WASHINGTON – A week after they crashed the Obama administration's first state dinner, Michaele and Tareq Salahi are telling their side of the story on national television.
The Salahis were scheduled to be interviewed Tuesday morning by Matt Lauer on NBC's "Today." Despite reports that the couple was seeking payment to be interviewed, an NBC spokeswoman insisted, "No money changed hands."
NBC's parent company, NBC Universal, also owns the cable network Bravo. Michaele Salahi had hoped to land a part on an upcoming Bravo reality show, "The Real Housewives of D.C."
On Monday there were more twists in the unfolding mystery of how the Virginia couple managed to get into the highly White House dinner Nov. 24 and shake hands with President Barack Obama.
It was revealed that they communicated with a senior Pentagon official about going to the event, but the official denied that she helped the couple get in.
Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said in a written statement issued through the White House that she never said or implied she would get the Salahis into the event.
"I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening's activities," Jones said. "Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come."
WTTG-TV, the Fox affiliate in Washington, reported on a similar incident a month before, in which the Salahis sneaked in through a back entrance to a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Awards dinner at which Obama spoke. A guest complained that the couple didn't belong at his table.
"I double-checked my (guest) list and when they weren't on that list we escorted them out," a foundation representative, Lance Jones, said in an interview early Tuesday.
Also on Monday, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee asked the couple, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan and White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to testify at a hearing Thursday on the incident.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he wants answers about the Secret Service's security deficiencies that allowed the Salahis to attend the White House dinner. A White House photo showed the Salahis in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in whose honor the dinner was held.
"This is a time for answers," Thompson said in a statement Monday. "This is not the time for political games or scapegoating to distract our attention from the careful oversight we must apply to the Secret Service and its mission."
Some lawmakers have called for criminal charges to be brought against the couple, but the Secret Service has not yet decided whether to refer the case for criminal prosecution.
The Secret Service declined to comment on whether Sullivan would testify Thursday.
The couple's publicist, Mahogany Jones, could not immediately be reached for comment about whether the Salahis would testify Thursday. But earlier Monday, she said allegations that the Salahis were shopping interviews and demanding money from television networks to tell their story are false.
A TV executive who spoke on condition of anonymity to publicly discuss bookings told The Associated Press that the couple's representatives had urged networks to "get their bids in" for an interview.
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Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

Learning anatomy with cadavers is a centuries-old rite of passage that once again is getting a face-lift as medical schools struggle to mix this core knowledge with an explosion of new information from the genetics revolution.
Some facts:
_Italian Mondino de Luzzi in the early 14th century reported on a series of dissections to illuminate body function. For years after that, dissections were done outside in public view, directed by a professor-type anatomist who seldom did the actual work. Sixteenth-century anatomist Andreas Vesalius is credited with breaking that trend, performing dissection himself as he taught and writing the influential drawing-filled text, "On the Workings of the Human Body."
_Today, the nation's 150 medical schools average about 149 hours of training in first-year gross anatomy, about two-thirds of which is spent with cadaver dissection, according to a new survey by the American Association of Anatomists. That's a lot less than just 75 years ago, when anatomy still made up about one-fifth of a doctor's education.
_Nearly one-third of schools integrate gross anatomy with initial clinical training. Two schools have older students do the dissecting and the first-year students just examine and handle the predissected body, saving time. One small school even has begun using unembalmed cadavers so the bodies feel more like what students will encounter in the operating room.
_New state-of-the-art anatomy labs put ventilation into the tables to eliminate odor and bring computers to the side of the dissection to guide students' cuts and explain what they're handling.
How do people donate their bodies for medical education or research?
Contact a nearby medical school to learn each program's requirements. Fill out a donation form, copies of which should be shared with family members or kept in the wallet or another easy-to-access spot to ensure those wishes are known at the time of death. While there is no upper age limit, most programs cannot accept bodies that have undergone autopsy or funeral-home embalming, or if the donor had certain infectious diseases; other requirements vary.
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Sources: Georgetown University, American Association of Anatomists.
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On the Net:
List of U.S. body-donation programs: http://tinyurl.com/2wn289
American Association of Anatomists: http://www.anatomy.org/

The European Tour, which attracts a substantial number of top golfers from outside North America, ranks second to the PGA Tour in worldwide prestige. Some top professionals from outside North America play enough tournaments to maintain membership on both the PGA Tour and European Tour. There are several other men's tours around the world.

These, along with health and cost concerns, have led to significant research into more environmentally sound practices and turf grasses. The modern golf course superintendent is often trained in the uses of these practices and grasses. This has led to some mitigation in the amount of chemicals and water used on courses.

Putting Contest

Cap Cana is located in the Eastern region of the Dominican Republic known as Juanillo. The site was founded as a new and more ambitious touristic site with contributions from international investors and strategic partners such as Ritz-Carlton, Sotogrande, Donald Trump and many others. The site has a Marina, Large resorts, beaches, and many others. Primarily founded as a site to attract international visitors. The Cap Cana Championship, a Champions Tour golf tournament, is held at Punta Espada Golf Club in Cap Cana, a course designed by Jack Nicklaus.

Cap Cana is a tourism development with an investment of upwards of two billion dollars in the eastern lands of the Dominican Republic. This area renown for its great hotels and beaches, lacks exclusivity to the high upper class which Cap Cana hopes, in part, to offer. The area was conceived with the backing both financially and publicly of "elites" such as Donald Trump, Jack Nicklaus, and other holders.

Cap Cana Villa Rental

A fixed-wing aircraft, commonly called airplane, is a heavier-than-air craft where movement of the wings in relation to the aircraft is not used to generate lift. The term is used to distinguish from rotary-wing aircraft, where the movement of the lift surfaces relative to the aircraft generates lift. A heliplane is both fixed-wing and rotary-wing. Fixed-wing aircraft range from small trainers and recreational aircraft to large airliners and military cargo aircraft.

Although slow, modern sea transport is a highly effective method of transporting large quantities of non-perishable goods. Transport by water is significantly less costly than air transport for trans-continental shipping; short sea shipping and ferries remain viable in coastal areas.

Phoenix Airport Transportation

ALBANY, N.Y. – In an early version of an Oct. 31 story about the special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Republican candidate Dierdre Scozzafava had instructed her supporters to embrace Conservative Doug Hoffman. Scozzafava originally only said she released her supporters; she later asked them to support Democrat Bill Owens.

WASHINGTON – For Republicans, an election win of any size Tuesday would be a blessing. But victories in Virginia, New Jersey or elsewhere won't erase enormous obstacles the party faces heading into a 2010 midterm election year when control of Congress and statehouses from coast to coast will be up for grabs.
It's been a tough few years for the GOP. The party lost control of Congress in 2006 and then lost the White House in 2008 with three traditional Republican states — Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia — abandoning the party.
So even if political winds start blowing harder behind them and even if they can capitalize on Democratic missteps, Republicans still will have a long way to go over the next year because of their party's own fundamental problems — divisions over the path forward, the lack of a national leader and a shrinking base in a changing nation.
The GOP would overcome none of those hurdles should Republican Bob McDonnell win the Virginia governor's race, Chris Christie emerge victorious in the New Jersey governor's contest, or conservative Doug Hoffman triumph in a hotly contested special congressional election in upstate New York.
In fact, 2009 seems to have underscored what may be the biggest impediment for Republicans — the war within their base.
Not that the GOP would casually brush off even a small stack of victories on Tuesday.
One or more wins would give the Republicans a jolt, and a reason to rally in the coming months. Victories certainly would help with grass-roots fundraising and candidate recruiting. And they might just be enough to reinvigorate a party that controlled the White House and Congress through much of this decade, only to lose power in back-to-back national elections.
Viewed from the other side, a GOP sweep would be a setback for Democrats. It could be seen as a negative measure of President Barack Obama's standing and could signal trouble ahead as he seeks to get moderate Democratic lawmakers behind his legislative agenda and protect Democratic majorities in Congress next fall.
Still, with Democrats in control, the onus is on the GOP to get its act together. George W. Bush, the president many Republicans came to see as an election-day albatross, is gone, but the party troubles born under him linger.
Republican leaders in Washington certainly are mindful of the challenges.
"It's going to be a difficult road to walk, to work with relatively new entrants into the political system and to work with them to show them that, by and large, we are the party who represents their interests," House Republican leader John Boehner told CNN on Sunday, arguing that there's "a political rebellion" taking place in the country.
Others are more blunt.
"Right now there's no central Republican leader to turn to, and there's no central Republican message," conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh told Fox News on Sunday. "The Republican message is sort of muddied. What do they stand for? Right now it's opposition to Obama."
A debate is waging over whether that's enough — or whether the party has to be for something, anything really, to be able to claw its way back to the top. Similar hand-wringing happened in the GOP ahead of the 1994 midterms. Just weeks before those elections, Republicans came up with the Contract with America — and ended up taking control of Congress.
Heading into the 2010 elections, the GOP also faces a very real split between conservatives who want to focus on social issues — which tend to work best during peaceful, prosperous times — and the rest of the party, which generally wants a broader vision, particularly given recession.
Proof of a divide is in the special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District. Potential 2012 presidential hopefuls trying to solidify their conservative credentials, Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty, endorsed Hoffman, a conservative third-party upstart, over the GOP-chosen candidate, moderate Dierdre Scozzafava. Badly trailing in polls, she ended up dropping out and — in a slap at the GOP — endorsing Democrat Bill Owens.
The White House is suggesting that those developments show that hard-liners are taking over the GOP and the trend will affect the 2010 elections. Predicted presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs on Monday: "This is a model for what you'll see throughout the country."
Indeed, there are similar tensions in Senate primaries in Florida, California and elsewhere, where conservatives are challenging establishment-backed candidates.

Adding to the party's woes: No one — or rather everyone — is speaking for the GOP.

Fiery talk show hosts like Limbaugh and Glenn Beck have become the angry white face of the party, filling a vacuum created by Bush's departure as the its standard-bearer and the lack of one single person to emerge as its next generation leader.

The 2008 presidential nominee, John McCain, has all but disappeared from the Republican power structure. His running mate, Palin, refuses to disappear — much to the delight of tabloids and to the chagrin of elder party statesmen. And one of the most unpopular politicians in recent times, former Vice President Dick Cheney, keeps popping up to attack Obama — a reminder of the country's and the party's problems under Bush.

What's more, the GOP's ranks are thinning: Only 32 percent of respondents called themselves Republicans in a recent AP-GfK survey compared with 43 percent who called themselves Democrats.

Also, the party's power center is mostly limited to the South, the one region McCain dominated last fall; Obama won almost everywhere else — including making inroads in emerging powerhouse regions like the West, although Republicans still solidly control several lightly populated states in the area.

And demographic, cultural and, perhaps, economic changes in America tilt in the Democrats' favor. Consider that Hispanics, a part of the Democratic base, are the nation's fastest growing minority group. Consider that more states than ever are permitting same-sex unions; Maine will vote Tuesday on whether to allow gay marriage. Consider that the emerging new industry — so-called "green jobs" — is focused on the environment, a core Democratic issue.

Still, Republicans sense opportunity — at least in the short term.

The bloom is off the Obama rose, and the public is giving the Democratic-controlled Congress low ratings.

Economists say the recession is over but jobs aren't reappearing and unemployment is still expected to hit 10 percent. The war in Afghanistan continues, and the public is deeply divided over it. Obama's expansion of government and budget-busting spending isn't sitting well with most Americans. And independents are tilting away from Democrats.

All that raises this question: Can the GOP take advantage of such conditions — or are the problems the party faces too great? Stay tuned to 2010 for the answer.

WASHINGTON – Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming. Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll says. And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also taken a dip, even as the U.S. and world forums gear up for possible action against climate change.
In a poll of 1,500 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, released Thursday, the number of people saying there is strong scientific evidence that the Earth has gotten warmer over the past few decades is down from 71 percent in April of last year and from 77 percent when Pew started asking the question in 2006. The number of people who see the situation as a serious problem also has declined.
The steepest drop has occurred during the past year, as Congress and the Obama administration have taken steps to control heat-trapping emissions for the first time and international negotiations for a new treaty to slow global warming have been under way. At the same time, there has been mounting scientific evidence of climate change — from melting ice caps to the world's oceans hitting the highest monthly recorded temperatures this summer.
The poll was released a day after 18 scientific organizations wrote Congress to reaffirm the consensus behind global warming. A federal government report Thursday found that global warming is upsetting the Arctic's thermostat.
Only about a third, or 36 percent of the respondents, feel that human activities — such as pollution from power plants, factories and automobiles — are behind a temperature increase. That's down from 47 percent from 2006 through last year's poll.
"The priority that people give to pollution and environmental concerns and a whole host of other issues is down because of the economy and because of the focus on other things," suggested Andrew Kohut, the director of the research center, which conducted the poll from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. "When the focus is on other things, people forget and see these issues as less grave."
Andrew Weaver, a professor of climate analysis at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said politics could be drowning out scientific awareness.
"It's a combination of poor communication by scientists, a lousy summer in the Eastern United States, people mixing up weather and climate and a full-court press by public relations firms and lobby groups trying to instill a sense of uncertainty and confusion in the public," he said.
Political breakdowns in the survey underscore how tough it could be to enact a law limiting pollution emissions blamed for warming. While three-quarters of Democrats believe the evidence of a warming planet is solid, and nearly half believe the problem is serious, far fewer conservative and moderate Democrats see the problem as grave. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans say there is no solid evidence of global warming, up from 31 percent in early 2007.
Though there are exceptions, the vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is occurring and that the primary cause is a buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal.
Jane Lubchenco, head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told a business group meeting at the White House Thursday: "The science is pretty clear that the climate challenge before us is very real. We're already seeing impacts of climate change in our own backyards."
Despite misgivings about the science, half the respondents still say they support limits on greenhouse gases, even if they could lead to higher energy prices. And a majority — 56 percent — feel the United States should join other countries in setting standards to address global climate change.
But many of the supporters of reducing pollution have heard little to nothing about cap-and-trade, the main mechanism for reducing greenhouse gases favored by the White House and central to legislation passed by the House and a bill the Senate will take up next week.
Under cap-and-trade, a price is put on each ton of pollution, and businesses can buy and sell permits to meet emissions limits.
"Perhaps the most interesting finding in this poll ... is that the more Americans learn about cap-and-trade, the more they oppose cap-and-trade," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who opposes the Senate bill and has questioned global warming science.
Regional as well as political differences were detected in the polling.
People living in the Midwest and mountainous areas of the West are far less likely to view global warming as a serious problem and to support limits on greenhouse gases than those in the Northeast and on the West Coast. Both the House and Senate bills have been drafted by Democratic lawmakers from Massachusetts and California.
One of those lawmakers, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, told reporters Thursday that she was happy with the results, given the interests and industry groups fighting the bill.

"Today, to get 57 percent saying that the climate is warming is good, because today everybody is grumpy about everything," Boxer said. "Science will win the day in America. Science always wins the day."

Earlier polls, from different organizations, have not detected a growing skepticism about the science behind global warming.

Since 1997, the percentage of Americans that believe the Earth is heating up has remained constant — at around 80 percent — in polling done by Jon Krosnick of Stanford University. Krosnick, who has been conducting surveys on attitudes about global warming since 1993, was surprised by the Pew results.

He described the decline in the Pew results as "implausible," saying there is nothing that could have caused it.

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Associated Press Writers Seth Borenstein and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press: http://www.people-press.org

ALBANY, N.Y. – One is the courtly governor of the Empire State, the other the flashy star of the Golden State.
But a fiscal crisis hammering New York and California, the shared priority for a future of clean, renewable fuel sources, and a couple twists of fate have quietly brought together New York's David Paterson and California's Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Paterson: a slight, studious Democrat who quotes classic poetry from memory. Schwarzenegger: a Republican who once ruled the bodybuilding world and the ultimate showman, armed with a cache of jokes and "Terminator" catchphrases.
Both governors acknowledge an alliance that would appear unlikely to the outsider but that makes sense to them.
"Maybe we're sort of bicoastal twins," Paterson told The Associated Press this week. "We have the same kind of problem, we have different sorts of origins. ... We're in different parties, but there's certainly a connection."
The friendship began with what could have been seen as a snub. In February, at the National Governors Association conference, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine asked Paterson — with just a half-hour's notice — to sub for him in a global warming presentation to be led by Schwarzenegger.
Paterson just had to sit there as the designated Democrat, maybe throw in a comment or two.
An hour passed, then two. Schwarzenegger was nowhere to be seen.
"Then they turned to me," Paterson said.
So he did something actors like Schwarzenegger know well: He improvised.
Paterson recalled sweating the spotlight and having to rely heavily on Governors Association staff for information that was supposed to have been presented by Schwarzenegger.
"Everyone was whispering, and I'm really getting annoyed because it's clear I have to get so much direction," he said. "In fact, at one point I said to the other people at the seminar that I didn't mind being the puppet, I just hated when they let the strings show."
Schwarzenegger finally arrived and went straight to Paterson.
"He comes in and leans in and says something like, 'I'm sorry,'" Paterson said in his best Schwarzenegger impression. "He had a great excuse, but that wasn't helping me any."
The apology led to dinner the next night with Paterson's wife, Michelle, and Schwarzenegger's, Maria Shriver — along with a bit of drama.
Paterson left the table to take a phone call. His 80-year-old aunt had fallen ill while visiting family in Toronto. Paterson's cousin wasn't sure if the local hospital was prepared for the complications and wondered whether the family should risk rushing her to a Buffalo hospital, almost two hours away.
Schwarzenegger told Paterson that the Toronto mayor, David Miller, was just a couple of tables away, and Schwarzenegger got him. The mayor phoned the hospital, learned how it was prepared for the situation and briefed Paterson, who directed his aunt to Buffalo, where gall bladder care was a specialty. Paterson's aunt was soon en route to the care that helped save her.
"Gov. Schwarzenegger enjoys a productive relationship with Gov. Paterson as they both pursue similar goals on climate change," said Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger's spokesman. "He was honored to have Gov. Paterson participate in the Governors' Global Climate Summit and looks forward to working together to protect the environment while creating jobs."

For that appearance two weeks ago, Schwarzenegger called Paterson directly to get a critical big state to attend his global warming summit. Paterson had earlier declined the event as he wrestled with a newly predicted state deficit of at least $2.1 billion. In opening remarks, Schwarzenegger singled Paterson out among a half-dozen governors at the second annual summit.

The champion bodybuilder from Austria and New York's first black governor were both fed skepticism that they could ever lead a state. Now, as they try to do the job, they are mired in their lowest approval rating poll numbers — Paterson at 20 percent, Schwarzenegger at 27 percent.

In all, this month's 36-hour trip to California led to a sharing of information and strategy about heading off deepening deficits and a commitment for a follow-up trip by New York Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch to Sacramento.

It also led to a bit of political advice from Schwarzenegger, famous for speaking or inspiring Hollywood one-liners, to Paterson, who admits he's had some trouble getting his message through to critics: "He said you have to keep pounding away until people get it."

"He said it would be worth it, and it was," Paterson said, then added: "I was pumped up."

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Associated Press writers Tom Verdin and Juliet Williams in Sacramento contributed to this report.

NEW YORK – The TLC network says it's suing Jon Gosselin (GAHS'-lihn) for breaching his contract as star of the reality show "Jon & Kate Plus 8."
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Maryland, alleges that Gosselin hasn't met the obligations of his contract as an exclusive employee, has appeared on other programs for pay and made unauthorized disclosures about the show.
Gosselin has starred for two years in "Jon & Kate Plus 8," which has been consumed in recent months by marital turmoil as Gosselin and his wife, Kate, feuded, then filed for divorce. The couple are the parents of young twins and sextuplets.
Recently, TLC announced the show would be renamed "Kate Plus Eight," with a reduced presence by Jon Gosselin. A TLC spokeswoman, Laurie Goldberg, has said the show's longtime future remains in question.
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TLC is owned by Discovery Communications, LLC.

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
A fraud probe into Afghan elections has trimmed President Hamid Karzai's vote share to just 47 percent, a report said Friday, while a senior aide conceded a second round could be in the offing.

The much-awaited tally by the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission will trigger a run-off between Karzai and his nearest competitor, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, because Karzai's portion of the August 20 vote was lowered to below 50 percent, The Washington Post reported.

One official familiar with the tally, due to be finalized Friday, described the results to the newspaper as "stunning."

Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission had given Karzai 54.6 percent in its preliminary results, which would position him for a second five-year term. Those results gave Abdullah around 28 percent of the vote.

But Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Said Tayeb Jawad, conceded for the first time Thursday that the disputed elections could enter a second round and pushed to hold the run-off quickly. Related article: Afghan govt's "to do" list

He said he has not personally spoken to election authorities who are expected to make an announcement within days.

But Jawad, who has served as Karzai's chief of staff and press secretary, became the first member of his circle to speak publicly of plans for a new vote after Western-led allegations of major fraud in the polls.

"A run-off is a likely scenario," Jawad said at the US Institute of Peace.

"If that's what it is, everyone should work very hard to make that happen."

Jawad said the next round of presidential elections should be held quickly, charging that a delay would create headaches for other nations -- including the United States, where the administration of President Barack Obama mulls sending more troops to fight Taliban insurgents.

"The constitution requires a run-off be done within two weeks but that's impossible. So four weeks will push it into early November and that's the latest that it will happen because after that it will be extremely cold, especially in northern Afghanistan," Jawad said.

"But if it's delayed to spring, this is clearly a recipe for disaster -- this creates a lot of confusion, a lot of indecisiveness and also further complicated relations" with the outside world, he added.

Karzai has rejected charges of widespread irregularities as "totally fabricated" and "politically instigated," testing the patience of Western nations that were his key backers after the US-led military operation in 2001 that toppled the Taliban regime.

European Union observers said a quarter of all votes, or 1.5 million ballots, were suspect.

Afghan election authorities are reviewing disputed ballots. A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, expected a final announcement on Sunday or Monday.

Ballots listing both candidates, printed in London in anticipation of a possible run-off, have already arrived at the UN mission in Kabul, a US official in Afghanistan told the Post.

The necessary indelible ink was also already on hand and polling station kits were expected to be readied for distribution this week, the daily said.

A run-off was planned if Karzai's valid votes fall below 50 percent as a result of the investigations, although questions remain about how effective a new poll would be.

"The big challenge (for new elections) is security," the US official told the Post.

Abdullah said in Kabul that he was hopeful investigations into ballot-stuffing allegations would result in a run-off.

But the urbane former foreign minister warned that if a run-off were not called, "those who are behind the fraud and tolerate fraud will be responsible for the consequences."

Fellow candidate Ashraf Ghani said on a visit to Washington that Karzai and Abdullah so distrusted each other and election authorities that only a deal between the two could break the impasse.

"When legitimacy is called into question, repeating an election with the same people and the same institutions... becomes problematic," he told US public broadcaster PBS.

Jawad was unusually open about Karzai's disagreements with Obama, who has been cooler toward the Afghan leader than his predecessor, George W. Bush.

While describing relations as improved, Jawad said that early in the Obama administration, "there was some oversimplification of the issues" and "even there was this lack of knowledge" about Afghanistan's complex ethnic patchwork.

Obama has made the fight against Islamic extremism a chief focus of his young presidency, and has been weighing a decision on whether to send tens of thousands more US troops to Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
The United States will probably need to deploy more troops to Afghanistan despite almost doubling the size of its force there this year, the top U.S. military officer said on Tuesday.

"A properly resourced counterinsurgency probably means more forces," said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. He did not say how many more forces would be required.

The United States currently has 62,000 troops in Afghanistan and that figure is expected to rise to 68,000 by the end of the year. There were around 32,000 U.S. troops in the country at the start of the year.

Mullen also called for patience with U.S. efforts in Afghanistan, as the American public and members of Congress -- particularly in President Barack Obama's Democratic Party -- are becoming increasingly uneasy about the war.

Fifty-eight percent of Americans now oppose the war while 39 percent support it, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll released on Monday.

"We can get there. We can accomplish the mission we've been assigned," Mullen said.

"But we will need resources matched to the strategy, civilian expertise matched to military capabilities, and the continued support of the American people."

(Reporting by Andrew Gray; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

BEIJING (Reuters) –
China unveiled data on Tuesday that showed tire exports to the United States fell in the first half of 2009, saying the numbers undercut Washington's accusations China had breached rules by flooding the U.S. market.

Both countries moved to allay concerns of a trade war. But the row over Washington's decision to impose added duties on Chinese-made tires showed no signs of abating, as Beijing said the U.S. move sent the wrong message to the rest of the world.

"This certainly won't benefit ordinary Americans, and the bigger damage is to economic and trade cooperation between our two countries," said vice foreign minister He Yafe. "That's something the U.S. needs to seriously consider," He said, adding that any friction should be handled "calmly."

The tire duty was the first time Washington has applied special "safeguard" provisions Beijing agreed to before joining the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Safeguards can be invoked if a surge in imports is found to have hurt U.S. manufacturers. Once invoked on a product, they can be applied by other countries.

"We mainly think that it's an abuse of safeguard measures," China's commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian told reporters.

"It is sending a wrong message to the world under the current situation that the global financial crisis is still spreading."

China said it wanted consultations with the United States over the duties, a preliminary step toward seeking a WTO ruling.

Yao rejected U.S. claims that a surge in imports has hurt American industry and jobs, saying Chinese shipments had fallen off and globalization meant barriers to Chinese imports would not guarantee U.S. jobs.

Chinese statistics show tire exports to the United States rose by 2 percent in 2008, and fell by more than 15 percent in the first half of 2009, Yao said.

"Under these circumstances, the conclusion that China's exports are distorting the U.S. market does not stand," Yao said, noting that U.S. tire manufacturers had not joined the complaint, which was brought by the United Steelworkers union.

The United Steelworkers union said a tripling of Chinese tire imports from 2004 to 2008 had cost more than 5,000 U.S. jobs.

The U.S. trade deficit with China totaled $103 billion in the first half of 2009, down 13 percent from last year, but it has grown considerably over the last decade. The imbalance is a source of much ire in Washington.

TRADE WAR CAN BE AVOIDED

The two countries have vowed to cooperate in trying to revive global economic growth, but the new trade friction could spill into next week's G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

Zhang Hanlin, head of the China Institute for WTO Studies in Beijing, said U.S. tire makers were suffering from a drop in demand due to the economic crisis, not Chinese competition.

Chinese car makers and auto parts makers could become increasingly competitive in export markets, as their capacity exceeds domestic demand. That could threaten the traditional manufacturing base of European and American auto firms, many of whom initially invested in China to benefit from Chinese growth.

Of the tires exported from China, 68 percent were from foreign-invested plants, Yao said.

U.S. President Barack Obama said that if the United States didn't enforce the rules that were contained in its trade agreements, "then it's very hard to have credibility." But he added he was sure a trade war could be averted.

"I'm not surprised that China's upset about it," Obama told CNBC television. "But keep in mind we have a huge economic relationship with China. But I just want to make sure that if we actually have rules written down, they mean something."

China has so far shown no signs that the trade disagreements would spill into other issues of international cooperation, such as North Korean or Iranian nuclear negotiations.

China has launched its own investigation into chicken parts and automotive imports from the United States. It says the U.S. products targeted by Beijing's anti-dumping inquiries are roughly equal in value to China's tire exports to the United States -- about $2 billion a year. [ID:nLD476384]

"Outwardly, China's response will be restrained, but in its bones the anger will persist," said Guan Anping, a trade lawyer in Beijing who formerly worked as a trade official.

"China will use small acts to convey its anger, but the message will be clear."

(Additional reporting by Huang Yan, Tyra Dempster, David Schlesinger and Chris Buckley)

HAVANA – Jose Obdilio Duran's '57 Chevy has holes in its mottled floor, a passenger window that can't be rolled up and no inside panels on its doors. But the 71-year-old retiree wants to put the old car to work — applying for one of the first taxi licenses this communist country has granted in a decade.
About 60 would-be taxi drivers lined up early Friday at a Transport Ministry office in central Havana to fill out forms for permission to use their own cars as taxis — a rare dose of the free market on an island whose economy is dominated almost entirely by the state.
The new, private taxis are meant to help alleviate chronic transportation problems. In the capital, many people have to hitchhike to work in the morning. Things are so grave in the countryside that entire families wait by the highway for hours for transportation from one town to another.
Those willing to brave long lines at bus stops and endure sardine-like conditions can squeeze aboard former Soviet-bloc coaches that still list destinations such as East Berlin. Cuba has used credit to buy thousands of new buses from China, but they are mostly used to carry tourists and have not been enough to meet Cuban demand.
"This is one of the best decisions the state has ever made," said Luis Pozo, 67, another retiree seeking a license for his Russian-built 1988 Moscovich. Pozo said he didn't think the small free-market opening was out of step with the ideals of Cuba's revolution.
"It's not like anybody is going to get rich from this," he said.
The license gives drivers the right to ferry fellow Cubans — but not foreigners — for a monthly fee of $21.50 a month. They must pay that quota whether they make the money back or not.
The government says it will set price ceilings, but has yet to provide details. Most of those applying for licenses said they hoped to charge 10 pesos — about 50 cents — for standard trips. A separate fleet of modern cabs caters to tourists and they can charge up to $30 for a single trip through Havana.
Cuba stopped granting new licenses for private taxis in October 1999, but lifted the restrictions in January. Authorities started handing out taxi permissions in May, but were so inundated with requests that they quickly suspended the program in Havana, and only resumed in earnest on Friday.
The government has not said how many licenses it will grant. Thousands of Cubans already use private cars, either classic or modern, to give black-market rides. But they risk steep fines and even having their cars seized by the state if caught.
To an outsider's detached eye, Duran's brown Bel Air looks as if it could come apart at any minute, but he sees it differently.
"It's a beautiful car," he said proudly, before slowly puttering away. "The motor is old, almost as old as me, but it works well. It is still going strong, just like me."
Duran says once he gets the license — wait time is supposed to be about a month — he hopes to drive part-time to supplement his monthly pension of $13. He and others waiting to get the licenses said they figure they will be able to pull in about $10 a month after taxes and maintenance costs, often driving their cars along set routes where many Cubans wait for a lift.
While getting new taxis on the road will be some comfort to commuters, not everyone is thrilled.
"This is going to mean more competition," said 35-year-old Manolo Rodriguez, one of about 50 already-licensed taxi drivers waiting under the shade of a tree-lined street next to Cuba's majestic capitol dome, a slightly taller replica of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Rodriguez says he spends most of his 12-hour day waiting his turn in line behind other taxis, since cruising for fares uses up lots of fuel. He said he usually only carries four passengers each shift on a set route to the remote suburb of El Cotorro.
Still, that's enough to make more on a good day than Rodriguez used to earn in a month working at a cracker factory — about $15.
"If they keep giving out licenses I may only be able to get three trips a day, and that will really affect my income," worried Rodriguez, standing next to a hulking '53 Oldsmobile whose faded coat of powder blue paint had seen better days.

The loosening of taxi rules is one of a small number of limited reforms taken by President Raul Castro's government. But it seems to expressly defy the policies of his brother Fidel, who singled out private taxis as seeking "juicy profits" and fomenting a black market for state-subsidized gasoline.

Raul took over Cuba's presidency in February 2008 and has spoken publicly about the need to address dire daily life problems like transportation, housing and food shortages. But he has largely failed to solve them, and the global financial crisis has taken a toll on the island's ever-weak economy.

Another hopeful new taxi driver, Rigoberto Lamyser, said he plans to use his Czech-made Skoda sedan on weekends to earn extra cash while keeping his full-time job as a hydraulic engineer.

Vehicle ownership is strictly controlled, and most Cubans can only have cars built before Fidel Castro's revolution on New Year's Day 1959. But the 60-year-old Lamyser said he was able to buy a modern car because his job took him overseas, making him eligible for a special license.

He said he would charge 50 cents a trip unless a passanger is desperate enough to pay more.

"The market decides," said Lamyser. "It's supply and demand and even Cuba can't resist it."

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Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES – A multimillion dollar collection of Andy Warhol portraits of Muhammad Ali and other sports superstars was stolen from a Los Angeles home, police said Friday.
The 11 color screenprints were taken from businessman Richard Weisman's home sometime between Sept. 2 and 3, said Detective Mark Sommer of the Los Angeles Police Department's art theft detail.
Ten of the 40-inch-square portraits feature famous athletes of the 1970s, including golfer Jack Nicklaus, soccer star Pele and figure skater Dorothy Hamill. The other is of Weisman, likely a commissioned portrait.
A $1 million reward was being offered for information leading to the return of the artwork.
The original prints were on display in Weisman's dining room and his house was locked up. It wasn't clear exactly when the silk screen paintings were taken or how the thieves got into the home.
The theft was discovered by the family's longtime nanny who arrived at the home to find the large prints missing from the walls. She immediately went to a neighbor's to call police, Sommer said.
"This was a very clean crime," Sommer said. "(The home) wasn't ransacked."
It wasn't known exactly how much the prints were worth but Weisman tried to sell the collection in 2002 for $3 million.
Weisman's home contained other valuable artwork but the rest of his collection was untouched.
"The theft of Warhol's 'Athlete Series' represents a profoundly personal loss to me and my family," Weisman said in a statement. Weisman, who published a book about his art collection called, "From Picasso to Pop," declined to comment further, saying he did not want to interfere with the investigation.
A neighbor saw a maroon van in the driveway of Weisman's home around the time of the robbery, and police are seeking more information about that, Sommer said.
Warhol became internationally famous in the 60s for his iconic image of a Campbell's soup can, his avant-garde films and his parties that mixed celebrities, artists, intellectuals and other beautiful people at his New York studio called "The Factory."
According to a catalog of Warhol's work, Weisman commissioned the artist in 1977 to create portraits of sports figures, including Chris Evert, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Nicklaus, Pele, Hamill, and Ali, said Brenda Klippel, the director of Martin Lawrence Galleries in Los Angeles, which has a large collection of Warhols.
"Warhol was always a portraitist and fascinated with anyone of fame or fortune, anyone in the public eye," Klippel said. "He wanted all of his imagery to be instantly recognizable. If Weisman was in his circle and had the money, he could commission what he wanted."
Detective Don Hrycyk said the weeklong delay in announcing the theft was to allow detectives to confirm the reward and gather descriptions and photographs of the missing artworks.
(This version CORRECTS UPDATES with comment from collector, art dealer. corrects that prints were originals. Moving on general news and entertainment services.)