By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writers Christopher Torchia And Kim Gamel, Associated Press Writers   – 2 hrs 44 mins ago

NEAR LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan – U.S. Army soldiers launched a preliminary operation Tuesday in support of a planned U.S.-Afghan attack on the largest Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan.

NATO and Afghan officials, meanwhile, urged militants holding Marjah, where an offensive is expected, to lay down their arms and warned civilians there to “keep your heads down.”

About 400 U.S. troops from the 5th Stryker Brigade as well as 250 Afghan soldiers and their 30 Canadian trainers moved into positions northeast of the town.

No casualties were reported. Large plumes of smoke could be seen in the area, and reporters traveling with the U.S. unit could hear the distant rattle of 50-caliber machine gun fire and detonations from MK-19s, which fire 40 millimeter grenades from Stryker vehicles.

U.S. officials have not said when the main attack on the town of some 80,000 people will take place but have nonetheless heavily publicized plans to attack, causing hundreds of people to flee the opium-producing center in advance of the fighting.

On Tuesday, however, Taliban militants prevented townspeople from leaving Marjah, as families huddled inside their homes, witnesses said.

The offensive will be the first major one since President Barack Obama announced he was sending 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan.

Villager Mohammad Hakim gambled that he could wait until the last minute because he was worried about abandoning his cotton fields.

He finally tried to move his wife, nine sons, four daughters and grandchildren out of Marjah earlier Tuesday but said militants told him to return home because they had mined the surrounding roads.

“All of the people are very scared,” he said in a telephone interview. “Our village is like a ghost town. The people are staying in their homes.”

NATO and Afghan officials have insisted their primary goal is to gain public confidence and promised to follow the military action with projects aimed at restoring government control and services in the area.

“The success of the operation will not be in the military phase,” NATO’s civilian chief in Afghanistan, former British Ambassador Mark Sedwill, said Tuesday.

“It will be over the next weeks and months as the people … feel the benefits of better governance, of economic opportunities and of operating under the legitimate authorities of Afghanistan,” he told reporters in a briefing at NATO headquarters in Kabul.

International officials believe the insurgency has been able to capitalize on widespread public anger over President Hamid Karzai’s corruption-ridden government and failure to provide services after more than eight years of war.

Two NATO service members were killed Tuesday in separate attacks, including an American who died in a bombing in the south.

A French soldier also was killed during a gunfight after insurgents attacked an Afghan army convoy being escorted by French troops in the eastern Kapisa province, according to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office.

The governor of Helmand province said it was unusual but necessary to broadcast the plans for the offensive “to make the people aware that we are coming, that the purpose of this is to work for them, not just to conduct a military operation.”

Authorities have not advised Marjah residents to leave but have warned them to stay inside and avoid road travel once the operation begins.

Gov. Gulab Mangal said a commission was ready to handle the flow of refugees and any other fallout from the military action.

Mangal said at least 164 families had left Marjah. Afghan families have an average of six members, according to private relief groups.

“The commission is fully prepared. We have got tents. We’ve got food. We’ve got everything in place,” he said at the joint press conference with Sedwill, declining to give specific numbers.

Sedwill said the main question was whether Taliban militants in the area could be persuaded to join a government-promoted reintegration process.

“The message to them is accept it,” he said. “The message to the people of the area is of course keep your heads down, stay inside when the operation is going ahead.”

Mangal also said the government had received preliminary indications that some local Taliban were ready to renounce al-Qaida and join the government’s reintegration process.

“I’m confident that there are a number of Taliban members who will reconcile with us and who will be under the sovereignty of the Afghan government,” he said.

Interior Minister Hanif Atmar also unveiled a pilot model policing program in Kandahar that will get help from American and Canadian police trainers.

With Kandahar a key stronghold for the Taliban, he said enemy infiltration and overall corruption are among his top concerns.

“We’re looking at different measures to counter these two problems,” he said.

The program will focus on training, strengthening and equipping Afghan police to work within their local communities. If successful, he said the ministry has plans to expand the program to other big cities and provinces in Afghanistan over the next five years.

Canadian Ambassador William Crosbie called the policing strategy “a priority focus for Canada because credible, professional Afghan police is key to fostering security.”

A U.S. Predator drone also crashed upon takeoff in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday, but the Air Force said it was not caused by hostile fire and no casualties or damage were reported.

___

Gamel reported from Kabul. Associated Press writers Noor Khan in Kandahar and Amir Shah in Kabul also contributed to this report.

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer Charles Babington, Associated Press Writer   – 1 hr 3 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Republican leaders expressed renewed skepticism Tuesday about President Barack Obama’s call for a bipartisan forum on health care, raising questions about how much can be achieved at the televised event later this month.

After meeting with Obama at the White House to discuss jobs, House and Senate GOP leaders told reporters there might be room for bipartisan accord on that topic. They were much more dubious about health care, however, the president’s signature issue that has been bottled up in Congress for weeks.

“It’s going to be very difficult to have a bipartisan conversation with regard to a 2,700-page health care bill that the Democrat majority in the House and the Democrat majority in the Senate can’t pass,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. “It really is time to scrap the bill and start over.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made similar remarks, even though the White House says Obama has no plans to start the process from scratch.

With the two sides at such odds, some Republican activists privately worry that their party’s leaders might be walking into a trap on Feb. 25 designed to portray their health care proposals as thin.

If so, a shaky showing by GOP leaders event could possibly embolden congressional Democrats to make a final, aggressive push to overhaul the nation’s health care system, with or without any Republican votes.

Some Republicans doubt that scenario, saying Democrats have lost momentum for any plan that’s certain to draw fierce criticism. But they noted that the White House has not backed away from its support of legislation similar to what the Democratic-controlled House and Senate passed separately last year over strong GOP objections.

“This is a clever tactic by the president to try to put the Republicans on the defensive,” said John Feehery, a GOP consultant and former congressional aide.

The House’s top two Republican leaders openly questioned Obama’s sincerity and hinted they might skip the meeting if he uses the Democratic bills as the starting point for discussions.

“Assuming the president is sincere about moving forward on health care in a bipartisan way, does that mean he will agree to start over?” said a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel from Boehner and GOP Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia.

“If the starting point for this meeting is the job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate,” Boehner and Cantor wrote.

That’s how conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh sees it. He says Republicans should not be afraid of being called naysayers on health care — they should wear the label proudly. “Negotiating with Obama is a waste of time,” Limbaugh said on his program Monday. “All it’s doing is helping him fulfill a photo-op promise of having this stuff televised, and it’s also to set (Republicans) up as the reason this didn’t pass.”

They asked Obama to rule out using “budget reconciliation” rules, which could allow Democrats to enact some health care provisions with a simple Senate majority, not the 60-vote super majority needed to overcome Republican delaying tactics. Democrats control 59 of the Senate’s 100 seats.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said the president will not rule out using reconciliation, but is sincere in wanting to hear Republicans’ ideas.

In announcing his call for the bipartisan event in a CBS News interview Sunday, Obama was vague when asked whether he was willing to start from scratch on health care. But the White House circulated talking points saying the president is “adamant about passing comprehensive reform similar to the bills passed by the House and the Senate” shortly before Democrats lost their filibuster-proof Senate majority.

All presidents command a bully pulpit, and Democrats feel Obama was especially nimble in parrying House Republicans’ arguments and criticisms at a Jan. 29 televised event. The Feb. 25 setting could offer him a similar chance to spar with his critics.

Liberal groups hope Americans will see the Republicans as obstructionists, possibly encouraging Democrats to use their still-sizable congressional majorities to enact their health care proposals via the budget reconciliation rules, without GOP help.

If the Feb. 25 meeting clarifies the sharp differences between the two parties, “that might be helpful,” said Richard Kirsch of the liberal Heath Care for America Now.

But some Republicans said Obama runs the risk of appearing insincere if he convenes the bipartisan gathering without showing greater willingness to shelve or greatly change his party’s proposals.

ROME – Italy’s agriculture minister defended his sponsorship of McDonald’s new all-Italian burger Monday amid criticism that he is selling out to a multinational corporation and sacrificing Italy’s culinary reputation in the process.

Minister Luca Zaia has argued that McDonald’s new McItaly burger — using all Italian beef, Asiago cheese and artichoke spread — will pump (EURO)3.5 million ($4.8 million) more a month into the pockets of Italian farmers grappling with tough economic times.

But for a country that gave birth to the Slow Food movement a quarter-century ago and prides itself on its varied, delicious and healthy cuisine, Zaia’s enthusiastic support of McDonald’s has been hard to swallow.

It didn’t help that Zaia and McDonald’s executives launched the new burger last month at McDonald’s flagship restaurant in Rome’s historic center near the Spanish Steps, the chain’s first Italian outpost.

The opening of those Golden Arches in 1986 famously inspired a relatively unknown Turin foodie, Carlo Petrini, to launch what became Slow Food — the international movement that embraces local, organic food and home cooking over fast food and the industrialized food chain.

In a recent front-page opinion piece in La Repubblica newspaper, Petrini challenged Zaia and McDonald’s to back up their claims of helping Italian farmers with a kilo-by-kilo accounting of how much farmers are actually getting paid out of the deal.

And he chafed at Zaia’s suggestion that the all-Italian menu would “globalize the identity of Italian agriculture.”

“Taste, like identity, has value only when there are differences,” Petrini wrote.

The opposition Democratic Party has also slammed Zaia’s use of an official government seal of approval for the new burger. On the McItaly’s promotional material is a seal saying “Under the patronage of” the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry — a highly coveted government endorsement that is more often seen on museum exhibits and cultural initiatives than fast-food containers.

“I think it’s legitimate to ask if Minister Zaia is working for Italy or McDonald’s,” Nicodemo Oliverio, the top Democratic Party lawmaker in the lower Chamber of Deputies’ agriculture commission, quipped Monday.

He charged that giving McDonald’s such a designation creates a disparity with Italian food companies that may require Italy’s antitrust authority to intervene.

Zaia shot back saying the government had long been in partnership with McDonald’s to promote other “Made in Italy” products such as parmesan cheese and smoked beef.

Zaia, who relentlessly courts publicity for Italy’s agricultural products, has defended his partnership with McDonald’s as an important new market for Italy’s farmers and a way to reach young Italians who make up the bulk of McDonald’s customers.

He said Monday the first week of sales — some 100,000 burgers — had exceeded expectations. In the coming weeks, a new burger featuring smoked bacon and grilled onions, as well as an all-Italian ingredient salad, will be rolled out in McDonald’s 392 Italian restaurants.

By DAVID BAUDER David Bauder   – Mon Feb11, 9:05 pm ET

NEW YORK – The New Orleans Saints’ victory over Indianapolis in the Super Bowl was watched by more than 106 million people, surpassing the 1983 finale of “M-A-S-H” to become the most-watched program in U.S. television history, the Nielsen Co. said Monday.

Compelling story lines involving the city of New Orleans and its ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the attempt at a second Super Bowl ring for Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning propelled the viewership. Football ratings have been strong all season.

“It was one of those magical moments that you don’t often see in sports,” said Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports.

Nielsen estimated Monday that 106.5 million people watched Sunday’s Super Bowl. The “M-A-S-H” record was 105.97 million.

The viewership estimate obliterated the previous record viewership for a Super Bowl — last year’s game between Arizona and Pittsburgh. That game was seen by 98.7 million people, Nielsen said.

The “M-A-S-H” record has proven as durable and meaningful in television as Babe Ruth’s record of 714 home runs was in baseball until topped by Hank Aaron. Ultimately, it may be hard to tell which program was really watched by more people. There’s a margin for error in such numbers, and Nielsen’s Monday estimate was preliminary, and could change with a more thorough look at data due Tuesday.

“It’s significant for all of the members of the broadcasting community,” said Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp. CEO. “For anyone who wants to write that broadcasting is dead, 106 million people watched this program. You can’t find that anywhere else.”

Moonves predicted CBS will earn more in advertising revenue than in any other Super Bowl. The good ratings for the game and football in general also set CBS and other football broadcasters up well when selling advertising for next season, he said.

The Nielsen estimate also drew some congratulations from Alan Alda, the star of “M-A-S-H,” and the slugger whose record was beaten.

“If the `M-A-S-H’ audience was eclipsed, it was probably due in large part to the fact that the whole country is rooting for New Orleans to triumph in every way possible,” Alda said. “I am, too, and I couldn’t be happier for them. I love that city.”

There are more American homes with television sets now (114.9 million) than there were in 1983 (83.3 million). An estimated 77 percent of homes with TVs on were watching “M-A-S-H” in 1983, compared with the audience share of 68 for the Super Bowl.

Nielsen also measures only the United States, and it’s possible some World Cup soccer games were seen more worldwide. Accurate measurement of television audiences outside the United States is spotty at best.

Alda also wondered whether the numbers were too close to declare a new champion. He thinks Nielsen didn’t take into account large numbers of people watching “M-A-S-H” communally, which is often the case for football games, too.

“Not to say I’m competitive, but in part we are talking about sports,” he said. “And I actually AM competitive.”

McManus didn’t want to jinx it, but the abnormally strong viewership for football this year left him hoping for a record. The NFC and AFC championship games both had their biggest audiences since the 1980s. The growth of high-definition television and its appeal to sports fans has also helped.

A competitive game until the final minutes sealed it. McManus acknowledged some nervousness when Indianapolis jumped out to a 10-0 lead — a Super Bowl rout often makes people turn away from the game — but New Orleans roared back.

The Mid-Atlantic blizzard also helped CBS. After New Orleans, the highest-rated market was snowbound Washington, Nielsen said. More people watched the game from their homes in that area instead of going to parties or bars, and Nielsen does a much better job counting viewers in homes than outside of them.

“Bad weather in the Northeast and good weather in Florida was a good combination for us,” McManus said.

The Super Bowl also proved a strong launching pad for the new CBS series “Undercover Boss” that premiered after the game. An estimated 38.6 million people watched the first edition of a series about corporate honchos working secretly as low-level employees in their own companies, Nielsen said. That’s third only to a 1996 “Friends” and 2001 “Survivor” as the most-watched program after the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, Dorito’s was a big winner in a measurement of interest in the commercials played during the Super Bowl. TiVo Inc. said the snack company’s ad featuring a boy telling a man to keep his hands off his chips and his mom was stopped and played back in 15 percent of homes with the digital video recorder.

The secretly filmed CBS promo with David Letterman, Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey came in second, followed by the Snicker’s ad with Betty White and Abe Vigoda flattened in a football game.

In general, however, TiVo found less interest in the commercials than it has in previous years, judged by how many people paused live action to see them, said Todd Juenger, general manager of TiVo’s research department.

WASHINGTON – Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama will stop blocking Senate confirmation of about 70 government appointees nominated by President Barack Obama, his office said.

Shelby had placed “holds” on most of Obama’s nominees, delaying the Senate from acting on them, in a dispute over federal spending involving his state.

“The purpose of placing numerous holds was to get the White House’s attention on two issues that are critical to our national security — the Air Force’s aerial refueling tanker acquisition and the FBI’s Terrorist Device Analytical Center,” Shelby spokesman Jonathan Graffeo said in a statement Monday night.

Shelby wants the tanker and the new FBI explosives center to be built in Alabama. Senators frequently block individual appointments, but Shelby’s blanket hold was unusual.

Now that he has gotten Obama’s attention, Graffeo said, “Sen. Shelby has decided to release his holds on all but a few nominees directly related to the Air Force tanker acquisition.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday, “If you needed one example of what’s wrong with this town, it might be that one senator can hold up 70 qualified individuals to make government better because he didn’t get his earmarks.”

Graffeo denied that Shelby’s demands revolved around earmarks. Regarding the Air Force tankers, the spokesman said Shelby “is seeking to ensure an open, fair and transparent competition that delivers the best equipment to our men and women in uniform.”

Graffeo said the explosives center would help the FBI deal with a 20-year backlog in “forensic evidence that could help us identify and hunt down terrorists.”

“Sen. Shelby is fully justified in his concern that the Obama administration is seeking to rescind funds already appropriated for this vital national security purpose,” Graffeo said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said last week that Shelby’s move was holding up about 70 appointments, including a critical top Defense Department position overseeing deployments to the war in Afghanistan.

A senior member of the Appropriations Committee, Shelby has built his career on steering spending earmarks to Alabama.

Shelby can’t single-handedly defeat Obama’s nominations. But by forcing time-consuming votes on each one, he can delay them indefinitely.

FLINT, Mich. – Authorities said a man accused of stealing a car then reporting it stolen remains in custody after telling police he was robbed at gunpoint while trying to buy crack cocaine with a credit card. The Flint Journal said the man reported Thursday night that a 2003 Chevy Malibu had been stolen.

Police reports indicated the vehicle was previously stolen out of Lapeer, about 50 miles north-northwest of Detroit.

The suspect is being lodged at the Genesee County Jail.

No further details were released.

2 hrs 2 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – Ellen DeGeneres, the newest judge on “American Idol,” says Simon Cowell is “meaner” than she thought.

Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi (KEHR’-uh dee-oh-GWAR’-dee) and various guest judges kicked off the ninth season of the Fox singing competition last month. DeGeneres begins her stint Tuesday night.

In a video posted on the show’s Web site, DeGeneres says Cowell is “actually meaner than I thought. It’s hard to listen to him tell people things and for me not to go, `You poor thing!’”

Cowell has announced that he’s leaving “Idol” after this season. Paula Abdul left over a salary dispute.

DeGeneres says no one has given her advice on judging — “they’re just letting me do what I want to do.”

By ADAM SCHRECK, AP Business Writer Adam Schreck, Ap Business Writer   –

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Visitors on the observation deck of the world’s tallest tower heard a loud boom, then saw dust that looked like smoke seeping through a crack in an elevator door 124 floors above the ground. The 15 people inside were trapped for 45 frightening minutes until rescuers managed to pry open the doors.

Because the elevator was apparently stuck between floors, rescuers had to drop a ladder into the shaft so those inside could crawl out. On the observation deck, about 60 more people were stranded and some began to panic.

Shortly after the drama unfolded on Saturday evening, the half-mile-high Burj Khalifa that was supposed to be one of Dubai’s proudest achievements shut down to the public just a month after its grandiose opening. It was the latest embarrassment for the once-booming Gulf city-state that is now mired in a deep financial crisis.

Witnesses who were on the 124th floor observation deck at the time and a Dubai rescue official recounted on Tuesday the chain of events that led up to the shutdown in interviews with The Associated Press.

Emaar Properties, the state-linked company that owns Burj Khalifa, has said little about the incident and nothing about an elevator malfunction. It had no comment Tuesday.

It remains unclear what caused the elevator to the observation deck — the only part of the building that was open — to fail.

Michael Timms, 31, an American telecommunications engineer who lives in Dubai, was on the observation deck with his cousin Michele Moscato when the ordeal began.

“It almost sounded like a small explosion. It was a really loud bang,” Timms said.

It would take another 45 minutes for rescue crews to arrive and pry open the elevator door, he said.

From what he saw, the elevator’s roof looked to be about where the floor should have been, so rescuers hoisted a ladder into the shaft to help those trapped inside crawl out. Some were clearly shaken.

“One lady I saw … she didn’t say a word,” Timms said. “She just looked shocked and dazed, then walked directly to the wall and sat down on the floor.”

Abu Naseer, a spokesman for Dubai’s civil defense department, said the call for help came in around 6:20 p.m. Saturday evening. Emergency crews used another elevator to reach the observation deck and were able to rescue all 15 people in the elevator unharmed, he said.

The incident was the latest to tarnish the international reputation of Dubai, one of seven small sheikdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates.

In recent years, Dubai boomed on borrowed wealth that went into extravagant real estate projects such as islands shaped like palm trees and rows of striking new skyscrapers.

Then the financial crisis hit and real estate prices plunged to half their value in a year. The government and many state-run companies struggled to pay their bills — debts that surpassed $80 billion. Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital and Dubai’s oil-rich neighbor, pumped $20 billion in bailout funds to rescue Dubai.

In a nod to the bailout patron, the tower originally known as Burj Dubai was renamed Burj Khalifa for the emir of Abu Dhabi and UAE president Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The surprise renaming was announced at the lavish opening ceremony on Jan. 4.

Emaar, which owns the 2,717-foot (828-meter) building, has not responded to specific questions about the incident that led to the shutdown or made anyone available to speak despite repeated requests by the AP.

Local newspapers reported the shutdown on Monday but it was still not clear exactly when the building was closed.

Emaar issued a brief statement in response to questions Monday saying the viewing platform was temporarily shut for “maintenance and upgrade” because of “unexpected high traffic.” It also hinted at electrical problems, saying “technical issues with the power supply are being worked on by the main and subcontractors.”

Emaar has made no mention of problems with the elevators, angering some of those involved in the incident.

“What just kind of shocks me is that they were going to brush this under the rug to save face. If it broke, at least tell people it broke,” Timms said.

Witnesses say Emaar provided little information to visitors stuck on the 124th floor observation deck as rescue crews worked. That lack of information caused panic among some visitors.

“I was really starting to get upset, getting really nervous,” said Moscato, 29, a nurse visiting from Columbia, South Carolina. “I started crying.”

She said she and Timms — along with other visitors, some in raised voices — asked to use the stairs because they felt uncomfortable taking the elevator back down, but were told that was not allowed. Visitors were eventually taken down in a freight elevator not normally used by the public, they said.

Moscato said one of those trapped in the elevator told her later that the lights went off and the car began to fall before the brakes kicked in. It was not possible to independently verify the account.

The tower’s 57 elevators are supplied by Farmington, Conn.-based Otis Elevator Co., part of United Technologies Corp. Otis spokesman Dilip Rangnekar said the installation is ongoing. He declined to comment, however, on Saturday’s malfunction, saying it was up to owner Emaar to release details.

Because of its immense height, the Burj will have separate sections on levels 43, 76 and 123 known as “sky lobbies” where tenants will change from express elevators to local ones that stop on each floor.

Visitors to the observation deck use dedicated elevators that whisk them from the base to the 124th viewing floor in about a minute.

The tower was designed by Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which has a long track record engineering some of the world’s tallest buildings, including Chicago’s Willis Tower, the tallest in the U.S. formerly known as the Sears Tower.

A Skidmore spokeswoman and engineers involved in the Burj’s construction did not respond to requests for comment.

The observation deck was the only part of the tower that had opened as work continued on the rest of the building’s interior. The first tenants were supposed to move in this month.

The tower rises more than 160 stories, though the exact number of floors is not known. The tapering, silvery tower ranks not only as the highest building but also as the tallest freestanding structure in the world.

The observation deck, which is mostly enclosed but includes an outdoor terrace bordered by guard rails, is located about two-thirds of the way up.

By DENISE LAVOIE, AP Legal Affairs Writer Denise Lavoie, Ap Legal Affairs Writer
BOSTON – The death of the father of Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan was ruled a homicide Tuesday when an autopsy showed he died of a heart rhythm problem after a fight with his son in which he suffered a neck injury so severe it damaged his windpipe.

The findings could prompt new charges against Kerrigan’s brother, Mark, who has pleaded not guilty to assault and is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.

Daniel Kerrigan, 70, died Jan. 24 after what authorities said was a struggle with his 45-year-old son, Mark.

Police say Mark Kerrigan told them he put his hands around his father’s neck and his father fell to the floor after the two argued at their Stoneham home.

Family members had initially said Daniel Kerrigan had a heart attack and his death was unrelated to the argument.

The autopsy report released Tuesday by Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said the elder Kerrigan also had underlying health conditions, including high blood pressure and clogged heart arteries.

“As a result of these conclusions of the medical examiner, the investigation into Daniel Kerrigan’s death, and whether any charges in connection with his death are appropriate, remains ongoing,” Leone said in a statement.

The findings imply a strangulation-type injury in a man already weakened by high blood pressure and clogged heart arteries, said an expert not connected with the autopsy, Dr. Ian Paul, associate medical examiner for the state of New Mexico.

“The assault itself would have caused significant physiological stress,” Paul said. “It would have put direct stress to the heart itself because the heart is working faster, and in somebody with underlying heart disease, they would be at a much greater risk of experiencing sudden cardiac death.”

KARACHI: Former Chairman of All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association Maj Gen (retd) Rahmat Khan said Pakistan can export 30 lakhs tonnes of cement from its land and sea routes to earn itself a foreign exchange worth 160 million dollars, Geo News reported Friday.

Talking to Geo News, he said Pakistan exports at least 40,000 tonnes of cement to India by train from Wahga to Attari; while, at least 25,000 tonnes are exported by sea, adding if Pakistani trucks are allowed parking and moving 200 to 300 yards into India, then the cement exports could be raised to 200,000 tonnes.

Pakistani cement is the best in world, which is used 3 to 4 percent less in comparison with the other cements, Rahmat said adding Indian traders are highly interested in importing Pakistani cement.