nation/world
DEVELOPING
—Adds AVIATION SHUTDOWN
Has moved:
— POLYGAMIST LEADER — Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs convicted of child sexual assault charges. AP photos.
— TROPICAL WEATHER — Tropical Storm Emily breaks up after bringing heavy rain, isolated flooding to Haiti. AP photos, graphic.
TOP STORIES
WALL STREET
Fear that the American economy is headed back into recession grips the financial markets and drives the Dow Jones industrials to a decline of more than 500 points — their steepest since the 2008 financial crisis. The day is marked by wild swings: Gold prices touch a record high, oil falls an extraordinary $5, and investors are so desperate to get into safe government bonds that they’re willing to accept almost no return. By David K. Randall.
AP photos, graphics, interactive.
— WALL STREET PHOTO PACKAGE: Photographer Jin Lee has taken a series of powerful images for AP that capture the reactions and emotions on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as the Dow slumps. Some of the best are AP photos NYJL114, 117, 113, 106, 112, 156, 158, 153, 137, 134-135.
— A separate package advisory detailing the AP’s coverage of Wall Street has moved.
DEBT SHOWDOWN-DEFENSE
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon got nearly everything it asked for during a decade of war shadowed by the Sept. 11 attacks and the rise of al-Qaida. No more. The debt deal approved by Congress opens the possibility of cutting up to $800 billion over the next decade, and new Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warns it will be painful. Among the places to look for cuts: a troubled new fighter jet, plans to upgrade the nuclear arsenal and perhaps some of the gold-plated benefits now guaranteed to military retirees. By Lolita C. Baldor and Donna Cassata.
AP photos.
TAINTED GROUND TURKEY
WASHINGTON — The first signs of the outbreak appeared in May. But it wasn’t until July that investigators were able to definitively link ground turkey to one death and 77 illnesses. And it wasn’t until this week that the public was notified and the turkey recalled. Health officials defend the lag time, saying a thorough investigation led to the nation’s third largest meat recall. By Mary Clare Jalonick.
AP photos by Danny Johnston.
AVIATION SHUTDOWN
WASHINGTON — Congress reaches a bipartisan compromise to end the two-week partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration that has idled 74,000 federal employees and construction workers and cost the government about $30 million a day in uncollected airline ticket taxes, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid says. By Joan Lowy.
AP photos.
VIRGINIA TECH-GUNMAN
BLACKSBURG, Va. — A report of a possible gunman at Virginia Tech set off the longest, most extensive lockdown and search on campus since the bloodbath four years ago that led the university to overhaul its emergency procedures. By Zinie Chen Sampson.
EGYPT-THE MUBARAK EFFECT-ANALYSIS
CAIRO — Facing tenacious uprisings, the leaders of Syria, Libya and Yemen could only have thought of their own possible fates when they saw Hosni Mubarak in a defendants’ cage facing charges that could carry a death sentence. For the three authoritarian Arab leaders, the choices are limited: Cling to power at any cost, negotiate immunity or find a foreign haven. And those options make it hard to resolve their countries’ turmoil. An AP News Analysis by Hamza Hendawi.
AP photos.
— EGYPT-MUBARAK TRIAL — Seven of Hosni Mubarak’s co-defendants return to court as boxes of evidence are opened, including weapons, ammunition and the blood-soaked jacket of a dead protester. AP photos.
WASHINGTON
DEBT SHOWDOWN-NO HAMMER
WASHINGTON — Speaker John Boehner was desperate in his search for votes from his party to prevent a first-ever government default. But despite what a GOP freshman called “hour by hour by hour” pressure from the Ohio Republican leader and his lieutenants, rank-and-file holdouts said they were neither offered carrots nor threatened with sticks to change their minds. That’s a major transformation from the not too distant past. By Larry Margasak.
AP photos.
INTERNATIONAL
SYRIA
BEIRUT — The flashpoint Syrian city of Hama endures a fifth day under military siege, with a resident saying people were being “slaughtered like sheep” in the streets and families were burying their dead in home gardens or roadsides rather than risk a trip to a cemetery. By Zeina Karam.
AP photos.
— SYRIA-DIPLOMACY — Russian President Medvedev says Syria’s leader will face a “sad fate” if he fails to talk with his opponents.
— US-SYRIA SANCTIONS — Clinton says more than 2,000 killed in brutal Syrian crackdown as US expands sanctions
NORWAY MASSACRE-RETHINKING SECURITY
OSLO, Norway — If a man buys three boxes of aspirin, there is no reason to take notice. But Anders Behring Breivik went to 20 drug stores a day for four days and bought three packages of aspirin at each stop — then ordered six tons of fertilizer, chemicals and a semiautomatic rifle — and largely escaped attention. Breivik’s massacre of 77 people forces Norwegian authorities to look at what they could have done to identify his purchases and other suspect behavior. By Adam Geller and Ian MacDougall.
AP photos, video.
EAST AFRICA-FAMINE
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Kaltum Mohamed sits beside a small mound of earth, alone with her thoughts. It is her child’s grave — and there are three others like it. The famine has killed an estimated 29,000 children under age 5 in the last 90 days in southern Somalia. It devastated Mohamed’s family. She watched four of her five children die as the family trekked from the parched south to Mogadishu. By Mohamed Sheikh Noor and Jason Straziuso.
AP photos by Schalk van Zuydam and Mohamed Sheikh Nor. AP video.
NATIONAL
TEXAS DROUGHT
SAN ANTONIO — The drought that has turned Texas and parts of the Plains into a parched moonscape of cracked earth could persist into next year, prolonging the misery of farmers and ranchers who have endured a dry spell that is now expected to be the state’s worst since the 1950s. By Paul Weber.
AP photos.
GETTING ATTENTION
— OBAMA — President celebrates his 50th birthday.
— NEW ZEALAND-EMPEROR PENGUIN — Lost Antarctic penguin finds a following on the Internet, likely to grow when he’s freed soon. AP Photos TOK801, TOK805.
— BRITAIN-AMY WINEHOUSE — Amy Winehouse, Tony Bennett duet on “Body and Soul” to be released as charity single. AP photo.
— MILES ARRESTED — Former NBA player Darius Miles arrested for carrying loaded gun at St. Louis airport. AP photo.
— REMAINS IN COOLER — Pennsylvania woman pleads guilty to murder in the deaths of five newborns whose remains were found in her home.
— JERRY LEWIS-MDA — Muscular Dystrophy Association says Jerry Lewis no longer national chairman, won’t appear on next Labor Day telethon.