Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will co-chair a committee overseeing at least $3.8 billion in post-quake aid to Haiti, the ravaged country’s prime minister said. The announcement was made ahead of a critical donors conference Wednesday at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Haitian officials will ask representatives from more than 130 countries for reconstruction help at the meeting chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former president’s wife, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
9th militia suspect to face charges
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the last of nine members of a Christian militia group charged with plotting to kill police will be arraigned Tuesdayi n a Detroit federal court. Spokeswoman Gina Balaya said 21-year-old Joshua Matthew Stone will face a hearing at 1 p.m. Stone peacefully surrendered Monday night in Hillsdale County’s Wheatland Township.
Obama to sign student loan legislation
President Barack Obama prepared Tuesday to sign the piece of his sweeping health care overhaul that makes the government the primary lender to students and strips banks of that power. Obama’s hard-fought legislative victory packaged two of his domestic priorities. Obama already signed the bulk of the health care legislation, but a final set of tweaks provided a route for the education package, the largest rewrite of federal college assistance programs in four decades.
9 militia members charged in police-killing plot
To view this site, you need to have Flash Player 8.0 or later installed. hereGet the latest Flash player here. DETROIT (AP) — Nine suspects tied to a Christian militia that was preparing for the Antichrist were charged with conspiring to kill police officers, then kill scores more by attacking a funeral using homemade bombs, …
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Suicide bombings kill 37 on Moscow subway
Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up Monday in twin attacks on Moscow subway stations jam-packed with rush-hour passengers, killing at least 37 people and wounding 102, officials said. They blamed the carnage on rebels from the Caucasus region. The blasts come six years after Caucasus Islamic separatists carried out a pair of deadly Moscow subway strikes and raise concerns that the war has once again come to Russia’s capital, amid militants’ warnings of a renewed determination to push their fight.
Pope opens solemn Holy Week amid controversy
Pope Benedict XVI opened Holy Week on Sunday amid one of the most serious crises facing the church in decades, with questions about his handling of cases of pedophile priests and the Vatican acknowledging its “moral credibility” was on the line. Benedict made no direct mention of the scandal in his Palm Sunday homily. But one of the prayers, recited in Portuguese during Mass, was “for the young and for those charged with educating them and protecting them.” Jesus Christ, Benedict said in his homily, guides the faithful “toward the courage that doesn’t let us be intimidated by the chatting of dominant opinions, towards patience that supports others.”
Landmarks, cities unplug for Earth Hour
Europe’s best known landmarks — including the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and Rome’s Colosseum — fell dark Saturday, following Sydney’s Opera House and Beijing’s Forbidden City in joining a global climate change protest, as lights were switched off across the world to mark the Earth Hour event. In the United States, the lights went out at the Empire State Building in New York, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta. Millions were expected to turn off lights and appliances for an hour from 8:30 p.m. in a gesture to highlight environmental concerns.
Some Democrats want transfers to Yemen stopped
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some Democratic lawmakers who support closing Guantanamo Bay say the U.S. should reconsider whether to repatriate suspected terrorists from Yemen, given the al-Qaida activity in the poor Arab nation.
President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, said Sunday the transfers will continue if the administration deems them warranted.
Six Yemenis returned last month were released after the government there determined they were not a threat, officials in Yemen told The Associated Press.
Gloom and fury as Pakistan toll nears 100
SHAH HASAN KHEL, Pakistan (AP) — Tribal elders in a Pakistani village where a suicide car bomber killed nearly 100 people insisted Saturday that residents will keep defying the Taliban, even as the bloodshed laid bare the risks facing the citizens’ militias that make up a key piece of Pakistan’s arsenal against extremism. The New Year’s Day attack on the northwest village of Shah Hasan Khel was one of the deadliest in a surge of bombings that has killed more than 600 across Pakistan since October. Police believe the attacker meant to detonate his 550 pounds (250 kilograms) of explosives at a meeting of tribesmen who supervise an anti-Taliban militia. Instead, the blast went off at a nearby outdoor volleyball court, killing at least 96 people.
8 Americans killed in Afghanistan bombing
KABUL (AP) — The Taliban claimed responsibility Thursday for a suicide bombing at a base in eastern Afghanistan that killed eight American civilians and one Afghan, the worst loss of life for the U.S. in the country since October. A U.S. congressional official said CIA employees are believed to be among the victims.
Four Canadian soldiers and a journalist also were killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan’s south, the bloodiest single incident suffered by that country’s military this year.
A look back at Minnesota’s 2009
Al Franken finally got to take his seat in the U.S. Senate. Two Northwest Airlines pilots were grounded after they forgot to land in the Twin Cities. And a 13-year-old boy with cancer touched off a nationwide manhunt when he fled with his mother to avoid court-ordered treatment. Those were just a few of Minnesota’s top stories of 2009, a year also marked by Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s rising profile on the national political scene, the fall of Minnesota businessmen Tom Petters and Denny Hecker, the dawn of the Brett Favre era with the Minnesota Vikings, and two newlyweds who became an Internet sensation with their joyous dance down the aisle.
Attack on pope raises security issues
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican will review its security procedures after a woman jumped a barrier and rushed at Pope Benedict XVI for the second time in two years, managing to knock him down before being pulled away by security, the Vatican spokesman said Friday. Benedict, 82, wasn’t hurt and delivered his traditional Christmas Day greetings in 65 languages from the loggia overlooking St. Peter’s Square. The incident in St. Peter’s Basilica raised fresh questions about security for the pontiff, however, after officials said the woman involved had jumped the barrier at the 2008 Midnight Mass in a failed bid to get to the pope. She even wore the same red-hooded sweat shirt.
Winter storm claims second Minnesotan
Minnesota authorities say a second person has died because of icy road conditions caused by a fierce Christmas storm on Friday that dumped more snow and ice across the nation’s midsection. The Minnesota State Patrol says a collision Thursday afternoon claimed the life of 34-year-old Robert Krensing of Fergus Falls. Authorities say a minivan in Becker County crossed the center line and collided head-on with the vehicle in which Krensing was a passenger. The National Weather Service warned that blizzards would hit parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin on Christmas Day and into the evening.
Kennedy legacy seen in Senate health-care bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — The memory of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy loomed over the Senate on Thursday when his weary colleagues moved his life’s work, health care reform, to the brink of reality.
“He’s having a merry Christmas in heaven,” said an emotional Sen. Paul Kirk, D-Mass., who was appointed to fill the seat after Kennedy succumbed to brain cancer in August. Kirk said it was an honor to essentially cast Kennedy’s vote as Democrats passed the Senate’s version of a bill that would extend insurance to 30 million Americans.
“It’s the proudest public moment of my life,” Kirk said.
Heavy snow arrives in time for Christmas
Some areas of of Minnesota had already received 8 inches of snow by early Thursday morning as part of a powerful winter storm that lumbered across the nation’s midsection, according to the National Weather Service. Some forecasts said the total could end up being more than twice that amount. The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of Oklahoma, North Dakota, Minnesota and Texas. It cautioned that travel would be extremely dangerous in those areas through the weekend. Nearly 100 flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport were canceled Thursday and dozens more were delayed.