Snooki, Law Enforcer! Jersey Politico Lobbying for "Snookiville Law" Allowing Towns to Regulate Reality-TV Shoots

(this is pure genius )

Alexis L. Loinaz, eonline

Some stars get handbags and song lyrics named after them.

Jersey Shore 's Snooki? Her moniker could be headed all the way to city hall!

A New Jersey legislator has introduced a bill that would allow towns to have a tighter rein over reality shows shooting within their borders and determine whether producers should chip in to cover law-enforcement costs.

Oh, and he's also named his proposed bill after the pint-size star.

On Monday, Ocean County Assemblyman Ronald Dancer introduced legislation for what he's calling the Snookiville Law.

Among its provisions, the law would enable towns to impose fees on reality-show producers to help cover the costs of beefing up public-safety measures, including hiring additional police officers for shoots.

Of course, those extra officers do come in handy, considering Jersey Shore is notorious for leaving in its wake a vomitage of boozy brawls, sloshed-up antics and jarring glimpses of Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino 's abs that pose a health hazard to hapless eyes everywhere.

No word yet if Jersey legislators are mulling over an Anti-Meatball Law to ensure that expectant moms don't push beer in baby strollers—

Israeli rabbi to followers: Burn your iPhones

( this seems kinda odd, shouldn’t he be encouraging them to burn their kindles? )

By DANIEL ESTRIN, APJERUSALEM — An influential ultra-Orthodox Israeli rabbi ordered his followers this week to burn their iPhones, the latest move in a campaign by the insular community to encourage its members to keep the outside world — and specifically the Internet — at bay.

The decree by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, 84, came ahead of Judaism's holiest day, Yom Kippur, which begins Tuesday. It said that it was forbidden to own the smartphone, and those who already had one must burn theirs.

The religious Yated Neeman newspaper published the ban on its front page this week, as mainstream Israeli newspapers were gushing about Apple Inc.'s eagerly anticipated new smartphone, the iPhone 5.

Israel's growing ultra-Orthodox minority tenaciously guards its traditional way of life against the influence of the secular majority. Many shun TVs and computers to avoid images that break their standards of modesty and values.

The iPhone prohibition comes amid a push in recent months by ultra-religious Jewish leaders around the world to steer their flock away from the temptations of the Internet. Tens of thousands of black-suited Jewish men gathered in a New York stadium in May to hear some of the community's most famed rabbis lecture on the dangers of what they deemed immoral content accessible via computers and smartphone. The rally was broadcast live to other crowds in stadiums in London and Jerusalem.

After this week's decree, large posters sprang up throughout Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, calling iPhones "an abomination 24 hours a day." They called on community members to kick iPhone owners out of religious seminaries, and warned them to keep their children away from the children of iPhone users.

Ultra-Orthodox rabbis have stepped up their campaigns against smartphones in the lead-up to Yom Kippur, a period of religious introspection.

At the entrance to Jerusalem's outdoor vegetable market, a group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in traditional long black coats and black fedoras showed off their "kosher" cell phones — simple devices with Internet access and video capabilities blocked, stamped with a seal of approval by a rabbinical council. They said iPhones are dangerous.

"It takes over your life. It takes over your mind," said Yitzhak Kabalo, 46, a telemarketer for ultra-Orthodox charities.

Report: Ohio nurse didn't realize she took kidney

(Horribelareus!)

By KANTELE FRANKO, APCOLUMBUS, Ohio — A nurse who accidentally disposed of a living donor's kidney during a transplant said she didn't realize it was in chilled, protective slush that she removed from an operating room, took down a hall to a dirty utility room and "flushed down a hopper," according to a report released by health officials on Monday.

The nurse said she had been on a break when a surgeon told everyone the kidney had been put in the sterile, semi-frozen solution. That detail was in a review by the state for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and obtained by The Associated Press through a records request. The transplant was Aug. 10 at the University of Toledo Medical Center.

Hospital administrative staff members interviewed on Aug. 21 hadn't determined how the nurse took the 13-gallon bag of slush, meant to extend the kidney's viability, past several members of the medical staff without them noticing a problem, the report said.

It said poor oversight and communication and insufficient policies were factors in the kidney's disposal, which prompted the voluntary, temporary suspension of the hospital's living-donor kidney transplant program and led to reviews by health officials and a consulting surgeon hired by the hospital.

The hospital, in northwest Ohio about 135 miles north of Columbus, "failed to provide adequate supervision and communication resulting in a donor's kidney being carried out of the operating room, down a hall, into a dirty utility room, and flushed down a hopper," the report stated.

The hospital has since enacted clearer policies to clarify communication between nurses who fill in for one another and to make sure nothing is removed from an operating room until the patient has been moved from it, the report said.

The surveyors determined the hospital wasn't in compliance with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, conditions of participation for transplant and surgical services. CMS will authorize a full review of the conditions of participation for the hospital, and, if it's found out of compliance, it could be terminated from the Medicare program, CMS spokeswoman Elizabeth Surgener said in an email.

The hospital, which says it offers specialty care in areas including cardiology, cancer, surgery and kidney transplantation, also may submit a plan of correction.

A spokesman said he had no comment to provide from the hospital Monday.

The hospital hasn't said what happened to the intended kidney recipient, who was supposed to receive an organ donated by her brother. The intended recipient and her brother were released from the hospital, which didn't identify them and said it couldn't say whether she received a different kidney.

Hospital officials apologized and hired a Texas surgeon to evaluate their transplant procedures but have not released the results of that evaluation.

The medical center suspended two nurses after the incident; one was later fired, and the other resigned, the hospital said. A surgeon was stripped of his title as director of some surgical services, and a surgical services administrator put on paid leave has resumed work.

The hospital also notified 975 patients and potential organ donors and recipients that they might need to make other arrangements for services typically provided through the program under review.

___

Uruguay poised to legalize abortion

(way to go Uruguay!)

By PABLO FERNANDEZ, APMONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguay's congress appeared ready on Tuesday to legalize abortion, a groundbreaking move in Latin America, where no country save Cuba has made abortions accessible to all women during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Compromises made to secure votes disappointed both sides of the abortion divide, which gathered in protest. Once it gets through Uruguay's lower house, the measure would go back to the Senate for approval of changes, but President Jose Mujica has said he will allow it to become law.

The measure would give women the right to a legal abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and decriminalize later-term abortions when the mother's life is at risk or when the fetus is so deformed that it wouldn't survive after birth. In cases of rape, abortions would be legal during the first 14 weeks.

The goal is to reduce the number of illegal abortions in Uruguay, Congressman Ivan Posada of the center-left Independent Party told his fellow lawmakers Tuesday. Posada wrote the measure and is expected to provide a key 50th vote against the opposition of 49 other lawmakers.

"They talk of 30,000 a year, a hypothetical number, but whatever the number is, it's quite dramatic for a country where 47,000 children are born each year," Posada explained earlier in an Associated Press interview.

A poll this month showed 52 percent of Uruguayans would vote to legalize abortion if the question were put to the people, while 34 percent would vote against it. The survey of 802 people nationwide by the CIFRA consulting firm had a 3.4 percentage point margin of error.

Compromises include requiring women seeking abortions to justify their request before a panel of at least three professionals — a gynecologist, psychologist and social worker — and listen to advice about alternatives including adoption and support services if should she decide to keep the baby.

Then, she must wait five more days "to reflect" on the consequences before the procedure.

"It's important that the woman who decides to have an abortion attend this meeting where she will be informed, where they'll explain all the options including alternatives that she is free to choose from," Posada told the AP.

The review panel should obtain the father's point of view, but only if the woman agrees. Women under 18 must show parental consent, but they can seek approval from a judge instead if they're unwilling or unable to involve their parents in the decision.

The measure also allows entire private health care institutions, as well as individual health care providers, to decline to perform abortions.

Such requirements raised objections from Amnesty International and other groups, which say layers of bureaucracy will create barriers and delay abortions until more than 12 weeks have passed, thus forcing women and health care providers into criminal territory.

"This is not the law for which we fought for more than 25 years," complained Marta Agunin, who directs Women and Health, a non-governmental organization in Uruguay.

Also opposed are Uruguay's Catholic and evangelical institutions, which along with public hospitals provide much of the available health care in Uruguay.

A statement from Uruguay's Catholic University says it makes no sense to punish a woman for killing a fetus that is 12 weeks and 1 day old, but to decriminalize abortions before then. Conservatives also object to the removal of a proposal to require the father's consent before any abortion.

Cuba, which decriminalizes abortions in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, is the only country in Latin America where legal abortion is common. Argentina and Colombia allow it only in cases of rape or when the mother's life is endangered. Colombia also allows it when there is proof of fetal malformation. Mexico City has legalized first-trimester abortions, but there are restrictions in most other parts of the country.

Many countries ban abortions under any conditions.

Uruguay's lawmakers have no desire to make their country a destination for women from other countries seeking abortions. The measure says only Uruguayan citizens and women who can prove at least one year's residency can apply. "This is a solution for those who live here, not that Uruguay becomes a place that attracts people from other countries for this procedure," Posada told the AP.

Opposition Deputy Javier Garcia of the center-right National Party accused lawmakers of treating living embryos as if they were "disposable," which he equated with murder.

The margin for the law was razor-thin on Tuesday after Deputy Andres Lima of the ruling Broad Front coalition said he would refuse to vote. With Posada joining the coalition, the measure appeared headed for passage by a 50-49 vote margin.

Dr. Marie Gonzalez, bioethicist at the University of the Republic, called the measure "evil" and vowed to work to persuade her fellow gynecologists to refuse to perform the procedure if it becomes law.

"The embryo-fetus is a human being, and as such has rights, like the human right to live," she said.

AP Exclusive: Images show NKorea launch pad halt

( so with any luck we’ve been given a two year reprieve before they start trying to fling nuclear fire at Japan.)

By FOSTER KLUG, APSEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has stopped construction on a launch pad where intercontinental-range rockets could be tested, an interruption possibly due to heavy rains and that could stall completion up to two years, according to an analysis of new satellite imagery.

Despite the setback, however, Pyongyang is also refurbishing for possible future use another existing pad at the same complex that has been used for past rocket launches, according to the analysis of Aug. 29 images provided to The Associated Press by 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

While the renovations don't mean a launch is imminent, they indicate North Korea is preparing the site for possible future rocket tests, according to the 38 North special report written by Nick Hansen.

North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, but experts don't believe Pyongyang has yet mastered the technology needed to shrink a nuclear weapon so it can be mounted onto the tip of a long-range missile.

There are worries, however, about North Korea's rocket and missile programs. The United States, South Korea and others have said North Korea uses rocket launches, including a failed effort in mid-April, as covers to test banned missile systems that could target parts of the United States. North Korea says recent rocket launches were meant to put peaceful satellites into orbit.

North Korea has repeatedly vowed to push ahead with its nuclear program in the face of what it calls U.S. hostility that makes a "nuclear deterrence" necessary.

Both the new launch pad where work has been suspended and the existing launch pad being refurbished are at the Tonghae launch complex, which houses nine facilities around the villages of Musudan, No-dong and Taepo-dong on the northeast coast, according to the report.

"Despite the temporary halt in construction at the new Tonghae launch pad and the failed test last April, the North Koreans appear determined to eventually build bigger and better rockets," Joel Wit, a former U.S. State Department official and editor of 38 North, told AP.

The failed April launch of Pyongyang's new Unha-3 rocket occurred at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, a sophisticated, newer site on the country's northwestern coast.

The new commercial satellite photos of Tonghae, taken by DigitalGlobe, also show halted construction at fuel and oxidizer buildings near the new pad, the analysis said. Those buildings are described as crucial to any future tests.

The exact reason for the halt isn't clear, but the analysis says the rains this summer that killed dozens of people and submerged large amounts of farmland are one explanation. North Korea is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters because of its poor drainage, widespread deforestation and poor infrastructure.

There are no workers or heavy construction equipment at the new pad site. No flooding can be seen in the new photos, but the analysis speculates that the construction equipment may have been moved to help with rebuilding efforts elsewhere. It says that heavy equipment can only get to the site by a rutted dirt trail that crosses a stream.

"Whatever the reason, the slowdown, barring concerted North Korean efforts to make up for lost time, could result in a 1-2 year slip in the planned completion date of the new complex, which was probably the middle of this decade," the report said.

It said Pyongyang can still launch longer-range rockets from its Sohae facility.

The analysis also notes as an "important new development" the start of what could be a new launch control center meant for the entire complex. It's the only site "where work is proceeding at a rapid pace," the report said.

The images are also said to show "further, although very slow, progress" at a structure meant to build future long-range rocket stages. North Korea has also apparently improved is ability to destroy launched missiles, "an important development since rockets from Tonghae can come close to or overfly Japan."

Obama urges UN to confront roots of Muslim rage

( and of course the threat of Nuclear Annihilation! So Iran wants Nukes, so does everybody, North Korea, Iran, Zimbabwe, Libia, everybody, and as far as I can tell there’s only two reasons. 1) to be taken seriously by the international community, as in Holy #$@*$!!! They gots nukes!?! Or 2) destroy  any real or perceived enemies in atomic fire. Although I think there may be a third reason, wanting to have a cold war. Sure the first two reasons make some sense, especially if you believe in an awesome afterlife or reincarnation in which case the threat of going all MWAHAHA ATOMIC DOOM TO THE INFIDEL!!! Has some appeal and I’m not just talking about Muslims here, I’m sure there  are countless honest, hard working, level headed, family guys and gals of the Muslim faith losing sleep at night thinking about all those saber rattling “death to the unbeliever” Christians out there who already have Nukes in their countries. no doubt  the  afore mentioned Muslims have fervent and heartfelt prayers to their god that go something like,” dear God don’t let those nut jobs get ahold of terror weapons,” frankly too many religious extremists have too much power and absolutely none of them should have the capacity to erase cities. What made the cold war work was both sides understood and cared very deeply about their own stuff and wanted to keep it intact. No amount of “death to the capitalist/communist pig dogs!” meant that anyone was willing to push the button over it. Politics are not religion and the two should never mix, history is chock full of examples of what a bad idea that is. The founding fathers and mothers knew this and were very clear about it. Church and State should never be in the same basket. Now if Iran could show the same enlightened self interest of the old U.S.S.R. we’d be cooking with gas. )

By BEN FELLER, APUNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama told world leaders Tuesday that attacks on U.S. citizens in Libya "were attacks on America," and he called on them to join in confronting the root causes of the rage across the Muslim world.

"I do believe that it is the obligation of all leaders, in all countries, to speak out forcefully against violence and extremism," Obama said in a speech to the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly.

Obama also condemned the anti-Muslim video that helped spark the recent attacks, calling it "cruel and disgusting." But he strongly defended the U.S. Constitution's protection of the freedom of expression, "even views that we profoundly disagree with."

With U.S. campaign politics shadowing every word, Obama also warned that time to peacefully curb the Iranian nuclear crisis is running out.

He said there is "still time and space" to resolve the issue through diplomacy. But that time is not unlimited."

"Make no mistake: A nuclear-armed Iran is not a challenge that can be contained. It would threaten the elimination of Israel, the security of Gulf nations and the unraveling of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty," he said.

The foreign minister of Indonesia, the nation with world's largest Muslim population, said Obama's speech was a "clarion call" for all nations to shun intolerance and he expected Muslim nations to react positively. .

"There will be a lot of sympathy. It is an issue that galvanizes all of us," Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told The Associated Press. But he added that freedom of expression should be exercised with consideration to morality and public order.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has accused Obama of not being tough enough on Iran and of turning his back on Israel and other allies in the Middle East. Romney also has said he doesn't have much faith in peace prospects between Israelis and Palestinians.

Obama told the U.N.: "Among Israelis and Palestinians, the future must not belong to those who turn their backs on the prospect of peace."

Romney in separate remarks to a global conference sponsored by former President Bill Clinton, said the attack at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that took the life of the U.S. ambassador and three other U.S. citizens was an act of terrorism.

Obama mentioned the slain U.S. ambassador, Christopher Stevens, several times in his address.

"Today, we must declare that our future will be determined by people like Chris Stevens and not by his killers. Today, we must declare that this violence and intolerance has no place among our United nations," he said.

Unlike Romney, Obama has not specifically called the attacks in Libya and other U.S. missions terrorism.

Obama said that "at a time when anyone with a cellphone can spread offensive views around the world with the click of a button," the notion that governments can control the flow of information is obsolete.

"There is no speech that justifies mindless violence," such as the attack that left the four Americans dead in Libya, Obama said.

"The strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech — the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect."

Obama said that the United States "will be relentless in tracking down the killers and bringing them to justice." And he said he appreciated "that in recent days, the leaders of other countries in the region — including Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen — have taken steps to secure our diplomatic facilities and called for calm. So have religious authorities around the globe."

The president said there was no way the United States would have just banned the offensive video that helped trigger the attacks, as some leaders in the Muslim world have advocated.

"Like me, the majority of Americans are Christian, and yet we do not ban blasphemy against our most sacred beliefs," Obama said.

"Moreover, as president of our country and commander in chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so," he said, drawing laughter from his audience.

Running through Obama's speech was an overall theme that leaders of the Muslim world should also stand up for freer speech and oppose those who vent their anger with violence.

"There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents. There is no video that justifies an attack on an embassy. There is no slander that provides an excuse for people to burn a restaurant in Lebanon or destroy a school in Tunis or cause death and destruction in Pakistan," Obama said.

"More broadly, the events of the last two weeks speak to the need for all of us to address honestly the tensions between the West and an Arab world moving to democracy," he said.

But, he added, "Just as we cannot solve every problem in the world, the United States has not, and will not, seek to dictate the outcome of democratic transitions abroad, and we do not expect other nations to agree with us on every issue."

"Nor do we assume that the violence of the past weeks, or the hateful speech by some individuals, represents the views of the overwhelming majority of Muslims — any more than the views of the people who produced this video represent those of Americans."

Turning to the rising violence in Syria, Obama told the U.N. delegates, "The future must not belong to a dictator who massacres his people. If there is a cause that cries out for protest in the world today, it is a regime that tortures children and shoots rockets at apartment buildings. We must remain engaged to assure that what began with citizens demanding their rights does not end in a cycle of sectarian violence."

"Together, we must stand with those Syrians who believe in a different vision — a Syria that is united and inclusive, where children don't need to fear their own government and all Syrians have a say in how they are governed_ Sunnis and Alawites, Kurds and Christians."

Obama also noted some hopeful developments in the world in the nearly four years he's been in office.

"The war in Iraq is over, and our troops have come home. We have begun a transition in Afghanistan, and America and our allies will end our war on schedule in 2014," he said. "Al-Qaida has been weakened, and Osama bin Laden is no more. Nations have come together to lock down nuclear materials, and America and Russia are reducing our arsenals."

Summing up, Obama said, "true democracy — real freedom — is hard work."

Declaring it is time to leave "the call of violence and the politics of division behind," Obama said: "We cannot afford to get it wrong. We must seize this moment. And America stands ready to work with all who are willing to embrace a better future."

Court finds 3 Swiss guilty of aiding nuclear ring

By FRANK JORDANS and JAMEY KEATEN, APGENEVA — A court in Switzerland found three men guilty Tuesday of helping supply material and know-how to Libya's atomic weapons program almost a decade ago, but approved a plea bargain that cited the defendants' cooperation with the CIA as a mitigating circumstance.

The Swiss Federal Criminal Court sentenced Urs Tinner, 46 and his brother Marco, 43, to prison terms that are shorter than the time they have already spent in investigative custody. Their 74-year-old father, Friedrich, received a suspended sentence. All three had pleaded guilty and were ordered to pay fines and substantial legal costs.

The case shed rare light on the U.S. intelligence agency's successful operation to destroy the nuclear smuggling network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the architect of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.

Khan built up an international network selling equipment to countries with nuclear weapons ambitions during the 1990s. Swiss prosecutors alleged all three Tinners were involved in the smuggling ring and supplied key equipment and blueprints for the production of gas centrifuges that are needed to enrich uranium to weapons grade levels.

Urs Tinner claimed in a 2009 interview with Swiss television that he had tipped off the CIA about a delivery of centrifuge parts destined for Libya's nuclear weapons program. The shipment was seized at the Italian port of Taranto in October 2003, forcing Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to admit and eventually renounce his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons technology.

Swiss prosecutors said there was evidence the Tinners had cooperated with U.S. officials since at least June 18, 2003, and that the three engineers had manipulated the centrifuge parts intended for Libya to ensure they wouldn't function properly.

The CIA declined to comment on the verdict Tuesday. But the agency has said in the past that "the disruption of the A.Q. Khan network was a genuine intelligence success, one in which the CIA played a key role."

"It's ironic that the ones who cooperated with the CIA did the most jail time," said David Albright, founder of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. Most of those involved in the smuggling ring — including Khan himself — have escaped serious punishment.

Urs Tinner spent 1,536 days in investigative custody, while his brother Marco was detained for 1,237 days before being released on bail. The long detentions resulted partly from the complexity of the prosecution and partly from the Swiss government's decision in 2007 to destroy evidence in the case — reportedly after pressure from the United States.

"From a prosecution point of view the case is closed now," Switzerland's attorney general, Michael Lauber, told The Associated Press after the verdict.

Judges at the court in Bellinzona suggested that the Tinners should have received harsher punishments, but approved the plea bargain, saying a successful prosecution would have been unlikely because of the destruction of evidence.

___

Jordans contributed from Berlin.

Spaniards rage against austerity near Parliament

By ALAN CLENDENNING, APMADRID — Spain's government was hit by the country's financial crisis on two fronts Tuesday as protestors enraged with austerity cutbacks and tax hikes clashed with police near Parliament while the nation's borrowing costs increased in an auction of its debt.

More than 1,000 riot police blocked off access to the Parliament building in the heart of Madrid, forcing most protesters to crowd nearby avenues and shutting down traffic at the height of the evening rush hour.

Police used batons to push back some protesters at the front of the march attended by an estimated 6,000 people as tempers flared, and some demonstrators broke down barricades and threw rocks and bottles toward authorities.

Television images showed officers beating protesters in response, and an Associated Press television producer saw five people dragged away by police and two protesters bloodied. Spanish state TV said at least 28 were injured, including two officers, and that 22 people were detained.

The demonstration, organized with an "Occupy Congress" slogan, drew protesters from all walks of life weary of nine straight months of painful economic austerity measures imposed by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his solid majority of lawmakers. Smaller demonstrations Tuesday attracted hundreds of protesters in Barcelona and Seville.

Angry Madrid marchers who got as close as they could to Parliament, 250 meters (yards) away, yelled "Get out!, Get out! They don't represent us! Fire them!"

"The only solution is that we should put everyone in Parliament out on the street so they know what it's like," said Maria Pilar Lopez, a 60-year-old government secretary.

Lopez and others called for fresh elections, claiming the government's hard-hitting austerity measures are proof that the ruling Popular Party misled voters when it won power last November in a landslide.

While Rajoy has said he has no plans to cut pensions for Spaniards, Lopez fears her retirement age could be raised from 65 to as much as 70. Three of her seven nieces and nephews have been laid off since Rajoy ousted Spain's Socialists, and she said the prospect of them finding jobs "is very bleak."

Spain is struggling in its second recession in three years with unemployment near 25 percent. The country has introduced austerity measures and economic reforms in a bid to convince its euro partners and investors that it is serious about reducing its bloated deficit to 6.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2012 and 4.5 percent next year.

The deficit reached (EURO)50.1 billion ($64.8 billion), equivalent to 4.77 percent of GDP, through August, the government said Tuesday. Secretary of State for the Budget Marta Fernandez Curras said the deficit "is under control."

Spain has been under pressure from investors to apply for European Central Bank assistance in keeping its borrowing costs down. Rajoy has yet to say whether Madrid will apply for the aid, reluctant to ask since such assistance comes with strings attached.

Concerns over the country's public finances were evident earlier Wednesday when the Treasury sold (EURO)3.98 billion ($5.14 billion) in short-term debt but at a higher cost. It sold (EURO)1.39 billion in three-month bills at an average interest rate of 1.2 percent, up from 0.95 percent in the last such auction Aug. 28, and (EURO)2.58 billion in six-month bills on a yield of 2.21 percent, up from 2.03 percent.

The government is expected to present a new batch of reforms Thursday as it unveils a draft budget for 2013.

A day later, an auditor will release the results of stress tests on those Spanish banks, which have been hit by the collapse of the country's real estate sector. The government will then judge how much of a (EURO)100 billion loan it will tap to help bail out the banks. Initial estimates say the banks will need some (EURO)60 billion.

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Associated Press television producer Iain Sullivan and Associated Press Writer Ciaran Giles contributed from Madrid.

Human finger in Idaho trout belongs to wakeboarder

SPOKANE, Wash. — A human finger found inside a fish at Idaho's Priest Lake has been traced to a wakeboarder who lost four fingers in an accident more than two months earlier.

Fisherman Nolan Calvin found the finger while he was cleaning the trout he caught Sept. 11. He put it on ice and called the Bonner County, Idaho, sheriff's office, the Spokesman-Review newspaper reported.

Detectives were able to get a fingerprint off the severed digit. They matched it to a fingerprint card for Haans Galassi, 31, of Colbert, Wash., and called him Tuesday morning.

Investigators learned that Galassi lost four fingers from his left hand in a June 21 accident on the same lake where the fish was caught.

"The sheriff called me and told me he had a strange story to tell me," Galassi said Tuesday. "He said that a fisherman was out on Priest Lake, and I pretty much knew exactly what he was going to say at that point.

"I was like: Let me guess, they found my fingers in a fish."

The fish was caught about eight miles from where Galassi had lost his fingers, the sheriff's office said.

Galassi had been on a camping trip at the scenic lake when he decided to go wakeboarding. He told the newspaper his hand got caught in a loop in the towline, and he couldn't pull it out before the line tightened behind the boat that was going to pull him.

When he finally broke free, he didn't feel much pain. But then he looked at his hand.

"I pulled my hand out of the water and it had pretty much lopped off all four fingers," he said. "It was a lot of flesh and bone, not a lot of blood."

He was taken by helicopter to a Spokane hospital.

Galassi has been undergoing therapy twice a week for his injured hand. He still has half of his index and pointer fingers on that hand.

"I can still grip things and grab and hold the steering wheel with it," Galassi said.

The sheriff's office offered to return the finger, but Galassi declined.

"I'm like, `uhhh, I'm good,'" he said.

Detective Sgt. Gary Johnston of the sheriff's office said the agency will keep the digit for a few weeks in case Galassi changes his mind.

"There's still three more, too," Johnston said. "It's hard to say where those are going to end up."

Mom charged with being NYC madam pleads guilty

(why is this go getter entrepreneur  in so much trouble? she clearly had a successful business model and was trying to stimulate the economy!)

By TOM HAYS, APNEW YORK — A suburban mother of four charged with moonlighting as a multimillion-dollar madam pleaded guilty Tuesday to promoting prostitution as part of a plea deal.

Anna Gristina, a legal U.S. resident originally from the Scottish Highlands, made the plea in Manhattan court. The judge said she'll be sentenced Nov. 20 to time served and probation, and she could also be deported.

She spent four months in jail before being released on $250,000 bond in June.

Her lawyers said Gristina lived on a 12-acre property in Monroe, about 50 miles north of New York City, and rescued animals and helped abandoned pet pigs find new homes.

But prosecutors accused the 45-year-old Gristina of having a roster of wealthy, well-placed clients and boasting of law-enforcement connections during 15 years in a business that made her millions. She had said she was merely starting a dating service.

She had been charged with a single count of promoting prostitution, stemming from a July 2011 tryst that authorities say she arranged involving two women and an undercover officer posing as a client.

Co-defendant Jaynie Baker, a former matchmaking recruiter charged with helping Gristina set up sexual encounters, reached a deal to resolve her case. Baker, 31, is due back in court on Oct. 2.

Gristina was arrested Feb. 22 as she left a friend's Morgan Stanley office after a fundraising meeting for her business, prosecutors say.

In trying to get the case dismissed, her lawyer, Norman Pattis, wrote that the district attorney's office "vindictively prosecuted her as a result of her failure to cooperate with investigators" during what he called an illegal interrogation.

Gristina said in court papers that investigators shrugged off her requests for a lawyer and told her they'd let her go if she gave them information about five men — not named in her filings, but described as a financier, an international banker and a member of a politically connected family, among others.

The DA's office countered in court papers that Gristina "has not produced a shred of evidence of actual vindictiveness."

A grand jury indicted Gristina before her arrest, undermining her argument that she was prosecuted because she didn't cooperate, Assistant District Attorneys Elizabeth Roper and Charles Linehan wrote.

Two accused prostitutes and an accused money-launderer also have been arrested in the case