Evening Edition

“We intend to continue, because this is not about Sunday’s elections it’s about social cutbacks,” said Carmen Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the organisers at the ramshackle protest ‘village’ that has sprung up in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square.

Thousands of people have massed in city centres across the country in a snowballing movement that began May 15, the biggest spontaneous protests since the property bubble burst in 2008 and plunged Spain into a recession from which it only emerged this year.

Some 25,000 people, according to Spanish media, crammed the central Puerta del Sol square, spilling onto surrounding streets, late on Friday to stage a brief silent protest, their hands in the air and many with their mouths covered by tape.

The crowd, most of them young people, then erupted in whistles and cheers of joy as the ban ordered by Spain’s election commission took effect at the chimes of midnight.

Saleh, who would quit within 30 days under the agreement, earlier slammed it as a “coup” that will aid Al-Qaeda but said he reluctantly accepted it for the sake of the nation.

Since late January, security forces have mounted a bloody crackdown on anti-regime protests, leaving at least 180 people dead, according to a toll compiled from reports by activists and medics.

“Tens of thousands had accompanied the funeral procession from the city’s main mosque to Tal al-Nasr cemetery,” the activist told AFP, contacted by telephone. “The shooting began as people were coming out of the cemetery.”

He said an unknown number of people were wounded as security forces fired on protesters in Saqba, a suburb of Damascus. “The demonstrators hurled stones at the security forces … who opened fire, leaving some wounded,” he said.

Funerals were being held in various regions, an activist said, as a human rights advocate put the death toll from Friday’s protests at 44, with most of the casualties in the western province of Idlib and the central city of Homs.

“Syrian authorities are continuing to use excessive force and live ammunition to face popular protests in various regions throughout the country,” said Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights, who was reached by telephone.

“EBRD shareholders have made significant progress towards a decision on extending the bank’s investment to countries in the Middle East and North Africa,” the bank said in a statement.

Political decisions about the major expansion of the bank’s role after the uprisings that swept through Arab North Africa in the past months will come in “the weeks and months ahead”, it said.

Televangelist Harold Camping’s prophecy insists the so-called “Rapture” will begin with powerful earthquakes at 6:00 pm local time in each of the world’s regions, after which the good will be taken into heaven.

According to the 89-year-old and his religious broadcasting network Family Radio, the not-so-good will suffer hell on earth until October 21, when God will pull the plug on the planet once and for all.

The 34-year-old Red Bull driver, winner of last year’s race, clocked a time of one minute 20.981 at the Circuit de Catalunya, just 0.2 seconds faster than his team-mate German Sebastian Vettel.

Webber admitted that he didn’t feel challenged by rival teams McLaren and Ferrari, but was delighted to have beaten his 23-year-old team-mate – who has been on pole position at every other race this season.

After mission managers closely examined seven chipped tiles on the underside of the orbiter, they decided that just one needs a focused inspection, according to deputy shuttle program manager Leroy Cain.

“There is nothing alarming here and we are really not concerned. We are doing what we understand and know that we need to go do in these scenarios,” Cain said.

The blast took place at lunchtime in a tent used as a dining room by students at the heavily-secured city centre hospital, one of the biggest and best-equipped in Afghanistan.

The 400-bed hospital is used to treat members of the Afghan military rather than NATO forces, although foreign medics often work there training their Afghan counterparts.

The victims had gathered to collect oil leaking from the tanker near Landi Kotal town in the northwestern tribal region of Khyber, local administration official Shafeerullah Wazir said on Saturday.

“The oil tanker caught fire after a blast caused by a small bomb before dawn,” he said. “Villagers from nearby houses rushed and started collecting oil coming out of the destroyed tanker after the fire had been extinguished,” he said.

Senior trade officials from APEC — the 21-member body that accounts for more than half the world economy — voiced frustration on Friday at the standstill in the so-called Doha round that has tried for a decade to forge a global trade pact.

“All ministers agreed that we cannot simply keep doing what we have been doing in the Doha talks if we mean to move forward,” US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said after the talks in the snow-covered resort of Big Sky, Montana.

Saleh, a shrewd political survivor who has outlasted previous challenges to his nearly 33-year rule, faces mounting diplomatic pressure to sign after backing out twice before over technical details at the last minute.

“We signed the initiative in the presence of envoys from the U.S., Britain, the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council secretary-general Abdullatif al-Zayani,” the opposition leader, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

Papandreou must present a fiscal plan next week that is credible enough for the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to continue bankrolling his debt-laden country.

But a large majority of Greeks reject more austerity, according to a poll published on Saturday, which also shows the ruling socialists losing their lead versus the conservative opposition for the first time since their 2009 election victory.

Family Radio, the Christian stations network headed by Harold Camping which had spread his message of an approaching doomsday, was playing recorded church music, devotionals and life advice unrelated to the apocalypse.

Camping previously made a failed prediction Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1994.

Premier Wen Jiabao signaled Beijing’s willingness to ease restrictions on Japanese food imports imposed by China and other nations, including South Korea, after the disaster crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant and fanned contamination fears.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who hosts an annual summit of the region’s three leading economies this weekend, has counted on the event to help ease concerns at home and abroad about the safety of Japan’s nuclear facilities and farm exports.

“I think it must be obvious to you how we all live together on one Earth and how absurd it is that we fight and kill each one,” the pope said.

“When you are contemplating the Earth from up there, do you ever wonder about the way nations and people live together down here, about how science can contribute to the cause of peace?” he asked,” he continued, via a televised link from the Vatican.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose troops helped end an impasse after Ouattara’s election was disputed, and other heads of state and dignitaries attended the ceremony in the former French colony’s official capital Yamoussoukro.

Ouattara singled out France and Sarkozy, who got a standing ovation, for particular praise for helping end the crisis.

The disclosure comes a day after another set of cables showed that Pakistan’s powerful army chief not only tacitly agreed to the covert U.S. drone campaign against militants, but asked for “continuous Predator coverage” of the tribal areas by these aircraft. The army denied the contents.

The local Dawn newspaper, which said it obtained the secret dispatches from WikiLeaks, said they reveal that U.S. special forces were deployed with Pakistani troops in joint operations in Pakistan by September of 2009.

A Pakistani Taliban group claimed responsibility for both attacks, underscoring the threat to vehicles that carry non-lethal supplies for Western troops in Afghanistan through Pakistan – a threat that could grow more acute in the wake of the U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden in northwest Pakistan.

The explosions coincided with the publication of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables indicating that U.S. Special Forces provided intelligence and other assistance to the Pakistani army as it fought Taliban forces in 2009. It was the latest evidence that the U.S. troops did more than just train Pakistanis, as was publicly claimed.

The mixed signals from Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, followed two earlier promises by him to sign the proposal. Both times he backed away at the last minute, adding to the opposition’s deep mistrust of a leader known for the adept political maneuvering that has kept in power for decades.

In a sign that he may be ready to sign this time, the coalition of opposition political parties involved in the talks with Gulf Arab mediators was persuaded to sign the deal on Saturday, a day ahead of Saleh, based on what it said were guarantees that the president would follow through.

When 6 p.m. came and went at various spots around the globe, and no extraordinary cataclysm occurred, Keith Bauer – who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the Rapture – took it in stride.

“I had some skepticism but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God,” he said in the bright morning sun outside the gated Oakland headquarters of Family Radio International, whose founder, Harold Camping, has been broadcasting the apocalyptic prediction for years. “I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth,”

Influential GOP donors have sought to coax Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to run. The goal is to find a contender with a strong record as a fiscal conservative and the political stature to challenge President Barack Obama.

The behind-the-scenes efforts have been taken as a snub by some tea party organizers who favor the anti-establishment messages of Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, businessman Herman Cain and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who are in the race or are considering it. New contenders could undermine their chances for donors and for success.

He made his first trip to the state since forming a presidential exploratory committee, plying a crowd with mustard-based barbecue and boiled peanuts, photo ops with cute kids and meeting with businesses owners carping about jobless benefits and illegal immigration. He left with a pair of endorsements from state legislators.

If nothing else, the mustard-based barbecue was a bold choice in a state with loyalties split mostly between mustard- and vinegar-based concoctions.

No foreign medical doctors or nurses were among the dead or wounded, Afghan and NATO officials said.

The blast, which thundered across the capital, came as the Taliban have stepped up attacks as part of a spring offensive against NATO, Afghan government installations and officials. Insurgents also have promised revenge attacks after the U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden.

In the coastal town of Zawiya, crowds apparently outraged by dwindling fuel supplies tried to stab reporters in a minibus on a state-supervised trip to the Tunisian border.

The journalists – a Chinese news correspondent and two Britons: a BBC technician and a Reuters video producer – were not harmed in the attack, the first of its kind targeting foreign reporters covering the Libyan conflict.

Now, according to a report by “60 Minutes,” Hincapie has joined other members of Armstrong’s inner circle in claiming the seven-time Tour de France winner used performance-enhancing drugs.

In what could prove to be some of the most damaging testimony yet against the world’s most famous cyclist, Hincapie reportedly told the grand jury in the Armstrong case that he and Armstrong supplied each other with the endurance-boosting substance EPO and discussed having used another banned substance, testosterone, to prepare for races.

Some Romans and tourists say the bronze statue looks more like Italy’s wartime dictator Benito Mussolini than the widely beloved pope.

“How could they have given such a kind pope the head of a Fascist?” said 71-year-old Antonio Lamonica.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s threat of a pullback Friday was the latest warning to a party that has long relied on labor’s cash and grass-roots support. If it makes good on its threat, labor probably would spend more time and money combating union-busting efforts by state officials.

“We will change the way we spend, the way we do things and the way we function that creates power for workers,” Trumka said.

Much like Felix and Oscar of “Odd Couple” fame, Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic state Senate President Stephen Sweeney are learning to live together and breaking some china in the process.

In many ways, Christie’s national reputation for fighting runaway spending and taking on unions, which has conservatives begging him for run for president in 2012, is tied to his relationship to Sweeney – an unknown outside New Jersey, a union guy who can control which legislation gets a vote and stop the supposedly unstoppable Christie.

“Did your own personal health care (concerns) get heard?” Gosar asked about 40 people gathered to hear him speak in Tusayan, Ariz.

“No,” came the answer.

Scientists say this counterintuitive step is needed to help save a species that’s declining at a rate of 4 percent annually. But it is already proving to be controversial, and even unpopular among fishermen who don’t want hungry seals eating their bait and accidentally getting caught in their nets and lines.

The National Marine Fisheries Service plans to formally propose the “translocation” of the seals in July, The Associated Press has learned. It wants to bring a few recently weaned female pups to the main Hawaiian Islands each year, keep them here until they’re three years old, and then send them back to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Even after watching union members and other protesters at a recent parade rail against the state law that allowed it to happen, Sliter figures the sweeping state control might be needed to pull Benton Harbor out of its financial mess.

The city nestled on the shores of Lake Michigan last month became the epicenter in a debate over how much power states should wield over financially struggling cities when a state-appointed emergency manager stripped decision-making authority from the city’s elected officials. Now many local residents, including some resigned to the notion that chronic financial mismanagement has left them reliant on outside help, hope their interests don’t get lost in the political battle.

Like many riders throughout the west, Crump is worried about an outbreak of a deadly and highly contagious virus that’s infected at least 34 horses in nine states and Canada at the height of show season. Horse shows and sales have been canceled and some competitors are backing out of the professional rodeo circuit.

“I go out of state a lot, and I would really like to protect my horses when I’m not able to check on them all the time,” said Crump, who will instead ride a stagecoach in the parade in Nampa, about 20 miles west of Boise. “I think we tend to forget and let our guard down when we trailer out to different arenas.”

The app lets workers calculate regular work hours, break time and overtime pay to create their own wage records. Department officials say the information could prove valuable in a dispute over pay or during a government investigation when an employer has failed to keep accurate records.

“This app will help empower workers to understand and stand up for their rights when employers have denied their hard-earned pay,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, said he teared up Friday when he walked through the old Greyhound station where he was beaten and knocked unconscious.

“It says something about the distance we’ve come and the progress we’ve made in this state and nation,” said Lewis, who participated in the rides.

The IMF insists the departure of former chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has not hurt its day-to-day operations, but it is clearly under pressure to find a successor fast to lead an organization that provides billions in loans to stabilize the world economy. A new chief would also draw attention away from the seamy scandal surrounding Strauss-Kahn, who quit this week to face charges in New York that he tried to rape a hotel maid.

The 24-member executive board, which will pick Strauss-Kahn’s successor, outlined late Friday the procedures it will use to pick the next IMF leader. Nominations will be accepted starting Monday until June 10, after which the board will choose the top three candidates to interview.

The decision threw uncertainty into the timeline for approving Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactor design, a decision that had been expected as early as this summer. The nuclear power industry has been reeling since deadly earthquakes triggered a nuclear plant crisis in Japan.

“The NRC will always place its commitment to public safety and a transparent process before any other considerations,” U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said in a statement Friday

The revised draft environmental review by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement responds to a federal judge’s ruling that the government failed to follow environmental law before it sold the leases.

The review is “woefully incomplete,” said Erik Grafe, a spokesman for Earthjustice, which represented 15 Alaska Native and environmental groups in a lawsuit that led to the July 2010 ruling. “It still concludes that the agency does not have to gather one single piece of the literally hundreds of instances of missing information about bowheads, fish, walrus, birds and other species in the Chukchi Sea before deciding whether to commit the area to oil drilling leases.”

The surge in revenue is giving rise to an awkward question – are the governors making the deepest cuts because they have to or because they choose to?

The issue is unfolding in Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey, Colorado and several other states where tax revenue forecasts have turned up just as legislatures are working through budget reduction packages.

Retired computer programmer John Winters is suggesting that John C. Calhoun’s name be taken off the lake and replaced by the late Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, a former Minneapolis mayor.

Winters, 65, isn’t the first person to take offense at the name of Lake Calhoun, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether anybody else had ever gone to the trouble of filing formal paperwork to launch a process that could take at least two years.