As more and more unbearable bosses seem to creep out from their corner offices to make our workweeks -- and lives -- miserable, you might wonder, "Have we had more full moons than usual lately?"While all workers have their own definition of a monster boss, most share these same creature features:Super-critical with unrealistic expectationsConstant and volatile mood swingsResistant to changeLives to work, with few interests outside the officeBelieves employees are responsible for company failures, while management is responsible for company successAlthough working for a monster boss can be frightening, most employees learn valuable lessons from the experience -- then they run screaming for the door! Public dressing downTake Beth K., a graphic designer in central Indiana, who worked for a monster boss who thrived on embarrassing her employees, especially in public. "I've always been taught to show respect for authority figures," Beth says. "So I usually bottled up all my frustration and vented at home to my husband. 'Sweating it out' at the gym also helped." Beth finally learned that she didn't have to put up with bad treatment in a situation she couldn't change. "I'd gained all the experience I could in that job," she says. "Then it was time to move on."Beth found that positive work environments really do exist. "My new boss trusts me to do my job and gives positive feedback," she says. "Mistakes aren't the end of the world, but learning opportunities. He gives credit where it's due. He's just a nice, realistic and ethical person."Carol G. is an accountant. Like many employees, she unwittingly found herself in a position of high turnover -- a clear warning sign of a potential bad-boss situation. "At only 19 months, I broke the seniority record in that position. I was employee number eight in five years," she says.Since making her move, "My new CEO starts every all-staff meeting by stating, 'I am extremely proud to be working with you all.' Management believes in hiring good people, contributing to their personal and professional development and allowing them to maintain work and home balance. I have it all!"No hello, no job knowledgeSometimes it's not what a boss says that makes him or her a monster -- it's what he or she doesn't say. "My boss never returned my hello as she walked past my desk. As the greeter for the building, it was dehumanizing," says Jen H., a receptionist who suffered with her monster boss for nine months. Despite her boss' snub, Jen maintained her polite manner. "I always tried to be professional and consider my own integrity," she notes.Lack of job knowledge can also turn a new boss into a monster boss. Tracie H., 36, worked as a promotions manager at a Missouri television station for one-and-a-half years. "My boss was financially savvy," Tracie notes. "But she had limited knowledge of broadcast practices. She had extremely unrealistic expectations when it came to project deadlines and output.""My diplomatic skills were not as honed as they are now," Tracie added. "I wasted a lot of time feeling frustrated. That experience taught me to communicate more effectively, to be more candid and ask better questions."Taking credit where it's not dueWhile most monster bosses drive employees from one company or department to another safer place, some choose to go the route of self-employment. Matt M., an attorney, recalls, "If there was a project that deserved credit, my boss was all over the place. But if something wasn't going well, he was nowhere to be found." There's nothing worse than failing to acknowledge an employee's efforts, except maybe taking credit for his ideas or accomplishments. Matt has opened his own law practice. While he admits this situation presents its own set of challenges, he's thrilled to be out from under the claws of a monster boss!

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Every year, Greg Ahrnsbrak decides whether to keep his job as a public school teacher or look for a career that would pay him more money."I don't believe that all teachers, after year 13, hang up their books and say 'I'm not going to put forth any effort,"' says Ahrnsbrak, who has taught in Denver Public Schools for more than a decade. "Realistically, though, I don't care what profession it is, you still have bills to pay, families to support."On Tuesday, voters will decide whether to approve a $25 million annual property tax hike that would dramatically overhaul how city teachers are paid. Among other things, the plan would link teacher salaries to student achievement, rather than years of service and education level.Teachers' unions have generally balked at pay-for-performance plans instead of guaranteed raises and salary scales. The proposal here, however, was put together by the Denver teachers' union and school district administrators after a four-year pilot program -- and experts say educators and policy-makers around the nation are watching the vote with interest.Tricia Coulter, director of the Teaching Quality and Leadership Institute at the Education Commission of the States, said more and more attention is being paid to how teachers are paid. She said the Denver plan offers examples in both developing and implementing a program."The timing is perfect. Everyone is looking at these," Coulter said. "It's definitely being watched very closely."Supporters say the Professional Compensation System, or ProComp, would help attract and retain good teachers and improve student performance by rewarding educators for meeting achievement goals. Opponents say it would add nothing but bureaucracy and subjectivity to how teachers are paid and do little to actually help the district's 73,000 students.Marsha Burger, who teaches English at Abraham Lincoln High School, worries ProComp will encourage teachers to think only of themselves and their paychecks. She also believes a clause linking evaluations to raises will lead to confrontations."Your evaluation is based on your principal, who may or may not like you," said Burger, who has taught in Denver public schools for almost three decades. "It's a violation of union ethics that we've all believed in, which is that workers all deserve to be treated equally and fairly."Denver's 4,000 public school teachers are currently eligible for 13 salary increases, based on years of service and professional development, such as additional degrees or certification.Under ProComp, teachers who now earn a base beginning salary of $33,301 a year could double their salaries over a 25-year career. Raises would be built into four categories: knowledge and skills, the evaluation, market incentives and student growth. For example, additional money could be earned for meeting student achievement objectives or for exceeding expectations on statewide tests."This is one of those things that really is in everyone's self-interest," DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet said. "It's in people's self-interest to raise student achievement. It's in people's self-interest to get great professional development. It's in everybody's interest to inspire teachers to work in places that are hard to staff, that have unique challenges."If the property tax hike is approved, ProComp would begin in January. Current teachers do not have to participate, though new teachers must use the new scale.The plan was backed by 59 percent of union teachers in March 2004 and some of the concepts are familiar to the rank-and-file: Every Denver public school teacher since the 2003-04 school year has been required to set achievement goals for students.Valeri Kershaw, a seventh- and eighth-grade literacy teacher at Bruce Randolph Middle School, said the achievement goals have helped. Teachers can work together across subjects, principals have a better idea of what teachers need and students have a clearer idea of what is expected of them."Instead of experience being the motivator for more pay, it's nice to have a system where skill and expertise in a certain area allows for a pay increase," she said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

PASCAGOULA, Mississippi (AP) -- Two Roman Catholic elementary schools have served Pascagoula for nearly 100 years -- one opened to teach the children and grandchildren of freed slaves, the other across town educating mostly white children.But Hurricane Katrina's winds changed the incidental segregation when St. Peter the Apostle, built in 1907 as an African-American mission, was destroyed. Now blown together, 310 elementary students are integrated at Resurrection Catholic School's campus."If there is somebody who is now upset because there are more black children, we don't want them," said Laura Murray, a mother at Resurrection, as she helped prepare the water-damaged building for classes. "I don't think there is anybody like that. This community doesn't believe like that."Given St. Peter's dire situation, school officials made the quick decision to get the students back on a regular schedule as soon as possible. All would attend Resurrection. "It's a triumph for the biracial South," said Charles Reagan Wilson, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi in Oxford.Many parents and teachers want the integrated school to remain, but Sister Bernadette McNamara, principal at St. Peter, worries about her students retaining their culture and identity. She remains at St. Peter, where all that's left usable are three classrooms, where the school's youngest children arrive wearing neat plaid uniforms. They stand when she enters each room and in unison say, "Good morning. God bless you." Putting her hand to her forehead and nodding, she said, "It's always the black children who lose their school. I miss my school. I miss my children."Father Mike Kelleher, pastor at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, which is affiliated with Resurrection, moved to Mississippi from Ireland 40 years ago during the civil rights movement. He talks of the storm as a catalyst for the strong feelings of acceptance that already brewed in the community."We do have a terrible name outside the Deep South," Kelleher said of Mississippi. "The hurricane certainly gave new impetus to us working together as an integrated community." The united school is Kelleher's dream come true. "I would hope that it's going to be permanent," he said.The Diocese of Biloxi has the final say, and officials are now sorting out insurance policies, what school buildings will stay and which will go. After the storm, Resurrection was still standing, but flooded 52 inches with $1 million in damage. Classes resumed with donated cafeteria tables and chairs instead of desks. Even with their own homes lost, parents from both schools went to Resurrection to clean first and make the school functional.But the sight of St. Peter and what the Sisters of the Holy Spirit have ahead of them is jarring. The roof collapsed, leaving classrooms piles of bricks and books visible from the street. The water-damaged gymnasium floor is caked with mold. Pink insulation covers the cafeteria."The building is condemned," Sister Bernadette said during a walk through. "Everything is going to be knocked down." Still, she sees some hope for her students. At least they will be in school, and referring to the blending of races in the new Resurrection student body, she said, "It's a blessing. In a way it's wonderful."Parents say race 'not an issue'Soon after Katrina, the area's parochial students were scattered at schools across the region. Marian Swint, from nearby Grand Bay, Ala., has sons at Resurrection in fourth and sixth grade and said she watched with pride as they played with the children from St. Peter."If someone was playing football, they all were playing football," Swint said. "It wasn't the whites over here and the blacks over there. The kids don't know the difference. It's just another kid to play with." Glendon Smith, right, jokes with Wil Brown at Resurrection Catholic Elementary School. Smith transferred to the school after Hurricane Katrina. LaTaya Cobb, a St. Peter mother, voiced similar feelings when she dropped her third-grader, Troy Cobb Jr., at Resurrection for his first day. He ran with the other children, and teachers directed him to the third grade line."Race is not an issue for me," Cobb said, smiling and waving at her son. "I like for my kids to communicate with other groups."Another St. Peter mother, Brenda Smith, said her heart is broken at the sight of her son's old school, but she believes Resurrection will be good for him."I thought it would be great to have them interact and play together instead of all black children at one school and all white children at one school," Smith said. H. Todd Coulter, vice president of the St. Peter parish council, said if parishioners had a choice, they would like to see the school rebuilt, but that may not be realistic. Meanwhile, he said, integrating the children makes financial as well as cultural sense."There may never have been a Black History Month program at Resurrection school," Coulter said. "Now there will be one. It won't be Black History Month, it will be black history day by day. Their presence will be a great gift to the overall community."The mostly one-race makeup of the two parochial schools reflected their surrounding neighborhoods, not school policy. Public schools in Mississippi have been integrated since the 1960s or 1970s as have most parochial schools. In the Pascagoula School District, 48 percent of the students are white and the remaining 52 percent are a mix of black, Hispanic and Asian. Of the 310 students now attending Resurrection, Kelleher says 60 are black and 25 are Hispanic. With schools acting as the constant battleground of desegregation, Wilson sees Pascagoula's embrace of the integrated schools as evidence that locals are "wanting an occasion to get away from separations that too often exist in schools in the South."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Visitors to Bill Clinton's presidential library probably wouldn't guess that they're treading on rubber-tire floors and looking up at soda-can ceilings. But the library now offers a special "green" tour to feature its environmentally friendly construction.Before architects started designing, they knew former President Clinton wanted his library on the banks of the Arkansas River to be energy efficient. The final product was the first and only presidential library to earn an award from the U.S. Green Building Council for environmental design.The library started offering the "green" tours in late September for a weekend meeting of the American Solar Energy Society. But the tour proved so popular that the museum now offers it each Saturday and for groups upon request.David Williams, a library volunteer, gives the tours. He points out that even the library's location is relevant to the theme."This land was a contaminated brownfield," he said. "We've gone from a contaminated piece of property (to one) that now is a city park."The center received a "silver certification" in Leadership Energy & Environmental Design, a rating system administered by the U.S. Green Building Council, which promotes environmentally responsible and high-performance buildings. There are four LEED certification levels for green buildings -- platinum, gold, silver and certified, with platinum the highest.On the second floor of the library, Williams points out the 143,000 pounds of glass windows that allow natural light to flow into the building.Clinton, Williams said, "wanted maximum light, natural light, in here."But too much light could also damage the library displays, so 258 double-layer panels were placed on the side of the building, outside the glass, to filter the light.Williams points to the black floor. "You're standing on rubber, recycled. Most of it is tires," he said. The wooden floors are made of bamboo, a rapidly renewable product.Downstairs, Williams says, "these ceilings are recycled aluminum. About 75 percent (of) aluminum, is recycled soda cans."And outside there are 336 solar panels on the roof, one of the building's energy sources.The parking lot features bicycle racks and three stations where electric cars can recharge. There are also newly planted trees, and in five years, when they're fully grown, they will provide shade for 50 percent of the parking places.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- Carl and Linda Magni love to travel but hate to unpack.The Prescott, Arizona, couple also dread the hassle of airport security and dislike the difficulty of finding restaurants in unfamiliar cities. So instead, while traveling to far-flung destinations most people only dream of, the retirees spend leisurely days playing ping pong and shuffleboard and relaxing with longtime friends.Over the years, Carl, 65, and Linda, 58, have given up their vacation home and other travel plans in favor of cruises that can last months on end.They are in good company. As the travel industry continues to rebound from its September 11 downturn, cruise lines are seeing increased demand for a luxurious and pricey niche: trips that run anywhere from two weeks to several months.For 2006, Holland America plans a 20 percent increase in cruises longer than 12 days. And in 2007, demand is forcing the cruise line, a Seattle-based division of Carnival Corp. & plc, to switch to a larger, 1,380-person capacity ship for its around-the-world cruise. The company scaled down to a smaller ship following the September 11 attacks.Silversea Cruises Ltd., which specializes in high-end luxury cruises, recently launched a series of trips lasting 34 to 123 days and plans its first around-the-world cruise in 2007. At Cunard Lines, also a Carnival subsidiary, demand for world cruises is so great the company plans two simultaneous trips in 2007.Crystal Cruises Inc. spokeswoman Mimi Weisband said her company, a unit of the Japanese company Nippon Yusen Kaisha, is seeing a record number of bookings for its forthcoming 106-day world cruise.Cruise lines say a key attraction of long cruises is that it allows people to visit plenty of far-flung destinations -- such as Antarctica and Easter Island -- without dealing with airport security and other hassles typical of getting to such remote areas.While some people revel in fingering native currency, finding local accommodations and sampling unfamiliar foods, a key selling point for long cruises is the ability to see a truly exotic locale then get back to the ship in time to shower in your room and eat a steak dinner.High price tagsSome passengers also are what Holland America spokeswoman Mary Schimmelman dubs "destination collectors" -- seasoned travelers who are eager to get to places that might be hard to reach without a boat. For that reason, cruise lines often vie for increasingly far-flung ports of call, like Safaga, Egypt, Lautoka, Fiji, or the Galapagos. The itineraries change often, since many long cruise passengers are repeat customers.Such cruises don't come cheap. A high-end room on a world cruise can cost as much as $200,000 per person, depending on the cruise line, and it's not uncommon for other longer cruises to cost between $10,000 and $60,000 per passenger.Cruise patrons also often have to foot the bill for drinks -- including coffee and soda on some ships -- and any off-boat excursions, adding thousands more to the bill. Many ships also function as roving malls, tempting passengers with clothes, jewelry, fancy spa treatments and other costly indulgences.But many in the industry argue that even six-figure cruises are a relative value when you consider what it would cost in plane fares and hotel costs to see these remote destinations.The trips also require time away from home that most Americans, with a scant two weeks of vacation a year, don't have. Still, cruise lines say the boats aren't entirely populated with retirees. On-board Internet access, cell phones and BlackBerries are making long cruises increasingly popular among entrepreneurial 40- and 50-somethings, who are able to turn the ship into a virtual, floating office."People can fairly successfully run a business from being on a ship," said Jan Swartz, a senior vice president with Cunard.'Select sliver of people'Some are also fulfilling a lifelong dream while they are young enough to really enjoy the more adventurous locales. Weisband of Crystal Cruises said one recent world cruise passenger was a 36-year-old who had endured a nasty breakup and resolved to change her life. A Holland America world cruise even included a family with children under school age, Schimmelman said.The cruise lines also say they see professors and other educators with more flexible summer schedules on some longer cruises. Rich Skinner, co-owner of the travel agency Cruise Holidays of Woodinville, recalls a 51-year-old teacher who saved for years to pay for a long, $40,000 cruise.Despite the growing popularity, long cruises remain a relatively small portion of the overall cruise market. And Skinner said they are still primarily the bastion of older, wealthier people who are willing to pay high prices in exchange for being treated exceedingly well."It's really a very select sliver of people," Skinner said.Even with e-mail and other modern on-board technology, getting away from it all for as long as 120 days can require plenty of pre-travel organizing.The Magnis, who recently finished a 97-day cruise and expect many more long cruises in their future, have by now perfected a routine of prepaying bills, stocking up on medication and getting their mail held for months. They also have cultivated good relationships with their neighbors, who the couple says are more than willing to help but are sometimes mystified that they still bother making these arrangements for their short stays on solid ground."Our neighbors want to know why we don't sell our house and just rent a room," Linda Magni said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Russian space officials Monday set a November 9 blastoff for a European probe to explore Venus after its earlier launch was postponed because of a booster rocket problem.Engineers will be able to fix the flaws by that date, the Federal Space Agency said in scheduling the launch at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.The European Space Agency's Venus Express probe was originally set to be launched October 26 by a Soyuz-Fregat rocket, but a problem arose with thermal insulation in its upper stage.Despite the delay, the launch will fit into the one-month window during which the celestial motion of the planets makes a voyage to Venus the most fuel-efficient.Venus Express, which is set to enter orbit around the planet in April and begin its scientific mission in July, carries a set of instruments to study the thick and mysterious atmosphere of Venus. Scientists hope that the mission will help provide clues about the features, status and evolution of the entire planet.The ESA said its investment in Venus Express amounts to about $265 million, covering development of the spacecraft, launch and operations.The delay in the Venus Express launch followed the loss of another European space vehicle earlier this month and other recent mishaps that have made this month one of the most troublesome periods in the recent history of Russia's space program.(Full story)The ESA's CryoSat satellite was lost October 8 due to the failure of a Russian booster, dealing a major blow to the ESA, which had hoped to conduct a three-year mapping of Earth's polar ice caps and provide more reliable data for the study of global warming.Also this month, space experts failed to recover an experimental space vehicle after its return, engineers lost contact with an earlier launched Russian Earth-monitoring satellite and a new optical research satellite was lost due to a booster failure. (Full story)The mishaps hurt the reputation of the Russian Space Agency, which depends on revenue from commercial launches of foreign satellites to complement meager state funding.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Pluto, that cosmic oddball at the far reaches of our solar system, may have three moons instead of one, scientists announced on Monday.Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope glimpsed the two new satellites back in May, and were intrigued when the pair of possible moons appeared to move around Pluto over three days in what looked like a nearly circular orbit.If confirmed by the International Astronomical Union, they will get official names based on classical mythology, joining Pluto's moon Charon, which is named for the ferryman of the dead. Pluto is named for the lord of the underworld.For now, the new satellites are called simply P1 and P2. One of the scientists who discovered the satellites couldn't resist making some spooky allusions with the announcement."It's ... strictly coincidental that Pluto of course was named for the god of the underworld and we're describing these Halloween moons," said Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in a telephone news conference.Pluto's first known moon, Charon, was discovered in 1978. Charon is about half Pluto's size, making it less like a satellite and more like a sibling, and many scientists consider Pluto and Charon to be a binary system, with the moon orbiting about 12,000 miles from the planet.The newfound putative satellites are likely much smaller than Charon, ranging in size from perhaps 30 miles to 100 miles in diameter. Scientists are still trying to figure this out.Charon is about 745 miles across, and Pluto is about 1,430 miles across.The discovery of the two additional satellites means Pluto is the first known object of the Kuiper Belt -- a ring of rocky debris circling outside Neptune's orbit -- with more than one moon, said Hal Weaver, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.However, the new finding does little to clear up Pluto's planetary status. While it was discovered in 1930, Pluto has such an eccentric orbit around the sun that some have questioned whether it deserves to be called a planet.The International Astronomical Union, which considers such matters, calls it a planet, but the specific definition of what constitutes a planet is under review.Mere multiple moons do not change Pluto's status, according to Stern, who serves on an astronomical panel that is working on the new definition."Whether or not an object has a moon is not part of the criteria that we've considered, because so many small objects in the solar system have moons," Stern said. "But I think, just on a visceral level, the fact that Pluto has a whole suite of companions will make some people in the public feel better about its status of planethood."Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

PLANTATION, Florida (AP) -- A week after Hurricane Wilma, more than 1 million Florida homes are still without power and many doctors' offices remain closed, leaving hospitals swamped as the only source of medical care in some communities."You can't get any regular doctors on the phone. You can't get anything filled," said Tim Swett, 41. He waited five hours at one emergency room and finally left without help for a back problem he had aggravated while cleaning up his mother's yard.It wasn't until he tried another hospital, where disaster teams were set up in tents to handle minor injuries, that he saw a doctor.To help ease the medical crunch, the Federal Emergency Management Agency set up disaster medical assistance teams at four hospitals to help people with minor injuries, prescription medicine or those trying to follow up on routine medical care.At Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation, a team had seen 190 patients -- including Swett -- by Sunday morning after opening Thursday. The hospital had twice its normal traffic in the days after Wilma hit, said Chief Executive Earl H. Denning."They were being overrun," said Bill Wallace, who is commanding a team of 35 doctors, nurses and others working out of four tents set up in the hospital's parking lot.Wilma was the eighth hurricane to strike or swipe Florida in 15 months. The storm killed 21 people in the state after battering Jamaica, Haiti and Mexico with strong wind and rain, and then tearing across the Gulf and Florida's southern peninsula. In all, 38 deaths were blamed on the hurricane.Sunday afternoon, state officials said about 2,000 people remained in Florida's emergency shelters, most in Palm Beach and Broward counties. Public schools in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties remained closed.Florida Power & Light, the state's largest electric utility, said some areas might not get their power back until November 22, two days before Thanksgiving.But in a sign of progress, 2.2 million customers who lost power after the hurricane were back online Sunday, the company said. And while traffic lights were still out around the region, and broken glass, toppled trees and downed power lines continued to create obstacles, the long lines at gas stations had disappeared. The Lower Keys and Key West were also scheduled to open to tourists on Monday.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- Vietnam said Monday it needs tens of millions of dollars to fight the spread of bird flu as disaster coordinators from Pacific rim nations met in Australia to hammer out ways to stop emerging diseases skipping across the region's borders.Vietnam's Vice Minister of Agriculture Bui Ba Bong said the country needs US$50 million (euro41 million) and help building up its stockpile of bird flu drugs as it struggles to keep a lid on the virus."Vietnam wants to use this meeting as an opportunity to ask member countries for cooperation and support," Bong said.Vietnam has been hardest hit by bird flu, which has killed more than 40 people in the country and prompted authorities to destroy tens of millions of poultry.Vietnam has enough antiviral drugs to treat 60,000 people but Bong said the country of 82 million needs far more. Officials said last week they want enough to treat 30 percent of its population.Disaster and pandemic coordinators from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, along with health, animal and quarantine officials, were meeting behind closed doors to formulate a plan on the best ways to deal with various threat levels posed by diseases like bird flu. That includes coordinated responses to humans infected by poultry, limited human-to-human transmission and extensive spread among humans, senior Australian officials have said.Doug Steadman, of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said experts were exchanging their experiences of dealing with outbreaks.Canada dealt with SARS in 2003 and had a bird flu outbreak in 2004, although it was not the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease."We were far from perfect with the way we dealt with that," Steadman said. "We were effective in the end, but we learned a lot and we're bringing that experience to this conference."Steadman stressed that nations need to test their preparedness now."You don't learn to dance on the day of the party," he said. "So we have to practice all of our plans and make sure that we are able to implement them effectively."The talks in the eastern Australian city of Brisbane will also discuss how to maintain essential services such as power and water and when it might be appropriate to seal off national borders."It's going to be an opportunity for us to look at what preparations we've made, and then improve (on) those if we have to and, perhaps, set up some region-wide, APEC response mechanism, if that's really called for," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told the Nine television network.The meeting comes as a precursor to the APEC forum summit that is expected to bring top officials together in Busan, South Korea, in mid-November. Fighting avian influenza and trying to prevent a flu pandemic are expected to be high on the agenda there.The region got a taste of the devastation from an infectious disease in 2003 when SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, emerged in Asia and spread rapidly across the world via air travel, killing nearly 800 people and causing millions of dollars in economic losses.Later that same year, the H5N1 bird flu virus began ravaging poultry stocks across the region and jumping from birds to people. Since then, it has killed at least 62 people in Southeast Asia, and health experts worry the virus could eventually be capable of causing much more harm.As migratory birds spread the H5N1 virus to poultry in Europe, many more nations are expressing the same concerns, fearing the virus -- which is now hard for humans to catch -- could somehow mutate into a highly contagious form that spreads easily from person to person. The result could be a global pandemic that kills millions and cripples economies.Steadman said delegates in Brisbane were coming to the conclusion that individual nations could not tackle a pandemic."We're recognizing that no single economy can deal effectively with one of these emergencies by themselves," he said.APEC members include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Taipei, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar were expected to attend the meeting as observers along with several international organizations.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate minority leader said Sunday that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney owe the country an explanation of "what's going on" in the administration and called for White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to be fired."I think not only should the president appear before the American public and explain what is going on and take a few questions from the press, but certainly the vice president should do that," Sen. Harry Reid said on CNN's "Late Edition."The Nevada Democrat referred to past comments from the president that anyone found to have been involved in the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the media would be fired.Bush later amended his comments to say that anyone guilty of a criminal act would be fired."Everyone knows Karl Rove is involved," Reid said. "If the president is a man of his word, Rove should be history."Rove is widely believed to have been named as "official A" in the five-count indictment handed up Friday against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.Libby resigned Friday as Cheney's chief of staff after a federal grand jury indicted him on five charges related to the leak probe: one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements. A leading Republican cautioned that Rove hasn't been charged with any crime."Mr. Rove, like every other citizen, is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and until somebody says that he's done something wrong, he ought to be permitted to go about his business like anybody else," said Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.Rove was not indicted, but special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said the investigation of the leak affair would continue, and sources said Rove was not out of legal jeopardy.Bush made a short statement Friday at the White House in which he called the legal proceedings "serious" and said the administration was focused on many issues."There was not a word of apology, not a word of explanation to the American people," Reid said. "The president's going to have to get a touch of reality."Reid urged Bush to follow an example set by President Reagan when he was faced with the Iran-Contra scandal, and "clean house."The two-year investigation into the leak raised questions about political retribution by the White House and one of its central points for going to war against Iraq -- the search for weapons of mass destruction.Plame is married to Joe Wilson, a retired U.S. diplomat who charged that Bush administration officials, intent on building a case to depose Saddam Hussein, hyped unsupported claims that the Iraqi dictator bought uranium for use in nuclear weapons in the African nation of Niger."Everyone knows that Vice President Cheney and the president do not like anyone criticizing anything they do," Reid said. "Joe Wilson criticized the basis for the war in Iraq."Wilson told CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday that his wife "felt like she had been hit in the stomach" when her identity was revealed in a 2003 newspaper column by Robert Novak, a CNN contributor. The revelation resulted in "specific threats," he said, adding, "You can be sure that we discussed security at great length with various agencies."Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said the investigation showed no one in the White House did anything illegal before the investigation."The allegation is that when they told the grand jury about the process they made some misstatements and false allegations," Graham said on CBS's "Face the Nation."The former prosecutor said he thinks "the likelihood of Karl Rove being indicted in the future is virtually zero."Sen. Charles Schumer, who appeared with Graham, said the nation's security was jeopardized by the leak."A criminal standard wasn't met. But that doesn't mean that real harm wasn't done," the New York Democrat said. "These agents risk their lives for us. They have operatives that risk their lives. And when you expose the name of such an agent, you do harm."Schumer also called for the White House to make changes."They are at a real turning point," he said. "Thus far, they've admitted no mistakes at all. And that's not a good sign or a good attitude."Some GOP lawmakers also expressed support for changes at the White House."You should always be looking for, you know, new blood, new energy, qualified staff," Sen. Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, told "Fox News Sunday." "I'm not talking about wholesale changes."Poll: Indictment damages White HouseA poll released Sunday night indicated Bush's approval rating has not been affected by the indictment, but the number of people believing he cannot manage the federal government effectively has increased.The number of people with an unfavorable opinion of Cheney rose to 51 percent, up from 47 percent two weeks ago, the CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll said.A majority -- 55 percent -- said they believe Cheney was aware of Libby's actions. The indictment said Libby -- before discussing Wilson and Plame with reporters -- talked about the couple with several people in the White House, including Cheney.The poll, however, indicated the public's views of Libby -- who until recently had kept a low profile -- were not well-formed.Nearly half of those interviewed had no opinion of him personally and only one in five said they understood the case against him very well.Perhaps as a result, 15 percent said they were unsure whether he did anything illegal; of the rest, 45 percent said they believe he broke the law, 31 percent said he did something unethical but not illegal and 8 percent said he did nothing seriously wrong.Only 10 percent of respondents said they have a favorable opinion of Libby, versus 43 percent unfavorable and 47 percent unsure.More than half -- 56 percent -- said the charges against Libby were a sign of low ethical standards in the Bush administration, compared with 38 percent who considered it an isolated incident.Public sentiment about how the United States entered into the war in Iraq was also unfavorable to Bush, with 53 percent of respondents saying they believe his administration deliberately misled the public on weapons of mass destruction.Nevertheless, Bush's approval rating was 41 percent, the same as it was before before the indictment, and views of his honesty remained stable at 49 percent versus 47 percent last month.Only 43 percent said they believe he can manage the government effectively, compared with 53 percent who held that opinion in July.The telephone poll of 800 adult Americans was conducted Friday through Sunday. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans voted to cut student loan subsidies, child support enforcement and aid to firms hurt by unfair trade practices as various committees scrambled to piece together $50 billion in budget cuts.More politically difficult votes -- to cut Medicaid, food stamps and farm subsidies -- were on tap Thursday as more panels weigh in on the bill. It was originally intended to cut $35 billion in spending over five years, but after pressure from conservatives, GOP leaders directed committees to cut another $15 billion to help pay the cost of hurricane recovery.President Bush met with House and Senate GOP leaders and said he was pleased with the progress. He also appeared to endorse a plan by House Speaker Dennis Hastert's plan for an across-the-board cut in agency budgets, perhaps including the Pentagon, by the end of the year."I encourage Congress to push the envelope when it comes to cutting spending," Bush said.Budget billDozens of issues are at play as Republicans in both the House and Senate cobble together the sprawling budget bill. The measure is the first in eight years to take aim at the automatic growth of federal spending programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.In the Senate, the Budget Committee voted along party lines to bundle together the work of eight legislative committees into a bill that will be debated next week by the full Senate. The Congressional Budget Office said the Senate measure would save $39 billion over five years -- $4 billion more than the budget passed last spring.Pressed to produce more savings than the Senate, House committees took more political chances in drafting the $50 billion House plan, which has become a rallying point for the GOP's conservative wing and its anxiety about hurricane relief worsening the deficit.The House Education and the Workforce panel, for example, was told to generate $18 billion in savings over five years.On Wednesday it approved squeezing lenders in the student loan program and raising premiums to employers for government insurance of their employees' and retirees' pension benefits.'Raid on student aid'It also imposes new fees on students who default on loans or consolidate them and higher fees on parents who borrow on behalf of their college-age children. California Rep. George Miller, the senior Democrat on the panel, called the package a "raid on student aid."The Ways and Means Committee approved on a party-line vote a plan by its chairman, Rep. Bill Thomas, R-California, with so many difficult-to-swallow provisions that lawmakers and aides whispered about whether the intent was to make it hard for GOP leaders to win its passage in the full House.It includes $3.8 billion in cuts to child support enforcement. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-North Dakota, charged that Republicans were appealing to the "constituency of deadbeat dads."The bill also would tighten eligibility standards for foster care assistance in nine states and delay some lump-sum payments to very poor and elderly beneficiaries of Social Security's Supplemental Security Income program."It was abundantly clear that Thomas didn't want to do this stuff," said an aide to a Ways and Means Republican who spoke on condition of anonymity but cited meetings that occurred behind the scenes.House GOP leaders this month directed Thomas to produce $8 billion in savings, eight times the original target he was assigned.The Ways and Means plan also would eliminate payments to industries harmed by unfair foreign trade practices. Those payments come from the proceeds of duties on foreign goods "dumped" into the U.S. market.ANWR drillingThe House Resources Committee approved a controversial plan to raise $2.4 billion in lease revenues by permitting oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.Minority Democrats opposed virtually everything that was done, saying Wednesday's actions are part of a broader GOP budget blueprint that also calls for $106 billion in new tax cuts over the next five years."They are targeting programs for poor people to pay for tax cuts for rich people," said Rep. David Obey, D-Wisconsin. Once those tax cuts are passed, Obey added, deficits will be increasing again.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(Entertainment Weekly) -- Wait a minute. Is that Steve Martin romancing Claire Danes -- an actress less than half his age -- in "Shopgirl"? Well, that must be what passes for reality in Hollywood, the land where actors play sexually desirable characters well into their AARP years. The result is several decades of movies whose senior-and-ingenue couples can't help but give off a Humbert-and-Lolita vibe.Though extreme examples of on-screen cradle robbing may seem cringe-worthy, moviegoers continue to make May-December romances into hits. Clearly, older male stars -- heroes like Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, and Harrison Ford, and comfortably familiar comic charmers like Martin or Woody Allen -- still know how to turn wishful thinking about the appeal of older males into a big-screen reality. At least "Shopgirl" addresses the age gap; most movies don't even acknowledge the strangeness of a 20-to-30-year difference between the romantic leads. And, despite a Mrs. Robinson every now and then, actresses rarely get the same leeway. Just look at Uma Thurman, whose romance as an ancient 37-year-old with a 23-year-old beau is presented as a real shocker in the new movie "Prime." Did we just hear the words "double standard"?In the following gallery, we look at the romantic roles of 10 veteran leading men. We chose five movies that paired each of them with much younger love interests (plus, to be fair, one role opposite an older actress). Then we added the age gaps and came up with an unscientific, but nonetheless revealing, average. Read on as we count down to the old goat who got our highest age-gap rating.Click here to see the gallery.

SOUTH BRISTOL, Maine (AP) -- It took decades for Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder to come to terms with the painful and embarrassing memories of his year in Vietnam during the war.A 22-year-old Army lieutenant fresh out of ROTC, Kidder was placed in charge of an eight-man, rear-echelon radio research detachment that monitored the communications of enemy units to try to pinpoint their locations.The war became an abstraction for Kidder, who never saw combat and knew the enemy only as "dots on a map." Amid the tedium and boredom, he created an alternate reality, a romanticized vision that he revealed in letters to loved ones and in an unpublished novel about a young infantry lieutenant whose experience fit Kidder's Hemingway-inspired preconception of what war must be like.Kidder, now 59, is unsparing of himself in "My Detachment," a new, often humorous memoir that offers insights into the lives of the support troops who made up most of the 500,000-plus U.S. soldiers who were in Vietnam at the height of the buildup when the author served there in 1968-69.By far the shortest of Kidder's books, "My Detachment" took the longest to complete. He began writing it in 1985, only to set it aside for other projects because he was unable to deal with its "self-flagellating tone." Kidder said he needed to get more distance from the events he describes and prove to himself that he could live up to the psychological implications of the title."I was obviously not detached from it then," he said in an interview at his shingled summer home overlooking a tidal cove along the Maine coast. "Things about the book still made me wince, but once they're out in the open, those kinds of memories can no longer ambush you."The memories include fabricated stories about being covered with blood after he shot a man in the head or about how he befriended two Vietnamese boys who were figments of his imagination. Kidder included those accounts in letters to his parents and girlfriend that he wrote but never mailed.They also include an episode when he was on live in Singapore. The author recounts how the Asian woman he selected from a line of prostitutes awaiting GIs in a motel lobby rejected him, telling her madam, "he isn't good-looking.""My Detachment" contains brief excerpts from Kidder's unpublished novel, "Ivory Fields," whose principal character is Lt. Dempsey, Kidder's alter ego. Dempsey meets a glorious end when he is shot while protecting a Vietnamese woman who was gang-raped by his troops. Kidder now jokes about the overwrought prose in "Ivory Fields," a manuscript that was rejected by 33 publishers. Kidder destroyed all his copies and was "just horrified" when a friend stumbled upon one years later and returned it to him.In his current memoir about his year with the 198th Light Infantry Brigade, Kidder wanted to let it all hang out. "Everything that made me wince -- those are the stories I should make sure I told," he said.'Between fiction and nonfiction' Having no contact with the North Vietnamese or Viet Cong, Kidder's enemy came to be the career officers who tried to impose garrison-style inspections and discipline on his slacker unit at a time when he was struggling to win the respect, or at least the grudging tolerance, of his men.They, in turn, would ignore his orders, preferring to spend their time in their hootch, watching TV reruns of the World-War II drama "Combat" and drinking beer.Kidder changed the names of some of the book's key characters, with one of the "lifers" who gave him the hardest time appearing as Major Great. In retelling the events and conversations, he relied on a "very good memory" as well as on his novel and various letters that had been saved."I was much too callow to keep a journal," he said. "I tried to make this book absolutely true to my memories and I tried to make it as immediate an experience for the reader as I could. But it is a memoir."Suggesting that "memoir occupies an interesting place between fiction and nonfiction," Kidder said he didn't subject "My Detachment" to the same rigorous standards he applied to his other books.Among the better known are "Mountains Beyond Mountains," about a doctor's effort to bring health care to Haiti; "Among Schoolchildren," an account of a dedicated inner-city teacher; and his first and perhaps most famous, "The Soul of A New Machine," which traces the design of a computer, and won a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in 1982. His subsequent books include "House," 1985; "Among Schoolchildren," 1989; "Old Friends," 1993; "Home Town,: 1999; and "Mountains Beyond Mountains," 2003. All were best sellers.Having also explored such topics as aging, home construction and life in his year-round hometown of Northampton, Massachusetts, he is now thinking about writing a book about politics and has been spending time in Washington, D.C.No one from Kidder's detachment has stayed in touch with him, but he crossed paths at a recent book signing with two former lieutenants whom he knew at division-level radio research.By and large, the book was an accurate portrayal of life in a rear-echelon unit, said Jerry Everett of Annapolis, Marylandd, although "I don't think I was as disaffected as Tracy was." John Shay of South Salem, New York, agreed that Kidder "captured a lot of the nonsense" surrounding life at brigade headquarters but said the author was a better soldier than he made himself out to be. "He was good at what he did, and that didn't come across in the book," Shay said.Kidder, who signed up for ROTC at Harvard University to avoid the uncertainties of the draft, quickly came to hate the Army. When he left the Army to start his writing career, he decided that he never again wanted to have a boss.Like most of his Boston-area friends, Kidder opposed U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He attended the occasional peace demonstration after he returned home but was never actively involved in antiwar activities.He said he sees "unfortunate parallels" between Vietnam and the war in Iraq but finds no easy answers. He lambastes the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that paved the way for the Vietnam buildup as "a put-up job," but is even more cynical about flawed intelligence that led to the Iraq invasion.Like Vietnam, he said, there appears to be no obvious end in sight. "Vietnam was awfully complicated, I guess, but this one looks even more complicated."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(AP) -- Watching a TV show requires far more attention than listening to a song, so it would be no surprise if Apple Computer Inc.'s new video-capable iPod music player provided a less-than-satisfying viewing experience.After all, the stylish design that puts thousands of songs in your pocket may not seem so cool after you've held it up to your face for hours. And while a tiny screen is great for displaying tune titles, a full-length TV show is another story.Though Apple could not overcome the inherent shortcomings of video on its popular portable, the latest iPod does a superb job of making the drawbacks seem far less significant than might be expected.For one, it's touting video as a feature, not the focus, which remains music. It's also kept the same price as the previous generation -- $299 for the 30-gigabyte model (7,500 songs) and $399 for the 60 GB model (15,000 songs).The color display has been bumped up to 2.5 inches from 2 inches while the gadget's overall size has been kept to roughly the length and width of a playing card. Both models are noticeably less thick than previous models.And the battery life has been extended to 12 hours on the 30 GB model and 20 hours on the 60 GB model when playing music.The improvements not only enable the video feature but also enhance music listening and slideshow viewing. Apple has created a compelling reason to buy an iPod even if it's never used to watch a single video.But with all the attention given to video in the months leading up to the launch earlier this month, most new iPod owners will give it a try.Purchasing and transferring a show is just as easy as music at Apple's iTunes Music Store. The content, once downloaded to the computer, automatically transfers to the portable as soon as its connected via a USB cable.With a 6-megabit-per-second DSL connection, an episode of "Desperate Housewives" was downloaded and transferred to a unit in about 10 minutes. Using the click wheel, you start the video just as you would a song or a slideshow.The program looked remarkably clear, and had no problem reading the tiny credits at the beginning and end of the show. The video was largely stutter-free, the audio quality pristine.Surprisingly you can hold the iPod in a comfortable viewing position for the 44 minutes of the episode (no commercials!). This might turn out to be a very popular iPod use on subways, buses and airplanes.But continuous video playing severely cuts down the battery life. A 30 GB model lasted just 2.5 hours -- still 30 minutes longer than Apple promised -- before it ran out of juice.Unlike music bought at the online store, video can't be transferred to a CD or DVD from the new iPod, thanks to copyright protection technology though an optional cable can be used to display an iPod show on a regular TV.The biggest problem is the anemic selection of commercial programming.Outside video can, of course, be transferred to the new iPod. But so far, offerings are slim in the video department of Apple's iTunes music store.There are episodes from five Disney television shows -- including "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" -- for $1.99 a pop. ITunes charges the same to download one of the 2,000 music videos or a half-dozen Pixar Animation Studios shorts.The business model is promising. If only more content owners would open their vaults.Even when counting the music videos and video podcasts, the selection pales compared to the 200,000 song tracks available when the iTunes Music Store launched in 2003. Today, it has more than 2 million songs.Movie studios, television networks and other content providers must determine whether there's money to be made in Apple's latest online venture without cannibalizing their existing businesses.While waiting for the number of titles to grow, iPod owners can fill their players with home movies and other video, provided their software can encode the video in a supported format (H.264 or MPEG-4 video) and other specifications.It's a fairly easy process on a Mac equipped with Apple's iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Windows users are advised to buy QuickTime Pro ($30), which has an export setting specifically for iPod video.Though watching home movies is fun, the promise of commercial content will interest a lot more people. But there's no indication when more TV shows or even movies might arrive on an iPod near you.In the meantime, there's always music.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- If you do banking over the Internet, generally the drill is pretty simple: You enter your user name and password, and away you go.But behind the scenes, the bank can do a lot to check you out: Are you at your home computer, or at one with an Internet address that, strangely, is registered overseas? Are you logging on at an unusual time of day, or from a super-fast connection when normally you have dial-up?This kind of analysis is one example of the layers that bank Web sites will be adding by the end of 2006 to meet new demands from federal regulators for "two-factor" authentication. That essentially means checking something more than just user name and password to verify a customer's identity."Phishers" and other Internet fraud artists have become adept at stealing passwords, mainly through "social engineering." Preying on people's propensity to believe something seemingly authoritative, criminals send authentic-looking e-mails that send unsuspecting people to an authentic-looking Web site where they give away their data.Many banks overseas, where data-privacy laws are stronger, already have deployed a second level of authentication. They give customers specialized hardware, such as a "smart card" or an electronic token that displays a changing series of passcodes.Cost-conscious U.S. banks are unlikely to go as far. Instead, they'll probably perform tweaks inside their own Web servers that most of us will barely notice."We're trying to come up with something here that's very user-friendly," said Jim Maloney, chief security executive of Corillian Corp., a Web-banking services company that offers login-analysis software.If the software raises red flags about a user's profile -- because, say, he one day logs in from Denmark instead of Denver -- the bank can confirm his identity by asking a series of questions that only he is likely to know, such as the amount of his last mortgage payment, or the street he grew up on.That kind of fraud detection has long existed on credit cards, and the fact that Web banking has yet to widely deploy it says a lot about the state of the industry.Although identity theft and other financial fraud have garnered a lot of attention and are believed to be getting more sophisticated, banks have been reluctant to do anything to increase the cost and complexity of their Web sites.After all, the Internet is supposed to be banks' low-cost platform, cheaper than having customers deal with tellers or ring up the help desk. The efficiencies of self-service Web banking likely have outweighed the costs of fraud, which some estimates have placed as low as $137 million worldwide in 2004."Right now banks don't have that much security around checking accounts," said Avivah Litan, an analyst with the Gartner research firm. "Generally speaking, their losses are pretty tolerable."However, on October 12, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, an umbrella group of U.S. regulators including the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., told banks to strengthen their online authentication by the end of 2006. Auditors will examine those efforts in regular inspections.The policy was widely interpreted as a boost for security providers, who are tired of seeing banks kick the tires of two-factor authentication services but generally not buy.According to a June report from the FDIC, a handful of U.S. banks had given customers tokens with passcodes that change every minute. The codes are generated by an algorithm programmed into the token and confirmed on a central authenticating server, making the password impossible to guess.But tokens create their own headaches. They're relatively costly to deploy and can prompt lots of calls to customer service if they're lost or temporarily out of reach. Banks also fear a "necklace" scenario in which customers end up collecting an annoying strand of tokens from all the companies they do business with online.Even one token might be seen as a hassle.After ETrade Financial Corp. began offering tokens from RSA Security Inc. to its 2.8 million U.S. customers, only 20,000 signed up. Almost all those people could get the gadgets for free because they were frequent traders or had more than $50,000 in their accounts; everyone else had to pay $25.One-time passwords can be given out in less expensive ways. They can be beamed to a cell phone or handheld computer, or mailed to customers on scratch-off cards.But security experts warn that one-time passwords can be stolen in a "man-in-the-middle" attack, in which a con artist harvests a victim's code on a phony Web site and instantly relays it to the real bank, then conducts transactions in her name. Such frauds are rare -- if they happen at all -- but that's partly because there are so many easier targets, for now.Token vendors point out that their devices can be set to foil men in the middle by generating additional codes for each individual transaction. Still, there are enough knocks against hardware-based solutions that most banks will take softer steps to meet the regulators' demands.In one approach, encrypted electronic "certificates" could be issued that users would store in a small file on their computers. These certificates would confirm to the bank that the user is bona fide. In turn, a properly encrypted certificate would not respond to a Web site other than the one that issued it -- protecting the user as well as the bank.Banks also might ask customers to enter passwords on drop-down menus or "scrambled PIN pads," in which an on-screen display indicates letters that correspond to the numbers in the PIN. That code changes every time.Those techniques are designed to throw off Trojan horses and keystroke-logging programs that aim to steal passwords by registering everything a victim types. Web bank ING Direct, part of Holland's ING Groep NV, recently added a scrambled PIN pad to its site.Another software-based approach is Bank of America's SiteKey service. The bank's Web page shows each user a personally chosen picture and caption at the beginning of each banking session, and asks randomly chosen "secret questions" that users have set up in advance.However, even this kind of approach could be flawed unless many users are better educated about the constant arms race between Web sites and criminals. Social engineering, not technology, often is the real problem.Richard M. Smith, an Internet security consultant behind ComputerBytesMan.com, says he expects phishers will send legitimate-seeming messages to dupe people into believing, for example, that their SiteKey picture had to be changed."I think people would still fall for this kind of trick," he said. "The key thing to remember is that phishers are very adaptable, and they will make changes to their operation when security technology is upgraded and becomes popular."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

VIRUNGA NATIONAL PARK, Congo (AP) -- Hundreds of government troops backed by U.N. peacekeepers began flushing heavily armed Rwandan rebels from eastern Congo on Monday, destroying insurgent camps and sending smoke rising above the restive region.The operation in North Kivu province involving 2,000 Congolese troops and 500 peacekeepers was the first time Congo's government has used force against the Hutu rebels since a deadline for the departure of all foreign armed groups expired a month ago. At least a dozen rebels were captured.Residents in eastern Congo lauded the mission, saying the foreign fighters had stolen from locals and harassed them."The Rwandans attacked us every day. They stole our sweet potatoes, peanuts and bananas. They even took our women," said Semikore Sebagabo, a 44-year old father of six. "My children have seen too much war, too much fighting, death and killing. It is time for it to end. We want peace now."Thousands of ethnic Hutus from neighboring Rwanda fled to eastern Congo after taking part in the 1994 genocide of more than 500,000 people, most of them ethnic Tutsis. They then took up arms against the Tutsi-dominated government that took over in Rwanda and began fighting from Congolese bases.Rwanda has twice invaded Congo to hunt down the rebels, and in 1998 sparked a five-year war in Congo that involved six African nations and killed an estimated 4 million people.The Congolese and U.N. troops will move through Virunga National Park over the next two weeks to clear out as many as 5,000 Rwandans that still control its nearly impenetrable interior, said Col. Mayank Awasthi, the U.N. military spokesman in the North Kivu province.An estimated 15,000 total Rwandan Hutu rebels still remain in Congo along with 30,000 dependents, mostly their wives and children. Poorly paid Congolese soldiers have repeatedly failed to hunt them down.On Monday, Congolese troops fought brief gunbattles with rebels who then fled into the forests, U.N. officials said. At least five insurgent camps were dismantled and smoke could be seen rising from their direction. There were no immediate reports of casualties, the U.N. said.The government has recently stepped up pressure on loose armed groups in the run-up to Congo's first presidential elections in 45 years, due before June next year. A voluntary disarmament and repatriation program meant to get the Rwandans out has had little success. Some of the Rwandans fear reprisals if they return to their homeland."Foreign rebels must first leave Congo for peace to return to eastern Congo," Awasthi said. "The rebels are heavily armed; they have machine guns, rockets and mortar launchers. They are well-organized and difficult to disarm."Thinly spread U.N. troops have been trying to help President Kabila's transitional government control the lawless east, once the bastion of Congolese rebel groups. Though the 16,700-strong peacekeeping mission in Congo is the U.N.'s largest, progress has been slow in securing a country the size of western Europe."We have only one U.N. soldier for every 250 square kilometers of territory," said Thierry Provendier, chief military spokesman for the U.N. in Congo.Troops are also seeking to oust about 300 Congolese militia from Virunga. The militiamen have refused to surrender their arms under a national program that gives former rebels a chance to train to join the army or re-enter civilian life.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was remembered Monday as a courageous woman whose defiance in the face of segregation helped inspire the architects of the civil rights movement and set an example for generations to follow.An overflow crowd of mourners joined official Washington to pay tribute to the woman whose refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus helped galvanize the modern civil rights movement.Talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who was born in Mississippi during segregation, said Parks' stand "changed the trajectory of my life and the lives of so many other people in the world.""I would not be standing here today, nor standing where I stand every day, had she not chosen to sit down," Winfrey said. "I know that."Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church said, "we are here not because Rosa Parks died but because she lived graciously, effectively and purposefully, touching the lives of millions."Richardson called Parks a "woman of quiet strength" who was "noble without pretense, regal in her simplicity, courageous without being bombastic."Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said Parks' refusal to give up her seat "was the functional equivalent of a nonviolent shot heard round the world.""She saw the inherent evil in segregation and she had the courage to fight it in its common place, a seat on a bus," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas.Parks' life was celebrated at the church, where several hundred people were listening to tributes by Winfrey, NAACP chairman Julian Bond, and Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, for whom Parks worked in his Detroit congressional office for more than two decades.Conyers recalled that when former South African President Nelson Mandela visited Detroit in 1990, he led the crowd in a chant of Rosa Parks' name, "which made us realize that this is an international phenomenon that we celebrate. Rosa Parks is worldwide."In attendance was Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean.A painting of the elderly Parks rested above her mahogany coffin at the center of the altar, which was lined with flower arrangements. A large wooden crucifix loomed over the choir, which led the crowd in singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic."Earlier, more than 30,000 people filed silently by her casket in the Capitol Rotunda in hushed reverence, beginning Sunday night and continuing until well pas sunrise Monday.Frist accompanied new Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito and his family to the Rotunda, where they paused in silent remembrance. Several senators joined the procession.Elderly women carrying purses, young couples holding hands and small children in the arms of their parents reverently proceeded around the raised wooden casket. A Capitol Police spokeswoman, Sgt. Jessica Gissubel, said more than 30,000 passed through the Rotunda since Sunday evening, when the viewing began."I rejoice that my country recognizes that this woman changed the course of American history, that this woman became a cure for the cancer of segregation," said the Rev. Vernon Shannon, 68, pastor of John Wesley African-Methodist-Episcopal Zion in Washington, one of many who rose before dawn to see the casket.Many were overcome by emotion. Monica Grady, 47, of Greenbelt, Maryland, was moved to tears, she said, that Parks was "so brave at the time without really knowing the consequences" of her actions.Bathed in a spotlight, Parks' casket stood in the center of a Rotunda that includes a bronze bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who led the 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system that helped initiate the modern civil rights movement.In preparation for a memorial service, her casket was taken down the steps of the East Capitol by a military honor guard of pallbearers, followed by her family. A vintage Metropolitan bus dressed in black bunting followed the hearse, along with other city buses.Parks, a former seamstress, became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda, sharing the tribute bestowed upon Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and other national leaders.Parks, who died last Monday at 92, was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, an incident that inspired King and helped touch off the civil rights movement.President Bush, who presented a wreath Sunday night at a Capitol Hill ceremony, ordered the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff over all public buildings Wednesday, the day of Parks' funeral and burial in Detroit.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AP) -- A military tribunal began hearings Monday for a U.S. Army sergeant charged with killing two superior officers in Iraq, with a witness testifying that the defendant told him he wanted to kill one of the victims.Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, of Troy, New York, faces murder charges in the June 7 killing of Capt. Philip Esposito and Lt. Louis E. Allen in a bomb blast at Forward Operating Base Danger, near the central Iraqi city of Tikrit, the hometown of the deposed Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, some 80 miles north of Baghdad.It is believed to be first case of an American soldier in Iraq accused of "fragging" his superiors. Fragging is a Vietnam War-era term used to refer to soldiers killing their superiors.The tribunal, held at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, will determine whether to send the case to a court martial.During Monday's session, one witness, Capt. Carl Prober, said Martinez told him twice that he hated Esposito -- once in September 2004 and again in May. In the second instance, Martinez said "specifically I hate (Esposito) and I'm going to frag (him)," Prober testified.Prober did not say why Martinez said he hated Esposito.Esposito, 30, of Suffern, New York, and Allen, 34, of Milford, Pennsylvania, were killed by a blast in Esposito's office in a former Saddam palace being used as a base. Their deaths were initially thought to be a result of "indirect fire" on the base -- a mortar round that struck a window on the side of the building where Esposito and Allen were.Senior Master Sgt. Kevin Fitzgerald, an expert on explosives, testified that the blast was caused by a Claymore anti-personnel mine and possibly three grenades. Surgeon Col. Joan Sullivan told the tribunal that the men's injuries were not consistent with wounds caused by a mortar or rocket.Eight witnesses were heard in a morning session, and several more were to be heard in the afternoon. The hearings could last until Wednesday.The widows of Esposito and Allen attended the hearings after the Army agreed to fly them to Kuwait for the sessions.Martinez, 37, a supply specialist who joined the New York Army National Guard in December 1990, was deployed to Iraq sometime after October 2004 with the 42nd Infantry.The Tikrit case is the second known incident in which a U.S. soldier has been charged with killing his comrades during the Iraq war.In April, a sergeant in the Army's 101st Airborne Division was convicted of murder and attempted murder for a grenade and rifle attack that killed two officers and wounded 14 soldiers in Kuwait during the opening days of the 2003 invasion.Hasan Akbar, a 34-year-old Muslim who was sentenced to death, told investigators he staged the attack because he was upset that American troops would kill fellow Muslims.Fragging incidents also were reported during the Vietnam War, particularly in the late 1960s as the strains grew on a draftee army waging an unpopular war. Soldiers feeling hassled or unnecessarily put in harm's way by their commanders often settled their grievances with a fragmentation grenade.Between 1969 and 1971, the Army reported 600 fragging incidents that killed 82 Americans and injured 651. In 1971 alone, there were 1.8 fraggings for every 1,000 American soldiers serving in Vietnam.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- A swampy section of the city is becoming a dumping ground for paint cans, broken furniture, insulation and whatever else is in the rubble.From its beginnings, New Orleans has viewed the surrounding wetlands and Mississippi River as the logical places for its waste. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the city again is turning to the swamp.East of the city's residential neighborhoods lies a large tract of swamp land that has been turned into an industrial corridor. Even before Katrina it was besmirched with scrap metal and used parts yards, rust-colored streams and dead cypress trees.Making matters worse, environmentalists warn, is that the mounds of debris from Katrina also are winding up here.Already, illegal dumping goes on in plain sight. On one road, a pile of paint cans, telephone poles, biological hazard bags and insulation reaches several feet high. Some of it has been pushed into the swamp next to the road.A month after Katrina, the state Department of Environmental Quality also allowed the reopening of an old city-owned garbage landfill that had been closed down by federal regulators more than a decade ago.The Sierra Club and Louisiana Environmental Action Network charge that the Old Gentilly Landfill should only be a repository for construction waste.Instead, it has become one of the main drop-off spots for debris and trucks carrying furniture, mattresses and building materials. Dust is kicked up all day on the roads leading to it.Environmentalists are considering filing a lawsuit to challenge the rebirth of the landfill."I understand that we need to get rid of the waste from the city of New Orleans, but we have to make sure that we are following the environmental laws," said Darryl Malek-Wiley of the Sierra Club's Delta Chapter.Darin Mann, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality, said inspections have shown that the debris going into the landfill is in compliance with the state's plan to deal with the wreckage from the hurricane.The fears over turning the Old Gentilly Landfill into a Superfund site are not without precedent.When Hurricane Betsy flooded the city in 1965, much of the debris from that hurricane was dumped in the Agriculture Street Landfill. Homes and a school were built atop the landfill before it was found to be contaminated and declared a Superfund site.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LONDON, England (AP) -- Prince Charles, his wife and a wardrobe full of dresses jet off to the United States Tuesday on a tour designed to celebrate trans-Atlantic ties, promote Charles' environmentalist causes -- and test reaction to his new bride in a nation still smitten with the late Princess Diana."This is Diana country," said Lisa Stewart, a member of a band of devotees called the Diana Circle U.S. "We love Diana still."The 56-year-old heir to the throne and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will visit New York, Washington, New Orleans and San Francisco during the one-week tour, their first official overseas jaunt since marrying in April.The royal couple will unveil a memorial to victims of the September 11 attacks in Manhattan, dine at the White House with President Bush and his wife, Laura, and meet aid workers and residents on a flying visit to hurricane-hit New Orleans.Visits to farms, markets, schools and museums will give Charles a chance to highlight issues close to his heart -- organic food production, the environment, education and classical architecture.Aides hope the prince's first official tour of the United States since 1994 won't be eclipsed by memories of a visit in 1985 -- when a radiant Diana danced with John Travolta at a White House dinner."For a long time the [British] media has regarded the States as Diana territory," said Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine. "But there's nothing to suggest Camilla won't get a warm welcome."The prince's office says the trip is intended to recognize "the importance of the relationship between the two countries and their common bonds and shared traditions."It is also part of a careful palace plan to win acceptance for the duchess, long reviled in the British press -- and among Diana-philes -- as the woman who broke up the royal romance. "There were three of us in that marriage," Diana told a television reporter in 1995.Charles and Diana divorced in 1996; Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris the following year.Since then, a careful series of joint milestones has helped soften public attitudes toward the prince and Camilla, whose relationship began more than 30 years ago, before either was married.The couple's first public appearance together was in 1999; the first public kiss in 2001. In April they married in a civil ceremony. A poll at the time suggested almost two-thirds of Britons supported the marriage.In deference to Diana, Camilla did not take the title Princess of Wales, and she has made it clear she wishes to be known as princess consort, not queen, when Charles takes the throne -- although experts say she will, officially, be queen.The 58-year-old duchess has discarded a sometimes frumpy country style for designer dresses and extravagant hats since stepping into the limelight.British newspaper reports said that she was taking 50 dresses on the tour and that 40 staff would accompany the couple.But Charles' office said the true size of the entourage was 16, and stressed the duchess' clothes were paid for from his private income. Officials would not say how many dresses Camilla was taking.The tour begins Tuesday with a visit to the World Trade Center site in New York, where the couple will dedicate a memorial garden to British victims of the September 11 attacks. There is also a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a reception.In Washington, the couple will have lunch and dinner with the Bushes at the White House.Charles' office would not say whether the prince planned to raise the issue of climate change, which he recently called "the greatest challenge to face man."Bush's refusal to sign the Kyoto accord on greenhouse gas emissions has angered many environmentalists.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) -- A 13-year-old cancer patient who was put into foster care after her parents refused to allow radiation treatment will be reunited with her family, a judge ruled Monday.Faced with her deteriorating health, state district Judge Jack Hunter said Katie Wernecke would be better off with her family in Corpus Christi than in the custody of the foster parents she was assigned by Child Protective Services."CPS and the Werneckes are never, ever going to agree," Hunter said. "If I leave it up to CPS and the Werneckes ... this child is going to die for lack of anything being done."Child Protective Services removed Katie from her family after her parents stopped her cancer treatment. Her father, Edward Wernecke, worried that a move to radiation treatment could put his daughter at heightened risk for breast cancer, stunt her growth and cause learning problems.Before the ruling, Hunter told Wernecke to "look at me man to man, eyeball to eyeball" and promise he would do the best for Katie. Wernecke said he would.Katie's parents have made several attempts to stop treatment for the girl's Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes. She was diagnosed in January and began receiving chemotherapy, which doctors recommended be followed with radiation.Katie's oncologist has said her chances of surviving have fallen from 80 percent to about 20 percent because of incomplete treatment.State lawyers argued that her life would be endangered if she did not continue treatments at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston."We certainly understand why the judge would want Katie at home with her family at this point of her illness," CPS spokesman Aaron Reed said. "This isn't the outcome we advocated for, but our goal all along has been for Katie to get the treatment she needs and get better and go home."Wernecke's parents were overjoyed with the judge's decision."The good news is we're getting Katie back," Edward Wernecke said. Her mother, Michelle Wernecke, added, "She's going to be home soon, it feels great."In a statement, family attorney James Pikl said the decision had larger implications for parental rights in Texas."When your child becomes sick, you do not have to merely stand by while state CPS workers tell you what care your child will receive," he said. "You also need not fear that CPS will take your child away from you simply because you have a disagreement with CPS about what treatment is right for your child."Edward Wernecke said he wanted to try alternatives such as intravenous vitamin C before considering radiation as a possible last resort."If that were her last hope, and it was the only other thing that would save her life, then I would do it," Wernecke testified.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Police rescued unharmed two kidnapped children and a foster child of an American missionary couple during a raid on an apartment in Haiti's capital, officials said Monday.Police said Hannah Lloyd, 3, her brother David, 5, and their Haitian foster sister Miriam Meinvil, 7, were unharmed. They are the children of Pentecostal minister David Lloyd and his wife, Alicia, of Claremore, Oklahoma.The three were abducted after they left school on Friday and rescued the next day, but police only revealed the crime to the public on Monday. Officials did not immediately explain the reason for the delay.Lloyd said in a telephone interview that the children were unharmed. "My little girl is still very scared, though."Police said the kidnapping occurred shortly after Alicia Lloyd picked up the children. Several armed men dressed as police officers in van marked "police" cut them off in downtown Port-au-Prince, seized the children and sped away.Police traced the men to an apartment building in the volatile Delmas neighborhood and raided the property on Saturday, freeing the children and arresting seven suspects, including a former police officer, said Michael Lucius, the head of Haiti's Judicial Police."We operated very fast and no one was hurt," Lucius said.He said police were investigating if the other six suspects were current or former police officers.The children were the latest victims of a surge of kidnappings that have added to insecurity ahead of the first elections since the February 2004 ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Police reported more than 50 kidnappings in September.Lloyd said someone phoned him asking for a $350,000 ransom for the children's release, but he said he couldn't be sure if it was the captors.He said the captors allowed him to speak with the children by phone several times before they were freed. During one conversation, the children said they were fed a pack of cheese puffs and a soda for dinner.Lloyd, who runs the "Missions in Haiti" charity with his wife, said he wouldn't leave Haiti. The charity helps raise 21 Haitian foster children."It's been a pretty rough year, but we feel this is where God wants us to be, and we will stay with our mission," Lloyd said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (AP) -- A man accused of plotting to kill President George W. Bush was a trained terrorist who betrayed the United States because he was intent on "killing the leader of the infidels," U.S. prosecutors said in opening statements Monday.Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 24, from Virginia, is on trial in U.S. federal court, facing felony charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. Besides being accused of conspiring to assassinate the president, he also is charged with conspiracy to commit air piracy and offering aid to and receiving financial assistance from members of al Qaeda."He betrayed his country by joining forces with our most lethal enemy overseas," said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Laufman.Abu Ali has confessed, but the defense says he was tortured in jail in Saudi Arabia where he was arrested in 2003. Prosecutors say the confessions were voluntary,Laufman told the jury that Abu Ali talked with al Qaeda members about several plots, including smuggling terror operatives into the United States through Mexico and assassinating members of the U.S. Congress and the Army.He also took $1,300 (euro1,080) from an al Qaeda leader to buy a laptop computer so he could research the locations of nuclear power plants in the United States, Laufman said."The defendant received terrorist training in weapons, explosives and document falsification," Laufman said.The confessions obtained by Saudi security agents after his June 8, 2003, arrest will be admitted as evidence, though defense attorneys say he was tortured into making false statements."Just stop the pain, I'll say anything," defense attorney Ashraf Nubani, told jurors, paraphrasing her client's mind-set after what she described as 40 days of flogging and other abuse. She clapped her hands repeatedly during a portion of her opening statement to signify the impact of "one lash after another."Nubani said that when Abu Ali told FBI agents he'd been tortured and constantly threatened with beheading and dismemberment, they did nothing.Abu Ali studied in Saudi Arabia, she said, where he liked to engage in political discussions in coffee and tea shops. As "the American," he had a high profile."There is a mountain of reasonable doubt in this case," Nubani said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- Retired career diplomat and former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson has been a prominent figure throughout special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into who leaked the secret identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife.Three days after a federal grand jury indicted I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, in the CIA leak investigation, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer talked Monday with Wilson.BLITZER: Do you have confidence in Patrick Fitzgerald?WILSON: Absolutely. In fact, I think the one thing that the indictment showed the other day is that our system of justice works; that in a nation that is based upon the rule of law, no man is above the law. And that's what Pat Fitzgerald said and made very clear.BLITZER: Are you, though, disappointed that he didn't charge anyone with outing your wife as an undercover CIA operative?WILSON: Well, I think it's important to remember two things.One, he was unable to indict on anything other than the charges because, as he said, his investigation into this was impeded by the obstruction of justice and perjury.And two, as he said, the state's interests were vindicated by the indictments that were handed down.And three, finally, this is not a crime against Joe Wilson or Valerie Wilson, it's a crime against the country, against the national security of the country.So we have no vote in whether or not we're disappointed or not disappointed.BLITZER: But you were hoping that someone would actually -- that you'd get to the bottom of this: Who decided to out your wife as a CIA operative?WILSON: Well, I think we pretty much are at the bottom. We now know, both from Mr. [Matthew] Cooper's testimony, the Time reporter testimony, that Mr. Rove gave him Valerie's name; and we know from the indictment that Mr. Libby was going around giving ...BLITZER: But you understand why that's not a crime -- that wasn't deemed a crime by Patrick Fitzgerald?WILSON: Well, again, it has not been indicted as a crime yet because, as Mr. Fitzgerald said, his investigation into the bottom of this was impeded by the obstruction of justice -- and the investigation is ongoing.BLITZER: So you're still looking toward that.On August 21, 2003, at a forum, you were quoted as saying this -- and I believe you did say this because we've talked about it: "At the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."He's still working at the White House. He's the deputy White House chief of staff.WILSON: And I think that Karl Rove should be fired. I think that this idea that you can, with impunity, call journalists and leak national security information is repugnant.It is not fitting for a senior White House official. It is below any standard of ethical comportment, even if it is not technically illegal, because of the high standard of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.But nonetheless, there's now clear evidence that Mr. Rove was leaking classified information. Mr. Fitzgerald made it very clear.My wife was a covert officer at the time that these people were leaking her name.I believe it's an abuse of the public trust. And even if he can't be convicted of it, I see no reason why somebody like that, why the president would want to have somebody like that working on his staff.BLITZER: Well, forget about conviction. He hasn't even been charged with a crime.WILSON: Again, it's now very clear that he leaked it. Mr. Cooper's sworn testimony indicates that. The e-mails indicate that.BLITZER: Let's go through some of the criticism that's been leveled at you, afresh over these past several days since this whole leak investigation was coming to a boil last Friday.A lot of your critics blame you for the eventual disclosure of your wife as a CIA operative, and they go back to that early May 2003 column by The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof who first reported about an unnamed U.S. ambassador making this trip to Africa.Were you the source, Nicholas Kristof's source, for that column?WILSON: Well, I was a source for that column.But let me just say two things. One, this has never been about Valerie or me. This has always been about the 16 words in the [2003] State of the Union address, first and foremost -- and then, second, about who leaked Valerie's name.And I would point out to you that the indictment does not name Joe Wilson as somebody who leaked Valerie's name.BLITZER: Well, the indictment doesn't name anyone necessarily as a crime in terms of leaking ...WILSON: The testimony that has been made public indicates that Mr. Libby and Mr. Rove leaked Valerie's name to the members of the press. There's nothing in any of the testimony to suggest that Joe Wilson did -- unlike what Mr. [Joseph] diGenova [a former U.S. attorney who was a special prosecutor during the Clinton administration] said on this program last week.BLITZER: Why you tell Nicholas Kristof about your trip to Africa?WILSON: I had attempted to talk directly to the State Department and to a number of Democratic senators and to get the record corrected. I felt that after it was clear that what the president was referring to in the State of the Union address was Niger, and that the trip that I went on was based upon a transcription of these documents that later were shown to be forgeries.It was important for the administration to correct the record.BLITZER: Because, as you know, this was two months before the Robert Novak column appeared.WILSON: It is an act of civic duty, it is what citizens across this country do every day in our democracy -- you hold your government to account for what your government says and does in the name of the American people.This happened to be an area where I had certain expertise and experience.BLITZER: Former CIA officer Robert Behr was quoted in Saturday's Washington Post as saying this: "The fact is, once your husband writes an op-ed piece and goes political, you have no immunity and that's the way Washington works."In other words, he's one of those suggesting that by your going public in various ways, your wife's identity was eventually going to be made known.WILSON: Again, my name didn't appear in the indictment. There are instances of -- and you go to the Spy Museum here, you can see a number of high-profile people who served their country even though they had high-profile positions in different professions.BLITZER: Even though some of your supporters were on this program last week -- Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer; Pat Lang, a former DIA intelligence analyst. They say your decision and your wife's decision to let her be photographed represented a major mistake because, if there were people out there who may have been endangered by her name, certainly when people might have seen her picture, they could have been further endangered.WILSON: Her contacts and her network was endangered the minute that Bob Novak wrote the article. The photograph of her did not identify her in any way anybody could identify.Now you asked me this question -- you've asked me this question three or four times ...BLITZER: About the photograph?WILSON: About the photograph.Now, I have never heard you ask the president about the layout in the Oval Office when they did the war layout. I've never heard you ask Mr. Wolfowitz about the layout in Vanity Fair. But you ask me all the time.So let me just get this very clear: When one is faced with adversity, one of the ways one acts in the face of adversity is to try and bring a certain amount of humor to the situation. It's called irony.And if people have no sense of humor or no sense of perspective on that, my response is: It's about time to get a life.But in no way did that picture endanger anybody. What endangered people was the outing of her name -- her maiden name -- and, subsequently, the outing of the corporation that she worked for.BLITZER: So you don't have any regrets about the Vanity Fair picture?WILSON: I think it's a great picture. I think someday you will, too.BLITZER: It's a great picture. But I mean the fact that ...WILSON: I think someday it, too, will be in the International Spy Museum.BLITZER: But you don't think it was a mistake to do that?WILSON: No.BLITZER: OK.Let's talk about Joe diGenova, a former U.S. attorney, Republican. He was on this program, as you well know -- he among others suggesting: Well, she had a desk job, she was an analyst in the Counterproliferation Division at the CIA. She was no longer really what they call a NOC, someone working nonofficial cover overseas, and that it was really no big deal.WILSON: Well, I don't think Mr. diGenova knows what he's talking about in this particular matter. I would go back to the indictment and Mr. Fitzgerald's preamble in which he's made it clear: She was a classified officer. She was covered by the various statutes related to the handling of classified information.It's as simple as that.BLITZER: Did you ever go around in cocktail parties -- because this has been alleged against you as well -- before the Robert Novak column and boast "my wife, the CIA agent," "my wife works for the CIA"?WILSON: Of course not.First of all, [we have] 5-year-old twins and so we don't go to very many cocktail parties. You've seen me at precisely one in the many years that we've been in Washington together. And that was actually a book party. And you did not see my wife there and you didn't hear me say anything about my wife at that.BLITZER: How well known was it that she worked for the CIA before the Novak column?WILSON: It was not known outside the intelligence community.The day after the Novak article appeared, my sister-in-law, my brother's wife, turned to him and asked him: "Do you think Joe knows this?"BLITZER: Your trip to Niger -- there's been some suggestion that she came up with the idea of sending you to Niger. And the Senate -- we've gone through this, but I'll let you respond since it keeps coming up over and over again -- the Select Committee on Intelligence that came out July 7, 2004, last year said this:"Interviews and documents provided to the committee" -- the Senate committee -- "indicated that his wife, a CPD" -- Counterproliferation Division -- "employee suggested his name for the trip."Did she come up with the idea?WILSON: No, that is not accurate. It doesn't reflect what happened. I was invited to a meeting. She conveyed that invitation from her superiors.She also, at the request of superiors, provided them with sort of a list of my bona fides because they were doing contingency planning as to what they might want to do as a consequence of the outcome of the meeting, which was two days later after she wrote the report.The reports officer, who apparently was quoted as saying that she offered up my name -- that's a quote -- came into her office subsequently and said that that was a misquote and he wanted to be re-interviewed by them.That was contained in my letter back to Senator [Pat] Roberts and Senator [Orrin] Hatch and Senator [Kit] Bond after their additional views were published.BLITZER: Larry Johnson, on this program last week, the former CIA officer, said your wife has been threatened by al Qaeda. Is that true?WILSON: I won't go into specific threats. I'll tell you that there have been threats. And as a consequence, we've been working closely with the appropriate law enforcement agencies. We've changed our phone number and taken other security measures.BLITZER: You don't want to go into details on that?WILSON: Absolutely not.BLITZER: If you had to do it all over again, looking backward, any changes you would have done?WILSON: I would have written the article as I did because I believe -- I believe firmly -- that it is a civic responsibility to hold your government to account in a strong democracy.And I can't think of much I would have changed. I suspect that, given the two-year character assassination campaign which was really designed to divert attention from the two key issues -- the 16 words in the State of the Union address and who leaked Valerie's name -- that there may have been some things I might have done differently, such as perhaps not getting engaged in a political campaign.Although I will say this about that, and that is that I resent deeply the idea that others would try and deny me my right to participate fully in the selection of this country's leaders.BLITZER: Because your wife is a CIA operative.But let me ask a final question: Are you going to file any civil lawsuits against Libby, Cheney, anyone else?WILSON: We're keeping all of our options open. There's a very complicated procedure for this, even though the case itself is relatively simple. And we have not come to any decision yet.