Evening Edition

The US government allowed the British energy giant to keep in place a cap stemming the flow from the ruptured wellhead for another 24 hours, as engineers floated a new plan to kill the well.

BP said the aim would be to send down heavy drilling mud through the blowout preventer valve system that sits on top of the well and then inject cement into the wellhead to seal it.

US disaster response commander Admiral Thad Allen said engineers had found seepage and other anomalies, but said none were “consequential” enough to stop the well integrity test, now in its fifth day.

“At this point there is not any reason to believe that we have anything that’s a major issue in relation to the well’s integrity from the seepages we’ve located,” said Allen. “We have agreed that we will go forward with another 24-hour period from today to tomorrow.”

The US government allowed the British energy giant to keep in place a cap stemming the flow from the ruptured wellhead for another 24 hours, as engineers floated a new plan to kill the well.

BP said the aim would be to send down heavy drilling mud through the blowout preventer valve system that sits on top of the well and then inject cement into the wellhead to seal it.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led about 80 organisations and countries at a key conference in Kabul aiming to put Afghanistan on the road to stability — and allow foreign troops to draw down.

President Hamid Karzai is under intense Western pressure to crack down on corruption, make better use of billions of dollars of aid money and quell a virulent Taliban insurgency.

The 52-year-old leader, who has ruled Rwanda since his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) ended the 1994 genocide by extremists from the Hutu majority against his Tutsi minority, insisted the country was free to choose.

“Rwandan voters have the freedom to decide. But we have to seek their support and explain how we deserve their support,” Kagame told reporters in Kigali on the first day of the three-week official campaign.

In a packed hall in Vienna, researchers, policymakers and activists gave three standing ovations to a presentation of trial data that some hailed as a landmark in the 29-year war on AIDS.

Several hundred others watched from a spillover room.

Rivals Airbus and Boeing led the way in the orders battle for a second day running at the Farnborough International Airshow, though there were also major deals for Embraer, the Brazilian maker of small jets.

Since the start of the show on Monday, customers have signalled their intention to snap up passenger planes approaching a combined 50 billion dollars (39 billion euros) in value, as air traffic demand soars in emerging markets.

Astana’s race leader Alberto Contador, who took the yellow jersey from Luxembourg rival Andy Schleck on Monday, came over the finish line just under seven minutes later.

Schleck, who lost the yellow jersey to Contador after suffering a mechanical problem on Monday’s 15th stage, was expected to take his revenge on what was the third and penultimate day of racing in the Pyrenees.

Cameron arrived outside the West Wing in a US government limousine flying both the American and British flags and headed into talks with President Barack Obama, the highlight of his first official Washington visit.

Cameron went into the three-hour meeting fiercely defending US and British strategy in the Afghan war, amid skepticism about NATO withdrawal plans.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, at a White House news conference after a meeting with President Barack Obama, said he understood U.S. anger at BP over the oil spill. But Cameron said it was also important to both the U.S. and British economies that the company stay strong and stable.

Exactly three months after an explosion on an offshore rig killed 11 workers and caused millions of barrels of crude to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, BP announced it would sell its Vietnam pipeline and upstream assets as well as its Pakistan assets.

The Commerce Department said on Tuesday housing starts dropped 5.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 549,000 units, the lowest since October. It was the second straight month of declines in groundbreaking activity and was well below market expectations for a 580,000-unit rate.

The data was the latest in a series of indicators to imply the United States’ recovery from its longest and deepest recession since the 1930s took a step back in the second quarter, much earlier than economists had initially anticipated.

The comments from a Ministry of Industry and Information official largely echoed previous Chinese statements, but are still likely to be seen as good news for the company as Beijing has been coy about its long-term future in China.

Google is also in the process of ending its partnership with Chinese community site Tianya, in which it owns a stake, the firm said in a blog post on Tuesday.

The ambitious deadline will rely heavily on the success of some 150,000 foreign troops in an ongoing operation against the Taliban in their spiritual southern heartland, as well as on enticing thousands of insurgents to lay down arms.

It also depends on how fast foreign troops are able to train and equip their local counterparts, the difficulty of which was underscored on Tuesday when an Afghan soldier killed two U.S. civilians and one of his own comrades in northern Mazar-i-Sharif.

Oil and gas started seeping into the Gulf of Mexico again Sunday night, but this time more slowly, and scientists aren’t sure whether the leaks mean the cap that stopped the flow last week is making things worse.

The government’s point man on the disaster, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, will decide again later Tuesday whether to continue the test of the experimental cap – meaning the oil would stay blocked in.

Both Cameron and President Barack Obama, who met with him at the White House, condemned the release of Libyan bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi from a Scottish prison.

Still, Cameron said the release was not the doing of the British government nor, apparently, the result of any lobbying by BP, Britain’s largest company, to win oil concessions from Libya. Rather it was a decision by the government of Scotland on compassionate grounds, he said.

Allen was exhausted after playing a private party, but he couldn’t sleep until he and some friends had laid down their response. Like the oil from the Deepwater Horizon drill rig, “Sorry Ain’t Enough No More” came gushing out.

“To whom it may concern, come here, first things first.

“Elena Kagan will be confirmed,” predicted Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the Judiciary chairman. “She will go on the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., broke with his party to cast the sole GOP “yes” vote on President Obama’s nominee to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. The vote was 13-6.

The Paris-based agency said China’s 2009 consumption of energy sources ranging from oil and coal to wind and solar power was equal to 2.265 billion tons of oil, compared to 2.169 billion tons used that year by the United States.

The shift is historic, coming years ahead of forecasts. In climate change talks, China has long pointed fingers at the energy consumption patterns of developed nations and is sure to feel uncomfortable with the mantle of consuming more energy than any other nation.

The seven-time champion, knowing full well he no longer stands above all others in his sport, fought from beginning to end in the hopes of going out with a stage victory high in the Pyrenees.

It was not to be. Armstrong finished sixth after breaking away early in the 16th stage and holding his own through four major climbs of the Tour’s most demanding leg. But he lost in a final sprint, with Frenchman Pierrick Fedrigo winning the 124-mile ride.

Karzai spoke at a one-day international conference on Afghanistan’s future that comes at a critical juncture: NATO and Afghan forces have launched a major operation to drive the Taliban out of their strongholds, and the insurgents are pushing back. Rockets fired at the Kabul airport Tuesday forced the diversion of a plane carrying U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Sweden’s foreign minister.

Wearing a traditional striped robe and peaked fur hat, Karzai said that Afghanistan and its Western allies share “a vicious common enemy.” But, he said, victory will come in giving Afghans as much responsibility as possible in combatting the insurgency within its borders. He was flanked by international diplomats including Ban and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The group has also come up with a name for the open standard it is creating, which it was unveiling Tuesday: UltraViolet.

The open standard backed by movie studios including Warner Bros. and technology companies such as Microsoft Corp. represents a challenge to proprietary formats from Apple Inc. and others. Those formats lock buyers of video content to limited numbers of devices, such as the iPad or Apple TV.

The results need to be confirmed in another study, and that level of protection is probably not enough to win approval of the microbicide gel in countries like the United States, researchers say. But they are optimistic it can be improved.

“We are giving hope to women,” who account for most new HIV infections, said Michel Sidibe in a statement. He is executive director of the World Health Organization’s UNAIDS program. A gel could “help us break the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic,” he said.

The political action committee that raises money for Republican candidates was booted from the National Tea Party Federation for refusing to rebuke spokesman Mark Williams, whose posting referred to NAACP president Benjamin Jealous as “Tom’s nephew and NAACP head colored person.”

Tea Party Express coordinator Joe Wierzbicki said it was “arrogant and preposterous” for the federation to expel his group.

“Here comes the wire up the artery!” said Dr. Chick Weisse, who infused the dog’s cancerous liver with chemotherapy via a catheter at the century-old Animal Medical Center in Manhattan in an effort to “buy him some time.”

Brute was home in days, the cancer at bay a while longer – perhaps eight months. The cost: $2,000.

Susan Bolton sentenced a Mexican smuggler to 16 years in prison for leading 14 illegal immigrants to their death in the broiling Arizona desert.

She decided in 2002 that Border Patrol officials had legal immunity and couldn’t be sued for their part in a 1997 immigrant roundup that led to 430 arrests and drew complaints that Hispanics who were U.S. citizens were harassed because of their appearance.

The policy has affected people with developmental disabilities who need financial help to live independently and who receive additional assistance to buy groceries. The issue apparently went unnoticed for years until this month, when the father of a severely autistic Indianapolis man challenged it in court.

“I’ve never heard of a state being confused about this before. The law is unambiguous,” said Stacy Dean, director of food stamp policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.

Such is a day in the life of Keith McVey, the postal worker with the bronzed skin and the alert blue eyes who can’t walk down the street without being honked at by passing cars filled with his admirers – or, apparently, without saving a life.

“He’s a rock star in our eyes,” says Tina Starosto, a receptionist at King Apartments, where a sign declaring “Keith Our Hero” is prominently tacked to the office wall.

In a 7-0 ruling, justices said they were satisfied that Donald McGuire received a fair trial and that “justice has not miscarried for any reason.”

McGuire, a former spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa who commanded a worldwide following as a gifted preacher and philosopher, is considered one of the most influential figures convicted in the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal. Advocates for childhood victims of clergy sex abuse praised the court’s ruling.

Critics claim the Rwandan government is cracking down on dissent ahead of the Aug. 9 presidential election, citing the killings of opposition journalist Jean-Leonard Rugambage and opposition leader Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, the shooting of dissident former Rwandan general Kayumba Nyamwasa, as well as the arrest of American defense lawyer Peter Erlinder.

“We certainly might not be a model government for a lot of people, but we’re not a stupid government, and we will not try to kill three people in a row right before election, an election in which we believe strongly that President Paul Kagame would win,” Louise Mushikiwabo said in an interview with The Associated Press.

A report released Monday also says the victim knew the researchers were studying bears less than a mile from his summer cabin, and expressed hope that he would meet them while hiking so he could ask them about their work.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, a botanist from Park Ridge, Ill., went hiking the afternoon of June 17 from the summer cabin he owned about six miles from Yellowstone’s east gate. The 430-pound bear killed him where the bear, caught in a previously set snare, was studied that morning.

A well-known entertainment lawyer hired by Colton Harris-Moore’s mother says he is being swamped by unsolicited offers for book and movie deals, and no law would prohibit the 19-year-old or his mom from getting rich off his tale.

But hardball-playing prosecutors could seek to have them agree to turn over any profits from such deals in exchange for Harris-Moore avoiding a long prison sentence. The government could use the money to repay his alleged victims.

Mark Musso, president and CEO of Special Olympics Missouri, said the former priest, Tom Ericksen, 62, of Kansas City, was suspended indefinitely last week after the organization learned of the 1989 settlement with the Diocese of Superior, Wis.

Ericksen admitted in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday that he had fondled three boys but denied having contact with a fourth child involved in the settlement. He said the settlement totaled about $5 million.

The troops will be armed but can use their weapons only to protect themselves, Gen. Craig McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told a Pentagon news conference. The troops will undergo initial training and be fully deployed along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border by September.

The announcement provides details on how the government will implement President Barack Obama’s May decision to bolster border security and comes as drug-related violence has escalated in Mexico, where several people died over the weekend in a car bombing and in a separate massacre at a private party. It also comes as the U.S. debate over illegal immigration has intensified in an election year.