CAMP DAVID, Md. — President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown forged a unified stand on Iraq Monday, aiming to head off talk of a splintering partnership in the face of an unpopular war.

"There's no doubt in my mind he understands the stakes of the struggle," Bush said of Brown after two days of talks at the tranquil presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains.

The visit was closely watched for any sign of daylight between the president and prime minister after four years of unwavering support by Tony Blair, Brown's predecessor. Blair was saddled with the nickname "poodle" by critics at home he felt he was too compliant with Bush's policies, particularly in Iraq.

Brown told Bush that he shares the U.S. view of gradually turning over security of Iraq to its own people, based on signs of clear progress and advice from military leaders.

"We have duties to discharge and responsibilities to keep in support of the democratically elected government," Brown said of Britain's commitment to Iraq.

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TALIBAN CLAIM TO KILL 2ND KOREAN HOSTAGE

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A purported Taliban spokesman claimed the hardline militia killed a second South Korean hostage Monday because the Afghan government failed to release imprisoned insurgents. Afghan officials said they hadn't recovered a body and couldn't confirm the claim.

The Al-Jazeera television network, meanwhile, showed footage that it said was seven female hostages in Afghanistan.

Militant spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said senior Taliban leaders decided to kill the male captive because the government had not met Taliban demands to trade prisoners for the Christian volunteers.

"The Kabul and Korean governments are lying and cheating. They did not meet their promise of releasing Taliban prisoners," Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, said by phone from an undisclosed location. "The Taliban warns the government if the Afghan government won't release Taliban prisoners then at any time the Taliban could kill another Korean hostage."

Ghazni Gov. Marajudin Pathan said officials were aware of the Taliban's claim but hadn't recovered a body. He said police were looking but he couldn't say when they might find anything.

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IRAQI PARLIAMENT ADJOURNS FOR AUGUST

BAGHDAD — Iraq's parliament on Monday shrugged off U.S. criticism and adjourned for a month, as key lawmakers declared there was no point waiting any longer for the prime minister to deliver Washington-demanded benchmark legislation for their vote.

Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani closed the final three-hour session without a quorum present and declared lawmakers would not reconvene until Sept. 4. That date is just 11 days before the top U.S. military and political officials in Iraq must report to Congress on American progress in taming violence and organizing conditions for sectarian reconciliation.

The recess, coupled with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's failure to get the key draft laws before legislators, may nourish growing opposition to the war among U.S. lawmakers, who could refuse to fund it.

Critics have questioned how Iraqi legislators could take a summer break while U.S. forces are fighting and dying to create conditions under which important laws could be passed in the service of ending sectarian political divisions and bloodshed.

But in leaving parliament, many lawmakers blamed al-Maliki.

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CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS FALLS, GOES TO HOSPITAL

WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts was taken by ambulance to a hospital on Monday after a fall on a dock near his summer home in Maine.

Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said she did not know how he fell or what injuries he might have suffered. She said he was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

Roberts, 52, bought a home last year in Port Clyde on Maine's Hupper Island. Port Clyde, which is part of the town of St. George, is about 90 miles by car northeast of Portland, midway up the coast of Maine.

The incident occurred around 2 p.m. EDT, said St. George Fire Chief Tim Polky. Roberts was taken by private boat to the mainland and then transferred to an ambulance, Polky said.

"He was conscious and alert when they put him in the rescue (vehicle) and took him to Penobscot Bay Medical Center," Polky said. A spokesman at the Rockport hospital did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

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ADMIRAL CITES PROBLEMS UNDERMINING IRAQ

WASHINGTON — Slow progress in Iraq is undermining U.S. credibility and emboldening Iran's regional ambitions, says President Bush's nominee to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In written answers to prepared questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee, Navy Adm. Michael Mullen said those concerns can be eased by successes on the ground in Iraq. While there's been steady progress on that front, there's been only limited headway in achieving reconciliation among Iraq's political factions, according to Mullen.

Resolving this internal conflict among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds "remains the precondition to an Iraq that can govern, defend and sustain itself and be an ally in the war on terror," Mullen said in answers to the committee's questions obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

"Achieving progress in Iraq and furthering broader U.S. regional interests are inextricably linked," he added. "Slow progress in Iraq is undermining U.S. credibility and weakening efforts to achieve regional objectives."

Asked by the committee what role, if any, he had in the January plan to send as many as 30,000 additional U.S. forces into Iraq, Mullen said he and the other joint chiefs met personally with Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

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COURT-MARTIAL BEGINS FOR SOLDIER IN RAPE CASE

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — A Fort Campbell soldier accused of acting as a lookout while his colleagues attacked and killed a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family pleaded guilty to some lesser offenses Monday as his court-martial began on rape and murder charges.

Pfc. Jesse Spielman pleaded to conspiracy to obstruct justice, arson, wrongfully touching a corpse and drinking.

He still faces trial on the more serious charges in the March 2006 attack on Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and her family. Under military law, a soldier present when a crime occurs can be found guilty if prosecutors can establish that the soldier had prior knowledge.

Three other soldiers have pleaded guilty for their roles in the crimes and received sentences as long as 100 years. Another soldier was discharged from the military before he was charged and could face the death penalty if found guilty in federal court in Kentucky.

Defense attorney Craig Carlson said Spielman's plea to the lesser charges was part of an agreement with prosecutors that involved crimes that Spielman had already confessed to committing during interviews with military investigators.

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DOW ENDS UP AT 93

NEW YORK — Wall Street found a foothold Monday as investors, still anxious that a credit crunch could crimp U.S. growth, took advantage of low prices after last week's steep losses. The Dow Jones industrial average surged more than 90 points.

Some solid earnings and takeover activity boosted the stock market, which was coming off the Dow's and the Standard & Poor's 500 index's biggest weekly drops in nearly five years. The Dow is still down about 4.8 percent from its July 19 record close of 14,000.41, having caved under worries about a shakier lending climate.

In a sign that aversion to corporate debt hasn't stanched dealmaking, industrial equipment manufacturer Ingersoll-Rand said it's selling its Bobcat earth-moving division and two other units to Korea's Doosan Infracore for $4.9 billion.

And despite rising defaults and delinquencies in mortgage lending, HSBC Holdings PLC, Europe's largest bank by market value, posted a 25 percent rise in first-half earnings. Also, General Motors Corp.'s GMAC Financial Services said second-quarter profit declined but that it expects its residential lending business to improve in the second half of the year.