Evening Edition

“I have understood you,” Ben Ali, who has ruled the North African country with an iron fist for the last 23 years, said during a state of the nation address.

The 74-year-old leader also admitted that he had mishandled a spreading wave of unrest and promised democratic reforms.

A Paris-based rights group issued a new death toll of at least 66 people killed in the unrest, branding a government crackdown an “ongoing massacre”.

Eight were killed in clashes around Tunis overnight, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said, and residents reported that angry youths had burned cars and attacked state offices in defiance of a curfew.

President Michel Sleiman called on the government to stay on in a caretaker role and was to launch consultations on Monday with parliamentary blocs to appoint a new premier, who must be a Sunni Muslim in line with tradition.

In a sweep led by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, 11 ministers withdrew from Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government on Wednesday, providing the minimum number of resignations to automatically dissolve the 30-member cabinet.

The hard-won unity government of Prime Minister Saad Hariri — son of the slain leader — collapsed on Wednesday after months of wrangling between the premier and Hezbollah over the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

The move thrust the country into its worst political crisis since 2008 and sparked fears of sectarian Shiite-Sunni unrest.

Spain proved it can tap the financial markets for money, selling its maximum target of 3.0 billion euros ($3.9 billion) in five-year bonds with demand outstripping supply by two-to-one.

The Treasury forked out an average interest rate of 4.542 percent to lure investors, a competitive rate when compared to Wednesday’s market close of 4.767 percent.

The latest trade numbers come as the United States struggles to repair strained economic relations with the rising Asian power, the world’s second-largest economy and the number-two US trading partner.

President Barack Obama and his administration are expected to discuss trade issues with Hu on his state visit Wednesday, including a key irritant, China’s yuan currency.

UN patrols have previously come under attack from forces loyal to Gbagbo, who refuses to concede a November 28 presidential election to his besieged rival Alassane Ouattara, but not on the scale of Thursday’s attacks.

“There were three vehicles which were burnt this morning in the Riviera II area,” UN mission in Ivory Coast (UNOCI) spokesman Kenneth Blackman told AFP, adding that Gbagbo loyalists were “certainly” responsible.

Drivers honked their horns in the regional capital Juba as southerners hailed the turnout achievement in just four days of the week-long polls, saying it showed the importance of freedom to them after five decades of conflict with the north.

“We are already above the threshold yesterday (Wednesday) — some 2.3 million plus — and more today,” said referendum commission deputy chairman Chan Reec.

However, a surge in exports to their highest level in two years, which included record sales to China, helped narrow the U.S. trade deficit in November, an encouraging sign for fourth-quarter economic growth.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he was hopeful about the recent improvement in the outlook, saying he now expects the economy to expand between 3 percent and 4 percent this year.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet renewed a call for euro zone governments to boost the size and scope of their 440 billion euro ($578.2 billion) rescue fund and warned of short-term inflation pressures in the euro area.

The euro pushed up to its highest level against the dollar in a week and the risk premium investors demand to hold debt from the euro zone’s fragile southern periphery fell, in a sign investors are more confident about the bloc’s determination to address its economic woes.

Spain sold 3 billion euros of its five-year bonds, at the top end of the Treasury’s target range but less than the 3.4 billion euros sold at the previous auction on November 4, which had a higher target. Bids of over 6 billion euros were taken.

The Treasury paid nearly a full percentage point more to sell the debt than last time, but much less than a 150 basis point premium priced in at the start of the week had suggested.

Monday’s first meeting will launch a process. But few think a new cabinet likely until compromise is found in the dispute over the possible indictment of Hezbollah figures by a U.N. tribunal probing the 2005 assassination of Hariri’s father.

Deep divisions among Lebanese parties and their powerful regional backers reflect violent religious, ethnic and political rivalries running through the Middle East and beyond, giving leaders from Washington to Tehran a role in Beirut’s crisis.

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.

Southerners are widely expected to choose to declare independence from the north in the week-long poll that entered its fifth day on Thursday — a plebiscite promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war.

Carter, who is leading one of the biggest teams observing the vote, told journalists: “I believe it will meet international standards on the conduct of the process and also the freedom with which people have cast their votes.”

But the issue is far from dead on Capitol Hill and could reignite, especially if the U.S. economy fails to improve as expected and the Chinese are seen to drag their feet on letting their currency appreciate.

With the U.S. economy still struggling as China’s economy booms, it is popular in the United States to criticize China for currency manipulation. “It’s made easier by the fact that they deserve it,” said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, a business association.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered “a brilliant preemptive strike that kind of frames the whole defense budget debate for Congress and for industry for fiscal 2012,” said Byron Callan, sell-side analyst with Capital Alpha Partners.

“But there’s not a lot of detail on the cost savings and efficiencies, and Gates most likely won’t be around when those efficiencies have to be delivered,” Callan said.

“Our priority is to put in place a structure where Chrysler would become answerable to the capital markets only,” Marchionne told a meeting with financial analysts organized by Deutsche Bank.

“The most likely of the options under consideration is a financing package that would facilitate payment of all government debt prior to an IPO,” he said.

In India, where vegetable prices have risen more than 70 percent in the past year, the government said it would review the import and export of essential commodities, adding state run firms would intensify purchases of some basics.

A rally in grains prices after a U.S. report on Wednesday warned of dwindling global supplies suggested further price pressures may be in the pipeline, just as Sudan saw rare public protests against cuts in sugar and petroleum product subsidies.

So when President Barack Obama hosts Chinese President Hu Jintao next week, the only real suspense will be over how forcefully and publicly he takes his Chinese counterpart to task before they turn to other priorities like currency, trade and North Korea.

The consensus among China watchers: Obama, stung by criticism that he was too deferential to Beijing when he visited in 2009, will be just a bit more assertive in addressing rights concerns with President Hu on U.S. soil.

Global surface temperatures in 2010 were 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit (0.62 Celsius) above the 20th century average, tying the record set in 2005, the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Wednesday.

“These results show that the climate is continuing to show the influence of greenhouse gases. It’s showing evidence of warming,” David Easterling, the chief of the scientific services division at the NCDC, told reporters in a teleconference.

A defiant Palin, leaping into a roaring debate on the consequences of overheated political rhetoric, said her critics had been irresponsible in rushing to blame Saturday’s gun rampage on vitriolic campaign speech.

“Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn,” Palin, a potential 2012 White House contender, said in a video posted to her Facebook page.

A spokesman for Ouattara’s government, Patrick Achi, said by telephone that Gbagbo’s forces killed around seven civilians.

Sustained gunfire and what sounded like explosions from heavier weapons rang out for several hours from across the pro-Ouattara neighborhood of Abobo, a day after fighting there killed at least five people, witnesses said.

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.

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.

Lenders are poised to take back more homes this year than any other since the U.S. housing meltdown began in 2006. About 5 million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgages and industry experts say more people will miss payments because of job losses and also loans that exceed the value of the homes they are living in.

“2011 is going to be the peak,” said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc. The firm predicts 1.2 million homes will be repossessed this year.

Capt. Owen Honors, 49, lost his command of the Enterprise as the Navy launched an investigation into the videos broadcast in 2006 and 2007, which included gay slurs, sailors in suggestive shower scenes and simulated masturbation.

On Thursday, officials deferred Rear Adm. Lawrence Rice’s planned Feb. 1 retirement until that probe was complete, said Rear Adm. Dennis Moynihan, a Navy spokesman. Rice had commanded Honors for part of his duty on the ship.

Users can sort through the drafts of Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you,” speech and see how he tinkered with the words of that most famous line from his inauguration. Or they can listen to his personal phone calls and read his letters.

In advance of the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s inauguration Jan. 20, Caroline Kennedy visited the National Archives, saying it reminded her the nation was built on words and ideas – and that her father’s call to service was more relevant than ever.

In a letter addressed to her Texas constituents and also sent to members in the media, Hutchison said she would not seek re-election in 2012. She had previously signaled she might retire but changed her mind several times in the last few years. In 2010, she challenged Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP primary for governor, but lost.

In her letter, the state’s senior senator said she had intended to leave office sooner but was persuaded to stay on to “avoid disadvantage to our state.”

The 4-foot-long hunter lived 230 million years ago in what is now South America and appears to be the ancestor of such creatures as Tyrannosaurus rex.

“It is stunning,” Sereno said of the find, reported in Friday’s edition of the journal Science.

It couldn’t hit a buzzer.

But that’s been fixed, and on Thursday the hardware and software system named Watson was to play a practice round against Ken Jennings, who won a record 74 consecutive “Jeopardy!” games in 2004-05, and Brad Rutter, who won a record of nearly $3.3 million in prize money.

At euro156,000 ($ 205,000) for barely a pound of feathers and lightning-fast fowl, Blue Prince has a one-way ticket to pampered retirement and lifelong breeding in China, which these days has become a predictable destination for topflight birds.

Over the past month, two auctions of Belgian racing pigeons have set one record after another, confirming Belgium as the age-old prime breeding hub of the birds – and China as the new center of global demand.

The Constitutional Court’s ruling was seen as a compromise between judges who wanted to strike down the law completely, and those who wanted to keep it intact.

Berlusconi is a defendant in two trials in Milan, on corruption and tax fraud charges. The trials had been suspended because of the law, which was passed last year by Berlusconi’s conservatives in parliament and immediately drew accusations it was tailor-made for the premier.

Journalists have been hired and are in place at multiple U.S. bureaus, including Los Angeles and New York.

The formal announcement of the digital publication owned by News Corp. will be made at an event at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on Jan. 19, according to two people familiar with the matter. The people said the event will be attended by Steve Jobs, chief executive of iPad-maker Apple Inc., and Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the attacks by loyalists of Gbagbo, who the U.N. says lost the Nov. 28 poll to longtime opposition leader Alassane Ouattara.

Ban said the attacks by “regular and irregular forces” constituted crimes under international law, and warned that those responsible would be held accountable. Other officials with the global body sounded an alarm, warning they were being prevented from protecting civilians.

Biden, speaking to some 400 soldiers in Baghdad, also said the U.S. would continue to train and equip Iraqi forces beyond 2011. His remarks highlighted continuing uncertainty about whether all American troops will head home by the end of the year as required by a security agreement between the two nations.

“The Iraqi people for the first time, I suspect, I would argue, in their history are on the verge of literally creating a country that will be democratic, sustainable and, God willing, prosperous,” Biden told the troops at the military’s headquarters on the outskirts of Baghdad. “It could have a dramatic impact on this entire region, and God knows the Iraqi people deserve it.”

If Hezbollah succeeds, the Shiite militant group and its patrons in Iran and Syria would have far more sway in this volatile corner of the Middle East – something Washington has worked to prevent.

“They would have proven that they can dominate Lebanon without using their guns,” Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The former Alaska governor commands nationwide attention with her selective use of Facebook and Twitter, choosing provocative words when others testing the presidential waters prefer a lighter touch.

Some political pros say her tactics, which protect her from mainstream reporters and neutral audiences, are savvy and effective. Others say she will have to change if she hopes to win the crucial Iowa caucus or New Hampshire primary, let alone the 2012 general election. Many agree she’s a master at exploiting the campaign possibilities of fast-changing social media.

Neighboring states gleefully plotted Wednesday to take advantage of what they consider a major economic blunder and lure business away from Illinois.

“It’s like living next door to `The Simpsons’ – you know, the dysfunctional family down the block,” Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in an interview on Chicago’s WLS-AM.

Margaret Robles lamented the shooting in the town where she’d lived all her 64 years. She praised Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, agonized for all the victims. But her sadness was mixed with shame.

“I’m embarrassed to say I’m from Arizona,” said the retired teacher’s aide. “Too many things are happening.”

The White House, too, is sidestepping questions on an issue that is among the most toxic in U.S. politics.

So far, proposed legislation has focused on prohibiting magazine clips that allow a shooter to fire off numerous rounds of ammunition without reloading. The shooter in Tucson, using a Glock semiautomatic pistol with a 33-round magazine, shot 19 people, six fatally. One of the wounded was a member of Congress, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., now in critical condition.

The new Hispanic Action Network convenes for a two-day policy conference starting Thursday evening that will feature several high-ranking Republicans and focus on issues such as trade, immigration, media outreach and education.

The group is among a growing number of Republican organizations reaching out to Hispanics in advance of next year’s presidential election.

Three decades after the famous release on Jan. 20, 1981, back to a country that had been on the edge of its seat since the crisis began, Rosen will be among the former hostages returning to the site of their emotional homecoming during a reunion hosted by the U.S. Military Academy. It’ll be a chance to catch up with friends who share an intimate and harrowing bond – and to speak to cadets who had yet to be born.

“I don’t want to get maudlin about this, but 30 years is a long time, and we’re getting older as a group,” Rosen told The Associated Press.

The Agriculture Department proposal announced Thursday applies to lunches subsidized by the federal government. The guidelines would require schools to cut sodium in those meals by more than half, use more whole grains and serve low-fat milk. They also would limit kids to only one cup of starchy vegetables a week, so schools couldn’t offer french fries every day.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new standards could affect more than 32 million children and are crucial because kids can consume as much as half of their daily calories in school.

Two men, including veteran tree sitter John Quigley, and two women were escorted out of the trees Wednesday night and taken into custody, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Julio Salcido said. They were booked on suspicion of delaying a peace officer and trespassing, he said.

Earlier Wednesday, with the sounds of bulldozers echoing beneath him, Quigley perched in a century-old oak.

The term “blood libel” is not well known, but it is highly charged – a direct reference to a time when many European Christians accused Jews of 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.

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 heroes, 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.”