LONDON — An Iraqi physician and a Palestinian doctor working at British hospitals were identified Monday among those held in the failed car bomb attacks on London and Glasgow, while authorities announced the arrest of an eighth suspect and extended their probe overseas.

Officers used heightened stop-and-search powers and armed response vehicles to hunt for anyone else who might have been involved in the plot, and police put on a show of force to bolster security at airports and train stations and on city streets.

Police said Monday night that another man had been arrested in the plot at an "undisclosed location." Officials declined to comment on a British Broadcasting Corp. report, citing unidentified sources, that the suspect was detained in another country it did not specify.

A British security official said earlier that Pakistan and several other nations had been asked to check possible links with the suspects. British-born terrorists behind the bloody 2005 London transit bombings and others in thwarted plots here were linked to terror training camps and foreign radicals in Pakistan.

"We have asked partners overseas to check possible links and that work has begun," the security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

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Putin gives Bush new alternatives for missile defense system that Moscow opposes

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — Vladimir Putin, fiercely opposed to U.S. plans for missile defense in Europe, tried out new Russian alternatives on President Bush on Monday. Bush called the ideas "innovative" but said the U.S. still wants to anchor the defense in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The two leaders, meeting at the oceanfront compound of Bush's father, sought to restart U.S.-Russian relations after months of acrimony.

"Do I trust him? Yes, I trust him," Bush said about Putin, who stood alongside him on the lawn of the estate that overlooks the rocky Atlantic coast. "Do I like everything he says? No. And I suspect he doesn't like everything I say. But we're able to say it in a way that shows mutual respect."

On Putin's missile defense ideas, Bush said: "I think it's very sincere. I think it's innovative. I think it's strategic. But as I told Vladimir, I think that the Czech Republic and Poland need to be an integral part of a system."

Last month, Putin surprised Bush in Germany by proposing a Soviet-era early warning radar in Azerbaijan as a substitute for the radar and interceptors the United States wants to place in Poland and the Czech Republic. Washington has been clear it doubts the Azerbaijan facility is up to becoming a substitute.

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U.S. alleges Iran was behind sophisticated January attack that killed 5 U.S. troops in Iraq

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military accused Iran on Monday of a direct role in a sophisticated militant attack that killed five American troops in Iraq, portraying Tehran as waging a proxy war through Shiite extremists.

The claims over the January attack marked a sharp escalation in U.S. accusations that Iran has been arming and financing Iraqi militants, and for the first time linked the Iranian effort to its ally, Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah militia. The allegations could endanger Iraqi efforts to hold a new round of talks between the U.S. and Iran.

U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner said the Quds Force, part of Iran's elite Republican Guards, was seeking to build an Iraqi version of Hezbollah to fight U.S. and Iraqi forces — and had brought in Hezbollah operatives to help train and organize militants.

"Our intelligence reveals that the senior leadership in Iran is aware of this activity," Bergner told a Baghdad news conference. He said it would be "hard to imagine" that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not know about the activity.

Iran has denied past claims that it was backing Iraqi militants — including accusations that it was providing them with a particularly deadly type of roadside bomb, the explosively formed penetrator. Its ally Hezbollah has denied having any role in Iraq, saying it operates only in Lebanon.

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McCain shakes up presidential campaign after reporting an abysmal $2 million cash on hand

WASHINGTON — Republican John McCain sought to keep alive his deeply troubled campaign on Monday, laying off dozens of staffers after lackluster fundraising and excessive spending left him with just $2 million for his second presidential bid.

Considered the GOP front-runner just six months ago, the Arizona senator trails his top rivals in money and polls. McCain's fortunes soured this year as he embraced President Bush's troop increase for the Iraq war, a conflict a majority of Republicans support, and a bipartisan immigration bill that has divided the GOP. He also has struggled to win over skeptical conservatives who make up the core of the party.

Officials with knowledge of the reorganization said more than 50 staffers, and perhaps as many as 80 to 100, in every department of the campaign were being let go, and senior aides will be subject to pay cuts. These officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the campaign would not publicly discuss specifics.

The campaign's fundamental leadership will not change. Terry Nelson, a veteran of President Bush's winning 2004 campaign, will remain campaign manager but said he would volunteer his time instead of drawing a salary for the next few months. A few senior aides were doing the same.

"We confronted reality and we dealt with it in the best way that we could so that we could move forward with this campaign focused on winning our primaries in the early states," Nelson said.

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Survivor of hate-crime attack dies in jump from cruise ship; teen testified before Congress

HOUSTON — David Ritcheson hated being known as "that kid" — the teenager who was beaten unconscious and sodomized with a plastic pole during a party where one of his assailants shouted "White Power!" Ritcheson didn't want to stand out from his classmates because of the assault, but he acknowledged in an interview that "it was just really hard to hold your head up, even to walk outside with everyone almost in the world knowing what happened." That anguish may have contributed to his decision to leap Sunday from a cruise ship to his death in the Gulf of Mexico.

A man at Ritcheson's home who identified himself as the teen's father confirmed the death Monday to The Associated Press. He declined to give his name or comment further, saying the family would issue a statement later.

Ritcheson, 18, rarely discussed his feelings and declined to get counseling after being attacked at the drug-fueled teen party in April 2006. A year later, he testified before Congress in support of a hate crimes bill.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle this past April, he said: "I shouldn't care what people think or say. It's just the fact that everyone knows I'm the kid. It was bigger than Houston. It was bigger than Texas. It was bigger than America. Everybody in the world knew what had happened and everybody knew the details of it."

Ritcheson, a Mexican-American, was beaten and sodomized with a patio umbrella pole. He also was stomped and burned with cigarettes, and his attackers poured bleach on him before leaving him for dead. He was hospitalized for more than three months and endured 20 to 30 operations.

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Trouble identifying common smells such as lemon and banana may signal Alzheimer's, study finds

CHICAGO — Difficulty identifying common smells such as lemon, banana and cinnamon may be the first sign of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study that could lead to scratch-and-sniff tests to determine a person's risk for the progressive brain disorder.

Such tests could be important if scientists find ways to slow or stop Alzheimer's and the severe memory loss associated with it. For now, there's no cure for the more than 5 million Americans with the disease.

Researchers have long known that microscopic lesions considered the hallmarks of Alzheimer's first appear in a brain region important to the sense of smell.

"Strictly on the basis of anatomy, yeah, this makes sense," said Robert Franks, an expert on odor perception and the brain at the University of Cincinnati. Franks was not involved in the new study, appearing in Monday's Archives of General Psychiatry.

Other studies have linked loss of smell to Alzheimer's, Franks said, but this is the first to measure healthy people's olfactory powers and follow them for five years, testing along the way for signs of mental decline.

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Criss Angel's estranged wife claims 'Mindfreak' illusionist deserted her as he became famous

MINEOLA, N.Y. — Criss Angel's wife says the magic has gone from their marriage and she now wants to make him vanish from her life. Angel, known for his "Mindfreak" show on the A&E network, subdued his sometimes flashy look for a court hearing Friday. But he flashed a bit of humor during a break, gesturing toward his estranged wife's lawyer and saying, "I can make him disappear."

Angel, whose real name is Christopher Sarantakos, and his wife, Joanne, 37, married five years ago, after a decade of dating, according to her lawyer, Dominic Barbara. But the magician kept his marriage quiet and then deserted his wife as he became famous and hasn't given her "a cent" of his millions, Barbara said.

Angel's lawyer, Elliott Wiener, said Joanne Sarantakos' accusations of mental cruelty and abandonment were unfounded, and "the notion that she's not being supported is simply not accurate."

The 39-year-old punky illusionist dedicated his latest stunt — a seeming escape from a box encased in concrete and suspended 40 feet above the ground near Manhattan's Time Square on June 5 — to "Shrek the Third" star Cameron Diaz. But he demurred when asked whether they were dating, telling AP Radio News they were "good friends."

Barbara told a judge he would aim to subpoena the 34-year-old actress in the divorce case.

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Baseball unlikely to grow in popularity in China because youth don't know sport's intricacies

NEW YORK — The Yankees and Mariners have become the first major league teams to sign Chinese players, so could baseball's version of NBA superstar Yao Ming be on deck? Unlikely, for reasons that are varied and complicated.

Jim Lefebvre, manager of the Chinese team that will play in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, believes a lot of it is because China, unlike the United States, doesn't yet teach its youngsters the intricacies of baseball. Chinese dads don't play backyard catch with their young sons. Chinese boys don't play stickball and there are no neighborhood diamonds for impromptu pickup games.

"China has no Little League, no high school, no college," Lefebvre, a former major league player and manager, said during a recent telephone interview. "Baseball is a very young sport in China and has no grassroots programs like we see for the kids from Latin America, the U.S., everywhere. Even Europe has better programs."

The country does boast the professional Chinese Baseball League, which was founded in 2002 by an American and fields six teams for a 30-game season. There's also the occasional major league game on ESPN. But, by and by, there's little exposure to America's pastime and scant interest in the sport in a country enchanted with ping pong, soccer and the NBA.