Evening Edition

Shortly after BP engineers shut down the last of three valves on a giant new cap placed on the blown-out well, senior vice president Kent Wells announced no oil was leaking into the seas.

“I’m very excited to see no oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico,” Wells told reporters, but cautioned it was only the start of a testing process set to last 48 hours to analyze the condition of the underground wellbore.

Announcing new rules in a bid to fend off accusations of complacency, the Roman Catholic Church said it would accelerate internal investigations and extended by a decade the statute of limitations in abuse cases.

The new steps provide for referring “the most grave cases to the Roman pontiff with regard to dismissal from the clerical state,” or defrocking a priest, in a codification of an already existing channel of punishment.

The law was backed by the center-left government of President Cristina Kirchner and adopted in a 33-27 vote, with three abstentions, after 15 hours of debate.

“It’s a positive step which defends the right of the minority in Argentina,” Kirchner said to Argentine media on Thursday during a visit to China.

The attack came as people celebrated the birthday of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, a day also set apart each year to honour the Revolutionary Guards.

More than 100 people were wounded in the attacks, which came only minutes apart, at the Jamia mosque in the restive city of Zahedan, capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The largely party-line 60-39 vote sent the 2,300-page legislation, meant to rein in risky big bank practices blamed for the 2008 global economic meltdown, to Obama, who was expected to sign it into law next week.

In a sign of deep US political polarization, just three of the Senate’s 41 Republicans joined 55 Democrats and their two independent allies to pass the measure, while one Democrat opposed the bill.

McIlroy equalled the low round in any major, becoming the 22nd man to fire a major 63, and is only the eighth player in British Open history with a 63, the second at St. Andrews after Englishman Paul Broadhurst in 1990’s third round.

Had the 21-year-old from Northern Ireland not missed a five-foot birdie putt at the 17th, the fabled Road Hole that proved day one’s hardest challenge, he would have made even more history at the birthplace of golf.

Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck, of Saxo Bank, retained the yellow jersey with his lead of 41sec on Spain’s Alberto Contador intact after a 184.5km race between Sisteron and here.

Cavendish, the winner of six stages in 2009 and four in 2008, has now won three stages in this year’s race, taking his career tally to an impressive 13.

Most of the panel’s members agreed that the drug does increase the risk of heart problems, but only 12 of the 33-member expert panel voted to remove GlaxoSmithKline’s one-time blockbuster medication from the market.

A bloc of 20 members voted that the drug should stay on the market, with 17 urging greater restrictions such as revisions to the label, special warnings for at-risk patients or requirements for additional physician and patient education. One expert abstained from the vote.

Gross domestic product maintained its double-digit growth for the third quarter in a row, expanding 10.3 percent in the three months to June, according to the national statistics bureau.

The second quarter figure marked a slowdown from the blistering 11.9 percent growth in January-March and 10.7 percent in the last quarter of 2009, after Beijing introduced measures to cool the red-hot economy.

Cropper, west of Baghdad and now holding 1,600 detainees, opened immediately after the US-led invasion in March 2003 and was built to handle senior members of Saddam Hussein’s toppled Baathist regime.

The dictator himself was its most famous inmate between his capture after the invasion and his eventual execution in December 2006.

By a vote of 60 to 39, the Senate passed a sweeping measure that tightens regulations across the financial industry in an effort to avoid a repeat of the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

Obama is expected to sign the bill into law next week.

Washington denied kidnapping Shahram Amiri and insisted he had lived freely in the United States. A U.S. official said, however, that the United States, which suspects Iran of secretly developing nuclear weaponry, had obtained information from him.

Amiri, 32, repeated claims he was kidnapped in 2009 when on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and transferred to the United States, adding that he was offered $50 million to remain in America and “to spread lies” about Iran’s nuclear work.

At a ceremony in a hangar at Camp Cropper detention center near Baghdad airport, U.S. military officials gave their Iraqi counterparts a giant, symbolic key and said they were confident no prisoner maltreatment would occur under Iraqi supervision.

They also acknowledged some past mistakes.

In an unexpected move, the Vatican also codified the “attempted ordination of a woman” to the priesthood as one of the most serious crimes against Church law.

The changes, the first in nine years, affect Church procedures for defrocking abusive priests. They make some legal procedures which were so far allowed under an ad hoc basis, the global norms to confront the crisis.

To the relief of millions of people along the Gulf Coast, the big, billowing brown cloud of crude at the bottom of the sea disappeared from the underwater video feed for the first time since the disaster began in April, as BP closed the last of three openings in the 75-ton cap lowered onto the well earlier this week.

But the company stopped far short of declaring victory over the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history and one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters, a catastrophe that has killed wildlife and threatened the livelihoods of fishermen, restaurateurs, and oil industry workers from Texas to Florida.

The finding underscores that official tallies of birds impacted by the spill could be significantly underestimating the scope of damage.

The government counts only oiled birds collected for rehabilitation or found dead, for use as evidence in the spill investigation. Oiled birds in the many nesting areas that dot the Gulf coast typically are left in place and not counted in official tallies.

A year in the making and 22 months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a worldwide panic in credit and other markets, the bill cleared its final hurdle with a 60-39 Senate vote. It now goes to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature, expected as early as Wednesday.

The law will give the government new powers to break up companies that threaten the economy, create a new agency to guard consumers in their financial transactions and shine a light into shadow financial markets that escaped the oversight of regulators.

The change in command at Camp Cropper – which was renamed Karkh Prison – marks the end of a troubling chapter in the U.S. presence in the country, which was marred in the early years by photographs showing American soldiers abusing inmates at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

It also raised questions about how well prepared the Iraqis are to handle the detainees. Inmates in Iraqi detention facilities have repeatedly complained about torture and beatings by the police, as well as overcrowding and poor conditions behind bars. Prisoners in U.S. custody, meanwhile, have benefited from reforms in the wake of the 2004 Abu Ghraib scandal.

Former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee’s remarks were contained in a transcript sent to the special prosecutor investigating CIA interrogations by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., who also made a copy public on Thursday.

Interviewed by Judiciary Committee members on May 26, Bybee stressed the limits that he helped set on how far the CIA could go while at the same time acknowledging that his legal advice helped pave the way for tactics such as waterboarding, which evokes the sensation of drowning.

Abuse victims said the rules are little more than administrative housekeeping since they made few substantive changes to current practice, and what is needed are bold new rules to punish bishops who shield pedophiles.

Women’s ordination groups criticized the new rules because they included the attempted ordination of women as a “grave crime” subject to the same set of procedures and punishments meted out for sex abuse.

The law’s passage – a priority for President Cristina Fernandez’s government – has inspired activists to push for similar laws in other countries, and a wave of gay weddings are expected in Buenos Aires. Some gay business leaders are predicting an economic ripple effect from an increase in tourism among gays and lesbians who will see Argentina as an even more attractive destination.

But it also carries political risks for Fernandez and her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner. The vote divided their governing coalition, and while gay rights have strong support in the capital, anti-gay feelings still run strong in much of Argentine society, where the vast majority of people are Roman Catholic.

The CIA paid Shahram Amiri a total of $5 million to provide intelligence, but Amiri did not take the money with him, the U.S. official, who was briefed on the case, said Thursday. The funds were barred by U.S. Treasury sanctions that prohibit the flow of American dollars to Iran.

“Anything he got is now beyond his reach, thanks to the financial sanctions on Iran,” said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because public discussion of the case was not authorized. “He’s gone, but the money’s still here.”

Whether it was the luck of the draw or his tantalizing talent really didn’t matter.

In conditions so calm that not a hair on his considerable mop was out of place, McIlroy set off on an incredible run into the record book Thursday with a 9-under 63 that gave him a two-shot lead.

Factory output fell in June, according to a government report on industrial production. It was the sharpest monthly drop in a year. And two regional manufacturing indexes sank this month.

Production of automobiles, home-building materials and processed food all fell in June. The data sent stocks falling.

So far, she’s one of the lucky ones.

More than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans.

More and more Chinese bloggers are using the newer microblogs as their primary publishing tool, using their brief, punchy message format to chat with one another and promote their longer blog posts. But one of the country’s top four microblog sites is now down for maintenance, and the other three show a “beta” tag as if they are in testing, though they have been operating for months. The companies that run the websites aren’t saying why.

“I was writing a new post and suddenly my blog couldn’t open,” lawyer Pu Zhiqiang told The Associated Press. Legal expert Xu Zhiyong said his blog on the popular Sohu Inc. portal was also shut down Wednesday, a day after his Sohu microblog was closed. Both men are well-known for taking on sensitive issues.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton didn’t rule on whether to block the law from taking effect July 29, or whether to dismiss the lawsuit, one of seven. Another hearing on two other lawsuits – including one filed by the federal government – is set for Tuesday, and the judge has been careful to give no hints on who she might favor.

At stake is more than just who can detain illegal immigrants within U.S. borders. If Bolton rules in Arizona’s favor, it opens the door to states taking on issues that have long been the responsibility of the federal government.

“I’m somewhat stunned,” Lynne Stewart told U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl after he announced the sentence for her conviction for letting a jailed Egyptian sheik communicate with his radical followers despite restrictions in place to prevent it.

The sentence, nearly four times longer than the two-year, four-month sentence she originally received in 2006, left Stewart sobbing in her prison uniform after Koeltl described his reasons for increasing the prison time significantly.

The billionaire mayor, who outspent his Democratic opponent by more than 11 times, filed a final spending report Thursday with the state Board of Elections, showing $866,250 in expenses since the last filing in January.

Those costs were leftover bills and expenses associated with shutting down the 2009 campaign, said deputy mayor Howard Wolfson, who was Bloomberg’s campaign spokesman before he joined the administration.

But a growing number of school districts around the country are trying anyway.

“I can’t say enough for what it does for the kids to have the junk out of the machines,” says Patricia Gray, who as former principal of San Francisco’s Balboa High School oversaw a switch to healthier snacks.

Some three dozen kids ages 10 to 15 are spending five nights this week learning what organizers – some with tea party ties – say they won’t hear in school about the Constitution, the Founding Fathers and the role of faith in the birth of the United States.

“If we’re going to take our country back, we’ve got to remember where we came from – not only as adults, but we need to teach our children,” said Tim Fairfield, one of the teachers, who wore a three-cornered hat at the opening class of Vacation Liberty School. It’s held in a church basement in Georgetown, a city just north of Lexington that is the site of a major Toyota assembly plant.

Among the more typical skinny, stray mutts are healthy, seemingly well-tended dogs whose owners, because of the massive spill, suddenly don’t have the time or money to keep them.

“It’s the economy, the uncertainty of the future, for sure,” said shelter director Beth Brewster, who saw 117 owners surrender their animals last month – up from 17 in June 2009.

Nearly half a century later, attitudes toward that mineral – asbestos – have changed, and one state lawmaker wants serpentine stripped of its status.

Health authorities say asbestos, which is no longer mined in the U.S., can cause an incurable cancer called mesothelioma as well as other diseases when its fibers are inhaled.

It ended Wednesday as former officer Patrick Pogan’s criminal case was closed without jail time or probation after he was convicted of lying about the 2008 incident.

Pogan, 24, fought back tears, hugged relatives and thanked his lawyer and police union after hearing his sentence, technically known as a conditional discharge.

The panel, appointed by President Barack Obama to examine U.S. nuclear waste policies, toured the Hanford site, heard from local advocacy groups and Northwest American Indian tribes about the need for cleanup.

The visit to south-central Washington was one of several planned around the country by the 15-member Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. The group is charged with reviewing U.S. treatment, transportation and disposal of radioactive waste.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled 10-1 on Tuesday to reinstate a southern Wisconsin man’s conviction for having a gun while on probation for a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction. The decision followed the high court’s ruling last month that made Chicago’s outright handgun ban unenforceable. The court held that Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live.

The Wisconsin case was being closely watched by advocates of gun rights and domestic abuse victims, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling. While the court signaled some gun restrictions may survive legal challenges, it offered assurances only on laws that bar felons from having guns.

Utah is looking into whether a state worker may have illegally accessed a database containing the sensitive information to help compile a list that has sent chills through the Hispanic community.

The dossier – sent fhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100714/ap_on_re_us/us_abortion_missourirom an anonymous group to reporters, state officials and politicians – marks the latest example of hysteria that has spread since Arizona passed its harsh immigration crackdown this year. Immigrants liken the list to a modern-day witch hunt.

Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen and Officer Anthony Villavaso stood before a federal magistrate in green prison garb, shackled at the waist and ankles. They will remain jailed at least until a hearing Friday. A tentative trial date is set for Sept. 13.

Magistrate Louis Moore Jr. read the counts – 13 against Bowen, 11 against Gisevius and 10 against Villavaso. Former officer Robert Faulcon made his initial court appearance Tuesday in Texas, where he was arrested, but has not entered a plea.

The Democratic governor, facing his first decision on an abortion bill, sidestepped a direct endorsement of the new requirements by citing a Missouri constitutional provision allowing bills to become law without the governor’s signature.

The legislation is part of a national trend among abortion opponents to encourage women to reconsider their decisions through the use of modern medical technology.