Gunman opens fire on NATO troops in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan ? A gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on coalition troops in western Afghanistan, military authorities said Monday. An official said several NATO troops were wounded in the shooting and the gunman was killed.

NATO and Afghan authorities were investigating the shooting, which took place Saturday at an outpost in Bala Boluk district, about 340 miles (700 kilometers) west of Kabul, said Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi.

A NATO statement said there were no fatalities among alliance soldiers, adding that it was its policy not to comment on other casualties. An official who asked not to be named because the investigation is ongoing said several coalition troops were wounded in the shooting. He said the man who opened fire was later killed by the NATO troops.

If the probe confirms the gunman was a soldier, the shooting would be the latest in a series of attacks by Afghans against coalition partners. Those shootings have raised fears of Taliban infiltration as NATO speeds up the training of Afghan security forces.

The expansion of the army and police is a critical element in NATO's exit strategy from Afghanistan.

Coalition troops are to end their combat role in 2014, and the goal is to have 195,000 trained Afghan troops in service by next October. Afghan security forces have already started taking the lead in several regions as part of the process that will put them in charge of security across the nation by the end of 2014.

Commanders of NATO's training mission have said that coalition and Afghan forces keep a sharp eye out for possible Taliban infiltrators at the recruitment, training and deployment stages.

Military officials estimate the number of insurgents at between 20,000 and 25,000 men. Although outnumbered, the Taliban have mounted a series of high-profile attacks that have brought into question NATO's claim that it has the upper hand in the war and that violence is decreasing.

A Taliban statement said on Monday that the insurgents were confident of victory and that the NATO forces would face the same fate as the Soviet invaders who withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 after an almost decade-long war.

The insurgents "are successfully withstanding all the coalition forces led by the U.S. invaders and will make them all face the same fate that befell the Red Army," said the statement marking the 32nd anniversary of the Soviet invasion in 1979.

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Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.

---

Slobodan Lekic can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/slekich

The Associated Press

Source: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/25/gunman-opens-fire-on-nato-troops-in-afghanistan/

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AP source: Reyes, Marlins agree at $106 million

FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2010, file photo, New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes reacts after hitting a double during the first game of a baseball doubleheader against the Milwaukee Brewers at Citi Field in New York. A person familiar with the negotiations tells The Associated Press that Reyes and the Miami Marlins have agreed to a $106 million, six-year contract. The deal includes a club option for a seventh season that, if exercised, would make it worth $120 million. The person spoke Sunday Dec. 4, 2011 on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been announced. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2010, file photo, New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes reacts after hitting a double during the first game of a baseball doubleheader against the Milwaukee Brewers at Citi Field in New York. A person familiar with the negotiations tells The Associated Press that Reyes and the Miami Marlins have agreed to a $106 million, six-year contract. The deal includes a club option for a seventh season that, if exercised, would make it worth $120 million. The person spoke Sunday Dec. 4, 2011 on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been announced. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

DALLAS (AP) ? Jose Reyes is speeding to the suddenly splurging Miami Marlins.

The All-Star shortstop became the second top free agent to land with the Marlins in a matter of days, agreeing Sunday night to a $106 million, six-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

After adding All-Star closer Heath Bell for $27 million over three years, the Marlins gave the NL batting champion a deal that includes a club option for 2018 that would make the contract worth $120 million, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been announced.

Preparing to move into a $515 million retractable-roof ballpark, the Marlins hired Ozzie Guillen as their manager and have become a driving force in the market ahead of the winter meetings, which start Monday. With Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols the remaining high-profile hitters on the market, they hope to land another big bat. Pujols, like Reyes, already has toured the new stadium ? which opens when the Marlins host the Cardinals on April 4.

Reyes is following Francisco Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran out of New York, leaving David Wright and Johan Santana as the Mets' last remaining stars. Mets general manager Sandy Alderson began hearing rumors of the deal Sunday afternoon.

"If the numbers are what are speculated and Jose does leave us, I don't think people will be surprised that under those circumstances he went elsewhere. It doesn't mean they'll be happy about it," said Alderson, who spoke with Reyes' agents earlier in the day. "There was an indication to me that things were moving. Exactly how far. I didn't ask. I didn't need to."

Reyes signed with New York at age 16 and last year become the Mets' first NL batting champion, when he hit .337 and topped the league with 16 triples, while stealing 39 bases.

The 28-year-old is a four-time All-Star and three-time stolen base champion. But he has been prone to injuries in recent seasons, particularly to his hamstrings. He has not played more than 133 games in any of the last three years, averaging 98.

His arrival in Miami, where the Marlins will be wearing new brightly colored uniforms, likely means three-time All-Star Hanley Ramirez will be shifting from shortstop to third base.

Reyes received the second-nine figure deal of the offseason, following center fielder Matt Kemp's $160 million, eight-year contract to stay with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Reyes' departure is another blow to the Mets, who went 77-85 in their third straight losing season. Attendance at Citi Field dropped to 2.35 million, down about 7 percent from last year and their lowest since 2004, when they played at Shea Stadium.

Alderson said the Mets never made a formal offer to Reyes, who is coming off a deal that paid him $32.4 million over five years.

"I don't believe Mets' fans will be surprised if these reports are true that Jose may not be back," he said. "You have to draw a line somewhere and based on our experience, not just with Jose ? but with multiyear contracts generally, and not just with our multiyear contracts, but all multiyear contracts generally ? we decided that there were some conceptual limitations to where we would go."

Alderson became general manager when Omar Minaya was fired after the 2010 season. The Wilpon family that owns the Mets has been sued by the trustee trying to recover money for the victims of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, and he is seeking to recover up to $386 million from the Mets' ownership group.

"Bernie Madoff and his specter are always referenced in these situations. I really don't really think that Madoff has that much to do with this," Alderson said. "But when a team loses $70 million, irrespective of Bernie Madoff or anyone else, that's probably a bigger factor in our approach to this season and the next couple than anything else."

Alderson wouldn't say whether the $70 million figure was for 2011 only.

"Big losses, let's put it that way," he said.

With Reyes gone, Ruben Tejada becomes the Mets' projected starting shortstop.

"We don't expect him to be Jose Reyes," Alderson said. "At some point, he will be what he can be as a player."

In a matter-of-fact 20-minute briefing, Alderson didn't concede the 2012 season would be a loss and maintained the departure wouldn't lead to a total rebuilding.

"I don't think anything that Jose does or doesn't do over the next few days has any impact on David Wright," Alderson said. "Right now, we don't contemplate trading David Wright."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-05-BBN-Marlins-Reyes/id-54b36254e7944d698834583afdc6e5ec

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Lightning at Edge of Space Caught in 3D Video (SPACE.com)

Mysterious "sprites" and "elves" dance high in the Earth's atmosphere ? but these aren't mythical creatures, they're disks, globes and tendrils of light caused by lightning.

Now scientists for the first time have 3D images of these enigmas, which could shed light on their origins and whether they influence the planet's climate.

Sprites and elves are both reddish, ultra-fast bursts of electricity bright enough to see during the daytime. Sprites are jellyfish-shaped, starting as balls of light that stream downward, while elves are ring-shaped halos. They are born near the edge of space, high above clouds at altitudes of about 50 miles (80 kilometers).

Scientists first captured images of sprites and elves dancing above thunderstorms in the late '80s and early '90s. Pilots actually saw them decades earlier, but since they flicker in and out of existence so quickly, "no pilot was willing to acknowledge seeing them up there until then, since they thought it'd cast doubt on their mental state," said researcher Hans Stenbaek-Nielsen of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. "If you blink, you don't see them... they last on the order of 10 milliseconds."

Now, with a pair of jet airplanes, scientists have recorded high-speed, 3D images of sprites and elves. [See the video here.]

"We have one of the best shots of sprites in the world," said researcher Yukihiro Takahashi, of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, who presented the research yesterday (Dec. 5) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Up in the sky

The planes flew out of Colorado from June 27 to July 10, ranging over the western United States at altitudes of about 45,000 feet (13,700 meters). Collaborators on the ground let them know where thunderstorms might be popping up across the country.

The aircraft were separated by a distance of about 12 miles (20 km), recording the enigmas from a distance of about 180 miles (300 km) at high-speed video rates of 10,000 frames per second. The aim was to watch them from two different angles to create 3D images, just as we see the world in three dimensions using two eyes. The resulting pictures make the lights "look like they are at arm's length," Stenbaek-Nielsen said.

The scientists hope a better understanding of the three-dimensional structure of these enigmas could shed light on how they form.

"We still don't know why sprites have so many streamer structures," Takahashi said.

Lightning connection

The leading culprit thought to cause elves and sprites is positively charged lightning, which accounts for about 10 percent of all lightning striking the ground. Since this lightning drains the clouds of positive charge, "the clouds end up negatively charged," said researcher Matthew McHarg, director of the Space Physics and Atmospheric Research Center at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.

This negative charge in the clouds leads an electric field to build up between them and the upper atmospheric layer above them known as the ionosphere. When this electric field gets strong enough, sprites and elves apparently occur. Images reveal that elves come first, then a ring-like halo structure, followed by sprites, although sprites were also seen forming without either haloes or elves.

It remains uncertain what the importance of sprites is, Stenbaek-Nielsen said. "Are they just like the rainbow ? pretty to look at, but no further significance?"

Heated debate

There is much heated debate as to whether sprites and elves connect space weather impacting the upper atmosphere with the lower atmosphere we are most familiar with. For instance, sprites and elves might have chemical effects, influencing climate by generating compounds such as nitrous oxides. "In that case, they would have an effect on the ozone layer, and then directly on the climate and the environment," Stenbaek-Nielsen said.

In the future, the researchers would like to record sprites with even higher-speed video of about 35,000 frames per second. "That way we can see the streamer tips divide and perhaps learn what makes them divide," McHarg said. "We could see new physics."

The ends of the streamers of sprites can divide into up-to-eight-to-10 branches, Stenbaek-Nielsen said. In comparison, lab experiments mimicking such electric bursts only get two or three splittings. Power companies are especially curious about electric discharges, he added ? these outbursts can affect their equipment and personnel.

"At high altitudes of 75-to-80 kilometers (45-to-50 miles), the pressure is much reduced," McHarg told OurAmazingPlanet. "The question is, when you change the pressure from what it is on the ground to what it is up there, what happens with how lightning splits? We're still trying to find out."

This story was provided by OurAmazingPlanet , a sister site to SPACE.com.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111206/sc_space/lightningatedgeofspacecaughtin3dvideo

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Albania holds funeral for self-styled king Leka I (AP)

TIRANA, Albania ? The self-proclaimed heir to Albania's royal throne was buried on Saturday during a ceremony attended by the country's top leaders and broadcast live on national television.

Though a parliamentary republic, Albanian authorities held official ceremonies for the self-styled king ? who called himself Leka I Zogu ? at the Parliament building. They also declared Saturday a day of national mourning, with flags flying at and a minute of silence at noon.

Zogu, who returned home from exile to try to claim the throne himself, died Wednesday of a heart attack. He was 72.

He was the son of King Ahmet Zogu, a Muslim chieftain who proclaimed himself Albania's monarch in 1928 and ruled for 11 years during a time that many older Albanians now remember as prosperous and stable.

Albania's communist rulers abolished the monarchy in 1946, but, even in exile, the royal family insisted that Leka Zogu was Albania's legitimate ruler.

President Bamir Topi and Prime Minister Sali Berisha, joined hundreds of other officials and leaders in paying their respect during a ceremony that was broadcast live on public television and some other private channels. Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga also attended.

"We have come here today ... to honor, with full historic gratitude and national pride, the work of Leka Zogu, son of Ahmet Zogu, King of Albanians," said Tirana's Mayor Lulzim Basha

"Leka Zogu's commitment to the democracy in Albania was never separate from the extraordinary attention to Kosovo's fate," Basha said.

Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox prayers were read by religious leaders.

He was buried next to his wife's and mother's grave at the public Sharra cemetery in a Tirana suburb.

"I, Prince Leka II, swear in front of the body of my father that I will follow the road of King Zogu, of King Leka I to be at the service of the nation, the homeland," said Leka II, his only son.

No opposition leaders were present at the ceremony. Erion Brace, an opposition lawmaker, said that Leka Zogu was never the country's king.

Born just two days before Albania was occupied by Italian forces in 1939, Leka Zogu, the only son of King Ahmet Zogu, spent most of his life in exile in Europe and Africa while his country was ruled by Communists.

After Albania's Communist regime fell in 1990, Leka Zogu made two disastrous attempts to return home ? being thrown out during the first in 1993 and charged with leading an armed uprising during the second in 1997.

The six-foot, five-inch (2-meter) tall Leka Zogu finally settled in Albania in 2002, leading a quiet life with his Australian wife, who died in 2004, and son but never relinquishing his claim to the throne. The royal family's official website listed his interests as "arms, shooting, reading and history."

Leka Zogu's Hungarian mother, Queen Geraldina, died in 2002.

His family was given back some of its old royal properties and granted diplomatic passports. Leka Zogu's son has since served as an adviser to several Albanian governments. Today, a small royalist party is allied to the governing Democratic Party's coalition of Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

The government has pledged to bring home from Paris the late king's remains, calling the monarch "one of the greatest, most distinguished personalities with a major contribution to the history of the Albanian nation."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_re_eu/eu_albania_leka_zogu

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Again, looking to Europe for debt solutions

Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters

The illuminated euro sign is seen in front of the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany.

?

By Chuck Mikolajczak, Reuters

NEW YORK?? The euro zone will once again serve as the source of Wall Street's angst, as investors look to a summit of the region's political leaders for decisive solutions for the ballooning debt crisis.

Stocks posted their best week in more than two years this week, driven by central bank efforts to provide cheaper dollar loans to struggling European banks.

In addition, the new head of the European Central Bank said on Thursday the ECB stands ready to act more aggressively to fight Europe's debt crisis if political leaders agree to much tighter budget controls at the Dec. 9 summit.

But Wall Street investors can be forgiven for feeling like they've been in this position before. Markets seesawed throughout the fall, guided by prevailing sentiment out of Europe.

"Next week it will be all focused on the upcoming Friday summit. But don't forget this is the fifteenth summit we've had now during the euro zone crisis, and every one the market gets excited, gets excited and then boom -- it gets disappointed," said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New York.

Until now, the ECB has resisted prodding from markets and world leaders to step in as the lender of last resort. European credit market yields have soared in recent weeks on concerns that the euro zone could break up or one or more countries would default on their debt.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would meet next Monday to outline joint proposals for the summit.

Investor optimism over apparent progress by euro zone leaders towards taming their debt problems helped propel the S&P 500 7.4 percent higher for the week, its best weekly performance since March 2009. The best performers in the last week were companies with more international sales, according to Bespoke Investment Group, an investment adviser in Harrison, New York.

While volatility remains high as markets remain susceptible to any negative headlines coming out of the euro zone, investors appear satisfied for the time being that the region's leaders will remain on track in tackling the crisis.

Their Lehman moment
"We've seen some policy changes which suggest they are finally beginning to understand that they've got a problem," said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York.

"They are finally recognizing that this is their Lehman moment, and they have got to do the same sort of things that we did back in the 2007 to 2009, period."

With markets swings closely tied to sentiment about the progress made in the euro zone, investors have been forced to weigh the region's fiscal stability with U.S. stocks that are seen as cheap by many analysts.

Recent corporate outlooks and analyst projections have been painting a less rosy picture, with estimates for fourth-quarter S&P earnings growth tumbling over the past two months as well as a near-record high ratio of negative corporate preannouncements to positive ones, according to Thomson Reuters Proprietary Research.

Even if European leaders continue on a path that investors have cheered, the difficulty in putting plans in place may throw cold water on investor optimism. Borrowing costs in major nations such as Italy and Spain remain at levels considered unsustainable in Europe's slow-growth economy.

"I don't know that the market just rallies straight through into the end of the year because whatever solution they come up with will be hard to implement," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group in New York.

"It will be politically hard, it will be economically hard and you will be facing the very real threat of a recession -- a pretty deep recession in Europe in the first half of next year -- because of all the uncertainty that is being created right now."

The U.S. economic calendar for next week is light, with the ISM services report, weekly initial jobless claims and the trade balance among the highlights.

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Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/02/9173325-wall-st-week-ahead-looking-across-the-atlantic-for-clues

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi embraces U.S., with a nod to China

Reporting from Yangon, Myanmar, and Washington?

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi praised Washington's newly declared support for her country's recent political reforms, but she emphasized the importance of remaining on good terms with the nation's powerful longtime patron, China.

After a meeting Friday that capped Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's landmark visit, Suu Kyi said that, with U.S. backing, "I am confident that there will be no turning back from the road toward democracy."

Speaking to journalists on the porch of the lakeside house where she was detained by the government for 15 years, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate also underscored that Myanmar wanted to maintain "good, friendly relations with China, our very close neighbor, and not just with China but the rest of the world."

Clinton's three-day visit ? the first in more than half a century by a U.S. secretary of State ? was motivated in part by rising concern in Washington over China's growing political and economic clout in Southeast Asia. For example, Beijing is the largest investor in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Clinton, however, downplayed suggestions by analysts that the U.S. diplomatic overture in Myanmar was part of an intensified effort to counter Chinese influence across the region. "We are not about opposing any other country; we're about supporting" Myanmar, she said.

Analysts said Suu Kyi's careful call for friendly relations with China followed the pattern of other Asian nations that rely on their giant neighbor for commerce and development but are anxious to avoid being dominated by it.

"They know that they need to get along with both China and the U.S.," said Douglas Paal, a former senior U.S. official now with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Clinton made clear her admiration for Suu Kyi, embracing her when they met Thursday. "It was like seeing a friend you haven't seen for a very long time, even though it was only our first meeting," Clinton said later in a BBC interview.

Clinton wore an Asian-cut white jacket, much like Suu Kyi's, for their dinner of curries and Burmese delicacies. The two women wore their hair pulled back in a similar style. They met again for more formal talks Friday.

Suu Kyi, who is expected to run in upcoming legislative elections, joined Clinton in calling on Myanmar's government to release more political prisoners, stop attacks on ethnic minorities and institute a new legal system to help guarantee that reforms last.

Clinton announced $1.2 million in humanitarian, health and education projects for Myanmar, a small addition to other incentives she has outlined this week in an effort to spur further reforms and revive long-frozen diplomatic relations.

U.S. officials said they would urge the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to consider sending teams to Myanmar as a prelude to restoring development aid. Such assistance was sharply curtailed in recent years amid concern over Myanmar's human rights record.

But Clinton stopped short of calling for new lending from those organizations and said any discussion about lifting U.S. economic sanctions was premature.

paul.richter@latimes.com

Special correspondent Coonan reported from Yangon and Times staff writer Richter from Washington.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/latimes/news/nationworld/washingtondc/~3/Imlus8KxqYs/la-fg-myanmar-clinton-20111203,0,2553647.story

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Cain says he's suspending his presidential bid

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, right, bows and his wife Gloria applauds as Cain arrives on stage for a scheduled announcement Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011, in Atlanta. "I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distractions and the continued hurt caused on me and my family," Cain told several hundred supporters gathered at what was to have been the opening of his national campaign headquarters. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, right, bows and his wife Gloria applauds as Cain arrives on stage for a scheduled announcement Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011, in Atlanta. "I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distractions and the continued hurt caused on me and my family," Cain told several hundred supporters gathered at what was to have been the opening of his national campaign headquarters. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

El aspirante presidencial republicano Herman Cain baja de un estrado acompa?ado de su esposa Gloria tras anunciar su retiro de la competencia interna del partido, el s?bado 3 de diciembre de 2011, en Atlanta. (Foto AP/David Tulis)

Supporters from left, Marianne Sanderson, Lisa Shiflett, and Michelle McDonald, react to the announcement by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain that he is suspending his campaign at an event Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain announces he is suspending his campaign as his wife Gloria, left, looks on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011, in Atlanta. "I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distractions and the continued hurt caused on me and my family," Cain told several hundred supporters gathered at what was to have been the opening of his national campaign headquarters. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

ATLANTA (AP) ? Businessman Herman Cain suspended his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Saturday following a steady drumbeat of sexual misconduct allegations he said were harming his family and drowning out his ability to deliver his message.

With just one month to go until the lead-off Iowa caucuses, Cain's announcement is tantamount to a concession. Still, he told supporters, he planned to continue his efforts to influence Washington and announced "Plan B" ? what he called a grassroots effort to return government to the people.

It was a remarkable turnabout for a man who just weeks ago vaulted out of nowhere to the top of the Republican presidential field, fueled by a populist, outsider appeal and his catchy 9-9-9 tax overhaul plan which called for a 9 percent tax on income, a 9 percent business tax and a 9 percent national sales tax.

Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza chief executive, has never held elected office, but the black Georgia businessman rose to become an unexpected front-runner in the volatile Republican race just weeks ago as other candidates such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann stumbled. Cain enjoyed strong support from conservatives looking for an alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whose policy shifts on abortion, gay rights and health care reform were viewed warily by a large segment of core Republican voters.

Polls show that the main beneficiary of Cain's withdrawal is likely to be former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, who has risen steadily in surveys nationally and in early voting states. Gingrich has now emerged as the main challenger to fellow front-runner Romney in the Republican race to take on President Barack Obama next year.

Cain's announcement came five days after an Atlanta-area woman claimed she and Cain had an affair for more than a decade, a claim that followed several allegations of sexual harassment against him.

"Now, I have made many mistakes in life. Everybody has. I've made mistakes professionally, personally, as a candidate, in terms of how I run my campaign. And I take responsibility for the mistakes I've made, and I have been the very first to own up to any mistakes I've made," he said.

But Cain intoned: "I am at peace with my God. I am at peace with my wife. And she is at peace with me."

Cain denounced the accusations of impropriety against him as "false and unproven" but said that they had been hurtful to his family, particularly his wife, Gloria.

"So as of today, with a lot of prayer and soul-searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign. I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distractions and the continued hurt caused on me and my family," a tired-looking Cain told about 400 supporters.

Saturday's event was a bizarre piece of political theater even for a campaign that has seemed to thrive on defying convention.

Cain marked the end of his bid at what was supposed to be the grand opening of his new campaign headquarters in Atlanta. The space was rented when Cain was surprisingly leading the Republican pack.

Minutes before he took the stage to pull the plug on his campaign with his wife at his side, aides and supporters took to the podium to urge attendees to vote for Cain and travel to early voting states to rev up support for his bid.

"Join the Cain train," David McCleary, Cain's Georgia director, urged the audience.

Cain said he would offer an endorsement in the near future and he predicted a scramble among Republicans in the field to win the backing of his conservative, tea party base supporting limited government, spending cuts and no tax increases.

Former Republican rivals quickly issued statements Saturday praising Cain's conservative credentials and appeal.

Cain vaulted to the top of the Republican presidential field in October. But he then fumbled policy questions on issues from Libya to abortion, leaving some to wonder whether he was ready for the presidency. Then it was revealed at the end of October that the National Restaurant Association had paid settlements to two women who claimed Cain sexually harassed them while he was president of the organization.

A third woman told The Associated Press that Cain made inappropriate sexual advances but that she didn't file a complaint. A fourth woman also stepped forward to accuse Cain of groping her in a car in 1997.

Cain has denied wrongdoing in all cases, and continued to do so Saturday.

Polls suggest his popularity has suffered. A Des Moines Register poll released Friday showed Cain's support plunging, with backing from 8 percent of Republican caucusgoers in Iowa, compared with 23 percent a month ago. The Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 kick off the state-by-state contests to choose delegates to the party's national nominating convention.

But Cain said Saturday he would not go away and would continue trying to influence Washington from the outside,

He announced the formation of CainSolutions.com, which he said was a grassroots effort to bring government back to the people.

"I am not going to be silenced, and I am not going away. And therefore, as of today, Plan B. Plan B," he said.

____

Associated Press writers Shannon McCaffrey in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-03-Presidential%20Race/id-ff44528d70384ec0b0d000b02a7b4cbe

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