Evening Edition

But if Georgie Dicks hadn’t been prepared to brave towering waves, howling winds and Japanese harpoon ships to save whales from slaughter in Antarctic waters, she would never have volunteered to be an activist.

“We’ve always got our lives on the line and if we can’t accept that, we really shouldn’t be here,” the 23-year-old told AFP from onboard the Steve Irwin, a vessel owned by the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Earlier partial results had already put the outcome of the vote beyond doubt but official figures were announced publicly for the first time during a ceremony attended by president Salva Kiir in the southern capital Juba.

The discreet leader, who is to steer southern Sudan to statehood in July after overseeing a six-year transition period, said the more than two million victims of the 22-year civil war with the north had not died in vain.

“We are about to reach another important milestone in the WTO aircraft dispute,” said Boeing Vice President for trade policy Ted Austell.

The ruling — which marks the second major stage in a seven-year, tit-for-tat subsidies battle along with the separate US challenge to European support for rival Airbus — should remain out of the public eye for a few months under World Trade Organization rules.

He said Ennahda (Awakening) would join the government formed after president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s downfall if asked to do so, although he emphasised that it would not field a candidate in planned presidential elections.

“If we feel that the government satisfies the expectations of those who have led this revolution, then why not,” Ghannouchi said, speaking in a room decorated with a Tunisian flag as his aides offered tea and sweets to visitors.

“God is great!” Ghannouchi cried out, raising his arms in triumph as he walked into the arrivals hall of Tunis airport, with thousands of cheering supporters crowding around him before driving off to visit his family.

The crowd intoned a religious song in honour of the Prophet Mohammed, as supporters held up olive branches, flowers and copies of the Koran.

But despite the anticipation of change, Mubarak ordered police back on the streets after they had largely disappeared over the past two days following street battles with protesters. He also extended a curfew in key cities.

Nobel peace laureate ElBaradei, mandated by Egyptian opposition groups including the banned Muslim Brotherhood to negotiate with Mubarak’s regime, hailed “a new Egypt in which every Egyptian lives in freedom and dignity.”

The United States on Sunday raised pressure on Egypt’s long-time President Hosni Mubarak, its closest ally in the Arab world, to make reforms. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an “orderly transition” to democracy.

Denis Bauchard of the French International Relations Institute (IFRI) said US President “Barack Obama has taken the lead, calling for political reform, without sparing Mubarak, and that’s quite smart.”

Fresh riots left 22 people dead in the town of Beni Sueif, south of Cairo, where protesters tried to burn down a police station, witnesses and a security source said.

Another three protesters died in Cairo and three police were killed in the Sinai town of Rafah, raising to at least 102 the number of people killed since the unrest erupted on Tuesday, including 33 on Saturday, according to medics.

Groups of protesters were seen heading steadily towards Tahrir square, epicentre of the biggest demonstrations to sweep the country in more than 30 years, where army tanks guarded key buildings.

Troops manned checkpoints on roads into the square, frisking demonstrators for weapons before allowing them in. Around 2,000 people, many of them sitting down and including families, were inside by midday (1000 GMT).

The world economy may be steering itself cautiously out of the doldrums, but leaders have struggled to agree remedies to the key threats on the agenda at the annual World Economic Forum’s elite annual networking event.

“Let me highlight the one resource that is scarcest of all: time,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, as dozens of senior international figures swung by to lobby some of the richest and most powerful people on the planet.

“Reopening the results of the election would be a grave injustice and set an unfortunate predecent,” Ban said during a close-door meeting late Saturday in the Ethiopian capital ahead of an African Union summit.

Ivory Coast has been gripped by a political crisis sparked by the disputed November presidential poll run-off which showed incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo defeated by rival Alassane Ouattara to whom he has refused to relinquish power.

Obama, delivering his annual State of the Union address, pressed lawmakers to act “as soon as possible” on the trade agreement which would lift 95 percent of tariffs between the United States and the fourth-largest Asian economy.

His stance marked a rare point of agreement with the rival Republican Party which swept November elections and have pressed Obama to go further by moving ahead as well on pending trade deals with Colombia and Panama.

The reception for Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the Ennahda party, at Tunis airport was the biggest showing by the Islamists in two decades, during which thousands of them were jailed or exiled by president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Ghannouchi was exiled in 1989 by Ben Ali, who was toppled on January 14 by popular protests that have sent tremors through an Arab world where similarly autocratic leaders have long sought to suppress Islamist groups.

Throughout the night, Cairo residents armed with clubs, chains and knives formed vigilante groups to guard neighborhoods from marauders after the unpopular police force withdrew following clashes with protesters that left more than 100 dead.

By morning, the capital’s streets were mostly deserted, with the army guarding the Interior Ministry, and citizens putting their trust in the military, hoping they would restore order but not open fire to keep key U.S. ally Mubarak, 82, in power.

Appearing on a slew of news programs, Clinton pressed Mubarak to ensure that the coming elections are free and fair and to live up to his promises of reform but insisted Egypt must avoid a result like that of Iran, which she called a “faux democracy.”

Clinton kept up the Obama administration’s cautious balancing act. Washington is trying to avoid abandoning Mubarak — a strategic ally of 30 years — while supporting protesters who seek broader rights and demand his ouster.

Egyptians in London spoke of frantic calls from their family in which they were told of armed criminal gangs roaming the streets after massive protests erupted against the government of President Hosni Mubarak.

“My cousin is calling me, shouting SOS. Criminals, gangs are everywhere, breaking into homes. I’m beside myself with worry. I haven’t slept,” said student Raouf Ghali, 41.

Other governments advised their citizens to leave the country or to avoid traveling there if possible, although the Russian tourist agency said 40,000 Russians at Red Sea resorts had no intention of cutting short their holidays.

“The U.S. embassy in Cairo informs U.S. citizens in Egypt who wish to depart that the Department of State is making arrangements to provide transportation to safe haven locations in Europe,” the U.S. statement said.

“Flights to evacuation points will begin departing Egypt on Monday, January 31,” it said, describing the evacuation as voluntary.

The deal — the latest in a wave of consolidation sweeping the industry — creates the second largest U.S. coal miner by market value, holding 110 mines and combined coal reserves of 5 billion tons. The deal is expected to be completed in mid-2011.

Massey shareholders will receive 1.025 Alpha share for each Massey share in addition to $10 a share in cash, for a value of about $69.33 a share, the companies said. That represents a 21 percent premium over Massey’s closing share price of $57.23 on Friday.

With the Treasury Department rapidly coming closer to bumping up against its statutory borrowing limit of $14.3 trillion, some of Boehner’s fellow Republicans in Congress have suggested that no further borrowing should be authorized until deep cuts are made in federal spending.

Boehner, interviewed on “Fox News Sunday,” was asked about the impact of a government default if the limit on its borrowing authority was not raised in a timely way.

Clinton arrived Sunday in the impoverished Caribbean nation for a brief visit. She is scheduled to meet with President Rene Preval and each of the three candidates jockeying to replace him.

Only two candidates can go on to the delayed second round, now scheduled for March 20. The U.S. is backing an Organization of American States recommendation that the candidate from Preval’s party, government construction official Jude Celestin, should be left out.

Rachid Ghanouchi and about 70 other exiled members of Ennahdha, or Renaissance, flew home from Britain two weeks after autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced from power by violent protests. At the airport, thousands of people welcomed him, cheering, shouting “God is great!” and drowning out his attempt to address the crowd with a megaphone.

Ghanouchi rejected any comparison to more radical figures, including the hardline father of the Iranian Revolution.

Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei’s appearance in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square underscored the jockeying for leadership of the mass protest movement that erupted seemingly out of nowhere in the past week to shake the Arab world’s most populous nation.

Now in their sixth day, the protests have come to be centered in the square, where demonstrators have camped since Friday. Up to 10,000 protesters gathered there Sunday, and even after the 4 p.m. curfew, they numbered in the thousands, including families with young children, addressing Mubarak with their chants of “Leave, leave, leave.”

The fears of foreign tourists mirrored those of many Egyptians. Dozens with the means to do so rented jets or hopped aboard their own planes in a mad dash that did little to boost confidence in the future of a country that, until a week ago, had been viewed as a pillar of stability in a restive region. Those leaving included businessmen and celebrities.

The American, Swiss, Turkish and Dutch governments issued advisories encouraging nationals already in the country to leave and telling those who planned trips to Egypt to reconsider. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo said it was making arrangements to transport Americans who want to leave to “safehaven locations in Europe.” Flights would begin on Monday.

Civilians armed with knives, axes, golf clubs, firebombs, metal bars and makeshift spears watched over many neighborhoods in the sprawling capital of 18 million this weekend, defending their families and homes against widespread looting and lawlessness.

The thugs had exploited the chaos created by the largest anti-government protests in decades and the military failed to fill the vacuum left by police.

The losses, led by a drop of more than 4 percent in the regional business hub Dubai, reflect concerns the unrest that has roiled the Arab world’s most populous country and nearby Tunisia could spread, jeopardizing an economic recovery across the region.

“There’s this contagion effect, where investors are thinking: ‘Well, is this going to spread out across the Arab world?'” said Haissam Arabi, chief executive of Gulfmena Alternative Investments, a fund management firm in Dubai.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton refused to speculate on the future of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak or his teetering government. But U.S. officials, she said, “obviously want to see people who are truly committed to democracy, not to imposing any ideology on Egyptians.”

She warned against a takeover resembling the one in Iran, with a “small group that doesn’t represent the full diversity of Egyptian society” seizing control and imposing its ideological beliefs.

The spiraling turmoil in Egypt is confronting the Obama administration with its most acute foreign policy crisis to date, and officials are toeing a delicate line.

There are appeals to 82-year-old Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for restraint and reform alongside signals to the protesters that the United States understands their frustration and supports at least some of their goals. In equal measure, the Obama administration is trying to avoid unintentionally aiding a militant Islamic takeover if Mubarak falls.

Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak did much the same Saturday as riots gripped Cairo and other cities: offering more economic opportunities in a country where half the people live on less than $2 a day.

The pledges-under-siege have something else in common: an acknowledgment that the unprecedented anger on Arab streets is at its core a long-brewing rage against decades of economic imbalances that have rewarded the political elite and left many others on the margins.

The announcement drew cheers from a crowd of thousands that gathered in Juba, the dusty capital of what may become the world’s newest country.

The weeklong vote, held in early January and widely praised for being peaceful and for meeting international standards, was a condition of a 2005 peace agreement that ended a north-south civil war that lasted two decades and killed 2 million people.

Many watched footage of riots and looting on the streets of Egypt, the region’s traditional powerhouse, with a sense of irony. The scenes brought back disturbing memories of similar mayhem in Iraq, but also admiration for an uprising that came from the streets rather than in the wake of a foreign invasion.

The demonstrations come as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki grapples with complaints that he has failed to provide basic services and security as he begins a new four-year term with a fragile coalition.

But beneath the surface of academic success, some of the Columbia University students charged in a campus drug takedown struggled with substance abuse, their lawyers say. Attorneys for two of the five students plan to ask a court to prescribe treatment instead of prison – one of the most high-profile tests so far of a recent overhaul of New York’s once-notoriously stringent drug laws.

The outcome will be watched closely by opponents and proponents of 2009 changes to mitigate what were known as the Rockefeller drug laws. Backers called the lesser punishments a more effective and humane approach to drug crime; critics said they gave drug peddlers a pass.

Alpha is paying $7.1 billion in cash and stock for Massey, the nation’s fourth-largest coal producer by revenue. Massey operates 19 mining complexes in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky including the Upper Big Branch mine where the April 5 disaster occurred.

Alpha is offering 1.025 share of its stock for each share of Massey, plus $10 per share in cash. Together, that represents a bid of $69.33 per share, a 21 percent premium over Massey’s closing share price Friday.

There is muted hope that Monday’s convening of the new legislature will be a step, however small, in the right direction for a country that has seen the army rule with impunity since a 1962 coup ended the last legitimate parliamentary democracy. Still, with a quarter of the seats in the upper and lower houses reserved for the military and the remainder dominated by political parties loyal to the outgoing junta, there is little chance for an actual return of power to the people.

The junta for years has been touting the convening of parliament as the penultimate step in its so-called roadmap to democracy, leaving only the task of having it elect a president. Current junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe, however, is expected to remain the country’s guiding force, no matter what position he holds in the new regime.

Republican leaders say they have a jobs agenda, kicked off by their attempt to unravel what they call the Democrats’ “jobs-killing” health overhaul.

Democrats scoff at this notion, and they’re hounding Republicans to show how they can put more people to work.

But the city’s normally placid civic life has fallen into turmoil. At City Hall, where council meetings once played out in quiet tones, the mayor and council members have been accusing each other of ethics violations and slapping each other with lawsuits. The police have been in court – but as defendants rather than witnesses. Veteran officers have been indicted for felonies and the department is enduring its worst corruption scandal in recent history.

The chaos has clouded the city’s effort to pull off a major urban revitalization, already lagging well behind other cities in the region.

For the past 15 years, elephants who had spent lifetimes in zoos and circuses have found a place to retire, rest and roam, far from noisy audiences and free from cramped quarters.

Now, after an unexpected management change and a lawsuit filed by one of the original founders last year, their place of refuge is undergoing changes that may allow the world a better glimpse of their lives.

And when the tower collapsed, David Abbott went down with it, one of 28 men killed when the hurricane-weakened structure finally buckled under the North Atlantic’s pounding.

Fifty years later, President Barack Obama is recognizing the sacrifice of Abbott and those killed in the Jan. 15, 1961, collapse. Within the next week, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s office, which lobbied for the honor, expects to deliver a letter from Obama to Abbott’s son, Donald, in a gesture intended to honor all of the victims and their families.

Two Purple Hearts. A backpack full of medical records.

The father is David R. Franco; the son is David W. Aside from the name, they share so much: proud service in Iraq, and a haunting, painful aftermath.

The goal is to build trust so a chaplain can encourage service members to draw on their individual concepts of God and spirituality, said Carrie Doehring, an associate professor of pastoral care at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver.

Doehring helped develop the one-year program for the Air Force, which wanted another way for its chaplains to respond to the stress of deployments amid two protracted wars.

It was 1989 and Taylor was representing a notorious killer – Andrew Wilson, who had shot two police officers and was behind bars for life. He’d originally been sentenced to death but won a new trial after the Illinois Supreme Court ruled his confession had been coerced.

Wilson was now in federal court, claiming that during questioning in the police killings he’d been beaten, tortured with electric shocks, forced onto a hot radiator and smothered with a plastic bag. Among those he was suing: Chicago police commander Jon Burge, a decorated Vietnam veteran.