Tropical Storm Hermine makes landfall in Mexico AP

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico Tropical Storm Hermine slammed into Mexicos northern Gulf coast near the U.S. border late Monday with winds of 60 mph 95 kph, lashing Mexico and southern Texas with heavy rains that authorities warned could cause flash flooding.

Authorities in Mexico urged people to move to shelters while officials in Texas offered residents sandbags and put shelters on standby as Hermine neared. The storm was expected to cross the border in the coming hours after touching land in Mexico about 30 miles 45 kms south of Brownsville, Texas. It was expected to push northward up Texas and weaken into a weaken into a tropical depression on Tuesday afternoon or evening.

Hurricane watches for the coasts of Mexico and Texas were discontinued but Hermine still threatened to bring as much as a foot of rainfall to areas battered by Hurricane Alex in June. Remnant rains from Alex killed at least 12 people in flooding in Mexico.

A tropical storm warning for Hermine was in effect from Bahia Algodones, Mexico northward to Port OConnor, Texas.

Hermine "will briefly be over Mexico, and then were expecting it to produce very heavy rainfall over south Texas," said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. "Were expecting widespread rainfall totals of 4 to 8 inches with isolated amounts of a foot possible. Especially in the hilly and mountainous terrain, that could cause life-threatening flash flooding."

The cattle-ranching region in northeastern Mexico is one of the most dangerous hotspots in the countrys turf war between two drug cartels. It is the same area where 72 migrants were killed two weeks ago in what it believed to be the countrys worst drug gang massacre to date.

Mexican emergency officials urged those living in low-lying coastal areas to move to shelters, and authorities in Tamaulipas state began evacuating 3,500 people around Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville. Classes in Matamoros and several other Mexican towns were canceled, and authorities began releasing water from some dams to make room for expected rains.

"We urge the general population to be on alert for possible floods and mudslides," said Salvador Trevino, director of civil defense for Tamaulipas, where Matamoros is located.

Officials also began releasing water from reservoirs to make room for the expected heavy rains, Trevino said.

In inland Hidalgo state, authorities said heavy rains caused by the passing storm unleashed landslides that damaged 20 residences, left 120 people homeless and cut off small communities.

Unlike Alex, Hermines approach to Texas brought far less anxiety. No evacuations had been ordered as of late Monday, and shelters throughout the flood-prone Rio Grande Valley were on standby but were still keeping their doors shut.

Schools around Brownsville, where Alex dumped nearly a foot of rain in June, closed Tuesday as a precaution. Officials said they wanted to keep school buses from driving in wind gusts that could reach 40 mph.

Sandbags were also made available across South Texas, but there were few takers.

"We have people who still have some leftover from Hurricane Alex," said Tony Pena, emergency management coordinator for Hidalgo County.

Hermine came at a bad time for a region still drying out from Alex and another tropical system in July, which both helped cause the Rio Grande to jump its banks. Pena said it was only a week ago that the county shut off its last water pump, after having more than 100 going at peak flooding this summer.

"Weve held up OK," Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos said. "But a few more weeks of warm, sunny weather wouldve helped us out a little bit."

On the Texas coast, emergency officials readied pumping equipment and distributed sandbags in Cameron County, said John Cavazos, the countys emergency management coordinator. He said they are also suggesting that people in recreational vehicles in county parks along the coast should move.

"Anyone living in ... an area thats known to flood, they need to take some precautions," Cavazos said.

No evacuations had been ordered in Texas.

____

Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Emilio Lopez in Pachuca, Mexico, and Paul J. Weber in McAllen, Texas contributed to this report.

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Tropical Storm Hermine makes landfall in Mexico AP

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico Tropical Storm Hermine slammed into Mexicos northern Gulf coast near the U.S. border late Monday with winds of 65 mph 100 kph, threatening heavy rains that could cause flash flooding in Mexico and Texas.

Mexican authorities urged people to move to shelters while officials in Texas offered sandbags and warned of flash floods as Hermine neared. The storm was expected to cross the border in the coming hours after touching land about 40 miles 65 km south of Brownsville, Texas. It was expected to push northward up Texas on Tuesday.

Hermine threatened to bring as much as a foot of rainfall to some areas battered by Hurricane Alex in June. Remnant rains from Alex killed at least 12 people in flooding in Mexico.

Hermine "will briefly be over Mexico, and then were expecting it to produce very heavy rainfall over south Texas," said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. "Were expecting widespread rainfall totals of 4 to 8 inches with isolated amounts of a foot possible. Especially in the hilly and mountainous terrain, that could cause life-threatening flash flooding."

The cattle-ranching region is one of the most dangerous hotspots in Mexicos turf war between two drug cartels. It is the same area where 72 migrants were killed two weeks ago in what it believed to be the countrys worst drug gang massacre to date.

Mexican emergency officials urged those living in low-lying coastal areas to move to shelters, and authorities in Tamaulipas state began evacuating 3,500 people around Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville. Classes in Matamoros and several other Mexican towns were canceled, and authorities began releasing water from some dams to make room for expected rains.

"We urge the general population to be on alert for possible floods and mudslides," said Salvador Trevino, director of civil defense for Tamaulipas, where Matamoros is located.

Officials also began releasing water from reservoirs to make room for the expected heavy rains, Trevino said.

In inland Hidalgo state, authorities said heavy rains caused by the passing storm unleashed landslides that damaged 20 residences, left 120 people homeless and cut off small communities.

Unlike Alex, Hermines approach to Texas brought far less anxiety. No evacuations had been ordered as of late Monday, and shelters throughout the flood-prone Rio Grande Valley were on standby but were still keeping their doors shut.

Schools around Brownsville, where Alex dumped nearly a foot of rain in June, closed Tuesday as a precaution. Officials said they wanted to keep school buses from driving in wind gusts that could reach 40 mph.

Sandbags were also made available across South Texas, but there were few takers.

"We have people who still have some leftover from Hurricane Alex," said Tony Pena, emergency management coordinator for Hidalgo County.

Hermine came at a bad time for a region still drying out from Alex and another tropical system in July, which both helped cause the Rio Grande to jump its banks. Pena said it was only a week ago that the county shut off its last water pump, after having more than 100 going at peak flooding this summer.

"Weve held up OK," Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos said. "But a few more weeks of warm, sunny weather wouldve helped us out a little bit."

On the Texas coast, emergency officials readied pumping equipment and distributed sandbags in Cameron County, said John Cavazos, the countys emergency management coordinator. He said they are also suggesting that people in recreational vehicles in county parks along the coast should move.

"Anyone living in ... an area thats known to flood, they need to take some precautions," Cavazos said.

No evacuations had been ordered in Texas.

In Hidalgo County, located inland, just west of Cameron and Willacy counties, officials were also distributing sandbags and anticipating the need to pump floodwaters

"Residents are urged to make preparations now and to remain alert to this rapidly-developing weather situation," Hidalgo County Judge Rene A. Ramirez said in a news release.

____

Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Emilio Lopez in Pachuca, Mexico, and Paul J. Weber in McAllen, Texas contributed to this report.

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Death toll rises to 45 in Guatemala mudslides AP

GUATEMALA CITY Searchers on Monday pulled five more bodies from a mud-covered highway where back-to-back landslides buried bus passengers and then the people trying to save them. The deaths raised the confirmed toll from mudslides in Guatemala to 45 as torrential rains pounded the country.

Authorities said 25 people are confirmed dead and at least 15 are believed to be still buried beneath the debris in the village of Nahuala, where a first mudslide buried a bus and other vehicles, then a second one turned would-be rescuers into victims.

At least 20 others died over the weekend elsewhere as a tropical depression saturated the ground and set off more than a dozen landslides around the country, according to the national disaster agency. The most recent slide, on a highway in northern Guatemala, killed one person and injured 26 on Sunday.

In southern Guatemala, meanwhile, rescue workers used motorboats to reach about 100 families cut off by massive flooding in the town of Santa Ana Mixtan. Some residents sat on their roofs waiting to be evacuated, while others tried to drag bundles of their belongings through neck-deep water.

In Nahuala, emergency crews and villagers rushed to the Inter-American highway on Saturday, picks and shovels in hand, after radio reports of the deadly slide � only to be swamped by the second cascade of rock and earth.

Search and rescue efforts were suspended Sunday for fear that the mountainside could give way yet again, but digging resumed Monday with heavy machinery and fewer workers, said Sergio Cabanas, a Civil Protection director.

Of the 100 people originally searching for bodies and survivors, only 33 remained, all of them soldiers and firefighters, Cabanas said.

"And even they might not be able to recover the last of the bodies," Cabanas said. "Its very dangerous to have personnel there."

At least five bodies were pulled out Monday, said Mario Cruz, a firefighters spokesman. Authorities initially said more than three dozen people were missing, but the estimate was lowered to 15 after further interviews with witnesses and relatives.

Local police officer Suagustino Pascual Tuy said there had been several landslides along the Inter-American highway in the last year, and authorities knew of the danger.

"Last year there was a landslide there, 15 days ago there was a landslide," he said. "But now a big one came."

President Alvaro Colom, who visited the area and declared Monday a national day of mourning, said Guatemala must improve its disaster prevention efforts. He said more geologists should study the terrain in the countrys hillsides.

All told, there were 15 landslides at different spots along the Inter-American Highway � a section of the Pan-American Highway system � within in a 48-hour period, Communications Minister Guillermo Castillo said.

Byron Pivaral, director of the government agency that oversees road construction, said widespread deforestation made it difficult for the land around the highway to absorb heavy rain. Along the highway, he said, people have cut down trees to plant corn and beans.

Vice President Rafael Espada said there would be investigation to determine whether faulty road construction also contributed to the mudslides.

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Hermine comes ashore in Mexico as tropical storm AP

MIAMI Forecasters say Tropical Storm Hermine has come ashore in extreme northeastern Mexico.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hermines center first touched land Monday night about 40 miles 65 km south of Brownsville, Texas. Its expected to move into south Texas.

Hermine has maximum sustained winds of about 65 mph 110 kph.

Hermine was moving north-northwest at about 14 mph 22 kph.

The storm was expected to bring as much as a foot of rainfall to some areas battered by Hurricane Alex in June.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. APs earlier story is below.

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico AP � Mexican authorities urged people to move to shelters while officials in Texas distributed sandbags and warned of flash floods as Tropical Storm Hermine strengthened and headed toward the northwestern Gulf coast on Monday.

Hermine will probably make landfall around midnight just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, threatening to bring as much as a foot of rainfall to some areas battered by Hurricane Alex in June. Remnant rains from Alex killed at least 12 people in flooding in Mexico.

Hermine "will briefly be over Mexico, and then were expecting it to produce very heavy rainfall over south Texas," said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. "Were expecting widespread rainfall totals of 4 to 8 inches with isolated amounts of a foot possible. Especially in the hilly and mountainous terrain, that could cause life-threatening flash flooding."

The storms winds strengthened to about 65 mph 100 kph, and by Monday afternoon it was located about 80 miles 130 kilometers south-southeast of Brownsville, Texas. Tropical storm force winds extended out up to 105 miles 165 kilometers from the storms center.

While it is likely to hit just south of Matamoros � across the border from Brownsville � at tropical storm force, it has the potential to build into minimal hurricane strength, Blake said.

A hurricane watch was issued for the area from Rio San Fernando, Mexico, north to Baffin Bay in Texas.

The cattle-ranching region is one the most dangerous in Mexicos turf war between two drug cartels. It is the same area 72 migrants were killed two weeks ago in what it believed to be Mexicos worst drug gang massacre to date.

Mexican emergency officials urged those living in low-lying coastal areas to move to shelters, and authorities in Tamaulipas state began evacuating 3,500 people.

"We urge the general population to be on alert for possible floods and mudslides," said Salvador Trevino, director of civil defense for Tamaulipas, where Matamoros is located.

Officials also began releasing water from reservoirs to make room for the expected heavy rains, Trevino said.

In inland Hidalgo state, authorities said heavy rains caused by the passing storm unleashed landslides that damaged 20 residences, left 120 people homeless and cut off small communities.

On the Texas coast, emergency officials readied pumping equipment and distributed sandbags in Cameron County, said John Cavazos, the countys emergency management coordinator. He said they are also suggesting that people in recreational vehicles in county parks along the coast should move.

He officials are worried about flooding because the ground is already saturated from earlier rains. Some areas could get up to 12 inches of rain, he said.

"Anyone living in ... an area thats known to flood, they need to take some precautions," Cavazos said.

Frank Torres, emergency management coordinator for Willacy County, said officials are preparing sandbags and making sure people know a storm is coming.

"It just popped up out of nowhere," he said. "Were anticipating some flooding. The good thing is its going to blow through here very quickly."

No evacuations had been ordered in Texas.

In Hidalgo County, located inland, just west of Cameron and Willacy counties, officials were also distributing sandbags and anticipating the need to pump floodwaters

"Residents are urged to make preparations now and to remain alert to this rapidly-developing weather situation," Hidalgo County Judge Rene A. Ramirez said in a news release.

____

Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas and Emilio Lopez in Pachuca, Mexico, contributed to this report.

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Obama assails GOP, promotes new jobs program AP

MILWAUKEE A combative President Barack Obama rolled out a long-term jobs program Monday that would exceed $50 billion to rebuild roads, railways and runways, and coupled it with a blunt campaign-season assault on Republicans for causing Americans hard economic times.

GOP leaders instantly assailed Obamas proposal as an ineffective one that would simply raise already excessive federal spending. Many congressional Democrats are also likely to be reluctant to boost expenditures and increase federal deficits just weeks before elections that will determine control of Congress.

Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, cautioned, "If we are going to get anything done, Republican cooperation, which has been all but non-existent recently, will be necessary."

That left the plan with low, if not impossible, odds of becoming law this year. When Congress returns from summer recess in mid-September, it is likely to remain in session for only a few weeks before lawmakers return home to campaign for re-election.

Administration officials said that even if Congress quickly approved the program, it would not produce jobs until sometime next year. That means the proposals only pre-election impact may be a political one as the White House tries to demonstrate to voters that it is working to boost the economy and create jobs.

At a Labor Day speech in Milwaukee, Obama said Republicans are betting that between now and the Nov. 2 elections, Americans will forget the Republican economic policies that led to the recession. He said Republicans have opposed virtually everything he has done to help the economy, and have proposed solutions that have only made the problem worse.

"That philosophy didnt work out so well for middle-class families all across America," Obama told a cheering crowd at a labor gathering. "It didnt work out so well for our country. All it did was rack up record deficits and result in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."

He said Repubicans have consistently opposed his economic proposals and seem to be running on a slogan of "No, we cant," playing off his 2008 presidential campaign mantra of "Yes we can."

"If I said fish live in the sea, theyd say no," Obama said.

Republicans made clear that Obama should not expect any help from them.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the plan "should be met with justifiable skepticism." He said it would raise taxes while Americans are "still looking for the shovel-ready jobs they were promised more than a year ago" in the $814 billion economic stimulus measure.

The House Republican leader, John Boehner of Ohio, added "We dont need more government stimulus spending. We need to end Washington Democrats out-of-control spending spree, stop their tax hikes, and create jobs by eliminating the job-killing uncertainty that is hampering our small businesses."

Administration officials are hunting broadly for ways to revive the economy. But they are likely to drop a separate proposal to renew a law exempting companies from paying Social Security taxes on any unemployed workers they hire, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision was not final.

Casual in brown slacks and open-collar white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, Obama took a populist tack in his speech, mixing attacks on Republicans with praise for working-class and middle-class Americans.

He said hed "keep fighting, every single day, every single hour, every single minute to turn this economy around." He said interest groups he has battled "talk about me like a dog."

He also acknowledged that the past eight months of modest private-sector job growth hasnt been enough to bring down the unemployment rate. He said economic problems facing families today are "more serious than ever," and seemed to ask the audience in Milwaukee � and voters nationwide � for patience.

"Now heres the honest truth, the plain truth. Theres no silver bullet, theres no quick fix to these problems," he said, adding that it will take time to "reverse the damage of a decade worth of policies" that caused the recession.

Administration officials said the transportation plans initial $50 billion would be the beginning of a six-year program of transportation improvements, but they did not give an overall figure. The proposal has a longer-range focus than last years economic stimulus bill, which was more targeted on immediate job creation.

The plan calls for rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads; building and maintaining 4,000 miles of rail lines and 150 miles of airport runways, and installing a new air navigation system to reduce travel times and delays.

Obama also called for a permanent funding mechanism, an infrastructure bank, to focus on paying for national and regional infrastructure projects. Officials provided few details of how the bank would work.

Obama said the proposal would be fully paid for. In an earlier briefing for reporters, administration officials said Obama would pay for the program by asking lawmakers to close tax breaks for oil and gas companies and multinational corporations.

The infrastructure spending is part of a package of economic proposals to be announced this week by Obama, who is feeling heat from fellow Democrats and a jittery public to show that he is focused on pumping life into the economic recovery and shrinking an unemployment rate long stuck near 10 percent.

___

Associated Press writer Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.

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Indonesian volcano erupts again; strongest one yet AP

TANAH KARO, Indonesia An Indonesian volcano shot black ash three miles 5,000 meters into the air early Tuesday � its most powerful eruption since springing back to life after four centuries of dormancy.

The force of Mount Sinabungs explosion could be felt five miles eight kilometers away.

"This one was really terrifying," said Anissa Siregar, 30, as she and her two sleepy children arrived by truck at an emergency shelter near the base, adding that the whole mountain shook violently for at least three minutes. "It just keeps getting worse."

The volcano in North Sumatra province erupted last week for the first time since 1600, catching many scientists off guard. With more than 129 active volcanoes to watch, local vulcanologists had failed to monitor it for rising magma, slight uplifts in land and other signs of seismic activity.

There are fears that current activity could foreshadow a much more destructive explosion in the next few weeks or months, though it is possible, too, that the mountain will go back to sleep after letting off steam.

More than 30,000 people living along the volcanos fertile slopes have been relocated to cramped refugee camps, mosques and churches in nearby villages.

But some � like Siregar, the mother who fled with her children � have insisted on returning to the danger zone to check on their homes and their dust covered crops.

The government sent trucks to the mountain before Tuesdays eruption to help carry them back to safety.

Surono, who heads the nations volcano alert center, said intensity at the mountain is clearly increasing.

There were more than 80 volcanic earthquakes in the 24-hour lead up to the blast, compared to 50 on Friday, when ash and debris shot nearly two miles 3,000 meters into the air.

The eruption early Tuesday occurred just after midnight during a torrential downpour. Witnesses said volcanic ash and mud oozed down the mountains slopes, flooding into abandoned homes.

Indonesia is a seismically charged region because of its location on the so-called "Ring of Fire" � a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

It has recorded some of the largest eruptions in history.

The 1815 explosion of Mount Tambora buried the inhabitants of Sumbawa Island under searing ash, gas and rock, killing an estimated 88,000 people.

The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa could be heard 2,000 miles 3,200 kilometers away and blackened skies region-wide for months. At least 36,000 people were killed in the blast and the tsunami that followed.

___

Associated Press Writer Niniek Karmini contributed to this report from Jakarta.

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Hermine comes ashore in Mexico as tropical storm AP

MIAMI Forecasters say Tropical Storm Hermine has come ashore in extreme northeastern Mexico.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hermines center first touched land Monday night about 40 miles 65 km south of Brownsville, Texas. Its expected to move into south Texas.

Hermine has maximum sustained winds of about 65 mph 110 kph.

Hermine was moving north-northwest at about 14 mph 22 kph.

The storm was expected to bring as much as a foot of rainfall to some areas battered by Hurricane Alex in June.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. APs earlier story is below.

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico AP � Mexican authorities urged people to move to shelters while officials in Texas distributed sandbags and warned of flash floods as Tropical Storm Hermine strengthened and headed toward the northwestern Gulf coast on Monday.

Hermine will probably make landfall around midnight just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, threatening to bring as much as a foot of rainfall to some areas battered by Hurricane Alex in June. Remnant rains from Alex killed at least 12 people in flooding in Mexico.

Hermine "will briefly be over Mexico, and then were expecting it to produce very heavy rainfall over south Texas," said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. "Were expecting widespread rainfall totals of 4 to 8 inches with isolated amounts of a foot possible. Especially in the hilly and mountainous terrain, that could cause life-threatening flash flooding."

The storms winds strengthened to about 65 mph 100 kph, and by Monday afternoon it was located about 80 miles 130 kilometers south-southeast of Brownsville, Texas. Tropical storm force winds extended out up to 105 miles 165 kilometers from the storms center.

While it is likely to hit just south of Matamoros � across the border from Brownsville � at tropical storm force, it has the potential to build into minimal hurricane strength, Blake said.

A hurricane watch was issued for the area from Rio San Fernando, Mexico, north to Baffin Bay in Texas.

The cattle-ranching region is one the most dangerous in Mexicos turf war between two drug cartels. It is the same area 72 migrants were killed two weeks ago in what it believed to be Mexicos worst drug gang massacre to date.

Mexican emergency officials urged those living in low-lying coastal areas to move to shelters, and authorities in Tamaulipas state began evacuating 3,500 people.

"We urge the general population to be on alert for possible floods and mudslides," said Salvador Trevino, director of civil defense for Tamaulipas, where Matamoros is located.

Officials also began releasing water from reservoirs to make room for the expected heavy rains, Trevino said.

In inland Hidalgo state, authorities said heavy rains caused by the passing storm unleashed landslides that damaged 20 residences, left 120 people homeless and cut off small communities.

On the Texas coast, emergency officials readied pumping equipment and distributed sandbags in Cameron County, said John Cavazos, the countys emergency management coordinator. He said they are also suggesting that people in recreational vehicles in county parks along the coast should move.

He officials are worried about flooding because the ground is already saturated from earlier rains. Some areas could get up to 12 inches of rain, he said.

"Anyone living in ... an area thats known to flood, they need to take some precautions," Cavazos said.

Frank Torres, emergency management coordinator for Willacy County, said officials are preparing sandbags and making sure people know a storm is coming.

"It just popped up out of nowhere," he said. "Were anticipating some flooding. The good thing is its going to blow through here very quickly."

No evacuations had been ordered in Texas.

In Hidalgo County, located inland, just west of Cameron and Willacy counties, officials were also distributing sandbags and anticipating the need to pump floodwaters

"Residents are urged to make preparations now and to remain alert to this rapidly-developing weather situation," Hidalgo County Judge Rene A. Ramirez said in a news release.

____

Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas and Emilio Lopez in Pachuca, Mexico, contributed to this report.

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Death toll 45 in Guatemala mudslides; more missing AP

GUATEMALA CITY Searchers on Monday pulled five more bodies from a mud-covered highway where back-to-back landslides buried bus passengers and people trying to save them. The deaths raised the official toll from rain-fueled mudslides in Guatemala to 45.

Authorities said 25 people are confirmed dead and at least 15 are believed to be still buried beneath the debris in the village of Nahuala, where a first mudslide buried a bus and other vehicles, then a second one turned would-be rescuers into victims.

At least 20 others died over the weekend elsewhere as a tropical depression saturated the ground and set off more than a dozen landslides around the country, according to the national disaster agency. The most recent slide, on a highway in northern Guatemala, killed one person and injured 26 on Sunday.

In southern Guatemala, meanwhile, rescue workers used motorboats to reach about 100 families cut off by massive flooding in the town of Santa Ana Mixtan. Some residents sat on their roofs waiting to be evacuated, while others tried to drag bundles of their belongings through neck-deep water.

In Nahuala, emergency crews and villagers rushed to the Inter-American highway on Saturday, picks and shovels in hand, after radio reports of the deadly slide � only to be swamped by the second cascade of rock and earth.

Search and rescue efforts were suspended Sunday for fear that the mountainside could give way yet again, but digging resumed Monday with heavy machinery and fewer workers, said Sergio Cabanas, a Civil Protection director.

Of the 100 people originally searching for bodies and survivors, only 33 remained, all of them soldiers and firefighters, Cabanas said.

"And even they might not be able to recover the last of the bodies," Cabanas said. "Its very dangerous to have personnel there."

At least five bodies were pulled out Monday, said Mario Cruz, a firefighters spokesman. Authorities initially said more than three dozen people were missing, but the estimate was lowered to 15 after further interviews with witnesses and relatives.

Local police officer Suagustino Pascual Tuy said there had been several landslides along the Inter-American highway in the last year, and authorities knew of the danger.

"Last year there was a landslide there, 15 days ago there was a landslide," he said. "But now a big one came."

President Alvaro Colom, who visited the area and declared Monday a national day of mourning, said Guatemala must improve its disaster prevention efforts. He said more geologists should study the terrain in the countrys hillsides.

All told, there were 15 landslides at different spots along the Inter-American Highway � a section of the Pan-American Highway system � within in a 48-hour period, Communications Minister Guillermo Castillo said.

Byron Pivaral, director of the government agency that oversees road construction, said widespread deforestation made it difficult for the land around the highway to absorb heavy rain. Along the highway, he said, people have cut down trees to plant corn and beans.

Vice President Rafael Espada said there would be investigation to determine whether faulty road construction also contributed to the mudslides.

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Vegas police defend Hiltons quick jail release AP

LAS VEGAS Las Vegas police are defending Paris Hiltons quick release from jail after her Aug. 27 arrest on suspicion of cocaine possession, saying they wanted to avoid disruptions in the jails operations.

Hilton was out of the jail in about three hours, roughly half the average time it takes to process people facing the same charge through the Clark County Detention Center, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Jim Dixon, who runs the jail, acknowledged Hilton was pushed through the booking process to get her into a separate room and out of the jail as soon as possible.

He noted a crowd of about 100 people gathered outside the Wynn Las Vegas resort to snap photos and shoot video of Hilton while her boyfriend, Cy Waits, was pulled over and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

"Yeah, she was treated differently so I dont have a disruption of my process here at the county jail," Dixon told the Review-Journal. "When you bring somebody in like that, everybody comes over and tries to look at them. Id have officers attempting to keep inmates away from her. Id have disruptions."

Because of overcrowding, Hilton presented a major problem for jailers, Dixon added.

"She was moved along out of the general area and put in isolation where nobody can actually get to her. ... As soon as her release on her own recognizance was pushed through, she was kicked out," he said.

Jessica Murray of Bobs Bail Bonds said she was bothered by Hiltons rapid release. Murray, whose clients are mostly "working girls" arrested for nonviolent soliciting or trespassing, said the average booking time on those charges is four to 12 hours, followed by another four to 12 hours until release.

"I could understand putting her in a separate room. But I dont understand putting her above everyone else," Murray said. "If youre alleged to commit a crime, you get treated like everybody else."

But Tony Collins of 911 Bail Bonds said he understood why Hilton was treated differently.

"If she had gotten out in 30 minutes, that would have been special treatment," he said.

Hilton, 29, was charged with one felony count of cocaine possession after authorities say she opened a purse in front of a police lieutenant and a small baggie of cocaine fell out. Hilton claims neither the purse nor the cocaine was hers.

Shes scheduled to appear before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure on Oct. 27.

___

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com

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Sharp series of aftershocks strike New Zealand AP

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand A sharp series of about 20 aftershocks rattled New Zealands earthquake-hit city of Christchurch overnight, and earthquake experts warned Tuesday that another powerful tremblor might hammer the region in coming days.

The weekends powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake smashed buildings and homes, wrecked roads and disrupted the central city, though nobody was killed and only two people were seriously injured.

The city center remained cordoned off by troops Tuesday, with only building owners and workers allowed in to begin clearing up the mess � with much of the center taking on the mantle of a ghost town.

More than 100 aftershocks, ranging from magnitude 3.2 to 5.4, have rocked the region since Saturdays major quake.

Overnight, about 20 shocks including two of magnitude 5.4 rattled the city, and quake experts said aftershocks likely will continue for several weeks � and the worst of them may be yet to come.

"It is still possible that well have a magnitude-6 in the next week, and people ought to be aware of that, particularly if they are around structures which are already damaged," said Ken Gledhill, a monitor at the geological agency GNS Science. "For a shallow earthquake like this, they will go on for weeks."

Prime Minister John Key called off a planned nine-day trip to Britain and France, citing what he called the quake zones continuing "instability."

Key was to have met with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and with his wife, Bronagh, to have spent a weekend with Britains Queen Elizabeth II at her Scottish castle, Balmoral.

On Monday, Key warned that New Zealands economic recovery will suffer a setback from the damage wrought by the powerful quake.

"There will be considerable disruption to the regional and national economy in the short term," but activity should pick up as reconstruction gains momentum, he said. The government plans to pay at least 90 percent of the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to rebuild the citys water, waste water and road infrastructure, Key said.

The countrys economy has now recorded two quarters of minor growth after struggling to escape 18 months of recession.

The quake struck at 4:35 a.m. Saturday near the South Island city of 400,000 people, ripping open a new fault line in the earths surface, destroying hundreds of buildings and cutting power to the region.

Key, who toured the citys damaged areas over the weekend, said 430 houses and another 70 buildings, many of them older structures, were already earmarked for demolition because of damage caused by the quake. Around 100,000 of the regions 160,000 homes had sustained some damage, he said.

"I was awe-struck by the power of the earthquake and the damage it has caused in the city," he told reporters. "It was miraculous that nobody was killed."

New Zealand sits above an area where two tectonic plates collide. The country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year � but only about 150 are felt by residents. Fewer than 10 a year do any damage.

New Zealands last major earthquake registered magnitude 7.8 and hit South Islands Fiordland region on July 16, 2009, moving the southern tip of the country 12 inches 30 centimeters closer to Australia.

___

Associated Press Writer Ray Lilley in Wellington contributed to this report.

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Wozniacki wallops 2006 champ Sharapova at US Open AP

NEW YORK Grit was not going to be enough to get Maria Sharapova through this one.

Not with nine double-faults, including three in a row.

Not with a total of 36 unforced errors.

And certainly not with No. 1-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark across the net Monday in the fourth round of the U.S. Open, doing "what she does best," as Sharapova herself put it: getting to nearly every ball and hammering it back, stretching points on and on and on until her opponent misses the mark.

It added up to a 6-3, 6-4 victory for 2009 U.S. Open runner-up Wozniacki over Sharapova, who has failed to make it even as far as the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows since winning the 2006 title.

"I felt like I was playing well out there," Wozniacki said, then made sure everyone understood a key concept by adding, "I made her do those errors."

Indeed, she did. Rare is the opponent who can trade powerful baseline groundstrokes with three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova and figure out a way to put her on the defensive, but thats exactly what Wozniacki managed to do as early evening shadows crept across the blue court in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

"When she had the opportunity to step in," the 14th-seeded Sharapova said, her voice a barely audible monotone, "she took it and went for her shots."

Its the first victory for Wozniacki in three career meetings against Sharapova, but they hadnt met since 2008. In that time, the 20-year-old Wozniacki has grown as a player and built a huge supply of confidence, thanks to her Grand Slam final debut in New York and, most recently, her 18-1 record since Wimbledon.

"Ive improved a lot, not only physically, but also I believe in myself more. I believe I can do it," said Wozniacki, who is ranked No. 2 but received the top seeding at the U.S. Open because No. 1 Serena Williams withdrew. "Also, I think I can mix up my game a little bit more."

Wozniacki has lost only 10 games so far; no one has conceded fewer en route to the U.S. Open quarterfinals since 1999. But here is what might be the most remarkable statistic of all: After making only 10 unforced errors against Sharapova, Wozniacki has made 40 in four matches, and her opponents have made 123.

"Obviously," Sharapova said, "shes at the top of her game."

Wozniacki carries a 12-match winning streak into her quarterfinal against 45th-ranked Dominika Cibulkova, who eliminated 2004 U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 7-6 4.

The 5-foot-3 Cibulkova, a semifinalist at the 2009 French Open, was treated for a left leg problem between sets but still managed to scurry around, covering ground, to improve to 2-8 against top-15 players this season � with both victories against the 11th-seeded Kuznetsova, who double-faulted 10 times Monday.

Asked to assess Wozniacki, Cibulkova said admiringly: "Shes really consistent, and she can keep the level that shes playing the whole match."

The other quarterfinal on that side of the draw will be No. 31 Kaia Kanepi of Estonia against No. 7 Vera Zvonareva, who overwhelmed 38th-ranked Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-1, 6-2 Monday night. Zvonareva, the runner-up at Wimbledon in July, reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the first time.

Earlier, Kanepi did the same by coming back to defeat 2009 U.S. Open semifinalist Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 0-6, 7-6 2, 6-1.

After getting off to a terrible start against the 15th-seeded Wickmayer, Kanepi turned the match around completely, then explained of her play down the stretch, "I was, like, in the zone or something."

Third-seeded Novak Djokovic might have said the same about his own play Monday, when he reached the mens quarterfinals at the U.S. Open for the fourth consecutive year by outclassing No. 19 Mardy Fish 6-3, 6-4, 6-1. Fishs exit leaves one U.S. man in the tournament, No. 20 Sam Querrey, who is in fourth-round action Tuesday against No. 25 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.

Serbias Djokovic, the 2007 U.S. Open runner-up and 2008 Australian Open champion, next faces No. 17 Gael Monfils, a 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 winner over Richard Gasquet in an all-French matchup.

Another quarterfinal will pit No. 5 Robin Soderling, a two-time French Open finalist, against No. 2 Roger Federer or No. 13 Jurgen Melzer, who were scheduled to play Monday nights last match. Swedens Soderling hit 15 aces and did not face a single break point after the first set of his 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 win against No. 21 Albert Montanes of Spain.

Sharapova accumulated eight break points against Wozniacki, but converted only one.

"Thats pretty bad, to say the least," Sharapova acknowledged.

Still, considered one of the toughest competitors on the womens tour, Sharapova rarely departs quietly, and she ratcheted up her trademark, high-octave shrieks right along with her skilled shotmaking Monday.

"I knew that she wasnt going to go away," Wozniacki said. "I knew she was going to hang in there and keep fighting till the end."

Sharapova saved Wozniackis first match point with a gutsy volley winner while serving at 5-3 in the second set. That was part of some strong net play: Sharapova won 16 of 18 points when she pushed forward, but that efficiency would not suffice.

Sharapova delivered 12 of the matchs first 15 winners. But she also was responsible for 12 of the first 15 unforced errors.

When Wozniacki served for the first set, Sharapova held a break point at 30-40, and they played a 24-stroke point that ended with Sharapova pushing a backhand long. Later, on Wozniackis third set point, there came a 26-stroke exchange that concluded with � yes, thats right � another errant backhand from Sharapova.

"Thats great tennis, when theres good rallies. I think its good for the crowd, as well," Wozniacki said. "It just feels great when you feel like youre hitting the ball right � its in the middle of your racket. The ball does whatever you want it to do."

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Argentines risking all to carry huge wads of cash AP

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina The "marker" lurks inside the bank, looking for people pulling large amounts of cash from a safe deposit box or bank account. The gunmen linger outside, usually on motorcyles, waiting to make their move.

For people like Carolina Piparo, eight months pregnant and carrying a purse full of cash for a down payment on her first home, gangs like these are an unavoidable risk in todays Argentina, where the underground cash economy is fueling a frightening new crime wave.

The July 29 attack that left Piparo comatose and killed her child added to a toll of thousands of crime victims � 4,998 reported "withdrawal robberies" in the first half of this year alone, according to Louis Vicat, a security consultant who keeps track privately because the government hasnt published detailed crime statistics since 2007.

Many victims dont even report being robbed, because they wouldnt be able to explain to tax agents where they got the money, says Vicat, who retired as deputy internal affairs chief of the Buenos Aires provincial police.

And yet cash on the table is simply the only way to do business � even when buying homes or entire companies � for many people in Argentina.

Transferring such money electronically would solve the problem in an instant. But in a society where income tax evasion runs about 50 percent and taxes eat up 65 percent of the money people do declare, many people are reluctant to use banks that way. Even people who want to pay all their taxes have a hard time complying, because theres always someone demanding to hide all or part of the transaction by paying in cash � preferably U.S. dollars.

The attack on Piparo in provincial La Plata prompted anti-crime marches and no end of fingerpointing by police and politicians. And yet a fractured Congress failed to agree to even debate a package of weak bank security proposals last week. Despite some arrests, "withdrawal robberies" continue unabated.

Piparo had saved for years with her husband to buy a home to raise their baby in. When it came time to withdraw the down payment, the teller told them the bank branch didnt have enough dollars; they would have to come back the next day.

Piparo did, with her mother, carefully putting $13,250 in her purse.

The banks cameras recorded a burly man watching from behind them in line � a "marker" who later confessed to signaling others outside. Two men on a motorcycle stopped their car, threw Piparo to the ground and shot her in the face and chest as she begged them to just take the money. Her baby boy, Isidro, was born as she lay comatose, but didnt survive.

Piparo is now slowly recovering and seven people have been arrested, but many Argentines remain furious that they are exposed to such risks.

Politicians, economists, security experts and others interviewed by The Associated Press say one of the root causes of the robberies is Argentinas undeclared economy, along with the widespread reluctance of people to use a bureaucratic and costly banking system.

Add inflation of 25 percent or more this year, and people have many reasons to avoid transferring money from one account to another.

Soccer player Fabian Cubero lost a huge sum last month when his accountant left a bank with cash and was attacked by two criminals on a motorcycle in the parking garage. The player wouldnt say publicly just how the robbers got, but several newspapers reported it was 600,000 pesos � $150,000.

"These things happen on a daily basis. One has to get used to being robbed and be thankful for not getting killed," Cubero said.

Argentines arent obligated to file tax returns each year unless they declare an annual income of least 144,000 pesos $36,000 � and only 20 percent of the people officially meet this threshold. Many people handle as many transactions as possible in ways that avoid the scrutiny of tax agents.

With income tax compliance so low, the government seeks revenue in many other ways, imposing a 21 percent sales tax, bank transaction taxes, a "stamp tax" on business contracts, an annual "wealth tax" on personal property and many fees based on the declared value of a persons home.

"Of every 100 pesos you make, 65 you owe to the state through various taxes. That is why there is so much of this underground economy," said Ponciano Vivanco, a veteran notary in Buenos Aires who estimates that 90 percent of Buenos Aires real estate is purchased in cash.

Argentina also taxes money transfers, check deposits and withdrawals and other routine banking transactions. Banks add their own fees and rules to discourage customers from using rival banks or credit cards.

"There are big Argentine companies that keep an important part of their management off the books. This also is common with small and medium enterprises. Anything you want to buy, you dont get an official receipt for it," economist Marcelo de Las Carreras said.

Still another factor that leads many Argentines to rely on cash is a mistrust of the countrys currency.

Argentines cant forget the 2001 economic crisis that forced the government to devalue the peso, robbing most people of two-thirds or more of their wealth overnight. Banks were ordered to freeze deposits, and dollar-denominated savings could be withdrawn only in devalued pesos.

"Banks swindled us not long ago," Vivanco, the notary, said. "People who had their deposits in dollars were given back pesos and many lost 70 percent of their savings, and they blame the financial entities for this, even though the banks were just following the governments orders."

Many people avoid peso-denominated bank accounts, and convert their pesos into dollars that they stash in safe deposit boxes. Or they spend their cash on the likes of cars, appliances and apartments in hopes of protecting their wealth.

"The big money is kept in safe deposit boxes, not in bank accounts," said Congressman Federico Pinedo, who is working on reforms that could make banking less expensive and bureaucratic.

Meanwhile, even the Piparo case has generated little more than outrage and empty promises so far. Some lawmakers propose requiring additional security cameras, privacy walls in teller lines and cell phone blocking technology inside bank branches. But even those proposals were shelved in Congress last week, as various factions sought political advantage ahead of the 2011 presidential elections.

"Its the same as ever: When they have to show up on television they appear all suntanned with their team of beauticians, but when they have to work nothing ever happens," Piparos husband, Juan Ignacio Buzzali, angrily told Channel 13.

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Death toll 44 in Guatemala mudslides; more missing AP

GUATEMALA CITY Searchers on Monday pulled more bodies from a mud-covered highway where back-to-back landslides buried bus passengers and people trying to save them. Yet more mudslides helped raise Guatemalas official death toll to 44 after days of torrential rains.

Authorities said 24 people are confirmed dead and at least 16 are believed to be still buried beneath the debris in the village of Nahuala, where a first mudslide buried a bus and other vehicles, then a second one turned would-be rescuers into victims.

At least 20 others died over the weekend elsewhere as a tropical depression saturated the ground and set off more than a dozen landslides around the country, according to the national disaster agency. The most recent slide, on a highway in northern Guatemala, killed one person and injured 26 on Sunday.

In Nahuala, emergency crews and villagers rushed to the Inter-American highway on Saturday, picks and shovels in hand, after radio reports of the deadly slide - only to be swamped by the second cascade of rock and earth.

Search and rescue efforts were suspended Sunday for fear that the mountainside could give way yet again, but digging resumed Monday with heavy machinery and fewer workers, said Sergio Cabanas, a Civil Protection director.

Of the 100 people originally searching for bodies and survivors, only 33 remained, all of them soldiers and firefighters, Cabanas said.

"And even they might not be able to recover the last of the bodies," Cabanas said. "Its very dangerous to have personnel there."

At least four bodies were pulled out Monday, said Mario Cruz, a firefighters spokesman. Authorities initially said more than three dozen people were missing, but Cabanas said that estimate was lowered to 16 after further interviews with witnesses and relatives.

Local police officer Suagustino Pascual Tuy said there had been several landslides along the Inter-American highway in the last year, and authorities knew of the danger.

"Last year there was a landslide there, 15 days ago there was a landslide," he said. "But now a big one came."

President Alvaro Colom, who visited the area and declared Monday a national day of mourning, said Guatemala must improve its disaster prevention efforts. He said more geologists should study the terrain in the countrys hillsides.

All told, there were 15 landslides at different spots along the Inter-American Highway - a section of the Pan-American Highway system - within in a 48-hour period, Communications Minister Guillermo Castillo said.

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Spain not convinced new Basque truce is credible AP

MADRID How many cease-fires can you announce and break before everyone stops paying attention?

Spaniards inured to cease-fire announcements by the violent Basque separatist group ETA were mulling whether the latest one holds anything different or will fail like the others to end Europes last major armed militancy.

The government on Monday swiftly ruled out holding negotiations on a Basque homeland and rejected Sundays truce as a desperate gambit by an extremist group staggering after the arrests of its leaders.

Spain claimed the cease-fire was just another gambit by ETA in order to buy time, regroup and rearm. And a major newspaper, El Mundo, ran a cartoon Monday of a hooded ETA gunman in a traditional Basque beret offering an olive branch � albeit one that stuck out of a gun barrel.

Since launching its campaign for an independent Basque homeland in the late 1960s and killing more than 825 people in the process, ETA has announced 11 ceasefires, the last of them in 2006, which it called permanent.

Promising peace talks with the government ensued but quickly went nowhere, and nine months later ETA reverted to violence with a massive car bomb that killed two Ecuadorean immigrants in a parking garage at Madrid airport.

This time inside, not outside, forces appear to have prompted three masked ETA members to declare a cease-fire Sunday in front of a ETA sign with a snake slithering around an ax. While historically ETA has called the shots, the pressure for a new halt to violence seems to have come from the groups own political supporters.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said Monday that when ETA shocked Spain by abruptly ending the 2006 ceasefire "many people in the Basque nationalist movement woke up and said with this ETA we are not going to get anywhere."

Those divisions have been growing as ETAs banned political wing Batasuna apparently came to the conclusion that bombs and bullets were doing nothing to achieve the goal of Basque independence.

ETAs last deadly attack was a July 2009 car bomb that killed two policemen on the island of Mallorca. But Spain has no tolerance for terrorism now after Islamic militants killed 191 people in a 2004 train bombing in Madrid.

On Friday, Batasuna and a more moderate pro-independence party called Eusko Alkartasuna appealed to ETA to call a cease-fire that could be independently verified. They did so in writing, which was unprecedented.

Paddy Woodworth, an Irish expert on the Basque conflict, wrote Monday that most Basque nationalists now "are persuaded that ETA is a crippling debit, not an asset."

Rogelio Alonso, a political science professor at King Juan Carlos University in Madrid, said ETAs announcement was not a cease-fire at all because all the group did was say it had decided months ago not to stage "offensive armed actions." It gave no timetable and did not say if the cease-fire was temporary or open-ended.

Gomez says that is ETAs way of acknowledging it is too weak to attack and noted there was no mention of the truce being monitored.

"It does not even fulfill the request by Batasuna," he said.

Batasuna, which was banned in 2003 on grounds it is part of ETA, is desperate to be able to field candidates in Basque local elections scheduled for next year. Otherwise it faces political oblivion because the party is not represented in the regional legislature or in Madrid, and misses the subsidies that come with holding seats.

But in order to become legitimate, it must renounce the ETA or persuade ETA to renounce violence.

Joseba Arregui, a former minister in the Basque regional government in the 1980s, says the two sides of the pro-independence movement � one armed with weapons, the other with microphones � are in disarray and at each others throats.

"They are both weak and blackmailing each other," Arregui said.

___

Associated Press writer Shawn Pogatchnik contributed to this story from Dublin.

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UK mobile firms to merge networks

6 September 2010 Last updated at 10:15 ET

Customers of Orange and T-Mobile will soon be able to hop between the two mobile networks.

The deal is one of the first practical benefits from the recent merger of the two firms, which have 30 million customers combined.

The network sharing deal is limited to 2G signals, meaning that customers will see little benefit when using the mobile web.

Analysts said that T-Mobile had the most to gain from the merger.

"Outside of the South-East [of England] there has been a constant perception that T-Mobile is an underperforming network," said Shaun Collins of research firm CCS Insight.

"This literally takes it away overnight."

Network evolution

He said that network coverage was becoming a "key battleground" between the major UK networks.

"The network coverage advantages of the merger [between Orange and T-Mobile] were always the most important part of it," he said.

Customers of the two firms will have to sign up for the free "roaming" service, which goes live on 5 October.

Once registered, their phone will automatically hop between the networks when it loses signal. The underlying system is similar to that used when a phone "roams" on a different network abroad.

Next year Everything Everywhere - the company that runs Orange and T-Mobile in the UK - said that phones would automatically switch to whichever of the two networks has the strongest signal mid-call.

It said it also plans to roll it out to 3G services.

When it does, Orange customers will be able to use a 3G network owned and operated by Mobile Broadband Network Limited MBNL, a joint venture company owned by Three and T-Mobile.

Orange joined MBNL on the 16 August.

"Everything Everywhere will be adding Orange sites to the network it shares with Three in the course of time, and Three customers will get access to a significant proportion of those as they are added," said a spokesperson for Everything Everywhere.

Three customers are already able to use the Orange network for 2G calls and texts.

Further down the line, Everything Everywhere aims to start building a next-generation LTE long-term evolution mobile network, to cope with the surge in demand for data and the mobile web.

LTE offers faster speeds than current 3G networks and is able to handle more traffic.

The UK government plans to hold an auction of spectrum for next generation services in 2011.

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Buzz lawsuit to cost Google $8.5m

6 September 2010 Last updated at 05:19 ET

Google has proposed paying $8.5m �5.5m to settle a lawsuit brought over its Buzz social network.

Launched in February, Buzz enrolled all Gmail users into a social network based around their contacts.

The service was criticised because users initially had relatively little control over who could see their network of contacts.

Several Gmail users took Google to court over Buzz saying the network violated personal privacy.

The lump sum is at the centre of Googles proposed settlement of the legal case, of which 30% will be used to pay legal fees, the seven Gmail users who brought the case will get $2,500 each and the remainder will be shared among organisations that promote online privacy.

The settlement also requires Google to do more to educate people about the privacy aspects of Buzz. The settlement has yet to win approval from the federal judge overseeing the case.

The initial rash of complaints about Buzz forced Google to bring in changes that made it an opt-in service and gave users control over who they maintain contact with.

Search suit

In a separate development, Google is facing an investigation by the attorney general of Texas into how it manipulates search results.

The investigation started in July and aims to find out if the way Google treats search results violates the states anti-trust laws.

Complaints by three firms - Foundem, SourceTool and MyTriggers - are thought to have kick-started investigation.

Don Harrison, deputy general counsel at Google, wrote on the company blog that the company was "looking forward" to working with the attorney generals office as it was "confident" it was acting in the best interests of users.

Mr Harrison also suggested that arch-rival Microsoft was providing help and financing to the search firms making complaints.

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UN nuke agency warns monitoring of Iran hampered AP

VIENNA In an unusually blunt warning, the U.N. atomic agency said Monday that its monitoring of Irans nuclear activities is being hampered because Tehran objects to giving some agency inspectors access to its program.

The complaint by the International Atomic Energy Agency was made in a restricted report on Iran made available to The Associated Press. It follows Irans recent decision to strip two experienced inspectors of the right to monitor Tehrans nuclear activities after the two reported undeclared nuclear experiments.

The Islamic Republic says the reporting by the two was inaccurate, but the IAEA stands by the findings.

Objections by Iran to some experienced inspectors "hampers the inspection process and thereby detracts from the Agencys capability to implement effective and efficient safeguards in Iran," the document said.

The 11-page report devoted a special section to the complaint, reflecting the importance attached to it by IAEA chief Yukiya Amano. Such a section was included in only one previous report, after Iran stripped the right of dozens of inspectors in 2006 and 2007.

The quarterly report, which was being circulated to the IAEAs 35-nation board and to the U.N. Security Council, also said Iran continues to enrich uranium in contravention of U.N. Security Council demands.

Iran insists it only wants to enrich uranium to create energy. But international concern is high because enrichment can also create the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

Low enriched uranium is used as nuclear fuel but the same process can produce weapons-grade material.

The report noted that while the rate of enrichment had not significantly changed over the past year, it was steady, with Tehran now accumulating about 2.8 tons of low-enriched material � nearly enough for three nuclear bombs � since its program was revealed seven years ago.

The report, by IAEA chief Yukiya Amano, also said that Iran continued to stonewall the agency in its efforts to follow up on U.S. and other intelligence indicating past experiments meant to develop a nuclear weapons program. It also warned that with the passage of time chances of establishing the accuracy of such information were diminishing.

With Iran refusing to engage on the issue for over two years, "the possible deterioration in the availability of some relevant information increase the urgency of this matter," said the report.

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Hurricane watch issued for coasts of Mexico, Texas AP

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico Mexican authorities opened shelters and warned people to watch out for mudslides Monday as Tropical Storm Hermine approached the northeastern border with Texas, the second major storm to hit the area this season.

Hermine could approach hurricane strength before making landfall early Tuesday in a sparsely populated area about 50 miles 80 kilometers south of Matamoros, a city bordering Brownsville, Texas, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A hurricane watch was issued for the area from Rio San Fernando, Mexico, northward to Baffin Bay in Texas.

Hermine is expected to hit in the same area where Hurricane Alex roared ashore in June. It killed at least 12 people as remnant rains drenched a wide swath of northeastern Mexico for days.

The cattle-ranching region is one the most dangerous in Mexicos turf war between two drug cartels. It is the same area 72 migrants were killed two weeks ago in what it believed to be Mexicos worst drug gang massacre to date.

Mexican emergency officials urged people living in low-lying coastal areas to move to shelters, but there were no immediate evacuation plans.

"We urge the general population to be on alert for possible floods and mudslides," said Salvador Trevino, director of civil defense of Tamaulipas state, where Matamoros is located.

Hermine, with maximum sustained winds of near 50 mph 80 kph, was located about 205 miles 330 kilometers southeast of Brownsville on Monday morning, and was moving north-northwest near 13 mph 21 kph.

Heavy rain is predicted with northeastern Mexico into south Texas getting 4 to 8 inches 10 to 20 centimeters with as much as a foot in some places.

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Hurricane watch issued for coasts of Mexico, Texas AP

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico Mexican authorities opened shelters and warned people to watch out for mudslides Monday as Tropical Storm Hermine approached the northeastern border with Texas, the second major storm to hit the area this season.

Hermine could approach hurricane strength before making landfall early Tuesday in a sparsely populated area about 50 miles 80 kilometers south of Matamoros, a city bordering Brownsville, Texas, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A hurricane watch was issued for the area from Rio San Fernando, Mexico, northward to Baffin Bay in Texas.

Hermine is expected to hit in the same area where Hurricane Alex roared ashore in June. It killed at least 12 people as remnant rains drenched a wide swath of northeastern Mexico for days.

The cattle-ranching region is one the most dangerous in Mexicos turf war between two drug cartels. It is the same area 72 migrants were killed two weeks ago in what it believed to be Mexicos worst drug gang massacre to date.

Mexican emergency officials urged people living in low-lying coastal areas to move to shelters, but there were no immediate evacuation plans.

"We urge the general population to be on alert for possible floods and mudslides," said Salvador Trevino, director of civil defense of Tamaulipas state, where Matamoros is located.

Hermine, with maximum sustained winds of near 50 mph 80 kph, was located about 205 miles 330 kilometers southeast of Brownsville on Monday morning, and was moving north-northwest near 13 mph 21 kph.

Heavy rain is predicted with northeastern Mexico into south Texas getting 4 to 8 inches 10 to 20 centimeters with as much as a foot in some places.

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Son: Iran woman who faced stoning to be lashed AP

TEHRAN, Iran An Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery is now facing a new punishment of 99 lashes because a British newspaper ran a picture of an unveiled woman mistakenly identified as her, the womans son said Monday.

There was no official confirmation of the new sentence. The son, Sajjad Qaderzadeh, 22, said he did not know whether the new lashing sentence had been carried out yet, but heard about it from a prisoner who had recently left the Tabriz prison where his mother is being held.

The lawyer who once represented Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani in Iran said from Paris that the situation was not clear.

"Publishing the photo provided a judge an excuse to sentence my poor mother to 99 lashes on the charge of taking a picture unveiled," Qaderzadeh told The Associated Press.

The Times of London said in its Monday edition it had apologized for the photo, but added that the new sentence "is simply a pretext."

"The regimes purpose is to make Ms. Ashtiani suffer for an international campaign to save her that has exposed so much iniquity," said the piece.

Ashtiani was convicted in 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men after the death of her husband a year earlier and was sentenced by a court back then to 99 lashes. Later that year, she was also convicted of adultery and sentenced to be stoned to death, even though she retracted a confession that she claims was made under duress.

Iran suspended that sentence in July, but now says she has been convicted of involvement in her husbands killing and she could still be executed by hanging.

Her former lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, said in a news conference in Paris that he said it was not at all certain if there really had been a new conviction and sentence over the photograph.

"I have contacted my former colleagues at the court who told me nothing was clear on this situation," he said following a news conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. "There isnt any punishment for this act in our law."

Kouchner called the sentence to death by stoning "the height of barbarism" and said her case has become a "personal cause," and he was "ready to do anything to save her. If I must go to Tehran to save her, Ill go to Tehran."

Ashtianis two children remain in Iran and her son is a ticket seller for a bus company in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz. He said he and his younger sister Farideh, 18, have not seen their mother since early August.

"We have really missed her," he said. "We expect all influential bodies to help to save her."

The stoning sentence for Ashtiani has prompted international outcry over the past months with both Brazil and Italy asking Iran to show flexibility in the case.

The Vatican on Sunday raised the possibility of using behind-the-scenes diplomacy to try to save her life as well.

_____

Associated Press Writers Jenny Barchfield in Paris and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

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Bahamas drops charges in Travolta extortion case AP

NASSAU, Bahamas A judge in the Bahamas dismissed charges Monday against two people accused of trying to extort money from John Travolta after the prosecutor said the actor no longer wanted to pursue a case stemming from the death of his teenage son.

Prosecutor Neil Braithwaite had submitted a motion to drop the case after a jury had already been picked and a retrial scheduled for the two defendants.

"The Travolta family has said that this matter has caused them unbelievable stress and pain and they wish to put this whole thing behind them," Braithwaite said.

Ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne and his attorney, politician Pleasant Bridgewater, were accused of threatening to release private information about the January 2009 death of Travoltas 16-year-old son Jett at the family vacation home in Grand Bahama.

Lightbourne, who was among the medics who treated Jett, allegedly sought $25 million from the actor with the assistance of Bridgewater, who resigned her seat in the Bahamas Senate after she was charged in the case.

A judge declared a mistrial in October after a Bahamian lawmaker suggested the still-deliberating jury had acquitted one of the suspects.

Travolta had testified during that trial and one of his attorneys said in October that he had been prepared to testify again if necessary. But the actor said Monday that the delay in prosecuting the case had prompted his decision not to take the stand again

"The long-pending status of this matter continued to take a heavy emotional toll on my family, causing us to conclude that it was finally time to put this matter behind us," he said in a statement to The Associated Press. Therefore, after much reflection I concluded that it was in my familys best interest for me not to voluntarily return to The Bahamas to testify a second time at trial."

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Son: Iran woman who faced stoning to be lashed AP

TEHRAN, Iran An Iranian woman who had faced death by stoning for adultery has now received a new sentence of 99 lashes after a British newspaper ran a picture of an unveiled woman mistakenly identified as her, the womans son said Monday.

There was no official confirmation of the new sentence. The son, Sajjad Qaderzadeh, 22, said he did not know whether the new lashing sentence had been carried out yet, but heard about it from a prisoner who had recently left the detention facility where his mother is being held.

The lawyer who once represented Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani in Iran said from Paris that the situation was not clear.

"Publishing the photo provided a judge an excuse to sentence my poor mother to 99 lashes on the charge of taking a picture unveiled," Qaderzadeh told The Associated Press.

The Times of London said in its Monday edition it had apologized for the photo, but added that the new sentence "is simply a pretext."

"The regimes purpose is to make Ms. Ashtiani suffer for an international campaign to save her that has exposed so much iniquity," said the piece.

Ashtiani was convicted in 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men after the death of her husband a year earlier and was sentenced by a court back then to 99 lashes. Later that year, she was also convicted of adultery and sentenced to be stoned to death, even though she retracted a confession that she claims was made under duress.

Iran suspended that sentence in July, but now says she has been convicted of involvement in her husbands killing and she could still be executed by hanging.

Her former lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, said in a news conference in Paris that he said it was not at all certain if there really had been a new conviction and sentence over the photograph.

"I have contacted my former colleagues at the court who told me nothing was clear on this situation," he said following a news conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. "There isnt any punishment for this act in our law."

Kouchner called the sentence to death by stoning "the height of barbarism" and said her case has become a "personal cause," and he was "ready to do anything to save her. If I must go to Tehran to save her, Ill go to Tehran."

Ashtianis two children remain in Iran and her son is a ticket seller for a bus company in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz. He said he and his younger sister Farideh, 18, have not seen their mother since early August.

"We have really missed her," he said. "We expect all influential bodies to help to save her."

The stoning sentence for Ashtiani has prompted international outcry over the past months with both Brazil and Italy asking Iran to show flexibility in the case.

The Vatican on Sunday raised the possibility of using behind-the-scenes diplomacy to try to save her life as well.

_____

Associated Press Writers Jenny Barchfield in Paris and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

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Report: 2,000 more NATO troops may be Afghan-bound AP

BRUSSELS NATO may deploy 2,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan to join the 140,000-strong international force already there, an official said Monday.

Top U.S. and NATO commander Gen. David Petraeus asked for the additional troops, nearly half of whom will be trainers for the rapidly expanding Afghan security forces, said the official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject.

Petraeus also asked for troops who know how to neutralize roadside bombs, the cause of 60 percent of the 2,000 allied deaths in the nine-year war. They have also accounted for 30 percent of all Afghan civilian deaths.

The request comes ahead of NATOs November summit, where the Afghan conflict will be a major topic of discussion. The alliance has had trouble raising more troops for the war effort, with at least 450 training slots still unfilled after more than a year.

The additional trainers are considered the essential element in allied plans to increase Afghanistans army and police from the present 300,000 members to 400,000 by next year, when the drawdown of international troops is expected to start.

It is not clear exactly where the new troops will come from since the war is deeply unpopular in many of NATOs 28 member states. In Europe, polls show the majority of voters consider it an unnecessary drain on finances at a time of sharp cuts in public spending and other austerity measures.

The official said the new trainers were needed to staff new schools for combat support and service support specialties to enable the transition of responsibility to the Afghan forces.

NATO officials have said the additional instructors are difficult to come by because none of the member states has large numbers of such specialists available for assignment to Afghanistan.

Another NATO official, who also asked not to be named for the same reason, said the renewed request for more trainers and explosives disposal experts was part of a routine review of force requirements.

"There is an ongoing discussion on possible additional resources needed to continue supporting the efforts under way," she said.

A number of instructors have been killed in a series of attacks by Afghans against coalition partners, raising fears of Taliban infiltration as the U.S. and its allies speed up the training of Afghan forces.

Several NATO members may start reducing their contingents in Afghanistan after 2011. The Dutch have already withdrawn their contingent from southern Afghanistan and the Canadians have said they would follow suit.

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US expects to subsidize Afghan training for years AP

WASHINGTON The United States expects to spend about $6 billion a year training and supporting Afghan troops and police after it begins pulling out its own combat troops in 2011, The Associated Press has learned.

The previously undisclosed estimates of U.S. spending through 2015, detailed in a NATO training mission document, are an acknowledgment that Afghanistan will remain largely dependent on the United States for its security.

That reality could become problematic for the Obama administration as it continues to seek money for Afghanistan from Congress at a time of increasingly tight budgets.

In Brussels, a NATO official said Monday that alliance commander Gen. David Petraeus asked for 2,000 more soldiers, with nearly half to be trainers for the rapidly expanding Afghan security forces.

The NATO official requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject.

The training mission document, reviewed by the AP, outlines large scale infrastructure projects including a military hospital and military and police academies aimed at "establishing enduring institutions" and "creating irreversible momentum."

Spending for training is projected to taper off from $11.6 billion next year to an average of $6.2 billion over the following four years. Much of the reduction reflects reduced spending on infrastructure.

The administration recently announced that it intends to ramp up the total Afghan army and police force from nearly 250,000 today to more than 300,000 by late next year. The mission will be largely paid for by the United States, with smaller contributions from NATO allies. The projected multibillion dollar cost of maintaining those forces would be inconceivable for Afghanistans small economy without foreign aid.

One of the arguments against dramatically increasing the size of Afghan security forces, even during George W. Bushs administration, was that the Afghan government would be unable to pay for them for the foreseeable future. The NATO document shows that the U.S. will end up footing most of the bill.

The Obama administration has boosted the training mission in preparation for next years drawdown. The United States spent over $20 billion on training between 2003 and 2009 and expects to spend about the same this year and next alone.

The head of the NATO training mission, U.S. Lt. Gen. Bill Caldwell, says bolstering Afghanistans security forces is cost efficient.

"It will always be more expensive to have a coalition force doing something than an Afghan counterpart," Caldwell said in a written response to questions from AP.

Caldwell said that he is sensitive to the concern that the United States is creating dependence and is looking for ways of cutting costs.

"This dependency is something that we think about all the time," he said. "We know the sooner the Afghan systems are up and running the sooner coalition forces can transition responsibilities to the sovereign government."

Todd Harrison, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, says it will be difficult to wean the Afghan security forces quickly.

"We really do have a long way to go before this winds down," he said.

Caldwell has said that he aims to have Afghan security forces at sufficient numbers to begin a U.S. withdrawal by October 2011. The mission has had to deal with illiteracy, corruption and desertion among Afghan forces.

With much skepticism in Congress, the levels of financing outlined in the document are not guaranteed. While the roughly $6 billion annual cost would not be an enormous line in the defense budget, the administration is facing pressure to shrink the federal deficit.

Even Caldwell has predicted that desertion and injury rates are so high among Afghan forces that NATO will have to recruit and train 141,000 people to ensure it has the 56,000 additional personnel needed next fall.

As money for infrastructure tapers off, most of the projected spending is to retain forces by paying salaries, food and housing.

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Survivor: Fishermen looted sinking vessel in Congo AP

KINSHASA, Congo Survivors who swam to safety after their overcrowded boat capsized over the weekend said nearby fishermen refused to help drowning passengers in the dark of night, instead looting the goods aboard the burning vessel and beating people with oars.

At least 200 people are feared dead from the disaster in southern Congo, one of two deadly boat accidents Saturday that highlighted the dangers of travel in the Central African country that was ravaged by back-to-back civil wars. Officials say 70 other people died in another weekend accident in the countrys northwest.

Romaine Mishondo, who survived the fiery boat sinking in southern Congo, said late Sunday that the vessel was so crowded it reminded her of "a whole market in the village full of people." The boat had stopped to pick up even more people just 10 minutes before a fire broke out, she said.

As people began jumping overboard, nearby fishermen ignored the passengers pleas for help.

"Fishermen attacked the boat and started beating passengers with paddles as they were trying to loot goods," she said. "The fishermen refused to save passengers, instead taking goods into their boats. ... I survived because I hung onto a jerry can until another vessel passed by the scene and rescued us."

Francois Madila, an official from the navigation department in the province, said police arrested two crew members and are investigating the capsizing, which took place near Congos border with Angola.

Madila said the sailors have not said how many people were aboard and that the passenger list appeared to have disappeared in the fire.

Fabrice Muamba, who said he was on the boat when it caught fire Saturday night on the Kasai River, said he thought only 15 people aboard were able to swim to safety.

Boat owner Mwamba Mwati Nguma Leonard said a survivor and an employee called to tell him that the vessel caught fire when workers spilled fuel and ignited the engine.

"At the moment I am crying after learning my boat caught fire," Leonard said. "I was just told on phone that it was while seamen were putting fuel into the tank that an explosion occurred after the oil touched the vessels battery."

He said he had asked police to arrest the boats managers as he believes they employed unskilled workers.

The boats that traverse Congos rivers are often in poor repair and filled beyond capacity. The industry is not well-regulated and operators are known to fill boats to dangerous levels. Still, many people prefer to take boats even if they do not know how to swim because there are few paved roads in this vast country of jungles.

The capsizing in southern Congo is the deadliest of several boating incidents reported this year in the country.

Earlier the same day, a boat on a river in northwest Equateur Province hit a rock and capsized, provincial spokeswoman Ebale Engumba said Sunday. She said more than 70 people are believed dead among 100 estimated passengers. She said officials are investigating why the boat was traveling through the darkness without a light.

In July, officials said at least 80 people died when a boat ferrying about 200 passengers to Congos capital capsized after hitting a rock.

In May, dozens of people died when an overloaded canoe capsized on a river in eastern Congo. And last November, at least 90 people were killed after a logging boat sank on a lake in Congo. The timber-carrying vessel was not supposed to be carrying passengers.

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Report: Van der Sloot concedes extorting Holloways AP

AMSTERDAM The Dutchman charged with killing a 21-year-old Peruvian woman and suspected in the disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway has acknowledged extorting money from Holloways parents and says he did it to get back at them.

In an interview published Monday, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf quoted Joran van der Sloot as confessing to taking money from the family of the American in return for revealing the location of her body. He was indicted in the U.S. in June for extortion after being caught in an FBI sting, though the place he indicated as her burial site turned out to be bogus.

Holloway was last seen alive with him on the Caribbean resort island of Aruba in 2005, and he has publicly said he killed her and then retracted his confession several times.

"I wanted to get back at Natalees family � her parents have been making my life tough for five years," the paper quoted him as saying from prison in Peru. "When they offered to pay for the girls location, I thought: Why not?"

U.S. prosecutors say in the sting earlier this year, Natalees mother sent $10,000 in cash to Van der Sloot through an FBI witness, and a wire transfer of $15,000 to Van der Sloots bank account in the Netherlands. He took the money and flew to Latin America.

He has been charged with killing Stephany Flores in his hotel room in Lima, Peru, on May 30 � 5 years to the day after Holloways disappearance. He met both women in casinos.

Van der Sloot initially confessed to killing Flores to Peruvian police, but later said he only did so because he was intimidated and had been promised he would be extradited to the Netherlands.

His requests to have the Peruvian confession retracted have so far been denied and he awaits trial.

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