Repealing the policy against openly gay men and lesbians in the military "would be the right thing to do," the nation's top uniformed officer said Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen, arrive on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to testify before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing related to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
However, eliminating the current "don't ask, don't tell" policy will cause "some disruption in the force," Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens," Mullen said.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the panel that he "fully supports" President Obama's decision to work with Congress to end the policy.
Several committee Republicans, led by the ranking member, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said they were disappointed with Obama's decision and supported retaining the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., praised Mullen's personal endorsement for lifting the ban as a "profile in leadership."
McCain said, "At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy."
Gates told senators the military would need nearly a year to study how it would allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly.
Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson and Gen. Carter Ham, commander of Army forces in Europe, will lead the group studying troops' feelings about lifting the ban on gays serving openly in the military, Gates said.
Ham, an Iraq veteran, is rare among high-ranking military officers in talking about his experiences with combat stress. In November 2008, he told USA TODAY how he struggled to cope with a 2004 attack in Mosul that killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. troops.
"That there will be some disruption in the force I cannot deny," Mullen said of lifting the ban. "That there will be legal, social and perhaps even infrastructure changes to be made certainly seem plausible."
He also cautioned that military commanders worry about the current war stress on troops and their families. "We need to move forward (with changing policy on sexual orientation) in a manner that does not add to that stress."
Mullen is the first sitting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to advocate repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," according to a statement from his office.
The policy bans openly gay people from serving in the military but also says that military officers should not ask members of the military about their sexual orientation if they are not engaging in prohibited behavior. The policy was created in 1993 after President Clinton sought to allow openly gay people to serve. Overall, records show, more than 10,900 servicemembers have been dismissed under the policy.
Mullen said allowing lesbians and gay men to serve openly is "an issue of integrity — theirs as individuals and ours as an institution. ... I also believe the great young men and women of our military can and would accommodate such a change."
Civilians have been caught up in recent fighting in Dir
There are no signs the militant presence in Dir has been eradicated
The Taliban are active in Lower Dir
Soldiers at the site of a bomb blast
The deaths of at least 10 people - including three US soldiers - in the north-western Pakistani region of Dir has focused attention on a militant hotbed.
The area is home to conservative Pashtun tribes, where religious leaders wield considerable influence.
It is a place where women keep a low profile and where many are opposed to children being educated.
The clerics of Dir have traditionally opposed any activities by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the area, blaming them for encouraging mixed gatherings of men and women, which they consider unIslamic.
Ransacked
There is a long history of female NGO workers being harassed in this region.
When the Taliban consolidated their hold on Dir and nearby Swat during 2008 and 2009, their campaign against NGOs became more organised.
In early 2009, four Pakistani officials of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) were kidnapped by Taliban. They were released after promising not to work for any local or foreign NGO.
Soon afterwards, a WFP food storage in the area was ransacked, putting an end to all NGO activity in Dir region.
The campaign against government schools, especially those for girls, has also been a main feature of this region.
The Taliban's opposition to female education led to arson and bomb attacks against schools in 2008 and throughout 2009.
According to the local administration, more than 72 schools have been bombed out or burned down by militants in Lower Dir district during the past two years.
The army launched an operation against militants in Lower Dir in April 2009 - forcing many civilians to leave the area - and declared victory less than a month afterwards.
Taliban model
But Wednesday's bomb attack shows how far from victory the army is.
It also emphasises how deeply conservative - some might say militant - the area is.
Since the 1970s the Jamaat-e-Islami religious party - which elsewhere in Pakistan has had a negligible influence on electoral politics - has had a secure constituency in the region.
In the 1980s, western parts of Dir district served as a staging ground for guerrilla fighters resisting Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
In 1994, Dir became the centre of a violent religious movement called the Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Mohammadi or Movement for the Implementation of Sharia law.
The movement served as a model for the Afghan Taliban who emerged months later in southern Afghanistan.
The leader of the movement, Maulana Sufi Mohammad, is from the central Maidan area of Dir.
In October 2001, he led nearly 5,000 tribesmen from Dir and the adjacent Swat district into Afghanistan to fight the Americans, who were then preparing to attack the Taliban regime in Kabul.
By 2009, the Taliban from Swat started to assert their authority in the area - and there is no sign their presence has been eradicated.
A top US official said Wednesday three US military trainers killed in a bombing in Pakistan appear not to have been "directly targeted" and denied Taliban charges they worked for the controversial Blackwater security firm.
Their deaths and the wounding of two other US soldiers in the blast at a girls school is "a great tragedy," Richard Holbrooke, the special US representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told reporters in Washington.
He described them as "American military personnel in Pakistan who were doing training with the Frontier Corps," a Pakistani paramilitary force that patrols the borders.
Holbrooke said the US ambassador in Islamabad, Anne Patterson, whom he spoke with earlier, "does not think they were directly targeted. But that is my only source of information on that question."
He dismissed as propaganda allegations by the Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack, that the soldiers were actually employees of the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, which gained notoriety in Iraq.
"They're certain to say that," Holbrooke said of the Taliban allegations. "That's what they do. They are adept at propaganda and disinformation."
"But the facts are the facts and ...in the appropriate moment after notification of next of kin ... I'm sure their names and their exact rank will be publicly disclosed as we always do," the senior diplomat said.
"There's nothing secret about their presence there," he said.
Blackwater changed its name to Xe in February 2009 following what the company said was a switch in business focus.
Flaming hell: Two competitors clears a fire obstacle during the Tough Guy Challenge this afternoon
In 1990 organisers decided to name females Tough Amazons. There was a mass outcry from the ladies shouting we are Tough Guys
The annual event to raise cash for charity challenges thousands of international competitors in a cross country run followed by an assault course consisting of 21 obstacles including water, fire and tunnels
For 20 years, consistant development and over £2 million has been invested in creating over 100 obstacles on our dedicated 150 acre venue
A competitor emerges from the water as he takes part in the Tough Guy 2010 race near Telford
Flaming hell: Two competitors clears a fire obstacle during the Tough Guy Challenge this afternoon
Endurance: A man calls out in pain as he crawls across chunks of ice beneath barbed wire
A competitor runs through the field of fire during today's 'Tough Guy' race
A racer comes up for air after crawling through a water-logged tunnel
The Tough Guy Race consists of a cross country run followed by an assault course
Tired, muddy but very happy: Two women competing in the Tough Guy Competition at South Perton Farm
Bloodied but unbowed, a racer crawls beneath barbed wire
Hotting up: A competitor leaps across flaming peat at the end of the Tough Guy assault course
More than 5,000 people worldwide descended on a small corner of farmland today to brave mud, rain, ice and fire on a gruelling assault course dubbed 'the world's hardest endurance test'.
Thousands of competitors, some in superhero fancy dress as Superman and Robocop, flocked to the 'Tough Guy' contest in Perton, Staffordshire, today to push their bodies to the limit in frosty temperatures.
The eight-mile long assault course features terrifying underwater tunnels, barbed wire fences and fire walks.
It sees competitors stretched to their physical boundaries as they clamber over nets, walls and even an electrified fence dubbed 'The Tiger'.
Brave Britons, Aussies, New Zealanders, Chinese and Japanese all took part in the rainy event - which saw its fair share of broken bones and bruised bodies.
Among the competitors were serving policemen and military personnel - but some of the more daring wore costumes, including 25 people dressed up as Liquorice Allsorts.
Event organiser Mouser Wilson, said: 'We' didn't have much ground space, we had about 7,000 people here and we had to shut the doors to the public because everybody wanted to do it.
'We have had to turn at least a thousand away.
We had plenty of military with us, many said that this course was harder than the army.
'I had a captain in Afghanistan write to me saying the British Army recognise Tough Guy as the most arduous test of physical and mental endurance.
'They want to send a lot of troops here to try the course before they send them off to Afghanistan.
'There is nothing like this in the world, and that is why people from all over the globe want to come here.
'Every year there's something new - we have a zipline this year which takes you down a 1,000 metres very quickly and if you don't let go above the water you'll go straight into the wall. 'We had a fair few broken bones.
But people attempt the course as a journey of self discovery, if people break their legs, they don't come whining like many in our blame and claim culture - they ring up and apologise saying "Please let me come back next year".'
Mr Wilson added: 'We've had more and more children asking to do it, so we're going to hold the first ever kids-only Tough Guy in October.'
One competitor, Liam Posthewaite, 32, from Bristol, said: 'This is the hardest thing I've ever physically done.
'Every single inch of you aches afterwards but the sense of achievement is so satisfying that it's worth the pain.
'This is the first time I've done it... but it won't be the last.'
The Obama administration's top intelligence officials on Tuesday described it as "certain" that al-Qaeda or its allies will try to attack the United States in the next six months, and they called for new flexibility in how U.S. officials detain and question terrorist suspects.
The officials, testifying before the Senate intelligence committee, also warned of increased risk of cyber-attacks in the coming months, saying that the recent China-based hacking of Google's computers was both a "wake-up call" and a forerunner to future strikes aimed at businesses or intended to cause economic disruption.
"Al-Qaeda maintains its intent to attack the homeland -- preferably with a large-scale operation that would cause mass casualties, harm the U.S. economy or both," Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told the committee in a hearing convened to assess threats against the country.
Blair, flanked by the directors of the CIA and FBI and the chief intelligence officers of the State and Defense departments, put al-Qaeda at the top of a threat list that included the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, criminal cartels and the potential for economic collapse in developing countries hard-hit by recession.
The notable positive trends over the past year, he said, were the continuing security improvements in Iraq and the signs of economic recovery in developed countries. Last year, the prospect of global economic collapse ranked as the top security concern.
"Missteps could set back the recovery, particularly if inflation or political pressures to consolidate budgets emerge before household consumption and private investment have begun to play a larger role in the recovery," Blair said.
Blair and CIA Director Leon Panetta warned of new threats from al-Qaeda's regional allies, such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Several groups appear increasingly intent on attacking U.S. and other Western targets, even as al-Qaeda's core leadership struggles to regain its footing after repeated setbacks and eroding popular support in the Muslim world, the officials said.
"They are moving to other safe havens and regional nodes such as Yemen, Somalia, the Maghreb and others," Panetta said. He said al-Qaeda-inspired groups had successfully "deployed individuals to this country," citing recently disrupted terrorist plots in Colorado and Chicago.
The intelligence officials and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said U.S. counterterrorism agencies have absorbed the lessons of the Dec. 25 attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 over Detroit, but all said future attempts are inevitable and could happen soon.
Asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), committee chairwoman, to assess the likelihood of an attempted terrorist attack on the United States within the next six months, Blair described it as "certain." Each of the four other officials, asked the same question, agreed with Blair.
The girl, nine, who apparently gave birth to a healthy baby boy is said to come from the town of Songyuan (pictured) in north-east China. Her family refuse to discuss the pregnancy, but say they have reported it to the police.The child comes from the nearby town of Songyuan. Her family refused to discuss the pregnancy, but confirmed they had reported it to the police.
Lina Medina, accompanied by her 11-month-old-son Gerardo, and Dr Lozada who helped with the birth. The picture was taken in 1939 in a hospital in Lima, Peru's capital
A nine-year-old Chinese schoolgirl has become one of the world's youngest mothers after giving birth to a healthy boy.
The unnamed girl was brought to a hospital in Changchun, which lies in the north-east of the country, when she was eight and a half months pregnant.
Two days later, she gave birth to the 6lb boy by Caesarean section, a Chinese newspaper has reported.
The child comes from the nearby town of Songyuan. Her family refused to discuss the pregnancy, but confirmed they had reported it to the police.
Last night police were reportedly trying to establish who the father is.
In the province, sex with a child under the age of 14 brings an automatic rape conviction and a lengthy jail sentence.
A legal expert told the paper that women under the age of 14 do not have sexual rights - 'so any argument of being consensual as a defence is completely untenable,' he said.
He added: 'Anyone who had sexual relations with a girl under 14 means they have committed rape and is to be punished severely.'
A hospital in China's largest city, Shanghai, recently said that about 30 per cent of abortions were on school-aged girls.
The youngest reported mother in the world - and the most bizarre of all young pregnancy cases - is five-year-old Lina Medina of Peru, who gave birth to a 6lb son named Gerardo in a Caesarean operation in 1939.
Her father was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse but was later released because of lack of evidence.
In 1957 another Peruvian girl, aged nine, gave birth to a girl weighing just over 6lb and, curiously, it was in 2006 that yet another Peruvian girl, aged eight, gave birth to a 4lb 4oz girl.
Several other girls aged nine, from Thailand, Singapore, Rwanda and Brazil, have also given birth.
Mothers aged as young as 10 and 11 have also become an increasing occurrence.
The youngest mother in Britain is believed to have been 11 when she got pregnant and 12 years old when she gave birth.
GIRLS REACHING PUBERTY AT EVER YOUNGER AGES
Menstruation usually starts at the age of 12 but it is not uncommon for it start earlier. In the western world children are reaching puberty at younger and younger ages - some girls at the age of seven. Many blame rising obesity rates because, generally, girls who achieve menstruation earlier in life tend to have greater body mass index and a higher ratio of fat compared to those who begin menstruation later. University of Bristol research has suggested one girl in six reaches puberty before the age of eight - 18 months earlier than their mothers. Periods are a sign that a girl is now releasing fertile eggs which makes her able to conceive
Ahmadinejad, centre left, is told about the motor of a satellite rocket during the unveiling ceremony in Tehran today. The West is concerned Iran is using its nuclear and space industries to develop atomic and ballistic weapons
Ahmadinejad, 7th left, poses with government officials underneath the Simorgh (Phoenix) home-built satellite rocket during the unveiling ceremony in Tehran today, after hailing the successful launch of Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer) rocket
New fears? Press TV footage shows the launch of Iran's new Kavoshgar 3 rocket at an undisclosed location this morning
Concession: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared on TV last night to say he had 'no problem' sending enriched uranium abroad
Attack: Joe Biden
Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran is currently talking with some countries to swap its low-grade uranium for the high- grade uranium needed for a research reactor in Tehran, Iran's Labor news agency (ILNA) reported on Wednesday.
Rejecting any final agreement on the uranium swap with some countries which are able to produce 20 percent enriched uranium, Salehi said "the talks are currently underway and we will announce the final agreements."
Asked whether Iran has entered the negotiations with countries other than France and Brazil, Salehi, who is also Iran's vice president, said there are a number of countries involved in the swap and one of them is from Asia, but he refused to specify the Asian state as Japan.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the country is ready to ship its low-enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested.
Under a draft deal brokered by the international nuclear watchdog, most of Iran's existing low-grade enriched uranium, nuclear fuel for its research reactor, will be shipped to Russia and France, where it will be processed into fuel rods with a purity of 20 percent.
The higher-level enriched uranium will then be transported back to Iran. Tehran had been standing against the deal till Tuesday.
Western countries have accused Iran of covertly building nuclear weapons, but Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful and aims to generate electricity for civilian use.
Petraeus says strike on Iran could spark nationalism
A military strike on Iran could have the unintended consequence of stirring nationalist sentiment to the benefit of Tehran's hard-line government, U.S. General David Petraeus told Reuters.
Iran's June election gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term but sparked the worst internal crisis in the Islamic Republic's history, putting internal pressure on a government already facing the threat of more sanctions over its nuclear program.
"It's possible (a strike) could be used to play to nationalist tendencies," Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command region, which includes Iran, said in an interview this week.
"There is certainly a history, in other countries, of fairly autocratic regimes almost creating incidents that inflame nationalist sentiment. So that could be among the many different, second, third, or even fourth order effects (of a strike)."
Tensions over Iran's nuclear program have set off speculation that Israel could make good on veiled threats to hit its arch-foe pre-emptively. But Israel's envoy to Washington said in December the U.S.-Israeli dialogue on Iran has not reached the point of discussing the military option.
U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, have warned that any strike on Iran would not stop the Islamic Republic from pursuing nuclear weapons. Instead, it would only delay Tehran, an opinion Petraeus said he shared.
Dennis Blair, the U.S. director of national intelligence, told Congress on Tuesday that Iran was keeping open the option of developing nuclear weapons but that it remained unclear whether Tehran had the political will to do so.
Petraeus, commenting on advances of Iran's nuclear program, said: "On the one hand, there is no question that there has been a continuation of various aspects of the nuclear program but I'm not sure it has always proceeded as rapidly as has been projected at various times."
GRADUAL BOOST IN DEFENSES
Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday Iran was ready to send its enriched uranium abroad in exchange for nuclear fuel under a plan the West hopes will stop the material from being used for atomic bombs.
The same day, Iran also said it would soon hang nine more rioters over unrest that erupted after the June presidential vote, which protesters said was rigged.
Petraeus cautioned that the "big winner" of the election had been Iran's security apparatus, expanding the influence the Revolutionary Guards Corps, including its elite Qods force.
"It's gone from I think a theocracy that had democratic elements in a narrow spectrum ... to a government that is the result of a hijacked election and a regime that is kept in power by security services to a vastly greater extent than has ever been the case before," he said.
Asked how this changed prospects diplomatically, Petraeus said: "I don't think it simplifies the situation for those who are trying to pursue diplomacy if the role of the Foreign Ministry is diminished further and the role of the Qods force has been augmented."
To counter the Iranian threat and reassure anxious Gulf allies, the United States has expanded land- and sea-based missile defense systems in and around the Gulf.
Petraeus stressed it had been a gradual build-up -- an approach shared by both the Obama and Bush administrations -- and not something sparked by events in Iran in recent months.
"This has been built up over years of inflammatory Iranian rhetoric, alarming Iranian activities and Iranian provision of arms, money, training, explosives and direction in some cases to a variety of different extremist elements," Petraeus said.
Iran has accused the United States of seeking to stoke "Iran phobia" in the Middle East by deploying the missile defense systems in the Gulf.
The United States and major European allies are pursuing broader U.N. sanctions against Iran due to its disputed nuclear activity. The United States, Britain, Germany and France have called for a fourth round of U.N. measures against Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment activities as demanded by five Security Council resolutions.
Mix Reaction from Iran
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Iran has backed down in a nuclear row with the West over sending its enriched uranium abroad.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared for the first time last night to give way over a UN-brokered proposal that would see him send the country's enriched uranium overseas to be turned into nuclear fuel.
The move, if carried through, would hobble Tehran's ability to build a nuclear bomb.
However the apparent concession was undermined when Iran test-fired a satellite rocket today, sparking new fears in the West that Tehran is using its space industry to develop an atomic weapon.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has brokered the proposed plan under which Iran would send its low-enriched uranium abroad in exchange for more highly enriched fuel for a medical research reactor.
Iran has always claimed its uranium enrichment plan was to produce nuclear fuel for the country, a claim almost universally doubted throughout the West.
Tehran had already missed a December 31, 2009 deadline to accept the deal when it proposed a new deal of its own last month.
Last night Ahmadinejad finally appeared to be giving in.
'We have no problem sending our enriched uranium abroad,' Ahmadinejad told state television.
'We say: we will give you our 3.5 percent enriched uranium and will get the fuel. It may take 4 to 5 months until we get the fuel.
'If we send our enriched uranium abroad and then they do not give us the 20 per cent enriched fuel for our reactor, we are capable of producing it inside Iran,' he said.
In Washington, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: 'If Iran has something new to say, we are prepared to listen.'
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the uranium could be exchanged in Turkey, Brazil or Japan if agreement is reached.
Iran has faced intense Western pressure, under threat of new sanctions, to implement the plan.
However the conciliatory gesture came as Tehran launched a new rocket, the home-built Kavoshgar-3 (Explorer-3) satellite rocket.
Ahmadinejad, speaking at a ceremony to unveil three new satellites and other space technology achievements today, said the Islamic Republic hoped to send astronauts into space soon.
Western nations fear Iran is seeking to build nuclear bombs and are concerned that the long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit can also be used to launch warheads.
Iran says it has no plans to do so.
The Iranian president made no mention of the nuclear row at today's aerospace event
The Kavoshgar-3 rocket would transfer electronic data and live footage back to earth.
Press TV showed footage of a rocket blasting off from a launchpad in the desert, leaving a thick vapour trail. Other Iranian media said it was a test launch.
One year ago, Iran launched a domestically made satellite into orbit for the first time. It has said the launch of the Omid satellite was for peaceful telecommunications and research purposes.
In December, Iran said it test-fired a long-range, upgraded Sejil 2 missile.
Gordon Brown at the time said the launch was of serious concern to the international community and underlined the case for tougher sanctions.
On Monday, a Pentagon report said Iran had expanded its ballistic missile capabilities and posed a significant threat to U.S. and allied forces in the Middle East region.
To counter what Washington sees as the Iranian threat, the United States has expanded land- and sea-based missile defence systems in and around the Gulf, according to U.S. officials.
Ahmadinejad spoke after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden launched an outspoken attack on Tehran last night.
Mr Biden said Iran's leaders were 'sowing the seeds of their own destruction' through their harsh crackdown on anti-government unrest.
Speaking on MSNBC, he indicated Washington was sticking to its dual track on Iran of diplomacy and sanctions.
'It's time (for the United States) to reach out, demonstrate that we're not the problem, the hand that gets rejected, and be able to have the whole world stay with us ... against the Iranian government,' he said.
Asked whether it was time for 'regime change' in Iran since President Barack Obama's effort to engage the Islamic republic had failed to make progress, he said: 'The people of Iran are thinking about, the very people marching, they're thinking about regime change.'
Mr Biden said: 'We are moving with the world to put sanctions on them. I think that we have moved in the right direction in a measured way.'
Yesterday Gordon Brown claimed to also be considering sanctions.
Western powers accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian enrichment program that Tehran says will fuel a future network of nuclear power plants so it can export more oil and gas.
Ahmadinejad's statement on the nuclear issue - on which Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last word - was apparently the first time a top official had publicly accepted exchanging low-enriched uranium for nuclear medicine fuel off Iranian soil.
'We made a good faith and balanced offer regarding the Tehran research reactor,' White House spokesman Mike Hammer said in Washington.
'We believe it makes sense for all parties. If Mr Ahmadinejad's comments reflect an updated Iranian position, we look forward to Iran informing the IAEA.'
Mottaki and the IAEA said last week a deal on uranium enrichment was still possible, despite Western diplomats saying Tehran had in effect turned down the proposal.
Under the proposed deal Tehran would transfer 70 per cent of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for conversion into special fuel rods to keep the nuclear medicine reactor running.
The plan aims to reduce Iran's reserves below the quantity needed for the fissile core of a nuclear weapon, if the material were refined to a high degree of purity.
'For us the real matter is to reach an agreement about fuel exchange,' Mottaki said in an interview with Turkish television TRT.
'If we can reach an agreement on the formula then we can talk about the place. About timing we can always talk. Turkey might be a place, Brazil or Japan might be a place.'
The United States and European allies are pursuing broader UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear activity.
The United States, Britain, Germany and France seek a fourth round of UN measures against Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment as demanded by five Security Council resolutions.
Cracking down on internal dissent, Iran said it would soon hang nine more rioters over unrest that erupted after the June presidential vote. The opposition said the poll was rigged.
'Nine others will be hanged soon. The nine, and the two who were hanged on Thursday, were surely arrested in the recent riots and had links to anti-revolutionary groups,' said senior judiciary official Ebrahim Raisi, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The two men hanged last week were among 11 people sentenced to death on charges including 'waging war against God'.
The June election gave Ahmadinejad a second term, but sparked the worst internal crisis in the Islamic Republic's history. The government denied any fraud in the voting.
Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, a former prime minister, said the repression showed the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah 'had not achieved its goals'.
Faced with an unprecedented recall of millions of vehicles and rivals swooping in on its customers, the public relations machine at Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) -- one of the most savvy brand-creators in Asia -- is floundering.
Toyota has consistently played down recurring complaints of unintended acceleration, breaking what PR experts said is the cardinal rule in crisis management: assume the worst.
"People want to see a company take full responsibility, be empathic to the victims and their families and be in control by outlining the problem and how they intend to solve it. They also expect the CEO doing all this," said Ong Hock Chuan, a technical adviser of Jakarta-based PR consultancy Maverick who specializes in crisis management.
"Toyota seems to have failed in all counts."
Toyota President Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, has not formally addressed the public or media on the recall problems.
Through November, the company continued to blame loose floor mats for the problem. That has eventually spread to a potential problem with accelerator pedals, and U.S. safety regulators are now renewing efforts to re-confirm whether the electronic throttle control system could have been at fault.
At a news conference in Nagoya on Tuesday -- the first appearance by an executive from headquarters since the recall expanded last week -- there was no deep bow, a standard fixture in Japan when a firm declares it is responsible for its mistakes.
"There should have been a more convincing explanation, including from the president," said Masato Takahashi, a public relations consultant at Kyodo PR.
"Even when they announced the recall initially, you can't just say, 'We're going to do a recall'. They should have gone further in way of explanation, and there should have been a heartfelt apology from the top."
ABSOLUTE DISASTER
At the news conference, a little-known Toyota executive in charge of quality, Shinichi Sasaki, said part of the reason Toyota decided to use U.S. autoparts maker CTS's (CTS.N) accelerators was to help contribute to the local U.S. economy.
That was not what customers want to hear, PR consultants said, least of all when public memory is still fresh of a 911 call of August 28 along with the sounds of the caller's Lexus crashing, killing its driver and three members of his family.
"It is an absolute disaster for a company which is Japanese, which has top-notch quality control, to have done it in such a spluttering manner," said Suhel Seth, managing partner of Indian brand management firm Counselage.
"What's worse is that in this case this whole concept of the visible Japanese apology was so missing."
Toyota spokeswoman Mieko Iwasaki said the company had all along taken the steps it believed were the best and fastest to put its customers first.
"If that was perceived as too slow, we will accept that as a sign of our shortcoming," she said.
For the past decade, Japan Inc has tried to learn from past mistakes, when critics lambasted its habit of keeping data under wraps and its efforts to convey an image of calm deliberation.
After Bridgestone Corp (5108.T) was forced to recall 17 million tyres in 2000 following a series of deadly crashes, more companies have put in place crisis management procedures and turned to corporate communications firms for help.
Some argue that Toyota did what it could, as soon as it grasped the gravity of the problem.
Toyota ran full-page ads in major U.S. newspapers on Sunday alerting consumers to the recall and production shutdown. Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., appeared on U.S. TV and expressed regret for worrying drivers of its cars.
The scope of Toyota's recalls and production stoppage shows how serious Toyota is, said Hannah Cunliffe, a fund manager at Germany's Union Investment, which holds Toyota shares.
"Some of the comments that have come out of the management really show that they are not trying to put anything under the carpet or trying to deny anything," she said. "I don't feel they are handling it badly. But it's a very tough thing to handle."
PERCEPTION GAP
Consumers in Japan have been slow to voice concern, and rival automakers have not offered incentives to capitalize on Toyota's woes.
"It seems to be a problem just in the U.S.," said retiree Masanori Kawami, 63, who said he was expecting delivery of a Prius at the end of this month. "I'm not worried."
But that nonchalance may not last.
North American and Japanese dealers have received several dozen complaints over insufficient braking on Toyota's new Prius hybrid on bumpy or frozen roads, Toyota said.
The only casualty was the commute: Near Exit 4 of the New Jersey Turnpike, a single-engine plane that made an emergency landing in the northbound lanes early yesterday is towed.
The engine hiccupped and the plane started to shake. The oil pressure was dropping and they were losing altitude fast. They were going down.
It was then that Frank Vogt made the quick, calm decision to land his twin-seater Cessna 152 on the northbound New Jersey Turnpike in Cherry Hill.
"It wasn't the kind of morning I was expecting," said Vogt, of Oakhurst, Monmouth County, who flies traffic reporters over New Jersey.
It was shortly before the morning rush hour yesterday and traffic was light. Vogt, 28, landed the failing plane south of Exit 4. He navigated it over to the shoulder. Cars passed on his left.
No one was hurt, on the road or in the plane.
"It was surreal," he said. "Everything happened so fast."
The day had started routinely for Vogt, a pilot for Metro Networks Westwood One, which monitors traffic for radio and television stations. He arrived at Northeast Philadelphia Airport at 6 a.m. and performed his usual checks, he said yesterday afternoon in the kitchen of the home he shares with his parents.
Vogt said he twice monitored the fuel and the oil before taking off at 6:15 with Metro Networks traffic reporter Mike Lankford.
The sky was calm with little wind and few clouds. And except for a bang-up on I-95 in Philadelphia, not much was happening on the road.
At 6:45, the sun was red on the horizon and Vogt was 1,300 feet above Route 42 - a normal altitude, he said. That's when the Cessna started to vibrate.
"I looked down at the oil pressure gauge and it was dropping significantly," he recalled.
He turned the plane around, but the power was faltering, Vogt said. He issued a Mayday over an emergency frequency and was told by an air traffic controller that Philadelphia International Airport was seven miles away. South Jersey Regional Airport was four miles away. By that point, the craft had dropped below 1,000 feet.
"We can't make it back," Vogt told the controller.
Vogt has been a pilot for two years. After graduation from Airline Transport Professionals Flight Schools in Florida, he became a certified instructor at American Flyers in Morristown. He's been with Metro since September and has taken the same route many times, he said.
Vogt's life - his days as a La Salle University quarterback and summers as a lifeguard in New Jersey - didn't flash before his eyes. And he did not say his prayers, he said.
"I was like, 'Oh, wow. This is happening,' " he said. "Then it just became instinct. I focused on what I had to do. You're not nervous, because there's so much adrenaline pumping."
Lankford, in the passenger seat, held it together pretty well, too, Vogt said.
For a second, Vogt said, he considered bringing the plane down in a field, but it was still too dark for him to make out the terrain, he said. The highway was lit up.
They were now at 400 feet elevation.
"We're going to land on the Jersey Turnpike," Vogt told the controller.
He found a clear swath of road - no cars behind him, none in front of him - and lined the plane up with the flow of traffic. He glided in for a soft landing, he said. He let the plane coast rather than hitting the brakes, then eased the Cessna to the shoulder. The whole ordeal had lasted about 10 minutes.
Within minutes, he was joined by a state trooper and an FAA official on his way to work.
Oil had leaked underneath and on the side of the plane, Vogt said.
Authorities suspect that "a valve might have popped on the crankshaft that holds the propeller" because of the cold, Vogt said.
According to FAA records, the plane was built in 1981 and is owned by Out of the Blue Inc. in Delaware. Steven Russell, president of the firm, could not be reached for comment.
By 7:30 a.m., authorities had the plane hitched to a truck for towing to a turnpike maintenance yard.
Vogt sat in the cockpit to steer in case it became unhitched. He called his father.
"Turn on the news," he said. "You see a plane being towed?"
"Yes," said his father.
"I'm in it."
"You're a star," his mother texted him.
Back in his parents' kitchen, the phone ringing with calls from the media and worried loved ones, Vogt was looking forward to a beer with some friends, to letting what happened settle in.
He said he wouldn't take any time off.
"This will not deter me one bit," Vogt said. "It happens."
A Palestinian supporter of Hamas holds a picture of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas military commander, during his funeral at al-Yarmouk camp near Damascus
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, bottom left, marches as mourners carry the coffin of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing
Mourners carry the coffin of Mahmoud Abdul-Raouf al-Mabhouh during his funeral
A Hamas commander killed in Dubai was targeted by Israel for his role in smuggling 'special weapons' to the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Islamist group said on Sunday.
Israel's government declined official comment on the death of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 20, which Hamas labeled an assassination.
But Israeli security sources linked him to rockets and other arms that reach Gaza from Iran.
Police in the United Arab Emirates said they suspected a foreign 'criminal gang' of killing Mabhouh in his hotel room, while not ruling out involvement of Israel's Mossad spy agency. Hamas spokesman Talal Nasser told the UAE newspaper The National that Mabhouh had 'played a key role in supplying the Palestinian people with weapons and money'.
A source close to Hamas in Gaza said: 'I believe the issue of weapons he used to provide Hamas and (Palestinian) resistance factions was the reason behind his being targeted.'
The source added that such weapons generally come from Iran or Sudan, countries with ties to Islamist groups.
Nasser said that Mabhouh had been vulnerable in Dubai because, unlike during other trips, he had used a passport bearing his real name and had travelled without bodyguards.
'His murder is not a victory for Israel,' he said. 'The blood of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh will spawn a thousand more like him.'
Destroying Hamas's rocket arsenal, and securing foreign help in stopping smuggling, were among Israel's declared aims in the Gaza war.Egypt has since begun erecting a barrier to block Palestinian tunnels under its border with the blockaded strip.
Israel says its arch-foe Iran bankrolls attempts to ship weapons to Gaza by sea or land routes leading to the Egyptian Sinai. Iran says its support for Hamas is diplomatic only.
Hamas officials have declined to say what Mabhouh, who had long lived in the Syrian capital Damascus, was doing in the Gulf - though a Hamas source said he was active in armed operations 'until the moment of his assassination'.
He left Gaza in 1989, pursued by Israel for his role in the abduction and killing of two of its soldiers.
The Mossad is believed to have stepped up missions against Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and Iran's nuclear project.
Among killings attributed to the agency were that of Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyeh in Damascus two years ago.
A former Mossad officer, Ram Yigra, suggested that Mabhouh may have fallen foul of criminal arms dealers rather than Israel.
'In the end of the day, Mr. Mabhouh was into arms smuggling, which means shady relationships,' he told Israel's Army Radio.
Fayek al-Mabouh, the dead man's brother, said however: 'He wasn't involved in any gang. He wasn't involved in any crime.
'So who had an interest in killing him? Israel.'
Yigra noted the varying accounts of Mabhouh's death, which included a UAE media report that he had been tortured by his killers, Palestinian poisoning allegations and a suggestion by Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar that the assassins accompanied an Israeli cabinet minister who visited Abu Dhabi on January 15 to 17.
The UAE does not have a peace treaty with Israel but has hosted Israeli officials and does business with Israeli firms.
Israel rocked its relations with Jordan when assassins botched an attempt to poison Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Amman in 1997. Ex-spy Yigra said the Mossad had learned its lessons about the need for discretion.
'When there cannot be foul-ups, then the thing is done quickly -- and not in the course of torture and suchlike. And using visiting politicians (as cover) is not done,' he said.
A gang of suspected drug hitmen burst into a high school birthday party, opening fire and killing 14 teenagers in Ciudad Juarez in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Gunmen jumped out of several 4x4s and stormed the house where students were celebrating the birthday of a classmate.
They opened fire on the party in the city across the border from El Paso, Texas, in what is believed to be a mistaken drugs hit.
Bodies lay on the street outside and pools of blood collected by nearby parked cars.
Inside the house, the walls were stained with blood and marked with bullet holes.
'The men drove up in SUVs, they were well-armed. They went into the house and shot at everyone, you could hear the gunfire all around,' a neighbour at the scene said.
Patricia Gonzalez, attorney general for Chihuahua state that includes Ciudad Juarez, said the shooting was possibly linked to drug cartels.
'We have two lines of investigation and one of them is linked to drug trafficking,' she told a news conference.
'We know from witnesses that the men arrived looking for someone.' She declined to give more details.
Over the past two years, hitmen have attacked parties in Chihuahua state, searching for rivals, and police have reported that some teenagers in Ciudad Juarez have been involved in kidnapping others.
Ms Gonzalez said the dead included three adults and 11 minors. Fourteen others were wounded, two critically.
All the victims were between 15 and 20 years old, the army said.
She denied earlier reports that the teenagers were celebrating a local sports championship victory.
'They were about 15 men, they closed off the surrounding streets and began shooting at the house as they moved inside,' said army spokesman Enrique Torres.
Ciudad Juarez is the bloodiest front in Mexico's three-year drug war as rival cartels fight over markets and control of smuggling routes into the U.S.
Violence is escalating even as federal police and soldiers patrol the streets. Some 2,650 people were killed in drug violence in Ciudad Juarez last year and cartel murders have jumped since the start of 2010.
In some of the worst attacks, gunmen have stormed at least seven drug rehabilitation clinics in the manufacturing city over the past two years, targeting rival dealers.
Two strikes in September killed 28 people.
Mexico is the key transit route for U.S.-bound cocaine from South America and a top producer of marijuana and heroin.
A military crackdown on rival cartels in Mexico has fueled a surge in drug violence that has killed more than 17,000 people since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, worrying Washington and investors and scaring off tourists from some cities.
Patricia Gonzalez, attorney general for Chihuahua state that includes Ciudad Juarez, said the shooting was possibly linked to drug cartels
The bloody imprint of a foot is seen on the blood-stained floor of a house in Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, Texas
Soldiers stand inside a blood-stained room in Ciudad Juarez after a group of suspected drug hitmen burst into a birthday party, killing 14 teenagers
Crime scene: Bodies lay on the street outside and pools of blood collected by nearby parked cars
A surgical glove lies on a puddle of bloodied water outside a home where unknown gunmen stormed a gathering of students
Estimates of a £200m-a-year bill to host the trials of 9/11 terror suspects are threatening to force them out of New York altogether.
In a letter this month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned of the likely cost of securing the city during the court cases which could push them out of the scene of the crime.
It is more than double the original estimate and officials were again forced to think twice when New York's chief policeman detailed the huge security arrangements which would have to be put in place.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly described the planned operation for lower Manhattan to officials on Friday.
Proposals included inner and outer cordons as well as thousands of officers, mobile guard towers, vehicle checkpoints, sniffer dogs sensitive to bombs, rooftop snipers and helicopter surveillance.
Constant radiation sweeps would detect attacks with dirty bombs.
'That was the first time they heard it in one fell swoop, so to speak, and it raised their concerns,' he said.
The Obama administration has been cornered into rethinking the idea that the city itself should host the biggest terrorist atrocity it and America has ever seen.
It now faces the task of finding a more suitable home for the high-profile trial.
The argument over what proportion of the city's day-to-day security costs should be met by Washington has raged ever since the attacks in 2001, with the federal government claiming it contributes enough as it spreads resources around the entire nation.
Bloomberg's letter to the office of management and budget in Washington was simply the latest round of point scoring in that fight.
The letter said the security costs for the trials of mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators would hit $216m in the first year and $200m a year after that.
The huge sum arises mainly from overtime payments for extra police patrols.
'As 9/11 was an attack on the entire nation, we need the federal government to shoulder the significant costs we will incur and ease this burden,' Bloomberg wrote.
Then in a speech a week later Kelly highlighted the risk that terrorists could use the trials to earn maximum publicity by attempting to strike another blow.
He predicted the public backlash over the arrangements and huge financial penalties would most likely prevent the trial being held in the city. Then two Obama officials confirmed alternate locations were being looked at.
But Patrick Rowan, once the top counter terrorism official in the Bush Justice Department, said holding it elsewhere could be just as problematic.
'If it's too risky to hold a major terrorism trial in downtown Manhattan, then they're going to face the same argument from civic leaders in other metropolitan areas.
'If you follow the logic behind this decision, they may quickly find themselves in a position where they need to create a single facility, perhaps on a military base in the middle of a cornfield.'
