Evening Edition

Protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime were held in most major towns, witnesses said, in a repeat of pro-democracy rallies which have become the norm after weekly Muslim prayers.

Security sources shot dead at least 16 people in the protest epicentre of Daraa, rights activists said.

Fierce fighting which had raged for days for control of Libya’s Dehiba border crossing into Tunisia, meanwhile, hit a lull on Friday, but armed rebels were on guard in expectation of a new offensive, witnesses said.

“Four tanks attacked the city and one has been destroyed so far,” said Ibrahim Ahmed Boushagha, a rebel fighter who accompanied a wounded man back from the front in Misrata.

Interior Minister Taeb Cherkaoui also told a parliamentary committee that the country was on the alert for further attacks.

“Initial inquiries have shown an explosive product made up of nitrate and ammonium and two TATP explosives, and also with nails — and the explosion was set off from a distance,” Cherkaoui told deputies in the capital Rabat.

The statistics agency Ine said on Friday that the unemployment rate had risen to 21.29 percent, the highest level since the beginning of 1997.

But also on Friday the government was to approve a raft of measures to attack undeclared or so-called “black” unemployment.

The bloodshed occurred as demonstrations again erupted across the country, defying heavy military deployments, mass arrests and a ruthless crackdown on the biggest popular challenge to 48 years of authoritarian Baath Party rule.

The medical source in Tafas, 12 km (8 miles) north-west of Deraa, said the local hospital received 15 bullet-riddled bodies, and 38 wounded villagers after the clash near Deraa.

Berkshire Hathaway shareholders are descending on Omaha for the conglomerate’s annual meeting, known as “The Woodstock for Capitalism.” News coverage of the event often focuses on Buffett being a regular guy in his hometown, eating at favored local spots like Piccolo’s, where he extols the virtue of the floats.

This year, however, there appears to be only one topic of conversation in town — Berkshire’s extraordinary claims about the behavior of one of its top executives.

“This is probably a sign of a very good and thoughtful jury,” Robert Weisberg, a law professor at Stanford University said about the deliberations in the Galleon Group hedge fund founder’s trial. “Very good juries, in complicated cases, take time.”

Prosecutors have accused the Sri Lankan-born Rajaratnam, 53, of reaping as much as $63.8 million illegally by trading on inside tips about such companies as chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Wall Street’s Goldman Sachs Group Inc. If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison.

Despite the rising cost of living, Americans grew a bit more optimistic about the economy this month and even dialed down their expectations for inflation over the medium-to-long term, another report showed on Friday.

Consumers appear to be taking the high costs in stride, but could be put to the test if gasoline prices shoot above $4 a gallon. The national price for regular unleaded gasoline rose 3.5 cents to $3.88 in the week through Monday.

The appeals court overturned a ruling by a federal judge who found that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines on such research violated the law because embryos were destroyed and it put other researchers working with adult stem cells at a disadvantage to win federal grants.

Opponents of human embryonic stem cell research, including many religious conservatives, argue that it is unacceptable because it destroys human embryos.

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc and IntercontinentalExchange Inc are expected to soon take their $11.1 billion bid directly to NYSE’s shareholders through a tender offer, two sources familiar with the situation said.

The move is seen as the next logical step for Nasdaq and ICE after being rebuffed twice by NYSE, which has refused to open talks on their offer. NYSE favors its existing $10.1 billion deal with Germany’s Deutsche Boerse AG.

The 47-member forum, which held an emergency session at U.S. request, endorsed a U.S.-sponsored resolution by 26 votes to 9 with 7 abstentions.

“Member states came together to condemn the brutal tactics used by the Assad regime to silence peaceful dissent,” U.S. human rights ambassador Eileen Donahoe said in a statement.

The Vatican said the coffin was removed from the crypts below St Peter’s Basilica while top Vatican officials and some of the late pope’s closest aides looked on and prayed.

Those present at the ceremony included Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, his personal secretary and right-hand man for decades, and the Polish nuns who ran the papal household for 27 years.

The U.S. official leading the talks said on Thursday that he was “deeply concerned” about a crackdown on dissidents and rights lawyers in China, and that the friction could impede the two powers’ ties.

Yet China and the United States have many interests in common, from dealing with North Korea’s nuclear ambitions to maintaining the global economic recovery, and the spat over rights seems unlikely to spin out of control.

The blast ripped through a cafe overlooking Marrakesh’s Jamaa el-Fnaa square, a spot often packed with foreign tourists.

Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui said 14 people were killed and 23 wounded in the deadliest attack Morocco has seen since 12 suicide bombers killed 33 members of the public in coordinated strikes on the business hub Casablanca eight years ago.

The struggle between forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and rebels trying to end his more than four decades of rule drew in outsiders last month, as NATO began air strikes on government troops under a United Nations mandate.

But on Thursday the fighting spilled over Libya’s land frontier, when Gaddafi troops battled rebels on Tunisian territory for control of the Dehiba-Wazin frontier crossing.

The company’s announcement on Thursday comes almost two years after Chrysler emerged from a U.S.-funded bankruptcy under the management of Italian automaker Fiat SpA.

Thursday’s announcement came the same day U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner visited Detroit and met with Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of Fiat and Chrysler.

The world’s largest software company met Wall Street profit estimates after strong sales of its Office suite of applications and Xbox game systems took up the slack.

But its stock has waned in past weeks, spooked by a dip in PC sales — which generate most of its revenue — and by fears the Apple Inc iPad and other mobile devices will eventually erode the PC business.

The insurer, 92 percent-owned by the U.S. government, joined the swelling ranks of investors and insurers who are taking legal action over supposedly safe mortgage-related investments at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis.

The insurance giant sued two money managers in New York State Supreme Court on Thursday, but AIG will likely take aim at Bank of America Corp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and others, according to a person familiar with AIG’s strategy.

The protesters in cities across Syria – including the capital of Damascus – called for Assad’s ouster, with some chanting “We are not afraid!”

Human rights activist Mustafa Osso said 42 people were killed, but the death toll could rise. His human rights group, based in Syria, compiles casualty tolls from the crackdown.

Such a conclusion would back intelligence produced by Israel and the United States. Syria says the nearly finished building had no nuclear uses. It has repeatedly turned down IAEA requests to revisit the site after allowing an initial 2008 inspection that found evidence of possible nuclear activities.

In interviews over the past week, three diplomats and a senior U.N. official said such an assessment – drawn up by IAEA chief Yukiya Amano – would be the basis of a Western-sponsored resolution at a meeting of the 35-nation IAEA board that condemns Syria’s refusal to cooperate with the agency and sends the issue to the U.N. Security Council. They said reporting Syria to the council would likely come as early as a June board meeting and no later than in November.

Clashes along the Tunisian border have escalated since Thursday, posing a new challenge for Gadhafi within the western half of the country where he must consolidate his control to cling to power. Rebels captured most of the east early on in the uprising against Gadhafi that began in February.

On the other major front in western Libya, NATO foiled attempts by regime loyalists to close the only access route to the besieged rebel city of Misrata, intercepting boats that were laying anti-ship mines in the waters around the port. The port is the only lifeline for the city of 300,000, which has been under siege for two months.

NASA hopes to try again Monday to launch space shuttle Endeavour on its final voyage.

President Barack Obama and his family visited Kennedy Space Center anyway but it was unclear whether he would still meet with the Arizona congresswoman. Giffords, who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, has been in Cape Canaveral since Wednesday to attend her husband’s launch.

Rioters burned tires in downtown streets as security forces fired tear gas and guns, and a Red Cross spokeswoman said 15 of the wounded and been hit by live bullets. Battles between protesters and police were also reported elsewhere around the country.

The protests are the first serious demonstrations in sub-Saharan Africa since a wave of anti-government protests swept leaders in Tunisia and Egypt out of power. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for a quarter-century, has vowed repeatedly that his government will not be taken down by protests.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the U.S. court of appeals in Washington overturned a judge’s order that would have blocked federal financing of stem cell research. The judges ruled that opponents are not likely to succeed in their lawsuit to stop the government funding.

The panel reversed an opinion issued last August by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who said the research likely violates the law against federal funding of embryo destruction.

The NFL opened its doors for some basic football operations Friday morning, four days after a federal judge declared its 45-day lockout was illegal. There were smiles, high-fives and clear signs of relief as dozens if not hundreds of players returned to team headquarters.

“From the players’ standpoint, I think everybody is pleased we’re not locked out anymore, especially the rookies,” Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said on CNBC in his first public comments about the dispute since he became one of the 10 plaintiffs in the federal antitrust lawsuit still pending against the NFL.

Between the boos raining down on Commissioner Roger Goodell and the uncertainty created by a bitter labor battle, the NFL draft opened Thursday night lacking much of its usually festive atmosphere.

What it wasn’t missing was intrigue and surprises – at least after the Carolina Panthers made Cam Newton the first pick.

In a shake-up of the system, new managers were appointed to key positions that oversee the operation of airport towers and regional radar centers that handle planes flying at high altitudes as well as approaches and departures, the agency said in a statement. A new manager was also appointed to run a regional radar center near Cleveland. The previous managers are being reassigned.

The performance of mid-level managers is also being reassessed, the FAA said. And teams of experts are examining several of the agency’s more complex facilities, including the Cleveland center and one on Long Island in New York, to ensure agency policies are being followed and professional standards upheld.

A day after hearing five hours of testimony over Missouri’s bid to block any intentional levee break, U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. found the corps’ plan to breach the Birds Point levee appropriate to ensure navigation and flood-control along the still-rising Mississippi.

“This court finds that the corps is committed to implementing the (floodway) plan `only as absolutely essential to provide the authorized protection to all citizens,'” Limbaugh said in his ruling. “Furthermore, this court finds that no aspect of the corps’ response to these historic floods suggests arbitrary or capricious decision-making is occurring.”

Petraeus already has a deep understanding of what he perceives to be the agency’s weaknesses and strengths, as a commander who has drawn on CIA information to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a military man who values discipline and honesty, he has a reputation of holding people accountable who serve under his command.

“He doesn’t suffer fools,” said Peter Mansoor, former executive officer to Petraeus in Iraq.

Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, criticized remarks the president made about two weeks ago when he said America not only was a better country because of social programs like Medicare and Medicaid but said, “I’ll go further – we would not be a great country without these commitments.”

“Mr. President,” Santorum said, “You don’t understand America if you believe that,” because it implies the United States wasn’t great for most of the first 200 years of its history.

Two days after abruptly resigning as commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, Philip Congdon was criticized by the NAACP and a Maine Indian tribe for remarks he made earlier this month in northern Maine.

His comments were even too much for the state’s blunt-speaking governor, Paul LePage, who has been criticized himself for his choice of words.

Brewer, a Republican, acted on the license plate bills late Thursday, approving them despite previously expressing concern about Arizona’s growing number of special plates that now number 46.

The tea party plate would feature the “Don’t Tread On Me” slogan, rattlesnake emblem and yellow background of the historic Gadsden Flag that is a symbol of the movement that espouses small government.

Casinos want to fill the void created by the crackdown to create their own online poker sites should the game become legal in the U.S., giving them tens of thousands of potential consumers who have seen their pastimes and livelihoods eliminated by the prosecutions.

Their argument: Americans are playing poker online despite attempts to stop them, so why not allow legitimate casinos to offer the game? They also argue that governments could clearly use tax revenue from poker games.

Sounding a more optimistic tone than previous reviews, the semi-annual report to Congress also describes difficult challenges ahead, including the significant lack of military trainers and border patrols, and the slow political and governance development that could threaten the progress made in the last six months.

It comes on the same day that senior NATO officers revealed that they have picked up intelligence suggesting that Afghan insurgents are planning a spate of violent attacks across the nation in the next several days. They said the militants want to demonstrate they remain a powerful force despite setbacks they suffered under heavy pressure from tens of thousands of Afghan and NATO troops during the past year.

Although the killings appear to have stemmed from a disagreement rather than a rebel attack, they highlighted the prevailing insecurity in Afghanistan, 10 years after a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power.

The deaths also raise fresh questions over the massive NATO-led effort to expand and train Afghanistan’s military and police so they can take control of security when foreign combat operations end in 2014.

Farmers, environmentalists and local government officials say more swaths of California’s best agricultural land could be lost to housing tracts and strip malls if the state doesn’t restore funding for its flagship farmland conservation program.

The state had been spending nearly $38 million a year to protect about 16 million acres, but it mostly eliminated that funding starting two years ago because of budget problems. While other states have farmland preservation programs, the issue is more pressing in California because it’s the nation’s largest food producer and agricultural land is being lost an a staggering rate – an average of 50,000 acres a year.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning passed the lengthy physical and psychiatric evaluation given to new inmates at the Fort Leavenworth prison and received final clearance just before a mid-day media tour of the facility, its commander Lt. Col. Dawn Hilton said.

Manning was transferred there last week from the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., where he had been held for the eight months since his arrest.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Combs also said there’s no indication the information, which in some cases included birthdates and driver’s license numbers, has been misused. Still, she’s ready to provide additional help to anyone who may become a victim of wrongdoing.

“We believe it’s inadvertent, but that’s why we also called in the (attorney general’s) office, and we are, of course, working closely with them,” said Combs, who spoke to several media outlets for the first time since her office announced on April 11 that the information was posted on public servers controlled by her office and remained there in some cases for more than a year.

Its financial aid director makes a personal enrollment pitch to each Pell Grant-eligible student who gains admission. The highly selective private school gave out nearly $70 million in scholarships to nearly 60 percent of its undergraduates last year. And the school regularly welcomes academically talented high schoolers with disadvantaged backgrounds, from Chicago public school students in the Target Hope pre-college academy to the 500 minority students in the high school Class of 2011 who enjoyed an all-expenses paid glimpse at campus life one recent weekend.

But the 158-year-old school ranks dead-last among the nation’s 50 wealthiest schools when it comes to enrolling low-income students. A recent Chronicle of Higher Education review of federal data found that fewer than 6 percent of the school’s roughly 8,500 undergraduates received Pell Grants, which are generally limited to students whose family income is below $40,000. Over the past several years, despite its best efforts, those percentages have actually declined slightly.