By ALAN SAYRE, AP Writer

NEW ORLEANS, La. – An offshore petroleum platform exploded and was burning Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast, west of the site where BP's undersea well spilled after a rig explosion.

The Coast Guard said no one was killed in the explosion, which was spotted by a commercial helicopter flying over the site Thursday morning. All 13 people aboard the rig have been accounted for, with one injury. The extent of the injury was not known.

They were rescued from the water by an offshore service vessel, the Crystal Clear, said Coast Guard Cmdr. She said they were taken to a nearby platform. All were being flown to the Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma to be checked over.

"Thirteen people were seen huddled together in the water wearing gumby suits or immersion suits, water protection suits, so we were able to confirm that all people were accounted for," Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said.

Seven Coast Guard helicopters, two airplanes and three cutters were dispatched to the scene from New Orleans, Houston and Mobile, Ala., Ben-Iesau said. She said authorities do not know whether oil was leaking from the site.

The platform, known as Vermilion Oil Platform 380, was owned by Mariner Energy of Houston, according to a homeland security operations update obtained by The Associated Press. The platform was not producing oil and gas, according to the operations report.

Melissa Schwartz, spokeswoman for Bureau of Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement, said the platform was authorized to produce oil and gas at this water depth but had not been recently in active production.

"There were ongoing maintenance activities underway," she said, adding it was in approximately 340 feet of water.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama was in a national security meeting and did not know whether Obama had been informed of the explosion.

"We obviously have response assets ready for deployment should we receive reports of pollution in the water," Gibbs said.

A call to the company seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Mariner Energy focuses on oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico. In April, Apache Corp., another independent petroleum company, announced plans to buy Mariner in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $3.9 billion, including the assumption of about $1.2 billion of Mariner's debt. That deal is pending.

Apache spokesman Bob Dye said the platform is in shallow water. A company report said the well was drilled in the third quarter of 2008 in 340 feet of water.

Responding to an oil spill in shallow water is much easier than in deep water, where crews depend on remote-operated vehicles access equipment on the sea floor.

The platform is about 200 miles west of BP's blown out Macondo well. On Friday, BP was expected to begin the process of removing the cap and failed blowout preventer, another step toward completion of a relief well that would complete the choke of the well. The BP-leased rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 people and setting off a massive oil spill.

By Mike Baker, Associated Press Writer

BUXTON, N.C. – Hurricane Earl packed winds near 140 mph as it blew toward North Carolina on Thursday, putting the Eastern Seaboard up to Maine on alert for a Labor Day weekend pounding by waves, gales and rain.

A hurricane warning for the tip of Massachusetts, including Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, joined earlier warnings and watches for hurricanes or tropical storms that stretch from North Carolina up to near the Canadian border.

With Earl closing in on the U.S. coast, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate said there was no longer time to wait on the next forecast to see how close the eye of the storm might get to shore.

"They really need to focus today on what they're going to do before the storm gets there," Fugate said. "Implement your plans and be ready to heed evacuation orders."

Earl was a dangerous Category 4 storm and the hurricane force winds were beginning to spread farther from the eye as the center of the storm underwent a change, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

The center's director, Bill Read, said hurricane winds were spread 90 miles from the eye and widening. The eye of the storm will likely remain about 30 to 75 miles east of the Outer Banks, meaning at the closest point of approach, the western edge of the eyewall could impact Cape Hatteras, with huge waves, beach erosion and maybe some property damage from the waves.

"They're going to have a full impact of a major hurricane," Read said.

There will be a similar close approach for the eastern tip of Long Island, Rhode Island, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket.

"They'll be facing a similar scenario that North Carolina is facing today," Read said. "And it will be bigger. The storm won't be as strong but they spread out as they go north and the rain will be spreading from New England."

That will mean strong, gusty winds much like a nor'easter, and because leaves are still on the trees, there could be fallen trees or limbs and downed power lines.

By DERRIK J. LANG, AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES – The mother of "The Brady Bunch," a former NFL quarterback, one of the self-proclaimed "guidos" from "Jersey Shore" and the daughter of Sarah Palin are among the celebrities who will cha-cha-cha on the 11th season of "Dancing with the Stars."

Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke, hosts of the ABC ballroom competition, announced the cast Monday.

"The Brady Bunch" matriarch Florence Henderson, retired Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, "Jersey Shore" co-star Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino and Bristol Palin are among the 12 celebrities who will be paired with professional dance partners and train before their prime-time premiere Sept. 20. How does Palin's mother feel about her dancing gig?

"She's excited for me," said Bristol. "She knows that this is going to be hard work, but she's excited."

Also competing for the mirrorball trophy will be: "When a Man Loves a Woman" singer Michael Bolton, comedian-actress Margaret Cho, former Los Angeles Lakers forward Rick Fox, "Dirty Dancing" actress Jennifer Grey, "Baywatch" actor David Hasselhoff, Disney Channel star Kyle Massey, singer-actress Brandy Norwood and "The Hills" co-star Audrina Patridge.

"I'm happy to be here," said Hasselhoff. "My two daughters love this show, and they convinced me."

The names of most of the celebrity contestants, save for 19-year-old "That's So Raven" and "Cory in the House" star Kyle Massey, had been widely rumored as competitors in the weeks leading up to Monday's official announcement, which was broadcast live during "Bachelor Pad." The first celebrity and their professional partner will be eliminated Sept. 21.

By ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY – A Texas-born fugitive known as "the Barbie" who allegedly led a violent smuggling network grinned as he was paraded in handcuffs before reporters on Tuesday — the third suspected drug lord to fall in Mexico in the past 10 months in a coup for President Felipe Calderon's war on cartels.

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, who got his improbable nickname from his fair complexion, is wanted in the United States for allegedly smuggling tons of cocaine. In Mexico, he is blamed for a brutal turf war that has included bodies hung from bridges, decapitations and shootouts as he and a rival fought for control of the divided Beltran Leyva cartel.

As he was displayed to reporters on Tuesday, he still wore the green polo shirt in which he was captured the day before. He grinned often as police described a high-flying and violent life.

Security forces had been closing in on Valdez for over a year, the biggest breakthrough being the death of his boss, Arturo Beltran Leyva, in a December shootout with marines, Federal Police Commissioner Facundo Rosas said.

The arrest of several of Valdez' allies, U.S. intelligence tips and other sources provided evidence that Valdez had left his home of 10 years in the resort of Acapulco — where he owned at least one posh bar that was raided in 2009 — to lead a lower-profile life in wealthy neighborhoods of Mexico City, Rosas said.

Federal police nearly nabbed Valdez during a raid in an upscale neighborhood of the Mexican capital on Aug. 8. He got away, Rosas said, but police found him hiding out in a woody weekend getaway just outside the Mexican capital

He was captured Tuesday by an elite squad of federal police who have been trained abroad, Facundo said. Four other people described by police as Valdez's inner security circle were arrested with him. Another of his associates with killed during a shootout with police outside a shopping mall in the city.

Calderon called Valdez "one of the most-wanted criminals in Mexico and abroad" in a Tweet. He vowed that authorities will continue to chase the rest of his gang.

Valdez, 37, was charged in May in U.S. District Court in Atlanta with distributing thousands of pounds of cocaine from Mexico to the eastern U.S. from 2004 to 2006.

U.S. authorities had offered a reward of up to $2 million for information leading to his capture, and the Mexican government offered a similar amount. Facundo, however, said security forces nabbed Valdez on their own, and there would be no reward.

There was no word from Mexican authorities on any extradition plans. Facundo said Valdez was a U.S. citizen but that authorities were not quite sure if he also held Mexican nationality.

Mexican authorities say Valdez has been battling for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel since Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed in a December shootout with marines in Cuernavaca, a favorite weekend getaway south of the Mexican capital.

Valdez's fight against Hector Beltran Leyva — a brother of Arturo — has made a battleground of what was once a relatively peaceful pocket of the country and brought the drug war ever closer to Mexico City. Their fight also has spread westward toward the resort city of Acapulco.

The U.S. State Department says Valdez headed a group of assassins for the Beltran Leyva gang. He "is the person most responsible for pushing the battle into central and southern Mexico," the department says on its website.

Facundo said Valdez was responsible for dozens of deaths, although he could not specify how many.

Two other Beltran Leyva brothers have been arrested under President Felipe Calderon, who in 2006 deployed thousands of federal police and soldiers to fight drug traffickers in their strongholds.

Drug-gang violence has surged since the offensive began, claiming an unprecedented 28,000 lives. But the crackdown has brought down several major traffickers.

Aside from the Beltran Leyvas, drug lord Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel was killed in a gunbattle last month when soldiers raided his home in Guadalajara. Coronel was the No. 3 in the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world's most powerful drug trafficking gangs.

Valdez was born in the border city of Laredo, Texas, and belonged to the Sinaloa cartel until the Beltran Leyva's split off in 2008 — one of many divisions among Mexican cartels in recent years that have fueled gang violence.

Experts said Valdez's capture could be especially valuable because of the intelligence he might provide on other top traffickers, including Sinaloa chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted drug lord.

"Because they caught La Barbie alive, he will be a very important source of information against El Chapo," said Raul Benitez, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico who studies the drug trade. "La Barbie was once the bodyguard of El Chapo Guzman."

Facundo said Valdez has already provided police with new insight into the raid that took down Arturo Beltran Leyva. Valdez told police that Beltran Leyva called him as marines were closing in and that he had urged the capo to turn himself, advice the drug lord apparently ignored, Facundo said.

After that, Facundo said, the Beltran Leyva gang started suspecting that Valdez had tipped authorities to Beltran Leyva's whereabouts. Facundo did not say whether those suspicions might have been true.

Much of the most recent violence in central Mexico has been directed at Valdez's allies.

The decapitated bodies of four men were hung from a bridge in Cuernavaca last week, along with a message threatening allies of "La Barbie" and signed by the gang led by Hector Beltran Leyva. Two more bodies were hung from bridges near Acapulco later in the week, although no gang claimed responsibility.

Benitez said the violence in the region could drop over time, as the government has disrupted Valdez's crusade to create a new cartel from his split with the Beltran Leyvas. But it won't initially, he added, because gang lieutenants always fight for control immediately after a big boss is brought down.

And Mexico's violence overall is not expected to drop because most of the deaths are caused by the battle between other, more powerful gangs in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and along the northeastern border with the U.S. Seventy-two 72 migrants were found massacred in that region last week in what is believed to be the deadliest drug cartel attack to date.

La Barbie's "arrest will be a public relations coup for the Mexican government, even though it will do little to quell the violence in places like Juarez and Monterrey," the U.S.-based security think tank Stratfor said in a report.

U.S. prosecutors say they used a federal wiretap from a related case in Atlanta in January 2008 to identify Valdez as the source of thousands of kilograms of cocaine that were imported into the U.S. from 2004 to 2006.

Witnesses said some truckloads traveling from Laredo to Atlanta carried more than 650 pounds of cocaine. The workers sent shipments of money, often containing several million dollars in cash, back to Mexico in tractor-trailer trucks, according to the court records.

Mexican authorities had been closing in on La Barbie's allies in recent weeks. On July 10, marines raided a house in Acapulco and captured Gamaliel Aguirre Tavira, suspected regional chief of the Valdez faction.

Facundo said Valdez was found with two guns and a grenade launcher and several unostentatious compact cars — evidence that he had tried to lay low as security forces hunted him

By Marcy Gordon, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON – A mixed picture of U.S. banks emerged Tuesday as the industry posted its highest quarterly earnings in nearly three years while the number of troubled institutions grew by more than 50.

Banks overall made $21.6 billion in net income in the April-to-June quarter, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said. It was the highest quarterly level since 2007 and was led by the largest institutions. The industry lost $4.4 billion in the second quarter of 2009.

But the number of banks on the FDIC's confidential "problem" list increased by 54 in the quarter — growing to 829 from 775 in the first quarter. Most of the banks that have failed this year have been smaller or regional banks.

The decline in bank lending stemming from the financial crisis showed signs of leveling off, the data show. Total lending declined by $107.5 billion, or 1.4 percent from the first quarter. It posted the steepest drop since World War II — 7.5 percent — in 2009 from the year before.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said banks' lending standards are beginning to ease for some types of credit.

"But lending will not pick up until businesses and consumers gain the confidence they need to hire and spend," Bair said.

She said the economic recovery is starting to be reflected in banks' higher earnings and the improved quality of loans, with fewer defaults and delinquencies.

For the first time since late 2006, banks overall set aside less to cover future losses on loans than they had a year earlier, the FDIC said. Total reserves declined by $11.8 billion, or 4.5 percent.

The biggest banks have mounted a strong recovery with help from federal bailout money and record-low borrowing rates from the Federal Reserve. They also have been able to cut back on lending in troubled parts of the country such as Florida and Nevada.

Smaller and regional banks, however, have less flexibility. They have accounted for nearly all the banks that have failed this year.

The FDIC's deposit insurance fund, which fell into the red about a year ago, posted a slight improvement. Its deficit declined to $20.7 billion from $20.9 billion.

The FDIC expects U.S. bank failures to cost the insurance fund around $100 billion through 2013. The agency mandated last year that banks prepay about $45 billion in premiums, for 2010 through 2012, to help replenish the fund.

Last year, 140 federally insured institutions failed and were shut down by regulators. It was the highest annual number since 1992, when the savings and loan crisis hit its peak. Last year's failures extended a string of collapses that began in 2008, triggered by loan defaults in the financial crisis.

The pace of bank collapses this year exceeds last year's. So far, 118 banks have failed in 2010. The pace has quickened as banks' losses mount on loans made for commercial property and development. Many companies have shut down in the recession, vacating shopping malls and office buildings financed by the loans. That has brought delinquent loan payments and defaults by commercial developers.

Depositors' money — insured up to $250,000 per account — isn't at risk. The FDIC is backed by the government.

By Associated Press

By Associated Press

VISALIA, Calif. – Police are seeking clues in the fatal shooting of a lay bishop at a Mormon church by a man who was killed in an ensuing confrontation with officers.

Clay Sannar, a 42-year-old father of six boys, was doing administrative paperwork on Sunday between services when a man came in and asked for a leader of the congregation, said church official Ralph Jordan. The man was directed to Sannar and fatally shot him, said Colleen Mestas, the police chief in Visalia, southeast of Fresno in California's Central Valley.

Then, someone called police and identified himself as the gunman. When police arrived at the church, they confronted the man and exchanged gunfire, said Mestas.

The gunman was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at nearby hospital, Mestas said. No police officers were injured.

The man, whose identity has not been released, did not seem to know Sannar and is not a member of the church, and no one at the church recognized him, said Jordan. Police have not disclosed details about a motive.

"We have several detectives out actively investigating this so we can come up with answers, especially for the family," said Mestas. "It's just tragic."

Sannar was the general manager of Soil Basics, a fertilizer company in Visalia, according to the company's website.

Other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation described Sannar as a well-loved family man. One of his sons is less than 6 months old.

"We're devastated," said Scott Henriksen, 47, a church member. "There's only one word: shocked. This is something that should not happen."

Henriksen told The Visalia Times-Delta that he had known Sannar for about 18 years, and he was "very good, hardworking. A great family man."

By John Cloud

One of the most contentious issues in the vast literature about alcohol consumption has been the consistent finding that those who don't drink actually tend to die sooner than those who do. The standard Alcoholics Anonymous explanation for this finding is that many of those who show up as abstainers in such research are actually former hard-core drunks who had already incurred health problems associated with drinking.

But a new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that - for reasons that aren't entirely clear - abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one's risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers' mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers. (See pictures of booze under a microscope.)

Moderate drinking, which is defined as one to three drinks per day, is associated with the lowest mortality rates in alcohol studies. Moderate alcohol use (especially when the beverage of choice is red wine) is thought to improve heart health, circulation and sociability, which can be important because people who are isolated don't have as many family members and friends who can notice and help treat health problems.

But why would abstaining from alcohol lead to a shorter life? It's true that those who abstain from alcohol tend to be from lower socioeconomic classes, since drinking can be expensive. And people of lower socioeconomic status have more life stressors - job and child-care worries that might not only keep them from the bottle but also cause stress-related illnesses over long periods. (They also don't get the stress-reducing benefits of a drink or two after work.)

But even after controlling for nearly all imaginable variables - socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, quality of social support and so on - the researchers (a six-member team led by psychologist Charles Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin) found that over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who had never been drinkers, second-highest for heavy drinkers and lowest for moderate drinkers. (Watch TIME's Video "Taste Test: Beer With Extra Buzz.")

The sample of those who were studied included individuals between ages 55 and 65 who had had any kind of outpatient care in the previous three years. The 1,824 participants were followed for 20 years. One drawback of the sample: a disproportionate number, 63%, were men. Just over 69% of the never-drinkers died during the 20 years, 60% of the heavy drinkers died and only 41% of moderate drinkers died.

These are remarkable statistics. Even though heavy drinking is associated with higher risk for cirrhosis and several types of cancer (particularly cancers in the mouth and esophagus), heavy drinkers are less likely to die than people who have never drunk. One important reason is that alcohol lubricates so many social interactions, and social interactions are vital for maintaining mental and physical health. As I pointed out last year, nondrinkers show greater signs of depression than those who allow themselves to join the party.

The authors of the new paper are careful to note that even if drinking is associated with longer life, it can be dangerous: it can impair your memory severely and it can lead to nonlethal falls and other mishaps (like, say, cheating on your spouse in a drunken haze) that can screw up your life. There's also the dependency issue: if you become addicted to alcohol, you may spend a long time trying to get off the bottle. (Comment on this story.)

That said, the new study provides the strongest evidence yet that moderate drinking is not only fun but good for you. So make mine a double.

By Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan – Seven American service members were killed Monday in two separate roadside bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan, NATO said.

No details were given of the attacks, although eyewitnesses in the southern city of Kandahar said an armored U.S. Army Humvee hit a roadside bomb in the early afternoon. Several bodies were seen being removed from the vehicle, which was set on fire by the blast.

The deaths bring to 14 the number of U.S. troops killed in action in eastern and southern Afghanistan over the past three days.

A spike in U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan to over 120,000 has brought increased contact with insurgents and a rising death toll. Forty-nine U.S. service members have died in Afghanistan this month, still fewer than the 66 killed in July.

To the east in Nangarhar province, the head of Lal Pur district, Syad Mohammad Palawan, was killed when a bomb planted on his vehicle exploded as he was driving into a government compound to attend a meeting of provincial security and political leaders, said police spokesman Ghafor Khan.

Insurgents apparently planned for the bomb to explode inside the compound in the provincial capital Jalalabad where it could potentially have caused far greater destruction, Khan said.

Three of Palawan's bodyguards were wounded, Khan said, while the Interior Ministry put the figure at five.

The attack followed a failed assault on two coalition bases in nearby Khost province Saturday, in which more than 30 insurgents were killed. The attacks indicate that militant activity is rising in parts of the east, as coalition forces focus resources on Kandahar and other Taliban strongholds in the south.

Security in eastern Afghanistan is critical because the region includes the capital, Kabul, which the insurgents have sought to surround and isolate from the rest of the country. Jalalabad also lies just 35 miles (55 kilometers) west of the Pakistan border, where militants maintain safe havens from which to plan attacks and infiltrate foreign fighters linked to al-Qaida across the rugged mountains.

Shutting down such sanctuaries has been a key demand of the government of President Hamid Karzai, who on Saturday renewed his criticism of coalition strategy in fighting Afghanistan's stubborn insurgency — part of a pattern of greater outspokenness by the Afghan leader as he appeals for support among the beleaguered Afghan public.

In a meeting with visiting German Parliament Speaker Norbert Lammert, Karzai said there was a "serious need" to alter strategy against the Taliban and other groups linked to al-Qaida, the presidential office said.

"There should be a review of the strategy in the fight against terrorism, because the experience of the last eight years showed that the fight in the villages of Afghanistan has been ineffective apart from causing civilian casualties," Karzai was quoted as saying in a news release.

Karzai has in the past argued Afghan forces should take the lead in operations to root out insurgents and win support from deeply conservative villagers who harbor a long tradition of suspicion of outsiders. He says personal contact between coalition forces and villagers only breeds resentment, although most Afghan police and soldiers are drawn from northern Uzbeks and Tajiks who are ethnically and linguistically distinct from the Pashtuns who make up the core of Taliban support.

Last week, Karzai also criticized the U.S. plan to begin withdrawing troops starting next July and said the fight against terrorism cannot succeed as long as the Taliban and their allies maintain safe havens in Pakistan.

Karzai's comments contradict statements from coalition commanders that an increase in the total number of foreign forces to more than 140,000 has turned the momentum of recent Taliban advances.

In other operations, NATO said combined coalition and Afghan forces detained several suspected Taliban in Kandahar province, including regional commanders and bomb-makers, as well as insurgents involved in Saturday's attacks on Forward Operating Base Salerno and Camp Chapman in Khost. Chapman was the scene of a suicide attack in December that killed seven CIA employees.

Elsewhere, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry reported four soldiers were killed and another wounded Sunday in a roadside bombing in Wardak province. A fifth Afghan soldier was killed and another hurt in a bombing in Helmand province's Nad Ali district.

In the southeastern province of Zabul, 24 Taliban traveling by truck and motorcycle were captured while trying to cross the border into Pakistan, said provincial government spokesman Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar.

Five Taliban, including one regional commander, were also killed in fighting with coalition forces Sunday in Helmand province's Gereshik district, according to Daoud Ahmedi, spokesman to the provincial governor.