US: Dead in Afghan chopper crash were all American (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan � All nine troops killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week � the worst for the coalition forces in four years � were Americans, the Pentagon confirmed, although it refused to provide further information on why the aircraft went down.

NATO said there were no reports of enemy fire in a rugged area in the Daychopan district of Zabul province, where the crash took place on Tuesday. But 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 U.S. Defense Department released the identities of the troops late Wednesday, saying four were sailors and the rest were soldiers.

Fort Campbell spokesman Rick Rzepka said that the five soldiers were assigned to the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade.

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. troops.

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 Wednesday, NATO said insurgents attacked a NATO and Afghan army outpost in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border and at least 25 of the militants were killed in the resulting skirmish.

Troops at the combat outpost in the Spera district of Khost province returned fire with mortars late Tuesday, killing 25 to 30 insurgents, NATO said in a statement. Initial reports found there were no civilian casualties, it said.

Gen. Raz Mohmmad Horya Khil, a senior commander of the Afghan National Army in the province, said 29 insurgents were killed. There were no casualties among NATO or Afghan troops, he said.

Horya Khil said the attack, coming from the Pakistan side of the border, was directed at the Mir Safar joint-NATO and Afghan army camp and lasted for more than two hours.

Bodies and weapons on the field were being recovered, he said.

Also Wednesday, a NATO service member was killed by a homemade bomb in southern Afghanistan.

NATO provided no further details, but the Danish military announced in Copenhagen that the bomb blast killed a Danish soldier and seriously wounded another. The two members of the Royal Life Guards were on foot patrol in Helmand province when the bomb went off, it said.

Denmark has more than 700 troops serving in the NATO-led force. Most are based in Helmand province.

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US: Dead in Afghan chopper crash were all American (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan � All nine troops killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week � the worst for the coalition forces in four years � were Americans, the Pentagon confirmed, although it refused to provide further information on why the aircraft went down.

NATO said there were no reports of enemy fire in a rugged area in the Daychopan district of Zabul province, where the crash took place on Tuesday. But 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 U.S. Defense Department released the identities of the troops late Wednesday, saying four were sailors and the rest were soldiers.

Fort Campbell spokesman Rick Rzepka said that the five soldiers were assigned to the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade.

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. troops.

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 Wednesday, NATO said insurgents attacked a NATO and Afghan army outpost in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border and at least 25 of the militants were killed in the resulting skirmish.

Troops at the combat outpost in the Spera district of Khost province returned fire with mortars late Tuesday, killing 25 to 30 insurgents, NATO said in a statement. Initial reports found there were no civilian casualties, it said.

Gen. Raz Mohmmad Horya Khil, a senior commander of the Afghan National Army in the province, said 29 insurgents were killed. There were no casualties among NATO or Afghan troops, he said.

Horya Khil said the attack, coming from the Pakistan side of the border, was directed at the Mir Safar joint-NATO and Afghan army camp and lasted for more than two hours.

Bodies and weapons on the field were being recovered, he said.

Also Wednesday, a NATO service member was killed by a homemade bomb in southern Afghanistan.

NATO provided no further details, but the Danish military announced in Copenhagen that the bomb blast killed a Danish soldier and seriously wounded another. The two members of the Royal Life Guards were on foot patrol in Helmand province when the bomb went off, it said.

Denmark has more than 700 troops serving in the NATO-led force. Most are based in Helmand province.

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2 teams delay leaving for troubled games in India (AP)

NEW DELHI � The idea sounded good: Put international sports festivals like the Commonwealth Games in countries such as India to broaden the stage for international competitions and encourage economic development.

It had been done before, with the Olympics in China two years ago and the Pan American Games in South America and Cuba in the 1980s and '90s.

This time, it is backfiring. Instead of showing the world that it is a modern, global power, India is being castigated for its lack of preparation.

With barely a week to go before the games begin, frantic last-minute preparations are verging on chaos, international sports officials are furious and the games have become an international embarrassment that could threaten plans for major sporting events in other developing nations.

Scotland and Canada said Wednesday they would delay their departures to New Delhi because of the unfinished athletes' village, and New Zealand followed their lead Thursday.

Meanwhile, an official with the New Zealand swimming team said international swimming federations could quickly stage an alternative meet if the games were canceled.

The Times of India summed it up with a front-page headline: "C'wealth Games India's Shame."

"Irretrievable damage has been done to the country's reputation," said Norris Pritam, an Indian journalist who has covered many Olympics and Asian Games. "India can still pull it off, but I was more hopeful a few weeks ago."

Commonwealth Games Federation President Mike Fennell headed to New Delhi, seeking emergency talks with the prime minister to discuss the situation, the games' chief executive, Mike Hooper, said Wednesday.

Games organizers have faced a slew of troubles recently, including heavy rains, a citywide outbreak of dengue fever, fears over security after the shooting of two tourists near one of the city's top attractions, and the collapse of a pedestrian bridge at the main stadium, injuring 27 construction workers, five critically. Part of a drop ceiling at the weightlifting venue collapsed Wednesday, officials said.

The athletes' village � a symbolic heart of the games � was still unfinished Wednesday, the eve of its scheduled opening. The home for more than 7,000 athletes and officials from 71 countries and territories has been called "unfit for human habitation."

Andrew Foster, head of Commonwealth Games England, said Wednesday "the next 24 to 48 hours is the critical time" to determine if the standards of the athletes' village can be raised.

So far, four athletes � including three world champions � have said they won't attend because of health or safety concerns.

Indian government officials insisted they would prove the critics wrong.

Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, told the BBC that the games will be "one of the most successful that the Commonwealth has undertaken." He blamed "the prolonged monsoon" for the problems.

New Delhi, chosen over the Canadian city of Hamilton, Ontario, as host, has had seven years to prepare, though very little was done until 2008. Armies of workers � often rural villagers making just a few dollars a day � have been deployed across the city in recent weeks to get it ready.

Indian officials have long dismissed international worries over the slow preparations, even though they were more than a year behind schedule. At one point, the sports minister joked that the games were like a stereotypical big chaotic Indian wedding � and that after lots of last-minute efforts everything would turn out fine.

But in recent weeks, as the many problems became more apparent, the Indian media have turned increasingly critical, questioning why the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hadn't done more to reign in mismanagement.

Taking the event to India carried inherent risks.

The trend in recent years among major international sports bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee, is for what organizers call "universality" � spreading major competitions around the world as much as possible, including to developing nations where such events have rarely been held.

Last year, the IOC awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio de Janeiro, taking the games to South America for the first time. Africa is now the only continent that hasn't had an Olympics. But South Africa's triumphant hosting of this year's World Cup despite widespread concerns has made it a strong contender for the 2020 Olympics.

"It's part of a desire to keep expanding the range of countries that can host these events," senior Canadian IOC member Dick Pound told The Associated Press. "You know when you do that the risks are much higher. You just hope the sense of national importance for the host country will allow it to focus on what resources are required and get it done. That said, the risks remain."

So what happened in India?

There's no simple answer. Certainly some blame lies with the central government, which only recently began keeping a close watch on preparations. The Indian media is also rife with allegations of widespread corruption.

And some is pure bad luck: New Delhi has had its heaviest monsoons in decades this year.

"There's an awful lot of talent in India," Pound said. "There's no inherent reason why they could not make a national effort to pull it together better than they have � or seem to have."

He also noted that the Commonwealth, unlike the IOC, is at heart a political grouping, so there is pressure to hold some games away from the traditional hosts of Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

"You can't have the same old four or five white countries doing these games all the time," he said.

The IOC and FIFA both have committees which carry out regular and rigorous inspections of preparations for the Olympics and World Cup, something which helps avoid the type of chaos engulfing the games in India.

The IOC had to put heavy pressure on Athens ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics after chronic construction delays and political wrangling put those games at risk.

"We saw what happened in Athens," Pound said. "There's a limit to what you can do if you don't have the national will or there's a domestic conflict between different groups or political parties."

Pound said Kingston, Jamaica, proved when it hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1966 that developing countries can pull it off with the necessary zeal.

The message to India and others, he said, is: "If we're going to do this and occupy a share of the world's stage, we've got to do it properly. If we're not committed to it, we shouldn't do it."

India's troubles have severely dented its hopes of bidding for the 2020 or 2024 Olympics.

"I'm sure it's put that back by at least a decade," Pound said.

The economic impact of staging major global sports events can weigh heavily on host cities and countries.

The Indian government initially pegged the cost of the Commonwealth Games at less than $100 million in 2003, but the figure has skyrocketed, with estimates ranging from $3 billion to more than $10 billion.

Unlike the Olympics or World Cup, the Commonwealth Games do not attract major international sponsors or TV rights fees.

Although China was able to use the Beijing Olympics to highlight how far it has come after decades of isolation, India is falling behind in that quest.

"When you look at China's very monolithic, dictatorial approach, they have a machine where they can make things happen in a very deterministic manner, whereas India is a colorful and chaotic democracy and sometimes things don't quite go as planned," said Gunjan Bagla, founder of Amritt, Inc., a California consulting firm that helps Western companies do business in Asia.

But the games remain deeply important to India's national pride, making it highly unlikely the government will call them off.

"We're absolutely prepared," Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, who is in charge of monitoring the readiness for Singh, told CNN-IBN television Wednesday.

___

Sullivan reported from New Delhi, Wilson from London. Associated Press writers Ravi Nessman and C. Rajshekhar Rao in New Delhi, Chris Lehourites in London and Steve McMorran in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.

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DOD brain injury office chief under investigation (AP)

WASHINGTON � The Associated Press has learned that the director of the Pentagon office overseeing the treatment of troops suffering from brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder is under investigation for allegedly making unwanted sexual advances and creating a hostile work environment.

The inquiry into Army Col. Robert Saum's conduct comes just months after his predecessor abruptly resigned. Lawmakers had criticized the office for not moving quickly enough to improve care for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injuries and psychological trauma.

His executive assistant said Saum was traveling and could not be reached for comment.

A Pentagon spokeswoman confirmed that a complaint had recently been filed against Saum relating to personnel management, but she provided no further details.

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Obama faults himself for not selling health law (AP)

FALLS CHURCH, Va. � Blaming himself for coolness to his health care overhaul, President Barack Obama is seeking to reintroduce the law to voters who don't much like or understand it six months after he signed it.

The White House gathered patients from around the country who have benefited from the measure, and the president rolled up his sleeves to address them Wednesday in a sunny Virginia backyard, highlighting changes that take effect at the six-month mark on Thursday. These include a ban on lifetime coverage limits, as well as free coverage for preventive care and immunizations. Young adults will be able to stay on their parents' plans until they turn 26, and kids with pre-existing health conditions won't be denied coverage.

"We just got to give people some basic peace of mind," the president said,

"I thank you from the bottom of my heart," Norma Byrne of Vineland, N.J., told the president, explaining she was benefiting from the law's provisions that are closing a Medicare coverage gap for prescription drugs.

But such gratitude isn't the norm.

A new Associated Press poll finds high levels of misunderstanding about what's actually in the law, and more people opposed than in support. And with crucial midterm elections six weeks away, the only Democrats running ads about the historic legislation are the ones who voted "no."

"The six-month anniversary of ObamaCare will be a lonely one for President Obama and congressional Democrats," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Wednesday. "The president's plan was unpopular when it was passed in March, and today the wholesale takeover of the American health care system is undeniably radioactive."

Obama ruefully told his listeners, "Sometimes I fault myself for not being able to make the case more clearly to the country."

Still, he took on Republicans who want to repeal the law, daring them to tell that to a cancer patient covered by a new high-risk pool, or a parent whose child was able to get insurance despite a pre-existing health condition.

"It makes sense in terms of politics and polls," Obama said of the GOP position. "It doesn't make sense in terms of actually making people's lives better."

Yet politics and polls are a major concern for Democrats who are on the ballot in November � elections for every House seat and a third of the Senate. And Democrats aren't seeing the political benefit Obama promised them when he told them they'd be proud to campaign on the measure. In the House, 219 Democrats voted for the health bill, but the party's only House members highlighting their votes in ad campaigns are a few of the 34 who opposed the measure and can now boast of their independence.

The White House is playing down the significance of the new law as a campaign issue.

"Health care will play a role in individual campaigns, but this is not an election about health care," Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director, said in an interview. "This is an election about jobs and the economy."

Agreeing that the economy is the foremost concern, Obama nonetheless insisted Wednesday, "Health care was one of those issues that we could no longer ignore."

The president dug deep into his own history as he sought to relate to voters. As he has in the past, the president described his mother's struggle with the ovarian cancer that killed her, wondering aloud whether she might have had a better outcome with better insurance coverage. He talked about younger daughter Sasha's bout of meningitis, and his feeling of desperation. He said he had thought to himself, "What if I hadn't had insurance?"

The new AP poll finds just 30 percent of people in favor of and 40 percent opposed to the 10-year, nearly $1 trillion law to extend health coverage to 32 million uninsured. Another 30 percent were neither in favor nor opposed.

There remains much confusion about the law's provisions. More than a third of respondents wrongly think it contains panels of bureaucrats to make decisions about people's care � what critics labeled "death panels" � and 65 percent believe congressional budget analysts said it would increase the government's debt. In fact, budget analysts say it will reduce red ink.

The biggest changes in the legislation, such as the new purchasing pools and requirement for everyone to carry insurance, don't kick in until 2014. Among changes taking effect this week:

_Young adults can remain on family health plans until they turn 26.

_Free immunization provided for kids.

_Free preventive care provided, such as mammograms and cholesterol screenings.

_No more lifetime coverage limits, and annual limits start to phase out.

_Plans can't cancel coverage for people who get sick.

_No denial of coverage for kids with pre-existing health conditions.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Pace in Falls Church, Va., and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS polling figure of people who think there would be "death panels" to more than a third, instead of a quarter.)

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Violence in east Jerusalem clouds peace efforts (AP)

JERUSALEM � Crowds of Palestinian youths violently rampaged in east Jerusalem Wednesday following the shooting death of a local man, clouding fragile peace efforts even as the Palestinian president signaled he may back away from threats to quit negotiations if Israel resumes West Bank settlement construction.

At one point, Israeli riot police stormed the hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary � the most explosive site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the place where the last Palestinian uprising began almost exactly 10 years ago.

That uprising � which killed thousands of people over some five years of violence � erupted after a failed U.S.-led peace effort at Camp David. Wednesday's outburst comes less than a month after the sides resumed peace negotiations, at a tense moment when those talks are already facing possible collapse over Israel's plans to end its 10-month slowdown of construction in the Jewish settlements of the West Bank.

The "moratorium" on construction was declared last November under intense U.S. pressure to help coax the Palestinians into talks with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who � despite having accepted the principle of a Palestinian state � inspires very little faith in the Palestinians. Netanyahu said all along that the measure would end on Sunday � and the Palestinians have threatened to walk away from the talks if this occurs.

The impasse and looming deadline have created a palpable tension that has built throughout the week.

On Monday, Israel's deputy premier made a public call on the Palestinians to abandon their demand, casting such a move as a mutual "compromise" in which Israel might retain some of the restrictions. On Tuesday, Israel's military chief warned that a collapse of the talks could well lead to violence.

Meanwhile, the Israeli political system braced for either outcome. If Netanyahu backs down and extends the freeze, troubles with his pro-settler coalition partners are likely and he would have to persuade the centrist Kadima party to join the coalition.

If he doesn't and the talks break down, Israel's international standing would suffer � alongside the possibility of renewed violence with the Palestinians.

A glimmer of hope arrived from the United States, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas indicated a possible softening of his position in a Tuesday night address to prominent American Jewish figures.

"I cannot say I will leave the negotiations, but it's very difficult for me to resume talks if Prime Minister Netanyahu declares that he will continue his (settlement) activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem," Abbas said, according to a transcript of the event obtained by The Associated Press.

The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations later said Abbas' comments had been misconstrued and Abbas was still ready to walk away.

"The position of the president is still the same," Riyad Mansour said. But he stopped short of a denial, and the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, which sponsored the meeting, said the comments were recorded and Abbas was speaking in English.

In Israel the story led news reports � before being overtaken by the ominous outburst of violence.

Clashes erupted in the Silwan neighborhood shortly after a 32-year-old Palestinian man was killed by a private Israeli security guard watching over Jewish families in the area. About 70 ultranationalist Jewish families live in Silwan, amid some 50,000 Palestinian residents.

Israeli police said the man, Samir Sirhan, had a criminal record and was shot overnight after a group of youths pelted the guard with stones. But residents said that Sirhan, a father of five young children, was unlikely to have participated in the violence. They also noted he was killed at about 4 a.m., an unlikely time for stone throwing.

After the shooting, rioting spread throughout Silwan and to the nearby walled Old City, intensifying during the man's funeral.

Young men and boys with their faces covered with T-shirts to avoid identification set fire to garbage bins and tires, sending plumes of smoke across the crammed neighborhood.

They hurled concrete chunks and rocks at paramilitary police and demanded revenge. "We will defend you with our blood and souls, martyr," protesters chanted.

Police responded by firing off rounds of acrid tear gas, which wafted through the area.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police moved into the disputed compound after stone throwers attacked Jewish worshippers at the adjacent Western Wall, the holiest prayer site for Jews.

A Muslim eyewitness on the compound said the clashes were brief.

The area was crowded with people for the beginning of the seven-day Jewish festival of Sukkot � one of the three Jewish pilgrimage festivals during which Jews in biblical times would flock to Jerusalem.

Rosenfeld said the stone throwers fled into the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, and after a standoff for several minutes, riot forces pulled back without further incident.

A teenage boy held the hand of Sirhan's four-year-old son Sultan, taking him to where clashes were taking place. Later he walked among the protesters waving a large Palestinian flag.

"Kill the Jews!" he chanted, at the prompting of an elderly relative.

In other unrest, Palestinian youths overturned three cars with passengers inside, in one case dragging a man out of his vehicle and stabbing him. They smashed the windows of five buses, forcing passengers on one of them to flee, and a paramilitary police jeep was set on fire and destroyed.

Ten Israelis were wounded, including the stabbing victim who was seriously hurt, police said. Palestinian medics said 14 people were lightly hurt. By early evening, sporadic riots were still taking place.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, an Israeli advocacy group, recently wrote in a report that Israeli security firms act like a private police force for Silwan's Jewish residents. It said the firms often receive government funding and frequently use threats and violence against Arab residents, while police are reluctant to intervene.

The violence underscored the difficulty of bringing true peace to Jerusalem � which will perhaps be the thorniest issue in the peace talks launched this month under U.S. aegis, with President Barack Obama saying he hoped for agreement within a year. Other challenges will be the future of Palestinian refugees and borders.

But for the talks to reach that stage, the current deadlock over the settlement freeze will have to be finessed � and officials from both sides have been meeting on the dispute with U.S. mediators.

In his two-hour address to the Jewish leaders, Abbas called on Israel to extend the building restrictions for several months while the sides negotiate the big issues. "At that time, Israelis will be free to build in their territory and the Palestinians the same," he said.

Abbas struck a conciliatory tone as he answered questions, referring to Netanyahu several times as his "partner" in the quest for peace.

"Is there a more significant and more precious to goal than achieving peace?" he said. "We believe that our children and grandchildren deserve a better future for peace, prosperity, dignity, and security."

Israeli officials reacted with caution to the comments.

"Israel wants this process to move on. We believe historical reconciliation is possible. What is important when problems arise in negotiations is to overcome those problems and not allow them to derail the process," government spokesman Mark Regev said.

___

Associated Press Writers Aisha Mohammed, Ben Hubbard and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and John Heilprin at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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Audit: City mismanaged over $50 million in funds (AP)

LOS ANGELES � Eight current and former officials of the city of Bell appeared in shackles before judges Wednesday in a case of alleged municipal corruption that prosecutors say ran so deep it involved personnel who would otherwise have exposed it.

Key defendants gained little in their appeals to slash high bail amounts, including ousted city manager Robert Rizzo whose $3.2 million bail was only reduced to $2 million.

As Bell's chief administrative officer, Rizzo is accused of secretly accruing a salary of nearly $800,000 and illegally lending city money to himself, his assistant, City Council members, police leaders and officers, and an array of city workers ranging from management analysts to a recreation attendant who borrowed $1,500.

"The loans which are the basis of these charges were not publicly approved and the crimes were committed by persons who would otherwise have been responsible for reporting such conduct," the felony complaint stated.

The criminal charges stemmed from one of numerous probes of Bell by various government agencies.

Bell mismanaged more than $50 million in bond money, levied illegal taxes and paid exorbitant salaries to its leaders, according to a state audit released Wednesday.

All eight defendants, who were arrested Tuesday, appeared first before a judge who postponed their arraignments until Oct. 21. No pleas were entered.

Three were given permission to post bail immediately, but five others, including Mayor Oscar Hernandez and Rizzo were ordered to appear before another judge later in the day to try to prove they would not use looted city funds to get out of jail and to try to have their bail amounts lowered.

Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor instead found that the alleged crimes were extremely serious and the defendants might become flight risks. In addition to leaving Rizzo's bail in the millions of dollars, he only made modest reductions for two others and left another unchanged. Two others dropped out of the hearing.

Rizzo was singled out for criticism in the state controller's audit, which said he had total control of city funds and used some of the money to inflate his salary and pay off personal loans.

When he resigned this year, Rizzo was making almost twice as much as President Barack Obama's salary.

"Our audit found the city had almost no accounting controls, no checks or balances, and the general fund was run like a petty cash drawer," state Controller John Chiang said in a statement. "The city's purse-strings were tied to only one individual, resulting in a perfect breeding ground for fraudulent, wasteful spending."

The findings "are shocking and detail actions that are reprehensible beyond words," said Bell interim city manager Pedro Carrillo, who requested the state audit in July.

He called the audit an invaluable tool to correct the problems and to establish reforms to prevent more abuse.

Others arrested Tuesday were current Mayor Oscar Hernandez, former assistant city manager Angela Spaccia; Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo; council members George Mirabal and Luis Artiga and former council members Victor Bello and George Cole.

Prosecutors alleged the wrongdoing by city leaders went unchecked for years because anyone who could have exposed the scheme was reaping benefits.

The eight suspects were charged with misappropriating $5.5 million in public funds. However, the audit questioned well over $65 million in city expenses.

Among the audit's other findings:

_The city levied more than $5.6 million in improper sewer, property and business license taxes.

_Exorbitant salaries were approved for city leaders without required performance reviews. In the past year alone, the city spent more than $5.8 million on compensation for the mayor, City Council members and six top administrators.

_Rizzo used more than $93,000 to repay two personal loans and approved $1.5 million in loans to other city workers even though no city ordinance permitted it.

"The controller's audit has determined all of these loans to be gifts of public funds, as they provided no public benefit," the audit statement said.

_The city paid $10.4 million to two development firms owned by a contractor who also was the city's director of planning services.

_The city made a $4.8 million land purchase from a former mayor without documenting how the land would be used. No work has been done on the property, which contains a vacant store.

_The city mismanaged $50 million in bond funds approved by voters in 2003. The city issued the funds without any plan to use the money or any apparent need for the money.

Among other things, more than $23.5 million of the bond money went into a non-interest bearing account where it was sitting unused as of last month. Much of the money was designated for a Bell Sports Complex, but the audit found no plans for developing it.

"After six years, the city has a dirt lot with a masonry wall," the controller's office said.

The controller's office plans to release another report next month on the city's handling of state and federal funds. A third audit to be released in November will address financial reports that an outside accounting firm prepared.

Since the scandal broke, public officials, city managers and others have said the situation in Bell showed why people must insist that elected officials communicate honestly and openly.

Interim City Attorney Jamie Casso said he expected Bell could carry on business as usual, adding that Carrillo and Lorenzo Velez � the one council member who wasn't arrested � were meeting regularly. Velez was not taking a high salary.

__

Associated Press Writer John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Tax, spending cuts top GOP campaign-year 'Pledge' (AP)

WASHINGTON � House Republican leaders are vowing to cut taxes and federal spending, repeal President Barack Obama's health care law and ban federal funding of abortion as part of a campaign manifesto designed to propel them to victory in midterm elections Nov. 2.

The "Pledge to America," circulated to GOP lawmakers Wednesday, emphasizes job creation and spending control, as well as changing the way Congress does business, according to Republicans who have been briefed.

It pairs some familiar Republican ideas � such as deep spending cuts, medical liability reform and stricter border enforcement � with an anti-government call to action that draws on tea party themes and echoes voters' disgruntlement with the economy and Obama's leadership.

The plan is emerging less than six weeks before elections in which Republicans are favored to add substantially to their ranks, perhaps enough to seize control of the House.

"Regarding the policies of the current government, the governed do not consent," reads a preamble to the agenda. "An arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites makes decisions, issues mandates, and enacts laws without accepting or requesting the input of the many."

It goes on to call for every bill to cite its specific constitutional authority, a vote on any government regulation that costs more than $100 million annually and a freeze on hiring federal workers except security personnel. It also has a "read the bill" provision mandating that legislation be publicly available for three days before a vote.

GOP leaders are set to go public with the plan Thursday at a hardware store in suburban Virginia, choosing a location outside the nation's capital that's in keeping with the plan's grassroots emphasis.

Officials have described the agenda as the culmination of an Internet- and social networking-powered project they launched earlier this year to give voters the chance to say what Congress should do. The "America Speaking Out" project collected 160,000 ideas and received 1 million votes and comments on the proposals, they said.

Much internal debate ensued among party leaders, rank-and-file lawmakers and GOP activists about the contents of the agenda, including whether it should include a reference to "family values" � which some strategists argued could alienate the independent voters Republicans are courting.

They agreed to include the abortion provision and a vaguely worded statement on social issues: "We pledge to honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values."

The plan recalled Republicans' 1994 "Contract With America," a list of heavily poll-tested proposals they unveiled about six weeks before the GOP gained 54 House seats and seized control of the House for the first time in 40 years.

But the rollout reflects a national mood far different from the one 16 years ago, and an electorate that national surveys show is fed up with its representatives and disillusioned about government.

"The Contract was done at a time when it was acceptable for a relatively small number of elected officials and trusted aides to go behind closed doors, come up with some ideas, test them in polls and then announce them on the steps of the Capitol," said Michael Franc of the conservative Heritage Foundation, who was a House aide during those days.

"If you did that now, you'd see yourself being hung in effigy most places. ... (Republicans) can't afford to come across as another case of 'government knows best,'" Franc said.

Republican strategists advising House leaders have told them that presenting their own ideas for governing � laser-focused on jobs and recharging the economy � is crucial to their electoral chances.

"It is not enough for the Republican Party just simply to point out that President Obama and the Democrats have failed," said pollster David Winston. "What Americans are looking for is a plan that they have confidence in that will work."

The plan proposes creating jobs through tax cuts, including permanently extending George W. Bush's reductions for people at every income level, now slated to expire in January, and a 20 percent deduction for small businesses. It also calls for repeal of an unpopular new provision enacted to help pay for the health care law that requires nearly 40 million businesses to file tax forms for every vendor that sells them more than $600 in goods.

It offers an array of proposals to limit spending, including cutting back to 2008 levels and placing a hard cap on future government expenditures.

Republicans are calling for replacing the health care law by letting people buy health care coverage outside their states, expanding state programs that cover high-risk patients who can't otherwise get insurance and expanding the use of tax-advantaged savings accounts to cover medical costs.

And the plan also focuses on security, including calling for denying terrorists so-called "Miranda rights," opposing the release of Guantanamo Bay detainees into the United States and full funding for missile defense programs.

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UN experts: Israel flotilla raid broke int'l law (AP)

GENEVA � A report by three U.N.-appointed human rights experts Wednesday said that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla killing nine activists earlier this year.

The U.N. Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded late Wednesday by saying the Human Rights Council had a "biased, politicized and extremist approach."

The Palestinian group Hamas, meanwhile, praised the report and called for those involved in the raid to be punished.

The 56-page document lists a series of alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces during and after the raid, including willful killing and torture. It also alleges that Israel violated the right to life, liberty, freedom of expression and the right of captured crew and passengers to be treated with humanity.

"A series of violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, were committed by the Israeli forces during the interception of the flotilla and during the detention of passengers in Israel prior to deportation," the experts found.

Examining the circumstances of the raid, the panel concluded that a humanitarian crisis existed in Gaza on the day of the incident in Gaza and "for this reason alone the blockade is unlawful and cannot be sustained in law."

"The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel toward the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality," the report said.

It described the Israeli raid on May 31, in which eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American aboard the Mavi Marmara were shot and killed, as "clearly unlawful."

Israel says its troops opened fire after coming under attack by activists wielding clubs, axes and metal rods. The activists said they were defending their ship after it was attacked by Israeli soldiers in international waters.

The raid sparked an international outcry and forced Israel to ease its blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza. Israel, along with Egypt, imposed the embargo in June 2007 after Hamas militants took control of the area.

Since then, Israel has lifted virtually all restrictions on food, medicine and consumer goods, but still maintains its naval blockade, saying that Hamas could sneak weapons into Gaza.

Israel indicated early on that it wouldn't cooperate with the panel and roundly rejected its conclusions on Wednesday. "The Human Rights Council blamed Israel prior to the investigation and it is no surprise that they condemn after," said Andy David, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, referring to the 47-member body's resolution in early June condemning the raid.

Israel has instead been working with a separate U.N. group under New Zealand's former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe that is also examining the incident but has yet to publish its findings.

"Israel is a democratic and law abiding country that carefully observes international law and, when need be, knows how to investigate itself," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website. "That is how Israel has always acted, and that is the way in which investigations were conducted following Operation Cast Lead, launched to protect the inhabitants of southern Israel from rockets and terror attacks carried out by Hamas from Gaza."

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas � the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza � said the report emphasized that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories violates human rights "not only against Palestinian people but against innocent people who came to show their sympathy."

"Now it's required to be a mechanism in order to translate this report into action and to bring the occupation commanders to trial for the crimes they committed," Barhoum said.

The Human Rights Council's report was compiled by former U.N. war crimes prosecutor Desmond de Silva, Trinidadian judge Karl T. Hudson-Phillips and Malaysian women's rights advocate Mary Shanthi Dairiam. It is scheduled to be debated in the council on Monday.

The body, which is dominated by African, Asian and Latin American countries, has in the past repeatedly singled out Israel for criticism. Its resolutions carry little weight in law but are considered an important indicator of global opinion on human rights issues.

___

U.N. report http://bit.ly/FlotillaReport

___

Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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AP Interview: Clinton says Dems can keep majority (AP)

NEW YORK � Former U.S. president Bill Clinton said Wednesday that Democrats can still pull the November elections out of the fire if they refute Republican arguments and keep it from becoming a referendum on President Barack Obama.

He said the Democrats have to assume they will lose some Congressional seats in the midterm voting because they won a lot of exceedingly marginal seats in 2006 and 2008, "but whether these elections will be a big setback for the Democrats is yet to be determined."

"If the Democrats can make this a choice, not a referendum, they can win," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "If it's a referendum on anger, apathy, laced with amnesia, they're going to have a problem."

The Democrats need to answer the two key Republican arguments � that they should be thrown out because they haven't reveresed the economic slump resulting from the global financial crisis and that "there's too much spending and too much government."

"I think the Democrats ought to stand up and say ... you gave them eight years to dig this hole, and to double the debt of the country, and not to produce any jobs, and then to have a financial collapse and all this calamity. At least give us four to dig out of it," Clinton said.

"If we're wrong, throw us all out. But don't bring back the people that dug the hole," he said.

Democrats are facing a wave of voter anger over the struggling economy, and are hoping the Republicans will be saddled with unelectable Tea Party candidates whose ultraconservative policies may be too extreme for moderate voters.

Still, the Republicans appear poised to gain seats and possibly control of the House, and win seats in the Senate. This would position them to block virtually any Obama initiatives in the next two years. Polls show Democrats far less excited about the Nov. 2 elections than Republicans are, and independent voters are favoring the Republicans.

Clinton said it's important for Democrats to tell voters that "we didn't get out of the hole but we have stopped digging."

The United States has done better than almost any other major industrialized nation hit by the 2008 financial meltdown, recovering 70 percent of its lost income growth, he said. In contrast, Germany has recovered 60 percent, Japan 50 percent and Britain just 30 percent.

Clinton said Democrats shouldn't be asking for "gratitude" from voters because they haven't felt the effects yet, but they should be delivering the message that "it's too soon for you to go back to the policies that got us in trouble in the first place."

He said the Democrats must also emphasize to voters the impact of Republican promises such as rolling back the financial oversight bill and repeal the student loan reform bill and Obama's landmark health care bill.

"I think we ought to defend the stimulus," Clinton said. "The stimulus was $800 billion. The hole was $3 trillion. Two-thirds of the stimulus was not designed to get us out of the hole. It was designed to help us tread water so we didn't drown."

Democrats need to make the case that the stimulus provided a modest tax cut for modest income people, and grants to state and local governments to keep people from being laid off, mainly teachers and health care workers, he said.

"Only one-third went to creating jobs in infrastructure and clean energy, and every independent study shows that more jobs were created than the experts estimated, and that the unemployment rate would be 1.5 percent higher if we hand't done it," Clinton said.

Democrats also need to make the point that their priority now is to create jobs in small businesses, manufacturing and clean energy, he said.

"President Obama and the Democrats have an initiative in all three of these areas, and all the initiative has been entirely opposed by the Republicans running for Congress," Clinton said.

Where is the money going to come from?

Clinton said corporations have $1.6 trillion they haven't released for investment and banks have $1.8 trillion in cash, which means they have the capacity to loan $18 trillion.

"This whole world recession would be over if they loan that kind of money," he said.

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Spanish area OKs flaming bull festivals (AP)

MADRID � Lawmakers who banned bullfighting in Spain's Catalonia region this summer voted Wednesday to endorse other traditions that have been criticized as cruel to bulls, such as attaching burning sticks to their horns as they chase human thrill seekers.

The vote will only affect the Catalonia region of northeast Spain, but it addresses another manifestation of this country's timeless fascination with bulls and the testing of people's bravery with the snorting animals.

Besides watching the deadly duel of matador and bull, Spaniards run with bulls in Pamplona every year, spear them to death from horseback in another northern town � neither are in Catalonia � and cordon off town squares to let even children dodge feisty calves of the kind used to breed top-grade fighter bulls.

In July, Catalonia banned bullfighting on grounds of cruelty, becoming only the second Spanish region to do away with the centuries-old tradition, after the Canary Islands.

Wednesday's bill � approved by a 114-14 vote, with 5 abstentions � protects other bull-related traditions in Catalonia that activists find repulsive.

Known as 'correbous' in Catalan, these traditions include attaching short sticks with flaming wax or fireworks to bulls' horns, then letting the animals run around and chase people, or letting the beasts chase human daredevils by seaside marinas and plunge into the water.

Many people in Spain said they find it odd that Catalonia didn't scrap these eyebrow-raising customs at the same time it banned bullfighting.

The goal of the spectacles is not to harm or kill the bulls, but animal rights activists say the experience is still denigrating and terrifying for the animals and that some of the beasts end up getting burned or even drown during such events.

Catalonia's dominant party, a center-right nationalist coalition called Convergence and Union, says the bill � which it sponsored � seeks to fill a legal vacuum by establishing for the first time safety norms and other regulations for these festivals, including measures to protect the bulls themselves. But the legislation is widely seen as a way to enshrine the customs and buffer them against pressure to do away with them.

Francesc Sancho, a party spokesman, insisted the customs are not cruel and cannot be equated with bullfighting because the animals do not die. He said the bill seeks to protect bulls by, for instance, limiting how long such spectacles can last and having veterinarians examine the bulls afterward for signs of injury or stress.

Of the flaming horns, he said: "If the horns are wide enough, the bull does not get burned."

Sancho insisted that if the Catalonia region banned bullfighting on grounds of cruelty, it only makes sense to regulate the village festivals to minimize harm to the animals. "We are being absolutely consistent," he said.

But Alejandra Garcia, an animal rights activist who took part in a grass-roots campaign that led to the vote on banning bullfighting, said bulls do in fact suffer in the village parties.

"And it is absolutely unnecessary because the animal is being made to suffer just as a form of entertainment, so people have something fun to do in summer. That's all it is," she said.

In some seaside festivals, bulls chase thrill seekers on platforms set up along marinas, and usually end up falling into the water. People in boats lead the bulls back onto ground and back onto the platform for another go at it.

Garcia said there have been instances in which bulls got so sick of this they simply swam out to sea and drowned.

"There have been a lot of cases of that," she said.

Garcia said the bill is actually good because it will give activists a legal tool to go to court against, say, festival organizers who violate the rules it sets, such as a ban on kids under 14 taking part.

Ultimately, it will become clear these kinds of festivals are impossible to regulate and animals will continue to suffer, and this will lead to pressure to ban these customs, she said.

"For us it is a first step toward achieving a ban, over time," Garcia said.

An environmental party that is the only one in Catalonia to speak out against regulating the festivals � and which favors outlawing the traditions in which the animal is seen to suffer � has called the bill an act of contrition by politicians who banned bullfighting.

With regional elections scheduled for Nov. 28, the politicians are trying to reach out to Catalans who like bull-related events, said Daniel Pi Noya, a spokesman for the party, Initiative for Catalonia.

"This bill is all about seeking forgiveness," he said.

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Spain asks SAfrica to extradite ex-Rwanda general (AP)

JOHANNESBURG � Spain is seeking the extradition of a former Rwandan general for genocide who has been targeted in two assassination plots while in exile in South Africa, authorities said Wednesday.

Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa has been in South Africa since reportedly falling out with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Nyamwasa's wife says Kagame was behind the shooting of her husband in Johannesburg in June that left him hospitalized with a bullet wound in the stomach. Rwanda's government denies involvement.

State prosecutor Malose Samuel Monene said there was a second plot to kill Nyamwasa while he was in the hospital. A total of ten suspects have been arrested in the shooting and the second alleged plot. One of the suspects planned to strangle Nyamwasa with string in the hospital but the attack was never carried out, The Star newspaper reported.

A magistrate on Wednesday suspended a bail hearing until Oct. 7 for Pascal Kanyandekwe, a Rwandan who is the sole suspect charged both with the shooting of Nyamwasa and the conspiracy to kill him in the hospital.

South African government spokesman Tlali Tlali said Wednesday South Africa has received Spain's extradition request but declined to say what the response might be. Spain's Cabinet announced Friday it was seeking Nyamwasa's extradition. A Spanish judge in 2008 charged him and 39 other members of the Rwandan military with the mass killings of civilians after they seized power in Rwanda and pushed out Hutus who in 1994 killed more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a genocide.

Nyamwasa and other senior Tutsis are accused of waging a subsequent extermination campaign against Hutus.

Spanish courts can prosecute human rights crimes even if they are alleged to have occurred in other countries so long as there is a clear link to Spain. Three Spanish aid workers were killed East Africa in 1997 � homicides for which Nyamwasa has also been charged in Spain.

The Spanish extradition request comes after a draft U.N. report accuses Rwandan troops and allies tied to Kagame of slaughtering tens of thousands of Hutus in neighboring Congo. Kagame vehemently rejected the accusations and has threatened to withdraw Rwandan peacekeepers from Sudan if the accusations are contained in the U.N. report which is expected to be published in October.

Rwanda has accused Nyamwasa of trying to destabilize Kagame's government and asked South Africa to send the general home on charges linked to grenade attacks in Rwanda's capital earlier this year.

Nyamwasa was shot in the stomach by a gunman in June as he was returning with his wife to the upscale gated community where they live in northern Johannesburg.

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Violence in east Jerusalem clouds peace efforts (AP)

JERUSALEM � Crowds of Palestinian youths went on violent rampages in east Jerusalem on Thursday, stoning buses, overturning cars and facing down Israeli riot police at the holy city's most sensitive religious site following the shooting death of a local man.

The sudden burst of violence immediately clouded fragile peace efforts, even as the Palestinian president signaled he may back away from threats to walk away from the negotiations next week if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proceeds with plans to resume settlement construction in the West Bank.

"I cannot say I will leave the negotiations, but it's very difficult for me to resume talks if Prime Minister Netanyahu declares that he will continue his (settlement) activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem," Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said in an address to U.S. Jewish leaders late Tuesday in New York, according to a transcript of the event obtained by The Associated Press.

The violence was a vivid illustration of how sensitive � and combustible � the situation in east Jerusalem can be. The competing Israeli and Palestinian claims to the area, home to key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, have frequently escalated into clashes and intense fighting.

Wednesday's clashes erupted in the Silwan neighborhood shortly after a 32-year-old Palestinian man was killed by a private Israeli security guard watching over Jewish families in the area. About 70 ultranationalist Jewish families live in Silwan, amid some 50,000 Palestinian residents.

Israeli police said the man, Samir Sirhan, had a criminal record and was shot after a group of youths pelted the guard with stones. But residents said that Sirhan, a father of five young children, was unlikely to have participated in the violence.

After the shooting, rioting spread throughout Silwan and to the nearby walled Old City. During the man's funeral procession, hundreds of protesters set tires on fire, smashed the windows of several buses and screamed for revenge. "We will defend you with our blood and souls, martyr," protesters chanted.

At one point, Israeli riot police stormed the hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The site is the most explosive in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and in the past, even seemingly minor incidents have ignited clashes and protests throughout the region.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police moved into the compound after stone throwers attacked Jewish worshippers at the adjacent Western Wall, the holiest prayer site for Jews.

He said the stone throwers fled into the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, and after a standoff for several minutes, riot forces pulled back without further incident.

In other unrest, Palestinian crowds overturned three cars with passengers inside, in one case dragging a man out of his vehicle and stabbing him. Five buses had their windows smashed out, in one case forcing passengers to get off and flee, and a paramilitary police jeep was set on fire and destroyed.

Wearing shirts over their faces, protesters hurled chunks of concrete and rocks at police. Black-clad forces with riot shields responded with tear gas, sending acrid smoke over the neighborhood.

A total of 10 Israelis were wounded, including the stabbing victim who was seriously hurt, police said. Palestinian medics said 14 people were lightly hurt. By early evening, the situation had calmed.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, an Israeli advocacy group, recently wrote in a report that Israeli security firms act like a private police force for Silwan's Jewish residents. It said the firms often receive government funding and frequently use threats and violence against Arab residents, while police are reluctant to intervene.

"What happened to Samir could happen to anybody," said Murad Shafi, a 35-year-old neighbor of Sirhan. "You wake up, maybe you shout at someone. Maybe you argue. But in the end, you are dead."

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Canada approves Facebook changes

22 September 2010 Last updated at 11:24 ET

The Canadian privacy commissioner is happy with changes made by Facebook, following an investigation of the site's policies last year.

Jennifer Stoddart said the social network had "vastly improved" the sharing of personal information with third-party developers.

She believes that Facebook now provides users "with clear information" about privacy policies.

In May the social network made wide-ranging changes to its site.

These changes came about partly as a result of pressure from privacy commissioners and campaigners around the world.

Long road

One of the major concerns of the Canadian commissioner was the way Facebook gave third-party developers "virtually unrestricted access" to Facebook users' personal information.

The new model means developers must inform users of the data they need and seek consent to use it.

"We're also pleased that Facebook has developed simplified privacy settings and has implemented a tool that allows users to apply a privacy setting to each photo or comment they post," said Ms Stoddart.

But it is by no means the end of the matter, she added.

"It has been a long road in arriving at this point. These changes are the result of extensive and often intense disccusions with Facebook," she said.

"Facebook is constantly evolving and we are actively following the changes there. We will take action if we feel there are potential new violations," she added.

Michael Richter, Chief Privacy Counsel at Facebook responded to the conclusions:

"Making the privacy controls on Facebook comprehensive and easy to understand is an important part of our commitment to giving every person the power to control their own Facebook experience, and will continue to be even though this investigation by the OPC [Office of the Privacy Commisioner]has been concluded."

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, has said publicly that he thinks that life on the web should be social "by default".

Ms Stoddard does not share this ambition.

"We have cautioned Facebook against expanding the categories of user information made available to everyone on the internet," she said.

She has also recommended that Facebook makes its default settings for photo albums more restrictive. Currently it recommends that users make albums available to everyone.

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Zimbabwe Peace Day marchers freed after 2 days (AP)

HARARE, Zimbabwe � A court in Zimbabwe has freed 83 activists jailed for two days after staging a march to demand better policing and public safety in the southern African nation.

Harare magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi released them without bail Wednesday but called them to return to court Oct. 6 to face minor "criminal nuisance" charges.

Activist group Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise said 600 members marched Monday, the eve of International Peace Day, to protest police conduct.

The group accuses police of beating suspects in public, harassing street vendors and stealing their goods and routinely demanding bribes.

Police said the march was conducted without routine police clearance.

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3 French employees kidnapped in ship off Nigeria (AP)

PARIS � Three French employees of marine services company Bourbon have been kidnapped in an attack on one of its ships in an oil field off Nigeria, the company said Wednesday.

Bourbon said in a statement on its website that no claim of responsibility has been made for the assault on the ship, the Bourbon Alexandre, which occurred Tuesday night or early Wednesday.

Bourbon said several speedboats were involved in the assault on the ship. Bourbon spokeswoman Christa Roqueblave said the attackers kidnapped three French employees, then sped away.

The company said the 13 other crew members "remained aboard, and no injuries were reported." It said the families of the hostages have been contacted.

The French-flagged vessel was working in an offshore oil field operated by Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of Chinese oil producer Sinopec Group.

Commodore David Nabaida, a Nigerian naval spokesman, told The Associated Press that he was aware of only one French citizen kidnapped during the attack. He confirmed the attack and said naval authorities are investigating. He declined further comment.

France's Foreign Ministry said it was aware of the attack but had no further comment. On its site with recommendations for travelers, the ministry warned last month of an increase in the incidence of kidnappings of foreigners throughout Nigeria.

Africa's most populous country remains a target-rich environment full of oil barges and oil company ships off of the delta, one of the U.S.' top sources of crude oil. Cargo ships off the coast of the mega city of Lagos also fall under pirate attacks as they wait to unload their goods at the city's busy and mismanaged ports.

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Associated Press Writer Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria contributed to this report.

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CIA Afghan paramilitary force hunts militants (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan � A U.S. official in Washington says the CIA is running an all-Afghan paramilitary group in Afghanistan that has been hunting Taliban and al-Qaida targets for the agency.

A security professional in Kabul familiar with the operation says the 3,000-strong force was set up in 2002 to capture targets for CIA interrogation. Both sources spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

As first reported in a new book by Bob Woodward, "Obama's Wars," the paramilitary unit, called the Counterterrorist Protection Team, operates in violence-wracked provinces including Kandahar, Paktia and Paktika.

Woodward also reports the units conduct covert operations into Pakistan as part of a campaign against al-Qaida and Taliban havens there.

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Fed policy hint hits stocks as dollar slides (AP)

LONDON � World stock markets fell Wednesday while the dollar dropped to a near five-month low against the euro after the Federal Reserve indicated that it was ready to provide more assistance to the flagging U.S. economy.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 25.10 points, or 0.5 percent, at 5,551.09 while Germany's DAX fell 49.68 points, or 0.8 percent, at 6,226.30. The CAC-40 in France was 39.44 points, or 1 percent, lower at 3,744.96.

Wall Street was also poised to open lower shortly � Dow futures were down 32 points, or 0.3 percent, at 10,662 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures fell 2.4 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,132.30.

There were early gains in the aftermath of the Fed's comments that it was "prepared to provide additional accommodation if needed to support the economic recovery and to return inflation over time to levels consistent with its mandate."

But investors largely reacted negatively to the statement in light of its more pessimistic economic assessment, particularly that inflation indicators are below what is desirable for the economy.

"Investors appeared to be disappointed that the Fed's monetary policy statement yesterday hadn't included a more positive outlook and had failed to really take any steps to stimulate further demand," said Yusuf Heusen, senior sales trader at IG Index.

The biggest casualty following the statement was the dollar, which has slid amid worries that the Fed is seemingly keen to effectively print more money to get the U.S. economy going again, possibly as soon as its next meeting in early November. Within minutes of the statement Tuesday, the euro had jumped around 1.5 U.S. cents.

By mid afternoon London time, the euro was trading 0.9 percent higher at $1.3372, just shy of its earlier high of $1.3398. The last time the euro breached $1.34 was in late April at the height of the government debt crisis that engulfed the eurozone and raised questions about the viability of the euro currency itself.

The dollar's decline was not just confined to the euro though. It was also 0.6 percent lower at 84.62 yen, meaning that it has gone a long way to undoing the effects of last week's unilateral intervention in the markets to stem the export-sapping appreciation of the yen.

"It would appear that it is now the dollars turn to become the whipping boy of the currency markets again," said Michael Hewson, a market analyst at CMC Markets.

It's not just the Fed that's contemplating introduced new monetary measures to boost its economy. The Bank of England is also seemingly paving the way for further action to support economic growth in Britain.

"For some of these members, the probability that further action would become necessary to stimulate the economy and keep inflation on track to hit the target in the medium term had increased," according to the minutes of the last rate-setting meeting at the bank earlier this month.

Given that the European Central Bank does not appear to be in much of a mood to loosen policy much more beyond what it has, the pound fell to a four-month low against the euro, though it was flat against the dollar around the $1.56 mark.

By mid afternoon London time, the euro was 0.8 percent higher at 0.8559 pound, its highest level since late May.

"The prospect of additional stimulus sent the pound lower," said Eric Viloria, currency strategist at Forex.com.

Earlier in Asia, stocks had a back and forth session, with most benchmarks ending the day in negative territory. Markets were closed for holidays in South Korea, mainland China and Taiwan.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock average closed down 0.4 percent at 9,566.32 as the yen strengthened, with exporters, such as Toyota Corp. and Canon Inc. losing ground in particular.

Benchmark crude for November delivery was up 63 cents to $75.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.22 to settle at $74.97 on Tuesday.

_____

AP Business Writer Greg Keller in Paris contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects typo in headline. Updates details throughout. Adds analysts' comments. Changes dateline, byline. This story is part of AP's general news and financial services.)

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Former Ethiopian cadets stranded in Kyrgyzstan (AP)

TOKMOK, Kyrgyzstan � Softly singing along to the wistful strains of Ethiopian music, Haymanot Tesgaye and his friends are transported back to their homeland in Africa, far from this Central Asian nation where they have been stranded for two decades.

Over that time, the men have withstood horrific racial abuse and struggled to piece together a living � testament to the ways in which lives are irrevocably changed when empires and regimes crumble.

Tesgaye, once an aspiring fighter pilot, was one of 80 Ethiopian cadets sent to a Soviet military training facility in the remote republic of Kyrgyzstan in 1989 to master the art of flying combat aircraft.

"At that time in Ethiopia there was a military government, and because of an agreement between the Soviet Union and Ethiopia, they used to train pilots for the country's air force," Tesgaye explained.

Within two years, both the Soviet Union and Ethiopia's Marxist regime had collapsed, forcing the cadets to think carefully about their options for their future in a strange and foreign land.

Almost 20 years later, still fearing reprisals back home for the small role he played in the brutal rule of deposed Marxist leader Mengistu Haile Mariam, Tesgaye is marooned here � a world away from a family that has grown older without him.

Some of the Ethiopians found ways to leave in the early days, emigrating or seeking asylum, while others risked returning home. A few that stayed behind were murdered.

Only nine of them now remain in Kyrgyzstan and they form a tight-knit group, meeting often to eat familiar food, sing old songs and reminisce.

Listening to silky, free-flowing Ethiopian jazz, Tesgaye fights back the tears, overcome with yearning for a real home.

"When I hear this, I lose myself. I am in the air without a compass and I don't where I am going," Tesgaye said.

"Especially now for us ... I don't have the words to explain this, it's from here," he said, pointing to his heart.

Some of the Ethiopians eke out a living as taxi drivers in Tokmok, the small town that once housed the military base.

A model of an Ilyushin-28 bomber still stands on a pedestal by the side of the main road to remind motorists passing through this sleepy and dusty spot of its aviation past. But the former training area, just a short walk from Tesgaye's cramped Soviet-era apartment, is now a desolate waste ground overrun by weeds and trash.

Kyrgyzstan is a rich blend of diverse ethnic groups, including Uzbeks, Russians, Koreans, Germans and Meskhetian Turks. But ethnic relations are often problematic, as best shown by devastating ethnic clashes between Kyrgyz and minority ethnic Uzbeks earlier this year that claimed hundreds of lives, mainly among Uzbeks, and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

While tensions between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks are a symptom of historic grievances over land and power, the kind of widespread intolerance that the Ethiopians and many other African men have had to endure in Kyrgyzstan stems from incomprehension and ignorance.

Upon first arriving in Tokmok, when Tesgaye and his companions ventured outside the confines of the garrison, the prevailing reaction was bewilderment.

"At that time, people in the Soviet Union, in Kyrgyzstan, thought that we were rich ... and if they met us outside the garrison they wanted to get something from us," Tesgaye said.

Curiosity soon turned into something harder, however, and when they lost the protection of their military hosts, attacks and abuse became commonplace.

Tales of abysmal intimidation and violence are told with disarming lightness, as though they have become so common that their gravity no longer registers.

Another former cadet, Nassir Dyde, tells of a fellow countrymen called Haptam who was savagely beaten to death by the relatives of a girlfriend with whom he had broken up.

"When the police found him they couldn't bring themselves to touch his body, because of his skin, so they summoned us to take him to the morgue," Dyde said. "They didn't even want to wash his body down, so we did it ourselves."

Dyde then showed the multiple scars across his own body where he has been stabbed or beaten.

Tens of thousands of Africans also went to Russia during Soviet times, most to study at universities. Thousands have stayed, including some more recent arrivals.

Most stay because they fear for their safety in their home country, for instance if there is a war, while others stay for economic reasons, said Valence Maniragena, a native of Rwanda who heads a nongovernmental organization called Ichumbi, which helps Africans in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Africans face discrimination and abuse in Russia, and some have been killed in racist attacks, but Maniragena said the situation has improved somewhat in recent years.

In Uzbekistan, a populous country west of Kyrgyzstan, thousands of Afghans are experiencing a similar predicament, living in a state of limbo since the fall of the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan in 1992.

While yearning to go abroad, the former Ethiopian cadets have largely resigned themselves to their fate and some, like Tesgaye, have married local women and had children.

"When we walked down the street, people driving past used to wind down their windows to stare or spit at us, but we walked proudly with our child," said Dilnara Tesgaye, after serving out platefuls of a tangy Ethiopian lentil dish she learned how to make from her husband.

The cruel irony in the Ethiopians' plight is that hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz people forced to travel to Russia in search of work themselves face frequent verbal and physical abuse at the hands of racists.

Sisay Wondumagnehu, another Ethiopian who came to Tokmok to train to fly the Soviet-made Mi-8 helicopter, said they have repeatedly tried to seek asylum, but have failed every time.

"I would like to go another country, but I have no way out, and so here I am."

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Associated Press Writer Irina Titova in St. Petersburg, Russia, contributed to this report.

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Oil rises above $75 as US dollar weakens (AP)

Oil prices rose above $75 a barrel Wednesday, boosted by a weaker dollar. But gains were limited by a report showing an unexpected rise in U.S. supplies last week, a sign demand for crude may not be improving.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for November delivery was up 24 cents to $75.21 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

On Tuesday the contract fell $1.22 to settle at $74.97. The October contract expired Tuesday, losing $1.34 to settle at $73.52.

The dollar's skid against the euro was caused by speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve could push interest rates lower, making investments in dollars less attractive.

A weaker dollar makes crude priced in dollars cheaper for investors holding other currencies.

The euro was up to $1.3378 on Wednesday from $1.3249 late Tuesday in New York, while the British pound rose to $1.5699 from $1.5625, and the dollar slipped to 84.58 Japanese yen from 85.06 yen.

The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories rose 2.2 million barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had forecast a drop of 1.5 million barrels. Inventories of gasoline and distillates also rose, the API said.

"The fact remains that U.S. oil demand is still very weak despite the end of the recession," said analysts at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data later Wednesday.

Some traders expect the Energy Department's data to be closer to the analysts' forecast. The API data is collected voluntarily from refineries and storage facilities while the government's report is mandatory.

"This should be a very bearish report, if we bought it," energy consultancy and trader The Schork Report said. "As it stands, huge discrepancies often exist between the API and DOE report, and we have the feeling this is going to be one of those weeks."

While crude demand in the U.S. may be sluggish, consumption in emerging economies has been robust this year. Chinese oil consumption grew 7.6 percent in August from a year earlier, Platts said.

"Despite the cautious outlook on oil demand still often expressed in market sentiment, the actual flow of data continues to point to extremely robust global demand indications," Barclays Capital said in a report.

In other Nymex trading in October contracts, heating oil rose 0.83 cent to $2.1282 a gallon and gasoline gained 0.63 cent to $1.9259 a gallon. Natural gas rose 2.1 cents to $3.940 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude rose 22 cents to $78.64 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

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Associated Press writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

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8 Bell officials to face judge in corruption case (AP)

LOS ANGELES � The mayor, the ex-city manager and six current and former officials of Bell were headed from jail to court Wednesday as residents of the modest, working-class suburb celebrated their arrest on charges of bilking taxpayers out of $5.5 million.

As former City Manager Robert Rizzo, Mayor Oscar Hernandez and the others were rounded up during Tuesday morning raids on their homes, residents across the city honked their car horns, burst into cheers and staged impromptu celebrations.

The eight were scheduled to be arraigned in court Wednesday on charges of misappropriating more than $5.5 million in public funds.

"They used the tax dollars collected from the hardworking citizens of Bell as their own piggy bank, which they then looted at will," District Attorney Steve Cooley told a news conference in Los Angeles soon after all eight were taken from their homes in handcuffs.

At City Hall in Bell, where one in six residents lives in poverty, people gathered to laugh and applaud as someone played the Queen song "Another One Bites the Dust."

"I got so excited that, oh my God, I couldn't breathe," said Violeta Alvarez, who has lived in Bell for 31 years. "I'm excited. I'm happy. I have tears of joy in my eyes."

Rizzo, who was making nearly $800,000 a year, was booked on 53 counts of misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest. Messages left at his home and with his attorney were not 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 Victor Bello and George Cole.

"I seen them take out Mirabal in handcuffs," longtime resident Hassan Mourad said after the arrests. "I seen them drag him out."

At the mayor's house, police briefly used a battering ram when Hernandez didn't immediately come to the door.

Spaccia was making $376,288, and four of the five current City Council members were paying themselves nearly $100,000 a year.

Authorities said Rizzo made $4.3 million by paying himself through different employment contracts that were not approved by the City Council. Meanwhile, 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.

Rizzo, Spaccia and former Police Chief Randy Adams, who was making $457,000 a year, resigned and the council members reduced their salaries to about $8,000 following the disclosures. Adams was not arrested.

Cooley said there was no evidence the former police chief illegally obtained his $457,000 salary. The figure was $150,000 more than the Los Angeles chief of police gets paid.

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

Cooley said his investigators have pored over more than 60,000 pages of documents and more people could be arrested.

His office began investigating last March, four months before the Los Angeles Times reported the salaries, which brought national attention to the small city of 40,000 people.

Cooley praised the Times, saying the scandal occurred in part because residents and much of the news media paid little attention to what was happening at Bell City Hall until the story broke.

Since the scandal broke, public officials, city managers and others have said the situation in Bell showed why people must insist that elected officials communicate honestly and openly with them.

"One of the problems that was obvious with Bell was the lack of transparency and the lack of involvement on the part of the public," Dave Mora, West Coast regional director of the International City/County Management Association, said recently.

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.

Interim City Attorney Jamie Casso said he expected Bell could carry on business as usual, adding that Carrillo and Lorenzo Velez � the one council member who wasn't arrested � were meeting regularly. Velez was not taking a high salary.

The district attorney's office is one of several agencies investigating Bell.

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.

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Associated Press Writer Thomas Watkins contributed to this report.

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Bomb attack kills 10 people in western Iran (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran � A bomb exploded at a military parade in northwestern Iran on Wednesday, killing 10 spectators in an attack that one official blamed on Kurdish separatists who have fought Iranian forces for decades.

The blast in the city of Mahabad, close to the borders with Iraq and Turkey, also injured 57 people, Iranian media reports said. Most of the victims were women and children, said provincial Governor Vahid Jalalzadeh, who was quoted in a report by Iran's state broadcasting company.

Iranian forces in the border zone have for years clashed with Kurdish rebels from the Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party, which also has fighters based in Turkey and Iraq. The group in Iran has generally not targeted civilians in its campaign for greater rights for the Kurdish minority, raising the prospect that the bomb might have gone off prematurely.

A state radio report said the device was detonated on a timer and had been placed under a bush near the parade route.

Jalalzadeh said that explosion was carried out by "counterrevolutionaries," a reference to the Kurdish separatist group. He called the bombing "a terrorist incident."

The parade was one of several events around the country to mark the 30th anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq war. No military personnel were wounded, Jalalzadeh said.

The Mehr news agency said the dead included the wives of two of ranking military officers.

"The explosion happened opposite the VIP stage among women who were present there," Jalalzadeh was quoted as saying in the state TV report.

The Iranian branch of the Kurdish rebel group, the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, says it is fighting for greater rights in Iran.

The city of Mahabad is home to 190,000 people � most of them Kurds and Sunni Muslims. Iran is predominantly Shiite.

Mahabad was once the capital of the self-proclaimed republic of Kurdistan in Iran. Iran's armed forces recaptured Mahabad in 1946.

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