Beijing police launch Web patrols 59 minutes ago

Beijing police launch Web patrols 59 minutes ago



BEIJING - Police in China's capital said Tuesday they will start patrolling the Web using animated beat officers that pop up on a user's browser and walk, bike or drive across the screen warning them to stay away from illegal Internet content.

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Starting Sept. 1, the cartoon alerts will appear every half hour on 13 of China's top portals, including Sohu and Sina, and by the end of the year will appear on all Web sites registered with Beijing servers, the Beijing Public Security Ministry said in a statement.

China stringently polices the Internet for material and content that the ruling Communist Party finds politically or morally threatening. Despite the controls, nudity, profanity, illegal gambling and pirated music, books and film have proliferated on Chinese Internet servers.

The animated police appeared designed to startle Web surfers and remind them that authorities closely monitor Web activity. However, the statement did not say whether there were plans to boost monitoring further.

The male and female cartoon officers, designed for the ministry by Sohu, will offer a text warning to surfers to abide by the law and tips on Internet security as they move across the screen in a virtual car, motorcycle or on foot, it said.

If Internet users need police help they can click on the cartoon images and will be redirected to the authority's Web site, it said.

"We will continue to promote new images of the virtual police and update our Internet security tips in an effort to make the image of the virtual police more user friendly and more in tune with how web surfers use the Internet," it said.

China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users, with 137 million people online, and is on track to surpass the United States as the largest online population in two years.

The government routinely blocks surfers from accessing overseas sites and closes down domestic Web sites deemed obscene or subversive.

Olmert, Abbas tackle top divisive issues By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer

Olmert, Abbas tackle top divisive issues By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago



JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tackled the biggest issues dividing the two sides at their meeting on Tuesday — final borders, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, an Israeli official said.

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It was the first time the two men discussed these matters in depth, the official said.

"These core issues have to be discussed on the way to finding a diplomatic solution of two states for two peoples," an official in the prime minister's office quoted Olmert as saying. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the two leaders spoke privately.

Olmert, who has met several times with Abbas in the past few months, has been reluctant to take on these big issues, preferring to focus on general outlines. Israel's approach has riled the Palestinians, who want to go straight to the core issues of Palestinian statehood.

Heading into the meeting, Abbas warned that an international Mideast peace conference scheduled for November would be a "waste of time" if it failed to address the big three issues, which have stymied peace efforts in the past.

As he entered Olmert's Jerusalem residence for the meeting, Abbas signed the guestbook in Arabic with a wish for peace between the two peoples, the Israeli official said.

The official in Olmert's office said the two sides hoped by the end of October to outline a framework for the end of the conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state. The three major issues will be at the heart of this document, he said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters the two leaders did not discuss the issues in detail or prepare any documents. But he said the sides must gird themselves to act, not talk.

"We are at a stage to reach decisions," Erekat said.

He did not deny that Israelis and Palestinians were conducting backchannel talks to try to move peacemaking ahead, but said they were not official negotiations.

President Bush has called for a Mideast peace conference, expected to take place in November, to advance a final Israeli-Palestinian accord. Olmert and Abbas plan to meet three times before then, the Israeli official said.

A successful outcome of the international conference is far from assured. The violent seizure of the Gaza Strip by Islamic Hamas militants in June created dueling governments, with Hamas ruling Gaza and Abbas loyalists in charge in the West Bank. Olmert, weakened by last summer's botched war against Lebanese guerrillas, might not be able to make the sweeping territorial concessions a final accord would demand.

On the other hand, prospects for peacemaking have been boosted by Abbas' expulsion of Hamas, which killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, from government. And the key players in this drama — Olmert, Abbas and Bush — all appear to be hungry for some kind of diplomatic achievement.

Olmert made it clear to Abbas in their meeting that Israel would break off all peacemaking if the Palestinian leader brought Hamas into his government, the Israeli official said.

The U.S. has been prodding Israel and the Palestinians to make progress before the November conference. Olmert's office said Tuesday's meeting was part of an attempt to reach understandings before then.

The meetings between Abbas and Olmert in recent months are an attempt to boost Abbas against Hamas. This was the first time a major development has been reported, sweeping aside official denials that the issues that have tormented peacemakers for decades were on the table.

The biggest obstacles in past peace negotiations have been what the final borders of a future Palestinian state would look like; whether Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation would be allowed to return to their homes along with their millions of descendants; and whether the holy city of Jerusalem could be shared.

Bush: Fight against extremism is crucial By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

Bush: Fight against extremism is crucial By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 17 minutes ago



RENO, Nev. - President Bush aims to inspire patience with the war Tuesday by arguing that the fight against extremists in Iraq is crucial to U.S. security and the future of a strategic, struggling region. Bush is speaking before thousands of veterans Tuesday at the American Legion convention. It his second major speech in a week devoted to an attempt to buttress support for the war.

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Last week before the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, he likened today's fight against extremism in Iraq to past conflicts in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

On Tuesday, he plans to discuss the implications of the fight in Iraq for the broader Middle East, a global crossroads that has largely missed the democratic and economic advances seen in other parts of the world and is thus vulnerable to the rise of terrorism, said a senior administration official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the president.

The pair of speeches is intended to set the stage for a crucial Sept. 15 assessment of the fighting, particularly whether the additional U.S. forces that Bush ordered to Iraq in January are improving security enough to create an environment for lasting political progress. The report, required by law to be presented to Congress, also is to measure Iraq's performance on U.S. benchmarks for military and political development.

Democrats, as well as some Republicans, are pressing to start the withdrawal of U.S. forces. The president is expected to announce shortly after the report's release whether he intends to do so.

Bush added 30,000 troops to help calm Baghdad and a western province, making the total now more than 160,000. At least 3,728 military members have died in the war.

In the next week, Bush and his senior advisers are likely to hear the initial thinking from Ryan Crocker, Bush's envoy in Baghdad, and the top U.S. general in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, another senior administration official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a schedule still in flux.

Bush leaves Monday to spend nearly a week in Australia, but Crocker and Petraeus are expected to testify to Congress as soon as Sept. 10 on the military and political landscape in Iraq more than four years after the start of the war, officials said. The two will give two days of testimony before their report is sent to lawmakers.

The two have already telegraphed many of their conclusions, and Bush has made it increasingly clear that he is likely to say that he wants more time for the additional forces to have an impact.

In fact, the first official said the president in his Tuesday speech would note the security gains from the surge, as well as early signs of political progress, while asking lawmakers to hold off on any judgments until hearing from Crocker and Petraeus.

But he was also to make a broader argument about the importance of the fighting in Iraq. He was to argue that Iraq is at the heart of rising extremist movements in both the Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities, the former dominated by al-Qaida and the latter by Iran, the official said.

"Failure in Iraq would cause the enemy not to retreat but to follow us to America," Bush said Monday night in Bellevue, Wash., in remarks at a fundraiser for GOP Rep. Dave Reichert.

Earlier Monday, he sought to highlight nascent moves toward political reconciliation in Iraq, heralding an agreement over the weekend among leading Iraqi politicians. He called Sunday's pact on some issues that have blocked national reconciliation a good step, but not enough.

"I reminded them, and they understand, much more needs to be done," Bush said on an airport tarmac in New Mexico, where he was raising campaign cash for Republican Sen. Pete Domenici. He added that it will be up to the Iraqi parliament to codify the new agreements when it reconvenes in early September.

Both Bush and Iraq's leaders are under increasing pressure to show progress amid slow deliberations and political squabbling in Baghdad and sinking support for the war among Americans and in Congress.

The Iraqi leaders said on Sunday that they agreed on some issues that the U.S. has set as targets, among them holding provincial elections, releasing prisoners held without charge and changing the law preventing many former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from holding government jobs and elected office.

No details were released and committees must hash out final versions of legislation to be presented to the Iraqi parliament. Iraqi officials have announced similar deals in the past, only to have them fall apart.

The deal also was not enough to convince the main Sunni Arab political bloc to take back posts in government that they abandoned this month over differences with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

___

AP Diplomatic Writer Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

Arrest clouds Idaho senator's future By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer

Arrest clouds Idaho senator's future By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 13 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, who has voted against gay marriage and opposes extending special protections to gay and lesbian crime victims, finds his political future in doubt after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from complaints of lewd conduct in a men's room.

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The conservative three-term senator, who has represented Idaho in Congress for more than a quarter-century, is up for re-election next year. He hasn't said if he will run for a fourth term in 2008 and was expected to announce his plans this fall.

A spokesman, Sidney Smith, was uncertain late Monday if Craig's guilty plea in connection with an incident at the Minneapolis airport would affect his re-election plans.

"It's too early to talk about anything about that," Smith said.

A political science professor in Idaho said Craig's political future was in jeopardy. And a spokesman for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, Hannah August, said Craig's guilty plea "has given Americans another reason not to vote Republican" next year.

The married Craig, 62, has faced rumors about his sexuality since the 1980s, but allegations that he has engaged in gay sex have never been substantiated. Craig has denied the assertions, which he calls ridiculous.

The arrest changes that dynamic, said Jasper LiCalzi, a political science professor at Albertson College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho. He cited the House page scandal that drove Florida Rep. Mark Foley from office.

"There's a chance that he'll resign over this," LiCalzi said. "With the pressure on the Republican Party, he could be pressured to resign. If they think this is going to be something that's the same as Mark Foley — the sort of 'drip, drip, drip, there's more information that's going to come out' — they may try to push him out."

Already Craig has stepped down from a prominent role with Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. He had been one of Romney's top Senate supporters, serving as a Senate liaison for the campaign since February.

"He did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision," said Matt Rhoades, a Romney campaign spokesman.

According to a Hennepin County, Minn., court docket, Craig pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge on Aug. 8, with the court dismissing a charge of gross misdemeanor interference to privacy.

The court docket said Craig paid $575 in fines and fees and was put on unsupervised probation for a year. A sentence of 10 days in the county workhouse was stayed.

Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, which first reported the case, said on its Web site Monday that Craig was arrested June 11 by a plainclothes officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in a men's restroom at the airport.

Minneapolis airport police declined to provide a copy of the arrest report after business hours Monday.

Roll Call, citing the report, said Sgt. Dave Karsnia made the arrest after an encounter in which he was seated in a stall next to a stall occupied by Craig. Karsnia described Craig tapping his foot, which Karsnia said he "recognized as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct."

Roll Call quoted the Aug. 8 police report as saying that Craig had handed the arresting officer a business card that identified him as a member of the Senate.

"What do you think about that?" Craig is alleged to have said, according to the report.

Craig said in a statement issued by his office Monday that he was not involved in any inappropriate conduct.

"At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said. "I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

Craig joins other GOP senators facing ethical and legal troubles.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is under scrutiny for his relationship with a contractor who helped oversee a renovation project that more than doubled the size of the senator's home.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., acknowledged that his phone number appeared in records of a Washington-area business that prosecutors have said was a front for prostitution.

Craig, a rancher and a member of the National Rifle Association, lives in Eagle, Idaho, near the capital of Boise. He was a member of the House for 10 years before winning election to the Senate in 1990. He was re-elected in 1996 and 2002.

Last fall, Craig called allegations from a gay-rights activist that he's had homosexual relationships "completely ridiculous."

Mike Rogers, who bills himself as a gay activist blogger, published the allegations on his Web site, http://www.blogactive.com, in October 2006.

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, an advocacy group, on Monday called Craig a hypocrite.

"What's up with elected officials like Senator Craig? They stand for so-called family values and fight basic protections for gay people while furtively seeking other men for sex," Foreman said.

___

Associated Press writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis and John Miller in Boise contributed to this story.

Islamic-rooted president wins in Turkey By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer

Islamic-rooted president wins in Turkey By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer
1 minute ago



ANKARA, Turkey - A devout Muslim with a background in political Islam won the Turkish presidency on Tuesday, in a major triumph for the Islamic-rooted government after months of confrontation with the secular establishment.

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Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul received a majority of 339 votes in a parliamentary ballot, Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan said. Ruling party legislators broke into applause.

"Abdullah Gul was elected Turkey's 11th president, with 339 votes," Toptan said. "I congratulate him."

The vote took place a day after the military, which has ousted four governments since 1960, issued a stern warning about the threat to secularism. Gul's initial bid for president was blocked over fears that he planned to dilute secular traditions.

"Our nation has been watching the behavior of those separatists who can't embrace Turkey's unitary nature, and centers of evil that systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic," Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the military, said in a note on the military's Web site Monday.

Gul, 56, has promised to uphold secularism. But Turkey's president has the power to veto legislation, and Gul has failed to allay secularist fears that he would sign into law any legislation passed by the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan — a close ally — without concern for the separation of religion and politics.

Also, his wife wears an Islamic-style head scarf — which is banned in government offices and schools. Islamic attire has been restricted in Turkey since the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, ushered in secularism and Western-style reforms in the 1930s.

Gul failed to win the presidency in two rounds of voting last week because the ruling Justice and Development party lacked the two-thirds majority in Parliament needed for him to secure the post. But the party — which holds 341 of the 550 seats — had a far easier hurdle on Tuesday, when only a simple majority was required.

Gul was scheduled to be sworn in as president in Parliament later Tuesday. He was to take over the presidency from outgoing President Ahmet Necdet Sezer soon after, in a low-key ceremony closed to the media.

Erdogan said he planned to submit his new Cabinet to Gul for his approval on Wednesday. Erdogan had presented his list earlier this month to Sezer, who said the new president should approve it.

In Gul's hometown of Kayseri, in Turkey's conservative heartland, hundreds gathered at a main square to celebrate his victory, private NTV television reported.

Secularist Turks staged mass rallies and the military threatened to intervene when Erdogan nominated Gul for president in the spring.

Gul insisted that he be re-nominated for president earlier this month, arguing that his party's victory in the elections gave him a strong mandate to run. He rejected calls from secularist parties to step aside in favor of a non-Islamist, compromise candidate.

"A person who has defied the (secular) republic, who has said he finds it to be wrong, is about to move to the top of the state. This is a contradiction," said Deniz Baykal, leader of the secular opposition. His party boycotted the vote on Tuesday and has said it would not take part in some state occasions, including presidential ceremonies.

As foreign minister, Gul — who speaks English and Arabic — has cultivated an image as a moderate politician.

In a recent meeting with foreign journalists, Gul said he would make use of his experiences as foreign minister to boost Turkey's EU bid and make the Turkish presidency more active on the international scene.

"Turkey will be more active; Turkey will be contributing more to world issues," he said.

Officer in Bush motorcade dies in crash 26 minutes ago

Officer in Bush motorcade dies in crash 26 minutes ago



ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A police officer accompanying President Bush's motorcade was involved in a fatal motorcycle crash less than a year after an accident in Hawaii killed another officer accompanying the president.

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Rio Rancho Officer Germaine Casey, 40, crashed at the Albuquerque airport at a point where a road enters an underground parking garage, said Trish Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the Albuquerque Police Department. He was pronounced dead later Monday at an Albuquerque hospital.

Bush had been headed to the airport after attending a fundraiser for Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.

"Any time there is a presidential motorcade, the officers, that's part of their job, they drive at a high rate of speed," said Hoffman, whose department is investigating the crash.

Rio Rancho police department spokesman Officer John Francis said Casey's motorcycle hit a curb and then a tree, but investigators were reconstructing the accident to determine exactly what happened.

Photographers and reporters in the presidential motorcade said the officer's motorcycle appeared to be nearly destroyed, and the officer was on the ground, being helped by an emergency medical technician.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the president saw the wreck after it had occurred, and a member of the White House medical staff went to assist.

Bush called Casey's wife, Lisa, from his limousine on the way to the airport in Seattle to offer condolences, Stanzel said.

The president issued a statement saying he was saddened by Casey's death and extraordinarily grateful for his protection.

"It is a high calling to choose to serve and protect your fellow citizens, and I will always be indebted to Officer Casey's service," the president said, adding that the officer's wife and two teenage children were in his thoughts and prayers.

The officer had been with the Rio Rancho Police Department since 2005 and worked with campus police at the University of New Mexico before that, Hoffman said.

Francis said Casey had received special training in riding in motorcades and had previously escorted Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on separate occasions.

A Honolulu police officer, Steve Favela, died in November when he and two other motorcycle officers crashed while part of a presidential motorcade traveling across Hickam Air Force Base.

Home prices: Steepest drop in 20 years By VINNEE TONG, AP Business Writer

Home prices: Steepest drop in 20 years By VINNEE TONG, AP Business Writer
9 minutes ago



NEW YORK - U.S. home prices fell 3.2 percent in the second quarter, the steepest rate of decline since Standard & Poor's began its nationwide housing index in 1987, the research group said Tuesday.

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The decline in home prices around the nation shows no evidence of a market recovery anytime soon, one of the architects of the index said.

MacroMarkets LLC Chief Economist Robert Shiller said the declining residential real estate market "shows no signs of slowing down."

The report came a day after the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes dropped for a fifth straight month in July while the number of unsold homes shot up to a record level.

The S&P/Case-Schiller quarterly index tracks price trends among existing single-family homes across the nation compared with a year earlier .

A separate index that covers 20 U.S. cities fell 3.5 percent in June from a year earlier. A 10-city index fell 4.1 percent from a year earlier.

Housing is among the economic indicators closely watched by Federal Reserve policymakers.

After five years of rapidly rising home prices, the market stalled last year, with prices holding steady or falling as sales slowed. Since then, lenders have made it more difficult for some people to get mortgages by tightening standards just as foreclosures rise and some who borrowed at adjustable rates facing higher payments they can't meet.

Problems have spread from those with poor credit repayment histories to more creditworthy borrowers.

The Fed has taken a number of steps aimed at stabilizing the situation, and market watchers look further for a possible cut in the federal funds rate, which is the rate commercial banks charge each other for short-term loans. That rate has been kept steady at 5.25 percent for more than a year.

The Fed has its next regularly scheduled meeting on Sept. 18.

Fifteen of the cities surveyed for S&P's 20-city index showed a year-over-year decline in prices in June.

Prices in Boston dropped in June at a slower rate than they did in May, continuing a trend that started at the beginning of the year. In April 2006, Boston was the first metropolitan area to show a year-over-year decline, so any turnaround there could be an early sign of recovery.

S&P said it needed more data to determine whether Boston would be the first area to improve.

Detroit led the cities with the biggest price declines, with an 11 percent drop from June of last year. Other cities with falling prices included Tampa, Fla., San Diego and Washington, D.C., which all recorded drops of at least 7 percent.

Seattle and Charlotte, N.C., were on the small list of cities that saw prices rise in the same period. Seattle prices rose 8 percent in June while Charlotte saw a 6.8 percent increase.

In Monday's report, the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes dipped by 0.2 percent in July from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.75 million units.

The median price of a home sold last month slid to $230,200, down by 0.6 percent from the median price a year ago. It marked the 12th consecutive month that home prices have declined, a record stretch.

Greek government criticized as fires rage on By Karolos Grohmann

Greek government criticized as fires rage on By Karolos Grohmann
1 hour, 39 minutes ago



KRESTENA, Greece (Reuters) - Greece's conservative government faced mounting criticism of incompetence on Tuesday as villagers fled fierce forest fires that have killed 63 people.

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The opposition Socialist PASOK party seized on the fires three weeks before a parliamentary election, pouring scorn on the government's efforts and saying accusations of arson were an excuse for its weakness in responding to the crisis.

"The government has proven tragically incapable of dealing with fires," PASOK leader George Papandreou told reporters. "It could not save people's lives, property and homes ... it's time for Greek people to choose a strong government that can guarantee security, confidence and hope."

Athens dailies also criticized the government with headlines such as "Paralyzed state, outrage at government" and "The elections of wrath."

The government has stuck by its plan to hold an early parliamentary election on September 16. An opinion poll said the ruling conservatives' lead over the socialists had slipped due, in part, to their handling of the crisis.

The poll, conducted by ALCO polling agency on behalf of Alter TV, showed the New Democracy party's lead over PASOK had narrowed to 0.8 from 1.3 percentage points in a previous poll.

Exhausted firefighters, now boosted by foreign help, have been trying to douse the fires for more than four days.

"I had to use 300 litres of wine to try to extinguish the fire around my house," said Georgios Dimopoulos from the village of Makistos in the southerly Peloponnese peninsula, hardest hit by the fires.

"For 17 hours I fought with the blaze. We were left at the mercy of the flames. I could not tell if it was day or night."

As the once picture-perfect Peloponnese and the island of Evia north of Athens burned, the government reacted to accusations it had failed to move fast enough by saying the simultaneous fires could not be a coincidence.

CALL FOR UNITY

"All of us Greeks must stay united ... As in our past, we must prove that we are one soul, one fist in a national crisis," Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said, announcing emergency relief measures.

The government offered rewards of up to 1 million euros ($1.4 million) for help in tracking down arsonists and asked a public prosecutor to see if they can be prosecuted as terrorists.

Many local mayors have accused rogue land developers of setting fires to make way for new construction. Three elderly people and two boys have been charged with starting fires.

Overstretched fire brigades said they were battling 25 fire fronts on Tuesday. Greece has declared a nationwide state of emergency and appeals for help have brought planes and firefighters from abroad.

A team of Cypriot firefighters was making fire break corridors in mountains north of Ancient Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic Games in the western Peloponnese. The 2,700-year-old archaeological complex narrowly escaped the flames on Sunday.

"The fire has receded, there is no wind in the area and we have the water bombers overhead, but we have to be vigilant," said fire chief Marcos Strangoulas.

"I'm on a high mountain and there are oak trees all around. Let's hope they stay that way," Strangoulas said.