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Saturday, December 18, 2010

Prince William was joined by fiancee Kate Middleton at a charity concert at the couple's first public engagement since plans for their wedding were announced last month.


Miss Middleton walked by the prince's side as the couple arrived for the Christmas variety show, staged to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

William joked with onlookers, telling one group of teenagers dressed as elves: "Cool hats".

Miss Middleton waved and smiled at well-wishers but said nothing.

Prince William was guest of honour at the fund-raising gala in Thursford in Norfolk, which showcased a cast of professional singers, dancers and musicians.

The Thursford Christmas Spectacular was a private event but during the interval the prince was to meet a group of young cancer patients from Norfolk and Hertfordshire as well as charity staff.

Proceeds from the evening will go towards the construction of the first specialist cancer unit for young people at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, which will cost 2.5 million.

The unit will be designed to reflect a young person's life outside hospital as closely as possible, unlike other ordinary hospital wards where young cancer patients may be placed on children's wards with babies and young children on adult wards alongside elderly patients.

William was invited to the event by Emilie Van Cutsem, chairman of the Teenage Cancer Trust's East Anglia volunteer committee, and also a close friend of the prince and his family.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry was presented with a prestigious German award in recognition of his charity work and immediately declared himself unworthy of the honour.

The royal said he felt "hugely humble" receiving the 'Golden Heart' during a televised fundraising gala in Berlin - Ein Herz fur Kinder (A Heart for Children).

But he explained that compared to others who dedicate their lives helping vulnerable youngsters, "I have done very little", and accepted the trophy on their behalf.
In this Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010 picture, Lady Gaga, left, accepts the award for Video of the Year presented by Cher, right, at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. If you needed any evidence that the U.S. has become a nation of watchers, look no further than 2010. The spectacle that was the past year made certain that the image _ the weird, wonderful, horrifying, mesmerizing image _ reigned supreme.
NEW YORK (AP) -- There it was, gazed upon by millions in horror, anger and pure fascination: a grainy, sputtering image of the deep blue sea and its interloper - the bubbling brown goo that was spewing into the water from the depths of the planet.
It was, of course, the "spillcam" - the reverse periscope into the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico that was broadcast live to the world from May to July. For the first time, we could watch in real time as a huge natural disaster unfolded in a place that for most of human history had been beyond our view.

And why not? Because that is what we do in this Brave New World, this modern age of unprecedented and unsettling wonder:

We watch.

In a nation riven by disagreements and political conflicts and niche markets and on-demand isolation, this unites us: Hungrily, aggressively, sometimes stupefyingly, we watch.

If you needed any more evidence that we've become a nation of watchers, look no further than 2010. From the spillcam to Snooki, from volcanic clouds to video ambushes, the spectacle that was the past year ensured that the image - the weird, wonderful, horrifying, mesmerizing image - reigned supreme.

And there was certainly no shortage of spectacle for the hundreds of millions of American eyes casting about for something to see.

We watched a Florida minister threaten to burn a Quran on the 9/11 anniversary, then watched him hopscotch across the country conducting interviews about whether he'd do it or not. When he didn't, we watched him go to New Jersey and collect a 2011 Hyundai Accent from a car dealer for his troubles.

We watched the daughter of a vice presidential candidate perform on a celebrity dancing show, and do well - and when that made a guy in Wisconsin so angry that he shot out his television, well, we watched that, too. All the more buzz for her mother's reality show - a new addition to a genre that has turned pretty much every human endeavor into a story to be gazed upon and marveled at.

We watched a neighborhood explode in California. We watched a volcanic cloud spread across Europe, ground airplanes and strand thousands - the primeval slapping back at the high-tech. We watched, live, as an earthquake ravaged Chile and, in slow motion, sent a possible tsunami rippling across the ocean toward Hawaii and Japan, and we breathed a collective sigh of relief when the sound and fury signified very little.

We watched an unconventional pop star appear at an awards ceremony in a dress made of raw meat. We watched a fed-up flight attendant slide down a plane's emergency chute and into the national spotlight. We watched an advocacy group that transcends geography dump thousands of sensitive documents onto the media's doorstep. We watched its leader justify his actions, be charged with sex crimes and, finally, be jailed only to be released.

We watched our Facebook feeds for all the images that our friends and our "friends" posted, then watched as the 26-year-old who built this unprecedented way for people to talk to each other - 500 million at last count - was mythologized in a movie not of his making.

We watched the roof of a sports arena collapse under the weight of water and snow - and were able to simply because cameras already set up to record a football game happened to be running.

These images of 2010 - we know them how? Because, thanks to our modern cabinet of wonders, we were able to train our gaze upon them on all our devices. Then we talked about watching, and watched ourselves talking about watching on the endless shows that demand the allegiance of our eyes because of the imagery they produce.

Americans have watched together before, of course - the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, the moon landing, the Challenger exploding, the earliest bombings of the first Gulf War, O.J. Simpson in his Bronco on the freeways of Southern California. But somehow, stealthily, watching has become an active verb.

Now we no longer simply receive imagery. We pursue it. And the passions it feeds - the shouting about things on the air and online that has become a spectacle to watch in and of itself - have made us the true heirs to Howard Beale from "Network." Just look at the shows that attract so many viewers, the Olbermanns and O'Reillys and Becks and Maddows: The whole point of watching is to be mad as hell and not take it anymore.

Part of it, too, is that there is simply more to watch on more platforms and devices - and thus more opportunity to see the things that humans do, particularly at the extreme ends of the spectrum.

Cameras are everywhere, recording every obscure corner in the name of security and archivalism and just plain prurience. That gave us the footage of Christine O'Donnell, the Delaware Senate candidate, suggesting that the First Amendment doesn't mention the separation of church and state. That gave us the entire saga of a man who stormed a Florida school board meeting with a gun and killed himself.

But it's more than ubiquity that brings us our daily bread of images. It's democratization, too.

The camera's eye has been handed to us all. Myriad little devices have taken people to the point where anything - smartphone, portable music player, tiny digital camera - can capture video and upload it to the Web instantly. This has created an expectation that our fellow human beings' lives will be digitized, compressed and uploaded on a dime. Hence YouTube's tagline: "Broadcast yourself."

And now: social media. What was once the ability to watch collectively but alone - the network TV era - has become the ability to watch separately but together. You can lie in bed and watch Fox's "Fringe" while, in real time on your iPad, converse on Twitter with one of its stars, John Noble, about what you're seeing at that exact moment.

This was certainly the year of the iPad, a moment when the portable, keyboardless big screen let us watch, wherever we went, video in a size that, in 1955, would have required a credenza-sized piece of machinery. With the dawn of the tablet, decent-sized imagery became as portable as a sheet of paper.

How, though, do we process this era of continuously shared spectacle, this distorted catalog of us? Can the global feed we're all jacked into even be made sense of? We see more than ever, but what does it mean? Even the most media-savvy are struggling to make sense of this fundamental reconfiguration in the way we process the world and what we want out of it.

The visionaries who are planning for the future of television, online media and social networks are focused not only on how to attract audiences, but how to manipulate them - to entice them, move them around and have them act in the financial interests of advertisers. They know that imagery rules, that watching is trumping reading, that spectacle sells. Nothing new there.

"We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves," Daniel J. Boorstin wrote in "The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America." That was 1961. Before the Internet. Before portable video. Before Facebook and Twitter.

To those already ravenous for the next outsized imagery: Fret not. New Year's Eve should prove satisfying. MTV says it will place Snooki inside a ball that drops in Times Square at midnight. Other members of the "Jersey Shore" cast, we're told, will lead the crowd in a collective fist pump. It will all, of course, be broadcast live.

So stay tuned. Don't touch that dial, don't push that remote, don't click that browser arrow or tap that tablet. Keep watching. We'll be right back, and there's lots more to come.


TUGUEGARAO, Philippines (AP) -- An official says 15 were killed and 12 injured in a fire that tore through a budget hotel as guests slept in the northern Philippines.

Fire investigator Daniel Abana said Sunday firefighters and police found 15 bodies in the top two floors of the five-story hotel, where firefighters put out a fire that raged for four hours.

Police say at least 12 other guests were injured at the Bed and Breakfast Pension House in Cagayan's capital city of Tuguegarao. Many nursing students were staying at the hotel to take a licensing exam on Sunday.

Tuguegarao is about 215 miles (350 kilometers) north of Manila.


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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Four gunmen, including at least one suicide bomber, attacked an army recruitment center in northern Afghanistan early Sunday, killing five members of the Afghan security forces, a local official said.
Insurgents also attacked a bus filled with army officers in the capital Kabul, wounding four.
In the attack in northern Kunduz province, militants stormed the recruitment center at daybreak and at least one of them was able to detonate his explosives, said Hamdullah Danishi, the province's deputy governor. The blast shattered windows in nearby homes and gunshots could still be heard coming from the site hours later.
The dead included three Afghan soldiers and two police officers, he added.
Danishi says three of the attackers were killed in the initial assault but one was still alive and fighting with government forces. Further details were not immediately available.
In the capital, insurgents ambushed a bus carrying Afghan army officers to work during the morning rush hour, according to witnesses and the Defense Ministry. They were about four miles (seven kilometers) from downtown on Jalalabad Road - a main route into the city center.
The shooting started at 8 a.m. and was still going on an hour and a half later. Footage from Associated Press Television showed police running up and down the road as they battled the militants.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
A witness to the assault confirmed that gunmen ambushed the bus as it was heading down the Road.
"The army vehicles were passing this road and then the Taliban or some sort of insurgents started shooting at them," he said.
There were no immediate reports of deaths, though four on the bus were wounded, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry.
In the south of the country, a NATO service member was also killed in a bomb attack, the international coalition said without providing further details.
PERUGIA, Italy (AP) -- Amanda Knox won an important victory in her appeals trial of her murder conviction in Italy on Saturday, when a court ruled that it will allow an independent review of crucial DNA evidence after defense claims that samples were inconclusive and possibly contaminated.

The lower court trial, which convicted the American student a year ago and sentenced her to 26 years in Italian prison, had rejected a similar defense request for an outside review of DNA found on the bra clasp of the victim, her British roommate Meredith Kercher, and on a knife the prosecution alleged was used in the fatal stabbing attack.

Kercher's body was found in a pool of blood on Nov. 2, 2007, her throat slit in the apartment she shared with Knox. Forensic experts said she was killed the night before.

Knox burst into tears, in a sign of a release of tension, said her stepfather Chris Mellas. "She's a happy mess," he said, smiling.

She was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher in the rented house they shared in the university town of Perugia, where both were studying. The co-defendant in the appeals trial is her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian who was convicted of the same charges and sentenced to 25 years. Both deny any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors maintain that Sollecito's DNA was found on the bra clasp and that Knox's DNA was found on the knife's handle and Kercher's DNA on the blade. The defense maintains that DNA traces presented at the first trial were inconclusive and also contends they might have been contaminated when they were analyzed.

The court handed the defense another victory. It will allow several witnesses the defense hopes will refute testimony that placed Knox and Sollecito near the house on the night Kercher was killed.

Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, burst into tears of joy in the courtroom when the appeals court announced its decision. "Finally a little bit of good news," Mellas said, as Knox's family members hugged defense team lawyers.

Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman said after 90 minutes of deliberations that the DNA evidence review was needed "to remove any reasonable doubt."

He said two independent experts, from Rome's Sapienza university, would either make new analyses of the DNA traces found, or if that isn't possible, would review the analyses that had been carried out by previous forensic experts and assess whether they are reliable.

DNA evidence was crucial in the first trial, where a clear motive did not emerge for the brutal killing.

"Finally, the trial can begin," said Luca Maori, an attorney for Sollecito. "After three years, we have scored our first important victory."

A Knox defense attorney, Luciano Ghirga, called the ruling Saturday "a significant step" and "a victory not for one side, but for the truth."

The experts will be formally assigned the task of the review at the trial's next session, on Jan. 15.

The court said it might decide at a later stage to allow other witnesses sought by the defense.

The court rejected several of the defense requests, including for new tests on Sollecito's computer related to the young man's alibi for the night of the slaying.

Francesco Maresca, a lawyer for the Kercher family who had opposed the review, said that "if the court has any remaining doubts, it does well to try to remove them."

"And now we'll see what these experts will conclude," he told reporters at the end of the hearing.

The review will take at least 30 days, and with new witnesses being heard, the trial is expected to go until next spring.

In seeking the new witnesses, the defense is seeking to refute testimony in the first trial from Antonio Curatolo, a homeless man who said he had seen Knox and Sollecito chatting on a basketball court near the apartment house the night Kercher was killed.

The defense insists his testimony was unreliable and hopes the new witnesses, who operate buses and discos in the area, will prove him wrong.

Prosecutors also appealed the lower court's verdict in hopes of winning stiffer sentences.

Saturday's hearing was held two days after Italy's highest criminal court upheld the conviction and 16-year-prison sentence of the third person charged with the murder, Rudy Hermann Guede of the Ivory Coast. Guede has admitted being at the house the night of the murder but denies killing Kercher.

He was tried separately. The high court's ruling, which cannot be appealed, is significant because it states that Guede took part in the slaying but did not act alone, prosecutors and lawyers said.
Lindsey Vonn is the 2010 Female Athlete of the Year, chosen by members of The Associated Press.
Never before has a skier - male or female - won one of the annual AP awards, which date to 1931.
Vonn received 77 of 175 votes submitted by news organizations that make up the AP's membership. That is more than double what anyone else got in the tally announced Saturday.
Vonn won two medals at the Vancouver Olympics, including the first downhill gold for an American woman, and captured her third consecutive World Cup overall title.
Racehorse Zenyatta's 32 votes placed her No. 2 in the AP balloting for the second consecutive year. The 6-year-old mare retired with a 19-1 record.
Connecticut basketball player Maya Moore finished third with 29 votes.
 Silent History

2010 (AP) -- Lindsey Vonn, skiing
2009 - Serena Williams, tennis
2008 - Candace Parker, basketball
2007 - Lorena Ochoa, golf
2006 - Lorena Ochoa, golf-x
2005 - Annika Sorenstam, golf
2004 - Annika Sorenstam, golf
2003 - Annika Sorenstam, golf
2002 - Serena Williams, tennis
2001 - Jennifer Capriati, tennis
2000 - Marion Jones, track
1999 - U.S. Soccer Team
1998 - Se Ri Pak, golf
1997 - Martina Hingis, tennis
1996 - Amy Van Dyken, swimming
1995 - Rebecca Lobo, basketball
1994 - Bonnie Blair, speedskating
1993 - Sheryl Swoopes, basketball
1992 - Monica Seles, tennis
1991 - Monica Seles, tennis
1990 - Beth Daniel, golf
1989 - Steffi Graf, tennis
1988 - Florence Griffith Joyner, track and field
1987 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee, track and field
1986 - Martina Navratilova, tennis
1985 - Nancy Lopez, golf
1984 - Mary Lou Retton, gymnastics
1983 - Martina Navratilova, tennis
1982 - Mary Decker Tabb, track
1981 - Tracy Austin, tennis-x
1980 - Chris Evert Lloyd, tennis
1979 - Tracy Austin, tennis
1978 - Nancy Lopez, golf
1977 - Chris Evert, tennis
1976 - Nadia Comaneci, gymnastics
1975 - Chris Evert, tennis
1974 - Chris Evert, tennis
1973 - Billie Jean King, tennis
1972 - Olga Korbut, gymnastics
1971 - Evonne Goolagong, tennis
1970 - Chi Cheng, track
1969 - Debbie Meyer, swimming
1968 - Peggy Fleming, figure skating
1967 - Billie Jean King, tennis
1966 - Kathy Whitworth, golf
1965 - Kathy Whitworth, golf
1964 - Mickey Wright, golf
1963 - Mickey Wright, golf
1962 - Dawn Fraser, swimming
1961 - Wilma Rudolph, track
1960 - Wilma Rudolph, track
1959 - Maria Bueno, tennis
1958 - Althea Gibson, tennis
1957 - Althea Gibson, tennis
1956 - Pat McCormick, diving
1955 - Patty Berg, golf
1954 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias, golf
1953 - Maureen Connolly, tennis
1952 - Maureen Connolly, tennis
1951 - Maureen Connolly, tennis
1950 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias, golf
1949 - Marlene Bauer, golf
1948 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, track
1947 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias, golf
1946 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias, golf
1945 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias, golf-x
1944 - Ann Curtis, swimming
1943 - Patty Berg, golf
1942 - Gloria Callen, swimming
1941 - Betty Hicks Newell, golf
1940 - Alice Marble, tennis
1939 - Alice Marble, tennis
1938 - Patty Berg, golf
1937 - Katherine Rawls, swimming
1936 - Helen Stephens, track-x
1935 - Helen Wills Moody, tennis
1934 - Virginia Van Wie, golf
1933 - Helen Jacobs, tennis
1932 - Babe Didrikson, track
1931 - Helene Madison, swimming
x-Both male and female winners were from the same sport
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Saturday he has evidence Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has stolen billions of dollars from his impoverished country.

"From different sources, we have information about possible accounts that could belong to President Bashir in foreign banks," Luis Moreno Ocampo said in a statement to The Associated Press.

But he said that his prosecution is focused on al-Bashir's alleged orchestration of genocide in Darfur and not suspected embezzlement.

"The most urgent reason to arrest Mr. Bashir is not because he could have billions in his secret accounts but because he is still controlling an ongoing genocide in Darfur," Moreno Ocampo said. He gave no further details of the information his office has about the alleged foreign accounts, but said they were not in Britain.

The court issued arrest warrants for al-Bashir in July on three charges of genocide for allegedly masterminding atrocities in his country's Darfur region. He also was charged last year with crimes against humanity in the war-torn region.

Al-Bashir, who was re-elected to a new five-year term earlier this year, refuses to recognize the court's authority and has insisted he will not turn himself in to stand trial.

Sudan's Information Ministry rejected the embezzlement claim and called the court "a wretched political action."

"The allegation of the ICC prosecutor is meant to convince the U.S. administration to support him in propagating this lie which he thought will make the Sudanese people turn against him (al-Bashir)," the ministry said in a statement.

The United Nations estimates 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have be forced from their homes in Darfur since ethnic African rebels rose up in 2003, accusing Sudan's Arab-dominated central government of neglect and discrimination.

The embezzlement accusations were first reported Saturday by British newspaper The Guardian, based on a diplomatic cable provided by the Wikileaks website.

Citing a "senior US official" in a leaked cable, The Guardian said Moreno Ocampo had suggested revealing the embezzlement allegations as a way of turning the tide of public opinion against al-Bashir. The cable said Moreno Ocampo put the amount of stolen funds at $9 billion.

Moreno Ocampo said he could "make no judgment on the authenticity of the alleged US State Department cables."

But he said that if stolen money could be found in al-Bashir accounts it could eventually be paid out to victims of allegedly state-sponsored violence in Darfur if al-Bashir is convicted.

"As part of its mandate, the (prosecutor's) office is investigating money that could belong to President al-Bashir," Moreno Ocampo said. "This money could be used to compensate President Bashir's victims."

Mariam Sadiq, a senior member of the opposition Umma Party in Sudan, called the allegations "disgraceful and sad."

"This is something we knew for ten years when petrodollars were pouring into Sudan but never trickled down to the people of Sudan," she said. "Instead, the Sudanese citizen became poorer and needy."

She said that the theft along with the possible secession of the south following a referendum scheduled for January and the Darfur crisis could mark the end of al-Bashir rule in Sudan.

"These accumulations will end up with a regime change in Sudan and it will have broad and heavy impact on the public since these practices are threatening the existence of Sudan as a nation and a state," Sadiq said.
DENVER (AP) -- Police say authorities have surrounded a suburban Denver house where a man shot his pregnant wife, and some residents in the neighborhood have evacuated.

Castle Rock officials say in a statement that the woman is in stable condition at a local hospital and that no one else is in the home.

Castle Rock spokeswoman Kim Mutchler says a previous report that the woman was shot near her face is inaccurate but would not specify where she was wounded. The woman fled the home with a child after the shooting.

A SWAT team has been notified. No names have been released but authorities say the man is 40 and the woman is 33.

Police say the man has fired several shots inside the home.

---

Information from: KUSA-TV,
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- NATO said its troops killed more than 20 insurgents Saturday in fighting that broke out after a patrol came under fire in eastern Afghanistan.

In the southern city of Kandahar, a suicide bomber targeting a district chief killed two passers-by including a child, and wounded at least nine people, authorities said.

The gunbattle between NATO forces and insurgents took place in the Tagab district of Kapisa province, where coalition forces called in air support after their patrol came under fire, NATO said. It claimed Taliban commanders were among the more than 20 insurgents killed.

A day earlier, more than five insurgents were killed in a three-hour firefight in the same district following sniper fire on Afghan and international forces manning a checkpoint, NATO said. The coalition did not say what nationality the international troops were, but French forces are stationed in the area.

About 3,850 French troops are deployed in Afghanistan, mainly in Kapisa and the Surobi district north and east of Kabul. A French soldier was killed Friday after a reconnaissance mission came under fire in the neighboring district of Alasay in Kapisa, bringing the total number of French soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 51.

Violence has been on the rise across much of Afghanistan, with the southern provinces of Kandahar - the birthplace of the Taliban - and Helmand seeing much of the fighting. NATO forces have poured troops into both provinces.

Separately, NATO said a coalition service member was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan Saturday, and a second died in a roadside bombing in the south. It did not release the nationalities of either, or the location of the attacks.

Another soldier died of a noncombat injury in the north of the country on Friday, NATO said. The German military said one of its soldiers, a 21-year-old, died of a gunshot wound that appeared to be the result of an accident at a military post in Baghlan Province, but the matter was being investigated.

More than 670 international troops have died in Afghanistan so far this year.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, her defense minister and the military's chief of staff made a surprise visit to their nation's troops in northern Afghanistan. Germany currently has nearly 4,700 troops serving in Afghanistan and plans to start gradually withdrawing in late 2011.

The German delegation visited Kunduz, where Germany has a base.

She later continued to another German base at Mazar-i-Sharif, also in the north, where she met Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Before meeting Karzai, she said she planned to discuss administration and corruption with the Afghan leader.

"The progress here is not as we would envision," she said.

Merkel thanked troops in Kunduz for their "extremely dangerous" deployment.

"You are embroiled in battles of the kind one has in war," Merkel said. "That is an entirely new experience for us."

Later, in Mazar-i-Sharif, she said: "We haven't known something like this since the second World War."

To the south, a suicide bomber blew himself up Saturday near an armored car carrying a district chief in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, killing two civilians - including a child - and wounding at least another nine, Afghan authorities said. NATO said the bombing had wounded 11 children.

The bomber targeted Ahmadullah Nazak's car as the official was traveling to a meeting, said Zalmai Ayubi, spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor. Nazak was unharmed.

Irfan Hameed, a doctor at the local hospital, said the bodies of a man and a boy killed in the blast were taken to the hospital, which was also treating five men and four children wounded in the attack.

In the north, gunmen attacked a South Korean-operated construction site, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

Sher Jan Durani, spokesman for the chief of police in the northern Balkh province, confirmed a road construction site had been attacked and said a Bangladeshi worker had been killed. He said seven Afghan security guards were missing, believed to have been taken by the attackers. There were reports that four of them had managed to escape, he said, but the area was very remote and authorities were investigating.

Separately, NATO said Saturday it had killed a senior Taliban leader in an airstrike in Badghis province in northern Afghanistan the previous day.

The military coalition said in a statement that the Taliban leader, Mullah Tor Jan, had been appointed by the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban command council based in Pakistan.

Badghis deputy chief of police, Abdul Jabar Khan, said Tor Jan was a senior Taliban commander responsible for planting mines along routes used by Afghan and international forces and for organizing attacks on police stations.
EHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he sees "positive points" from recent talks in Geneva with six world powers over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad said Saturday in an interview with Iranian state TV that the negotiations in Geneva in early December were "good talks."

He said "the time has come to turn the policy of confrontation to one of cooperation," adding that "if we go toward cooperation, all will be the winners."
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) -- Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb, posing a threat to its neighbors, and the United States is "very ready" to counter Iran should it make a move, the top U.S. military officer said Saturday.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought to reassure Persian Gulf nations nervous that an increasingly militarized government in Iran might try to start a war.

"The United States takes very seriously our security commitments in the Gulf region," Mullen said following a meeting with Bahrain's king. Bahrain, directly across the Gulf from Iran, is home to a large U.S. Navy base that would be on the front lines of any war with Iran.

"We're very ready," Mullen said, an unusually direct acknowledgment that the United States has contingency plans to counter Iran should it make a move. "There are real threats to peace and stability here, and we've made no secrets of our concerns about Iran."

In Iran, the new foreign minister - and current nuclear chief - said Saturday that he wants to build the country's relationship with Saudi Arabia and strengthen ties with Turkey, China and Russia. The latter two countries have veto power on the U.N. Security Council that could help Iran as it tries to fend off tougher sanctions.

Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, replaced longtime foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who was fired Monday by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without public explanation.

Iran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon, and denies U.S. claims that it sponsors terrorists. Iran has wary relations with many of its neighbors, who are trading partners with the oil giant but distrust the theocratic government.

"Concerns about Iran's nuclear program are very real and inform a lot of the decision making" among Gulf nations, said Adam Ereli, the U.S. ambassador in Bahrain.

The U.S. fears that if Iran masters the technical challenge of building a bomb it could set off a nuclear arms race around the Gulf.

"From my perspective I see Iran continuing on this path to develop nuclear weapons, and I believe that that development and achieving that goal would be very destabilizing to the region," Mullen said.

He gave no specifics about U.S. plans or defenses, but the Navy base is headquarters for ships and aircraft that monitor Iran and could be used to deter or defend against what military officials fear would be an attack that would come without warning. The base also houses Patriot missiles.

The U.S. keeps tabs on Iran through extensive air surveillance in the Gulf and from naval patrols that regularly engage in formal communication with Iranian ships.

"I would like someday to think that they would be responsible regional and international players as opposed to what they are right now," Mullen added. "I just haven't seen any steps taken in that regard."

Mullen said he supports the current strategy of applying economic and political sanctions on Iran to try to dissuade it from building a bomb, while engaging Iran in international negotiations over the scope of its nuclear program. Iran claims it is seeking nuclear energy.

Mullen repeated his view that a pre-emptive military strike on Iran's known nuclear facilities is a bad option that would set off "unintended consequences," but one the United States reserves the right to use. The Obama administration has said it will not allow Iran to become a nuclear weapons state but has never said exactly what steps it would take to prevent that.

"I've said all options have been on the table and remain on the table," Mullen said.

Iran is currently under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions and subject to additional penalties imposed separately by the United States, European countries and others. The most recent round of Security Council sanctions were adopted in June.

The Obama administration and its European allies are prepared to impose additional sanctions if Iran fails to meet international demands to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful, a senior U.S. official said Friday.

Gary Samore, the White House coordinator for arms control, told a Washington think tank that the U.S. and its partners will keep up pressure on Iran to come clean about its nuclear ambitions.

Leaders of six U.S.-allied Gulf Arab nations said this month they are watching Iran's nuclear ambitions with "utmost concern," and appealed to the West for a greater voice in the renewed talks with Tehran.

The statement from the Gulf Cooperation Council - powerful Saudi Arabia and its fast-growing neighbors - appeared to cast off a bit of the group's traditional caution and adopt a harder tone. The group warned Iran not to interfere in Gulf Arab affairs and called on it to reject "force or the threat to use it."

Iran holds frequent military drills along the Persian Gulf - primarily to assert an ability to defend against any U.S. or Israeli attack on its nuclear sites, but also to send a message to Arab neighbors on its southern border.
Val d'Isère, France (AP) - American Lindsey Vonn Val d'Isère players on Saturday in the first race he dropped this season to win the World Cup overall leader Maria Riesch close the gap.

Vonn, World Cup champion three times and ruled down the Olympic champion, second behind Germany's rivals had been eliminated two weeks ago in two downhills in Lake Louise.

Section 1.7 mile near the top of the Oreiller-Killy course although small 1 minute wobble Vonn, 51.42 seconds, finished in a while.

Swiss duo Nadja Kamer and Lara Gut is the second and third respectively.

Vonn 0.001 Kamer down the second division, but picked up speed in the second part, of course, 0.68 seconds to beat him, and 0.80 at age 19 of colon.

Riesch soft conditions begin to deteriorate and Vonn lose more time, 2.28 seconds adrift in the 24th put the finishing.

Riesch's Vonn wins in front of his declined to take the top of the standings.

Last weekend prior to St. Moritz in the Swiss resort Postponed - - clear blue skies and bright sunshine for the season on Friday when the super-G race of contrasting distant and almost no visibility due to heavy snowfall called again.

Austrian Elisabeth Goergl fourth Saturday in the veteran Italian French Ingrid Johanna Schnarf, which began with the first with Jacquemod finished tied for fifth.

Riesch's run, meanwhile, went from bad to worse.

Vonn was 1.09 behind on the first partition, then 1.10 and 1.95.

A few moments after crossing the line, Riesch looked surprised, shrugged and then bowed his head.

Andrea Dettling on Saturday was the first down and crashed near the top, flying sideways to the net. But the Swiss player after a few seconds back on their feet without any assistance and has appeared injured.
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) -- Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb, posing a threat to its neighbors, and the United States is "very ready" to counter Iran should it make a move, the top U.S. military officer said Saturday.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reassured Persian Gulf nations nervous that an increasingly militarized government in Iran might try to start a war.

"The United States takes very seriously our security commitments in the Gulf region," Mullen said following a meeting with Bahrain's king. Bahrain, directly across the Gulf from Iran, is home to a large U.S. Navy base that would be on the front lines of any war with Iran.

"We're very ready," Mullen said, an unusually direct acknowledgment that the United States has contingency plans to counter Iran should it make a move. "There are real threats to peace and stability here, and we've made no secrets of our concerns about Iran."

Iran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon, and denies U.S. claims that it sponsors terrorists. Iran has wary relations with many of its neighbors, who are trading partners with the oil giant but distrust the theocratic government.

"Concerns about Iran's nuclear program are very real and inform a lot of the decision making" among Gulf nations, said Adam Ereli, the U.S. ambassador in Bahrain.

The U.S. fears that if Iran masters the technical challenge of building a bomb it could set off a nuclear arms race around the Gulf.

"From my perspective I see Iran continuing on this path to develop nuclear weapons, and I believe that that development and achieving that goal would be very destabilizing to the region," Mullen said.

He gave no specifics about U.S. plans or defenses, but the Navy base is headquarters for ships and aircraft that monitor Iran and could be used to deter or defend against what military officials fear would be an attack that would come without warning. The base also houses Patriot missiles.

The U.S. keeps tabs on Iran through extensive air surveillance in the Gulf and from naval patrols that regularly engage in formal communication with Iranian ships.

"I would like someday to think that they would be responsible regional and international players as opposed to what they are right now," Mullen added. "I just haven't seen any steps taken in that regard."

Mullen said he supports the current strategy of applying economic and political sanctions on Iran to try to dissuade it from building a bomb, while engaging Iran in international negotiations over the scope of its nuclear program. Iran claims it is seeking nuclear energy.

Mullen repeated his view that a pre-emptive military strike on Iran's known nuclear facilities is a bad option that would set off "unintended consequences," but one the United States reserves the right to use. The Obama administration has said it will not allow Iran to become a nuclear weapons state but has never said exactly what steps it would take to prevent that.

"I've said all options have been on the table and remain on the table," Mullen said.

Iran is currently under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions and subject to additional penalties imposed separately by the United States, European countries and others. The most recent round of Security Council sanctions were adopted in June.

The Obama administration and its European allies are prepared to impose additional sanctions if Iran fails to meet international demands to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful, a senior U.S. official said Friday.

Gary Samore, the White House coordinator for arms control, told a Washington think tank that the U.S. and its partners will keep up pressure on Iran to come clean about its nuclear ambitions.

Leaders of six U.S.-allied Gulf Arab nations said this month they are watching Iran's nuclear ambitions with "utmost concern," and appealed to the West for a greater voice in the renewed talks with Tehran.

The statement from the Gulf Cooperation Council - powerful Saudi Arabia and its fast-growing neighbors - appeared to cast off a bit of the group's traditional caution and adopt a harder tone. The group warned Iran not to interfere in Gulf Arab affairs and called on it to reject "force or the threat to use it."

Iran holds frequent military drills along the Persian Gulf - primarily to assert an ability to defend against any U.S. or Israeli attack on its nuclear sites, but also to send a message to Arab neighbors on its southern border.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up Saturday near an armored car carrying a district chief in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, killing himself and one civilian bystander, Afghan authorities said.

The bomber targeted Ahmadullah Nazak's car in a residential and shopping area of the city as the official was traveling to a meeting, said Zalmai Ayubi, spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor. Nazak was unharmed, but one passer-by was killed and another six people were wounded, Ayubi said.

"I am safe and sound, and all of those who were in the car are also safe and sound," Nazak told The Associated Press shortly after the explosion. He did not say how many people had been in the car with him.

Violence has been on the rise across much of Afghanistan, with the southern provinces of Kandahar - the birthplace of the Taliban - and Helmand seeing much of the fighting. NATO forces have poured troops into both provinces.

Elsewhere, a NATO service member was killed Saturday in an insurgent attack in the east of the country, the military coalition said, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a surprise visit to her nation's troops in the north.

The alliance did not reveal the nationality of the service member or the location of the attack.

Another soldier died of a noncombat injury in the north of the country on Friday, NATO said. The German military said one of its soldiers, a 21-year-old, died of a gunshot wound that appeared to be the result of an accident at a military post in Baghlan Province, but the matter was being investigated.

More than 670 U.S. and other international troops have died in Afghanistan so far this year.

Germany currently has nearly 4,700 troops serving in Afghanistan and plans to start gradually withdrawing in late 2011.

Merkel visited Kunduz, where her nation's troops have a base. In Berlin, the German government said Merkel traveled with her defense minister and the military's chief of staff.

The German parliament is expected to vote in January on renewing authorization for the nation's military mission in Afghanistan. The current parliamentary mandate allows for a maximum deployment of 5,350 German soldiers.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Thursday that Germany is defending its own security in Afghanistan.

"That is why this mission is right, but it is also right that it cannot go on forever," he said.

Separately, NATO said Saturday it had killed a senior Taliban leader in an airstrike in Badghis province in northern Afghanistan the previous day.

The military coalition said in a statement that the Taliban leader, Mullah Tor Jan, had been appointed by the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban command council based in Pakistan. The airstrike that killed him followed a firefight that broke out as Afghan and international forces pursued "an armed individual" to a cave complex, the coalition said.

Badghis deputy chief of police, Abdul Jabar Khan, said Tor Jan was a senior Taliban commander responsible for planting mines along routes used by Afghan and international forces and for organizing attacks on police stations.
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico (AP) - Anger on the Mexican justice system is creaking, effectively flooding after her mother, who fought against the murderer of his daughter two years of struggle to bring justice for the murdered man, apparently the same is charged with the murder of a teenager.

Masked security tape car pulled in front of the governor's office of the city's Chihuahua. It seems an exchange of words with anti-crime crusader Maris Ortiz Escobedo, who held vigil outside.

He tried to run the streets, but the gunmen chased him and shot in the head on Thursday, said Jorge Gonzalez, special prosecutor and crime prevention.

Escobedo was taken by ambulance to hospital where he died within minutes.

On Friday, a group of protesters gathered outside the Interior Ministry in Mexico City, protesting the police killing of a short battle while chanting "No more death!"

Now north of Ciudad Juarez, where the daughter is 17 years old Escobedo body was found burned in June 2009 component package activists demonstrated outside the headquarters of state law, with signs demanding "Justice Maris.

Murder in Mexico on Thursday that the victim is suffering, without protection, "said veteran anti-crime activist Alejandro Marti.

The scandal led to the suspension of three judges, who ordered the release of a major suspect in the murder of his daughter after he wins by the court in April for lack of evidence.

The man, Sergio Barraza, now the prime suspect in his mother's death, said Carlos Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Attorney General, Chihuahua, Ciudad Juarez, where he was.

Frayre daughter Ruby Escobedo Escobedo, disappeared in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, 2008.

After the body was found last year, Mother's Journey, a quick conviction. Escobedo Rallies held a flag wrapped many nude pictures of her daughter.

"This battle is not just my child," said Escobedo loudspeaker that in March, his voice cracking. "We do not allow young women to be killed in this city."

Three days ago, they planted themselves in front of the governor's office Cesar Duarte promised not to move until the researchers have shown the success of this case. In an interview with El Diario on Sunday, said Escobedo family received death threats Barraza.

Duarte said that state security agencies took custody of Escobedo, despite its distance. He said he did not consider it safe to be examined on Thursday.

Duarte also peaks in the court suspended the three judges.

On Friday, said President Judge Javier Ramirez Benitez was to stop the investigation. Ramirez said Benitez collection earlier this year follow-up because she was treated.

Prosecutors said Barraza, Frayre animal admitted killing his girlfriend and the police took the body. But in the courtroom, he shouted to blame says he was tortured to confess. The judge ruled in April that prosecutors presented no physical evidence against him.

This case is an example of a problem in the judicial system in Chihuahua, to adopt an oral test prior investigation is not closed doors and filing documents used in tests in Mexico.

Despite the training, police, prosecution, and Chihuahua problems adapting to the system that puts the burden of proof on plaintiffs. In many cases of murder was released due to lack of evidence in court or not.

Often, the police only after the defendant claims that the confession was made under pressure. Suspect captured in New Mexico's press is shown often on his face bruised.

Ciudad Juarez police stunned gang wars, that one of the most dangerous city in the world was created. More than 3,000 people were killed in the city of 1.3 million dollars this year alone.

Records obtained by the Associated Press show that last year, when 2600 were killed in Ciudad Juarez, prosecutors, the number of murders for 1993 and 19 convictions.

Lack of Chihuahua of Justice last year, before the new system is implemented, the drug rose to unprecedented heights of violence.

In 1990, hundreds of women killed around Ciudad Juarez, about 100 of them are sexually abused and tossed in the desert.
By Sarah Palin 

I’m glad the Senate came to its senses and killed the omnibus spending monstrosity. That outrageous trillion-dollar pork buffet was an outright slap in the face to the American public’s expressed wishes in the last election. It was as if Congress was earning its historically low 13 percent approval rating before our very eyes. I applaud senators like Jim DeMint, John McCain, and others who fought this and stopped it.

However, the very fact that some lawmakers on Capitol Hill thought such reckless spending was even remotely acceptable is disturbing. We’re facing trillion-dollar deficits and a record national debt, but some people still want to continue spending like there’s no tomorrow. If the European debt crisis teaches us anything, it’s that tomorrow always comes. Sooner or later, the markets will expect us to settle the bill for the enormous Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending binge. We’ve already been warned by the credit ratings agency Moody’s that unless we get serious about reducing our deficit, we may face a downgrade of our credit rating. Even the lamest of lame ducks can’t ignore this reality.
BERLIN (AP) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made an unannounced visit to northern Afghanistan, where her country's troops serve in the NATO-led security force.
The government in Berlin said that Merkel, her defense minister and the military's chief of staff arrived early Saturday in Kunduz, where Germany has a base. It declined to give further details of the visit.
Germany currently has nearly 4,700 troops serving in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. It plans to start withdrawing its troops in late 2011.
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