World News | Latest News: 09/30/10

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Dozens of NATO oil tankers attacked in Pakistan (AP)

SHIKARPUR, Pakistan ï¿½ Police say at least 27 tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan have been attacked in southern Pakistan.

The attack took place on the edge of Shikarpur town in Sindh province late Thursday, the same day Pakistan closed a major border crossing to protest a NATO incursion on its territory that killed three Pakistani soldiers.

No one is believed to have been killed or wounded in Thursday's attack.

Police official Mir Ahmed Chandio says the tankers were parked at a terminal when gunmen opened fire, forcing people to flee before setting the vehicles on fire. An Associated Press photographer at the scene said the trucks were still alight several hours after the attack.

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3 Japanese freed by China arrive back home (AP)

TOKYO ï¿½ The employer of three Japanese held by China for allegedly entering a restricted military zone says the men have arrived back in Japan.

Their release reflects easing tensions between the two Asian nations that flared over a territorial dispute. They landed in Tokyo on Friday afternoon.

But Tokyo is pressing for the release of a fourth citizen still in Chinese custody.

The men were detained outside a northern Chinese city on Sept. 21 following the collision between a Chinese fishing trawler and two Japanese patrol boats near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

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

TOKYO (AP) ï¿½ Three Japanese held by China for allegedly entering a restricted military zone were due to return home Friday as tensions over a territorial dispute eased. But Tokyo pressed for the release of a fourth citizen still in Chinese custody.

In recent weeks, following a collision between Japanese and Chinese boats near a string of islands claimed by both Asian giants, relations plunged to their lowest level in several years. In the wake of that spat, China imposed a de facto ban on Japan-bound exports of rare materials and suspended ministerial-level talks with Tokyo. Anti-Japanese protests laid bare decades-old anger in China toward Japanese wartime aggression as experts wondered how far the freeze would go.

But a thaw began earlier this week, and the three Japanese were freed Thursday after admitting to violating Chinese law. A fourth, identified as Sadamu Takahashi, remains under house arrest and was being investigated for illegally videotaping military targets, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the government would work to win Takahashi's release "as soon as possible."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku told reporters Friday that Tokyo still "had no facts" to explain why the four men were detained or why three were released, according to the Kyodo News agency. Reports said the three left Shanghai on Friday morning.

The four men, employees of Fujita Corp., a Tokyo-based construction and urban redevelopment company, were in China working to prepare a bid for a project to dispose of chemical weapons abandoned in China by the Japanese military at the end of World War II, Fujita said.

They were detained outside the northern city of Shijiazhuang on Sept. 21 following the Sept. 7 collision between a Chinese fishing trawler and two Japanese patrol boats near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Japan released the fishing boat captain over the weekend and said China needs to resolve the case of the four as the first step toward repairing ties. China's Foreign Ministry has denied any link between the detentions and the islands incident.

The latest confrontation sank relations to their lowest level since the 2001-2006 term of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose repeated visits to a war shrine in Japan enraged China and sparked a wave of violent anti-Japanese protests across the country.

The spat ï¿½ and China's unusually strong response ï¿½ also raised questions about cooperation between the Asian powers at international meetings. Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao essentially ignored each other at a recent gathering at the United Nations and have no plans to meet at a major Asia-Europe forum in Belgium early next week.

There are signs now, however, that China is apparently lifting a de facto ban on Japan-bound exports of rare earths, materials needed in advanced manufacturing, although shipments appeared to be still be largely blocked at Chinese ports amid increased inspections.

Experts said China's communist leaders did not wish to further stoke public anger that risks morphing into a genuine protest movement.

"China never really wanted to see it get out of hand. It doesn't like to see foreign policy go to the street," said David Zweig, director of the Center on China's Transnational Relations at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

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Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.

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Koreas meet to discuss family reunions (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea ï¿½ Red Cross officials from the two Koreas tried to narrow differences Friday on how to restart a stalled program to hold reunions for families separated by civil war 60 years ago, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.

The reunions, which have not been held in more than a year, could help restore calm between North and South Korea, which have been especially tense since the March sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. An international investigation blamed the attack on North Korea, but Pyongyang denied involvement.

North Korea in early September proposed a resumption in the reunions, but the two sides have not agreed on details of the venue as well as their scale, and two previous rounds of talks last month failed to resolve the dispute.

The difficulty of broadly reducing tensions between the sides was underscored Thursday when their first working-level military talks between in two years ended without progress, with the meeting stumbling over the issue of the warship sinking.

South Korea has proposed holding the family meetings in a reunion center at the North's scenic Diamond Mountain resort. The North also has suggested the resort, but the two sides have not agreed on an exact location within it.

"I will try to resolve the issue of a venue for reunions of separated families and discuss details on the schedule," Kim Eyi-do, the South Korean side's chief delegate, told reporters before crossing the border into the North Korean city of Kaesong where the talks were being held.

The dispute over the venue stems from South Korea's suspension of tourist trips there, which had provided the impoverished North with much-needed hard currency for a decade. Seoul took the action in 2008 when a South Korean tourist was fatally shot after allegedly entering a restricted military area next to the facility.

Pyongyang, which has repeatedly called for the tours to resume, appeared likely to take advantage of the reunions as leverage to reopen the tourist trips. South Korea has refused to restart them until its demands for a joint investigation into the shooting are carried out.

On Thursday, South Korea renewed its demand that North Korea immediately acknowledge and apologize for the ship sinking and punish those responsible, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry.

North Korea responded that it cannot accept the result of the international investigation and reiterated its long-standing demand that its own investigators be allowed to go to South Korea to examine the results, the ministry said.

The North also called on the South to rein in activists who spread anti-North Korean leaflets, the ministry said. The North warned that its artillery units were "getting fully ready to strike the spotted centers for scattering leaflets," North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency reported late Thursday.

The North regularly threatens military retaliation against the South, though the threat to fire artillery at the leaflet launch sites appeared to be a first. Seoul's Defense Ministry said it had no comment.

The talks came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il earlier this week promoted his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to four-star general and gave him key political posts, messaging the world that he is his chosen successor.

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

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Associated Press writer Sangwon Yoon in Seoul contributed to this report.

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Ecuador troops rescue president from rebel cops (AP)

QUITO, Ecuador ï¿½ Ecuadorean soldiers firing automatic weapons and concussion grenades rescued President Rafael Correa late Thursday from a hospital where he was trapped most of the day by police rebelling over a cut in benefits.

At least one security force member was wounded in the 35-minute operation, and the government said at least one person was killed and six injured in clashes earlier in the day outside the hospital between Correa's supporters and insurgent cops.

Correa, 47, told cheering supporters from the balcony of the Carondelet palace after being spirited away from the hospital at top speed in an SUV that the uprising was more than a simple police protest.

"There were lots of infiltrators, dressed as civilian and we know where they were from," he shouted. But he did not blame anyone specifically.

Correa was trapped in the hospital for more than 12 hours after being treated for a tear-gassing that nearly aphyxiated him during a confrontation with hundreds of angry police officers who also shoved him and pelted him with water.

Correa expressed thanks from the balcony to all his supporters who went to the hospital and "were ready to die to defend demoracy."

The violence began when hundreds of police angry over the new civil service law plunged this oil-exporting South American country into chaos, roughing up and tear-gassing Correa, shutting down airports and blocking highways in a nationwide strike.

At the hospital, Correa had vowed to leave either "as president or as a corpse." He also negotiated with some of the insurrectionists, but the outcome of those talks was unclear.

Hours before the rescue, the armed forces chief, Gen. Ernesto Gonzalez, declared the military's loyalty to Correa. He called for "a re-establishment of dialogue, which is the only way Ecuadoreans can resolve our differences."

But Gonzalez also called for the law that provoked the unrest to be "reviewed or not placed into effect so public servants, soldiers and police don't see their rights affected."

The law, which Congress approved on Wednesday, must be published before it takes effect and that has not happened.

After police took to the streets, the government declared a state of siege, putting the military in charge of public order, suspending civil liberties and allowing soldiers to carry out searches without a warrant.

Police took over barracks in Quito, Guayaquil and other cities. Some set up roadblocks of burning tires, cutting off highway access to the capital.

Schools shut down in Quito and many businesses closed early due to the absence of police protection that left citizens and businesses vulnerable.

Looting was reported in the capital ï¿½ where at least two banks were sacked ï¿½ and in the coastal city of Guayaquil. That city's main newspaper, El Universo, reported attacks on supermarkets and robberies due to the absence of police.

Peru and Colombia closed their countries' borders with Ecuador in solidarity with Correa. Along with the rest of the region's leaders and the United States, they expressed firm support for Correa. Bolivia's leftist president, Evo Morales, summoned South America's presidents to an emergency meeting set for Friday in Buenos Aires of the continent's fledgling UNASUR defense union.

This poor Andean nation of 14 million people had a history of political instability before Correa, cycling through eight presidents in a decade before the leftist U.S.-trained economist first won election in December 2006. Three of them were driven from office by street protests that plagued the country, which is a member of OPEC.

In April 2009, after voters approved a new constitution he championed, Correa became Ecuador's first president to win election without a runoff. That success has led him at times to act with overconfidence.

Confronting the protesters Thursday morning, Correa was agitated and unyielding.

"If you want to kill the president, here he is! Kill me!" he told them before limping away with the aid of a cane as an aide fitted a gas mask over his face. Correa's right knee, with which he has had recurring problems, was operated on last week.

Some 800 police officers in Quito joined the protest, which appeared to have arisen spontaneously. The number of participants outside the capital was unclear. Ecuador has 40,000 police officers.

Correa called the unrest "an attempted coup" spurred by his opponents in remarks to reporters at the police hospital, where he at one point was hooked to an intravenous drip. "They're practically holding the president captive," he said.

Correa's leftist ally, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, claimed earlier that the Ecuadorean leader was "in danger of being killed." Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said at one point that insurgents were trying to enter the hospital through the roof.

Chavez's claim was echoed by Cuba while the Organization of American States' secretary-general, Miguel Insulza, called the situation "a coup d'etat in the making."

The United States didn't go that far.

"We urge all Ecuadorians to come together and to work within the framework of Ecuador's democratic institutions to reach a rapid and peaceful restoration of order," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement.

The striking police were angered by a law passed by Congress on Wednesday that would end the practice of giving members of Ecuador's military and police medals and bonuses with each promotion. It would also extend from five to seven years the usual period required for a subsequent promotion.

"They are a bunch of ungrateful bandits," Correa said of the protesters after they set upon him.

He said the new law "is removing bonus payments and decorations from the entire public sector ... to prevent abuses of state money. We know the Ecuadorean people support us in all this."

The U.S. Embassy issued a message warning U.S. citizens "of a "nationwide strike by all levels of police, including military police." It warned them to "stay in their homes or current location, if safe."

The president's policy coordination minister, Doris Soliz, asked Ecuadoreans to be calm and support the government.

Air force troops shut down Quito's Mariscal Sucre airport as the protests began Thursday morning. Dozens of flights were canceled and it was unclear when international service would be restored to the Quito, Guayaquil and Manta airports.

The head of Ecuador's civil aviation authority, Fernando Guerrero, said in a statement that international operations were suspended at the latter two airports "due to the lack of immigration and counternarcotics personnel."

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Associated Press photographer Dolores Ochoa in Quito and AP writers Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Luis Alonso Lugo in Washington, Frank Bajak in Bogota, Colombia, Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas, Venezuela, and Carla Salazar in Lima, Peru, contributed to this report.

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Pakistan cuts NATO supply line after border firing (AP)

ISLAMABAD ï¿½ Pakistan closed the Khyber Pass supply route for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan after a coalition helicopter attack mistakenly killed three Pakistani soldiers at a border post Thursday, raising tensions in a vital relationship for both Islamabad and Washington.

NATO said its helicopters entered Pakistani airspace and hit a target only after receiving ground fire. The alliance expressed condolences to the families of the soldiers and said both nations would investigate the incident.

A lengthy ban on supply trucks would place intense strain on the U.S.-Pakistani relationship and hurt the Afghan war effort. But that was seen as unlikely, as neither Islamabad nor Washington can afford a meltdown in ties at a crucial time in the 9-year-old war.

Briefly closing the route would serve a different purpose ï¿½ a timely reminder by Pakistan of the leverage it has over the United States in Afghanistan just as the American-led coalition there is under growing public and political pressure to show success.

The blockade left 150 trucks lined up along the fabled Khyber Pass carrying fuel, military vehicles, spare parts, clothing and other non-lethal supplies for foreign troops. Pakistan's other main route into landlocked Afghanistan, in Chaman in the southeast, stayed open.

While NATO and the United States have alternative supply routes into Afghanistan, the Pakistani ones are the cheapest and most convenient. Some 80 percent of the coalition's non-lethal supplies are transported over Pakistani soil after being unloaded at docks in Karachi, a port city in the south.

It was the third time in less than a week that NATO choppers in pursuit of militants behind attacks on coalition bases have crossed over the Pakistani border and fired on targets. Pakistani officials had warned after the earlier strikes that they would stop allowing NATO convoys if it happened again.

The NATO attacks follow a recent surge in missile strikes by CIA drones at Taliban and al-Qaida militants taking shelter in Pakistan out of reach of U.S. ground forces.

While the Pakistani leadership has quietly accepted drone strikes over the last three years and even provides intelligence for some of them, closing the border crossing was a clear signal it will not compromise on allowing foreign troops or manned aircraft inside its territory.

"We will have to see whether we are allies or enemies," Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said of the border incident, without mentioning the decision to close the border.

The move shows Pakistan's deep sensitivities over foreign forces on its doorstep. While nominally allied with Americans against the shared threat of Islamist militants, polls show many Pakistanis regard the United States as an enemy. Conspiracy theories abound of U.S. troops wanting to invade Pakistan and seize its nuclear weapons.

The spike in drone attacks this month ï¿½ and the NATO's apparent increased willingness to attack targets on the border or just inside Pakistan ï¿½ could be a sign that the coalition wants to try to expand its reach inside this country. Militants behind attacks in Afghanistan have enjoyed relative safe haven in Pakistan.

Thursday's strike took place soon after dawn on the border between Pakistan's Upper Kurram province and Afghanistan's Paktia province.

NATO said its helicopters crossed into Pakistan in pursuit of a target after being fired upon.

The Pakistani army said two approaching NATO helicopters fired on a post 200 meters (656 feet) inside the border. Its border force returned fire with rifles. Then the choppers rocketed the position, killing three officers and wounding three others, the army said.

Several hours later, Pakistani officials reported another rocket strike by NATO helicopters about nine miles (15 kilometers) from the first one, causing no damage or injuries. The army statement did not refer to that incident.

Pentagon officials said they were trying to clarify exactly what happened and were talking to the Pakistani government. The U.S. Defense Department said it was too soon to know what impact the border crossing closure would have.

"We expect this matter to be resolved through continued dialogue," spokesman Marine Corps Col. Dave Lapan said.

The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is poorly defined and the terrain is rough. In 2008, 11 Pakistan border troops were killed when a U.S. plane mistakenly bombed them. That same year, U.S. helicopters and Pakistani ground troops briefly traded fire, causing tensions to spike for several days.

Frontier troops wear uniforms that resemble the traditional Pakistani dress of a long shirt and baggy trousers, which could make it hard to distinguish them from ordinary citizens or insurgents.

NATO said the closing of the Torkham border crossing, the busiest entryway for NATO and U.S. goods into Afghanistan, had not strained the coalition's supply operation.

Both the Khyber Pass and Chaman routes have occasionally closed for several days in recent years after major militant attacks on the road or disagreements between truckers and authorities. Pakistani security forces protect the convoys.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told visiting CIA director Leon Panetta that Pakistan was "profoundly concerned" about the helicopter incursions and the increased drone strikes. "Pakistan being a front-line ally in the war against terror expects its partners to respect its territorial sovereignty," he said, according to a statement from his office.

Moeed Yusuf, from the United States Institute of Peace, a Washington-based think tank, said Pakistan's reaction indicated it felt that the coalition in Afghanistan was trying out a more aggressive strategy on the border and had not informed Islamabad.

He thought a major rift in ties between Islamabad and Washington was unlikely because they need each other too much.

The United States has few options but to rely on Pakistan's help in Afghanistan and in the fight against al-Qaida, while Islamabad cannot survive without foreign assistance. It too does not want to see Afghanistan descend into chaos, destabilizing Pakistan.

"If relations erupt right now, both Pakistan and the United States lose out on what they have been trying to achieve," Yusuf said. "Their relationship is too important to allow it to be derailed by border issues."

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Riechmann reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Matiullah Achakzai in Chaman, Hussein Afzal in Parachinar and Pauline Jelinek in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

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Death toll in southern Mexico mudslides up to 32 (AP)

OAXACA, Mexico ï¿½ A rain-soaked hillside crumbled and crushed an elderly couple in their home Thursday, and rescuers found more bodies buried by earlier landslides, raising the death toll from a series of slides in southern Mexico to at least 32.

In the worst disaster, a mudslide surged into a community in Chiapas state Wednesday, killing 16 people and injuring 13, while another avalanche claimed three lives in the nearby town of Angel Albino Corzo, federal officials said.

Heavy rains have beleaguered much of Mexico's south for weeks.

Another landslide Thursday morning in the town of Villa Hidalgo Yalalag in Oaxaca state buried an 80-year-old man and his 68-year-old wife, said Mayor Onesimo Cuevas.

He said relatives and neighbors recovered the bodies themselves after the slide, which came when a rain-drenched hillside collapsed on their home.

The couple's death came two days after a huge mudslide roared down a hill another Oaxaca town, touching off a scare that hundreds of people might have been lost. Officials later lowered the likely death toll to 11 in Santa Maria de Tlahuitoltepec.

Searchers have recovered the bodies of four family members: The pregnant wife of the chief health official, their two teenage daughters and their 5-year-old son, Oaxaca state police said in a statement Thursday.

The statement said a the body of a 39-year-old man was also pulled from the rubble early Thursday, but it was unclear if he was the health official.

The death toll from the four landslides stood at 32.

The area was battered by the remnants of a hurricane one week and a tropical storm the next.

The U.S. government offered to pay for a team of Mexican rescuers to travel to the site.

Oaxaca state's Civil Protection operations coordinator, Luis Marin, said the state had seen three days straight of intense rain. The state government warned residents south of the city of Oaxaca of flooding from overflowing rivers and opened shelters in other parts of the state.

Santa Maria de Tlahuitoltepec, which had 9,000 residents in 2005 according to Mexican census data, is a community high in the Sierra Norte mountains known for maintaining its indigenous culture, especially its music. Residents speak the native language, Mixe, and its youth orchestra plays throughout Mexico.

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Associated Press writer Manuel de la Cruz in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS that two teenage girls were daughters of town health official rather than sisters.)

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Protesting police throw Ecuador into chaos (AP)

QUITO, Ecuador ï¿½ Hundreds of police angry over a law that would cut their benefits plunged this small South American nation into chaos Thursday, roughing up and tear-gassing the president, shutting down airports and blocking highways in a nationwide strike.

At least one person was killed and six injured in clashes between police and supporters of President Rafael Correa outside a police hospital where the leader was being treated, the security minister said.

Incensed officers shoved Correa around earlier in the day, pelted him with water and doused him in tear gas when he tried to speak to rebellious officers. The 47-year-old leader was taken to the hospital after being nearly asphyxiated by the gas.

Hours after Correa was roughed up, and surrounded by dozens of insurgent cops outside the hospital, the president declared himself "practically captive."

He said he was negotiating with the police insurgents, but he vowed to leave either "as president or as a corpse."

The government declared a state of siege, putting the military in charge of public order, suspending civil liberties and allowing soldiers to carry out searches without a warrant.

The defiant police took over police barracks in Quito, Guayaquil and other cities. Some set up roadblocks of burning tires, cutting off highway access to the capital.

Schools shut down in Quito and many businesses closed early due to the absence of police protection that left citizens and businesses vulnerable.

Hundreds of Correa supporters gathered outside the National Assembly, which was seized by striking police.

The armed forces commander, Gen. Ernesto Gonzalez, declared the military's loyalty to Correa at a news conference. He called for "a re-establishment of dialogue, which is the only way Ecuadoreans can resolve our differences."

But he also called for the law that provoked the unrest to be "reviewed or not placed into effect so public servants, soldiers and police don't see their rights affected."

The law, which Congress approved on Wednesday, must be published before it takes effect and that has not happened.

Peru and Colombia closed their countries' borders with Ecuador in solidarity with Correa. Along with the rest of the region's leaders and the United States, they expressed firm support for Correa. Bolivia's leftist president, Evo Morales, summoned South America's presidents to an emergency meeting Thursday night in Buenos Aires of the continent's fledgling UNASUR defense union.

This poor Andean nation of 14 million had a history of political instability before Correa, cycling through eight presidents in a decade before the leftist U.S.-trained economist first won election in December 2006. Three of them were driven from office by street protests.

Confronting the protesters Thursday morning, Correa was agitated and unyielding.

Some 800 police officers in Quito joined the protest, which appeared to have arisen spontaneously. The number of participants outside the capital was unclear. Ecuador has 40,000 police officers.

The insurgent police surrounding the hospital fought with Correa supporters, and Miguel Carvajal, the security minister, told reporters that one person was killed and six injured. He provided no details.

Correa later told state TV from the hospital that "I'm leaving here as president or as a corpse, but I'm not losing my dignity."

"They are trying to oust President Correa," Chavez said via Twitter.That claim was echoed by Cuba while the Organization of American States' secretary-general, Miguel Insulza, called the situation "a coup d'etat in the making."

The United States didn't go that far.

Ecuador's ambassador to the OAS, Maria Isabel Salvador, alleged involvement by "opposition politicians with military backgrounds and police ties." She did not name names.

Correa's main political opponent, Mayor Jaime Nebot of Guayaquil, called a news conference to denounce the revolt. "No problem should be resolved with violence and disrespect for the constitution and the law," he said.

"They are a bunch of ungrateful bandits," Correa said of the protesters after they set upon him.

He said the new law "is removing bonus payments and decorations from the entire public sector ... to prevent abuses of state money. We know the Ecuadorean people support us in all this."

The president's policy coordination minister, Doris Soliz, asked Ecuadoreans to be calm and support the government.

"This is an act of indiscipline that is going to be controlled. It is being controlled," she said.

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NC Patrol: 4 people killed in wreck on wet road (AP)

RALEIGH, N.C. ï¿½ Four people, including two children, were killed Thursday when the sport utility vehicle they were traveling in skidded off a rain-slicked highway and tumbled into a ditch filled with water, troopers said.

State Highway Patrol Trooper Gary Edwards said troopers initially reported five people were killed because two children, 3-year-old twins, did not have a pulse when emergency workers arrived on scene.

However, rescuers were able to revive them and they were taken to a hospital alive. One of the twins later died, a news release from the patrol said.

Edwards said the family of five from Atlanta was traveling westbound on U.S. 64 east of Creswell around 12:20 p.m. when their Jeep Cherokee hit a patch of standing water, hydroplaned and skidded off the highway into the ditch.

Creswell is approximately 145 miles east of Raleigh.

The four killed were identified as the driver, Daniel Alvarez, 25; his wife, Natalie Owens, 26; Zacharia Alvarez, 3; and Ariela Alvarez, 1. Zacharia's twin, Ezekiel, was taken to a hospital in Greenville, N.C.

The worst of the rain fell in North Carolina, where Jacksonville picked up 12 inches ï¿½ nearly a quarter of its typical annual rainfall ï¿½ in the six hours between 3:30 and 9:30 a.m.

The rain was part of a system moving ahead of the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole, which dissipated over the Straits of Florida on Wednesday. Much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast were starting to move into a drought after the dry summer, and the fall storm provided several inches of much-needed rain.

In Walpole, N.H., Erin Bickford said the deluge was a welcome sight for her eight acres of vegetables. She said she hoped the moisture also would recharge wells that went dry in the town.

"We had almost no rain at all. Often, we could see it raining across the river, but it didn't come here. It was just dust. Even if it did rain, it would be a tiny bit, maybe half an inch," she said.

Crews throughout the northeast worked to pull fallen leaves from storm drains. Schools in North Carolina were closed and some farther north planned to cancel classes Friday so students wouldn't have to travel on flooded roads.

Josh Barnello, 12, took advantage of his day off to take a look at a pond that overflowed its banks in Carolina Beach.

"Someone was paddling a canoe down the street earlier," said Barnello, a budding meteorologist who used a wind speed gauge he got for Christmas to record gusts of 53 mph near his house.

Forecasters expected those heavy winds to spread up the coast, possibly toppling trees and power lines made unstable by the saturated ground.

The winds also were churning up big waves that were eating away at a "living shoreline" of rocks, sand and grasses built this year on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, said Bob Gilbert from his waterfront home in Churchton, about 10 miles south of Annapolis.

"There's not a boat in sight," Gilbert said. "The waves are really choppy and nasty-looking."

The rain caused several other wrecks Thursday, including a crash between two transit buses in Maryland that left 26 people hurt.

Standing waters and fallen limbs on tracks slowed several Amtrak trains, while some Northeast airports reported flight delays of up to three hours.

Wilmington, N.C., got a brief break from the rain Thursday morning, but the downpours quickly moved back in. Back-to-back storms have dropped a third of the rain the city usually gets all year in just five days. The 21 inches collected since Sunday was the highest five-day total in nearly 140 years of records, topping Hurricane Floyd's mark of 19 inches set in 1999, the National Weather Service said.

Sheila Mezroud said sandbags kept floodwaters out of her Carolina Beach home for only a short time. "I have to walk through an inch of water to get from the living room to the bathroom," she said.

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Foreman reported from Raleigh. Associated Press writers Sandy Kozel in Washington; Jim Fitzgerald, Deepti Hajela and Frank Eltman in New York; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C.; Ben Nuckols in Baltimore; and Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.

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Argentina gives asylum to alleged Chilean assassin (AP)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina ï¿½ Argentina granted asylum Thursday to a former leftist guerrilla charged in his native Chile with assassinating a senator and kidnapping a businessman, a decision sure to sour relations between the neighboring countries.

Chile's government had been urging Argentina to extradite Galvarino Apablaza Guerra to face trial for the murder of right-wing Sen. Jaime Guzman and the kidnapping of businessman Christian Edwards del Rio.

But an official in the Argentine interior ministry said Apablaza was granted political asylum.

"The decision has to be communicated first to his lawyer and the judge, but unofficially the asylum was granted," the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information about the case.

Argentina's Supreme Court had approved a Chilean request for Apablaza's extradition. And Chilean President Sebastian Pinera had urged his Argentine counterpart, Cristina Fernandez, to follow through on the extradition.

"I think a person who has committed such a grave crime, that cost the life of a senator, and that was committed in Chile, should be tried in Chilean courts," Pinera said.

But Fernandez rebuffed the pressure and said the last word would go to Argentina's national refugee commission, which is part of the interior ministry and includes a member of the United Nations refugee commission on its board.

Argentina's human rights groups also lobbied against the extradition because Apablaza would be tried under Chile's dictatorship-era anti-terrorism law, which allows for secret witnesses, pretrial detention, military courts and other legal mechanisms they said would violate his rights to a fair trial.

The anti-terrorism law is controversial even within Chile, where Mapuche Indians accused of attacking buses and torching farms are on an extended hunger strike demanding to be tried in civilian courts under less draconian conditions.

But some Chileans accused Argentina of tarnishing its human rights legacy by defending a man accused of assassinating a sitting senator during a democratic government. Both crimes occurred in 1991, after the end of the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Apablaza, who requested asylum in 2004, was an ideological leader of a branch of Chile's Communist Party that took up arms against Pinochet. After democracy returned to Chile, Apablaza's faction refused to put down its weapons.

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Associated Press Writer Debora Rey contributed to this story.

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Calif. governor's race upended by immigrant maid (AP)

SANTA MONICA, Calif. ï¿½ Meg Whitman's campaign for governor was thrown into turmoil Thursday as the Republican sought to fend off new evidence that she knowingly had an illegal immigrant housekeeper on her payroll for nearly a decade.

Whitman denounced the allegations as a "baseless smear attack" by Democratic challenger Jerry Brown in what has become a dead-heat race five weeks before the election.

The central issue is whether Whitman knew about a letter that the Social Security Administration sent her in 2003 that raised discrepancies about the housekeeper's documents ï¿½ a possible tip-off that she could be illegal.

The letter is the foundation for claims by former maid Nicky Diaz Santillan that Whitman and her husband knew for years she was in the U.S. illegally, but kept her on the job regardless.

For two days, Whitman forcefully denied receiving any such letter and said she fired the $23-an-hour housekeeper last year immediately after learning she was illegal. But Whitman's husband changed course Thursday after a letter surfaced with what appeared to be his handwriting, forcing him to say he may have been aware of the correspondence back in 2003.

The husband's shift only served to intensify the uproar in a contest that until now been focused on serious issues such as job creation, government spending and education in a state with a $19 billion deficit and 12.4 percent unemployment.

Now, the focus is on whether the billionaire GOP nominee for governor will take a polygraph test to respond to allegations brought by a celebrity-seeking attorney and her mysterious housekeeper client.

Revelations about the illegal housekeeper have also thrown Whitman's carefully managed campaign completely off track and opened the door for Democrats to accuse her of hypocrisy.

The former eBay chief executive has called for tougher sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers, and the fact that she employed an illegal immigrant maid from Mexico for nine years could undermine her credibility. She has also spent millions courting Latino voters, who could play a key role in determining the outcome of the race.

The housekeeper and lawyer Gloria Allred later produced a copy of the letter Thursday that they say shows Whitman's husband, Dr. Griffith Harsh III, partially filled it out and told the housekeeper to "check on this."

Allred said the housekeeper recognized the writing as belonging to Whitman's husband, and a handwriting specialist may be brought in to analyze her husband's penmanship. She claims it could prove that Whitman and her husband knew years earlier that Diaz Santillan might be illegal while working at their Silicon Valley mansion.

In a statement released by the campaign, Harsh said he did not recall receiving the letter, although it's possible he scratched out a note asking Diaz Santillan to follow up. He noted, however, that the letter does not say Diaz Santillan is illegal, it merely asks for more information.

"The essential fact remains the same, neither Meg nor I believed there was a problem with Nicky's legal status," the husband said. "The facts of this matter are very clear: Ms. Diaz broke the law and lied to us and to the employment agency."

Campaign adviser Rob Stutzman said "it's reasonable" the letter could be authentic, but added the campaign has questions about its whereabouts for seven years and if it is legitimate. At one point Thursday, the campaign said that Diaz Santillan may have intercepted the letter since she was in charge of the mail at the house.

The story has consumed two full days of news cycles just as Whitman and Brown are preparing for a Saturday Spanish-language debate that will include questions of importance to the Hispanic community.

One of the state's largest public employee unions immediately released a Spanish-language attack ad accusing Whitman of a double standard on illegal immigration.

Whitman, who has revealed few details about her personal life since announcing her first run for office last year, was forced to spend 45 minutes answering questions from reporters about what she knew and when she knew it, her husband standing awkwardly by throughout.

"You know, I've only been in politics for two years. I'm just getting used to the smear politics, I'm just getting used to the politics of personal destruction," she told dozens of reporters hastily gathered at a hotel in Santa Monica.

Whitman has spent a record $119 million of her own money on the race, and her campaign has been marked by its uncanny ability to stay on message. That marks a notable contrast with Brown, the state's attorney general and a former governor known for talking off-the-cuff, sometimes too much.

The timing of the allegations so close to the Spanish-speaking debate, the lack of extensive documentation, and Allred's Democratic ties left her open to questions about motive. Allred once gave money to Brown, and she was a Hillary Rodham Clinton delegate at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

Allred, who is well-known for orchestrating media stunts, has not permitted Diaz Santillan to answer a single question from reporters over two days of news conferences. The former housekeeper read a brief, prepared statement Wednesday that alleged brusque treatment during her nine-year tenure. Whitman said it was "not the Nicky I know."

Allred said Thursday she is not providing any financial support to her client and added her involvement with Diaz Santillan started "within the last week."

Two days after she made the allegations that reordered the race for governor, Diaz Santillan remains a mystery. Virtually nothing is known about her activities or whereabouts from the time Whitman fired her in June 2009 until she appeared Wednesday with Allred at her Los Angeles law office.

In her 2000 employment application, Diaz Santillan revealed she went to high school and college in Mexico City and says she would like to go back to school to take computer administration. The mother of three said she has 11 brothers and sisters, eight of them living in the San Francisco Bay area. Whitman's campaign says Diaz Santillan used her sister's documents in her fraudulent application.

Whitman was repeatedly asked why she didn't just own up to this huge political liability earlier to avoid a late election-cycle surprise such as this, particularly since she has repeatedly stressed the need to hold employers accountable for hiring illegal workers.

She said she didn't want to subject Diaz Santillan to the scrutiny ï¿½ and left unsaid, deportation ï¿½ that could have resulted from her reporting it. Whitman also noted that in California, employers bear no responsibility to report illegal worker, only to not knowingly hire and employ them.

"Because Nicky had worked for us for 10 years, I was very fond of Nicky and I didn't want to make an example of her. It's not an obligation of the employer to turn in illegal employees," she said.

The revelations come suspiciously close to Saturday's Fresno debate, which will air statewide on Spanish-language television in an effort by both camps to target one of the most highly sought-after voting blocs in the state. Hispanics are projected to comprise just 15 percent of voters in the Nov. 2 general election, but both sides have aggressively targeted them as potential swing votes.

Brown's spokesman, Sterling Clifford, said in a statement that Whitman apparently thinks the rules don't apply to her.

"After more than a year of Whitman demanding immigration policy that 'holds employers accountable,' we learn that accountability doesn't extend to her own actions," he said.

Clifford said the Browns use a well-known national housekeeping service that comes twice a month to their home in the Oakland Hills. He said Brown has never knowingly employed an illegal immigrant.

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HP names Apotheker as new chief

30 September 2010 Last updated at 17:49 ET

Computer maker Hewlett Packard (HP) has named Leo Apotheker, former boss of business software maker SAP, as its new chief executive and president.

He replaces Mark Hurd, who stepped down from his positions as president and CEO after an investigation into claims made against him by a former HP contractor.

HP has also named Ray Lane, of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as non-executive chairman.

Both appointments will come into effect on 1 November, said HP.

Mr Apotheker had been with SAP since 1988 and had been their chief executive since April 2008.

He becomes the third new HP boss in a decade.

'Expertise'

"To stand out in the crowded market for computer hardware, HP needs a chief executive who can boost the company's offering of software and IT services - Leo Apotheker fits that bill," said Tim Weber, business editor of the BBC News website.

"However, he also has to extend HP's dominance in the markets for PCs and printers, and to succeed the company needs to cement its position in the consumer market.

"Leo's expertise is mainly an expert for enterprise computing."

Trading in HP shares was briefly halted after the stock market closed.

When after-the-bell trading resumed, HP's shares fell by $1.37, or 3.3%, to $40.70.

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WikiLeaks chief lashes out at media during debate (AP)

LONDON ï¿½ WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange lashed out at the mainstream media during a debate at a London university Thursday, fighting back at a string of unfavorable stories that have appeared since his organization's publication of a cache of U.S. intelligence documents.

Assange's group has reportedly suffered infighting and the former computer hacker-turned-online whistle blower also faces allegations of sexual misconduct in Sweden, where some of the organization's infrastructure is based.

As WikiLeaks fell behind on its promised release of a new tranche of 15,000 U.S. intelligence reports, one former group spokesman was quoted this week as saying that the organization was becoming consumed by its confrontation with the Pentagon.

Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a German who said he recently quit as Wikileaks' spokesman over Assange's management style, told Der Speigel he had encountered problems with what he described as the Australian's obsession with attacking the U.S. government.

At the debate at London's City University, Assange disputed that Domscheit-Berg had quit, claiming he was suspended ï¿½ but he refused to give details. He denied there had been a dispute over his management. "It was about a different issue," Assange said.

Assange repeated claims that his organization is sitting on a mass of classified information from countries from all over the world, but declined to confirm his publication schedule.

He accused the Wall Street Journal of participating in what he described as a "scam" to discredit WikiLeaks by publicizing the details of its e-mail exchanges with human rights groups, which reportedly expressed disquiet over the naming of informants in the Afghanistan intelligence reports it posted to the web.

Critics claim WikiLeaks may have endangered the lives of Afghan civilians and military personnel by failing to censor the files.

Assange attacked The Huffington Post website for investigating his organization's financing, and criticized Wired magazine ï¿½ which recently published a report that claimed WikiLeaks was suffering from an internal power struggle that had led to the ouster of key staffers.

He also rejected claims that his group was obsessed with attacking the American military, but said "We have to deal with that country, if we are to deal ï¿½ even partially ï¿½ with the problem of secrecy in the world."

The WikiLeaks chief made only an oblique reference to his legal troubles in Sweden, where prosecutors are probing complaints against Assange filed by two women in August. Assange has denied the allegations, saying they are part of a smear campaign. Asked about his future plans in the Scandinavian country, Assange dodged the question, wistfully describing Sweden as a fascinating place.

WikiLeaks' site is currently down, citing maintenance issues.

___

Associated Press Writer Sylvia Hui contributed to this report.

___

Online:

WikiLeaks: http://wikileaks.org/

City University London: http://www.city.ac.uk/

Index on Censorship: http://ping.fm/t6crG

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Death toll rises to 5 in Jamaican floods, slides (AP)

KINGSTON, Jamaica ï¿½ Searchers scoured muddy rivers and debris-clogged gullies for more victims of Tropical Storm Nicole on Thursday as the death toll in Jamaica from floods and mudslides rose to five, officials said.

Rain continued to fall on the capital, Kingston, and emergency workers were trying to locate at least 14 more missing people, about half of whom were believed to have been swept away in landslides that roared through a Kingston shantytown. Officials warned the death toll was certain to rise as they rushed to confirm several reports of storm fatalities.

"As we go through the day, the numbers will be going up, I'm sure," said Richard Thompson, deputy director-general of Jamaica's disaster management office.

The latest death toll included two construction workers who died early Thursday when a shack in an upscale neighborhood in the hills above Kingston collapsed in a landslide triggered by rains on saturated ground, Thompson said. The laborers were sleeping in the shack to save money while working on a client's house.

The storm broke apart over the Atlantic late Wednesday afternoon, but intermittent rains increased the risk of additional slides across the island. Schools and universities stayed closed for a second day, while about 30 percent of those served by Jamaica's utility company were without power, officials said.

Broken mains and clogged pipes left tens of thousands of people without water service, and residents were increasingly frustrated by long lines for basic necessities. Some bridges had collapsed, complicating relief efforts.

One landslide toppled a concrete shack and killed a 14-year-old boy, known to his neighbors as Buju, who was found in a pool of muddy water. Rescuers had not yet found the rest of his family, which neighbors said included four sisters, the youngest just 3.

Some neighbors who gathered near the destroyed house in Sandy Gully said the family was surely dead and voiced frustration that emergency personnel had not yet found their bodies, which they speculated were tangled in the rubble.

The shantytowns are built on unstable banks of gullies where thousands live illegally due to a lack of affordable housing. Authorities were keeping an eye on the murky brown waters that overflowed from the gullies, saying they could still pose a threat to residents.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding told reporters that his government will seek to identify affordable housing options for the thousands of poor islanders who risk their lives by illegally building ramshackle homes along the paved gullies and other dangerous areas.

"What we are going to have to do is see how we can identify solutions that are within their affordability and work out an arrangement with them over time as to how they are going to pay for it. Once we do that then we enforce as vigorously as possible the 'no build rule,'" he said.

A recent government survey indicated there are nearly 600 informal settlements islandwide, with about 16 percent of the total in Kingston and abutting St. Andrew parish.

Early Thursday, roads were rendered impassable in St. Thomas parish, where cultivated fields of bananas, scotch bonnet peppers, and scallions were flattened by floodwaters.

"Clearly the fields are very waterlogged and it is going to create a setback for the farmers, many of whom are actually planting now or have just planted," Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton said.

While many islanders focused on removing debris and mopping up the water in their homes, others worried about two new tropical waves developing over the Atlantic. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said there was a fair chance the waves could merge and develop into a tropical depression in the next couple of days, though the path of the storm is still unclear.

"I hope this is the end of it," said Kingston resident Christopher Brown, who was walking along a busy street to his job at a construction site. "It feels like we're a punching bag ï¿½ a big wet punching bag."

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AP Interview: Interpol head warns of Somali threat (AP)

BRUSSELS ï¿½ Somalia and other African nations could soon pose more of a terrorist threat than Afghanistan, Interpol's secretary general warned Thursday.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Ronald K. Noble said many Somali militants had received training in Afghanistan and Pakistan and were using their homeland now as a base to seed terror. Somalia has been without a functioning government for about two decades, allowing Islamic militants to flourish.

Al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked movement which claimed responsibility for attacks in Uganda's capital that killed 76 people during the World Cup final, has been at the heart of the Islamist insurgency in Somalia.

"For us, we believe that 'the Afghanistan' in the next five to 10 years will be Somalia and those parts of Africa (countries in the north and west)," the New Jersey native told the AP at a security conference in Brussels.

Noble's comments came as more details emerged Thursday of terror plot against Europe ï¿½ one that Pakistani officials said involved eight Germans and two British brothers and one that prompted a surge in CIA drone missile strikes against suspected al-Qaida hideouts in Pakistan. One of the Britons allegedly died in one of the strikes earlier this month.

Pakistan, Britain and Germany are now tracking the suspects and intercepting their phone calls, a Pakistani official told the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information to the media.

The official is part of an intelligence team that has been tracking the two British brothers of Pakistani origin for nearly a year and the Germans for more than six months.

He said the suspects are hiding in North Waziristan, a Pakistani tribal region where militancy is rife and where the U.S. has focused many of its drone-fired missile strikes. British officials have said the plot is still active.

"They have been making calls to Germany and London," the Pakistani official said. "They have been talking about and looking for facilitators and logistics they need there to carry out terror strikes."

Noble declined to comment on Interpol's role in tracking down potential suspects in the plot, saying the investigation was ongoing. He did, however, say one the biggest challenges for law enforcement officials was having countries check passenger passport details against national and Interpol databases.

Out of the nearly 1 billion passengers who traveled through airports last year, some 600 million were never checked against the Interpol database ï¿½ a gap that could have allowed terrorists to enter multiple countries, he said.

Many countries simply lack the political will or resources to join databases, he said.

Noble said Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, also was of growing concern.

The group on Thursday released its first video of a group of hostages that was seized two weeks ago in Niger.

The terrorist group has invaded large swaths of the desert region spanning portions of Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Algeria. Famous tourists spots like Timbuktu, in Mali, are now on the no-go list of several embassies, including the U.S. and France.

In Europe and the United States, meanwhile, an increase in homegrown militants and suspects who had never appeared on the radar as potential threats were "unsettling and dangerous" new trends, Noble said.

Still, he said he believed it was right to warn citizens of potential or thwarted terror plots.

"You know, there has been a long-standing debate within the intelligence community and the anti-terrorist community about how informed the citizens really should be about potential terrorist attacks or foiled terrorist attacks," he said.

"I'm on the side of getting the public informed, keeping the public informed and trusting that the public by and large wants to help us prevent terrorist activities, not support terrorist activity."

Interpol is an organization that links law enforcement agencies in 188 countries to help cross-border policing and efforts to tackle major crime.

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AP sources: Emanuel leaving White House on Friday (AP)

CHICAGO ï¿½ Rahm Emanuel will resign as White House chief of staff on Friday and will begin his campaign for Chicago mayor by meeting with voters in the city on Monday, two people familiar with Emanuel's plans said.

The two people, who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because they did not want to pre-empt Emanuel's announcement, said he will return to Chicago over the weekend and begin touring neighborhoods Monday.

"He intends to run for mayor," one of the people told The Associated Press.

Both people said they did not know when Emanuel would make an official announcement about his mayoral bid but that he would launch a website with a message to Chicago voters in the near future.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama plans to make a personnel announcement Friday.

Emanuel's plans have been the source of widespread speculation both in Chicago and Washington, D.C. ever since Mayor Richard Daley announced this month he would not seek re-election. In an April television interview, Emanuel had called it "no secret" he'd like to run for mayor.

Daley, who has held the mayor's job since 1989 and carried on a family dynasty, surprised many with his announcement. The choice for Emanuel suddenly became whether he would make a dash for the political job he has openly coveted, at a cost of uprooting his family again and quitting his post of national influence sooner than he thought.

When he ultimately announces his candidacy, Emanuel instantly becomes the most recognizable name in what is already a crowded field of candidates and possible candidates. Already with well over $1 million in his war chest and his well documented ability to raise huge amounts of money for political candidates around the country, Emanuel"s campaign would be extremely well funded.

Other possible candidates include Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who has made a name for himself in the Chicago area for suing Craigslist, among other things; former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun; at least one state senator and a city alderman.

A number of African Americans besides Moseley Braun are considering running, including Rep. Danny Davis and James Meeks, a state senator and prominent black minister. Black ministers, politicians and others have discussed throwing their support behind a single candidate.

A number of possible candidates, including Moseley Braun, Davis, Meeks and Dart, are in the process of collecting the 12,500 signatures necessary to win a spot on the February ballot.

Those running against Emanuel are sure to label him an outsider, and Emanuel will counter by stressing his ties to the city, particularly his tenure in Congress representing the district that includes Chicago's North Side.

In Washington, Emanuel's departure, though expected by the political world for days now, is still an unquestioned loss for Obama. The president has counted on Emanuel's intensity, discipline and congressional relationships to keep the White House focused and aggressive. The job comes with nearly unrivaled pressure and power.

Obama is expected to install senior adviser Pete Rouse, a calm White House presence with his own seasoned understanding of how Washington work, to serve as interim chief of staff. Gibbs said the president has "complete loyalty and trust" in Rouse, though he wouldn't confirm Rouse had been tapped for the interim post.

The president is likely to choose a permanent chief of staff after the Nov. 2 midterm elections. Top contenders are Rouse, deputy national security adviser Tom Donilon and Ron Klain, the chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, according to aides close to the president.

___

Associated Press White House Correspondent Ben Feller contributed to this report from Washington.

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Relief agency: Morocco abandons migrants (AP)

PARIS ï¿½ Doctors Without Borders says Morocco has expelled hundreds of illegal immigrants, including women and children, to a no-man's-land without food or water after violent raids in several cities in the North African kingdom.

The humanitarian group claims 600 to 700 people were arrested during raids from Aug. 19 to Sept. 10 and abandoned near the Morocco-Algeria border. It claims police sometimes destroyed immigrants' shelters with bulldozers.

Doctors Without Borders says it cared for 186 immigrants, including 103 who had lesions or injuries connected to the violent arrests.

An official said Morocco's government spokesman was not available to comment on the report.

Morocco is often used by migrants as a stepping stone from Africa to Europe.

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Whitman fires back about illegal immigrant maid (AP)

SANTA MONICA, Calif. ï¿½ Meg Whitman said Thursday that her former housekeeper might have intercepted a 2003 government letter warning that the maid could be in the country illegally as the Republican gubernatorial candidate denounced the story as a "baseless smear attack."

For a second straight day, Whitman forcefully denied that she knew her housekeeper was in the country illegally for years and called the allegations a "political smear on me, on my family, and based on lies." She said her Democratic opponent, Jerry Brown, was behind the story and that the housekeeper was being manipulated for political gain.

The housekeeper's attorney, Gloria Allred, has said she will release evidence later Thursday to show Whitman knew she employed an illegal worker.

Specifically, Whitman disputes that she received a 2003 letter from the Social Security Administration that said the Social Security number provided by the housekeeper did not match the name on file.

When asked at a news conference whether the worker, Nicky Diaz Santillan, might have taken the letter intended for Whitman, she said "it's very possible." The housekeeper was in charge of going through the mail, she said.

"She might have been on the lookout for that letter," Whitman said. "It would pain me to believe that that's what she might have done but I have no other explanation."

Whitman said repeatedly that she and her husband were shocked when Diaz Santillan, their housekeeper of nine years, came to them and confessed she was in the U.S. illegally in June 2009, nearly five months after Whitman had announced an exploratory run for California governor. She said she immediately suspended her and later fired her.

The immigration flap has served as a major headache for Whitman in her tight race against Brown. They are in a dead heat according to the latest polls, despite Whitman having spent nearly $120 million of her fortune so far.

Whitman has called for tougher sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers, and the allegations could undercut her credibility just weeks before Election Day and damage her image, particularly with Hispanics she has pursued for months.

When asked why she didn't turn the former employee into authorities, Whitman said "I was very fond of Nicky and I didn't want to make an example of her." She said her current housekeeper is "absolutely documented to work there."

"It's not an obligation of the employer to turn in illegal employees and I just thought 'I'm not gonna make an example of Nicky,'" Whitman said.

The campaign released employment applications filled out when the former housekeeper was hired in 2000, including a copy of a Social Security card and a California driver's license, that indicated the woman was a legal resident. Whitman's campaign has said Diaz Santillan admitted to using her sister's documents when she applied for the $23-an-hour job.

The timing of the allegations, the lack of documentation to support the claims and Allred's Democratic ties left her open to questions about motive in the tight race. Allred once gave money to Brown, and she was a Hillary Rodham Clinton delegate at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

Asked about timing and her political links, Allred said the former housekeeper "just recently contacted me." She noted her donation to Brown in his race for attorney general was $150, although she has given to other Democrats, including President Barack Obama and California Sen. Barbara Boxer.

The allegations also come ahead of a scheduled Saturday Spanish-language debate that will include questions of importance to the Hispanic community.

Whitman has aggressively wooed Hispanic voters, who are typically Democratically aligned, and recent public opinion polls show she is having some success.

Whitman has Spanish-language radio and TV ads and billboards ï¿½ even Spanish-language posters at bus stops in Hispanic neighborhoods.

The letter at issue ï¿½ dated April 22, 2003, according to Allred ï¿½ noted a discrepancy between the Social Security number provided by the housekeeper and the name on file with the agency.

Such letters can be a tip-off about possible immigration problems, although the agency stopped sending them to employers in 2007.

The housekeeper said she was told to "check on this," then never heard about the letter again. Allred said Whitman continued to receive letters about the mismatched Social Security number, which Diaz Santillan found in the trash.

According to the Social Security Administration's website, such letters first go to the employee, and then are sent to an employer about two weeks later ï¿½ making it plausible that Diaz Santillan could have been on the lookout for it.

Agency spokesman Mark Lassiter said that from 2003-2006 an employer had to have more than 10 employees whose Social Security numbers and names did not match to receive a warning letter. It was not immediately clear how many domestic employees Whitman had during that time.

"An employer with one or two employees in 2003 to 2006 would not have gotten an employer ... letter," Lassiter said.

In 2000, when Diaz Santillan was hired through an agency, Whitman said "we specified with the agent we wanted to make sure we had someone who was here legally to work in the United States."

Whitman gave the name of the employment agency that connected her family with Diaz Santillan, Town & Country Resources in Menlo Park. Jens Hillen, co-president of the company, did not return multiple calls seeking comment from The Associated Press.

Allred also said Diaz Santillan was mistreated, and said she will file a claim against Whitman for back pay and mileage. She provided no proof to document those allegations.

Whitman denied the allegation and said Diaz Santillan was treated exceptionally well. She said she was like a member of the family, frequently bringing her children to Whitman's home, where they played in Whitman's leafy backyard with the family dog.

Brown's spokesman, Sterling Clifford, said in a statement that Whitman apparently thinks the rules don't apply to her.

"After more than a year of Whitman demanding immigration policy that 'holds employers accountable,' we learn that accountability doesn't extend to her own actions," he said.

One of the state's largest public employee unions immediately released a Spanish-language attack ad accusing her of saying one thing in her Spanish-language ads and another when she speaks in English.

"Whitman attacks undocumented workers to win votes, but an undocumented woman worked in her home for nine years," says the ad, which the Service Employees International Union said would begin airing Saturday.

Clifford said the Browns use a well-known national housekeeping service that comes twice a month to their home in the Oakland Hills. He said Brown has never knowingly employed an illegal immigrant.

Allred is known for savvy ï¿½ some say manipulative ï¿½ media skills that get her clients in the public eye. She's represented Jodie Fisher, whose sexual harassment allegations led to the ouster of former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Mark Hurd and a stuntwoman who claimed Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign defamed her after she alleged the former bodybuilder groped her.

Her decision to withhold "evidence" related to the Diaz Santillan case until Thursday guaranteed her case another day of headlines.

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Search for missing US balloon pilots intensifies (AP)

ROME ï¿½ U.S. and Croatian search and rescue teams joined an expanded Italian coast guard search Thursday for two American balloonists who disappeared in rough weather over the Adriatic.

The United States offered two Navy aircraft to join in the search and one was put to work Thursday afternoon, said Italian Coast Guard Lt. Massimo Maccheroni.

Croatian coastal aircraft crews were scouring the area around Croatia's distant, uninhabited islet of Palagruza, said Marina Haluzan, the spokeswoman for the Croatian Ministry of the Sea and Transport.

"There's no news so far about the missing balloon," she said in a statement, adding that Croatian and Italian coastal authorities were in touch and coordinating the search.

Veteran balloon pilots Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer-Davis were participating in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race when contact was lost Wednesday morning.

Their balloon was equipped with a satellite telephone, VHF radios, radar transponder and two mobile telephones. No signal has been detected from the balloon's Emergency Location Transmitter, which should activate on contact with water.

"They could not possibly still be flying," said flight director Don Cameron. "If they are on land, they must be in a very remote place. Otherwise we would have heard from them by now."

Palagruza is located in the middle of the Adriatic Sea, 60 nautical miles from the Croatian coast and 29 nautical miles from Italian coast.

On Thursday, the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center expanded its search to 22 kilometers (14 miles) off the Italian coast, with five boats, several aircraft and a helicopter involved.

Abruzzo, 47, of Albuquerque, New Mexico and Davis, 65, of Denver, Colorado, are experienced balloonists and won the 2004 edition of the Gordon Bennett race from Thionville, France, to Vannas, Sweden.

In the race, teams try to fly the farthest 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 in 1981 part of the first team to cross the Pacific Ocean by balloon, and who was killed in a small airplane crash in 1985.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson successfully arranged for the U.S. military forces to join the search.

"I've been following the search for Richard and Carol all day, and I'm optimistic that they will be located," Richardson said. "I've been in contact with the Abruzzo family and have offered any help they need in getting Richard back home to them safely. My thoughts are also with Carol's family as they await word on their loved one."

In the 2005 Gordon Bennett race, Richard Abruzzo and Davis hit a power line in Kansas. Abruzzo fell out, suffering several broken bones. Davis landed the balloon safely, although she suffered bruises when she was dragged along the ground while landing the lightly loaded balloon in 40 knot winds.

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

Word of their disappearance came on the eve of New Mexico's annual balloon fiesta.

Ben Abruzzo 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.

Garth Sonnenberg of Albuquerque, a friend of Abruzzo's, said Wednesday that he had heard that the balloonists had problems with their radio throughout the flight. "We're hoping that it's a good possibility that it's just a radio problem," he said.

___

Smith reported from London. Robert Barr in London, Snjezana Vukic in Zagreb and Sue Major Holmes in Albuquerque contributed to this report.

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US envoy plans more talks with Abbas, Netanyahu (AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank ï¿½ A U.S. emissary racing against the clock to salvage Mideast peace negotiations scheduled another quick round of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders after talks Thursday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ended inconclusively.

Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are deadlocked over Israeli settlement construction. Earlier this week, Netanyahu refused to extend a 10-month-old moratorium on new housing construction in West Bank settlements. Abbas has warned he'll quit U.S.-sponsored peace talks unless the moratorium is extended.

Abbas' final decision is expected Wednesday, when Arab League foreign ministers meet in Cairo. Underscoring the sense of urgency, Europe's top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, rushed to the region for talks with Abbas and Netanyahu on Thursday and Friday.

And in what could be seen as encouragement and cover for the talks to proceed, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said in a statement Wednesday that "the moment of truth" had arrived for those seeking to resolve the conflict and that "the consequences of failure this time are too catastrophic to imagine."

He called on Israel to freeze its settlements, which he said, "aim to change facts on the ground and thus jeopardize the peace process and render the negotiations meaningless."

White House emissary George Mitchell met with Abbas for two hours at his West Bank headquarters on Thursday. After the meeting, Mitchell said the U.S. was "determined to continue, and we are continuing, our efforts to find common ground between the parties to enable the direct negotiations to continue."

Mitchell, who has been shuttling between Israelis and Palestinians since Tuesday to try to forge a compromise, did not mention the settlement issue.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Mitchell would meet with Israeli leaders before returning to Abbas' compound on Friday.

Officials in Netanyahu's office had no immediate comment.

Before Thursday's meeting, Abbas adviser Nabil Shaath said no progress has been made toward a compromise.

"Apparently the Israelis are determined to swallow and steal the land and consider that much more important than peace," Shaath told The Associated Press. "Unless the settlement activities stop completely, there is no use in continuing these negotiations."

Netanyahu apparently fears renewing the settlement curb could fracture his pro-settlement coalition. The Palestinians argue that there is no point negotiating as long as settlements gobble up land they want for a future state. Various compromises have been considered, including limiting new construction to major settlement blocs, but Shaath said only a full settlement freeze would suffice.

The Arab League meeting was initially scheduled for Monday, but was put off until Wednesday. An Arab diplomat, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, suggested the meeting was delayed because some ministers asked for further discussions to forge a unified Arab position.

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Rain pounds NC as storm moves up the East Coast (AP)

WILMINGTON, N.C. ï¿½ Driving rain from a storm system moving up the East Coast brought flooding to parts of North Carolina on Thursday, caused soggy morning commutes in the Northeast and prompted worries of additional flooding as far north as Maine.

Tornado watches were issued from North Carolina to New Jersey.

In North Carolina, the nearly 21 inches collected in Wilmington since rain started falling Sunday topped Hurricane Floyd's five-day mark of 19 inches set in 1999, the National Weather Service said.

In the eastern part of the state, officials evacuated about 70 people overnight from a mobile home community in Kinston because of high water, Roger Dail, director of emergency services in Lenoir County, said.

"The water's still up," Dail said. "I would suspect it's going to be later today, maybe tomorrow, before the water goes out of there."

In Carolina Beach, N.C., the rains caused a pond in the center of the town to overflow, filling nearby streets with water.

About a half-inch of water covered the floor in Jackie Woody's home.

"It's the worst it's been in years," he said.

Next door, Fran Casteen left her job as a manager at McDonald's to come home and put sandbags in front of her house.

"I have to defend what's mine," she said. "I've been flooded out twice and the water is getting pretty dag-gone close."

Farther north, parts of eastern Virginia were under flash flood warnings. The National Weather Service also issued a tornado watch for 33 eastern Virginia counties and 21 cities, including Richmond, Williamsburg, Arlington and the Hampton Roads area. Flash flood watches were also in effect for areas in Maryland, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

In Maryland, authorities said 26 people including high school students were hurt after a Metro bus rear-ended another bus from the Washington-area transit system in pouring rain. The Thursday morning accident came a day after a tour bus carrying DC sightseers plunged off a highway in another Maryland suburb, killing the driver and injuring more than a dozen people.

The 26 Metro bus injuries Thursday morning were not life threatening, Montgomery County fire department Assistant Chief Scott Graham said.

The weather also caused rail delays throughout the Mid-Atlantic. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said there were scattered delays Thursday morning because of high water and tree limbs falling onto tracks.

In the Northeast, where abnormally dry weather had recently threatened brush fires and forced some states to issue drought warnings, the storms brought promise of relief even as authorities cautioned about possible flooding later Thursday in a swath from Pennsylvania and New Jersey to Maine.

Nancy Furbush, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service on Long Island, N.Y., said the recent drier-than-normal conditions in the East would help keep larger rivers in New Jersey from flooding as quickly as they might otherwise, but that smaller rivers might flood more quickly. Whether they flood at all depends on how much rain falls and how quickly.

The storm system was good news to northern New England farmers who've endured a dry summer. At Abenaki Springs Farm in western New Hampshire, Erin Bickford was happy to see heavy rain falling on her eight acres of vegetables Thursday morning after months of dusty fields.

"We had almost no rain at all," Bickford said. "Often, we could see it raining across the river, but it didn't come here. It was just dust. Even if it did rain, it would be a tiny bit, maybe half an inch."

Rain made for a messy morning commute but the heaviest of the storms had not reached Philadelphia and New York by the morning rush hour.

In southeastern North Carolina, about 9 inches of rain fell at the Sunny Point military terminal in Brunswick County between midnight and 6 a.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service in Wilmington reported.

Officials urged motorists not to drive through water that was washing over roads.

"Back during Floyd, we had a lot of people lose their lives that way," Red Cross regional director Lynwood Roberson said.

The downpour came as a low pressure system from the west mixed with the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole. Nicole dissipated over the Straits of Florida on Wednesday and its remaining rainbands were expected to remain mainly offshore while tracking northward.

___

Associated Press writers Deepti Hajela in New York and Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.

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Protesting police, soldiers seize Ecuador airport (AP)

QUITO, Ecuador ï¿½ Hundreds of police and soldiers protesting a new law that cuts their benefits seized the main airport in Ecuador's capital on Thursday and shut off highway access to Quito as well.

The rebellious police fired tear gas and burned tires after taking over bases in Quito, Guayaquil and other cities.

The protests did not appear to threaten to topple the government and there were no immediate reports of injuries.

President Rafael Correa tried to speak with a group of police protesters but was shouted down.

"They are a bunch of ungrateful bandits," Correa said of the protesters. "No one has supported the police as much as this government," he told reporters.

An Associated Press photographer witnessed soldiers participating in the action that shut down the main terminal at Quito's Mariscal Sucre airport.

It was not immediately known whether flights were canceled.

The protesters were angered by a law passed by Congress on Wednesday that would end the practice of giving members of Ecuador's military and police medals and bonuses with each promotion. It would also extend from five to seven years the usual period required for before a subsequent promotion.

The law needs to be published before it takes effect and that has not happened.

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Fisher-Price recalls more than 10M kid products (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ Fisher-Price is recalling more than 10 million tricycles, toys and high chairs over safety concerns.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday that the tricycles and high chairs were blamed for children's injuries.

In the recall of about 7 million Fisher-Price Trikes and Tough Trikes toddler tricycles, the agency is aware of 10 reports of children being hurt. Six of them required medical attention.

The trikes ï¿½ some of which feature popular characters like Dora the Explorer and Barbie ï¿½ have a protruding plastic ignition key near the seat that children can strike, sit on or fall on, leading to injuries that the commission said can include genital bleeding.

Fisher-Price is also recalling more than 1 million Healthy Care, Easy Clean and Close to Me High Chairs, after 14 reports of problems. The pegs on the back of the high chairs can be used to store the tray, but children can fall on them, resulting in cuts and other injuries. Seven children required stitches, the commission said.

CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum said manufacturers need to do more to build safety into their products before they reach store shelves. But she also offered praise for Fisher-Price for "taking the right steps by agreeing to these recalls and offering consumers free repairs or replacement."

The two other Fisher-Price recalls were:

_More than 2.8 million Baby Playzone Crawl & Cruise Playground toys, Baby Playzone Crawl & Slide Arcade toys, Baby Gymtastics Play Wall toys, Ocean Wonders Kick & Crawl Aquarium toys, 1-2-3 Tetherball toys and Bat & Score Goal toys. The valve of the inflatable ball on the toys can come off and pose a choking hazard to children, said CPSC. The agency said there were more than 50 reports of the valves coming off the balls.

_About 100,000 Fisher-Price Little People Wheelies Stand 'n Play Rampway toys. The wheels on the purple and green cars can come off, posing a choking hazard.

Most of the products were being recalled in the United States, but about 400,000 of them were sold in Canada.

Fisher-Price is a unit of Mattel Inc. Consumers can visit the company's website at http://ping.fm/niMz6 for more information on the dates of sale and model numbers for the recalled products.

World News | Latest News

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Dozens of NATO oil tankers attacked in Pakistan (AP)

3 Japanese freed by China arrive back home (AP)

Koreas meet to discuss family reunions (AP)

Ecuador troops rescue president from rebel cops (AP)

Pakistan cuts NATO supply line after border firing (AP)

Death toll in southern Mexico mudslides up to 32 (AP)

Protesting police throw Ecuador into chaos (AP)

NC Patrol: 4 people killed in wreck on wet road (AP)

Argentina gives asylum to alleged Chilean assassin (AP)

Calif. governor's race upended by immigrant maid (AP)

HP names Apotheker as new chief

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Death toll rises to 5 in Jamaican floods, slides (AP)

AP Interview: Interpol head warns of Somali threat (AP)

AP sources: Emanuel leaving White House on Friday (AP)

Relief agency: Morocco abandons migrants (AP)

Whitman fires back about illegal immigrant maid (AP)

Search for missing US balloon pilots intensifies (AP)

US envoy plans more talks with Abbas, Netanyahu (AP)

Rain pounds NC as storm moves up the East Coast (AP)

Protesting police, soldiers seize Ecuador airport (AP)

Fisher-Price recalls more than 10M kid products (AP)

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