Evening Edition

The country is already grappling with a depressed economy, the after-effects of devastating floods that hit 21 million people in mid-2010, and Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked sanctuaries in its northwest on the Afghan border.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) made the announcement Sunday, days after its two federal cabinet ministers resigned, abandoning crisis talks with the main ruling Pakistan People’s Party that had scrambled to keep them on board.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) made the announcement days after its two federal cabinet ministers resigned, abandoning crisis talks with the main ruling Pakistan People’s Party that had scrambled to keep them on board.

An administration that took power less than three years ago following elections has now lost its majority in parliament and faces possible collapse if the opposition unites to pass a vote of no-confidence.

The 63-year-old Rousseff, who was Lula’s former cabinet chief, vowed during her inauguration on Saturday to continue his policies, which have fueled economic growth and enhanced Brazil’s international standing.

On Sunday, Rousseff met with South Korean Prime Minister Kim Hwang-Sik, Spain’s crown Prince Felipe, Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Machado and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The 63-year-old divorced grandmother, who was Lula’s former cabinet chief, assumed the presidency in a carefully staged ceremony under at times rainy skies.

A 1952 Rolls-Royce convertible took her along streets lined with an estimated 70,000 well-wishers.

The 63-year-old Rousseff, who was Lula’s former cabinet chief, assumed the presidency Saturday in a carefully staged ceremony in Brazil’s starkly modernist federal capital.

Sunday, she met with South Korean Prime Minister Kim Hwang-Sik, Spain’s crown Prince Felipe, Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Machado and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Hundreds of Coptic Christians gathered inside the gates of Cairo’s St Mark Cathedral where the Coptic pope, Shenouda III, has his headquarters and heckled officials who came to pay condolences.

The correspondent said demonstrators chased the state minister for economic development, Osman Mohammed Osman, to his car and pelted him with stones after he met Shenouda, while others clashed with police standing outside the gates.

There was no immediate claim but Al-Qaeda has called for punishment of Egypt’s Copts over claims that two priests’ wives they say had converted to Islam were being held by the Church against their will.

The bombing in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria sparked anger among Christians, who clashed with police and shouted slogans against the regime of the ageing president, as well as condemnation from Western governments.

“With our soul and our blood we will redeem the Holy Cross,” the grieving congregation chanted at the Coptic Al-Qiddissin church in Alexandria at Sunday mass a day after the bombing.

Bloodstains from Saturday’s attack were still visible on the facade of the church where 21 people were killed early on New Year’s Day and 79 were wounded when an apparent suicide bomber blew himself up.

After a one-day amnesty granted for New Year’s Day, the new law banning smoking in all bars, cafes, restaurants and public places — even some outdoor areas — was imposed at the stroke of midnight on Saturday.

It was a shock for many Spaniards for whom the cafe culture — lighting up with a few friends while enjoying a drink and tapas — has been an essential part of daily life.

After seven years at the helm of the Golden State, the former champion body builder turned “Terminator” movie megastar and businessman is leaving his adopted home mired in huge financial woes.

But in a newspaper interview to mark his handover of power to Democrat Jerry Brown — two months after November 2 polls — Arnie stood by all his decisions.

As pressure mounted on Gbagbo, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said West African regional body ECOWAS will decide on the next steps to deal with the political standoff in Ivory Coast by Tuesday.

“On Cote d’Ivoire, President Jonathan said ECOWAS will decide on further steps to address the situation in the country by Tuesday next week after receiving subsequent reports from its emissaries,” a statement said Saturday.

Speaking at a New Year church service, Jonathan said late Friday’s bombing in the capital Abuja bore the hallmarks of a series of attacks on Christmas Eve that left about 80 people dead, including after reprisals.

“They (attacks) will never stop Nigeria from where we are going to, we must work and reproduce a country … where there will be no space for terrorists, a country where there will be no bombers and people with explosives to deter us,” he said.

As a spectacular fireworks show lit up the sky over Tallinn, the 2004 EU entrant — which broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991 — bade a reluctant farewell to its kroon, adopted in 1992 to replace the Soviet ruble.

At the stroke of midnight, Estonia’s centre-right Prime Minister Andrus Ansip symbolically withdrew a crisp new euro banknote from a bank machine at the national opera as onlookers braved subzero temperatures.

Vice President Alvaro Garcia issued the decree on Sunday removing subsidies that keep fuel prices artificially low but cost the Bolivian government an estimated 380 million dollars per year.

As a result fuel prices went up by as much as 83 percent in the sharpest increases since 1991.

The challenges currently facing the 27-nation bloc are daunting enough: the eurozone debt crisis, the integration of the Roma minority, and tough negotiations over the EU’s long-term budget.

But — as the German government put it recently — Hungary “will have a particular responsibility for the image of the whole union in the world” as it raises hackles both at home and abroad with a series of controversial reforms.

The presumed suicide attack killed 21 people gathered outside the church during a midnight service, and wounded 97 others.

Hundreds of members of Egypt’s large Christian minority held protests in Cairo and Alexandria to protest against the authorities’ failure to protect them.

Republicans, who will take control of the House of Representatives this week, are demanding spending cuts to curb the $1.3 trillion budget deficit and several have said they would oppose a higher debt ceiling if Obama does not agree to a range of painful cuts.

White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee accused Republicans of “playing chicken” with the nation’s financial credibility.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) said the decision had been taken because of the government’s fuel prices policy. It means the opposition now has the numbers in the National Assembly to force a no confidence vote against Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani. Losing such a vote could trigger an election.

However, while analysts doubted that Gilani would see out his term, which ends in 2013, an immediate election was probably not the most likely scenario. The MQM may seek to extract concessions from the government in exchange for renewed support.

The country was plunged into crisis when Gbagbo refused to step down after a disputed election in November, leading to an outbreak of violence in a nation still divided since a civil war in 2002 and 2003.

The electoral commission, world leaders and the U.N. General Assembly have recognized Gbagbo’s rival Alassane Ouattara as the winner of the election.

The growth in crude production surprised many analysts, who had expected 1.1 percent on average, when polled just before the start of 2010.

Energy Ministry data on Sunday showed the country extracted 10.145 million barrels per day last year, a record since the collapse of the Soviet Union, up from 9.93 million bpd in 2009 and 9.78 million bpd in 2008.

Once they take power from Obama’s Democrats in the House of Representatives when the new Congress convenes on January 5, they will be held accountable to answer this and other questions.

How will they keep their promise to cut federal spending and reduce the federal deficit? What will they do to pump new life into the sluggish economy still trying to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression? Will they raise the federal debt limit or threaten a government default?

In his weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday, the vacationing president said recent data showed the economic recovery was gaining traction even as millions of Americans are still out of work.

“Our most important task now is to keep that recovery going,” Obama said. “As president, that’s my commitment to you: to do everything I can to make sure our economy is growing, creating jobs, and strengthening our middle class. That’s my resolution for the coming year.”

The Baltic state of 1.3 million became the 17th euro zone country at midnight and was the first former Soviet state to adopt the euro, capping 20 years of integration with the West.

Estonia sees the change as marking the end of its struggles since a 2009 recession lopped 14 percent off its output. It hopes to entice investors by removing fears of devaluation and make borrowing more secure for its people, many of whose mortgages are already in euros from top Nordic banks.

The Anglo-Australian miner, under pressure to land a big deal after scrapping a $39 billion bid for Canada’s Potash Corp in November, declined to comment on the rumors which drove Anadarko’s shares to a 2-1/2-year high at one point in New York Stock Exchange trading on Friday.

Fund managers and analysts said Anadarko was a good strategic fit for BHP, which is sitting on a pile of cash and needs to expand. Speculation that BHP Chief Executive Marius Kloppers was eyeing Anadarko first surfaced in September, as the U.S. oil company’s shares slowly rebounded after BP Plc’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill sent them tumbling.

A Chinese government circular from the powerful Ministry of Information and Industry Technology called for a crackdown “on illegal VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) telephone services” and said it was collecting evidence for legal cases against them. It did not name any phone companies.

Skype was still available in China on Friday evening through its joint venture partner TOM Online.

Republicans promise to cut spending, roll back President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul and prevent unelected bureaucrats from expanding the government’s role in society through regulations that tell people what they must or can’t do. Getting this agenda through the House may be easier than in the Senate, given the GOP’s 241-194 majority in the House. Getting the Senate to act will be a challenge. Democrats still hold an edge there, though smaller than the one Obama had during his first two years in the White House.

Even if the next two years end in gridlock, Republicans will have built a record for the next election that they hope will demonstrate to voters that they can get it right.

The star of the videos, made in 2006 and 2007, is a former Top Gun pilot who now commands the same ship, the Norfolk-based USS Enterprise, which was deployed in the Middle East at the time and is weeks from deploying again.

The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported on the videos in its Sunday editions and posted an edited version of one video on its website.

The bombing touched off riots and protests by Egypt’s Christian minority, who feel they are targeted and discriminated against and do not get adequate protection from authorities. There were signs of beefed up security outside churches nationwide and dozens returned to pray Sunday in the bombed, blood-spattered Saints Church – many of them sobbing, screaming in anger and slapping themselves in grief.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Coptic Christians leaving a midnight Mass about a half hour into the new year Saturday, the worst attack on Egyptian Christians in a decade. In the immediate aftermath, President Hosni Mubarak blamed foreigners and the Alexandria governor accused al-Qaida, pointing to threats against Christians by the terror network’s branch in Iraq.

Wildlife officials have seen a slight rise in the shooting of ocean mammals in recent years, and investigators often struggle to find a culprit. There are few witnesses to such shootings, making it nearly impossible to bring a case.

“We always try to do an investigation, but unless there’s an eyewitness to the shooting it’s hard to make a case for our enforcement folks,” said Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who tracks reports of the shootings.

The International Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off this week in Las Vegas.

The elephant is Apple Inc. It won’t be at the show this year, but its tablet computer, the iPad, is the most important new product for an industry that needs to once again excite consumers. Sales of the iPad have been strong since its April debut, and the whole industry is now trying to mimic Apple’s success.

The one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill, which at 100 followed by 12 zeros is the highest denomination, now sells for $5, depending on its condition. That bill and others – among them millions, billions and trillions, were abandoned nearly two years ago, when the American dollar became legal tender in the hopes of killing off the record inflation that caused all those zeros.

“I had to have one,” said Janice Waas on a visit to the northwestern resort town of Victoria Falls. “The numbers are mind bending.” She got her so-called “Zimdollar” in pristine condition, from a street vendor who usually sells African carvings.

The United Nations declared Alassane Ouattara the winner of Ivory Coast’s long-delayed presidential vote, but incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo has refused to step aside now for more than a month. Gbagbo accuses the U.N. of failing to remain neutral, and the U.N. has ignored his demand for thousands of peacekeepers leave.

Now peacekeepers patrolling the streets of Abidjan are coming under growing threat – one was wounded with a machete this week when a crowd in a pro-Gbagbo neighborhood attacked a convoy and set a U.N. vehicle on fire. The next day, a U.N. patrol was fired upon from a nearby building as an angry crowd surrounded them. They were forced to fire into the air to disperse the crowd, a U.N. statement said.

Not all of the bickering in the 112th Congress that convenes Wednesday will be between Republicans and Democrats. House Republicans, back in power after four years in the minority, will include numerous freshmen whose unyielding stands on the deficit, in particular, could severely test soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner’s ability to bridge differences and pass major bills.

His first big challenge will come in February, when Congress must pass a huge spending bill to keep the government running. Many House Republicans – veterans and newcomers alike – have pledged to cut discretionary domestic spending by up to $100 billion.

Researchers are beginning the third and final year of testing lab-refined mating pheromones – scents emitted by male lampreys to attract females. They’re also working on a mixture with the stench of rotting lamprey flesh, which live ones detest, and another that smells of baby lampreys, which adults love. If proven effective, the chemicals will be deployed across the region to steer the aquatic vermin to where they can be trapped or killed.

Early results appear promising. Yet no one expects the lures and repellents to finally rid the lakes of the despised invader and enable fisheries managers in the U.S. and Canada to end a battle that has cost more than $400 million over five decades. Especially when a single spawning female lays up to 60,000 eggs.

Specter began and ended – for now – his political life as a Democrat and spent the intervening four decades as a Republican. But he sees himself as an independent who often bucked party leadership – ultimately ending his career.

“I have always agreed with (John F.) Kennedy that sometimes party asks too much,” Specter said in his last news media interview in his Washington office on Dec. 23. “My tenure in the Senate was really as an independent and whichever, regardless of party label.”

Clear blue skies and chilly temperatures greeted hundreds of thousands of spectators who lined Colorado Boulevard to gawk at the New Year’s Day showcase of flowery floats, marching bands and equestrians.

Many who staked out prime viewing spots on the sidewalks had to brave temperatures that dipped into the low 40s overnight. They shivered under blankets and huddled around fire pits to stay warm.

“I’m a New Yorker. I’m used to this,” Christine Mendez said, digging her boyfriend’s car out of a snow drift on Central Park West on Monday.

The city had cleaned up big storms like this – its sixth-worst on record – with ease before. But this aftermath was unlike anything New Yorkers had seen in decades. Planes, trains, hundreds and hundreds of buses and ambulances were stuck in the snow for long hours, often with shivering passengers aboard. Snow plows got stuck, along with the tow trucks sent to dig them out. After the last snowflake fell Monday morning, it took another three days before some people saw their mail.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is sifting through a stack of corporate, Hollywood and real estate offers as the celebrity politician nears an inevitable career crossroad: On Monday, he’s out of a job.

His next act? After seven years in Sacramento, the former strongman and film star will by his own account hit the speech circuit, keep a hand in political activism and possibly write the autobiography that publishers have wanted him to do for years.

Davis’ decision, announced at a New Year’s Eve news conference, followed weeks of pressure from many African American leaders who believe that only a consensus black candidate could beat former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and other prominent contenders in the race to replace retiring Mayor Richard Daley.

Braun, 63, who was elected to the Senate in 1992 and who served a single term, faces questions about miscues during her time in Washington and about being out of the spotlight for years. But in recent days she had emphasized her profile in Chicago and beyond, better support in the city’s business community, and her likely fundraising advantage over Davis.

Miller announced his decision at a news conference in Anchorage Friday, one day after the state certified the incumbent Murkowski as the winner of the November election.

The concession ends what started as a promising campaign for Miller, a Sarah Palin-backed tea party favorite who upset Murkowski in the GOP primary, in his first bid for statewide public office.

Secret diplomatic records showed the minister – privately termed “the worst” by U.S. officials – kept his perch at an agency that controls $2 billion in U.S. and allied projects.

The refusal to remove the official despite threats to end U.S. aid highlights how little influence the U.S. has over the Afghan leader on pressing issues such as corruption.

Flying, shipping a package and ordering a pizza all likely would get more expensive in the new year if that happens and companies pass along higher energy costs. Some economists say rising energy prices will slow economic growth.

The U.S. is the world’s largest oil consumer, but prices since spring have been on a roll primarily because of rising demand in developing countries, especially China. China’s oil consumption is expected to rise 5 percent next year; that compares with less than 1 percent growth forecast for the U.S.

The attorney general’s office notified San Francisco police on Dec. 2 that there was not sufficient evidence to charge Deborah Madden, AG spokesman Jim Finefrock said Friday.

Madden, 60, had been accused of stealing small amounts of cocaine from the lab while working there last year.