Cain lies low, snags endorsement (Politico)

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain is lying low as he prepares for Saturday evening?s head-to-head debate with fellow GOP candidate Newt Gingrich.

Cain has no events on his public schedule for the weekend other than the debate in the Lone Star State.

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The debate?s Texas Tea Party organizers have pledged they will not be discussing so-called ?gossip,? according to Yahoo News.

His campaign tried to take a positive tone ahead of the debate by announcing on Twitter Saturday morning that he had secured the endorsement of Rep. Dan Benishek (R-Mich.), a congressman who Cain endorsed in the 2010 elections.

The endorsement follows a raucous week in Washington, after POLITICO reported that two women received settlements following reported sexual harassment incidentsthat allegedly involved him.

On Friday, the lawyer for one of the women who has complained about Cain?s behavior released a statement confirming that allegations were made. Asked by reporters for more detail, he said: ?Beyond what?s in the statement, she has decided not to relive the specifics of the incidents so I cannot give any further detail.?

The National Restaurant Association confirmed the complaint and a subsequent settlement, but noted that Cain disputed the allegations. ?Mr. Cain was not a party to that agreement,? the association?s statement reads.

Cain continued to assert on Friday that the spotlight was on him because he was gaining popular support.

?I have attracted a little bit of attention, and there was an article in The New York Times today that has attempted to attract some more attention,? Cain said at an Americans for Prosperity event. ?That?s what starts to happen when you show up near or at the top of the polls.?

The conservative crowd cheered during Cain?s speech, a sign that Cain?s support may not be waning in the wake of the allegations.

A Friday Washington Post/ABC News poll has Cain holding steady at 23 percent, one point behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The sexual harassment allegations first came to light last Sunday after POLITICO reported that two women had received settlements after complaining about Cain.

The week that followed involved inconsistent explanations about the alleged incidents and the slow leak of more information about the allegations. On Thursday, POLITICO reported that discussions were held in the highest levels of the organization about his alleged behavior.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1111_67675_html/43507151/SIG=11m1oq0bb/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67675.html

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Germany: Cleaning woman damages sculpture (AP)

BERLIN ? A modern art installation valued at euro800,000 ($1.1 million) was damaged after an overzealous cleaning woman scrubbed away a patina intended to look like a dried rain puddle, a Dortmund official said Friday.

Martin Kippenberger's "When it Starts Dripping from the Ceiling" remains in place at the city's Ostwall museum, despite the damage sustained earlier this month when a cleaner scrubbed away the painted puddle beneath a rubber trough placed under a stacked tower of wooden slats.

The work by Kippenberger, a German-born artist who died in 1997, was on loan to the museum from a private collector, who agreed that it should remain on display despite the incident, said Dortmund city spokeswoman Dagmar Papajewski. In the meantime, insurance adjusters are assessing the damage.

It has not yet been decided whether the patina would be restored, or if the artwork would be left in its newly "cleaned" condition, Papajewski said.

"It will be up to the collector to decide," Papajewski said. "We can't consult Kippenberger about it."

Papajewski said the company that employed the cleaning staff had instructed them to stay at least 20 centimeters (8 inches) away from the artwork and it was not clear why the patina had fallen victim to the woman's scrubbing brush.

"This company has been working with us since last October," Papajewski said.

Kippenberger's works have been displayed at New York's Museum of Modern Art and London's Tate Modern.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/arts/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111104/ap_on_en_ot/eu_germany_scrubbed_art

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Video: Ohio governor fumbles

No. 1 LSU gets its kicks out of OT win over No. 2 'Bama

No. 1 LSU gained the inside track to the BCS title game, beating No. 2 Alabama 9-6 on Drew Alleman's 25-yard field goal in overtime after a fierce defensive struggle in which neither team reached the end zone Saturday night.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45169851#45169851

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Main opposition party pulls out of Liberia vote

(AP) ? Liberia's leading opposition candidate announced Friday he is pulling out of next week's presidential runoff election, a move that would guarantee victory for the country's ruling party but would rob the electoral process of its legitimacy.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Winston Tubman said he and his running mate, soccer star George Weah, were boycotting Tuesday's runoff because they are not convinced the process will be fair. "The election machinery is still flawed, as it was in the first round," he said.

It's not the first time that Tubman's party has threatened a boycott. When it became clear in October that incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was leading the first round of voting with over 45 percent, the Congress for Democratic Change joined seven other opposition parties in signing a statement saying they were pulling out of the presidential poll.

They rejoined the electoral process days later, after the chairman of the National Elections Commission resigned following allegations he favored Sirleaf, the country's Harvard-educated president who was just awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

On Friday, Tubman and a spokesman for the CDC said they were again boycotting the vote because their demands to have the electoral body reconstituted have been ignored.

"The CDC will not engage in the runoff," George Solo, the party's deputy campaign manager, said. "Simply because the necessary changes that we have requested can not be done in a good enough timeline to allow the process on the 8th of November to be free, fair and transparent," he said.

As he spoke, hundreds of party supporters stood outside chanting: "We are not voting in the runoff!"

Solo said the fact that National Elections Commission Chairman James Fromoyan stepped down was not enough. International observers have repudiated the CDC's claims of fraud, saying that voting in the first round had been orderly and no major breaches of protocol were observed.

"We have always called for the departure of Mr. Fromoyan and the reconstitution of NEC. The language of reconstituting NEC is very critical in the sense that we have put out our concerns of institutional and systematic fraud and irregularities," he said. "If that is our belief, then it clearly does not lie on the desk of one individual," he said.

"So simply to remove Mr. Fromoyan," he said, "and replace him with people who worked with him and were part of the decision-making process that we claim are part of the organ of fraud, and you elevate them, then what have you resolved?"

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed "the importance of peaceful, credible, transparent elections" and urged all Liberians not to resort to violence despite political disagreement, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Ban expressed support for efforts by the West African regional group, ECOWAS, and U.N. envoy Ellen Margrethe Loj "to promote dialogue among the Liberian stakeholders, in an effort to build confidence in the electoral process," he said in a statement at U.N. headquarters in New York.

___

Associated Press writer Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this story

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-04-AF-Liberia-Election/id-d5583762b32344a2be4c399dfda8a2a3

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11/11/11: Anthropologist debunks doomsday myths

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 3-Nov-2011
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Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap
mjdunlap@ku.edu
785-864-8853
University of Kansas

LAWRENCE, Kan. University of Kansas anthropologist and Maya scholar John Hoopes and his students are watching predicted doomsday dates such as 11/11/11 and Dec. 21, 2012, with considerable skepticism.

Hoopes is regarded as one of the major go-to guys to separate fact from fiction about the Maya calendar and a prediction that the world would end Dec. 21, 2012.

He has written scholarly articles debunking the 2012 myth, including a chapter in "2012: Decoding the Counterculture Apocalypse," edited by Joseph Gelfer and scheduled for release this month by Equinox Publishing. In addition, Hoopes contributes to Wikipedia as a 2012 skeptic and is featured in at least three documentaries on the topic ("Apocalypse 2012" airing on CNBC, and two more scheduled for release next year). In his fall course on Archaeological Myths and Realities An Introduction to Critical Thinking, the 2012 myth works as a dynamic teaching tool.

This fall, Hoopes and his students have watched two predicted cataclysmic dates Oct. 21 and 28 come and go with little fanfare. Oct. 21 was a date selected by California evangelist Harold Camping after his original May 21, 2011, prediction passed without calamity. Swedish pharmacologist, self-help advocate and self-taught Maya cosmologist Carl Johan Calleman was among those predicting that Oct. 28 would usher in a worldwide unified consciousness.

The next big date to consider is 11/11/11, when many in the New Age movement plan celebrations to receive emerging energies in preparation for a transformation of consciousness on Dec. 21, 2012.

Whether these dates mark a time for transformation of consciousness or a catastrophic end, they are part of a 2012 eschatological myth that originated with Christopher Columbus and Franciscan missionaries, not the ancient Maya calendar, Hoopes emphasizes.

In a paper presented in January at the Oxford IX International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy in Lima, Peru, Hoopes tracks the 2012 Maya myth origins through various revivals into the 21st century. The myth is rooted in an early 16th-century European combination of astrological and biblical prophecies to explain the new millennium. Columbus believed that his discovery of the world's "most remote land" would lead to Spain's re-conquest of Jerusalem and fulfill world-end events described in the Book of Revelations.

To validate his convictions, Columbus wrote his own Book of Prophecies that included an account of his interview with a "Maia" leader in 1502. The reference inspired early speculation by explorers and missionaries, indirectly influencing crackpots as well as scholars to link ancient Maya before any contact with Europeans with the astrological and religious beliefs popular in Europe in the 1500s.

Misinterpretations and distortions flowed with each revival of interest in Maya culture. In the 1960s, the myth re-flowered as the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, enjoyed a resurgence in Y2K and thrives today. Hoopes adds that the Occupy Wall Street movement clearly reflects a nostalgia for the progressive culture of the 1960s.

More than 1,000 books have been published on the 2012 myth, not to mention a plethora of Web sites on the topic. Hoopes expects the hype won't hit its peak until well into 2012. Fear and fantasy both sell well, especially in uncertain times, he notes.

End-of-the-world and transformative beliefs are found in many ancient cultures but have been a fundamental part of modern times since 1499, Hoopes point out. They are also fundamentally American, he adds.

"The United States has always embraced religious freedom. Peculiar religious sects, including occult beliefs, have always been part of America," he says.

Astrology, Ouija boards, sances, channeling, spiritualists, extraterrestrial life and a host of pseudosciences all have had acceptance in parts of America, he adds. Mary Todd Lincoln used sances to contact her son. Nancy Reagan consulted astrologists.

Wishful or magical thinking help perpetuate myths and beliefs that have no basis in science. Hoopes uses the 2012 myth and others to teach students to think critically and learn to distinguish science and myth.

"If a narrative has a moral message, then it probably is not a scientific story. Stories based in science ideally should be objective, not subjective," Hoopes says.

The persistence of the 2012 myth may reflect a fear of mortality that has nagged ancient and modern civilizations.

"It's much easier to discuss mortality when we're all in the same boat," Hoopes said. "Creating a concerned community allays people's fears and allows us to project individual morality onto the world."

Hoopes' interest in the 2012 phenomenon began as an academic hobby and has evolved into an anthropological study of contemporary American culture. At the very least, he says, the 2012 phenomenon "has made a huge audience aware of Maya calendrics and the winter solstice."

###


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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 3-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap
mjdunlap@ku.edu
785-864-8853
University of Kansas

LAWRENCE, Kan. University of Kansas anthropologist and Maya scholar John Hoopes and his students are watching predicted doomsday dates such as 11/11/11 and Dec. 21, 2012, with considerable skepticism.

Hoopes is regarded as one of the major go-to guys to separate fact from fiction about the Maya calendar and a prediction that the world would end Dec. 21, 2012.

He has written scholarly articles debunking the 2012 myth, including a chapter in "2012: Decoding the Counterculture Apocalypse," edited by Joseph Gelfer and scheduled for release this month by Equinox Publishing. In addition, Hoopes contributes to Wikipedia as a 2012 skeptic and is featured in at least three documentaries on the topic ("Apocalypse 2012" airing on CNBC, and two more scheduled for release next year). In his fall course on Archaeological Myths and Realities An Introduction to Critical Thinking, the 2012 myth works as a dynamic teaching tool.

This fall, Hoopes and his students have watched two predicted cataclysmic dates Oct. 21 and 28 come and go with little fanfare. Oct. 21 was a date selected by California evangelist Harold Camping after his original May 21, 2011, prediction passed without calamity. Swedish pharmacologist, self-help advocate and self-taught Maya cosmologist Carl Johan Calleman was among those predicting that Oct. 28 would usher in a worldwide unified consciousness.

The next big date to consider is 11/11/11, when many in the New Age movement plan celebrations to receive emerging energies in preparation for a transformation of consciousness on Dec. 21, 2012.

Whether these dates mark a time for transformation of consciousness or a catastrophic end, they are part of a 2012 eschatological myth that originated with Christopher Columbus and Franciscan missionaries, not the ancient Maya calendar, Hoopes emphasizes.

In a paper presented in January at the Oxford IX International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy in Lima, Peru, Hoopes tracks the 2012 Maya myth origins through various revivals into the 21st century. The myth is rooted in an early 16th-century European combination of astrological and biblical prophecies to explain the new millennium. Columbus believed that his discovery of the world's "most remote land" would lead to Spain's re-conquest of Jerusalem and fulfill world-end events described in the Book of Revelations.

To validate his convictions, Columbus wrote his own Book of Prophecies that included an account of his interview with a "Maia" leader in 1502. The reference inspired early speculation by explorers and missionaries, indirectly influencing crackpots as well as scholars to link ancient Maya before any contact with Europeans with the astrological and religious beliefs popular in Europe in the 1500s.

Misinterpretations and distortions flowed with each revival of interest in Maya culture. In the 1960s, the myth re-flowered as the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, enjoyed a resurgence in Y2K and thrives today. Hoopes adds that the Occupy Wall Street movement clearly reflects a nostalgia for the progressive culture of the 1960s.

More than 1,000 books have been published on the 2012 myth, not to mention a plethora of Web sites on the topic. Hoopes expects the hype won't hit its peak until well into 2012. Fear and fantasy both sell well, especially in uncertain times, he notes.

End-of-the-world and transformative beliefs are found in many ancient cultures but have been a fundamental part of modern times since 1499, Hoopes point out. They are also fundamentally American, he adds.

"The United States has always embraced religious freedom. Peculiar religious sects, including occult beliefs, have always been part of America," he says.

Astrology, Ouija boards, sances, channeling, spiritualists, extraterrestrial life and a host of pseudosciences all have had acceptance in parts of America, he adds. Mary Todd Lincoln used sances to contact her son. Nancy Reagan consulted astrologists.

Wishful or magical thinking help perpetuate myths and beliefs that have no basis in science. Hoopes uses the 2012 myth and others to teach students to think critically and learn to distinguish science and myth.

"If a narrative has a moral message, then it probably is not a scientific story. Stories based in science ideally should be objective, not subjective," Hoopes says.

The persistence of the 2012 myth may reflect a fear of mortality that has nagged ancient and modern civilizations.

"It's much easier to discuss mortality when we're all in the same boat," Hoopes said. "Creating a concerned community allays people's fears and allows us to project individual morality onto the world."

Hoopes' interest in the 2012 phenomenon began as an academic hobby and has evolved into an anthropological study of contemporary American culture. At the very least, he says, the 2012 phenomenon "has made a huge audience aware of Maya calendrics and the winter solstice."

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/uok-1ad110311.php

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Joey Buttafuoco Battles Amy Fisher's Husband, Lou Bellera, In Celebrity Boxing (VIDEO)

People who got famous because of a scandal tend to get boxed into a corner, professionally speaking.

So maybe it's no surprise that they are the celebrities mostly likely to agree to appear in celebrity boxing matches.

Case in point: Joey Buttafuoco and Amy Fisher, who descended into infamy in 1992 when their affair resulted in Fisher shooting Buttafuoco's wife, Mary Jo, in the head.

The resulting "Long Island Lolita" scandal became a media circus. Fisher ended up serving seven years in prison for assault while Buttafuoco served six months in jail for statutory rape.

Since then, the paths of Fisher and Buttafuoco have crossed many times. They've each done interviews discussing the incident and their relationship. They both participated in the coin toss at the 2006 Lingerie Bowl, a football game featuring shapely women in underwear. And there were even rumors that they had allegedly rekindled their romance in 2007.

These days, both claim to be happy in their marriages: Buttafuoco with his second wife, Evanka; and Fisher, with her husband of eight years, Lou Bellera, a former member of the New York Police Department who appeared with Fisher on "VH1 Celebrity Rehab" earlier this year.

Although Buttafuoco, Fisher and Bellera claim that the incidents that both connected and separated them are in the past, they aren't letting a little thing like closure get in the way of a good cause -- and yes, more media attention.

Buttafuoco and Bellera will put on the gloves to go a few rounds on November 5 as part of Celebrity Fight Night, a charity boxing event that will pit various scandal-plagued celebs against each other. The event will raise money for the FilmOn Charitable Trust, a foundation in charge of distributing its earnings to various children's charities.

Others who will be boxing for what might count as glory in an alternative universe include Fisher, who will go up against Nadya "Octomom" Suleman; White House gatecrasher Tareq Salahi, who will be fighting former steroid-soaked baseball player Jose Canseco; and Lindsay Lohan's dad Michael, who will face O.J. Simpson's former house guest Kato Kaelin.

Bellera admits the idea of pitting him against a man who had such an important (and many would say negative) impact on his wife is a great storyline. While it could presumably allow him to get retribution for his wife, he swears that's not on his mind.

"People can spin it any way they want, but this is an event for charity," Bellera said."I'll turn 61 right before the fight and feel I am in top physical condition. This is about living life and meeting another challenge."

The challenge of knocking your wife's ex-lover on his Buttafuoco, right?

"Look, my wife has paid the price for what happened and Mary Jo has forgiven her," Bellera said. "Everyone, including Joey, deserves a second chance."

Buttafuoco seems to be seconding that emotion.

"For a long time, I had a problem letting things go regarding what happened, but therapy helped," Buttafuoco told HuffPost Weird News. "There's no hostility anymore. I learned to let it go 5 to 8 years ago."

If all this, well, reasonableness seems like it will ruin the possibility of a good match, don't worry. Bellera and Buttafuoco already came close to duking it out at the official press conference.

"He kept touching me, poking me to see if I was soft," griped Buttafuoco. "I pushed him away and he hit the side of my mouth. It was not the place for that."

Bellera continues to insist that it's all about putting on a good show and proving he is still healthy -- even though he's four years away from collecting social security.

"I'm lifting weights and doing aerobic exercises for stamina, flexibility and mobility," Bellera said. "I'm 6 years older than him and he's 70 pounds heavier."

And while he is claiming that it's all for entertainment purposes, it doesn't take much to get Bellera to criticize Buttafuoco's training methods, which include spending weekends at the Bunny Ranch, a brothel near Carson City, Nev. that is the site for the popular HBO series, "Cathouse," where he is being trained by former WWE wrestler-turned-porn-actress Chyna.

Ironically, they've met before: he fought her in 2002 on the Fox special, "Celebrity Boxing." He beat her, and afterward they became fast friends.

"She's a beautiful deep person once you get past that shell," Buttafuoco said.

Bellera isn't so sure Chyna's the best person for the job.

"It's ironic that he's training with someone that he wiped the floor with," Bellera said. "But I don't believe men should fight women to begin with."

Chyna admits she's fighting to keep Buttafuoco's head in the game.

"Joey's in a good place in his life now and he's not as serious about this as Lou," Chyna said. "I've got to get his mind in the fight, while letting him know it doesn't have to be personal."

Chyna says Joey has strength but not technique, and that will be the key.

"If he goes in with a one-two, rock 'em, sock 'em type of fighting, it will be hard for him," she said.

Sadly for Chyna and for Buttafuoco, she won't be in his corner when the fight takes place.

"I am filming my second porn that night, so I won't be at the event, but I'll be thinking about him as I work," she said.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/joey-buttafuoco-amy-fisher-husband-lou-bellera_n_1007456.html

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Girl, Apple's gonna make you sweat with a treadmill patent

Wednesday means we're about to delve into Cupertino's newest patents. Remember: just because there's a patent, doesn't mean it'll be in your next iPad. Got it? Good. This week's haul starts with a rather dry patent to correct bad motion sensing. Accelerometer-based devices are only as good as the data it collects, using a flat horizontal plane as a reference point -- any incline and the whole show is ruined. Apple's 3D patent can mathematically correct for gravitational movement along the "plane of motion." The second's about getting sweaty on sports equipment. Shove your iPod into a treadmill and it'll record your vital statistics for uploading to a third party website for "mutual encouragement." It wouldn't be hard to imagine this working its way into something similar to Nike+, but it would be hard to imagine Nike insisting that Apple just do it.

Girl, Apple's gonna make you sweat with a treadmill patent originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Nov 2011 23:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Patently Apple  |  sourceUSPTO (3D motion), USPTO (Sports equipment)  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/02/girl-apples-gonna-make-you-sweat-with-a-treadmill-patent/

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Afghans, Pakistan may use talks to ease tensions: Turks (Reuters)

ISTANBUL (Reuters) ? Afghanistan and Pakistan have a chance at talks in Istanbul to end a blame game over a series of militant attacks that have deepened their mutual mistrust, officials from the Turkish host government said on Monday.

Presidents of the three countries meet on Tuesday as Afghanistan enters a critical phase in its transition, with the United States planning to pull its combat troops out by the end of 2014, and some Western countries already withdrawing theirs.

Relations between Islamabad and Kabul have been plagued by regular bouts of recriminations during the decade-old Taliban insurgency, with Afghan officials publicly airing suspicions that Pakistani intelligence is supporting the Taliban and the Haqqani network, an insurgent group allied to the Taliban.

Noting a deteriorating regional environment, a Turkish official said: "Now is perhaps the time to try to reverse the course."

"We sense that they have a genuine wish to talk to each other because they realize this trend is not helping either of them," the official said before the summit of the three presidents, Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai, Pakistan's Asif Zardari and their Turkish host Abdullah Gul.

There has been a flurry of speculation about drawing the Taliban and Haqqani group into negotiations to end the fighting in Afghanistan.

Underlining suspicions that Islamabad is backing the Taliban, Karzai has said he should be talking to Pakistan in any negotiations.

Significantly, Pakistan's military chief General Ashfaq Kayani will meet his Afghan counterpart on the sidelines of the what will be the sixth summit between the three leaders.

The tri-lateral meeting will be followed by a regional conference on Afghanistan to be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and their counterparts from France and Germany, among others.

Many Afghans believe Pakistan is supporting the Taliban in order to regain influence in Kabul once Western forces leave.

A war of words escalated after the assassination in Kabul on September 20 of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was heading a peace commission.

Afghan officials believe the suicide attack was ordered by Taliban leaders who, they say, are based in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta and that the bomber was Pakistani.

Pakistan has also come under intense pressure from Afghanistan and the United States over allegations that its military's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) has close ties with the Haqqani group.

The Haqqani group, which operates within Afghanistan, with a rear base in the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan, has been blamed for a string of high profile attacks including one on the U.S. embassy in Kabul in September.

Pakistan has vehemently denied the allegations, and officials accuse Afghanistan of deflecting attention away from its own failures. They have also called on Afghanistan and U.S. forces there to act decisively against anti-Pakistan militants operating from Afghan territory.

Pakistan's discomfort became more acute when Karzai signed a strategic partnership with its arch-rival India earlier this month, stoking old Pakistani fears of encirclement by unfriendly neighbors on its western and eastern borders.

Turkey, a Muslim member of NATO, hopes both sides will speak frankly at the Istanbul meeting to overcome misunderstandings. The hosts want to revive some spirit of cooperation with an agreement they hope will be signed in Istanbul.

"We are also hoping to have those two countries sign modest cooperation protocols," the official said. Details had to be sorted out. "But we hope to be able to get them into that state of mind," he said.

The later conference, which will be attended by 14 countries from the region and 13 involved in helping Afghanistan, is also expected to agree on a document that will contain confidence building elements, he said.

(editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111031/wl_nm/us_afghan_pakistan_summit

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