Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

34 Top Story Final.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Afghan president formally orders security firms to disband

by Sardar Ahmad, AFP

1 hr 8 mins ago

KABUL (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai Tuesday ordered all private security firms in the country to disband to prevent the misuse of weapons that could cause “heart-breaking and tragic incidents”.

“I approve the full disbandment of private security companies, both national and international, within four months,” Karzai said in the decree.

The decision aims “to better provide security for the lives and property of citizens, fight corruption, prevent irregularities and the misuse of arms, military uniforms and equipment by private security companies that have caused heart-breaking and tragic incidents,” the decree said.

2 59 die in suicide attack on Iraq army recruitment centre

by Ammar Karim, AFP

1 hr 12 mins ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) – A suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded army recruitment centre in Baghdad killing 59 people Tuesday, officials said, as violence coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan raged across Iraq.

The attack, blamed on Al-Qaeda and the deadliest this year, wounded at least another 100 people and came a day after Iraq’s two main political parties suspended talks over the formation of a new government and as the US withdraws thousands of its soldiers from the country.

US President Barack Obama led international condemnation of the attack, with his spokesman insisting the bomber’s attempt to “derail the advances that the Iraqi people have made” would not succeed.

3 Pakistan wins more flood aid

by Emmanuel Duparcq, AFP

1 hr 24 mins ago

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan won more aid pledges Tuesday as UN officials warned money needs to come through faster to help 20 million people hit by disastrous floods and stave off a “second wave of death” from disease.

Torrential monsoon rain triggered catastrophic floods which have affected a fifth of the country, wiping out villages, rich farm land, infrastructure and killing an estimated 1,600 people in the nation’s worst natural disaster.

The United Nations last week launched an immediate appeal for 460 million dollars to cover the next 90 days and UN chief Ban Ki-moon visited Pakistan at the weekend, calling on the world to quicken its aid pledges.

4 US must support flagging housing market: Geithner

by P. Parameswaran, AFP

2 hrs 25 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday that the government must bolster the embattled American housing sector to avoid more damaging recessions in the future.

“Without such support, the risk is that future recessions could be more severe because the financial system would not have the capital to support mortgage lending on an adequate scale,” he said.

“House price declines could be more acute, with even greater damage to financial wealth and economic security,” Geithner said at a conference in Washington on the future of housing finance in the United States.

5 Taiwan parliament passes historic China trade pact

by Benjamin Yeh, AFP

Tue Aug 17, 12:20 pm ET

TAIPEI (AFP) – Taiwan’s parliament Tuesday approved a historic but controversial trade deal with China which is expected to bring the two former rivals closer than ever before.

Getting the Taiwanese legislature’s approval was seen as crucial in terms of securing legitimacy for the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) — by far the island’s most wide-ranging accord yet with China.

“The ECFA is extremely important to Taiwan if it hopes to avoid being marginalised economically amid an increasing number of trade blocs,” said Cheng Ching-ling, a legislator with the pro-China Kuomintang (KMT) party.

6 Anelka takes the main hit for France’s World Cup fiasco

by Philippe Grelard, AFP

2 hrs 15 mins ago

PARIS (AFP) – France international striker Nicolas Anelka’s international career all but officially came to an end Tuesday as he received an 18-match ban for his foul-mouthed outburst at then coach Raymond Domenech at the World Cup, a French Football Federation disciplinary commission decided.

The commission also handed out a five-match ban to World Cup captain Patrice Evra, three matches to vice-captain Franck Ribery and one match to Lyon midfielder Jeremy Toulalan.

Eric Abidal, the fifth player called before the commission – Ribery was not present as his club Bayern Munich refused to release him and Anelka, as expected, did not show up – convinced the commission that he was an innocent party and was absolved.

7 "Kamikaze" owners distorting transfer market – Ferguson

by Alec Kennedy, AFP

1 hr 31 mins ago

MANCHESTER, England (AFP) – Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson feels that wealthy club owners’ “kamikaze effort” to spend money have distorted the transfer market.

United have had another quiet summer of transfer dealings, with Chris Smalling, Javier Hernandez and Bebe arriving for a total of 25 million pounds (40 million dollars).

It follows on from last summer, when Ferguson spent a similar figure on bringing Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen and Gabriel Obertan to Old Trafford.

8 Israel has ‘8 days’ to hit Iran nuclear site: Bolton

AFP

Tue Aug 17, 8:02 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israel has “eight days” to launch a military strike against Iran’s Bushehr nuclear facility and stop Tehran from acquiring a functioning atomic plant, a former US envoy to the UN has said.

Iran is to bring online its first nuclear power reactor, built with Russia’s help, on August 21, when a shipment of nuclear fuel will be loaded into the plant’s core.

At that point, John Bolton warned Monday, it will be too late for Israel to launch a military strike against the facility because any attack would spread radiation and affect Iranian civilians.

9 Pentagon warning over China military build-up

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

Tue Aug 17, 7:28 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – China is extending its military advantage over Taiwan and increasingly looking beyond, building up a force with power to strike in Asia as far afield as the US territory of Guam, the Pentagon said.

In an annual report to Congress, the US Defense Department said Monday that China was ramping up investment in an array of areas including nuclear weapons, long-range missiles, submarines, aircraft carriers and cyber warfare.

“The balance of cross-Strait military forces continues to shift in the mainland’s favor,” the report said.

10 Court halts California gay marriage

by Romain Raynaldy, AFP

Tue Aug 17, 7:19 am ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Gay couples in California scrapped wedding plans Tuesday after a court halted same-sex unions until the completion of an appeals process expected to end up in the US Supreme Court.

A week after a landmark decision overturned a ban on gay marriage, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a motion for a stay of the order, effectively reinstating the ban.

Further appeal proceedings are now scheduled to take place the week of December 6 in San Francisco.

11 British airports strike averted

by Sam Reeves, AFP

Tue Aug 17, 5:51 am ET

LONDON (AFP) – Air travellers breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday after unions and management reached agreement to avert a strike that could have shut down six British airports on a key holiday weekend this month.

Nine hours of talks ended late Monday with an agreement between the Unite union and airports operator BAA on a new pay offer.

Unite members, including firefighters and security staff, had originally voted by three to one to take action and threatened a “total shutdown” of airports including London Heathrow, the world’s busiest international passenger hub.

12 Afghanistan orders ban on private security firms

By Paul Tait, Reuters

Tue Aug 17, 1:56 pm ET

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a decree on Tuesday setting a deadline of four months to disband private security companies despite concerns by Washington over the plan.

The Pentagon called the deadline “very challenging” but said the United States would work with the Afghan government and seek to improve oversight and management of private security firms, long an irritant to Afghans.

“Obviously that is a very aggressive timeline and one which I think our forces and commanders as well as the State Department and (U.S.) ambassador will be working with the government of Afghanistan to achieve,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

13 Judges targeted as bomber kills 57 Iraq army recruits

By Waleed Ibrahim and Ahmed Rasheed, Reuters

2 hrs 57 mins ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At least 57 recruits and soldiers were killed and 123 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at an army recruitment center in Baghdad on Tuesday, two weeks before the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq.

The blast, which tore through a line of recruits, was one of the bloodiest this year and occurred as suspected insurgents also launched an assassination campaign against judges in the Iraqi capital and a volatile province north of Baghdad.

The bloodshed added to tensions that have simmered following an inconclusive election more than five months ago that has yet to produce a new government.

14 Obama seeks new design for housing, Fannie/Freddie

By Kevin Drawbaugh and David Lawder, Reuters

22 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s role in housing finance should undergo “fundamental change,” but it should still provide some guarantees in the mortgage market, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

Setting the stage for what promises to be a long debate about fixing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Geithner convened a conference of housing industry leaders and heard a range of ideas about reforms for the $10.7 trillion mortgage market.

Almost two years after the government seized Fannie and Freddie to save them from collapse, there is a widely held view that reform is needed, but the agreement ends there.

15 Republican Paul leads Senate race in Kentucky

By John Whitesides, Reuters

2 hrs 15 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican Rand Paul, a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, has a narrow lead among likely voters in a Senate race in Kentucky, where economic worries top voters’ concerns, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday said.

Paul leads state attorney general Democrat Jack Conway by 45 percent to 40 percent among likely voters in the November 2 election. In a broader pool of registered voters, the two are deadlocked at 40 percent.

The sluggish economy leads among voter worries, with 58 percent naming it as the state’s biggest problem. It finished ahead of education issues, which was second at 16 percent.

16 Obama pushes Republicans on jobs bill

By Patricia Zengerle, Reuters

33 mins ago

SEATTLE (Reuters) – President Barack Obama pressed Senate Republicans on Tuesday to pass his $30 billion plan to help banks boost lending to small businesses, blasting the opposition for playing “political games” with a measure he says will help generate jobs.

Obama has painted Republicans as obstructionist allies of big corporate interests as he has crisscrossed the United States this week, traveling thousands of miles to raise millions of dollars for Democrats running for Congress and governorships in the November 2 mid-term elections.

He took the same tone when he stopped at a Seattle bakery to meet with small business owners and tout the bill.

17 California gay marriage case hangs on technicality

By Peter Henderson and Dan Levine, Reuters

1 hr 7 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The next stage of California’s gay marriage court battle rests on a procedural issue that could halt the case, leaving same-sex unions legal in California without a Supreme Court ruling to guide the nation.

A San Francisco federal judge struck down the California same-sex marriage ban known as Proposition 8 earlier this month, and the case was immediately appealed to the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

On Monday, those appellate judges set a hearing for December and put gay marriages on hold pending appeal. They made only one comment relating to legal issues, asking the pro Prop 8 team to say why the case should not be dismissed due to lack of standing — a term for the right to appeal.

18 Obama campaigning, ties Republicans to big business

By Patricia Zengerle, Reuters

Tue Aug 17, 2:36 am ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – President Barack Obama painted Republicans as obstructionist allies of corporate America on Monday as he crossed the United States campaigning for his fellow Democrats fighting to keep control of the Congress and for state governorships in November’s elections.

At a battery plant in Wisconsin Obama sought to convince voters he can ease high unemployment and has a plan to fix a slowing economy in which fears have grown of a double-dip recession.

He accused Republicans of trying to turn back the clock by resisting his administration’s efforts to bolster the sagging economy.

19 GM IPO filing expected Tuesday

By Soyoung Kim and Clare Baldwin, Reuters

Mon Aug 16, 7:34 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – General Motors Co has completed the paperwork for an initial public offering, and timing of its filing with the U.S. securities regulators rests with the board of the top U.S. automaker, sources familiar with the process said on Monday.

The initial prospectus, expected to be for $100 million, is likely to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, two people said, asking not to be named because the preparations for the IPO are private.

GM updated its several-hundred page S-1 document to add a management risk factor after Chief Executive Ed Whitacre said on Thursday he would step down and be succeeded by Dan Akerson effective in September, the source said.

20 AP Exclusive: Terrorist interrogation tapes found

By ADAM GOLDMAN and MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writers

37 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The CIA has videotapes, after all, of interrogations in a secret overseas prison of admitted 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh.

Discovered in a box under a desk at the CIA, the tapes could reveal how foreign governments aided the United States in holding and interrogating suspects. And they could complicate U.S. efforts to prosecute Binalshibh, who has been described as one of the “key plot facilitators” in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Apparently the tapes do not show harsh treatment – unlike videos the agency destroyed of the questioning of other suspected terrorists.

21 Bomber kills 61 Iraqis in recruitment drive

By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer

28 mins ago

BAGHDAD – Young men from some of Iraq’s poorest areas waited all night outside an army recruitment center, only to become easy prey Tuesday for a suicide bomber who killed 61 in the crowd. Desperate for jobs, dazed survivors rushed to get back in line after the attack.

Officials quickly blamed al-Qaida for the deadliest single act of violence in the capital in months. Police said 125 people were wounded.

Bodies of bloodied young men, some still clutching job applications in their hands, were scattered on the ground outside the headquarters’ gate. Soldiers collected bits of flesh and stray hands and legs as frantic Iraqis showed up to search for relatives.

22 GOP calls Obama insensitive over stand on mosque

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer

13 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Republican candidates around the country seized on President Barack Obama’s support for the right of Muslims to build a mosque near ground zero, assailing him as an elitist who is insensitive to the families of the Sept. 11 victims.

From statehouses to state fairs on Tuesday, Republican incumbents and challengers unleashed an almost unified line of criticism against the president days after he forcefully defended the construction of a $100 million Islamic center two blocks from the site of the 2001 terror attacks.

Recalling the emotion of that deadly day, Republicans said that while they respect religious freedom, the president’s position was cold and academic, lacking compassion and empathy for the victims’ families.

23 Flood victims mob relief trucks in Pakistan

By TIM SULLIVAN and ASHRAF KHAN, Associated Press Writers

42 mins ago

SHIKARPUR, Pakistan – Victims of Pakistan’s deadly floods mobbed relief trucks carrying food Tuesday and authorities in the northwest warned of famine unless the region’s farmers got immediate help with planting new crops.

The floods began three weeks ago, but there is little sign conditions are improving for some 20 million people – or one in nine Pakistanis – who are affected. Tens of thousands of villages remain under water, and officials feared that more flooding could be on the way.

The already shaky and unpopular government has been sorely tested by the disaster, which is complicating the U.S.-backed campaign against Islamist militants. The international community is rushing water, medicine, shelter and aid workers to the country, but aid groups and the British government have complained that the response has been too slow and not generous enough.

24 Study: 1 in 5 US teenagers has slight hearing loss

By CARLA K. JOHNSON, AP Medical Writer

43 mins ago

CHICAGO – A stunning number of teens have lost a little bit of their hearing – nearly one in five – and the problem has increased substantially in recent years, a new national study has found.

Some experts are urging teenagers to turn down the volume on their digital music players, suggesting loud music through earbuds may be to blame – although hard evidence is lacking. They warn that slight hearing loss can cause problems in school and set the stage for hearing aids in later life.

“Our hope is we can encourage people to be careful,” said the study’s senior author Dr. Gary Curhan of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

25 Wear wristwatch? Use e-mail? Not for Class of ’14

By DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press Writer

Tue Aug 17, 9:24 am ET

MILWAUKEE – For students entering college this fall, e-mail is too slow, phones have never had cords and the computers they played with as kids are now in museums.

The Class of 2014 thinks of Clint Eastwood more as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry urging punks to “go ahead, make my day.” Few incoming freshmen know how to write in cursive or have ever worn a wristwatch.

These are among the 75 items on this year’s Beloit College Mindset List. The compilation, released Tuesday, is assembled each year by two officials at this private school of about 1,400 students in Beloit, Wis.

26 Calif. gays must wait to wed during Prop 8 appeal

By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer

Tue Aug 17, 12:17 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Gay couples who had been gearing up to get married in California this week had to put their wedding plans on hold once again after a federal appeals court said it first wanted to consider the constitutionality of the state’s same-sex marriage ban.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals imposed an emergency stay Monday on a trial court judge’s ruling overturning the ban, known as Proposition 8. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker had ordered state officials to stop enforcing the measure starting Wednesday, clearing the way for county clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

“It’s saddening just to know that we still have to keep waiting for this basic human right,” Marcia Davalos, of Los Angeles, a health care advocate who had planned to marry her partner, Laurette Healey, said when the stay was issued Monday. “We were getting excited and then all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Ugh.’ It’s a roller-coaster.”

27 Survey of viewers shows extent of TV time shifting

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

Tue Aug 17, 6:53 am ET

NEW YORK – If you’ve never time-shifted a prime-time television series – watched it later on a DVR, over the Internet or ordered it on demand – you’re now in the minority.

A survey of viewers conducted on the eve of the new fall season quantifies what has become commonplace in millions of American homes: People are putting themselves in charge of their own TV schedule.

Sixty-two percent of viewers across the country interviewed in a poll conducted for the nation’s largest cable company, Comcast Corp., said they have used time-shifting technology. Six in 10 people said they owned a digital video recorder.

28 Banking execs say gov’t needs to back mortgages

By ALAN ZIBEL, AP Real Estate Writer

Tue Aug 17, 11:59 am ET

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration invited banking executives Tuesday to offer advice on changing the government’s role in the mortgage market. Their response: stay big.

While the executives disagreed on the exact level of support needed, the group overwhelmingly advocated the government should maintain a large role propping up the nearly $11 trillion market.

Bill Gross, managing director of bond giant Pimco, said the economic recovery required more government stimulus, particularly in the housing market. He suggested the administration push for the automatic refinancing of millions homes backed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac.

29 Hispanic immigrants hold high hopes for life in US

By NANCY BENAC and ILEANA MORALES, Associated Press Writers

Tue Aug 17, 7:23 am ET

WASHINGTON – Daily life for Marlen Lopez sounds anything but easy: The undocumented worker cleans offices to pay her bills and hasn’t seen her 8-year-old son since she left El Salvador three years ago. Yet Lopez is happy with her job, hopeful about the future and confident her son will one day graduate from college in the United States.

For the 33-year-old Lopez, as for many other Hispanic immigrants, optimism about life in the U.S. appears to be partly a product of what she sees in the rearview mirror.

An Associated Press-Univision poll of more than 1,500 Latinos finds that Hispanic immigrants, many of whom faced huge problems in their homelands, have more idealized views of the United States than Hispanics who were born in America do.

30 AP IMPACT: Laws on sports agents rarely enforced

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 34 mins ago

When sports agent Jason Paul Wood met a pair of Miami baseball players in 2006 to talk about turning pro, his failure to notify the university and register with the state of Florida cost him a $2,500 fine.

Like 41 other states and the federal government, Florida has laws intended to keep amateur college athletes from losing their eligibility – and their schools from getting in trouble with the NCAA – because of dealings with an agent.

At a time when concern about improper contact between athletes and agents is spiking, however, cases such as Wood’s are an exception, not the rule.

31 Miss. lesbian student sues over rejected tux photo

By SHELIA BYRD, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 14 mins ago

JACKSON, Miss. – Another teenage lesbian is suing a rural Mississippi school district, this time over a policy banning young women from wearing tuxedos in senior yearbook portraits.

Ceara Sturgis’ dispute with the central Mississippi Copiah County School District started in 2009, well before a student in another Mississippi school district, Constance McMillen, found national attention in her fight to wear a tuxedo and take a same-sex date to prom.

On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit for Sturgis, claiming the Copiah County district discriminated against her on the basis of sex and gender stereotypes. Her photo and name were kept out of her senior yearbook.

32 Aid groups again denied access to Darfur camp

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 16 mins ago

UNITED NATIONS – Sudanese authorities on Tuesday again prevented aid workers from entering a camp for 80,000 displaced people in South Darfur, a day after allowing a small group in for the first time in two weeks to deliver medicine and fuel to operate water pumps.

United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said representatives of U.N. agencies and humanitarian organizations wanted to return to Kalma Camp to further assess conditions and additional humanitarian needs but were denied access.

Tensions have been high at Kalma since late July, when demonstrations by opponents of peace talks with the government turned violent, leaving at least five people dead. The camp has a strong base of supporters of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, which is not taking part in talks in Doha, Qatar, aimed at ending the seven-year war in Darfur.

33 Atlanta latest in string of cheating scandals

By DORIE TURNER, Associated Press Writer

Tue Aug 17, 1:49 pm ET

ATLANTA – A cheating scandal is roiling Atlanta Public Schools, casting into doubt the work of hundreds of students in at least 12 of the mostly poor, mostly minority district’s elementary and middle schools.

At one elementary school, a student said his teacher whispered in his ear the correct answers for a standardized test.

A teacher at another school reported seeing school administrators and other educators erasing wrong answers and filling in the right ones after students had turned in tests. One teacher said an administrator told her to “shhhh” when she brought up possible cheating by educators in the school.

34 LA judge frees thief who got 25 yrs on 3rd strike

By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, Associated Press Writer

Tue Aug 17, 4:46 am ET

LOS ANGELES – After 13 years behind bars for trying to break in to a church kitchen to find something to eat, a man who became an example of the harsh sentences allowed by California’s three-strikes law has been ordered released from prison.

A Superior Court judge amended Gregory Taylor’s sentence to eight years already served and the 47-year-old, who was sentenced in 1997 to 25 years to life, will be a free man in a few days.

Tears streamed down Taylor’s face and Judge Peter Espinoza asked a bailiff to get him a tissue.

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    • on 08/17/2010 at 23:32
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    • on 08/17/2010 at 23:53

    has been found guilty if lying to the FBI, hung jury other 23 counts. The dumb ass lied to the FBI about something that he didn’t have to lie because he swas not engage in illegal campaign fund raising.

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