Evening Edition

The airport of Libya’s third-largest city, which had been under siege by loyalist forces for almost two months, fell to the rebels after fighting that raged through the night, an AFP correspondent said.

By Wednesday afternoon, insurgent fighters were in full control, as people celebrated the victory in the streets and others set ablaze tanks left behind by Kadhafi troops.

Among the dead was an eight-year-old boy, the head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, Ammar Qurabi, told AFP.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the bloc will look at fresh sanctions this week against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime after already homing in on his inner circle.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the bloc will look at fresh sanctions this week against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime after already homing in on his inner circle.

In the face of the persistent violence the UN agency for Palestinian refugees suspended operations for 50,000 people in central and southern Syria, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for an end to “excessive force.”

The man in his 30s is in a “critical but stable” condition in intensive care after undergoing emergency surgery for a head injury, the Greek health ministry said.

A communist group said on its website the activist had suffered blows from a truncheon during an incident on the sidelines of the demonstration organised by the Greek trade unions.

Security forces fired tear gas after being hit with stones by a small group of protesters who retreated, leaving behind a trail of vandalised garbage bins, bus shelters and stores in the Athens centre.

At least 14 people were injured according to reports, and police said they had detained 24 people for questioning.

Some 20,000 people marched in Athens and Thessaloniki, according to police, in separate union protests against a recovery blueprint applied by Greece’s creditors which many here blame for pushing the country into deep recession.

Scuffles broke out near the parliament in Athens with the police firing tear gas to disperse a few dozen stone-throwing protesters.

The New York federal jury found Sri Lankan-born Rajaratnam, head of the Galleon Group, guilty on all 14 counts. Rajaratnam, 53, faces up to 20 years in prison on the most serious charges, but as much as 205 years if the judge decides to run all separate penalties consecutively.

The marathon case, which ended with 12 days of jury deliberations, was seen as a landmark assault by the Justice Department on Wall Street corruption and what prosecutors termed “greed.”

A regional environmental panel approved the HidroAysen project on Monday, as thousands of protesters took to the streets to picket the massive construction effort.

The two-billion-euro ($2.9 billion) project involves the construction of five hydroelectric power stations, two along the Baker River and three on the Pascua River, in an area some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles south of Santiago).

Rajaratnam, the central figure in the broadest insider trading investigation in decades, sat expressionless as the judge’s deputy read the jury’s verdict to a hushed courtroom. The Galleon Group founder could face at least 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 29.

Wednesday’s verdict, which many experts predicted given evidence from dozens of secretly recorded telephone calls, was a vindication of the prosecution case that Rajaratnam ran a web of highly-placed insiders between 2003 and March 2009 to leak corporate secrets. He earned an illicit $63.8 million as a result, the government argued.

Before the official could say “guilty” 14 times, Dowd put his pen down, tucked his glasses away and leaned back in his chair. It had been a long trial. He had lost.

Then, an hour or so later, the 69-year-old veteran defense lawyer and former U.S. Marine Corps captain was once again his combative self.

Police had fired several rounds of teargas earlier on Wednesday to disperse stone-throwing protesters as senior EU and IMF envoys began talks with the government on stepping up fiscal reforms needed to get the next slice of a bailout package.

“The hooded youths broke into the hospital manager’s office and beat up three policemen who were there investigating the protester’s injuries,” said a policeman who declined to be named. “Two policemen were slightly injured and one suffered more serious injuries to the head.”

After bailing out Greece one year ago, European governments have concluded that additional aid may be necessary as Athens struggles to meet its economic targets and win back the confidence of investors, who now believe it will eventually have to restructure its debt mountain.

EU finance ministers will discuss the Greek crisis next week but are not expected to decide on any new support measures until the mission that began on Wednesday gives its verdict on progress on reforms.

The momentum of gasoline’s biggest fall in over two years washed across the oil complex and hit everything from silver to copper to the euro. Early losses stemming from weak Chinese industrial output data and gains in the dollar tied to Greek debt woes spiraled through the day, setting off sell-stops.

The abrupt tumble drove oil volatility to its highest close since mid-March as traders struggled to figure out where markets might find equilibrium after diving more than $13 a barrel from their peak just last week.

The offering is less than half of what had been contemplated earlier this year. When Wall Street banks offered their services to manage the sale in January, there was talk of an offering of more than $20 billion.

One angry shareholder made his displeasure clear at AIG’s annual meeting on Wednesday.

The rebels, who also rejected a United Nations call for a ceasefire, are fighting across the North African country to end Gaddafi’s 41 years in power.

The war has reached stalemate, with the government controlling the capital and almost all of the West while rebels in charge in Benghazi and other towns in the oil-producing east.

Assad, fighting the most serious challenge to his 11-year-rule, has sent troops and tanks into several cities in the last two weeks to try to bring to an end protests inspired by Arab revolts which toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.

Protesters, who first called for reforms and greater freedoms, have hardened their demands with many chanting for the overthrow of the president who inherited the authoritarian powers of his father Hafez al-Assad, who died in 2000.

In the capital Sanaa, forces fired on a crowd of tens of thousands marching to the cabinet building. At least six demonstrators died and around 100 were wounded, said a doctor heading a makeshift clinic for wounded protesters at the scene.

He said the number of dead could rise.

Consumer inflation eased modestly to 5.3 percent in April from a 32-month high in March of 5.4 percent. The outcome topped expectations but still underlined the view that price pressures are peaking and may start to ease in the second half of 2011.

Industrial output rose 13.4 percent from a year earlier, but that was more than a full percentage point below both expectations and a strong pace in March.

The scheme, set to be approved by the cabinet as early as Thursday, is designed to protect bondholders and will keep Tokyo Electric shares listed, although the utility will be forced to forgo dividend payments for several years, ruling party lawmakers briefed on the plan said on Wednesday.

The plan is the result of weeks of wrangling among government officials, bankers and Tokyo Electric executives over who should foot the bill for the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan and is leaking radiation.

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake that rocked northeastern Japan on March 11 forced Toyota and other Japanese automakers to slash output at home and abroad as they struggled to secure vital parts. The ensuing nuclear disaster and power shortages have compounded problems.

The world’s biggest automaker on Wednesday gave no earnings forecasts for the current business year due to the continued disruption to production, but said output would begin recovering as much as two months earlier than it had expected as parts makers come back on line. Toyota expects to give a guidance by mid-June, it said.

Europe’s biggest bank faces an urgent need for action as over two-fifths of its businesses are not delivering their cost of capital, Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said.

Retreating from high street services in some countries and savings ranging from IT cuts to reducing paperwork would help trim costs as a share of revenue to 48-52 percent by 2013 from 61 percent in the first quarter.

The pledges were made in two days of talks between the world’s two biggest economies which ended with both sides hailing progress in their often tense relationship.

The difficulties in relations, particularly in human rights issues, were underscored by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who described Beijing’s rights decord as “deplorable” in a magazine interview. China’s current crackdown on dissent, she said, amounted to “a fool’s errand”.

Federal prosecutors used nearly three dozen recordings at trial to back up their claim that Rajaratnam made a fortune by coaxing a crew of corporate tipsters into giving him an illegal edge on blockbuster trades in technology and other stocks. In a clear signal of the tapes’ importance, the U.S. District Court jurors asked several times to rehear some of the recordings before convicting Rajaratnam of all 14 counts: five of conspiracy and nine of securities fraud.

Rajaratnam could be heard wheeling and dealing with corrupt executives and consultants – in one case demanding “radio silence” on information that could affect a stock price.

Just over a month ago, the administration released long-awaited draft regulations for “accountable care organizations,” networks of doctors and hospitals that would collaborate to keep Medicare patients healthier and share in the savings with taxpayers. Obama’s health care overhaul law envisioned quickly setting up hundreds of such networks around the county to lead a bottom-up reform of America’s bloated health care system.

But in an unusual rebuke, an umbrella group representing premier organizations such as the Mayo Clinic wrote the administration Wednesday saying that more than 90 percent of its members would not participate, because the rules as written are so onerous it would be nearly impossible for them to succeed.

CEO Louis C. Camilleri’s statement was in response to comments at its annual shareholder meeting in New York. Executives from the seller of Marlboro and other brands overseas spent most of the gathering sparring with members of anti-tobacco and other corporate accountability groups.

The nurse, later identified as Elisabeth Gundersen from the University of California-San Francisco, cited statistics that tobacco use kills more than 400,000 Americans and 5 million people worldwide each year. She is a member of The Nightingales Nurses, an activist group that works to focus public attention on the tobacco industry.

Syrian activists and protesters involved in the seven-week-long uprising renewed their cries for the world to join them in calling for embattled President Bashar Assad to give up power.

“The Syrian people are being killed and Bashar knows that he has a free hand. Nobody is really stopping him,” a 28-year-old Syrian from the besieged seaside city of Banias told The Associated Press by telephone, asking that his name not be used out of fear for his own safety.

Now, as the 67-year-old former U.S. House speaker enters the race for president, he faces the challenge of drawing on his rich resume of experience while rebranding himself for a restless Republican Party that seems hungry for a fresh face to take on the youthful and hip President Barack Obama.

“It’s the crux of his campaign,” former Gingrich aide Rich Galen says. “Can he escape being a symbol of the past?”

Instead, the ruling party is defending the army and allowing it to investigate its own intelligence fiasco, undermining the notion that Pakistan’s elected leaders will ever be able to assert their full authority in a country prone to military coups. The civilians’ timidity doesn’t bode well for U.S. and Pakistani hopes that the nuclear-armed nation will evolve into a stable democracy.

“The civilian-military imbalance is the greatest threat to Pakistani democracy. It is also the issue the civilian politicians are least capable of tackling,” said Cyril Almeida, a prominent Pakistani commentator.

The call for action comes after a recent investigation revealed evidence of corruption among Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s top commanders, and emails cited in court documents showed that top deputies circulated offensive jokes about Mexicans even as they were being scrutinized over allegations of racial profiling.

“We’re the laughing stock of the world,” said Salvador Reza, an organizer of a local immigrant rights group who joined County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, a state representative and others at a news conference where they called for Arpaio’s resignation.

Citing inspector general reports, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said only 5 percent of the rubble has been removed and 22 percent of the needed transitional shelters have been built.

The administrator of the Agency for International Development, Rajiv Shah, told a House hearing that major progress has been made in providing safe drinking water and medical care. He said a new industrial park will create 5,000 jobs.

The moves by the powerful lawmakers atop the House Appropriations Committee are the first concrete steps to try to implement a tight-fisted 2012 budget plan approved by Republicans’ last month. It would build on $38 billion in savings enacted in a hard-fought agreement with Obama over the current year’s budget.

The $30 billion in savings from agency operating budgets that have to be annually approved by Congress seems small compared to deficits that could top $1.6 trillion this year. But they’re actually a key building block in eventually wrestling the deficit under control, assuming Congress can make the cuts now and stick with them year after year in the face of inflation.

The Defense Department should re-examine its plans for South Korea, Guam and Okinawa – where many islanders oppose the presence of U.S. forces. A 2006 agreement with Japan aimed at decreasing America’s military footprint is outdated and imposes an “enormous financial burden” on the U.S. ally as it recovers from a huge earthquake, the senators say.

Carl Levin and John McCain, the two highest-ranking members of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, and Jim Webb, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee for east Asia and the Pacific, made the recommendations in a joint statement. They offered alternatives they say would save billions but still keep U.S. military forces in the region.

Their theme was similar: The Peace Corps, which happens to be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, did little to train its workers about how to avoid or deal with violent attacks. And it reacted insensitively and unhelpfully in the aftermath of the crimes, they said.

“I want the young women who go into the Peace Corps today to be protected,” said Carol Marie Clark, who testified Wednesday that she joined the Peace Corps in 1984 at age 22 in Nepal and was raped and impregnated by the program’s director there.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago on behalf of a woman whose son was molested by Father Daniel McCormack, is an attempt to “hold those most responsible for the global problem and the problem in this community to account in a way they have never been,” said St. Paul, Minn.-based attorney Jeff Anderson.

McCormack pleaded guilty in 2007 to abusing five children while he was parish priest at St. Agatha Catholic Church and a teacher at a Catholic school and was sentenced to five years in prison. In 2008, the Archdiocese of Chicago agreed to pay $12.6 million to 16 victims of sexual abuse by priests, including McCormack. As part of that settlement, Cardinal Francis George also agreed to release a lengthy deposition and apologize to the public and each victim.

It’s a long commute. But it would be much longer if Ironwood had no commercial flights – a distinct possibility if Congress eliminates federal subsidies for carriers serving about 110 airports in rural communities and small towns across the lower 48 states.

The Essential Air Service program was established in 1978 when the government deregulated the airlines, enabling them to drop lightly traveled routes that lose money and focus on lucrative, big-city markets. It pays carriers to provide a minimum number of seats and trips from small airports to larger “hub” airports.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt denied Planned Parenthood of Indiana’s request for a temporary restraining order despite arguments that the law jeopardizes health care for thousands of women on Medicaid. The American Civil Liberties Union said the decision makes Indiana the first state to cut off public funding to Planned Parenthood for general health services.

Planned Parenthood said it wants to keep funds flowing while it challenges the law signed Tuesday by Daniels. The judge’s decision allows the cuts to take effect immediately.

Now gas costs almost $4 a gallon again, but Toyota is struggling. It’s been hammered by supply disruptions from the Japan earthquake and can’t escape the stigma from its safety-related recalls last year. And its rivals are making flashier cars with great gas mileage.

Toyota said Wednesday that its quarterly profit fell more than 75 percent, mostly because of production problems from the March 11 quake and tsunami. The automaker’s CEO, Akio Toyoda, said executives are “gritting our teeth” to keep jobs in Japan.

So do relatives of at least two of the 29 men who died in the nation’s worst coal mining disaster since 1970.

The interviews show ill-equipped Massey executives Chris Blanchard and Jason Whitehead charged deep into the mine just after the blast. So did two fully equipped and trained Massey mine rescue teams. And at least early on, even government mine rescue teams assumed Massey Chief Operating Officer Chris Adkins was directing the search for victims.

But Syria said it will run for a seat on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council in 2013, when Kuwait was supposed to be a candidate.

The Kuwaiti and Syrian ambassadors announced the swap after the 53-member Asian Group met behind closed doors and endorsed the deal.

The House Armed Services Committee, beginning a marathon session Wednesday to craft a $553 billion budget for the Defense Department next year, unanimously approved the measure seeking “any official document, record, memo, correspondence, or other communication of the Department of Defense …. that refers or relates to any consultation with Congress” on Libya.

Republicans and some Democrats have complained that Obama failed to consult with Congress before initiating the military operation to protect civilians from Moammar Gadhafi’s forces in Libya. The administration and some Republican senators, including John McCain of Arizona, said the U.S. had to act quickly to avoid a massacre in Benghazi.

Tanya McDowell deserves to be treated the same as 26 other families who were caught this year for doing the same thing in Norwalk schools, said her lawyer, Darnell Crosland.

The other out-of-town children who were put into Norwalk schools were sent back to their hometown districts, but none of their parents were arrested.

Most of the employees interviewed by a private consulting firm did not believe the department, sued over the years by blacks, Hispanic, American Indians and women, had a civil rights problem. Research by the Jackson Lewis LLP Corporate Diversity Counseling Group “substantiated in part the anecdotal claims of neglect, at best, and wide-spread discrimination, at worst” at the department.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack arranged for the $8 million review as part of his effort to address long-running problems, many involving minorities denied loans by department field offices staffed mostly by white men.

Republicans, meanwhile, expressed impatience with the administration’s pace in submitting the free trade accords to Congress for ratification, saying American producers were losing export markets because of delays.

The comments came at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the trade agreement with Colombia, probably the most controversial of three accords – also with South Korea and Panama – that were signed during the George W. Bush administration but have yet to come up for a vote in Congress.

The swagger struck some as odd. The Ohio Republican, after all, has said failure to increase the borrowing limit this summer would trigger a financial disaster for America and the world.

But allies say Boehner had multiple motivations for insisting on trillions of dollars in spending cuts, and no tax increases, as the price for rounding up enough votes to allow more borrowing and prevent the country from defaulting on its debt.

Maybe it was because the Transit Connect – with room for five passengers and a large cargo – cost less than $65 to fill the fuel tank, even at today’s prices.

Whatever the reasons, people stopped and checked out Ford’s Euro-style people and cargo hauler. The curious and admirers included regular car buyers, not just the owners of small businesses targeted by Ford officials as purchasers of the Transit Connect.