3 embassies in Israel receive suspicious letters

JERUSALEM –
Israeli police say envelopes containing a suspicious white powder have been discovered at the American, Spanish and Swedish embassies in Tel Aviv.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said workers at the three embassies alerted police after opening the envelopes Tuesday.

Rosenfeld said it is still unclear what the substance is. But he said police have said the substance was not poisonous since no one was hurt.

Police are trying to find who sent the envelopes and determine whether the incidents were connected

Inside Palin's Life in Alaska

NEW YORK –
Could Sarah Palin's glamorous new life in Wasilla derail a presidential run? Shushannah Walshe spoke exclusively to Palin's parents; friends who recount her nasty streak; and explores how life has dramatically changed for her.

· Talks to Sarah Palin’s parents, Chuck and Sally Heath about their daughter’s life in Alaska and her mom’s opinion that a possible run for the White House would be difficult.

· Gets exclusive on-the-record interviews with family, friends, and foes with insight on how her life has changed from a mom-about-town to rarely seen Republican rock star—and friends explain why she gave up the governorship for the lure of money.

· Looks inside her life in Wasilla now that she’s so famous and how she’s adjusted her lifestyle, from the Jetta she drives around town to who actually does the household shopping.

· Speaks to the victim of the “Troopergate” investigation who recounts how Palin ruined his life--and to her former close aide, who accuses her of “taking a nuclear bomb when a fly swatter would have dealt with the issue.”

· Hears from friends on her early ambitions for the White House and how she was looking towards Pennsylvania Avenue in her early Wasilla days—even before she McCain’s VP.

· Reveals new information on her upcoming reality show on TLC, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” Family and friends tells stories of caribou hunting, gold-mining, and dog-mushing for the show.

The first thing you notice, upon pulling up to Chuck and Sally Heath’s house in Wasilla, Alaska, is the Christmas tree of moose antlers piled up next to the driveway. Step inside the ranch-style home, and you get another unmistakable sign that you’re not in blue-state America anymore: Chuck’s prized collection of skinned and stuffed animals, the spoils of his many hunting trips—a cougar, a mountain goat, foxes, birds, and snake skins spilling over the banister. Outside, a picnic table offers dramatic views of the Chugach Mountain range. It was in this setting that the Heaths, putting aside their natural wariness of press from the Lower 48, agreed to meet a reporter, feed her fresh snap peas from their garden—and share their thoughts about their world-famous daughter, Sarah Palin.

Should she run for president in 2012? Sarah’s mom, Sally, doesn’t hesitate. “It would be a tough thing to do,” she starts to say, until Chuck interrupts: “It’s up to her, whatever she wants to do.” Sally, dressed in a green zip-up sweatshirt, continues. “I love what she’s doing now: scouting around for who would be good candidates. Who honestly could stand up and speak and not be afraid to tell it like it is?”

They don’t know her plans, the Heaths are quick to add, in their first national interview in over a year. But “it would be fun to find out some day,” Sally says, with a contagious laugh.

In other words, Sarah's parents seem to feel the way a lot of Alaskans feel about the state's best-known export, next to oil and salmon: torn over the wisdom of her trying to make the White House her home.

Some friends expressed caution about Palin’s future. A former adviser in DC who remains friends with Palin said he doesn’t want to see her run. “I think she’s got a great life. She’s got the world by the tail right now,” this friend says. “I mean, she’s earning a lot of money, which she never had before. She is speaking to adoring crowds wherever she goes. She’s greatly appreciated by those she supports and she doesn’t have to take all the grief that you have to take when you are either running for or holding office.”

Others who are less favorably disposed point out that Palin’s aborted tenure as governor left a lot of bad blood in Alaska; they worry that her baggage would be dragged back onstage in another national campaign, and hurt the state.

But fans and foes alike warn against the dangers of selling Palin short.

“Four years ago, right after she was elected, I was quoted as saying, ‘The graveyards of Alaska are covered with the bones of people crossed by Sarah Palin.’ While I said crossed, what I meant was underestimated,” said Alaska Republican pollster David Dittman. “And that’s still true. Consistently, whether it’s the local city council in Wasilla, no matter where she’s gone—say, on the cusp of achieving something—there’ve always been detractors that say it can’t happen, it won’t happen, this is why she won’t be successful. That’s why I will say, to this day, the political graveyards of Alaska—and other places—are filled with the bones of people who underestimated Sarah. And it’s still happening.”

Adele Morgan, one of Palin’s oldest friends in Alaska, can attest to that. She recalls approaching Palin in 2005, when she first heard that her childhood pal and basketball buddy was running for governor.

“I had heard that just from the grapevine so I went and asked her,” Morgan recalls. “I thought that was quite the feat at the time. And I said, ‘What are your plans?’ I was just kidding around and I said, ‘So do you want to be president?’ And that was way back then and she said, ‘Well maybe.’ And I was like, ‘Wow you got some goals there, girl!”

“If I was advising her on one thing: Never forget your roots, never forget where you come from,” says Eddie Burke, a Palin family friend.

The ambition doesn’t always sit well with Alaskans, who have a saying: “We don’t care how they do it on the Outside.” But they clearly care when the Outside suddenly lands on their doorstep. Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright refers to the town as “Hollywood North” because of the media focus and the parade of tourists from the Lower 48 that now visits hoping to get a glimpse of Sarah’s backyard.

She doesn’t spend nearly as much time there as she used to amid her speaking engagements, book tours, and appearances for midterm candidates across the country. (Indeed, until her endorsement of insurgent candidate Joe Miller in the state’s GOP Senate primary, who nosed out incumbent Lisa Murkowski, Palin’s influence had not been felt much at all since she resigned the governorship in 2009.)

Friends in Wasilla say she doesn’t drive the family’s Escalade SUV anymore and instead has gone back to the VW Jetta she used when governor to avoid being spotted.

“Every time I drive it, people know who it is and I can just drive the Jetta and nobody pays any attention,” Palin told friend and Wasilla neighbor Bev Perdew.

When she is in-state, she spends most of her time secluded in her Wasilla home on Lake Lucille. She’s alleviated the need to pop out to do TV, having recently added a studio as an extension to her house. In the past, she was often spotted shopping at Target and Walmart; these days, she sends Bristol to the store, to avoid being mobbed by friends and well-wishers.

On one hand, “you can’t do anything because everybody’s watching when you go to the bathroom,” says Eddie Burke, a Palin family friend who says he lost his job as a radio talk-show host after skirmishing with a Palin critic who worked at the same station. On the other, Burke says, she’s facing the allure of big-money book deals. “So did she leave for money? Probably so.”

Burke says he still chats with Todd about snow machining (Alaskan for snowmobiling) and was even involved in preparations with Palin for her rally with Glenn Beck. “If I was advising her on one thing: Never forget your roots, never forget where you come from. I think there was a part of her that kind of got caught up. If I was to advise her, she should not forget where she came from.”

He says he told this to Todd, creating some “friction.”

Walt Monegan knows what it’s like to have friction with the Palins on the grand scale. His firing as Palin’s public safety commissioner led to the Troopergate investigation. Monegan is still struggling with the fallout years later. The former Anchorage police chief still breaks down in tears when reminiscing about his time on the beat. If Palin does make a bid for the presidency, Monegan is sure to be held up by opponents as a case study in how she can wield power vindictively. He strongly cautioned against a future President Palin.

“I think it’d be a train wreck. You need to have a thick skin in public service, especially if you’re going to be a boss of any sort. People are very opinionated; they will go up and tell you what they think about you, where you’ve gone wrong. You have to listen to them. You don’t shut them off, you don’t turn your back on them, and you certainly don’t attack,” Monegan said. “In her case, she is not mature enough or doesn’t understand that or she has such a large goal that she feels she knows what’s best for everybody, doesn’t really need any other input.”

Palin’s foray this summer into the Alaska Senate race left similarly bruised feelings, exacerbating a long-running feud with the Murkowski family, which has divided the state’s Republican ranks. It all started when former Sen. Frank Murkowski bypassed Palin when, upon election as governor, he decided to appoint his daughter to fill out the remainder of his term in Congress. Palin returned the favor by ousting Murkowski in the GOP 2006 gubernatorial primary. The fighting continued this summer, when Palin’s decision to back Joe Miller helped propel him past Lisa Murkowski for the GOP Senate nomination.

Murkowski and her allies thought the move was personal. But SarahPAC staffer Rebecca Mansour (perhaps the aide closest to Palin) said she did not endorse Miller to get back at the family. "She did not endorse Joe Miller to get back at Lisa. Endorsing someone everyone thought would lose would not be a way to get back at Lisa. Her endorsement of Joe Miller was about principles, not personalities,” Mansour said. “It was about Alaska and her belief that Alaska should have the freedom to develop its natural resources under federal control so that it can become more of a giver to the nation through resource development instead of a taker of federal pork."

Murkowski’s campaign manager was John Bitney, who, until recently, was a Palin ally. A high-school friend who ran her 2006 campaign for governor, Bitney had a falling out with Palin when she discovered Bitney was having an affair with a family friend, a woman to whom he is now married. Bitney is skewered in Palin’s book, Going Rogue, and says she sometimes uses her power to intimidate—“taking a nuclear bomb when a fly swatter would have dealt with the issue,” as he puts it.

“If you are perceived having been someone who has criticized her or been on the other side of her or someone that she’s gone after, [there’s a feeling] that somehow she can hurt you,” Bitney says. [People] “are scared of her.” Bitney said. “That would really concern me to have that kind of power.” Bitney today says “I would love to have peace. I’m asking for a truce.” (Says Mansour: “I’ve worked for her for over a year, and I have not seen any mean side to her. She’s not mean like that. I don’t get that criticism. She's always been very kind and considerate with me.”)

In smoothing over some of these rifts, Palin’s parents are a great asset. Monegan, the ex-public safety commissioner, says he hasn’t had any contact with Palin or her inner circle. But last winter, he ran into Chuck Heath at a dinner celebrating Alaskan seafood. Heath ran over to Monegan and gave him a handshake and hug, telling him, “That’s just politics. I still like you.” Heath even went over to Monegan’s table to meet his family and regale them with stories of his daughter’s book tour.

Nobody knows the kind of sacrifices a new national campaign would entail quite like Palin’s parents, who hit the trail from time to time in 2008. The night before the balloting, Chuck told an audience in Nevada that he was one who taught Sarah “how to field-dress a moose;” on Election Day, he joked, she was going to “field-dress a donkey,” much to the crowd’s delight. These days, Sally often accompanies her daughter on trips outside Alaska, helping out with the grandkids, traveling to Washington for the Glenn Beck rally last month. (Chuck, for the time being, stays put: “I don’t like to go during hunting season,” he says).

Has their daughter’s fame affected them? “I still run with the same derelicts I did 30, 40 years ago and buy whatever beer’s on sale,” says Chuck with a smirk. “Hasn’t changed me a bit.”

They both said they don’t see their daughter much (Chuck saying he keeps track of where she travels by watching Fox News) because she is on the road so often, but when they do they don’t talk with their daughter about work.

“We don’t talk politics. We talk hunting, fishing, sports, and family. Just normal family, none of the political stuff,” her father said. “She hears enough advice from everyone and criticism from everyone and she doesn’t need to hear my bad advice. We hunt together, fish together, travel together and we don’t socialize out in the limelight anymore because she’s mobbed. She can’t walk into a store anymore. We go to a lot of gatherings together, but she has to sneak in.”

Chuck Heath says his daughter has been busy this summer working on her show for TLC, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, and gave a glimpse into what it will look like. He went caribou hunting with Palin and the TLC team and his favorite episode was their gold-mining adventure, “The people in Nome treated us so well and we found not a lot of gold. But enough gold to make it interesting.”

Shushannah Walshe is the co-author of Sarah From Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar. She was a reporter and producer at the Fox News Channel from August 2001 until the end of the 2008 presidential campaign.


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Detroit assesses damage after fires sweep city

DETROIT — A thick odor of smoke filled Detroit's air Wednesday morning after roaring fires, fanned by winds of up to 50 mph, swept through at least three Detroit neighborhoods Tuesday night, destroying dozens of homes.

No injuries have been reported.

"Between roughly 4 o'clock and about 8:30 we responded to about 85 fires," and about 140 downed power lines, fire commissioner James Mack told WXYZ-TV Tuesday night.

Detroit fire Capt. Steve Varnas told the Free Press that some fires may have been caused by dead tree limbs being blown onto power lines.

At least one electric company launched an investigation into possible ties between the blazes and its lines.

Arson also was being looked at as a cause for some of the fires, according to the Detroit News.

"It was like blankets of smoke everywhere and the next thing I know everybody's house was in fire," Louvenia Wallace, 31, a hair stylist and mother of three, told the Detroit Free Press Wednesday outside the duplex she rents.

Hulk Hogan Hospitalized with Back Pain

Hulk Hogan has been hospitalized with back pain, his rep tells TVGuide.com.

The 57-year-old wrestling legend (real name: Terry Bollea) was taken Monday to the Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla.

See photos of Hogan through the years

Hogan, who recently appeared on Comedy Central's Roast of David Hasselhoff and starred on the reality series Hogan Knows Best, posted a twitvid of himself in the emergency room Monday, telling his fans: "My back went into a major spasm from hip all the way to the middle of my back — it just totally overwhelmed me."

On Tuesday, Hogan posted another twitvid saying he was feeling better and had several tests scheduled for the day.

Report: Castro says Cuban model doesn't work

HAVANA – Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that Cuba's communist economic model doesn't work, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has conspicuously steered clear of local issues since stepping down four years ago.

The fact that things are not working efficiently on this cash-strapped Caribbean island is hardly news. Fidel's brother Raul, the country's president, has said the same thing repeatedly. But the blunt assessment by the father of Cuba's 1959 revolution is sure to raise eyebrows.

Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, asked if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries, and Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore" Goldberg wrote Wednesday in a post on his Atlantic blog.

He said Castro made the comment casually over lunch following a long talk about the Middle East, and did not elaborate. The Cuban government had no immediate comment on Goldberg's account.

Since stepping down from power in 2006, the ex-president has focused almost entirely on international affairs and said very little about Cuba and its politics, perhaps to limit the perception he is stepping on his brother's toes.

Goldberg, who traveled to Cuba at Castro's invitation last week to discuss a recent Atlantic article he wrote about Iran's nuclear program, also reported on Tuesday that Castro questioned his own actions during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, including his recommendation to Soviet leaders that they use nuclear weapons against the United States.

Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba has clung to its communist system.

The state controls well over 90 percent of the economy, paying workers salaries of about $20 a month in return for free health care and education, and nearly free transportation and housing. At least a portion of every citizen's food needs are sold to them through ration books at heavily subsidized prices.

President Raul Castro and others have instituted a series of limited economic reforms, and have warned Cubans that they need to start working harder and expecting less from the government. But the president has also made it clear he has no desire to depart from Cuba's socialist system or embrace capitalism.

Fidel Castro stepped down temporarily in July 2006 due to a serious illness that nearly killed him.

He resigned permanently two years later, but remains head of the Communist Party. After staying almost entirely out of the spotlight for four years, he re-emerged in July and now speaks frequently about international affairs. He has been warning for weeks of the threat of a nuclear war over Iran.

Castro's interview with Goldberg is the only one he has given to an American journalist since he left office.

Kidnapped Russian air crew 'freed' in Darfur

KHARTOUM (AFP) – Three Russian helicopter crew members kidnapped in Sudan's restive Darfur region have been freed, officials said Tuesday, with one report indicating force was used to secure their release.

Sudanese army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad and the Kremlin's special envoy to Khartoum Mikhail Margelov both said the trio were released after intensive negotiations with the abductors but did not say if a ransom was paid.

"The three Russian pilots were freed last night (Monday)," following negotiations with the abductors, the army spokesman said.

Russian envoy Margelov confirmed the release in statements carried by the Russian news agency Interfax.

"The negotiations lasted several hours and were crowned with success. The group that was holding our pilots released them," Margelov said. He did not say if any ransom was paid.

Abdel Hamid Kasha, the governor of South Darfur state, where the men were abducted Sunday at gunpoint, however, gave a different version of events.

"Border guards freed the Russians after clashes with the kidnappers," Kasha told the Sudanese Media Centre, which is close to Sudan's intelligence services.

The news outlet had earlier said "specialised services" fought with the abductors and suggested there had been casualties. "The toll (from the fighting) has not yet been announced," the report said.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Khartoum authorities as to whether force had been used to end the kidnapping.

A diplomat at the Sudan consulate, Evgeni Arjantsev, meanwhile said that the three men were Tuesday back in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, from where they were seized by a small group of armed men on Sunday.

Interfax had earlier quoted Margelov as identifying the three as the captain of a Mi-8 helicopter and two crew members, who worked for private aviation company Badr.

"The helicopter was carrying food and other civilian supplies for the United Nations mission to Darfur," Margelov said.

Darfur has been gripped by civil war since 2003 that has left 300,000 people dead and 2.7 million displaced, according to the United Nations. Khartoum says 10,000 have been killed in the conflict.

The strife-torn region has seen a wave of kidnappings since March 2009, when the International Criminal Court indicted Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes there, with 23 foreigners seized.

With the release of the Russians, no foreigners remain in captivity.

On Monday, a US aid worker who had been held for more than 100 days was finally released by her abductors after negotiations with the authorities, Sudan foreign ministry spokesman Moawiya Osman said, stressing however that no ransom had been paid.

Flavia Wagner, 35, who works for US aid group Samaritan's Purse was released after a 105-day ordeal, officials said.

Colleagues had seen her "and report that she is well. She said she is looking forward to being reunited with her family in the United States," Samaritan's Purse said in a statement on Monday.

"We thank God that Flavia is safe and free," said Franklin Graham, president of the American aid group. "We appreciate the help of the government of Sudan and the United States government."

Wagner -- who was seized on May 18 along with two Sudanese colleagues who were freed within days -- was the first Western woman to have been held alone in Darfur.

All foreigners kidnapped since March 2009 have since been freed unharmed.

In July, a Russian helicopter pilot was taken prisoner after landing in South Darfur to pick up a group of rebels and transport them to Chad for peace talks. He was freed four days later.

Four dead in Mozambique after police fire on protest

Four people died and dozens were wounded on Wednesday when police opened fire on demonstrators protesting rising prices in and around the Mozambique capital Maputo, officials said.

One of the dead was a 12-year-old boy who was shot in the head. He was found with a school textbook resting beside him and empty bullet casings nearby, an AFP correspondent said.

"Four people died, 142 were arrested and 27 were wounded, including two police officers," police spokesman Pedro Cossa said.

"Police will continue to patrol the streets," he added.

He also denied that police had used live rounds, saying "our officers always use rubber bullets."

The country's main opposition party Renamo said six people had died in the protests and condemned the government's response.

"For a crime one would never be shot as happened with the six that are dead," party spokesman Fernando Mazanga told AFP.

"The government never allows protests. They always respond to protests with violence."

A witness said the dead boy had been walking toward demonstrators when police opened fire on the crowd and hit him.

"We all saw it, all of us participating in the strike. We want justice here," said 18-year-old Eunici Antonia Kiove.

Six Red Cross rescue teams working around the capital and the suburb of Matola said the demonstrators were killed during separate protests over rising fuel and food prices.

Maputo Central Hospital reported 42 patients were admitted after being wounded during the protests. One, a student, died from her injuries, the hospital said.

"We have had 42 cases at the hospital. Twenty-three were wounded by gunshots. Two are being operated on at the moment. Nineteen have wounds from physical attacks. One died," Antonio Assis da Costa, director of emergency services, told AFP.

Demonstrators chanted slogans against President Armando Guebuza, whose ruling Frelimo party won a 75-percent landslide in elections last year but who has faced mounting criticism over soaring prices in the impoverished southern African country.

"Guebuza only wants us for our votes, where is he now?" an angry protester shouted, as the crowd chanted "Down with Guebuza!"

Interior Minister Jose Pacheco called the demonstrators "outlaws and criminals" in an interview on state television.

The unrest broke out as thousands took to the streets in poor neighbourhoods in and around the city to protest against the rising prices of fuel, wheat, bread, water and electricity.

They burned tyres to block major roads to the airport and the city's largest suburb, Matola, as mini-bus taxi drivers went on strike and some schools closed.

State-owned Radio Mozambique reported three dead in the town of Benfica, about 15 minutes' drive from the capital.

The broadcaster said rioters had set alight cars outside a branch of the national energy company Electricidade de Mocambique. Looters were also ransacking businesses, the radio station said.

"We are monitoring the situation, we sent out police," Maputo police spokeswoman Silvia Mahumane told AFP without further comment.

Mozambique has seen prices climb in recent months as the value of its currency, the metical, slumped against the South African rand.

The exchange rate is currently five meticals to the rand, down from a rate of 3.5 this time last year, according to data from South Africa's Standard Bank.

The currency slide has taken a toll on import-dependent Mozambique.

Electricidade de Mocambique on Wednesday implemented a 13.4 percent rate increase, while the state water supplier has also raised prices in and around the capital, state newspaper Noticias said.

In 2008, six people were killed in protests against a public transport fare increase.