Evening Edition

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1 More than 80 dead in Pakistan suicide bombing and raids

by Nasrullah Khan, AFP

Sat Dec 25, 10:21 am ET

KHAR, Pakistan (AFP) – More than 80 were killed in a suicide bombing on a World Food Programme project and a series of helicopter raids against militant camps in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, officials said.

A suicide bomber wearing a burqa, who some officials said was a woman, killed at least 43 people at a World Food Programme distribution point in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

The blast occurred in Khar, the main town of lawless Bajaur tribal district, once a stronghold of Taliban militants who have carried out several bombings and suicide attacks in the area.

2 Ivory Coast fearful as Gbagbo rejects intervention threat

by Thomas Morfin, AFP

1 hr 10 mins ago

ABIDJAN (AFP) – Ivory Coast marked a fearful Christmas on Saturday as defiant strongman Laurent Gbagbo rejected a West African threat to oust him by force unless he cedes power to his rival Alassane Ouattara.

The pair have been locked in a political stand-off for almost a month after both claimed to have won the November 28 presidential election, but mounting international pressure may have brought the crisis to a turning point.

Although Ouattara has been recognised as Ivory Coast’s leader by world powers, Gbagbo has clung grimly onto power, deploying his feared security forces to crush protest and blockade his rival’s hotel campaign headquarters.

3 West African leaders threaten force if Gbagbo stays

by Susan Njanji, AFP

Fri Dec 24, 10:27 pm ET

ABUJA (AFP) – West African nations were preparing to send a high-level delegation to Ivory Coast after threatening force if Laurent Gbagbo refused to quit power.

Leaders from the 15-member ECOWAS regional bloc also warned Friday in a statement after their summit that those responsible for post-election deaths would face international prosecution.

Gbagbo’s internationally recognised rival in last month’s presidential vote, Alassane Ouattara, meanwhile urged the army to desert the incumbent leader.

4 Fresh attacks on Christians mar Christmas celebrations

by Catherine Jouault, AFP

1 hr 31 mins ago

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Fresh attacks on Christians marred the Christmas holiday Saturday as Pope Benedict XVI led pleas by religious leaders for an end to persecution in Iraq and peace in the Middle East.

While record crowds flocked to Bethlehem, the Palestinian town where Jesus Christ was believed to have been born, hundreds also defied Al-Qaeda threats to pack Our Lady of Salvation cathedral in Baghdad for Christmas mass.

Although there were no immediate reports of Christians being targeted in the Middle East, bombings in other parts of the world highlighted the threats facing believers.

5 Christmas attacks kill at least 38 in Nigeria

AFP

1 hr 18 mins ago

JOS, Nigeria (AFP) – A series of unprecedented Christmas Eve bomb blasts and attacks on churches have left at least 38 people dead in Nigeria as authorities worked Saturday to keep the violence from spreading.

Seven explosions went off in two different areas of the flashpoint city of Jos in central Nigeria, killing 32 people and injuring 74, many of them as they were doing their Christmas shopping, police said.

In the city of Maiduguri in northern Nigeria, suspected members of an Islamist sect that launched an uprising last year attacked three churches, leaving six people dead and one of the churches burnt, an army spokesman said.

6 China hikes interest rates in battle to curb inflation

by Allison Jackson, AFP

Sat Dec 25, 6:45 am ET

BEIJING (AFP) – China’s central bank on Saturday raised interest rates for the second time in less than three months as authorities ramp up efforts to curb borrowing, rein in property prices and tame inflation.

The People’s Bank of China said in a brief one-line statement that it will raise the one-year lending and deposit rates by 25 basis points each. The move takes the rates to 5.81 percent and 2.75 percent respectively from Sunday.

In mid-October, policymakers raised rates for the first time in nearly three years as they resort to stronger measures to try to slow a flood of liquidity which has been fanning inflation and driving up property prices.

7 Burqa-clad suicide bomber kills 40 in Pakistan

By Sahibzada Bahauddin, Reuters

Sat Dec 25, 6:10 am ET

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A burqa-clad suicide bomber attacked a crowd of people waiting for aid in Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 40 of them, officials said, showing militants’ ability to strike despite army offensives.

The attack in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border came a day after fierce clashes between Pakistani Taliban insurgents and security forces in the neighboring Mohmand region that left 11 soldiers and 24 militants dead.

“I myself have counted 40 bodies but the death toll could rise as several wounded people are in critical condition,” Dosti Rehman, an official at the main government hospital in Bajaur, told Reuters.

8 China fights inflation with Christmas rate rise

By Ben Blanchard and Zhou Xin, Reuters

Sat Dec 25, 9:18 am ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s central bank raised interest rates on Saturday for the second time in just over two months as it stepped up its battle to rein in stubbornly high inflation.

The People’s Bank of China said it will raise the benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points to 5.81 percent and lift the benchmark deposit rate by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent.

The central bank said in a statement on its website (www.pbc.gov.cn) that the latest rate rise would take effect on Sunday.

9 Pope Christmas message urges peace, admonishes China

By Philip Pullella, Reuters

Sat Dec 25, 6:39 am ET

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict prayed for a rebirth of peace in the Middle East and encouraged Catholics in Iraq and communist China to resist persecution in his Christmas message read amid heightened security on Saturday.

In the “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message, he said the Christmas message of peace and hope was always new, surprising and daring and should spur everyone in the peaceful struggle for justice.

Speaking from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to thousands of people braving the chill and drizzle in the square below, he delivered Christmas greetings in 65 languages, including those spoken in the world’s trouble spots.

10 World economy can withstand $100 oil price: Kuwait

By Shaimaa Fayed and Amena Bakr, Reuters

Sat Dec 25, 9:17 am ET

CAIRO (Reuters) – The global economy can withstand an oil price of $100 a barrel, Kuwait’s oil minister said on Saturday, as other exporters indicated OPEC may decide against increasing output through 2011 as the market was well supplied.

Analysts have said oil producing countries are likely to raise output after crude rallied more than 30 percent from a low in May because they fear prices could damage economic growth in fuel importing countries.

European benchmark ICE Brent crude for February closed at $93.46 on Friday after hitting $94.74 a barrel, its highest level since October 2008.

11 For many troops, a last Christmas in Iraq

By Serena Chaudhry, Reuters

Sat Dec 25, 12:36 pm ET

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (Reuters) – Colonel Lance Kittleson is looking forward to spending Christmas with his family next year as troops withdraw from Iraq 7-1/2 years after the invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.

Many of the troops left in Iraq can’t wait to get home.

“Back in 2003, we were extended repeatedly and we didn’t know if we would ever get home. Now we know we’re going home in a certain length of time,” Kittleson, a chaplain, said during a candlelight vigil with other soldiers to mark Christmas.

12 Medvedev says more time needed for reforms

By Alissa de Carbonnel and Steve Gutterman, Reuters

Fri Dec 24, 12:23 pm ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday his drive to modernize Russia and shed crippling Soviet traditions needs more time to yield results, but left unclear whether he will seek a second term in a 2012 election.

Still struggling to emerge from Vladimir Putin’s shadow less than 18 months before the end of his term, Medvedev has struck a softer, more liberal tone on issues ranging from jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s trial to ties with the United States.

But in the latest appearance in what looks like a contest between the two leaders for public approval, he announced no major initiatives and lamented the pace of his trademark campaign to enliven Russia’s economy through innovation.

13 Karzai warms to idea of talking to Taliban in Turkey

By Simon Cameron-Moore, Reuters

Fri Dec 24, 3:31 pm ET

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – President Hamid Karzai said on Friday the Afghan government would welcome any offer by Turkey to facilitate talks with the Taliban that could help bring an end to the conflict in his homeland.

More than 700 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year — nearly a third of the total in over nine years of war.

While U.S.-led NATO forces have applied a surge strategy there is also a search on for ways to bring about a political solution as a countdown begins for the withdrawal of troops.

14 "Christmas of misery" for many in calamity-hit Haiti

By Joseph Guyler Delva, Reuters

Fri Dec 24, 1:14 pm ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Maritza Monfort is singing along to a Christmas carol in Creole on the radio, but the Haitian mother of two is struggling to lift her spirits.

“I sing to ease my pain. If I think too much, I’ll die,” said Monfort, 38, one of over a million Haitians made homeless by a January earthquake that plunged the poor, French-speaking Caribbean nation into the most calamitous year of its history.

With a raging cholera epidemic and election turmoil heaping more death and hardship on top of the quake devastation, Haitians are facing an exceptionally bleak Christmas and New Year marked by the prospect of more suffering and uncertainty.

15 Female bomber kills 45 at food center in Pakistan

By ANWARULLAH KHAN, Associated Press

35 mins ago

KHAR, Pakistan – A burqa-clad female suicide bomber in Pakistan lobbed hand grenades, then detonated her explosive belt among a crowd at an aid center Saturday, killing at least 45 people in militants’ latest strike against the authorities’ control over the key tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Police believed it was the first time Islamic militants have sent a woman to carry out a suicide attack in Pakistan, where the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan against al-Qaida and the Taliban insurgents continues to spill over despite Islamabad’s repeated claims of victory on its side of the porous border.

The bomber, dressed in the head-to-toe burqa robes that women commonly wear Pakistan and Afghanistan, was challenged by police at a check point, officials said.

16 Top US gen. visits GIs in Afghanistan on Christmas

By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press

1 hr 38 mins ago

MARJAH, Afghanistan – The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan crisscrossed the country on Saturday, making a Christmas visit to coalition troops at some of the main battle fronts in a show of appreciation and support in the tenth year of the war against the Taliban.

Gen. David Petraeus started his visit by traveling in a C-130 cargo plane from the capital, Kabul, to the northern province of Kunduz, telling troops with the U.S. Army’s 1-87, 10th Mountain Division that on this day, there was “no place that (he) would rather be than here” where the “focus of our effort” was.

The northern part of the country has seen increased fighting, with the Taliban stepping up their attacks as NATO focuses its sights on the militant movement’s southern strongholds. Petraeus was briefed on the situation in the region by German Maj. Gen. Hans-Werner Fritz, the commander of NATO’s northern regional command.

17 Pope urges courage for Catholics in China, Iraq

By FRANCES D’EMILIO, Associated Press

1 hr 1 min ago

VATICAN CITY – Iraqi Christians celebrated a somber Christmas in a Baghdad cathedral stained with dried blood, while Pope Benedict XVI exhorted Chinese Catholics to stay loyal despite restrictions on them in a holiday address laced with worry for the world’s Christian minorities.

Saturday’s grim news seemed to highlight the pope’s concern for his flock’s welfare.

In northern Nigeria, attacks on two churches by Muslim sect members claimed six lives, while bombings in central Nigeria, a region plagued by Christian-Muslim violence, killed 32 people, officials said.

18 Civil War message opened, decoded: No help coming

By STEVE SZKOTAK, Associated Press

Sat Dec 25, 11:13 am ET

RICHMOND, Va. – A glass vial stopped with a cork during the Civil War has been opened, revealing a coded message to the desperate Confederate commander in Vicksburg on the day the Mississippi city fell to Union forces 147 years ago.

The dispatch offered no hope to doomed Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton: Reinforcements are not on the way.

The encrypted, 6-line message was dated July 4, 1863, the date of Pemberton’s surrender to Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Siege of Vicksburg in what historians say was a turning point midway into the Civil War.

19 Haitian orphans settling in with adoptive families

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

Sat Dec 25, 12:21 pm ET

PENFIELD, N.Y. – Under a towering Christmas tree, 3-year-old Sevil Fletcher giggled in delight amid some not-so-rough roughhousing with his brother and sister.

There were snow drifts outside the comfortable suburban home, and the warmth of a close-knit family inside, as his parents, Brian and Emily Fletcher, recounted how Sevil – his infancy spent in a faraway orphanage – came to be their son.

It’s a remarkable tale, all the more so because it is shared to a degree by hundreds of other American families who were seeking to adopt children from Haiti when the cataclysmic earthquake struck nearly a year ago, on Jan. 12.

20 Iraqi Christians mark somber Christmas in Baghdad

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

Sat Dec 25, 10:47 am ET

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Christians celebrated Christmas Mass on Saturday in a Baghdad church that was the scene of a brutal al-Qaida assault, facing stark symbols of the price of faith: photos of dead parishioners in front of the altar and, hanging from the wall, black cassocks representing two slain priests.

The Oct. 31 attack on Our Lady of Salvation Church was the deadliest ever against Christians in Iraq, killing 68 people. It and a string of bombings that followed prompted thousands of Christians to flee to Iraq’s more peaceful Kurdish-run north – and renewed al-Qaida threats cast a shadow over Saturday’s celebrations.

But the 300 worshippers who gathered on Christmas morning insisted they would not be driven away.

21 West African leaders threaten force in Ivory Coast

By MARCO CHOWN OVED, Associated Press

Sat Dec 25, 12:39 pm ET

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – The man who refuses to leave Ivory Coast’s presidency faced new threats to his grasp on power Saturday after regional leaders threatened to remove him by force if necessary.

Diplomatic pressure and sanctions have left Laurent Gbagbo increasingly isolated though he has been able to maintain his rule nearly a month after the disputed vote because of the loyalty of security forces and the military.

Even that, though, may disappear if he runs out of money to pay them.

22 Jimmy Carter vs. guinea worm: Sudan is last battle

By MAGGIE FICK, Associated Press

Sat Dec 25, 10:40 am ET

ABUYONG, Sudan – Lily pads and purple flowers dot one corner of the watering hole. Bright green algae covers another. Two women collect water in plastic jugs while a cattle herder bathes nearby.

Samuel Makoy is not interested in the bucolic scenery, though. He has an epidemic to quash.

Makoy points out to the women the fingernail-length worm-like creatures whose tails flick back and forth. Then a pond-side health lesson begins on a spaghetti-like worm that has haunted humans for centuries.

23 EPA moving unilaterally to limit greenhouse gases

By MERRILL HARTSON, Associated Press

Sat Dec 25, 3:55 am ET

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration took separate actions this week to protect clean air and federal wilderness areas, reaffirming that the White House can pursue its goals without depending on help from an increasingly combative Congress.

In the coming two years, that may become a more popular approach.

In a statement posted on its website late Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it is moving unilaterally to clamp down on power plant and oil refinery greenhouse emissions, announcing plans for developing new standards over the next year.

24 Beer heir is in the headlines after woman dies

By JIM SALTER, Associated Press

Fri Dec 24, 5:26 pm ET

ST. LOUIS – For generations, the Busches of St. Louis were the first family of American beer-making, the city’s most devoted boosters, and bearers of the most famous name in town. But they have also been touched by scandal, tragedy and allegations of reckless behavior.

Now the Busch name is in the headlines again, this time after an aspiring young model was found dead in the gated home of August Busch IV, the former Anheuser-Busch CEO and heir to the Budweiser fortune. The death is under investigation.

The woman, Adrienne Nicole Martin, was Busch’s girlfriend and there was “absolutely nothing suspicious” about her death, said Busch’s attorney, Art Margulis.

25 Bethlehem celebrates merriest Christmas in years

By TIA GOLDENBERG and DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press

Fri Dec 24, 5:57 pm ET

BETHLEHEM, West Bank – The traditional birthplace of Jesus is celebrating its merriest Christmas in years, as tens of thousands of tourists thronged Bethlehem on Friday for the annual holiday festivities in this biblical West Bank town.

Officials said the turnout was shaping up to be the largest since 2000. Unseasonably mild weather, a virtual halt in Israeli-Palestinian violence and a burgeoning economic revival in the West Bank all added to the holiday cheer.

By nightfall, a packed Manger Square was awash in red, blue, green and yellow Christmas lights.

26 Schwarzenegger leaves mixed legacy in California

By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press

Sat Dec 25, 1:25 pm ET

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Arnold Schwarzenegger landed in the governor’s office after announcing his upstart bid on late night TV and railing against government spending during raucous campaign rallies – at one playing a spirited round of air guitar to the rock anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”

Then the world’s best known action star, Schwarzenegger conveyed an image of invincibility, persuading Californians that anything was possible if only they had the right mindset.

“I know how to sell something,” he said then.

27 SPIN METER: Lame-duck Congress charts own course

By ALAN FRAM and JENNIFER AGIESTA, Associated Press

Sat Dec 25, 12:39 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Republicans say they will follow “the people’s priorities” when they gain power on Capitol Hill next month. Yet when it came to tax cuts for the wealthy and other top issues that dominated the just concluded lame-duck Congress, the GOP either defied what most Americans want or followed their will only after grudging, drawn-out battles.

Relentlessly focused on the next election, politicians are usually loath to act against voter sentiment. Still, the post-election weeks of the 111th Congress saw battles in which Washington seemed oblivious to the direction most people wanted lawmakers to take, as measured by public opinion polls. These included:

Congress’ approval of a compromise between President Barack Obama and congressional GOP leaders renewing expiring tax cuts for everyone, despite broad public opposition to including people earning over DOLLARSIGN_SOAPBLOX250,000. An Associated Press-CNBC Poll in late November found only 34 percent wanted taxes reduced for the richest Americans.

28 Calif. officials could put end to high-paid city

By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press

Sat Dec 25, 12:30 pm ET

VERNON, Calif. – Fewer than 100 residents live in this small burg in the shadow of Los Angeles, surrounded by miles of gritty, occasionally smelly warehouses, meatpacking plants and manufacturing businesses. It is one of the least populated, most nondescript municipalities in the country – and one of the richest.

With 1,800 businesses providing an annual tax base of $334 million to a town with no parks, one school and only one residential street to maintain, there is plenty of money to go around.

There is so much, in fact, that Vernon’s former city manager was paid $785,000 last year. The guy he replaced earned $1.65 million the year before and another city manager, who retired in 2005, pulls down an annual pension of $500,000.

29 New tax law packed with obscure business tax cuts

By STEVE OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

Sat Dec 25, 3:34 am ET

WASHINGTON – The massive new tax bill signed into law by President Barack Obama is filled with all kinds of holiday stocking stuffers for businesses: tax breaks for producing TV shows, grants for putting up windmills, rum subsidies for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There is even a tax break for people who buy race horses.

Millions of homeowners, however, might feel like they got a lump of coal. Homeowners who don’t itemize their deductions will lose a tax break for paying local property taxes.

30 Tragedy turns parents into successful activists

By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

Fri Dec 24, 2:37 pm ET

CHICAGO – Epilepsy takes as many as 50,000 lives each year – grim statistics Mike and Mariann Stanton hadn’t heard of until their 4-year-old son, Danny, became one of them.

Somehow, that horrible tragedy a year ago transformed a blissfully ordinary Chicago family into extraordinary activists. With zero experience but fueled by wrenching grief, their passionate advocacy has brought widespread attention to a rare, little-understood medical condition called Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy, or SUDEP.

The Stantons want other families to know what they’d never been told – that epileptic seizures can be deadly.

31 Accountants, Texas board still at odds over Enron

By DANNY ROBBINS, Associated Press

Fri Dec 24, 3:31 am ET

AUSTIN, Texas – To many in the accounting world, Carl Bass is a hero. Long before Enron became a worldwide symbol of scandal, Bass told his supervisors at Arthur Andersen LLP that something was amiss with the Houston energy giant.

But the Texas state board that licenses accountants sees Bass differently – as unfit to continue in his profession.

Nearly a decade after Enron collapsed and took Arthur Andersen with it, the work of Bass and another former Andersen partner, Thomas Bauer, as Enron auditors is still being debated in a highly contentious and costly proceeding.

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  1. I hate winter, less than 3 months to Spring. Even Paris is getting hit, again. It was 84 in Sydney, Australia.  

  2. After 10 tries someone forgot that molotov cocktails only work if you light them first. Somebody didn’t flick his Bic.

    Englewood police seek motive in bomb attack on cellphone store

    Characterizing the bombs as similar to Molotov cocktails – cheaply made improvised explosive devices usually fashioned from a container of flammable liquid – authorities aren’t being specific about how the bombs were made or what type of fuel was used.

  3. WikiLeaks: How U.S. tried to stop Spain’s torture probe

    By Carol Rosenberg | Miami Herald

    MIAMI – It was three months into Barack Obama’s presidency, and the administration — under pressure to do something about alleged abuses in Bush-era interrogation policies — turned to a Florida senator to deliver a sensitive message to Spain:

    Don’t indict former President George W. Bush’s legal brain trust for alleged torture in the treatment of war on terror detainees, warned Mel Martinez on one of his frequent trips to Madrid. Doing so would chill U.S.-Spanish relations.

    Rather than a resolution, though, a senior Spanish diplomat gave the former GOP chairman and housing secretary a lesson in Spain’s separation of powers. “The independence of the judiciary and the process must be respected,” then-acting Foreign Minister Angel Lossada replied on April 15, 2009. Then for emphasis, “Lossada reiterated to Martinez that the executive branch of government could not close any judicial investigation and urged that this case not affect the overall relationship.”

    The case is still open, on the desk of a Spanish magistrate, awaiting a reply from the Obama administration on whether it will pursue a probe of its own.

    But the episode, revealed in a raft of WikiLeaks cables, was part of a secret concerted U.S. effort to stop a crusading Spanish judge from investigating a torture complaint against former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five other senior Bush lawyers.

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