Police carrying out a fresh search near the home of kidnap suspect Phillip Garrido, charged with abducting an 11-year-old girl in 1991, have found more bones at the site.
Police lieutenant Christine Orrey said it was too early to tell if the bones were human after dozens of investigators dug for a second day at Garrido's house and a neighboring property in Antioch, east of San Francisco.

"We have located what appear to be bones on both properties," Mr Orrey said, adding that the remains had been sent to a laboratory for analysis. "Finding them is the first step in the process." Investigators are seeking evidence linking Phillip and Nancy Garrido, who face 29 counts of kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment in the Jaycee Lee Dugard case, to two girls who disappeared in the 1980s.

The Garridos are accused of kidnapping 11-year-old Jaycee and keeping her in a makeshift compound in their backyard for 18 years until her discovery in late August. Phillip Garrido is accused of fathering two children with Jaycee.

A week ago, a bone fragment found on the adjacent property was said by police to be "probably human," but it was not clear how old it was.

Authorities have stressed that bones from Native Americans are often found in northern California.

On Tuesday, police from the towns of Hayward and Dublin, roughly 60 miles south of Antioch, said the latest search was related to the disappearance of two young girls in 1988 and 1989.

Detectives were looking for evidence tying Garrido to the disappearance of nine-year-old Michaela Garecht, who was snatched outside a grocery store in 1988, and 13-year-old Ilene Misheloff, who vanished in 1989.

Police sought a search warrant after noting several similarities between the Dugard case and the abductions of Miss Garecht and Miss Misheloff.

The deputy head of the peacekeeping force in Somalia died when Islamists carried out twin suicide bombings in revenge for US helicopter strikes which killed an al-Qaeda suspect this week. Terrorists from the jihadist Al-Shabaab movement drove four-wheel-drive vehicles with fake United Nations markings into the African Union contingent's headquarters in Mogadishu.

Guards failed to recognise the threat and waved the cars through as they tailed a convoy of high-level officials arriving for a meeting. Maj Gen Juvenal Niyonguruza, the force's second-in-command from Burundi, and four others were killed by the four suicide bombers.

Fifteen wounded soldiers were airlifted to Nairobi and Kampala. The force commander, Uganda's Lt Col Nathan Mugisha, was lightly injured.

Hawa Hussein, who lives close to the AU's headquarters, said that her house "trembled' from the explosion on Thursday morning.

The attack came three days after US Special Operations troops mounted a daring helicopter raid to kill a key al-Qaeda suspect wanted in connection with terror attacks in neighbouring Kenya in 2002.

A senior al-Shabaab commander who gave his name as Abu Muhsin said the attack was in revenge for the American raid, which killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan.

"We have reached our ambition for that holy explosion [which] struck a hall where Nato, US, AU and so-called government officials were holding a meeting to attack our Mujahidiin after Ramadan," he said.

"We've reached our holy goal to revenge what the Christians did."

WASHINGTON — Even before President Obama reached the lectern to announce his plans to reconfigure missile defense plans in Europe, critics at home and abroad were accusing him of knuckling under to Russia. And to be sure, Russia was happy to be rid of former President George W. Bush’s planned missile shield.

But does the new missile defense architecture outlined by Mr. Obama actually satisfy Russian objections? That remains a more complicated question.

The Bush plan to counter Iranian missiles with a sophisticated radar facility in the Czech Republic and 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland arguably never posed any real threat to Russia’s nuclear arsenal, which even in its shrunken post-cold war state could easily overwhelm such a system. So the Russian complaints fell into two broad categories, one geopolitical and the other technical.

In part, Russia found the Bush plan so offensive because it involved placing American weapons systems — and the American military personnel to run them — in two Eastern European countries that used to be satellites of Moscow. The Kremlin often cited its understanding of what the United States promised at the end of the cold war, to not deploy weapons systems in former Warsaw Pact countries, although American officials have denied such an explicit commitment.

The fact that both Polish and Czech officials viewed the American missile defense system as a security blanket against Russian adventurism rather than focusing on the Iranian threat only deepened the suspicion in the Kremlin. And the plan to deploy in those two countries was seen in the context of NATO’s relentless march to Russia’s borders as it admitted more members over the past decade or so, just one more part of what seemed in Moscow to be a plan to hem Russia in.

The more specific, technical Russian grievances against the missile defense plan involved not so much the system Mr. Bush designed but its potential down the road. Russian officials acknowledged that the system could not thwart its hundreds of intercontinental ballistic missiles. But they argued that 10 interceptors could be eventually expanded to 100 or more. And they contended that the interceptors could be fitted with warheads and turned into offensive weapons close to their territory.

Perhaps even more disturbing from the Russian perspective was the plan to install an advanced radar called X-band in the Czech Republic. The radar can “see” 360 degrees and deep into the European part of Russia, where many of its missile silos are based. Russian officials protested against the intrusion and assumed that America wanted the radar to keep track of any Russian missiles.

How then does the Obama plan address those concerns? Mr. Obama ordered the development of a system that would deploy smaller SM-3 interceptors in 2011, at first on ships but later on land in Europe, aimed more at short- and medium-range Iranian missiles rather than the intercontinental missiles Russia has. The radar in the Czech Republic would no longer be needed; instead new land, air and space sensors would be relied on to track missile launches and their trajectories.

The cancellation of the radar in the Czech Republic could be seen as the most satisfying aspect of the new plan from the Russian perspective because it will keep the Americans from peering deeply into their territory. And the SM-3s, at least as currently designed, are not capable of taking out the intercontinental missiles that Russia has.

On the other hand, the Obama administration said it planned to deploy the SM-3s in as many as three land-based sites in Europe starting in 2015 and offered both Poland and the Czech Republic the opportunity to host those missiles. Since Poland was willing to host the larger interceptor missiles as part of the Bush plan, it presumably might accept the smaller missiles Mr. Obama wants to use.

Even if Poland and the Czech Republic do not choose to host missiles under the Obama plan, other former Warsaw Pact countries like Romania or Bulgaria might. And the Obama plan calls for dozens and eventually possibly even hundreds of the smaller interceptors, not just the 10 larger missiles included in Mr. Bush’s plan.

Moreover, advisers to Mr. Obama said they hoped to upgrade the SM-3 interceptors so that by 2020 they could be used to knock down intercontinental missiles as well as the shorter-range missiles now being countered. And officials said they would continue to develop the ground-based interceptors from the Bush plan on the chance that they might be needed later.

So how will the Russians interpret this? Will they simply declare victory and move on? Or will they focus on the aspects of the plan that do not address their past concerns?

“The Russians are probably not going to be pleased that we are continuing with missile defense efforts in Europe,” said Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. “But at the same time, there are two changes in this architecture that should allay some of their, what we think, unfounded concerns.” Those would be the elimination of the radar in the Czech Republic and the switch to smaller missiles that “they simply cannot, at least rationally, argue bears any kind of threat to Russia,” he said.

While Mr. Obama personally called the leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic to notify them of his decision, he left it to his national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, a retired Marine officer, to inform Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, who was summoned to the West Wing.

Several Russian lawmakers, analysts and other leading figures called the Obama decision a concession to Moscow. But President Dmitri A. Medvedev was more cautious as his team evaluated the new plan. He praised Mr. Obama’s “responsible approach” but gave no further indication as to whether Moscow was finally satisfied.

President Barack Obama has announced that he is shelving former President Bush's plans for a missile defence system in Europe.

The project had become a major irritant in relations between the United States and Russia.

Instead of basing long-range interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic, Mr Obama said there would be a redesigned defensive system that would be cheaper and more effective against the threat from Iranian missiles.

First broadcast 17 September 2009

KABUL — A suicide car bomber attacked an Italian military convoy in the heart of Afghanistan's capital Thursday, killing six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians.

The fourth major attack in the capital in five weeks, it was the latest reminder that even heavily guarded Kabul is vulnerable in a guerrilla war that has grown far beyond Taliban strongholds in the south.

The suicide bomber rammed his explosives-filled car into two military vehicles in the convoy about midday, Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said in Rome. He said six of those aboard were killed and four wounded.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility, saying in a text message that one of their militants carried out the suicide attack against NATO forces.

Violence has increased as the U.S. sent thousands more troops to push back the resurgent Taliban and bolster security for last month's presidential election. The Taliban made good on threats to disturb the vote, and militant attacks have risen not just in the group's southern heartland but also in the north and in Kabul and surrounding areas.

President Hamid Karzai defended the integrity of the disputed election, saying Thursday he had seen only limited proof of fraud. Full preliminary results showed him with 54.6 percent of the vote, well ahead of leading challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. But ongoing recounts and fraud investigations could drive Karzai's total below 50 percent, forcing him into a runoff.

The bombing shattered windows in buildings about half a mile (a kilometer) away and shook offices and homes throughout the central Afghan neighborhood that houses a number of embassies and military bases.

Charred vehicles littered the area around the blast site — a road just off a main traffic circle that leads to the airport. An Associated Press reporter saw at least six vehicles burned, including an Italian Humvee, and two burned bodies that were later covered with plastic sheets.

The Interior Ministry said 10 Afghan civilians were killed and 55 wounded.

Shopkeeper Feraudin Ansari said he felt the blast in his store about 50 yards (meters) from the site. Windows were broken in all the shops on the street. He said he was angry at NATO forces for patrolling in downtown areas.

"Why are you patrolling inside the city? There is no al-Qaida, no Taliban here," 25-year-old Ansari said. "My shop is destroyed and my head hurts from the blast."

In the latest attack in the south, a NATO service member died from a bomb strike Wednesday, NATO forces said.

Earlier he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the third time on his extended trip.

Mr Mitchell is engaged in fresh attempts to get a deal on Jewish settlement activity.

He is hoping for an agreement before all sides meet at the UN General Assembly in New York next week.

Israeli media reports say that Mr Mitchell will hold further talks with Mr Netanyahu before the Jewish New Year holiday begins on Friday evening.

On Thursday, Mr Netanyahu urged world leaders to reject a UN report on the war in Gaza earlier this year.

The report concluded that Israel deliberately used "disproportionate force" in its three-week operation in Gaza in December and January.

It said both the Israeli army and Palestinian militants committed war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.

'Construction will continue'

Mr Mitchell has prolonged his trip to the Middle East for several days as he works for a deal on freezing Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad demands settlement freeze

The US is seeking a moratorium on settlement building that would be acceptable to the Palestinian side.

Mr Abbas and the US administration have been demanding a complete freeze on Israeli construction activity.

Mr Netanyahu has offered a temporary freeze for several months, but not in East Jerusalem or in cases where homes have already been approved.

On Thursday he gave no indication there would be a freeze in the West Bank.

"There is a slowdown in settlement construction, but not a freeze," he said. "There are 2,400 units being built, and their construction will continue."

Israeli leaders yesterday united in condemnation of a "biased" UN report that severely criticised their invasion of Gaza last winter and rejected the central recommendation that Israel should hold an independent investigation into the offensive.

President Shimon Peres denounced the inquiry chaired by the former South African judge, Richard Goldstone, for "making a mockery of history".

The spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the report was "conceived in sin and is the product of a union between propaganda and bias".

Israel's foreign ministry is now expected to launch a major diplomatic operation abroad aimed at preventing the UN Security Council from taking further action on the report and to protect Israeli soldiers and commanders from any possible prosecutions abroad.

The Goldstone report recommended that if Israel did not within six months launch fully independent investigations into the "serious violations" of international law it alleges, then the country should face International Criminal Court proceedings.

The report rejected Israel's explanation that it was purely acting against rocket attacks by Gaza militants and said the offensive was "a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorise a civilian population".

Israel, like the US, is not a party to the ICC, but the Goldstone team proposed the UN Security Council use its powers to authorise a prosecution.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, is already considering the legal complexities generated by petitions from Palestinian groups arguing that the Gaza operation was mounted in territory falling within the Palestinian Authority area, and that this is enough to trigger legal action against Israeli commanders.

In New York, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, told leaders of the American Jewish Committee that "the Goldstone report is a dangerous attempt to harm the principle of self-defence by democratic states and provides legitimacy to terrorism".

He said the report was "a cynical attempt at role reversal in blaming Israel for war crimes instead of terrorist organisations". He added that Israel would work to enlist the support of Western democracies in a campaign "to prevent turning international law into a circus".

Aides to the Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, who was in political control of the three-week offensive, said the report was a "prize for terror" and the comparison between those who foment terrorism and its victims is "unconscionable".

Israel Radio said the defence establishment was trying to extend legal aid to any officers who could face indictments abroad.

Explaining Israel's decision to reject appeals for co-operation with the Goldstone inquiry, Mark Regev, Mr Netanyhu's spokesman, said: "The mandate was biased from the beginning.

It would have been a mistake to give credibility to a mission that has more in common with a kangaroo court than it does with a serious investigation."

He added: "Israel is a country with a fiercely independent judiciary ... Everything done by the military in Israel is open to judicial review by the independent judiciary."

The daughter of Mr Goldstone told Army Radio that the report would have been harsher had her father, who is Jewish and a onetime prosecutor of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, not chaired the team.

Nicole Goldstone said: "My father took on this job because he thought he is doing the best thing for peace, for everyone, and also for Israel." She added: "My father did not expect to see and hear what he saw and heard."

Italy has suffered the deadliest attack on its troops in Afghanistan, when suicide bombers struck a military convoy in the Afghan capital, Kabul. At least six Italian soldiers and 10 civilians were killed.

Ambulances rushed to the scene Wednesday following the latest attack in Kabul, the deadliest to date for Italian soldiers deployed in the country. At least six Italian soldiers were killed. The blast also wounded 52 civilians and four Italian soldiers.

At around midday local time, officials say a car loaded with explosives struck two vehicles carrying Italian paratroopers along the airport road near the U.S. embassy.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Italy's Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa, 16 Sep 2009
Italy's Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa, 16 Sep 2009
As soon as news reached Rome, a minute of silence was observed in the lower house of parliament. Messages of condolence and solidarity were sent to the relatives of the victims.

Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa immediately made a brief address to parliament, saying this was a very painful moment. He made clear the attack would not deter Italy's commitment to the region.

La Russa said that the villainous and cowardly aggressors who have once again hit in the most vicious way should know Italy will not stop its mission, and will continue to assess it with its international allies.

Italy has about 2,800 soldiers in Afghanistan. According to the Defense Ministry, 21 Italian troops have been killed in Afghanistan.

"This is likely to enrage the already apoplectic neoconservatives," wrote Time's Joe Klein. "[They] see the system not merely as an anti-Iranian measure, which is its stated intent, but as another means to put pressure on Russia."

The Atlantic's Matt Cooper agreed.

"For conservatives, who have made missile shields a centerpiece of their defense vision for a generation, this can only make them hate Obama more. More details will emerge later today, but can anyone doubt the apoplexy building at The Weekly Standard?"

The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb, a leading neo-conservative writer, was quick to prove Mr Cooper right.

"[Mr Obama's decision] represents a complete capitulation to Russia's Vladimir Putin, who had demanded that the proposed deployments be halted as a price for improved relations," he wrote.

"The consequences of this action in Eastern Europe, especially in Ukraine and in other countries that feel vulnerable to Russian power, will be disastrous. It is a major American retreat in the face of Russian bullying. And we will get absolutely nothing for it."

Mr Goldfarb's complaint - that America would get no quid pro quo from Russia in response to the missile defence shift - was echoed by fellow conservatives.

"Even if we were to grant that the missile shield in Europe was negotiable - what has the Obama Administration gotten in return from Putin/Medvedev?" wrote Mona Charen at the National Review.

"Where is the announcement from Russia of support for strict sanctions against Iran? Have they simply given this away for nothing?"

Another conservative, Harvard Professor Tom Nichols, also writing at the National Review, gave Mr Obama's decision a cautious welcome, however.

"It was the right thing to do," he wrote. "Those defenses were not going to work (or work well enough or soon enough to matter in any major crisis with Iran), and the diplomatic price we were paying for them was far out of proportion to any small gains we might have made by annoying the Russians or reassuring the Czechs and the Poles."

Aside from their predictions of conservative apoplexy, most liberals were broadly in agreement with the administration's policy shift.

"I'm glad to see the Obama administration abandoning the really dumb and provocative long-range missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic and replacing it with a short-range missile defense system that's sea-based with sites in (probably) Romania, Israel and Turkey," wrote the Washington Post's Ezra Klein.

"I might like to see them abandon the idea altogether, but them's the breaks. This way, you do less to anger Russia and you save a bit of money."

Robert Farley, blogging at Lawyers, Guns and Money, was also pleased with the move.

"This is a huge victory for common sense over fantasy, and for responsible defense budgeting. This project had no function other than to serve the pecuniary interest of the missile defense industry, and to sate the ideological lust of conservatives infatuated with St Reagan."

And FireDogLake's Spencer Ackerman was full of admiration for the way in which the administration used its opponents' arguments to sell its new policy.

"It's some good jujitsu: accepting the technological premises of missile defense advocates to argue that the planned Poland/Czech Republic-based system is a relic before it's built."

A miniature version of Tyrannosaurus rex, the size of a human being, has been discovered after an extraordinary fossil that had been almost lost to the black market was recovered for science.

T. rex, which lived 60 million years later than its smaller cousin, shared its body shape in almost every detail, with an outsized skull, powerful jaws and teeth, athletic hind legs built for pursuing prey and puny forearms.

Raptorex kriegsteini, however, was only a fifth as long as its more celebrated successor, 100 times lighter and only 3m (9ft) from head to tail and 65kg (10st 3lb). T. rex grew to 13m and 7 tonnes and at the hip was more than twice as tall as a person.

The “miniature” creature’s anatomy has overturned standard explanations for the evolution of the tyrannosaurs, the group of giant predators to which T. rex belonged, which dominated the final 20 million years of the Cretaceous period immediately before the extinction of the dinosaurs. Tyrannosaur features such as huge heads and tiny arms were generally thought to have been adaptations that emerged as the theropod dinosaurs grew in size. The discovery indicates that this body shape had long been successful on a smaller scale, and simply expanded as predatory dinosaurs got bigger.

“We really thought that these features evolved in the course of gaining large body size,” said Paul Sereno, of the University of Chicago, who led the research. “We can now say this was a blueprint for a predator, jaws on legs, as it were, that was one of the most successful of the Mesozoic.”

His colleague, Stephen Brusatte, of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said: “In short, much of what we thought we knew about tyrannosaur evolution turns out to be simplistic or out-and-out wrong.” While T. rex had “a head larger than a man is tall”, Raptorex “was about my size, but with all the features of a tyrannosaur”.

R. kriegsteini is also a triumph for Dr Sereno because of the deal that he brokered to save the specimen for science. The fossil was originally unearthed in mysterious circumstances in the Yixian Formation of inner Mongolia in China, but was then smuggled out of the country and sold to Henry Kriegstein, a private collector.

Mr Kriegstein approached Dr Sereno to analyse it three years ago and he agreed on the condition that it was donated “100 per cent lock stock and barrel” to science and returned to China. The specimen, which bears the Kriegstein name, will be displayed at a museum in inner Mongolia once the research team has made a detailed analysis.

Dr Sereno said: “I think he realised there was a sense of immortality in having a dinosaur named after your family, in this case his father, who had survived World War Two. Many of the family members didn’t, they were European Jews, and this was a way of recognising the contribution his parents made in their lives.”

Raptorex kriegsteini, which lived about 125 million years ago, is described in the journal Science. “It’s almost horse-like in the way it’s compacted so it’s able to run fast,” Dr Sereno said.

“This is really characteristic of the later tyrannosaurs. This indicates an animal that really ran down its prey, and it used its skull, the ripping incisors and the powerful jaw muscles, to dispatch the prey.”

The undersized arms were secondary to the jaws as offensive weapons, and they atrophied over time, Dr Sereno suggested. The scientists also suggest that tyrannosaurs may later have grown so large — to become the only large predators in North America and Asia — because competitors, such as Allosaurus, became extinct.

“As best as we can tell, it looks as if these other guys went extinct, opening the way for the expansion of these predatory dinosaurs to expand in body size,” Dr Sereno said.

“When they did, there was no turning back until the asteroid hit, because they had it down pat.”

Police swooped in on Yale lab tech Ray Clark today, arresting him in connection with the murder of graduate student Annie Le, whose battered body was found stuffed in a wall on the day she was supposed to get married. Investigators have gathered more than 250 pieces of evidence in the case, sources told ABC News, including text messages exchanged between Clark and Le arranging to meet on the day she disappeared.

Clark was taken into custody by police early today after investigators stood vigil all night outside a motel in Cromwell, Conn., where the suspect had retreated to room 214 on Wednesday. Earlier Wednesday, police had taken DNA samples from Clark, searched his apartment and then let him go.

A convoy of pollice and FBI cars pulled into the motel parking lot with lights flashing about 8:20 a.m. while others blocked off the intersection. FBI agents ran up stairs at the back of the motel. Clark was arrested minutes later.

The arrest warrant charges Clark with murder and set bail at $3 million.

Officers held a news conference almost simultaneously and Police Chief James Lewis said, "There were no issues with the arrest. It went smoothly."

Lewis refused to say whether there was a DNA match that linked Clark to Le, and he dismissed printed rumors of a romantic relationship between Clark and Le. The chief hinted at the tragedy of Le's murder.

"Annie Le was a young woman of unlimited potential," he said.

Lewis said Le's murder was part of a growing wave of workplace crime.

"This is not about urban crime, university crime, or campus crime. It's about workplace violence, a growing concern across the country," he said.

Yale University President Richard C. Levin released a statement that said in part, "Mr. Clark has been a lab technician at Yale since December 2004. His supervisor reports that nothing in the history of his employment at the University gave an indication that his involvement in such a crime might be possible."

He added, "This incident could have happened in any city, in any university, or in any workplace. It says more about the dark side of the human soul than it does about the extent of security measures."

Clark has wounds on his chest, arms and back, sources told ABC News, suggesting a violent struggle. A bead from Le's necklace was found on the floor of the basement lab where Le's body was found and blood spots were found on a laundry cart there.

Sources told the Hartford Courant that Clark's Yale swipe card indicated he was the last person to see Le alive. The electronic trail left by his card indicated he had entered the same lab where Le was last seen. Clark also reportedly swiped his identification at least 10 times in the hours surrounding Le's disappearance, the paper reported.

The deep scratches on Clark's body came to light as the Connecticut medical examiner released Le's cause of death to be strangulation, or it was officially described as "traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression."

Police also found a pair of bloody surgical gloves.

ABC News has also learned that Clark sent a text message to Le early Tuesday, Sept. 8, requesting a meeting to discuss the cleanliness of research mice's cages.

President Jimmy Carter was wrong to charge that criticism of President Obama is racist.

Every American President in a furious political fight is going to be criticized, and a black President does not get a pass. It is condescending to think that a man of Barack Obama's intellect and political skills needs to be coddled.

But Carter is right on one big and important point: The pattern of attacks on Obama suggests that there are people who don't accept the idea that this man, the first black man to win the highest office in the land, is really the President.

These critics seem less interested in arguing about health care proposals than in building the case that Obama is not legitimately our national leader.

They charge Obama was not born in the United States, and therefore doesn't meet the requirements that all Presidents be native-born.

They make this argument even when all Hawaiian documents, officials and news stories of his birth conclusively prove he is an American.

There are critics who claim he is Muslim, not a Christian, despite all testimony about his years in the controversial church of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

To even hint that the President is a secret Muslim in an era when radical Muslims have killed thousands of Americans is to suggest a Manchurian candidate who is intent on destroying America.

Then there are claims that Obama is a Socialist who is trying to subvert America by ending the free-market economy. Some of this is explicitly racial, as when the argument is made that Obama's efforts at health care reform are really a plot to get reparations for slavery for black Americans.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) ratcheted up the racial heat when he shouted out "You lie!" as the President spoke to Congress. No white President - that is to say all who have come before - has ever had to put up with such contempt.

There is a circumstantial case to be made that Wilson, with a history of membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans and support for flying the Confederate flag over his state's capitol, is not above playing racial politics.

Wilson has gone so far as to claim that former South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond's daughter, born of a black woman, was slurring Thurmond by rightly saying he is her father.

And don't forget that Wilson's outrage was directed at Obama for saying his health care plan will not cover illegal immigrants. As a point of fact, the President told the truth. Wilson's attack suggested not only that Obama was lying, but that he was lying in support of a plan to help fellow immigrants.

At some point, it is hard to ignore the common thread in this criticism: It is an effort to say that Obama is not one of us, not like us. And at that point, it is not crazy to ask the critics if they mean he is not one of them because of the color of his skin.

It is possible to be critical of Obama's health care plan without bringing race into the debate, but many critics are burning to prove that this President, our only nonwhite head of state, is not legitimate.

After posting a blog of remorse, and breaking down on the Jay Leno show, West has now phoned Swift directly to say sorry.

The call came after Swift’s appearance on the US show The View. While on the programme, the 19-year-old singer said West had not got in touch with her to apologise personally. She said: “He has not personally reached out or anything but if he wanted to say hi, I would."

According to a statement from The View, West called her at the end of filming. A show spokesman said: “After the show he spoke personally to the country music superstar via telephone and has apologised. She has accepted Mr West’s apology. The contents of the phone call are to remain private.”

After the call, Swift told ABC News Radio: “He was very sincere in his apology and I accepted that apology.”

This is the latest development in the controversy surrounding West after his interruption of Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, which left fans fuming. After Swift won Best Female Video, West ruined the singer’s moment when he jumped on to the stage at Radio City Music Hall.

West then told the shocked singer that she didn’t deserve the award, yelling: “Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time”.

Following the angry backlash from Swift fans, West also took to his blog to apologise: “I’M SOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM. I SPOKE TO HER MOTHER RIGHT AFTER AND SHE SAID THE SAME THING MY MOTHER WOULD’VE SAID. SHE IS VERY TALENTED!”

West later told Jay Leno that he knew he was wrong. “It was rude, period,” he said.

The report said both the Israeli army and Palestinian militants committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during fighting in January.

The report "was flawed from A-to-Z", the UN panel was "biased" and some of its findings "ludicrous", said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev.

The report called for fresh war crimes inquiries under international scrutiny.

It said said Israel's "Operation Cast Lead", launched in response to militant rocket fire, used disproportionate firepower against the densely populated Gaza Strip and disregarded the likelihood of civilian deaths.

The militant group Hamas criticised parts of the report alleging it fired rockets at Israel without distinguishing between military targets and the civilian population.

Intimidation

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Regev said the panel was "born in sin" because "even the UN" considers the Human Rights Council which commissioned the report "to have a one-side anti-Israeli agenda".


The investigations Israel has done into its troops' behaviour in the Gaza Strip is 1,000 times more serious than this investigation
Mark Regev

Key extracts from UN statement
UN seeks close Gaza scrutiny

He also cast doubt on the impartiality of the four-judge panel, led by South African Richard Goldstone, based on comments one of its members had made before the inquiry.

Mr Regev charged that evidence collected in public hearings in the Gaza Strip, where he said witnesses were subject to intimidation from the militant Hamas movement, had the validity of a "show trial".

And he rejected the panel's recommendation that the UN Security Council should call on Israel to fully investigate possible violations by its forces, or face possible referral to the International Criminal Court.

"In the last six months, the investigations Israel has done into its troops' behaviour in the Gaza Strip is 1,000 times more serious than this investigation," Mr Regev said.

Resistance

Hamas officials welcomed the Goldstone report's unusually harsh condemnation of Israel, but rejected criticism of itself.

Richard Goldstone comments on 'crimes' committed by Israeli and Palestinian forces

"The Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance were in a position of self-defence and not of attack," said senior Hamas official Ismail Haniya.

"One cannot compare the simple capabilities of the resistance with the great strength of the occupation," he said.

Israel did not co-operate with the commission and its members had to enter the Gaza Strip from the border, which is under Egyptian supervision.

At the Israeli Foreign Ministry, a spokesman said a diplomatic offensive was being planned to block possible referral of Israeli commanders or officials to the ICC.

The Israeli military has conducted investigations into some claims of human rights violations that have found no systematic wrongdoing. Some cases remain pending.

Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 Gazans were killed in the violence between 27 December and 16 January, though Israel puts the figure at 1,166. Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israeli soldiers were also killed.

Mr Goldstone urged "fair-minded people" to read the 574-page report and "at the end of it, point out where it failed to be objective or even-handed".

Mary Travers, who as one-third of the hugely popular 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary helped popularize such tunes as "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" and "If I Had a Hammer," died Wednesday after battling leukemia for several years. She was 72.

The band's publicist, Heather Lylis, says Travers died at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut.

Bandmate Peter Yarrow said that in her final months, Travers handled her declining health with bravery and generosity, showing her love to friends and family "with great dignity and without restraint."

"It was, as Mary always was, honest and completely authentic," he said. "That's the way she sang, too; honestly and with complete authenticity."

Noel "Paul" Stookey, the trio's other member, praised Travers for her inspiring activism, "especially in her defense of the defenseless."

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's top military adviser endorsed an increase in U.S. forces for the worsening war in Afghanistan on Tuesday, setting up a split with leading Democrats in Congress and complicating an already-tough decision for the president himself.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the war is growing more complicated and the enemy gaining in sophistication. Winning will require more resources from outside Afghanistan, including more troops, Mullen told Congress.

"A properly resourced counterinsurgency probably means more forces, and without question, more time" and dedication, Mullen said.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in charge of both American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, delivered a grim assessment of the war to Washington last month and is expected to follow up soon with a request for thousands of additional troops and more equipment.

That will leave Obama to decide whether to expand a war that polls say is rapidly losing public support in the U.S. and drawing pointed criticism in Congress. He has already roughly doubled the size of the American military force in Afghanistan since taking office, with only limited gains to show. Obama has an ambitious strategy to turn around a war that will soon enter its ninth year, and his aides say the plan needs time to work.

Mullen said he does not know how many additional troops McChrystal will request, but he left no doubt that the commander has concluded that the 21,000 U.S. troops Obama has already approved are not enough.

Sitting opposite Mullen, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee was unswayed. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan warned the White House last week that he does not want to see a request for more troops until the United States takes bolder action to expand Afghanistan's own armed forces.

"Providing the resources needed for the Afghan Army and Afghan police to become self-sufficient would demonstrate our commitment to the success of a mission that is in our national security interest, while avoiding the risks associated with a further increase in U.S. ground combat troops," Levin declared at Tuesday's hearing.

Several other Democrats have said they want a clearer timeline and measures of progress from the administration before approving large expansions of the troop commitment or mission. Congress has approved most of the money Obama requested for the war so far, but a large troop increase would probably require a separate add-on spending bill.

WASHINGTON — A proposal to change the nation's $2.6 trillion health care system that was unveiled Wednesday has no Republican support, but interest groups on both sides of the debate said that doesn't mean it isn't full of Republican ideas.

From ditching a proposed government-run insurance program to driving down the overall cost of the bill, the proposal unveiled by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is significantly different than other health care bills in Congress — the result of a more bipartisan process, the groups said.

SIDE-BY-SIDE: A look at competing health care bills
HEALTH CARE BILL: Baucus' proposal gets lukewarm reception

"Sen. Baucus is trying to put together a centrist piece of legislation that can appeal to moderate Blue Dog Democrats and attract a few Republicans," said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "They are fighting over the details."

Three Republicans who took part in behind-the-scenes negotiations with Baucus said they believed the bipartisan talks made some progress, but they said there are outstanding issues that require more time to resolve. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he is still willing to work with Democrats.

"Whenever Baucus calls us," he said, "I'll be there."

Among the key differences from other versions:

• The proposal, which Baucus says will cost $856 billion in the first 10 years, has a lower price tag than the other bills. The Congressional Budget Office puts the Baucus bill at $774 billion in its preliminary analysis.

• The Senate Finance bill does not include a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurance companies, one of the most controversial sticking points between Democrats and Republicans. Instead, the measure calls for $6 billion in seed money that would be used to create membership-run cooperatives.

• The Senate Finance bill includes a 35% excise tax on high-priced health insurance plans, a major change from a House version of the bill that would pay for changes by imposing an income tax on high-earning individuals and families.

"Sen. Baucus has had the patience of Job in trying to work with his Republican colleagues," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, which has lobbied in support of changing the current system. "He has every reason to be disappointed that despite his inclusion of their proposals, they have left him standing at the altar."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the bill is still too costly and would give the government too much power over health decisions. Echoing concerns raised by several Republicans, McConnell said the bill "puts massive new tax burdens on families and small businesses."

"The proposal released today still spends too much, and it does too little to cut health care costs for those with health insurance," Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., a participant in the negotiations, said in a statement.

The Senate Finance bill would be paid for with about $500 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and roughly $350 billion in new taxes and fees.

Despite the effort at bipartisanship, the bill drew criticism from across the political spectrum. Karen Ignagni, CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, said co-ops could "disrupt the quality coverage on which millions of Americans rely today."

On the other side of the debate, Richard Kirsch of Health Care For America Now said that without a public option, there is nothing to drive down costs in the long run. "There's almost nothing we like," he said.

The paper said it would be dropped because Iran's long-range missile plans were less advanced than predicted.

Czech officials said Barack Obama had spoken to their prime minister, while a Polish official said the shield might no longer be deployed in Poland.

The plan antagonised Russia, which saw it as a direct threat.

President Obama ordered a review of the defence system, introduced by his predecessor George W Bush.

In August 2008, the US signed a deal with Poland to site interceptors at a base near the Baltic Sea, and with the Czech Republic to build a radar station on its territory.

A Czech government spokesman said Mr Obama spoke to Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer on Wednesday, but declined to release further details.

European protection

The missile shield was expected to be fully operational by 2012.

Washington said the European sites were needed to protect European allies and US forces in Europe from Iran or another country.

However, the Wall Street Journal reported: "The US will base its decision on a determination that Iran's long-range missile program has not progressed as rapidly as previously estimated, reducing the threat to the continental US and major European capitals, according to current and former US officials."

The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said the White House would order "a shift towards the development of regional missile defences for the Continent" to combat the threat from Iran's short- and medium-range missiles.

An announcement is expected later by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and military staff at a news conference , the Associated Press reported.

Iranian talks

Iran says its missile development programme is solely for scientific, surveillance or defensive purposes, but there are concerns in the West and among Iran's neighbours that the rockets could be used to carry nuclear weapons.

As part of long-running efforts to tackle the issue, Iran will hold talks on its nuclear programme on 1 October with the UK, China, France, Russia and the US - the five permanent UN Security Council members - and Germany.

The Wall Street Journal said the Obama administration "was expected to leave open the option of restarting the Polish and Czech system if Iran makes advances in its long-range missiles in the future."

Russia saw the US missile plan as a direct threat to itself, despite US assurances that it was aimed at "rogue" states, such as Iran.

A Russian foreign minister spokesman was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying Russia was awaiting confirmation of the reports.

"In principle, such a development of the situation would correspond to the interests of the development of our bilateral relations with the USA," the spokesman said.

In November, Russia moved its own ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, between Nato member states Lithuania and Poland to "neutralise - if necessary - the [US] anti-missile system", President Dmitry Medvedev said at the time.

Mr Medvedev also said Russia would jam the US anti-missile system electronically.