PALM SPRINGS — Firefighters gained ground Tuesday against a wildfire burning in rugged terrain northwest of the city, authorities said.

Sixty-five percent of the blaze, which has burned about 5,000 acres, was contained, said Kathy Ungemach, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. Full containment was expected Thursday.

No injuries were reported.

Authorities said the fire broke out Friday night in grassy Blaisdell Canyon after hikers started a campfire that got out of control and spread into rugged foothills and desert flats.

Forest Service issued misdemeanor citations to the three hikers. The men will be billed for fire suppression costs, which totaled $1.9 million so far, Ungemach said.

Authorities asked residents of 100 mobile homes off Highway 111 to leave on Saturday, but the evacuation was lifted on Sunday.

The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, which was shut down during the weekend due to the fire, reopened Tuesday, said Nancy Nichols, vice president of sales.

On the Net:

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection: http://www.fire.ca.gov

Flight data recorder from Peru airline crash recovered

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The missing flight data recorder from a Peruvian airliner that crash-landed last week has been recovered, turned in by a man who scavanged it from the wreckage, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Cesar Arroyo told The Associated Press that the man, Cesar Cabello, had taken the data recorder home but handed it over to civil aviation investigators Monday in exchange for a $500 reward posted by TANS Peru airlines.

"The box was opened but apparently had not suffered any alteration, (and) the optic fiber it contained hadn't been damaged," Arroyo said by telephone from Pucallpa, the jungle city near where the flight went down in a marsh, killing 40 people.

The flight data recorder is expected to be key in determining whether wind shear caused by a sudden, violent hail storm was to blame for pushing the plane off course as it made its final descent to land, or whether there was pilot error. Arroyo said the recorder would be sent to the United States for analysis.

The pilot apparently aimed for a marsh a few miles from Pucallpa's airport to soften the impact, but the aircraft, carrying 98 people, broke apart in the landing, strewing pieces of fuselage as it skidded over the boggy ground.

Peru was celebrating a national religious holiday Tuesday; civil aviation and TANS officials could not be reached for comment.

A day after last Tuesday's crash, investigators found the cockpit voice recorder. But hundreds of local residents looted the accident site Thursday while soldiers in charge of securing the area watched impassively.

The plane had carried a cash shipment of more than $760,000, of which only about $424,000 had been recovered and returned to the state-run Banco de la Nacion, Arroyo said.

"We do not know what happened to the rest of the money. It could be it is stolen or missing," he said, adding that authorities had given up their search for the money at the accident site but that a criminal investigation was continuing.

The crash of TANS Peru Flight 204 was the world's fifth major airline accident in August, making it the deadliest month for airline disasters in three years.

At least six foreigners died — three Americans, an Australian, a Colombian and a Spaniard.

A Peruvian passenger died over the weekend of cardiac arrest associated with skull fractures from the accident, raising the death toll to 40. The woman's 1-year-old son, whom she protected from flames that engulfed the cabin after the plane hit the ground, was among 58 survivors.

Two weeks ago, 160 people died when a Colombian-registered West Caribbean charter went down in Venezuela. Two days earlier, 121 people died when a Cyprus-registered Helios Airways Boeing plunged into the mountains north of Athens. There also was a deadly plane crash in Italy in August that killed 16.

In January 2003, a TANS twin engine Fokker 28 turbojet plowed into a mountain in Peru's northern jungle, killing all 42 passengers and four crew members.

Monument unveiled depicting nine students who integrated Little Rock high school

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Nearly half a century after they faced down a mob to integrate Little Rock Central High School, the Little Rock Nine stood together outside the Statehouse Tuesday and unveiled statues of themselves in that defiant walk.

Some cried as they pulled away the sheets draping their individual statues and saw themselves as they were in 1957.

Elizabeth Eckford looked at the bespectacled statue of herself leading the way into the school and smiled and joked about the more slender chin on the statue.

The location, too, is heavy with meaning. The nine statues stand just outside the governor's office, where in 1957 Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent black school children from attending previously all-white Central High following a 1954 Supreme Court ruling. When they nine entered, they were under the armed guard of federalized troops.

"The bravery shown by these young people and their families changed the face of public education in this country," said Nancy Rousseau, principal of Central High School. "Now, 2,400 students celebrate their differences every day thanks to your courage.

The sculpture, by John and Cathy Deering, is called "Testament." It shows the Little Rock Nine walking together, a representation of that walk through the pressing mob to their first day of classes with whites.

The U.S. Postal Service also dedicated a stamp Tuesday marking the entrance of black students into Central High in 1957.

Eight years ago, when President Clinton honored the Little Rock Nine on the 40th anniversary of the integration, community leaders received death threats for mentioning the topic of the crisis, which gave Little Rock a black eye for decades, said Skip Rutherford, head of Clinton's presidential foundation.

But the federal government designated the school a historic site, a museum was built and Central became the city's most marketed tourism site in the late 1990s.

"Now, it receives the recognition it deserves from the state of Arkansas," Rutherford said.

Three of the former students — Elizabeth Eckford, Minnijean Brown Trickey and Thelma Mothershed-Wair — still live in central Arkansas. Gloria Ray Karlmark lives in Stockholm, Sweden; Melba Pattillo Beals and Dr. Terrence Roberts live in California; Ernest Green lives in the Washington, D.C., area; Carlotta Walls Lanier lives in the Denver area and Jefferson Thomas lives in Ohio.

Judge to decide on detention or release of Dutchman held in case of U.S. missing teen

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — A judge will decide Wednesday whether to release a Dutch suspect held for nearly three months in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, a defense lawyer said Tuesday.

Joran van der Sloot, 18, was arrested June 9 along with two friends, Surinamese nationals Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Deepak Kalpoe, 21, on suspicion of involvement in her disappearance. The Kalpoe brothers were released July 4, when van der Sloot's detention was prolonged until Sept. 4, and re-arrested last week.

Van der Sloot's lawyer, Richie Kock, told The Associated Press that judicial authorities informed him a judge would decide Wednesday on the detention of his client in Aruba, a Dutch Caribbean island where suspects may be held for up to 116 days without charge.

Van der Sloot maintains his innocence, Kock said.

Prosecutors said Tuesday they had filed a motion to keep van der Sloot detained another 30 days. They must offer additional evidence against van der Sloot on Wednesday or he must be released, according to Aruban law.

The Kalpoe brothers were arrested Friday, when a judge ruled that prosecutors had enough evidence to hold them for at least eight days while they build their case.

Holloway, 18, of Mountain Brook, Ala., was last seen May 30 leaving a bar with the Kalpoes and van der Sloot, hours before she was to end a vacation celebrating her graduation.

No one has been charged.

A third man was arrested with the Kalpoes but his lawyer said Monday that it was unrelated to Holloway's disappearance.

Freddy Alexander Zedan-Arambatzis, a friend of van der Sloot and the Kalpoes, was arrested on suspicion of having unspecified "physical contact" with a female minor, said his lawyer, Diana Emerencia.

Zedan-Arambatzis, 21, is also suspected of photographing the girl in "tempting poses" and showing the images to other people, Emerencia said.

The Kalpoe brothers and van der Sloot are also suspected of involvement in the incidents, which allegedly occurred before Holloway disappeared, she said.

Emerencia said Zedan-Arambatzis has denied having any physical contact with the girl or taking photos of her, but has admitted to being present when the photos were taken.

The prosecutor's office declined to comment on the case.

Suspect in model's murder found dead in mexico

LOS ANGELES - A Woodland Hills man charged in the beating death of a 21-year-old aspiring model committed suicide in Tijuana, police and consulate officials said Tuesday.

Brian Joseph Cullen, 58, was found dead in a Tijuana hotel room Sunday, according to police and Liza Davis of the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana.

The presumed cause of death was a single gunshot to the head. A handgun was found near the body, according to a Los Angeles Police Department news release.

Los Angeles police Detective Rick Swanston of the West Valley Station said he expected an autopsy to officially identify the body as Cullen's later Tuesday. But department officials said LAPD detectives saw the body and confirmed it was Cullen.

Davis said workers at the Hotel Gigante found the body, but they did not know how long he had been dead.

Cullen fled to Mexico after the July 26 death of his Ukrainian girlfriend, Iryna Singerman, whose beaten body was found hidden in Cullen's pickup truck at a Winnetka storage facility Aug. 2. He was charged with murder Aug. 11.

Singerman was last seen by a neighbor in front of her West Los Angeles home around 7 p.m. July 25. Her husband, an accountant whom she met through an international match-making service, reported that she did not come home that evening. Calls to her cell phone went unanswered.

Around 11:15 a.m. the next day, witnesses saw a man drive a gray four-door 2005 Ford Focus to a Dumpster in a parking lot at 6030 Canoga Avenue in Woodland Hills. They told police they saw the man acting suspiciously and removing two trash bags from his car and put them in a Dumpster. After he drove away, witnesses peered into the bags and saw they were full of blood- soaked contents — including towels, a baseball bat and documents in her name.

Singer's 2005 Toyota was found parked in a residential area of Woodland Hills within a mile of the Dumpster.

Detectives discovered that she was frequently at Cullen's rented home in the 5000 block of Median Road in Woodland Hills.

She had apparently had been carrying on an affair with Cullen, and the two were trying to buy a house together, police said.

Singerman recently had bought a new Mercedes-Benz, registered in her and her husband's name, that she kept at Cullen's home, but her husband told police he was unaware of the affair or the car until after her death.

Cullen, described by police as a millionaire, also went by Mark Corbett and was on parole for a wire fraud conviction in the 1980s. He had worked in the coupon business.

—— North County Times wire services

New stamps recall struggle for civil rights

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws, the Freedom Riders and the Montgomery bus boycott are among the events commemorated on a set of stamps dedicated Tuesday by the U.S. Postal Service.

The 10 37-cent stamps commemorate milestones in the civil rights movement and were dedicated at ceremonies in several cities across the country.

The set, entitled "To Form a More Perfect Union," includes stamps commemorating:

— The 1965 Selma, Ala., civil rights marches demanding voting rights.

— Montgomery Bus Boycott, the 1955 protest against Montgomery, Ala.'s segregated public transportation system.

— Greensboro, N.C., lunch counter sit in, when a group of four black students refused to leave a lunch counter in 1960 after they had been denied service.

— Freedom Riders, men and women who traveled to the South to test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling outlawing racial segregation in interstate public transit.

— Little Rock Nine, the African-American students blocked from attending high school in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957..

— Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting discrimination in public facilities, jobs and government.

— Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision outlawing segregated public schools.

— Executive Order 9981 integrating the armed forces.

— March on Washington in 1963 in which thousands demonstrated for jobs and equality and Martin Luther King Jr., made his "I Have a Dream" speech.

— Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawing literacy tests to vote and protecting the voting rights of minorities.

Dedication ceremonies for the stamps were held in Greensboro, Little Rock, Montgomery, Selma, Topeka, Kan., and Washington. Ceremonies scheduled for Memphis, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss., were canceled because of Hurricane Katrina.

On the Net:

U.S. Postal Service: http://www.usps.com

Six decades after execution, Georgia parole board grants posthumous pardon to black maid

ATLANTA (AP) — Six decades after she was executed for killing a white man in the Jim Crow South, a black maid was granted a full and unconditional pardon Tuesday.

Lena Baker, 44, the only woman put to death in Georgia's electric chair, had maintained until she was put to death in 1945 that she shot E.B. Knight in self-defense.

Members of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles read a proclamation saying the board's refusal to grant clemency before the execution was "a grievous error, as this case called out for mercy."

Members of Baker's family expressed gratitude for those who worked toward clearing her.

"This was not a white or black issue; it was an issue of right or wrong," said Charles McElveen, Baker's great-great-nephew.

Cuthbert District Attorney Charles Ferguson has said if Baker was charged for the same crime today, the case would not have even met the requirements for capital punishment.

It was only the third posthumous pardon granted in the agency's 62-year history.

During her trial, Baker testified that the 67-year-old Knight, a man she had been hired to care for, held her against her will and threatened to shoot her if she tried to leave. She said she grabbed Knight's gun and shot him when he raised a metal bar to strike her.

Because the all-white, all-male jury did not recommend mercy, the sentence of death by electrocution was required by state law at the time. Baker was executed on March 5, 1945, at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville.

The case should be regarded as more than a wrong from a bygone era, said John Cole Vodicka, who worked to spearhead the pardon effort along with Roosevelt Curry, a great-nephew of Baker.

"There are still a lot of racial overtones in what goes on in the legal system today," said Vodicka, director of the Prison and Jail Project, a civil rights organization based in Americus, Ga. "We still have a system that is not foolproof, where racism still plays a part."

State Rep. Tyrone Brooks congratulated the family and activists and praised the state for "recognizing its sins."

"I see a reawakening of elected and appointed officials to recognize the injustices of the past," Brooks said. "We have a responsibility to correct those wrongs as much we can."

McElveen urged others to let Baker be an example to people living with the evils from segregation to come forward to right the wrongs of the past.

"Tell your story," he said. "Don't go to your grave scared."

Squatters' havens ordered closed in Paris after second deadly fire at immigrant apartments

PARIS (AP) — French President Jacques Chirac promised "strong initiatives" to help families in inadequate housing, and all havens for squatters were ordered shut down Tuesday in Paris after a second deadly fire in a week at an apartment house for immigrants.

The fire late Monday struck a dilapidated apartment building in the heart of historic Paris, killing seven African immigrants, firefighters said. Four children were among the dead, including a 6-year-old thrown by his pregnant mother from a fifth-floor window in an effort to save him.

It was the second deadly fire in a week at buildings housing immigrants in France's capital and the third since April — bringing the death toll to 48 and focusing new criticism on immigrant housing.

Chirac expressed his "horror" over the fire and promised "strong initiatives" soon to help families in inadequate housing.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy ordered all squatter buildings — like the one that burned on Tuesday — shut down "because these are human beings housed in unacceptable conditions."

Paris' police headquarters said it would begin evacuating the city's "most dangerous" buildings in the coming days in an urgent effort to prevent new fires.

The six-story building on a narrow street near Paris' old Jewish quarter was known to be "dangerous," said Pierre Aidenbaum, mayor of the 3rd Arrondissement where the building was located. The city intervened six months ago to have the building bought and had begun searching for a place to relocate the families there.

The fire late Monday apparently started on the second floor, home to between 40 and 60 people from the Ivory Coast, about half of them in France illegally, police and city officials said.

The body of the woman who threw her child from a window was found in her fifth-story apartment, beside that of her other child, aged 3. The son she tried to save died at a hospital.

Some 130 firefighters took about two hours to extinguish the fire. Inside, they found other bodies on the fifth floor — a woman pregnant with twins, her husband and their two children, police said.

Two men who jumped from upper-floor windows to escape the flames were seriously injured.

Police said they believed the blaze was accidental, noting numerous fire hazards. Residents had pirated electricity from a nearby building. Gas cylinders and mattresses cluttering floors had fueled the flames, police said.

The deaths triggered angry calls for action on behalf of the needy and cast light on the plight of France's growing immigrant populations — and the precarious conditions in which an estimated 2 million people live in France.

The building that burned Monday lacked running water, and neighbors said it was common to see squatters taking water from a spigot on the street.

Andre Privateer, an American who lives nearby, recalled seeing them "barefoot in the dead of winter. They used to fill up big white jugs" at a fountain by a bus stop a short walk from the elegant Places des Vosges.

The previous Paris fire, on Friday, killed 17 African immigrants, including 14 children. The rundown, overcrowded building had been requisitioned by the government to serve as temporary low-income housing; it was filled with families waiting for placement in state-subsidized apartments.

Officials raised the possibility Monday that the fire Friday was caused by human action, suggesting arson or an accident.

In April, 24 people died in a fire at a budget hotel that housed African immigrants near Paris' old Opera.

Associated Press Writers Anthony Thomas and Jenny Barchfield in Paris contributed to this report.

A Paris jewel to sparkle again after a dozen years of renovations

PARIS (AP) — The Grand Palais, one of the architectural jewels of Paris, reopens next month after a $123 million, 12-year renovation that anchored the turn-of-the-century edifice to the bedrock below and refurbished its huge glass and steel dome.

Nearly 2,000 subterranean pylons, 280 tons of glass and tons more of steel supports went into the top-to-bottom facelift.

Even the copper statues of rearing horses precariously ensconced on the dome's edge got a touchup.

"The Grand Palais is a beacon, literally a lighthouse, projecting the light of French arts and culture throughout the world," said Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres.

Sunlight streamed through the newly restored glass dome during a sneak preview Tuesday of the refurbished Grand Palais, bathing its 145,000-square-foot central hall in brightness.

Cement mixers hummed as construction workers hurried to put the finishing touches on the hall before the reopening — timed to coincide with the Day of European Culture.

"At a time when we French are in doubt about our future, our identity, and our capacity to conserve our influence and our appeal, this is a major coup," Donnedieu de Vabres said.

The public will be able to visit the pristine Grand Palais from its opening Sept. 17 to Oct. 1, with a special treat in store — two 17th century hand-painted globes measuring more than 13 feet in diameter on display — a gift to King Louis XIV from Italian Franciscan monks. The globes, depicting the Earth and the sky, are surrounded by hanging mirrors and thousands of lightbulbs.

With its giant glass cupola that stands out over the low Paris skyline, the Grand Palais is one of the City of Light's most visible landmarks, located between the elegant Champs-Elysees Avenue and the River Seine.

Built for the 1900 World's Fair, the Grand Palais soon showed signs of structural vulnerability. A 1910 flood of the Seine damaged the foundations, and subsequent changes in Paris' water table further undermined stability. In 1993, a glass panel fell 148 feet from the dome. Although no one was injured, authorities had to close the central hall.

Over the 20th century, several renovations patched up the deteriorating edifice without ever addressing the fundamental problem — the foundations.

That happened this time around. Drilling 50-66 feet below ground, construction workers anchored the edifice to a slab of bedrock with 1,850 concrete columns.

More than 308 tons of state of the art shatter-proof glass panels replaced the original, age-fogged panes.

While most of the building's steel supports survived intact, workers replaced 670 tons of bent beams and girders, as well as 15,000 turn-of-the-century rivets, made from inferior metal.

"This project was incredibly complex because we had to build a structure in the center of the hall to lift the dome slightly off the walls in order to the change the glass," said Alain-Charles Perrot, chief architect of the renovation.

Workers removed the lead paint from 1,184,000 square feet of surface, and put a fresh coat of sea-green paint on the intricately worked steel supports.

Scaffolding that hugs the outside of the Grand Palais won't come down until exterior renovations are completed in 2007, officials say.

The culture minister even hinted at another possible closure in 2008 to add a subterranean gallery and parking lot. But with a lengthy legal battle brewing between the government, which owns the building, and the municipality, which owns the land it sits on, Parisians will have ample time to rediscover the Grand Palais before any new work begins.

In October, the Grand Palais is slated reassume its original function as a cultural center — host to such varied events as music festivals, art exhibitions and fashion shows. French luxury labels Chanel, Christian Dior and others have already booked the Grand Palais for their spring 2006 ready-to-wear shows.

Nebraska man pleads not guilty to rape involving 14-year-old wife

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man accused of impregnating a 13-year-old girl whom he later married pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge he sexually assaulted the teenager.

Matthew Koso, 22, is charged with first-degree sexual assault. The girl, now 14, gave birth to their daughter last week.

His trial date was set for October. If convicted, he could face up to 50 years in prison.

Nebraska requires people to be at least 17 before they can marry. But after Crystal Koso became pregnant, her mother gave permission for Matthew Koso to take the girl to Kansas, which allows younger minors to get married with parental consent.

The Associated Press generally avoids naming victims of sexual assault, but the couple has spoken freely with other news organizations, and the girl's name has been widely reported.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius recently said she was asking legislators to establish a minimum age for marriage. She said the age should be 16, 17 or 18, "so we don't, after the fact, cover up abuse of children."

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said again Tuesday that the investigation is continuing and additional charges against Koso involving other young girls are possible.

Koso's lawyer, Willis Yoesel, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Bruning acknowledged that he has received a "significant" amount of mail from the public saying he should leave the couple alone.

"But this is not a job we do to win popularity points," Bruning said. "I was elected to enforce the law. And anytime a grown man has sex with a child, it's not a close call for me."

Bruning said that Koso is a friend of the girl's half brother and began a relationship with her when she was 12.

Modern princess's antics cause scandal during Swazi bride-choosing ritual

MBABANE, Swaziland (AP) — The Swazi king's daughter has long raised eyebrows with her Western-style clothes. Now her decision to hold a drinking party to celebrate the end of a chastity decree has shocked members of Africa's last absolute monarchy — and resulted in a beating.

The scandal caused by Princess Sikhanyiso's latest flouting of tradition has cast a pall over Swaziland's royal bride-choosing festivities, when her father was to select another wife.

The annual reed dance, at which 20,000 girls in beads and traditional skirts danced before King Mswati III, ended late Monday with no indication of whether he had chosen a bride. In recent years, the king has increasingly made his choice in private, after a screening by palace aides and his mother.

Royal officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue is considered sensitive, said Tuesday the king had privately chosen three potential brides and might unveil one at a ceremony in southern Swaziland this weekend.

Royal officials had tried to keep word of Princess Sikhanyiso's party quiet during the reed dance, but acknowledged late Monday it had occurred on Friday to celebrate the end of a ban on sexual relations for girls younger than 18. The chastity rite is separate from the bride-choosing ritual.

In 2001, Mswati temporarily revived the ancient "umchwasho" rite — symbolized by the wearing of woolen tassels — to fight AIDS, which is at crisis levels in Swaziland, but it was ridiculed as old-fashioned and unfairly focused on girls. Days before the reed dance, the king announced he was ending the ban a year early.

His eldest daughter, a 17-year-old who was rarely seen in the umchwasho tassels herself, said Friday's party with loud music and alcoholic drinks was a private gathering that did not warrant the public scrutiny it received.

"We were just enjoying ourselves," Princess Sikhanyiso was quoted as saying in a local newspaper.

Ntsonjeni Dlamini, who oversees traditional affairs, was not amused.

"We were so shocked that the girls decided to turn the reed dance ceremony into a drinking and dancing spree," Dlamini said Monday.

He said he was compelled by tradition to beat the celebrating girls — including the king's daughter — with a stick.

"I was so surprised to see Princess Sikhanyiso drinking and dancing when I expected her to lead by example by respecting herself as a leader," said one of the girls involved, Nonhlanhla Dlamini, who is not related to Ntsonjeni Dlamini.

The king and his family are no strangers to controversy. Princess Sikhanyiso's father has come under international pressure for resisting reforms to introduce more democracy in the country. His lavish lifestyle, including indulging a love of top-of-the-range cars, contrasts with the absolute poverty of most of his subjects.

The AIDS crisis has compounded the misery, with estimates that about 40 percent of the 1 million population are infected with HIV.

According to Swazi tradition, the king is always meant to have a bride in waiting. He can only marry her when she is pregnant.

Mswati's late father, King Sobhuza II, who led the country to independence from Britain in 1968, had more than 70 wives.

London mayor to face hearing for comparing Jewish journalist to Nazi guard

LONDON (AP) — London's mayor will face a disciplinary hearing for comparing a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard, a local government watchdog said Tuesday.

The Standards Board for England said an investigation into charges that Mayor Ken Livingstone "failed to treat others with respect and brought his authority into disrepute" had concluded that a disciplinary hearing should take up the matter.

The Adjudication Panel for England, which will conduct the hearing, could bar Livingstone from office for up to five years, censure him, order him to apologize or force him to undergo training, said a spokesman for the Standards Board.

Livingstone said the investigation had cleared him of the more serious charge of failing to comply with the Greater London Authority's code of conduct. The Standards Board spokesman, who declined to be identified in keeping with board policy, said he did not have the confidential report and did not know whether it had partially cleared Livingstone.

"The Standards Board has rejected the allegation that I failed to comply with the GLA's code of conduct in relation to this exchange," Livingstone said in a statement. "The tribunal will now consider the issue of whether I treated a journalist with respect."

The panel generally holds hearings 15 weeks after receiving reports of alleged misconduct, but announced no specific date for Livingstone's hearing.

The outspoken mayor has refused to say he was sorry for the comment, which drew calls for contrition from Holocaust survivors, the government's race-relations watchdog and even Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The mayor said he had not meant to offend the Jewish community when he asked Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold whether he had been a "German war criminal."

Finegold, who had approached the mayor for comment after a reception for the gay and lesbian community in February, replied that he was Jewish.

Livingstone told the reporter he was "just like a concentration camp guard. You're just doing it because you're paid to, aren't you?" He referred to Finegold's employer as "a load of scumbags and reactionary bigots."

Finegold recorded the comments and they were later played before the London Assembly, which passed a unanimous motion calling on the mayor to withdraw them.

"I have nothing to apologize for," he said at the time. "My words were not intended to cause such offense." He defended his attack on Finegold, his employer the Evening Standard and its sister paper, The Daily Mail.

Livingstone, a staunch left-winger once nicknamed "Red Ken" by the tabloid press, has long had a testy relationship with sections of the British media — especially with Associated Newspapers, parent company of the Mail and the Standard.

The Mail, which had a pro-Nazi editorial line in the 1930s, has been accused of scare-mongering in its emotive coverage of issues such as immigration and crime.

It's not Livingstone's first run-in with the Jewish community. Last month he called Hamas and Israel's ruling Likud Party "two sides of the same coin." The World Jewish Congress expressed "dismay."