Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 North Korean leader names son as general: official media

by Simon Martin, AFP

1 hr 39 mins ago

SEOUL (AFP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has appointed his youngest son as a four-star general, the communist state’s official media said Tuesday in its first mention of the young man widely seen as heir apparent.

The announcement comes hours before the scheduled opening of the biggest ruling party meeting for 30 years. The conference is expected to anoint the son Kim Jong-Un as eventual successor to the ailing 68-year-old leader.

The North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also said the leader’s sister Kim Kyong-Hui was appointed a four-star general along with Choe Ryong-Hae, a longtime aide to the Kim dynasty.

Different from Luke Russert how?

2 Race to finish C.Games facilities as athletes move in

by Ben Sheppard, AFP

Mon Sep 27, 1:45 pm ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Hundreds of athletes moved into the Commonwealth Games village in New Delhi on Monday, as it was confirmed Prince Charles will preside at the opening ceremony just six days away.

Despite warnings that work would not be finished at the much-criticised village until Wednesday, athletes and support staff from nations including England, South Africa, Australia and Canada arrived during the day.

Problems plaguing the crisis-hit Games range from shabby accommodation to security fears, an outbreak of dengue fever, and doubts about public safety after the collapse of a new footbridge next to the main stadium.

3 US commission told 50 percent of oil spill remains in Gulf

by Alex Ogle, AFP

53 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – More than half the oil released from a busted BP well remains in the Gulf of Mexico, a presidential panel was told Monday, as the US pointman lamented a “dysfunctional” response to the disaster.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar meanwhile told the bipartisan commission that the spill had bolstered a drive to reform federal regulations for offshore drilling, promising that lessons were learnt.

In an ominous sign for Gulf residents, however, oceanographer Ian MacDonald told the probe that while much of the oil was dispersed, evaporated or removed by burning and skimming, the “remaining fraction — over 50 percent of the total discharge — is a highly durable material that resists further dissipation.”

4 George Clooney lends star power to Milan fashion

by Gina Doggett, AFP

2 hrs 52 mins ago

MILAN, Italy (AFP) – Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney topped Giorgio Armani’s A-list on Monday as the Italian veteran designer unveiled a Tuareg-inspired spring/summer 2011 collection.

Cameramen swarmed around Clooney and girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis as they took their front-row seats for the pageant, staged as footage of rolling Saharan sand dunes and music suggesting desert wind played in the background.

Models wearing modified Tuareg turbans and flat sandals or Aladdin slippers — spike heels just wouldn’t do in the desert — trod the catwalk at a stately camel’s pace in colours ranging from dark blue to darker blue to midnight blue.

5 Asians muscling into social media world

by Philip Lim, AFP

Sun Sep 26, 6:48 pm ET

SINGAPORE (AFP) – Asians are muscling their way into traditionally Western-dominated social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Internet blogs, prompting major players to sit up and take notice.

With more than 220 million bloggers in China alone and nearly three out of five people in Singapore having a Facebook account, Asia is presenting a huge commercial opportunity for online advertising.

Social media guru Thomas Crampton, Asia-Pacific director of Ogilvy Public Relations’ global social media team, said regional users were jumping on the social media bandwagon at a faster rate than the rest of the world.

6 France, Germany split on automatic EU budget fines

by Laurent Thomet, AFP

2 hrs 22 mins ago

BRUSSELS (AFP) – France and Germany clashed on Monday over proposals to slap automatic fines on European Union states that stubbornly break the bloc’s debt and deficit ceilings.

Germany and the European Central Bank threw their weight behind proposals to be presented by the European Commission to toughen up budget rules with “quasi-automatic” fines for states with high public deficits and debts.

But French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde poured cold water on the plans as she arrived in Brussels for a meeting of a task force led by EU President Herman Van Rompuy to strengthen the 27-nation bloc’s fiscal discipline.

7 Japan demands China pull back boats from disputed islands

by Kyoko Hasegawa, AFP

Mon Sep 27, 12:22 pm ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan demanded Monday that China pull back two fisheries patrol boats from near a disputed island chain that is at the centre of the worst diplomatic row in years between the Asian giants.

Tokyo also summoned Beijing’s ambassador to demand regular consular access to four Japanese nationals whom China detained last week amid the ugly spat for allegedly filming a military facility.

Japanese media reported Monday that China’s foreign ministry had rejected a request from Tokyo’s ambassador to Beijing for a meeting over the issue.

8 Greening the high-street: big brands and the eco-revolution

by Emma Charlton, AFP

Mon Sep 27, 12:03 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – Poisonous pesticides, soil pollution and water waste: high-street fashion has a lot to answer for in the environmental game. But can big brands use their global clout to drive the green revolution?

If green is the new black on the high-street, then global retailers are lining up to parade their eco-credentials, from Marks and Spencers in Britain, to sportswear behemoth Nike or the fashion giant H&M.

“There’s a paradigm shift in the textile sector,” John Mowbray, editor of the green trends magazine Ecotextile, told AFP at the Texworld trade fair in Paris this month.

9 ‘Blood gold’ warning at precious metals conference

by Simon Sturdee, AFP

Mon Sep 27, 9:52 am ET

BERLIN (AFP) – A UN expert on the Democratic Republic of Congo warned a precious metals conference on Monday that “blood gold” is threatening the industry with a “moral and public relations disaster”.

“There is a high risk that any artisanally mined gold coming out of the country is ‘blood gold’,” Gregory Mthembu-Salter, a member of the UN Group of Experts on the conflict-riven but resource-rich African country, said.

He said rebels in eastern DRC, including those blamed by the UN for the rapes of at least 303 civilians in four days in July-August, were being financed by illegal mining of gold and other minerals that are exported worldwide

10 Cambodian clothes workers fight to stitch a living

by Michelle Fitzpatrick, AFP

Mon Sep 27, 8:56 am ET

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – It’s mid-morning in the Cambodian capital and Pat La is one of dozens of workers breaking for lunch at the Pine Great Garments plant, which makes clothes for US retailers like Gap and Walmart.

The 30-year-old mother was among the tens of thousands of textile workers who took part in a four-day mass strike earlier this month to demand higher wages — the latest bout of worker unrest in Asia.

She says she joined the stoppage because she cannot get by on the 50 dollars a month she earns making T-shirts.

11 Germany calls for stricter EU fiscal rules

by Laurent Thomet, AFP

Mon Sep 27, 8:16 am ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Talks on toughening budget rules to prevent a new European debt crisis heated up Monday as Germany called for the hammer to drop on countries that repeatedly run excessive deficits.

Germany launched the opening salvo in intense negotiations between European Union finance ministers meeting in Brussels as part of a task force looking into ways to strengthen the 27-nation bloc’s fiscal discipline.

The moves to punish budget bingers came as trade unions prepared to lead demonstrations in Brussels and other parts of Europe on Wednesday to protest austerity measures launched by EU states to bring down huge public deficits.

12 North Korean leader’s son rises as likely successor

By Jack Kim and Jeremy Laurence, Reuters

18 mins ago

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea’s ailing leader Kim Jong-il has named his youngest son as a military general, state media said early on Tuesday, marking the first stage of a dynastic succession.

It was the first time the 20-something Kim Jong-un had been mentioned by name in the North’s media, and his appointment came just hours before the start of a rare ruling party meeting to elect its supreme leadership.

Kim Jong-il, 68, is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008, but despite his declining health is not expected to go into retirement just yet, experts say. They say his son is too young and inexperienced to fully take the reins.

13 Southwest eyes AirTran to attack East Coast markets

By John Crawley and Kyle Peterson, Reuters

56 mins ago

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Southwest Airlines Co, the largest U.S. low-cost airline, struck a deal to buy smaller rival AirTran Holdings Inc for about $1 billion, aiming to challenge bigger carriers in the East Coast market.

The merger, which was announced Monday, would be the first between leading U.S. low-cost airlines and prompted speculation of more deals to come as the industry cuts costs and carriers look to expand their networks.

The cash-and-stock deal needs government approval. The acquisition values AirTran at a rich 69 percent premium to its Friday closing price and would lift Southwest into fourth place in U.S. air traffic rankings, from sixth place.

14 Japan seeks damages as China trawler row lingers

By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Chris Buckley, Reuters

Mon Sep 27, 10:10 am ET

TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) – Japan said it will ask China to pay for damage to its patrol boats suffered in a collision with a Chinese trawler, as Asia’s top two economies continue to bicker over the affair.

China’s newspapers accused Japan of exploiting the dispute to bolster its alliance with the United States and warned that Tokyo couldn’t afford the economic price of confrontation with Beijing.

Verbal volleying has continued for days in a quarrel between the two neighbors over Japan’s detention of the Chinese skipper of the fishing boat that collided with two Japanese coastguard ships, although he was released and returned home on the weekend.

15 Obama presses for longer school years

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 23 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Monday: Their year in the classroom should be longer, and poorly performing teachers should get out.

American students are falling behind their foreign counterparts, especially in math and science, and that’s got to change, Obama said. Seeking to revive a sense of urgency that education reform may have lost amid the recession’s focus on the economy, Obama declared that the future of the country is at stake.

“Whether jobs are created here, high-end jobs that support families and support the future of the American people, is going to depend on whether or not we can do something about these schools,” the president said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show.

Forget the kids.  Let’s Air Traffic Controller the Teachers.

16 NKorea appears to give military rank to Kim son

By KELLY OLSEN, Associated Press Writer

17 mins ago

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korean leader Kim Jong Il promoted Kim Jong Un to the rank of general in the Korean People’s Army, the state news agency reported, the clearest signal yet that the younger Kim is on track to succeed his father in ruling the impoverished country.

Kim Jong Il issued an order handing six people – including son Kim Jong Un – the rank of general, the Korean Central News Agency reported in a dispatch published early Tuesday. Also promoted was Kim Kyong Hui, which is the name of Kim Jong Il’s sister. Her name was listed ahead of Kim Jong Un’s in the report.

The Korean-language report came hours ahead of the start of the country’s biggest political meeting in three decades and amid intense speculation that Kim Jong Il’s youngest son and sister could be given key posts at the gathering.

17 Report: US would make Internet wiretaps easier

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer

14 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is pushing to make it easier for the government to tap into internet and e-mail communications. But the plan has already drawn condemnation from privacy groups and communications firms may be wary of its costs and scope.

Frustrated by sophisticated and often encrypted phone and e-mail technologies, U.S. officials say that law enforcement needs to improve its ability to eavesdrop on conversations involving terrorism, crimes or other public safety issues.

Critics worry the changes are an unnecessary invasion of privacy and would only make citizens and businesses more vulnerable to identity theft and espionage.

18 Segway owner dies after falling off river cliff

By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 52 mins ago

LONDON – A wealthy British businessman who owns the company that makes the two-wheeled Segway has been found dead in a river in northern England after apparently falling off a cliff on one of the vehicles, police said Monday.

The body of 62-year-old Jimi Heselden and a Segway personal transporter were found in the River Wharfe and he was pronounced dead at the scene, West Yorkshire Police said.

A witness had reported seeing a man fall Sunday over a 30-foot (9-meter) drop into the river near the village of Boston Spa, 140 miles (225 kilometers) north of London.

19 Attorney says ‘sexting’ Wis. prosecutor to resign

By CARRIE ANTLFINGER, Associated Press Writer

46 mins ago

CHILTON, Wis. – A Wisconsin prosecutor facing removal from office over accusations that he abused his position in seeking relationships with vulnerable women will resign instead, his attorney said Monday.

Attorney Robert Craanen said Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz will step down before Oct. 8, the date set for a hearing to hear testimony on his possible removal from office.

Kratz, a Republican, had been the top prosecutor in the eastern Wisconsin county south of Green Bay since 1992. He had been facing demands for his resignation since The Associated Press reported earlier this month he sent 30 text messages to a domestic abuse victim trying to strike up an affair while he prosecuted her ex-boyfriend on a strangulation charge.

20 Comcast COO Burke takes top spot at NBC Universal

By EMILY FREDRIX, AP Business Writer

Mon Sep 27, 7:00 am ET

NEW YORK – Comcast Chief Operating Officer Steve Burke will succeed Jeff Zucker as the new CEO of NBC Universal later this year, when Comcast takes control of the broadcaster.

Comcast Corp. and General Electric Co., which currently owns NBC, said Sunday that Burke will work with Zucker during the transition. Zucker, who has spent his entire career at NBC, said last week that he would be stepping down after the change in control, telling employees in an e-mail that he understood the new owners would want to have one of their own at the helm.

The possibility of a change-in-command had been looming since last December, when Comcast agreed to buy a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from Fairfield, Conn.-based GE. That deal, worth $13.75 billion, still hasn’t cleared regulatory hurdles, but is expected to be completed around the end of the year.

21 Citizens United finds niche after landmark case

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer

Mon Sep 27, 7:02 am ET

WASHINGTON – In a pair of town houses less than 10 blocks from where the Supreme Court gave his group a place in legal history, David Bossie is making movies and cutting a path for a new art form: the nonpolitical political ad.

Bossie is the president of Citizens United, a conservative group whose anti-Hillary Clinton movie in 2008 led to a landmark ruling this year. The Supreme Court threw out parts of a 63-year-old law prohibiting corporations and unions from paying to air ads for or against political candidates.

The decision has contributed to an explosion in political advertising by outside groups, so far most of them allied with the Republican Party, that have flocked to raise big money from individuals and companies and flooded into some of the most competitive races across the country.

22 Ga. megachurch pastor’s flock standing by him

By ERRIN HAINES, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 32 mins ago

LITHONIA, Ga. – Many followers of embattled Baptist megachurch leader Bishop Eddie Long remained unwavering in their support as their pastor vowed to fight like David versus Goliath against claims he lured four young men into sex.

Casting himself as the Bible’s ultimate underdog, Long went before congregants who packed his 10,000-seat church Sunday and promised to battle claims in lawsuits filed last week that he abused his “spiritual authority.”

Three members of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta and a fourth from a North Carolina branch filed lawsuits last week alleging Long used his standing and gifts including cash, cars and travel to coerce them into sexual relations when they were 17 or 18 years old.

23 Chile: trapped miners get Brad Pitt, censored news

By VIVIAN SEQUERA, Associated Press Writer

Mon Sep 27, 12:37 pm ET

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – They get laundry service, TV, three hot meals a day and even ice cream for dessert. Everyday life for the 33 miners trapped a half-mile underground now includes some of the comforts of home – at least those that can be lowered through narrow holes.

The miners are sleeping on cots that were sent down in pieces and reassembled, and each can look forward every weekend to eight minutes each of video chat time with his family using compact cameras and a phone that was disassembled to fit through the hole.

Settling in for the long wait, they have established a disciplined routine designed not only to keep them mentally and physically fit, but working together.

24 PROMISES, PROMISES: Waiting for Abu Ghraib amends

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer

Mon Sep 27, 3:18 am ET

WASHINGTON – Fending off demands that he resign over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress in 2004 that he had found a legal way to compensate Iraqi detainees who suffered “grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the United States armed forces.”

“It’s the right thing to do,” Rumsfeld said. “And it is my intention to see that we do.”

Six years later, the U.S. Army is unable to document a single payment for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

25 Japan, China test each other’s diplomatic resolve

By MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press Writer

Mon Sep 27, 8:12 am ET

TOKYO – Tension between China and Japan bumped back up a notch Monday when Tokyo asked Beijing to pay for damages to patrol boats hit by a Chinese fishing vessel in disputed waters, countering China’s demand for an apology over the incident.

The diplomatic back-and-forth shows that nationalistic sentiments stirred up by the incident – and the territorial dispute behind it – are not fading even after Tokyo released the ship’s captain Friday amid intense pressure from China.

Welcoming the skipper home as a hero, China stunned Japan over the weekend by demanding an apology and compensation over his arrest, a move that reflects Beijing’s growing self-confidence and its attempts to test the resolve of key neighbors like Japan, Washington’s closest ally in the region.

26 Hearing begins in alleged plot to murder Afghans

By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

39 mins ago

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Despite the array of prescription drugs he was taking, an Army soldier’s videotaped statement describing how he and his colleagues randomly killed three Afghan civilians appeared to be a reliable account, an investigator testified Monday at a hearing into one of the most serious war-crimes cases to emerge from the Afghan war.

Cpl. Jeremy Morlock of Wasilla, Alaska, is among five Stryker soldiers charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder. In interviews with Army investigators, he described a plot led by Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs to randomly kill civilians while on patrol in Kandahar Province.

Prosecutors have also alleged that members of the platoon mutilated Afghan corpses and even collected fingers and other body parts, and that some posed for photos with Afghan corpses.

27 Are we raising a generation of nincompoops?

By BETH J. HARPAZ, Associated Press Writer

41 mins ago

NEW YORK – Second-graders who can’t tie shoes or zip jackets. Four-year-olds in Pull-Ups diapers. Five-year-olds in strollers. Teens and preteens befuddled by can openers and ice-cube trays. College kids who’ve never done laundry, taken a bus alone or addressed an envelope.

Are we raising a generation of nincompoops? And do we have only ourselves to blame? Or are some of these things simply the result of kids growing up with push-button technology in an era when mechanical devices are gradually being replaced by electronics?

Susan Maushart, a mother of three, says her teenage daughter “literally does not know how to use a can opener. Most cans come with pull-tops these days. I see her reaching for a can that requires a can opener, and her shoulders slump and she goes for something else.”

28 Obama returning U. of Wis. to court young voters

By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press Writer

49 mins ago

MADISON, Wis. – President Barack Obama is returning to the University of Wisconsin to ask young voters who helped propel him to the White House to support fellow Democrats in key races for governor and U.S. Senate.

Tuesday’s visit carries a decidedly different political atmosphere than the one that surrounded the then-candidate in 2008, when a boisterous overflow crowd of more than 17,000 people greeted Obama at the Madison campus. His popularity has since dipped amid the nationwide recession, and many Democrats face tough challenges in the Nov. 2 midterm election.

During a Monday conference call with college journalists, Obama acknowledged excitement has waned in the last two years. But he said he hoped the Madison rally would re-engage students and emphasize the importance of the midterm to advancing his agenda.

29 Congress asked for study of urological war wounds

By HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 21 mins ago

CONCORD, N.H. – Before he passed out in the medical tent in Iraq, 19-year-old Lance Cpl. James Crosby wanted to know two things: would he survive the rocket attack that sent shrapnel through his side and spine, and was he all in one piece?

“I wanted to know not just if my arms and legs were there – I wanted to know if everything else was there,” he said. “You’re a man, you just got blown up. What do you see when things explode? You see little pieces flying everywhere.”

Crosby, now 26, joined the Marines right out of high school and had been in Iraq for 30 days when the truck he was riding was hit by a series of rockets in March 2004. Shrapnel tore up his intestines and severed a ureter, one of the tubes that carry urine from the kidney to the bladder. Left a partial paraplegic, he suffered years of painful urinary tract infections that set off excruciating nerve pain in his legs.

30 Pa. State Police says bulletins caused headaches

By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 29 mins ago

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Leaders of the Pennsylvania State Police told a legislative committee Monday that unsubstantiated or needlessly inflammatory listings in state-contracted homeland security intelligence bulletins caused a series of problems for their operations.

Maj. George Bivens, head of the criminal investigation division, said some of the notices about threats to Pennsylvania infrastructure produced by the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response for the state Office of Homeland Security resulted in a waste of manpower to address nonexistent threats. He compared the bulletins to a tabloid magazine.

“Every so often they have something right. Much of the time it is unsubstantiated gossip,” he told the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee.

31 Some US executions held up by shortage of drug

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, AP Legal Affairs Writer

2 hrs 1 min ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Some executions in the U.S. have been put on hold because of a shortage of one of the drugs used in lethal injections from coast to coast.

Several of the 35 states that rely on lethal injection are either scrambling to find sodium thiopental – an anesthetic that renders the condemned inmate unconscious – or considering using another drug. But both routes are strewn with legal or ethical roadblocks.

The shortage delayed an Oklahoma execution last month and led Kentucky’s governor to postpone the signing of death warrants for two inmates. Arizona is trying to get its hands on the drug in time for its next execution, in late October. California, with an inmate set to die on Wednesday, said the shortage will force it to stop executions after Sept. 30.

32 Iraq: US should help break government deadlock

By JOHN DANISZEWSKI and EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writers

2 hrs 44 mins ago

UNITED NATIONS – Iraq’s foreign minister urged the United States on Monday to take a more active role in breaking the deadlock over formation of a new government, saying the nearly seven-month election stalemate has not only left the country in limbo but hurt its economy.

Hoshyar Zebari said in an interview with The Associated Press that since the pullout of U.S. combat forces at the end of August, Iraqi security forces have proved that they are taking responsibility and there hasn’t been a security vacuum – but he said the failure to form a government is creating serious problems.

“Lack of efforts of government formation has been very negative on all aspects of life,” he said. “Everybody is holding back to see whether there would be a government, whether this political, security stability can last and continue.”

33 Oil gusher is dead, but not residents’ anguish

By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 45 mins ago

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – Her income down to virtually nothing because of the BP oil spill, Margaret Carruth put her face in her hands and wept recently at a town hall meeting before walking outside to what passes for home these days, her blue pickup truck.

Xanax helps her rest. Still, it’s hard to relax when you’ve lost your house and are sleeping at friends’ places or, sometimes, in the front seat.

The oil gusher is dead, but the mental trauma it caused along the Gulf of Mexico coast is still very much alive.

4 comments

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  1. Another Fucking gedit spacing failure.

    I HATE that FUCKING editor.

    Works just fine in XP!

  2. that tomorrow’s Evening Edition will likely be delayed as I have an appointment

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