World News | Latest News: 09/14/10

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Japan leads Asia stocks higher on yen intervention (AP)

TOKYO ï¿½ Asian stock markets climbed Wednesday, with Japanese shares jumping after the government announced its first currency intervention to weaken the yen since 2004.

The yen had been trading at 15-year highs against the dollar, battering the Japan's vital exporters and undermining an already fragile recovery in the world's No. 3 economy.

Japan's finance minister confirmed that the central bank stepped into the market to sell yen and buy dollars shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT). The dollar bounced up to 84.71 yen from a fresh 15-year-low of 82.87 yen earlier.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average rose 171.00 points, or 1.8 percent, to 9,470.31, reversing course after posting light losses earlier in the morning.

"We have conducted an intervention in order to suppress excessive fluctuations in the currency market," said Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, suggesting Japan might intervene again.

The move comes a day after Prime Minister Naoto Kan held onto power after fending off a challenge from veteran lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa for the ruling party presidency. Ozawa had advocated currency intervention, but Kan had until now been reluctant to act.

A strong yen hurts exporters by reducing the value of repatriated profits and making their products less competitive abroad. Intervention sent the country's big exporters broadly higher. Toyota Motor Corp. soared 3.5 percent, and Sony Corp. rose 2.4 percent.

Stock markets elsewhere in Asia were more muted.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.1 percent to 21,722.00, South Korea's Kospi rose 0.2 percent to 1,818.21, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5 percent to 4,650.1.

Wall Street fell Tuesday as worries returned about Europe's economy.

The Dow dropped 17.64, or 0.2 percent, to close at 10,526.49 and the S&P 500 lost 0.8 point, or 0.1 percent, to end at 1,121.10. The Nasdaq edged up 4.06, or 0.2 percent, at 2,289.77.

Benchmark crude for October delivery was down 61 cents at $76.18 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.2957 from $1.2990 late Tuesday in New York.

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Police: Eiffel Tower bomb threat was false alarm (AP)

PARIS ï¿½ The Eiffel Tower and its immediate surroundings were evacuated Tuesday evening after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat, but explosives experts scoured France's most-visited monument and found nothing suspicious, Paris police headquarters said.

Parts of a second tourist hub ï¿½ the Saint-Michel subway station near Notre Dame Cathedral ï¿½ were briefly evacuated following a similar threat, police said. The station was the target of a terrorist attack in 1995 that killed eight and injured scores of people.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the threats. But they came after the head of France's counterespionage agency was quoted this weekend as saying that the risk of a terrorist attack on French soil has never been higher.

Bernard Squarcini told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper that France's history as a colonial master in North Africa, its military presence in Afghanistan and its move to ban burqa-style Muslim veils in public all make the country a prime target for certain radical Islamist groups.

Earlier Tuesday, the ban on face-covering Islamic veils passed its final hurdle in parliament, but there was no indication the threats against tourist sites had any link to the measure.

The proposal has drawn the indignation of the No. 2 of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahri, who said the drive to ban the veil amounted to discrimination against Muslim women. France says its move will uphold women's dignity.

Bomb scares are relatively frequent in Paris, but a threat against such an iconic monument caused more panic than usual.

Following the anonymous threat from a public telephone in Paris, officials evacuated about 2,000 people, and police combed through the 324-meter (1,063-foot) tower, the Paris police spokesman said, speaking on condition his name not be used, in keeping with department policy.

Meanwhile, police blocked off the area under the tower and turned tourists away. Visitors were left milling about nearby, as the tower continued to sparkle and shimmer in its periodic after-dark light show.

Pedro Ferraz, a 24-year-old Brazilian student on a two-week European tour, had planned to go up the tower with his girlfriend on his first night in Paris.

"We were really shocked when we got here, we had no idea about this bomb threat," Ferraz said. "It's really annoying because we planned a lot of our Paris visit around the Eiffel Tower." He was also disappointed, because his travel plans wouldn't allow him to try again the next day.

By midnight ï¿½ about three hours after the evacuation ï¿½ the security perimeter was lifted, and people were walking and riding bikes underneath the monument once more. The tower itself, which had 6.6 million visitors last year, usually closes at 11 p.m.

The underground Saint-Michel station, where suburban RER trains converge in the heart of Paris, was also back to normal by midnight after its bomb threat. Officials had evacuated parts of the RER station, and traffic had briefly stopped on one line.

For some, the threat there was particularly chilling.

Algerian Islamic insurgents bombed the Saint-Michel station on July 25, 1995, killing eight people and injuring 150. It was the first attack in a campaign of violence that terrorized Paris subway commuters. Gas cooking canisters loaded with nails, sometimes hidden in garbage cans, were used in many of the bombings.

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Associated Press writers Jenny Barchfield and Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.

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Scandals not slowing Brazil front runner (AP)

SAO PAULO ï¿½ Two front-page scandals and increasingly bitter attacks by her rival are not slowing down Brazil's ruling party presidential candidate. A poll released Tuesday shows the leftist candidate has widened her lead over a rival who was once running even with her.

The Workers Party candidate Dilma Rousseff now has a 51-26 percent lead over opposition candidate Jose Serra, according to the Sensus polling institute.

Analysts say the immense popularity of her political mentor, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has swamped any concerns over revelations that members of Rousseff's party illegally accessed tax records of Serra's daughter and allegations one of her former top aides was involved in a kickback scheme.

Late Tuesday, the government took strong measures to stamp out both scandals ï¿½ saying tax records would be further secured and that an investigation into the corruption allegations was opened.

Analysts, however, said neither situation was likely to have much affect on voters.

"These scandals are going to have a marginal impact, at least the allegations that have surfaced as of now," said Carlos Lopes, an analyst with the Brasilia-based Santafe Ideias consulting firm.

Serra had been in a technical tie with Rousseff as late as mid-May, but she has steadily pulled away since then.

The latest poll interviewed in person 2,000 people in 136 counties across Brazil between Sept. 10 and Sept. 12. The margin of error is 2.2 percentage points.

The polls indicate that Rousseff may manage something that even Silva could not do: achieve a victory in the first-round on Oct. 3 without being forced into a runoff required if no candidate wins an outright majority.

Rousseff, 62, who would be Brazil's first woman president, is an economist by training and has never held elected office. She served as Silva's energy minister from 2003 to 2005, then as his chief of staff.

Nicknamed the "Iron Lady," Rousseff as a young woman was part of an armed guerrilla group that resisted the nation's 1964-85 military dictatorship. In 1970, she was arrested, and for three years was imprisoned and tortured.

Serra ï¿½ a 68-year-old centrist from the Brazilian Social Democracy Party who was badly beaten by Silva in the 2002 presidential election ï¿½ is a former congressman and governor of Sao Paulo state.

In a televised debate on Sunday, he dropped his usual civil tone and aggressively questioned Rousseff about revelations that Workers Party members last year accessed the tax records of Serra's daughter and other members of his party. Rousseff's backers argue it is common to leak tax records in Brazil and said there were no political motivations because the violations took place long before campaigning began.

The Brazilian magazine Veja this week also reported that a consulting firm run by the son of a former top aide to Rousseff ï¿½ Erenice Guerra ï¿½ collected money for obtaining access to government officials for companies that won lucrative government contracts.

In Brasilia on Tuesday, Brazil's Justice Minister Luiz Paulo Barreto said that federal police were opening an investigation into the allegations against Guerra's son ï¿½ but not the minister.

"What matters now is to get to the true, concrete facts," he said.

In regard to the leak of tax information, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said that new security measures would be implemented, including giving only government workers with investigative powers the clearance to view such records.

Guerra said she and her son would release all their financial records to prove they are innocent of wrongdoing. In a statement, she also said she supported an investigation of all the allegations in Veja's report, which she called a "smear campaign."

Regardless of the investigation's outcome, analysts said it is unlikely to have much of an impact on voters.

"The scandals are not going to get any traction before the election," said Riordan Roett, director of Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University. "The Brazilian public is kind of immune to these scandals, there are so many of them over time."

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Study: To save tigers, protect key breeding areas (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia ï¿½ Conservationists must protect tiger populations in a few concentrated breeding grounds in Asia instead of trying to safeguard vast, surrounding landscapes, if they want to save the big cats from extinction, scientists said.

Only about 3,500 tigers are left in the wild worldwide, less than one third of them breeding females, according to one of the authors of the study, John Robinson of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Much has been done to try to save the world's largest cat ï¿½ threatened by over-hunting, habitat loss and the wildlife trade ï¿½ but their numbers have continued to spiral downward for nearly two decades.

That's in part because conservation efforts are increasingly diverse and often aimed at improving habitats outside protected areas, according to the study, published in Tuesday's issue of the peer-reviewed PLoS Biology journal.

Instead, efforts should be concentrated on the areas where tigers live ï¿½ most are clustered in just 6 percent of their available habitat ï¿½ and especially where they breed.

"The immediate priority must be to ensure that the last remaining breeding populations are protected and continually monitored," it says, adding if that doesn't happen, "all other efforts are bound to fail."

The WWF and other conservation groups say the world's tiger population has fallen from around 5,000 in 1998 to as few as 3,200 today, despite tens of millions of dollars invested in conservation efforts.

The cats have been lost largely to poachers, who cash in on a huge market for tiger skins and a belief, prevalent in east Asia, that tiger parts enhance health and virility.

The new study ï¿½ to which researchers from the conservationist group Panthera, the World Bank, the University of Cambridge and others also contributed ï¿½ identifies 42 key areas that have concentrations of tigers with the potential to grow and populate larger landscapes.

Eighteen are in India ï¿½ the country with the most tigers ï¿½ eight in Indonesia, six in Russia's Far East and the others scattered elsewhere in Asia.

The price tag for the plan ï¿½ which would require greater levels of law enforcement and surveillance ï¿½ would be around $82 million a year, the study says.

The bulk of that is already being provided by state governments and international support.

Similar efforts have been successful in the past ï¿½ especially in India.

The Malenad-Mysore landscape in southern India has 220 adult tigers, one of the largest populations in the world, thanks largely to intensive protection of its "source site," the Nagarahole National Park, in the 1970s.

Those high densities have now been maintained for 30 years, the authors wrote, pointing to similar success stories with the African rhinoceros.

Alan Rabinowitz, president of Panthera, said focusing on breeding grounds is "absolutely necessary right now if we are to save tigers in the wild."

But he stressed that in the long-term, it is important that tigers be able to move in surrounding landscapes to maintain genetic and demographic viability.

"Otherwise we are boxing ourselves into a corner that would allow only for contained, managed populations."

Barney Long, of the WWF Species Program and independent of the study, agreed, saying conservationists shouldn't create "living zoos."

One of the criticisms about recent tiger conservation efforts is that they extend well beyond protected areas, managing ecosystems and working with local communities to help tiger and human populations coexist.

Debbie Martyr, who set up an anti-poaching unit on Indonesia's island of Sumatra, said much can be achieved by protecting key tiger habitats. She also was not tied to the study.

If the government is determined to help protect such areas and crack down on poachers there could be a significant increase in tiger numbers, she said.

"In fact, I'm going to stick my neck out a little here, but I'd say in 10 years time, there could be more tigers on Sumatra (around 300 today) than in India (1,400)."

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Online: http://ping.fm/NiMhx

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Record level of US airstrikes hit Afghan militants (AP)

ISLAMABAD ï¿½ Drone aircraft unleashed two missile attacks in a lawless tribal region on the Afghan border, making September the most intense period of U.S. strikes in Pakistan since they began in 2004, intelligence officials said.

The stepped-up campaign that included Tuesday's strikes is focused on a small area of farming villages and mountainous, thickly forested terrain controlled by the Haqqani network, a ruthless American foe in Afghanistan, U.S. officials say. There is some evidence the network is being squeezed as a result, one official said.

American officials said the airstrikes were designed to degrade the Haqqanis' operations on the Pakistani side of the border, creating a "hammer-and-anvil" effect as U.S. special operations forces carry out raids against their fighters across the frontier in Afghanistan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing classified operations.

The missiles have killed more than 50 people in 12 strikes since Sept. 2 in the Pakistani region of North Waziristan, according to an Associated Press tally based on Pakistani intelligence officials' reports. Many struck around Datta Khel, a town of about 40,000 people that sits on a strategically vital road to the Afghan border.

The border region has long been a refuge for Islamist extremists from around the world. Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders are believed to have fled there after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials said most of this month's strikes have targeted the forces of Jalaluddin and Sirajuddin Haqqani, a former anti-Soviet commander and his son who are now battling American forces in eastern Afghanistan.

The raids targeting the group in Afghanistan are led mainly by the Joint Special Operations Command. Such raids across Afghanistan are now more frequent than at any previous time in the nearly nine-year war, with some 4,000 recorded between May and August as special operations numbers were boosted by troops arriving from Iraq.

The raids have focused on the Haqqanis for the last two years, officials said.

A senior American intelligence official in Afghanistan said the U.S. had reports that Haqqani commanders were under pressure from the operations.

"We're seeing from some of the raids that some of the more senior guys are trying to move back into Pakistan," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

The official cautioned that the Haqqanis often employ military disinformation. And so far, the official said, neither the special operations raids nor the missile strikes on the Pakistan side of the border appear to have degraded the militants' ability to fill the ranks of the slain.

But sometimes, the U.S. official said, the replacements are far less competent than their predecessors.

The Pakistan army has launched several offensives in the tribal regions over the last 2 1/2 years, but has not moved in force into North Waziristan. The U.S. is unable to send ground forces into Pakistani territory, and must rely on the drone strikes.

A major offensive in North Waziristan became even less feasible last month after massive flooding forced tens of thousands of Pakistani soldiers to focus exclusively on rescuing stranded victims, redirecting flood waters and rebuilding damaged infrastructure.

Last month also saw a lull in U.S. airstrikes, until an attack on Sept. 2 began days of repetitive missile attacks.

U.S. officials did not discuss specific reasons for the surge of airstrikes this month. A former American military official said poor weather often hampers drone operations.

Until now, the highest number of airstrikes inside Pakistan in a single month had been the 11 launched in January 2010 after a suicide bomber killed a Jordanian intelligence officer and seven CIA employees at a base in Afghanistan.

"Usually when there's this type of intensity in strikes, they're going after something specific," Bill Roggio, of the Long War Journal, which tracks the strikes, said of this month's attacks. "They hit it, watch what moves, then hit it again. It becomes an intel feedback loop," that fuels further strikes, he said.

U.S. officials do not publicly acknowledge the missile strikes but have said privately that they have killed several senior Taliban and al-Qaida militants and scores of foot soldiers in a region largely out of the control of the Pakistani state.

Critics say innocents are also killed, fueling support for the insurgency.

A Pakistani intelligence official told the AP that "most of the fighters killed in recent weeks are from the Haqqani network," adding that Arab militants had also been killed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

"We live in constant fear," said Munawar Khan, 28, who lives in the nearby village of Darpa Khel. "We have missile strikes every day."

U.S. forces began targeting Pakistan's tribal regions with aerial drones in 2004 but the number of strikes soared in 2008 and has been steadily climbing since then, with nearly 70 attacks this year, according to an AP tally.

There has been little evident public or official outrage inside Pakistan in the wake of September's airstrikes, but the Pakistani government says it has not altered its long-standing objection to such attacks, which have also targeted Pakistani Taliban militants who carry out attacks inside the country.

"The position of the army and government is the same, that it harms more than it helps," said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, an army spokesman.

The Haqqanis worked closely with Pakistan's intelligence service during the anti-Soviet war and have not waged attacks inside Pakistan.

In Afghanistan, however, they often use suicide bombs in civilian areas and do not let suicide bombers back out of an attack, unlike the Afghan Taliban, the U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press.

There's some disagreement in U.S. intelligence ranks as to whether the Haqqanis are part of the Taliban, or simply allied with them in what an intelligence official in the U.S. called "a marriage of convenience."

Many in the Haqqani leadership have roles as Taliban commanders. But officials say the Haqqanis seek dominion only over the areas in which they hold sway ï¿½ Afghanistan's mountainous eastern provinces of Paktika, Paktia, and Khost, stretching to the outskirts of the capital, Kabul. The Taliban, by contrast, want to take over the whole country. The two ruled those areas side by side when the Taliban governed Afghanistan ï¿½ though Haqqani was subservient to Taliban ruler Mullah Omar and did not have independence.

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Dozier reported from Kabul. Associated Press writers Michael Weissenstein in Islamabad, Rasool Dawar in Mir Ali and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this report.

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Some Dems wary of leaving out rich from tax cuts (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ Congressional Democrats on Tuesday wrestled over whether to abandon President Barack Obama's tax cut plan, with some House moderates joining Republicans in calling for an extension of Bush-era breaks for the wealthy as well as middle-income earners.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remained solidly behind Obama's proposal to allow tax cuts for upper-income people to expire as scheduled at the end of the year. From lunchtime into the evening, the leaders met behind closed doors with members concerned that voters would punish Democrats on Election Day if tax cuts are extended for some Americans, but not all.

"We are in listening mode," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chief of the House Democrats' campaign committee.

What they heard Tuesday on both sides of the Capitol indicated divisions among Democrats that contrasted with strong unity among Republicans in supporting a full renewal of all tax cuts, regardless of income, despite a 10-year cost to the government of about $700 billion above Obama's plan. Still, House Republican leader John Boehner said over the weekend he would vote to extend the relief for only middle-income Americans if that were the only option available.

Some House Democrats, particularly moderates facing difficult re-election battles in districts carried by GOP presidential nominee John McCain two years ago, agree with a proposal offered by Republicans for a short-term renewal of all of the Bush-era tax cuts.

"We look forward to working with you to extend all income tax rates," a small group of conservative-to-moderate House Democrats wrote in a draft letter to party leaders as lawmakers trickled back into town Tuesday from their summer break.

Democratic Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah, Melissa Bean of Illinois and Glenn Nye of Virginia were circulating the letter for more signatures Tuesday afternoon and were picking up support.

"Don't raise taxes in a recession," said Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D.

This was not the debate Democrats wanted as the midterm election season opened. The plan was to make an extension of the middle-class tax cut the party's closing argument ï¿½ against Republicans, not each other ï¿½ as voters began to focus on whether they trust Democrats to improve the ailing economy enough to reward them with control of Congress for another two years.

More broadly, some Democrats were nervous about casting a difficult vote on taxes before Election Day ï¿½ in the wake of bruising votes on health care and global warming, among other matters. Some Democratic political professionals, however, think taxes are a good issue to define for voters the differences between the parties by casting Republicans as siding with wealthier people in the tax debate.

Still, some endangered lawmakers wanted to punt the issue until after the election, when Congress is all but certain to convene in a last-minute "lame duck" session.

Reflecting the uneasiness, party floor leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland would not commit to scheduling a vote on taxes before Election Day, Nov. 2.

"We'll have to see ... over the next week or so what happens here and in the United States Senate and then we'll have a better idea of how we can proceed," Hoyer told reporters.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said members in his party have just started grappling with the issue. Party leaders, he said, haven't made any decisions about when to call a vote on competing tax plans or what exactly the Democratic version would do.

Durbin said most Democrats support Obama's plan to allow income tax rates on family income exceeding $250,000 to rise to as high as 39.6 percent. But he also said some want to raise the amount of income exempted from the higher rates above the $250,000 figure advocated by Obama ï¿½ while not advocating a full renewal for, say, millionaires.

"Some people think it should go beyond $250,000, but how much and for what period of time is still being debated," Durbin told reporters.

The cost of extending the tax cuts for everyone for the next 10 years would approach $4 trillion, according to congressional estimates. Eliminating the breaks for the top earners would reduce that bill by about $700 billion. A one-year extension of the lower rates for high-income earners would cost the government $39 billion.

Durbin also said he advocates giving Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a vote on legislation the Kentucky Republican introduced on Monday to permanently extend the Bush-era tax cuts regardless of income level.

"Sen. McConnell has spelled out what his caucus stands for ï¿½ an unpaid-for permanent extension of tax cuts, which will add some $4 trillion to the national debt. That's his position and he is deserving of a vote on that," Durbin said. "And we are deserving, I think, of a vote on tax cuts extended to $250,000 and more."

Durbin predicted that if the Obama plan comes to a vote, Republicans would blink and not filibuster the measure.

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Carter: US prisoner treated humanely in NKorea (AP)

ATLANTA ï¿½ Former President Jimmy Carter says he believes North Korea humanely treated an American prisoner who was held for seven months after crossing into the country.

He said Tuesday that doctors who reviewed Aijalon Gomes (EYE'-jah-lahn gohms) after he was released to Carter's custody in August determined that he was treated "superbly."

Carter said during a discussion at the Carter Center that Gomes was given his own cell after he was arrested on Jan. 25 and sentenced to eight years' hard labor for crossing into the North from China. He said after Gomes attempted suicide, officials also gave him his own room at a hospital.

Carter says he hopes his trip jump-starts peace talks between North Korea, South Korea and the U.S.

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

ATLANTA (AP) ï¿½ Former President Jimmy Carter says North Korean officials asked him to travel to the peninsula to secure the release of an American prisoner.

He said Tuesday in his first public remarks since returning with Aijalon Gomes (EYE'-jah-lahn gohms) that North Korean officials told him they would only release him to Carter. Gomes was sentenced to eight years' hard labor for crossing into the North from China on Jan. 25.

Carter said he worked five weeks to get permission from the White House and State Department before making the August trip. He said during a Carter Center discussion that North Korea insisted on a retrial when he arrived, then gave Gomes a pardon.

Carter says he hopes the trip jump-starts peace talks between North Korea, South Korea and the U.S.

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Tea party favorite Ovide Lamontagne leads in NH (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ Tea party-supported Ovide Lamontagne seized an early lead in New Hampshire's Republican senatorial primary Tuesday night, one of a pair of marquee races in the finale to a primary season marked by economic recession and political upheaval.

Lamontagne was gaining 53 percent of the vote to 32 percent for former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte who had the support of party leaders, with ballots counted in 5 percent of the state's precincts.

The race was one of two in which tea party insurgents challenged the party establishment. The other was in Delaware, where veteran Rep. Mike Castle vied with Christine O'Donnell in a Republican Senate nomination race that turned particularly nasty in the final weeks.

Democratic New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch rolled to renomination for a fourth term, and he will face John Stephen, a former state health commissioner who led overwhelmingly for the GOP nomination.

In New York, 40-year veteran Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel faced the voters for the first time since the House ethics committee accused him of 13 violations, most of them relating to his personal finances.

In all, five states chose nominees for the Senate, and six more had gubernatorial hopefuls on primary ballots. The winners had scant time to refocus their energies for midterm elections coming up on Nov. 2.

So far this year, seven incumbent members of Congress have tasted defeat, four Republicans and three Democrats. And that does not include a lengthy list of GOP contenders who fell to tea party-supported challengers despite having the backing of party officials eager to maximize their gains in November.

With unemployment high and President Barack Obama's popularity below 50 percent, Republicans said the primaries reflected an enthusiasm that would serve the party well in the fall, when control of Congress will be at stake.

Democrats, however, said the presence of tea party-supported Republicans would prove costly to the GOP on Nov. 2 ï¿½ a proposition that remained to be tested in seven weeks' time.

In Delaware, Castle and O'Donnell sought the GOP nomination for a Senate seat held for 36 years by Vice President Joe Biden. The race turned took a sharp turn for the negative three weeks ago after the Tea Party Express announced it would come to the aid of challenger Christine O'Donnell.

Castle, a former two-term governor and a veteran of nearly two decades in the House, was repeatedly assailed as a liberal, a Republican in name only. He and the party responded by challenging O'Donnell's fitness for public office and her ability to win a statewide election in the fall.

In an extraordinary move, the state Republican Party began automated phone calls attacking O'Donnell in the campaign's final hours. The calls feature the voice of a woman who identifies herself as Kristin Murray, O'Donnell's campaign manager in her 2008 unsuccessful Senate campaign, accusing the candidate of "living on campaign donations ï¿½ using them for rent and personal expenses, while leaving her workers unpaid and piling up thousands in debt."

O'Donnell's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Republican officials have said privately they intend to write off the seat if O'Donnell is victorious against Castle.

While Republicans brawled, New Castle County Executive Chris Coons coasted to the Democratic nomination without opposition. Biden resigned the seat in early 2009, and his successor, Democratic Sen. Ted Kaufman, pledged not to run for a full term.

Republicans in New Hampshire sorted through a crowded field of candidates for the nomination to a seat long held by retiring GOP Sen. Judd Gregg.

Ayotte was the party-backed favorite, and she added support from prominent conservatives who have played a heavy role in several primaries this year, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Her principal opposition came from Lamontagne, a lawyer and former head of the state board of education. He campaigned with the support of tea party activists and claimed to be the most conservative candidate in a race that also included businessmen Bill Binnie and Jim Bender.

The winner will face Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes, who is giving up his seat in the House to run for the Senate.

Republicans must gain 10 seats this fall if they are to win control of the Senate, and their chances count heavily on their ability to prevail in both Delaware and New Hampshire.

In Wisconsin, businessman Ron Johnson faced two minor opponents for the Republican nomination to oppose three-term Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold in November in what polls show is a tight race. Johnson has said he will spend millions of his own money to finance his campaign through Election Day.

In New York, Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo faced no opposition for the party's nomination for governor, and he will be the prohibitive favorite in the fall for an office his father held for three terms.

Former Rep. Rick Lazio vied with political novice Carl Paladino, a wealthy developer who got tea party support, for the Republican nomination.

The state's new electronic voting machines made their debut, and there were scattered reports of problems that resulted in delays and long lines.

In Maryland, former Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich sought the nomination for a rematch against the man who ousted him from office in 2006, Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley.

There were gubernatorial nomination contests in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Wisconsin, where Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker collided with former Rep. Mark Neumann for the Republican line on the fall ballot. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was heavily favored for the Democratic nomination.

Rangel's principal challenger for the nomination in his Harlem-based district was Adam Clayton Powell IV, a state assemblyman whose father Rangel defeated 40 years ago. In the decades since, Rangel rose to become chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, with enormous power over taxes, trade, Medicare and more, but Democrats forced him to step aside from that panel while he battles ethics charges.

He is accused of accepting several New York City rent-stabilized apartments, and omitting information on his financial disclosure forms. He's also accused of failing to pay taxes from a rental property in the Dominican Republic, and improperly soliciting money for a college center to be named after him. He has vowed to fight the charges, and faces an ethics committee trial, possibly after the elections.

A second New York Democratic incumbent, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, also faced a strong primary challenge.

Rhode Island had a rare open seat in its two-member House delegation, following the decision of Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy to retire. Providence Mayor David Cicilline, who is openly gay, was favored over three rivals for the Democratic nomination.

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American woman freed by Iran after bail deal (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ï¿½ In just a few dizzying hours, American Sarah Shourd exchanged a cell in Tehran's Evin Prison for a private jet crossing the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, after an apparent diplomatic deal to cover a $500,000 bail and secure a release that seemed in jeopardy from the start.

Shourd was met by her mother and U.S. diplomats at a royal airfield in the capital of Oman, which U.S. officials say played a critical role in organizing the bail payment and assuring it did not violate American economic sanctions on Iran.

Shourd stepped off the private Omani jet and into the arms of her mother in their first embrace since a brief visit in May overseen by Iranian authorities ï¿½ and her first day of freedom in more than 13 months. Shourd smiled broadly as they strolled arm-in-arm through the heat of the late summer night along the Gulf of Oman.

"I'm grateful and I'm very humbled by this moment," she said before boarding the plane in Tehran for the two-hour flight to Oman.

The whirlwind departure of the 32-year-old Shourd brought little change for two other Americans ï¿½ her fiance Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal ï¿½ who remained behind bars while authorities moved toward possible trials on spy charges that could bring up to 10 years in prison if they are convicted.

The three were detained along the Iraq border in July 2009. Their families say they were innocent hikers in the scenic mountains of Iraq's Kurdish region and if they did stray across the border into Iran, they did so unwittingly.

"All of our families are relieved and overjoyed that Sarah has at last been released, but we're also heartbroken that Shane and Josh are still being denied their freedom for no just cause ... They deserve to come home, too," said a statement by the three families.

Iran, however, has shown no hints of clemency for the two 28-year-old men. Indictments on espionage-related charges have been filed and Tehran's chief prosecutor has suggested the cases could soon move into the courts, with Shourd tried in absentia.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he welcomed Shourd's release "and I appreciate the flexibility of Iranian government."

"At the same time, as secretary-general of the United Nations, I would sincerely hope that Iranian government will again very favorably consider releasing the remaining two American hikers so that they could join their families as soon as possible," he said in an interview in New York with AP and AP Television News.

Any other scenario could bring more unwanted attention to the growing rivalries inside Iran's Islamic leadership.

Even the gesture to release Shourd on health grounds ï¿½ first raised as an act of Islamic benevolence last week by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ï¿½ turned into a spectacle of high-level political bullying and sniping over who controlled her fate and the overall wisdom of letting her go.

The open bickering seemed to harden the divisions that have been developing since the brush with chaos after Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election last year.

On one side are Ahmadinejad and his allies, led by the vast military and economic network of the Revolutionary Guard ï¿½ what some analysts have called the "militarization" of the Islamic state. The other pole reflects the old guard of Iran's once-unchallenged authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the traditional pillars of the theocracy such as the judiciary.

In Shourd's case, the judges came out on top. They humbled Ahmadinejad and set the ground rules for her release with a staggeringly high bail.

But in the wider sense, the feuds display the fraying consensus among Iran's conservative leadership ï¿½ with Ahmadinejad's critics increasingly outspoken in their claims he is trying to expand his reach and redraw Iran's political map.

Such rifts could eventually make it harder for Iran to speak in one voice on key issues, such as its nuclear program and any future overtures to end 30 years of diplomatic estrangement with the United States.

"Iran's leadership managed to put down the opposition after Ahmadinejad's election, and now they are fighting among themselves," said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a professor of Iranian affairs at Syracuse University.

Ahmadinejad may have felt the sting from the judiciary over the handling of Shourd's release. But he came away with the outcome he sought: a goodwill gesture less than a week before he is scheduled to arrive in New York ahead of the U.N. General Assembly.

Ahmadinejad has said Shourd was being released on compassionate grounds. Her mother says she has serious medical problems, including a breast lump and precancerous cervical cells.

Shourd's release, some analysts say, could be used by Iran as a way to deflect the international outcry over a stoning sentence for a woman convicted of adultery and the continued crackdown on opposition groups ï¿½ which led two Iranian ambassadors in Europe to quit this week and seek asylum.

"Ahmadinejad is possibly trying to make the environment less hostile in New York," said Rasool Nafisi, a researcher on Iranian affairs at Strayer University in Virginia.

Even in the last minutes, Ahmadinejad tried to put his stamp on the release. His adviser on women's affairs, Maruyam Mojtahedzadeh, was on hand to greet Shourd at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport.

In a statement to Iran's state-run Press TV before boarding the flight to Oman, Shourd thanked Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders for "this humanitarian gesture."

"I want to really offer my thanks to everyone in the world, all of the governments, all of the people, that have been involved," added Shourd, wearing a maroon headscarf and a tan coat.

Upon arrival in Oman, Shourd also thanked the sultan for his help and said she would turn her efforts to trying to win the release of her companions. Her immediate travel plans were unclear. A U.S. official said she would be in Oman for at least a day.

Shourd, who grew up in Los Angeles, Bauer, who grew up in Onamia, Minn., and Fattal, who grew up in Elkins Park, Pa., were detained on July 31, 2009, and accused of illegally crossing into Iran and spying in a case that has deepened tensions with Washington.

Up until the moment Shourd was led outside the gray walls of Evin Prison, it was unclear whether the opening for her release could just as suddenly close.

A day earlier, a commentary by a news agency linked to the Revolutionary Guard called the bail an insult to Iran's security and intelligence forces. Shourd's family then said they couldn't afford the amount and the State Department noted it would not offer financial help.

Then came the unexpected news from Tehran's chief prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, that bail had been paid to Iran's Bank Melli in the Omani capital Muscat. Shourd's family has not disclosed the source of the funds ï¿½ opening speculation that a diplomatic pact was cut with Oman.

A U.S. official said neither the U.S. government nor the families of the hikers put up the money, but could not say who else might have paid it.

All signs pointed to Oman, both a close Western and Iranian ally that wraps around the southeast corner of the Arabian peninsula.

Oman is seen as an important diplomatic bridge with Tehran because the two nations share close bonds as guardians of the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, the seaway for an estimated 40 percent of the world's oil.

Another U.S. official said Omani negotiators had played a critical, behind-the-scenes role, working with Iran's judiciary and Swiss diplomats who handle U.S. affairs in Iran. Oman was key in coordinating the bail payment, the official said ï¿½ suggesting some kind of channel to avoid violating American sanctions on Iran.

Both U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

U.S. sanctions put blanket restrictions on transactions with Iran's main state bank, Bank Melli, which has been the channel for past bail payments to Iranian courts by foreign detainees. Washington accuses the bank of helping fund Iran's ballistic missile development and its nuclear program, which the U.S. says could eventually lead to atomic weapons. Iran says it only seeks peaceful nuclear reactors for energy.

In a statement, Oman's government said it "welcomes" Shourd's release and hoped "other positive steps will follow in the course of the Iranian-American relations."

President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton both thanked Oman for its assistance.

Oman "in recent days and weeks became a key interlocutor to help us work this case with the Iranian government," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "And we are very grateful to the role that Oman has played."

He could not say if any money had changed hands in winning Shourd's release, but noted that "arrangements were made that satisfied Iranian requirements under their judicial system."

At the same time, Crowley said the U.S. government had no information to suggest any U.S. or international sanctions on Iran had been violated.

"I am very pleased that Sarah Shourd has been released by the Iranian government, and will soon be united with her family," Obama said in a statement.

Shourd's mother, Nora, said she has hoped and prayed for this moment for 410 days.

"Sarah has had a long and difficult detainment and I am going to make sure that she now gets the care and attention she needs and the time and space to recover," she said. "I can only imagine how bittersweet her freedom must be for her, leaving Shane and Josh behind."

___

Murphy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Gretchen Ehlke in Milwaukee, Matthew Lee in Washington and Amy Forliti in Minneapolis, contributed to this report.

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Reports: Eiffel Tower bomb threat was false alarm (AP)

PARIS ï¿½ The area under Paris' Eiffel Tower has been opened up to tourists again after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat and police combed through the famous monument looking for suspicious objects.

France's BFM television and other French media reported that police found nothing suspicious at the tower, which is France's most popular tourist monument. Paris police headquarters did not immediately respond to calls seeking information.

Around midnight in Paris, people were walking around and riding bikes under the tower. The tower itself usually closes at 11 p.m.

French media say a second tourist hub ï¿½ the Saint-Michel subway station near Notre Dame Cathedral ï¿½ was also been briefly evacuated.

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

PARIS (AP) ï¿½ Paris' Eiffel Tower and its immediate surroundings underneath were evacuated Tuesday evening after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat, the French capital's police headquarters said.

French media reported that a second tourist hub ï¿½ the Saint-Michel subway station near Notre Dame Cathedral ï¿½ had also been evacuated following a similar threat.

A Paris police spokesman said he had no information about the reports on the Saint-Michel station, which was the target of a terrorist attack in 1995 that killed eight and injured scores of people.

Across town, about 2,000 people were cleared from the 324-meter (1,063-foot) Eiffel Tower on the banks of the Seine River, and police were checking it for suspicious objects, the spokesman at the police headquarters said. He declined to give his name, citing department policy.

Eiffel Tower security services made the decision to clear out tourists and workers following the threat, the spokesman said.

Despite the scare at the tower, tourists and curious Parisians continued to mill around the surrounding sidewalks, and traffic continued to circulate nearby. Several police trucks were posted under the tower, and officers stood guard.

The tower is France's most popular monument, and 6.6 million people visited it last year.

Bomb scares are frequent in Paris, and the city has experienced terrorism firsthand. Algerian Islamic insurgents bombed the Saint-Michel station on July 25, 1995, killing eight people and injuring 150.

It was the first attack in a campaign of violence that terrorized Paris subway commuters for a time. Gas cooking canisters loaded with nails, sometimes hidden in garbage cans, were used in many of the bombings.