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Amid GOP concern, Romney heads to Colorado as schedule intensifies

LOS ANGELES (AP) Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney heads to Colorado on Sunday, the first stop in what advisers call an "intense battleground state schedule" aimed at countering GOP criticism that his campaign is mismanaged and misdirected.

The former Massachusetts governor will have the stage to himself in a state that will help decide the presidential contest. President Barack Obama was expected to be in Washington and had no official business or campaign activity scheduled.

For Romney, an evening rally at a Denver-area high school represents his first public event of the weekend. With the election less than seven weeks away, the Republican candidate is facing pressure to spend less time raising money and more time explaining his plans to voters in swing states.

He plans to do that beginning with the Colorado rally. Romney then launches a three-day bus tour in Ohio on Monday followed by a stop in Virginia all states Obama won in 2008 and held by Republicans four years earlier.

The schedule shift comes in the last full week before the presidential debates move the campaign into a new phase one which Romney advisers suggest could prove pivotal following several weeks marked by negative attention, missteps and Republican concerns.

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CNN posts report on diary of slain ambassador Stevens; US State Dept. says family had objected

LOS ANGELES (AP) CNN reported on the personal journal of slain American ambassador Christopher Stevens over objections from his family, a State Department spokesman said Saturday.

The news channel, in a story posted online Saturday, said that it found a journal belonging to Stevens four days after he died in a Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Three other Americans also were killed.

CNN broke a pledge to the late ambassador's family that it wouldn't report on the diary, said State Department spokesman Philippe Reines, a senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In a blistering statement, Reines called CNN's actions "indefensible."

The channel said in the story online that it took "newsworthy tips" from Stevens' diary and confirmed them with other sources. Citing an unidentified source "familiar with Stevens' thinking," CNN said that the ambassador was concerned about security threats in Benghazi and a "rise in Islamic extremism."

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AP Exclusive: Termites, storms, neglect damage some of Imelda Marcos' prized shoes, gowns

MANILA, Philippines (AP) Termites, storms and neglect have damaged part of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos' legendary collection of shoes and other possessions left behind after she and her dictator husband were driven into U.S. exile by a 1986 popular revolt.

Hundreds of pieces of late strongman Ferdinand Marcos' clothing, including the formal native see-through barong shirts he wore during his two-decade rule, have also begun to gather mold and fray after being stored for years without protection at the presidential palace and later at Manila's National Museum, officials told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The Marcoses fled the Philippines at the climax of an army-backed "people power" revolt which became a harbinger of change in authoritarian regimes worldwide. Ferdinand Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in 1989 and his widow and children returned home years later.

They left behind staggering amounts of personal belongings, clothes and art objects at the palace, including at least 1,220 pairs of Imelda Marcos' shoes.

More than 150 cartons of clothes, dress accessories and shoes of the Marcoses were transferred to the National Museum for safekeeping two years ago after termites, humidity and mold threatened the apparel at the riverside palace. They deteriorated further at the museum after the fragile boxes were abandoned in a padlocked hall that had no facilities to protect such relics and was inundated by tropical rains last month due to a gushing leak in the ceiling, museum officials said.

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Alternative Lebanese band voices hopes of liberal youth who kicked off Arab Spring

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) Hundreds of young Arabs joyfully screamed out obscenities, encouraged by the handsome, gay Lebanese lead singer at the concert in Jordan's capital. Police looked on worriedly. People outside asked what was going on.

It was a performance by the band Mashrou Leila, which uses a hybrid of velvety Lebanese slang and European instruments to address difficult, sometimes taboo issues of Middle Eastern societies. Lyrics of love and angst are intertwined with more difficult, sometimes taboo issues, with issues like poverty, premarital sex and homosexuality in this deeply homophobic region.

The success of the band, whose name is translated as "Night Project," appears to be another outgrowth of the Arab Spring uprisings that swept through the Mideast last year. Led by lead singer and song writer Hamed Sinno, a 24-year-old Freddy Mercury doppelganger and openly gay man, the band has been soundly embraced by Arab youth who see the music as part of a cultural and social revolution.

"They are about secularism, gay love, social problems that we don't talk about, that we don't accept, that we are afraid to discuss," said 19-year-old student Jalal Elias, of the northern Israeli city of Haifa, which has a large Arab-Palestinian population. "The kind of people who make this music they made the Arab Spring."

On a recent Friday, some 3,000 fans attended Mashrou Leila's concert in Amman's ancient Roman auditorium. Young men and women wore tight jeans, thick-framed glasses, and disheveled haircuts. Other women wore headscarves and modest Muslim dress.

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Edwin Wilson, former CIA operative convicted of selling arms to Libya, dies at 84

SEATTLE (AP) Edwin Wilson set up front companies abroad for the CIA, made millions in the arms trade and entertained generals and congressmen at his sprawling Virginia farm.

His high-powered, jet-setting life in the 1970s and early 1980s followed a career in the CIA. But it came crashing down when he was branded a traitor and convicted in 1983 for shipping 20 tons of C-4 plastic explosives to Libya.

After two decades in prison, Wilson finally got the conviction overturned, convincing a judge that he had continued to work informally for the agency.

The man who once posed as a rich American businessman abroad spent his final years living with his brother near Seattle.

Wilson died Sept. 10 from complications from a heart valve replacement surgery, said Craig Emmick, a director at Columbia Funeral Home in Seattle. He was 84.

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AP IMPACT: NYC minister raises millions for disasters, also helps himself, family and friends

NEW YORK (AP) Before the Sept. 11 attacks, the Rev. Carl Keyes was a little-known pastor of a small New York City congregation searching for members and money.

When the twin towers fell, his fortunes changed.

Donors poured $2.5 million into the minister's charity to help 9/11 victims. More opportunities to raise relief money would come later, with at least another $2.3 million collected for efforts along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, in the poorest corners of West Virginia and Tennessee, and even in remote African villages.

Tens of millions more flowed through his fingers from the sale of church properties.

But Keyes, a one-time construction worker, did more than help the needy with the millions donated he helped himself.

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Grocery chain Trader Joe's recalls peanut butter linked to salmonella illnesses

WASHINGTON (AP) The grocery store chain Trader Joe's is recalling peanut butter that has been linked to 29 salmonella illnesses in 18 states.

The Food and Drug Administration and the federal Centers for Disease Control said Saturday that the store's Creamy Salted Valencia Peanut Butter, which is sold nationwide, is the likely source of the outbreak. The agencies are investigating whether any other items sold at the store could be contaminated.

More than three-fourths of those who became ill were children under the age of 18. No deaths have been reported.

The FDA issued a statement Saturday saying that the FDA, the CDC and the state of California briefed Trader Joe's on its investigation showing the link between the peanut butter and the illnesses on Sept. 20. The company then agreed to remove the product from store shelves.

The government did not release which states had reported illnesses, but several states have issued warnings to residents not to eat the peanut butter. According to the individual states' health departments, three cases were in Massachusetts, one was in Rhode Island and one was in North Carolina.

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Police: Double amputee in wheelchair shot and killed by Houston officer at group home

HOUSTON (AP) A Houston police officer shot and killed a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair Saturday inside a group home after police say the double amputee threatened the officer and aggressively waved a metal object that turned out to be a pen.

Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the man cornered the officer in his wheelchair and was making threats while trying to stab the officer with the pen. At the time, the officer did not know what the metal object was that the man was waving, Silva said.

She said the man came "within inches to a foot" of the officer and did not follow instructions to calm down and remain still.

"Fearing for his partner's safety and his own safety, he discharged his weapon," Silva told The Associated Press.

Police did not immediately release the name of the man who was killed. They had been called to the home after a caretaker there called and reported that the man in wheelchair was causing a disturbance.

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Aziz Ansari, Ginnifer Goodwin keep Emmy rehearsals fun and casual

LOS ANGELES (AP) The Emmy Awards were still a day away, but the Nokia Theatre was already abuzz Saturday as celebrities popped in to run through their lines for Sunday's ceremony.

TV stars such as Aziz Ansari, Matthew Perry, Ginnifer Goodwin and Hayden Panettiere practiced presenting awards on the Emmy stage inside the mostly empty theater ahead of Sunday's ABC broadcast.

Ansari, of NBC's "Parks and Recreation," sported a red polo, tan slacks and a phony British accent as he delivered his introduction with a bottle of coconut water in hand.

"I feel like people take your acting more seriously when you're British," he quipped.

When Goodwin, of ABC's "Once Upon a Time," stepped on stage, her first question was: "Where am I sitting?" The pixie-haired actress squinted her eyes as she attempted to spot her place card in the crowd.

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Scutaro delivers big hits to back Bumgarner and Giants capture NL West crown by beating Padres

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) The San Francisco Giants pulled on gray NL West champion shirts and white caps, then took a victory lap around AT&T Park slapping high-fives with any fans they could reach.

The Giants have needed every face in their clubhouse and every ounce of support from their city. They lost All-Star closer Brian Wilson in April to season-ending elbow surgery, and top hitter Melky Cabrera to a 50-game drug suspension in August. They lost Pablo Sandoval to the disabled list twice, and second baseman Freddy Sanchez for the year months ago.

And, still, San Francisco won and won.

Madison Bumgarner pitched the Giants to their second division title in three years and newcomer Marco Scutaro had three hits and three RBIs in an 8-4 victory over the San Diego Padres on Saturday night.

"It's almost like we take it personally when people say we're going to kind of fade away," first baseman Brandon Belt said. "When somebody goes down, it seems the whole team just kind of picks it up and takes over. That's what happened the last few weeks, and that's why we're NL West champions right now."