Islamic State Offensive Poses Problems For Turkey

Riot police use water cannons to disperse Kurdish demonstrators who were clashing with Turkish security forces, as thousands of Syrian refugees continue to arrive at the border in Suruc, Turkey, Monday, Sept. 22

SURUC, TURKEY (AP) — Fierce fighting Monday between the Islamic State militant group and Kurdish forces just over the border in Syria brought the battle closer to Turkey, triggering a surge of tens of thousands of refugees and raising pressure for the government to step up efforts to take on the Sunni extremists. Meanwhile, the United States and five Arab countries launched the first airstrikes in Syria against Islamic State fighters.

The Islamic State group's offensive against the Syrian city of Kobani, a few miles from the border, has sent 130,000 refugees to seek safety in Turkey in the last few days. The conflict in Syria had already led to more than 1 million people flooding over the border in the past 3½ years.

As the fighting intensified near the Turkish border, the Pentagon said a mix of manned aircraft — fighter jets and bombers — plus Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from U.S. ships in the northern Persian Gulf and the Red Sea targeted the Islamic State group in Syria.

U.S. officials said the airstrikes began around 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT), and were conducted by the U.S., Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. The first wave of strikes finished about 90 minutes later, but the operation was expected to continue for several more hours, according to one U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly by name about an ongoing mission.

Because the military operation was ongoing, no details could be provided yet, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon's press secretary. He said the military made the decision to strike early Monday. A White House official said Obama was being updated.

Some of the airstrikes were against Islamic State group headquarters in Raqqa in eastern Syria. Military officials have said the U.S. would target militants' command and control centers, re-supply facilities, training camps and other key logistical sites.

The strikes were part of the expanded military campaign that President Barack Obama's authorized nearly two weeks ago in order to disrupt and destroy the Islamic State militants, who have slaughtered thousands of people, beheaded U.S. and British captives, and captured a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq. The U.S. has already launched 190 airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq since an aerial campaign began Aug. 8.

As the Islamic State fighters pushed into Kurdish territory in Syria near the Turkish border, the government in Ankara is facing increasing pressure to step up efforts to take on the Islamic State extremists.

Turkey is resisting because it fears that arming Kurdish men to fight the group could complicate peace talks with Turkish insurgents within its own borders. The Islamic State group's offensive against the Syrian city of Kobani, a few miles from the border, has sent 130,000 refugees to seek safety in Turkey in the last few days. The conflict in Syria had already led to more than 1 million people flooding over the border in the past 3½ years.

But in addition to the refugee crisis, hundreds of Kurds in and around this city near the frontier have clashed with Turkish police, who fired tear gas and water cannons. The Kurds say Turkey is hampering their efforts to let them cross into Syria and help their brethren.

An 18-year-old Turkish citizen in Suruc said he wanted to join the Kurdish fighters in Syria. He identified himself only by his first name of Azam for fear of reprisal from authorities. "The Islamic State is on the other side of the border and moving freely, slaughtering people, but they are just 

sitting and watching," he said of the Turkish authorities.

"If I get a chance to get a weapon, I'll go to help our brothers by end of the day," he said. "Kobani is our land, too, and people there are our people." Syrian Kurdish fighters were crossing back and forth over the border, while other Syrian Kurds were seen selling livestock to raise money for weapons.

Not far away on the border, the black flag of the Islamic State could be seen flying in a captured Syrian village along with the smoke from mortar fire. Spillover from the Syria poses a problem for Turkey. The only local fighters capable of resisting the Islamic State group are Syrian Kurds aligned with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has fought a three-decade insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

Turkish officials have said PKK militants from Turkey are streaming to Syria to join the fight. The conflict in Syria already is inflaming tensions with Turkish Kurds and could undermine peace talks with the PKK. Turkey's ambivalence about the fight between Kurds and the Islamic State group, which could leave the PKK either drained or emboldened, could further complicate its participation in a U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group.

While joining the coalition, Turkey had declined to take part in combat, citing the Turkish hostages held by the Islamic State group in Mosul, Iraq. But even after the 46 Turks and three Iraqis were freed, Turkey has not changed its stance.

Turkish government officials have not revealed how they managed to secure the release of the captives. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied paying a ransom but has been vague on whether there was a prisoner swap.

Erdogan indicated for the first time Monday that his country may have traded Islamic State group prisoners it held captive in exchange for the Turkish hostages held by the militants. Asked about it in New York on Monday, Erdogan said "such things may be possible." He said Israel released 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for one Israeli hostage. "So you see, it's possible," he added.

Speaking at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York, Erdogan tried to sidestep the question. "This process that took 102 days involved an operation by the national intelligence agency ... it was a historic, very important process," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington now expects Turkey to step up in the fight against the militants. Erdogan has said that Turkey will discuss its participation in the coalition during this month's U.N. General Assembly. The U.S. ally and member of the NATO military alliance has made commitments of only limited help in the fight against the Islamic State group, which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and rules by its harsh version of Islamic law.

The U.S. is looking for major participation from nations in the region in the campaign to destroy the Islamic State group. President Barack Obama has pledged that no American troops will be involved in combat missions against the group, and the U.S. expects nations in the region to provide those.

The Islamic State group released a new audio recording online late Sunday in which a spokesman  urged Muslims worldwide to kill civilians of those nations that join the fight. A French citizen was kidnapped in Algeria by an al-Qaida splinter group that said it will kill him unless France ends its participation in airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq, officials said.

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday he remained hopeful that Turkey would participate in the coalition. "We need Turkey, frankly," he said during a visit to Croatia, because of its military capability, regional influence and political gravitas in the Muslim world.

But Turkey may also have questions for the U.S., if the support that Washington gives to Kurds in Iraq is extended to the Kurds fighting in Syria. Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters are already starting to get training by Iraq's Western allies in fighting the Islamic State group.

"The U.S. says it will make sure that arms won't go to the PKK, but this isn't possible," said Hasan Koni, a professor of international law at Istanbul's Kultur University. He added that the tensions have brought the peace process to its most difficult phase as Kurds question Turkey's ambivalent stance in their fight in Syria and Iraq.

"The Kurds could say: what kind of a peace is this? We are being strung along," he said. Turkish authorities may have concerns that Turkey's Kurds, bolstered by Western arms and emboldened by battlefield success, could harden their demands on the government in Ankara.

Beyond the political questions, the conflict is adding to a huge burden for Turkey. On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus warned that the number of Syrians crossing the border could rise further to "a refugee wave that can be expressed by hundreds of thousands."

"This is not a natural disaster. ... What we are faced with is a manmade disaster," Kurtulmus said of the surge of mostly women, children and the elderly that started late Thursday.

Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Mohammed Rasool in Suruc, Turkey, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut and contributed to this report.

Desmond Butler can be followed on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/desmondbutler

Russia Wants To Keep Ukraine Off UN Radar

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a terrestrial globe, with Russian territory colored pink, seemingly including Crimea, presented to him as a gift during his meeting with participants in the youth educational forum

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — As world leaders gather at the U.N. this week, the U.S. and its European allies are consumed by efforts to blunt the savage advance of the Islamic State group, to end the raging Ebola epidemic and to make progress in nuclear negotiations with Iran. That's likely just fine with Vladimir Putin, since these issues distract from Russia's presence in neighboring Ukraine.

While attention focuses elsewhere, the Russians are consolidating their annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. They are also deeply involved in turmoil in Ukraine's east and south, hoping to prevent the country from moving out of the Kremlin's orbit. Europe and the United States insist the independent nation must be free to choose its own course.

Russia is already enraged over NATO's having brought former Soviet satellite nations in Eastern Europe and some Baltic nations, once Soviet republics, into the alliance over the past two decades. The Kremlin insists it was promised, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, that that would not happen. It's doing its best to prevent Ukraine from making the same move.

What's more, says American University professor Keith Darden: "Their strategy all along has been to argue that what they did in Crimea is not abnormal. Intervention in Ukraine is not unusual for great powers. The U.S. has intervened in Latin America consistently. Ukraine, they say, is their sphere of interest."

And given the chaos in other areas of the world, says Andrew Weiss, of the Carnegie Endowment, "I can't say I see the Russian challenges and issues as being front and center. Ukraine, to a degree, already has been pushed out of the public eye by the Middle East crisis and the Ebola epidemic. I don't think Ukraine will have the same centrality."

The Russians will likely raise objections to U.S. threats to bomb Syria to take out Islamic State group fighters and facilities. But, since the focus in Syria has shifted from the counter-revolutionary brutality of President Bashar Assad, Russia's obstinate backing for him likely will not come to the fore.

Putin, the Russian president, won't be in New York for the U.N. General Assembly. The Kremlin will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who, Weiss says, will be on the defensive and unpersuasive as he argues that "Russia is behaving in a normal way in Ukraine." But Russia's actions in Ukraine aren't likely to take center stage at the world gathering.

While the United States has delivered aid to Ukraine, the White House has so far refused to send lethal military equipment that would beef up Kiev's forces in the battle against eastern rebels who are fighting to break away and join Russia.

Moscow, no doubt, is happy about Washington's military restraint in Ukraine, but is feeling the effects of heavy sanctions levied against Russia by the United States and the European Union. And it's no doubt heard the rumblings in Washington of serious divisions in the White House over increased lethal aid to Kiev.

So far, Putin has voiced determination not to be diverted from his course in Ukraine regardless of Western actions. He has also been able to use the punitive measures in a propaganda drive to build support at home — creating anger against the U.S. and Europe as a distraction from the pain his citizens absorb from the economic sanctions.

Beyond that, key Putin advisers are promoting his desires to protect and perhaps reabsorb regions with predominantly Russian speakers. They are not only in Ukraine's east but in former republics like Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — the Baltic nations on Russia's northwest border. U.S. President Barack Obama recently visited the region and promised that NATO would indeed fight to protect those new alliance members if attacked by Russia.

"It is a miscalculation because Russia is far stronger, and the West far weaker, than many imagine," writes Putin foreign policy adviser Sergey Karaganov. "The West that Russia now faces is not the self-confident alliance that proclaimed itself victor of the cold war. It is a directionless gaggle, beset with economic insecurities and losing sight of its moral convictions. America and its allies once held the future in their hands, but at the beginning of this Asian century they have let it slip through their fingers. Their crowning accomplishment was globalization - and they are destroying it with economic sanctions they incoherently describe as instruments of self-defense."

That is a message that plays well with Putin and the Russian people. There is a latent xenophobia and fundamental distrust of the West abroad in the sprawling country, where Putin grows more and more popular as he stands up to Washington and its European allies.

Steven R. Hurst, an AP international political writer based in Washington, reported from Moscow for 12 years and has covered international relations for 33 years.

Relatives: Vet Arrested At White House Needs Help

Omar Gonzalez, who was married to Murphy's mother, Samantha, until they divorced in 2012. Authorities have identified Gonzalez as the man who got into the White House after scaling a fence on Friday, September 19, 2014

MIDLAND, TEXAS (AP) — An Iraq war veteran accused of scaling a fence and making it into the White House before the Secret Service stopped him posed no threat to anyone and needs counseling instead of prosecution, members of his family said Sunday.

Omar Gonzalez, 42, was arrested Friday and is expected in federal court Monday to face charges of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon — a small folding knife in this case

Jerry Murphy, whose mother was married to Gonzalez for several years, said Gonzalez suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and that he needs treatment. He said Gonzalez has been driving around the country and living out of his truck for the past couple of years, and that he always carries his knife.

"I know he's got heavy artillery, you know?" Murphy added. "He's got all kinds of weapons and he was trained to use them. I believe if he wanted to make a scene or cause problems, he very well could have. But it's clear that he didn't."

The Secret Service has come under heavy criticism since the embarrassing security breach, which happened when the first family wasn't at the White House. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson ordered increased surveillance and more officer patrols at the White House, as the agency investigates what went wrong.

The Army said Gonzalez enlisted in July 1997 and remained until completing his service obligation in September 2003. He reenlisted in July 2005 and served until his retirement in late 2012, serving in Iraq from October 2006 to January 2008.

The military does not provide details about a soldier's disability due to privacy considerations. But Samantha Bell, who is Gonzalez's ex-wife and Murphy's mother, said Gonzalez was honorably discharged for medical reasons and suffered from plantar fasciitis on his feet, on which he had had some surgeries. She said he also suffered from PTSD, for which he had been prescribed several medications.

Bell said she and Gonzalez married in 2006 and lived together in Copperas Cove, near Fort Hood, until she split up with him in 2010 because of his worsening mental condition. After his second tour in Iraq, Gonzalez began carrying a .45 on his hip at all times and kept three or four rifles and shotguns behind the doors in their home, said Bell, who remarried and now lives in southern Indiana.

She said Gonzalez kept the blinds drawn and would repeatedly go downstairs during the night to make sure the doors were locked and the oven was off. She said she once woke up in the middle of the night to find Gonzalez standing at the foot of the bed and staring at her. She said he told her he was simply watching her sleep.

"Omar is a good guy; he's just got some issues that he needs help with," she said. "I think this is a cry out for help, what he's done." Bell said she had never heard Gonzalez speak about the "falling atmosphere" that a criminal complaint says Gonzalez wanted to warn the president about.

Murphy's sister described Gonzalez as a kind, gentle man who was scarred by war. "He was the kind of person everyone liked," said Rainie Murphy-Gandy, 24, of Midland, who lived with her mom and Gonzalez when he was based at Fort Hood. "He just started going downhill."

Less than 24 hours after Gonzalez's arrest, a second man was apprehended after he drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said, prompting bomb technicians in full gear to search the vehicle as agents briefly shut down nearby streets.

On Sunday, Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary identified the man as Kevin Carr, 19, of Shamong, New Jersey. There were no indications the two incidents were connected. But they only intensified the scrutiny of the Secret Service, which is struggling to rehabilitate its image following a series of allegations of misconduct by agents in recent years, including agents on Obama's detail.

Lederman reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Rick Callahan in Indianapolis, and Maud Beelman and Terry Wallace in Dallas contributed to this report.

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Thousands Of German Muslims Rally Against Terrorism, Intolerance.

Muslims take part in Friday prayers in Berlin on September 19, 2014 as part of the nationwide event “Muslims against hatred and injustice”. Maja Hitij/DPA/AFP

BERLIN , GERMANY (AFP) – Muslims across Germany held a day of prayer and rallies Friday to condemn both religious extremism and a backlash against Islam that has seen arson attacks on mosques.

Some 2,000 mosques joined the event “Muslims against hatred and injustice” organised by Germany’s four main Islamic groups, together with government ministers, lawmakers, Christian and Jewish leaders and city mayors.

In Berlin, thousands of faithful knelt on prayer mats under the open sky in the inner-city Turkish and Arabic community hub of Kreuzberg, before listening to speeches in favour of tolerance and against violent extremism.

“We are seeing how people in the name of Allah commit atrocities, torture others, drive them from their homes and murder them,” said a statement read out in mosques across Germany.

“They are acting under the banner of the Prophet, but their crimes show that they have not understood a word of what Allah has revealed to us and how our Prophet lived by these commandments.”

The Coordination Council of Muslims, which released the speech, also bemoaned a backlash against their religion in Germany, sparked by conflicts in the Middle East.

“We are seeing our mosques in Germany being attacked and set on fire,” said the speech, which said there had been 80 incidents targeting Muslim houses of worship since 2012.

Muslim communities in Germany were “worried and unsettled about being increasingly marginalised as Muslims and treated with hostility.”

“Unite against hate”

The prayers follow a rally against anti-Semitism in Berlin last Sunday in which Jewish leaders and German politicians led by Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned a recent spate of slurs and attacks against Jews.

Tempers flared at a series of pro-Palestinian demonstrations during Israel’s assault on Gaza, as some protesters chanted that Jews should be “gassed” and “slaughtered”.

Ali Kizilkaya, spokesman of the Coordination Council of Muslims, said: “We must stand united as a society when there are hate crimes, whether against churches, mosques, synagogues or other places of worship.”

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere praised the Muslim peace rallies as a “magnificent campaign” in a joint interview with German newspaper Die Welt and the Turkish daily Hurriyet.

Vigils and peace rallies were held after the traditional Friday noon prayers in German cities also including Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas said a “very clear dividing line” had to be drawn “between the vast majority of Muslims who live peacefully with us and those who misuse Islam to commit injustice”.

German security services say some 400 German citizens have joined extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, of whom about 130 have since come home, while German nationals have also fought with Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked Shebab.

This month the appearance of self-styled “Sharia police” vigilantes in the western city of Wuppertal sparked outrage in Germany.

Aiman Mazyek, chairman of the Central Council of Muslims, earlier also said Germany’s Muslims wanted to take a clear stand against extremists fighting in Iraq and Syria, and other extremist movements.

“These are terrorists and murderers who drag Islam into the dirt and bring hatred and suffering to the people, including to their own fellow Muslims, in Syria, in Iraq and elsewhere,” he wrote in the top-selling Bild newspaper.

“We want to make clear that the majority of Muslims in this country and around the world think and act differently. Islam is a peaceful religion.”

New Woman-Friendly Mosque Launches Quiet 'Revolution' In South Africa

Dr Taj Hargay, founder of the Open Mosque, delivers a sermon during its official opening on September 19, 2014 in Wynberg, Cape Town. Rodger Bosch/AFP

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (AFP) – A new mosque where women are treated equally to men opened peacefully in Cape Town on Friday despite threats of violence.

Launched by Muslim academic Taj Hargey, the South African-born director of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford, the first Friday prayers at the Open Mosque drew more media crews than worshipers or protesters.

Police were on hand in case of trouble outside the newly-painted green mosque, a former panel beating workshop sandwiched between two similar motor vehicle repair operations on a backstreet in the Wynberg suburb.

While a handful of protesters told AFP they were waiting for reinforcements and would “stop this thing, no matter what”, the Friday prayers went ahead largely unhindered apart from the occasional protester’s cry of “You will go to hell”.

Hargey has described his mosque as a “religious revolution” following on from the political revolution led by late former president Nelson Mandela when democracy replaced apartheid rule in South Africa in 1994.

As revolutions go, this was a quiet one.

In his sermon Hargey condemned the increasing hatred in the world between Muslims and Christians.

He blamed this on “warped theology” from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan which he said gave rise to “fanatical” groups like ISIS, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Boko Haram in Nigeria.

He said “contaminated Saudi money” was used to promote “toxic and intolerant manifestations of Islam”.

Hargey told reporters outside the mosque earlier that he had been subjected to physical and psychological threats since he announced his plans.

“There’s been threats about castrating me, beheading me, hanging me upside down. But South Africa has the most liberal constitution in the world — they cannot stop us opening today.”

Asked about his qualifications as a religious leader he said: “I have a PhD in Islamic studies from Oxford University, unlike my opponents who went to some donkey college in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.”

Hargey is not new to Islamic controversy — in Britain he has launched a campaign to ban the burka.

His mosque also welcomes homosexual Muslims.

South Africa has around 737,000 Muslims, or 1.5 percent of the population, according to figures from the Pew Research Centre.

China Fines GlaxoSmithKline $492 Million For Bribery

A Chinese flag is hoisted in front of a GlaxoSmithKline building in Shanghai, China. Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline was fined $492 million on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 for bribing doctors in China in the biggest such penalty ever imposed by a Chinese court. The court sentenced the company's former China manager, Briton Mark Reilly, and four Chinese co-defendants to prison but postponed the sentences for two to four years, suggesting they may never be served. The court said it granted leniency because the defendants confessed.

BEIJING (AP) — Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline was fined $492 million on Friday for bribing doctors in China, the biggest such penalty ever imposed by a Chinese court.

The court sentenced the company's former China manager, Briton Mark Reilly, and four Chinese co-defendants to prison but postponed the sentences for two to four years, suggesting they may never be served. The court said it granted leniency because the defendants confessed.

The case, first publicized in mid-2013, highlighted the widespread use of payments to doctors and hospitals by sellers of drugs and medical equipment in a poorly funded health system that Chinese leaders have promised to improve. The fine is the largest such penalty ever imposed by a Chinese court.

In a statement, Glaxo said it would pay the fine and had made changes in its business to remedy flaws cited by Chinese authorities. It said it would change the incentive system for employees and reduce its engagement with health professionals.

"Reaching a conclusion in the investigation of our Chinese business is important, but this has been a deeply disappointing matter for GSK. We have and will continue to learn from this," said CEO Sir Andrew Witty in the statement.

While large by Chinese standards, the fine is dwarfed by the $3 billion GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay the U.S. government in July 2012 for paying doctors kickbacks to prescribe several of its drugs and for having sales representatives promote popular drugs for improper uses. The penalty is still the biggest U.S. health care fine in history, according to the nonprofit group Taxpayers Against Fraud.

Reilly was sentenced by the court in the central city of Changsha to three years prison with a four-year reprieve and was ordered deported, which meant he might leave China immediately. His co-defendants received prison terms of two to four years, with reprieves of two to four years.

In other cases, convicts have been spared prison if they are deemed to have reformed during their reprieve. The police ministry said in May that Reilly was accused of operating a "massive bribery network." It said Reilly ordered salespeople beginning in January 2009 to pay doctors, hospital officials and health institutions to use GSK's products.

A police investigation found that GSK employees funneled as much as 3 billion yuan ($490 million) through travel agencies and consulting firms, which kicked back some of that money for use as bribes. Police have not made clear how much was paid out in bribes.

Investigators said the scheme appeared to be aimed at evading GSK's internal controls meant to prevent bribery. Glaxo had said earlier the employees acted without its knowledge and violated its policy. In December, it said it would stop offering financial support to doctors and other health care professionals to promote its products.

Such informal payments pervade China's dysfunctional health system. Low salaries and skimpy budgets drive doctors, nurses and administrators to make ends meet by accepting money from patients, drug suppliers and others. The Glaxo case brought the flow of illicit money to international attention, but within China the practice is common knowledge.

Many blame a system in which China's hospitals nearly all are state-run but get too little money from Beijing. Most of the country's 2.3 million doctors are hospital employees and are barred from adding to their income by taking on second jobs.

The ruling Communist Party has promised higher health spending as part of efforts to spread more of China's prosperity to its poor majority. But with a population of 1.3 billion, the cost of a full-scale overhaul will be daunting.

A second foreign drugmaker, AstraZeneca, said in July 2013 that police in Shanghai were investigating one of its salespeople. In a separate case, China's biggest drug distributor, Sinopharm Group Ltd., said in January that two former executives were the target of a corruption investigation.

GlaxoSmithKline is among many multinational drugmakers that have crossed legal or ethical lines to boost sales of prescription medicines. Most cases involve promoting prescription medicines for uses that aren't approved — and for which there is often no evidence that they are effective or safe. Some drugs have grown to become multibillion-dollar annual sellers primarily from patients taking them for unapproved uses.

It was also common practice for decades for drugmakers to pay doctors in the U.S. and elsewhere "consulting fees," send them on junkets and give them gifts, with the expectation that the doctors would prescribe more of that company's medicines and even encourage colleagues to do so. The industry has attempted to eliminate or at least reduce those excesses under pressure from the government and others. Companies will soon begin publicly reporting payments to doctors, as required under provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

Business Writer Linda A. Johnson in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this report.

As Wall Street Watches Alibaba, Stocks Drift

Screens show Scotland's referendum results as money traders work at a foreign exchange dealing company in Tokyo, Friday, Sept. 19, 2014. The British pound jumped as Scotland voted to stay part of the United Kingdom while Japanese shares surged as the yen extended losses against the dollar.

NEW YORK (AP) — With Wall Street focused on the debut of Alibaba Group, the stock market drifted into the weekend and major indexes ended little changed.

Investors watched as the Chinese e-commerce giant surged 38 percent Friday, in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Alibaba gained $25.89 to end at $93.89. By the end of the day, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell less than a point, a sliver of a percent, to 2,010.40. It finished with its best weekly gain in a month.

Alibaba lined up its initial public offering of stock at $68 a share the day before, raising $21.8 billion from investors. That vaulted Alibaba to the top tier of technology companies in terms of market value. It's bigger than Amazon.com but smaller than the titans of tech, Apple and Google.

"We know there's a lot of demand from institutional and retail investors, so it's not a surprise to see it rally that quickly," said JJ Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade, the online brokerage.

Alibaba was the big story Friday, but the rest of the week belonged to the Federal Reserve. At the end of a two-day meeting on Wednesday, the Fed issued a statement saying that it planned to keep its benchmark lending rate low. Some investors had earlier voiced concerns that the Fed might be in a bigger hurry to hike rates.

"Janet Yellen (the Fed's chairwoman) told people exactly what they wanted to hear," Kinahan said. Encouraged, investors sent stocks to record highs this week. The S&P 500 index has now climbed 9 percent in 2014, better than the average gain for a full year.

In other trading Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average edged up 13.75 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 17,279.74. The Nasdaq composite fell 13.64 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,579.79. German business-software company SAP announced plans to buy Concur Technologies for $7.4 billion. Concur's stock jumped $19.02, or 18 percent, to $126.82.

Oracle's stock slumped after the announcement late Thursday that Larry Ellison, the tech company's billionaire founder, is stepping down as CEO after 37 years. Ellison remains the company's biggest shareholder. Oracle's stock fell $1.75, or 4 percent, to $39.80.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.58 percent, from 2.62 percent late Thursday. Britain's main index rose slightly after voters in Scotland rejected a referendum to break from the U.K. Some warned that if Scotland left, uncertainty over the future value of the British pound and government debt would have shaken the U.K economy.

Britain's FTSE 100 advanced 0.3 percent. France's CAC 40 slipped 0.1 percent, and Germany's DAX was flat. Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 1.6 percent as the yen's weakness gave a boost to companies that rely on exports.

In commodities trading, precious and industrial metals fell, extending their losses for the week. Gold dropped $10.30 to settle at $1,216.60 an ounce. Silver sank 67 cents to $17.84 an ounce. Copper was unchanged at $3.09 a pound.

Oil fell 66 cents to $92.41 a barrel as the dollar gained strength. Oil trades in dollars, so a stronger dollar makes oil more expensive to traders holding other currencies. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils imported by many U.S. refineries, rose 69 cents, to $98.39 a barrel in London.

In other futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange: — Wholesale gasoline rose 5 cents to $2.611 a gallon — Heating oil was flat at $2.717 a gallon — Natural gas fell 7.3 cents to $3.837 per 1,000 cubic feet

AB Business Writer Kelvin Chan contributed from Hong Kong

Fence-Jumper Makes It In Into The White House

A Secret Service agent gives directions during an evacuation of the White House minutes after President Barack Obama departed for Camp David aboard Marine One on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014, in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man jumped over the fence of the White House on Friday and made it through the front door before officers managed to apprehend him, just minutes after President Barack Obama had departed, the Secret Service said.

The rare breach was likely to renew intense scrutiny of the Secret Service, an agency whose storied history has been marred in recent years by multiple allegations of misconduct by officers. It was unclear whether a fence-jumper has ever made it into the White House before.

After scaling the fence on the north side of the White House, the intruder darted toward the presidential residence, ignoring commands from officers to stop, said Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan. He was ultimately apprehended just inside the North Portico doors — the grand, columned entrance that looks out over Pennsylvania Avenue.

Donovan said the man appeared to be unarmed to officers who spotted him jumping the fence, and a search of the suspect turned up no weapons. The suspect, identified as Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, Texas, was placed under arrest and transported to nearby George Washington University Hospital for examination after complaining of chest pain.

Although it's not uncommon for people to make it over the White House fence, they're typically stopped almost immediately and rarely get very far before being apprehended. Video from the scene showed the suspect, in jeans and a dark shirt, sprinting across the lawn as Secret Service agents shouted at nearby pedestrians to clear the area.

"This situation was a little different than other incidents we have at the White House," Donovan said. "There will be a thorough investigation into the incident." The incident prompted a rare evacuation of much of the White House. Inside the West Wing, White House staffers and Associated Press journalists were rushed into the basement and out a side exit to a nearby street by Secret Service agents — some with their weapons drawn.

The incident occurred shortly after 7 p.m., only minutes after Obama and his daughters, along with a guest of one of the girls, left the White House aboard Marine One on their way to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland where Obama and his family were to spend the weekend. First lady Michelle Obama had traveled separately to Camp David and was not at home at the time of the incident.

Evacuations at the White House are extremely rare. Typically, when someone jumps the White House fence, the compound is put on lockdown and those inside remain in place while officers respond to the situation. Last week, the Secret Service apprehended a man who jumped over the same stretch of fence on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, prompting officers to draw their firearms and deploy service togs as they took the many into custody.

The Secret Service has struggled in recent years to strike the appropriate balance between ensuring the first family's security and preserving the public's access to the White House grounds. Once open to vehicles, the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was confined to pedestrians after the Oklahoma City bombing, but officials have been reluctant to restrict access to the area further.

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Connecticut Ex-Governor Convicted Of New Crimes

Former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland arrives at federal court in New Haven, Conn. A jury convicted Rowland Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 on all charges that he conspired to be paid for work on two political campaigns while disguising those payments in business deals. It is the second felony conviction for Rowland, who resigned as governor a decade ago in a scandal over illegal gifts he received while in office.

HARTFORD, CONN. (AP) — Former Gov. John G. Rowland, who resigned from office a decade ago in a corruption scandal, was convicted Friday of federal charges that he conspired to hide payment for work on two congressional campaigns.

Rowland, once a rising star for the Republican Party, served 10 months in prison for taking illegal gifts while in office and now as a repeat offender faces the possibility of a much stiffer sentence.

He was convicted in New Haven federal court of all seven counts, including conspiracy, falsifying records in a federal investigation, causing false statements to be made to the Federal Election Commission and causing illegal campaign contributions.

"Americans will not tolerate corrupt conduct in the electoral process," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Gustafson said. "Lies and deception can never be accepted as politics as usual in Connecticut. All voters have a right to know the truth when they cast their ballots."

Rowland's lawyer, Reid Weingarten, said he would appeal. The former governor was stoic as he left the courthouse hand-in-hand with his wife and did not speak to reporters. The government's case centered around a contract between Rowland and a nursing home chain owned by the husband of 2012 congressional candidate Lisa Wilson-Foley. Rowland's attorneys argued he volunteered for the campaign while receiving $35,000 to consult for her husband's company, but prosecutors said the money was an illegal payment for campaign services.

"Hopefully this really is the final installment in a very sad chapter in Connecticut's history," Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Friday. Rowland, 57, was elected to the U.S. House three times, governor three times and served as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. He had been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate or cabinet member before he was impeached and resigned.

He was released from prison in 2006 and began rebuilding his life, landing a job as in economic development before becoming a radio show host. In his first interview after leaving prison, the man known for his charm and quick wit said he had faith God would steer him down a different path.

"When you lose your freedom, it's a very humbling experience," he said. But he found himself in the crosshairs of federal investigators once again as he pursued a return to politics. Much of the evidence against Rowland came from email correspondence, including one in which he wrote to Wilson-Foley's husband, Brian Foley, shortly after proposing he become a paid political consultant for his wife. Foley testified during the trial that Wilson-Foley wanted Rowland's help but believed his involvement, if made public, would attract negative publicity.

"Had a brief chat with Lisa. I get it. Let's you and I meet," Rowland wrote to Foley. In March, the Foleys each pleaded guilty to conspiring to make illegal campaign contributions, a misdemeanor. Both face up to a year in prison at sentencing. Brian Foley became the government's star witness, testifying that he paid Rowland for campaign work and that the work Rowland did for Foley's company, Apple Health Care Inc., was only cursory.

Weingarten attacked Foley's credibility, showing he illegally funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to his wife's campaign and could have faced significant prison time if he had not cut a deal. Rowland didn't testify in his own defense. His lawyers presented one witness, Apple executive Brian Bedard, who testified that Rowland did real work for him and he did not believe the contract was a sham.

"We always believed prosecutors had made a very large mountain out of a very small molehill," Weingarten said after the verdict Friday. Rowland also was convicted of trying to cut a similar business deal with another politician.

Mark Greenberg, a Republican who is again running for Congress this year, testified that Rowland proposed becoming a consultant to his 2010 campaign while being paid as though he was working for the candidate's animal rescue organization. Greenberg said he turned down the proposal.

Rowland's lawyers argued that he never ended up working for Greenberg and the proposed contract only would have violated the law had it been in force and had Greenberg failed to properly report the payments.

The convictions came on the first full day of jury deliberations. The maximum possible prison sentence is more than 50 years, but Rowland likely will receive much less time under federal sentencing guidelines. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12.

Polish Fears Of Russia Run High On War Anniversary

A monument to Polish victims of Stalin stands as a reminder of one of the worst Polish tragedies at Moscow’s hands in Warsaw, Poland, on Monday, Sept. 15, 2014. The Soviets killed 22,000 Polish officers in 1940 in an attempt to wipe out a swath of the Polish elite. On Wednesday Poles commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland at the start of the war. The anniversary comes as some Poles are again fearful of Russia due to its aggression in Ukraine.

WARSAW, POLAND (AP) — It was an unexpected question from a woman hoping to sell me her Warsaw apartment: "Are you sure you want to buy now, when war could be coming?"

Though she was half joking, her comment revealed an anxiety Poles express frequently these days — that Russian aggression in Ukraine could spread, upending this NATO and European Union member's most peaceful and prosperous era in centuries.

The woman was the third Pole in the past couple weeks to advise me to think twice about investing in Polish real estate, forcing me to start wondering if it really is wise for me, an American, to risk my savings here.

Anxieties hang in the air as Poland marks the 75th anniversary Wednesday of the Soviet invasion of Poland at the start of World War II, one of several Russian attacks on its neighbor over the past centuries. With President Vladimir Putin showing renewed imperial inclinations, some Poles can't help but wonder if the 1939 invasion by the Red Army really was the last time Russia will make an unwanted foray here.

It's not that most Poles believe Russian troops will cross the border again; in fact, many believe Putin will probably limit his aggression to Ukraine. And there is a sense that NATO does enhance Poland's security. But now, suddenly, the long theoretical notion of war has entered people's minds as a concrete possibility.

For older Poles war isn't even a theoretical notion. They remember well atrocities inflicted by Germans and the Soviets during World War II. One of the most painful episodes of all was the Soviet killing of 22,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest, an attempt to eliminate a swath of the country's elite.

While Polish leaders have been asking NATO to do more to protect them, regular Poles ponder how far Putin will go in Ukraine. They ask: If the West doesn't put up a more forceful front, will Putin feel empowered to meddle in the Baltic states, which have sizeable ethnic Russian minorities? If so will Poland be next? And if things get really bad, will NATO be there for us?

I witnessed the emotion at a recent dinner with a Polish friend and her American husband. They clashed over whether NATO offers Poland any real protection — she accusing him of naivety for believing the alliance would go to war to protect Poland, he arguing that Poland was much safer because of NATO's Article 5 that requires members to come to the aid of any fellow member subject to attack.

Where they agreed was on their gratitude that they both held U.S. passports — allowing them to escape if the worst ever happened. This is the tense mood that has defined the summer of 2014 in Warsaw. It's a stark contrast to the summer of 2012, when Poland and Ukraine teamed up to host the European football championships.

On match days during the tournament, my Polish partner Pawel and I would stroll among the football fans just to enjoy the upbeat vibe even though we don't care much about the sport. We kept exclaiming to each other that Poland finally felt like a normal, optimistic Western country, after so many years of struggle to overcome the devastating legacy of World War II and communism.

But since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Pawel keeps trying to make plans for what we should do if war breaks out, talk I dismiss because the prospect of war in Poland feels impossible to me. "Rush to the airport with the baby and get on the first plane out of Poland," he told me again this week. "After that I'll figure out how to join you."

"OK, whatever," I replied. There have been some anecdotal cases reported in the media of Poles preparing for war by making sure passports are updated, getting some of their savings out of Polish banks and stockpiling food.

But those appear to be isolated cases. Economists say that there are no signs of a panicked sell-off of the currency or stocks. Konrad Wierzbicki, 23, said rage toward Russia is a more appropriate emotion than fear, and that he ultimately feels that Poland now is much safer than it was on the eve of World War II.

Still, Poles should remain on alert, he argues. "And if something happens in the Baltics and NATO doesn't react, then we know we will be alone," said Wierzbicki, who is completing a master's in psychology.

I suppose my American optimism — and my desire to get out of a rented apartment that is starting to feel too small with a baby — motivates me to keep on looking for a place to buy. But after looking for many months, I do find myself putting less energy into the search now.

This is partly because the market seems overpriced — but also because it's hard not to be affected by the anxiety I sense all around me.

Vanessa Gera has reported from Poland since 2004. You can follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/VanessaGera