World News | Latest News: 09/21/10

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Commonwealth Games at risk with under 2 weeks left (AP)

NEW DELHI ï¿½ Less than two weeks before it begins, one of the world's biggest sports events is in jeopardy as organizers struggle to cope with unfinished buildings, a filthy athletes' village called "unfit for human habitation," a bridge collapse, concerns over security and corruption, and an outbreak of dengue fever.

The Commonwealth Games, which bring together more than 7,000 athletes from the 71 countries and territories every four years, was supposed to showcase the emerging power of India ï¿½ just as the 2008 Beijing Olympics did for China.

Instead, the Oct. 3-14 games in New Delhi are highlighting the problems in the developing nation of more than 1 billion people that is still plagued by vast areas of poverty.

The frenzied, last-minute preparations are in such disarray that some officials are speculating that a few teams could withdraw or the event could be called off.

The latest blow came Tuesday, with the collapse of a footbridge being built to connect the main stadium to a parking lot. Police said 23 construction workers were injured, five seriously.

Hours earlier, the Commonwealth Games Federation urged the Indian government to finish work on the athletes' village, which is due to open Thursday. In addition to shoddy conditions inside and outside the buildings, there also are problems with plumbing, wiring, furnishings, Internet access and cell phone coverage.

"We have to continue to push our concerns at the highest level and you can't get higher than the Cabinet office of the country and the prime minister," Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper told The Associated Press. "They have to come up with a clear plan to meet the needs of athletes and show they can provide consistent standards."

The games have historically been dominated by England, Australia and Canada, and all three have voiced concerns about the conditions in India.

"It's hard to cancel an event of this magnitude, but we are close to the wire, and teams may start to take things into their own hands," England chef de mission Craig Hunter told Britain's Press Association. "Athletes will start getting on planes soon and decisions will have to be made. We need new levels of reassurance."

Australian discus world champion Dani Samuels withdrew from the games Tuesday, citing concerns over health and security, according to her manager, Hayden Knowles. England's Phillips Idowu also said he won't defend his triple jump title in New Delhi because of fears for his safety. He explained on Twitter that he has children, and "my safety is more important to them than a medal."

Commonwealth Games Scotland said the team's living area was "unsafe and unfit for human habitation." Australia's chef de mission, retired marathon runner Steve Moneghetti, said Indian organizers "have got two days to do what's probably going to take about two weeks."

Commonwealth Games Canada director of sport Scott Stevenson said housing facilities were not "anything like what was promised."

Although no one has said they will pull out, New Zealand team manager Dave Currie had some of the strongest words for organizers.

"If the village is not ready and athletes can't come, obviously the implications of that are that (the event) is not going to happen," Currie told New Zealand radio network newstalkZB.

Swimming New Zealand's high-performance manager Jan Cameron said in a radio interview that swimming federations had already discussed the prospect of the games being canceled and were prepared to act quickly to stage an international meet.

The chaos has severely dented India's hopes of using the games as a springboard for a bid to host the Olympics in 2020 or 2024.

The International Olympic Committee carries out more rigorous and frequent inspections of host cities to make sure that construction deadlines are met. The process has been tightened further since the delays that dogged preparations for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The games in India are only the third to be staged outside Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Kingston, Jamaica held the 1966 edition, then known as the British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was the only Asian city to host the event in 1998.

New Delhi, India's capital and home to more than 12 million people, was chosen to host the 19th edition of the Commonwealth Games in November 2003, beating out Hamilton, Ontario. Between then and 2008, the country did little to prepare.

Organizing committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot said the situation at the village was normal.

"All games face such problems and they will be resolved before the athletes come in," Bhanot said. "These are not going to affect the games in any way as all venues are ready to host the games."

Even Hooper called the problems "fixable."

He said he would not speculate on whether the games would take place, adding: "The games start on the third of October and everything that has to be done must be done."

Hooper said newspaper reports of human excrement around the village were true. The BBC, the games' biggest and most influential broadcaster, has detailed the troubles on its website and called the state of the village "shocking."

"This is a very serious matter and it needs the attention of the government of India to deploy whatever resources are necessary to fix and address it," Hooper said. "A massive deep clean is required and it needs to be done."

Aside from the bridge collapse and the unfinished construction, the buildup to the games has been plagued by poor ticket sales and monsoons. Organizers said last month that only 50,000 tickets had been sold, out of 2.3 million available.

Two weeks ago, the Indian capital was hit by an outbreak of dengue fever, and heavy rains have contributed both to the problem of the mosquito-borne virus and floods. Although the government played down the threat of dengue fever, doctors in New Delhi's private clinics said they were inundated with dengue patients and accused the government of vastly understating the situation.

The stagnant water of the Yamuna River next to the athletes' village certainly hasn't quelled fears of infection for visiting teams.

In August, organizing committee treasurer Anil Khanna quit after allegations that his son's firm was awarded a contract to lay synthetic surfaces at a tennis stadium for the games. Khanna denied the allegations, saying he had not started at the organizing committee when the contract was awarded. The organizing committee's joint director, T.S. Darbari, was fired a week earlier at the request of India's sports ministry for alleged corruption during the Queen's Baton Relay launching ceremony in London.

Security in the city was also increased after unidentified gunmen wounded two tourists Sunday. An Islamic militant group took responsibility for the shooting.

Because of all the troubles, British bookmaker William Hill has begun to take bets on whether the games will go ahead. The company began the day offering 5-1 odds that the event would be canceled, then lowered them to 4-1 after the bridge collapse.

___

AP Sports Writer Rob Harris in London and Steve McMorran in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.

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China-Japan spat could derail gas drilling talks (AP)

TOKYO ï¿½ Should the escalating spat between Japan and China over disputed islands evolve into a full-blown diplomatic battle, the economic fallout could include derailing delicate talks over developing potentially lucrative undersea gas fields between the two Asian giants.

Already, Beijing has suspended ministerial-level contacts with Tokyo, and postponed a second round of talks on the natural gas deposits. China also said Tuesday that Premier Wen Jiabao won't be meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan at a U.N. conference in New York this week.

"The atmosphere is obviously not suitable for such a meeting," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.

In the first comments from a top Chinese leader, Wen went further Tuesday night, laying the blame entirely at Japan's door.

Tokyo "bears full responsibility for the situation, and it will bear all consequences," he said to overseas Chinese in New York, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Anti-Japanese protests have flared in numerous locations around China, and the dispute has spilled into cultural ties, too. Beijing abruptly canceling invitations to 1,000 Japanese youth to the Shanghai expo and the Japanese pop group SMAP has called off a concert in Shanghai.

The chill was set off by Japan's arrest of a Chinese fishing boat captain two weeks ago for colliding with Japanese coast guard vessels near islands in the East China Sea claimed by both nations. Relations are at their worst since the 2001-2006 term of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose repeated visits to a war shrine in Japan enraged China.

China and Japan compete as the world's No. 2 and No. 3 economies, but they have become intertwined and both have an interest in not letting any dispute undermine vital trade and business ties.

So far, tensions haven't risen as high as they were in 2005, when Japanese shops and restaurants were attacked. But there have been calls for boycotts of Japanese products ï¿½ many of which are actually made in China.

The dispute this time is focused on territorial claims, as an increasingly confident China ï¿½ its economy booming and military expanding ï¿½ asserts its presence in the region. Beijing has demanded that Tokyo release the captain, threatening countermeasures if Japan continues "making mistake after mistake."

Japan, meanwhile, shows no sign of backing down, while warning Chinese of fanning nationalism and urging that the problem be resolved calmly. "We should be careful not to stir up narrow-minded, extreme nationalism," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said Tuesday.

The U.S. also has urged the two sides to work out the matter through appropriate diplomatic means.

But neither country wants to appear soft, which is going to make it tough to resolve without one side or the other losing face.

"China is worried that if it looks weak on a territorial matter, it could face a barrage of criticism, which could turn into a wider protest against the government," said Shinji Kojima, professor emeritus of Chinese history at Tokyo University.

In the background of the dispute is an ongoing question of access to natural gas fields in the East China Sea some 310 kilometers (190 miles) northeast of the islands, known as Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu or Diaoyutai in Chinese.

Access to gas fields so close to their shores would be a boon for energy-hungry China as well as resource-poor Japan. A thorny issue for some time, the two sides agreed in 2008 to jointly develop the deposits.

Under that deal, Japanese will be allowed to invest and share in the profits of existing Chinese operations in the Chunxiao fields, which Japan calls Shirakaba, that run closer to China, while Japanese and Chinese will jointly develop other fields farther out.

The agreement marked a real breakthrough in Japan-China relations, which had struggled to improve for years. While it could have easily bogged down in territorial disputes, the decision to shelve such claims in favor of progress is something almost unprecedented for the sides, particularly China which traditionally takes a hardline on all issues relating to sovereignty.

"The gas fields question has always been part and parcel of the Sino-Japanse relationship," said Sheila Smith, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. But if this territorial dispute "goes on the rocks, it could derail their ability to negotiate a common approach on the gas field reserves," she said.

Since the collision, Japan has spotted Chinese ships bringing equipment to one of the gas fields, raising concerns that Beijing may start drilling unilaterally. Responding to Tokyo's inquiry about the move, China said it had brought in equipment for "repairs" of a platform out at sea.

Jiang, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said Tuesday that China possesses sovereign rights over the Chunxiao fields and that its activities there were "lawful and reasonable." But she did not directly link the issue to the islands dispute.

The spat faces a test on Sept. 29, the deadline by which Japanese prosecutors must decide whether to charge the Chinese fishing trawler captain. The 14 crew members and boat were returned last week.

Some analysts speculate that Beijing may be testing the resolve of the relatively new Democratic Party-led Japanese government, perceived by some to be less hardline than the previous conservatives who ruled Japan for most of the post-World War II era.

Despite the tough talk, both side are likely to be cautious about further escalating tension, said Liang Yunxiang of Peking University's School of International Studies.

"Before they take any further steps, both governments must ask themselves, do we have any measures to deal with the possible consequences?" Liang said.

___

Associated Press Writers Mari Yamaguchi and Shino Yuasa in Tokyo and Christopher Bodeen, Scott McDonald and Cara Anna in Beijing contributed to this report.

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Afghanistan helicopter crash kills 9 NATO troops (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan ï¿½ A helicopter carrying international troops crashed in a rugged section of southern Afghanistan, killing nine service members in the deadliest such incident in four years for coalition forces.

A "large number" of Americans were among the dead, according to a senior military official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

One other coalition service member, an Afghan National Army soldier and a U.S. civilian were wounded in Tuesday's crash.

The coalition would not disclose the helicopter's mission, and the cause of the crash was not immediately clear. NATO said there were no reports of enemy fire in the early morning hours in the Daychopan district of Zabul province, where the crash took place.

However, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone that insurgents shot down the helicopter. The Taliban often exaggerate their claims and sometimes take credit for accidents.

"The Taliban are not involved in this crash at all," said Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, a spokesman for the provincial governor in Zabul.

"The investigation is still going on, but the military told us that the helicopter crashed due to technical problems."

Another coalition service member died following a separate explosion in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said. No further details were available.

So far this year, at least 524 U.S. and NATO forces have been killed in Afghanistan, surpassing the 504 killed last year. This year has been the deadliest for international forces since the war began in 2001.

Tuesday's helicopter crash took place not far from Chanaryan village, but there was no damage to buildings, Rasoolyar said. U.S. and Romanian forces make up most of the NATO contingent in Zabul province.

"I was sitting taking my tea," said Nakeemullah, 20, who transports livestock in the area. "I heard noise and I went outside to see what happened.

"I saw a lot of smoke in the sky," said Nakeemullah, who uses only one name. "It was far away for me, but I could see that it was a helicopter and it went down on the backside of the mountain where I couldn't see."

Aircraft are used extensively in Afghanistan by both NATO and the Afghan government forces to transport and supply troops because the terrain is mountainous and roads are few and primitive.

Lacking shoulder-fired missiles and other anti-aircraft weapons, the Taliban rely mostly on machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to fire at aircraft during takeoffs and landings.

Most helicopter crashes in the country have been accidents caused by maintenance problems or factors such as dust.

On Aug. 16, 2005, two transport helicopters carrying NATO peacekeepers crashed in a western Afghan desert, killing 17 Spanish troops. The cause was found to be a combination of a "high risk" flight plan of flying close to the ground, adverse weather conditions and mountainous terrain.

Tuesday's crash was the deadliest since May 2006, when a Chinook helicopter went down while attempting a nighttime landing on a small mountaintop in eastern Kunar province, killing 10 U.S. soldiers.

One of the heaviest single-day losses of life for allied forces in Afghanistan took occurred on June 28, 2005, when 16 U.S. troops died aboard a Special Forces MH-47 Chinook helicopter shot down by insurgents in Kunar province.

Afghan troops have been killed in helicopter crashes as well.

In January 2009, a top Afghan Army general for the western region of Afghanistan and 12 others were killed when their MI-17 helicopter went down in Shindand district of Herat province.

Also on Tuesday, suspected U.S. missiles struck on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, killing at least 19 alleged militants, according to three Pakistani intelligence officials. They said seven of the deaths were in Afghanistan and 12 in Pakistan. The second strike hit the compound in Pakistan where bodies from the first strike were taken.

In Afghanistan, NATO said it had no reports of such an incident. U.S. officials rarely discuss the covert CIA-led missile program.

Two of the three Pakistani intelligence officials said the militants belonged to an insurgent group led by Maulvi Nazir. Nazir is believed to have an agreement with Pakistani authorities that they will leave him alone so long as his men avoid attacks on Pakistani soil.

The Pakistani officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.

The U.S. routinely uses missile strikes to take out insurgent groups. Most hit targets in Pakistan's tribal belt, a semiautonomous and lawless stretch of territory that has a very porous border with Afghanistan.

___

Associated Press writers Mirwais Khan in Kandahar, Rahim Faiez and Eric Talmadge in Kabul and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report, as did AP researcher Monika Mathur in New York.

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Republicans block bill to lift military gay ban (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked an effort by Democrats and the White House to lift the ban on gays from serving openly in the military, voting unanimously against advancing a major defense policy bill that included the provision.

The mostly partisan vote dealt a major blow to gay rights groups who saw the legislation as their best hope, at least in the short term, for repeal of the 17-year-old law known as "don't ask, don't tell."

If Democrats lose seats in the upcoming congressional elections this fall, as many expect, repealing the ban could prove even more difficult ï¿½ if not impossible ï¿½ next year. With that scenario looming, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that a lame-duck session was being planned and that lifting the ban would be taken up then.

The episode upset advocates who believe that neither President Barack Obama nor Reid did enough to see the measure through.

"The whole thing is a political train wreck," said Richard Socarides, a White House adviser on gay rights during the Clinton administration.

Democrats included the repeal provision in a $726 billion defense policy bill, which authorizes a pay raise for the troops among other popular programs. In a deal brokered with the White House, the measure would have overturned the 1993 law banning openly gay service only after a Pentagon review and certification from the president that lifting the ban wouldn't hurt troop morale.

But with little time left for debate before the November ballot, the bill languished on the Senate calendar until gay rights groups, backed by pop star Lady Gaga, began an aggressive push to turn it into an election issue.

Earlier this month a federal judge in Los Angeles declared the ban an unconstitutional violation of the due process and free speech rights of gays and lesbians. The decision was the third federal court ruling since July to assert that statutory limits on the rights of gays and lesbians were unconstitutional.

Reid agreed to force a vote on the bill this week and limit debate, despite Republican objections. A Nevada Democrat in a tight race of his own this fall, he also pledged to use the defense bill as a vehicle for an immigration proposal that would enable young people to qualify for U.S. citizenship if they joined the military.

Republicans alleged that Reid was using the defense bill to score political points with the Democratic base.

"This is not a serious exercise. It's a show," said Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Democrats countered that the bill merely reflects public opinion. Recent polls suggest that a majority of Americans think the ban on gays in the military should be overturned.

"We're going to fight for this," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

But at least for now, the question of how and when to change the policy returns to the Pentagon, which had set a December deadline to complete a study of the effects of lifting the ban. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that he supports Obama's goal of repeal, but Gates made it clear he thought the process should move gradually.

It is not clear how quickly the Pentagon might make its own recommendations. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell declined to comment Tuesday on what he called "an internal procedural matter for the Senate."

Initially, advocates had thought that Democrats might win the 60 votes needed to overcome GOP objections and advance the bill. Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Maine Republican, was seen as a crucial vote because she supports overturning the ban.

But Collins ultimately sided with her GOP colleagues in arguing that the bill shouldn't advance because Republicans weren't given sufficient chance to offer amendments to the wide-ranging policy bill.

Democrats also failed to keep all of their party members in line. Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both of Arkansas, voted with Republicans to scuttle the bill. The vote was 56-43, four short of the 60 required to advance under Senate rules.

Lincoln said she objected to the limits on debate and wanted a chance to offer amendments that would benefit her state. In a statement, Pryor said the bill deserved more serious debate than was being allowed.

"There needs to be a genuine and honest effort to craft a defense bill that senators from both parties can support, because supporting our troops should not ever be a partisan issue," he said.

When it became clear that Democrats would lose, Reid cast his own vote in opposition as a procedural tactic. Under Senate rules, doing so enabled him to revive the bill.

Conservative groups hailed the vote as a victory for the troops. "At least for now they will not be used to advance a radical social agenda," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

An estimated 13,000 people have been discharged under the law since its inception in 1993. Although most dismissals have resulted from gay service members outing themselves, gay rights' groups say it has been used by vindictive co-workers to drum out troops who never made their sexuality an issue.

___

Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.

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Ahmadinejad blames capitalism for poverty (AP)

UNITED NATIONS ï¿½ Iran's president on Tuesday predicted the defeat of capitalism and blamed global big business for the suffering of millions, but Germany's chancellor said market economies were key to lifting the world's least developed countries out of poverty.

The clash of visions at the U.N. anti-poverty summit drew a line under the stark differences on easing the misery of the one billion people living on less than $1.25 a day.

More than 140 presidents, prime ministers and kings are attending the three-day summit which started Monday to assess and spur on achievement of U.N. targets set by world leaders in 2000. The plan called for an intensive global campaign to ease poverty, disease and inequalities between rich and poor by 2015.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, however, never mentioned the Millennium Development Goals in his speech to the 192-member General Assembly.

Instead, he took aim at capitalism and called for the overhaul of "undemocratic and unjust" global decision-making bodies, which are dominated by the United States and other Western powers. While Ahmadinejad didn't single out any country, he said world leaders, thinkers and global reformers should "spare no effort" to make practical plans for a new world order ï¿½ reform of international economic and political institutions.

"It is my firm belief that in the new millennium, we need to revert to the divine mindset...based on the justice-seeking nature of mankind, and on the monotheistic world view...," the Iranian leader said in a brief speech intertwining philosophy and religion with the current state of the world. "Now that the discriminatory order of capitalism and the hegemonic approaches are facing defeat."

Ahmadinejad proposed that the United Nations name the coming 10 years "the decade for the joint global governance."

Soon afterward, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the world's fourth-largest economic power, took an opposite tack, likely speaking for the rest of the capitalist world.

Stressing that "the primary responsibility for development lies with the governments of the developing countries," she said the key to economic prosperity was good governance and a flourishing capitalist economy.

"The countries themselves must promote the development of a market economy...for without self-sustaining economic growth developing countries will find the road out of poverty and hunger too steep to travel," Merkel said.

The German leader said international assistance can't substitute for domestic resources, warned that "development aid cannot continue indefinitely" and declared that "support for good governance is as important as aid itself."

Oxfam, one of the world's most respect aid organizations, slammed Merkel's address. Spokeswoman Emma Seery said more had been expected from the Germans, who "failed to explain how they will meet their promises of aid to poor countries, and sidestepped their responsibility to make aid work by laying this at the door of the poorest countries."

Seery also chided the German leader for not joining with France and Spain in calling for a small tax on financial transactions that would go to meet development needs of poor countries. "Whether Germany can still claim to be a development leader is now questionable," she said in an unusually blunt assessment of a government leader's address.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said the world is "on track" to cut extreme poverty by half, the No. 1 goal, though some critics say it's mainly because of the big strides in China and India. Many recent reports show that the world's poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, have made little progress in eradicating poverty.

And in Africa, Asia and Latin America there also has been a lack of progress in meeting other key goals: reducing mother and child deaths, increasing the number of people with access to basic sanitation, and promoting women's equality. Ban is expected to launch a new initiative Wednesday to spur action on improving the lot of women and children.

In his speech, Ahmadinejad did not mention Iran's nuclear program or the four rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions over Tehran's refusal to prove it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon. Iran claims it is only working on nuclear power to generate electricity.

The subject may be raised again Thursday when the General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting begins.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov raised the sanctions issue in his speech, saying U.N. sanctions were not intended to harm ordinary civilians. He voiced "serious concern" at additional sanctions imposed by individual countries. The criticism appeared aimed at the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea, all of whom have imposed their own much tougher sanctions on Tehran.

"We are convinced that such practice contradicts the efforts to achieve the MDGs and must be brought to an end," Lavrov said, using the initials of the Millennium Development Goals.

To counter these threats, Lavrov said Russia was ready to help with information and communication technology "to bridge the gap between the developed and developing countries and ï¿½ as a result ï¿½ to promote global development."

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, one of the world's poorest nations that has made progress because of the goals, said Africa "still has far to go" but if efforts are intensified "we will, ultimately, achieve them."

"My message is this: As we renew our resolve in 2010, we must recognize the need for inclusive economic growth. We need rapid, stable, and sustained growth that creates jobs, especially for youth and in sectors that benefit the poor, and expands opportunities for women," she said.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said until a few years ago his country was on track to achieve a number of the MDGs, but the fight against terrorism and the recent unprecedented flooding "have changed almost everything."

The MDGs remain "the centerpiece" of Pakistan's development program, he said, but the rehabilitation of flood-ravaged areas will cost billions and will impact economic recovery and achievement of the U.N. goals.

At events on the sidelines of the summit, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton launched a program to address chronic malnutrition blamed for 3.5 million maternal and child deaths a year. The program, co-sponsored by the Irish government, focuses on the first 1,000 days of a child's life, during which nutrition is critical to mental and physical development.

Later, Clinton helped launch a new program to place cleaner cooking stoves in 100 million homes by 2020. She said unsafe stoves expose as many as three billion people to toxic chemicals and smoke, and upgrading them can save and improve "millions of lives."

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Ahmadinejad blames capitalism for poverty (AP)

The clash of visions at the U.N. anti-poverty summit drew a line under the stark differences on easing the misery of the one billion people living on less than $1.25 a day.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, however, never mentioned the Millennium Development Goals in his speech to the 192-member General Assembly.

Ahmadinejad proposed that the United Nations name the coming 10 years "the decade for the joint global governance."

Soon afterward, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the world's fourth-largest economic power, took an opposite tack, likely speaking for the rest of the capitalist world.

The subject may be raised again Thursday when the General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting begins.

"We are convinced that such practice contradicts the efforts to achieve the MDGs and must be brought to an end," Lavrov said, using the initials of the Millennium Development Goals.

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Mideast peacemakers push Israel on settlements (AP)

UNITED NATIONS ï¿½ The Quartet of Mideast peacemakers shepherding the newly started direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations called on Israel to extend its settlement freeze past Sunday, while cautioning both sides to refrain from "provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric."

Senior diplomats from the Quartet ï¿½ the U.S., the European Union, the United Nations and Russia ï¿½ met on the sidelines of the United Nations anti-poverty meeting to discuss a way forward in the negotiations, which have made little visible progress since they resumed earlier this month and are at risk of collapse.

They renewed a vow to help finally achieve peace in the Middle East.

George Mitchell, the Obama administration's envoy for Middle East peace, met Tuesday with Israeli and Palestinian officials, including one three-way session with each side's top negotiators, according to U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. But there was no sign that either side was ready to commit to a new round of direct talks.

In a statement issued after its meeting, the Quartet said that the "commendable Israeli settlement moratorium instituted last November has had a positive impact and urged its continuation." It encouraged both sides to continue negotiating "in a constructive manner and urged the international community to support their efforts."

Earlier, the Quartet abruptly canceled a press conference that was to have included Mitchell, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

A senior European official who declined to be identified said the meeting with the press was canceled because other participants were insisting on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's presence among them. The senior official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the negotiations.

Crowley said Clinton had never intended to attend the news conference, and that the U.S. had decided that Mitchell would speak for the Obama administration. He declined to comment on whether other delegations had tried to persuade her to go. "We were prepared to have George Mitchell participate in the press event had it occurred," he said.

U.S. and U.N. officials insisted the press conference was canceled for technical reasons, owing to an electrical outage, and hotly denied that the cancellation reflected any problems with the negotiations.

"There was no disagreement. The news conference was canceled because of the technical problems in the room and building, and because the meeting started late," Ban's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, told AP.

From their meeting, the Quartet principals went into talks with officials from the Arab League at which they sought to encourage continued support from the Palestinians' neighbors in reaching a peace accord, Crowley said.

At the end of the closed-door meeting with ministers from key Arab nations including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said it was a "very good" session.

But on the key issue of whether Israel will extend a partial ban on settlement building in the West Bank, territory the Palestinians want for a future state, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon indicated that Israel disagrees with the view that construction is a major impediment to the talks.

"Settlements have never been an issue, because once we agree on borders everything will be obvious, so let's concentrate on the real issues and not just put the obstacle in the settlements," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Quartet's talks.

The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the peace talks if the settlement slowdown ï¿½ due to expire next week ï¿½ is not extended.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also said France was exerting "pressure and talking to our friends on both sides" in hopes Israel would prolong the settlement freeze, which expires Sunday.

"We need that. Otherwise, the Palestinians were very clear ï¿½ they will stop the negotiations and the dialogue...," he said.

Israeli President Shimon Peres met privately late Monday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a hotel across from the U.N. complex. They spoke briefly to reporters but did not discuss particulars about the recently renewed Mideast talks, including the key issue of would extend the partial ban on.

Shortly after taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama said an outright halt to settlement building was a necessary first step, although his administration has since softened that demand.

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Chileans optimistic for early October miner rescue (AP)

SANTIAGO, Chile ï¿½ Chilean rescuers are growing increasingly optimistic about pulling the 33 trapped miners out far sooner than originally estimated, and with drilling quickly advancing on three narrow escape chutes, they raced Tuesday to decide on a design for the capsule that will lift the men to safety.

President Sebastian Pinera has staked his presidency on being able to show the world that his government has safely rescued the miners ahead of schedule. He promised the men after they were found to be alive Aug. 22 that they would be home by Christmas ï¿½ a timeframe mining experts called far too conservative ï¿½ and then put hundreds of rescuers to work on three simultaneous drilling operations to reach them more quickly.

The engineer in charge of the rescue effort, Andre Sougarret, said Tuesday that "it's still premature to talk about shorter timeframes. We're sticking with the first days of November as the final date of the rescue."

But the rescue team's own numbers suggest faster progress. The biggest drill, labeled "Plan C," is capable of much faster speed, and the deeper it gets, the faster engineers plan to drill.

Barring unforeseen complications, it could break through to the miners at a point nearly 2,000 feet (597 meters) underground in the second week of October. Sougarret has said it would then take 8 days to insert an iron sleeve in the 28-inch-wide (71-centimeter-wide) chute to prevent rock falls while miners are being pulled out.

There's also the matter of an Oct. 15-22 European trip scheduled by Pinera, who promised the miners in a video chat Sunday that he would be there to hug them as they emerged.

While his ministers have struggled to manage expectations, Pinera could hardly contain himself when asked by reporters at the mine to commit to a date, saying with his usual broad smile that "it will be sooner than what you expect."

In another indication of the rescue effort's progress, Sougarret said the rescue capsule ï¿½ named Phoenix for the mythical bird that burns to ashes, only to rise again and live for hundreds of years ï¿½ has to be ready within 10 to 12 days after they decide on a final design this week.

With that in mind, engineers were viewing prototypes of the capsules Tuesday at ASMAR, the Chilean navy's shipbuilding operation in Talcahuano, where three of the capsules will be built to provide backups in case anything goes wrong.

The specifications are elaborate: The capsules must come equipped with tanks to provide three hours of oxygen, wheels mounted on shock absorbers to maintain contact with the pipe's walls, an internal harness to prevent injury to the miners, and a wireless communication system so the men can remain in touch with people inside and outside the mine during the 15- to 20-minute journey to the surface.

It also must fit through a chute just 23 inches (58.4 centimeters) in diameter, while also providing just enough room to squeeze inside for the largest man trapped below, a miner whose shoulders measure 19 inches (48 centimeters) across.

"That's the critical dimension for the cage's design," Sougarret said in a briefing Tuesday at the San Jose mine.

ASMAR plans a cylinder with walls of steel 0.16 inch (4 millimeters) thick, with an escape hatch and interior harness system designed to enable the occupant to lower himself back down into the mine should the capsule get stuck.

"Everything is advancing OK, the technical team ... is already at ASMAR evaluating the rescue capsule design. It has been baptized Phoenix. This week we will decide" its final characteristics, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said by Twitter on Tuesday.

The capsule designers have received some guidance from U.S. engineers involved in Pennsylvania's 2002 Quecreek coal mine disaster, said Tom Foy, one of nine men who were pulled to safety in an operation that has many similarities to the effort in Chile.

Foy, now 61, was stuck for three days about 270 feet underground, in a coal seam just four feet high, with groundwater rising and oxygen disappearing. By the time rescuers broke through with an air pipe and heard them bang nine times to signal their survival, Foy figures they had just an hour of air left.

The Quecreek rescuers didn't bother installing a metal sleeve inside their escape chute. Groundwater gushed through walls of the hole and drenched the rescue cage as they were pulled up.

"Who cares about the water ï¿½ just get us the heck out of there! It was pouring like buckets, but who cares?" Foy recalled. "They could have pulled me up on a rope for all I cared."

___

Associated Press writers Vivian Sequera at the San Jose mine and Eva Vergara and Federico Quilodran in Santiago contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects target depth of Plan C drill to nearly 2,000 feet (597 meters).)

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Hurricane Igor hits Canada with heavy rains (AP)

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland ï¿½ Hurricane Igor pelted eastern Canada with heavy rain Tuesday, flooding communities, washing out roads and stranding some residents in their homes. In the Pacific, a mild tropical storm formed and was expected to cross the Mexican resort area of Baja California later in the day.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre said Igor had transformed into a "post-tropical" storm, which has a different structure from a hurricane but still packs the same punch. The storm was battering Newfoundland, on Canada's eastern coast.

The Hurricane Centre said the change in classification does not reflect a downgrade in the storm's intensity because winds have strengthened as the storm draws energy from another weather system to the west.

"This is not your normal heavy rainfall flooding. It's having a major impact," said Chris Fogarty, of the Canadian Hurricane Centre. He said more than 200 millimeters (8 inches) of rain have already fallen in some regions in the past few hours.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Boyd Merrill said they are investigating a report of a missing 80-year old man who was reportedly washed into the sea on Tuesday morning on Random Island when a driveway collapsed from underneath him due to heavy water flow. Merrill said police and the coast guard have not been able to access the island.

Dennis Shea of the province's Emergency and Fire Services office said more than 30 communities had declared a state of emergency and that 19 communities are isolated because of washed out roads.

Marystown Mayor Sam Synard said the storm was overwhelming his community's capacity to cope.

"We've never seen such a violent storm before," he said. "We've lost sections of our main roads, completely washed out to sea."

Keith Rodway, a member of the Clarenville town council, said parts of his town had to be evacuated.

The Pacific tropical storm, Georgette, had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph (65 kph), but was expected to weaken as it moved over the Baja California peninsula. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Georgette made landfall near or just east of Cabo San Lucas. A tropical storm warning was issued for southern Baja California.

Georgette was located about 10 miles (15 kilometers) south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on Tuesday morning and was moving north-northwest near 9 mph (15 kph). A tropical storm warning was issued for southern Baja California.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Wayne Edgecombe said heavy rains that flooded a key bridge in southern Newfoundland have left the Burin Peninsula's 20,000 residents cut off from the rest of the province. Edgecombe said roads all over the peninsula have been washed out or submerged, but so far there have been no major crises.

About 20,000 people live on the Burin Peninsula.

Igor doggedly maintained maximum sustained winds near 80 mph (130 kph). On Tuesday, the storm center was about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north-northeast of St. John's, Newfoundland and moving to the northeast near 39 mph (63 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Schools have been closed and some flights at the St. John's International Airport have been delayed or canceled. The Canadian company Husky Energy evacuated workers from two semi-submersible drilling rigs working the White Rose offshore oil field, spokeswoman Colleen McConnell said.

"We're as ready as we possibly can be ready," said Dennis O'Keefe, the mayor of St. John's, Newfoundland.

Igor left behind power outages, grounded boats and downed trees in Bermuda and kicked up dangerous surf on the U.S. Atlantic coast. After brushing past Bermuda, which escaped major damage, Igor veered away from the United States, but forecasters said it could still cause high surf and dangerous rip currents along U.S. beaches.

A 21-year-old man died while surfing in the storm-churned waves off Surf City, North Carolina, where he was pulled from the water Sunday afternoon. Last week, high surf kicked up by Igor swept two people out to sea in the Caribbean ï¿½ one in Puerto Rico and another in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Across Los Cabos ï¿½ a string of Mexican resort towns at the tip of Baja California ï¿½ boat owners scrambled to tie down yachts, while restaurant workers hauled in chairs and tables ahead of Georgette's arrival. Tourists canceled fishing trips at the last minute and hunkered down inside luxury hotels for board games and spa sessions.

"I had two foreign tourists booked to go fishing today, but the port closed," said boat operator Jose Cesena.

One local family had to be rescued overnight from a flooded home, said Gregorio Perez, a local civil protection officer. Civil Protection Director Francisco Cota Marquez said shelters were being prepared but there were no evacuations yet.

Only light rain fell Tuesday morning, but winds kicked up 6-foot (2-meter) waves.

Meanwhile far out in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Lisa formed early Tuesday with winds near 45 mph (75 kph). The storm was located about 525 miles (850 kilometers) west-northwest of the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa.

___

Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto and Ignacio Martinez in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico contributed to this report.

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Top economic adviser to leave White House (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ President Barack Obama's top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, plans to leave the White House at the end of the year, a move that comes as the administration struggles to show an anxious public it's making progress on economy.

In a statement, the president said he is grateful for Summers' service during a time of "great peril for our country."

"While we have much work ahead to repair the damage done by the recession, we are on a better path thanks in no small measure to Larry's wise counsel," Obama said.

Summers will return to Harvard University, a move a senior administration official said was always part of Summers' long-standing plans. The official said the president asked Summers last fall to stay through 2010 in order to see through the passage of financial regulatory legislation and the continued implementation of the economic stimulus package. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal White House matters.

Summers is the third high-level member of Obama's economic team to leave in recent months, following the departure of budget director Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers, both of whom left this summer. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner would be the only one of Obama's top-tier economic advisers to remain with the administration should be stay through the end of the year.

Summers' departure was first reported Tuesday by Bloomberg News.

With unemployment hovering near double-digits and the public growing increasingly worried about the slow pace of the recovery, Democrats fear the economy could lead to sweeping losses for the party in the midterm elections. Last month, House Republican leader John Boehner called for Obama to fire his entire economic team and set a new course for the recovery.

During a town hall Monday, Obama said he hadn't made any determination on personnel matters. But he didn't rule out the possibility of changes on the economic team.

"This is tough, the work that they do," Obama said. "They've been at it for two years, and they're going to have a whole range of decisions about family that will factor into this as well."

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Israel warns of violence if peace talks fail (AP)

JERUSALEM ï¿½ With an Israeli-Palestinian impasse on settlement construction set to come to a head this weekend, the Israeli military chief said Tuesday that new Palestinian violence could erupt if peace talks collapse.

The Palestinians are threatening to quit the talks unless a 10-month restriction on settlement construction is extended beyond its planned expiration on Sunday. Israel says it cannot be extended, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would likely face coalition trouble if he backed down.

Netanyahu on Tuesday warned the Hamas movement ï¿½ which rejects peace with Israel, has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, and already carried out one deadly attack this month ï¿½ against a new round of violence.

Speaking near a community center in southern Israel where a rocket from Gaza recently exploded, he said Israel would continue to respond swiftly. "I don't recommend they test our determination in this matter," he said.

Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the country's top soldier, told lawmakers that the military was bracing for possible mass protests and clashes.

He added, however, that the low expectations for a peace deal could mean any violence would be less intense than the Palestinian uprising that erupted after the failure of the ambitious Camp David summit in 2000 and led to years of Israeli-Palestinian violence characterized by suicide bombings and Israeli army incursions killing thousands.

"We must be prepared for every possibility," he told parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to meeting participants who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with protocol. "If talks fail, there could be riots."

Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib agreed, saying Israel's occupation of the West Bank has generally seen alternating periods of peace efforts and violence, with the failure of one often sparking the other.

"I think the chances of violence will increase in the case of a breakdown of the peace talks," Khatib said.

Israel faces a complex equation, with violence also sometimes coming not as a result of a failure in peace talks but rather as an effort to scuttle them.

Ashkenazi warned that groups under Iranian influence will try to thwart the negotiations ï¿½ a reference to Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah group. Both Islamic militant groups staunchly reject peace talks and seek Israel's destruction.

Indeed, Hamas militants killed four Israelis in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank as peace talks were being launched earlier this month.

Reflecting rising tensions, settlers and Palestinians lobbed rocks at each other near the West Bank town of Nablus Tuesday.

The last round of talks broke down in late 2008 when Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza aimed at stopping militant rocket fire on southern Israel.

Under intense U.S. pressure, Israel agreed in November to a 10-month freeze on new construction projects in its West Bank settlements. Several thousand units already being built, however, were allowed to continue. The measure did not apply to Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, but there has been a de facto halt to new construction there as well.

The slowdown in building helped pave the way for the resumption of talks earlier this month in Washington. Israel has accepted the idea of a Palestinian state, and the sides say they hope to reach a full peace deal.

The U.S. and other world powers have called on Israel to extend the freeze.

Officials from both sides are meeting with American leaders in the United States to seek a compromise ahead of Sunday's deadline. On Tuesday the mood in Israeli government circles was grim, with no way out of the deadlock visible.

Some 300,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank among about 2.5 million Palestinians. Almost 200,000 more Israelis live in east Jerusalem, where Palestinians want the capital of their hoped-for state.

Palestinians and the international community call the settlements obstacles to peace because they make it increasingly difficult for the Palestinians to establish a state not broken up by Israeli enclaves.

Israeli settlers demand that they be permitted to resume building in full force next week, and pro-settlement officials have vowed to help them.

Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau told Army Radio he would advance plans to build hundreds of millions of dollars in water and sewer projects for the settlements. And pro-settler lawmakers plan to hold a celebration Sunday in the West Bank settlement of Revava, where, they say, bulldozers and cement mixers will begin work on a new neighborhood.

Ashkenazi added that tensions were rising among the settlers, and that they were likely to stage angry protests if they can't build.

Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, a member of Netanyahu's seven-member inner Cabinet, has proposed that Israel resume building in only those parts of the West Bank expected to remain in Israeli hands under a future deal ï¿½ excluding, for example, most settlements deep inside the territory.

The Israeli government has not adopted this position and Palestinians reject it, saying it effectively allows Israel to decide which settlements it will ultimately keep ï¿½ rather than negotiating the matter.

Also on Tuesday, the Israeli army announced the closure of its border crossings from the West Bank into Israel until the end of the month for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Such closures seek to prevent attacks during Jewish holidays.

_____

Associated Press Writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

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Ex-city manager among 8 arrested in Calif. scandal (AP)

LOS ANGELES ï¿½ The mayor and ex-city manager of the Los Angeles suburb of Bell were among eight current and former city officials arrested Tuesday in a corruption scandal that authorities said cost the blue-collar city more than $5.5 million in excessive salaries and illegal personal loans.

The district attorney's office said several former and current City Council members were taken into custody along with ex-city manager Robert Rizzo and Mayor Oscar Hernandez.

"This, needless to say, is corruption on steroids," District Attorney Steve Cooley said at a news conference, standing next to a display of pictures of the suspects.

Rizzo, who was making nearly $800,000 a year, was booked on 53 counts of misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest. He was expected to be arraigned Wednesday, with officials seeking bail of $3.2 million.

Rizzo could face several years in prison if convicted, Cooley said. Messages left at Rizzo's home and with his attorney were not immediately returned.

Others taken into custody were former assistant city manager Angela Spaccia, Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo, council members George Mirabal and Luis Artiga, and former council members George Cole and Victor Bello.

Requested bail amounts ranged from $377,500 for Spaccia to $130,000 for Cole, based on the amounts each was accused of misappropriating in the city where one in six people live in poverty.

Former Police Chief Randy Adams, who was also scrutinized in the salary scandal, was not arrested.

Cooley, who knew Adams when he was the police chief in Glendale, said Adams was paid $457,000 a year but there was no evidence he obtained that salary illegally.

"Being paid excessive salaries is not a crime," Cooley said. "Illegally obtaining those salaries is a crime."

Prosecutors allege the suspects misappropriated more than $5.5 million.

The complaint said Rizzo made $4.3 million by paying himself through different employment contracts that were not approved by the City Council, and that council members paid themselves a combined $1.25 million for what Cooley called "phantom meetings" of various city boards and agencies.

Rizzo also was accused of giving $1.9 million in loans to himself, Spaccia, Hernandez, Artiga and dozens of others, authorities said.

Cooley said his office had been investigating the officials since March ï¿½ four months before the public learned they were paying themselves huge salaries to run the city of 40,000 people.

"They used the taxes of the hardworking citizens of Bell as their own piggy bank, which they looted," the district attorney said.

He added that his investigators have pored over more than 60,000 pages of documents and more people could be charged.

Most of the arrests went smoothly, though police briefly used a battering ram at the home of Hernandez before he responded and opened the door. The door was not knocked down.

The suspects were booked into county facilities and will be kept away from other inmates for their protection, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

The arrests were the latest twist in a scandal that emerged in July with the disclosure that Rizzo was paid almost twice the salary of President Barack Obama.

It also was revealed that Adams was making $150,000 more than the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and Spaccia was paid $376,288. Four of the five City Council members paid themselves nearly $100,000 a year for their part-time service.

Rizzo, Adams and Spaccia resigned and the council members reduced their salaries to about $8,000 following the disclosures and angry public reaction.

The four council members are currently the target of a recall.

Bell's interim chief administrative officer Pedro Carrillo said the arrests marked a sad day for the city.

"It is clear that Rizzo and Spaccia were at the root of the cancer that has afflicted the city," he said.

Last week, Attorney General Jerry Brown sued eight current and former officials of Bell, accusing them of defrauding taxpayers by granting themselves salaries he said were far higher than warranted for the jobs they were doing.

Artiga was not named in the lawsuit but Adams was.

Earlier this month Bell officials confirmed the city was also the target of a racial profiling investigation by the federal government for allegedly targeting young Hispanic drivers for traffic stops to raise revenue.

___

Associated Press Writer Thomas Watkins contributed to this report.

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Al-Qaida claims kidnapping of 5 French in Niger (AP)

CAIRO ï¿½ Al-Qaida's North Africa branch claimed responsibility in an audio message broadcast Tuesday for kidnapping five French nationals that disappeared in the deserts of Niger last week.

Seven foreign workers were kidnapped from a uranium mine operated by the French company Areva in Niger Thursday and were last seen heading toward the neighboring countries of Mali and Algeria with about 30 captors before vanishing in the vast desert.

"The men were able to attack the mine of Arlit in Niger which is considered one the most important sources of uranium that France has been stealing from for decades," said the excerpt purported to be from al-Qaida in the North Africa that was broadcast on Al-Jazeera news channel.

The message said fighters from the group overcame security in the area and kidnapped "five French nuclear experts" and said it would issue its demands to the French government "shortly."

"We also warn them from doing anything stupid," it added.

In July, AQIM said it executed a 78-year-old French aid worker it had taken hostage three months before, saying the killing was in retaliation for the deaths of six al-Qaida members in a French-backed military operation against the group.

There was no way to authenticate the message, but in the past al-Qaida and its affiliates have claimed responsibility for operations through messages sent to Al-Jazeera.

Those abducted from Arlit mining town include five French nationals, one from Togo and one from Madagascar. One of the men taken worked for Areva, along with his wife, and the others were employees of a subcontractor called Satom.

Al-Qaida's affiliate in North Africa operates in the vast desert region from Mauritania to Chad. The group grew out of an Algerian insurgency movement that officially joined with the terrorist network in 2006.

Areva, a leading global nuclear manufacturer, gets much of its uranium from Niger. Aid groups say almost half of Niger's population desperately needs food and up to one in six children suffers from acute malnutrition.

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UK: No elections next year in Turks and Caicos (AP)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico ï¿½ An election to return self governance for Turks and Caicos Islands has been postponed, a British Foreign Office minister announced Tuesday, extending London's direct rule over the island dependency.

Henry Bellingham, the minister for overseas territories, said that elections set for July 2011 would be delayed to allow time for anti-corruption and good-government reforms to take effect in the islands some 500 miles (800 kilometers) southeast of Florida.

Britain imposed direct rule on Turks and Caicos in August 2009 after a government probe into allegations that local leaders misused public money and profited from the sale of government-owned land to developers.

The U.K. suspended the government and legislature and put the London-appointed governor in direct charge.

"We want elections to take place as soon as practicable. But I have concluded that more time is needed," Bellingham said in a statement from the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office at the close of a short visit to Turks and Caicos.

In a radio address to islanders, Bellingham said he would announce the "remaining milestones which will have to be met before elections can take place." He said the vote should be held "as soon as practicable."

"Ultimately, we all want to see TCI stand on its own two feet," he said.

The islands' former opposition party called the decision an insult and a "blatant attempt to further separate Turks and Caicos Islanders from our fundamental and inalienable rights to full democracy."

"We demand, here and now, for a return of power to the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands!" said a statement from the People's Democratic Movement, which previously welcomed the British effort to clean up politics in the territory.

An interim government led by London-appointed Gov. Gordon Wetherell was created after Britain appointed a panel to look into allegations of corruption against former Premier Michael Misick and other officials in the islands of 23,000 inhabitants.

Public hearings revealed Misick spent lavishly after taking office in 2003. His estranged wife, actress LisaRaye McCoy, described using private jets to commute from Los Angeles and other luxuries including a leased Rolls-Royce. Misick has denied any wrongdoing and described the British corruption probe as "modern-day colonialism."

Earlier this year, the former premier put his 11,000-square-foot (1,022-square-meter) beachfront estate on the market.

A telephone number for Misick rang busy. A spokeswoman for the British governor could not immediately provide comment early Tuesday afternoon.

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Twitter scrambles to block worms

21 September 2010 Last updated at 10:03 ET By Jonathan Fildes Technology reporter, BBC News

Twitter has patched a flaw in its website that was being exploited to pump out pop-up messages and links to porn sites.

Initially, users only had to move their mouse over a message containing a link - not click it - to open it in the browser.

The code was spread by worms, self-replicating, malicious pieces of code.

Thousands of users were caught out by the flaw, including Sarah Brown, the wife of the UK's former Prime Minister.

"This issue is now resolved. We apologise to those who may have encountered it," wrote Bob Lord, security chief at the firm, in a blog post.

"Users may still see strange retweets in their timelines caused by the exploit. However, we are not aware of any issues related to it that would cause harm to computers or their accounts."

The firm said there was no need for users to change their passwords "because user account information was not compromised".

People using the mobile web site or third-party Twitter software - such as Tweetdeck - were unaffected by the bug.

The flaw comes just one week after Twitter rolled out a major redesign of its site.

'No regrets'

The code exploited what is known as a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability, a flaw in a website that can be exploited by relatively simple code.

In the case of the most recent incident, the command - written in a programming language called Javascript - automatically directed users to another website, some of which contained pornography.

The malicious links looked like a block of colour or a random URL that contained the code "onmouseover", which triggered when the cursor hovered over the link.

"Other users took this one step further and added code that caused people to retweet the original Tweet without their knowledge," wrote Mr Lord.

The first self-replicating code, or worm, seems to have been written by a developer called Magnus Holm.

"I simply wanted to exploit the hole without doing any 'real' harm," he told BBC News. "It started off as 'ha, no way this is going to work'."

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

It was only a matter of time before more serious worms started"

End Quote Magnus Holm

He said the flaw had been identified by others and had already been used for other means.

"There were several other tiny hacks using the exploit - I only created the worm," he said.

Mr Holm said he had seen his worm passed around in at least 200,000 messages.

Others soon copied his code using "other nasty or smart tricks" he said, including directing people to porn sites.

"It was only a matter of time before more serious worms started."

A Twitter user called Matsta appeared to have spread one variant. Their account has now been suspended.

Mr Holm said he had no regrets about his actions and was "not sure" whether he would receive a call from Twitter.

It is not the first time the service has suffered an attack.

In April 2009, another worm spread links to a rival site, again showing unwanted messages on infected user accounts.

Graham Cluley, a researcher at security firm Sophos, told BBC News that Twitter needs "much tighter control" over what users can put in a tweet to prevent similar problems in the future.

He also warned users to continue to be on their guard, as once an exploit had been found there would be a raft of hackers looking for new ones or ways to circumvent the patch.

"We've seen it in the past," he said. "When Twitter says they have fixed a flaw, we see a new exploit again and again."

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Google releases censorship tools

21 September 2010 Last updated at 12:30 ET

The US government asked Google for user information 4,287 times during the first six months of 2010.

During the same timeframe the UK government put in over 1,000 such requests.

This is just two snippets from Google's new Transparency Report, a set of tools designed to show censorship levels around the globe.

Civil liberty groups welcomed the tool but called on Google to provide even more detail about the requests.

Earlier this year, Google released details about how often countries around the world ask it to hand over user data or to censor information.

The new map and tools follows on from that and allows users to click an individual country to see how many removal requests were fully or partially complied with, as well as which Google services were affected.

In the US, for example, there were seven court orders to remove content from YouTube from July 2009 to the end of the year.

There is also a traffic graph showing Google services around the world and related traffic outages, caused either by governments blocking access to information or, more mundanely, cables being cut.

Google's public policy head Scott Rubin demonstrated the tool to the BBC.

"Last year after the Iranian elections access to the internet was cut off and we saw a sudden drop in traffic to YouTube," he said.

Civil liberties groups said the tool would prove invaluable to activists determined to plot government censorship around the globe.

"I think it is a tremendous initiative and it would be helpful if other networks could do the same thing," said Lilian Edwards, professor of internet law at the University of Sheffield and board member of the Open Rights Group.

"I think there will be some embarrassing data and it will vary from country to country. The UK is neither the best or the worst," she said.

More data about the nature of the requests would be useful, she added.

"It would be interesting to see whether these take-downs refer to libel, surveillance and intercepts or the content industries. The more data we have the more useful it will be," she said.

"It would, for example, be interesting to compare Google's data with published UK surveillance requests."

Free expression

Google can provide such data and is examining whether it can release more detail about the requests.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

We believe that more information means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual"

End Quote David Drummond Chief legal officer, Google

Explaining the genesis of the tool, David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer wrote in the official blog: "When Google's services are blocked or filtered, we can't serve our users effectively. That's why we act every day to maximize free expression and access to information.

"Free expression is one of our core values. We believe that more information means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual," he added.

Google is keen to reassert its freedom of expression credentials after a very public spat with the Chinese government over censorship.

It threatened to pull the plug on services when it emerged that the authorities had been spying on some Gmail accounts.

It began re-routing traffic via Hong Kong but in June agreed to tweak the system to placate the Chinese government.

In July its license to do business in China was renewed.

Data on information requests from China is absent from the current map.

"Chinese officials consider censorship demands to be state secrets so we cannot disclose that information at this time," said Google.

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Extremist websites 'skyrocketing'

21 September 2010 Last updated at 13:57 ET

The sharp growth in extremist websites is making recruitment much easier for al-Qaeda, according to Interpol head Ronald Noble.

"The threat is global, it is virtual and it is on our doorsteps," he said.

Mr Noble told a conference of police chiefs in Paris there were 12 sites in 1998 and 4,500 by 2006.

He said tackling radicalisation had been made far harder by the internet because many of the activities involved were not criminal.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

As soon as you knock out one, another pops up. It's like playing 'whack-a-mole'"

End Quote Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation

Increasingly, he said, the individuals targeted were young and vulnerable and from middle-class backgrounds.

A researcher at the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation told the BBC that the number of radical websites was now far higher than the figure given by Interpol.

"It's well into the thousands in English alone," said Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens.

He added that governments had found the increase in radical websites impossible to stop.

"As soon as you knock out one, another pops up. It's like playing 'whack-a-mole'."

Last week, the head of British security service MI5, Jonathan Evans, expressed concern about the influence of Yemen-based radical Muslim cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, whose sermons feature in more than 5,000 videos on YouTube.

Mr Awlaki has been linked to the deaths of 13 people at Fort Hood military base in the United States in November 2009 and the attempted bombing of a passenger jet as it flew to Detroit the following month.

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Yemeni officials deny reports cleric surrounded (AP)

SAN'A, Yemen ï¿½ The Yemeni army destroyed five homes suspected of hiding al-Qaida militants Tuesday as a siege of a southern village entered its second day, but officials denied reports that U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was among those surrounded.

Government forces have moved into the village of Hawta with tanks and armored vehicles and thousands of people have fled the area to escape the fighting, which is part of the government's U.S.-backed campaign to uproot the terror network's local offshoot.

Security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media, said the homes that were destroyed were empty.

An unofficial website run by government opponents, Alganob.net, reported that al-Awlaki had been surrounded.

But the chief municipal official, Atiq Baouda, and the security officials denied that he was in the area under siege. The Yemeni army refused to comment on the operation.

Al-Awlaki played a key part in the failed terrorist Christmas Day attempt to take down a Detroit-bound passenger jet.

Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemen Embassy in Washington, said the operation was in response to a recent attempted attack on a liquefied natural gas pipeline line.

He said the military had surrounded the area and was cutting off access in and out of the town.

"Most likely they'll enter the area in the next 24 hours," Albasha said.

He said the operation has nothing to do with al-Awlaki.

"His hometown is hundreds of miles away," Albasha said.

___

Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report from Washington.

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Fed to ponder whether bolder action needed (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ Federal Reserve policymakers are wrestling with what additional steps - if any - should be taken to strengthen the plodding economy and drive down near double-digit unemployment.

Lots of lively debate is expected at Tuesday's meeting of the Fed's main policymaking group. But few expect any major programs to be unveiled. Instead, many will be looking to see if the Fed offers new clues about the timing of any new aid and what changes in the economy would trigger such a move. To give the Fed extra time for discussions, Tuesday's meeting is scheduled to start around 8 a.m. - earlier than when it has two-day sessions.

There are differing views on the policymaking group - the Federal Open Markets Committee - about what should be done. And some pressure is off after a few mildly positive economic reports showed the pace of layoffs has slowed, shoppers' appetites to spend has picked up and factory production is growing.

The reports have helped to ease concerns about the economy slipping back into a new recession, giving the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues a little breathing room.

"We may be emerging from a soft patch," said Chris Rupkey, economist at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, of the recent batch of encouraging reports. "This should allay the concerns of Fed officials."

Even without action, the Fed could send a stronger signal that it is prepared to act if it appears the economy is in danger of heading into another recession. Doing so would be aimed at boosting public and investor confidence that the Fed will come to the rescue to keep the economic recovery alive. That would reinforce a message Bernanke delivered in late August: the Fed still has some tools to help the economy and will use them if needed.

Investors appeared hopeful Monday that the Fed policymakers would offer some hints. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 145 points up and broader indexes closed higher, extending the September rally into its fourth week.

Policymakers' discussions on Tuesday - the last session before the Nov. 2 elections - are likely to focus on what specifically would trigger the Fed to take bolder action to help the economy, as well as what the action would be. Those discussions could tee-up a decision later this year, at the Fed's Nov. 2-3 meeting or at its last regularly scheduled session of the year on Dec. 14.

For his own part, Bernanke laid out some important markers in his Aug. 27 speech at an economics conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo. He said the Fed would take action if the economic outlook were to "deteriorate significantly" and if the country seemed headed for a bout of deflation - a destabilizing drop in wages, prices of goods and services, and the value of stocks, homes and other assets.

Bernanke didn't spell out what would constitute a significant deterioration, in terms of unemployment, economic growth or other key barometers. Those are some of the things he and his colleagues will be examining at Tuesday's session.

The Fed's meeting comes one day after the National Bureau of Economic Research, a group of academic economists, declared that the recession that began in December 2007 ended in June 2009. It marked the longest and most severe downturn since the Great Depression. The decision won't affect the Fed's deliberations on Tuesday. That's because the Fed makes policy decisions based on where it thinks the economy is heading, say six months from now. Not where it has been.

Economic growth slowed to a crawl in the second quarter - advancing at a pace of just 1.6 percent, compared with 3.7 percent growth in the first three months of the year. Growth in the July-September period is expected to be similarly weak. That raises the odds that the unemployment rate, already high at 9.6 percent, could climb even higher in the months ahead.

The risk is that this could trap the economy into another vicious circle: High unemployment could make consumers and businesses even more cautious in their spending, and that in turn weakens the economy further.

As to options for juicing up economic growth, Bernanke indicated a preference to launch a new program to buy large amounts of government debt. Such a move would be designed to lower already low rates on mortgages, corporate loans and other debt. The idea behind that is to entice people and businesses to spend more, which would strengthen the economy and lower unemployment.

In monetary policy circles, that's known as "quantitative easing." That's when the Fed - as it did during the recession and financial crises - takes unconventional steps to inject massive amounts of money into the economy. The Fed does this to lower interest rates and to help banks lend more. As a result, the Fed's balance sheet has ballooned to $2.3 trillion, nearly triple since before the crisis.

At its last meeting in August, the Fed, worried about the loss of economic momentum, took a small step to aid the recovery: It decided to use proceeds from its huge mortgage portfolio and buy government debt. The small amount involved helped nudge down mortgage rates. But it would take a bigger buying binge to really push rates push rates down.

But even that wouldn't guarantee that Americans would rush out and buy homes, cars and other things. The Fed's key interest rate is already at a record low near zero. It's been there since December 2008. And, the economy is still only plodding along.

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