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ByJillLawless The Associated Press GLASGOW, SCOTLAND The British political establish- ment descended on Scot- land on Wednesday to plead for a united United Kingdom, after polls sug- gested the once-fanciful notion of Scots voting to break from Britain has be- come a real possibility in next week's referendum. The leaders of the three main London-based parties — all of them unpopular in Scotland — wooed skeptical Scottish voters with the fer- vor of a rejected lover. But some Scots seemed un- moved, and increasingly confident independence leader Alex Salmond ac- cused his opponents of suc- cumbing to panic. In a rare display of cross- party unity, Prime Minis- ter David Cameron, La- bour leader Ed Miliband and Liberal Democrat chief Nick Clegg all pulled out of a weekly House of Com- mons question session to make a campaign dash to Scotland, as polls indicated the two sides are neck-and- neck ahead of the Sept. 18 referendum. Cameron said Scottish independence would break his heart, in a personal plea aimed at preserving the 307-year-old Anglo- Scottish union — and pre- venting himself from going down in history as the last prime minister of Great Britain. He is likely to face pressure from his Conser- vative Party to step down if Scots vote to secede. "I would be heartbroken ... if this family of nations is torn apart," Cameron told an invited audience at the Edinburgh headquarters of the Scottish Widows insur- ance firm. While Cameron has or- dered the blue-and-white Scottish flag to be flown over his office at No. 10 Downing Street until the vote, his critics noted that he did not risk speaking be- fore an uninvited audience of Scots on the street. Cameron's Conserva- tives are deeply unpopular in Scotland, where the wel- fare cuts, unemployment and privatization of Prime Minister Margaret Thatch- er's time are remembered with bitterness. Many in- dependence supporters cite the Cameron government's budget-slashing policies as one reason they want to leave the United Kingdom. Cameron insisted the vote was not about giving "the effing Tories" a kick- ing. "This is not a decision about the next five years," he said. "This is a decision about the next century." Like Cameron, Miliband sounded like a lover plead- ing for his partner not to leave, telling an audience of Labour supporters near Glasgow that he supported Scotland with "head, heart and soul," and promising change if the union stuck together. "Please stay with us," he said. "Stay with us because we are stronger together. Stay with us so we can change Britain together." Though many Scots tra- ditionally support Labour, Miliband is widely seen as out of touch. And like Cam- eron, he faces a predica- ment in the event of inde- pendence. Labour holds two-thirds of Scotland's seats in the British Parlia- ment, and their removal would make it harder for Labour to become the gov- erning party again. The politicians' entreat- ies did little to impress committed Yes voters. "If Cameron, Clegg and Miliband really cared, they would have been up here campaigning to save the U.K. weeks ago and not just at the last min- ute when the polls suggest there's a chance they could lose," said Alistair David- son, a computer program- mer from Dunblane in cen- tral Scotland. Salmond said the Lon- don-based politicians were only in Scotland because "they are panicking," and predicted their visit would help his Yes campaign. "If I thought they were coming by bus, I'd send the bus fare," he said. The wave of love from politicians was accompa- nied by ripples of unease about the economic impact of independence. Britain's currency, the pound sterling, and shares in Scotland-based finan- cial institutions have both sagged amid uncertainty over what currency an in- dependent Scotland would use and whether busi- nesses and capital would flee across the border. Salmond's administra- tion argues that North Sea oil revenue, much of it in Scottish waters, will under- pin the prosperity of an in- dependent Scotland. Oth- ers say that view is based on an optimistic assess- ment of how much oil re- mains. REFERENDUM UK l ea de r ru sh es t o fe nd o ff Scottish independence push ANDREWMILLIGAN‑THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, front center, meets with Scots and other European citizens to celebrate European citizenship and "Scotland's continued EU membership with a Yes vote" at Parliament Square in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Tuesday. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Russian President Vladimir Putin waves to people in the city of Gorno‑Altaisk, Siberia, Russia on Sept. 4. By Vladimir Isachenkov The Associated Press MOSCOW Russia will coun- ter military moves by the U.S. and NATO with an ar- ray of new nuclear and con- ventional weapons, Presi- dent Vladimir Putin said Wednesday as the military successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from a nuclear sub- marine. At the same time, he em- phasized that Russia will not enter a new arms race and will tightly control its military budget to avoid overburdening the economy. Putin accused the West of using the crisis in Ukraine to reinvigorate NATO, warn- ing that Moscow will ponder a response to the alliance's decision to create a rapid-re- action "spearhead" force to protect Eastern Europe. The statement appeared to signal that Putin is de- termined to pursue a tough course in the face of Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis that has sent Russia- West relations plummeting to their lowest point since the Cold War. Addressing a Kremlin meeting on weapons mod- ernization, Putin ominously warned the West against getting "hysterical" about Moscow's re-arming efforts, in view of U.S. missile de- fense plans and other de- cisions he said have chal- lenged Russia's security. "We have warned many times that we would have to take corresponding counter- measures to ensure our secu- rity," Putin said, adding that he would now take personal charge of the government commission overseeing mil- itary industries. "I would like to underline that we only take retaliatory steps." Putin claimed that some in the West would like to pull Russia into a new arms race, but "we will not enter such race, it's absolutely ex- cluded." He argued that Russia needs to replace Soviet-de- signed weapons approach- ing the end of their desig- nated lifetime. Putin's comments came as the European Union was mulling a new wave of sanctions against Russia intended to persuade it to honor its part of a cease-fire signed last week. A decision is expected later this week. Putin said Russia's weap- ons program for 2016-2025 should focus on building new offensive weapons to provide a "guaranteed nu- clear deterrent;" re-arming strategic and long-range aviation; creating an aero- space defense system and developing precision con- ventional weapons. Putin pledges new weapons program MISSILE TEST By Seth Borenstein The Associated Press WASHINGTON Earth's pro- tective ozone layer is be- ginning to recover, largely because of the phase-out since the 1980s of certain chemicals used in refrig- erants and aerosol cans, a U.N. scientific panel re- ported Wednesday in a rare piece of good news about the health of the planet. Scientists said the de- velopment demonstrates that when the world comes together, it can counteract a brewing eco- logical crisis. For the first time in 35 years, scientists were able to confirm a statistically significant and sustained increase in stratospheric ozone, which shields the planet from solar radia- tion that causes skin can- cer, crop damage and other problems. From 2000 to 2013, ozone levels climbed 4 per- cent in the key mid-north- ern latitudes at about 30 miles up, said NASA scien- tist Paul A. Newman. He co-chaired the every-four- years ozone assessment by 300 scientists, released at the United Nations. "It's a victory for diplo- macy and for science and for the fact that we were able to work together," said chemist Mario Molina. In 1974, Molina and F. Sher- wood Rowland wrote a scientific study forecasting the ozone depletion prob- lem. They won the 1995 No- bel Prize in chemistry for their work. The ozone layer had been thinning since the late 1970s. Man-made chlo- rofluorocarbons, called CFCs, released chlorine and bromine, which de- stroyed ozone molecules high in the air. After sci- entists raised the alarm, countries around the world agreed to a treaty in 1987 that phased out CFCs. Lev- els of those chemicals be- tween 30 and 50 miles up are decreasing. The United Nations cal- culated in an earlier re- port that without the pact, by 2030 there would have been an extra 2 million skin cancer cases a year around the world. Paradoxically, heat- trapping greenhouse gases — considered the major cause of global warming — are also helping to re- build the ozone layer, New- man said. The report said rising levels of carbon di- oxide and other gases cool the upper stratosphere, and the cooler air increases the amount of ozone. And in another worri- some trend, the chemicals that replaced CFCs contrib- ute to global warming and are on the rise, said MIT at- mospheric scientist Susan Solomon. At the moment, they don't make much of a dent, but they are expected to increase dramatically by 2050 and make "a big con- tribution" to global warm- ing. The ozone layer is still far from healed. The long- lasting, ozone-eating chem- icals still lingering in the atmosphere create a yearly fall ozone hole above the extreme Southern Hemi- sphere, and the hole hasn't closed up. Also, the ozone layer is still about 6 per- cent thinner than in 1980, by Newman's calculations. Ozone levels are "on the upswing, but it's not there yet," he said. CHEMICALS PHASED OUT Scientists say ozone layer recovering THE ASSOCIATED PRESS This image provided by NASA shows the ozone layer over the years, Sept. 17, 1979, top le , Oct. 7, 1989, top right, Oct. 9, 2006, lower le , and Oct. 1, 2010, lower right. By Jeffrey Collins The Associated Press LEXINGTON, S.C. A South Carolina man described as a smart, loving father con- fessed to killing his five children and then dump- ing their bodies in a se- cluded clearing along a ru- ral road in Alabama, au- thorities said Wednesday. Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, will be charged with five counts of murder, and offi- cials believe he acted alone, Acting Sheriff Lewis Mc- Carty of Lexington County said. Authorities think all five children — ages 1 to 8 —were killed at the same time, but they said they didn't yet know how or why. Autopsies were scheduled to begin Thursday. The case has unfolded over the past two weeks, covering five states and about 700 miles in what the sheriff called a "logistical nightmare." It wasn't until Tuesday afternoon — when authorities made the grue- some discovery of the chil- dren's bodies — that they went public with the case. "We were trying to bal- ance the children and the investigation against the releasing of information," McCarty said. "I am a po- lice officer. I'm not a politi- cian. My job basically is to get this job done." Jones' father, Timothy Jones Sr., said the family's hearts are broken, and he called his son a loving dad. "We do not have all the answers, and we may never have them," he said in a brief statement outside his home in Amory, Mississippi. "But anyone who knows Lit- tle Tim will agree that he is not the animal he will be portrayed as through the media." He did not take questions from reporters. Timothy Jones Sr. said questions should be di- rected to the office of Boyd Young, who would repre- sent his son. Young's office in South Carolina refused to confirm that it is repre- senting him and declined to comment on the case. Timothy Ray Jones Jr. was stopped at what of- ficials called a sobriety checkpoint Saturday in Mississippi. A deputy spot- ted bleach, blood and chil- dren's clothes in his 2006 Cadillac Escalade. It would be another three days be- fore the children's bodies were discovered. CONFESSED 'Loving' father charged in five children's deaths THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Timothy Ray Jones Jr. is booked at the Smith County Sheriff's Office. 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