Evening Edition

It was the deadliest single incident this year against foreign forces in war-torn Afghanistan and comes amid a wave of suicide attacks on security targets, three months before foreign forces start a limited pullback.

The latest strike was at an army base in the Gambiri desert area in Laghman province, near Jalalabad city, the de facto capital of Afghanistan’s east.

Voting was generally calm in most of the country, though two explosions hit the northeastern city of Maiduguri, with no casualties reported. Rioting also broke out in the northern town of Misau that led to buildings being burnt.

President Goodluck Jonathan was favoured to win and results from a handful of areas Saturday evening showed him ahead, but it was far too early to draw any conclusions. The electoral commission has said it expects to release full results within 48 hours of the end of voting.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said a new UN resolution to push the Libyan leader into quitting was unnecessary, and German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle suggested frozen Libyan funds be diverted to the United Nations to pay for aid to victims of the conflict.

US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said its researchers reported the use of internationally banned cluster munitions against Misrata, the rebels’ last major bastion in western Libya.

In the east, shelling was heard as rebel fighters bolstered by NATO air strikes pushed on from the crossroads town of Ajdabiya toward the strategic oil town of Brega.

The blasts in Misrata were accompanied by bursts of gunfire heard coming from the city centre, after NATO flyovers and possible air raids were followed by a lull in shelling and shooting, an AFP correspondent said.

“The juridical commission on the emergency law has prepared a series of proposals for new legislation, and these proposals will be submitted to the government, which will issue a new law within a week at the most,” he said.

Emergency law in force since 1963 restricts public gatherings and movement, authorises the interrogation of any individual and the monitoring of private communications and imposes media censorship.

While the Arab Spring that has seen dictators in Egypt and Tunisia fall since January has captivated the two key global institutions in their spring meetings, looming in the background were destabilizing “imbalances” in the world’s most powerful economies.

International Monetary Fund and World Bank policy makers made support for Arab countries a key priority, highlighting the social-political impact of skyrocketing food prices and joblessness around the world and especially in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region.

The 23-year-old’s Red Bull clocked a time of one minute 33.706 seconds, seven-tenths of a second quicker than the McLaren of Britain’s Jenson Button, sending a strong message to rivals that the German remains the man to beat.

By taking pole, defending world champion Vettel became the first Formula One driver since Michael Schumacher in 2004 to start at the front of the grid in the opening three races of the season.

A Group of 20 delegation member told AFP the seven “included the G5” — the United States, France, Britain, Japan and Germany — and “two big emerging countries,” suggesting China and India.

The move would boost fraternal scrutiny in the elite G20 club, underscoring the growing worry over how structural problems in one large economy can spill across the world and pull others down — as became apparent in the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

“The problem is how do you in short run satisfy the economic demands of the people who were in the streets protesting?” said Mohsin Khan, the International Monetary Fund’s former director for the Middle East who is now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“My worry in the short run is the return to populist policy, back-tracking and undoing reforms,” he said.

You see, if we just ignore the people’s welfare and do what the elites want everything will be just fine.

Finance ministers in Washington for semi-annual talks took sharper aim than in previous years at the United States’ $14 trillion debt.

While most of the criticism came from emerging market economies, some advanced nations joined the chorus.

The steering committee of the International Monetary Fund, comprised of finance officials from around the world, addressed the increasingly contentious issue as emerging markets grapple with an inflationary inflow of “hot money” that they blame on low interest rates in the United States and other advanced economies.

“Giving due regard to country-specific circumstances and the benefits of financial integration, such an approach should encompass recommendations for both policies that give rise to outward capital flows and the management of inflows,” the panel of IMF member nations said in a communiqué.

Underlining the difficulties faced by the rebels, six were killed and 16 wounded when Gaddafi loyalists fired rockets at a group of insurgents driving along the exposed coastal’ highway from the town of Ajdabiyah west toward Brega.

The rebels’ attempt to fight their way into western Libya — which would eventually allow them to link up with comrades in Misrata — has ground to a halt along the eastern coastal stretch from Ajdabiyah to Brega, despite NATO air strikes.

An insurgent spokesman, Saadoun al Misrati, said three civilians and three rebels were killed in Saturday’s clashes and a total of 48 wounded, in a third day of heavy shelling of the rebels’ last major stronghold in the west of the country.

Another rebel spokesman, Gemal Salem, said about Gaddafi:

Assad, facing unprecedented pressure for democratic reform, had earlier pledged to replace the repressive emergency law with anti-terrorism legislation, but opposition figures said this was likely to preserve tough restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly in Syria, under monolithic Baath Party rule since 1963.

“Next week is the maximum (time) limit for completion of these laws regarding the lifting of the state of emergency,” Assad said in a speech to a new cabinet he named last week broadcast by Syrian state television.

The disbanding of the National Democratic Party (NDP) was likely to further appease protesters who had called off fresh demonstrations after the military council that now rules Egypt earlier this week ordered Mubarak detained for questioning about corruption allegations.

The NDP had dominated Egyptian politics since it was founded by Mubarak’s predecessor, Anwar Sadat, in 1978. For many in Egypt, it epitomized the graft and abuse of power that helped ignite the protests which forced Mubarak to quit in February.

In a statement to Reuters, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, which represents 26 research-based drugmakers, welcomed the plan and confirmed the commitments its members had undertaken as part of it.

Negotiators ended an all-night session with a draft agreement accepted by all countries, including the United States, the last to join the consensus, diplomats said.

“It’s sunny and 76 degrees in Palm Coast,” the mailers read. “What’s the temperature where you live?”

The postcards highlighted the scenic trails and uncrowded beaches that helped make this coastal community between Daytona Beach and St. Augustine the nation’s fastest growing metro area in the past decade, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data.

From the tin-roofed shacks of the Niger Delta, where Jonathan cast his vote, to the dusty alleyways of Daura, the northern home village of ex-military ruler Buhari, voters came out en masse.

“The politicians should know if they don’t perform they are going to be voted out,” said businessman Ahibuogwu Brian among the populous lagoon-side shanties of Makoko in the sprawling commercial hub of Lagos. “The electorate now know we have the power to chose our leaders.”

Zhou Xiaochuan, head of the People’s Bank of China, said China was using the yuan as a tool in fighting inflation and will make the currency more flexible over time.

“The shift from a moderately loose monetary stance to a prudent one means tightening, and this stance will continue for a while,” Zhou told a press briefing on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia on the tropical Chinese island of Hainan.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense said it was investigating whether the attacker was an insurgent disguised in a fake uniform, or the latest in a string of “rogue” members of the Afghan security forces who have turned on their colleagues and mentors.

On Friday, a suicide bomber in police uniform evaded tight security in police Headquarters in Kandahar city and killed Khan Mohammad Mujahid, provincial police chief of Kandahar.

The vote effectively serves as the Republicans’ opening gambit in what are likely to be contentious negotiations with President Barack Obama and his Democrats over debt and deficits in the coming months. The Congress must decide within weeks on raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.

By a vote of 235-193, the House passed the plan written by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan for the 2012 fiscal year beginning October 1.

The pact was agreed by the Group of 20 nations after months of wrangling highlighted by China’s fears that its policy of limiting its currency’s rise was being targeted.

Under the deal, the International Monetary Fund will look at national levels of debt, budget deficits and trade balances to determine if a nation’s policies are putting the global economy at risk and should be changed.

With the right timing and a little luck, the U.S. could kill the group’s leadership in a single blow.

The predawn missile strike killed scores of suspected terrorists but missed Naser Al-Wahishi, the country’s top al-Qaida leader, as well as his deputy, Saeed Al-Shihri, and the radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

Five civilians were killed in a 30-minute barrage of shelling that heavily damaged a factory for dairy products and sent up a thick column of black smoke, a doctor said. A human rights group has accused the Gadhafi regime of using cluster bombs in Misrata – munitions that can cause indiscriminate casualties and have been banned by most countries. The Libyan government and military denied the charge.

In eastern Libya, fierce fighting left seven rebels dead, 27 wounded and four missing as the anti-Gadhafi forces sought to push toward the strategic oil town of Brega, according to Mohammed Idris, a hospital supervisor in the nearby city of Ajdabiya. The battle took place on a road halfway between Ajdabiya and Brega.

The protest movement has been steadily growing over the past four weeks, posing a serious challenge to the 40-year ruling dynasty of President Bashar Assad and his father before him. A British-trained eye doctor who inherited power 11 years ago, Assad acknowledged Saturday that Syrians have legitimate grievances.

But he warned there will no longer be “an excuse” for organizing protests once Syria lifts emergency rule and implements a spate of reforms, which he said will include a new law allowing the formation of political parties.

But he was not one of them.

On Saturday, he walked into a meeting of NATO trainers and Afghan troops at Forward Operating Base Gamberi in the eastern province of Laghman and detonated a vest of explosives hidden underneath his uniform.

“We are taking important steps today that will make a real difference in fighting air traffic controller fatigue. But we know we will need to do more. This is just the beginning,” FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement.

On Monday, Babbitt and Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, will begin visiting air traffic control facilities to hear what controllers have to say and to remind them that sleeping on the job won’t be tolerated. Their first stop is Atlanta, home of the world’s busiest airport.

“Government officials haven’t recognized that people routinely fall asleep at night when they’re doing shift work,” said Dr. Charles Czeisler, chief of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Czeisler said studies show that 30 percent to 50 percent of night-shift workers report falling asleep at least once a week while on the job.

Several members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America attended the trial, myself among them. I was joined on nearly all the trial days by Gwen Knapp of the San Francisco Chronicle, Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News, T.J. Quinn of ESPN.com and Michael Martinez of Foxsportswest.com. Shortly after Thanksgiving 2012, we and the other 10-year veterans of the BBWAA will receive Hall of Fame ballots in the mail that for the first time will have Bonds’ name with a small box next to it.

The jurors’ evaluation was limited to the three weeks of testimony, and they had to decide whether Bonds was guilty of making false statements to a grand jury about his use of performance-enhancing drugs and whether he obstructed justice. They debated their decision with each other over four days, and unanimity was required. The standard they were required to use was “beyond a reasonable doubt,” and they were given 14 pages of instructions. Ultimately, they convicted baseball’s all-time home runs leader of obstruction and deadlocked on the other counts.

The announcement came after a magnitude-5.9 earthquake jolted Japan on Saturday morning, hours after the country’s nuclear safety agency ordered plant operators to beef up their quake preparedness systems to prevent a recurrence of the nuclear crisis.

There were no reports of damage from the earthquake, and there was no risk of a tsunami similar to the one that struck the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant March 11 after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake, causing Japan’s worst-ever nuclear plant disaster.

In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama contended that Republicans want to dismantle venerable safety net programs and cut taxes for the wealthy at the expense of students paying for college and older adults relying on Medicare.

“To restore fiscal responsibility, we all need to share in the sacrifice – but we don’t have to sacrifice the America we believe in,” Obama said.

No one knows exactly how the disaster happened, but everyone knows whom to blame: neighboring China.

“We don’t trust the Chinese,” says fisherman Akshay Sarkar at the resettlement site where he has lived since the 2000 flood. “They gave us no warning. They may do it again.”

If Gov. Jan Brewer signs the proposal into law, Arizona would be the first state to pass such a requirement – potentially forcing a court to decide whether the president’s birth certificate is enough to prove he can legally run for re-election. Hawaii officials have certified Obama was born in that state, but so-called “birthers” have demanded more proof.

Opponents say Arizona’s bill gives the state another black eye after lawmakers approved a controversial immigration enforcement law last year, considered legislation asserting state rights, and made it illegal to create “human-animal” hybrids by fertilizing human eggs with nonhuman sperm and vice versa.

They wrapped up three days of talks with pledges of closer cooperation and better surveillance of the global economy. However, it was uncertain just how far countries would be willing to go in reforming their domestic policies in response to international pressures.

The United States, which is facing plenty of criticism for its soaring federal budget deficits, campaigned to get the International Monetary Fund more heavily involved in monitoring currency rates.

Not the same team that won Game 1 both times only to blow momentum-killing leads in Game 2 and go on to lose the series. Not the same team that couldn’t beat the Blackhawks on home ice.

The Canucks backed up all that talk Friday night, but not before a few flashback moments.

In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, the president also spoke in his most confident terms yet that voters will reward him with another four years in the White House for his work to turn around the economy. Speaking from his hometown and the site of his newly launched re-election bid, Obama said he thinks voters will determine he is the best prepared person “to finish the job.”

On America’s wars, he said that a significant number of troops would begin coming home from Afghanistan in July despite many expectations that the withdrawal would be modest. He said the U.S. would not expand its military role to end a bloody stalemate in Libya but insisted that Moammar Gadhafi would, in time, be forced from power.

Braving snow showers and a frigid wind outside the state Capitol building, the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate told tea partyers she’s glad to stand with Gov. Scott Walker. Hundreds of labor supporters surrounded the rally, trying to drown Palin out with chants of “Hey-hey, ho-ho, Scott Walker has got to go!” and “Recall Walker!”

“Hey, folks! He’s trying to save your jobs and your pensions!” Palin yelled into the microphone. “Your governor did the right thing and you won! Your beautiful state won! And people still have their jobs!”

Welcome to the present-day Chernobyl region.

A quarter-century before a tsunami triggered a nuclear crisis in Japan, the world’s attention was riveted by the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant as it spewed radioactive material across much of the Northern Hemisphere. A generation later, thousands of people live in the region – and even still work at the disabled plant.

But Pereira doubts that many from the 5 p.m. Mass are ready to take his Lenten message to heart.

“You speak about this to them because they forget what they went through,” says Pereira, who pastors at St. Joseph’s Church in Galliano, La., a community that ties its fortunes to the Gulf of Mexico. “Because BP has spoiled them, given them all this money, they’ve gone back to the old ways. They give them big bucks and they forget.”

The headlines feed a stereotype of fat-cat public workers with the kind of cushy benefits that most private-sector workers can only dream about. With the economy still wobbly, governors are looking hard at employee pay and benefits, and taxpayers are asking whether state and local governments can remain so generous to public workers.

The issue has risen to national prominence as Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio have sought not only to make public employees pay more for their benefits but also prohibit many aspects of collective bargaining for the unions that represent them.

The nonbinding plan lays out a fiscal vision cutting $6.2 trillion from yearly federal deficits over the coming decade and calls for transforming Medicare from a program in which the government directly pays medical bills into a voucher-like system that subsidizes purchases of private insurance plans

The GOP budget passed 235-193 with every Democrat voting “no.” Obama said in an Associated Press interview that it would “make Medicare into a voucher program. That’s something that we strongly object to.”