(CNN) -- Somewhere in rural Asia, a bar-headed goose tramps through fields and puddles and makes itself comfortable inside the home of the farmer who owns her.Somewhere else, chickens outnumber people, and can be found roaming every corner of the community.Rural Asians are used to this constant contact -- it has been that way for centuries.But it's a coexistence that could threaten the worldwide community.The reason: bird flu, or what scientists are calling H5N1. It has been a smoldering threat this time in Asia for almost three years. Millions of birds have been killed either by the flu or by officials killing off flocks of birds to stop its spread. So far, it is blamed for killing more than 60 people.Worse, infected birds have been found as far away as Turkey, England and possibly Canada.This has started the murmurings of a bird flu pandemic among humans."Pandemics, the bottom line is they happen," said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. "Ten times in the last 300 years, and three times in the last 100 years, viruses have mounted a massive pandemic assault that have made masses ill and caused millions to die. They happened before, they'll happen again and we need to be prepared."The U.S. is preparing with a proposed $7.1 billion plan to fight the bird flu, with most of the funding aimed at improving vaccine production and stockpiling anti-virals like Tamiflu.President George W. Bush said stopping the disease at its source is an integral part of the plan.But only a small part of the Bush plan's budget -- $251 million -- would go toward surveillance in other countries, what many experts say is the most important part of stopping a bird flu pandemic at its source."The world is unprepared," Leavitt said.Many of the poorest countries in Asia lack the resources to launch a formidable effort against a formidable virus. According to the journal Nature, there is a dearth of Tamiflu doses in Cambodia, so if the flu struck, many residents would have no ability to fight it.In Indonesia, according to the journal Nature, many chickens reside in backyard farms spread throughout an idyllic countryside and on thousands of sparsely populated islands, possibly too far from the reach of government.And health experts in Thailand, government officials pride themselves on strong surveillance, but across the Mekong river in Laos, there is barely a public health system.Even in China, the disease surveillance capacity is slow.The result of this mix of capabilities in Asia spells problems for the rest of the world."One just has to look at the current polio, measles and dengue epidemics in Indonesia to realize that the public health system is having trouble coping with preventable diseases," an unnamed outbreak investigator told Nature.The World Health Organization will work with other international organizations to coordinate with countries whose surveillance is, at best, flagging, but an integral part of the plan may also be the most difficult -- asking farmers to part with their birds, their economic and social cohorts for centuries."We must help people accept that the current strain of bird flu challenges a way of life that has been with us for centuries," said U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan at the Time Global Health Summit last week. "Hard as it will be, we must find ways to structure that coexistence or we will never be able to stop the viruses migrating from animals to us and to our children."Even the U.S., with all its economic power, is unprepared. In this country, as in Cambodia, there is a shortage of Tamiflu, there is no viable vaccine against H5N1 and should bird flu strike humans here, infectious disease experts say the public health system would be crippled."Our hospitals will be overrun," said infectious disease expert Dr. Michael Osterholm. "We'll run out of ventilators, we'll run out of drugs. How are we going to get through that? That's the basic plan we need right now."Despite each country's economic resolve, fighting a foe that cannot be seen, can barely be tracked, and could potentially ravage communities in weeks will be a Herculean task. These are the unique challenges faced when the world must come together to fight a common enemy."In response to each country's crisis, every country must be involved," Annan said. "Bringing all parts of government, civil society and the private sector together, working in partnership to deal with this crisis."Togetherness, in the current world climate, may be the toughest task of all.

NEW YORK (AP) -- About 1,000 graduate assistants started striking against New York University on Wednesday over its refusal to bargain with or recognize their union.It was unclear how many students were affected, but citing Wednesday as an example NYU spokesman John Beckman said of 2,700 classes, 165 were taught by graduate assistants.At a picket line in front of an NYU library in the city's Greenwich Village neighborhood, striking assistants and supporters chanted: "What do we want? Contracts. When do we want it? Now!"The Graduate Students Organizing Committee said its members would stay on strike until the university decides to bargain with them "in good faith." The assistants will not teach, grade, advise students or do research while on strike, they said."The students that I have in my class have been very supportive," said Kari Evanson, a teaching assistant in the French department. "We've tried everything else. This really was the last resort. ... I'm ready to fight."NYU says graduate assistants are not employees, but are students who have "assistantship" semesters as part of their financial aid packages of some $50,000 that includes free tuition."Any disruption to our students' education, even a minor one, is lamentable," NYU said in a statement.The graduate assistants had been represented by Local 2110 of the United Automobile Workers from 2000 until August of this year. NYU said then it would no longer recognize the union based on a policy reversal by the National Labor Relations Board on private universities allowing graduate student workers to unionize.The strike came after a delegation of professors failed to make headway Tuesday in urging NYU President John Sexton to negotiate.Holding up a sign that read "Nerds: working to make NYU even smarter," Kristin Ross, professor of comparative literature, said she would hold classes off campus in solidarity with the graduate students."I believe in their self-determination," she said. "My undergraduates are very, very interested in this whole process. It's integrated into their thinking."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SANDY, Oregon (AP) -- The homecoming game has been canceled and parents are running out of ways to keep cranky kids entertained because of a teacher strike in which a key sticking point is more than just a local issue: the federal No Child Left Behind Act.In school districts around the country, the Bush administration's centerpiece education law is beginning to emerge as an issue at the bargaining table.In Sandy's 4,200-student Oregon Trail District, where the strike is in its third week, teachers are afraid they will be replaced, transferred or otherwise penalized if they, their students or their schools fail to measure up under the law, which sets stringent new standards for performance.While salary and benefits are also stumbling blocks in the dispute, the 216 striking teachers and the school board in this city of 5,400 people about 40 miles from Portland are wrangling over contract language related to No Child Left Behind. Several marathon bargaining sessions have stretched into the wee hours."No Child Left Behind is creating issues we didn't expect four or five years ago," said Larry Wolf, who heads the Oregon Education Association, the state teachers union. "The law's approaching deadlines raise flags for both sides."Under No Child Left Behind, schools must bring increasing percentages of children from all backgrounds up to scratch on reading, math and writing tests. Schools that repeatedly fail to make enough progress face a series of sanctions, the most serious of which include school closure and takeover by a private company.The law also says that by the end of this school year, teachers must be "highly qualified" in the subject they teach. That definition varies from state to state but generally means that teachers must have majored in the subject they teach, must be certified by the state and must pass an exam in the topic.Teachers in some places are pushing for contract language to protect themselves.In Oregon, unions are asking for the right to take part in developing new curriculums required under No Child Left Behind, and want assurances that staff members will not be replaced or transferred if a school fails to make enough progress under the law.Teachers also want to make sure that student performance on tests is not the basis for negative action against an employee. And they say school systems should not be able to take into account whether a teacher has been deemed "highly qualified" during layoffs or recalls.School board officials, though, say that laws like No Child Left Behind affect what can and cannot go into the contract."We can't incorporate things that would violate or conflict with those laws," and Oregon Trail school board member Wayne Kuechler.In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the public school system is now run by the state, the teachers union conceded some seniority hiring rights in the latest round of contract talks to give the district more options in hiring teachers to staff schools that are marked as low performers under the federal law."At every turn in the contract negotiations, the press and demands of No Child Left Behind were always present," said union spokeswoman Barbara Goodman. "The bottom line is, there were a lot of changes made in seniority."In Warwick, Rhode Island, teachers and the district have been negotiating a contract for three years without success, in part because of No Child Left Behind."Any time you add additional duties, teachers expect to be paid, which is reasonable," said John Thompson, chairman of the school committee in Warwick. "But with pension and health care costs going through the roof, we can't afford things like higher pay for more work."To meet No Child Left Behind's requirements, the National School Boards Association is encouraging school systems to consider more aggressive ways of recruiting teachers.Those include offering higher pay or other incentives to those who agree to teach in hard-to-staff schools or hard-to-fill fields, such as advanced sciences or special education.But those ideas could also cause upheaval during contract talks.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) -- Aruban officials have appealed to the State Department and the Netherlands for help against a call for a tourist boycott of the Dutch Caribbean island over complaints the investigation into the disappearance of an Alabama teenager was mishandled.Tourism Minister Edison Briesen said Wednesday that it's too early to determine whether a call by Alabama Gov. Bob Riley to boycott the island due to the handling of the Natalee Holloway case has led to any cancellations."We are aware that if nothing is being done that there might be a negative effect," Briesen said.Riley called for a travel boycott of Aruba on Tuesday on behalf of a the missing teenager's family, who accuse the island's government of not fully cooperating with the investigation into her disappearance. (Full story)He asked his fellow U.S. governors to join him in urging the boycott of Aruba, where the 18-year-old honors student was last seen on May 30 leaving a bar with three young local men. The young men were held for a time but have been released.Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway-Twitty, joined Riley at the Alabama Capitol for the boycott announcement. She contends Aruban authorities have failed to adequately investigate the possible murder and has called for the removal of three top law enforcement officials in the case.Prime Minister Nelson Oduber told reporters that his government hopes the State Department will help halt a boycott that could damage Aruba's crucial tourist industry."This is a preposterous and irresponsible act," Oduber said Tuesday night after attending a closed session with members of Parliament. "We are not terrorists. We don't pose a threat to the United States, nor to Alabama."On Wednesday, Aruba's Parliament wrote a letter to the Dutch Foreign Ministry urging it to intervene to halt the threatened boycott. The letter called outside demands for the replacement of Aruban justice officials "an infringement on the sovereignty of the (Dutch) Kingdom.""This (boycott) call can have serious financial consequences for our country, especially considering that tourism is our most important source of income," Mervin Ras, president of the Parliament, wrote in the letter that was released to the media.The prime minister, while expressing sympathy for the family of the missing Alabama teenager, said Aruban investigators have done their best to solve the mystery and the entire island doesn't deserve to be punished because there has been no resolution to the case."We condemn and lament what has happened to Aruba," he said.The tourist minister said that tour operators told him last week the effects of a boycott would be minimal in Aruba's traditional market of the northeastern United States but could make it harder to attract visitors to the island from other parts of the country.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ISLA CARMEN, Mexico (AP) -- Across the channel, the setting sun turned the sharp, desert mountains of the Baja Peninsula a dusty red as they plunged into the placid blue and turquoise waters of the Gulf of California.Darkness brought a brilliant, starry sky and perfect quiet, unmarred by artificial light and sound.This was why I had traveled so far from my home in Boston. This was truly "getting away."But not quite "leaving it all behind." I sipped my cocktail and devoured the succulent fish and tomato-and-avocado salad our kayaking guides had prepared. Few are the scenes in nature unenhanced, I thought, by a few carefully selected trappings of civilization.Preparing to celebrate/mourn my 30th birthday last winter, I was eager to treat myself to a vacation, but one reflecting my station in life. That meant something vigorous -- to demonstrate my ongoing vitality -- but not overly so. It was vacation, after all (and frankly I wondered if my 30th might be accompanied by spontaneous frailty).Money was an issue, but this was a good time to formally close the book on the bare-bones, broke-recent-college-grad chapter of my travel history. Camping was fine -- it's the only way to get off the beaten path -- but I was willing to pay a premium to upgrade to a cut above rice and beans, and to avoid the stress of planning a trip in a foreign country.In short, I was ready to graduate to a category of travel I'll call "camping plus," and after a fair amount of research settled on a guided sea kayaking trip in Mexico. No, we didn't get massages or pinot gris with dinner; we paddled ourselves, slept in tents on rocky beaches and shared an outdoor bathroom behind a boulder. But we ate well and didn't have to cook, or worry about missing the best sites.I settled on Sea Kayak Adventures, which runs trips in the Pacific Northwest during the summer and relocates to Baja for whale-watching and sea-kayaking trips during the winter. Other companies seemed to offer comparable trips and deals -- we paid $1,195 per person for a weeklong trip -- but Sea Kayak's schedule worked best. I was probably also swayed by the company's emphasis on good food in the promotional materials.My girlfriend Maria and I arrived on a nonstop flight from Los Angeles on a Sunday afternoon in Loreto, a dusty but pleasant and unpretentious town on the Gulf of California about 700 miles southeast of San Diego. Baja California juts into the Pacific like a finger off Mexico's West Coast; the area was not affected by the recent hurricane that devastated Cancun and other areas on Mexico's eastern Yucatan Peninsula.There, we met our guides and our group: six gabby but contagiously enthusiastic California schoolteachers on a much-appreciated spring break; ourselves, and the Sikorskys, a delightful Wisconsin family of four. Six days later, they would all feel like close friends. Sharing an outdoor bathroom has a way of bringing people together.Leisurely routineWe savored our last restaurant meals and showers, and on Monday morning drove south to the put-in. There, we stuffed the company's two-person kayaks with their tents, sleeping bags, food and water, plus the three small sacks of clothes and personal items we were allowed. Our Canadian leader, Mary-Anne, and two local guides, Mario and Alex, gave the safety lecture and led an icebreaking game. And we were off.Sea kayaking can be hard work, especially when the wind is stiff, but we never felt unduly exerted (and we were hardly a group of jocks). On long stretches we stopped to rest frequently, and even on the busiest days were out for no more than a few hours.The routine was leisurely. Moving around an area protected as a national park between Isla Danzante, just a few miles from the peninsula, and Isla Carmen, a larger island still farther out, we woke up early, took coffee and breakfast and then would paddle or hike to another beach. There we would set up the sun tarp, relax, follow the guides on an exploratory hike -- my cactus knowledge expanded exponentially -- and snorkel in the brilliantly clear water of the Sea of Cortez (as tourists call the gulf). After lunch, we would head to camp in time for happy hour and dinner.This was the time of day when the "plus" in "camping plus" became most evident. I wouldn't order tequila and Kool-Aid in a bar back home, but it tasted mighty fine on Isla Carmen. Even mediocre food seems to taste better outdoors, but Mary-Anne, Mario and Alex stuffed us with grub I would have been pleased to eat most anywhere: breakfasts of pancakes and oatmeal, dinners of fish and chicken the first two nights, and after that, vegetarian dishes that were satisfying even to a skeptical carnivore like me. Succulent tomatoes and avocados were part of practically every meal.There were some snags. We had planned to move to a new spot each night, but the wind whipped up on Day 2 and Mary-Anne wisely turned our flotilla back to our first night's camping site. We crossed to Carmen the next day, but wind kept us at the same camping site there for three nights. Nobody seemed to care; both sites were beautiful, and staying put meant we didn't have to pack up camp each day.Utterly empty Kayakers round Punta Perico in Isla Carmen, Mexico.We visited too late for the area's whale-watching season of January through early March. But we settled for dolphins and colorful tropical fish in the water, and a lovely assortment of gulls, pelicans and more exotic birds above.There were also a few creepy-crawlies (five scorpions scurried out from beneath my tent one morning), but the lack of fresh water means few insects. Mary-Anne had warned us the greatest danger was the sun, especially for fair-skinned visitors like me. I went into bunker mode, wearing a hat, plus light long-sleeve shirt and pants almost constantly -- but I still got slightly sunburned.To me, eager to escape harried office life, the setting's greatest virtue was its utter emptiness. Here and there during the week, we encountered another kayaking group, and every day saw a handful of boats in the distance. But mostly I was amazed by the emptiness of such a beautiful place.Our group's quarters, on the other hand, were fairly close. The downside of the steep mountain setting is that beaches are small. During the day, we crowded under the tarp together to avoid the sun. The emptiness was there, somewhere, but at times like that, it was difficult to experience it.One can only hope the quiet persists. The national park status offers some protection from development, but Isla Carmen is privately owned, and there are some plans to develop it as a hunting destination.Finally, on Saturday morning, we packed up one last time and made our longest paddle, about five miles, against a current, to the mainland. After one last snorkel near the take-out site, we loaded up the boats and hopped in the kayak company's van, stopping en route for a cold beer and finally in Loreto for warm showers.We gathered for a final dinner with the group at a restaurant in town. My vegetarian tolerance had run its course; I ordered at 16-ounce rib-eye, medium rare. The next day we were off, our plane turning and banking as it took off from Loreto to offer one last view of Isla Carmen -- utterly, wonderfully empty.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Former Beatle Paul McCartney is to broadcast live into space from a U.S. concert to two astronauts circling the globe.He will play "Good Day Sunshine" and one of his latest songs, "English Tea," to NASA astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev who are on an international space station 220 miles above the earth.McCartney, who will be singing into space on Saturday from Anaheim, California via NASA television, got the idea when he discovered that the crew of the spaceship Discovery were treated to a burst of "Good Day Sunshine" in August as a wake-up call from Mission Control."I was extremely proud to find out that one of my songs was played for the crew of Discovery this summer. In our concert we hope to repay the favor," he said in a statement.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hundreds of AIDS activists from around the country converged Tuesday on the Capitol to push Congress to reauthorize a law funding treatments for the disease."I feel like people have kind of forgotten about HIV because people are not dropping dead as frequently as they used to," Darren Wells, 36, of Providence, Rhode Island, said at an outdoor rally organized by a new coalition, the Campaign to End AIDS. "The perception that it's over is not accurate."The Campaign to End AIDS organized caravans of activists who arrived in Washington by bus and on foot over the weekend. They spent the last several days holding marches and rallies, including a protest outside the White House on Monday. Two dozen activists were arrested after staging a "die-in" and ignoring orders from Park Police to get off the sidewalk.On Tuesday, the activists waved flags from dozens of different states at a rally before fanning out to visit lawmakers.On the agenda, pushing members of Congress to reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act, which funds care and support services for people with HIV who lack health insurance and other resources.The law, which was funded at $2 billion last year, expired in September. The House and Senate are expected to take up reauthorization bills next year.Some lawmakers were encouraging. "It's life or death for a lot of people in this country," Rep. Mike Honda, D-California, said at a rally. "It's a global issue."The government issued a report earlier this year saying that more than 1 million Americans are believed to be living with HIV/AIDS. In 2003, an estimated 18,000 people died from AIDS.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(AP) -- Overweight? Diabetic? Cholesterol out of control? Have we got a deal on a meal for you!If that sales pitch sounds a little sick, that's the point. Aging baby boomers and rising rates of obesity, diabetes and other health conditions have marketers looking to chronic illness as the new must-reach demographic.It's part of a cultural shift that increasingly sees health problems as lifestyles rather than diseases. Now the food industry is realizing those lifestyles can have a major influence on spending habits.It's easy to see why this is a fast-growing trend. For people like Karen Merrill, her lifestyle has become a matter of life and death.The 49-year-old Barrington, New Hampshire, woman had a heart attack and quintuple bypass in 2002. She credits the chronic disease-pitch -- which gives good-for-you branding to everything from menu items to entire supermarket shelves -- makes it easier for her to eat and shop.During a recent trip to her local grocer, she was thrilled to spot several new whole-grain breakfast cereals -- foods she's supposed to be eating more of -- displayed in a special "heart-healthy" section of the cereal aisle."I never would have known that this cereal existed if it wasn't for that display," said Merrill. "By coupling things like that, it introduces me to new things. Normally I would have been heading to the health food store to get it."And there's plenty of incentive for these efforts.Americans with heart problems -- there are more than 70 million of them -- represent $71 billion in annual buying power. The nation's nearly 21 million diabetics command around $14 billion. And don't forget that about two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese.People with chronic health conditions also are two to three times more likely than their healthy peers to follow special diets, making them prime targets for low-fat, low-sugar and other specialty foods, according to a report by IRI Healthcare, a Chicago-based marketing research firm that recently studied the disease-marketing trend.There's also a spillover effect."If Mom comes down with something, the entire household's diet changes," says Bob Doyle, a senior vice president at IRI.Merrill, for example, shops not just for herself, but also hopes to prevent her husband and 11-year-old daughter from suffering her fate.Some critics accuse the industry of trying to profit off sickness, but American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Dawn Jackson Blatner says anything that makes it easier for consumers to make healthy choices is a good thing.Marketing gets more sophisticatedMarketing good-for-you foods is nothing new, but the tactic is becoming increasingly sophisticated and ailment-specific.Broad healthy living campaigns are being replaced with efforts that narrowly target foods to people with particular conditions, says John Stanton, a food marketing professor at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.Along with those heart-healthy sections that appealed to Merrill, grocers increasingly are introducing shelves of sugar-free items for diabetics and gluten-free foods for people with wheat allergies.The Maine-based Hannaford Bros. Co. grocery chain, for example, recently added gluten-free and dairy-free sections to its 140 stores in the Northeast and is developing plans for additional health-inspired sections."It absolutely is a question of making a grocery store more user-friendly," says Hannaford spokeswoman Caren Epstein, who notes that the typical grocer offers 35,000 items these customers otherwise would need to comb through.Products also are becoming more specialized. Low-fat and low-sugar are old news. Minute Maid has an entire line of health-based orange juices, including its Heart Wise, which the company claims helps lower cholesterol because it is fortified with plant sterols.Since its introduction two years ago, Heart Wise has outsold most other Minute Maid orange juices, says company spokesman Ray Crockett. With so many people concerned about cholesterol, offering such a product just made sense, he says.Companies eager for healthy bragging rights also can seek certification from the American Heart Association, which awards its Heart Check Mark to items low in saturated fat and cholesterol. So far 850 products from 100 companies have passed muster.And the increasingly ubiquitous in-store pharmacy isn't just a convenience anymore; it also is an opportunity to cross-merchandise. Why not grab some oatmeal -- purported to reduce cholesterol -- while waiting for your heart medications?Stand-alone pharmacies -- already chipping into the grocery market with growing food offerings -- are using the same tactic to fight back. Rite Aid, which operates 3,350 shops nationwide, recently said it wants its brand to be synonymous with caring for diabetes.Among efforts to that end, the Pennsylvania company has broadened its selection of diabetic-friendly products and at many stores offers cooking lessons to help diabetics and their families understand the role of diet in managing the condition.But there are potential pitfalls, including a tendency to oversimplify the market, says IRI's Doyle.Though people with high cholesterol buy more vitamins than diabetics (who spend more on meat and eggs), men coping with cholesterol shop differently than women, buying more indulgences such as cookies, according to IRI.Misinformation is another concern. Dietitians say look to the back of packages for nutrition facts; assume anything else is advertising. Even accurate information can give consumers the wrong impression (fat-free or not, cookies require portion control).Companies also risk backlash when consumers don't see instant -- or sometimes any -- results from foods that make health promises."You don't drop 2 pounds in two days. You don't see your cholesterol cut in half," says Cornell University marketing and nutrition professor Brian Wansink. "It sets these foods up for failure when people don't see immediate cure-all benefits." .Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Federal prosecutors said they are conducting a criminal investigation into the levee failures that swamped New Orleans.Federal investigators are looking into the possibility of corruption in the design, construction and maintenance of the flood barriers, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said.Letten said Wednesday that his office began the investigation the week after Hurricane Katrina. The August 29 hurricane, and subsequent canal breaches left about 80 percent of New Orleans under water, killing hundreds of residents and stranding thousand more."The scope of our interest is very broad," Letten said.He said some officials were found to have undisclosed conflicts of interest, and "we're extremely concerned about those." He would not give details.James Bernazzani, FBI agent in charge in New Orleans, said agents have received numerous tips about possible malfeasance.Other investigations are being conducted by Louisiana's attorney general, who is looking into whether poor construction or design flaws played a role in the failures, and the New Orleans district attorney, who raised the possibility that faulty materials were used in the flood walls.Earlier this week, Attorney General Charles Foti said he wants to know whether poor construction or design flaws contributed to the failure. The Orleans Parish district attorney's office also confirmed it started a preliminary investigation into the materials used in the flood walls. It is determining whether a grand jury should be impaneled. The office is requesting copies of pertinent reports and is aware of recent congressional testimony about possible malfeasance in flood wall construction, said Leatrice Dupre, spokeswoman for District Attorney Eddie Jordan. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SARASOTA, Florida (AP) -- The brother of a man accused of abducting and killing Carlie Brucia wiped his eyes Wednesday as he recounted his sibling's account of sexually assaulting and killing the 11-year-old girl.John Smith testified that his brother, Joseph Smith, told him that he had "rough sex" with Carlie and then strangled her. The abduction was captured by a security camera at a car wash and broadcast worldwide on television.Details of her slaying came four nights after Carlie was abducted, the witness said. His brother was in jail and John Smith was leading detectives to the location where his brother told him the girl's body might be found.Joseph Smith, a 39-year-old former auto mechanic and father of three daughters, is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and capital sexual battery in Carlie's death. He has pleaded not guilty; if convicted, he may face the death penalty.Joseph Smith met with his brother and their mother, Patricia Davis, in jail shortly after his arrest. He confessed to his role in Carlie's disappearance under their questioning, his brother testified.Mumbling and occasionally closing his eyes on the witness stand, John Smith recounted the jailhouse conversation. His brother told him he had intercourse with the girl and made her perform oral sex. Davis left the room crying, and the brothers cried and "were hugging each other close," John Smith said.After leaving the jail, John Smith and Davis drove to a nearby church where Joseph told him they might find Carlie. They didn't find the body that day. They didn't immediately tell authorities about their conversation with Joseph because, John Smith said, "I was thinking, maybe, the child was still alive." The defendant's mother and brother went to authorities later that night, and John Smith led investigators to the scene. Carlie's body was found the next morning.Deputy Michael Davino, a Sarasota County corrections officer, told jurors he overheard phone conversations Joseph Smith made from jail to his brother and mother that night.During one call, Davino testified, Joseph Smith told his brother, "She's between two trees, not too far back, maybe around the tree line." Joseph Smith also asked his brother to apologize to their mother for what he had done and for "what he was putting his mother through," Davino said.John Smith testified that he had recognized his brother in the videotape shown to jurors Tuesday as the tattooed man in a uniform grabbing Carlie's arm and leading her away. Several others, including Joseph Smith's business partner, testified Tuesday they also recognized him on the tape.Under questioning by a defense attorney, John Smith acknowledged he hadn't talked to his brother in a couple of months at the time of Carlie's disappearance because of a feud. He also conceded he asked investigators about a reward, but said he was interested in it because his brother wanted to use the money to set up a trust fund for his children.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- You know the classic definition of inflation? "Too much money chasing too few goods." Well, off-year elections provide fertile ground for a different kind of inflation: too many political pundits chasing too few items of significance. So here's an effort to sort out the pretense of significance from results that may actually mean something a year -- or three -- from now.1. In off-years, almost all politics really is localFormer House Speaker Tip O'Neill's maxim that "all politics is local" is way overrated as a guide to what happens. Sometimes national and international events far outweigh local concerns: President Bush's re-election was rooted in the voters' conclusion -- by a narrow margin, to be sure -- that he represented a better leader in the fight against terror than did John Kerry. But in a governor's or mayor's race, matters such as property taxes, the state of education, and crime really do matter most. Republicans lost the Virginia governor's race four years ago, but there was no fallout in the congressional or presidential elections that followed. And if there's anyone who thinks national Republicans can take much heart from New York Mayor Bloomberg's re-election, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell -- unless Bloomberg bought that as part of his campaign. Which reminds me ....2. It's money that matters -- more than everWe don't really know how much of his $5 billion fortune Bloomberg spent on his re-election. The ballpark figure is $70 million (speaking of which, it was a big help to Mike that his clumsy and obsessive push for a new football stadium and the 2012 Olympics ended in failure last spring, giving New Yorkers time to forget). But at more than $100 a vote, it reminds us of how many really, really rich folks there are in politics. In New Jersey, John Corzine ($300 million net worth) beat Republican Doug Forrester, a piker at $50 million. Outgoing Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who apparently has visions of 1600 Pennsylvania dancing in his head, is worth upwards of $200 million. California Gov Schwarzenegger put some of his $100 million into the 2003 recall and into his unsuccessful fight for ballot propositions. More and more, the political arena seems like the world's most pricey private club.3. It takes a busload of faith to get byThe race for Virginia's governor will have Democrats sifting through the results like an Alaskan prospector. Why? Because the victor, Democrat Tim Kaine, may have provided a lesson on the "faith and values" front. At a time when only 29 percent of voters see Democrats as "friendly to religion," as opposed to 55 percent who see Republicans that way, Kaine ran by openly talking about his religious faith. He went on Christian radio and embraced the conversation that so many secular Democrats seem either unfamiliar or uncomfortable with. Moreover, it gave Kaine a frame in which to put his views against capital punishment, ordinarily a kiss of political death in a hard-line state like Virginia. When you remember that the only successful Democratic presidential contenders in the past 450 years -- Carter and Clinton -- both were immersed in the language of faith, it holds out the promise that economic liberals with a grounding in traditional religious beliefs may be able to win back culturally conservative Democrats.4. Fading fear of Ah-noldEarlier this year I went out to Sacramento to investigate the "Ah-nold" phenomenon. The bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-candidate had swept to victory in the recall that ousted Gov. Gray Davis, and his popularity was above 70 percent in opinion polls. Schwarzenegger believed, as did many Democrats, that this gave him enormous clout with the Democratic legislature. He could, he and they believed, threaten to take his case directly to voters through the ballot initiative if the legislature did not follow his led on spending and other matters. Well, last Tuesday voters rejected every one of the governor's proposals: curb spending, toughen teacher tenure, take redistricting away from the legislature, and make pubic employee unions get permission from individual members to spend their dues on politics. The consequence? Ah-nold is no longer in a position to echo Ronald Reagan's famous observation/threat that if legislators don't see the light maybe they'll feel the heat. And this, in turn, means that the structural, seemingly intractable fiscal dilemma of California -- with Democrats frozen on spending cuts and Republicans frozen on tax increases -- will remain for the foreseeable future. With Schwarzenegger up for re-election next year, and with Democrats smelling blood, the idea of some kind of grand compromise seems farther away than ever.5. Less than met the eyeLate in the New Jersey campaign, the Forrester forces aired TV ads quoting the ex-wife of John Corzine. She said that he'd let his family down and he'd probably let New Jersey down, too.This, many political types felt, was a potential blockbuster: it would peel women away from Corzine on the primal ground that they world see him as a bad husband and father. And without women, Democrats don't win. Polls in the last weekend showed a sharp drop in Corzine's support; and there was a wide belief that many women represented a "hidden vote" -- unwilling to tell pollsters they were deserting a Democrat on such grounds. Well, Corzine won by a double-digit margin. Lesson for next year? When insiders excitedly read entrails and tell you that their insights let them foresee the behavior of voters, tell them to try the decaf and back off.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republican leaders scuttled a vote Thursday on a $51 billion budget-cut package in the face of a revolt by moderate lawmakers over cuts to Medicaid, food stamp and student loan programs.The episode marked a setback for Republicans on Capitol Hill. They had hoped to use the budget debate to burnish their deficit-cutting credentials with the public and their core political supporters, many of whom are disappointed with their party's performance on spending.The decision by GOP leaders came despite a big concession to moderates Wednesday, when the leaders dropped provisions to open the Arctic National Refuge to oil and gas exploration, as well as a plan letting states lift a moratorium on oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.But moderates countered that the spending cuts in the House budget plan were a separate issue from Arctic drilling. The cuts were too severe, moderates argued, especially when compared with a significantly milder Senate budget plan that passed last week.Democrats mounted a furious attack on the GOP budget plan for its cuts to social programs and pounded home the message that the overall GOP plan would increase the deficit when coupled with a subsequent tax cut bill."The Republican Congress is about to slash more than $50 billion from investments in our children's future in health care and education," said Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the campaign arm for House Democrats. "And yet, because of Republican priorities, they are going to actually add $20 billion to our budget deficit. ... Only in a Republican Congress."Republican leaders said the postponement of the vote was simply a modest setback and that the budget effort would get back on track next week.Acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt said it was a "disappointing deadline to miss," but said the leadership was short a "handful" of votes and faced uncertainty about absenteeism as lawmakers looked ahead to a long Veterans Day weekend."We haven't done this in 10 years so the members aren't used to dealing with these mandatory programs," he said. "They're not used to pushing back when the other (Democratic) side suggests that the savings are deep cuts in social programs.""Democrats were united and made those issues too hot to handle for Republicans," said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California.GOP leaders are willing to make more changes to the bill, Blunt said, but they risk a backlash from conservatives if the level of budget savings drops below a $50 billion figure promised by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois."I think we'll have the votes next week," Blunt said.Others are not so sure, noting that moderate opponents to the bill seemed unusually resolute.The overall bill is a Republican priority. The Senate last week passed a milder version to curb the automatic growth of federal spending by $35 billion through the end of the decade.The House plan cuts more deeply across a broader range of social services and targets more of the cuts at beneficiaries. Republican leaders say the effects will be modest to programs like the Medicaid health system for the poor and disabled. That system would still grow much faster than inflation even after beneficiaries face increased copayments and the likely loss of some benefits.The House convened Thursday and almost immediately went into a lengthy recess as GOP leaders including Blunt and Hastert worked to assemble support for the bill. In meetings with rank-and-file lawmakers, the leaders signaled a willingness to ease cuts to the Medicaid program.The development was also a setback for the reshuffled House leadership. Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, was forced to step aside in September after his indictment on criminal conspiracy and money laundering charges. Blunt assumed the majority leader's post.Initial efforts by GOP leaders to shore up support for the bill by dropping the oil-drilling provisions won back roughly a dozen moderates, said Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois. But other GOP moderates such as Mike Castle, R-Delaware, remained unconvinced. Castle said he met twice with Hastert on Thursday but the House's top leader had not secured his vote.White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday the president was pleased that Congress was moving forward with deficit-reduction packages but that he still strongly supported opening a portion of the wildlife refuge to oil exploration.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ashlee Simpson may have followed sister Jessica's lead by launching a singing career, but she's not interested in mirroring her romantic life by linking up with a famous guy."If you fall in love with somebody, you fall in love with somebody, but I would really like to not like a celebrity," she said with a laugh in a recent interview with The Associated Press.Of course, Jessica Simpson is married to fellow singer Nick Lachey. The pair has been under a microscope since their MTV reality show "Newlyweds" made them A-list stars. It has recently been reported that they have broken up; publicists for the pair have denied it.Like her sister, Simpson also has had a celebrity romance -- though not as high profile. She dated fellow singer Ryan Cabrera, and also like her sister, had her relationship chronicled on an MTV reality show last year."It's definitely interesting when your relationship is in a magazine and people know about it and how I had this reality show and people knew what was going on in my relationship," she said.The pair have since split, though she is still friends with Cabrera and calls him a "great guy."But an average Joe seems to have a better shot with Simpson these days."I think it would definitely be easier. I'm not looking for an actor, I'm not looking for a musician!"Simpson's latest album, "I Am Me," was released last month.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- It's an evocative song that defies description: Haunting yet comforting, wistful yet powerful, mythic yet real."The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was among Gordon Lightfoot's greatest hits, an unlikely Top 40 smash about the deaths of 29 men aboard an ore carrier that plunged to the floor of Lake Superior during a nasty storm on November 10, 1975, 30 years ago Thursday."In large measure, his song is the reason we remember the Edmund Fitzgerald," said maritime historian Frederick Stonehouse. "That single ballad has made such a powerful contribution to the legend of the Great Lakes."Three decades after the tragedy, the Fitzgerald remains the most famous of the 6,000 ships that disappeared on the Great Lakes.Lightfoot's initial knowledge of the sinking came from an article in Newsweek. The singer/songwriter, after reading the piece, was inspired to write one of the signature songs of his lengthy career.Clocking in at 6 1/2 minutes, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" appeared on the 1976 album "Summertime Dream" and eventually reached No. 2 on the pop charts. It spent 21 straight weeks on the charts, and still lingers like the memory of the doomed craft.The song remains a part of Lightfoot's set list; he played it last summer at Detroit's Fox Theater, where the crowd included Ruth Hudson, the mother of a deckhand from the Fitzgerald.Hudson, who met backstage with Lightfoot, has become friendly with the singer over the years. The North Ridgefield, Ohio, resident said the song is therapeutic to the families of the crew."It's kept the men and the memorial to the men alive," said Hudson. "I think it's been good for the families. They have felt comfort in it. I have talked to just about all of them, and I haven't talked to anyone who didn't like the song."Lightfoot declined to be interviewed for this story. But he told The Associated Press in 2000 that "Wreck" was "a song you can't walk away from.""You can't walk away from the people (victims), either," he said. "The song has a sound and total feel all of its own."'The good ship and crew was in peril'The structure of the song is simple: 14 verses, each four lines long. Its 450-plus words are carefully chosen, delivered over a haunting melody.The song tells the story of the Fitzgerald's fatal voyage, which began November 9 in Superior, Wisconsin, where it was loaded with 26,116 tons of iron ore for a trip to Cleveland, Ohio.A day later it was being pounded by 90 mph wind gusts and 30-foot waves.Ernest McSorley, the ship's captain, radioed a trailing freighter, the Arthur M. Anderson, and said that the Fitzgerald had sustained topside damage and was listing. At 7:10 p.m., he announced, "We are holding our own."But the ship soon disappeared from radar without issuing an SOS. After a few days, a vessel with sonar was able to locate the Fitzgerald only 15 miles from the safe haven of Whitefish Bay.Lightfoot's song does more than recite the facts. It transports the listener on board the Fitzgerald that fateful night:"The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait/When the gales of November came slashing/When afternoon came it was freezing rain/In the face of a hurricane west wind."And then the crescendo:"The captain wired in he had water coming in/And the good ship and crew was in peril/And later that night when his lights went out of sight/Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."Several memorial events are planned to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the sinking, including a ceremony at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point and a service at the Mariners' Church of Detroit.Undoubtedly, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" will be heard and discussed."Any bit of literature, prose or poetry that magnifies the loss of loved ones is so dramatic," said Bishop Richard W. Ingalls of the Mariners' Church. "Gordon Lightfoot's song definitely has given it a life that seems not to end."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A Miami resident has bought a virtual space station for $100,000 and wants to turn it into a cross between Jurassic Park and a disco.Jon Jacobs, a director of independent films, plans to call the space resort, in the science-fiction themed game Project Entropia, "Club Neverdie." Like other land areas in the game that has been visited by 300,000 players, the resort grounds will spawn dinosaur-like monsters, which visitors can kill.Jacobs will take a cut of the virtual resources that the carcasses yield, like hides.Jacobs, 39, plans to hire famous disc jockeys to entertain visitors once a week or so at the resort but still reckons on netting $20,000 a month from the hunting tax and other income."I want to operate this thing at the level of a major nightclub in a major city," Jacobs said.Jacobs bought the property late last month from MindArk PE AB, Project Entropia's Swedish developer. The game, which has no subscription fee, has its own currency but it's convertible at a fixed rate to dollars.About a quarter of the purchase money came from Jacobs' in-game earnings.Over three years playing Project Entropia, Jacobs accumulated items that later became worth thousands of dollars, like first-aid kits and powerful weapons.He sold those items last year to buy an island in Project Entropia, but was outbid -- it sold for $26,500, the previous record sale in that world.He refinanced his house shortly after and considered investing some of the cash in the hot Miami real-estate market, but he realized that if he bought a rental property, it really wouldn't generate any income beyond what he'd pay for the mortgage and repairs.So he invested the proceeds in the game.IGE, a leading broker of game property, said it has handled deals worth more than $100,000, but would not provide details because of client confidentiality.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- A computer security firm said Thursday it had discovered the first virus that uses music publisher Sony BMG's controversial CD copy-protection software to hide on PCs and wreak havoc.Under a subject line containing the words "Photo approval," a hacker has mass-mailed the so-called Stinx-E trojan virus to British email addresses, said British anti-virus firm Sophos.When recipients click on an attachment, they install malware, which may tear down a computer's firewall and give hackers access to a PC. The malware hides by using Sony BMG software that is also hidden -- the software would have been installed on a computer when consumers played Sony's copy-protected music CDs."This leaves Sony in a real tangle. It was already getting bad press about its copy-protection software, and this new hack exploit will make it even worse," said Sophos's Graham Cluley.Later on Thursday, security software firm Symantec Corp. also discovered the first trojans to abuse the security flaw in Sony BMG's copy-protection software. A trojan is a program that appears desirable but actually contains something harmful.Sony BMG's spokesman John McKay in New York was not immediately available to comment.The music publishing venture of Japanese electronics conglomerate Sony Corp.and Germany's Bertelsmann AGis distributing the copy-protection software on a range of recent music compact disks (CDs) from artists such as Celine Dion and Sarah McLachlan.When the CD is played on a Windows personal computer, the software first installs itself and then limits the usage rights of a consumer. It only allows playback with Sony software.The software sparked a class action lawsuit against Sony in California last week, claiming that Sony has not informed consumers that it installs software directly into the "roots" of their computer systems with rootkit software, which cloaks all associated files and is dangerous to remove.Sophos said it would have a tool to disable the copy protection software available later on Thursday.Sony BMG made a patch available on its Web site on Tuesday that rids a PC from the "cloaking" element that is part of the copy-protection software, while claiming that "the component is not malicious and does not compromise security."The patch does not disable the copy protection itself.The Sony copy-protection software does not install itself on Macintosh computers or ordinary CD and DVD players.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- The men accused of killing a U.S. nun in the Amazon rainforest will not face trial before December or next year at the earliest, a state prosecutor said Thursday.Prosecutor Lauro Freitas said appeals by two of the five men accused in the killing of 73-year-old Dorothy Stang on February 12 were delaying the trial.Stang, born in Dayton, Ohio, spent the last 30 years of her life defending poor settlers in the Amazon rainforest. She was shot near the jungle town of Anapu in a dispute over a patch of forest that a local rancher wanted to cut down.Her killing evoked comparisons with rainforest defender Chico Mendes, who was killed in 1988 in the western Amazon state of Acre.On Wednesday, a Para state court rejected an appeal by Vitalmiro Moura and Regivaldo Galvao, two ranchers accused of ordering the killing, claiming there was insufficient evidence linking them to the crime.The other suspects include two alleged gunmen, and another man who police said was an intermediary between the gunmen and the ranchers. All have been charged with homicide and face between 12 and 30 years in prison if convicted.Court officials had said in July that the trial would go ahead in October. David Stang, the victim's brother, visited Brazil in September to press authorities to end delays in bringing his sister's killers to trial."We asked for three things: that the pistoleiros and the ranchers be tried together, that (the trial) be in Belem and that it not stop just with those five people -- that there be a wider investigation," Stang told The Associated Press at the time.Freitas said it still remained unclear whether all five defendants would be tried together.Shortly after Dorothy Stang's killing, a report compiled by a Senate commission found evidence of a wider conspiracy behind her slaying, but little has been done to investigate those allegations.In June, federal courts declined to hear the case, despite a 2004 Brazil law that brought human rights abuses under federal jurisdiction. Stang's family and human rights groups like Amnesty International have condemned the decision saying it leaves the killers to face trial in the notoriously corrupt courts of Para state, in the eastern Amazon.Para state courts have granted the motion to move the trial from the remote eastern Amazon town of Pacaja, about 1,250 miles (2011 kilometers) northwest of Rio de Janeiro, to the state capital, Belem.In June, a U.S. grand jury indicted two of the Brazilian suspects, Rayfran das Neves Sales, 28, and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista, 30 for murder, for conspiracy to murder an American citizen outside the United States, and for using a firearm in commission of their alleged crime. It was unclear if the United States would seek to extradite them.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

TOULOUSE, France (CNN) -- Eight police officers have been suspended pending an investigation into allegations two officers beat a youth during the recent rioting in France while six others looked on.The French Interior Ministry said Thursday Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy had ordered the suspensions.The incident took place in Seine-Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb next to Clichy-Sous-Bois, the suburb that has seen some of the worst of the rioting in France.A medical report said the youth suffered bruises on his face and right foot.The suspensions came as French President Jacques Chirac acknowledged that France must do more to solve the problems that have caused 14 straight nights of rioting."It's then time to act, to re-establish public order, and this is my priority," said Chirac in remarks after a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero."But this should not obviously stop us from understanding that we have a problem, and that this problem can be analyzed in simple terms as fairness of opportunities, respect of the people, of all the people of the republic. We will, of course, at the right moment when public order is re-established, we will need to draw all the consequences of this crisis and do it with a lot of courage and lucidity."Meanwhile violence on Thursday appeared to be on the decline as officials toughened their stance against rioters and threatened to deport any foreigners convicted of involvement.Vehicle torchings continued overnight but the number of arson attacks dropped, with 482 vehicles burned compared with 617 the night before, police said.The reduction "is an encouraging sign that does not, however, diminish the police effort," The Associated Press quoted national police spokesman Patrick Hamon as saying.The number of vehicles destroyed has fallen each night since Sunday's high of 1,408.Police held 203 people overnight, and one police officer was injured, Hamon told AP. More than 2,000 people have been detained since the violence broke out. Vandals set several cars on fire in Toulouse, including one they pushed into a school courtyard, setting the facility on fire.Another school was torched in the eastern city of Belfort, and vandalism at power stations in Lyon, France's second-largest city, caused blackouts. The night before, Lyon's subway system was shut down after a petrol bomb was thrown in a train station, French media reported.A 12-day state of emergency went into effect Wednesday, giving local officials in Paris, its suburbs and more than 30 other cities and towns across the country the power to impose curfews.By Wednesday evening, only a few areas had imposed them, including the Riviera resorts of Cannes and Nice, AP reported.The unrest broke out following the October 27 deaths of two young men of North African descent, who were electrocuted when they hid from police in an electricity sub-station in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.During a discussion Wednesday in the National Assembly, Sarkozy said he had told local officials that they could deport 120 foreigners who had been arrested and convicted in connection with the rioting.Sarkozy previously inflamed passions by referring to suburban troublemakers as "scum."In Toulouse, one policeman ruefully noted that the streets were bare Wednesday night because the French national soccer team was playing a match against Costa Rica.He noted that most of the rioters are teenagers -- many of them French-born descendants of Muslim North African immigrants -- and that their desire to watch football rather than riot was a demonstration of their lack of political sophistication.De Villepin reactsOn Tuesday, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced a sweeping package of reforms aimed at stopping the violence, as well as treating the social ills it stems from.De Villepin said the rioting was the result of France's failure to provide hope to thousands of youths, most French citizens and the children of Muslim immigrants from northern Africa. (Full story)In addition, de Villepin said the government would take a firm hand in stopping the rioting, which has spread to more than 200 French towns and cities. De Villepin said 9,500 police, including reserves, had been called up to deal with the unrest. Of the 1,500 people arrested, 600 have been placed in temporary detention and 100 have been jailed, he said.Some of the rioting had been organized through Internet blogs that have now been shut down, de Villepin said. (Full story)More is being done to strengthen the intelligence-gathering capability of French authorities.In order for French society to provide the same changes and opportunities to all its citizens, said de Villepin, 30 billion euros ($35.28 billion) will be spent in France's riot zones, with the focus primarily on helping young people. The French employment agency will focus on 239 hot zones, he said, to help provide jobs for 1.5 million people.Although France's national unemployment rate is about 10 percent, in areas hit by rioting the level is nearer 40 percent.France has no affirmative action; an official French study found that youths with Arab-sounding names have their job applications rejected up to five times as often as those with traditional French names.There were fears the unrest could take hold elsewhere in Europe. Cars have been torched in Brussels, and police said they were investigating if they were copycat attacks. (Full story)The spreading violence has shocked national leaders and community residents into action, with mediators and religious leaders talking to the youths in an effort to stop the violence.French Muslim groups also issued a fatwa against the violence, Reuters reported. (Full story) The Union of French Islamic Organizations condemned the disorder and destruction the riots had caused.Australia, Austria, Britain, Germany and Hungary advised their citizens to exercise care in France, joining the United States and Russia in warning tourists to stay away from violence-hit areas.CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour, Berlin Bureau Chief Chris Burns and Correspondent Jim Bittermann contributed to this reportCopyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Mullah Abdul Mannan Hanafi and Mullah Mohammad Akbar, former Taliban provincial governors and military commanders in Afghanistan, have been shot dead in an attack early Tuesday morning in Peshawar, police sources have told CNN.The sources told CNN that they had no information about the identity or motive of the gunmen. The Peshawar police said no arrests had been made in connection with the two killings.Hanafi, also known as Abdul Mannan Khawajazai Hanafi, had served as governor of Samangan, Sar-i-pul and Badghis provinces during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.He was the military commander in Bamiyan province when the Taliban demolished the two giant Buddha statues there, intelligence sources told CNN.Akbar was the governor of Ghor province.After the Taliban regime collapsed, Hanafi was arrested in Balochistan province by Pakistani authorities and was detained for a few months, but was freed when no evidence of his involvement in military and terrorist activities was found.Hundreds of people attended funeral prayers for both men Wednesday in Chaman, Pakistan, a town on the border of Afghanistan. Later, Hanafi was buried in Chaman and Akbar's body was handed over to his relatives in Spin Boldakh, near the border in southern Afghanistan.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Police stepped up patrols of Manhattan hotels as a precaution following three hotel suicide bombings in Jordan, and many visitors went about their business as usual Thursday, saying they trusted the city's terrorism expertise.Mayor Michael Bloomberg said New York's hotels had not been threatened and called the security boost a normal precaution."If you want to be safe, I would argue New York is the place that you want to go," he told reporters. (Watch how New York prepares for the worst -- 2:03) Police said the city increased the number of critical response patrol vehicles, and heavily armed teams swept through several hotels. Special attention was paid to hotels in midtown and downtown Manhattan, police said, declining to provide further details. One patrolling officer said units were instructed to watch for suspicious packages and activity.Police officers and squad cards were posted early Thursday at midtown hotels including the Grand Hyatt New York, next to Grand Central Terminal, but visitors seemed mostly unruffled."You have to have faith," said Washington state Sen. Linda Parlette, who was attending a conference at the Grand Hyatt. "New York has been through a tragedy with 9/11, and if anywhere there is going to be good security, it will be in New York City.""We are not going to let it take us over," declared Cindy Yasumatsu, of Calgary, Canada, who was in town to celebrate her mother's 65th birthday. "We are going to have a good time."But Randall Rose, a longtime doorman at the hotel, which has more than 1,300 rooms, said he noticed unease among a few guests."You can see it in their eyes," he said. "They don't say anything but they're looking around."In Washington, the Homeland Security Department was not yet asking state and local officials to ramp up security in the wake of the Jordan bombings, a spokesman said. That could change if information indicated a credible domestic threat linked to the attacks, the spokesman said.The department supports local decisions to raise security measures, the spokesman said.In Jordan, the suicide bombers detonated explosives at the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels in the capital of Amman. One of the explosions went off inside a hall where 300 guests were celebrating a wedding.Al-Qaida claimed responsibility Thursday for the attacks. The claim appeared on an Islamic Web site that serves as a clearinghouse for statements by militant groups.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- The disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba May 30 may have travelers and their loved ones looking closely at travel safety.Even in destinations that are considered relatively safe, there are pockets of danger. But that doesn't mean plans should be changed or canceled.Travel experts suggest you find out about a destination's specific areas of concern and use the same caution you would in unfamiliar situations at home."Being aware is the biggest thing you can do," said Nilou Motamed, a senior editor at Travel + Leisure magazine.Motamed recommends the State Department's Web site as a good first source of information on destinations that are considered dangerous to Americans.The State Department issues travel warnings for those locations. Consular information sheets that include information on crime, safety and security for every country also are posted on the agency's Web site.Comparing the State Department's information with postings from similar agencies in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom gives travelers a wider perspective on safety issues, said Don George, Lonely Planet's global travel editor.Consider registering with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate, particularly if you are headed to an area that has a current travel warning. "They've just made it easier," Motamed said. "You can do it online, so you don't actually even have to go to the embassy when you get there."Motamed and George also suggest looking for a destination's English-language publications before the trip. Many newspapers are posted online and often are the best source of current local news.When you get there, ask locals for guidance, George advises."Ask local people what's appropriate and what's not appropriate," George said. "[To] a hotel clerk in the hotel where you're staying, you can say, 'Is it OK to walk in this part of town after dinner or is it better to get a taxi?' "Using normal caution and trusting your instincts also goes a long way on the road."It's just really important to keep that notion of common sense always in your head whether you're in Paris or Papua New Guinea," George said.If you're traveling alone, establish a regular pattern of communication with someone at home, George advises. Whether it's a phone call or an e-mail every night or every second day, keeping someone posted about your trip is a good safety measure.With group travel, let someone in your group know where you're going when you split off for a solo outing.The State Department advises travelers to leave a copy of their itinerary with someone at home in case of an emergency. It's also a good idea to leave a copy of your passport, tickets, credit cards and traveler's checks.Bring a copy of those important documents with you as well, and be sure to keep the copies in a separate place."It's a great idea to copy those," Motamed said. "Because in case you lose them, it's so much easier to get them replaced if you have a copy of them."The State Department advises familiarizing yourself with local laws and customs. Dress conservatively and avoid the appearance of affluence, the agency suggests.Above all, exercise caution, George advises."We should always have our guard up to a certain extent."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting "intelligent design" and warned them Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck.Robertson, a former Republican presidential candidate and founder of the influential Christian Broadcasting Network and Christian Coalition, has made similar apocalyptic warnings and provocative statements before.Last summer, he hit the headlines by calling for the assassination of leftist Venezuelan Present Hugo Chavez, one of President George W. Bush's most vocal international critics."I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700 Club.""And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.The 700 Club claims a daily audience of around one million. It is also broadcast around the world translated into more than 70 languages.In voting on Tuesday, eight Dover, Pennsylvania, school board members up for re-election lost their seats after trying to introduce a statement on "intelligent design" to high school biology students.Adherents of intelligent design argue that certain forms in nature are too complex to have evolved through natural selection and must have been created by a "designer." Opponents say it is the latest attempt by conservatives to introduce religion into the school science curriculum.The Dover case sparked a trial in federal court that gained nationwide attention after the school board was sued by parents backed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The board ordered schools to read students a short statement in biology classes informing them that the theory of evolution is not established fact and that gaps exist in it.The statement mentioned intelligent design as an alternate theory and recommended students read a book that explained the theory further. A decision in the case is expected before the end of the year.In 1998, Robertson warned the city of Orlando, Florida that it risked hurricanes, earthquakes and terrorist bombs after it allowed homosexual organizations to put up rainbow flags in support of sexual diversity.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LONDON, England (AP) -- A Boeing Co. jet arrived in London from Hong Kong on Thursday after 22 hours and 43 minutes in the air, breaking the record for the longest nonstop flight by a commercial jet.The 777-200LR Worldliner -- one of Boeing's newest planes -- touched down shortly after 1 p.m. (1300 GMT) at London's Heathrow Airport after a journey of more than 18,662 kilometers (11,664 miles).A representative of Guinness World Records, which monitored the flight, presented Boeing's Lars Andersen with a certificate confirming it was for the longest nonstop commercial flight. (Watch what went on during first flight -- 2:32)Captain Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann, was at the controls when the plane left Hong Kong, said the trip east across the Pacific had been bumpy."But we had a great ride across the United States ... and across the Atlantic we saw our second sunrise of the trip," she said.The previous record was set when a Boeing 747-400 flew 17,039 kilometers (10,500 miles) from London to Sydney in 1989.Andersen said the Hong Kong-to-London flight showed the future of air travel."With the 777-200LR, we are changing the world," he said. "Passengers can fly commercially between just about any two cities nonstop."The plane had four pilots and was carrying 35 passengers and crew, including Boeing representatives, journalists and customers.The record-breaking attempt is part of Boeing's fierce competition with its European rival Airbus. The Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner was designed to compete directly with the popular Airbus 340-500, which has a flight range of 16,700 kilometers (10,380 miles).Boeing spokesman Chuck Cadena said earlier that after leaving Hong Kong, the Boeing jet was flying to the northern Pacific Ocean, crossing North America and cruising over the Atlantic Ocean to London. Hong Kong-London flights usually fly over Russia.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- Scientists say they have discovered the intact fossilized skull of a marine crocodile with a dinosaur-like head and a fish-like tail that likely terrorized the Pacific Ocean 135 million years ago. The head of the expedition that found the specimen has dubbed it "Godzilla."The fossil was discovered in 1996 in the Patagonia region of Argentina and researchers spent years uncovering the skull and analyzing their find. They published their work Thursday in the journal Science.Zulma Gasparini, paleozoology professor at Argentina's Universidad Nacional de La Plata, said the fierce-looking animal probably terrorized creatures in the Pacific Ocean in the late Jurassic era, just as the film monster Godzilla frightened the people of Tokyo in the movies."We are calling him the 'chico malo' -- 'bad boy'" of the ocean, she said.Report co-author Diego Pol of Ohio State University said "Godzilla," whose scientific name is Dakosaurus andiniensis, had a short, high snout and large, jagged teeth for biting and cutting prey. He said this was surprising, because other marine crocodiles have long, thin snouts and many smaller teeth.But Pol said "Godzilla" was a top ocean predator and preyed much like the dinosaurs of its era.He said it was probably about 12 feet long and had four paddle-like limbs instead of the legs of today's crocodiles.The National Geographic Society and Argentina's National Council of Scientific and Technical Research funded the research.

MISHICOT, Wisconsin (AP) -- Investigators searching for a missing woman found burned human remains at a salvage yard owned by the family of a man who spent 18 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.Sheriff Jerry Pagel said authorities were working Thursday to identify the pieces of bone and teeth. Relatives of the missing woman, freelance photographer Teresa Halbach, found her sport utility vehicle at the salvage yard on Saturday."It appears that an attempt was made to dispose of a body by an incendiary means. However, that attempt was not completely successful," Pagel said.Pagel also said investigators found the key to Halbach's SUV in the bedroom of Steven Avery, whose family owns the yard. Avery was freed from prison in 2003 after DNA evidence cleared him of a rape conviction.Investigators found blood in Halbach's vehicle and in some buildings on the Avery property, Pagel said.Halbach, 25, was last seen October 31. She was on assignment for a magazine, taking pictures of cars for sale. One stop was at the Avery salvage yard near Mishicot, about 25 miles from Green Bay.Halbach's relatives and friends spent days searching for her until Thursday, when the sheriff asked them to stop looking, said her brother Mike Halbach."It hurts. Everything hurts," he said.Avery, 43, was charged Wednesday with illegal gun possession. No one has been charged in Halbach's disappearance, and Avery has denied any involvement. He and his family have been ordered to submit DNA samples.Investigators would not say where the remains were found, though Pagel said deputies focused on a burn barrel on the Avery property during their search.Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz said officers questioned Avery about Halbach's disappearance Wednesday, but the prosecutor would not say what Avery told them. Kratz said Avery did not ask to have a lawyer present.One of Steven Avery's attorneys, Steve Glynn, said that if investigators plan to use statements Avery made to them, his attorneys would likely challenge them. He declined to comment further.Chuck Avery said his brother is innocent."If they found anything there, it's a big setup. It was all planted," he said, declining further comment.Steven Avery was sentenced to 32 years in prison for sexual assault but was freed after a law school group persuaded a judge to allow new DNA testing, which linked another man to the crime.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iran could produce nuclear power using uranium enriched in Russia under a draft proposal aimed at breaking an impasse over Tehran's nuclear program, a Western diplomat familiar with the plan said Thursday.The plan would let Iran produce electricity from nuclear reactors, as Iranian officials say they want to do. But the reactors would use Russian-produced fuel that could not be used to produce nuclear weapons, the diplomat told CNN.U.S. and European officials hope that idea will break a diplomatic impasse over Iran's nuclear program, which the Bush administration says could be used to build an atomic bomb.Under the plan, Iran would continue to operate its uranium conversion plant at Isfahan, which converts raw uranium to uranium hexafluoride. That substance would then be shipped to Russia, where technicians would process it into a form suitable for use in nuclear power plants -- but not nuclear weapons.That process would bypass Iran's uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz, which U.S. officials fear could be used to produce the highly enriched uranium needed to build a nuclear weapon. Iran denies working towards nuclear weapons, saying its goal is to produce civilian energy.The Russians already reprocess spent nuclear fuel from Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant. Spent fuel rods can be reprocessed into plutonium, another element that can be used to produce nuclear weapons.The Bush administration and the European Union powers of Britain, France and Germany, which have been leading talks with Iran, have agreed to the idea, the diplomat said. But no formal proposal has been laid on the table, the U.S. State Department said Thursday.Iran broke off talks with the three European countries earlier this year, saying the European demand that it stop its nuclear program altogether was unacceptable. On Monday, its foreign ministry said Iran would not give up its right to produce enriched uranium.The United States, which has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since the 1979 revolution that brought its Islamic government to power, has not been involved in the talks directly."It is a process that the EU-3 is in the lead on, and that we believe Iran should return to as soon as possible," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.Talks among European, Russian and South African officials were under way at the Vienna headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the diplomat said. The agency's governing board is scheduled to meet on November 26, and Washington and the EU-3 hope to win support for turning up the heat on Tehran -- even threatening it with the prospect of sanctions from the U.N. Security Council if necessary.The diplomat said IAEA Director-General Mohammed ElBaradei was highly interested in placing international controls on the nuclear fuel supply. But IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said only that ElBaradei, a recent Nobel laureate, hoped a solution to the stalled talks could be found "in the coming days."Sanction threat"Dr. ElBaradei supports the efforts of the countries who are presently engaged in developing such a proposal," Fleming said in a written statement.She said he was encouraging efforts to restart the stalled talks and was ready to visit Iran "at an appropriate time" to help make a deal.But a French diplomat told CNN that Iran would have to halt its conversion of uranium at Isfahan and return to the talks before any concepts would be presented.South Africa, a key non-aligned nation, had offered a similar proposal, the diplomat said. It voluntarily dismantled its nuclear weapons program in the early 1990s under IAEA supervision.The IAEA has called for Iran to be more open and to provide greater inspections so that questions about the intentions of its nuclear program can be laid to rest.ElBaradei said Monday his inspectors had not determined the extent of Iran's nuclear program as quickly as he would like. But he complimented the Iranians for allowing access to facilities beyond the confines of the IAEA's mandate.The United States has threatened to take Iran before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions unless it agrees to give up its uranium enrichment program. Iran, meanwhile, has threatened to abandon its voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment if it faces sanctions.State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel contributed to this report.

(CNN) -- Suzanne Gonzales seemed to have everything going for her.A bubbly 19-year-old with loving parents and good friends, she was also a strong student and earned a science scholarship for college.But everything changed one spring day two years ago, when Suzanne's parents, Mike and Mary Gonzales, received the following e-mail."Dear Mom, Dad, and Jennifer, I will make this short as I know. It will be hard to deal with. If you haven't heard by now, I've passed away," the e-mail read. (Watch the parents talk about their shock -- 4:15)Alone in a Florida hotel room, just miles from her college apartment, Suzanne methodically prepared and swallowed a lethal cocktail of potassium cyanide, lay down on the bed and died.In doing so, she joined the roughly 4,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24 who commit suicide each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide is now the third leading cause of death among young people, the CDC reports.But Suzanne's case has an unusual twist. She frequented an Internet newsgroup called called ASH, short for Alt.Suicide.Holiday. Members of this news group trade advice on how to commit suicide, using code words like 'transitioning' and 'exiting' and 'catching the bus.' Suzanne found this group nine weeks before she died, posting nearly one hundred messages detailing her plans."My chosen method is potassium cyanide....I've stopped eating so my tummy will be nice and acidic," one of Suzanne's posts read.Suzanne's father claims the newsgroup gave her everything she needed to kill herself."The knowledge, the tools, their psychological encouragement. ... She was led to her death," Mike Gonzales said.Newsgroups like ASH work something like an online bulletin board. Anyone with a computer and some basic Internet knowledge can gain free access to thousands of messages about suicide. And they can post their own messages.An archived section of the site called "The Methods File" contains a list of recipes, recommendations and tips on the best and worst ways to commit suicide.Suzanne's dad believes one of those messages taught her how to illegally obtain and use cyanide to end her life. And he was horrified to learn that an older ASH member who goes by the alias "River" may have helped her."Suzy had me proof-read her notes and we went over all the details of her exit, just to be safe," reads one ASH message from "River."But "River" disputes his role in Suzanne's death."No one in ASH encourages anyone else to commit suicide. ASH is pro-choice," he wrote in an e-mail to CNN."Geo" is another ASH member. He was the same age as Suzanne when he joined the group last year and thinks suicide groups like ASH actually keep people from committing suicide.In fact, "Geo" credits ASH with saving his life."If it weren't for it, I think the chances of me having committing suicide would have been greater," he said. "Having a place where you can write those thoughts, get them out of your head. It can be very therapeutic."But Suzanne's dad thinks otherwise."That's not pro-choice," Mike Gonzales said of the site. "That's brainwashing. And they are not being held responsible."

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A series of attacks in the Iraqi capital Thursday targeted police and civilians, including a suicide bombing at a restaurant that killed at least 34 people, Iraqi police said.Another 25 were wounded when the bomber, strapped with explosives, detonated inside Qadduri restaurant in central Baghdad at about 9:40 a.m. (0640 GMT.)Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack in a Web site posting, saying it had been monitoring the restaurant and concluded that only "infidels" frequented the establishment. (Watch efforts to save victims -- 1:48)The statement, signed by Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, said a suicide bomber "managed to embed himself" in a crowd of police and security forces, and carried out the attack "as a part of our revenge operation for the Sunnis in Qaim."Qaim is a region near the Syrian border where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling insurgents.The statement's authenticity could not be verified by CNN, but Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the Multinational Force Iraq, blamed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, for the attack on "a known restaurant for Iraqi police as they change shifts."Lynch said al-Zarqawi was getting orders from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri."Zarqawi's got a mission, he's been told by Zawahiri to create an Islamic caliphate in Iraq from which they can spread their evil across the region," Lynch said."(Al-Zarqawi) still has the capability of recruiting suicide bombers, training those suicide bombers, and giving them the munitions, and that's what happened in Baghdad today and that's what happened in Jordan yesterday and that will continue."That's why we will continue operations to deny him that capability."The United States is offering $25 million for the capture of al-Zarqawi, the same reward being offered for bin Laden.Lynch said Iraqi police were inside the restaurant, having breakfast, at the time of the attack.Despite the bombing, Lynch said: "We have indeed seen a reduction of suicide attacks, specifically in Baghdad."In a separate attack, gunmen opened fire on a husband and wife who worked for the city council in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliya, killing both of them, police said. The couple was entering the city council building at 8 a.m. when the attack happened. The gunmen sped away in a vehicle.A remotely detonated car bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada wounded two policemen and a civilian, police said.The attack, which happened at 2 p.m., left three cars engulfed in flames, including a police vehicle, police said.Around the same time, six civilians were wounded in Baghdad when a roadside bomb detonated near a mosque in the eastern neighborhood of al-Jadeeda, according to Iraqi police.In a deadly attack in Tikrit, police said, a suicide car bomb exploded outside a medical center checking Iraqi army recruits. Four recruits were killed and 13 others wounded.Iraqi soldiers found 27 bodies blindfolded, their hands tied behind their backs, and shot in the head execution-style in Jassan, east of Baghdad, according to Baghdad emergency police. The bodies had been there for several days.In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen opened fire on a group of police officers in civilian clothing, killing a policewoman and critically injuring two other police officers, a man and woman, according to Gen. Saeed Ahmed al-Jiboori, director of Mosul police press office.The attack happened around 2 p.m. at the police station based in al-Jumhoori Hospital in southern Mosul.CNN Producer Enes Dulami and Senior Arab Affairs contributor Octavia Nasr contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said Thursday that there was no conflict of interest over his role in a 2003 ruling involving a financial giant where he had large amounts of money invested.In April 2003, Alito and two other judges upheld a lower court's dismissal of a New Jersey woman's lawsuit against the Vanguard Group Inc. Alito later recused himself when the plaintiff, in her appeal, questioned his involvement. The 3rd Circuit later reaffirmed the initial ruling.In his response to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, Alito wrote he had been "unduly restrictive" when he pledged in his 1990 appellate court nomination hearing to skip cases involving the mutual fund company Vanguard and that he had no conflict of interest in hearing the 2003 matter."To the best of my knowledge, I have not ruled on a case for which I had a legal or ethical obligation to recuse myself during my 15 years on the federal bench," he wrote.Specter said his committee consulted with two experts who found nothing improper about Alito's decision to hear the case as a federal appellate judge in New Jersey. In a letter to Alito, Specter had urged the nominee "to make a full public response" on the issue."I know this issue will be responded to when you complete your questionnaire," Specter wrote in his letter to the nominee. "But I think it is not advisable to wait until that time, which would allow columnists, radio/TV talk shows and your adversaries to speculate on this issue to the detriment of your nomination."Possible problem?Sen. Edward Kennedy, a member of the Judiciary Committee, urged Alito on Tuesday to explain his decision to hear the case against the firm while he had investments ranging between $455,000 and $1 million with the company at the time.The Massachusetts Democrat and Sen. Russ Feingold, another Judiciary Committee member, noted that Alito told senators before his 1990 confirmation as a federal judge that he would recuse himself from any cases involving the firm. Feingold, D-Wisconsin, told CNN the issue raises questions about that promise, and that Alito's answers about the issue were not "consistent."Asked whether Vanguard issue could endanger Alito's nomination, Specter said, "I'm concerned that it has potential. It may."Geoffrey Hazard, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, advised Specter that Alito had no reason to step aside because the amount of money involved in the case was relatively small."The claim against Vanguard was in the thousands of dollars, whereas the Vanguard investment management companies are worth millions," Hazard wrote to the Judiciary Committee. "Hence, there was no practical possibility that the claim could create risk to Judge Alito's mutual fund investment."Feingold said he doesn't think the issue will be enough to scuttle the nomination, but he wants more details. He said Alito's explanation -- that a computer system that warns judges about upcoming cases that would require their recusal failed to alert him -- is "not adequate."In his letter to Specter, Alito explained his participation in the case as "an oversight." He offered no details, but said he voluntarily stepped aside "once my participation was called into question."Bush named Alito as his pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on October 31. Alito is his third pick for that seat: The first, John Roberts, was renominated for chief justice after the death of William Rehnquist in September, and the second, White House counsel Harriet Miers, withdrew in October after sharp criticism from Bush's conservative allies.When Bush announced Alito's nomination, he said, "I'm confident that the United States Senate will be impressed by Judge Alito's distinguished record, his measured judicial temperament, and his tremendous personal integrity."Hazard wrote that Alito's 1990 pledge was incautious because it was so sweeping, and his stance in the Vanguard case should not raise questions about his ethics."On the contrary, when the situation was called to his attention, he recused himself even though he was not, in my opinion, required to do so," Hazard wrote.The unusual call came the same day President Bush formally sent Alito's nomination to the Senate. CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- Calling the al Qaeda in Iraq leader a "lowlife," Jordanians on Thursday flooded the nation's capital in bitter protest of the triple suicide bombings that shook the city a day earlier and killed at least 56 people, most of Arab descent."Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!" hundreds of protesters shouted, denouncing the terrorist network's leader -- a Jordan native -- after an Internet posting stated his group was responsible for the attacks.Suicide bombings may be common in some parts of the Middle East but not in Jordan, and Wednesday's attacks on three Western-based hotel chains will only strengthen the resolve of Jordanians to keep terrorism from breaching its borders, said the country's King Abdullah II. "We will pursue those criminals and those who stand behind them, and we will reach them wherever they are," the stern-looking king said in his address on state television. (Watch a profile of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- 4:02)Abdullah, who has close ties to Israel and Washington and is considered a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, emphasized that violence and blackmail will never sway this nation of roughly 6 million people. "They will never make us retreat from combating terrorism in all its forms."It is Jordan's close ties to the West that made it a target for the attacks that wounded more than 100 at the Radisson, Grand Hyatt and Days Inn hotels, according to the Web posting attributed to al Qaeda in Iraq.The Web posting boasts that al Qaeda in Iraq operatives studied and targeted "retreats that were planted in the land of Muslims in Amman" and blamed Abdullah for allowing the hotels to be "a backyard for the enemies of faith -- the Jews and the crusaders."But Jordanians sided with their king Thursday, taking to the streets with the kingdom's red, white, black and green banner in hand. Some carried large photos of Abdullah and signs condemning the attacks.The protesters, which included parents with children, snarled traffic, and many commuters stopped to join the demonstrators or blared their car horns as they passed the scene. Jordanian schools and government offices were closed Thursday. Mea culpaA senior Jordanian intelligence official said suicide attackers with explosive belts caused the carnage and destruction, and the Web posting attributed to al Qaeda in Iraq states that the hotels were studied before they became targets.The posting also ties the attacks to the group's Islamist beliefs, a notion rejected by many Jordanians. "The world has to know that this has nothing to do with Islam," said Ashraf al-Akhras, who lost several family members when one of the bombs went off during his wedding.A later Web posting attributed to al Qaeda in Iraq seemed to respond to the outrage sparked by Wednesday's bombings, The Associated Press reported. Purporting too explain why "holy warriors targeted these dens," the posting states that the hotels were favorite haunts of Americans and Israelis. "Let all know that we have struck only after becoming confident that they are centers for launching war on Islam and support the crusaders' presence in Iraq and the Arab peninsula and the presence of the Jews on the land of Palestine," the posting states, promising "catastrophic" assaults in the future that would dwarf the hotel bombings, the AP reported.CNN could not verify if the Web postings were authentic, but U.S. intelligence officials called the claim "credible." Pentagon officials added that before the explosions a former hostage revealed that his captors had discussed such attacks on Western targets.Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said the attacks were consistent with other attacks carried out by al Qaeda. "It is certainly plausible that the claim of al Qaeda in Iraq is valid, but it's just not something that we're able to establish yet," he told reporters.CNN also has learned from a source familiar with the investigation that two of the bombers have been identified as Iraqis, and Jordanian police are narrowing their search for conspirators based on that information. Al Qaeda in Iraq leader, al-Zarqawi, has had a price on his head since last year. The $25 million bounty is the same amount the Pentagon is offering for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. DiRita described al-Zarqawi, who is thought to be somewhere in Iraq, as a man "spending a lot of time trying to stay alive." However, the Pentagon spokesman was quick not to discount his reach. "That being said, he's still capable of conducting a tremendous amount of damage."(The making of a terrorist -- 4:02)Jordanian officials had said they would handle the investigation on their own, but they have since changed their minds. A small contingent of FBI personnel from the agency's laboratory division is traveling to Amman at the request of the Jordanian government, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Thursday. Another official said fewer than 10 agents would make the trip. Bush respondsShortly before the U.S. State Department confirmed that two Americans were killed and four were wounded in the attacks, President Bush told reporters he had called Abdullah and "expressed our nation's deep concern and compassion for those who lost their lives."Later, the president and first lady visited the Jordanian Embassy in Washington to express their sympathies.In a condolence book at the embassy, Bush wrote, "May God bless the people of Jordan during this difficult time. Please know the American people join you in prayer and spirit," Added Laura Bush, "And with love and sympathy to the people of Jordan." Referring to the perpetrators as a heartless enemy bent on "defiling a great religion of Islam," Bush stood with Jordanian Ambassador Karim Kawar and proclaimed, "This enemy must be defeated."The wedding tollPerhaps hardest hit by the blasts were groom al-Akhras and his bride, Nadia Alami, whose wedding reception at the Radisson was interrupted by the most devastating of the three blasts. (Watch what the explosion left behind -- 4:39)Though no Westerners were in attendance, one of the bombers targeted the wedding party as al-Akhras and Alami entered the wedding hall. The explosion killed both newlyweds' fathers, and al-Akhras lost as many as 10 relatives. "This is not Islam," al-Akhras said. "This is a terrorist fighting our capital."In the Palestinian West Bank village of Silet al-Thaher, Akhras family members mourned their relatives, the AP reported. "Oh my God! Oh my God! Is it possible that Arabs are killing Arabs, Muslims killing Muslims? For what did they do that?" screamed 35-year-old Najah Akhras, who lost two nieces in the attack. Palestinian officials among deadDespite being the supposed targets of the attacks, Westerners escaped their brunt, as most of the casualties were Jordanian. Jordanian Embassy officials said none of its government officials were wounded or killed.Other government officials were less fortunate, including Maj. Gen. Bashir Nafeh, head of Palestinian military intelligence, and Jihad Fattouh, the brother of the Palestinian parliament speaker, said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. The two were on their way back from Cairo, Egypt, he said.Also, three Chinese were killed and one wounded in the attacks, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, which cited a Chinese Foreign Ministry news release. The victims were members of a delegation from China's University of National Defense and were staying at one of the hotels, according to the report. The report did not specify which hotel. Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.