Evening Edition

U.S. troop levels were cut to 50,000 before the partly symbolic deadline of August 31 set by President Barack Obama as he seeks to fulfill his pledge to end the war launched by his predecessor George W. Bush.

The six remaining U.S. brigades will turn their focus to training Iraqi police and troops as Iraq takes charge of its own destiny ahead of a full U.S. withdrawal by the end of next year.

Obama, thanking troops in Texas before delivering an evening address to the nation, said Iraq now had the opportunity to create a better future for itself, and the United States, as a result, was more secure.

“I wanted to come down to Fort Bliss mainly to say thank you. And to say, welcome home,” he told troops, who shouted the traditional Army “Hooah” back to him in greeting.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said last week that regulating commodity derivatives would be one of the priorities of France’s presidency of the G20 starting in November for a year.

France’s economy, energy and agriculture ministers sent a letter to three European commissioners on August 27 stressing that current European regulation was not enough and calling for coordinated and cross-sector EU action.

Toomey, a conservative former congressman, leads Sestak, a former admiral elected to Congress in 2006, by 47 percent to 37 percent barely two months before the November 2 election to replace Democrat Arlen Specter.

Toomey’s lead was smaller, 40 percent to 37 percent, among a larger pool of registered voters.

Critics say U.S. President Barack Obama’s strategy to begin pulling out troops has backfired, sending a signal to the Taliban that the United States was preparing to wind down at a time when U.S. and NATO forces were suffering record casualties. Five U.S. soldiers were killed on Tuesday, capping a bloody four days.

It has also alarmed Afghan leaders, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai last week saying the Taliban threat has not been eliminated and any timeline for withdrawal would only “invigorate” the Islamist insurgents.

“A man in his fifties shot six people dead and eventually killed himself after the police cornered him as he tried to escape the crime scene,” police commander Jaroslav Spisiak told reporters at the scene.

The shooting spree started shortly after 10:00 am (0800 GMT) in a flat inhabited by a Roma family in a prefab housing estate in Devinska Nova Ves, an otherwise quiet north-western district of the city.

A major troop pullout in past months has left less than 50,000 American soldiers in Iraq while a simultaneous surge in car bombings and shootings, many of which have targeted local security forces, has raised security concerns.

President Barack Obama was due to mark the symbolic end of combat operations in a speech from the Oval Office at 8:00 pm (0000 GMT), after visiting a base in Texas where he was scheduled to meet recently returned Iraq veterans.

“Our combat phase is over,” Obama told American troops on a sprawling Texas military base before his solemn Oval Office address to the nation to mark the end of combat in Iraq seven years after the US-led invasion.

But the US commander-in-chief warned “there is still a lot of work to do” and he insisted his speech at 8:00pm (0000 GMT) Tuesday would not be “a victory lap, it is not congratulatory.”

Pakistan’s cricket board said it would not suspend the four named players under investigation by Scotland Yard detectives over claims they deliberately bowled no-balls against England as part of a lucrative gambling scam.

Three other unnamed players are part of the British police inquiry.

But the extent of U.S. influence in Iraq was still palpable. Vice President Joe Biden, presiding over the transition of the American role in Iraq, held a round of meetings with political leaders and pushed them to break a half-year impasse that has held up formation of a new government after inconclusive elections in March. He said Iraq was much safer than before.

Al-Maliki spoke ahead of President Barack Obama’s address Tuesday night from the Oval Office to outline the withdrawal of combat forces.

“There’s still a lot of work that we’ve got to do to make sure that Iraq is an effective partner with us,” Obama said on Tuesday of his decision to end the nation’s combat mission in a war he once strongly opposed.

“The main message I have tonight, and the main message I have to you, is congratulations on a job well done,” Obama said.

The candidates – some a little grayer, others a little balder – say they want a second chance after taking a hard look at the seemingly intractable challenges their state was facing and concluding they were the best qualified to take them on. If elected, they would inherit states hemorrhaging jobs and staring down massive budget gaps.

The former governors in California, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland and Oregon are betting that a dose of nostalgia for better economic times, combined with a desire among some voters for a steady, experienced hand, will help them prevail in November.

Until 2005, when the state came under heavy duress from the federal government, it was legal to drink and drive in many places. And a few years before that there wasn’t even a speed limit on major highways and in rural areas.

But spurred by the high-profile death of a highway patrolman at the hands of an intoxicated driver, Montana’s Old West drinking and driving culture is retreating. Judges are rejecting lenient plea deals and law enforcement leaders are exploring different ways of keeping track of repeat offenders.

The U.S. death toll for August stood at 55 – three-quarters of them in the second half of the month as the Taliban fight back against U.S. pressure in southern and eastern strongholds. American losses accounted for more than 70 percent of the 76 fatalities suffered by the entire NATO-led force.

NATO said four of the Americans were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, while a fifth died in a gunfight with insurgents in the country’s south. No other details were released.

In nine of 15 issues examined in an Associated Press-GfK Poll this month, more Americans who expressed intense interest in a problem voiced strong opposition to Obama’s work on it, including the economy, unemployment, federal deficits and terrorism. They were about evenly split over the president’s efforts on five issues and strongly approved of his direction on just one: U.S. relationships with other countries.

In another danger sign for Democrats, most Americans extremely concerned about 10 of the issues say they will vote for the Republican candidate in their local House race. Only those highly interested in the environment lean toward the Democrats.

The men were trapped Aug. 5 when a landslide blocked the shaft down into the San Jose copper and gold mine in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert. Last year, three miners survived 25 days trapped in a flooded mine in southern China, and the Chileans surpassed that mark Tuesday.

While doubts and extreme challenges remain, experts said rescuers have the tools to get the job done – though the government still says it will take three to four months to reach the miners.

After a standoff between the Humane Society and agriculture interests, state officials are crafting restrictions on the ownership of dangerous wild pets. But the killer beast and others owned by former bear-wrestling entrepreneur Sam Mazzola, who had lost his federal license to exhibit exotic animals, would have been grandfathered out of them.

“It’s just a free-for-all in Ohio, and Sam Mazzola is just an example of that,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States. “Tigers, wolves, bears in a suburban Lorain County community: It is a disaster waiting to happen.”

Those words, uttered Monday in a strong, confident voice by the seven-time Cy Young Award winner sporting a black blazer and blond highlights in his hair, marked the official beginning of a court case that could taint baseball even further and land the “Rocket” in jail.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton presided over an arraignment hearing that lasted less than 14 minutes in the ceremonial courtroom at the federal courthouse, across the street from the Capitol.

The problem has gotten so bad that the Environmental Protection Agency warned this month against the indoor use of chemicals meant for the outside. The agency also warned of an increase in pest control companies and others making “unrealistic promises of effectiveness or low cost.”

Bedbugs, infesting U.S. households on a scale unseen in more than a half-century, have become largely resistant to common pesticides. As a result, some homeowners and exterminators are turning to more hazardous chemicals that can harm the central nervous system, irritate the skin and eyes or even cause cancer.

Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson’s comments came a day after The Associated Press reported that diabetes has become the most frequently compensated ailment among Vietnam veterans, even though decades of research has failed to find more than a possible link between the defoliant Agent Orange and diabetes.

“The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess,” said Simpson, an Army veteran who was once chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

The dispute “has expanded beyond a piece of real estate and expanded to Islam in America and what it means for America,” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told a group that included professors and policy researchers in Dubai.

Rauf suggested that the fierce challenges to the planned mosque and community center in lower Manhattan could leave many Muslim questioning their place in American political and civic life.

The drop, hailed by child-welfare advocates, is due largely to a shift in the policies and practices of state and county child welfare agencies. Many have been shortening stays in foster care, speeding up adoptions and expanding preventive support for troubled families so more children avoid being removed from their homes in the first place.

The new figures, released Tuesday by the Department of Health and Human Services, show there were 423,773 children in foster care as of Sept. 30. That’s down from 460,416 a year earlier and from more than 540,000 a decade ago.

At a news conference at the base, military leaders say they don’t suspect foul play in any of the deaths, and are conducting tests of the air, building materials and other elements at the on-base housing where the deaths occurred.

So far, though, investigators have not found any link between the deaths since the probe was ordered earlier this summer, according to Christopher Grey, spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.

It’s the second time in five years that Gettysburg has fought over a plan to build a casino. This time it’s the Mason Dixon Resort & Casino, proposed on a hotel and conference center site within a mile of the southern boundary of Gettysburg National Military Park.

“No Casino” and “Pro Casino” signs pepper shop windows in the quaint streets of Gettysburg, where more than a million tourists shop, dine or sleep each year.

Sharif El-Gamal told CBS News in an interview broadcast on Monday it hadn’t even crossed his mind once because he didn’t hold himself or Islam “accountable for that tragedy.”

He said the center, which would include a health club, exhibition space and a Sept. 11 memorial, should be “universally known as a hub of culture, a hub of coexistence, a hub of bringing people together.”

The latest and most prestigious example is Northwestern University. By targeting local students in financial need, Northwestern is seeking to boost minority enrollment, strengthen local ties and stay competitive in the college admissions race at a time when many private schools are increasing aid based on student merit instead of financial circumstances.

“You may be thinking globally about your education curriculum,” David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said of such efforts. “But you’re increasingly acting locally with respect to students.”

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for the father of cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who’s believed to be hiding in his parents’ native Yemen. Defendants were President Barack Obama, CIA Director Leon C. Panetta and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates.

The groups, both based in New York, said it was unconstitutional to intentionally try to kill al-Awlaki unless he presents a specific imminent threat to life or physical safety and only killing him will eliminate the threat. The Obama administration cited al-Awlaki’s growing role with al-Qaida when it placed him on the CIA’s list of targets.

Kifah Mustapha, a Chicago-area imam, was named a chaplain in December along with chaplains of other faiths. He underwent training, passed a background check and was issued state identification. But shortly after, the appointment was criticized by the Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism, which said Mustapha was a “radical fundraiser” and alleged he had links to Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Mustapha hasn’t been charged with any crimes and denied wrongdoing.

Authorities told leaders of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro that four pieces of heavy construction equipment on the site were doused with an accelerant and one set ablaze early Saturday morning. The site is now being patrolled at all hours by the sheriff’s department.

Federal investigators have not ruled it arson, saying only that the fire was being probed and asked the public to call in tips. Eric Kehn, spokesman for the Nashville office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said arson is suspected.

The study is the largest to date to find advantages for preventive surgery for women who carry BRCA gene mutations. Women with the faulty genes have a dramatically higher cancer risk than other women – five times greater for breast cancer and at least 10 times greater for ovarian cancer.

The study, appearing in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, found benefits for women with two different BRCA gene variants whether they had previously had breast cancer or not.