Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Libya rebel city tense as Kadhafi ultimatum expires

by Marc Bastian, AFP

27 mins ago

MISRATA, Libya (AFP) – The besieged Libyan rebel city of Misrata was relatively calm Tuesday but braced for new attacks by Moamer Kadhafi’s forces as an ultimatum to surrender expired, a day after shelling killed 14 people.

However, fighting continued in the Al-Ghiran and Zawiat al-Mahjub areas near the airport, which rebels have been trying to capture from Kadhafi forces based there.

In their eastern stronghold of Benghazi, the rebels warned that they would soon run out of funds unless Western governments make them a $3 billion loan secured on frozen Kadhafi regime assets.

AFP

2 Canada’s Tory PM Harper says will govern for all

by Michel Comte, AFP

25 mins ago

OTTAWA (AFP) – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Tuesday delighted in his Conservative Party’s election victory, and vowed to govern with a steady hand after his Tories won their first majority since 1988.

In a landmark vote likely to reshape the Canadian political landscape, Harper won re-election Monday at the head of a long-coveted majority wiping out the party’s previous back-to-back minority governments.

After routing his long-time Liberal rivals, Harper dismissed fears he might track the country, one of the world’s leading economies, to the far right.

3 Bin Laden accusations stoke US-Pakistan tension

by Andrew Gully, AFP

1 hr 13 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Mistrust between Pakistan and the United States deepened Tuesday as the CIA chief admitted the Pakistanis were kept out of the loop on the Osama bin Laden raid for fear he would have been tipped off.

Leon Panetta’s comments were the most direct yet from President Barack Obama’s administration since bin Laden was killed in a US raid on Sunday, laying bare the chasm of suspicion between the United States and nuclear-armed Pakistan, a key “war-on-terror” ally.

“It was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission,” the CIA director told Time magazine. “They might alert the targets,” he added in an unusually blunt and damning remark.

4 Bank numbers may have been stolen in breach: Sony

by Glenn Chapman, AFP

Tue May 3, 7:01 am ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Sony on Monday reported that cyber assaults on its online videogame network were broader than first thought, with intruders possibly making off with credit and debit card data.

Hackers breached the Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) network as well as the PlayStation Network and the Qriocity streaming music service, according to the Japanese consumer electronics giant.

“We had previously believed that Sony Online Entertainment customer data had not been obtained in the cyber-attacks on the company,” it said in an online update.

Reuters

5 U.S. sues Deutsche Bank in mortgage fraud case

By Jonathan Stempel and Edward Taylor, Reuters

1 hr 17 mins ago

NEW YORK/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The U.S. government sued Deutsche Bank AG for more than $1 billion, accusing the German bank of defrauding it by repeatedly lying to obtain federal insurance guarantees on mortgage debt.

According to the lawsuit, Deutsche Bank and its MortgageIT Inc unit misled the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, into believing their mortgages qualified for federal insurance, knowing they could make “substantial profits” when the loans were later sold.

In fact, the government said, the loan quality was so poor that nearly one in three mortgages defaulted, a percentage elevated by Deutsche Bank’s “dysfunctional” quality control.

6 Year after Greek bailout, EU ponders rejigged package

By Andreas Rinke and George Georgiopoulos, Reuters

Tue May 3, 10:08 am ET

BERLIN/ATHENS (Reuters) – An influential member of Germany’s governing coalition backed the possibility on Tuesday of easing the terms of Greece’s euro zone bailout, a move that might help Athens better weather the debt crisis.

Michael Meister, deputy parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said he saw logic in extending the repayment schedule for the 110 billion euros of loans granted to Greece on May 2, 2010.

His intervention followed European Central Bank policymaker Nout Wellink, who said on Monday he was open to the idea of extending maturities on all Greek debt, becoming the first senior ECB official to admit the possibility of a restructuring publicly.

7 GM and Ford sales up in April on compact cars

By Bernie Woodall and Ben Klayman, Reuters

8 mins ago

DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co returned to the top spot in auto sales in April as high gasoline prices fed consumer hunger for more fuel-efficient cars.

GM and Ford Motor Co showed much faster growth rates than Toyota and other Japanese brands, in an early sign that supply disruptions as a result of Japan’s March 11 earthquake are hitting Japanese manufacturers hardest.

“An American resurgence seems to be occurring,” said Edmunds.com senior analyst Michelle Krebs.

8 Levee detonation lowers river but triggers new suit

By Mary Wisniewski, Reuters

12 mins ago

CHARLESTON, Missouri (Reuters) – The controversial effort to protect river towns in Illinois and Kentucky from rising floodwaters by blowing open a levee and flooding more than 100,000 acres of Missouri farmland appeared to be slowly working on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service said the river gauge at Cairo, Illinois where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers meet, showed water levels had dropped a foot since 10 p.m. last night, when the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers blasted a hole in the protective embankment downriver from the historic town.

“The plan performed as expected,” Jim Pogue, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman, said in a telephone interview.

9 Canada Tories to follow tax-cut, pro-business agenda

By Jeffrey Jones and Janet Guttsman, Reuters

33 mins ago

CALGARY/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, now backed by a powerful parliamentary majority, said on Tuesday the energy sector can rest easy that his government will not impede plans to vastly expand the country’s oil sands output and ship some of the crude to Asia.

Harper, in his Western Canadian home base of Calgary on the morning after his Conservatives won big in the federal election, singled out the Western-based oil industry as being a beneficiary of his party’s pro-business agenda, which will also include corporate tax cuts and deficit reduction. Investors greeted the result with relief.

“There were a lot of policies being quoted by the other parties, whether it’s on West Coast transportation or the energy sector, that simply did not reflect the needs and concerns of this part of the country,” he told reporters.

10 No proof Pakistanis knew bin Laden location: U.S.

Reuters

Tue May 3, 12:42 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There is no evidence Pakistani officials knew Osama bin Laden was living at a compound deep inside the country, but the United States is not ruling out the possibility, President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser said on Tuesday.

The death of the al Qaeda leader in Monday’s U.S. raid on his compound in Abbottabad, a military garrison town 38 miles from the capital Islamabad, has led some U.S. lawmakers to demand a review of U.S. aid to nuclear-armed Pakistan.

“They (Pakistani officials) are expressing as great a surprise as we had when we first learned about this compound, so there is no indication at this point that the people we have talked to were aware of this, but we need to dig deeper into this,” White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said in an interview with National Public Radio.

11 Year after Greek bailout, EU ponders rejigged package

By Andreas Rinke and George Georgiopoulos, Reuters

Tue May 3, 10:08 am ET

BERLIN/ATHENS (Reuters) – An influential member of Germany’s governing coalition backed the possibility on Tuesday of easing the terms of Greece’s euro zone bailout, a move that might help Athens better weather the debt crisis.

Michael Meister, deputy parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said he saw logic in extending the repayment schedule for the 110 billion euros of loans granted to Greece on May 2, 2010.

His intervention followed European Central Bank policymaker Nout Wellink, who said on Monday he was open to the idea of extending maturities on all Greek debt, becoming the first senior ECB official to admit the possibility of a restructuring publicly.

12 Special report: In China the big nuclear question is "how soon"?

By David Stanway, Reuters

Tue May 3, 4:17 am ET

CHENGDU, China (Reuters) – The congenial Professor Duan Xuru doesn’t look like a stereotypical mad scientist as he shows guests into a cluttered laboratory filled with canisters, vacuum pumps and patched-up pipes tied together with spirals of blue wire and rubber tubing.

But Duan, based in the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu, is working on an audacious project described as a “man-made sun”. He hopes it will eventually create almost unlimited supplies of cheap and clean energy.

Duan is no maverick either, but a pioneer in one of the many expeditions that China has launched to map out its nuclear energy options in the future.

13 Tokyo Electric may face $25 billion in liabilities: report

By Taiga Uranaka, Reuters

Tue May 3, 5:21 am ET

TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo Electric Power may be asked to shoulder half of an estimated $49 billion in total compensation for damages stemming from its crippled nuclear power plant with other power firms to bear the rest, a Japanese newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Officials from the government, Tokyo Electric, and creditor banks have been scrambling to craft a scheme that would allow the utility to cope with the bill of compensating those displaced by the crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi plant, while continuing to operate as a private firm.

The draft government plan reported by the Asahi newspaper could mark a significant development in those efforts because it puts a ballpark figure on the total cost at 4 trillion yen ($49.2 billion) and suggests a cap on Tokyo Electric’s burden.

14 Libya rebels seek billions from West

By Lin Noueihed, Reuters

Tue May 3, 7:02 am ET

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi attacked rebel areas of Libya’s Western Mountains while insurgents moved to secure billions of dollars to feed and supply their territories and drive their military campaign.

Ali Tarhouni, head of the rebel national council’s finance committee, said Tuesday he expected France, Italy and the United States to extend credit secured against frozen Libyan state assets. Money should arrive in a week to ten days.

“I need about $2-3 billion and we are hoping to get most or all of this,” Tarhouni told reporters in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

15 Nasdaq tightens vise on NYSE, but questions remain

By Jonathan Spicer and Paritosh Bansal, Reuters

Mon May 2, 7:05 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nasdaq OMX Group and IntercontinentalExchange Inc will take their takeover bid for NYSE Euronext straight to the Big Board’s shareholders as they try to corner the company into talks.

Nasdaq and ICE said on Monday that they will launch a tender offer for NYSE’s shares later this month. The move comes after NYSE’s board twice rejected the $11 billion unsolicited offer in favor of its existing $10.2 billion deal with Deutsche Boerse.

Nasdaq and ICE’s move to go hostile could force NYSE to the negotiating table or to fight back with defensive measures if shareholders step up pressure. It could also pressure Deutsche Boerse into sweetening its deal.

16 Swiss reveal funds stashed by Gaddafi, Mubarak, Ben Ali

By Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters

Mon May 2, 5:24 pm ET

GENEVA (Reuters) – Switzerland has found 360 million Swiss francs ($415.8 million) of potentially illegal assets linked to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his circle stashed in the Alpine country, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Some 410 million Swiss francs traced to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and 60 million Swiss francs linked to former Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali have also been identified, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel said.

“In the case of Libya, it was 360 million Swiss francs,” Knuchel told Reuters. “These amounts are frozen in Switzerland following blocking orders by the Swiss government related to potentially illegal assets in Switzerland.”

AP

17 New report confirms Arctic melt accelerating

By KARL RITTER, Associated Press

40 mins ago

STOCKHOLM – Arctic ice is melting faster than expected and could raise the average global sea level by as much as five feet this century, an authoritative new report suggests.

The study by the international Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, or AMAP, is one of the most comprehensive updates on climate change in the Arctic, and builds on a similar assessment in 2005.

The full report will be delivered to foreign ministers of the eight Arctic nations next week, but an executive summary including the key findings was obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

18 Missouri levee blast eases threat to Illinois town

By JIM SUHR and JIM SALTER, Associated Press

44 mins ago

WYATT, Mo. – The dramatic, late-night demolition of a levee sent water pouring onto thousands of acres of Missouri farmland Tuesday, easing the Mississippi River floodwaters threatening the tiny Illinois town of Cairo.

But the demolition project did nothing to ease the risk of more trouble downstream, where the mighty river is expected to rise to its highest levels since the 1920s in some parts of Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. Authorities were considering using techniques similar to the Missouri project to divert on oncoming rush of water.

By Tuesday, sunny skies and dry conditions gave residents and government officials their clearest view of the inundation triggered after the Army Corps of Engineers blew a massive hold in the Birds Point levee late Monday.

19 Americans 45 and older are new voting-age majority

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press

40 mins ago

WASHINGTON – For the first time, Americans 45 and older make up a majority of the voting-age population, giving older Americans wider influence in elections as the U.S. stands divided over curtailing Medicare and other benefits for seniors.

Along with the information about the growing influence of older adults, preliminary census estimates also show a decline in the number of married couples with children, slight growth in household size and a rapid rise in the number of Mexicans.

The findings, based on the latest publicly available government data, offer a preview of trends that will be detailed in the next round of 2010 census results being released this month that focus on age, household relationships and racial subgroups.

20 White House: bin Laden unarmed during assault

By Nancy Benac, Associated Press

52 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Osama bin Laden was unarmed when he was confronted by U.S. commandos at his Pakistani hideout but tried to resist the assault, the White House said Tuesday as new details emerged about the audacious raid that killed the world’s most wanted terrorist.

The White House said it was considering whether to release photos that were taken of bin Laden after he was killed but was concerned that the photos were “gruesome” and could be inflammatory.

Other details that emerged on Tuesday, according to U.S. officials: One of bin Laden’s wives tried to rush the commandos and was shot in the leg. High temperatures caused a lumbering helicopter carrying the raiders to make a hard landing. And as Navy SEALs swept through the compound, they handcuffed those they encountered with plastic zip ties and pressed on in pursuit of their target, code-named Geronimo.

21 AP: Pa. lawsuit: Rental firm spies on users

By JOE MANDAK, Associated Press

55 mins ago

PITTSBURGH – A major furniture rental chain has software on its computers that lets it track the keystrokes, screenshots and even webcam images of customers while they use the devices at home, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Wyoming couple who said they learned about the PC Rental Agent “device and/or software” inside the computer they rented last year when an Aaron’s Inc. store manager in Casper came to their home on Dec. 22.

The manager tried to repossess the computer because he mistakenly believed the couple hadn’t finished paying for it, the couple said. Brian Byrd, 26, said the manager showed him a picture of Byrd using the computer – taken by the computer’s webcam. The image was shot with the help of spying software, which the lawsuit contends is made by North East, Pa.-based Designerware LLC and is installed on all Aaron’s rental computers.

22 Syrian regime resorts to intimidation, threats

By ZEINA KARAM and ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press

53 mins ago

BEIRUT – Facing international condemnation for its bloody crackdown on protesters, the Syrian regime is expanding an intimidation campaign to keep people off the streets, according to human rights activists.

They report a sharp escalation in arbitrary arrests and unexplained disappearances – including people being plucked from their homes and offices in the middle of the day. One prominent activist in an upscale Damascus neighborhood was reportedly bundled into a car after being beaten by security officers.

“Syrian cities have witnessed in the past few days an insane escalation by authorities who are arresting anyone with the potential to stage protests and demonstrations,” Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

23 PM says he won’t move Canada hard to the right

By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press

33 mins ago

TORONTO – Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday he won’t shift to the hard right after his Conservatives won a long-sought majority in Canada’s Parliament.

Monday’s election marks a change in the country’s political landscape with opposition Liberals and Quebec separatists suffering a punishing defeat.

Harper said the Conservatives won their mandate because of the way they’ve governed so far and sought to allay fears he would implement a hidden right wing agenda.

24 NYC taxis to get suburban look, Japanese nameplate

By SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press

12 mins ago

NEW YORK – It looks like something you’d see on a suburban cul-de-sac, not inching through Times Square.

A boxy minivan made by Nissan will be the next iconic yellow cab in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday.

The model, selected from among three finalists in a city competition, is designed so that it could eventually be updated with an electric engine. The city is exploring the possibility of ultimately replacing the city’s entire fleet of more than 13,000 taxis with vehicles powered by electricity.

25 Feds sue Deutsche Bank, alleging mortgage fraud

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

2 hrs 3 mins ago

NEW YORK – The federal government sued Deutsche Bank Tuesday, saying the bank committed fraud and padded its pockets with undeserved income as it repeatedly lied so it could benefit from a government program that insured mortgages.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan seeks to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance claims that the government has had to pay when homeowners defaulted on their mortgages. The lawsuit also asked for punitive damages. The government said the bank made substantial profits between 2007 and 2009 from the resale of the risky mortgages, leaving the government to foot the bill for loans that defaulted. The mortgage insurance is issued by the Federal Housing Administration.

The lawsuit said the bank carried out the fraud through its subsidiary, MortgageIT, which employed more than 2,000 people at branches in all 50 states. Deutsche acquired MortgageIT in 2007.

26 US, Romania announce plan for missile defense site

By VADIM GHIRDA and OLIMPIU GHEORGHIU, Associated Press

2 hrs 25 mins ago

DEVESELU, Romania – Romania’s president said Tuesday his country will host missile interceptors as part of a planned U.S. shield over Europe.

Traian Basescu announced that Bucharest had agreed to build the interceptor site at the Deveselu former air base near the Bulgarian border, in a remote agricultural region. Romania already had agreed to host the interceptors, but the location had not been decided. The president, a staunch ally of the U.S., said it would give Romania “the highest security level in its history.”

The announcement prompted a strong complaint from Russia, which sees European missile defense as a potential encroachment.

27 Writing safety rules could get tougher for FAA

By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press

Tue May 3, 10:02 am ET

WASHINGTON – New airline safety regulations, including long-sought rules aimed at preventing exhausted pilots from flying, will be harder to issue if an industry-backed measure supported by House Republicans becomes law, federal aviation and safety officials are warning Congress.

A bill providing authority for Federal Aviation Administration programs that the House passed in March contains an amendment sponsored by Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa. It would change the way the FAA goes about making regulations, including requiring an analysis of the effect proposed rules may have on the economy, private markets, productivity, employment and competitiveness.

The FAA would also be required to write separate safety rules for different segments of the airline industry – passenger airlines, cargo carriers, charters and others – even though the agency’s oft-stated goal is to have “one level of safety” across the aviation industry.

28 Ringling heirs go to trial over bereavement fight

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press

Tue May 3, 4:12 am ET

WASHINGTON – The late multimillionaire owner of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, Irvin Feld, left a renowned business stunningly at odds with a bitter family legacy. He built an empire of wholesome entertainment meant to bring families together, yet his own two children are so estranged they couldn’t even mourn with one another in peace.

The often sad family history behind “the greatest show on Earth” is poised to go on trial May 9 before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in a Washington courtroom. Karen Feld filed a $110 million suit against her younger brother, Kenneth, for assault when they came together in the Jewish rite of sitting shiva for their dead aunt.

The suit filed by 63-year-old Karen Feld says her 62-year-old brother long wanted to harm her and control her life because he feared she would reveal facts about their father and family that could tarnish the image of the family business. Irvin Feld created Feld Entertainment, which Kenneth Feld now runs and bills as the world’s largest source of live family entertainment, including the circus, Disney on Ice, drag racing and monster truck shows.

29 Appeals court hears arguments in Obama birth suit

By GREG RISLING, Associated Press

Mon May 2, 10:09 pm ET

PASADENA, Calif. – Leaders in the so-called “birther” movement argued their case over President Barack Obama’s U.S. citizenship before a federal appeals court Monday in Southern California, claiming the full birth certificate he released last week had been doctored.

But it was unclear how far their arguments would go, given the previous failed lawsuits on the issue and concern from the court about whether the latest claim was filed too late to be considered.

Obama’s production of the vital record was aimed at quashing any lingering doubt among critics who contend he shouldn’t have been elected because he couldn’t prove he was a citizen – a prerequisite for the nation’s highest office.

30 Shell to submit new Arctic offshore drilling plan

By DAN JOLING, Associated Press

Mon May 2, 8:51 pm ET

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Shell Oil will apply to drill 10 wells off Alaska’s Arctic shore over the next two years under exploration plans headed to federal authorities.

The company hopes to see results from a $3.5 billion investment into Arctic Ocean drilling that has been thwarted in recent years by court challenges or inability to obtain federal permits.

“Maybe four times is a charm,” said Pete Slaiby, Shell Alaska vice president, on Monday. “This is our fourth Beaufort Sea exploration plan that has gone down the pike. And next week it will be the second Chukchi exploration plan. We feel that we’ve got pretty good and robust plans.”

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