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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday he’ll not be deterred from seeking U.N. recognition of a state of Palestine, despite what he said was “tremendous pressure” to drop the request and instead seek to resume peace talks with Israel.

Abbas spoke to reporters en route to the United Nations, where he is to seek U.N. membership for “Palestine” in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.

The U.S. and Israel oppose Abbas’ bid, saying a state can only be established through negotiations. Abbas has said that negotiations remain his preference, but that they must be based on the pre-1967 war frontiers and a halt of all Israeli settlement construction on occupied land.

Abbas said Monday that even if Israel were to agree to those two demands, “we will go to the U.N. because there is no contradiction between negotiations and going to the U.N.”

Officials from the Quartet of Mideast mediators _ the U.S., European Union, Russia and the United Nations _ have been holding talks in recent days in hopes of persuading the Palestinians to drop the U.N. bid and instead resume peace talks with Israel.

The Palestinian leader said he came under “tremendous pressure” in recent days, but that the proposals for a new framework for talks were unacceptable.

Full U.N. membership can only be bestowed by the U.N. Security Council, where the recognition bid could be derailed if fewer than nine of the 15 members vote in favor or if the U.S. uses its veto, as it said it would.

Abbas said his plan, for now, is to go to the Security Council, but suggested that he might change tactics at the last minute and go for the lesser option of General Assembly approval of Palestine as a nonmember observer state. Chances for success are much higher in the General Assembly, which Abbas is to address Friday.

“From now until delivering the speech at the General Assembly, we have no thought except going to the Security Council,” he said. “Then, whatever the decision is, we will sit with the leadership and decide.”

Asked whether he was threatened by U.S. officials trying to stop him from seeking U.N. recognition, Abbas said: “It’s not a matter of threats, but they (the Americans) said that things will be very difficult after September. … We don’t know to what extent. We will know later.”

He said he has not been told officially that U.S. aid to the Palestinians would be cut. For months, congressional Republicans and Democrats have threatened to cut off some $500 million in economic and security assistance if the Palestinians move forward with the U.N. bid.

Abbas said he’s not scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

Concerning the possibility of mass protests in the Palestinian territories, Abbas said the only violence might come from Israeli settlers. In recent months, there has been an upswing in attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their property, some of it as retaliation for attempts by Israeli troops to remove unauthorized settler outposts.

“We will never return to an intifada (uprising). We will never return to violence,” Abbas said. “All our people will do is demonstrate peacefully inside the (Palestinian) cities.”

Abbas, however, holds no sway over the Gaza Strip or its rulers from the violently anti-Israel group Hamas, which drove out forces loyal to Abbas during a power struggle in 2007.

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Libyan revolutionary forces faced fierce resistance as they streamed into one of the remaining bastions of support for Moammar Gadhafi on Friday, while the Turkish prime minister met with the country’s new rulers in the capital Tripoli.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit came a day after the French and British leaders traveled to Libya as the international community rallies around the interim government’s efforts to establish legitimacy and start rebuilding the country despite continued fighting against loyalists of Gadhafi, who remains on the run.

Libyan fighters in dozens of pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons made their way from the north into the center of town of Bani Walid, 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. Explosions and gunfire resounded across the area and smoke billowed into the sky as fierce clashes broke out.

One of the fighters, Hisham Nseir, said the frontline is “very heated and chaotic” and his troops were meeting with heavy resistance from Gahdafi’s men.

Libyan fighters also have converged on Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte to the north of Bani Walid.

NATO airstrikes continued to pound pro-Gadhafi targets. The alliance said it struck multiple rocket launchers, air missile systems, armored vehicles and a military storage facility in Sirte on Thursday. NATO has conducted over 8,500 strikes on Libya since late March.

As revolutionary forces battle pro-Gadhafi holdouts centered in Bani Walid, Sirte and the city of Sabha, deep in the southern desert, Libya’s interim leadership has been pushing forward with efforts to form a new government.

Erdogan was greeted at the airport by Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of the National Transitional Council, the closest thing Libya has to a government. He traveled to Libya as part of a tour of the Arab world, including Egypt and Tunisia, that is aimed at offering help for the countries and advancing his growing status as a regional leader.

He was expected to discuss how to resume investments in Libya, where Turkish contractors were involved in 214 building projects worth more than $15 billion before the rebellion that ousted Gadhafi personal loan for poor credit.

Erdogan’s tour comes as once-strong ties between Turkey and Israel are unraveling due to Israel’s refusal to apologize for its raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that killed nine pro-Palestinian activists last year.

The flotilla incident and Turkey’s desire to broaden its influence in the Middle East and the Arab world could dramatically affect the power dynamics in the region since the revolutions now known as the Arab Spring.

Turkish companies have been involved in lucrative construction projects worth billions of dollars, building hospitals, shopping malls and five-star hotels in Libya before the uprising began in mid-February.

The bilateral trade with Libya was $2.4 billion in favor of Turkey before the chaos and the two countries had waived travel visas to boost that trade.

The United States and more than 30 other nations formally recognized Libya’s main opposition group as the country’s legitimate government in a July meeting in Istanbul, giving the rebel movement a major boost. The move came after Turkey escalated its pressure on Moammar Gadhafi despite its long-standing ties to the Libyan leader.

Erdogan has said: Gadhafi has ignored calls for change in Libya and instead preferred “blood, tears and pressure against his own people.”

Turkey has recently reopened its embassy in Tripoli which was shut down due to deteriorating security. The Turkish consulate in the rebel-controlled city of Benghazi remained open throughout the conflict.

Turkey initially balked at the idea of military action in Libya, but as a NATO member it is helping to enforce an arms embargo on Libya and volunteered to lead humanitarian aid efforts.

Erdogan also was expected to appear on the Martyrs’ Square, which was renamed from the Gadhafi-era Green Square, in Tripoli and to travel to the cities of Misrata and Benghazi.

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Bank of America is slashing 30,000 jobs as part of an effort to reverse a crisis of confidence among investors. It’s the largest single job reduction by a U.S. company this year.

What CEO Brian Moynihan is trying to do is nothing less than save the nation’s largest bank. Investors have cut the bank’s market value by half this year. The bank is facing huge liabilities over soured mortgage investments and concerns over whether it has enough capital to withstand more financial shocks.

The cuts, which affect Bank of America’s consumer businesses, represent 10 percent of the Charlotte, N.C., bank’s work force. The bank said it hoped the cuts and other measures would result in $5 billion in annual savings by 2014. The bank has already cut 6,000 jobs this year. The bank also said it would look for cost savings at its other businesses in a six-month review that will begin next month.

Bank of America’s stock has lost 48 percent this year, largely because of problems related to poorly written mortgages at Countrywide.

Just in the first half of the year the bank paid out $12.7 billion to settle claims from investors that it sold them securities backed by faulty mortgages no fax payday advance.

Some investors and analysts worry that the job cuts will lead to poor customer service and the bank will lose market share to rivals at a time when there are signs that the economy is slowing down.

They also wonder if the job cuts are enough to produce the profits the bank needs to overcome the spiraling costs from its mortgage business.

“There is a fair amount of skepticism on Wall Street, and Brian is doing as much as he can do in the face of a worsening economy,” said Nancy Bush, an analyst and contributing editor at SNL Financial.

Bank of America is the second-largest bank in the St. Louis region, based on deposits, and is a major employer here. As of June 30, Bank of America had 2,815 employees in the St. Louis area, down slightly from 2,888 employees at the end of last year. A Bank of America spokeswoman said Monday that the location of the job reductions had not been released by the bank.

Lisa Brown of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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Rams quarterback Sam Bradford has a new job; appearing in Charter Communications advertisements.

Bradford is featured in print ads and three TV commercials for the cable TV and internet provider.  The commercials strive for a light touch.  In one, a fan asks Bradford to stand back so the fan can take a picture of a Charter truck paydayloans.

Charter recently announced an agreement to carry the NFL Network.

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Asia-Pacific stocks took a beating early Monday after jobs data out of the U.S. last week revived fears of a recession in the world’s largest economy.

Japan’s Nikkei was 1.7 percent down in early trading at 8,797.89. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 fell 2.1 percent to 4,154.90. New Zealand’s NZX 50 declined 0.7 percent to 3,279.30. South Korea’s Kospi Composite Index slid 2.5 percent to 1,821.65.

Companies that count on brisk economic growth to fuel their revenues were hit hard. Japan’s Hitachi Construction Machinery lost 4.3 percent. Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. tumbled 4.4 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed 2.2 percent lower Friday, wiping out its gain for the week, on the heels of a dismal jobs report.

The Labor Department reported that no jobs were added in the U.S. in August. It was the worst employment report in 11 months and renewed fears that another recession could be on the way.

The lack of hiring in the U.S. last month surprised investors. Economists were expecting 93,000 jobs to be added. Previously reported hiring figures for June and July were revised lower. The average work week declined and hourly earnings fell. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent. The rate has been above 9 percent in all but two months since May 2009.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 253.31 points to close at 11,240.26. It was the biggest fall in two weeks. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2.5 percent to 1,173.97. The Nasdaq composite fell 2.6 percent to 2,480.33.

The sour jobs report comes on top of Europe’s debt problems, which are still dragging on. Meanwhile, China’s economy is showing signs of slower growth.

Those problems could weaken global demand for many kinds of commodities including oil and metals. Inpex Corp., Japan’s leading energy explorer, sank 3.1 percent.

Investors seeking a relatively stable sore of value during times of economic turbulence in financial markets have been scooping up gold, sending its price up 50 percent over the past year.

Gold-related shares were among the few posting gains Monday. Australia’s Newcrest Mining Ltd., the country’s top gold miner, rose 2 percent.

In currencies, the euro weakened to $1.4165 from $1.4187 in late Friday trading in New York. The yen weakened to 76.77 yen from 76.72 yen.

Benchmark crude for October delivery slipped 62 cents to $85.83 per barrel on Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.48, or 2.8 percent, to finish at $86.45 on the Nymex on Friday.

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Ford Canada said Thursday that interest in its fuel-efficient cars drove an eight per cent increase in overall sales during August over the prior year.

Canada’s top-selling automaker sold 25,927 vehicles during the month, making it the best August sales results in 23 years.

Since January, the company has sold 193,648 cars and trucks, 5.2 per cent higher than the prior year.

Solid gains from Ford Fiesta, Focus, Fusion and Lincoln MKZ pushed overall car sales up 18 per cent to 6,898 units in August. Sales since January are up 22 per cent to 52,622.

Truck sales grew five per cent to 19,029 and by 0.1 per cent to 141,026 for the year to date.

Chief executive David Mondragon said consumers are recognizing the fuel efficiency of Ford’s cars and trucks, as more than 64 per cent of cars sold in the month achieved at least 55 miles per gallon or 5.14 litres per 100 kilometres.

Also, more than 40 per cent of F-150 truck sales were EcoBoost engines, which achieve more than 30 miles per gallon (9.42 litres per 100 km).

Lincoln sales increased 27 per cent on growing interest in the MKZ, MKX and Navigator.

Mondragon said Ford is maintaining its leadership position for the second consecutive year as the Canadian auto industry is on the path of “moderate growth in 2011.”

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A prominent Hong Kong business family has set up a think tank to look at global economic issues in the latest attempt at developing a world class research institute in Asia that can compete with those in North America or Europe

The Fung Global Institute was established on Thursday and will look at global issues from an Asian perspective as economic power increasingly shifts to the East.

As Asian economies have grown, new think tanks have sprouted in the region. But limits on democracy and free speech in many Asian countries mean few have produced research comparable in quality and influence to counterparts such as the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution, Canada’s Fraser Institute or Britain’s Chatham House.

The Fung Global Insitute said it is recruiting experts from around the globe to provide business leaders and policymakers with research that aims to “help shape and advance international dialogue on Asia’s growing influence on the world economy cash advance payday loan.”

Michael Spence, a 2001 Nobel laureate in economics, will chair the think tank’s academic board.

The institute is set up with an endowment from the Victor and William Fung Foundation _ a charity funded by and named for the two brothers behind trading company Li & Fung Ltd.

The new think tank will look at four main themes, including global supply chains.

Li & Fung Ltd. is one of the biggest suppliers of clothing and other consumer goods sourced in Asia for Western consumers.

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Nervous Nellies on Bay and Wall Streets pulled back a bit yesterday from their panic selling of recent weeks, which has seen the S&P/TSX Composite Index drop a total of 15.5 per cent in Canada from its previous peak, in March; and the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average fall a similar 15.2 per cent from its most recent peak, in May.

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President Felipe Calderon is figuratively going out on a limb _ and literally down a sinkhole, up a river (with a paddle) and over the top of a few pyramids _ in an attempt to boost Mexico’s flagging tourism industry.

The balding, 49-year-old leader is personally trying to change his country’s violent reputation by appearing as a sort of adventure tour guide in a series of TV programs to be broadcast starting in September on Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States.

The president dons an Indiana Jones-style hat and a harness and descends a rope into the 1,000-foot-deep (375-meter) Sotano de las Golondrinas cavern, accompanied by Peter Greenberg, host of the “The Royal Tour” TV series. Calderon also straps on scuba tanks to lead Greenberg into a sinkhole lake known as a cenote in Yucatan. And he helps a Lacandon Indian paddle a boat down a river in a jungle in southern Chiapas state.

In the 30-minute videos, Calderon breaks from his image as a lawyerly policy wonk best known for launching a bloody, controversial offensive against drug cartels. He plans to attend a premiere of the show within a few weeks, according to Tourism Department spokesman Roberto Martinez.

“I have other duties that are more dangerous,” Calderon jokes, dangling midair in a cavern as a rope lowers him hundreds of feet to the bottom. The site is in the Gulf coast region of Mexico known as the Huasteca, which is covered in jungle and dotted with caverns, waterfalls and crystalline pools.

Calderon swaps the explorer hat for a helmet with a headlamp for the descent into the Golondrinas cave, named for the huge flocks of birds that live inside. Calderon also appears in underwater footage from the stalactite-studded cenote in Yucatan, where he flashes the camera an “OK” signal from behind his dive mask.

Analysts say the videos represent a distinct break from the solemn treatment that has long characterized the Mexican presidency but fit in with Calderon, who has emphasized using the media to get his message across, and who has sought to project a forceful image.

“That’s always been his objective, the whole macho thing,” said John Ackerman, of the legal research institute at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. In 2007, soon after putting the army on the front line of his offensive against drug cartels, Calderon departed from presidential tradition by putting on an olive-green army jacket that was a few sizes too big for his short frame, an image that has been widely lampooned in newspaper cartoons ever since.

“From the very beginning, using the military uniforms and saluting, it’s always been his kind of thing,” Ackerman said. “It doesn’t quite fit with his physical appearance.”

Drawing criticism, Calderon’s administration took the image-building a step further this year by funding a privately produced television miniseries glorifying the federal police, which was broadcast by the country’s largest network. On Friday, the navy told local news media that it is letting private producers use navy locations to make a miniseries about the force, but that the navy is not financing any of the production no fax payday loans.

Calderon’s message in the latest videos is that Mexico is safe for tourists.

“This is part of a strategy to promote the country abroad,” said Martinez.

Nobody argues that Mexico’s tourism needs a boost. According to the country’s central bank, overall foreign tourism in 2010, not including border-area visitors, was still 6.3 percent below 2008 levels, and the first half of 2011 saw a 2 percent decline from the same period of 2010.

Cruise ship visits in the first half of the year declined 9.3 percent, after several cruise lines canceled Pacific port calls in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.

Analysts blame the drops on the world economic downturn hitting many countries’ travel industries, but also pointed to Mexico’s drug violence, which has claimed between 35,000 and 40,000 lives since Calderon took office in late 2006.

While foreign tourists have not been targets of the violence, a point Calderon is eager to make, it has had some undeniable effects. For example, the border highway that many U.S. visitors once used to travel to the Huasteca region where Calderon went cave-diving is now considered so plagued by highway holdups and shootings that the U.S. State Department has issued warnings about traveling there.

The Huasteca remains a beautiful and largely safe region, but most tour operators recommend foreigners fly to a nearby Mexican airport rather than drive down from the border.

Some argue that Calderon’s stint as a television travel guide might be ill-advised, both because it compromises the dignity of the presidency and comes just months before campaigning opens for the 2012 elections to choose his successor.

Mario di Costanzo, a congressman for the leftist Labor Party, says he has requested information on how much Mexico spent to film the series. Calderon’s office said the videos’ U.S. producers paid production costs on the trips, but Mexican presidential and military helicopters can be seen ferrying the ‘presidential tourists’ around.

“We are questioning the legality of the president’s actions,” Di Costanzo said. “Never in the history of the country has the image of the president been used to promote tourism.”

“We see this as a promotion of Felipe Calderon’s own image, for the benefit of his own party, rather than an institutional image of the country as a tourism destination,” Di Costanzo noted.

Greenberg has previously traveled with the king of Jordan, the president of Peru, and the prime ministers of New Zealand and Jamaica on similar programs.

Congresswoman Leticia Quezada of the Democratic Revolution Party said her party objects to Calderon using government vehicles and personnel for the series, and said he has been spending too much time and money on television.

“We’re going to start calling him Felipe Calderon Productions,” she quipped.

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Summer reading and a bit of golf. That says vacation for many Americans. And briefings on the economy and national security if you’re the president.

Barack Obama began the first full day of his Martha’s Vineyard vacation on Friday by taking his daughters book shopping, then hitting the golf links at a private course.

The White House was at pains to point out he also was briefed by aides on national and international issues.

At the Bunch of Grapes bookstore, Obama was greeted by shouts of “2012″ and “Four More Years.” Dressed casually in jeans and an untucked blue polo shirt, he introduced his daughters to patrons before setting off in search of vacation reading. The girls, meanwhile, shopped with a purpose.

“They’ve got to buy some books,” Obama said of Malia, 13, and Sasha, 10, adding that one of them had a school assignment.

One woman, Terry Wilson, 63, of Alexandria, Va., told the president: “Please don’t forget the teachers.” Obama replied that he loves teachers. “How could I forget them?” he said.

At the end of the 15-minute shopping trip, Obama was seen holding five or six books, including “Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley’s futuristic classic, and “The Bayou Trilogy,” a crime novel by Daniel Woodrell set in Louisiana swampland.

Obama emerged to cheers from well-wishers who were kept behind yellow police tape, then climbed into his SUV and rode back to his vacation compound to drop off the girls before being driven to Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown. Aides said his afternoon foursome included longtime Chicago friend Eric Whitaker and two White House staffers cash advance.

Several Republican presidential candidates have criticized Obama for coming to this upscale island resort off the coast of Massachusetts at a time of economic uncertainty across the country.

The 10-day stay on Martha’s Vineyard is Obama’s third straight summer on the island off Cape Cod, and his visit to the Bunch of Grapes was a reprise of how he started last year’s vacation. Once again, it was a father-and-daughters outing, with first lady Michelle Obama elsewhere on the island.

Inside the bookstore, once Malia and Sasha had picked out books, Obama went to the cashier to pay but was heard disagreeing with the $32 price he was quoted, which seemed low for the size of his stack. He later paid by credit card, telling the cashiers that he uses it only about three times a year.

“We’re counting on you!” one patron yelled as Obama left the store.

He also found a supportive audience outside the shop.

“He’s working all the time. He’s getting a little relaxing when he’s with his girls,” said Virlynn Atkinson White, from Washington, D.C., who also was on vacation. “But for the most part, I’m sure he’s working. There’s too much going on in the country. He’s very conscientious.”

The White House defends Obama’s desire for time to recharge and spend time with his family before the new school year begins. Officials also say the president is never really on vacation.

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Associated Press writer Erica Werner contributed to this report.

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