7 US troops killed by bombs in south Afghanistan AP

KABUL, Afghanistan Roadside bombs killed seven American troops on Monday � including five in a single blast in Kandahar � raising to more than a dozen the number who have died in the last three days.

The spike in deaths comes as President Hamid Karzai has publicly raised doubts about the U.S. strategy in the war, saying success cannot be achieved until more Afghans are in the front lines and insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan are shut down.

NATO gave no details of the Monday blasts except that they occurred in the south, the main theater of the conflict, and that five were killed in a single blast.

Witnesses said the five died when a bomb struck a Humvee on a main road on the outskirts of Kandahar, the focus of an ongoing military campaign to secure the city that the Taliban used as their headquarters during their years in power. The attackers apparently targeted the Humvee because it was not as heavily armored as other vehicles in the convoy.

Later Monday, a pair of rockets were fired at the Kandahar offices of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. One fell short and slightly wounded a guard. The other overshot the compound and exploded in an empty field, police said.

U.S. death tolls for August had been running well behind those of the previous two months that set monthly records � 60 in June and 66 in July. But 14 Americans have been killed in the last three days, raising the American U.S. toll for the month to 49, most of them in the south.

NATO commanders have warned that casualties will mount as coalition and Afghan forces enter areas that have been under longtime Taliban control. The NATO force swelled this month to more than 140,000 � including 120,000 Americans � with the arrival of the last of the reinforcements that President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan in a bid to turn the tide of the nearly 9-year war.

With death tolls rising, Karzai has become more outspoken in his criticism of the U.S.-led war effort, telling recent visitors that the American counterinsurgency strategy is flawed.

Most recently, he told the visiting speaker of the German parliament that the campaign against the Taliban over the last eight years had been "ineffective apart from causing civilian casualties," according to a statement by the presidential media office.

The statement quoted Karzai as saying Afghan forces should take the lead in efforts to win support from deeply conservative Afghan villagers who harbor suspicion of outsiders. That appears at odds with the strategy pursued by the top NATO commander, Gen. David Petraeus, which calls for U.S. troops to live closer to villagers to win their trust and protect them from the Taliban.

Last week, Karzai told a group of visiting U.S. congressmen that Obamas plan to begin withdrawing U.S. troops in July 2011 had given a "morale boost" to the Taliban and that the war could not be won until insurgent sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan are eliminated.

Meanwhile on Monday, a district governor in the eastern province of Nangarhar, Sayad Mohammad Palawan, was killed when a bomb planted on his vehicle exploded as he was driving into a government compound in Jalalabad for a meeting of provincial security and political leaders, according to police spokesman Ghafor Khan.

Insurgents apparently planned for the bomb to explode inside the compound where it could potentially have caused far greater destruction, Khan said.

Elsewhere, NATO announced the arrest of an insurgent commander and several associates believed involved in a weekend attack on two NATO bases in Khost province of southeastern Afghanistan. Nearly 50 insurgents were killed in simultaneous attacks Saturday on Forward Operating Base Salerno and nearby Camp Chapman, where seven CIA employees died in a suicide attack in December.

The commander was believed to be a member of the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al-Qaida.

Afghanistans Defense Ministry reported Monday that four Afghan soldiers were killed and another wounded the day before in a roadside bombing in Wardak province. A fifth Afghan soldier was killed and another hurt in a bombing in Helmand provinces Nad Ali district.

In the southeastern province of Zabul, 24 Taliban traveling by truck and motorcycle were captured while trying to cross the border into Pakistan, said provincial government spokesman Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar.

Five Taliban, including one regional commander, were also killed in fighting with coalition forces Sunday in Helmand provinces Gereshik district, according to Daoud Ahmedi, spokesman to the provincial governor.

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Associated Press writer Mirwais Khan contributed to this report from Kandahar.

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AP source: Suspicious luggage sparks questioning AP

WASHINGTON Two men on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Amsterdam were questioned by Dutch authorities after U.S. officials found a cell phone taped to a Pepto Bismol bottle and a knife and box cutter in checked luggage connected with the men, a law enforcement official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, identified the men as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Murisi. Al Soofi had a Michigan address, the official said, but it was not immediately clear where the two men were from.

ABC News, which first reported the incident Monday, said al Soofi was from Detroit and that both he and al Murisi were charged in the Netherlands with "preparation of a terrorist attack."

U.S. officials would not confirm that. Another U.S. law enforcement official who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters said federal air marshals were on board the flight from Chicago to Amsterdam.

The law enforcement official said Al Soofi was questioned as he went through security in Birmingham, Ala., on his way to Chicago. He told the Transportation Security Administration authorities he was carrying a lot of cash, the official said. Screeners found $7,000 on him, but he was not breaking any law by carrying that much money.

Al Soofi was supposed to fly from Chicago to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, and then on to Amsterdam, the official said. But when he got to Chicago, he changed his travel plans to take a direct flight from Chicago to Amsterdam. Al Murisi also changed his travel plans in Chicago to take a direct flight to Amsterdam, raising suspicion among U.S. officials.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said once officials found suspicious items in luggage associated with two passengers on Sunday nights flight, they notified the Dutch authorities.

"The items were not deemed to be dangerous in and of themselves," Kudwa said. She would not identify the two passengers.

It is not illegal to carry knives in checked baggage.

Residents of a southwest Detroit neighborhood where several addresses were found for variations of the name Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi declined to give their names to The Associated Press Monday evening, though at least two indicated FBI agents had visited the area.

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Associated Press writer Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.

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Hong Kong police inspect Manila hostage bus AP

MANILA, Philippines Hong Kong forensic experts inspected the bullet-peppered bus in which a hijacker killed eight tourists in Manila last week, as the Philippines worked to calm Chinas outrage over the bloodshed.

Anger has been rising in Hong Kong since the Aug. 23 carnage in which a disgruntled former Philippine police officer took the busload of tourists from the Chinese territory hostage in a bid to win back his job. Authorities mishandling of the crisis seemed to enrage the hostage taker, who shot at the tourists before being killed by a police sharpshooter.

Eight of the tourists died. At a march Sunday in Hong Kong, people denounced the Philippines and demanded justice for the dead.

President Benigno Aquino III has ordered a thorough investigation into the crisis and the police response, and on Monday the Philippines allowed Hong Kong forensic experts to inspect the bus.

"We want to appease them and show that were not hiding anything," Philippine National Police spokesman Agrimero Cruz said. "This is a show of transparency."

Guided by Filipino investigators, the Hong Kong team used flashlights as they looked at the bloodied passenger compartment, taking pictures of bullet holes and shattered windows. Another checked the bus tires shot out by police to prevent the hostage-taker from moving out of a police cordon.

The Hong Kong investigators refused to talk to a throng of Chinese and Filipino journalists.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima met Hong Kong officials Monday to discuss the protocol for their investigation in Manila, while stressing that the Philippines still was in charge of the probe.

Philippine investigators plan to question Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, who helped oversee the hostage negotiations, as well as journalists who interviewed hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza by phone during the drama, de Lima said. They may also travel to Hong Kong to talk to survivors of the nearly 12-hour standoff.

The investigation will take two to three weeks to complete, and until then those involved will not be allowed to comment publicly, de Lima said.

Still it is unclear if that will be enough to stem the anger in Hong Kong, which has discouraged its residents from traveling to the Philippines. About 140,000 Hong Kong tourists visit the Philippines yearly and hundreds have canceled planned trips.

Concerns have also been raised about a possible backlash on the more than 100,000 Filipinos working in the territory, mostly as maids.

Also Monday, Filipino anti-crime activists placed flowers at the site of the carnage in a Manila park. One carried a wooden cross bearing the names of the slain hostages.

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Police fire kills 11-year-old in Indian Kashmir AP

SRINAGAR, India Police opened fire with live rounds at rock-throwing Kashmiris, killing an 11-year-old boy and sparking violent street protests by thousands in Indias portion of the troubled Himalayan region, a police officer said. At least 22 people were wounded in firing.

More than 60 people have died in anti-India demonstrations and clashes between security forces and protesters in the volatile region since June. Anger against Indian rule runs deep in Kashmir, which is divided between Hindu-majority India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan, though claimed by both nuclear-armed nations in its entirety.

Security forces fired tear gas and gunshots Monday in the southern town of Anantnag, where hundreds of residents held protests and clashed with police, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

The 11-year-old boy was killed and 15 people were injured in the shooting, the officer said.

As the news of the young boys death spread in the area, thousands of people, including those living in neighboring towns and villages, held angry street protests, forcing government forces to retreat from the troubled spot, the officer said.

Also, fierce clashes between government forces and the protesters erupted in the neighboring town of Pulwama, police said.

Residents attacked a police station with rocks and government forces fired to quell the protest. At least two people were critically wounded in the firing, the officer said.

Earlier, police opened fire in Srinagar after residents in Indian Kashmirs main city attacked them with stones, injuring five people, the officer said.

However, local resident Hanief Ahmed said the shooting was unprovoked and officers targeted a group of men playing a board game outside. "There was no protest and police fired at them without any reason," Ahmed told The Associated Press.

Hundreds of people defied a curfew in Srinagar to demonstrate against Mondays shooting, chanting "Go India Go back" and "We want freedom." Police also fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The demonstrations that started in June are reminiscent of the late 1980s when protests against New Delhis rule sparked an armed conflict that has killed more than 68,000 people, mostly civilians. The latest deadly unrest against Indian authority shows no signs of abating despite the deployment of thousands of troops.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has questioned crowd-control tactics employed by security forces in Kashmir and ordered officials to use non-lethal measures to control demonstrations.

The protests in Kashmir have to be dealt with using "non-lethal, yet effective and more focused measures," Singh said last week.

Thousands of Kashmiri Muslims peacefully protested against Indian rule at several other places in the region after noon prayers at mosques. Protesters reject Indian sovereignty over Kashmir and want to form a separate country, or merge with Pakistan.

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NKorea confirms Kims not-so-secret trip to China AP

SEOUL, South Korea After Kim Jong Ils safe return, North Korea confirmed what for days had been clear: the Dear Leader was on a not-so-secret trip to northeastern China.

Kim hobnobbed with top Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao, toured factories and paid a nostalgic trip down Kim family memory lane, according to Chinese and North Korean state media � possibly, rumor had it, accompanied by the son many believe is being groomed to succeed him as North Koreas next leader.

There was no sign of Kim Jong Un, the 20-something son said to be in his favor, and there was no mention of him in either nations dispatches about the five-day trip that ended Monday and was shrouded in typical secrecy.

Still, signs that the North Korean regime is laying the groundwork for a succession movement abounded in the 68-year-old Kims pointedly patriotic and strategic trip by train through northeastern China.

China remains North Koreas chief ally and benefactor, supplier of troops when the Korean War broke out 60 years ago and its main source of aid to this day. Beijings continued good will is crucial for North Korea since its ailing economy is unable to provide enough food for its people. China provides food assistance and nearly all of North Koreas oil, and much of Pyongyangs trade, passes through China.

China is also the place where North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, father of the current leader, sowed his revolutionary roots as a budding guerrilla fighter when his family fled the Japanese occupation of Korea in the 1920s.

The trip � just weeks after the 60th anniversary of the Korean War and during the 100th anniversary of Japans annexation of Korea � served to both solidify North Koreas ties with its most important ally and to emphasize the Kim familys patriotic lineage.

It also came as a surprise to those who expected him to be in Pyongyang, courting Jimmy Carter during the former U.S. presidents own surprise trip to the communist capital last week.

North Korea has been building toward pivotal celebrations in 2012 to mark the 100th year of Kim Il Sungs birth, an occasion that would have been a key time for a regime change. However, time may be running out: Kim reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008, and is noticeably grayer and thinner than in the past.

The fact that Kim, who never flies and rarely travels abroad, was making a second trip to China in four months, gave the trip a sense of unprecedented urgency.

"His purpose is to increase economic and diplomatic assistance from China for his succession process, which is more urgent than before," said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. "This is the center of his concern."

Shi said the purpose of Kims visit was to drum up support from China for the leadership succession, a process that Beijing also wants to see go smoothly. Analysts note that the trip comes just days before North Korea is to hold a Workers Party congress next month � the biggest political convention in 30 years.

The last major convention was in 1980, when Kim Jong Il was officially named to a senior Workers Party post, and many believe the son similarly may be granted a key party position.

"With the party convention ahead, North Korea was trying to show its people economic and political stability through North Korean-Chinese cooperation, and to use the convention to make steady progress on succession," said Kim Yong-hyun, an expert on North Korean affairs at Seouls Dongguk University.

It probably didnt hurt, either, to snub the ex-leader of the nations longtime foe, the United States. Pyongyang remains locked in a standoff with Washington over its nuclear weapons program and the March sinking of a South Korean warship, a deadly incident the U.S. and South Korea consider a violation of the armistice signed in 1953. North Korea denies involvement.

In their meeting Friday in the city of Changchun, Kim and Hu discussed the nuclear disarmament talks that North Korea walked away from last year, with Kim telling the Chinese president Pyongyang hopes for an early resumption of the negotiations, Chinas state-run Xinhua News Agency said.

"With the international situation remaining complicated, it is our important historical mission to hand over to the rising generation the baton of the traditional friendship passed over by the revolutionary forefathers of the two countries," Kim said at their banquet, according to the Norths official Korean Central News Agency.

Kim was shown embracing Hu in footage aired by China Central Television.

"The North Koreans wanted to show that they want to resolve the nuclear issue through North Korean-Chinese relations," analyst Kim Yong-hyun said.

He said it wasnt an outright snub but a strategic move to get Washington to act. "By getting closer with China, or at least making it seem like relations are strong, North Korea is indirectly trying to get the U.S. to be more aggressive and involved."

Other stops to factories and farms in Jilin, Changchun and Harbin, all former centers of heavy industry that have tried to remake themselves under free-market competition, were economic in focus. Kim also visited the construction site for a Catholic Church, KCNA said.

"We were deeply impressed and greatly encouraged to see for ourselves the resourceful and hardworking Chinese people," Kim Jong Il said in a message to Hu published Monday by KCNA.

But it was Kims tour of sites highlighting the "footprints of revolution" that seemed to affect the aging leader most.

His first stop: Jilin Yuwen Middle School, which his father attended in the 1920s, and where Kim Il Sung is said to have nurtured his anti-Japanese fervor.

Seeing a chair and table his father used 80 years ago, "Kim Jong Il was overcome with deep emotion," KCNA said.

"I think he is probably bringing his son to visit the middle school that Kim Il Sung attended, and to visit the revolutionary site where he fought against Japan," said Cui Yingjiu, a retired professor of Korean literature at Chinas Peking University and former classmate of Kims.

North Korea routinely highlights the Kim family patriotism when trying to shore up communisms first dynastic succession, analysts said.

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Associated Press writers Sangwon Yoon in Seoul, South Korea, and Scott McDonald and Gillian Wong in Beijing, contributed to this report.

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Obamas goal: End Iraq war, then win Mideast peace AP

WASHINGTON Firmly and finally ending the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, President Barack Obama will have but a moment before trying to hasten peace nearby between Israelis and Palestinians. Left unclear is whether winding down the war that inflamed Arab passions will do anything to help long-shot Mideast talks.

From the Oval Office, a setting designed to command gravity and attention, Obama will declare Tuesday night that Iraqis are now the ones in charge of a war he had opposed. Within hours on Wednesday, he will be immersed in talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, underscoring the hopeful but precarious U.S. role as a middleman.

The White House is framing the two events as commitments kept by the president. But there is little excitement buzz and certainly no bold promises that capping the combat mission in Iraq will prod broader peace in the Middle East.

Tuesday night, Obamas emphasis will be to thank the troops and explain why the fight goes on in Afghanistan and beyond � and not so much about the potential for Iraq to be "a beacon of liberty in the Middle East" as President George W. Bush put it.

In a narrow sense, the peace talks convened by the White House have little to do with Iraq. The Middle East stalemate has to do with the borders of a potential Palestinian state, the fate of Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, the security of Israel � and trust on both sides. Making progress on those points, not the Iraq war, is at the core of renewed talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Writ large, however, the fate of Iraq is indeed tied to prospects for peace for its neighbors in the region.

"There is no direct connection between the two issues, but I think together they tell the same story: the limits of U.S. power," said Marina Ottaway, director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The U.S. can only go so far, and then its in the hands of the regional actors."

Much depends on whether Iraqs leaders can form a lasting government, whether Iran will seek to exert added influence with a smaller U.S. presence in Iraq, and whether the United States will be perceived as the country that responsibly turned power back to Iraq or the one that left before the job was done.

"The more that Iraq emerges as a stable state after the Americans withdraw, the greater the chance for progress in the Middle East, the more it creates a stable environment for the peace process to move forward," said Robert Danin, an expert on Israeli-Palestinian affairs and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "To the extent that theres bloodshed and instability in Iraq, that makes it harder for people to focus on peacemaking."

For now, a presidential speech about the changing of the U.S. mission in Iraq is as close to closure as the people of the United States will get.

All troops will not come home until the end of 2011 at the latest. The United States will still keep tens of thousands in a dangerous Iraq for support and counterterrorism missions in the meantime. More Americans are likely to die. As Obama has said: "We have not seen the end of American sacrifice in Iraq."

Most of the more than 4,400 U.S. military members who have died in the Iraq war have been killed since May 2003 � after Bush declared the major combat operations over from the deck of a warship. His backdrop then was a now infamous banner that declared "mission accomplished."

"You wont hear those words coming from us," Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday.

The United States, too, is still absorbed with the a widening war in Afghanistan, the base for the al-Qaida terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. That conflict began in 2001, even before the Iraq war. Obamas stand is that the Iraq war, at a costly price, distracted from the cause in Afghanistan.

"Thats where 9/11 was planned," Gibbs said. "This is not an Afghanistan speech, but he will mention that."

Obama is giving the combat troop withdrawal from Iraq a big spotlight.

He dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to Iraq on Monday to mark the moment and push Iraqi leaders for resolution of their political divisions. On Tuesday, Obama will fly to sprawling Fort Bliss in Texas, home of tens of thousands of service members who fought in the Iraq war.

And then he will give just his second prime-time address from the Oval Office.

The Iraq war once filled the streets of some American cities with protest and, over time, generated much resentment in the Arab world. A lot of the heat at home has subsided, partly in response to an improving situation in Iraq that was aided when Bush ordered in more troops in 2007.

Obama declared the war wrong and said he would end it, a mission a U.S. president actually could accomplish. He also promised to be deeply engaged in working for Middle East peace. His name is now prominently associated with that latter, more difficult goal.

This version CORRECTS death toll of U.S. military in Iraq to more than 4,400 instead of 4,100.

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Earl batters Caribbean, threatens US East Coast AP

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Hurricane Earl battered tiny islands across the northeastern Caribbean with heavy rain and roof-ripping winds Monday, rapidly intensifying into a major Category 4 storm on a path projected to menace the United States.

Already dangerous with sustained winds of 135 mph 215 kph, Earl is expected to gain more strength before potentially brushing the U.S. East Coast this week and bringing deadly rip currents.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned coastal residents from North Carolina to Maine to watch the storm closely.

"Any small shift in the track could dramatically alter whether it makes landfall or whether it remains over the open ocean," said Wallace Hogsett, a meteorologist at the center. "I cant urge enough to just stay tuned."

In the Caribbean, Earl caused flooding in low-lying areas and damaged homes on islands including Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla and St. Maarten. Several countries and territories reported power outages. Cruise ships were diverted and flights canceled across the region.

"We are getting a battering with wind and rain," said Martin Gussie, a police officer in Anguilla. Several utility poles were down and a couple of roofs had blown away, and it was still too dangerous to go out and assess the full extent of damage, he said.

The storms center passed just north of the British Virgin Islands on Monday afternoon. It was gradually moving away from the Caribbean and was forecast to approach the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region around Thursday, before curving back out to sea, potentially swiping New England or far-eastern Canada.

The Hurricane Center said it was too early to say what effect Earl would have in the U.S., but warned it could at least kick up dangerous rip currents. A surfer died in Florida and a Maryland swimmer has been missing since Saturday in waves spawned by former Hurricane Danielle, which weakened to a tropical storm Monday far out in the north Atlantic.

Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Earls approach ought to serve as a reminder for Atlantic coastal states to update their evacuation plans.

"It wouldnt take much to have the storm come ashore somewhere on the coast," Fugate said. "The message is for everyone to pay attention."

Close on Earls heels, Tropical Storm Fiona formed Monday afternoon in the open Atlantic. The storm, with maximum winds of 40 mph 64 kph, was projected to pass just north of the Leeward Islands by Wednesday and stay farther out in the Atlantic than Earls northward path. Fiona wasnt expected to reach hurricane strength over the next several days.

The rapid development of Earl, which only became a hurricane Sunday, took some islanders and tourists by surprise.

Wind was already rattling the walls of Lila Elly Alis wooden house in Anegada, the northernmost of the British Virgin Islands, when she and her son went out to nail the doors shut Monday.

"They say the eye of the storm is supposed to come close to us, so weve just got to pray. Everyone here is keeping in touch, listening to the radio," the 58-year-old said by phone from the island of 280 people.

At El Conquistador Resort in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, people lined up at the reception desk, the lights occasionally flickering, to check out and head to the airport. There, more delays awaited.

John and Linda Helton of Boulder, Colorado, opted to ride out the storm. The couple, celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary, finished a cruise Sunday and planned to spend three days in Puerto Rico.

"There was a huge line of people checking out as we were coming in, and I thought it was just that summer vacation must be over," said John Helton, a real estate appraiser. "But we paid for the room, so we might as well stick it out."

"I dont think we could get a flight even if we wanted to leave," Linda Helton added.

There were no reports so far of major damage from Earl.

In St. Maarten, sand and debris littered the streets, and winds knocked down trees and electricity poles and damaged roofs. But police spokesman Ricardo Henson said there was no extensive damage to property.

Alisha Daya, a 24-year-old tourist from Milwaukee, wore earplugs but still had trouble sleeping overnight because of the wind and crashing waves at the Oyster Bay Beach Resort.

"It was loud because we were right on the ocean," Daya said, adding that the storm delayed their planned departure Monday but the worst seemed to be over.

In Antigua, at least one home was destroyed but there were no reports of serious injuries. Governor General Dame Louise Agnetha Lake-Tack declared Monday a public holiday to keep islanders off the road and give them a chance to clean up.

Jeremy Collymoore, head of the Barbados-based Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency, said islands such as Antigua and Anguilla appeared to have been spared worse damage because they were raked by the systems northwestern quadrant � the most forgiving part.

Mudslides and flooding were still a risk, with 4 to 8 inches 10 to 20 centimeters of rain forecast to fall on islands including Puerto Rico.

The U.S. Virgin Islands imposed a curfew for Monday night.

The Hovensa LLC oil refinery in St. Croix said operations were normal except for the harbor, which was closed along with all ports in the U.S. Virgin Islands by order of the Coast Guard.

Monday afternoon, Earl was about 110 miles 180 kilometers northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and headed west-northwest at 15 mph 24 kph, according to the center in Miami. Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 70 miles 110 kilometers from its center.

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Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, Anika Kentish in St. Johns, Antigua, Judy Fitzpatrick in Philipsburg, St. Maarten, Clive Bacchus in Basseterre, St. Kitts, David McFadden in San Juan and Sofia Mannos in Washington contributed to this report.

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Mexico has fired 10 pct of federal police in 2010 AP

MEXICO CITY Mexicos federal police agency has fired nearly 10 percent of its force this year for failing checks designed to detect possible corruption, a major obstacle in the countrys battle against increasingly brutal drug gangs.

Mexicos approximately 35,000 federal police are required to undergo periodic lie detector, psychological and drug examinations, and the government routinely investigates their finances and personal life.

Federal Police Commissioner Facundo Rosas said 3,200 officers have been dismissed this year for failing to meet the agencys standards. He did not give more details.

The fired agents are barred from taking jobs in any other security force � a recurring problem that Mexican governments have vowed to solve for many years. Another 1,020 federal police are facing unspecified disciplinary measures.

Police corruption at all levels is widespread in Mexico. Police are often found to have been involved in cartel attacks, including the assassination two weeks ago of a mayor who had disciplined municipal officers in his northern town. Investigators say local officers aligned with the Zetas drug gang killed the mayor in retaliation.

Scandals have also ensnared the federal police. Two years ago, a corruption probe known as "Operation Clean House" toppled the former anti-drug czar, Noe Ramirez, and other high-ranking police accused of protecting the Beltran Leyva gang.

President Felipe Calderon, who has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and federal police to fight drug traffickers in their strongholds, has pointed to the regular police tests and crackdowns such as "Clean House" as evidence that his government is aggressively fighting corruption.

Drug violence has surged since Calderon intensified the crackdown on traffickers upon taking office in late 2006, claiming more than 28,000 lives.

In the latest violence, a 12-hour battle between troops and gunmen left killed seven people in the eastern town of Panuco.

The gunmen opened fire and launched grenades at a government electricity station as they tried to escape the soldiers, causing a power outage in a large part of town, said Salvador Mikel Rivera, attorney general in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, where Panuco is located.

The battle started Sunday night when gunmen in six cars ignored orders to stop from soldiers at a checkpoint, Rivera said. Soldiers, along with state and local police, started a chase that ended at two houses where the gunmen tried to hide, he said. The shootout at the houses lasted until Monday morning.

One soldier and six gunmen were killed.

Panuco is just south of the northern border state of Tamaulipas, where marines discovered the bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants believed to have been gunned down by the Zetas drug gang after refusing to smuggle drugs, in what may be the deadliest cartel massacre to date.

The lone survivor, an 18-year-old Ecuadorean, returned to his home country over the weekend after declining a humanitarian visa that would have let him stay in Mexico, the Foreign Relations Department announced Monday.

The dead migrants were discovered at a ranch about 100 miles 160 kilometers from the U.S. border in Tamaulipas.

Violence has surged in northeastern Mexico this year since the Zetas broke ranks with their former employer, the Gulf cartel.

On Sunday, gunmen killed the mayor of Hidalgo, a town near where the migrants were slain. Two weeks earlier, the mayor of another northeastern town, Santiago, was assassinated, allegedly by police tied to the Zetas.

In June, cartel gunmen assassinated the leading candidate for governor of Tamaulipas, Rodolfo Torre Cantu, less than a week before state and local elections.

The government offered a 15 million peso $1.15 million reward Monday for information leading to the capture of his killers.

Meanwhile, for the first time in its history, the border city of Ciudad Juarez is cancelling its traditional Sept. 15 celebration of Mexicos Independence from Spain, Mayor Jose Reyes announced Monday.

Reyes said authorities had not received any specific threat surrounding the event but decided it would be too dangerous for large crowds to gather in the city, which has become one of the worlds most dangerous amid a turf war between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.

As in other Mexico cities, residents in Ciudad Juarez gather each year at the main plaza to hear the mayor give the "grito," or shout of independence, at 11 p.m. Reyes said the city would instead launch fireworks at different points in the city so people could celebrate from their own backyards.

The cancellation was especially a blow this year because Mexico is celebrating its bicentennial independence anniversary.

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Associated Press writers Miguel Angel Hernandez in Veracruz and Olivia Torres in Ciudad Juarez contributed to this story.

This version CORRECTS name of city to Panuco instead of Panuca.

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Drilling begins in effort to free Chilean miners AP

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile An enormous drill began preliminary work Monday on carving a half-mile chimney through solid rock to free the 33 men trapped in a Chilean mine, their ordeal now having equaled the longest known survival in an underground disaster.

The 31-ton drill bored 50 feet into the rock, the first step in the weeklong digging of a "pilot hole" to guide the way for the rescue. Later the drill will be outfitted with larger bits to expand the hole and pull the men through � a process that could take four months.

The men were trapped Aug. 5 in the San Jose mine in Chiles northern Atacama Desert. Before rescuers dug bore holes to reach them, they survived 17 days without contact with the outside world by rationing a 48-hour supply of food and digging for water in the ground.

Only three miners who survived 25 days trapped in a flooded mine in southern China last year are known to have survived underground as long. Few other rescues have taken more than two weeks.

With Chilean officials saying the men could remain underground for another four months before the rescue hole is completed, the ordeal will be an unprecedented challenge for rescuers, but they have the tools to be successful.

"The drill operators have the best equipment available internationally," said Dave Feickert, director of KiaOra, a mine safety consulting firm in New Zealand, who has worked extensively with Chinas government to improve dangerous mines there.

"This doesnt mean it will be easy," he added. "They are likely to run into some technical problems that may slow them down."

In addition, a union leader has expressed concern for the mens livelihoods. San Esteban, the company that operates the mine, has said it has no money to pay their wages and absorb lawsuits, and is not even participating in the rescue. State-run mining company Codelco has taken over.

Union leader Evelyn Olmos called on the government to pay the workers wages starting in September, plus cover the roughly 100 other people at the mine who are now out of work and 170 more who work elsewhere for San Esteban. Its license has been suspended by the government.

"We want the government to pay our salaries in full until our comrades are freed and then pay our severances," said Olmos.

Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said the government was prohibited by labor laws from assuming responsibility for the salaries. He said it was up to the mining company and would have to be worked out in Chilean courts.

Golborne noted the extraordinary circumstances of the mine collapse but pointed out there are many other Chileans who lack a job and said the government cannot be responsible for all of them.

Union leaders and others blame the government in part for the San Jose accident because the mine had been cited for safety violations in the past but was allowed to continue operating.

In 2007, executives were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a miner. The workers family settled and the mine was closed until it could comply with safety rules, said Sen. Baldo Prokurica, who has long called for tougher regulations.

The next year, the mine reopened even though the company apparently had not complied with all the regulations, he said, adding that the circumstances surrounding the reopening are being investigated.

Workers at the current rescue operation are using the three existing bore holes to deliver food, water, air and medicine to the 33 miners, who are trapped about 2,200 feet underground in a shelter large enough to walk around in.

In an eight-minute video released by the government, the second made by the trapped miners, about a dozen of the men send greetings to their families and say they are feeling better since receiving the sustenance and supplies, including special clothes to keep them dry in the hot, humid mine.

The government last week said that five of the miners were suffering from depression, but Golborne said Sunday from the mine site that those men were doing better, had received antidepressants and were getting counseling.

Helping raise their spirits, the men spoke for about three minutes each to a family member on Sunday after a telephone line was lowered down one of the three existing 6-inch bore holes.

The men, while showing courage that has inspired people throughout Chile and the world, could not help but break down when speaking about their loved ones on the latest video.

"Im sending my greetings to Angelica. I love you so much, darling," said 30-year-old Osman Araya, as his voice choked and he began to cry. "Tell my mother, I love you guys so much. Ill never leave you. I will fight to the end to be with you."

The video showed the men mostly upbeat, joking on camera and talking about their absolute certainty that they would get out alive.

Experts say maintaining high morale among the men is essential. They will play a key role in winning their own rescue: The drilling technique that must be used means that up to 4,000 tons of rock and debris will fall down into a large mine shaft near the shelter � but far enough away from the men that they will not be in any danger.

Officials have said that it is essential the men be at their best physically and mentally because their own work clearing the rocks will be vital to keeping their eventual escape route from becoming plugged.

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Associated Press writer Eduardo Gallardo in Santiago contributed to this report.

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Earl batters Caribbean, threatens US East Coast AP

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Hurricane Earl battered tiny islands across the northeastern Caribbean with heavy rain and roof-ripping winds Monday, rapidly intensifying into a major Category 4 storm on a path projected to menace the United States.

Already dangerous with sustained winds of 135 mph 215 kph, Earl is expected to gain more strength before potentially brushing the U.S. East Coast this week and bringing deadly rip currents.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned coastal residents from North Carolina to Maine to watch the storm closely.

"Any small shift in the track could dramatically alter whether it makes landfall or whether it remains over the open ocean," said Wallace Hogsett, a meteorologist at the center. "I cant urge enough to just stay tuned."

In the Caribbean, Earl caused flooding in low-lying areas and damaged homes on islands including Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla and St. Maarten. Several countries and territories reported power outages. Cruise ships were diverted and flights canceled across the region.

"We are getting a battering with wind and rain," said Martin Gussie, a police officer in Anguilla. Several utility poles were down and a couple of roofs had blown away, and it was still too dangerous to go out and assess the full extent of damage, he said.

The storms center passed just north of the British Virgin Islands on Monday afternoon. It was gradually moving away from the Caribbean and was forecast to approach the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region around Thursday, before curving back out to sea, potentially swiping New England or far-eastern Canada.

The Hurricane Center said it was too early to say what effect Earl would have in the U.S., but warned it could at least kick up dangerous rip currents. A surfer died in Florida and a Maryland swimmer has been missing since Saturday in waves spawned by former Hurricane Danielle, which weakened to a tropical storm Monday far out in the north Atlantic.

Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Earls approach ought to serve as a reminder for Atlantic coastal states to update their evacuation plans.

"It wouldnt take much to have the storm come ashore somewhere on the coast," Fugate said. "The message is for everyone to pay attention."

Close on Earls heels, Tropical Storm Fiona formed Monday afternoon in the open Atlantic. The storm, with maximum winds of 40 mph 64 kph, was projected to pass just north of the Leeward Islands by Wednesday and stay farther out in the Atlantic than Earls northward path. Fiona wasnt expected to reach hurricane strength over the next several days.

The rapid development of Earl, which only became a hurricane Sunday, took some islanders and tourists by surprise.

Wind was already rattling the walls of Lila Elly Alis wooden house in Anegada, the northernmost of the British Virgin Islands, when she and her son went out to nail the doors shut Monday.

"They say the eye of the storm is supposed to come close to us, so weve just got to pray. Everyone here is keeping in touch, listening to the radio," the 58-year-old said by phone from the island of 280 people.

At El Conquistador Resort in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, people lined up at the reception desk, the lights occasionally flickering, to check out and head to the airport. There, more delays awaited.

John and Linda Helton of Boulder, Colorado, opted to ride out the storm. The couple, celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary, finished a cruise Sunday and planned to spend three days in Puerto Rico.

"There was a huge line of people checking out as we were coming in, and I thought it was just that summer vacation must be over," said John Helton, a real estate appraiser. "But we paid for the room, so we might as well stick it out."

"I dont think we could get a flight even if we wanted to leave," Linda Helton added.

There were no reports so far of major damage from Earl.

In St. Maarten, sand and debris littered the streets, and winds knocked down trees and electricity poles and damaged roofs. But police spokesman Ricardo Henson said there was no extensive damage to property.

Alisha Daya, a 24-year-old tourist from Milwaukee, wore earplugs but still had trouble sleeping overnight because of the wind and crashing waves at the Oyster Bay Beach Resort.

"It was loud because we were right on the ocean," Daya said, adding that the storm delayed their planned departure Monday but the worst seemed to be over.

In Antigua, at least one home was destroyed but there were no reports of serious injuries. Governor General Dame Louise Agnetha Lake-Tack declared Monday a public holiday to keep islanders off the road and give them a chance to clean up.

Jeremy Collymoore, head of the Barbados-based Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency, said islands such as Antigua and Anguilla appeared to have been spared worse damage because they were raked by the systems northwestern quadrant � the most forgiving part.

Mudslides and flooding were still a risk, with 4 to 8 inches 10 to 20 centimeters of rain forecast to fall on islands including Puerto Rico.

The U.S. Virgin Islands imposed a curfew for Monday night.

The Hovensa LLC oil refinery in St. Croix said operations were normal except for the harbor, which was closed along with all ports in the U.S. Virgin Islands by order of the Coast Guard.

Monday afternoon, Earl was about 110 miles 180 kilometers northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and headed west-northwest at 15 mph 24 kph, according to the center in Miami. Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 70 miles 110 kilometers from its center.

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Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, Anika Kentish in St. Johns, Antigua, Judy Fitzpatrick in Philipsburg, St. Maarten, Clive Bacchus in Basseterre, St. Kitts, David McFadden in San Juan and Sofia Mannos in Washington contributed to this report.

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7 US troops killed by bombs in south Afghanistan AP

KABUL, Afghanistan Roadside bombs killed seven American troops on Monday � including five in a single blast in Kandahar � raising to more than a dozen the number who have died in the last three days.

The spike in deaths comes as President Hamid Karzai has publicly raised doubts about the U.S. strategy in the war, saying success cannot be achieved until more Afghans are in the front lines and insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan are shut down.

NATO gave no details of the Monday blasts except that they occurred in the south, the main theater of the conflict, and that five were killed in a single blast.

Witnesses said the five died when a bomb struck a Humvee on a main road on the outskirts of Kandahar, the focus of an ongoing military campaign to secure the city that the Taliban used as their headquarters during their years in power. The attackers apparently targeted the Humvee because it was not as heavily armored as other vehicles in the convoy.

Later Monday, a pair of rockets were fired at the Kandahar offices of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. One fell short and slightly wounded a guard. The other overshot the compound and exploded in an empty field, police said.

U.S. death tolls for August had been running well behind those of the previous two months that set monthly records � 60 in June and 66 in July. But 14 Americans have been killed in the last three days, raising the American U.S. toll for the month to 49, most of them in the south.

NATO commanders have warned that casualties will mount as coalition and Afghan forces enter areas that have been under longtime Taliban control. The NATO force swelled this month to more than 140,000 � including 120,000 Americans � with the arrival of the last of the reinforcements that President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan in a bid to turn the tide of the nearly 9-year war.

With death tolls rising, Karzai has become more outspoken in his criticism of the U.S.-led war effort, telling recent visitors that the American counterinsurgency strategy is flawed.

Most recently, he told the visiting speaker of the German parliament that the campaign against the Taliban over the last eight years had been "ineffective apart from causing civilian casualties," according to a statement by the presidential media office.

The statement quoted Karzai as saying Afghan forces should take the lead in efforts to win support from deeply conservative Afghan villagers who harbor suspicion of outsiders. That appears at odds with the strategy pursued by the top NATO commander, Gen. David Petraeus, which calls for U.S. troops to live closer to villagers to win their trust and protect them from the Taliban.

Last week, Karzai told a group of visiting U.S. congressmen that Obamas plan to begin withdrawing U.S. troops in July 2011 had given a "morale boost" to the Taliban and that the war could not be won until insurgent sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan are eliminated.

Meanwhile on Monday, a district governor in the eastern province of Nangarhar, Sayad Mohammad Palawan, was killed when a bomb planted on his vehicle exploded as he was driving into a government compound in Jalalabad for a meeting of provincial security and political leaders, according to police spokesman Ghafor Khan.

Insurgents apparently planned for the bomb to explode inside the compound where it could potentially have caused far greater destruction, Khan said.

Elsewhere, NATO announced the arrest of an insurgent commander and several associates believed involved in a weekend attack on two NATO bases in Khost province of southeastern Afghanistan. Nearly 50 insurgents were killed in simultaneous attacks Saturday on Forward Operating Base Salerno and nearby Camp Chapman, where seven CIA employees died in a suicide attack in December.

The commander was believed to be a member of the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al-Qaida.

Afghanistans Defense Ministry reported Monday that four Afghan soldiers were killed and another wounded the day before in a roadside bombing in Wardak province. A fifth Afghan soldier was killed and another hurt in a bombing in Helmand provinces Nad Ali district.

In the southeastern province of Zabul, 24 Taliban traveling by truck and motorcycle were captured while trying to cross the border into Pakistan, said provincial government spokesman Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar.

Five Taliban, including one regional commander, were also killed in fighting with coalition forces Sunday in Helmand provinces Gereshik district, according to Daoud Ahmedi, spokesman to the provincial governor.

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Associated Press writer Mirwais Khan contributed to this report from Kandahar.

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Mideast talks reopen under tough conditions AP

RAMALLAH, West Bank The U.S. relaunches Israeli-Palestinian talks this week, its third push over the past decade to solve one of the worlds most intractable conflicts � and this time under some of the most difficult conditions yet.

The gaps are wider than ever, distrust between the two peoples runs deep and Islamic militants opposed to a peace deal control half of what would be a future Palestinian state.

Theres almost no chance of a comprehensive agreement any time soon, given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus hard stance on concessions to the Palestinians and President Mahmoud Abbas weak position as representative of only half the Palestinians.

All the momentum is coming from President Barack Obama, who unlike Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, is tackling the issue early in his term and has already shown himself to be an energetic broker.

But even U.S. officials concede they dont expect any major breakthroughs and say simply getting the two sides to agree to a second round of talks, followed by more frequent meetings, will be a success. U.S. officials hope a follow-up round can be held in the region, likely in Egypt, in the second week of September.

"While the parameters of an ultimate, comprehensive peace agreement are well known, we do not expect to achieve peace in one meeting," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington on Monday.

He said the U.S. hopes to launch vigorous talks between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders and their teams of experts, with the "full participation" of the U.S. and support from other countries.

Besides Netanyahu and Abbas, Obama is hosting Jordans King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the White House on Wednesday. Negotiations are to begin Thursday, with the aim of hammering out the details of a Palestinian state alongside Israel within a year.

Despite that optimistic timetable, the first crisis is expected as early as next month, when Netanyahu has to decide whether to extend a 10-month freeze on Israeli settlement building on lands the Palestinians want for their state. Abbas has warned hell quit the talks unless the freeze continues, but Netanyahu has so far made no commitments.

Even if that first hurdle is cleared, negotiations can easily be disrupted by Abbas main rival, the Islamic militant Hamas, or by Netanyahus far-right coalition partners.

Hamas, which has run Gaza since a violent takeover in 2007, could resume rocket fire on Israel to try to derail talks. Israeli hard-liners could quit the government to put the brakes on Netanyahu, either forcing time-consuming new elections or a coalition reshuffle.

But the biggest obstacles remain the wide gaps between Abbas and Netanyahu, and Hamas entrenchment in Gaza.

"I dont believe there are real prospects for an agreement in one or two years," said former Israeli negotiator Yossi Beilin.

"You have an Israeli leader who is not ready, unless there is a very big shift in his ideology, to pay the ... minimal price the most pragmatic Palestinian leader is demanding," Beilin said.

Even if a deal is struck, Beilin said, Abbas could not implement it without first regaining control of Gaza, at this point an impossible task.

Relaunching the negotiations under such conditions is fraught with risk.

The breakdown of Clintons Mideast summit in 2000 led to years of Israeli-Palestinian violence, and it took Bush seven years to try to bring the sides together again. Those talks broke off in late 2008 on the eve of Israels three-week war on Hamas in Gaza.

Still, the contours of an agreement have remained largely unchanged since they were first sketched by Clinton in 2000.

Under this blueprint, a Palestinian state would be established in most of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

Israel would keep some of the largest settlements it built on occupied land, while compensating the Palestinians with a land swap. Jerusalem would be partitioned along ethnic lines and Palestinian refugees would largely resettle in a future Palestine, not in Israel.

The framework is far closer to what Abbas wants than what Netanyahu has said he is willing to give. However, in a strange reversal, the Palestinian leader had to be dragged to the table, while the Israeli prime minister insisted from the start he was eager to negotiate.

Underlying Abbas reluctance is the fear that Netanyahu is not serious about reaching an agreement, and that the Israeli leader wants the cover of drawn-out negotiations to grab more land for Israel by expanding settlements, already home to nearly 500,000 Israelis in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Aides say Abbas only relented because he didnt want to anger Obama and because U.S. officials assured him Obama has a clear vision of what a final deal should look like.

Netanyahu has not unveiled a detailed peace proposal. Instead, he offered a belated endorsement of the idea of Palestinian statehood � but has not said how much land he would be willing to give up. He also insists Israel keep east Jerusalem, the Palestinians intended capital.

Netanyahu, who for years led the struggle against his predecessors peace efforts, has left Israelis guessing about whether he is now ready to help give birth to a Palestinian state � or is simply trying to appease both Obama and his hard-line allies at home in hopes of staying in power.

The Israeli leader has made some gestures to the Palestinians in the past year � easing restrictions on Palestinian movement that allowed for a modest economic recovery and slowing the pace of settlement activity.

Yet Netanyahu, head of the nationalist Likud Party, has refused to pick up negotiations where they left off under his predecessor, Ehud Olmert.

Addressing Likud members before his departure for Washington, Netanyahu said Monday that only his party has the credentials to deliver a peace deal that protects Israels security interests, just as it forged Israels historic peace agreement with Egypt three decades ago.

"True peace is not a short break between wars, its not a short break between terror attacks. True peace is something that persists dozens of years, that stands well for generations," he said.

Netanyahus intentions will become clearer when the settlement freeze ends Sept. 26.

Many in Likud are pushing for a resumption of construction and its unlikely Netanyahu will go against their wishes, said Zeev Elkin, a Likud legislator. "He made it clear ... that he is going with the party members, not against them," Elkin told Israel Army Radio.

Abbas faces his own domestic troubles.

Over the weekend, Khalil al-Haya, a leading Hamas figure in Gaza, threatened the negotiators, warning the Islamic militant group will "step on the necks of those who will give up our rights in Jerusalem and the rights of our refugees."

However, Hamas routinely sends conflicting messages, and its not clear if the latest threats mean Hamas has canceled a previous understanding with Abbas to allow him to negotiate without interference, provided he submits any deal to a referendum.

Skepticism about the negotiations is also widespread in the Abbas-run West Bank. He tried to assure his constituents in a televised address late Sunday that he would quit the talks if settlement construction resumes.

Hanan Ashrawi, a former negotiator, said the public has become disillusioned because with each failed round, Israeli settlements kept growing.

"The whole thing has been manipulated to become a process without substance or credibility," she said.

In Israel, the negotiations have been met with indifference.

"Weve been there so many times, and nothing comes out of it," said Israeli author Tom Segev.

Many Israelis believe they dont have a reliable Palestinian partner for peace, in part because they perceive Abbas as weak.

The Geneva Initiative, an Israeli-Palestinian group of former officials and negotiators who have come up with a detailed peace plan, tried to change that with a new PR campaign this week.

Palestinian officials recorded brief video clips aimed at the Israeli public. "Im your partner," said Jibril Rajoub, a former West Bank security chief, speaking in Hebrew. "I think there is a historic opportunity, for us and for you."

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Associated Press writers Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem, Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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Pro-Vatican politicians irked by Gadhafi in Rome AP

ROME Premier Silvio Berlusconi threw a gala evening for his "friend" Moammar Gadhafi Monday, thanking him for strengthened ties between Tripoli and Rome and dismissing as behind the times those criticizing the Libyan leader for trying to convert Italians to Islam during the visit.

With Gadhafi wrapped in white robes at his side, Berlusconi hailed the North African leader for signing a friendship treaty exactly two years ago that the Italian called a "model of diplomacy in the era of globalization."

In his two days in Rome, Gadhafi gave lectures on Islam to a few hundred young Italian women recruited by a modeling agency and paid to attend the sessions. Gadhafi handed out copies of the Quran, urged the women to take up Islam, and participants said three young women converted on the spot Sunday.

The women arrived by the busload. Some tottered on high heels and wore dresses with plunging necklines, while at least two were seen wearing Muslim-style veils. Another woman showed off a necklace she was given with a photo of Gadhafi dangling from it.

Left-leaning opposition lawmakers and pro-Vatican politicians in this predominantly Catholic county criticized the governments failure to protest his behavior.

Rocco Buttiglione, head of the Union of Christian Democrats, told La Repubblica daily Monday � apparently in jest � that if he were to go to Libya to try to persuade Muslims to convert to Christianity, "you can bet I wouldnt come back in one piece."

The small opposition Italy of Values party protested outside the Libyan Embassy, with Sen. Stefano Pedica telling APTN that Gadhafi was "making fun of our country, from the moment he stepped down from his plane."

But Berlusconi said those critics "belong to the past," and he derided them as "prisoners of outdated models" of thinking.

"We, instead, want to look forward and at the future, for the good of our children and the entire international community," he said in his tribute to Gadhafi.

Under the treaty, Italy agreed to pay Libya $5 billion over 20 years as compensation for its 30-year occupation. Most of that money will come in the form of Italys building a highway across Libya, from the border with Egypt to the border with Tunisia. Three consortiums of Italian companies will be involved in that ambitious project.

During the day, the two men inaugurated a photo show documenting the Italian colonial era in Libya.

"The images show the pain, the tragedy that one people inflicts" on another, the premier told an outdoor gathering of some 800 guests on the grounds of a Carabinieri paramilitary barracks.

Among the guests was Alessandro Profumo, CEO of Unicredit, Italys largest bank, which this month won the first international license to operate in Libya. Libyas central bank has a 4 percent share in Unicredit.

Bedouin-dressed riders on 30 Libyan thoroughbreds flown up from the North African country thundered across the field to entertain the guests, who included the cream of Italys businessmen, from energy companies to construction firms to banking, many of them already benefiting from deals with Libya.

Earlier, Berlusconi met with Gadhafi inside the tent where the Libyan is staying on the grounds of the embassy, but there was no immediate indication if similar business deals might have been spawned from the visit.

A dinner with Gadhafi and the businessmen and politicians was scheduled to follow the entertainment and stretch into the early hours of Tuesday.

Taking advantage of decades of post-colonial ties with Libya, that were lucrative even when some of the West shunned Gadhafi as a sponsor of terrorism, Italian businesses are eyeing the multibillion dollar construction frenzy of housing and hotels in Libya.

Tripoli is tapping its oil wealth to reshape the country after Gadhafi renounced terrorism and the U.S. restored diplomatic relations.

Libya has long been an important supplier of oil and natural gas to Italy.

Gadhafi, making his fourth visit to Italy within a year, praised his "dear courageous friend, Berlusconi."

The longtime Libyan leader used his nearly 40-minute speech to urge the European Union to pay Libya "at least euro5 billion almost $6.5 billion a year" for Tripoli to stop the waves of clandestine African migrants who sail from the countrys Mediterranean shores in smugglers boats toward Western Europe.

Otherwise, Gadhafi warned, some day, Europe "could turn into Africa" with million of immigrants.

As part of the treaty, Libya agreed to crack down on the thousands of African migrants who set off from Libyan shores for Italy. Berlusconis key coalition partner in his conservative coalition is the anti-immigrant Northern League party.

The Italian governments practice of returning those found at sea to Libya without screening them first for asylum has been criticized by human rights groups and Catholic church officials.

Amnesty International has also raised concerns about human rights in general, including use of torture, the death penalty and the lashing of women in Libya.

Berlusconis tribute to Gadhafi saw the two of them review some 130 Carabinieri horsemen saluting the Libyan as he arrived at the barracks and a shout from the mounted regiments leader of "Honors to the leader of the revolution, Moammar Gadhafi."

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Associated Press reporters Vito Panico and Daniele De Bernardin contributed to this report.

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Drilling begins in effort to free Chilean miners AP

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile An enormous drill began preliminary work Monday on carving a half-mile chimney through solid rock to free the 33 men trapped in a Chilean mine, their ordeal now having equaled the longest known survival in an underground disaster.

The 31-ton drill bored 50 feet into the rock, the first step in the weeklong digging of a "pilot hole" to guide the way for the rescue. Later the drill will be outfitted with larger bits to expand the hole and pull the men through � a process that could take four months.

The men were trapped Aug. 5 in the San Jose mine in Chiles northern Atacama Desert. Before rescuers dug bore holes to reach them, they survived 17 days without contact with the outside world by rationing a 48-hour supply of food and digging for water in the ground.

Only three miners who survived 25 days trapped in a flooded mine in southern China last year are known to have survived underground as long. Few other rescues have taken more than two weeks.

With Chilean officials saying the men could remain underground for another four months before the rescue hole is completed, the ordeal will be an unprecedented challenge for rescuers, but they have the tools to be successful.

"The drill operators have the best equipment available internationally," said Dave Feickert, director of KiaOra, a mine safety consulting firm in New Zealand, who has worked extensively with Chinas government to improve dangerous mines there.

"This doesnt mean it will be easy," he added. "They are likely to run into some technical problems that may slow them down."

In addition, a union leader has expressed concern for the mens livelihoods. San Esteban, the company that operates the mine, has said it has no money to pay their wages and absorb lawsuits, and is not even participating in the rescue. State-run mining company Codelco has taken over.

Union leader Evelyn Olmos called on the government to pay the workers wages starting in September, plus cover the roughly 100 other people at the mine who are now out of work and 170 more who work elsewhere for San Esteban. Its license has been suspended by the government.

"We want the government to pay our salaries in full until our comrades are freed and then pay our severances," said Olmos.

Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said the government was prohibited by labor laws from assuming responsibility for the salaries. He said it was up to the mining company and would have to be worked out in Chilean courts.

Golborne noted the extraordinary circumstances of the mine collapse but pointed out there are many other Chileans who lack a job and said the government cannot be responsible for all of them.

Union leaders and others blame the government in part for the San Jose accident because the mine had been cited for safety violations in the past but was allowed to continue operating.

In 2007, executives were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a miner. The workers family settled and the mine was closed until it could comply with safety rules, said Sen. Baldo Prokurica, who has long called for tougher regulations.

The next year, the mine reopened even though the company apparently had not complied with all the regulations, he said, adding that the circumstances surrounding the reopening are being investigated.

Workers at the current rescue operation are using the three existing bore holes to deliver food, water, air and medicine to the 33 miners, who are trapped about 2,200 feet underground in a shelter large enough to walk around in.

In an eight-minute video released by the government, the second made by the trapped miners, about a dozen of the men send greetings to their families and say they are feeling better since receiving the sustenance and supplies, including special clothes to keep them dry in the hot, humid mine.

The government last week said that five of the miners were suffering from depression, but Golborne said Sunday from the mine site that those men were doing better, had received antidepressants and were getting counseling.

Helping raise their spirits, the men spoke for about three minutes each to a family member on Sunday after a telephone line was lowered down one of the three existing 6-inch bore holes.

The men, while showing courage that has inspired people throughout Chile and the world, could not help but break down when speaking about their loved ones on the latest video.

"Im sending my greetings to Angelica. I love you so much, darling," said 30-year-old Osman Araya, as his voice choked and he began to cry. "Tell my mother, I love you guys so much. Ill never leave you. I will fight to the end to be with you."

The video showed the men mostly upbeat, joking on camera and talking about their absolute certainty that they would get out alive.

Experts say maintaining high morale among the men is essential. They will play a key role in winning their own rescue: The drilling technique that must be used means that up to 4,000 tons of rock and debris will fall down into a large mine shaft near the shelter � but far enough away from the men that they will not be in any danger.

Officials have said that it is essential the men be at their best physically and mentally because their own work clearing the rocks will be vital to keeping their eventual escape route from becoming plugged.

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Associated Press writer Eduardo Gallardo in Santiago contributed to this report.

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Walesa shuns Solidarity 30th anniversary sessions AP

WARSAW, Poland Solidarity founder Lech Walesa shunned several of the movements 30th anniversary sessions Monday, saying he is tired and disillusioned with the Polish trade unions current state.

The events are part of a series marking 30 years since the massive movement led by Walesa forced then-ruling communists to sign concessions to striking shipyard workers in Gdansk. The move eventually led to democratic changes in 1989 and spurred sweeping changes across nations in Eastern Europe, which until then were under Moscows thumb.

The 66-year-old Walesa, who was Polands president from 1990-95, said he is unhappy with Polands politics and economy today and with Solidarity itself, because the trade union is getting too involved in daily politics.

On Monday he skipped two anniversary sessions in Gdynia � one local and one national � and major anniversary observances in another Baltic port, Szczecin.

Walesa is, however, expected to attend a concert in Gdansk on Tuesday, which will be the central point of the celebrations.

"After 30 years of great personal effort I am terribly tired today," Walesa wrote in his blog Monday. "This is why I am not capable of actively participating in many meetings and ceremonies."

Walesa, who travels extensively around the world lecturing on Polands bloodless political transformation, was fitted with a pacemaker in 2007.

He told the TVN24 television station that Solidarity should revert to its role as a social movement.

"It is needed in Europe, even globally. But Solidarity as a trade union is an obstacle in many fields," Walesa said without specifying.

President Bronislaw Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk attended the national session in Gdynia.

"Without doubt, the Solidarity movement, the struggle in the Gdansk shipyard, and across the nation, and the victory of Polands clever revolution in 1980 and in 1989, belong among those few moments in which we helped shape the future of Europe, maybe even of the world," Komorowski told the gathering.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent her "warmest regards" to the Polish people on the anniversary.

"We honor those who stood against tyranny 30 years ago and all who followed in their wake," she said in a statement. "The heroes of Solidarity knew that the Polish people desired and deserved more from their country, and they laid the foundation for the Poland we see today."

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French government divided over Gypsy expulsions AP

PARIS Frances crackdown on Gypsies, which has been criticized by the Vatican and the United Nations, is now exposing cracks in President Nicolas Sarkozys government.

Two top Cabinet ministers have voiced concern about the governments accelerated expulsions of Roma, also known as Gypsies, to their home countries. On Monday, the prime minister admitted to a "malaise" in Sarkozys conservative camp over the ensuing debate that has dented Frances image as a stalwart defender of human rights.

Undaunted, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said the stepped-up dismantling of Roma camps and expulsions, which he called "legitimate and necessary," would continue. "Its not a question of stigmatizing this or that population," Hortefeux said at a news conference.

"We cant close our eyes to the reality," he said, citing soaring crime by Roma and saying they were being treated as citizens of fellow European Union members Romania and Bulgaria � not as an ethnic group.

The firestorm within the government comes amid recent speculation that Sarkozy, whose poll numbers have been persistently low, may be looking to shake up the Cabinet in the coming weeks � with an eye to the 2012 presidential election.

One Cabinet member who may be on his way out is Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who said Monday he had considered resigning over the Roma expulsions. Kouchner suggested his frustration was not with the policy, which he says he favors, but with the way the message has been spun, and gotten out of the control of French officials.

The foreign minister, a longtime human rights advocate turned political figure, told RTL radio he "isnt happy about what happened," but that he decided resigning wouldnt fix the problems faced by Roma.

For years, Sarkozy has brandished an image of a tough, law-and-order politician in an effort to win political support. Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, calling their camps sources of prostitution and child exploitation. On July 28, he pledged that illegal Gypsy camps would be "systematically evacuated."

The government stepped up a long-standing policy of rounding up Gypsies, dismantling their illegal camps in France, and sending them home to Eastern Europe � mainly Romania.

The policy has attracted widespread scorn, with some calling it a form of racism against one of the EUs poorest minorities. Pope Benedict XVI and the U.N.s human rights panel have expressed concern, 0and EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding criticized the use of "openly discriminatory and partly inflammatory" language.

But in vowing to press on, the French government insists the policy is legal, is not new, and that other EU countries have similar policies. While Romanians, as EU citizens, have a right to enter France without a visa, they must prove they wont become a burden on the state for stays longer than three months. Camping grounds must be authorized.

Hortefeux said that since July 28, 977 Roma had been sent home, mainly to Romania and on a voluntary basis with a small stipend. The minister denounced as "shameful" critics comparison of the policy to "Nazi barbarism."

Paris Police Chief Michel Gaudin told reporters that crime attributed to Romanians was soaring � one in five thefts. He said it was increasingly the work of minors, increasingly violent and "very structured."

European Affairs Minister Pierre Lellouche pointed to Romanias need to take responsibility for its citizens, saying that only 0.4 percent of the euro20 billion in EU aid received for the 2007-2013 period has been used for its Roma population. Lellouche was traveling to Romania next week as part of a French effort to help develop an integration policy.

The government has admittedly bungled the handling of its message.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon acknowledged Monday on France-Inter radio a "malaise" within the governing UMP party and criticized "the way in which this policy has been presented by some."

"We sent home more than 11,000 Roma in 2009, and nearly 8,000 in 2008," Fillon said. "Saying that young Romanians are behind 15 percent of crime by minors today in Paris doesnt stigmatize a community � its to point out that theres a problem."

Fillon also said he was "surprised" about critical comments about the governments security policies over the weekend by Defense Minister Herve Morin.

Morin hinted he would leave the government soon to focus on a possible presidential bid for his small center-right party, an ally of Sarkozys party. He also criticized the governments crackdown on Roma.

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Obama: GOP should let small business bill through AP

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama exhorted Congress on Monday to make passing a long-languishing small business aid package its first order of business when it returns next month from its summer break.

"I ask Senate Republicans to drop the blockade," Obama said in the Rose Garden after meeting with his economic advisers.

Acknowledging that the economy still remains extremely fragile, the president said hed also have other specific ideas in the days ahead.

He mentioned extending Bush tax cuts due to expire this year for households making under $250,000 a year, upping the nations investment in clean energy, rebuilding more roads and highways and tax cuts designed to keep jobs in the U.S.

"My economic team is hard at work identifying additional measures that could make a difference in both promoting growth and hiring in the short term and increasing our economys competitiveness in the long term," he said.

In a week likely to be dominated by foreign policy, Obama is trying to show hes still minding the economy after his 10-day vacation in Marthas Vineyard.

A string of weak economic reports in recent weeks has fed fears that the economy would fall back into recession, only slightly offset by Mondays government report that consumer spending had increased in July after four down months.

"Every single day, Im pushing this economy forward, repairing the damage thats been done to the middle class over the past decade and promoting the growth we need to get out people back to work," Obama said in his statement.

Obama said action on the package of small business tax cuts and credit incentives is "one thing we know that we should do" as soon as possible. Republicans have been blocking the bill, calling it misguided.

However, Obama said it was being "held up by a partisan minority that wont even let it get to a vote."

"The bill is fully paid for. And theres no reason to block it besides pure partisan politics," he said.

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Blackberry in India ban reprieve

30 August 2010 Last updated at 10:55 ET

India has said it will delay a ban on Blackberry devices for 60 days while it reviews proposals from the gadgets maker, Research in Motion RIM.

A ban had been threatened from Tuesday, as India said its security services needed greater access to encrypted services.

It wants the ability to monitor secure e-mail and instant messaging services provided by the firm.

RIM has said it will support the countrys need for "lawful access".

But it maintains that it does not do "specific deals" with countries.

The firm said earlier that it had offered to "lead an industry forum focused on supporting the lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies".

It said that the forum - which would include other telecoms firms - would work with the Indian government to develop "policies and processes aimed at preventing the misuse of strong encryption technologies".

Scramble

India, along with many other countries, believes the device and the Blackberry infrastructure used by business customers are a threat to national security.

The country fears the device could be used by militants and insurgents in a repeat of the 2008 attack on Mumbai that left 166 people dead.

Blackberry handsets automatically scramble messages and send them to servers in Canada and other countries.

Authorities have said they want access to these messages and the keys to decrypt them in order to counter terrorism and criminal activity.

But RIM has said that it "does not possess a master key, nor does any back door exist in the system that would allow RIM or any third party, under any circumstances, to gain access to encrypted corporate information".

It said that "singling out and banning" Blackberry would be "ineffective and counter-productive" as many other networks used similar encryption techniques.

The firm said finding a solution to meet the needs of governments and prevent the misuse of encryption was an industry-wide problem.

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French filmmaker Alain Corneau dies at 67 AP

PARIS Alain Corneau, the French filmmaker who leapt to international notice with the 1991 hit "Tous les Matins du Monde," has died, his talent agency said Monday. He was 67.

Artmedia agency said Corneau had been suffering from cancer and died overnight Sunday to Monday.

Throughout a career lasting more than 35 years, Corneau directed many legends of French cinema, including Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu.

Depardieu starred alongside his son Guillaume in "Tous les Matins du Monde" "All the Mornings of the World". The film, the story of a 17th-century musician, won considerable critical acclaim at home and abroad. It garnered seven Cesar awards, the French equivalent of the Academy Awards, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for best foreign film.

The office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed Corneau as a "courageous man" and a "great director."

Through his films, "Corneau pursued an unceasing investigation into what makes humans human," said Sarkozys office in a statement.

Born on Aug. 7, 1943, Corneau dabbled in music before making his start in cinema as an assistant for Greek-born filmmaker Costa-Gavras. Early on in his career, he made a series of thrillers, including "Choice of Arms," a 1981 gangster flick starring Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu and Yves Montand.

An avid follower of literature, Corneau adapted seven of his 16 films from novels. His latest movie, "Love Crime," starring Kristin Scott Thomas, opened in France in mid-August.

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Biden visits Iraq to mark formal end to US combat AP

BAGHDAD Vice President Joe Biden returned to Iraq Monday to mark this weeks formal end to U.S. combat operations and push the countrys leaders to end a six-month postelection stalemate blocking formation of a new government.

Wednesdays ceremony will signal a shift toward a greater U.S. diplomatic role as the military mission dwindles seven years after the American invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Underscoring the shift, officials said Biden will make a new appeal to Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to end the political deadlock and seat a new government. March 7 parliamentary elections left Iraq without a clear winner, and insurgents have exploited the uncertainty to hammer Iraqi security forces in near-daily attacks.

Biden and al-Maliki will meet Tuesday morning "to discuss the political situation and withdrawal, and Iraqis taking over responsibility for security," the prime ministers adviser, Yasin Majeed, told The Associated Press.

It was the vice presidents sixth trip to Iraq since he was elected and, officially, he came to preside over a military change-of-command ceremony. On Wednesday, Gen. Ray Odierno ends more than five years in Iraq and hands over the reins as commander of U.S. forces here to Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin. Austin also has served extensively in Iraq, most recently as commander of troop operations in 2008-09.

But the Sept. 1 ceremony also marks the start of the so-called "Operation New Dawn" � symbolizing the beginning of the end of the American militarys mission in Iraq since invading in March 2003.

Just under 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq � down from a peak of nearly 170,000 at the height of the 2007 military surge that is credited with turning the tide in Iraq as it teetered on the brink of civil war. Additionally, U.S. troops no longer will be allowed to go on combat missions unless requested and accompanied by Iraqi forces.

Under a security agreement between the two nations, all U.S. forces must leave Iraq by the end of 2011. But the Obama administration, sensitive to charges of American abandonment, has directed its diplomats to step into the void and help Iraqs weak government, economy and other institutions get back on their feet for years to come.

Threats still remain.

Al-Maliki last week put Iraq on its highest level of alert for possible attacks by al-Qaida and Saddams former Baath Party loyalists in the days leading up to the U.S. ceremony on Wednesday. An Iraqi intelligence official said suicide bombers are believed to have entered Iraq with plans to strike unspecified targets in Baghdad, the capital.

And on the eve of Bidens arrival, Iraqi police said two mortar rounds landed in the capitals Green Zone, where the parliament and many foreign embassies are housed behind blast walls, steel gates and barbed wire. The rounds landed near the U.S. Embassy but did not kill or injure anyone, police said.

All Iraqi security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they was not authorized to discuss sensitive information with the media.

Al-Maliki, a Shiite, is struggling to keep his job after his political alliance narrowly came in second place to the Sunni-backed Iraqiya coalition in the March 7 vote.

U.S. diplomats have encouraged a power-sharing agreement between Iraqiya and al-Malikis State of Law alliance. Together, they would control a majority of parliament and win the right to choose the new governments leaders.

But al-Maliki and Iraqiyas leader, former Premier Ayad Allawi, both want to be prime minister. So far, neither has backed down � creating a political impasse and leading to back-room jockeying by hard-line Shiite groups for a larger share of power.

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Biden visits Iraq to mark formal end to US combat AP

BAGHDAD Vice President Joe Biden returned to Iraq Monday to mark this weeks formal end to U.S. combat operations and push the countrys leaders to end a six-month postelection stalemate blocking formation of a new government.

Wednesdays ceremony will signal a shift toward a greater U.S. diplomatic role as the military mission dwindles seven years after the American invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Underscoring the shift, officials said Biden will make a new appeal to Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to end the political deadlock and seat a new government. March 7 parliamentary elections left Iraq without a clear winner, and insurgents have exploited the uncertainty to hammer Iraqi security forces in near-daily attacks.

Biden and al-Maliki will meet Tuesday morning "to discuss the political situation and withdrawal, and Iraqis taking over responsibility for security," the prime ministers adviser, Yasin Majeed, told The Associated Press.

It was the vice presidents sixth trip to Iraq since he was elected and, officially, he came to preside over a military change-of-command ceremony. On Wednesday, Gen. Ray Odierno ends more than five years in Iraq and hands over the reins as commander of U.S. forces here to Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin. Austin also has served extensively in Iraq, most recently as commander of troop operations in 2008-09.

But the Sept. 1 ceremony also marks the start of the so-called "Operation New Dawn" � symbolizing the beginning of the end of the American militarys mission in Iraq since invading in March 2003.

Just under 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq � down from a peak of nearly 170,000 at the height of the 2007 military surge that is credited with turning the tide in Iraq as it teetered on the brink of civil war. Additionally, U.S. troops no longer will be allowed to go on combat missions unless requested and accompanied by Iraqi forces.

Under a security agreement between the two nations, all U.S. forces must leave Iraq by the end of 2011. But the Obama administration, sensitive to charges of American abandonment, has directed its diplomats to step into the void and help Iraqs weak government, economy and other institutions get back on their feet for years to come.

Threats still remain.

Al-Maliki last week put Iraq on its highest level of alert for possible attacks by al-Qaida and Saddams former Baath Party loyalists in the days leading up to the U.S. ceremony on Wednesday. An Iraqi intelligence official said suicide bombers are believed to have entered Iraq with plans to strike unspecified targets in Baghdad, the capital.

And on the eve of Bidens arrival, Iraqi police said two mortar rounds landed in the capitals Green Zone, where the parliament and many foreign embassies are housed behind blast walls, steel gates and barbed wire. The rounds landed near the U.S. Embassy but did not kill or injure anyone, police said.

All Iraqi security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they was not authorized to discuss sensitive information with the media.

Al-Maliki, a Shiite, is struggling to keep his job after his political alliance narrowly came in second place to the Sunni-backed Iraqiya coalition in the March 7 vote.

U.S. diplomats have encouraged a power-sharing agreement between Iraqiya and al-Malikis State of Law alliance. Together, they would control a majority of parliament and win the right to choose the new governments leaders.

But al-Maliki and Iraqiyas leader, former Premier Ayad Allawi, both want to be prime minister. So far, neither has backed down � creating a political impasse and leading to back-room jockeying by hard-line Shiite groups for a larger share of power.

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