By DANIEL LOVERING, Associated Press Writer

BROCKWAY, Pa. - A fire engulfed a house in rural Pennsylvania early Thursday, state police said, killing as many as 10 people and forcing one of the survivors to jump naked from the second floor.

Eight people were killed and two were missing and presumed dead, state police said. Two others escaped.

The blaze badly damaged the light blue house, making it difficult to find and remove the two people who were missing, said Trooper Bruce Morris. The eight victims who were found ranged in age from four months to 40 years.

The house’s facade was gone, leaving a view of the inside of the home, remnants of a front porch and a lopsided stove. Two children’s bicycles sat in the rubble.

Crying as she spoke, family friend Carol Paruso said three generations lived there.

“They were a tight family and they all took care of each other. That’s who they were and that’s what makes it so sad,” she said.

Bill Fustini, a mail carrier who lives nearby, said his dog woke him up at about 2:30 a.m. When he saw the smoke, he called his son, a firefighter, who told him the home had gone up in flames.

“There was a little girl living in that house and she met me every day and she was the sweetest thing,” Fustini said.

He said he believed the couple who lived there also had two adult daughters living with them, and that the father worked at a nearby glass container factory.

“They really didn’t have much,” he said.

Jaime Hynds, who lives across the street from the home, said she was awakened at about 2:30 a.m. by a naked woman shouting for help. The woman, believed to be about 19 years old, had jumped from the second floor and ran to Hynds’ home, she told The Courier-Express of DuBois.

Hynds said at least five children lived in the house.

Trooper Mark Schrecengost said fire crews arrived within minutes and the house was already ablaze. The fire was under investigating, but police said the fire did not appear suspicious.

Firefighters brought in wood beams to fortify the structure.

A minivan in the home’s driveway was partly burned. Vinyl siding on the house next door had partly melted away from the heat.

Brockway is a rural town of about 2,000 residents set among rolling hills and farmland 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The home was on Pershing Avenue, a main drag lined with several other single-family homes.

____

Associated Press writer Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS that vehicle in driveway was a minivan, not an SUV)

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Friday that the flare-up in violence in oil-rich southern Iraq and parts of Baghdad presents “a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq” as the government there seeks to root out Shiite militias.

Bush made clear that the United States stands firmly behind Iraqi security forces and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “He made the decision to move and we’ll help him,” the president said.

“It’s going to take awhile, but it’s a necessary part of the development of a free society,” Bush said at a White House news conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. At the same time, the president said the situation in Iraq remains “dangerous and fragile.”

His comments followed U.S. airstrikes in both the southern city of Basra and in a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad. The renewed violence came as tensions rose among followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr angry over a crackdown that has threatened to unravel a militia cease-fire.

“Basra has been a place where criminality has thrived,” Bush said. “They are fighting some pretty tough characters … and yes, there’s going to be violence, and that’s sad.”

He said the resurgent violence would not alter his determination to continue his administration’s mission there.

“Any government that presumes to represent the majority of people must confront criminal elements or people who think they can live outside the law. That’s what’s taking place in Basra and other parts of Iraq,” Bush said. “I would say this is a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq.”

“There have been other defining moments up to now, but this is a defining moment, as well,” Bush said. He said the decision to move troops into Basra was testimony to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s leadership capabilities.

“This is a good test for them,” the president said.

“I’m confident we can succeed unless we lose our nerve,” he added. “It’s going to take a while for them to deal with these elements. ”

Bush also suggested that his Iraq policy was working because “troops are coming out.”

The new Australian prime minister campaigned on a theme of withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq. Bush brought up Rudd’s Iraq stance himself in his opening remarks.

Asking and answering his own question, Bush said he expected a journalist to ask him, “Aren’t you mad at the prime minister for fulfilling his campaign pledge? The answer is no.”

“I always like to be in the presence of somebody who does what he says he’s going to do. … This is a guy who meant it. … He consulted closely with his friends. His military commanders consulted closely with our military commanders,” Bush said.

The president noted, however, that Australia continues to have troops in Afghanistan and is helping to train Iraqi farmers in dry-land farming.

For his part, Rudd said, “We’re in Afghanistan for the long haul.”

The two leaders were asked about civil unrest in Tibet and China’s crackdown there and both urged China’s leaders to meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama to discuss the violence.

“It is absolutely clear that there are human rights abuses in Tibet,” Rudd said. “It’s clear-cut; we need to be upfront and absolutely straight about what’s going on.”

Bush said he told Chinese President Hu Jintao this week that “it’s in his country’s interest” that top Chinese leaders meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.

“We urge restraint,” Bush said.

On relations with Australia, said he expects them to “strengthen and endure” under Rudd.

“I don’t see differences when it comes to foreign policy,” Bush said. Even so, both worked to smooth over Australia’s decision on Iraq.

Bush called Rudd a “straightforward fellow”and Rudd called the president “George” and joked with Bush about being from Queensland in northeast Australia, which has similar terrain as Texas.

Rudd said that after he asked Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki how Australia could help in nonmilitary ways, his country decided to send $165 million to Iraq, the bulk of which will go to help train Iraqis on dry-land farming.

ISLAMABAD: (The Associated Press) The Pakistani Parliament elected Yousaf Raza Gillani, a longtime aide to the slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, as the nation’s new prime minister Monday.

The National Assembly voted 264 to 42 to confirm Gillani to the post. He is to be sworn in Tuesday by President Pervez Musharraf.

Gillani immediately shook the hand of Bhutto’s son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who could be seen wiping away tears. His mother was prime minister twice before being killed in a suicide attack in December. Cheers of “Long live Bhutto, B. B. is still alive!” rang out through Parliament.

Gillani, 55, is seen as having the experience and track record to hold together an unwieldy coalition as it moves to neutralize Musharraf, whose government put Gilani in jail for years before a court ordered him freed.

Gillani is a longtime member of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, which was the biggest vote-getter among the opposition parties that swept elections last month.

Many in Pakistan see Gillani as essentially a placeholder for Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower and the head of the Pakistan People’s Party, until Zardari can assume the post himself.

Gillani will front an administration facing mounting economic problems, including double-digit inflation, power shortages and sagging foreign investment.

However, the declared priority for the parties that won the Feb. 18 parliamentary vote is bolstering Pakistan’s return to democracy by capping Musharraf’s already diminished powers.

“All political forces have to work together to take the country out of this crisis,” Gillani said Sunday, vowing to restore the independence of Pakistan’s judges and media.

Asked whether he would work with Musharraf or push him from office, he said only, “I will follow the Constitution.”

Followers of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, hold the second-largest number of seats, and have pledged with Bhutto’s party to reinstate judges deposed by Musharraf within 30 days of forming a new government.

A spokesman for Sharif’s party, Sadiq ul-Farooq, said he hoped Gillani would uphold that promise. “The countdown will start the day he takes the oath as prime minister,” Farooq said Monday.

Acquittal for Zardari
A prosecutor says a Pakistani court has acquitted Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, in the murder of a retired judge, The Associated Press reported from Karachi.

Zardari was charged in 2002 with playing a role in the murder of Nizam Din and his son. The men were shot to death in Karachi in 1996.

The prosecutor, Naimatullah Randhawa, said Monday that a court had acquitted Zardari “due to lack of evidence.”

By JOHN WILEN, AP Business Writer
NEW YORK - Oil futures traded in a narrow range Monday, pressured as the dollar gained strength against the euro but supported by prospects that JPMorgan Chase & Co. will boost its offer for Bear Stearns Cos.

Many investors view commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation and a falling dollar. Also, a weaker dollar makes oil less expensive to overseas investors. The effect tends to reverse when the greenback strengthens, as it did Monday.

However, oil prices rose from earlier lows near $100 a barrel, following the stock market higher on reports that JPMorgan is talking to Bear Stearns about sweetening its offer for the investment bank to $10 a share from $2. Energy investors often view stocks as a proxy of the economy’s health.

Last week, oil prices dipped in part on concerns that Bear’s collapse was a sign of significant economic problems.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery fell 45 cents to $101.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Other energy futures were mixed Monday. April gasoline futures rose 1.82 cents to $2.6233 a gallon on the Nymex, and April heating oil futures rose 2.03 cents to $2.9975 a gallon.

April natural gas futures rose 8.3 cents to $9.148 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, May Brent crude fell 9 cents to $100.29 barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

“There are only two kinds of people in the world … the Irish and those who wish they were.” — Irish saying