Evening Edition

Foreign Minister Alcide Djedje said that strongman Gbagbo, who most of the world says lost November’s presidential run-off but has refused to relinquish power, would not go into exile despite offers aimed at ending the crisis.

“It was a question of the New Forces soldiers leaving the hotel, a condition for lifting the blockade,” Djedje told journalists, denying Gbagbo had said he would lift the siege as reported by African mediators.

African leaders struggling to mediate an end to the crisis had said on Tuesday that Gbagbo promised to allow free access to the hotel that has become home to Alassane Ouattara, the man the world says won a November election.

With no visible progress in the confrontation between the two presidents that has seen at least 180 people killed, mediators said that “there should be no vacuum” as they scrambled to send another crisis mission to Abidjan.

The 66-year-old provincial governor of Punjab, one of the country’s most outspoken voices against religious extremism, was shot dead by a member of his own security detail outside an Islamabad cafe in broad daylight on Tuesday.

His killing horrified Pakistan’s moderate elite and supporters of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), but was welcomed by members of the powerful religious right, sending shock waves through an already fragile government.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who is facing a fight for survival after losing his parliamentary majority, immediately appealed for calm with memories fresh of riots sparked by previous political killings in Pakistan.

Officials said Salman Taseer, 66, who was appointed governor of Pakistan’s most populous and politically important province in 2008, was killed by one of his bodyguards opposed to his public criticism of controversial blasphemy laws.

“Moqtada al-Sadr has returned to his home in Najaf. He arrived about 3:00 pm (1200 GMT) with several leaders from the Sadr movement,” a source in his movement said, adding that Sadr had returned to stay.

Hundreds of supporters took to the streets of Al-Hanana neighbourhood in Najaf, the central Iraqi shrine city where Sadr’s home is located, to celebrate the cleric’s return watched on by security forces.

Li, widely tipped to be the next premier, delivered a significant vote of confidence given China’s world record foreign reserves of 2.648 trillion dollars (2.0 trillion euros), much of it in euros.

On his visit to Spain, Germany and Britain he is supporting Europe’s recovery efforts and seeking to soothe global market fears of a debt quagmire spreading from Greece and Ireland to Portugal and even Spain.

Newly minted Republican House Speaker John Boehner warned lawmakers they faced “great challenges” as his party prepared a freshly invigorated assault on Obama’s agenda with an eye on thwarting his 2012 reelection bid.

“We will welcome the battle of ideas, encourage it, engage it openly, honestly, and respectfully,” he said after taking over from Nancy Pelosi, the first woman US speaker and now Democratic minority leader.

The strong 2010 results — Ford up 19 percent, Chrysler up 17 percent and General Motors up six percent — come as overall industry sales recover from the worst downturn in decades which thrust GM and Chrysler into government-backed bankruptcies.

They also come at the expense of Toyota, which saw sales remain at depressed 2009 levels after its once-stellar reputation was damaged by a series of mass safety recalls.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said Tuesday that worldwide annual spending on mobile phones, computers, television sets and other items is expected to rise 10 percent in 2011 to 964 billion dollars.

“We may very well hit the trillion mark,” said Steve Koenig, director of industry analysis for CEA, organizer of the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which kicks off in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Football Federation Australia was the sole candidate for the event but still had to adhere to the formal bidding process by making its final presentation to the Asian Football Confederation’s executive committee.

“Today the AFC met and decided Australia would be the host nation for the 2015 Asian Cup,” AFC president Mohamad bin Hammam said at a press conference in Doha ahead of the 2011 tournament that kicks off here on Friday.

A somewhat diminished maverick whose militia was once viewed by U.S. forces as the greatest threat to Iraq, Sadr’s return could boost Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as he tries to form his second government before a full U.S. withdrawal this year.

Mazan al-Sadi, a Sadrist cleric in Baghdad, said Sadr, whose movement battled U.S. forces and was accused of many sectarian killings after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, was visiting the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq.

Gibbs, 39, a fierce defender of the president during near-daily White House news briefings, will leave in early February, he told reporters.

A successor to Gibbs is expected to be named within the next couple of weeks. The short list includes Vice President Joe Biden’s top spokesman, Jay Carney, and two of Gibbs’ deputies, Bill Burton and Josh Earnest.

The Republican takeover sets up potentially fierce battles in the coming months with President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats on spending, debt and healthcare.

Republican John Boehner, from a working class Ohio family of 12 children, was elected House speaker in the new Congress and warned of “hard work and tough decisions” on the economy as the United States recovers slowly from its worst recession since the 1930s.

The conservative Republican — a former small businessman who worked his way through college as a janitor — will be in a position to slam the brakes on President Barack Obama’s largely liberal agenda, push spending cuts and shake up Washington.

Having led Republicans to victory over Obama’s Democrats in the November congressional elections, Boehner, 61, will be formally chosen by his colleagues as House speaker shortly after the new 112th Congress convenes at noon.

But a Commerce Ministry official warned that any appreciation would do little to narrow China’s trade surplus with the United States, a constant irritant in the relationship between the world’s two largest economies.

The yuan’s gains would be particularly strong in the first half of this year, the China Securities Journal said in a front-page editorial.

Gene Sperling, a trusted Obama aide with first-hand experience with budget and economic clashes in the Clinton White House in the 1990s, is the front-runner to succeed Larry Summers as head of the National Economic Council.

Obama is also considering tapping J.P. Morgan Chase executive William Daley as White House chief of staff.

At least seven states are tipped to follow Arizona’s controversial push last year to curb illegal immigration, and more than a dozen are harmonizing efforts to cancel birthright citizenship for the U.S. born children of illegal immigrants.

Lawmakers say the cooperation is unprecedented, and responds to a failure by Washington to secure the Mexico border and address the status of nearly 11 million illegal immigrants living in the shadows.

Al-Sadr’s presence in Iraq ensures he will be a powerful voice in Iraqi politics as U.S. forces leave the country. He left Iraq in 2007 somewhat as a renegade, a firebrand populist whose militiamen battled American troops and Iraqi forces. He returns a more legitimized figure, leading an organized political movement that is a vital partner in the new government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Al-Sadr can wield a bully pulpit to put strong pressure on al-Maliki – and is likely to demand that no American troops remain beyond their scheduled final withdrawal date at the end of this year. His return caused trepidation among many Iraqis, particularly Sunnis who remember vividly the sectarian killings carried out by his militia, the Mahdi Army, and believe he is a tool of Iran.

The change is among the many expected in the coming days as Obama redefines his leadership team to gear up for a re-election bid and a more powerful Republican Party.

Gibbs said he would be leaving the White House by early February. The top contenders to replace him are two of his deputies, Bill Burton and Josh Earnest, and Jay Carney, who is communications director to Vice President Joe Biden.

GOP lawmakers, who picked up 64 House seats in the November elections, cheered loudly when Boehner defeated Democrat Nancy Pelosi in the roll call for speaker. The veteran Ohio lawmaker’s rise to the speakership was virtually guaranteed by his party’s midterm triumphs, which ended Pelosi’s four-year reign.

The new Senate also convened Wednesday, with Vice President Joe Biden administering the oath to lawmakers he had campaigned for and against last fall. Senators moved quickly to a debate over filibuster rules, with Democratic and Republican leaders accusing each other of obstructing progress and trying to game the parliamentary system.

He’s been heard.

Left homeless after his life and career were ruined by drugs and alcohol, Williams has been offered a job by the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and is being pursued by NFL Films for possible work after he and his compelling tale became an online curiosity.

Sluggers Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, Jeff Bagwell and Juan Gonzalez came nowhere close. Hall voters, for now, seem intent to prevent the cloud of the Steroids Era from covering Cooperstown.

Alomar was picked on 90 percent of the ballots by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The 12-time All-Star won a record 10 Gold Gloves at second base, hit .300 and helped the Toronto Blue Jays win titles in 1992-93.

Also among Romania’s newest taxpayers are fortune tellers – but they probably should have seen it coming.

Superstitions are no laughing matter in Romania – the land of the medieval ruler who inspired the “Dracula” tale – and have been part of its culture for centuries. President Traian Basescu and his aides have been known to wear purple on certain days, supposedly to ward off evil.

The cheers and tears across the country Wednesday underscored Pakistan’s journey over the past several decades from a nation defined by moderate Islam to one increasingly influenced by fundamentalists willing to use violence to impose their views.

Even so-called moderate Muslim scholars praised 26-year-old Mumtaz Qadri for allegedly killing Punjab province Gov. Salman Taseer on Tuesday in a hail of gunfire while he was supposed to be protecting him as a bodyguard. Qadri later told authorities he acted because of Taseer’s vocal opposition to blasphemy laws that order death for those who insult Islam.

Run by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, the new center would be a significant step in streamlining targeting operations previously scattered among U.S. and battlefields abroad and giving elite military officials closer access to Washington decision-makers and counterterror experts, the officials said.

The center aims to speed the sharing of information and shorten the time between targeting and military action, said two current and two former U.S. officials briefed on the project. Those officials and others insisted on condition of anonymity to discuss the classified matters.

The enormous black bear shot in northwestern Colorado set what may be a state record. But it sparked public outrage after the hunter told a newspaper that he tracked the male bear to a cave and shot it after five hours waiting for the animal to emerge.

Though the hunter said the bear was awake and snarled at him, a flurry of angry e-mails and calls to state wildlife authorities resulted.

The IRS filed nearly 1.1 million liens in the budget year that ended in September, a 14 percent jump over the previous year. Liens punish taxpayers and often hurt their ability to pay back taxes, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson said Wednesday in her annual report to Congress.

“By filing a lien against a taxpayer with no money and no assets, the IRS often collects nothing, yet it inflicts long-term harm on the taxpayer by making it harder for him to get back on his feet when he does get a job,” said Olson, an independent watchdog within the IRS. “Absent data that show liens make a meaningful contribution to revenue collection and especially in this economy, I find it unacceptable that the IRS continues to torment financially struggling taxpayers in this way.”

At the same time, government aid programs such as tax credits and food stamps kept many people out of poverty, helping to ensure the poverty rate did not balloon even higher during the recession in 2009, President Barack Obama’s first year in office.

Under a new revised census formula, overall poverty in 2009 stood at 15.7 percent, or 47.8 million people. That’s compared to the official 2009 rate of 14.3 percent, or 43.6 million, that was reported by the Census Bureau last September.

Once mocked as a fringe diet for sandal-wearing health food store workers, veganism is moving from marginal to mainstream in the United States.

The vegan “Skinny Bitch” diet books are best-sellers, vegan staples like tempeh and tofu can be purchased at just about any supermarket, and some chain restaurants eagerly promote their plant-only menu items. Today’s vegans are urban hipsters, suburban moms, college students, even professional athletes.

The Accord sedan is a recommended buy of Consumer Reports magazine and earned top scores recently in newly revised, tougher crash testing by the federal government. With refreshed styling, the 2011 Accord gets better gasoline mileage than its 2010 predecessor, too.

The new federal government fuel economy estimates of 23 miles per gallon in city driving and 34 mpg on the highway for the 2011 Accord sedan with four-cylinder engine, for example, are the best of all large, 2011-model sedans except for the 2011 Hyundai Sonata with four-cylinder engine.

Researchers said the findings could also help farmers make more efficient use of the costly nitrogen-based fertilizers used to promote plant growth. No-till farming apparently slows the breakdown of fertilizers in the soil, they said.

The three-year, federally funded Purdue University study looked at the amount of nitrous oxide released by no-till fields compared to plowed fields. No-till farmers don’t plow under their fields between crops and disrupt the soil surface as little as possible, although they do cut into it to plant seeds and inject fertilizers.

The embattled police chief defended his tenure last week in a year-end interview with The Associated Press, as two mayoral contenders were calling for his replacement. On Tuesday, two more candidates – former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and City Clerk Miguel del Valle – said they too would not renew his contract when it expires in March.

Also among those lining up against Weis are some rank-and-file officers who’ve viewed the former FBI agent as an outsider. The chief’s critics cite low morale in the police force and community frustration with both crime and the reduced number of officers deployed on the streets because of budget cuts.

But the holiday greeting that surfaced just before Christmas was a ruse by cybercriminals to steal documents and other data from law enforcement, military and government workers – particularly those involved in computer crime investigations.

Analysts who have studied the malicious software said Tuesday that hackers were able to use the e-mail to collect sensitive law enforcement data. But so far there has been no evidence that any classified information was compromised.

In the paper released Wednesday, the four-member team reports Asian carp DNA was detected in 58 water samples taken from Chicago-area rivers and canals past the barrier over nearly a year. They caution that while the findings suggest the presence of live bighead and silver carp, it’s unclear how many were in the waterways because individual fish could be responsible for multiple positive hits.

Still, the researchers argue that so-called “environmental DNA,” or “eDNA,” has proven a more effective means of detecting Asian carp than conventional methods such as electroshocking and netting. They predict it will become a valuable tool in efforts to prevent exotic species invasions and preserve species that are threatened or endangered.

“Whatever your truth is, you have to stick with it,” Dupree, 51, said Tuesday, minutes after a Dallas judge overturned his conviction.

Nationally, only two others exonerated by DNA evidence spent more time in prison, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in wrongful conviction cases and represented Dupree. James Bain was wrongly imprisoned for 35 years in Florida, and Lawrence McKinney spent more than 31 years in a Tennessee prison.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the unanimous decision in the dispute over the 29-foot cross, which was dedicated in 1954 in honor of Korean War veterans.

The court said modifications could be made to make it constitutional, but it didn’t specify what those changes would be.

Twain scholar Alan Gribben, who is working with NewSouth Books in Alabama to publish a combined volume of the books, said the N-word appears 219 times in “Huck Finn” and four times in “Tom Sawyer.” He said the word puts the books in danger of joining the list of literary classics that Twain once humorously defined as those “which people praise and don’t read.”

“It’s such a shame that one word should be a barrier between a marvelous reading experience and a lot of readers,” Gribben said.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order asking the California Supreme Court to decide if ballot proposition backers can step in to defend voter-approved initiatives in court when state officials refuse to do so.

The high court does not have to respond to the 9th Circuit panel’s order, but legal experts expect it will. The panel suggested that without the state court’s input, it would have to dismiss the case.

The 5-2 vote by the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Commission came after last-minute legal maneuvering on Monday failed to delay the meeting, environmentalists warned the dump would pollute groundwater and more than 5,000 people commented on the plan.

The expansion stokes the debate over where – and if – nuclear waste can be dumped in the United States, an argument that has taken on new importance since President Barack Obama vowed to decrease the country’s dependence on foreign oil, partly by building more nuclear power plants.

The first major overhaul of the food safety system since the 1930s, the law emphasizes prevention to help stop deadly outbreaks of foodborne illness before they occur, instead of reacting after consumers become ill.

It calls for increasing government inspections at food processing facilities and, for the first time, gives the Food and Drug Administration the power to order the recall of unsafe foods.

His undoing was a sense of humor that seemed a throwback to the Navy’s raucous, macho Tailhook days nearly two decades ago.

Honors, 49, was sacked as commander of the Enterprise on Tuesday for what the Navy called a “profound lack of good judgment and professionalism” in making and showing to his crew raunchy comic videos three or four years ago. In the videos, Honors used gay slurs and pantomimed masturbation.