Google working on phone with built-in payment tool

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google Inc. is taking another stab at designing a game-changing mobile phone, this time by including a built-in payment system that could eventually enable the devices to replace credit cards.

The new phone got a brief preview Monday when Google CEO Eric Schmidt took the stage to kick off the Web 2.0 summit, a technology conference held annually in San Francisco.

Schmidt confirmed that Google has been working on a sophisticated new computer chip and an upgrade of its Android mobile operating system that will include a payment processing tool. He showed off the new phone with the device's name and manufacturer concealed.

Several technology websites …

Analysis: Debate grows over keeping troops in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — As the U.S. winds up combat operations in Iraq this month, a gap is widening between the militaries of both countries and their political masters over whether American soldiers should stay beyond the 2011 deadline for a complete U.S. troop withdrawal.

It's the latest friction as the uneasy allies try to end the seven-year U.S. war without unraveling Iraq's precarious security.

A security agreement between the two nations calls for all U.S. troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2011. By Sept. 1, only 50,000 American soldiers will remain in the country, their combat authority strictly curtailed in the largest step to date toward the 2011 deadline.

Mindful of …

OBITUARIES

Hugh W. Bellas, 95, Raymore, MO

Gilbert W. Denison, 78, Norman, OK

Sherwood A. Fox, 81, Grand Junction, CO

John A. …

BP, ConocoPhillips team up to build pipeline from Alaska to North American markets

Two of the world's largest oil companies have announced plans to jointly develop a multibillion dollar natural gas pipeline to move North Slope natural gas to North American markets.

Britain's BP PLC and ConocoPhillips, based in Houston, said Tuesday they plan to spend $600 million (euro382 million) in the …

Kidman, Affleck films among Toronto fest debuts

A showcase for potential Academy Awards contenders and big fall releases, September's Toronto International Film Festival will feature titles starring Nicole Kidman, Ben Affleck, Robert De Niro, Natalie Portman, Keanu Reeves, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan.

The Toronto festival announced many of the titles Tuesday that will be screened at the event Sept. 9-19.

Affleck directs and stars in the heist tale "The Town," playing a thief who falls for a bank manager his crew takes hostage on their last job.

Other actors-turned-directors premiering films at the festival include Robert Redford with the Abraham Lincoln assassination tale …

Charges in deaths of Curry ex-girlfriend, her baby

Authorities in Chicago have charged a man with murder in the deaths of the former girlfriend of New York Knicks' basketball player Eddy Curry and her infant daughter.

Cook County State's Attorney spokeswoman Sally Daly says 36-year-old Frederick Goings was charged with two counts of first-degree murder on Sunday.

The bodies of 24-year-old Nova Henry and her 9-month-old daughter, Ava, were found in their Chicago apartment on Jan. 24. Both died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Henry was the mother of Curry's 3-year-old son. The boy was found unharmed at the scene.

A spokesman for the Knicks and Curry, a former Chicago Bull, declined comment Sunday.

Goings is due in bond court Monday. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.

German Football Results

Results from the 10th round of the Bundesliga, the German first-division football league (home team listed first):

Friday's Game

Bayer Leverkusen 1, Borussia Dortmund 1

Saturday's Games

Bayern Munich 2, Eintracht Frankfurt 1

Hoffenheim 3, Nuremberg 0

Hannover 1, Stuttgart 0

Borussia Moenchengladbach 0, Cologne 0

Mainz 3, Freiburg 0

Sunday's Games

Hertha Berlin 0, Wolfsburg 0

Schalke 3, Hamburger SV 3

Bochum 1, Werder Bremen 4

Friday, Oct. 30

Borussia Dortmund vs. Hertha Berlin

Saturday, Oct. 31

Wolfsburg vs. Mainz

Stuttgart vs. Bayern Munich

Hamburger SV vs. Borussia Moenchengladbach

Cologne vs. Hannover

Nuremberg vs. Werder Bremen

Schalke vs. Bayer Leverkusen

Sunday, Nov. 1

Freiburg vs. Hoffenheim

Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Bochum