WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush hosted the Dalai Lama on Tuesday despite China's warning that U.S. plans to honor the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader could damage relations between Beijing and Washington.

The White House talks were held on the eve of a congressional award ceremony for the Dalai Lama, but the Bush administration took pains to keep the encounter with the president low-key in a bid to placate China.

"We in no way want to stir the pot and make China feel that we are poking a stick in their eye -- to a country that we have ... a good relationship with on a variety of issues," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Beijing has bitterly denounced plans for the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since staging a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, to receive the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.

Bush will attend the ceremony on Capitol Hill, the first time a U.S. president will appear in public with the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists and a Nobel Peace laureate whom China regards as a separatist and a traitor.

"We are furious," Tibet's Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, told reporters in China. "If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world."

The White House denied Bush's private meeting with the Dalai Lama, his fourth since taking office, was meddling in China's internal affairs. But Perino said: "We understand that the Chinese have very strong feelings about this."

Returning to his Washington hotel, a smiling Dalai Lama told journalists and a small group of cheering followers that his meeting with Bush had been "like a reunion of one family."

"Naturally he's showing his concern about Tibet and he inquired about the situation there," the Dalai Lama said.

Asked about China's anger over his U.S. visit, he waved his hands dismissively and said: "That always happens."

PLAYING DOWN THE SYMBOLISM

Trying to play down the symbolism of the talks, Bush met the Dalai Lama in the White House residence instead of the Oval Office where he normally welcomes visiting world leaders.

White House staff, who had refused to say when the meeting would take place, afterward said it lasted half an hour but gave no further details. Reporters were not allowed to glimpse the two together and no photographs were released.

Asked why Bush was going ahead with the talks, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: "He made it clear in his communications with the Chinese ... that when the Dalai Lama was in town for the congressional ceremony that they would meet. So there's no reason not to."

China pulled out of a meeting this week at which world powers were to discuss Iran, in apparent protest at Congress's plan to honor the Dalai Lama with its highest civilian award.

China had also canceled an annual human rights dialogue with Germany to show displeasure over Chancellor Angela Merkel's September meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said China had expressed "resolute opposition" to the U.S. award.

"China has solemnly demanded the United States cancel the above-mentioned and extremely wrongful arrangement," Yang said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said if the decision to honor the Dalai Lama was not reversed it would have an "extremely serious impact" on bilateral relations.

China pulled out of the meeting on Iran for "technical reasons," he told a news conference.

China's rhetoric against the Dalai Lama has been increasing in line with his accolades abroad, even though the government and his envoys are engaged in a tentative dialogue process.

The Dalai Lama, 72, has said he supports a "middle way" policy that advocates autonomy for Tibet within China. But Qiangba Puncog, Tibet's governor, said China believed he still supported independence and that separatist activities in the region were increasing.

(Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck, Chris Buckley and Guo Shipeng)

MOBILE, Ala. - An 81-year-old woman shot a homeless man Monday morning after finding him washing his clothes in her laundry room, police said.

Ethel Sanders told people she heard noises in her laundry room and found a man standing in his underwear near the washing machine when she went to investigate, police spokesman Officer Eric Gallichant told the Press-Register.

Sanders was carrying a handgun and shot the man when he came at her, Gallichant said. Sanders fell to the ground and dropped the gun after firing, Gallichant said.

The man grabbed the gun, pointed it at Sanders and took his clothes from the washing machine, Gallichant said.

The man fled and Sanders called police just before 8 a.m. Officers caught the man at the nearby Plateau Community Center.

James Penn, 25, was taken to University of South Alabama Medical Center. Gallichant said he is expected to survive. Upon release from the hospital, Penn will be charged with first-degree burglary, Gallichant said.

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Information from: Press-Register, http://www.al.com/mobileregister

DUBAI (Reuters) - A Patriot missile hit a farm in Qatar after being accidentally fired from a base used by U.S. forces in the Gulf Arab state, Al Jazeera television said on Tuesday.

The Qatar-based television said the missile launched from Assayliyah base did not cause any casualties. The Patriot system is an anti-missile system.

Officials at Assayliyah were not available for comment.

U.S.-allied Qatar was a launch pad for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. It hosts the U.S. Army's Central Command (CENTCOM).

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's cabinet asked parliament on Monday for permission to launch attacks on Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq that Washington fears could destabilize one of the most peaceful areas of the country.

Government spokesman Cemil Cicek said Turkey still hoped military action against the Kurds, who use the mountainous region as base for attacks inside Turkey, would not be needed.

"But the most painful reality of our country, our region, is the reality of terror," he told a news conference.

Iraq urged Turkey not to resort to military action on its territory, calling on it to be "wise and patient."

"The Iraqi government calls on the Turkish government to pursue a diplomatic solution and not a military solution to solve the (problem) of terrorist attacks which our dear neighbor Turkey has witnessed from the PKK," said Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.

Cicek said the motion, which parliament is expected to approve on Wednesday, would be valid for one year and would allow multiple cross-border operations.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's centre-right government is under heavy public pressure to act after a series of attacks on Turkish troops by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which seeks an independent homeland in eastern Turkey.

The prospect of NATO's second largest army crossing into mainly Kurdish northern Iraq helped propel global oil prices to an all-time high of $86 a barrel on Monday while the lira currency fell more than 2 percent against the dollar.

The United States has urged restraint on Turkey, a key NATO ally strategically located between Europe and the Middle East. But Washington's influence in Ankara is being severely undermined by U.S. Congressional moves to brand as genocide the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

Ankara has recalled its envoy to Washington and warned of serious damage to ties if next month the House of Representatives backs a resolution pressed by an Armenian lobby with great influence among the Democrat majority.

Turkey rejects the genocide claims, now fatefully entangled with the northern Iraq issue.

U.S. APPEAL

"We all have an interest in a stable Iraq and a desire to see the PKK brought to justice, but we urge the Turks to continue their discussions with us and the Iraqis and to show restraint from any potentially destabilizing actions," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

That appeal was echoed by Iraq which pointed to a security accord the two neighbors signed late last month as a way to proceed against the PKK.

Under the accord, Iraq and Turkey pledged to take all necessary measures, including financial and intelligence, to combat the PKK and other militant groups.

Turkey's Cicek had earlier repeated criticism of Iraq's failure to take action against the PKK on its territory.

Iraq has said its own security forces are too stretched tackling insurgents elsewhere in the country to be sent to tackle the PKK.

The Baghdad government also has little clout in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi is expected to discuss the issue in Ankara with Turkish officials on Tuesday.

Cicek said Turkey's sole target, if its troops entered northern Iraq, would be the PKK militants, about 3,000 of whom are believed to be hiding there.

Large-scale incursions by Turkey into northern Iraq in 1995 and 1997, involving an estimated 35,000 and 50,000 troops respectively, failed to dislodge the rebels.

In the text of the motion, seen by Reuters, the government states continued commitment to Iraq's territorial integrity and defends its right under international law to send troops across the border as an act of self-defense.

(Additional reporting by Evren Mesci in Ankara and Mariam Karouny in Baghdad)

Hot topics:  Ethics  Media  Administration  Iraq  Health Care  Congress

PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, said he was getting straight back to work on the "planetary emergency" of climate change.

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But he refused to answer reporters' questions on whether the award would make him change his mind and enter the U.S. presidential campaign as a Democratic candidate before the November 2008 election.

"We have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing," Gore said, appearing in public nearly nine hours after the award was announced in Oslo.

Gore shared the Nobel prize with the U.N. climate panel for their work helping galvanize international action against global warming.

"It is the most dangerous challenge we've ever faced but it is also the greatest opportunity that we have ever had to make changes that we should be making for other reasons anyway," said Gore, standing with his wife, Tipper, and four Stanford University faculty members who work with the U.N. climate panel.

"This is a chance to elevate global consciousness about the challenges that we face now."

"I'm going back to work right now. This is just the beginning," Gore added, leaving the 70 journalists hanging by not taking questions.

That left unanswered a question on the minds of many in the United States after his Nobel win: would Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 presidential election to Republican George W. Bush, jump in to join a crowded Democratic field of candidates ahead of the presidential election next year.

Gore has made it known he is not interested, although some Democratic activists are campaigning for him to get into the race, and the Nobel award on Friday further fueled their hopes.

Gore has campaigned on climate change since leaving office in 2001 after the bruising and disputed election result that put Bush in the White House.

BUSINESS AS USUAL

Gore, who appeared somber rather than elated over the award, said, "For my part, I will be doing everything I can to try to understand how to best use the honor and recognition of this award as a way of speeding up the change in awareness and the change in urgency."

"It truly is a planetary emergency and we have to respond quickly," he said.

Gore carried on with his plans despite the life-changing announcement, attending a scheduled meeting in Palo Alto in the heart of the Silicon Valley, where innovators are eager to jump start the clean technology industry.

Stanford biology professor Chris Field said the prize "adds tremendous momentum" to work on conservation, efficiency, new technology and carbon capture and storage.

"I think we are seeing there is no single solution ... but there are great opportunities in all four areas," Field said.

Gore said in a statement earlier that he would donate all of his share of the Nobel prize winnings to the Alliance for Climate Protection -- a nonprofit group Gore founded last year to raise public awareness of climate change.

"This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis -- a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years," Gore said in his earlier written statement.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Tuesday it opposed a House of Representatives bill that would require federal regulation of exposure to a microwave popcorn additive linked to lung disease.

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The chemical, diacetyl, gives microwave popcorn a buttery flavor and has been linked to bronchiolitis obliterans, or "popcorn lung," a disorder found in popcorn workers and possibly in one popcorn-eating consumer.

The bill orders quick action by theOccupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and is expected to come to the House floor for a vote on Wednesday.

"It's a travesty that OSHA has done nothing to regulate this chemical, while workers have fallen seriously ill and some have actually died," said Democratic CaliforniaRep. Lynn Woolsey, the bill's sponsor.

But the White House said in a statement that it would be "premature" to regulate diacetyl as proposed by Woolsey.

Her bill would require the Labor Department to develop interim standards limiting diacetyl exposure by workers in flavor manufacturing plants and microwave popcorn factories. The interim standard would be effective until a final regulation takes effect within a two-year deadline.

No similar bill has been filed in the Senate.

The Bush administration said it wants to protect workers, but regulators need more time to figure out the causes of the disease, how much exposure is hazardous, and control measures.

"The administration does not believe that (the bill) in its present form is the best regulatory approach for protecting workers," the White House said.

Sen. Mike Enzi said OSHA is taking the right steps in conducting a thorough review of the matter. "We need a science-based solution, not a hasty legislative quick-fix," said the Wyoming Republican in a statement.

The Food and Drug Administration said September 5 it was investigating a report of a man who came down with the life-threatening disease after eating several bags of butter-flavored microwave popcorn each day.

In April, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said workers at factories making food flavorings and popcorn run the risk of contracting the disease, which causes coughing and shortness of breath and steadily worsens.

ConAgra Foods Inc, maker of Orville Redenbacher and Act II microwave popcorn brands, said earlier this month it would drop diacetyl from its butter-flavored microwave popcorn in the "near future" to safeguard its employees.

Weaver Popcorn Co Inc, maker of Pop Weaver microwave popcorn, said in August it removed diacetyl from its microwave popcorn, in part to address consumers' concerns.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An orbiting spacecraft has found evidence of what look like seven caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano, the space agency NASA said on Friday.

The Mars Odyssey spacecraft has sent back images of very dark, nearly circular features that appear to be openings to underground spaces.

"They are cooler than the surrounding surface in the day and warmer at night," said Glen Cushing of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Team and Northern Arizona University.

"Their thermal behavior is not as steady as large caves on Earth that often maintain a fairly constant temperature, but it is consistent with these being deep holes in the ground."

The holes, which the researchers have nicknamed the "Seven Sisters," are at some of the highest altitudes on the planet, on a volcano named Arsia Mons near Mars' tallest mountain, the researchers report in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

"Whether these are just deep vertical shafts or openings into spacious caverns, they are entries to the subsurface of Mars," said USGS researcher Tim Titus.

"Somewhere on Mars, caves might provide a protected niche for past or current life, or shelter for humans in the future."

But not these caves.

"These are at such extreme altitude, they are poor candidates either for use as human habitation or for having microbial life," Cushing said. "Even if life has ever existed on Mars, it may not have migrated to this height."