The Starting Point: Swine flu, stormy weather & extortion

The Starting Point is a snapshot of the news stories that occurred overnight. Look for updates throughout the day on Yahoo! News and in the news box on Yahoo.com.

Top story overnight: British prime minister Gordon Brown defended the military campaign in Afghanistan today, and said NATO may contribute 5,000 more troops to the cause, The Associated Press reported. In a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, President Barack Obama rejected claims that his administration was dithering over the issue. Obama said the decision about how many troops to send to Afghanistan will come soon, but that he is bent on "getting this right." In Kabul, a car bomb exploded near a NATO convoy outside a U.S. military base today, Reuters reported. The blast wounded nine NATO soldiers as well as 10 civilian contractors and several Afghan bystanders.

In other news: Two suicide car bombings in Pakistan killed 16 people and wounded dozens of others, The AP reported. The bombings were the latest in a string of attacks on security forces, Western troops and civilians since the Pakistani government launched an offensive in October against militants in the border region of South Waziristan.

The death toll from the swine flu has grown to nearly 4,000 since April, The AP reported. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the H1N1 virus has also sickened about 22 million Americans. Currently about 42 million doses of vaccines are available.

Lastly, the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida continue to pound the East Coast with strong winds and heavy rain, The AP reported. The storm, which has been blamed for five deaths across three states, has also caused severe beach erosion, flooding and numerous power outages.

Most read stories: GOP chairman Michael Steel has ordered Republican National Committee staff to stop providing insurance for elective abortions to employees, The AP reported. The move came a day after Politico.com revealed that the RNC had offered the insurance option since 1991 despite the fact that the party platform calls abortion "a fundamental assault on innocent human life."

Readers were also interested in this AP story about Cindy Crawford. A German man was charged Thursday with trying to extort $100,000 from the former supermodel and her husband Rande Gerber over a photo of their daughter. The picture, which was allegedly taken by the couple's former nanny as part of a "cops and robbers" game, showed the 7-year-old girl bound to a chair and gagged. Edis Kayalar, who reportedly stole the image from the nanny, has not yet been arrested. If convicted, he could face up to two years in prison. The nanny, whose name wasn't released, has not been charged.

Looking ahead: White House Counsel Greg Craig plans to announce his resignation today. A Colorado couple are expected to enter guilty pleas in court for pulling the "balloon boy" hoax. Several of the child "wives" that helped convict evangelist Tony Alamo of federal sex charges are expected to testify at his sentencing hearing. And Bobby DeLaughter, the famed Mississippi judge who helped put away a notorious civil rights-era assassin, will be sentenced for lying to authorities during a judicial corruption investigation.

Today's poll: This week marks the third time this year that the 13th will fall on a Friday — the most times it can happen in one year. Do you suffer from paraskavedekatriaphobia? Click here to share your thoughts.

Yesterday's poll: How distracted is your family during dinner? More than half of all respondents said they watch TV during dinner. Thirty-seven percent said they just eat and talk and 12 percent do not eat dinner with their families.

Today in history: In 1956, the Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.

Birthdays: Actress Monique Coleman, 29. Basketball player Ron Artest, 30. Musician Nikolai Fraiture (The Strokes), 31. Actress Aisha Hinds, 34. Actor Steve Zahn, 42. Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, 42. Musician Walter Kibby (Fishbone), 45. Football player Vinny Testaverde, 46. Actor Neil Flynn, 49. Actor Rex Linn, 43. Talk show host/comedian Whoopi Goldberg, 54. Actor Chris Noth, 55. Musician Andrew Ranken (The Pogues), 56. Actress Frances Conroy, 56. Actor Joe Mantegna, 62. Producer/director Garry Marshall, 75. Journalist Peter Arnett, 75.

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--Jade Walker is the overnight editor of Yahoo! News. News doesn't stop when the lights go out, and neither does Jade.

**Yahoo! News bloggers compile the best news content from our providers and scour the Web for the most interesting news stories so you don't have to.