Evening Edition

Gbagbo accused the international community of “making war” on his people, but insisted he did not want to see more bloodshed and offered to allow envoys from world powers to form a panel to study the post-election crisis.

The offer seems likely to fall on deaf ears, as the United Nations has recognised Gbagbo’s rival Alassane Ouattara as victor of the disputed poll and accuses the incumbent’s forces of carrying out death squad-style killings.

In a statement issued from the hotel where it survives behind a wall of UN peacekeepers, Ouattara’s camp accused Gbagbo’s loyalist security forces of murdering scores of civilians in overnight death squad raids.

Gbagbo, meanwhile, appeared determined to resist a barrage of international criticism, as the United Nations defended its hard-pressed peacekeepers and threatened to impose new sanctions on the 65-year-old’s regime.

Both Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara claim to have won last month’s Ivory Coast presidential election, but UN monitors and almost all of the world community recognised the challenger and has demanded Gbagbo step down.

Furious, the 65-year-old strongman ordered the United Nations’ 10,000-strong UNOCI peacekeeping force out of the country, accusing it of arming former rebel fighters now loyal to Ouattara and of plotting against his rule.

After more than nine months of political deadlock and wrangling, parliament in separate votes gave its approval to Maliki, three deputy prime ministers and 31 other cabinet ministers, as well as the government programme.

And it approved interim ministers for the remaining ten cabinet posts, with Maliki controlling the three security portfolios, and seven other ministers also serving as acting ministers for the vacant posts.

Coinciding eerily with the northern hemisphere’s mid-winter solstice — for the first time in almost four centuries — the eclipse showed the Sun, the Earth and its satellite as they directly aligned, with the Moon swinging into the cone of shadow cast by its mother planet.

Despite being in shadow, the Moon did not become invisible, as there was still residual light deflected towards it by our atmosphere.

Cameron’s spokesman said that Vince Cable, a senior Liberal Democrat member of the Conservative-led coalition, would no longer have a say in Murdoch’s bid to take full control of pay TV giant BSkyB, and his department would lose other powers.

The prime minister acted after Cable told undercover newspaper reporters that he had “declared war” on Murdoch and planned to block his New Corporation’s 12.0-billion-dollar (9.1-billion-euro) bid for BSkyB.

Lawmakers voted 67-28 to end debate on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), rallying the margin necessary to hand President Barack Obama a major diplomatic triumph in a final ballot expected Wednesday.

“We are on the brink of writing the next chapter in the 40-year history of wrestling with the threat of nuclear weapons,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair John Kerry, the accord’s lead Democratic patron.

At one point the main protagonist, Mayahuel, the Mayan goddess of fertility, thrust her arms skyward, eyes wide.

Just underneath her sequined skirt, peeking out on the top of her underwear, were two words however that revealed this was a very modern take on an ancient ceremony: Calvin Klein.

The deal comes just days after the Bank of Montreal (BMO) doubled its stake in the US banking market with the purchase of Marshall & Ilsley for 4.1 billion in stock.

TD Bank is already one of the 10 largest banks operating in the United States, with some 6.5 million customers and 1,250 branches in 15 states and the District of Columbia.

Police officials said the protesters would be held for up to 15 days while prosecutors probed their alleged involvement in “organising mass disturbances” — a crime that carries a sentence of up to 15 years.

“It is not a fact that all of them will be released after 15 days,” Minsk police spokesman Alexander Lastovsky told AFP.

The civil fraud case contends that Ernst & Young stood by while Lehman used accounting gimmickry to mask its shaky finances. The lawsuit says Lehman ran “a massive accounting fraud,” but it did not name as defendants any former top executives at the investment bank whose September 2008 collapse helped spark the global financial crisis.

The lawsuit seeks more than $150 million in fees that Ernst & Young received from 2001 to 2008 as Lehman’s outside auditor — less than 1 percent of its global annual revenue — plus other unspecified damages.

The rules highlight a huge divide between those who say the Internet should be allowed to flourish without regulation and those who say the power of big high-speed Internet providers like Comcast Corp to discriminate against other players needs to be restrained.

Under the rules, the blocking of legal content would be banned but providers like Comcast and Verizon Communications can “reasonably” manage their networks and charge consumers based on levels of Internet usage.

A motion to limit further debate on the treaty passed with 67 votes, the same number needed to secure Senate approval. A final vote on the accord will take place within 30 hours.

The treaty, which would cut strategic atomic weapons deployed by each country to no more than 1,550 within seven years, was signed by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April.

The Census estimates show a population shift from Democratic states in the Northeast and Midwest to Republican strongholds like Texas, Utah and South Carolina, giving those states more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The new figures also could play a role in the 2012 presidential and congressional races. The number of House seats determines each state’s representation in the Electoral College, which is used to elect a president.

Lawmakers voted Maliki and a new multi-party slate of ministers into office, elevating Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani to deputy prime minister for energy, and leaving in place Kurdish veteran Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari.

Highlighting the ethnic and sectarian divides that pervade the war-ravaged country, parliament had to postpone the vote on Monday after last-minute factional disputes and political horse-trading over posts delayed the government’s formation.

The bill to fund the government through March 4 would give Republicans the chance to try to push through dramatic budget cuts when they take control of the House of Representatives early next year.

The House is expected to approve the measure later in the day and send it on to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

China, the world’s new economic powerhouse, urged European policymakers to demonstrate as a matter of urgency that they can contain and then rectify the euro zone’s debt problems.

Ratings agency Moody’s said it may cut Portugal’s rating by one or two notches within three months, citing weak growth prospects as the government seeks to cut its debt, and climbing borrowing costs, although it said its solvency was not in question.

The settlements conclude a tumultuous year for the world’s largest automaker over the recalls of 11 million vehicles in the United States and disclosure of problems blamed by safety advocates for hundreds of crashes and the deaths of dozens of people.

The crisis prompted unprecedented government scrutiny over unintended acceleration complaints, a total of three heavy fines, and a loss of prestige and consumer confidence in Toyota’s best-selling cars.

The deal, comprising net assets of $5.9 billion and about $400 million in goodwill, will make Canada’s No. 2 bank one of North America’s top five bank-owned auto lenders. It consists of net assets of $5.9 billion and about $400 million in goodwill, TD said on Tuesday.

The bank said it does not intend to issue common equity in connection with the deal, in contrast to rival Bank of Montreal, whose shares slumped on Friday on news that it would issue shares to fund last week’s takeover of troubled Wisconsin lender Marshall and Ilsley.

Ivory Coast’s November 28 presidential election was intended to heal the scars of a 2002-03 civil war but has instead triggered a standoff between incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and rival Alassane Ouattara, with the latter recognized as victor by the electoral commission and the outside world.

Gbagbo has refused to step down despite international pressure and sanctions backed by the United Nations, European Union, the United States, African Union and regional bloc ECOWAS — all of which recognize Ouattara as president elect.

The Web traffic rules, due to be voted on by the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, could tip the economics away from consumers watching TV over Internet lines if they help cable companies charge more versus their own television offerings.

Said one executive at a major US media company: “in the event a cable company feels threatened” by Internet TV services, “they could control offerings through pricing the usage.”

Tensions between the United States and Pakistan are already strained despite months of strategic dialogue aimed at upgrading the relationship — and billions of dollars in aid for development and relief from devastating floods.

Analysts said Washington might be using the suggestion to coax Pakistan into tougher action against Taliban militants in areas bordering Afghanistan. But any serious move to expand ground raids would boost tension, perhaps intolerably, and could be considered a “red line” for Pakistani authorities.

The decision to stand pat on policy was widely expected as the central bank likely felt no imminent need to top up its new asset buying scheme, with Tokyo stock prices on the rise and the yen well off a 15-year high hit against the dollar last month.

But with the outlook murky, BOJ policymakers are expected to have scrutinized various risks to the economy that may hurt business morale, which is seen worsening in the coming three months.

China, which has invested an undisclosed portion of its $2.65 trillion reserves in the euro, said it backed steps taken by European authorities so far to tackle the region’s debt problems, but made clear it would like to see the measures having more effect.

“We are very concerned about whether the European debt crisis can be controlled,” Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said at a trade dialogue between China and the European Union.

One of the government’s first priorities will be to decide whether to ask the Obama administration to keep thousands of U.S. soldiers in Iraq after their scheduled departure in December 2011.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s new government solidifies the grip that Shiites have held on political power since Saddam Hussein’s ouster. It leaves open the question of whether the country’s disgruntled Sunni minority will play a meaningful role.

The report by The Education Trust bolsters a growing worry among military and education leaders that the pool of young people qualified for military service will grow too small.

“Too many of our high school students are not graduating ready to begin college or a career – and many are not eligible to serve in our armed forces,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the AP. “I am deeply troubled by the national security burden created by America’s underperforming education system.”

The 3-2 vote Tuesday marks a major victory for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who has spent more than a year trying to craft a compromise.

The FCC’s three Democrats voted to pass the rules, while the two Republicans opposed them, calling them unnecessary regulation. The new rules are likely to face intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill once Republicans take over the House. Meanwhile, public interest groups decried the regulations as too weak, particularly for wireless systems.

The Census Bureau announced Tuesday that the nation’s population on April 1 was 308,745,538, up from 281.4 million a decade ago. The growth rate for the past decade was 9.7 percent, the lowest since the Great Depression. The nation’s population grew by 13.2 percent from 1990 to 2000.

Michigan was the only state to lose population during the past decade. Nevada, with a 35 percent increase, was the fastest-growing state.

Eleven Senate Republicans joined Democrats in a 67-28 proxy vote to wind up the debate and hold a final tally on Wednesday. They broke ranks with the Senate’s top two Republicans and were poised to give Obama a win on his top foreign policy priority.

“We are on the brink of writing the next chapter in the 40-year history of wrestling with the threat of nuclear weapons,” Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said after the vote.

The troubled, big-budget “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” was hit by its fourth accident since it began previews last month when a stuntman playing the skyscraper-scaling superhero fell about 30 feet into a stage pit during a performance Monday night. The safety tether that clips to his back failed to prevent the spill.

The performer, identified by a fellow cast member as 31-year-old Christopher Tierney, was wheeled out of the Foxwoods Theatre on a stretcher, still in his costume, and taken by ambulance to Bellevue Hospital with minor injuries. He suffered broken ribs and internal bleeding, said the castmate, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the musical.

The legislation passed Tuesday would give the government broad new powers to inspect processing plants, order recalls and impose stricter standards for imported foods. The $1.4 billion bill would also require larger farms and food manufacturers to prepare detailed food safety plans and tell the Food and Drug Administration how they are working to keep their food safe at different stages of production.

The food safety bill has faced several false starts since the House first passed it in July 2009. It stalled in the Senate for over a year as small farms objected to the increased oversight and conservatives complained about the cost. Most recently, the Senate passed the bill in November with tax provisions that were supposed to originate in the House under the Constitution, threatening completion of the bill.

The Vatican’s moral watchdog, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a statement Tuesday saying some commentators had misunderstood and misrepresented the pope’s remarks in a book-length interview released last month entitled “Light of the World.”

The Vatican has been under pressure from conservative theologians to issue such a clarification amid widespread confusion about what Pope Benedict XVI meant and whether he was breaking with church teaching.

The deal announced Tuesday is the latest example of a healthy Canadian bank using their muscle to snap up U.S. institutions battered by the financial crisis.

Toronto-Dominion CEO Ed Clark said Canada’s second-largest bank is looking to accelerate growth in the U.S and this deal makes them a top five North American auto lender.

A report on phone use by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also found that the younger children are, the likelier they are to live in homes that only have wireless phones. That suggests that younger parents are showing increasing comfort relying only on cell phones even as they adjust from being single to a more settled family lifestyle, according to one of the report’s authors.

Taken together, the figures released Tuesday provide the latest evidence of how young people are leading the nation’s evolution away from landline phones.

The civil penalties will settle investigations into how Toyota dealt with recalls over accelerator pedals that could get trapped in floor mats and steering relay rods that could break and lead to drivers losing control.

The latest settlement, on top of a $16.4 million fine Toyota paid earlier in a related investigation, brings the total penalties levied on the company to $48.8 million. It caps a difficult year for the world’s No. 1 automaker, which recalled more than 11 million vehicles globally since the fall of 2009 as it scrambled to protect its reputation for safety and reliability.

In a 2-1 decision, the Third Texas Court of Appeals ruled that Judge Charlie Baird “abused his discretion” by not recusing himself or referring a motion for his recusal to another judge. Baird presided over an October hearing into whether Cameron Willingham was wrongly executed for setting a 1991 fire that killed his three daughters – a 2-year-old and 1-year-old twins.

Although Willingham was executed in 2004, many of the nation’s foremost fire experts, some of whom testified in October, now say the blaze was accidental. Some of Willingham’s surviving relatives and attorneys from the Innocence Project are trying to clear Willingham’s name and get the state to acknowledge he was wrongly executed.

Bishop Thomas Olmsted called the 2009 procedure an abortion and said St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center – recognized internationally for its neurology and neurosurgery practices – violated ethical and religious directives of the national Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“In the decision to abort, the equal dignity of mother and her baby were not both upheld,” Olmsted said at a news conference announcing the decision. “The mother had a disease that needed to be treated. But instead of treating the disease, St. Joseph’s medical staff and ethics committee decided that the healthy, 11-week-old baby should be directly killed.”

Now the military has a new social challenge: Allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the ranks. It is expected that commanders will dutifully implement the policy, and overall it will likely be judged a success, but recent history provides some cautionary lessons.

On one hand, the military has earned a deserved reputation as a meritocracy in which minorities and women can flourish. On the other hand, sexual assault remains a rampant problem, and racism was minimized only after years of friction within the ranks.

The bill would freeze agency budgets at current levels. That’s still too high for Republicans set to take over the House, who vow to cut many programs to levels in place when President Barack Obama took office.

The measure is needed because the Democratic-controlled Congress – in an unprecedented breakdown of the budget process – has failed to pass a single one of the 12 annual spending bills that fund the day-to-day operations of every federal agency.

The Death Penalty Information Center attributed the reductions to changing attitudes toward capital punishment, but acknowledged there have also been problems with the availability of chemicals used in lethal injections.

“Whether it’s concerns about the high costs of the death penalty at a time when budgets are being slashed, the risks of executing the innocent, unfairness, or other reasons, the nation continued to move away from the death penalty in 2010,” said Richard Dieter, the center’s executive director and author of the report.

As the U.S. military begins to map out how it will implement the new edict allowing gays to serve openly, the first order of business is drafting the regulations. The rule changes under discussion won’t dictate how troops feel about the change, but will strictly enforce how they act on it.

The Senate voted Saturday to repeal the ban on openly gay service, following earlier action by the House. Fulfilling a 2008 campaign promise, President Barack Obama plans to sign the bill into law on Wednesday at an Interior Department ceremony. But in letters to the troops over the weekend, the four military service chiefs warned that the ban is still in place, and will be for some time to come.

As blacks and whites gathered in the twilight with electric candles and signs for an NAACP protest, a predominantly white group of men in old-fashioned tuxedos and women in long-flowing dresses and gloves stopped to watch and take pictures before going into the Charleston auditorium where the ball was taking place.

NAACP leaders said it made no sense to hold a gala to honor men who committed treason against their own nation for the sake of a system that kept black men and women in bondage as slaves. They compared Confederate leaders to terrorists and Nazi soldiers.

The request to the U.S. Department of Education made by the Texas NAACP and Texas League of United Latin American Citizens on Monday contended that the curriculum changes passed in May “were made with the intention to discriminate” and would have a “stigmatizing impact” on African-American and Latino students.

“The State of Texas is failing to provide many of its minority students with equal educational opportunities,” documents sent to the federal department said.