Evening Edition

At least 10 people were wounded as towering flames rose over Pakistan naval air base PNS Mehran in the centre of Karachi, where the military and government confirmed that the base was under “terrorist attack”.

An AFP reporter saw scores of soldiers and navy commando reinforcements entering the base as smoke rose into the night sky. An AFP photographer heard seven blasts and periodic bursts of gunfire.

A visiting delegation of the UN Security Council said they were “very, very concerned about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Abyei” and formally called on Khartoum to withdraw its troops.

“The members of the Security Council call upon the government of Sudan to halt its military operation and to withdraw immediately from Abyei town and its environs,” the French ambassador to the United Nations, Gerard Araud, told a joint news conference in Khartoum with his Russian and US counterparts.

The seizure, coming in the run-up to international recognition of the south’s independence in July, was condemned by world powers as a threat to peace between Sudan’s north and south.

Abyei was granted special status under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended 22 years of devastating civil war between north and south, and it requires both sides to keep their troops out until a vote on its future.

Opposition members also said a protester was killed by pro-regime “thugs” blocking roads in Sanaa as hundreds of thousands of Saleh opponents took to the streets.

Saleh’s ruling party said he does not recognise the opposition’s signing of the plan, even after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the president “needs to follow through on his commitment” to cede power.

Air safety officials said ash from the Grimsvoetn eruption may reach north Scotland by Tuesday before sweeping across Britain to hit France and Spain two days later.

But experts said the impact should not be as far-reaching as 2010, when a similar event caused widespread flight cancellations.

“We are discussing a four-year programme that guarantees our exit from the crisis and other serious changes, structural. We are talking about a serious and systematic negotiation,” Papandreou said in an interview to Sunday newspaper Ethnos.

The prime minister ruled out a restructuring of Greece’s mountain of sovereign debt which has rocketed to 340 billion euros ($484 billion).

Blasting big politics for the bleak economy and a jobless rate of more than 21 percent, they packed city centres around the country from Barcelona to the holiday island of Majorca.

In a blue and clear plastic-covered protest camp in central Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square, spearhead of the nationwide action, hundreds of activists agreed in a show of hands to stay at least until May 29.

The 23-year-old German used his natural speed and clever strategy to steal the lead after starting second behind team-mate Mark Webber, resisted all that 2008 champion Hamilton could throw at him in the closing stages of the 66-lap contest.

After a thrilling duel, Vettel finished six-tenths of a second ahead of the 26-year-old Briton to reel off his fourth win in five races this season – his 13th career win – and extend his lead in the drivers’ world championship.

Senior police official Tahir Naveed said attackers were inside the Mehran base in Karachi fighting with base personnel.

Witnesses said they could hear sounds of gunshots and see smoke rising from the base. Officials said between 15 and 20 attackers were inside the base, and had attacked three hangars housing aircraft. Eight explosions were reported from the base.

Saleh has said al Qaeda militants could fill a political and security vacuum if he is forced out and, in a televised speech on Sunday, blamed the opposition for the deal’s collapse.

“If (Yemen) is engulfed in a civil war, they will be responsible for it and the bloodshed,” he said.

Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund after being charged with trying to rape a hotel housekeeper on May 14, is under house arrest and armed guard in an apartment in New York’s financial district.

Lagarde has been touted by many European governments, but developing countries, with growing clout in the world economy, are keeping pressure on Europe and the United States to avoid a backroom deal over the appointment.

Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, said he would “absolutely” be willing to negotiate with Democrats, who have hammered his plan to scale back government-run health plans for the poor and the elderly.

With Ryan’s plan headed for likely defeat in the Democratic-controlled Senate, that chamber’s top Republican said it was time for “an adult conversation” on ways to keep healthcare costs under control.

The eruption at Grimsvotn has so far hit only Iceland, where the civil aviation authority said the prospects for re-opening the main international airport on Monday were not good.

A thick cloud of ash blocked out the daylight at towns and villages at the foot of the glacier where the volcano lies and covered cars and buildings.

“We are here for the long term and what we can offer is support to Libyan institutions and the economy. We will be here to support you all the way,” Ashton said in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, where she opened an EU representative office.

France, Britain and other European states have backed Libya’s poorly trained and equipped rebels against a government that has held onto power for more than four decades.

Harold Camping, the former civil engineer who heads the

Family Radio Network of Christian stations, had been unwavering in his message that believers would be swept to heaven on May 21.

The militiamen, armed with knives and swords, blocked the entrances to the United Arab Emirates Embassy, where at least five U.S., European and Arab ambassadors had gathered, expecting President Ali Abdullah Saleh to arrive to sign the agreement.

Finally in the evening, Yemeni military helicopters landed at the embassy and ferried the diplomats out, taking them to the presidential palace. There they witnessed several Yemeni ruling party officials sign the accord. But Saleh, shown on state TV standing alongside the U.S. ambassador, did not sign.

The country’s main airport was closed and pilots were warned to steer clear of Iceland as areas close to the Grimsvotn (GREEMSH-votn) volcano were plunged into darkness. But scientists said another widespread aviation shutdown is unlikely, in part because the ash from this eruption is coarser and falling to Earth more quickly.

The volcano, which lies beneath the ice of the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland, began erupting Saturday for the first time since 2004. It was the volcano’s largest eruption in 100 years.

Daniels’ exit, which he said he made at his family’s behest, clears the upcoming news cycle to absorb former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s entry into the race Monday in Iowa.

For the moment, Pawlenty would be the only Midwesterner in the campaign, a conservative who governed a Democratic-leaning state and has a record resisting tax increases and spending increases.

“In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one,” said the former Bush White House budget chief, disclosing his decision in a middle-of-the-night e-mail to supporters. “The interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all. If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry.”

A two-term Midwestern governor, Daniels had considered a bid for months and was pressured by many in the Republican establishment who longed for a conservative with a strong fiscal record to run.

Did you, like many thousands of others, turn to a social network and confess to the world something you had kept hidden? Did you laugh it off and make jokes about not having to go to work Monday? Did you pick your favorite end-times pop song and blast it on the car stereo?

Did you maybe scoff a little while wondering – just a teensy bit, in a tiny place in the very back of your head – what you might do if Saturday were indeed your final day on the planet?

Believers had spent months warning the world of the pending cataclysm. Some had given away earthly belongings. Others took long journeys to be with loved ones. And there were those who drained their savings accounts.

All were responding to the May 21 doomsday message by Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer who has built a multi-million-dollar Christian media empire that publicizes his apocalyptic prediction.

Did Strauss-Kahn bring on his own ruin at a luxury Manhattan hotel? Or did his political enemies in France set him up in a sinister plot to undo the known womanizer who was a top contender to become France’s next president?

From the moment that Strauss-Kahn’s arrest for the alleged sexual assault of a chambermaid flashed around the world, doubts emerged in France. A week later, with evidence still under wraps and the accused and the accuser silent, speculation abounds.

A safer and increasingly attractive alternative for today’s criminal is electronic cash loaded on what are called stored-value or prepaid cards. Getting them doesn’t require a bank account, and many types can be used anonymously.

U.S. crimefighters consider the cards a burgeoning threat that regulators haven’t adequately addressed.

The plan is to try to overcome the normal human reaction to immersion in freezing slush: gasping for air, shivering uncontrollably, and getting back out again as soon as possible.

Instead, under the direction of “Iceman” Wim Hof, the group of athletes is going to stay in the water for minutes practicing his meditation techniques, seeking possible performance or health benefits.

One of Armstrong’s former teammates, Tyler Hamilton, told “60 Minutes” he saw the seven-time Tour de France winner use EPO during his first Tour victory in 1999. Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported that last month that federal investigators looking into the Armstrong case recently asked French authorities to turn over evidence, including Armstrong’s urine samples from the same year.

Though an investigation by cycling’s international federation dismissed those controversial samples, they are clearly back in play as the feds investigate whether Armstrong’s U.S. Postal team engaged in systematic doping, a case that could lead to charges of fraud and conspiracy.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in Khost province in a text message to The Associated Press. The attack came a day after a Taliban suicide bomber slipped inside the capital’s main military hospital and killed at least six Afghan medical students – worrying reminders of militants’ ability to infiltrate locations thought to be secure.

In Sunday’s attack, four men armed with assault rifles and wearing explosives drove shortly before dawn into a compound that houses the provincial traffic department on the edge of Khost city, provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai said. Security forces stopped the men, who were wearing uniforms of the Afghan border police, only after becoming suspicious of the civilian station wagon they drove, he said.

Mike Fincke, one of NASA’s most experienced spacemen, had to settle for a partial lube job, after the bolts holding down covers on the massive joint started popping off unexpectedly.

“Bummer,” said his spacewalking partner, Andrew Feustel.

After nearly six hours of emotional debate, a proposed constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman was approved in the Minnesota House late Saturday night. It was the last legislative step needed to put the question on the statewide ballot in November 2012.

State law already prohibits gay marriage, but supporters of the proposed amendment said it’s necessary to prevent judges or lawmakers from legalizing it in the future. Opponents said the constitution should be used to expand rights, not limit them, and predicted a long, divisive debate over the next 18 months.

The app, called DOL-Timesheet, 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.

One ton of horseflesh all but screamed, “Get me out of here.”

Less than two minutes after the gate sprang open, the nervous colt was a cool classic winner.

The dumping ground-crash pad serves as a squalid symbol of how the foreclosure crisis is riddling communities with blight because no one wants to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining foreclosed homes.

“There’s one on every block,” said Elenes, a community organizer with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment in Watts, a low-income South Los Angeles neighborhood pockmarked with foreclosed homes. “All we want is for the banks to step up and be good citizens.”

To make that point, they’ve turned it around, and made gold as good as cash. Utah became the first state in the country this month to legalize gold and silver coins as currency. The law also will exempt the sale of the coins from state capital gains taxes.

Craig Franco hopes to cash in on it with his Utah Gold and Silver Depository, and he thinks others will soon follow.

But while its stacks house millions of physical books, the library’s push to embrace 21st century technology includes a new digital publication available as an iPad app.

“Books are important to us,” library President Paul LeClerc said in an interview. “And online is important to us. And we’re not abandoning either one.”

Unlike any of the lower 48 states, Maine has only one other neighboring state to compare itself with, feud with, compete with, and sometimes even cooperate with.

Feelings engendered by the unique two-state tie extend away from the capitals. Each state thinks it has better ski slopes, more colorful autumn leaves, better university hockey teams and superior maple syrup.

At the Legislature, gambling proposals pushed by Gilley and others used to tie up debate for days. Now, many lawmakers who advocated gambling are gone – turned out by voters in a Republican wave that crested amid news of the gambling scandal – and no one mentions the issue any more.

During the investigation, three lawmakers wore wires and Gilley’s phone was tapped.

Michigan, Missouri and Arkansas recently reduced the maximum number of weeks that the jobless can get state unemployment benefits. Florida is on the verge of doing so. Unemployment in those states ranges from 7.8 percent in Arkansas to 11.1 percent in Florida.

The benefit cuts come as legislatures deal with the damage that the recession inflicted on state unemployment insurance programs. The sharp increase in the number of people who lost their jobs drained the reservoir of money dedicated to paying out benefits.

In Mississippi, many don’t know how long it will be before their houses finally dry out. Farther downstream in Louisiana, others wait, contemplating if the predictions that their rooftops could soon be swamped will come to pass.

The river, swollen by rainfall and snowmelt, has reached its apex in places like Vicksburg, Miss. The murky waters are continuing their slow trek toward communities in Louisiana, taking far longer than first expected.

Many centers are more swamped than ever, college therapists say, particularly at this time of year, in the frenzy of final exams and job searches.

Though there’s debate about why there are more students seeking services, there is agreement on this: The increase in demand, those therapists say, has made it even more crucial to zero in on the students who are in the most distress.

For days, months or years, they had been living in a rag-tag city of tents, tucked away in the woods near Camden’s downtown. Then, Amir Khan – a pastor and entrepreneur – came along and promised them homes for a year.

It was a bold effort to fix a complicated problem in a hurry. Khan figured he could rent homes for this band of homeless people and that with support and faith, they might flourish.