Evening Edition

Torrential monsoon rains triggered massive floods affecting a fifth of the volatile country — an area roughly the size of England — where a US official warned that foreign aid workers are at risk from Taliban attacks.

Villagers in the south fled from where the Indus delta merges with the Arabian Sea, trailing north in vans laden with furniture or crowded into buses, or in carts pulled by oxen. Some people were on foot, leading their livestock.

CNN reported that Chilean Health Minister Jaime Manalich said that three or four of the men do have some “problems” after enduring three weeks stuck underground following a shaft collapse.

They were having trouble sleeping and were becoming increasingly anxious and irritable after being cramped in the confined space for so long.

With a remarkable string of projects under way, totaling close to 15 billion dollars, the US Army Corps of Engineers is trying to protect the region from ever suffering such destruction again.

Colonel Robert Sinkler called it, “the largest project of its kind in the entire history of the Corps.”

Outside India, the anniversary was also celebrated in Mother Teresa’s birthplace in Macedonia, and in the country of her parents, Albania.

The Kolkata mass, presided over by Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo of Ranchi, was celebrated at the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity — the order of nuns that Mother Teresa founded in the eastern Indian city 60 years ago.

Three days after ending his nearly six-year marriage to Elin Nordegren, the world’s number one golfer fired seven birdies against a lone bogey to match fellow American Vaughn Taylor for the lead with half the field on the course.

Asked if he felt a weight lifted from him, Woods said: “I can’t really say that’s the case. As far as golf-wise, it was nice to put it together.”

Notes of brass and piano on Frenchmen Street showed off a robust scene that is attracting hordes of musicians — and tourists — back to the city despite the horrors of the past and the harsh economic times.

Blocks away, lawns and side streets were packed with late summer festival-goers celebrating the birthday of jazz great Louis Armstrong, a New Orleans native.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said the government would draw up stimulus plans in the coming days. “Given the current situation, we will decide on it as soon as possible,” he told reporters.

Separately, Vice Finance Minister Motohisa Ikeda called on the Bank of Japan to take prompt steps to support the economy, suggesting a desire for the central bank to further ease monetary policy.

Marches in more than 20 cities and towns were scheduled as unions representing over a million workers, who began an indefinite strike on August 18, threatened to broaden their action into a total industrial shutdown.

“We are expecting thousands and thousands of people,” South African Democratic Teachers Union general secretary Mugwena Maluleke in Johannesburg where workers planned to march through the city centre.

Pakistan’s finance minister and central bank governor joined International Monetary Fund talks in Washington that are focused on how much the floods have hurt an economy that was already in a parlous state.

Separately, the U.S. State Department said it had “threat information” that foreign aid workers and Pakistani ministries responding to the natural disaster may be targeted by militants.

The banks lobbied in vain against an amendment included in the financial reform act passed in July that limits some of their transaction fees.

Banks and analysts say billions of dollars in potentially lost revenue is at stake.

Small pieces of shrapnel still pit his skull and scars decorate his body after a missile strike in 2004 by a U.S. warplane on the city in the western province of Anbar — Iraq’s Sunni heartland and once a stomping ground for al Qaeda..

“Yes, we fought them to the death and we dreamed of the day when they would leave Iraq,” he said, laying aside a crutch as he sat down on a plastic chair in his house.

About 9.9 percent of homeowners had missed at least one mortgage payment as of June 30, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday. That number, adjusted for seasonal factors, was barely down from a record-high of more than 10 percent as of April 30.

The Labor Department said requests for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week. The drop in first-time claims to a seasonally adjusted 473,000 was the first decline in a month and a hopeful sign after a raft of dismal economic reports.

A spurt of violence this week in provinces far from the Taliban’s main southern strongholds suggests the insurgency is spreading, even as the top U.S. commander insists the coalition has reversed the militants’ momentum in key areas of the ethnic Pashtun south where the Islamist movement was born.

Attacks in the north and west of the country – though not militarily significant – demonstrate that the Taliban are becoming a threat across wide areas of Afghanistan even as the United States and its partners mount a major effort to turn the tide of the nearly 9-year-old war in the south.

The militant group has attacked aid workers in the country before, and an outbreak of violence could complicate a relief effort that has already struggled to reach the 8 million people who are in need of emergency assistance.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq claimed the U.S. and other countries that have pledged support are not really focused on providing aid to flood victims but had other motives he did not specify.

FDA officials said Thursday that investigators found salmonella in chicken feed at Wright County Egg that was used by that farm and also Hillandale Farms. They also found additional samples of salmonella in other locations at Wright County Egg. More than 550 million eggs from the two farms were recalled this month after they were linked to salmonella poisoning in several states.

Also Thursday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that there could now be as many as 1,470 illnesses linked to the outbreak, about 200 more than previously thought.

“If someone asks for eggs over-easy, what do you do, put a skull and crossbones on their table?” said Louis Tricoli, who owns three Wisconsin restaurants with his family, including one where nearly two dozen people were sickened in late June after likely eating the now-recalled eggs. “Undercooked beef, undercooked pork, chicken, eggs, anything you ask to be undercooked, it’s at your own risk.”

And so, instead of taking eggs off the menu, many restaurateurs are relying on long-standing menu warnings about the dangers of eating undercooked food. And waitstaffs are fielding questions from concerned guests worried that what they’re being served may not be safe.

In his first tournament since his divorce, Woods played his best round of the year Thursday at The Barclays by missing only one fairway, putting for birdie on all but two holes and shooting a 6-under 65 for his lowest score all season.

“It feels good to be able to control my ball all day like this,” Woods said.

A team of submarine commanders was called in for advice on close-quarters living. NASA is advising on “life sciences” and giving the men a sense they control their own destinies. Exercise programs are in place so the miners are skinny enough to fit through a rescue hole.

Even a masseuse roams a makeshift camp for the miners’ families, relieving tensions with a touch.

But an examination of details in the 50-page report unveiled Tuesday by Vice President Joe Biden reveals something a bit different: a collection of rosy projections that ignore many of the challenges, pitfalls and economic realities in all those areas.

A look at how the administration’s claims compare to the facts:

The lines marking the site of the 2001 terror attacks change depending on which New Yorker, 9/11 family member and American you talk to. Even those who know it best can’t agree on its boundaries. Tourists who come to snap pictures outside of a busy construction site often aren’t sure that they’re there.

Andrew Slawsky, a 22-year-old college student standing outside the proposed mosque and Islamic center, north of the World Trade Center site, says ground zero is not here.

“This is going to be a moment that you’ll never be able to paint people as haters, racists, none of it,” he says of the event featuring Sarah Palin and other conservative political and cultural figures. “This is a moment, quite honestly, that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement.”

Some civil rights veterans are skeptical.

Heavily favored Sen. Lisa Murkowski watched the surprising returns showing a tight race Tuesday night, becoming painfully aware of both Palin’s impact and growing anti-government sentiment.

With all precincts reporting, the Republican senator trailed conservative lawyer Joe Miller by 1,668 votes Wednesday, leaving both hoping that uncounted absentee ballots will give them the victory.

Just don’t ask him for specifics.

While the Ranger Recon initiative has served as a strong rhetorical counterpoint when Perry slams the federal government, details about what the taxpayer-funded teams actually accomplish remain a secret.

The players aren’t so sure.

During a five-hour meeting at a posh hotel in downtown Atlanta, the push to add two more games to the regular season picked up steam Wednesday – at least among those who sign the checks.

Diyala police spokesman Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi said the government-allied fighters, known as Sahwa or Awakening Councils, were driving near the town of Muqdadiyah around 1:30 a.m. when their car hit a roadside bomb.

The explosion killed four of the guards immediately, al-Karkhi said. Gunmen then attacked the two survivors, killing them, he said.

The baby-faced college student was charged Wednesday with using a folding knife to slash the neck and face of the taxi’s Bangladeshi driver after the driver said he was Muslim. Enright was so drunk and incoherent when he was arrested that he was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, police said.

He was later taken to court and remained jailed without bail Thursday on hate crime charges.

The latest examples of conservative insurgents’ clout came Tuesday at opposite ends of the country. In Florida, political newcomer Rick Scott beat longtime congressman and state Attorney General Bill McCollum for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. And in Alaska, tea party activists and Sarah Palin pushed Sen. Lisa Murkowski to the brink of defeat, depending on absentee ballot counts in her race against outsider Joe Miller.

The GOP is likely to survive its bitter intraparty battles in such states as Alaska and Utah, even if voters oust veteran senators in both. But tea party-backed candidates might be a godsend to desperate Democrats elsewhere – in Nevada, Florida and perhaps Kentucky, where the Democrats portray GOP nominees as too extreme for their states.

The policy change could turn into a hassle for seniors who hadn’t intended to switch plans during Medicare’s open enrollment season this fall.

And it risks undercutting President Barack Obama’s promise that people who like their health care plans can keep them.

U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel said Rod Blagojevich’s retrial will start the week of Jan. 4, but he did not set a specific date. Jurors deadlocked last week on all but one of 23 charges against the former governor and four charges against his brother.

Robert Blagojevich said he was surprised by the dismissal, but had an inkling that prosecutors were wavering in their case against him when they called his attorney “proposing a strategy” on Wednesday.

One-by-one, each person steps up to a small cart festooned with a multicolored umbrella and is handed what they’ve all come miles to get – what they probably have been craving all day: a frozen pop.

And not the red, purple and orange sugary pops from childhood, either. These sweets are full of unexpected ingredients like cardamom, cilantro, lavender and ginger. They’re iced tea mixed with lemonade – called an Arnold Palmer – or banana pudding with chunks of vanilla wafers.

Michigan tea party supporters flocked to Republican party meetings across the state this month and won several hundred delegate seats for the Saturday state convention, including Weiser’s. Now, the activists are positioned for an attempt to push the Michigan GOP further to the right and put hard-core conservatives on November’s general election ballot.

The tea party’s bid to capitalize on its delegate coup, which caught veteran Republican activists by surprise, is an important test for a national movement seeking concrete political impact.

Here are three stories of survival and readjustment, by Associated Press writers who tracked down individuals they had first met in Katrina’s chaotic wake.

On a growing number of campuses, first-year students are hearing another message. Please give. Not for tuition, but instead as a young donor.

With alumni-giving rates at record lows and lagging state support of postsecondary education, public and private schools alike are focusing their efforts on building lifetime loyalty among still-impressionable students.

The GED pilot program known as the Army’s prep school started here in summer 2008, when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan left the service scrambling to find soldiers. But since then, with the economy in a downward spiral and jobs hard to come by, more people with diplomas have been enlisting.

In 2008, 82.8 percent of people who enlisted for active duty were high school graduates. That number jumped to 94.6 percent in 2009.

Senior Judge Pat Priest ruled that appropriate safeguards could be taken to give the Republican a fair trial in Democratic-leaning Travis County. Priest set a trial date for Oct. 26.

“I hope I can get a fair trial here. We’ll find out,” DeLay said. “We’re ready.”

Roger Meece, the new U.N. special representative, said peacekeepers didn’t learn about the “horrific” rapes of at least 154 Congolese civilians for nearly two weeks, which showed that the force’s actions to protect civilians were insufficient and need to be improved.

He said one idea being pursued was to have villages report to the U.N.’s forward operating base at Kibua every day. If the force did not receive a report, he said, it would assume there was a problem and send a patrol to investigate.

The five soldiers were charged with murder in June for the deaths of three Afghan civilians in Kandahar Province this year. According to charging summaries newly released by the Army, additional allegations of conspiracy have since been filed against those soldiers, and seven others have been charged in connection with the conspiracy or with attempting to cover it up.

The new charges arose from the investigations into the killings and into a brutal assault on an enlisted man who had informed on soldiers smoking hashish, The Times reported. The informant reported hearing soldiers talk about killing civilians.

The Huntington, a sprawling complex of libraries, museums and botanical gardens located in the rolling hills of this wealthy Los Angeles suburb, has had charge of the original papers since Gen. George Patton quietly deposited them there at the end of World War II.

Patton, who disobeyed orders by taking the papers out of the Germany, grew up in San Marino and was friends with the family of Henry Huntington, the California railroad baron who carved The Huntington out of the grounds of his estate.