Evening Edition

The 39-year-old Australian could face the death penalty if further extradited to the United States on separate charges relating to WikiLeaks, his lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said at the start of a two-day extradition hearing in London.

Swedish prosecutors want to question the whistle-blowing website’s chief over allegations he raped one woman in Sweden and molested another, moves which Assange claims are politically motivated.

The 82-year-old strongman met his new-look cabinet for the first time as the regime battled to get the economy moving again despite ongoing demonstrations by pro-democracy activists who have occupied a Cairo square.

The United States, meanwhile, urged Egypt to uphold existing treaties, in apparent reference to the country’s peace agreement with Israel.

In a landmark concession, Vice President Omar Suleiman sat down with the groups, which included the banned Muslim Brotherhood, but the talks produced no immediate breakthrough in the two-week-old standoff.

As night fell, central Cairo’s now iconic Tahrir Square was still filled with thousands of anti-regime protesters adamant that the start of dialogue would not divert them from their campaign to unseat Egypt’s strongman.

Thousands of demonstrators spent a 14th day in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square, or Liberation Square, which over the past two weeks has begun to resemble a tented city within the city.

Protesters sat under the tracks of army tanks deployed around the square, fearful that any movement by the military could be designed to drive out the protesters or abandon them to the mercy of pro-regime thugs.

Thousands of demonstrators spent Sunday night under blankets and tarpaulins in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square, or Liberation Square, which over two weeks has begun to resemble a tented camp.

Protesters sat under the tracks of army tanks deployed around the square, fearful that any military pull-out could be designed to drive out the protesters or abandon them to the mercy of pro-regime thugs.

The results — displayed at a ceremony in Khartoum — revealed that out of 3,837,406 valid ballots cast, only 44,888 votes, or 1.17 percent, favoured the status quo of unity with the north.

“The referendum was correct, accurate and transparent and we have no objection to the results,” said Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil, chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission’s chairman.

The latest hostilities, which lasted for less than an hour, followed heavy fighting on Sunday after the collapse of a ceasefire agreed a day earlier in the wake of the worst clashes between the two neighbours in years.

Four days of violence have left five dead and 45 injured on the Cambodian side, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters, but declined to provide more details. Thailand has reported two deaths, including one civilian.

Only one of the US Coast Guard’s three ice breakers is operational and would be available to respond to a disaster off Alaska’s northern coast, which is icebound for much of the year, retired admiral Thad Allen told reporters this week.

Former Alaska lieutenant governor Fran Ulmer said that before drilling in the Arctic, the United States must “invest in the Coast Guard.”

The 26-year-old Lotus Renault driver was at the wheel of a Skoda Fabia, taking part in the Ronde di Andora Rally in Liguria in the north-west of Italy, when his vehicle left the road and crashed into a church wall.

He was airlifted to the Santa Corona hospital in nearby Pietra Ligure where he underwent seven hours of surgery for multiple injuries, the worst of which was to his right hand which was partially severed by a metal railing.

“We are heartbroken,” said Jorge Castanheira, president of the League of Samba Schools which puts on the yearly event. “Everything was practically ready for the Carnival.”

“A dream has been thrown in the trash. Months of work, and it’s all lost,” one costume worker, Jose da Silva Junior, lamented to reporters.

But he also stressed the “mutual responsibilities” of business and government in his speech to the US Chamber of Commerce, saying corporate profits needed to lift the standard of living for American workers, not just meet the corporate bottom line and fatten the pockets of executives.

Obama and the chamber — the most powerful business lobby in Washington — have been at odds over economic policy in his first two years in the White House.

The 11th edition of the forum, an alternative to the elite World Economic Forum held in the posh Swiss ski resort of Davos last week, brings together anti-globalisation activists opposed to capitalism.

This year participants are focusing on the popular revolt spreading across northern Africa with demands for democracy and criticism of dire social conditions reflecting the crisis of capitalism.

Quarterback Rodgers, playing in his maiden Super Bowl, helped secure the victory with an eight-yard touchdown pass to receiver Greg Jennings with just under 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

“It is a dream come true,” Rodgers said. “It is what I dreamed about as a little kid watching Joe Montana and Steve Young and we just won the Super Bowl.”

The 39-year-old Australian computer expert, who has infuriated the U.S. government by releasing thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his website, is wanted in Sweden where two WikiLeaks volunteers allege sexual misconduct last August.

His lawyers argued on the first day of a two-day extradition hearing that Assange should not be sent to Sweden because rape cases there are held in private and so Assange would be denied a fair trial.

Obama’s comments seemed to contradict those by Egyptian opposition figures who reported little progress in the talks over demands that include a call for the immediate exit of President Hosni Mubarak.

“Obviously, Egypt has to negotiate a path and they’re making progress,” Obama told reporters in Washington.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Obama also said the ideology of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, which is President Hosni Mubarak’s best organized opposition group, included anti-U.S. strains.

But the Brotherhood lacked majority support, he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon backed up calls at a security conference in Munich from the United States and Europe for a rapid change of power in Egypt followed by a more sedate transition through democracy and eventually free elections.

Ban told reporters he had urged authorities in Cairo “to make the necessary changes and reforms as soon as possible. I hope the leaders of Egypt heed the calls of their own people.”

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp proposed that executives at the largest financial institutions have half of their bonuses deferred for at least three years.

Yet the U.S. plan is markedly softer than the European Union, which in December set guidelines that top bankers be limited to receiving 20 percent of their annual bonuses upfront in cash, with some exceptions.

And then it has something not going its way — a federal crackdown on its immigrant labor force that has so far forced Chipotle to fire hundreds of allegedly illegal workers in the state of Minnesota, perhaps more than half its staff there.

The probe is widening. Co-Chief Executive Monty Moran told Reuters on Friday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also issued “notices of inspection” for restaurants in Washington D.C. and Virginia.

The move, announced Monday, comes at a hefty premium. AOL is estimated to be paying 32 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for The Huffington Post, said Benchmark Co analyst Clayton Moran.

Similar content deals, such as Hellman & Friedman’s acquisition of Internet Brands in September 2010, typically go for eight to 12 times earnings, said Moran.

Obama, on a drive to win over business and independent voters before the 2012 presidential election, also repeated a promise to advance trade deals with Panama and Colombia that would help U.S. companies.

“I understand the challenges you face. I understand you are under incredible pressure to cut costs and keep your margins up. I understand the significance of your obligations to your shareholders and the pressures that are created by quarterly reports. I get it,” Obama told the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has often opposed the president for what it sees as his “big government” agenda.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, backed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, presented proposals for a “competitiveness pact” to EU leaders at a summit last Friday, provoking strong pushback due to both a lack of prior consultation and the objectives chosen.

Merkel made clear that agreement on these measures, designed to align economic policies more closely with Berlin’s, must be sealed in March before she will agree to strengthening the rescue fund for debt-stricken euro zone countries.

Human rights groups had planned to lodge a Swiss criminal case against Bush on Monday, before his address to a Jewish charity in Geneva on February 12. Organisers canceled his speech last weekend, invoking security concerns.

But the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights issued what they called a preliminary “indictment” to prosecute Bush abroad for the alleged torture of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody.

Now that she is the new Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, she has a chance to try to back up her muscular rhetoric with action.

Last month, Ros-Lehtinen was one of the first U.S. lawmakers to urge Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to hold free elections. Earlier in January, she told visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao to his face that he should free jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel peace prize winner.

The deal, which would pit the combined company against 3M and General Electric, values Beckman at $83.50 a share. That’s 11 percent more than its closing price on Friday and roughly 45 percent above the company’s price in December before rumors of a takeover entered the marketplace.

Beckman shares jumped 9.8 percent to $82.51 in morning trading, a bit below the offer price — suggesting investors do not expect a higher bidder to emerge. Danaher was up 3.2 percent at $49.51 after rising to $50.29, a lifetime high.

Inspired by their dynamic young quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the Packers gave a masterclass demonstration, opening up a 21-3 lead in the second quarter and then showing amazing courage to survive a ferocious late comeback from the Steelers.

It was game that lived up to all the hype as two of the most successful franchises in the NFL slugged it out in front of a crowd of more than 100,000 at Cowboys Stadium.

But most of the Steelers leaving Cowboys Stadium following a 31-25 loss to Green Bay in the Super Bowl on Sunday left wondering if there will even be a next season for the NFL.

While the victorious Packers still had some celebrating to do, the party was over for the rest of NFL with an increasingly tense labor dispute taking over the football spotlight.

He was also cautious about significantly boosting the central bank’s government bond purchases, which he warned could give markets the impression that it was directly financing government debt.

Shirakawa added that easy monetary policy alone could not end deflation and fix other problems plaguing Japan’s economy, and called for deregulation and other efforts to more efficiently allocate labor and capital and boost economic growth

India is only the 14th biggest trading partner for the United States despite its growing global weight and obstacles from outsourcing controversies to the Doha world trade round and market access have put the brakes on faster integration.

“Even though India has made tremendous strides to open up its economy, there is much more work that is left to be done,” Locke told a conference in New Delhi after a meeting with Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma.

Several hours of shelling and machine gun fire subsided at around 11 a.m. (11 a.m. EST on Sunday), creating an uneasy peace in the 4.6-sq-km (two-sq-mile) contested area around the Preah Vihear temple claimed by both Southeast Asian neighbors.

Cambodia’s government said Monday’s fighting had killed five people and wounded 45 others on its side of the border. It did not say whether the casualties were troops or civilians.

Talks about a takeover of Genzyme continued on Monday despite expectations that the two sides would hammer out a reconciliation at the weekend, following a testy courtship. A final deal could be announced within days, the sources said.

Shares in Sanofi rose, indicating investors remained confident the second-largest takeover deal in the history of the biotech sector would go ahead.

Nasdaq OMX Group said on Saturday that it found “suspicious files” on its U.S. computer servers, but said there was no evidence hackers had accessed or acquired customer information or that its trading platforms were compromised.

The news comes as flows into U.S. equity mutual funds show signs of recovering after years of outflows following the financial crisis and the debilitating experience of the “flash crash” last May that sent U.S. indexes plunging.

Actually, as a share of the nation’s economy, Uncle Sam’s take this year will be the lowest since 1950, when the Korean War was just getting under way.

And for the third straight year, American families and businesses will pay less in federal taxes than they did under former President George W. Bush, thanks to a weak economy and a growing number of tax breaks for the wealthy and poor alike.

Speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the president urged the business community to help accelerate the slow economic recovery by increasing hiring and unleashing some of the $2 trillion piling up on their balance sheets.

“I want to encourage you to get in the game,” Obama said.

The Nielsen Co. said Monday that an estimated 111 million people watched the Green Bay Packers outlast the Pittsburgh Steelers in professional football’s ultimate game. That tops the 106.5 million who watched the 2010 game between New Orleans and Indianapolis.

The series finale of “M-A-S-H” had held the title of the most-watched TV show in the United States for 27 years. It is now No. 3.

Wael Ghonim, a marketing manager for the Internet company, sobbed throughout an emotional television interview just hours after he was freed as he described how he spent 12 days in detention blindfolded while his worried parents didn’t know where he was. He insisted he had not been tortured and said his interrogators treated him with respect.

“This is the revolution of the youth of the Internet and now the revolution of all Egyptians,” he said, adding that he was taken aback when the security forces holding him branded him a traitor.

“We are becoming bigger!” they shout. “God is Great!”

Inside Cairo’s main square, musicians stroll, a man reads poetry to the crowd and vendors hawk potato chips, tea, hot food – even socks.

After several days of mixed messages about whether it wants to see Mubarak stay or go, Washington stepped up calls for a faster, more inclusive national dialogue on reform in Egypt.

Under Egypt’s constitution, Mubarak’s resignation would trigger an election in 60 days. U.S. officials said that’s not enough time to prepare.

“Only he knows what he’s going to do,” President Barack Obama said Sunday. “The U.S. can’t forcefully dictate, but what we can do is say the time is now for you to start making a change in your country. Mubarak has already decided he’s not going to run again.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said forcing Mubarak to leave office quickly could complicate the already enormous challenges Egypt faces in transforming itself from autocracy to democracy.

U.S. counterterrorism officials need to move quickly to firm up relationships with veteran Mideast intelligence and security services in the aftermath of momentous changes, experts say. Lingering confusion over who will take the reins of power could hamper instant decision-making in the short term.

Over the longer term, will the U.S. be able to work as closely against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups if important allies such as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh cede power to Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood?

Seamstresses, set designers and musicians watched in tears as firefighters struggled to control the blaze that raged through four warehouses. The fire devoured about 8,400 outfits and the ornate sets built each year in the battle to be the city’s top samba group.

Three hours into the early-morning blaze, the flames were controlled and 10 warehouses were unscathed, but some of the top contenders and up-and-comers in next month’s Carnival parade were knocked out of the competition.

The acquisition announced Monday is among the most aggressive strategic moves engineered by AOL CEO Tim Armstrong in an effort to reshape a fallen Internet icon.

Perhaps just as important as picking up a news site that ranks as one of the top 10 current events and global news sites, AOL will be adding Huffington Post co-founder and media star Arianna Huffington to its management team.

Then, in a move that not even the most gossipy of media obsessives saw coming, Armstrong announced at the Super Bowl in Texas that AOL was buying The Huffington Post, the Internet news darling, for $315 million. Armstrong went from looking lame to looking awfully sharp. And awfully lucky.

Perhaps no online property was lusted after by media moguls like the one Arianna Huffington founded six years ago. Its traffic rivals The New York Times. Its infrastructure is virtually zero-cost. Its social media strategy is practically perfect. Oh, and it turned its first profit last year on $30 million in revenue. HuffPo expects to triple revenue by 2012.

Geoffrey Robertson told an extradition hearing that Assange would not get a fair trial because of his notoriety and because Swedish rape cases are customarily held without public or media present, to protect the alleged victims.

Closed-door hearings would be “a flagrant denial of justice … blatantly unfair, not only by British standards but by European standards and indeed by international standards,” Robertson said.

In a little more than five months, Southern Sudan is slated to become the world’s newest country. Final results from last month’s independence referendum announced on Monday show that 98.8 percent of the ballots cast were for secession from Sudan’s north.

Juba is oil-rich but lacks the embassies and skyscrapers of other world capitals. There was only a mile or two of pavement here just a year ago, and the local archives are stored in a tent. Many, though, see great potential, and are excitedly looking forward to controlling their own destiny.

Schools dismissed early and people took time off work to watch the team’s motorcade travel from Austin Straubel International Airport to Lambeau Field along a route that included Lombardi Avenue, named in honor of the legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi.

Fans who spent Sunday night partying picked up right where they left off Monday morning, showing up hours early for the parade. They jammed Lambeau’s atrium and clogged the stadium’s pro shop as they bought piles of Super Bowl gear and memorabilia. To make room, the team finally had to herd shoppers and visitors into a line that stretched outside the stadium.

A day after it aired, one of the most-talked about Super Bowl ads sent shivers of pride through the battered city, which hopes car buyers are willing to look past Chrysler’s billion-dollar bailout and embrace the idea that if a vehicle is “Imported from Detroit,” that’s reason enough to buy it.

“It’s like an anthem or rallying cry for Detroit,” Aaron Morrison of Mason City, Iowa, told The Associated Press via Facebook. “It makes me want to buy my next car made in America.”

A two-minute ad for Chrysler starring Eminem and a Volkswagen ad featuring a mini-Darth Vader that went viral before it even aired were two of the most talked-about spots during advertising’s big night, the Super Bowl, in which Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-25.

Chrysler was one of nine automakers that took advantage of advertising’s biggest and most expensive showcase, at $3 million for 30 seconds, to try to show they’re back after two tough years for the industry.

Given the choice between grabbing an extra blanket or cozying up with someone special when it’s cold, most people choose snuggling over a Snuggie, an Associated Press-Weather Underground poll finds.

All the snuggling may be an effort to counterbalance the negative impact most say winter has on their mood. Overall, four in 10 say the weather alters their attitude a good amount or more, with nearly three-quarters saying winter gives them a case of the blues.

Cambodia says the crumbling stone temple – classified as a World Heritage site – has been heavily damaged during several bursts of artillery fire over four days. The extent of the damage could not be confirmed.

The exchange of cross-border fire is highly unusual among members of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and has raised tensions in a region known for its stability.

That’s the message the government sent on Monday as it settled a closely watched lawsuit against a Connecticut ambulance company that fired an employee after she went on Facebook to criticize her boss.

The National Labor Relations Board sued the company last year, arguing the worker’s negative comments were protected speech under federal labor laws. The company claimed it fired the emergency medical technician because of complaints about her work.

Worsening traffic around some of the bases could be harmful to the military, which has previously left local and state governments to pay for most off-base transportation improvements, according to recommendations in the report by the National Research Council’s Transportation Research Board.

The report looked at six large bases: Fort Meade and the National Naval Medical Center in Maryland, Fort Belvoir in Virginia, Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, Florida’s Eglin Air Force Base and Fort Bliss, Texas.

A month before Obama reached out to businesses, the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent 171 letters to various businesses and their trade associations. He asked for help in “identifying existing and proposed regulations that have negatively impacted job growth.”

This Thursday, Issa is giving business representatives an opportunity at a hearing by his committee to vent their frustration with government requirements issued by unelected bureaucrats. He wants Obama to include their responses in a review of government regulations the president ordered last month in the administration’s effort to find rules that cost Americans jobs.

Now they and members of the city’s other tribes are working to get a slice of the profits when photos of the towering outfits they have spent the year crafting end up in books and on posters and T-shirts.

“It’s not about people taking pictures for themselves, but a lot of times people take pictures and sell them,” Miller said. “For years people have been reaping the benefits from the pictures they take of the Mardi Gras Indians.”

Many farmers had been pushing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to approve the use of genetically modified alfalfa. Monsanto developed the seed to resist the weedkiller Roundup, allowing farmers to use the two together to save time and labor on weeding. Supporters also say the use of the genetically modified seeds lets farmers grow more alfalfa on each acre and helps keep food prices low.

Opponents, many of them organic farmers, say widespread planting of genetically modified alfalfa will result in pollen from those plants contaminating organic and traditional crops, destroying their value. While alfalfa is mostly used as hay for cattle, some consumers don’t want to eat foods, such as milk or beef, from animals that have consumed genetically modified plants.

But to actual New York commuters, such talk rings hollow these days.

Mechanical breakdowns, stranded trains, rising fares and the governor’s plans to cut another $100 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s budget have left travelers fuming. An onslaught of snowstorms has exposed the rail system’s weaknesses, shorting out electric motors and snapping electric lines. On Monday the Metro-North commuter line will cut service on its popular New Haven line because half of its trains are in the shop.

Organisms as large as adult fish and as small as bacteria lurk in ship ballast tanks, which hold millions of gallons of water and sediments that keep vessels upright in rough seas. When the soupy mixtures are dumped in harbors as freight is taken on, the stowaways often find hospitable surroundings and no natural predators. They spread rapidly, starving out native species and spreading diseases in aquatic life.

Since arriving in the Great Lakes in the mid-1980s, the zebra mussel and its cousin the quagga mussel have clogged municipal and power plant water intake pipes. They’re blamed for a Lake Huron salmon collapse and botulism that has killed thousands of shore birds. In San Francisco Bay, biologists say the Asian clam likely caused a decline of striped bass and other competitors for plankton.

“The people who dislike you don’t know you. The folks who hate you, they don’t know you,” Obama said Sunday in an interview broadcast during Fox’s pre-game coverage of the Super Bowl. “What they hate is whatever funhouse mirror image of you that’s out there. They don’t know you.”

Asked by Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly whether his critics annoyed him, Obama said: “By the time you get here, you have to have had a pretty thick skin. If you didn’t, then you probably wouldn’t have gotten here.”