Archive for the ‘AP-World’ Category

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- A strike by Rio police a week ahead of Carnival celebrations is drawing attention to a deeply troubled force in which low wages help fuel corruption, extortion and lethal violence, experts said Friday.

Recent efforts by Rio de Janeiro state to increase wages and change police culture will help root out some of these long-standing problems, but the change won't happen suddenly, said Guaracy Mingardi, a crime and public safety expert and researcher at Brazil's top think tank Fundacao Getulio Vargas.

And this is worrying because part of Brazil's successful pitch to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 relied on its ability to keep the peace during the events.

"Authorities are now more concerned with the short-term problem of the effects the strike may have on Carnival and are not paying attention to the longer term problem these strikes could represent for the World Cup and Olympics," said Mingardi.

At the heart of the recent unrest among Brazil's police forces are low salaries. Rio's security forces decided to walk out on Friday to demand a pay raise, not content with a last-minute legislative approval of a 39 percent hike staggered over this year and the next.

"The main thing wrong with police forces in Rio, Bahia, and in the rest of the country is the poor wages paid," said Mingardi. "This is the driving force of the strikes and of the problems affecting the forces."

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mounds of debris piled up at illegal dumping sites around the city in recent weeks as the metropolis grappled with an avalanche of refuse after closing one of the world's largest landfills.

Garbage trucks queued up for more than six hours to dump loads at transfer stations, while overstuffed bags and other trash piled up even on the toniest streets over the holidays, when dumps in surrounding Mexico state refused to take the city's trash.

This week, city officials were caught in a front-page photograph dumping tons of trash at the same landfill they claimed to have closed in December, promising a better, greener waste management system for the city of 8.8 million.

"We're seeing a confusion obviously now in the handling of garbage," said Pierre Terras, who coordinates the toxins campaign for Greenpeace Mexico. "You can see it in the streets."

Like other mega-cities around the world, Mexico City is struggling to move from the informal garbage collection systems of the past to modern waste management designed to drastically cut the volume of material that ends up in landfills.

Mexico City officials count some 1,000 illegal dumping sites in a metropolis that generates more than 12,000 tons of trash a day. That includes some trash that is trucked in from neighboring towns in this sprawling metro area of more than 21 million - one of the world's largest.

The Latin American capitals of Bogota and Buenos Aires, which face similar problems, have committed to Zero Trash, a campaign supported by environmental groups to manufacture reusable goods and materials, recycle and ideally cut the amount of unusable trash to zero. Greenpeace is pushing such a plan for Mexico City.

Everyone agreed that the Bordo Poniente landfill had to close as scheduled on Dec. 31, a move that could mean a drop in greenhouse gas emissions by a minimum of 2 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. Built on a dry lake bed partly to handle the rubble from the devastating 1985 earthquake, it had taken in more than 76 million tons of garbage.

Critics say the city was unprepared, and it wasn't clear why there wasn't a solid alternative waste system in place after earlier plans to build four new garbage processing plants were abandoned.

Meanwhile an interim plan to take refuse to smaller dumps outside the city fell apart almost immediately.

Last week residents of Ixtapaluca in Mexico state blocked a federal highway to prevent Mexico City garbage trucks from unloading at a dump in their neighborhood, while other communities staged similar revolts.

Mexico City has required its residents to separate trash since 2003, but without enforcement or the necessary recycling equipment. Despite public service campaigns, there is no culture for recycling.

Residents still rely on an old collection system in which trucks roam the streets daily, with a garbage man ringing a bell to alert neighbors who come running with their trash cans and bags.

The small amount of recycling is done at the trucks, as garbage workers open bags to separate out glass, plastic and cardboard.

Dumping on the street brings heavy fines. But trash routinely piles up on Mexico City street corners under the cover of night from households where people can't wait around during the day for the trash bell.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The U.S. military is testing a revolutionary new drone for its arsenal, a pilotless helicopter intended to fly cargo missions to remote outposts where frequent roadside bombs threaten access by road convoys.

Surveillance drones for monitoring enemy activity and armed versions for launching airstrikes have become a trademark of America's wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. But this is the first time a chopper version designed for transport has ben used operationally.

Two unmanned models of the Kaman K-MAX helicopters and a team of 16 company technicians and 8 Marines are conducting a 6-month evaluation program for the new craft at Camp Dwyer, a Marine Corps airfield in the Garmsir district of southern Helmand Province.

The craft have flown 20 transport missions since the inaugural flight on Dec. 17, said Maj. Kyle O'Connor, the officer in charge of the detachment. They have delivered nearly 18 tons of cargo, mainly thousands of Meals Ready to Eat and spare parts needed at the forward operating bases.

"Afghanistan is a highly mined country and the possibility of improvised explosive devices is always a problem moving cargo overland in a convoy," O'Connor said.

"Every load that we can take off of a ground convoy reduces the danger and risk that our Marines, soldiers, and sailors are faced with," he said. "With an unmanned helicopter, even the aircrew is taken out of harm's way."

The Marines from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1 lead the missions and deliver the cargo into combat drop zones, while contractors operate and maintain the two aircraft.

The craft's onboard computer uploads the mission plans, enabling them to fly on autopilot. But an operator at base control monitors progress and can step in and override the autopilot for manual operation if any problems occur, or if the drone must be redirected in mid-flight.

The K-MAX is the latest in a series of Kaman synchronized twin-rotor helicopters dating from the 1950s. The unusual arrangement, with two side-by-side pylons on the helicopter's roof supporting counter-rotating blades, results in exceptional stability while hovering and allows pinpoint cargo delivery.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's government on Saturday welcomed the U.S. Navy's rescue of 13 Iranian fishermen held by pirates, calling it a positive humanitarian gesture.

U.S. officials announced Friday that the fishermen had been rescued by a U.S. Navy destroyer on Thursday, more than 40 days after their boat was commandeered by suspected Somali pirates in the northern Arabian Sea. The rescue came just days after Tehran warned the U.S. to keep the same group of warships out of the Persian Gulf in a reflection of Iran's fear that American warships could try to enforce an embargo against Iranian oil exports.

"The rescue of Iranian sailors by American forces is considered a humanitarian gesture and we welcome this behavior," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by state TV's Al-Alam Arabic channel.

Iran's hard-line Fars news agency had a different take, calling the rescue operation a Hollywood dramatization of a routine event.

The Fars report noted that attacks by Somali pirates in the region are common and said that Iran's navy has itself freed many mariners held by pirates in recent years without seeking to highly publicize it.

Amid escalating tension with Iran over its nuclear program, the Obama administration reveled in delivering Friday's announcement and highlighted the fact that the rescuing ships were the same ones Iran's army chief had just said were no longer welcome in the Persian Gulf.

"Basically, rescuing trading and fishing boats from the hands of pirates in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden is considered a completely normal issue," Fars said. "A U.S. helicopter filming the rescue operation from the first minute makes it look like a Hollywood drama with specific locations and actors. It shows the Americans tried to publicize it through the media and present the American warship as a savior."

The semiofficial Fars news agency is considered close to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard military force.

Fars reported in April that Iranian naval commandos had driven off pirates attempting to hijack a supertanker off Pakistan's southwestern coast.

"Iran's navy has rescued various foreign ships from the hands of pirates ... but never publicized that," it said.

PARIS (AP) -- Emmanuelle Maria's breasts were burning and globules of silicone gel were protruding into her armpits. Her implants had ruptured. Yet her doctors, she says, told her nothing was wrong.

Now she and a group of leading plastic surgeons want the French government to tell 30,000 women to get their implants removed - at the state's expense.

Prompted by the calls, French health authorities are considering an unprecedented move: recommending that all women with the now-banned breast implants undergo surgery to remove them. Investigators say the implants were made with cheap industrial silicone whose medical dangers remain unclear.

Governments around Europe are awaiting France's decision Friday. Tens of thousands more women in Britain, Italy, Spain and other European nations are walking around with the same implants, made by the now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP.

The main concern in France is the risk of rupture, as well as uncertainty over what risks the suspected industrial silicone gel could pose when it leaks inside the body. Of the more than 30,000 women who have the implants, more than 1,000 have suffered ruptures, according to the French health safety agency AFSSAPS.

Eight cases of cancer among women with the implants, including one who died in November, have heightened pressure on the government to act, and Friday's decision will depend partly on guidance from the French National Cancer Institute.

The implants in question were not sold in the United States, where concerns about silicone gel implants overall led to a 14-year ban on their use. Silicone implants were brought back on the market in 2006 after research ruled out cancer, lupus and some other concerns.

All implants - not just this brand - have a risk of rupture. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends regular MRI checks for ruptures and French health officials also recommend regular screening.

PIP implants were taken off the market last year after French authorities discovered the company misreported the type of silicone used.

British health officials say they see no reason so far to have the French-made implants systematically removed, and have said there is not enough evidence of a link between silicone implants and cancer. Italy's Health Ministry is holding a meeting Thursday to discuss the French-made implants.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- In the beginning, it all looked simple: topple Saddam Hussein, destroy his purported weapons of mass destruction and lay the foundation for a pro-Western government in the heart of the Arab world.

Nearly 4,500 American and more than 100,000 Iraqi lives later, the objective became simply to get out - and leave behind a country where democracy has at least a chance, where Iran does not dominate and where conditions may not be good but "good enough."

Even those modest goals may prove too ambitious after American forces leave and Iraq begins to chart its own course. How the Iraqis fare in the coming years will determine how history judges a war which became among the most politically contentious in American history.

Toppling Saddam was the easy part. Television images from the days following the March 20, 2003, start of the war made the conflict look relatively painless, like a certain type of Hollywood movie: American tanks speeding across the bleak and featureless Iraqi plains, huge blasts rattling Baghdad in the "shock and awe" bombing and the statue of the dictator tumbling down from his pedestal.

But Americans soon collided with the complex realities of an alien society few of them knew or understood. Who were the real power brokers? This ayatollah or that Sunni chief? What were the right buttons to push? America had its own ideas of the new Iraq. Did most Iraqis share them?

Places most Americans had never heard of in 2002, like Fallujah and Abu Ghraib, became household words. Saddam was captured nine months after the invasion. The war dragged on for eight more years. No WMD were ever found. And Iraq drained billions from America's treasury and diverted resources from Afghanistan, where the Taliban and al-Qaida rebounded after their defeat in the 2001 invasion.

In the early months, America's enemy was mostly Sunnis angry over the loss of power and prestige when their patron Saddam fell. In September 2007, the bloodiest year for U.S. troops, Shiite militias - part of a community that suffered terribly under Saddam - were responsible for three-quarters of the attacks in the Baghdad area that killed or wounded Americans, according to the then-No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno.

Saddam had not tolerated al-Qaida. With Saddam gone and the country in chaos, al-Qaida in Iraq became the terror movement's largest and most dangerous franchise, drawing in fighters from North Africa to Asia for a war that lingers on through suicide bombings and assassinations, albeit at a lower intensity.

As American troops prepare to go home by Dec. 31, they leave behind a country still facing violence, with closer ties to the U.S. than Saddam had but still short of what Washington once envisioned. Iranian influence is on the rise. One of the few positive developments from the American viewpoint - a democratic toehold - is far from secure.

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In 20-20 hindsight, the U.S. probably should have seen it coming. By 2003, communal rivalries and hatreds, fueled by years of Saddam's suppression of Kurds and Shiites, were brewing beneath the lid of a closed society cobbled together from the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. Saddam's rule of terror kept all these passions in the pot. Lift the lid and the pot boils over. Remove Saddam and a new fight flares for the power that the ousted ruler and his Baath Party had monopolized for decades.

A day after Saddam's statue was hauled down in Baghdad, the U.S. arranged what was supposed to be a reconciliation meeting in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, bringing together prominent clerics from the majority Shiite sect eager for a dominant role in Iraq after the collapse of Saddam's Sunni-dominated rule.

One of them was Abdul-Majid al-Khoie, son of a revered ayatollah. Al-Khoie had fled to Britain during Saddam's crackdown against Shiites after the 1991 Gulf War. Now he and the other clerics were back in Iraq, freed from Saddam's yoke.

As al-Khoie approached a mosque, a crowd swarmed around him. He was hacked to death in an attack widely blamed on Muqtada al-Sadr, a fellow Shiite cleric.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, mobs looted and burned much of the city as bewildered U.S. soldiers stood by.

"Stuff happens," then-U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld famously said at the time. "And it's untidy, and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes, and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here."

Within months, angry Sunnis had taken up arms to resist what they saw as a Shiite takeover on the coattails of the Americans. Their ranks were bolstered by former soldiers whose livelihood was taken away when the Americans, in a bid to appease Shiite and Kurdish leaders, abolished Saddam's military.

In August 2003, a massive truck bomb devastated the U.N. headquarters, killing the chief of mission, his deputy and 20 other people. Two months later, rockets slammed into the U.S.-occupied Rasheed Hotel in the Green Zone, killing an American lieutenant colonel and wounding 17 people. One of the architects of the war, visiting Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, barely escaped injury.

By then it was clear: America was in for a long and brutal fight. The triumphant scene of Saddam's statue falling would be replaced by new iconic images: the bodies of butchered Americans hanging from a bridge in Fallujah, military vehicles engulfed in flames, terrified hostages staring into a video camera moments before decapitation, and flag-draped caskets resting at open graves as aging parents and young widows wept for their loved ones.

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The Americans arrived with their own agenda for the new Iraq. That didn't always mesh with what the Iraqis had in mind.

Phillip J. Dermer, a now-retired U.S. colonel who has returned to Iraq as a businessman, spent the summer of 2003 helping set up a city council in Baghdad.

The idea was to give Iraqis a quick taste of democracy while issues like a constitution and national elections were being worked out.

After months of preparation, the council was elected and got down to its first order of business: To the Americans' surprise, an al-Sadr representative came forward to change the name of the Shiite slum in eastern Baghdad from Saddam City to Sadr City in honor of the cleric's father, who was assassinated by the deposed regime. The measure passed unanimously.

Dermer and his colleagues had been expecting a vote for something like a new budget for water. For Dermer it was a signal. The Iraqis had their own priorities.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iranian experts are in the final stages of recovering data from the U.S. surveillance drone captured by the country's armed forces, state TV reported Monday.

Tehran has flaunted the drone's capture as a victory for Iran and a defeat for the United States in a complicated intelligence and technological battle.

Lawmaker Parviz Sorouri, who is on the parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, said Monday the extracted information will be used to file a lawsuit against the United States for the "invasion" by the unmanned aircraft.

Sorouri also claimed that Iran has the capability to reproduce the drone through reverse engineering, but he didn't elaborate.

The TV broadcast a video on Thursday of Iranian military officials inspecting what it identified as the RQ-170 Sentinel drone. Iranian state media have said the unmanned spy aircraft was detected and brought down over the country's east, near the border with Afghanistan. U.S. officials have acknowledged losing the drone.

Officers in the Revolutionary Guard, Iran's most powerful military force, have claimed the country's armed forces brought down the surveillance aircraft with an electronic ambush, causing minimum damage to the drone.

American officials have said that U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that Iran neither shot the drone down, nor used electronic or cybertechnology to force it from the sky. They contend the drone malfunctioned. The officials spoke anonymously in order to discuss the classified program.

U.S. officials are concerned others may be able to reverse-engineer the chemical composition of the drone's radar-deflecting paint or the aircraft's sophisticated optics technology that allows operators to positively identify terror suspects from tens of thousands of feet in the air.

They are also worried adversaries may be able to hack into the drone's database, although it is not clear whether any data could be recovered. Some surveillance technologies allow video to stream through to operators on the ground but do not store much collected data. If they do, it is encrypted.

Sorouri racheted up the anti-U.S. rhetoric in Monday's remarks.

"The extracted information will be used to file a lawsuit against the United States over the invasion," he told state TV.

CHAMAN, Pakistan (AP) -- Sleeping in a freezing cab, running out of money and worried about militant attacks, Ghulab is one of thousands of truck drivers stranded as a result of Pakistan's blockade of the Afghan border to NATO and U.S. war supplies.

But they and the businessmen who run what has been a lucrative trade for most of the last decade say they support the decision to shut the frontier in retaliation for coalition airstrikes almost two weeks ago that killed 24 Pakistani troops in two remote border outposts.

"We risk our lives and take these supplies to Afghanistan for NATO, and in return they are killing our soldiers," said Jan, whose fuel truck is parked in a terminal in the dusty, dangerous border town of Chaman in southwestern Baluchistan.

"This is unacceptable, and we unanimously support the government over closing the border."

Given the current anti-U.S. sentiment in Pakistan, drivers might not want to call publicly the border to reopen. Even so, their stance illustrates the depth of anger in this country over the attack and the challenge the U.S. faces in repairing a relationship that is critical to its hopes of ending the Afghan war.

"I hope Allah grants my prayer that this NATO supply ends permanently, said Ghaza Gul, a 45-year-old driver who has been in the trucking profession since was he was 10 years old, when he washed the vehicles and made tea. "I would rather die of hunger than carry these shipments," he said, sitting on a dirty mat with other drivers at a terminal in Karachi, the port city where the supplies are unloaded.

Pakistan closed its two Afghan crossings in Chaman and Torkham, in the northwest Khyber tribal area, almost immediately after NATO aircraft attacked two army posts along the border on Nov. 26. The supply lines account for 40 percent of the fuel, clothes, vehicles and other "non lethal" supplies for the Afghan war.

President Barack Obama and other American officials have expressed their condolences for the deaths and promised a full investigation into what they have said was an accident. But this has done little to assuage anger in Pakistan, where the military has continued to describe the attack as a deliberate act of aggression.

The government, needing to show a firm response to placate critics who have long protested its alliance with Washington, has also retaliated by demanding that the U.S. vacate an air base used for CIA drones and by boycotting an international conference aimed at stabilizing Afghanistan.

Many analysts believe Pakistan and the U.S. want to avoid a total rupture of their difficult relationship because of its mutual strategic importance. Pakistan needs American aid and cannot afford diplomatic isolation; Washington wants Islamabad's help with Afghanistan.

For that reason, most people believe the trucks will start rolling again soon, likely within a few weeks.

The trucks are currently parked at terminals close to the border, some in large towns in the area. The drivers have remained with the vehicles, suggesting that the trucking companies believe the stoppage will be temporary.

"It won't be much longer," said Imtiaz Gul, director of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad. "They can't sustain it indefinitely. It would alienate the whole world," he said, referring to the many countries that have troops in the coalition.

NATO officials have said the coalition has built a stockpile of military and other supplies that could keep operations in Afghanistan running at their current level for several months even if the route through Pakistan remains closed.

BRUSSELS (AP) -- EU foreign ministers failed Thursday to reach an agreement to impose an oil embargo against Iran - a measure that some argued would have choked off funding for Iran's alleged program to develop nuclear weapons.

But the ministers, incensed by the attack Tuesday by an angry mob on the British embassy in Tehran, did impose a new round of sanctions targeting dozens of people, groups and businesses in the country.

The ministers also imposed new sanctions on Syrian individuals and businesses in hope of pressuring the regime there to halt its deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the two issues are related, accusing Iran of supporting the violence in Syria. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates Sryian President Bashar Assad's regime has killed more than 4,000 people over the past several months.

"There is a link between what is happening in Iran and what is happening in Syria," Hague said.

In Iran, EU sanctions were imposed on 37 people and 143 "entities" - companies or organizations. The sanctions include a freeze on assets held in the European Union and a ban on traveling to EU countries.

The full list of names of those targeted will not be known until they are published in the official journal of the EU on Friday. But the official conclusions of the meeting said they include the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line and members of, and entities controlled by, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said that Greece, which relies on Iranian oil, had objected to a ban on buying it. But he said work toward an embargo would continue.

"Greece has put forward a number of reservations," Juppe said. "We have to take that into account. We have to see with our partners that the cuts can be compensated by the increase of production in other countries. It is very possible."

Iran has denied it is pursuing nuclear weapons. The attack on the British embassy is believed to have begun as a state-approved protest over Western sanctions linked to the country's nuclear program.

Britain pulled its diplomats out of Iran after its embassy was stormed. Germany, France and the Netherlands have recalled their ambassadors in solidarity.

With regard to Syria, the EU foreign ministers imposed sanctions on 12 people and 11 entities, adding to the list of those previously sanctioned by the EU. The bloc is working with the Arab League to halt the violence, and the league's chief, Nabil Elaraby, attended Thursday's meeting.

A statement from the foreign ministers said the crackdown by the Syrian government "risks taking Syria down a very dangerous path of violence, sectarian clashes and militarization."

LONDON (AP) -- Britain ordered all Iranian diplomats out of the U.K. within 48 hours and shuttered its ransacked embassy in Tehran on Wednesday, in a significant escalation of tensions between Iran and the West.

The ouster of the entire Iranian diplomatic corps deepens Iran's international isolation amid growing suspicions over its nuclear program. At least four other European countries also moved to reduce diplomatic contacts with Iran.

The British measures were announced by Foreign Secretary William Hague, who said Britain had withdrawn its entire diplomatic staff after angry mobs stormed the British Embassy compound and a diplomatic residence in Tehran, hauling down Union Jack flags, torching a vehicle and tossing looted documents through windows.

The hours-long assault Tuesday was reminiscent of the chaotic seizure of the U.S. Embassy in 1979. Protesters replaced the British flag with a banner in the name of a 7th-century Shiite saint, Imam Hussein, and one looter showed off a picture of Queen Elizabeth II apparently taken off a wall.

"The idea that the Iranian authorities could not have protected our embassy or that this assault could have taken place without some degree of regime consent is fanciful," Hague told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

The diplomatic fallout from the attack quickly spread to other Western countries with embassies in Iran. Norway announced it was temporarily closing its embassy as a precaution, and Germany, France and the Netherlands all recalled their ambassadors for consultations. Italy said it was considering such a recall.

Iran currently has 18 diplomats in Britain. About 24 British Embassy staff and dependents were based in Tehran.

The White House condemned the attacks and spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. backed Britain's ejection of Iranian diplomats.

European Union foreign ministers were to meet Thursday to consider possible new sanctions against Tehran.

France's budget minister, Valerie Pecresse, said the EU should consider a total embargo on Iranian oil or a freeze on Iranian central bank holdings. British officials said the U.K. would likely support new measures against Iran's energy sector.

CAIRO (AP) -- First-time voter Hassan Abdel-Hamid had no idea who to vote for in Egypt's first parliamentary elections since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, so he followed the guidance of the friendly activist from the Muslim Brotherhood who handed him a flyer outside the polling station.

The fundamentalist Brotherhood was emerging as the biggest winner in partial results Wednesday from the first voting this week in Egypt's landmark election in which voters turned out in unexpected droves.

That strength is not necessarily testimony to widespread Egyptian support for its Islamist ideology. More crucial were two other major factors: the Brotherhood's history of helping the poor and a highly disciplined organization of activists, who on the two days of voting seemed to be everywhere.

Outside polling stations around the country, Brotherhood activists were set up with laptop computers in booths, helping voters find their district and voter numbers - which they wrote on cards advertising the party's candidates. Elsewhere, they posted activists outside to wave banners, pass out flyers or simply chat up voters waiting in line.

And in a marked change from previous elections, when Brotherhood members running as independents touted their Islamic credentials, this time their campaign focused on promises to improve services, to appeal to poor voters.

"Do you think any of these guys prays when it's not a holiday?" said Yasser Dawahi, pointing to four friends hanging out in his auto garage in the poor Cairo neighborhood of Zawiya al-Hamra before the vote. All said they'd vote for the Brotherhood.

"It's all about services, clean streets, jobs and hospitals. That's what's important," he said.

For decades, the Mubarak regime suppressed the Brotherhood, which was banned but still established a vast network of activists and charities offering free food and medical services. It transformed this into a potent campaign machine, holding rallies and wallpapering neighborhoods with banners for its Freedom and Justice Party. After voting closed in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria on Tuesday night, Brothers even lined up to protect the road while ballot boxes were moved to the counting center.

During the voting Monday and Tuesday, many parties violated a legal ban on campaigning during elections, but the Brotherhood's operation was by far the slickest and most widespread. The campaigning at the polls is particularly effective because so many parties are new and most Egyptians know almost nothing about them.

Abdel-Hamid, the first time voter, said he received the flyer telling him how to vote from "the guys with the computer."

They sat across the street in front of a huge Freedom and Justice Party banner, punching voters' ID numbers into their computer to get their voter numbers and make sure they were in the right place.

One of them, 25-year-old Essam Ahmed, acknowledged he was a party activist, but denied the group was campaigning. "Here I'm just a volunteer for all citizens," he said.

Shortly after an Associated Press reporters arrived, the men took down the party banner and wrote voter information on plain white paper instead of party brochures.

The election is likely to be the best indicator of Egyptians' political sentiments after decades of elections under Mubarak that were so rigged that few people even bothered to vote. The parliament it seats will play a role in determining if Egypt's new government remains secular or moves in a profoundly Islamist direction.

The Obama administration on Wednesday hailed the vote as Egypt's freest and fairest ever. This week's voting took place in nine of Egypt's 27 provinces, including the capital Cairo. In subsequent rounds, other provinces will take their turn in a process that will last till March.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- The central banks of the wealthiest countries, trying to prevent a debt crisis in Europe from exploding into a global panic, swept in Wednesday to shore up the world financial system by making it easier for banks to borrow American dollars.

Stock markets around the world roared their approval. The Dow Jones industrial average rose almost 500 points, its best day in two and a half years. Stocks climbed 5 percent in Germany and more than 4 percent in France.

The action appeared to be the most extraordinary coordinated effort by the central banks since they cut interest rates together in October 2008, at the depths of the financial crisis.

But while it should ease borrowing for banks, it does little to solve the underlying problem of mountains of government debt in Europe, leaving markets still waiting for a permanent fix. European leaders gather next week for a summit on the debt crisis.

The European Central Bank, which has been reluctant to intervene to stop the growing crisis on its own continent, was joined in the decision by the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the central banks of Canada, Japan and Switzerland.

"The purpose of these actions is to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity," the central banks said in a joint statement.

China, which has the largest economy in the world after the European Union and the United States, reduced the amount of money its banks are required to hold in reserve, another attempt to free up cash for lending.

The display of worldwide coordination was meant to restore confidence in the global financial system and to demonstrate that central banks will do what they can to prevent a repeat of 2008.

That fall, fear gripped the financial system after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a storied American investment house. Banks around the world severely restricted lending to each other. Investors panicked, resulting in a meltdown in stocks.

In October 2008, the ECB, the Fed and other central banks cut interest rates together. That action, like Wednesday's, was a signal from the central banks to the financial markets that they would be players, not spectators.

This year, investors have been nervously watching Europe to see whether they should take the same approach and dump stocks. World stock markets have been unusually volatile since summer.

The European crisis, which six months ago seemed focused on the relatively small economy of Greece, now threatens the existence of the euro, the common currency used by 17 countries in Europe.

There have also been signs, particularly in Europe, that it is becoming more difficult to borrow money, especially as U.S. money market funds lend less money to banks in the euro nations because of perceived risk from the debt crisis.

European banks cut business loans by 16 percent in the third quarter. And no one knows how much European banks will lose on their massive holdings of bonds of heavily indebted countries. Until the damage is clear, banks are reluctant to lend.

Banks are also being pressed by European governments to increase their buffers against possible losses. That helps stabilize the banking system but reduces the amount of money available to lend to businesses.

"European banks are having trouble borrowing in general, including in dollars," said Joseph Gagnon, a former Fed official and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "The Fed did the Europeans a favor."

The central banks are reducing by half a percentage point - to about 0.6 percent - the rate they charge banks for short-term dollar loans. The lower rate is designed to get credit flowing again. Dollars are the No. 1 currency for international trade.

The Fed had offered dollar swaps from December 2007, when world financial markets were weakening because of fear about subprime mortgages, until February 2010. It reopened the program in May 2010, as European debt concerns grew, and planned to end it Aug. 1, 2012.

Wednesday, in addition to lowering the interest rate on dollars borrowed, the Fed extended the program to Feb. 1, 2013. If it works, the rates on dollar loans will drop, and stock and bond markets will calm down.

"It shows that policymakers are on the case," said Roberto Perli, managing director at the International Strategy & Investment Group, an investment firm. He said it has symbolic value even if it does not have a big impact on credit markets.

The decision to cut the interest charged on the dollar swaps was taken by the Federal Reserve following a videoconference held by Fed officials on Monday morning. The Fed's policy-setting panel approved it 9-1. The president of the Fed's regional bank in Richmond, Va., voted no.

In New York, the stock market jumped at the opening bell and added to its gains throughout the day. It finished up 490.05 points, its best day since March 23, 2009, two weeks after the stock market's post-meltdown low.

RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- The victory of an Islamist Party in Morocco's parliamentary elections appears to be one more sign that religious-based parties are benefiting the most from the new freedoms brought by the Arab Spring.

Across the Middle East, parties referencing Islam have made great strides, offering an alternative to corrupt, long serving dictators, who have often ruled with close Western support.

The Justice and Development Party dominated Morocco's elections through a combination of good organization, an outsider status and not being too much of a threat to Morocco's all-powerful king.

By taking 107 seats out of the 395 seats, almost twice as many as the second place finisher, the party ensured that King Mohammed VI must pick the next prime minister from its ranks and to form the next government out of the dozen parties in Morocco's parliament.

It is the first time the PJD - as it is known by its French initials - will be part of the government and its outsider status could be just what Morocco, wracked by pro-democracy protests, needs.

Although it didn't bring down the government, the North African kingdom of 32 million, just across the water from Spain, was still touched by the waves of unrest that swept the Arab world following the revolution in Tunisia, with tens of thousands marching in the streets calling for greater freedoms and less corruption.

The king responded by modifying the constitution to give the next parliament and prime minister more powers, and held early elections.

But there was still a vigorous movement to boycott the elections. There was only a 45 percent turnout in Friday's polls, and many of those who went to vote turned in blank ballots or crossed out every party listed to show their dissatisfaction with the system.

Election observers from the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute estimated that up to a fifth of the ballots they saw counted had been defaced in such a way.

In the face of such widespread distrust of politics, historian and political analyst Maati Monjib said a government led by a new political force could be the answer.

"If the PJD forms a coalition in a free and independent way and not with a party of the Makhzen," he said referring to the catch-all phrase for the entrenched establishment around the king, "this will be a big step forward for Morocco."

In Tunisia, Morocco, and on Monday most likely also Egypt, newly enfranchised populations are choosing religious parties as a rebuke to the old systems, which often espoused liberal or left-wing ideologies.

"The people link Islam and political dignity," said Monjib, who describes himself as coming from the left end of the political spectrum. "There is a big problem of dignity in the Arab world and the people see the Islamists as a way of getting out of the sense of subjugation and inferiority towards the West."

ROME (AP) -- Ninety-three percent of Italians believe cutting the country's hobbling public debt is a top priority, but few are willing to make personal sacrifices to do so, according to an AP-GfK poll released Tuesday.

Only about a quarter of Italians favor reforming labor laws to make it easier to fire workers, or raising the retirement age from 65 (and sometimes lower) to 67 - two of the reforms considered critical to curb Italy's public spending and boost economic growth.

But while the European Union is demanding such reforms, 52 percent of Italians still have a favorable view of the EU, and a full 76 percent think Italy should stay in the 17-nation eurozone, according to the survey, conducted last week.

Italy has been engulfed in financial turmoil for weeks as markets woke up to the enormous size of its debt - euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion), a eurozone high coming in at 120 percent of gross domestic product. The market turmoil and a loss of confidence in Italy's ability to repay forced Premier Silvio Berlusconi to resign Nov. 12, ending his 17-year domination of Italian politics.

The AP-GfK poll was conducted Nov. 16-20, during the first days of economist Mario Monti's new government, made up of bankers, academics and corporate executives instead of politicians. Monti is under enormous pressure to quickly rein in the debt and get the economy growing again.

Italy's economy is hampered by high labor costs, low productivity, fat government payrolls, excessive taxes, choking bureaucracy, and low numbers of college graduates. Yet as the third-largest economy in the eurozone, Italy is too big for Europe to bail out like it did Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

Monti got high marks from the Italians surveyed after he was tapped to lead the country, garnering a 67 percent favorability rating. Only 10 percent had a negative view and 16 percent were neutral.

"Let's say there's hope," said Fortunato Porcheddu, 63, as he strolled Tuesday with a friend through a piazza in Rome. "If I close my eyes and look back over the past 15 years and everything that has happened, I cringe."

Monti has pledged to reform Italy's pension system, re-impose a property tax annulled by Berlusconi's government, fight tax evasion, streamline civil court proceedings, get more women and young people into the workforce and cut political costs.

But, critically, only 32 percent of Italians surveyed are strongly confident that his technocratic government can fix the country's economic ills. Forty-two percent say they're "moderately confident" and 22 percent say they have little or no confidence he can turn Italy's finances around.

While there is some hopefulness about the future of the economy - 55 percent anticipate a better situation five years from now - the longer-term picture is gloomier. Only 35 percent of Italians think people will be better off in 20 years than they are today, while 43 percent anticipate a harder life for the next generation.

"Our generation always looked forward with the possibility of improvement," said Alfonso Marozzi, 72, as he strolled in Rome. "Now, young people are resigned to wonder if they'll be able to hold onto what their parents were able to build. There's a lack of hope in the future."

The survey found that Italians are especially concerned about corruption: 87 percent called it an "extremely" or "very serious" problem. Unemployment, the debt and organized crime followed.

A full 93 percent of Italians said reducing the public debt was either an "extremely" or "very important" goal for the government to tackle over the next decade. Only 2 percent said it was "not too important" or "not at all important."

Yet only 26 percent of those surveyed favored raising the retirement age to 67 to help cut spending, while 67 percent were opposed. Parliament recently passed legislation raising the retirement age to 67 starting in 2026 and to 70 by 2050, but critics say the reforms are meaningless because any savings they produce are too far in the future.

Monti is expected to seek more reforms to the pension system and to try to make the contribution system more equitable.

Italian politicians have made few efforts to reform the labor market, and the AP-Gfk poll shows why. Seventy percent of respondents opposed deregulating the labor market to make it easier to fire workers, with only 22 percent favoring it. Of the 70 percent opposed, a full 56 percent were "strongly opposed."

Ultimately, labor market reforms are likely to be much broader than just changes involving firing. Monti's government is expected to open up "closed professions," such as lawyers, notaries and taxi drivers, which in some cases restrict entry to people with connections or set standard prices that deprive the market of competition.

Monti also plans to loosen Italy's system of collective bargaining, in which unions negotiate with entire industries rather than individual companies. Italy's biggest carmaker, Fiat, told unions Monday that it is tossing out the old model as of Jan. 1 and will seek to negotiate new contracts plant by plant - something it has already done in four locations.

Raj Badiani, an economist at IHS Global Insight in London, said Fiat "is probably the forerunner of what we need to see." But he cautioned: "Trade union opposition to that will be immense."

Unions have balked at any labor market reforms, and so far the austerity measures that have been passed by Parliament haven't touched the thorny issue.

Still, the AP-GfK survey found that labor unions in general get broadly negative ratings from Italians, with 53 percent of respondents saying they "only sometimes" or "never" trust unions to do the right thing.

Only 20 percent of Italians surveyed had a favorable opinion of Berlusconi, with 67 percent having an unfavorable view and 56 having a "strongly unfavorable" impression of the billionaire media mogul.

After Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, the leader with the most favorable ratings? President Barack Obama, with a 78 percent favorability rating.

Armando Manni, a 50-year-old who tends olive groves in Tuscany, said young Italians have to become more like their Anglo-Saxon colleagues and leave home to pursue their dreams rather than stay where their mothers cook, clean and wash their clothes until they're well past age 40.

"A country that doesn't have dreams is a country that is almost dead," he said as he shopped for tomatoes.

The AP-GfK poll of 1,025 Italian adults across the country was conducted Nov. 16-20 using landlines and cell phones by GfK Eurisko Italy under direction of the global GfK Group. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

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AP Poll is at http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

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Jennifer Agiesta in Washington, Paolo Santalucia in Rome and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed.

CAIRO (AP) -- Egyptian riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets stormed into Cairo's Tahrir Square Saturday to dismantle a protest tent camp, setting off clashes that injured at least 507 people and raising tensions days before the first elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster.

The scenes of protesters fighting with black-clad police forces were reminiscent of the 18-day uprising that forced an end to Mubarak's rule in February. Hundreds of protesters fought back, hurling stones and setting an armored police vehicle ablaze.

The violence raised fears of new unrest surrounding the parliamentary elections that are due to begin in nine days' time. Public anger has risen over the slow pace of reforms and apparent attempts by Egypt's ruling generals to retain power over a future civilian government.

Witnesses said the clashes began when riot police dismantled a small tent camp set up to commemorate the hundreds of protesters killed in the uprising and attacked around 200 peaceful demonstrators who had camped in the square overnight in an attempt to restart a long-term sit-in there.

"Violence breeds violence," said Sahar Abdel-Mohsen, an engineer who joined in the protest after a call went out on Twitter urging people to come to Tahrir to defend against the police attacks. "We are tired of this and we are not leaving the square."

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and beat protesters with batons, clearing the square at one point and pushing the fighting into surrounding side streets of downtown Cairo. State TV, quoting the Health Ministry, reported that 507 people were injured, including 19 policemen.

Abdel-Mohsen said a friend was wounded by a rubber bullet that struck his head and that she saw another protester wounded by a pellet in his neck.

Crowds swarmed an armored police truck, rocking it back and forth and setting it ablaze. Black smoke rose over the crowd.

After nightfall, protesters swarmed back into the square in the thousands, setting tires ablaze in the street and filling the area with an acrid, black smoke screen. Police appeared to retreat to surrounding areas, leaving protesters free to retake and barricade themselves inside the square. The air was still thick with stinging tear gas.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf urged the protesters to clear the square.

Saturday's confrontation was one of the few since the uprising to involve police forces, which have largely stayed in the background while the military takes charge of security. There was no military presence in and around the square on Saturday.

The black-clad police were a hated symbol of Mubarak's regime.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia is facing a heightened risk of being drawn into conflicts at its borders that have the potential of turning nuclear, the nation's top military officer said Thursday.

Gen. Nikolai Makarov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, cautioned over NATO's expansion eastward and warned that the risks of Russia being pulled into local conflicts have "risen sharply."

Makarov added, according to Russian news agencies, that "under certain conditions local and regional conflicts may develop into a full-scale war involving nuclear weapons."

A steady decline in Russia's conventional forces has prompted the Kremlin to rely increasingly on its nuclear deterrent.

The nation's military doctrine says it may use nuclear weapons to counter a nuclear attack on Russia or an ally, or a large-scale conventional attack that threatens Russia's existence.

Russia sees NATO's expansion to include former Soviet republics and ex-members of the Soviet bloc in eastern and central Europe as a key threat to Russia's security.

Makarov specifically referred to NATO's plans to offer membership to Georgia and Ukraine as potentially threatening Russia's security. Russia routed Georgian forces in a brief August 2008 war over a separatist province of South Ossetia. Moscow later recognized South Ossettia and another breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia as independent states and increased its military presence there.

Makarov warned that the planned pullout of NATO forces from Afghanistan could trigger conflicts in neighboring ex-Soviet Central Asian nations that could "grow into a large-scale war."

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- The Pakistani government said Thursday that it has not decided whether to accept a resignation offer from its ambassador to the U.S. over a reported attempt to enlist Washington's help to rein in the country's military after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

The government has summoned Ambassador Husain Haqqani to Islamabad to question him about any role he may have played in the growing controversy, which was first disclosed in an Oct. 10 column in the Financial Times, said Farhatullah Babar, a Pakistani presidential spokesman.

Mansoor Ijaz, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin, said in the column that a senior Pakistani diplomat asked him on May 9 - a week after U.S. commandos killed bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town - to pass a message from President Asif Ali Zardari to the U.S. asking for help. Ijaz did not name the diplomat.

Zardari was reportedly worried that the U.S. raid had so humiliated his government, which did not know about it beforehand, that the military may stage a coup - something that has happened repeatedly in Pakistan's history, said Ijaz.

The memo sent to Adm. Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer at the time, reportedly offered to curb support to Islamist militants from Pakistan's military intelligence service, the ISI, in exchange for American assistance, Ijaz said.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry has called the Financial Times column "a total fabrication."

But Mullen's spokesman, Capt. John Kirby, confirmed to Foreign Policy's website Wednesday that Mullen did receive the memo from Ijaz, but he did not find it credible and ignored it. "Adm. Mullen had no recollection of the memo and no relationship with Mr. Ijaz," Kirby said.

Haqqani said Thursday that he did not write or deliver the memo, but offered his resignation to end the controversy.

"I do not want this non-issue of an insignificant memo written by a private individual and not considered credible by its lone recipient to undermine democracy," Haqqani told The Associated Press.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Wednesday that Iran won't retreat "one iota" from its nuclear program, denying claims that it seeks atomic weapons. Key ally Russia gave the Islamic Republic a major boost, rejecting tighter sanctions despite a U.N. watchdog report detailing suspected arms-related advances.

In his first reaction to the report, Ahmadinejad strongly chided the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency - a day after it claimed Tehran was on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon - saying the IAEA is discrediting itself by siding with "absurd" U.S. accusations.

The comments, broadcast live on state TV, were a sharp rebuke to Western warnings that Iran appears to be engaged in a dangerous defiance of international demands to control the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions.

MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian space probe aiming to land on a Mars moon was stuck circling the Earth after equipment failure Wednesday, and scientists raced to fire up its engines before the whole thing came crashing down.

One U.S. space expert said the craft could become the most dangerous manmade object ever to hit the planet.

The unmanned Phobos-Ground craft was successfully launched by a Zenit-2 booster rocket just after midnight Moscow time Wednesday (2016 GMT Tuesday) from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It separated from the booster about 11 minutes later and was to fire its engines twice to set out on its path to the Red Planet, but never did.

Russia's Federal Space Agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said neither of the two engine burns worked, probably due to the failure of the craft's orientation system. He said space engineers have three days to reset the spacecraft's computer program to make it work before its batteries die.

The mishap is the latest in a series of recent launch failures that have raised concerns about the condition of Russia's space industries. The Russian space agency said it will establish its own quality inspection teams at rocket factories to tighten oversight over production quality.

The $170 million Phobos-Ground was Russia's first interplanetary mission since a botched 1996 robotic mission to Mars, which failed when the probe crashed shortly after the launch due to an engine failure. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and the latest spacecraft aimed to take ground samples on Phobos.

CANNES, France (AP) -- Palestinian efforts to join U.N. agencies beyond its cultural arm are "not beneficial for anybody" and could lead to cuts in funding sure to affect millions of people, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon warned Thursday.

In an Associated Press interview, the U.N. chief reiterated the world body's support for a viable, independent Palestinian state - but lamented the Palestinian Authority's efforts to join U.N. affiliates before the U.N. itself.

Ban also expressed hope for greater participation of women and youths in Libya's future government, and praised a new Arab League deal with Syria aiming to end President Bashar Assad's bloody crackdown on protesters.

Potential funding woes for U.N. agencies were high in Ban's mind.

LONDON (AP) -- Markets plunged Tuesday on fears that Europe's plan to save the euro was already unraveling after the decision by Greece's leader to call a referendum on the country's latest rescue package.

Should the Greek government lose the referendum vote - and opinion polls say it's going to have real trouble getting enough support - then the implications for Greece and Europe are massive. The vote could end up deciding whether Greece remains in the 17-nation euro currency union.

Markets, it seems, are taking the view that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won't be able to pull off a come-from-behind victory - assuming that his government holds together. Papandreou saw his parliamentary majority cut to 2 seats Tuesday after one lawmaker defected, and at least seven more Socialist deputies have called for the formation of a cross-party, national unity government.

"Talk about your all-time bonehead moves," said Benjamin Reitzes, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets. "It would reintroduce the risk that Greece could face a disorderly default and potentially be forced to leave the euro."

Papandreou stunned investors, as well as his own citizens and his partners in the eurozone, by announcing late Monday that a plebiscite will be held in what he called "a supreme act of democracy and of patriotism for the people to make their own decision." A confidence vote in the Socialist government will also take place at the end of this week.

The announcement came as the shine from last week's European deal appeared to be wearing off.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- An air strike hit a refugee camp in southern Somalia, killing at least five people and wounding 45, most of them children, an international aid agency said Monday. Kenya's military acknowledged carrying out an air raid but said it targeted only Islamist militants.

Details emerged, meanwhile, about an American-Somali man who al-Shabab said carried out a suicide attack against an African Union base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Saturday. Abdisalan Hussein Ali was 19 at the time he disappeared from Minnesota, which has a large Somali-American community, in November 2008.

In July 2010, he was among several men indicted in a long-running investigation in Minnesota. Charges against him included conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiracy to kill, maim, kidnap and injure. The U.S. hasn't yet confirmed the identity of the bomber. FBI spokesman Kyle Loven in Minneapolis said the agency is using DNA to try to make a positive identification.

A Somali Islamist militant group used the casualties from the Kenyan air strike as a recruitment tool to try to win even more recruits. Kenyan military spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir, though, blamed an al-Shabab fighter for the civilian deaths, saying an al-Shabab fighter drove a burning truck of ammunition into the refugee camp in the town of Jilib where it exploded.

Chirchir said the Kenyan air force hit the truck on Sunday as it drove away from an al-Shabab training camp and accused the driver of attempting to use the refugees as a human shield. He said 10 al-Shabab members were killed and 47 wounded in the attack, citing informers on the ground.

But Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medicines Sans Frontieres or MSF, said the aerial bombardment hit the camp for displaced people. MSF said it treated 52 wounded people. As of Monday morning, MSF confirmed five deaths and said it was still treating 45 wounded, 31 of them children. Seven other patients had been discharged after receiving treatment. The head of the MSF mission in Somalia, Gautam Chatterjee, said most of the wounded had shrapnel injuries.

ERCIS, Turkey (AP) -- A 2-week-old baby girl and her mother were pulled alive from the rubble of an apartment building on Tuesday in a dramatic rescue, nearly 48 hours after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake toppled some 2,000 buildings in eastern Turkey.

Television footage showed rescuers in orange jumpsuits applauding as the baby, Azra Karaduman, was removed from the wreckage. A rescuer cradled the naked infant, who was wrapped in a blanket and handed over to a medic.

Hours later, the baby's mother, Semiha, was pulled from the flattened building, where she had been pinned next to a sofa, and rushed to an ambulance. The father was also in the rubble, but it was unclear if he survived.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Prime Minister George Papandreou called for unity across Greece's political spectrum Tuesday, as European officials struggled to come up with a definitive solution to Greece's debt woes and prevent it from dragging down other EU nations.

A barrage of meetings among European finance ministers leaders is to culminate in a Wednesday summit where leaders are expected to shore up the eurozone bailout fund to contain the continental debt turmoil and prevent the nation from a catastrophic default.

Eurozone governments hope the enhanced European Financial Stability Fund, or EFSF, will be able to protect larger countries such as Italy and Spain from being engulfed in the debt crisis.

"This is a critical time and I hope that we reach decisions tomorrow - that is the will of our partners, and it is our will," Papandreou said as he briefed Greece's president, Karolos Papoulias, on the latest developments. "We must remain clear-headed and calm with a sense of unity on all sides and all political parties."

The prime minister, who stressed that banks must also share part of the burden of bailing out Greece, urged his European counterparts to act, saying Greece was determined to follow through on pledges to reform its economy.

"We Greeks have demonstrated repeatedly, not only that we fulfill our obligations but that we ourselves want to change our country," he said. "Now is the hour for Europe to take the decision needed to stop this escalating crisis, which is creating insecurity for all the people of Europe."

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel granted the go-ahead on Tuesday for construction of 1,100 new Jewish housing units in east Jerusalem, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any freeze in settlement construction, raising already heightened tensions after last week's Palestinian move to seek U.N. membership.

Israel's Interior Ministry said the homes would be built in Gilo, a sprawling Jewish enclave in southeast Jerusalem. It said construction could begin after a mandatory 60-day period for public comment, a process that spokesman Roi Lachmanovich called a formality.

The announcement drew swift condemnation from the Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as their future capital. The United States, European Union and United Nations all expressed disappointment with Israel's decision.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Israeli announcement was counterproductive to efforts to relaunch Mideast peace talks. She said both Israel and the Palestinians should avoid provocative actions, and that international mediators will remain focused on guiding the two sides back to direct negotiations.

Richard Miron, a spokesman for U.N. Mideast envoy Robert Serry, said the announcement "sends the wrong signal at this sensitive time."

The Palestinians have demanded that Israel halt all settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the adjacent West Bank - territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war - as a condition for resuming peace talks.

Since capturing east Jerusalem, Israel has annexed the area and ringed it with about 10 Jewish enclaves that are meant to solidify its control. Gilo, which is close to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, is among the largest, with about 50,000 residents. Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem has not been internationally recognized.

Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem city council member who is critical of east Jerusalem construction, said city officials had given initial approval to the Gilo project more than a year ago.

Margalit said he didn't expect the project to be "an obstacle of peace" since it is in an existing Jewish area that is widely expected to remain part of Israel in any peace deal. But he said Interior Minister Eli Yishai, leader of the hawkish Shas Party, appeared to have timed the approval as a response to the Palestinian statehood gambit. Yishai declined an interview request.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- Thousands of protesters armed with sticks and backed by armed military defectors overran a base of the elite Presidential Guards in Yemen's capital as fighting erupted across much of Sanaa on Monday. The death toll for the worst violence in months rose to nearly 50 in two days of clashes.

The protesters, joined by soldiers from the rebel 1st Armored Division, stormed the base without firing a single shot and seized a large number of firearms, according to witnesses and security officials. The anti-government force used sandbags to erect barricades as they advanced, providing their allied troops with the shelter they needed in case they took fire from inside the base. Republican Guards' troops did not fire at the protesters and eventually fled, leaving their weapons behind.

Violence has flared anew in Yemen in frustration after President Ali Abdullah Saleh dashed hopes raised by the U.S. last week that he was about to relinquish power after 33 years of autocratic rule.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday he won't be deterred from seeking U.N. recognition of a state of Palestine, despite what he said was "tremendous pressure" to drop the request and instead resume peace talks with Israel.

Abbas spoke to reporters en route to New York, where he is to seek U.N. membership for "Palestine" in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War. The U.S. and Israel oppose Abbas' bid, saying a state can be established only through negotiations.

Abbas has said that negotiations remain his preference, but that they must be based on the pre-1967 war lines and include a halt of all Israeli settlement construction on occupied land.

HAVANA (AP) -- Cuba accused former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson of "blackmail" and slander on Wednesday, categorically denying his claims that he was invited to the island to negotiate the release of a jailed American government subcontractor.

In an exclusive interview with the Associated Press, the Foreign Ministry's head of North American affairs, Josefina Vidal, said Cuba closed the door on Richardson's request to even see imprisoned Maryland-native Alan Gross only after the American politician described him as a "hostage," in an interview with AP.

"His request to see the prisoner ... became impossible due to his slanderous statements to the press in which he described Gross as a 'hostage' of the Cuban government," Vidal said. Richardson made the comment last Thursday after he said his demand to see Gross was rebuffed.

But Vidal said Cuba was already unhappy that word of Richardson's visit was leaked to the press even before it had begun.

"Even before he had met with a single Cuban official the media fallout and the speculation had begun," she said. Vidal insisted that no Cuban official ever led Richardson to believe he would leave the island with Gross.

ROME (AP) -- Italy's Parliament gave final approval to Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government's austerity measures, a combination of higher taxes, pension reform and slashed spending that sparked street protests in Rome.

The Chamber of Deputies passed the package by a vote of 314-300. The Senate, Parliament's upper chamber, already approved the measures.

Hundreds of demonstrators, some unleashing smoke bombs and others hurling paint, clashed with police in riot gear in the cobblestone squares and streets near Parliament as lawmakers were voting on the measures designed to fend off a financial crisis threatening much of Europe.

Earlier in the day, Berlusconi's government, whose allies had squabbled publicly over the package, won a crucial confidence vote called to discourage debate and hasten approval. European Central Bank and European Union leaders in Brussels had pressed Rome for quick passage to calm markets roiled by a crisis that could endanger the entire 17-member eurozone.

CAIRO (AP) -- Israel and Egypt's leadership tried Saturday to limit the damage in ties after protesters stormed Israel's embassy in Cairo, trashing offices and prompting the evacuation of nearly the entire staff from Egypt in the worst crisis between the countries since their 1979 peace treaty.

The 13-hour rampage deepened Israel's fears that it is growing increasingly isolated amid the Arab world's uprisings and, in particular, that Egypt is turning steadily against it after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the authoritarian leader who was a close ally.

In Israelis' eyes, the scene of cars burning outside the embassy and the tale of six Israeli guards trapped inside for hours in a steel-doored safe room underscored their view that anti-Israeli sentiment in Egypt was running free after decades of being contained by Mubarak's regime. The ousted leader's powerful security forces never would have let a protest get near the Nile-side embassy.

NEW DELHI (AP) -- A powerful bomb hidden in a briefcase ripped through a crowd of people waiting to enter a New Delhi courthouse Wednesday, killing 11 people and wounding scores more in the deadliest attack in India's capital in nearly three years.

An al-Qaida linked group claimed responsibility for the blast outside the High Court, though government officials said it was too early to name a suspect. The attack came despite a high alert across the city and renewed doubts about India's ability to protect even its most important institutions despite overhauling security after the 2008 Mumbai siege.

"Have we become so vulnerable that terrorist groups can almost strike at will?" opposition lawmaker Arun Jaitley asked in Parliament.

LONDON (AP) -- A British inquiry into the country's pursuit of terrorism suspects will examine new allegations about cozy ties between U.K. intelligence officials and Moammar Gadhafi's regime, Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday.

Security documents discovered after the fall of Tripoli have offered embarrassing examples of the warm relationships that British and American spies had developed with their Libyan counterparts.

The trove of files document efforts by the CIA and Britain's overseas intelligence agency MI6 in advising Gadhafi's regime on ending its international isolation. In return, the Western agencies won close cooperation as they hunted al-Qaida linked terrorism suspects.

Files discovered among tens of thousands of papers collected from an External Security building in Tripoli show how Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, now Libya's rebel military commander, was targeted for rendition.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- A Ghanaian teacher cowers in his house, certain he will be grabbed at a checkpoint because of his dark skin. Armed rebels detain 19 Ukrainian cooks and oil workers for several days on unsupported claims that they are really snipers for Moammar Gadhafi.

They're among thousands of foreigners caught in a web of suspicion as rebel fighters pursue the remnants of Gadhafi's forces. Gadhafi hired some foreigners as mercenaries, but many others held ordinary jobs in Libya, and the rebels who ousted the Gadhafi regime from most of Tripoli last month often seem to make little effort to tell them apart.

"How can we be snipers?" cook Maksim Shadrov asked angrily at a training center for oil workers in Tripoli where he, his wife and 17 other Ukrainians were being held.

"They are old. She is a woman. We are not snipers," he said, pointing to some members of his group. Even a rebel commander conceded that he had no evidence to the contrary, but held them nonetheless, despite a diplomat's efforts to free them.

ELAZAR, West Bank (AP) -- Israeli forces are seeking to prevent bloodshed when Palestinians march in support of a statehood drive this month, but they are preparing for worst-case scenarios, even authorizing West Bank settlers to shoot at Palestinians who approach their communities.

Palestinians say the rallies will be peaceful - a view shared by Israel's own security assessments - and will steer clear of any settlements. Yet, the combustible atmosphere and the long and deadly history of Israeli-Palestinian violence are raising the specter that events might spin out of control.

For the Palestinians, the mass marches are intended to boost their campaign to get the U.N. to recognize an independent state, a strategy they are trying because negotiations aimed at bringing about a state through a peace deal with Israel have been stalled for two years.

Settlers living on land the Palestinians want for their future state have long been targets for militant attacks; likewise, some settlers have attacked Palestinian civilians. The fear among settlers now is that even unarmed crowds - if large enough - could overrun their communities.

LONDON (AP) -- Four of the high-profile media organizations that have collaborated with WikiLeaks on its release of secret documents on Friday condemned the group's disclosure of its entire archive of uncensored U.S. State Department cables.

WikiLeaks announced that it had posted the last of its collection of 251,287 U.S. Embassy cables, a trove of diplomatic material whose exposure has embarrassed officials and laid bare examples of corruption and double-dealing around the globe.

But unlike previous releases, many if not all the newly-posted documents appeared to have been left uncensored - meaning that names and other details of people quoted in the often-sensitive cables are now freely available to all.

A joint statement published on the Guardian's website Friday said that the British publication and its international colleagues - The New York Times, Spanish daily El Pais and German newspaper Der Spiegel - "deplore the decision of WikiLeaks to publish the unredacted State Department cables, which may put sources at risk."

Le Monde, the French daily which also published some of WikiLeaks' documents, will join other media partners in signing the statement, according to executive editor Sylvie Kauffmann.

WikiLeaks members of staff have not returned repeated requests for comment sent in the past two days. But in a series of messages posted to Twitter, the group seemed to suggest that it had no choice but to post the archive to its website because copies of the document were already circulating freely online following a security breach at the site.

WikiLeaks has blamed the Guardian for the breach, pointing out that a sensitive password used to decrypt the files was published in a book put out by David Leigh, one of the paper's investigative reporters and a collaborator-turned-critic of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

But the Guardian, Leigh and others have rejected the claim, suggesting that the real problem was that WikiLeaks posted the encrypted file to the Web by accident and that Assange made the elementary mistake of reusing an old password.

The U.S. State Department has also condemned the latest release.

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Greg Keller in Paris contributed to this report.

PARIS (AP) -- A Western diplomat says a global conference on the future of Libya will urge the U.N. Security Council to press ahead with a new resolution that would help free up billions in frozen Libyan assets worldwide.

The diplomat, who requested anonymity to discuss details before publication of the summit's conclusions, said Thursday that participants would vow to put the United Nations at the center of coordinating future assistance to Libya.

Details were contained in a draft of a planned joint statement from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron, the hosts of the Paris talks.

Cameron and Sarkozy were also calling on more countries and international bodies to recognize the National Transitional Council, whose leaders were attending, as Libya's legitimate government.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- It's become a nightly duel in Bahrain: Security forces and anti-government protesters waging hit-and-run clashes in one of the simmering conflicts of the Arab Spring.

So far, the skirmishes have failed to gel into another serious challenge to the Gulf nation's Western-backed monarchy after crushing a reform rebellion months ago. But there are sudden signs that Shiite-led demonstrators could be poised to raise the stakes again on the strategic island, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Hundreds of demonstrators Wednesday made their boldest attempt in months to reclaim control of a central square in the capital Manama, which was the symbolic hub of the protest movement after it began in February. Riot police used buses to block roads and flooded streets with tear gas to drive back the marchers before dawn.

Hours later, mourners gathered in a Shiite village in another part of Bahrain for a 14-year-old boy they claim was killed by security forces. Clashes flared until early Thursday across the oil hub area of Sitra before the boy's burial.

BRUSSELS (AP) -- NATO said Tuesday the situation in the Libyan capital of Tripoli remains very dangerous and the alliance will continue its operations over the country, bombing forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi if they keep fighting.

But spokesman Col. Roland Lavoie told reporters that pro-Gadhafi forces are severely degraded and losing strength through desertions and defections.

"Our military mission has not changed. It remains to protect the civilian population, enforce the no-fly zone and the arms embargo," he said of the U.N. Security Council-authorized military action to protect civilians. "We will conduct strikes wherever necessary to protect the population of Libya."

Lavoie spoke at a news conference in Naples, Italy, also taking questions from reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels by video link.

"The situation in Tripoli is still very serious and very dangerous," Lavoie said. "Snipers, shelling, missiles could do much damage, but they can't change the course of history or the outcome of this campaign."

NEW DELHI (AP) -- Pradeep Bhatia cannot remember how many times he has paid bribes to government officials. From having an electricity meter installed to getting past traffic police officers on a busy day, he knows that in India, everything has a price.

The 50-year-old mechanic was so fed up with graft that he took a two-hour bus ride to New Delhi on Thursday to join hundreds of others outside a jail where an anti-corruption crusader was on a hunger strike to pressure the government to strengthen reform legislation.

Anna Hazare's protest has struck a chord with a wide swath of the middle class in a nation where corruption has become so entrenched that there is an informal price list for the bribes required for most routine government services.

KUT, Iraq (AP) -- Bomb blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities Monday, killing 60 security forces and civilians in the worst attack this year, one that highlighted al-Qaida's resolve and ability to wreak havoc.

The bloodbath comes less than two weeks after Iraqi officials said they would be open to a small number of U.S. forces staying in the country past a Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline.

The blasts were coordinated to go off Monday morning and included parked car bombs, roadside bombs, a suicide bomber driving a vehicle that rammed into a police station and even bombs attached to lightpoles.

The scope of the violence - seven explosions went off in different towns in Diyala province alone - emphasized that insurgents are still able to carry out attacks despite repeated crackdowns by Iraqi and U.S. forces.

Iraqis were furious at security officials and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Argentine President Cristina Fernandez is pledging to protect the nation's economy after trouncing her opponents in the country's first open and simultaneous primary.

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) -- A Libyan rebel spokesman says rebel fighters have captured the key oil terminal of Brega from Moammar Gadhafi's troops after three weeks of fighting.

Mohammed al-Rijali says "Brega is liberated."

He says he was with the fighters when they took control of the strategic port earlier on Thursday. He spoke to The Associated Press over the telephone from nearby Ajdabiya.

The rebel claim could not be immediately verified.

BEIRUT (AP) -- A bomb went off in a north Beirut suburb Thursday, killing two people and damaging several cars, including one belonging to a judge, security officials said.

It was not immediately clear if the bomb in the busy suburb of Antelias went off by mistake or whether it had a timer, the security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with regulations.

The explosion in a parking lot damaged at least four cars, including one with judicial license plates, the officials said.

The officials said they do not believe the judge was the target since his car has been recently used by his son, an engineer.

LONDON (AP) -- Violence and looting spread to new areas of London on Monday - and to a second major city - as shops and cars were set ablaze and authorities struggled to contain the spiraling disorder on a third night of rioting in Britain's capital, which will host next summer's Olympic Games.

The worst unrest in London in decades saw buildings, vehicles and garbage dumps set alight, stores burglarized and police officers pelted with bottles and fireworks, as groups of young people rampaged through neighborhoods across the capital.

Fire crews battled to control a raging blaze that swept through a 100-year-old family run furniture store in Croydon, in south London, and forced nearby homes to be evacuated.

In the nation's central city of Birmingham, dozens of people attacked shops in a main retail district - spreading the chaos beyond London for the first time since violence broke out on Saturday night.

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BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian forces launched a pre-dawn raid on an eastern city in an intensified crackdown as the government tried to keep the uprising from escalating during the holy month of Ramadan. The assault, and another on a central town, killed at least 10 people.

An activist in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour told The Associated Press the military launched a pre-dawn raid, attacking from four sides and taking control of eight neighborhoods.

Abdul-Karim Rihawi, the Damascus-based chief of the Syrian Human Rights League, said at least 23 people were killed in Deir el-Zour. Rami Abdul-Rhaman, who heads the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said he can confirm four deaths in the city but the number is believed to be much higher.

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- NATO says four of its service members have been killed by insurgents in two separate attacks in Afghanistan.

In a statement Sunday, NATO says two were killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan and another two in an attack in the south. It did not provide their nationalities or any other details.

The attack comes a day after where the Taliban shot down a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter, killing 38 people, including 30 American troops.

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BRUSSELS (AP) -- Financial officials from the Group of Seven industrialized nations will discuss how to coordinate action among their countries' central banks, a person familiar with the matter said Saturday, following several days of market panic and a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the level and timing of the contacts had yet to be confirmed.

Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating Friday night added to growing fears over debt levels and economic growth in the world's biggest economy and in large European nations such as Italy and Spain. The downgrade is also set to hurt Europe, whose economy is closely linked to the U.S. and whose weak members depend on strong demand abroad for their goods to help them grow.

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