Two people, including a member of Iran’s special operations unit known as the Quds Force, were charged in New York federal court. Holder said the bomb plot was a flagrant violation of U.S. and international law.

“We will not let other countries use our soil as their battleground,” Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said at a press conference in Washington with Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, was charged along with Gholam Shakuri, whom authorities said was a Quds Force member.

FBI Director Robert Mueller says many lives could have been lost in the plot to kill the ambassador with bombs in the U.S.

Holder said the U.S. government would be taking unspecified action against the Iranian government as early as Tuesday afternoon. Asked whether the plot was blessed by the top echelons of the Iranian government, Holder said the Justice Department was not making that accusation. The Florida Times Union

President Barack Obama met Saturday with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders _ but only briefly_ the day after House Speaker John Boehner abruptly broke off his own once-promising compromise talks with the White House. Staff members kept up detailed efforts.

The goal now is to produce at least a framework agreement to raise the nation’s debt limit by Monday, congressional officials said. Even that would allow scarcely enough time for the House and Senate to clear legislation in time for Obama’s signature by the Aug. 2 deadline, a week from Tuesday.

House Speaker John Boehner told rank-and-file Republicans in a conference call after Saturday’s meeting that he hoped to be able to announce a “viable framework for progress” by 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) on Sunday, before the stock markets open in Japan and elsewhere in Asia, according to two participants.

Lawmakers fear a big drop ininvestor confidence in U.S. stocks and bonds could start inAsia and sweep towardEurope and the Americas, causing U.S. stock values to plunge on Monday.

Barring action by Aug. 2, the Treasury will run out of the money needed to pay all its bills, triggering a possible default that could seriously damage the domestic economy and send damaging waves across the globe. Obama has warned repeatedly of the possibility of a spike in interest rates that could affect Americans’ mortgages, credit cards and other forms of personal debt.

`The bipartisan leadership in Congress is committed to working on new legislation that will prevent default while substantially reducing Washington spending,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in a written statement not long after he, Boehner and Democratic leaders met with Obama at the White House.

Obama appeared grim-faced as he convened the meeting around the big table in the White House Cabinet Room. He was flanked by Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Vice President Joe Biden, McConnell and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi also attended.

The four congressional leaders planned to meet again, at the Capitol, in the early evening.

The only aides attending the White House meeting were budget director Jack Lew and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who emphasized the concern about Asian markets.

Afterward, White House press secretary Jay Carney issued a stern statement: “Congress should refrain from playing reckless political games with our economy. Instead, it should be responsible and do its job, avoiding default and cutting the deficit.”

The statement renewed Obama’s insistence that any agreement tide the government over until after the 2012 elections, to avoid a rerun of the debt dispute in the heat of the campaign.

Sixteen blocks away at the Capitol, congressional aides said the White House would not have a presence at the bargaining table with House and Senate leaders.

Under normal procedures, Boehner would need to have legislation on the House floor by Wednesday to allow enough time for a measure to reach Obama’s desk in time to meet the debt-limit deadline.

Negotiators were working against two avowedly non-negotiable demands _ Obama’s insistence on a plan that assures no rerun of the current crisis until 2013 at the earliest, and Boehner’s requirement that spending cuts over 10 years must exceed the size of any increase in borrowing authority _ without any rise in taxes. The Economic Times

The Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia all issued tsunami alerts, reviving memories of the giant tsunami which struck Asia in 2004. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued alerts for countries as far away as Colombia and Peru.

There were several strong aftershocks. In the capital Tokyo, buildings shook violently. An oil refinery near Tokyo was on fire, with dozens of storage tanks under threat.

“I was terrified and I’m still frightened,” said Hidekatsu Hata, 36, manager of a Chinese noodle restaurant in Tokyo’s Akasaka area. “I’ve never experienced such a big quake before.”

TV pictures showed the tsunami carrying the debris and fires across a large swathe of coastal farmland near the city of Sendai, which has a population of one million. The pictures suggested the death toll was going to rise.

NHK showed flames and black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted.

Black smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama’s Isogo area. TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks floating in water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed into the water.

Kyodo news agency said there were reports of fires in Sendai where waves carried cars across the runway at the airport.

The western prefecture of Wakayama ordered 20,000 people to evacuate after further tsunami warnings.

The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks,” Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo.

“It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago.”

Great Kanto Quake

The quake was the biggest in 140 years. It surpasses the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area. Seismologists had said another such quake could strike the city any time.

The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.

The Tokyo stock market extended losses after the quake. The central bank said it would do everything to ensure financial stability.

Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers’ hands during the quake. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura.

Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown Tokyo.

Household goods ranging from toilet paper to clingfilm were flung into the street from outdoor shelves in front of a drugstore.

Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop next to the drugstore for details. After the shaking from the first quake subsided, crowds were watching and pointing to construction cranes on an office building up the street with voices saying, “They’re still shaking!”, “Are they going to fall?”

Asagi Machida, 27, a web designer in Tokyo, sprinted from a coffee shop when the quake hit.

“The images from the New Zealand earthquake are still fresh in my mind so I was really scared. I couldn’t believe such a big earthquake was happening in Tokyo.”

The U.S. Geological Survey earlier verified a magnitude of 7.9 at a depth of 15.1 miles and located the quake 81 miles east of Sendai, on the main island of Honshu. It later upgraded it to 8.9.

A police car drove down Hitotsugi Street, lights flashing, announcing through a bullhorn that there was still a danger of shaking.

Japan’s northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater. Khaleej Times

PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Agrimero A. Cruz, Jr. said former Manila police officer Rolando Mendoza used the wrong way to try to clear his name from extortion, robbery, grave threat, and physical injuries.

“Definitely that’s the wrong way. That’s the illegal way. Definitely, he’s in deeper trouble because of this hostage-taking,” Cruz said.

Cruz said the PNP has not been able verify whether Cruz has already been dismissed from the service.

If he has, Cruz said Mendoza is no longer authorized to wear a police uniform nor carry firearms. Mendoza is armed with an M-16 rifle inside the tourist bus in front of the Quirino Grandstand in Manila.

Cruz said Mendoza may have to face other raps such as usurpation of authority, illegal possession of firearms other than hostage-taking.

Police records show Mendoza was suspended in 2008 and dismissed from the service in February 2009. His retirement benefits were forfeited and disqualified from government service.

Cruz said Mendoza should have used the proper channels to clear his name instead of taking tourists as hostages.

Cruz said the PNP was optimistic the hostage crisis would be resolved within the day. However, it is sad to note that the incident ended with a bloody confrontation around 8:40 in the evening resulting to the death of eight (8) people as of this writing including the hostage-taker himself.

In a 78-page resolution, the DOJ eight-man panel of investigation prosecutors led by Senior State Prosecutor Leo Dacera said “the confluence of events before and immediately after” the massacre took place led them to conclude that Ampatuan Sr., his son Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov.  Datu Zaldy “Puti” U. Ampatuan, Datu Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan, Sr., Datu Norodin Ampatuan, and Datu Jimmy Ampatuan connived with the actual perpetrators.

The panel said evidence on record showed that the respondents instigated the plan to ambush members of the Mangudadatu clan on their way to the office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Cotabato City to file the certificate of candidacy of Esmael Mangudadatu for the gubernatorial post in Maguindanao.

It said witnesses identified respondents Datu Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan, Jr., Datu Kanor Ampatuan, Datu Bahnarin A. Ampatuan, Datu Mama Ampatuan, Datu Sajid Islam U. Ampatuan, Datu Anwar Ampatuan, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Jr., Datu Ulo Ampatuan, Datu Ipi Ampatuan, Datu Harris Ampatuan, Datu Moning Ampatuan, Mogira Hadji Anggulat, Parido Zangkala Gogo, Jun Pendatun, Kagi Faizal and Sukarno Badal as having directly participated in the massacre.

“These respondents were plainly pinpointed as among those who fired their high-powered firearms which consequently ended the lives of their intended victims. Positive identification of a person being implicated in a crime, when categorical, resounding, consistent, and without any ill motive on the part of the eyewitnesses testifying on the matter, is given credence. Considering such positive identification of these respondents as direct participants in the commission of the crime of murder, they should be indicted,” the DOJ said.

The DOJ panel said there is viable evidence to prove that some members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) “dipped their fingers in the preparation and subsequent consummation of the despicable killing of the victims.”

“There is direct evidence that these respondents agreed to commit the crime.  Their acts and the attendant circumstances surrounding the commission of the crime unveil a common aim that would make all of them co-principals in the crime committed.  We can deduce from their communal conduct a common design, concerted action and concurrence of sentiments… All the conspirators are answerable as co-principals regardless of the extent or degree of their participation,” the resolution said.

Aside from the murder charges, Ampatuan Sr. and the 196 accused are also facing rebellion charges for allegedly mobilizing supporters to resist, defy and undermine security forces who were investigating the massacre last November.

Judge Vivencio Baclig of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 77 is currently conducting the hearing on the rebellion charges in Camp Crame. He is expected to rule on the defense lawyers’ motion to stop the transfer of the suspects from Cotabato City to Manila.

Prosecutors asked the court to transfer the Ampatuans after the Supreme Court granted a petition seeking the transfer of the rebellion case from Cotabato City Regional Trial Court to Quezon City due to the Ampatuans’ strong influence in the ARMM.

Andal Sr. is currently detained at the Camp Panacan Hospital in Davao City. Other Ampatuan clan members linked to the massacre were also arrested and confined in military camps. Yahoo Daily News

Benchmark crude for January delivery surged by $1.97, nearly 3 percent, to settle at $72.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for January delivery added $1.50 to settle at $73.55 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The Energy Information Administration said that crude supplies fell by 3.7 million barrels last week and distillate fuels including heating oil dropped by 2.9 million barrels. Analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., expected more moderate draws of 2 million barrels of crude and 750,000 barrels of distillates.

Refineries tend to try to get rid of as much crude as possible toward the end of the year to avoid paying higher taxes. But heating oil supplies also dropped as frigid temperatures blanketed the Midwest and Northeast.

“The cold weather has really been pushing prices right now,” analyst Peter Beutel said.

At the pump, retail gas prices fell by less than a penny overnight to a new national average of $2.594 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 3.7 cents cheaper than it was last month, but it’s 93.3 cents more expensive than the same time last year.

In other Nymex trading in January contracts, heating oil climbed 6.25 cents to settle at $1.9658 a gallon while gasoline gained 2.88 cents to settle at $1.8739 a gallon. Natural gas lost 6.1 cents to settle at $5.462 per 1,000 cubic feet. By Chris Khan, The Seattle Times

Police said the convoy of more than 40 people, including 12 journalists, were accompanying Ginalyn Mangudadatu, the wife of Buluan vice mayor Ismael Mangudadatu, to file his certificate of candidacy to run for provincial governor when they were stopped by some 100 heavily armed men and taken hostage on a remote highway in Barangay Salman near the town of Ampatuan.

A few kilometers off the main highway, on a remote hilltop covered with waist-high grass, bodies lay with twisted hands reaching in the air. They had been shot point-blank.

Nearby, bodies were being laid out under banana leaves as police – whose faces covered against the stench – unearthed a mass grave containing the victims from Monday’s ambush (November 23) on an election caravan.

The discovery now brought the death toll to 57 -an unprecedented act of violence at the outset of the country’s election season.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and a neighboring southern province, sending extra troops and police to try to impose the rule of law. “No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law,” she said.

Arroyo’s peace adviser Jesus Dureza said he met Tuesday with Andal Ampatuan, the family’s patriarch, and received assurances that his family would cooperate in the investigation. However, it was not clear how far Arroyo’s administration would go in trying to force the provincial warlords to give up their weapons and private armies.

Julkipli Wadi, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of the Philippines, said he doubted the national government’s resolve in trimming the powers of political dynasties like the Ampatuans because they deliver votes during elections.

“Because of the absence of viable political institutions, powerful men are taking over,” he said. “Big political forces and personalities in the national government are sustaining the warlords, especially during election time, because they rely on big families for their votes.”

Nevertheless, among the journalists reportedly slain were Ian Subang (Dadiangas Times),  Leah Dalmacio (Forum), Gina dela Cruz (Today), Marites Cablitas (Today),  Joy Duhay (UNTV), Henry Araneta (DZRH),  Andy Teodoro (Mindanao Inquirer),  Neneng Montaño (formerly of RGMA),  Bong Reblando, (Manila Bulletin), Victor Nuñez (UNTV),  Macmac Ariola (UNTV), Jimmy Cabillo (UNTV), Bart Maravilla (Bombo Radyo, Koronadal) and lawyers  Cynthia Oquendo and Connie Brizuela, according to a statement from University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC), citing reports.

“This incident not only erases all doubts about the Philippines being the most dangerous country for journalists in the world, outside of Iraq, it could very well place the country on the map as a candidate for a failed democracy,” the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines said in a statement.

The paparazzo told police that Tyson struck him once. The photographer, who was not immediately identified, was also arrested. He suffered a cut to his forehead and was taken to hospital, police said.

“There’s a lot of different versions to the story,” Sergeant Jim Holcomb, of Los Angeles Airport Police, said. “That’s all going to come out later. But, in this particular case, both individuals are going to be pressing charges for battery.”

The Los Angeles Times, citing an unnamed source, said that Tyson told police that the photographer struck him in an attempt to provoke him. The photographer claimed that Tyson punched him in the face and tried to take the film from his camera.

Tyson’s spokeswoman, Tammy Brook, said that the boxer was travelling with his wife and 10-month-old child when he was attacked by an overly aggressive paparazzo. The 43-year-old acted in self-defence to protect his child, she said.

The scuffle is the latest incident between celebrities and aggressive paparazzi at the LA airport, where photographers camp out to get lucrative shots of celebrities in transit. Last year the rapper Kanye West had an airport altercation with a photographer. He was cleared of charges last month.

“I’ve heard people were following him into the men’s room and trying to take his picture there,” said Tyson’s defence attorney, David Chesnoff. “My advice to him is going to be to vigorously press charges against what everyone agrees are ridiculously aggressive photographers.”

Tyson was cooperative as he waited in a holding cell at the airport police station and was later released.

Tyson won his first championship title at age 20 and his reputation as a ferocious boxer earned him the nickname “Iron Mike” during his heyday in the 1980s.

But he has had a troubled history. As a boy, he was involved in criminal gang activity in Brooklyn, New York, and he eventually went to a school for troubled youth in upstate New York where he began boxing.

In 1988, as his career soared, he married the actress Robin Givens. The pair fought publicly, with Givens claiming that he physically hurt her, and eventually they divorced.

In 1991 Tyson was accused of raping Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant. He was convicted of sexual assault in 1992 and spent three years in prison.

Tyson’s career never regained the lustre of his early years after he bit off a portion of boxer Evander Holyfield’s ear during a 1997 championship bout. He retired from boxing in 2005. The Times

Overwhelmed officials called Monday for international help, warning they may not have sufficient resources to withstand another storm that forecasters said was brewing east of the island nation and could hit as early as Friday.

Authorities expected the death toll from Tropical Storm Ketsana, which scythed across the northern Philippines on Saturday, to rise as rescuers penetrate villages blocked off by floating cars and other debris. The storm dumped more than a month’s worth of rain in just 12 hours, fueling the worst flooding to hit the country in more than 40 years. At least 140 people died, and 32 are missing.

Troops, police and volunteers have already rescued more than 7,900 people, but unconfirmed reports of more deaths abound, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said.

He told a news conference that help from foreign governments will ensure that the Philippine government can continue its relief work.

“We are trying our level best to provide basic necessities, but the potential for a more serious situation is there,” Teodoro told a news conference. “We cannot wait for that to happen.”

The extent of devastation became clearer Monday as TV networks broadcast images of mud-covered communities, cars upended on city streets and reported huge numbers of villagers without drinking water, food and power.

In Manila’s suburban Marikina city, a sofa hung from electric wires.

Since the storm struck, the government has declared a “state of calamity” in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces, allowing officials to use emergency funds for relief and rescue.

Resident Jeff Aquino said floodwaters rose to his home’s third floor at the height of the storm.

Aquino, his wife, three young children and two nephews spent that night on their roof without food and water, mixing infant formula for his 2-year-old twins with the falling rain.

Among those stranded by the floodwaters was young actress Christine Reyes, who was rescued by movie and TV heartthrob Richard Gutierrez from the rooftop of her home near Manila after she made a frantic call for help to a local TV network with her mobile phone.

Gutierrez, a close friend and Reyes’ co-star in an upcoming movie, heard of her plight, borrowed an army speedboat and ferried Reyes, her mother and two young children to safety.

Rescuers pulled a mud-splattered body of a woman from the swollen Marikina river Monday. About eight hours later, police found three more bodies from the brownish waters.

The United States has donated $100,000 and deployed a military helicopter and five rubber boats manned by about 20 American soldiers from the country’s south, where they have been providing counterterrorism training. The United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Food Program have also provided food and other aid. The Star.

The UN agreed to review the case after Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro raised the matter last week with UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Alain Le Roy, the foreign department said.

Lt. Col. Renerio Batalla died of cerebral malaria in October 2007 while serving as a military observer with the UN Mission in Sudan.

A UN investigation released seven months later recommended a reprimand for a UN doctor due to negligence and for not administering immediate treatment, but Manila’s demand for the unnamed doctor’s removal from UN service was denied.

“A review will go a long way in assuaging whatever doubts or apprehensions that have come about as a result of the tragic death of one of our own,” the statement quoted Teodoro as telling Le Roy.

Batalla was one of 11 Filipino military officers serving in Sudan. Journal Online