Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 28 Top Stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 25 killed in Syria as US, Turkey slam regime

AFP

1 hr 38 mins ago

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian forces backed by helicopters killed at least 25 people at nationwide protests for democracy on Friday, as the United States said it is stepping up pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

The latest deaths came as security forces launched a long-feared crackdown in the northwest flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shughur near the border with Turkey.

Protesters poured on to the streets of main towns and cities after the weekly Muslim main prayers, many chanting slogans against Assad and in support of Jisr al-Shughur residents.

AFP

2 Kadhafi offered exit ‘guarantees’ amid deadly clashes

by Imed Lamloum, AFP

1 hr 36 mins ago

TRIPOLI (AFP) – Turkey has offered Moamer Kadhafi “guarantees” to leave Libya but has yet to receive a reply, its premier said Friday as the strongman’s forces killed at least 20 rebels in a fierce assault on Misrata.

Intense NATO-led strikes sent up plumes of smoke in Tripoli, where the strongman has his residence and headquarters, a day after Libya’s rebels won a cash boost and crucial recognition from key powers.

The latest flare-up came as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned the Western alliance’s air war on forces loyal to Kadhafi could be in peril because of military shortcomings.

3 Croatia’s green light to join EU raises hopes in Balkans

by Claire Rosemberg, AFP

Fri Jun 10, 2:12 pm ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Croatia took a giant step towards European Union membership Friday, winning a green light from Brussels to join in mid-2013, a move raising hopes for other Balkan nations knocking at the EU door.

“Today is a historic day for Croatia and the European Union,” said Jose-Manuel Barroso, head of the EU executive, on announcing that Zagreb had finally made sufficient progress on meeting stringent conditions required to join the bloc.

After six years of tough talks to become the EU’s 28th member, Barroso recommended closing the final four of 35 legal chapters that aspiring members must negotiate to gain EU entry — political, economic, social and judicial reforms to bring a nation to the cusp of EU standards.

4 Two withdraw as Europe fights to keep IMF job

by Paul Handley, AFP

Fri Jun 10, 2:30 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Two candidates to head the IMF backed out of the race Friday, denouncing Europe’s bid to hold on to the job, but leaving French favorite Christine Lagarde facing just one challenger.

Hours ahead of the close of nominations to be managing director of the International Monetary Fund, dark horses Grigory Marchenko of Kazakhstan and Trevor Manuel of South Africa said they would not stand for the job.

“It’s more or less obvious that Christine Lagarde is going to be elected,” the Kazakh central bank chief told CNN.

5 German bean sprouts ‘source of E. coli outbreak

by Deborah Cole, AFP

Fri Jun 10, 2:10 pm ET

BERLIN (AFP) – Germany blamed vegetable sprouts on Friday for a bacteria outbreak that has killed at least 33, left some 3,000 ill and cost farmers across Europe hundreds of millions in lost sales.

After a weeks-long hunt for the elusive source of the contamination, German officials said they were confident they had found the origin.

“It’s the sprouts,” Reinhard Burger, the president of the Robert Koch Institute, the national disease centre, told a news conference on the outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) in northern Germany.

6 Alonso fastest on day of chaos at Canada GP

by Gordon Howard, AFP

36 mins ago

MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) – Fernando Alonso played down his and Ferrari’s success in clocking the fastest practice time, but forecast a fun race for the fans in Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

The 29-year-old Spaniard said he suspected that, despite appearances to the contrary during Friday’s chaotic incident and crash-hit day, champions Red Bull would end up quickest in qualifying and once again be the team to beat.

“We also topped the practice in Monaco and then in qualifying (Sebastian) Vettel was one second quicker than us,” he said, issuing a warning to the legions of Ferrari fans who had packed the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the day.

7 UN summit adopts AIDS targets amid condom dispute

AFP

1 hr 3 mins ago

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – A UN AIDS summit on Friday adopted a landmark declaration setting a target of treating 15 million people with life-saving drugs and ending the mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015.

But Muslim countries and the Vatican protested over the summit statement which encouraged the use of condoms and called for greater emphasis on help for homosexuals, prostitutes and drug addicts.

“We must win our battle against AIDS and we will,” said Joseph Deiss, president of the UN General Assembly, after the declaration was passed by consensus at the end of the summit marking the 30th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS.

8 Powers plot ‘post-Kadhafi’ as rebels eye cash

by Lachlan Carmichael, AFP

Thu Jun 9, 3:33 pm ET

ABU DHABI (AFP) – Key powers met Thursday to map out what Washington calls an inevitable “post-Kadhafi Libya” as more signs emerged the strongman wants out and more than one billion dollars flowed toward the rebels.

The United States joined Australia and Spain in recognising the rebels’ National Transitional Council (NTC) as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people, following the example of several others countries including France, Italy and Britain.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, meanwhile, urged Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi to step down, “the sooner the better,” as he became the first head of state to visit the rebels’ eastern bastion of Benghazi.

9 Yemen braces for rival demos, Saleh out of IC

by Jamal al-Jaberi, AFP

Thu Jun 9, 3:55 pm ET

SANAA (AFP) – Yemen prepared for rival demonstrations on Friday after state media said embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh was out of intensive care in Saudi Arabia where he is being treated for bomb blast wounds.

Saleh’s troops on Thursday killed two pro-protester gunmen in the southern protest hub of Taez while fighting intensified in the southern town of Zinjibar, held by suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen since last month.

The pro- and anti-regime camps, meanwhile, have called for mass protests on Friday.

10 Syrians vow new protests, Paris charges ‘massacre’

AFP

Thu Jun 9, 3:11 pm ET

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Pro-democracy activists vowed more protests against President Bashar al-Assad for Friday, as his regime came under increased international pressure and faced “massacre” accusations.

Ahead of a convoy of troops and tanks reportedly converging on Jisr al-Shughur in northwest Syria, hundreds of the flashpoint town’s residents were fleeing to Turkey, the nearest foreign haven.

The number of Syrians who have fled to Turkey has increased to 2,500, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday.

11 Lagarde, Carstens battle for support for IMF job

by Paul Handley, AFP

Fri Jun 10, 12:33 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Mexico’s Agustin Carstens was in India and French rival Christine Lagarde in Lisbon pitching to be the next IMF chief Friday while a South African possible bowed out, knocking Europe’s hold on the job.

Nominations to lead the International Monetary Fund, after French head Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned as managing director May 18 to fight sexual assault charges, were to close late Friday, with three names expected on the shortlist.

French Finance Minister Lagarde is a strong favorite for the job, after being solidly backed by Europe, which is struggling to keep the IMF-backed bailout of Greece on the rails.

Reuters

12 Fed prepares for last spurt of easy money flood

By Richard Leong, Reuters

2 hrs 29 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The flood of Federal Reserve money that has supported Wall Street and the rest of the U.S. economy for 2-1/2 years will shrink to a trickle with the conclusion of the Fed’s bond purchases announced on Friday.

The Fed said it will buy $50 billion of Treasuries, the final series of government bond purchases that marks the last phase of the $600 billion program it launched in November 2010 to prevent another recession.

As a result, once the purchases are concluded on June 30, the financial sector will receive only a fraction of the roughly $100 billion a month in easy money it has been getting from the Fed.

13 May budget deficit less than half prior year’s

By Glenn Somerville, Reuters

2 hrs 58 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The budget deficit fell by more than half in May from year-earlier levels to $57.64 billion as tax revenues continued to rise, the Treasury Department reported on Friday.

The monthly deficit was far below the $140 billion gap that economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast, and was down from $135.93 billion in May 2010.

Revenues have been relatively strong, given a relatively high rate of national unemployment, but lawmakers still face an urgent need to reach a deal on budget and debt issues to try to get the deficit onto a long-term downward trajectory.

14 Helicopters open fire to disperse Syrian protesters

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters

17 mins ago

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian helicopter gunships fired machineguns to disperse pro-democracy protests, witnesses said, in the first reported use of air power to quell unrest in Syria’s increasingly bloody three-month-old uprising.

The use of the aircraft came on a day of nationwide rallies against President Bashar al-Assad, as unrest showed no sign of abating despite the harsh crackdown by his authoritarian state.

The helicopters opened fire in a northwestern town after security forces on the ground killed five protesters, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

15 Clinton warns Africa of China’s economic embrace

By Andrew Quinn, Reuters

2 hrs 32 mins ago

LUSAKA (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday warned Africa that China does not always have its interests at heart as economic ties expand, and offered the United States as an alternative.

Clinton arrived in Zambia to begin a five-day Africa trip that will also take her to Tanzania and Ethiopia to highlight the Obama administration’s drive to help African countries meet challenges ranging from HIV/AIDS to food security and accelerate often impressive economic growth.

She quickly zeroed in on the fast expanding clout of China, which pumped almost $10 billion dollars in investment into Africa in 2009 and has also seen trade soar as Beijing buys oil and other raw materials to fuel its booming economy.

16 Germany sticks to demand for Greek bond swap

By Noah Barkin and Harry Papachristou, Reuters

1 hr 18 mins ago

BERLIN/ATHENS (Reuters) – European paymaster Germany stuck to its guns on Friday in demanding that private investors contribute to a second bailout for Greece despite a European Central Bank warning against triggering market turmoil.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged parliament to back additional aid for the heavily indebted euro zone country but said private creditor participation in a new package was “unavoidable” and reiterated he favored a bond swap that would push out Greek debt maturities by seven years.

The Bundestag lower house approved a non-binding resolution supporting extra emergency loans to Greece, but only on the condition that bondholders be made to share the burden.

17 Gates parting shot warns NATO risks irrelevance

By David Alexander and David Brunnstrom, Reuters

Fri Jun 10, 12:53 pm ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered a sharp parting shot at European allies on Friday, saying NATO risks “collective military irrelevance” unless they bear more of the burden and boost military spending.

In a final policy address before retiring at the end of the month, Gates said NATO-led operations in Afghanistan and Libya had exposed significant shortcomings in military capabilities and political will among the allies.

“The mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country — yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the U.S., once more, to make up the difference,” he said.

18 Oil spill cleanup relies on decades-old technology

By Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters

2 hrs 42 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When the ominous black plume began gushing from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig last year, an army of workers was dispatched to protect the U.S. Gulf Coast using the latest technology — vinyl-covered booms and dispersant sprays.

And if another major spill occurs offshore the United States anytime soon, this is the most protection a community can expect should oil begin leaking from a ruptured well near its shores.

Oil companies since the BP accident have pledged more than $1 billion to develop systems to cap a leaking underwater well, and the government has imposed a raft of rules to prevent another major blowout.

19 Some exchange executives turn cool on merger mania

By Maria Aspan and Jonathan Spicer, Reuters

Fri Jun 10, 2:50 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Executives from Hong Kong, the CME and other of the world’s top exchanges downplayed the wave of mergers sweeping their industry by either casting doubts on the deals’ eventual success, or by endorsing a wait-and-see approach to tie-ups.

Even Duncan Niederauer, whose NYSE Euronext is trying to seal the largest pending exchange deal, with Deutsche Boerse AG, said on Friday he thinks his company’s separate bid for European clearinghouse LCH.Clearnet is unlikely to win the day.

“I think LCH is likely to stand alone,” Niederauer, Chief Executive of the Big Board parent, said on the sidelines of an industry conference hosted by Sandler O’Neill. “But I thought it was an opportunity to work with the banks.”

20 Germany pins down E.coli: "It’s the bean sprouts"

By Brian Rohan, Reuters

Fri Jun 10, 1:27 pm ET

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany said on Friday that deadly E.coli bacteria that have killed 31 people and hit farmers across Europe almost certainly came from contaminated bean sprouts grown at an organic farm in northern Germany.

“It’s the bean sprouts,” said Reinhard Burger, head of the German center for disease control, confirming that the salad vegetable was the common denominator among the thousands who had fallen sick.

Government scientists said traces of the deadly strain were detected in a packet of bean sprouts from the farm found in a family’s rubbish bin in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Two of the family fell ill after eating them.

21 Romney, Bachmann in Republican debate spotlight

By John Whitesides, Reuters

Fri Jun 10, 2:02 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans Mitt Romney and Michelle Bachmann will be in the spotlight next week as the party’s slow-forming presidential nominating race enters a new phase with its first major debate.

Nearly eight months before the first contest, Monday’s nationally televised forum will give voters a chance to form early impressions of most of the top-tier contenders for the right to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

Seven White House hopefuls will participate, including three prominent candidates who skipped an early debate last month — Romney, Bachmann and Newt Gingrich, who promises to be there despite Thursday’s mass resignation of his senior staff.

22 Greek PM rebuffs austerity opponents, vows June vote

By Dina Kyriakidou and Harry Papachristou, Reuters

Fri Jun 10, 12:34 pm ET

ATHENS (Reuters) – The Greek government defended its new austerity package from attacks in parliament on Friday, saying it was the only way to stave off bankruptcy, and made a new call for opposition parties to back the plan.

Prime Minister George Papandreou’s plan almost doubles the belt-tightening measures for 2011 already agreed with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, after the lenders judged that Athens had missed goals outlined under its bailout.

The ruling Socialist party has 156 deputies in the 300-seat house but growing numbers of its members are expressing unease at proposals including cutting spending and raising taxes to reduce the deficit by 6.5 billion euros more this year than first planned.

23 Lagarde in lead for IMF, South Africa’s Manuel opts out

By Catherine Bremer, Reuters

Fri Jun 10, 10:10 am ET

PARIS (Reuters) – South Africa’s Trevor Manuel ruled himself out of the race for the IMF’s top job on Friday, making French finance minister Christine Lagarde an even firmer favorite, although the threat of a judicial inquiry remains.

Emerging market powers like Russia, India and China have declared they want an end to Europe’s grip on the top job at the international lender, calling time on a pact that puts the IMF in European hands while the World Bank is run by an American.

Yet the only declared rival to Lagarde as the window for nominations draws to a close on Friday is Mexican Central Bank chief Agustin Carstens, whose policy views are seen as too conservative by many of his emerging market peers.

24 Special Report: In $22 billion Saudi family feud, who knew what?

By Douwe Miedema, Shurna Robbins and Sarah White, Reuters

Fri Jun 10, 11:29 am ET

LONDON/GEORGE TOWN (Reuters) – Mohammed Algosaibi often turns the palms of his hands up as he talks, as if asking for understanding.

He is trying to explain one of the biggest but least reported failures of the financial crisis. This has split his family, one of Saudi Arabia’s richest, cost some of the world’s biggest banks billions of dollars and is now being slugged out in courts from London to the Cayman Islands.

Some family members face travel bans linked to the case so it has fallen to the 32-year old to defend the Algosaibi empire since the 2009 collapse of two Bahraini banks left more than 100 banks including Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Societe Generale owed an estimated $22 billion.

25 Turkey braces for thousands more fleeing Syria

By Alexandra Hudson, Reuters

Fri Jun 10, 1:11 pm ET

GUVECCI, Turkey (Reuters) – More than 3,000 Syrians have fled into Turkey to escape a military crackdown and authorities are preparing to open a third camp to shelter thousands more, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday.

New arrivals mounted as the Syrian army swept into a town near the border where clashes raged earlier in the week and began to arrest what state television described as armed opponents.

“Overall arrival numbers are quickly increasing,” said Metin Corabatir, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

26 China May trade gap smaller than expected

By Kevin Yao and Zhou Xin, Reuters

Fri Jun 10, 8:08 am ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – China posted a smaller-than-expected trade surplus in May of $13.1 billion because of soaring imports and weaker global demand growth, giving mixed signals about how the economy fared when some of its best export customers faltered.

China’s sales to the United States and the European Union slumped to their weakest since late 2009, excluding Lunar New Year holidays, underlining the view that the world economy is stumbling.

Still, as an engine of growth, import figures suggested China’s economy is expanding at a healthy, if not stellar, pace. Crude imports stayed at elevated levels and coal volumes rose by more than a fifth from both April and a year earlier.

27 Microsoft loses U.S. Supreme Court case on patent

By James Vicini, Reuters

Fri Jun 10, 12:06 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp suffered a defeat on Thursday when the Supreme Court upheld a record $290 million jury verdict against the software giant for infringing a small Canadian company’s patent.

The justices unanimously agreed with a U.S. appeals court ruling that went against the world’s largest software company in its legal battle with Toronto-based i4i.

The high court refused to adopt Microsoft’s lower standard to replace the long-standing requirement that a defendant in a patent infringement case prove by clear and convincing evidence that a plaintiff’s patent is invalid.

28 Debt talks to speed up, taxes still a hurdle

By Andy Sullivan and Deborah Charles, Reuters

Thu Jun 9, 6:15 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top lawmakers aiming to reach a deficit-reduction deal agreed on Thursday to step up the pace of their talks with a series of meetings next week but said they still disagreed over the need to raise taxes.

Vice President Joe Biden and six leading Democratic and Republican lawmakers have now met a half-dozen times as they try to work out their differences and reach a deal to reduce trillion dollar budget deficits.

Thursday’s Capitol Hill meeting took place amid growing pressure at home and abroad for an agreement that would let Congress raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling before an August 2 deadline, when the Treasury Department has warned it will run out of money to pay the nation’s bills.

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