Evening Edition

The bombers badly damaged an administration compound in Ghalanai, the main town in the district of Mohmand, about 175 kilometres (110 miles) northwest of Islamabad and which has been hard hit by Islamist violence.

A purported Pakistani Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, threatening death to anyone who forms militias against the Islamists.

It comes as the whistle-blowing website unveiled a secret US list of key infrastructure sites around the world that could be targetted by terrorists, ranging from undersea cables to the manufacturer of smallpox vaccine.

The Swiss Post Office’s banking arm said it had closed an account set up by the embattled Australian after he gave false information.

A two-week session in the Mexican resort of Cancun is looking to make incremental progress toward a new treaty to fight climate change, which UN scientists warn threatens severe effects for the planet if unchecked.

The main negotiations are set to open Tuesday, but participants said they have already seen surprising progress in drafting a statement on future action and on measures to curb deforestation, a major contributor to global warming.

Negotiators from more than 190 countries were arriving at the Caribbean resort of Cancun for a week of talks, which come in the shadow of last year’s Copenhagen climate summit that ended in widespread disappointment.

Mindful of last year’s debacle, the United Nations and host Mexico have tried to keep expectations in check by not inviting heads of state and highlighting forward movement in talks that have already seen sharp exchanges.

The 194-nation talks at the Caribbean resort city of Cancun were trying to finalize a general statement on the world’s long-term action against climate change as envoys arrived for the main thrust of talks starting Tuesday.

But with few expecting a full-fledged climate treaty anytime soon, the UN-led negotiations were considering extending the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 — setting off sharp disagreements.

The court found the US airline criminally responsible for the Paris crash, caused by a strip of titanium that fell from a Continental DC-10 and later shredded the supersonic jet’s tyre, which led to a fire in the fuel tank.

Continental was ordered to pay a fine of 200,000 euros for the crash and to pay Concorde’s operator Air France a million euros in damages. The US airline said it would appeal against the ruling, which it termed “absurd”.

Google eBookstore was being rolled out in the United States featuring the Mountain View, California-based company’s massive library of digitized works online at books.google.com.

“We believe it will be the world’s largest e-books library,” said Google spokeswoman Jeannie Hornung. “Including the free books, there are more than three million.”

Zuckerberg, in an interview with the CBS show “60 Minutes, said he turned down an opportunity to sell Facebook to Yahoo! for one billion dollars four years ago and made it clear he is in no hurry to take the company public.

The 26-year-old Facebook chief executive also defended his approach to the privacy of the social network’s more than 500 million users, saying “we never sell your information.”

The talks are seen as paving the way for a summit of European Union leaders next week.

Analysts are convinced a trillion-dollar joint EU-IMF emergency fund for countries in financial disarray will need increasing amid expectations that Portugal will be next to tap it after Ireland.

Salgado emphatically ruled out Madrid seeking a rescue, just one trading day after it emerged that the European Central Bank had ridden to the rescue of eurozone governments at risk by buying huge amounts of their debt.

“No”, she told Les Echos business newspaper, “because our (economic) fundamentals do not justify it.”

Clarke looked set to go to stumps leading a fighting rearguard action at the Adelaide Oval only to fall to a catch close to the wicket off part-time spinner Kevin Pietersen, with only four balls left of the fourth day.

Clarke had appeared to have recaptured his best form after cheap dismissals in Brisbane and the Adelaide first innings before he was out for 80.

Incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and his old rival Alassane Ouattara have both sworn themselves in as president and each pressed on as if he was in charge despite mediation attempts by South Africa’s former president Thabo Mbeki.

Gbagbo, 65, has defied international calls to cede power after the United Nations recognised Ouattara as the winner of the November 28 runoff vote, which was supposed to stabilise the country but has been marred by deadly violence.

Although profits were rolling in, LPS’s stock had taken a hit in the wake of revelations that mortgage companies across the country had filed fraudulent documents in foreclosures cases. Earlier in the year, the company, which handles more than half of the nation’s foreclosures, had disclosed that it was under federal criminal investigation and admitted that employees at a small subsidiary had falsely signed foreclosure documents.

Still, Carbiener told the Wall Street analysts in an October 29 conference call that LPS’s legal concerns were overblown, and the stock has jumped 13 percent since its close the day before the call.

The details are part of 250,000 diplomatic cables obtained and being made public by the campaigning website.

The list begins with a cobalt mine in Kinshasa, Congo and refers to various locations in Europe where drug companies produce insulin, treatment for snake bites and foot and mouth vaccines.

Internal State Department cables, obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to news organizations, indicate that millions of dollars are flowing to extremist groups, including al Qaeda and the Taliban, despite U.S. vows to cut off such funding.

A classified memo sent by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last December made it clear that residents of Saudi Arabia and its neighbors were the chief supporters of many extremist activities, the newspaper said.

The Fed will regularly review the policy and could adjust the amount of buying up or down depending on the economy’s path, he added.

In a rare televised interview, Bernanke told the CBS program “60 Minutes” the Fed’s actions are aimed at supporting what is still a fragile economic recovery, dismissing critics who argue the policy will lead to future inflation.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges have been asked to discard a lower court ruling that the state’s 2008 Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage violates Constitutional guarantees of equality and due process.

But first the court must decide whether the backers of the Proposition 8 ban have the right to defend it after the California governor and attorney general declined to do so.

The verdict more than a decade after a deadly accident that spelled the end of the supersonic airliner could now affect how planes are maintained and inspected.

The court ruled that a small metal strip, which fell onto the runway from a Continental aircraft just before the Concorde took off, caused the crash, which killed 113 people.

Li Keqiang, head of the Communist Party in northeastern Liaoning province at the time, was unusually candid in his assessment of local economic data at a dinner with then-U.S. Ambassador to China Clark Randt, according to a confidential memo sent after the meeting and published on the WikiLeaks website.

The U.S. cable reported that Li, who is now a vice premier, focused on just three data points to evaluate Liaoning’s economy: electricity consumption, rail cargo volume and bank lending.

“There were two bombers. They were on foot. The first blew himself up inside the office of one of my deputies while the second one set off explosives when guards caught him,” said Amjad Ali Khan, the top government official in Mohmand region, who appeared to be the target of the attack.

They were dressed in paramilitary uniforms, he said.

But EU paymaster Germany firmly rejected any such move and also dismissed a call by two veteran finance ministers for joint euro bonds guaranteed by the whole euro zone.

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will call on ministers to boost the rescue pool and urge the European Central Bank (ECB) to step up its purchases of bonds to stem the crisis, according to an IMF report obtained by Reuters.

The plans are still in the exploratory stage and Yahoo has not been contacted, the sources said. The plans are also fraught with complications involving myriad moving pieces.

In many respects, the latest discussions are derivative of plans contemplated in 2008 and 2009 before Time Warner spun off AOL to Time Warner shareholders.

The November 28 election was aimed at reuniting the West African nation, split after a 2002-3 civil war, but both Gbagbo and Ouattara have claimed victory and taken presidential oaths.

Gbagbo was sworn in as president on Saturday even though the electoral commission declared Ouattara the winner, according to provisional results giving him a 10 percent lead that were ratified by the United Nations.

Lawyer Mark Stephens told reporters Monday night in London that the Metropolitan Police had called him to say they had received the arrest warrant from Sweden for Assange, who has been staying at an undisclosed location in Britain.

“We are in the process of making arrangements to meet with police by consent,” Stephens said, declining to say when Assange’s police interview would take place.

Wal-Mart is trying to halt the lawsuit, with the backing of many other big companies concerned about rules for class-action cases – those in which people with similar interests increase their leverage by joining in a single claim. Class actions against discount seller Costco and the tobacco industry are among pending claims that the high court’s decision might alter.

The suit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. contends that women at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores are paid less and promoted less often than men. The case the high court accepted on Monday will not examine whether the claims are true, only whether they can be tried together.

The hearing before a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also focused on whether supporters of voter-approved Proposition 8 have legal standing to challenge a lower court ruling that the ban was unconstitutional.

Attorney Charles Cooper, who represents sponsors of the ban, argued the state could treat same-sex couples differently when it comes to marriage without running afoul of the Constitution because “sexual relationships between men and women naturally produce children.”

It’s part of the University of Maryland Medical Center’s crackdown on hospital-spread infections, and Michael Anne Preas patrols the ICU like a cop on the beat to help keep bacteria in check.

You forgot your gloves, Preas leans in to tell a doctor-in-training who’s about to examine a man with a breathing tube. Startled, the resident immediately washes his hands and grabs a pair.

Government ministers arrived in force to begin applying political muscle to negotiations that in the past week have narrowed some disputes, but which are likely to leave the toughest decisions for the final hours of the 193-nation conference on Friday.

Delegates were feeling pressure to produce at least a modest agreement from the two-week U.N. meeting to restore credibility to the talks after the last summit in Copenhagen failed to agree on any binding action to rein in emissions of global-warming gases.

Both mechanic John Taylor and the airline said they would appeal the long-awaited verdict, which followed 10 years of investigations.

Taylor said the case has “destroyed my life,” and his lawyer complained that the little guy was forced to shoulder the blame in a case that involved big names in world aviation.

An Associated Press investigation found students forced to work in strip clubs instead of restaurants. Others take home $1 an hour or even less. Some live in apartments so crowded that they sleep in shifts because there aren’t enough beds. Others have to eat on floors.

They are among more than 100,000 college students who come to the U.S. each year on popular J-1 visas, which supply resorts with cheap seasonal labor as part of a program aimed at fostering cultural understanding.

The Tigers from the Southeastern Conference and Ducks from the Pac-10 will bring perfect records and potent offenses to Glendale, Ariz., for their Jan. 10 game. For both teams, it’ll be their first appearance in the national title game.

Arkansas and Ohio State play for the first time in the Sugar Bowl; Stanford and Virginia Tech square off for the first time in the Orange Bowl and the first meeting between Oklahoma and Connecticut will come in the Fiesta Bowl.

In a taped interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday night, Bernanke also argued that Congress shouldn’t cut spending or boost taxes given how fragile the economy remains.

The Fed chairman said he thinks another recession is unlikely. But he warned that the economy could suffer a slowdown if persistently high unemployment dampens consumer spending.

The strike in Mohmand region underscored the tenacity of the Islamist uprising in the northwest despite Pakistani army offensives over the last 2 1/2 years. The operations have retaken areas where militants enjoyed safe haven, but authorities have struggled to hold onto the gains.

The tribally administered region is home to thousands of militants staging or supporting attacks on American troops fighting a related insurgency in Afghanistan. It also houses al-Qaida leaders and operatives from around the world plotting attacks on the West.

Despite the prosecution’s actions, the judge ordered the hearing to go forward and lawyers for John Edward Green Jr., the Houston man who asked for the proceeding, began calling witnesses.

The attorneys say will try to show that the way death penalty cases are handled in Texas creates a risk that innocent people will be executed. Green faces a possible death sentence if convicted of fatally shooting a Houston woman during a June 2008 robbery.

Richard Marshall was found not guilty in April of supplying the .32-caliber pistol used to kill Annie Mae Aquash in late 1975. A judge required Marshall to speak at the trial of John Graham, who’s accused of using the gun to kill Aquash.

Her death has long been synonymous with AIM and its often-violent struggles with federal agents during the 1970s. Observers had said Marshall’s testimony could offer new insight into how and why Aquash died, but he offered few answers Monday. When lead prosecutor Marty Jackley asked Marshall if he remembered a group of people, including Aquash, visiting his home late one night in December 1975, he said he couldn’t. He also noted it was a long time ago.

Those past accusations grabbed headlines and raise concerns about excessive force, but Ralph Johnson’s civil case has unfolded largely unnoticed in federal court in Manhattan.

Johnson is seeking unspecified damages from the city and the New York Police Department at his ongoing trial. In recent testimony, he told a jury that the officers violated him with a metal baton and sought to cover up the assault.

Prosecutors say Serbian-born George Jakubec quietly packed the home with the largest amount of homemade explosives ever found in one location in the U.S. and was running a virtual bomb-making factory in his suburban neighborhood. How the alleged bank robber obtained the chemicals and what he planned to do with them remain mysteries.

Now authorities face the risky task of getting rid of the explosives. The property is so dangerous and volatile that that they have no choice but to burn the home to the ground this week in a highly controlled operation involving dozens of firefighters, scientists and hazardous material and pollution experts.

Professors often use the paid breaks from teaching to write books, develop new courses or collaborate with colleagues around the world. But the practice is increasingly being questioned by critics who say it offers little more than a paid vacation at a time when other public employees are being furloughed or laid off.

“Why should the taxpayers of Iowa be paying to basically give these folks a year off from teaching?” asked incoming House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, a Republican whose party won control of the chamber in November. “It’s as simple as that.”

While prosecutors insisted Katrina offers no excuses, attorneys for the five current or former officers charged in Henry Glover’s death have urged jurors to consider the 2005 storm when judging their actions.

The jury of five men and seven women is expected to begin deliberating Tuesday after hearing 12 days of testimony and up to eight hours of closing arguments Monday.

The frustrations of these “left-behind” parents run deep. They seethe over Japan’s and India’s noncompliance with U.S. court orders regarding children taken by the other parent to the far side of the world, and many also fault top U.S. leaders for reluctance to ratchet up the pressure for change.

“If they really made it an issue to solve these cases, I believe they could be resolved tomorrow. … They don’t have the will,” said Christopher Savoie of Franklin, Tenn.

After he left the Red Maple nightclub around 1:30 a.m., Tshamba saw a man groping a woman and confronted him, starting a heated argument. The officer eventually drew his gun and emptied the clip, firing 13 shots – 12 of which struck and killed Tyrone Brown, an unarmed Iraq war veteran. The June 5 shooting resulted in a murder charge for Tshamba.

There’s nothing unusual about a Baltimore officer packing heat for a night at the bars. In fact, officers are generally required to do so. But recent shootings involving alcohol and off-duty officers have some experts decrying the department’s gun policy as an outdated approach other big cities have abandoned.

No longer do the bar’s patrons stare out at the working-class surroundings they helped revive and rebuild, all of it bulldozed away. Sunshine streams through the grimy windows, past the faint outline of the bar’s former name, “Cajun Inn,” with all of the buildings that had once given shade now flattened for a massive redevelopment project: a $2 billion hospital district spanning 25 city blocks.

Since May, more than 100 homes and businesses have been either demolished or transplanted to other spots around the city. Even though the bar’s owner is challenging the city’s effort to shut him down, most of the folks who stop by for a cold one after work feel their last drinks are drawing near.