Karzai: Afghanistan, US in contacts with Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that Afghanistan and the United States are engaged in peace talks with the Taliban, even as insurgents stormed a police station near the presidential palace, killing nine people.

The brazen attack in the heart of Kabul's government district provided a sharp counterpoint to Karzai's first official confirmation that the U.S. and Afghan governments are holding discussions with the Taliban.

The Obama administration neither directly confirmed nor denied Karzai's statement.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. has "consistently supported an Afghan-led" peace process.

"Over the past two years, we have laid out our red lines for the Taliban: They must renounce violence; they must abandon their alliance with al-Qaida; and they must abide by the constitution of Afghanistan," Toner said. "This is the price for reaching a political resolution and bringing an end to the military actions that are targeting their leadership and decimating their ranks."

Saturday's violence underscored the challenges facing any possible negotiated settlement to the decade-long war.

Three men dressed in Afghan army uniforms stormed the police station near the presidential palace and opened fire on officers, said Mohammed Honayon, a witness. The Interior Ministry said in a statement that one of the attackers detonated a suicide bomb vest outside the gates while the others rushed in and began shooting.

The crackle of gunfire echoed through the streets typically bustling with shoppers and government employees on a Saturday, the start of Afghanistan's work week. The fighting ended by 3 p.m. when security forces shot dead the two other attackers. Three police officers, one intelligence agent and five civilians were killed in the attack, the Interior Ministry said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message to The Associated Press, saying the group dispatched three suicide bombers.

The assault occurred shortly after Karzai announced during a speech at the presidential palace that his government and the U.S. have begun preliminary negotiations with the Taliban aimed at ending the conflict.

"In the course of this year, there have been peace talks with the Taliban and our own countrymen," Karzai said. "Peace talks have started with them already and it is going well. Foreign militaries, especially the United States of America, are going ahead with these negotiations."

Karzai said some of the Taliban emissaries that have met with members of the peace council he set up were only representing themselves, while others were speaking for the broader movement. The exact nature of the contacts was not immediately clear, and Karzai said that no government official outside of the council had contact with them.

"The peace council is trying to get connected to them to bring peace," the president said.

Attacks in the Afghan capital have been relatively rare, although violence has increased since the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid in Pakistan and the start of the Taliban's annual spring offensive.

The capital is one of seven regions scheduled to be handed over to Afghan security control in late July — part of NATO's efforts to begin transferring security responsibilities ahead of its planned 2014 withdrawal from the country. The U.S. also plans to start drawing down troops in July.

The last major attack in Kabul took place last month when a suicide bomber wearing an Afghan police uniform infiltrated the main Afghan military hospital in late May, killing six medical students. A month before that, a suicide attacker in an army uniform sneaked past security at the Afghan Defense Ministry, killing three.

Insurgents also attacked three convoys ferrying fuel and supplies to NATO troops stationed in western and eastern Afghanistan, killing nine Afghan security guards and torching at least 15 fuel tankers, officials said.

Two of the supply convoys hit roadside bombs Saturday in eastern Ghazni province, killing four Afghan security guards escorting the trucks to a nearby base for Polish troops, said provincial police chief Mohammed Hussain.

Insurgents also ambushed a NATO fuel convoy late Friday along the border between Herat and Farah provinces in the west, killing five Afghan guards and wounding seven others before setting fire to the tankers, said Abdul Rashied, a local police chief.

In the eastern city of Jalalabad, insurgents kidnapped a provincial council member for Logar province and three of his family members.

Two NATO service members also were killed Saturday in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan, according to the alliance. At least 32 international soldiers have died in Afghanistan so far this month, raising the death toll for 2011 to 238.

___

Associated Press writers Ahmad Seir and Amir Shah contributed to this report.

Kadhafi vows to defeat NATO

Libya's Moamer Kadhafi vowed Friday to defeat NATO as his forces launched a deadly rocket assault on rebel-held Misrata but lost a key stretch of road towards Tunisia's border.

Mahmud Jibril of the opposition National Transitional Council (NTC) meanwhile denied suggestions by a Russian envoy that the rebel leadership had been negotiating with his regime.

State television aired Kadhafi's comments in what it said was a live telephone call from the Libyan leader, who has gone underground since Western nations began waging an air war in March to protect civilians from a bloody protest crackdown.

"They will be defeated, NATO is bound to be defeated," Kadhafi said in the speech broadcast on loudspeakers in Tripoli's Green Square as thousands of flag-waving regime supporters staged their biggest rally for weeks.

"We are determined to change nothing in our country other than by our own free will, not because of the alliance's planes... We are resisting, we are fighting," he declared.

"If they come to the ground, we will wait for them, but they are cowards, they will not dare," he said in reference to NATO's insistance it will not deploy ground troops on Libyan soil in line with a UN resolution.

Kadhafi called on Libyans to prepare to liberate their country: "Get ready men and women to free Libya inch by inch."

His speech came hours after loud explosions shook Tripoli, where Kadhafi has his residence, as NATO warplanes constantly overflew the Libyan capital, an AFP reporter said.

In rebels' western enclave of Misrata, Kadhafi loyalists killed 10 people and wounded 40 when they pounded the lifeline port city with a volley of Grad rockets, rebel spokesman Ahmed Hassan told AFP.

All the victims were civilians, he said, and were hit when rockets slammed into the western and eastern gates of the city. The body of one of the dead, a woman, was found in the rubble of her house.

Hassan said Misrata was still the target of near daily bombardment by Kadhafi loyalists, and that there had been no air strikes by the NATO-led coalition on the embattled strongman's forces on Friday.

Elsewhere, a road linking the towns of Zintan and Yafran was under the complete control of the insurgents and dotted with destroyed tanks and abandoned government vehicles, an AFP correspondent said.

The road, a key sector of the route to the border with Tunisia, was seized two days after the rebels overran the nearby villages of Ghanymma, Lawania and Zawit Bagoul.

In the Italian city of Naples, where NATO's Libya operation is headquartered, Jibril, the head of international affairs in the NTC, dismissed reports the opposition was in negotiations with the Kadhafi regime.

"I can assure you there is and there was no negotiation between the NTC and the regime," said Jibril.

At a joint news conference with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, Jibril said that were negotiations to take place, the NTC would "announce it out of commitment to our friends all over the world".

Russian envoy Mikhail Margelov said Friday that Kadhafi representatives had made contact with the rebels in European capitals including Berlin, Paris and Oslo.

Margelov had said on a one day visit to Tripoli on Thursday that the contacts had only taken place in Paris, although he did not disclose the nature of the supposed negotiations.

France said it had no knowledge of the negotiations.

"If there have been direct contacts, we're not involved and we didn't set them up," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

Mahmudi said on Thursday Kadhafi's departure was a "red line" that cannot be crossed, despite growing international calls for him to quit and the armed insurrection against his 41-year rule.

An NTC official in the opposition stronghold Benghazi in eastern Libya told AFP on Friday that their position was unchanged.

"Kadhafi must go. Anyone from the rebel side who negotiates his staying in power would immediately have an NTC arrest warrant issued against him," the official said, on condition of anonymity.

And NATO on Friday slammed as "cynical" an offer in an Italian newspaper interview by Moamer Kadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, that the regime in Tripoli was ready to organise internationally supervised elections.

"Once again, it is an instance of what I would call a cynical PR ploy," said alliance spokeswoman Oana Lungescu during a news briefing on the military campaign.

"It is hard to imagine that after 41 years in which Kadhafi abolished elections, the constitution, political parties, trade unions... (that) overnight a dictator would turn into a democrat."

Philippine leader: graft-tainted projects stopped

KAWIT, Philippines (AP) — President Benigno Aquino III said Sunday his government has stopped several graft-tainted projects and cut bureaucratic perks, allowing it to raise extra money to feed the poor, equip troops and improve the country's image among investors.

But Aquino acknowledged in an Independence Day speech that formidable problems continue to plague the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, including shortages of jobs, schools, doctors and hospitals and a dependence on imported rice despite its vast farmlands.

More than a century after rising up against Spanish colonizers, Filipinos still have not been liberated from social ills like poverty because they have failed to eradicate corruption, Aquino said in Kawit town in Cavite province south of Manila where revolutionaries declared independence from Spain 113 years ago.

"If we want to liberate the country, we need to free the government and ourselves from greed," Aquino said on the balcony of a historic, flag-draped mansion.

Aquino said without elaborating that his administration had stopped graft-tainted projects in several government agencies, including the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Laguna Lake Development Authority. Officials have looked into alleged irregularities in a major dredging project at the Laguna Lake agency.

Presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte said close to $23 million (1 billion pesos) worth of contracts were halted at the public works and highways department alone because they were not properly bidded out, lacked required documents or had other irregularities.

Slashing high salaries and perks of executives in government-owned corporations increased their revenues to $686 million (29.5 billion pesos), some of which was used to build 20,000 houses for soldiers and police and hire 10,000 additional nurses for rural clinics, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said.

Aquino said the corporations have long been milked by executives appointed by officials paying off political debts.

More than 100 left-wing laborers and activists, however, accused Aquino of being a U.S. puppet and demanded higher wages. They attempted to march to the U.S. Embassy in Manila, carrying an effigy of Aquino hanging on strings held by an image of Uncle Sam on a U.S. aircraft carrier, but were blocked by riot police.

Aquino suggested that many of the anomalies took place during the administration of his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, without naming her.

Aquino also cited a military corruption scandal linked to three former chiefs of staff, including Arroyo's former defense chief, Angelo Reyes, who has denied any wrongdoing. He committed suicide in February amid a Senate corruption investigation.

"The generals were gifted with truckloads of money while those who expose their bodies to bullets suffer in boots ridden with holes," Aquino said.

Long entrenched in Philippine society, corruption is an especially explosive issue in the inadequately equipped and underfunded military and has sparked several rebellions by disgruntled troops in the past 25 years.

Aquino is the son of democracy icons revered for battling dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was toppled in a 1986 "People Power" revolt. He won a landslide election victory last year largely due to his name and a promise to fight graft and poverty, which afflicts a third of the country's 94 million people.

Guinness names Filipino as world's shortest man

SINDANGAN, Philippines (AP) — A Guinness World Records representative has declared the son of a poor Filipino locksmith who measured 23.5 inches (60 centimeters) tall as the world's shortest man.

Guinness official Craig Glenday says Junrey Balawing, who turned 18 on Sunday, broke the record of Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal, who is 26.4 inches (67 centimeters) tall.

The announcement drew a loud applause from Balawing's parents and townmates in Zamboanga del Norte's remote Sindangan township in the southern Philippines, who showered the new celebrity with a feast, a cake, balloons and cash gifts.

Balawing thanked the crowd and posed for pictures.

Hackers nab card data from 200,000 Citi customers

NEW YORK (AP) — Citigroup Inc. has become the latest victim in a string of high-profile data thefts by hackers targeting some of the world's best-known companies.

The New York bank said Thursday that about 200,000 Citibank credit card customers in North America had their names, account numbers and email addresses stolen by hackers who broke into Citi's online account site.

The breach comes after data attacks in recent weeks have struck at companies including Internet search leader Google Inc., defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp, and media and electronics company Sony Corp.

Citigroup said it discovered that account information for about 1 percent of its credit card customers had been viewed by hackers. Citi has more than 21 million credit card customers in North America, according to its 2010 annual report. The bank, which discovered the problem during routine monitoring, didn't say exactly how many accounts were breached. Citi said it was contacting those customers.

The bank said hackers weren't able to gain access to social security numbers, birth dates, card expiration dates or card security codes. That kind of information often leads to identity theft, where cyber criminals empty out bank accounts and apply for multiple credit cards. That can debilitate the finances and credit of victims. Citi customers could still be vulnerable other problems. Details about their bank accounts and financial information linked to them could be acquired using the email information and account numbers hackers stole.

Federal regulators have taken notice and are asking banks to improve security.

"Both banks and regulators must remain vigilant," said Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She said federal agencies, including the FDIC, are developing new rules to push banks to enhance online account access.

The Citi incident is only the latest data breach at a major company.

--On June 1, Google said that the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior U.S. government officials, military personnel and political activists, had been breached.

--On May 30, broadcaster PBS confirmed that hackers cracked the network's website and posted a phony story claiming dead rapper Tupac Shakur was alive in New Zealand.

--On May 28, Lockheed Martin said it had detected a "significant and tenacious attack" against its computer networks. The company said it took swift and deliberate actions to protect the network and the systems remain secure.

--In April, Sony's PlayStation Network was shut down in April after a massive security breach that affected more than 100 million online accounts.

--Also in April, hackers penetrated a network operated by a data marketing firm Epsilon. The company handles email communications for companies like Best Buy Co. and Target Corp.

The number of data breaches in the last two months sets a "high water mark," said John Ottman, CEO of Application Security Inc., a New York-based firm that specializes in securing databases, the big repositories companies use to organize account information and other data.

"Attackers have realized that most organizations have not properly protected databases," Ottman said.

Cyber attackers have a variety of less-dangerous motivations, from mischief to online activism. For example, a group identifying itself as LulzSec claimed credit for the fake PBS article calling it retaliation for a documentary about WikiLeaks, the website that publishes classified documents.

But often such data breaches are an attempt to steal personal data, which is likely the case with Citi. Hackers also will pose as legitimate companies in a tactic known as "phishing," where they try to get users to supply additional information like social security numbers and email or bank passwords to get access to their financial information.

The fact that the Citi hackers only got a few pieces of personal data on customers may limit what crooks can do with the information, said Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocacy group.

"But any ID theft is worrisome for consumers," Grant said. She believes companies are responsible for protecting their customers' information from internal and external abuse.

In an emailed statement, Sean Kevelighan, a spokesman for Citi said the bank is contacting affected customers and enhancing procedures to prevent a similar security breach from happening again.

"For the security of these customers, we are not disclosing further details," he said.

State Department says Clinton not going anywhere

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department shot down a report Thursday that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been in discussions with the White House about heading the World Bank.

"The story is completely untrue," Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said in the United Arab Emirates, where Clinton was involved in international talks on Libya.

He said Clinton has not had any conversations with President Barack Obama, the White House "or anyone else about moving to the World Bank. She has expressed absolutely no interest in the job. She would not take it if offered."

Reuters, citing sources familiar with the discussions, said her discussions involved leaving the State Department next year to lead the World Bank.

The current bank president is Robert Zoellick, whose term does not end until 2012.

The bank declined to comment Thursday.

But at a news conference Wednesday in Olso, Norway, Zoellick was asked whether it's right that an American should lead the institution.

"I think this really is a decision for shareholders, and I think there are many talented non-Americans and Americans," he said. He added, "I think it's good for the U.S. to also have some responsibility, to have some of its nationals be engaged in multinational institutions."

Clinton has said she doesn't want to stay in her job if Obama wins a second term in 2012.

The nation's top diplomat also has said she neither has plans for a second White House bid nor interest in other posts, such as vice president or defense secretary.

"I am doing what I want to do right now and I have no intention or any idea even of running again," she told CNN in March. "I'm going to do the best I can at this job for the next two years."

Mavericks overcome James' triple-double, lead 3-2

DALLAS (AP) — Dirk Nowitzki thrust both arms in the air, a sea of blue screaming around him and the Dallas Mavericks finally ahead in these ultra-close NBA finals.

Now it really is "now or never" for LeBron James and the Miami Heat.

Nowitzki scored 29 points, driving for the go-ahead dunk with 2:45 remaining, and the Mavericks beat the Heat 112-103 on Thursday night to take a 3-2 lead in the NBA finals.

Five years after going up 2-0 on the Heat, the Mavs finally got that elusive third victory, and can wrap up their first championship in Game 6 at Miami on Sunday night.

"We're a very resilient team, you know that," guard Jason Terry said. "We've been in tough battles all playoffs long. It's not going to stop. It's going to get even harder. But we're ready. We're determined, and this is our time."

James, who called this game "now or never," responded from his worst playoff performance with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, and Dwyane Wade battled through a sore left hip after a first-quarter collision to finish with 23 points.

Chris Bosh had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Heat, who get the final two games at home with history against them as they try to win a title in their first season together: In the 26 previous times finals that were tied 2-2, the Game 5 winner won 19 of them.

The Mavs shot 60 percent through three quarters, briefly gave up the lead in the fourth, then controlled the final few minutes, just as they had in thrilling comebacks in Games 2 and 4.

This time, they got to play from ahead thanks to some sizzling shooting: 56.5 percent from the field, including 13 of 19 (68 percent) from 3-point range.

"We made more shots," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. "We did a lot of good things defensively, which led to good offense. ... You never know when the games are going to go that way. The thing we've got to do is we've got to make sure our defense is consistent."

Terry scored 21 points and J.J. Barea had 17 for the Mavs, who insisted at some point their shots would start falling even against the Heat's stingy defense. Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler both finished with 13 points.

"I felt great. I felt great. I was in rhythm tonight," Terry said. "I came out aggressive, something we have to continue to do. We're not happy with our defensive performance, but offensively, if we score 100, I told you what would happen."

Their offense was simply too good, despite a good bounceback for James.

James scored eight points, going just 3 of 11 in Game 4, the first time in 90 postseason games he didn't hit double figures. It's been a rough first finals in Miami for James, who has been accused of everything from "shrinking" to "checking out" in the fourth quarters, when he had just nine points through the first four games.

Trying to pump himself up, James wrote "Now or Never!!" on his Twitter page early Thursday morning, later calling this the biggest game of his career.

But they feel the same urgency in Dallas, where the slogan "The Time is Now" is printed on those blue T-shirts that surround the court, and where the Mavs are loaded with 30-somethings — late 30s, in Kidd's case — who could be on their last shot at an NBA title.

Nowitzki said early Thursday he felt "great," having shaken the fever that rose to 101 degrees Monday night. This time, the health concern was Wade, who banged his hip in the first quarter and appeared to be limping at various points from there.

He remained in the locker room to start the second half, coming back onto the floor about the midway point of the period. By then, the Mavs seemed in too good a groove to be cooled off no matter who Miami had out there.

A disgusted Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was already walking onto the court to call time out by the time Chandler went up to dunk after catching the ball all alone under the basket, giving Dallas a nine-point lead that matched its largest of the series. Miami trimmed it to 84-79 after three quarters, then stormed into the lead midway through the fourth with a 9-0 run, all layups, dunks and free throws until Wade's 3-pointer made it 99-95 with 4:38 to play.

The Mavs tied it at 100 on Terry's 3-pointer with 3:23 left, and after James missed, Nowitzki drove for a baseline dunk and a 102-100 lead with 2:45 to go. James was called for an offensive foul and missed a 3-pointer on Miami's next two possessions before Kidd drilled a 3-pointer to make it 105-100, sending the crowd into a delirious chant of "Beat the Heat! Beat the Heat!"

The teams were at the same point as their 2006 matchup after four games, but that one was already in the midst of a massive swing by then. Miami won the final four games behind Wade, the MVP of that series who had been Miami's best player in this one, averaging 29.8 points.

This one has been the developing into one of the closest finals the NBA has ever seen. There hadn't been three straight games decided by three points or fewer in the championship round since 1948, according to STATS, LLC, when the Baltimore Bullets and Philadelphia Warriors played Games 2-4 within a three-point margin during the Basketball Association of America finals, a year before that league merged with the National Basketball League to become the NBA.

The first four games were determined by 15 total points, the fewest since a 12-game difference between the Celtics and Lakers in the 1969 finals.

And all eyes were on James, just as they have been since he bolted Cleveland for a better shot at a championship in Miami.

He vowed to be more aggressive after his puzzling Game 4. He caught the ball in the post more frequently, but his jumper was still off for much of the game.

James threw up an airball with his left hand on his first shot, and when he did finally score, the Mavs quickly came back with six straight points for an early 13-6 lead, a promising start for a team that had been playing from behind nearly all series.

Wade walked gingerly to the locker room with a left hip contusion with about 3 minutes left in the period after colliding with Mavs reserve Brian Cardinal on a drive to the basket, and didn't return to the bench until more than 3 minutes into the second. But the Heat hung in while he was gone, even taking a 31-30 lead when the Mavs turned it over on their final possession and Mario Chalmers threw in a heave from just inside midcourt to beat the buzzer, nearly a duplicate of the finish of the first quarter in Game 3 that stunned Dallas.

James had a basket inside that gave Miami a six-point lead with 4:26 left in the half, but Dallas closed with a 14-5 push, taking a 60-57 edge to the locker room after Nowitzki's jumper with 6.1 seconds remaining. The Mavs shot 12 of 17 in the quarter, and after not reaching 30 points in any period through four games, hit that number in each of the first two quarters of Game 5.

The Mavs again played without backup center Brendan Haywood because of a hip injury.

Notes: Last year was one of the few times the Game 5 winner in a 2-2 finals didn't win the series. Boston went to Los Angeles with a 3-2 lead but the Lakers won the remaining games. ... With Haywood out, guard Roddy Beaubois was activated.

3 dead as chest-high floods sweep Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — At least three people are dead in chest-deep floods that have swept across parts of the Philippines.

Days of incessant rain have shut down schools and disrupted travel. In all, nearly 200,000 people have been affected. Among the dead are two teenagers who drowned in the North Cotabato province.

The national disaster council says five provinces in the southern Philippines have reported rising floodwaters after the rain caused rivers to overflow. At least 135 villages and 19 municipalities have been affected.

The rains have closed schools, including in the capital, Manila. Many flights were canceled on Thursday. More chaos could be on the way, with forecasters predicting that a low pressure area west of Manila could become a storm.

Elephant kills man during city rampage in India

MYSORE, India (AP) — A wild elephant gored a man to death, lunged at vehicles in traffic and injured several people during a five-hour rampage through Mysore in southern India after farmers chased it from a field outside the city.

Residents scattered and shouted Wednesday as the young male barreled through city streets and then darted into an alley where it turned suddenly on the victim and gored him at the stoop of a home as residents looked on in horror.

Later, the elephant charged toward people who took cover atop a staircase, and lunged at an SUV on a main street.

Several people were injured during the five hours it took to tranquilize the animal, officials said.

Earlier, four elephants had entered some fields on the outskirts of the city after getting separated from their herd, Press Trust of India news agency reported. Farmers chased the animals, sending two of them back into nearby forests. One of them was later trapped at the farm, while the remaining one entered the city.

Hundreds of people die in India annually when wild animals wander into cities as their habitats shrink and they have to range farther for food. Its parks face massive encroachment from people who live and forage in the forests or graze cattle there.