The Abbreviated Evening Edition

Due to traveling playing in the mud (don’t ask, trust me it’s messy), the Evening Edition will brought to you by c’est moi.

Protesters besiege parliament before Greek vote

ATHENS (Reuters) – More than 20,000 chanting protesters besieged the Greek parliament on Tuesday before Prime Minister George Papandreou’s embattled government faced a confidence vote crucial to avoiding a sovereign default.

In the biggest protest in Syntagma square for several days, the protesters chanted slogans against the politicians, shone hundreds of green laser lights at the building and into the eyes of riot police outside and pushed their hands forward in a traditional insult.

Home sales hit 6-month low, supply rises

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of previously owned U.S. homes hit a six-month low in May and supply rose, pointing to a housing market still struggling to regain its footing.

The National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday that sales slipped 3.8 percent month over month to an annual rate of 4.81 million units, the lowest since November.

It was the second straight month of declines. The drop was smaller than economists had expected, but the April sales figure was revised lower, leaving a report that was largely in line with expectations in financial markets.

Obama set to unveil Afghan troop cuts

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama will order his promised US troop drawdown from Afghanistan in a prime time address Wednesday, which one official said would likely see 10,000 soldiers called home this year.

Obama will stick with his vow to begin pulling out US forces after an 18-month troop surge, but apparently heed Pentagon warnings that an overly swift withdrawal could imperil hard won gains against Taliban insurgents.

Senate confirms Panetta to head Pentagon

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Senate Tuesday unanimously confirmed CIA chief Leon Panetta’s nomination to be defense secretary, replacing the outgoing head of the Pentagon, Robert Gates.

All 100 members of the Senate approved the nomination of Panetta, who turns 73 next week, hailing his service as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency during which the United States tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden.

Ban gets new term in ‘the most impossible job on Earth’

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The 192-nation United Nations on Tuesday elected Ban Ki-moon for a second term as leader of the global body as it confronts conflict and crises across strategic regions.

The 67-year-old former South Korean foreign minister was elected by acclamation by the UN General Assembly. His second five-year term will start on January 1 and run through 2016.

IMF warns of ‘considerable’ risks to Spain economy

MADRID (AFP) – The IMF warned Tuesday of “considerable” risks to Spain’s battered economy, saying the authorities had responded robustly to the serious challenges but repairs were incomplete.

Spain faced grave economic risks if it failed to crack down harder on spending, shake up the financial sector and loosen up the labour market, the International Monetary Fund said.

JPMorgan to pay $153.6 million in SEC fraud case

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co agreed to pay $153.6 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it defrauded investors who bought mortgage securities it helped sell just before the nation’s housing market collapsed.

The SEC also filed civil charges accusing Edward Steffelin, a former managing director at GSC Capital Corp, of failing to reveal in marketing materials for the transaction, Squared CDO 2007-1, that the Magnetar Capital LLC hedge fund helped choose the underlying securities — and bet that they would lose value.

Fitch sees risk of Greece, U.S. debt defaults

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Fitch Ratings said on Tuesday that it would regard a voluntary rollover of Greece’s sovereign bond maturities as a default and would cut the credit rating appropriately, keeping pressure on Athens ahead of a confidence vote in parliament.

The definitive comments weighed on the euro and underscored how much is at stake for Greece, which is struggling to implement a deeply unpopular fiscal austerity plan necessary to win the next tranche of emergency aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Fed meeting begins; weaker growth key to debate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve on Tuesday began a two-day meeting against the backdrop of a weakening U.S. economy that will likely force policymakers to plan for the possibility that things may get worse.

The central bank’s quarterly forecasts, which will be released after the meeting, are likely to be revised down to reflect the recent weakness in the recovery, though officials should reiterate their expectation for a second-half rebound.

APNewsBreak: A twist in Obama’s health care law

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s health care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed.

The change would affect early retirees: A married couple could have an annual income of about $64,000 and still get Medicaid, said officials who make long-range cost estimates for the Health and Human Services department.

APNewsBreak: Gingrich campaign fundraisers quit

ATLANTA – Newt Gingrich’s top two fundraising advisers resigned on Tuesday, and officials said the Republican candidate’s hobbling presidential campaign carried more than $1 million in debt.

The departures of fundraising director Jody Thomas and fundraising consultant Mary Heitman were the latest blow for the former House speaker who watched 16 top advisers abandon his campaign en masse earlier this month, partly because of what people familiar with the campaign spending described as a dire financial situation.

Cigarettes will carry grisly new warning labels

RICHMOND, Va. – Rotting teeth and gums. Diseased lungs. A sewn-up corpse of a smoker. Cigarette smoke coming out of the tracheotomy hole in a man’s neck.

Cigarette packs in the U.S. will have to carry these macabre images in nine new warning labels that are part of a campaign by the Food and Drug Administration to use fear and disgust to discourage Americans from lighting up.

battles 400 wildfires, two firefighters die

TALLAHASSEE, Fla (Reuters) – Florida’s tough wildfire season has claimed the lives of two firefighters as the tinder-dry state on Tuesday battled more than 400 active blazes.

Two forest rangers with the state Division of Forestry were killed on Monday while fighting a fire in Hamilton County in north Florida. They were the first firefighters in the state in 26 years to be overcome while battling a wildfire.

Huntsman joins WH race, promising jobs, civility

ERSEY CITY, N.J. – Republican Jon Huntsman joined the presidential race Tuesday with the Statue of Liberty over his shoulder, asserting that he and President Barack Obama both love their country but have far different visions of its future. He pledged to halt an “un-American” fading of national confidence and power.

Hoping to set himself apart from other candidates, he also promised to run a civil campaign for the GOP nomination at a time of heated partisan rhetoric.

Greek deputies vote in crucial confidence motion

ATHENS, Greece – Greece’s prime minister was gambling his government’s survival and the danger of a devastating debt default on a Tuesday night confidence vote aimed at helping him passing deeply disliked austerity measures that have provoked strikes, protests and a slump in his popularity.

Greek deputies began voting after midnight in a crucial confidence motion called by Prime Minister George Papandreou after he reshuffled his cabinet to face down an internal party revolt and help him pass deeply unpopular austerity measures.

Revenue and Medicare are at heart of deficit talks

WASHINGTON – To reduce government red ink, Republicans are willing to raise government revenues, but not increase taxes. Congressional Democrats would accept reductions in Medicare spending, yet no cuts in benefits.

Parsing these distinctions appears to be key to the deficit reduction talks headed by Vice President Joe Biden, particularly with Republicans eager to protect their anti-tax credentials in 2012 and Democrats ready to campaign aggressively against a House GOP plan to remake Medicare.

Arizona sheriff blames Mexican smugglers for wildfire

PALOMINAS, Ariz (Reuters) – The sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, said on Tuesday that Mexican drug smugglers are likely to blame for a wildfire that has scorched 27,000 acres and destroyed dozens of homes just north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The remarks are likely to add to controversy over the origin of recent blazes which saw Arizona Senator John McCain draw criticism for suggesting some of them could have been started by illegal immigrants.

Financial sector layoffs rise, more cuts ahead

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. financial firms have been cutting staff dramatically this year, with more layoffs expected to come from Wall Street, according to a report on Tuesday.

Unlike the widespread layoffs stemming from the financial crisis of 2008 that was followed by hiring when markets recovered, the 2011 reductions appear to be more permanent.

Flooding forces evacuations in two Midwest states

KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) – Flooding will force the evacuation of one-quarter of North Dakota’s fourth largest city and levee breaches forced 300 residents from a Missouri town as flooding worsened, officials said on Tuesday.

About 12,000 residents of Minot have been ordered to leave their homes by 10 p.m. Wednesday as heavy water releases from reservoirs along the Souris River are expected to overwhelm the city’s permanent and temporary barriers, officials said.

No budget, no pay is word to California lawmakers

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – There’s no reward for a job poorly done, California lawmakers were told on Tuesday as their wages and expense pay were suspended after passing a budget that did not “add up.”

Controller John Chiang on Tuesday said he was acting under terms of a law approved by voters last year, the “On-Time Budget Act of 2010,” to withhold lawmakers’ pay if they miss a mid-June deadline for balancing the state’s books.

New York reaches pact on rent regulations, property tax

ALBANY, New York (Reuters) – New York state legislative leaders on Tuesday reached tentative agreements on rent control and a property tax cap, while the fate of a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage remained up in the air.

Emerging from a closed-door meeting with New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, both Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said a “framework” agreement had been reached on the rent laws and tax cap. They declined to give details or set a date for a Senate vote on same-sex marriage, which passed the Assembly last week.

Deals on issues may allow New York gay nuptials vote

ALBANY, New York (Reuters) – Legislative leaders in New York state on Tuesday announced tentative deals to control rent for New York City apartments and cap property taxes, possibly clearing the way for a vote to legalize same sex marriage.

The same-sex marriage bill, which would make New York the sixth and largest state to allow gay nuptials, needs only one more Senate vote to pass.

Court says suit can proceed over WTC tower collapse

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey can be sued for negligence over the collapse of a World Trade Center building in the September 11 attacks in 2001, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

The agency is one of the most prominent issuers in the $2.9 trillion municipal market. Its finances have been strained by the costly rebuilding of the World Trade Center complex.

North Dakota’s fourth largest city faces flood evacuations

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – Officials ordered the evacuation of more than a quarter of the residents of North Dakota’s fourth largest city of Minot, where massive flooding is expected to overwhelm barriers, authorities said on Tuesday.

About 12,000 residents were ordered to be out of Minot’s flood threatened areas by 10 p.m. local time on Wednesday, the second evacuation for those neighborhoods this year, said Cecily Fong, the North Dakota Emergency Services department spokeswoman.