Jellyfish, currents cut short Cuba-to-Florida swim

Hindered by painful stings and strong currents, endurance swimmer Diana Nyad ended her latest attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida about two-thirds of the way through the crossing Sunday.
The 62-year-old Nyad suffered jellyfish and Portuguese man-of-war stings Saturday, while ocean cross-currents were pushing her off course, team captain Mark Sollinger said. She was pulled out of the water about 11 a.m. Sunday, about 67 nautical miles through the 103-nautical-mile passage.
Treading water before being helped out of the water, Nyad said the man-of-war stings had paralyzed some of the muscles in her back, given her chills and nausea. Doctors warned her she could suffer long-term health problems if she suffered another sting.
"I've never been in any pain, ever, like that in my whole life," she said, adding, "Now it's set me so far back, I just don't' have the lung capacity to swim the way I can."
Third time not charm for Diana Nyad
It was her third attempt to make the swim from Cuba to Florida. Her first, in 1978, was brought to an end by strong currents and bad weather after almost 42 hours in the water.
She made a second try in August, before she was pulled from the water after 60 miles and almost 29 hours of swimming. She blamed a shoulder injury she suffered early in the journey, and an 11-hour-long asthma attack.
Her latest attempt, accompanied by shark divers, began just after 6 p.m. Friday from Havana's Hemingway Marina. The former world champion swimmer projected the swim would take close to 60 hours.
There was a bit of excitement early Saturday afternoon as an oceanic whitetip shark swam near Nyad, but a diver on her team faced it off and it meandered away.
The swimmer improved her performance late Saturday morning after struggling to maintain her usual stroke rate, her support team said. Fortified by chicken soup, Nyad was making good progress until the Saturday evening incident.
Nyad got back in the water at 12:20 a.m. Sunday and swam for nearly 11 hours before packing it in.
"But for each of us, isn't life about determining your own finish line?" she said in a statement on her website. "This journey has always been about reaching your own other shore no matter what it is, and that dream continues."

Extent of damage to the Washington Monument to be revealed

Four cracks in the monument marble were first found after a earthquake rocked the nation's capital last month

Just how bad was the damage the Washington Monument suffered during the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the East Coast on August 23?
National Park Service officials will hold a news conference Monday afternoon to offer details, including plans on reopening it to the public.
The service has been working with an engineering firm to determine the extent of the damage and what it will cost to fix it.
Small pools of standing water were found in the monument during inspections following Hurricane Irene, the National Park Service said in late August.
Earthquake shakes walls inside building
"What happened was a lot of mortar popped out, so much so that you can see sunlight above 450 feet in the monument," spokeswoman Carol Johnson said at the time.
The Washington Monument, built between 1848 and 1884, is 555 feet, 5 and one-eighth inches tall. Its walls are 15 feet thick at the base and 18 inches at the top, and are composed primarily of white marble blocks, according to the National Park Service.
Four cracks in the monument marble were first discovered after the earthquake rocked the nation's capital. The repairs will include pinning the stones together and replacing some mortar, Johnson said then.
"The engineers have assured us that the monument is structurally sound," Johnson said.

Greek finance minister: 'Whatever it takes'

Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos said Sunday that his country "wants to make it and will make it."

WASHINGTON D.C. (CNNMoney) -- Speaking in Washington at an international banking conference, Evangelos Venizelos said Sunday that his country will do "whatever it takes" to meet its financial obligations.
"Greece wants to make it and will make it," Venizelos told members of the Institute of International Finance. "We are ready to take the necessary initiatives, at any political cost."

But the cost is "very expensive," he added, saying that Greece should not be a "scapegoat" for the broader sovereign debt problems in Europe.
Greece has been struggling to dig itself out a deep hole for well over a year, with limited success. The government in Athens came to the brink of default last year, and again in July, before being rescued by other European nations and the International Monetary Fund.
While then nation's debt load is nearly twice the size of its economic output, Venizelos said Greece makes up a tiny fraction of the overall debt burden of the overall euro-zone.

Geithner sounds alarm on Europe
"Greece is not the euro area's central problem," he said.
Venizelos pointed to the painful reforms Greece has undertaken to cut government expenses and raise taxes, including a series of public sector layoffs and pension reductions announced last week.
"We, more than anyone else, believe that these changes are absolutely necessary for our nation's future," he said.
The unpopular belt-tightening has put Greece on track to achieve a primary budget surplus by the second half of 2012, according to Venizelos.
But he warned that such austere measures have taken a toll on the Greek economy, which has been in recession for three years.
While the government in Athens remains committed to reforms, Venizelos argued that the nation's "sacrifices" should be matched by support from other euro area nations.
Greece has been in intense negotiations over the last few weeks with representatives from the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank. The talks have centered on certain fiscal targets Greece needs to achieve in order to obtain the next installment of last year's 110 billion euro bailout package.
Investors around the world have been rattled by the possibility that Greece could default if it does not receive the 8 billion euro installment. The larger fear is that a default by Greece could drag down other euro area nations and cause a banking crisis.
Venizelos stressed the need to send a "safe and stable message" to investors in order to break the vicious cycle of "noise and rumors" about a Greek default.

Euro crisis: three perspectives
"We must convince the market that the euro area can protect itself and its members," he said.
Meanwhile, finance officials from around the world were wrapping up a weekend summit across town at the headquarters of the IMF and World Bank.

The euro area crisis was the main topic of conversation, but the meeting failed to produce the concrete actions that many outside observers had been hoping for.

European leaders pledged to implement a series of reforms announced in July, including a proposed overhaul of the European Financial Stability Facility. The goal is to empower the fund to buy sovereign debt directly from investors and provide lines of credit to shore up weak banks.

The talks also covered ways to enhance the effectiveness of the 440 billion euro stability fund, which many analysts say is too small.

But the proposed overhaul of the stability fund, along with a second 109 billion euro bailout for Greece, must be approved by the individual governments of all 17 euro area nations.
EU officials have said they plan to implement the reforms by mid October. But many analysts say that is far from certain

One-minute World News

Lion King reigns at US box office

The 3D version of The Lion King has fared better than expected

The 3D re-release of Disney's The Lion King has held off Brad Pitt's baseball drama Moneyball at the US box office.



The animated movie reclaimed the number one slot in its second week on the chart, making $22.1m (£14.3m), according to studio estimates.

Brad Pitt's Moneyball opened at number two with $20.6m (£13.3m), while family film Dolphin Tale was close behind with $20.3m (£13.1m).

The re-issue of The Lion King has made $61.7m (£39.9m) since its release.

The original film came out in 1994 and was re-released for the first time in 2002.

The 3D version has surpassed expectations, according to Disney. Its head of distribution, Dave Hollis, said the studio will leave the film in cinemas longer than its planned two-week run.

Action film Abduction, starring Twilight's Taylor Lautner, debuted at number four with takings of $11.2m (£7.2m).

Killer Elite, starring Robert De Niro, Jason Statham and Clive Owen rounded out the top five with takings of $9.5m (£6.1m).

Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, heist movie Drive, civil rights film The Help, thriller Straw Dogs and Sarah Jessica Parker comedy, I Don't Know How She Does It, made up the remainder of the top 10.

'Antimagnet' joins list of invisibility approaches

The design may lead to shields that protect pacemaker wearers during MRI scans


Researchers have designed a "cloak" that is invisible to magnetic fields both coming in and coming out.

The idea of blocking magnetic fields has been proposed before, but the new design, in the New Journal of Physics, could even hide magnetic materials.

It could thus find application in security or medical contexts, such as those surrounding MRI scans.

The approach uses superconductor layers and the "metamaterials" familiar from recent invisibility cloak research.

Metamaterials are artificially designed materials designed to guide electromagnetic waves - like light or magnetic fields - in a way that natural materials do not.

Much research in recent years has attempted to put metamaterials to work in Harry Potter-style invisibility cloaks that guide light waves around a cloak's wearer - although experiments have only demonstrated such effects on tiny items, or for a limited range of colours.

But because light and magnetism are two facets of the same physical force, many of the same principles apply for demonstrating a magnetic cloak, as the report's lead author Alvaro Sanchez explained.

"Magnetism has been very important in technology for the last 150 years," Prof Sanchez told BBC News. "We know very well how to create magnetic fields, but we don't know how to cancel them in a given space region."

Metal undetector
Prof Sir John Pendry, widely regarded as a founding theorist in the metamaterial field, demonstrated in a 2008 paper in Nature Materials that the ideas behind making objects invisible to light could be put to use hiding magnetic fields as well.

"We realised that these ideas were very interesting but a final device was not there - only the general concept," Prof Sanchez explained.

He and his colleagues at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain thus set about coming up with a design for such an antimagnet.
Their idea is to use an inner cloak of superconducting material, surrounded by layers of metamaterials whose response to the magnetic field varies in a prescribed way through the thickness of the cloak.

Ortwin Hess, professor of metamaterials at Imperial College London, called the work "a refreshing extension" of the theoretical ideas laid out in previous work.

"Its emphasis lies on presenting a way how to make the scheme more practical by increasing its simplicity," he told BBC News, though both he and Prof Sanchez agree that some challenges remain in the production of the actual materials.

"What it offers in addition to the previous scheme is the fact that it also cancels, by adding a simple superconducting layer, possible magnetic fields that may be emitted from a magnet inside the magnetic cloak," he added, which means that such an antimagnet could hide any objects, even magnetic ones.
It may prove to be comparatively simple to use the same ideas to trick metal detectors
The team is now working to produce a working model of such an antimagnet, which Prof Sanchez said may eventually find application in allowing pacemaker or implant wearers to undergo MRI scans, or in a number of energy generation scenarios in which magnetic fields play a large part.

What is more, the idea could be put to use in hiding the "magnetic signatures" of submarines to evade detection or underwater mines, or even to trick metal detectors.

"We now know how to make an antimagnet that exactly cloaks a magnetic field - it's something difficult that can be done in some high-tech labs, but to reduce the magnetic signature of something that you want to pass through a metal detector such that it becomes undetectable is much less demanding," Prof Sanchez said.

"We have so much security based simply on metal detectors, based on magnetic signals, I think this is something officials may start thinking about."

Cancer cost 'crisis' warning from oncologists

The cost-effectiveness of minimally invasive robotic surgery is questioned

The cost of treating cancer in the developed world is spiralling and is "heading towards a crisis", an international team of researchers says.

Their Lancet Oncology report says there is a "culture of excess" with insufficient evidence about the "value" of new treatments and technologies.

It says the number of cancer patients and the cost of treating each one is increasing.

It argues for reducing the use and analysing the cost of cancer services.

About 12 million people worldwide are diagnosed with cancer each year. That figure is expected to reach 27 million by 2030.

The cost of new cancer cases is already estimated to be about £185bn ($286bn) a year.

Rising costs
A group of 37 leading experts from around the world say the burden of cancer is growing and becoming a major financial issue.
Their report says most developed countries dedicate between 4% and 7% of their healthcare budgets to dealing with cancer.

"The issue that concerns economists and policymakers is not just the amount of money spent on healthcare, but also the rate of increase in healthcare spending or what has become known as the cost curve."

It says the UK's total spend on breast cancer has increased by about 10% in each of the past four years.

"In general, increases in the cost of healthcare are driven by innovation. We spend more because we can do more to help patients."

For example, the number of cancer drugs available in the UK has risen from 35 in the 1970s to nearly 100, but the report warns they can be "exceedingly expensive".

It adds: "Few treatments or tests are clear clinical winners, with many falling into the category of substantial cost for limited benefit."

The cost of drugs is not the only target for criticism.

Lead author Prof Richard Sullivan told the BBC: "It's not just pharmaceuticals. Biomarkers, imaging and surgery are all getting through with very low levels of evidence - the hurdles are set too low."

The report calls for a proper evaluation of the relative merits of conventional surgery and less invasive robotic surgery.

Too much
Another criticism is "overusing" treatments and technologies.
"It is often easier to order a scan than to reassure the patient or physician on the basis of a careful history and a physical examination," the report claims.

There is also criticism of "futile care" - providing expensive chemotherapy which gives no medical benefit in the last few weeks of a patient's life.

Prof Sullivan said: "We're on an unaffordable trajectory. We either need to manage and reduce the costs or the cost will increase and then inequality rises between rich and poor."

He said failure to manage costs could result in a "train crash".

The report says solutions fall into two categories: reducing the cost of services or reducing the number of people using them.

Afghanistan: 'Two killed at Kabul CIA station'

An Afghan employee has killed one US citizen and wounded another before being shot dead at a compound believed to house a CIA station, officials say.

The incident in Kabul took place on Sunday night at the facility, previously known as the Ariana hotel.

It comes two weeks after militants attacked the US embassy and government buildings in Kabul, leaving 25 dead.

The motives for the shooting are as yet unclear. Afghan CIA employees usually undergo rigorous security screening.

The BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul says that it is unclear if the gunman was a Taliban recruit or if the shooting happened as a result of a personal dispute which escalated into serious bloodshed because of the presence of weapons.

According to one source, when the gunman opened fire he was shooting in all directions, our correspondent reports.

Afghan counter-intelligence sources told the BBC that their personnel in the area heard an explosion and gunfire which lasted nearly 10 minutes.

The compound is located in the most secure part of Kabul - near the US embassy and Nato military bases.

Meanwhile, a source in the nearby Afghan presidential palace told the BBC: "After the explosion was heard, an Afghan National Army (ANA) vehicle was passing. CIA-employed guards opened fire on the vehicle, thinking it had attacked them."

The sources said that two ANA soldiers, one CIA guard and one presidential guard were injured.

Earlier this week, Burhanuddin Rabbani, the chief of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, was killed in a suicide bomb attack in the Afghan capital.

Syria unrest: 'Tanks bombard central town of al-Rastan'

Homs province has been a hotbed of dissent against President Assad's rule

Syrian tanks have bombarded a strategic town in the restive central province of Homs overnight, injuring three people, activists and residents say.

Troops fired with machine guns mounted on tanks in the town of al-Rastan on the main road north to Turkey.

Homs province is a major flashpoint in the seven-month conflict, with army defectors backing protesters opposed to President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

More than 2,700 people have died in the crackdown, the UN says.

A resident of al-Rastan told Reuters news agency there were about 60 tanks and armoured vehicles to the east of the town.

Activists have reported an offensive on towns and villages in Homs province, where a large number of soldiers are said to have defected to the opposition.

Reports on Sunday said security forces killed 12 people in Qusseir, another town in the province.
Events from Syria are hard to verify as international journalists have been largely prevented from reporting there, but the BBC's Lyse Doucet has just arrived in Damascus.

She says it is extremely hard to get people to talk about politics, except for those who still defend the president.

Mr Assad still has some support, she adds, but the brutal crackdown against protests in the suburbs, and in cites and villages outside Damascus is diminishing that base.

The EU and the US have both imposed sanctions on Syria's regime.

The US has urged the UN Security Council to impose sanctions.

Syria blames the violence on "terrorists" and "armed gangs".

BBC's Lyse Doucet has been given access and sent this exclusive report from the capital, Damascus

Boeing to deliver first 787 Dreamliner

US planemaker Boeing will officially deliver its first 787 Dreamliner to Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) later, after three years of delays.


The Dreamliner had originally been scheduled for delivery in 2008, but Boeing has suffered a string of setbacks, the latest being an onboard fire during test flights in January.

The fuel-efficient plane is made from lightweight composite materials.

Boeing plans to make 10 of the planes per month from 2013.

The plane will be presented to ANA in Everett, Washington before being flown to Tokyo where it will arrive on Wednesday.

'Long journey'
Boeing says the twin-aisle, mid-size plane features the industry's largest windows, with higher cabin humidity and cleaner air - all of which combine to allow passengers to arrive at their destinations more refreshed.

But the problems with the Dreamliner have damaged Boeing's reputation, and the company will hope a successful launch will help put to bed some of the memories of the delays it suffered.

Boeing vice president of marketing, Randy Tinseth, told the BBC: "This is a programme that has been a long journey. We believe it is going to be a great aeroplane.

"Ultimately we see the potential of thousands of 787 orders in the future."

Questioned on the delay to the 787 programme, Mr Tinseth added that "there are risks with every new aeroplane".

ANA is the launch customer for the Dreamliner - the plane is due to arrive in Tokyo on Wednesday

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A lot of carriers are betting that this [the 787] is going to be a winner”

George Hamlin
Hamlin Transportation Consulting
He said: "We've spent more money on this aeroplane than we anticipated, but again we're still in a position where we are not in a forward loss situation, we believe the programme will continue to be profitable."

Production of the Dreamliner is currently running at about 2.5 planes a month.


Airbus rival
So far Boeing has 821 orders for the 787, which it says is 20% more fuel efficient than similar-sized current planes.


ANA is the launch customer for the Dreamliner - the plane is due to arrive in Tokyo on Wednesday
Seating a maximum of 290 passengers in the largest 787-9 version, the 787 is much smaller than Boeing's 747 jumbo jet.

However, Boeing considers that the 787 will prove popular with airlines, as it will enable them to fly directly to more smaller airports.

Boeing's European rival Airbus is currently developing a direct competitor to the 787, the Airbus A350 XWB.

Airbus has more than 550 orders for the A350 XWB, but the plane is not due to enter service until 2013.

ANA intends to start flying its first 787 on a domestic route between Tokyo and Okayama-Hiroshima on 11 November.

It will then put the plane on an international service from Tokyo to Frankfurt in Germany in January.

"A lot of carriers are betting that this [the 787] is going to be a winner," says George Hamlin, president of Hamlin Transportation Consulting.

Kenya's Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai dies aged 71

Kenya's Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai has died in Nairobi while undergoing cancer treatment. She was 71.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for promoting conservation, women's rights and transparent government - the first African woman to get the award.

She was elected as an MP in 2002 and served as a minister in the Kenyan government for a time.

Ms Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, which has planted 20-30 million trees in Africa.

'Role model and heroine'
"It is with great sadness that the family of Professor Wangari Maathai announces her passing away on 25 September, 2011, at the Nairobi Hospital, after a prolonged and bravely borne struggle with cancer," the Green Belt Movement said in a statement.

"Her loved ones were with her at the time.

"Professor Maathai's departure is untimely and a very great loss to all who knew her - as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model, and heroine; or who admired her determination to make the world a more peaceful, healthier, and better place."

The organisation did not provide further details.

The BBC's Will Ross said Ms Maathai was seen as a source of inspiration

Ms Maathai, who was a professor of veterinary anatomy, rose to international fame for campaigns against government-backed forest clearances in Kenya in the late 1980s-90s.

Under the former government of President Daniel Arap Moi, she was arrested several times, and vilified.

In 2008, Ms Maathai was tear-gassed during a protest against the Kenyan president's plan to increase the number of ministers in the cabinet.

In her speech accepting the Nobel prize, Ms Maathai said she hoped her own success would spur other women on to a more active role in the community.

"I hope it will encourage them to raise their voices and take more space for leadership," she said.

The President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, said she was saddened by the news.

"Africa, particularly African women, have lost a champion, a leader, an activist. We're going to miss her. We're going to miss the work she's been doing all these years on the environment, working for women's rights and women's participation," she said.

Labour conference: Balls 'cannot reverse' all cuts

Labour cannot promise to reverse every spending cut by the coalition, "however unpopular or dangerous" they are, shadow chancellor Ed Balls has said.

The party must be responsible as it cannot foresee what the economy would be like at the next election, he added.

Ahead of his party conference speech, he said it was a "big task" to restore Labour's credibility on the economy.

And he said he was "deeply, deeply sorry" over failures in bank regulation during the party's years in power.

In Monday's speech, Mr Balls will pledge to spend any windfall from the sale of bank shares on paying off the national debt.

He will announce a "five-point plan" for boosting jobs and growth, while also vowing to bind Labour governments to strict spending rules.

But the Conservatives said Mr Balls had taken Labour "further away from economic credibility".

Labour has accused the government of cutting spending too fast and causing the economy to stall.

But while Mr Balls is urging the government to change course, saying Britain is "crying out for a better way", he said Labour would not be making any "irresponsible promises" of his own.

"I think people have to believe what we say and that means we have to be very careful about what we say," he told Radio 4's Today programme.

"We can't come along and just say now we will promise to reverse every tax rise or spending cut, however unpopular or however dangerous for the economy, because we don't know what the state of the economy will be in five years' time."

Mr Balls acknowledged the last Labour government had made mistakes over the economy, saying he was "deeply, deeply sorry" for not introducing tougher regulation on the banks.

"The banking crisis was a disaster... If we had acted earlier on bank regulation, we could have avoided that economic crisis."

Public trust
He accepted it would take time for the party to earn the public's trust on the economy again.

"History shows it is hard... It took Labour 18 years after 1979 to restore credibility. We have not got 18 years. We have to do this in this parliament.

"Opposition is about answering the big question but I cannot answer that question unless people are trusting in our credibility and ability to make tough decisions."

Mr Balls said David Cameron and George Osborne had "the wrong prescription" for the current economic crisis, which he said was the "most serious in his lifetime".

In his speech, Mr Balls will say Britain's economy faces a "global growth crisis" that is becoming "more dangerous by the day".

He will argue that having a plan to boost growth "will help get the economy moving again and stop the vicious circle on the deficit - but by itself it won't secure our economic future or magic the deficit away" and tough decisions will still be needed on tax and spending.

With the party in the middle of a two-year policy review, manifesto commitments are likely to be thin on the ground in Liverpool.

Share pledges
But Mr Balls will make two new pledges in his speech.

He will say: "First, before the next election - and based on the circumstances we face - we will set out for our manifesto tough fiscal rules that the next Labour government will have to stick to - to get our country's current budget back to balance and national debt on a downward path. And these fiscal rules will be independently monitored by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

"And second we know that, even as bank shares are falling again, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are still betting on a windfall gain from privatising RBS and Lloyds to pay for a pre-election giveaway.

"We could also pledge to spend that windfall.

"But - just as with the 3G mobile phone auction - we will commit instead in our manifesto to do the responsible thing and use any windfall gain from the sale of bank shares to repay the national debt. That will be Labour's choice - fiscal responsibility in the national interest."

A Conservative spokesman said Mr Balls had "deliberately fiddled" fiscal rules in the past, and the public would not trust his announcement of new restrictions.

Eurozone rescue plan 'emerging' as IMF and Greece talk

The plan agreed by leaders reportedly envisages a "haircut", or writedown, of Greece's sovereign debt

The outline of a large and ambitious eurozone rescue plan is taking shape, reports from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington suggest.

It is expected to involve a 50% write-down of Greece's massive government debt, the BBC's business editor Robert Peston says.

The plan also envisages an increase in the size of the eurozone bailout fund to 2 trillion euros (£1.7tn; $2.7tn).

European governments hope to have the plan in place in five to six weeks.

Turning the present outline into a practical reality will be immensely difficult, our editor says.

But he adds that the price of failure could be a financial crisis that would probably turn anaemic growth into a recession or worse.

Investors have so far been unimpressed with the speed at which policymakers have dealt with the eurozone debt crisis, and analysts say that action, not words, are needed to calm volatile stock markets.

Over the weekend, the G20 reasserted its commitment to "a strong and co-ordinated international response" to the crisis, but analysts warned this would not be enough to satisfy investors.

"Given that there were no details on how [the G20 would combat the crisis], it will not do much to alleviate market stress without some concrete action," said Mitul Kotecha at Credit Agricole.

European markets fell at the start of trade on Monday but then rallied. By mid morning, Germany's Dax index and France's Cac 40 were both up more than 2%.

Earlier, Asian markets had fallen, with Japan's Nikkei index closing down 2.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling 1.5% and South Korea's Kospi dropping 2.6%.

Key elements
The reports about the emerging rescue plan come after the annual meeting of the IMF in the US capital last week.

The package is expected to involve a quadrupling - from the current projected level of 440bn euros - in the firepower of Europe's main bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

This would be done by putting in place an arrangement that would allow the European Central Bank (ECB) to lend alongside the fund, our editor says.

The EFSF would take on the main risk of lending to governments struggling to borrow from normal commercial sources - governments like Italy.

In this way, the EFSF would make it less dangerous for the ECB to lend.

It is also thought that private investors in Greek debt are likely to have to accept a 50% reduction in what they are owed, our editor says.

Eurozone leaders agreed a plan in July, which has yet to be ratified, that provided for a reduction in Greece's repayments to banks of about 20%.

After talks with IMF chief Christine Lagarde, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that Athens would do "whatever it takes" to reduce its huge level of debt, which is currently about 160% of the country's gross domestic product.

Publicly, world leaders have said there is "no plan" for a Greek default, but reports suggest officials are working on a plan to allow Greece to default on some of its debts and remain in the euro.

The third element of the rescue plan envisages a strengthening of big eurozone banks, which are perceived to have too little capital to absorb losses.

But our editor says that MPs in eurozone member-states will be concerned that taxpayers would be taking much more risk, and banks will bolt at raising expensive new capital.

'Back to the 1960s'
In Washington, Mr Venizelos also pledged that Greece would stay within the euro, but denied that the Greek crisis was enough on its own to cause a "domino effect" elsewhere in the eurozone.

Earlier, Greece's minister for international economic relations, Constantine Papadopoulos, said leaving the euro would be "catastrophic" for Greece.

"I personally think [leaving the eurozone] would take us back to the 1960s or 1970s," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme.

He later clarified that he was not referring to the political situation at the time, when the military took power in a coup, but the standards of living and the structure of the economy.

This week will see EU and IMF officials return to Athens to examine the country's progress on its deficit reduction plans.

Greece is still receiving money from an initial rescue, agreed in May last year, although it will not receive the next tranche if inspectors rule that it is not keeping up with its spending cut targets.

Analysts say this is a real possibility.

Without this month's loan, Greece will not be able to meet its debt payments by the middle of next month.

A second EU-IMF bailout was agreed for Greece in July of this year but that still has to be ratified by the parliaments of a number of eurozone member states.

Tiger Woods hires Joe LaCava as new caddie

LaCava (left) was working with Dustin Johnson during the Tour Championship

Tiger Woods has hired Joe LaCava as his new caddie as a replacement for New Zealander Steve Williams.

LaCava was the long-term bagman for Fred Couples, but the pair split in the summer after the veteran decided to reduce his playing schedule.

LaCava has since been with Dustin Johnson, with whom he was working at this week's Tour Championship.

"Joe is an outstanding caddie, and I have known him for many years," said 35-year-old Woods.

"I've personally seen the great job he did for Freddie. I'm anxious for us to be working together."
LaCava informed Johnson - who finished tied 23rd - of his decision after the final round of the Tour Championship on Sunday.

Woods, who has been without a caddie since severing ties with Steve Williams in July, also spoke to Johnson and Couples to alert him of the decision.

LaCava's first tournament with Woods will be the Frys.com Open from 6-9 October.

"I'm excited to be working with Tiger," LaCava said. "Tiger and I have been friends for a very long time, and I know what he can do.

"I want to thank Dustin for the opportunity to work with him, and I wish him nothing but the best."

New Zealander Williams carried Woods's bag for 13 of his 14 major wins, after joining the former world number one in 1999.

Woods's world ranking has slipped to 50th and he has not won a tournament since the 2009 Australian Masters.

Freed hikers recount 2 years of 'lies and false hope'

Freed hikers: Captive because of America

Safely back on American soil, freed Americans Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer on Sunday recounted their two years in "a world of lies and false hope" behind the walls of an Iranian prison.
Wearing green shirts and big smiles, Bauer and Fattal landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport four days after their release by Iranian authorities. In a news conference following their arrival, they described long days held in isolation, the hours punctuated by the screams of other inmates, and their "total sham" of a trial.
"Releasing us is a good gesture, and no positive step should go unnoticed," Fattal told reporters Sunday afternoon. "We applaud the Iranian authorities for finally making the right decision regarding our case. But we want to be clear that they do not deserve undue credit for ending what they had no right and no justification to start in the first place."
Fattal, Bauer and Bauer's now-fiancee, Sarah Shourd, were arrested after straying across the unmarked border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran in July 2009. Shourd was released in 2010, but Bauer and Fattal were freed only Wednesday, after 781 days in captivity and a trial for espionage that Bauer said was based on "ridiculous lies."
"Sarah, Josh and I have experienced a taste of the Iranian regime's brutality. We have been held in almost total isolation from the world and everything we love, stripped of our rights and freedom," Bauer said.
He urged Iran to release all political prisoners immediately, telling reporters, "There are people in Iran who have been imprisoned for years for simply attending a protest, for writing a pro-democracy blog or for worshiping an unpopular faith."
But he also criticized the treatment of prisoners held in U.S. facilities, such as the military's prison camp for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"In prison, every time we complained about our conditions, the guards would immediately remind us of comparable conditions at Guantanamo Bay," he said. While the hikers don't believe American policies "justify what has been done to us," he said, "We do believe that these actions on the part of the U.S. provide an excuse for other governments, including the government of Iran, to act in kind."
They said they were held in near-complete isolation in Tehran's Evin prison, allowed a total of only 15 minutes of telephone calls with their families throughout their ordeal. Fattal said the two had to wage repeated hunger strikes in order to even receive letters from their families. Iranian authorities told them their families had stopped writing, that they would receive due process of law and that the Swiss ambassador -- who represents U.S. interests in Iran -- was not interested in seeing them.
Worse, Fattal said, "Many times -- too many times -- we heard the screams of other prisoners being beaten, and there was nothing we could do to help them."
Shourd said Bauer was beaten and Fattal was forced down a flight of stairs during their captivity. She was released on medical grounds in September 2010, and told CNN the screams that echoed within Tehran's notorious Evin Prison "will always be with me."
"I don't know what was being done to them," she said. "But not being able to help another human being, being completely impotent and unable to do anything to ease their suffering, is something I'll never forget."
Iranian authorities released Fattal and Bauer on Wednesday. They first were flown to Oman, where they enjoyed several days of freedom after their lengthy captivity.
Fattal's mother, Laura Fattal, told CNN their families "were hooting and hollering and waving our scarves" when they landed.
"We couldn't wait for them to get to us ... I couldn't have asked for anything better," she said.
And Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey, said the families haven't heard "a whole lot of details" from their sons since their release.
"We have taken the time to just sit and talk and regather," Hickey told CNN. "We've been very busy traveling," she said.
Hickey said they were held as "political pawns."
Bauer and Fattal blamed three decades of hostility between the United States and Iran for making their plight worse than that of other Westerners who had strayed into Iranian territory.
"It was clear to us from the very beginning that we were hostages," Fattal said. "This is the most accurate term because, despite certain knowledge of our innocence, Iran has always tied our case to its political disputes with the U.S."
But, Shourd said in hindsight, "I don't believe that Iran got anything good out of this.
"I don't believe it was good for the country, and it certainly wasn't good for the Iranian people, whom I admire and support in their struggle for democracy and freedom," she said.
Fattal and Bauer thanked the numerous people in America and abroad who helped secure their freedom, including their Iranian attorney, Masoud Shafiee. Shafiee "was never allowed to represent us properly, but he never gave up," Fattal said.
Shourd said no one has ever taken credit for paying her bail or those of Fattal and Bauer. She and Bauer became officially engaged on Friday, although he proposed to her during their time in prison.
"When Sarah was about to walk out of Evin prison last year, we vowed to each other that none of us would be entirely free until all of us were free," Bauer said. "That moment has now thankfully come."

Obama heads to L.A. for fundraising push

President Barack Obama will spend part of Monday hobnobbing with celebrities and other power-brokers in Los Angeles, continuing a West Coast trip that includes town hall events and fundraisers for his re-election campaign.
The first L.A. event will be hosted by "Modern Family" star Jesse Tyler Ferguson at the House of Blues in West Hollywood. With 1,000 attendees set to spend $250 each for the speech and a concert, the event is expected to help Obama collect a minimum of $250,000.
Then, Obama will head to the Fig and Olive, a restaurant on Los Angeles' trendy Melrose Place, for a private fundraiser co-hosted by investment manager John Emerson, consultant Andy Spahn, Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and Tennis Channel CEO Ken Solomon, a Democrat with knowledge of the event told CNN. The campaign official said the cost to attend is $17,900 per person.
By Sunday evening, that dinner had already brought in $1.5 million for the Obama campaign in advance of the event, according to a second Democrat familiar with the event.
These fundraisers follow similar events Sunday in Washington state, including a pitch in Seattle in which the president implored his supporters to rally behind him once again, saying that helping secure his re-election is the best way to turn around a sluggish economy and overcome strident political opposition.
"We are tougher than the times that we live in, we are bigger than the small politics that we've been witnessing," he told the audience at the city's Paramount Theatre. "We are a people who write our own destiny, and it is fully within our power to write it once more."
Obama took the stage after being introduced by basketball hall of famers Lenny Wilkens and Bill Russell, the latter imploring the crowd that "as Americans, we must support our president."
Wearing a tie and button-down shirt with his sleeves rolled up, the president began by referring to the "once-in-a-lifetime economic crisis" facing the nation, saying his administration knew "it was going to take years" to rebuild. The fundamental choice now, he argued, was to go forward with his and fellow Democrats' plans or use the "old worn-out ideas that were tried in the last decade."
"The question is not whether this country is going through times, the question is where are we going next," Obama said. "We can build the America that we talked about in 2008, an America where everybody gets a fair shake and everybody does their fair share. That is what this election is about."
The president touted initiatives such as the auto industry bailout, financial reform and the recent official repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that means gay men and lesbians can now serve openly in the military, a mention that drew fervent cheers from the crowd.
Then, as he has repeatedly since proposing it about two weeks ago, Obama touted the America Jobs Act as key to bolstering the economy by helping small businesses, boosting public education, improving infrastructure and other components.
He reiterated his support for tax reform that would pay for the bill, in part, by having wealthier Americans and profitable large corporations pay more in taxes. He added that he felt it is the government's responsibility to act immediately, and not wait for voters' decisions in November 2012 to act.
"It's time for us to meet our responsibility for each other right now," the president said. "(Citizens) don't have the luxury of us squabbling for another 14 months."
The speech came about six hours after Obama landed in Washington state late Sunday morning. He soon thereafter headed to a fundraiser at the Medina, Washington, home of Jon Shirley, a former president and chief operating officer of Microsoft. In brief remarks there, he told the attendees that the upcoming campaign will be tough, especially in a climate in which many are disillusioned with government.
The president's job approval numbers remain low, just as the 2012 campaign is starting to heat up.
A USA Today/Gallup poll released last Wednesday -- based on a survey of 1,004 adults, and with a sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points -- found that 53% of the respondents blamed Obama a great deal or moderate amount for the continued economic sluggishness. The previous week, a CNN/ORC International poll showed Obama had a disapproval rating of 55%, the highest of his presidency, mirroring other national polling from Gallup and NBC/Wall Street Journal.
His current West Coast swing serves multiple purposes, from raising money for what promises to be a bruising campaign, to continuing the drumbeat for Congress to approve his jobs bill.
After his California visit, Obama will end his tour Tuesday in the swing state of Colorado with

Afghan attack: Gunfire heard at Kabul 'CIA station'

Gunfire and a blast have been heard from a compound said to house the CIA station in the Afghan capital Kabul.

A US official confirmed there was an attack on the facility previously known as the Ariana hotel, describing the situation as "fluid".

The CIA has not commented, but Afghan counter-intelligence sources told the BBC at least one attacker was killed.

It comes two weeks after militants attacked the US embassy in Kabul.

They also fired rocket-propelled grenades at Nato headquarters in the city.

Some 25 people died in the 20-hour attack, which Washington blamed on the Haqqani militant group.

The US has accused Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI, of supporting the group - a claim denied by Islamabad.

Earlier this week, Burhanuddin Rabbani, the chief of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, was killed in a suicide bomb attack in the Afghan capital. The Taliban said they carried out that attack.

'Investigation ongoing'

The gunfire at the US compound was heard on Sunday evening.

It was not clear if the incident took place inside the building or just outside.

"The situation is fluid, and the investigation is ongoing," said the US official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official declined to provide further details.

Afghan intelligence sources told the BBC that their personnel in the area had heard one explosion and gunfire which lasted nearly 10 minutes.

They said that "at least one attacker was dead", without giving any further details.\

One source said: "The only thing we can confirm is they (the CIA) must have invited someone inside and he turned out to be an attacker. This is the only logical assumption."

The compound is located in the most secure part of Kabul - near the US embassy and Nato military bases.

Meanwhile, a source in the nearby Afghan presidential palace told the BBC:"After the explosion was heard, an Afghan National Army (ANA) vehicle was passing. CIA-employed guards opened fire on the vehicle, thinking it had attacked them."

The sources said that two ANA soldiers, one CIA guard and one presidential guard were injured.

Women in Saudi Arabia to vote and run in elections

omen in Saudi Arabia are to be given the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, King Abdullah has announced.


Saudi women face severe restrictions in their working and personal lives

He said they would also have the right to be appointed to the consultative Shura Council.

The move was welcomed by activists who have called for greater rights for women in the kingdom, which enforces a strict version of Sunni Islamic law.

The changes will occur after municipal polls on Thursday, the king said.

King Abdullah announced the move in a speech at the opening of the new term of the Shura Council - the formal body advising the king, whose members are all appointed.

"Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior clerics and others... to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from next term," he said.

"Women will be able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will even have a right to vote."

Cautious reformer
The BBC's world affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan says it is an extraordinary development for women in Saudi Arabia, who are not allowed to drive, or to leave the country unaccompanied.

She says there has been a big debate about the role of women in the kingdom and, although not everyone will welcome the decision, such a reform will ease some of the tension that has been growing over the issue.

Saudi writer Nimah Ismail Nawwab told the BBC: "This is something we have long waited for and long worked towards."

She said activists had been campaigning for 20 years on driving, guardianship and voting issues.

Another campaigner, Wajeha al-Huwaider, said the king's announcement was "great news".

"Now it is time to remove other barriers like not allowing women to drive cars and not being able to function, to live a normal life without male guardians," she told Reuters news agency.

Correspondents say King Abdullah has been cautiously pressing for political reforms, but in a country where conservative clerics and some members of the royal family resist change, liberalisation has been very gradual.

In May more than 60 intellectuals called for a boycott of Thursday's ballot saying "municipal councils lack the authority to effectively carry out their role".

Municipal elections are the only public polls in Saudi Arabia.

More than 5,000 men will compete in municipal elections on Thursday - the second-ever in the kingdom - to fill half the seats in local councils. The other half are appointed by the government.

The next municipal elections are due in four years' time.

More than 1,200 bodies found in Tripoli mass grave

A mass grave believed to contain up to 1,270 bodies has been found in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, says the National Transitional Council (NTC).

Relatives of the missing have been visiting the mass grave at Abu Salim prison

The remains are thought to be those of inmates who were killed by security forces in 1996 in the Abu Salim prison.

The uprising against Col Muammar Gaddafi began as a protest to demand the release of a lawyer who represented families of the Abu Salim inmates.

Excavation at the site is expected to start soon.

The NTC said it had discovered the site - a desert field scattered with bone fragments within the grounds of the Abu Salim prison - by questioning prison guards who had worked there when the prisoners were killed after protesting against their conditions.

Several bone fragments and pieces of clothing have already been found in the top soil.

'Grenades and gunfire'

Some family members visited the site, among them Sami Assadi, who lost two brothers in the incident.

He was told they had died of natural causes only five years ago. He told the BBC how it felt to be at the place where his brothers may be buried.

"Mixed feelings really. We are all happy because this revolution has succeeded, but when I stand here, I remember my brothers and many, many friends have been killed, just because they did not like Muammar Gaddafi."

Until recently, little was known about the circumstances in which the prisoners died, says the BBC's Jonathan Head who went down to the site.

A few eyewitnesses have talked about the fact they were killed in their jail cells by grenades and sustained gunfire after a protest.

Officials in the new government say they will need foreign forensic help to determine exactly what happened there.

Grave may hold 1,200 bodies, believed victims of Libyan prison massacre

A mass grave thought to hold the remains of more than 1,200 victims of a 1996 massacre at Abu Salim prison has been found in Tripoli, officials with Libya's transitional government said Sunday.
The suspected grave holds 1,270 bodies, according to Libya's National Transitional Council. It was located by revolutionaries on August 20, said Kamal el Sherif, a member of an NTC committee.
"There is a lot more to be done to reach the actual truth of this massacre," said Dr. Salem Fergani, also a committee member. "To be honest, we were not prepared to deal with such human massacres, so we request the assistance of the international community. We need specialists in the field to help us in identifying the victims ... this is a national mission. The families of these victims have the right to learn the truth about their deceased sons."
Former guards at the prison cooperated in helping find the grave and provide details of the massacre, said Abdul Wahab Gady. He said he is a former prisoner who was at Abu Salim when the deaths took place.
The bones are scattered around an area with about a 100-meter radius, Fergani said. Members of the media were taken to the site on Sunday and shown bones and clothing. Family members of the Abu Salim victims also turned up at the site.
On June 28, 1996, prisoners rioting over poor conditions and restricted family visits seized a guard and escaped from their cells.
"Five or seven minutes after it started, the guards on the roofs shot at the prisoners who were in the open areas," former prisoner Hussein Shafei told Human Rights Watch in an interview years later.
Security officials ordered the shooting to stop and feigned negotiations, he told the organization. But officials instead called in firing squads to gun down the prisoners.
After the inmates agreed to return to their cells, they were taken to prison outdoor areas, blindfolded, handcuffed, and shot.
At first, said Gady, the bodies were buried inside the prison walls, but moved outside the walls in 1999.
The government of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi did not acknowledge the killings and denied any crime had taken place. Some families filed a complaint against the government in 2007, Human Rights Watch said, and Gadhafi's government offered them compensation in exchange for their silence.
The families refused, calling it a bribe, and instead began holding protests each Saturday in Benghazi, one of the spots where the Libyan unrest began this year.
It could take years to identify all the bodies through DNA, Fergani said Sunday.