5 killed as storm blasts through Haiti tent camps (AP)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti � A freak storm blasted through Haiti's capital on Friday, killing at least five earthquake survivors as it tore down trees, billboards and tent homes, authorities said.

Three adults and two children were killed in the tarp, tent and shack camps that still dominate Port-au-Prince more than eight months after the Jan. 12 earthquake, civil protection head Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste told The Associated Press. Several more were injured.

"We are investigating to see how many tents and camps were damaged," Jean-Baptiste said.

The storm passed through the mountain-ringed bowl of the Haitian capital, exposing rubble-filled neighborhoods to wind and rain at levels far below a sustained tropical storm. But that was enough to provoke panic and chaos, especially in encampments still home to more than 1.3 million people.

Gales sent tarps and poles flying, threw tin roofs into the sky and opened family shacks to falling rain. Wind rattled walls and windows of standing buildings with a clamor reminiscent of the quake itself.

"It was just a storm. Just a wind put us in a corner!" said Bresil Vignion, standing in the wreckage of his family's tin shack in a camp along the Canape-Vert road. "Tonight we don't know where we are going to sleep."

Reports of storm damage and deaths were slow to filter in as cell phone reception reamined degraded hours after the storm passed.

The sudden storm was not associated with any tropical system, Michael Lowry of the U.S. National Hurricane Center told The Associated Press. Meteorologists saw only a low-pressure system move across the Greater Antilles.

But for those living in this ravaged city, where reconstruction has barely begun, it was a forceful reminder of the danger still posed to a vulnerable country by an active Atlantic hurricane season months from being over.

"After what happened today, we hope we don't get a second one like it," said Patricia Pierre-Saint, a 47-year-old phone-card vendor who lost her home, child and husband in the quake.

___

Associated Press Television journalist Pierre-Richard Luxama contributed to this report

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Citigroup gives pay hikes to top execs in stock (AP)

NEW YORK � Citigroup, still partly owned by the government after a rescue during the financial meltdown, is giving raises to top executives that could amount to millions of dollars.

CEO Vikram Pandit, who is drawing a salary of $1 for the second year in a row, did not get a raise, but the chairman of the bank hinted it plans a big payout for him next year.

The announcement Friday by Citi, which remains weaker than most of the large American banks two years after the meltdown, raised questions among experts on corporate governance.

By paying the raises in company stock, not cash, Citi has decided to follow previously issued guidelines that limited salaries to $500,000 for the top 25 executives at financial institutions still receiving large amounts of federal help.

"The question is do they deserve higher salaries, and are they evading rules to avoid losing talent?" asked Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for corporate governance at the University of Delaware.

Citi is fighting to keep talented bankers from jumping ship to any of its rivals on Wall Street, all of whom have repaid their federal bailout money and are not under the same kind of compensation restrictions.

Edward Skyler, a spokesman for the bank, said the compensation levels "correspond with similarly situated executives in the industry."

Citi was the hardest-hit U.S. bank during the credit crisis of 2008, and received $45 billion in government bailout money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, part of which was converted to stock last year. The government is gradually selling its stake and still owns about 17 percent of the bank.

Even today, Citi continues to be weighed down by large amounts of bad loans and investments it made in the run-up to the crisis. The bank posted a loss in the third quarter after two straight quarters of profits.

Pandit, who pledged last year to take a $1 salary until the bank returned to profitability, elected to keep that figure for this year, but he seems set for a big payday in 2011. Citi's chairman, Richard Parsons, said in a statement that beginning next year the bank's board "intends to compensate Vikram commensurate with the job of CEO of Citi."

Rolfe Kopelan, a managing partner at search firm Capstone Partnership and an expert on corporate compensation, said $1 still seems appropriate for Pandit.

"It's not ridiculous when you're living on public funds, and when you're one of the major causes of the recession," Kopelan said.

The biggest raise disclosed in Citi's regulatory filing will go to John Havens, head of the bank's institutional clients group. He will get a cash salary of $500,000 this year, the maximum under the cap, and $9 million of salary paid in stock.

That compares with a salary of $975,000 last year for Havens, also in a blend of cash and stock. Including other awards of stock and options last year, Havens' total compensation last year came to $11.2 million.

Citibank did not disclose how much Havens might be awarded in other stock grants, but he could be eligible for a bonus this year of up to 50 percent of his salary, or $4.75 million.

Manuel Medina-Mora, head of consumer banking for the Americas, will also get a cash salary of $500,000 and $7.45 million of salary in stock, making him eligible for a bonus of up to $4 million. Last year, Medina-Mora's base salary was $972,000, and his total compensation including other awards of stock and options was $9.8 million.

Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach's salary will be $500,000 in cash and $4.17 million in stock, making him eligible for a bonus of up to $2.3 million. Last year, his cash and stock salary was $3.3 million, and his total compensation including other stock awards was $5 million.

Under an amendment to the bank bailout law of 2008, Citi is still subject to the compensation restrictions as long as the government remains a shareholder. That means the top 25 executives cannot receive bonuses exceeding 50 percent of their salaries and cannot receive more than $500,000 of their salary in cash. In deciding to give their salary raises in stock, Citi chose to abide by a previous rule that governed the bailout, under which top executives could not receive more than $500,000 of their salary in cash.

The Associated Press' calculation for executive pay aims to isolate the value the company's board placed on the CEO's total compensation package. The figure includes salary, bonus, incentives, perks and the estimated value of stock options and awards.

The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list with federal regulators.

___

AP Business Writer Matthew Craft contributed to this report.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Tropical Storm Matthew drenches Central America (AP)

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras � Honduras and Nicaragua evacuated thousands of people from the path of Tropical Storm Matthew on Friday as it drenched Central America's Caribbean coast and impoverished areas prone to disastrous flooding.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Matthew could bring 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters) of rain to Nicaragua and Honduras, with the possibility of flash floods and mud slides. Some parts of Nicaragua already were coping with flooding due to earlier rains.

The center said the storm was moving inland over Honduras late Friday and was heading northwest toward Guatemala with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph).

Nicaraguan authorities said they ordered the evacuation of 10,000 people.

In Honduras, authorities said they had evacuated 300 people from small communities in the Gracias a Dios province, on the border with Nicaragua. Lisandro Rosales, head of the country's Contingencies Commission said a red alert had been declared for the five neighboring provinces of Colon, Islas de la Bahia, Atlantida, Yoro and Olancho.

The storm first hit land Friday afternoon over northeastern Nicaragua. A tropical storm watch also was in effect for the coast of Belize.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega ordered the preventive measures and "all emergency structures are on alert," Lt. Col. Freddy Herrera told The Associated Press by telephone. "We have evacuated people from the region of Cabo Gracias a Dios and the Miskito Cays" in the same region.

Flights into the area were suspended due to limited visibility, though the winds are moderate, the military said.

In Honduras, the government declared a state of preventive alert throughout the country and Defense Minister Marlon Pascua said the army was ready to help civil defense actions.

The defense minister said armed forces are ready, and the Red Cross reported 3,000 aid workers in place. Civil defense officials in El Salvador were taking precautions, including canceling classes in high-risk areas, and Costa Rican authorities also reported being on a high level of alert for increased precipitation in flood-risk zones along the central Pacific coast.

Meanwhile far out over the Atlantic, Lisa became the seventh hurricane of the season and was drifting slowly north with maximum sustained winds near 75 mph (120 kph).

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Peace talks in jeopardy, Clinton and Abbas meet (AP)

NEW YORK � Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spent nearly a half-hour Friday meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the Obama administration tried to prevent Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from collapsing.

The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the talks if Israel does not extend a slowdown in West Bank settlement activity that expires on Sunday.

After Clinton's 25-minute meeting with Abbas, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters that the U.S. efforts to keep the talks alive were continuing.

In a furious, last-minute round of diplomacy, the Obama administration is pressing Israel to extend the settlement slowdown, while urging Abbas not to make good on his threat to leave the negotiations.

The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the talks if Israel does not extend a slowdown in West Bank settlement activity that expires on Sunday, opening the way for an Israeli resumption of contested settlement construction.

"It is a pretty intense set of negotiations going on right now with the Israelis and the Palestinians," said Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. "We know that time is short. This is an important issue."

Feltman told reporters the U.S. is urging Israel to extend the moratorium and that both parties need to see the negotiations through to their conclusion.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he does not intend to extend the slowdown, but some Israeli officials have hinted that a compromise could be reached.

Clinton met earlier in the week with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and U.S. special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell has been shuttling between the two sides in a bid to craft some sort of a compromise.

Earlier Friday, Palestinian officials said they were waiting for the latest American effort to break the standoff with Israel over the settlements.

With Sunday's deadline looming, President Barack Obama has increasingly placed efforts to resolve the conflict at the center of his foreign policy. On Thursday, Obama made an impassioned appeal at the United Nations to support a solution and called on Israel to extend the slowdown.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Peace talks in jeopardy, Clinton and Abbas meet (AP)

NEW YORK � Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spent nearly a half-hour Friday meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the Obama administration tried to prevent Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from collapsing.

The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the talks if Israel does not extend a slowdown in West Bank settlement activity that expires on Sunday.

After Clinton's 25-minute meeting with Abbas, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters that the U.S. efforts to keep the talks alive were continuing.

In a furious, last-minute round of diplomacy, the Obama administration is pressing Israel to extend the settlement slowdown, while urging Abbas not to make good on his threat to leave the negotiations.

The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the talks if Israel does not extend a slowdown in West Bank settlement activity that expires on Sunday, opening the way for an Israeli resumption of contested settlement construction.

"It is a pretty intense set of negotiations going on right now with the Israelis and the Palestinians," said Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. "We know that time is short. This is an important issue."

Feltman told reporters the U.S. is urging Israel to extend the moratorium and that both parties need to see the negotiations through to their conclusion.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he does not intend to extend the slowdown, but some Israeli officials have hinted that a compromise could be reached.

Clinton met earlier in the week with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and U.S. special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell has been shuttling between the two sides in a bid to craft some sort of a compromise.

Earlier Friday, Palestinian officials said they were waiting for the latest American effort to break the standoff with Israel over the settlements.

With Sunday's deadline looming, President Barack Obama has increasingly placed efforts to resolve the conflict at the center of his foreign policy. On Thursday, Obama made an impassioned appeal at the United Nations to support a solution and called on Israel to extend the slowdown.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Ahmadinejad says Iran may end enrichment (AP)

NEW YORK � Iran would consider ending higher level uranium enrichment, the most crucial part of its controversial nuclear activities, if world powers send Tehran nuclear fuel for a medical research reactor, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters Friday.

Addressing a packed press conference in a New York hotel, Ahmadinejad also said Iran was prepared to set a date for resumption of talks with six world powers to discuss Tehran's nuclear program, saying October would be the likely time for the two sides to meet.

Ahmadinejad also defended his remarks at the U.N. a day earlier in which he claimed most people in the world believe the United States was behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and again challenged the United Nations to set up a commission to probe the attacks.

"I did not pass judgment, but don't you feel that the time has come to have a fact finding committee?" Ahmadinejad asked.

Ahmadinejad said Iran had no interest in enriching uranium from around 3.5 percent to 20 percent purity but was forced to do so after the world powers refused to provide nuclear fuel that is needed for a Tehran reactor that produces medical isotopes for patients. He did not indicate that Iran would stop enriching at low levels.

That level is far below the more than 90 percent purity needed to build a nuclear weapon, but U.S. officials have expressed concern Iran may be moving closer to an ability to reach weapons-grade level.

Tehran began higher enrichment in February after talks stalled over a U.N.-brokered proposal that the United States hoped would � at least temporarily � leave Iran unable to produce a warhead. The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon, a claim Iran denies.

"We were not interested to carry out 20 percent enrichment. They (the U.S. and its allies) politicized the issue. We were forced to do it to support the (medical) patients," Ahmadinejad said in response to a question from The Associated Press. "We will consider halting uranium enrichment whenever nuclear fuel is provided to us."

Ahmadinejad said pressure was counterproductive, but respectful talks will bear fruit.

"The era of following a policy of carrot and stick is over. Even such words are insulting to nations. It's only good for cowboys and those of retarded people. Definitely it has no effect," he said. "They issued resolutions as talks were underway. Still, we are ready for talks."

The Iranian leader said an Iranian representative will probably meet with members of the five permanent members of the Security Council � the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China as well as Germany in October.

He suggested that a specific date could be set should European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton contact Iran.

"Probably in October; we are ready for talks. The doors are open for talks within the framework of justice and respect," he said. However, he warned that Iran won't give in to pressure. "They are definitely mistaken if they think they can trample the rights of the Iranian nation through coercion in the talks."

In his one and a half hour session with reporters, Ahmadinejad also lashed out at the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as an overreaction to the September 11 attacks. The Americans should "not occupy the entire Middle East...bomb wedding parties...annihilate an entire village just because one terrorist is hiding there."

Ahmadinejad also gave no ground on his Sept. 11 remarks in a feisty interview on Fox News in which he was asked he you could insult millions of Americans by saying "such an insane and nutty thing."

"Would you address your own president the same way? Would they ever allow you to?," replied Ahmadinejad, adding that he felt insulted by the interviewer.

Ahmadinejad said a commission should investigate the Sept. 11 attacks rather than have the entire world just accept what the U.S. government tells them.

"The fact-finding mission can shed light on who the perpetrators were, who is Al-Qaida ... where does it exist? Who was it backed by and supported? All these should come to light," he said.

Ahmadinejad's remarks during a speech to the U.N. General Assembly Thursday afternoon prompted a walkout by the U.S. diplomats. Delegations from all 27 European Union nations followed the Americans out along with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Costa Rica, an EU diplomat said.

President Barack Obama responded to Ahmadinejad in a BBC Persian service interview Friday saying: "Well, it was offensive. It was hateful."

"And particularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation, for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable," Obama said.

Ahmadinejad routinely makes incendiary remarks, which the West claims are a diversion from heavy international pressure on Tehran to end uranium enrichment and prove that it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon. Iran insists it is enriching uranium only to fuel nuclear reactors to generate electricity.

Iran is under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions as punishment for its failure to make its nuclear ambitions transparent.

Later Friday, Ahmadinejad met with Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans who were taken prisoner in Iran during a hiking trip along the border with Iraq. She was released from solitary confinement on Sept. 15 and has said she wants to meet Ahmadinejad while he is in New York.

The Iranian leader did not answer a question about whether Iran would also release Shourd's boyfriend Shane Bauer and their friend Josh Fattal. All three were captured in 2009.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Tropical Storm Matthew threatens Central America (AP)

MANAGUA, Nicaragua � Nicaragua began evacuating about 10,000 people from the path of Tropical Storm Matthew as the storm drenched the Caribbean coast and threatened much of a Central American region prone to disastrous flooding.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Matthew's center had hit land over northeastern Nicaragua Friday afternoon and was heading northwest along the Central American coast and inland toward Guatemala with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph).

The Hurricane Center said it could bring 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters) of rain to Nicaragua and Honduras, with the possibility of flash floods and mud slides. Some parts of Nicaragua already were coping with flooding due to earlier rains.

A tropical storm watch also was in effect for the coast of Belize.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega ordered the preventive measures and "all emergency structures are on alert," Lt. Col. Freddy Herrera told The Associated Press by telephone. "We have evacuated people from the region of Cabo Gracias a Dios and the Miskito Cays" in the same region.

Flights into the area were suspended due to limited visibility, though the winds are moderate, the military said.

In Honduras, the government declared a state of preventive alert throughout the country and Defense Minister Marlon Pascua said the army was ready to help civil defense actions.

Meanwhile far out over the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Lisa was drifting slowly northwest with maximum sustained winds near 45 mph (75 kph).

In Honduras, the defense minister said armed forces are ready, and the Red Cross reported 3,000 aid workers in place. Civil defense officials in El Salvador were taking precautions, including canceling classes in high-risk areas, and Costa Rican authorities also reported being on a high level of alert for increased precipitation in flood-risk zones along the central Pacific coast.

Meanwhile far out over the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Lisa was drifting slowly north with maximum sustained winds near 60 mph (95 kph).

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

APNewsBreak: 4th man sues Ga. megachurch pastor (AP)

ATLANTA � A fourth young male member of Bishop Eddie Long's megachurch is suing the prominent pastor, claiming Long coerced him into a sexual relationship.

The lawsuit was filed by Spencer LeGrande, a member of New Birth Charlotte. New Birth Charlotte is a satellite church run by Long in Charlotte, N.C. The lawsuit said Long told LeGrande "I will be your dad" and invited the 17-year-old to journey to Kenya with him in July 2005. LeGrande said that Long gave him a sleeping pill on that trip and that the two engaged in sexual acts.

The Associated Press does not typically identify alleged victims of impropriety, but attorney B.J. Bernstein has said all four of the men who filed lawsuits consented to being identified publicly.

The lawsuit claims Long convinced LeGrande that "engaging in a sexual relationship was a healthy component of his spiritual life," the complaint said.

LeGrande, now 22, said the two continued their relationship on a February 2006 trip to South Africa and after he moved to Atlanta at Long's encouragement. He said that Long also instructed him not to have girlfriends, but that he pulled away in the spring of 2009 after he became "disillusioned." He moved back to Charlotte in October, it said.

The complaint, filed in DeKalb State Court, comes after three other men filed lawsuits on Tuesday and Wednesday saying they were 17- and 18-year-old members of the church when they say Long abused his spiritual authority to seduce them with cars, money, clothes, jewelry, international trips and access to celebrities.

Long is expected on Sunday to deliver the first public message since the men accused him of having sexual relationships with them. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing through his lawyer and a Twitter posting.

Bishop's attorney, Craig Gillen, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Friday.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Opened flood gates in Nigeria displace 2 million (AP)

LAGOS, Nigeria � Nigerian authorities opened the gates at two swollen dams in the country's rain-soaked north, sending a flood into a neighboring state that has displaced 2 million people, officials said Friday.

Water from the Challawa and Tiga dams has swept through rural Jigawa state, bordering the nation of Niger, said Umar Kyari, a spokesman for the state governor. Kyari said the rising waters have affected about 5,000 villages in the typically arid region approaching the Sahara Desert.

"They released water indiscriminately," Kyari said. "That's what why the water flows."

It wasn't immediately clear whether residents received a warning or if anyone was injured or went missing in the flooding. Officials typically open dams seasonally in the region, but it appears far more water flowed out than residents expected.

Nigeria, an oil-rich nation of 150 million in West Africa, typically has strong seasonal rains that wash through the country. However, this year has seen particularly strong rains in the north that already broke a dam and flowed over levees in another northern state.

State information commissioner Aminu Mohammed said local officials had begun putting displaced families in rural schoolhouses and other government buildings out of the reach of the floodwaters. However, Mohammed said the water had coursed across to the border with neighboring Yobe state.

"The flood has washed away all the farms and houses," Mohammed said.

Officials with the agency in charge of the dam in neighboring Kano state could not be immediately reached for comment Friday night.

Jigawa sits more than 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) from Lagos in Nigeria's Muslim-dominated north.

Mohammed said the flooding has grown progressively worse since August, reaching its height Friday. He said more than 222,000 acres (nearly 90,000 hectares) of farmland have been washed away by the flooding, as well as millions of dollars worth of cattle.

The commissioner said the state has yet to receive significant aid from the federal government

Typically, the water released yearly from the dams flows into farm fields across the region known as the Sahel, a band of semiarid land stretching across Africa south of the Sahara. There, farmers used the water in the region's brief fertile season to grow corn, rice and a variety of vegetables. However, rains this year have been unseasonably strong, putting pressure on the reservoirs and dams in the area.

In Nigeria's northwest state of Sokoto, a dam failed during recent flooding, spilling into surrounding villages. Local newspapers reported as many as 40 people died.

The rains come as neighboring Niger faces what international aid experts warn is the worst hunger crisis in its history following a prolonged drought and poor growing season last year. One of the poorest countries in Africa, Niger now has more than 7 million people � almost 50 percent of the population � suffering from a lack of food, officials say.

___

Associated Press Writer Salisu Rabiu in Kano, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Arab move to censure Israel stymied at UN meeting (AP)

VIENNA � A 151-nation meeting of the U.N. nuclear agency narrowly defeated an Arab push Friday to censure Israel for shielding its nuclear programs from inspection in a closely watched result that the U.S. said was a positive signal for ongoing Mideast peace talks.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission expressed hope that the Arab League "will refrain from raising the proposal again next year." But Iran, a fervent supporter of the Arab motion, vowed that it would be reintroduced at next year's annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's general assembly.

"The U.S. and Israeli allies have confronted ... the whole world and this is a dark page in history for their foreign policy," Iranian delegate Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters. "They put fuel in the fire."

Of the nations present, 51 voted against a resolution called "Israeli Nuclear Capabilities." Forty six voted for, 23 abstained and the rest were absent.

U.S. chief delegate Glyn Davies said the vote was significant in the context of continuing Israel-Palestinian peace talks and U.S.-backed plans to stage a major conference in two years on a Mideast nuclear free zone.

"It preserves a chance for the movement eventually toward a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, once peace there is achieved," Davies said. "It sends the right positive signal to the peace process and really allows that process to go ahead."

Before the vote, the U.S. and other allies of Israel had maintained that passage of the resolution would threaten both the talks and the chances of staging a high-level Mideast nuclear meeting � arguments countered by Islamic nations and their supporters, who said the resolution would advance the creation of a nuclear free zone.

Soltanieh said Davies was mistaken if he thought defeat of the resolution would solidify chances of such a meeting.

"In fact, he created obstacles for the goal," he said.

Israel itself warned against what it said were attempts by Islamic nations to deflect attention from Iran and Syria, the two nations under IAEA investigation. Iran and Syria deny allegations that they are or were interested in secretly developing nuclear weapons, but both are rebuffing IAEA attempts to follow up on intelligence suggesting such activities.

"It is Iran and Syria that represent the greatest threat to peace and security to the Middle East and beyond," Israeli delegate Ehud Azoulay told the meeting, accusing the two countries of hiding behind "the verbal barrage that is flooding this room."

The resolution expressed "concern about the Israeli nuclear capabilities," while urging the Jewish state to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and to open its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspection. Davies said the vote had "created neither winners or losers."

Despite that view, the close vote reflected the deep division on the Mideast between developed and developing nations. Most industrialized countries and their allies voted against the measure, while developing countries backed the Arab-sponsored resolution.

Soltanieh claimed victory despite the motion's defeat, asserting that the vote and surrounding discussion kept pressure on Israel, which is commonly considered to be the only Mideast nation to posses nuclear weapons.

"This was a big failure of the United States' foreign policies," he said of the results, saying that the combined votes for the resolution and the abstentions showed more then 100 nations directly or indirectly backed the measure to criticize Israel.

Still, the result was disappointing to supporters of the resolution, who had hoped to build on the momentum of last year, when the IAEA assembly overrode Western objections to pass by a four-vote margin a similar resolution directly criticizing Israel and its atomic program for the first time in 18 years.

Arab League head Amr Moussa, in comments outside the U.N. General Assembly in New York, reacted angrily to the outcome.

"Why should Israel be the only one? The answer is of course no, it shouldn't be the only one. In fact, there should be no nuclear power in the Middle East," he said.

"This is a recipe for chaos and for an arms race in the Middle East."

Davies, the U.S. delegate expressed understanding for the Arab frustration.

"I am very aware of the fact that in Arab capitals this is viewed very negatively," said Davies, acknowledging that "tempers are going to have to cool" before discussions on the envisaged 2012 conference on a Mideast free of nuclear arms can be advanced.

___

Associated Press writers Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Slobodan Lekic at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Prosecutors: Skydiving love triangle led to murder (AP)

BRUSSELS � The two women shared the same first name and were close friends. They both had a passion for skydiving. And they both loved the same man.

Prosecutors say this love triangle led to high-altitude murder when Els Clottemans sabotaged her friend's parachute in a fit of jealousy as they skydived together, sending her romantic rival plunging to her death in a horrifying fall captured on video.

As her murder trial opened Friday, Clottemans sat nervously in front of the mudcaked parachute bag and helmet that Els Van Doren wore as she frantically tried to open the chute before hitting the ground in November 2006 from a height of 13,000 feet (4,500 meters).

The video camera mounted on her helmet showed how Van Doren desperately looked up, hoping to see an open canopy. Seconds later, she crashed into the low shrubbery of a suburban garden in eastern Belgium and was killed instantly.

Clottemans, a 26-year-old schoolteacher, has vehemently denied the murder charge and accusations that she killed her friend to claim for herself Dutch skydiver Marcel Somers, whom both had slept with.

The 68-page indictment read out by Prosecutor Patrick Boyen said there was enough evidence for the murder charge.

"As skydiver, she had the knowledge and opportunity to sabotage the parachute," the indictment said. It alleged she made two key cuts to Van Doren's parachute.

"On top of that, she had a relationship with Marcel ... who also had a relationship with the victim, giving the accused a motive to have Marcel for her alone," the indictment said.

Chief defense lawyer Vic Van Aelst said prosecutors have nothing but circumstantial allegations.

"I read no guilt and I see no guilt," Van Aelst said.

"We will not deny that Ms. Clottemans has had some problems," he said. "But she certainly is not a psychopath."

A jury was selected Friday, and the trial in the town of Tongeren is expected to last a month.

Clottemans became a prime suspect when she attempted suicide hours before she was to make a second statement to police a month after Van Doren's death.

At one time, the 38-year-old Van Doren was so close to Clottemans at the skydiving club that she decided to have everybody call her younger friend "Babs" so there would be no more first name confusion.

On Nov. 18, 2006, Van Doren, an experienced skydiver with 2,300 jumps to her name, leapt out of a Cessna with Clottemans, Marcel and another skydiver to perform aerial maneuvers during their fall.

Clottemans, however, said she jumped a fraction too late to join the other three. When the sign was given to open the parachutes, Van Doren struggled with hers and hurtled toward the ground. The helmet-mounted camera recorded her desperate attempt to release her reserve parachute.

"The first question a family normally asks is whether the victim suffered, whether she knew what happened. We don't have to ask. It was filmed. Try to deal with that as a family," said Jef Vermassen, a lawyer for Van Doren's family.

A married mother of two, Van Doren spent most weekends away from her family, skydiving and hanging out with Somers at the skydiving club or his home. After the two became lovers, Clottemans also became their friend and eventually also slept with Somers.

A week before Van Doren's death, all three stayed at Somers' home, with Clottemans sleeping in the living room while the other two were in the bedroom. Prosecutors say that during that weekend, Clottemans could have sabotaged the parachute.

It was not clear from the trial's first day if Van Doren had known that Clottemans had slept with Somers.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Ahmadinejad says Iran may end enrichment (AP)

NEW YORK � Iran would consider ending uranium enrichment, the most crucial part of its controversial nuclear activities, if world powers send Tehran nuclear fuel for a medical research reactor, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters Friday.

Addressing a packed press conference in a New York hotel, Ahmadinejad also said Iran was prepared to set a date for resumption of talks with six world powers to discuss Tehran's nuclear program, saying October would be the likely time for the two sides to meet.

Ahmadinejad also defended his remarks at the U.N. a day earlier in which he claimed most people in the world believe the United States was behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and again challenged the United Nations to set up a commission to probe the attacks.

"I did not pass judgment, but don't you feel that the time has come to have a fact finding committee?" Ahmadinejad asked.

Ahmadinejad said Iran had no interest in enriching uranium from around 3.5 percent to 20 percent purity but was forced to do so after the world powers refused to provide nuclear fuel that is needed for a Tehran reactor that produces medical isotopes for patients.

That level is far below the more than 90 percent purity needed to build a nuclear weapon, but U.S. officials have expressed concern Iran may be moving closer to an ability to reach weapons-grade level.

Tehran began higher enrichment in February after talks stalled over a U.N.-brokered proposal that the United States hoped would � at least temporarily � leave Iran unable to produce a warhead. The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon, a claim Iran denies.

"We were not interested to carry out 20 percent enrichment. They (the U.S. and its allies) politicized the issue. We were forced to do it to support the (medical) patients," Ahmadinejad said in response to a question from The Associated Press. "We will consider halting uranium enrichment whenever nuclear fuel is provided to us."

Ahmadinejad said pressure was counterproductive, but respectful talks will bear fruit.

"The era of following a policy of carrot and stick is over. Even such words are insulting to nations. It's only good for cowboys and those of retarded people. Definitely it has no effect," he said. "They issued resolutions as talks were underway. Still, we are ready for talks."

The Iranian leader said an Iranian representative will probably meet with members of the five permanent members of the Security Council � the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China as well as Germany in October.

He suggested that a specific date could be set should European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton contact Iran.

"Probably in October; we are ready for talks. The doors are open for talks within the framework of justice and respect," he said. However, he warned that Iran won't give in to pressure. "They are definitely mistaken if they think they can trample the rights of the Iranian nation through coercion in the talks."

In his one and a half hour session with reporters, Ahmadinejad also lashed out at the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as an overreaction to the September 11 attacks. The Americans should "not occupy the entire Middle East...bomb wedding parties...annihilate an entire village just because one terrorist is hiding there."

Ahmadinejad's remarks during a speech to the U.N. General Assembly Thursday afternoon prompted a walkout by the U.S. diplomats. Delegations from all 27 European Union nations followed the Americans out along with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Costa Rica, an EU diplomat said.

President Barack Obama responded to Ahmadinejad in a BBC Persian service interview Friday saying: "Well, it was offensive. It was hateful."

"And particularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation, for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable," Obama said.

Ahmadinejad routinely makes incendiary remarks, which the West claims are a diversion from heavy international pressure on Tehran to end uranium enrichment and prove that it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon. Iran insists it is enriching uranium only to fuel nuclear reactors to generate electricity.

Iran is under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions as punishment for its failure to make its nuclear ambitions transparent.

On other matters, Ahmadinejad said, "I don't have a problem meeting with" Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans who were taken prisoner in Iran during a hiking trip along the border with Iraq. She was released from solitary confinement on Sept. 15 and has said she wants to meet Ahmadinejad while he is in New York.

The Iranian leader did not answer a question about whether he would also release Shourd's boyfriend Shane Bauer and their friend Josh Fattal. All three were captured in 2009.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Lehman Bros sign, artworks auctioned off in UK (AP)

LONDON � For sale: a sign of the times.

Christie's is auctioning off the 10 foot-long (3 meter-long) sign that adorned the European headquarters of Lehman Brothers, along with paintings, furniture and other objects from the offices of the collapsed investment bank.

They are among millions of dollars' (euros') worth of items being sold to help pay Lehman's creditors.

The bank collapsed in September 2008. It was the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history and helped cause one of the worst financial crises since the Great Depression.

On Friday Christie's held a preview of items from the sale, which is expected to raise about 2 million pounds ($3.1 million).

The 300 lots include works by modern artists including Gary Hume, Robert Rauschenberg and Lucian Freud, a selection of maritime and sporting paintings and office knickknacks � antique tea caddies, model boats, cigar boxes, bronze animals and Chinese ceramics.

Collectors can also bid on the headquarters' sign, valued at 2,000 pounds to 3,000 pounds, and a plaque commemorating the opening of the building in 2004 by Britain's then-Treasury chief, Gordon Brown, valued at between 1,000 pounds and 1,500 pounds.

The most expensive work, a large photograph by Andreas Gursky of the teeming New York Mercantile Exchange, will be sold separately next month and is valued at between 100,000 pounds and 150,000 pounds.

The sale is scheduled for Wednesday in London. More artworks from Lehman Brothers' collection will be sold by Sotheby's in New York this Saturday, at an auction expected to raise $10 million � a tiny fraction of the $613 billion in debts held by Lehman when it collapsed.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Pelosi says tax cut vote possible before election (AP)

WASHINGTON � House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, under pressure to send Democrats home to campaign with the strongest possible closing argument, said Friday she is considering calling a vote on extending middle-class tax cuts next week.

Democrats, however, are divided on whether forcing a recorded vote on the issue before congressional elections in November would be politically helpful as they fight to maintain control of Congress.

"We will retain the right to proceed as we choose," Pelosi told reporters. "We'll take it one day at a time."

The most sweeping tax cuts in a generation, enacted in 2001 and 2003, are due to expire in January. Republicans want to extend all the tax cuts. President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress want to extend them for individuals making less than $200,000 and married couples making less than $250,000.

If Congress does not act, taxpayers at every income level face significant tax increases.

Obama has been pushing for a vote by year's end to extend middle-class tax cuts. But House Democrats � much like their Senate counterparts � are divided. Republicans and a few Democrats want to extend the tax cuts for everyone, even the wealthiest Americans.

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid chose to postpone consideration of the tax cut extension until a lame duck session scheduled to convene Nov. 15.

House Democrats had hoped the Senate would act first, before the election, to narrow the question of which tax cuts to preserve. Sensing the impasse and wary of being branded tax hikers before Election Day, more than 30 rank-and-file House Democrats urged Pelosi to extend all tax cuts, at least temporarily.

The question for Democratic leaders is whether holding a tax cut debate, a debate and a vote, or joining the Senate in a bicameral punt would be least damaging before Election Day.

Some Democrats are wary of supporting Obama's plan to let taxes rise for the wealthiest Americans, fearing they would be accused of supporting a tax hike. Other Democrats believe they have a winning message of fiscal responsibility while making the rich pay more after years of relative prosperity.

Pelosi downplayed the political dilemma Friday.

"There isn't a person in our caucus that isn't for tax cuts for the middle class," Pelosi said. "It's not about the election. It's about the policy and we're all very strong on that, and members, with a vote or without a vote, can go home and talk about their commitment to that."

House Republican Leader John Boehner has seized on the indecision, saying that not securing a tax cut extension before the election risks a tax hike in 2011.

"Congress should not go home without stopping the tax hike on American families and small businesses," Boehner said. "Doing so would wallop every taxpayer with a tax hike in a struggling economy � and that's simply irresponsible."

House Republicans have said they are confident that their tax proposal would win a majority of votes in the House, if Pelosi allows it to come up for a vote.

Time is running short for the House to act before it breaks for the election. The House is only in session for two days next week, and Pelosi said her goal is to send lawmakers home by next Thursday.

Regardless of when the House votes, Pelosi vowed to extend the middle-class tax cuts by the end of the year.

"America's middle class will have a tax cut," Pelosi said. "It will be done in this Congress. There is no question about that."

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Swiss minister's giggling fit an online hit (AP)

GENEVA � Switzerland's finance minister has sparked hilarity in the Alpine nation by collapsing into giggles while answering a parliamentary question about imports of cured meats.

The video showing Hans-Rudolf Merz convulsing with laughter at the unintelligible bureaucratic language in his script has created popular sympathy for the outgoing finance chief.

Merz was widely criticized in recent years for signing away much of Switzerland's banking secrecy and failing to secure the release of two Swiss citizens held by Libya.

His speech has been viewed by more than 300,000 people on YouTube and other websites since Monday and prompted one maker of air-dried meats to advertise their wares with the slogan: "Never lose your sense of humor."

___

Online:

Swiss TV clip at http://bit.ly/biK4kU

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Cuba details brave new world of private enterprise (AP)

HAVANA � Cuba's communist leaders began laying out the details of their drive to create more free enterprise on the island on Friday, mapping out a brave new world of bosses and employees, personal accountants and a dizzying number of small-time businesses.

The plans � laid out in a three-page spread in the Communist Party-daily Granma � follow last week's announcement that the government will lay off 500,000 workers by the end of March, the biggest change in this country's economic system since the early 1990s.

For the first time, Cubans in 83 private activities will be allowed to employ people other than their relatives. The Central Bank is even studying ways to get small loans into the hands of the country's new entrepreneurs, according to the newspaper, which cited Economy Minister Marino Murillo Jorge and a vice-minister of labor and social security, Admi Valhuerdi Cepero.

"The decision to loosen the rules on private employment is one of the steps the country has taken in the redesign of its economic policies to increase production levels and efficiency," Granma reported.

Cubans authorized to live overseas � though apparently not exiles � will be able to take part in the economic changes by naming a representative on the island who can help them rent the cars they left behind.

It also loosens rules on Cubans who want to rent their homes out to travelers, saying they no longer have to live there themselves and can hire staff. That creates the possibility of posh bed and breakfasts, instead of the threadbare boarding houses that exist now.

Granma is the voice of the Communist Party and one of the principal ways the government communicates plans with the people. The paper promised more details in coming days, saying that the expanded private enterprise would be "another opportunity, under the watchful eye of the state" to "improve the quality of life of Cubans."

The new openings are sure to be welcome in a country where young people have been clamoring for more opportunities for years, but they will also create tension and upheaval.

Marley Martinez, 22, is one of those who says she is already weighing her options. She's a state-trained accountant but is studying to become a hair dresser and hopes to open her own shop. Barber is No. 77 on Granma's list of self-employment jobs.

"It's not really a dream, but it's something I want to do and feel I need to do," said Martinez, who was strolling through a crowded Havana shopping center. "What the people need are more economic freedoms, the ability to work for themselves."

Currently, the state dominates nearly every aspect of the Cuban economy, employing at least 84 percent of the work force and paying an average of $20 a month. In return, islanders are guaranteed free education and health care, as well as nearly free housing, transportation and basic food.

President Raul Castro has said the cash-strapped government can no longer afford such generous subsidies and that he wants to modernize Cuba's economy, without abandoning socialism. The goal of the reforms is to lower the government payroll while simultaneously boosting state revenue by charging private enterprise taxes.

Granma said those taking advantage of the new opportunities would have to not only pay personal income tax, but also sales and payroll taxes � as well as contribute to social security. Analysts say the success of the program depends largely on the government's ability to collect those revenues, no small feat in an economy that is overwhelmingly cash based.

A vibrant black market already exists in Cuba offering many of the services the government hopes to legitimize, and nobody involved pays income or sales tax.

The article tries to allay any fears that the country is embracing free-market capitalism, saying that the changes will always be "faithful to the socialist principles our constitution demands."

Still the changes outlined over the past two weeks are sure to expand the breach between haves and have-nots in a land that has spent 50 years striving for an egalitarian utopia.

In all, some 178 private activities will be allowed and expanded, though only seven of those are entirely new � including accountants, bathroom attendants, tutors and fruit vendors. One entire page of the newspaper was devoted to listing jobs that will qualify for self-employment. The list has everything from floral wreath arrangers to animal trainers to interior decorators.

The rules, which are set to go into effect next month, will also allow for a great expansion of private restaurants � called paladares � which will be able to serve up to 20 people and expand their menus to include higher-priced items like beef and lobster.

Previously, government rules limited them to 12 seats and placed restrictions on what their menus could offer, though most establishments blatantly violated the rules.

___

Editor's Note: Associated Press reporter Will Weissert contributed to this report.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

UK raises terror alert due to Irish dissidents (AP)

LONDON � Britain has raised its terror alert from Irish dissidents, saying the threat has risen to a point where an attack on mainland Britain is "a strong possibility."

The Home Office says the change was made Friday from "moderate" to "substantial" � the middle rung on the government's five-point threat scale.

The threat from international terrorism, which is ranked on a separate scale, stands at "severe," meaning an attack is considered highly likely.

The highest level is "critical" � meaning an attack is imminent.

The government has never before released the threat assessment of Irish groups.

Home Secretary Theresa May said it was being made public "in the interests of transparency and to encourage people to remain vigilant."

Last week the head of the MI5 spy agency warned that dissidents who reject Northern Ireland's peace process could strike mainland British cities for the first time since 2001.

Jonathan Evans said Irish republican splinter groups, who having the British province of Northern Ireland join the Republic of Ireland, have access to weapons, including Semtex explosives, and funds from smuggling and drug trafficking.

Earlier this month, The Guardian newspaper quoted the dissident Real IRA group as saying it planned attacks in England and would focus on banks.

Republican dissidents last made a successful attack in England in August 2001, exploding a car bomb near a shopping center in west London, injuring 11 people.

Evans said dissidents had mounted or attempted 30 attacks this year in Northern Ireland � including a car bombing at MI5's base in the region, which caused no serious injuries � an increase from 20 attacks last year.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Groups: Kenyan suspects secretly flown to Uganda (AP)

NAIROBI, Kenya � Mohammed Hamid Suleiman was beaten down by police outside his Nairobi home, and his wife's attempts to intercede were met with a cocked gun.

The next time Zuhura Suleiman saw her husband was on the front page of a Ugandan newspaper � as one of the suspects in the bombing attacks that killed 76 people watching the World Cup final on television.

Human rights organizations say that eight out of 13 Kenyans charged with offenses in Uganda related to the attacks were taken there illegally, and that the FBI appears to have heavy involvement in the investigation.

Members of Kenya's Muslim community have expressed outrage and fear following the arrests and extraditions.

"It made me wonder if being a Muslim does not make me a Kenyan. What future is there for our children if this is the way the government is going to treat us?" said Zuhura, 37.

The Somali al-Qaida-linked insurgent group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the July 11 attacks and said they were to avenge the deaths of Somali civilians killed by shelling by African Union peacekeepers, a force primarily made up of Ugandan troops.

After the attacks, Kenya's Anti-Terrorism Police Unit swept up suspects, and rights groups say those arrested were extradited to Uganda without any court proceedings or legal representation. Activists say they believe Uganda is being used as a base to interrogate people of interest to the Kenyan security forces and the FBI.

Hassan Omar Hassan, an official with the government-funded Kenya National Commission of Human Rights, says one suspect was arrested by police a week ago, gagged and hooded, according to a sworn statement in court by a witness. Hassan says the man's wife didn't learn of his whereabouts until five days later when he was charged in a Ugandan court.

"We live in fear that there is no law in Kenya to secure the safety and security of Muslims, not from thugs or thieves, but from the impunity and hooliganism of Kenyan security forces," said a joint statement Wednesday from several Muslim organizations, including the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims and National Muslim Leaders Forum.

The groups claim that security forces are "trailing Muslims, pouncing on them, beating them, placing hoods over their heads and then rushing them to Uganda."

Kenya's government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, defended the transfers, saying that regional governments are allowed to hand over suspects under security provisions in a treaty forming a common market known as the East African Community.

However, rights lawyer Mbugua Mureithi said the government spokesman's interpretation of the treaty is incorrect and that the treaty requires states to follow extradition laws.

Mureithi himself was detained in Uganda a week ago with rights activist Al-Amin Kimathi after the two traveled there to represent Kenyans facing terrorism-related charges. Mureithi said he was interrogated in the presence of an FBI agent and that three of the Kenyans he was representing told him that they were interrogated five times by foreigners who introduced themselves as FBI agents.

Days after the bombings, the FBI's New York office and the New York Police Department said that a team of investigators, including forensic experts, from the city's Joint Terrorism Task Force was en route to Uganda to assist authorities with the probe.

A U.S. government spokesman denied that any FBI agents were present when Mureithi was questioned, and denied any involvement in the detention of the activists.

"No representative of any agency of the U.S. government met with, directed, was present or was involved in any way in the arrest, detention, or questioning of Al-Amin Kimathi and Mbugua Mureithi," said U.S. spokesman John Haynes.

Haynes said he did not have any immediate comment on allegations of U.S. involvement in the transfer of other Kenyan suspects to Uganda.

Mureithi was deported fours days after he was arrested, while Kimathi, a prominent human rights activist, was charged in a Ugandan court on Monday in connection with the bombings.

The U.S. State Department's 2009 Human Rights Report lists torture and the abuse of suspects as some of the serious human rights problems in Uganda. The report also says the country carries out arbitrary and politically motivated arrests, and that suspects suffer from being held incommunicado and lengthy pretrial detention.

Clara Gutteridge, an investigator for Reprieve, a U.K.-based human rights group, said that U.S. agents have been closely involved in the raids where some of the victims were originally apprehended.

"They have also been involved in the interrogations of many of the detained individuals and appear to have a significant degree of control over the prisoners," Gutteridge said in a statement on Thursday.

She said it was similar to the unlawful transfers of more than 100 people suspected of involvement in terrorism who were arrested in Kenya while escaping war in Somalia in 2006-07.

Those arrested were put in chartered planes and flown to Somalia, then to secret prisons in Ethiopia where they were interrogated by FBI and CIA agents.

"In both 2007 and current renditions, the Kenyan government is playing an operative role in the illegal transfer of its own citizens to situations where they are being denied basic rights and are at high risk of torture," she said.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Al-Qaida in Iraq claims Baghdad bombings (AP)

BAGHDAD � Al-Qaida's front group in Iraq claimed responsibility Friday for two Baghdad bombings last week that killed at least 31 people at a government security agency and what it called an "evil" mobile phone provider.

The Islamic State of Iraq said in a statement that it targeted the National Security Ministry and an AsiaCell store last Sunday because they are an inseparable part of the Shiite-led government's crackdown on insurgents.

"Our squads targeted two dens of evil used as spying places by Iraqi security services," the group said in a statement posted on a website used by militants.

The statement said insurgents also bombed "the evil AsiaCell office in the Mansour area" in west Baghdad, describing the store as "part of the security system that is used by the crusaders' government to chase the mujahedeen (holy warriors) and spy on them."

The Islamic State of Iraq includes al-Qaida in Iraq and other allied Sunni insurgent factions.

An Iraqi security official said the government has arrested at least one suspect in the Sept. 19 bombings that came only minutes apart. Most of the victims were civilians.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The insurgents' statement comes at a delicate time in Iraq, where the government is in stalemate for nearly seven months following March 7 parliamentary elections that failed to produce a clear winner. U.S. officials fear the political vacuum could complicate Iraqi efforts to fully take over security and possibly open room for insurgents to regain footholds.

Envoys from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's bloc opened talks Friday in Iran with a self-exiled militant cleric in attempts to end Iraq's political impasse, aides said.

The outreach to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is part of a web of meetings and dealmaking to find ways of forming a new government. March elections left Iraq divided between a Sunni-backed coalition and various Shiite groups supporting either al-Maliki or his rivals.

Al-Sadr, who has been based in Iran for several years, leads a political group that has opposed keeping al-Maliki in power. But it appears al-Maliki is seeking to court the anti-American cleric and others to turn back a bid by one of Iraq's vice presidents, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, to win Shiite support to become the next head of government.

Iraqi Ayatollah Kadim al-Haairi, who lives in Iran and has a strong Sadrist following, issued a statement calling for an end to the impasse and for the backing of the leader with the most Shiite support. Although he didn't mention any names, the statement was seen as a boost for al-Maliki.

"The faithful politicians need to present a united initiative and expedite the nomination of the person who can run the government to be the prime minister," al-Haairi said in a statement. "They cannot neglect the wish of voters."

A Sunni-backed coalition led by ex-Prime Minister Ayad Allawi narrowly defeated al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated bloc in the March elections, but no single group has pulled together enough support to name a new prime minister and start assembling a government.

In an interview published Tuesday in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Allawi insisted that his group has the right to form the government and said al-Maliki's attempt to cling to power are a "goodbye to democracy in Iraq."

"If al-Maliki insists on staying, I think the country will head toward strong turbulence," Allawi was quoted as saying.

___

Associated Press Writers Brian Murphy and Lara Jakes in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Queen tried to get UK poverty fund to heat palace (AP)

LONDON � A government fund intended to provide subsidized heating to low-income Britons got some interest from an unexpected source: Queen Elizabeth II, who wanted help paying the bills at Buckingham Palace.

The official response, according to documents unearthed by The Independent newspaper, was that the handout might prove to be an embarrassment if word got out. The paper quotes an unnamed functionary as gently reminding the royal household that the money was meant for local authorities, housing associations, and the like.

"I also feel a bit uneasy about the probable adverse press coverage if the Palace were given a grant at the expense of say a hospital," the paper quoted the official as saying. "Sorry this doesn't sound more positive."

The newspaper said royal aides were looking for a way to pay the queen's spiraling utility bills, which had risen by 50 percent to more than 1 million pounds ($1.58 million) in 2004. A letter written that year and addressed to Britain's culture department asked whether the queen could get a community energy grant to upgrade the heating systems at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, the monarch's favorite weekend residence.

Officials were receptive to the idea, but eventually decided against it, the paper said Friday, citing documents obtained under Britain's Freedom of Information Act.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman confirmed that royal officials had explored the possibility of getting money under the program, saying it was part of an attempt to reduce both its burden on the taxpayer and improve the palaces' energy efficiency. She claimed the royal household was not initially aware that the money had been earmarked for low-income Britons.

She spoke anonymously in line with royal policy.

The queen's finances have been controversial in the past, with occasional debates about whether Britain's head of state � whose role is almost exclusively ceremonial � costs too much. The queen has royal residences across Britain, including Balmoral Castle in Scotland and Sandringham House in eastern England.

Other residences, such as the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh and St. James's Palace in London, are used as offices or for functions.

Still, the queen has a reputation for frugality and the monarchy has recently been keen to show it gives value for money. Taxpayers fund the royal household to the tune of 38.2 million pounds ($60 million) a year, which the royal website points out is only 62 pence (less than a dollar) per person.

That amount doesn't include the cost of providing security for the queen and her family.

Expensive or not, word that the royal household had toyed with the idea of trying to get money intended for some of the nation's poorest citizens had a medieval ring to it and the drew the ire of Republic, which campaigns for the abolition of the British monarchy.

The group said the story provided "clear evidence of the contempt the palace has for ordinary people in this country."

The report also raised eyebrows among some of those interviewed on the streets of north London Friday. Nick Bowring, a 23-year-old fitness instructor, said he didn't think the queen should get help paying her heating bills.

"There are people who need it a lot more than she does," he said.

But Ian Laming, a 49-year-old carpenter, disagreed, saying he didn't see why the government advised the palace not to apply for the funds. He said he admired the queen and was pleased when she volunteered to pay more taxes some years ago when royal finances were under scrutiny.

"She helps a lot," he said, explaining that the monarch was big boon to the U.K. economy.

"You just have to walk down to Buckingham Palace to see all the tourists."

___

Associated Press Writer Gregory Katz contributed to this report.

___

Online:

The British Monarchy: http://ping.fm/TE35g

Republic: http://ping.fm/GKTj1

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Police: Fla. bank robber has taken hostages (AP)

CORAL GABLES, Fla. � Police say a robber has taken an unknown number of hostages at a Bank of America near the University of Miami.

Coral Gables police say some employees and customers were taken hostage Friday at the bank, but they don't know how many. Hostage negotiators are at the bank along with the FBI and the Miami-Dade County bomb squad.

The university sent an alert to students warning them to stay away from the area near the bank.

Some elementary schools in the area have been locked down as a precaution but the university remains open.

Roads are closed in the area. The bank is near the southern end of Interstate 95, the highway that spans the East Coast from Maine to Florida.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Mexican mayor slain in drug-plagued state (AP)

MONTERREY, Mexico � Authorities say gunmen have killed the mayor of a northern Mexican town � adding to a string of attacks on political figures in the drug-plagued region.

The Nuevo Leon state Attorney General's Office says Prisciliano Rodriguez Salinas was gunned down along with another employee of the town named Doctor Gonzalez, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Monterrey.

Rival gangs have been battling to control drug routes through Nuevo Leon and neighboring border states.

Gunmen killed another Monterrey area mayor in August after. In June, gunmen killed the leading gubernatorial candidate in neighboring Tamaulipas state. A mayoral candidate was slain there in May. A mayor in San Luis Potosi state was killed this month.

(This version CORRECTS typo in 1st paragraph, killed instead of skilled.)

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

South African police arrested for prisoner escape (AP)

JOHANNESBURG � Police say 13 officers have been arrested on charges of aiding the escape of eight prisoners from a court in South Africa's commercial capital.

Police spokeswoman Col. Noxolo Kweza said Friday that prisoners were not wearing leg irons or handcuffs when they escaped from the Johannesburg court where they awaited trial Thursday. Police are also being charged with misconduct and gross negligence.

Kweza said a hearing for the officers may take place as early as Monday.

The eight prisoners, charged with murder and robbery, escaped through the court's basement. Police have re-arrested seven but are still searching for one.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Durable goods rise outside volatile transportation (AP)

WASHINGTON � Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell by the largest amount in a year. But excluding the volatile transportation sector, orders posted their best showing in five months.

The Commerce Department says that orders for durable goods dropped 1.3 percent last month, reflecting a huge drop in aircraft demand. But when looking at orders without aircraft and autos, orders rose 2 percent. It reflected strong gains in demand for primary metals such as steel, heavy machinery and computers.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Pakistan to fight for terrorist convict's release (AP)

KARACHI, Pakistan � Pakistan's prime minister called a female scientist convicted of trying to kill U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan "the daughter of the nation" on Friday and vowed to campaign for her release from an American jail.

Police fired tear gas to disburse rock-throwing protesters trying to march to the U.S. Consulate in the country's largest city, Karachi, in one of several demonstrations against the 86-year sentence given to Aafia Siddiqui by a New York court on Thursday.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's comments appeared to be an attempt to manage public anger over the case of the American-trained scientist and mother, which has struck a chord among Islamist groups and ordinary Pakistanis, many of whom are convinced of her innocence.

Gilani said he had lobbied U.S. officials for Siddiqui's release to "improve the U.S. image in Pakistan."

"We all are united, and we want the daughter of the nation to come back to Pakistan," he told parliament, which unanimously adopted a resolution demanding Siddiqui's repatriation.

"I fought for her, my lawyer fought for her and now I will take up this matter on a political level," he said.

Most of the protesters were from Islamist political parties opposed to the government. They criticized the country's leaders for failing to somehow secure her freedom.

One of the largest protests was in the northwestern city of Peshawar, where around 8,000 people gathered.

In Islamabad, 100 people attempting to reach the U.S. Embassy scuffled with police near a five-star hotel, witnesses said.

"Down with America! Jihad, Jihad!" the protesters shouted.

In Karachi, where Siddiqui's family lives, around 400 people briefly battled with police officers who fired several rounds of tear gas, said police Chief Javed Akbr. There were no reports of any injuries.

Siddiqui, 38, was detained in Afghanistan in 2008. She was found guilty of seizing a weapon from one of her captors and trying to shoot U.S. authorities who were interrogating her there.

Many Pakistanis believe claims by Siddiqui's supporters that the U.S. abducted her long before that and kept her in a secret prison for years as it pursued its fight against global terrorism. U.S. officials deny those claims, though they had listed Siddiqui as a suspect wanted for alleged links to al-Qaida before her arrest.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

5-year-old murder stokes dangerous Lebanon crisis (AP)

BEIRUT � "The Truth" was the rallying cry for hundreds of thousands of angry Lebanese who took to the streets of Beirut five years ago demanding to know who was behind the assassination of their hero, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Their movement helped reshape Lebanon's politics.

But now the quest to uncover and prosecute Hariri's killers threatens to tear the country apart.

The possibility that the U.N. tribunal investigating the murder could indict members of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah � perhaps as soon as next month � is fueling Lebanon's worst political crisis in years. Deep feuds between Western-backed parties and Hezbollah worsened this week, raising fears they could bring down the fragile unity government in which both serve, and which is led by the slain leader's son, Saad Hariri.

"The country has been drowning in a war of words," Prime Minister Hariri said this week. "The Lebanese are deeply anxious and some believe that we are on the edge of a renewed wave of destruction. This is not the image we want to portray to the world."

But Hariri also rejected demands from Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies that he push to shut down the Netherlands-based tribunal. If Hezbollah members are accused, many fear it could lead to violence between the heavily armed guerrilla force and Hariri's mainly Sunni allies.

The bombing that killed Rafik Hariri and 22 other people along Beirut's Mediterranean waterfront on Feb. 14, 2005 was one of the most dramatic political assassinations the Mideast has seen. A billionaire businessman, Hariri was Lebanon's most prominent politician after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

Suspicion fell on neighboring Syria, since Hariri had been seeking to weaken its domination of the country. Syria has denied having any role in the murder, but the killing galvanized opposition to Damascus. Huge street demonstrations helped end Syria's 29-year military presence, paving the way for pro-Western parties to head the government in subsequent elections.

But since then, the tack of the investigation appears to have changed. Four pro-Syrian generals arrested early on were released last year for lack of evidence. Though the tribunal has not yet named any individuals or countries as suspects, Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has announced that he expects members of his group to be indicted. He vows not to hand them over to be prosecuted.

In a stunning reversal this month, Hariri said it had been a mistake to blame Damascus for his father's killing. He also has shuttled to Damascus five times in the last nine months to try to repair the relationship.

Supporters of Syria and Hezbollah have scrambled to discredit the tribunal, saying it was poisoned by witnesses giving false information. Tensions heightened this month after one of the generals initially arrested launched bruising personal attacks on the younger Hariri. Jamil al-Sayyed, who headed Lebanon's security services at the time of the assassination, said the prime minister "sold his father's blood" to frame Syria, and was behind the "false witnesses."

He said Hariri must be held accountable or "I will do it someday with my own hands."

The state prosecutor summoned him questioning, but he said he would not comply.

Over the weekend, Hezbollah sent a crew of gunmen to Rafik Hariri International Airport to pick up al-Sayyed after he flew in from Paris, presumably to protect him from arrest. Critics said the show of force amounted to an armed takeover of the airport.

Hariri's backers struck back, accusing al-Sayyed of trying to blackmail Hariri for $15 million in exchange for dropping the charges that Hariri was behind the false witnesses.

Pro-Syrian Christian politician Suleiman Franjieh said in a television interview late Thursday that if Hezbollah members are indicted "there will be war in Lebanon."

"The atmosphere is waiting for the spark," Franjieh said.

Some Lebanese are now saying the investigation may not be worth the chaos its findings might create.

"If the tribunal is going to lead to strife, then let's all agree on canceling it," said Walid Jumblatt, a political leader of the Druse sect who once was among the tribunal's leading supporters.

Wiam Wahhab, a pro-Syrian politician, warned on Hezbollah's TV station that it would take more than a decade for the tribunal to pore through all the evidence, putting Lebanon in a dangerous limbo.

"Are we going to keep the country in mourning?" he asked. "What is needed today is for the tribunal to be brought down immediately in order for the country to relax."

But Hariri and his supporters insist the tribunal will go forward.

The disputes are intensifying a long-running power struggle between Hariri's supporters and Hezbollah that exploded into street violence in Beirut in May 2008. Fear over chaos stemming from indictments is so strong in the region that in July, the leaders of Syria and Saudi Arabia � once bitter rivals � traveled to Lebanon together in an unprecedented show of cooperation to calm tempers.

Jamil K. Mroue, editor in chief of Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper, lamented that the country is in uproar before the indictments have even been announced.

"The country's politicians are creating the consequences of the indictment before the court takes any action," he wrote in an editorial. "Broad swaths of the public space are deteriorating over pure hearsay."

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Obama, at UN, eyes Sudan, Southeast Asia tensions (AP)

UNITED NATIONS � President Barack Obama is using his third and last day at the U.N. General Assembly to focus on averting renewed conflict in Sudan and easing growing maritime tensions between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors.

A day after concentrating on broader international issues, Obama on Friday was to attend a high-level U.N. meeting aimed at ensuring an upcoming independence referendum for southern Sudan does not spark a new civil war. Preparations for the January vote are well behind schedule, and there are fears a vote to secede will lead to violence.

In preparatory meetings this week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been urging Sudanese authorities to make up for lost time in preparing for the referendum that is called for in the 2005 peace agreement that ended 21 years of north-south civil war in the African nation.

Southern Sudan, which is predominantly animist and Christian, is scheduled to vote on independence Jan. 9. But the group charged with organizing the vote has not yet set a date for voter registration.

The Obama administration has said it is "inevitable" the south will declare independence. Given the south's substantial known oil resources, many worry that the predominantly Muslim north will find it difficult to accept an independent south.

The president also will host a luncheon for leaders from the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations who are concerned about increasing Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea. To China's annoyance, the Obama administration has declared a peaceful resolution to territorial disputes in the sea to be in the United States' interest.

The meeting follows Obama's talks on Thursday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, whose countries are embroiled in their own dispute over jointly claimed islands in the East China Sea.

Beijing was furious when Clinton told a regional security forum in Vietnam in July that the peaceful resolution of disputes over the Spratly and Paracel island groups in the South China Sea was in the U.S. national interest. Beijing said Washington was interfering in an Asian regional issue.

The United States worries the disputes could hurt access to one of the world's busiest commercial sea lanes.

China claims all of the South China Sea, where Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines also have laid territorial claims. Aside from rich fishing areas, the region is believed to have huge oil and natural gas deposits. The contested islands straddle busy sea lanes that are a crucial conduit for oil and other resources fueling China's fast-expanding economy.

At Friday's lunch, Obama is also expected to press Myanmar's military rulers to hold free and fair elections this year and release political prisoners, including democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest. U.S. officials have said they see little chance that any polling there will meet international standards.

In addition to the group meetings, Obama also plans separate talks with the leaders of Colombia, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Malaysia deports Singaporean terrorist suspect (AP)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia � Malaysia deported a Singaporean terrorist suspect Friday nearly 18 months after he was captured while on the run after staging a dramatic escape from a high-security prison in the city-state.

Mas Selamat Kastari, the alleged commander of the Singapore arm of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah militant group, was released from a Malaysian prison Friday morning, said Mohamad Fuzi Harun, head of the Federal Police's counterterrorism unit, in a written statement.

"The Home Minister ... canceled the detention order against Mas Selamat," Mohamad Fuzi said without elaborating.

A statement by Singapore's Home Ministry said the former fugitive, who is of Indonesian origin, was handed over to Singaporean authorities later Friday.

It said "he has been arrested under the Singapore's Internal Security Act," which allows indefinite detention without trial.

Mas Selamat, who is in his late 40s, is accused of plotting to hijack a plane and crash it into Singapore's international airport. Jemaah Islamiyah is accused of carrying out the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people.

After a year on the run, he was captured in Malaysia on April 1, 2009, and detained under the Internal Security Act.

Mas Selamat's deportation came two days after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak went to Singapore for bilateral talks with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The talks focused on a land-swap deal, and there was no indication that Mas Selamat's release was imminent.

The Singapore Home Ministry statement said Mas Selamat's capture and deportation "illustrates the long-standing close cooperation between the Malaysian and Singaporean security agencies, which has served both countries well."

At the time of his escape on Feb. 27, 2008, Mas Selamat was being held in a heavily guarded jail in Singapore. He escaped by wriggling out a bathroom window in a shocking breach that severely embarrassed the city-state known for its rigorous security. His ability to remain in hiding for more than a year underscored that terrorist networks in the region remain strong.

The search for Mas Selamat initially focused on Singapore and neighboring Indonesia, where it was thought the local branch of Jemaah Islamiyah would easily provide shelter for him. But he was arrested on the outskirts of Johor Baru, the capital of the southern state of Johor state, which is separated from Singapore by a narrow strip of sea.

A father of four, Mas Selamat escaped when he was taken from his cell to a room where he was waiting for a visit from his family. He disappeared after being granted permission go to the bathroom, authorities said.

Such security breaches are virtually unheard of in tightly policed Singapore, an island nation of 4 million people.

Mas Selamat fled Singapore in December 2001 following a crackdown on Jemaah Islamiyah. He was arrested by the Indonesian police on Bintan island in January 2006 and handed over to Singapore authorities.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

AP-GfK Poll: Dems disliked, but GOP just as bad (AP)

WASHINGTON � If anyone is as scorned as much as Democrats these days, it's Republicans � the very party that may recapture the House and perhaps the Senate in November's elections.

Yet Democrats face a problem, even as they try exploiting GOP unpopularity by warning against letting them run Congress. People who dislike Democrats seem ready to vote in greater numbers than those with little use for Republicans.

In an Associated Press-GfK Poll this month, 60 percent disapprove of the job congressional Democrats are doing � yet 68 percent frown on how Republicans are performing. While 59 percent are unhappy with how Democrats are handling the economy, 64 percent are upset by the GOP's work on the country's top issue. Just over half have unfavorable views of each party.

Most say President Barack Obama isn't cooperating enough on the economy; yet even more accuse Republicans of the same thing. Former President George W. Bush and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin � the only two Republicans the AP-GfK Poll tested � are both viewed negatively by more than half in the survey, worse than Obama's marks. And people overwhelmingly fault Bush more than Obama for the recession.

Emile Wery, 66, a military retiree in Pahoa, Hawaii, rated both parties unfavorably in the poll. He says Democrats aren't doing enough to create jobs and Republicans aren't being constructive.

"They're not doing anything to mitigate the problems we have, because it's in their best interests to make Democrats look bad," Wery said of the GOP.

Hoping to burnish their image, House Republicans unfurled a campaign document Thursday proposing tax and spending cuts and other broad suggestions for reviving the economy. Democrats have been on the offensive, too, warning that a GOP-run Congress would return the country to the days of government shutdowns and attempts to privatize Social Security.

Despite the GOP's weak report card, registered voters divide evenly over which party's congressional candidate they support. That expands to a slight Republican edge among likely voters, reflecting a deeper interest that GOP supporters express in the Nov. 2 elections.

The explanation, according to one political scientist who has studied voters' behavior: Most people don't view elections as a choice between two competing futures, as Democrats hope they will. Instead, Stanford University professor Morris Fiorina said they tend to focus on the present � which today means their deep discontent over the job Obama and the Democratic-led Congress have done to rescue the economy.

"People are saying, 'We don't like what we have, we're going to throw them out and we're going to trust that they're going to read the signals right and do something different,'" Fiorina said.

Reflecting that discontent, 54 percent who strongly dislike Democrats in the AP-GfK Poll express intense interest in the election, compared with just 40 percent of those with very negative views of Republicans. Extreme interest in the campaign is expressed by nearly 6 in 10 saying their vote in November will signal their opposition to Obama. Only about 4 in 10 say they want to show support for the president with their vote.

Overall, 49 percent of those supporting their Republican congressional candidate are very interested in the election, compared with 39 percent of those backing the Democrat in their local race.

Still, the public's generally dim view of Republicans gives Democrats some hope of blunting what could be big GOP Election Day gains. That optimism has been buttressed by some candidates Republicans have chosen, such as Delaware Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell, who faces allegations of misusing campaign funds and has espoused conservative social views.

"As Republicans take the spotlight, voters become more focused on what they don't like about the GOP," said Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin.

Republicans say that won't work because midterm elections are usually about the party in power.

"It is awfully hard to change the subject," said GOP pollster Glen Bolger. "And right now the subject is big picture things like the economy and jobs, taxes and spending, the health care bill" and big government.

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications from Sept. 8-13 and involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,000 randomly chosen adults. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

___

AP Polling Director Trevor Tompson, Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

___

Online:

AP-GfK Poll: http://ping.fm/G9KXb

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds