The Morning News

Warren did not answer directly when asked whether he would dedicate his prayer to Jesus. In a statement Tuesday to The Associated Press, Warren would say only that, “I’m a Christian pastor so I will pray the only kind of prayer I know how to pray.”

“Prayers are not to be sermons, speeches, position statements nor political posturing. They are humble, personal appeals to God,” Warren wrote. His spokesman would not elaborate.

Such conversational fillers are, of course, as common as, like, speech itself. But the buzz about Kennedy’s “you knows” illustrates how problematic a few extraneous syllables can be for a public figure, especially in an era when today’s verbal foible is tomorrow’s viral video.

“It really did a huge disservice to her,” said communications training coach Matt Eventoff, a partner in Princeton Public Speaking in Princeton, N.J. Rather than focusing on Kennedy’s views, he said, “people are going to spend time deconstructing the ‘you knows.'”

The U.S. military said a temporary closure of the key supply line was not a problem, and praised the campaign in the rugged hills of northwestern Pakistan where al-Qaida leaders – including Osama bin Laden – are believed hiding.

The operation came amid tensions between Pakistan and its eastern neighbor, India, triggered by last month’s terror attack in Mumbai, which the Indian government and Washington have blamed on Islamic extremists based in Pakistan.

A study released Tuesday found that a quarter of Obama voters said they would continue to work online to support the new administration. The nonpartisan Pew Internet and American Life Project also found 62 percent of Obama’s voters say they would ask others to support Obama’s policies.

Welcome to the Democrats’ new permanent campaign, one planned online and executed on Main Street.

The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of the families in Pulaski County Circuit Court seeking to overturn Act 1, which was approved by voters in last month’s general election.

“Act 1 violates the state’s legal duty to place the best interest of children above all else,” said Marie-Bernarde Miller, a Little Rock attorney in the lawsuit.

Clark, who turned 79 last month and has been in front of the cameras for 61 years, said in a recent interview by e-mail that his appearance on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009,” diminished though it may be, is a labor of love and “not really a job.”

“Obviously, I’m not able to be as actively involved as I used to be out on the street, up on a platform and interacting with the crowds in Times Square” in New York, Clark wrote. “Thank goodness my friend Ryan Seacrest is able to handle that end of the activity on the show these days.

Laurie Friedman’s “Angel Girl,” a children’s book inspired by Rosenblat, was pulled Tuesday by the Lerner Publishing Group. President and publisher Adam Lerner said in a statement that the Minneapolis-based company had been misled by Rosenblat and his wife, Roma.

“We are dismayed to learn about Herman and Roma Rosenblat’s recantation of part of their Holocaust survival story,” Lerner said. “While this tragic event in world history needs to be taught to children, it is imperative that it is done so in a factual way that doesn’t sacrifice veracity for emotional impact.”

The release of details of the 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) compensation plan and the opening of trials for those blamed for the contamination signal that authorities hope to end what was widely seen as a national disgrace, highlighting widespread food safety problems and corporate and official malfeasance.

Contaminated milk powder has been blamed for the deaths of at least six children and the sickening of nearly 300,000 others.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index fell by a record 18 percent from October last year, the largest drop since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index tumbled 19.1 percent, its biggest decline in its 21-year history.

Both indices have recorded year-over-year declines for 22 straight months. Prices are at levels not seen since March 2004.

Consumers have been nervous about spending for months – putting off big-ticket purchases, forgoing new clothes and choosing store brands at the grocery store – all of which may make this the worst holiday season for retailers in decades.

The Consumer Confidence Index measured by the Conference Board, a private research group, fell to 38 in December from a revised 44.7 in November. That is its lowest point since the group began compiling the index in 1967, and below the previous low of 38.8 in October. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected the index to rise incrementally to 45.

In exchange for the slice of the $700 billion bank rescue package, the government will receive preferred shares that pay an 8 percent dividend and warrants to purchase additional shares in return for the money, the department said.

Treasury also said it will lend up to $1 billion to General Motors so that the company can purchase additional equity that GMAC is planning to offer as part of its effort to raise more capital.

GMAC modified its credit criteria so that it could lend to a wider range of potential customers, two-and-a-half months after significantly curbing lending.

Meanwhile, GM is offering zero-percent financing on several vehicles, and rates no higher than 5.9 percent on more than three dozen 2008 and 2009 models. The offer expires on January 5. Many eligible vehicles also carry cash discounts of $500 to $4,250.

Oil and gold prices dipped on Tuesday, pressured by the gloomy global economic outlook which outweighed tensions in the Middle East due to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.

Tuesday brought more dismal economic news in the United States, with single-family home prices down 18 percent in October from a year earlier and consumer confidence plunging to a record low due to severe job cuts.

Investigators from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — which is under fire for missing a purported decades-long $50 billion Ponzi scheme to fleece wealthy individuals and charities alike — will take weeks to pore over the assets, liabilities and property declared by Madoff, 70.

A spokesman for the SEC declined comment. In general, the regulator is not required to immediately publicly file such disclosures with the courts.

The International Council of Shopping Centers said sales fell even in the week that included Christmas Day. It expects November and December sales to be down 1.5 percent to 2 percent, which would be the first decline since the ICSC began tracking holiday sales in 1969.

While there is still some time for retailers to capture holiday sales, “I don’t have a lot of hope that it gives you a surprise lift,” said ICSC Chief Economist Michael Niemira. “The discounts are so great and demand is so uncertain and uneven.”

“It’s uncomfortable. You feel as if there’s someone there with you,” said the soft-spoken court official, who asked to go unnamed. To escape the eeriness, he works alongside colleagues next door.

On the two-year anniversary of Saddam’s death by hanging, Iraq is preparing to open a new museum that will allow Iraqis to see up close such macabre mementos of mass executions, torture, and other atrocities committed in Saddam’s decades-long rule.

Information gleaned from the hearing will help guide Congress as it attempts to reform laws regulating the U.S. financial system, said Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a Pennsylvania Democrat and chairman of the House capital markets subcommittee.

“Madoff’s actions have further weakened the already battered investor confidence in our securities markets,” Kanjorski said in a statement on Monday.

A near-daily, frenzied exchange of words has added to bilateral tensions that touched the boiling point after last month’s attacks in Mumbai in which 179 people were killed. India says the attackers were trained in Pakistan.

“I believe if India deactivates its forward air bases and similarly, relocates its troops to peacetime positions, that will be a positive step,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in a televised address.

Khaleda Zia’s rejection of the outcome early Wednesday threatened to throw the impoverished South Asian nation into fresh political uncertainty after two years of rule by an army-backed caretaker government.

The election commission said Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party had won 231 of the 297 seats in parliament counted so far, giving her an overwhelming win in Monday’s vote with just a few results still to be tallied.

But as usual, the ECB chief responded prudently to questions in an interview with the German financial daily Boersen Zeitung, saying: “We are concentrating at present on the impact of our previous decisions.”

His comments were to appear on Wednesday but were released in advance.

Former warlord Yusuf’s exit marks a new nadir for a lawless land where thousands have died in fighting over the last two years, millions have been left homeless or in dire need of aid and a security black hole has created a global problem with piracy off its shores.

The 74-year-old former warlord stepped down following a bitter power struggle, two weeks after his attempt to sack and replace the prime minister in defiance of lawmakers failed, and days from a planned Ethiopian troop pullout.

The defence team for 18 activists was in court either to press for transfer to hospital in line with a Zimbabwe high court order, or to fight charges of plotting to overthrow the 84-year-old ruler for nearly three decades.

“The state is approaching this court with dirty hands. The state did not comply with the order of (high court ) justice Yunus Omerjee,” one of the lawyers, Charlel Kwaramba, told a magistrates’ court.

The pandemic killed between 20 and 50 million people, more than all of World War I, which ended in November 1918, and spread around the world.

The genes allowed the virus to reproduce in lung tissue, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

But how high is the cost, really?

One tally, which puts the Great Bailout somewhere north of $8 trillion, has been making the rounds in news reports, on websites, and on Capitol Hill. At that rate, some people ask if we could just use the money to cut every American a $26,000 check and kiss the recession goodbye.

Two destroyers and a supply ship steamed out of a southern Chinese port Friday, on China’s first patrol and potential combat mission beyond Chinese waters. The ships are due to reach the Gulf of Aden by Jan. 6 and carry 870 crew members, including 70 elite Navy special forces trained in close combat and helicopter-borne raids, according to the China Daily newspaper.

Two days earlier, a Chinese defense official, at a rare press conference, gave one of the clearest indications yet that China plans to build an aircraft carrier.

As its assault on Gaza militants continues, Israel runs the risk of seeing Hamas emerge in much the same way as Hezbollah did two years ago. Already the deadly strikes have led to a burst of criticism aimed at pro-Western Middle East governments and sparked rallies supporting Hamas in the region and in Europe.

“Although very costly in terms of material and human damage, politically speaking it is strengthening Hamas because of the huge sympathy from it being targeted,” says Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian Authority labor minister. “This is being used by political Islamic parties all over the region.”

Faced with a budget deficit of $2.3 billion, Florida is saving money by buying giant tents to house prisoners at nine of its 137 facilities. With its prison population having passed 100,000 for the first time this month, corrections officials say that the hundreds of extra beds will also help address potential overcrowding problems.

The state isn’t the first to try the idea. Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, and Hawaii are among those that have considered or used tents to better manage prison populations.

This is the third time Olisten Elerius is preparing to build his tiny cinderblock house. Four years ago, Tropical Storm Jeanne flooded it and drowned his father, sister and nephew. Then, late this summer, Tropical Storm Hanna swallowed it along with his daughter and another sister. It could happen again.

After Jeanne struck in 2004, more than $70 million in aid went to immediate relief such as food, medical aid and jobs, but little went to flood control, according to an Associated Press review of relief spending. Despite pledges to prevent such devastation in the future, few projects to build drains, fix roads and stop erosion were even attempted.

The court’s decision to review the charges against Muntadhar al-Zeidi comes as Iraq prepares after nearly six years to end America’s costly grip over the country and give U.S. troops three years to pack up and leave.

Thursday will also see the official handover of the most potent symbol of U.S. occupation, when Iraq takes formal control of the Green Zone – a heavily fortified enclave surrounded by cement walls that extends over 4 square miles of downtown Baghdad and encompasses the U.S. Embassy and the seat of the Iraqi government.

“The government has come into office at a time of conflict. This conflict has become the weakness of the country,” Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand’s third prime minister in four months, told lawmakers that included only his coalition members. Opposition members boycotted the session, but enough lawmakers showed up for a quorum.

Abhisit was forced to move and delay the speech by a day because of the anti-government protesters outside Parliament – the same street-swamping demonstration tactics that his own supporters had used just before he came to power two weeks ago.

Their choice, Kabine Komara, is a director of the African Export-Import Bank in Cairo, a 14-year-old institution that promotes trade between African states. His selection raises hopes the military junta may also honor other commitments, including holding elections and cracking down on corruption.

This West African nation has an abundance of gold, diamonds, iron, timber and half the world’s reserves of bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum. But for the past 24 years, Guinea’s treasury has been pillaged by officials loyal to the late President Lansana Conte and its people have fallen deeper and deeper into poverty.

The vote returned former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to power in a landslide. But her rival’s accusation of vote fraud indicated Hasina will find it difficult to escape paralyzing power struggles in a country long plagued by corruption and misrule. Both women faced recent corruption charges.

“It is a farcical election,” Khaleda Zia, also a former prime minister, said in a televised news conference early Wednesday, claiming the results did not reflect the people’s opinion.

No single party managed to win a majority in the election, which took place in several phases and ended last week, and so the major parties scrambled to form an alliance to take power.

The National Conference, which with 28 seats won more than any other party, and the Congress party, which won 17, struck an agreement Tuesday to form a new coalition, giving them a majority in the state parliament, officials said.

Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said the agreements would take effect on New Year’s Day and would require the two countries’ combat troops to leave Iraq by the end of July.

Britain has 4,100 troops stationed in Iraq, near the southern oil center of Basra. Australia has 300 troops.

Although, seven years on from the Taliban’s ouster, there are nearly 70,000 NATO-led troops in Afghanistan — to be boosted by up to 30,000 extra U.S. soldiers by the summer — alongside tens of thousands of Afghan forces, William Wood said this was not enough to protect all Afghan villages from the militants.

Called the “Community Guard Programme,” the pilot project will cover southern and eastern areas where the al Qaeda-backed Taliban are most active, said Wood.

Experts combing the remains of the ship said they did not expect it to contain treasure, but so far they have discovered several canons and well-preserved earthenware jars that were probably used to store olive oil.

The remains of the galleon were found on a building site close to the shores of the River Plate and archeologists from Buenos Aires city government think the boat was probably shipwrecked some 300 years ago.

The incident was part of a crackdown on Sudanese seen as backing the International Criminal Court and its chief prosecutor, who has asked for an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accusing him of orchestrating genocide in Darfur.

The vice president of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Ali Mahmoud Hassanein, was questioned about “negative remarks he made supporting the ICC allegations against the president of the republic,” said the Sudanese Media Center, a news outlet with links to Sudan’s security service.

Facing the worst economic crisis in generations, a stalled process to streamline decision-making, thorny ties with Russia, and June European Parliament elections, many EU leaders say strong leadership now is not a luxury but a necessity.

But unlike France, which under Sarkozy launched a string of initiatives, albeit with mixed results, on issues such as the economic crisis and climate change, the Czechs have been far from the forefront of the drive for deeper integration.

Van Rompuy replaces his party colleague Yves Leterme, who resigned on December 19 over allegations of political meddling in the bailout of stricken bank Fortis.

“The king received Mr. Herman Van Rompuy this afternoon at the Chateau de Laeken and named him prime minister,” the palace said in a statement.

But the role of Iraq’s multi-billion-dollar contracting business will change next year as Washington draws down troop levels and Iraq assumes control for maintaining a fragile calm.

Change may mean fewer jobs for workers from the developing world who have been willing to risk their lives to join the 200,000 private contractors who outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq.

Quality inspectors told Xinhua news agency they were organizing tests of melamine tableware “following reports that some products contained poisonous ingredients.”

Melamine is an industrial compound used in making plastic chairs, countertops, tableware, flame retardants and even concrete. It was added by unscrupulous manufacturers to food to cheat nutrition tests due to its high in nitrogen content.

The country’s election commission said the result of the ballot could be affected by voting on Friday in the country’s 230th constituency Tain which was unable to complete polling on Sunday.

“As of now Professor (John) Atta-Mills is in the lead,” commission head Kwado Afari-Gyan told reporters, referring to the opposition party candidate.

The rebels denied any responsibility and accused troops from DR Congo, Uganda and South Sudan of “bombing” the victims, but a statement from the United Nations Secretary General condemned the alleged LRA atrocities Tuesday.

The LRA targeted a town where a Christmas Day concert was being held and a Roman Catholic church, and attacks were going on along the Sudanese border, the Catholic charity said in a statement.

A Kremlin spokeswoman confirmed to AFP that Medvedev had approved the amendments, after they were announced in early November and pushed through the national parliament and all 83 regional assemblies in less than two months.

Analysts have speculated the changes could be designed to pave the way for a return to the presidency by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who left the Kremlin in May but is often viewed as continuing to wield true power in Russia.

The flag spat underlines the anxiety surrounding the Czech presidency. Many of Europe’s leaders question how Prague can helm the E.U. over the next six months when the Czech president is so unenthusiastic about the group. Klaus has been an outspoken critic of the E.U. for years and says the Czech presidency is an insignificant event. He regularly criticizes major E.U. policies, has refused to sign the Lisbon Treaty and dismisses E.U. climate change legislation as “a silly luxury” that will exacerbate the international financial crisis. A 67-year-old economist who helped build the Czechs’ post-communist democracy, Klaus likens bank bailouts to “old socialism.”

The six-page lawsuit was filed in state court by Jot and Brenda Raymond, owners and developers of North Lake Estates in eastern Tennessee’s Roane County.

It claims a creek running through the development has been damaged and is backed up as a result of the Dec. 22 spill from a power plant.

Ben-ami Kadish told U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz he believed the government promised it would not seek a prison term when he is sentenced Feb. 13. Assistant U.S. Attorney Iris Lan said prosecutors promised only that they would not oppose or challenge a sentence that included no prison time.

…

Kadish was accused of taking home classified documents from 1979 to 1985 when he worked at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, N.J. The government said he let an Israeli agent photograph documents, including information about nuclear weapons, a modified version of an F-15 fighter jet and the U.S. Patriot missile air defense system.

In 2006, as the influx reached its peak, the police department formed a special crime-fighting unit to deal with the complaints, and authorities began cracking down on tenants in federally subsidized housing.

Now that police unit is the focus of lawsuits by black families who allege the city of 100,000 is orchestrating a campaign to drive them out.

In federal court filings this week, W. David Carter wrote that protecting the public trumps constitutional protections afforded to religion. Alamo’s lawyer said in a court filing last week that the Bible requires spanking unruly children, and he suggested that Alamo had permission from church parents to discipline their children.

“Alamo’s religious ‘belief’ that he can beat, sexually abuse and otherwise mistreat children is guaranteed by the First Amendment,” Carter wrote. “Acting on that belief, however, is not.”

Common Pleas Judge Idee Fox heard more than a day of testimony before finding that the mayor is bound by a 1988 ordinance that prohibits him from closing any city-owned building without City Council’s approval.

“If they tried to pull a fast one on us, they got caught,” said Councilman Frank Rizzo.

Especially if it were the “winner of five nominations.”

All those words and phrases are on Lake Superior State University’s annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. The 34th version of the list was released Tuesday, which means, “It’s that time of year again.”

The same man was reprimanded a year ago for sending an e-mail joking about giving jobs to women with large breasts.

Jokes about men kissing and a woman’s genitalia, as well as a racial joke and a caricature of President-elect Barack Obama, were in the latest e-mails sent by the Transportation Department worker, according to an agency report obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Federal District Court Judge Richard Leon said in two separate rulings the government had shown enough evidence to justify holding Yemeni citizen Moath Hamza Amhed Al Alwi and Tunisian Hisham Sliti as “enemy combatants” linked to al Qaeda or Taliban forces.

The Bush administration welcomed the rulings, but the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern over potential precedents. “This decision raises serious concerns given the reliance on classified evidence and the very broad definition of detention authority that it contains,” American Civil Liberties Union attorney Jonathan Hafetz said.

A judge indicated at a hearing that he will modify an injunction to allow stores to sell Bratz products through the end of 2009, MGA Entertainment Inc officials said.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson “indicated he will be modifying his December 3 stay … to allow purchases and sales (of Bratz items)” beyond a previously set deadline of February 11, MGA attorney Tom Nolan said.

Monday’s denials came from two of a handful of names mentioned in media reports as likely bidders for the properties, whose sale would be important for the Times to pay off looming debt that threatens its financial health.

Shares, which were already down Monday morning, fell 8 percent in after hours trade to $6.47 from their close on the New York Stock Exchange at $7.02.

A Facebook group entitled “Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!” has attracted nearly 85,000 members as of Tuesday and a handful of activists held a rally outside its California headquarters over the weekend.

The organizers of the page, which is hosting a lively debate, receiving more than 10,000 comments, said they launched their “Official Petition to Facebook” after Facebook pulled profile pictures showing women nursing their babies.