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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The company behind an app that allows drivers to get paid for public parking spaces in San Francisco is rejecting an order from the city attorney to stop its operations.

MonkeyParking CEO Paolo Dobrowolny says in a statement that City Attorney Dennis Herrera's letter violates free speech. Dobrowolny says people have the right to tell others if they're about to leave a parking spot and get paid for the information.

The statement was reported by the San Francisco Chronicle Thursday (http://bit.ly/1nPtLfK ).

Herrera issued a letter to the company this week saying the city's police code prevented the sale or lease of city streets.

Herrera spokesman Matt Dorsey said Dobrowolny was making an argument akin to a prostitute saying she isn't selling sex, just information about her willingness to have sex.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Thousands of supporters of an Afghan presidential candidate who has alleged massive fraud in a runoff vote marched Friday in the capital, suggesting the resignation of a top electoral official did little resolve the political impasse roiling the country.

Abdullah Abdullah, who has suspended ties with the main election commission over the allegations, joined thousands of protesters gathered in front of the presidential palace. The protesters shouted that they would not accept fraud and that Abdullah will be the next president.

Abdullah has said his campaign monitors recorded ballot box stuffing and other irregularities in the June 14 vote pitting him against Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai after the field was narrowed from eight candidates in the first round on April 5. Chief electoral officer Zia ul-Haq Amarkhail resigned Monday, denying any involvement in fraud but saying he would step down for the national interest.

But Abdullah, who garnered the most votes in the first round but failed to secure the majority needed to win outright, has maintained pressure and drew thousands of supporters into the streets of Kabul on Friday. The former foreign minister was a runner-up in the disputed 2009 vote that led to President Hamid Karzai's re-election, which also was marred by widespread fraud allegations.

Protesters on Friday pointed a finger at Karzai, who was constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, in this year's election as well.

"Death to Karzai," the crowds chanted, waving Afghan flags. "Karzai we know you are behind the fraud."

Karzai, the only leader it has known since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban, has denied any involvement in vote rigging and set Aug. 2 as the date for the inauguration of a new leader in a bid to show he is not seeking to hold onto power. According to the election commission's official timetable, preliminary results are due on July 2 and final results on July 22.

Shopkeeper Ahmad Bashir said he and his entire family voted for Abdullah. "I hope the (Independent Election Commission) will stop the fraud... But if it doesn't listen to our demands we will hold another protest. It's our legitimate right."

The standoff has undermined Western hopes for a smooth transfer of power ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of this year. Both candidates have promised to sign a security pact with the Obama administration that would allow nearly 10,000 American forces to remain in the country in a training capacity and to conduct counterterrorism operations. A disruption in the announcement of election results could mean another delay in finalizing that agreement, which was rebuffed by Karzai.

The next president will preside over a country that is still very much at war, with near-daily attacks on security forces and civilians, most blamed on Taliban insurgents.

A bomb stuck to a police car exploded, wounding five policemen Friday in Gardez, the capital of eastern Paktia province. A roadside bomb then struck a police car responding to the attack, killing two policemen and wounding 10 other people, including five civilians, provincial police chief Gen. Zalmai Oryakhail said.

Oryakhail said the attacks came a day after police backed by NATO airstrikes launched an operation in the province's Sayed karam district, killing 29 Taliban fighters.

Six police also were killed and a seventh seriously wounded when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle late Thursday in the southern Kandahar province, police spokesman Zia Durrani said. In a separate incident, a district governor and his bodyguard were killed early Friday while riding on a motorcycle, the spokesman added.

In the southern Oruzgan province, authorities found the bodies of 10 Afghan police who went missing earlier this week, according to district governor Abdullah Khan.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks as part of their annual summer fighting season. A fierce weeklong assault in the southern Helmand province has killed dozens of people.

The U.S. Department of Defense also identified an American Marine who was killed Wednesday while conducting combat operations in Helmand. He was Sgt. Thomas Z. Spitzer, 23, of New Braunfels, Texas.

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Associated Press writer Mirwais Khan in Kandahar, Afghanistan contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration announced Friday that the United States will no longer produce or acquire anti-personnel land mines and plans to join an international treaty banning their use.

Human rights advocates have long pushed the United States to join 161 other nations in signing the 15-year-old Ottawa Convention, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of the mines. President Bill Clinton had a goal of joining the treaty, but the Bush administration pulled back amid objections from military leaders. Obama ordered up a review of the U.S. policy when he came to office five years ago, and a U.S. delegation to a conference in Maputo, Mozambique, announced the result Friday.

"Our delegation in Maputo made clear that we are diligently pursuing solutions that would be compliant with and ultimately allow the United States to accede to the Ottawa Convention," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

Steve Goose, head of delegation for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, said the U.S. announcement is some progress, since in the past the U.S. has always reserved the right to produce more land mines. He also said it's a positive change for U.S. officials to say they intend to join the treaty, although he noted there's no guarantee or timeline for doing so. And he said the U.S. could still use its stockpile, which he estimates is probably about 9 million land mines in storage around the world.

"While they are saying they are working toward banning them in the future, they are leaving open the option of continuing to use them in the meantime, which is kind of a contradictory way to approach things," Goose said in a telephone interview from the Mozambique conference. "They're bad enough to ban them, but we still want to use them."

Goose said the U.S. should join at least set a target date to join the treaty and immediately pledge not to use land mines and begin destruction of its stockpiles.

The administration's announcement was also criticized by the Republican leader of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon of California, who said Obama was ignoring the advice of military leaders. He cited recent testimony by Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that land mines "important tool in the arsenal of the armed forces of the United States."

"Irresponsible land mine use by other countries has come at a high humanitarian price, but America isn't part of that problem. Indeed, we do more than any other country to clean up these irresponsible weapons," McKeon said in a statement. "The president owes our military an explanation for ignoring their advice and putting them at risk, all for a Friday morning press release."

The U.S. has given more than $2.3 billion in the past two decades to more than 90 countries to remove mines and other conventional weapons and to aid victims. The Obama administration also in 2010 stopped the use of "persistent" or "dumb" mines that do not disarm and can remain a danger to unsuspecting locals for years.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the size of its stockpile or where the land mines are located. But Goose said the U.S. hasn't produced land mines since 1997 and has none deployed anywhere in the world. He said most are stored in the United States, but some are also likely kept in warehouses in South Korea, Japan and Germany.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, has been pushing Obama to sign onto the treaty in a series of speeches from the Senate floor since March. Last Tuesday, he spoke as he stood next to a large picture of a Vietnamese girl who lost her legs in a mine accident. He said the U.S. announcement is incremental but significant.

"The White House once and for all has put the United States on a path to join the treaty," he said. "An obvious next step is for the Pentagon to destroy its remaining stockpile of mines, which do not belong in the arsenal of civilized nations."

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Follow Nedra Pickler at http://twitter.com/nedrapickler

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