The Morning News

The French foreign ministry said Paris has called a meeting of senior Western envoys to Afghanistan to discuss their response to presidential elections that have been marred by fraud allegations.

The White House, following on from revelations that its envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, had a testy meeting with President Hamid Karzai immediately after the August 20 vote, condemned any acts of fraud that might emerge.

Ahmadinejad also renewed the Islamic republic’s allegations that Britain sought to overthrow the regime, in a speech at weekly prayers.

“Serious confrontation should take place with the leaders and main instigators of the incidents. Those who provoked, organised and implemented the enemy’s line should be confronted firmly,” Ahmadinejad said.

And Nixon, who secretly taped some 3,700 hours of his conversations between February 1971 and July 1973, does not hide his disappointment and frustration when an aide reports back that the Massachusetts senator is “very clean.”

“The thing to do is to watch him,” he says in a September 8, 1971 recording, one of several conversations in which Nixon, apparently fearful for his 1972 reelection prospects, lashes out at Kennedy.

The court judges did not rule out the possibility of Laura Dekker eventually embarking on the record-breaking quest but said a full study was needed to assess the dangers.

“The parents are going to have to negotiate all important decisions regarding Laura with the child protection services,” said a statement from the court in the central city of Utrecht.

His lawyer Niccolo Ghedini told Reuters that he and his colleagues abroad had already filed lawsuits against newspapers in Italy, France and Spain and had instructed lawyers in Britain to study possible cases of libel there.

“We have instructed our colleagues to evaluate, according to the laws in their countries, the most serious cases of real, true defamation,” Ghedini said in a telephone interview.

Discovery lit up the sky for miles around as it thundered away on NASA’s third launch attempt. Lightning flashed far in the distance, and the ascending shuttle resembled a bright star until it blinked out of sight five minutes after liftoff.

The space station was soaring more than 220 miles above the Indian Ocean, southwest of Tasmania, when Discovery took off. The shuttle will reach the orbiting outpost Sunday night.

All major media polls have forecast that the Liberal Democratic Party will lose badly to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan in Sunday’s balloting for the 480 seats in the powerful lower house of parliament.

If it does, opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama is likely to become prime minister and form the country’s first non-LDP Cabinet in more than a decade and only its second since the party was created in 1955.

The now-ended Cash for Clunkers program helped lift consumer spending last month and is expected to deliver a bigger boost in August. But any economic rebound likely would falter if shoppers lack the income to spend more in the long run.

Especially in the U.S., consumer spending is essential: It drives about 70 percent of economic activity – more than for most European nations and well above the rates in developing countries such as China.

But after Sen. Edward Kennedy pushed through the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the door opened for her to immigrate in 1973 to Boston, where she eventually finished school, got a law degree and became a U.S. citizen.

On Thursday, Hermosa stood in line with thousands of others at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum to pay her respects to the late senator. “If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today,” said the 55-year-old Hermosa, who now lives in Westwood, Mass.

The two-day sale kicked off Friday at a Sacramento warehouse, with hundreds lining up for deals on cars, computers and collectibles. Many arrived hours before the gate opened at 8 a.m., walking past a “Terminator” mannequin on the way in.

An auctioneer sold vehicles by the minute under a crowded tent in the parking lot behind the warehouse. SUVs, vans and California Highway Patrol cruisers – all were being moved off the state’s inventory for just a few thousand dollars each.

About 50 people, most holding signs in support of abortion rights, gathered Friday on the sidewalk outside Carhart’s clinic in this Omaha suburb. A few local anti-abortion demonstrators also were on hand awaiting the arrival of Operation Rescue members who were traveling here from Wichita, Kan.

Many more demonstrators on both sides of the issue were expected at the clinic Saturday.

Those who were on the fence are now calling for his resignation, and those who were demanding his resignation now say he should be impeached.

Even a leader of Sanford’s own Republican Party says the governor may soon find himself alone in thinking he should stay in office.

The FBI was investigating after the governor’s offices in West Virginia, Vermont, Wyoming and Washington state received between three and five laptops – but none had ordered any of them.

“They immediately raised a red flag,” said Matt Turner, spokesman for West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin. “No one said, ‘Hey, we got a free gift.'”

U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo said former elk rancher Rex Rammell’s comment at a Twin Falls GOP merits an apology, U.S. Sen. Jim Risch disavowed him from the Republican Party, and Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter called Rammell’s comment “reckless and inflammatory.”

Rammell is among those running in the 2010 Idaho GOP primary against incumbent Otter.

Swine are unwelcome at Vermont’s oldest fair – uninvited because of misconceptions about how the swine flu virus spreads. Although the novel H1N1 pandemic virus is primarily a human disease, transmitted from human to human, fair officials say they want to protect themselves from bad publicity or frivolous lawsuits if someone gets sick and blames it on a pig.

That puts the Caledonia County Fair at odds with most other fairs across the country, which are going to great lengths this year to protect their pigs from people since the virus can be transmitted to the animals by humans.

The decoy was originally purchased by an American expatriate living in Argentina and then sold to a native of that country who was unaware of its origins.

The current owner, Maximo Kirton, e-mailed a photo of the Canada Goose decoy to Christie’s several weeks ago wondering what it might be worth. It sat on a shelve at the family’s sheep ranch in Patagonia, Argentina, for 10 years, and then on the mantel of his parent’s Buenos Aires home for another two decades.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said agent Christopher Aller and agent trainee Jason Chapman, who participated in the June 28 raid at the Rainbow Lounge, were fired Friday. Their supervisor, Sgt. Terry Parsons, was not at the Fort Worth bar that night but also was fired, effective Sept. 2.

Aller and Chapman failed to report that they used force when arresting the customer or that he was seriously injured, according to a report on the agency’s investigation released earlier this month. They also were accused of participating in the raid without their supervisor’s approval, disrupting the business during the raid and wearing improper attire, the report states.

But U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt said the decision not to bring charges “is not to be interpreted as an exoneration of any party’s conduct.”

In a letter sent to defense attorneys, Fouratt said a yearlong federal investigation “revealed that pressure from the governor’s office resulted in the corruption of the procurement process” so that state bond deal work went to a Richardson political donor in 2004.

He told her he hated it, she said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, marking the first time anyone has said Wilhelm spoke to them about the abuse.

“He said ‘Mom, I don’t have anybody to turn to here,'” said Kathe Wilhelm, recalling the last conversation she had with her son, a day before he died.

Two environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the tortoise, found in southwest Arizona and northern Mexico, as a distinct population. The agency said Friday it would review the status of the tortoise and any threats to its habitat.

“We expect that the service’s detailed scientific review will show that listing is required to conserve these icons of the desert Southwest,” said Michael Connor of the Western Watersheds Project, which along with WildEarth Guardians filed the petition.

Judge Stefan Underhill ruled late Thursday that a part of the law that provides a voluntary public financing scheme for candidates for statewide offices and state lawmakers puts an unconstitutional burden on minor party candidates’ First Amendment right to political opportunity.

He says the program, known as the Citizens Election Program, enhances major party candidates’ strength beyond their past ability to raise contributions, providing them public financing “at windfall levels.”

And then, there’s the aging czar.

Kathy Greenlee, assistant secretary for aging in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the country’s top authority on issues facing the massively expanding population of older Americans. Her budget and profile are relatively modest, but Greenlee is tasked with oversight of a sprawling network of services and occupies a post with the potential to influence many aspects of government.

Big Macs are transformed into elegant strips of “McSteak.” Cream-filled Dunkin’ Donuts are scooped out to make “Boston Kreme Brulee.” And Nathan’s hot dogs are mashed into faux foie gras.

The Web site is the brainchild of Erik Trinidad, a Brooklyn resident who buys fast-food dinners, deconstructs them in his kitchen and then reassembles them into meals resembling haute cuisine.