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By David Morgan 56 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it had no evidence Osama bin Laden was dead, shedding further doubt on a secret document leaked in France that said Saudi secret services believed he died last month. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said that as far as he knew the Saudi-born al Qaeda leader was still alive. "To my knowledge Osama bin Laden is not dead," he said on LCI Television. But he added he had not seen a French secret service report, printed by a newspaper, which said Saudi Arabia was convinced bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan last month. France, the United States and Britain all said earlier they were unable to confirm the report in French regional daily L'Est Republicain, which quoted the DGSE foreign intelligence service. Time magazine separately posted an article on its Web site quoting an unidentified Saudi source as saying bin Laden was stricken with a water-borne disease and may already be dead. The Saudi Embassy in Washington issued a statement saying: "The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has no evidence to support recent media reports that Osama bin Laden is dead. Information that has been reported otherwise is purely speculative and cannot be independently verified." French President Jacques Chirac told reporters bin Laden's death "has not been confirmed in any way whatsoever and so I have no comment to make" and that he was surprised a confidential note had been published. France has launched an investigation into the leak. "No comment, no knowledge," said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when asked about the French article by reporters in New York. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, asked in a BBC interview if he could shed light on the report, said: "No, I can't. I haven't heard anything that indicates that might be the case." A U.S. intelligence source said Washington, which wants to capture bin Laden, had no evidence the report was any more credible than earlier rumours of his death. "We've heard these things before and have no reason to think this is any different," said the U.S. intelligence official, who asked not to be named. TYPHOID L'Est Republicain, published in Nancy, printed what it said was a copy of the DGSE report, dated September 21, and said it was passed to Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin the same day. "According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead," it read. "The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of al Qaeda fell victim, while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006 to a very serious case of typhoid that led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs." Bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until its Taliban government was overthrown by U.S.-backed forces in 2001 after al Qaeda's September 11 attacks on the United States. Since then, U.S. and Pakistani officials have said they believe he is hiding somewhere on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Bin Laden is rumoured to have been suffering from kidney ailments and receiving dialysis treatment. His last videotaped message was released in late 2004 but several low-quality audio tapes have been released this year. Time magazine said its source claimed Saudi officials have received a number of reports in recent weeks that bin Laden had been struck by a water-borne illness and was likely to be dead but it had no solid proof. There was scepticism about whether Riyadh was well-placed to be the first to pick up on such a development. "If anyone was in the picture, I doubt it would be Saudi intelligence," a Western diplomat in Riyadh said. "Even if Saudi Arabia had information, they'd pass it on to the United States, not France. It doesn't ring true." (Additional reporting by reporters in Paris, London, New York, Washington and Riyadh)

By WILL GRAVES, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago LOUISVILLE, Ky. - More stormy weather was forecast Sunday after two days of high winds, heavy rain and tornadoes that were blamed for at least nine deaths in the Midwest and the South. Flood warnings were in effect for parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee, and severe weather was possible along the Eastern Seaboard, forecasters said. Storms on Friday and Saturday stranded people in cars, forces others from their homes and left thousands without power. The death toll in Kentucky reached eight, including a father and his 1-year-old daughter in a truck that skidded in floodwaters. In Arkansas, a woman whose boat was struck by lightning died and authorities were searching for two missing people. Authorities urged people to stay off the roads. "We have a lot of people driving past the high water signs and they are getting stuck," said Kentucky State Police dispatcher John Reynolds. The National Weather Service reported that areas of Kentucky received at least 5 inches of rain, with isolated regions getting close to 10 inches. Over 24 hours, parts of northeast Arkansas and southeast Missouri received more than 10 inches of rain, the weather service reported. Flooding forced more than 100 people to flee an apartment complex for shelter at a nearby high school, officials said. Portions of Interstate 64 just east of Louisville were closed in both directions due to standing water. Meanwhile, the storms left thousands of Kentuckians without power. The rain dampened a music and arts festival in central Kentucky as waters rose to at least 6 feet in some areas, forcing the evacuation of about 200 people at the farmstead just north of Harrodsburg in Mercer County. The American Red Cross and six county emergency agencies used boats and school buses to transport attendees at the Terrapin Hill Harvest Festival to a shelter at Lion's Park in Harrodsburg, said Ruthann Phillips of the Red Cross. "It was almost Katrina-like pretty much," said Chester Craig, a lieutenant with the Mercer Central Volunteer Fire Department. "There were vehicles underwater and people were walking around in a daze." Elsewhere, a tornado touched down Saturday night in Kent County in western Michigan, peeling off the roof of a barn, overturning vehicles and damaging businesses, according to the weather service. No injuries were reported. In central and eastern Missouri, hundreds were without homes or power a day after a storm churned up about 10 tornadoes and drenched some parts of the state with as much as a foot of rain. Nearly 400 structures were damaged or destroyed and at least 10 people were injured, said Susie Stonner, a state emergency management spokeswoman. In Arkansas, four northern counties declared emergencies Saturday after severe flooding. Emily Taylor, a state emergency management spokeswoman, said a tornado touched down five miles outside Ash Flat, damaging 12 homes and destroying two others. Two people were taken to a hospital for minor injuries. In northwest Tennessee, about 300 people returned home Saturday after they were evacuated Friday night from a trailer park in Obion County when water from a nearby creek began to overflow, said Jeremy Heidt, a spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. No tornado touchdowns, major damage or injuries were reported, he said. In Evansville, Ind., Vanderburgh County emergency management director Sherman Greer said his agency had given away about 550 sandbags in 90 minutes Saturday, many of them to residents of Evansville's southeast side who were dealing with flooding for the second time in two weeks. "These people are going through round two right now," Greer said. "Just about the time they got their carpet dried out ... they're going through it again." ___ Associated Press writers Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Jill Zeman in Little Rock, Ark., and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.

By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer Sun Sep 24, 4:29 AM ET PARIS - A leaked French intelligence document raises the possibility Osama bin Laden died of typhoid, but President Jacques Chirac said Saturday the report was "in no way whatsoever confirmed" and officials from Kabul to Washington expressed skepticism about its accuracy. There have been numerous reports over the years that bin Laden had been killed or that he was dangerously ill, but the al-Qaida leader has periodically released audiotapes appealing to followers and commenting on current news events. The regional French newspaper l'Est Republicain printed what it described as a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE intelligence service citing an uncorroborated report from a "usually reliable source" who said Saudi secret services were convinced that bin Laden had died. The document, dated Thursday, was sent to Chirac and other top French officials, the newspaper said. "This information is in no way whatsoever confirmed," Chirac said when asked about the document. "I have no comment." Saudi Arabia's U.S. embassy said it had no evidence to support reports that Osama bin Laden is dead. "Information that has been reported otherwise is purely speculative and cannot be independently verified," the embassy said in a statement on its Web site. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had "no comment and no knowledge" about the report, while presidential spokesman Blair Jones said the White House could not confirm the report's accuracy. But two U.S. intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said U.S. agencies had no information to suggest bin Laden was dead or dying. One of the U.S. intelligence officials said the report came from an unverified, unconfirmed source. If bin Laden were dead or dying, U.S. officials would expect to see telltale indicators that they are not seeing, the official said. The official did not explain what those indicators are, but such an event would probably trigger increased discussion among known extremists. A senior official in Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry said he was very skeptical of the document, noting past false reports of the death of bin Laden. He would not let his name be used because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Mahmud Ali Durrani told The Associated Press in an interview "everyone is speculating" about bin Laden. "I think it would be very nice if we can confirm that he's dead," he said. "I don't think there's much truth to that," Durrani added. "If he were in Pakistan and we had firm intelligence, I can tell you with total certainty that we'd get him." Many people suspect bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders are hiding in the Pakistani mountains along the border with Afghanistan. Among previous reports, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said during the U.S.-led offensive that toppled Afghanistan's Taliban regime in late 2001 that he was "reasonably sure" bin Laden had been killed by U.S. bombing raids on the Tora Bora caves. Bin Laden also was rumored to have kidney problems, but a physician detained by Pakistan on suspicion he was treating top Taliban and al-Qaida militants told AP in December 2002 that the al-Qaida leader was in excellent health when the physician saw him a year earlier. The Washington-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism communications, said it was not aware of reports on the Internet speculating about bin Laden and a life-threatening illness. "We've seen nothing from any al-Qaida messaging or other indicators that would point to the death of Osama bin Laden," IntelCenter director Ben N. Venzke told AP. Al-Qaida would likely release information of bin Laden's death fairly quickly if it were true, said Venzke, whose organization also provides counterterrorism intelligence services for the U.S. government. "They would want to release that to sort of control the way that it unfolds. If they wait too long, they could lose the initiative on it," he said. IntelCenter said the last time it could be sure bin Laden was alive was June 29, when al-Qaida released an audiotaped eulogy for al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by a U.S. air strike in Iraq earlier that month. Chirac spoke at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Compiegne, France, where the leaders were meeting. Putin suggested leaks can be ways to manipulate. "When there are leaks ... one can say that (they) were done especially," he said. Chirac said he was "a bit surprised" at the leak and had asked Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to investigate how the document was published. The document from DGSE, or Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure, indicated the information came from a single source. "The chief of al-Qaida was a victim of a severe typhoid crisis while in Pakistan on August 23, 2006," the document said. His geographic isolation meant medical assistance was impossible, the French report said, adding that his lower limbs were allegedly paralyzed. According to the document, Saudi security services were pursuing further details, notably the place of bin Laden's burial. When asked about the report during an appearance in Montreal, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that if proven true, it would be "good news" for the entire world. ___ Associated Press writers Katherine Shrader and Deb Riechmann in Washington, Anne Gearan in New York, Lauren Frayer in Cairo, Egypt, and Phil Courvette in Montreal contributed to this story.

By The Associated Press Sat Sep 23, 9:27 PM ET KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Patrick Crowe says he is having a blast promoting talk-show icon Oprah Winfrey for president. Winfrey's lawyers are not. Crowe has been unofficially campaigning for the first lady of daytime TV for years. The Kansas City man's Web site, http://www.oprah08.net, comes complete with a campaign song and volunteer sign-up. He also sells "Oprah for President" T-shirts. The retired math teacher's unflappable support has recently drawn the ire of Winfrey's lawyers, who sent Crowe a letter on Aug. 22 demanding that he remove her picture from the Web site and a book he is selling. The letter said Crowe's zeal has crossed into copyright and trademark infringements. But Crowe is persistent. The Web site remained up Saturday, and he has been fielding requests for radio interviews. "It has become increasingly serious to me," Crowe, who opposes the Bush administration and its foreign policy, told The Kansas City Star for a story Friday. "I know Oprah can do better than that." Crowe believes Winfrey could bridge partisan lines with her charm. He also noted Winfrey's business acumen, widespread name recognition and reputation as a woman of compassion and determination. A spokeswoman for Harpo said that Winfrey has said she has no political aspirations.

By FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 23, 6:58 PM ET NEW YORK - Indonesia's foreign minister said Saturday that the execution a day earlier of three Roman Catholic militants for bloody attacks on Muslims six years ago was a matter of justice not religion. ADVERTISEMENT The comments by Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda came as thousands of security forces in parts of central and eastern Indonesia stood watch around churches and markets to guard against a repeat of the violence Friday, carried about by Christian mobs who torched cars and looted stores in anger over the executions. "The case was a pure enforcement of law. It has nothing to do with the questions of tolerance between Islam and other religions," the minister told The Associated Press in an interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting. "All the legal remedies have been exhausted." The Vatican expressed "great regret" over the executions, and called for reconciliation and peaceful coexistence among different religions in the country. The uproar occurred as many Muslim around the world protested recent comments about Islam made by Pope Benedict XVI, who has since expressed regret. The government's decision to execute the three Christians raised questions about the role religion played in handing down punishment for the unrest in central Sulawesi province, which largely ended with the signing of a peace deal four years ago. Only a handful of Muslims were convicted, all to 15 years in jail or less, for their roles in the sectarian violence that killed at least 1,000 people from both sides in Sulawesi from 1998 to 2002. Human rights workers say the trial of the three Christians was a sham. But Wirajuda said the cases were reviewed by local courts, provincial courts and the supreme court. The government, he said, must now meet with religious leaders to convince them that justice had been carried out without consideration of religion. "We have a truly independent judiciary," Wirajuda said. "This is a new Indonesia." The three Christians were put to death as the government prepares for the executions of three Muslim militants convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. In Indonesia, a curfew was imposed in Maumere, a town on Flores island, where the condemned men were born, after crowds Friday set fire to the local parliament and court buildings to protest the trio's deaths by firing squad. The eastern regions saw most of Friday's violence, with Christian mobs looting Muslim-owned shops, throwing rocks, blockading roads and setting cars on fire. In one town, machete-wielding youths ran through the streets terrorizing residents. Gangs also assaulted a jail in the West Timor town of Atambua, freeing some 200 inmates after terrified guards fled to the nearby jungle. Soldiers and policemen were scouring the jungles Saturday for some 180 inmates still missing, said local police chief Lt. Col. Heb Behen, adding that reinforcements had been called in to protect residents. The town of Palu, the provincial capital of Central Sulawesi and the scene of Friday's pre-dawn executions, was quiet on Saturday with hundreds of police patrolling the main roads. ___ AP reporter Irwan Firdaus in Palu, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

By Martin Burlund Sat Sep 23, 1:42 PM ET ROSKILDE, Denmark (Reuters) - A ship carrying the remains of the mother of Russia's last tsar set sail on Saturday from Denmark for Russia, where they will be laid to rest next to her late husband in accordance with her wishes. The reburial of Empress Maria Fyodorovna, mother of Nicholas II, has been postponed several times because of a Russian-Danish row over a Chechen conference held in Denmark in 2002 and Denmark's release from detention of a Chechen rebel envoy. Danish Queen Margrethe II sat opposite family members of the Danish-born Maria Fyodorovna at a memorial service at Roskilde Cathedral near Copenhagen on Saturday. Some 500 people dressed in black sang muted hymns led by a choir. The coffin was taken by horsedrawn carriage to Copenhagen's Russian Orthodox church, where clergy prayed and performed traditional rituals. It was then taken to Copenhagen Harbour, where a Danish naval ship waited to carry it to St. Petersburg. On September 28, Maria Fyodorovna will be reburied in a crypt next to her husband, Czar Alexander III, in the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg, 140 years to the day after she first arrived in Russia. She was born in 1847 as Princess Dagmar, the daughter of Danish King Christian IX. She changed her name and converted to the Russian Orthodox faith when she married Alexander in 1866. Her son, Czar Nicholas II, was forced to abdicate in 1917 and executed by the Bolshevik revolutionaries who seized power months later. After losing two sons and five grandchildren in the revolution, Maria Fyodorovna left Russia for England in 1919 and later returned to Denmark, where she died in 1928.

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer Sat Sep 23, 9:30 AM ET WASHINGTON - Henry Paulson tried to change the tone of discussions between Washington and Beijing during his first trip to China as Treasury secretary, but that didn't change the results. ADVERTISEMENT Paulson came away empty-handed in terms of Chinese commitments to deal more quickly with long-festering trade problems such as China's currency system or its widespread piracy of U.S. movies and computer programs. The one achievement announced during four days of talks with Chinese officials was the establishment of a U.S.-China strategic economic dialogue that will be led by Paulson and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi. The group, which will include other top officials from both governments, will meet twice a year to deal with long-range economic issues. Critics noted that the new panel will join a number of other commissions created over the years that have all failed to contain the widening trade chasm between the two countries, which is on its way to easily surpassing last year's $202 billion record. "It's bureaucratic gimmickry. America's domestic manufacturers and working families don't need another talk shop," said Alan Tonelson, a research fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, which represents mainly small manufacturers. But other business groups praised the new forum, saying it would ensure that U.S. grievances are reviewed at the highest levels of both governments. The announcement was seen as another step in Paulson's efforts to restore some of the Treasury Department's lost clout. Paulson got assurances from the White House that he would have more of a say in policy deliberations than his two predecessors, Paul O'Neill and John Snow. One sign of Paulson's influence was the fact that Allan Hubbard, chairman of the president's National Economic Council and a close Bush friend, accompanied Paulson on his trip to China. Paulson has also lured Deborah Lehr, one of Washington's leading China experts, back into government service as his senior adviser and the top staffer for the new joint forum. The forum will coordinate administration strategy with a number of other Cabinet agencies, not just on economic concerns but also on energy, health and environmental issues. "Paulson is staking out a role as the administration's coordinator on a wide range of China issues beyond those normally handled by Treasury," said Nicholas Lardy, a China expert at the Institute for International Economics. Paulson used the trip to highlight his own close ties with Chinese officials, built up during some 70 trips he made to China while at Goldman Sachs, where he enjoyed a good deal of success winning business for the investment firm. Believing the administration needed a new approach, Paulson toned down the rhetoric and the expectations for quick success. Those moves were seen as smart, given that tough talk from Snow over the need for China to revalue its currency had met with little success. "This is a new era in U.S.-China relations and we could not be better positioned in having someone of Hank Paulson's stature dealing with the Chinese," said Myron Brilliant, vice president for East Asia affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Paulson was scheduled to meet in the upcoming week with Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the key sponsors of legislation that would impose penalty tariffs of 27.5 percent on all Chinese products coming into the United States unless China goes further to revalue its currency. American companies blame the loss of nearly 3 million manufacturing jobs since Bush took office in part on a Chinese currency they contend is undervalued by as much as 40 percent. That makes Chinese goods cheaper for American consumers and U.S. products more expensive in China. Schumer and Graham have been promised a vote on their legislation in the upcoming week. Many analysts believe it is likely to pass, given the growing anti-trade sentiment in a nation facing skyrocketing deficits. However, the measure is not expected to become law this year. The administration opposes the bill and there is no companion measure in the House. Schumer said in an interview that it was still his inclination to move forward with the legislation to send a message to China, although he said wanted to hear a report from Paulson on his trip. The National Association of Manufacturers urged senators to vote against the proposal while the National Council of Textile Organizations urged support for it, saying it would send a "strong message that millions of U.S. workers will not be put at further risk because China refuses to play fair." Frank Vargo, vice president for international affairs at NAM, said protectionist pressures will continue to build in this country unless China moves more quickly to allow its currency to rise in value. "In China you have reformers who want to change and hard-liners who are very concerned about change," Vargo said. "Hopefully, Paulson will be able to use his knowledge of how China works. They have a huge amount of respect for him."

Mon Sep 18, 5:18 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Oxygen taken from tree rings could help settle the question of whether hurricanes are getting stronger and more frequent, U.S. researchers said on Monday. Dana Miller and colleagues at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville said they had used the method to reconstruct a 220-year history of cyclone activity for southern Georgia. Their findings confirmed the recent hurricane record and suggest a way to track the weather record going farther back in time, they write in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Recent studies suggest a sharp increase in hurricane activity and intensity since the mid-1990s," they wrote in their report. But weather cycles may last for many decades. "Before about 1900, systematic records of hurricane occurrence are fragmentary in many localities and rely predominantly on documentary records such as ship logs and news media," they wrote. Shallow-rooted trees such as pines take their water from the surface, and the sources vary depending on rainfall. In hurricanes, the oxygen contained the water is slightly different structurally. "Well-organized tropical cyclones, such as major hurricanes, produce large amounts of precipitation with distinctly lower (by as much as 10 percent) oxygen isotope compositions than typical low-latitude thunderstorms," the researchers wrote. These isotopes -- chemical variants of oxygen -- are taken up by the tree and stored in the cellulose. There it remains until the tree is cut down. The researchers could easily find the oxygen isotopes from different years by counting the tree rings, just as a child would. The researchers found evidence of three big storms in the 1870s, for instance. "Other decades of apparent activity include the 1840 and 1850 decades, 1800-1820 decades, and 1770s decade," they wrote.

AP - An al-Qaida-linked group posted a Web video Saturday purporting to show the bodies of two American soldiers being dragged behind a truck, then set on fire in apparent retaliation for the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman by U.S. troops from the same unit.

MILWAUKEE - Barry Bonds hit his 734th career home run Saturday night, breaking Hank Aaron's NL record in the same city where the Hall of Fame slugger started and ended his major league career. The San Francisco Giants star hit a 1-0 pitch from Milwaukee's Chris Capuano over the right-center fence in the third inning, just out of the reach of outfielders Brady Clark and Corey Hart. Bonds, who hit No. 733 and drove in a season-high six runs Friday night, is 21 homers shy of Aaron's career mark of 755. It was Bonds' 26th home run of the season.

By The Associated Press Sat Sep 23, 6:50 PM ET KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Patrick Crowe says he is having a blast promoting talk-show icon Oprah Winfrey for president. Winfrey's lawyers are not. Crowe has been unofficially campaigning for the first lady of daytime TV for years. The Kansas City man's Web site, http://www.oprah08.net, comes complete with a campaign song and volunteer sign-up. He also sells "Oprah for President" T-shirts. The retired math teacher's unflappable support has recently drawn the ire of Winfrey's lawyers, who sent Crowe a letter on Aug. 22 demanding that he remove her picture from the Web site and a book he is selling. The letter said Crowe's zeal has crossed into copyright and trademark infringements. But Crowe is persistent. The Web site remained up Saturday, and he has been fielding requests for radio interviews. "It has become increasingly serious to me," Crowe, who opposes the Bush administration and its foreign policy, told The Kansas City Star for a story Friday. "I know Oprah can do better than that." Crowe believes Winfrey could bridge partisan lines with her charm. He also noted Winfrey's business acumen, widespread name recognition and reputation as a woman of compassion and determination. A spokeswoman for Harpo said that Winfrey has said she has no political aspirations.

Reuters - A wind-driven wildfire on Saturday threatened some of California's premier vineyards and the winemaking city of Napa, one of several blazes kindled across the state by dry conditions and seasonal Santa Ana winds.

By DOUG SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 23, 3:26 PM ET CAMERON, La. - A year after Hurricane Rita, the grave at Ebenezer Baptist Cemetery sits empty, half-filled with stagnant water, its vault and casket yanked out of the ground and carried north by churning floodwater from the Gulf of Mexico. Across southwest Louisiana, cemeteries still bear scars from Hurricane Rita like 6-foot rectangular holes in the soil. Hunters and farmers make grim calls to the coroner after stumbling across caskets miles away from the graves. "We could be recovering caskets, from here on, for years," said Charlie Hunter, a coroner's investigator working in Cameron and Calcasieu parishes. "It's going to be a long process." "In the marsh, duck hunters going to their duck blinds, they're still finding caskets," he said. Hunter said his office has recovered 325 caskets and human remains the storm pulled up from the earth. One casket was found 34 miles from its grave, he said. Of those recovered, 240 have been identified and returned to their graves. Local funeral homes have started putting metal bracelets on the deceased, and attaching metal discs to vaults and caskets, stamped with the person's name. That will make it easier to identify disinterred bodies when the next storm comes.

By Sue Pleming Sat Sep 23, 3:24 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Libya's Foreign Minister on Saturday for the first time since the two sides restored full diplomatic ties and urged Tripoli to resolve outstanding issues linked to the Lockerbie bombing. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice told Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam of the "import" of settling issues tied to the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, for which Libya has claimed responsibility. Some relatives of the victims of that bombing, which killed 270 people, say Libya has not paid up a final tranche of compensation payments and are outraged the United States has restored full diplomatic ties last May. McCormack said Rice also discussed claims emerging from Libya's 1986 bombing of a disco in West Berlin used by U.S. servicemen in which three people died and 230 were injured. In addition, they covered counter-terrorism issues and Sudan, said McCormack of the meeting. The United States wants Arab nations like Libya to press Sudan's government to accept a U.N. force in its war-torn Darfur region. Rice posed briefly for the cameras and shook hands with Shalgam before the meeting began on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where the two also met last year. Asked when she planned to visit Libya, Rice smiled and said: "We will let you know our travel plans when we have them." The Libyan minister did not comment. SYMBOLIC Libya, led by one-time U.S. antagonist Muammar Gaddafi, has been awaiting news of a visit by Rice that would be seen as a symbolic gesture of the new relationship. The highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Libya so far was U.S. Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, who led a U.S. delegation on a trip to the OPEC member country last July. While full diplomatic relations were restored between the two countries last May and Libya was later removed from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terror, one senior State Department official said it was taking time to resolve various issues, indicating a trip was not likely soon. "That process (resolving issues) has been very slow but I don't think this is because of a lack of good will," said the official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of his comments. The United States would also like to see the case of six foreign medics accused of infecting 400 Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS closed. Washington has said the legal process in that case was flawed. U.S.-Libya relations turned around after Tripoli decided in December 2003 to give up its weapons program. The senior State Department official said the United States viewed its relationship with Libya very seriously, particularly after Gaddafi gave up his country's weapons program. "Those things are of value and the president and secretary of state have no desire to go back to the past," said the official. "It's tedious but if we are patient and careful and one side doesn't get blustery with the other, I am hoping we can work through these things." While restoring diplomatic ties and announcing the opening of an embassy, the United States has still not appointed an ambassador to Libya. One U.S. official said there was no big rush in pushing through a nomination for a new ambassador to the Senate as it was unlikely to go through until after the midterm elections in November.

By James Mackenzie and Christian Lowe Sat Sep 23, 12:42 PM ET COMPIEGNE, France (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to reassure France and Germany on Saturday they had nothing to fear from Moscow's growing economic clout and held out the prospect of more natural gas for Europe. Putin's remarks at a joint news conference with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel followed a meeting which took place against a background of renewed Western concern on energy security and aviation. The meeting in an 18th century chateau, close to the spot where the armistice after World War One was signed, was billed by France as a chance to exchange views. But Russia's acquisition earlier this month of a 5 percent stake in Europe's flagship aerospace group EADS and standoff between Moscow and Western oil firms put a sharp focus on Moscow's ambitions to use its huge energy reserves to increase its global influence. Putin tried to allay concerns about the investment in EADS, saying Russia's intentions were not "aggressive." He also said Russia was a reliable energy partner and said gas giant Gazprom was considering rerouting to Europe some of the 70 billion cubic meters of gas expected to come from the huge Shtokman field when production starts. Shorn of Soviet-era debt and flush with oil revenues, a newly confident Moscow has sought to create industrial champions and expand in energy and other strategic sectors in the European Union, notably aerospace and defense. Europe is keenly interested in partnership with Russia, the world's second biggest oil exporter and holder of a mass of strategic mineral deposits, but there has been unease about the influence of the Kremlin in the economy. PARTNERSHIP EADS bosses have welcomed technical cooperation but firmly rebuffed talk that Russia might become a core shareholder. Standing alongside Chirac and Merkel, Putin said the West had nothing to fear but he reiterated Russia's interest in developing a partnership in the aerospace sector. "As far as the 5 percent stake is concerned, it is not a sign of some sort of aggressive behavior by the Russian side; it is a play on the share market and the Russian bank saw a favorable deal and took advantage of it," Putin said. "We do not intend to use these shares to change the institutional situation in EADS but we are ready for partnership," he told the news conference. Speaking to Russian reporters afterwards, he struck a more assertive tone, saying Russia wanted a deeper role in EADS under clear "rules of the game," and holding out the possibility Russia could buy more of the consortium's shares. Russia, which caused deep alarm in Europe last winter by cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine, has put the brakes on energy projects in Russia operated by Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil. Some in the market see the move as an attempt to increase the Kremlin's stake in those projects. But Putin said that Russia was a reliable partner and said natural gas giant Gazprom was considering exporting big volumes of gas to Europe from its giant Shtokman gas project. "I can inform you that Gazprom is looking at that and the decision to do that could be taken in the near future," he said. Most of the 70 billion cubic meters of gas the field is expected to produce each year once it comes on line is earmarked for the United States. But Putin said a big part of total output could end up in Europe.