SCENIC, S.D. – The saloon is long empty. The roadside jail cells, rusted and worn. Even the swing sets peek from behind knee-high brush after decades of neglect.

This tiny exclave just west of South Dakota’s badlands is officially an old ghost town. But its future is shrouded in new mystery.

“We don’t know what’s coming,” said Kathy Jobgen, 50, the only employee remaining at the only business still in town: the U.S. Post Office.

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NEW YORK – It was the 1980s, relatively early in his career, and Steve Jobs was traveling in Japan. In a hotel lobby, a gaggle of girls came up and asked for his autograph.

Jay Elliot was an Apple executive at the time, traveling with Jobs. “I was thinking, wow, how many CEOs have girls coming up and asking them for autographs?” Elliot says now.

Over the next few decades, Jobs’ fame only increased, of course, and exponentially.

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ON BOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday that the deaths of several top al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan and Yemen in recent months will make it much more difficult for the terror group and its affiliates to plan and launch large-scale attacks abroad, including against the United States.

Panetta said increased cooperation with Yemen against the al-Qaida affiliate there will not diminish if President Ali Abdullah Saleh leaves power as the U.S. and others have urged.

The Pentagon chief spoke to reporters as he was heading to the Middle East, where he is scheduled to meet with top Israeli and Palestinian leaders. After that he will participate in a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

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KABUL (Reuters) – Live rock returned to Afghanistan after three long decades on Saturday as young men and women cheered and leapt into the air to the sound of heavy bass beats and punk rock.

Bands from Australia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan served up a six-hour musical feast of blues, indie, electronica and death metal to hundreds of fans, many of whom had never seen live music before.

Sound Central was something new in a deeply conservative Muslim country where music was banned under the austere Taliban regime. Even now music shops are attacked in some cities and musicians taunted for their clothes or hair.

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LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Irish rockers U2 took to the main stage at this year's Glastonbury music festival, a small but vocal group of activists raised a large balloon emblazoned with the words "U Pay Tax 2?"

Most people in the 60,000-strong crowd barely noticed the stunt on a rain-lashed night, but the world's media latched on to the protest and gave it prominent mention in their reports of the eagerly awaited performance by one of rock and roll's biggest acts.

Years ago the band transferred some of its assets from Ireland to the Netherlands, as did members of the Rolling Stones, prompting the New York Times to label the Netherlands "The New Tax Shelter Hot Spot."

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