Sarah Palin: Primaries are over, GOP must unite (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa � After helping propel several upstart Republican contenders to recent primary victories, Sarah Palin said Friday that it's time for Republicans to unite now that primary season is over.

The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee delivered a fiery speech to about 1,400 people at the Iowa Republican Party's Reagan dinner, the party's largest annual fundraiser. She noted that the general elections are less than two months away and stressed that Nov. 2 should be the focus of all Republicans.

"This is our movement, this is our moment," she said. "The time for unity is near. It is time to unite and make government work."

Her appearance in the state where precinct caucuses traditionally launch the presidential nominating season drew intense attention, but she found time to joke about it. If she laced up her running shoes, she said, the headlines would read: "Palin in Iowa, decides to run."

Palin has been coy about her presidential intentions and masterful at keeping her name in the news since she abruptly resigned as Alaska's governor in 2009. She's mixed political fundraisers and candidates' campaign events with speeches in which she commands fees as high as $100,000.

A string of Palin-endorsed candidates won during recent primary elections, including a double win Tuesday in Delaware and New Hampshire. On Friday, she stressed that Republicans needed to come together after a tough primary season.

"Did you ever lose big growing up?" she asked the crowd. "You lose some and you win some. For the sake of our country, America's primary voters have spoken and those internal power struggles need to be set aside."

She also attacked what she called a media establishment that wouldn't give conservatives a break.

"It's been made abundantly clear that those who hold some pretty common-sense views won't be heard," she said.

State Republican Chairman Matt Strawn said attendance at the annual dinner spiked after it was announced that Palin would be speaking at the event.

Palin is far from alone in taking early steps to court Iowa activists. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has made multiple trips to the state, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has put a staff member in Iowa and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania all have visits in the works.

President Barack Obama's spokesman said Friday that he believes Palin was testing the waters in Iowa for a possible presidential run. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said this is the time of year when potential candidates head to the politically important state to gauge the likelihood of a campaign.

Gibbs said it's clear that Palin can rally the very conservative elements of the Republican base and she may be "the most formidable force" in the GOP right now.

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Cement starts flowing to plug BP well for good (AP)

NEW ORLEANS � Crews started pumping cement Friday deep under the seafloor to permanently plug BP's blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico.

A BP spokesman said there no longer was a need to use mud in tandem with the cement because pressure from the well wasn't an issue.

BP expects the well to be completely sealed on Saturday. The government had previously said it expected the well to be declared dead by Sunday, but on Friday the Coast Guard indicated the culmination was likely to be Saturday.

Cement began flowing at 1:30 p.m. CDT. It was expected to flow for several hours and then take up to 24 hours to set, according to BP.

The pumping of cement followed the successful intersection late Thursday between a relief well drilled nearly 2.5 miles beneath the floor of the Gulf and the blown-out well.

An April 20 explosion killed 11 workers, sank a drilling rig and led to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

"I am ready for that cigar now," John Wright, who led the team drilling the relief well, said in an e-mail Friday to The Associated Press from aboard the Development Driller III vessel.

Wright, who is not a BP employee but is working on a contract basis, had told the AP in August that he was looking forward to finishing his mission and celebrating with a cigar, a dinner party with his crew and a trip somewhere quiet to unwind with his wife. He has never missed his target over the years, with this relief well being the 41st he's successfully drilled.

The gusher was contained in mid-July after a temporary cap was successfully fitted atop the well. Mud and cement were later pushed down through the top of the well, allowing the cap to be removed. But the blown-out well cannot be declared dead until it is sealed from the bottom.

The blast sank the Deepwater Horizon rig and triggered the spill that eventually spewed 206 million gallons of oil from the well. BP PLC is a majority owner of the well and was leasing the rig from owner Transocean Ltd.

The disaster caused an environmental and economic nightmare for people who live, work and play along hundreds of miles of Gulf shoreline from Florida to Texas. It also spurred civil and criminal investigations, cost gaffe-prone BP chief Tony Hayward his job and brought increased governmental scrutiny of the oil and gas industry, including a costly moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling that is still in place.

Gulf residents will be feeling the pain for years to come. There is still plenty of oil in the water, and some continues to wash up on shore.

Many people are still struggling to make ends meet with some waters still closed to fishing. Shrimpers who are allowed to fish are finding it difficult to sell their catch because of the perception � largely from people outside the region � that the seafood is not safe to eat. Tourism along the Gulf has taken a hit.

BP took some of the blame for the Gulf oil disaster in an internal report issued earlier this month, acknowledging among other things that it misinterpreted a key pressure test of the well. But in a possible preview of its legal strategy, it also pointed the finger at its partners on the doomed rig.

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Quake shakes north Afghanistan, no damage reported (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan � A magnitude 6.3 earthquake has rattled the Hindu Kush region in northern Afghanistan, but no major damage or injuries were reported.

The temblor late Friday night was felt in the capital Kabul, where beds shook and chandeliers swung for about 15 seconds. No major damage or injuries had been reported by Saturday morning.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the 11:51 p.m. (1921 GMT) quake was deep, some 199.7 kilometers (124.1 miles) below the surface.

Its epicenter was some 75 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Faizabad and 265 kilometers (165 miles) northeast of Kabul.

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Insurgents fire rockets to disrupt Afghan election (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan � A rocket slammed into the Afghan capital and three others struck the eastern city of Jalalabad on Saturday � apparent warnings from insurgents trying to scare people from voting in the nation's parliamentary elections, officials said.

No casualties were reported in the attacks just hours before polling centers were to open across Afghanistan, where 2,500 candidates are vying for 249 seats in the parliament.

The elections � the first since a fraud-ridden presidential poll a year ago � are seen both as a test of the Afghan government's commitment to rooting out corruption and as a measure of the strength of the insurgency.

Hanging in the balance is the willingness of the U.S.-led international coalition to continue supporting Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government with 140,000 troops and billions of dollars nearly nine years into the war.

Afghan police officer Mohammad Abrahim in Kabul said one rocket landed around 4 a.m. in the yard of Afghanistan's state-owned television station, a couple of blocks from the presidential palace, NATO headquarters and the U.S. Embassy. In Nangarhar province, three rockets were fired at a military base on the eastern edge of Jalalabad, according to Ahmedzia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

The Taliban have written threats on leaflets passed out at mosques, whispered them in villages and posted Internet messages saying those who cast ballots should be prepared to be attacked. How many Afghans ignore this intimidation campaign and turn out at the polls will be one measure of whether the vote is considered a success.

On the eve of the balloting, the head of a voting center in southern Helmand province was killed when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb � a reminder that the insurgent group usually makes good on its threats. At least 24 people have been killed in election-related violence in the run-up to the vote, including four candidates, according to observers.

In the past two days, Taliban militants abducted 18 election workers from a house in northern Bagdhis province, and a candidate was kidnapped in eastern Laghman province. Coalition forces also detained an insurgent in eastern Khost province who was "actively" planning attacks during the elections, NATO said.

The Afghan parliament is relatively weak so the outcome of the races is unlikely to change the workings of the government. Voters tend to select candidates of the same ethnic group and are often motivated mostly by a desire for patronage jobs or federal funds for a road or a school in their district.

The U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, told reporters in Islamabad on Friday that he knows the parliamentary elections will have plenty of problems.

"They're going to be flawed," Holbrooke said. "We've had experience in our country with flawed elections, and not in the middle of a war. We're not looking for perfection here."

"You'll want to look at how much the Taliban are able to disrupt" the balloting, he added.

The Afghan government has installed extra checkpoints throughout the country and dispatched about 280,000 security forces to help secure polling stations.

Afghan security forces patrolled the mountains and hills that encircle Kabul on Friday to prevent insurgents from setting up rocket-firing points, Deputy Police Chief Khalilullah Dastyar said. Police used bomb-sniffing dogs while searching every car heading along main roads into the city.

In volatile Kunar province in the northeast, police said they were unable to deploy soldiers to remote areas but set up checkpoints on roads into the provincial capital. Police were stopping vehicles and questioning anyone wearing a burqa � the full-body robe often worn by Afghan women in conservative areas. Insurgents previously have hidden under burqas to pass checkpoints.

"We are talking to anyone with a burqa to make sure it's actually a woman," said Khalilullah Zaiyi, the provincial police chief.

In eastern Khost province, police said mosques were blanketed with leaflets overnight promising a violent election.

"The people of Khost should not go to the voting centers. If anyone goes, we will punish them," the notes said, according to provincial police Chief Abdul Hakim Isaqzai. The same message was written on leaflets the Taliban were passing out in the southern city of Kandahar.

In the eastern province of Ghazni, a Taliban operative told The Associated Press that the group had warned residents they would be targeted if they left their homes or opened shops anytime Saturday or Sunday.

Those who vote will be easy to identify � marked by a fingertip covered with the indelible ink used as an anti-fraud measure that stains the skin for at least 72 hours.

Even in some of the most violent areas, however, some Afghans said fear would not stop them from voting.

In Kandahar, where the Taliban have waged an assassination campaign against government workers in recent months, some residents said they felt they wouldn't have a right to complain about the outcome of the election if they didn't cast a ballot.

"I cannot predict if the election will be fair or not � we will see that in time. But I will go vote and so will my family," said Abdul Razak, a businessman. He said he's been encouraged by the increased NATO presence in the city over the summer and trusts they will provide the needed security.

Karzai urged citizens to vote despite the threats.

"Tomorrow's election is very important," Karzai told reporters. "I hope that all our people in all corners of the country, in any village, will go to the polling centers and to vote for their favorite candidate."

Asked what message he wanted to give to the Taliban, Karzai replied: "Those Taliban, who are sons of Afghanistan, are Muslim. They should serve their country and participate, and build their country and build stability."

___

Associated Press Writers Amir Shah in Kabul, Mirwais Khan in Kandahar and Kathy Gannon in Jalalabad contributed to this report.

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Insurgents fire rockets to disrupt Afghan election (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan � A rocket slammed into the Afghan capital and three others struck the eastern city of Jalalabad on Saturday � apparent warnings from insurgents trying to scare people from voting in the nation's parliamentary elections, officials said.

No casualties were reported in the attacks just hours before polling centers were to open across Afghanistan, where 2,500 candidates are vying for 249 seats in the parliament.

The elections � the first since a fraud-ridden presidential poll a year ago � are seen both as a test of the Afghan government's commitment to rooting out corruption and as a measure of the strength of the insurgency.

Hanging in the balance is the willingness of the U.S.-led international coalition to continue supporting Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government with 140,000 troops and billions of dollars nearly nine years into the war.

Afghan police officer Mohammad Abrahim in Kabul said one rocket landed around 4 a.m. in the yard of Afghanistan's state-owned television station, a couple of blocks from the presidential palace, NATO headquarters and the U.S. Embassy. In Nangarhar province, three rockets were fired at a military base on the eastern edge of Jalalabad, according to Ahmedzia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

The Taliban have written threats on leaflets passed out at mosques, whispered them in villages and posted Internet messages saying those who cast ballots should be prepared to be attacked. How many Afghans ignore this intimidation campaign and turn out at the polls will be one measure of whether the vote is considered a success.

On the eve of the balloting, the head of a voting center in southern Helmand province was killed when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb � a reminder that the insurgent group usually makes good on its threats. At least 24 people have been killed in election-related violence in the run-up to the vote, including four candidates, according to observers.

In the past two days, Taliban militants abducted 18 election workers from a house in northern Bagdhis province, and a candidate was kidnapped in eastern Laghman province. Coalition forces also detained an insurgent in eastern Khost province who was "actively" planning attacks during the elections, NATO said.

The Afghan parliament is relatively weak so the outcome of the races is unlikely to change the workings of the government. Voters tend to select candidates of the same ethnic group and are often motivated mostly by a desire for patronage jobs or federal funds for a road or a school in their district.

The U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, told reporters in Islamabad on Friday that he knows the parliamentary elections will have plenty of problems.

"They're going to be flawed," Holbrooke said. "We've had experience in our country with flawed elections, and not in the middle of a war. We're not looking for perfection here."

"You'll want to look at how much the Taliban are able to disrupt" the balloting, he added.

The Afghan government has installed extra checkpoints throughout the country and dispatched about 280,000 security forces to help secure polling stations.

Afghan security forces patrolled the mountains and hills that encircle Kabul on Friday to prevent insurgents from setting up rocket-firing points, Deputy Police Chief Khalilullah Dastyar said. Police used bomb-sniffing dogs while searching every car heading along main roads into the city.

In volatile Kunar province in the northeast, police said they were unable to deploy soldiers to remote areas but set up checkpoints on roads into the provincial capital. Police were stopping vehicles and questioning anyone wearing a burqa � the full-body robe often worn by Afghan women in conservative areas. Insurgents previously have hidden under burqas to pass checkpoints.

"We are talking to anyone with a burqa to make sure it's actually a woman," said Khalilullah Zaiyi, the provincial police chief.

In eastern Khost province, police said mosques were blanketed with leaflets overnight promising a violent election.

"The people of Khost should not go to the voting centers. If anyone goes, we will punish them," the notes said, according to provincial police Chief Abdul Hakim Isaqzai. The same message was written on leaflets the Taliban were passing out in the southern city of Kandahar.

In the eastern province of Ghazni, a Taliban operative told The Associated Press that the group had warned residents they would be targeted if they left their homes or opened shops anytime Saturday or Sunday.

Those who vote will be easy to identify � marked by a fingertip covered with the indelible ink used as an anti-fraud measure that stains the skin for at least 72 hours.

Even in some of the most violent areas, however, some Afghans said fear would not stop them from voting.

In Kandahar, where the Taliban have waged an assassination campaign against government workers in recent months, some residents said they felt they wouldn't have a right to complain about the outcome of the election if they didn't cast a ballot.

"I cannot predict if the election will be fair or not � we will see that in time. But I will go vote and so will my family," said Abdul Razak, a businessman. He said he's been encouraged by the increased NATO presence in the city over the summer and trusts they will provide the needed security.

Karzai urged citizens to vote despite the threats.

"Tomorrow's election is very important," Karzai told reporters. "I hope that all our people in all corners of the country, in any village, will go to the polling centers and to vote for their favorite candidate."

Asked what message he wanted to give to the Taliban, Karzai replied: "Those Taliban, who are sons of Afghanistan, are Muslim. They should serve their country and participate, and build their country and build stability."

___

Associated Press Writers Amir Shah in Kabul, Mirwais Khan in Kandahar and Kathy Gannon in Jalalabad contributed to this report.

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Government confirms 25 dead in Sri Lanka blast (AP)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka � Three containers filled with explosives meant for road construction detonated outside a police station in eastern Sri Lanka, killing 25 people, most of them police officers, in a blast government officials called an accident.

Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Ubaya Medawala said he initially feared, incorrectly, that the death toll was as high as 60, in light of the enormity of the damage caused by Friday's blast.

Images of the blast on Maharaja Television showed the police station reduced to rubble. A nearby agriculture office crowded with farmers who had come to buy fertilizer was also completely destroyed and power to the area was cut off.

"There was a big blast and smoke all over, that's all. I didn't know what was happening," said S. Vathany, 42, a farmer.

Medawala said it was unclear what triggered the explosion of the containers, which were stored by the police station in the Batticaloa district for safety reasons.

The area was once controlled by the now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, who routinely carried out bombings against government and civilian targets during their 25-year insurgency.

The explosives, probably dynamite, were intended for blasting out rocks for a road construction project being carried out by a Chinese company, he said.

From time to time, workers came to the police premises remove small amounts of explosives from the containers. The blast occurred when the workers were taking out some of the explosives, Medawala said.

The blast killed 16 policemen and nine civilians � including two Chinese citizens � and wounded 52 others, he said. Among the civilian casualties were farmers visiting the agriculture office and passers by.

Thyagendra Senthuran, a doctor at Chenkalady hospital near the blast site, said he has received 15 dead bodies and 20 wounded people, many with severe head wounds.

"Still we are receiving bodies," he said.

K. Arasaratnam, a 49-year-old farmer, told The Associated Press from Batticaloa hospital that he was at the agriculture office when he heard a loud blast.

"Many people near me fell down and after some time I realized that I too was bleeding. Later ambulances came and brought us to hospital," he said.

Lakshman Hulugalla, a government spokesman, ruled out any possibility of sabotage, saying, "It is an accidental explosion."

The site of the blast, Karadiyanaru, is a small town in the former conflict zone in the east. The government has initiated a major construction drive there to build roads, reservoirs and other infrastructure following the end of the war with the Tamil Tigers last year.

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Sen. Murkowski mounting write-in bid for Senate (AP)

JUNEAU, Alaska � U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who lost Alaska's GOP primary last month in a stunning upset to a tea-party backed rival, announced Friday that she's mounting a write-in candidacy in a bid to hold onto her job.

Her announcement came at a late afternoon rally in Anchorage as supporters surrounded her and chanted: "Run, Lisa, Run!"

The decision follows Murkowski's surprise defeat by Joe Miller in last month's Republican primary.

Murkowski has said she has considered her options since conceding the race to Miller and following an outpouring of encouragement from Alaskans stunned by her loss.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin urged Murkowski on Twitter Friday afternoon to recognize that the state's primary voters demonstrated their support for Miller, a tea party favorite.

"Listen to the people, respect their will," said Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee. "Voters chose Joe instead."

The convention center where the rally is being held featured signs reading "Let's Make History," and had a table where people could sign up to help Murkowski's campaign. Prominently displayed, too, was a photo of the late Sen. Ted Stevens with his arm around Murkowski.

Stevens is beloved in this state for bringing billions of dollars in federal aid and project to Alaska, and he was one of her biggest cheerleaders before his death last month.

___

Associated Press writer Mary Pemberton contributed to this report from Anchorage, Alaska.

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Pope calm after 6 nabbed in suspected terror plot (AP)

LONDON � Police raided a garbage depot and arrested street cleaners in a suspected terror plot against Pope Benedict XVI on Friday. Undeterred, the pontiff stuck to his message, reaching across Britain's religious and secular divide to demand a greater role for faith in public life.

Despite the six arrests, the pope did not alter a schedule rich in symbolism in this officially Protestant country with a history of anti-Catholicism: He prayed with the Archbishop of Canterbury and became the first pope to worship in Westminster Abbey.

Benedict also addressed political, cultural and business leaders in Westminster Hall, for centuries the center of British political life, asserting "the legitimate role of religion in the public square."

Among those in attendance were Tony Blair � a prominent convert to Catholicism � as well as former prime ministers Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Gordon Brown.

Faith, the pope said, "is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation."

Benedict was informed of the pre-dawn arrests while visiting a Catholic college, the first stop on the busy second day of his state visit.

Five of the suspects were street cleaners arrested at a garbage depot in central London and a sixth was picked up later in the day. All six were arrested "on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism." Police said they ranged in age from 26 to 50, and media reports said some were Algerian, though authorities would not confirm that.

Police said they received information about a potential threat against the pope overnight, prompting the arrests under Britain's Terrorism Act. All six were being questioned and had not been formally charged.

At the scene of the street cleaners' arrests in Chiltern Street, near the famed Madame Tussauds wax museum, police cordoned off part of the road. Police officers, some dressed in white protective overalls, removed items from the depot, and examined garbage cans.

The street cleaners worked for a contractor on behalf of Westminster Council, the authority responsible for much of central London, including the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and other sites on the pope's itinerary Friday. However, the arrests took place at a depot responsible for cleaning another part of the city.

A street sweeper at the depot said at least one of those arrested was Algerian and he believed all five were from North Africa. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

There have been no known plots against Benedict in his five-year papacy. His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, was gravely wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt.

Benedict's visit has been overshadowed by disgust over the Catholic Church's clerical abuse scandal and opposition from secularists and those who oppose the church's positions on homosexuality and using condoms to fight AIDS.

Security has been visibly higher than on Benedict's previous foreign trips, and Vatican officials have acknowledged that Britain represents a greater threat than other European countries the pope toured this year, including Portugal, Malta and Cyprus.

News of the arrests came as the pope was meeting representatives of other religions, including Muslims and Jews. He stressed the importance of mutual respect, tolerance and freedom to follow one's conscience.

The Vatican said Benedict was informed of the arrests and was pleased he could stick to his schedule.

"We have complete trust in the police," Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters. "The police are taking the necessary measures. The situation is not particularly dangerous."

"The pope is happy about this trip and is calm."

Hours after the arrests, Benedict met with the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion that grew from King Henry VIII's break with Rome in the 16th century.

The meeting came amid new tensions following Benedict's decision to initiate fast-track conversions to Catholicism for Anglicans who oppose the ordination of women as bishops.

Benedict and Williams greeted each other warmly, with the pope saying he had no intention of speaking of difficulties "that are well known to everyone here." Rather, he stressed the need for Christians to work together and bring a greater sense of virtue into public discourse.

Williams, who has not hidden his dismay over the Vatican's overture to conservative Anglicans, also stressed the need to bring the two churches together, saying each was "made less by the fact of our dividedness."

As he entered Westminster Abbey for an ecumenical service with Williams, the pope shook hands with a female Anglican priest. The ordination of women is one of the major issues dividing the churches.

Benedict's next stop was Westminster Hall, an ornate vaulted structure that carries potent symbolism as the site of the trial of Sir Thomas More, a Catholic who was beheaded for treason in 1535 because he refused to accept Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. More was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1935 and later added to the Anglican canon of saints.

In his address, Benedict praised Britain's democracy as a model worldwide, but lamented that religion, particularly Christianity, was increasingly marginalized from political decision-making.

"There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere," the pontiff said. "There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none."

"These are worrying signs of a failure to appreciate not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square."

Benedict's day began with a noisy welcome from thousands of cheering Catholic schoolchildren at St. Mary's University College in London, where he urged them to ignore the shallow temptations of today's "celebrity culture."

Benedict also told their teachers to provide the children with a trusting, safe environment � the second time he has addressed the church sex abuse scandal during the visit. On Thursday, the pope acknowledged the church had failed to act quickly or decisively enough to remove pedophile priests from ministry.

"Our responsibility toward those entrusted to us for their Christian formation demands nothing less," Benedict said. "Indeed, the life of faith can only be effectively nurtured when the prevailing atmosphere is one of respectful and affectionate trust."

Polls in Britain indicate widespread dissatisfaction with the way Benedict has handled the sex abuse scandal, with Catholics nearly as critical of him as the rest of the population.

The pope gave a special greeting to 39-year-old Becky Gorrod and her 8-month-old daughter Alice. Mother and child were ushered in to meet the pontiff as the crowd cheered.

"My husband's never going to believe me," Gorrod said. "They opened the car door, and the pope got out. Then the (pacifier) fell out of Alice's mouth, and the pope bent down and picked it up! The pope! How mad is that?"

She said the pope then kissed Alice on the forehead.

A few blocks away, about 30 people protested, holding up inflated condoms and posters that read, "Condoms are not crimes."

One protester, 60-year-old Michael Clark, said he is gay and opposes the pope's visit because it is costing British taxpayers $18.7 million (12 million pounds) for security.

"That means it's being supported by taxpayers and people who may not have the same ideas," Clark said. "Sexuality is not evil."

___

Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield, Raphael G. Satter, Jill Lawless, Jennifer Quinn and Danica Kirka contributed to this report.

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Karl kills 2 in Mexico, weakens to tropical storm (AP)

VERACRUZ, Mexico � Hurricane Karl smashed into Mexico's Gulf Coast on Friday, killing at least two people and forcing the country to shut down its only nuclear power plant and its central Gulf Coast oil platforms.

As the storm pushed inland, a landslide buried a house in the town of Nexticapan, killing a 61-year-old woman and a 2-year-old girl and injuring two other people, said Aru Becerra, a spokeswoman for Civil Protection in Puebla state.

Karl weakened rapidly into a tropical storm with winds of 70 mph (115 kph) as it slogged across central Mexico. It was on track to pass south of Mexico City, where the skies darkened and rain started falling Friday evening.

The storm had sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) when it hit land at midday about 10 miles (15 kilometers) northwest of Veracruz.

It caused widespread damage in the port city, knocking down trees, billboards and power poles, said Veracruz's civil protection chief, Isidro Cano Luna. He said there had not been a storm like it since Hurricane Janet hit in 1955.

Veracruz state Gov. Fidel Herrera surveyed the heaviest damage in the coastal towns north of the port. Food huts along the beach were destroyed in the fishing town of Chachalaca. In Ursulo Galvan, 10 homes collapsed or lost their roofs.

"The hurricane is following a course that will also impact the mountain areas," Herrera said. "We are releasing more water from the reservoirs, which could be overwhelmed by the rain."

In the city of Veracruz, hundreds of fallen trees and signs made some streets impassable and about 70 homes were flooded.

Local forecasters said the storm dumped 8 inches (215 millimeters) of rain in the city just in the first 90 minutes after arriving. Flights into Veracruz were canceled, and public transit was shut down.

A stretch of coastal road farther north in Nautla was washed out.

Rains in the mountain regions could cause flash floods and mudslides, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Mexico City officials put crews on alert and began preparing for Karl, which they said could still have the strength of a tropical storm for its forecast arrival near the capital Saturday.

State oil company Petroleos Mexicanos closed 14 production wells in the northern part of Veracruz state and evacuated workers from some platforms in the Gulf.

Workers also were evacuated from the shuttered Laguna Verde nuclear power plant, Mexico's largest electricity producer, along with residents in the nearby town of Farallon and in the coastal towns of Cardel and Palma Sola. The latter was reportedly hardest hit so far by flooding, with a resident saying that at least 20 families were trapped.

"We asked for help because right now we have no way to get out," said Palma Sola resident Agustin Tlapa. "We're totally flooded."

About 80,000 people have had their homes damaged and nine people have been killed in flooding from previous heavy rains in southern Veracruz since Aug. 19. Officials expressed concern Karl could raise river levels again, just as some residents were thinking of returning to their homes.

Meanwhile, out in the Atlantic, Hurricane Igor's top winds weakened Friday to 105 mph (165 kph) on a track that could take it over Bermuda by Monday. The British territory's government issued a hurricane warning.

Farther east over the Atlantic, Hurricane Julia weakened slightly Friday but remained a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph).

As a tropical storm, Karl hit Yucatan on Wednesday, downing tree limbs and causing power outages.

___

Associated Press Writer E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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Holloway's mom confronted Van der Sloot in jail (AP)

LIMA, Peru � The mother of Natalee Holloway entered a maximum-security Lima prison � apparently without registering as a visitor � and confronted the Dutchman who remains the lead suspect in her daughter's 2005 disappearance in Aruba.

Beth Twitty entered Castro Castro prison Wednesday with a Dutch television news crew to talk with Joran van der Sloot, "but he refused, so there was no interview," said Van der Sloot's attorney, Maximo Altez.

Van der Sloot is charged with killing a woman in Peru on May 30, five years to the day that Holloway, then 18, disappeared while on a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba.

Twitty's lawyer, John Q. Kelly, said on NBC's "Today Show" Friday that she entered the jail "without violating any laws or breaking any regulations."

He said Twitty didn't expect to get answers about Holloway's disappearance, but wanted Van der Sloot, 22, to know that "she hasn't gone away, she's determined to get answers and, you know, she wants to bring Natalee home."

Kelly did not respond to a phone message left at his office by The Associated Press. Attempts to reach Twitty were also unavailing. Her cell phone voice mailbox was full.

In Peru, a spokesman for the national penal authority said Twitty's name did not appear in the visitor registry of Castro Castro.

The website of a Dutch journalist who has long hounded Van der Sloot over the Holloway disappearance, Peter de Vries, said he was in Lima with Twitty preparing a documentary for Dutch television.

"Nothing, nothing at all, was done by Peter, Beth and the crew that was in conflict with previously made agreements and rules in Peru or the Castro Castro prison," the website said. The AP was unable to reach De Vries for elaboration.

Peruvian immigration records obtained by the AP show that Twitty arrived in Peru on Sept. 11 and departed early Friday, bound for Panama.

Van der Sloot is awaiting trial in the bludgeoning death of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old business student whose body was found in his Lima hotel room. He was arrested in Chile several days later and police say he confessed to killing her.

Van der Sloot later said the confession was forced and his attorney has filed a motion seeking to rule it inadmissible.

While in Lima, Twitty visited with members of the Flores family, said Enrique Flores, a brother of Stephany. "The meeting was very short, nearly a half hour, and went unreported in the Peruvian media," he told the AP.

Van der Sloot has said in various interviews that he is a pathological liar.

He has told several people he was involved in Holloway's disappearance, only to later retract the confession.

U.S. law enforcement officials say he extorted $10,000 from Twitty after offering to lead Kelly to Holloway's body in Aruba, then used the money to fly to Lima.

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Newspaper: Mexican media defenseless against gangs (AP)

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico � Mexican journalists are defenseless against cartel attacks that the government seems incapable of stopping, the main newspaper in this drug war-torn city said Thursday in a front-page editorial inspired by the killing of one its photographers.

Violence, meanwhile, continued in Ciudad Juarez: Gunmen burst into a bar and killed seven men and a woman, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office. One woman was injured.

El Diario de Juarez said journalists have nowhere to turn for protection because of the inability of Mexican security forces to solve most attacks on the media.

"In a country where authorities have proven their incompetence, where can we ask for justice? Who can we complain to for the dangers that journalists face every day?" the newspaper said in its editorial.

Photographer Luis Carlos Santiago, 21, was gunned down in his car Wednesday. Another photographer, Carlos Sanchez, was seriously wounded.

The Interior Department condemned the attack and promised that investigators would do everything in their power to find those responsible.

Santiago was the second El Diario journalist slain since a turf war erupted two years ago between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels in this city across from El Paso, Texas.

Crime reporter Armando Rodriguez was shot dead in front of his home in 2008, and the next year a federal agent who was investigating his death was killed.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog group, said in a recent report that at least 22 Mexican journalists have been killed since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon intensified a crackdown on drug cartels by deploying tens of thousands of troops and federal police across the country.

Several Mexican newspapers have stopped reporting on drug-gang violence because their journalists were attacked.

El Diario de Juarez is not one of them.

"The truth is, there is nothing we can do but keep reporting while feeling totally defenseless," the editorial said.

The fighting in Ciudad Juarez has made it of the most dangerous cities in the world, with more than 4,000 people killed in the past two years.

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Turkey: Baby on highway causes panic (AP)

ANKARA, Turkey � Security cameras in Turkey have recorded the sight of a baby crawling onto a highway and startling drivers who waved frantically to other motorists to get out of the way. The 1-year-old toddler survived.

The video footage from the incident Thursday was taken in the southern tourist town of Antalya and shown on Turkish television channels. It shows a baby crawling out of the arms of his mother, who had fallen asleep while begging on the sidewalk.

The baby is seen climbing down the sidewalk and sitting on the side of the highway, just a couple of feet away from passing vehicles in heavy highway traffic.

Anatolia news agency says drivers called the police, who returned the baby to his mother. She was released after a short time in custody.

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UN launches $2 billion Pakistan appeal (AP)

UNITED NATIONS � The U.N. says it's making the largest disaster appeal ever, asking the world's governments and humanitarian groups to raise a total of $2 billion for Pakistan's flood victims.

Previously, the largest appeal for disaster relief was the $1.5 billion in aid for victims of the devastating January earthquake in Haiti.

The $2 billion appeal announced Friday by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon includes the nearly $500 million the U.N. initially asked countries and organizations to donate after the onset of massive flooding nearly two months ago.

Since then, the flooding has continued to spread, affecting more than 20 million people across a region of at least 160,000 square kilometers (62,000 square miles) � an area larger than England.

"We have all been struck by the enormous scale of the crisis," Ban said. "The human tragedy is immense and it is growing. The flood waters are (still) moving."

The floods killed more than 1,700 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 1.9 million homes over the summer.

Food, shelter and other emergency aid is still being supplied to displaced people in areas that remain under water. In regions where floodwaters have receded, aid is needed for early recovery efforts.

Crops, irrigation, drainage and storage facilities were devastated across the largely agricultural nation. Farmers who lost crops and who cannot plant again by November will probably remain dependent on aid well into 2012, the U.N. says.

Ban said children and pregnant women have been left particularly vulnerable by the crisis. "Pakistan is not facing just one humanitarian crisis, but many," Ban said. "All of this makes the Pakistan floods the worst disaster the United Nations has responded to in its 65-year history."

The U.N.'s new humanitarian chief, Undersecretary General Valerie Amos, said countries had already been generous this year, contributing more than $5 billion so far in response to various U.N. appeals for humanitarian relief.

"But more is now needed," Amos said. "We must do our part. We simply cannot stand by and watch the immense suffering in a disaster of this scale," she added.

The U.N. is seeking funding for food, health, education, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene, as well as the operating of camps for displaced people, the recovery of the country's farm sector, and rebuilding of communities.

Officials from the U.N. and its partner agencies, Pakistan, and other countries are holding a high-level meeting at the United Nations on Sunday to discuss the flood disaster.

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Violence spirals out of control in east Congo (AP)

WALIKALE, Congo � First the rebel soldiers told residents of the villages in the mineral-rich eastern Congo not to worry. They were just there for a rest and would do no harm. But as dusk fell, the fighters encircled five villages simultaneously, and the gang rapes began.

Six or seven men lined up to take their turn. The victims ranged from a month-old baby boy to a 110-year-old great-great-grandmother.

They forced husbands and children to watch as they gang-raped the villagers for four days. Some victims told doctors the fighters raped them with their fists, saying "We're looking for the gold."

It took days for help to arrive, even though the villages are 12 miles (20 kilometers) from a camp of U.N. peacekeepers from India. The U.N. says the peacekeepers actually drove through one of the villages while it was being held by the fighters, but said peacekeepers took no action because no one told them what was going on.

Violence is reaching new levels of savagery and spiraling out of control in this corner of Congo, where the competition for control of mineral resources has drawn in several armed groups, including the Congolese army. Rape has become a military strategy by the various groups of fighters to intimidate, punish and control the population in the mining areas.

News of the most brutal gang rapes in eastern Congo came in August, bringing international outrage. The U.N. said more than 500 women were raped in that period, and Buna Altunbas, a regional director for Doctors Without Borders, said some Congolese women have been raped repeatedly.

The victims from the five villages near Walikale alone number about 250, with more coming for treatment this week, said Dr. Chris Baguma of Los Angeles-based International Medical Corps, and he expects the toll to rise. Some have infections resistant to antibiotics, he said. At the local hospital, there are no kits to test for HIV.

"I have seen many, many cases of rapes and many cases of medical emergencies, but I have never seen anything so planned, so systematic, so animalistic," Baguma said.

No one was killed in the attack and the villages are so poor that there is little to loot, leaving people to conclude that the rapes, and forcing families to watch, was some form of punishment � for what no one is sure.

A nurse whose responsibility included three of the villages showed an Associated Press reporter a list with names of 124 victims and pointed to those he said were the mother, wife, two sisters and three cousins of the militia commander whose fighters allegedly were among the attackers.

Victims told doctors they were attacked by a mixed group of fighters: members of the local Mai-Mai militia led by a man who calls himself Commander Cheka; Rwandan Hutu rebels led by perpetrators of that neighboring country's 1994 genocide; and some former fighters of a Congolese Tutsi rebellion that professed itself a sworn enemy of the Rwandan rebels.

Cheka denied that his fighters were involved. In an interview with Radio Kivu Un, he blamed the Rwandan rebels and denied they were allies. It's unclear if that statement might have come after he learned that his family also was raped.

Last week, President Joseph Kabila banned all mining in three eastern provinces, saying he was trying to halt violence such as the gang rapes near Walikale.

But the move appeared aimed more at reigning in officers who have been profiting from the mines despite previous commands to stop.

At Bisie, Congo's biggest tin mine at the top of a mountain near Walikale, thousands of civilians are obeying Kabila's decree and have halted their illegal digging. Workers have been streaming down the mountain this week. They complain, however, that the soldiers are still exploiting the mine.

It's not clear whether Kabila's government can control even its own military commanders and soldiers, who were hastily cobbled together from numerous rebel groups and militias. Lines of command are murky. Some soldiers pay allegiance to one commander only. Officers from one former rebel group disobey higher-ranking officers who previously fought for a different group.

Greed that plunged this nation of 48 million into back-to-back civil and regional wars now threatens to fracture the army and escalate the low-level conflict.

This week, Kabila sent Brig. Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, a former commander of a Tutsi-led rebellion in eastern Congo in 2008, to enforce his mining ban.

Ntaganda came to Walikale as hundreds of troops moved into the remote region for an offensive to rid the area of Rwandan-led rebels grouped under the banner of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR.

Gen. Didier Etumba, the army chief of staff, arrived Tuesday in Walikale and threatened to post elsewhere those commanders who are enriching themselves from the mines, according to two witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussion.

Walikale residents hope Etumba carries out his threat.

"We wrote to the president months ago demanding that he withdraw ... commanders who are known to have brutalized our people, who now are here supposedly to protect us but who instead are interested only in getting rich off our mines," said Charles Masudi Kissa, head of the Civil Association of Walikale region.

Resentment has been growing that rebels of the former Tutsi-led People's National Congress, known by its French acronym CNDP, have used their 18-month integration into the national army to expand their influence and take over productive mines. They make up 70 percent of the armed forces in eastern Congo.

Ntaganda is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including the ethnic massacre of civilians in 2002 and forcing children to fight. Congo's government says it won't arrest Ntaganda in the greater interest of keeping peace.

In Walikale, opinion is divided about the mining ban. Some want the mine shut, seeing it as the source of evil, so that the people will focus on neglected agriculture. Others would like to see proper roads built, providing easy access to the mineral wealth. Still others simply want law and order.

Kabila's ban came as the prime minister announced Thursday that Congo's economy will expand by a better-than-projected 6.1 percent, largely on the back of tin prices that increased by nearly 40 percent this year. Congo is Africa's largest tin producer.

Bisie is Congo's largest mine of cassiterite, a tin product. Porters walk for two days down the mountain to deliver 50-kilogram (110-pound) sacks of the red and brown mineral. Prices in the nearby village of Ndjingala dropped this week from $5.60 for a kilogram (2.2 pounds) to $3 following the ban, complained Jean-Marie Rugamika Chika, local secretary of the Mineral Exploiters' Association. The price has fallen in part because those who plan to abandon the mine want to see a quick sale of their product.

"Who is this ban serving?" complained Gertrude Matondo, who had just arrived in Ndjingala from the "hole" she and her husband mine in Bisie. "The soldiers are still there, exploiting. Only we, the ordinary people, are suffering." She said armed bandits had attacked her Wednesday, stealing $300 and all her belongings.

As in all of Congo's conflicts, it's the civilians who are killed and driven from their homes, while military casualties are negligible.

"We fear that this latest offensive will follow the pattern of previous military actions," Masudi said. "Both the rebels and the army will punish civilians brutally, but there will be little real fighting."

The village of Luvungi, in the area where Cheka's family was raped, is a good example. When soldiers moved in there during October 2009, Cheka's fighters disappeared and the soldiers burned down 20 huts of families they accused of supporting the enemy. This year, the villagers were brutalized and their homes were pillaged by Cheka's returning fighters and their allies.

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Dems to voters: You may hate us, but GOP is worse (AP)

WASHINGTON � With just six weeks to avoid a possible election catastrophe, Democrats are trying to limit the damage with a closing argument that's more plea than platform: We know you voters are furious with us, but just let us explain why the Republicans would be worse.

The strategy requires an autumn influx of voters willing to view the election as a choice between two imperfect parties � and imperfect candidates on each ballot line � rather than as a chance to slap the Washington establishment that the public seems to dislike so deeply.

But the Democrats admit the Republicans have a big emotional advantage with voters who are fed up with high unemployment, soaring deficits and what many see as an arrogant Congress and administration that rammed a revolutionary health care plan down their throats.

If voters keep burning with the throw-the-bums-out fever that animated so many primaries, Democrats would be likely to lose more than 40 House seats, costing them the majority and positioning Republicans to block virtually any Obama initiatives in the next two years. Losing the Senate majority, which would require a 10-seat Republican gain, is less likely.

Democratic candidates want to convince these voters that no matter how much they hate the status quo, they would be worse off under a Republican Party that hasn't learned from its mistakes and is lurching ever harder to the right.

"This needs to be a choice, not a referendum" on the Democratic-led Congress and Obama administration, said Erik Smith, a Democratic campaign adviser.

President Barack Obama, campaigning for a Senate contender in Connecticut Thursday, said of Republicans: "All they are going to be feeding us is anger and resentment and not a lot of new ideas. But that's a potent force when people are scared and they're hurting."

Democrats already have given up on keeping several seats, including a House seat in Tennessee and a Senate seat in North Dakota. Party insiders aren't quite in full panic mode. But they are intensely debating how to frame the final message, which candidates to help with last-minute spending, and where to best focus ground troops.

Senate campaign officials said they have made no final decisions about how to allocate money, but Democrat Brad Ellsworth is no longer airing TV ads in his bid to hold the Indiana Senate seat left open by retiring Democrat Evan Bayh. Republican nominee Dan Coats leads in polls there.

Ellsworth spokeswoman Liz Farrar said her campaign will resume TV ads at some point. "Voters in Indiana have not seen or heard the last of Brad Ellsworth," she said.

Eric Schultz of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee would not discuss aid to Ellsworth, but he said, "We have to make a lot of spending decisions in the next 45 days."

For Democratic House candidates, triage is already under way. The Washington-based party headquarters recently cut off aid to Brett Carter, seen as having little chance to hold the Tennessee House seat being vacated by Democratic Rep. Bart Gordon.

Financial reports show House and Senate candidates have raised nearly $1.2 billion in this election cycle, well ahead of the pace for previous contests. Overall, Democratic and Republican candidates have raised nearly equal amounts. But the Democratic Party, including its state affiliates, has a 3-2 fundraising advantage over the GOP and its affiliates.

Helping close the gap is a web of conservative groups that have spent millions of dollars to help Republican candidates. Among the most prominent is American Crossroads and its allied groups, created under the direction of former Bush political strategist Karl Rove and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie.

What's more, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce aims to spend up to $75 million on the election, mostly for Republicans.

Organized labor plans to spend $100 million or more for Democrats. The AFL-CIO has pledged to spend more than $50 million, and the Service Employees International Union has a $44 million political budget. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which is also pledging millions to assist Democrats, has been airing ads in key battlegrounds.

In a possible bright spot for Democrats, national party officials say they will spend $50 million for on-the-ground organizing, sending out volunteers to contact voters and targeting "persuadable" people. That includes 15 million to 20 million who voted for the first time in 2008, when Obama inspired many young and minority voters.

GOP House campaign spokesman Paul Lindsay says that every poll shows far more intensity among Republican voters than Democrats, so his party may not need to pour as much money into labor-intensive get-out-the-vote efforts.

Obama remains a relatively popular president, certainly compared to Congress, and he recently transferred $4.5 million from his presidential campaign account to Democratic House, Senate and gubernatorial efforts. He plans campaign stops in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada, all of which have competitive Senate and/or gubernatorial races.

National Democratic officials, meanwhile, are sparring over how best to frame their argument in the final six weeks. A chief dispute is how to respond to the tea party's remarkable success, capped by Tuesday's Delaware Senate Republican primary. Insurgent Christine O'Donnell stunned political pros by defeating longtime lawmaker Mike Castle, a moderate.

Veteran Democratic consultant Chris Kofinis was drafting a memo Friday urging candidates and party officials to boost their efforts to portray the GOP as a party hijacked by extremists with unorthodox ideas such as dismantling Social Security. Democratic candidates should woo two crucial groups � persuadable independents and disillusioned liberals � by highlighting the threat of "a radical, extreme fringe that will control and does control the Republican Party," Kofinis said in an interview.

So far, Obama and other top Democrats are sticking more closely to a different theme: If voters return Republicans to power, they say, it will bring back Bush administration policies that led to the financial near-collapse of 2008-2009. This past-is-prologue warning depicts veteran Republican lawmakers, such as House Minority Leader John Boehner, as unrepentant Bush loyalists and entrenched lackeys of wealthy special interest groups.

Obama likes to warn voters against returning the government's car keys to those who "drove us into the ditch" in the first place.

Kofinis thinks the tea party gives Democrats a better, more forward-looking opening. "I don't think the Bush argument works," he said. "No one knows who Boehner is."

Democratic candidates should marry the two messages, not choose between them, says Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who oversees the party's efforts to win House seats. Tea party nominees, he said, "represent Bush economic policy on steroids."

Establishment Republicans such as Boehner already want to loosen regulations on Wall Street, the workplace and other areas, Van Hollen said. Libertarian-leaning tea party activists will push them even further.

Matt Bennett, vice president of the Democratic-leaning group Third Way, cites polls showing that most voters, despite an overall anger with the establishment, support Democrats on many specific issues, such as tax cuts for the wealthy. Democratic House and Senate candidates, he said, should constantly tell voters "there's only two choices, there's no other."

Specific issues will hardly matter, however, if Democrats can't persuade middle-of-the-road voters to calmly weigh the ramifications of lashing out at the party in power.

"The most important thing Democrats can do is unnationalize the election," said Democratic strategist David DiMartino. "In every state and every district, it has to be a choice between them and us. Our policies are more popular than theirs."

___

Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn and Liz Sidoti contributed to this report.

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Magnitude-6.3 quake shakes Afghanistan (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan � A magnitude-6.3 earthquake rattled the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan late Friday night, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, but the temblor was felt in Kabul, the capital, where beds shook and chandeliers swung for about 15 seconds.

The 11:51 p.m. (1921 GMT) quake was deep, some 199.7 kilometers (124.1 miles) below the surface, the USGS said.

The USGS said the quake hit some 75 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Faizabad, Afghanistan, and 265 kilometers (165 miles) northeast of Kabul.

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Powerful Hurricane Karl nears Mexican Gulf coast (AP)

VERACRUZ, Mexico � Hurricane Karl smashed into Mexico's Gulf Coast on Friday, creating havoc in the major port city of Veracruz and forcing the country to shut down its only nuclear power plant and its central Gulf Coast oil platforms.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Karl's eye hit about 10 miles (15 kilometers) northwest of Veracruz at about 11:30 a.m. (12:30 EDT; 1630 GMT) with sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph).

Veracruz civil protection chief Isidro Cano Luna said the storm already had caused widespread damage, knocking down trees, billboards and power poles. He said there had not been a storm like it since Hurricane Janet hit in September 1955.

Karl's winds were down to 110 mph (175 kph) by early afternoon as it began to march toward the west

While it is expected to steadily weaken as it moves inland, it was still likely to be at hurricane force when it reaches the state capital of Jalapa, 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the coast, said that city's Mayor David Velasco Chedraui.

It was projected to slog across central Mexico, drenching Mexico City, after dumping heavy rain into the mountainous, flood-prone region of Veracruz where a storm killed more than 300 people in 1999, most in landslides.

"The hurricane is following a course that will also impact the mountain areas," Herrera said. "We are releasing more water from the reservoirs, which could be overwhelmed by the rain."

State-owned Petroleos Mexicanos closed 14 production wells in the northern part of the state and evacuated workers from some oil platforms, the company said in a statement late Thursday.

Workers also were evacuated from the Laguna Verde plant, which was shut down, along with residents in the nearby town of Farallon and in coastal towns of Cardel and Palma Sola, where a resident reported 20 families trapped by flooding.

"We asked for help because right now we have no way to get out, said Palma Sola resident Agustin Tlapa. "We're totally flooded."

Flights were canceled into Veracruz city were shut down.

Authorities in Veracruz state � whose southern half has suffered severe flooding over the past few weeks � preparing sleeping mats, bottled water and other supplies for anyone taking refuge in shelters.

About 80,000 people have had their homes damaged and nine people have been killed in flooding from heavy rains in southern Veracruz since Aug. 19. Officials expressed concern Karl could raise river levels again, just as some residents are thinking of returning to their homes.

In the beach town of Tecolutla, just south of Poza Rica, fishermen and operators of small tour boats began pulling their craft out of the water.

Some people boarded up windows with sheets of plywood, lashed down cooking gas tanks and reinforced doors and signs to prevent them from being blow away by the hurricane's wind, said Tecolutla's civil defense director, Edilberto Peralta.

"We are getting ready and warning people early, to avoid any loss of human life," said Peralta, whose town of about 25,000 people was lashed by Hurricane Dean in 2007 and severely flooded by a tropical depression in 1999. "We are ready to take drastic measures."

He said officials were considering whether any residents needed to evacuate their homes.

The port of Tuxpan was closed to small craft Thursday, and Port Capt. Gaspar Cime said larger vessels would be banned later in the day. Tuxpan has about 135,000 people.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Igor's top winds weakened Friday to 115 mph (185 kph) on a track that could take it over Bermuda y Monday. The government of Bermuda issued a hurricane warning.

Farther east over the Atlantic, Hurricane Julia strengthened slightly early Friday, though remained a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph).

Karl could cause storm surges of 6 to 9 feet (2 to 3 meters) and "large and destructive waves," as well as dump up to 15 inches (40 centimeters) of rain in some areas of Veracruz state, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a statement.

As a tropical storm, Karl hit Yucatan on Wednesday, downing tree limbs and causing power outages. The storm made landfall on the Mexican Caribbean coast about midway between the cruise ship port of Majahual and the coastal town of Xcalak.

___

Associated Press Writer E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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Couple charged in nuclear weapons secrets case (AP)

WASHINGTON � A scientist and his wife who both once worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory were arrested Friday after an FBI sting operation and charged with conspiring to help develop a nuclear weapon for Venezuela.

After their arrest, the two appeared in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M.

They were accused of dealing with an FBI undercover agent posing as a Venezuelan agent. The government did not allege that Venezuela or anyone working for it sought U.S. secrets.

The pair were indicted for allegedly communicating classified nuclear weapons data to a person they believed to be a Venezuelan government official.

Accused in a 22-count indictment are Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, 75, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Argentina, and Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, 67, a U.S. citizen. Both were formerly contract employees at Los Alamos.

According to the indictment, Pedro Mascheroni told an undercover agent he could help Venezuela develop a nuclear bomb within 10 years and that under his program, Venezuela would use a secret, underground nuclear reactor to produce and enrich plutonium, and an open, aboveground reactor to produce nuclear energy.

In July 2008, the FBI agent provided Mascheroni with 12 questions purportedly from Venezuelan military and scientific personnel.

According to the criminal charges, Mascheroni delivered to a post office box in November 2008 a disk with a coded 132-page document on it that contained "restricted data" related to nuclear weapons. Written by Mascheroni and edited by his wife, the document was entitled "A Deterrence Program for Venezuela" and it laid out Mascheroni's nuclear weapons development program for Venezuela.

Mascheroni stated that the information he was providing was worth millions of dollars, and that his fee for producing the document was $793,000, the indictment alleges.

Earlier in the investigation, Mascheroni allegedly asked the FBI agent about obtaining Venezuelan citizenship.

He told the undercover agent he should be addressed as "Luke," and that he would set up an e-mail account solely to communicate with the undercover agent, according to the indictment.

Mascheroni used the account to communicate with the agent and to arrange for deliveries of materials at the post office box used as a dead-drop location.

If convicted, the couple face up to life in prison.

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France, Germany in spat over illegal Gypsy camps (AP)

BERLIN � Germany sought Friday to downplay a diplomatic incident involving French President Nicolas Sarkozy as the debate over his campaign to clear out illegal migrant camps reverberated across the European Union.

Sarkozy's attempts to defend his nation's policy against international complaints that France is being racist and unfairly targeting Gypsies threw a European Union summit into an uproar on Thursday.

Sarkozy then asserted to reporters that Chancellor Angela Merkel had told him that Germany was on the verge of similar action.

Merkel's office was quick to deny that she told Sarkozy anything of the kind, but refused to be drawn on what the chancellor thought of the situation or what might have been behind Sarkozy's comments.

In recent weeks, French authorities have cleared out some 100 illegal immigrant camps, most inhabited by Gypsies � also known as Roma, a nomadic ethnic group believed to have roots in the Indian subcontinent.

Many have been deported to Romania, which joined the EU three years ago and has a sizable Roma population. Roma, like other EU citizens, are allowed to travel freely within the EU's open borders but all EU citizens must get work or residency papers to reside in a separate country.

Speaking to reporters after Thursday's summit, Sarkozy said "Madame Merkel indicated to me her will to proceed in the coming weeks with the evacuation of camps."

Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, flatly denied the chancellor had made any such remark, adding that the situation in Germany cannot be compared to that in France.

"We do not have camps like that," Seibert said at a regularly scheduled news conference. "It was not a topic."

Since the EU expanded its borders to the east, hundreds of thousands of Roma in the bloc's poorer nations have taken advantage of the continent's open borders to seek better lives in the west, despite facing equally desperate circumstances there.

There are up to 12 million Roma in the EU, most living in dire circumstances, victims of poverty, discrimination, violence, unemployment and bad housing.

Earlier this week, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding sharply criticized France's deportations of Roma and linked them to France's mass deportations of Jews during World War II. She later expressed regret over the wartime comparison, but maintained her threat to take France to court for targeting an ethnic group in the expulsions.

Germany criticized the tone of Reding's comments but has avoided comment on the expulsions themselves.

The wartime comparison stung many in France. The country deported some 76,000 Jews from France to Nazi concentration camps and interned thousands of Gypsies in camps in France during the war.

Also Friday, a group of angry French Roma tussled with police in Draguignan, in southern France, after a gendarme was acquitted in the 2008 slaying of 27-year-old Joseph Guerdner, who fled police custody.

Guerdner was from a community of itinerant Roma with roots in France reaching back centuries.

______

Associated Press Writer Angela Charlton contributed to this report from Paris

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Bore hole for rescue reaches trapped Chile miners (AP)

SANTIAGO, Chile � Rescuers achieved a key breakthrough in efforts to rescue 33 trapped miners on Friday, reaching the caverns where they are imprisoned with a bore hole that will now be widened so that they can be pulled to freedom.

Atacama region Gov. Ximena Matas said the T130 probe had reached the mine area near the chamber where the men have taken refuge some 2,300 feet (700 meters) beneath the surface.

Officials say rescue, though, is still more than six weeks away. Workers will now fit a wider bit on the drill and start boring a 26-inch (66-centimeter) hole wide enough to pull the men to the surface.

That effort will require the miners themselves to help by shifting tons of debris that falls through the hole as it is widened.

Three smaller holes drilled earlier allowed rescuers to supply the men with food, water, medical supplies and extra air, as well as lines to communicate with relatives and officials above.

On Thursday, the miners celebrated Chile's bicentennial of independence with beef and empanadas, and they decorated their chamber with plastic Chilean flag

The San Esteban mining company, which owns the mine, has pursued bankruptcy protection since the collapse and has said it can't afford to pay the men trapped in the San Jose mine.

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Danish police: blast suspect prepared letter bomb (AP)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark � A one-legged Chechen boxer injured in an explosion at a Copenhagen hotel was preparing a letter bomb, likely intended for a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, police said Friday.

The device went off as the man was assembling it in a hotel bathroom on Sept. 10, said Svend Foldager, a police spokesman. The suspect received cuts to his face and no one else was injured.

"We're dealing with a letter bomb. The bomb was completed. Apparently it was of a low-technology type, with a highly explosive substance inside," Foldager told reporters in Copenhagen. "It was filled with small steel pellets to create injuries."

He said the device contained triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which served as a detonator for the bombs used by terrorists in the 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people.

"We consider it likely that it was Jyllands-Posten in Aarhus that was the target," Foldager said, referring to the Danish daily whose 12 cartoons of Muhammad sparked fiery riots in Muslim countries in 2006. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry. The daily is headquartered in Aarhus, western Denmark.

The suspect was arrested in a park near the hotel shortly after the small blast. Police said he refused to reveal his identity, and had even scratched the serial number off his prosthetic right leg, but investigators believe he is a Chechen-born amateur boxer living in Belgium.

They were working with Belgian police to confirm his identity.

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Author of Carla Bruni book defends sources (AP)

PARIS � The co-author of a new book about French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy defended his sources Friday amid a media buzz over a passage that cites Michelle Obama as calling life in the White House "hell."

Mrs. Obama's spokeswoman has denied the first lady said such a thing, and a spokesman at the French Embassy in Washington said Bruni-Sarkozy "distances herself completely" from the book, which appeared in French bookstores on Thursday.

The unauthorized book, called "Carla et les ambitieux," or "Carla and the Ambitious Ones," describes the scene of a March dinner at the White House, during which the two first ladies were purported to have had a conversation in English in which they compared notes on their experiences as wives of presidents.

The book claims Mrs. Obama said, "Don't even talk to me about it, it's hell. I can't stand it."

Author Yves Derai stood by the explosive dialogue, insisting it was based on interviews with "reliable sources" � though he declined to name them, in accordance, he said, with his journalistic principles.

"In France, we have something called the 'protection of sources,' so I'm not repeating what Carla or others told me," Derai told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. "We've put in the book the narratives and the information that we verified and compiled and we totally assume responsibility for it as independent journalists."

Derai said he had interviewed about 50 people for the book and that Bruni-Sarkozy herself accorded the co-authors several interviews totaling about 10 hours. But he stressed the book was by no means an "official biography."

The French first lady "didn't read it (before publication) nor did she have the right to correct or vet it," said Derai, an investigative journalist who co-authored the book along with a Michael Darmon, a political journalist for France-2 television.

Derai acknowledged the French word used in the passage, "enfer," might not precisely correspond directly with the English word "hell."

"I don't know, maybe translated into English, hell is Dante's Inferno where they burn sinners, but in French it's really a rather common expression to say that sometimes it's just 'a real drag,'" Derai explained. He did not say what the original word allegedly pronounced by Mrs. Obama was.

"Carla and the Ambitious Ones" is the second book published this week on Bruni-Sarkozy, an Italian-born heiress and former supermodel turned singer known for her romantic liaisons with rich and famous men including rock icons Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger.

"Carla: A Secret Life," which came out Wednesday, chronicles her life from her lonesome childhood in Turin, Italy, through her years on the catwalk through her functions as French first lady.

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Oman: No plans to free 2 other Americans in Iran (AP)

MUSCAT, Oman � Oman's foreign minister says he's not aware of any current plans for Iran to release two other Americans still being held there but that his country is willing to act as an intermediary between Tehran and Washington.

Oman played a key role in helping mediate the release of American Sarah Shourd from Iran on Tuesday. Two other Americans with whom she was arrested last year are still being held in Tehran on espionage charges.

Oman's foreign minister, Yusuf bin Alawai bin Abdullah, said by phone Friday that there are "great possibilities" in repairing relations between the United States and Iran.

To help restore ties, he urged American officials to tone down what is seen as harsh rhetoric directed at Iran.

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Consumer prices rise 0.3 percent in August (AP)

WASHINGTON � Consumer prices posted a small rise in August, but outside of a big jump in volatile gasoline prices inflation was essentially flat.

The Labor Department says consumer prices edged up 0.3 percent in August, matching the July increase. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, showed no increase in August.

The recession and the weak recovery since that time have banished inflation as an immediate threat. Sluggish demand is preventing most businesses from raising prices and high unemployment is keeping a lid on wage pressures.

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Forces raid office of Iran's opposition leader (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran � The website of Iran's opposition leader says security forces have raided his office and seized computers.

The raid on Mir Hossein Mousavi's office on Wednesday night points to a stepped up campaign to harass the leaders of Iran's besieged and dispirited pro-reform movement. Relentless crackdowns over the past year have driven opposition activists from the streets after an initial outpouring to protest the June 2009 presidential election, which they say was fraudulent.

Earlier in September, pro-government mobs attacked the home of another opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi.

Thursday's report on the Kaleme website also says the head of Mousavi's office was arrested on Monday.

Recently, authorities have briefly detained and questioned visitors to Mousavi's office.

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Police: Officers shoot gunman on Capitol Hill (AP)

WASHINGTON � Authorities in Washington say police shot a man who pointed a gun at them on Capitol Hill.

U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider says a lookout went out around 5 a.m. Friday for a man with a gun.

Officers later saw the man, who pointed the gun at them. Schneider says the officers opened fire after the man refused to drop his weapon.

The man, whose name has not been released, was brought to a hospital. His condition is not immediately known.

No other injuries were reported.

Schneider says the Metropolitan Police Department is assisting with the investigation.

(This version CORRECTS APNewsNow. Corrects that Metropolitan Police Department is helping with investigation, not Maryland.)

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Prince William gets his search-and-rescue wings (AP)

LONDON � After seven months of training, Prince William is going to graduate as a fully qualified search-and-rescue helicopter pilot.

His London office said William, who is second in line to the throne, is receiving a certificate and his Royal Air Force squadron badge in a small ceremony Friday.

Known in the air force as Flight Lt. William Wales, he will fly Sea King helicopters with the search-and-rescue unit at RAF Valley, located 220 miles (350 kilometers) west of London on the Irish Sea.

William, 28, said the course was challenging, but he "enjoyed it immensely. I absolutely love flying, so it will be an honor to serve operationally with the search-and-rescue force."

William's younger brother Harry is training to fly Apache attack helicopters.

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Chechen separatist Zakayev arrested in Poland (AP)

WARSAW, Poland � A senior Chechen separatist wanted in Russia for alleged murder, kidnapping and terrorism was arrested Friday in Poland where he was to attend a conference organized by the World Chechen Congress, police said.

A representative of Chechen rebels denied Akhmed Zakayev had been arrested, saying he had turned himself in. Zakayev and his supporters have said the Russian allegations are trumped-up. He has said he represents the political faction of Chechnya's separatist movement, and has no connection to the military wing spearheading the region's insurgency.

"He has not been arrested but he went, at his own initiative, to the prosecutor's office to find out what they want from him," said Osman Ferzaouli, who is based in Denmark but was in Warsaw to attend the conference on trying to develop a concept to stop the Russian-Chechen conflict.

At Russia's request, international police agency Interpol had put out a "red notice" on Zakayev � the equivalent of putting him on its most-wanted list. It said the 51-year-old activist, who now lives in London, is wanted in Russia for "crimes against life and health, attempted crimes against life and health, kidnapping, organized crime, transnational crime and terrorism."

Chechnya, along with neighboring regions in Russia's North Caucasus, has been wracked with violence following two Chechen separatist wars over the last 15 years, and Islamic militants launch frequent attacks on the region's authorities.

Zakayev was apprehended "without any trouble" and turned over to prosecutors, Polish police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said. Prosecutors were now examining the Russian warrant and other documents before questioning Zakayev, prosecutors' spokeswoman Monika Lewandowska said.

An Interpol red notice is a not a warrant, but shares one country's warrant with other member countries.

Earlier this week Russian Ambassador to Poland Alexander Alekseev said Russia "has proof" that Zakayev had been involved in terrorism, and Moscow would expect Poland to arrest him if he came to the country.

Zakayev was given asylum in London by British authorities in 2003, who have refused to extradite him to Russia � causing strain on the two countries' relations.

Polish authorities in the past have been supportive of a small but active Chechen diaspora there, but say they would be obliged to arrest Zakayev if he came for the conference, give the Russian warrant against him. Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said Thursday, however, that the matter should be solved between Russia and Britain.

___

Associated Press Writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Angela Charlton in Paris and Jan Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this report.

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Chechen separatist Zakayev arrested in Poland (AP)

WARSAW, Poland � A senior Chechen separatist wanted in Russia for alleged murder, kidnapping and terrorism was arrested Friday in Poland where he was to attend a conference organized by the World Chechen Congress, police said.

A representative of Chechen rebels denied Akhmed Zakayev had been arrested, saying he had turned himself in. Zakayev and his supporters have said the Russian allegations are trumped-up. He has said he represents the political faction of Chechnya's separatist movement, and has no connection to the military wing spearheading the region's insurgency.

"He has not been arrested but he went, at his own initiative, to the prosecutor's office to find out what they want from him," said Osman Ferzaouli, who is based in Denmark but was in Warsaw to attend the conference on trying to develop a concept to stop the Russian-Chechen conflict.

At Russia's request, international police agency Interpol had put out a "red notice" on Zakayev � the equivalent of putting him on its most-wanted list. It said the 51-year-old activist, who now lives in London, is wanted in Russia for "crimes against life and health, attempted crimes against life and health, kidnapping, organized crime, transnational crime and terrorism."

Chechnya, along with neighboring regions in Russia's North Caucasus, has been wracked with violence following two Chechen separatist wars over the last 15 years, and Islamic militants launch frequent attacks on the region's authorities.

Zakayev was apprehended "without any trouble" and turned over to prosecutors, Polish police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said. Prosecutors were now examining the Russian warrant and other documents before questioning Zakayev, prosecutors' spokeswoman Monika Lewandowska said.

An Interpol red notice is a not a warrant, but shares one country's warrant with other member countries.

Earlier this week Russian Ambassador to Poland Alexander Alekseev said Russia "has proof" that Zakayev had been involved in terrorism, and Moscow would expect Poland to arrest him if he came to the country.

Zakayev was given asylum in London by British authorities in 2003, who have refused to extradite him to Russia � causing strain on the two countries' relations.

Polish authorities in the past have been supportive of a small but active Chechen diaspora there, but say they would be obliged to arrest Zakayev if he came for the conference, give the Russian warrant against him. Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said Thursday, however, that the matter should be solved between Russia and Britain.

___

Associated Press Writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Angela Charlton in Paris and Jan Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this report.

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