Adm. William J. Fallon, one of the most experienced officers in the U.S. military, said the reports were wrong but had become a distraction hampering his efforts in the Middle East. Fallon’s area of responsibility includes Iran and stretches from Central Asia across the Middle East to the Horn of Africa.

“I don’t believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command area of responsibility,” Fallon said, and he regretted “the simple perception that there is.” He was in Iraq when he made the statement.

The threat added to pressure on Spitzer, a Democrat and former state chief prosecutor who made his name fighting white-collar crime on Wall Street, to step down after a report that he hired a high-priced prostitute.

Local media cited sources saying Spitzer, 48 and married with three daughters, may resign as early as Wednesday.

Despite the uptick, Iraq continues to see a sharp overall decline in violence as a result of several factors including last year’s build-up of U.S. forces, the U.S. Defense Department said in its latest quarterly report on the war.

Since June, when the last combat brigade in President George W. Bush’s so-called surge strategy arrived in Iraq, deaths from sectarian violence have fallen 94 percent, the report said. Total civilian deaths were down 72 percent over the same period.

Another 175 people were wounded in the attacks in the eastern city of Lahore, which came just minutes apart in the morning rush-hour and left rescue workers scrambling through rubble in a bid to find survivors.

The blasts, one targeting the Federal Investigation Agency headquarters and the other hitting an advertising firm, were the latest in a wave of Islamist-linked violence that has killed more than 600 people this year.

The day’s bloodiest attack was on a bus travelling from the port of Basra to Nasiriyah when it was struck by a bomb, some 430 kilometers (265 miles) south of Baghdad, Nasiriyah police Lieutenant Colonel Ali Siwan said.

At least 16 people were killed and 22 wounded, he said.

Despite removing Beijing from its top blacklist, the State Department’s 2007 Human Rights Report said China, which has raised hopes internationally that it would improve human rights by hosting the 2008 Olympics, still had a poor record overall.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the report was aimed at highlighting the struggle for human rights around the world.

In a report presented to the press, Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) said it had identified “at least” 104 food or food-related products on sale in the EU that contained manufactured nanomaterials or were produced using nanotechnology and for which there was insufficient scrutiny under health and safety laws.

Internationally, several hundred nano-food products were likely to be on sale, it said.

Over the past five days, jade, rubies, sapphires, and close to $150 million have passed hands here, according to the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd., the consortium that dominates Burma’s gemstone trade and is owned by the defense ministry and a clutch of military officers.

Who’s buying? China, India, Singapore, and Thailand are scooping up Burma’s stones. US first lady Laura Bush’s efforts at a global boycott of Burma’s gems seem to have done little to reduce China’s appetite for Burmese jade to make trinkets and souvenirs to sell at the Summer Olympics.

The Hadith deals with events that took place some 1,400 years ago, but an ambitious Turkish project is aiming to reinterpret them to create a collection addressing modern-day concerns and stripping out elements that many theologians say contradict the Koran and Muhammad’s teachings.

Observers here say the project is part of a continuing effort by a growing segment of Turkish society to reconcile faith and modernity – a struggle being played out among Muslims worldwide, from African immigrants in Paris to young Arabs in Saudi Arabia.

The stakes are high for an economy now on the edge of recession – or already in it.

To a degree, the challenge boils down to a question of speed. Some experts say policymakers should try to slow down the pace of credit-market carnage, or America could face a job-destroying vortex where people have to sell investments, even entire companies, at fire-sale prices. Others say banks should get bad loans out in the open as quickly as possible and that delay will only make the credit mess worse.

The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the $12 billion bottled water industry in the United States, sets limits for chemicals, bacteria and radiation, but doesn’t address pharmaceuticals.

Some water that’s bottled comes from pristine, often underground rural sources; other brands have a source no more remote than local tap water. Either way, bottlers insist their products are safe, and say they generally clean the water with advanced treatments, though not explicitly for pharmaceuticals.

The images show illegal loggers chopped 1,100 acres of trees since 2004 in the core of a wooded park in Michoacan state where clouds of orange- and black-winged butterflies nest each winter, said Lincoln Brower, a professor emeritus of biology at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, who has studied the monarchs for 52 years.

“The butterfly area can’t survive if this kind of logging continues,” said Brower, who also directs the preservation group that paid for the satellite images. He noted that the delicate creatures need leafy foliage to protect them from rain and cold.

The White House said it was concerned about the effect of surging energy costs on consumers and small businesses, but said it would be wrong to give “false hope” about the ability to bring prices lower quickly.

Average regular gasoline prices touched an all-time high of $3.227 per gallon, up 27 cents in a month and surpassing the previous peak hit in May 2007, AAA said in its daily survey of more than 85,000 self-serve filling stations.

An estimated 3.2 million U.S. girls ages 14 and 19 — about 26 percent of that age group — have a sexually transmitted infection such as the human papillomavirus or HPV, chlamydia, genital herpes or trichomoniasis, the CDC said.

Forty-eight percent of black teen-age girls were infected, compared to 20 percent of whites and 20 percent of Mexican American girls. The report did not give data on the broader U.S. Hispanic population.

Spitzer and his family, meanwhile, remained secluded in their Fifth Avenue apartment, while Republicans began talking impeachment, and few if any fellow Democrats came forward to defend him. A death watch of sorts began at the state Capitol, where whispers of “What have you heard?” echoed through nearly every hallway of the ornate, 109-year-old building.

On Monday, when the scandal broke, prosecutors said in court papers that Spitzer had been caught on a wiretap spending $4,300 with the Emperors Club VIP call-girl service, with some of the money going toward a night with a prostitute named Kristen, and the rest to be used as credit toward future trysts. The papers also suggested that Spitzer had done this before.

The new policy by the Defense Department, which previously said security concerns prevented such calls, is part of a strategy to ease conditions for frustrated prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said the telephone policy reflects a commitment to maintaining the health and well-being of Guantanamo detainees. No start date has been set for the program.

It was the first major act of terrorism since former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party announced over the weekend that they would form a coalition government aimed at reducing the powers of President Pervez Musharraf, a U.S. ally.

With such attacks now spreading from unruly tribal regions to the eastern cultural capital of Lahore, an increasing number of Pakistanis are questioning Musharraf’s approach to countering al-Qaida and the Taliban. Musharraf’s opponents say punitive military action has only fueled the violence.

“It is in our vital interest that all of Kosovo’s communities prosper, and prosper together in peace, security and reconciliation as neighbors in a progressive society of hope and forgiveness,” Vuk Jeremic, Serbia’s foreign minister, told the U.N. Security Council.

“This is why Serbia does not intend to impose an embargo, and why we have a clear policy of not resorting to the force of arms,” he said.

After two days of speculation about his future, Rajoy said he would present himself for re-election as party leader at the party’s next conference in June.

“I’m going to present myself because the candidacy which I headed improved results … because I believe it is the best thing for the Popular Party and above all for Spain,” Rajoy told reporters after meeting members of the PP’s executive committee.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Tuesday in a hastily convened news conference that he accepted Fallon’s resignation because it was the “right thing to do.”

Fallon’s phone call, and Gates’ decision to accept his resignation, ended weeks of speculation within military circles about how long a military commander who appeared to challenge Bush administration policy could hold onto his job.

At least 28 people were killed and more than 160 injured after bombers struck a civil intelligence agency and a house in an upscale neighborhood. The home, in an area of Lahore called Model Town, was being used as the headquarters of an advertising agency.

“Terrorism is now coming into our homes,” Salman Batalvi , the owner of the Model Town house, said in an interview.

As an activist of the Islamic Alliance Party, perhaps the most hardline of Iran’s conservative factions, she is hard at work running a weekend of programs commemorating the martyrdom of three of the most venerated figures in Shi’ite Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, his grandson Imam Hassan, and the only one of Shi’ism’s original twelve imams buried in Iran, Imam Reza.

“Turn up the volume,” she instructs into her walkie-talkie, “his voice isn’t loud enough on the women’s side.”

Though his sight is limited, Lt. Gov. David Paterson walks the halls of the Capitol unaided. He recognizes people at conversational distance and can memorize whole speeches. He has played basketball, run a marathon, and survived 22 years in the backbiting culture of the state Capitol with a reputation as a man more apt to reach for an olive branch than a baseball bat.

If Spitzer resigns after being snared in a prostitution scandal, the biggest changes in a Paterson administration would probably revolve around style.

The scandals have threatened his drive to revive the city’s economy and even spilled over into U.S. presidential politics.

“This unethical, illegal, lynch mob mentality has to stop,” said Kilpatrick, an African-American who capped his annual state of the city address with an unscripted and emotional volley against critics in the media and city government.

The airline also said it would review its maintenance oversight practices with the help of an outside expert and make any changes to ensure that it is in full compliance with federal safety regulations.

“These are important and necessary steps,” Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly said in a statement.

Jayant Patel, who could face life in prison in Australia, appeared before a U.S. federal magistrate who set the doctor’s extradition hearing for April 10. The FBI arrested Patel at his home in suburban Portland.

Patel was charged in Australia with three counts of manslaughter after an inquiry in late 2005 linked him to the deaths of at least 13 patients and the harm of at least 31 others while he was working as a surgeon at the Bundaberg Base Hospital in Queensland state.

“It is ordered that the motion for a stay pending appeal be granted,” a clerk at the US court of appeals in Washington told AFP, reading from the order.

“Appellant has satisfied the stringent standards required for a stay pending appeal,” the clerk read, hours before the first payment of 500 dollars (325 euros) was due.

“I had nothing to do with the contract, except to insist in writing, on several occasions, as this process went forward, that it be fair and open and transparent,” he said at a meeting with voters in St. Louis. “That was my involvement in it.”

His remarks came after The Associated Press reported that some of his current advisers lobbied last year for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the parent company of plane maker Airbus. EADS and its U.S. partner Northrop Grumman Corp. beat Boeing Co. for the lucrative aerial refueling contract.

Bush’s comment came amid a new outbreak of deadly attacks that have underlined the stark challenges the United States still faces in the unpopular war in Iraq despite an overall drop in violence over the past year.

In a speech to religious broadcasters sprinkled with references to faith and occasionally interrupted by shouts of “amen” from the audience, Bush delivered a mostly upbeat assessment of a troop buildup he ordered in early 2007.

A largely party-line vote of 225-188 in the Democratic-led House of Representatives fell short of the needed two-thirds majority to override the president.

Bush maintains that the United States does not torture, but has refused to discuss interrogation techniques, saying that doing so could tip off terrorists.

Under the Democratic proposal, phone companies would present their defense in a closed-door U.S. district court, with the judge given access to confidential documents about the electronic surveillance begun after the September 11 attacks.

“This is a reasonable and intelligent way to proceed without jeopardizing our responsibility to fight terrorism,” said House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan.

“I want to assure you — just like I assure military families and the troops — the politics of 2008 is not going to enter into my calculation, it is the peace of years to come that will enter into my calculation,” he pledged to a Christian broadcasters association.

Bush made no mention of just-begun talks in Baghdad aimed at forging a long-term security partnership deal between the United States and Iraq by July, well before the US president’s term ends in January 2009.

The bill is a new attempt at reviving a post-September 11 law that expired last month allowing government spying on foreign telephone calls and electronic correspondence without first seeking a warrant.

The White House and the Democrat-led Congress are at loggerheads over the issue of liability for telecommunications companies participating in the wiretap program.

Gas prices at the pump rose overnight to a record national average of $3.2272 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That’s a tad higher than the previous record of $3.2265, set last May.

Soaring gas prices worsen the financial plight of consumers already suffering through a downturn in the housing market that has sharply reduced home prices in many markets and limited Americans’ ability to tap home equity for spending. Food prices are also on the rise, partly due to rising fuel costs.

The opposition, which controls the legislative chamber, has for days threatened to block the appointment of central bank Deputy Gov. Toshiro Muto, accusing the government of bulldozing bills and using strong arm tactics to push their own personnel decisions.

The term of current Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui ends March 19. The appointments of the governor and the two deputy governors at the central bank needs approval from both houses of parliament.

The investment funds — large pools of capital controlled by a government and invested in private markets abroad — altogether control more than $2.8 trillion, but could reach $12 trillion in total assets by 2015, Morgan Stanley managing director Stephen Jen said in a conference call.

“The rate of growth is impressive. We are talking here of about $1 trillion per year in their asset pool, generated mainly by a boom in oil prices and other commodities,” he said

The actions by the Fed and other central banks are expected to help banks and brokerages temporarily swap their mortgage-backed securities for Treasury debt and possibly unclog credit markets, say analysts.

The moves got a strong vote of confidence from financial markets, as Wall Street’s blue-chip Dow industrials surged 3.55 percent in the biggest rally since 2002.

The 0.6 percent widening in the overall trade deficit, however, was smaller than anticipated, as the Commerce Department reported that the US trade gap widened to 58.2 billion dollars in January compared with a revised 57.9 billion dollars in December.

Most economists had expected the deficit to deepen to 59 billion dollars.

Wednesday’s flyby will take Cassini within 30 miles of the surface of Enceladus at closest approach. The unmanned probe will be about 120 miles above the moon as it sweeps through the edge of the geysers and measures their chemical makeup.

The carefully orchestrated event will take Cassini “deeper than we’ve been before,” mission scientist Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute said in an e-mail.

Climate change will affect every type of transportation through rising sea levels, increased rainfall and surges from more intense storms, the National Research Council said in a report released Tuesday.

Complicating matters, people continue to move into coastal areas, creating the need for more roads and services in the most vulnerable regions, the report noted.

Once found from Alaska to Colorado, wolverines now survive in only a few strongholds in the lower 48 states. That includes an estimated 500 to 600 animals spread over thousands of square miles in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Wyoming.

But because wolverine populations retain strong connections to larger ones in Canada and Alaska, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday the species could survive even if it disappeared entirely from the contiguous United States. Environmental groups vowed to challenge the decision in court

Others are less sure, saying the junta’s plan to turn the country into a giant plantation of biofuel-producing “physic nuts” is yet another example of the ill-conceived central planning that has crippled a once-promising economy.

“I think it’s a great idea. Everybody can take part and it’s good for the environment,” Kyaw Sinnt said, standing next to a small patch of the stick-like shrubs in Pyaw Gan, a bamboo hut village typical of the parched “Dry Zone” southwest of Mandalay.

At the Diavik mine, just over 130 miles south of the Arctic Circle, a 650-foot deep crater pierces a frozen-white tundra, yielding some of the purest diamond deposits known.

“They’re among the three best pipes in the world, by value per tonne,” spokesman Tom Hoefer said of the kimberlite pipes — vertical columns of diamond-bearing rock — the mine is currently working.

“When avian flu is around and human flu appears, this will raise the chances of avian flu turning into a human flu. We have to be very alert and careful in March,” Zhong Nanshan was quoted by the Ming Pao newspaper as saying.

“People who were killed by bird flu last year and this year were too poor to seek treatment. If you happen to have high fever and pneumonia, you must seek treatment fast,” said Zhong, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in China’s southern Guangdong province.

The object, which left a 49-foot-wide (15 meter) crater, was made of rock and, in theory, should have disintegrated in the atmosphere long before reaching the Earth’s surface, said Peter Schultz, a professor of geological sciences at Brown University in Rhode Island.

And it may have. But the pieces stayed together and were speeding at 15,000 mph (24,000 kph) when they hit, Schultz told the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in League City, Texas.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this before, it was amazing,” Conservation Department officer Malcolm Smith said.

The actions of the dolphin, known in New Zealand for playing with people in the water at Mahia beach on the east coast of the North Island, probably meant the difference between life and death for the whales, Smith told AFP.

One of the most reviled species in the book of life, the cockroach is also one of the most successful. Its design, honed by 300 million years of evolution, enables it to exploit a huge range of habitat niches, and its locomotion is notoriously fast and versatile.

In a study published on Wednesday, University of Cambridge zoologists Walter Federle and Christofer Clemente say they can explain how the roach (Nauphoeta cinerea) is able to effortlessly perform gravity-defying tricks

In a report presented to the press, Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) said it had identified “at least” 104 food or food-related products on sale in the EU that contained manufactured nanomaterials or were produced using nanotechnology and for which there was insufficient scrutiny under health and safety laws.

Internationally, several hundred nano-food products were likely to be on sale, it said.

The short answer, researchers say: Power and corruption go together.

While no outsider can read the man’s mind, psychologists suggest several reasons for Spitzer’s seeming hypocrisy, including a feeling of invincibility and “no one can touch me” attitude. Plus, people in high positions have more opportunities to step out of line. However, humans inherently hold leaders to higher standards and elect those individuals whom they think can resist great temptations, experts say.

So far the device can simultaneously carry out 16 times more operations than a normal computer transistor. Researchers suggest the invention might eventually prove able to perform roughly 1,000 times more operations than a transistor.

This machine could not only serve as the foundation of a powerful computer, but also serve as the controlling element of complex gadgets such as microscopic doctors or factories, scientists added.

Now for the first time, scientists reveal a primate other than humans can also express a variety of messages by combining sounds into different sequences. The finding suggests this level of language might have occurred far earlier in evolution than before thought.

Researchers focused on putty-nosed monkeys (Cercopithecus nictitans) in Nigeria. They studied alarm calls the males made.