CHICAGO – Days after the November 2008 election, Rod Blagojevich sent word to Barack Obama that he would name one of the president-elect’s close friends to the Senate in exchange for a position in the Cabinet, the ousted governor‘s former chief of staff testified Wednesday.

After court adjourned Wednesday, Blagojevich‘s attorneys filed a motion asking to see the FBI’s summaries of interviews agents conducted with Obama.

Jurors at Blagojevich’s corruption trial heard a tape of the impeached governor telling aides that Valerie Jarrett, the person Obama wanted as his successor in the Senate, had been informed he would appoint her to the seat if he received the job.

“So she now knows she could be a senator if I get health and human services,” Blagojevich is heard saying on a tape secretly made by the FBI.

The response from the Obama camp to the deal Blagojevich allegedly proposed was apparently puzzlement.

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LOS ANGELES – An American on a solo mission to hunt down Osama bin Laden is back in the United States, 10 days after authorities found him in the woods of northern Pakistan with a pistol, a sword and night-vision equipment.

TV reports showed Gary Faulkner on Wednesday afternoon after he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. The Colorado man said he wasn’t giving up on his mission.

“I would describe the situation, like: I got dialysis. So anyone got a kidney they want to lend me so I can finish this up?” Faulkner told KNBC-TV shortly after his arrival.

“This is not about me. What this is about is the American people and the world. We can’t let people like this scare us. We don’t get scared by people like this, we scare them and that’s what this is about. We’re going to take care of business,” Faulkner said.

He appeared in good spirits but wouldn’t elaborate on his ordeal.

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RIO DE JANEIRO – Torrential waters flattened a small town as floods raged through two states in northeastern Brazil and the death toll was expected to surpass 44 as rescuers searched Wednesday for hundreds of people reported missing.

Mayor Ana Lopes said the entire town of Branquinha, population 12,000, will have to be rebuilt in a different location. Television footage showed a train station washed away, its tracks ripped from the earth. Cars lay overturned and strewn along a riverbank. Dazed people wandered about streets littered with couches, chairs and mountains of mud.

A humble Roman Catholic Church with a rose-colored facade was one of the few buildings to survive — but it was surrounded by the rubble of nearby homes.

Storms last week dumped a month’s worth of rain on parts of neighboring Alagoas and Pernambuco states, near the point where Brazil juts farthest east into the Atlantic.

The Civil Defense Department said in a statement that 29 deaths had been reported so far in Alagoas, while 15 were reported dead in Pernambuco.

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MADRID (AFP) –
At least 10 people were killed when a high-speed passenger train slammed into a group of revelers crossing a railway track in northeastern Spain, regional authorities and Spanish media said.

Fifteen people were also injured in the accident at the Castelldefels Playa station south of Barcelona at around 11:30pm (2130 GMT), the interior ministry of the regional government of Catalonia said in a statement.

Spanish national radio put the death toll at 12 with four seriously injured.

Spanish media said the dead and injured were youths who were celebrating the Saint John’s Day festival, which takes place annually on June 23 in the northeastern region of Catalonia and includes bonfires, fireworks, concerts and dances.

It said they had arrived at the station on another train and were crossing the tracks to go to the beach, although the station was equipped with a pedestrian underpass.

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PALO ALTO, Calif. – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says his country is open for business and welcomes new partnerships with the West.

Medvedev made his remarks Wednesday at Stanford University after a daylong tour of Silicon Valley, where he met with high-tech business leaders.

The president has said he wants to bring more high-tech innovation to Russia‘s oil-dependent economy and create the country’s own version of Silicon Valley outside Moscow.

Medvedev said investments in new technologies would limit government interference in business and personal affairs, and give the Russian people better access to information.

He said to support growing business opportunities, Russia also needs to create a strong financial system and a reliable court system, and reform its education and health care systems.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

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