Evening Edition

A NATO official said that two US Marines had been killed in the incident, which took place in Helmand province late on Thursday night.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told AFP the Marines had been shot by an Afghan soldier who had been on the base for two to three weeks and was now missing.

Benedict XVI set the tone for his visit even before he landed in Santiago de Compostela, Spain’s holiest city, recalling an era when pro-Republicans killed priests and nuns and burned churches.

“Spain saw in the 1930s the birth of a strong and aggressive anti-clericism,” the 83-year-old German-born pontiff told reporters aboard the papal plane.

The heavily guarded train carrying a cargo that activists say is the most radioactive ever crossed into Germany earlier Saturday and was expected at Danneberg Sunday.

Organisers said about 50,000 people — a record number — had turned out ahead of the arrival of the train and its 123 tonnes of radioactive waste.

Finance chiefs from the 21-nation Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group including the United States, China and Japan, met in Kyoto and adopted wording from an October G20 meeting to steer away from the “competitive devaluation of currencies”.

Fault lines had emerged during the two-day G20 meeting over a US proposal that countries assign a quantifiable limit for their current account surpluses or deficits to help rebalance the global economy and ease trade tensions.

In a match seen as the first big test of Martin Johnson’s emerging England, the All Blacks overcame a fierce second half fightback by the home side to extend their winning streak against the 2003 world champions to nine matches.

Two first-half tries from winger Hosea Gear and number eight Kieran Read ultimately proved decisive for New Zealand, with fly-half Dan Carter contributing the rest of their points with the boot.

The in-form fullback scored a crucial second-half try and almost snatched a second as the Wallabies put Wales to the sword with a clinical second-half performance.

David Pocock put the visitors in the driving seat thanks to an early try but a spirited Wales gave as good as they got and went into halftime trailing by just a point, 7-6 down.

In the country’s deadliest attack in two months a mosque was reduced to blood-spattered rubble strewn with body parts after a suicide bomber detonated explosives as worshippers attended Friday prayers.

The blast, which occurred in the Darra Adem Khel region, was followed hours later by a grenade assault on a second mosque in the same area, which killed at least four people.

Pakistan’s largest city was virtually shut down due to fears of political unrest as Farooq’s body was laid to rest in front of wailing crowds shouting slogans, but there were no reports of any violence.

Farooq, 50, a founding member of Pakistan’s MQM — a key political force in Karachi — was found with head injuries and stab wounds outside his London home on September 16. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

But despite drenching Haiti and prompting evacuations of displaced refugees who had nowhere to go after January’s devastating earthquake, Tomas appeared to have spared the flimsy tent camps that are home to over a million people.

“We were very pleased to see that the impact was not nearly as bad as we had expected,” Andrea Koppel of the American Red Cross told CNN, noting that teams were being dispatched to make a more thorough assessment of how badly the capital had been impacted.

Kicking off a four-nation Asian tour weighted towards prying open new markets for US goods, Obama also said he would relax technology export restrictions imposed after India’s nuclear tests back in 1998.

The announcements were made in India’s financial hub Mumbai, where the president earlier paid tribute to the victims and survivors of the November 2008 militant attacks that claimed 166 lives.

Obama, launching a nine-day Asian tour designed to drum up jobs for America, paid symbolic homage to the victims of the Mumbai attack, likening it to the September 11, 2001 strike on the United States.

“We visit here to send a very clear message that in our determination to give our people a future of security and prosperity, the United States and India stand united,” Obama said at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

A NATO official said that two US Marines had been killed in the incident, which took place in Helmand province late on Thursday night.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told AFP the Marines had been shot by an Afghan soldier who had been on the base for two to three weeks and was now missing.

China’s President Hu Jintao was wrapping up a three-day state visit with a factory tour on the French Riviera, after successful talks the night before with the French leader in the resort town of Nice.

There were small-scale protests by human rights activists during the tour, but French officials regard the outcome of the meetings as a success, having also secured more than 20 billion dollars in contracts for French firms.

While the elections are drawing Western scorn for draconian curbs on pro-democracy parties and bans on foreign media, Suu Kyi’s scheduled release a week later gives allies China and Southeast Asia a chance to praise Myanmar for a poll that otherwise faces widespread global condemnation.

Her release could also provoke grudging praise from the United States and Britain, and revive a debate over Western sanctions, although it remains unclear whether she will in fact walk free on November 13, when her house arrest is due to expire.

The less confrontational tone emerged after a two-day meeting of Asia Pacific finance ministers who gave their backing to last month’s Group of 20 agreement to shun competitive currency devaluations and be vigilant against volatile exchange rate movements.

The meeting in the ancient Japanese capital Kyoto came amid growing criticism from a number of countries, notably China and Germany, of U.S. monetary policy and its proposals to solve economic imbalances.

Obama flew into Mumbai, India’s financial hub, and announced the United States would also relax export controls over sensitive technology, a demand of India’s that will help deepen U.S. ties with the emerging global power and its trillion dollar economy.

While most of the announced deals had been pending for months, Obama’s visit, the first leg of a 10-day Asian tour, has been hailed as moving the United States closer to India as Washington tries to revive a weak economy and gather support to pressure China on its currency.

Obama, in his first weekly radio address since his Democrats suffered big losses in Tuesday’s congressional elections, reasserted that Bush-era tax cuts should be made permanent for the middle class before they expire at year-end.

But while insisting tax cuts for wealthier Americans should not become permanent because of a $700 billion impact on the deficit over the next decade, he left the door open to a temporary extension for higher income levels — as long as it falls short of costing that much.

The billionaire investor’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad had heavy demand in the quarter to transport a range of commercial and agricultural products, reflecting the growing strength in the manufacturing sector.

Buffett called his purchase of the railroad “an all-in wager on the economic future of the United States,” and its contribution to results lent credence to his strategy.

Fresh off a political trouncing at home, Obama was determined to show tangible, economic results on his long Asia trip, and that was apparent from almost the moment he set foot on a steamy afternoon in the world’s largest democracy. By the end of the first of his three days in India, he was promoting $10 billion in trade deals – completed in time for his visit – that the White House says will create about 54,000 jobs at home.

That’s a modest gain compared with the extent of the enduring jobless crisis in the United States. Economists say it would require on the level of 300,000 new jobs a month to put a real dent in an unemployment rate stuck near 10 percent.

In the area’s only burn unit, one patient lies mummified in thick, white bandages from neck to toe, his face a patchwork of black and ashen splotches. He never blinks his milky gray eyes. The only sign of life is the shallow rising and falling of his chest.

He has little company: Of the 31 burn victims taken to Sardjito hospital, at the foot of the volcano, the burn unit has room for just nine. Of those, only eight get a ventilator.

All storm warnings were discontinued but a massive gray wall of clouds threatened to bring up to 2 more inches (5 centimeters) of rain over parts of the British dependency and Puerto Rico, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

On Saturday morning, the storm’s center was about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Grand Turk Island, which lost power overnight when utility lines toppled. It had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph), the center reported, and steady weakening was expected over the next two days.

The white statue with outstretched arms and golden crown rising above the western Polish plains in Swiebodzin provides competition to Rio de Janiero’s iconic Christ the Redeemer.

The mayor of the western Polish town, Dariusz Bekisz, claims it is now the world’s tallest.

Michael Shaw scored on a 1-yard run, Tate Forcier threw a 2-point conversion to Junior Hemingway and Michigan stopped the potential tying 2-point try in a 67-65 triple-overtime win over Illinois on Saturday.

Mikel Leshoure ran for a touchdown to draw the Illini within two. On the conversion try, Michigan put a heavy rush on Nathan Scheelhaase, who flipped a desperation pass incomplete.

During the Great Recession, people made drastic changes in how they spent their money. They stopped treating credit cards as cash. They learned to save and learned to wait.

Now the recession is over, at least technically, and the economy is growing again, at least a little. But many changes in spending habits that most Americans first saw as temporary have taken hold, perhaps for good, some economists say.

Republican leaders and strategists are muttering that the same tea party activists who elevated Speaker-to-be John Boehner and the party to power in the House simultaneously hobbled the GOP’s outside shot of running the Senate. Tea partiers largely spurned establishment candidates in the GOP primaries and helped nominate Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Ken Buck in Colorado.

All three lost on Tuesday.

Westwood looked like he might finally catch up when he chipped from just off the green on the par-5 18th to tap-in range for birdie and a 5-under 67. Molinari, who had to lay up on the hole, knocked in his putt from the back of the green for a 67.

They have been separated by one shot after every round, and the duel figures to be settled Sunday at Sheshan International.

Benedict made clear his distaste for Spain’s liberal bent as he arrived in the pilgrimage city of Santiago di Compostela, where the remains of St. James the Apostle are said to be buried.

He was warmly received by a crowd of thousands chanting “Viva el papa!” but there were hints of opposition as well. About 100 people demonstrated against the pope’s visit and a handful of gays kissed along his motorcade route – a preview of the gay “kiss-in” protest that awaits him Sunday in Barcelona.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said their countries would enhance their military and defense cooperation by expanding joint exercises and the use of each other’s training facilities.

They also agreed to cooperate in trying to push China to take a more positive approach in its backyard.

Olbermann acknowledged to NBC that he donated $2,400 apiece to the campaigns of Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway and Arizona Reps. Raul Grivalva and Gabrielle Giffords.

NBC News prohibits its employees from working on, or donating to, political campaigns unless a special exception is granted by the news division president – effectively a ban. Olbermann’s bosses did not find out about the donations until after they were made. The website Politico first reported the donations.

The decision exposed a rift between Pelosi’s liberal allies and the dwindling number of moderate Democrats, who feel besieged and eager for substantive and symbolic changes in direction after Tuesday’s Republican rout. It also is likely to trigger leadership battles farther down the ladder.

Pelosi, the nation’s first female speaker, said many colleagues urged her to seek the post of minority leader in the new Congress that convenes in January. That will be the Democrats’ top post, because Republicans, who grabbed more than 60 Democratic-held seats Tuesday, will elect the next speaker. It will be John Boehner of Ohio, who will swap titles with Pelosi if she succeeds in her bid.

The state House and Senate retained the Democratic majorities that approved a civil unions bill this year before it was vetoed, and Democratic Gov.-elect Neil Abercrombie has said he will sign a similar law if passed by the Legislature.

The move would make Hawaii, long a battleground in the gay rights movement, the sixth state to grant essentially the same rights of marriage to same-sex couples without authorizing marriage itself.

A few days before Obama’s visit Saturday, U.S. and Indian security officials visited the small two-story building and ordered the looping off of ripe coconuts from the trees to prevent any accidental bonking.

“People do get hurt, or even killed, from falling coconuts. We had the ripe coconuts removed and some dried branches as well. Why take a chance?” said Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, executive secretary of the Mani Bhavan Gandhi Museum, located on a quiet street in this bustling commercial hub.

Tests are needed to verify that the coral died from oil that spewed into the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, but the chief scientist who led the government-funded expedition said Friday he was convinced it was related.

“What we have at this point is the smoking gun,” said Charles Fisher, a biologist with Penn State University who led the expedition aboard the Ronald Brown, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel.