Hawaii's gubernatorial candidates set

HONOLULU, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- The Democratic primary for governor in Hawaii gave former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie the nod to try and wrest the office from Republican control.

Abercrombie received 136,321 votes (59.4 percent) in Saturday's primary to 86,676 (37.8 percent) for former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

Hannemann resigned as mayor to run, while Abercrombie gave up his congressional seat for the opportunity to run for governor.

Abercrombie will now face Republican Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona in the general election in November.

Aiona told the Star-Advertiser he plans to concentrate on economic recovery and job creation in his campaign. He easily beat out rival John Carroll, receiving 40,798 (95 percent) votes to Carroll's 2,004 (5 percent), KITV-TV reported.

UPI

Dutch police hold British terror suspect in Amsterdam

A British man of Somali origin has been arrested at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on suspicion of being a terrorist, Dutch prosecutors say.

He had arrived from Liverpool en route to Entebbe in Uganda, they said.

A police spokesman said the man had been arrested as his flight was about to take off on Sunday morning.

Police were investigating whether he had links to a foreign militant organisation, prosecutors said. No explosives were found in his luggage.

British officials have confirmed the arrest, but declined to comment on reports that they had tipped off the Dutch authorities.

Uganda and Kenya are both common transit routes for Europe-based Somalis returning home.

Last week, the head of the UK's domestic intelligence service MI5 warned that the UK faced a serious risk of a terrorist attack, adding that Somalia and Yemen were becoming focal points of jihadist activity.

BBC News

Former Israeli PM: U.S. was ready to take Palestinian refugees

Jerusalem (CNN) -- The United States under President George W. Bush was prepared to take in 100,000 Palestinian refugees as part of a Middle East peace deal, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday.

"The United States was ready to take in 100,000 refugees as citizens of the United States," Olmert said, in what may be his most revealing comments to date about negotiations with the U.S. and the Palestinians when he was prime minister.

Olmert, who led Israel from 2006 to 2009, spoke weeks after direct talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians resumed in Washington.

As prime minister, Olmert negotiated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently doing.

Speaking in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a group called the Geneva Initiative, Olmert also said Sunday that he was prepared as prime minister to share Jerusalem's holy sites, which include the Western Wall and the Temple Mount -- known to Muslims as Haram-al-Sharif -- with the Palestinians.

CNN

China warns of counter measures in row with Japan

(CNN) -- China warned Sunday that it would take "strong counter measures" against Japan if a Chinese fishing captain held since last week is not released.

The captain was arrested earlier this month off the disputed Diaoyu Islands, in the East China Sea, after his vessel crashed into two Japanese patrol boats. He remains in custody, accused of obstructing Japanese public officers while they performed duties.

"We demand the Japanese side immediately release the Chinese captain unconditionally," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

China has already suspended bilateral exchanges at and above the provincial or ministerial levels, Xinhua reported.

The country has also stopped talks with Japan about increasing civil flights and expanding aviation rights between the two countries, the news agency said.

A bilateral meeting on coal was also postponed, Xinhua reported.

CNN

22 rebels reported killed in Colombian airstrike

(CNN) -- Twenty-two Colombian guerrillas were killed Sunday in an airstrike, the country's defense minister said.

The Colombian air force bombing was part of an operation against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in southern Colombia, Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera said. The operation was ongoing and more bodies could be found, he said.

Rebels in the area had killed eight police officers in an attack earlier this month.

Sunday's bombing campaign was one of the strongest blows against the FARC in recent memory.

"This shows the country, but above all those bandits, that our people are not under their control, but to the contrary, responding with incisiveness," President Juan Manuel Santos said in a phone conversation with Rivera.

The airstrike was ordered in a jungle area near the city of San Miguel in the state of Putumayo, which borders Ecuador.

CNN

Report: At least 20 dead in Tajikistan shelling

(CNN) -- At least 20 soldiers in the Tajik Defense Ministry were killed Sunday in an attack in the Rasht district of Tajikistan, the Russian news agency Interfax reported, citing a source in the Tajikistan government.

"There are a lot of victims," the source told Interfax. "You can stay about 20 dead now, but I think the number of dead will rise".

The soldiers' military convoy was heading to an outpost in the district, where it was thought that a number of criminals who were hiding after they escaped last month from a detention facility, Interfax said. The soldiers, who were to search for the inmates, were fired on in the Komarob gorge, near the border with Afghanistan, on the way, according to the news agency. Of the 25 inmates who escaped, only seven have been apprehended.

Tajikistan Defense Minister Sherali Khayrulloyev flew to the gorge site by helicopter, Interfax reported, and more soldiers were also headed there.

CNN

Death toll in Kashmir at 105 as four die Sunday from injuries

Srinagar, India (CNN) -- Three youths who had been critically wounded in unrest in Indian-administered Kashmir died Sunday, and a 25-year-old woman died after a late-evening incident in the town of Sopore.

Sunday's deaths put the toll from unrest in Kashmir at 105 lives since June 11.

The Sunday-evening incident occurred when Indian security forces opened fire to quell a stone-throwing mob in Bomai village near Sopore in north Kashmir, authorities said.

A police spokesman said the woman was in critical condition when she was taken to the capital, Srinagar, for treatment but she died there.

A round-the-clock curfew was re-imposed late Saturday evening after a the curfew had been relaxed for a few hours in parts of the capital. Stone-throwing mobs clashed with security forces in some areas of the old city.

Thousands of police and paramilitary troopers are dotting the streets Srinagar to strictly enforce the curfew ahead of the crucial visit by an all-party delegation to Srinagar Monday.

CNN

Missing religious group found safe

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Authorities in Southern California said Sunday they found the 13 members of a small religious group they had feared might have made a suicide pact.

The group's alleged leader, Reyna Marisol Chicas, 32, was being held for questioning but no one had been charged, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Members of the group was found about noon sitting on blankets on the grass under a pine tree at Jackie Robinson Park east of Palmdale after a resident who had seen news reports about the group called the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the Times said. Chicas was playing with some of the group's children on the swings, Capt. Mike Parker said.

"They seemed shocked," Parker said. "They said we are Christians, and we would never harm ourselves".

The five adult Salvadorans and eight children ranging in age from 3 to 17 set out from a prayer meeting Saturday, leaving behind ominous letters about their intentions. They told authorities they had spent the night at the home of a friend of Chicas.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office had issued a statement explaining why the California Highway Patrol had joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in the search for the group.

UPI

Caterpillar to Open Commercial Office in Bulgaria

One of the world's largest manufacturers of construction and mining equipment, engines and turbines, the US company Caterpillar, is going to open a trading office in Bulgaria.

This has been agreed during a meeting between Bulgarian Economy Minister Traicho Traikov and two of the Vice Presidents of Caterpillar, Tana Utley and Gregory Folly.

Traikov, who is on a several-day visit to Canada and the United States, has had a busy schedule.

His meeting with the Caterpillar managers focused on the company's plans to research investment opportunities in Bulgaria.

The Economy Minister has presented to them the measures of the Bulgarian government aimed at attracting more foreign investments, and the "cluster analysis" of the Bulgarian economy that the Ministry is working on.

Before Caterpillar, Traikov met with Charles Stamp, Vice President of the Illinois-based company John Deere.

The main matter of their talks was the potential opportunity to grant low-interest American credits to Bulgarian farmers.

John Deere has operations in three sectors – agriculture, forestry, and banking, and is a leading global producer of farming and forestry equipment, employing some 50 000 people worldwide.

Novinite

Fatal shooting at German hospital

A woman armed with an automatic weapon has shot dead one person at a hospital in Germany before being killed by police.

A police officer was also injured in the incident in the town of Loerrach near the French and Swiss borders.

Police believe the shooting is linked to an explosion at a nearby building where they found the bodies of a man and a child.

Authorities have sealed off the area and say the situation is under control.

The shooting happened shortly after 1800 local time (1600GMT) on Sunday.

Police say there was an explosion in an apartment block opposite the hospital, after which witnesses saw the woman run from the building and into St Elisabethen hospital holding a gun.

The woman killed a male nurse and critically wounded a police officer who happened to be in the hospital at the time.

BBC News

IAEA General Conference session to open in Vienna

VIENNA, September 20 (RIA Novosti) - The 54th session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference will open on Monday in the Vienna International Center (VIC).

Representatives from the 151 member states of the UN nuclear watchdog will meet at the VIC for the five-day annual conference to discuss major topics on the organization's agenda.

The conference is to discuss a report on the IAEA's operation in 2009 and the agenda for 2011.

The Russian delegation is led by Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano will speak at the conference opening.

A scientific forum will be convened in conjunction with the 54th General Conference - entitled Cancer in Developing Countries: Facing the Challenge - at the VIC.

RIA Novosti

NFL: Oakland 16, St. Louis 14

OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Bruce Gradkowski entered the game at halftime and rallied Oakland to a go-ahead touchdown Sunday in the Raiders' 16-14 win over St. Louis.

Gradowski replaced an ineffective Jason Campbell and completed 11-of-22 passes for 162 yards with one interception after Campbell had gone 8-of-15 passing for 87 yards.

Gradowski found Louis Murphy in the right flat for a 4-yard touchdown with 6:07 left in the third quarter to put the Raiders ahead for good at 13-7.

Oakland (1-1) got 145 yards on 30 carries from Darren McFadden.

Sam Bradford completed 13-of-23 passes for 171 yards and a pair of touchdowns for St. Louis (0-2), including a 17-yard scoring strike to Mark Clayton late in the game.

UPI

NFL: San Diego 38, Jacksonville 13

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Antoine Cason picked off a pair of passes -- among a half-dozen Jacksonville turnovers Sunday -- in the San Diego Chargers' 38-13 win over the Jaguars.

Philip Rivers connected on 22-of-29 passes for 334 yards with three touchdowns, surviving two interceptions, while Mike Tolbert carried the ball 16 times for 82 yards and a pair of scores for the Chargers (1-1).

San Diego's win was marred, however, when rookie running back Ryan Mathews injured his right ankle in the first quarter.

The Chargers' defense collected four interceptions off Jaguars quarterback David Garrard. He ended up completing 15-of-23 passes for 173 yards and a touchdown for the Jaguars (1-1).

He was benched in the fourth quarter and Luke McCown entered the game, going 11-of-19 for 120 yards.

UPI

NFL: Chicago 27, Dallas 20

ARLINGTON, Texas, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Jay Cutler found the end zone three times with touchdown passes Sunday and the Chicago Bears upended Dallas 27-20 in the Cowboys' home opener.

Cutler connected with Devin Hester, Greg Olsen and Matt Forte for scores, amassing 277 yards on 21-of-29 passing for the Bears, who have posted their first 2-0 start since 2006, when they advanced to the Super Bowl.

Dallas quarterback Tony Romo had a fine day statistically, completing 34-of-51 passes for 374 yards with one touchdown, but he was plagued by Chicago cornerback D.J. Moore, who picked him off twice.

Miles Austin hauled down 10 catches for 142 yards for the Cowboys, who are off to their first 0-2 start since 2002.

UPI

NFL: Denver 31, Seattle 14

DENVER, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Kyle Orton passed for 307 yards and hit rookie receiver Demaryius Thomas with a TD pass Sunday in the Denver Broncos' 31-14 win over Seattle.

Orton finished with two touchdowns among his 25 completions on 35 attempts. He found Thomas with six passes for 97 yards, including a 21-yard scoring strike.

Thomas was making his Broncos debut after sitting out Denver's first game and all of the pre-season with a foot injury.

Knowshon Moreno and Correll Buckhalter both scored rushing touchdowns and Eddie Royal hauled down a 13-yard touchdown among his five receptions for Denver (1-1).

Seattle signal-caller Matt Hasselbeck (20-of-35, 233 yards) threw three interceptions. Two of them came inside the Denver 10-yard line.

Seattle (1-1) turned the ball over four times. A key miscue came when rookie Walter Thurmond muffed a punt at his own 13-yard line in the first quarter and Denver quickly capitalized for seven points.

UPI

Tropical Storm Julia losing strength

MIAMI, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Tropical Storm Julia was losing strength Sunday evening as it headed toward the north Atlantic, U.S. forecasters said.

Julia, once a Category 4 hurricane, was 1,280 miles west of the Azores and heading northeastward at about 14 mph, with sustained winds of about 45 mph extending up to 140 miles from its center, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its 5 p.m. EDT advisory.

The storm is expected to keep weakening and become a remnant low by Monday night and dissipate Tuesday.

Julia started as a tropical depression near the African coast on Sept. 12, but quickly turned into a hurricane before weakening back into a tropical storm.

UPI

MLB: San Fransisco 9, Milwaukee 2

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Jose Guillen cracked a grand slam and drove in a total of six runs Sunday, boosting the San Francisco Giants to a 9-2 win over Milwaukee and into first place.

Buster Posey contributed two doubles, drew three walks and scored three runs as the Giants vaulted over the San Diego Padres atop the National League West after the Padres lost to St. Louis Sunday.

Barry Zito (9-13) ended a career-high nine-game losing streak, yielding two runs on three hits while walking one and striking out three over six innings of work.

Brewers starter Chris Narveson (11-8) was tagged for six runs on four hits over 4 2/3 innings.

UPI

MLB: Seattle 2, Texas 1

SEATTLE, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Doug Fister held Texas to one run over seven innings Sunday and the Seattle Mariners eked out a 2-1 victory over the Rangers.

Fister (6-12) scattered nine hits, walked none and struck out two for the victory.

Brandon League tossed a scoreless eighth inning and David Aardsma collected his 31st save despite allowing a pair of walks in the ninth.

Josh Wilson singled home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh inning and Franklin Gutierrez added an RBI to give Seattle the rubber match of a three-game series at Safeco Field.

Rangers starter Tommy Hunter (12-4) yielded two runs and six hits in six-plus innings.

Texas' magic number to clinch the American League West title remained at six.

UPI

Colombian forces kill 22 Farc rebels

Colombian security forces say they have killed at least 22 Farc rebels in fighting near the Ecuadorean border.

Police commandos were dropped by helicopter after Air Force planes bombed a rebel camp in the jungle.

The fighting in the Putumayo region happened near the town of San Miguel, where eight policemen died in a rebel ambush earlier this month.

President Juan Manuel Santos said it was "the biggest blow in recent times" to the left-wing rebel group.

BBC News

Giant new drill joins Chile mine rescue

Engineers trying to rescue 33 miners trapped underground in Chile for more than six weeks have begun drilling a third escape tunnel.

A huge drill borrowed from an oil company has joined two others digging through the 630m (2,060ft) of rock separating the miners from the surface.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera told the trapped men he was confident the rescue effort would succeed.

His government has said it hopes to get them out by early November.

President Pinera, making his fifth visit to the San Jose mine, was accompanied by celebrated Chilean novelist Isabel Allende.

In a video conference, he told the miners he hoped that on his next visit he would be meeting them above ground.

"Today for the first time we have three machines working simultaneously. We do not know when they will reach them. But we know one thing: with the help of God, we will reach them," Mr Pinera said.

"It will be sooner than you expect and it will be a moment of joy, hope and happiness for the whole country and I hope also for the whole world".

Isabel Allende said the miners' epic of survival had captured the imagination of the world.

"I travel throughout the world and on every television screen in the world there are the faces of the 33 miners and there is the name of Chile," she said.

BBC News

Stone tools 'change migration story'

A research team reports new findings of stone age tools that suggest humans came "out of Africa" by land earlier than has been thought.

Geneticists estimate that migration from Africa to South-East Asia and Australia took place as recently as 60,000 years ago.

But Dr Michael Petraglia, of Oxford University, and colleagues say stone artefacts found in the Arabian Peninsula and India point to an exodus starting about 70,000 to 80,000 years ago - and perhaps even earlier.

Petraglia, whose co-workers include Australian and Indian researchers, presented his ideas at the British Science Festival, which is hosted this year at Aston University.

"I believe that multiple populations came out of Africa in the period between 120,000 and 70,000 years ago," he said. "Our evidence is stone tools that we can date".

Most of the tools are from far inland - hundreds of kilometres from the coasts. This means it was more likely humans migrated by land than in boats, he said.

BBC News

Four dead as woman opens fire at German hospital

A woman had opened fire at a hospital in southern Germany, at least four people including the woman died, the German N-24 TV channel reported.

The shooting took place in a hospital in the city of Loerrach near the Swiss border. Representative for the local police has denied comments, but said the situation is already under control.

There are no further details about the shooting.

RIA Novosti

Ahmadinejad, Ban Ki-moon meet for talks over Iran's nuclear program

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has arrived in the UN headquarters in New York for talks over Iran's nuclear program with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

The meeting will take place during the 65th session of the UN General Assembly.

Iran plans to restore relations with the Iran Six, which were suspended in 2009, Ahmadinejad said in an interview with the ABC TV channel before his meeting with Ban Ki-moon.

Sanctions are not a matter of importance for Iran at all and those who impose them are in fact sanctioning themselves, Ahmadinejad said.

The Iranian president also said the country's nuclear activities are under the UN watchdog's cameras.

Earlier, Ban Ki-moon has pledged to call on Teheran to cooperate with IAEA and fulfill the UN Security Council's requirements.

RIA Novosti

Ten Tajik servicemen killed in shootout

Some 10 servicemen have been killed on Sunday when unknown assailants attacked by fire a Tajik military convoy on its way to the village of Garm, a source from the Tajikistan's Defense Ministry said.

There are no further details about the incident. This is the second attack on Tajik servicemen for Sunday.

Earlier, a source told RIA Novosti about a shootout in the Komarob ravine, lying some 100 kilometers (62 miles) away from Dushanbe. Several servicemen have been killed.

RIA Novosti