Evening Edition

The five countries battling for the 2022 football extravaganza — Australia, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Qatar — showcased their bids one last time in presentations at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

Meanwhile, high-powered delegations from countries slugging it out for the 2018 tournament were engaging in frenzied politicking with the climax to the scandal-tainted vote less than 24 hours away.

The five countries battling for the 2022 football extravaganza — Australia, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Qatar — showcased their bids one last time to voters at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

Meanwhile, high-powered delegations from the countries slugging it out for the 2018 tournament were engaging in frenzied lobbying with the climax to the scandal-tainted looming less than 24 hours away.

The five countries battling for the 2022 football extravaganza — Australia, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Qatar — were to showcase their bids in 30-minute pitches to voters at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

High-powered delegations from England and other countries slugging it out for the 2018 tournament meanwhile were engaging in frantic last-ditch lobbying before making their own presentations on Thursday.

As Washington tried to calm new outbursts of anger from world leaders over the leaks, France-based Interpol said it had alerted all member states to arrest Assange, who is wanted in Sweden on allegations of sex crimes.

Assange’s mother said she did not want her son “hunted down”, while his lawyer in London suggested the alert issued by the global police body could be linked to the “bellicose” US reactions over the dumping of the classified documents.

The French daily Le Monde, citing a trove of stolen diplomatic cables given to it by the activist website WikiLeaks, said Sarkozy wooed US diplomats in Paris long before taking office in 2007 and convinced them he was a firm ally.

“Sarkozy is the French politician who most supports the role of the United States in the world,” the US embassy in Paris wrote in a 2006 portrait of the right-wing minister shortly before he announced his presidential run.

France-based Interpol said it had alerted all member states to arrest Julian Assange, who is wanted in Sweden for “probable cause of suspected rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion”.

Assange’s mother said she did not want her son, who has denied the charges, “hunted down”.

EON, the world’s largest private utilities group, said it would raise 3.4 billion euros (4.4 billion dollars) from selling 2.7 percent in Gazprom to state-owned Vnesheconombank (VEB) and 0.8 percent on the stock market.

The stake in the world’s largest gas firm was held by EON’s subsidiary EON Ruhrgas, which built up a 6.4-percent interest between 1998 and 2003 before exchanging 2.9 percent for a stake in the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field in Russia.

The abbreviated form of rugby union, a high-octane game featuring seven-a-side teams competing in pool action before progressing to a knock-out stage, was accepted by the International Olympic Committee for the Rio Games.

And Mark Egan, head of development at the International Rugby Board (IRB), said sevens was ideal for growing the shortened game and full 15-a-side rugby, for both men and women.

“More than 200 000 new patients have been initiated on ARV’s since April this year, bringing a total number to one million,” Motlanthe told a public gathering to mark World AIDS Day in the eastern province of Mpumalanga.

Motlanthe said more public health institutions were now providing treatment, with more nurses trained to administer ARV (anti-retroviral) drugs.

The long-awaited report said that a “solid majority” of troops expressed no objection to the change, though members of combat units had more misgivings.

The study, which the White House hopes will pave the way for Congress to lift the ban, concluded the risk “to overall military effectiveness is low” if the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law is repealed.

The euro fell under 1.30 dollars for the first time since mid-September, dropping at one point to 1.2969 dollars from 1.3121 dollars late Monday. The single currency later edged back up to 1.2982 dollars.

Upward pressure intensified on 10-year borrowing rates for countries seen at risk of needing a rescue after Greece and Ireland, with attention focused on Spain, a potentially much bigger problem for the EU.

The move left barely any opposition to contest the second round of the parliamentary poll and dealt another blow to the credibility of the vote after Egypt came in for heavy criticism from its US ally and human rights groups.

The Muslim Brotherhood won a fifth of the seats in the 2005 election but failed to secure a single one in Sunday’s ballot.

But the women in Ayacucho share more than a love of knitting. They are the bereaved mothers, sisters and widows of some of the tens of thousands of men who went missing in what they call “The War”.

Each one is working on a panel roughly the size of an A4 sheet of paper to remember their “disappeared” loved ones. The panels are then pieced together in an enormous scarf, a work in progress that already measures 350-metres (yards) long and went on show in Lima for the first time last week.

The plan faced an uphill struggle to win sufficient backing to trigger a congressional vote. Even if that happens, analysts predict Congress won’t take substantive steps to reduce the deficit this year.

Changes made to the plan included dropping a proposal to kill the popular mortgage interest tax deduction, as had been recommended on November 10. The revised version proposed a limited, 12 percent mortgage interest tax credit.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who is leading negotiations for the White House with budget director Jack Lew, said participants had a “civil, constructive discussion” but he would not talk about where those talks were heading.

“We went through everything on the table,” Geithner told reporters. “We also agreed, this is very important, that we are not going to characterize the discussions in the room.”

Key to this sanguine outlook is confidence that the new estimate of the total cost of the spill — $40 billion — will be sufficient. “We think that $40 billion adequately provisions for the liabilities that are outstanding so far,” said Mark Lacey, Fund Manager at Investec Global Energy Fund. Paul Mumford, fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management, went further, saying the provision is likely to be overly conservative: “You might well find that you get provision write-backs,” he said, hinting the bill could be lower.

That optimistic view may turn out to be true. BP executives have said this is their “best estimate” of costs, adding they could turn out lower. But history shows there is ample scope for nasty surprises from BP. The London-based oil giant — last year it was the biggest non-state controlled oil and gas producer in the world — has so far consistently underestimated the scope and potential cost of the Gulf spill. It also has a track record of low-balling disasters, including the fatal Texas City refinery blast in 2005. Not only has the company underestimated the cost of repairing equipment and ecosystems in the past, it has also made overly optimistic assumptions about legal challenges.

In an interview with Larry King taped on Tuesday, Putin also said the WikiLeaks scandal was “no catastrophe” and told the United States not to meddle with Russian elections.

Putin said missile threats against Europe must be tackled jointly — a reference to an agreement reached at a November 20 Russia-NATO summit to cooperate on missile defense. Plans are sketchy and Russia has warned it wants an equal role.

Developed countries say fast-growing emerging economies led by China, which has become the top carbon emitter, have to do far more to curb their emissions. Many poor nations oppose changing a 1992 U.N. convention that obliges the rich to lead.

“I can guarantee you that this will be a controversial issue,” Artur Runge-Metzger, a senior European Union negotiator, said at the November 29 to December 10 talks in a Caribbean resort.

Gay rights activists swiftly applauded the study, which dismissed or minimized concerns among some U.S. lawmakers and up to a third of the military about ending the policy.

Obama called for swift action by Congress, where he faces stiff opposition from Senate Republicans who are threatening to block him..

All the 500 million euros in 12-month T-bills on offer in the auction were sold. But yields rose to a euro lifetime record of 5.281 percent from 4.813 percent two weeks ago, demonstrating sagging investor confidence in the Iberian nation which is now in the frontline of the euro zone debt crisis.

“Should bond yields not ease soon, there is a significant chance of Portugal being the next country having to seek an EU bailout,” said Diego Iscaro, an economist at IHS-Global Insight in London.

The new plan by co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, to be unveiled Wednesday, faces an uphill slog. Resistance is certain, not only because of the idea of raising the Social Security retirement age, but also because of proposed cuts to Medicare, curtailment of tax breaks and a doubling of the federal tax on a gallon of gasoline.

Though the plan appears unlikely to win enough bipartisan support from the panel to be approved for a vote in Congress this year or next, Bowles has already declared victory, saying he and Simpson have at least succeeded in initiating an “adult conversation” in the country about the pain it will take to cut the deficit.

“It’s a template that gives people an opportunity to start discussing what we have to do to get our fiscal house in order,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra, a California Democrat on the panel who hasn’t said whether he’ll support the package.

The 18-member bipartisan commission could vote on the plan Friday. But as Wednesday’s meeting demonstrated, the co-chairmen, Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson, face a difficult chore in rounding up the 14 votes needed to officially send the plan to Congress for consideration.

“While there are other items that might ultimately be worthy of the Senate’s attention, we cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job-killing tax hike,” all 42 GOP senators wrote in a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. The 42 signatures are more than enough to block action on almost any item he wishes to advance.

The threat does not apply to a new arms control treaty with Russia that is pending, since it would be debated under rules that differ from those that apply to routine legislation. President Barack Obama has made ratification of the pact a top priority.

Even as they talk, House leaders are planning to hold a politically charged vote Thursday to extend middle-class tax cuts while letting taxes for the wealthy rise.

The bill, even if it passes the House, stands no chance in the Senate. Nevertheless, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he is considering holding a similar vote.

A senior administration official told The Associated Press that because of the BP oil spill, the Interior Department will not propose any new oil drilling in waters off the East Coast for at least the next seven years.

President Barack Obama’s earlier plan – announced in March, three weeks before the April BP spill – would have authorized officials to explore potential for drilling from Delaware to central Florida, plus the northern waters of Alaska. The new plan allows potential drilling in Alaska, but officials said they will move cautiously before approving any leases.

The decision was hailed in Florida, which depends on tourists drawn by the state’s white beaches, but criticized by the oil industry, which said the administration was stifling crucial U.S. energy production and costing recession-battered jobseekers golden opportunities for new work.

The administration had backed a major expansion of offshore drilling earlier this year, in part to gain support for comprehensive climate legislation in Congress, one of President Barack Obama’s top legislative goals.

The 39-year-old Australian computer hacker disappeared from public view after a Nov. 5 press conference in Geneva. He has spoken publicly only through online interviews, while a statement from his lawyer said the Australian was being persecuted by Swedish officials who are seeking his arrest on allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

Sweden’s Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny said that a European arrest warrant had been issued for Assange in connection with the allegations. London-based lawyer Mark Stephens complained that Assange had yet to receive formal notice of the allegations he faces – something he described as a legal requirement under European law – and said that Assange had repeatedly offered to answer questions about the investigation, to no avail.

“We’ll put up decorations, but we just don’t have the money for a Christmas tree,” Slonsky said.

Benefits that had been extended up to 99 weeks started running out Wednesday. Unless Congress approves a longer extension, the Labor Department estimates about 2 million people will be cut off by Christmas.

The estimate, contained in a study published online Wednesday in the journal Nature, is based on findings that there are many more red dwarf stars – the most common star in the universe – than once thought.

But the research goes deeper than that. The study by Yale University astronomer Pieter van Dokkum and Harvard astrophysicist Charlie Conroy questions a key assumption that astronomers often use: that most galaxies have the same properties as our Milky Way. And that conclusion is deeply unsettling to astronomers who want a more orderly cosmos.

Obesity increases the risk of death from heart disease, stroke and certain cancers. But whether being merely overweight contributes to an early death as well has been uncertain and controversial. Some research has suggested being a little pudgy has little effect or can even be a good thing.

The latest research involving about 1.5 million people concluded that healthy white adults who were overweight were 13 percent more likely to die during the time they were followed in the study than those whose weight is in an ideal range.

New documents show that the most loan and other aid for U.S. institutions over time went to Citigroup ($2.2 trillion), followed by Merrill Lynch ($2.1 trillion), Morgan Stanley ($2 trillion), Bank of America ($1.1 trillion), Bear Stearns ($960 billion), Goldman Sachs ($620 billion), JPMorgan Chase ($260 billion) and Wells Fargo ($150 billion). Many of the individual loans they took were worth billions and had short durations but were paid back and renewed many times.

Merrill Lynch was later acquired by Bank of America, while Bear Stearns collapsed and was sold to JPMorgan.

Putin’s withdrawal and allegation that the bidding process had turned into an “unfair competition” following scandals targeting FIFA dented Russia’s stature as a favorite to host the event.

England continued to lead the sporting diplomacy, with Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham seeking to sway FIFA’s executive committee for their 2018 bid.

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, will outline his proposal for so-called “network neutrality” rules in a speech on Wednesday. Despite Republican opposition in Congress, Genachowski plans to bring his proposal to a vote by the full commission before the end of the year.

Net neutrality rules were one of the Obama administration’s top campaign pledges to the technology industry and have been among Genachowski’s priorities since he took over the FCC more than a year ago.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill, which supporters say will discourage leaks of classified information. The legislation would allow intelligence agency whistle-blowers to raise concerns within their agencies instead of giving classified materials to WikiLeaks or other outlets, which is illegal.

Without protections spelled out in law, whistle-blowers risk being fired or demoted for informing their chains of command about misconduct, according to Tom Devine, legal director at the Government Accountability Project. That leaves no alternative to anonymous – and potentially damaging – leaks unless whistle-blowers are willing to jeopardize their careers, he said.

But they would have only about 20 minutes to make the choice in a new pilot program meant to recover organs from patients who die at home.

That’s roughly how long a team of organ specialists will have after a cardiac-arrest patient is declared dead to arrive at the home, check a donor registry, determine medical eligibility, obtain a family member’s consent and get the person into a specialized ambulance.

The state Senate approved the legislation 32-24, sending it to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. It passed despite complaints from some senators that civil unions threaten the sanctity of marriage or increase the cost of doing business in Illinois.

After Quinn signs the measure, gay and lesbian couples will be able to get official recognition from the state and gain many of the rights that accompany marriage – the power to decide medical treatment for an ailing partner, for instance. Illinois law will continue to limit marriage to one man and woman, and the federal government won’t recognize the civil unions at all.

At the first public forum for those pursuing the chairmanship, party fundraising played prominently in the discussion that took place on stage between a U.S. flag and a “Don’t Tread on Me” banner popular among tea party activists. Four potential future chairs criticized the RNC but steered clear of naming the polarizing incumbent chairman and his record-breaking spending.

“The party under his leadership failed to raise the major donor money it is going to require to defeat Barack Obama,” said Gentry Collins, who headed the powerful political department of the RNC and is now weighing a campaign for chairman.

The jury at the U.S. District Court in Bridgeport found Kenneth Zrallack, 29, of Ansonia and David Sutton, 46, of Milford not guilty of conspiracy charges. Alexander DeFelice, 33, of Milford, was convicted of several conspiracy and weapons charges.

Federal prosecutors said Zrallack is the leader of the Connecticut-based Battalion 14 white supremacist group, formerly known as the Connecticut White Wolves. Officials said DeFelice is a Battalion 14 member who knows how to make explosives, while Sutton, who is black, has known DeFelice for years but isn’t a white supremacist.

During his opening statement, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley recounted for jurors what investigators believe happened in the three days leading up to the December 1975 slaying of Annie Mae Aquash. He told them the defendant, John Graham, 55, shot her because the activist group’s leaders thought she was a government informant.

Graham’s attorney, John Murphy, countered in his opening statement that the prosecution lacked a murder weapon, fingerprints or other physical evidence to link Graham with Aquash’s killing or the site of her death.

Scanning the cubicles, there are several handlebars and respectably bushy mustaches. The most prominent even rival the collage of famous ‘staches displayed on the wall, including Tom Selleck’s iconic facial hair. Much to his chagrin, though, MacDonald’s is not among them.

“As you can tell, we’re 22 days in and there’s not a whole lot happening up in the ‘stache area,” he admitted, rubbing a hand over his lip. “But you know, God knows I’m trying.”

Storage capacity at the nation’s federally licensed grain elevators is at an all-time high, but there’s still not enough in states like Kansas and Nebraska, where millions of bushels of grain have been piled up outside elevators at risk of damage from foul weather.

Low interest rates have made it less expensive to build elevators, and commodity markets have encouraged farmers to store crops during the harvest glut to wait for better prices later in the season. The result has been a busy year for construction, most of it at existing elevators that are expanding.

The first all-electric car offered in the United States by a mainstream auto manufacturer since the early days of the automobile, the new-for-2011 Leaf has seats for five, a roomy, straightforward interior and a surprisingly solid, stable feel.

Best of all for consumers who worry about the nation’s oil consumption and the environment, the Leaf is rated at 99 miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent by the federal government for combined city and highway driving.

A three judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the lower court Tuesday to either grant a new trial or release from prison a man who had been presumed to be the “Skid Row Stabber” who killed homeless men in the 1970s.

The court overturned two murder convictions and the life sentence of Bobby Jo Maxwell who has been imprisoned since 1979. The judges said Maxwell was convicted in 1984 on the basis of a jailhouse snitch’s lies.

Prosecutors say John Graham, a Southern Tutchone Indian from Canada, and two other activists kidnapped and killed Annie Mae Aquash in late 1975 because AIM leaders believed she was a government spy. Graham, 55, faces first- and second-degree murder charges and a potential life sentence. He has continued to maintain his innocence.

Aquash’s slaying has become synonymous with AIM and its often violent struggles with federal authorities during the 1970s. Family members and observers have said Graham’s trial could help to answer lingering questions about why Aquash died and who ordered her killing.

Hundreds of residents of this small college town came out for the vigil at the Salman Alfarisi Islamic Center.

Elizabeth Oettinger, senior minister of the First Congregational Church United Church of Christ, said a number of religious leaders organized the event to show support for the Muslim community after the center’s office was set on fire Sunday.

No one steps into the cellblock when the attacker sits down to rest, and no one stops him when he resumes the beating.

Videos of the attack obtained by The Associated Press show officers watching the beating for several minutes. The footage is a key piece of evidence for critics who claim the privately run Idaho Correctional Center uses inmate-on-inmate violence to force prisoners to snitch on their cellmates or risk being moved to extremely violent units.

A federal judge ruled two months ago that Maj. Margaret Witt’s firing advanced no legitimate military goals and thus violated her rights. He ordered her to be reinstated, and while the Air Force filed an appeal last week, it did not seek a stay to block Witt from rejoining her unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord while the appeal proceeds.

Though the Department of Justice could still seek such a stay, it informally told Witt’s legal team Monday that it probably won’t, one of Witt’s lawyers said.