Evening Edition

Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have become the main weapon used against international and Afghan forces fighting to end an insurgency increasingly seen as bogged down in favour of the Taliban.

The equipment was “at least doubling” current counter-IED capacity as forces did not have all they needed to take on an escalating threat, said Ashton Carter, US undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology and logistics.

After 26 hours in the air, the experimental Solar Impulse aircraft, flown by Andre Borschberg, made a seamless landing at Payerne airbase in western Switzerland at 9.01 am (0701 GMT), about three hours after daybreak.

“It’s the first time ever that a solar airplane has flown through the night,” said Bertrand Piccard, the Swiss adventurer who masterminded the project.

Amid jitters that high levels of unemployment may force a double dip recession, the IMF warned the slow US recovery would continue and that debt problems loomed.

“The central challenge is to develop a credible fiscal strategy to ensure that public debt is put — and is seen to be put — on a sustainable path without putting the recovery in jeopardy,” an IMF report said.

In doing so, the Isle of Man rider whose prolific record has been matched by his “bad boy” reputation in the past year, called on his detractors not to judge him before getting to know him.

“There’s a lot of people who want to judge my personality on the 30secs of what they see after a bike race,” Cavendish said after scoring his first win on this year’s race and 11th of his career.

Del Bosque, whose team reached their first World Cup final thanks to a 1-0 semi-final win over three-time champions Germany, is wary of complacency having seen his side lose their opening group game in South Africa to Switzerland.

“Of course we must celebrate this victory (over Germany) but we will do so with moderation. We will not be blinded by success. We will enjoy this and then start preparing for the final,” stressed the former Real Madrid coach.

“It’s over! We are in the final of the World Cup! It’s historic, what joy!” shouted a commentator from the television channel La Cuatro as the final whistle went.

“It’s not a dream, Spain is in the final!” the Madrid daily ABC said on its website.

The Barcelona centre-back powered home a header from 10 yards from Xavi’s corner 17 minutes from time to send the reigning European champions into their first ever World Cup final.

Holland reached the title game by beating Uruguay 3-2 in Cape Town on Tuesday.

Despite the ever-present menace, however, the men of the Iraq national rowing team continued to train on the water through some of the most violent periods in Iraq that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.

These days the killings have declined markedly and the only obstacles that bar the rowers’ path as they glide downstream are bridges and fishing boats.

The death toll was another blow to the leaders of a country which remains dogged by sectarian strife and has only a caretaker government more than four months after a general election in which no clear winner emerged.

Meanwhile, the United Nations warned in its latest human rights report that although violence had fallen overall in Iraq, “attacks deliberately targeting religious and ethnic groups continue unabated.”

ECB head Jean-Claude Trichet voiced guarded optimism in a controversial ECB programme to buy government bonds on the secondary markets from banks needing to raise fresh funding while urging member states to press on with fiscal reforms.

Trichet welcomed soon-to-be-released stress tests for eurozone banks which will reveal whether they can withstand a crisis similar to that sparked by the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

More than 80 international and domestic flights were cancelled and 110 were delayed when air traffic controllers joined the strike, aviation officials said.

No trains ran, city buses were off the streets and all ships were also blocked in ports. Tourists were warned that ferry departures would be put back to Friday.

In a statement after annual consultations with U.S. authorities, the IMF raised its U.S. growth forecasts slightly to 3.3 percent for 2010 and 2.9 percent for 2011, but said unemployment would remain above 9 percent for both years.

The lofty jobless rate, coupled with a large backlog of home foreclosures and high levels of negative home equity, posed risks of a “double dip” in the housing market, it said. But the IMF said it did not think a renewed recession was likely.

Sales at stores open at least a year rose 3.1 percent for the month, just shy of the 3.2 percent increase that Wall Street predicted, according to reports from 28 retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters. That compared with a 4.9 percent drop a year ago.

“What it really says is we’re just treading water,” said Stephen Hoch, marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “There’s no evidence that somehow the consumer is going to step up to the plate and spend us out of the economic doldrums.”

However, the administration will not impose a new drilling ban if the federal court in New Orleans supports its initial moratorium, an Interior Department official told Reuters.

A hearing before a three-judge appeals panel is scheduled for 3 p.m. CDT/4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) on Thursday on the ban imposed during an investigation of the April 20 drilling rig explosion that killed 11 men and triggered the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Chrysler said on Thursday consumers will be allowed to return a new vehicle within 60 days if they are not happy with the purchase and the company will pay up to $500 per month for the first two months.

In addition, Chrysler will offer interest-free loans for up to 60 months on most 2010 Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram vehicles when financed through GMAC Financial Services for the month of July.

Spain will meet the Netherlands on Sunday in Johannesburg’s Soccer City when a new champion will be crowned from two sides seen for decades as the nearly-men of international soccer.

Spanish pride over their team’s superb performance in beating a strong Germany side 1-0 on Wednesday was seen by many as a welcome antidote to economic woes which include Europe’s highest unemployment and high debt.

The relief well is currently the best hope for stanching the oil leak set off by the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which killed 11 workers and began an environmental catastrophe for the region.

National Incident Commander and retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Thursday that the relief well is expected to intercept and penetrate the Deepwater Horizon well pipe about 18,000 feet below sea level within seven to 10 days.

Instead, GOP elders are working around Steele, illustrating their lack of confidence in his leadership of the Republican National Committee and the challenge he would face should he seek a second term in January.

The outspoken Steele has faced calls for his resignation from conservatives and some in the GOP after he said that the nine-year-old conflict in Afghanistan was a mistaken “war of Obama’s choosing.” So far, Steele has ignored demands for him to step down.

A church source close to the Vatican told the AP on Thursday that a soon-to-be-released Vatican document on handling clerical abuse of minors under age 18 would also refer to adults with an “imperfect use of reason.”

Such particularly vulnerable victims will now have their cases handled directly by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under a special set of norms that can result in a priest being quickly defrocked without a canonical trial.

First-time requests for jobless aid dropped last week to their lowest level since early May, the government said Thursday, erasing increases made in the last two months.

Still, economists say it’s hard to detect a trend in one week of declines. Initial claims have seesawed for several weeks and are not much lower than they were in January.

The test brings the Swiss-led project one step closer to its goal of circling the globe using only energy from the sun.

Pilot Andre Borschberg eased the Solar Impulse out of the clear blue morning sky onto the runway at Payerne airfield about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of the Swiss capital Bern at exactly 9 a.m. (0700 GMT; 3 a.m. EDT).

Over the next few seconds of terror, she and other passengers fumbled to put on life jackets and ran for cover as best they could. Next came a crash, the boat flipped over, and 37 passengers were plunged into the Delaware River.

Cohen came to the surface, clinging to the life jacket she had managed to snag seconds before. A Hungarian teenager on the tour was hanging onto the jacket too.

Thousands took part in the dash to keep ahead of six fighting bulls and six bell-tinkling steers who try to keep the bulls together in a tight pack along the 930-yard (850-meter) course from a holding pen to the northern town’s bullring.

The run lasted just under four minutes and produced panic when some bulls separated from the pack. One stopped just before entering the bullring and paced in circles threateningly while staring at the runners.

Time after time as Congress wrestled with contentious decisions on how to re-regulate the nation’s financial industry, it opted for what often is the classic Washington punt: further study. In all, the 2,300-page overhaul of financial regulations requires more than 60 such studies, on everything from examining the presence of shoddy Chinese drywall in foreclosed houses to judging the financial literacy of U.S. consumers.

“Studies can often be used as a way to delay, and can be a way for the money of the biggest banks to still have influence and undermine real accountability,” said Heather Booth, campaign director for a coalition of labor and consumer activists called Americans for Financial Reform.