Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 39 Top Stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 One fifth of world’s plants threatened by extinction: study

AFP

54 mins ago

LONDON (AFP) – More than a fifth of the world’s plant species faces the threat of extinction, a trend with potentially catastrophic effects for life on Earth, according to research released on Wednesday.

But a separate study cautioned that extinction of mammals had been overestimated and suggested some mammal species thought to have been wiped out may yet be rediscovered.

Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, said the report on plant loss was the most accurate mapping yet of the threat to the planet’s estimated 380,000 plant species.

2 Europe navigates between alarm, hope on economy

by Nathaniel Harrison, AFP

Tue Sep 28, 4:31 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – Europe confronted ominous new bond market pressures on Tuesday and braced for massive public protests against spending cuts, dampening the economic landscape despite signs of strength in Germany and Britain.

In Europe on Tuesday long-term yields on Irish and Portuguese sovereign bonds soared to the highest levels since 1997 and sent fresh warning signals about overspending and public debt in the eurozone.

“While the underlying macro picture in the eurozone looks increasingly resilient and reassuring, the risk of accidents in financial and sovereign debt markets remains uncomfortably high, with Ireland and Portugal in the limelight,” Unicredit economist Marco Annunziata said.

3 N.Korea’s heir apparent gets senior party posts: state media

by Simon Martin, AFP

2 hrs 49 mins ago

SEOUL (AFP) – The youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has been given senior posts in the ruling communist party, state media said Wednesday, confirming his status as heir apparent to his ailing father.

Kim Jong-Un was named one of two vice-chairmen of its powerful central military commission and a member of its core institution the central committee, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

On Monday the 68-year-old leader had appointed his son a four-star general, a move seen as the first official confirmation that Jong-Un has been picked as eventual leader of the impoverished but nuclear-armed nation.

4 IMF boss sees low risk of ‘currency war’

by Hugues Honore and Andrew Beatty, AFP

2 hrs 18 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The risk of a global currency war is “low” but cannot be ruled out, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Tuesday, following a spate of currency interventions.

Amid mounting anger that economic powers are pouring money into currency markets to make exports cheaper at the expense of rivals, Strauss-Kahn insisted the potential impact of an all-out currency war should give countries pause.

“I don’t feel today that there is a big risk of a currency war. But that’s part of the downside risk,” Strauss-Kahn told reporters in Washington.

5 At snail’s pace, nudging the world towards better food

by Francoise Kadri, AFP

Tue Sep 28, 12:07 pm ET

ROME (AFP) – For more than two decades, Carlo Petrini has been gently nudging the world towards “good, clean and fair” food, signing up 100,000 people in 163 countries to his Slow Food movement.

“Philosophically, finding slowness again is essential. We need to take a small, homeopathic dose of it every day, to come back to a life rhythm that is more bearable,” the 61-year-old Italian told AFP in an interview in Rome.

Slow Food, whose symbol is a red snail, promotes food that is “good at a sensory level,” but also aims to educate people about traditional and wholesome means of production and defend biodiversity in the food supply.

6 Competitors start arriving for C’wealth Games

by Pratap Chakravarty, AFP

Tue Sep 28, 10:50 am ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) – The clock ticked down on the Delhi Commonwealth Games Tuesday with signs that conditions in the much-criticised athletes’ village were finally improving as hundreds of competitors arrived.

Australia, one of the countries that had slammed the village last week, said organisers were working hard to improve the state of facilities just five days before the start of the event.

“It’s pretty good,” Lynsey Armitage, a member of the Australian lawn bowls team, told reporters. “I’ve been here for the last two days. I feel completely safe and secure.”

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

by Alex Ogle, AFP

Mon Sep 27, 4:13 pm ET

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.”

8 Malaria vaccine closer than ever, scientists say

by Karin Zeitvogel, AFP

2 hrs 35 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Scientists are closer than ever to rolling out the first malaria vaccine, which could be available in Africa by 2015, a co-inventor of the shot against the killer disease said Tuesday.

Advanced trials of the RTS,S vaccine against falciparum malaria, the deadliest strain of the disease, are under way in seven African countries and going “very well,” said GlaxoSmithKline researcher Joe Cohen, who has been working on developing the vaccine for over 20 years.

“We believe we’ll have the first data coming out of the trials in 2012, and, to make a long story short, we could have the first implementation in Africa between 2015 and 2016,” he told AFP.

9 Medvedev fires veteran Moscow mayor

by Stuart Williams, AFP

Tue Sep 28, 4:23 pm ET

MOSCOW (AFP) – President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday fired Moscow’s strongman mayor Yury Luzhkov, dramatically ending an 18-year rule that transformed the Russian capital but also attracted bitter controversy.

The sacking — one of Medvedev’s boldest moves since coming to power in 2008 — came after the mayor was lambasted by the Kremlin for his aloof handling of the summer wildfire crisis that blanketed Moscow in smog.

A decree, published on the Kremlin web site, ordered Luzhkov, 74, to be “dismissed from the position of Moscow mayor because he has lost the confidence of the Russian president.”

10 World failing to meet 2010 HIV/AIDS care target: UN

by Peter Capella, AFP

Tue Sep 28, 12:16 pm ET

GENEVA (AFP) – UN agencies warned on Friday that the world will fail to meet an end-2010 deadline for “universal” access to HIV/AIDS care and treatment, while new crisis-driven funding cuts could unravel any gains.

The World Health Organisation, UNAIDS, and the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF said in a joint report that the target of universal access — defined as access for 80 percent of the HIV positive population — to prevention, treatment and care was within “clear reach” for “a good number of countries.”

“Nevertheless, this report also demonstrates that, on a global scale, targets for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care will not be met by 2010,” the report said.

11 Financial regulators to trot out reform plans

By Dave Clarke, Reuters

2 hrs 20 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators racing to implement new financial market policing powers will appear together before a Senate committee this week to face questions likely tinged with election-season politics.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and five other top regulators are due to testify to the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday about how they intend to put in place a broad-ranging regulatory overhaul that was approved after rancorous debate just two months ago.

Republicans are keen to paint the regulatory reform as a big government takeover of private industry that will jeopardize the economic recovery by driving up borrowing costs for consumer and businesses.

12 North Korea leader’s son seen set for succession

By Jack Kim, Reuters

1 hr 41 mins ago

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s son, Jong-un, became his second in command at the ruling Workers’ Party’s powerful Central Military Commission on Wednesday, teeing him up for succession.

Kim Jong-un, believed to have been born in 1983 or 1984 and given his first public title on Tuesday as an army general, was also made a Central Committee member at the first party conference in 30 years, state news agency KCNA said.

The party meeting, where KCNA said Kim Jong-il was in attendance, also made the leader’s sister and her husband members of the political bureau and elevated long-time loyal family aides to its supreme leadership body.

13 Poll gives former Bush official big lead in Ohio

By John Whitesides, Reuters

Tue Sep 28, 4:20 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican Rob Portman, a senior official under former President George W. Bush, has opened a commanding 13-point lead over his Democratic rival in a Senate race in Ohio, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday said.

Portman, budget director and U.S. trade representative in Bush’s administration, leads Democrat Lee Fisher 50 percent to 37 percent barely more than one month before the November 2 congressional election.

Portman has pulled away from his rival — he led Fisher by 7 percentage points in an early August survey — in a race dominated by voter worries about the economy and stubbornly high unemployment. They are vying for the seat or retiring Republican Senator George Voinovich.

14 Obama hits the road in hopes of firing up voters

By Patricia Zengerle, Reuters

Tue Sep 28, 3:05 pm ET

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) – President Barack Obama worked to portray Republicans on Tuesday as catering to millionaires over the middle class to try to energize young voters ahead of November 2 congressional elections.

“You’ve got to ask yourselves, ‘What direction do I want this country to go in?'” Obama said at a campaign-style event in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Obama is on a four-state tour this week looking to drum up support from young voters who helped send him to the White House two years ago and who may be crucial in helping Democrats hold on to their congressional majorities on November 2.

15 Lawmakers eyes late-year Senate vote on China yuan

By Doug Palmer, Reuters

Tue Sep 28, 5:32 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate will wait until after the November 2 congressional elections to vote on legislation to pressure China to raise the value of its currency, Democratic senators said on Tuesday.

Senator Sherrod Brown told reporters he saw strong bipartisan support for currency legislation that the House of Representatives is expected to approve on Wednesday.

However, it is unlikely the Senate will vote on such a bill before lawmakers recess in coming days to go home to campaign, the Ohio Democrat said.

16 Medvedev fires defiant Moscow mayor

By Conor Humphries, Reuters

Tue Sep 28, 3:11 pm ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday abruptly sacked veteran Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, a powerful political opponent who criticized the Kremlin and then defied pressure to resign.

Luzhkov, 74, a pillar of the ruling United Russia party, had ruled the capital since 1992, but angered Medvedev by suggesting the country needed a stronger and more decisive leader. The remark seen as favoring the prime minister, Vladimir Putin.

Putin offered support for Medvedev’s decision, suggesting the mayor had overstepped the mark by challenging the Kremlin. But he also praised Luzhkov and made clear that he himself would help choose a successor.

17 Brazil race tightens as Rousseff slips in poll

By Stuart Grudgings, Reuters

Tue Sep 28, 2:21 pm ET

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s ruling party presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff may be forced into a runoff after an opinion poll on Tuesday showed her lead slipped in the wake of an ethics scandal involving a former aide.

The survey by pollster Datafolha showed Rousseff’s voter support fell to 46 percent from 49 percent a week ago, leaving her with 51 percent of valid votes — just above the threshold she needs to win the election in the first round on Sunday.

The poll was the clearest sign yet that corruption allegations that prompted Rousseff’s successor as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s chief of staff to resign are eroding the frontrunner’s commanding lead and increasing the chances of a runoff vote on October 31.

18 Myanmar tells U.N. it aims for ‘free and fair’ vote

By Louis Charbonneau, Reuters

Tue Sep 28, 11:49 am ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The foreign minister of Myanmar vowed on Tuesday that the country’s ruling junta will do its best to ensure that a November 7 general election, which rights groups have declared a sham, is “free and fair.”

Speaking at the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, Foreign Minister Nyan Win insisted that the vote in the country formerly known as Burma will be “inclusive” — even though Nobel Peace Prize laureate and democratic icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners are not allowed to run.

“Whatever the challenges facing us, we are committed to do our best for the successful holding of the free and fair general elections for the best interest of the country and its people,” Win told the 192-nation assembly.

19 Obama both rallies, scolds Dems in campaign trip

By CHARLES BABINGTON and LIZ “Sprinkles” SIDOTI, Associated Press Writers

57 mins ago

MADISON, Wis. – Buck up. Stop whining. And get to work.

Clearly frustrated by Republicans’ energy – and his own party’s lack of enthusiasm – President Barack Obama scolded fellow Democrats even as he rallied them Tuesday in an effort to save the party from big GOP gains in the crucial midterm elections. In the final month of campaigning, he’s trying to re-energize young voters, despondent liberals and other Democrats whose excitement over his election has dissipated.

“It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines,” the president declared in a Rolling Stone magazine interview. He said that supposed supporters who are “sitting on their hands complaining” are irresponsible because the consequences of Republican congressional victories could be dashed Democratic plans.

20 Obama: Democratic voter apathy ‘inexcusable’

By BEN FELLER, AP White House Correspondent

Tue Sep 28, 7:02 am ET

WASHINGTON – Admonishing his own party, President Barack Obama says it would be “inexcusable” and “irresponsible” for unenthusiastic Democratic voters to sit out the midterm elections, warning that the consequences could be a squandered agenda for years.

“People need to shake off this lethargy. People need to buck up,” Obama told Rolling Stone in an interview to be published Friday. The president told Democrats that making change happen is hard and “if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren’t serious in the first place.”

The midterm elections are in five weeks and polling shows that Republicans, out of power at the White House and on Capitol Hill, have a much more excited base of supporters than Democrats. Obama, campaigning this week in four states, is in a sprint to restore the voter passion that helped him win office.

21 Sour economic mood in living room and boardroom

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Retail Writer

58 mins ago

NEW YORK – Americans in both the living room and the boardroom are growing more fearful about the economy, creating a Catch-22 for the job market: Shoppers won’t spend until they feel more secure, and business won’t hire until people start spending.

The eroding views were revealed Tuesday by two separate surveys, one that found everyday Americans are increasingly pessimistic about jobs and another that found CEOs have grimmer predictions about upcoming sales.

“The economy is stuck in an unvirtuous cycle,” said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo. “Consumers are waiting for more jobs to be created, and businesses are waiting for consumers.”

22 Ethics panel faces partisan split over trial dates

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 45 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The House ethics committee split along party lines Tuesday as Republicans demanded pre-election trials for two prominent Democrats, Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters.

The rift is important politically because proceedings in October could generate negative headlines for Democrats. Trials after the election would likely keep the Democrats’ ethics record in the background in midterm campaigns largely fought over economic issues.

The split shatters anew the image of the committee as a panel where members of both parties work together to investigate allegations of ethical wrongdoing.

23 North Korea leader’s son promoted, seen as heir

By JEAN H. LEE, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 15 mins ago

SEOUL, South Korea – The youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was elected to his first prominent posts in the ruling Workers’ Party, state media said early Wednesday, putting him well on the path to succeed his father as leader of the nuclear-armed nation.

The announcement of Kim Jong Un’s ascension to the party’s Central Committee and military commission came a day after news that Kim Jong Il had made him a four-star general – a major promotion that appeared to set into motion a plan to eventually put the little-known, Swiss-schooled 20-something at the helm of the communist country.

Kim Jong Il has led the nation with absolute authority since taking over in 1994 upon the death of his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, in the communist world’s first father-to-son transfer of power.

24 Recession rips at US marriages, expands income gap

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer

39 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The recession seems to be socking Americans in the heart as well as the wallet: Marriages have hit an all-time low while pleas for food stamps have reached a record high and the gap between rich and poor has grown to its widest ever.

The long recession technically ended in mid-2009, economists say, but U.S. Census data released Tuesday show the painful, lingering effects. The annual survey covers all of last year, when unemployment skyrocketed to 10 percent, and the jobless rate is still a stubbornly high 9.6 percent.

The figures also show that Americans on average have been spending about 36 fewer minutes in the office per week and are stuck in traffic a bit less than they had been. But that is hardly good news, either. The reason is largely that people have lost jobs or are scraping by with part-time work.

25 Emanuel faces hurdles if coming home to Chicago

By DON BABWIN and TAMMY WEBBER, Associated Press Writers

18 mins ago

CHICAGO – If Rahm Emanuel wants to run for Chicago mayor, the White House chief of staff will have to persuade voters to do what the couple leasing his Chicago house apparently would not: Welcome him home.

Emanuel, widely expected to announce a decision about his candidacy within days, recently called the tenants renting his home on Chicago’s North Side and asked them to move out so he could move back in, spokesman and close friend Rick Jasculca said Tuesday.

But the couple said no. They extended their lease until next year just days before Mayor Richard Daley announced he wouldn’t seek re-election, Jasculca said, and told Emanuel they don’t want to leave.

26 AP IMPACT: Haiti still waiting for pledged US aid

By JONATHAN M. KATZ and MARTHA MENDOZA, Associated Press Writers

1 hr 35 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Nearly nine months after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians still live on the streets between piles of rubble. One reason: Not a cent of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived.

The money was pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in March for use this year in rebuilding. The U.S. has already spent more than $1.1 billion on post-quake relief, but without long-term funds, the reconstruction of the wrecked capital cannot begin.

With just a week to go before fiscal 2010 ends, the money is still tied up in Washington. At fault: bureaucracy, disorganization and a lack of urgency, The Associated Press learned in interviews with officials in the State Department, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the White House and the U.N. Office of the Special Envoy. One senator has held up a key authorization bill because of a $5 million provision he says will be wasteful.

27 Landis says he waited too long to own up to doping

By NEIL FRANKLAND, AP Sports Writer

Tue Sep 28, 5:35 am ET

MELBOURNE, Australia – Disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis says he waited almost four years to reveal his doping because he knew once he’d admitted lying, he would not be believed about the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs in the sport.

After years of denials, Landis – stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title because of doping – admitted in May to using performance-enhancing drugs and accused others, including former teammate and seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong, of doping. Armstrong has vehemently denied the accusations and his attorney has described Landis as a “serial liar.”

Landis, speaking at an Australian conference on the eve of the road cycling world championships, said Tuesday that until more people come forward, cycling will continue to have a problem with drug cheats.

28 Consumer confidence drops to lowest since Feb.

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Retail Writer

Tue Sep 28, 10:31 am ET

NEW YORK – Americans’ view of the economy turned grimmer in September amid escalating job worries, falling to the lowest point since February.

The downbeat report, released Tuesday, raises more fears about the tenuous U.S. economic recovery. It also further underscores the disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street; consumers’ confidence fell further even as stocks rebounded in September.

The Conference Board, based in New York, said its monthly Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 48.5, down from the revised 53.2 in August. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting 52.5.

29 Home prices to take hit next year in many markets

By ALAN ZIBEL and JANNA HERRON, AP Real Estate Writers

Tue Sep 28, 4:00 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Don’t take the latest snapshot of U.S. home prices too seriously.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index released Tuesday ticked up in July from June. But the gain is merely temporary, analysts say. They see home values taking a dive in many major markets well into next year.

That’s because the peak home-buying season is now ending after a dismal summer. The hardest-hit markets, already battered by foreclosures, are bracing for a bigger wave of homes sold at foreclosure or through short sales. A short sale is when a lender lets a homeowner sell for less than the mortgage is worth.

30 Colbert sparks debate about ‘expert’ celebrities

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer

Tue Sep 28, 7:15 am ET

WASHINGTON – There are congressional hearings and there are comedy shows, and the twain rarely meet.

So when a House panel on immigration combined them on purpose last week with testimony from Stephen Colbert (kohl-BEHR’) and his “truthy” alter ego, debate broke out on the proper roles of the many celebrities – from Angelina Jolie to Bono to Elmo – who advocate in Washington.

In Colbert’s appearance, there was profit to be made from the public, taxpayer-funded forum on one of the nation’s weightiest issues, the plight of migrant workers. Immigrant advocates won national news coverage; Colbert helped generate material for his show; politicians scored live coverage of themselves during a brutal election year; and the media bagged a widely viewed story.

31 Drug expiration date pushes CA execution to brink

By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 23 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Five years ago, the planned execution of Michael Morales became so chaotic and confused that California prison officials canceled it two hours before he was to die.

Now, the state’s first lethal injection attempt since then is running dangerously close to another execution night mess.

The problem with Morales in 2006 was a failure to find medical professionals to assist with the execution.

32 FEMA rejects disaster aid for Calif gas line blast

By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 5 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Federal emergency officials have turned down the state’s request for millions in federal disaster aid for the gas pipeline explosion that consumed a Northern California neighborhood earlier this month. The death toll rose to eight Tuesday.

The San Mateo County coroner’s office confirmed James Emil Franco, 58, died Monday morning at a San Francisco hospital. An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday to determine cause of death.

Franco rented a second-floor room in Jose Alvarado’s home, and the two had developed a bond, the homeowner told the San Francisco Chronicle.

33 Rural teacher shortage leads schools to grow own

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 41 mins ago

BUFFALO, Mo. – Suzanne Feldman realizes she’s an anomaly: a soon-to-be college graduate who wants to return to the languid rhythms of rural life rather than flee.

The aspiring high school math teacher is a member of the inaugural class of the Ozarks Teacher Corps, a group of southwest Missouri teachers in training who receive $4,000 annual scholarships in exchange for a three-year commitment to work in rural school districts after graduation.

Having grown up in a town with fewer than 3,000 residents, a place where your homeroom instructor is just as likely to be sitting in the same church pew come Sunday, the 21-year-old newlywed knows that small-town teachers are not just educators but also neighbors and role models.

34 12-step manuscript rare glimpse into early AA

By LEANNE ITALIE, Associated Press Writer

Tue Sep 28, 4:21 pm ET

In 1939, about 5,000 copies of a book offering hopeless drunks a spiritual path to recovery through 12 steps were released by a fledgling fellowship of alcoholics.

They called it “Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism.”

Sales were dismal at first, but interest picked up in 1941 with help from a story in The Saturday Evening Post and grew into a recovery revolution for everybody from over-eaters and the over-sexed to gamblers and shopaholics.

35 LA teacher suicide sparks test-score pushback

By CHRISTINA HOAG, Associated Press Writer

Tue Sep 28, 2:04 pm ET

SOUTH GATE, Calif. – The Los Angeles Times should remove teacher performance ratings from its website after the apparent suicide of a teacher despondent over his score, the union representing Los Angeles school teachers said.

United Teachers Los Angeles also has asked school administrators to join with them in the request to the newspaper, which published the ratings last month, union president AJ Duffy said.

The body of 39-year-old Rigoberto Ruelas Jr., a fifth-grade teacher at Miramonte Elementary School, was found Sunday at the foot of a remote forest bridge in what appears to be a suicide.

36 Calls for longer school years face budget reality

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer

Tue Sep 28, 9:18 am ET

NEW YORK – President Barack Obama’s call for a longer school day and year for America’s kids echoes a similar call he made a year ago to little effect, illustrating just how deeply entrenched the traditional school calendar is and how little power the federal government has to change it.

Education reformers have long called for U.S. kids to log more time in the classroom so they can catch up with their peers elsewhere in the world, but resistance from leisure-loving teenagers isn’t the only reason there is no mass movement to keep schoolchildren in their seats.

Such a change could cost cash-strapped state governments and local school districts billions of dollars, strip teachers of a time-honored perk of their profession, and irk officials in states that already bridle at federal intrusion into their traditional control over education.

37 Scientists use hovering zeppelin to film whales

By MANUEL VALDES, Associated Press Writer

Tue Sep 28, 5:48 am ET

EVERETT, Wash. – Pilot Katharine Board often sees pods of blue, gray and killer whales as she flies along the California coast. Compared to other pilots, however, she has a unique vantage point – low and slow – from the only operational zeppelin in the United States.

Board’s airship, a modern model of an aircraft that is a throwback to the 1930s era of aviation, gives her a clear and steady view of the sea giants.

“The great thing about moving slowly and low – we fly 1,000 feet above the ground and our cruising speed is 40 miles per hour – is that you really get to see the world, you really do get to see the places you’re in,” Board said.

38 Hundreds protest FBI raids on anti-war activists

By STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press Writer

Mon Sep 27, 9:01 pm ET

MINNEAPOLIS – Hundreds of protesters gathered outside FBI offices in Minneapolis and Chicago on Monday, bearing signs and shouting chants condemning the agency’s recent searches of homes and offices of anti-war activists in both cities.

About 150 people protested in Minneapolis, with signs reading: “Stop FBI harassment. Opposing war is not a crime.” Roughly 120 people marched in Chicago, chanting, “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! FBI raids have got to go!”

Search warrants had indicated investigators were looking for connections between the activists and radical groups in Colombia and the Middle East. Activists interviewed by The Associated Press scoffed at the suggestion that they might have provided material support to terrorism, and denied contributing money to terrorists.

39 Hearing begins in alleged plot to murder Afghans

By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

Mon Sep 27, 8:09 pm ET

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – A soldier’s videotaped statements describing how he and his colleagues randomly killed three Afghan civilians came under scrutiny Monday at a hearing into one of the most serious war-crimes cases from the war in Afghanistan.

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 for sport 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. Morlock talked about how they threw a grenade at a civilian to “wax him.”

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