Women fear that even the small steps that they have taken so far will be threatened if the Afghan government and Western donors make a peace that does not allow small steps to become larger ones.

AP - They're a minority, but a vocal one, and they're hovering like storm clouds over a brittle recovery.

AP - Regulators on Friday shut banks in Florida, Georgia, Oregon and Washington, lifting to 108 the number of U.S. banks to fail this year as the industry has struggled to cope with mounting loan defaults and recession.

CBC.ca
The quiet Main Liner who's marrying Chelsea Clinton
Philadelphia Inquirer

AP - Mexico's biggest television network canceled a popular news show to protest the kidnapping of four reporters, abductions that media advocates called an escalation of a campaign by drug gangs to control information.

The Guardian
Thousands to mourn Love Parade victims
CNN International

AP - Brothers Charles and Sam Wyly, born a year apart during the Great Depression, almost always have been joined at the hip.

AP - Good morning, passengers, and welcome aboard. We're expecting clear skies today, but we're out of pilots.

The Upshot - Charlie Rangel's dealing days are over. Whatever else happens to the embattled Democratic congressman from New York — who's facing 13 charges from the House Ethics Committee, involving everything from incomplete financial filings to improper fundraising for a center named in his honor at New York's City College — he won't have a settlement in [...]

AP - One of the world's most powerful drug cartels took a major hit when soldiers killed a top kingpin in a gunbattle, and his death will likely will mean more violence as factions fight for the cocaine and methamphetamine empire that he left behind.