louis dropped to one when the Cubs lost in Milwaukee before this game ended. But Norris (6-3) pitched six shutout innings and Jose Valverde tossed a scoreless ninth for his 24th save.

"They are one win away from clinching this thing, but we definitely wanted to give them a fight," Norris said. "I think we did."

The Astros ended the fourth and sixth innings with double plays as the Cardinals continued to have problems with Norris. The right-hander won his major league debut in St. Louis on Aug. 2, allowing two hits in seven shutout innings.

Citigroup Inc., one of the biggest recipients of government bailout funds, is looking to scale back its U.S. retail footprint to just six major metropolitan areas and limit most lending to wealthy customers, according to a published report.

Citi's management is looking to reduce the bank's U.S. consumer lending to mainly credit cards and "jumbo" mortgages, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.

The New York-based bank's executives are expected in October to present plans to the board of directors to pare Citi's retail branch network and concentrate mainly on the New York, Washington, D.C., Miami, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, the paper said.

Most of Citi's branch locations are located internationally. Citi currently operates about 1,000 U.S. branches, much fewer than the 5,000-plus run by Bank of America Corp. and JP Morgan Chase & Co., which expanded its network with the takeover of Washington Mutual last year. While the moves would be designed to help the bank work "smaller-but-smarter," the paper said some Citi executives are concerned that the U.S. government, which owns a 34 percent stake in Citi, could balk at branch closings.

Citi is looking to sell its 120 branches in Texas and is mulling whether it should continue to maintain a large footprint in cities like Boston and Philadelphia, the paper said. Citi holds few deposits in those locations compared with competitors.

If your normally reliable fantasy football stars are struggling, you can probably blame somebody who wasn't on any preseason draft board: linemen.

The early season failures of this normally anonymous bunch is getting the notice of fantasy geeks everywhere, especially owners of Aaron Rodgers. He's been sacked an NFL-worst 10 times and hit a bunch more. Kurt Warner was flawless against the terrible Jags, but the week before his line couldn't stop anybody. Numerous others have looked far from comfy in the pocket.

It's not just quarterbacks who've been regularly confronted by unblocked defenders. First-round picks Steve Slaton (51 yards, 2.0 yards per carry) and Matt Forte (84 yards, 2.2 yards a carry) haven't sniffed the end zone. Willie Parker has 66 yards while tiptoeing for 2.4 yards per carry. Kevin Smith was decent last week, bringing his average up to 2.6 yards a pop.

The good news is, this surely can't last. After all, many struggling lines are the same ones that did well last year and their coaches should adjust. By now coaches are figuring out which 350-pounders need more help or need benching, so it seems safe to assume most of them will fix the problems.

As you wonder how much longer Rodgers can remain upright, here are some players to start and some to avoid in Week 3:

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday said it charged 11 people in connection with separate insider trading schemes related to acquisition deals at two different companies.

Three of the 11 have reached agreements on financial settlements with SEC, while the SEC said it's seeking injunctions against further violations, the return of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest and financial penalties from the other eight.

According to the SEC, five people illegally tipped off others or traded on private information ahead of Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.'s 2008 announcement that it would acquire Seattle-based insurance company Safeco Corp.

One of those five charged is Anthony Perez of Maitland, Fla., a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, who the SEC says illegally tipped off his brother, Ian C. Perez of Orlando, Fla.

Ian Perez bought Safeco call options one day ahead of the public announcement and later sold them for a profit of more than $152,000, the SEC said.