Celeb pathologist does 2nd Smith autopsy

MICHAEL MELIA,
Associated Press Writer

A pathologist who gained fame as a critic of the government's probe into John F. Kennedy's assassination and a consultant in Elvis Presley's death performed a second autopsy Sunday on the son of Anna Nicole Smith.

Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist from Pittsburgh said before the exam he would retrace the procedures of the local coroner's office, which labeled the 20-year-old's death "suspicious" because the cause was unclear.

"It's a simple examination," he said. "And even though it's the second (autopsy), it's basically the same."

Wecht was accompanied by Smith's Bahamian lawyer, Michael Scott, who told reporters the TV star had ordered the follow-up autopsy to end "media speculation surrounding the matter." He said he could not say when a cause of death would be issued from Wecht's autopsy.

"It could take weeks to get a definitive and final answer to that," Scott said.

Daniel Wayne Smith died Sept. 10 in a hospital room where the reality TV star and former Playboy model was recuperating from giving birth three days earlier. Investigators have said they did not find evidence of drugs in the room or obvious signs of a crime.

Bahamian pathologists performed an autopsy Tuesday and ordered further analysis, including a toxicology test to be completed this week.

Wecht, 75, is facing trial on charges he used his staff when he was the Allegheny County coroner to do work for his multimillion-dollar private pathology practice. He resigned from office in January and contends he did nothing wrong.

Wecht, who holds both law and medical degrees, received international prominence as a critic of the Warren Commission's single-gunman theory of John F. Kennedy's assassination. He has also worked as a consultant on cases such as Presley's death and the slayings of Laci Peterson and JonBenet Ramsey. He is regularly interviewed on television about high-profile cases.

Head coroner Linda Virgill said it was not unusual for families to ask for an independent examination.

Reginald Ferguson, assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, has said that although there were no obvious signs of criminal wrongdoing in the death, it was too early to draw conclusions. An inquest is scheduled to begin Oct. 23.

Smith, 38, who came to the Bahamas during her pregnancy to avoid media scrutiny, is free to leave the Caribbean island chain, authorities have said.

Daniel Smith, who appeared several times on the E! reality series "The Anna Nicole Show," was the son of Anna Nicole and Bill Smith, who married in 1985 and divorced two years later.

The identity of the father of her newborn daughter has not been publicly released.

Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year and she has since been involved in legal disputes over the estate.

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Text of Pope's apology

The following is the text of Pope Benedict XVI's remarks regretting causing offence to Muslims in his 12 September speech in the Bavarian city of Regensburg.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The pastoral visit which I recently made to Bavaria was a deep spiritual experience, bringing together personal memories linked to places well known to me and pastoral initiatives towards an effective proclamation of the Gospel for today.

I thank God for the interior joy which he made possible, and I am also grateful to all those who worked hard for the success of this Pastoral Visit.

As is the custom, I will speak more of this during next Wednesday's general audience.

At this time, I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims.

These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought.

Yesterday, the Cardinal Secretary of State published a statement in this regard in which he explained the true meaning of my words.

I hope that this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect.

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Pope's response accepted by some Muslims

FRANCES D'EMILIO,
Associated Press Writer

Some Muslim leaders accepted Pope Benedict XVI's explanation Sunday of his remarks on Islam and violence. Others said it wasn't enough, but cautioned followers against a violent backlash after attacks on churches in Palestinian areas and the slaying of a nun in Somalia.

The pontiff said he was "deeply sorry" his speech last week in Germany offended Muslims, particularly his quoting of a medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman" and referred to spreading Islam "by the sword."

He said those words did not reflect his own opinions.

"I hope that this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect," the pope said during his weekly Sunday appearance before pilgrims.

Seeking to placate spreading Muslim anger, Vatican officials previously said the pope held Islam in high esteem and stressed that the central thrust of his speech was to condemn the use of any religious motivation for violence, whatever the religion.

While Benedict expressed regret his speech caused hurt, he did not retract what he said or say he was sorry he uttered what proved to be explosive words.

Anger was still intense in Muslim lands.

Two churches were set on fire in the West Bank, raising to at least seven the number of church attacks in Palestinian areas over the weekend blamed on outrage sparked by the speech.

There was also concern that the furor was behind the shooting death of an Italian missionary nun at the hospital where she worked for years in the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia. The killing came just hours after a Somali cleric condemned the pope's speech.

"Let's hope that it will be an isolated fact," the Rev. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, was quoted as saying by the Italian news agency ANSA.

He said the Vatican was "following with concern the consequences of this wave of hate, hoping that it does not lead to grave consequences for the church in the world."

Police across Italy were ordered to step up security out of concern that the anger could cause Roman Catholic sites to become terrorist targets. Police outside the pope's summer palace confiscated metal-tipped umbrellas and bottles of liquids from faithful.

Benedict's expression of sorrow for the offense he caused satisfied some Islamic leaders.

The head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a banned group but still the largest Islamic movement in that country, said the outrage was justified but predicted it would subside quickly.

"Our relations with Christians should remain good, civilized and cooperative," Mohammed Mahdi Akef told The Associated Press in Cairo.

Germany's Central Council of Muslims welcomed the pope's comments Sunday as "the most important step to calm the protest" and urged the Vatican to seek discussion with Muslim representatives to avoid lasting damage.

But others were still demanding an apology for the words, including in Turkey, where questions have been raised about whether Benedict should go ahead with a visit scheduled for November as the first trip of his papacy to a Muslim nation.

"It is very saddening. The Islamic world is expecting an explanation from the pope himself," Turkish State Minister Mehmet Aydin told reporters in Istanbul. "You either have to say this 'I'm sorry' in a proper way or not say it at all. Are you sorry for saying such a thing or because of its consequences?"

Turkish Education Minister Huseyin Celik voiced similar concern. "It is different to be sorry and to apologize," he said.

Mohammad al-Nujemi, a professor at the Institute of Judicial and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, expressed dismay at what he called Benedict "evading apology."

"His statements might give terrorists and al-Qaida followers legitimacy that there is really an attempt to hurt Muslims," al-Nujemi told Al-Arabiya television.

In Damascus, Syria, lawmaker Mohammad Habash said the pope offered a "clarification and not (an) apology." But Habash also called for "calm and dialogue."

Hundreds of Iranians demonstrated against the pope in cities across Iran. In Qom, the religious capital of Iran's 70 million Shiite Muslims, hard-line cleric Ahmad Khatami said the pope and President Bush were "united in order to repeat the Crusades."

The uproar is one of the biggest crises involving the Vatican in decades, and the Holy See has moved quickly in trying to defuse anger.

On Sunday, in an unusual step, the Vatican's press office rushed out translations in English and French of the pope's remarks. Typically, the Vatican doesn't translate the pope's Sunday remarks, which are delivered in Italian.

Both sides have much to gain by good relations. The Vatican and Muslims have shared stands in opposition of abortion. The Holy See, under Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, vigorously lobbied against the Iraq war, and Benedict made numerous appeals to Israel to use restraint in its recent military campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier urged world religious leaders to show "responsibility and restraint" to avoid what he called "extremes" in relations between faiths.

___

Associated Press writers Victor L. Simpson in Vatican City, Nadia Abou el-Magd in Cairo, Egypt, Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey, Stephen Graham in Berlin, Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Veronika Oleksyn in Vienna, Austria, contributed to this report.

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Text message leads to kidnapping suspect

JEFFREY COLLINS,
Associate Press Writer

A man suspected of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl and keeping her in an underground bunker was arrested Sunday, surrendering without a fight along a highway after eluding police for months with an elaborate system of hideouts and tunnels.

Investigators arrested Vinson Filyaw in Richland County about 24 hours after rescuing Elizabeth Shoaf, who had sent a text message to her mother on Finlaw's phone while he was a sleep, said Sheriff Steve McCaskill in neighboring Kershaw County.

Shoaf had been missing for 10 days and was rescued Saturday from a booby-trapped bunker 15 feet underground.

Filyaw, 37, will be charged with kidnapping, possession of an incendiary device and impersonating an officer, McCaskill said.

He said more charges likely will follow after investigators interview Shoaf on Monday about her Sept. 6 abduction and 10-day ordeal.

"The big relief was when we found Elizabeth Shoaf alive and well," McCaskill said. "But it is a great relief when you get a criminal of this type out of society and behind bars."

Shoaf was found about a mile from her home, hidden in a 15-foot-deep hole carved out of the side of a hill and covered with plywood. The bunker had a hand-dug privy with toilet paper, a camp stove and shelves made with cut branches and canvas.

Sheriff's Capt. David Thomley said the bunker the girl was found in was the fourth bunker investigators discovered since they began looking for Filyaw. Authorities believe all the bunkers were dug by Filyaw.

McCaskill said the girl appeared to be unharmed but was taken to Kershaw County Medical Center for evaluation.

Investigators used cell towers to determine a general location of the phone and deputies began searching for Filyaw on Friday night. McCaskill said the girl cried out as searchers approached the bunker.

Shoaf was kidnapped Sept. 6 after getting off a school bus in this rural area 10 miles northeast of Columbia.

Police were tipped off to Filyaw's location Sunday after getting a call from a woman who said he tried to carjack her about 2 a.m. outside a pizza restaurant, authorities said.

Filyaw was on foot — about five miles from his house — carrying a pellet gun, a Taser and a long hunting knife when police captured him. He gave up easily, McCaskill said, adding that he doesn't think the suspect had any help escaping.

"If he had help, he would have gotten much farther away," McCaskill said.

Filyaw was being held Sunday at the Kershaw County jail. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Investigators said Filyaw posed as a police officer when he met Shoaf and the girl was walked around in the woods by her captor until she became disoriented. He used handmade grenades and a flare gun to threaten her while she was in the bunker, McCaskill said.

The bunker was protected by a booby-trap. It had food, shelves and even a stove for cooking, McCaskill said.

Deputies had been searching for months for Filyaw, an unemployed construction worker, on an unrelated charge of criminal sexual conduct against a 12-year-old girl. Officers tried to arrest him at his home earlier this week, but he escaped using a tunnel under his bedroom, the sheriff said.

Since then, Filyaw has likely spent most of his time in the bunkers, the sheriff said.

Sharon Turner, who lived across the street from Filyaw's trailer, said she hadn't seem him in months.

"I told my husband, 'He went underground,' " Turner said.

Like many of her neighbors, Turner said she had been living in fear ever since Shoaf, who lived about a mile away, disappeared. The fear became terror Friday when the sheriff released Filyaw's name and picture.

"You just don't know who is living across your front yard," Turner said.

On Sunday, the driveway in front of Shoaf's home was decorated with "Welcome Home" balloons.

The father of one of Shoaf's best friends came by Sunday morning to check on things. He had been with the family Saturday when the girl was found and said they were all doing well considering the circumstances.

"They just want some time alone with their daughter," Leo Lampart said.

Filyaw's yard was overgrown with weeds Sunday morning, and no one answered the door.

A sign handwritten was still attached to an open gate leading into the back yard. It read: "Anyone who tries to get past this gate will be shot. No questions asked. This includes cops."

The word "cops" was underlined three times.

This is the second South Carolina case this year involving an abducted teenage girl taken to an underground hideout.

Kenneth Hinson of Hartsville is charged with kidnapping two 17-year-old girls March 14 and taking them to a closet-sized dungeon behind his home. Authorities said the girls freed themselves and walked to safety. Hinson was captured after a four-day manhunt.

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Compromise may be coming on CIA program

NEDRA PICKLER,
Associated Press Writer

The Bush administration and holdout GOP senators expressed confidence on Sunday they could reach a compromise on rules for CIA interrogations of suspected terrorists.

Neither the president's national security aides nor some of the lawmakers who are resisting White House pressure would say how they can reconcile their deep differences after a week of public sparring.

As a result, it is unclear if Congress quickly can pass legislation authorizing aggressive methods against terrorist detainees, as President Bush wants. Congress is likely to adjourn in two weeks for the fall elections.

Bush says CIA personnel should be able to resume tough interrogation techniques to extract information from detainees. Several senators from his own party are standing in the way, seeking changes. They say the United States must adhere strictly to international standards in the Geneva Conventions and that setting harsher ones could put U.S. troops at risk if they are captured.

"We have to hold the moral high ground," said Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona, one of the Republicans not satisfied with the White House proposal. "We don't think al-Qaida will ever observe those conventions, but we're going to be in other wars."

A Supreme Court ruling in June essentially said the Geneva Conventions on the rights of wartime prisoners should apply to suspected terrorists in CIA custody. The decision froze the interrogations and eventually led the administration to turn over the last 14 prisoners in CIA custody to the military officials running a prison for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Bush's national intelligence director, John Negroponte, said the interrogation program has had "precious little activity of that kind for a number of months now" because of questions about its legality. But, he said, it is important that the program continue.

"It's provided invaluable information that has saved lives of Americans, and significant plots against our homeland have been disrupted as a result. And, surely, there is a way of finding a way forward that would permit this program to continue and, at the same time, do it in a way that is both respectful of our law and Constitution and our international obligations," Negroponte said.

But, he added, "I think we're going to have to wait and see" if a compromise can be reached with McCain and others.

McCain said he is committed to a deal. "I still believe that we'll be able to work this out to the satisfaction of everybody concerned," the senator said.

The White House says the existing ban on "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" satisfies U.S. treaty obligations. The senators' bill is silent on the issue.

Bush's proposal allows evidence to be held from a defendant if it is classified and allows coerced testimony if deemed reliable. The Senate bill requires a judge to dismiss charges if evidence cannot be shared. It also excludes any testimony obtained by cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

"If it's seen that our country is trying to redefine the Geneva Convention to meet the needs of the CIA, why can't every other country redefine the Geneva Convention to meet the needs of their secret police?" said Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., another opponent of Bush's plan.

"It would be a disaster. We can protect the program. The program is people. But we need not, in my opinion, go down the road of being seen as redefining treaty obligations that have been long-standing."

Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, declined to say what specific techniques, such as waterboarding or prolonged sleep deprivation, would be illegal if Congress did not pass Bush's proposal.

But he said the CIA program would suffer and be shut down if interrogators do not have guidance. He said the White House is working on a compromise that "achieves Senator McCain's requirement that we don't amend or change" the Geneva Conventions.

"We need to find a way through that obstacle course, and I think we can," Hadley said.

Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., said he was not certain a compromise was possible.

"I don't see a way unless the president gives up on his idea that we're going to unilaterally modify Geneva," Levin said.

Hadley appeared on ABC's "This Week," CBS' "Face the Nation" and CNN's "Late Edition." Negroponte was on "Fox News Sunday," McCain on ABC and Graham and Levin on CBS.

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China and India 'boosting Africa'

China and India's growing trade and investment in Africa holds great potential for African economic growth, a World Bank report has said.

The study found that, led by China and India, Asia now gets 27% of Africa's exports, triple the amount in 1990.

At the same time, Asian exports to Africa are now growing 18% per year, faster than any other global region.

The study says both China, India and African nations must improve their trade reforms to help boost this trend.

'Best interests'

Entitled Africa's Silk Road: China and India's New Economic Front, the report recommends the elimination of China's and India's tariffs on African exports.

Written by World Bank Africa Region Economic Advisor Harry Broadman, the study further calls for Africa to reform its economies to better "unleash competitive market forces, strengthen its basic market institutions, and improve governance".

It also wants to see African countries improve their infrastructure and customs arrangements.

Taken together it said such changes were "not only in the best interests of Africa's economic development, but in China's and India's own economic fortunes".

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Pope sorry for offending Muslims (BBC)

Pope Benedict XVI has apologised in person for causing offence to Muslims in a speech in Bavaria last week.

He said the medieval text which he quoted did not express in any way his personal opinion, adding the speech was an invitation to respectful dialogue.

The Pope has been under intense scrutiny amid angry reactions from throughout the Muslim world.

The 14th Century Christian emperor's quote said the Prophet Muhammad brought the world only evil and inhuman things.

The BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome says many critics will say Sunday's comments should have been attached to his speech in Regensburg, which may well have avoided the controversy that followed.

The Pope appeared on the balcony at his residence at Castel Gandolfo outside Rome for the Angelus blessing on Sunday.

"...I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," he told pilgrims.

"These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought.

"I hope this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with mutual respect."

Police had promised meticulous security checks in an extended area around the residence but said they would be discreet so as not to disturb the prayers.

Marksmen kept watch on the square from a city hall while officers dressed like tourists, filmed the crowd with video cameras.

Police confiscated umbrellas and bottles of liquid.

Last Tuesday's incident led Morocco to withdraw its ambassador to the Vatican, calling the comments "offensive".

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood had called on the pontiff to say sorry in person.

A statement on a web site purportedly issued by the Iraqi insurgent group, the Mujahideen Army, threatened an attack on the Vatican. The statement could not be independently authenticated.

Protests

Our correspondent says the crisis could not have come at a worse time for the Pope.

Not only is he due to visit Muslim Turkey in November but he has also recently appointed two new men to the jobs of secretary of state and head of diplomacy at the Vatican.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the comments had been "ugly and unfortunate" and when asked if the Pope's trip would go ahead, he said: "I wouldn't know."

In his speech at Regensburg University on Tuesday, the German-born Pope quoted Emperor Manuel II Paleologos of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire.

Stressing that they were not his own words, he quoted the emperor saying: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

He also said that violence was "incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul".

Reactions to the speech have come from such leaders as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who said efforts to link Islam and terrorism should be clearly opposed.

Street protests have been held in Pakistan, India, Turkey and Gaza.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, two churches were firebombed on Saturday in attacks claimed by a group which said it was protesting against the Pope's remarks.

Story from BBC NEWS:


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Authorities arrest kidnapping suspect

JIM DAVENPORT,
Associate Press Writer

Authorities early Sunday arrested a man suspected of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl who sent a cell phone text message to her mother that led to her rescue from a booby-trapped bunker.

Investigators arrested 37-year-old Vinson Filyaw on Interstate-20 in Richland County about 24 hours after rescuing Elizabeth Shoaf, said Sheriff Steve McCaskill in neighboring Kershaw County.

Filyaw will be charged with kidnapping, possession of an incendiary device and impersonating an officer, he said.

He said more charges likely will follow after investigators interview Shoaf. Police are letting her rest but probably will talk to her Monday about the Sept. 6 abduction and ordeal that followed, he said.

"The big relief was when we found Elizabeth Shoaf alive and well," McCaskill said. "But it is a great relief when you get criminal of this type out of society and behind bars."

Shoaf was found by deputies about a mile from her home in a 15-foot deep hole in the side of a hill that was covered with plywood. The bunker had a hand-dug privy with toilet paper, a camp stove and shelves made with cut branches and canvas.

McCaskill said the girl appeared to be unharmed but was taken to Kershaw County Medical Center for evaluation. Police have not interviewed her, saying they would leave her alone until she's ready to talk.

"We're just glad that she's alive and she's safe and that she will be home with us," her aunt, Geraldine Williams, told WLTX-TV in Columbia. "She's a good girl. ... We never believed that she ran away."

Investigators said Filyaw posed as a police officer when he met Shoaf and the girl was walked around in the woods by her captor until she became disoriented. He used handmade grenades and a flare gun to threaten her while she was in the bunker, McCaskgill said.

The unemployed construction worker also is wanted on an unrelated sexual assault charge.

"He dug this pit and this child was in this pit," McCaskill said. "He is linked to her disappearance and he's got to answer for that."

The sheriff said the text message the girl sent to her mother came from Filyaw's cell phone and deputies began looking for him Friday night.

Investigators used cell towers to determine a general location of the phone used to send the message. "That was the first break," McCaskill said.

McCaskill said the girl cried out as searchers approached the bunker where she was found.

"She was standing at the mouth of the bunker with the door open," sheriff's Capt. David Thomley told WLTX. He said Shoaf was not tied up and was coherent.

The bunker was protected by a booby-trap, the sheriff said.

Police tracking hounds were brought in to aid in the search for Filyaw, and helicopters with spotlights circled overhead as night fell.

Deputies had been searching for Filyaw for months on an unrelated charge of criminal sexual conduct against a 12-year-old girl, McCaskill said.

Officers tried to arrest him at his home earlier this week, but he had an elaborate escape plan involving a tunnel dug from his bedroom to a shed, the sheriff said.

"When deputies came to serve the warrant, he was able to escape, going under the mattress, going under the trailer and hiding and eluding the arrest," McCaskill said.

This is the second case this year in South Carolina involving an abducted teenage girl taken to an underground hideout.

Kenneth Hinson of Hartsville is charged with kidnapping two 17-year-old girls March 14 and taking them to a closet-sized dungeon behind his home. Authorities said the girls freed themselves and walked to safety, and Hinson was captured after a four-day manhunt.

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US rate of childhood obesity to hit one in five by 2010

AFP

Unless public health takes urgent measures, one in five children in the United States will be obese by the year 2010, the Institute of Medicine warned in a report.

Currently, one third of American children are obese or at risk of becoming so. The rate of childhood obesity has jumped from 16 percent in 2002, to 17.1 percent in 2004 and will reach 20 percent in four years, the report said.

"The good news is that Americans have begun to recognize that childhood obesity is a serious public health problem, and initiatives to address it are under way," said Jeffrey Koplan, who heads an institute committee on preventing childhood obesity.

The committee has held meetings around the United States, including Kansas, Georgia and California, to review public health actions on the matter and has estimated that progress will be slow and in need of systematic monitoring.

"Positive changes in the health outcomes of children and youth, as measured by body mass index, will require years of sustained efforts, systematic evaluation, and adequate resources," the committee said.

Actions that have begun and that need evaluation include improved food and beverage programs at school.

From the food industry to the advertising sector, the report said, there have been constructive initiatives to deal with the obesity problem, including playground equipment for parks and shopping malls that encourage children to exercise.

Entertainment companies have begun granting licenses to fruit and vegetable distributors to promote their good-eating habits to children through cartoon characters.

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Pope sorry for reaction to his remarks

PIER PAOLO CITO,
Associated Press Writer

Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his recent remarks about Islam, which he said came from a text that didn't reflect his personal opinion.

"These (words) were in fact a quotation from a Medieval text which do not in any way express my personal thought," Benedict told pilgrims at his summer palace outside Rome.

The pope sparked the controversy when, in a speech Tuesday to university professors during a pilgrimage to his native Germany, he cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam's founder, as "evil and inhuman."

"At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," the pope said Sunday.

Benedict noted that the Vatican's secretary of state had issued a statement Saturday trying to explain the pope's speech.

"I hope that this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect," Benedict said.

Security was high at the summer palace before Benedict spoke to the crowd. Police patted down many of the faithful, confiscating umbrellas with metal tips and bottles of liquids.

Sharpshooters kept watch from a balcony and other officers, dressed like tourists, monitored the crowd with video cameras.

Still, Benedict looked relaxed when he greeted pilgrims standing in pouring rain in the palace courtyard. He smiled and said he hoped it would be better weather on Wednesday for his general audience, when he planned to recount more of his pilgrimage to the faithful.

The Vatican statement Saturday afternoon said that the pope "sincerely regrets" that Muslims were offended, but stopped short of the apology demanded by many Muslim leaders in the Middle East and Asia.

Mahmoud Ashour, the former deputy of Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque, the Sunni Arab world's most powerful institution, told Al-Arabiya TV immediately after the pope's speech that, "It is not enough. He should apologize because he insulted the beliefs of Islam. He must apologize in a frank way and say he made a mistake."

But the leader of Egypt's largest Islamic political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, told The Associated Press Sunday that "while anger over the Pope's remarks is necessary, it shouldn't last for long."

"While he is the head of the Catholic Church in the world, many Europeans are not following (the church) so what he said won't influence them. Our relations with Christians should remain good, civilized and cooperative," Mohammed Mahdi Akef said.

The Muslim Brotherhood is formally banned in Egypt.

In the West Bank, two churches were set afire as anger over the pope's comments grew throughout the Palestinian areas.

In the town of Tulkarem, a 170-year-old stone church built 170 years ago was torched before dawn and its interior was destroyed, local Christian officials said. In the village of Tubas, a small church was attacked with firebombs and partially burned, Christians said. Neither church is Catholic, the officials said.

Palestinian Muslims hurled firebombs and opened fire at five churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Saturday to protest the Pope's comments, sparking concerns of a rift between Palestinian Muslims and Christians.

Italy's interior minister said Sunday that the tensions over Benedict's remarks wouldn't result in any further heightening of security concerns.

"I don't believe that for Italy the concern will rise," Giuliano Amato told Italian state radio.

Amato noted that suspected terrorist cells under surveillance inside the country were considered to be focused on targets "outside of Italy."

The interior ministry includes state police and civilian intelligence services.

Some Muslims have accepted the pope's statement of regret. Senior Indian Muslim clerics said it will "help in building good relations between Muslims and Christians" and asked their supporters to call off planned protests.

Turkey's foreign minister said Sunday that the pope was still expected to visit in November in what would be his first trip to a Muslim nation.

"From our point of view, there is no change," Abdullah Gul told reporters before departing for a trip to the United States.

Morocco recalled its ambassador to the Holy See to protest the "offensive" remarks, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono described the pope's reference as "unwise and inappropriate," the Kompas daily reported.

Associated Press correspondent Victor L. Simpson at the Vatican and Nadia Abou el-Magd in Cairo, Egypt contributed to this report.

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Sun CEO among the few chiefs who blog

RACHEL KONRAD,
AP Technology Writer

At the helm of Sun Microsystems Inc., Jonathan Schwartz became "un blogeur" last week when he started publishing his blog in French and nine other languages.

Schwartz, whose Web journal attracts 50,000 viewers each month, says going international will generate new customers and attract prospective employees in Europe, China and elsewhere. That puts the 40-year-old CEO at the vanguard of a trend in corporate communications, one that tears down barriers between executives and the general public.

"The blog has become for me the single most effective vehicle to communicate to all of our constituencies — developers, media, analysts and shareholders," Schwartz said in his Silicon Valley office. "When I go out and have dinner with a key analyst on Wall Street or a key investor from Europe and ask them if they've read my blog, they almost universally say yes."

Chief executives of smaller companies have already seized on blogs, and big companies are increasingly joining in — despite the potential for disastrous backfires.

In its unfiltered form, blogging lets CEOs bypass the public relations department, journalists and industry analysts and speak directly to the public.

Executive coach John Agno said blogs can also cure the dreaded "CEO disease" — the isolation that envelops a leader when subordinates become reluctant to disclose bad news or worst-case scenarios that might trigger a shoot-the-messenger response.

"Blogs are personal. They humanize the Web and keep CEOs in touch with what's going on out there in America," said Agno, head of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based consulting firm Signature Inc. "People feel they can really have a conversation with someone who has a blog."

Thirty Fortune 500 companies are now publishing corporate blogs, nearly double the number in December 2005, according to the Fortune 500 Blogging Wiki, a collaborative tracking site. Technology companies like Amazon.com Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Oracle Corp. were early adopters, but senior executives at leading industrial companies like Boeing Co. and General Motors Corp. have also embrace the trend.

Yet few company blogs are from the chiefs.

Schwartz's entries are often risque. In his zeal to tout Sun, Schwartz has crossed paths with the company's legal department, whose attorneys have asked him to include "safe harbor" statements on blog entries that discuss future business strategies and products.

How much time executives spend blogging vary, but few seem to update more than once a week. Some executives — including Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey — do little beyond posting excerpts from public speeches and press releases.

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz's "Fast Lane" blog includes entries from other GM executives and links to his favorite German and French auto enthusiast sites. Lutz's site has generated 10,000 reader responses since January 2005 and, along with a smaller GM corporate blog, gets 4,000 to 6,000 unique daily visitors.

The blog allows the Swiss-born executive to write directly to hard-core motorheads around the world. More than 900 readers asked Lutz, who oversees product development, to revive the Chevrolet Camaro. GM said last month it would develop a new Camaro based on a concept car unveiled in January.

"I'm not going to tell you that Camaro is happening because the blogosphere demanded it; that would be disingenuous," Lutz wrote. "But I will tell you that the enthusiasm shown for Camaro in this forum is a shining and prominent example of the passion that exists for this automobile."

More than 3,000 of Sun's 30,000 employees maintain blogs on Sun's sites, a practice Schwartz says helps Sun attract workers with specialized interests. Schwartz says the most esoteric blog entries — discussions on chip multithreading or Sun's Java programming language — attract passionate responses.

"If you really care about Java in the medical device community, the fact that there's a Sun blog where someone focuses on that suggests there's someone at Sun you can relate to," Schwartz said. "There may be three people at Sun who care deeply about this stuff, and you can go hang out with them if you come work for us."

Karen Christensen, CEO of Great Barrington, Mass.-based Berkshire Publishing Group, usually updates her blog weekly but spent a half-hour a day blogging during a recent visit to China.

She says the blog gives colleagues a sense of her long hours and concern for details, making book reviewers — her harshest critics — consider her work in new light.

"I had a reviewer write to me and say, 'I never knew there were real people behind this,'" Christensen said.

The publishing industry is rife with bloggers, including Macmillan Publishers Ltd. CEO Richard Charkin, whose "Chark Blog" includes slice-of-life entries from the British executive. Consultants say blogging suits natural-born writers — but it's tough for other executives.

"Ultimately, a good blog is good writing. Most CEOs are not good writers," said Debbie Weil, a Washington-based consultant and author of "The Corporate Blogging Book." "The packaging and controlling of the corporate message has always been done for them, so often they don't realize that writing well is hard work and takes time and thought and practice."

Blogs can also become a publicity land mine.

Nondisclosure agreements and financial regulations can turn the most literary CEOs into scribes who post rehashed speeches or press releases. CEOs may also lack the thick skin required for blogging, said David Taylor, an executive consultant in Boulder, Colo.

"One of the inevitabilities of blogging is that you get critical, hostile responses from trolls — people who post provocative things just to inflame a reaction," Taylor said.

CEO bloggers can also take heat when companies stumble.

Sun's annual revenue has declined in four of the past five years, and shares have plummeted to just over $5 from a September 2000 high of about $64.

"As much as I'm impressed by Jonathan's blog, I wonder how he has time to blog when he has a company that desperately needs management steered in the right direction," Taylor said.

Schwartz shrugs off criticism, insisting that blogging makes sense at Sun.

"Mainstream communication is horrible at serving niches," Schwartz said. "This is a good way to take the expertise around Sun, which can be pretty esoteric, and ensure it's available to the marketplace."

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Spinach pulled from stores across U.S.

ROBERT JABLON,
Associated Press Writer

Shoppers changed their buying habits Saturday as spinach was pulled from grocery store shelves because of the outbreak of E. coli bacteria that had killed one person and sickened more than 100 others.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to eat fresh spinach and Natural Selection Foods LLC recalled its packaged spinach throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. The move came as a precaution after federal health officials said some of those hospitalized reported eating brands of prepackaged spinach distributed by the company.

The officials stressed that the bacteria had not been isolated in products sold by the holding company, based in San Juan Bautista, Calif., and known for Earthbound Farm and other brands. As the investigation continues, other brands may be implicated, officials said.

At a Safeway grocery in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood, many of bagged produce shelves were empty Saturday. Anna Cairns said she had to settle for bags of iceberg green lettuce and Caesar salad, instead of her normal salad mix, which contained spinach.

"I have a bag of spinach in my refrigerator I need to throw away," said Cairns, 59, of San Francisco.

Marina Zecevic, 49, of West Los Angeles, shopping at a Trader Joe's, said she made the mistake of serving creamed spinach to her kids the day the story broke.

"My sons started accusing me of premeditated murder," she said.

She felt the contamination issue was overblown.

"The minute we get the all clear, the spinach is back on the table," she said.

The spinach, grown in California, could have been contaminated in the field or during processing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 74 percent of the fresh market spinach grown in the U.S. comes from California, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation. There have been previous bacterial contamination outbreaks linked to spinach and lettuce grown in the state.

Wisconsin accounted for nearly a third of the 102 reported illnesses, including the lone death, a 77-year-old woman who died of kidney failure.

Other states reporting cases were California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming, according to the CDC.

"We are very, very upset about this. What we do is produce food that we want to be healthy and safe for consumers, so this is a tragedy for us," Natural Selection spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna said.

The FDA advised consumers not to eat fresh spinach or fresh spinach-containing products until further notice. Some restaurants and retailers may be taking spinach out of bags before selling it, so consumers shouldn't buy it at all, the FDA said.

Boiling contaminated spinach can kill the bacteria but washing won't eliminate it, the CDC warned.

At a Stop and Shop supermarket in Meriden, Conn., Michelle Bookey said she frequently buys spinach for salads for her dieting husband but plans to cook it from now on.

"It worries me. I don't even want to buy lettuce," said Bookey, 36.

Earthbound Farm, which claims it pioneered the retail market in pre-washed, bagged salads in 1986, says its spinach and other products are in 74 percent of U.S. grocery stores.

It also sells spinach to restaurants and other establishments that serve food. The National Restaurant Association said members were pulling spinach from their menus.

The recall earned the praise of Tom Stenzel, president and chief executive officer of the United Fresh Produce Association.

"The FDA investigation and the voluntary action taken by Natural Selection Foods LLC help narrow concern about any continuing risk, and begins to ensure that product that may be potentially contaminated is removed completely from the food supply," Stenzel said in a statement.

A Seattle law firm said it planned to add Natural Selection Foods on Monday to federal lawsuits previously filed in Wisconsin and Oregon that named other spinach producers.

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Bridges in Washington, Justin M. Norton in San Francisco, Ryan J. Foley in Madison, Wis., and Shelley Wong of Hartford, Conn., contributed to this story.

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Australia probes 'offensive' videos by soldiers in Iraq

AFP

Australia's military chief pledged an investigation into videos showing "inappropriate images" of Australian soldiers in Iraq.

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston pledged that strong action would be taken against soldiers found responsible for the images posted on internet sites.

Details of the 14 video clips were revealed in an article on the Time magazine website which said they appeared to feature "serious wrongdoing by soldiers during their 2004 and 2005 operations in Baghdad".

The magazine said the "trophy-style" pictures and videos included one of an Australian soldier holding a gun to the head of a man, possibly another soldier, wearing Arab robes and headdress.

Other videos show soldiers exposing themselves, and wielding pistols in apparent breach of safety protocols and fraternising with Iraqis, which the magazine said could potentially jeopardise their safety.

The videos were posted on the YouTube website but have since been removed.

"The behaviour in these few images displays cultural insensitivity, a disregard for operational security and inappropriate handling of weapons and is not condoned or sanctioned by Defence in any way," Houston said.

"There is no place in the (Australian Defence Force) for members who behave in this way. It shows a disregard for the high standards our people maintain."

Houston said most of the imagery showed Australian troops in a wholly positive light.

"We are not talking about a widespread problem here. We are talking about a small number of images," he told reporters.

"We will take action to find out who is responsible for the offending images and we will clearly take action."

Army chief Lieutenant General Peter Leahy said he was extremely disappointed that some very unprofessional, immature and silly soldiers displayed such images that brought all other Australian soldiers into disrepute.

"We will complete an investigation," he said. "And then, put simply, I will be asking a question why these soldiers should remain in the army."

The United States was rocked by a scandal over pictures taken by some of its soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad in 2003 which showed the widepread abuse of prisoners there.

The pictures, including some showing bloodied and naked prisoners smeared with excrement or forced to perform sexual acts, stoked anti-US sentiment across the world.

Seven lower ranking US soldiers, described by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as "a few bad apples", faced courts martial over the abuse.

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Today in history - Sept. 17

Associated Press

Today is Sunday, Sept. 17, the 260th day of 2006. There are 105 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Sept. 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States was completed and signed by a majority of delegates attending the constitutional convention in Philadelphia.

On this date:

In 1862, Union forces hurled back a Confederate invasion of Maryland in the Civil War's Battle of Antietam.

In 1920, the American Professional Football Association — a precursor of the National Football League — was formed in Canton, Ohio.

In 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland, more than two weeks after Nazi Germany had launched its assault.

In 1944, during World War II, Allied paratroopers launched Operation Market Garden, landing behind German lines in the Netherlands. The Allies, however, encountered fierce German resistance.

In 1948, the United Nations mediator for Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, was assassinated in Jerusalem by Jewish extremists.

In 1966, "Mission: Impossible" premiered on CBS.

In 1976, NASA publicly unveiled the space shuttle Enterprise at ceremonies in Palmdale, Calif.

In 1978, after meeting at Camp David, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed a framework for a peace treaty.

In 1980, former Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza was assassinated in Paraguay.

In 1986, the Senate confirmed the nomination of William H. Rehnquist to become the 16th chief justice of the United States.

Ten years ago: A nonpartisan commission recommended that Ross Perot be denied a spot in presidential debates, saying he had no realistic chance of winning the White House; Perot vowed to sue. Former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew died in Berlin, Md., at age 77.

Five years ago: Six days after 9/11, stock prices nose-dived but stopped short of collapse in an emotional, flag-waving reopening of Wall Street; the Dow Jones industrial average ended the day down 684.81 at 8,920.70. President Bush said the United States wanted terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden "dead or alive." President Bush visited a mosque in Washington as he appealed to Americans to get back to everyday business and not turn against their Muslim neighbors.

One year ago: Two passengers were killed, more than 80 people injured when a Chicago commuter train derailed while changing tracks at high speed. Insurgents assassinated a Kurdish member of parliament, his brother and their driver in an ambush north of Baghdad.

Today's Birthdays: Actor David Huddleston is 76. Senate Finance Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, is 73. Actor Paul Benedict is 68. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter is 67. Singer LaMonte McLemore (The Fifth Dimension) is 67. Singer Fee Waybill is 56. Actress Cassandra Peterson ("Elvira, Mistress of the Dark") is 55. Comedian Rita Rudner is 50. Movie director Baz Luhrmann is 44. Singer BeBe Winans is 44. Actor Kyle Chandler is 41. Rapper Doug E. Fresh is 40. Actor Malik Yoba is 39. Rock musician Keith Flint (Prodigy) is 37. Actor Matthew Settle is 37. Rapper Vinnie (Naughty By Nature) is 36. Rock singer Anastacia is 33. Rhythm-and-blues singer Marcus Sanders (Hi-Five) is 33. Actress-singer Nona Gaye is 32. Pop singer Maile Misajon (Eden's Crush) is 30. Rock musician Chuck Comeau (Simple Plan) is 27. Country singer Desi Wasdin (3 of Hearts) is 23.

Thought for Today: "The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love." — W. Somerset Maugham, English author and dramatist (1874-1965).

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