China's media say 3 Japanese freed, 1 still held (AP)

BEIJING � China's Xinhua News Agency says three Japanese detained after allegedly intruding on a Chinese military zone have been released, but one person is still being held.

Xinhua says the three were released Thursday after admitting to violating Chinese law, but the fourth, identified as Sada Takahashi, is being investigated for illegally videotaping military targets.

The detention of the four comes amid a bitter territorial dispute between the countries triggered by a Sept. 7 collision between a Chinese fishing trawler and two Japanese patrol boats near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Tokyo released the fishing boat captain and said China needs to resolve the case of the four as the first step toward repairing ties.

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Koreas hold first military talks in 2 years (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea � North and South Korea began their first working-level military talks in two years Thursday, Seoul's Defense Ministry said, as Pyongyang vowed to strengthen its nuclear deterrent in response to what it called U.S. threats.

Officers from the two sides met in the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, the ministry said. They last held such talks in October 2008.

At the United Nations, North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil Yon said Wednesday that Pyongyang would continue to expand its nuclear arsenal in order to deter what it perceives as American and South Korean aggression in the region.

"As long as the U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers sail around the seas of our country, our nuclear deterrent can never be abandoned but should be strengthened further," Pak said.

The North has routinely issued similar announcements. The latest one came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il this week appointed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as a four-star general and also gave him key political posts aimed at an eventual succession.

Kim Jong Il took over the communist country in 1994 after the death of his father, the North's founder Kim Il Sung.

North Korea earlier this month proposed the military meeting to discuss the western maritime border and anti-North Korean leaflets spread by South Koreans. Seoul's Defense Ministry would not confirm what was on the agenda.

The poorly marked western sea border, drawn by the United Nations at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, is a constant source of tension between the two Koreas.

Seoul has repeatedly rejected the North's long-standing demands that the sea border be changed. The navies of the two Koreas engaged in three bloody skirmishes near the area in 1999, 2002 and 2009.

Military tensions have been high since a South Korean patrol ship sank in March, killing 46 sailors. South Korea and the United States say the vessel was sunk by a North Korean torpedo, a claim Pyongyang denies.

The talks also come as South Korea and the U.S. hold naval drills in the Yellow Sea off the west coast of the Korean peninsula, near where the South Korean ship sank.

The exercises are the second in a series of joint maneuvers focusing on anti-submarine warfare tactics, techniques, and procedures, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry.

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30 Gulf cartel suspects captured in north Mexico (AP)

MEXICO CITY � Mexican marines captured 30 suspected Gulf cartel members and seized an arsenal of weapons during two days of raids in a northern border state torn by drug gang battles, officials announced Wednesday.

The marines, acting on intelligence obtained by the navy and other agencies, conducted the raids in Matamoros and Reynosa, two cities across the border from Texas in the state of Tamaulipas, Rear Adm. Jose Luis Vergara said.

The troops seized more than 50 guns, two shoulder-fired rocket launchers, 21 grenades and ammunition.

The 30 suspects, including one woman, were paraded before reporters at an air base in Mexico City, handcuffed and flanked by masked marines in black-and-white combat gear. They were lined up in front of a helicopter, the arsenal of weapons laid out in front of them.

Despite the display, the navy gave no indication of how significant the arrests were in the government's efforts to destroy the Gulf cartel, which is waging a bloody turf war in Tamaulipas with its former ally, the Zetas gang of hit men.

Vergara said all 30 are believed to belong to the Gulf cartel but gave no details on their alleged roles in the gang. He took no questions.

Parading drug suspects in front of the media is a near-weekly ritual in Mexico that has come under increasing criticism from human rights groups.

Last week, opposition politicians grilled Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna about the practice during a congressional hearing, calling it propaganda meant to deflect the public's concerns over the power of drug gangs.

According to a report President Felipe Calderon gave to Congress this month, just 12 percent of criminal investigations under his administration have ended in convictions. Government figures obtained by The Associated Press earlier this year show that three-quarters of the drug suspects arrested since Calderon took office in late 2006 have been freed.

Drug-gang violence has claimed 28,000 lives since December 2006, when Calderon deployed thousands of troops and federal police seeking to wrest territory from the drug lords.

Since the split between the Gulf and Zetas gangs this year, Tamaulipas and neighboring Nuevo Leon state have seen some of the most horrific attacks, including the assassination of a gubernatorial candidate and several mayors and the August massacre of 72 migrants.

In the latest violence in the border region, attackers threw an explosive at city hall in Matamoros early Wednesday, injuring three people, the federal Attorney General's Office said.

Also on the border, two federal police officers were slain Wednesday at a downtown hotel in Ciudad Juarez, a city across from El Paso, Texas, that has become one of the world's most violent places amid fighting among rival drug gangs.

A police official, who insisted on anonymity, said the two officers were part of the federal police's intelligence operation.

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US names special coordinator for Haiti response (AP)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti � The U.S. State Department has named a special coordinator to oversee Washington's reconstruction plans in earthquake-ravaged Haiti amid complaints about the lagging of promised aid money.

Two officials at the department told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Thomas C. Adams has already started on the job. The officials agreed to discuss the move only if not quoted by name because the appointment had not been made public.

The disclosure came a day after the AP reported that none of the $1.15 billion in reconstruction aid pledged by the U.S. in March has arrived. Washington has provided $1.1 billion in humanitarian aid since the quake, but rebuilding cannot begin without the promised longterm reconstruction funds from the U.S. and others.

In the meantime, 1.3 million Haitians remain on the streets nearly nine months after the magnitude-7 earthquake, living in miserable conditions and dying in storms.

The funds were approved by Congress over the summer but cannot be released until a plan for spending the money is formalized. The State Department sent lawmakers one such plan Sept. 20 and gave legislators 15 days to review it. Whether they act or not, the money can be released as soon as the review period expires.

The Obama administration is "in the final phase of working with them (Congress) on the release of supplemental funding to implement our long-term strategy," said State Department adviser Caitlin Klevorick, who works on Haiti.

Officials said the money could be made available within the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee drafted a more detailed authorization bill that could also release the money. That is being held up by Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, who placed a "hold" on the bill because he objected to the creation of such an office, which he says would duplicate the role of the U.S. ambassador to Haiti.

Coburn's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Adams' appointment.

Klevorick also disputed the heightened criticism about aid funds not being delivered. She said $300 million in previously committed spending during that time has gone to water, food, shelter, health and longer-term projects such as agriculture and the creation of a center to train Haitians to work in garment factories.

The Haiti special coordinator's office will oversee diplomatic relations with Haiti and reconstruction strategy, according to an internal State Department memo on Adams' appointment obtained by the AP. Legislators proposed financing the office at $5 million a year for five years and employ up to seven people.

Adams is a 35-year veteran of the State Department, the memo says. He was previously coordinator of assistance to Europe and Eurasia, overseeing aid to 18 former states of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe.

___

Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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2 known dead, 12 missing after storm soaks Jamaica (AP)

KINGSTON, Jamaica � Tropical Storm Nicole caused flooding and mudslides across Jamaica on Wednesday, leaving two confirmed dead and at least 12 more missing, even as the drenching system moved north and dissipated over the Florida straits.

The outer bands of the storm hammered Jamaica, toppling bridges and knocking out power to thousands. Many streets were filled with gushing brown torrents of water, prompting Prime Minister Bruce Golding to urge people to stay indoors.

Floodwaters battered squatter communities perched uneasily on the slopes of gullies that crisscross the sprawling capital of Kingston. One slide toppled a house and killed a 14-year-old boy, known to his neighbors as Buju, who was found in an pool of muddy water. The rest of his family � including four sisters, the youngest just 3-years-old � had not been found by Wednesday evening.

"He was a fun boy. He loved to sing, he loved to play football. It's not right, the whole family lost," said Munchie Fuller, a 23-year-old neighbor who watched terrified as a chunk of her own concrete house in Sandy Gully was swept into the raging waters before dawn.

Another resident, Lyndon Bennett, said the people in the shantytown who live along the gully are warned repeatedly to move for their own safety but most refuse to relocate.

"There's not a proper foundation there, the gully is just stone and dirt. People are told not to live there, but when you've got no other options you've just got to make ends meet. It's a real tragedy," said Bennett, who stood behind yellow police tape with about 60 onlookers.

The storm, which had sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) earlier in the day, broke apart over the Atlantic, though the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that there were still large areas of heavy rain.

Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz said two people were confirmed dead but warned that the toll could be higher from the flash floods and mudslides. He said 12 people were missing.

Emergency shelters were opened and schools closed across the island. Major hospitals were treating only emergency cases. Officials said about 30 percent of the power utility's customers were without power. Some bridges collapsed in the rushing water.

"All in all, there has been a lot of damage done to infrastructure," Vaz said. "It's a serious blow to the country."

In a rural area of St. Elizabeth parish, people told government officials that two farmers in the town of Flagaman were washed away by murky floodwaters and presumed dead. Another man was reportedly swept away while trying to cross rushing Hope River in Kingston.

Floods flattened fields of bananas, scallions and sweet pepper as the storm's outer edges raked the island.

At least three rural towns in St. Thomas parish were isolated due to landslides and three rivers overflowing their banks. Residential areas of the north coast city of Montego Bay were under water, but tourist resorts reported few problems other than minor flooding.

Many Jamaicans were taken by surprise by the ferocity of the rain early Wednesday and the extent of the damage, most of which occurred while the tropical system was classified as a depression.

"It was like rain, rain, then all of a sudden like a big hurricane. I woke up in the middle of the night and it sounded like a waterfall roaring loud," said Kingston resident Tiffany Reid, 14. "I didn't sleep at all after that."

Over the last three days, eight inches (20 centimeters) of rain have fallen on the western part of the island and more than seven inches (17.5 centimeters) on the southeast region that includes the sprawling capital of Kingston, said Romayne Robinson, duty forecaster at the Jamaica Meteorological Service.

The storm also soaked Cuba but no deaths were reported.

In Cuba, state-controlled television showed images of rain flooding roads and highways, especially around the eastern city of Santiago, but there were no reports of major damage. Far to the west in Havana, it wasn't even raining and there was no flooding.

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2 known dead, 12 missing after storm soaks Jamaica (AP)

KINGSTON, Jamaica � Tropical Storm Nicole caused flooding and mudslides across Jamaica on Wednesday, leaving two confirmed dead and at least 12 more missing, even as the drenching system moved north and dissipated over the Florida straits.

The outer bands of the storm hammered Jamaica, toppling bridges and knocking out power to thousands. Many streets were filled with gushing brown torrents of water, prompting Prime Minister Bruce Golding to urge people to stay indoors.

Floodwaters battered squatter communities perched uneasily on the slopes of gullies that crisscross the sprawling capital of Kingston. One slide killed a 14-year-old boy, known to his neighbors as Buju, who was found in an eddy of muddy water. The rest of his family � including four sisters, the youngest just 3-years-old � had not been found by Wednesday evening.

"He was a fun boy. He loved to sing, he loved to play football. It's not right, the whole family lost," said Munchie Fuller, a 23-year-old neighbor who watched terrified as a chunk of her own concrete house in Sandy Gully was swept into the raging waters before dawn.

Another resident, Lyndon Bennett, said the people in the shantytown who live along the gully are warned repeatedly to move for their own safety but most refuse to relocate.

"There's not a proper foundation there, the gully is just stone and dirt. People are told not to live there, but when you've got no other options you've just got to make ends meet. It's a real tragedy," Bennett said.

The storm, which had sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) earlier in the day, broke apart over the Atlantic, though the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that there were still large areas of heavy rain.

Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz said two people were confirmed dead but warned that the toll could be higher from the flash floods and mudslides. He said 12 people were missing.

Emergency shelters were opened for thousands of Jamaicans who live in ramshackle homes along gullies. Major hospitals were treating only emergency cases. Officials said about 30 percent of the power utility's customers were without power. Some bridges collapsed in the rushing water.

"All in all, there has been a lot of damage done to infrastructure," Vaz said. "It's a serious blow to the country."

In a rural area of St. Elizabeth parish, people told government officials that two farmers in the town of Flagaman were washed away by murky floodwaters and presumed dead. Another man was reportedly swept away while trying to cross rushing Hope River in Kingston.

Floods flattened fields of bananas, scallions and sweet pepper as the storm's outer edges raked the island.

The storm also soaked Cuba but no deaths were reported.

In Cuba, state-controlled television showed images of rain flooding roads and highways, especially around the eastern city of Santiago, but there were no reports of major damage. Far to the west in Havana, it wasn't even raining and there was no flooding.

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UN says Afghan election a positive sign (AP)

UNITED NATIONS � Afghanistan's ability to even hold recent legislative elections shows it is starting to take control of its own future, a U.N. special envoy said Wednesday as Security Council members took stock of the war-ravaged country's most recent attempt at democracy.

The Sept. 18 parliamentary elections "mark an important step toward advancing Afghanistan's political process and development, in particular the strengthening of its democratic institutions," said Steffan de Mistura, U.N. special representative to Afghanistan.

"One must not forget that Afghanistan is still a country in conflict," de Mistura said. "The fact that elections took place at all, not least in such close succession and during comparatively a more volatile period, is an accomplishment in itself."

This month's vote was the first since last year's presidential election was almost derailed by widespread ballot-box stuffing and tally manipulation. That poll led many Western nations to question their support President Hamid Karzai's government.

About 4.3 million ballots were cast in the latest election, or about one-fourth of the country's 17 million registered voters. There were more than 2,500 candidates, including nearly 400 women, for 249 parliamentary seats. Results are expected Oct. 30.

Election day was marred by rocket attacks and bombings. De Mistura said the U.N. mission there recorded 32 civilian deaths and 95 injuries related to the vote.

So far, the parliamentary electoral process has shown "significant improvements" over the last year's presidential vote, said De Mistura. While there are no early signs of massive or systemic fraud, "there were possibly widespread irregularities," he added.

Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmal Rassoul called the elections "a major victory for democracy in Afghanistan."

The acting head of the European Union delegation to the U.N., Pedro Serrano, told the council that it was "too early to make a full assessment of the polls" but praised "the thorough preparations which were largely ensured by Afghan institutions."

He said the EU had a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, and during the 2011-13 period will increase its European Community humanitarian and development aid to 200 million euros annually. Serrano said EU members together are already giving Afghanistan nearly 1 billion euros annually.

U.S. Ambassador Susan E. Rice also welcomed the U.N. envoy's report, calling the elections an "important, step toward a stronger, more stable Afghanistan."

"These elections would not have been possible without the Afghan National Security Forces," Rice said, noting that the U.S. is working to prepare Afghan security forces to take the lead on their nation's own security by 2014.

She also applauded the "key role" that the Security Council's al-Qaeda/Taliban Sanctions Committee has played in updating lists of Talibans or people with Taliban ties, removing 10 who had either died or laid down their guns, and adding three new names.

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Congress punts tough choice until after election (AP)

WASHINGTON � A deeply unpopular Congress is bolting for the campaign trail without finishing its most basic job � approving a budget for the government year that begins on Friday. Lawmakers also are postponing a major fight over taxes, two embarrassing ethics cases and other political hot potatoes until after the Nov. 2 elections.

With their House and Senate majorities on the line, Democratic leaders called off votes and even debates on all controversial matters.

"It would be one thing if you have a chance to pass something, then by all means have a vote," Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said Wednesday. "But it was pretty clear that it was going to be mutually assured destruction."

It was a messy end to a session fraught with partisan fire.

"We may not agree on much, but I think with rare exception, all 100 senators want to get out of here and get back to their states," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is locked in a tough re-election fight against Republican Sharron Angle in Nevada.

One foot out the door, the House and Senate convened just long enough to vote on a "continuing resolution," a stopgap measure to keep the government in operating funds for the next two months and avoid a pre-election federal shutdown. Even that, along with passing a few minor agreed-upon bills, was expected to take into the night and possibly into Thursday.

Staying or going might seem an equally unpleasant prospect for some embattled Democrats, who are facing more than four weeks of defending unpopular votes in favor of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus measure, health care law and uncompleted legislation for curbing global warming.

They also head home without what was supposed to be their closing argument of the campaign, an extension of Bush-era tax cuts for families making less than $250,000.

Republicans and a few Democrats urged Congress to preserve the tax cuts for all Americans, even the wealthiest. Democratic leaders opted to avoid the risk of being branded tax hikers and punted the matter until after the elections.

Republicans applied the label anyway, scolding Democrats for folding the tent without voting on extending former President George W. Bush's tax cuts beyond their Dec. 31 expiration. A motion to adjourn upon completing routine business passed by a single vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's, after 39 Democrats joined Republicans in protest.

"If Democratic leaders leave town without stopping all of the tax hikes, they are turning their backs on the American people," said House Minority Leader John Boehner.

Pelosi has vowed that the middle class tax cuts will be passed this year.

Republicans also denounced Democrats for delaying the ethics trials of Reps. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., until after the elections. Both lawmakers had said they wanted trials as soon as possible.

House leaders also appeared unlikely to call a vote on a Senate-passed school nutrition bill favored by first lady Michelle Obama. The bill is opposed by liberals because it would cut food stamp benefits to find the money to pay for better school lunches. The Senate passed the $4.5 billion legislation in August, and many of the child nutrition programs it includes are to expire on Thursday, the last day of the fiscal year. They'll be temporarily extended under the stopgap bill.

In the waning hours before adjournment, Democrats moved what smaller legislation they could.

The House was advancing to Obama's desk a bill setting NASA policy and legislation aimed at strengthening congressional oversight of sensitive spy operations. But a House measure to provide free health care and additional compensation to World Trade Center workers sickened in the towers' crumbled ruins was sure to stall in the Senate.

The stopgap spending measure was kept clean of a host of add-ons sought by the Obama administration, including money for "Race to the Top" grants to better-performing schools and more than $4 billion to finance settlements of long-standing lawsuits by black farmers and American Indians against the government.

Negotiations continued, however, on a separate bill to provide $1.2 billion to remedy discrimination by the Agriculture Department against black farmers and $3.4 billion to settle claims that the Interior Department mismanaged Indian trust funds. Prospects were being helped by the addition of several measures � favored by western Republicans � to resolve Indian water claims.

The stopgap bill is a reminder of the dismal performance by Congress in doing its most basic job � passing an annual budget and the spending bills for agency operations.

Only two of a dozen annual appropriations bills have passed the House this year and none has passed the Senate as Democratic leaders have opted against lengthy floor debates and politically difficult votes on spending.

The breakdown in the budget process includes a senator from Obama's own party holding up the confirmation of a director to head the White House budget office, a critical post. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is blocking the nomination until the administration lifts or significantly modifies a Gulf oil well moratorium imposed after the BP spill.

The end-of session agenda included:

� A legislative blueprint for NASA's future that would extend the life of the space shuttle program for a year while backing Obama's intent to use commercial carriers to carry humans into space. Obama will sign the measure.

� The first intelligence authorization bill since 2004, with compromise language on demands by Congress for greater access to top secret intelligence. The most secret briefings will still only be provided to top congressional leaders, but members of the intelligence panels will receive a general description of the programs. The House was clearing the measure for Obama.

The child nutrition bill ran into trouble after House supporters abandoned their own $8 billion version and proposed passing the Senate version, which would be partially paid for by using future funding for food stamp programs. The bill now faces opposition from hunger groups, and some Democrats have said they will not support it if the food stamp money is used.

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Terror plot in Europe prompted drone strikes (AP)

LONDON � Security officials said Wednesday a terror plot to wage Mumbai-style shooting sprees or other attacks in Britain, France and Germany is still active and that recent CIA strikes in Pakistan were aimed at al-Qaida operatives suspected in the threat.

The plot was still in its early stages and not considered serious enough to raise the terror threat level, officials said. Still, the Eiffel Tower in Paris was briefly evacuated Tuesday � the second time in two weeks because of an unspecified threat � and French police were on alert.

A heavy police presence was seen Wednesday around Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and Big Ben. Victoria Station was briefly evacuated after an unusual smell was reported.

"This plot was in its embryonic stages," a British government official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work. He said the plot had preoccupied the security community more than other recent threats, but did not merit changing the security threat level from severe to critical.

Some details about the plot came from Ahmed Siddiqui, a German citizen of Afghan background who was captured in Afghanistan in July, a U.S. official said.

Intelligence authorities used National Security Agency wiretaps to flesh out details, U.S. officials said, and while a Mumbai-style shooting spree was one possibility, there was no concrete plan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the plot.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters Wednesday the U.S. was working closely with its European allies, but declined to provide specifics.

"We are not going to comment on specific intelligence as doing so threatens to undermine intelligence operations that are critical in protecting the United States and our allies," Clinton said. "As we have repeatedly said, we know that al-Qaida and its network of terrorists wishes to attack both European and U.S. targets."

"I want Americans to know how focused we all are in the government and how committed we are not only in protecting our own country but in protecting our friends and allies."

Revelations of the plot came just ahead of the anniversary on Thursday of the publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper.

It also came as Spanish authorities announced they had arrested an American citizen of Algerian origin on suspicion of financing al-Qaida's North African affiliate.

Mohamed Omar Debhi, 43, was taken into custody Tuesday, although Spain's Interior Ministry said the arrest was not connected to the terror threat. He is suspected of laundering money and sending some of it to an associate in Algeria, Toufik Mizi, to be passed on to al-Qaida cells in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian terror group.

Europe has been a target of numerous Islamic terror plots � the deadliest being the 2004 Madrid train bombings, when 10 shrapnel-filled bombs exploded, killing 191 people and wounding about 1,800.

A year later, suicide bombers killed 52 rush-hour commuters in London aboard three subway cars and a bus.

In 2006, U.S. and British intelligence officials thwarted one of the largest plots yet � a plan to explode nearly a dozen trans-Atlantic airliners.

Despite the beefed up security presence at tourist sites in London and other European capitals on Wednesday, most visitors took the news in stride and went on with their sightseeing.

"In this case, ignorance is bliss," said Theodore John, a 35-year-old banker from Pittsburgh who was visiting Buckingham Palace and heard about the threat Wednesday.

Officials gave no other details of the terror plot except to say that it originated in Pakistan with a group "threatening to wage a Mumbai-style attack" on cities in Britain, France and Germany.

"This was the headline threat but it was not clear whether the attack would come in the form of shootings or other small-scale attacks," said the British government official.

A three-day siege in 2008 by gunmen in the Indian city of Mumbai left 166 people dead and raised fears of similar low-budget types of attacks around the world � a departure from the sophisticated and precision-planned Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States in 2001.

U.S. intelligence had heard of the European plot about a month ago and was monitoring the people involved, according to two U.S. officials. The CIA recently stepped up airstrikes from unmanned aircraft in northern Pakistan, in part to disrupt the plot.

However, a British government official said that while the drone strikes were thought to have disrupted the planning of the attacks, the operation was still considered active. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work.

The Obama administration has intensified the use of drone-fired missiles in Pakistan's border area. This month there have been at least 21 attacks � more than double the highest number fired in any other single month.

CIA director Leon Panetta was in Pakistan on Wednesday for talks with the head of the country's main spy agency. A Pakistani intelligence officer confirmed Panetta was meeting with Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

A Pakistani official said some information about the plot was coming from a suspect who had been interrogated at the military prison at Bagram Air Base near Kabul. Siddiqui is reportedly being held in Bagram.

The Pakistani official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing, characterized the evidence as more aspiration than a fully planned terror plot.

___

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris, Daniel Woolls in Madrid, Gillian Smith and David Stringer in London, Kimberly Dozier in Islamabad and Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Matt Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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Terror plot in Europe prompted drone strikes (AP)

LONDON � Security officials said Wednesday a terror plot to wage Mumbai-style shooting sprees or other attacks in Britain, France and Germany is still active and that recent CIA strikes in Pakistan were aimed at al-Qaida operatives suspected in the threat.

The plot was still in its early stages and not considered serious enough to raise the terror threat level, officials said. Still, the Eiffel Tower in Paris was briefly evacuated Tuesday � the second time in two weeks because of an unspecified threat � and French police were on alert.

A heavy police presence was seen Wednesday around Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and Big Ben. Victoria Station was briefly evacuated after an unusual smell was reported.

"This plot was in its embryonic stages," a British government official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work. He said the plot had preoccupied the security community more than other recent threats, but did not merit changing the security threat level from severe to critical.

Some details about the plot came from Ahmed Siddiqui, a German citizen of Afghan background who was captured in Afghanistan in July, a U.S. official said.

Intelligence authorities used National Security Agency wiretaps to flesh out details, U.S. officials said, and while a Mumbai-style shooting spree was one possibility, there was no concrete plan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the plot.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters Wednesday the U.S. was working closely with its European allies, but declined to provide specifics.

"We are not going to comment on specific intelligence as doing so threatens to undermine intelligence operations that are critical in protecting the United States and our allies," Clinton said. "As we have repeatedly said, we know that al-Qaida and its network of terrorists wishes to attack both European and U.S. targets."

"I want Americans to know how focused we all are in the government and how committed we are not only in protecting our own country but in protecting our friends and allies."

The Department of Homeland Security would not say Wednesday whether U.S. security has been enhanced as a result of the terror threats in Europe.

Revelations of the plot came just ahead of the anniversary on Thursday of the publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper.

It also came as Spanish authorities announced they had arrested an American citizen of Algerian origin on suspicion of financing al-Qaida's North African affiliate.

Mohamed Omar Debhi, 43, was taken into custody Tuesday, although Spain's Interior Ministry said the arrest was not connected to the terror threat. He is suspected of laundering money and sending some of it to an associate in Algeria, Toufik Mizi, to be passed on to al-Qaida cells in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian terror group.

Europe has been a target of numerous Islamic terror plots � the deadliest being the 2004 Madrid train bombings, when 10 shrapnel-filled bombs exploded, killing 191 people and wounding about 1,800.

A year later, suicide bombers killed 52 rush-hour commuters in London aboard three subway cars and a bus.

In 2006, U.S. and British intelligence officials thwarted one of the largest plots yet � a plan to explode nearly a dozen trans-Atlantic airliners.

Despite the beefed up security presence at tourist sites in London and other European capitals on Wednesday, most visitors took the news in stride and went on with their sightseeing.

"In this case, ignorance is bliss," said Theodore John, a 35-year-old banker from Pittsburgh who was visiting Buckingham Palace and heard about the threat Wednesday.

Officials gave no other details of the terror plot except to say that it originated in Pakistan with a group "threatening to wage a Mumbai-style attack" on cities in Britain, France and Germany.

"This was the headline threat but it was not clear whether the attack would come in the form of shootings or other small-scale attacks," said the British government official.

A three-day siege in 2008 by gunmen in the Indian city of Mumbai left 166 people dead and raised fears of similar low-budget types of attacks around the world � a departure from the sophisticated and precision-planned Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States in 2001.

U.S. intelligence had heard of the European plot about a month ago and was monitoring the people involved, according to two U.S. officials. The CIA recently stepped up airstrikes from unmanned aircraft in northern Pakistan, in part to disrupt the plot.

However, a British government official said that while the drone strikes were thought to have disrupted the planning of the attacks, the operation was still considered active. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work.

The Obama administration has intensified the use of drone-fired missiles in Pakistan's border area. This month there have been at least 21 attacks � more than double the highest number fired in any other single month.

CIA director Leon Panetta was in Pakistan for talks with the head of the country's main spy agency. A Pakistani intelligence officer confirmed Panetta was meeting Wednesday with Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

A Pakistani official said some information about the plot was coming from a suspect who had been interrogated at the military prison at Bagram Air Base near Kabul. Siddiqui is reportedly being held in Bagram.

The Pakistani official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing, characterized the evidence as more aspiration than a fully planned terror plot.

___

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris, Daniel Woolls in Madrid, Gillian Smith and David Stringer in London, Kimberly Dozier in Islamabad and Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Matt Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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30 Gulf cartel suspects captured in north Mexico (AP)

MEXICO CITY � Mexican marines captured 30 suspected Gulf cartel members and seized an arsenal of weapons during two days of raids in a northern border state torn by drug gang battles, officials announced Wednesday.

The marines, acting on intelligence obtained by the navy and other agencies, conducted the raids in Matamoros and Reynosa, two cities across the border from Texas in the state of Tamaulipas, Rear Adm. Jose Luis Vergara said.

The troops seized more than 50 guns, two shoulder-fired rocket launchers, 21 grenades and ammunition.

The 30 suspects, including one woman, were paraded before reporters at an air base in Mexico City, handcuffed and flanked by masked marines in black-and-white combat gear. They were lined up in front of a helicopter, the arsenal of weapons laid out in front of them.

Despite the display, the navy gave no indication of how significant the arrests were in the government's efforts to destroy the Gulf cartel, which is waging a bloody turf war in Tamaulipas with its former ally, the Zetas gang of hit men.

Vergara said all 30 are believed to belong to the Gulf cartel but gave no details on their alleged roles in the gang. He took no questions.

Parading drug suspects in front of the media is a near-weekly ritual in Mexico that has come under increasing criticism from human rights groups.

Last week, opposition politicians grilled Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna about the practice during a congressional hearing, calling it propaganda meant to deflect the public's concerns over the power of drug gangs.

According to a report President Felipe Calderon gave to Congress this month, just 12 percent of criminal investigations under his administration have ended in convictions. Government figures obtained by The Associated Press earlier this year show that three-quarters of the drug suspects arrested since Calderon took office in late 2006 have been freed.

Drug-gang violence has claimed 28,000 lives since December 2006, when Calderon deployed thousands of troops and federal police seeking to wrest territory from the drug lords.

Since the split between the Gulf and Zetas gangs this year, Tamaulipas and neighboring Nuevo Leon state have seen some of the most horrific attacks, including the assassination of a gubernatorial candidate and several mayors and the August massacre of 72 migrants.

In the latest violence, attackers threw an explosive at city hall in Matamoros early Wednesday, injuring three people, the federal Attorney General's Office said.

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Palestinians dig in ahead of talks with US envoy (AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank � The Palestinians dug in ahead of a crucial meeting Thursday with Washington's Mideast envoy, saying they can't be expected to continue peace talks unless Israel reverses a decision to lift restrictions on West Bank settlement construction.

Neither side seems to want the month-old talks to collapse, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are publicly at an impasse, with a Monday deadline looming.

President Barack Obama's emissary, George Mitchell, is making a secretive last-minute attempt to rescue the negotiations. He was to travel to Abbas' West Bank headquarters Thursday, after meeting with Israeli leaders on Wednesday. Mitchell said after talks with Netanyahu that he is undaunted by what he described as "bumps in the road," but offered no glimpse of a possible compromise.

The European Union's top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, announced she's heading to the region "as a matter of priority" after talking to Mitchell and international Mideast envoy Tony Blair. Starting Thursday, the EU foreign policy chief will meet with Netanyahu, Abbas and Mitchell over two days to try to prevent the collapse of negotiations. She reiterated in a statement that the European Union regrets Israel's decision not to extend a 10-month-old moratorium on West Bank housing starts that expired this week.

Netanyahu has said extending the construction curb could fracture his pro-settlement governing coalition, but has also said he wants to keep negotiating with Abbas. Obama wants a deal on the terms of a Palestinian state alongside Israel within a year.

Abbas advisers on Wednesday stopped short of posing an ultimatum, but signaled they would accept nothing less than an extension of the moratorium. Veteran Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath said Israel should be blamed for any breakdown of the negotiations if it insists on expanding settlements on lands claimed by the Palestinians for their state.

Abbas on Wednesday was quoted as saying, without elaborating, that he is ready to make a "historic decision" when Arab League foreign ministers meet Monday in Cairo to review the negotiations. It wasn't clear whether Abbas meant he was ready to quit the talks or whether he was simply trying to create some last-minute leverage.

On Saturday, Abbas will consult top officials from his Fatah Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization's decision-making body before sitting down with the Arab officials.

Hanna Amireh, a member of the PLO body, said there was widespread opposition to resuming talks without a settlement curb.

"The consensus is that since the entire world is in favor of a Palestinian state and against settlements, then let us throw this problem in the face of the world and see what they can do about it," Amireh said.

However, in the end the decision is up to Abbas. Fatah and the PLO have routinely backed his decisions in the past and are unlikely to rebel against him now. The Arab League is also expected to back Abbas' recommendations.

Should he stay in the talks without a moratorium, Abbas would lose more credibility among Palestinians already skeptical of Washington's ability to deliver a deal. Yet Abbas may be reluctant to walk away from talks because his international standing and future as a leader are tied to the quest for a peace deal.

Abbas' bitter Hamas rivals, who seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, would benefit from the talks' failure as a reflection of their position that nothing can be gained by negotiating with Israel.

In comments published Wednesday on the website of the pro-Hamas newspaper Felesteen, Hamas' Gaza strongman Mahmoud Zahar renewed his call to Abbas to quit the negotiations.

Commenting on the Palestinian uprising that followed the failed U.S.-led peace effort at Camp David in 2000, Zahar claimed the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat instructed Hamas to carry out "a number of military operations in the heart of the Hebrew state" after he allegedly "felt the failure of his negotiating" with Israel.

At the time, Arafat had said he sought to restrain Palestinian attacks so peace talks could succeed.

Zahar and other Hamas spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment.

___

Associated Press Writer Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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Canada to appeal ruling voiding sex trade laws (AP)

TORONTO � Canada's justice minister says the federal government will appeal an Ontario court ruling that struck down key provisions in Canada's prostitution laws in a case that could set a precedent for the country if the provincial ruling is upheld.

Rob Nicholson said Wednesday prostitution harms individuals, and the government will appeal an Ontario Superior Court's order to decriminalize many aspects of prostitution earlier this week.

Prostitution itself is not illegal in Canada, but communicating for the purposes of prostitution, pimping and operating a brothel were considered criminal acts. An Ontario Superior Court judge said Tuesday these prostitution-related laws are unconstitutional and said laws set up to protect prostitutes actually harm them.

The Ontario court judgment is subject to a 30-day stay during which the law remains in place.

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Two powerful earthquakes hit eastern Indonesia (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia � Two powerful earthquakes hit waters off eastern Indonesia in rapid succession early Thursday, prompting officials to briefly trigger a tsunami warning.

The U.S. Geological Survey said a 7.2 magnitude quake off Papua province, centered just 7 miles (12 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor, struck less than a minute after a 6.6 temblor in the same location.

The town of Tual on nearby Maluku island was shaken, said Fauzi, chief of the Indonesian meteorological and geophysics agency, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The area closest to the epicenter is remote and sparsely populated.

Located 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) east of the capital, Jakarta, it is closer to the northern Australian city of Darwin, which sits some 560 miles (900 kilometers) to the south.

Fauzi's agency lifted a tsunami warning 90 minutes after the temblors struck, saying the threat for destructive waves had passed.

Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that make the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.

A giant quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.

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US general: Iraq political limbo fuels violence (AP)

BAGHDAD � The top U.S. commander for Baghdad warned Wednesday that Iraq's prolonged political crisis has encouraged militants to step up attacks and left civilians so frustrated they could be holding back crucial tips on suspected insurgent cells.

The assessment by U.S. Brig. Gen. Rob Baker is the most direct link by American military brass between Iraq's nearly seven-month impasse on forming a government and a recent spike in violence that has included rocket strikes blamed on Shiite militias and targeted killings by suspected Sunni hit squads against security officials and government workers.

Baker's comments also boost U.S. pressure on Iraqi political leaders to finally pull together after March elections, which were narrowly won by a Sunni-backed coalition but without enough parliament seats to push aside the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki � who seeks to hold on to power.

Vice President Joe Biden called the Sunni bloc leader, Ayad Allawi, on Tuesday to urge a compromise that would satisfy all Iraq's rival groups. A day earlier, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Associated Press that Washington needs to take a more active role in breaking the deadlock.

Baker said he believes Sunni insurgents interpret the political vacuum as a prime chance to undermine the credibility of Iraq's leadership and security forces and "accelerate" the discontent among Iraqis hoping for a resolution.

"What they will do is try to accelerate that by intimidating the citizens by attacks and by trying to discredit that organization that is trying to protect the citizens, which is the security forces," he told reporters. "So that is one reason we've seen an uptick in the attacks against security forces."

He also said Shiite militias � some with suspected ties to Iran or loose links to various Iraqi political factions � have recently boosted attacks on U.S. forces and rocket barrages on Baghdad's protected Green Zone. He attributed it internal Shiite rivalries for "bragging rights" to claim that U.S. forces are departing Iraq under fire. About 50,000 U.S. soldiers remain in Iraq and full withdrawal is planned by the end of next year.

"There's an intra-Shiite struggle for power ... and that manifests itself in violence," Baker said.

The U.S. military said many of the recent rocket attacks have come from the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. On Wednesday, at least two rockets aimed for the Green Zone came from predominantly Shiite areas in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

The U.S. military says there have been at least 21 rocket attacks � locations firing one or more rockets � in the past 30 days in Baghdad. That compares with 13 in the previous 30-day period.

Sunni insurgents also are blamed for a string of targeted slayings since bombings Sept. 19 that killed more than 30 people in Baghdad � later claimed by an al-Qaida umbrella group. On Sunday, gunmen using silencer-fitted weapons killed three top officials, including two senior police commanders and an employee of Iraq's Committee on Anti-Corruption.

Baker said it's part of al-Qaida in Iraq efforts to "re-establish themselves" in Baghdad and gateways, such as their former stronghold of Fallujah to the west.

"It's our assessment (that) these attacks are designed to intimidate the public and ... create the perception that the Iraqi security forces are somehow weak or ineffectual," he said.

The wider fallout, he said, could erode the vital help of civilian informants and tipsters to point out suspected insurgent hideouts.

There have been some recent successes, including uncovering two roadside bomb factories and a cache of explosives and two suicide belts, said Baker. But there is a sense that the public is growing weary of the government limbo and starting to connect it to the rise in violence.

"The longer that the government goes without seating itself � we see a lack of confidence that the Iraqi citizens have in their government. ... We know there is a relationship between confidence in the government and security and the willingness of the citizens to share information about insurgent activity," he said.

But there is no sign of a political breakthrough on the horizon. Al-Maliki, the prime minister, is pressuring key Shiite religious parties to back him. Meanwhile, the Sunni bloc leader Allawi was holding talks in Syria, which offered haven to many Iraqi Sunnis after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion including supporters of Saddam Hussein.

At an Iraq investment conference in Bahrain, Iraq's government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said it could be "more weeks" before the parties can agree on a nominee for prime minister. And even after that, it could be a drawn-out process to pick the new cabinet posts.

Baker said any sustained rise in Baghdad violence also could scare away potential foreign investors, which include the rich Gulf nations that want to see a greater Sunni voice in Iraq's leadership.

This was the same message from Zebari, the foreign minister, at the United Nations earlier this week. He appealed for the United States to engage in stronger mediation to break the political logjam. Iraq, he said, "needs a period � a big period � of stability to rise up and become the powerhouse of the Middle East."

In Baghdad, the U.N.'s top envoy on internally displaced people, Walter Kaelin, said Iraq's political uncertainties also has kept many Iraqis from returning to their homes after fleeing violence during the war.

The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, meanwhile, criticized Iraqi security forces for what it described as a string of recent attacks on local journalists, saying the threatening climate puts the development of a free press at risk.

The Paris-based group cited three incidents last week during which it said security officials roughed up Iraqi reporters, photographers and cameramen. In one, it said journalists were forced to lie face down on the ground while police beat and insulted them at a Baghdad checkpoint.

____

Associated Press Writers Bushra Juhi and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad and Adam Schreck in Manama, Bahrain, contributed to this report.

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US general: Iraq political limbo fuels violence (AP)

BAGHDAD � The top U.S. commander for Baghdad warned Wednesday that Iraq's prolonged political crisis has encouraged militants to step up attacks and left civilians so frustrated they could be holding back crucial tips on suspected insurgent cells.

The assessment by U.S. Brig. Gen. Rob Baker is the most direct link by American military brass between Iraq's nearly seven-month impasse on forming a government and a recent spike in violence that has included rocket strikes blamed on Shiite militias and targeted killings by suspected Sunni hit squads against security officials and government workers.

Baker's comments also boost U.S. pressure on Iraqi political leaders to finally pull together after March elections, which were narrowly won by a Sunni-backed coalition but without enough parliament seats to push aside the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki � who seeks to hold on to power.

Vice President Joe Biden called the Sunni bloc leader, Ayad Allawi, on Tuesday to urge a compromise that would satisfy all Iraq's rival groups. A day earlier, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Associated Press that Washington needs to take a more active role in breaking the deadlock.

Baker said he believes Sunni insurgents interpret the political vacuum as a prime chance to undermine the credibility of Iraq's leadership and security forces and "accelerate" the discontent among Iraqis hoping for a resolution.

"What they will do is try to accelerate that by intimidating the citizens by attacks and by trying to discredit that organization that is trying to protect the citizens, which is the security forces," he told reporters. "So that is one reason we've seen an uptick in the attacks against security forces."

He also said Shiite militias � some with suspected ties to Iran or loose links to various Iraqi political factions � have recently boosted attacks on U.S. forces and rocket barrages on Baghdad's protected Green Zone. He attributed it internal Shiite rivalries for "bragging rights" to claim that U.S. forces are departing Iraq under fire. About 50,000 U.S. soldiers remain in Iraq and full withdrawal is planned by the end of next year.

"There's an intra-Shiite struggle for power ... and that manifests itself in violence," Baker said.

The U.S. military said many of the recent rocket attacks have come from the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. On Wednesday, at least two rockets aimed for the Green Zone came from predominantly Shiite areas in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

The U.S. military says there have been at least 21 rocket attacks � locations firing one or more rockets � in the past 30 days in Baghdad. That compares with 13 in the previous 30-day period.

Sunni insurgents also are blamed for a string of targeted slayings since bombings Sept. 19 that killed more than 30 people in Baghdad � later claimed by an al-Qaida umbrella group. On Sunday, gunmen using silencer-fitted weapons killed three top officials, including two senior police commanders and an employee of Iraq's Committee on Anti-Corruption.

Baker said it's part of al-Qaida in Iraq efforts to "re-establish themselves" in Baghdad and gateways, such as their former stronghold of Fallujah to the west.

"It's our assessment (that) these attacks are designed to intimidate the public and ... create the perception that the Iraqi security forces are somehow weak or ineffectual," he said.

The wider fallout, he said, could erode the vital help of civilian informants and tipsters to point out suspected insurgent hideouts.

There have been some recent successes, including uncovering two roadside bomb factories and a cache of explosives and two suicide belts, said Baker. But there is a sense that the public is growing weary of the government limbo and starting to connect it to the rise in violence.

"The longer that the government goes without seating itself � we see a lack of confidence that the Iraqi citizens have in their government. ... We know there is a relationship between confidence in the government and security and the willingness of the citizens to share information about insurgent activity," he said.

But there is no sign of a political breakthrough on the horizon. Al-Maliki, the prime minister, is pressuring key Shiite religious parties to back him. Meanwhile, the Sunni bloc leader Allawi was holding talks in Syria, which offered haven to many Iraqi Sunnis after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion including supporters of Saddam Hussein.

At an Iraq investment conference in Bahrain, Iraq's government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said it could be "more weeks" before the parties can agree on a nominee for prime minister. And even after that, it could be a drawn-out process to pick the new cabinet posts.

Baker said any sustained rise in Baghdad violence also could scare away potential foreign investors, which include the rich Gulf nations that want to see a greater Sunni voice in Iraq's leadership.

This was the same message from Zebari, the foreign minister, at the United Nations earlier this week. He appealed for the United States to engage in stronger mediation to break the political logjam. Iraq, he said, "needs a period � a big period � of stability to rise up and become the powerhouse of the Middle East."

In Baghdad, the U.N.'s top envoy on internally displaced people, Walter Kaelin, said Iraq's political uncertainties also has kept many Iraqis from returning to their homes after fleeing violence during the war.

The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, meanwhile, criticized Iraqi security forces for what it described as a string of recent attacks on local journalists, saying the threatening climate puts the development of a free press at risk.

The Paris-based group cited three incidents last week during which it said security officials roughed up Iraqi reporters, photographers and cameramen. In one, it said journalists were forced to lie face down on the ground while police beat and insulted them at a Baghdad checkpoint.

____

Associated Press Writers Bushra Juhi and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad and Adam Schreck in Manama, Bahrain, contributed to this report.

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Vuvuzelas making a comeback, at Commonwealth Games (AP)

NEW DELHI � The Commonwealth Games could end up sounding an awful lot like the football World Cup.

Vuvuzelas, the long plastic horns that created a constant din � and plenty of debate � at games during this year's World Cup in South Africa, are on sale in New Delhi, and they have been selling steadily ahead of the Oct. 3-14 games.

"There is a lot of demand for the vuvuzela. A lot of demand," said Suresh Kumar, the chairman of Premier Brands, the Indian company in charge of merchandizing at the Commonwealth Games. "We have sold more than 12,000 pieces."

Loved by some and despised by others, the vuvuzela was a constant topic of conversation in South Africa. While the South African football fans embraced the atmosphere it helped create at games across the country, many broadcasters and viewers from abroad complained that the drone disrupted the enjoyment of watching games on television.

The debate hasn't deterred Commonwealth Games organizers in the Indian capital, where 50,000 vuvuzelas were imported from China for the event. There is no plan at this stage to bring in more, even though the plastic horns are the second-best selling product behind T-shirts, Kumar said.

Even Indian Sports Minister M.S. Gill got in on the act, standing with Commonwealth Games organizing committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi and blowing a vuvuzela on Wednesday at the athletes' village.

Because of the sounds that emanated from the World Cup, several Premier League clubs and even Wimbledon banned fans from using vuvuzelas at their venues. UEFA has also banned them from their European football competitions.

The Commonwealth Games may not cause as much of an uproar for viewers overseas, however. On Tuesday, Indian Tourism Minister Kumari Selja said only 200,000 of the 1.7 million tickets for the games have been sold.

The vuvuzelas are selling for 250 rupees ($5.50) and will be available at all competition venues and in some areas of the city, including the airport and train stations. They can also be bought online and from mobile stores that will visit schools and major residential areas.

Organizers hope the relatively inexpensive price � inexpensive for foreigners anyway � will help sales.

"This will enable everybody to own a piece of the games," the organizing committee said on its website.

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SAfrican school presses Israelis on Palestinians (AP)

JOHANNESBURG � University of Johannesburg professors rejected calls to sever ties with an Israeli university Wednesday, but called on Ben-Gurion University to work with its Palestinian counterparts.

Calls for similar academic boycotts to protest Israel's Palestinian policies also have failed in the West.

The South African university's faculty senate met Wednesday to vote on the proposal, which had been endorsed by anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but instead accepted a compromise without a vote. They asked Ben-Gurion University to work with Palestinian universities on research projects, and to start the collaborations within six months if it wants to maintain ties with the University of Johannesburg.

UJ Vice Chancellor Adam Habib said the compromise reflected his institution's values.

"We believe in reconciliation," Habib said. "We'd like to bring BGU and Palestinian universities together to produce a collective engagement that benefits everyone."

The universities have joint research projects and academic exchanges on biotechnology and water purification.

Relations between Ben-Gurion University and Rand Afrikaans University, a formerly all-white university under South Africa's apartheid system, began in 1987. The University of Johannesburg, created in 2005, took over various campuses including Rand Afrikaans University and a university in the black township of Soweto as part of efforts to ensure higher education was transformed with the rest of South Africa after the end of apartheid.

Israel officially opposed apartheid, but its ties with the white government were seen as close. South Africa's post-apartheid government has been a sharp critic of Israel's Palestinian policies. The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was among the guests at Nelson Mandela's 1994 inauguration as South Africa's first black president.

Tutu and more than 200 prominent South African academics had supported ending UJ's links with the Israeli institution.

"Israeli universities are an intimate part of the Israeli regime, by active choice," Tutu wrote in an essay that appeared in a South African newspaper Sunday. "While Palestinians are not able to access universities and schools, Israeli universities produce the research, technology, arguments and leaders for maintaining the occupation."

Academic boycotts of Israeli universities have been inspired by boycotts of South African institutions during apartheid. A 2003 proposal for British universities to sever all ties with Israeli academic institutions was defeated. Two years later Britain's Association of University Teachers voted to boycott Israel's Haifa and Bar Ilan universities. That decision was overturned only a month later under fierce international pressure.

U.S. professors and students also have called for academic and cultural boycotts of Israel.

The moves have prompted sharp criticism. Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz once threatened legal action that would "devastate and bankrupt" anyone who boycotts Israeli universities.

The New York-based Anti-Defamation League described the British moves as anti-Semitic, arguing Israel was being singled out while human rights violators such as Iran, Sudan, Venezuela and Zimbabwe were ignored.

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Italy coast guard hunting 2 missing US balloonists (AP)

LONDON � Coast guards are hunting for a pair of missing American balloonists last detected piloting their craft over the Adriatic Sea in rough weather, officials said Wednesday.

Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis were participating in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race, an annual race in which teams of balloonists try to see who can fly the farthest from a set point on a maximum of about 1,000 cubic meters (35,300 cubic feet) of gas.

Abruzzo is the son of famed balloonist Ben Abruzzo, who was part of the first team to cross the Pacific Ocean by balloon, in 1981, and was killed in a small airplane crash in 1985.

Italian coast guards said a search was under way for the balloon, one of 20 that set off Saturday from the English coastal city of Bristol. Spokesman Lt. Massimo Maccheroni, said the last signal received from the balloon's GPS was at 8 a.m. local time (0600GMT) Wednesday. The signal showed the craft was 13 miles (21 kilometers) off the Gargano coast in the Adriatic Sea.

He said helicopters, military aircraft and three boats were taking part in the search. A ground search on the coast was also under way.

Conditions in the area were reported to be poor, with rough seas and thunderstorms.

Abruzzo and Davis have competed together in the past, winning the 2006 America's Challenge gas balloon race by traveling 1,478 miles (2,378 kilometers) from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

Richard Abruzzo's sister-in-law, Sandra Abruzzo, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, said she had been told the balloonists had suffered "an issue with the electrical" components in the balloon, and speculated that the loss of contact could possibly be related to that.

Garth Sonnenberg, also of Albuquerque and a friend of Abruzzo's since childhood, said he'd heard they had radio issues throughout the flight. "We're hoping that it's a good possibility that it's just a radio problem," he said.

Friends said that ballooning is in Abruzzo's blood � his father and two other Albuquerque residents, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman, made the first successful balloon flight over the Atlantic in a helium-filled balloon in 1978, landing in France after a flight of 137 hours.

___

Associated Press writer Sue Major Holmes in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report

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Ireland hunting down thousands of escaped minks (AP)

DUBLIN � The roads and rivers of northwest Ireland are suddenly lined with mink.

Managers at Anderson's Mink Farm said Wednesday that many of their cages and fences were cut and opened over the weekend, freeing an estimated 5,000 animals into the wilds of County Donegal. About 28,000 others declined the invitation to bolt for freedom.

More than 100 already have been recaptured by hunters using cage traps, while several hundred others have been run over and killed. Drivers have reported seeing groups of the farm-reared animals standing, dazzled by headlights, in the middle of busy roads.

One of the farm's directors, Connie Anderson, blamed animal rights activists for invading the farm in the early hours of Sunday. He declined to explain why it took the farm so long to raise the public alarm.

"These people are animal liberation terrorists and had no thought for the mink or for the damage that will be done to other wildlife in the area," Anderson said.

Agricultural authorities warned that the surviving minks could decimate local populations of salmon, rabbits and fowl.

Animal rights activists in Ireland have denied responsibility � but are praising whoever did it.

"We have nothing to do with it. However, I commend whoever risked their freedom to do this as these animals have a horrendous life," said Bernie Wright, spokeswoman for Ireland's Alliance for Animal Rights.

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Carter remains in Ohio hospital for observation (AP)

CLEVELAND � Former President Jimmy Carter remained in an Ohio hospital Wednesday after doctors recommended additional observation following an overnight stay for an upset stomach.

"Carter is feeling normal this morning," Christina Karas, spokeswoman at MetroHealth Medical Center said Wednesday.

"His doctors at MetroHealth Medical Center recommended additional observation during the day. He looks forward to resuming his schedule as soon as possible."

Carter's publisher canceled scheduled book signing events in Washington on Wednesday, including one at the Smithsonian Institution, to promote his book "White House Diary."

Kathy Daneman, publicity manager at publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux, said no decision had been made about an event planned at a Columbia, S.C., bookstore Thursday.

Book signings in a Cleveland suburb and Durham, N.C., were canceled Tuesday when the 85-year-old Carter fell ill on a flight to Cleveland.

Carter's grandson, Georgia state Sen. Jason Carter, said Tuesday his grandfather was doing fine.

"He's definitely resting comfortably and expected to continue his book tour this week," Jason Carter said. "I haven't talked to him, but nobody in the family is concerned."

On Tuesday, Karas said Carter was fully alert and participating in all decision-making related to his care, and that the decision to admit him overnight was purely precautionary.

Carter was a passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Cleveland when he became ill. After the plane landed, he was taken off by rescue crews, said Jackie Mayo, a spokeswoman at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

He was wheeled into an emergency room at MetroHealth on a stretcher and later was up and walking around, said Mary Atkins, who had taken her daughter to the hospital for medical treatment and saw Carter from a nearby room.

"He walked by the room and he was saying he was ready to go," she said. "They had Secret Service everywhere."

President Barack Obama called Carter from Air Force One as he traveled from New Mexico to Wisconsin, White House spokesman Bill Burton said. Carter was feeling great, Burton said.

About 500 people had waited in line Tuesday afternoon at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in suburban Lyndhurst, where Carter was scheduled to sign copies of his book. The event was later canceled, as was a Tuesday night appearance at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham, N.C.

"It's crazy for an 85-year-old guy to fly ... just to sign some books," Regulator Bookshop co-owner John Valentine said. "He's a brave guy. His health is most important."

In the book, Carter said he pursued an overly aggressive agenda as president that may have confused voters and alienated lawmakers. But he said the tipping points that cost him the 1980 election were the Iran hostage crisis and the Democratic primary challenge by U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Carter, a former peanut farmer elected to the White House in 1976, has spent his recent years pursuing peace and human rights, efforts that won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

He is the author of more than 20 books, including the 2006 "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid," about his experiences in the Middle East, and the 2005 "Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis."

___

Associated Press Writers Thomas J. Sheeran in Cleveland; Matt Leingang, Jeannie Nuss and JoAnne Viviano in Columbus, Ohio; and Greg Bluestein in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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EU takes legal action against France over Gypsies (AP)

BRUSSELS � The European Union decided Wednesday to launch legal action against France over its expulsions of Gypsies, or Roma, to poorer EU nations.

The EU decision was only a partial one, however, and gives France more time to defend its expulsions of more than 1,000 illegal Roma immigrants and its demolition of hundreds of Roma camps in recent weeks.

The European Commission, after meeting Wednesday to discuss whether the expulsions are legal, decided that France has not adhered to an EU directive allowing EU citizens free movement across the 27-nation bloc, according to a statement. The commission is sending France a formal notification saying it should apply the directive, a step that could eventually lead to a court case against France.

The commission stopped short of saying that France was discriminating against a specific ethnic group. France has come under wide criticism for the expulsions, from the EU as well as the United Nations and the Vatican.

The commission decided to "send a formal notification letter with a number of detailed questions ... with a view to make sure there is legal certainty" about what France is doing, Commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde said.

Some 10 million to 12 million Roma live in Europe according to EU estimates, and they face wide discrimination in housing, jobs and education across the continent. As EU citizens, they have a right to travel to France, but must get papers to work or live there in the long term.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has defended the expulsions, saying they are part of an overall crackdown on illegal immigrants and crime. The government also says most of the Roma are leaving voluntarily, with a small stipend from France. Most are being sent to Romania.

Critics say France is unfairly targeting an ethnic minority and lumping together entire communities instead of handling the expulsions on a case-by-case basis.

As many as 15,000 Roma live in France, according to the advocacy group Romeurope. French authorities have no official estimate.

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Tropical depression soaks Cuba, heads for Florida (AP)

HAVANA � Downpours from a tropical depression soaked eastern Cuba on Wednesday, washing out some roads but sparing the crumbling buildings of the capital as the system pushed north toward Florida.

The depression had sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph) and was expected to strengthen, possibly reaching tropical storm force before reaching southeastern Florida by evening, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

By Wednesday morning, the storm's center was about 230 miles (375 kilometers) south-southwest of Miami and it was moving north-northeast at 9 mph (15 kph).

Cuba's chief meteorologist, Jose Rubiera, said the storm rolled across a swath of the west-central island overnight and its center had moved north of the island by dawn. Bands behind its core were continuing to bring heavy rains, however.

Rubiera said wind associated with the storm was not a threat, but that provinces from Matanzas east all the way to Guantanamo would continue to face downpours throughout the day.

"The important factor remains the rain," Rubiera said.

State-controlled television showed images of rain flooding roads and highways, especially around the eastern city of Santiago, but there were no reports of damage. Far to the west in Havana, it wasn't even raining and there was no flooding.

Communist Cuba has a well-trained civil defense force praised for its fast response to natural disasters, one that often uses mandatory evacuations to move people to safety in many parts of the island. Authorities often order thousands of evacuations ahead of even moderate storms � but there were no such orders reported for the depression.

The depression was also felt Tuesday south of Cuba in the Cayman Islands, where meteorologists said more than four inches (10 centimeters) of rain fell in just 12 hours, causing flooding. Public schools closed and government workers from low-lying areas were allowed to leave early.

Chief Grand Cayman Meteorologist John Tibbetts said 5- to 7-foot (1.5- to 2-meter) waves were forecast through Wednesday night and warned boaters to remain ashore.

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Associated Press Writer Tammie Chisholm in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, contributed to this report.

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Experts: Terror threat against Europe still active (AP)

LONDON � European security officials say a terror plot to wage a Mumbai-style shooting spree in Britain, France and Germany is still a threat and authorities are monitoring sites in Pakistan where the threat originated.

Intelligence agents intercepted the threat two weeks ago, prompting American forces to increase drone missile strikes against al-Qaida targets in Pakistan.

A British government official said the plot was considered to be in its embryonic stage, and that terror threat levels had not been raised in the U.K.

European officials have warned of an increased possibility in low-budget attacks that require relatively little planning � unlike the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001.

Officials gave no other details of the plot, but said the group talked of shooting sprees starting first in Britain, and then in France and Germany.

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Experts: Terror threat against Europe still active (AP)

LONDON � European security officials say a terror plot to wage a Mumbai-style shooting spree in Britain, France and Germany is still a threat and authorities are monitoring sites in Pakistan where the threat originated.

Intelligence agents intercepted the threat two weeks ago, prompting American forces to increase drone missile strikes against al-Qaida targets in Pakistan.

A British government official said the plot was considered to be in its embryonic stage, and that terror threat levels had not been raised in the U.K.

European officials have warned of an increased possibility in low-budget attacks that require relatively little planning � unlike the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001.

Officials gave no other details of the plot, but said the group talked of shooting sprees starting first in Britain, and then in France and Germany.

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EU proposes tougher budget rules (AP)

BRUSSELS � The European Commission proposed new penalties for countries that spend themselves into debt in hopes of preventing another crisis like the one that pushed Greece ot the edge of bankruptcy and shook confidence in the euro.

A key proposal Wednesday would be to force countries to set aside 0.2 percent of their gross domestic product if they run up too much debt.

That may not sound like much but could run into billions depending on the size of the country.

The set-aside would be put into a noninterest-bearing account and converted into a fine if the country does not comply with EU recommendations to bring debt down toward the official limit of 60 percent of GDP or the annual budget deficit down to the 3 percent threshold.

The new proposals come after a debt crisis that showed an older set of rules aimed at supporting Europe's monetary union lacked teeth.

EU member governments never gathered the will to fine other eurozone members when they ran budget deficits that broke the limits.

The old rules' inability to keep governments from overspending was underlined when it took a last-minute bailout from the other eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund to keep Greece from defaulting on its government debt in May.

Greece's annual borrowing in 2009 was more than four times the 3 percent limit, while its overall debt burden was around double what the rules prescribed.

Though recession and the global banking and financial crisis clearly had an impact, much of the country's problems lay in years of lax budgetary controls beforehand.

This time, the Commission is proposing that it will be the one to pass judgement on whether a country is punished. Member countries would then have to vote to prevent the sanction, as opposed to the previous Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) when they were judge and jury.

"For member states of the euro area, changes will give teeth to enforcement mechanism and limit discretion in the application of sanctions," the Commission said. "In other words the SGP will become more 'rules based' and sanctions will be the normal consequence to expect for countries in breach of their commitments."

The Commission said the package it is presenting contains "the most comprehensive reinforcement of economic governance in the EU and the euro area since the launch of the economic and monetary union" in 1999.

The Commission said its proposals are compatible with the existing Treaty of Lisbon and would therefore not require a new treaty. However, the proposals are not yet law and have to be passed by the European Parliament and national governments.

Germany and the Netherlands appear to favor tough new rules, but a number of countries, including France, have voiced unease at the prospect of handing over greater fiscal powers to the Commission.

France's Finance Minister Christine Lagarde reiterated her view Wednesday that national governments, and not unelected bureaucrats, should have the overriding say in any decisions over fines and sanctions.

She told a press briefing in Paris that the French position was "very clear: in favor of strengthening the stability and growth pact, but not at the price of removing all political input...France considers that politicians must have a say."

Finance ministers of the 16 countries that use the euro meet Thursday, followed later in the day and on Friday by the wider 27-nation EU.

Analysts doubt that the Commission's proposals will get universal support and given the likely opposition from France and others, a watered-down new rulebook will eventually be agreed.

"France isn't on board with this, while those running bigger debts or deficits � no names required � are shuffling about in the corner hoping not to get asked any awkward questions," said David Lea, western Europe analyst at international business risk consultancy Control Risks.

"I think we might have a case of Death by Member State here, as the proposals are amended into blandness," said Lea.

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Tropical depression heads to Fla. after Cuba hit (AP)

HAVANA � A tropical depression that quickly developed in the Caribbean headed over Cuba early Wednesday threatening to strengthen into a tropical storm as it headed toward southeastern Florida.

Cuba expected heavy rains and high winds overnight.

By Wednesday morning, the storm's center was about 230 miles (375 kilometers) south-southwest of Miami and moving north-northeast at 9 mph (15 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Maximum sustained winds were 35 mph (55 kph), but the depression was forecast to strengthen some and become a tropical storm. It was expected to be near or over southeastern Florida by Wednesday evening.

Cuba's chief meteorologist, Jose Rubiera, said the weather system was large but disorganized and weak. He said the heaviest rains were expected to hit east of the storm's center in an area from Matanzas province to Las Tunas in the eastern part of the island.

Rubiera said the storm was already dumping rain on the island's southern coast Tuesday night, and predicted the rainfall would cause more problems in some mountainous regions and low-lying areas than the winds associated with the storm.

"Don't be afraid," he said during the evening newscast on state television, pointing to a model showing dark moisture associated with the storm moving over the heart of the island. "This means little in practical life."

He went on to forecast that top wind speeds would rise to no more than 50 mph (80 kph). "Those winds will not cause any damage, except possibly to sensitive crops or weak structures," he said.

An official bulletin issued by the communist government warned citizens in areas facing heavy rains to be especially vigilant, keeping a close eye on the storm's trajectory.

Cuba has a well-trained civil defense force noted for its fast response to natural disasters. The country often orders large-scale evacuations ahead of even moderate storms. But no such evacuations were immediately announced, and state media had no word on the activation of emergency plans.

While the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually active, the depression that formed Tuesday is the first to directly threaten Cuba. The island was devastated by three hurricanes in 2008, but was entirely spared last year.

Serious damage from a hurricane this year could be a major blow to the cash-strapped government as it attempts to right its weak economy. This month, Cuba's communist leaders announced that a half-million state employees would be laid off and reforms implemented to allow more private enterprise.

A tropical storm warning was in effect from Matanzas province eastward to Ciego de Avila in Cuba, as well as the northwestern and central Bahamas and in Florida from Sebastian Inlet to the Keys.

The depression's effects were felt Tuesday south of Cuba in the Cayman Islands, where meteorologists said more than four inches (10 centimeters) of rain fell in just 12 hours, causing flooding. Public schools closed at midday Tuesday, and government workers who live in low-lying areas were allowed to leave early.

Chief Grand Cayman Meteorologist John Tibbetts said 5- to 7-foot (1.5- to 2-meter) waves were forecast through Wednesday night and warned boaters to remain ashore.

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Associated Press Writer Tammie Chisholm in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, contributed to this report.

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Terrorist plot uncovered in Europe (AP)

LONDON � Intelligence officials have intercepted a credible terror plot against Britain and France, raising security fears at the Eiffel Tower on Tuesday, but failing to raise the overall threat level in either country.

The Eiffel Tower was briefly evacuated Tuesday evening after officials received a bomb threat called in from a telephone booth. It was the second such alert at the monument in two weeks.

The warning came as French officials were put on alert for possible terror attacks. British officials, too, have been aware of a possible attack but the terror threat warning has not changed from "severe."

"There have been a succession of terror operations we've been dealing with over recent weeks but one to two that have preoccupied us," said one British government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work. "Still, it hasn't been to the degree that we have raised the threat level."

Another British official, who spoke on the same terms, would not confirm the plot was "al-Qaida inspired" but said there was an "Islamist connection" and that the plots were in an early stage. No other details were given.

Since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States nine years ago, the terror group has moved outside of Afghanistan and Pakistan to other countries such as Somalia and Yemen.

German officials denied Tuesday they had intercepted threats, saying there had been no change to their threat level.

In Washington, a Western counterterrorism official said some missile strikes in a recent surge of attacks by unmanned U.S. drones in Pakistan were aimed at disrupting suspected terrorist plots aimed at Europe.

It wasn't known whether the drone attacks were related specifically to the plot that European authorities said they had intercepted.

The counterterrorism official said the targeted strikes were aimed at al-Qaida and other militant groups arrayed in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghanistan border. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the terror plot remain sensitive.

The Obama administration has intensified the use of drone-fired missiles in Pakistan's border area but this month there have been at least 21 attacks, more than double the highest number fired in any other single month.

A suspected U.S. missile strike on Tuesday killed four militants in northwest Pakistan's South Waziristan region, just across the border from Afghanistan, intelligence officials said. There was no word on the identities of those killed in the attack.

The counterterrorism official, who is familiar with the drone strikes and the details of the Europe terror plots, said Tuesday that the missile strikes in Pakistan are "a product of precise intelligence and precise weapons. We've been hitting targets that pose a threat to our troops in Afghanistan and terrorists plotting attacks in South Asia and beyond."

In Paris, French police on Tuesday closed off the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower, France's most visited monument. Officers pulled red-and-white police tape across a bridge leading over the Seine River to the monument. Officers stood guard.

Bomb experts combed through the 324-meter (1,063-foot) tower and found nothing unusual, the Paris police headquarters said. Tourists were let back inside about two hours after the structure was emptied.

Jean Dupeu, a 74-year-old Paris retiree, had planned to go to dinner in the tower but found himself looking for another restaurant.

"It's surely a bad joke," he said of the threat, adding, "Now is not a good time."

National Police Chief Frederic Pechenard said last week that authorities suspect al-Qaida's North African branch of plotting a bomb attack on a crowded location in France. His warning came after al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, claimed responsibility for the Sept. 16 abduction of five French nationals and two Africans in northern Niger.

The French parliament voted this month to ban burqa-style Islamic veils in France, a subject that has prompted warnings by AQIM. Counterterrorism officials say that is just one of several factors contributing to the heightened threat.

At the Eiffel Tower, an anonymous caller called in a warning to firefighters, the Paris police headquarters said. The company that runs the monument asked police to evacuate it.

Police responded to a similar false alert at the tower on Sept. 14, also following a phone threat. On Monday, the bustling Saint Lazare train station in Paris was briefly evacuated and searched.

As soon as the latest bomb alert ended, huge lines of eager tourists immediately formed under the tower.

Mike Yore, 43, of Orlando, Florida, was among those waiting in line at the 121-year-old iron monument.

"There's no bomb that can blow this thing up," he said.

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Associated Press writers Elaine Ganley in Paris and Adam Goldman in Washington contributed to this report.

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