Evening Edition

Torrential monsoon rains have triggered massive floods that have moved steadily from north to south over the past month, engulfing a fifth of the volatile country and affecting 17 million of its 167 million people.

Southern Sindh is the worst-affected province, with 19 of its 23 districts ravaged as flood waters swell the raging Indus river to 40 times its usual volume.

Indonesia issued a red alert after the Sinabung volcano erupted, blanketing the area in thick and acrid black smoke, disaster officials said, although no casualties have yet been reported.

“It’s clearly dangerous so we’ve raised the warning to the highest level, or red level,” said Surono, head of the nation’s volcano disaster alert centre.

He acknowledged that the famed jazz city, where at least 1,500 people died in the storm and its aftermath, was still in need of support, but said community efforts had ensured “New Orleans is blossoming once more.”

“Together, we are helping to make New Orleans a place that stands for what we can do in America, not just for what we can’t do,” he said in a speech at the city’s Xavier University.

“On Sunday, there will contact between one family member and each miner, who will have the chance to speak for at least a minute and have some personal contact,” Mines Minister Laurence Golborne said Saturday.

To date, the only contact between relatives and the men, stuck 700 meters underground for 24 days, has been through notes and official intermediaries.

President Sebastian Pinera is reportedly pressuring rescuers to get the miners out before September 18, the bicentennial anniversary of Chile’s independence from Spanish colonial rule.

“Plan B has already been designed,” Health Minister Jaime Manalich said Saturday, noting details would be released soon.

The genome comprises 600 million base pairs, or “rungs” of DNA in the ladder of genetic code, they reported in the journal Nature Genetics.

The apple is a member of the Rosaceae family, which includes a third of all flowering plants, among them a broad variety of fruit species, such as the peach, raspberry, pear and strawberry.

The non-binding cash offer of 69 dollars per share in the company which specialises in developing treatments for rare diseases, represents a 38 percent premium over the 49.86 dollars Genzyme’s shares closed at on July 1 before takeover rumours began to swirl, according to Sanofi.

Sanofi said it was disclosing to Genzyme’s shareholders the contents of its offer, which it initially made in July, after the company’s management rejected it on August 11 and declined to enter into constructive talks.

“This man went missing. If you know his whereabouts, please call KFOR or 92 (the police).”

Andrija Tomanovic, the 62-year-old chief of surgery in Pristina’s hospital, disappeared in broad daylight on June 24, 1999, two weeks after the war ended and NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping forces controlled the area.

The News of the World newspaper said it paid 150,000 pounds (230,000 dollars, 185,000 euros) to a middle man in return for details about the timing of three no-balls in the match, which ended Sunday in victory for England.

The report said two Pakistan bowlers, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif, delivered blatant no-balls at the exact points in the match indicated by the alleged fixer in advance.

Victory, wrapped up before lunch on the fourth day, gave England the series, their last before they defend the Ashes in Australia in November, 3-1.

But Pakistan’s heaviest defeat in Test cricket, surpassing their innings and 198-run loss to Australia at Sharjah in 2002, was overshadowed by allegations they had been involved in a betting scam at Lord’s.

McLaren’s 2008 champion took the lead at the start and then controlled the 44-laps race through two safety car periods and some perilous weather conditions on his way to a well-deserved victory.

It was the Briton’s first win in Belgium, his third win this season and the 15th of his career in his 64th Grand Prix.

Demonstrators voiced their anger over the Philippine government’s handling of the siege in the heart of Manila on Monday which left eight Hong Kong tourists dead amid widespread complaints of police bungling.

“It’s too late for the governments to do anything, but Hong Kong people hope that, at the very least, the Philippine authorities could tell us the truth,” Daisy Kwong, a telecoms firm project manager, told AFP.

The government, worried that militants could use BlackBerry’s heavily encrypted services to plan attacks, warned earlier this month it would start blocking emails and instant messages sent on the smartphones unless the company comes up with a way for security agencies to decode the traffic by August 31.

There were indications late last week the deadline might be pushed back beyond Tuesday’s deadline as BlackBerry’s Canadian makers, Research in Motion (RIM), scrambled to satisfy the authorities.

Zara’s virtual boutique will be available on Thursday in selected European markets: Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal and Britain.

From 2011, it will be expanded to the United States, Japan and South Korea.

The disaster has killed at least 1,643 people, forced more than six million from their homes, inflicted billions of dollars of damage to infrastructure and the vital agriculture sector and stirred anger against the U.S.-backed government which has struggled to cope.

Despite generally lower water levels, officials said they were still battling to save the delta town of Thatta, 70 km (45 miles) east of Karachi, in the southern province of Sindh.

The deaths of the five — from a group of 10 kidnapped in western Herat province — were confirmed only hours after a candidate in the September 18 poll from the same area, Haji Abdul Manan, was shot dead as he walked to a mosque to pray.

Manan was the fourth candidate to be killed. The rising toll drew a sharp condemnation from the U.N. mission (UNAMA) in Afghanistan, which is assisting with the election.

“The war is not ending. The war against terrorism continues here,” Nuri al-Moussawi, a 51-year-old Baghdad resident, said.

Obama said on Saturday the end of U.S. combat operations on Tuesday, and a fall in U.S. troop numbers to 50,000, helped fulfill a promise he made during the 2008 presidential campaign to end the 7-1/2-year war launched by his predecessor, George W. Bush.

The eight Hong Kong hostages and the gunman, a sacked policeman, died in Monday’s hijack and botched rescue which has been heavily criticized across the world, particularly in Hong Kong and China.

“Shame on the Philippine government and police,” read one banner waved above the marchers. “We are furious,” exclaimed another.

The U.S. TV industry’s highest honors will be handed out in a three-hour show in Los Angeles that will also embrace Twitter and the Internet, and will be broadcast live across the United States for the first time since 1976.

With five first-timers among the 12 best comedy and drama series nominees alone, the Emmys are expected to reward a crop of new faces and popular shows — boosting network TV at a time of stiff competition from video games and social networking.

Kim, suspected of suffering a stroke in 2008, is believed to have accelerated succession plans, but analysts say the meeting of the Workers’ Party won’t send its supreme leader into retirement just yet.

The decision by the powerful Political Bureau of the party Central Committee in June to call September’s meeting indicated it will be a watershed, and that it will involve a major reshuffle of its officials for the first time in decades.

The tapes, made secretly by the victim and published in two Belgian newspapers on Saturday, show the former primate of Belgium exhorting him to accept a private apology or wait one year until the bishop retired before making his case public.

Their meeting took place on April 8, at a time when the Vatican was under fire for allegedly covering up similar abuse cases by priests in other countries and shocking abuse claims dominated the news in several European states.

Adding to the pressure on the government, a union representing Tire makers announced a strike for higher wages from Monday. Thousands of armed forces unionized members are also thinking of striking.

The government and unions have opened a new round of wage negotiations to end the dispute that has shut schools and prevented treatment of the sick, broadcaster eNews reported unnamed sources as saying

The organizer, Fox TV host Glenn Beck, who invited listeners to the U.S. capital to “restore America’s honor,” said he thought several hundred thousand people attended.

Many were members of the Tea Party, a loosely organized grassroots movement driven by conservative activists seeking lower taxes and more limited government.

A 40-month study of more than 4,800 patients showed taking low doses of omega-3 fatty acids in margarine did not significantly reduce rates of serious heart attacks and other cardiovascular events, Dutch researchers said on Sunday.

The finding raised questions about the benefits of omega-3, which has been shown in previous studies to make for healthier hearts. The margarines used in the study were developed for the researchers by food and consumer goods giant Unilever.

As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. More than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds has been wasted – more than 10 percent of the some $50 billion the U.S. has spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits from a U.S. watchdog agency.

That amount is likely an underestimate, based on an analysis of more than 300 reports by auditors with the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. And it does not take into account security costs, which have run almost 17 percent for some projects.

Two servicemen died in bombings Sunday in southern Afghanistan, while two others were killed in a bomb attack in the south on Saturday, and three in fighting in the east the same day, NATO said. Their identities and other details were being withheld until relatives could be notified.

The latest deaths bring to 42 the number of American forces who have died this month in Afghanistan after July’s high of 66. A total of 62 international forces have died in the country this month, including seven British troops.

The president said there are still too many vacant lots, trailers serving as classrooms, displaced residents and people out of work. But he said New Orleanians have showed amazing resilience.

“Because of you,” the president declared, “New Orleans is coming back.”

Nearly every day, her campaign and Senate offices trumpet money that she’s helped secure for her home state – from $13,811 for the Hope Police Department to buy a new cruiser to a $102 million stimulus-funded grant for the state to pay for broadband Internet.

Defending projects typically derided as pork is a tricky stance for a vulnerable incumbent, but Lincoln has turned her re-election fight into an argument for pet projects – calling them the “great equalizer” for small, rural states like Arkansas.

The digital version of the Oxford English Dictionary now gets 2 million hits a month from subscribers, who pay $295 a year for the service in the U.S. In contrast, the current printed edition – a 20-volume, 750-pound ($1,165) set published in 1989 – has sold about 30,000 sets in total.

It’s just one more sign that the speed and ease of using Internet reference sites – and their ability to be quickly updated – are phasing out printed reference books. Google and Wikipedia are much more popular research tools than the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and dozens of free online dictionaries offer word meanings at the click of a mouse. Dictionary.com even offers a free iPhone application.

What else could he choose, he says, after a summer remembered not for its reasoned debate, but for epithets, smears, even violence?

As he writes, Zulfiqar frets over the potential fallout and what he and other Muslim leaders can do about it. Will young Muslims conclude they are second-class citizens in the U.S. now and always?

The announcement came as floodwaters inundated a large town in Pakistan and authorities struggled to build new levees with clay and stone to prevent one of the area’s biggest cities from suffering the same fate.

Foreign countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to help Pakistan cope with the floods, which first hit the country about a month ago after extremely heavy monsoon rains. But some officials had criticized the Muslim world for not contributing enough.

After drilling three small bore holes in recent weeks to create lines of communication with the miners and deliver basic food and medicine, Chile’s state-owned Codelco mining company will begin boring a rescue hole Monday afternoon that will be wide enough to pull the men up through 2,300 feet (700 meters) of earth.

The first step will be to drill a “pilot hole” similar in size to the other three. Then much larger machine cutters will slowly grind through that hole, forcing crushed rock to fall down into the mine shaft area near the trapped men.

President Barack Obama joined those hailing the recovery made so far in New Orleans, which he said has become a “symbol of resilience and community.” In a neighborhood that has seen little of that recovery, the Lower 9th Ward, it was the failures that seemed more apparent to residents.

“It don’t seem like much is getting done,” said Charlene LaFrance, a 42-year-old teacher who watched commemoration events on Claiborne Avenue. Brass bands played dirges and marches and politicians spoke about the nation’s failure to do enough to rebuild New Orleans, in particular the Lower 9th Ward.

Under terms of the proposed acquisition, Genzyme shareholders would receive $69 per share, representing a 38 percent premium over Genzyme’s closing stock price of $49.86 on July 1. That’s the day before speculation began to swirl that Sanofi was looking to buy an American drugmaker, possibly Genzyme, in a bid to help replace revenue being lost to mounting generic competition. Since then, the French company unexpectedly was faced with generic competition for its blockbuster injected anticlotting drug, Lovenox, which brought Sanofi $3.9 billion last year. Its blood thinner Plavix, the world’s second-bestselling drug, has patent protection only until 2012.

Genzyme is considered attractive because it has promising drugs for high cholesterol and other disorders in late development and it already sells some lucrative drugs for rare genetic disorders. That’s a hot niche as big pharmaceutical companies diversify beyond blockbuster pills that get slammed by cheaper generic rivals after several years. The Cambridge, Mass., company just received U.S. approval in late May for a new drug for Pompe disease, and its experimental biologic drug for multiple sclerosis is getting expedited review by the Food and Drug Administration.

Starting on Monday, attorneys for former Dodger CEO Jamie McCourt will try to convince Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon she’s entitled to a stake in the team that her estranged husband, Frank McCourt, says belongs solely to him.

The key question facing the judge during an 11-day divorce trial is the validity of a postnuptial marital agreement signed by the couple in March 2004, shortly after purchasing the Dodgers for about $430 million. The pact supposedly gives Frank McCourt the Dodgers, the stadium and the surrounding land, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, while Jamie McCourt receives a half-dozen luxurious homes.

Raese defeated a crowded field of Republicans and becomes part of the GOP quest to dismantle the Democratic Senate majority as high unemployment and the slow economic recovery take a toll on their political prospects this fall.

In Louisiana, scandal-tainted Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter easily beat two little-known challengers and will meet Democratic Rep. Charlie Melancon, who won his party’s primary, in November.

At least 12 suspected insurgents and two security officers were killed when the rebels entered Tsentoroi, Ramzan Kadyrov’s home village, his spokesman Alvi Karimov told The Associated Press. TV reports said five civilians were killed in the crossfire.

Kadyrov, who is thought to regularly supervise security operations in the field, was in the village at the time and directed the counter-offensive, Karimov said.

The company, which designs and makes semiconductor-based high-speed data storage and processing equipment, is planning to boost its South Korean workforce of nearly 60 by half, says Cho, who founded Seoul-based Taejin Infotech Co. in 1996. Sales, which totaled only 8.4 billion won ($7 million) last year, could swell fourfold this year and reach 100 billion won next year, he predicts.

Sitting in his spacious, well-ordered office, Cho’s confidence belies the grim mood that has settled over global stock markets in the past month as indicators from the U.S. to Japan show the economic rebound is running out of juice.

He is one of the leaders of the Park51 project, but has largely been absent from the national debate over the implications of building a Muslim house of worship so close to where terrorists killed more than 2,700 people.

Though Rauf has said the center, which could cost more than $100 million, would serve as a space for interfaith dialogue, moderate Muslim practice and peaceful prayer, critics say it will create a base for radical, anti-American Islam. Some critics have also asked where the funding for the center might originate and whether it may come from sources linked to Muslim extremists.

While Beck billed his event as nonpolitical, conservative activists said their show of strength was a clear sign that they can swing elections because much of the country is angry with what many voters call an out-of-touch Washington.

Palin told the tens of thousands who stretched from the marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the grass of the Washington Monument that calls to transform the country weren’t enough. “We must restore America and restore her honor,” said the former Alaska governor, echoing the name of the rally, “Restoring Honor.”

The Iraqi security forces who will be left in charge have been hammered by bomb attacks, prompting fears of a new insurgent offensive and criticism of the government’s preparedness to protect its people. Still, President Barack Obama left no doubt Saturday in his weekly radio address that the U.S. is sticking to its promise to pull out of Iraq despite the uptick in violence.

In a statement to state-run television, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Iraqi intelligence indicated an al-Qaida front group and members of Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath party are collaborating to launch attacks “to create fear and chaos and kill more innocents.”

Outside, on a walk sheltered from the sun, nine of the Code Talkers sit at a table autographing the books. Each is an old man now. They wear similar caps and shirts, the scarlet and gold of the Marine Corps, and turquoise jewelry.

One of these men, who signs his name as Cpl. Chester Nez, is distinguished from the others. Below his signature, he jots down why: 1st Original 29.

Is there something about Illinois that encourages governors to go bad? Or is it just coincidence that two in a row have ended up as criminals?

A jury convicted Rod Blagojevich of lying to federal investigators about mixing political fundraising with his government work, but deadlocked on whether his other actions crossed the line into corruption. That should be resolved early next year, when the former governor faces a second trial.

And no one, he claimed, did a thing about it.

“The overall treatment I have received from both the prison and (the prison’s) medical providers (is) unconstitutional, insufficient, cruel, inhumane and shamefully unacceptable,” Pinto wrote in April.

As a modest 2-foot wave appears, the coach and his student begin paddling furiously toward shore. In an instant, the coach eases away from the board and implores his charge to “pop up,” and stand on the board. A shriek explodes from excited parents on the beach who scream with glee as the newcomer stands and rides her first wave to shore.

“I knew what I was doing! exclaims 14-year-old Meghan Fink of Seaford, N.Y, who is vision-impaired. “I was able to stand up on that board and I felt the wind through my hair and the water came over my head a few times. It was just amazing.”

Preliminary figures provided by the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University on Friday show 28 cities from Washington, D.C., to Caribou, Maine, set record highs for average temperature from March through August.

A large swath of the country sweltered in early August, when scorching temperatures and high humidity made it feel like at least 100 degrees in many places and prompted heat advisories for 18 states. While unrelenting heat is the norm in the Deep South, it’s unusual in places like Burlington, Vt., and Portland, Maine, which saw their hottest spring and summer in more than a century.