Nine Serbs to face Kosovo charges

Serbian prosecutors have charged nine Serbian ex-paramilitaries with killing 43 ethnic Albanian civilians during the Kosovo conflict in 1999.

In a statement, the war crimes prosecutor in Belgrade said the nine shot their victims in the back multiple times and burned the corpses.

The accused, former members of the Jackals paramilitary group, were detained in March.

The killings took place in the western village of Cuska in May 1999.

Serbian troops were driven out of Kosovo in 1999 after a Nato bombing campaign aimed at halting the violent repression of the province's ethnic Albanians, who constituted 90% of its two million population.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008 - a move which Serbia has refused to recognise.

Serbia now wants to join the European Union, but must first prove to Brussels that it is serious about prosecuting for atrocities committed during the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during the 1990s.

BBC News

On Sept. 11 Anniversary, Rifts Amid Mourning

The ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was marked on Saturday by the solemn memorials and prayer services of years past, but also by events hard to envision just a year ago — heated demonstrations blocks from ground zero, political and religious tensions and an unmistakable sense that a once-unifying day was now replete with division.

The names of nearly 3,000 victims were read under crisp blue skies in Lower Manhattan after the bells of the city’s houses of worship tolled at the exact moment — 8:46 a.m. — that the first plane struck the north tower of the World Trade Center. At the Pentagon, President Obama stressed tolerance and said, “As Americans we are not — and never will be — at war with Islam”.

The familiar rituals at ground zero — the reciting of names, the occasionally cracking voice of a reader, the silences — had a new element. The posters and photographs that victims’ relatives held aloft bluntly injected politics into New York City’s annual ceremony, addressing the debate over plans to build a Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero.

Two posters cited the victims James V. DeBlase and Joon Koo Kang. One read, “Where are OUR rights?” The other: “We love you!! Islam mosque right next to ground zero??? We should stop this!!”

Differences were evident at the outset. About 7:25 a.m., as a choir finished up “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Zuccotti Park, just southeast of ground zero, and family members began to trickle in, Alyson Low, 39, a children’s librarian from Fayetteville, Ark., faced the stage and held up a photograph of her sister.

“Today is ONLY about my sister and the other innocents killed nine years ago,” read the text beside the photograph.

Nick Chiarchiaro, 67, a designer of fire alarm systems, gave her a hug. Ms. Low’s sister was a flight attendant on the plane that crashed into the north tower, where Mr. Chiarchiaro’s wife and niece were working.

The New York Times

MLB: San Diego 1, San Francisco 0

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Tim Stauffer tossed six shutout innings Saturday and the San Diego Padres regained first place with a 1-0 whitewash of San Francisco.

Stauffer (4-3) turned in his longest start of the year, allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out five.

Luke Gregerson, Mike Adams and Heath Bell (who earned his 40th save) each pitched a scoreless inning of relief to give the Padres their first win in a key four-game series with the Giants.

The victory enabled San Diego to re-establish a one-game lead over San Francisco in the National League West.

The game's only run came on Yorvit Torrealba's third-inning solo round-tripper.

Giants starter Madison Bumgarner (5-5) pitched well in defeat, holding the Padres to just the one run on three hits through seven innings, notching four strikeouts and issuing no walks.

UPI

2 assaulted by teenage mob in Nova Scotia

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Two men were beaten with tree limbs by a gang of teenagers Saturday in the latest "swarming" in Halifax, Nova Scotia, police said.

The victims were walking on Robie Street in the city's south end about 1:30 a.m. local time when they were approached by five males who appeared to be in their late teens, Halifax Regional Police Sgt. Kevin McNeil told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

An argument ensued, he said, and then the group attacked the two men.

"The two victims continued to walk up Robie Street when one of them was struck on the back of the head with a tree limb. The group of assailants then began to punch that male in the face," McNeil said.

"The second male with him was knocked to the ground and he was also kicked and punched in the head area. All parties ran from the scene".

One teenager is in custody, McNeil said, and will be charged with assault.

UPI

Man guns down 5 and kills himself

JACKSON, Ky., Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A man killed five people, all believed to be relatives, in a Kentucky mobile home Saturday before taking his own life, police said.

The shooting occurred in Breathitt County, a rural area southeast of Lexington in eastern Kentucky, MSNBC reported. Police said the weapon used was believed to be a 12-gauge shotgun.

"Right now, we have six dead inside a trailer home in a trailer park," Sheriff Ray Clemons said. "We think all the victims are related. One was wife, a girlfriend, son-in-law and such. We're still out here trying to figure it out".

UPI

Urban dwellers at higher risk of psychosis

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Urban residents are more likely to develop psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia and paranoid disorders than those in rural areas, a Swedish study says.

The study found the poorer and "less stable" the neighborhood an individual grew up in was -- including areas with many single-parent families moving in and out frequently –- the more likely they were to suffer some form of psychosis as an adult, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported Friday.

Although the risk for developing a psychotic illness mostly comes from individual characteristics such as family history or drug use, a person's environment is important, lead author Stanely Zammit of Cardiff University in Wales said.

"Our findings highlight the concern that physical integration alone is not sufficient but that ... a localized sense of safety, cohesion and community spirit must also be maintained to enhance the mental health of individuals within the population," he said.

UPI

Death toll rises to 6 in Calif. explosion

SAN BRUNO, Calif., Sept. 11 (UPI) -- The death toll in the gas explosion in San Bruno, Calif., rose to six Saturday when searchers discovered two more bodies in a gutted house, officials said.

Officials said most other houses had been searched by the time the bodies were found, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Some of the area around the gas pipeline was too hot for cadaver dogs to operate Friday, delaying the search for victims.

Santa Clara Fire Capt. Joe Viramontz said little remained of the house where the bodies were found at about 10 a.m.

"The house was burned all the way down to a fireplace and a staircase,'' he said.

The blast leveled 37 houses in the San Francisco Bay-area town and damaged eight more. A total of 52 people were reported injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which oversees gas pipelines, took over the investigation of the blast Friday. The 30-foot pipeline is operated by Pacific Gas & Electric.

UPI

Russia to test Mars lander for 2011 flight

MOSCOW, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Russian scientists say they're preparing to test an unmanned lander for a 2011 mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars.

The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft will land on the surface of Phobos, take soil samples and return them to Earth, RIA Novosti reported Friday.

"The aim of the test is to narrow down the lander's projected impact location on the surface of the Earth," a statement by Russia's Central Aerodynamic Institute said.

"As far as the lander ... does not include any signaling equipment ... narrowing down its projected impact area will make the search for it easier," the statement said.

The project was conceived in 1999, and in June 2006 the Russian aerospace company NPO Lavochkin started manufacturing and testing the development version of the spacecraft's on-board equipment.

UPI

Fidel Castro says remarks about Cuban model 'not working' misinterpreted

Fidel Castro said today that his comment to a US journalist about Cuba's system not working had been misinterpreted.

The former president told a meeting at the University of Havana that the remark, which caused a sensation when reported earlier this week, did not reflect his view. He meant "the exact opposite", he said.

Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for the Atlantic magazine, reported that at the end of a long lunch last month he asked the 84-year-old communist revolutionary if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries. He said Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore".

Castro did not elaborate but the implication, according to Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert from the Council on Foreign Relations who also attended the lunch, was that the state had too big a role in the economy.

The island's dire economic state was hardly news but for the man who spent over half a century building it to breezily admit failure astonished observers.

"I have been somewhat amazed by Fidel's new frankness," said Stephen Wilkinson, a Cuba expert at the London Metropolitan University. "This is the latest of a series of recent utterances that strike me as being indicative of a change in the old man's character".

With today's comments, Castro, perhaps taken aback at the attention heaped on his nine apparently offhand words, sought to dampen the story.

Goldberg, who detailed his three-days in Havana with Castro on his blog, did not immediately respond to the disputed version of the controversial remark.

Sweig, a doyenne of Cuba analysts, was unavailable for comment but an aide said the analyst would brief the media on Monday about her trip to Havana.

Earlier this week she confirmed Goldberg's version of the lunch, telling AP that she took the remark to be in line with Raúl Castro's call for gradual but widespread reform.

"It sounded consistent with the general consensus in the country now, up to and including his brother's position," Sweig said.

Raúl has said Cuba cannot blame the decades-old US embargo for all its economic ills and that serious reforms are needed. Fidel's statement was seen as bolstering the president's behind-the-scenes tussle with apparatchiks resisting change.

The Guardian

Women for sale: has paying for sex become more acceptable than ever?

You get an interesting perspective on changing social attitudes towards sex from the bottom of an 18ft (five-metre) fireman's pole used by lap dancers as part of a complicated choreographed display. Oscar Owide, proprietor of the Windmill Club in Soho, is distracted by how to achieve the best lighting on the girl in black knickers who is descending head first from the top of pole, gripping on with her thighs, dancing upside down with her arms.

"It's ever so difficult to do that," he says, and asks a waiter to get the spotlight changed so her performance is less hidden by shadows. When a flattering pink ray has been switched on to the dancer, Owide, who has been running Soho clubs for decades, reflects on how much more open society has become to this form of entertainment.

His clients no longer need to hide the fact that they visit nude dance clubs, he says. Most of the stigma has disappeared and a night out at a lap-dancing club now qualifies as respectable corporate entertainment (with receipts provided so expenses can be recouped from the company). There is no prostitution here, but clients can stay until 5.30 in the morning, watching individual erotic dances from workers at £20 a go.

By midnight, a cashier is busy processing debit card payments from men who want a solo dance from one of the 30 or so women who are waiting in their knickers and bras by the bar. A well-spoken man wonders aloud if he can leave his Bar Council membership card as security. To the right a young man sits in a booth by himself, his suit jacket off and top buttons undone, his legs splayed wide apart so there is space for a woman in a black thong and suspenders to touch her toes and wobble her naked buttocks no more than 10 centimetres from his face.

An observer of the mutating sex industry in Soho for most of his life, Owide has an unexpectedly censorious view on the sex scandal of the week: Wayne Rooney's alleged liaison with a sex worker. He isn't shocked in the least by the fact that Rooney slept with a prostitute, but he disapproves deeply of Rooney's decision to be unfaithful to his wife when she was pregnant.

Clearly Owide's views are shaped by his long involvement in what he describes as "the business", but his position chimes with the broader response to Rooney's behaviour. There has been indignation at his betrayal of his wife, a lot of outrage that an expensively educated girl like Jennifer Thompson would decide to become a prostitute, and considerable bafflement that an England footballer can't get as much sex as he wants for free. There has been much less moralising about the central transaction: Rooney's readiness to employ a prostitute.

So far, Rooney's sponsors are apparently ready to overlook the event, dismissing it yesterday as a "private matter", indicating that in the hierarchy of corporate morality use of a prostitute is viewed as a much lesser evil than taking drugs. When Kate Moss was filmed taking a line of coke it had an immediate impact on her advertising contracts.

Does this indifference suggest that prostitution no longer disturbs anyone very much? Has the explosion in the easy availability of internet porn, men's magazines, stag nights, lap-dancing clubs and sex tourism begun to erode our perception of prostitution as an enduring taboo?

Club-owners like Owide are seeing a stark shift in attitudes, but campaign groups, academics, prostitute collectives and men who use prostitutes notice it too. Research documents highlight the difficulty of grasping any accurate statistics about the prevalence of prostitution in the UK. Home Office papers cite 1990 research which suggests that there might be about 80,000 prostitutes in the UK, and a more recent calculation that there could be between 876,900 and 2.4 million men who pay for sex – stressing that the data is unreliable.

However, a 2005 study estimated that the numbers of men buying sex had doubled in a decade, an increase prompted by " a greater acceptability of commercial sexual contact".

Premier League footballers exist in a bubble, behaving in a way only distantly connected to normal life. Ex-footballers this week have described how girls routinely target players, hiding in their rooms. "There were nights we went to the strip club and there was loads of money flying around and all the girls were going the extra mile just for the cash," one player recalls.

Even beyond the cash-laden world of the Premier League, there is no shortage of supply. During the 1990s, the number of men paying for sex acts in the UK is estimated to have doubled. It has never been difficult to find an escort, but men who have used prostitutes recently describe how technology has made things dramatically easier. In just the same way that the internet has simplified the way we buy flights and books, finding someone to pay for sex has become a headache-free process online.

"Before you'd have to look for coded messages in the lonely hearts columns or in the newsagents' window: women who wanted to meet 'generous gents' was a signal that they were looking to be paid. On the internet it's much easier to find where to go and there's no pretence; you have greater choice," Peter, 54, a volunteer charity worker, (who, like most men interviewed for this piece, did not want his full name printed) says.

The Guardian

Vince Cable announces plans for total privatisation of Royal Mail

The government is to begin the process of privatising Royal Mail, raising the prospect that the "one price goes anywhere" universal postal service could be scaled back.

The business secretary, Vince Cable, has revealed plans for a bill to enable the sell-off of Royal Mail, which will include offering shares to employees. He appeared to confirm that there could be a total privatisation – going further than Labour's ill-fated attempts at a partial privatisation and previous Liberal Democrat and coalition promises. Unions have promised to fight any privatisation plans.

"We are not proposing to keep a government stake. Royal Mail will become privately owned and there will be a share for the workers within that company," Cable told BBC Radio 4's PM.

The coalition agreement promised only that the government would be seeking "an injection of private capital" into Royal Mail. The Lib Dem manifesto proposed that 49% of Royal Mail be sold off with the rest divided between employees and the state. "We are going further than that, recognising the urgent need for new capital," Cable said.

His spokesperson later insisted that although a total privatisation was the preferred course of action, all options would remain on the table, pending an enabling bill to be introduced in parliament later in the autumn. The government remained "fully committed" to retaining full ownership of the Post Office network and would take on responsibility for managing the pension fund, she confirmed.

Cable said the government would be drawing heavily on the recommendations contained in a report on the future of the Royal Mail, published by businessman Richard Hooper, who warned of the financial difficulties facing the service and said the universal service obligation could be reviewed in three to five years.

The Guardian

Florida Pastor Now Says No Quran Burning 'Ever' at His Church

A Florida minister whose tiny congregation had threatened to burn copies of the Islamic holy book on September 11 now says his church will "never" stage such an event.

The Reverend Terry Jones flew to New York and appeared on NBC-TV's Today Show Saturday. He said his 50-member church had succeeded in exposing what he called the "dangerous" and "very radical" element of Islam.

Jones' church, called the Dove World Outreach Center, generated worldwide condemnation when it announced plans to burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.  The pastor flew to New York Friday and tried to meet with the imam in charge of the proposed construction of an Islamic center near where the World Trade Center stood before the attacks.  But that meeting did not take place.

U.S. President Barack Obama said the Quran-burning plan would endanger American troops overseas, tens of thousands of them in Muslim countries.  Mr. Obama appealed for religious tolerance, and said the United States is "not at war against Islam," but "against terrorist organizations that have distorted Islam".

Critics have said the proposal to locate a mosque near the World Trade Center site is disrespectful to those who died on September 11, 2001.  Supporters say it would help bridge differences between the West and the Islamic world.

VOA News

Baby's body found in backpack in Michigan

DETROIT, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- The decomposed body of an infant, whose mother said was stillborn, was found in a backpack in northern Michigan, authorities said.

Someone discovered the backpack in a yard in Charlevoix County and took it to police in Boyne City, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.

The baby's mother, who lives in the Boyne City area, gave birth while she and her family visited relatives in Taylor, Mich., Boyne City Police Chief Randall Howard said.

Charlevoix County Prosecutor John Jarema said the woman, who was not identified because she has not been charged with a crime, said the baby was stillborn and she dumped it because she was afraid and didn't know what to do.

UPI

COL FB: James Madison 21, Va. Tech 16

BLACKSBURG, Va., Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Quarterback Drew Dudzik rushed for a go-ahead, fourth-quarter touchdown Saturday and James Madison stunned No. 13 Virginia Tech 21-16.

Dudzik guided the Dukes (2-0) 62 yards on an eight-play drive that began with 2:48 to go in the third quarter. He capped it with his 12-yard run along the left side into the end zone, giving James Madison its first lead of the game by the final tally of 21-16.

The Hokies (0-2) had a chance to pull even late in the game, driving to the Dukes' 12-yard-line, but Darren Evans fumbled and cornerback Leavander Jones picked it up with 5:37 left in the contest.

Dudzik carried the ball 12 times for 35 yards and a pair of touchdowns and went 5-of-8 through the air for 121 yards, one score and no interceptions.

UPI

Critics hit Great Lakes nuclear waste plan

DETROIT, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A plan to ship 16 steam generators -- with nuclear waste inside -- on the Detroit River and the Great Lakes has raised international outrage, authorities said.

Residents on the U.S. and Canadian sides of the waterways are alarmed by the plan to ship the generators, each the size of a city bus, from a nuclear power plant in Canada to a recycling plant in Sweden, The Detroit News reported Saturday.

An accident could contaminate the lakes, a source of drinking water in the region, environmentalists and elected officials said.

"It's a bad idea," Michael Keegan, chairman of the Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes, said. "It sets a dangerous precedent".

U.S. and Canadian towns along the proposed route are angry they were never told about the plan, and three Canadian mayors and two Michigan state legislators say they are opposed to the shipment.

UPI

Michigan issues wrong color license tabs

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A bureaucratic glitch in Michigan has led to the issuing of a number of 2011 license plate renewal tags in the wrong color, authorities said.

A state police trooper assigned to the Rockford station reported encountering about 50 vehicles this year with yellow 2011 tabs -- tabs that are supposed to be orange, the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press reported Saturday.

Color-coded tabs are meant to aid police in spotting vehicles with expired registrations.

Police stopping vehicles with the wrong color tabs can still determine through in-car computers that the tabs are valid, secretary of state spokeswoman Kelly Chesney said.

"This error sometimes occurs when we are transitioning to a new year -- hence a new color," she said.

The state police department has issued a memo to officers, she said.

UPI

Typhoon kills 3 in China

FUZHOU, China, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Three people were killed in Fujian province when Typhoon Meranti destroyed their homes, Chinese officials said Saturday.

The storm, which made landfall at about 3:30 a.m. Friday with top winds of about 67 mph, caused widespread damage in Fujian, the official government news agency Xinhua reported. Economic losses were put at almost $120 million.

The storm weakened as it moved across land and was no longer a tropical cyclone Saturday. It reached Zhejiang province at about 7 p.m. Friday, and rain and floods damaged hundreds of graves there.

The Fujian office of flood control said the deaths were all caused by high winds leveling houses. Almost 200,000 people were evacuated and about 1 million affected by Meranti.

UPI

River tops flood stage in New Delhi

NEW DELHI, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A river in India swelled to almost 7 feet over flood stage, causing the evacuation of more than 2,000 people from flooded areas in New Delhi, officials said.

An iron bridge over the Yamuna River was closed as a precaution while thousands of residents in low-lying areas were moved to almost 400 government camps, Indo-Asian New Service reported.

Flood waters threatened to enter parts of the busy Inter-State Bus Terminus, the capital's oldest bus station, officials said.

Around 100 National Disaster Response Force personnel were deployed to help authorities manage the situation.

The flooding was similar to that experienced in 1978, officials said, when more than 250,000 people were affected when the Yamuna flooded large areas in the capital's northern and eastern districts.

UPI

Baltimore fugitive may have left town

BALTIMORE, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- An attempted murder suspect who escaped from Baltimore police may have left the city, officials said Saturday.

Police said Paul Bryan Palmer, 32, could have gone to Washington or West Virginia, WTOP-FM, Washington, reported.

Palmer was arrested Friday on charges of stabbing another man seven times, The Baltimore Sun reported. Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman, said Palmer was living with the victim's former girlfriend and assaulted him after the man was released from jail Aug. 31.

At about 1 p.m. Friday, Palmer slipped out of plastic handcuffs and ran from the lobby of the Central District building, Guglielmi said.

Police said Palmer was seen at about 8 a.m. Saturday morning near Interstate 695.

UPI

Kabila wants to suspend mining

WALIKALE, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- President Joseph Kabila has proposed a temporary halt to mining for vital minerals in eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

During a visit Wednesday to Walikale, a mining center in North Kivu province, Kabila said "a kind of mafia" is involved in the trade in coltan and cassiterite, the BBC reported. The two minerals are used in cell phones and computers.

Kabila's ban would cover North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema.

The BBC said U.N. peacekeepers have said they control the airport in Walikale, giving them the power to stop export of the minerals by easiest route. But rebel groups in the area could find other means to get the two minerals out.

UPI

MLB: Tampa Bay 13, Toronto 1

TORONTO, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Brad Hawpe socked a grand slam homer Saturday, keying a big fourth inning that lifted the Tampa Bay Rays to a 13-1 rout of Toronto.

Hawpe, who signed with the Rays as a free agent this month after being cut loose by Colorado, hit a bases-loaded round-tripper after Ben Zobrist had given Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead earlier in the fourth with a two-run double.

Kelly Shoppach contributed a two-run homer and Carl Crawford chipped in with a two-run triple for the second-place Rays, who came into the contest 1 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East.

Wade Davis (12-9) won his seventh straight decision, allowing seven hits and three walks while fanning six in seven innings.

UPI

U.S. envoy to discuss Korean standoff

SEOUL, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A top U.S. official will visit South Korea to discuss resumption of nuclear talks stalled over international sanctions on North Korea, authorities said.

Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, will arrive in Seoul Sunday to meet with his South Korean counterpart to discuss resuming six-way talks aimed at solving North Korea's nuclear arms standoff, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The talks between South Korea, North Korea, the United States, Russia, Japan and China have been deadlocked since December 2008.

Bosworth and Wi Sung-lac, South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, reportedly are alike in believing Seoul and Washington could resume a series of talks with Pyongyang if North Korea mends fences with South Korea.

UPI

MLB: Florida 4, Washington 1

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Anibal Sanchez held Washington to one run over seven-plus innings Saturday and the Florida Marlins downed the Nationals 4-1.

Sanchez (12-9) allowed four hits, struck out four and issued no walks over 7 1/3 frames, boosting the Marlins to their seventh win in their last 11 games.

Clay Hensley pitched a scoreless ninth to collect his second career save, enabling the Marlins to clinch their three-game series at Nationals Park.

Emilio Bonifacio delivered a two-run single in the fifth to put Florida ahead for good and Logan Morrison reached base for the 31st straight game with an RBI single in the Marlins' victory.

UPI

COL FB: Nebraska 38, Idaho 17

LINCOLN, Neb., Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez threw for 106 yards Saturday but also ran for 157 yards and two touchdowns in the Cornhuskers' 38-17 win over Idaho.

The victory was the 500th home win for Nebraska (2-0).

Martinez, a redshirt freshman, was 12-of-17 passing and carried the ball himself 14 times, including a 67-yard scoring run on the second quarter and a 20-yard TD run in the third that gave the Huskers a 38-10 lead.

Dejon Gomes returned an interception 40 yards for a touchdown and Roy Helu carried the ball nine times for 107 yards and a score.

Nebraska scored 28 points in the second quarter and ran up 479 yards in total offense to Idaho's 279.

UPI