Free Internet Press Newsletter - Monday May 7 2007 - (813)

Monday May 7 2007 edition
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Pressure At Mortgage Firm Led To Mass Approval Of Bad Loans 2007-05-07 02:17:45 Maggie Hardiman cringed as she heard the salesmen knocking the sides of desks with a baseball bat as they walked through her office. Bang! Bang! " 'You cut my [expletive] deal!' " she recalls one man yelling at her. " 'You can't do that.' " Bang! The bat whacked the top of her desk. As an appraiser for a company called New Century Financial, Hardiman was supposed to weed out bad mortgage applications. Most of the mortgage applications Hardiman reviewed had problems, she said. But "you didn't want to turn away a loan because all hell would break loose," she recounted in interviews. When she did, her bosses often overruled her and found another appraiser to sign off on it. Hardiman's account is one of several from former employees of New Century that shed fresh light on an unfolding disaster in the mortgage industry, one that could cost as many as 2 million American families their homes and threatens to spill over into the broader economy. Read The Full Story 2 U.S. Soldiers Shot Dead At Afghan Prison 2007-05-07 02:17:07 A rogue Afghan soldier shot dead two U.S. soldiers at the high-security Pul-i-Charkhi prison on the eastern outskirts of Kabul, said the U.S. military. The Taliban said it was behind the shooting, saying the attacker was one of its fighters who had infiltrated the Afghan army. The soldier shot at vehicles leaving the prison on Sunday, and was then shot by other Afghan soldiers at the jail, U.S. coalition forces said in a statement. It said two American soldiers were wounded in the attack while the Taliban said six were killed. Read The Full Story Bush Declares Disasters Areas For Parts Of Kansas 2007-05-06 16:41:44 President Bush declared parts of Kansas a disaster area early Sunday morning after more than a dozen tornadoes roared through southwestern Kansas Saturday evening and a powerful tornado nearly leveled the prairie town of Greensburg on Friday, leaving at least nine people dead and more than 60 others injured. The National Weather Service said it had received reports "well into the double digits" of tornadoes touching down in six counties, spawned by a slow-moving storm system. Tornadoes were also reported from South Dakota south into Oklahoma. The reports prompted emergency crews to halt their search for survivors from Friday night's storm. The president's declaration, which came shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday, opens up federal funds to help in the recovery, according to a news pool report. Bush expressed his confidence that the community will rebuild. Read The Full Story Sarkozy Elected President Of France, Royal Concedes Defeat 2007-05-06 16:41:15 Nicolas Sarkozy, the hard-charging former interior minister who vowed a "rupture" with the past, was elected president of France on Sunday by voters demanding sweeping changes to revitalize the economy and staunch a sense of malaise and decline. Socialist candidate Segolene Royal, who was vying to become France's first female president, conceded defeat. Three polling companies gave Sarkozy, the candidate of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement party, a commanding lead over Royal. Ipsos and IFOP polling groups gave Sarkozy a 6-point lead over Royal, 53 percent to 47 percent, and CSA-Cisco said its estimates showed Sarkozy beating Royal by 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent. Voter turnout was about 85 percent. Sarkozy, an avowed fan of the United States, is the first French president from the baby boomer generation. He will serve a five-year term, replacing Jacques Chirac, 74, who has been president for 12 years and must step down by May 17. Read The Full Story U.S. Rep. Boehner: Results Needed In Iraq By Fall 2007-05-06 16:40:44 The House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner, of Ohio, warned Sunday that unless progress is evident in Iraq by early fall, many Republican lawmakers would begin losing patience. His comments appeared particularly significant at a time when the Democratic-controlled Congress is wrestling with President Bush over his request for about $100 billion to finance the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Some Democrats favor the idea of providing money only until September, when the Bush administration has promised a detailed progress report. Bush vetoed the previous war spending bill last week because it included a timetable for troop withdrawals from Iraq. Boehner said that it would take months to assess Bush’s increase in troop levels in Iraq. Read The Full Story New Flurry Of Twisters Hit Kansas 2007-05-06 02:01:03 A fresh wave of tornadoes ripped through the Plains late Saturday, a day after a tornado all but destroyed this town, killing at least eight and injuring dozens more. The Kansas Adjutant General's Department said it had confirmed reports of eight tornadoes touching down, including one that injured 11 people when it struck a pair of restaurants in the central Kansas town of Osborne. Vienna Janis, spokeswoman for Osborne County Emergency Management, said the twister hit around 6 p.m., ripping the roof off the Circle N restaurant and smashing windows in a Pizza Hut. "It touched down and would then go back up and then touch down and go back up," said Janis. Read The Full Story For Wounded Iraqi Soldiers, A Medical Morass 2007-05-06 02:00:29 Mohammed Mizher Massen was a different man on the morning of Feb. 21. His muscles filled out his Iraqi army uniform. His posture radiated the confidence of a soldier who had helped capture insurgents. And his heart swelled: In a few hours, after his unit finished its shift guarding a Baghdad construction project, he was going to propose to his girlfriend. Then the bomb in a cooking oil can on the roadside blew up, shredding his left leg and marking him with a constellation of shrapnel. Now 1st Sgt. Massen, 22, is a one-legged man whose brothers carry him from his bed, where he has dreams of loud explosions, to his computer, where he researches prosthetic legs. He spends his $460 monthly soldier's salary on the $3,400 in medical expenses that he has accrued. As the U.S. military prepares for an eventual handover of security duties to Iraqi forces, more of Iraq's 120,000 soldiers are advancing to the front lines of the war, and more are being wounded. Because there are no Iraqi military hospitals, thousands have been left to the mercy of overtaxed and corrupt civilian hospitals and a military compensation system paralyzed by red tape and disorganization, according to soldiers, family members, doctors and military officials. Many, feeling abandoned, turn to their families for help. Read The Full Story Al-Qaeda No. 2 - Al-Zawahri - Mocks American 'Failure' 2007-05-06 01:59:41 A new video of al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader released on Saturday mocks President Bush and U.S. legislation requiring the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, saying the bill would rob the group's fighters of the chance to kill more Americans. Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri derided the new U.S.-backed Baghdad security plan, recounting an April 12 suicide bombing in Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone when an attacker slipped through security and killed a Sunni legislator in the Iraqi parliament's cafeteria. An al-Qaeda-led amalgam of Sunni insurgents in Iraq claimed responsibility. "And lest Bush worry, I congratulate him on the success of his security plan, and I invite him on the occasion for a glass of juice, but in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament in the middle of the Green Zone,'' said al-Zawahri. The video was obtained Saturday by U.S.-based monitoring groups who released a transcript to media. Read The Full Story	8 U.S. Troops Killed In Iraq Bomb Attacks 2007-05-07 02:17:25 Eight American soldiers were killed in roadside bomb attacks Sunday, one of the highest single-day death tolls this year. They were among 12 U.S. service members whose deaths were announced on a day when car bombs killed scores of Iraqis across the country, threatening to deepen sectarian tensions. A senior U.S. commander said Sunday that the military was bracing for a rise in the casualty rate in the coming months, as an ongoing security offensive attempts to tame the devastating violence and stabilize Baghdad. "All of us believe that in the next 90 days, you'll probably see an increase in American casualties because we are taking the fight to the enemy," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army's Task Force Marne, told reporters Sunday. "This is the only way we can win the fight." Even as insurgents take aim at U.S. troops, they have stepped up their attacks on so-called soft targets, especially in Shiite areas of Baghdad, in an apparent attempt to stoke sectarian warfare. In the deadliest such attack Sunday, a car bomb explosion tore through one of the capital's biggest markets at midday, killing 42 people, police said. The blast, in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Bayaa, ravaged buildings, scorched vehicles and injured at least 67 people, police said. Read The Full Story Microwave Popcorn Flavoring Suspected In Illness 2007-05-07 02:16:48 She was once in constant motion; her co-workers compared her to a roadrunner because of the way she darted around the workplace. But now Irma Ortiz sits at the edge of her couch, too winded to sweep her patio or walk her son to school without resting. She is slowly suffocating. Ortiz, 44, is among a group of California food-flavoring workers recently diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans, a rare and life-threatening form of fixed obstructive lung disease. Also known as popcorn workers lung, because it has turned up in workers at microwave-popcorn factories, the disease destroys the lungs. A transplant is the only cure. Since 2001, academic studies have shown links between the disease and a chemical used in artificial butter flavor called diacetyl. Flavoring manufacturers have paid out more than $100 million as a result of lawsuits by people sick with popcorn workers lung over the past five years. One death from the disease has been confirmed. Read The Full Story Analysis: Pentagon Says Extended Tours May Cause Soldiers To Lash Out At Civilians 2007-05-06 16:41:30 The detailed mental health survey of troops in Iraq released by the Pentagon on Friday highlights a growing worry for the United States as it struggles to bring order to Baghdad: the high level of combat stress suffered during lengthy and repeated tours. The fourth in a continuing series, the report suggested that extended tours and multiple deployments, among other policy decisions, could escalate anger and increase the likelihood that soldiers or marines lash out at civilians, or defy military ethics. That is no small concern since the United States’ counterinsurgency doctrine emphasizes the importance of winning the trust and support of the local population. Read The Full Story Turkey's Foreign Minister Withdraws Candidacy For President 2007-05-06 16:41:01 The ruling's party choice for president, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, withdrew his candidacy Sunday after parliament again failed to reach a quorum, a development that sets the stage for what many here view as decisive parliamentary elections in July. Gul was the candidate of the Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a populist, religiously rooted movement that won a majority in parliament in 2002. Gul's nomination was approved by a majority last month, but Turkey's Constitutional Court, a stronghold of the secular establishment, invalidated the vote, ruling that with an opposition boycott, parliament had lacked a necessary quorum. After two separate roll-calls Sunday, parliament was again short of the 367 members - two-thirds of the body - needed to proceed with the vote. Gul then withdrew his candidacy, though he is expected to eventually stand again. "My candidacy is out of the question at this point," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Anatolia news agency. Read The Full Story Jet's Wreckage Found In Cameroon 2007-05-06 16:40:13 The wreckage of a Kenya Airways jetliner missing for nearly two days was found Sunday in a dense mangrove forest outside Cameroon's commercial capital, aviation officials said. There was no information on survivors. The chief executive of Kenya Airways said he had no news about the plane's condition or about the 114 people who were on board. ''We have no confirmed information about survivors or any possible casualties,'' Titus Naikuni told a news conference in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. The wreckage was found about 12 miles southeast of Douala, along its flight path, but it is unclear whether it might have been returning to the airport. Read The Full Story Editorial: The Scandal That Keeps Growing 2007-05-06 02:00:42 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Sunday, May 6, 2007. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declared recently, while batting down bipartisan calls for him to resign, that he had many things to do and “can’t just be focused on the U.S. attorneys situation.” It’s not surprising that Mr. Gonzales wants to change the subject. At best, the firing of eight United States attorneys, most of them highly respected, is an example of such profound incompetence that it should cost Mr. Gonzales his job. At worst, it was a political purge followed by a cover-up. In either case, the scandal is only getting bigger and more disturbing. New reports of possible malfeasance keep coming fast and furious. They all seem to make it more likely than ever that the firings were part of an attempt to turn the Justice Department into a partisan political operation. There is, to start, the very strong appearance that United States attorneys were fired because they were investigating powerful Republicans or refused to bring baseless charges against Democrats. There is reason to believe that Carol Lam of San Diego, who put Randy Cunningham, the former Republican congressman, in jail, and Paul Charlton of Arizona, who was investigating Representative Rick Renzi, among others, were fired simply for their nonpartisan pursuit of justice. Read The Full Story Mideast Conflict Slows Dead Sea Rescue 2007-05-06 02:00:03 Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians are slowly pushing through the tangle of their disputes and suspicions in a race to save a biblical and ecological treasure, the Dead Sea. The famously salty sea, which lies at Earth's lowest point, is shrinking. It has receded by some three feet a year for the past 25 years, and Jordan and Israel warn that if the trend continues, it will vanish by 2050 along with its unique ecosystem, defeated by river diversions, mineral extraction and natural reasons, like evaporation. A crucial project to boost the water level by piping in water from the Red Sea has long been held up by disputes between Israel and its Palestinian and Jordanian neighbors. "But the ball began to roll a few months ago because of the gravity of the situation and the dangers facing the Dead Sea, which is a unique heritage not only to the countries that border it but to the whole world," said Mohammed Thafer al-Alem, Jordan's water minister. Read The Full Story French To Vote For President After Scorching Finale 2007-05-06 01:59:20 She apocalyptically predicted that France would blow up if he were elected. He dismissively scoffed that she was too moody to run the country. Segolene Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy ended their campaigns for the French presidency on Friday with biting personal attacks on each other, racing against an election eve ban on all polling and politicking that began at midnight. France’s 44.5 million voters may well need the break before going to the polls on Sunday. In a closing IPSOS/Dell poll released just before midnight Friday, Sarkozy doubled his margin over Ms. Royal in the past week, leading 55 to 45. Read The Full Story
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