Former foreign minister Alexander Downer, Australia's longest-serving, quits politics

Alexander Downer announced Thursday he is quitting Australian politics following a career as the country's longest-serving foreign minister and one of its highest-profile leaders of the past decade.

Downer, who was ousted from power at elections last year along with the rest of Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government, said he is in talks on taking a job as a special U.N. envoy on the conflict in Cyprus.

Downer, 56, declined to run for the leadership of his Liberal party after the coalition that had ruled since 1996 lost elections last November and has languished on the back benches of parliament while considering his future.

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Floods hit central part of state

WESTON - Heavy rain overnight caused numerous creeks to overflowtoday, flooding areas of Harrison, Doddridge and Lewis counties,emergency services officials said.

Three homes in the Weston area were evacuated, said Lt. Tom McVayof the Weston Fire Department.

Standing water as deep as 3 feet covered scattered areas of LewisCounty, and all roads leading into Weston were closed, officialssaid."We've got so much rain and there's just nowhere for it to go,although it does seem the water's …

Connecting Flight; US Airways climbed out of its second bankruptcy by merging with america west. Can the new company combine its information systems?

The new US Airways, formed from the combination of low-cost carrier America West Airlines and the twice-bankrupt US Airways, officially took flight on Sept. 27. The company will announce its collective financial results Nov. 9.

But while the airline looks like one entity, its information systems remain separate and distinct. For the coming months, the company will keep two Web sites, handle reservations on two systems, and run its business applications separately.

US Airways chief information officer Joe Beery, however, is working to meld these disparate systems. Over the next two to three years, he'll try to bring the systems together into a single information …

Obama calls for bipartisan cooperation on stimulus

President-elect Barack Obama is calling for bipartisan cooperation in quickly passing his economic stimulus package that Democrats say will include an unexpectedly large tax cut of up to $300 billion.

Obama says "the situation is getting worse and we have to act boldly and we have to act swiftly."

He added: "This is not a Republican problem or a …

Nigerian federation: "No choice of venue."

The Nigeria soccer federation said Monday it had no choice of venue for its exhibition match against North Korea at which a stampede left 15 people injured.

Taiwo Ogunjobi, the Nigerian federation's technical committee chairman, told website kickoff.com that "we had no choice" because "that was the only venue available to us" because "FIFA had taken control of all the stadia."

One policeman was seriously hurt Sunday during two separate fan rushes at the Makhulong Stadium outside Johannesburg.

Nigeria media officer Idah Peterside said that FIFA and World Cup organizers were not responsible, adding the match "was …

China: Textiles Generate 99% of Trade Surplus

According to Chinese customs statistics, China's textile trade for 2005 showed that exports were US$117.5 billion, up 21% from the preceding year and imports were US$17 billion, up 2%. The textile trade surplus was US$100.4 billion, up 27% from the year-ago level and exceeded US$100 billion for the first time. The greatest contributing factor is a sharp rise in exports; a …

Iran ratifies bill to pull ambassador from Britain

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's constitutional watchdog has ratified a bill that reduces diplomatic relations with Britain following London's support of recently upgraded U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

State radio says the Guardian Council ratified the bill on Monday after parliament approved it the day before. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad now has five days to sign the bill before Iran's foreign …