Evening Edition

In a surprise move after a week of political turmoil, Cowen said he wanted the centrist party to fight the election “free from internal distractions” — while he could now focus on getting budget laws passed to cement an EU-IMF bailout to revive Ireland’s battered economy.

“Taking everything into account, and having discussed the matter with my family, I have decided on my own counsel to step down as uachtarain (president) of Fianna Fail and leader of Fianna Fail,” Cowen told a Dublin news conference.

Thousands rallied in Tunis and other cities in the north African state, while hundreds of protesters backed by the UGTT union began a symbolic march on the capital from the impoverished region where the uprising began last month.

Participants at the march called their protest a “Caravan of Liberation”.

Demonstrators in Tunis were joined by dozens of members of the police, discredited because of the bloody crackdown on protests against president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali that ultimately led to his ouster on January 14.

Officers said they were on the side of the protesters and demanded higher pay.

The opposition said at least 42 people had been injured during the clashes, including two seriously. The interior ministry put the number of injured at 19, including 11 protestors or passers-by, and eight police.

Said Sadi, the head of the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), said that party spokesman Mohsen Belabbes was among the injured while the head of the party’s parliamentary group, Othmane Amazouz, had been arrested.

“Forty-two have been wounded, two of them seriously. All of them have been taken to hospital,” the president of the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), said. The party’s spokesman Mohsen Belabbes, was among the injured, Sadi added.

Police meanwhile said seven of their men were injured during the protest, two of whom were in a serious condition, according to the APS news agency.

Lawyers for the 23-year-old American have described the appeal as a “key moment” in the case, saying it provides the first opportunity for independent experts to review the evidence which convicted her.

Knox came into court with her head bowed but turned and smiled at her stepfather, Chris Mellas, and mouthed hello to her best friend Madison Paxton, who has moved to Perugia and regularly visits Knox in prison.

While more profitable than ever — with nearly $30 billion in revenue last year — Google is under pressure from new rivals such as Facebook and Twitter for the attention of Web surfers, advertising dollars and engineering talent.

In naming co-founder Larry Page, 37, to be chief executive, analysts said Google is seeking to return to its startup roots and ensure its place amid a constantly evolving Internet landscape.

“I am here to show my solidarity at this difficult moment,” he said in his first full public statement since ending two decades in exile and arriving back in Haiti without warning late Sunday.

“Baby Doc” Duvalier added he also wanted “to express deep sorrow for all those who say they were victims of my government.”

Creating a Siberian landscape in the Cordeliers Convent on the Left Bank, Galliano weaved a story of strong bearded men in layers of wool, leather and shearling, marching with determination as if through a Siberian snow storm.

They made way for slim, tailored silhouettes drawn from photographs of the impulsive Nureyev, who famously defected from the Soviet Union in June 1961 and mingled with the jetset of his times while dazzling audiences with his art.

Cowen’s decision to split the role of party leader and prime minister is highly unusual and crowns a week of political drama that had Irish people shaking their heads in anger.

The most unpopular premier in recent history, Cowen is blamed for mishandling the economic crisis and allowing a disastrous property bubble to develop during a previous stint as finance minister.

With the U.S. unemployment rate stuck at a stubbornly high 9.4 percent, Obama said expanded trade was crucial to job creation.

“If we’re serious about fighting for American jobs and American businesses, one of the most important things we can do is open up more markets to American goods around the world,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

Olbermann, who had two years left on his contract, signed off for the last time on his “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” political affairs program on Friday night.

“This is the last edition of “Countdown,” Olbermann said on the program, which drew over 1 million viewers a night.

Although Gingrich, considered responsible for the “Republican Revolution” of the 1990’s, is no longer in office, he has deep ties to Congress and is frequently named as a potential presidential contender in 2012.

For months he has championed letting states file for bankruptcy in order to handle their long-term budget problems despite resistance from states and investors in the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market.

Hu’s visit, described by analysts as the most important U.S.-China meeting in 30 years, hit the right diplomatic notes with the pomp of a White House summit, pledges of greater cooperation and $45 billion in new business deals.

Obama, who is pushing to create jobs and beat back an unemployment rate riding at 9 percent, said the visit would help open China’s markets to more U.S. exports and lead to up to 235,000 new jobs for U.S. workers.

Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch businesses — including retail brokerage and investment banking — were profitable but did not make enough money to overcome the bank’s massive losses from mortgages.

As the financial crisis was ramping up, then Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis bought Countrywide Financial Inc for $4.2 billion. Current CEO Brian Moynihan is still coping with the aftermath.

Anti-government protesters again took to the streets as Tunisia began three days of mourning for the dozens of people killed during president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s overthrow.

The interim government, which took over after Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia last week in the face of widespread popular unrest, has faced continued protests by crowds angry that members of the old guard are still in the cabinet.

After hours of tense discussions at the presidential palace, Karzai backed off his earlier order to delay the session for a month to allow more time for a special tribunal to investigate allegations of fraud in September’s parliamentary election, according to two of the lawmakers involved in the talks, Shukria Barakzai of Kabul and Gul Pacha Majidi of Ghazni province.

In return, Karzai asked the parliamentarians to agree that any criminal case against a lawmaker could go forward, said Mirwais Yasini, a representative from Nangarhar province who was deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament in the last session. The legislators agreed to this Saturday evening and drafted a letter to send to the president on Sunday, Yasini said.

Heading quickly into re-election mode, Obama is expected to use Tuesday’s prime-time speech to promote spending on innovation while also promising to reduce the national debt and cooperate with emboldened Republicans.

“I’m focused on making sure the economy is working for everybody, for the entire American family,” Obama said Saturday in an uncommon preview of his speech, offered up in an online video to his supporters late Saturday afternoon. The president announced that the economy would be the main topic of his speech, a nod to how important that issue is to the country’s standing and his own as well.

Republican state legislators and governors are working on how to deliver coverage to more than 30 million people now uninsured, as the law calls for, even as GOP attorneys general lead the legal battle to overturn the law’s mandate that most Americans have health insurance.

The result? Perhaps the first practical opportunity for the two political parties to work together on an issue that divide them in Washington.

Some say the effects of the powders are as powerful as abusing methamphetamine. Increasingly, law enforcement agents and poison control centers say the bath salts with complex chemical names are an emerging menace in several U.S. states where authorities talk of banning their sale.

From the Deep South to California, emergency calls are being reported over exposure to the stimulants the powders often contain: mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MDPV.

Olbermann’s announcement at the end of Friday’s “Countdown” that it would be his last show quiets, at least for the moment, the most dominant liberal voice in a cable-television world where opinionated talk has been the most bankable trend over the past several years.

As Olbermann read from a James Thurber short story during a three-minute exit statement Friday night, MSNBC simultaneously e-mailed a statement to reporters that the network and host “have ended their contract.” Neither indicated a reason nor addressed whether Olbermann quit or was fired.

Any matchup in Dallas next month will feature plenty of history.

So much so that Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy has emphasized wanting to put up a photo of these Packers on the wall next to the other championship teams – including the first two Super Bowl winners (1966 and ’67 seasons), and the 1996 squad.

Clashes also broke out Saturday in Algeria, as opposition activists there tried to copy the tactics of their Tunisian neighbors, who forced their longtime leader to flee the country more than a week ago.

The protests in Yemen appeared to be the first of their kind. The nation’s 23 million citizens have many grievances: they are the poorest people in the Arab world, the government is widely seen as corrupt and is reviled for its alliance with the United States in fighting al-Qaida, there are few political freedoms and the country is rapidly running out of water.

Cowen’s surprise move capped a week of political crises that brought his coalition government to the brink of collapse.

Never before in Irish history has a politician sought to remain prime minister without being leader of the main government party. Cowen pledged that the short-term split in power would not “in any way affect our ability to do our business.”

Now, international mediators and rights groups are calling for stronger efforts to settle the eight-year Darfur conflict, fearing that the expected breakaway of the south may push Khartoum’s leaders to clamp down harder on dissent and place stricter limits on an international role in Darfur and other areas that remain under its direct control.

Human Rights Watch and other groups say violence was already increasing in the vast arid region in the lead-up to the southern referendum held earlier this month. At the same time, government restrictions are making it harder to obtain information on conditions there, they say.

The 59-year-old ex-strongman, speaking in a faint voice in his first public comments since arriving in Haiti on Sunday, told Haitians and reporters that he was ready to face “persecution” and had timed his return to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.

“When I made the decision to come back to Haiti to commemorate this sad anniversary with you, in our country, I was ready for any kind of persecution,” Duvalier said Friday. “But I believe that the desire to participate by your side in this collaboration for the national reconstruction far outweighs any harassment I could face.”

The unmanned rocket – Japan’s second flight to the space station – was ferrying nearly 6 tons of food, water, clothing and experimental equipment to the astronauts in orbit aboard the international project involving 15 nations. The rocket also was carrying cargo for NASA.

After docking with the space station, dropping off its cargo and being loaded up with waste material, the rocket’s transfer vehicle, named “Kounotori2,” will be detached and burn itself up upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. Kounotori means white stork in Japanese.

Bachmann was the keynote speaker at a reception in Des Moines by Iowans for Tax Relief, joining prominent Iowa Republicans including Rep. Steve King. The event came just weeks after Bachmann acknowledged she was considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination, a process that begins with the Iowa caucuses in February 2012.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Bachmann said she didn’t want to focus on whether she would run for president, and her evening speech focused primarily on her message that massive debt is threatening the nation’s very existence.

Marking the halfway point in his four-year term, the president used a visit to Schenectady, birthplace of the General Electric Co., to declare that his job is “putting our economy into overdrive” and to announce a restructured presidential advisory board stressing increased employment and greater business opportunities abroad.

“America’s home to inventors and dreamers and builders and creators,” Obama told workers at G.E.’s 23-acre turbine and generator plant. “You guys are a model of what’s possible.”

That hopeful timetable didn’t hold.

Only this Sunday, after six challenging months in Nepal, is Vicki finally due home with 19-month-old Purnima. For most of that stretch the couple was divided, with Jed back at his job in the U.S. trying to minimize the huge financial hit resulting from the delay.

State legislatures across the country are facing budget problems brought on by the economic recession. California, Illinois and Georgia face shortfalls just as bad as Texas, but they plan to raise taxes to avoid dramatic cuts. The Texas governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker – all Republicans – have promised to make the state live within its means without new taxes.

When the legislature released the first draft of the new budget this week, the proposed cuts were staggering. All told, if lawmakers want to avoid raising taxes, they need to cut $27 billion from what it would cost to maintain the current level of state services.

The 2,400-page plan released earlier this month by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the country’s largest urban national park, would mandate leashes in open spaces where dogs currently roam untethered. Some popular dog-walking areas would be closed to canines entirely, partly to protect wildlife and native plants.

The proposed rules cover about 14,000 acres of the 75,000-acre GGNRA, which includes portions of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties and is the only national park in the country to allow dogs off-leash.

By Friday, following the recent indictment of a former national chairman on theft charges, King’s one-time lieutenants and his daughter had come to the conclusion that the group – which led the movement to end segregation in public facilities and open access to the ballot box for millions of black Americans – might have run its course.

“We should’ve closed it down years ago,” former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest advisers, said Friday after the Rev. Bernice King’s announcement. “I saw this as a lost cause a long time ago.”

He goes to serve to 4 1/2 years behind bars not as the decorated, tough detective who rose quickly in the department, but as a cancer patient with a drinking problem who is, by his own admission, broken. His name has become synonymous with out-of-control police in the country’s third-largest city.

U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow sentenced Burge on Friday, bringing an end to an ugly chapter in the city’s racially charged history after he was convicted last summer of lying about the torture of suspects.

The decision was the outcome of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California in February, charging that inner-city students’ right to a quality education was being violated by a last-hired, first-fired layoff policy.

“This is a historic decision for the state of California,” said John Deasy, deputy superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District. “The court stood and lifted up the voice of youth. That voice was loud and clear.”

Attorneys for plaintiffs and roughly two dozen mobile home makers and their subsidiaries are asking a federal judge to approve the deal, which would be the second mass settlement of claims over formaldehyde exposure in the government-issued housing units FEMA ordered after the 2005 storms.

One of the plaintiffs’ lead lawyers said the settlement came after a key ruling by the judge severely hurt his side’s position.

Foes of abortion gained strength in Congress, among state governors and in many legislatures, raising hopes among social conservatives for a broad surge of anti-abortion bills.

“We are seeing a cultural shift toward protecting life and rolling back the tide of unrestricted abortions, said Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, in a statement ahead of Saturday’s anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Newly empowered congressional Republicans are playing down the big impact their proposed spending cuts would have on millions of Americans, according to Democrats and some bipartisan groups.

Prominent Republicans, for instance, have said a return to 2008 spending levels would not amount to “cutting,” even though billions of federal dollars would be lopped off. Another GOP leader minimized the economic impact of firing thousands of federal workers, saying overall employment would rise.