Evening Edition

The Taliban said it sprung the inmates out of the prison in Kandahar through a one-kilometre tunnel that took five months to dig, and claimed all those who escaped belonged to the militia, including over 100 commanders.

The daring breakout in the Taliban’s heartland, the second from the prison in three years, threatens to undermine recent gains claimed by NATO forces in the area after a US-led troop surge, just as the annual fighting season begins.

The trove of classified files released by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks showed US officials struggling with often flawed evidence and confused about the guilt or innocence of detainees held at the prison at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, media reported Monday.

Hundreds of inmates who turned out to have no serious terror links were held without trial, based on vague or inaccurate information, including accounts from unreliable fellow detainees or statements from men who had been abused or tortured, the New York Times quoted the documents as saying.

Heavy explosions shook central Tripoli shortly after midnight as warplanes roared over the city.

A Libyan official accompanying journalists shortly afterwards at Kadhafi’s compound said 45 people were wounded, 15 seriously, in the bombing. He said he did not know whether more victims were under the rubble.

A leading Syrian rights activist accused the regime of opting for the “military solution” to crush six weeks of dissent, and witnesses said troops also launched assaults on the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Al-Maadamiyeh.

The United States, which has repeatedly condemned Syria’s repression, was considering sanctions against Damascus, an official said in Washington, while the UN rights chief slammed Syria’s “disregard” for human life.

Police also said at least 15 were wounded, adding they suspected the Islamist sect known as Boko Haram was behind the attacks on Easter Sunday night at a hotel tavern and transport hub in Maiduguri, as well as a third one on Monday morning.

It was unclear whether the blasts were linked to the unrest that swept across Nigeria’s north last week, leaving more than 500 dead according to a local rights group.

President Barack Obama’s administration poured more fuel on a delicate political debate, which is certain to be a key issue and driver of voter sentiment as his 2012 reelection campaign gathers pace.

Obama is pushing for four billion dollars of government subsidies paid to giant firms to be diverted to investment in clean energy development, which he says is key to weaning America from oil produced in volatile regions of the world.

Suresh Kalmadi will be “produced before a special judge” on Tuesday and formally charged on several conspiracy counts relating to the awarding of commercial contracts, said Dharini Mishra, spokeswoman for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Late Monday, India’s ruling Congress party suspended Kalmadi, who is a member of the lower house of parliament.

AFP journalists said the Tripoli explosions came at 2210 GMT Sunday in several districts of the capital, which has been the target since Friday of intensive NATO raids.

On Sunday, grad rockets exploded in Misrata, where at least 12 were reported killed in fresh fighting, despite a vow by the Libyan regime to halt its fire in the western port city where the humanitarian situation has stirred international concern.

Haider, who turned 25 on Saturday, fled the Pakistan team’s hotel in Dubai on November 8 for the United Kingdom after saying he had received demands that he fix a one-day match against South Africa under the threat of death.

He arrived by plane in Islamabad on Monday and was escorted by security officials to Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s office where he met the minister, who had guaranteed his safety.

Toyota, Nissan and Honda all reported massive falls in output due to the disaster and ratings agency Standard & Poor’s revised from “stable” to “negative” its outlook for the trio.

Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker, said production in Japan plunged 62.7 percent year on year in March, putting it in danger of falling this year from the global top spot it claimed from General Motors in 2008.

The new leaks reveal that inmates were held without trial on the basis of often seriously flawed information, such as from mentally ill or otherwise unreliable co-detainees or statements from suspects who had been abused or tortured, The New York Times reported.

In another revelation, a top detainee reportedly claimed that a nuclear bomb has been hidden somewhere in Europe to be detonated if Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is ever caught or killed.

Single-family home sales rose 11.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000, the Commerce Department said on Monday, up from a near record low pace of 270,000 in February when harsh winter weather hit the economy.

Analysts had expected a 280,000-unit rate in March.

After years in an apartment building, “we were just tired of sharing space with other people,” says Cari Hodgson, 32. “It was time to have space of our own.”

She and her commodities trader husband sold the condo and recently bought a $1.2 million, five-bedroom home in Chicago’s north side, sealing the deal with the kind of big down-payment that is heating up the high-end of the U.S. property market.

Jury deliberations began just after midday on Monday in the Manhattan federal court trial.

Prosecutors accuse Rajaratnam, the founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund, of running a complex web of highly placed tipsters, including hedge fund colleagues and executives at public companies, between 2003 and March 2009. He made $63.8 million illegally, the prosecutors said.

Whether his underlings are convicted of helping insurance companies inflate results or a major company he helps oversee is sanctioned for accounting shenanigans, his admirers don’t seem to care. Or at least, they haven’t historically.

But with a key Buffett lieutenant resigning under a cloud recently, some sophisticated investors are no longer willing to overlook the obvious. For all the shareholders who still consider Buffett the epitome of American capitalism, there are others who wonder whether the time may be near for Buffett to take a graceful bow and exit the stage.

NATO said the attack was on a communications headquarters used to coordinate attacks on civilians. A Libyan spokesman said Gaddafi was unharmed and state television showed pictures of him meeting people in a tent, which it said were taken on Monday.

Firefighters were still working to extinguish flames in part of the ruined building a few hours after the attack, when foreign journalists were taken to the scene in Tripoli.

The capture of the Dehiba-Wazin border crossing by rebels last week has let refugees flee in cars, as well as on foot along rocky paths, swelling the numbers sheltering in southern Tunisia to an estimated 30,000 people.

While the world’s attention has been on the bloody siege of the western rebel stronghold of Misrata and battles further east, fighting is intensifying in the region known as the Western Mountains.

A prominent activist said at least 18 people were killed in the first reported use of tanks inside a population center since peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations began in the southern city, close to the border with Jordan, on March 18.

The White House, deploring “brutal violence used by the government of Syria against its people,” said President Barack Obama’s administration was considering targeted sanctions to make clear that “this behavior is unacceptable.”

Saleh has faced down three months of street protests as well as pressure to go from his main backers Saudi Arabia and the United States, and opposition groups fear his verbal acceptance of the plan may be no more than a tactic.

“We are going to stick to constitutional legitimacy. We won’t accept ‘constructive chaos’,” he told BBC Arabic television Sunday, using language that some fear means he intends to see out his presidential term to September 2013.

One document (http://link.reuters.com/tyn29r), given to The New York Times, say detainees who associated with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate “may have provided support to al-Qaida or the Taliban, or engaged in hostilities against US or Coalition forces.”

The ISI, along with al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence, are among 32 groups on the list of “associated forces,” which also includes Egypt’s Islamic Jihad, headed by al Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.

A shortage of parts in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has savaged Japan’s auto sector supply chain, while damage to a major nuclear plant has disrupted power supplies.

Investors expecting overseas rivals to benefit from a prolonged slump in Japanese output pushed up shares in South Korea’s Hyundai Motors and associate Kia Motors to record highs on Monday.

More than a month after Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, firms are still struggling with unraveled supply chains and sluggish consumer demand, making predicting future profits difficult if not impossible.

Investors in Japan, used to companies providing guidance for a full year ahead, will be forced to rely increasingly on the number crunching of equity analysts, who themselves are struggling to form a clear picture of future demand.

The militants say they spent more than five months building a 1,050-foot tunnel to the main prison in southern Afghanistan, bypassing government checkpoints, watch towers and concrete barriers topped with razor wire.

The diggers finally poked through Sunday and spent 4 1/2 hours ferrying away more than 480 inmates without a shot being fired, according to the Taliban and Afghan officials. Most of the prisoners were Taliban militants.

The military detainee assessments were made public Sunday night by U.S. and European newspapers after the WikiLeaks website obtained the files. The records contain details of the more than 700 detainee interrogations and evidence the U.S. had collected against these suspected terrorists, according to the media outlets.

It’s not clear if the media outlets published the documents with the consent of WikiLeaks.

The offensive into the southern city of Daraa was planned in comprehensive detail: electricity, water and mobile phone services were cut. Knife-wielding security agents conducted house-to-house sweeps, neighborhoods were sectioned off and checkpoints set up – suggesting Syria planned to impose military-style control on the city and other areas in the country.

“They have snipers firing on everybody who is moving,” said a witness who spoke to The Associated Press by telephone, asking that his name not be used out of fear for his own safety.

A Libyan government spokesman denounced the bombing as a failed assassination attempt, saying the 69-year-old leader was healthy, “in high spirits” and carrying on business as usual.

A separate airstrike elsewhere in Tripoli targeted Libyan TV and temporarily knocked it off the air, a government spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

The latest violence came as a Gulf Arab proposal for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down appears increasingly doomed, raising prospects of more bloodshed and instability in a nation already beset by deep poverty and conflict.

Yemen’s unrest erupted over two months ago, inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The near-daily protests against Saleh, the country’s ruler of 32 years, have demanded he relinquish power immediately.

If one hit a body, he would know.

“Bodies feel very distinctive,” said Michihiro Ose, a spokesman for the Japanese army’s 22nd infantry regiment.

Sanders, who occasionally appraises items for PBS’s Antiques Roadshow, often employs the “fine art of letting people down gently.”

But on a recent Saturday while volunteering at a fundraiser for the small town museum in Sandy, Utah, just south of Salt Lake, Sanders got the surprise of a lifetime.

Advocates for the transgendered say a proposal to bar transgendered people from getting married smacks of discrimination and would put their legally granted marriages in danger of being nullified if challenged in court.

One of the Republican sponsors of the legislation said he’s simply trying to clean up the 2009 law in a state that bans same-sex marriage under the constitution.

India had hoped the two-week international sporting competition in October would highlight its rapid development and boost its role on the world stage. Instead, it was deeply embarrassed by accusations of graft, construction delays and cost overruns as the games’ budget ballooned by billions of dollars beyond the $412 million price tag organizers initially estimated.

Reports about filthy athletes’ accommodations, unfinished construction projects and security woes further battered the country’s image and encouraged scorn against the organizing committee chief, Suresh Kalmadi, who had promised a spectacle to rival the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

One-time top contender Uncle Mo finished third in the Wood Memorial as the 1-10 favorite, and is recovering from a gastrointestinal infection. His Derby status remains questionable.

The Factor wasn’t one in the Arkansas Derby, finishing seventh as the 4-5 top choice.

But a defense attorney for Christopher Coleman disputed what prosecutors have acknowledged is largely circumstantial evidence, saying Coleman experienced a “common type of marital problems” and the emails could have been sent by someone who knew his passwords and set him up.

Prosecutors claim Coleman killed his family because he feared his affair with his wife’s longtime friend would cost him his $100,000-a-year job as the security chief for a Missouri-based ministry with global reach and travel perks. His case, with its mix of religion, adultery and violence, has tantalized much of the St. Louis region since he was arrested in May 2009 and has been so closely watched that court officials had to set up a sort of lottery to dole out seats for the trial.

A judge released 34-year-old Amish-Mennonite pastor Timothy David Miller to the custody of a friend and said Miller – who’s accused of helping arrange passage for the woman and child – could have contact with his wife but that they’re not to discuss the case, since she may be a witness.

Miller is charged with aiding in the removal of a child from the U.S. and retaining a child with intent to obstruct parental rights.

But House and Senate Republicans pushing bills to phase out both federally run companies are learning how fear, politics and old-fashioned lobbying can trump ideology.

Even in the GOP-run House, leading proponents of doing away with Fannie and Freddie aren’t predicting victory. As a precaution, they’re advancing eight bills taking bite-sized swipes at the issue. In the Democratic-led Senate, a sister measure by 2008 presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., faces long odds, and the Banking Committee’s top Democrat and Republican are wary of quickly reshaping the market for financing home purchases.

Deliberations began at noon Monday as the trial of Raj Rajaratnam entered its eighth week. Before they were sent away, jurors were instructed on the law by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell, who said they could choose to listen to the secretly taped conversations that prosecutors say represented the first extensive use of wiretaps in an insider trading case.

The conversations have given jurors a colorful dose of the go-big-or-go-home mentality at Wall Street firms, including the Galleon Group offices where the 53-year-old Rajaratnam made his name and enough money to be listed for a time among the world’s richest billionaires.

The sealed cylinders look fairly innocuous, but the contents inside are like gold for emergency responders – detailed computer-generated maps of each farm, specifying precise locations for flammable chemicals and fuels, power turnoff switches, grain bins, water supplies and precious livestock.

In fires, explosions, accidents and other farm emergencies, being able to quickly locate these items could prevent or reduce property damage, injuries and even deaths to farmers and rescuers.

On Tuesday, the state’s new Republican administration called on drillers to stop using riverside treatment plants to get rid of the millions of barrels of ultra-salty, chemically tainted wastewater that gush annually from gas wells.

As drillers have swarmed Pennsylvania’s rich Marcellus Shale gas fields, the industry’s use and handling of water has been a subject of intense scrutiny.

“I have a few moments,” he wrote to his wife, just 10 miles up the coast in Lynn. “I am in such a whirl that I can hardly think much less write.”

Just four days earlier, on April 12, 1861, Confederate artillery had fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, igniting the Civil War. On April 15, President Abraham Lincoln issued an urgent appeal “to all loyal citizens,” seeking 75,000 volunteers to quell the rebellion.

It was “a real New York spectacle,” said John Leone, a Long Island electrician who came Sunday with his native Ecuadorean wife and two young daughters – and their over-the-top hats.

Victoria Leone, 7, and her 8-year-old sister, Valentina, wore huge white domes, fashioned from pastel Froot Loops and marshmallow Peeps attached to white plaster that had been shaped around a balloon.