The Ecuadorean government declared a state of siege Thursday after rebellious police angered by a law that cuts their benefits plunged the small South American nation into chaos, roughing up the president, shutting down airports, and blocking highways in a nationwide strike.

Incensed officers shoved President Rafael Correa around and pelted him with tear gas and water when he tried to speak at a police barracks in the capital. Correa, 47, was hospitalized from the effects of the gas.

The state of siege puts the military in charge of public order, suspending civil liberties, and allowing soldiers to carry out searches without a warrant.

Hundreds of officers involved in the insurrection took over police barracks in Quito, Guayaquil, and other cities. They also set up roadblocks out of burning tires that cut off highway access to the capital.

Schools shut down in Quito and many businesses closed due to the absence of police protection that left citizens and businesses vulnerable to crime.

Looting was reported in the capital—where at least two banks were sacked—and in the coastal city Guayaquil. That city’s main newspaper, El Universo, reported assaults on supermarkets and robberies due to the absence of police.

As he confronted the protesters, Correa was agitated but firm.

“If you want to kill the president, here he is! Kill me!” he told them before limping away with the aid of a cane as an aide fitted a gas mask over his face. Correa’s right knee was operated on just last week.

There were no reports of serious violence against the government, but Correa called the unrest “an attempted coup by the opposition.”

Other leaders in the region expressed firm support for Correa, while the Organization of American States met in special session in Washington, D.C., to discuss the crisis.

The striking police were angered by a law passed by Congress on Wednesday that would end the practice of giving members of Ecuador’s military and police medals and bonuses with each promotion. It would also extend from five to seven years the usual period required for before a subsequent promotion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For 150 years, Hindus and Muslims both claimed a site that is sacred to their religions, which triggered some of the worst rioting in India’s history. On Thursday a court came up with a compromise: Split it.

Both sides said they would appeal, and the muted reaction to the potentially explosive verdict generated hopes that the country, with its growing regional clout and skyrocketing economy, has moved beyond its divisive history.

In advance of the ruling, the government sent hundreds of thousands of police into the streets, arrested more than 10,000 people to keep them from inciting violence, and pushed another 100,000 to sign affidavits saying they would not cause trouble.

Hindus argued that the Babri Mosque erected in the city of Ayodhya by Muslims in 1528 stood on the site of the birthplace of the Hindu god Rama, and they filed suit in 1950.

In 1992, while the legal case lingered, tens of thousands of Hindu extremists ripped apart the mosque with spades, crowbars, and their bare hands as security forces watched. A small tented shrine to Rama now stands on the site.

The demolition sparked nationwide riots that killed 2,000 people and shook the foundations of India’s claim to be a multiethnic, secular democracy.

The High Court in the state of Uttar Pradesh ruled that the 64-acre site should be split, one-third to the Muslim community and the rest to two Hindu groups.

The Hindus will keep the area where the mosque once stood because the court determined it was the birthplace of Rama and archaeological evidence showed a temple had predated the mosque, according to the judgment.

Hindus want to build an enormous temple to Rama on the site, while Muslims want to rebuild the mosque. The ruling will likely force both groups to scale down those plans.

Public reaction to the verdict was restrained.

Many in India say the country has moved on, with Hindu nationalist groups on the wane and the younger generation more interested in their education and cell phones than communal divisions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman said Thursday that her former housekeeper might have intercepted a 2003 government letter warning that the maid could be in the country illegally.

For the second straight day, Whitman denied she knew her housekeeper was in the country illegally for years. She said her Democratic opponent, Jerry Brown, was behind the story and that the housekeeper was being manipulated for political gain.

The housekeeper’s attorney, Gloria Allred, has said she will release evidence later Thursday to show Whitman knew she employed an illegal worker.

Whitman disputes that she received a 2003 letter from the Social Security Administration that said the Social Security number provided by the housekeeper did not match the name on file. When asked at a news conference whether the worker, Nicky Diaz Santillan, might have taken the letter intended for Whitman, she said “it’s very possible.” The housekeeper was in charge of going through the mail, she said.

Whitman said she and her husband were shocked when Diaz Santillan came to them and confessed she was in the U.S. illegally in June 2009, nearly five months after Whitman had announced an exploratory run for governor. She said she immediately suspended Diaz Santillan and later fired her. Whitman’s campaign has said Diaz Santillan admitted to using her sister’s documents when she applied for the $23-an-hour job.

Whitman has called for tougher sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers, and the allegations could undercut her credibility just weeks before Election Day, particularly with Hispanics she has pursued for months. Whitman and Brown are in a dead heat according to the latest polls.

The timing of the allegations, the lack of documentation to support the claims, and Allred’s Democratic ties left Allred open to questions about motive in the tight race. Allred once gave money to Brown, and she was a Hillary Rodham Clinton delegate at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. Asked about timing and her political links, Allred said the former housekeeper “just recently contacted me.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rahm Emanuel will resign as White House chief of staff on Friday and will begin his campaign for Chicago mayor by meeting with voters in the city on Monday, two people familiar with Emanuel’s plans said.

Neither source knew when Emanuel would make an official announcement about his mayoral bid. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama plans to make a personnel announcement Friday.

Emanuel’s plans have been the source of widespread speculation both in Chicago and Washington, D.C., ever since Mayor Richard Daley announced this month he would not seek reelection. In an April television interview, Emanuel said it was “no secret” he’d like to run for mayor.

When he announces his candidacy, Emanuel instantly becomes the most recognizable name in the field of candidates and possible candidates, which includes Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, at least one state senator, and a city alderman.

Obama is expected to install senior adviser Pete Rouse to serve as interim chief of staff. Gibbs said the president has “complete loyalty and trust” in Rouse, though he wouldn’t confirm Rouse had been tapped for the interim post.

The president is likely to choose a permanent chief of staff after the Nov. 2 midterm elections. Top contenders are Rouse, deputy national security adviser Tom Donilon, and Ron Klain, the chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, according to aides close to the president.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pennsylvania’s top environmental regulator said Thursday the state will sue a Houston-based drilling company unless it agrees to pay nearly $12 million to extend a public water line to at least 18 residents whose water wells have been contaminated with methane gas.

Environmental Secretary John Hanger blames the methane contamination on faulty Marcellus Shale gas wells drilled by Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation employees. Company officials deny responsibility for the pollution.

Though it has already taken legal responsibility for the pollution, the company contends water wells in the Dimock area were contaminated with methane gas before Cabot officials and employees began drilling.

Hanger opened the news conference by quoting from two separate consent agreements in which Cabot officials admitted that their work polluted Dimock’s water supplies, that they failed to fix the gas wells in a timely fashion, and that they “shall not challenge the accuracy or validity of these findings.”

Dan Dinges, Cabot’s chief executive officer, said the company was compelled to sign the consent orders “under extraordinary duress,” noting that Hanger had threatened to shut down its operations.

In a newspaper ad taken out this week, Dinges accused Hanger and his agency of “political pandering” and abuse of authority. Company officials also released a 29-page rebuttal to Hanger’s accusations.

Cabot officials have been fined repeatedly by the Department of Environmental Protection, including $360,000 in fines related to the Dimock water contamination. In addition, more than a dozen families have sued Cabot officials over their ruined water wells.

Earlier this month, a private consulting firm said it had found toxic chemicals in Dimock water.

Environmental engineer Daniel Farnham said three laboratories verified his tests, but he emphasized he could not say with certainty that the chemicals were the result of gas drilling. The particular chemicals found are used in many products, including paint thinner and gasoline. Cabot officials have blamed a gas station up the street for the presence of the chemicals.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A tape released Thursday on a jihadist forum shows the first images of a group of hostages, including five French citizens, since they were seized Sept. 16 from their guarded villas in the uranium mining town of Arlit in Niger by an al-Qaeda offshoot.

The two other hostages are from Togo and Madagascar. All seven hostages are still alive, and French officials believe they are in Mali.

The still images were accompanied by an audio recording, during which the hostages were asked and acknowledge their kidnappers are members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM.

The tape’s release comes as top officials from Areva, the French nuclear giant the hostages were working for, planned a visit to Niger on Thursday to meet with the government and travel to the town where the employees were abducted.

The terror group has its roots in an extremist Islamic group in Algeria that brokered an alliance with al-Qaeda in 2006. AQIM members have since kidnapped more than a dozen Europeans, and are believed to be using the ransom payments to bankroll their operations. Each successful kidnapping has emboldened their tactics.

At the Areva compound in Niger, the heavily armed gunmen were able to get past the town’s security cordon, which includes 350 of Niger’s troops as well as 150 security guards hired by Areva.

In the tape AQIM members explain that the kidnapping was in retaliation to a joint French-Mauritanian raid on an AQIM base in Mali earlier this summer that killed at least six members of the terror cell, after which AQIM members said they assassinated French hostage Michel Germaneau, a 78-year-old aid worker who had been seized in Niger in April. The tape warns that the French—who have sent a regiment of soldiers to Niger—should not attempt another rescue mission as they had done for Germaneau.

The French defense minister has said that French officials are willing to talk to the terror group.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Driving rain from a storm system moving up the East Coast brought flooding to parts of North Carolina on Thursday, caused soggy morning commutes in the Northeast, and prompted worries of additional flooding as far north as Maine.

Tornado watches were issued from North Carolina to New Jersey.

In North Carolina, the nearly 21 inches collected in Wilmington since rain started falling Sunday topped Hurricane Floyd’s five-day mark of 19 inches set in 1999, the National Weather Service said.

In Carolina Beach, N.C., the rains caused a pond in the center of the town to overflow, filling nearby streets with water.

Farther north, parts of eastern Virginia were under flash flood warnings. The National Weather Service also issued a tornado watch for 33 eastern Virginia counties and 21 cities, including Richmond, Williamsburg, Arlington, and the Hampton Roads area. Flash flood watches were also in effect for areas in Maryland, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

In Maryland, authorities said 26 people including high school students were hurt after a Metro bus rear-ended another bus from the Washington-area transit system in pouring rain. The Thursday morning accident came a day after a tour bus carrying D.C. sightseers plunged off a highway in another Maryland suburb, killing the driver and injuring more than a dozen people.

The Metro bus injuries Thursday morning were not life threatening, Montgomery County fire department assistant chief Scott Graham said.

The weather also caused rail delays throughout the Mid-Atlantic. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said there were scattered delays Thursday morning because of high water and tree limbs falling onto tracks.

The storm system was good news to northern New England farmers who’ve endured a dry summer.

The downpour came as a low pressure system from the west mixed with the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole.

Nicole dissipated over the Straits of Florida on Wednesday and its remaining rainbands were expected to remain mainly offshore while tracking northward.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Last week we celebrated the release of my daughter’s album by inviting close friends for a small concert/party. A couple of days later, one attendee wrote to compliment Emilie and her music but asked if—instead of writing songs about love or feeling unnoticed or some of her other whimsical subjects—had she ever thought of writing ones that incorporated Scripture, catechisms, or biblical truths?

I appreciate my friend’s question because it so clearly illustrates the perennial “secular vs. sacred” debate in Christian circles. The gist of this particular argument (if you can call it that) is: Can we glorify God in any way other than the direct, going-through-the-front-door, Jesus-mentioned-in-every-chorus kind of way?

But my friend’s question implies that music that does not send a clear and unmistakable Christian message is not as valuable as music that does. I understand the concern here, and certainly agree that music has influence on its hearers and should be written thoughtfully. But the logical conclusion of such an argument would be that instrumental music, which has no lyrics, would not be able to glorify God. This would include pieces like Beethoven’s well-known and loved Fifth Symphony, Bach’s unaccompanied violin works, and Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu.

And not just music is involved in this argument. Dance, too, would be excluded from that group of art that glorifies God. Not only the bump-and-grind nightclub dancing that most of us would agree crosses the line, but also Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and West Coast swing. In visual arts, we’d have to kick out Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and about 90 percent of the remaining artworks now in existence. Da Vinci’s The Last Supper and Michelangelo’s Pieta and his paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, being overtly “Christian,” could stay.

What about areas outside of music and art? Eric Liddell, of Chariots of Fire fame, famously said, “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.” Was he off base, or is it possible that God can be glorified in something as earthy and “unspiritual” as running? Can a person fly an airplane to His glory? Work in a mine? Feast at a heavily laden table? Change a diaper?

I tend to agree with Martin Luther, who so aptly reminded us, every vocation or endeavor can bring glory to God if done well and with joy, thankfulness, and gusto.

We’re called to be a people of salt and light. Not one without the other. We need musicians like Emilie Henry, as well as writers and dancers and runners who are willing to brave the secular world, willing to engage it, and willing to show it the kind of beauty and goodness and truth that always points to God—dare I suggest, especially when it is not the overt, hit-you-over-the-head kind of message. Someday, perhaps Emilie will write more spiritually explicit songs, but what I don’t want is for her to do it because she feels it is the only way to properly praise God.

What I believe, and what I tell my children, is that whatever their hands find to do, do it all to the glory of God. Whether it’s writing music, crafting a short story, doing the dishes, shooting a film, building a website, or doing long division, I believe that God is praised when we use the talents and energies we have to the best of our ability, even if we never mention His name in the process.

“I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40).

AIG officials announced a plan Thursday to repay around $180 billion received from a government bailout during the credit crisis of 2008.

Until this point, company officials were primarily repaying the government as they took in money from asset sales, but there was no timeline for repayment. The plan is said to provide a clearer strategy to repay the debt to the government.

The insurance giant was undone by dealings in the complex derivatives and securities market. In return for the bailout money, the government received an 80 percent stake in the company.

As part of the plan, the U.S. Treasury Department will swap preferred shares it currently holds in AIG for common stock and then sell those shares over time. AIG officials will also repay loans received from officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

As of June 30, AIG officials still had $132.1 billion in outstanding aid from the government, including $49.1 billion in loans from the Treasury Department. The new shares will give the Treasury a 92.1 percent stake in AIG before it begins selling shares.

The government will receive about 1.66 billion shares of AIG common stock in exchange for the $49.1 billion in preferred shares it currently holds. The conversion price of the government’s shares is equal to about $29.67 a share.

AIG shares rose $2.04, or 5.5 percent, to $39.49 in morning trading. So if the government is able to sell shares at the current trading price, it will make $16.25 billion in profit. But as part of the bailout, the government took over some of AIG’s risky investments and is exposed to potential losses related to them.

To alleviate concerns about the government flooding the market with new shares of AIG, AIG officials will issue 75 million warrants to current common shareholders that will allow them to buy new stock for $45 per share.

AIG officials plan to repay the Federal Reserve Bank of New York the $20 billion they owe, in part, through earnings generated and the sale of some subsidiaries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Fisher-Price is recalling more than 10 million tricycles, toys, and high chairs over safety concerns.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday that two of the products being recalled involved injuries.

In the recall of about 7 million Fisher-Price Trikes and Tough Trikes toddler tricycles, the agency is aware of 10 reports of children being hurt. Six of them required medical attention.

The trikes—some of which feature popular characters like Dora the Explorer and Barbie—have a protruding plastic ignition key near the seat that children can strike, sit on or fall on, leading to injuries that the commission said can include genital bleeding.

Fisher-Price is also recalling more than 1 million Healthy Care, Easy Clean, and Close to Me High Chairs, after 14 reports of problems. The pegs on the back of the high chairs can be used to store the tray, but children can fall on them, resulting in cuts and other injuries. Seven children required stitches, the commission said.

CPSC chairman Inez Tenenbaum said manufacturers need to do more to build safety into their products before they reach store shelves. But she also offered praise for Fisher-Price for “taking the right steps by agreeing to these recalls and offering consumers free repairs or replacement.”

The two other Fisher-Price recalls were:

• More than 2.8 million Baby Playzone Crawl & Cruise Playground toys, Baby Playzone Crawl & Slide Arcade toys, Baby Gymtastics Play Wall toys, Ocean Wonders Kick & Crawl Aquarium toys, 1-2-3 Tetherball toys, and Bat & Score Goal toys. The valve of the inflatable ball on the toys can come off and pose a choking hazard to children, said the CPSC. The agency said there were more than 50 reports of the valves coming off the balls.
• About 100,000 Fisher-Price Little People Wheelies Stand ’n Play Rampway toys. The wheels on the purple and green cars can come off, posing a choking hazard.

Most of the products were being recalled in the United States, but about 400,000 of them were sold in Canada.

Consumers can visit the company’s website for more information on the dates of sale and model numbers for the recalled products.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.