Evening Edition is an Open Thread
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1 Pakistan Taliban attacks destroy more than 40 NATO vehicles
AFP
1 hr 4 mins ago
| PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – More than 40 NATO vehicles were destroyed in two separate Taliban attacks in Pakistan Wednesday as the militants stepped up their efforts to disrupt supply routes into Afghanistan.
In the latest attack, at least 26 NATO oil tankers were torched when militants opened fire on a convoy of dozens of vehicles parked in Nowshera in northwestern Pakistan, police said.
Earlier militants attacked a depot housing 40 NATO oil tankers on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta, killing a member of staff and destroying at least 18 vehicles. |
2 Taliban blow up NATO tankers to avenge drone attacks
AFP
Wed Oct 6, 7:34 am ET
| MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) – The Taliban in Pakistan’s Islamist northwest — home to an alleged terror plot targeting Europe — said Wednesday their militants had again blown up NATO oil tankers to avenge US drone attacks.
The militants opened fire on a depot housing 40 tankers on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta, killing a member of staff and destroying at least 18 vehicles, in the fourth such attack in a week.
“There were about eight to 10 attackers. They came in two cars and started shooting tankers and set them on fire,” police official Hamid Shakeel told AFP. |
3 US judge nixes star government witness in terror trial
by Sebastian Smith, AFP
40 mins ago
| NEW YORK (AFP) – A judge Wednesday barred the star prosecution witness from testifying in the first civilian trial of an ex-Guantanamo inmate, in a blow to US administration plans for bringing terror suspects to justice.
The dramatic decision by Judge Lewis Kaplan forced a week’s delay in the trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who is accused of a key role in the bombings of two US embassies in Africa in 1998 that killed 224 people.
The barred witness, Hussein Abebe, was to testify that he sold Ghailani explosives before the deadly, nearly simultaneous bombings against the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. |
4 New delay in trial of ex-Guantanamo inmate
AFP
Wed Oct 6, 12:00 pm ET
| NEW YORK (AFP) – A judge on Wednesday barred a key government witness from appearing in the trial of a former Guantanamo inmate, in a setback to the US administration’s bid to try terrorism suspects in civilian courts.
Judge Lewis Kaplan postponed the first trial in a civilian court of a former inmate from the notorious US military prison in Cuba until Tuesday to give prosecutors time to appeal his ruling.
Kaplan ruled that the witness, Hussein Abebe, could not testify in the trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani who is accused of a key role in the killing of 224 people during the bombings against two US embassies in Africa in 1998. |
5 British embassy car attacked, Frenchman shot dead in Yemen
by Hammoud Mounassar, AFP
Wed Oct 6, 12:18 pm ET
| SANAA (AFP) – A British embassy car came under rocket attack in Yemen on Wednesday and a Frenchman working for an Austrian oil firm was shot dead, highlighting the growing dangers in the Arabian peninsula’s poorest nation.
The Yemeni government pointed the figure at Al-Qaeda.
Police in Sanaa said a rocket-propelled grenade targeted the car about three kilometres (two miles) from the British embassy, the second attack on a British diplomatic vehicle in the city in six months. |
6 Carbon atom pioneers share Nobel chemistry prize
by Rita Devlin Marier, AFP
29 mins ago
| STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Three scientists shared the 2010 Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday for forging a toolkit to manipulate carbon atoms, paving the way for new drugs to fight cancer and for revolutionary plastics.
Richard Heck of the United States and Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki of Japan were hailed for producing “great art in a test tube.”
The trio separately made outstanding contributions in organic chemistry, a field whose basis is carbon, one of the essential elements of life and also of innumerable industrial synthetics. |
7 IMF warns global recovery might not be sustained
by Andrew Beatty, AFP
Wed Oct 6, 1:26 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – Rich and emerging economies must dramatically change the way they trade with each other or risk throttling the global economic recovery, the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday.
In its latest economic outlook, the IMF said growth would slow more than previously expected in 2011, as the United States, Europe and Japan continue to struggle and China remains overly dependent on exports.
The recovery is “neither strong nor balanced and runs the risk of not being sustained,” warned Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist. |
8 Aussies in charge, Delhi battles to save reputation
by Dave James, AFP
2 hrs 32 mins ago
| NEW DELHI (AFP) – Australia tightened their Commonwealth Games gold medal grip Wednesday as embattled Delhi organisers scrambled desperately to salvage the crisis-hit, publically-shunned event’s crumbling reputation.
On a bumper day when 27 gold medals were won, Australia claimed 12 with the country’s swimmers responsible for five while their cyclists pedalled to three.
Hosts India, desperate for their competitors to put a gloss over the Games’ setbacks, were hanging onto the tails of Australia by winning three shooting golds, two weightlifting as well as a victory in wrestling. |
9 Games lurch on as athletics takes centre stage
by Martin Parry, AFP
Wed Oct 6, 6:52 am ET
| NEW DELHI (AFP) – The blue-riband athletics programme was given the go-head at the Commonwealth Games on Wednesday after frantic last-minute repairs to fix the damaged track as Australia and India grabbed more gold.
The first two track and field titles will be decided — men’s 5,000m and women’s javelin — among a bumper crop of 28 gold medals on the third full day of competition.
The pool will be the busiest venue in terms of medals with eight titles being contested, climaxing in the two 4x200m freestyle relays. Two synchronised swimming golds will also be awarded. |
10 Liverpool board accepts Boston Red Sox owners’ bid
by Danny Kemp, AFP
2 hrs 21 mins ago
| LONDON (AFP) – Liverpool’s board of directors agreed Wednesday to sell the English football giants to the owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, despite fierce opposition from the club’s current American owners.
The deal with New England Sports Ventures (NESV) is subject to approval by the Premier League and a legal battle with US owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who bought the club three years ago and tried to scupper the latest sale.
“I am delighted that we have been able to successfully conclude the sale process which has been thorough and extensive,” Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton said. |
11 Hungary says clean-up of toxic spill could take a year
by Geza Molnar, AFP
Wed Oct 6, 12:16 pm ET
| BUDAPEST (AFP) – A damburst of toxic sludge that killed at least four people and left scores needing treatment for chemical burns and other injuries could take up to a year to clean up, officials said Wednesday.
“The clean-up and reconstruction could take months, even a year,” Environment Secretary Zoltan Illes said.
On Monday, the retaining walls of a reservoir at an aluminium plant in Ajka in western Hungary collapsed, sending a toxic soup of industrial waste cascading through seven villages. |
12 Hungary scrambles to contain toxic mud spill
by Geza Molnar, AFP
Wed Oct 6, 6:13 am ET
| BUDAPEST (AFP) – Hungary scrambled Wednesday to contain a toxic mud spill that left four people dead and more than 100 injured in what is being described as an “ecological catastrophe” for the region around the Danube river.
“We’ve been working to neutralise the rivers since yesterday and we’re already getting good results showing that alkaline levels in the water are falling,” a spokewoman for the disaster relief services Timea Petroczi told AFP.
“We’ve got 500 people involved in the clean-up today. We’re using high-pressure water jets to clean roads and houses.” |
13 All the city’s a stage in theater-crazed Buenos Aires
by Oscar Laski, AFP
Wed Oct 6, 10:27 am ET
| BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – All the city’s a stage in Buenos Aires, where a surge of interest in the dramatic arts has rendered every street corner an amphitheatre and every pub a theater.
“There’s a lot of acting going on in Buenos Aires — in the bars, in the buses, in the streets,” said director Ricardo Bartis, in the courtyard of a small theater he has set up in what was once a private house.
In Buenos Aires, a city of about three million people, there are currently 198 theaters, 180 of which are small-scale, independent operations. |
14 EU, China in tug-of-war summit over yuan, trade
by Claire Rosemberg, AFP
Wed Oct 6, 7:36 am ET
| BRUSSELS (AFP) – China heads for a potentially divisive summit with Europe on Wednesday as Brussels raises demands for improved conditions with its second-largest trade partner and presses for a revaluation of the Chinese currency.
The EU-China meeting follows an EU-South Korea summit the same day marked by the signing of a historic free trade pact, the first in a possible slew that Europe hopes to seal with Asia.
“Trade liberalisation,” said EU president Herman Van Rompuy at the signing ceremony, “is key to the recovery of the world economy.” |
15 Gunmen torch NATO trucks in new raids in Pakistan
By Zeeshan Haider, Reuters
1 hr 55 mins ago
| ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Gunmen in Pakistan set fire to up to 40 supply trucks for NATO troops in two raids on Wednesday, police said, the latest in a series of assaults on the logistical backbone of the war in Afghanistan.
The attacks were launched on the same day the United States apologized to Pakistan for a NATO cross-border incursion in which U.S. helicopters killed two Pakistani soldiers.
U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson called the killings a terrible accident. |
16 U.S. backs Afghan reconciliation, no comment on talks
By Ross Colvin and David Brunnstrom, Reuters
31 mins ago
| WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The United States on Wednesday renewed its support for an Afghan reconciliation effort aimed at ending a 9-year-old war that has worsened, despite the presence of nearly 150,000 foreign troops in the country.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, however, declined to give any details of reported high-level secret talks between representatives of the Taliban and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government.
He said U.S. officials were playing no role in the reconciliation effort. |
17 American, two Japanese share Nobel for chemical tool
By Patrick Lannin and Adam Cox, Reuters
Wed Oct 6, 10:22 am ET
| STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A U.S. and two Japanese scientists won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday for inventing new ways to bind carbon atoms with uses that range from fighting cancer to producing thin computer screens.
Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki shared the prize for the development of “palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling,” the Nobel Committee for Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
“Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling is used in research worldwide, as well as in the commercial production of, for example, pharmaceuticals and molecules used in the electronics industry,” the committee said. |
18 Court considers anti-gay protests at funerals
By James Vicini, Reuters
2 hrs 11 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court on Wednesday considered whether a church has the legal right to stage anti-gay protests at U.S. military funerals to promote its claim that God is angry at America for tolerance toward homosexuals.
In an important test of free-speech versus privacy rights, the court heard arguments on whether a protest message and picketing at the private funeral, although considered offensive by many, were protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
Albert Snyder, the father of a Marine killed in Iraq in 2006, appealed to the Supreme Court after the family’s funeral service at a Roman Catholic church in Westminster, Maryland, drew unwanted protests by members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. |
19 Global policymakers clash on currency policies
By Steven C. Johnson, Reuters
30 mins ago
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global policymakers clashed over exchange rates on Wednesday as Western leaders warned China and other emerging markets that simultaneous efforts to weaken their currencies could derail economic recovery.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said countries with large trade surpluses must let their currencies rise lest they trigger a devastating round of competitive devaluations.
“When large economies with undervalued exchange rates act to keep the currency from appreciating, that encourages other countries to do the same,” Geithner said Wednesday ahead of the weekend’s semi-annual international Monetary Fund meeting. |
20 Special report: In Britain’s cities, the pain begins
By Lorraine Turner and Golnar Motevalli, Reuters
Wed Oct 6, 8:12 am ET
| LONDON (Reuters) – Inside Birmingham’s council chamber, a red-carpeted semi-circular room with Italian walnut-clad walls, the leader of Europe’s largest local government authority is preparing his colleagues for pain.
Over the past six years, Birmingham has cut more than 180 million pounds ($286 million) from the 1 billion pounds the council can spend, explains Mike Whitby, City Council Leader. “Now however, we need to find the same again, plus over 100 million pounds more, and all within less than four years.”
That will hurt. In September, Birmingham, which like the national government is controlled by Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, wrote to just under 26,000 public sector employees warning them that their jobs are at risk. As in other councils across Britain, the city is examining every service it runs, from street lights to nurseries for children. It has contemplated deals with foreign investors. There is talk it might, some day, return to the bond market. |
21 Democrats hang on to leads in California
By Steve Holland, Reuters
Wed Oct 6, 1:42 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic candidates hold a narrow advantage in the run-up to November’s congressional elections in California where big-spending Republican Meg Whitman is struggling in the race for governor, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found on Tuesday.
As Democratic voters show increased enthusiasm in the country’s most-populous state, Democrat Jerry Brown leads Whitman in the race to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor, 50 percent to 43 percent.
Whitman is a billionaire and former eBay CEO who has spent at least $119 million of her own money on her campaign. |
22 Militants attack two Western targets in Yemen
By Mohamed Sudam, Reuters
Wed Oct 6, 8:32 am ET
| SANAA (Reuters) – Suspected al Qaeda militants attacked two Western targets in Yemen on Wednesday, firing a rocket at a senior British diplomat’s car and killing a Frenchman at a gas and oil installation.
The attacks bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda, which has threatened to strike against Western targets and the Yemeni government, which declared war on the group’s local arm after it claimed a failed attack on a U.S.-bound airliner in December.
In London, the British Foreign Office said a British Embassy vehicle carrying the deputy chief of the British mission was attacked and that one British embassy staff member in the vehicle suffered a minor injury. |
23 Climate talks struggle as China and U.S. face off
By Chris Buckley, Reuters
Wed Oct 6, 7:49 am ET
| TIANJIN, China (Reuters) – The United States said on Wednesday that U.N. climate talks were making less progress than hoped because of a rift over rising economies’ emission goals, while China rejected pressure and put the onus on rich nations.
Negotiators from 177 governments are meeting this week in the north Chinese city of Tianjin trying to agree on the shape of the successor to the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol, the key U.N. treaty on fighting global warming, which expires in 2012.
“There is less agreement than one might have hoped to find at this stage,” said Jonathan Pershing, the United States Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change and lead U.S. negotiator in Tianjin. |
24 Panel: Gov’t thwarted worst-case scenario on spill
By DINA CAPPIELLO, Associated Press Writer
45 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – The Obama administration blocked efforts by government scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could become and made other missteps that raised questions about its competence and candor during the crisis, according to a commission appointed by the president to investigate the disaster.
In documents released Wednesday, the national oil spill commission’s staff describes “not an incidental public relations problem” by the White House in the wake of the April 20 accident.
Among other things, the report says, the administration made erroneous early estimates of the spill’s size, and President Barack Obama’s senior energy adviser went on national TV and mischaracterized a government analysis by saying it showed most of the oil was “gone.” The analysis actually said it could still be there. |
25 Special report: In age of austerity, lobbyists prosper
By Peter Apps, Political Risk Correspondent
Wed Oct 6, 8:06 am ET
| LONDON (Reuters) – Until recently, clients came to London-based political consultant Chris Whitehouse for help in winning government grants and contracts. Now they want advice on how to survive. There are the charities which face an end to government funding and worry they may cease to exist.
There are the big companies whose government contracts are under threat. And there are the smaller businesses dependent on contracts with public bodies such as local councils who have told him nervously that they might face bankruptcy.
You can hear similar concerns in corporate offices and lobbyist meeting rooms across Europe this year. In the face of the worst economic downturn in 70 years, Berlin says it will cut 80 billion euros between 2011 and 2014. Athens has frozen public sector pay, slashed holiday bonuses, frozen pensions and raised the retirement age as it tries to narrow its budget gap to 2.6 percent from 13.6 percent of GDP in 2009 to 2.6 percent by 2014. In London, the coalition government which formed after an election in May says it wants to reduce government spending by 25 percent over the next five years. |
26 AP-GfK Poll: Working-class whites move toward GOP
By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
43 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Working-class whites are favoring Republicans in numbers that parallel the GOP tide of 1994 when the party grabbed control of the House after four decades.
The increased GOP tilt by these voters, a major hurdle for Democrats struggling to keep control of Congress in next month’s elections, reflects a mix of two factors, an Associated Press-GfK poll suggests: unhappiness with the Democrats’ stewardship of an ailing economy that has hit this group particularly hard, and a persistent discomfort with President Barack Obama.
“They’re pushing the country toward a larger government, toward too many social programs,” said Wayne Hollis, 38, of Villa Rica, Ga., who works at a home supply store. |
27 US apologizes for attack on Pakistani soldiers
By SEBASTIAN ABBOT, Associated Press Writer
44 mins ago
| ISLAMABAD – The U.S. apologized Wednesday for a recent helicopter attack that killed two Pakistani soldiers at an outpost near the Afghan border, saying American pilots mistook the soldiers for insurgents they were pursuing.
The apology, which came after a joint investigation, could pave the way for Pakistan to reopen a key border crossing that NATO uses to ship goods into landlocked Afghanistan. Pakistan closed the crossing to NATO supply convoys in apparent reaction to the Sept. 30 incident.
Suspected militants have taken advantage of the impasse to launch attacks against stranded or rerouted trucks, including two Wednesday where gunmen torched at least 55 fuel tankers and killed a driver. |
28 New program will boost security at military bases
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
46 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Nearly a year after a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, the Pentagon is taking new steps to beef up security and surveillance programs at its bases, and will join an FBI intelligence-sharing program aimed at identifying future terror threats, U.S. officials said.
The new partnership with the FBI’s eGuardian program comes two years after the Pentagon shut down a controversial anti-terror database that collected reports of suspicious activity near military installations. The now-defunct program, called TALON, was closed after revelations it had improperly stored information on peace activists.
Defense officials have moved carefully to set up the new programs, trying to balance the protection of the nation’s armed forces with the privacy and civil rights of Americans. |
29 ACLU sues NC school over student’s nose piercing
By TOM BREEN, Associated Press Writer
47 mins ago
| RALEIGH, N.C. – The American Civil Liberties Union claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that a North Carolina school violated the constitutional rights of a 14-year-old student by suspending her for wearing a nose piercing.
The lawsuit from the state chapter of the ACLU seeks a court order allowing Ariana Iacono to return immediately to Clayton High School, which has kept her on suspension for four weeks since classes started.
The complaint hinges on Iacono’s claim that her nose piercing isn’t just a matter of fashion, but an article of faith. She and her mother, Nikki, belong to a small religious group called the Church of Body Modification, which sees tattoos, piercings and the like as channels to the divine. |
30 Virulent skin germ grates on Maine lobstering isle
By DAVID SHARP, Associated Press Writer
48 mins ago
| PORTLAND, Maine – A strain of a drug-resistant skin disease that has afflicted sports teams, prisons and military units is now proving a persistent pest among lobstermen and their families on a Maine island.
Over the past two summers, more than 30 people on Vinalhaven have come down with painful and persistent skin infections that required repeated treatments with intravenous antibiotics for some of the victims – but medical authorities say lobster lovers need not worry.
There’s no indication that the germ is linked to lobsters, and boiling or steaming them would kill any bacteria that infected fishermen who handle them might leave behind, said Dr. Stephen Sears, Maine state epidemiologist. |
31 Feds: 8 touches of ‘Shrek’ glass hazard for kids
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writer
24 mins ago
| LOS ANGELES – Federal regulators leaned on McDonald’s to quickly recall 12 million “Shrek”-themed drinking glasses this spring because they concluded that a typical 6-year-old could be exposed to hazardous levels of the metal cadmium by touching one of the glasses just eight times in a day, according to documents obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
Of the four collectibles in the series tied to the hit movie “Shrek Forever After,” the glass depicting the character Puss in Boots, with a predominantly orange design, prompted the recall push.
The investigatory file shows how the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission aggressively turned a tip that the glasses contained cadmium in their colored exterior designs into an assessment that the Puss in Boots glasses posed an unacceptable risk to some kids. |
32 Uncertainty over US plans as war enters 10th year
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 6, 2:01 pm ET
| KABUL, Afghanistan – It’s make-or-break time in Afghanistan.
The war enters its 10th year Thursday, and this is no ordinary anniversary.
With extra American troops now in place, this is the critical juncture to determine if President Barack Obama’s revised war stategy will work and reverse Taliban momentum. |
33 EU to Hungary: Don’t let toxic sludge hit Danube
By PABLO GORONDI and BELA SZANDELSZKY, Associated Press Writers
Wed Oct 6, 12:54 pm ET
| KOLONTAR, Hungary – Hungary opened a criminal probe into the toxic sludge flood Wednesday and the European Union urged emergency authorities to do everything they can to keep the contaminated slurry from reaching the Danube and affecting half a dozen other nations.
Hundreds of people had to be evacuated after a gigantic sludge reservoir burst Monday at a metals plant in Ajka, a town 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Budapest, the capital.
At least four people were killed, three are still missing and 120 were injured as the unstoppable torrent inundated homes, swept cars off roads and disgorged an estimated 1 million cubic meters (35 million cubic feet) of toxic waste onto several nearby towns. |
34 Trio wins Nobel for developing key chemistry tool
By MALCOLM RITTER and KARL RITTER, Associated Press Writers
53 mins ago
| NEW YORK – A method for building complex molecules has paid off by helping to fight cancer, protect crops and make electronic devices – and now it has earned its developers a Nobel Prize.
Three men – two Japanese scientists and an American researcher – designed the technique to bind together carbon atoms, a key step in assembling the skeletons of organic compounds used in medicine, agriculture and electronics.
Their work in the 1960s and 1970s provided “one of the most sophisticated tools available to chemists today (and) vastly improved the possibilities for chemists to create sophisticated chemicals,” the Nobel committee said. |
35 NTSB examining California pipeline emergency plan
By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 6, 2:23 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – Federal investigators are examining whether the California utility whose natural gas pipeline explosion killed at least eight people had an adequate emergency response plan, a government spokesman said Wednesday amid disclosures that such plans are effectively withheld from the public and industry watchdogs.
City and county officials said the company didn’t share its plan with them before the disaster.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the September pipeline blast in San Bruno, Calif., includes examining Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s emergency response plan and whether it was followed, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said. |
36 FBI: Stripper, drugs, guns and judge don’t mix
By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 6, 12:58 pm ET
| ATLANTA – A 67-year-old federal judge’s wild relationship with a stripper started with a lap dance, prosecutors said, and quickly escalated into escapades of prostitution and gun-toting drug deals for cocaine and prescription pills.
Senior Judge Jack T. Camp, a veteran jurist who had achieved a status that allowed him a lighter caseload, now finds himself in a peculiar position, in front of one of his peers, and with lawyers combing through his decisions, wondering whether they have grounds to challenge them.
“I don’t know whether the allegations are true or whether they infected the decision making, but it’s incumbent upon me to raise these issues,” said Gerry Weber, a civil rights attorney who is readying an appeal in a case that Camp ruled on in June. |
37 5 Afghan children among 9 dead in Kandahar blasts
By MIRWAIS KHAN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 6, 9:50 am ET
| KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai condemned the “enemies of Afghanistan” on Wednesday after roadside bombs killed nine people, including five children, as insurgents fight intensified NATO-led operations in the south.
Meanwhile, NATO and Afghan forces reported killing 22 militants – including two “shadow” governors of northern provinces.
In the roadside bombings Tuesday night in Kandahar city, the Interior Ministry said nine people were killed and 30 injured, including many police officers. The blasts targeted a police vehicle and ripped through an intersection – a day after four officers died in coordinated bombings that were also aimed at police. |
38 GOP-allied group weighs in with $4 million in ads
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 5, 11:06 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – A deep-pocketed alliance with ties to top Republicans Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie is pumping more than $4 million into key Senate races in a single week of advertising, a crucial infusion to counter a surge in Democratic Party spending as Election Day draws near.
The new wave of ads by Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies and its affiliate, American Crossroads, comes during the final, most intense weeks of the congressional campaign. The money, together with that of other groups aligned with the GOP, represents a new beachhead in this year’s less regulated world of money and politics.
For the two Crossroads groups, the new spending means they have poured nearly $14 million into fiercely competitive Senate races in eight states – Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Colorado and Washington – since August. |
39 Bank bailout supporters struggling for re-election
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 5, 9:19 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – The government’s giant bank bailout may well have averted a second Great Depression, economists say, but a lot of voters aren’t buying it. Support for the program is turning into a kiss of death for many in Congress.
Longtime Republican lawmakers – tarred by their votes for the emergency aid to banks, insurance and auto companies – have been sent packing in primaries. Fresh political attack ads are lambasting candidates from both parties for supporting the $700 billion package that Republican President George W. Bush pushed through Congress at the height of the financial crisis in October 2008.
The actual cost to taxpayers will be far less than the original price tag, perhaps totaling $50 billion or less. But it’s been difficult for lawmakers to make the case that they saved the nation from possible financial ruin – as some economists suggest. It’s far easier for opponents, especially in political sound bites, to portray the issue as Wall Street fat cats against ordinary Main Street folks in the final-weeks cacophony of the campaign. |
40 Mass. congressman’s wife pleads guilty in tax case
By DENISE LAVOIE, AP Legal Affairs Writer
47 mins ago
| BOSTON – As U.S. Rep. John Tierney watched from the front row of a federal courtroom, his wife pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges that she helped her brother conceal income from an illegal offshore gambling business that generated millions of dollars.
Patrice Tierney, 59, of Salem, entered guilty pleas to four counts of aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns related to her fugitive brother, Robert Eremian. She was accused of managing a bank account for her brother that took in more than $7 million in illegal gambling profits.
“I take full responsibility for what my part in this was,” Patrice Tierney told U.S. District Judge William Young, who released her on personal recognizance. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 13. |
41 Gay teen suicides create a ‘teachable moment’
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer
52 mins ago
| HADDONFIELD, N.J. – Gay Americans have arrived at a “teachable moment.”
Often feeling marginalized in political discourse or grousing that they’re used as political pawns, they have the nation’s attention – and sympathy – after a recent spate of teenage suicides and two apparent anti-gay attacks in the heart of their community.
Same-sex marriage and gays in the military remain on the political front burner, but general education and anti-discrimination campaigns are drawing a wider audience. While advocates hesitate to appear as if they’re capitalizing on tragedy, some observers say the political gains from it could come naturally. |
42 Environmentalists fret about NY island’s future
By FRANK ELTMAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 23 mins ago
| PLUM ISLAND, N.Y. – Researchers since the 1950s have studied dangerous animal diseases here that if unleashed could imperil the nation’s livestock. Cold War germ warfare testing also occurred on Plum Island, and for decades the U.S. Army used it as a coastal defense post.
Nevertheless, many environmentalists characterize it as a “remarkable gem” and “exemplary site for fish and wildlife” when describing its attributes.
The federal government wants to relocate the animal disease lab to Kansas and is proceeding with plans to sell the isolated, 840-acre pork chop-shaped island off the eastern tip of Long Island, a move that has some environmentalists fretting about Plum Island’s future. |
43 Judge delays hearing into Texas man’s execution
By JEFF CARLTON, Associated Press Writer
1 min ago
| AUSTIN, Texas – A judge asked to re-examine evidence used to convict a Texas man who was executed for burning down his home and killing his three daughters postponed a hearing in the case on Wednesday, after prosecutors asked the judge to step aside.
State District Judge Charles Baird delayed the hearing in the Cameron Todd Willingham case until Oct. 14, telling the court he wanted to give an attorney for Willingham’s family time to respond to prosecutors’ request to have him removed. In the meantime, Baird may decide to recuse himself or ask another judge to decide whether he should step aside.
Attorneys for Willingham’s family, backed by the New York-based legal aid center the Innocence Project, are seeking to clear his name. Willingham was put to death in 2004 after being convicted of burning down his Corsicana home in 1991 and killing his 2-year-old daughter and 1-year-old twins. Several fire experts have found serious fault in the arson findings that led to Willingham’s 1992 conviction. |
44 Stop to go! Philly trains to recycle brake energy
By PATRICK WALTERS, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 38 mins ago
| PHILADELPHIA – For years, subway cars have been able to recycle some of the energy created when they brake, turning it into electricity to help power the train or others running on the rails at the same time.
The problem is it’s a short-term benefit, with much of the energy wasted by the time the train stops braking. Now, transit agencies in Philadelphia and other cities across the country are hoping to harness that lost energy by storing it in batteries and putting it back into the system, something that could potentially save millions of dollars in energy costs.
“What we’re wasting here is the kinetic energy of a moving train,” said Andrew Gillespie, chief engineer of power for Philadelphia’s transit agency, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. He estimates that 50 to 70 percent of that power is wasted. |
45 Mazda’s new small car is fun to drive
By ANN M. JOB, For The Associated Press
Wed Oct 6, 12:41 pm ET
| The bright, neon-green exterior ensured no one missed my 2011 Mazda2 test car. But it was the hatchback’s maneuverable small size and fuel economy that really caught everyone’s attention.
New for 2011, the diminutive Mazda2 is the first smaller, so-called B-segment car that Mazda Motor Corp. of Japan has brought to the United States in some seven years.
Less than 13 feet long and lighter than many small hatchback competitors, the Mazda2 is a nimble, five-door handler whose 100 horsepower engine provides a surprisingly sprightly ride, particularly with the five-speed manual transmission. |
46 Anti-gay church’s lawyer study in contradictions
By JOHN HANNA, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 5, 11:03 pm ET
| TOPEKA, Kan. – In one photo, Margie Phelps has a furrowed brow and is stomping on the American flag at one of the numerous protests her fundamentalist church has held nationwide against the military, gays and the Catholic church.
Another picture reveals a different Phelps. One with a warm smile as she’s presented an award for her work at the Kansas Department of Corrections, where she puts in long hours and is known for her calm demeanor in helping former prison inmates return to society.
To some, Phelps is a study in contradictions. She’s a member of her family’s divisive Westboro Baptist Church and she’s set to go before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to represent her church in a case that tests the scope of free speech protections under the Constitution’s First Amendment. |
47 US seeks big vote on Russia nuclear arms pact
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 5, 8:37 pm ET
| UNITED NATIONS – The Obama administration is hoping for an overwhelming Senate vote this year to ratify the new arms control treaty with Russia, the chief U.S. negotiator said Tuesday.
Rose Gottemoeller said chances for ratification of the New START Treaty in the “lame duck” session after the November midterm elections are “good.”
She pointed to the 14-4 bipartisan vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month which sent the treaty to the full Senate, and the administration’s efforts to build support including answering about 900 questions from senators and holding 18 hearings and four major briefings. |
48 Black community looks for Chicago mayor candidate
By TAMMY WEBBER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 5, 8:12 pm ET
| CHICAGO – Black ministers, politicians and business leaders are scrambling to unify their community behind one candidate in Chicago’s wide-open mayoral race, which already features a former White House chief of staff, as many as four congressmen and a sheriff among those preparing to run.
So many potential candidates have surfaced – at least a dozen in the black community alone – that many fear the black vote could be widely split, ruining a chance to exercise the kind of influence that helped elect Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington, in 1983.
Among other considerations is whether Rahm Emanuel, praised by President Barack Obama even as he left the administration last week to run, will win support from black voters in Obama’s hometown. |
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