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WASHINGTON (AFP) –
Britain won praise from its US ally here Wednesday for the "courage and sacrifice" of its troops serving in Afghanistan and vowed to see the mission through despite signs of eroding public support.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, speaking at a Washington press conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said the British public understood the "vital nature" of a mission designed to defeat global terrorism.

With the Taliban insurgency at its deadliest since the 2001 US-led invasion, the United States and Britain, the largest foreign military contributors, have deployed more troops to Afghanistan ahead of the August 20 national elections.

"It's a tough phase for all the countries that are in Afghanistan at the moment," Miliband told reporters as British troops suffered their deadliest month in the nearly eight-year war.

"But I want to be absolutely clear that we went into this together and we will work it through together, because we are stronger together," Britain's top diplomat said.

He said it was important for "the first Afghan-led elections for 30 years" to be "credible" and show how the international coalition is on a mission to "support a credible democratic Afghan government."

Miliband dismissed concerns the British public will drop support for troop deployments to Afghanistan after an opinion poll on Tuesday showed that most Britons believe the war is "unwinnable" and the troops should be pulled out.

"I think that the British people understand the vital nature of the mission that's taking place in Afghanistan, and they know that Afghanistan was the incubator for global terrorism..," he said.

He referred to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, which triggered the US-led war against Al-Qaeda and its hosts in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

He has in the past also recalled how anti-British plots were hatched in the Afghanistan, Pakistan region.

"I think the British people will stay with this mission, because there is a -- a clear strategy and a clear determination on behalf of the United States and other coalition members to see this through," Miliband said.

"The military side of the equation is essential," he said.

He repeated earlier remarks that coalition troops will help boost stability to allow for political progress.

Clinton said she and Miliband talked "at length" about the situation in Afghanistan and neighboring nuclear-armed Pakistan, where insurgents are launching cross-border attacks and posing a threat to stability in Islamabad.

In an interview on PBS television after his arrival here on Tuesday, Miliband refused to rule out Britain's sending more troops to Afghanistan beyond the 9,000 currently deployed.

The United States has contributed 56,000 troops to a coalition numbering about 90,000 troops.

Clinton expressed her "admiration for the incredible courage, service and sacrifice of the British troops working for stability and peace in Afghanistan."

Clinton said Britain and the United States have "have made significant gains in the recent operations" against the Taliban, but "there remains much work to be done."

The two top diplomats said they also discussed efforts to curb Iran's and North Korea's nuclear ambitions as well as efforts to revive Arab-Israeli peace. And they also raised the threat from global climate change.

On Iran, Clinton urged the Shiite Muslim clerical leadership in Tehran to release political prisoners it held after protests over disputed elections last month, adding the United States "deplore" reports of their alleged abuse.

MIAMI – Federal authorities arrested 32 people, including doctors, in a major Medicare fraud bust Wednesday in New York, Louisiana, Boston and Houston, targeting scams such as "arthritis kits" — expensive braces that many patients never used.
It's the third major sweep since Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced in May they were adding millions of dollars and dozens of agents to combat a problem that costs the U.S. billions each year.
Using about a dozen agents in targeted cities, including Miami, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, has recovered $371 million in false Medicare claims and charged 145 people across the country in just two months.
More than 200 agents worked on Wednesday's $16 million bust that included 12 search warrants at health care businesses and homes across the Houston area.
Federal authorities say those businesses were giving patients "arthritis kits," which were nothing more than expensive orthotics that included knee and shoulder braces. Patients told authorities they were unnecessary and many never used them. But health care clinic owners billed between $3,000 to $4,000 for each kit.
Houston's other scam involved billing Medicare for thousands of dollars worth of liquid food like Ensure for patients who can't eat solid food. Authorities said clinic owners never distributed the food to patients. In some cases, clinic owners billed patients who were dead when they allegedly received the items.
The suspects arrested Wednesday in Houston will make court appearances Thursday morning. Suspects in Boston, New York and Louisiana will have first appearances later today.
The first task force started in 2007 in Miami, a city authorities say alone is responsible for more than $3 billion a year in Medicare fraud. Clinic owners there would bill Medicare dozens of times for the same wheelchair, while never giving the medical equipment to patients.
The problems have become more complex since then.
Suspects have moved into more sophisticated scams including home health care, physical therapy and infusion drugs. They've even started tapping into Medicaid Advantage, which allows the elderly and disabled to get benefits through private health insurers. The plans receive a government subsidy and generally offer more benefits than traditional Medicare.
Federal authorities say Miami residents are also moving on to other cities, bringing their scams with them.
Strike force teams, each led by a federal prosecutor and a handful of agents, were then started in Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston in the past year. With newfound support and financial aid under the Obama administration, the teams are moving more quickly to make arrests and recover money than ever before in the history of Medicare fraud.
Agencies participating in the busts included the FBI, the HHS Office of the Inspector General, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Texas Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
Along with issuing indictments, authorities freeze bank accounts and seize everything from Rolls Royce's to million dollar homes purchased with funds stolen from Medicare.
Since the HEAT strike, suspects are being charged not just with health care fraud, but all relevant conduct. That means HEAT's average prison sentences is 20 percent more than the overall national average sentence in federal health care fraud cases in 2008.
While authorities are gratified by the arrests, the program's purpose is more than punitive. It's also about deterrence.
In some Miami neighborhoods, the fraud is so rampant that it's become a cultural norm, with some patients raking in more than $1,000 a month, Kirk Ogrosky, deputy chief of the U.S. Justice Department's criminal fraud section.
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Associated Press Writer Arelis Hernandez in Houstin contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

http://www.hhs.gov/stopmedicarefraud

NEW YORK – A judge has found a U.S.-trained scientist accused of being an al-Qaida operative competent to stand trial.
Judge Richard Berman made the ruling Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan. A trial for Aafia Siddiqui (AH'-fee-ah Sih-DEE'-key) is scheduled to begin Oct. 19.
Siddiqui was charged with shooting at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents after her capture in Afghanistan last summer.
The government said at a hearing earlier this month that she is faking mental illness to avoid trial. Her lawyer, Dawn Cardi, did not immediately respond to a message for comment, but has said she is unfit for trial.
Siddiqui studied at MIT and Brandeis University before she fled to her native Pakistan in 2003.

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson's personal doctor administered a powerful anesthetic to help him sleep, and authorities believe the drug killed the pop singer, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Monday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, also provided a glimpse inside Jackson's rented mansion, describing the room Jackson slept in as outfitted with oxygen tanks and an IV drip. Another of his bedrooms was a shambles, with clothes and other items strewn about and handwritten notes stuck on the walls. One read: "children are sweet and innocent."
The official said Jackson regularly received propofol to sleep, relying on the drug like an alarm clock. A doctor would administer it when he went to sleep, then stop the intravenous drip when he wanted to wake up. On June 25, the day Jackson died, Dr. Conrad Murray gave him the drug through an IV sometime after midnight, the official said.
Though toxicology reports are pending, investigators are working under the theory propofol caused Jackson's heart to stop, the official said. Jackson is believed to have been using the drug for about two years and investigators are trying to determine how many other doctors administered it, the official said.
Murray, 51, has been identified in court papers as the subject of a manslaughter investigation and authorities last week raided his office and a storage unit in Houston. Police say Murray is cooperating and have not labeled him a suspect.
Using propofol to sleep is a practice far outside the drug's intended purpose. One doctor said administering it in a home to help a person sleep would constitute malpractice.
Murray's lawyer, Edward Chernoff, has said the doctor "didn't prescribe or administer anything that should have killed Michael Jackson." When asked Monday about the law enforcement official's statements he said: "We will not be commenting on rumors, innuendo or unnamed sources."
Murray became Jackson's personal physician in May and was to accompany him to London for a series of concerts starting in July.
He was staying with Jackson in the Los Angeles mansion and, according to Chernoff, "happened to find" an unconscious Jackson in the pop star's bedroom the morning of June 25. Murray tried to revive him by compressing his chest with one hand while supporting Jackson's back with the other.
It's unclear how long it took for someone at Jackson's home to summon paramedics, though Murray's own lawyers have said it was up to a half-hour. Paramedics arrived about three minutes after they were called and tried to revive the music superstar for another 42 minutes before sliding him into the ambulance and racing with lights flashing and siren blaring to UCLA Medical Center, where Jackson was pronounced dead.
Authorities arrived at the singer's house after the death and found a chaotic scene. The top floor had been all but sealed off, with only Jackson, his children and Murray allowed upstairs, the official said. Jackson's bedroom was a mess, with items seemingly thrown about and some 20 handwritten notes stuck on the walls.
A porcelain girl doll wearing a dress was found on top of the covers of the bed where he slept, the official said.
The temperature upstairs was stiflingly hot, with gas fireplaces and the heating system on high because Jackson always complained of feeling cold, the official said.
Police found propofol and other drugs in the home. An IV line and three tanks of oxygen were in the room where Jackson slept and 15 more oxygen tanks were in a security guard's shack, the official said.
Propofol can depress breathing and lower heart rates and blood pressure. Because of the risks, propofol is only supposed to be administered in medical settings by trained personnel. Instructions on the drug's package warn that patients must be continuously monitored, and that equipment to maintain breathing, to provide artificial ventilation, and to administer oxygen if needed "must be immediately available."
Dr. Zeev Kain, who heads the anesthesiology department at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center, said he has never encountered a situation where propofol was given in a home to help someone sleep. Such a situation would constitute malpractice, he said.
Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse who gave Jackson nutritional counseling and vitamins earlier this year, said he complained of insomnia and asked her repeatedly for Diprivan, the brand-name version of propofol. Lee said she warned him of the drug's dangers and rejected his requests.
Los Angeles police interviewed Murray twice soon after Jackson's death. Last week, detectives flew to Houston and, along with federal drug agents, searched a medical clinic he ran and a storage unit he rented. They seized a long list of items, including the contents of three computer hard drives, two e-mails from his administrative assistant at the Las Vegas practice Murray ran and various other documents.

A sealed search warrant approved by a Houston judge and later made public allowed authorities to seek "property or items constituting evidence of the offense of manslaughter that tend to show that Dr. Conrad Murray committed the said criminal offense."

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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Lynn Elber in Tustin, Calif., Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee, and Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles.