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Indonesian police: Terror suspect killed

JAKARTA, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Noordin Top, the alleged mastermind of deadly bombings in Indonesia, was killed Saturday when police cornered him in a house in Java, officials said.

Police said they tried to force Noordin to leave his hideout, The Jakarta Post reported, citing TVOne. He was reportedly hiding in the toilet of a house in Beji village in Temanggung.

Noordin allegedly orchestrated bombings in Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people, many of them Australian tourists. He was also suspected of being behind the deadly bombings last month of the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta.

Police surrounded the house Saturday morning and shouted to ask who was inside, TVOne said.

"I'm Noordin," a man replied.

After two hours of firing into the building, police declared Noordin dead.

Noordin reportedly had spent the night in a graveyard in the village.

A native of Malaysia, Noordin would have turned 41 next week. He was allegedly a member of Jemaah Islamiyah before leaving that group to set up a breakaway organization.

Obama: Reform key to economic recovery

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama called healthcare reform a linchpin to economic recovery Saturday and sought to dispel "outlandish" rumors spread by opponents.

As the debate over healthcare has played out in contentious town hall meetings across the country, the president used his weekly address to cast reform as a way to lower costs, expand coverage to the uninsured, offer more healthcare choices and protect against unfair insurance company practices.

Obama said new unemployment figures showing 200,000 fewer jobs were lost in July than in June "are a sign that we've begun to put the brakes on this recession and that the worst may be behind us."

"We must lay a new foundation for future growth and prosperity, and a key pillar of a new foundation is health insurance reform -- reform that we are now closer to achieving than ever before," he said.

But he said reform efforts could be thwarted by misinformation spread by opponents.

"Let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid or bring about a government takeover of health care," he said. "That's simply not true."

Obama said reform would provide insurance to many of the 46 million Americans who lack coverage and require insurance companies to provide preventive care and forbid them to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions or place caps on lifetime coverage. A public insurance option would provide competition for big insurance companies, he said.

"The debate about health insurance reform boils down to a choice between two approaches," Obama said. "The first is almost guaranteed to double health costs over the next decade, make millions more Americans uninsured, leave those with insurance vulnerable to arbitrary denials of coverage and bankrupt state and federal governments. That's the status quo."

He labeled many reform opponents "political point-scorers in Washington."

"But," he said, "let's never forget that this isn't about politics. This is about people's lives. This is about people's businesses. This is about America's future."

Taliban says Mehsud not dead

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Baitullah Mehsud's second-in-command says the Pakistani Taliban leader, reportedly killed in a U.S. drone attack, isn't dead.

Commander Hakimullah Mehsud told the BBC Saturday that reports in the Pakistani media of Baitullah Mehsud's death are "ridiculous" lies planted by government agents.

"The news regarding our respected chief is propaganda by our enemies," Hakimullah Mehsud told the British broadcaster. "We know what our enemies want to achieve -- it's the joint policy of the (Pakistani intelligence service) ISI and FBI -- they want our chief to come out in the open so they can achieve their target."

The BBC said Hakimullah Mehsud may be positioning himself to succeed Baitullah.

The reports of Baitullah's death were impossible to confirm, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday.

"We can't, with a hundred percent certainty, verify that," Gibbs said. "What I will say is this: If the reports of Baitullah Mehsud's death are correct, there is no doubt that the Pakistani people are safer as a result of it."

Baitullah Mehsud had pledged his support to al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the head of the Taliban. He is also linked to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

TV viewers to watch Sotomayor ceremony

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Cameras will be present for the first time during a U.S. Supreme Court swearing-in ceremony Saturday when Judge Sonia Sotomayor takes the oath, experts say.

Television viewers will be able to watch the Washington ceremony Saturday when Sotomayor, 55, becomes the first Hispanic and third female justice in court history, CNN reported.

Court observers say Sotomayor, 55, will actually be sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts twice -- the first in a private ceremony as stipulated in the U.S. Constitution and a second time before the cameras.

Sotomayor was confirmed Thursday by the U.S. Senate in a 68-31 vote, with nine Republicans joining unanimous Democrats in supporting her nomination. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., was not present because of illness but has voiced support of Sotomayor, CNN said.

German clunkers get sold elsewhere

Some German automobiles, taken off the road there under a cash-for-clunkers program, are now polluting the air in Africa and Eastern Europe, officials say.

Ronald Schulze of the Association of Criminal Investigators said Friday as many as 50,000 older German cars have been exported, The New York Times reported.

Germany began offering cash incentives to trade in older cars in January. But the law requires only that the cars be sent to scrap yards with no provision that they be rendered unusable, as a similar program in the United States demands.

With low prices for scrap metal, owners of scrap yards have an incentive to sell the cars illegally, investigators said.

"Organized crime has offered a lot of money, and someone who already has his back to the wall naturally says, 'OK, before I close my doors, I'd rather give this a try,'" Gottfried Holl, president of the Association of German Auto Scrap Yards, said in an interview with German public radio.

Schulze said established networks of automobile thieves have simply shifted to a new source of supply.