Japan asks China to cover damage to patrol boats (AP)

TOKYO � Japan asked China to pay for damage to Japanese patrol boats hit by a Chinese fishing vessel near disputed islands, as simmering tension between the two Asian neighbors showed no signs of easing Monday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku's remarks came a day after Japan's prime minister rejected China's demand that Tokyo apologize and offer compensation for the arrest of the Chinese boat captain earlier this month near islands claimed by both countries.

The captain was released Friday and has since returned to China, but the diplomatic back-and-forth since then indicates nationalistic sentiments stirred up by the incident are not dissipating.

"We will ask China to pay for damage incurred to coast guard vessels," Sengoku told reporters at a morning press conference, saying the request had been relayed to Beijing via diplomatic channels.

Sengoku also said it was now China's turn to decide whether it wants to repair bilateral ties.

"At this point, the ball is now in China's court," he said.

The captain's Sept. 8 arrest following the collision near a chain of islands in the East China Sea called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, has strained ties between the world's No. 2 and No. 3 economies to their worst point in years.

Beijing had exerted intense pressure on Tokyo to free the captain, cutting off ministerial-level dialogue with Tokyo and postponing talks on developing undersea natural gas fields between the nations.

Hopes the captain's release Friday would ease tensions were dashed when Beijing demanded an apology and compensation � a demand that Prime Minister Naoto Kan flatly rejected Sunday.

"I have no intention of accepting (the demand) at all," Kan said. "It is important for both sides to act with a broader point of view."

Tokyo's counterdemand for compensation may be an attempt to blunt criticism at home that Japan caved in to Chinese pressure in its decision to free the captain.

The collision incident is one of several spats straining China's ties with its Asian neighbors while its increasingly powerful navy enforces claims in disputed waters.

On Friday, President Barack Obama and Southeast Asian leaders sent China a firm message over territorial disputes, calling for freedom of navigation and peaceful resolution of disputes in seas that China claims as its own. Obama also pledged to take a strong role in regional affairs.

Beijing was furious after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary 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 an American national interest. Beijing said Washington was interfering in an Asian regional issue.

Tension between China and Japan, meanwhile, has spilled over into other areas.

On Thursday, Beijing said it was investigating four Japanese suspected of entering a military zone without authorization and illegally filming military facilities. The four employees of Fujita Corp., a Japanese construction company, were working to prepare a bid for a project to dispose of chemical weapons abandoned in China by the Japanese military during World War II, the company said.

Officials from the Japanese Embassy in Beijing met with the four men on Saturday, said company spokesman Yoshiaki Onodera. They are in good health and are being questioned by Chinese authorities at an undisclosed hotel.

"But obviously they are hoping for their safe return as soon as possible," Onodera said.

Also, Japanese trading company officials said starting last Tuesday, China had halted exports to Japan of rare earth elements, which are essential for making high-tech products. China's Trade Ministry denied that Beijing had tightened curbs.

___

Associated Press writer Tomoko Hosaka in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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Delegates gather in NKorea for political meeting (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea � Delegates to North Korea's biggest political meeting in decades gathered in the country's capital amid speculation that leader Kim Jong Il will appoint a son and other family members to key positions as part of a succession plan.

The official Korean Central News Agency announced last week the ruling Worker's Party would hold a conference Tuesday to select its "supreme leadership body" after having initially said in June the event would be held in early September. KCNA gave no explanation for the delay.

Party delegates to the conference arrived at Pyongyang's railway station Sunday amid sunny, breezy weather, footage shot by video news service APTN in the North Korean capital showed.

The capital city was festooned with flags and placards announcing the meeting.

"Warm congratulations to the representatives meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea!" read one poster.

North Korea's state news agency carried a brief dispatch Sunday about the arrival of delegates, though provided no details about the meeting itself.

Rodong Sinmun, the North's leading newspaper, ran an article lauding the party and emphasizing its loyalty to the country's leader.

"The WPK remains so strong as its ranks are made up of ardent loyalists who unhesitatingly dedicate their lives to devotedly defending the headquarters of the revolution, sharing idea and intention and fate with the leader," said the article, carried Monday by KCNA.

The widely anticipated meeting will be the party's first major gathering since a landmark congress in 1980 where then 38-year-old Kim Jong Il made his political debut. That appearance confirmed he was in line to succeed his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.

Kim Jong Il eventually took control when his father died of heart failure in 1994 in what was the communist world's first hereditary transfer of power.

Now 68 and reportedly in poor health two years after suffering a stroke, Kim is believed to be prepping his third and youngest son, Kim Jong Un, for a similar father-to-son power transition.

That has triggered speculation the son could be given a key post at the Workers' Party conference as part of a third-generation power transfer.

The question of who will take over from Kim Jong Il, believed to suffer from a host of ailments, is important to regional security because of North Korea's active nuclear and missile programs, and regular threats it makes against rival South Korea.

Some experts fear political instability or even a power struggle if Kim were to die or become incapacitated without clearly naming a successor. Kim Jong Un, believed to be in his 20s, has two older brothers, who have over the years been mentioned as possible successors.

Internal debate among the party elite over whether to publicize Kim Jong Un's possible political appointment to the outside world, as well as concern about recent devastation from flooding and a deadly typhoon, likely prompted the delay, analysts speculated.

Separately, the United States and South Korea began military exercises Monday in waters off the Korean peninsula, weeks after they were delayed by a typhoon.

The drills, set to run through Friday, are being conducted in the Yellow Sea off the peninsula's west coast, where a South Korean naval warship sank in late March near the inter-Korean maritime border. Seoul and Washington blame Pyongyang for torpedoing the ship, though the North denies responsibility.

The exercises are the second in a series of joint maneuvers focusing on anti-submarine warfare tactics, techniques, and procedures, said Cmdr. Won Hyung-seok of the South Korean Defense Ministry.

___

Associated Press writers Kwang-tae Kim and Sangwon Yoon contributed to this report.

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Chavez fights for control in congressional vote (AP)

CARACAS, Venezuela � Opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tried to break his long-standing monopoly on power Sunday in congressional elections, while the firebrand leader rallied his supporters by urging them to "attack" through the ballot box.

Voters stood in long lines at polling stations during elections that stirred strong sentiment on both sides of Venezuela's deep political divide. Venezuelans were waiting late Sunday for results to be announced.

After casting his ballot, Chavez said turnout could be as high as 70 percent.

"The people are speaking," Chavez said, calling it proof the country has a healthy democracy.

Opposition parties were trying to end Chavez's domination of the National Assembly for the first time in his nearly 12 years in the presidency. The vote is also seen as a referendum on Chavez himself ahead of the next presidential election in 2012.

Polls suggest Chavez remains the most popular politician in Venezuela, yet surveys also have shown a decline in his popularity in the past two years as disenchantment has grown over problems including rampant violent crime, poorly administered public services and inflation now hovering at 30 percent.

The opposition, which boycotted the last legislative elections in 2005, stands to dramatically increase its representation beyond the 11 or so lawmakers who defected from Chavez's camp in the current National Assembly. If Chavez's socialist-oriented government fails to keep at least a two-thirds majority of the 165 seats, opponents would have more clout in trying to check his sweeping powers.

"Democracy is at stake," said Teresa Bermudez, a 63-year-old Chavez opponent who stood in a line that ran down a block and around a corner in downtown Caracas. She said she sees the vote as a vital chance for the opposition to have a voice and achieve a more balanced legislature.

Chavez has fashioned himself as a revolutionary-turned-president carrying on the legacy of his mentor Fidel Castro, with a nationalist vision and a deep-seated antagonism toward the U.S. government. He has largely funded his government with Venezuela's ample oil wealth, touting social programs targeted to his support base.

Chavez portrayed the vote as a choice between his "Bolivarian Revolution" and opposition politicians he accuses of serving the interests of the wealthy and his adversaries in the U.S. government.

"We're with this man because this man is the one who has really done things for this country," said Carmen Elena Flores de Cordova, a 58-year-old lawyer who dressed in signature Chavez red to vote. She pointed to government projects in the neighborhood as proof of progress: a new low-income apartment building and cable cars running up into a hillside slum.

Both political camps had witnesses at polling stations. Soldiers stood guard during the balloting, joined by civilians belonging to the Bolivarian Militia created by Chavez.

Chavez supporters wearing red T-shirts handed out fliers backing pro-government candidates to voters lined up at a polling station in Caracas' Petare slum, despite rules barring such activities. Campaign trucks of Chavez's socialist party also cruised past blaring Venezuelan folk music while a man using a loudspeaker called for people to "heed the call of the fatherland" and vote.

Some in line complained about such tactics, saying electoral officials were being too tolerant.

Opposition candidate Yvan Olivares complained he was initially blocked from voting by a band of raucous Chavez supporters on motorcycles who he said fired shots into the air. He said he was eventually able to cast his ballot after reporting the incident to elections officials. Tibisay Lucena, president of the National Electoral Council, called for those on motorcycles not to pass by voting centers.

At least 16 people were detained during the voting for violations such as tearing up their voting slips, and officials also halted groups riding motorcycles in several cities, Gen. Henry Rangel Silva said.

However, electoral officials said no major problems were reported during the voting.

Chavez's party mounted an aggressive campaign to get supporters among Venezuela's 17 million registered voters to the polls. In Caracas, voters were awakened before dawn by fireworks and recorded bugles blaring reveille from speakers. A party worker shouted into a loudspeaker early Sunday urging people to "defend the revolution."

In online posts on Twitter, Chavez called for supporters to turn out and urged them to "sustain the MASSIVE ATTACK!!"

Chavez has warned that his adversaries would try to obstruct his government's efforts if given the chance � and some opposition supporters said that is exactly what they hope for.

"We want a total change," said Dieter Jaaniorg, a 31-year-old auto parts seller who was the first of dozens in line at a Caracas polling station, sitting in a folding chair. He said he is fed up with crime, a bad economy and an authoritarian government.

His younger brother, Cristian, said they both see it as a last chance for the opposition to show it can stand up to Chavez. "If we don't win today, it's straight to communism," he said.

Opposition candidates called the elections a crucial opportunity to defend democratic principles and freedom, saying the National Assembly has been simply taking orders from Chavez for five years.

Opposition candidate Julio Borges said there are no longer checks and balances, and that the vote could help restore some controls on Chavez's actions. "Everything is under his control and he decides everything. That isn't democracy," Borges said.

Some government supporters argue that the opposition � a coalition made up of a range of political factions � has not presented a clear, viable alternative to "Chavismo."

"What they want is to get into the assembly to sabotage all of this," said Jose Aguilar, a 47-year-old business manager who has long backed Chavez. "None of them has presented a plan for the country."

If Chavez's opponents managed to prevent the president from obtaining a two-thirds majority, they would be able to prevent the Chavez's allies from continuing to rewrite laws unopposed and could demand checks on public spending. They could also prevent pro-Chavez lawmakers from unilaterally being able to appoint officials including Supreme Court justices and members of the electoral council.

The president's face was ubiquitous on campaign posters for the candidates of his socialist party. Chavez pitched his allies like a salesman, offering Venezuelans new, low-interest credit cards and discounted appliances from washing machines to TV sets.

The government's "Good Life Card," which has yet to be widely distributed, is to be good for purchases at state-run stores and for travel. Chavez has touted another program offering cheap appliances imported from China as evidence of his government's commitment to making life affordable even while prices at private stores climb swiftly.

___

Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez and Jorge Rueda contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS in 26th paragraph that sentence refers to what would occur if Chavez opponents prevent his allies from obtaining two-thirds majority.)

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Israeli building slowdown ends; settlers celebrate (AP)

REVAVA, West Bank � Jewish settlers released balloons and broke ground on a kindergarten in celebration Sunday as a 10-month construction slowdown expired, while U.S. and Israeli leaders tried to figure out how to keep Palestinians from walking out of peace talks over the end of the restrictions.

After the slowdown ran out at midnight, there was no Palestinian statement about the future of the talks. The Palestinians asked for an Oct. 4 meeting of an Arab League body to discuss the situation, possibly giving diplomats an extra week to work out a compromise.

Minutes after the expiration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the Palestinians not to walk away, but instead to maintain constant contact "to achieve a historic framework accord within a year." In a statement, Netanyahu said his "intention to achieve peace is genuine."

Palestinians have questioned whether they can make peace with Netanyahu, known as a hard-liner.

Israeli settlers were not waiting, celebrating the end of the slowdown and planning to send bulldozers into action in two places in the West Bank early Monday.

In Revava, a settlement deep in the West Bank, about 2,000 activists released 2,000 balloons in the blue and white of the Israeli flag at sundown Sunday. The balloons were meant to symbolize the 2,000 apartments that settlers say are ready to be built immediately.

"Today it's over and we will do everything we can to make sure it never happens again," settler leader Dani Dayan told the crowd. "We return with new energy and a new determination to populate this land."

It was unclear what how the official end of the slowdown would affect construction. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already signaled future settlement construction will be kept to a minimum, in contrast to relatively unfettered housing activity of past Israeli governments.

The Palestinians have said they will quit the negotiations if Israel resumes building, though President Mahmoud Abbas said in a published interview Sunday in the pan-Arabic daily al-Hayat that he would consult with Arab partners first to weigh his options.

Speaking in Paris Sunday, Abbas said, "There is only one choice in front of Israel: either peace or settlements."

The settlers' festivities went ahead despite Netanyahu's call for them to show restraint as the curbs are lifted. Palestinians oppose all settlements built on territories they claim for a future state, and renewed building could endanger negotiations launched early this month by the Obama administration.

The deadlock over settlements has created the first crisis in the negotiations, and U.S. mediators raced to bridge the gap between the Israelis and Palestinians. But a deal was far from certain.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke Sunday with Netanyahu and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the representative of the "Quartet" of Mideast peacemakers, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. He also said U.S. special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell and Jeffrey Feltman, the State Department's chief Mideast official, conferred with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat Sunday afternoon in New York.

"We keep pushing for the talks to continue," Crowley said.

Abbas faces intense internal pressure from his supporters not to relax his conditions. Also, the rival Islamic Hamas, which controls Gaza, opposes peace talks with Israel in principle.

Israeli police said Palestinian gunmen shot and lightly wounded an Israeli motorist in Hebron, close to where a deadly shooting earlier this month killed four Israeli settlers.

Netanyahu, under pressure from pro-settler hard-liners in his governing coalition, said he would not extend the slowdown on construction he imposed 10 months ago. The curbs, which expire at midnight, prevented new housing starts in the West Bank, though the government allowed thousands of units already under construction to be finished.

A similar, but undeclared, slowdown has also been in place in east Jerusalem, the area of the holy city claimed by the Palestinians.

The deadline had not yet expired when several dozen settlers groundbreaking ceremony for a new kindergarten Sunday in the Kiryat Netafim settlement.

"For 10 months, you have been treated as second-class citizens," Danny Danon, a pro-settler lawmaker in Netanyahu's Likud Party, said at the ceremony. "Today, we return to build in all the land of Israel."

In nearby Revava, a settlement of about 130 Orthodox Jewish families in the rocky hills of the northern West Bank, the crowd included young activists, men wearing trademark knit skullcaps favored by religious settlers and foreign supporters from Norway and China.

Netanyahu imposed the slowdown last November in a bid to draw the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. The Palestinians initially rejected the offer as insufficient, but in recent weeks they demanded that the measures remain in place.

The Palestinians say Israeli construction in the West Bank cripples plans for a viable Palestinian state. Some 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, scattered among 2.5 million Palestinians. Another 180,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem.

In practice, the slowdown brought about only a slight drop of about 10 percent in ongoing construction, but it cut new housing starts by about 50 percent, according to the dovish Israeli group Peace Now. That means the slowdown could have far more impact if it remained in place.

In a television interview, settler leader Dayan acknowledged it would take time for work to really begin.

"Whoever thinks that tomorrow there will be some kind of earthquake and there will be bulldozers wherever you look is wrong. That is not going to happen. It's a process and takes a while," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials over the weekend in hopes of forging a deal on settlement construction.

Before boarding a plane back to Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the BBC late Sunday that chances of success were "50-50." The chief Israeli and Palestinian negotiators remained in the U.S., leaving a window open for a last-minute agreement.

One of Obama's chief advisers, David Axelrod, told ABC News that efforts were continuing.

"We're very eager to keep these talks going," he said. "We are going to urge and urge and push throughout this day to � to get some kind of resolution."

Despite the tensions, there have been signs of compromise. Senior Palestinian officials told The Associated Press last week they were prepared to show "some flexibility."

Abbas ruled out a violent response.

"We won't go back to that again," he said.

_______

Associated Press writers Matti Friedman and Dalia Nammari in Jerusalem, Matthew Lee in Washington and Fisnik Abrashi in Paris contributed to this report.

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Officials say levee fails near Wis. park (AP)

PORTAGE, Wis. � A levee along the Wisconsin River failed on Sunday, flooding the access road leading to a park area and cutting off any residents who did not heed daylong warnings to evacuate.

It wasn't immediately clear how many of the roughly 300 residents remained in Blackhawk Park around 4 p.m. Sunday when the road was closed following the failure of the Caledonia Levee south of Highway 33.

The Columbia County Emergency Management Office was letting nobody in or out of the park until further notice and warned all morning that emergency vehicles, including police, fire and ambulances, would not be able to reach any residents who stayed behind.

Kathy Johnson, deputy director of the Columbia County Emergency Management Office, told The Associated Press that in the event of an emergency, "people are going to have to come out by boat."

"The residents down there are used to having high water and dealing with high water a lot but this could be something that they've never seen, with this amount of water," Johnson said.

She said those who evacuated might be out of their homes for up to a week.

A Red Cross reception center was opened at the Portage St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church.

Johnson said the Department of Natural Resources had been walking the levee all night and fixed one weak spot, but that repair failed and there was nothing more authorities could do.

Residents who evacuated were reminded to turn off utilities if possible and to bring their pets, money, medication and important documents.

The Portage Daily Register reported that houses were also danger of being flooded.

Pat Beghin, Columbia County Emergency Management director, told the newspaper that authorities were going door to door to talk to any residents who hadn't evacuated.

The Wisconsin River had reached 20.34 feet in Portage near the Highway 33 bridge by Sunday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. That is above the predicted crest, which previous forecasts said would happen on Monday.

Elsewhere in Wisconsin, water levels were receding in many areas, and officials began documenting damage. Some roads remained washed out.

Emergency management officials said at least 10 homes in Stevens Point remained evacuated Sunday. Officials in Sauk County were suggesting that residents in low lying areas along the Wisconsin River evacuate.

Elsewhere, in the small South Dakota town of Renner, just north of Sioux Falls, sandbags were being filled to deal with any unexpected rise of the Big Sioux River.

Officials said about 10,000 sandbags had been placed and another 10,000 would be filled and stockpiled.

The National Weather Service expects the river to crest Monday morning about 4 feet over flood stage.

The Big Sioux River has been running high all summer. Heavy rain last week pushed the river over its banks from Brookings south to Sioux Falls.

In Minnesota, residents of Zumbro Falls and Hammond � two of the cities hardest-hit by flooding from last week's heavy rains � got a chance to briefly go to their homes to fetch medications or other essentials. It was the first look many had of the damage.

In Hammond, an estimated 70 percent of the houses are unsalvageable.

Newlyweds Chad and Tiffany Domke returned to the trailer home they share with Chad Domke's uncle to find it submerged.

"Where do you start?" Tiffany Domke said to the Post-Bulletin of Rochester. "What do you do?"

Coming out of the home in inch-deep mud, Chad Domke carried a pair of boots, a bottle of cologne and other items from the medicine cabinet. He said it's time to leave Hammond, the place where he grew up.

"No, I'm out," he said. "I'm out of here after 28 years."

Emergency management officials say they'll continue to monitor river levels in southern Minnesota. Areas of concern for the coming week include the Minnesota River in Scott and Carver counties and the Mississippi River at St. Paul and Hastings.

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Israeli building slowdown ends; settlers celebrate (AP)

REVAVA, West Bank � Jewish settlers released balloons and broke ground on a kindergarten in celebration Sunday as a 10-month construction slowdown expired, while U.S. and Israeli leaders tried to figure out how to keep Palestinians from walking out of peace talks over the end of the restrictions.

After the slowdown ran out at midnight, there was no Palestinian statement about the future of the talks. The Palestinians asked for an Oct. 4 meeting of an Arab League body to discuss the situation, possibly giving diplomats an extra week to work out a compromise.

Minutes after the expiration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the Palestinians not to walk away, but instead to maintain constant contact "to achieve a historic framework accord within a year." In a statement, Netanyahu said his "intention to achieve peace is genuine."

Palestinians have questioned whether they can make peace with Netanyahu, known as a hard-liner.

Israeli settlers were not waiting, celebrating the end of the slowdown and planning to send bulldozers into action in two places in the West Bank early Monday.

In Revava, a settlement deep in the West Bank, about 2,000 activists released 2,000 balloons in the blue and white of the Israeli flag at sundown Sunday. The balloons were meant to symbolize the 2,000 apartments that settlers say are ready to be built immediately.

"Today it's over and we will do everything we can to make sure it never happens again," settler leader Dani Dayan told the crowd. "We return with new energy and a new determination to populate this land."

It was unclear what how the official end of the slowdown would affect construction. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already signaled future settlement construction will be kept to a minimum, in contrast to relatively unfettered housing activity of past Israeli governments.

The Palestinians have said they will quit the negotiations if Israel resumes building, though President Mahmoud Abbas said in a published interview Sunday in the pan-Arabic daily al-Hayat that he would consult with Arab partners first to weigh his options.

Speaking in Paris Sunday, Abbas said, "There is only one choice in front of Israel: either peace or settlements."

The settlers' festivities went ahead despite Netanyahu's call for them to show restraint as the curbs are lifted. Palestinians oppose all settlements built on territories they claim for a future state, and renewed building could endanger negotiations launched early this month by the Obama administration.

The deadlock over settlements has created the first crisis in the negotiations, and U.S. mediators raced to bridge the gap between the Israelis and Palestinians. But a deal was far from certain.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke Sunday with Netanyahu and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the representative of the "Quartet" of Mideast peacemakers, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. He also said U.S. special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell and Jeffrey Feltman, the State Department's chief Mideast official, conferred with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat Sunday afternoon in New York.

"We keep pushing for the talks to continue," Crowley said.

Abbas faces intense internal pressure from his supporters not to relax his conditions. Also, the rival Islamic Hamas, which controls Gaza, opposes peace talks with Israel in principle.

Israeli police said Palestinian gunmen shot and lightly wounded an Israeli motorist in Hebron, close to where a deadly shooting earlier this month killed four Israeli settlers.

Netanyahu, under pressure from pro-settler hard-liners in his governing coalition, said he would not extend the slowdown on construction he imposed 10 months ago. The curbs, which expire at midnight, prevented new housing starts in the West Bank, though the government allowed thousands of units already under construction to be finished.

A similar, but undeclared, slowdown has also been in place in east Jerusalem, the area of the holy city claimed by the Palestinians.

The deadline had not yet expired when several dozen settlers groundbreaking ceremony for a new kindergarten Sunday in the Kiryat Netafim settlement.

"For 10 months, you have been treated as second-class citizens," Danny Danon, a pro-settler lawmaker in Netanyahu's Likud Party, said at the ceremony. "Today, we return to build in all the land of Israel."

In nearby Revava, a settlement of about 130 Orthodox Jewish families in the rocky hills of the northern West Bank, the crowd included young activists, men wearing trademark knit skullcaps favored by religious settlers and foreign supporters from Norway and China.

Netanyahu imposed the slowdown last November in a bid to draw the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. The Palestinians initially rejected the offer as insufficient, but in recent weeks they demanded that the measures remain in place.

The Palestinians say Israeli construction in the West Bank cripples plans for a viable Palestinian state. Some 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, scattered among 2.5 million Palestinians. Another 180,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem.

In practice, the slowdown brought about only a slight drop of about 10 percent in ongoing construction, but it cut new housing starts by about 50 percent, according to the dovish Israeli group Peace Now. That means the slowdown could have far more impact if it remained in place.

In a television interview, settler leader Dayan acknowledged it would take time for work to really begin.

"Whoever thinks that tomorrow there will be some kind of earthquake and there will be bulldozers wherever you look is wrong. That is not going to happen. It's a process and takes a while," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials over the weekend in hopes of forging a deal on settlement construction.

Before boarding a plane back to Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the BBC late Sunday that chances of success were "50-50." The chief Israeli and Palestinian negotiators remained in the U.S., leaving a window open for a last-minute agreement.

One of Obama's chief advisers, David Axelrod, told ABC News that efforts were continuing.

"We're very eager to keep these talks going," he said. "We are going to urge and urge and push throughout this day to � to get some kind of resolution."

Despite the tensions, there have been signs of compromise. Senior Palestinian officials told The Associated Press last week they were prepared to show "some flexibility."

Abbas ruled out a violent response.

"We won't go back to that again," he said.

_______

Associated Press writers Matti Friedman and Dalia Nammari in Jerusalem, Matthew Lee in Washington and Fisnik Abrashi in Paris contributed to this report.

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Witness describes 'hell' at NJ party shooting (AP)

EAST ORANGE, N.J. � A Seton Hall University student who attended an off-campus house party at which five people were shot said the gunman stood on her back as she lay on the floor and didn't appear to be targeting anyone during the chaos she described as "hell."

"He was just shooting he had no intended target," said a text message from the woman, whose friend was the only person killed.

The woman spoke Sunday by BlackBerry instant messenger on condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety while the shooter remained at large. She said she was too upset to talk over the phone.

She described the Friday night party, which lasted into early Saturday, as a "typical fraternity party" with at least 100 people at the privately owned row house.

Students said the shooter was kicked out of the party when he refused to pay the cover charge.

The woman said she heard a fight erupt before the man was thrown out. Seconds later, she said, he returned with a handgun and started shooting as chaos erupted.

"Everyone was scrambling n stampeding. People were jumping out the two windows n all I cud smell was smoke n blood," the woman wrote. "The next thing I knew I opened my eyes n saw hell..blood n just panic."

The woman said was on the floor when the gunman stepped on her back and shot her friend Jessica Moore, a 19-year-old honors student majoring in psychology. Moore, who was from Disputanta, Va., died later at a hospital.

Authorities had not released the names of the four wounded people, whose injuries weren't considered life-threatening.

Two of the injured are 19-year-old women who go to Seton Hall, and one is a 25-year-old man who attends the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The other is a 20-year-old man from New York who is not a student.

East Orange police were following several leads but had not identified a suspect, spokesman Andrew Di Elmo said.

On Sunday, police had set up an electronic sign, the kind usually used to tell drivers of detours, to ask for help solving the house party shooting, which occurred just after midnight. The message advertised a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

The party was primarily for students at Seton Hall, a well-regarded Roman Catholic university with a gated campus in South Orange, about 15 miles from New York City. There are no sanctioned fraternities at Seton Hall and no fraternity houses.

The university, with its collection of red brick buildings tucked behind a wrought-iron fence, stands in stark contrast to the gritty neighborhood where the party was held a mile away. Just a block from the shooting site, the remains of a memorial for another recent shooting victim could still be seen.

There were at least five shootings in the area this summer, said Rabu Anderson, who owns a clothing store there.

"Some of it is gang violence, some of it is just plain ignorance," Anderson said.

East Orange resident Leon Drinks, who lives four doors down from the house where the party shooting occurred, said the violence has become much worse in the past couple of years. He said just after midnight he heard six shots � not an uncommon sound on South Clinton Street.

"I kinda laid low for a minute, then I heard the stampede of people on this side of the street and that side of the street," said Drinks, 54. "People were running in driveways and alleyways trying to get out of the mess."

Seton Hall, which has 10,000 students, knows about the dangers in some of the neighborhoods nearby and advises students not to leave campus alone.

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Buju Banton's drug trial the talk of Jamaica (AP)

KINGSTON, Jamaica � The U.S. drug trial of reggae star Buju Banton is the talk of Jamaica, where islanders are debating his guilt or innocence on street corners, in offices, in letters to the editor and on social networking websites.

Banton, a four-time Grammy nominee who rose from the slums of Kingston to success in the 1990s, was arrested on federal drug charges in December and a Florida jury is deliberating whether he conspired to buy cocaine from an undercover police officer. The 12-person panel reconvenes Monday in Tampa federal court.

In the Jamaican capital, some people are dissecting every detail of Banton's case, a few even comparing him to the late reggae legend Bob Marley.

"I've been following it close because Buju is big in Jamaica, like a Bob Marley. Way I see it, they need to free the man cause they don't have any concrete evidence against him," Charles Barrett, a resident of the capital, said Sunday.

For others the case is more of a curiosity, a media-fed sensation that distracts from weightier news.

His most ardent fans are talking of conspiracy theories � that he was framed by the U.S. government or gay activists who have protested violent, homophobic lyrics from early in Banton's career as a brash dancehall singer.

"We all know it was a government set up. Just because of your beliefs they want to imprison you," wrote a person identified as R. Johnson on a Web page titled "Free Buju Banton."

The husky-voiced Rastafarian singer has long been a star in his homeland with the brash reggae-rap hybrid of dancehall music and, more recently, a traditional reggae sound.

"He's a major, major figure here, so his trial has dominated the media and people's conversations," Jamaican musicologist and disc jockey Bunny Goodison said. "He's been extremely important through the years because he's represented Rastafari and black consciousness in a very focused way."

On Friday, a false story that Banton had been found innocent was broadcast on an island radio station. Tumultuous applause broke out at an elite prep school when the rumor was announced as fact on the public address system. People across Kingston spread the false bulletin on Facebook and Twitter.

"The best illustration of Buju's importance is the broad sympathy for him and the desire for his release," said Carolyn Cooper, a professor of literary and cultural studies at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies.

Others are far less sympathetic to the 37-year-old entertainer, whose real name is Mark Myrie.

"No matter how the trial turns out, Mr. Myrie has already let down himself and his fans," the Jamaica Observer said in an editorial Sunday.

Banton is charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine and aiding two others in possessing a firearm during the course of cocaine distribution. He faces up to life in prison.

In closing statements Thursday, Banton's attorney argued that an undercover U.S. government informant managed to connect only the two other men, but not Banton, to the conspiracy. Banton's team of lawyers has tried to prove the singer was a victim of entrapment.

The singer testified that he talked a lot about cocaine with a U.S. government informant, but said he was just trying to impress the man, who claimed to have music industry connections.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Preston argued that Banton's conversations with the informant put the conspiracy into motion. Prosecutors said Banton was an established drug trafficker by the time he met the informant and the singer was looking for "more, new and different money through a new conspiracy he was shopping for" in addition to drug deals he had already financed.

Banton's arrest derailed plans to tour Japan after a tumultuous U.S. tour for his Grammy-nominated 2009 album, "Rasta Got Soul." Shows in several U.S. cities were canceled because of protests over his early homophobic lyrics and unapologetic anti-gay stance through the years.

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Officials say levee failing near Wis. park (AP)

PORTAGE, Wis. � Officials in central Wisconsin say a levee south of Highway 33 is failing, and access into a park area is being cut off.

The access road into Blackhawk Park has been closed as of 4 p.m. Sunday. No one is being allowed in or out until further notice, including emergency vehicles.

Officials had been encouraging residents to evacuate, saying they were concerned the Calidonia Levee would fail.

Residents are reminded to turn off utilities if possible, and bring medications and important documents with them, as well as their pets and vaccination records.

A Red Cross reception center is open at the Portage St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church.

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Weakened Matthew soaks southern Mexico, Guatemala (AP)

GUATEMALA CITY � The remnants of Tropical Storm Matthew drenched parts of Central America and southern Mexico on Sunday, a day after it weakened to a tropical depression.

The storm's forward movement slowed to a crawl and top wind speeds fell to about 25 mph (35 kph). Its center was about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of the Gulf coast city of Villahermosa � an area already hit by severe flooding in recent months.

Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the system's slow movement means it could produce rainfall totals of 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters) over parts of Mexico and Guatemala, threatening deadly flash floods and mudslides.

Mexico's National Water Commission said it was working to widen and deepen channels below dams in preparation.

In Honduras, the National Emergencies Commission said at least 6,600 people in eight coastal provinces were forced from their homes by Matthew, and nine bridges damaged by flooding.

The storm also displaced more than 500 people and blocked highways in neighboring Guatemala.

Guatemala has already been buffeted by heavy rains in recent months that killed about 274 people and caused $1.1 billion in damage, according to government estimates.

Matthew made landfall as a tropical storm Friday on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast and quickly crossed into Honduras, where it toppled utility poles and left thousands without power for hours.

Meanwhile, far from land in the open Atlantic, Lisa weakened to a tropical depression early Sunday with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph). Further weakening is expected.

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Fortified border: Iraq on guard against Iran (AP)

QUTAIBA BORDER FORT, Iraq � On any map, this castle-like fort is located in Iran. But war, time and drifting desert sands have blurred the border, and for now, Iraqi guards stoutly defend Qutaiba as theirs.

The guards are part of a beefed-up presence on both sides of a long, porous and ill-defined border. Iraq is building four new border forts in its eastern Wasit province alone, which abuts Iran for 116 miles (186 kilometers). Iran also is adding forts, evidenced by half-built structures surrounded by scaffolding that can be seen from Iraq.

The increased tension is a result of an Iraqi government in limbo as American troops prepare to leave the country after more than eight years of war. Underscoring the insecure time, Iraqi wariness of Iranian aggression is on the rise, especially after two major Iranian incursions in less than a year.

"The region here is like a jungle: the strong eat the weak," said Iraqi Brig. Gen. Sami Wahab, who oversees the nearby Zurbatiyah port of entry, the largest official pedestrian land crossing between Iraq and Iran.

"If the Iraqi government keeps going backward and reaches the level where you can say it's a weak country, then there's a good chance of Iran coming in," Sami said. "But we don't have cannons to respond; we don't have jets to bomb. That's why the Iraqi people are scared."

On Sunday, Iranian Gen. Abdolrasoul Mahmoudabadi said the Revolutionary Guards had pushed into Iraq over the weekend and killed at least 30 members of an armed group involved in an attack last week that Iran had blamed on Kurdish rebels.

It was a rare example of Iran openly admitting to a cross-border incursion into Iraq.

Iran and Iraq are formerly warring neighbors that have settled over the last several years into an uneasy relationship. Few experts expect a full-scale invasion reminiscent of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war that began in 1980, as both nations have their hands full with domestic turmoil.

Shiite-run governments in both Baghdad and Tehran have paved the way toward normalized relations since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, and Iraq has since given greater freedom to Iranian pilgrims to visit holy Shiite shrines in Karbala and Najaf.

But even if they are not the precursor to a full-scale invasion, the incursions are a way for Iran to show its dominance in the region and remind Iraq that while the U.S. military is leaving soon, Iran is here to stay.

The U.S. for its part calls Iran a serious threat � one that is boosting efforts to fund, train, supply and shelter insurgents as the U.S.-led war that began in 2003 winds down. A senior intelligence official in Washington, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk about the sensitive issue, expressed concern that Iran will supply anyone, terror group or common criminal, with bomb-making parts or other weapons to create the image of instability in Iraq.

A political analyst at Tehran's Azad University said that under Saddam Hussein, Iraq portrayed itself as leader of the Arab world, leading to tension with Iran. But if Iraq's government remains weak, Iran will not go on the offensive, he said.

"Iran already has a big amount of influence in Iraq," analyst Ahmad Bakhshayesh said in an interview. "So it does not need any offensive measures in the borders."

However, Iraq is fiercely protective of its sovereignty, and many officials believe Iran is trying to take advantage of its weakened neighbor. Asked why, Maj. Raad Awad scoffed.

"Iran likes to occupy land. They want to keep expanding their country into the Mideast," said Awad at the Saad border fort in northern Wasit.

The two Iranian incursions � especially an oil well takeover in Iraq's southern Maysan province � spurred Iraqis to seek U.S. training on how to fend off an invasion or prevent one from occurring in the first place.

In that first incursion last December, Iranian forces held oil well No. 4 in the al-Fakkah field for days before pulling back without a fight or without much opposition by Iraqi officials. The oil field, located about 200 miles (about 320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, is one of Iraq's largest but part of it lies on land claimed by each country.

Watching the debacle unfold, U.S. Lt. Col. Chris Kennedy said Iraqi border police at Qutaiba loaded up with extra rocket launchers, machine guns and other arms to defend themselves should their fort come under a similar assault.

"They actually truly thought, 'Hey, this might happen.' So I think they saw it as a real threat," said Kennedy.

The second incursion came in May when Iranian forces shelled a northern Iraqi Kurdish village and killed a 14-year-old girl while pursuing a Kurdish rebel group Tehran calls a terrorist threat. The mountainous area also lies in disputed territory, and Iranian forces began building structures and paving roads there � incensing the Kurdish government but largely going unchecked by Baghdad.

Border smuggling of anything from honey to tobacco to weapons is not uncommon, especially in Iraq's southern marshlands where the winding waterways make it all but impossible to tell where Iran ends and Iraq begins.

For at least a year, Baghdad and Tehran have been trying to decide how to redraw the 906-mile (1,458 kilometers) border. The last internationally recognized border was drawn in 1975, but it has only been loosely followed since the Iran-Iraq war. The boundaries are so vague that U.S. pilots follow Iraqi border forts to keep from flying into Iranian airspace.

In March, a team of generals and engineers from both countries began walking the border to mark it, an arduous process that doesn't include the U.S. It's not clear when the surveyors will be done, and Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abbawi said in an interview that no major results had been achieved so far.

He denied the delay was caused by Iraqi leaders' failure to seat a new government six months after parliamentary elections.

Gen. Babaker Shawkat Zebari, who commands Iraq's military, says his nation will not be able to fully defend its borders until 2020 � underscoring what he calls a need for U.S. forces to remain past a 2011 deadline for a full American troop withdrawal.

The U.S. is selling tanks and F-16 fighter jets to Iraq as part of a $13 billion equipment package to help its fledgling security forces protect the nation's sovereignty alone.

It's not clear when Iraqis will get the jets, however, and the 140 M1 tanks that began to be delivered to Iraq's army last month will be housed at least an hour away from the border. U.S. officials said that was deliberately done to prevent a tense atmosphere reminiscent of the demilitarized zone delineating North and South Korea.

The U.S. is trying to impress on Iraq that diplomacy � and not firepower � might be a better initial route should another incursion occur. But along the border, pockmarked with mine fields and littered with rusted mortar casings and other shrapnel left over from the Iran-Iraq war, suspicion reigns.

"They might come across the border because they are a strong country," said 1st Lt. Hassan Faisal. "Iran doesn't want Iraq to be a strong country."

___

Associated Press Writers Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran contributed to this report.

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German police: 12 dead in crash of Polish bus (AP)

BERLIN � At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured Sunday when a bus carrying Polish tourists crashed on the highway southeast of Berlin, police said.

Arne Feuring, president of police in Frankfurt an der Oder, told the news agency DAPD that seven of the wounded were in critical condition, while another 27 suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Health Minister Ewa Kopacz arrived in Berlin later Sunday to view the crash site and visit the injured, who were being treated in several Berlin hospitals.

Ahead of his arrival, Chancellor Angela Merkel called Tusk to express her sympathy and vow that German doctors and officials would do their utmost to help heal the wounded.

"This accident affects not only our Polish friends, but us as well," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement. "Our deepest sympathy and our thoughts are with the friends and family of the victims in their dark hour."

Feuring said authorities believe the bus, carrying 49 Poles on their way home from a vacation in Spain, crashed into a car that was merging on to the highway and then slammed into a pylon of an overpass.

The merging car's 37-year-old driver was among the injured, he said. An investigation into the accident has been launched.

German officials said they were organizing an information point for Polish relatives of the victims.

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New Labour leader says he won't be "Red Ed" (AP)

LONDON � Britain's newly appointed opposition leader Ed Miliband insisted Sunday he won't force his Labour Party toward the political left-wing after he harnessed the support of leftist labor unions to beat his better-known brother in a dramatic election.

Miliband, 40, narrowly defeated brother David, the 45-year-old ex-foreign secretary, in their party's leadership contest on Saturday, winning a slender majority of 1.3 percent of votes.

Critics have already dubbed Miliband "Red Ed," claiming he is likely to shift the Labour Party away from the centrist, business-friendly platform of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

"I am nobody's man, I am my own man. I am very clear about that," Miliband told BBC television Sunday, in a first interview as party leader, insisting he would not be beholden to his labor union backers.

He said his leadership would not see a turn toward the political left, but insisted his party must break decisively from the dogma of Blair and Brown � and lay to rest divisive arguments over the decision to back the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

"It is not about some lurch to the left, absolutely not. I am for the center ground of politics," said Miliband, who was confirmed as leader at a rally in Manchester, northern England. Legislators, party activists and about 3.5 million labor union members voted in the contest.

In his campaign, Miliband advocated the retention of a temporary 50 percent tax rate for high earners, a more punishing levy on banks and a steep rise in the country's national minimum wage.

He said he favored the use of tax hikes in place of some proposed public spending cuts � but told the BBC on Sunday that he would not oppose all austerity measures being put forward by Prime Minister David Cameron's government.

Treasury chief George Osborne will next month set out the detail of the sharpest spending cuts since World War II, aimed at virtually clearing the country's record debts by 2015. "I'm not going to oppose every cut that the coalition government comes up with. I will judge them on their merits," Miliband said.

But he questioned the speed of the government's plans to restore Britain's finances, claiming the aim of saving about 30 billion pounds ($44 billion) per year from government departments was reckless.

"They want to say the only thing that matters in our society is to eliminate the structural deficit over the next four years," Miliband said. "I don't agree with that because that will inflict huge damage on our communities. Deficit reduction, yes, but at a cautious pace and in a way that will help our economy, not hinder it."

Miliband, whose partner Justine Thornton is pregnant with the couple's second child, has pledged action to reduce the gap between the country's highest and lowest earners, and to offer better protection to British workers who face competition for jobs from migrants.

However, he insisted his policies would have broad appeal. "All these characterizations about 'Red Ed' are both tiresome and also rubbish," he said.

Writing an op-ed article in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Miliband vowed to recapture the support of middle class Britons, who deserted the party in the May national election � when Labour trailed in second place and was ousted after 13 years in office by the Conservative-led coalition government.

"My aim is to show that our party is on the side of the squeezed middle in our country and everyone who has worked hard and wants to get on. My aim is to return our party to power," he wrote.

Miliband said he would heed advice from senior party figures of the past, including Blair, but said his party must also recognize the failings that led to its ouster.

Voters want "a government that would stand up for Britain, but when it came to Iraq � the defining foreign policy test of our time in office � they lost trust in us. We need to accept the mistakes we made in these areas and show that we have changed," Miliband wrote in his op-ed.

Miliband said his elder brother was considering whether he would take a portfolio in Labour's new top team. "He needs time to think about the contribution he can make. I think he can make a very big contribution to British politics," the new leader said of his brother.

As he arrived at the party's annual rally in Manchester on Sunday, the defeated Miliband declined to say what role he would play in the future, but congratulated his brother.

"I think he's made a great start," the elder Miliband said.

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White House, Dems see tax cut vote after election (AP)

WASHINGTON � The White House and Democratic leaders in Congress said Sunday they would find a way to extend middle-class tax cuts after the November elections, unable to secure GOP backing before lawmakers break to campaign.

"One way or the other, we're going to get it done. And I believe the pressure is going to build among the American people" said David Axelrod, President Barack Obama's top political aide.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had suggested that a vote could be held this coming week before lawmakers leave town for the elections. But her deputy, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said Sunday that holding a vote wouldn't matter because the legislation is still languishing in the Senate under GOP objections.

Both parties are using the delay in a vote on the fate of these George W. Bush-era cuts at a time of record deficits as political ammunition this election season.

Democratic leaders have said they want to freeze tax rates for individuals making up to $200,000 and for families earning up to $250,000. Republicans, as well as some more conservative Democrats, want to extend all of Bush's income tax cuts permanently, even for the wealthiest of Americans.

Democrats think the climate for compromise will improve after the election. They will still need at least one Republican vote in the Senate to pass a bill.

"We are for making sure that the middle-class Americans do not get a tax increase. And we're going to make sure that happens," Hoyer said.

Republicans say they want a chance to debate extending the tax cuts beyond the middle class or else they will block the Democratic proposal.

"If she's not willing to have a fair and open debate, she should not count on our votes," House GOP Leader John Boehner said of Pelosi.

Axelrod said that kind of strong-arm tactic will hurt Republicans in this fall's election.

"They're going to have to explain to their constituents why they're holding up tax cuts for the middle class," Axelrod said. "And I think it's an untenable position to say, "We're going to allow your taxes to go up on January 1st unless the president agrees to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires."

The Senate's second-ranking Democrat said he hoped the atmosphere will have changed after the election and the impassed ended. "Occasionally one Republican will break ranks and help us," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

Still, Republicans have seized on the impasse in Congress by alleging that Democrats are contributing to consumer uncertainty.

"The Democrats have failed to lead this," said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. "They are going to want to leave the House without dealing with it. That uncertainty itself is keeping capital on the sidelines and keeping jobs from being created in America."

Boehner said that if the House leaves without blocking the tax increases, "it will be the most irresponsible thing that I've seen since I have been in Washington, D.C."

Axelrod spoke on ABC's "This Week." Hoyer, Boehner and McCarthy appeared "Fox News Sunday." Durbin was on CNN's "State of the Union."

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Jewish activists set sail for Gaza from Cyprus (AP)

FAMAGUSTA, Cyprus � A boat carrying Jewish activists from Israel, Germany, the U.S. and Britain set sail on Sunday for Gaza, hoping to breach Israel's naval blockade there.

Richard Kuper, an organizer with the British group Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said one goal is to show that not all Jews support Israeli policies toward Palestinians. Kuper said the boat, which set sail from northern Cyprus flying a British flag, won't resist if Israeli authorities try to stop it.

The voyage by the 33-foot (10-meter) catamaran Irene came nearly four months after Israeli commandos boarded a flotilla of Gaza-bound ships, including the Mavi Marmara, killing eight pro-Palestinian Turkish activists and a Turkish American.

Irene passenger Rami Elhanan, an Israeli whose daughter Smadar was killed in a suicide bombing at a shopping mall in Jerusalem in 1997, said it was his "moral duty" to act in support of Palestinians in Gaza because reconciliation was the surest path to peace.

"Those 1.5 million people in Gaza are victims exactly as I am," Elhanan, 60, said in an interview.

Alison Prager, another Jews for Justice for Palestinians organizer, said many Jews have been on previous "blockade-busting trips" to Gaza, but this was the first time Jewish groups have banded together to send a boat of their own.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Andy David called the latest protest boat "a provocative joke that isn't funny."

"It's unfortunate that there are all kids of organizations involved in provocations that contribute nothing and certainly don't contribute to any kind of agreement," David said.

Yousef Rizka, an official with Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, said: "The government has received Jewish activists arriving to Gaza before. The government positively views all attempts to break the siege on Gaza."

The voyage came as Israelis, Palestinians and U.S. mediators sought a compromise that would allow Mideast talks to continue after an Israeli settlement slowdown expires at midnight.

Israel maintains a strict naval blockade on Gaza Strip that bars ships from entering the coastal territory. It is a part of the Jewish state's wider blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza, imposed when the militant group seized power.

After the international backlash over the Mavi Marmara attack, Israel eased its blockade on commercial goods, but it maintains tight restrictions on construction materials, exports and on the movement of Gazans.

The three-year blockade, which is supported by neighboring Egypt, has badly impoverished already needy Gaza residents, penned them into the territory and caused one of the world's highest unemployment rates.

The Iranian-backed militant group Hamas has called for Israel's destruction. Hamas officials have angrily denied that the Holocaust ever happened, and their literature is replete with anti-Semitic references.

Kuper said the activists were not seeking to support Hamas, but to send a message that Gaza civilians shouldn't be punished for the actions of their rulers.

The Irene catamaran, carrying a total of nine passengers and crew members, set sail from the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north of the island because the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south imposed a ban on all-Gaza-bound vessels in May, citing "vital interests." Prior to the ban, international activists had used south Cyprus to launch eight boat trips to Gaza over a two-year span.

Cyprus was ethnically split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a short-lived coup by supporters of union with Greece. Turkish Cypriots declared an independent republic in 1983, but only Turkey recognizes it and maintains 35,000 troops there.

Kuper said the activists did not seek to stir controversy by leaving from north Cyprus, but that "practicalities" necessitated the choice.

The Irene vessel planned to deliver children's toys, medical equipment, outboard motors for fishing boats and books to Gaza residents.

Kuper said the voyage is a "symbolic statement" intended to show that not all Jews support Israeli policies toward Palestinians and to underscore what he called Israel's "illegal, unnecessary and inhumane" blockade of Gaza.

"Jewish communities around the world are not united in support of Israel," Kuper said in a telephone interview from London. "Israel's future peace is coming to terms quickly with the Palestinians."

Kuper said the trip was funded entirely by supporters' donations.

___

Associated Press Writers Matti Friedman from Jerusalem and Ibrahim Barzak from Gaza City contributed to this report.

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Blast near Fallujah kills 4 Iraqi police (AP)

BAGHDAD � A car packed with explosives blew up Sunday near the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, killing four policemen in the latest sign that insurgents could be trying to win back old strongholds, Iraqi officials said. Attacks elsewhere in the country killed at least four others.

Fallujah has been the scene of several recent battles between security forces and suspected Sunni extremists. Two weeks ago, at least seven civilians were killed in a shootout between militants and Iraqi and U.S. commandos during a failed attempt to capture a suspected leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Police and hospital officials in Fallujah, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, said the dead in Sunday's bombing included a police lieutenant colonel. A policeman and two civilians were also injured, the officials said.

In Baghdad, militants killed a government worker in a highway ambush and a Culture Ministry employee died of wounds in a separate shooting in a string of attacks targeting public servants, police and hospital officials said.

Another blast killed a passer-by and wounded seven others in Baghdad's mixed Sunni-Shiite Karradah neighborhood. Officials said the bomb appeared to be targeting a police patrol.

In the northern city of Mosul, gunman killed two brothers in a drive-by shooting, police officials said. The motive for the attack was not immediately known.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

In the Baghdad attack, police said the assailants flagged down the car of an employee of Iraq's Committee on Anti-Corruption as he was driving on Baghdad's airport road and shot him. A hospital official confirmed the killing.

Nicknamed "Route Irish" by the U.S. military, the highway runs through several Sunni neighborhoods and was considered one of the world's deadliest roads as the insurgency took off in 2004.

Two other attacks in the capital also targeted public employees.

An Electricity Ministry employee was wounded in separate shootings, while two Cabinet aides were wounded in a car bombing, police said.

Iraqis have grown increasingly frustrated by the country's political deadlock that has Iraq without a government more than six months after March elections failed to produce a clear winner.

Iraqi and U.S. officials fear that insurgents are trying to exploit the political vacuum in an attempt to re-ignite sectarian tensions. There has also been a concerted campaign targeting security forces and public servants in an apparent effort to undermine government institutions.

___

Associated Press Writer Lara Jakes contributed to this report.

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Egyptian Islamic body criticizes bishop's remarks (AP)

CAIRO � Egypt's top Islamic institution criticized a senior Coptic bishop who reportedly disputed the authenticity of some verses of the Quran, warning that the statement threatened Egypt's national unity.

Bishop Bishoy, head of the Coptic Church's theological council and considered its No. 2 official, was quoted in Egyptian media reports as saying last week that some verses were inserted into the Muslim holy book after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Muslim belief says the prophet received all verses through the archangel Gabriel during his lifetime.

Tension between Egypt's Muslims and its Coptic minority are increasing over issues like the construction of new churches, bitter arguments over conversions and theological disputes. The two communities generally live in peace, though clashes and attacks have taken place.

"Such irresponsible statements threaten ... national unity at a time when it is vital to maintain it," said a statement Saturday from Al-Azhar, the world's most important center of Sunni Muslim scholarship.

Reflecting the depth of concern that the recent tension could spark violence, Al-Azhar held an emergency meeting Saturday of its Islamic Research Center to discuss the statement.

In a lecture Wednesday, Bishoy said certain verses in the Quran were inserted after Muhammad's death by one of his successors, according to Egyptian media reports.

"My question as to whether some verses of the Quran were inserted after the death of the prophet is not a criticism or accusation," he was quoted as saying. "It is merely a question about a certain verse that I believe contradicts the Christian faith."

An official from the Coptic Church refused to comment over the weekend or confirm the bishop made the remarks. Bishoy was quoted in Egyptian media reports as saying later that he was misunderstood.

Coptic leader Pope Shenouda III is expected to address the recent tension in an appearance Sunday night on Egyptian TV.

The leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood opposition group, Mohammed Badeea, urged Muslims to "respond to whoever slanders the book of God or the prophet."

Also last week, Bishoy was quoted as saying in an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper that "Muslims are only guests" in the country, sparking outrage.

Thousands of Muslims demonstrated on Friday to protest Bishoy's remarks.

Seeking to cool the controversy, political parties and the press syndicate urged their members to stay away from the debate.

Coptic Christians make up around 6 to 10 percent of the country's 80 million people and say they are subjected to systematic discrimination by the state.

Muslims argue that the Coptic Church is above state law, enjoying protections and safeguards not extended to society at large.

The tension occasionally spills over into violence. In January, a gunman killed six Copts and a Muslim guard in a drive-by shooting outside a church after a Christmas service in the southern town of Nag Hamadi, sparking days of rioting.

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Report: Oman talking to Iran on US prisoners (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran � An Iranian newspaper reports that a delegation from Oman will visit Iran to pursue the release of two American men imprisoned for more than a year.

The Gulf sultanate of Oman played a key role in the release this month of a third American, Sarah Shourd, who was arrested with the two men still held � Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.

The hard-line daily Jomhuri e-Eslami, which is not state-run but close to the ruling establishment, says the Omanis will visit on Sunday and if the Americans are released, they will be able to leave with the delegation.

Foreign Ministry officials in Oman could not immediately be reached for comment. The Iranian lawyer for the Americans told The Associated Press he was not aware of the Omani visit.

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Turkey: gallery attack ignites debate (AP)

ISTANBUL � The gang of several dozen men with sticks and pepper spray moved methodically from one art gallery to the next, assaulting overflow crowds that had spilled into the streets during the joint opening of several exhibitions in the center of Istanbul.

"You don't want us, so we don't want you," Nazim Hikmet Richard Dikbas, an artist, recalled one of the assailants saying. Hikmet was struck on the head with a club, and received several stitches at a hospital for a hairline injury.

Half a dozen suspects were detained in last week's brazen attack, which has yet to be fully explained. Such outbursts of mob rage are rare and Istanbul has a relatively low rate of violent crime, but the gallery beatings highlighted Turkey's struggle to reconcile sharp differences in a society marked by extremes of rich and poor, modern and traditional, secular and Islamic, democratic and authoritarian.

Once shackled by crisis and conflict, Turkey has emerged as a regional power, evident in its high-profile role at the U.N. Security Council summit in New York this week. The Sept. 21 attack in Tophane district, however, recalled a dark world of impunity and vigilante justice that hindered Turkey's modern development, and that the nation's leaders have sought to consign to the past.

"Those who present the incident in Tophane as a panorama of Turkey are engaged in an extremely stale game," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday. "We will not accept any provocation just as we will not allow any outlawed behavior."

Still, Tophane, a cluttered area that slopes down to the Bosporus Strait separating the Asian and European continents, hosts two entirely different ways of life, side by side. Bearded men with prayer beads sip tea at sidewalk tables. Some women wear traditional shawls; a few have Islamic veils. Then there are the young artists and collectors, urbane denizens of Tophane's 10 or so galleries. A chat in German � tourists on a tight budget � flowed from one doorway.

These two worlds, roughly defined as conservative and liberal, occupy a cluster of narrow streets where privacy is scarce. Many galleries sprouted in Tophane, one of Istanbul's oldest neighborhoods, in the last few years, buoyed by a surge in international interest in Turkish art.

Oya Baturalp, a 58-year-old hotel manager who grew up in Tophane, said the district has some "bullies and tough guys" and that the newcomers were seen as snobbish and disruptive.

"We were neighbors with gypsies, southeastern migrants, Italians and Greeks back when I was a young girl," Baturalp said. "We would hop over the occasional drunkard in our doorway when we left home for school. These people are not new in Istanbul. We have always known how to live together, but there was never such intolerance and a 'you are scum' type of attitude in the elite."

Some residents had complained about alcohol consumption at the galleries, suggesting religious values might have shaped hostility. Islam forbids drinking alcohol. The polarizing topic of religion in Turkey pits a government led by pious Muslims against the waning power of hardline secularists, including the military and top judges.

On the night of the attack, some galleries served alcoholic punch or wine in plastic cups, though at least one visitor was seen with a beer can on the street. At least five people were injured and some windows were broken, and witnesses said arriving police did not intervene in some assaults. The attackers did not enter the galleries.

"It was like a battlefield. They were hitting people constantly," said Dikbas, who said the attitude of the attackers resembled � on a small scale � that of the mobs that targeted the homes and shops of the Greek minority during deadly riots in Istanbul in 1955.

One theory among artists is that political extremists engineered the attack in order to create division, thereby radicalizing Turks. Conspiracy theories prosper in Turkey, where democracy is maturing and many crimes have been attributed to the so-called "deep state," an alleged network of hardline nationalists with links to state institutions.

Yesim Turanli, director of Pi Artworks gallery, said many residents had expressed sympathy after the attack, and that the art community planned to discuss art projects or other measures as a means of promoting neighborhood harmony.

"Maybe it was because I was distant toward them, even though I thought I was integrating well," Turanli said. "We are new to this area and they are learning what galleries are. It's contemporary art. It's different."

On a visit to the galleries, Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay said the government will seek heavy punishment for culprits in the attack, though gallery owners are watching closely to see if authorities stay involved. Gunay also steered toward the middle ground.

"Nobody has the right to impose their traditional lifestyle in an Anatolian village on Istanbul," he said. "Then again, nobody has the right to ignore and insult the customs and traditions of the people here."

The art on display in the Tophane galleries, some of which explores political themes, has not attracted controversy in a sign that Turkey is, in some ways, more tolerant than in the past.

It remains a crime to insult the memory of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the national founder and a hero to many Turks, but the law is enforced less strictly these days. A polyester statue in the window of Galeri Non depicts Ataturk as a fallen angel, his head and one wing resting on the floor, the body tilting upward at a diagonal.

The title of the gallery's exhibition is: "I didn't do this, you did."

___

Associated Press Writer Ceren Kumova contributed to this report from Ankara, Turkey.

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US unable to document any payments for Abu Ghraib (AP)

WASHINGTON � Fending off demands that he resign over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress he had found a legal way to compensate Iraqi detainees who suffered "grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the United States armed forces."

"It's the right thing to do," Rumsfeld declared in 2004. "And it is my intention to see that we do."

Six years later, the U.S. Army is unable to document a single payment for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

Nor can the more than 250 Iraqis or their lawyers now seeking redress in U.S. courts. Their hopes for compensation may rest on a Supreme Court decision this week.

The Army says about 30 former Abu Ghraib prisoners are seeking compensation from the U.S. Army Claims Service. Those claims are still being investigated and many do not involve inmate abuse.

The Army added that U.S. Forces-Iraq looked at its records and could not find any payments to former detainees. The Army also cannot verify whether any such payments were made informally through Iraqi leaders.

From fiscal years 2003 to 2006, the Defense Department paid $30.9 million to Iraqi and Afghan civilians who were killed, injured, or incurred property damage due to U.S. or coalition forces' actions during combat. The Army has found no evidence any of those payments were used to compensate victims of abuse at Abu Ghraib.

So instead of compensation, the legacy of the most infamous detainee abuse episode from President George W. Bush's tenure is lawsuits, and the court battle mirrors the Iraq war � a grinding, drawn-out conflict.

At the U.S. Supreme Court, the former detainees are asking the justices to step into a case alleging that civilian interrogators and linguists conspired with soldiers to abuse the prisoners. All the detainees, who allege they were held at Abu Ghraib or one of the other 16 detention centers in Iraq, say they were eventually released without any charges against them.

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US unable to document any payments for Abu Ghraib (AP)

WASHINGTON � Fending off demands that he resign over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress he had found a legal way to compensate Iraqi detainees who suffered "grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the United States armed forces."

"It's the right thing to do," Rumsfeld declared in 2004. "And it is my intention to see that we do."

Six years later, the U.S. Army is unable to document a single payment for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

Nor can the more than 250 Iraqis or their lawyers now seeking redress in U.S. courts. Their hopes for compensation may rest on a Supreme Court decision this week.

The Army says about 30 former Abu Ghraib prisoners are seeking compensation from the U.S. Army Claims Service. Those claims are still being investigated and many do not involve inmate abuse.

The Army added that U.S. Forces-Iraq looked at its records and could not find any payments to former detainees. The Army also cannot verify whether any such payments were made informally through Iraqi leaders.

From fiscal years 2003 to 2006, the Defense Department paid $30.9 million to Iraqi and Afghan civilians who were killed, injured, or incurred property damage due to U.S. or coalition forces' actions during combat. The Army has found no evidence any of those payments were used to compensate victims of abuse at Abu Ghraib.

So instead of compensation, the legacy of the most infamous detainee abuse episode from President George W. Bush's tenure is lawsuits, and the court battle mirrors the Iraq war � a grinding, drawn-out conflict.

At the U.S. Supreme Court, the former detainees are asking the justices to step into a case alleging that civilian interrogators and linguists conspired with soldiers to abuse the prisoners. All the detainees, who allege they were held at Abu Ghraib or one of the other 16 detention centers in Iraq, say they were eventually released without any charges against them.

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Israeli settlement freeze to end at midnight (AP)

JERUSALEM � Israel's 10-month slowdown in West Bank settlement construction is set to end at midnight, threatening to upend the fragile new round of Mideast peace talks.

Attempts to find a compromise between the sides have failed so far. The Palestinians have said they will leave the month-old talks if construction resumes in full on land they want for an independent state.

Israeli settlers and their supporters have pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the restrictions on new construction. Some are planning to hold a rally Sunday to count down to the official end of the slowdown at midnight.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that Israel "must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements."

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Israeli settlement freeze to end at midnight (AP)

JERUSALEM � Israel's 10-month slowdown in West Bank settlement construction is set to end at midnight, threatening to upend the fragile new round of Mideast peace talks.

Attempts to find a compromise between the sides have failed so far. The Palestinians have said they will leave the month-old talks if construction resumes in full on land they want for an independent state.

Israeli settlers and their supporters have pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the restrictions on new construction. Some are planning to hold a rally Sunday to count down to the official end of the slowdown at midnight.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that Israel "must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements."

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Plane arrives in Pakistan after false bomb threat (AP)

KARACHI, Pakistan � Relatives thronged an airport in southern Pakistan on Sunday to greet passengers whose flight from Canada was diverted to Sweden after a baseless report that a man aboard had explosives. Canadian officials investigated whether someone with a grudge called in the threat.

As passengers were smothered with hugs and kisses from the crowd, they expressed relief that the threat turned out to be nothing. They said the experience was quite frightening, especially when a SWAT team seized the suspect as they evacuated the plane in Stockholm.

"We really got scared, especially when we saw a large number of commandos wearing masks coming in," said Irfan Ahmed, a 35-year-old passenger on the flight from Toronto.

Passengers were told there was a technical problem with the aircraft � a Boeing 777 operated by Pakistan International Airlines � and didn't find out the real reason until they were on the ground.

The plane was diverted after an anonymous woman in Canada tipped off authorities that a Canadian man on the flight was carrying explosives, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Sgt. Marc LaPorte. The tip proved false, and police are now investigating whether the incident was a "terrorism hoax," he said.

A prosecutor decided to release the man after questioning, and police were trying to help him continue his journey to Karachi either late Saturday or Sunday, police spokesman Erik Widstrand said, adding the man had cooperated with investigators.

Haji Mohammad Umar, who sat next to the suspect during the flight, said the man told him he was returning to Pakistan after a very long time to get married. He seemed happy by the prospect and was a bit drunk, said Umar.

"When he was arrested, he remained calm and did not react much," said Umar.

Swedish police described the man as a Canadian citizen born in 1982. Initially they said he was of Pakistani background but later said they were not sure. The man was not on any international no-fly lists and had cleared a security check in Canada, said the police.

LaPorte, the police spokesman, said it appeared that the person who called in the tip had an ax to grind with the man. If the information is deemed a hoax, the caller could be charged with public mischief.

All 273 passengers � except the suspect � were allowed back on the plane in Stockholm nine hours after they landed.

"With the grace of God, it's all OK," said Zainab Jissani after arriving at the airport in Karachi with her two children.

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Plane arrives in Pakistan after false bomb threat (AP)

KARACHI, Pakistan � Relatives thronged an airport in southern Pakistan on Sunday to greet passengers whose flight from Canada was diverted to Sweden after a baseless report that a man aboard had explosives. Canadian officials investigated whether someone with a grudge called in the threat.

As passengers were smothered with hugs and kisses from the crowd, they expressed relief that the threat turned out to be nothing. They said the experience was quite frightening, especially when a SWAT team seized the suspect as they evacuated the plane in Stockholm.

"We really got scared, especially when we saw a large number of commandos wearing masks coming in," said Irfan Ahmed, a 35-year-old passenger on the flight from Toronto.

Passengers were told there was a technical problem with the aircraft � a Boeing 777 operated by Pakistan International Airlines � and didn't find out the real reason until they were on the ground.

The plane was diverted after an anonymous woman in Canada tipped off authorities that a Canadian man on the flight was carrying explosives, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Sgt. Marc LaPorte. The tip proved false, and police are now investigating whether the incident was a "terrorism hoax," he said.

A prosecutor decided to release the man after questioning, and police were trying to help him continue his journey to Karachi either late Saturday or Sunday, police spokesman Erik Widstrand said, adding the man had cooperated with investigators.

Haji Mohammad Umar, who sat next to the suspect during the flight, said the man told him he was returning to Pakistan after a very long time to get married. He seemed happy by the prospect and was a bit drunk, said Umar.

"When he was arrested, he remained calm and did not react much," said Umar.

Swedish police described the man as a Canadian citizen born in 1982. Initially they said he was of Pakistani background but later said they were not sure. The man was not on any international no-fly lists and had cleared a security check in Canada, said the police.

LaPorte, the police spokesman, said it appeared that the person who called in the tip had an ax to grind with the man. If the information is deemed a hoax, the caller could be charged with public mischief.

All 273 passengers � except the suspect � were allowed back on the plane in Stockholm nine hours after they landed.

"With the grace of God, it's all OK," said Zainab Jissani after arriving at the airport in Karachi with her two children.

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