Evening Edition

“Seven UNAMA employees have been killed, out of which five are Nepalese and two others are Europeans, one woman and one man,” Balkh governor Atta Mohammad Noor said, referring to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

Five protesters also died in the unrest in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, and 20 were injured, the governor told reporters. At least 20 were arrested over the attack, which was claimed by the Taliban.

“I declare you, in my position as mayor of Amsterdam, joined by the rights of marriage,” Eberhart van der Laan told Jan van Breda and his partner Thijs Timmermans at the Museum of History in the heart of Amsterdam.

The happy couple, dressed in dark formal suits with a mauve shirt for one and black T-shirt for the other, turned up for the ceremony on foot, with van Breda holding a red balloon in the shape of a heart carrying the figure “10.”

While the 65-year-old strongman remained silent, his whereabouts unknown, a close aide said he had no intention of giving himself up.

Internationally recognised president Ouattara’s forces swept into the economic capital Thursday with little resistance from Gbagbo’s army.

The opposition is ready for a ceasefire provided Kadhafi’s forces end their assaults on rebel-held cities, Transitional National Council leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said.

The announcement came two days after rebels were driven out of a string of key oil terminals in eastern Libya they had twice seized during the weeks-old revolt aimed at toppling Kadhafi’s 41-year-old regime.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the rebels needed training more than guns but suggested other nations do that job, while French counterpart Gerard Longuet said providing weapons was not part of the UN mandate.

Gates said the military mission did not call for deposing Kadhafi and suggested ultimately it would be economic and political pressure and Libya’s people — not coalition air strikes — that would topple him.

The grim search came as the government revealed radiation from a nuclear power plant crippled by the twin disaster had been found in groundwater, with contamination already reported in the air, ocean and food.

Japan is still struggling to cope with its worst post-war crisis three weeks after the seafloor quake struck on March 11, leaving about 28,000 people dead or missing.

The Central Bank of Ireland said in a statement that four lenders needed to raise an extra 24 billion euros after it carried out vital stress tests on their ability to withstand another financial crisis.

The additional capital would be covered by the 35 billion euros provided for the banks as part of Ireland’s huge 85-billion-euro debt rescue agreed in November with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

India opener Tendulkar, playing in his sixth and probably last World Cup, is desperate to capture the only piece of silverware missing from his record-breaking collection.

Added spice is provided by Saturday’s final against Sri Lanka being played at his home Wankhede stadium in Mumbai where a century will make him the first batsman to score a hundred international centuries.

Ramon Hernandez provided the early fireworks on Thursday, hitting a two-out three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth as the Cincinnati Reds rallied past the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6.

The World Series champions San Francisco Giants got their defence off to a inauspicious start, losing 2-1 to their National League rival Los Angeles Dodgers in night match.

At least eight foreigners were among the dead after attackers took out security guards, burned parts of the compound and climbed up blast walls to topple a guard tower, said Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a police spokesman for the northern region.

Five protesters were also killed and around 20 wounded.

The heaviest clashes centered around the state television station, which went off the air after it was attacked by pro-Ouattara forces overnight.

The boom of heavy weapons fire rang out constantly from near Gbagbo’s residence and presidential palace, both of which have come under attack, as well as two major military bases — turning Ivory Coast’s main city into a war zone.

Residents reported heavy fighting near the state broadcaster, RTI, as well as in neighborhoods in the south of the city after pro-Ouattara forces swiftly advanced on the lagoon-side city from several directions.

Gbagbo’s elite forces took positions around the presidential palace while French soldiers were also deployed in the city to protect foreign residents. A United Nations helicopter gunship flew overhead.

A rebel leader speaking after talks with a U.N. envoy in Benghazi offered a ceasefire on condition Gaddafi left Libya and his forces withdrew from cities now under government control. It was unclear if the offer was part of broader diplomatic moves to end a conflict that appears deadlocked on the military front.

Rebels speaking from Misrata said Gaddafi’s forces had brought their superior firepower to bear on the insurgents’ last western enclave with an intense bombardment.

Only Nicolas Sarkozy saw the popular revolt that began in Libya on February 15 as an opportunity for political and diplomatic redemption. Whether the French president’s energetic leadership of an international coalition to protect the Libyan people from Muammar Gaddafi will be enough to revive his sagging domestic fortunes in next year’s election is highly uncertain.

But by pushing for military strikes that he hopes might repair France’s reputation in the Arab world, Sarkozy helped shape what type of war it would be. The road to Western military intervention was paved with mutual suspicion, fears of another quagmire in a Muslim country and doubts about the largely unknown ragtag Libyan opposition with which the West has thrown in its lot.

The CIA personnel were sent in to contact opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and assess their capabilities, two U.S. officials said.

“They’re trying to sort out who could be turned into a military unit and who couldn’t,” said Bob Baer, a former CIA case officer whose memoirs were turned into the Hollywood thriller “Syriana.”

Activists said Syrians took to the streets after Friday prayers in the capital Damascus, Banias on the coast, Latakia port and the southern city of Deraa, where the unprecedented protests challenging Assad’s 11 years in power began in March.

Witnesses in the Damascus suburb of Douma said the three killed were among at least 2,000 people who chanted “Freedom. Freedom. One, one, one. The Syrian people are one,” when police opened fire to disperse them from Municipality Square.

Weeks of protests across Yemen have brought Saleh’s 32-year rule to the verge of collapse but the United States and neighboring oil giant Saudi Arabia, an important financial backer, are worried about who might succeed him in a country where al Qaeda militants flourish.

Tens of thousands, both for and against Saleh, took to the streets of the capital Sanaa, as negotiators struggle to revive talks to decide his fate.

Naoto Kan was due to visit a sports camp turned into a base for military, firefighters and engineers working inside an evacuation zone to cool the six-reactor complex and contain contamination before Japan seeks a permanent solution.

Kan has warned of a “long-term battle” at Fukushima where the nuclear crisis entering its fourth week has compounded national anguish after an earthquake and tsunami that left 28,000 people dead or missing.

But it also sounds too outrageous to accept, given the full job description: working in perilously radioactive environments.

In its attempts to bring under control its radiation-gushing nuclear power plant that was severely damaged by last month’s massive earthquake and tsunami, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) is trying to get workers ever closer to the sources of stubborn radiation at the plant and end the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

Shares of the company, also known as TEPCO, fell as much as 10 percent after the Mainichi newspaper said the government plans to inject public funds into the firm, although it is unlikely to take more than a 50 percent stake.

“It will be a type of injection that will allow the government to have a certain level of (management) involvement,” the daily quoted a government official as saying. “If the stake goes over 50 percent, it will be nationalized. But that’s not what we are considering.”

Three weeks later, they’re back in the capital, hoping life will get back to normal.

“After the quake, my husband said ‘Leave’ so we went to (the southern island of) Okinawa. Now I have to return to work and my daughter starts daycare, so we came back,” said Hashiguchi, 33, cuddling her daughter on a park swing.

The counterbid — unveiled on Friday to some skepticism it can succeed — would redraw the world’s capital markets so that Americans have a stronger hand than Europeans, just as exchange operators globally maneuver to come out on top.

The move presents U.S. lawmakers and regulators with a dilemma: whether to allow a German exchange to take control of the venerable New York Stock Exchange, or to allow the creation of a dominant American-run platform with massive market power.

Since 1980, Nicholas Callaway has made the finest of design-driven books, building a publishing house and his fortune on memorable children’s stories and on volumes known for the fidelity of their reproductions of great art. But the quality of paper, ink and binding mean nothing to him now.

For Callaway, it’s all about apps — small applications sold in Apple’s App Store where books are enhanced beyond the mere text of e-books. In this cutting-edge new medium, cooks can clap hands to turn pages of an interactive recipe, a book about Richard Nixon can include footage of him sweating during presidential debates, a Sesame Street character can read a story out loud and, should your child get bored, the app can turn the tale into a jigsaw puzzle or a computerized finger-painting set.

Attendees at an event in a plush hotel in New Delhi raced for front row seats to hear Warren Buffett talk. At a conference in Bangalore on March 23, a crowd including investors gathered to heap praise upon him.

“I really am extremely thankful on behalf of all Indians that you have showered so much wisdom on us,” one Indian investor told the 80-year-old billionaire.

One day after Republican and Democratic leaders agreed on the outlines of a budget deal that could avert a government shutdown, they jockeyed on Thursday to protect areas where they fear it will do the most harm.

“What we cut is much more important than how we cut,” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said.

Afghan authorities suspect insurgents melded into the mob and they announced the arrest of more than 20 people, including a militant they suspect was the ringleader of the assault in Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh province. The suspect was an insurgent from Kapisa province, a hotbed of militancy about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of the city, said Rawof Taj, deputy provincial police chief.

The topic of Quran burning stirred outrage among millions of Muslims and others worldwide after the Rev. Terry Jones’ small church, Dove Outreach Center, threatened to destroy a copy of the holy book last year. The pastor backed down but the church in Gainesville, Florida, went through with the burning last month.

But on Friday only former military officers and the lightly trained volunteers serving under them are allowed on the front lines. Some are recent arrivals, hoping to rally against forces loyal to the Libyan leader who have pushed rebels back about 100 miles this week.

The better organized fighters, unlike some of their predecessors, can tell the difference between incoming and outgoing fire. They know how to avoid sticking to the roads, a weakness in the untrained forces that Gadhafi’s troops have exploited. And they know how to take orders.

With no objections, the Senate on March 1 backed a resolution strongly condemning “the gross and systematic violations of human rights in Libya” and urging the U.N. Security Council to take action, “including the possible imposition of a no-fly zone over Libyan territory.”

There was no recorded vote. It was simply approved by unanimous consent.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Thursday announced in congressional testimony the decision to withdraw U.S. combat aircraft from the NATO-commanded mission as of this coming Sunday.

They made no mention of putting the Tomahawk-firing ships and subs on standby as well. But the U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military planning, said the Pentagon won’t fire the powerful long-range missiles unless the situation changes.

Youth leaders said they planned a march in the direction of the heavily guarded presidential palace.

Many mosques in the capital shut down – a move unprecedented for Friday, the Muslim day of prayer – as worshippers and clerics streamed to the square outside Sanaa University.

More than 16,000 are still missing after the disaster, which officials fear may have killed some 25,000 people. The 9.0-earthquake and tsunami also ravaged a nuclear plant that continues to leak radiation despite frantic efforts to control it.

Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a resolute note Friday, promising to win the battle against the overheating plant even as atomic safety officials raised questions about the accuracy of radiation measurements there. Residents have been evacuated from around the plant.

The biggest haul may come in one to three years when, scientists say, wind and ocean currents eventually will push some of the massive debris from Japan’s tsunami and earthquake onto the shores of the U.S. West Coast.

“I’m fascinated to see what actually makes it over here, compared to what might sink or biodegrade out there,” said Anderson, 57, a plumber and avid beachcomber who lives in the coastal town of Forks, Wash.

The two machines are normally used to spray concrete for new skyscrapers, bridges and other massive construction projects.

The machines are now being retrofitted in North Charleston, S.C., and Sante Fe Springs, Calif. That will allow them to spray water instead of concrete on the nuclear reactors, said Kelly Blickle, a spokeswoman at Putzmeister America Inc. in Sturtevant, Wis. The German firm manufactured the equipment.

On Capitol Hill White House officials and congressional Democrats maneuvered furiously to gain advantage over the GOP on details of a government-wide spending bill.

Both sides are discussing cuts in the range of $33 billion, and Obama said that after weeks of talks among Democrats, Republicans and the White House team, “it appears that we’re getting close to an agreement.”

“We exist, we’re here, we’re normal,” said Sgt. Justin Griffith, chief organizer of Military Atheists and Secular Humanists, or MASH. “We’re also in foxholes. That’s a big one, right there.”

For now, the group meets regularly in homes and bars outside of Fort Bragg, one of the biggest military bases in the country. But it is going through the long bureaucratic process to win official recognition from the Army as a distinct “faith” group.

Walking into her neighborhood grocery store in Washington, Kathleen Merrigan saw a beautiful display of plump strawberries and a sign that said they were local produce. But the package itself said they were grown in California, well over 2,000 miles away.

The popularity of locally grown food – which many assume means the food is fresher, made with fewer chemicals and grown by smaller, less corporate farms – has led to an explosion in the use of the word “local” in food marketing. It’s the latest big thing after the surge in food marketed as “organic,” another subject of continuing labeling controversy.

Lighthearted pranks are an annual Web tradition on April Fools’ Day, with jokey redesigns and parody products.

Comedy video website Funny or Die, which last year became “Bieber or Die,” turned into “Friday or Die.” The site’s home page was taken over by teenage viral video star Rebecca Black, complete with “Behind the Music”-style featurettes on her song “Friday.” Escape was futile: Even pressing “back” in one’s browser only added Black’s lyrics to the address bar.

Digging through museum archives, Robert Edsel, founder of an arts preservation organization based in Dallas, discovered the recording of Eisenhower’s speech that the general delivered when he was honored with a life fellowship from the museum.

Transcripts of the speech have long been available. But, “when you have Gen. Eisenhower saying it and when you hear his words, it’s electrifying,” said Edsel, whose nonprofit, the Monuments Men Foundation, honors those who helped protect the cultural treasures in Europe during World War II.

The Republican legislation to “deem” its federal budget law – Senate approval or not – passed the House Friday 221-202 after colorful debate that included lessons meant for children on how a bill becomes a law.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., chose “House Mouse, Senate Mouse,” in which the “Squeaker of the House” and the “Senate Mousejority Leader” compromise on a national cheese.

“There’s a bad, bad wind coming out of the west, and it’s up to us to stop it at the doors,” said Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale as snow whipped into the metal bleachers at the Greene County Fairgrounds.

Like nearly a dozen other speakers from several national unions, Bloomingdale urged miners decked mostly in camouflage to prepare for battle, calling unions the last line of defense for the American middle class.

Bar owner Alan Hale said in a speech on the House floor this week that DUI laws are harmful to small businesses, implying people need to drive home after drinking.

Tough DUI laws “are destroying a way of life that has been in Montana for years and years,” said the Republican from the rural town Basin, where a few hundred people live near the mountains of the Continental Divide.

Erik Prince said during the seven-hour testimony that he didn’t believe the FBI fully investigated the sources of all the used bullets in Nisoor Square, arguing that it would have been helpful for the defense to have a complete ballistics report.

“It seems the ballistics analysis was done to prove the guilt of the Americans, not to just try to identify what happened there,” Prince said. His comments about the case and throughout the deposition underscore how tensions between the government and one of its go-to contractors have lingered for years.

The $59.7 billion Republican-drafted bill is a blueprint for Federal Aviation Administration programs for the next three and a half years. It cuts the agency’s budget by $4 billion, money GOP lawmakers said the agency can do without. Democrats said the cuts would endanger air safety.

The bill passed on a 223 to 196 mostly party line vote. It would require the FAA to tailor regulations to different segments of the aviation industry rather than set across-the-board safety standards. It also would prohibit new safety regulations if the agency can’t justify the costs to the industry.

What the women didn’t know, she said, was that the photo shoot would determine which of them would still have jobs when the 10-minute encounter was over.

Felici, who had been with Resorts since the day it opened in 1978 and was twice named employee of the month, was one of 15 cocktail waitresses fired last month from Resorts.

Crowds increased at many of the nation’s parks in 2010, with some seeing record attendance. Profits were up as families sought out fun close to home and began traveling again. Better weather helped, too.

Those within the amusement industry are optimistic this year will be even better and think rising gasoline prices might even help them out by forcing families to spend their vacation time near home.

On one side are Gov. Sean Parnell, top House Republicans and the oil industry, who argue that the current tax structure is stifling investment and must be changed to boost oil production and avert a now-looming shutdown of the pipeline that carries at least 10 percent of the nation’s crude oil production, on average.

On the other side are House Democrats and leading senators, who say the Parnell administration hasn’t justified the need for tax cuts and credits that could cost up to $2 billion a year, and they question what – if anything – the state will get in return.

The investigation aims to determine whether Seattle police have a “pattern or practice” of violating civil rights or discriminatory policing, and if so, what they should do to improve, Seattle U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan and the assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil rights division, Thomas E. Perez, said during a conference call Thursday morning. Durkan’s office previously conducted a preliminary investigation.

Perez said the investigation would involve reviewing the police department’s policies, watching officers on the beat, gathering records, and interviewing officers, police brass and community groups.

The library opened an expanded new exhibit Thursday that scholars say provides a more balanced and accurate account of the scandal that brought down a president.

“The public deserves nonpartisan, objective presidential libraries,” said library director Tim Naftali, who alluded to the original display as “inaccurate and whitewashed.”