Hacker targets S. Houston sewer system, mayor says no harm done

A hacker identified only as "pr0f" posted diagrams of the South Houston sewer system online to show how easy it is to infiltrate the system.

South Houston Mayor Joe Soto said this morning that no harm was done to the sewer system, and the control system known as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition has been taken offline.

"The plant runs automatically anyway," said Soto, who said he found out Friday about the hacking. "We just disconnected the SCADA system. That takes us off being online, where someone could change some of the operations on their own."

The Department of Homeland Security and FBI are responding to the incident and will be investigating, Soto said.

The hacker said he posted South Houston's information after a similar incident in Springfield, Ill., which reportedly caused the control system to power on and off, burning out a water pump.

In a statement on the Illinois incident, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Peter Boogaard told SC Magazine, "DHS and the FBI are gathering facts surrounding the report of a water pump failure in Springfield, Ill. At this time there is no credible, corroborated data that indicates a risk to critical infrastructure entities or a threat to public safety."

That reaction incensed pr0f. "Insanely stupid," he wrote on pastebin.com. "I dislike, immensely, how the DHS tend to downplay how absolutely F*****D the state of national infrastructure is."

Pr0f told the Chronicle that he is not in the Houston area and picked the South Houston system "more or less" at random.

"It was the first system I saw after reading about the Illinois hack," he wrote in an email.

The hacker also said it was easy to access South Houston's online infrastructure diagrams. He said he had no intention of harming the plant, but just wanted to prove a point.

"I wouldn't even call this a hack.... This required almost no skill and could be reproduced by a 2-year-old with a basic knowledge of Simatic," he wrote.

carol.christian@chron.com

Source: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Hacker-targets-S-Houston-sewer-system-mayor-2277795.php

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EXCLUSIVE - The capture of Gaddafi's son (Reuters)

OBARI, Libya (Reuters) ? The chic black sweater and jeans were gone. So too the combat khaki T-shirt of his televised last stand in Tripoli. Designer stubble had become bushy black beard after months on the run.

But the rimless glasses, framing those piercing eyes above that straight fine nose, gave him away despite the flowing nomad robes held close across his face.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, doctor of the London School of Economics, one-time reformer turned scourge of the rebels against his dictator father, was now a prisoner, bundled aboard an old Libyan air force transport plane near the oil-drilling outpost of Obari, deep in the Sahara desert.

The interim government's spokesman billed it as the "final act of the Libyan drama". But there would be no closing soliloquy from the lead player, scion of the dynasty that Muammar Gaddafi, self-styled "king of kings," had once hoped might rule Africa.

A Reuters reporter aboard the flight approached the 39-year-old prisoner as he huddled on a bench at the rear of the growling, Soviet-era Antonov. The man who held court to the world's media in the early months of the Arab Spring was now on a 90-minute flight bound for the town of Zintan near Tripoli.

He sat frowning, silent and seemingly lost in thought for part of the way, nursing his right hand, bandaged around the thumb and two fingers. At other times he chatted calmly with his captors and even posed for a picture.

IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT

Gaddafi's run had come to an end just a few hours earlier, at dead of night on a desert track, as he and a handful of trusted companions tried to thread their way through patrols of former rebel fighters intent on blocking their escape over the border.

"At the beginning he was very scared. He thought we would kill him," said Ahmed Ammar, one of the 15 fighters who captured Gaddafi. The fighters, from Zintan's Khaled bin al-Waleed Brigade, intercepted the fugitives' two 4x4 vehicles 40 miles out in the desert.

"But we talked to him in a friendly way and made him more relaxed and we said, 'We won't hurt you'."

The capture of Saif al-Islam is the latest dramatic chapter in the series of revolts that have swept the Arab world. The first uprising toppled the Ben Ali government in Tunisia early this year.

The upheaval spread to Egypt, forcing out long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak in February; swept Libya, where the capital Tripoli fell to rebels this summer and Muammar Gaddafi died after being beaten and abused by captors last month; and is now threatening the Assad family's four-decade grip on Syria.

Saif al-Islam was the smiling face of the Muammar Gaddafi's power structure. He won personal credibility at the highest echelons of international society, especially in London, where he helped tidy up the reputation of Libya via a personal charitable foundation. He threw that reputation away in the uprising, emerging as one of the hardest of hard-liners against the rebels.

This account of his capture and his final month on the run is based on interviews with the younger Gaddafi's captors and the prisoner himself. The scenes of his flight into captivity were witnessed by the Reuters reporter and a Reuters cameraman and photographer who were also aboard the plane.

FACING DEATH PENALTY

Caught exactly a month after his father met a violent end, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is wanted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity - specifically for allegedly ordering the killing of unarmed protesters last spring. Libya's interim leaders want him to stand trial at home and say they won't extradite him; the justice minister said he faces the death penalty.

His attempt to flee began on Oct. 19, under NATO fire from the tribal bastion of Bani Walid, 100 miles from the capital. Ammar and his fellow fighters said they believed he had been hiding since then in the desolate tracts of the mountainous Brak al-Shati region.

Aides who were captured at Bani Walid said Saif al-Islam's convoy had been hit by a NATO air strike in a place nearby called Wadi Zamzam - "Holy Water River". Since then, there had been speculation that nomadic tribesmen once lionised by his father might have been working to spirit him across Libya's southern borders - perhaps, like his surviving brothers, sister and mother, into Niger or Algeria.

He did not get that far. Obari is a good 200 miles from either. But his captors believe he was headed for Niger, once a beneficiary of Muammar Gaddafi's oil-fueled largesse, which has granted asylum to Saif al-Islam's brother Saadi.

"WHO ARE YOU?"

Ammar said his unit, scouring the desert for weeks, received a tip-off that a small group of Gaddafi loyalists - they did not know who - would be heading on a certain route toward Obari. Lying in wait, they spotted two all-terrain vehicles grinding through the darkness.

"We fired in the air and into the ground in front of them," Ammar said. The small convoy pulled up, perhaps hoping to brazen it out.

"Who are you?" Adeljwani Ali Ahmed, the leader of the squad, demanded to know of the man he took to be the main passenger in the group.

"Abdelsalam," came the reply.

It's a common enough name, though it means "servant of peace" in Arabic; Saif al-Islam's real name means "Sword of Islam".

Ahmed, sizing the man up, took Ammar aside and whispered: "I think that's Saif."

Turning back to the car, a Toyota Land cruiser of a type favoured on these rugged desert tracks, Ammar said: "I know who you are. I know you."

CASH AND KALASHNIKOVS

The game was up. The militiamen retrieved several Kalashnikov rifles, a hand grenade and, one of the Zintani fighters said, some $4,000 in cash from the vehicles.

It was a tiny haul from a man whose father commanded one of the best-equipped armies in Africa and who is suspected by many of holding the keys - in his head - to billions stolen from the Libyan state and stashed in secret bank accounts abroad.

"He didn't say anything," Ammar said. "He was very scared and then eventually he asked where we are from, and we said we are Libyans. He asked from which city and we said Zintan."

Zintan sits far from the spot of Gaddafi's capture in the Western, or Nafusa, Mountains, just a couple of hours drive south of the capital. The people of Zintan put together an effective militia in the uprising, and they are seeking to parlay their military prowess into political clout as new leaders in Tripoli try to form a government.

At Obari, a fly-speck of a place dominated by the oil operations of a Spanish company, Zintan fighters have extended their writ since the war deep into traditionally pro-Gaddafi country peopled by Tuaregs, nomadic tribes who recognise no borders.

The Zintanis are also a force in the capital. On Saturday morning, the Antonov flew to Obari from Tripoli, bearing the new tricolour flag of "Free Libya" - and piloted by a former air force colonel turned Zintan rebel. Just a few minutes after it landed, the purpose of the flight became clear.

FLIGHT TO CAPTIVITY

Five prisoners, escorted by about 10 fighters in an array of desert camouflage, piled aboard, ranging themselves on benches along the sides of the spartan hold of the Antonov An-32, which is designed to carry four dozen paratroopers.

Two of the men were handcuffed together. A third had his arms cuffed in front of him. A dozen or so bulky black bags were carried in, and some thin mattresses - the scant belongings of the prisoners, their captors said.

All wore casual, modern dress - with the exception of Saif al-Islam.

His brown robe, turban and face scarf, open sandals on his feet, were typical of the Tuaregs of the region. The choice of costume offered concealment for a man more commonly seen in sharp suits and smart casual wear, and a visual echo of his late father's penchant for dressing up.

As they shuffled on the benches, rifle butts scraping on the metal floor, one of the guards said: "He is afraid now."

The pilot, though, said that he had had a paternal word with the 39-year-old captive and put him at ease before he was brought on board.

"LIKE A SMALL CHILD"

"I spoke to him like he was a small child," said Abdullah al-Mehdi, a diminutive, heavily moustachioed ball of energy in a green jumpsuit. His ambition - typical of Zintanis in these anarchic days in Libya - is to start up a whole new air force.

"I told him he would not be beaten and he wouldn't be hurt and I gave my word," said Mehdi.

He and the other two crew in the cockpit chain-smoked their way through the flight, navigating over the barren wastes the old-fashioned way, on analogue instruments, with just occasional help from a new GPS device clamped awkwardly to the windshield.

The howl of the propellers was numbing, and there was little conversation during the flight.

Saif al-Islam by turns stared ahead or turned back to crane his neck out at the land he once was in line to rule. Every so often, holding his scarf across his mouth Tuareg-fashion, he would say a few words to a guard.

The calm was in stark contrast to the frenzy that greeted the capture of Muammar Gaddafi on Oct. 20 as he tried to flee the siege of his hometown of Sirte, on the Mediterranean coast.

Fighters from the long embattled city of Misrata filmed themselves on cellphones hammering the fallen leader, howling for revenge and inflicting a series of indignities on him before his body was displayed to crowds of sightseers for several days.

SURROUNDED

The reporter caught Saif al-Islam's eye a few times, but on each occasion he looked away. At one point he asked for water, and a bottle from the journalist's pack was passed up to him. The other prisoners, too, did not want to speak.

After the plane bumped down on the tarmac in the mountains at Zintan, it was surrounded within minutes by hundreds of people - some cheering, some clearly angry, many shouting the rebels' Islamic battle cry, "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest).

Some held up cellphones to the few windows in the cargo hold, hoping to catch a snap of the most wanted man in Libya. At one point others were rattling the catches of the doors, intent it seemed on storming inside.

While his companions, clearly nervous, huddled together, Saif al-Islam seemed calm. He sat back and waited. The plane rocked gently as crowds clambered over the wings. The prisoners talked a little to each other and the guards.

Asked about The Hague court's statement that he was in touch through intermediaries about turning himself in to the international judges - who cannot impose the death penalty - he seemed to take offence: "It's all lies. I've never been in touch with them."

After more than an hour, the fighters decided they could get the other four captives off. They were helped out of the front door. Gaddafi remained where he was, on his own at the back, silent and aloof.

INJURED HAND

A further hour went by, the crowds still idling on the runway. The guards suggested it was time for the journalists to leave.

Moving back to speak to the solitary Gaddafi, the reporter asked, in English: "Are you OK?"

"Yes," he replied, looking up.

The reporter pointed to his injured hand. He said simply: "Air force, air force."

"NATO?"

"Yes. One month ago."

The reporter moved past him to the aircraft steps. Gaddafi looked up and, without a word, briefly took her hand.

Later, television footage showed him being helped off the plane as people among the crowd on the tarmac tried to slap him. His captors shoved him into a car and sped off for a hiding place somewhere in town.

(Additional reporting by Mahmoud al-Farjani in Obari and Oliver Holmes in Zintan; Writing by Alastair Macdonald in Tripoli; Editing by Michael Williams)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111120/india_nm/india606202

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Researchers develop 'super' yeast that turns pine into ethanol

Friday, November 18, 2011

Researchers at the University of Georgia have developed a "super strain" of yeast that can efficiently ferment ethanol from pretreated pine -- one of the most common species of trees in Georgia and the U.S. Their research could help biofuels replace gasoline as a transportation fuel.

"Companies are interested in producing ethanol from woody biomass such as pine, but it is a notoriously difficult material for fermentations," said Joy Doran-Peterson, associate professor of microbiology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

"The big plus for softwoods, including pine, is that they have a lot of sugar that yeast can use," she said. "Yeast are currently used in ethanol production from corn or sugarcane, which are much easier materials for fermentation; our process increases the amount of ethanol that can be obtained from pine."

Before the pinewood is fermented with yeast, however, it is pre-treated with heat and chemicals, which help open the wood for enzymes to break the cellulose down into sugars. Once sugars are released, the yeast will convert them to ethanol, but compounds produced during pretreatment tend to kill even the hardiest industrial strains of yeast, making ethanol production difficult.

Doran-Peterson, along with doctoral candidate G. Matt Hawkins, used directed evolution and adaptation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a species of yeast used commonly in industry for production of corn ethanol, to generate the "super" yeast.

Their research, published online in Biotechnology for Biofuels, shows that the pine fermented with the new yeast can successfully withstand the toxic compounds and produce ethanol from higher concentrations of pretreated pine than previously published.

"Others before us had suggested that Saccharomyces could adapt to harsh conditions. But no one had published softwood fermentation studies in which the yeast were pushed as hard as we pushed them," said Doran-Peterson.

During a two-year period, Doran-Peterson and Hawkins grew the yeast in increasingly inhospitable environments. The end result was a strain of yeast capable of producing ethanol in fermentations of pretreated wood containing as much as 17.5 percent solid biomass. Previously, researchers were only able to produce ethanol in the presence of 5 to 8 percent solids. Studies at 12 percent solids showed a substantial decrease in ethanol production.

This is important, said Doran-Peterson, because the greater the percentage of solids in wood, the more ethanol that can be produced. However, a high percentage of solids also places stress on the yeast.

"Couple that stress with the increase in toxic compounds, and the fermentation usually does not proceed very well," she said.

Pine is an ideal substrate for biofuels not only because of its high sugar content, but also because of its sustainability. While pine plantations account for only 15 percent of Georgia's trees, they provide 50 percent of harvested timber, according to Dale Greene, professor of forest operations in UGA's Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. The loblolly pine that Doran-Peterson and Hawkins used for their research is among the fastest growing trees in the American South.

"We're talking about using forestry residues, waste and unsalable timber," said Peterson, "Alternatively, pine forests are managed for timber and paper manufacturing, so there is an existing infrastructure to handle tree-farming, harvest and transportation for processing.

"The basic idea is that we're trying to get the yeast to make as much ethanol as it can, as fast as it can, while minimizing costs associated with cleaning or washing the pretreated pine. With our process, no additional clean-up steps are required before the pine is fermented," she said.

###

University of Georgia: http://www.uga.edu

Thanks to University of Georgia for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115339/Researchers_develop__super__yeast_that_turns_pine_into_ethanol

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Euro zone barely grows in Q3, downturn seen (Reuters)

BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) ? The euro zone economy grew just 0.2 percent in the third quarter as Germany and France posted solid growth but countries at the sharp end of the debt crisis fared much worse, and analysts expect bleaker times ahead across the 17-country currency bloc.

Growth in the three months from July to September was on a par with that in the second quarter, but the outlook for the last period of the year is dim, with the region's deepening debt crisis weighing on sentiment and consumer confidence.

"The key point is that this is all history," Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, said.

"Forward-looking indicators suggest that the euro-zone economy is likely to drop back into recession in the fourth-quarter and beyond."

Underlining that view, Germany's ZEW institute reported that its economic sentiment index fell to -55.2 in November, below economists's forecasts and sharply down on October's figure. It said political and economic problems in Greece and Italy had increased uncertainty about the future.

The debt crisis is only likely to make matters worse in the months to come, with countries such as Italy, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain forced to adopt tough austerity measures in order to stop the bond market driving them toward default.

Economists say there is no visible growth strategy in place to counter those cuts.

"Looking ahead, sentiment indicators point to a significant growth slowdown. A contraction of the economy toward the end of the year is possible," ING economist Carsten Brzeski said of Germany, where growth has outstripped that of its peers.

The German economy grew 0.5 percent in July-September, in line with market forecasts, and second quarter growth was revised up to 0.3 percent from 0.1 percent.

Brzeski said the weak euro, very accommodative monetary policy and ultra-low funding costs as investors scramble to buy safe-haven Bunds had helped drive growth in Germany, the euro zone's economic engine.

But "with ... France and Italy seemingly drowning in the maelstrom of the debt crisis, the German economy has lost its immunity. Austerity measures in France and Italy will also hurt German exporters," he warned.

France, the euro zone's second-biggest economy, expanded by 0.4 percent on the quarter, having contracted 0.1 percent in the previous three months.

Newly-installed European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has predicted the bloc will be suffering a "mild recession" by the end of the year, however, and that view was reinforced by ZEW's economist Michael Schroeder.

"The risks of a technical recession have increased and we expect the economy in Germany to shrink at least in one quarter, most likely in the first quarter of next year," he said. France has also rushed through belt-tightening measures, announcing 65 billion euros of tax hikes and budget cuts over five years earlier this month, as President Nicolas Sarkozy seeks to protect the country's top-notch credit rating without killing his chances of re-election in six months' time.

"Positive growth means tax revenue, but there isn't enough growth so we have to manage our budget like you do at home, or like a company chief," labor minister Xavier Bertrand said after the GDP data were released. "If there's not enough money coming in then there must be less money coming out."

A report by the Lisbon Council on Tuesday said France's inability to make rapid adjustments to its economy should be ringing alarm bells for the euro zone.

It ranked France 13th out of 17 economies for its overall health, including its growth potential, employment rate and consumption, and 15th for its progress on economic adjustments, particularly on reducing its budget deficit and keeping a lid on unit labor costs.

Even some countries not under the cosh in debt terms saw their economic fortunes wane. Dutch GDP fell 0.3 percent on the quarter, although Austria and Slovakia grew by the same amount.

PERIPHERAL PAIN

Spanish figures released late last week showed the euro zone's fourth largest economy ground to a halt in the third quarter, pushing it close to recession.

The outlook is even bleaker, with the debt crisis set to curb activity further and the likely winners of Sunday's general election promising to tighten the fiscal screws further.

Neighboring Portugal, recipient of an EU/IMF bailout, is already in recession and its slump deepened in the third quarter. Its economy shrank by 0.4 percent over the three months, data showed on Monday.

Safe haven German government bonds rose as a change of government in Italy failed to halt a rise in the country's borrowing costs and signs of political dissent in Greece re-emerged as new technocrat premier Lucas Papademos took the helm.

The premium demanded to hold French, Belgian and Austrian bonds over Bunds meanwhile hit the highest levels since the euro was launched, a sign that worries over the fate of the euro zone are beginning to take a toll on higher-rated countries' debt.

"The fact that the real (euro zone) economy still managed to grow amidst the escalating debt crisis is somewhat of a relief," said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING. "However, looking beneath the surface, things don't look so rosy."

(Additional reporting by Robin Emmott in Brussels; Writing by Mike Peacock; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111115/bs_nm/us_europe_economy

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Visa dubs upcoming digital wallet service 'V.me,' looks to differentiate product line

You may be using a Visa digital wallet next year, even if the brand name says otherwise (my Visa account was hacked twice in the past 18 months to procure vast amounts of premium shampoo and Xbox Live account add-ons, so maybe it's a good thing). Recently, the company announced that it will be using the name V.me to distinguish its upcoming digital wallet from its other services. The service, which is expected to launch in early 2012 following a private beta period, will allow customers to fund the account via their Visa card, a MasterCard account or their bank account. Taking a lead from competitors such as PayPal, Amazon.com and American Express, customers will be able to log in through a user name and password as opposed to keying in their 12-digit account number each time. A PayPal-esque send and receive money feature is also in the works, allowing for users to shoot money to each other on the fly. The company has also stated that it will be developing mobile-friendly applications for shopping from a smartphone or a tablet, the apps eventually allowing people to pay using near-field technology. And if someone can buy $500 worth of premium shampoo on an innocent man's card just by pointing their smartphone on it, that's technology in action.

Visa dubs upcoming digital wallet service 'V.me,' looks to differentiate product line originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cain accuser's former boyfriend says they all met (AP)

SHREVEPORT, La. ? Sharon Bialek's former boyfriend said Monday the then-couple spent an evening with Herman Cain in the 1990s. That countered the GOP presidential candidate's earlier statements that he never met the woman who has accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior more than a decade ago.

"Sharon indeed did meet and spend time with Mr. Cain," Victor Jay Zuckerman said.

In turn, Cain repeated his assertion that he had never met his accuser.

"I'm standing by what I have said," Cain said in Green Bay, Wis.

Hours after Zuckerman stepped forward to give his account, Cain's wife ? Gloria ? was defending her husband in a television interview as turmoil over allegations of sexual impropriety while he led the National Restaurant Association stretched into a third week.

Cain, trying to get back to a business-as-usual campaign schedule, gave an interview to the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel but stumbled through a question on Libya. The video ricocheted around the Internet.

After saying he did not agree with President Barack Obama's handing of the revolt against longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Cain said he would have taken similar steps to Obama. But he hesitated before answering.

"I got to go back, see, got all this stuff twirling around in my head," Cain said, shifting in his chair and crossing his legs during a 10-second silence.

Asked later about the moment, Cain dismissed it and told reporters: "I paused so I could gather my thoughts."

It was another distraction for the candidate just as he was looking to get beyond questions about his behavior while he led the restaurant association more than a decade ago. The allegations have dogged his campaign for the GOP nomination and sent his poll numbers slipping seven weeks before the leadoff caucuses in Iowa.

Cain has denied wrongdoing and vowed to stay in the presidential race.

Even so, he has been unable to put the controversy behind him.

Zuckerman, a Louisiana pediatrician, corroborated some of Bialek's story ? with attorney Gloria Allred at his side ? just as the firestorm around Cain seemed to be subsiding since the first disclosures on Oct. 30 rocked Cain's campaign. There hadn't been any new information disclosed in the past week about Cain or the accusations, and plans for a joint news conference by his accusers seemed increasingly unlikely.

A week ago, Cain said he didn't remember Bialek and had never seen her until she went public with allegations that Cain groped her when she sought his help getting a job after the trade group he led had fired her.

"I saw Ms. Allred and her client yesterday in that news conference for the very first time," Cain said after that event. "As I sat in my hotel room with a couple of my staff members, as they got to the microphone, my first response in my mind and reaction was, I don't even know who this woman is. Secondly, I didn't recognize the name at all."

Later, Cain added: "I don't even know who this woman is. I tried to remember if I recognized her and I didn't."

But, on Monday, Zuckerman echoed Bialek's account of the two of them meeting Cain ? and spending the evening with him ? in Chicago in 1997 at the National Restaurant Association convention. He said that Cain then invited them to an after-dinner party in a hotel suite.

"At that party, Mr. Cain engaged both of us in conversation," Zuckerman said.

Later that year, Zuckerman said, Bialek told him that Cain inappropriately touched her when, at Zuckerman's suggestion, she met him in Washington to seek employment help.

"When she returned, she was upset," Zuckerman said. "She said that something had happened and that Mr. Cain had touched her in an inappropriate manner. She said she handled it and didn't want to talk about it any further."

On Monday, Cain's team pointed to his earlier statement that he does not remember Bialek.

Cain attorney Lin Wood, in an interview with The Associated Press, said Cain met with a large number of people while leading the National Restaurant Association. And if someone remembers meeting Cain, Wood said, it is possible that Cain would not remember them.

"He doesn't recall Ms. Bialek," Wood said. "But what he does know is that he has never done such a thing as she alleges to any person."

At least three other women have claimed that Cain engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct toward them in the late 1990s when he ran the restaurant industry's Washington-based trade association.

Allred, who represents Bialek, called on Cain to acknowledge that he had met his accuser. She would not say whether other Cain accusers have contacted her, saying only that she represents only Bialek.

As Allred sought to poke holes in Cain's story, the candidate was campaigning in Wisconsin. He attended a private fundraising event and, later, was appearing for a tailgate party at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. He was heading to Iowa on Tuesday to campaign.

Meanwhile, his wife, Gloria Cain, who has been all but absent on the campaign trail this year, was appearing in a television interview set to air Monday night.

"I'm thinking he would have to have a split personality to do the things that were said," she said in excerpts of the Fox News Channel interview that were released Sunday.

She said she cannot believe the claims.

"To hear such graphic allegations and know that that would have been something that was totally disrespectful of her as a woman and I know that's not the person he is," Gloria Cain said. "He totally respects women."

___

Associated Press writers Jack Gillum in Washington, Barbara Sambriski in New York, Ray Henry in Atlanta and Dinesh Ramde in Green Bay, Wis., contributed to this report. Elliott reported from Washington.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_el_pr/us_cain

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Obama caps summit diplomacy in Hawaiian home state (AP)

KAPOLEI, Hawaii ? President Barack Obama on Sunday tied the hopes of a faster American economic recovery to the booming Pacific Rim region, saying "we're not going to be able to put our folks back to work" unless the Asia-Pacific region is successful as an engine for the world.

"We consider it a top priority," Obama said of the region where his administration is pouring in time and political capital to expand exports and business ties.

The president spoke as he dove into a day of summit diplomacy, proudly using his home state of Hawaii as the American foothold to the Pacific. He gathered with leaders of 20 other nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, whose nations span from Chile to China and account for roughly half the world's trade and economic output.

In the midst of a hard re-election bid, Obama kept his message on jobs, even as he privately lobbied for help on containing the Iranian nuclear threat.

He was to cap the summit with a solo news conference in which topics on and off his scripted agenda were likely to emerge.

Born in Hawaii, Obama reveled in having the world stage on his home turf, while back east the Republicans seeking to oust him from the White House assailed his foreign policy record.

Obama used his moment to signal to business executives and Asian leaders that the United States has shifted from a post-9/11 war focus to re-engagement all across the Pacific.

"We represent close to 3 billion people, from different continents and cultures," Obama told his APEC partners on Saturday, ahead of some luau entertainment. "Our citizens have sent us here with a common task: to bring our economies closer together, to cooperate, to create jobs and prosperity that our people deserve so that they can provide for their families."

The president is on a 9-day venture away from Washington's daily political gridlock. He will visit Australia and Indonesia before returning to the White House on Nov. 20.

Obama met Sunday with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper after a joint meeting of those two leaders and Mexican President Felipe Calderon had to be canceled because of a helicopter crash that killed Mexico's top cabinet secretary. Handlers for Obama and Harper tried to make the most of the moment for the cameras, staging not one but two photo ops of Obama and Harper, first laughing while seated at a patio table, then strolling with their suit coats slung over their shoulders.

On Saturday, largely a day of sideline meetings here, Obama prodded the skeptical leaders of Russia and China for support in dialing back Iran's nuclear ambitions, but without winning endorsement from either man. Neither Russian President Dmitry Medvedev nor Chinese President Hu Jintao publicly echoed Obama's push for solidarity over Iran.

Obama did announce the broad outlines of an agreement to create a transpacific trade zone encompassing the United States and eight other nations before going into meetings with Hu and Medvedev where he raised a new report from the U.N. atomic agency. The report asserted in the strongest terms to date that Iran is conducting secret work to develop nuclear arms.

Russia and China remain a roadblock to the United States in its push to tighten international sanctions on Iran. Both are veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council and have shown no sign the new report will change their stand.

Alongside Medvedev, Obama said the two "reaffirmed our intention to work to shape a common response" on Iran.

Shortly after, Obama joined Hu, in a run of back-to-back diplomacy with the heads of two countries that have complicated and at times divisive relations with the United States, occasional partners in joint international endeavors, but also frequent rivals or adversaries on more difficult issues, especially those with strategic implications.

Obama said that he and the Chinese leader want to ensure that Iran abides by "international rules and norms."

Obama's comments were broad enough to portray a united front without yielding any clear indication of progress.

Medvedev, for his part, was largely silent on Iran during his remarks, merely acknowledging that the subject was discussed. Hu did not mention Iran at all.

White House aides insisted later that Russia and China remain unified with the United States and other allies in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and that Obama, Hu and Medvedev had agreed to work on the next steps. Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the new allegations about Iran's programs demand an international response.

"I think the Russians and the Chinese understand that," he said. "We're going to be working with them to formulate that response."

As the president held forth on the world stage, Republicans vying to compete against Obama for the presidency unleashed withering criticism in a debate in South Carolina. It was a rare moment in which foreign policy garnered attention in a campaign dominated by the flagging U.S. economy.

"If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon," said Romney, a former Massachusetts governor.

Iran has insisted its nuclear work is in the peaceful pursuit of energy and research, not weaponry.

On the Pacific trade pact, Obama said details must still be worked out, but said the goal was to complete the deal by next year.

The eight countries joining the U.S. in the zone would be Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Obama also spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda about Japan's interest in joining the trade bloc.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111113/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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