Evening Edition is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Six US soldiers killed in Afghanistan
by Sardar Ahmad, AFP
46 mins ago
| KABUL (AFP) – Six US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday as Italy became the latest NATO ally to detail plans to scale down its military presence and hand over territory to Afghan forces by the end of 2011.
Four of the soldiers were killed in a single bomb attack in the south, where the Taliban have concentrated their nine-year fight against the Western-backed government and where Western troops are suffering the most casualties. The US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a fifth soldier was killed in another bomb attack in the south and a sixth while fighting rebels in eastern Afghanistan, another insurgent stronghold. |
2 Experts warn of 10mln TB deaths in next five years
by Charlotte Plantive, AFP
2 hrs 24 mins ago
| JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – Ten million people will die of tuberculosis in the next five years if global funding to fight the disease is not increased, the Stop TB Partnership warned Wednesday.
The Partnership, a coalition of governments, non-profits, companies and international organisations, said 47 billion dollars (34 billion euros) are needed to save five million lives between now and 2015, including two million women and children. “We need a plan to stop these completely unnecessary deaths,” said Rifat Atun, chair of the Partnership’s coordinating board, at the launch of the coalition’s 2011-2015 “Global Plan to Stop TB”. |
3 Time to find a second Earth, WWF says
AFP
Wed Oct 13, 8:34 am ET
| PARIS (AFP) – Carbon pollution and over-use of Earth’s natural resources have become so critical that, on current trends, we will need a second planet to meet our needs by 2030, the WWF said on Wednesday.
In 2007, Earth’s 6.8 billion humans were living 50 percent beyond the planet’s threshold of sustainability, according to its report, issued ahead of a UN biodiversity conference. “Even with modest UN projections for population growth, consumption and climate change, by 2030 humanity will need the capacity of two Earths to absorb CO2 waste and keep up with natural resource consumption,” it warned. |
4 Last of 33 miners likely to be saved Wednesday
by Marc Burleigh, AFP
28 mins ago
| SAN JOSE MINE, Chile (AFP) – The last of 33 miners trapped in a Chile mine could be saved by the end of the day, officials said Wednesday, as a complex, fast-moving rescue operation went without hitch, triggering global rejoicing.
Almost two-thirds of the men stuck in a collapsed gold and copper mine in the northern Atacama desert for more than two months had already been smoothly winched to the surface, greeted by cheers and tears of joy. Stepping one by one from a special metal capsule dubbed the Phoenix, the miners pumped fists in triumph or dropped to their knees in prayer as they saw the sky above them for the first time in 69 days. |
5 First Chile miners set for Tuesday rescue
by Marc Burleigh, AFP
Tue Oct 12, 6:26 pm ET
| SAN JOSE MINE, Chile (AFP) – The first of 33 miners trapped in a Chilean mine was set to emerge Tuesday after more than two months deep underground, beginning a spectacular rescue in the glare of the world’s media.
“We hope to see… at least one of the miners on the surface” before Tuesday is over, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told reporters at the San Jose gold and copper mine in northern Chile. The rescue was to continue over the next two days, until the last of the miners was winched up in a special metal cage from their tunnel 622 meter (2,041 feet) under a mountain. |
6 Garters, makeovers as women await their miners in Chile
by Maria Lorente, AFP
Tue Oct 12, 4:35 pm ET
| SAN JOSE MINE, Chile (AFP) – It seems Chile’s trapped miners aren’t the only ones who have been transformed by their ordeal. With just a few tantalizing hours to go before the first reunions, the wives and girlfriends of the 33 miners were undergoing makeovers and preparing sexy “surprises” for their men after 10 long weeks apart.
Energized by hope, the women have redone their hair, received manicures and picked out racy lingerie as they seek to rekindle romance once the miners are finally brought to the surface, beginning late Tuesday, after an extraordinary 68 days underground. “I have never done much with my hair, but now I got some blonde highlights and shortened it,” said 26-year-old Cristina Nunez, who was a bundle of nerves as she awaited her partner Claudio Yanez’s rescue. |
7 Rescue saved us from ‘devil’s’ pit: Chile miner
by Marc Burleigh, AFP
2 hrs 37 mins ago
| SAN JOSE MINE, Chile (AFP) – Pumping fists, or falling to their knees in prayer, over half the 33 miners trapped below ground in Chile for more than two months savored their first taste of freedom Wednesday, rising from the depths to a heroes’ welcome.
“I have been with God and with the devil,” said the second miner to be saved, Mario Sepulveda, 40, summing up his ordeal and miraculous salvation. “I seized the hand of God, it was the best hand. I always knew God would get us out of there,” he said. |
8 OPEC ‘consensus’ to hold oil output steady
by Ben Perry, AFP
2 hrs 22 mins ago
| VIENNA (AFP) – OPEC looked set Wednesday to keep oil production levels steady while the outlook for prices appeared uncertain against a backdrop of a fragile economic recovery and falling dollar.
“Yes, there is a consensus between members,” Ecuadorian Natural Resources Minister Wilson Pastor-Morris told reporters on the eve of Thursday’s ministerial meeting at OPEC’s Vienna headquarters. “We are happy with current prices … (we are) not worried about oil rising above 80 dollars a barrel,” said Pastor-Morris, who is also president this year of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. |
9 European bid to freeze deepwater drilling collapses
by Roddy Thomson and Christian Spillmann, AFP
2 hrs 25 mins ago
| BRUSSELS (AFP) – A bid to freeze deepwater drilling in Europe in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster collapsed Wednesday under pressure from the multi-billion North Sea oil industry.
European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger announced moves to tighten the issuing of drilling permits to ensure there is no repeat of the devastating Gulf of Mexico disaster in the United States. But a temporary moratorium on deepwater exploration, the centre-piece of proposals that officials in his department thought had been agreed as late as Tuesday, was missing. |
10 Dope cheat stuns India at Commonwealth Games
by Dave James, AFP
Wed Oct 13, 1:08 pm ET
| NEW DELHI (AFP) – Delhi’s Commonwealth Games suffered the hammer blow of a homegrown drugs cheat on Wednesday while unheralded Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka punched spectacularly above their weight in boxing.
Rani Yadav, who placed sixth in the women’s 20km walk, tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone. She became the third anti-doping violation of the Games after 110m hurdler Samuel Okon, and women’s 100m gold medallist Osayemi Oludamola, both Nigerians, tested positive for stimulants. |
11 Renaissance Rome plays host to new ‘Assassin’ game
by Mehdi Cherifia, AFP
1 hr 8 mins ago
| ROME (AFP) – Saint Peter’s Basilica half-built, the Colosseum in ruins and a blank space where the Trevi fountain now stands: computer whizzes rebuilt 16th-century Rome, with a twist, for the latest instalment of the video game phenomenon “Assassin’s Creed”.
Set for release next month, “Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood” continues the Renaissance tale of betrayed nobleman Ezio Auditore Da Firenze, a descendent of the Altair character who starred in the original title. “Brotherhood” casts the player as Ezio, a trained killer whose mission is to combat the Knights Templar in the Eternal City. |
12 Serbia apologises after Italy football clashes
AFP
47 mins ago
| ROME (AFP) – Serbia apologised to Italy on Wednesday after clashes between Serbian fans and Italian police that forced the cancellation of a Euro 2012 qualifying match, as football officials mulled possible sanctions.
Sixteen people were hospitalised including a police officer with first degree burns and 17 arrests were made following the violence, which began before the scrapped match and continued late into the night, officials said. “I have just received a phone call from Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, who presented a formal apology from the government,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters. |
13 Court clears way for Liverpool FC sale
by Rob Woollard, AFP
Wed Oct 13, 11:15 am ET
| LONDON (AFP) – The sale of Liverpool moved a step closer Wednesday after the club’s American owners lost a bid to block the takeover of the English football giants by the owners of baseball’s Boston Red Sox.
In a High Court ruling which represented a crushing defeat for Tom Hicks and George Gillett, Justice Christopher Floyd ruled in favour of the club’s board, which had agreed a deal for the club with New England Sports Ventures (NESV). Lawyers for Gillett and Hicks had argued for more time to find a better offer than the 300-million-pound (475-million-dollar) bid tabled by NESV, claiming the boardroom manoeuvring which led to the deal was illegal. |
14 Chinese Nobel laureate’s wife slams ‘illegal house arrest’
by Marianne Barriaux, AFP
Wed Oct 13, 8:49 am ET
| BEIJING (AFP) – The wife of jailed Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo slammed the government on Wednesday for keeping her under “illegal house arrest” after Washington and Brussels called for her release.
Liu Xia has been largely confined to her home since Friday when the Nobel Committee in Oslo awarded this year’s prize to her dissident husband for advocating political reform and respect for human rights in one-party China. “I strongly protest against the government for my illegal house arrest,” Liu Xia said on her Twitter account, calling her situation “very hard to take”. |
15 Humpback whale beats long-distance record
AFP
Wed Oct 13, 6:09 am ET
| PARIS (AFP) – A humpback whale has broken the world record for travel by any mammal, swimming at least 9,800 kilometres (6,125 miles) from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean in search of a mate, marine biologists reported on Wednesday.
The female humpback was first photographed among a group of whales at a breeding ground on Abrolhos Bank, off Brazil’s southeastern coast, on August 7 1999. By sheer chance, it was photographed more than two years later, on September 21 2001 by a commercial whale-watching tour at a breeding ground near the Ile Sainte Marie off the eastern coast of Madagascar. |
16 France gripped by pensions stand-off
by Dave Clark, AFP
Wed Oct 13, 5:53 am ET
| PARIS (AFP) – French train services and oil refining faced a second day of severe disruption on Wednesday as the stand-off over President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reform plans escalated.
One day after nationwide strikes and protests brought more than a million students and workers into the streets, both sides in the bitter debate over raising the minimum pension age remained locked in their positions. Sarkozy’s work and pensions minister, Eric Woerth, insisted that the law would pass and that the government camp remained “calm, serene and determined” in the face of the mounting protests. |
17 China’s trade surplus shrinks in September
by Allison Jackson, AFP
Wed Oct 13, 5:06 am ET
| BEIJING (AFP) – China said on Wednesday that its trade surplus shrank in September, but analysts warn the drop is unlikely to ease fears of a global currency war, with Beijing accused of cheating its way to commercial dominance.
The country’s trade surplus fell to 16.88 billion dollars in September from 20.03 billion dollars in August, and was the lowest surplus in five months, customs authorities said. The figures come as China set the yuan’s central parity rate — the middle of the currency’s allowed trading band — at 6.6693 to the dollar, its strongest since a June promise of limited currency reform. |
18 Republicans likely to take House at election: Reuters/Ipsos poll
By Steve Holland, Reuters
2 hrs 51 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – American voters unhappy at high unemployment are set to oust President Barack Obama’s Democrats from control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2 elections, a Reuters-Ipsos poll projected on Wednesday.
The national poll found that Americans plan to vote for Republicans over Democratic candidates by 48 percent to 44 percent, an edge that will likely give Republicans dozens of seats in the House and big gains in the Senate. The poll numbers suggest Republicans would win around 227 seats in the House to 208 for the Democrats, Ipsos pollster Cliff Young said. In the Senate, the poll indicates Democrats would retain control but with a smaller, 52-to-48 seat margin. |
19 More than half trapped Chilean miners rescued
By Cesar Illiano and Terry Wade, Reuters
53 mins ago
| COPIAPO, Chile (Reuters) – Chile’s trapped miners were shuttled up a narrow escape shaft to joyous reunions on Wednesday in an extraordinary rescue operation that ended their two-month ordeal underground.
One by one, the miners climbed into a specially designed steel capsule barely wider than a man’s shoulders and took a 15-minute journey through 2,050 feet of rock to freedom. With 20 of the 33 miners freed in a rescue operation that advanced rapidly without hitches, officials hoped to have the remaining men out by the end of the day instead of in 48 hours as originally estimated. |
20 States probe mortgage industry practices
By Elinor Comlay, Reuters
Wed Oct 13, 1:25 pm ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – All 50 states launched a joint investigation of the mortgage industry on Wednesday, a move some experts fear will cause uncertainty and threaten the recovery of the fragile housing market.
The state attorneys general are looking at allegations some banks used shoddy or fraudulent paperwork to remove struggling borrowers from their homes during a foreclosure crisis that is one of the most visible wounds of the 2007-2009 recession. “We are in the fourth year of a housing and economic crisis that was brought on by lax practices of the mortgage lending industry,” Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson said in a statement. “The latest allegations of corner cutting and slipshod paperwork are troubling, but perhaps not surprising.” |
21 Wal-Mart to speed up U.S. store building
By Brad Dorfman, Reuters
2 hrs 24 mins ago
| CHICAGO (Reuters) The world’s biggest retailer also expects to keep capital spending in the United States flat in fiscal year 2012 at $7.5 billion to $8.0 billion as it shifts spending from remodeling existing units to building new stores, the head of the U.S. business said on Wednesday. The company plans to build 185-205 U.S. discount stores in the fiscal year beginning February 1, 2011, from an estimated 153 this year, Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said at the company’s annual meeting with analysts and investors in Rogers, Arkansas. |
22 Court considers Texas death row DNA case
By David Morgan, Reuters
1 hr 5 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court on Wednesday considered whether a Texas death row inmate should be allowed to use civil rights law to gain access to DNA evidence that could prove his innocence in a triple murder.
In a case with broad implications for states with the death penalty, the court heard arguments on whether Texas inmate Henry Skinner can use civil rights law to examine DNA evidence rather than a more restrictive federal law under which he would have to prove his conviction invalid. Skinner was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1993 New Year’s Eve slayings of his girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two adult sons in the Pampa, Texas, home they all shared. |
23 Campaign taps fears about job outsourcing
By John Whitesides, Reuters
1 hr 55 mins ago
| LORAIN, Ohio (Reuters) – Hoping to tap into deep voter anxiety about unemployment and the stumbling economy, candidates in both parties have launched a wave of new attacks accusing their rivals of helping ship U.S. jobs overseas.
On the campaign trail and in television ads ahead of November 2 elections, dozens of Democrats have charged that Republicans support free-trade deals and tax breaks for corporations that cleared the way for the migration of U.S. jobs to foreign countries. Republicans have countered with ads in 10 House of Representatives districts accusing Democrats of sponsoring jobs overseas by backing tax breaks for clean energy that mostly went to foreign companies in the $814 billion stimulus bill. |
24 Special report: What’s it take to get a loan in this town?
By Al Yoon, Reuters
Wed Oct 13, 9:02 am ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Ginny Shipe decided to buy a new home earlier this year, she was calmly confident her experience as an industry insider, her stellar credit rating and debt-free status would make it a snap.
She could not have been more wrong. The process was as arduous as it was protracted. Eventually, Shipe had to move out of her old home and couch surf with friends while she waited, and waited, for approval. “What I had thought would be a fairly straightforward loan application turned into the Inquisition,” she said in her office in downtown Chicago. |
25 Afghan firms said to pay off Taliban with foreign cash
By Hamid Shalizi, Reuters
Wed Oct 13, 11:39 am ET
| KABUL (Reuters) – Cash from the U.S. military and international donors destined for construction and welfare projects in restive parts of Afghanistan is ending up in the hands of insurgents, a contractor and village elders said.
The alliance of largely Western nations who back President Hamid Karzai and have nearly 150,000 troops on Afghan soil have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on aid and infrastructure since they ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001. However with violence spreading and the insurgency bloodier than ever, some construction firms and workers on development projects say they are having to hand over some of their earnings to insurgents to protect their personnel, projects or equipment. |
26 NATO facilitating Taliban contacts with Afghan govt
By Phil Stewart, Reuters
1 hr 5 mins ago
| BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO-led coalition forces in Afghanistan are facilitating contacts in Kabul between senior Taliban officials and the Afghan government, a senior NATO official said on Wednesday.
But the official, who spoke to reporters in Brussels on condition of anonymity, said discussions were in their very early stages and could not yet be described as negotiations. NATO allies including the United States have previously voiced their support for reconciliation efforts aimed at ending the nine-year-old war. But the extent of any Western involvement in contacts between the Taliban and President Hamid Karzai’s government had been unclear. |
27 First Guantanamo detainee criminal trial begins in NY
By Basil Katz, Reuters
Tue Oct 12, 6:38 pm ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – The first criminal trial of a terrorism suspect from Guantanamo Bay began on Tuesday with prosecutors calling him a militant while the defense said he was a naive associate of extremists who bombed U.S. embassies.
The trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani at Manhattan federal court is seen as a test of U.S. President Barack Obama’s approach to handling some of the 174 suspected extremists held at Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks. Ghailani, 36, is a Tanzanian charged with conspiring with Islamic militants to bomb the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya on August 7, 1998, in which 224 people were killed. He faces life in prison if convicted. |
28 Japan questions South Korea G20 leadership over FX
By Stanley White and Linda Sieg, Reuters
Wed Oct 13, 7:37 am ET
| TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan called into question on Wednesday South Korea’s leadership of the Group of 20 forum because of Seoul’s interventions to stem the won’s rise and insisted its own currency action was qualitatively different.
The remarks by Japan’s finance minister underscored deep divisions over currency policies, an issue that will dominate G20 meetings in South Korea this month and next after a weekend International Monetary Fund meeting failed to make headway. “As chair of the G20, South Korea’s role will be seriously questioned,” Yoshihiko Noda told a parliamentary panel when asked about South Korea’s currency interventions. |
29 Judge orders military to stop gay service ban
By Jeremy Pelofsky, Reuters
Wed Oct 13, 7:26 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Tuesday ordered the Pentagon to stop banning openly gay men and women from serving in the military after ruling last month that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips in California rejected the administration’s request to limit her ruling to only military personnel who are members of the Log Cabin Republicans, the organization that sued to overturn the policy. Phillips said in a 15-page order that because she had ruled that the policy was unconstitutional, the only proper remedy was to grant the organization a broad injunction barring the U.S. military from enforcing its policy. |
30 Obama administration appeals gay marriage ruling
By Jeremy Pelofsky, Reuters
Wed Oct 13, 6:53 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration decided on Tuesday to appeal a judge’s rulings that prevented the U.S. government from banning same-sex marriages, a move that could undermine support among President Barack Obama’s traditional liberal base ahead of a key election.
The Obama administration filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in support of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, that barred gay marriages, even though Obama had previously opposed the law. Although Obama opposes the law, a Justice Department spokeswoman said that the administration was defending the statute because it was obligated to defend federal laws when challenged in court. |
31 White House rejects foreclosure moratorium
By Caren Bohan and Corbett B. Daly, Reuters
Wed Oct 13, 6:46 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration rejected calls for a nationwide moratorium on housing foreclosures amid fears that such a move could cripple an already slow recovery of the U.S. housing market.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs signaled on Tuesday the administration’s wariness of backing populist calls to halt evictions, which could undermine efforts to persuade skeptical voters that it rescued the economy from a complete meltdown. “There are a series of unintended consequences to a broader moratorium,” Gibbs told reporters. |
32 Obama considers fast appeal of gays-military order
By ANNE GEARAN and PETE YOST, Associated Press Writers
3 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – The White House weighed a quick appeal of a judge’s order abruptly allowing gays to serve openly in the military as Pentagon chief Robert Gates warned on Wednesday of “enormous consequences” for men and women in uniform if the ruling stands.
A day after the federal judge in California ordered the Pentagon to cease enforcement of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, Gates told reporters traveling with him in Europe that repealing the law should be a question for Congress – and only after the Pentagon completes its study of the issue. Allowing gays to serve openly “is an action that requires careful preparation and a lot of training,” Gates said. “It has enormous consequences for our troops.” |
33 AP-mtvU Poll: College students’ Obamamania wanes
By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
44 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – The Obamamania that gripped college campuses two years ago is gone. An Associated Press-mtvU poll found college students cooling in their support for President Barack Obama, a fresh sign of trouble for Democrats struggling to rekindle enthusiasm among many of these newest voters for the crucial midterm elections in three weeks.
Forty-four percent of students approve of the job Obama is doing as president, while 27 percent are unhappy with his stewardship, according to the survey conducted late last month. That’s a significant drop from the 60 percent who gave the president high marks in a May 2009 poll. Only 15 percent had a negative opinion back then. It’s not just students. Obama’s support from many groups has ebbed since his early months in office because of persistently high unemployment and opposition to his plans to revive the economy and overhaul the health care system. But his diminished backing from college students raises further questions about whether the Democrats’ efforts to rally them – and other loyal supporters such as blacks and union members – will be enough to prevent Republicans from winning control of Congress in the Nov. 2 elections. |
34 FACT CHECK: How much pain from COLA freeze?
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
6 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Seniors will remain ahead of the inflation curve despite a second straight year without an increase in their Social Security benefits.
Some seniors and their advocacy groups have raised the specter of millions of the elderly struggling to pay for food, utilities and health care under a benefit freeze. Struggle, many do, particularly those who rely on Social Security for most if not all of their income. But beneficiaries received a whopping 5.8 percent cost-of-living increase in January 2009, when the actual cost of living had risen only a tiny fraction of 1 percent. In effect, they got a double boost. |
35 24 miners free as Chile rescue goes off flawlessly
By MICHAEL WARREN, Associated Press Writer
3 mins ago
| SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – With remarkable speed – and flawless execution – one miner after another climbed into a slender cage deep beneath the Chilean earth, was hoisted through 2,000 feet of rock and saw precious sunlight Wednesday after the longest underground entrapment in human history.
By midafternoon, 24 of the 33 miners, including all the weakest and sickest, had been pulled to freedom, and officials said they might even be able to bring everyone to the surface by the end of the night. After 69 days underjground, including two weeks during which they were feared dead, the men emerged to the cheers of exuberant Chileans and before the eyes of a transfixed globe. |
36 Hugs seen around the world as rescue goes global
By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 13, 12:52 pm ET
| LONDON – Plane crashes, terror threats, oil spills, toxic leaks. The TV news diet is often dire, rarely joyous. And then there were the pictures Wednesday of brave, dignified miners who had been trapped beneath the ground for more than two months being brought to the surface, to breathe fresh air and to hug their loved ones.
Communications technology – including live video from within the mine – turned the entire world into a global village hoping for the safe release of men they did not know and would probably never meet. It was as if each of us could see ourselves in their place, wondering how we would cope with the sustained terror and then the sudden emergence into the light. “It feels like we’re all there with them even though we’re so far away in London,” said Jose Torra, 34, early Wednesday morning as the rescue unfolded. “For once it is a story with a good ending.” |
37 In US, Hispanics outlive whites, blacks by years
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
8 mins ago
| ATLANTA – U.S. Hispanics can expect to outlive whites by more than two years and blacks by more than seven, government researchers say in a startling report that is the first to calculate Hispanic life expectancy in this country.
The report released Wednesday is the strongest evidence yet of what some experts call the “Hispanic paradox” – longevity for a population with a large share of poor, undereducated members. A leading theory is that Hispanics who manage to immigrate to the U.S. are among the healthiest from their countries. A Hispanic born in 2006 could expect to live about 80 years and seven months, the government estimates. Life expectancy for a white is about 78, and for a black, just shy of 73 years. |
38 Whale of a Trip: Humpback makes record migration
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer
10 mins ago
| LONDON – It wasn’t love. It could have been adventure. Or maybe she just got lost. It remains a mystery why a female humpback whale swam thousands of miles from the reefs of Brazil to the African island of Madagascar, which researchers believe is the longest single trip ever undertaken by a mammal – humans excluded.
While humpbacks normally migrate along a north-to-south axis to feed and mate, this one – affectionately called AHWC No. 1363 – made the unusual decision to check out a new continent thousands of miles to the east. Marine ecologist Peter Stevick says it probably wasn’t love that motivated her – whales meet their partners at breeding sites, so it’s unlikely that this one was following a potential mate. |
39 JPMorgan Chase’s profit jumps 23 percent in 3Q
By PALLAVI GOGOI and STEPHEN BERNARD, AP Business Writer
Wed Oct 13, 1:08 pm ET
| NEW YORK – JPMorgan Chase posted a 23 percent gain in net income for the third quarter Wednesday, mostly because the banking giant set aside less money to cover losses from bad loans. Revenues fell sharply in a sign that tighter regulations and a sluggish economy are taking a toll.
New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co., the first major bank to report third-quarter results, earned $4.42 billion, or $1.01 per share, in the three months ending in September, beating anlaysts’ expectations. It earned $3.59 billion, or 82 cents, during the same period last year. Revenues fell 15 percent to $24.3 billion. JPMorgan Chase is the nation’s No. 2 bank by assets and holds a vast portfolio of consumer and business loans, making it a bellwether for the U.S. economy. A closer look at its results suggest that the degree of suffering is starting to abate for Americans struggling through the longest recession since the 1930s. In a positive sign, JPMorgan said fewer of its customers were late on payments on mortgages and credit cards. |
40 NATO: 6 troops killed, including 4 in Afghan blast
By ROBERT KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 13, 11:30 am ET
| KABUL, Afghanistan – In a bloody day for NATO troops in Afghanistan, insurgents killed six service members Wednesday, including four who died in a single bomb blast in the volatile south of the country.
One service member was killed in the east in an attack early in the day, and another died in the south in a separate roadside bombing – the weapon of choice for militants in countering a large-scale NATO-Afghan operation in the region. NATO did not provide nationalities of the dead, or specific locations where the attacks occurred. |
41 FCC rules seek to avoid surprise wireless bills
By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer
Wed Oct 13, 6:54 am ET
| WASHINGTON – Federal regulators want to stop cell phone “bill shock” by requiring wireless companies to alert subscribers before they run out of minutes, hit data usage or text messaging caps or start racking up international roaming charges.
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote Thursday to seek public comment on such rules, which are on the table after a flood of consumer complaints about unexpected and costly overage fees. The proposed regulations would require wireless companies to send voice or text alerts to customers as they approach monthly usage limits on their plans and when they reach those limits. The rules would also mandate that carriers notify customers who travel overseas if they will be charged extra to use their phones outside the U.S. or roam on a foreign carrier’s network. |
42 Chinese Communist elders issue free speech appeal
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 13, 6:47 am ET
| BEIJING – A group of eminent Chinese Communist Party elders has issued a bold call to end the country’s wide-ranging restrictions on free speech, just days after the government reacted angrily to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo.
In an open letter posted online, the retired officials state that although China’s 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of speech, the right is constrained by a host of laws and regulations that should be scrapped. “This kind of false democracy of affirming in principle and denying in actuality is a scandal in the history of democracy,” said the letter, which was dated Monday and widely distributed by e-mail. |
43 Drilling ban lifted; uncertainties still face Gulf
By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 13, 6:54 am ET
| WASHINGTON – Deep water oil drills quieted by a six-month moratorium will again hum off the Gulf Coast, helping an industry that, despite its dangers, puts needed money in the pockets of thousands along the Gulf Coast. What’s less certain is just how soon the jobs on hold because of the six-month ban will come back to a region trying to recover.
Thirty-three deep water operations were halted by the moratorium imposed as the BP oil disaster unfolded. Meeting new federal safety requirements imposed since then will take time for oil companies. “Those big rigs that left the Gulf, it’s going to take them a while to come back,” said Ronnie Kennier, an Empire, La., fisherman working in BP’s vessel of opportunity oil clean-up program. |
44 Back in business: US lifts deep water drilling ban
By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 13, 1:49 am ET
| WASHINGTON – The U.S. is back in the deep water oil-drilling business. The question now is when work will resume.
The Obama administration, under heavy pressure from the oil industry and Gulf states and with elections nearing, lifted the moratorium that it imposed last April in the wake of the disastrous BP oil spill. The ban had been scheduled to expire Nov. 30, but Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday he was moving up the date because new rules imposed after the spill had reduced the risk of another catastrophic blowout. Industry leaders warily waited for details of those rules, saying the moratorium wouldn’t be truly lifted until then. |
45 Lawyer: Authorities botched shooting investigation
By MICHAEL TARM, Associated Press Writer
28 mins ago
| JOLIET, Ill. – While a small-town police officer is free after being wrongly jailed for a shooting spree along the Illinois-Indiana border that left one dead, prosecutors and defense attorneys are at odds over what went wrong.
Attorney Dave Carlson said Wednesday that Lynwood police Officer Brian Dorian is the victim of a botched investigation. It is not the first time that accusation has been made against the Will County state’s attorney’s office. “They were trying to put pieces of a puzzle together that didn’t fit,” Carlson said of the case against Dorian. “Their mindset was very close-minded. They thought he did this and they were going to do whatever it took to get him.” |
46 BMW powers up its roadster
By ANN M. JOB, For The Associated press
Wed Oct 13, 12:36 pm ET
| If you envy folks who can enjoy autumn’s scenery with the top down, you’ll be positively jealous of anyone behind the wheel of BMW’s 2011 top-level Z4 roadster.
The 2011 Z4 sDrive35is boasts the most horsepower – 335 – of new-model, regular-production convertibles with fewer than eight cylinders. The engine also generates quick low-end “oomph” with peak torque of 332 foot-pounds coming on by 1,500 rpm and continuing to 4,500 rpm – a significant range that makes this Z4 forceful in both city and highway traffic. Zero to 60 miles per hour in a surprising 4.7 seconds, to be exact. |
47 Los Angeles considers more food truck regulation
By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 13, 9:26 am ET
| LOS ANGELES – Diane Betzler would hesitate to eat at a food truck even if it was serving filet mignon for free and the placard in the window gave it an A-plus rating for cleanliness.
She still hasn’t entirely gotten over her experience of finding a drowned cockroach in a drink she bought at a truck 20 years ago. Melissa Stevens, on the other hand, hardly goes anywhere these days but to a food truck when it’s time for lunch. |
48 World Food conference looks at subsistence farming
By MICHAEL J. CRUMB, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 13, 4:05 am ET
| DES MOINES, Iowa – About 1 billion small farmers worldwide, many of them women, face drought, the effects of climate change and a lack of technology as they struggle to feed families on what they can raise on an acre or two of land.
Their problems will be the focus of this week’s World Food Prize symposium, as agriculture officials from around the world gather to talk about what can be done to fight hunger. As many as 60 farmers are expected to join agriculture officials from the U.S., Afghanistan, Pakistan and Liberia, said Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, which hosts the annual conference in Des Moines. Former U.S. Secretary General Kofi Annan is scheduled to give the keynote address Thursday, when the foundation will give its World Food Prize to the presidents of Heifer International and the Christian advocacy group Bread for the World in recognition of their efforts to fight hunger. Heifer International provides families with food- and income-producing animals, such as sheep, while Bread for the World presses U.S. lawmakers to support anti-hunger policies. |
49 Nordics lead in eliminating gender inequality
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 13, 2:47 am ET
| NEW YORK – Four Nordic countries lead the world in eliminating inequality between men and women and the United States entered the top 20 nations for the first time, according to a survey of 134 nations released Tuesday.
But France fell to 46th place – a loss of 28 places – because it has fewer women in ministerial posts, the survey said. Many Arab and predominantly Muslim countries remain near the bottom of the list, including Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen. The four Nordic countries – Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden – have topped the Global Gender Gap Index since it was first released in 2006 by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum, and Iceland remained in first place for the second straight year. |
50 Helen Thomas on being anti-Semitic: ‘Baloney!’
Associated Press
Tue Oct 12, 9:21 pm ET
| MARION, Ohio – In a radio interview, former White House correspondent Helen Thomas acknowledges she touched a nerve with remarks about Israel that led to her retirement. But she says the comments were “exactly what I thought,” even though she realized soon afterward that it was the end of her job.
“I hit the third rail. You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive,” Thomas told Ohio station WMRN-AM in a sometimes emotional 35-minute interview that aired Tuesday. It was recorded a week earlier by WMRN reporter Scott Spears at Thomas’ Washington, D.C., condominium. Thomas, 90, stepped down from her job as a columnist for Hearst News Service in June after a rabbi and independent filmmaker videotaped her outside the White House calling on Israelis to get “out of Palestine.” She gave up her front row seat in the White House press room, where she had aimed often pointed questions at 10 presidents, going back to Dwight D. Eisenhower. |
51 Guantanamo detainee goes on trial in NY court
By LARRY NEUMEISTER and TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writers
Tue Oct 12, 8:35 pm ET
| NEW YORK – A man accused of helping to build a truck bomb used in a 1998 terror attack on a U.S. embassy was a member of an al-Qaida cell that was determined to kill Americans, a federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday, but a defense lawyer said the Tanzanian man was duped.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Lewin said in his opening statement Tuesday that Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani – the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to face a civilian trial – bought the truck and gas tanks that were used in the bombing in Tanzania, one of two simultaneous embassy bombings in Africa that killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans. “This man, Ahmed Ghailani, was a vital member of that cell,” Lewin said as he pointed at Ghailani, who stared straight ahead in the Manhattan courtroom. |
52 Mormon church says cruelty toward gays is wrong
By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 12, 7:14 pm ET
| SALT LAKE CITY – The Mormon Church chided its members Tuesday to consider whether their attitudes toward all people – including gays – followed Christian principles, responding to activists’ demand that a church leader withdraw anti-gay statements.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay civil rights organization, delivered a petition letter carrying 150,000 signatures to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ headquarters, asking leader Boyd K. Packer to retract his statements in an Oct. 3 sermon that same-sex relationships are unnatural and can be overcome. Packer, 86, is the second-highest ranking Mormon church leader and the next in line for the presidency of the 13.5 million-member faith. |
53 Bailout watchdog probes GMAC foreclosure problems
By DANIEL WAGNER, AP Business Writer
Tue Oct 12, 7:06 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – A government watchdog is investigating government-owned GMAC Mortgage after a company employee admitted to approving thousands of foreclosures without reading the paperwork.
The special inspector general for the $700 billion financial bailout is looking into the improper foreclosures, which led GMAC Mortgage to halt foreclosures in 23 states, a spokeswoman for the watchdog said. Special inspector general Neil Barofsky can investigate GMAC because its parent company received three bailouts from the Treasury Department totaling $16.3 billion – more than all but a handful of companies. |
54 Feds appeal Mass. rulings against US marriage law
By DENISE LAVOIE, AP Legal Affairs Writer
Tue Oct 12, 6:15 pm ET
| BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday defended the federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman by appealing two rulings in Massachusetts by a judge who called the law unconstitutional for denying federal benefits to gay married couples.
In two separate cases, U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro in July ruled the federal Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, is unconstitutional because it interferes with a state’s right to define marriage and denies married gay couples an array of federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including the ability to file joint tax returns. The notice of appeal filed Tuesday did not spell out any arguments in support of the law. The appeals eventually will be heard by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. |
55 For gay youths, middle school can be toughest time
By JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer
Tue Oct 12, 5:56 pm ET
| NEW YORK – By the time she was in eighth grade, Rory Mann was so aware of the differences between her and other students that she couldn’t bear to enter the cafeteria. Instead, she ate lunch alone on the cold, hard bathroom floor, propped against a wall.
Sometimes Mann, who had known she was gay for about a year but dared not tell anyone, would cut herself on the arms with a razor blade. Her long sleeves hid the evidence of her misery from classmates and family. “Everyone’s trying to figure out who they are in middle school,” says Mann, now 18 and a high school senior in Newport, R.I., where she is active in a gay students group. |
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