Ohio Police Find Bodies of Trio Stuffed in Hollowed Out Tree

The bodies of an Ohio woman, her young son and a family friend have been discovered by police, wrapped in garbage bags and stuffed in a hollow tree, authorities said today. ugg boots Classic

Watch: The Nightmare of Being KidnappedKnox County Sheriff David Barber said they were told where to find the victims by lawyers for Matthew Hoffman, who is in custody for kidnapping 13-year-old Sarah Maynard.

The victims included Sarah's motherTina Herrmann, 32, her younger brother Kody Maynard, 10, and family friend Stephanie Sprang, 41.

"The discovery of these bodies was the result of information provided by Matthew Hoffman," Barber said. "We were optimistic a few days ago that there was a remote chance these persons were still alive. This is is a homicide investigation now."

Authorities said they had been contacted by Hoffman's lawyer, but would not characterize the information as a confession. The county prosecutor would not say whether officials had cut a deal to encourage him to talk.

Barber said there were no other suspects involved and would not speculate on a motive.

The bodies were found near Apple Valley, Ohio, miles away from Hoffman's home where Sarah was found on Sunday by a SWAT team. The girl was bound and gagged in Hoffman's basement in rural Mount Vernon, Ohio.

Barber said he believed the victims were killed in their blood splattered house in Howard, Ohio, about 10 miles where Hoffman lived. The sheriff said Sarah was also at house at the time, but wouldn't say whether she witnessed the killings. The sheriff would not comment on the type of weapon used in the murder. cheap nike shoes

Hoffman is a 31-year-old drifter who had recently been released from a Colorado prison after serving a term for arson and burglary.

Hoffman has been in police custody since Sunday, but previously has not cooperated with investigators.

Barber said police had to cut into the tree to remove the three bodies. He said the victims were all wearing the same clothes they had last been seen in on Nov. 10. Barber suggested that Hoffman had hollowed out the tree himself saying, "Hoffman has worked as tree trimmer."

Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher said Hoffman would likely be brought up on addtional charges, but could not specify what they would be.

"I can't speculate on what those charges might be without knowing what the evidence is," said Thatcher.

Hoffman is scheduled for to appear in court again Tuesday.

Both Barber and Hoffman appeared emotional at times, calling the case one of the worst they had ever encountered.

"The tragedy today is just devastating," said Thatcher. "The results aren't what we wanted them to be."
Rescued Girl Sarah Maynard Now With Father
Police immediately focused the search for Sarah's family members near Hoffman's home, honing in on a park a short walk from the house where he kept the girl confined.

Hoffman was arrested Sunday and charged with kidnapping. Police say he has been placed on suicide watch and has not been cooperating with their investigation. He appeared in court Tuesday wearing an anti-suicide gown and his bail was set at $1 million.

Police said Sarah was in good health, staying with her father and cooperating with the investigation. cheap nike air max 90

All four people were last seen Nov. 10 at the family home in Howard, Ohio, about 10 miles from Hoffman's house in Mount Vernon. Police were initially called to the family's home when Herrmann did not show up to work at a local Dairy Queen. When police searched the home they found it splattered with blood.

Early on in the investigation, Police temporarily locked down nearby Kenyon College when Hermmann's pickup truck was found parked on the campus one day after cops had observed it in the family's driveway.

Police said they believe Hoffman played a role in the family's disappearance, saying they were not "under their own power" when they were taken from their home.

Since finding Sarah alive Sunday, police have warned the other family members may have been killed.

The only known connection between Hoffman and Maynard and her family is that Hoffman's parents live within walking distance of Maynard's mother's home.

Sarah Maynard and Family Disappeared Last Week
"At this time, whether he's connected to the family or whether he connected himself to the family… a lot of that remains to be seen," Sheriff David Barber said earlier in the week.

Neighbors described Hoffman's behavior as "bizarre," saying they would see him climbing trees, spying on them from the boughs, building fires on his front lawn and killing small animals.

"He was killing the squirrels because he doesn't grocery shop," neighbor Kara Fowler told ABC News. "He would actually kill the squirrels and eat them." nike air max on sale

Yahoo Explores Job Cuts in Consumer Group

Yahoo Inc. is evaluating job cuts in its consumer products group, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Internet giant continues to search for ways to turn around its business.ugg tall

Yahoo's chief products officer, Blake Irving, has asked unit heads to prepare operational plans that factor in work force cuts of up to 20%, one person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Irving, who joined Yahoo in April, oversees key properties like the company's home page, finance site and email service.

Experience WSJ professional Editors' Deep Dive: Yahoo and AOL in the CrosshairsDOW JONES INTERNATIONAL NEWS

AOL Selling Off Part of Dulles Campus. Access thousands of business sources not available on the free web. Learn More .It wasn't immediately known how many employees would be affected, nor whether layoffs would extend beyond Mr. Irving's group, the person said. The products group recently had about 7,000 employees, said another person familiar with the matter.

A spokesman for the Sunnyvale, Calif., company said it "is always evaluating expenses to align with the company's financial goals" but denied the company was planning a 20% reduction across the company. Yahoo currently employs about 14,100 people, the spokesman said.

Any job cuts at Yahoo would follow two previous rounds of layoffs in recent years. The company cut around 700 workers during the second-quarter of 2009, or about 5% of its work force at the time. And it cut about 1,400 employees in December 2008.

The TechCrunch blog reported Thursday that Yahoo was preparing to cut 20% of its staff. Yahoo said the blog post was inaccurate.

Word of possible layoffs at Yahoo comes as other Internet companies, including Google Inc., Facebook Inc., and others are on hiring sprees. Earlier this week Google told its more than 23,000 employees they would get a 10% pay raise in January. ugg short

Yahoo, under the leadership of Chief Executive Carol Bartz, is in the midst of a multiyear turnaround effort that has seen it strike a search pact with Microsoft Corp. so the Internet giant can focus on its core Web properties and its display-advertising business.

But Yahoo has continued to struggle with ad sales, especially in North America, the company's most important region. In October, Yahoo said its total third-quarter revenue rose 1.6%, with revenue from owned and operated display advertising jumping 17%, but search ad sales falling 7%. The company at the time said its third-quarter earnings more than doubled, helped by lower costs and its sale of HotJobs.

COD Black Ops Reviews: Graphics Criticized – Better on MW2?

We’ve checked out a few of the early reviews for Call of Duty: Black Ops and we’ve noticed quite a few of them reserve a few lines to talk about the not so perfect graphics in the game. newest moncler 2010
This may not concern you in any way though, as Call of Duty has always been about the gameplay, but we were definitely interested when we read claims about the graphics being ‘better on Modern Warfare 2′.

Game-Pad has written a short piece on Black Ops and had this to say about the graphics featured in the game:

”Graphically MW2 is a superior game but the campaign of Black Ops is more intense and well told.”

Furthermore, we picked out a review from Dutch site PS3 Sense, who also had something to say about the graphics quality in Black Ops:

”In graphic terms, Black Ops is not much progress made on Modern Warfare 2, the graphics are generally equivalent in quality.”

Are they being a bit harsh on the game, or should we have expected better quality graphics this time around from Treyarch? Don’t forget that World at War wasnt exactly visually stunning either, and that game focused more on the gameplay aspect too. For those of you who are already playing the game, let us know your thoughts on the graphics.moncler jassen 2010

Do you agree that MW2 has better graphics or not?

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, or get daily updates via email.

MTV EMA Purple Carpet
There were plenty of drool-worthy dresses on the purple carpet last night at the MTV European Music Awards, so I decided to compile a list of the best, worst, and in-between. Everyone from Miley Cyrus to Taylor Momsen showed up, and their styles couldn't be more different...Let me know if you agree with my choices in the comments!

Maybe I'm just on a Shakira-high, because not only was she my favorite performer, but she was also best-dressed. She wore a low-cut black and gold metallic mini with platform black pumps. It's not too risky, but she's gorgeous enough to turn simple into stunning. Rihanna's my pick for runner-up. Wearing a white Marchesa gown she was probably the most dressed up for the event, yet she honestly didn't look overdressed. Loved it!
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ANC names new communications chief

THE ANC has appointed Keith Khoza as manager of party communications, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said yesterday. "Khoza's main task will be that of improving management systems, strategies and ANC communications co-ordination across provinces and with alliance partners - the SACP, Cosatu and the South African National Civic Organisation," Mantashe said. Khoza, a communications strategist, replaces Steyn Speed who left the post last year, he said. - Sapa

BRT shootings case on hold

THE CASE of two men accused of several Rea Vaya bus rapid transit (BRT) shootings in Soweto was postponed in the Protea Magistrate's Court yesterday. Makhehla Sikhakhane and Msizani Mbatha were denied bail last month after the court ruled that the pair were a flight risk after it took police a year to arrest them. Sikhakhane and Mbatha were arrested in September at the Merafe hostel. They are charged with 50 counts of attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstance, two counts of arson, possession of firearm and ammunition, and four counts of malicious damage to property. They are scheduled to appear in the court again in December. - Bongekile Macupe moncler coats

Cosatu welcomes UK probe

COSATU has welcomed the decision by the UK auditing body, the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board, to launch a new investigation into SA's arms deal. "They are to investigate KPMG, which advised BAE Systems on offshore companies that were used to pay 'commissions' to influence the awarding of contracts in South Africa's R47.4 billion defence procurement package," Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said yesterday. - Sapa

Soldiers who protested 'cannot be fired'

THE MILITARY could not fire soldiers who took part in an illegal protest in Pretoria last year before giving them a fair hearing, the city's High Court heard yesterday. This was argued by lawyers for the SA National Defence Union in an application to have the soldiers' dismissal notices declared unconstitutional. About 1 200 soldiers in August last year were issued with notices, giving them 10 days to provide reasons why their services should not be terminated. The application continues. - Sapa

DA call for probe into 'homes for pals'

THE DA called yesterday for an investigation into an Infrastructure and Development Department report that 780 state-owned houses were being occupied by friends and families of government officials. DA spokeswoman Patricia Mokgohlwa, who is in possession of the report, said these houses were being leased at below market ratesmoncler coats

Microsoft's Kinect Is Under Pressure to Connect

Microsoft Corp. is betting a new product called Kinect will deliver a bigger audience for its Xbox 360 videogame console by letting people play games without a traditional controller. ugg boots for cheap

Eleven-year-old Michael McKoy, right, and Cameron White, 10, race while playing the Kinect for Xbox at a Gamestop store in Charlotte on Sunday.
.But Kinect, when it goes on sale Thursday, will also be the most visible test in years of whether Microsoft can churn out breakout consumer products from its huge investment in research and development.

Microsoft faces increasing pressure from investors to show a payoff from those investments, which amounted to $8.7 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30—bigger than the R&D budget for any other tech company. Microsoft has poured a chunk of that money into improving existing products and services like its Bing search engine, as well as more traditional franchises like Windows and Office.

Big Blue's R&D Machine Benefits Shareholders. Access thousands of business sources not available on the free web. Learn More .Kinect will be especially visible: an entirely new $150 device sold at retail outlets and aimed squarely at the consumer market, a field in which Microsoft has been more sluggish to respond to trends than Apple Inc. and other competitors. ugg australia boots

Craig Mundie, the chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft, said he believes the company's R&D investments have paid off well for Microsoft. "We kind of view ourselves as almost a pure intellectual property business, and as such one that requires a sustained investment to stay ahead and remain competitive," he said.

Although Kinect builds off an earlier motion-sensing game product—Nintendo Co.'s hugely successful Wii—some game industry executives believe Microsoft has taken the concept in an innovative new direction by completely eliminating the need to hold any hardware while playing. The device, which plugs into Xbox 360 consoles, includes a camera, microphone and an infrared depth sensor that can detect the movements of a players' entire body, rather than just the hand movements Wii responds to.

"There are high stakes for them to get this right," says Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at Caris & Co.

One Kinect game published by Microsoft aimed at youngsters, "Kinectimals," lets people play with a menagerie of baby tigers and other animals, scratching their chins by making a tickling motion with their hands or playing fetch by miming a throw. A game from MTV Networks' Harmonix called "Dance Central" scores players on their dance moves, including everything from fist pumps to side steps.ugg australia boots

"Kinect is what the future of gaming looks like," says Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Ubisoft Entertainment, a games publisher that has announced five games that use Kinect, including a fitness title and a fighting game that go on sale this week. "This motion-sensing controller technology that they've created is absolutely a breakthrough."

Kinect includes sophisticated software and hardware that came out of Microsoft's research operations in China, the U.K. and company headquarters in Redmond, Wash. The different groups contributed "machine vision" technologies designed to map the skeletons of players as they stepped in front of a camera so that foot, hand and head movements quickly trigger like motions on screen. They also devised "beam forming" microphone technology that could focus on verbal commands coming from a player, ignoring the ambient noise likely to be occurring in a living room during game-playing sessions.

Mr. Mundie said the researchers also had to create software to solve what the Kinect development team called the "annoying little brother problem"—the phenomenon of a sibling sneaking up behind a player and trying to disrupt their game-playing by waving their arms in the air. The group created software that lets Kinect ignore such distracting motions, he said. uggs outlet

Mr. Mundie calls Kinect a "spectacular collaboration" between product and research groups that "took this thing that people thought was largely impossible, and it's shipping in the total elapsed time of about three years."

Microsoft, often criticized for copying the innovations of others, nearly took a different path in the games business several years ago by considering a plan for a Wii-like motion-sensing controller. The company's games group decided it needed to do something more original, though. "We said we're not going to have a Wii-derivative," says Matt Barlow, a general manager in the interactive-entertainment group.

Kinect could bomb if players decide the system isn't responsive enough to their body movements. Sony Corp. executives have said they considered controller-free systems for the PlayStation 3, but decided that approach didn't work broadly enough across game categories. Instead Sony recently began selling PlayStation Move, a motion-sensing, hand-held controller the company says offers more precision than the Wii controller. ugg boots on sale

To be successful, Microsoft needs Kinect to help it sell additional game systems as well as reach existing Xbox 360 users. Some 44.6 million of the consoles have been shipped so far. Sony says it has shipped 41.6 million PlayStation 3s, while Nintendo has shipped 75.9 million Wiis. Microsoft executives said they expect to sell about three million Kinect systems over the holiday season.

If Kinect is a hit, it could help Microsoft change the perception about the spotty track record of its investments in the consumer market. During its last fiscal year, Microsoft's $8.7 billion R&D budget amounted to about 14% of its revenue, much higher than Apple, whose $1.8 billion R&D budget was less than 3% of its $65 billion in revenue last year. ugg boots outlet

Gauteng ANC backs governance review

Spokesman Dumisa Ntuli said the provincial executive committee met in Vanderbijlpark over the weekend where the report was tabled and endorsed. ugg 1873

Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane was present at the meeting, he said.

"The PEC has identified measures to strengthen the capacity of the provincial government to implement the priorities contained in the ANC 2009 elections manifesto," Ntuli said.

He said the PEC, as a political structure, did not have a mandate to reshuffle the provincial cabinet. moncler

The Star on Monday reported that Mokonyane opposed the idea of a cabinet reshuffle at the weekend meeting, her resistance was not anticipated and this plunged the PEC "into a crisis".

Ntuli condemned the report saying there was no crisis in the province and the relationship between the party leadership and Mokonyane remained "strong, harmonious, and undisputed".

"There is no 'crisis' in Gauteng. The ANC is the centre of power and works well with government in Gauteng," he said. moncler jackets

He said the ANC's provincial leadership would meet Mokonyane to discuss the report during the week.

"The report will be tabled to the premier... based on the report the premier will decide on the question of reshuffling," he said.

"Its not the prerogative of the ANC to discuss names or agree or disagree on reshuffling." moncler outlet

The PEC also decided on the dissolution of the ANC Ekurhuleni regional executive committee. It appointed a team to oversee party work in the troubled region. The PEC described the committee as "dysfunctional".

The 32-member team would be led by Zeni Tshongweni, a long standing ANC leader, and co-ordinated by Gauteng legislature member Eric Xayiya. moncler store

French Parliament to Vote on Sarkozy’s Pension Bill

France’s Parliament is set today for the final vote on President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension bill to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60, while labor unions prepare for a new day of strikes and protests tomorrow.sale moncler

“I am convinced that this reform will unite us eventually,” Labor Minister Eric Woerth told lawmakers at the National Assembly yesterday. “Most of our opponents will eventually consider that the law is a big step forward to preserve our social model.”

The bill, which also increases the age for a full pension by two years from 65, would bring France closer to Germany and the U.S., which are moving toward setting 67 as the full- retirement age, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Senate passed the bill by 177 votes to 151 yesterday. While Sarkozy wants to enact the law on Nov. 15, France’s Constitutional Court may need more time to review it.

Labor unions said the protests and strikes over the bill, which have left the country crippled with fuel shortages and public transport disruptions, are far from over. They have called for strikes and marches tomorrow and more demonstrations on Nov. 6. Unions at French airlines and air traffic controllers have called for separate strike on Nov. 4 to protest the bill.moncler online

Airline, Rail Disruptions

“Voted or not, this problem isn’t over,” said Bernard Thibault, head of the CGT union. “Most of the unions that have suspended the strike are calling for a new rendezvous tomorrow,” he told Liberation newspaper today.

Workers held their first strike on Sept. 7 when the National Assembly started debating the bill. Since then strikes and demonstrations have disrupted airlines and trains and brought about a million protesters to the streets during demonstrations. Blockades at oil depots left almost half the country’s service stations with shortages of some fuel products.

Protests eased yesterday as a quarter of France’s oil refinery workers agreed to go back to work and garbage collectors ended a 14-day walkout in Marseille. About 300 students demonstrated in front of the Senate yesterday. Students have been concerned that an extension of the retirement age will mean fewer jobs for them.moncler shop

Crude Oil Shortages

France’s eight remaining active refineries are either on strike or shut because of a lack of crude oil. Workers at the six Total SA refineries on strike will vote Oct. 29 whether to continue striking.

“We’ve always said we don’t want to blockade the country, and once the bill has passed parliament our opposition will take other forms,” Francois Pelegrina, a representative at Total SA for the CFDT union, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

The risk premium on French bonds decreased. Investors demanded 37 basis points more to buy 10-year French bonds than comparable German securities, against about 41 basis points on Oct. 12. The spreads were at 30 basis points on Sept. 6.

The protests and strikes cost the country between 200 million euros and 400 million euros ($280 million to $560 million) a day, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Oct. 25.

“The economy needs to function and to do that we need an end to these blockages,” she said on Radio Classique yesterday. She said the strikes won’t result in the government changing its growth forecast for this year.

Sarkozy’s two-month battle with unions and workers has hurt his popularity, which fell to a record low this month, with less than a third of those questioned approving his performance, an Ifop survey for the Journal du Dimanche showed Oct. 24. His approval rating fell to 29 percent, against 32 percent in September, the lowest since his May 2007 election.moncler jackets

System Bust

The government says the pension changes are needed to help France cope with an aging population and balance the pension system’s budget by 2018.

The overhaul is part of the broader government struggle to cut the budget deficit. This year the gap will stand at 7.7 percent of gross domestic product, and Sarkozy’s ministers plan to narrow it to 6 percent, or 92 billion euros, next year.

Francois Chereque, secretary general of the CFDT union, and Laurence Parisot, head of the business lobby Medef, agreed that once the pension bill has become law, unions and businesses should gather to discuss employment. Prime Minister Francois Fillon said yesterday the government will do the same.

Meanwhile, protests against the bill still have widespread support, polls show. An Ifop institute poll for Ouest-France Dimanche newspaper showed that 63 percent of respondents supported the call for strikes on Oct. 28. That compares with 71 percent support before the previous strike on Oct. 12.

The same poll also found that 59 percent of the French say it’s unacceptable for strikers to block fuel depots or roads. The poll was conducted Oct. 21 and 22, with 956 respondents. Paris-based Ifop didn’t publish margins of error.moncler outlet

Crowded House's intrigue

"It's nearly 20 bloody years ago?" laughs a surprised Nick Seymour when I remind him that Crowded House last visited South Africa in 1993. ugg 1873

"I haven't been there since, so I'm expecting some changes," reasons the affable bass player on the line from his home in Ireland. "Last time I was in Cape Town I did hook up with some of the locals and went surfing, so when I get back there I'm definitely going to want to get a wave or two. One of the things is being able to say you've surfed in South Africa when talking to South Africans here in Ireland or Australia. And one of the benefits of touring is being able to surf internationally."

But expect to see Seymour out of the water too.

"I have these little routines that I do while touring that takes in things like cycling and visiting galleries," says the man who painted each of Crowded House's album covers.

'Good sign of dynamic culture'

"I always want to look in the national galleries to see what they have in their collections and see how much money the public purse is able to throw at art. That's always a good sign of a dynamic culture.

"And the quality of their bread," he deadpans in his still-thick Australian accent. "As long as there's no sugar in the bread I think they're alright. South Africa probably has some really good bread.

"Actually, the last time I was there I copped onto Rooibos tea - I'd never had it before and it's been in my kitchen ever since."

Bread and tea? Shouldn't we be talking sex and drugs?ugg boots for cheap

"Tea and toast are a very big part of Crowded House," laughs the man who co-founded the band with singer Neil Finn and drummer Paul Hester in 1985.

"In Johannesburg we'll be playing in what I'm led to believe is a fairly impersonal theatre attached to a casino. So perhaps we might actually fill the arena with the smell of toast before we play to make people feel a little more comfortable," he grins.

"As a band we'd always make the time for tea breaks and have a little ritual surrounding our tea drinking. And drinking tea is another find of a good culture. It's my only criticism of the United States - I think all their problems would be washed away with a nice cup of tea," he laughs.

Tea, no doubt, played a part in Crowded House's reunion three years ago - a move that seemed unlikely when Finn binned the band in 1995.

'I was pretty pissed off'

"I thought breaking up the band was a mistake," says Seymour. "I thought at the time we were poised to be one of the biggest bands in the world and that was something I'd always wanted to be in. It was a huge motivation for me, growing up in regional Australia, wanting to be in a band that could take on the world and I felt at the time that we hadn't reached our nadir or had in fact realised my childhood ambition. So I was pretty pissed off, as it turns out," he admits.

Still, he was pleasantly surprised when Finn invited him to work on his solo album - which ultimately morphed into the Crowded House reunion album, Time On Earth.

"We had maintained a friendship based around the enduring legacy of having toured so much together and lived so closely together," explains Seymour. "I think we rediscovered our friendship and then when he rang me and asked me to come down to New Zealand and he'd pay me to play on his new record, I said: 'Fine, how much?'. And it was great negotiating with him actually because I kept saying: 'No, no, don't be silly, ooh that's too much Neil, you cant afford that' and he kept suggesting these amounts of money that I'd never received as a session musician, which was fantastic.

"So I got a lovely cheque from him to play on his record and next thing you know he asks me to start the band again and I've stopped being paid," he laughs."That's possibly the only downside to getting the band back together," he keeps laughing.

'Enigma of Paul'

And unfortunately the reunion came too late to incorporate Hester, who committed suicide in 2005. ugg boots on sale

"We really do miss Paul as a friend," says Seymour. "It's the enigma of Paul that we either loved or loathed while he was around, but we certainly miss him."

His absence is not the only change in the reunited Crowded House.

"We're probably a lot more gastronomic than we ever were," Seymour offers. "That's not to say Neil has learned to cook particularly but he really does enjoy the repartee and fine wine. He really does enjoy it. He's a different guy in the sense that he will actually sit comfortably in a restaurant and patiently wait for the main course and eat it, and drink the wine with you, and imbibe good storytelling. Back in the day he never had time for that - the band was an agenda that sadly was keeping him from his own family and he was always really impatient to get things forward moving, constantly.

"The band has a little more time now to enjoy our privilege and good fortune. That's not to say we're all about to get gout and struggle to get in the tour bus," he laughs again, "but we do enjoy the incredible privilege that we have and allowed us a global audience.

"We're all natural show offs so we enjoy it."

Aid trickles in for Indonesia

Bambang Suharjo, an official at the provincial Disaster Management Agency put the official death toll from Monday's 7.7-magnitude earthquake at 311, while 379 people were listed as missing and around 400 were injured.
As many as 4, 000 villagers were homeless and staying at temporary shelters or had sought refuge on higher ground after the tsunami swept away their houses, he said.
He added that more food and other aid was expected. "More assistance is on its way. But to reach there will take some time," Suharjo said.
Other officials explained that reaching the quake-ravaged islands by ferry would take up to 10 hours from the provincial capital of Padang.
Nelis Zuliasri, a spokeswoman for the National Disaster Management Agency, said aid from Jakarta arrived at around midnight Wednesday.
Around 2, 400 displaced people in Pagai Selatan district had not received any assistance, she said, due to difficult road access to the area.
A shortage of fuel had also prevented vehicles from distributing aid, she added.
Medical supplies at the public health centres were running low, Mentawai disaster relief agency official Joskamtir was quoted as sayin by the state-run Antara news agency.
"We also desperately need hundreds more body bags, face masks for the survivors because the stench began to sting, especially at night," he said. More bodies had been discovered but rescue workers did not have enough body bags and he said he feared the onset of diseases.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was scheduled to fly to Mentawai on Thursday monitor the conditions there. Yudhoyono cut short a visit to Vietnam after the country was hit by the quake and tsunami, as well as a volcanic eruption in Central Java.

Agliotti trial judge will not allow new delays

THE South Gauteng High Court said yesterday that it will not grant any further postponements in the trial of Brett Kebble murder accused Glenn Agliotti.

The prosecution wanted a further postponement to allow Mr Kebble’s father, Roger Kebble , to appear. In August, the court postponed the trial until yesterday because Mr Kebble was supposed to have undergone a knee operation on September 2 and needed eight weeks to recuperate.buy cheap toys

Agliotti was charged with the murder nearly four years ago.

Yesterday, the prosecution said Mr Kebble had a heart condition which would require him to rest for a couple of months before he could testify.

It also emerged that Mr Kebble did not undergo the knee operation last month .

The prosecution said it wanted Mr Kebble to testify and clarify some points that came up during the trial.

One of the state witnesses claimed Mr Kebble knew that his son wanted to kill himself.

In a radio interview in July, Mr Kebble denied the testimony by his son’s former security chief, Clinton Nassif. In that interview, Mr Kebble described the case as a mess and said the defence was “having a bloody ball” because there was no opposition. moncler 2011

Before Judge Frans Kgomo refused the request for a postponement, Agliotti’s advocate, Laurance Hodes SC, said every time Mr Kebble was requested to testify, there was an excuse.

Abbas rebuffs Syria call to continue Palestinian 'resistance'

The Palestinians must continue their "resistance" against Israel, Syrian President Bashar Assad said during the recent meeting of the Arab League monitoring committee in Libya.
Assad clashed with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the meeting when the Syrian leader argued that it is not the Arab League's role to grant the Palestinians permission to negotiate with Israel. It is an issue for the Palestinians to decide, he said.
Abbas responded by saying that "the Palestinian problem is an Arab problem, and if the Arab League does not make a decision, it means it is washing its hands of the Palestinian problem."
Assad called on the Palestinians to continue the resistance against Israel instead of discussing the settlement freeze, but was rebuffed by Abbas who said that if he did not insist on a settlement freeze there will be no land left on which to build a Palestinian state.
Friction between leaders
The friction between the two leaders began a day before the summit, over the agreements reached by Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal with Egyptian Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman and with representatives of Syria and Saudi Arabia.
Meshal, who met with Suleiman last month in Saudi Arabia, announced that he agreed to sign the reconciliation agreement with Fatah that had been proposed by Egypt, and with no reservations.
He also suggested that the signing of the agreement be done in Damascus, as that would rally support for the reconciliation between the two Palestinian factions.
While Abbas was quick to express his support for the initiative, Palestinian Authority security forces continued arresting Hamas activists in the West Bank, thus stirring opposition to the deal from Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas sources contend that the arrests were carried out to foil the reconciliation agreement and to enable Abbas to continue the direct talks with Israel without having to take Hamas' view into consideration.
Meshal then proposed that Syria urge the Arab League to invite him to the summit in Libya, to help foster Palestinian reconciliation.
Syria pressed the Arab states to agree but Abbas refused, saying that unless Meshal signed the Egyptian reconciliation proposal, he should not be allowed to participate in the summit.
The Syrian attempt to elevate Meshal's standing to that of Abbas clearly upset the PA president.

'One year' to clean toxic spill in Hungary

Emergency workers are trying to stop the spill, from an alumina plant, from flowing into major waterways, including the River Danube

A state of emergency has been declared in three western counties after the chemical waste burst from a reservoir.
Four people are known to have died, and 120 were injured. Six more are missing.
At least seven villages and towns are affected including Devecser, where the torrent was 2m (6.5ft) deep.
The flood swept cars from roads and damaged bridges and houses, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents.
The sludge - a mixture of water and mining waste containing heavy metals - is considered hazardous, according to Hungary's National Directorate General for Disaster Management (NDGDM).
While the cause of the deaths has not yet been officially established, the victims are thought to have drowned.
'Desperate effort' Some 600,000-700,000 cubic metres (21m-24m cubic feet) of sludge escaped from the plant, 160km (100 miles) from the capital, Budapest, affecting an area of 40 sq km (15.4 sq miles).
Environment Minister Zoltan Illes told the BBC the clean-up would take at least one year and probably require technical and financial assistance from the European Union.
He described the spill as Hungary's worst chemical accident.
"The area is very big, very heavy contamination, lots of human resources are needed, definitely machinery is needed," he said.
Mr Illes said a layer of soil 2cm deep (0.8 inches) would need to be removed from the whole of the contaminated region.
With 7,000 people affected directly by the disaster, a state of emergency was declared in the county of Veszprem where the spill occurred, and Gyor-Moson-Sopron and Vas, where the sludge appeared to be heading.
At least 390 residents have been relocated and 110 rescued from flooded areas, the NDGDM said.
Nearly 500 police officers and soldiers, including six emergency detection teams, have been deployed. Plaster has been poured into the Marcal river in a bid to bind the sludge and stop further flooding.
An alert has been declared for the Marcal and Torna rivers, and Mr Illes said workers were "desperately" trying to stop contamination of the Raba and Danube rivers.
The BBC's Nick Thorpe is in the village of Kolontar, the first and worst affected of the settlements just downstream from the burst containment pond.
The dark red colour pervades everything, he says: the streets, the sides of the damaged houses and the forbidden zone beyond.
The army hopes to install a pontoon bridge to reach the part of the village cut off since the old bridge was swept away by the mud on Monday.
That is where the damage is biggest and where several people lost their lives, our correspondent says.
Dr Attila Nyikos, of the NDGDM, told the BBC News website that a police investigation had been opened and tests were still being carried out to determine the environmental impact of the leak.
The sludge escaped from a reservoir at the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in the town of Ajka. Police say they have confiscated documents from the company's headquarters.
The plant produces alumina, a synthetically produced aluminium oxide. It is a white or nearly colourless crystalline substance that is used as a starting material for the smelting of aluminium metal.
Weeks of heavy rain are likely to have played a role in the accident, the BBC's Nick Thorpe reports from Budapest.
MAL Rt, the Hungarian company which owns the plant, earlier said that by EU standards the sludge had not been considered hazardous.
There had been no sign of the impending disaster and the last examination of the reservoir pond on Monday had shown nothing untoward, it added.

The man who played with fire

FOUR years ago, a sometime hacker, based in Melbourne and now gone semi-legit, started a blog to share a few ideas and think out loud about some things. Nothing remarkable about that except the name - IQ.org - a pretty prime piece of real estate, grabbed early in the internet/web/blog explosion.
Like many blogs by people working in IT, it sought to understand political and social realities through mathematical reasoning. Power, it announced, was a conspiracy - even those organisations understood to be open and legit players relied on the essence of conspiracy, which is an imbalance between information inside and outside the group. The more you reduce that imbalance towards zero, the less powerful the conspiracy becomes, even if it has weapons and wealth at its disposal. When information is evenly shared, the conspiracy, by its very nature, ceases to exist.

If this rather clumsily written paper, ''Conspiracy as Governance'', is being read with more interest than most blog posts, it's because the author is one Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, and its now visible, if not legendary, public face.
The Assange myth (ex-hacker, lives in airports, appears computer-generated himself) has now been the subject of innumerable articles, but with WikiLeaks about to launch a massive new cache concerning the Iraq war - a cache rumoured to be as large as 200,000 documents - and major US news networks drawn in to release the most newsworthy items, it was never likely that interest would diminish, especially among the US security apparatus.
Then, stunningly, a month ago, Assange was accused of rape and harassment in Sweden, with the investigation of the rape charges dropped and then revived in the space of a week. The extraordinary coincidence of the charges, coming at a time when Assange was seeking a Swedish residency permit in order to take full protection from the country's journalist shield laws, led many to wonder if the conspiracy was biting back.
This was amplified by the nature of the charges, which can be uniquely damaging to character and reputation, while also quelling full discussion of their veracity or otherwise. With the Iraq war document drop, and a final decision by the Swedish prosecutor's office imminent, it's pretty certain that Assange, the cast of characters around him and his compelling vision of political action will be hitting the news again, very soon.
The public facts of the matter are by now reasonably known: on August 20, two women went to the Klara police station in Stockholm to make complaints against Assange for rape and the particularly Swedish crime of ''ofredande'', best translated as ''infringement'' or ''misconduct''. Ofredande covers a wide range of things, from berating someone in the street, to stalking, to various misconduct between friends or more-than-friends. The subsequently leaked police report detailed that both women made allegations about unsafe sex and an alleged refusal by Assange to take an STI test.
The police opened parallel files on the same incidents, one for rape, the other for misconduct, and a junior fill-in prosecutor issued warrants on both charges. These were then leaked to the Expressen newspaper, making world news headlines on the Friday evening. The news caught the eye of holidaying chief prosecutor Eva Finne, who had the case notes couriered to her and dismissed the rape charge immediately, leaving the misconduct charges standing.
To add to the confusion, one of the complainants told Aftonbladet newspaper that she never wanted Assange charged with rape in the first place, and that ''this was about a guy who has a few problem attitudes to women''.
It is now that things get very strange, because the complainant reveals herself to be Anna Ardin, the political officer/press secretary for the ''the Brotherhood'', a Christian group within the Social Democrats, the party that has dominated Swedish politics and government for a century.
Once rather conservative, the Brotherhood has become a focus for leftish, third-worldish type Christians, and it was Ardin who had organised a series of speaking engagements for Assange. Assange had stayed at Ardin's flat for a week, in the middle of which he had had a dalliance with the second complainant, who had been taking photographs at one of his speaking appearances.
News that Ardin was a complainant rocked the student/youth political milieu, because one of her prior roles had been as gender equality officer in the student union at Uppsala University, Sweden's Oxford. Several months ago, Ardin had also published on her blog a 10-step guide to taking revenge on ex-lovers, one of which was to ''get them in trouble with the law''.
The misconduct Assange was charged with is a misdemeanour, and it appeared that the rape charge had been dissolved. But that week, Ardin and SW (the other complainant) hired leading lawyer Claes Borgstrom to represent them, and Borgstrom petitioned a yet higher prosecutor. Borgstrom is not merely a high-profile brief; he has recently been the Social Democratic party's spokesman on gender equality. The prosecutor he approached was Marianne Ny, head of a special unit on ''crime development'' based in Gothenburg, a unit explicitly tasked with exploring and extending sex crime laws in areas of social behaviour.
On September 1, Ny announced she was re-opening the investigation into the charge of rape. Aftonbladet journalists who asked Borgstrom what the allegation was based on were told there was more evidence than had been revealed in the widely leaked police reports, but he would not disclose what it was.
Assange noted that he was yet to be confronted with any explicit charges of rape and that ''the whole process has gone on without my input''. He hired Sweden's most celebrated lawyer, Leif Silbersky, and then changed representation when it became clear that Silbersky's other case (defending a brace of men charged with a helicopter-based robbery of a bullion warehouse) was taking all his time. Some people think Sweden's boring. God knows why.
With the rape case re-opened, amid great confusion, it was inevitable that Ardin's politics and background would come under scrutiny.
The milieu of hackerdom is not without its conspiracy enthusiasts, who pointed to her stint in the Washington DC branch of the Swedish foreign service, that she had been deported from Cuba for working with the US-backed dissident group The Women in White, and that her close cousin Mattias Ardin is a lieutenant-colonel in Afghanistan.
Others focused on the role of Expressen newspaper, which had been leaked the report of the initial rape charges, in contravention of Swedish law, and then leaked the contents of a later police interview with Assange.
Expressen is right-wing, and has long been opposed to Sweden's policy of armed neutrality, advocating closer ties with the US. According to journalist Israel Shamir, the US threatened to cease sharing intelligence with SEPO, the Swedish secret service, should Assange get residency and be protected under its media shield laws - laws that would specifically frustrate any attempt to extradite Assange to the US.
Others who have tangled with secret services were in no doubt that something was afoot. Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who had been sacked for criticising the US-UK alliance with the highly repressive country, said that ''Julian Assange has been getting the bog-standard 'kompromat''', the old KGB term for sexual compromise. Murray himself had been falsely accused of trading visas for sex. Others were more sceptical, with Mattias Svensson, editor of alternative magazine Neo, saying of arguments about US involvement: ''My instinct is that they're ridiculous''.
One of the country's leading legal commentators, Marten Schultz, argued that the chaotic progress of the case was because of an asymmetry in the Swedish legal system that allows police and prosecutors to leak information and thus damage reputations, while defence lawyers are legally prevented from doing so.
Everyone connected agrees that it's a mess and an embarrassment, and most will say that Assange's rights have been infringed, with leading international lawyer Geoffrey Robertson arguing that the Australian government should ''carpet'' the Swedish ambassador for Assange's treatment, and that Assange should make a case in the European Court of Human Rights.
Will the imminent document drop return attention from the Strindbergian drama of Assange and the two women to the two major wars that have been WikiLeaks' major focus? Even if the rape investigation peters out, it's unlikely.

ANC youth league challenges Zuma’s leadership

At a conference this week, Mr. Zuma’s opponents forced the party to consider the possible nationalization of South Africa’s mining industry – a highly controversial plan that Mr. Zuma has failed to dispel over the past year.
While he survived the conference with his leadership intact, there is growing speculation that Mr. Zuma will be pushed aside before the next election in 2014. He is widely perceived as weak and indecisive, and he has been criticized for scandals involving his multiple sexual partners and the business dealings of his family.
The fierce debate over nationalization, which led to unruly verbal battles at the party conference this week, is symbolic of the deep ideological splits in the African National Congress, the party that has ruled South Africa since the collapse of apartheid in 1994.
In the years since the resignation of Nelson Mandela as president in 1999, the party has been nearly torn apart by factional infighting over leadership and policy. Mr. Mandela’s successor, Thabo Mbeki, sacked Mr. Zuma as deputy president during a corruption scandal in 2005, but two years later Mr. Zuma got his revenge, defeating Mr. Mbeki in a contest for the ANC leadership.
He was elected President last year, yet was soon consumed by internal feuding among factions of the ruling party and its alliance partners in the trade union movement and the Communist Party.
His biggest challenger is the ANC’s youth league, headed by the populist firebrand Julius Malema, who has been pushing hard for nationalization of the mining industry. Three years ago, the youth league played a crucial role in Mr. Zuma’s victory over Mr. Mbeki, but this year it has clashed repeatedly with the President, implicitly criticizing his polygamous lifestyle and demanding “generational mix” in the ANC’s leadership – coded language for getting its young members into the party’s top positions.
At the party conference in Durban this week, youth league members heckled and shouted and finally forced the party to put nationalization onto its agenda, despite Mr. Zuma’s efforts to sidestep the issue. The party announced on Friday that its national executive will investigate the idea of nationalizing the mining sector, with a decision to be made by 2012, despite warnings that nationalization would frighten away investors, damage the economy and cost an estimated $280-billion – more than double the annual state budget.
Nationalization has now become “an issue to be processed by the whole organization” and is no longer just a youth league issue, Mr. Zuma acknowledged on Friday. His concession was greeted by loud cheers from party delegates.
Since taking power in 1994, the ANC has generally adopted a pro-business stance, but the continuing high rate of unemployment has fuelled demands for greater state intervention in the economy. By putting nationalization onto its formal agenda, the ANC is trying to placate those demands, but it ensures that the nationalization issue will continue to divide the party for years to come.
Mr. Zuma acknowledged the factional feuding in the party and the ruling alliance, warning his critics that there would be “consequences” if they “cross the line” by disrupting meetings or intimidating their rivals. “We have agreed that an alliance that is seen to be besieged with tension, squabbling and conflict does not inspire public confidence,” he said in his closing speech to the conference.
In another controversial move, the ANC decided to ask South Africa’s parliament to hold a public inquiry into the possibility of setting up a tribunal to hear complaints about the media. The idea has sparked widespread fears that the government is trying to muzzle the media, but Mr. Zuma alleviated some of the concerns by suggesting that the tribunal would be “independent of commercial and party political interests.”

Most favorites win in busy, colorful European Champions League action

Soccer's European Champions League is up and running again, and that means coaches suddenly have rediscovered the art of the memorable quotation.

On Wednesday, it was Domingos Paciencia, the coach of Portugal's Braga, who emerged as the clear winner in that regard with his post-match comments after Braga had been thrashed, 6-0, by Arsenal in London.

"We made so many mistakes," Paciencia said. "It's very hard to play the game as badly as we have done tonight . . . even finishing at halftime would have been a bad experience.

"We could not have played any worse. . . . It was a night to forget."

Arsenal led, 3-0, after 45 minutes en route to an emphatic victory at the Emirates Stadium. Spain's Cesc Fabregas and Mexico's Carlos Vela each scored a pair of goals.

"You don't need replays tonight to see that we can be very creative and very fast," said Arsenal Coach Arsene Wenger.

The team has never won the Champions League, the closest it has come being the runner-up spot behind Barcelona in 2006, but Wenger lives in hope.

"We haven't won it," he said, and "as long as we haven't, people will question us. You win it with quality; it's as simple as that."

Chelsea, a runner-up in 2008 but also never a winner, believes it has sufficient quality this season. On Wednesday, Coach Carlo Ancelotti's squad routed Zilina, 4-1, on the road in Slovakia, with Nicolas Anelka grabbing two first-half goals.

"We had chances, but the disparity was there," said Zilina Coach Pavel Hapal. "It was about players' speed, combination, strength. This was the reason" for the loss.

London will stage the Champions League final in May, so Arsenal and Chelsea, plus a third London club, Tottenham Hotspur, have added incentive to make it that far.

Meanwhile, nine-time champion Real Madrid began its campaign in less than convincing fashion, defeating Ajax Amsterdam, 2-0, in Madrid, where an own goal off a Xabi Alonso corner kick and a strike by Gonzalo Higuain were enough.

Jose Mourinho, who coached Inter Milan to the trophy last season before jumping ship and joining Real, was visibly angry on the sideline at all the squandered scoring chances, but was calm once the victory had been secured.

"I would be worried . . . if [goalkeeper Iker] Casillas had been the best player on the pitch," he said, "but he has hardly touched the ball in the last three matches.

"The goal will come. The best thing to do is nothing. Let them play. It's their natural habitat. One day a team will pay for it."

The team with the second-most European titles is AC Milan, and it got its Champions League run off to a promising start with a 2-0 win over Auxerre as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, recently acquired on loan from Barcelona, scored both goals.

"It's difficult to swallow," said Auxerre Coach Jean Fernandez, whose in-awe players were spotted taking photographs of the San Siro stadium before the kickoff. "We knew before the match that Milan had the better players."

Bayern Munich, last season's runner-up, made a winning start in Germany, where goals in the final quarter-hour by Thomas Mueller and Miroslav Klose earned Coach Louis van Gaal's team a 2-0 victory over AS Roma.

Afterward, Van Gaal all but apologized for the lackluster display.

"That is our game," he said. "The fans need to realize that it takes time for us to make the opponents tired. It's not always fantastic, just passing the ball around, but that's how you beat a defensive team."

In the day's only real upset, France's Olympique Marseille gave up an own goal and was beaten, 1-0, at home by Spartak Moscow after wasting numerous clear-cut chances.

"When you dominate and you can't score, you're never safe," said Marseille Coach Didier Deschamps.

Also on Wednesday, Romania's CFR Cluj defeated FC Basel of Switzerland, 2-1, in Romania and Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine edged Partizan Belgrade of Serbia, 1-0, in Ukraine.

Bees Roux's card user gets R2,000 bail

THE 29-year-old Mamelodi man arrested in connection with the theft and subsequent R8,000 shopping spree on two credit cards belonging to Blue Bulls player and murder accused Jacobus "Bees" Roux has been released on R2,000 bail.
Vusumuzi Ntloko, who appeared in the Pretoria magistrate's court, is facing 12 counts of fraud for the transactions made on the credit cards and one of theft for unlawful possession of the cards.
Ntloko allegedly picked up the cards at the scene where Sergeant Johannes Mogale, 38, was allegedly beaten to death by Roux, 28, on August 27.
Mogale and two colleagues had allegedly pulled over Roux for drunken driving. Mogale is said to have offered to drive Roux home but moments later he lay dead on the corner of Richard and Schoeman streets in the city centre.
By the time Ntloko was arrested at his workplace in Silverlakes, East of Pretoria, on September 3, he had already blown R8,000 on fried chicken, alcohol and electrical appliances.
Ntloko had been remanded in custody following his first appearance last week because the state feared that he might temper with material evidence at Makro where he is employed.
Chief prosecutor Matric Luphondo did not oppose bail yesterday because "the state had already secured evidence such as transaction records at Ntloko's workplace" where he allegedly spent R3,798 on electrical appliances.
Luphondo added that police were still searching for two more suspects and a vehicle used to transport purchased goods.
"The state does not oppose bail but we are in disagreement with the amount. The state proposes an amount of R2,000 considering the seriousness of the charges while the defence wants the accused to be released on R1,000.
"The state has a strong case against the case based on the CCTV footage in which the accused is caught on camera transacting on the cards," he said.
Ntloko's lawyer Eric Pitso said his client could not afford R2,000 because he has been suspended from work and his father was a pensioner.
Concurring with the state, Magistrate JC Kruger said: "Looking at the charges, I noted that out of 12 transactions made on the card six were for liquor. The state also has a strong case. The amount set by the state is reasonable."

Kruger postponed the matter to October 15 for further investigation. Luphondo asked to be excused from the case as it will coincide with Roux's matter, in which he is also the prosecutor.

No deal made to halt Quran burning, Muslim leader says

A Florida Muslim leader is disputing claims by the Rev. Terry Jones that he brokered a deal to get the Islamic center project near New York's ground zero moved if the pastor called off his Quran burning event.




Imam Muhammad Musri said Jones may have hatched the story about the Islamic center moving to "give himself a reason to call this off."



Jones "was trying to save face," Musri said Thursday night on CNN's "AC360."



Musri said he did not tell Jones that the Islamic center project would be moved away from ground zero.



'He's accusing me of lying to him, which I did not. I was very explicit with him." said Musri, who is with the Islamic Society of Central Florida.

Video: Fla. Imam was shocked by pastor's speech

Video: Uncertainty surrounds NY mosque move

Video: Pastor cancels Quran burning

RELATED TOPICS



* Terry Jones

* Islam

* First Amendment Rights



The disagreement between the two religious figures is the latest twist in the saga about the proposed Quran burning event.



President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday urged Jones to call off the Saturday event, timed for the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.



Jones said he would call off the event but then seemed to be changing his mind later Thursday. During the afternoon, Jones said he canceled his plan to burn copies of the Quran, based on what he said were assurances that the Islamic center in New York would be moved.



Late Thursday, Jones said he would "rethink our position" after Musri said he had never given Jones that assurance.



Jones, leader of the Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center, also announced he will travel Saturday to New York to meet with the religious leader behind the planned center, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, about a new location.



But that, too, was questioned.



Rauf and Musri have both said no agreement on a meeting or relocation of the mosque had been reached.



Wayne Sapp, associate pastor of the small church, said that the Quran burning scheduled for Saturday was postponed until the proposed meeting in New York is confirmed. The church will wait 24 hours to confirm the meeting will take place before making any further decision about the Quran burning, Sapp said.



Jones' plan to burn Qurans had set off a firestorm of concern, including from U.S. military leaders who said the event would imperil the lives of troops abroad.



The pastor told reporters Thursday that he took a phone call from Gates, who "was very gracious and encouraged us not to continue." The call was later confirmed by CNN.



Also Thursday, real estate mogul Donald Trump offered to buy the lower Manhattan site where the Muslim group plans to build an Islamic community center. Trump offered 25 percent more than the current owners paid for it.



Trump made the offer in a letter to Hisham Elzanaty, an investor in the Islamic center site.



"I am making this offer as a resident of New York and citizen of the United States, not because I think the location is a spectacular one (because it is not), but because it will end a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation that is destined, in my opinion, to only get worse," he wrote.



Rauf had said Wednesday evening that "nothing is off the table" when asked whether he would consider moving the site.



"We are consulting, talking to various people about how to do this so that we negotiate the best and safest option."



The imam told CNN's Soledad O'Brien on "Larry King Live" that "had I known [the controversy] would happen, we certainly would never have done this."



Asked if he meant he would not have picked the location, Rauf said, "we would not have done something that would create more divisiveness."



Obama called the plan by Jones to burn the Qurans on Saturday a "recruitment bonanza for al Qaeda."



"You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan" as a result of the burning, Obama said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "This could increase the recruitment of individuals who'd be willing to blow themselves up in American cities, or European cities."

BP to release results of investigation into oil spill disaster

BP on Wednesday is expected to release findings of an internal investigation into the Gulf oil disaster, the oil giant said.
The report comes nearly five months after an April 20 explosion aboard an oil rig left 11 men dead and spewed millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over an 87-day period.
A federal task report on Tuesday said scientists have found a decline in oxygen levels in the Gulf following the BP spill, but no "dead zones."
Levels of dissolved oxygen in deep water have dropped about 20 percent below their long-term average, according to data collected from up to 60 miles from the well at the center of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
But much of that dip appears to be the result of microbes using oxygen to dissolve oil underwater, and the decline is not enough to be fatal to marine life, said Steve Murawski of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the head of the Joint Analysis Group studying the spill's impact.
"Even the lowest observations in all of these was substantially above the threshold," Murawski said.
The samples were collected from 419 points at varying distances from the ruptured well at the heart of the disaster and at depths as far down as 4,800 feet, the group reported. The task force is made up of NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The undersea gusher erupted in April, releasing an estimated 4.9 million barrels (205 million gallons) of crude before being temporarily capped in July. The volume of oil -- and the amount of chemical dispersants used to break it up -- have created concerns about the long-term health of the Gulf.
The spill also delivered an economic blow to the region, where fisheries and beach resorts are major employers.
Early findings from a mid-August survey led by the University of South Florida indicated oil had settled to the bottom of the Gulf farther east than previously suspected and at levels toxic to marine life.
At about the same time, a team from Georgia Sea Grant and the University of Georgia released a report that estimates that 70 to 79 percent of the oil that leaked from the well "has not been recovered and remains a threat to the ecosystem."
The latest study "does not discuss the broad ecosystem consequences of hydrocarbons released into the environment," NOAA said. But it concludes that the oil is continuing to break up and disperse underneath the surface, making the emergency of a major oxygen-poor dead zone unlikely.
In early August, the federal government estimated that three-quarters of the oil spilled had either evaporated or been dispersed, or had been skimmed or burned off the surface.
The well has been temporarily capped and operations are under way to permanently seal it.

BP, rig owner Transocean and well cement contractor Halliburton have blamed one another for the disaster.

Tropical Storm Hermine crosses into Texas

McALLEN, Texas — Tropical Storm Hermine rolled into south Texas early Tuesday, bringing heavy rains and strong winds to an area battered by Hurricane Alex earlier this summer.
Hermine made landfall in northeastern Mexico late Monday and crossed into Texas within hours, bringing with it winds of up to 65 mph (100 kph). It moved on a path similar to the one Hurricane Alex took in late June, and like that Category 1 storm, threatened to dump up to a foot of rain in some areas and cause flash flooding.
Hermine was no Alex in terms of strength. But Hermine wasn't taken lightly: Mexican emergency officials in Tamaulipas worked to evacuate 3,500 people around Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, and schools on both sides of the border canceled classes Tuesday.
By early Tuesday, the center of the storm had crossed the Rio Grande River. The National Hurricane Center said the storm was about 10 miles (15 km) south-southwest of Harlingen, Texas, and 20 miles (30 km) northwest of Brownsville. It was moving north-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph).
A tropical storm warning was in effect from Rio San Fernando, Mexico, north to Port O'Connor, Texas.
Hours after Hermine made landfall, Coast Guard Ensign Scott Kimball said a fishing vessel had run aground at a jetty near South Padre Island. He did not have any more immediate details.
Neighborhoods lost power while Hermine's center moved over Brownsville, said Joseph Tomaselli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Parts of the Rio Grande Valley still drying out from Alex braced for as much as eight inches of more rain.
"It doesn't take a lot of rainfall to cause any flooding down there whatsoever," Tomaselli said.
Hermine was expected to dump 4 to 8 inches of rain while moving north through Texas and weakening into a tropical depression. It's possible a few areas could see up to a foot of rain. Tomaselli said remnants of Hermine will be felt as far north as Oklahoma and Kansas in the coming days.
In Mexico, Hermine brought another unwelcome downpour after remnant rains from Alex killed at least 12 people in flooding.
Mexico's northeast cattle-ranching region is one of the most dangerous hotspots in the country's bloody turf war between two drug cartels. It is the same area where 72 migrants were killed two weeks ago in what it believed to be the country's worst drug gang massacre to date.
Mexican emergency officials urged those living in low-lying coastal areas to move to shelters. Classes in Matamoros and several other Mexican towns were canceled, and authorities began releasing water from some dams to make room for expected rains.
"We urge the general population to be on alert for possible floods and mudslides," said Salvador Trevino, director of civil defense for Tamaulipas, where Matamoros is located.
In inland Hidalgo state, authorities said heavy rains caused by the passing storm unleashed landslides that damaged 20 homes, left 120 people homeless and cut off small communities.
Unlike Alex, Hermine's approach to Texas brought far less anxiety. No evacuations had been ordered as of early Tuesday, and shelters throughout the flood-prone Rio Grande Valley were on standby but were still keeping their doors shut.
On South Padre Island, Hermine came too late to ruin another long weekend on the tourist hotspot. Alex plummeted Fourth of July hotel occupancies to about one-third of what the island normally sees, but most Labor Day weekend vacationers were already packing up for home by the time Hermine came into the picture.
"It really crept up on us," said Dan Quandt, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Tornado watches were in effect for 16 Texas counties early Tuesday.
Associated Press Writers Jorde Vargas in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Emilio Lopez in Pachuca, Mexico, and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.