JERUSALEM (Reuters) –
Germany, France and EU president Sweden on Tuesday joined Western nations pressing Israel to stop building settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank under a U.S.-led effort to resume stalled peace talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has resisted international calls to freeze building in occupied territory, seemed to show a sign of flexibility as a newspaper reported a secret plan to remove two dozen unauthorized settler outposts.

Israel has long pledged to dismantle hilltop outposts that it never approved, but has continued building larger settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, land it captured in a 1967 war, and where Palestinians want to build a future state.

Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he would not resume peace talks with Israel, stalled since Israel elected Netanyahu, a right-wing settler champion in February, unless all settlement construction stopped.

In Berlin, Ruprecht Polenz, a senior member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party, was quoted as saying Israel ran the risk "of gradually committing suicide as a democratic state" if it did not stop the construction.

Polenz, head of the German parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, further told the Rheinische Post daily that "Israel is overlooking the fact that neither Palestinians nor Arab states will agree to a solution without East Jerusalem."

The French Foreign Ministry summoned Israel's ambassador, Daniel Shek, in Paris, to protest against a planned Israeli housing project for East Jerusalem, which Israel considers part of its capital and which Palestinians also seek to make their capital.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem shortly after its capture, in a move never recognized internationally.

THOUSANDS THREATENED WITH DISPLACEMENT

European Union president Sweden urged from Stockholm that Israel refrain from demolishing homes in East Jerusalem where thousands are threatened with displacement.

Jerusalem has emerged as a focal point of the settlement controversy since Israeli officials accused the U.S. State Department on Sunday of telling Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, Israel should suspend plans to build about 20 housing units in the city's eastern sector.

The United States has never confirmed it made this demand, but Netanyahu rejected it in televised remarks to his cabinet, a move analysts saw as capitalizing on broad popular support in the country for Israel's continued control of the disputed city.

Israel shut a hotel fair in East Jerusalem in the latest of several Palestinian cultural events it has disrupted in recent months saying an interim peace deal permits it to bar the Palestinian government from holding events in the city.

"They want us to leave Jerusalem, but we will not," Rafiq al-Husseini, an aide to Abbas, said.

Neither Netanyahu's office nor the Israeli army would comment on a report in the respected Haaretz daily that the military was preparing to "forcibly evacuate 23 illegal outposts in one day," in a plan drawn up with Netanyahu's knowledge.

The same Haaretz columnist disclosed plans to remove troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip before that pullout occurred in 2005.

Separately, a report by the Macro Center of the Israeli European Policy Network said settlements were receiving a larger share of government funding than municipalities inside Israel, and the settler population was also growing three times as fast.

"While Israeli municipalities as a whole receive 34.7 percent of their income from (the government) and obtain another 64.3 percent from their own income, settlement municipalities obtain 57 percent from the (government) and only 42.8 percent from their own income," the report said.

(Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in Berlin, Niklas Pollard in Stockholm, Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, and Douglas Hamilton and Ali Sawafta in Jerusalem)

Many hotels can be considered destinations in themselves, by dint of unusual features of the lodging and/or its immediate environment:

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest hotel still in operation is the Hoshi Ryokan, in Awazu, Japan. It opened in 717, and features hot springs.

Myrtle Beach Hotels

NOTTINGHAM, England (AFP) –
Former England and Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson has joined English Division Two club Notts County as director of football, the club confirmed on Wednesday.

The League Two (fourth division) club said the 61-year-old Swede would be joined by his long-term assistant Tord Grip, who will assume the role of general adviser.

The world's oldest professional football club were recently taken over by a Middle Eastern consortium and had been in talks with Eriksson about taking up a senior position with the club.

"Sven will assume his role with immediate effect," the club said in a statement. "He will be joining with his long-term assistant Tord Grip, who will assume the role of general advisor."

Eriksson will look after the club's youth academy as well as player development, transfer negotiations and building overseas links.

The Swede is looking forward to the challenge.

"I am particularly attracted to this role and the unique opportunity to help build a club over the longer term," he said.

"I will be responsible for all aspects of the football side of the club and in line with the aspirations of the new owners, wish to build the club at the heart of the community.

"We hope to leave a long and lasting legacy for Notts County and its fans."

The appointment of Eriksson comes as a surprise as the Swede has been one of the leading managers in football over the last two decades.

After achieving the league and cup double in Sweden, Portugal and Italy he left Lazio to become England's first foreign manager.

Quarter-final exits in the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004 followed, and he had already announced his departure before England's disappointing 2006 World Cup campaign, again ended in the last eight.

His single season as Manchester City manager, 2007-08, should be seen as a success but he parted company with the club, who were poised for a Middle Eastern takeover of their own, and was announced as the new head coach of Mexico in June last year.

That appointment turned out to be the least successful of his career and several disappointing results in their World Cup qualifying campaign led to his sacking.

County only narrowly avoided relegation from League Two last season, but Middle East investors Munto Finance Ltd have made it clear they have ambitious plans for the Nottingham club which was founded in 1862.

NEW YORK – Immigration agents raiding homes for suspected illegal immigrants violated the U.S. Constitution by entering without proper consent and may have used racial profiling, a report analyzing arrest records found.
Latinos made up a disproportionate number of the people arrested who were not the stated targets of the raids, and many of their arrest reports gave no basis for why they were initially seized, said the report, which was based on data from raids in New York and New Jersey.
The Immigration Justice Clinic at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law analyzed home raid arrest records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Long Island and throughout New Jersey. The clinic, founded last year, represents indigent immigrants facing deportation.
Its report, released Wednesday, said that since ICE agents use administrative warrants — instead of judicial warrants, which give law enforcement unfettered access — they must have a resident's consent to enter a home or else violate the constitutional right to protection against unreasonable searches.
On Long Island, 86 percent of arrest records from 100 raids between January 2006 and April 2008 showed no record of consent being given, the report found. In northern and central New Jersey, no record of consent being given was found for 24 percent of about 600 arrests in 2006 and 2007, it found.
Peter Markowitz, director of the clinic and one of the authors of the report, said raids often are carried out with great force, with immigration officials pushing their way into homes in pre-dawn or late-night hours.
The raids are ostensibly aimed at targeted individuals who present threats either to national security or community safety, but arrests of illegal immigrants nearby, known as collateral arrests, are also made.
While the report only analyzed data from two states, it said the pattern suggested the problem was nationwide. It listed examples from California, Texas, Arizona, Massachusetts, Georgia and other places.
A federal judge in Connecticut last month ruled that federal agents violated the constitutional rights of four illegal immigrants in a 2007 raid under similar issues. The judge ruled the immigration agents went into the immigrants' homes without warrants, probable cause or their consent, and he put a stop to deportation proceedings against the four defendants.
"The widespread illegality by a law enforcement agency should be kind of shocking to anybody," Markowitz said.
In a statement, ICE said its agents uphold the country's laws.
"We do so professionally, humanely and with an acute awareness regarding the impact enforcement has on the individuals we encounter," it said.
The agency said it also had a mandate to pursue all illegal immigrants, whether targeted or not. A spokesman for the agency declined to comment further.
The agency has about 100 Fugitive Operations Teams around the country; in fiscal year 2008, the teams made more than 34,000 arrests.
The report also found that Latinos were a disproportionate number of collateral arrests. In both New Jersey and on Long Island, two-thirds of the targeted detainees were Latino. But 87 percent of collateral arrests in New Jersey were Latino, as were 94 percent of the collateral arrests in Long Island.
Collateral arrest records can indicate why the person was seized and questioned. But the report found that almost all of the records that didn't contain that information were for Latinos taken into custody. The report said that supported community complaints that Latinos were targeted for arrest simply because of how they looked or how well they spoke English.
The report makes several recommendations, including limiting the use of home raids to a last resort for targets who pose a serious risk to national security or have violent criminal records; the use of judicial rather than administrative warrants, and the videotaping of all home raids.
It also calls for the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General to conduct an investigation.

"These are violations that go to the very heart of the Constitutional expectation of privacy in this country," Markowitz said.

NEW YORK – Sergio Mitre earned his first win in two years, Robinson Cano hit a two-run homer and the surging New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-4 on Tuesday night for their fifth straight victory.
Alex Rodriguez also had a key two-run single for an efficient New York squad, which made the most of just six hits. The Yankees are a major league-best 43-22 since Rodriguez came off the disabled list May 8 following hip surgery.
The Yankees (56-37) improved to a season-best 19 games over .500 and took a one-game lead in the AL East over Boston, which lost to Texas.
Mitre, who was called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before the game, allowed four runs, three earned, and eight hits over 5 2-3 innings in his first major league start since Sept. 15, 2007. It was his first win since July 29, 2007, for Florida at San Francisco.
The 28-year-old right-hander is serving as the Yankees' fifth starter with Chien-Ming Wang sidelined by a strained right shoulder.
Brian Roberts had three hits for Baltimore, which has lost nine straight in the Bronx and fell to 1-13 in road games against the AL East this season. Roberts is batting .433 (13 for 30) in his last seven games.
After winning each of the last three games 2-1 for the first time in franchise history, the Yankees raced out to a 6-2 lead in the fourth. Rodriguez picked up two RBIs with a two-out single off Rich Hill in the third and Cano went deep after Nick Swisher led off the fourth with a walk.
Hill (3-3) departed after Cano's 14th homer, running his winless stretch to six starts. He allowed five runs and three hits with four walks.
Johnny Damon added an RBI single off Brian Bass to finish the scoring in New York's three-run fourth.
Mitre (1-0) missed the 2008 season and had elbow-ligament replacement surgery on July 15 last year. He agreed to a minor league contract with the Yankees during the offseason, then was suspended for the first 50 games after testing positive for a banned substance under the major league drug program.
Mitre was 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA in two starts for Class A Tampa and 3-1 with a 2.40 ERA in seven starts with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before he was called up.
Melvin Mora's two-run single cut New York's lead to 6-4 in the sixth but Mitre responded by throwing a called third strike past Nolan Reimold for the second out. Alfredo Aceves then came in and got Matt Wieters to fly out to end the inning.
Aceves also worked a perfect seventh, Phil Coke pitched the eighth and Mariano Rivera got three outs for his 27th save in 28 opportunities.
NOTES: RHP Brett Tomko was designated for assignment to make room for Mitre. Tomko hadn't pitched since July 11. ... The Orioles activated RHP Cla Meredith and optioned RHP Kam Mickolio to Triple-A Norfolk. Meredith was acquired from the Padres on Sunday for INF Oscar Salazar. ... Orioles RHPs Dennis Sarfate (circulatory problems in right arm) and Chris Ray (right biceps tendinitis) will start rehab assignments on Friday. Sarfate is scheduled to make four appearances for Norfolk, pitching one inning each time. Ray is expected to do the same at Double-A Bowie. "After they pitch on the 31st, we'll have to see where they're at," manager Dave Trembley said. ... Yankees SS Derek Jeter appeared to be favoring his left leg after he was thrown out trying to score on Mark Teixeira's flyball to right in the fourth. He stayed in the game, but was bending his leg in the field in the fifth.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) –
Apple Inc's quarterly profit blew past Wall Street forecasts thanks to strong sales of Macs and iPhones and higher-than-expected gross margins, boosting its shares 4 percent on Tuesday.

The company continued to defy the global recession with a solid 13 percent jump in fiscal third-quarter net profit. It sold more than seven times as many iPhones -- 5.2 million units of its latest signature device -- as the year-ago period.

"The numbers are great. Their gross profits continue to surprise people and there is a return to product momentum ... a return to growth in the Mac business," said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "And then the iPhone is doing tremendously well and that is a potent combination."

Apple reported a net profit of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 a share, for its fiscal third quarter ended June 27, up from $1.07 billion, or $1.19 a share, in the year-ago period.

Earnings per share beat by far the average Street forecast of $1.18 according to Reuters Estimates, and topped even the most bullish "whisper" numbers of $1.30 to $1.35.

Sales of Macs and iPhones both beat analysts' expectations, helped by product refreshes and lower prices, while iPod shipments were toward the low end of forecasts.

Apple said it sold 2.6 million Macs, up 4 percent from a year ago, and 5.2 million iPhones in the June quarter, during which the company launched its third-generation iPhone 3GS and cut the price on the second-generation model to $99.

The iPhone is often thought of as more of a consumer device, but Apple said nearly 20 percent of Fortune 100 companies have bought at least 10,000 units and it is unable to make enough iPhone 3GSes to meet demand -- a shortfall the company said it is working to address.

Although the smartphone segment continues to grow more crowded with competitors, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said on a conference call the company is "years ahead of other people" in its competitive position.

IPHONE DRIVES

The install base for the iPhone and the iPod Touch -- which share operating systems -- is now 45 million, Apple said.

"The iPhone is the biggest driver right now, because the profitability is really high," said Frost & Sullivan analyst Ronald Gruia. "It's been an absolute success."

Yet there had been some concern about margin pressure heading into the results, given the product price cuts and the trend of higher component costs.

Although Mac units rose, revenue in the segment fell 8 percent from a year ago as average selling prices came down, a trend seen throughout the PC industry.

But Apple posted a gross margin of 36.3 percent, above the 34 percent some analysts predicted. That compared with 36.4 percent in the last quarter and 34.8 percent a year ago. The company saw margins at 34 percent in the September quarter.

Apple said component costs rose, but not as much as expected and it spent less than it planned in several areas.

"The overall takeaway is that Apple continues to execute in this tough environment," said Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu.

"They do the hardware, software and service, and that really allows them to have a leg up against competitors."

Investors have pushed Apple's stock about 75 percent higher this year, well ahead of other big technology issues.

Apple issued a typically conservative outlook for the current quarter, forecasting earnings of $1.18 to $1.23 a share on revenue of $8.7 billion to $8.9 billion.

While that was below the average analyst estimate of $1.30 in earnings per share and $9.1 billion in revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter, it had little impact on investors.

Revenue rose 12 percent to $8.3 billion in the June quarter, versus analysts' average estimate of $8.2 billion.

Cash and marketable securities totaled more than $31 billion, one of the biggest cash hoards in all of technology.

The results demonstrated the consumer appeal of Apple's products despite a troubled economy that has dented sales at competitors selling less expensive products.

Apple reported relative strength in consumer demand, and weakness in education, one of its key markets.

But iPods were a chink in its armor. Apple shipped 10.2 million iPods in the quarter, down 7 percent on the year. As iPod sales slow down, analysts see alternative catalysts on the horizon, with the expected launch of an iPhone in China and a rumored tablet PC or Internet device in the works.

Cook said the company hoped to have an iPhone in China within a year.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs did not make an appearance on the company's conference call, despite rumors that he might. Jobs recently returned from a nearly six-month medical leave, where he underwent an a liver transplant.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple closed at $151.51 on Nasdaq and rose to $158.34 in extended trading.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; Additional reporting by Doris Frankel and Tiffany Wu; Editing by Edwin Chan and Richard Chang)

TEHRAN, Iran – Tens of thousands of government opponents packed Iran's main Islamic prayer sermon Friday, chanting "freedom, freedom" and other slogans as their top clerical backer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a sermon bluntly criticizing the country's leadership over the crackdown on election protests.
Outside, pro-government Basiji militiamen in front of a line of riot police fired tear gas at thousands of protesters who chanted "death to the dictator" and called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resign. Young protesters with green bandanas over their mouths and noses set a bonfire in the street and kicked away gas canisters, facing off with the security forces while others scattered.
The opposition aimed to turn the Friday prayers at Tehran University into a show of their continued strength despite heavy government suppression since the disputed June 12 presidential election.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have won the election, sat in the front row of worshippers, attending for the first time since the turmoil began. Many of the tens of thousands at the prayers wore headbands or wristbands in his campaign color green, or had green prayer rugs.
In his sermon broadcast live on radio nationwide, Rafsanjani reprimanded the clerical leadership for not listening to the controversy over the election, which was declared a victory for Ahmadinejad despite opposition claims of fraud.
"Doubt has been created (about the election results)," Rafsanjani said. "There is a large portion of the wise people who say they have doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt."
Rafsanjani couched his sermon in calls for unity in support of Iran's Islamic Republic. But his sermon was an unmistakable challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who declared Ahmadinejad's victory valid and ordered an end to questioning of the results. Rafsanjani said the dispute has split clerics and warned of "crisis."
The sermon was Rafsanjani's first since the election, ending his unusual silence over the turmoil.
Worshippers interrupted him with chants of "azadi, azadi" — Persian for "freedom" — and Rafsanjani got tears in his eyes as he spoke of how Islam's Prophet Muhammad "respected the rights" of his people. He criticized the postelection wave of arrests, saying the leadership should show sympathy for protesters and release those detained.
Rafsanjani, a former president, is considered the opposition's top supporter within Iran's clerical leadership. He heads two of the three main clerical bodies that oversee the government and parliament and is a bitter rival of Ahmadinejad. His daughter and four other relatives who openly backed Mousavi were briefly detained during protests last month.
In his sermon, Rafsanjani said the Islamic Republic must listen to the people's voices. "We believe in the Islamic Republic ... they have to stand together," he said. "If 'Islamic' doesn't exist, we will go astray. And if 'republic' is not there, (our goals) won't be achieved. Where people are not present or their vote is not considered, that government is not Islamic."
In the days after the June election, hundreds of thousands marched in the streets in support of Mousavi. But after Khamenei validated the results, police, elite Republican Guards and Basiji militiamen launched a fierce crackdown on protesters in which hundreds were arrested and at least 20 killed — though human rights groups say the figure could be several times that official toll.
The scene outside the university on Friday was tumultuous. Before the sermon, police fired tear gas at hundreds of Mousavi backers trying to enter the prayer. When Mahdi Karroubi, another pro-reform candidate in the June election, headed for the prayers, plainclothes hard-line supporters attacked him, shoving him and knocking his turban to the ground, witnesses said. "Death to the opponent of Velayat-e-Faqih," the hard-liners chanted as they attacked him, referring to the supreme leader, the witnesses said.
As she headed for the university, a prominent women's rights activist, Shadi Sadr, was beaten by militiamen, pushed into a car and driven away to an unknown location, Mousavi's Web site http://www.mowjcamp.com and a women's rights site http://www.meydaan.com said.
Inside the prayers — held on a former soccer field covered with a roof — some of the worshippers rubbed their eyes as tear gas from the scuffles outside drifted in during Rafsanjani's speech. They traded competing chants with some hard-liners in the congregation. When the hard-liners gave the traditional chant of "death to America," Mousavi supporters countered with "death to Russia" and "death to China."
It was a reference to Ahmadinejad's alliance with both countries. Ahmadinejad has come under criticism in Iran for not criticizing Beijing over Muslim deaths in China's western Xinjiang province.
After the prayers, some worshippers joined the protests outside, swelling their numbers to thousands. Members of the hard-line Basij militia charged the crowd, firing tear gas to disperse the crowd, witnesses said. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of government retaliation.
In his sermon, Rafsanjani — known as a mercurial and savvy political insider — was careful not to mention Khamenei. But he sharply criticized the Guardians Council, a powerful clerical body that has become the center for Khamenei and Ahmadinejad's strongest backers. The Guardians Council oversaw the election, then after the dispute erupted it conducted a partial recount that validated Ahmadinejad's victory. Opponents dismiss the recount.

Rafsanjani said the Guardians Council had had an "opportunity to unite the people and regain their trust," but the chance was "not used properly."

Rafsanjani heads two other top clerical bodies, the Experts Council and the Expediency Council. In the past week, a behind-the-scenes power struggle between Rafsanjani and the Guardians Council has become public, fueling heavy hard-liner criticism of Rafsanjani.

Rafsanjani also openly spoke of the split among clerics over the election. Many other prominent clerics have been sharply critical of the government or have failed to announce their backing for Ahmadinejad, including most of the country's "maraje'-e-taghlid," or "sources of emulation," Shiite clerics of the highest rank whose religious rulings are closely obeyed by their many followers.

"The maraje'-e-taghlid have always supported and served (the people). Why some of them are offended?" Rafsanjani said. "We need to keep them beside us. We need to support them and rely on them."

Rafsanjani criticized the crackdown on postelection protests, calling for the release of those arrested.

"Sympathy must be offered to those who suffered from the events that occurred and reconcile them with the ruling system. This is achievable. We need to placate them," he said.

The space
shuttle Endeavour and its seven-astronaut crew plan to arrive at the
International Space Station Friday for a long-awaited visit more than a month
overdue.

The shuttle
is set to catch up with the station at 1:55 p.m. EDT (1755 GMT), capping a
two-day high speed orbital chase. Endeavour finally
launched Wednesday after being held on the ground by a gas leak and a
persistent string of bad weather.

When the seven
newcomers join the existing International Space Station (ISS) crew of six, the total
population onboard will be a record 13.

Endeavour
commander Mark Polansky, pilot Doug Hurley, and mission specialists Chris
Cassidy, Julie Payette, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Dave Wolf will make for a
crowded station when they join ISS crewmembers Gennady Padalka, Roman
Romanenko, Michael Barratt, Robert Thirsk, Frank De Winne and Koichi Wakata. All
five space station member organizations - NASA, the Russian Federal Space
Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency,
and the European Space Agency - will be represented.

Kopra is
set to replace Wakata as an ISS Expedition 20 flight engineer, while Wakata
will ride home aboard Endeavour in his place.

Despite the
imminent crowding on the station, the
two crews are looking forward to seeing each other again.

"I'm
sure there's going to be a lot of emotion as you see your friends up there and
it's always an exciting time to do that," Polansky said in a preflight
interview. "And then after about five minutes of, 'Boy, this is really
cool!' back to work."

Before
Endeavour docks at the space station, Polansky will guide the orbiter through a
backflip so astronauts inside the station can photograph the heat shield tiles
lining its belly. The maneuver is a now-standard part of NASA's shuttle heat
shield inspections to look for signs of damage from launch debris.

During
Endeavour's launch, the shuttle's fuel tank lost an unusual
amount of foam from its external tank. Some minor nicks to tiles were also
seen.

The two
crews have a busy
schedule planned for Endeavour's 11 days docked at the station. A primary
task is to install a new outdoor experiment platform on the Japanese Kibo
laboratory. The segment - used to expose science projects to the space
environment - will complete the huge Kibo complex. Endeavour's crew also plans
to unload a cache of spare supplies on the station to keep the outpost running
after the shuttle fleet retires, planned for 2010.

For the six
long-duration station crewmembers awaiting the shuttle, the influx of new faces
and supplies will be very welcome.

"We're
hoping to get some fresh mail and some fresh fruit, and it's a great crew
that's coming up and we're really looking forward to working with them,"
Barratt said in a NASA interview.

New
Video - The Kibo Lab: Japan's Hope in Space - Part 1, Part
2
Final
Countdown: A Guide to NASA's Last Space Shuttle Missions
SPACE.com
Special Report - THE MOON: Then, Now, Next
SPACE.com
is providing continuous coverage of STS-127 with reporter Clara Moskowitz and
senior editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click here for mission
updates and SPACE.com's live NASA TV video feed.

Original Story: Shuttle Endeavour Closes in on Space StationSPACE.com offers rich and compelling content about space science, travel and exploration as well as astronomy, technology, business news and more. The site boasts a variety of popular features including our space image of the day and other space pictures,space videos, Top 10s, Trivia, podcasts and Amazing Images submitted by our users. Join our community, sign up for our free newsletters and register for our RSS Feeds today!

Los Angeles (E! Online) –
Paul McCartney is setting the record straight about yesterday—at least, that is, his friendship with the late Michael Jackson.

The ex-Beatle dropped into last night's episode of The Late Show With David Letterman and explained that the former pals "fell apart" after the King of Pop snatched the Fab Four's catalog out from under him in a 1985 auction.

Jackson and McCartney, of course, teamed up for memorable duets on "The Girl Is Mine" off the former's Thriller album and "Say Say Say" off the latter's Tug of War.

So it stung something pretty when the Moonwalker paid $47.5 million to outbid him for the moptops' tunes and then subsequently sold the catalog a few years later to Sony for $95 million. And adding insult to injury, before the sale, McCartney was also the one to give Jackson a crash course on the value of an artist owning music publishing rights.

According to McCartney, the "Beat It" singer coolly informed him, "That's just business, Paul."

"We've never kind of got to it, and I thought 'hmmm,' so we kind of drifted apart," the 66-year-old music legend told Letterman, but then added that "there was no big bustup."

He then said Jackson "was a lovely man, massively talented, and we miss him."

McCartney, in town for his first-ever gig at New York's new Citi Field (after giving the Mets' now-defunct Shea Stadium a fine send-off last year) to support the release of his latest disc, Electric Arguments, also reminisced about getting back to the Ed Sullivan Theater where 45 years earlier the Beatles made their American television debut to launch the so-called British Invasion.

"The memory of being here...it's great. It was kind of scary the first time," he said.

Recalling the Beatles' famous final performance, McCartney then played a surprise free miniconcert atop the theater's marquee, regaling New Yorkers with a cut off the new album along with the Wings-era gem "Band on the Run," and a trio of classics from that other little band of his, "Get Back," "Helter Skelter" and "Back in the U.S.S.R."
________

Check out the King of Pop in happier, seemingly healthier times in our Michael Jackson: A Life gallery.

··· THEY SAID WHAT? Get today's most commented stories now at www.eonline.com

LONDON (AFP) –
The head of Britain's army called for more troops and equipment in Afghanistan Friday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown over Britain's contribution to the war amid a surge in deaths.

General Richard Dannatt's latest intervention came after days of accusations that Brown's government is not supporting the forces enough. The government insists that the Afghanistan force has all it needs.

Dannatt added that cutting back the number of British troops in Afghanistan after next month's presidential elections from 9,000 to the previous level of 8,300 would be "the wrong thing to do".

Brown has been on the spot over Afghanistan since last week when its soldiers there suffered their blackest period yet, with eight dying within 24 hours.

Another British soldier died Thursday while on foot patrol in the southern Helmand province, the Ministry of Defence said, taking the figure to 16 this month.

Speaking on his last trip to Afghanistan before his retirement next month, Dannatt told BBC radio that he had a "shopping list" of equipment that he would take back to ministers in London.

He wants more focus on tackling the use of roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which have killed many of the troops who have died recently.

Dannatt also said there could be a case for a temporary boost to troops in the south but reiterated that while extra "boots on the ground" were needed, they could be British, American or Afghan.

"There may well be a case for what I would call a short term uplift... for about 12 to 18 months until the Afghan National Army can get the right strength down here," he said.

"It would be the right thing for us in the short-term for us to stay at 9,000, down to 8,300 would be wrong, militarily I'm quite sure about that... I couldn't sign up to that now".

Dannatt's comments seem to throw into question Brown's claim Thursday before a House of Commons committee that: "For what we're doing in Afghanistan we've provided the resources and equipment that are necessary... we will do whatever is necessary and what is right to equip our armed forces."

During the session, Brown repeatedly sidestepped questions on a newspaper report that the head of the armed forces had asked for 2,000 extra troops for Afghanistan but received only 700.

The main opposition Conservatives, who hope to oust Brown in elections next year, have repeatedly claimed that British deaths could be prevented if more troops were transported in helicopters rather than by road.

Their defence spokesman Liam Fox told BBC radio: "If we had a direct request from the head of the armed forces that they needed something specific... of course we would have to say yes to that".

It was revealed this week that Dannatt was ferried around by a US Black Hawk helicopter on his visit to Afghanistan. Foreign Secretary David Miliband insisted this was "normal" pooling of NATO resources.

Dannatt, known for his plain-speaking style, is due to retire next month and reports suggest he is poised to write a book critical of the British government's role in Afghanistan.

But he was unapologetic about his comments when asked if he felt he was fighting a war on two fronts -- in Afghanistan and with ministers in London -- in Friday's interview.

"I think some issues should be aired so they can be debated and I'm unapologetic as far as I'm concerned. If some think I've crossed the line, so be it."

Thursday saw the funeral of the highest-ranking British officer to die in action since the Falklands War in 1982, Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, who was killed in Afghanistan.

The British death toll for the war is now 185, higher than for the Iraq war.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford shed his fiscal conservatism on several taxpayer-funded international trips, including a South American jaunt that included time with his mistress, choosing expensive first-class or business-class seats while his aides sat in coach.
Sanford, who once criticized other state officials for costly travel, charged the state more than $37,600 for one first-class and four business-class flights overseas since November 2005, expense records show. Other state employees flew in the back of the plane at a fraction of the price, according to the documents.
The Republican governor, who balked at taking federal stimulus money after arguing it was an unwise use of taxpayer funds, charged the state $8,687 for a Delta Airlines trip to Brazil last year that included a leg in business class, state expense records show.
That trip ended with the governor's now well-publicized visit to his Argentine mistress, Maria Belen Chapur, and marked what he says was the start of a nearly year-long sexual affair with the woman he's called his "soul mate."
Other state employees spent less than $2,000 each on economy seats for the Brazil flight, according to the records, released by two state agencies under South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act.
Sanford has since repaid $3,300 for part of that Brazil-Argentina trip.
His spokesman defended the governor's state travel as "very judicious."
"He compares very favorably with previous administrations on use of the state plane, and we believe he would compare favorably on his use of other state travel as well," spokesman Joel Sawyer said.
But Sanford's habit of more costly travel at the taxpayers' expense contradicts his claim of frugality. When first running for governor in 2002, the former congressman, who once boasted of sleeping on a cot in his office to save money, blasted incumbent state officials for their expensive flights.
"This kind of lavish spending with taxpayers footing the bill just doesn't make any sense to me," Sanford said in one campaign ad. "If I become your governor, I'll fix that problem."
State Senate Minority Leader John Land recalls the criticism that candidate Sanford heaped on others.
"I reckon he's a hypocrite," the Democrat said. "He goes before the Christian right and professes to be one thing and yet his conduct is something else. He goes before the people of the state and talks about his fiscal conservatism. But yet when you see him in action, he's going first class and spending the state taxpayers' money."
In interviews earlier this month with The Associated Press, the governor said he paid his own way when visiting his mistress during a New York rendezvous last September.
Asked if he flew coach, Sanford was quick to point out his personal thrifty side. "Yeah. You remember, I am paying," he said with a laugh.
State travel records for Sanford, who took office in January 2003, are available only back to the fall of 2005, and the documents show a persistent pattern of expensive state travel.
For example, he charged taxpayers $12,172 for travel to China in 2007, which included business-class accommodations on United Airlines, complete with upgraded food, drinks and an oversized reclining chair.
State Rep. Nikki Haley, a Republican, was a member of the state mission to China. A leading ally of Sanford's in the legislature, Haley had just wrapped up her freshman term when she was invited to attend the World Economic Forum with the governor.
She recalled a dozen or so delegates, mostly from the business community, but said she couldn't remember whether she flew coach or first class. Although expense records released by the state Commerce Department and comptroller's office do not show the type of ticket purchased, her flight cost $6,842.

"It was a big deal that we were the only state in the country that was asked to bring a delegation," Haley said. "It was very prestigious."

Other state employees who went on the trip charged the state between $1,905 and $3,963 each for their flights, the expense records show.

The records provide details of several other high-priced trips.

The state paid more than $5,000 for Sanford to fly to Poland in April, including at least part of the trip in the more expensive business-class seating. Using a different airline, Sanford's Commerce Secretary Joe Taylor also flew in business class on part of his journey, the records show. The state has not released all expense records from that trip.

Sanford spent $4,685 of taxpayer money on a Lufthansa business-class flight to Munich in April 2007.

The governor also flew in the most expensive "envoy class," also referred to as first class, on a U.S. Airways flight to London in 2006 at a cost of $7,065, according to the documents.

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Blackledge reported from Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON – The man at the center of one of Sonia Sotomayor's most-disputed court rulings is the next high-profile witness as the New Yorker's Supreme Court confirmation hearings near an end.
New Haven, Conn., firefighter Frank Ricci is going to the Judiciary Committee, telling his story in the reverse discrimination case that has proved a leading cause for conservatives opposed to Sotomayor. The judge's critics have criticized her for dismissing the firefighters arguments without a hearing. They were trying to win promotions they said they earned on an examination that the city administered.
New Haven eventually ruled the test invalid, saying it looked stacked against minorities.
Other witnesses Thursday afternoon will include representatives of private organizations such as the American Bar Association.

OTTAWA (Reuters) –
The Conservatives have moved into a small lead in public opinion, a poll released on Thursday showed, as the Liberals mull whether to try to bring down the minority government this autumn.

But the Ekos poll showed the lead to be within its margin of error, with neither major party able to break out and take a clear lead.

Ekos put the Conservatives at 34.1 percent and the Liberals at 32.4 percent, with the left-leaning New Democrats at 15.2 percent and the Bloc Quebecois at 8.7 percent. A week ago, the Liberals led the Conservatives 32.2 percent to 31.8 percent and the two parties have been seesawing back and forth for weeks.

The Liberals threatened in June to try to force an early election by voting against a government budget measure, but decided against it.

They will have another opportunity in late September or early October and though politicians often say polls do not matter, privately they agree they weigh heavily in calculations of whether to trigger elections.

The July 8-14 automated telephone survey covered 2,309 decided voters, for a 2.0 percentage point margin of error 19 times out of 20.

The survey also found 54 percent of respondents oppose Canada's military mission in Afghanistan, while 34 percent support it, and 12 percent said neither. The Conservatives and Liberals have agreed that the mission should end in mid-2011.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer; editing by Peter Galloway)

BRUSSELS – Congo must crack down on rampant sexual violence perpetrated by military generals and other top officers, a prominent international human rights group said Thursday.
Congolese authorities have failed to prevent widespread rapes, Human Rights Watch said in a new report, citing U.N. data showing 7,703 cases of sexual violence by the army were reported last year. Most victims were adolescent girls.
While soldiers now face legal action for rape, senior officers "continue to be untouched," said Juliane Kippenberg, Africa researcher for the group.
"Their own crimes and their command responsibility for the crimes of their soldiers must be investigated and held to account," she said.
Tens of thousands of women and girls in Congo have suffered from abuse, including gang rape and other violent sexual acts that have led to unwanted pregnancies, serious injuries and death.
In its report, Human Rights Watch called on the U.N.'s Security Council to take "tough measures," including travel bans, and other sanctions against individuals or governments that commit or condone sexual violence in Congo and elsewhere.
It urged Congo's President Joseph Kabila to set up special tribunals that include international judges and prosecutors to target sexual violence in the army. The military justice system is weak, it said, and only a small number of acts of sexual abuse by lower rank soldiers have been prosecuted.
Both the U.N.'s Congo peacekeeping mission and EU projects to reform and train Congo's military must put more emphasis on teaching soldiers international humanitarian law and on improving the command structure, Kippenberg said.
"Reforms so far have achieved shockingly little in reducing sexual violence against women and girls," she said.
Congo has been wracked by conflict since genocidal forces from Rwanda fled into its forested mountains 15 years ago.
The conflict in eastern Congo at its height drew in half a dozen of the country's neighbors, each greedy for a share of the region's rich mineral resources. More than five million have been killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless over the past decade, with brutalities commonplace in rural communities.
A 2003 peace deal reduced the fighting but both the army and rebel groups continue to attack villages and kill civilians.

LOS ANGELES – When a Los Angeles gallery mounted a retrospective of Kent Twitchell's work earlier this year the acclaimed painter figured the one thing everyone would want to see was his "lost" Michael Jackson mural.
Twitchell's larger-than-life vision, showing the entertainer decked out in a white suit and matching fedora, stood 100 feet tall and 60 feet wide. Once planned for the entire side of a Hollywood building, it was so big it had to be mounted in sections across a two-story gallery wall, the bottom of it strung out along the floor.
When visitors arrived, they made a beeline straight past it, stopping instead to admire Twitchell's two-story portrait of Steve McQueen.
How things have changed.
"Since Michael died my phone is just ringing off the hook," said Look gallery owner Jerri Levi, who mounted the April exhibition. Collectors from around the world have inquired about buying the mural, she said, and others have asked whether it will be displayed again.
But for now Twitchell is keeping it safely rolled up and hidden away.
"It would be nice to see something happen with it eventually," he said this week. "But I don't want to just hawk it and I wouldn't want to get involved in something that might be seen as cheesy. I'm an artist, not an entrepreneur."
The mural was originally planned for the side of Hollywood's historic El Capitan Theatre building, and Twitchell, whose works dot the Los Angeles skyline, collaborated with Jackson on it for three years.
"The nicest guy in the world. Down to earth. Not pretentious at all," is how he remembers him.
The project, part of a Hollywood restoration taking place at the time, was shelved in 1993. Twitchell says he was never told why but suspects Jackson having become the target of a child molestation investigation that year played a role.
Originally Jackson wanted to dress in black leather for the mural, Twitchell said, but he told him he'd like to go for a classic 1930s Hollywood pose, outfitting him in something Cary Grant would have worn at the time.
"He said, 'Oh yes, I can see that,'" Twitchell recalled.