Danny Puff

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The Taliban and the U.S. said Tuesday they will hold talks on finding a political solution to ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan, as the international coalition formally handed over control of the country's security to the Afghan army and police.

The Taliban met a key U.S. demand by pledging not to use Afghanistan as a base to threaten other countries, although the Americans said they must also denounce al-Qaida.

But President Barack Obama cautioned that the process won't be quick or easy. He described the opening of a Taliban political office in the Gulf nation of Qatar as an "important first step toward reconciliation" between the Islamic militants and the government of Afghanistan, and predicted there will be bumps along the way.

Obama, who was attending the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland, praised Afghan President Hamid Karzai for taking a courageous step by sending representatives to discuss peace with the Taliban.

"It's good news. We're very pleased with what has taken place," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in Washington. British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose country has the second-largest contingent of troops in Afghanistan after the U.S., called opening the office "the right thing to do."

As the handover occurred, four U.S. troops were killed Tuesday at or near Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, U.S. defense officials said. The officials said the four were killed by indirect fire, likely a mortar or rocket, but they had no other details. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details on the deaths.

Officials with the Obama administration said the office in the Qatari capital of Doha was the first step toward the ultimate U.S.-Afghan goal of a full Taliban renunciation of links with al-Qaida, the reason why America invaded the country on Oct. 7, 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record, said U.S. representatives will begin formal meetings with the Taliban in Qatar in a few days.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, said the only way to end the war was through a political solution.

"My perspective has always been that this war is going to have to end with political reconciliation, and so I frankly would be supportive of any positive movement in terms of reconciliation, particularly an Afghan-led and an Afghan-owned process that would bring reconciliation between the Afghan people and the Taliban in the context of the Afghan constitution," he said.

Dunford added that he was no longer responsible for the security of the country now that Afghan forces had taken the lead.

"Last week I was responsible for security here in Afghanistan," he said, adding that now it was Karzai's job. "It's not just a statement of intent it's a statement of fact."

The transition to Afghan-led security means U.S. and other foreign combat troops will not be directly carrying the fight to the insurgency, but will advise and back up as needed with air support and medical evacuations.

The handover paves the way for the departure of coalition forces currently numbering about 100,000 troops from 48 countries, including 66,000 Americans. By the end of the year, the NATO force will be halved. At the end of 2014, all combat troops will have left and will replaced, if approved by the Afghan government, by a much smaller force that will only train and advise.

Obama has not yet said how many soldiers he will leave in Afghanistan along with NATO forces, but it is thought that it would be about 9,000 U.S. troops and about 6,000 from its allies.

It is uncertain if the Afghan forces are good enough to fight the insurgents. The force numbered less than 40,000 six years ago and has grown to about 352,000 today.

In some of the most restive parts of the country, it may still take a "few months" to hand over security completely to the Afghans, Dunford said.

The transition comes at a time when violence is at levels matching the worst in 12 years, further fueling some Afghans' concerns that their forces aren't ready.

The decision to open the Taliban office was a reversal of months of failed efforts to start peace talks while the militants intensified a campaign targeting urban centers and government installations.

Experts warned that it would be a mistake to expect too much.

"The keys are to keep expectations low, to remember that a compromise is unlikely because no one can say what it would consist of," said Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution. He added that in his opinion, the Taliban wrongly "expect to win the war once NATO is largely gone come 2015."

"All that said, it's a potentially useful step if we don't confuse ourselves or wind up in polarizing debates within the coalition," O'Hanlon said.

In Doha, Ali Bin Fahad Al-Hajri, the assistant to the foreign minister of Qatar, said the Emir of the Gulf state had given the go-ahead for the office to open.

"Negotiations are the only way for peace in Afghanistan," Al-Hajri said.

The Taliban emerged from the Pakistani-trained mujahedeen, or holy warriors, who battled the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s with secret backing by the CIA. Civil war broke out when the pro-Soviet Afghan government collapsed following the departure of Moscow's troops. The U.S. took an arms-length position of neutrality as rival warlords shelled Kabul into ruins.

By 1994, the Taliban had evolved into a united military and political force and in 1996, the group took control of Afghanistan. Led by Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Afghan Taliban sheltered Osama bin Laden in the years leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, but the group was toppled shortly after the U.S. and allied invasion one month later.

The U.S.-led invasion leveraged the firepower of factions, such as the Northern Alliance, who had held out against the Taliban after it seized power in 1996. CIA and U.S. special operations support for anti-Taliban forces enabled the U.S. to oust the Islamists by December 2001 without committing large numbers of U.S. ground troops, and the group appeared to have been defeated as a military threat.

However, by 2005, the Taliban was beginning to make a comeback, showing signs of improved training and equipment, while using territory inside Pakistan as a sanctuary.

On Monday, Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naim said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban were known when they ruled the country, was willing to use all legal means to end what they called the occupation of Afghanistan. But he did not say they would immediately stop fighting.

"The jihad continues to end the occupation and establish an Islamic emirate. To achieve this goal, we will follow every legitimate means," he said. "The emirate of the Taliban, with its military effort, has a strategic goal related to the future of Afghanistan. The movement is not intending to harm any other parties and will not allow anybody to use Afghan territory to threaten other countries."

The Obama administration officials said the U.S. and Taliban representatives will hold bilateral meetings. Karzai's High Peace Council is expected to follow up with its own talks with the Taliban a few days later.

But in making their announcement in Doha, the Taliban did not specifically mention talks with Karzai or his representatives.

"We don't recognize the Afghan government and the government of Karzai. The talks will be with the Americans only in Doha under the patronage of Qatar," he said. "We represent the people of Afghanistan. We don't represent the Karzai government."

The administration officials acknowledged the process will be "complex, long and messy" because of the ongoing level of distrust between the parties.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record, vowed to continue to push the Taliban further, saying that the Taliban ultimately must also break ties with al-Qaida, end violence and accept Afghanistan's constitution including protections for women and minorities.

They said the U.S. had long demanded that the Taliban make a statement distancing the group from international terrorism, but had said that they did not expect them to break ties with al-Qaida immediately. That would be one of the outcomes of the negotiating process, they added.

The U.S. will hold its first formal meetings with the Taliban in Doha within a few days, senior officials said, with the expectation that it will be followed up days later by a meeting between representatives of the Taliban and the High Peace Council. The first meeting will focus on an exchange of agendas and consultations on next steps.

Naim did not give a schedule for talks.

The Taliban office is in one of the diplomatic areas in Doha. Its sign reads: "The Political Bureau of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Doha."

Despite Karzai's stated hope that the process will move almost immediately to Afghanistan, U.S. officials do not expect that to be possible in the near future.

The Taliban have for years refused to speak to the government or the High Peace Council, set up by Karzai three years ago, because they considered them to be U.S. "puppets." Taliban representatives have instead talked to American and other Western officials in Doha and other places, mostly in Europe.

Officials said Obama was personally involved in working with Karzai to enable the opening of the office, and that Kerry had also played a major role. Obama briefed other leaders at the summit meeting, which included the countries of Britain, Russia, Germany, Japan, Canada, France and Italy.

James Dobbins, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was scheduled to leave Washington on Tuesday to visit Turkey, Qatar, Afghanistan and Pakistan, focusing primarily on "reconciliation efforts," according to State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

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Associated Press writers Julie Pace in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report. Amir Shah, David Rising, Rahim Faiez and Kay Johnson contributed to this report from Kabul.

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Follow Patrick Quinn on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/PatrickAQuinn

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By Belinda Goldsmith

LONDON (Reuters) - Art collector Charles Saatchi has been cautioned by police for assaulting his wife, the celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, after being photographed grabbing her by the throat in an incident that has fueled a debate in Britain about domestic violence.

Photographs of Saatchi, 70, a former advertising tycoon, grasping a tearful Lawson around the neck while the couple were having dinner outside a London restaurant about a week ago were published in a tabloid newspaper on Sunday.

On Monday he downplayed the images, saying it was just a "playful tiff" and he was holding her neck to make his point, sparking fury from women's rights group. He said the couple made up although Lawson had moved out while "the dust settled".

A spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday that they were aware of the photographs that appeared in the Sunday People on June 16 and had carried out an investigation.

"Yesterday afternoon, Monday June 17, a 70-year-old man voluntarily attended a central London police station and accepted a caution for assault," the spokesman said. "That would normally be the end of the matter."

Under English law, a caution can be given to an adult who admits a minor offence and this is not a criminal conviction but can be used as evidence of bad character in court for another crime. The suspect can be arrested or charged if they do not agree to be cautioned.

Lawson, 53, dubbed the domestic goddess after the title of one of her cook books and known for her flirtatious kitchen manner, has made no public comment on the incident that happened outside a seafood restaurant in upmarket Mayfair on June 9.

Her publicist said she would not be commenting on Tuesday.

"TREATED TOO LENIENTLY"

Lawson, daughter of former Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Nigel Lawson, married Saatchi in 2003 after her first husband, journalist John Diamond, died of throat cancer. She has two teenage children, Cosima and Bruno, from her first marriage.

Saatchi's comments on Monday downplaying the incident unleashed a storm of comments on Twitter and in the print media, describing his defence of his behavior as "bizarre" while others criticized the lack of action taken against him.

Saatchi told London's Evening Standard, for which he writes a column, that he recognized the impact of the pictures but said they conveyed the wrong impression.

"There was no grip. It was a playful tiff. The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place," said Saatchi, who ran the world's largest advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi with his brother in the 1980s.

"Nigella's tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt."

Saatchi, who opened the Saatchi Gallery in London in 1985, said he had made up with Lawson, his third wife, by the time they had reached home but acknowledged she had moved out, saying that was due to the paparazzi outside their house.

Polly Neate of the charity Women's Aid said perpetrators of domestic violence would often try to excuse or minimize their behavior and the caution given to Saatchi showed that these cases were often not dealt with severely enough.

"Often, women living with abuse at home do not speak out because they are worried they won't be believed or feel ashamed that their partner has been violent towards them," Neate said in a statement.

"We must take every case of domestic violence seriously, and ensure that the abusers receive appropriate sentences."

(Additional reporting by Michael Holden, Editing by Gareth Jones)

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WASHINGTON (AP) The director of the National Security Agency said Tuesday the government's sweeping surveillance programs have foiled some 50 terrorist plots worldwide, including one directed at the New York Stock Exchange, in a forceful defense of spy operations that was echoed by the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee.

Army Gen. Keith Alexander said the two recently disclosed programs one that gathers U.S. phone records and another that is designed to track the use of U.S.-based Internet servers by foreigners with possible links to terrorism are critical in the terrorism fight.

Intelligence officials last week disclosed some details on two thwarted attacks one targeting the New York subway system, one to bomb a Danish newspaper office that had published the cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammad. Alexander and Sean Joyce, deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, offered additional details on two other foiled plots, including one targeting Wall Street.

Under questioning, Joyce said the NSA was able to identify an extremist in Yemen who was in touch with an individual in Kansas City, Mo. They were able to identify co-conspirators and thwart a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange.

Joyce also said a terrorist financier inside the U.S. was identified and arrested in October 2007, thanks to a phone record provided by the NSA. The individual was making phone calls to a known designated terrorist group overseas.

Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, asked if that country was Somalia, which Joyce confirmed though he said that U.S. counterterrorist activities in that country are classified.

The programs "assist the intelligence community to connect the dots," Alexander told the committee in a rare, open Capitol Hill hearing. He said the intelligence community would provide the committees with more specific on the 50 cases as well as the exact numbers on foiled plots in Europe.

Alexander got no disagreement from the leaders of the panel, who have been outspoken in backing the programs since Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton, disclosed information to The Washington Post and the Guardian newspapers.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the committee, and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the panel's top Democrat, said the programs were vital to the intelligence community and assailed Snowden's actions as criminal.

"It is at times like these where our enemies within become almost as damaging as our enemies on the outside," Rogers said.

Ruppersberger said the "brazen disclosures" put the United States and its allies at risk.

The general counsel for the intelligence community said the NSA cannot target phone conversations between callers inside the U.S. even if one of those callers was someone they were targeted for surveillance when outside the country.

The director of national intelligence's legal chief, Robert S. Litt, said that if the NSA finds it has accidentally gathered a phone call by a target who had traveled into the U.S. without their knowledge, they have to "purge" that from their system. The same goes for an accidental collection of any conversation because of an error.

Litt said those incidents are then reported to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which "pushes back" and asks how it happened, and what the NSA is doing to fix the problem so it doesn't happen again.

Deputy NSA Director Chris Inglis said a limited number of officials at the agency could authorize dissemination of information to the FBI related to a U.S. citizen, and only after determining it was necessary to understand a counterterrorism issue. Information related to an American who is found not to be relevant to a counterterrorism investigation must be destroyed, he added.

Alexander said there were 10 people involved in that process, including himself and Inglis.

The hearing came the morning after President Barack Obama, who is attending the G-8 summit in Ireland, vigorously defended the surveillance programs in a lengthy interview Monday, calling them transparent even though they are authorized in secret.

"It is transparent," Obama told PBS' Charlie Rose in an interview. "That's why we set up the FISA court," the president added, referring to the secret court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that authorizes two recently disclosed programs: one that gathers U.S. phone records and another that is designed to track the use of U.S.-based Internet servers by foreigners with possible links to terrorism.

Obama said he has named representatives to a privacy and civil liberties oversight board to help in the debate over just how far government data gathering should be allowed to go a discussion that is complicated by the secrecy surrounding the FISA court, with hearings held at undisclosed locations and with only government lawyers present. The orders that result are all highly classified.

"We're going to have to find ways where the public has an assurance that there are checks and balances in place ... that their phone calls aren't being listened into; their text messages aren't being monitored, their emails are not being read by some big brother somewhere," the president said.

A senior administration official said Obama had asked Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to determine what more information about the two programs could be made public, to help better explain them. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly.

Snowden on Monday accused members of Congress and administration officials of exaggerating their claims about the success of the data gathering programs, including pointing to the arrest of the would-be New York subway bomber, Najibullah Zazi, in 2009.

In an online interview with The Guardian in which he posted answers to questions, he said Zazi could have been caught with narrower, targeted surveillance programs a point Obama conceded in his interview without mentioning Snowden.

"We might have caught him some other way," Obama said. "We might have disrupted it because a New York cop saw he was suspicious. Maybe he turned out to be incompetent and the bomb didn't go off. But, at the margins, we are increasing our chances of preventing a catastrophe like that through these programs," he said.

Even before the post-Sept. 11 expanded surveillance, the FBI had the authority to - and did, regularly - monitor email accounts linked to terrorists. Before the laws changed, the government needed to get a warrant by showing that the target was a suspected member of a terrorist group. In the Zazi case, that connection already was well-established.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Video shows Justin Bieber running into a photographer with his white Ferrari in Hollywood, but police say there was no crime and the injuries aren't life-threatening.

Lt. Craig Valenzuela says Bieber's car collided with the person at 11:45 p.m. Monday on Sunset Boulevard.

Valenzuela says nobody was cited or arrested and officers determined no crime was committed. He says investigators are trying to determine whether the pedestrian was in the roadway.

A video posted by TMZ.com shows Bieber getting into a Ferrari. He's surrounded by paparazzi and as the car drives off, one falls to the ground and grips his knee.

A request for comment from Bieber's publicist, Melissa Victor, was not immediately returned.

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Join us Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT as Whistle co-founders Ben Jacobs and Steve Eidelman join veterinarian Jeff Werber and Yahoo News editors Jason Gilbert and Max Zimbert for a conversation about their new wearable pet gadget and health app.

The $99.95 gadget is similar to activity apps for humans. Whistle relies on a small wireless device with sensors that clip to a dog collar. Whistle records and shares your pet's activity and syncs wirelessly with a smartphone or web app and medical database to let you know just how much exercise your pooch is getting, and how much exercise your pooch should be getting.

"This is the first window you have into the dog's entire day," Jacobs told Reuters. We'll have Jacobs and Eidelman here on Yahoo News to answer all your questions about this ambitious new device. Humans and dogs are both invited to attend.

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LAS VEGAS (AP) A 25-year-old accountant from Connecticut with a secret glamorous side is the new Miss USA.

Erin Brady of South Glastonbury, Conn., won the beauty pageant Sunday night after strutting in a white sparkly gown and answering a question about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding widespread DNA tests.

She beat out 51 other beauty queens every U.S. state and Washington D.C.at the Planet Hollywood casino on the Las Vegas Strip to take the title from outgoing champion Miss Maryland Nana Meriwether.

Asked if she agreed with the decision to swab the cheeks of arrestees, Brady said she did, since they had committed crimes after all.

As Brady was crowned, she could be seen mouthing "Oh my God, oh my God" with tears in her eyes.

As the stage emptied, the blonde woman spoke about her commitment to fighting drug and alcohol abuse, which have marked those close to her.

"I grew up in a family influenced by that and I think it's really important to help the children of families that are suffering from those problems," she told The Associated Press.

As Miss USA, Brady gets the crown and a New York apartment for one year. She is expected to spend her title reign on a nationwide speaking tour and raising breast and ovarian cancer awareness, the organization's official cause.

The Central Connecticut State University fiance major could not contain her excitement at the prospect of telling her bosses at Prudential Financial she wasn't coming in tomorrow. Or ever again.

Asked what she was looking forward to now that the competition is over, she described a routine that sounded not very different from her training regime: getting in her beauty sleep and hitting the gym.

Her father Francis said he always knew his math-oriented daughter was a glamour girl. She and her sisters used to strut around and pretend they were beauty queens.

"They would model around the pool," he said.

Her sister Audrey, 20, said with tears in her eyes that her grandmother would orchestrate the shows.

"She'd be like, 'prance around the pool like Miss America.'"

The family was taken by surprise when Brady announced that she would be entering the Miss Connecticut competition two years ago, but cheered her on.

"She just went up there on a whim, man. But it was like, 'Just go for it. There should be more people like you who are competing, where it's not all about the hair and the makeup, but personality too,'" Audrey said.

Fiancee Tony Capasso said it was her winning personality that propelled her to the crown. He said he advised her to compete without makeup.

Brady told The Associated Press she hopes that her background will help dispel the image held by some of the bimbo beauty queen.

"I think that now more than ever, they're accepting that we're all intelligent individuals and that it's really not a stereotype anymore," she said.

Unlike the rival Miss America pageant, Miss USA doesn't ask its queens to perform a talent or choose a charity mission.

Brady will represent the United States at the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow this winter.

Last year's Miss USA, Olivia Culpo, won that international crown, becoming the first Miss USA to ascend to Miss Universe in 16 years.

Brady said she is determined to pull of that feat for the U.S. again.

In the moments before she won, Brady held hands with first runner up Mary Margaret McCord, of Alabama. McCord could be seen saying, "I love you" in the moments before the winner was announced. Miss Illinois Stacie Juris was second runner up.

Two of the six judges' questions on Sunday touched on the controversial data-collection programs run by the National Security Agency brought to light earlier this month.

In both cases, the queens took an unconcerned attitude. Miss South Carolina said the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden who leaked the information should not be charged with treason. Miss Alabama said the programs did not bother her.

Brady also took a sanguine attitude in her answer about check swabs.

"If someone is being prosecuted and committed a crime, its should happen. There are so many crimes that if that's one step closer to stopping them, than we should be able to do so," she said.

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Yvette Cruz contributed to this report.

Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Since the first battles over "Pong" machines in local arcades four decades ago, video gamers have loved good competition. And this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo the industry's largest annual gathering presented more thrilling showdowns than ever. Microsoft vs. Sony. Mobile vs. console games. "Titanfall" vs. "Destiny." So who won E3?

MICROSOFT VS. SONY: Both companies served up flashy presentations of the forthcoming next-generation consoles, the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. Microsoft's show came off bland and corporate, and did little to answer consumer disenchantment with the Xbox One's requirement for regular Internet connections and Microsoft's vague statements on the playability of used games. Sony came out swinging, promising it would not try to restrict used game sales and the PS4 would not require a persistent online connection.

Sony also scored by announcing a $399 price tag for the PS4, $100 less than the Xbox One. While the contest is far from decided (indeed, much of the whole used-games issue rests in the hands of third-party publishers like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft), Sony assuredly won over some hearts. Winner: Sony.

"TITANFALL" VS. "DESTINY": Two of the biggest debuts at E3 were first-person shooters from veterans of the genre. Respawn's "Titanfall," shepherded by the masterminds behind the landmark "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare," updates the formula with the addition of giant robots. "Destiny," from "Halo" creator Bungie, is more ambitious, promising vast open worlds that reward exploration more than the typical shooter. Winner: "Destiny."

CONSOLE VS. MOBILE: Console game publishers have been fretting over the continued viability of the $60, disc-based game in the face of competition from 99-cent smartphone apps. But mobile games, tucked away in the corners of the Los Angeles Convention Center, barely made a peep amid the bombast of their big-budget brethren at E3. And some big companies are looking at mobile games as less of a threat and more of a gateway drug for large-screen play. Winner: Consoles.

INDIE VS. CORPORATE: Independent game development is blossoming, and the Indiecade area of the convention center displayed more creativity than most of the expensive corporate booths. (The most fun I had this week was playing "Tiny Brains," a multiplayer puzzler from Spearhead Games, a small studio founded by EA and Ubisoft veterans.) But Sony, in particular, is aggressively wooing indies to create PS4 and Vita games, and the buzziest titles at its booth were idiosyncratic gems like "Hohokum," ''Octodad: Dadliest Catch" and "Secret Ponchos." Winner: Can't we all just get along?

'ELDER SCROLLS' VS. 'DRAGON AGE': The two most popular American role-playing franchises hurled a few fireballs at each other. BioWare is looking to rebound from the divisive "Dragon Age II" with the more classically expansive "Dragon Age: Inquisition." But Bethesda Softworks' "The Elder Scrolls Online" is further along and looks more impressive each time I see it. Meanwhile, sword-and-sorcery tales are thriving, with promising epics like "The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt," ''Dark Souls II" and "Blackguards" in the pipeline. And yes, "Final Fantasy XV" is coming. Winner: "The Elder Scrolls Online."

NINTENDO VS. ITSELF: Nintendo has a stable of talented game designers with impressive resumes, but they've been relegated to uninspired projects for the Wii U. The team behind the stellar "Super Mario Galaxy" games is producing the multiplayer "Super Mario 3D World," which plays an awful lot like last year's "New Super Mario Bros. U." Retro Studios, architect of last decade's spectacular "Metroid" reboot, is bogged down with another "Donkey Kong Country" game. While Nintendo's character roster is second to none, the company desperately needs an influx of fresh ideas. Winner: Nobody.

"PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES": Popcap Games' flora were in full bloom at E3, with the long-awaited "Plants vs. Zombies 2" for mobile devices as well as "Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare," a goofy 3D shooter for the Xbox. Still, zombies continue to run rampant, starring in "Dead Rising 3," ''The Evil Within," ''Dying Light," ''Ray's The Dead" and the next episode of the "Walking Dead" saga, alongside about half a dozen other games. Winner: Zombies.

"CALL OF DUTY" DOG VS. CAT MARIO: In "Super Mario 3D World," a cat costume enables Mario to scramble up walls and pounce on enemies. Activision's "Call of Duty: Ghosts," however, features a German shepherd named Riley who can sneak through bushes, jump through windows and rip the throats out of terrorists. Plus, he's become an Internet sensation, and his Twitter account has over 26,000 followers. Winner: Dog.

OPTIMISM VS. DESPAIR: No doubt, these are anxious times in the video-game business. The Wii U has yet to gain traction, and no one has any idea about how enthusiastically consumers will embrace the Xbox One and PS4. And big questions remain about piracy, privacy and the sustainability of big-budget game development. Still, the E3 show floor was packed all week, and most of the industry veterans I spoke with agreed it was the most exciting show in years. Winner: Optimism.

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EDITOR'S NOTE Lou Kesten is a video game reviewer for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lkesten .

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MEXICO CITY (AP) This mayoral hopeful in Mexico promises to eat, sleep most of the day and donate his leftover litter to fill potholes.

Morris, a black-and-white kitten with orange eyes, is running for mayor of Xalapa in eastern Mexico with the campaign slogan "Tired of Voting for Rats? Vote for a Cat." And he is attracting tens of thousands of politician-weary, two-legged supporters on social media.

"He sleeps almost all day and does nothing, and that fits the profile of a politician," said 35-year-old office worker Sergio Chamorro, who adopted the 10-month-old feline last year.

Put forth as a candidate by Chamorro and a group of friends after they became disillusioned with the empty promises of politicians, Morris' candidacy has resonated across Mexico, where citizens frustrated with human candidates are nominating their pets and farm animals to run in July 7 elections being held in 14 states.

Also running for mayor are "Chon the Donkey" in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, "Tina the Chicken" in Tepic, the capital of the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, "Maya the Cat" in the city of Puebla and "Tintan the Dog" in Oaxaca City, though their campaigns are not as well organized as that of Morris.

Politicians repeatedly rank at the bottom of polls about citizens' trust in institutions. A survey last year by Mitofsky polling agency ranking Mexicans' trust in 15 institutions put politicians and government officials among the bottom five. Universities and the Catholic Church were the top two, respectively.

Morris' cuteness, the clever campaign and promises to donate money collected from the sales of campaign stickers and T-shirts to an animal shelter has attracted cat lovers, but Chamorro said most of his supporters are citizens tired of corrupt politicians and fraudulent elections.

"Morris has been a catalyst to show the discontent that exists in our society," Chamorro said. "Our message from the beginning has been 'if none of the candidates represent you, vote for the cat' and it seems people are responding to that."

Xalapa, a university city of 450,000 people, is the capital of the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, where residents have in last two years been beleaguered by drug violence, corruption scandals and the killings of at least nine reporters and photojournalists.

During last year's presidential election, a video posted on social networks showed a massive warehouse in Veracruz stuffed with election give-away groceries. Authorities also seized $1.9 million in wads of cash found when police decided to search passengers of a private plane arriving from Veracruz to Toluca, the capital of the home state of now-President Enrique Pena Nieto. Officials later said they had found no wrongdoing and the money was returned.

Giovanna Mazzotti, a 48-year-old university professor from the city of bright colonial buildings and steep streets, said she supports Morris' campaign and plans to go to a party for him being held Friday. The candidate is not expected to attend.

"In this state there is no rule of law, there is no respect for human rights, there are no institutions," Mazzotti said. "It's great that this campaign is showing the fiction in our elections. Every three years politicians laugh at us, it's good to laugh at them a bit, too."

Morris has a website, a Twitter account and a Facebook page with more than 115,000 'likes,' that makes him more popular in social networks than the five human mayoral contenders. Americo Zuniga, the candidate for the ruling party who is leading in election polls, had 33,000 Facebook 'likes' as of Friday.

His website has a collection of memes that picture Morris yawning while describing his "ample legislative experience," an image that mirrors photographs of lawmakers sleeping during congressional sessions.

Morris' campaign managers are asking supporters to write-in 'Morris' or draw a cat's face on the ballot to send a message to authorities, who are not taking the cat's growing popularity lightly.

Members of the Electoral Institute of Veracruz this week called on voters not to waste their vote on a cat.

"We are asking for people to participate by voting for those citizens registered on the ballots," electoral institute president Carolina Viveros told local media this week. "Everything else is part of expressions happening in social media and I respect that, but you have to vote for the registered candidates, please."

Morris also has international supporters.

On Friday, the animal-welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wrote Morris congratulating him for his campaign.

Stubbs, a cat that has been the honorary mayor for more than 15 years of the sleepy Alaska town of Talkeetna, has shown support for Morris by posting his fellow feline candidate's spot campaign on its Facebook page.

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Online: https://www.facebook.com/elcandigatomorris

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By Saundra Amrhein

SARASOTA, Florida (Reuters) - Dressed casually in a T-shirt, calf-length cargo pants and flip-flops, Nik Wallenda looks no different from many of the hundreds of spectators who have turned out in recent days to watch him practice for his next high-wire act.

There are no pretentious airs about him, and no spangled outfits.

"Hey, how ya doing, man?" he asked while stopping to shake the hand of a man trying to take his picture with an iPad and then pausing to high-five a few kids.

But what Wallenda is preparing for is anything but routine.

For two weeks in his hometown of Sarasota, Florida, the aerialist and holder of half a dozen world records has been practicing for what will be his biggest feat yet - a quarter-mile (400-metre) walk across the Grand Canyon on a steel cable with nothing but the Little Colorado River 1,500 feet below.

With no tethers or safety nets, the walk will be the highest tightrope attempt ever for the 34-year-old, at a height taller than the Empire State Building. It is scheduled to be shown live on June 23 on the Discovery Channel.

Last year, Wallenda, a seventh-generation member of the "Flying Wallendas" family of acrobats, became the only person to walk a wire over the brink of Niagara Falls.

Wallenda and his team are focused on creating the conditions he'll likely face at the Grand Canyon. The Florida heat, while humid as opposed to arid, cooperates, with temperatures rising through the 80s (27-32 C) by mid-morning.

But the winds that whip up and around the Grand Canyon walls pose another challenge. Wallenda recently faced heavy winds during a test run and practiced as Tropical Storm Andrea barreled onshore along the Gulf Coast.

To ramp up conditions without a storm, his team one day set up air boats in the water alongside the steel cable he uses to practice on, pushing winds in updrafts to 91 mph.

The canyon's winds won't bother him, he said.

"I'm not scared of them," he said while gliding along the cable, his flip-flops replaced by black moccasins specially made by his mother.

REAL DANGERS

As he walked and spoke, spectators watched from behind metal parade barricades. "I have to respect it, but I would never do what I do if I was scared," he said.

Wallenda regularly emphasizes mental concentration and positive thinking as the secrets to his success.

Since he started walking on a wire at age 2, he has been stung by a bee and had birds land on his balancing pole during performances.

He told reporters that he has no superstitions or rituals before his walks. He prays - his Christian faith plays a big part in his new book "Balance" - and hugs his wife and three children, telling them he'll see them in a few minutes.

With spectators' eyed glued on him, Wallenda and his balancing pole made one trip along the 1,200-foot (366-metre) cable and back, projecting the image of a body builder and a ballet dancer combined. Then he sat down - on the cable.

"Does anyone have any questions?" he asked the crowd, his legs dangling from his perch.

They did. How heavy is the balancing pole? Forty-three pounds (20 kg). Does he work out? Yes, at the gym. How long will it take him to cross the Grand Canyon? Twenty to thirty minutes.

Wallenda spoke openly about the reality of the dangers - including the ones that claimed his great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, a great inspiration to him.

In 1978, the legendary sky walker fell to his death during a high-wire walk in Puerto Rico, a tragedy that Wallenda said studies showed was caused by a combination of bad rigging and his great-grandfather's age and recent injuries that left him too weak to hold on to the wire.

"There's a time to retire," he said.

But Wallenda is not there yet, as he readies to embark on what has been a dream for years.

It's a dream with a 1,500-foot drop below him, which will be "extremely mentally draining," he said.

(Editing by Kevin Gray and Eric Walsh)

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The civil war in Syria is expected to dominate much of the discussion as President Obama sits down tomorrow with the Group of Eight leaders in Northern Ireland, just days after the White House confirmed the use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"They'll clearly discuss the situation in Syria, to include the most recent chemical weapons assessment that we've provided, the efforts that are underway to support both the opposition but also a political settlement in the country," Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes told reporters Friday.

obama The Obama administration has said it will provide more "direct support" to the Syrian opposition now that the president's "red line" has been crossed. The U.S., he added, has "steadily increased both the size and scope of our assistance" to the Supreme Military Council, the armed wing of the Syrian opposition.

"At the same time, you know, this is a fluid situation. So it's necessary for [the president] to consult with all the leaders at the G-8 about both our chemical weapons assessment and the types of support we're providing to the opposition," he added.

syria The president will also, however, have to sway Assad's allies, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. Obama and Putin will meet face-to-face at the G-8 summit for the first time in a year.

Russia has publicly questioned American evidence that Assad used chemical weapons and does not agree that Assad must step down from power for a political settlement to be successful.

"What Russia has articulated to us, and publicly, is that they don't want to see a downward spiral," Rhodes said. "They don't want to see a chaotic and unstable situation in the region. They don't want to see extremist elements gaining a foothold in Syria. And the point that we've made to Russia is that the current course in which Assad is not being appropriately pressured to step down from power by those who continue to support him in the international community is bringing about those very outcomes."

"We still continue to discuss with the Russians whether there's a way to bring together elements of the regime and the opposition to achieve a political settlement. We have no illusions that that's going to be easy," he added.

While the Syrian crisis will overshadow much of the summit agenda, there are many other topics up for discussion, including economic reform, trade and the fight against terrorism.

Obama is expected to defend his administration's phone and internet surveillance programs as vital counterterrorism tools. "He'll be able to discuss with the other leaders the importance of these programs in terms of our counterterrorism efforts in particular, the constraints and safeguards that we place on these programs so that they have oversight against potential abuses," Rhodes said.

"And all of these countries at the G-8 are important counterterrorism partners. And together we've worked with them on an intelligence and security relationship to foil terrorist attacks in the United States and in Europe, and of course Russia shares a significant counterterrorism interest with us as well," he said.

In addition to participating in a series of high-level meetings, the president will also deliver a major address in Northern Ireland at the Belfast Waterfront Convention Center. This will be the president's first opportunity to address at length the support that the U.S. has provided to the peace process in Northern Ireland and to the development of its economy.

After two days of summit meetings, the president will travel to Berlin, where he will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck, and deliver a major address at the historic Brandenburg Gate.

The short three-day trip to Europe will be also a family affair for the president. The first lady and daughters Sasha and Malia will be joining him.

Mrs. Obama and her daughters will attend the president's speech in Belfast and then break off to travel to Dublin, while the president is busy with summit meetings. There, they will tour Trinity College, Ireland's oldest university and "explore the archives that they've gathered to document the Obamas' Irish ancestry," Rhodes explained.

The first family will reunite in Berlin.

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