last ditch effort

The NFL and the players' union sat down Thursday morning for a last-ditch effort to avoid a work stoppage in America's most popular sport.

Malaysian authorities are trying to trap a female mate for Tam, a rare Borneo Sumatran rhino, in a last-ditch effort to produce an offspring in captivity and save his species from extinction, an official said Thursday.

Crews geared up to set fire to oil leaking from the site of an exploded drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, a last-ditch effort to get rid of it before it reaches environmentally sensitive marshlands on the coast.

Fish and wildlife officials will poison a 6-mile stretch of water near Chicago on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to keep one of the most dangerous invasive species of fish, the Asian carp, out of the Great Lakes.

With minutes to go before the deadline for a trade, the Mets are apparently making a last-ditch effort to try to get star reliever Billy Wagner to change his mind and go to Boston.

Sources indicate they are talking about it now, though it may be an uphill battle as Wagner has been pretty resistant to a deal.