Obama, at UN, eyes Sudan, Southeast Asia tensions (AP)

UNITED NATIONS � President Barack Obama is using his third and last day at the U.N. General Assembly to focus on averting renewed conflict in Sudan and easing growing maritime tensions between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors.

A day after concentrating on broader international issues, Obama on Friday was to attend a high-level U.N. meeting aimed at ensuring an upcoming independence referendum for southern Sudan does not spark a new civil war. Preparations for the January vote are well behind schedule, and there are fears a vote to secede will lead to violence.

In preparatory meetings this week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been urging Sudanese authorities to make up for lost time in preparing for the referendum that is called for in the 2005 peace agreement that ended 21 years of north-south civil war in the African nation.

Southern Sudan, which is predominantly animist and Christian, is scheduled to vote on independence Jan. 9. But the group charged with organizing the vote has not yet set a date for voter registration.

The Obama administration has said it is "inevitable" the south will declare independence. Given the south's substantial known oil resources, many worry that the predominantly Muslim north will find it difficult to accept an independent south.

The president also will host a luncheon for leaders from the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations who are concerned about increasing Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea. To China's annoyance, the Obama administration has declared a peaceful resolution to territorial disputes in the sea to be in the United States' interest.

The meeting follows Obama's talks on Thursday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, whose countries are embroiled in their own dispute over jointly claimed islands in the East China Sea.

Beijing was furious when Clinton told a regional security forum in Vietnam in July that the peaceful resolution of disputes over the Spratly and Paracel island groups in the South China Sea was in the U.S. national interest. Beijing said Washington was interfering in an Asian regional issue.

The United States worries the disputes could hurt access to one of the world's busiest commercial sea lanes.

China claims all of the South China Sea, where Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines also have laid territorial claims. Aside from rich fishing areas, the region is believed to have huge oil and natural gas deposits. The contested islands straddle busy sea lanes that are a crucial conduit for oil and other resources fueling China's fast-expanding economy.

At Friday's lunch, Obama is also expected to press Myanmar's military rulers to hold free and fair elections this year and release political prisoners, including democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest. U.S. officials have said they see little chance that any polling there will meet international standards.

In addition to the group meetings, Obama also plans separate talks with the leaders of Colombia, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan.

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Malaysia deports Singaporean terrorist suspect (AP)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia � Malaysia deported a Singaporean terrorist suspect Friday nearly 18 months after he was captured while on the run after staging a dramatic escape from a high-security prison in the city-state.

Mas Selamat Kastari, the alleged commander of the Singapore arm of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah militant group, was released from a Malaysian prison Friday morning, said Mohamad Fuzi Harun, head of the Federal Police's counterterrorism unit, in a written statement.

"The Home Minister ... canceled the detention order against Mas Selamat," Mohamad Fuzi said without elaborating.

A statement by Singapore's Home Ministry said the former fugitive, who is of Indonesian origin, was handed over to Singaporean authorities later Friday.

It said "he has been arrested under the Singapore's Internal Security Act," which allows indefinite detention without trial.

Mas Selamat, who is in his late 40s, is accused of plotting to hijack a plane and crash it into Singapore's international airport. Jemaah Islamiyah is accused of carrying out the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people.

After a year on the run, he was captured in Malaysia on April 1, 2009, and detained under the Internal Security Act.

Mas Selamat's deportation came two days after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak went to Singapore for bilateral talks with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The talks focused on a land-swap deal, and there was no indication that Mas Selamat's release was imminent.

The Singapore Home Ministry statement said Mas Selamat's capture and deportation "illustrates the long-standing close cooperation between the Malaysian and Singaporean security agencies, which has served both countries well."

At the time of his escape on Feb. 27, 2008, Mas Selamat was being held in a heavily guarded jail in Singapore. He escaped by wriggling out a bathroom window in a shocking breach that severely embarrassed the city-state known for its rigorous security. His ability to remain in hiding for more than a year underscored that terrorist networks in the region remain strong.

The search for Mas Selamat initially focused on Singapore and neighboring Indonesia, where it was thought the local branch of Jemaah Islamiyah would easily provide shelter for him. But he was arrested on the outskirts of Johor Baru, the capital of the southern state of Johor state, which is separated from Singapore by a narrow strip of sea.

A father of four, Mas Selamat escaped when he was taken from his cell to a room where he was waiting for a visit from his family. He disappeared after being granted permission go to the bathroom, authorities said.

Such security breaches are virtually unheard of in tightly policed Singapore, an island nation of 4 million people.

Mas Selamat fled Singapore in December 2001 following a crackdown on Jemaah Islamiyah. He was arrested by the Indonesian police on Bintan island in January 2006 and handed over to Singapore authorities.

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AP-GfK Poll: Dems disliked, but GOP just as bad (AP)

WASHINGTON � If anyone is as scorned as much as Democrats these days, it's Republicans � the very party that may recapture the House and perhaps the Senate in November's elections.

Yet Democrats face a problem, even as they try exploiting GOP unpopularity by warning against letting them run Congress. People who dislike Democrats seem ready to vote in greater numbers than those with little use for Republicans.

In an Associated Press-GfK Poll this month, 60 percent disapprove of the job congressional Democrats are doing � yet 68 percent frown on how Republicans are performing. While 59 percent are unhappy with how Democrats are handling the economy, 64 percent are upset by the GOP's work on the country's top issue. Just over half have unfavorable views of each party.

Most say President Barack Obama isn't cooperating enough on the economy; yet even more accuse Republicans of the same thing. Former President George W. Bush and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin � the only two Republicans the AP-GfK Poll tested � are both viewed negatively by more than half in the survey, worse than Obama's marks. And people overwhelmingly fault Bush more than Obama for the recession.

Emile Wery, 66, a military retiree in Pahoa, Hawaii, rated both parties unfavorably in the poll. He says Democrats aren't doing enough to create jobs and Republicans aren't being constructive.

"They're not doing anything to mitigate the problems we have, because it's in their best interests to make Democrats look bad," Wery said of the GOP.

Hoping to burnish their image, House Republicans unfurled a campaign document Thursday proposing tax and spending cuts and other broad suggestions for reviving the economy. Democrats have been on the offensive, too, warning that a GOP-run Congress would return the country to the days of government shutdowns and attempts to privatize Social Security.

Despite the GOP's weak report card, registered voters divide evenly over which party's congressional candidate they support. That expands to a slight Republican edge among likely voters, reflecting a deeper interest that GOP supporters express in the Nov. 2 elections.

The explanation, according to one political scientist who has studied voters' behavior: Most people don't view elections as a choice between two competing futures, as Democrats hope they will. Instead, Stanford University professor Morris Fiorina said they tend to focus on the present � which today means their deep discontent over the job Obama and the Democratic-led Congress have done to rescue the economy.

"People are saying, 'We don't like what we have, we're going to throw them out and we're going to trust that they're going to read the signals right and do something different,'" Fiorina said.

Reflecting that discontent, 54 percent who strongly dislike Democrats in the AP-GfK Poll express intense interest in the election, compared with just 40 percent of those with very negative views of Republicans. Extreme interest in the campaign is expressed by nearly 6 in 10 saying their vote in November will signal their opposition to Obama. Only about 4 in 10 say they want to show support for the president with their vote.

Overall, 49 percent of those supporting their Republican congressional candidate are very interested in the election, compared with 39 percent of those backing the Democrat in their local race.

Still, the public's generally dim view of Republicans gives Democrats some hope of blunting what could be big GOP Election Day gains. That optimism has been buttressed by some candidates Republicans have chosen, such as Delaware Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell, who faces allegations of misusing campaign funds and has espoused conservative social views.

"As Republicans take the spotlight, voters become more focused on what they don't like about the GOP," said Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin.

Republicans say that won't work because midterm elections are usually about the party in power.

"It is awfully hard to change the subject," said GOP pollster Glen Bolger. "And right now the subject is big picture things like the economy and jobs, taxes and spending, the health care bill" and big government.

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications from Sept. 8-13 and involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,000 randomly chosen adults. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

___

AP Polling Director Trevor Tompson, Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

___

Online:

AP-GfK Poll: http://ping.fm/G9KXb

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Soviet coup plotter Yanayev dies at 73 (AP)

MOSCOW � Russia's Communist Party says Gennady Yanayev, a coup plotter who briefly declared himself president of the Soviet Union, replacing Mikhail Gorbachev, has died at age 73.

A statement from the party said Yanayev died Friday after an unspecified lengthy illness.

Yanayev was vice president of the Soviet Union when he and other coup plotters shocked the world on Aug. 18, 1991, with the announcement that Gorbachev was tired and that Yanayev was taking over.

The coup collapsed three days later and Gorbachev returned to power, but the putsch hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was dissolved four months later.

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US walks out of Ahmadinejad UN speech (AP)

UNITED NATIONS � President Barack Obama and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traded accusations about their nations' nuclear programs, but both left the door open to further negotiations about the nuclear impasse.

In his speech Thursday to the annual summit of world leaders, Ahmadinejad also raised the possibility that "some segments within the U.S. government" had orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York � a statement that prompted members of the American delegation to walk out in protest from the U.N. General Assembly.

Delegations from all 27 European Union nations followed the Americans out along with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Costa Rica, an EU diplomat said.

Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the world body, issued a statement after the U.S. walkout, saying that Ahmadinejad "has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable."

Iran is expected to remain high on the agenda of the General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting.

In remarks prepared for delivery on Friday, Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was to tell the assembly that he had been ready to welcome progress during this week's meeting of the six powers trying to get Iran back to the negotiating table � the U.S., U.N., China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.

"An issue of grave global concern has been overshadowed by the bizarre, offensive and attention-grabbing pronouncements by President Ahmedinejad from this podium yesterday. His remarks were intended to distract attention from Iran's obligations and to generate media headlines. They deserve to do neither," Clegg says in the prepared remarks.

The U.N. Security Council has passed four rounds of increasingly restrictive economic sanctions aimed at compelling Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment and return to negotiations on its suspect nuclear program. Iran denies it is trying to build a nuclear weapon, saying its program is meant only for peaceful purposes such as electricity generation.

In a brief reference to the sanctions, Ahmadinejad noted that the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty allows all signatory nations to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

But he said some Security Council members have "equated nuclear energy with nuclear bombs ... while at the same time they have continued to maintain, expand and upgrade their own nuclear arsenals." He added that the United States was spending $80 billion to build up its nuclear arsenal.

Still, Ahmadinejad emphasized that Tehran was prepared to negotiate with the United States, U.N., European Union, and other representatives of the international community, "based on justice and respect."

Obama, who spoke during the General Assembly's morning session and left without waiting for Ahmadinejad's afternoon address, said Iran was the only party to the NPT that could not demonstrate the peaceful nature of its nuclear program.

He said the latest sanctions resolution was meant to make it clear to Tehran "that international law is not an empty promise."

"The United States and the international community seek a resolution to our differences with Iran, and the door remains open to diplomacy should Iran choose to walk through it," Obama said.

Meanwhile, at least 1,000 demonstrators rallied near the United Nations complex to protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit.

They held purple balloons; red, white and green Iranian flags; and red, white and green umbrellas to ward off the hot autumn sun. Some had confetti. There was a huge papier-mache replica of Ahmadinejad's head with a nuclear missile strapped to the back.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told the cheering crowd that they had the support of all democratic nations in the world.

Others among the nearly 140 world leaders attending the U.N. General Assembly also addressed the nuclear impasse in their speeches.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Baghdad believed in the right of all nations to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

"We stress the importance of reaching a peaceful solution in dealing with this issue," he said.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul urged the international community to press for the establishment of a Middle East totally free of nuclear weapons.

Gul's remarks were likely to irritate Washington, which sees any move to raise the issue of Israel's nuclear arsenal as potentially destabilizing at a time of renewed Israel-Palestinian peace talks.

Israel is generally assumed to have assembled a sizable arsenal of nuclear warheads since the 1960s. It has refused to discuss its status as a nuclear power or to join the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to which all other countries in the Middle East adhere.

Just before Obama's speech, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin sharply criticized the United States, saying that the 2003 invasion of Iraq demonstrated that the "blind faith in intelligence reports tailored to justify political goals must be rejected."

"We must ban once and for all the use of force inconsistent with international law," Amorin told the General Assembly, adding that all international disputes should be peacefully resolved through dialogue.

Qatar's ruler Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani echoed the criticism, saying the West's approach of combatting terrorism through wars "had not achieved security, peace or prosperity."

"On the contrary, (the wars have) spread destruction everywhere, deprived millions of their livelihoods, spread fear and caused the killing of millions," he said.

Other world leaders also took Washington to task for various aspects of U.S. foreign policy, including the nearly five decade-old U.S. embargo against Cuba.

"We disapprove and condemn measures such as unilateral embargoes," Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa said. "These embargoes impact not on governments but the most vulnerable sections of the community."

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Aid groups cheer Obama development plan (AP)

UNITED NATIONS � International aid and advocacy groups are welcoming President Barack Obama's new global development policy, saying they expect it will make U.S. foreign assistance more effective and better help those who really need it.

Obama's strategy, spelled out at an anti-poverty summit at the United Nations this week, for the first time elevates American development policy in other poor nations to the level of diplomacy and defense.

"Traditionally, foreign aid wasn't very popular in the United States and no one thought it was important," said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, an advocacy group that urges lawmakers to end hunger at home and abroad.

"Helping developing countries is really important to the United States for security and moral reasons," Beckmann said Thursday. "(It) will provide a rational and more coherent policy that will work to reduce global poverty and ensure economic growth in poor countries."

The most important part of the administration's new focus is that it puts poor people in other countries in charge of their own development, said Gregory Adams, director of aid effectiveness for Oxfam America.

"There is misconception in America that people are poor because they don't have stuff and that if we give them enough stuff: food, schools, medicine, they won't be poor anymore," Adams said. "But if you don't get people involved in their own development they won't escape poverty."

Obama told world leaders on Wednesday that the United States is changing its approach to development and will use diplomacy, trade and investment to help poorer countries instead of just giving them money.

"Instead of simply handing out food, our food security initiative is helping countries like Guatemala and Rwanda and Bangladesh develop their agriculture and improve crop yields and help farmers get their products to market," Obama said at Wednesday's closing of the three-day summit to spur action to achieve U.N. goals to combat poverty by the 2015 deadline.

"Instead of simply delivering medicine, our Global Health Initiative is also helping countries like Mali and Nepal build stronger health systems and better deliver care."

"We're making it clear that we will partner with countries that are willing to take the lead," the president told leaders. "Because the days when your development was dictated by foreign capitals must come to an end," Obama said, drawing loud applause.

The new strategy, the product of a nearly yearlong effort, also includes anti-corruption measures and calls for accountability from the U.S. and the countries it works with.

Senior American officials involved in foreign assistance policy told a news briefing at the U.S. Mission to the U.N. on Thursday that specifics about the new global development strategy will be spelled out in a major policy document next month.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, director of policy for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, said the document will announce reforms within the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the main U.S. agency responsible for civilian foreign aid.

To illustrate how the new U.S. policy would work, Oxfam's Adams gave the example of financing construction of a rural school in sub-Saharan Africa.

"You can measure what you have done by gathering all the receipts for the building materials and labor," he said. "But if you come back in three years, you might find that it is empty, unused, because the government couldn't afford teachers or textbooks. "

But the new U.S. development focus, which Adams said is similar to Oxfam's, would give the community a stake in the school by involving them in its construction, help train teachers and provide textbooks. Success would be measured not on what was spent, but how many girls graduated three years later.

"We'll be doing things very differently," USAID administrator Dr. Raj Shah told the news briefing. "Going forward, we'll focus first on results and real outcomes," and be more selective about what aid money is spent on.

Humanitarian groups said congressional support of Obama's plan would be critical.

The president can already count on the support of Democratic U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont and John Kerry of Massachusetts.

The strategy will "build the capacity of developing countries to achieve lasting progress against poverty, conflict, environmental degradation and other major threats to global security," said Leahy, who chairs the Senate's Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of State and Foreign Operations.

Kerry, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, said it would help "address the leading moral, strategic and economic challenges of the 21st century."

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Japan to release Chinese boat captain amid tension (AP)

TOKYO � Japanese prosecutors decided Friday to release the captain of a Chinese fishing boat involved in a collision near disputed islands whose detention raised tensions between the Asian neighbors.

Beijing has angrily demanded that the captain be released and cut off ministerial-level talks with Japan as relations between the two countries spiraled to their worst level in years.

Prosecutors in southern Japan, where the captain has been in custody for more than two weeks, said they would let him go, citing the damage done to relations with China. It was unclear when authorities would release him.

The case was still pending, but it looked increasingly unlikely that charges would be filed.

The 41-year-old captain, Zhan Zixiong, was arrested on Sept. 8 after his fishing trawler collided with Japanese coast guard vessels near a string of islands in the East China Sea called Diaoyu or Diaoyutai in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese.

Located 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of Taiwan, the islands are controlled by Japan, but also claimed by Taiwan and China. They are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and are regularly occupied by nationalists from both sides.

The arrest sparked anti-Japanese protests in numerous locations around China, and the dispute affected cultural and diplomatic ties. On Tuesday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao threatened "further action" against Japan if it did not release the captain immediately.

Security remained tight around the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Friday. Soldiers and police stood watch for several blocks surrounding the building, with SWAT team, paramilitary and riot police vans parked nearby.

At a news conference, prosecutors in Naha, Okinawa, said Zhan was "just a fishing boat captain" and had no criminal record in Japan. They did not perceive any premeditated intent to damage the patrol boats, said Toru Suzuki, the office's vice prosecutor.

"We have decided that further investigation while keeping the captain in custody would not be appropriate, considering the impact on the people of our country as well as the Japan-China relations in the future," he said.

It was a holiday in China on Friday, and telephone calls to the Foreign Ministry were not answered.

___

Associated Press writer Anita Chang contributed to this report from Beijing.

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Problems delay space station departure for a day (AP)

MOSCOW � The return of two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut to Earth from the International Space Station that was scheduled for Friday has been pushed back by a day because of problems encountered while undocking, the head of the Russian space agency said.

The space fliers were told to return to the station from the Russian Soyuz capsule that was to carry them to a landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan, said Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov.

"The preliminary analysis, according to the technical commission, showed that a false signal appeared in the onboard computer system about the lack of a hermetic junction after closing the hatch on the station," he said in comments shown on Russian state TV.

Perminov said the commission decided to reschedule the landing for Saturday. "It could be done today, but in order not to risk anything, we need reserve time," he said.

However, Rob Navias, a spokesman for the U.S. space agency NASA, said there were also problems opening hooks and latches on the space station side of the capsule.

American astronaut Tracy Caldwell-Dyson and Russia's Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko were due to land Friday morning. The three were reported to be in good shape.

Friday's incident was the second problem in three months with docking or undocking Russian craft at the space station.

In July, an unmanned Progress supply ship failed to dock because of the activation of a transmitter for the manual rendezvous system, which overrode the automated system.

After the failed docking, it was moved to about 180 miles (300 kilometers) from the station. A second docking attempt succeeded two days later.

___

Associated Press Writer Peter Leonard in Almaty, Kazakhstan, contributed to this report.

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Afghan official: Detained journalist released (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan � An Afghan journalist detained by coalition forces for allegedly spreading Taliban propaganda has been freed, a local government spokesman said Friday. The release follows an outcry from media workers and an order from President Hamid Karzai to investigate the detention.

Al-Jazeera cameraman Mohammad Nadir, who was arrested Wednesday in the southern city of Kandahar, was one of three Afghan journalists detained over the past week � two by the coalition and Afghan security forces and a third by the Afghan intelligence service.

NATO says it has information linking the men to networks that act as a mouthpiece for the Taliban and spread insurgent propaganda.

Nadir was let go early Friday, said Zelmai Ayubi, spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar. NATO was not able to immediately confirm the release.

In addition to Nadir, Hojatullah Mujadadi, a radio station manager in Kapisa province north of Kabul, was arrested by Afghan agents. Rahmatullah Naikzad, who has worked for Al-Jazeera and as a freelancer for The Associated Press, was detained by coalition forces in the eastern town of Ghazni, and Nadir was arrested in the southern city of Kandahar.

The arrests sparked an angry reaction by Afghan media workers, journalism advocates and human rights groups. Karzai called Thursday for their quick release.

NATO has defended the detentions, but the alliance's secretary-general on Thursday said he was open to their release if they are found innocent.

"We are in Afghanistan to fight for basic principles like free speech and a free media, and I am a strong defender of that," Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the AP on the sidelines of the annual U.N. summit in New York. He said the cases will be handled fairly.

Separately, NATO reported Friday that coalition forces conducted an airstrike in Kabul province Thursday, killing Qari Mansur, a senior Haqqani operator who was linked, along with five of his associates, to an attack against an Afghan National Police unit earlier in the week. The Haqqani network is a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al-Qaida.

The coalition said it tracked Mansur to a remote valley east of the Afghan capital and then conducted the airstrike. Afghan police could not get to the area because of a suspected mine field, but both Afghan and coalition forces said all six insurgents were killed.

"Qari Mansur was one of the most prolific attack planners for the Kabul insurgent network," said U.S. Army Col. Rafael Torres, a lead spokesman for the coalition.

Nadir, the cameraman, was detained about 4 a.m. Wednesday at his home in the southern city of Kandahar. Coalition troops woke up his wife and forcibly removed him from his bedroom as they searched the house, Al-Jazeera said in a statement.

Naikzad was arrested in his home on Monday. NATO said three grenades, magazines and a "significant number of AK-47 rounds" were found in the compound where he was detained.

It is common for Afghans to keep weapons for self-protection.

The coalition said they suspected Naikzad of working with the Taliban to spread insurgent propaganda and film attacks tied to the parliamentary elections held last weekend. Naikzad supplied The Associated Press with photographs of Afghans voting peacefully, but the AP did not use them.

Paul Colford, media relations director for the AP in New York, said Naikzad has contributed to the AP from time to time since 2007 as a freelance photographer and videographer.

Al-Jazeera, which has extensive contacts within insurgent groups in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Nadir and Naikzad were both innocent.

"As part of their work, cameramen and crew need to have contact with all sides of those involved in a particular issue, which in this case includes NATO forces, the Afghanistan government as well as the Taliban," the Doha, Qatar-based news organization said. "These contacts should not be seen as a criminal offense, but rather as a necessary component of the work that journalists undertake."

NATO's senior civilian representative, Mark Sedwill, said Afghan law enforcement officials will have to decide whether their contacts with Taliban commanders reflected their work as journalists, or was evidence of more complicit activity.

___

Associated Press writer Mirwais Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.

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US walks out of Ahmadinejad UN speech (AP)

UNITED NATIONS � President Barack Obama and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traded accusations about their nations' nuclear programs, but both left the door open to further negotiations about the nuclear impasse.

In his speech Thursday to the annual summit of world leaders, Ahmadinejad also raised the possibility that "some segments within the U.S. government" had orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York � a statement that prompted members of the American delegation to walk out in protest from the U.N. General Assembly.

Delegations from all 27 European Union nations followed the Americans out along with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Costa Rica, an EU diplomat said.

Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the world body, issued a statement after the U.S. walkout, saying that Ahmadinejad "has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable."

Iran is expected to remain high on the agenda of the General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting.

In remarks prepared for delivery on Friday, Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was to tell the assembly that he had been ready to welcome progress during this week's meeting of the six powers trying to get Iran back to the negotiating table � the U.S., U.N., China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.

"An issue of grave global concern has been overshadowed by the bizarre, offensive and attention-grabbing pronouncements by President Ahmedinejad from this podium yesterday. His remarks were intended to distract attention from Iran's obligations and to generate media headlines. They deserve to do neither," Clegg says in the prepared remarks.

The U.N. Security Council has passed four rounds of increasingly restrictive economic sanctions aimed at compelling Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment and return to negotiations on its suspect nuclear program. Iran denies it is trying to build a nuclear weapon, saying its program is meant only for peaceful purposes such as electricity generation.

In a brief reference to the sanctions, Ahmadinejad noted that the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty allows all signatory nations to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

But he said some Security Council members have "equated nuclear energy with nuclear bombs ... while at the same time they have continued to maintain, expand and upgrade their own nuclear arsenals." He added that the United States was spending $80 billion to build up its nuclear arsenal.

Still, Ahmadinejad emphasized that Tehran was prepared to negotiate with the United States, U.N., European Union, and other representatives of the international community, "based on justice and respect."

Obama, who spoke during the General Assembly's morning session and left without waiting for Ahmadinejad's afternoon address, said Iran was the only party to the NPT that could not demonstrate the peaceful nature of its nuclear program.

He said the latest sanctions resolution was meant to make it clear to Tehran "that international law is not an empty promise."

"The United States and the international community seek a resolution to our differences with Iran, and the door remains open to diplomacy should Iran choose to walk through it," Obama said.

Meanwhile, at least 1,000 demonstrators rallied near the United Nations complex to protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit.

They held purple balloons; red, white and green Iranian flags; and red, white and green umbrellas to ward off the hot autumn sun. Some had confetti. There was a huge papier-mache replica of Ahmadinejad's head with a nuclear missile strapped to the back.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told the cheering crowd that they had the support of all democratic nations in the world.

Others among the nearly 140 world leaders attending the U.N. General Assembly also addressed the nuclear impasse in their speeches.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Baghdad believed in the right of all nations to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

"We stress the importance of reaching a peaceful solution in dealing with this issue," he said.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul urged the international community to press for the establishment of a Middle East totally free of nuclear weapons.

Gul's remarks were likely to irritate Washington, which sees any move to raise the issue of Israel's nuclear arsenal as potentially destabilizing at a time of renewed Israel-Palestinian peace talks.

Israel is generally assumed to have assembled a sizable arsenal of nuclear warheads since the 1960s. It has refused to discuss its status as a nuclear power or to join the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to which all other countries in the Middle East adhere.

Just before Obama's speech, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin sharply criticized the United States, saying that the 2003 invasion of Iraq demonstrated that the "blind faith in intelligence reports tailored to justify political goals must be rejected."

"We must ban once and for all the use of force inconsistent with international law," Amorin told the General Assembly, adding that all international disputes should be peacefully resolved through dialogue.

Qatar's ruler Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani echoed the criticism, saying the West's approach of combatting terrorism through wars "had not achieved security, peace or prosperity."

"On the contrary, (the wars have) spread destruction everywhere, deprived millions of their livelihoods, spread fear and caused the killing of millions," he said.

Other world leaders also took Washington to task for various aspects of U.S. foreign policy, including the nearly five decade-old U.S. embargo against Cuba.

"We disapprove and condemn measures such as unilateral embargoes," Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa said. "These embargoes impact not on governments but the most vulnerable sections of the community."

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