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."

___

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.)