Experts say an extended shutdown won’t send the state back into a recession but would have ripple effects statewide both predictable and unforeseen.
Shutdown leads to political blame game
With Minnesota’s state government closed for business, the focus shifted Friday to who’s to blame. The shutdown started at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Now the heads of the state’s Republican and Democratic parties each say the other side is responsible.
Pakistan college holds praise bin Laden contest
A competition at the prestigious Punjab University of Lahore, Pakistan, will reward the best poem or essay praising Osama bin Laden, indicating the gains made by hard-line Islamists on college campuses.
As China’s Communist Party turns 90, debate erupts
China is marking the 90th birthday of the Communist Party with celebrations — and an unusually rancorous debate about whether the government needs a major change in direction to sustain the country’s resurgence.
FBI terrorist profile merges two identities
The FBI’s most-wanted list shows a dated black-and-white photograph for the man wanted in connection with the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. Saif al-Adel, reads the glaring red banner, alias Muhammad Ibrahim Makkawi. But an Associated Press investigation found that they are two different men.
British allege Iran conducted missile tests
Iran has conducted covert tests of ballistic missiles in addition to a 10-day program of public military maneuvers, Britain alleges, including covert ballistic missiles tests and rocket launches, with some missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload.
Survivors describe horrific Amtrak crash
Passengers tell of their escape from the smoke-filled Amtrak passenger train — some by jumping through windows — to avoid a tower of fire sparked when a big rig plowed into a double-decker car at a rural highway crossing about 70 miles east of Reno on Friday. WITH VIDEO
Sonar maps shipwrecks in high definition
World War II shipwrecks off North Carolina and Civil War shipwrecks in Virginia are being analyzed with sonar technology so sophisticated that the public could one day view near photographic images in detail even better than diving at some of the sites could provide.
A decade on, no clear answers in Afghanistan
The U.S. has had victories and setbacks during its 10-year war in Afghanistan. Observers have seen evidence of a more stable, safer Afghanistan and frequent, obvious evidence to the contrary. The story of the past decade is difficult to tell in a single, concise statement. VIDEO: Journalists debate withdrawal
Poll shows Americans divided over debt limit
Americans seem not to have awakened to the fast-looming debt crisis that could summon a new recession, imperil their stock market investments and shatter faith in the world’s most powerful economy. They’re divided on whether to raise the federal debt limit, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that found 41 percent opposed to the idea and 38 percent in favor.
Tornadoes, floods deliver blow to state budgets
The tornadoes and floods that pummeled much of the South and Midwest have dealt a serious blow to struggling state budgets, still reeling from the economy.
Boston gangster story is a tale of 2 brothers
Generations of Boston residents have watched the story play out of former Democratic Senate President William “Billy” Bulger and his older brother, reputed gangster James “Whitey” Bulger. At the heart of the story, at least for the younger Bulger, was a fierce loyalty to family and the shared experience of growing up in the working class Irish-American enclave of South Boston, where the line between brawling and bare-knuckled politics was easily blurred.
Obama: Surge troops to leave Afghanistan
Beginning to wind down a long and devastating war, President Barack Obama announced Wednesday night he was pulling home 33,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by next summer, withdrawing the “surge” of forces he had sent to rescue a flailing effort. “The tide of war is receding,” Obama said.
Judge refuses to dismiss charges in Somali case
Defense attorneys for Omer Abdi Mohamed, 26, accused of helping other young Somalis in Minnesota travel to their war-torn homeland to fight with a terrorist group, have a week to verify an FBI report about a suicide bomber that’s being used to support charges against their client, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Joplin school district tries to rebuild, reinvent
The twister that laid waste to much of Joplin, Mo., last month hit the school system especially hard: It killed seven students and one teacher, and destroyed three school buildings, including the only public high school. Seven other buildings were badly damaged. In the aftermath, the resurrection of Joplin High and other public schools has become a rallying point for the whole community.