Evening Edition

The Nude Blacks, a side made up of amateur players from New Zealand, do, as their name suggests, play with no clothes on.

“Our first game was in 2002 in the middle of a dunes on a beach. We were frozen. It started as a joke as part of a backpackers’ festival,” Ralph Davies, founder of the Nude Blacks, told AFP on Saturday.

The battle for one stronghold, Bani Walid, already got off to a fitful and unscheduled start overnight, but fighters of the National Transitional Council withdrew on Saturday, apparently in anticipation of a NATO air strike.

“Last night the deadline passed,” NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil told local leaders in the long-besieged town of Misrata, as he made his way to the capital for the first time since it fell on August 23.

G8 rich nations and institutions including the World Bank, the IMF, regional banks and the Arab Monetary Fund pledged nearly $80 billion in aid and loans over the next two years, doubling the amount promised earlier this year.

French Finance Minister Francois Baroin announced the massive increase at a Group of Eight finance ministers’ meeting in Marseille, where close by up to 1,000 demonstrators gathered to protest against austerity measures.

Noda travelled to ravaged Miyagi and Iwate prefectures for the first time since taking office a week ago, when he replaced Naoto Kan who stepped down amid criticism over his handling of the aftermath of the disaster.

But in an early embarrassment for the young government, the newly appointed economy, trade and industry minister was forced to resign Saturday over comments about the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant.

Yoshio Hachiro, appointed only eight days ago in the new government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, provoked anger when he called the area around the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant a “shi no machi” or a “town of death”.

On Saturday, he denied media reports that after his visit to the nuclear plant, he also made as if he was rubbing his jacket against a journalist, while making a remark to the effect that “I will infect you with radiation”.

The institute is the second of its kind on the continent. It is modelled after the African Institute of Mathematics (AIMS) opened in Cape Town in 2003. This new institute sprang out of a larger research and education centre (Cirem).

Built on a site overlooking the sea in Mbour 80 kilometres (50 miles) southeast of Dakar) the centre is aimed at reviving basic and applied research in Africa, said Mamadou Sanghar, the director of AIMS-Senegal, at the launch on Tuesday.

The twin spacecraft took off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 9:08 am (1308 GMT) aboard a Delta II rocket on a three-month journey to the Moon.

“We are on our way, and early indications show everything is looking good,” said David Lehman, NASA project manager for GRAIL, which stands for Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory.

Organisers of fashion week in the Big Apple said Friday they were taking the threat linked to the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks seriously, and were in constant contact with city authorities and law enforcement.

Security checks were stepped up at fashion central in Manhattan’s Lincoln Center, as they have been across the city — those without the proper badges were turned away. Several police vehicles were parked nearby.

The 24-year-old defending world champion in his Red Bull car overcame a minor error in his first run to grab the 25th pole of his career and his first at Monza – the venue where he celebrated his first race win in 2008.

He also maintained the Red Bull team’s record of taking the pole at all 13 races this year – Mark Webber having taken the other three.

After talks in Damascus with Assad, Elaraby said he would present the proposed measures to Arab foreign ministers who are due to discuss Syria’s five-month uprising against the Syrian president and his military assault on protesters.

“I focused on the importance of an open national dialogue that encompasses all personalities on the basis of national reconciliation, in which the Arab League plays a main role,” Elaraby told journalists on his return to Egypt from Syria. He did not give details.

To the nations that poured money, lives and hope into rebuilding the country, after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States propelled it back onto the international agenda, progress like this is proof of time and money well spent.

“We just have to continue the process, and recognize again: you don’t build Rome or Kabul in a day, or a decade,” U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said in a recent interview, discussing improvements in education and healthcare.

Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs had been at a meeting in the World Trade Center only two days before, and flew home to London just hours before airliners slammed into New York’s twin towers. About to become head of the bank’s global economics team, he was looking for a “big idea” to put a stamp on his leadership.

Soon, he had it: the decade after September 11 would be defined not by the world’s sole superpower or the war on terror but by the rise of the four biggest emerging market economies – China, Russia, India and Brazil. O’Neill nicknamed them the “BRICs” after the first letter of their names.

After weeks of market turbulence, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations pledged a coordinated response on Friday to the global slowdown, but offered no specific steps and differed in emphasis on Europe’s debt crisis.

While the United States called on Europe’s biggest economies to provide “unequivocal” support to struggling peripheral states to overcome a debt crisis that is crippling the world recovery, euro zone paymaster Germany said the priority was cutting deficits.

Several sources said on Saturday that BNP Paribas , Societe Generale and Credit Agricole were expecting an “imminent” decision from the ratings agency, which first put them under review for possible downgrade on June 15.

Moody’s at the time had cited French banks’ exposure to Greece’s debt-stricken economy as the reason behind the review, which was due to last three months. Outside commentators said the ratings were ripe for a downgrade because of rising borrowing costs in the face of sovereign debt turmoil.

Sending a message to international lenders increasingly frustrated with delays in reforms and missed fiscal targets, Papandreou said his government was determined to take the difficult decisions and make the sacrifices needed.

“We decided to fight the battle to avoid a disaster for the country and its people and to stay in the euro,” he said in his annual economic speech at a trade fair in the northern city of Thessaloniki. “Any delay and wavering is dangerous for the country.”

The 124-foot (37.8-meter) booster soared off its seaside launch pad at 9:08 a.m. EDT, arcing over the Atlantic Ocean as it raced into orbit.

Less than two hours later, both probes were flying freely from the rocket’s upper-stage motor and were communicating with NASA’s Deep Space Network.

Created by Japanese Americans while they were held captive in Arkansas camps during World War II, the paintings, sculptures, carved wooden bird pins and even a belt made from an orange electrical cord told stories of daily life in a dark era in American history.

Vogel was one of their art teachers, encouraging them to decorate their dire surroundings. Her efforts helped preserve the tales of tens of thousands of Americans who were forced into camps by the U.S. government after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, nearly half a second slower than the German in the final session, will line up alongside the championship leader on the front row, with team mate Jenson Button in third place.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, last year’s winner from pole position at the fastest track on the calendar, qualified in fourth place in his team’s home race.

In an interview with Reuters at the Italian Grand Prix, the Malaysian aviation entrepreneur also said the team would move to a new Silverstone base and hinted they could start 2012 under a different name.

Fernandes added that Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen and Italian Jarno Trulli were likely to stay on in an unchanged driver line-up.

But even as Libya’s new leaders tried to consolidate control over the vast country, Gadhafi loyalists pushed back hard against an assault on the town of Bani Walid, one of Gadhafi’s remaining strongholds, in a sign that the battle is far from over.

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the anti-Gadhafi forces’ National Transitional Council, landed Saturday at an air force base on the outskirts of Tripoli. A faded red carpet was rolled out, and hundreds of fighters and officials in suits rushed toward the plane as he walked down the steps. Some flashed victory signs or shouted “God is great.”

No coalition forces were killed in the attack on Combat Outpost Sayed Abad in Wardak province, a statement said. An Afghan official earlier said there was at least one civilian killed.

NATO said none of the injuries was life threatening. It did not say how many people were injured in the explosion, which came on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.

As George Papandreou delivered his annual, keynote speech on the economy in Greece’s second-largest city of Thessaloniki, police on the streets outside clashed with violent demonstrators as more than 25,000 people – from taxi-drivers to sports fans – joined a wave of anti-austerity protests.

Two people were arrested and nearly 100 people detained, police said, while at least two demonstrators were injured during the clashes in the northern port city.

About 50 pastors and supporters prayed outside the chain-link fence around the site as police and National Guard troops carrying shotguns and combat rifles watched from a distance. Protesters said they felt shut out of Sunday’s memorial service.

“Many of us served here after the attacks, and we know the importance of prayer and the presence of clergy,” said Rev. Rob Schenck, an evangelical pastor. “To exclude them from the ceremony was hurtful.”

Color is everywhere this time around, combined with plenty of flounce and peekaboo sheers.

“The violet color is very enticing and will be a must-have color for spring,” said Adam Glassman, creative director of O, The Oprah Magazine.

Jim Calhoun won’t be on hand when defending national champion Connecticut opens the Big East season, serving a three-game suspension instead.

For a second straight year, USC is playing for nothing more than pride.