Evening Edition

The former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement cited its own estimates for the achievement which must still be officially confirmed by the South Sudan Referendum Commission that organised the week-long vote.

But there were long queues at polling stations again on Wednesday as voters responded to calls from the party for a “100 percent turnout.”

Under pressure after security forces opened fire on demonstrators over the weekend, killing between 20 and 50 people, the government fired the interior minister and said it would investigate alleged use of excessive force.

In a sign of increasing concern at the spreading protests over rising food prices and unemployment, troops rolled into the capital on armoured vehicles and trucks and took up positions at major intersections.

Energy Minister Gebran Bassil told a press conference 10 ministers had resigned because of a long-running dispute with Prime Minister Saad Hariri — son of the slain leader — over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

An 11th minister close to President Michel Sleiman also quit the 30-member cabinet, thus providing the minimum number of resignations needed to topple the government.

“Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them,” she said of the shooting rampage that left six dead and Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords fighting for her life.

On a national day of mourning for the victims, Palin fanned speculation she will run for the White House in 2012 and cast herself as the archconservative movement’s champion with a slickly made, nearly eight-minute video.

The government raised 1.25 billion euros ($1.6 billion), the maximum it sought, attracting strong interest and slightly lower rates for the long-term bonds — proof it said, that Lisbon was a credible, trusted borrower.

“One of the conclusions to draw … is that Portugal is still able to (access) the financial markets, that there is a demand (for its bonds), that it can get (rates) which are acceptable and even favourable, given the context,” Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said.

“We are setting out to break new ground and to decisively improve the way in which we manage and coordinate our interdependent economies,” said European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.

The move to tighten coordination across the 27-nation bloc, including the 17 eurozone states, aims to secure recovery after the global crisis, but more particularly break the manic cycle of debt drama unsettling Europe.

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called for an increase in the size of the 440-billion-euro European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to reassure nervous markets the stability of the eurozone “is not in question.”

“We believe that the financing capacity must be reinforced, the scope of activities of the EFSF should be widened,” Barroso said.

The usually teeming streets of the capital Port-au-Prince were quiet as residents, dressed in their best clothes and often holding Bibles, walked to church.

They were mourning the more than 220,000 people killed almost instantly in the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010.

Revising upwards previous death toll estimates from the January 12 quake of around 250,000, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said the recovery of additional bodies over the year put the total figure at “over 316,000 people killed.”

He spoke at a news conference with former U.S. President and U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton after thousands of Haitians, many wearing white in mourning, attended poignant memorial services around the battered Caribbean country.

Offering a carrot-and-stick approach ahead of a state visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao, Geithner laid out his view of each sides’ priorities and said a failure by Beijing to allow for more currency appreciation could damage China’s economy.

“China still closely manages the level of its exchange rate and restricts the ability of capital to move in and out of the country,” Geithner said. “These policies have the effect of keeping the Chinese currency substantially undervalued.”

Offering a carrot-and-stick approach ahead of a state visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao, Geithner laid out his view of each sides’ priorities and said a failure by Beijing to allow for more currency appreciation could damage China’s economy.

“China still closely manages the level of its exchange rate and restricts the ability of capital to move in and out of the country,” Geithner said. “These policies have the effect of keeping the Chinese currency substantially undervalued.”

Lebanese politicians had said on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia and Syria failed to reach a deal to contain tensions over the U.N.-backed tribunal, which is expected to issue draft indictments soon over the 2005 assassination of Rafik al-Hariri.

The ministers resigned as Saad al-Hariri was meeting U.S. President Barack Obama, and the White House later released a statement criticizing Hezbollah’s moves and warning against any “threats or action” that could destabilize Lebanon.

Wolfgang Schaeuble’s disclosure came as the European Union’s executive called for greater emergency lending power to underpin the euro zone, and Portugal, widely seen as the next candidate for a bailout, successfully sold its first debt of the year.

Schaeuble said talks on a package of measures were under way with France, Italy and the head of the International Monetary Fund. He did not say whether the package would include expanding the euro zone rescue fund.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said North Korea and other issues that need the two global giants to work together would also come up during Hu’s January 18-21 trip. Hu will hold talks with President Barack Obama on January 19.

While Obama is certain to press Hu on currency controls, which many in Washington say keeps the yuan unfairly cheap and contributes to the U.S. trade deficit, Cui said Beijing had its own concerns about safety its big holdings of U.S. treasury debt.

China confirmed on Tuesday it held its first test-flight of the J-20 stealth fighter jet, a show of muscle during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that sought to defuse military tensions between the two powers.

The flight came against a backdrop of a massive Chinese military modernization program. China’s plans to develop aircraft carriers, anti-satellite missiles and other advanced systems have alarmed neighboring countries and Washington.

AIG has been trying to sell the unit for some 15 months as part of its plans to help pay back the U.S. government for its $180 billion bailout, but regulatory issues have dogged the sale process and might yet delay it further.

The buyer group, called Ruen Chen Investment and comprising Ruentex Industries Ltd and shoe maker Pou Chen Corp, signed a deal on Wednesday for the 97.57 percent of Nan Shan that is for sale, Ruentex said in a statement to the Taiwan stock exchange.

The top U.S. wireless operator ended months of speculation and anticipation from impatient consumers on Tuesday by announcing that it would begin selling a version of the iPhone on February 10 at the same prices as AT&T Inc.

“I’m going to switch right away. I’m going to go back to Verizon,” said Raheem Noble, 24, a New York City rapper, who was on his way to buy the device before being told that preorders would not begin until February 3.

The move generated little buzz among fund managers and investment banks eager to see more aggressive changes from China, but most were hopeful it could lead to more flexibility in the currency.

The Bank of China’s news, reported by newspapers and news wires on Tuesday, is significant because it is the first Chinese bank to widely offer non-corporate deposit services in the renminbi, also known as the yuan, outside Hong Kong and mainland China.

The U.S. Education Department has proposed a rule that would strip programs of financial aid if more than 65 percent of their students fail to pay back their loans and if graduates get buried in debt. Losing the aid would cripple many schools.

The “gainful employment” rule is supposed to make sure that these schools provide an education that will prepare students for “gainful employment,” which in turn could help them pay back their loans. The schools want the rule scrapped, or at least weakened before a final version comes out.

In the European Commission document seen by Reuters, which outlines its vision for the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the EU executive recommends ways of paying for the new fund that will tackle debt crises from 2013.

They also say the fund should be allowed to buy government bonds, which could enable the European Central Bank to step back from the bond-purchase program it began last May.

This could be bad news for foreign private equity firms such as Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group, which are bullish on China but already have to navigate past a phalanx of regulators.

In the wake of the global financial crisis, the question is no longer whether China’s private equity industry needs a single regulator and national legislation to fill a legal void.

The change at Bank of China announced in a posting dated December 2010 means that customers can trade yuan in the United States for the first time rather than having to do so in Hong Kong.

However, like elswhere, China is keeping a tight rein on the yuan allowed to circulate beyond its borders, so individual accounts can only convert around $3,000 a day into yuan.

Goldman revealed for the first time how much it made from trading and investing on its own behalf, which many investors have suspected is a key source of the bank’s profits, during the first three quarters of the year.

The bank also made structural changes to its divisions, but there was no major management shake-up, leaving in place Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein.

The White House oil spill commission said in its final major report that the U.S. government needs to expand its drilling regulations, as well as set up an independent drilling safety agency.

“None of the major aspects of offshore drilling safety — not the regulatory oversight, not the industry safety standards, not the spill response practices — kept pace with the push into deepwater,” said commission co-chair Bill Reilly.

The army deployed armored vehicles around Tunis, and the government imposed a virtually unprecedented curfew to try to quell protests over unemployment and political repression that began more than three weeks ago in a central Tunisian town. Outside the capital, at least two deaths were reported from police fire Wednesday.

The demonstrations have set off clashes with police as they spread around the country, leaving at least 23 dead and shattering Tunisia’s image as an island of calm in a region beset by Islamist extremism.

The term “blood libel” is not well known, but it is highly charged – a direct reference to a time when many European Christians blamed Jews for kidnapping and murdering Christian children to obtain their blood. Jews were tortured and executed for crimes they did not commit, emblematic of anti-Semitism so virulent that some scholars recoiled Wednesday at Palin’s use of the term.

In a video posted to her Facebook page early Wednesday, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate accused the U.S. media of inciting hatred and violence after the shooting that gravely wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Palin has been criticized for marking Giffords’ district with the cross hairs of a gun sight during last fall’s campaign.

Lawmakers worked overnight to pass the increase to raise the personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent for four years – a 66 percent increase. Corporate income taxes also will rise, but Quinn rejected the notion that it would decimate businesses.

The rate increase might be the biggest any state has adopted in percentage terms while grappling with recent economic woes. Nevertheless, Illinois’ tax rate would remain lower than in several other states in the region.

Since the first photos were published in December, the marsupial from Leipzig Zoo has attracted more Facebook fans than Chancellor Angela Merkel. By Wednesday more than 111,000 fans from as far away as Bangkok and Montreal and clear across Europe were exclaiming “so cute!!” and “so sweet.”

Experts say that like Knut, Berlin’s famous fluffy white polar cub who was abandoned by his mother, and Paul, the late octopus who correctly predicted the outcome of all of Germany’s 2010 World Cup games and Spain’s victory in the final, the hype surrounding Heidi is fed by a human weakness for cuddly looking critters and the ability of modern mass media to spread images around the globe instantly.

Many people wore white, a color associated with mourning in Haiti, and sang hymns as they navigated collapsed buildings and rubble from the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that left much of Port-au-Prince in ruins. The government increased the estimated death toll to more than 316,000 people, but it did not explain how it arrived at that number.

Evens Lormil joined mourners in a crowd at the Roman Catholic cathedral, its towering spires and vaulted roof now collapsed, waiting for a memorial Mass next to what was once a prominent landmark in a ragged downtown. The 35-year-old driver of the collective taxis known as tap-taps said his wife and two children were in the countryside north of the capital, still too traumatized by the quake to attend the service, or even live in the city.

A U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others is widely expected to name members of the Shiite militant group, which many fear could re-ignite sectarian violence that has erupted repeatedly in the tiny nation.

Hezbollah’s walkout ushers in the country’s worst political crisis since 2008 in one of the most volatile corners of the Middle East.

The theory is that the metal bands – either aluminum or stainless steel – increase drag on the penguins when they swim, making them work harder, the study’s authors said.

Author Yvon Le Maho of the University of Strasbourg in France, said the banded penguins looked haggard, appearing older than their actual age.

The Dutch government has warned prostitutes who advertise their wares in the famed windows of Amsterdam’s red light district to expect a business-only visit from the taxman.

Prostitution has flourished in Amsterdam since the 1600s, when the Netherlands was a major naval power and sailors swaggered into the port looking for a good time. The country legalized the practice a decade ago, but authorities are only now getting around to looking to sex workers for taxes.

Hours after Biden spoke, a suicide car bomber devastated a police station and adjoining mosque in a northwestern region, killing 18 people and providing a fresh reminder of America’s challenges in the unstable, nuclear-armed Islamic country.

Reflecting the delicacy of U.S.-Pakistan ties, Biden did not mention any frustrations in Washington over the Pakistani army’s reluctance to move into a key militant sanctuary along the northwest border with Afghanistan, instead concentrating on Washington’s efforts to boost the alliance between the two countries.

But Pat Quinn’s approval is hardly assured. While he says he supports capital punishment when properly applied, he has not yet indicated whether he will sign the proposal, despite intense pressure from fellow Democrats.

“I think it’s important, given the importance of this measure, that people from all over Illinois express their opinions,” Quinn said Wednesday, a day after lawmakers sent the historic bill to his desk. “I’m happy to listen and reflect, and I’ll follow my conscience.”

Perry didn’t get into details on how Texas should correct a “number of cities” he said are in conflict with state and federal immigration laws. He said writing a bill on the second day of a new session was premature, and didn’t give an answer when asked whether he wants local police officers to question people about their immigration status during traffic stops.

“I don’t know yet,” Perry said. “We’ll write the legislation over the next 140 days.”

A brief written exchange between Senate questioners and the Pentagon’s assistant secretary for special operations, Michael Vickers, underscores unresolved questions about how and when the Pentagon conducts cyber warfare, and about the guidelines for military action in the event of a computer-based attack on the U.S.

The U.S. military’s use of offensive cyber warfare has only rarely been disclosed, the most well-known instance being the electronic jamming of Iraqi military and communications networks just before the lightning strike against Saddam Hussein’s army in 2003. But Pentagon officials have been clear that cyber espionage and attacks from well-funded nations or terror groups are the biggest threats to military networks, including critical battlefield communications.

Quigley, who helped save a beloved oak with a similar sit-in eight years ago, was joined by a handful of other sitters who took up positions in branches overlooking 11 acres of picturesque foothills.

“They’re destroying trees all around us,” Quigley said by cell phone as the sound of bulldozers below him could be heard. “It’s a sad scene and definitely something that didn’t need to happen.”

The presidential palace and hillside homes of Haiti’s capital stand firm and uncracked, but the images are from the past. The mural’s artists painted tears running down the solemn faces of Haiti’s revolutionary heros, a presidential-appearing hip hop star Wyclef Jean and a young girl stitching together the red and blue fields of Haiti’s flag.

“Even the sky is very sad today,” said Dr. Suzie Armas, emerging from a morning Mass at nearby Notre Dame d’Haiti to damp, gray clouds. “This is the same way the Haitian community has been feeling. Unfortunately, there has not been that much progress.”

Because if officers smell the pot from the outside, think the occupants are trying to get rid of it and burst in without a search warrant to prevent evidence from being destroyed, some justices indicated they would approve.

The discussion arose during the court’s consideration of a case about when the police can enter a home without a search warrant, which the Constitution normally requires.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said state District Judge Kevin Fine was “acting beyond the scope of his lawful authority” when he decided to hold the two-week hearing, which began last month but was temporarily stopped after two days at the request of prosecutors.

Last spring Fine declared the Texas death penalty statute unconstitutional after granting a pre-trial motion in a capital murder case he is presiding over. Under heavy criticism, Fine clarified his ruling, saying the procedures the state follows to get a death sentence are unconstitutional. He then rescinded his ruling and ordered the hearing, saying he needed to hear evidence on the issue.

During opening statements in the trial of Luis Posada Carriles, a defense attorney countered that the Cuban militant “substantially told the truth” during naturalization hearings in 2005 and that the government’s case is built on an unreliable paid informant.

Posada, 82, faces 11 counts of perjury, obstruction and naturalization fraud. He is accused of making false statements during immigration interviews in 2005 in El Paso about how he got into the U.S. and about his role in a string of 1997 bombings that rocked Havana hotels and killed an Italian tourist.

Less than three weeks after the first snowfall of the season – more than 2 feet in places – paralyzed New York for days, streets were clear and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s reputation was on the mend as the city deftly responded to the latest winter blitz.

“Last time, we could barely get down the street,” said Rosalie Casciorizzo, a resident of south Brooklyn, where many blocks were neglected after the Dec. 26 blizzard. “Now, it’s no problem. They did a much better job.”

It wouldn’t charge at a California airport, either, where special parking spaces have been set aside for years to charge electric vehicles.

And because an extension cord is a no-no with the Volt and the power cord that came with the car was too short, I was unable to charge the car from power outlets in my home.

The cricket paralysis virus killed 60 million of the insects at an operation in Canada, forced a Florida farmer to declare bankruptcy and prompted a Michigan grower to close until spring.

The virus led Elizabeth Payne to declare bankruptcy in June, and a bank foreclosed on her property in Leesburg, Fla., in November. She and her husband, who died three years ago, bought their farm in 1987 and built up sales to a million crickets a week, but it was ruined by the virus.

The Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. says the plan is to restart the pipeline and warm things up to prevent ice and wax from building in the line.

The company says state and federal regulators gave the green light Tuesday afternoon to do what is being described as an “interim restart.” Alyeska spokeswoman Michelle Egan says the restart will allow some oil to begin flowing again.

“Leadership that is not there,” U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said after returning to Miami International Airport.

Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of the magnitude-7 earthquake that killed more than 230,000 people and left more than 1.5 million homeless.

In a Capitol already ringed by concrete stanchions and armed guards, members of Congress struggled to come up with new ways to ensure their safety in a democracy suddenly shaken by an assassin’s bullets. Republican and Democratic leaders signaled that closer coordination with local law enforcement was a practical first step after the Arizona shootings that left six dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded.

Beyond that, talk centered on legislation that would make it a crime to carry a weapon within 1,000 feet of elected or high-ranking federal officials at publicly announced events and a proposal to install a Plexiglas enclosure to protect the House floor from gallery spectators – two ideas unlikely to get much traction in the new Congress. Democrats also called for rolling back a 5 percent, GOP-engineered cut in congressional spending and redirecting the money to security.