Pakistani police beat protesters

By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Police swung batons and fired tear gas at supporters of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto demonstrating near Pakistan's parliament Wednesday, deepening a political crisis triggered by the imposition of military rule.

Associated Press reporters saw hundreds of protesters pushing metal barricades into ranks of riot police blocking their path toward the parliament building, where state television reported that government lawmakers unanimously endorsed President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule.

Police beat several activists, some of them women, who broke through, and dragged at least six people from the scene.

Naheed Khan, a close female aide to Bhutto, stuck a policeman on the shoulder and screamed at him: "Who are you? How dare you take action against women?"

The demonstrators pulled back amid a cloud of tear gas, chanting "Benazir! Benazir!" and "Down with the emergency!"

Thousands of people have been rounded up and put in jail or under house arrest since Musharraf declared a state of emergency Saturday, and three days of protests by lawyers have been quickly put down with force.

Violent clashes with Bhutto's supporters could increase the uncertainty engulfing the country. Bhutto set a collision course with Musharraf on Wednesday by calling her supporters to defy a ban on rallies by marching on parliament and also attending a mass rally in the nearby city of Rawalpindi on Friday.

"I request my brothers and sisters to reach Rawalpindi at all costs," Bhutto told a news conference.

But the mayor of Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of Islamabad, said police would prevent anyone reaching the park where Bhutto hoped to address supporters on Friday.

"We will ensure that they don't violate the ban on rallies, and if they do it, the government will take action according to the law," mayor Javed Akhlas told the AP.

Musharraf suspended the constitution after declaring the state of emergency. He has since ousted independent-minded judges, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent.

With the encouragement of the United States, Musharraf had held negotiations with Bhutto widely expected to lead to a power-sharing arrangement after parliamentary elections originally slated for January.

Bhutto said Tuesday that Musharraf's resort to authoritarian measures was a "breach of trust" with her and that the talks were off. However, she also suggested that they could resume if circumstances change.

"I think we should all come down as strongly as we can for the restoration of democracy. And if General Musharraf wants to find a way out, well the ball is in his court," she said.

The United States and other foreign donors to Pakistan are pressing loudly for the elections to be held on time. They are also urging Musharraf to keep a promise to quit his post as army chief — the real source of his power.

"For elections to be credible, opposition political party leaders and their party workers must be released from jail or house arrest. The media must be free to report on events and share their opinions with the public," U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson said after meeting the head of the election commission on Tuesday.

Musharraf says he suspended the constitution because the courts were hampering Pakistan's effort to fight extremism — for instance by ordering the release of suspects held without charge. But opponents accuse him of a mounting a last-ditch maneuver to stay in power.

In an op-ed piece published in The New York Times, Bhutto urged the U.S. to tell Musharraf it expects internationally monitored elections to be held within 60 days.

"It is dangerous to stand up to a military dictatorship, but more dangerous not to," Bhutto wrote. "The moment has come for the Western democracies to show us in their actions, and not just in their rhetoric, which side they are on."

Bhutto invited other opposition parties to a meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday to discuss a joint strategy against the emergency. However, the party of Nawaz Sharif, the premier Musharraf deposed in a coup in 1999, snubbed the gathering.

Sharif urged the West to abandon Musharraf but also ruled out teaming up with Benazir Bhutto, another key opposition leader, unless she cut off talks with Musharraf.

Sharif told The Associated Press that Pakistan was heading deeper into chaos and his archenemy had outlived his usefulness in fighting terrorism.

"One man is holding the entire nation hostage for his personal interests," Sharif said.

"The political forces, the lawyers and civil community that believe in moderation and democracy, they are sidelined today. Who is going to get the benefit? It will be the radicals and extremists, they will thrive now," he said in a telephone interview from Saudi Arabia, where he was deported in September after attempting to return to Pakistan. "Mr. Musharraf is a man who has outlived his utility in terms of fighting any battle against terror."

Sharif, whose government was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup and has spent the last seven years in exile, said thousands of his party members had been rounded up in the past four days.

He urged the public to protest against Musharraf, and predicted that unless the state of emergency was reversed and Musharraf ousted, the country could be pitched toward "catastrophe."

"Even the ruling junta today does not know how to go get out of this situation they have got into," he said.

Musharraf purged the Supreme Court just as it was preparing to rule on the legality of his contested re-election as president last month. The court also has pressed for authorities to allow the return of Sharif from exile in Saudi Arabia.

Lawyers particularly are incensed by the ouster of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, an independent-minded judge whom Musharraf had tried unsuccessfully to fire earlier this year.
Chaudhry is under house arrest in Islamabad but managed on Tuesday to use a cell phone to urge lawyers to take to the streets.

"We should act upon this message and it will be decided once and for all if the army or the people will rule Pakistan," Zaman said.

Rice presses diplomats on Iraq posts

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the U.S. envoy to Baghdad reminded diplomats on Friday of their duty to serve their country amid a revolt among some who are resisting forced assignments to Iraq.

In separate comments, Rice and Ambassador Ryan Crocker said that foreign service officers are obligated by their oath of office to work at any diplomatic mission worldwide, regardless of the risks involved or their personal feelings about the policies of any given administration.

"We are one foreign service and people need to serve where they are needed," Rice told reporters aboard her plane as she flew to Turkey for a weekend conference of top officials from Iraq's neighbors. Crocker also is attending the conference.

She noted that more than 1,500 of roughly 11,500 foreign service officers had already done Iraq duty voluntarily and, while expressing an understanding of the safety and security concerns of those who might be ordered to go, said they must uphold their commitments.

"I would hope others would think about their obligation not just to the country but their obligation to those who have already served," said Rice, who sent a worldwide diplomatic cable explaining the situation and appealing for volunteers to fill the 48 vacancies that the State Department must fill next year in Iraq.

"We will fill these new jobs as we have before — with volunteers," she said in the unclassified cable, which was made public by the State Department. "However, regardless of how the jobs may be filled, they must be filled. I believe strongly that it is our duty to do our part toward succeeding in the vital mission in Iraq given to us by the president."

On his way to the meeting in Turkey, Crocker offered an even blunter assessment, saying that diplomats have a responsibility to prioritize the nation's interest over their personal safety and that those who don't are "in the wrong line of business."

Joining the foreign service "does not mean you can choose the fight," he told reporters in Dubai. "It's not for us to decide if we like the policy or if the policy is rightly implemented. It's for us to go and serve, not to debate the policy, not to agree with it."

Crocker, a 36-year veteran diplomat who has worked throughout the Mideast and was personally skeptical of the Iraq war, has been the U.S. ambassador to Iraq since early this year.

Since his arrival, he has repeatedly asked for more and more experienced personnel to work at the Baghdad embassy and in Provincial Reconstruction Teams in outlying areas.

His requests have been given top priority by Rice and State Department management officials who have offered generous incentives, including extra danger pay, leave time and preference on next assignments to attract diplomats to volunteer for Iraq duty.

But facing a shortfall in volunteers, the department announced last week that it would identify 200 to 300 foreign service officers as "prime candidates" for 48 unclaimed positions in Iraq and that if not enough of them agreed to go, some would be ordered to do so under threat of dismissal.

The move is the largest diplomatic call-up to an active war zone since Vietnam and on Wednesday several hundred diplomats angrily complained about the step in a town hall meeting, with many applauding when a colleague likened it to a "potential death sentence."

Others complained about the fact that they would be separated from their families, a lack of training and support, and the prospect of returning from Iraq with physical or mental disabilities with few options for treatment, something Rice addressed in the cable.

"I commit to each of you that all those who serve in Iraq, and their families, will receive the department's full support before, during and after their assignment," she said. "I know you will continue to make our nation proud as you serve worldwide, dedicated to the mission, and ready to overcome any challenge."

The State Department says three foreign service personnel — two diplomatic security agents and one political officer — have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

The union that represents diplomats says the security situation is precarious and the completion of a new, heavily secured embassy compound and living quarters in Baghdad has been beset by logistical and construction problems.

The move to so-called "directed assignments" is rare but not unprecedented.

In 1969, an entire class of entry-level diplomats was sent to Vietnam. On a smaller scale, diplomats were required to work at various embassies in West Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.

LA fire started by boy with matches

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - A boy playing with matches started a fire in north Los Angeles County that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week, authorities said Tuesday.

The boy, whose name and age were not released, was interviewed a day after the Buckweed Fire was sparked Oct. 21, said sheriff's Sgt. Diane Hecht.

"He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire," said Hecht said in a statement.

The boy was released to his parents, and the case will be be presented to the district attorney's office, Hecht said.

The 60-square-mile fire began in an area near Agua Dulce and quickly spread by fierce desert winds. It was among more than a dozen major wildfires that killed 14 people and blackened 809 square miles from Los Angeles to the Mexican border.

Authorities arrested five people for arson during that period, but none have been linked to any of the major blazes.

Wildfire pollution poses health threat

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES - Even as many of the wildfires in flame-ravaged Southern California died down and residents returned home, lingering dust and soot-laden air made it difficult for many to breathe even a sigh of relief Saturday.

Air quality remained poor in the central San Bernardino Mountains and parts of the San Bernardino Valley, as well as swaths of Orange and Riverside Counties. In San Diego County, where only two of five major fires was more than 50 percent contained, the air was especially dismal Friday.

That worried Joe Flynn, 48, as he prepared to return home to Ramona, northeast of San Diego, after he and thousands of other evacuees sought shelter Qualcomm Stadium this week.

But the pull to get back to normal was even stronger.

"Sure I'm worried about breathing that stuff up there," he said. "It's not cool but everyone is dying to get back home."

Satellite pictures showed thick smoke continuing to hang over the entire region, affecting schools, events and the health of residents all over Southern California.

Residents staying in areas with bad air were advised to avoid exerting themselves. Children and people with heart and respiratory conditions were urged to stay indoors with the windows and doors closed and the air conditioner on.

"In the immediate aftermath of a fire, we're all at risk of the fine particulate matter we can inhale," said Julia Robinson Shimizu, a spokeswoman for Breathe L.A. "In general it's good to limit outdoor strenuous activity at least seven days after the fires have ended."

The University of California San Diego Medical Center saw an increase in patients coming in with breathing troubles they believe were related to air pollution, spokeswoman Jackie Carr said.

Mayor Jerry Sanders said the NFL's San Diego Chargers would play Sunday's game scheduled at Qualcomm. The stadium can seat more than 70,000 people.

But Ross Porter, a spokesman for the American Lung Association of California, urged fans to use caution when deciding whether to attend.

"Sometimes its better to sit quietly at home and watch it on TV," he said.

Meanwhile, about 23,000 homes were still threatened by five major blazes in three counties. Altogether, more than a dozen fires raced across more than 503,000 acres — the equivalent of 786 square miles — although many of the blazes have been contained.

At least three people — and possibly as many as seven — have been killed by flames. About 1,700 homes have been destroyed and damage estimates have surpassed $1 billion.

On Friday, tens of thousands of displaced families began returning to their fire-ravaged communities, but it will likely be months or even years before they recover what they left behind when they fled giant walls of flames.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office said he would appear Saturday at an Orange County fire command post to discuss efforts to find arsonists and to warn about charlatans peddling insurance scams to fire victims.

On Friday, the governor signed an executive order he said would cut red tape by directing state agencies to aid fire victims with such things as filing for tax extensions and unemployment insurance.

On the other side of the Cleveland National Forest, residents in the Riverside County town of Corona worried that flames they had watched on the news all week might reach them. They filled an elementary school Friday to hear that there was no imminent threat. Some packed valuables in their cars, just in case.

"Your feelings are real but we want to relieve some of that anxiety," John Hawkins, Riverside County fire chief, told residents.

Also Friday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein urged Congressional leaders to provide an additional $1 billion for firefighting and fire recovery efforts.

The National Weather Service had some good news for firefighters: Winds were forecast to be light on Saturday, with highs hovering around 80 in most of the active fire areas.

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Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat and Allison Hoffman in San Diego contributed to this report.

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Evacuees return to ashes, uncertainty

By ALLISON HOFFMAN and SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writers

SAN DIEGO - As some wildfire evacuees returned to their neighborhoods to find only ashes where their homes once stood, others sought government help for dealing with the uncertainty of their upended lives.

Justin Miner was among hundreds of people who gathered Thursday at a disaster center in Rancho San Diego in San Diego County, where an array of federal, state and county agencies had clustered to offer assistance.

Miner was evacuated from his home in Deerhorn Valley and had just arrived with his family at Qualcomm Stadium when his wife — seven months pregnant — went into labor prematurely.

"Things could be a lot better," he said. "It's really bad timing. I'm out of my house, I'm out of my job, my wife's in the hospital. ... I got a 3-year-old with a broken arm and an 11-year old stepson. Would you be OK?"

Five hours later, Miner walked out of the disaster assistance center with food stamps, financial help from the Red Cross and a little bit of hope, though he still didn't know if his house was still standing.

"I walked out with a tremendous amount of help. It's more than I expected," he said.

Such facilities create a one-stop shop where disaster victims can more easily navigate the bewildering array of government and non-governmental assistance.

"What happens in a big disaster like this is that people are very confused, they don't know where to go for help," said Steven C. Preston, head of the Small Business Administration, which joined the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Internal Revenue Service, the state Office of Emergency Services and dozens more agencies at the center.

"Especially in a large disaster like this, our first job is to give people a clear understanding of what we do," Preston said.

The Small Business Administration provides low-interest loans to businesses and — despite the agency's name — homeowners and renters to help with property damage and other costs.

FEMA, among other assistance, gives grants for temporary housing.

In San Diego's fire-ravaged Rancho Bernardo neighborhood, some residents who stayed behind grabbed garden hoses, ensuring their neighbors would be less likely to need FEMA's help.

Gail Jones, 46, came home Thursday to find a little paper American flag planted in her front yard. Residents who watered burning roofs placed flags in front of each of the homes where they put out fires.

"We got back and saw this flag, and that's how we knew they saved our house," she said, weeping. "Our roof is a little scorched, but that's it. If they hadn't been here, our houses could all have been gone."

Across the street, another neighbor wasn't as fortunate.

Robert Sanders, 56, a photographer, rented a house that was incinerated after flying embers hit its wooden shake-shingle roof.

A fire-resistant box containing all his transparencies survived, but its contents melted from the heat, he said. Also destroyed was the only photograph he had of his father and a photo of his wife with her father.

A charred copy of "The Little Engine That Could" belonging to Sanders' daughter lay open in what had been the master bedroom. The book had been his wife's when she was a child.

"I've lost my history," he said. "All the work I've done for the past 30 years, it's all destroyed."
When the evacuation orders were lifted in Rancho Bernardo on Thursday, mile-long lines of cars formed at the freeway exit off Interstate 15 as tens of thousands of residents waited to return to their neighborhoods.

Some, like Frank Monticello, 40, saw no reason to rush back to a house that was burned to the ground.

"Truthfully, we don't feel any urgency to get in there," he said. "We know it's gone."

Calif. wildfire losses top $1 billion

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer

SAN DIEGO - The devastating wildfires in Southern California have caused at least $1 billion in damage in San Diego County alone, officials said Wednesday, as easing wind gave firefighters hope that they could begin to gain ground against the flames.

The fires, in their fourth day, had destroyed 1,500 homes and caused at least a half-million people to flee — the largest evacuation in state history. At least 1,200 of the damaged homes were in San Diego County, and officials believe that number will rise.
"Clearly, this is going to be a $1 billion or more disaster," Ron Lane, San Diego County's director of emergency services, told reporters during a news conference.
The announcement of San Diego's staggering losses came as President Bush signed a major disaster declaration for California in the wake of the wildfires that have charred about 426,000 acres, or about 665 square miles.
The declaration puts in motion long-term federal recovery programs to help state and local governments, families, individuals and certain nonprofit organizations recover. Bush plans to visit the state on Thursday.
"Americans all across this land care deeply about them," the president said after a Cabinet meeting convened to coordinate federal relief efforts. "We're concerned about their safety. We're concerned about their property."
The fierce Santa Ana wind that has stoked the explosive blazes had started to moderate Wednesday although stiff gusts continued to blow through some canyon areas. Forecasters said the wind eventually would be followed by cooling sea breezes.
Wind was reported blowing at a sustained speed of 21 to 36 mph in some areas Wednesday, considerably less than the gusts of up to 100 mph earlier in the week.
The shift could allow for a greater aerial assault and help firefighters beat back the most destructive blazes, said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
An unmanned NASA aircraft outfitted with high-tech imaging equipment took off Wednesday from Edwards Air Force Base on Wednesday for a 10-hour flight to help firefighters locate hot spots. Pilots at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center were remotely controlling the aircraft, outfitted with a thermal-infrared imaging system capable of seeing through thick smoke.
Crews also were anticipating additional firefighters and equipment from other states, mostly throughout the West. Frustration over the firefighting effort began to emerge Tuesday when a fire official said not enough had been done to protect homes.
Orange County Fire Chief Chip Prather told reporters that firefighters' lives were threatened because too few crews were on the ground. He said a quick deployment of aircraft could have corralled a massive blaze near Irvine.
"It is an absolute fact: Had we had more air resources, we would have been able to control this fire," he said.
The state's top firefighter said Prather misstated the availability of firefighters and equipment. Eight of the state's nine water-dumping helicopters were in Southern California by Sunday, when the first fires began, along with 13 air tankers, said Ruben Grijalva, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Grijalva said the fires would have overwhelmed most efforts to fight them.
"Anyone that is complaining about the planes just wants to complain because there's a bunch of nonsense," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told ABC News. "The fact is that we could have all the planes in the world here — we have 90 aircraft here and six that we got especially from the federal government — and they can't fly because of the wind situation."
Twenty-one firefighters and at least 24 others have been injured. One person was killed by the flames, and the San Diego medical examiner's officer listed five other deaths as connected to the blazes.
Thousands of people remained in emergency shelters, where many had an agonizing wait to find out whether their homes had survived.
"I'm ready to go, but at the same time, I don't want to go up there and be surprised," said Mary Busch, 41, who did not know whether her home in Ramona, in San Diego County, was still standing. She has lived at the evacuation center at Qualcomm Stadium since Monday, sleeping in her SUV with her 11- and 8-year-old sons.
Others were eager to return to houses they were confident had survived.
"I called my home and my answering machine still works, so that's how I know we're OK," said Rancho Bernardo resident Fuli Du, who packed his belongings Wednesday preparing to leave Qualcomm.
He spent his 41st birthday Tuesday at the stadium, where he has been staying with his wife and two young sons.
More evacuation orders were issued Wednesday. Residents of the San Diego County communities of Fallbrook and Julian, an area devastated by a 2003 wildfire, were ordered out of their homes. Officials also were evacuating De Luz, an unincorporated community north of Camp Pendleton that was being threatened by a wildfire on the Marine base. The fire also closed Interstate 5 and the Metrolink commuter rail, snagging the morning commute.
However, residents were allowed to return to some areas of San Diego County including Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Del Mar, Encinitas and Solana Beach.
"There are some hot spots and issues there, but we wouldn't be letting people go back if it weren't safe," county spokeswoman Lesley Kirk said.
The city of San Diego was assessing whether to allow people to return to their homes in Rancho Bernardo, one of the hardest-hit areas, Mayor Jerry Sanders said.
A man accused of setting a small brush fire in a rural foothill area of the San Bernardino Mountains was booked for investigation of arson. However, San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said authorities don't know if he is connected to any of the region's wildfires.
So far, the fires have inflicted the worst damage in San Diego County, where five blazes continued to burn. The largest fire had charred 196,420 acres — about 300 square miles — from Witch Creek to Rancho Santa Fe, destroying 650 homes, businesses and other buildings. Other hard-hit areas included San Bernardino County, where hundreds of homes burned in the mountain resort communities near Lake Arrowhead.
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Associated Press writers Chelsea J. Carter, Jeremiah Marquez, Daisy Nguyen, Robert Jablon and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles, Martha Mendoza in Lake Arrowhead, Jacob Adelman in Santa Clarita, Elliot Spagat, Allison Hoffman and Scott Lindlaw in San Diego, Pauline Arrillaga in Del Mar, Ryan Pearson in Lake Forest and Jennifer Loven in Washington contributed to this report.

More forced to flee Calif. fires

By ALLISON HOFFMAN and GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writers

SAN DIEGO - Thousands more residents were ordered to evacuate their homes Tuesday, bringing the number of people chased away by the wind-whipped flames that have engulfed Southern California to at least 300,000.

By day three, the dozen wildfires had burned more than 700 homes and set 245,957 acres — 384 square miles — ablaze, and the destruction may only be the start for the region. Tuesday's forecast called for hotter temperatures and more explosive Santa Ana gusts.

The blazes bedeviled firefighters as walls of flame whipped from mountain passes to the edges of the state's celebrated coastline, spreading so quickly that even hotels serving as temporary shelters for evacuees had to be evacuated.

Wanda Tomkinson, 79, fled the Doubletree hotel in Del Mar with her husband and their Boston Terrier after employees called each room to tell customers they had to leave. The couple, carrying medication, clothes, tax records and a dog bowl, said they were relying on a family friend to take them in.

If not, Tomkinson added, "the Lord'll take care of us."

As the fires spread, most out of control, smaller blazes were merging into larger, more fearsome ones. Evacuations were being announced in one community after another as firefighters found themselves overwhelmed by gale-force Santa Ana winds, some gusting to 70 mph.

As dawn broke, authorities issued a new round of mandatory evacuations to residents in parts of San Diego County. About 3,800 homes were told to evacuate in Wildcat Canyon and Multh Valley, and another 1,800 in North Jamul and Indian Springs.

State officials warned that the total estimate of evacuees in the region could rise, because officials were still working to determine how many people had fled. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said that 274,000 homes and at least 300,000 residents were asked to clear out in San Diego county alone.

At Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, about 40 aircraft that included F-18 fighter jets, C-130 cargo planes and Marine helicopters were evacuated to other bases in California and Arizona.

President Bush declared a federal emergency for seven counties, a move that will speed disaster-relief efforts. He also sent federal disaster officials to California.

"All of us across this nation are concerned for the families who have lost their homes and the many families who have been evacuated from their homes," Bush said Tuesday. "We send the help of the federal government."

The wildfires claimed one life, in San Diego County, and injured 42. At least 16 of the injured were firefighters.

Fire crews and fleeing residents described desperate conditions that were sure to get worse. Temperatures across Southern California were about 10 degrees above average and were expected to approach 100 degrees Tuesday in Orange and San Diego counties.

"We are getting very strong northeast winds. They are very erratic, causing us to modify our procedures," said Capt. Don Camp, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The fires were exploding and shooting embers in all directions, preventing crews from forming traditional fire lines and severely limiting aerial bombardment, he said.

"Lifesaving is our priority. Getting people out from in front of the fire — those have been our priorities," Camp said.

Thousands of residents sought shelter at fairgrounds, schools and community centers. The largest gathering was at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, where up to 10,000 evacuees anxiously watched the stadium's television sets, hoping for a glimpse of their neighborhood on the local news. Sanders pleaded for donations of blankets, cots, pillows and food for the people staying there, and officials said more people were expected to arrive Tuesday.

San Diego County was ablaze from its rural north to its border region with Mexico, where the wildfires that started Sunday claimed their only fatality to date: Thomas Varshock, 52, of Tecate, a town on the U.S. side of the border southeast of San Diego. His body was found Sunday afternoon, the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office said, although no other details were released.

At least 250,000 in San Diego alone were told to leave. Public schools were closed, as were campuses at the University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University.

In the northern part of the county, 500 homes and 100 businesses had been destroyed as a wildfire exploded to 145,000 acres and marched toward the Pacific Coast enclave of Del Mar, forcing a partial evacuation.

The scope of the infernos was immense and was reminiscent of the blazes that tore through Southern California four years ago this month, killing 22 and destroying 3,640 homes.

The fires have been made worse by fierce Santa Ana winds. The winds — which sweep through Southern California's canyons in fall and winter — are stronger than normal, turning already parched scrubland into tinder. They generated walls of flame that bore down on housing developments in a wide swath.

Homes have burned from the beaches of Malibu to the mountain retreats east of Los Angeles and south through Orange and San Diego counties to Mexico.

East of Los Angeles, a two-front fire destroyed at least 160 homes in the Lake Arrowhead area, the same mountain resort community where hundreds of homes were lost four years earlier.

One of the blazes, near Green Valley Lake, was so intense that firefighters were forced to pull back. It jumped Highway 18 and was headed toward the community of Running Springs, said Steve Lowe, a fire information officer with the San Bernardino National Forest.

Touring an evacuee camp at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged to do everything in his power to assist the firefighting effort and help those who have lost their homes.

"I will be relentless all the way through this," Schwarzenegger said.

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Associated Press writers Chelsea J. Carter, Jeremiah Marquez, Daisy Nguyen and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles, Martha Mendoza in Lake Arrowhead, Jacob Adelman in Santa Clarita, Elliot Spagat and Scott Lindlaw in San Diego, Pauline Arrillaga in Del Mar and Jennifer Loven in Washington contributed to this report.

US insurers lobby over offshore tax breaks

By Andrea Felsted, Insurance Correspondent

Some of the US's biggest insurers are squaring up to giants of the Bermudan reinsurance industry over possible moves to crack down on tax breaks enjoyed by insurers based outside the US.

The US insurers, including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway , WR Berkley Corp, Hartford (NYSE:HIG), Chubb (NYSE:CB) and Travelers, are lobbying Washington to limit the tax breaks available to insurers that write business in the US, but can lay off risks to subsidiaries in tax-friendly locations.

William Berkley, chairman and chief executive of WR Berkley Corporation, told the Senate Finance Committee last month: "If left unchecked, this will cause much more of the US capital base to migrate abroad and ultimately the future of our domestic insurance industry will be threatened."

However, the Bermudan reinsurance market argues the campaign is protectionist and anti-competitive.

Insurers headquartered outside the US can legally cut their tax bills by reinsuring a significant proportion of the US risks they write to subsidiaries in locations with low or no corporation tax, such as Bermuda. In effect, they pay less tax on the money they build up to pay future claims.

US insurers are concerned that the practice gives non-US headquartered insurers with capital bases in low-tax jurisdictions a competitive advantage.

They want legislation to limit the tax benefit to ensure a level playing field.

Bermudan insurers, however, say claims that reinsurance arrangements with subsidiaries are used to avoid tax bills are "bogus".

Clinton seeks return of cleanup tax

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday called for the return of a tax on companies to pay for cleaning toxic waste sites, riling Republicans who called it unfair for firms that do not despoil the environment.

Sen. Clinton, D-N.Y., renewed her long-standing call to reinstate the tax program during a subcommittee hearing she chaired on the Superfund program, begun more than two decades ago to deal with major environmental health hazards such as Love Canal in western New York.

"I think it's clear this program needs additional funding. I think reinstating the polluter-pays fee is a step we must take both to provide additional funds for the cleanups and to make the program fairer. Ordinary taxpayers should not pay for cleanups and that's what's been happening," Clinton said.

The New York lawmaker has made that argument repeatedly during her years in the Senate, but it carries more weight now that she is the front-runner for her party's presidential nomination.

Since Democrats took control of the Senate earlier this year, Clinton has used her position as chair of a Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee to rap the Bush administration's record on environmental issues.

A Republican on the committee, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, said he was strongly opposed to resurrecting the Superfund tax as Clinton advocates.

"The tax does not distinguish a company that is a polluter from an environmental steward," Inhofe said. "The tax goes where the money is, not where the responsibility lies."

Congress rejected requests from the Clinton White House in the 1990s to continue the Superfund tax, which imposed taxes on companies dealing in petroleum and 42 other chemicals. After the tax ended, the fund ran out of money in 2003.

Democrats at the hearing also criticized Environmental Protection Agency officials for what they said was a slower pace in cleanups, arguing that the government has let more than 100 contaminated sites linger longer than necessary.

EPA assistant administrator Susan Bodine told the panel such criticism is an indirect result of the program's successes over the years because the sites still left to clean are the most complicated and difficult.
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Security guards fired randomly: Iraq official

By Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi authorities on Wednesday accused guards working for a foreign security company of firing randomly when they killed two women in the latest incident involving private security contractors that has outraged Iraqis.

Family members held a funeral service for the two women after the shooting on Tuesday at a Baghdad intersection involving guards working for Australian-run, Dubai-based Unity Resources Group (URG).

URG said in a statement it deeply regretted the incident, in which it said a car had failed to stop despite repeated warnings.

It has not yet answered phone calls or emails to its offices in Baghdad and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

Baghdad security spokesman Brigadier-General Qassim Moussawi said the women were at an intersection in Baghdad's Karrada district when four four-wheel-drive vehicles drove up in convoy.

"It opened fire randomly, hitting an Oldsmobile vehicle being driven by a woman," Moussawi told Reuters, adding that the shooting was under investigation.

URG's statement said its security team was approached at speed by a vehicle which did not stop despite warnings that included hand signals, signal flares and a warning shot. A witness said the guards opened fire when the car edged forward.

URG has worked in Iraq since 2004 and its security escorts typically include Iraqi guards with foreign team leaders.

The bodies of the two women, members of Iraq's small Armenian Christian sect, were taken in simple wooden coffins to an Armenian church in central Baghdad on Wednesday.

"She was a housewife," the brother of one of the victims, who gave his name only as Albeer, told Reuters Television.

CAR BOMB

In more violence in northern Iraq, six people were killed in a car bomb attack on a convoy carrying the security directorate chief for Salahuddin province, security officials said.

Provincial security chief Colonel Jassim Hussein Mohammed was not hurt in the attack in the provincial capital Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles), north of Baghdad, but one of his bodyguards was among those killed and another two were wounded.

The attack came a day after two suicide car bombers targeting a police chief and a tribal leader killed 22 people in the northern oil city of Baiji.

Al Qaeda has vowed to ramp up its attacks during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which ends at the weekend, especially targeting security officials and Sunni Arab tribal leaders who have joined U.S. forces to fight the Sunni Islamist group.

The U.S. military said it had killed 37 militants and detained 25 suspects in a four-day operation targeting al Qaeda safe havens in the Diyala River valley north of Baghdad.

The military launched a series of offensives against the Sunni Islamist group and Shi'ite militants in Diyala over the summer to deny them bases from which to launch attacks on Iraqi civilians and U.S. and Iraqi security forces.

Moussawi also announced an indefinite ban on parking cars on main streets and intersections in Baghdad in a bid to thwart potential car bomb attacks in the final days of Ramadan.

Many Iraqis see private security companies as little more than private armies which act with impunity and are still angry over a September 16 shooting involving U.S. firm Blackwater in which 17 people were killed.

The Blackwater shooting brought private security contractors under the spotlight, with the incident now the subject of at least four investigations by Iraqi and U.S. officials.

"People run away from them, they are afraid to cross the street in front of them," a Baghdad resident, who gave his name only as Qais, told Reuters Television.

The Iraqi government has accused Blackwater of "deliberately killing" the 17 Iraqis in last month's shooting in west Baghdad. A government source has said the government wants Blackwater to pay $8 million compensation to each victim's family.

Blackwater, which employs about 1,000 people in Iraq and guards the U.S. embassy, says its guards responded lawfully to a threat against a convoy.

(Additional reporting by Yasser Faisal and Ross Colvin in Baghdad)

2 car bombings kill at least 10 in Iraq

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - Two nearly simultaneous car bombs targeted a local police chief and a prominent Sunni sheik working with U.S. forces against al-Qaida in Iraq in a northern city on Tuesday, killing at least 18 people, authorities said.

Meanwhile, three parked car bombs struck the Iraqi capital. The first hit a commercial area in the Khulani district, killing at least eight and wounding 25 people, including four traffic policemen.

The attack came as a call to prayer resounded from the nearby Khulani mosque, itself a target of a June truck bombing that killed 87 people. Bystanders rushed to help the wounded, pull out victims from burning cars and load bodies on carts.

Youssif Mohammed, a 36-year old vendor of second-hand clothes near Khulani Square, said the blast targeted minibuses that stop there en route to Baghdad's eastern Shiite districts. "I saw a fireball and then heard a huge explosion," Mohammed said. "Immediately, the place was covered by smoke and dust."

Also in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab, another parked car bomb killed two people and wounded 16, according to police. By early afternoon, a third killed five and wounded four people near a fuel station in the eastern neighborhood of Binok, police said. Four cars were damaged in that blast.

The attacks were among a series of bombings in recent days as the terror network apparently steps up its promised Ramadan offensive as the end of the Islamic holy month draws near.

At least 24 people were killed in Baghdad and to the north on Monday in car and truck bombings, which are generally blamed on al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgents. Many of the attacks have targeted Iraqi police officers, who have been frequent targets of the insurgency because they are seen as cooperating with the U.S. and Iraqi governments.

In Beiji, a Sunni city 155 miles north of Baghdad, a minibus laden with explosives slammed into the house of a local police chief, while a Toyota Land Cruiser blew up outside the home of a leading member of the local Awakening Council, a group of Iraqis who have turned against extremists in the area.

Six houses were destroyed in the blasts, which took place within minutes of each other and some 500 yards apart in a residential area.

Initially, police and hospital officials said at least 10 people were killed and 17 wounded but raised the toll to 18 dead and 27 wounded, as more victims were found in the rubble.

The U.S. military said the police chief, Col. Saad al-Nifoos, survived, but there was no immediate word if the Sunni tribal official, Sheik Hamad al-Jibouri, was among the casualties.

"This is yet another failed attempt to break the will of the Iraqi people who just want to go on with their lives without violence, raise their children, earn a living and coexist together in a peaceful manner," said Lt. Col. Michael O. Donnelly, military spokesman for northern Iraq.

Witness Saleh Jassim Moussa said two of his relatives from the neighborhood were killed in the attacks.

The force of the blast was so strong, it shattered all the windows and ripped the doors from their frames in his home, only a 100 yards away from the first explosion.

"It was a really huge explosion, we panicked and ran out but for minutes, we couldn't see anything because of the heavy smoke," said Moussa, 38, a government employee, who was reached by phone. "We're still digging through the rubble, looking for others."

Beiji is in the Sunni province of Salahuddin, which along with the vast Anbar province to the west is part of Iraq's Sunni heartland. The heartland has been the home base for the al-Qaida in Iraq insurgency, but attacks in the area have decreased after local leaders backed by the U.S. military organized tribal Awakening Councils and turned against the terror network.

Also Tuesday morning, drive-by shooters killed the deputy police chief in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, police said.

Brig. Gen. Abdul-Al Thanon was leaving his house when four gunmen showered him with bullets from a speeding car. The deputy's driver was wounded in the morning attack in Mosul's northern Hadbaa neighborhood, police Brig. Gen. Mohamed al-Wakaa said.

A roadside bomb ripped through and outdoor market near a bus station in Jisr Diyala on Baghdad's southeastern outskirts, killing two civilians and wounding 10 others, police said.

In the southern neighborhood of Sadiyah, gunmen in a speeding car fatally shot a Shiite father and his two sons as they were leaving their home, police said. The police officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

Leavitt seeks deal on children's health

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush's health secretary expressed hope Sunday for a deal with the Democratic-run Congress on expanding children's health insurance even as the House speaker worked to round up enough Republicans to override a veto.

"Everybody wants children to have health insurance," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "The president has already said, 'I want a compromise.'"

Leavitt added, "If it takes more money, we'll put it up." He did not cite a figure.

Bush vetoed legislation last week that would increase spending for the State Children's Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over five years. Bush has called for a $5 billion increase.

Several Republicans in both the House and Senate have sided with majority Democrats on the issue, and the Senate has enough votes to override the veto. But in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has delayed an override attempt until Oct. 18, saying she needs to attract support from 14 more Republicans.

"It's hard to imagine how we could diminish the number of children who are covered," said Pelosi, D-Calif., in an interview broadcast Sunday. "The president calls himself 'the decider,' and I don't know why he would want to decide that one child has health care and another does not."

"So we take it one step at a time. And right now, we have the next 10 days to two weeks to try to peel off about 14 votes in the House," she said.

The program provides health insurance to children in families with incomes too great for Medicaid eligibility but not enough to afford private insurance.

Bush and Leavitt have decried the spending increase primarily supported by Democrats as unnecessarily subsidizing middle-income people as part of Democrats' "goal of government-run health care for every American."

Leavitt appeared on ABC's "This Week," Pelosi was interviewed Friday by "Fox News Sunday."

Bush says US 'does not torture'

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush defended his administration's detention and interrogation policies for terrorism suspects on Friday, saying they are both successful and lawful.

"When we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on America, you bet we're going to detain them, and you bet we're going to question them," he said during a hastily called appearance in the Oval Office. "The American people expect us to find out information, actionable intelligence so we can help protect them. That's our job."

Bush was referring to a report on two secret memos in 2005 that authorized extreme interrogation tactics against terror suspects. "This government does not torture people," the president said.

The two Justice Department legal opinions were disclosed in Thursday's editions of The New York Times, which reported that the first 2005 legal opinion authorized the use of head slaps, freezing temperatures and simulated drownings, known as waterboarding, while interrogating terror suspects, and was issued shortly after then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales took over the Justice Department.

That secret opinion, which explicitly allowed using the painful methods in combination, came months after a December 2004 opinion in which the Justice Department publicly declared torture "abhorrent" and the administration seemed to back away from claiming authority for such practices.

A second Justice opinion was issued later in 2005, just as Congress was working on an anti-torture bill. That opinion declared that none of the CIA's interrogation practices would violate the rules in the legislation banning "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of detainees, The Times said, citing interviews with unnamed current and former officials.

"We stick to U.S. law and international obligations," the president said, without taking questions afterward.

White House and Justice Department press officers have said the 2005 opinions did not reverse the 2004 policy.

Bush, speaking emphatically, noted that "highly trained professionals" conduct any questioning. "And by the way," he said, "we have gotten information from these high-value detainees that have helped protect you."

He also said that the techniques used by the United States "have been fully disclosed to appropriate members of the United States Congress" — an indirect slap at the torrent of criticism that has flowed from the Democratic-controlled Congress since the memos' disclosure.

"The American people expect their government to take action to protect them from further attack," Bush said. "And that's exactly what this government is doing. And that's exactly what we'll continue to do."

The 2005 opinions approved by Gonzales remain in effect despite efforts by Congress and the courts to limit interrogation practices used by the government in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The authorizations came after the withdrawal of an earlier classified Justice opinion, issued in 2002, that had allowed certain aggressive interrogation practices so long as they stopped short of producing pain equivalent to experiencing organ failure or death. That controversial memo was withdrawn in June 2004.

The dispute may come down to how the Bush administration defines torture, or whether it allowed U.S. interrogators to interpret anti-torture laws beyond legal limits. CIA spokesman George Little said the agency sought guidance from the Bush administration and Congress to make sure its program to detain and interrogate terror suspects followed U.S. law.

Senate and House Democrats have demanded to see the memos.

"Why should the public have confidence that the program is either legal or in the best interests of the United States?" Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., wrote in a letter to the acting attorney general.

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., promised a congressional inquiry.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he was "personally assured by administration officials that at least one of the techniques allegedly used in the past, waterboarding, was prohibited under the new law."

A White House spokesman, meanwhile, criticized the leak of such information to the news media and questioned the motivations of those who do so.

"It's troubling," Tony Fratto said Friday. "I've had the awful responsibility to have to work with The New York Times and other news organizations on stories that involve the release of classified information. And I can tell you that every time I've dealt with any of these stories, I have felt that we have chipped away at the safety and security of America with the publication of this kind of information."

North Korea agrees to disable nuke plant

BEIJING - North Korea will provide a complete list of its nuclear programs and disable its facilities at its main reactor complex by Dec. 31, actions that will be overseen by a U.S.-led team, the six nations involved in disarmament talks said Wednesday.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei said that as part of the agreement, Washington will lead an expert group to Pyongyang "within the next two weeks to prepare for disablement" and will fund those initial activities.

"The disablement of the five megawatt experimental reactor at Yongbyon, the reprocessing plant at Yongbyon and the nuclear fuel rod fabrication facility at Yongbyon will be completed by 31 December 2007," said Wu, who read the statement from the six nations to reporters, but did not take any questions.

The Bush administration welcomed the agreement, calling it significant progress.

"These second-phase actions effectively end the DPRK's production of plutonium — a major step towards the goal of achieving the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council.

The complex at Yongbyon has been at the center of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs for decades and is believed to have produced the nuclear device Pyongyang detonated a year ago to prove its long-suspected nuclear capability.

Since then, Pyongyang rejoined the six-nation disarmament negotiations that involve the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea as well as North Korea. Under a broad agreement reached in February, North Korea pledged to disable its nuclear programs in return for 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or other assistance.

Wednesday's statement outlines the next steps in the February deal. Although negotiators tentatively agreed on the statement Sunday after four days of talks, it was forwarded to their capitals for approval, leading to a delay in its public release.

The statement also said the U.S. and North Korea will "increase bilateral exchanges and enhance mutual trust" but did not set a specific timetable for when Washington will remove Pyongyang from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism — a key North Korean demand. Arrangements will be made in future meetings between the two on normalizing their relations, the statement said.

In addition, the statement reiterated the five other countries' commitment to deliver the fuel oil and other energy and economic assistance as spelled out in the February deal.

Shortly after Wednesday's deal was announced, however, Japan said it would not provide aid to North Korea or lift its economic sanctions against the country because of a dispute over North Korea's past abductions of Japanese citizens.

"There will be no immediate action from Japan. We will wait to see what North Korea does next," Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said. "Japan's policy remains unchanged. We will consider aid once we see progress on the abductions issue."

Tokyo wants Pyongyang to account for its abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s — a main sticking point for the two countries, which have no diplomatic ties.

Jury awards $11.6 million in Knicks case

By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Write

NEW YORK - A federal jury decided Madison Square Garden and its chairman must pay $11.6 million in damages to former New York Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders in her sexual harassment lawsuit.

The jury also found Knicks coach Isiah Thomas subjected Browne Sanders to unwanted advances and a barrage of verbal insults, but that he did not have to pay punitive damages.

Deciding MSG had harassed Browne Sanders, the jury found the Garden owes $6 million for allowing a hostile work environment to exist and $2.6 million for retaliation; MSG chairman James Dolan owes $3 million.

"What I did here, I did for every working woman in America," said Browne Sanders, who came out of the courtroom beaming. "And that includes everyone who gets up and goes to work in the morning, everyone working in a corporate environment."

She said it also was for "women who don't have the means and couldn't possibly have done what I was able to do."

The Garden said it would appeal, but the verdict gave Thomas a partial victory after an ugly, three-week trial.

"I'm innocent, I'm very innocent, and I did not do the things she has accused me in this courtroom of doing," said Thomas, who's married with two children. "I'm extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this case. I will appeal this, and I remain confident in the man that I am and what I stand for and the family that I have."

After the verdict, Browne Sanders hugged family members and friends gathered in the back of the courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch called it an "eminently reasonable" verdict, and gave the jurors instructions on how to proceed. Before the jury resumed deliberations, attorneys from both sides appealed to the jurors.

Browne Sanders' lawyer, Anne Vladeck, had urged the jury to affix damages that sent a message "to avoid this happening to somebody else." She said the defendants had ruined her client's career, and she called Dolan a liar.

Thomas's lawyer, Ronald Green, told jurors they had already sent "a very clear, very strong and very forceful message.

"Punishment for the sake of punishment is not what this is all about," he said.

The harassment verdict was widely expected after the jury sent a note to the judge Monday indicating that it believed Thomas, the Garden and Dolan sexually harassed Browne Sanders, a married mother of three.

"We believe that the jury's decision was incorrect," MSG said in a statement before punitive damages were awarded. "We look forward to presenting our arguments to an appeals court, and believe they will agree that no sexual harassment took place and MSG acted properly."

MSG is owned by Cablevision Systems Corp., based in Bethpage, N.Y., and Dolan is Cablevision's CEO. Shares fell 35 cents, or 1 percent, to $34.71 in afternoon trading.

UN envoy meets with Suu Kyi

YANGON, Myanmar - A U.N. envoy held back-to-back meetings Sunday with Myanmar's military rulers and detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as he sought a peaceful solution to the government's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.

The separate talks occurred as thousands of troops locked down Myanmar's largest cities Sunday. Scores of people were arrested overnight, further weakening an uprising to end 45 years of military dictatorship.

Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s special envoy to Myanmar, went to the remote bunker-like capital Naypyitaw on Saturday to meet with the junta and stayed overnight, diplomats said.

On Sunday, he returned to Yangon and was whisked to the State Guest House to meet Suu Kyi, who was brought out of house arrest to see the U.N. envoy.

The meeting lasted about 90 minutes, said the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol. Details of the meeting were not immediately known.

The flurry of diplomatic efforts came after the military government launched a bloody crackdown last week on demonstrations that began Aug. 19 to protest a sharp increase in fuel prices.

The protests grew in size dramatically after thousands of Buddhist monks joined people in venting anger at decades of brutal military rule.

At the height of the protests, some 70,000 people turned out.

The junta, which has a long history of snuffing out dissent, cracked down Wednesday and Thursday, opening fire into a crowd of peaceful protesters and chasing others down with batons. Though the official death toll is 10, foreign diplomats and dissident groups say the number is likely much higher.

Myanmar quiet as UN envoy arrives

YANGON, Myanmar - U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Myanmar Saturday, looking to convince the military junta to end its brutal crackdown on demonstrators that has virtually strangled a people's movement to end 45 years of military rule.

Hope was slipping through the hands of protesters taking on the governing junta, however, as streets that saw violent government crackdowns in the previous days were mostly quiet. Troops were stationed on nearly each corner of the two biggest cities, Yangon and Mandalay.

Gambari arrived at the Yangon airport and was being briefed by U.N. officials. He was expected to head immediately to Naypyitaw, where the country's military leaders are based.

Western diplomats said Gambari's schedule was set by the government and likely would not include meetings with pro-democracy figures, such as Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu, who is under house arrest.

The envoy remained confident. "I expect to meet all the people that I need to meet," Gambari told reporters before boarding a plane in Singapore on his way to Myanmar.

Daily protests began last month and had grown into the stiffest challenge to Myanmar's ruling junta in decades. They were initially started by people protesting massive fuel price hikes, with crowd sizes mushrooming to tens of thousands after monks joined in.

At the United Nations, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo described Gambari's visit as critical. "If he fails then the situation can become quite dreadful," he said. He added that he believes the junta "will be restrained" during Gambari's visit.

Yeo said that if Gambari could "help them achieve national reconciliation, that would be of enormous value."

Some protesters didn't see a chance that the situation will improve.

"I don't think that we have any more hope to win," said a young woman who took part in a massive demonstration that was broken up Thursday when troops opened fire into a crowd. She was separated from her boyfriend and has not seen him since.

"The monks are the ones who give us courage," she said, referring to the clergymen who have been the backbone of rallies — both those of this week and in past years. Most are now besieged in their monasteries, penned in by locked gates and barbed wire surrounding the compounds, with soldiers standing guard outside.

The junta, which has a long history of snuffing out internal and external dissent, started cracking down Wednesday, when the first of at least 10 deaths was reported, and then let loose on Thursday, shooting protesters and clubbing them with batons.

Small groups of activists and ordinary citizens had continued to turn out since then. Housewives and shop owners were among those taunting troops and then quickly disappearing into alleyways. But the mood was somber Saturday, with few people in Yangon and Mandalay leaving their homes.

Though Myanmar is rich in natural resources, 90 percent of its 54 million people live on less than $1 a day, making it all the more difficult for some people to imagine a successful people's power revolution.

The United Nations said it was worried the current unrest could impede efforts to feed some 500,000 people. Authorities already have placed restrictions on the movement of food in some areas around Mandalay, Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, said in a statement from New York.

Images of bloodied protesters and fleeing crowds have riveted world attention on the escalating crisis, prompting many governments to urge the junta to end the violence.

The U.S. urged "all civilized nations" to press Myanmar's leaders to end the crackdown, which has also resulted in hundreds of arrests. Win Mya Mya, an outspoken member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, was among those seized overnight, according to family members.

But analysts said it was unlikely that countries with major investments in Myanmar, such as China and India, would agree to take any punitive measures. They also noted the junta has long ignored criticism of its tough handling of dissidents.

Although the crackdown raised fears of a repeat of a 1988 democracy uprising that saw an estimated 3,000 protesters slain, the junta appeared relatively restrained so far.

The arrival of additional troops in Yangon overnight strengthened the government's hand, said an Asian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol. The corralling of monks — who carry high moral authority in the predominantly Buddhist nation — was also a serious blow.

"They don't want the world to see what is going on there," Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the U.S. government, told reporters in Washington.

Lines formed at stores in Yangon, meanwhile, for shortwave radios, with people eager to tune into BBC, Radio Free Asia and Voice of America.

The government has put the official death toll from this week's violence at 10, but diplomats and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said many more may have died, citing unconfirmed witness reports.

Myanmar breaks up rallies, cuts Internet

YANGON, Myanmar - Soldiers in Myanmar clubbed activists in the streets and fired warning shots into the air Friday, moving decisively to break up demonstrations before they could gain momentum. Troops occupied Buddhist monasteries and cut public Internet access, moves that raised concerns the crackdown on civilians that has killed at least 10 people was set to intensify

Witnesses said troops in Yangon aggressively broke up a demonstration of about 2,000 people. Five of the protesters were seen being dragged into a truck and driven away. The clash in an area near the Sule Pagoda was the most serious of the several sporadic — though smaller — protests that were reported in Myanmar's biggest city.

By sealing Buddhist monasteries, the government seemed intent on clearing the streets of monks, who have spearheaded the demonstrations and are revered by most of their Myanmar countrymen. This could embolden troops to crack down harder on remaining civilian protesters.

Efforts to squelch the demonstrations appeared to be working. Daily protests drawing tens of thousands of people had grown into the stiffest challenge to the ruling military junta in two decades, a crisis that began Aug. 19 with rallies against a fuel price hike, then escalated dramatically when monks joined in.

Earlier Friday, soldiers and riot police moved quickly to disperse a crowd of 300 that started marching in Yangon, sealing the surrounding neighborhood and ordering them to disperse.

Elsewhere, they fired warning shots to scatter a group of 200.

Bob Davis, Australia's ambassador to Myanmar, said he had heard unconfirmed reports that "several multiples of the 10 acknowledged by the authorities" may have been killed by troops in Yangon. Scores have been arrested, carted away in trucks at night or pummeled with batons in recent days, witnesses and diplomats said, with the junta ignoring all international appeals for restraint.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations expressed "revulsion" and told the junta "to exercise utmost restraint and seek a political solution." Demonstrations against the junta were seen in Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and elsewhere.

But by Myanmar standards, the crackdown has so far been muted, in part because the regime knows that killing monks could trigger a maelstrom of fury.

Southeast Asian envoys were told by Myanmar authorities Friday that a no-go zone had been declared around five key Buddhist monasteries, one diplomat said, raising fears of a repeat of 1988, when troops gunned down thousands of peaceful demonstrators and imprisoned the survivors.

Gates were locked and key intersections near monasteries in Yangon and Mandalay were sealed off with barbed wire, and there was no sign of monks in the streets.

"We were told security forces had the monks under control" and will now turn their attention to civilian protesters, the Asian diplomat said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

The government's apparent decision to cut public Internet access — which has played a crucial role in getting news and images of the pro-democracy protests to the outside world — also raised concerns.

Thursday was the most violent day in more than a month of protests — which at their height have brought an estimated 70,000 demonstrators to the streets. Bloody sandals lay scattered on some streets as protesters fled shouting "Give us freedom, give us freedom!"
Truckloads of troops in riot gear also raided Buddhist monasteries on the outskirts of Yangon, beating and arresting dozens of monks, witnesses and Western diplomats said.

"I really hate the government. They arrest the monks while they are sleeping," said a 30-year-old service worker who witnessed some of the confrontations from his workplace. "These monks haven't done anything except meditating and praying and helping people."

Images of bloodied protesters and fleeing crowds have riveted world attention on the escalating crisis, prompting many governments to urge the junta in Myanmar, also known as Burma, to end the violence.

The United Nations' special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, was heading to the country to promote a political solution and could arrive as early as Saturday, one Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Though some analysts said negotiations were unlikely, the diplomat said the decision to let Gambari in "means they may see a role for him and the United Nation in mediating dialogue with the opposition and its leaders."

The protesters won support from countrymen abroad as more than 2,000 Myanmar immigrants rallied peacefully in Malaysia and smaller demonstrations against the junta took place in Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

China, Myanmar's largest trading partner, for months quietly counseled the regime to speed up its long-stalled political reforms. Some analysts say Beijing would hate to be viewed as party to a bloodbath as it prepares to court the world at the 2008 Olympic Games.

"China hopes that all parties in Myanmar exercise restraint and properly handle the current issue so as to ensure the situation there does not escalate and get complicated," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing Thursday.

But every other time the regime has been challenged, it has responded with force.
"Judging from the nature and habit of the Myanmar military, they will not allow the monks or activists to topple them," said Chaiyachoke Julsiriwong, a Myanmar scholar at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

Myanmar forces raid monasteries

YANGON, Myanmar - About 10,000 anti-government protesters gathered in downtown Yangon on Thursday, provoking soldiers to fire on the crowds with tear gas and resume the crackdown that has drawn international appeals for restraint.

The demonstrators shouted at the soldiers, angry about early morning raids by security forces on Buddhist monasteries during which soldiers reportedly beat up and arrested more than 100 monks.

The monks have spearheaded the largest challenge to the military junta in the isolated Southeast Asian nation since a failed uprising in 1988. In that crisis, soldiers shot into crowds of peaceful demonstrators, killing some 3,000 people.

The government acknowledged that at least one man was killed and others wounded in chaotic clashes in Yangon on Wednesday. Led by thousands of monks in their cinnamon robes, protesters have been demanding more democratic freedoms, the release of political activists and economic reforms in the impoverished nation also known as Burma.

As the stiffest challenge to the generals in two decades, the crisis that began Aug. 19 with protests over a fuel price hike has drawn increasing international pressure on the regime, especially from its chief economic and diplomatic ally, China.

"China hopes that all parties in Myanmar exercise restraint and properly handle the current issue so as to ensure the situation there does not escalate and get complicated," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Thursday at a twice-weekly media briefing.

The United States called on Myanmar's military leaders to open a dialogue with peaceful protesters and urged China to do what it can to prevent further bloodshed.

"We all need to agree on the fact that the Burmese government has got to stop thinking that this can be solved by police and military, and start thinking about the need for genuine reconciliation with the broad spectrum of political activists in the country," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill in Beijing.

Myanmar's state-run newspaper blamed "saboteurs inside and outside the nation" for causing the protests in Yangon, and said the demonstrations were much smaller than the media are reporting.

"Saboteurs from inside and outside the nation and some foreign radio stations, who are jealous of national peace and development, have been making instigative acts through lies to cause internal instability and civil commotion," The New Light of Myanmar, which serves as a mouthpiece for the military government said Thursday.

In Mandalay, the country's second-largest city, about 50 monks confronted soldiers when they tried to block the Buddhist clergy from marching out of a monastery. About 100 onlookers shouted and jeered at the soldiers.

Earlier Thursday, security forces arrested Myint Thein, the spokesman for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party, family members said.

Several other monasteries that are considered hotbeds of the pro-democracy movement were raided by security forces before dawn in an apparent attempt to prevent the demonstrations spearheaded by the Buddhist clergy.

A monk at Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery pointed to bloodstains on the concrete floor and said a number of monks were beaten and at least 100 of its 150 monks taken away in vehicles. Shots were fired in the air during the chaotic raid, he said on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

"Soldiers slammed the monastery gate with the car, breaking the lock and forcing it into the monastery," the monk said. "They smashed the doors down, broke windows and furniture. When monks resisted, they shot at the monks and used tear gas and beat up the monks and dragged into trucks."

Empty bullet shells, broken doors, furniture and glass peppered the bloodstained, concrete floor of the monastery.

A female lay disciple said a number of monks also were arrested at the Moe Gaung monastery, which was being guarded by soldiers. Both monasteries are located in Yangon's northern suburbs.

Dramatic images of Wednesday's protests, many transmitted by dissidents using cell phones and the Internet, riveted world attention on the escalating faceoff between the military regime and its opponents.

The government said one man was killed Wednesday when police opened fire during the ninth consecutive day of demonstrations, but dissidents outside Myanmar reported receiving news of up to eight deaths.

Some reports said the dead included monks, who are widely revered in Myanmar, and the emergence of such martyr figures could stoke public anger against the regime and escalate the violence.

Bush, Karzai review Afghan security

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - President Bush said Wednesday that Afghanistan is becoming a safer, more stable country, thanks to the efforts of President Hamid Karzai.

"Mr. President, you have strong friends here," Bush told Karzai after they met for about an hour at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel here. "I expect progress and you expect progress and I appreciate the report you have given me today."

The two leaders made no direct mention of Afghanistan's soaring drug trade, the unsuccessful search for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden or the resurgence of the Taliban. Karzai said the liberation of Afghanistan is often overlooked these days.

"I don't know if you feel it in the United States but we feel it immensely in Afghanistan," Karzai said. "Afghanistan has indeed made progress," he said, citing improvements in basic services such as roads and education.

Afghan opium poppy cultivation has hit a record high this year, fueled by Taliban militants and corrupt officials in Karzai's government, a U.N. report found last month. The country produces nearly all the world's opium, and Taliban insurgents are profiting.

Also, Afghanistan remains in a fight for basic security, a constant threat to its growth as a new democracy. Karzai is pledging to work hard on peace talks with the Taliban to draw the insurgents and their supporters "back to the fold," as he put it this week.

The United States has more than 20,000 troops in Afghanistan. Aides say it is natural for Bush to meet Karzai to review progress, but no single issue prompted their sit-down.

Bush, in New York for the annual gathering of the U.N. General Assembly, made only brief mention of the war in Afghanistan during his speech to world leaders Tuesday. He said the people of Afghanistan — and Iraq and Lebanon — were in a deadly fight for survival.

"Every civilized nation has a responsibility to stand with them," Bush said.

Bush also was to pivot to his domestic agenda Wednesday before wrapping up three days in New York.

He planned to tout new national test scores as evidence that the No Child Left Behind Act, his signature education law, is working and deserving of renewal by Congress.

Those new national test results, released Tuesday, show elementary and middle schoolers posted solid gains in math. The students made more modest improvements in reading, however.

Bush scheduled a meeting with Joel Klein, chancellor of New York City's school system, which has won the nation's top prize for urban districts. The district garnered the honor chiefly for reducing achievements gaps among poor and minority kids, a key educational goal for Bush.

The president intends to miss no chance to talk up the No Child Left Behind law, which is up for renewal in Congress. Many lawmakers say it is too narrow and punitive.

Before leaving town, Bush was to speak at a private fundraiser for the Republican National Committee. Back in Washington, more international diplomacy awaited.

The president was hosting a two-day climate meeting, starting Thursday, of major industrialized nations, the United Nations and a few developing countries.

Bush tried to emphasize throughout his meetings in New York that his efforts on climate change were in support of — not in competition with — a U.N. conference in December in Indonesia.

That later session will be a time of negotiations on a new international climate agreement.

On the sidelines of the U.N. meeting, Bush pressed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday to move on stalled measures deemed critical to political reconciliation. Much-delayed action, such as a national oil law, have bogged down in the Iraqi parliament amid factional bickering, which, in turn, has only deepened frustration among U.S. lawmakers.

By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, facing protests and tabloid headlines calling him "evil" and a "madman," stirred debate Monday about free speech ahead of his appearance at Columbia University.

Columbia President Lee Bollinger has promised to grill Ahmadinejad on subjects such as human rights, the Holocaust and Iran's disputed nuclear program. The Iranian leader previously has called the Holocaust "a myth" and called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

Bollinger said Monday it was a question of free speech and academic freedom.

"It's extremely important to know who the leaders are of countries that are your adversaries. To watch them to see how they think, to see how they reason or do not reason. To see whether they're fanatical, or to see whether they are sly," he told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Ahmadinejad is to speak and answer questions at a Columbia forum Monday, followed by a scheduled address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

The New York Daily News' front page on Monday read: "THE EVIL HAS LANDED." The New York Post called Ahmadinejad the "Madman Iran Prez" and a "guest of dishonor."

Tensions are high between Washington and Tehran over U.S. accusations that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, as well as helping Shiite militias in Iraq that target U.S. troops — claims Iran denies.

"Well, you have to appreciate we don't need a nuclear bomb. We don't need that. What need do we have for a bomb?" Ahmadinejad said in a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday, taped earlier in Iran. "In political relations right now, the nuclear bomb is of no use. If it was useful it would have prevented the downfall of the Soviet Union."

He also said that: "It's wrong to think that Iran and the U.S. are walking toward war. Who says so? Why should we go to war? There is no war in the offing."

Before leaving Iran, Ahmadinejad said the American people have been denied "correct information," and his visit will give them a chance to hear a different voice, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Ahmadinejad has appealed to the American people before, distinguishing between the population and their government. Recently, he told a television show that Iran wants peace and friendship with America. Since coming to power in 2005, Ahmadinejad also has sent letters to the American people criticizing President Bush's policies in the Middle East.

Washington has said it is addressing the Iran situation diplomatically, rather than militarily, but U.S. officials also say that all options are open. The commander of the U.S. military forces in the Middle East said he did not believe tensions will lead to war.

"This constant drum beat of conflict is what strikes me, which is not helpful and not useful," Adm. William Fallon, head of U.S. Central Command, told Al-Jazeera television, which made a partial transcript available Sunday.

Ahmadinejad's scheduled address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday will be his third time attending the New York meeting in three years.

His request to lay a wreath at ground zero was denied by city officials and condemned by politicians who said a visit to the site of the 2001 terror attacks would violate sacred ground.

Police cited construction and security concerns in denying Ahmadinejad's request. Ahmadinejad told "60 Minutes" he would not press the issue but expressed disbelief that the visit would offend Americans.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, hundreds of young Iranians held a series of candlelight vigils in Tehran.

"Usually you go to these sites to pay your respects. And also to perhaps air your views about the root causes of such incidents," Ahmadinejad told the network.

Columbia canceled a planned visit by the Iranian president last year, also citing security and logistical reasons. This time, security on campus was tight hours ahead of his arrival, with barriers blanketing the grounds and police patrolling.

Protest signs emblazoned with some of Ahmadinejad's most notorious quotes about Israel were posted on campus, many by the Columbia Barnard Hillel group.

Sam Krevor, a 25-year-old graduate student in environmental engineering, said he's watched some interviews with the Iranian president before.

"I appreciate that the event is happening, but even when he gets hard questions he's not particularly interested in answering them," Krevor said. "I think it's doubtful that the actual event will be that enlightening."

Ahmadinejad's visit to New York is also being debated back home. Some in Iran think his trip is a publicity stunt that hurts Iran's image in the world.

Political analyst Iraj Jamshidi said Ahmadinejad looks at the General Assembly as a publicity forum simply to surprise world leaders with his harsh rhetoric.

"The world has not welcomed Ahmadinejad's hardline approach. His previous address to the assembly didn't resolve any of Iran's foreign policy issues. And no one expects anything better this time," he said.

But conservative lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said it was a good chance for Iran to air its position.

"This trip gives the president a good chance to meet world leaders and inform them of Iran's rightful position," IRNA quoted Boroujerdi as saying.

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Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran contributed to this report.

2 students shot at Delaware State Univ.

By RANDALL CHASE, Associated Press Writer

DOVER, Del. - Two students were shot and wounded, one seriously, at Delaware State University early Friday, and the campus was locked down as police searched for a gunman, officials said.

Classes were canceled for the day and students were being kept inside.

"They've been directed to stay in their dorms," university spokesman Carlos Holmes said. "We don't know where the shooter's at."

Gates at the university's main entrance prevented people from driving onto campus.

The two students were shot before 1 a.m. on the Campus Mall, between the Memorial Hall gymnasium and Richard S. Grossley Hall, an administrative building.

Holmes said the female student appeared to have suffered serious wounds. "They could be potentially life-threatening," he said. The male student's wounds were not as serious and he was hospitalized in stable condition, Holmes said.

The woman was taken to Christiana Hospital in Newark, N.J., with a traumatic wound to the abdomen, said John Wilson, the deputy chief of Kent County Emergency Services. The man was taken to Kent General Hospital in Dover. Officials at both hospitals referred questions to the university.

Authorities, with the campus police in charge of the investigation, hoped to get more information once the victims were able to talk. They don't yet know about the possible motive.

"We haven't had a chance to talk to them yet, and that's probably a big reason why the suspect is still at large," Holmes told KYW-TV of Philadelphia.

He said he was not aware of any big parties Thursday night, although there was a rally organized to honor the so-called Jena Six, six black teenagers charged in a high school fight in Louisiana.

"It was a very peaceful, very nice rally, very positive," Holmes said. There was no reason to believe the rally was connected to the shootings, but Holmes contrasted the atmosphere of the event with the attack, saying, "It's kind of shocking that this happened afterwards."

Alex Bishoff, 20, a freshman from Washington, D.C., said he heard five gunshots and looked out his dormitory window to see people scattering. He said he immediately thought of the Virginia Tech shootings last April in which a gunman killed 32 people before killing himself.
"Everybody's very upset," Bishoff said.

Timmara Gooden, 20, of Philadelphia, said in a phone interview late Friday morning from her dorm room that she and her suite mates were keeping each other calm and making sure that their parents understand that they're OK.

"We've been locked in here since 1 o'clock this morning," she said. "Right now, we're pretty hungry and waiting so we can go to the cafe, or something."

Students weren't even going into their dorm hallways. "We don't want to walk out there, because we don't know what's going on," Gooden said.

University officials informed students about the shooting with phone calls, a notice posted on the campus Web site and notifications in each dormitory. Holmes said Delaware State had improved the speed of its notifications after the Virginia Tech shootings.

The Dover campus was surrounded Friday by groups of recreational vehicles belonging to NASCAR fans in town for weekend races at the Dover Downs Speedway.

A commuter student who arrived Friday morning was barred from campus. Eduardo Rivera, 25, of Milford, said he hadn't known about the shootings and was surprised by the media gathered outside the main gate.

"I thought it was about racing, or NASCAR, or something like that," he said. "I'm shocked. I don't expect to hear something like this when I'm trying to go to class — it's weird."
Rivera, a sophomore studying physical education and sports management, said he had felt the campus was safe.

At the start of the semester, the campus community held a memorial service for three students and an incoming student shot execution-style Aug. 4 as they hung out at an elementary school in their hometown of Newark, N.J. Natasha Aeriel, 19; her brother, Terrance Aeriel, 18, and Dashon Harvey, 20, were students. Iofemi Hightower, 20, had planned to attend Delaware State this fall. Natasha Aeriel, the only survivor, helped police identify six suspects who have been arrested.

One student said friends of hers were near the shooting Friday when it started. "They were pretty shook up," said Samantha Williams, from Orange, N.J., who is taking a leave from school.
She said students on campus were excited about an upcoming appearance by rappers during homecoming festivities in mid-October.

Delaware State was established in 1891 as the State College for Colored Students. It had about 3,690 students last year. The 400-acre campus is in the northern section of Dover, across the street from the racetrack.
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Associated Press writer Jeffrey Gold in Newark, N.J., contributed to this report.