By JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National Writer Jesse Washington, Ap National Writer – Sat Jun 19, 7:29 am ET

Meet Reshma, Surya, Manan, Raj, Ami, Ravi, Nimrata and Kamala — a new wave of Indian-American politicians.

At least eight children of Indian immigrants are running for Congress or statewide office, the most ever. The star of this trend is Nikki Haley, born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, who is favored to win the election for governor of South Carolina.

Indian heritage is where Haley’s similarity with the other candidates seems to end. She is the only Republican, the only one who has been widely mistaken for a white woman, the only one who has been accused of abandoning her heritage for converting from the Sikh faith to Christianity.

Yet when Haley’s motives are questioned and some suggest Indians must become less “foreign” to get elected, many of these new candidates are quick to ask: Who are we to judge the mashup of American ambition with an ancient culture?

Manan Trivedi, a doctor and Iraq war veteran who recently won a Democratic primary for Congress in eastern Pennsylvania, said he did not view his ethnicity as a handicap: “The American electorate is smarter than that.”

He called criticism of Haley’s name and religion unfounded. “Nikki Haley and (Republican Louisiana Gov.) Bobby Jindal are on the wrong side, but they worked their butts off, they had the bonafides to get the votes, and I think it had so much more to do with their work ethic than the fact that they may have changed their names and adopted a different religion.”

Jindal was elected the nation’s first Indian governor in 2007, at age 36. Named Piyush at birth, he told his Hindu parents when he was 4 that he wanted to be called Bobby, like the “Brady Bunch” boy. He converted to Catholicism as a teenager.

As Jindal’s star rose, the meaning of his assimilation drew much scrutiny. Many people outside South Carolina only learned Haley is Indian after a fellow South Carolina lawmaker used a racial epithet to describe her. Now her choice of names, marriage to a white man and Methodist conversion is raising similar questions.

Christianity is a more critical issue for white Republicans than other groups — could a Hindu who worships multiple gods, or a turbaned Sikh who doesn’t cut his hair, survive a statewide Republican primary in the Bible Belt?

Vidya Pradhan, editor of India Currents magazine, thinks not.

Haley and Jindal “were really ambitious about their politics, and they could not do it being Hindu or their old religion,” Pradhan said. “I do think it was a political move. They felt that not being a Christian would hurt them.”

Haley and Jindal declined to be interviewed for this story. But J. Ashwin Madia, a Minnesota Democrat who lost a congressional election in 2008 and is a follower of the Jain religion, says their faith is irrelevant.

“They can choose to be called what they want to be called, they can worship what they want to worship,” said Madia, a board member of the Indian American Leadership Initiative, which supports Democratic candidates. “I don’t think being Indian-American is this thing they need to strive for or meet some sort of purity test. They are finding the right balance for themselves.”

Madia stopped using his first name, Jigar, when he joined the Marines about age 22. “I’m not running from something or ashamed of it. I’m proud of my name and where I come from. But I was constantly explaining it or hearing it mangled.”

Barack Hussein Obama, known as Barry in his younger days, proved that an unusual name was not an insurmountable political barrier. Some Indian politicians seem to be following his blueprint as they embrace their Indian names while describing their faith in voters’ lack of bias.

“This campaign is all about vision and values and policies,” said Raj Goyle, who is battling for the Democratic congressional nomination in his hometown of Wichita, Kan. “I don’t spend time thinking about differences, I think about ways that Kansans can come together.”

Goyle worships at an Indian temple. His first name is Rajeev, but he has gone by Raj since childhood. In 2006, he became the first Indian-American elected to the Kansas Legislature and the first Democrat to hold his statehouse district.

He said he doesn’t worry about appearing more American or more Indian. “I am who I am, I’m proud of my background and what I’ve accomplished and my family. Kansas voters absolutely will choose the best candidate based on the merits.”

Indians began immigrating to the United States in large numbers about 50 years ago, but just two have been elected to Congress: Dalip Singh Saund in 1954 and Jindal, who entered Congress in 2004 and became governor midway through his second term.

In 2008, Madia says he was the only major Indian-American candidate for Congress. Today there are six, including Goyle and Trivedi. Ami Bera in California, Ravi Sangisetty in Louisiana and Reshma Saujani in New York face upcoming primaries, and Surya Yalamanchili won a primary in Ohio.

In California, Kamala Harris, the child of an Indian mother and black father, won the Democratic nomination for state attorney general and is favored to win the election this fall. Harris was raised in a black neighborhood, attended black churches and graduated from historically black Howard University. She also worshipped in her mother’s Hindu temple and has made many visits to her family in India.

“Running for office, you have to simplify or condense or put into pre-existing boxes who you are,” Harris said, “so people will have a sense of you based on what they easily and quickly identify.”

“I grew up in a family where I had a strong sense of my culture and who I am, and I never felt insecure about that at all,” she said. “Slowly, perhaps, with each of us taking on more prominent positions, people will start to understand the diversity of the people.”

By AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press Writer Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press Writer  a

PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Thursday she’s angry over comments by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the Obama administration will sue the state over its new immigration law.

In a June 8 media interview in Ecuador that began circulating Thursday in the U.S., Clinton said President Barack Obama thinks the federal government should determine immigration policy and that the Justice Department “will be bringing a lawsuit against the act.”

Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler on Thursday declined to say whether the department would sue and that “the department continues to review the law.”

The department has been looking at the law for weeks for possible civil rights violations, with an eye toward a possible court challenge.

It’s unclear why Clinton made the comment since it’s not her area. She couldn’t be reached Thursday for comment.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Obama and Clinton have both made it clear that the administration opposes the law.

“I will defer to the Justice Department on the legal steps that are available and where they stand on the review of the law,” Crowley said. “The secretary believes that comprehensive immigration reform is a better course of action.”

Brewer, a Republican, said in a statement that “this is no way to treat the people of Arizona.”

“To learn of this lawsuit through an Ecuadorean interview with the secretary of state is just outrageous,” she said. “If our own government intends to sue our state to prevent illegal immigration enforcement, the least it can do is inform us before it informs the citizens of another nation.”

Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman said the governor was “outraged” and that Clinton’s comments make it appear that the Justice Department has decided to file suit.

“But she’s confident that in the end, the state of Arizona, the citizens, will prevail,” he said.

On April 23, Brewer signed what is considered the toughest legislation in the nation targeting illegal immigrants. It is set to go into effect July 29 pending multiple legal challenges and the Justice Department’s review.

The law requires police investigating another incident or crime to ask people about their immigration status if there’s a “reasonable suspicion” they’re in the country illegally. It also makes being in Arizona illegally a misdemeanor, and it prohibits seeking day-labor work along the state’s streets.

The law’s stated intention is to drive illegal immigrants out of Arizona and discourage them from coming in the first place. It has outraged civil rights groups, drawn criticism from Obama and led to marches and protests organized by people on both sides of the issue.

The law’s backers say Congress isn’t doing anything meaningful about illegal immigration, so it’s the state’s duty to address the issue. Critics say it will lead to racial profiling and discrimination against Hispanics, and damage ties between police and minority communities.

Brewer met with Obama in the Oval Office about the law on June 3, telling him: “We want our border secured.” Obama reiterated his objections to the law. Neither side appeared to give ground although both talked about seeking a bipartisan solution.

Other Arizona politicians, political candidates and activist groups were quick to weigh in on Clinton’s remarks. U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth, who is challenging Sen. John McCain, called them appalling; attorney general candidates Tom Horne and Andrew Thomas also denounced them.

Joanne Lin, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, urged the administration to take swif

By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer Jennifer Dobner, Associated Press Writer

DRAPER, Utah – A barrage of bullets tore into Ronnie Lee Gardner’s chest where a target had been pinned over his heart. Two minutes later, the twice-convicted killer was pronounced dead as blood pooled in his dark blue prison jumpsuit.

It was the first time in 14 years that an American inmate was executed by firing squad — a method Gardner choose over lethal injection. But death penalty opponents around the world reacted with horror all the same, renewing an international debate about capital punishment in the U.S.

Gardner was the third man to die by firing squad since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Unlike Gary Gilmore, who famously said “Let’s do it” before he was shot on Jan. 17, 1977, Gardner offered few words. Asked if he had anything to say before a black hood was fastened over his head, he said simply, “I do not, no.”

The five executioners were police officers who volunteered for the task. They stood about 25 feet away, behind a wall cut with a gunport.

One of their .30-caliber Winchester rifles was loaded with a blank so no one would know who fired the fatal shots. Gardner was in a straight-backed metal chair, with sandbags stacked around it to keep the bullets from ricocheting around the cinderblock room at the Utah State Prison.

Nine journalists were permitted to observe the execution, including one from The Associated Press.

When the prison warden pulled back the beige curtain covering the witness room, Gardner was strapped into the chair, his head secured by a strap across his forehead.

Harness-like straps also constrained his chest. His arms were at his sides, handcuffed and strapped to the chair. Affixed to his chest was a white cloth square about 3 inches wide bearing a black target.

The AP reporter never saw the rifles and did not hear the countdown to the trigger-pull. Utah Department of Corrections Director Thomas Patterson said the countdown went “5-4-3…” with the shooters starting to fire at the count of 2.

Seconds before the bullets hit him, Gardner’s left thumb twitched against his forefinger. When his chest was pierced, he clenched his fist. His arm pulled up slowly as if he were lifting something and then released. The motion repeated.

There was no blood splattered across the white cinderblock wall and no audible sounds from the condemned. Although the dark blue prison jumpsuit made it difficult to see, blood seemed to be pooling around Gardner’s waist.

As the medical examiner checked for vital signs, the hood was pulled back, revealing Gardner’s ashen face. His head was tilted back and to the right and his mouth slightly open. He was pronounced dead at 12:17 a.m.

About an hour later, reporters were allowed to inspect the chamber. There was a strong smell of bleach but no sign of blood. The only evidence that a man had been shot were four small holes where the bullets struck the black wood panels behind the chair.

Gardner was sentenced to death in 1985 for fatally shooting an attorney during a failed escape attempt from a Salt Lake City courthouse.

At the time, he was facing a murder charge in the 1984 shooting death of a bartender named Melvyn Otterstrom. Gardner pulled out a gun that had been smuggled into the courthouse and shot lawyer Michael Burdell in the face as Burdell hid behind a door.

In April, a judge ordered the execution to proceed, and Gardner politely declared, “I would like the firing squad, please.”

He was allowed to choose the firing squad because he was sentenced to death before Utah eliminated it as an option. State officials scrapped it in 1984 after previous executions attracted unwanted publicity.

Of the 49 executions carried out in the state since the 1850s, 40 were by firing squad. Before Gardner’s death, the most recent was John Albert Taylor, who was executed on Jan. 26, 1996, for raping and strangling an 11-year-old girl.

Historians say the firing squad persisted in Utah long after the rest of the nation abandoned it because of the 19th century doctrine of the state’s predominant religion. Early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believed in the concept of “blood atonement” — that only through spilling one’s own blood could a condemned person adequately atone for their crimes and be redeemed in the next life.

The church no longer promotes such teachings and offers no opinion on the use of the firing squad.

The European Union issued a statement Friday expressing its “profound regret” for the execution.

“The EU reiterates its universal opposition to the use of capital punishment and urges the immediate establishment of a global moratorium on its use with a view to abolition,” the statement said.

The American Civil Liberties Union decried Gardner’s execution as an example of the “barbaric, arbitrary and bankrupting practice of capital punishment.” Religious leaders called for an end to the death penalty at an interfaith vigil Thursday evening in Salt Lake City.

“Murdering the murderer doesn’t create justice or settle any score,” said Rev. Tom Goldsmith of the First Unitarian Church.

Gardner, who once described himself as a “nasty little bugger” with a mean streak, spent his last day sleeping, reading the novel “Divine Justice,” watching the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy and meeting with his attorneys and a Mormon bishop.

Members of his family gathered outside the prison, some wearing T-shirts displaying his prisoner number, 14873.

“I don’t agree with what he done or what they done, but I’m relieved he’s free,” Gardner’s brother, Randy Gardner, said after the execution. “He’s had a rough life. He’s been incarcerated and in chains his whole damn life. Now he’s free. I’m happy he’s free, just sad the way he went.”

None of Gardner’s relatives witnessed the execution, at Gardner’s request.

“I would have liked to be there for him. I love him to death. He’s my little brother,” Randy Gardner said.

Burdell’s family opposed the death penalty and asked for Gardner’s life to be spared. Relatives of Otterstrom lobbied the parole board to reject Gardner’s request for clemency and a reduced sentence.

Otterstrom’s cousin, Craig Watson, witnessed the execution on behalf of his family.

A police officer with 35 years on the job, Watson said Gardner accepted the punishment “like a man.” Gardner, he noted, seemed calm before the hood was slipped on.

“There was no crying, no wimpering,” Watson said Friday. “When it was over with, I just had this feeling that he’s gone and we can move on.”

MIAMI (AFP) – Move over James Cameron. A sea turtle found a waterproof camera in the Caribbean, somehow activated the device, filmed itself and is now a YouTube sensation.

Back in May US Coast Guard agent Paul Schultz found a digital camera in a waterproof case on a beach in Key West, Florida, and posted images he found on its memory chip on the Internet in an attempt to find its owner.

In a video clip dated January 2010 “a turtle came across the camera, and it’s really hard to tell how, but it turns the camera on and recorded itself swimming with the camera,” Schultz told AFP.

“When I saw the video, I thought first that someone was getting attacked by a sea creature,” Schultz said.

“I thought that a diver was getting attacked,” he said. However, he later realized that the camera was just hitching a ride with a sea turtle.

“The last thing the camera owner did was shoot a video underwater, and then it goes right into the next video with the camera turning around in the water,” Schultz said.

The video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E43sg-Ytt58.

Schultz eventually found the owner, a Dutch navy sailor who lost the camera when he was diving off the island of Aruba in November.

As the crow flies, Aruba, off the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, is some 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Key West, Florida.

But the camera likely took a roundabout journey on the Loop Current, which would have taken it from Aruba to the coast of central America, past Belize and the Yucatan peninsula, around the western coast of Cuba, into the Gulf Stream and on to the Florida Keys.

“I’m totally amazed about this,” Schultz said.

By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer Greg Beacham, Ap Sports Writer

LOS ANGELES – Kobe Bryant sprinted after the ball, which Lamar Odom joyously flung downcourt to burn the remaining seconds in Game 7 of the NBA finals. With the celebration starting behind him, Bryant chased it down and then held it aloft to his teammates.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ 16th championship was secure following a gritty 83-79 victory over the Boston Celtics. Bryant’s legs may have been dead, but he didn’t stop running until the buzzer.

The two-time finals MVP has a ring for every finger on one hand precisely because he never slows down, even with injuries, the Celtics’ defense and his own erratic shot conspiring against him. That’s why this ring will have a special place in his collection, and this banner in the Staples Center rafters will loom a little larger than the rest to Kobe.

“I wanted it so, so bad,” Bryant said. “On top of that, I was on E. Man, I was really, really tired, and the more I tried to push, the more it kept getting away from me.”

Out of an unsightly 6-for-24 shooting performance, Bryant led the Lakers to a sweet repeat with 23 points and 15 rebounds Thursday night. While he could barely make a shot or even hold onto the ball at times, Bryant relentlessly drove the lane to earn nine free throws in the fourth quarter while Los Angeles erased a 13-point second-half deficit.

The Lakers earned their rings by winning a gritty, grind-it-out Game 7 for the first time in their franchises’ history.

“This one is by far the sweetest, because it’s them,” Bryant said after the Lakers beat Boston for the first time in a Game 7. “This was the hardest one by far. I wanted it so bad, and sometimes when you want it so bad, it slips away from you. My guys picked me up.”

While the basketball in Game 7 wasn’t terribly attractive, as evidenced by the Lakers’ 32.5 percent shooting and 12 missed free throws alongside the Celtics’ 15 turnovers and 53-40 rebounding disadvantage, the teams’ collective will and determination still were stirring — and they’ll only get more beautiful with age.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson also has his 11th championship, matching Boston great Bill Russell’s total and possibly putting a cap on Jackson’s remarkable career if he decides to leave the Lakers. The Zen Master will have trouble walking away from the chance for a fourth threepeat next year.

“Well, it’s done. It wasn’t well done, but it was done,” Jackson said. “I thought our defense was terrific. We were able to step in and play the kind of defense that we’ve established as a calling card for this team, and we found a way to generate some points.”

Exactly two years to the day after Boston beat the Lakers by 39 points to clinch the 2008 title, Los Angeles got revenge for perhaps the most embarrassing loss of Bryant’s career — even if that revenge was as cold as Bryant’s jumper.

Bryant said he had to downplay the magnitude of the rivalry during the series, but he came clean while sitting at the podium with his daughters, Natalia and Gianna.

“I was just lying to you guys,” Bryant said. “When you’re in the moment, you have to suppress that … but you guys know what a student I am of the game. I know every series the Lakers have played in, and I know every Celtics series. I know every statistic. It meant the world to me, but I couldn’t focus on that. I had to focus on playing.”

And when Bryant was asked what the title means to him personally, he answered without self-censorship: “Just got one more than Shaq. You can take that to the bank. You know how I am. I don’t forget anything.”

As if anybody could forget, Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant teamed up for three titles from 2000-02, with Shaq winning his fourth in 2006 with Miami. The Lakers’ last two belong to Bryant and Pau Gasol, who had 19 points and 18 rebounds after a slow start in Game 7.

Ron Artest added 20 points for the Lakers, who didn’t exactly show a champion’s poise while making just 21 shots in the first three quarters, even hovering around 50 percent at the free throw line. Los Angeles finished with just 32.5 percent shooting.

Yet the Lakers’ defense slowed Rajon Rondo and the Celtics’ offense to a trickle in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles reclaimed the lead midway through and hung on with a few more big shots from Gasol, who had nine points in the period, and a remarkable clutch performance by Artest, a first-time champion as the only newcomer to last season’s roster.

“I had 20 points, and I still think we did this as a team,” said Artest, whose 3-pointer with 1:01 to play was the Lakers’ last field goal of the season. “We fought together. This was one of the best games in, I don’t even know, man. I don’t want to be in a game like this, where the game can go either way. … I’m just like, OK, what did I get myself into?”

He might be into a budding dynasty, with most of the Lakers’ core locked into long-term contracts. With their fifth title in 11 seasons, the Lakers moved one championship behind Boston’s 17 titles for the overall NBA lead.

Paul Pierce had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Celtics, who just couldn’t finish the final quarter of a remarkable playoff run after a fourth-place finish in the Eastern Conference. Kevin Garnett added 17 points and Rasheed Wallace had 11 before tiring while starting in place of injured center Kendrick Perkins, but Boston flopped in two chances to clinch the series in Los Angeles after winning Game 5 back home.

“We were scratching and clawing, trying to do everything we could to try to pull this out,” said Ray Allen, who had 13 points on 3-of-14 shooting, his legs worn out from chasing Bryant on defense. “We had an opportunity to win, but it just didn’t go our way down the stretch. I don’t think we ran out of steam. Lady Luck just didn’t bounce in our corner. … There were a lot of tears, a lot of tears.”

The Celtics had never lost a seventh game in the finals. Despite nursing a lead through most of the night while holding the Lakers to that ridiculously low shooting percentage, Boston couldn’t close it out on the coast, becoming just the seventh team to blow a 3-2 finals lead after winning Game 5.

Boston faces even more offseason uncertainty than the Lakers, with Allen’s free agency and coach Doc Rivers’ decision atop the list.

“There’s a lot of crying in that locker room,” Rivers said. “A lot of people who care. I don’t think there was a dry eye. A lot of hugs, a lot of people feeling awful. That’s a good thing. Showed a lot of people cared.”

The Celtics had much more poise from the opening tip in Game 7, playing vicious defense that forced Los Angeles to miss 21 of its first 27 shots. Bryant and Gasol were a combined 6 for 26 in the first half.

But forget how it looked early on, because history will. Bryant even did something Jerry West and Magic Johnson never could: He beat the hated Celtics in Game 7 of the finals.

“Close is not enough,” said Glen Davis, whose six points and nine rebounds were the Celtics’ only contributions from their bench. “You’ve got to win it. I don’t know what’s going on with who’s coming back, but I’ll be ready when training camp comes around.”

NOTES: The Lakers will hold a parade Monday, with the team riding floats from Staples Center down Figueroa Street to the USC campus in downtown Los Angeles. A rally at the Coliseum last year attracted 95,000 fans, but the Lakers are skipping the arena in favor of a more interactive celebration. … Home teams improved to 14-3 in Game 7 in the finals. No road team has won a title in Game 7 since 1978.

By Eriq Gardner Eriq Gardner

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Producers of “The Hurt Locker” are firing back against the Iraq War veteran who claimed that his life story was ripped off to create the Academy Award-winning drama.

Master Sgt. Jeffrey S. Sarver filed his case with much fanfare just days before the film won best picture at the Oscars in March. He claimed the depiction of an Army bomb squad was a thinly veiled account of his own story.

According to Sarver’s complaint, journalist/screenwriter Mark Boal breached an agreement with the U.S. military that restricted the reporting of detailed personal information about service members. Sarver said the information was used in Boal’s Playboy article and then the screenplay for “The Hurt Locker,” and that the depiction of the character of Will James violated his publicity rights, defamed him and caused emotional stress.

But now the defendants, including distributor Summit Entertainment, financier Voltage Pictures, Boal, director/producer Kathryn Bigelow and others, have responded to the complaint with a motion to dismiss.

As expected, the defendants cite First Amendment protections on expressive speech. They say that Sarver needs to show, but hasn’t, that his likeness or persona was used wholly unrelated to the film.

The defendants knock Sarver’s breach of contract claim by saying there was no contractual “privity,” or a direct agreement between him and the parties in this case. As far as emotional distress, the defendants attempt to escape this claim based on a lack of specific facts alleged about how the inflection of distress occurred.

The bulk of the defendants’ response is devoted to questioning why New Jersey is the proper venue for this dispute. None of the parties currently reside in the state, and the only apparent connection to New Jersey is that Sarver formerly was a resident of Dover, and the film was distributed in the state. The defendants believe that a California district court would be the proper jurisdiction.

If this case was litigated in California, the defendants would likely file an anti-SLAPP motion to strike the complaint as an abridgment of free speech. That strategy has proven effective for movie producers wishing to dismiss lawsuits based on the content of their films. The defendants could also make a claim for attorneys fees if they win, as well as damages in a countersuit.

The defendants believe that the First Amendment confers broad protections on expressive, commercial speech, but recent courts have challenged this assumption. For example, last month, a federal judge in Tennessee rejected a similar argument from the Weinstein Company to dismiss a lawsuit from soul icon Sam Moore who found an identifiable likeness in the 2008 film, “Soul Men.”

By RIAZ KHAN and MUNIR AHMED, Associated Press Writers Riaz Khan And Munir Ahmed, Associated Press Writers

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – An American armed with a pistol and a 40-inch sword was detained in northern Pakistan and told investigators he was on a solo mission to kill Osama bin Laden, a police officer said Tuesday.

The man was identified as 52-year-old Californian construction worker Gary Brooks Faulkner, said officer Mumtaz Ahmad Khan.

He was picked up in a forest in the Chitral region late on Sunday, he said.

“We initially laughed when he told us that he wanted to kill Osama bin Laden,” said Khan. But he said when officers seized the pistol, the sword and night-vision equipment, “our suspicion grew.”

He was questioned Tuesday by intelligence officials in Peshawar, the main northwestern city.

Faulkner told police he visited Pakistan seven times, and this was his third trip to Chitral.

Police alleged the American intended to travel to the eastern Afghan region of Nuristan, just across the border from Chitral.

The area is among several rumored hiding places for the al-Qaida leader, who has evaded a massive U.S. effort to capture him since 2001. Bin Laden is accused of being behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, as well other terrorist acts.

Khan said Faulkner was also carrying a book containing Christian verses and teachings.

When asked why he thought he had a chance of tracing bin Laden, Faulkner replied, “God is with me, and I am confident I will be successful in killing him,” said Khan.

Faulkner arrived in the Chitrali town of Bumburate on June 3 and stayed in a hotel there.

He was assigned a police guard, as is quite common for foreigners visiting remote parts of Pakistan. When he checked out without informing police, officers began hunting for him, said Khan.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said the mission had received notification from Pakistani officials that an American citizen had been arrested. He said embassy officials were trying to meet the man and confirm his identity.

By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press Weather Underground, For The Associated Press
New England was forecast to get heavy rain and thunderstorms on Sunday as a strong low pressure system moved through the Northeast and into the Canadian Maritimes.

There was a slight chance of severe weather along the Northeast coast, including severe thunderstorms with the potential to produce tornadoes.

The tail end of the cold front from the storm was expected to move through the Southeast and Southern Plains, generating rain and some thunderstorms.

In the West, a Pacific storm was forecast for the Northwest coast, producing rain in Washington and Oregon that was expected to quickly move inland into the Intermountain West. The Southwest and California were predicted to see a warm to hot end to the weekend, with temperatures in many locations rising into the triple digits.

The Northeast is expected to rise into the 70s and 80s, while the Southeast should see temperatures in the 80s and 90s. The Southern Plains and Southwest are forecast to rise into the 90s and 100s, while the Northwest should see temperatures in the 60s and 70s.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Saturday ranged from a low of 35 degrees at Mullan Pass, Idaho to a high of 112 degrees at Wink, Texas.

WARSAW, Poland – Thousands of firefighters and soldiers are strengthening dikes that are crumbling in a second wave of massive flooding in southern Poland following weeks of torrential rains.

Spokesman for the firefighters Pawel Fratczak said Sunday that some 3,000 people have been evacuated from eight villages after the Vistula River spilled over near Szczucin, where massive flooding first hit in May.

The Vistula was also inundating the streets and house in a part of Sandomierz, after dikes repaired after the May flooding, succumbed under new flood wave.

Some villages were cut off and relying on army helicopters to drop supplies after parts of roads were washed away.