Bond-buying program shores up European markets higher despite earlier losses in Asia

LONDON (AP) — A pledge from the European Central Bank to support the shaky bonds of Italy and Spain helped calm investor nerves in Europe Monday despite big losses in Asia following the downgrade of U.S. debt by Standard & Poor’s.

Though Europe’s main markets in London, Paris, and Frankfurt were trading lower, albeit modestly, the exchanges in Milan and Madrid were posting sizable gains as the borrowing costs for both Italy and Spain plunged to more manageable levels after the European Central Bank said it would buy the two countries’ bonds in order to help them avoid devastating defaults.

Late Sunday, Europe’s central bank said it would "actively implement" its bond-buying program to calm investor concerns that Italy and Spain won’t be able to pay their debts. Last week, worries over the two countries’ ability to keep tapping bond markets contributed to the turmoil in global markets, which saw around $1.5 trillion wiped off share prices.

Seeking to avert panic spreading across financial markets, the finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of 20 industrial and developing world also issued a joint statement Monday saying they were committed to taking all necessary measures to support financial stability and growth.

"We will remain in close contact throughout the coming weeks and cooperate as appropriate, ready to take action to ensure financial stability and liquidity in financial markets," they said.

———

Police, neighbors struggling to put together pieces after 8 killed in Ohio shooting rampage

COPLEY, Ohio (AP) — Investigators combed through three homes and outside another in a quiet neighborhood of this small Ohio town Sunday, collecting evidence to reconstruct a shooting rampage that killed seven people and wounded another before the gunman died in a gunfight with police.

The tragedy ripped the summer quiet on Goodenough Avenue just before 11 a.m. when police say the gunman shot his girlfriend in one home, then ran to a next-door neighbor’s house, where he shot her brother and gunned down four neighbors. He then chased four people — two through neighboring backyards — shooting one of them before bursting into a home on nearby Schocalog Road, where two others had sought refuge.

Police said he shot his eighth victim in that home and left, only to get into a gunfight outside with a police officer and a citizen who had been a police officer. The gunman, whose name was not released, was killed.

Only one of those shot survived. Police said that victim was taken to an area hospital but did not disclose a condition or identity. None of the victims was identified and their ages were not disclosed.

Neighbors said the dead included an 11-year-old boy; a school official said he had been told two of the victims were students at the local high school. Neighbors say at least three victims were from one family.

———

UK police arrest over 160 after gangs loot shops, attack police in riots across London

LONDON (AP) — Police arrested 160 people after a weekend of riots and looting, as scattered copycat violence spread from a disadvantaged north London neighborhood to other parts of the city, authorities said Monday.

Groups of young people looted shops, attacked police officers and set fire to vehicles in violence that has raised questions about security ahead of the showcase 2012 Olympics and revealed pent-up anger against the city’s police.

Around 35 police officers were injured, including three who were hit by a car while trying to make arrests in east London.

Officers are "shocked at the outrageous level of violence directed against them," police commander Christine Jones said.

The violence erupted in the north London suburb of Tottenham on Saturday night amid community anger over a fatal police shooting of a 29-year-old father of four. Police said "copycat criminal" violence spread to other parts of London on Sunday night and early Monday, including the main shopping and tourist district at Oxford Circus.

———

VA doctors, rusty on treating women, gather to study care of female veterans

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — The "show and tell" table at this gathering of doctors featured contraceptive sponges and female condoms. Life-size rubber pelvises and female breasts covered several other tables at the back of a windowless convention center ballroom. The lectures focused on topics like how to help a rape victim feel comfortable in an exam room.

Not unusual for a doctors’ meeting, but these were doctors and nurse practitioners with the Veterans Affairs Department, a cohort of medical professionals who in the past might have gone years without seeing a female patient. But avoiding topics like gynecology and breast exams is no longer possible because of an influx of thousands of female veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan into the VA’s system of hospitals and clinics.

Used to treating the men who served in Vietnam or World War II, many of the VA’s practitioners are rusty on skills like performing pelvic exams on women and talking about birth control. Some are downright nervous over treating women.

The result has been very limited availability at some VA clinics for gender-specific health appointments for women. Female veterans often had to drive hours to get to another facility, or the VA had to pick up the tab for them to go to a nearby private doctor — if they opted to go at all.

The VA is working toward having a trained, designated women’s provider in every facility. So far, officials have achieved the goal in its approximately 150 medical centers and in at least 60 to 65 percent of its 900 community-based clinics, according to the VA.

———

Fresh gunfire heard as Syria intensifies crackdown; Saudis, other Arab nations decry violence

BEIRUT (AP) — A besieged Syrian city came under fresh artillery fire early Monday as a deadly military assault left President Bashar Assad’s regime increasingly isolated, with Arab nations forcefully joining the international chorus of condemnation for the first time.

The renewed violence in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour comes a day after at least 42 people were killed there in an intensifying government crackdown on protesters.

"We heard very loud explosions, and now there’s intermittent gunfire," an activist said in the city said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said people were too terrified to take the wounded to government hospitals, instead treating them at home or in makeshift hospitals.

The Local Coordinating Committees, which help organize the protests and track the uprising, said machine fire and artillery blasts resumed early Monday in Deir el-Zour. Syrian troops also stormed Maaret al-Numan in the northern province of Idlib at dawn, activists said.

"Forces entered the city from its eastern side and they are preventing the residents from entering or leaving the city," the LCC said in a statement.

———

Duncan: States can’t wait for Congress to fix No Child Left Behind law; waiver system planned

State and local education officials have been begging the federal government for relief from student testing mandates in the federal No Child Left Behind law, but school starts soon and Congress still hasn’t answered the call.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he will announce a new waiver system Monday to give schools a break.

The plan to offer waivers to all 50 states, as long as they meet other school reform requirements, comes at the request of President Barack Obama, Duncan said. More details on the waivers will come in September, he said.

The goal of the No Child Left Behind law is to have every student proficient in math and reading by 2014. States have been required to bring more students up to the math and reading standards each year, based on tests that usually take place each spring. The step-by-step ramping up of the 9-year-old law has caused heartburn in states and most school districts, because more and more schools are labeled as failures as too few of their students meet testing goals.

Critics say the benchmarks are unrealistic and brands schools as failures even if they make progress. Schools and districts where too few kids pass the tests for several years are subject to sanctions that can include firing teachers or closing the school entirely.

———

Former Sen. Mark Hatfield, outspoken critic of war, dies at age 89

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — As a 23-year-old Navy officer in 1945, Mark Hatfield was among the first American servicemen to personally see the destruction wrought upon Hiroshima by an atomic bomb. It was an experience that helped shape Hatfield into an outspoken critic of war as he went on to become a two-term Republican Oregon governor, then the longest-serving U.S. senator in Oregon history.

Hatfield — one of the most influential politicians this state has seen — died in Portland Sunday night at age 89, said his longtime friend and former aide, Gerry Frank. The Oregonian reported he passed away at a care center. The cause of death was not immediately released. Hatfield had become increasingly frail over the years.

He was elected governor of Oregon in 1958 and re-elected in 1962 before winning his first U.S. Senate campaign in 1966. He served five terms in the Senate, from 1967 to 1997.

Hatfield is best known at the national level for his pacifist ways, which often put him at odds with fellow Republicans but endeared him to many Oregonians.

At the 1965 National Governors Conference in Los Angeles, he was denounced as a traitor for casting the lone "no" vote among 50 governors on a resolution supporting President Johnson’s policy in Vietnam. In the early 1970s, he joined then-Democratic Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota to sponsor an amendment seeking to end the Vietnam War. A decade later, he helped launch a campaign for a nuclear weapons freeze.

———

US endurance athlete Diana Nyad, 61, defies age in attempt to swim across Florida Straits

HAVANA (AP) — Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad stroked through the Florida Straits early Monday, trying to accomplish at 61 years old what she failed to do at 28: swim more than 100 miles from Havana to Key West.

If she makes it to the Florida Keys after an estimated 60-hour swim, Nyad would become the first person to traverse the strait without the aid of a shark cage, relying instead on technology and divers to fend off the finned predators.

Tanned and freckled from long hours training in the open seas of the Caribbean, she expressed confidence before starting off just before sunset Sunday. She said the still air and shimmering water flat as a plate were perfect conditions for her attempt to make a 103-mile (166-kilometer) swim.

"The adrenaline’s flowing now," Nyad said at a jetty in western Havana as she looked at the water. "… This is what I dreamed of: a silver platter."

She gave a heartfelt cheek-kiss to the commodore of the Hemingway Marina in Havana, who helped arrange logistics of the trip, changed into a black swimsuit and blue swim cap and showed off the goggles she planned to wear: light blue during the night for better dark vision and smoky charcoal tinted to protect her eyes from the blinding daytime sun.

———

Selena Gomez wins 5 surfboard-shaped trophies at Teen Choice Awards

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Selena Gomez conjured five wins at the Teen Choice Awards — one more than boyfriend Justin Bieber.

The star of "Wizards of Waverly Place" was selected as choice TV actress, female hottie and music group with her band The Scene. Gomez and her ensemble were also awarded the choice single trophy for "Who Says" and love song for "Love You Like a Love Song," which the 19-year-old actress-singer performed at Sunday’s freewheeling fan-favorite ceremony.

"This is for all of you guys," Gomez told the screeching crowd. "This isn’t mine."

Bieber, Gomez’s 17-year-old actor-singer boyfriend, picked up four surfboard-shaped trophies as choice male music artist, male hottie, twit and TV villain for his "CSI" guest starring role. Other multiple winners included "The Vampire Diaries," "Glee," "The Twilight Saga," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," Robert Pattinson and Taylor Swift.

"I feel like it’s been a long time since I was a teenager, like, two years," Swift joked.

———

Yankees’ pen blows game in 9th; and loses 3-2 in 10

BOSTON (AP) — The relief pitching that had been a strength for the New York Yankees this weekend failed them in the end.

That’s the way it’s going this season against the Boston Red Sox.

Mariano Rivera blew a save in the ninth inning, then Josh Reddick hit a game-ending RBI single in the 10th to give the Red Sox a 3-2 victory in a game that ended early Monday morning.

It seemed it was going to be just like the series opener on Friday night, when the Yankees’ pen shut down Boston for a win.

But leading 2-1 in the ninth, Rivera came in and allowed Marco Scutaro’s leadoff double. Scutaro advanced on Jacoby Ellsbury’s sacrifice before Dustin Pedroia tied it with a sacrifice fly.