One of the good things about spending vacation time away from the computer and second-by-second news is that it's easier to see the big picture. And one thing that came into focus during my recent beach time -- and is even more clear today -- is that the health-care "reform" making its way through Congress has disaster written all over it unless there's a clear, understandable and affordable public option in the final versioEven with a public option, it may be a disaster unless it's carefully thought out. Alas, care and thought don't seem to have much sway these days with all the shrieking about "death panels" and getting "the rich" to pick up the tab for everyone.

My problem has nothing to do with the supposed socialization of medicine and the various other horrors invoked by opponents. My problem is that any piece of legislation that runs more than 1,000 pages -- the House version weighs in at 1,017 -- is certain to contain enough ambiguities, contradictions and just plain mistakes to ensure years of lucrative employment for countless lawyers, lobbyists and experts who will pick away at it.

I'm profoundly unimpressed by people who wave around pieces of the legislation to "prove" this or that. That's because something as long and complex as this has plenty of provisions that allow you to show whatever you want to show. A Rorschach test, as it were. It's like citing verses from the Bible or the Koran to "prove" philosophies ranging from universal love to a sacred duty to destroy unbelievers in the name of God.

I'm no fan of our existing health-care system, even though it's been working fine for me because I'm well insured, have access to family and friends who are doctors, can afford out-of-network specialists, and have generally managed to end-run the hideous insurance company bureaucracies that drive more and more medical decisions.

With all due respect, the idea that there is a "free market" for health-care consumers is nonsense. A free market assumes that participants are knowledgeable and understand the choices they're being asked to make. That's not the case with health care, as anyone who has tried to analyze Medicare-supplement plans or pick among insurance options offered by his employer can tell you. Should you find yourself in a rural area far from home with a mysterious and troubling pain, you're not exactly in a position to bargain with the local walk-in clinic or hospital emergency room. The health-care status quo isn't going to work over the long term. For one thing, absent a huge change, the cost of Medicare threatens to financially cripple the country. Plus, we already have non-medical forces determining how care works. Insurance companies increasingly try to tell doctors and hospitals and medical-device makers what procedures to perform, what to charge for them and what drugs to prescribe.

Talk to any doctor in a practice that's part of an insurance network, and you'll probably find there's at least one form-filler-outer for each physician. Medicare, which covers about 45 million people, isn't any fun for doctors -- some of the reimbursement levels are ludicrously low -- but at least they know when they'll get paid and what's covered and what isn't. Insurance companies are far less consistent in what they cover and what and when they pay.

For the most part, the only ones who actually pay -- or try to pay -- the full stated price of hospitalization and prescription drugs are uninsured or underinsured people, who frequently go broke trying to cover their bills. People with good medical insurance and prescription-drug plans benefit from the steep discounts that insurers negotiate.

Had the Obama administration tried simply to expand Medicare, with all its imperfections, I'd be a lot more confident about health-care reform achieving something useful. If there were a simple, clear public option providing benchmarks against which to measure insurance company performance, that might work. But no public option and a 1,017-page bill designed to fix our medical system? Good luck on that, fans. Even at the beach, there will be no escape.

The most dominant political dynasty of the 20th century has lost its youngest son, leaving many to wonder whether the next generation has what it takes to continue the Kennedy family's legacy.

At the peak of their power, the Kennedys scaled the highest political mountains and plumbed the depths of despair in near equal measure: John became the second youngest U.S. president and then was assassinated; Robert served as a senator and attorney general and reached for the White House before he too was gunned down; Joseph, the eldest and the aviator who first carried the family's aspirations for political greatness was killed in action in World War II.

And Edward, known as Teddy, picked up the pieces of his family's shattered legacy and became a thundering partisan, an unapologetic liberal leader who become one of the most prolific legislators of all time.

Now that he's gone, which, if any, of Rose and Joe Kennedy's 26 living grandchildren can step into the breach and carry the family torch?

"The simple answer is probably none," said Thomas Whalen, a political scientist at Boston University, who argued that members of the next generation lack the gravitas. "The person that really had what it takes was John F. Kennedy Jr., which makes his loss all the more tragic."

JFK Jr. died in a plane crash in 1999 at the age of 38.

"He possessed the charisma, he had the good looks and he was working on his resume to make a big splash into politics, but with his loss, it doomed this next generation."

Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution and author of "America's Political Dynasties," told FOXNews.com that he'd be surprised if the next generation could achieve what the previous one did.

"To do that would be a remarkable event," he said, noting their political achievements. "It doesn't happen very often."

Yet there are many possible contenders among this next generation.

Click here to view slideshow of the next generation of Kennedys.

Ted Kennedy's son, Patrick, is a congressman representing Rhode Island. Robert Kennedy Jr., is a noted environmentalist. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland, failed in her gubernatorial bid.

There's also Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy who briefly was eyed for the Senate seat that became available when Hillary Clinton was appointed secretary of state. Her bid was awkward and mocked by late night comics before she withdrew from consideration.

Rory Kennedy, the youngest of Robert Kennedy's children, has found success in the entertainment field. A documentary filmmaker, she produced and directed the Emmy Award-nominated series "Pandemic: Facing AIDs" in 2003.

And a Kennedy by another name is still a Kennedy to some. The children of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver, have their own record of achievements. Mark Shriver is a former delegate in the Maryland General Assembly and Maria Shriver is the first lady of California.

Even while the horizon appears bleak at this time, Hess said the clan can't be counted out.

"I have no crystal ball ... but there's one thing that is very important in scoring a political dynasty and that is there are lots of children," Hess said. "So it seems to me that there will continue to be a next generation in the Kennedy dynasty."

But other political observers are quick to poke holes in their resumes.

Richard Parker, a public policy professor at Harvard University, said Patrick, whose bouts with alcohol and drugs have made headlines, is unlikely to ascend much higher.

His influence is limited in the House because he represents "a really small state" and "he has yet to exhibit an eloquence that would move him into his father's or uncle's orbit."

Whalen said Maria has not shown any indication that she will launch a political career and Mark is "crippled by the fact" that he's not a Kennedy on paper. "What's his last name?" he asked.

Former Massachusetts Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II is said to be a potential filler for Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat, but Whalen called speculation of his potential bid a "joke."

"Joe Kennedy, every time he opens his mouth, he gets in trouble," he said, adding that he is still dogged by a controversial first marriage. "He's not well respected. He's better working outside of government than inside government."

Some political observers agree that the next generation of Kennedys will make its mark outside of government in the nonprofit arena.

"Eunice proved you don't have to be inside government to make a huge difference," Whalen said of the Kennedy sister who founded the Special Olympics. "She might be the beacon for this new generation."

Hess noted that a number of Kennedys are doing "interesting" work in that field "in the tradition of Eunice Kennedy."

Hess said if a dynasty is broadly defined beyond election to public office, then "the beat goes on."

But Parker rejected the description of the Kennedy clan as a dynasty.

"Two generations produce leaders ... it defines a parent-child succession," he said. "There are lots of kids who follow daddy into daddy's business. So dynasty is not something I attach to the name of Kennedy."

A convicted sex offender and his wife have been arrested in the kidnapping of an 11-year-old girl in 1991 who recently walked into a Northern California police station, authorities say.

Phillip Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy Garrido, 54, were arrested for investigation of kidnapping and conspiracy on Wednesday, police said on Thursday.

Phillip Garrido is also being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration, said Jimmie Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department.Phillip Garrido has a conviction for rape by force or fear, according to the Megan's Law database.

The kidnapped woman was in good health when she came into a San Francisco Bay area police station and said she was Jaycee Lee Dugard, a blonde, ponytailed girl when she was abducted as she headed to a school bus stop 18 years ago outside her South Lake Tahoe home, said sheriff's Lieutenant Les Lovell of the El Dorado Sheriff's Department.

It was not immediately clear when she had reappeared.

"We're 99 per cent sure it's her," he said. He said DNA tests were being conducted.

Lovell said Concord police did an investigation after the woman came forward and he received a call on Wednesday from investigators who had tentatively identified her as Dugard.

Her family has been contacted and they are in the process of arranging a meeting, said Lovell, who was a detective assigned to help investigate the kidnapping in 1991.

"We are very confident at this point in time that it is her."

Lee said the suspects were being held in the Contra Costa County Jail in Martinez.

A house in the city of Antioch was cordoned off with police tape as it was being searched by FBI agents and the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department.

Neighbour Helen Boyer, 78, described the Garridos as nice and friendly and said they cared for Phillip Garrido's elderly mother.

"If I needed something, they would be the first I would call on," Boyer said.

Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, said the news of the case was like winning the lottery.

"To have this happen where we get her back alive and where she remembers things from the past and to have people in custody is a triple win," he told the Sacramento Bee.

Witnesses reported that a vehicle with two people drove up to Dugard and abducted her while her stepfather was watching on June 10, 1991.

In media reports at the time, the girl's stepfather said he heard Jaycee scream then jumped on a bicycle and frantically pedalled after the car in a failed effort to follow it up a hill. He then turned around and screamed at neighbours to call 911.

The case attracted national attention and was featured on TV's "America's Most Wanted," which broadcast a composite drawing of a suspect seen in the car.

Probyn said his wife, Terry, had spoken with Dugard by phone on Wednesday. He said the mother and their 19-year-old daughter were flying from their Southern California home to meet with Dugard in Northern California.

Investigators first visited with his wife about three weeks ago, he said.

Probyn said he endured years of suspicion from FBI agents who believed he may have been involved in the abduction. He eventually lost hope that he would ever see his stepdaughter alive.

"Then you pray that you get her body back so there is an ending," Probyn said.

Lovell said investigators have been working the case consistently since she was abducted and new leads had surfaced over time.

"You bet it's a surprise. This is not the normal resolution to a kidnapping," he said.

AP

Source: smh.com.au
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More than 60 were hurt as buildings collapsed in the city centre attack. Almost all those hit were civilians.

Teams spent Wednesday sifting through rubble looking for more wounded.

The Taliban deny they were behind the car bombing. Correspondents say the militants often deny attacks involving civilian casualties.

Kandahar is a stronghold of the Taliban and has seen a number of attacks in 2009.

The explosion took place shortly after the first results were announced in the presidential election.

Officials say it was the deadliest blast in Afghanistan since July 2008, when more than 60 people were killed in a suicide bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul.

Election attacks

Reports said injured people were still being pulled to safety on Wednesday. "There are some people still trapped in the buildings and we are trying to get them out," said rescue worker Mohammad Darwish, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Dazed locals joined security teams in the search, reports from the scene said.

Among those who lost their lives was a local staff member of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf said: "We are not responsible for the attack and we condemn it."

He suggested it could be "government propaganda", but correspondents say it is difficult to see who else could be to blame.

Nato spokesman James Appathurai in Brussels said: "The Taliban carry out terrorist attacks on a regular basis. They cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for this attack, either directly or indirectly."

Afghans are currently observing the Muslim month of Ramadan and the explosion took place soon after dusk as they broke their fast.

Some reports said bombs were packed in cars that exploded simultaneously, others that a truck or tanker had been used.

The explosion struck close to the offices of the Kandahar provincial council. Windows across the city were shattered by the force of the blast.

The area has several hotels and offices of non-governmental organisations. A wedding hall was one of the buildings damaged, along with the headquarters of a Japanese construction company.

There have been a series of insurgent attacks across the country as Afghanistan held its presidential election.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said there were more than 400 attacks on election day alone, last Thursday.

Four US soldiers were also killed in fighting on Tuesday, making 2009 the deadliest year for foreign troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion.

Early results in the presidential poll give incumbent Hamid Karzai a slender lead over former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Fewer than a fifth of votes cast have so far been counted amid allegations of widespread fraud.

Yasuo Fukuda's biggest hurdle is not his opponent, a former TV reporter, but voter discontent. Support for Fukuda's long-ruling Liberal Democrats has plunged, prompting predictions of a power shift.Reporting from Takasaki, Japan - Veteran voters here have rarely witnessed a gloves-off election battle -- or political campaigning of any kind, for that matter.

In this regional transportation hub of 350,000 residents, confident incumbents with the nation's ruling Liberal Democratic Party had only to list their names on the ballot to virtually guarantee a landslide victory.

But all that has changed in this city 90 minutes north of Tokyo, the home district of four previous prime ministers.

This year, former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda faces the political battle of his life to win reelection to the lower house of the Diet, Japan's parliament. His biggest hurdle does not appear to be his opponent, a former television reporter and political novice, but voter discontent.

"The political winds are blowing against us," acknowledged Tatsuo Fukuda, the candidate's son. "This is my father's most difficult election in the last 20 years."

As the Sunday election approaches, support for the Liberal Democrats has plunged to unparalleled levels nationwide, prompting what many predict will be a historic shift of power.

After 54 years of nearly uninterrupted rule, the party faces widespread unrest, if not a downright revolt, among voters who say they want change at any price.

Prime Minister Taro Aso, known more for his bumbling use of language than for his leadership, has seen his approval rating dip below 20%.Many voters view the Liberal Democrats as bureaucrats who remain out of touch with a changing Japan.

Riddled with scandal and mismanagement, voters say, the party has provided few answers to the sagging economy. Japan's public debt is double its gross domestic product, one of the highest such percentages among developed nations, economists say.

"The Japanese are ready to give the LDP a well-deserved sayonara," said Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University, Japan. "Everyone thinks they are dead-enders with no fresh ideas and no creative policies.

"The misery index is soaring, unemployment and suicides are up, wages and bonuses are down, and everyone is feeling insecure about their jobs and futures."

The situation has provided a rare opportunity for the Liberal Democrats' main opponent, the Democratic Party of Japan, led by Yukio Hatoyama, the Stanford-educated millionaire grandson of a former Liberal Democrat prime minister.

Hatoyama has promised to cut wasteful spending and improve lives in the world's second-largest economy. His party is gaining ground not only in large cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, but also in rural areas, the Liberal Democrats' traditional power base.

Some experts say the Democratic Party might win more than 300 seats in the Diet's 480-member lower house.

Experts agree that if the Democratic Party is elected, the first few months will be critical.

"First impressions matter a great deal in politics," Kingston said.

Naoto Nonaka, a political scientist at Gakushuin University in Tokyo, said he believes the Democratic Party is ready to lead, and downplayed speculation that party officials might seek a foreign policy that is more independent from Washington.

"The alliance between the U.S. and Japan is too critical for the security arrangement of both nations," he said. "It will not change."

Voters in Takasaki appear antsy.

"I hope things will change," said Isao Tsukagoshi, 37, a high school history teacher. "America just went through its own change electing Barack Obama. Now that idea has come to Japan."

Near universal is the view that he was Washington's most influential lawmaker of the past 50 years, which is all the more remarkable given that he was such a polarising politician.

Civil rights. Disability rights. The minimum wage. Immigration. Education. Campaign finance reform. And his signature issue, healthcare. Most, if not all, of the landmark progressive legislative of the past five decades has his imprint all over it.

While it was his passion for social justice that won him the epithet "Lion of the Senate", it was his detailed grasp of that institution's obscure rules and procedures which helped explain his prolific success.

A life in politics

Ted Kennedy was sworn in as a senator in November 1962, just weeks after his elder brother, John F Kennedy, had faced the greatest challenge of his presidency, the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Back then, the US Senate was viewed as a bulwark against reform, a deeply conservative institution better known for blocking legislation than enacting it.

Ted Kennedy became instrumental in changing that perception, and it makes his record of accomplishment all the more impressive. Jack and Bobby Kennedy used to joke that it was their younger brother, Teddy, who had been blessed with the richest political talent. So it was only natural that the presidential ambitions of the family became focused on him when Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.

At his brother's funeral at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, Ted Kennedy gave a spell-binding eulogy, which he delivered in a halting voice.

"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it."

Now, he not only seemed like the natural heir, but the rightful heir, a much more substantial figure who could match the eloquence and inspirational power of his brothers.

But what became known as the Chappaquidick affair came the following year, crushing his hopes of an early run for the presidency and sullying the most famous trademark in American politics.

It did not help that rumours, innuendo and hard facts started to emerge about the dark side of Camelot, and led to an unflattering reassessment of his slain brother's presidency.

Unviable for the time being in presidential politics, Ted Kennedy threw more of his energies into his senatorial work, which ironically may have been the making of him.

If he could not be the president, he would make his mark on Capitol Hill.
Page last updated at 11:06 GMT, Wednesday, 26 August 2009 12:06 UK
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Edward Kennedy - a political life

Robert Kennedy, Edward Kennedy and then US President John F Kennedy - speaking while seated behind a desk, circa 1962
The Kennedy brothers have left an enduring legacy in the annals of American politics and history

By Nick Bryant
BBC News

Youth is the quality that we normally associate with the Kennedys, yet it was Ted Kennedy's longevity that made him such an irrepressible force on Capitol Hill.

Near universal is the view that he was Washington's most influential lawmaker of the past 50 years, which is all the more remarkable given that he was such a polarising politician.

Civil rights. Disability rights. The minimum wage. Immigration. Education. Campaign finance reform. And his signature issue, healthcare. Most, if not all, of the landmark progressive legislative of the past five decades has his imprint all over it.

While it was his passion for social justice that won him the epithet "Lion of the Senate", it was his detailed grasp of that institution's obscure rules and procedures which helped explain his prolific success.

A life in politics

Ted Kennedy was sworn in as a senator in November 1962, just weeks after his elder brother, John F Kennedy, had faced the greatest challenge of his presidency, the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Back then, the US Senate was viewed as a bulwark against reform, a deeply conservative institution better known for blocking legislation than enacting it.

Ted Kennedy became instrumental in changing that perception, and it makes his record of accomplishment all the more impressive.

Ethel Kennedy is escorted by her brother-in-law, Sen. Edward Kennedy, to their pew in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York for the funeral services of Robert F Kennedy, 1968
Over time, Edward Kennedy's stature as a master orator became well known

Jack and Bobby Kennedy used to joke that it was their younger brother, Teddy, who had been blessed with the richest political talent. So it was only natural that the presidential ambitions of the family became focused on him when Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.

At his brother's funeral at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, Ted Kennedy gave a spell-binding eulogy, which he delivered in a halting voice.

"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it."

Now, he not only seemed like the natural heir, but the rightful heir, a much more substantial figure who could match the eloquence and inspirational power of his brothers.

But what became known as the Chappaquidick affair came the following year, crushing his hopes of an early run for the presidency and sullying the most famous trademark in American politics.

It did not help that rumours, innuendo and hard facts started to emerge about the dark side of Camelot, and led to an unflattering reassessment of his slain brother's presidency.

Unviable for the time being in presidential politics, Ted Kennedy threw more of his energies into his senatorial work, which ironically may have been the making of him.

If he could not be the president, he would make his mark on Capitol Hill.

Race for the White House

By 1980, Ted Kennedy's career had been sufficiently rehabilitated for him to embark on a bid for the White House. And the polls suggested that he could oust sitting President Jimmy Carter and steal the Democratic presidential nomination.

But whereas his brothers had been dazzling campaigners, Ted Kennedy was a flawed and surprisingly disappointing candidate.

Edward Kennedy at the Democratic National Convention in 1980
Ted Kennedy gave an eloquent speech at the 1980 Democratic Convention

The defining moment of his campaign came even before he had officially announced his candidacy, when he was famously asked by the journalist Roger Mudd why he wanted to be president.

So rambling and incoherent was his response that it almost doomed his candidacy before it had officially begun.

Still, at the 1980 Democratic Convention, a graceful speech, rich in sentimentality, cemented his reputation as the conscience of the party and restored much of the lustre of the Kennedy name.

Other than Chappaquidick, perhaps the darkest interlude of his career came in the early 1990s.

The trial of his nephew, William Kennedy Smith, over rape allegations embroiled him and the family in even more controversy, and his reticence when Anita Hill appeared during the Clarence Thomas hearings, accusing the judge of sexual harassment, showed the extent to which his private life had compromised his public service.

I was studying in his home state, Massachusetts, at the time and for a while it seemed that the politically unthinkable might become real: that Ted Kennedy might lose his Senate seat in the 1994 mid-term elections.

Yet his marriage to Victoria Anne Reggie in 1992 had brought much needed stability and discipline to his life.

Enduring mystique

There was perhaps no better illustration of Kennedy's enduring power and mystique than the efforts that the Obama and Clinton campaigns applied to securing his endorsement during last year's extraordinary campaign.

President Barack Obama meets with Senator Edward Kennedy in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, April 2009
The Obama campaign was keen to win the endorsement of Ted Kennedy

Seeing something of his elder brothers in the first-term senator from Illinois, Ted Kennedy opted for Obama, and the prospect of a black Camelot.

Collectively, the Kennedys have made an extraordinary contribution to public life in America.

However, you could construct a highly persuasive historical argument that, in terms of legislative accomplishments and life-changing reforms, the country owes the greatest debt to Teddy.

Nick Bryant is the author of The Bystander: John F Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality.

WASHINGTON -- The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for jobless benefits dropped last week, and the number of people remaining on the rolls also fell, evidence that layoffs have eased. Still, both figures remain above levels associated with a healthy economy, and analysts expect the unemployment rate to keep rising.

The Labor Department said Thursday that first-time unemployment claims fell to a seasonally-adjusted 570,000, down from an upwardly revised figure of 580,000 the previous week. Analysts expected a slightly larger drop to 565,000, according to Thomson Reuters.

The tally of those continuing to claim benefits dropped to 6.13 million from 6.25 million in the previous week, the lowest level since early April. The figures on continuing claims lag initial claims by a week.

Economists closely watch initial claims, which are considered a gauge of layoffs and an indication of companies' willingness to hire new workers.

While the figures are volatile, first-time claims have trended downward in recent months. Initial claims topped 600,000 for most of this year, until falling below that level in early July.

The four-week average of claims, which smooths out fluctuations, fell by 4,750 to 566,250 last week. That's about 90,000 below its peak for the current recession, in early April.
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The weekly figures remain far above the roughly 325,000 that analysts say is consistent with a healthy economy. New claims last fell below 300,000 in early 2007.

Job losses have slowed recently. The department said earlier this month that companies cut 247,000 jobs in July, a large amount but still the smallest number in almost a year.

The unemployment rate dipped to 9.4 percent in July from 9.5 percent, its first drop in 15 months. But Obama economic adviser Christina Romer predicted Tuesday that unemployment could reach 10 percent this year and average 9.8 percent next year.

The recession, which began in December 2007 and is the worst since World War II, has eliminated a net total of 6.7 million jobs.

And when federal emergency programs are included, the total number of jobless benefit recipients was 9.19 million people in the week that ended Aug. 8. That was up from 9.18 million in the previous week. Congress has added up to 53 extra weeks of benefits on top of the 26 typically provided by the states.

The large number of people remaining on the rolls is an indication that unemployed workers are having a hard time finding new jobs.

More job cuts were announced this week. Columbus, Ind.-based Cummins Filtration, a division of diesel engine manufacturer Cummins Inc., said it will eliminate about 400 jobs through next March as it shifts production of filter assemblies to a Mexican plant.

Among the states, Michigan reported the largest increase in initial claims, with 4,068, which it attributed to layoffs in the auto industry. The state data lags the initial claims data by one week.

Pennsylvania, Florida, Puerto Rico and Missouri had the next largest increases.

California reported the largest decrease in claims of 6,286, which it attributed to fewer layoffs in the service industries. Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Ohio had the next largest drops.

Forty years ago last month, Sen Kennedy drove his car off Dyke Bridge in Chappaquiddick after a day's sailing and hard drinking with a group of married friends and young women who had worked on his brother Robert's presidential campaign.

As the car turned over and sank in Pocha Pond, a tidal lagoon, its driver managed to swim to the surface, leaving his 28-year-old companion, Mary Jo Kopechne, to drown in the car. Sen Kennedy, then 37, left the scene of the accident and waited 10 hours to report it.

After a carefully choreographed televised speech in which he admitted his behaviour had been "indefensible" but denied it had been alcohol-fueled, a Massachusetts court let the scion of the state's most powerful family off with a two-month suspended sentence.

The "Chappaquiddick incident" obviously did bot end his senatorial career but arguably put paid to his presidential ambitions.

The bridge is still there - albeit a new one whose thick, rivet-reinforced wooden sides are a rather more substantial a barrier than the tiny lip over which the Kennedy Oldsmobile drove.

As scores of holidaymakers trundled across to the nature reserve beach beyond, a few paused on Thursday to take in its special significance.

Few indulged themselves in the reverential tributes pouring out on US television and nobody seemed to think Chappaquiddick should be forgotten.

"I'm a police officer and he most certainly did get away with murder. There's no other way to describe it," said Heather Franc, from Connecticut, who was holidaying on the island, off the east coast of the larger Martha's Vineyard, with two friends.

"They didn't try to get any help until the next day and he was never held accountable. Unfortunately, this will always be part of his legacy but it absolutely should be," said her friend, Cathy Peterson, a financial trader.

Steven Rubin, a software company executive, had wanted to bring his friends to see the bridge. Like most, they were surprised how short it was - no more than 15 yards - and how shallow the water. Barely seven feet deep, one can see the bottom clearly.

Like many, particularly Democrats, who argue that Sen Kennedy made up for his misdeeds in his hard-working political career, Mr Rubin said he separated the "wild man" of the early years from the "tremendous amount of seriousness" he displayed after Chappaquiddick.

"Any person's life is a full body of work and to take just one page is a bit unfair," said his friend, Melanie Callahan.

Ralph Chiumenti, an engineer who spends summers on Chappaquiddick, was launching his kayak next to the bridge. He had read all the books about the tragedy and mentioned the theory that Sen Kennedy shot off down the sandy track at speed after being seen parked suspiciously by a police officer.

He pointed out how someone driving very fast would not have noticed that the bridge is at a slight angle to the road. They would also have to be driving fast to land in the channel, he added.

He was in no doubt that Sen Kennedy got off very lightly that night. "I don't want to speak ill of the dead but this was a totally outrageous act," he said.

If Microsoft is to be tagged "racist," its critics need to do a lot better. I understand the sensitivity involved, and some bozo should have thought twice before editing a white man's head to replace a black man's head in an advertising photo, but that doesn't make MS racist.

(See related story: 10 More Tech Company Photoshop Disasters)Hot news: This happens all the time. It's just usually done better, or ideally, an entirely different picture is selected. And it happens here at home, too.

A few months ago, standing in a Wells Fargo bank branch, a friend says he saw two versions of the same ad--each slightly different.

One included a Latina woman, the other an Asian woman, completely swapped--whole body--one for the other. Does this make Wells Fargo racist? Of course, not.

We live in a multicultural business environment that literally spans the globe. Companies know they need to present familiar faces to customers, to embrace multi-ethnicity, not reject it. My picture isn't likely to appear in an ad aimed at black South Africans, so what?

Someone thought a black person wasn't right for the Polish version of the ad. We only know this because it was handled so poorly. But, if a different original were selected, would anyone have complained that blacks were being excluded? I think not.

I am reminded of a video I saw many years ago that was produced by HP. No one seemed to notice that while the cast was multi-ethnic, all the Asians were engineers. Who were saving the others from their mistakes, I should add. Not racist, maybe a bit stereotypical, but not hatefully so.

Microsoft was wise to apologize for this screw-up. It's internal photo-use policies will doubtless be updated to tell people not to ham-handedly replace one ethnicity with another using Photoshop.

But, truth be known, this seems to happen all the time, Microsoft is not the only offender, and it doesn't make Microsoft racist. Just occasionally stupid, but didn't we know that already?

David Coursey tweets as @techinciter and can be contacted via his Web site.

DALLAS -- Airlines cut fares to get more passengers on planes and salvage the summer travel season, but now their job gets harder heading into the slower fall and winter months.

The nine largest U.S. carriers lost nearly $600 million in the second quarter of this year. Bigger losses are predicted in the third and fourth quarters, and some analysts have raised the possibility of another round of bankruptcies.

The nation's airlines have been in a defensive crouch for two years. They've cut flights and fired workers - first to absorb rising fuel prices, then to ride out the recession. But revenue is down one-fifth or more from a year ago at the four largest carriers.

Because they've cut costs, sold new stock and borrowed money, the airlines have plenty of cash for now. But even in good years, airlines build cash during the busy summer travel period, which ends around Labor Day, to get through the slower months.

Airlines need enough cash to pay employees, buy fuel and pay other bills, including payments on the money they've borrowed. If cash falls too low, they can be pushed into bankruptcy protection, as happened earlier this decade with Delta, United, Northwest and US Airways.

United, US Airways and American are often mentioned as the airlines in the most precarious financial positions. They rely on business travelers who pay hundreds of dollars per ticket to sit in first-class. Many of those people are grounded or flying in cheaper coach seats due to the recession. Meanwhile fuel costs, although lower than last year's record levels, have been rising. The spot price of jet fuel has jumped about 70 percent since March.
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One leading analyst, JPMorgan's Jamie Baker, estimates that by the fourth quarter, American Airlines parent AMR Corp. will burn more than $11 million a day, while United Airlines' parent UAL Corp. will be going through $7 million a day.

As of June 30, AMR had about $2.8 billion in unrestricted cash and short-term investments, UAL had $2.6 billion, and US Airways had about $1.7 billion. If Baker is right about how much cash they'll burn this winter, all three will have a thinner cash cushion than did the carriers who filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004 and 2005.

United and US Airways were among several airlines that made Chapter 11 filings from 2001 through 2005. They used bankruptcy protection to shed debt and lower labor and pension costs.

Standard & Poor's analyst Philip Baggaley says, however, that the two have little to gain by doing it again and would face "more risk that if they go into bankruptcy they might not come out." That's because they might not find the financing they would need in the current tight credit market.

In most airline bankruptcies, the carriers have kept flying and passengers hardly noticed any difference. In the worst case - liquidation - employees would lose their jobs, shareholders would lose their investments, and stranded travelers could be forced to ask their credit card company for ticket refunds.

More mergers are also a possibility. Delta and Northwest combined last year, three years after each went through bankruptcy court. The current US Airways is the product of a combination with America West. United and Continental talked but didn't reach a deal.

Facing a dearth of traditional bank buyers, the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation moved Wednesday to relax some of its proposed rules while still imposing tough standards on private equity firms seeking to acquire troubled financial institutions. In a 4-1 vote, the F.D.I.C. board tried to strike a compromise between the industry’s need for more capital and worries that non-bank buyers might take excessive risks and put the industry’s deposit insurance fund in jeopardy. The final rulessoften the F.D.I.C.’s original proposal by allowing buyout firms to set aside a smaller cushion of capital to protect against losses than was first proposed.

Private-equity controlled banks will now have to meet a minimum capital requirement of 10 percent of assets, sharply lower than that 15 percent level under initial consideration but still twice the minimum for traditional banks.

The F.D.I.C. also dropped a requirement that private equity firms supply additional capital in the event of a severe downturn, a rule that was fiercely opposed by the industry. The agency will review the impact of new rules after six months.

Sheila C. Bair, the F.D.I.C.’s chairwoman, and three other directors of the five-member panel voted in favor of the revisions, saying that they struck the right balance between competing policy objectives.

John D. Bowman, the head of the Office of Thrift Supervision, cast the lone dissenting vote, citing a lack of evidence that the rules would protect the insurance fund.

“I am not a fan, or proponent, of private equity, but it is hard to know whether the restrictions are required,” Mr. Bowman said.

By softening its stance on private equity, the F.D.I.C. is hoping to turn up additional buyers and reduce the number of failed banks that its fund will have to support. But the new rules may fall short in encouraging a flood of participation. Instead, they appear intended to encourage private equity firms to team with existing banks, rather than submit bids themselves — formalizing much of what has become the agency’s standard operating policy.

So far, regulators have only allowed a few groups of private equity firms to take over failed banks, including IndyMac Bank of California and BankUnited of Florida, with assurances that experienced bankers would run the operations. The new rules will only apply prospectively.

The revisions follow weeks of lobbying from the private equity industry, which claimed that the agency’s initial proposal placed them at a competitive disadvantage.

But the vote also reflects regulators’ concerns about whether there are enough traditional buyers to handle an expected wave of bank failures. Many strong traditional banks are busy digesting acquisitions they made last fall, while weaker institutions have their hands full with burgeoning losses. So far, 106 banks have failed since the beginning of 2008, saddling regulators of billions of dollars of toxic assets and depleting its once-flush deposit insurance fund. The fund had about $13 billion at the end of the first quarter, down from about $52.8 billion a year earlier. And the pace of new bank failures is quickening.

The F.D.I.C received more than 60 comments from private equity firms, law firms and consumer advocacy groups. Banking regulators attempted to strike balance between shoring up the industry’s finances with fresh capital and new types of buyers, while avoiding lax rules that might once again encourage excessive risk-taking. Regulators kept in rules that required private equity firms to hold onto their investments for at least three years as well as restrictions barring buyout firms from lending to affiliated companies.

Officials feared that private equity buyers might be more prone to gamble on riskier loans in order to bolster their returns or use the banks they control to finance their operations. Regulators have also been concerned that private equity buyers would quickly unload their bank investments if they do not turn a quick profit.

But they dropped the so-called “source of strength requirement” from the final regulations. Traditional investors must agree to serve as a so-called “source of strength” for the bank and pump in additional money if its prospects sour. Private equity firms have stringent restrictions on their ability to put their firm’s other investments at risk and claimed the rule would make bank deals impractical.

“I regret we couldn’t get unanimity, but this is really a tough issue,” Ms. Bair said.

As the failures pile up, the new private rules are only one part of the agency’s strategy. Regulators have also been trying to lure traditional bank buyers with lucrative loss-sharing deals, where the government agrees to shoulder the bulk of the losses on a failed bank’s riskiest loans in exchange for the acquirer selling off those assets.

They have also been testing a program to that would provide financing to encourage private investors to purchase toxic loans from failed institutions, which might bid up asset prices.

And F.D.I.C. officials recently proposed what amounts to a melding of the two strategies. Regulators have said they might carve up failed banks into “good” and “bad” pieces, encouraging healthy banks to snap up the “good” assets with a loss-sharing agreement while leaving the most troubled assets for vulture buyers.

NEW YORK (AP) — An experimental procedure that someday may enable women to avoid passing certain genetic diseases on to their children has gained an early success, with the birth of four healthy monkeys, scientists report.The technique still faces safety questions and perhaps ethical hurdles, but an expert called the work exciting.

The experiment, which involved transferring DNA between eggs from rhesus macaques, was described Wednesday on the Web site of the journal Nature by researchers from the Oregon Health and Science University.

Someday, the technique may be used against diseases caused by inherited defects in the "power plants" of cells, called mitochondria. These conditions are uncommon and unfamiliar to most people, such as Leber hereditary optic neuropathy. Roughly one person in every 4,000 or 5,000 either has one of these mitochondrial diseases or is at risk for one.

Symptoms of these potentially fatal illnesses include muscle weakness, dementia, movement disorders, blindness, hearing loss, and problems of the heart, muscle and kidney.

An egg contains the vast majority of its DNA in the nucleus, but mitochondria contain DNA elsewhere in the egg. So if a woman has a disease caused by defects in the mitochondrial DNA, the new technique might someday make it possible for her to pass on her normal DNA from the nucleus but not the flawed DNA from the mitochondria.

To allow for that, doctors may transplant nucleus DNA from the eggs of such women into donor eggs that have healthy mitochondria. The donor eggs would have had their own nucleus DNA removed. After test-tube fertilization, this egg would in theory produce a baby without mitochondrial defects. (Fathers do not pass along their mitochondria.)

Researcher Shoukhrat Mitalipov said more safety studies must be done in monkeys. He noted that the technique would face regulatory hurdles for human studies because it would change the DNA inherited by future generations, an idea that has long provoked ethical concerns.

Douglas Wallace of the University of California, Irvine, an authority on mitochondria who wasn't involved in the federally funded experiment, said the results were exciting and the technique is "potentially very interesting."

But "there are safety issues that are going to need to be addressed before one could think about it in humans," Wallace said.

A week-long international manhunt for a reality TV contestant suspected of having murdered his former wife has ended in a gloomy motel in a small town in British Columbia where his body was found hanging yesterday morning.

Ryan Jenkins made his name on the fringes of celebrity afforded by cable TV shows, appearing on VH1 in Megan Wants A Millionaire, in which he competed against other well-to-do men to win the affections of a model. But his greatest fame was achieved only in the past week, for much darker reasons.

Last Tuesday he was named as a person of interest in the murder of his ex-wife, a swimwear model called Jasmine Fiore. They met in Las Vegas in March while Jenkins was filming Megan Wants a Millionaire and married in the city shortly after taping ended.

The couple soon fell out, and according to Fiore's mother, Lisa Lepore, the marriage was annulled. But they are reported to have got back together in recent weeks.

Fiore was last seen on 13 August when she and Jenkins took a room in a hotel in Del Mar, California. Jenkins checked out alone the following morning, and Fiore's body was discovered a day after that in Buena Park about 20 miles south-east of Los Angeles.

The body was discovered crammed inside a blood-soaked suitcase by a man searching for recyclable objects. The victim had been beaten and the fingers and teeth had all been removed from the body - presumably to hinder identification. Fiore was eventually identified by forensics detectives by tracing the serial number on her breast implants.

Last Thursday Jenkins, 32, was named by police as the only suspect in the case and charged with first-degree murder. But by then he was already on the run towards the north in a desperate attempt to avoid capture.

Authorities picked up his scent in Blaine, Washington, just south of Canada, where they found his car and an empty speedboat, called the Night Ride Her, which he had used to travel towards the border. He was believed to have crossed into Canada, the country of his birth, on Wednesday, probably on foot.

On Thursday, the day he was formally charged, he was believed to have checked into The Thunderbird Motel in Hope, a small town of about 8,000 in British Columbia, about 75 miles east of Vancouver. The motel is described as a "dive" by neighbours, bookable by the month.

Police are now searching for a woman who booked a room for three nights while a man remained in a car outside. Jenkins's body was found hanging in the room yesterday morning, and his death is being treated as a likely suicide.

A spokeswoman for the Californian district attorney's office in charge of the investigation told the Calgary Herald that the death of Jenkins was regrettable. "It's very unfortunate for Mrs Fiore's family who not only have lost their loved one but now don't get to see justice in court."

But Jenkins's mother, Nada Jenkins, told the newspaper that she still believed in her son's innocence. She said: "I think he panicked, my little boy, and we had to protect him even now that he's dead."

Question marks now hang over the editorial judgements of VH1 over its reality TV shows. Jenkins, who had made his money in property deals in Calgary, was also due to appear in another VH1 series, I Love Money, scheduled to run early next year.

Jenkins had a record of assault on another unnamed woman, and was charged in June with "battery constituting domestic violence" over an incident in which he allegedly hit Fiore on the arm shortly after they were married.

The production company that made Megan Wants A Millionaire, 51 Minds, said it was unaware of Jenkins's history of violence when it cast him.

• This article was amended on 25 August 2009. The original said that Ryan Jenkins's body was found in a remote part of British Columbia. This has been corrected.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says he appreciates the lieutenant governor's offer to take over, but he plans to stay in office.

Sanford said Wednesday that Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer's call for him to resign hours earlier was almost like "heaven on earth." Sanford's June admission to an affair with an Argentine woman has led to questions about the legality of his travel on state and commercial planes.

But he says the people of South Carolina want to move past the scandals. He says he will not be railroaded out of office and thinks he can still do important things for South Carolina in the last 16 months of his term.

Earlier Wednesday, Bauer became the most prominent state Republican pressing for Sanford's resignation two months after the governor came under fire for sneaking away to a secret rendezvous with his Argentine mistress.

Bauer promised to put aside his own political ambitions if that convinces fellow Republicans wary of elevating him to urge Sanford to step down.

"It is my opinion the best interest of the people of South Carolina can no longer be served by the current administration," Bauer said. "The serious misconduct that has been revealed along with lingering questions and continuing distractions make it virtually impossible for our state to solve the critical problems we're facing without a change in leadership."

Bauer said he tried to give his fellow Republican the benefit of the doubt after he admitted his affair with the Argentine woman, but the state has been paralyzed by questions raised afterward about the legality of Sanford's official travel. Bauer said he worries calls for Sanford's impeachment will dominate next year's legislative session instead of issues like the economy and job creation.

Bauer was widely expected to run for governor in 2010 but said he will not if that's what it takes to encourage other Republicans to call for Sanford's resignation. Some had been wary, fearing Bauer would get a long-term tryout for the job if Sanford stepped down.

"If taking me out of the governor's race makes this happen, and we move forward quickly, then yes, I'm willing to forgo the opportunities that I may have to be the next governor for four or eight years in the best interests of the people of South Carolina," Bauer said.

Sacrificing the run for governor next year could boost Bauer's status in the state GOP but still allow the 40-year-old plenty of time for another election. His announcement comes a day after the first formal gubernatorial campaign news conference by Republican Attorney General Henry McMaster.

Bauer has always been Sanford's lieutenant governor, but South Carolina voters choose the officials separately and the two have had a rocky relationship. Some of Bauer's friends in the Legislature are among Sanford's biggest critics and Sanford's estranged wife supported a Bauer opponent in the 2006 GOP primary.

Sanford has come under scrutiny since he returned from a nearly weeklong disappearance in June to admit he had been in Argentina visiting his mistress. His staff had been led to believe he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.

The governor told The Associated Press his mistress was his soul mate, and AP investigations since have found Sanford used state planes for personal and political trips, which state law prohibits. He also failed to disclose trips on private plans that ethics officials say should have been made public in campaign and ethics filings.

An AP investigation in July showed the governor took pricey flights on commercial airlines for overseas trips despite a law requiring state employees to use lowest-cost travel. A state senator investigating those flights has said six of them broke the law and the state attorney general has called for an ethics probe.

The governor says he has done nothing wrong and claims the AP has mischaracterized his flights on private planes. He says he flew in more expensive seats on commercial flights because he needed to be well rested on economic development trips, which other governors have done. His office also has claimed the law restricting such use is no longer valid.

His wife has moved out of the governor's mansion with the couple's four sons but says she and her husband are working on their marriage.

Sarah E. Mendelson was appointed director of the CSIS Human Rights and Security Initiative in January 2007. She is also a senior fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Program, which she joined in 2001. Previously, she was a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Since coming to CSIS, she has collaborated on over a dozen opinion surveys in Russia concerning views on the war in Chechnya, military and police abuse, health issues, identity in the North Caucasus, as well as knowledge and experiences with human trafficking. She has also researched the links between trafficking in humans and peacekeeping operations and, along with a team of activists, helped shape the NATO trafficking policy adopted in 2004 and the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 (House Resolution 972). Most recently, she led a working group on closing Guantánamo, the recommendations from which were reflected in President Barack Obama’s Executive Orders signed January 22, 2009. Mendelson received her B.A. in history from Yale University, and her Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. She has held fellowships at Stanford University and Princeton University. Her current research is supported by grants from the Ford Foundation and the Smith Richardson Foundation. She serves on the editorial board of International Security and is a member of the Europe and Central Asia Advisory Committee at Human Rights Watch and of the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition to numerous peer-reviewed and public policy articles, she is the author of Changing Course: Ideas, Politics, and the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Princeton University Press, 1998); coeditor of The Power and Limits of NGOs: Transnational Networks and Post-Communist Societies (Columbia University Press, 2002); and author of Barracks and Brothels: Peacekeepers and Human Trafficking in the Balkans (CSIS Press, 2005) and Closing Guantánamo: From Bumper Sticker to Blue Print (CSIS Press, 2008). Click here for a full list of her publications.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has named a veteran federal prosecutor, John Durham, to examine nearly a dozen abuse cases in which detainees were held by the Central Intelligence Agency. The Justice Department’s ethics office, in a report released on Monday, recommended reopening the cases, reversing the Bush administration and potentially exposing C.I.A. workers to prosecution for their treatment of detainees.

President Obama, who has often said that he wants to look forward, not backward, said in April that C.I.A. officers who were acting on the Justice Department’s legal advice approving the use of certain interrogation techniques, would not be prosecuted. But he left open the possibility that anyone who acted without legal authorization could face criminal penalties.

We asked some legal and national security experts what the scope of such an inquiry should be and whether C.I.A. employees and contractors should be subject to potential prosecution.

* David Cole, Georgetown University Law Center
* Sarah E. Mendelson, Center for Strategic and International Studies
* Vicki Divoll, former C.I.A. assistant general counsel
* Diane Marie Amann, law professor at University of California, Davis
* Benjamin Wittes, Brookings Institution

WASHINGTON -- Top Republican senators said on Monday they were troubled by Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to begin a new criminal probe of past interrogation tactics used by the CIA during President George W. Bush's war on terror, and expressed concern it could hamper U.S. intelligence efforts.

A newly declassified version of a CIA report revealed Monday that CIA interrogators once allegedly threatened to kill the Sept. 11 attack mastermind's children and suggested another would be forced to watch his mother sexually assaulted.

The fresh crop of damaging revelations only intensified the long-running political fight about the secret interrogation program -- whether it protected the United States then, and whether spilling its secrets now will weaken the nation's future security.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney refuted Holder's decision, saying it "serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this administration's ability to be responsible for our nation's security."

Cheney told The Weekly Standard, a conservative journal, "The activities of the CIA in carrying out the policies of the Bush Administration were directly responsible for defeating all efforts by Al Qaeda to launch further mass casualty attacks against the United States. The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions."

Holder said Monday he had chosen a veteran prosecutor, John Durham, to open a preliminary investigation to determine whether any CIA officers or contractors should face criminal charges for crossing the line on rough but permissible tactics. Durham already is investigating the destruction of CIA interrogation videos.

At the same time, President Barack Obama ordered changes in future interrogations, bringing in other agencies besides the CIA under the direction of the FBI and to be supervised by his own national security adviser. The administration pledged that questioning would be controlled by the Army Field Manual, with strict rules, and said the White House would keep its hands off the professional investigators doing the work.

Despite the announcement of the criminal probe, White House aides declared anew that Obama "wants to look forward, not back" at Bush-era tactics.

White House officials said they plan to continue the controversial practice of rendition of suspects to foreign countries, though they said that in future cases there would be greater safeguards to ensure such suspects are not tortured.

Monday's five-year-old report by the CIA's inspector general, newly declassified and released under a federal court's orders, described severe tactics used by interrogators on terror suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Seeking information about possible further attacks, interrogators threatened one detainee with a gun and a power drill, choked another and tried to frighten still another with a mock execution of another prisoner.

And other once-secret documents released late Monday show that parts of the CIA's tough treatment program continued even after Bush's September 2006 transfer of agency prisoners to the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden, appointed by Bush in 2006, expressed dismay at the prospect of prosecutions for CIA officers. He noted that career prosecutors already had reviewed and declined to prosecute the alleged abuses.

Obama has said interrogators would not face charges if they followed legal guidelines, but the report by the CIA's inspector general said they went too far -- even beyond what was authorized under Bush era Justice Department legal memos that have since been withdrawn and discredited. The report also suggested some questioners knew they were crossing a line.

"Ten years from now we're going to be sorry we're doing this (but) it has to be done," one unidentified CIA officer was quoted as saying, predicting the questioners would someday have to appear in court to answer for such tactics.

The report concluded the CIA used "unauthorized, improvised, inhumane" practices in questioning "high-value" terror suspects.

In one instance cited in the new documents, Abd al-Nashiri, the man accused of being behind the 2000 USS Cole bombing, was hooded, handcuffed and threatened with an unloaded gun and a power drill. The unidentified interrogator also threatened al-Nashiri's mother and family, implying they would be sexually abused in front of him, according to the report.

The interrogator denied making a direct threat.

Another interrogator told Sept. 11 attack mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, "if anything else happens in the United States, 'We're going to kill your children,"' one veteran officer said in the report.

Death threats violate anti-torture laws.

Investigators credited the detention-and-interrogation program for developing intelligence that prevented multiple attacks against Americans.

"In this regard, there is no doubt that the program has been effective," investigators wrote, backing an argument by former Cheney and others that the program saved lives.

But the inspector general said it was unclear whether so-called enhanced interrogation tactics contributed to that success. Those tactics included waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique that the Obama administration says was torture. Measuring the success of such interrogation is "a more subjective process and not without some concern," the report said.

The report described at least one mock execution, which would also violate U.S. anti-torture laws. To terrify one detainee, interrogators pretended to execute the prisoner in a nearby room. A senior officer said it was a transparent ruse that yielded no benefit.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pop star Michael Jackson had lethal levels of the powerful anaesthetic propofol in his body when he died, coroner's office documents show.

The findings were contained in a previously sealed search warrant which has been made public in Texas.

The singer died in June from a cardiac arrest at his home in Los Angeles. Police have interviewed his doctor, but he has not been named as a suspect.

There are reports that the coroner has concluded Jackson's death was homicide.

The reports, carried by the Associated Press news agency quoting unnamed police sources, have not been confirmed.

But the BBC's Rajesh Mirchandani in Los Angeles says homicide includes manslaughter, and investigators have been trying to establish if there is a case for that charge.Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, has denied any wrongdoing.

Dr Murray's lawyer Ed Chernoff said in a statement that various details surrounding the investigation were just "police theory".

"Dr Murray simply never told investigators that he found Michael Jackson at 11am not breathing. He also never said that he waited a mere ten minutes before leaving to make several phone calls.

"In fact, Dr. Murray never said that he left Michael Jackson's room to make phone calls at all."

Mr Chernoff added he would comment on the coroner's report when it is officially released.

Details of the Los Angeles County coroners' findings were revealed when a search warrant affidavit was made public in Houston, Texas, where Dr Murray has offices.

Dr Murray's offices were raided last month as part of the police investigation into the singer's death.

The coroner's office has not published its findings regarding the singer's death.

Addiction fears

According to the affidavit, the LA chief coroner "had reviewed the preliminary toxicology results and his preliminary assessment of Jackson's cause of death was due to lethal levels of propofol".

The documents go on to say that Dr Murray told police he had been giving Jackson propofol as part of his treatment for insomnia.

But, he said he had been concerned Jackson was becoming addicted to the drug and had been trying to wean him off, using alternative drugs.

But, on the morning of the singer's death, Dr Murray is reported to have relented and given Jackson a lower dosage of propofol after a number of other drugs had not worked.

He left the star alone to make some telephone calls and when he returned Jackson was not breathing, the LA Times reports.

Dr Murray is known to have performed CPR on his patient while the paramedics were called, but Jackson was declared dead when he arrived at hospital.

Dr Conrad Murray speaking on 18 August: I told the truth

Bottles of propofol found in Jackson's house show it had been prescribed by several doctors, not just Conrad Murray, but he remains at the centre of the inquiry, our correspondent adds.

Earlier this month, Dr Murray - who was employed as Michael Jackson's personal physician for a series of concerts in London scheduled for July - posted a video message on YouTube to thank his supporters.

"I told the truth and I have faith the truth will prevail," he said in the short one-minute clip.

With the nation's top military officer calling the situation in Afghanistan dire, President Barack Obama soon may face two equally unattractive choices: increase U.S. troops to beat back a resilient enemy, or stick with the 68,000 already committed and risk the political fallout if that's not enough.

Adm. Mike Mullen on Sunday described the situation in Afghanistan as "serious and deteriorating," but refused to say whether additional forces would be needed.

"Afghanistan is very vulnerable in terms of (the) Taliban and extremists taking over again, and I don't think that threat's going to go away," he said.

Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is completing an assessment of what he needs to win the fight there. That review, however, won't specifically address force levels, according to Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But military officials privately believe McChrystal may ask for as many as 20,000 additional forces to get an increasingly difficult security situation in Afghanistan under control. And one leading Republican is already saying McChrystal will be pressured to ask for fewer troops than he requires.

"I think there are great pressures on General McChrystal to reduce those estimates," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "I don't think it's necessarily from the president. I think it's from the people around him and others that I think don't want to see a significant increase in our troops' presence there."

Mullen also expressed concern about diminishing support among a war-weary American public as the U.S. and NATO enter their ninth year of combat and reconstruction operations.

In joint TV interviews, Mullen and U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said last week's presidential election in Afghanistan was historic, given the threats of intimidation voters faced as they headed to polling stations. It could be several weeks, however, before it's known whether incumbent Hamid Karzai or one of his challengers won.

As preliminary results from Afghanistan's presidential election trickle in, President Hamid Karzai's chief rival escalated his accusations of widespread fraud in the elections, showing reporters videos and materials that he said proved Karzai intended to "steal the verdict of the nation." The accusations came as early results showed a close race between Karzai and his main challenger, former Karzai minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Karzai had 212,927 votes to Abdulla's 202,889 votes. Both men had about 40 percent of the votes tallied so far with other candidates trailing far behind. It was not clear how much of the vote had been counted when those figures were released, but were based on only 10 percent of the country's polling centers.

The accusations -- combined with low turnout -- threaten the legitimacy of a vote the U.S. hoped would help stabilize a shaky state and give credibility to the next government.

The controversy over the legitimacy of the vote came as four more U.S. troops died in Afghanistan, making it the deadliest year for American soldiers since the Taliban fell in 2001. The number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year stands at 295, according to icasualties.org, a website which compiles official figures. Last year, 294 died.

Abdullah held a news conference today to release what he claimed was evidence of widespread vote rigging by Karzai. One video showed a man stuffing a ballot box. Abdullah said he was a local elections official in Ghazni. Another video showed a child sitting at a table with a book of ballots, marking each one for the same candidate. Abdullah said a third video showed a polling station open two days after election day. "Give a few votes to Dr. Abdullah," a man in the video says as someone on the ground casts multiple ballots.

One video showed a man stuffing a ballot box. Abdullah said he was a local elections official in Ghazni. Another video showed a child sitting at a table with a book of ballots, marking each one for the same candidate. Abdullah said a third video showed a polling station open two days after election day. "Give a few votes to Dr. Abdullah," a man in the video says as someone on the ground casts multiple ballots.

"I'm talking about systematic fraud which was engineered by the state under the supervision of Hamid Karzai," Abdullah said later in an interview. "I think this was meant to kill the process."

Other candidates have also alleged widespread fraud, though not to the same extent as Abdullah.

Afghanistan will likely face political instability for the next few weeks, threatening to delay new policy initiatives U.S. officials urgently want to implement.

But Abdullah served a warning to the international community, telling it to be patient and warning that it must not "turn a blind eye to state mockery."

"If the widespread rigging is ignored," he said, "this is the type of regime that will be imposed on Afghanistan for the next five years. With that sort of system – with a system which has destroyed every institution, broken every law -- Afghanistan cannot succeed."

Earlier today Karzai's campaign manager tried to appear above the political fray, declining to say how many examples or how extensive the fraud it believed Abdullah had committed.

"If you are in second place, you say anything," Haji Dean Muhammad, Karzai's campaign manager, said in an interview.

The Electoral Complaints Commission, responsible for judging fraud, said today it had received more than 650 allegations, about a tenth of which could affect the results.

Commission members said the allegations mirror those from Abdullah and the other candidates, including corrupt election officials, ballot box stuffing, and even campaign workers forcing votes by gunpoint.

"We need to save this process,"Abdullah said, "in order to save Afghanistan."