Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Rwanda ex-army chief jailed for 30 years over genocide

by Ephrem Rugiririza, AFP

Tue May 17, 12:32 pm ET

ARUSHA (AFP) – The UN court for Rwanda handed former army chief Augustin Bizimungu a 30-year jail term for his role in the 1994 genocide, including for calling for the murder of minority Tutsis.

It also jailed two senior officers for ordering their men to assassinate the prime minister at the start of the 100-day killing spree, when they also murdered 10 Belgian UN troops protecting her.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) convicted the head of the paramilitary police at the time, Augustin Ndindiliyimana, of genocide crimes but ordered his release as he had already spent 11 years in jail.

AFP

2 Queen remembers victims during historic Ireland visit

by Robin Millard, AFP

1 hr 37 mins ago

DUBLIN (AFP) – Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath Tuesday to remember the victims of Ireland’s struggle for independence from Britain in a landmark gesture on the first visit of a British monarch to the Irish Republic.

The 85-year-old began her historic four-day trip surrounded by Ireland’s biggest ever security operation as the discovery of a bomb near Dublin underscored the lingering threat from dissident republicans opposed to the peace process.

Wearing white, the queen stood in silence alongside Irish President Mary McAleese during the wreath-laying ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin.

3 Pressure piles on Kadhafi, oil minister in Tunisia

by Imed Lamloum, AFP

1 hr 2 mins ago

TRIPOLI (AFP) – Pressure piled on Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi Tuesday as his oil minister appeared to have defected, Moscow issued a rebuke, NATO jets pounded Tripoli and a leading prosecutor sought his arrest for crimes against humanity.

A Tunisian government source told AFP Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem, a veteran of Moamer Kadhafi’s regime, had left Libya and was in neighbouring Tunisia.

Ghanem, also chairman of Libya’s national oil company, crossed the border by car on Saturday and checked in to a hotel on the southern tourist island of Djerba, the official said.

4 Rosneft shatters BP’s Arctic dream

by Dmitry Zaks, AFP

52 mins ago

MOSCOW (AFP) – Rosneft on Tuesday shattered BP’s hopes of exploiting Russian Arctic oil by pulling out of a planned joint venture with the British giant after losing patience with protracted negotiations.

Rosneft officials said the state-controlled Russian oil giant was now looking for a new Western partner following the failure of the two sides to resolve a row concerning BP’s Russian joint venture before Monday’s deadline.

The deal — championed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — was hailed as a breakthrough in Russian business ties with the West and a chance for BP to restore its reputation after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

5 Riddle of God Particle ‘could be solved by 2012’

by Richard Ingham, AFP

Tue May 17, 11:42 am ET

LONDON (AFP) – Physicists believe that by the end of 2012 they will be able to determine whether a theorised particle called the Higgs boson, which has unleashed a gruelling decades-long hunt, exists or not, they said on Tuesday.

“I’m pretty confident that towards the end of 2012 we will have an answer to the Shakespeare question for the Higgs boson — to be, or not to be?” Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director general of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), told a press conference at Britain’s Royal Society.

CERN has ordered the world’s biggest particle collider to step up the quest to explain mass, one of the greatest puzzles in physics.

6 Kadhafi arrest warrant sought after truce offer

by Jan Hennop, AFP

Mon May 16, 8:35 pm ET

THE HAGUE (AFP) – The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor applied for a warrant for Moamer Kadhafi’s arrest for crimes against humanity, a day after the Libyan strongman’s regime offered a truce in return for a halt to NATO-led air strikes.

In Libya’s capital, two explosions were heard overnight Tuesday in the Bab Al-Aziziya area of Tripoli where strongman Moamer Kadhafi’s residence is located, an AFP journalist reported.

A column of white smoke could be seen rising from the area after two explosions at about 1:30 am (1130 GMT Monday) and ambulance sirens could be heard.

7 ‘Upset’ eurozone chief blasts talk of IMF successor

AFP

Mon May 16, 7:32 pm ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister heading the eurozone, said he was “sad and upset” Monday by his friend Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s court appearance — and angered by those already seeking a successor.

“He’s a good friend of mine, I didn’t like the pictures I saw on TV this morning,” Juncker told a news conference in Brussels after talks between 27 European finance ministers hours after the IMF chief was denied bail by a US judge.

“Mr. Strauss-Kahn is in the hands of American justice. It’s not up to us to comment on this but it makes me deeply, deeply sad.”

8 Eurozone anoints Italy’s Draghi as ECB head

by Laurent Thomet, AFP

Mon May 16, 7:22 pm ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Eurozone finance ministers named Italy’s Mario Draghi on Monday as their chosen successor to head the European Central Bank come October, Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker announced.

“We unanimously designated Mario Draghi to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet,” Juncker said at a news conference. “Mario Draghi will be the new president of the ECB.”

Juncker said the Italian had both “an excellent international and European reputation” to take the helm of the Frankfurt-based bank.

Reuters

9 Economic data suggests soft patch continues

By Lucia Mutikani, Reuters

1 hr 32 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. factory output slipped for the first time in 10 months in April as a shortage of parts from Japan crimped activity and home building slumped, showing the economy got off to a weak start in the second quarter.

Signs of lackluster economic activity were also evident in declines in sales at Wal-Mart Stores, which said its customers were still living from paycheck to paycheck. Home Depot also reported a drop in sales while Hewlett-Packard cut its 2011 profit forecast.

Despite the weak data, analysts are still cautiously optimistic the economy will regain speed this quarter after growth slowed to a 1.8 percent annual pace in the January-March period.

10 Skepticism grows on Geithner’s debt limit deadline

By Tim Reid and Rachelle Younglai, Reuters

9 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is facing growing criticism for his changing predictions on when the country might face a debt default, shifts that have led some Republicans to discount his dire warnings that the debt limit must be raised soon.

Since January, Geithner has changed his forecast of when the U.S. would hit its borrowing cap, and the final deadline for raising the debt limit, at least four times — fueling a belief among rank-and-file Republicans that his latest August 2 deadline is artificial and can be ignored.

Some Democrats are increasingly worried that the changing calendar has been counter-productive, complicating efforts to get the $14.3 trillion borrowing cap raised because many conservative Republicans do not believe the country will start to default for many months.

11 Probes into banks’ mortgage lending grow

By Andrew Longstreth and Joe Rauch, Reuters

2 hrs 58 mins ago

NEW YORK/CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – The New York attorney general’s office has requested information from three major banks about their mortgage operations, according to a source familiar with the matter.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has asked Bank of America Corp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley for information on their mortgage securitization practices, the source said.

Schneiderman has also requested meetings with the banks over the next couple of weeks.

12 Libya’s top oil official defects: Tunisian source

By Joseph Logan and Tarek Amara, Reuters

Tue May 17, 12:28 pm ET

TRIPOLI/TUNIS (Reuters) – The chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation has defected from Muammar Gaddafi’s administration and fled to neighboring Tunisia, a Tunisian security source said on Tuesday.

Libyan rebels also said they had information that Shokri Ghanem, 68, had defected, a move that if confirmed would deal a blow to Gaddafi’s efforts to shore up his 41-year rule.

“He is in a hotel with a group of other Libyan officials,” the Tunisian source told Reuters. Another Tunisian security source said he was on his way to the capital Tunis.

13 HP slashes outlook, spends on services overhaul

By Poornima Gupta and Jim Finkle, Reuters

2 hrs 50 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hewlett-Packard Co slashed its 2011 profit forecast as it prepares to spend heavily to revamp a troubled division that provides everything from computer maintenance to high-level tech consulting, sending its shares tumbling over 7 percent.

Chief Executive Leo Apotheker, who took the helm in September, blamed the division’s “missed opportunities” under his predecessor Mark Hurd.

He vowed on Tuesday to revamp the division to focus on consulting, cloud computing and higher-margin businesses, moving away from less-profitable endeavors like maintenance.

14 Britain’s Queen honors Irish nationalists

By Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries, Reuters

Tue May 17, 1:16 pm ET

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Queen Elizabeth honored Irish people killed fighting for independence from Britain on Tuesday in a powerful gesture of reconciliation few people would have believed possible even in recent times.

The queen laid a wreath at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance, Ireland’s monument to its fallen heroes, before a hushed crowd of dignitaries, soldiers and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, whose uncle was killed by militant Irish nationalists in 1979.

The visit, the first by a British monarch since Ireland won independence from London in 1921, is designed to show how warm neighborly relations have replaced centuries of animosity but security was tight after a homemade bomb was found.

15 U.S. fines BAE $79 million over arms-control breaches

By Rhys Jones and Jim Wolf, Reuters

2 hrs 25 mins ago

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Britain’s BAE Systems Plc agreed to pay up to $79 million in U.S. government fines for more than 2,500 alleged breaches of rules governing military exports, the State Department said on Tuesday.

The civil settlement is the biggest in the department’s history. It ends long-running corruption investigations into the company, Europe’s biggest arms maker by sales, on both sides of the Atlantic.

The department cleared BAE’s fast-growing U.S. unit and its subsidiaries of all charges against the parent company, based in Farnborough, outside London.

16 Tanks storm south Syria city as U.S. piles on pressure

By Suleiman al-Khalidi, Reuters

Tue May 17, 12:32 pm ET

AMMAN (Reuters) – The West warned of more pressure on Syria on Tuesday if a crackdown against pro-democracy protests continues, hours after tanks stormed a city in the south, cradle of an uprising against Baathist rule.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that both the European Union and the United States — which have already slapped sanctions on a number of senior Syrian officials but not on President Bashar al-Assad — were planning more steps.

“We will be taking additional steps in the days ahead,” Clinton said, saying she agreed with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who told reporters that the time for Syria to make changes was now.

17 Ryan pushes spending cuts as U.S. hits debt limit

By Andy Sullivan and Ann Saphir, Reuters

Mon May 16, 4:16 pm ET

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) – The United States reached the legal limits of its borrowing authority on Monday as a top Republican increased his party’s demand for deep spending cuts as part of any increase.

The remarks by Representative Paul Ryan, the top budget writer in the House of Representatives, underscored the divisions that Republicans and Democrats will have to overcome in order to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit and avoid a default that would roil markets across the globe.

The Treasury Department said it was dipping into federal pension funds to pay the country’s bills, one of several emergency measures that should stave off a default until early August.

18 Euro zone eyes Greek debt move, backs Portugal aid

By Daniel Flynn and John O’Donnell, Reuters

Mon May 16, 7:40 pm ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers said for the first time on Monday that they would consider asking Greece’s private creditors to extend the maturities on their bonds to buy Athens more time to pay down its huge debt.

At a meeting in Brussels that was overshadowed by the weekend arrest of International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on rape charges, the ministers also approved a bailout for Portugal and backed Italian Mario Draghi to become the next president of the European Central Bank.

Strauss-Kahn, who has run the Washington-based IMF since 2007, had been expected to attend the monthly meeting of finance ministers from the 17-nation currency bloc to discuss their widening debt crisis.

19 Euro zone eyes Greek debt move, backs Portugal aid

By Daniel Flynn and John O’Donnell, Reuters

Mon May 16, 7:40 pm ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers said for the first time on Monday that they would consider asking Greece’s private creditors to extend the maturities on their bonds to buy Athens more time to pay down its huge debt.

At a meeting in Brussels that was overshadowed by the weekend arrest of International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on rape charges, the ministers also approved a bailout for Portugal and backed Italian Mario Draghi to become the next president of the European Central Bank.

Strauss-Kahn, who has run the Washington-based IMF since 2007, had been expected to attend the monthly meeting of finance ministers from the 17-nation currency bloc to discuss their widening debt crisis.

AP

20 Costly Miss. River closure meant to protect levees

By ALAN SAYRE and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

14 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – The Coast Guard has interrupted shipping along the country’s busiest inland waterway over fears that the bulging Mississippi River could strain levees that protect hundreds of thousands from flooding. Already, thousands have sought refuge from floodwaters up and down the river.

The Coast Guard said it closed the Mississippi River at the port in Natchez, Miss., because barge traffic could increase pressure on the levees and because of fears that barges couldn’t operate safely in the flooded river. Heavy flooding from Mississippi tributaries has displaced more than 4,000 in the state, about half of them upstream from Natchez in the Vicksburg area.

Several barges were idled at Natchez at the time of the closure, and many more could back up along the major artery for moving grain from farms in the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. It wasn’t clear when the river would reopen, but port officials said the interruption could cost the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars per day.

21 Senate takes up bill repealing $2B oil tax breaks

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

15 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Senate is taking up a bill Tuesday that would repeal about $2 billion a year in tax breaks for the five biggest oil companies, a Democratic response to $4-a-gallon gasoline that might fare better when Congress and the White House negotiate a deal later this year to increase the government’s ability to borrow.

The evening vote is expected to fail. But Democrats hope to build their case to include the measure in a deficit-reduction package being negotiated by key lawmakers and the Obama administration. Lawmakers from both parties are demanding deficit reduction as part of deal to increase the government’s ability to borrow and avoid an unprecedented default on U.S. Treasury bonds.

The oil companies are “doing just fine at every level of their business, and we’re giving them a taxpayer subsidy?” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “This is a place to start.”

22 SPIN METER: On health care, it’s Newt vs. Newt

By SHANNON McCAFFREY, Associated Press

17 mins ago

ATLANTA – An official presidential candidate for less than a week, Newt Gingrich already finds himself in hot water with conservatives for suggesting he supports health care mandates while at the same time deriding a Republican budget proposal that would replace Medicare with vouchers.

The former House speaker has moved quickly to backtrack, arguing he remains “committed to the complete repeal of Obamacare” and supports state lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

But even as Gingrich distances himself from the law he is not backing away from one of its central tenets: that all Americans have a responsibility to share in the cost of health care.

23 Analysis: GOP race more about who’s out than in

By LIZ “Sprinkles” SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer

47 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Huck’s out. So is The Donald. Haley pulled the plug a few weeks back, following John Thune and Mike Pence. These days it seems the race for the GOP presidential nomination is more about who isn’t running than who is.

Is it the challenge of beating an incumbent president or the state of the Republican Party?

“What if they held an election and no one ran? That’s kind of where we are right now,” Curt Anderson, a veteran GOP pollster, says with a chuckle.

24 Thompson considerations loom in Wis. Senate race

By SCOTT BAUER and HENRY C. JACKSON, Associated Press

7 mins ago

MADISON, Wis. – U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s decision not to run for Wisconsin’s soon-to-be open Senate seat cleared the path Tuesday for other Republicans eyeing a race that will help determine the balance of power in the Senate. Until Tommy Thompson got in the way.

Just hours before Ryan announced his intentions on his campaign website, two Republicans who have spoken with Thompson about his plans told The Associated Press that the former governor would strongly consider getting into the race if Ryan chose not to run. They requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak for Thompson, who was traveling out of the country all week.

The news was a mixed bag for the field of potential Republican candidates looking to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl.

25 Lawmakers angry with Pakistan warn of cuts in aid

By DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press

35 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans and Democrats warned Pakistan on Tuesday that billions of dollars in American aid are at stake if Islamabad doesn’t step up its efforts against terrorists, a clear sign of the growing exasperation after the U.S. takedown of Osama bin Laden deep inside Pakistan.

The frustration evident at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing exposed the dilemma for the United States, which needs Pakistan for its supply routes into Afghanistan in the 10th year of the war there and its help in any talks with the Taliban. Still, questions loom about the uneven ally in the aftermath of the May 2 raid in which U.S. SEALs killed bin Laden on an estate near a Pakistani military training academy.

Just back from a weekend trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan, the committee chairman, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said he told Pakistani leaders about the deep concerns in Congress and the nation about the country’s eagerness in the terror fight. The White House signed off on Kerry’s trip, which sought to ease tensions with Pakistan.

26 Could the Internet spell the end of snow days?

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Associated Press

52 mins ago

PARKVILLE, Mo. – Could the Internet mean the end of snow days? Some schools think so, and they are experimenting with ways for students to do lessons online during bad weather, potentially allowing classes to go on during even the worst blizzard.

“Virtual snow days” would help ease pressure on school calendars. Because districts are required to be in session for a certain number of hours or days, losing teaching time to winter weather can mean extending the school day or cutting short spring break or summer vacation.

And canceling school in the winter, when some of the most difficult material of the year is covered, risks leaving students with a learning deficit heading into the spring, when many states administer standardized tests.

27 Politicking steps up to replace IMF’s Strauss-Kahn

By BRADLEY KLAPPER and CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, Associated Press

6 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The race to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the International Monetary Fund stepped up Tuesday along with pressure on him to resign and avoid undermining the IMF, a key force of global economic stability.

Some diplomats said a European country should no longer be guaranteed stewardship over a global economy increasingly driven by emerging powers in Asia and Latin America. The IMF board could move soon to oust Strauss-Kahn if he insists on remaining in his post while jailed on charges of trying to rape a New York City hotel maid, analysts suggested.

Even if Strauss-Kahn is presumed innocent, the IMF will approach this crisis as ruthlessly as a company would, said Robert Bennett, the lawyer who represented President Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky affair and Paul Wolfowitz before he resigned from the World Bank, the IMF’s sister institution, in 2007.

28 Homebuilders missing out on economic recovery

By DEREK KRAVITZ, AP Real Estate Writer

1 hr 12 mins ago

WASHINGTON – For homebuilders, it hardly feels like an economic recovery.

Nearly two years after the recession ended, the pace of construction is inching along at less than half the level considered healthy. Single-family home building, the bulk of the market, has dropped 11 percent in that time. And there’s no sign it will improve soon.

Builders are struggling to compete with waves of foreclosures that have forced down prices for previously occupied homes. The weakness is weighing on the economy.

29 Pakistan protests after clash with NATO helicopter

By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press

1 hr 47 mins ago

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s military said Tuesday its ground forces exchanged fire with a NATO helicopter in another possible flashpoint with Washington, but also claimed it arrested a senior al-Qaida operative following U.S. demands for “actions, not words” to restore trust.

The two reports highlight some of the complexities of trying to rebuild ties after the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden earlier this month. Washington needs Pakistan as a crucial partner against al-Qaida, but Pakistani officials remain deeply angered by the secret operation over their borders in the assault on bin Laden.

In a possible sign of stronger controls on the frontier, Pakistani ground forces traded fire with a NATO helicopter on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, wounding two Pakistani soldiers, officials said. The Pakistani army filed a protest, and a NATO spokesman said an “incident” occurred at the border and that an investigation would be launched.

30 Syrian activists call general strike in new tactic

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press

2 hrs 50 mins ago

BEIRUT – Syrian protesters called Tuesday for a one-day nationwide general strike, urging students to skip school and workers to bring commerce to a halt in a new strategy of defiance against government crackdowns that appear to be turning more brutal and bloody.

The strike, planned for Wednesday, marks a shift by opposition forces to strike at President Bashar Assad’s regime from new angles: its economic underpinnings and ability to keep the country running during two months of widening battles.

A sweeping popular acceptance of the strike call would be an embarrassing blow to Assad and show support for the uprising in places, such as central Damascus, where significant protests have yet to take hold and security forces have choked off the few that have taken place.

31 EU may ask investors to give Greece more time

By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER and DEREK GATOPOULOS, Associated Press

Tue May 17, 12:58 pm ET

BRUSSELS – Greece’s private creditors may be asked to give the struggling country more time to repay its debts, the European Union’s top economic official said Tuesday, marking an important shift in the region’s attitudes towards solving the crisis.

Until this week, European officials had denied that extending debt repayments had even been discussed, for fear of undermining market confidence. But many investors are convinced a change in Greece’s debt deals is inevitable at some point.

“A voluntary extension of loan maturities could … be examined” together with asking banks and other investors to maintain their exposure to Greece, the EU’s Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told journalists after a two-day meeting with European finance ministers.

32 British queen makes historic peace trip to Ireland

By GREGORY KATZ and SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press

1 hr 18 mins ago

DUBLIN – Sometimes words aren’t necessary. That was the case Tuesday when Queen Elizabeth II placed a wreath in Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance to honor the Irish rebels who lost their lives fighting for freedom – from Britain.

The queen became the first British monarch to set foot in Dublin for a century. Her four-day visit is designed to show that the bitter enmity of Ireland’s war of independence 90 years ago has been replaced by Anglo-Irish friendship, and that peace has become irreversible in the neighboring British territory of Northern Ireland.

The ceremony under threatening steel-gray skies was simple and direct, its meaning clear. There were no apologies, no acknowledgment of misdeeds, but the presence of the British monarch on ground that is sacred to many Irish was a powerful statement of a desire to start anew.

33 Fields of watermelon burst in China farm fiasco

By ALEXA OLESEN, Associated Press

Tue May 17, 11:59 am ET

BEIJING – Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of “land mines.”

About 20 farmers around Danyang city in Jiangsu province were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 hectares) of melon, China Central Television said in an investigative report.

Prices over the past year prompted many farmers to jump into the watermelon market. All of those with exploding melons apparently were first-time users of the growth accelerator forchlorfenuron, though it has been widely available for some time, CCTV said.

34 Another Gadhafi regime official defects

By DIAA HADID and BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press

Tue May 17, 2:48 pm ET

TRIPOLI, Libya – Another high-ranking Libyan official has defected and fled the country amid a widening NATO campaign of bombings as well as leafletting and other psychological warfare to persuade Moammar Gadhafi’s troops to stop fighting.

Shukri Ghanem, the Libyan oil minister and head of the National Oil Co., crossed into neighboring Tunisia by road on Monday, according to a Tunisian security official and Abdel Moneim al-Houni, a former Libyan Arab League representative who was among the first wave of Libyan diplomats to defect.

The defections suggest Gadhafi’s political structure is fraying, but it’s unclear whether there is enough internal strife to seriously undermine his ability to fight rebel forces as NATO airstrike pound Libyan military targets. Gadhafi appears to retain the backing of his core of military commanders.

35 Another round of NFL talks ends without agreement

By DAVE CAMPBELL, AP Sports Writer

51 mins ago

MINNEAPOLIS – The NFL and its locked-out players wrapped up another round of court-ordered mediation Tuesday without any signs of a new agreement and the clock ticking on the 2011 season.

Officials and attorneys for both sides said they will return for more closed-door talks with U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan on June 7, four days after a key appeals court hearing in St. Louis on the legality of the lockout.

NFL lead negotiator Jeff Pash and former Vikings standout Carl Eller both said the talks went well, but there was no indication of any progress toward a new collective bargaining agreement. Pash said he thought Boylan had done a good job of “pushing the parties,” but he doesn’t believe the dispute over the future of the $9 billion business will be settled in court.

36 Gingrich urges talk about his personal failings

By THOMAS BEAUMONT, Associated Press

Tue May 17, 7:06 am ET

DUBUQUE, Iowa – Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich says he has sought God’s forgiveness for his personal failings and hopes that evangelical voters take time to talk to him about his two divorces and his affair with the woman who is now his third wife.

His chances of winning the nomination of a party dominated by religious conservatives may depend on it.

“I think people have to look at me, ask tough questions, then render judgment,” the former House speaker told The Associated Press on Monday during his first Iowa trip as a declared presidential candidate. “I have made mistakes in my life. I have had to go to God to ask for forgiveness and seek reconciliation.”

37 INSIDE WASHINGTON: DHS most overseen department

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press

Tue May 17, 7:06 am ET

WASHINGTON – If congressional oversight is a good thing, then the Homeland Security Department may be suffering from too much of a good thing.

The department, cobbled together quickly out of 22 other agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, answers to 108 congressional committees, subcommittees, caucuses and the like, about four times as many as the departments of State and Justice combined.

Officials and staff spent about 66 work years responding to questions from Congress in 2009 alone. That same year, Homeland Security officials say they answered 11,680 letters, gave 2,058 briefings and sent 232 witnesses to 166 hearings. All this at a cost to taxpayers of about $10 million.

38 Company abandoning pipeline project in Alaska

By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press

17 mins ago

JUNEAU, Alaska – One of two companies planning to build major natural gas pipelines in Alaska has dropped its bid, saying Tuesday that it didn’t secure the support necessary to justify going forward with its project.

The announcement from Denali-The Alaska Gas Pipeline raised questions about the prospects for building a long-hoped-for line in Alaska. For years, Alaskans have dreamed of a gas line as a way to help shore up revenues as oil production declines, create jobs and provide a more reliable source of energy. But Denali cited changes in the market – lower gas prices, the rise of North American shale – as making it tough to get the commitments they needed to move forward.

Denali venture had been competing with a plan to build a line TransCanada Corp., which says it is continuing efforts to move its project forward. TransCanada has progressed with state financial support, something Denali never received. A company official, Scott Jepsen, doesn’t believe it would have made a difference in the Denali decision.

2 comments

  1. Will be on Letterman tomorrow night

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