The Abbreviated Evening Edition

Our news chief ek hornbeck has the evening off. (Yes, we let him out of his mom’s basement once on awhile).

U.S. moves to block AT&T, T-Mobile deal

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Obama administration sued to block AT&T Inc’s $39 billion acquisition of wireless rival T-Mobile on concerns it would harm competition, launching its biggest challenge yet to a takeover and dealing the carrier a potentially costly blow.

AT&T, led by Chief Executive Randall Stephenson, plans to fight the government’s decision in court, and analysts say it might have to make big concessions — including selling major assets — to mollify regulators.

 Gadhafi Son Vows to Continue Fight Until Death

One of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s sons told a Syrian television station late Wednesday that he is in the suburbs outside Tripoli and that his father “is fine.”

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi vowed that he and other family members will fight until death and said nobody will surrender. He told the pro-Gadhafi al-Rai television station that morale among loyalist fighters is high.

New blow for BP in Russia as office raided

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Black-clad special forces raided BP’s Moscow offices on Wednesday, deepening the British company’s problems in Russia after its attempts to salvage an oil exploration agreement in the Russian Arctic collapsed.

The raid, a day after ExxonMobil signed a deal giving it access to fields BP had hoped to develop, was ordered to let bailiffs search for documents in a legal battle over BP’s failed bid to partner Russia in the Arctic, a spokeswoman said.

But BP, which has a long history of problems in Russia, denounced the raid and said it feared the search could continue for the rest of this week.

Merkel backs euro fund boost, faces revolt risk

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet approved new powers for the euro zone’s bailout fund on Wednesday, but she faces an uphill battle to convince party skeptics to back efforts to contain the crisis.

Concerned that Germany’s parliament has little control over the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), some members of Merkel’s center-right coalition are threatening to oppose boosting its powers when the Bundestag (lower house) votes on September 29.

Waters recede but storm victims suffer in East

PATERSON, N.J./BRATTLEBORO, Vermont (Reuters) – Floodwaters finally started to recede from areas of the U.S. northeast devastated by Hurricane Irene but many communities were still under water on Wednesday as relief workers battled cut-off roads and raging rivers to deliver emergency supplies.

The storm battered the East Coast with up to 15 inches of rain on Saturday and Sunday, setting river level records in 10 states, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Wide swathes of New Jersey, upstate New York and Vermont experienced the worst flooding in decades, and while many disaster areas began to see waters recede other rivers had not yet crested, the USGS said.

Activists say hundreds killed in Syria

Syrian security forces carried out arrests and set fire to homes Wednesday, activists reported, at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan during which a rights group said 473 people were killed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 16 people were arrested in Houle, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Homs, where the authorities sparked anger on Monday as they returned the bodies of 13 people arrested in early August.

Nigeria says Qaeda-linked suspect behind UN attack

Nigeria’s secret police said Wednesday that an Al-Qaeda linked suspect who recently returned from Somalia masterminded last week’s attack on UN headquarters here that killed at least 23 people.

“Investigation has revealed that one Mamman Nur, a notorious Boko Haram element with Al-Qaeda links who returned recently from Somalia, working in concert with the two (arrested) suspects masterminded the attack on the United Nations building in Abuja,” a statement said.

Australian High Court blocks Malaysia refugee swap

Australia’s High Court dealt a heavy blow to the government Wednesday by blocking its plans to send asylum-seekers to Malaysia, ruling they could not go to a nation lacking legal safeguards.

Australia had hoped to send up to 800 asylum-seekers to the Asian nation in exchange for resettling 4,000 of its refugees, and the decision leaves hundreds of boat people in legal limbo.

Kosovan confesses to shooting U.S. airmen in Germany

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A 21-year-old Kosovo Albanian man confessed to shooting dead two U.S. airmen and wounding two more at Frankfurt airport in March, telling a packed German court Wednesday he was swayed by Islamist lies and could not undo what he had done.

Arid Uka, who wore jeans, trainers and a long white shirt for the start of his trial, was charged with two counts of murder and three of attempted murder. He faces a life sentence.

Lawsuit says Microsoft tracks customers without consent

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Microsoft allegedly tracks the location of its mobile customers even after users request that tracking software be turned off, according to a new lawsuit.

The proposed class action, filed in a Seattle federal court on Wednesday, says Microsoft intentionally designed camera software on the Windows Phone 7 operating system to ignore customer requests that they not be tracked.

GOP lawmakers can march in Wisconsin Labor Day parade

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – A Wisconsin labor official reversed on Wednesday a move to bar Republican lawmakers from a Labor Day parade in Wausau after the mayor said his town would not pay for the event unless the GOP was allowed in.

Marathon County Labor Council President Randy Radtke said last week that Republican politicians were not welcome at the parade because the party had pushed a law curbing collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin public workers earlier this year.

NJ gov: Don’t delay Irene aid for US spending cuts

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has reacted angrily to a fight brewing in Washington over whether Hurricane Irene disaster aid may need to be offset by federal spending cuts.

The Republican governor told a news conference Wednesday in the flood-ravaged town of Lincoln Park he doesn’t want to hear that offsetting budget cuts have to come before aid is distributed. He says no such discussion was held when help went to Joplin, Mo., where a deadly May tornado damaged 7,500 homes.