World News | Latest News: 10/02/10

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Missing pilots cast pall over balloon fiesta in US (AP)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. ï¿½ Hundreds of balloonists in New Mexico lifted off Saturday at dawn amid a somber mood, opening the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta while search crews on the other side of the globe scoured the seas for two of the sport's most acclaimed pilots.

Richard Abruzzo of Albuquerque and Carol Rymer Davis of Denver were participating in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race when contact was lost Wednesday morning over the Adriatic Sea. Scuba divers joined in the search efforts Saturday, but race organizers said the two plunged toward the water at 50 mph (80 kph) and likely didn't survive.

Kevin Knapp, a pilot and deputy director of the America's Challenge gas balloon race scheduled to begin Tuesday in Albuquerque, acknowledged the mood is more serious this year, but he said friends and colleagues of the pair are holding onto any hope.

"To survive a descent like that is challenging. I know people who have, I know people who haven't, but all we know now is that it was a fast descent. We know they're still missing, we know the search is still on and we all still have hope," said Knapp, who described the pair as mentors to many in the ballooning community.

The Italian Coast Guard said a group of eight divers equipped with underwater cameras searched in the Adriatic on Saturday. But spokesman Lt. Massimo Maccheroni said "hopes of finding them alive after four days at sea are close to zero."

Maccheroni did not say when the search would be called off, but said "we are close to the limit."

The fiesta draws hundreds of pilots from around the world and more than 800,000 spectators each year.

Concern about the two could be heard throughout the crowd on Saturday in between sips of hot chocolate and coffee and the cheers that erupted each time one of the colorful balloons lifted off. The newspaper headlines in stands around balloon fiesta park summed it up: "Conflicting Emotions."

Abruzzo's wife, Nancy, said in a statement that "we recognize that we are looking for a needle in a haystack." But, she added, "we cannot rest until we find something, anything."

She said that no "physical evidence from the balloon, the gondola, equipment or personal effects" had been found.

Alan Zielinski, a pilot from Chicago, said Abruzzo and Davis are part of the "brotherhood" of balloonists and are personal friends with many who are participating in the fiesta.

"We're all just hoping and praying, each and every one of us, that we're going to get some good news," he said. "We're watching very vigilantly."

In the Gordon Bennett race, teams compete to fly the farthest on a maximum of about 1,000 cubic meters (35,300 cubic feet) of gas. Abruzzo, 47, and Davis, 65, won the 2004 edition of the Gordon Bennett race and the 2003 America's Challenge gas race ï¿½ one of Abruzzo's five victories in that race.

Most gas balloon racers ï¿½ including Abruzzo and Davis ï¿½ are hobbyists who spend thousands of dollars on the adventure sport. Abruzzo works in a prominent family business in Albuquerque that is involved in real estate and operations of the Sandia Peak tramway, Sandia Ski Area and Ski Santa Fe. Davis is a radiologist who specializes in reading mammograms.

Rear Adm. Salvatore Giuffre, coordinating the search efforts in Bari, said that at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, "the pilot said in English that they were going down very fast toward the sea."

"Those were the last words he said," Giuffre told APTN. "From then on there has been no radar trace from the board transponder."

Since then, search and rescue teams with the Italian coast guard, the U.S. Navy and Croatian coastal aircraft crews have been scouring the Adriatic Sea.

Abruzzo's wife, Nancy, on Saturday told Albuquerque's KOAT-TV that rescuers have not given up hope, and she asked for people's continued thoughts and prayers for her husband.

"Let's keep it up," Nancy Abruzzo said. "We need to have that energy. Miracles happen."

Associated Press Writer Alessandra Rizzo in Rome contributed to this report.

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Doctors: Paraguay's Lugo won't require surgery (AP)

ASUNCION, Paraguay ï¿½ President Fernando Lugo, who is fighting cancer, does not require surgery, doctors said Saturday after the Paraguayan leader was flown to Brazil for emergency treatment of an apparent infection.

Doctors had said Lugo would likely have a build up of fluids caused by infection drained from his neck. The surgery would take place at Sao Paulo's Hospital Sirio Libanes, where he has been undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Lugo left his No. 2, Vice President Federico Franco, in charge of Paraguay in his absence.

But later Saturday the Hospital Sirio Libanes issued a report saying it was not an infection.

"The studies show that he doesn't require surgery; a thrombosis (blood clot) was detected in his superior vena cava, something that can happen during cancer treatment," said Augusto Dos Santos, the communications director for Paraguay's government palace, citing the hospital report.

Dos Santos added that the diagnosis does not represent a worsening in Lugo's lymphoma but rather a complication in his treatment.

He said a new report on Lugo's health would be released Sunday.

Lugo, a 59-year-old former Roman Catholic priest, is being treated for what doctors have described as three apparently low-grade lymphoma ï¿½ in the groin, chest and the third lumbar vertebra.

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Peru: Tourist plane crashes near famed Nazca Lines (AP)

LIMA, Peru ï¿½ A small plane carrying British tourists crashed near the famed Nazca Lines in Peru on Saturday, killing all six people on board, police said.

The victims were listed as four Britons ï¿½ three men and a woman ï¿½ and the pilot and co-pilot, both Peruvian.

The Cessna plane apparently had engine trouble that led it to crash in a field, Nazca police chief Alfredo Coronel said. Police were working to recover the bodies.

An official who answered the phone at the British Embassy in Lima declined to comment without authorization from London.

The Nazca Lines, mysterious geoglyphs etched into the desert centuries ago by indigenous groups, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Peru's leading tourist attractions.

Located about 240 miles (385 kilometers) southeast of Lima, the glyphs are only fully recognizable from the air, and 30-minute overflights are popular with travelers.

However there have been allegations of lax supervision of the several-dozen aging planes that make the flights.

In February, a Cessna 206 carrying three Chileans and four Peruvians over the lines crashed and killed everyone on board.

Another crash in April 2008 killed five French tourists, though their pilot survived.

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20 kidnapped in Mexican resort city of Acapulco (AP)

ACAPULCO, Mexico ï¿½ Gunmen kidnapped 20 men who were traveling together in Mexico's Pacific coast resort city of Acapulco, authorities said Saturday.

A shootout between drug gangs, meanwhile, left 14 people dead in remote town in the northern state of Durango, Mexican newspapers reported.

The group of men in Acapulco was visiting from the western city of Morelia and looking for a place to stay when they were abducted Thursday, said Fernando Monreal, director of state investigative police in Guerrero state, where the resort city is located.

He said the kidnapping was reported by a man who had been with the group.

The man told police that he and another fellow traveler had left the others to go a store and when they returned their companions were gone.

Witnesses said the men ï¿½ who ranged in age from 17 to 47 ï¿½ were kidnapped by an armed gang that drove them away in the four cars in which the group had been traveling. Police later found the cars abandoned near the kidnapping site.

The motive was unknown.

The man who notified police described his companions as tourists. He said they all worked for the same tire-alignment company in Morelia and saved up each year to take vacations together.

Monreal said police have been unable to locate the man since he reported the kidnapping Friday. The man left a cell phone but was not answering it, Monreal said.

Acapulco has been a key battleground for lucrative drug-trafficking routes. Violence in the region increased this year after a split in the Beltran Leyva cartel, whose leadership has been hit hard by President Felipe Calderon's drug war.

Police, who were scouring the resort cities and the highways leading out of it for the missing men, gave no indication that they were tied to drug trafficking.

Drug-gang henchmen frequently kidnap rivals and dump their bodies on the streets days later. But it is rare for a survivor of such kidnappings to go to the police.

The shootout between rival drug-dealing gangs broke out Friday morning in the town of San Jose de la Cruz, El Universal and Reforma newspapers reported, citing the Durango state attorney general's office.

Police and soldiers traveled to the town after being alerted by residents, Ruben Lopez, a spokesman for the office, was quoted as saying.

It often takes authorities hours to travel to the scene of shootouts in Durango, a mountainous state that has long been a stronghold for Mexico's most powerful drug traffickers.

Nobody answered the phone Saturday at the state attorney general's office.

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US to tell US citizens to be vigilant in Europe (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ The Obama administration will warn U.S. citizens to be vigilant as they travel in Europe, providing updated guidance prompted by al-Qaida threats, American and European officials told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Such a move could have negative implications for European tourism, business and diplomacy if travelers fear there's a possibility of terror attacks.

The State Department will issue a "travel alert" for Europe on Sunday morning that advises Americans to stay vigilant on the continent because of threat information, senior U.S. officials told the AP. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because a final decision has not been announced.

"This travel alert is a cumulative result of information we have received over an extended period," one senior administration official said. "We are constantly monitoring a range of threat streams and have monitored this and others for some time."

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley declined to comment on the matter. But he said the administration remains focused on al-Qaida threats to U.S. interests and will take appropriate steps to protect Americans.

A European official briefed on the talks said the language in the U.S. alert is expected to be vague. It won't address a specific country or specific landmarks, the official said.

European and U.S. officials have not identified any specific targets that terrorists might be considering, the official said. Officials have called the threat credible but not specific. Officials have been concerned that terrorists may be plotting attacks in Europe with assault weapons on public places, similar to the deadly 2008 shooting spree in Mumbai, India.

On Friday, Sweden announced it has raised its threat alert to the highest level ever because of an increased threat of terror attacks. But Swedish security officials said there did not appear to be an immediate threat, nor did they cite any possible targets. In Britain, the security level stood at "severe" ï¿½ the second highest in a five-step scale ï¿½ and there were no plans of raising it further, according to a British security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The U.S. has told European leaders that the State Department alert would be intended to raise the guidance to match the information about the would-be attack that surfaced last week, the European official said.

There had not been strong opposition to the proposed alert from European leaders, the European official said.

But some U.S. allies in Europe expressed concern that the U.S. guidance might include a warning for Americans to stay away from public places in Europe, saying that would be an overreaction to the threat information. Some administration officials agreed and the White House adamantly denied such a blanket warning was being considered.

Intelligence officials believe Osama bin Laden is behind the terror plots to attack several European cities. If this is true, this would be the most operational role that bin Laden has played in plotting attacks since Sept. 11, 2001.

Eight Germans and two British brothers are at the heart of an al-Qaida-linked terror plot against European cities, but the plan is still in its early stages, with the suspects calling acquaintances in Europe to plan logistics, a Pakistani intelligence official said Thursday. One of the Britons died in a recent CIA missile strike, he said. The Pakistani official 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.

"We remain focused on al-Qaida's interest in attacking us and attacking our allies," Crowley said. "We will do everything possible to thwart them and will take steps as appropriate."

A travel "alert" is less serious than a full "travel warning," which could have big implications. There are hundreds of thousands of Americans in Europe at any one time, including tourists, students and businesspeople.

While the government cannot stop people from traveling there or force them to return home, a formal travel warning could result in canceled airline and hotel bookings as well as deter non-U.S. travelers from going to Europe. In addition, many U.S. college and university study-abroad programs will not send students to countries for which a warning is in place for insurance and liability reasons.

Under a "no double standard" rule, the government is obliged to share threat information that it has given diplomats and other officials with the general public.

The Pentagon declined to say Saturday whether it had increased security levels at any of its European bases.

"As a matter of policy we don't discuss specific force protection measures or levels. Commanders continually evaluate the local security environment and take appropriate and prudent security measures to protect personnel and facilities," said Army Maj.Tanya Bradsher, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

The Italian Interior and Foreign Ministry, German Foreign Office, French Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry, the national police and the Paris police all declined immediate comment. Calls to the Paris tourism office and the French government's tourist office in the United States went unanswered Saturday and there was no immediate response to e-mail requests for comment.

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Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo and Pauline Jelinek in Washington, Paisley Dodds in London, Angela Doland and Angela Charlton in Paris and Louise Nordstrom in Stockholm contributed to this report.

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Contender for Nobel prize is in Chinese prison (AP)

BEIJING ï¿½ When the police came for Liu Xiaobo on a December night nearly two years ago, they didn't tell the dissident author why he was being taken away again. The line in the detention order for his "suspected crime" was left blank.

But Liu and the dozen officers who crowded into his dark Beijing apartment knew the reason. He was hours from releasing Charter 08, the China democracy movement's most comprehensive call yet for peaceful reform. The document would be viewed by the ruling Communist Party as a direct challenge to its 60-year monopoly on political power.

Liu, who over the past two decades had endured stints in prison and re-education camp, looked at the blank detention notice and lost his temper.

"At that moment, I knew the day I was expecting had finally come," his wife, Liu Xia, said recently as she recounted the night of Dec. 8, 2008. Thinking of the Beijing winter, she said she brought him a down coat and cigarettes. The police took the cigarettes away.

Liu was sentenced last Christmas Day to 11 years in prison for subversion. The 54-year old literary critic is now a favorite to win the Nobel Peace Prize ï¿½ in what would be a major embarrassment to the Chinese government.

He is the best shot the country's dissident movement has had in winning the prestigious award since it began pushing for democratic change after China's authoritarian leaders launched economic, but not political, reforms three decades ago.

Last year the prize was won by President Barack Obama. Other contenders for this year's prize include Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

In an indication of Beijing's unease, China's deputy foreign minister has warned the Nobel Institute not to give the prize to a Chinese dissident, the director of the Norway-based institute said this week. In another sign of official disapproval, an editorial on Thursday in the state-run Global Times newspaper called Liu a radical and separatist.

Chinese police continue to threaten and question some of the more than 300 people who were the first to sign Charter 08, which was co-authored by Liu. Despite the risk, thousands more have signed it since its release.

Charter 08 is an echo of Charter 77, the famous call for human rights in then-Czechoslovakia that led to the 1989 Velvet Revolution that swept away the communist regime. The charter for China calls for more freedoms and an end to the Communist Party's political dominance. "The democratization of Chinese politics can be put off no longer," it says.

Former peace prize winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and Charter 77 co-drafter Vaclav Havel have joined those calling for Liu to get the award. Scholars inside and outside China have mounted letter-writing campaigns on his behalf.

"If I were the Chinese Communist Party, I would free him now. Release him. Now. So you don't have the humiliation and it's good for everyone," said Jean-Philippe Beja, a China scholar at the Paris-based Center for International Studies and Research and a longtime friend of Liu.

The blunt, sometimes earthy Liu is not always liked, even by fellow activists. "He hasn't yet become the kind of inspiring person Mandela is," AIDS activist Wan Yanhai said in a Twitter post this week, referring to the former South African leader, also a Nobel laureate.

But Liu is rare among government critics in China for being well-known not just among the dissident movement but among the wider public too.

"Across the spectrum, Chinese intellectuals and students have high respect for Liu Xiaobo," said Andrew Nathan, a professor at Columbia University in New York who once sponsored Liu as a visiting scholar. "The award of the prize ... would be viewed by most as an act friendly to China."

It was not the same when the Tibet-born Dalai Lama was awarded the peace prize in 1989. Not just the Chinese government but some of the public too were angry over the win by the exiled Buddhist leader ï¿½ regarded as a traitor by officialdom for his calls for more autonomy for Tibet.

Liu first drew attention in 1986, when he criticized Chinese writers' "childish" obsession with the Nobel Prize. Two years later, he became a visiting scholar in Oslo, where the peace prize is awarded.

There, in his first time outside China, his writings became more political.

"Perhaps my personality means that I'll crash into brick walls wherever I go," Liu wrote from Oslo to Geremie Barme, a China scholar at Australian National University. "I can accept it all, even if in the end I crack my skull open."

Liu cut short a visiting scholar stint at Columbia University months later to join the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in 1989. He and three other older activists famously persuaded students to peacefully leave the square hours before the deadly June 4 crackdown.

"I remember clearly the difficulty and pain Liu Xiaobo and his comrades-in-arms ï¿½ raised as they had been with the most radical type of an education ï¿½ experienced in reaching this decision, one which only later was understood to have saved the lives of several hundred students," Xu Youyu, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, recently wrote in a public letter supporting Liu for the peace prize.

Liu went to prison after the crackdown and was released in early 1991 because he had repented and "performed major meritorious services," state media said at the time, without elaborating.

The bloody Tiananmen experience made Liu less radical, said Zhou Duo, a friend on the square.

"He used to be impetuous, but he changed a lot after June 4," Zhou said. "He became more rational and mild. He criticized the Communist Party, but he preferred having good exchanges between government and the opposition about politics and democracy."

Still, five years later Liu was sent to a re-education camp for three years for co-writing an open letter that demanded the impeachment of then-President Jiang Zemin.

Liu emerged from that sentence in 1999 to find the Internet age. He resisted the new medium of communication at first, but eventually called the Internet "God's present to China."

Now Liu only writes a diary and letters to his wife, which she keeps private. His family can visit him in prison, but they can't talk about his case or world events, and officials stand by taking notes.

His wife said the couple had never imagined Liu winning the peace prize.

"I can always predict when bad things are about to happen," she said, "but I can never totally believe that good things can become a reality."

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Associated Press writer Isolda Morillo contributed to this report.

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DC rally shows support for struggling Democrats (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ Tapping into anger as the tea party movement has done, a coalition of progressive and civil rights groups marched by the thousands Saturday on the Lincoln Memorial and pledged to support Democrats struggling to keep power on Capitol Hill.

"We are together. This march is about the power to the people," said Ed Schultz, host of "The Ed Show" on MSNBC. "It is about the people standing up to the corporations. Are you ready to fight back?"

In a fiery speech that opened the "One Nation Working Together" rally on the National Mall, Schultz blamed Republicans for shipping jobs overseas and curtailing freedoms. He borrowed some of conservative commentator Glenn Beck's rhetoric and vowed to "take back our country."

"This is a defining moment in America. Are you American?" Schultz told the raucous crowd. "This is no time to back down. This is time to fight for America."

With a month of campaigning to go and voter unhappiness high, the Democratic-leaning organizers hope the four-hour program of speeches and entertainment energizes activists who are crucial if Democrats are to retain their majorities in the House and Senate. The national mood suggests gains for the GOP, and Republicans are hoping to ride voter anger to gain control of the House and possibly the Senate.

More than 400 organizations ï¿½ ranging from labor unions to faith, environmental and gay rights groups ï¿½ partnered for the event, which comes one month after Beck packed the same space with conservatives and tea party-style activists.

Organizers claimed they had as many participants as Beck's rally. But Saturday's crowds were less dense and didn't reach as far to the edges as they did during Beck's rally. The National Park Service stopped providing official crowd estimates in the 1990s.

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka urged participants, including his union's members, to band together.

"There is nothing, and I mean nothing, we can't do when we stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder," Trumka said. "We will stand together. And we will win together. And we won't let anyone ï¿½ and I mean anyone ï¿½ stand in our way."

That starts as soon as the crowds get back to their homes.

"Coming out of here, we've got to go home and ask our friends to vote, ask our neighbors to vote," NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said.

"Ever forward, never backwards," he led the crowd in a cheer.

But even participants recognized the challenge.

"There may be an enthusiasm gap, but we're not going to know until we have an election," said Ken Bork, who came from Camas, Wash. "A lot of the noise from the extreme right-wing stuff, it's been well orchestrated by big money. But it's not as bad as they're making it out."

Rose Dixon, a health care worker from Pawleys Island, S.C., said she hopes the rally sends a message to lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

"Stop the obstructionism. Work together," Dixon said. "Stop playing politics as usual and to put the American people first. We're tired of the politics and the posturing and the games."

The Rev. Al Sharpton, addressing the crowd that swelled through the day, warned activists against apathy.

"We've got to go home and we've got to hit the pavement. We've got to knock on doors. We've got to ring those church bells," Sharpton said, urging the crowd to go home and volunteer for candidates.

Organizers insist the rally is not partisan. They say the message is about job creation, quality education and justice. However, the largest organizations, such as the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union, tend to back Democratic candidates.

But the speakers hardly shied from criticizing Republicans.

"If Sarah Palin had a bright idea, it'd be beginners' luck," comedian Charlie Hill joked from the stage about the 2008 vice presidential nominee.

Van Jones, who last year was forced from his job as a White House energy adviser after Beck made public his comments disparaging Republicans, said during his remarks that progressives must stand with Democrats to put America back to work.

"They don't need hateful rhetoric. They need real solutions," Jones said.

Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gathered near the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech to urge a vast crowd to embrace traditional values. Though also billed as nonpolitical, the rally was widely viewed as a protest against the policies of President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats.

One Nation organizers said they began planning their event before learning about Beck's rally, and said Saturday's march is not in reaction to that.

"Our strength is your strength," SEIU President Mary Kay Henry led a chant from the steps where King delivered one of the nation's most

"We are one nation, coming together."

Obama was spending the weekend at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

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Associated Press writer Natasha Metzler contributed to this report.

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Online:

Rally site:

http://ping.fm/YDGwX

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Obama promotes clean energy; GOP hits Dem spending (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ Wind, solar and other clean energy technologies produce jobs and are essential for the country's environment and economy, President Barack Obama said in promoting his administration's efforts.

The president used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, a month away from congressional elections, to charge Republicans with wanting to scrap incentives for such projects.

"That's what's at stake in this debate," the president said. "We can go back to the failed energy policies that profited the oil companies but weakened our country. We can go back to the days when promising industries got set up overseas. Or we can go after new jobs in growing industries. And we can spur innovation and help make our economy more competitive."

Part of the House GOP's recently released "Pledge to America" calls for freezing spending from last year's stimulus bill. The stimulus included $90 billion for clean energy projects ranging from electric vehicles to solar loan guarantees, although a big chunk of the money has already been obligated or spent.

Obama cited a solar power plant breaking ground in the Mojave Desert this month thanks to government incentives.

"With projects like this one and others across this country, we are staking our claim to continued leadership in the new global economy," Obama said. "And we're putting Americans to work producing clean, homegrown American energy that will help lower our reliance on foreign oil and protect our planet for future generations."

Republicans disputed Obama's criticism, saying they support investments in renewable energy technologies.

Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took aim in the GOP radio response at government spending, saying Democrats are "maxing out the national credit card on a failed stimulus bill and a government-run health care bill."

He criticized Democrats for recessing Congress until after the elections without acting to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, which expire in January. Obama and Democratic leaders want to extend the tax cuts only for individuals making less than $200,000 and married couples making less than $250,000, while Republicans and some rank-and-file Democrats want to extend tax cuts for the wealthy as well, a costlier proposition.

"Whenever they were asked about this looming tax hike, they just blamed the Republicans," McConnell said. "They said that Republicans will be to blame for some people getting a tax hike because we didn't think anyone should get a tax hike. ... The fact is, the best way to help individuals and small businesses and the economy is to give them all the certainty that their taxes won't be going up at the end of the year."

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Online:

Obama address: http://ping.fm/xvdtI

GOP address: http://ping.fm/E63gV

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Rutgers honors late student at homecoming game (AP)

PISCATAWAY, N.J. ï¿½ Rutgers University paid a public tribute Saturday at a football game to a student who committed suicide last week after his sexual encounter was secretly streamed online.

Most in the crowd bowed their heads after a public address announcer requested a moment of silence for 18-year-old freshman Tyler Clementi before the start of the game against its homecoming gam against Tulane.

Clementi's name was shown on the stadium's huge scoreboard, and the crowd applauded politely after the observation ended.

Prosecutors say Clementi's roommate and another student used a webcam to broadcast on the Internet live images of Clementi having an intimate encounter with another man.

Clementi, a promising violinist, jumped off the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River three days later. His body was identified Thursday.

The homecoming tribute was the latest in a series of remembrances for Clementi at the university that included the establishment of a Facebook group, In Honor of Tyler Clementi.

On Friday, students wore black and were encouraged to leave flowers or mementoes at a makeshift memorial for Clementi. The Rutgers Glee Club also marched down to the memorial and performed an a capella rendition of "Rutgers Prayer," which is traditionally sung when an important member of the Rutgers community dies or a tragedy happens at the university.

The university will hold a vigil on Sunday.

Clementi's death was one of a string of suicides last month involving teens believed to have been victims of anti-gay bullying. On Friday, more than 500 people attended a memorial service for Seth Walsh, a 13-year-old central California boy who hanged himself after enduring taunts from classmates about being gay.

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US may tell US citizens to be vigilant in Europe (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ The Obama administration is considering telling U.S. citizens to be vigilant as they travel in Europe, updated guidance prompted by fresh al-Qaida threats, American and European officials told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Such a move could have negative implications for European tourism if travelers fear there's a possibility of terror attacks.

The State Department may issue a travel alert as early as Sunday advising Americans to stay vigilant as they travel through Europe because of fresh threat information, U.S. officials told the AP.

A European official briefed on the talks said the language in the U.S. alert is expected to be vague. It won't address a specific country or specific landmarks, the official said.

There had not been strong opposition to the proposed alert from European leaders, the European official said.

Some U.S. allies in Europe have expressed concern about the proposed guidance, saying it is an overreaction to the threat information, a position shared by some in the administration, the officials said. The U.S. initially considered warning U.S. citizens to stay away from public places in Europe, but decided to tone down the guidance, one of the officials said.

"We remain focused on al-Qaida's interest in attacking us and attacking our allies," Crowley said. "We will do everything possible to thwart them and will take steps as appropriate."

The implications of a blanket "travel warning" for all of Europe could be big. There are hundreds of thousands of Americans in Europe at any one time, including tourists, students and businesspeople.

While the government cannot stop people from traveling there or force them to return home, a warning could result in canceled airline and hotel bookings as well as deter non-U.S. travelers from going to Europe. In addition, many U.S. college and university study-abroad programs will not send students to countries for which a warning is in place for insurance and liability reasons.

For that reason, officials said, there was internal debate over how strong to make the guidance. The State Department has several grades of travel notice, ranging from low-threat advisories to more severe alerts and a formal "travel warning." There is also a "worldwide caution" in place that warns Americans of ongoing global terrorist threats.

Under a "no double standard" rule adopted after the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the government is obliged to share threat information that it has given diplomats and other officials with the general public.

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Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.

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French unions launch new pension plan protests (AP)

PARIS ï¿½ Hundreds of thousands of protesters young and old demonstrated in France on Saturday, waving union flags and pressing conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy to drop plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. It was the third day of protests in a month.

Unions tried a new tactic, scheduling the protest for a Saturday instead of a weekday to draw families, youths and private-sector employees who don't show up during the workweek. Pockets of students marched among the unions, and some parents carried children on their shoulders.

France ï¿½ one of many indebted European countries trying to scale back spending ï¿½ says its money-losing pension system will collapse without reform. The government casts the plan as the only responsible course of action and insists people need to work longer because they are living longer.

French unions, however, see retirement at 60 as a firmly entrenched right in a country attached to generous state benefits.

Michelle Notte, a 68-year-old retiree, marched with her 9-year-old grandson in Paris.

"I stand for my children, my grandchildren. It is for them that I demonstrate," she said, adding that in retirement it's "a joy to have free time, to take care of one's grandchildren, to take care of others."

Police put nationwide turnout at 899,000, down 10 percent from protests Sept. 23. But unions said the movement was going strong: The CFDT union said 2.9 million protested, on par with last time.

"There are more and more people who are against this injustice and want to send a strong message to the government ï¿½ this is the last opportunity to change this draft reform and to make it more fair,'" said CFDT head Francois Chereque.

Paris protesters marched past the site of the former Bastille prison, the famous revolutionary site. Several young protesters danced atop a van and led a call-and-response: "Retirement! At age 60!"

"Young people are sick of seeing social benefits disappear," said Thomas Roller, an 18-year-old high school student who marched in Paris. "France is becoming a country where it's 'every man for himself,' and we don't want that."

Organizers have counted on youth turnout to convince the government that even people who don't generally think about old age are worried. But the spokesman of Sarkozy's UMP party, Frederic Lefebvre, told France-Info radio that there wasn't any significant youth participation and said the movement was on the decline.

Two protests in September each drew around a million people throughout the country, according to the government, though unions gave much higher figures, up to 3 million.

Those demonstrations were accompanied by broad strikes that hobbled train and commuter traffic, unlike Saturday, when there were few disruptions to public services. Dockers have been blocking the port in the southern city of Marseille, however, and 39 ships carrying oil, chemicals and other products were awaiting entry.

France is among many European governments looking to cut costs and chip away at some cherished but costly benefits that underpin the good life on the continent. A euro110 billion ($140 billion) bailout for Greece has added to the sense of urgency this year.

Conservative French lawmakers have already pushed the pension reform through its first legislative hurdle in the lower house of parliament. The Senate takes the measure up Tuesday, and protesters are planning to gather there too as debate gets under way. Another national day of protests is planned Oct. 12.

The French government has expressed willingness to alter some language in the bill, but union leaders say their offers aren't enough.

The reform's aim is make the money-draining pension system break even by 2018. Though the minimum retirement age would be 62, people would have to wait until age 67 if they want full pension benefits, up from age 65 today.

France's retirement age will still be lower than in comparable countries. Germany is set to raise its retirement age over the coming years from 65 to 67 to offset a shrinking, aging population, and the United States is gradually doing the same.

___

Associated Press writers Angela Doland, Nicolas Garriga and Paolo Santalucia in Paris contributed to this report.

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Druids recognized as religion for first time in UK (AP)

LONDON ï¿½ Druids have been worshipping the sun and earth for thousands of years in Europe, but now they can say they're practicing an officially recognized religion.

The ancient pagan tradition best known for gatherings at Stonehenge every summer solstice has been formally classed as a religion under charity law for the first time in Britain, the national charity regulator said Saturday. That means Druids can receive exemptions from taxes on donations ï¿½ and now have the same status as such mainstream religions as the Church of England.

The move gives an old practice new validity, said Phil Ryder, the chairman of the 350-member Druid Network.

"It will go a long way to make Druidry a lot more accessible," he said.

Druids have practiced for thousands of years in Britain and in Celtic societies elsewhere in Europe. They worship natural forces such as thunder and the sun, and spirits they believe arise from places such as mountains and rivers. They do not worship a single god or creator, but seek to cultivate a sacred relationship with the natural world.

Although many see them as robed, mysterious people who gather every summer solstice at Stonehenge ï¿½ which predates the Druids ï¿½ believers say modern Druidry is chiefly concerned with helping practitioners connect with nature and themselves through rituals, dancing and singing at stone circles and other sites throughout the country believed to be "sacred."

Ancient Druids were known to be religious leaders, judges and sages among the Celts during pre-Christian times, although little evidence about their lives survived. There are now various Druid orders and about 10,000 practitioners in Britain ï¿½ and believers said the numbers are growing because more people are becoming aware of the importance to preserve the environment.

The Druid Network fought for nearly five years to be recognized under the semi-governmental Charity Commission, which requires proof of cohesive and serious belief in a supreme entity and a moral framework.

After initially rejecting the Druid Network's application, the Charity Commission decided this week that Druidry fit the bill.

"There is sufficient belief in a supreme being or entity to constitute a religion for the purposes of charity law," the commission said.

Adrian Rooke, a Druid who works as a counselor, said Druidry appeals to people who are turning away from monotheistic religions but still long for an aspect of spirituality in their lives.

"It uplifts the spirit," he said. "The world is running out of resources, and in that context it's more important to people now to formulate a relationship with nature."

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TV exit poll: Latvian government wins re-election (AP)

RIGA, Latvia ï¿½ An exit poll showed Latvia's center-right government winning re-election in one of the world's most recession-scarred economies with about 55 percent of the vote Saturday.

If the result stands it would likely mean that Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis stays in power at the helm of a coalition of center-right parties that took office in March 2009 after the previous government collapsed amid political and economic turmoil.

The exit poll by the BNS news service and LTV television showed the main challenger ï¿½ the pro-Russia Harmony Center party ï¿½ winning about 30 percent of the vote.

The exit poll included 3,377 voters. The margin of error was not announced.

A victory by the center-left Harmony Center would have thrown into question a financial bailout program for Latvia, whose economic output has plunged 25 percent over the past two years.

President Valdis Zatlers, who has the right to nominate the next prime minister has said that one of the criteria in his selection will be strict adherence to the euro7.5 billion ($10.3 billion) emergency bailout package put together by the IMF and the EU in December 2008.

The bailout saved Latvia, where the economy had overinflated after four years of double-digit growth, from bankruptcy, but it also shackles any future government to harsh budget cuts and tax hikes ï¿½ something that will not sit well with a population that saw unemployment reach nearly 25 percent last year.

Leaders of Harmony Center, which brands itself as the only social-democratic party in Latvia, have said in the past they would like to re-negotiate part of the IMF-led program.

Harmony Center officials, who control the city council in the capital, Riga, also say they would like to pull Latvia's troops from the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, a drastic foreign policy shift that the president said could not be tolerated.

The fault lines between ethnic Latvians and the Russian minority run deep in this small Baltic nation, and the idea of Russian influence evokes painful memories of 50 years of Soviet occupation. Ever since Latvia's independence in 1991, politics here have been dominated by center-right governments steering the country on a pro-Western course, culminating in NATO and European Union membership in 2004.

Russian-speakers, mostly ethnic Russians but also Ukrainians and Belorussians, represent one-third of Latvia's 2.3 million population. But given that many traditional Latvian parties are blamed for the recession, some Latvians are willing to vote for the center-left Harmony Center. The party last year won a municipal election in Riga, the capital.

Analysts agree that the probable third-place winner, the populist Greens and Farmers Union, will be the kingmaker in any future coalition, because it will hold enough seats to give a majority to either Harmony Center or Unity, a centrist bloc that controls the current government.

Unity had 33 percent in the exit poll while the Greens and Farmers Union got 15 percent and the third coalition partner, the right-wing For Fatherland and Freedom, had 7 percent.

The Central Election Commission said preliminary results showed voter turnout was 61 percent.

"I voted for Harmony Center," said Sergei Nosov, a Russian who moved to Latvia 25 years ago and passed the citizenship exam. "I've seen that something's being done in Riga. They're doing exactly what they promised before municipal elections."

Raivis Lazdins, a Latvian, said Harmony Center couldn't be trusted. "They're friends with the Kremlin party United Russia, which is led by (Russian Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin, so voting for them would be crazy," said Lazdins, adding that he was going to cast his ballot for Unity.

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US may issue warning on public places in Europe (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ The Obama administration is considering a broad warning for U.S. citizens to avoid public places in Europe due to new al-Qaida threats, U.S. and European officials told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Such a move could have significant implications for European tourism.

The State Department may issue a travel warning as early as Sunday advising Americans to stay away from European tourist sites, transportation hubs and other facilities because of fresh threat information, U.S. officials told the AP.

A European official briefed on the talks said the language in the U.S. alert is expected to be vague. It won't address a specific country or specific landmarks, the official said.

European and U.S. officials have not identified any specific targets that terrorists might be considering, the official said. Officials have called the threat credible but not specific.

The U.S. has told European leaders that the State Department alert would be intended to raise the warning level to match the information about the would-be attack that surfaced last week, the European official said.

The European official said there had not been strong opposition to the proposed alert from European leaders.

One of the Britons died in a recent CIA missile strike, he said. The Pakistani official 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.

"We remain focused on al-Qaida's interest in attacking us and attacking our allies," Crowley said. "We will do everything possible to thwart them and will take steps as appropriate."

The implications of a blanket "travel warning" for all of Europe could be big. There are hundreds of thousands of Americans in Europe at any one time, including tourists, students and businesspeople.

For that reason, officials said, there was internal debate over how strong to make the warning. The State Department has several grades of travel notice, ranging from low-threat advisories to more severe alerts and a formal "travel warning." There is also a "worldwide caution" in place that warns Americans of ongoing global terrorist threats.

Some U.S. allies in Europe have expressed concern about the proposed warning, saying it is an overreaction to the threat information, a position shared by some in the administration, the officials said.

The French Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry, the national police and the Paris police all declined immediate comment. Calls to the Paris tourism office and the French government's tourist office in the United States went unanswered Saturday and there was no immediate response to e-mail requests for comment.

A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Office in Berlin declined comment

___

Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.

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Nigeria: Death toll in bombings rises to 12 (AP)

ABUJA, Nigeria ï¿½ Nigeria's president on Saturday criticized the group claiming responsibility for setting off two car bombs during the oil-rich nation's 50 anniversary of independence, calling them terrorists who used the struggles of his homeland to "camouflage criminality."

President Goodluck Jonathan's comments came as the death toll for the attack claimed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, also known as MEND, rose to 12, with dozens more maimed by the explosions.

"They are not representing anybody's interest," the president said of MEND, Nigeria's main militant group in the southern delta.

Jonathan visited Abuja's National Hospital to see some of those wounded by the car bombs, set off only a 10-minute walk away from where he and other dignitaries sat during Friday's celebration.

The president, who is from Nigeria's oil-rich and restive southern delta, told gathered reporters that he went to school only a few kilometers away from where Royal Dutch Shell PLC drilled the nation's first oil well.

"This is the first time somebody from the Niger Delta has the opportunity to be president of this country. ... You have your own here, you should have hope," Jonathan said. "Good things don't happen overnight."

Jonathan also acknowledged that there were "security lapses" that allowed the bombing, but declined to offer any specific plan to overhaul security agencies in Africa's most populous nation.

Meanwhile, Abuja police spokesman Jimoh Moshood told The Associated Press that at least 12 people have died from injuries they suffered from the car bombings. He said another 11 officers were critically injured in the blasts and at least 17 others suffered injuries.

Moshood said police are searching for clues about who planted the bombs.

MEND issued a warning to journalists about an hour before the attacks Friday, telling people to stay away from festivities at Eagle Square in the nation's capital of Abuja. It blamed Nigeria's government for doing nothing to end the unceasing poverty in the delta as the nation receives billions of dollars from oil revenue.

The militant group has destroyed oil pipelines, kidnapped petroleum company workers and fought government troops since 2006.

Violence in the delta drastically subsided after a government-sponsored amnesty deal last year provided cash for fighters and the promise of job training. However, many ex-fighters now complain that the government has failed to fulfill its promises.

The militant group appeared to splinter over the amnesty program, though it proved its operational abilities in March when it detonated two car bombs near a government building in the Niger Delta where officials were discussing the deal. The blasts wounded two people in an attack heard live on television. The group also used car bombs in several attacks in 2006 that killed at least two people.

Nigeria, which is vying with Angola to be Africa's top supplier of crude oil, is a major supplier to the U.S.

___

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed from Lagos, Nigeria.

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Dems, GOP recalibrate strategy a month to election (AP)

WASHINGTON ï¿½ Democrats have all but written off at least three Senate seats ï¿½ in North Dakota, Indiana and Arkansas ï¿½ and at least six House seats in Tennessee, Louisiana, New York and elsewhere as they embark on a final-weeks advertising push to minimize congressional election losses.

Emboldened by their prospects, Republicans recently threw $1.3 million into West Virginia in hopes of winning a Senate seat that was long thought out of reach. It was the GOP's latest move to expand a playing field already heavily tilting its way.

In the one-month dash to Election Day, both parties are zeroing in on races they have the best chances of winning, recalibrating strategies and shifting advertising money by the day. The state of play could change repeatedly between now and Nov. 2.

Democrats are especially worried about House districts in the economically troubled Midwest, and their chances of picking up GOP-held Senate seats have dwindled.

In the final stretch, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has reserved at least $52 million to run TV ads in more than 60 districts, nearly all held by their own party. The National Republican Campaign Committee has set aside $35 million in airtime in 55 races, and officials say more is on the way.

The disparity is misleading.

Democrats consistently have had a cash advantage, but GOP-allied groups have weighed in and advertised in crucial contests for weeks.

The latest details emerged from campaign documents obtained by The Associated Press, as well as from interviews with more than a dozen Republican and Democratic operatives with knowledge of advertising plans, polling and strategy. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details publicly.

Control of Congress and the outlook for President Barack Obama's agenda is at stake this election. Some five dozen or more House races are competitive, mostly for seats now held by Democrats. Republicans need to win 40 to take control. Of the 37 Senate races, about a dozen are close. The magic number for the GOP is 10.

No one doubts that Democrats will lose seats in both chambers. The question is how many.

"The political environment is positive for us. I think our candidates are strong. And really it's going to be a resource issue now on how we can maximize the use of limited resources," said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the Senate GOP's campaign efforts.

His Democratic counterpart, Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, predicted his party will retain its majority despite the tough landscape marked by "a lot of ups and downs." He added: "I don't think the roller coaster is ready to level out anytime soon."

While technology has changed politics, television advertising still is a powerful and necessary political tool to reach voters, and it's the best indicator of where party leaders think they have a shot at winning. Both sides have reserved millions of dollars of airtime and will decide whether to cancel those orders or send the check. Any movement from one side will force the other to change strategy.

In the Senate, the GOP goal of seizing control became tougher when Republican leaders' favored candidate in Delaware, Rep. Mike Castle, lost to tea party conservative Christine O'Donnell. It's doubtful national Republicans will advertise in the state now unless polls show Democrat Chris Coons' poll lead evaporating.

Just as that race was falling off the map, Republicans were buoyed by the surprisingly neck-and-neck nature of the West Virginia Senate race. Cornyn's team invested to help Republican John Raese, and Democrats were forced to go on the air to aid Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin.

In other Democratic-held Senate seats, however, the party hasn't reserved any airtime to protect incumbent Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas or help Rep. Brad Ellsworth win an open seat in Indiana. Both are trailing their Republican opponents in polls.

The Senate Democrats' campaign committee disputes the notion that it's given up on those races, noting that it continues to spend money on turnout programs in both states and doesn't rule out providing more resources.

North Dakota was never in the Democrats' fall plans. Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan is retiring in a solidly Republican state.

Elsewhere, Democrats are on TV defending seats in Colorado, Delaware, Illinois and Pennsylvania, and are going up on the air in Connecticut. They've reserved airtime if needed to help Democratic Sen. Patty Murray in Washington state, but Democrats have been feeling better about that race in recent days and even Republicans say she's improved her standing.

At this stage, no party money is going to other hotly contested states held by Democrats ï¿½ California and Nevada among them ï¿½ but only because candidates are sitting on their own cash. Operatives also are closely watching Wisconsin, where Sen. Russ Feingold is in trouble.

Democratic hopes of picking up a Republican-held Senate seat now appear to rest on Missouri, where the party is running ads, and, perhaps, Kentucky, where airtime has been reserved. But money could be diverted elsewhere if those races start to look out of reach.

Officials in both parties say Republican contenders appear ahead in New Hampshire, Florida, and especially Ohio. No TV ad money is set thus far for those states.

Democrats already appear resigned to losing at least six House seats.

They include four districts left open by retirements and where no advertising is planned: Tennessee's 6th, Louisiana's 3rd, New York's 29th and Kansas' 3rd. Airtime has been set aside for two other open seats ï¿½ Arkansas' 2nd and Indiana's 8th ï¿½ but Democrats expect party leaders to cancel those plans if polls continue to show their candidates trailing badly.

Democrats also are trying to determine whether to move forward with advertising plans to win open Democratic-held seats like Tennessee's 8th and to protect vulnerable incumbents such as Reps. Steve Driehaus in Ohio's 1st, Mary Jo Kilroy in Ohio's 15th and Chet Edwards in Texas' 17th.

Dozens more races are extremely competitive including Reps. Travis Childers in Mississippi's 1st and John Spratt in South Carolina's 5th.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the House Democrats' campaign committee, said the environment was very fluid and Democrats were improving their standing. "There are a lot of races (Republicans) thought would be won by now but are not," he said.

Republicans, who are defending six competitive seats, expect to lose at least two: the open, at-large Delaware seat and Rep. Joseph Cao's 2nd district seat in Louisiana.

In the days ahead, Republican and Democratic leaders will determine where to deploy limited money, making decisions on which candidates to help and which to jettison.

"It's what we're doing every minute of every hour so we can very carefully place our resources and maximize our effectiveness. It's almost constant evaluation race by race," said Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, vice chairman of the House GOP's campaign effort. "There's a limited amount of money and a limited amount of time."

___

Associated Press Writers Jim Kuhnhenn, David Espo, Laurie Kellman and Julie Hirschfeld Davis contributed to this report.

___

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: http://www.dccc.org

National Republican Campaign Committee: http://www.nrcc.org/

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee: http://www.dscc.org/

National Republican Senatorial Committee: http://www.nrsc.org/

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In 2nd tape, bin Laden urges Pakistan flood relief (AP)

CAIRO ï¿½ In a second audio recording in 24 hours, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden said governments of Muslim nations have not done enough to help Pakistanis hit by floods that killed hundreds and displaced millions.

As in the earlier recording, bin Laden's criticism was measured in the message released Saturday on militant websites. The tone contrasted sharply with past videos and recordings in which he and his deputies called for the leaders of Muslim nations like his native Saudi Arabia and Egypt to be overthrown.

By avoiding his familiar calls for attacks on the West and the toppling of U.S.-allied regimes in the Arab world and instead speaking of humanitarian causes like the floods in Pakistan and issues like climate change, bin Laden appears to be trying to broaden al-Qaida's appeal beyond its traditional extremist support base.

Still, he singles out Arab leaders, accusing them of failing to respond to a calamity in a fellow Muslim nation and asserting that the U.N. chief did more than them to help Pakistan.

"The (U.N.'s) secretary-general came to witness the catastrophe for himself, and yet no Arab leaders came to witness the disaster despite the short distances and claims of brotherhood," he said.

A copy of the 13-minute audiotape, entitled "Help your Pakistani Brothers," was made available by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi forums. Its authenticity could not be independently confirmed, though the voice resembled that of bin Laden in confirmed messages by him.

The recording was aired along with a still photograph of a smiling bin Laden superimposed over pictures of flood victims.

The message was similar to the recording released Friday in which bin Laden called for the establishment of a relief organization to prevent flooding in Muslim nations, create development projects in impoverished regions and improve agriculture to guarantee food security.

In Saturday's message, bin Laden accused the media of failing to cover the flooding tragedy effectively or provide "the real picture" of natural disasters in the Muslim world. Journalists should also increase coverage of climate change, he said.

While bin Laden's recent messages have avoided talk of violence, U.S. counterterrorism officials said Friday they believe he and other senior al-Qaida leaders were involved in a recently uncovered plan for coordinated shooting rampages or attacks in Britain, France and Germany.

The accusation raised speculation bin Laden might be seeking to show al-Qaida's besieged Pakistan-based core remains able to launch attacks on Western targets.

Two earlier videos from other al-Qaida figures about the flooding in Pakistan took a sharply militant tone. The United States and Pakistani officials have often expressed fears that militant groups in Pakistan could drum up support by exploiting frustration among Pakistanis who feel aid has not reached them quickly following the floods that swept through the country starting in late July.

International donors have pledged more than $800 million for flood relief in Pakistan, the bulk of it coming from the United States which has donated nearly $350 million. The United Nations last month hiked up its call for aid, seeking to raise $2 billion for Pakistan's flood victims, its largest humanitarian appeal ever.

Arab nations in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have also launched relief appeals and delivered aid to Pakistan.

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Intel: Strikes continue amid border tension (AP)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan ï¿½ Two suspected American missile strikes killed 12 alleged militants in a northwestern Pakistan tribal region Saturday, intelligence officials said, a sign the U.S. is unwilling to stop using the unpopular tactic despite heightened tensions between the two countries over recent border incursions by NATO.

The Pakistani Taliban, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for an attack on NATO oil tankers in Pakistan's south, saying they were avenging the killing of three Pakistani border guards by NATO helicopters. In apparent retaliation for the killings, Pakistan has cut off a key U.S. and NATO supply line on its soil.

A surge in reported U.S. drone missile strikes in Pakistan along with NATO operations along the border suggest Western forces are cracking down on insurgents who easily move across the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan ï¿½ something Islamabad has been slow to do despite pleas from Washington. Pakistan's willingness to block the supply line amid public outrage, however, shows the leverage it has over the U.S. and NATO.

Four suspected U.S. missiles struck a house Saturday morning in Datta Khel village in the North Waziristan tribal region, killing eight suspected militants, the Pakistani intelligence officials said. Four other missiles hit a different house in the area later Saturday, killing four more suspected insurgents, they said.

Datta Khel is believed to be a hide-out for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters accused of targeting NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Those killed Saturday were believed to be insurgents working for warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur.

The three intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk on the record to the media.

Over the past five weeks, the U.S. is suspected of launching at least 23 missile strikes in Pakistani territory, an unprecedented number. Western officials say some of the CIA-controlled, drone-fired strikes have been aimed at disrupting a terror plot against European cities.

U.S. officials rarely discuss the covert program, but have described it in the past as a highly successful tool that has killed some top militant leaders. Pakistan, while formally opposing the missile strikes, is believed to secretly provide intelligence for them. Polls show deep opposition among Pakistani citizens to the strikes, along with a belief that they kill large numbers of civilians.

Public outrage has also risen over the recent NATO incursions. On Thursday, two NATO helicopters crossed into the Kurram tribal region and killed three Pakistani paramilitary soldiers who fired warning shots at them from a border post.

On Saturday, some 150 trucks were still waiting for Pakistan to reopen the border crossing at Torkham so they could deliver their supplies to Western troops in Afghanistan. But Pakistan has shown no sign it plans to allow the trucks to leave its territory, despite the potential strain a lengthy closure would have on its relationship with the U.S., which provides it with billions of dollars in military and other aid.

A second, smaller border crossing in the southwestern town of Chaman remains open, but Torkham, in the northwest, is considered much more important.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday that the closure hasn't yet had an impact on operations in Afghanistan, and he believes the U.S. and Pakistan can settle the rift.

"We're working it with them and ... I believe we'll figure a way to work our way through this," Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said in Tucson, Arizona.

The closure of the border crossing has coincided with attacks on NATO supply trucks elsewhere in the country, including the burning of some 30 oil tankers early Friday by suspected militants in southern Pakistan's Sindh province.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azzam Tariq told The Associated Press that his organization was behind the assault in the Shikarpur area and threatened more attacks ï¿½ including ones inside the United States.

"We ask the government of Pakistan to cut all the supply routes for NATO, otherwise we will continue targeting NATO's fuel trucks and containers," he told AP by phone. "We condemn the NATO attack on Pakistani forces in Kurram, and this attack proves that Christians and Jews cannot be our friends, and this is what Islam tells us. We will avenge this NATO attack by targeting America. We will carry out attacks inside America."

The Pakistani Taliban is strongest in the northwest, especially in the tribal belt, but has ties to other militant groups throughout the country. If it played a role in the attack on the NATO oil tankers, it might have relied on foot soldiers from militant groups based in Sindh.

Also Saturday, gunmen killed a moderate Islamic scholar who was the vice chancellor of Swat University and his assistant, police said. Swat has been the focus of a Pakistani army offensive against the Taliban, and in recent months, several targeted killings of prominent people from the district have raised fears that Islamist militants are trying to make a comeback.

The scholar, Farooq Khan, also worked as a psychiatrist. The gunmen killed him and his assistant at his clinic in the northwest city of Mardan, police official Zahoor Khan said. Farooq Khan was also a member of a committee looking into what to do with a seminary once run by Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah, whose whereabouts are unknown.

___

Associated Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar and Bob Christie in Tucson, Arizona, contributed to this report.

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Scientists use hovering zeppelin to film whales (AP)

EVERETT, Wash. ï¿½ Pilot Katharine Board often sees pods of blue, gray and killer whales as she flies along the California coast. Compared to other pilots, however, she has a unique vantage point ï¿½ low and slow ï¿½ from the only operational zeppelin in the United States.

Board's airship, a modern model of an aircraft that is a throwback to the 1930s era of aviation, gives her a clear and steady view of the sea giants.

"The great thing about moving slowly and low ï¿½ we fly 1,000 feet above the ground and our cruising speed is 40 miles per hour ï¿½ is that you really get to see the world, you really do get to see the places you're in," Board said.

This past month, Farmers' Insurance, the company that sponsors the zeppelin, donated a day of flying to a group of scientists so they could film and photograph an orca pod in Washington's Puget Sound.

Usually the zeppelin ï¿½ christened "Eureka" ï¿½ offers commercial sightseeing flights along the West Coast for up to 12 passengers per flight, with prices ranging from $200 to $1,000 per person.

Many associate zeppelin flight with the tragedy of the German passenger airship Hindenburg, which exploded into flames at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey on May 6, 1937, killing 36 people.

Since then, there's been many safety improvements with zeppelins, including a key difference: zeppelins no longer employ highly flammable hydrogen as lifting gas. The Eureka uses helium. The Eureka also uses a computerized wire system to steer the ship, and its structure is made of carbonfiber material.

While visually similar, zeppelins are different from the blimps often seen at sporting events. Blimps are much smaller and don't have the rigid structure.

"It's a balance between business and doing things that are really special," said Brian Hall, owner of Airship Ventures, the owner of the zeppelin. "There are so many cool things we've done before with this platform."

Hall's airship has gone on research flights to examine biota in salt ponds, harmful algal blooms, and to seek out pipeline gas leak evidence.

Hall, who made his fortune in Silicon Valley, purchased his airship in 2006 after flying in a zeppelin during a trip to Germany. Eureka began flying in 2008, after months of negotiating permits to allow a zeppelin to fly again in American air space.

Eureka arrived in a cargo ship from Europe and was flown from Texas to its base in California. Hall said it took three days to cruise above Texas alone.

[Video: Tracking whales from above]

Hall was aboard for the whale research flight. After a few hours delay due to cloudy weather, the 246-feet long zeppelin took off from an airfield in Everett, Wash., and hovered to the American-Canadian border ï¿½ an hour's flight away.

Scouting boats had tracked the orca pod, as the zeppelin floated aloft. Known as the southern resident killer whales, this group was designated as endangered in 2005. They live permanently in the Puget Sound, hunting salmon and other fish.

Scientists for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration mounted high definition cameras on the bottom of the zeppelin. A researcher for the Center for Whale Research also took pictures to calculate body measurements.

Whales move at about 3 miles per hour, NOAA biologist Brad Hanson said, which made the zeppelin's hovering pace even more useful for observations.

The researchers were able to observe about two dozen whales from the zeppelin. They watched the whales swim in tight groups, roll around each other and "spy hop," moving with their heads above water.

They were able to catch glimpses of the way whales behave and move under water, something they can't observe from boats, Hanson said.

Weather curtailed the observation after an hour, but the scientists were still wowed.

"I get to see whales every day from a boat, and I get to see them closer than most people do," said researcher Erin Heydenreich. "But seeing them from the air is just a completely different picture...watching the way they move together under water is just incredible. That's something you definitely don't see and can't very much capture from a perpendicular photograph."

___

Associated Press Photographer Ted Warren contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects donor of zeppelin time in fourth paragraph. AP Video.)

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Abbas to consult aides on fate of Mideast talks (AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank ï¿½ Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sought the backing of dozens of senior Palestinians on Saturday for his refusal to keep negotiating with Israel without a slowdown in West Bank settlement construction.

However, the outcome of the meeting of leading members of the PLO, Abbas' Fatah movement and small Palestinian factions will likely not be the last word from the Palestinians. A deadline for a final decision was postponed twice in recent days, and a U.S. mediator now has until Friday to try to avert a collapse of Mideast peace talks that were launched in Washington just a month ago.

As Abbas heads into a fateful week of diplomacy, the backing of senior PLO and Fatah officials would strengthen his hand.

Abbas was to brief the group about U.S. envoy George Mitchell's latest unsuccessful attempts to narrow the gaps.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is adamant about not extending a 10-month-old moratorium on West Bank housing starts that expired a week ago, despite appeals by the U.S. and the European Union to keep the building curb in place.

Abbas says there's no point in negotiating while Israeli settlements keep taking over more of the lands the Palestinians want for a future independent state.

"President Abbas' position is clear: no negotiations under the shadow of settlement construction," a top Abbas aide, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, said before Saturday's meeting. However, he said contacts with the U.S. would continue.

Mitchell, who spent four days this week shuttling between Abbas and Netanyahu, is now trying to enlist the help of Arab leaders, and was to meet with Qatari leaders on Saturday.

In remarks published Friday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit issued surprising criticism of the Palestinian position of making talks contingent on the settlement building restrictions, saying the sides should concentrate on drawing the borders of a Palestinian state.

In the West Bank, PLO and Fatah officials have overwhelmingly spoken out against continued negotiations.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said the international community's failure to get Israel to halt settlement expansion does not bode well for the talks, where much more explosive issues will be on the table, such as the partition of Jerusalem. President Barack Obama wants Abbas and Netanyahu to negotiate the terms and borders of a Palestinian state within a year.

Ashrawi said there's a limit to Palestinian flexibility.

"The whole world is demanding that he (Netanyahu) stop settlements, and he is telling the world that Israel is above the law," she said. "If things continue like this, if before beginning final status negotiations, the U.S. says it is unable to pressure Israel, and if the world is looking on, and no one is able to tell Israel to stop settlements, then what is the benefit of negotiations?"

The international community holds that the dozens of settlements on lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, now home to half a million Israelis, violate international law.

Briefing his staff on Friday, Netanyahu voiced frustration with the Palestinian position, noting that Palestinians didn't insist on a settlement freeze during the past 17 years of intermittent negotiations. He said it wasn't easy for him to get his hard-line coalition to back the initial moratorium, and that some construction during the next year is unlikely to affect the negotiations.

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In 2nd tape, bin Laden urges Pakistan flood relief (AP)

CAIRO ï¿½ In a second audio recording in 24 hours, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden says Muslim nations haven't done enough to support relief efforts in flood-hit Pakistan.

In a copy of the recording provided by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group on Saturday, bin Laden also accuses the media of not reporting on the tragedy effectively.

In his earlier recording, released Friday, bin Laden called for the creation of a relief body to aid Muslims affected by natural disasters and wars.

Bin Laden's deputies have issued similar messages recently as a way to angrily criticize the government of Pakistan, where bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

But the al-Qaida leader's two messages on the floods have taken a softer tone in an apparent attempt to broaden the group's appeal.

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Whitman looks to regain momentum in second debate (AP)

FRESNO, Calif. ï¿½ Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown are preparing for their second debate of the California governor's race, hoping to court Hispanic voters, who could make up 15 percent of voters this November.

Whitman, who hoped to use Saturday's forum to lure some voters from Brown, now is aiming to regain momentum.

It's been a tumultuous week for the former eBay CEo, who was forced to explain how she and her husband had an illegal immigrant housekeeper on the payroll for nine years and didn't know it.

The worker and her Los Angeles attorney produced a 2003 Social Security Administration document that raised questions about the employee's status.

Saturday's debate at California State University, Fresno will be broadcast statewide in Spanish and is being sponsored by Univision.

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9/11 conspiracy theories rife in Muslim world (AP)

ISTANBUL ï¿½ About a week ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared to the United Nations that most people in the world believe the United States was behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

To many people in the West, the statement was ludicrous, almost laughable if it weren't so incendiary. And surveys show that a majority of the world does not in fact believe that the U.S. orchestrated the attacks.

However, the belief persists strongly among a minority, even with U.S. allies like Turkey or in the U.S. itself. And it cannot be dismissed because it reflects a gulf in politics and perception, especially between the West and many Muslims.

"That theory might be true," said Ugur Tezer, a 48-year-old businessman who sells floor tiles in the Turkish capital, Ankara. "When I first heard about the attack I thought, 'Osama,' but then I thought the U.S. might have done it to suppress the rise of Muslims."

Compassion for the United States swept the globe right after the attacks, but conspiracy theories were circulating even then. It wasn't al-Qaida, they said, but the United States or Israel that downed the towers. Weeks after the strikes, at the United Nations, President George W. Bush urged the world not to tolerate "outrageous conspiracy theories" that deflected blame from the culprits.

However, the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan provided fodder for the damning claim that the U.S. killed its own citizens, supposedly to justify military action in the Middle East and to protect Israel. A 2006 survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that significant majorities in Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan and Turkey ï¿½ all among the most moderate nations in the Islamic world ï¿½ said they did not believe Arabs carried out the attacks.

Two years later, a poll of 17 nations by WorldPublicOpinion.org, an international research project, found majorities in nine of them believed al-Qaida was behind the attacks. However, the U.S. government was blamed by 36 percent of Turks and 27 percent of Palestinians.

Such beliefs have currency even in the United States. In 2006, a Scripps Howard poll of 1,010 Americans found 36 percent thought it somewhat or very likely that U.S. officials either participated in the attacks or took no action to stop them.

Those who say the attacks might have been an "inside job" usually share antipathy toward the U.S. government, and often a maverick sensibility. Besides Ahmadinejad, high-profile doubters include Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Former Minnesota governor and pro wrestler Jesse Ventura has questioned the official account. Conspiracy theorists have heckled former President Bill Clinton and other prominent Americans during speeches.

Controversy over U.S. actions and policies, including the widely discredited assertions that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, reinforced the perceptions of conspiracy theorists. Iranians dug deeper into history, recalling the U.S.-backed coup in their country in 1953.

"Initially, I was doubtful about the conspiracy theories. But after seeing the events in later years, I don't have any doubt that it was their own operation to find a pretext to hit Muslim countries," said Shaikh Mushtaq Ahmed, a 58-year-old operations manager in a bank in Pakistan. "It's not a strange thing that they staged something like this in their own country to achieve a big objective."

In March, an editorial in The Washington Post harshly criticized Yukihisa Fujita, a lawmaker with the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, for saying in an interview that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers were alive and that shadowy forces with advance information about the plot played the stock market for profit. Fujita said the article contained factual errors.

The record shows that al-Qaida agents on a suicide mission hijacked four American passenger planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people. The evidence is immense: witness accounts, audio recordings, video and photographic documentation, exhaustive investigations and claims of responsibility by al-Qaida.

Yet every fact and official assertion only feeds into alternative views that become amplified on the Internet, some tinged with anti-Semitism because of the close U.S.-Israeli alliance. They theorize that a knowing U.S. government stood by as the plot unfolded, or that controlled demolitions destroyed the Twin Towers, and the Pentagon was hit by a missile.

"All this, of course, would require hundreds if not thousands of people to be in on the plot. It speaks volumes for the determination to believe something," said David Aaronovitch, the British author of "Voodoo Histories: the role of Conspiracy Theory in Modern History."

"This kind of theory really does have a big impact in the Middle East," he said. "It gets in the way of thinking seriously about the problems in the area and what should be done."

A U.S. State Department website devotes space to debunking conspiracy theories about Sept. 11, in the apparent belief that the allegations must be addressed forcefully rather than dismissed out of hand as the ruminations of a fringe group.

"Conspiracy theories exist in the realm of myth, where imaginations run wild, fears trump facts, and evidence is ignored. As a superpower, the United States is often cast as a villain in these dramas," the site says.

Tod Fletcher of Petaluma, California, has worked as an assistant to David Ray Griffin, a retired theology professor, on books that question the Sept. 11 record. He was cautious about the Iranian president's comments about conspiracy theories, suggesting Ahmadinejad may have been politically motivated by his enmity with the U.S. government.

"It seems like it's the sort of thing that could lead to further vilification of people who criticize the official account here in the United States," Fletcher said.

___

Torchia reported from Istanbul. Associated Press Writers Gulden Alp in Ankara, Turkey, and Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.

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Saturday, October 2, 2010

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In 2nd tape, bin Laden urges Pakistan flood relief (AP)

Whitman looks to regain momentum in second debate (AP)

9/11 conspiracy theories rife in Muslim world (AP)

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