Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) Honda Motor Co Ltd (7267.T), Nissan Motor Co Ltd (7201.T), Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) capitalized on the program's goal of pushing consumers away from gas guzzling sport utilities and pickups, to more efficient cars and trucks, preliminary sales figures showed on Wednesday. Overseas manufacturers dominate in car sales, while US companies have been stronger in the light truck segment. Cars outsold trucks 2-1 under the "clunker" initiative.

Ford Motor Co (F.N) was the only domestic manufacturer to hold its own in market share compared with its performance so far this year, while GM slipped and Chrysler stumbled noticeably. Transportation Department figures on the "clunkers" incentive, which offered consumers up to $4,500 when they traded in their older vehicles for more fuel efficient new models, showed on Wednesday that total sales amounted to just under 700,000 with $2.87 billion in rebates.

The Electoral Commission in Kabul said that early estimates of voting in the former Taleban stronghold of Babaji, north of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, indicated that few exercised their right to vote last Thursday. Several thousand people could have voted. Four of the ten troops who died in Operation Panther's Claw, the five-week offensive to drive the Taleban out of central Helmand before the presidential election, were killed in or around Babaji.

In the three years that British troops have been fighting the Taleban in Helmand, 202 members of the Armed Forces have died and about 800 have been injured in battle, 235 of them "very seriously" or "seriously". Mr Sedwill warned that even after the combat mission was complete troops would still be involved in dangerous tasks for many more years.

During his 2 pm PDT show, Beck did not address the boycott spearheaded by Color of Change to protest the talk show host's remark last month that he believes President Obama is "a racist." Instead, he spent a large share of his program suggesting that Jones, who co-founded Color of Change in 2005, is a radical. Jones now serves as a special advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

During a six-minute biographical profile, set to ominous music, Beck said Jones was twice arrested for political protests and has described himself as a "ROWDY BLACK NATIONALIST." The talk show host cast the piece as part of a broader examination of Obama's "czars," special advisers to the President who "don't answer to anybody."

"WHY IS IT THAT SUCH A COMMITTED REVOLUTIONARY HAS MADE IT SO HIGH INTO THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION AS ONE OF HIS CHIEF ADVISERS?" Beck asked.

Grassley, speaking about the renomination of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term as head of the Fed, asserted that Bernanke's ability to hold down inflation would be the metric by which the Fed's success would be measured.

"We won't know for a year if he's done a good job so far, because he shoveled money out of an airplane to save banks and the financial system," Grassley said in a conference call with Iowa reporters. "But shoveling money out of an airplane to solve problems can be inflationary — IN THIS CASE, HYPERINFLATIONARY — if he doesn't start mopping up some of the money that's out there." Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said that inflation as a result from government spending on bailouts could result in inflation rivaling rates in 1980, when it hit a peak of 13.5 percent.

The shutdown will force 81 percent of the roughly 13,550-member state work force, excluding its college system, to stay home a dozen days without pay before the start of the new fiscal year in July. The closures come as the worst recession in decades has eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax collections and pushed unemployment to 12.7 percent, the second-highest jobless rate in the nation behind Michigan.

Carcieri predicted the state's fiscal future could grow even bleaker. "There are going to be inconveniences for the public, and there are going to be sacrifices, as I said, for state employees," Carcieri said at a Statehouse news conference. "These steps right now are unavoidable if the state is to live within its budget, live within its means."

Key to bringing Israel on board is a promise by the US to adopt a much tougher line with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons programme. The US, along with Britain and France, is planning to push the United Nations security council to expand sanctions to include Iran's oil and gas industry, a move that could cripple its economy.

In return, the Israeli government will be expected to agree to a partial freeze on the construction of settlements in the Middle East. In the words of one official close to the negotiations: "The message is: Iran is an existential threat to Israel; settlements are not." A coalition of Arab states, thought to include the Saudis, has been in secret contact with Israel to discuss what they see as a common threat posed by Iran.

Details of the breakthrough deal will be hammered out tomorrow in London, where the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is due to hold talks with the US special envoy, George Mitchell. Netanyahu met Gordon Brown today in Downing Street, where the two discussed both settlements and the Iranian nuclear programme. Although the negotiations are being held in private, they have reached such an advanced stage that both France and Russia have approached the US offering to host a peace conference.

Figures released by the White House budget office foresee a cumulative $9 trillion deficit from 2010-2019, $2 trillion more than the administration estimated in May. Moreover, the figures show the public debt doubling by 2019 and reaching three-quarters the size of the entire national economy.

Obama economic adviser Christina Romer predicted unemployment could reach 10 percent this year and begin a slow decline next year. Still, she said, the average unemployment will be 9.3 in 2009 and 9.8 percent in 2010. "This recession was simply worse than the information that we and other forecasters had back in last fall and early this winter," Romer said.

Republicans were ready to pounce. "The alarm bells on our nation's fiscal condition have now become a siren," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican for Kentucky, said. "If anyone had any doubts that this burden on future generations is unsustainable, they're gone — SPENDING, BORROWING AND DEBT ARE OUT OF CONTROL."

In one month CCTV HELPED CAPTURE JUST EIGHT OUT OF 269 SUSPECTED ROBBERS. David Davis MP, the former shadow home secretary, said: "It should provoke a long overdue rethink on where the crime prevention budget is being spent." He added: "CCTV leads to massive expense and minimum effectiveness. It creates a huge intrusion on privacy, yet provides little or no improvement in security. The Metropolitan Police has been extraordinarily slow to act to deal with the ineffectiveness of CCTV."

A Home Office spokeswoman said CCTVs "help communities feel safer".

Earlier, during talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Mr Netanyahu promised no new settlements would be built, as efforts to restart peace talks continue. The US and UK have been putting pressure on Israel to end construction.

Following talks with Mr Brown on Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu said Israel intended to "move forward" on dealing with the issue. "With the help of our friends in the United States, in Britain and elsewhere, I think we can achieve progress that may confront the cynics and surprise the world but there is no substitute for courageous leadership on all sides." Mr Netanyahu will wait to hear details from Mr Mitchell on what concessions Arab countries are prepared to give in return, but nothing is yet finalised and Wednesday's meeting is not expected to bring a major breakthrough, says our correspondent.

After meeting Mr Mitchell in London, Mr Netanyahu is travelling to Berlin.

The plan, the first of its kind from the Palestinian Authority, sets out national goals and priorities and operational instructions for ministries and official bodies. Mr Fayyad said it was meant to hasten the end of the Israeli occupation and pave the way to independent statehood, which he said "can and must happen within the next two years."

There was no immediate official Israeli comment, with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, traveling for talks in Europe. But two Israeli officials reacted with consternation over what they saw as unilateral action. THE UNITED STATES CONSUL GENERAL IN JERUSALEM EXPRESSED APPROVAL FOR THE PLAN.

The highest-level Israeli government official to comment was Yuval Steinitz, the finance minister of the conservative Likud Party, who called Mr Fayyad's ideas "disappointing. This is contrary to all the agreements signed between the sides," Mr Steinitz told Israel Radio. "THERE IS NO PLACE FOR UNILATERALISM, NO PLACE FOR THREATS, AND OF COURSE, THERE WILL BE NO PALESTINIAN STATE AT ALL, IF ANY, WITHOUT ENSURING THE STATE OF ISRAEL'S SECURITY."

"If the Palestinians want a state," he continued, they should "stop terrorism, incitement and declare an end of the conflict and of all claims" against Israel.

When Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, visited Downing Street this week, the item at the top of his agenda was the mounting threat that IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME poses to the existence of the Jewish state. For his part, Mr Brown was more interested in talking about THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS, in particular whether Mr Netanyahu's government was prepared to implement A FREEZE ON ISRAELI SETTLEMENT-BUILDING on occupied Palestinian land.

THE DIFFERENT AGENDAS ARE EVIDENCE OF A GROWING DIVIDE BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE WEST that threatens to become a far more serious problem unless an accommodation can be reached. While President Obama has reaffirmed Washington's commitment to Israel's security, his determination to press ahead with an ambitious plan to negotiate a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has led to INCREASED TENSIONS BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND JERUSALEM.

REPORT: HOSPITALS MAY FACE SEVERE DISRUPTION IN SWINE FLU'S US RETURN - bloomberg.com

Swine flu MAY HOSPITALIZE 1.8 MILLION PATIENTS in the US this year, filling intensive care units to capacity and causing "severe disruptions" during a fall resurgence, scientific advisers to the White House warned. Swine flu, also known as H1N1, MAY INFECT AS MUCH AS HALF OF THE POPULATION and kill 30,000 to 90,000 people, double the deaths caused by the typical seasonal flu, according to the planning scenario issued yesterday by the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology.

REPORT: H1N1 'POSES SERIOUS THREAT' TO NATION - Wcbstv.com

White House report says virus LIKELY TO INFECT MORE PEOPLE THAN USUAL, doctors' offices and hospitals COULD BE 'FILLED TO CAPACITY'

REPORT: "SPEED UP US FLU DRUGS, VACCINES" SAYS WHITE HOUSE PANEL - alertnet.org

US officials should help drug companies speed up the supply of swine flu drugs and vaccines, making at least some shots available by mid-September, White House science advisers said on Monday. Calling the H1N1 pandemic "a serious threat to our nation", they also urged the US Food and Drug Administration to QUICKLY DECIDE ON NEW, INTRAVENOUS FORMULATIONS OF FLU DRUGS, including current drugs such as Roche AG's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza but also BioCryst Pharmaceuticals' experimental drug Peramivir.

REPORT: SWINE FLU COULD "STRAIN US HEALTH CARE SYSTEM" SAYS WHITE HOUSE - Breitbart.com

Swine flu's resurgence in the coming months "poses a serious health threat," the White House said Monday, warning the virus COULD STRETCH THE US HEALTH CARE SYSTEM TO CAPACITY. The virus "IS LIKELY TO INFECT MORE PEOPLE THAN USUAL because it is a new strain against which few people have immunity," warned President Barack Obama's science advisors in a report. "This COULD MEAN that doctors' offices and hospitals MAY GET filled to capacity."

Ten leaders are holding talks at African Union (AU) headquarters in the Ethiopian capital to try to agree a common stance ahead of a UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen in December. Experts say Africa contributes little to the pollution blamed for warming, but is likely to be hit hardest by the droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels forecast IF CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT CHECKED.

The draft resolution, which must still be approved by the 10 leaders, called for rich countries to pay $67 billion annually to counter the impact of global warming in Africa. It said there had been serious limitations on Africa's ability to negotiate in the past because of a lack of a coherent stance on global warming by African governments. "The negotiating team need to be backed with the political weight at the highest level in the continent to ensure that the African voice on climate change negotiations is taken with the seriousness it deserves", the document said.

Franks said there was not enough evidence that Obama is not an American citizen. He did say there was a lot of conflicting evidence of Obama's citizenship and that he was considering filing a lawsuit, the only congressman to do so. Franks asked why the President did not simply produce a birth certificate.

Franks, a global warming skeptic, is pal of 'Focus on the Family' founder James Dobson and served as a high-ranking aide to former Arizona Governor Evan Mecham, who was removed from office and canceled the state's Martin Luther King Jr holiday while Franks was on the payroll.

A similar suit has already been dismissed by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

His angry rhetoric came on the heels of a rant on Friday, when he told Daily News columnist Errol Louis that he is a victim of an "orchestrated" media campaign to push him from office. HE CLAIMED PRESIDENT OBAMA IS NEXT ON THE TARGET LIST.

Without addressing the merits of Paterson's complaints, a "sympathetic" Mayor Bloomberg blamed the governor's rants on frustration. "He's got roughly 14 months left to go, and if I were him I would do what I think he is doing - try to be the best governor he can," Bloomberg said. Meanwhile, a new Siena Research Institute poll taken before the governor's comments Friday showed his job approval rating at a meager 23% and his favorability rating at just 32%.