The pre-dawn strikes in the capital Tripoli came just hours after Libyan state television showed what it said was footage of Kadhafi meeting tribal leaders, the first new video of him aired since an April 30 air strike that his government termed an attempt on his life.

“Three people died — two of them are journalists and one was their guide who was helping them film a documentary,” government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told a news conference in the Bab al-Aziziya compound that was held next to a large, water-filled crater.

The pre-dawn strikes in the capital Tripoli came just hours after Libyan state television showed what it said was footage of Kadhafi meeting tribal leaders, the first new video of him aired since an April 30 air strike that his government termed an attempt on his life.

“There were three dead here and three dead in another place” in addition to 10 wounded, said the official, gesturing to scattered sandbags next to a crater in a street of the Bab al-Azaziyah compound.

The army and security services arrested dozens of people in the flashpoint coastal city of Banias and the neighbouring villages of Al-Beyda and Al-Qariri, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

Lawyer Jalal Kindo was among those detained in the Mediterranean city of Banias, where security forces have been hunting down dissidents and protest organisers, the London-based group said.

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

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

Thousands of students meanwhile defied the crackdown to stage a protest in Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo late Wednesday before being dispersed by baton-wielding loyalists and security force personnel, a rights activist said.

At least 19 civilians were killed on Wednesday as troops and unknown gunmen assaulted protest hubs across the country, shelling and firing on some and encircling others with tanks, according to accounts by human rights activists.

Pro-Saleh gunmen on the roof of the ruling party’s headquarters in Al-Bayda, 210 kilometres (130 miles) southeast of Sanaa, opened fire at demonstrators tearing-up posters of Saleh, witnesses and protest organisers said.

Seven protesters were also wounded.

Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk, 91, was convicted of helping kill almost 30,000 people while a guard at the Sobibor extermination camp in German-occupied Poland in 1943.

But presiding judge Ralph Alt ordered his immediate release, pending a final decision by a federal court and possible appeal, saying the accused no longer posed a threat to society.

Nine people, including a child, perished when Spain’s deadliest quake in more than 50 years rocked the southeastern city of Lorca on Wednesday, the regional government of Murcia said.

An open-air funeral mass will be held in the city Friday morning, attended by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia.

The large study that covered mainly heterosexual couples in Africa, India and the Americas was hailed by AIDS experts as a “game-changer” that will transform how the disease is managed, 30 years after it first surfaced.

Until now, antiretroviral therapy was known to improve the health of people infected with human immunodeficiency virus, but this is the first study to show a solid impact on preventing transmission to an HIV-negative partner.

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

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

Other data on Thursday showed new claims for unemployment benefits fell 44,000 last week to 434,000 as one-time factors that had led to a spike in the prior week reversed. But the level of claims still suggested hiring was softening.

“There are still headwinds for the economy stemming from the high gasoline and food prices for the consumer as well as input prices for producers,” said Omair Sharif, an economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut. “Given the high input costs, it looks like firms are scaling back on their hiring plans.”

Members of a new inter-agency council on U.S. economic stability said they would extend their public comment period on how to choose important banks, insurers and hedge funds for heightened surveillance and tougher capital rules.

The concession by the Financial Stability Oversight Council came as a House of Representatives panel was expected to vote on Friday for weakening the consumer protection provisions of 2010’s Dodd-Frank law and slowing down implementation of its new rules for derivatives markets.

In July 2007, then Senator Barack Obama’s top foreign policy advisers met in the modest two-room Massachusetts Avenue offices that served as his campaign’s Washington headquarters. There, they debated the incendiary language Obama would use in an upcoming speech on national security, according to a senior White House official.

Pakistan was a growing worry. A new, highly classified intelligence analysis, called a National Intelligence Estimate, had just identified militant safe havens in Pakistan’s border areas as a major threat to U.S. security. The country’s military leader, Pervez Musharraf, had recently cut a deal with local tribes that effectively eased pressure on al Qaeda and related groups.

The warning came as government sources in Athens said international inspectors checking on Greece’s compliance with its EU/IMF rescue package had found problems and were pressing for deeper spending cuts to cover a likely revenue shortfall.

A Reuters poll of investors and economists showed an overwhelmingly majority believe Greece will restructure its debt, possibly as soon as late this year. Most fund managers expect Athens to pay back less than half of what it owes.

The leader of the rebels seeking to end Gaddafi’s 41-year rule visited London to drum up aid for his movement. The White House said a senior rebel delegation would be received for the first time in Washington on Friday.

Rebels fighting against Gaddafi for almost three months are in control of the east of the country, while Gaddafi’s forces control the capital Tripoli and nearly all of the west.

The findings in the study conducted in nine countries are expected to energize global efforts to slow the AIDS virus. The study showed that taking these drugs does not only slow the virus in people already infected, but makes these people far less infectious and far less likely to spread HIV to others.

The landmark study, mostly involving heterosexual couples, found a 96 percent reduction in HIV transmission to an uninfected sexual partner when antiretroviral drug treatment began early, before a person’s immune system begins to weaken under the onslaught of the virus.

Holocaust survivors at first welcomed the Munich court’s verdict that Demjanjuk, who was exonerated in another war crimes case in Israel two decades ago, was an accessory to mass murder as a guard at Sobibor camp in Poland during World War Two.

But they then expressed dismay at Judge Ralph Alt’s decision to free Demjanjuk despite handing down a five-year sentence.

Found guilty of 14 counts of conspiracy and securities fraud on Wednesday in New York in one of the United States’ largest hedge fund insider trading cases, Rajaratnam’s fate and infamy in his adopted country has drawn negligible attention in Sri Lanka.

“Who is that? I really don’t know,” said a man who identified himself only as Fernando, when asked what he thought about Rajaratnam inside Colombo’s World Trade Center, the Indian Ocean island nation’s financial hub.

After a brief lull in their debt crisis at the start of 2011, tensions in the 17-nation euro area had returned and financial markets were piling new pressure on the bloc’s weakest members.

Ten days earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy had sparked an angry EU backlash by unveiling a plan to impose debt limits and harmonize wage policies across the vast economic area of 330 million people.

Ireland, which between 2011 and 2013 will borrow 67.5 billion euros ($96 billion) from its creditors at a maturity averaging 7.5 years, is seeking improvements in the terms to ease a debt pile inflated by bank bailouts and a yawning budget deficit.

Brendan Howlin told Reuters that the government intended to seek to reschedule the International Monetary Fund/European Union portion of its debt in due course. “Obviously long-term rescheduling of debt is something that would be desirable and we will deal with it,” Howlin, appointed in March to the newly created expenditure department, said.

For well over a year, Europe’s leaders have been coming up with bold, multi-billion-euro measures to try to put a stop to the debt rot eating away at Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and which could soon affect other member states such as Spain.

The net result, especially when looked at through the eyes of the financial markets, is no improvement. Greece and the others are no closer to resolving their problems, and the likelihood of a debt default or restructuring has only risen.

The purchase would offer Takeda, a mainly Asian- and U.S.-focused maker of drugs for diabetes and heart disease, access to lung-disease drug Daxas, just approved in the United States, and a portfolio of over-the-counter consumer products.

Broadening Takeda’s horizons and revenue base is key to its future success and could explain the hefty price, analysts say.

India was rattled when the United States and NATO agreed earlier this year to a plan by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to reintegrate Taliban fighters and reconcile with their leaders after nearly 10 years of fighting.

New Delhi has feared attempts to reach out to the insurgents would give rival Pakistan, which holds influence over the militants, a greater say in the Afghan peace process and might ultimately lead to a Taliban takeover when Western forces leave.

That would see the maker of Tiida and Altima models return to normal production at least a month ahead of rival Toyota Motor Corp and adds to hopes that the global parts bottleneck for automakers resulting from the March 11 Japan quake and tsunami will be resolved sooner than thought.

Toyota said on Wednesday that production would gradually begin to normalize in June, as much as two months earlier than expected.

Bank lending fell in the year to April at the slowest rate in 17 months as some companies sought extra funds at the start of the new fiscal year, which came after the earthquake that struck the northeast on March 11.

Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano said the quake is expected to shave 1 percentage point off GDP in the current fiscal year that began in April, but expressed confidence that damage to output can be overcome.

AIG shares have fallen by more than a third this year, bringing the stock close to the government’s $28.72-a-share break-even point. There has been speculation in recent days that the offering would have to be priced well below that in order to get done.

But the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Treasury was committed to making a profit on this and future offerings and would pull the deal off the table if it could not do so.

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

Wednesday was one of the bloodiest days apart from the main Friday protest days, when thousands use the platform of weekly Muslim prayers to demonstrate. Most of the violence occurred in the southern Deraa province, where unrest erupted on March 18.

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

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

“Wow, gosh. I don’t know what to say,” whispered a prominent industry executive.

The executive was responding to a person standing next to him who muttered: “Guilty on all 14 counts.”

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

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

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

He said the number of dead could rise.

Sen. Charles Schumer countered with a reference to a unicorn. Sen. Pat Roberts suggested a rhinoceros. It was a fit opening for a show where the oil executives served as props for politicians needing to show voters that they, too, are angry about $4 a gallon gasoline.

“This is not going to change the price at the gas pump,” Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus admitted as he gaveled the proceedings to a close.

Sen. John McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, also rejected the argument that any form of torture is critical to U.S. success in the fight against terrorism.

In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, the Arizona Republican said former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and others who back those tactics were wrong to claim that waterboarding al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, provided information that led to bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.

Demjanjuk was sentenced to five years in prison on 28,060 counts of accessory to murder for the number of people who were killed in the Sobibor death camp when the court said evidence shows he stood guard there in 1943.

But the 91-year-old will spend no immediate time behind bars after Presiding Judge Ralph Alt ordered him released from custody pending his appeal – a process that could take at least a year.

The likely Republican presidential candidate on Thursday defended the law enacted in 2006 when he was Massachusetts governor. Both the state and federal laws require people to obtain health insurance.

Romney said his program was a state solution to a state problem. He said the Obama-backed law is a power-grab by the federal government to impose a one-size-fits-all plan on all 50 states.

Gadhafi’s rebel opposition, meanwhile, received major political boosts from abroad. Britain promised to provide them with police gear, and the Obama administration invited a rebel delegation to the White House for talks on Friday.

Those announcements followed a new round of NATO airstrikes early Thursday that hit Gadhafi’s fortified compound in Tripoli. Just hours beforehand, the Libyan leader had appeared on state TV for the first time since his son was killed nearly two weeks ago. Before his appearance, rumors swirled that he had been killed or injured.

Keeping Mueller on the job would require an act of Congress since the law allows an FBI director to serve only for 10 years, and Mueller’s term is up on Sept. 4.Obama said he wants Obama to remain for two more years, which would keep him in place well after the next presidential election, into September 2013.

Mueller is the longest-serving FBI chief since J. Edgar Hoover, whose checkered 48-year term ended with his death in 1972 and led Congress to put the term limit in place.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Agents Eduardo Rojas Jr. and Hector Clark were killed early Thursday in a rural farming area near Interstate 8 and the town of Gila (HEE’-lah) Bend, about 85 miles southwest of Phoenix.

Both agents were based in the Border Patrol’s Yuma sector. No other information on the agents was immediately available.

This makes another big number hard to take: $4.4 billion. That’s how much the industry saves every year through special tax breaks intended to promote domestic drilling.

President Barack Obama is increasing pressure on Congress to eliminate these tax breaks – including one that is nearly a century old – at a time of record budget deficits. The President and congressional Democrats say eliminating the tax breaks will also lower gas prices by making alternative energy sources more competitive.

“Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” Broadway’s most expensive and audacious show, emerges from a three-week hiatus on Thursday night with what the creative team and producers say is a cleaner story, tighter music and more love story.

About a dozen people were waiting for the box office at the Foxwoods Theatre to open to buy tickets Thursday morning and, in a sign that demand may be softer than when the musical first opened its doors in November, tickets for the reimagined show were available for that night’s performance.

Those rates are providing an incentive for buyers, along with falling home prices. They’re tempting for refinancers, too.

Still, analysts say the combination isn’t likely to lift the depressed housing industry or contribute much to the overall economy. In many metro areas, real estate is straining under the weight of foreclosures, higher down-payment requirements, tighter credit, still-high unemployment and buyers’ expectations of even lower prices.

Early Thursday morning, the House Armed Services Committee approved a broad, $553 billion defense bill that would provide a 1.6 percent increase in military pay, fund an array of aircraft, ships and submarines and meet the Pentagon’s request for an additional $118 billion to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The vote was 60-1, with Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., opposing the legislation.

But that’s exactly what Republicans and some Democrats in Congress are trying to do.

With a majority in the House and many freshman lawmakers skeptical of the science behind climate change, Republicans are pushing measures to block the federal government from controlling greenhouse gases.

The problems identified during inspections over the past two months did not pose a significant safety risk and have been corrected, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

“As we stand today, the task force has not identified any issue we think would undermine our confidence in the continued safety and emergency planning of nuclear plants in this country,” said Charles Miller, who oversees environmental management programs for the NRC and is leading the review.

The approach is similar to congressional legislation already in the works, but some criticized it as being too weak Thursday, while the business community said it preferred a voluntary program rather than government mandates.

Under its proposed legislation, the White House would give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to work with industry to come up with ways to secure their computer systems and protect against cyber threats. If a company fails to do so, or comes up with an inadequate plan, DHS would be able develop its own security framework for that firm.

If you had to think of the most unlikely adjective to describe a ramp, “sexy” would probably be it.

And yet that’s just the word that comes to chef Marc Forgione as he tries to describe what a ramp – yes, just a little old wild leek – means to him.

Ensign, a Nevada Republican, resigned his seat May 3 rather than face continued scrutiny and possible public hearings about his affair with the wife of one of his top Senate aides, a payment to the aide’s family, and the aide’s lobbying after leaving Senate employment.

The committee also asked the FEC to investigate possible campaign finance law violations.

The economy wasn’t as rosy during his time in leadership as he’s claiming – his numbers are off. And he appears to be taking all the credit for actions that were at least as much the doing of the Democratic president, Bill Clinton, as they were his own.

A look at some of Gingrich’s statements about the past and the present, made in his presidential campaign announcement video this week and subsequent Fox TV interview, and how they compare with the facts.

The six lines contained in the measure define the term “wildlife” as “any wild mammal, wild bird, fish, reptile amphibian, mollusk or crustacean found naturally in a wild state, whether indigenous to Nevada or not and whether raised in captivity of not. The term does not include any wild horse or burro.”

Under state law, holders of water rights must show “beneficial use” of the valuable resource before a permit is granted by the state engineer. Benefiting wildlife is one such allowable use.

After Obama’s live, late-evening address from the East Room of the White House on May 1, five photographers were ushered in to shoot pictures as the president stood at the podium and re-read a few lines of his speech – a practice that news organizations have protested for years.

Even though The Associated Press and other news outlets said in captions to the photos that they were taken after the president delivered his address, many people who saw them may have assumed they depicted the speech itself. That raised questions of whether news organizations were staging an event.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He said the number of dead could rise.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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