Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday August 10 2007 - (813)

Friday August 10 2007 edition
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Dow Plunges 387 Points On Credit Concerns, Upends Global Markets 2007-08-09 22:52:57 The turmoil in the U.S. credit markets turned global Thursday, prompting central banks in Europe and the United States to pump more than $150 billion into the financial system to keep it operating smoothly. U.S. stocks suffered their second-worst decline of the year as the cost of borrowing for corporations continued to rise and some investors urged policymakers to help. The Dow Jones industrial average of 30 blue-chip stocks fell 387.18 points, or 2.8 percent, to close at 13270.68. On Feb. 27, the Dow dropped 3.5 percent on concerns about the housing market and other economic issues. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, a broader market measure, fell 44.40 points, or 3 percent, to 1453.09. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 56.49, or 2.2 percent, to 2556.49. Some economists predicted that the tightening credit market would be a drag on the economy, but others said the impact would be minimal. Yet signs were emerging that the nation's credit woes were spreading in unpredicted ways. Read The Full Story Global Warming: Britain's Met Office Predicts Record Temperatures 2007-08-09 22:52:31 British scientists are predicting a succession of record-breaking high temperatures in the most detailed forecast of global warming's impact on weather around the world. Powerful computer simulations used to create the world's first global warming forecast suggests temperature rises will stall in the next two years, before rising sharply at the end of the decade. From 2010, they warn, every year has at least a 50% chance of exceeding the record year of 1998 when average global temperatures reached 14.54 degrees Celsius. The study's findings raise the prospect of hotter summers and episodes of torrential rain in the U.K.; 1998 brought temperatures peaking at 32.2C, although the U.K. record was set in 2003 at 38.1C. Read The Full Story Britain's Ministry Of Defense Issues Gag Order On Armed Forces 2007-08-09 22:52:00 Sweeping new guidelines barring U.K. military personnel from speaking about their service publicly have been quietly introduced by the Ministry of Defense (MoD), the Guardian newspaper reports. Soldiers, sailors and airforce personnel will not be able to blog, take part in surveys, speak in public, post on bulletin boards, play in multi-player computer games or send text messages or photographs without the permission of a superior if the information they use concerns matters of defense. They also cannot release video, still images or audio - material which has previously led to investigations into the abuse of Iraqis. Instead, the guidelines state that "all such communication must help to maintain and, where possible, enhance the reputation of defense". The regulations, issued by the Directorate of Communication Planning, come in the wake of the row over the MoD allowing two of the HMS Cornwall sailors held captive in Iran to be paid for their stories. Receiving money for interviews, conferences and books which draw on official defense experience has now been banned. Read The Full Story U.S. Army To Expand Recruiting Incentives 2007-08-09 22:50:18 Need a down-payment for your home? Seed money to start a business? The U.S. Army wants to help - if you're willing to join up. Despite spending nearly $1 billion last year on recruiting bonuses and ads, Army leaders say an even bolder approach is needed to fill wartime ranks. Under a new proposal, men and women who enlist could pick from a "buffet" of incentives, including up to $45,000 tax-free that they accrue during their career to help buy a home or build a business. Other options would include money for college and to pay off student loans. An Associated Press review of the increasingly aggressive recruiting offerings found the Army is not only dangling more sign-up rewards - it's loosening rules on age and weight limits, education and drug and criminal records. It's all part of an Army effort to fill its ranks even as the percentage of young people who say they plan to join the military has hit a historic low - 16 percent by the Pentagon's own surveying - in the fifth year of the Iraq war. Read The Full Story 4.5-Magnitude Earthquake Rattles Southern California 2007-08-09 12:07:24 A moderate earthquake rattled the Los Angeles area early Thursday, waking residents and knocking some items off shelves and walls. The magnitude 4.5 temblor struck just before 1 a.m. about 4 miles northwest of Chatsworth, according to a preliminary report from the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of injuries or significant damage, said spokesman Brian Humphrey, of the Los Angeles Fire Department. The quick jolt was felt by residents across Los Angeles County, and many reported that their houses vibrated, windows rattled and books, pictures and other items fell. Read The Full Story Stocks Tumble As French Bank Reacts To Home Loan Problems 2007-08-09 11:36:04 Stocks dropped sharply as soon as trading opened today after a French bank, BNP Paribas, suspended operations of three of its funds in the wake of turmoil in the American market for home loans and the European Central Bank injected cash into the financial system because of tightening credit markets. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 200 points, or 1.5 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index and the Nasdaq composite index were down just as much. By 10:30 a.m., the Dow and S.&P. 500 had recovered about half their losses, and the Nasdaq was up slightly for the session. The plunge came after a sell-off in Europe, which was prompted after BNP, the largest publicly traded bank in France, became the latest European lender to announce problems linked to the worsening credit market in the United States, where several large companies have already announced losses. A German central bank meeting was under way to discuss details of a rescue package for the lender IKB, another victim of exposure to the crisis in subprime lending. Read The Full Story	British Scientists Call For Defensive Action Over Radiological Attacks 2007-08-09 22:52:42 A group of U.K. scientists warned Thursday that terrorists could learn from last year's murder of Alexander Litvinenko to carry out radiological attacks on cities far more devastating than a dirty bomb. While a dirty bomb - using explosives to disperse radioactive material - would be unlikely to kill more than a hundred people, the scientists argue, several hundred could be killed if they swallowed or inhaled the material, like Litvinenko, who drank tea laced with a lethal isotope, polonium-210, in London last November. In an article in the journal Survival, the three authors from King's College London call on the government to take precautionary measures, for example restricting access to radioactive materials which are now commonly available and easy to dissolve in water, allowing them to be sprayed over a large number of people. "Terrorists have already shown considerable interest in acquiring 'dirty bombs'. They may now try to replicate the murder of Litvinenko on a larger scale, or contrive other means to place radioactive sources inside, or in direct contact with, their victims," warns the article in Survival, a quarterly published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Read The Full Story Lawyers: Law Allowing Eavesdropping On Guantanamo Prisoners Is Illegal 2007-08-09 22:52:20 Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees asked a federal judge Thursday to invalidate a days-old law that lets government agents eavesdrop on suspected terrorists without first getting court-approved warrants. They said the measure signed into law Sunday by President Bush is illegal because it gives the national intelligence director and the U.S. attorney general too much power to intercept communications of suspected terrorists overseas - even when they are talking to someone in the United States. The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights' lawsuit, along with about 50 others, are all being considered by U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco, California. Center attorney Michael Avery said that what is called the Protect America Act "redefined the term of electronic surveillance and gives the government new powers, extraordinary powers, unprecedented powers." Read The Full Story Study: Nearly Half Of Early Breast Cancers Missed By Mammograms 2007-08-09 22:50:32 Cancer screening programs are failing to detect nearly half of the earliest cases of breast cancer according to research which suggests women's lives could be saved if all were offered hi-tech MRI scans. The study in Britain's Lancet medical journal found that x-ray based mammograms detect only 56% of early lesions in high risk women compared with 92% when magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRI), more commonly used for brain scans, are used. Nearly all breast cancers begin with non-invasive cancerous cells in the milk ducts, which if detected and quickly treated prevent the disease's progression. Christiane Kuhl, the lead researcher at the University of Bonn, Germany, said: "If you picked up all cases of ductal carcinoma in situ [DCIS] you would prevent virtually all cases of breast cancer. Our finding that MRI is superior to mammography in detecting it turns things upside down." Read The Full Story Bush Treated For Lyme Disease 2007-08-09 12:07:34 President Bush was treated for Lyme disease a year ago after he developed the characteristic "bull's-eye" rash that often marks the onset of the tick-borne disease, the White House revealed Wednesday. The disclosure came in Bush's annual medical report, which followed the president's annual physical exam Tuesday. The report also noted that the president had lost four pounds in the last year and remained in "excellent" health with "superior" physical fitness. Lyme disease is caused by bacteria transmitted to humans by infected ticks. If left untreated, it can lead to arthritis-like symptoms and neurological disorders. However, when caught early, it is easily treated with antibiotics. White House officials did not specify the president's treatment, but said he received the standard treatment and developed no symptoms of the disease other than the initial rash. Read The Full Story Canadian Prime Minister Harper Vows To Defend Arctic 2007-08-09 12:07:11 Canada's prime minister has begun a three-day trip to the Arctic in an effort to assert sovereignty over the region a week after Russia symbolically staked a claim to the North Pole by sending submarines. Although Stephen Harper's visit has been planned for months, it has taken on new importance since the Russian subs dived 2½ miles to the Arctic shelf and planted their country's flag in a titanium capsule. "The Russians sent a submarine to drop a small flag at the bottom of the ocean. We're sending our prime minister to reassert Canadian sovereignty," a senior government official told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because his language was undiplomatic. Five countries - Canada, Russia, the United States, Norway and Denmark - are competing to secure subsurface rights to the Arctic seabed. One study by the U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Arctic has as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas. Read The Full Story British Criticize U.S. Air Attacks In Afghanistan's Helmand Region 2007-08-09 11:35:34 A senior British commander in southern Afghanistan said in recent weeks that he had asked that American Special Forces leave his area of operations because the high level of civilian casualties they had caused was making it difficult to win over local people. Other British officers in Helmand Province, speaking on condition of anonymity, criticized American Special Forces for causing most of the civilian deaths and injuries in their area. They also expressed concerns that the Americans’ extensive use of air power was turning the people against the foreign presence as British forces were trying to solidify recent gains against the Taliban. An American military spokesman denied that the request for American forces to leave was ever made, either formally or otherwise, or that they had caused most of the casualties. But the episode underlines differences of opinion among NATO and American military forces in Afghanistan on tactics for fighting Taliban insurgents, and concerns among soldiers about the consequences of the high level of civilians being killed in fighting. A precise tally of civilian deaths is difficult to pin down, but one reliable count puts the number killed in Helmand this year at close to 300 civilians, the vast majority of them caused by foreign and Afghan forces, rather than the Taliban. Read The Full Story
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