2 Merkel scraps for votes in final election drive
by Richard Carter, AFP
Sat Sep 26, 10:54 am ET
| BERLIN (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday her party was best placed to steer Europe's top economy out of its worst post-war crisis, on the eve of an election expected to return her to power.
"We are going to fight to the end because every vote counts," she told a crowd of around 1,000 people waving orange "Angie" placards and chanting the nickname of Germany's first woman chancellor.
"We are the only party in Germany to govern the economy sensibly. Voters will decide tomorrow how quickly we get out of this crisis. |
3 Emerging nations big winners at re-born G20
by Veronica Smith, AFP
39 mins ago
| PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AFP) - World leaders returned home on Saturday after backing a new vision for economic governance, with bold plans to fix global imbalances and give more clout to emerging giants such as China and India.
They left the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh which ended on Friday, with agreement to give developing countries greater voting rights at two major financial institutions -- the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Leaders committed to shift at least five percent of the IMF's internal voting rights to the developing world and tasked it with a bigger role monitoring economic policy. |
4 Iran to put new uranium plant under IAEA supervision
by Jay Deshmukh, AFP
2 hrs 24 mins ago
| TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran said on Saturday it will put its newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog, as US President Barack Obama led a global outcry against Tehran for building the facility.
"This site will be under the supervision of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and will have a maximum of five percent (uranium) enrichment capacity," Ali Akbar Salehi said on state television.
The plant, which is "not an industrial scale" unit, will be operational in two years' time, he said. |
5 Koreans have tearful reunions with separated relatives
by Park Chan-Kyong, AFP
Sat Sep 26, 7:26 am ET
| SEOUL (AFP) - Hundreds of Koreans on Saturday had tearful reunions with relatives they had not seen for almost 60 years, as a North-South humanitarian programme resumed after a two-year hiatus.
Sobbing relatives hugged each other tight, mostly speechless with emotion as the reunions at the North's Mount Kumgang resort near the inter-Korean border were shown on a South Korean TV.
Tears that had been held back for almost 60 years streamed down the face of Kim Hye-Kyong, 83, who met her daughter for the first time since they were separated during the Korean war. |
6 Sudan parties buildup to first elections in decades
by Guillaume Lavallee
Fri Sep 25, 11:53 pm ET
| JUBA, Sudan (AFP) - Major Sudanese political parties are to meet on Saturday for talks on crucial issues in the buildup to the first full elections in Africa's biggest nation for 24 years.
The Juba Conference has been put back several times but is to finally open on Saturday evening in the capital of semi-autonomous South Sudan and is scheduled to continue until Tuesday.
Even so, it will not include anyone from President Omar al-Beshir's National Congress Party, which is boycotting the event. |
7 G20 faces credibility test on markets
By Sumeet Desai and Chris Buckley, Reuters
1 hr 44 mins ago
| PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - The Group of 20 rich and developing economies, fresh from a triumphant show of unity at Pittsburgh, faces months of deal-making and communication to markets that will test its credibility as the premier global forum for economic cooperation.
"It worked," G20 leaders declared on Friday of their response to the global financial crisis. "Our forceful response helped stop the dangerous, sharp decline in global activity and stabilize financial markets," they said in the final summit communique.
The summit host, U.S. President Barack Obama, called the gathering a success for a commitment to global economic growth that is "balanced and sustained" and cited in particular a deal to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. |
8 McChrystal troops request shelved pending review
By Peter Graff and Adam Entous, Reuters
Sat Sep 26, 11:14 am ET
| KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has submitted a request for more troops, a spokesman said Saturday, but the Pentagon will hold it while President Barack Obama decides what strategy to pursue.
General Stanley McChrystal hand delivered his long-awaited request to U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Admiral James Stavridis, said spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Tadd Sholtis.
"At the end of that meeting General McChrystal did provide a copy of the force requirements to Admiral Mullen on the U.S. side and Admiral Stavridis on the NATO side," Sholtis said after McChrystal returned from the meeting at an air base in Germany. |
9 Protesters, police clash after G20 in Pittsburgh
By Michelle Nichols, Reuters
Sat Sep 26, 10:15 am ET
| PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - Police and anti-capitalist protesters clashed at the University of Pittsburgh campus on Friday evening, hours after the Group of 20 summit of rich and developing nations ended.
Police shot "bean bags" filled with rubber pellets to disperse about 40 demonstrators that gathered at a plaza for a "rally against police brutality" organized by Twitter messages.
A large throng of hundreds of students came out of their nearby dorms to watch the police in riot gear surround the protesters in the plaza and were also told to disperse. |
10 Family cemetery visit led to hanged census worker
By ROGER ALFORD and JEFFREY McMURRAY, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 42 mins ago
| BIG CREEK, Ky. - A family's visit to a rural Kentucky cemetery led to the shocking discovery of a part-time census worker's naked body hanging from a tree with the word "fed" written on his chest.
Jerry Weaver of Fairfield, Ohio, told The Associated Press the man had been gagged and his hands and feet were bound with duct tape.
Weaver said Friday he was certain from the gruesome scene that 51-year-old Bill Sparkman was killed deliberately. |
11 Friends: Hanging victim devoted his life to kids
By ROGER ALFORD, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 40 mins ago
| LONDON, Ky. - Even while fighting cancer and undergoing chemotherapy, Bill Sparkman would show up for work wearing his customary smile and a toboggan cap to cover his balding head.
The substitute teacher and part-time census worker cherished the values he learned in his youth as he worked toward becoming an Eagle Scout. Above all, he was punctual and dependable.
So when he didn't show up for his job at Johnson Elementary School two weeks ago, colleagues knew something had to be wrong. |
12 AP sources: Gitmo closing goal of Jan. may slip
By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent
Sat Sep 26, 11:08 am ET
| WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama may not be able to meet his stated goal of closing the much-criticized Guantanamo Bay prison by January as his administration runs into daunting legal and logistical hurdles to moving the more than 220 detainees still there.
Senior administration officials acknowledged for the first time Friday that difficulties in completing the lengthy review of detainee files and resolving other thorny questions mean the president's promised January deadline may slip.
Obama's aides have stepped up their work toward closure and the president remains as committed to closing the facility as he was when, as one of his first acts in office, he pledged to shut it down, said the officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to more freely discuss the sensitive issue. |
13 Chrysler trying to refit Fiats so they sell in US
By TOM KRISHER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Sep 26, 1:44 am ET
| DETROIT - Chrysler thinks its future may be in a new lineup of smaller cars based on models from Italian partner Fiat. The question is how to make them for Americans put off by stiff suspensions, firm seats and - perish the thought - not enough cupholders.
The problem is further complicated because Americans generally are plumper and taller than Western Europeans, and they're used to driving fatter and longer cars on wider roads.
It's a dilemma faced by nearly all automakers as they try to hold down development costs by tailoring cars to sell around the globe. But at no company is the problem more acute than Chrysler, where a wholesale lineup change is needed quickly to boost sagging sales. |
14 Dig along upper Hudson opens window to old NY fort
By CHRIS CAROLA, Associated Press Writer
19 mins ago
| FORT EDWARD, N.Y. - A mistake made along the Hudson River is offering archaeologists a rare glimpse into how colonial military engineers built wooden forts, including the key stronghold constructed here by the British during the French and Indian War.
A formal excavation of the original Fort Edward was called after crews dredging PCB-contaminated sediment from the Hudson River last month accidentally ripped out wooden beams thought to have been part of the original fort, which was built in the 1750s. Redcoats, rangers, American Indians and settlers mingled at the site as England and France fought for control of North America.
Archaeologists, after spending two weeks scraping away layers of soil from the river's steep east bank, have uncovered more evidence of the foundation of what was once Britain's largest fortification on this continent. |
15 Clergy abuse settlements can lead to new suffering
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
45 mins ago
| LOS ANGELES - David Guerrero lies curled like a small child in bed, his teeth chattering and his fever spiked at 104 degrees. He has left his room only once since he crawled home from his latest crystal meth binge three days ago, to let his mother drive him to the emergency room for his soaring temperature.
Now, Minerva Guerrero hovers close to her 41-year-old son, making a mental list of the day ahead: she must change his bed linens, nurse him, pick up his new prescriptions.
Sixty miles away and days later, Dominic Zamora rages at his father, who suspects he bought a house in someone else's name. You're not my father, Dominic screams. You just want my money. When the 36-year-old finally calls his parents three weeks later, he is drunk and angry at the world - and most especially, at them. |
16 Boston's black history being unburied at cemetery
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS, Associated Press Writer
56 mins ago
| BOSTON - Somewhere among the grassy hills, canopy trees and 19th century angel sculptures rest Butler and Mary Wilson.
In the early 1900s, the husband and wife team helped black World War I servicemen, fought discrimination against African Americans and oversaw the creation of the Boston NAACP chapter - the most active in the nation at the time.
They were laid to rest here, in Boston's historic Forest Hills Cemetery, sharing the space with writer e.e. cummings and 19th century white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. |
17 Mich. stares down 2nd govt. shutdown in 3 years
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 25 mins ago
| LAINGSBURG, Mich. - Economically beleaguered Michigan faces a possible government shutdown - shuttering highway rest areas, state parks, construction projects and the state lottery - if lawmakers fail to reach a budget deal by next week.
The state with the nation's highest unemployment rate has a nearly $3 billion shortfall. Federal recovery act money will fill more than half the gap, but the spending cuts or tax increases needed to fill the rest have caused bitter infighting at the state Capitol.
Michigan is one of just two states whose budget year starts Oct. 1. The other, Alabama, already has a spending plan in place, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. If lawmakers in Lansing don't make progress soon, Michigan could join the eight other states that failed to meet budget deadlines - but did not shut down - this year. |
18 Texas panel reviews ruling that led to execution
By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 32 mins ago
| CORSICANA, Texas - More than five years after his final act from the Texas death chamber gurney was a profanity-filled tirade, the murder case of executed inmate Cameron Todd Willingham refuses to die.
Willingham was executed in February 2004 - proclaiming his innocence and hoping aloud that his wife would "rot in hell" - for the deaths of his three young daughters in a fire at their Corsicana home on Dec. 23, 1991.
An arson finding by investigators was key to his conviction in the circumstantial case. |
19 AP Exclusive: UN leader cites rules on Madagascar
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
6 mins ago
| UNITED NATIONS - U.N. General Assembly President Ali Abdessalam Treki said he was only following the rules when he tried to let Madagascar's coup leader Andry Rajoelina speak.
The military-backed Rajoelina from the Indian Ocean island nation was barred from giving a speech to the General Assembly. The former radio DJ seized control of Madagascar in March in a widely denounced coup that has led to months of violence in the impoverished country.
Treki told The Associated Press on Saturday that Rajoelina's government was invited to the 192-nation General Assembly's annual high-level debate by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office. Treki said he also was advised by Ban's legal office that Rajoelina should be allowed to give a speech. |
20 Gay rights measures on the ballot in three states
By RACHEL LA CORTE, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 2 mins ago
| OLYMPIA, Wash. - Nearly a year after California voters overturned same-sex marriage, voters in three other states will weigh in this fall on whether to reverse gay rights initiatives ranging from anti-discrimination measures to marriage benefits.
In Maine, voters will decide whether or not to uphold the state's legalization of same-sex marriage. In Washington state, a so-called "everything but marriage" law that expands the state's current domestic partnership law will be on the ballot. And in Kalamazoo, Mich., voters will decide on an ordinance that prohibits discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals.
"In off-year elections, ballot measures gain much more attention, regardless of the topic," said University of Washington political science professor Matt Barreto. But California's battle over Proposition 8 is "certainly an important backdrop." |
21 Army issues hand gel, cough orders in flu fight
By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 59 mins ago
| FORT JACKSON, S.C. - Soldiers in boot camp are getting something new this year besides rigorous basic training - Army-green bottles of hand sanitizer gel, part of a stepped-up effort by the military to ward off swine and seasonal flu.
Soldiers at the Army's largest training installation and at other boot camps are also getting orders barked by their drill sergeants to use alcohol wipes and cough into their sleeves.
It's all part of an effort that intensified when the new H1N1 swine flu spread this year to avoid repeating history. The 1918 global flu pandemic hit hard at big training camps like Fort Jackson, where hundreds of soldiers died and thousands became ill. |
22 Analysis: On nuke arms, 2010 will challenge Obama
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
Sat Sep 26, 12:04 pm ET
| UNITED NATIONS - In the afterglow of success at his one-day U.N. nuclear summit, a satisfied Barack Obama was also realistic.
"The next 12 months will be absolutely critical," the U.S. president said. Lasting success, he knew, lies beyond some high hurdles to be cleared in 2010.
The 15-nation U.N. Security Council, with Obama presiding and other world leaders arrayed around him, last week unanimously approved an ambitious strategy for moving toward a world free of nuclear weapons. That goal was embraced by Obama in an agenda-setting speech last April, when he also pledged pursuit of specific steps now envisioned in the new U.N. document. |
23 $1 million going further in many housing markets
By ADRIAN SAINZ, AP Real Estate Writer
Sat Sep 26, 11:50 am ET
| A million dollars doesn't buy you what it once did. In most U.S. neighborhoods, it now gets you a lot more.
During the housing boom, prices rose so high and so fast that even cookie-cutter homes in the paved suburbs of South Florida and California could cost a cool million. In Santa Clara, Calif., a high-tech hot spot, the median price hit $836,780 in 2007.
That was a long way from the days when a million-dollar home evoked images of marble columns and swimming pools with vanishing edges. Subprime loans allowed more people than ever to buy houses that were once above their means. Higher demand fueled ever-higher prices until the spigot of cheap money was turned off and the housing bubble burst. The recession forced many well-heeled buyers into unemployment lines. And sales of homes over $1 million cratered by more than 50 percent from the peak four years ago. |
24 Calif. GOP convention to focus on gov. candidates
By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer
Sat Sep 26, 4:15 am ET
| INDIAN WELLS, Calif. - Nearly a year ahead of their primary election, California Republicans are being asked to consider who would best represent their struggling party in a changing state with daunting challenges ahead.
With California mired in a perpetual cycle of budget deficits, all three candidates seeking to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when he is termed out of office next year are trying to position themselves as the most responsible stewards of taxpayer money.
Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former congressman Tom Campbell are expected to focus on the area where they can find common ground with this weekend's delegates - state fiscal policy. |
25 Thousands opposed to G-20 march through Pittsburgh
By MARK SCOLFORO and RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writers
Sat Sep 26, 2:08 am ET
| PITTSBURGH - A vociferous but peaceful group of several thousand people marched for miles through the downtown area on Friday, united by opposition to the Group of 20 summit but expressing a diversity of mostly liberal causes as an army of stone-faced riot police watched their every move.
Dozens of black-clad anarchists were conspicuous among the demonstrators, but there was no sign of the disturbances that had resulted in arrests and property damage a day earlier.
Public safety officials said Friday night that 83 people were arrested at protests and other events and about $50,000 in property damage was done during the two-day summit, which ended Friday. They said a man who smashed store and business windows in the city's Oakland section on Thursday night was responsible for about $20,000 in damage. |
26 Backers begin push to get pot measure on ballot
By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Sep 26, 12:51 am ET
| SAN FRANCISCO - Pot advocates started their push Friday to get a marijuana legalization measure on California's 2010 ballot with backing from a prominent state politician.
Former state Senate president Don Perata announced his support for the Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign, which began gathering signatures for the proposal at the annual meeting of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Supporters need nearly 434,000 signatures to make the November 2010 ballot. |
27 Cambodians testify for war crimes tribunal
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 25, 8:56 pm ET
| LONG BEACH, Calif. - The tiny Cambodian woman trembled slightly and stared blankly ahead as she told the story that has haunted her for half a lifetime: her parents and brother died in Khmer Rouge labor camps. Her baby perished in a refugee camp.
Roth Prom has wanted to die every day since and had never spoken those words so publicly until last week, when five minutes became the chance for justice she has longed for silently for so many years.
"I'm depressed in my head, I'm depressed in my stomach and in my heart. I have no hope in my body, I have nothing to live for," she said quietly. "All I have is just my bare hands." |
28 In 2 bomb cases, FBI let sting operation play out
By MIKE ROBINSON, AP Legal Affairs Writer
Fri Sep 25, 6:53 pm ET
| CHICAGO - As Hosam Maher Husein Smadi prepared to remotely detonate what he believed was a powerful bomb underneath a Dallas skyscraper, his comrade-in-arms, who was actually an undercover FBI agent, offered him earplugs, authorities say.
Smadi declined. He said he wanted to hear the blast, according to investigators.
Sitting in a car a safe distance from the skyscraper, Smadi, 19, allegedly dialed the cell phone number he thought would trigger the explosion. It was instead a law enforcement number. He was promptly arrested on terrorism charges. |
29 UN decries harassment of Brazil's Honduran embassy
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 25, 6:23 pm ET
| UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council on Friday condemned "acts of intimidation" against the Brazilian embassy in Honduras, where that country's ousted president is holed up, but said nothing about restoring him to power.
The council issued its statement after a briefing and closed-door consultations that "called upon the de facto government of Honduras to cease harassing the Brazilian Embassy."
Soldiers flew President Manuel Zelaya into exile in his pajamas in June, but he sneaked back to Honduras and made it to Brazil's embassy in the capital of Tegucigalpa on Monday. |
30 Conn. land vacant 4 years after court OK'd seizure
By KATIE NELSON, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 25, 6:03 pm ET
| NEW LONDON, Conn. - Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation's most notorious eminent domain project.
There are a few signs of life: Feral cats glare at visitors from a miniature jungle of Queen Anne's lace, thistle and goldenrod. Gulls swoop between the lot's towering trees and the adjacent sewage treatment plant.
But what of the promised building boom that was supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues? They are noticeably missing. |
31 Judge criticizes US evidence on Gitmo detainee
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 25, 6:00 pm ET
| WASHINGTON - A federal judge has ordered the release of a Kuwaiti man held at Guantanamo Bay and rebuked the U.S. government for relying on scant evidence, uncredible witnesses and coerced confessions to hold him for more than seven years.
In an opinion declassified Friday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said government attorneys presented a "surprisingly bare" record during four days of classified hearings last month to oppose Fouad Al Rabiah's request for release from the U.S. naval detention facility in Cuba. She said the aviation engineer is being held almost exclusively on confessions obtained through abusive techniques and that his own interrogators repeatedly concluded were not believable.
"Incredibly, these are the confessions that the government has asked the Court to accept as truthful in this case," Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a 65-page opinion that was partially redacted to remove classified material. She called the coerced confessions "entirely incredible" and said they "defy belief." |
32 Civil liberties groups: Police overreacted at G-20
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 25, 5:30 pm ET
| PITTSBURGH - Police used all the nonlethal tools at their disposal to thwart protesters at the Group of 20 summit this week, firing bean bags, hurling canisters of smoke and pepper spray, using flash-bang grenades and batons and deploying a high-tech sound-blasting device meant to push back crowds.
It was all a bit much for civil liberties groups and protesters.
They decried what they called a heavy-handed and unwarranted police response, saying riot officers focused on largely peaceful, if unsanctioned, demonstrations when they should have been paying more attention to small groups of vandals that smashed windows of city businesses. |
33 NH WWII pilot gets wish for final B-24 flight
By NORMA LOVE, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 25, 5:19 pm ET
| MANCHESTER, N.H. - World War II pilot Bernerd Harding feels he finally has completed his mission - 65 years after his B-24 airplane was shot down over Germany.
Harding, now 90 and being treated for prostate cancer, was a passenger Friday in the Witchcraft - the last B-24 still flying. He sat in the cockpit behind the pilots. The skies were clear during the 30-minute flight from Laconia to Manchester that ended with a safe, smooth landing.
"It was fun. It was worth it. It's history," he said after the flight. |
34 Calif. OKs fee to pay for global warming program
By SAMANTHA YOUNG, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 25, 4:52 pm ET
| SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Despite industry objections and threats of lawsuits, California air regulators on Friday approved the nation's first statewide carbon fee on utilities, oil refineries and other polluting industries.
The money raised by the California Air Resources Board, which voted 9-0, is intended to pay for the bureaucratic expenses of carrying out the state's 2006 global warming law, which requires greenhouse gas emissions statewide to be reduced by 25 percent over the next decade.
"It's never pleasant to be in the position of asking consumers to pay," chairwoman Mary Nichols said at the board's meeting in the Southern California city of Diamond Bar. "While we asking for investments here, these are investments being made as our economy begins to come back from the worst recession since the Great Depression." |
35 NM ag laborers sue for workers' comp coverage
By MELANIE DABOVICH, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 25, 4:46 pm ET
| ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Joe Griego's life changed in seconds when he turned his back on a bull he was trying to corral during work at a southern New Mexico dairy. The bull attacked, leaving Griego with serious injuries.
The worst part, he said, was discovering that his injuries weren't covered by state workers' compensation benefits. Now, he and others are suing the state Workers' Compensation Administration and its director, demanding farm and ranch workers be included in coverage.
Thirty-three states, including neighboring Colorado and Arizona, already require workers' compensation for farm workers, although some limit coverage or exempt small farms. But New Mexico's agricultural workers fall into a job category not protected under state law. |
36 Burning down the house? IRS nixes tax deductions
By MEGHAN BARR, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 25, 4:32 pm ET
| UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio - The battered house on Sherwin Road was put to good use before the fire department burned it to the ground.
SWAT teams barged through the front door in an exercise on dealing with domestic violence. Rescue crews scattered mannequins around the house and blew smoke through the halls to simulate a meth lab explosion. Firefighters set fires in one room after another and practiced putting them out. Then, in one last drill, they torched the whole place.
Five years later, though, a dispute still smolders over the homeowner's attempt to claim a $287,000 charitable tax deduction for donating the house to the fire department, which has burned down at least 32 such homes in Upper Arlington since 1988. |
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March on Washington
