BAGHDAD — The U.S. military is weighing new directions for Iraq, including an even bigger troop buildup if President Bush thinks his "surge" strategy needs a further boost, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace revealed that he and the chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force are developing their own assessment of the situation in Iraq, to be presented to Bush in September. That will be separate from the highly anticipated report to Congress that month by Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander for Iraq.

The Joint Chiefs are considering a range of actions, including another troop buildup, Pace said without making any predictions. He called it prudent planning to enable the services to be ready for Bush's decision.

The military must "be prepared for whatever it's going to look like two months from now," Pace said in an interview with two reporters traveling with him to Iraq from Washington.

"That way, if we need to plus up or come down" in numbers of troops in Iraq, the details will have been studied, he said.

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JUDGE APPROVES $660M SETTLEMENT IN ABUSE CASE

LOS ANGELES — A judge on Monday approved a $660 million settlement between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and more than 500 alleged victims of clergy abuse, the largest payout yet in a nationwide sex abuse scandal. Some of the plaintiffs sobbed as the deal was formally approved and a moment of silence was held for others who had died during the years of negotiations.

"This is the right result," said Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz. "Settling the cases was the right thing to do, and it was done by dint of a number of extremely talented and dedicated people putting in an awful lot of time."

The deal came after more than five years of negotiations and is by far the largest payout by any diocese since the clergy abuse scandal emerged in Boston in 2002.

The individual payouts will vary according to the severity and duration of the abuse alleged. The plaintiffs' attorneys are expected to receive up to 40 percent of the settlement.

Ray Boucher, the lead plaintiffs' attorney, asked his clients to stand during the hearing and thanked them for their resolve and their courage.

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ARMED MAN KILLED OUTSIDE COLO. GOVERNOR'S OFFICES

DENVER — A man carrying a gun and declaring "I am the emperor" was shot and killed Monday outside the offices of Gov. Bill Ritter by a member of the governor's security detail, a spokesman said. Ritter was not injured.

The unidentified man refused orders to drop his gun, spokesman Evan Dreyer said. Four or five shots were heard, but authorities would not say how many times the security officer fired.

The shooting occurred in a hall outside the governor's offices on the first floor of the Capitol. It was not clear where the governor was at the time.

Before he was shot, the gunman said, "I am the emperor, and I'm here to take over state government," Dreyer said.

The Capitol has no metal detectors. They are usually installed temporarily during the governor's annual State of the State address in January but then are removed.

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BUSH CALLS MIDEAST PEACE CONFERENCE

WASHINGTON — Declaring a "moment of choice" in the Middle East, President Bush said Monday he would call Israel, the Palestinians and others in the region to a peace conference aimed at restarting stalled talks and moving faster toward a Palestinian state.

Such a session could result in Israelis sitting at the same conference table as countries such as Saudi Arabia that do not recognize Israel diplomatically.

Bush said the conference, open to countries in the region that support a two-state solution to the long Israeli-Palestinian standoff, would be headed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

He also pledged more U.S. financial support for the moderate Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas and called for the convening of a group of "donor" countries to increase international financial aid, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.

In an appeal directed at the divided Palestinian people, Bush drew a contrast between what he said life would be like under an Abbas government and under the rule of the Islamic militant group Hamas, which gained authority over Gaza in June. Abbas now controls only the West Bank.

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TRIPLE BOMBING KILLS MORE THAN 80 IN IRAQ

BAGHDAD — A triple bombing, including a massive suicide truck blast, killed more than 80 people Monday in Kirkuk, the deadliest attack yet in the oil-rich northern city. The bloodshed reinforced concern that extremists are heading north as U.S.-led forces step up pressure around Baghdad.

The vast majority of the casualties came in the truck bombing, which blasted a 30-foot-deep crater and damaged part of the roof of the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of President Jalal Talabani. The explosion took place in a crowded commercial area and appeared aimed at causing as many civilian deaths as possible.

Saman Ahmed, 35, said he was driving along the street when the blast "pushed other vehicles toward my car along with fire and shrapnel like a flood."

"The glass from my car and the other cars went into my face," he said from his hospital bed. "Now I cannot hear well because of the sound of the explosion. I saw tens of dead bodies lying on the ground."

Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, is a center of tensions among Arabs, Turkomen and Kurds, who want to include the area in the autonomous Kurdish region of the north. Voters in the city are to decide whether to join the Kurdish self-ruled region in a referendum by year's end.

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HUMANS WALK UPRIGHT TO CONSERVE ENERGY

WASHINGTON — Why did humans evolve to walk upright? Perhaps because it's just plain easier. Make that "energetically less costly," in science-speak, and you have the conclusion of researchers who are proposing a likely reason for our modern gait.

Bipedalism — walking on two feet — is one of the defining characteristics of being human, and scientists have debated for years how it came about. In the latest attempt to find an explanation, researchers trained five chimpanzees to walk on a treadmill while wearing masks that allowed measurement of their oxygen consumption.

The chimps were measured both while walking upright and while moving on their legs and knuckles. That measurement of the energy needed to move around was compared with similar tests on humans and the results are published in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It turns out that humans walking on two legs use only one-quarter of the energy that chimpanzees use while knuckle-walking on four limbs. And the chimps, on average, use as much energy using two legs as they did when they used all four limbs.

However, there was variability among chimpanzees in how much energy they used, and this difference corresponded to their different gaits and anatomy.

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ISAIAH WASHINGTON HEADS TO 'BIONIC WOMAN'

LOS ANGELES — Isaiah Washington, bouncing back from his "Grey's Anatomy" firing with a role on a new NBC drama and prospects for his own network series, said Monday he's grateful for an unexpected second chance.

"I'm humbled by this opportunity," Washington told The Associated Press, shortly before NBC announced he would be joining its new series "Bionic Woman" for a five-episode arc. Washington and NBC Universal Studios also are developing an action series.

He said his dismissal from ABC's hit medical show after his repeated use of an anti-gay slur was "an unfortunate misunderstanding for everyone" that he was eager to move past.

"What I always wanted to put at the forefront is my creativity, that thing I want to do, which is act," Washington said.