March 09, 2007	Friday	Safar 19, 1428

DALTON: A truck driver stepped forward to claim half of a $390 million jackpot, the richest lottery prize in US history.

''I’m still numb,” said Ed Nabors, 52, of Rocky Face, Georgia, about 145 kilometres north of Atlanta, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Nabors said he wants to buy a house for his daughter, who has wanted to move out of her mobile home for a long time, and plans to keep working — “at least two more days”.

The other winning ticket in Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing was sold at a liquor store in New Jersey, and the holder did not immediately come forward.

Nabors bought his ticket when he stopped in for his weekly cup of coffee at a convenience store in Dalton — the self-proclaimed “Carpet Capital of the World”— near a carpet mill run by his employer, Mohawk Industries.

He said he did not learn he had won until on Wednesday morning, about 10 hours after the numbers were announced, when his co-workers told them that someone bought the winning ticket in Dalton.

He elected to take his winnings in a lump sum instead of annual instalments, and will get $116.5 million before taxes, or more than $80 million after.—AP