Colombian Sen. Cordoba kicked out of Congress (AP)

BOGOTA, Colombia � Colombia's inspector general ousted an outspoken opposition senator Monday, barring her from public service for 18 years for allegedly "promoting and collaborating" with Latin America's last remaining rebel army.

Sen. Piedad Cordoba gained international notice by brokering the release of more than a dozen hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

A flamboyant Afro-Colombian known for her trademark turban, Cordoba has been a polarizing force in domestic politics and is a close ally of Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez.

Cordoba, 55, has not been charged with any crime.

But Inspector General Alejandro Ordonez is constitutionally empowered to dismiss her � and any other member of Congress � by virtue of his jurisdiction over nearly all public servants save the president and top judges.

Cordoba, who has been in the Senate since 1994 and last year was mentioned as a possible Nobel Peace Price candidate, did not answer telephone messages left by The Associated Press.

But in a Twitter message, Cordoba said the inspector general's "disciplinary investigation has no legal merit whatsoever and less moral and ethical value."

She thanked supporters for "the innumerable expressions of affection" and said she was meeting with her lawyers. "We continue forward," she added.

Her attorney, Ciro Quiroz, said he would immediately challenge Ordonez's ruling but acknowledged he lacks the option of appealing to a higher authority. Cordoba could, as an option, sue Ordonez before the Constitutional Court.

Leftist Rep. Ivan Cepeda, a close friend of Cordoba, called the decision unjust and said Ordonez has long "demonstrated public hostility to Cordoba's work."

Venezuela's president said he was "absolutely certain" of Cordoba's innocence, calling her "a courageous woman in every sense of the word."

Cordoba's firing comes less than a week after the FARC's military mastermind and No. 2 leader, Jorge Briceno, was killed in a bombing raid in the country's south. President Juan Manuel Santos on Sunday called the death "the beginning of the end" of the badly battered insurgency.

In an interview published Monday by El Tiempo, Colombia's national police chief, Gen. Oscar Naranjo, said four FARC turncoats would share more than $2.5 million in reward money for betraying Briceno.

The armed forces chief, Adm. Edgar Cely, told the AP in an interview later Monday that a single FARC informant had provided the GPS coordinates for the concrete bunker where Briceno and his female companion died at 2 a.m. Sept. 22 in a shower of GPS-guided bombs.

Cely dismissed as absurd the reports by several Colombian news organizations that Briceno had been covertly supplied with boots embedded with a GPS transmitter.

Ordonez said in a statement posted on his office's website that he dismissed Cordoba based on electronic documents found in computers belonging to Raul Reyes, the FARC "foreign minister" killed in a March 2008 raid by the military on a rebel camp across the border in Ecuador.

The documents showed that Cordoba, who was identified with the aliases including "Teodora de Bolivar" and "la Negra," had "overstepped her government-authorized role" to facilitate hostage releases, Ordonez's statement said.

It said that behavior included advising the FARC on releasing proof-of-life messages from hostages "with the goal of favoring other governments" � presumably a reference to neighboring Venezuela and Ecuador.

Cordoba also made public declarations "that favored the interests of the subversive group," the statement said. In public appearances, she has often endorsed the FARC's stated goals of a Colombia where wealth is more equally distributed.

Cordoba worked closely with Chavez � an action authorized in late 2007 by then-President Alvaro Uribe � to broker unilateral hostage releases that the rebels ended in early 2009.

The FARC, whose fighters come mostly from the ranks of poor, marginalized peasants, has been fighting to topple Colombian governments since 1964. It is classified by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization, but most Latin American nations refuse to so designate it.

___

Associated Press writers Libardo Cardona and Cesar Garcia contributed to this report.

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Obama presses for longer school years (AP)

WASHINGTON � Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Monday: Their year in the classroom should be longer, and poorly performing teachers should get out.

American students are falling behind some of their foreign counterparts, especially in math and science, and that's got to change, Obama said. Seeking to revive a sense of urgency that education reform may have lost amid the recession's focus on the economy, Obama declared that the future of the country is at stake.

"Whether jobs are created here, high-end jobs that support families and support the future of the American people, is going to depend on whether or not we can do something about these schools," the president said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show.

U.S. schools through high school offer an average of 180 instruction days per year, according to the Education Commission of the States, compared to an average of 197 days for lower grades and 196 days for upper grades in countries with the best student achievement levels, including Japan, South Korea, Germany and New Zealand.

"That month makes a difference," the president said. "It means that kids are losing a lot of what they learn during the school year during the summer. It's especially severe for poorer kids who may not see as many books in the house during the summers, aren't getting as many educational opportunities."

Obama said teachers and their profession should be more highly honored � as in China and some other countries, he said � and he said he wanted to work with the teachers' unions. But he also said that unions should not defend a status quo in which one-third of children are dropping out. He challenged them not to be resistant to change.

And the president endorsed the firing of teachers who, once given the chance and the help to improve, are still falling short.

"We have got to identify teachers who are doing well. Teachers who are not doing well, we have got to give them the support and the training to do well. And if some teachers aren't doing a good job, they've got to go," Obama said.

They're goals the president has articulated in the past, but his ability to see them realized is limited. States set the minimum length of school years, and although there's experimentation in some places, there's not been wholesale change since Obama issued the same challenge for more classroom time at the start of the past school year.

One issue is money, and although the president said that lengthening school years would be "money well spent," that doesn't mean cash-strapped states and districts can afford it.

"It comes down to the old bugaboo, resources. It costs money to keep kids in school," said Mayor Scott Smith of Mesa, Ariz. "Everyone believes we can achieve greater things if we have a longer school year. The question is how do you pay for it."

One model is Massachusetts, where the state issues grants to districts that set out clear plans on how they would use the money to constructively lengthen instructional class time, said Kathy Christie, chief of staff at the Education Commission of the States. Obama's Education Department already is using competitions among states for curriculum grant money through its "Race to the Top" initiative.

"The federal carrots of additional money would help more states do it or schools do it in states where they don't have a state grant process," Christie said.

But the federal budget is hard-up, too. And while many educators believe students would benefit from more quality learning time, the idea is not universally popular.

In Kansas, sporadic efforts by local districts to extend the school year at even a few schools have been met by parental resistance, said state education commissioner Diane DeBacker.

"It's been tried," she said, describing one instance of a Topeka-area elementary school that scrapped year-round schooling after just one year. "The community was just not ready for kids to be in school all summer long. Kids wanted to go swimming. Their families wanted to go on vacation."

Teachers' unions say they're open to the discussion of longer classroom time, but they also say that pay needs to be part of the conversation. As for Obama's call for ousting underperforming teachers, National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel said unions weren't the main stumbling block there, as many education reformers assert.

"No one wants an incompetent teacher in the classroom," Van Roekel said. "It's in the hiring, and in those first three to five years no teacher has the right to due process."

Separately Monday, Obama announced a goal of recruiting 10,000 teachers over the next two years in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

___

Associated Press writers Ben Feller and Julie Pace in Washington, Karen Matthews in New York, Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seattle and Alan C. Zagier in Columbia, Mo., contributed to this report.

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Spill panel: Federal confusion lost public trust (AP)

WASHINGTON � The Obama administration's repeated low estimates of the huge BP oil spill undermined public confidence in the government's entire cleanup effort, leaders of a White House-appointed commission declared at an investigatory hearing Monday. One likened the mistakes to Custer's disastrous decisions at Little Big Horn.

Federal officials botched the government's response, a local official and government and university scientists contended as the commission focused on the questions of who was in charge and how much oil spewed out of the well into the Gulf of Mexico.

Eventually, U.S. officials said the spill was about 60 times bigger than originally estimated. Instead of 42,000 gallons a day, the volume of leaking oil was closer to 2.4 million gallons a day.

"It's a lot like Custer," said panel co-chairman Bob Graham, a former Florida senator and governor, referring to the battle that killed George Armstrong Custer and wiped out most of the Army's 7th Calvary in 1876. "He underestimated the number of Indians on the other side of the hill and paid the ultimate price."

And who was in charge? Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, one of the coastal areas most affected by the spill, referred to another famous leader, this one fictional.

"It became a joke," he told the commission. "The Houma command was the Wizard of Oz, some guy behind the curtain."

Mistakes in the information that was being given out sapped confidence in the government on the issue, Graham and co-chairman William Reilly said at a news conference. Reilly described "repeated wrong numbers" on the amount of oil that was spilling.

Retired Adm. Thad Allen, in charge of the government's response, told commissioners that the low estimates didn't hamper government efforts to deal with the spill. But Reilly, former chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said he had trouble believing that, that it contradicted common sense.

A senior government scientist, Bill Lehr of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said once NOAA realized the spill was much larger than estimated, things changed tremendously. Vacations were canceled, retirees were called in and oil response staff was "given a blank check," he said.

Florida State University's Ian MacDonald said it took eight attempts by the government to arrive at the correct estimate. He said BP's estimate of 210,000 gallons a day was about 100 times less than federal guidelines said it should have been based on the thickness and color of the oil.

"Five thousand barrels a day (210,000 gallons) was not in the right ballpark, and I think we could have done better," MacDonald said.

Allen acknowledged that the public and even political leaders were confused about who was in charge. He blamed a 20-year-old law that he said may need to be changed to allow a third party from the oil industry to coordinate cleanup.

By law, BP had a major role in responding and cleaning up � and paying for it. But it also remains responsible to its shareholders not to spend too much, Allen said. He proposed allowing a third party from industry that would not be beholden to the polluter's profit margins to run the cleanup.

Allen said the enormity of the response that was required, not a lack of money from BP, was the problem in the cleanup.

As for the future, Graham said the government should take a stronger role regulating oil wells in the Gulf.

"There is a tendency to forget the fact that this property out in the Gulf of Mexico where all this is happening belongs to all of us," he said. "We are the landlord. They are the lessees. And we need to start acting like a landlord."

That may be happening sooner rather than later. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management chief Michael Bromwich told the panel that he is one month ahead of schedule in issuing a report on whether a ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf should be lifted. The report is due to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in late October. Bromwich said two significant rules on safety inspections will come this week.

President Barack Obama imposed the drilling moratorium following the April 20 oil spill, the largest offshore in history. The ban is set to expire Nov. 30, but federal officials have indicated it could end early.

The moratorium has come under criticism by the oil industry and local residents for harming the Gulf economy. But a recent government report said it had not increased unemployment.

Bromwich said even when the drilling moratorium is lifted, it will take time for deepwater exploration to start up again because of a host of new requirements that will also be issued later this week.

"You are not going to see drilling going on the next day or next week," he said. "It is going to take some time."

___

Online:

Oil spill commission: http://ping.fm/BPln1

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North Korea promotes Kim son to general (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea � North Korean leader Kim Jong Il promoted his youngest son to the rank of general in the Korean People's Army, the state news agency reported early Tuesday, the clearest signal yet that the 20-something is on track to succeed his father in ruling the impoverished country.

Kim issued an order handing six people � including son Kim Jong Un � the rank of general, the Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch. Also promoted was Kim Kyong Hui, the elder Kim's sister. It marks the first time that Kim Jong Un's name has appeared in official media.

The report came hours ahead of the start of the ruling Workers' Party meeting, the country's biggest political meeting in three decades, and amid intense speculation that the duo could be given key posts at the gathering.

The ailing 68-year-old Kim Jong Il took control of North Korea when his father, the North's founder Kim Il Sung, died of heart failure in 1994. He has reportedly groomed third son as his heir, and some experts have also said that Kim Kyong Hui might be tapped to oversee a transfer of power if the leader dies before the son is ready to take over.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell said in a conference call that Washington was "watching developments carefully" and was working to interpret the announcement's significance.

The question of who will take over from Kim Jong Il, who rules with absolute authority but is 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 � an important U.S. ally.

"Kim Jong Un's promotion is the starting point for his formal succession to power," said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.

He said the North's "songun," or "military first" policy � in which priority is given to the armed forces � will play an important role in establishing the succession.

Kim Kyong Hui and her husband Jang Song Thaek � vice chairman of the all-powerful National Defense Commission � are likely to act as guardians for the young Kim during his rise to power.

Many delegates to the party meeting arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday by train and the city was festooned with flags and placards announcing the event, footage shot by broadcaster APTN showed. "Warm congratulations to the representatives meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea!" read one poster.

A South Korean newspaper reported Monday that the younger Kim was chosen as a military delegate to the conference. The party's central committee then put out internal propaganda proclaiming him to be Kim Jong Il's sole successor, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing a source in North Korea that it did not identify.

Still, some experts said Kim's son � who is thought to be in his mid- to late-20s � may not be ready to officially debut as a successor. So Kim Jong Il's 64-year-old sister might be designated to serve as a caretaker after Kim's death, Yuriko Koike, former Japanese defense minister and national security adviser, wrote in a syndicated column earlier this month.

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute think tank near Seoul, shared the view.

"There is a possibility that she could play the role of a coordinator to make sure the power succession goes smoothly," Cheong said.

Koike wrote that Kim Jong Il himself noted his sister's authority in the communist country in comments before the ruling party's Central Committee, saying "Kim Kyong Hui is myself, the words of Kim Kyong Hui are my words, and instructions issued by Kim Kyong Hui are my instructions."

Koike, now a top official in Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, did not clarify in her column how she knew of these comments.

Kim Kyong Hui, who heads the North Korean ruling party's light industry department, is four years younger than her only biological sibling. Biographical information about her is extremely scarce. But Kim Jong Il's former sushi chef wrote in a 2003 memoir that Kim Kyong Hui is full of charm when it comes to her brother.

"At banquets, she would sit next to Kim Jong Il and kept on saying, 'brother, brother!'" Kenji Fujimoto said. "She very much took after her brother."

A small photo in a book published by South Korea's Unification Ministry shows Kim Kyong Hui with a chubby, bespectacled face and wavy, shoulder-length hair. Footage aired last year by Pyongyang's state television showed her dressed in a light gray parka similar to her brother's while she stood at his side during an inspection trip to a farm.

Koike wrote that Kim Kyong Hui was believed to have a fierce personality, adding that Kim Jong Il is quoted as saying, "When my sister turns violent, no one can stop her. Even I can do nothing."

Jang Sung-min, a former South Korean lawmaker who was involved in foreign affairs, also said Kim Kyong Hui had a special relationship with her brother, citing an unidentified source in Beijing who he says is privy to North Korea affairs.

"Kim Kyong Hui is the only person in the North who can speak frankly to Kim Jong Il and can even be emotional in front of him," said Jang, who authored a book on Kim Jong Il.

Her husband, Jang Song Thaek, was demoted in early 2004 in what analysts believed was a warning from Kim Jong Il against gaining too much influence. But he has since made a political comeback in a rehabilitation engineered by his wife, the former lawmaker said.

There was a big increase in the couple's appearances in KCNA in recent years.

"Kim Kyong Hui's frequent appearances in her brother's field trips showed that she is a key person who can play a role in the power succession," said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.

___

Associated Press writers Peter J. Spielmann in New York and Kelly Olsen and Sangwon Yoon in Seoul contributed to this report.

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Opposition hopes to rein in Chavez after election (AP)

CARACAS, Venezuela � Opponents of Hugo Chavez won new clout to try to rein in a socialist leader who has ruled largely unchecked, making gains in congressional elections that weaken the president ahead of his next re-election bid and could force him to deal with rivals.

Both sides claimed the results released Monday as a victory, but Chavez lost the two-thirds majority that has allowed his allies to ignore opponents in rewriting fundamental laws, appointing key officials such as Supreme Court justices and letting Chavez pass laws by decree.

Opposition leaders said they intend to start imposing some checks on Chavez in the National Assembly, and hope the president is receptive to dialogue.

While his opponents celebrated the results of Sunday's vote, Chavez dismissed their claims that it was significant setback for him.

"Keep beating me like that," Chavez said with a laugh at a news conference. "The revolutionary forces obtained a very important victory."

Chavez said his candidates won about 5.4 million votes, against 5.3 million for opposition candidates. The opposition had claimed early Monday that according to their tally they garnered a majority of votes � suspicions fed by the fact that electoral officials had not released total popular vote tallies.

Chavez accused the opposition of lying about the results, and suggested they were "local elections" with results that wouldn't necessarily mirror a presidential vote.

Still, the opposition's strong showing suggests it could mount a serious challenge to Chavez as he seeks re-election in 2012.

Chavez dared his adversaries to try to oust him through a recall referendum if they think they have so much support. "Why are you going to wait two years?" he said.

Electoral officials said Chavez's socialist party won 98 of the 165 seats in the National Assembly, while the opposition coalition won 65 seats. The remaining 2 seats went to a splinter left-leaning party.

Opposition politicians have complained they would have won more seats if it weren't for a new system of congressional districts stacked in Chavez's favor. They say the recent electoral changes drawn up by the Chavista-controlled National Assembly gerrymandered some districts by redrawing boundaries and gave heavier representation to rural areas where the president is most popular.

Chavez's party had dominated the outgoing legislature because rivals boycotted the past election in 2005. The only opposition came from about a dozen congressmen who broke away from the Chavez bloc.

While the opposition fell short of its hopes of a congressional majority, newly elected lawmakers promised to bring a plurality of voices to the legislature to examine Chavez's policies as he campaigns to transform Venezuela into a socialist state.

Maria Corina Machado, one of the anti-Chavez candidates who will take office early next year, told The Associated Press it is important to exercise "control on the president so that he becomes the president of all Venezuelans." Machado, who used to lead the vote monitoring group Sumate, said priorities will include insisting on the separation of powers for independent branches of government, decentralizing power and fighting corruption.

In Venezuela's unicameral legislature, a simple majority can approve many laws. But a two-thirds majority is needed to pass or change laws dealing with some areas, including laws relating to fundamental personal rights and freedoms, or to the structure of government.

A three-fifths vote is required to grant the president decree powers, as the outgoing National Assembly did during part of its five-year tenure.

Opposition leaders celebrated at the coalition's headquarters in Caracas, where they hugged and kissed.

Meanwhile, early street celebrations by Chavez supporters grew muted when the results were announced about 2 a.m. Monday. Some backers showed disappointment by holding their heads in their hands while others thrust their fists in the air, declaring a triumph.

Chavez called it positive that the opposition "accepted the rules of the game" and participated in the elections � a contrast with 2002 and 2003, when opponents tried to oust him in a coup and a subsequent strike that damaged the economy.

Some critics expressed doubt that Chavez or his allies would actually cross the deep political divide to consult with rivals after long ignoring and vilifying them as stooges of the U.S. government.

"It remains to be seen if President Chavez will respect that result in terms of not changing the rules of the game," said Moises Naim, former Venezuelan trade minister, told the AP during a visit to Singapore.

"We don't know if these elections will force Chavez to start behaving in a more democratic way and respecting checks and balances, or if he will interpret this as a need to clamp down on any remaining checks and balances and concentrate power even more," he said.

Naim noted that Chavez in the past changed laws to take away power from opponents who won elections.

After an opposition candidate won the mayoral election in Caracas in 2008, the Chavez-controlled National Assembly stripped the elected mayor, Antonio Ledezma, of most of his budget and subordinated him to another official in a newly created position appointed by Chavez. Opposition governors say Chavez has used similar tactics against them.

Naim suggested Chavez might look for ways to bypass the National Assembly. "He has never treated the opposition as a political rival but rather a mortal enemy," Naim said.

Miguel Tinker Salas, a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California, said the outcome could prompt Chavez to concentrate on resolving domestic problems.

"It might force him to be more pragmatic and increasingly more focused on internal matters, especially now that he's got his eye looking toward 2012," when he faces re-election, Tinker Salas said.

Still, the opposition lacks a strong presence in many rural states where Chavez remains most popular, making it more difficult for government foes to win strong backing for a presidential candidate within two years, Tinker Salas said.

Polls suggest Chavez remains the most popular politician in Venezuela, even if his popularity has slipped due to disenchantment over crime and an economy that has Latin America's slowest growth and highest inflation.

The opposition, a coalition of multiple parties, smoothed over past divisions and fielded a unified slate of candidates for the elections. It remains unclear which opposition leader, or leaders, could emerge as top presidential contenders in the 2012 vote.

Governments from Spain to Colombia offered congratulations for the largely peaceful vote and a high turnout of 66 percent.

While some leaders expressed hope the result would facilitate greater dialogue, Chavez's close ally and mentor Fidel Castro wrote in a column that it was a "victory for the Bolivarian Revolution."

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Charles Luoma-Overstreet said, "All Venezuelans can now deepen their dialogue and demonstrate their respect for the diversity of views that is essential in a democracy."

___

Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez and Jorge Rueda in Caracas and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

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North Korea promotes Kim son to general (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea � North Korean leader Kim Jong Il promoted Kim Jong Un to the rank of general in the Korean People's Army, the state news agency reported, the clearest signal yet that the younger Kim is on track to succeed his father in ruling the impoverished country.

Kim Jong Il issued an order handing six people � including son Kim Jong Un � the rank of general, the Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch published early Tuesday. Also promoted was Kim Kyong Hui, which is the name of Kim Jong Il's sister. Her name was listed ahead of Kim Jong Un's in the report.

The report came hours ahead of the start of the country's biggest political meeting in three decades and amid intense speculation that Kim Jong Il's youngest son and sister could be given key posts at the gathering.

It marks the first time that Kim Jong Un's name has appeared in official media.

It is widely believed that the ruling Workers' Party meeting, which was set to take place later Tuesday, may pave the way for Kim Jong Un to become his father's successor. Some experts also said that Kim Kyong Hui might also get a prominent party job to oversee a transfer in case the leader dies before the son is ready to take over.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell said in a conference call that Washington was "watching developments carefully" and was working to interpret the announcement's significance.

The question of who will take over from Kim Jong Il, who rules with absolute authority but is 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.

Many delegates to the party meeting arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday by train and the city was festooned with flags and placards announcing the event, footage shot by video news service APTN showed. "Warm congratulations to the representatives meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea!" read one poster.

Kim Jong Il took control of North Korea when his father, the North's founder Kim Il Sung, died of heart failure in 1994. He has reportedly groomed third son Kim Jong Un as his heir to power.

A South Korean newspaper reported Monday that the younger Kim was chosen as a military delegate to the conference. The party central committee then put out internal propaganda proclaiming him to be Kim Jong Il's sole successor, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing a source in North Korea that it did not identify.

Still, some experts said Kim's son may not be ready to officially debut as a successor, which could make the 68-year-old leader promote his sister to a prominent position to help Kim Jong Un eventually run the North.

Kim Kyong Hui, who is married to Russian-educated Jang Song Thaek, vice chairman of the all-powerful National Defense Commission, has emerged as one of Kim's key aides in recent years, experts said.

Kim Jong Il might designate his 64-year-old sister to serve as a caretaker for the third-generation successor after Kim's death, former Japanese Defense Minister and national security adviser Yuriko Koike wrote in a syndicated column earlier this month.

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute think tank near Seoul, shared the view.

"There is a possibility that she could play the role of a coordinator to make sure the power succession goes smoothly," Cheong said.

Koike wrote that Kim Jong Il himself signaled his sister's authority in the communist country in comments before the ruling party's Central Committee, saying "Kim Kyong Hui is myself, the words of Kim Kyong Hui are my words, and instructions issued by Kim Kyong Hui are my instructions."

Koike, now a top official in Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, did not clarify in her column how she knew of these comments.

Kim Kyong Hui, who heads the North Korean ruling party's light industry department, is four years younger than her only biological sibling. Biographical information about her is extremely scarce. But a former sushi chef to Kim Jong Il wrote in a 2003 memoir that Kim Kyong Hui is full of charm when it comes to her brother.

"At banquets, she would sit next to Kim Jong Il and kept on saying, "brother, brother!" Kenji Fujimoto said. "She very much took after her brother."

A small photo in a book published by South Korea's Unification Ministry shows Kim Kyong Hui with a chubby, bespectacled face and wavy, shoulder-length hair. Footage aired last year by Pyongyang's state television showed her dressed in a light gray parka similar to her brother's while she stood side-by-side with him during an inspection trip to a farm.

Koike wrote that Kim Kyong Hui was believed to have a fierce personality, adding that Kim Jong Il is quoted as saying, "When my sister turns violent, no one can stop her. Even I can do nothing."

Jang Sung-min, a former South Korean lawmaker who was involved in foreign affairs, also said Kim Kyong Hui has a fiery personality, citing an unidentified source in Beijing who he says is privy to North Korea affairs.

"Kim Kyong Hui is the only person in the North who can speak frankly to Kim Jong Il and can even be emotional in front of him," said Jang, who authored a book on Kim Jong Il.

Her husband, Jang Song Thaek, was demoted in early 2004 in what analysts believed was a warning from Kim Jong Il against gaining too much influence. But he has since made a political comeback in a rehabilitation engineered by his wife, the former lawmaker said.

Jang returned to power in 2006 and headed the ruling party's department handling administration and capital construction one year later, according to the Unification Ministry.

Both Jang and Kim Kyong Hui have become key officials accompanying Kim Jong Il during field visits to public facilities, which include military units that form the key base of Kim's support.

There was a big jump in the couple's appearances in KCNA in recent years.

"Kim Kyong Hui's frequent appearances in her brother's field trips showed that she is a key person who can play a role in the power succession," said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.

___

Associated Press writers Peter J. Spielmann in New York and Kwang-tae Kim and Sangwon Yoon in Seoul contributed to this report.

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UN "disappointed" at Israeli settlement activity (AP)

UNITED NATIONS � U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reminded Israel on Monday that the building of settlements on occupied territory was illegal, and said he was "disappointed" by the government's failure to extend its partial ban on further West Bank construction.

The expiry on Sunday of the Israeli construction restrictions has threatened to scuttle Mideast peace negotiations, just weeks after they were launched in early September with great fanfare at the White House.

Palestinians regard settlement building as a major obstacle to peacemaking and have threatened to walk out of negotiations if the building restarts after the moratorium officially expired at midnight Sunday.

Last week, the "Quartet" of Mideast peacemakers urged Israel to extend the moratorium.

A statement released by Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said the secretary-general was "disappointed that no such decision has been taken and (is) concerned at provocative actions taking place on the ground."

Ban reiterated that "settlement activity is illegal under international law," and urged the Jewish state to fulfill its obligation to freeze further construction.

The Obama administration, which dispatched special Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell to the region in an urgent bid to salvage the stalled negotiations, used language similar to Ban's.

"We are disappointed but we remain focused on our long-term objective and will be talking to the parties about the implications of the Israeli decision," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

Other ministers attending the session expressed frustration.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who presided over the Security Council, said for the negotiations to continue, both sides needed to show good intentions and the settlement activities were contrary to that.

"I remain very concerned that talks could falter on this issue and I call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Government to show leadership to resolve this so the parties can focus on the real challenges ahead," said Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague.

During a meeting with his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman, Hague underlined "that the success of the direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians was in Israel's long-term strategic interests."

And French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he "deplored" Israel's decision not to prolong the moratorium.

"Colonization must stop," Kouchner said.

Lieberman, however, accused the Palestinians of seeking to undermine the negotiations, saying they had been forced into taking part by American pressure.

"We decided about the moratorium 10 months ago as a unilateral gesture of goodwill toward the Palestinians. During those 9 months the Palestinians wasted time and completely refused to accept this gesture and accused Israel that it's a fraud, that it's not serious," he said.

"Today they exert pressure to (continue) the same moratorium that they previously rejected."

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Gunmen steal weapons from police complex in Mexico (AP)

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico � Gunmen broke into a police complex in northern Mexico on Monday and stole at least 40 automatic rifles and 23 handguns, authorities said.

Chihuahua state police spokesman Fidel Banuelos said the assailants subdued several officers guarding the state police offices in Chihuahua city and forced them to show the way to the armory.

Banuelos said 10 officers who were in the building at the time are being questioned. He said it's not clear whether the assailants are members of a drug cartel.

Also Monday, the Public Safety Department said it has captured a drug gang member who allegedly helped set up a car bomb that killed three people in Ciudad Juarez.

Suspect Jose Contreras allegedly killed a man and dressed him in a police uniform to lure federal agents to the area where the car bomb exploded, killing a federal police officer and a doctor who was helping the shooting victim.

Contreras is a member of La Linea gang, which works for the Juarez drug cartel, the department said in a statement.

Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, has become one of the world's most dangerous cities amid a turf war between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.

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Ozzy: Booze, not politics, prevented Israeli gigs (AP)

JERUSALEM � Ozzy Osbourne said that alcohol, not politics, has stopped him from playing in Israel until now.

Osbourne is in Israel this week as part of this year's international Ozzfest tour, along with Soulfly and Korn. Tuesday's performance will be his first ever in the Holy Land.

Asked why he hadn't played in Israel before, the heavy metal rocker, known for decades of decadence and substance abuse, told reporters in Tel Aviv on Sunday: "I guess I was drunk for so many years."

He said politics had nothing to do with it. "I try to stay away from politics. They don't understand me and I don't understand them," he said, sitting next to his wife Sharon.

On Monday, Osbourne and his wife toured Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, Israel's Tourism Ministry said in a statement.

Pro-Palestinian activists in Europe and the U.S. have urged artists to boycott Israel to protest the country's policies toward the Palestinians.

A number of performers, Elvis Costello and the Pixies, recently canceled shows here, angering local fans. Other artists, including Metallica, Elton John and Rihanna, have resisted boycott calls and played in Israel this year.

Osbourne, 61, pioneered heavy metal as front man for the band Black Sabbath.

Songs like "Paranoid," and "War Pigs," with their dark lyrics and heavy guitar riffs changed rock and roll and inspired many bands. Osbourne left the band in the late 1970s and has been performing solo since.

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Iraq: US should help break deadlock over new gov. (AP)

UNITED NATIONS � Iraq's foreign minister has told the AP that the United States should take a more active role in breaking the deadlock over formation of a new government in his country.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari says the nearly seven-month stalemate has not only left the country in political limbo but is hurting the economy.

Zebari said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday that since the pullout of U.S. combat forces in August, Iraqi security forces have proved that they are taking responsibility and there hasn't been a security vacuum � but he said the failure to form a government is creating serious problems.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) � Iraq's foreign minister has told the AP that the United States should take a more active role in breaking the deadlock over formation of a new government in his country.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari says the nearly seven-month stalemate has not only left the country in political limbo but is hurting the economy.

Zebari said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday that since the pullout of U.S. combat forces at the end of June, Iraqi security forces have proved that they are taking responsibility and there hasn't been a security vacuum � but he said the failure to form a government is creating serious problems.

(This version CORRECTS APNewsNow. Corrects to say U.S. combat forces were pulled out in August instead of the end of June. For global distribution.)

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Nigeria: Flood ruins crops as food remains scarce (AP)

GUDINCHIN, Nigeria � After water nearly overtook his village in northern Nigeria, Ali Gudinchin jumped into the rushing flood with a knife, cutting away ears of corn from stalks barely rising above the muddy surface.

He ended up with only three sacks worth of food, compared to the 50-odd bags of grains and vegetables he typically grows during the arid region's brief fertile season.

"The insects were biting me as I cut," said Gudinchin, a 50-year-old man who uses his village's name as his surname, which is customary. "It was pain in addition to the pain of losing the crop."

Flood waters that rushed through his home in rural Jigawa state now cover about 34 square miles (55 square kilometers) of farmland there. As the bright sun begins to slowly dry the fields, all the farmers have are ruined stalks and dying plants � the latest strain on food in a region where other nearby countries face serious shortages.

The floods have come at the worst possible time � just before harvest � when it is too late for farmers to replant their fields of millet, sorghum and cowpea, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

In northern Nigeria, unusually heavy seasonal rains sent water surging through overflowing rivers. A dam failed in the northern state of Sokoto, flooding out rural pasturelands there and killing about 40 people, according to local media reports.

In Jigawa, local officials blame the inundation on officials opening two dams at reservoirs in neighboring Kano state. Typically, the water released yearly from the dams flows into farm fields across the region known as the Sahel, a band of semi-arid land stretching across Africa south of the Sahara. The waters irrigated the crops of Jigawa, a state home to more than 4 million people.

This time, a huge wave of water from the reservoirs raced through already saturated stream and creeks beds, quickly topping over Jigawa state's simple earthen levees, said Umar Kyari, a spokesman for Gov. Sule Lamido.

About 2 million people � about half of the state's population � have been displaced or affected by the flooding that began two weeks ago, he said.

The village of Gudinchin � home to a few hundred people once surrounded by fields of tomatoes, corn, rice and millet � is now cut off from the rest of Jigawa, an island in the midst of murky, fast-moving water ripe with unprocessed sewage. Besides swimming, the only way across comes from two, low-riding wooden canoes donated by the government.

There, the dirt-walled granary quickly became a pile of muddy debris when the waters rushed in one night. Villagers used its walls to build an earthen levee against the rushing the water. The millet able to be eaten can now be lifted up in only two handfuls.

Garba Gudinchin, 55, said he and others live in fear that their dam won't hold long enough to allow the sun to burn away the remaining water. But beyond that, nearly all the village's crops now sit in ruin.

"I cannot tell you the figure because it is big," he said in the local Hausa language.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, relies on the crop from its northern states to feed the mouths of those in its oil-rich and commerce-driven south.

Kyari, the governor's spokesman, warned the loss of crops would drive up food prices in the country, where most earn less than $1 a day. Kyari also estimates state ranchers lost millions of dollars worth of cattle in the flooding.

The nation's farmers also supply other West African nations with their crops, countries already facing droughts and food shortages.

In neighboring Niger, international aid experts warn the country faces 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.

Gautam Chatterjee, head of mission in Nigeria for Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors without Borders, said the flooding could affect the region for the next two to three months.

"In the longer term, this means an increase in food insecurity and an increase in malnutrition, especially for children under 5," Chatterjee said.

For now, villagers in Gudinchin who lost their homes, like Mohammed Auwal, live with their neighbors. Flood waters washed away his home and those of his immediate family. His crops, which once stood out against the gray dirt of the farm fields nearby, can no longer be seen.

"It's all destroyed," Auwal said.

___

Associated Press Writer Artis Henderson in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.

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Allen: Third party needed in oil spill response (AP)

WASHINGTON � The federal official running the BP oil spill response proposed Monday having a third party from the oil industry represent polluters to correct perceptions that the company responsible in such disasters is in charge of cleaning up the mess.

Incident Commander Thad Allen told a panel appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate the oil spill that BP in no way tried to short-change costs, even though the public and politicians thought the company did. He proposed that someone from the oil industry could represent the polluter in future spills, instead of the company at fault, and eliminate the "the perception that the responsible party is intimately involved in the response," which he said raises questions about who is in charge.

In the days and weeks following the April accident, the Obama administration struggled to show it was in control. Oil spill law drafted after the massive Exxon Valdez spill is partly to blame, because it gives the company responsible for the spill a central role.

The two-day meeting of the spill commission will also look at other potential missteps by the administration, including the controversial use of chemical dispersants, a moratorium on deep-water drilling and Obama's plans to make the Gulf's environment better than it was before the accident.

"Much was done well in responding to this spill, other things not so," said former Sen. Bob Graham, the co-chairman of the panel. Five years after Hurricane Katrina he said "many have the same questions whether the government moved quickly enough and was effective enough in its activities, its communication and its partnership with state and local governments."

William K. Reilly, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator who co-leads the panel, described the relationship between BP and the federal government as an "uneasy partnership," adding "it's very difficult to make the case that we were well prepared."

The April 20 explosion and fire killed 11 workers, sunk the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and unleashed 206 million gallons of crude oil. It also tested the oil industry's and government's capabilities to respond to a massive blowout in deep water.

A BP PLC official said Monday that while no single entity could have handled the response alone, it was clear the government was calling the shots.

"I can assure you that at all times the Coast Guard was in charge," said Doug Suttles, BP's chief operation officer for exploration and production.

But Billy Nungesser - president of Plaquemines Parish, one of the coastal areas most affected by the spill - told the oil spill commission that he still doesn't know who is in charge.

"It became a joke ... the Houma command was the Wizard of Oz, some guy behind the curtain," Nungesser said. "We never got a yes or no, we just kept waiting and waiting."

___

Online:

Oil spill commission: http://ping.fm/vLh8Z

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Cuba ups gasoline prices about 10 percent (AP)

HAVANA � Cuba has upped already-high gasoline prices by about 10 percent amid sweeping changes to the economy, a move that could lead to grumbling among cash-strapped islanders, particularly private taxi drivers who are not allowed to raise their own prices.

The changes, which took effect Monday, were announced in the Communist Party-newspaper Granma, which cited rising international prices for the move. It was the first time prices have risen since September 2008, when crude oil internationally sold for about a third more than it does now.

The cost of diesel fuel � used by many of the old cars that populate Cuba's streets � rose to $1.19 a liter ($4.50 a gallon), about 11 cents a liter (42 cents a gallon) higher than previously. The highest octane fuel rose even more to $1.73 a liter ($6.54 a gallon), from $1.51 a liter ($5.72 a gallon).

The prices approach those paid in Europe and are apparently the highest in the hemisphere, topping pump prices in Brazil and Bermuda. They are a fortune for Cubans who make the average salary of just $20 a month.

But the changes are not likely to affect many islanders, a reason why past gas hikes here have not led to unrest, as they sometimes do in other developing countries.

Few people on the island own a car, and those lucky enough to have been issued a vehicle through their state-run companies usually have a monthly quota of gas paid through work.

The government heavily subsidizes the public transportation system on which most Cubans rely, and it did not announce an increase in those prices.

Those who will take a hit are the thousands of private taxi drivers who use gas-guzzling American clunkers from the 1950s or rusting cars from former Eastern Bloc countries to ferry people along set routes to and from work.

In most cases, the price they charge is set at 10 pesos (about 50 cents). Even before the price hikes, many complained that high fuel costs meant it didn't pay to cruise the city looking for a fare.

Taxi drivers interviewed Monday said it would be even harder for them to make ends meet if the government does not authorize higher fares, particularly since they already pay a steep price for permission to drive.

"I already work just to pay the license fees," said Alexander Rodriguez, a 39-year-old taxi driver waiting for a fare at a taxi stand in Old Havana. He said he must pay the government 300 Cuban pesos a month � about $15 � for the right to take passengers in his cherry-red 1955 Oldsmobile. "For a Cuban, this price hike is really tough."

The gas price hikes come as the government is seeking to transform its socialist economy into a system that includes more private workers and more reliance on prices to regulate supply and demand. Earlier this month, Cuba announced it was laying off half a million workers � about one-tenth of the work force � while allowing far more free enterprise.

On Friday, the government approved some 178 private business activities, gave Cubans the right to employ people not related to them, and even promised credit to entrepreneurs.

Among the new activities authorized by the government is the sale of fruits and vegetables from roadside kiosks or homes, something many had already done on the black market. On Monday, the government gave more details of how the legal stands will work, saying a pilot program allowing the stands in a few provinces will be expanded nationwide.

Those interested must register and pay taxes starting at 25 percent on any profits, according to an article in Granma.

"The idea is to give order to what had been a raging river," the article said, referring to the widespread illegal vegetable stands that have existed until now.

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Segway owner dies after falling off river cliff (AP)

LONDON � A wealthy British businessman who owns the company that makes the two-wheeled Segway people transporter has been found dead in a river in northern England after apparently falling off a cliff on one of the vehicles, police said Monday.

The body of 62-year-old James Heselden and a Segway personal transporter were found in the River Wharfe and he was pronounced dead at the scene, West Yorkshire police said.

Police said a witness had reported seeing a man fall Sunday over a 30-foot (9-meter) drop into the river near the village of Boston Spa, 140 miles (225 kilometers) north of London.

"The incident is not believed to be suspicious," police said, indicating they do not believe anyone else was involved.

Police have not revealed further details about the incident. A dozen members of Heselden's family asked for privacy Monday after placing flowers at the heavily wooded accident site, which is popular with hikers and nature lovers.

Heselden made his fortune through his firm Hesco Bastion Ltd., which developed the "Hesco" blast wall system that replaced the sand bags used to protect troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. He bought control of the Bedford, New Hampshire-based Segway LLC in December.

Hesco Bastion is based in Leeds, near the tough Halton Moor area where Heselden grew up. He left school at 15 and first worked as a coal miner before becoming a businessman and later a well known philanthropist.

Hesco Bastion said Heselden recently gave 10 million pounds ($15.9 million) to the Leeds Community Foundation, raising his total charitable giving to 23 million pounds.

"Jimi was an amazing man who, apart from being a wonderful success story for Leeds due to his business acumen, was also remarkably selfless and generous, giving millions to local charities to help people in his home city," said Tom Riordan, the chief executive of Leeds City Council.

He described Heselden as a quiet, good-natured man who was tremendously proud of being from Leeds and who often said those who had prospered had an obligation to help others.

"There are people out there who are making money and when times are good I honestly believe people have a moral obligation to use their wealth to help others," Heselden told the Yorkshire Post earlier this year. "Life turned out pretty well for me, but I still work in the same area where I grew up and everyday I see people who for whatever reason are down on their luck."

The battery-powered Segway, which is stabilized by gyroscopes, was invented by Dean Kamen, who founded the company in 1999.

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Chile's trapped miners get Brad Pitt, not Nintendo (AP)

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile � They get laundry service, TV, three hot meals a day and ice cream for dessert. Everyday life for the 33 miners trapped a half-mile underground now includes some of the comforts of home � at least those that can be lowered through narrow holes.

The miners are sleeping on cots that were sent down in pieces and reassembled. They can speak with their families using a phone that also was taken apart and put back together down below. They have brief video chats with their families on Friday and Saturdays, for a maximum of eight minutes each, thanks to a fiberoptic cable.

Settling in for the long wait, they have established a disciplined routine designed not only to keep them mentally and physically fit, but working together.

The plan, according to the rescue effort's lead psychiatrist, Alberto Iturra Benavides, is to leave them with "no possible alternative but to survive" until drillers finish rescue holes, which the government estimates will be done by early November.

"Surviving means discipline, and keeping to a routine," Iturra said.

So when the miners do get moments to relax, they can watch television � 13 hours a day, mostly news programs and action movies or comedies, whatever is available on cable that the support team decides won't be depressing. They've seen "Troy" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" with Brad Pitt and Jim Carrey's "The Mask." But no intense dramas � "that would be mental cruelty," said Iturra.

Though some miners have requested them, personal music players with headphones and handheld videogames have been ruled out, because those tend to isolate people from one another.

"With earphones, if they're listening to music and someone calls them, asking for help or to warn them about something, they're not available," Iturra said. "What they need is to be together."

Togetherness is what initially saved the miners when an estimated 700,000 tons of rock collapsed Aug. 5 and sealed off the central section of the mine shaft above them, plunging them into darkness and kicking up thick clouds of dust that made it impossible to see, even with their headlamps.

The collapse happened just as the men were gathered for lunch in the refuge � a space about 12 feet by 12 feet (four meters by four meters) with a fortified ceiling nearly 15 feet (4.5 meters) high that normally doubles as a dining room in the lower reaches of the mine. Any sooner or later, and some of the miners probably would have been crushed.

When the dust finally settled about five days later, they could see they were trapped in a large open space, about 1,200 feet (360 meters) long, that runs up the corkscrew-shaped shaft to another workshop about 2,000 feet (600 meters) underground. The space had several mining vehicles with battery and engine power, a chemical toilet and industrial water, which together with their meager emergency food supply enabled them to survive with no help from the outside world.

"They were 17 days in the darkness � 17 days during which in the first five days they could barely breathe from the dust," Iturra said. "And then they had to say, 'I didn't die' � this in itself stops you from being frightened."

Since Aug. 22, when a bore hole reached the miners, their rescue and support team has grown to more than 300. It includes communications experts, doctors, psychologists, launderers and cooks in addition to the drilling engineers, in what has become a small village in the middle of an Atacama desert. The crews work in teams and shifts to provide everything necessary for the miners' survival until they can be pulled out.

Iturra said the miners have taken it upon themselves to solve their problems as miners do � through hard work.

Divided into three groups of 11, they sleep on cots in three separate parts of the mine, work in three shifts and share lunch at noon to maintain unity.

Their routine starts with breakfast � hot coffee or tea with milk and a ham-and-cheese sandwich. Then lots of labor: Removing the loose rock that drops through the bore holes as they are being widened into escape tunnels; cleaning up their trash and emptying the toilet; and attending to the capsules known as "palomas" � Spanish for carrier pigeons � that are lowered to them with supplies.

The miners must quickly remove the contents � food, clean clothes, medicine, family letters and other supplies � and send back up material such as dirty clothes, rolled up like sausages to fit. Each trip down takes 12 to 15 minutes, then four minutes for unloading and five minutes to pull them back up. At least three miners are constantly stationed at the bore hole for this work.

"They know that the paloma never stops � they're watching for it," said Alejandro Pino, the rescue operations chief for Chile's workplace insurance association, which is responsible for preparing the miners' food and supporting their mental and physical health.

Another bore hole is used for communications, electricity, air and water.

Tubes pump at least 100 liters (106 quarts) of water a day and about 114 cubic meters (4,024 cubic feet) of fresh air an hour into the mine, said Erik Araya, a geologist for Codelco, Chile's state-owned copper company. That enables the miners to take showers and slightly reduces the sweltering heat down below.

Thanks to the pumped-in air, some lower sections have dropped to about 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius), while the upper part of their chamber remains above 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius).

There is little they can do about the humidity � it remains at 90 percent, Pino said � and many of the miners can still be seen shirtless in images recorded by a video camera the rescue team sent down.

In general, the miners are wearing T-shirts and shorts, socks and heavy work boots. The rescue team is thinking of sending down running shoes so the men can exercise at least an hour a day, but soon they'll be moving rock in any case, and the heat remains oppressive.

Although there are no microwave ovens down below, the mine is so warm that the plastic-wrapped meals retain their heat well and the men need only unwrap them. They dine with plates and silverware that were already in the refuge, as well as flexible plastic plates that have been sent down.

Each miner is getting about 2,200 calories a day, the average necessary for an adult to maintain their weight, said Dr. Jose Diaz. His team sent down a scale similar to that used in a fishmarket to weigh the men, using a harness they added down below. The results suggest the men have regained body mass after a near-starvation diet the first 17 days, Diaz said.

The rescue team reluctantly agreed to the requests from some men for cigarettes, but alcohol was ruled out, part of an overall routine designed to keep the men focused.

While Iturra's team of psychologists talks with the miners at least twice a day, the men know their survival ultimately depends on each other.

So in addition to twice-daily prayer sessions, they have a kind of group therapy � which the miners call "showing their cards" � in which they meet to discuss disagreements, plans and achievements.

Just what those disagreements have been, if any, has not been made public.

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Obama: Money alone can't solve school predicament (AP)

WASHINGTON � President Barack Obama started the school week Monday with a call for a longer school year, and said the worst-performing teachers have "got to go" if they don't improve quickly.

Bemoaning America's decreasing global educational competitiveness, Obama sought in a nationally broadcast interview to reinvigorate his education agenda. At the same time, the president acknowledged that many poor schools don't have the money they need and he defended federal aid for them. But Obama also said that money alone won't fix the problems in public schools, saying higher standards must be set and achieved by students and teachers alike.

Asked in an interview if he supported a year-round school year, Obama said: "The idea of a longer school year, I think, makes sense." He did not specify how long that school year should be but said U.S. students attend classes, on average, about a month less than children in most other advanced countries.

On other topics in a live half-hour television interview, Obama said that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has not told him whether he will resign to run for mayor of Chicago, as is widely expected. Obama said he knows Emanuel must decide quickly to mount a serious campaign.

The president also sought anew to show that he understands the frustration of millions of people coping with a slow economy � and high joblessness � some 20 months into his term. He said that even if people know he is working hard to fix their problems, what they expect from him is "something concrete" to help them get a job and pay their bills.

Obama appeared on NBC's "Today" show in a live interview that focused on education.

Education is primarily the domain of state and local governments. But the federal government has leverage and uses it, for example, through the strings it attaches to poverty aid that thousands of schools depend upon to support their programming.

The president admitted that his own daughters, Malia and Sasha, couldn't get the same quality education at a Washington, D.C. public school that they currently get at their private school. The Obama girls attend Sidwell Friends School, an elite private school in the Washington area.

"The DC public schools systems are struggling," Obama said, though he added that the school district has, "made some important strides over the last several years to move in the direction of reform." Public schools in Washington have long faced criticism for their low test scores and high dropout rates.

Separately Monday, Obama announced a goal of recruiting 10,000 teachers who work in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math � over the next two years. In a statement, Obama said such education is vital to allowing students to compete against their peers in today's economy.

In the interview, the president said he wants to work with teachers unions, and he embraced the role they play in defending their members. But he said that unions cannot and should not defend a status quo in which one-third of children are dropping out. He challenged them not to be resistant to change.

And the president endorsed the firing of teachers who, once given the chance and the training to improve, are still not serving students well.

___

Associated Press Writer Julie Pace contributed to this story.

___

Online:

http://ping.fm/vP0On

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Obama: Money alone can't help schools (AP)

WASHINGTON � President Barack Obama on Monday called for a longer school year for students and the removal of the worst-performing teachers as he sought to give a prominent boost to his education agenda.

Asked in an interview if he supported a year-round school year, Obama said: "The idea of a longer school year, I think, makes sense." He did not specify how long that school year should be and said that U.S. students attend classes, on average, about a month less than children in most other advance countries.

The president also said money alone can't solve the problems in America's schools. He said more resources must be matched with reforms, including the removal of teachers who, once identified as underperforming and given the chance and the training to improve, are still not serving students well.

Obama says his administration's Race to the Top initiative has been one of the "most powerful tools for reform" in many years. Through the program, states compete for $4 billion in funding by highlighting their plans for reform.

The president said he wants to work with teachers unions, and he embraced the role in defending their members. But he said unions cannot and should not defend a status quo in which one-third of children are dropping out. He urged them not to be resistant to change.

Obama spoke Monday during a live half-hour interview on NBC's "Today" show.

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Romanian govt in uproar amid austerity protests (AP)

BUCHAREST, Romania � The Romanian government was in an uproar Monday over austerity protests � the interior minister resigned, the opposition demanded the prime minister go as well and top police officials held emergency talks with the president.

The chaos reflected social fallout from the sharp wage cuts, tax hikes and other austerity measures the government has taken to fight its budget deficit amid a deep recession.

President Traian Basescu's government has been unable to pay wages and pensions without a euro20 billion ($26 billion) bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund and other lenders, and the IMF is demanding strong action to trim Romania's debt.

Romanians took to the streets of Bucharest, the capital, several times last week to protest. Some 6,000 police angry over a 25 percent wage cut marched to the presidential palace on Friday and pelted it with eggs, shouting "Get out, you miserable dog!"

On Monday, Interior Minister Vasile Blaga said the protesting officers had staged an illegal action and "forgot the oath they swore." Blaga, a close ally of Basescu, resigned, calling the move "one of honor."

Later, Blaga, Romania's top police chief and the head of its anti-riot police all held an emergency meeting with Basescu. There was no immediate word on the substance of the talks.

The Romanian president had dismissed his police protection in response to Friday's protest, which he said had undermined state authority. Prime Minister Emil Boc followed suit. Both are now relying instead on security paid for by the presidential budget, one of the few not reduced in this age of austerity.

Liberal Party lkeader Crin Antonescu, meanwhile, called on Boc to resign along with Blaga.

Amid the uproar there were lighter moments. Television cameras captured Basescu driving himself to work, puffing on a cigarette and speaking on his mobile phone in his Dacia Logan, an inexpensive Romanian-manufactured car. Stuck in traffic like any regular commuter, Basescu joked with reporters.

It is rare for Romanian television to show the president smoking.

In 2009, Romania's economy shrank 7.1 percent and the government needed the bailout from the IMF, the European Union and the World Bank, partly to pay state wages and pensions.

The anti-austerity protests are to continue this week.

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Karzai's brother says he will amend US tax returns (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan � The eldest brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai is preparing to amend his earnings on his U.S. tax returns and says he will freely disclose financial details of his life to American federal prosecutors.

"My whole life is open," Mahmood Karzai told The Associated Press in a recent interview that touched on allegations of corruption in the country that are straining U.S-Afghan relations in the 9-year-old war.

The Wall Street Journal, quoting unnamed U.S. officials, reported Monday that Mahmood Karzai is the focus of a criminal probe by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York who are investigating allegations of tax evasion, racketeering or extortion. The newspaper said that a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office in New York declined to comment.

Karzai told the AP in the telephone interview last week that he had not met with U.S. investigators or prosecutors and had no knowledge of any pending investigation.

He said he was preparing to amend his tax returns to reflect rental income from his home in Maryland and to show a capital gains on the sale of property in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which he held for eight months before making a profit.

"There's nothing else in my life that will make me part of an investigation," said Karzai, who spends time in Afghanistan, Dubai and the United States. "If somebody else reported something on me and they want to investigate, I'm open to that. It is no problem. There are so many enemies of our family."

Earlier this month, Karzai said he made at least $800,000 by buying and then quickly reselling a high-end Dubai villa using a loan provided by the chairman of troubled Kabul Bank. Karzai is a 7 percent shareholder of the bank, which is now being overseen by Afghanistan's central bank.

Karzai, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, said the villa sale and the loan to cover for it were organized by Sherkhan Farnood � who has since resigned as Kabul Bank chairman � though it was listed in Karzai's name. He said he was uncertain about the terms of the loan � or even if bank funds were involved.

Just months after he bought the property for $1.9 million, Karzai said he sold it for about $2.7 million. Again, he said, Farnood handled the deal.

Karzai said investigators in Afghanistan provided a letter to his lawyer several months ago, saying that he was not the subject of any investigation. Karzai said he's been unfairly targeted by U.S. officials because of disagreements the Afghan president has with the U.S. government over policy issues.

"What I don't like about international politics is that our family is treated like some kind of monarchy," lamented Karzai, who is a U.S. citizen. "In other words, if there's some dispute on policy matters with my brother, they will attack me or Ahmad Wali (another of the president's brothers and power broker in southern Afghanistan) to make him weak.

"This is to me so un-American. In the United States, we learn that individuals are very important and their rights are very precious and the country is based on individualism and individuals' rights. But to crucify my rights for the sake of getting to my brother � this is an outrageous way of doing things."

Karzai said that he has focused on development in Afghanistan, including a $4 million residential project in Kandahar where 11,000 lots have been sold. He and five investors pumped personal money and proceeds from the sale of the lots to pay for roads, sidewalks, electricity service, a sewage system and water. He said the project, which could take a decade to complete, is generating revenue for the Afghanistan government � $2 million in fees and taxes already and the expectation of a total of $30 million in payments by the time the project is completed.

Karzai said he was living on income he earned in the United States, including that from a restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He said he recently sold some of his businesses, including another restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland, to employees. He said he also has sold a car business that he opened several years ago in Afghanistan, but remains part owner of a cement producer, which employees 1,500. Thirty-four investors, including Karzai, took a risk by investing in the cement business, which he said has lost between $900,000 and $1 million in each of the past three years.

"I would be rewarded in any other country for something like that � taking risk, or making people put money into a business which is very risky in a country that is a high-risk environment," he said.

___

Blackledge reported from Washington.

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NATO forces carry out airstrikes in Pakistan (AP)

ISLAMABAD � NATO helicopters based in Afghanistan carried out at least two airstrikes in Pakistan that killed more than 50 militants after the insurgents attacked a small Afghan security outpost near the border, spokesmen said Monday.

NATO justified the strikes based on "the right of self-defense." Pakistan is sensitive about attacks on its territory, but U.S. officials have said they have an agreement that allows aircraft to cross a few miles into Pakistani airspace if they are in hot pursuit of a target.

The first strike took place Saturday after insurgents based in Pakistan attacked an Afghan outpost in Khost province, which is located right across the border from Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area, said U.S. Capt. Ryan Donald, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

"The ISAF helicopters did cross into Pakistan territory to engage the insurgents," said Donald. "ISAF maintains the right to self-defense, and that's why they crossed the Pakistan border."

The strike killed 49 militants, said U.S. Maj. Michael Johnson, another ISAF spokesman.

The second attack occurred when helicopters returned to the border area and were attacked by insurgents based in Pakistan, said Donald.

"The helicopters returned to the scene and they received direct small arms fire and, once again operating in self-defense, they engaged the insurgents," said Donald.

The strike killed at least four militants, said Johnson.

The tribal area where the strikes took place is largely controlled by militants who regularly carry out attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. rarely uses manned aircraft to carry out strikes in North Waziristan and instead relies on drone attacks that American officials refuse to acknowledge publicly.

Pakistani intelligence officials said two NATO helicopters carried out a third strike inside Pakistani territory on Monday morning, killing five militants and wounding nine others.

The strike occurred in the village of Mata Sanger in the Kurram tribal area, which is directly across the border from the Afghan provinces of Paktia and Nangarhar, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Donald, the NATO spokesman, said officials were still investigating and could not confirm or deny reports of the attack in Kurram.

The Pakistani military could not be reached to comment on the NATO attacks.

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Panel probes decisions made after Gulf spill (AP)

WASHINGTON � How well did the White House react to the Gulf oil spill disaster? A federal panel appointed by President Barack Obama starts its investigation Monday.

The two-day meeting of the presidential oil spill commission will look at the controversial use of chemical dispersants, a moratorium on deep-water drilling and Obama's plans to make the Gulf's environment better than it was before the huge spill. It will also examine who was in charge of making critical decisions � BP PLC or the federal government.

The April 20 explosion and fire killed 11 workers, sunk the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and unleashed 206 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. It also tested the oil industry's and government's capabilities to respond to a massive blowout in deep water.

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Worm affects Iran nuclear plant

26 September 2010 Last updated at 10:57 ET

A complex computer worm has infected the personal computers of staff at Iran's first nuclear power station, the official IRNA news agency reported.

However, the operating system at the Bushehr plant - due to go online in a few weeks - has not been harmed, project manager Mahmoud Jafari said.

The Stuxnet worm is capable of seizing control of industrial plants.

Some Western experts say its complexity suggests it could only have been created by a "nation state".

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

An electronic war has been launched against Iran"

End Quote Mahmoud Liayi Ministry of industries

It is the first sign that Stuxnet, which targets systems made by the German company Siemens, has reached equipment linked to Iran's nuclear programme.

The West fears Iran's ultimate goal is to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its programme is aimed solely at peaceful energy use.

Stuxnet is tailored to target weaknesses in Siemens systems used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other utilities.

'Electronic war'

The fact that Stuxnet has now been detected on the personal computers of staff will have no impact on plans to make the Bushehr plant operational next month, Mr Jafari said.

A team is now trying to remove the malicious software, or malware, from several affected computers, he told IRNA.

It is believed to be the first-known worm designed to target major infrastructure facilities.

"An electronic war has been launched against Iran", Mahmoud Liayi, head of the information technology council at the ministry of industries, told the state-run Iran Daily newspaper.

A working group of experts met last week to discuss ways of fighting the worm, which Mr Liayi said has now infected about 30,000 IP addresses in Iran.

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British aid worker kidnapped; push in Kandahar (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan � British officials are in contact with the family of a British aid worker abducted in Afghanistan and are urgently trying to resolve the matter, they said Monday, as NATO forces stepped up pressure on insurgents in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar.

Tim Waite, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Kabul, said Monday that officials were working closely with all relevant local authorities and said the worker's family had been contacted.

The British aid worker and three Afghan colleagues were ambushed as they traveled in two vehicles in northeastern Kunar province. Police fought a gunbattle with the kidnappers near the attack site before the assailants fled, Kunar police chief Khalilullah Zaiyi said.

Steven O'Connor, communications director for Development Alternatives Inc., a global consulting company based in the Washington, D.C., area, said late Sunday its employees, including a British national, were involved.

The company works on projects for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Afghanistan.

Britain's Foreign Office in London said it could "confirm that a British national has been abducted in Afghanistan."

Also, NATO said it has begun the "kinetic," or combat, phase of "Operation Dragon Strike," a joint military push with Afghan forces around Kandahar City intended to rid the area of insurgents and interrupt their ability to move freely and stage attacks.

"It is a significant ground operation with air support," German Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz, a NATO spokesman, said in a news conference Sunday. "We expect heavy fighting."

"Afghanistan and coalition forces are destroying Taliban positions so they will have nowhere to hide," Blotz said. "Once this is done, insurgents will be forced to leave the area or fight and be killed."

NATO said its forces have killed five insurgents in the multiday operation near the main southern city of Kandahar. According to a NATO statement, the militants have fought back with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. It said no Afghan or coalition troops have been killed in the operation.

The push in Kandahar is seen as key to the Obama administration's strategy to turn around the nine-year war as insurgents undermine the ability of an Afghan government to rule much of the country. Kandahar remains particularly volatile � seven U.S. troops have been killed in Kandahar this month. Another three have been killed in the south, but no further details have been released.

Also in the east, NATO confirmed an airstrike following a cross-border attack on an Afghan National Security Force outpost in Khost province, near Pakistan, on Friday killed more than 30 insurgents. A follow-up on Saturday resulted in several more insurgents killed. It said there were no NATO casualties.

It said that insurgents were attacked under the rules of engagement in the cross-border skirmish. It did not give further details. It is unusual for NATO helicopters to attack targets on the Pakistan side of the border, where some of the casualties are believed to have occurred.

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British aid worker kidnapped; push in Kandahar (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan � British officials are in contact with the family of a British aid worker abducted in Afghanistan and are urgently trying to resolve the matter, they said Monday, as NATO forces stepped up pressure on insurgents in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar.

Tim Waite, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Kabul, said Monday that officials were working closely with all relevant local authorities and said the worker's family had been contacted.

The British aid worker and three Afghan colleagues were ambushed as they traveled in two vehicles in northeastern Kunar province. Police fought a gunbattle with the kidnappers near the attack site before the assailants fled, Kunar police chief Khalilullah Zaiyi said.

Steven O'Connor, communications director for Development Alternatives Inc., a global consulting company based in the Washington, D.C., area, said late Sunday its employees, including a British national, were involved.

The company works on projects for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Afghanistan.

Britain's Foreign Office in London said it could "confirm that a British national has been abducted in Afghanistan."

Also, NATO said it has begun the "kinetic," or combat, phase of "Operation Dragon Strike," a joint military push with Afghan forces around Kandahar City intended to rid the area of insurgents and interrupt their ability to move freely and stage attacks.

"It is a significant ground operation with air support," German Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz, a NATO spokesman, said in a news conference Sunday. "We expect heavy fighting."

"Afghanistan and coalition forces are destroying Taliban positions so they will have nowhere to hide," Blotz said. "Once this is done, insurgents will be forced to leave the area or fight and be killed."

NATO said its forces have killed five insurgents in the multiday operation near the main southern city of Kandahar. According to a NATO statement, the militants have fought back with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. It said no Afghan or coalition troops have been killed in the operation.

The push in Kandahar is seen as key to the Obama administration's strategy to turn around the nine-year war as insurgents undermine the ability of an Afghan government to rule much of the country. Kandahar remains particularly volatile � seven U.S. troops have been killed in Kandahar this month. Another three have been killed in the south, but no further details have been released.

Also in the east, NATO confirmed an airstrike following a cross-border attack on an Afghan National Security Force outpost in Khost province, near Pakistan, on Friday killed more than 30 insurgents. A follow-up on Saturday resulted in several more insurgents killed. It said there were no NATO casualties.

It said that insurgents were attacked under the rules of engagement in the cross-border skirmish. It did not give further details. It is unusual for NATO helicopters to attack targets on the Pakistan side of the border, where some of the casualties are believed to have occurred.

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