Weekend News Digest- Updated

The Turkish military said at least 35 Kurdish rebels and two Turkish soldiers died in fighting Saturday. A total of seven soldiers and at least 79 rebels have been killed in Iraq since Turkey launched a ground incursion late Thursday, according to the military. The rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, claimed it had killed 15 Turkish troops.

The incursion is the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Iraq’s government criticized the offensive on Saturday, saying military force will not solve the Kurdish problem.

The protesters turned violent Thursday night and set fire to the U.S. embassy in the Serbian capital Belgrade, angered by Washington’s recognition of Kosovo. Hard-line Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and his ministers blamed the violence on the United States and other nations that have backed Kosovo’s independence from Serbia.

“The United States is the main culprit … for all those violent acts,” Serbia’s Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic said.

The foreign and defense ministers of both countries sought to play down differences over Iraq, while on Afghanistan both sides struck the same chord, calling on Europe to dedicate more resources to the fight.

Australia also appeared ready to act as a bridge between Beijing and Washington, as Canberra’s foreign minister urged both sides to have a more open dialogue and called on China for more transparency in its activities.

The EU staff in the northern city of Mitrovica have been preparing a 2,000 strong EU police-judicial mission in Kosovo after its declaration of independence, which has been rejected by the Serbian government and Kosovo Serbs.

“We have temporarily brought back our personnel, but we will maintain our office in the north,” EU envoy Peter Feith told reporters in the southern Kosovo town of Prizren.

Both pilots on board ejected safely as the 1.2-billion-dollar radar-evading plane, with its distinctive triangular shape, went down at Andersen airbase on the remote island, the US air force said.

“Two pilots from the 509th Bomb Wing were on board and ejected. They have been evaluated by medical authorities and are in good condition,” it said.

Yet in Monday’s elections in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), he and many others voted for a party that rejects religion in politics. It has led many to herald these elections as a victory for secular democracy and as a sign of the failure of Islamic parties’ governance.

The religious parties that held 46 of the 96 provincial parliamentary seats won only nine this time. Moreover, they have been replaced by the secular Awami National Party (ANP).

But behind the appearance of business-as-usual in the world of movies and TV is a shifting entertainment universe that is anything but. While the striking writers had their pens down and union hackles up, many were seeking creative new ways to rewrite the rules of engagement with the industry.

That means scores of adventurous, often-angry film and TV scribes reaching out to find new partners – venture capitalists, equity firms, advertisers – who can promise greater ownership, control, and independence within the new media world. The trend includes various ways to skirt studio bosses to reach consumers directly on the Web.

Now Obama’s wife, Michelle, has drawn their ire, too, for saying recently that she’s really proud of her country for the first time in her adult life.

Conservative consultants say that combined, the cases could be an issue for Obama in the general election if he wins the nomination, especially as he runs against Vietnam war hero Sen. John McCain.

Even as a fourth-grader, Blockson, who is black, knew better. So he began collecting proof.

Today, the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University contains more than 30,000 historical items, some dating to the 16th century. It includes Paul Robeson’s sheet music, African Bibles, rare letters and manuscripts, slave narratives, correspondence of Haitian revolutionaries and a first-edition book by W.E.B DuBois.

Congress in January cut funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant by two-thirds, from $520 million to $170 million for fiscal 2008. Local agencies say that’s a threat to the officers who do much of the law enforcement spadework.

The Byrne program is not without controversy, having drawn allegations of abuse. But many enforcement organizations consider it essential to their local efforts.

The newly elected leaders are already under pressure to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and his fellow sacked judges on the Supreme Court. It’s one of several urgent issues that will determine the future not only of the U.S.-backed president, but also of a new government’s effort to rebuild the country’s battered democracy.

“Restoring the judges would put a bomb under Musharraf,” said Nazir Naji, a commentator for Jang, Pakistan’s top-selling newspaper. “He cannot afford to let this happen.”

Nearly 10 blasts could be heard in the sprawling area along the Tigris River that houses the U.S. and British embassies, the Iraqi government headquarters and thousands of American troops.

Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, confirmed the Green Zone was hit by indirect fire – its term for a rocket or mortar attack – but said there were no injuries.

It was the fourth time this week that U.S. outposts in Baghdad appeared to be the targets of rocket or mortar attacks. At least six people have been killed.

Monday’s election left none of Pakistan’s parties with a majority in the National Assembly and negotiations are continuing between rivals keen to forge a coalition big enough to hold power in the 342-seat parliament.

The fate of Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in October 1999 and is a key U.S. ally in its war on terror, could depend on what kind of coalition emerges. His supporters, with 39 seats, could still have a say.

“It is the laying down of arms. It is the end of the war,” U.N. envoy Joaquim Chissano said after the parties signed the “permanent ceasefire” agreement during their fast-progressing talks in southern Sudan’s capital Juba.

With only a demobilization deal left to be agreed on, negotiators and mediators like Chissano are predicting a final accord will be reached next week to end one of the world’s most macabre and least-understood conflicts.

The Shi’ite cleric’s decision to renew his ceasefire for a further six months on Friday was hailed by the Iraqi and U.S. governments, which said it would help prevent a return to sectarian violence that pushed Iraq towards all-out civil war.

However, a number of Mehdi Army members fear the ceasefire will expose them to attacks from U.S. and Iraqi security forces, which they have accused of exploiting an initial truce called last August to arrest scores of Sadrists.

Afghanistan is in a tough spot. The country is reliant on the U.S. and NATO for its security and, at the same time, shares its longest land border with Iran. Afghanistan has long pleaded with the U.S. and Iran not to carry out their longstanding strategic rivalry on its soil. And for several years that request has been largely honored. Iran, a long-time supporter of the Northern Alliance, was instrumental in bringing about the fall of the Taliban. Iran has also helped more than any other neighbor with the reconstruction of the country. Since 2002, Tehran has pumped millions of dollars into Afghanistan’s western provinces to build roads, electrical grids, schools and health clinics. On top of this, Iranian agents are dumping bags of cash in the laps of tribal leaders in Afghanistan’s west, a State Department official tells TIME, “clearly intended to purchase influence and remind them: The Americans may be here for 10 or 20 years, but we will be here forever.”

No, not Abraham Lincoln. Last week, President Bush himself helped kick off a two-year celebration of the Great Emancipator’s Feb. 12, 2009, bicentennial that will include dozens of events in Kentucky, Illinois, Washington and beyond.

It’s that other tall, log cabin-born Kentuckian, Jefferson Davis, whose 200th has turned out to be something of a lost cause.

The ruling, handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, concluded the plaintiffs could not pursue their claims against Dow Chemical Co, Monsanto Co and nearly 30 other companies. The lawsuit contended agent orange caused ailments, including birth defects and cancer.

A U.S. District Court judge in Brooklyn, New York ruled in March 2005 that the plaintiffs failed to show that use of agent orange, a plant killer supplied to the U.S. military in Vietnam, violated a ban on the use of poisonous weapons in war and that the lawsuit did not prove the plaintiffs’ health problems were linked to the chemical.

State Sen. Leland Yee said on Friday he has drafted a bill that would allow California to sell the state-owned Cow Palace arena to Daly City, which neighbors San Francisco and which wants to redevelop the scruffy area around the facility.

The sale would also benefit California’s cash-strapped government by eliminating the cost of maintaining the aging arena, Yee said in a telephone interview.

“Fidel Castro announced that he would not remain as president — whatever that means,” McCain said in Indianapolis.

“And I hope that he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon.

Highlighting the huge request is a proposal by the Air Force to trump its civilian leaders and buy twice as many F-22 jets as now planned, while hyping the threats to justify the buy. China and India are, in the Air Force’s eyes, the 21st century equivalent of the Soviet Union, requiring billions in new aircraft that even a hawkish Republican President doesn’t think are needed. More critically, every dollar spent on supersonic aircraft is a dollar that isn’t spent on the kind of troops and materiel needed to wage the two irregular wars the nation is now fighting, and which many experts predict will be the kinds of wars fought for the next generation or two.

I confess that I’ve never quite understood why newspapers endorse presidential candidates. Sure, I know the history and the tradition, the fact that newspapers in the 18th and 19th centuries were often affiliated with political parties, but why do they do it now? Why do it at a time when the credibility and viability of the press are at all-time lows? More important, why do it at a time when readers, especially young readers, question the objectivity of newspapers in particular and the media in general?

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Boeing Co. has supplied the Air Force with refueling tankers for nearly 50 years and doesn’t want to let go of that. The incumbent is considered the favorite to win – an assumption already reflected in its stock price.

But European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., want to be in on the game. For France-based EADS, the parent of rival Airbus, the contract is an entree into the massive American military market just as overseas spending cools. And for Northrop Grumman, it would tap into a major new military revenue stream at a time when Pentagon spending may be leveling off.

CNBC reported shortly before the closing bell that a plan to help shore up the finances of Ambac Financial Group Inc. could be announced Monday or Tuesday. Ambac shares jumped on the report and finished up $1.48, or 16 percent, at $10.71.

The market’s turnaround came after nearly two full days of selling. The Dow Jones industrial average had been down nearly 130 points, but by the close, showed a 225-point reversal from its lows of the session.

The union and attorneys representing several retirees sued GM on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Detroit in an effort to get court approval of the change. It would cover about 500,000 GM retirees and spouses, plus current UAW workers when they retire.

The lawsuit is not a hostile action. GM will not oppose its major points and joined the UAW and retirees in filing a settlement agreement that would govern how the trust would be run.

“This is the proposal that members of the college will be asked to adopt” on Wednesday, an European Commission official told Reuters.

The Financial Times reported in Saturday’s editions that European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson would offer the voluntary code, setting out standards for governance and transparency.

“Iran will support the policy of a production cut at the next OPEC meeting” due to be held on March 5 in Vienna, he said.

“There has been always a periodic cut in the second quarter of the year, and it is predicted that OPEC will decrease its production at the next meeting.”

The satellite had long outlasted the five-year mission it began in 1990, but it continued to transmit useful data on solar winds.

More recently, its plutonium power source had slowly weakened and its fuel was freezing as the probe made a wide circle of the sun, traveling as far as Jupiter.

In January, engineers tried a longshot maneuver to heat up the fuel. Instead, their effort backfired and hastened Ulysses’ death by several months.

“It’s been in the background until now. It’s not sexy. It’s the enabler, not a source of energy,” said Tim Hennessy, chief executive of Canadian battery makers VRB Power, speaking on the sidelines of a “CleanEquity” technologies conference in Monaco.

VRB will start mass production this year of a longer-lasting rival to the lead acid battery currently used to store energy for example produced by solar panel, Hennessy said.

They detected a web of matter spanning 270 million light years, or more than 2,000 times the size of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, they said.

Around a fifth of the Universe is believed to consist of dark matter, spreading out in mysterious filaments, sheets and clusters.

The European Space Agency’s Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) captured a series of images showing the development of a bright haze over the southern latitudes of the planet in July 2007. Over a period of days, the high-altitude veil continually brightened and dimmed, moving towards equatorial latitudes and then back towards the south pole.

These transient dark and bright markings indicate regions on the cloud-covered world where solar ultraviolet radiation is being absorbed and reflected by sulfuric acid particles, mission scientists said this week.

No one knows why 2-year-olds have temper tantrums, but most of them do. It starts with mild anger over something simple but then quickly escalates into full blown fury dramatized by screaming, fist pounding, foot-stomping, and screaming. The child also descends psychologically into a place where they can’t be reached by words or physical comfort, and parents stand by helpless and confused.

Clearly, the child is distressed, but to the parent, the distress seems way out of proportion to the situation. And it is physically stressful for the child, which suggests that there must be some evolutionary reason why temper tantrums are so universal for little kids.