http://www.post-gazette.com/nationworld/ National and world news en-us Copyright 2010, post-gazette.com. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 09:09:33 -0400 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085864-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CHICAGO -- Mayor Richard M. Daley dropped the bomb at a routine news conference at City Hall on Tuesday. With no prelude or fanfare, Mr. Daley announced that he would not seek re-election when his term expires next year. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085865-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Prominent Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders held an extraordinary "emergency summit" meeting in the capital on Tuesday to denounce what they called "the derision, misinformation and outright bigotry" aimed at American Muslims during the controversy over the proposed Islamic community center near ground zero. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085866-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The state's Green Party said Tuesday that it had filed suit asking state election officials to disallow various homeless people and other candidates on the party's November ballot who had been recruited by Republicans. The suit against Arizona's chief elections official, Ken Bennett, and a host of public officials alleges that the candidates had been put on the ballot "to confuse the electorate and siphon votes" from Democrats. The party also wants to change the state's election law, which makes it possible Wed, 8 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085867-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Judges can require that the government meet the standard of proof required to obtain wiretaps when requesting cellphone data to track suspects, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The Justice Department was fighting a Pennsylvania magistrate judge's demand that investigators in a narcotics case seek a search warrant to obtain cellphone location data. It argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that a lesser court order was sufficient. Writing for the majority, Judge Dolor Wed, 8 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085871-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml UNITED NATIONS -- Approximately 500 women were raped in eastern Congo in July and August, demonstrating that both rebel militias and government troops used sexual violence as a weapon, two senior United Nations officials said Tuesday. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085872-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- One of Egypt's most prominent opposition leaders, the Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, has issued the strongest call so far for a blanket opposition boycott of parliamentary elections this fall. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085873-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KHAN YUNIS, Gaza -- Tough-looking ambulance drivers in this central Gazan city are drawing images of their fears with crayons. In the northwestern village of El Atatra, in an overheated hall without electricity, 10-year-olds are closing their eyes and imagining a reassuring place. In Gaza City, women who have lost children to political violence are dancing away their tensions, their black abayas shaking and flowing. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085874-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml After reviewing the evidence gathered by state investigators, the National Prosecuting Authority said Tuesday that charges would be withdrawn against a journalist for the Sunday Times, Mzilikazi wa Afrika, who was arrested last month on fraud charges just days after he was a co-author of an article that laid out what it described as a questionable property deal between South Africa's police chief and a politically connected businessman. Prosecutors left the door open to refiling the charges if new evidence Wed, 8 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085875-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- In early 2009, as President Hamid Karzai scanned the landscape for potential partners to run in his re-election bid, he was approached from an unusual corner: a bank. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085876-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml HONG KONG -- Top Chinese officials called Tuesday for quiet discussions instead of open friction with the United States, after a summer marked by bilateral disagreements over the value of China's currency, American military exercises off the Korean Peninsula and American efforts to resolve territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085877-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BAGHDAD -- Iraq announced on Tuesday the return of hundreds of looted antiquities that had ended up in the United States, even as a senior official disclosed that 632 pieces repatriated last year and turned over to the office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki were now unaccounted for. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085734-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PARIS -- French strikers disrupted trains and planes, hospitals and mail delivery Tuesday amid massive street protests over plans to raise the retirement age. Across the English Channel, London subway workers unhappy with staff cuts walked off the job. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085751-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he has asked the United States to settle a dispute with Israel over settlement expansion that is threatening to derail Middle East peace talks. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085756-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A car bomb ripped through a police compound in a northwestern Pakistani city, killing 14 women and children and three officers, the latest in a string of attacks proving that Islamist militants remain a potent force in the country. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085766-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LOS ANGELES -- After 40 years of continual declines, the smoking rate in the United States has stabilized for the past five years, with one in every five Americans still lighting up regularly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085771-176.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CHICAGO -- Mayor Richard M. Daley dropped the bomb at a routine news conference Tuesday at City Hall. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085787-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Prominent Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders held an extraordinary "emergency summit" in the capital Tuesday to denounce what they called "the derision, misinformation and outright bigotry" aimed at American Muslims during the controversy over the proposed community center and mosque near Ground Zero. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085789-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml HAVANA -- Fidel Castro criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for what he called his anti-Semitic attitudes and questioned his own actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 during interviews with an American journalist he summoned to Havana to discuss fears of global nuclear war. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085790-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama today will rule out any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year, officials said, adding a populist twist to an election-season economic package that is otherwise designed to entice support from big businesses and their Republican allies. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085792-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ASHEQUE, Afghanistan -- Zhari, the birthplace of the Taliban movement and once again a major stronghold of the Taliban insurgency, looks set to become a battle zone where 2,400 U.S. troops will lead an attempt to reclaim the region for the Afghan government. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085799-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TOKYO -- A Japanese journalist held hostage in Afghanistan for five months managed to send out a message via Twitter that he was alive when his captors asked him how to use a cell phone. Just days before he was freed, Kosuke Tsuneoka said one of the militants brought him his new cell phone and asked the prisoner to set it up. Wed, 8 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085643-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MILWAUKEE -- President Obama, looking to stimulate a sluggish economy and create jobs, called Monday for Congress to approve major upgrades to the nation's roads, rail lines and runways -- part of a six-year plan that would cost tens of billions of dollars and create a government-run bank to finance innovative transportation projects. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085644-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- As part of his emerging program to jolt the economic recovery from its stall, President Obama will call this week for allowing businesses to deduct from their taxes through 2011 the full value of new equipment purchase, from computers to utility generators, to increase demand for goods and create jobs. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085645-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Each year, 36 young lawyers obtain the most coveted credential in American law: a Supreme Court clerkship. Clerking for a justice is a glittering capstone on a résumé that almost always includes outstanding grades at a top law school, service on a law review and a prestigious clerkship with a federal appeals court judge. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085646-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CHINO VALLEY, Ariz. -- The hugely popular Corn Dinner here is in its 64th year, and Carrie Zambrano, as the organizer, sends out invitations to political candidates far and wide offering them the opportunity to serve. Party label means not a thing to her with 6,000 cobs to sling in one night. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085648-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SYDNEY, Australia -- Two independent lawmakers said on Tuesday they will support Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, giving the center-left government a second term and ending more than two weeks of political impasse. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085649-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SEOUL, South Korea -- Workers' Party delegates from across North Korea were converging in Pyongyang, the country's state media reported on Monday, as children and soldiers there rehearsed a celebration for their country's biggest political gathering in 30 years. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085650-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- A $250 million program to lure low-level Taliban fighters away from the insurgency has stalled, with Afghans bickering over who should run it, and international donors slow to put up the money they had promised. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085651-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml JAKARTA, Indonesia -- The exodus happens every year. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085652-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LONDON -- Labour members of Parliament attacked the government on Monday, saying it should demand that the Metropolitan Police answer new questions about whether legislators' phone messages had been illegally intercepted by The News of the World. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085653-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PRETORIA, South Africa -- South Africa's trade unions Monday suspended an almost three-week-old strike by hundreds of thousands of government workers that had closed schools and hamstrung ambitious new efforts to expand urgently needed medical services in the region's richest but most inequitable economy. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085654-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MOSCOW -- Galina Litvyak had stopped by the kiosk down the road, wandered through nearby supermarkets and badgered friends for the latest rumors. Nobody knew where to find it. All over her middle-class neighborhood, the stores were filled with an ample selection of goods, reflecting just how much Moscow has changed over the last two decades. With one exception. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085655-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml HONG KONG -- The Chinese government is conducting a broad investigation into the qualifications of the country's pilots, aircraft mechanics, flight trainers and other aviation personnel after finding that as many as 200 commercial pilots may have falsified their résumés in 2008 and 2009, according to reports in the Chinese news media on Monday and Tuesday. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085656-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MOSCOW -- For months, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin has done nothing to dampen speculation that he is seriously considering a bid to return to the presidency in the 2012 election. On Monday night, he offered another hint at his plans by referring to the political career of a former president of a different country: Franklin D. Roosevelt. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085657-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into a police station in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing 19 people and injuring at least 46, according to officials and local news outlets. Among the dead were nine police officers, eight civilians and two children, local and provincial authorities said. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085658-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BERLIN -- The German government has decided to extend the life spans of the country's 17 nuclear plants while alternative energy sources are developed, a move that is also likely to create windfalls for both power companies and strained government coffers. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085659-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Three months after the United Nations Security Council enacted its harshest sanctions yet against Iran, global nuclear inspectors reported Monday that the country has dug in its heels, refusing to provide inspectors with the information and access they need to determine whether the real purpose of Tehran's program is to produce weapons. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085559-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml President Barack Obama, who faces a false but growing perception that he is a Muslim, isn't the first president to encounter claims that his faith isn't what he says it is. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085560-454.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Scores of politicians mixed with tens of thousands of union partisans Monday in the Labor Day rite that marks the unofficial kickoff of the fall political season. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085561-455.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml HARRISBURG -- Last year, the insects called brown marmorated stink bugs were a nuisance. This year, they are a serious threat to fruit orchards, and experts are not sure how destructive they might become. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085598-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's largest bank is operating with its own money with no infusion of cash from the government despite a nearly weeklong run on the troubled institution that is being closely monitored by international banking experts, the nation's top banking official said Monday. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085599-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SEOUL, South Korea -- Workers' Party delegates from across North Korea were converging in Pyongyang, the country's state media reported Monday, as children and soldiers there rehearsed a celebration for their country's biggest political gathering in 30 years. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085600-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The United States expects to spend about $6 billion a year training and supporting Afghan troops and police after it begins pulling out its own combat troops in 2011, The Associated Press has learned. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085602-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MILWAUKEE -- President Barack Obama, looking to stimulate a sluggish economy and create jobs, called Monday for Congress to approve major upgrades to the nation's roads, rail lines and runways -- part of a six-year plan that would cost tens of billions of dollars and create a government-run bank to finance innovative transportation projects. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085604-407.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml For years, the technology sector has been considered the most dynamic, promising and globally envied industry in the United States. It escaped the recession relatively unscathed, and profits this year have been soaring. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085609-176.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Never before have so many governorships been up for grabs -- and with so much at stake. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085610-298.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml NEW YORK -- Colleges and universities are buying up chunks of land at bargain prices, sometimes without a clear idea how they will be used. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085611-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Global stocks rose to a four-week high and industrial metals rallied Monday amid growing optimism about the prospects for economic growth. European bonds rebounded from three days of losses. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10250/1085612-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- Mexican authorities urged people to move to shelters while officials in Texas distributed sandbags and warned of flash floods as Tropical Storm Hermine strengthened and headed toward the northwestern Gulf Coast on Monday. Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085492-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml OHIOPYLE, Pa. -- For decades, kayakers and other whitewater boaters were prohibited by park safety rules from paddling over the crest of an 18-foot waterfall in this scenic corner of southwestern Pennsylvania. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085493-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Joe Miller, the Republican candidate for Senate from Alaska, has been found at fault in a three-car accident that happened shortly after he took a narrow lead in the Republican primary. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085494-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Representative Joe Baca has achieved near celebrity status in his suburban Los Angeles district, as much for his record of giveaways -- Thanksgiving turkeys, college scholarships, spare boots for firefighters -- as for anything he has done in Congress. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085495-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml OUTSIDE RAVENDALE, Calif. -- It is horse versus helicopter here in the high desert. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085496-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Afghan government took steps on Sunday toward seizing the properties of major shareholders of the troubled Kabul Bank, as perturbed crowds and national security forces surrounded the central branch of the bank, the country's largest. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085497-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LONDON -- A mix-up over a photograph led to a sentence of 99 lashes for the Iranian woman whose earlier death sentence by stoning from Iranian authorities caused an international outcry, a lawyer for the woman said Sunday. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085498-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml AMBOHIMIRARY, Madagascar -- With fanfare befitting a parade, the shrouded remains of 17 bodies were removed from the family crypt, some sprayed with expensive perfume, others splashed with sparkling wine. Five brass bands took turns belting out cheerful melodies, and each emerging corpse was lifted onto the shoulders of its own set of revelers. The celebrators then joyously trotted about, dancing with the bones of the dead. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085499-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Bahraini officials announced on Saturday that they were charging 23 people, most of them activists from the Shiite majority, with coordinating a violent campaign to overthrow the minority Sunni government. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085500-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml JERUSALEM -- Palestinian and Israeli leaders expressed satisfaction and hope on Sunday in their first public utterances after the opening round of Middle East peace talks in Washington last week. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085501-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BAGHDAD -- Insurgents mounted a coordinated attack on one of the main military commands in Baghdad on Sunday, briefly drawing fire from American soldiers, an event that underscored the ambiguity of the American military's role in Iraq. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085502-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LONDON -- Senior opposition politicians are calling on the government to respond to renewed accusations that Downing Street's chief communications officer, Andy Coulson, encouraged reporters to illegally intercept messages from the cellphones of public figures when he was editor of The News of the World. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085503-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- One by one, the guests at the Muslim Brotherhood's annual Ramadan iftar banquet strode to the rostrum. A who's who of Egypt's opposition began hectoring the Islamist group. The Brotherhood, they said, by far the most muscular and influential of Egypt's dissident organizations, should withdraw from the coming parliamentary election that would most certainly be rigged by the authoritarian government. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085504-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml THATA SIAL, Pakistan -- When the governor of Punjab Province arrived recently in this small town with truckloads of relief goods for flood victims, his visit was as much a political mission as a humanitarian one. His message to the hundred or so displaced people gathered under an awning was that the government was there for them. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085505-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MOSCOW -- A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a military installation in a Muslim region of southern Russia early Sunday, killing three soldiers and injuring more than 30 others, officials said. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085407-115.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml INDIANAPOLIS -- The yellow-green streaks of fireflies that bring a magical air to summer nights, inspire camp songs and often end up in jars in children's bedrooms may be flickering out in the nation's backyards as suburban sprawl encroaches on their habitats. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085409-28.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Whenever companies start hiring freely again, job-seekers with specialized skills and education will have plenty of good opportunities. Others will face a choice: Take a job with low pay -- or none at all. Job creation will likely remain weak for months or even years. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085417-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Just days after Mideast peace talks began in Washington, the first major crisis is already looming: Israel hinted Sunday it will ease restrictions on building in West Bank settlements, while the Palestinian president warned he'll quit the talks if Israel resumes construction. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085427-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Uncle Sam wants to give free, no-strings-attached money to about 145,000 troops who were involuntarily kept on duty after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but is having trouble persuading them it's not a gimmick. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085433-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Weakened and on the run, the Basque separatist group ETA said Sunday it was declaring a cease-fire in its armed campaign against the Spanish government and that it was willing to try to achieve its aims through democratic means. It was the latest truce to be offered by the rebels, whose suspected leader was arrested in February. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085443-28.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Under mounting pressure to intensify his focus on the economy ahead of the midterm elections, President Barack Obama will call for a $100 billion business tax credit this week, using a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday to launch what administration officials said was a new policy push. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085466-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Protests in Pakistan, al-Qaida warnings, skittish Muslim tourists: France's plan to do away with burqa-style veils is already reverberating far beyond its borders. A bill to outlaw face veils, aimed at upholding French republican values, is expected to win Senate approval this month. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10249/1085467-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Torrential rains from a tropical depression caused landslides that have killed at least 38 people in Guatemala -- some of them rescuers trying to save people already buried under a wall of mud. Mon, 6 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085342-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Crews hoisted the blowout preventer that once sat atop BP's stricken well to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday night, and the federal leader of the spill response said that there was no longer any risk that the well might leak again. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085343-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- As Democrats brace for a November wave that threatens their control of the House, party leaders are preparing a brutal triage of their own members in hopes of saving enough seats to keep a slim grip on the majority. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085344-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- After 38 years as a gung ho trade unionist, Anna Burger is retiring -- with unmistakable frustration -- from her post as the highest-ranking woman in American labor movement history. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085345-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml In the Watergate scandal, he drew Richard M. Nixon nailing himself to a cross. He stood Dick Cheney at a vast graveyard of veterans, saying, "For seven years, we did everything to keep you safe." And on the frieze over the Supreme Court, he etched the hallowed words: "Of the insurance co's. By the insurance co's. And for the insurance co's." Sun, 5 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085346-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml URUMQI, China -- The five-star hotels are full, bulldozers are making quick work of dreary slums and billboards for "French-style villas" call out to the nouveau riche. In the year since rioting between the Han and Uighur ethnic groups killed nearly 200 people in this city in far western China, life appears to be returning to normal. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085347-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- In a bid to fend off the threat of a nationwide financial crisis, the Afghan government scrambled to shore up Afghanistan's largest bank on Saturday after lines of frantic depositors mobbed the bank for a third day. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085348-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- For much of her tenure as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton has been less an architect than an advocate for the Obama administration's Middle East policy. With the resumption of direct talks last week, she now has no choice but to plunge into the rough and tumble of peacemaking. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085349-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- Ten Afghans, including four policemen, were killed Saturday in two separate bombings, in the cities of Kunduz and Kandahar, NATO and local government officials said. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085350-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml EL RETORNO, Colombia -- He arrived at this town on the edge of guerrilla territory with his entourage. They included a producer, a sound man, two scantily clad dancers and a harried servant, who carried his cowboy hat, his snakeskin boots, his tequila and, of course, his bling: a bulky gold necklace emblazoned with the name of Uriel Henao. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085351-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAETÉS, Brazil -- When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in as Brazil's president in early 2003, he emotionally declared that he had finally earned his "first diploma" by becoming president of the country. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085352-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SEOUL, South Korea -- Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan of South Korea offered to resign on Saturday amid allegations that his ministry bent its regulations to hire his daughter during a period of high unemployment. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085194-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- A strong economy needs bustling Main Streets and a thriving middle class, not just a healthy stock market, President Barack Obama said in paying tribute to the American worker. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Mr. Obama on Saturday outlined what he's done to help the middle class, a group he says has been squeezed the most during the recession. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085208-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml In a further step toward reconciling with insurgents, President Hamid Karzai said Saturday he will soon name the members of a council tasked with pursuing peace talks with rebels willing to break with al-Qaida and recognize the government in Kabul.conference in Kabul. Mr. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400