Evening Edition

“Lives ended in this place. Dreams were shattered. Futures were instantly altered. Hopes were tragically dashed,” Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a ceremony marking the day a hijacked airliner slammed into the Pentagon ten years ago.

Mullen, joined by Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, said the attack inspired a new generation to join the armed forces as the country sought retribution against Al-Qaeda militants.

Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil Saturday gave the green light for attacks on Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli, Sirte to the east and Sabha in the deep south after declaring the deadline for pro-Kadhafi enclaves to surrender over.

While united at the front lines, political tensions were meanwhile beginning to show between former rebel fighters in a number of regions, including in west Libya where fighting between anti-Kadhafi rival groups left 12 people dead, officials said.

“A 40-year-old woman was killed at noon on Sunday by a stray bullet as security forces were tracking wanted people in the town of Bukamal,” the Britain-based rights group cited an activist in Deir Ezzor province as saying.

The Observatory also told AFP in Nicosia that a youth had died of wounds received on Saturday when security forces opened fire on mourners at the funeral of an activist in Daraya, near Damascus.

News of Saturday’s attack came as the world marked the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in the United States and led to the invasion of Afghanistan and toppling of the Taliban at the end of 2001.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said 77 of its personnel and about 25 Afghan nationals were wounded in the blast in Sayed Abad district in central Wardak province.

The six GCC foreign ministers met their counterparts from Jordan and Morocco to consider “a five-year economic development plan to support Jordan,” said Amman’s Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.

“This plan also applies to Morocco,” GCC chief Abdulatif al-Zayani told reporters after the meeting, the first to include the Jordanian and Moroccan ministers since a GCC decision in May to consider accepting the two countries into the regional alliance.

Kagame landed at Charles de Gaulle airport and was due to meet Rwandan expats, French academics and businessmen as well as President Nicolas Sarkozy, who visited Rwanda in 2009 to kickstart a delicate reconciliation process.

Many French generals and statesmen are still smarting after being accused by Kagame and his allies of collaborating with Rwanda’s previous genocidal regime in its massacre of around 800,000 mainly ethnic Tutsis.

Pre-election surveys showed ex-general Otto Perez Molina from the Patriotic Party some 20 points ahead of his nearest rival, but he is unlikely to win the 50 percent-plus-one necessary to avoid a run-off vote in November.

Polls opened throughout the impoverished Central American nation at 7:00 am (1300 GMT) and were due to close at 6:00 pm (2400 GMT).

In an interview with the private Senegalese radio station Sud FM, Conde named three people who he said had met in Dakar’s Meridien President Hotel to plan a rocket attack on his private home in which one of his guards was killed.

“Everything was prepared in Dakar,” said Conde, 73, accusing Amadou Bah Oury, number two in the main opposition Guinean Union of Democratic Forces (UFDG) of being one of those involved.

Gathering from Europe, North America and Australia, the re-enactors staged a three-day event of combat, archaic culture revival and commemoration at Marathon Bay never before seen in Greece despite its rich archaeological heritage.

For many of the participants, it was also a personal pilgrimage after long years of arduous preparation and unfulfilled hope.

Southern neighbor Niger said one of the fugitive former leader’s sons, Saadi Gaddafi, had turned up there after crossing the remote Sahara desert frontier.

The National Transitional Council, which is trying to exert its control over the entire country three weeks after its fighters stormed Tripoli, said it plans to unveil a new, more inclusive government for the country in 7-10 days.

The latest high-profile insider of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule to be arrested, Bouzaid Dorda proved unapologetic about his role as head of the External Security Organization (ESO) and suggested he was not ready to criticize the ousted autocrat just to please Libya’s new rulers.

And in heated exchanges at the private house where he was being held, he suggested the men who arrested him in the capital on Saturday had no right to the moral high ground.

Separately, a ruling party official said President Ali Abdullah Saleh was expected to empower his deputy to negotiate over a Gulf-sponsored plan for the transfer of power, but that he would not give up his state powers immediately.

Residents said a Yemeni air strike killed at least three fighters near the militant-held town of Jaar, apparently as they were fleeing toward it from Zinjibar.

Perhaps, one day they could all return to a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan supported by a Western superpower.

After 10 years of U.S.-led efforts to pacify one of the world’s most turbulent countries, Afghan refugees in Pakistan have little hope for stability in their homeland.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for Saturday’s bombing, which created one of the highest injury tolls of the decade-long war and came just hours after the insurgent group slammed the United States for dragging Afghanistan into war.

An 8-year-old boy was among those killed in the bombing at a combat outpost in Wardak province, about 50 km (30 miles) south of the capital Kabul, the governor’s office said in a statement. Fourteen civilians were also wounded.

A 60-year-old retired general who heads the right-wing Patriot Party, Otto Perez, is leading in opinion polls after the ruling center-leftist party failed to field a candidate. But he may fall short of the 50 percent of votes plus one needed to avoid a November run-off.

No presidential hopeful in the coffee- and sugar-exporting nation has won in the first round since Guatemala returned to democracy in 1986 after decades of military rule, but Perez says he has a chance to make history.

Juergen Stark’s premature departure from the European Central Bank because of his opposition to its controversial bond-buying program was described by German policymakers and editorial writers as a “wake-up call” for Germany.

It comes roughly seven months after Axel Weber, another monetary hawk in the post-war German tradition, abruptly resigned his post as head of the Bundesbank and withdrew his candidacy for the top post at the ECB.

The ECB is the one institution that has kept the euro zone afloat in the sovereign debt crisis and prevented a bond market meltdown. The European Union has no federal government or common fiscal authority and speaks with many dissonant voices.

Juergen Stark’s departure from the ECB’s Executive Board in despair at the policy of buying government bonds to prevent the crisis spreading comes as policymakers in Berlin and beyond are preparing for the growing possibility of a Greek default.

The dollar, yen and, to a lesser extent, Swiss franc are set to advance with more investors seeking safe-haven currencies on the back of rising financial market stress.

That will raise the risk of more solo intervention from Japanese and Swiss authorities.

The European Commission welcomed the measure, just days before EU and IMF inspectors arrive in Athens to hear how the government plans to overcome delays and missed fiscal targets before approving an 8-billion-euro tranche from its 110-billion-euro bailout, key to Greece’s survival.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the cabinet agreed the measure to raise about 2 billion euros missing from the government’s coffers and to meet the 2011 budget deficit target, estimated at around 8.1 percent of GDP.

This week, U.S. regulators are set to unveil a final rule that requires banks and some other large financial companies to write “living wills” that provide a road map for how they could be quickly liquidated if they run into trouble.

The rule is required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp board is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on the final rule. The Federal Reserve also would have to approve the rule before it takes effect, most likely in about a month.

Even with strong grain prices and a surge in crop nutrient prices, shares of Potash Corp , Agrium Inc and Viterra have had a dismal run over the last six months, largely due to an uncertain global economic outlook. On average, the shares have fallen about 8 percent in the period.

But the trio may soon enjoy a nice pop. Forecasts point to further reductions in corn yields across the United States. That suggests corn prices will rise, encouraging farmers to plant more acreage and use more fertilizer this fall. This trend is sure to benefit companies that either produce crop nutrients or sell them at a retail level.

The 24-year-old German, who had started on pole position for the 10th time in 13 races, stretched his overall lead to a mighty 112 points after Australian team mate and closest rival Mark Webber crashed out.

With only 150 points remaining to be won from the last six grands prix, Vettel has now won eight races this season and can clinch the title at the next one in Singapore on Sept. 25 if results go his way.

There are several ways in which the 24-year-old German (born July 3, 1987) can win his second successive title in Singapore on Sept. 25.

He now has 284 points and is 112 clear of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (172) with 150 still to be won. McLaren’s Jenson Button is a further five back and level on 167 points with Vettel’s Australian team mate Mark Webber.

They would have cheered louder had Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso repeated last year’s win on home soil instead of finishing third, but many also have a lingering affection for Red Bull’s German champion.

They may also, perhaps many years down the line, eventually cheer him as one of their own.