Evening Edition

The demand for their “immediate” departure reflects the growing anger of Gbagbo’s nationalist supporters, and came as his most notorious lieutenant urged young Ivorians to make ready to fight for their sovereignty.

The United Nations, United States, European Union and Ivory Coast’s west African neighbours all demanded that Gbagbo cede power to Ouattara after both men claimed to have won last month’s presidential election.

The United Nations, United States, European Union and Ivory Coast’s west African neighbours all demanded that Gbagbo cede power to his rival Alassane Ouattara after both men claimed to have won last month’s presidential vote.

But the veteran strongman retains control of the official armed forces and his supporters have vowed to fight on, turning their anger on UN peacekeepers, former colonial power France and Ouattara’s own Ivorian supporters.

The Australian, who is spending his second full day on bail, vowed the whistle-blowing website would carry on releasing controversial leaked documents as he insisted his life was under threat.

Bank of America, the largest US bank, halted all transactions for WikiLeaks, joining other institutions that refuse to process payments for the website.

Lawmakers voted 63-33 to end debate on a bill to repeal the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” compromise of 1993 that requires gay troops to keep quiet about their sexual orientation or face dismissal, setting up final passage hours later.

“It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed,” Obama said in a statement urging the senate to complete its work.

Business leaders formalised paperwork — adding to the 20 billion dollars’ worth of deals signed Friday — under blanket security at Islamabad’s five-star Marriott Hotel, where a huge suicide truck bomb killed 60 people in 2008.

Boosting trade and investment with poverty-stricken Pakistan have been the main focus of the first visit in five years by a Chinese premier to the country that is on the front line of the US-led war on Al-Qaeda.

Business leaders formalised paperwork — adding to the 20 billion dollars’ worth of deals signed Friday — under blanket security at Islamabad’s five-star Marriott Hotel, where a huge suicide truck bomb killed 60 people in 2008.

Boosting trade and investment with poverty-stricken Pakistan have been the main focus of the first visit in five years by a Chinese premier to the country that is on the front line of the US-led war on Al-Qaeda.

At stumps on the third day, England were in disarray at 81-5 in their second innings, chasing 391 for victory with nightwatchman James Anderson yet to score and two full days of play remaining.

But there was an injury scare for Australia as captain Ricky Ponting went off late in the day after injuring his little finger while trying to take a catch to remove Jonathan Trott.

“Without a new treaty, we?ll risk turning back the progress we?ve made in our relationship with Russia, which is essential to enforce strong sanctions against Iran, secure vulnerable nuclear materials from terrorists, and resupply our troops in Afghanistan,” Obama said in his weekly radio address.

“And we?ll risk undermining American leadership not only on nuclear proliferation, but a host of other challenges around the world,” he added.

The largest US state, which would be the world’s eighth largest economy if a country, will from 2012 start a “cap-and-trade” system under which industry will be required to cut emissions but can trade credits on a new market.

Outgoing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has differed sharply with much of his Republican Party on the environment, saw the decision by a state panel late Thursday as part of his legacy.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza “spoke with President Preval today and requested a delay of the announcement of the final results of the elections,” assistant secretary general Albert Ramdin told AFP on Friday.

After the call from the OAS, Preval “agreed that he would ask the (Provisional Electoral Council, CEP) not to announce any results for now, until the OAS can help with the clarification process,” Ramdin said.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said one of its troops was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the heartland of the Taliban, and another in an attack by insurgents in the volatile east.

It gave no other details, including their nationalities.

Both the United Nations and the former colonial power, France, have urged Gbagbo to concede defeat in a November 28 poll, which was meant to heal the wounds of the West African state’s 2002-03 civil war but has instead reopened them.

Spokeswoman Jacqueline Oble read a statement on state television saying the government wanted the UNOCI and LICORNE missions forces to leave Ivory Coast, “and is opposed to any renewal of their mandate.”

Cowen, the most unpopular premier in recent Irish history, is widely expected to lose the election over his handling of a financial crisis that has forced Ireland to seek an 85 billion euro ($113.1 billion) EU/IMF bailout.

Opinion polls show support for Cowen and his Fianna Fail party at record lows, while Fine Gael is the most popular party. It is expected to lead a coalition government along with the center-left Labour party after the election.

Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd, also will remain at his post but a final selection of a new finance minister had not yet been made, sources close to Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said.

Shahristani, a Shi’ite, led the oil ministry as it set Iraq on an ambitious path to boost its production capacity to 12 million barrels per day in the next six or seven years, rivaling global leader Saudi Arabia, from 2.5 million bpd now.

The 39-year-old Australian computer expert, whom Swedish authorities want to question over alleged sexual offences, has angered the United States by releasing secret diplomatic cables on his website and teaming up with newspapers around the globe to amplify the impact of the disclosures.

Speaking to reporters from the grounds of the English country house where he was sent after his release on bail this week, Assange gave no hint of what charge he might face.

Moody’s cut Ireland’s rating by a stunning five notches during a European Union summit meant to restore confidence in the euro zone by creating a permanent financial safety net from 2013 and vowing to do whatever it takes to protect the euro.

Moody’s cut Ireland’s rating to Baa1, three notches above junk, with a negative outlook from Aa2 and warned further downgrades could follow if Dublin was unable to stabilize its debt situation, caused by a banking crash after a decade-long property bubble burst.

The Securities and Exchange Commission launched the new phase of its investigation by sending out a fresh round of subpoenas last week to big banks including Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co, the sources said.

Months ago, the SEC began looking into the banks’ foreclosure practices following allegations that mortgage servicers were using shoddy paperwork to evict delinquent borrowers from their homes.

The five-page summary of the two-month review, which did not mention Afghan President Hamid Karzai at all, was released on Thursday but has been criticized by Afghans and aid groups as overly optimistic.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s review found NATO-led forces were making headway against the Taliban but serious challenges remained. It said the insurgents’ momentum had been arrested in much of Afghanistan and reversed in some areas.

The CIA pulled its top spy out of Pakistan on Thursday amid death threats after his name emerged publicly a few weeks ago from a Pakistani man threatening to sue the CIA over the alleged deaths of his son and brother in a 2009 U.S. missile strike. The attorney involved with the complaint said he learned the name from Pakistani journalists.

But the station chief’s outing has spurred questions whether Pakistan’s spy service might have leaked the information. Lawsuits filed last month in New York City in connection with the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India, also may have raised tensions by naming Pakistan’s intelligence chief as a defendant.

The move was the latest act of political defiance by Laurent Gbagbo, who has been in power since 2000 and maintains he is the rightful winner of last month’s runoff vote in the West African nation despite growing international pressure on him to concede defeat.

The statement read on state television came just two days after as many as 30 people were killed in street violence in Ivory Coast. Earlier Saturday, masked gunmen opened fire on the U.N. base; no one from the U.N. was harmed in the attack.

In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Obama said that as long as he is president, the U.S., “will continue to develop and deploy effective missile defenses to protect the United States, our deployed forces, and our allies and partners.”

Obama’s message was aimed at some GOP critics of the New START treaty who have argued that the pact with Russia would limit U.S. efforts to deploy missile-defense programs.

The Charlotte-based bank’s move adds to similar actions by Mastercard Inc. and PayPal Inc. Though previous moves have prompted reprisals by hackers, Bank of America’s site is as well-protected as they come, security experts say.

Its site was problem-free through midafternoon Saturday.

Now, Drew Oliver thinks it’s time for bacteria, viruses and other maligned microorganisms to share the love.

Instead of standard Christmas gifts, a growing number of people are looking under the tree for giant stuffed cold germs, cuddly E. coli, hugworthy heartworm and other oddities from Oliver’s Stamford-based company, Giant Microbes. Oliver says the toys are true to the microbes they represent except, of course, for their eyes and enhanced colors.

Obama was expected to sign it next week, although the change wouldn’t take immediate effect. The legislation says the president and his top military advisers must certify that lifting the ban won’t hurt troops’ fighting ability. After that, there’s a 60-day waiting period for the military.

“It is time to close this chapter in our history,” Obama said in a statement after a test vote cleared the way for final action. “It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed.”

Although the election campaign has been the most free seen since Lukashenko came to power in 1994, it has been tainted by vicious propaganda and mysterious reprisals against opposition candidates and their supporters.

It has also been shadowed by the hanging death of an activist close to a top Lukashenko challenger.

Legislation to keep the federal government running until mid- to late February was also on the agenda, a matter for negotiations with emboldened Republicans who will take control of the House and add to their numbers in the Senate come January.

President Barack Obama seized one legislative triumph in the lame-duck session as Congress voted early Friday to extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits. He was looking for several more on his wish list – the arms control treaty and repeal of the military gay ban – to close out a politically tough year.

Julian Assange spoke from snowbound Ellingham Hall, a supporter’s 10-bedroom country mansion where he is confined on bail as he fights Sweden’s attempt to extradite him on allegations of rape and molestation.

He insisted to television interviewers that he was being subjected to a smear campaign and “what appears to be a secret grand jury investigation against me or our organization.”

Now scientists at the University of Oklahoma hope to extract DNA from the tiny bone chips in tests that could prove Earhart died as a castaway after failing in her 1937 quest to become the first woman to fly around the world.

“There’s no guarantee,” said Ric Gillespie, director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a group of aviation enthusiasts in Delaware that found the pieces of bone this year while on an expedition to Nikumaroro Island, about 1,800 miles south of Hawaii.

Then, the organization went on hiatus in Georgia when four group members were charged with assisted suicide. Awash with anxiety, the 43-year-old Caldwell filed a lawsuit last week asking a federal judge to let the group assign her an “exit guide” who could hold her hand and guide her through her final hours if the pain of living becomes unbearable.

“It is not the illness I fear, it is the suffering it causes,” she said. “Final Exit Network provided relief and compassion to people like me.”

Homemade strobe lights illuminated walls decorated like the night sky and plastered with cast posters. All around were balloons in red, white and black. An enormous cake, iced to look like the chess board on one of the book jackets, held 16 blazing candles.

The crowd began chanting for Sabrina to blow them out. She bent in close and blew, but the flames barely flickered. She straightened up and shook her head. Realizing her distress, Matt Scozzari stepped closer and told her they would do it together. On the count of three, they leaned in and snuffed them out together.

Miller is appealing a state judge’s decision to toss out his challenge to the handling of the election and counting of write-in ballots for Murkowski, who waged a write-in campaign after losing the GOP primary to Miller.

The state Supreme Court did not immediately rule Friday.