Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday November 30 2007 - (813)

Friday November 30 2007 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Blackwater Runs Into New Problem, This One Closer To Home 2007-11-30 01:41:13 Randel Parks pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and rocked back on the heels of his cowboy boots. "I've been here 30 years," he said, staring at the ground, "and I've spent most of my adult life working on this property, turning it into my piece of paradise. I'll be damned if I'm going to let them spoil it." A mile away, around a bend in the mountain road that runs past Parks'  property, his new neighbors spread a map out on the ground to discuss plans for the 325-hectare (800-acre) site they are in the process of buying. "There will be eight 100-yard carbine ranges here, and three 50-yard pistol ranges here. And we'll have a 10,000-square feet armory and a bunkhouse for 360 students over here." Welcome to Blackwater West, the latest expansion from the company that dominates private security operations in Iraq. Last month Blackwater's chief executive, Erik Prince, appeared before Congress to defend the company's role in the alleged shootings of unarmed civilians. This week, reports alleged that it had turned a blind eye to the use of steroids among its employees. Now the company is looking to expand domestically. So it has come to the border hamlet of Potrero, California,  population 850. Eight miles from Mexico and 40 miles inland from San Diego, Potrero has found itself at the center of a controversy. Read The Full Story FBI's Gun-Ban List Doubles 2007-11-30 01:40:47 Thousands added to file marked "mental defective". Since the Virginia Tech shootings last spring, the FBI has more than doubled the number of people nationwide who are prohibited from buying guns because of mental health problems, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday. Justice officials said the FBI's "Mental Defective File" has ballooned from 175,000 names in June to nearly 400,000, primarily because of additions from California. The names are listed in a subset of a database that gun dealers are supposed to check before completing sales. The surge in names underscores the size of the gap in FBI records that allowed Seung Hui Cho to purchase the handguns he used in April to kill 32 people and himself at the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg. Read The Full Story New-Home Prices Take Biggest Dive Since 1970 2007-11-30 01:40:16 Median cost tumbles 13 percent. Prices for new houses nationwide fell last month by their largest margin since 1970, when the nation was in a recession, providing more gloomy news for the struggling building industry and the jittery economy. "The market remains quite weak," said Celia Chen, director of housing at Moody's Economy.com. "If builders are selling homes, they're cutting prices very aggressively." The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the median price of a new single-family house in October was $217,800, down 13 percent from a year earlier, the biggest percentage drop in 37 years. Read The Full Story Bin Laden: Europe Must Quit Afghanistan 2007-11-30 01:39:35 The al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, called on European governments to end their military cooperation with the U.S. in Afghanistan in a new audio message broadcast Thursday. With his fifth public message this year, bin Laden sought to exploit tensions between European capitals and Washington over the ongoing NATO military campaign in Afghanistan. He reiterated that he was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the U.S., not the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan at the time. "The American tide is ebbing," he said in a message addressed directly to the European public. "It is better for you to restrain your politicians who are thronging the steps of the White House." Read The Full Story Powerful 7.4 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Caribbean 2007-11-29 23:09:30 A powerful earthquake rocked the eastern Caribbean Thursday, sending office workers and shoppers on several islands fleeing into the streets. Minor injuries were reported on the island of Martinique. The 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck at 2 p.m. EST and was centered 26 miles southeast of Roseau, capital of Dominica, where the shaking lasted for about 20 seconds. The temblor was felt hundreds of miles away in Puerto Rico to the west, and Venezuela and Suriname to the south. In the neighboring island of Martinique, a government official said police and firefighters were responding to hundreds of calls for help. He said some people sustained minor injuries, but no major casualties have been reported. The official declined to give his name in accordance with government policy. The earthquake collapsed the roofs of a bank and a store in the capital of Martinique, Fort-de-France. Ambulances were called in. Read The Full Story Musharraf: Emergency Rule Will End Dec. 16 2007-11-29 23:08:58 Hours after being sworn in for a second five-year term Thursday, President Pervez Musharraf announced on television that he intended to lift Pakistan’s state of emergency on Dec. 16. If he goes ahead with the move, it could be an important step in Pakistan’s recent tumultuous politics, which has seen the president impose emergency rule on Nov. 3, suspending the Constitution, dismissing the Supreme Court and arresting thousands of opponents. It remains unclear what the step could actually mean, and whether Musharraf will release all of the political opponents that remain in detention, or try to prosecute them, and what his response will be if protesters take to the streets after the emergency is lifted. Hundreds of lawyers clashed with the police in the eastern city of Lahore Thursday demonstrating against his new term. “Right now, I think the dust is settling down and everything is under control,” said Musharraf, speaking on television beside a Pakistan flag. “I have my intention that I will make this move on Dec. 16.” Read The Full Story U.S. Cities, School Systems Squeezed By Municipal Bond Crunch 2007-11-29 00:30:43 The widening credit crunch is making it harder for cities and school systems to get money for buildings, ballparks and other vital projects from the $2.5 trillion market for municipal bonds, a sector of Wall Street that rarely sees trouble. That is leaving them with a tough choice: either put off the projects, or pay higher interest rates on their bonds, a cost that ultimately would fall on the backs of taxpayers. The problem is affecting municipalities with lower credit ratings, which require them to pay more to borrow money. Faced with the prospect of paying higher interest rates this month, Chicago, Illlinois, canceled a $960 million bond. Miami-Dade County pulled a $540 million offering for its airport; and the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), has a $350 million bond for schools, parks and roads scheduled for next month that could be delayed if credit conditions continue to deteriorate, said a top D.C. finance official. Read The Full Story Slovak Police Arrest 3 For Allegedly Trying Sell Radioactive Material 2007-11-29 00:30:13 Alarms over international nuclear smuggling were raised Wednesday night when Slovak police announced that three men had been arrested in Slovakia and Hungary after allegedly trying to sell a kilogram of radioactive material. A Slovak police spokesman told journalists that the authorities in Slovakia and Hungary had been monitoring the activities of the alleged nuclear traders for several months before arresting them. They were detained in eastern Slovakia and eastern Hungary, near the common borders with Ukraine. Article continues Police declined to provide any details of the radioactive substance, but said they had seized the material and sent it for examination. The location of the operation suggested that the material had been smuggled from the former Soviet Union, either Russia or Ukraine. Western officials have been concerned for years about the risk of nuclear smuggling from the former Soviet Union, although U.S.-funded safeguarding programs have been effective in reducing the danger of nuclear trading. Read The Full Story Global Hackers Threaten Internet Security In Cyber Warfare Aimed At Top Targets 2007-11-29 00:29:30 A "cyber cold war" is developing as international web espionage and cyber-attacks become the biggest threats to internet security, according to a report. The computer security firm McAfee said governments and government-allied groups are engaging in increasingly sophisticated cyber spying, with many attacks originating from China. Some 120 countries could be developing the capacity for such activities. What started as probes to see what was possible have become well-funded and well-organized operations for political, military, economic and technical espionage, said the report, with perpetrators aiming to cause havoc by disrupting critical national infrastructure systems. Targets include air traffic control, financial markets, government computer networks and utility providers. In September, the Guardian reported that Chinese hackers, including some believed to be from the state military, had been attacking the computer networks of British government departments, including the Foreign Office. China has spelled out in a white paper that "informationized armed forces" are part of its military strategy. Read The Full Story Saudis Arrest 208 In Terrorist Plots 2007-11-29 00:28:54 Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday that it had arrested 208 suspected terrorists in six cells and thwarted several planned attacks in the kingdom's largest terror sweep to date. Among the plots, the Interior Ministry said, the capture of eight al-Qaeda-linked suspects "pre-empted an imminent attack on an oil installation" in the country's east, which is home to most Saudi petroleum reserves. A ministry statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency said the eight were led by a non-Saudi man, who was among those arrested. Eighteen other suspects led by a non-Saudi missile expert were arrested for "planning to smuggle eight missiles into the kingdom to carry out terrorist operations," said the statement. The kingdom, which is the birth place of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has been waging a heavy crackdown on al-Qaeda militants since a 2003 wave of attacks on foreigners here. Read The Full Story	Commentary: Forget The Green Technology - The Hot Money Is In Guns 2007-11-30 01:41:01 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Naomi Klein and appears in the Guardian edition for Friday, November 30, 2007. Ms. Klein writes that "Far from saving us from catastrophe, the market is developing fortresses to shield the haves from the victims of the future". Her commentary follows: Anyone tired of lousy news from the markets should talk to Douglas Lloyd, a director of Venture Business Research, which tracks trends in venture capitalism. "I expect investment activity in this sector to remain buoyant," he said recently. Lloyd's bouncy mood was inspired by the money that is gushing into private security and defense companies. He added: "I also see this as a more attractive sector, as many do, than clean energy." Got that? If you are looking for a sure bet in a new growth market, then sell solar and buy surveillance: forget wind, buy weapons. This observation - coming from an executive who is trusted by such clients as Goldman Sachs and Marsh & McLennan - deserves particular attention in the run-up to the United Nations climate change conference, which takes place in Bali next week. There, world environment ministers are supposed to come up with the global pact that will replace the Kyoto agreement. Read The Full Story U.S. Special Counsel Says He Won't Provide Files 2007-11-30 01:40:30 A U.S. official overseeing a probe of potential White House misconduct declared through a spokesman Thursday that he will not give federal investigators copies of personal files that he deleted from his office computer. The decision by Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch escalates the confrontation between the Bush appointee and the White House, each of which is investigating the other. Bloch's office is tasked with upholding laws against whistle-blower retaliation and partisan politicking in federal agencies. Earlier this year, Bloch directed lawyers in his office to look into charges that former Bush adviser Karl Rove  inappropriately deployed government employees in Republican political campaigns. Bloch had previously been targeted by the White House, which in 2005 asked the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to investigate allegations that Bloch had retaliated against whistle-blowers among his own staff members and improperly dismissed whistle-blower cases brought to the agency by others. Read The Full Story Bernanke Predicts Economic 'Headwinds' For Consumers 2007-11-30 01:40:04 The chairman of the Federal Reserve said Thursday night that the central bank would take into account recent deterioration in the financial markets as it decides whether to cut interest rates next month. Hours earlier, the White House released its economic forecast that acknowledged housing would be a drain on the economy next year, but it said tightening credit conditions would not stall business expansion. The separate developments show how the Fed and the administration are grappling with a deterioration in the housing and credit markets as they set a course for the nation's economic policy. This month, new strains on global markets for debt have emerged, leading many economists to think there is greater risk of a recession. Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Fed, laid out in a speech to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce how he is thinking through the economic situation as the central bank's policymaking committee prepares to meet Dec. 11. He noted that, by many measures, the labor market is doing well, with job growth and wages both on the rise. Read The Full Story Things Get Worse For Britain's Prime Minister In Donation Scandal 2007-11-30 01:39:17 Gordon Brown implicated in political donation scandal. Harriet Harman, the Labor Party's deputy leader, was forced to implicate Gordon Brown deeper into the donor scandal last night as Scotland Yard was called in to investigate the affair. Harman revealed it had been Brown's campaign coordinator who had recommended she seek a donation from the proxy of David Abrahams, the controversial businessman who has secretly bankrolled the party with £600,000 ($1.2 million). She disclosed that former minister Chris Leslie, who was running Brown's leadership campaign, had suggested she seek a donation from Janet Kidd, Abrahams' secretary - despite having himself rejected her money for the Brown campaign. The astonishing news, which heaped further pressure and embarrassment on Downing Street, came as the Metropolitan police began to mount an inquiry into the scandal following a decision by the Electoral Commission to refer possible breaches of the law to the police. Read The Full Story U.S. Senator Rejects Bush Executive Privilege Claims 2007-11-29 23:09:16 A U.S. Senate chairman said Thursday that President Bush was not involved in the firings of U.S. attorneys last winter, and he therefore ruled illegal the president's executive privilege claims protecting his chief of staff, John Bolten, and former adviser Karl Rove. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy directed Bolten, Rove, former White House political director Sara Taylor and her deputy, J. Scott Jennings, to comply ''immediately'' with their subpoenas for documents and information about the White House's role in the firings of U.S. attorneys. ''I hereby rule that those claims are not legally valid to excuse current and former White House employees from appearing, testifying and producing documents related to this investigation,'' wrote Leahy, D-Vermont. The ruling is a formality that clears the way for Leahy's panel to vote on whether to advance the citations to the full Senate. Read The Full Story Sudan Finds British Teacher Guilty In Teddy Bear Incident 2007-11-29 23:08:45 The British teacher in Sudan who let her 7-year-old pupils name a class teddy bear Muhammad was found guilty on Thursday of insulting Islam and sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation. Under Sudanese law, the teacher, Gillian Gibbons, could have spent months in jail and been lashed 40 times. “She got a very light punishment,” said Rabie A. Atti, a government spokesman. “Actually, it’s not much of a punishment at all. It should be considered a warning that such acts should not be repeated.” British officials, meanwhile, were furious. As soon as the news broke that Gibbons had been convicted, the British foreign office in London, which had called the whole ordeal “an innocent mistake” summoned the Sudanese ambassador - for the second time in two days. Read The Full Story 12 States Sue EPA For Toxins Data 2007-11-29 00:30:28 Twelve states sued the Bush administration Wednesday to force greater disclosure of data on toxic chemicals that companies store, use and release into the environment. The state officials oppose new federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules that allow thousands of companies to limit the information they disclose to the public about toxic chemicals, according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the lead attorney general in the lawsuit. The change lets 100 polluters off the hook in New York alone, he said. The EPA, however, said the change improves the Toxics Release Inventory law and eases requirements only on companies that can certify they have no releases of toxins to the environment. Read The Full Story FCC Chief Still Standing -- Sort Of 2007-11-29 00:29:48 Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin's ongoing fight with Big Cable has left him bloodied but still standing, say FCC officials, industry executives and public interest groups, and he may now spend the remainder of his tenure with fewer allies. Martin has led the FCC since 2005. A Republican whose wife has worked in the White House, Martin could typically count on the support of the commission's other two Republicans while winning some battles with the commission's two Democrats, but that changed over several weeks leading to a late-night, particularly contentious Tuesday meeting, following a cable industry lobbying effort and dissent within the commission. The issue was cable regulation. In particular, Martin has taken positions against the cable industry, including in attempts to regulate violent content. Before Tuesday's meeting, Martin tried to convince his fellow commissioners that the cable industry had grown big enough to warrant tough new rules, which the industry strongly opposed. The chairman used as his proof a single study, from an independent research company called Warren Communications, estimating the number of U.S. cable subscribers. Read The Full Story Dell Takes 'Cybersquatters' To Court 2007-11-29 00:29:17 Personal computer giant Dell Inc. is pursuing a major "cybersquatting" lawsuit against several companies that buy and sell Web site addresses, alleging that the entities earned millions of dollars from Internet traffic intended for Dell and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies. In a case quietly filed with the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in October and unsealed last Wednesday, Dell took aim at a stable of registrars - companies that are licensed to register and sell new domain names to the public - alledging that they are responsible for registering and profiting off of nearly 1,100 domains that were "confusingly similar" to Dell's various trademarks. At issue are Web addresses made up of slight misspellings of well-known trademarks, a form of cybersquatting called "typosquatting". Typosquatters typically register domains that surfers are likely to hit if they misspell a Web site name. Users are then taken to sites filled with advertising that generates pay-per-click commissions for the domain holders. According to Dell's attorneys, the defendants' portfolio of some 1.8 million domain names is not limited to Dell's marks, but rather "reads like a who's who of corporate America." Read The Full Story Mideast Leaders Doubt Timetable For Peace 2007-11-29 00:28:38 A day after their leaders announced a new push for peace, Israelis and Palestinians returned Wednesday to a familiar and deadly routine, deeply skeptical over the timetable set for the talks and whether an end to the conflict is achievable at all in the current political climate. In cafes and blogs in the Arab world, the Annapolis, Maryland, conference prompted little more than wisecracks. Commentators made much of a linguistic coincidence: In Arabic, "ana polis" means "I am the police." President Bush's message, former Lebanese cabinet minister Essam Norman wrote in that country's opposition Al-Akhbar newspaper, was: "I am the policeman of the Middle East, responsible for your safety and security. Beware devious troublemaking. Israel isn't the enemy, Iran is." The United States had succeeded only in "dragging the Arabs to a diplomatic talkfest," Norman wrote. Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday November 29 2007 - (813)

Thursday November 29 2007 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
U.S. Cities, School Systems Squeezed By Municipal Bond Crunch 2007-11-29 00:30:43 The widening credit crunch is making it harder for cities and school systems to get money for buildings, ballparks and other vital projects from the $2.5 trillion market for municipal bonds, a sector of Wall Street that rarely sees trouble. That is leaving them with a tough choice: either put off the projects, or pay higher interest rates on their bonds, a cost that ultimately would fall on the backs of taxpayers. The problem is affecting municipalities with lower credit ratings, which require them to pay more to borrow money. Faced with the prospect of paying higher interest rates this month, Chicago, Illlinois, canceled a $960 million bond. Miami-Dade County pulled a $540 million offering for its airport; and the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), has a $350 million bond for schools, parks and roads scheduled for next month that could be delayed if credit conditions continue to deteriorate, said a top D.C. finance official. Read The Full Story Slovak Police Arrest 3 For Allegedly Trying Sell Radioactive Material 2007-11-29 00:30:13 Alarms over international nuclear smuggling were raised Wednesday night when Slovak police announced that three men had been arrested in Slovakia and Hungary after allegedly trying to sell a kilogram of radioactive material. A Slovak police spokesman told journalists that the authorities in Slovakia and Hungary had been monitoring the activities of the alleged nuclear traders for several months before arresting them. They were detained in eastern Slovakia and eastern Hungary, near the common borders with Ukraine. Article continues Police declined to provide any details of the radioactive substance, but said they had seized the material and sent it for examination. The location of the operation suggested that the material had been smuggled from the former Soviet Union, either Russia or Ukraine. Western officials have been concerned for years about the risk of nuclear smuggling from the former Soviet Union, although U.S.-funded safeguarding programs have been effective in reducing the danger of nuclear trading. Read The Full Story Global Hackers Threaten Internet Security In Cyber Warfare Aimed At Top Targets 2007-11-29 00:29:30 A "cyber cold war" is developing as international web espionage and cyber-attacks become the biggest threats to internet security, according to a report. The computer security firm McAfee said governments and government-allied groups are engaging in increasingly sophisticated cyber spying, with many attacks originating from China. Some 120 countries could be developing the capacity for such activities. What started as probes to see what was possible have become well-funded and well-organized operations for political, military, economic and technical espionage, said the report, with perpetrators aiming to cause havoc by disrupting critical national infrastructure systems. Targets include air traffic control, financial markets, government computer networks and utility providers. In September, the Guardian reported that Chinese hackers, including some believed to be from the state military, had been attacking the computer networks of British government departments, including the Foreign Office. China has spelled out in a white paper that "informationized armed forces" are part of its military strategy. Read The Full Story Saudis Arrest 208 In Terrorist Plots 2007-11-29 00:28:54 Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday that it had arrested 208 suspected terrorists in six cells and thwarted several planned attacks in the kingdom's largest terror sweep to date. Among the plots, the Interior Ministry said, the capture of eight al-Qaeda-linked suspects "pre-empted an imminent attack on an oil installation" in the country's east, which is home to most Saudi petroleum reserves. A ministry statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency said the eight were led by a non-Saudi man, who was among those arrested. Eighteen other suspects led by a non-Saudi missile expert were arrested for "planning to smuggle eight missiles into the kingdom to carry out terrorist operations," said the statement. The kingdom, which is the birth place of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has been waging a heavy crackdown on al-Qaeda militants since a 2003 wave of attacks on foreigners here. Read The Full Story NATO Airstrike Kills 14 Afghan Workers On Construction Crew 2007-11-28 13:53:27 A NATO airstrike killed 14 laborers working for an Afghan road construction company that had been contracted by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to build a road in the mountainous province of Nuristan in eastern Afghanistan, said officials. The strike occurred late Monday night in the Norgram district of Nuristan when the Afghan workers of Amerifa Road Construction Company were sleeping in tents after a day’s work. “Fourteen of our mechanics and laborers were killed as they were asleep in their tents,” said Nurullah Jalali, the executive director of the construction company. “We just collected pieces of flesh from our tired workers and put them in 14 coffins.” The governor of Nuristan, Tamim Nuristani, said he could confirm that 13 workers had been “mistakenly” killed when NATO forces bombed the area based on what he said was an intelligence report that insurgents were infiltrating the area. “All these victims are civilians, and they were from nearby provinces,” said Nuristani. Read The Full Story Fed Reserve Official's Remarks Send Stocks Soaring 2007-11-28 13:52:56 Stocks soared on Wall Street Wednesday after a top Federal Reserve official appeared to open the door for additional interest rate cuts, pledging to follow “flexible and pragmatic policy making” as the central bank decides how to cope with the current financial upheaval. The unusually candid remarks by the Fed’s vice chairman, Donald L. Kohn, were taken as a sign that the Fed would give serious consideration to a rate cut at its Dec. 11 meeting. Even as Kohn spoke of the danger that market turbulence could reduce credit to businesses and consumers, there were new indications Wednesday of the toll on economic activity. Orders for durable goods fell more sharply than expected in October, and business inventories continued to increase, signaling a decline in demand. Housing inventories were also on the rise last month as existing-home sales continued to decline. It was the hint of relief, not the fresh evidence of trouble, that moved the markets. At 12:15 p.m., the Dow Jones industrials were up 253.63 points, or 2 percent, at 13,177.52. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 2.1 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 2.6 percent. Read The Full Story Former Japan Defense Official Arrested 2007-11-28 13:52:23 A former top Japanese defense bureaucrat and his wife were arrested Wednesday on suspicion they accepted lavish gifts from companies - including one linked to General Electric - in exchange for contracts, said officials. The bribery scandal also implicates the current finance minister who twice served as defense minister. The scandal has hobbled the two-month-old government of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, including its effort to renew Japan's anti-terrorism naval mission in support of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. Japanese ships returned earlier this week from the Indian Ocean, ending a six-year mission after opposition parties blocked an extension. The latest developments threaten to further weaken the government. Read The Full Story Blackwater Probe Stifled By Conflicts 2007-11-28 00:49:45 The State Department's acerbic top auditor wasn't happy when Justice Department officials told one of his aides to leave the room so they could discuss a criminal investigation of Blackwater Worldwide, the contractor protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq. The episode reveals the badly strained relationship between Bush administration officials over the probe into whether Blackwater smuggled weapons into Iraq that could have gotten into insurgents' hands. As a result of the bureaucratic crosscurrents between the State Department's top auditor and the Justice Department, the investigation has been bogged down for months. A key date was July 11, when Howard Krongard, the State Department's inspector general, sent an e-mail to one of his assistant inspector generals, telling him to "IMMEDIATELY" stop work on the Blackwater investigation. That lead to criticisms by Democrats that Krongard has tried to protect Blackwater and block investigations into contractor-related wrongdoing in Iraq. Read The Full Story Investors Move To Safer Options 2007-11-28 00:49:18 Investors are confronting the most volatile financial markets in years, and all signs suggest that the wild ride will continue. The stock market on Monday was down 10 percent from its October peak - the definition of a correction. It rebounded Tuesday as the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index climbed 1.5 percent, but share prices remain at levels that indicate Wall Street is expecting a sharp slowing in the economy, and hence in corporate profits, next year. The big swings this week are emblematic of the new era of volatility that began in financial markets in July, and they have become more severe this month. The S&P 500 has moved by 1 percent or more on 12 of 18 trading days in November. It moved that much only twice in November 2006. The reason, market analysts say, is increased uncertainty about what the future holds. Forecasters' expectations for 2008 vary much more than usual, from a sharp recession to decent economic growth and everything in between. Wall Street is trying every day to extrapolate from the latest bits of news which is going to happen, hence the near daily swings in stock prices and bond yields. Read The Full Story	12 States Sue EPA For Toxins Data 2007-11-29 00:30:28 Twelve states sued the Bush administration Wednesday to force greater disclosure of data on toxic chemicals that companies store, use and release into the environment. The state officials oppose new federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules that allow thousands of companies to limit the information they disclose to the public about toxic chemicals, according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the lead attorney general in the lawsuit. The change lets 100 polluters off the hook in New York alone, he said. The EPA, however, said the change improves the Toxics Release Inventory law and eases requirements only on companies that can certify they have no releases of toxins to the environment. Read The Full Story FCC Chief Still Standing -- Sort Of 2007-11-29 00:29:48 Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin's ongoing fight with Big Cable has left him bloodied but still standing, say FCC officials, industry executives and public interest groups, and he may now spend the remainder of his tenure with fewer allies. Martin has led the FCC since 2005. A Republican whose wife has worked in the White House, Martin could typically count on the support of the commission's other two Republicans while winning some battles with the commission's two Democrats, but that changed over several weeks leading to a late-night, particularly contentious Tuesday meeting, following a cable industry lobbying effort and dissent within the commission. The issue was cable regulation. In particular, Martin has taken positions against the cable industry, including in attempts to regulate violent content. Before Tuesday's meeting, Martin tried to convince his fellow commissioners that the cable industry had grown big enough to warrant tough new rules, which the industry strongly opposed. The chairman used as his proof a single study, from an independent research company called Warren Communications, estimating the number of U.S. cable subscribers. Read The Full Story Dell Takes 'Cybersquatters' To Court 2007-11-29 00:29:17 Personal computer giant Dell Inc. is pursuing a major "cybersquatting" lawsuit against several companies that buy and sell Web site addresses, alleging that the entities earned millions of dollars from Internet traffic intended for Dell and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies. In a case quietly filed with the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in October and unsealed last Wednesday, Dell took aim at a stable of registrars - companies that are licensed to register and sell new domain names to the public - alledging that they are responsible for registering and profiting off of nearly 1,100 domains that were "confusingly similar" to Dell's various trademarks. At issue are Web addresses made up of slight misspellings of well-known trademarks, a form of cybersquatting called "typosquatting". Typosquatters typically register domains that surfers are likely to hit if they misspell a Web site name. Users are then taken to sites filled with advertising that generates pay-per-click commissions for the domain holders. According to Dell's attorneys, the defendants' portfolio of some 1.8 million domain names is not limited to Dell's marks, but rather "reads like a who's who of corporate America." Read The Full Story Mideast Leaders Doubt Timetable For Peace 2007-11-29 00:28:38 A day after their leaders announced a new push for peace, Israelis and Palestinians returned Wednesday to a familiar and deadly routine, deeply skeptical over the timetable set for the talks and whether an end to the conflict is achievable at all in the current political climate. In cafes and blogs in the Arab world, the Annapolis, Maryland, conference prompted little more than wisecracks. Commentators made much of a linguistic coincidence: In Arabic, "ana polis" means "I am the police." President Bush's message, former Lebanese cabinet minister Essam Norman wrote in that country's opposition Al-Akhbar newspaper, was: "I am the policeman of the Middle East, responsible for your safety and security. Beware devious troublemaking. Israel isn't the enemy, Iran is." The United States had succeeded only in "dragging the Arabs to a diplomatic talkfest," Norman wrote. Read The Full Story U.N.: Poorest Regions Will Be Hit Hardest Unless CO2 Emissions Are Reduced 2007-11-28 13:53:11 A new United Nations report warns that progress toward prosperity in the world’s poorest regions will be reversed unless rich countries promptly begin curbing emissions linked to global warming while also helping poorer ones leapfrog to energy sources that pollute less than coal and oil. The world’s poorest regions will also need much more help than has been provided to adapt to climate changes that are already unfolding, said the authors of the study, the United Nations’ annual Human Development Report. The report’s focus on climate and its release date - one week before international talks begin in Bali to shape a new international climate pact - reflect a top goal set by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: prodding world leaders to act more swiftly on global warming. Released Tuesday in Brasília and online at http://www.hdr.undp.org/en/ , the report builds on findings of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) earlier in the year showing that poor countries face outsize risks in a warming world. Read The Full Story Musharraf Resigns As Chief Of Pakistan Army 2007-11-28 13:52:38 Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf resigned his military post as chief of army staff Wednesday, handing over the baton of command to his successor in a ceremony at Pakistan’s army headquarters and ending his eight years of military rule. He remains president and will be sworn in to a new five-year term in the capital on Thursday, but as a civilian president his grip on power is expected to loosen in coming months. Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, 55, the vice chief of army staff, becomes the chief of army staff, replacing Musharraf. General Kayani is a former head of Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, and a graduate of the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. He has played a prominent role in cooperating with the United States in the fight against terrorism in Pakistan and is expected to continue that policy. Musharraf had come under growing pressure internationally and from his own disenchanted public to relinquish his military post, and his grip on political power will be significantly loosened without the uniform. While the military remains loyal to him, General Kayani is understood to want to remove the army from the forefront of politics and concentrate on military concerns. Read The Full Story Palestinians, Israelis Will Restart Peace Negotiations 2007-11-28 00:50:00 Israeli and Palestinian leaders pledged Tuessday in Annapolis, Maryland, to begin negotiations next month for a possible peace agreement, but their speeches before representatives of 40 countries - including Arab nations with no diplomatic ties to Israel - laid bare the deep grievances between them and the tough compromises that will be necessary to forge a lasting deal. The conference, held at the U.S. Naval Academy, marked the most intense U.S. effort to restart talks in the seven years since they collapsed at the end of the Clinton administration. President Bush indicated Tuesday that pursuing a peace deal that eluded his predecessors will be a central element of the final year of his presidency, and he agreed to a broad U.S. role in overseeing implementation of any agreements. "I believe now is precisely the right time to begin these negotiations," he told the delegates arrayed around a U-shaped table in a stately room honoring academy graduates killed in operations or in action. "America will do everything in our power to support their quest for peace, but we cannot achieve it for them." Read The Full Story China Warship Makes First Visit To Japan 2007-11-28 00:49:33 A Chinese warship dropped anchor off Tokyo on Wednesday for the communist nation's first military visit to Japan  since World War II, in a highly symbolic display of improving ties between the two Asian giants. The port call by the guided missile destroyer Shenzhen was part of a mutual exchange that will bring a Japanese warship on a visit to China at a later date. It was the first visit ever to Japan by Communist China's People's Liberation Army. The Chinese ship arrived under heavy security with a Japanese destroyer as its escort and a half dozen helicopters buzzing the sky. On board, a navy band played "Anchors Away," while a cheering section of Chinese well-wishers brought by bus by the embassy waved Chinese flags and performed a lion dance. Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php

Free Internet Press Newsletter - Wednesday November 28 2007 - (813)

Wednesday November 28 2007 edition
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Palestinians, Israelis Will Restart Peace Negotiations 2007-11-28 00:50:00 Israeli and Palestinian leaders pledged Tuessday in Annapolis, Maryland, to begin negotiations next month for a possible peace agreement, but their speeches before representatives of 40 countries - including Arab nations with no diplomatic ties to Israel - laid bare the deep grievances between them and the tough compromises that will be necessary to forge a lasting deal. The conference, held at the U.S. Naval Academy, marked the most intense U.S. effort to restart talks in the seven years since they collapsed at the end of the Clinton administration. President Bush indicated Tuesday that pursuing a peace deal that eluded his predecessors will be a central element of the final year of his presidency, and he agreed to a broad U.S. role in overseeing implementation of any agreements. "I believe now is precisely the right time to begin these negotiations," he told the delegates arrayed around a U-shaped table in a stately room honoring academy graduates killed in operations or in action. "America will do everything in our power to support their quest for peace, but we cannot achieve it for them." Read The Full Story China Warship Makes First Visit To Japan 2007-11-28 00:49:33 A Chinese warship dropped anchor off Tokyo on Wednesday for the communist nation's first military visit to Japan  since World War II, in a highly symbolic display of improving ties between the two Asian giants. The port call by the guided missile destroyer Shenzhen was part of a mutual exchange that will bring a Japanese warship on a visit to China at a later date. It was the first visit ever to Japan by Communist China's People's Liberation Army. The Chinese ship arrived under heavy security with a Japanese destroyer as its escort and a half dozen helicopters buzzing the sky. On board, a navy band played "Anchors Away," while a cheering section of Chinese well-wishers brought by bus by the embassy waved Chinese flags and performed a lion dance. Read The Full Story Recession Fears Over U.S. House Prices 2007-11-27 22:36:03 Survey finds sharpest drop in values in 21 years while gloom could spread into labor market, say experts. U.S. house prices have suffered their worst plunge for two decades as defaults on sub-prime mortgages have shattered homebuyers' confidence and battered lenders have withdrawn cheap loan deals. According to the key Standard & Poor's housing index, released Tuesday, third-quarter U.S. prices were down 4.5% on 2006 and were 1.7% lower than the second quarter of this year - the sharpest drop in the study's 21-year history. The figures, released on the same day as research revealing a collapse in consumer confidence, showed that a once patchy economic downturn has become a nationwide phenomenon. The investment bank Goldman Sachs warned Tuesday that the chances of a recession had risen to between 40% and 45%. Read The Full Story Iran Says New Missile Has 1,200-Mile Range 2007-11-27 13:44:49 Iran announced Tuesday that it has produced a new missile called Ashura with a range of 1,200 miles, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, the defense minister, said in a meeting with the Basij militia force that the Ministry of Defense had produced the missile, along with tanks, rockets, submarines and advanced communication systems, the news agency reported. Iran had developed a medium-range ballistic missile known called Shahab-3 with a range of 800 miles. Officials said in 2005 that the range of Shahab-3, meaning the shooting star, was increased to 1,200 miles. It was not clear what the difference was between Ashura, the new missile, and the one announced in 2005. Read The Full Story Stocks Rebound On Citigroup And Oil News 2007-11-27 13:44:21 Stock markets snapped back Tuesday after promising news emerged from the Middle East. Financial shares rose after the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a Middle Eastern sovereign fund, made a $7.5 billion investment in Citigroup, which is struggling to work off its exposure to subprime mortgage securities. Shares of Citigroup were up 1.4 percent in midday trading. Meanwhile, crude oil futures fell nearly $3 a barrel after Saudi Arabia’s oil minister announced an increase in production levels. The price decline briefly allayed fears that expensive energy will drag down consumer spending over the holidays. The optimistic developments sent the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 220 points, or 1.7 percent, in midday trading, to 12,958.20. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 1.2 percent, to 1,423.92. The yields on Treasury bonds, a traditional safe haven for anxious investors, recovered after hitting three-year lows Monday. Read The Full Story Stocks Plunge On Financial System Fears 2007-11-27 02:03:16 The Dow tumbles 237 points, while the S&P 500 is down 10% from its record high. Stocks plunged anew Monday on worsening fears about the financial system, driving the Dow index down 237 points and leaving the Standard & Poor's 500 index off more than 10% from its recent record high - the sharpest pullback in more than four years. Markets may be reaching a pivotal moment in the turmoil rooted in the housing sector's troubles, some analysts say. With the latest steep sell-off in stocks, blue-chip indexes fell into "correction" territory - meaning a decline of at least 10% from their peaks. Read The Full Story Comet Conundrum: Comet 17P/Holmes Keeps Getting Bigger 2007-11-27 02:02:48 The comet 17P/Holmes has astronomers scratching their heads in confusion. The heavenly body just keeps getting bigger - and is now twice the diameter of our sun. Comets, of course, are no rarity. And it seems like every couple of years or so, one becomes big and bright enough that it can easily be seen from Earth. But the behavior of 17P/Holmes has mystified both hobby astronomers and professionals around the globe. Rather than shrinking as it gets farther from the sun as most comets do, this one just keeps getting bigger and brighter. At the beginning of the week, the cloud of dust and gas surrounding the comet's core - called the coma - had already grown larger than the sun. Now, just a few days later, the coma's diameter is twice that of the sun - the dust cloud measures some 2.7 million kilometers across whereas the sun is just 1.39 million kilometers across. And there is no sign that it is finished. "The comet is now a long ways away, but the dust cloud is still growing," Dr. Maciej Mikolajewski from the Torun Center for Astronomy at Nicolaus Copernicus University told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It's the first time I've ever seen such a thing. I've never seen such a bright comet in my life." Read The Full Story Australia's New Prime Minister Says He Will Apologize To Aborigines 2007-11-27 02:02:15 Newly elected Australian leader Kevin Rudd renewed a commitment Monday to apologize to indigenous Aborigines for past indignities. The issue of apologizing for policies that helped make the continent's original inhabitants its most impoverished minority is a highly divisive one in Australia. The policies included the forcible removal of indigenous children from their families on the premise that Aborigines were a doomed race and saving the children was a humane alternative. The practice did not end until the 1970s. The Labor Party leader said his government would offer the apology on behalf of the nation early in his first term - suggesting a timeframe of next year. Read The Full Story	Blackwater Probe Stifled By Conflicts 2007-11-28 00:49:45 The State Department's acerbic top auditor wasn't happy when Justice Department officials told one of his aides to leave the room so they could discuss a criminal investigation of Blackwater Worldwide, the contractor protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq. The episode reveals the badly strained relationship between Bush administration officials over the probe into whether Blackwater smuggled weapons into Iraq that could have gotten into insurgents' hands. As a result of the bureaucratic crosscurrents between the State Department's top auditor and the Justice Department, the investigation has been bogged down for months. A key date was July 11, when Howard Krongard, the State Department's inspector general, sent an e-mail to one of his assistant inspector generals, telling him to "IMMEDIATELY" stop work on the Blackwater investigation. That lead to criticisms by Democrats that Krongard has tried to protect Blackwater and block investigations into contractor-related wrongdoing in Iraq. Read The Full Story Investors Move To Safer Options 2007-11-28 00:49:18 Investors are confronting the most volatile financial markets in years, and all signs suggest that the wild ride will continue. The stock market on Monday was down 10 percent from its October peak - the definition of a correction. It rebounded Tuesday as the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index climbed 1.5 percent, but share prices remain at levels that indicate Wall Street is expecting a sharp slowing in the economy, and hence in corporate profits, next year. The big swings this week are emblematic of the new era of volatility that began in financial markets in July, and they have become more severe this month. The S&P 500 has moved by 1 percent or more on 12 of 18 trading days in November. It moved that much only twice in November 2006. The reason, market analysts say, is increased uncertainty about what the future holds. Forecasters' expectations for 2008 vary much more than usual, from a sharp recession to decent economic growth and everything in between. Wall Street is trying every day to extrapolate from the latest bits of news which is going to happen, hence the near daily swings in stock prices and bond yields. Read The Full Story 86 Police Officers Hurt In Paris Riots 2007-11-27 13:45:03 The number of police officers injured during clashes by French youths in a suburb north of Paris rose to 86 after a second bout of violence overnight in which 60 officers were hurt, including six who are in serious condition, said police officials. Of the six in serious condition, four were hurt as a result of gunfire, said Francis Debuire, a representative of the General Union of Police Officers in the district where the fighting took place. One of the four lost an eye and another officer’s shoulder was shattered by a bullet after some of the youths used hunting shotguns as well as more conventional guns, firebombs and rocks. Police union officials expressed concern that the violence was more severe than the fighting that had occurred in the Paris suburbs over three weeks of rioting in 2005. “The violence over the last days has been worse than two years ago in terms of its intensity,” said Debuire. The clashes began when two teenagers traveling on a motorbike died in a collision with a police car Sunday afternoon in the town of Villiers-le-Bel, about 12 miles north of Paris, in the Val d’Oise department. Read The Full Story Abu Dhabi Fund Invests $7.5 Billion In Citigroup 2007-11-27 13:44:39 Citigroup announced Monday night that it is selling a $7.5 billion stake to a Middle Eastern sovereign fund in the latest bid to shore up its balance sheet. The fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), has agreed to buy a 4.9 percent equity stake in a complex transaction that has been approved by federal regulators. It will have no role in the management or governance of Citigroup, nor any presence on Citigroup’s board. Abu Dhabi’s 4.9 percent stake will make it Citigroup’s single largest shareholder, overtaking Prince Walid bin Talal, of Saudi Arabia. He has owned close to a 5 percent stake since the early 1990s, when he made a similar investment to bail out the company. Together, their holdings will mean that nearly 10 percent of the Citigroup will be owned by Middle Eastern investors. “This investment reflects our confidence in Citi’s potential to build shareholder value,” said ADIA’s managing director, Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Read The Full Story Iraq Violence Leaves At Least 35 Dead 2007-11-27 13:44:05 American troops killed at least five people, including a child, when they fired on vehicles trying to drive through roadblocks in two separate incidents, military officials and witnesses said Tuesday. Across Iraq, at least 30 other people were killed or found dead. In one incident, a suicide bomber in Baquba claimed the lives of three women and three policemen. One of the shootings involving American soldiers occurred this morning on a main road in Shaab, a neighborhood of northern Baghdad dominated by the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia loyal to the cleric Moktada al-Sadr. American soldiers fired on a minibus that was traveling on a street where only cars were allowed to pass, said a military spokesman, Lt. Justin Cole. In an e-mail message, Lieutenant Cole said that the driver had failed to heed a warning shot, and that two passengers in the minibus were killed and four wounded. An Interior Ministry official said that four people were killed. A witness said three of them were women. Witnesses said that the bus was filled with workers on their way to a local branch of al-Rasheed bank. One witness, who declined to give his name, said the driver may not have realized that buses were not allowed on the street, since it was rush hour, around 8:30 a.m., and several cars could be seen on the street. Read The Full Story Boycott Of Tehran Hits Germany's Coffers 2007-11-27 02:02:59 Germany's Finance Ministry is estimating that the current business boycott against Iran has already led to a triple-digit million shortfall in the federal budget. If addition sanctions are imposed, the figure could soon soar to a few billion euros. The German government's efforts to intensify sanctions against Iran could soon hit taxpayers if the government is forced to pass expected budget shortfalls on to them. Under pressure from Washington, the European Union could place Bank Melli, an Iranian business responsible for the majority of Germany's trade with Iran, on its embargo list. The German government backs domestic exports to Iran with so-called Hermes export credit protection, and if Iran doesn't pay for the exports, the German government would be forced to foot the bill to German businesses. Experts at the German Finance Ministry have estimated that budget losses in 2008 alone could amount to 700 million euros ($1.03 billion) to 800 million euros. In the medium-term, however, that figure could swell to 2 billion euros. Read The Full Story China Revels In View From Its First Lunar Orbiter 2007-11-27 02:02:30 China on Monday proudly unveiled images of the moon taken by its first lunar satellite, launched last month, calling the achievement proof of the country's technological prowess and ability to eventually land an astronaut on the moon. "The full success of our country's first lunar exploration mission is helping to turn the Chinese nation's 1,000-year-old dream of reaching the moon a reality," Premier Wen Jiabao said at a ceremony in which he displayed a framed, black-and-white composite photograph of the moon, the official New China News Agency reported. The photograph showed craters large and small, scattered across rugged terrain on the moon's surface. According to the Chinese government, the image merged 19 smaller ones shot from space and covered an area of about 285 by 170 miles. The ceremony, held at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, also featured music, including the Chinese communist anthem "The East is Red," that officials said was being broadcast by the lunar orbiter. The song was also played by China's first Earth satellite as it circled the globe in 1970. Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php

Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday November 27 2007 - (813)

Tuesday November 27 2007 edition
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Stocks Plunge On Financial System Fears 2007-11-27 02:03:16 The Dow tumbles 237 points, while the S&P 500 is down 10% from its record high. Stocks plunged anew Monday on worsening fears about the financial system, driving the Dow index down 237 points and leaving the Standard & Poor's 500 index off more than 10% from its recent record high - the sharpest pullback in more than four years. Markets may be reaching a pivotal moment in the turmoil rooted in the housing sector's troubles, some analysts say. With the latest steep sell-off in stocks, blue-chip indexes fell into "correction" territory - meaning a decline of at least 10% from their peaks. Read The Full Story Comet Conundrum: Comet 17P/Holmes Keeps Getting Bigger 2007-11-27 02:02:48 The comet 17P/Holmes has astronomers scratching their heads in confusion. The heavenly body just keeps getting bigger - and is now twice the diameter of our sun. Comets, of course, are no rarity. And it seems like every couple of years or so, one becomes big and bright enough that it can easily be seen from Earth. But the behavior of 17P/Holmes has mystified both hobby astronomers and professionals around the globe. Rather than shrinking as it gets farther from the sun as most comets do, this one just keeps getting bigger and brighter. At the beginning of the week, the cloud of dust and gas surrounding the comet's core - called the coma - had already grown larger than the sun. Now, just a few days later, the coma's diameter is twice that of the sun - the dust cloud measures some 2.7 million kilometers across whereas the sun is just 1.39 million kilometers across. And there is no sign that it is finished. "The comet is now a long ways away, but the dust cloud is still growing," Dr. Maciej Mikolajewski from the Torun Center for Astronomy at Nicolaus Copernicus University told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It's the first time I've ever seen such a thing. I've never seen such a bright comet in my life." Read The Full Story Australia's New Prime Minister Says He Will Apologize To Aborigines 2007-11-27 02:02:15 Newly elected Australian leader Kevin Rudd renewed a commitment Monday to apologize to indigenous Aborigines for past indignities. The issue of apologizing for policies that helped make the continent's original inhabitants its most impoverished minority is a highly divisive one in Australia. The policies included the forcible removal of indigenous children from their families on the premise that Aborigines were a doomed race and saving the children was a humane alternative. The practice did not end until the 1970s. The Labor Party leader said his government would offer the apology on behalf of the nation early in his first term - suggesting a timeframe of next year. Read The Full Story Chief Of Britain's Ruling Labor Party Resigns Amid Donations Scandal 2007-11-26 20:38:29 Party left reeling after General Secretary admits he knew true source of cash. Britain's Labor Party's attempt to reclaim control of the political agenda was derailed Monday night when the party's most senior official resigned after admitting he knew a millionaire businessman was using intermediaries to secretly donate hundreds of thousands of pounds. A week after being hit with claims of incompetence over the lost data, the government was reeling over allegations the party had been dishonest about the source of the third-biggest donation received under Gordon Brown's leadership. Peter Watt quit as party general secretary after acknowledging that he knew that the property developer David Abrahams gave money to associates who passed the cash on to the Labor party. Watt's resignation came less than 48 hours after Labor announced that he would lead the investigation into the affair. Monday night it emerged that the scale of the donations channelled from Abrahams was bigger than first reported, at more than £600,000 ($1.2 million). The revelation is a blow to Brown who hoped to evade the kind of controversies over party fundraising that bedeviled Tony Blair's last 18 months in office. It also sabotaged his attempt to refocus the government after recent debacles. The Tories demanded a full explanation from Labor as they voiced skepticism that Watt was, as the party claimed, the only official to know of the circumstances of the donations. Read The Full Story U.S. Supreme Court Won't Review San Diego's Warrantless Home Searches 2007-11-26 15:25:46 The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge Monday to a county's practice of routinely searching welfare applicants' homes without warrants and ruling out assistance for those who refuse to let them in. The justices refused, without comment, to intervene in the case from San Diego County, where investigators from the local District Attorney's office show up unannounced at applicants' homes and conduct searches that include peeking into closets and cabinets. The visits do not require any suspicion of fraud and are intended to confirm that people are eligible for government aid. Failure to submit to the searches, which can last an hour, disqualifies applicants from assistance. The 10-year-old program was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of six single parents who were seeking assistance. The welfare applicants argued that the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches, protects them from the home visits. "When the investigator conducts the home inspection, no part of the home is off-limits," they said. Read The Full Story 18 British Firms Urge Action On Climate 2007-11-26 15:25:16 Britain’s largest companies are pledging to offer greener products and invest in research and technology as part of a wider push to reduce carbon emissions. In an unprecedented joint effort, 18 of Britain’s top companies, including carmakers, airlines, retailers and banks, are publishing a report on Monday in which they promise to develop new products and services that allow customers to cut their carbon emissions. The initiative is also intended to send a message to companies around the world to move climate change higher on their agendas. The companies say that they will develop a standard for all businesses to report carbon emission levels regularly, invest in technology and emission-saving projects and promote greener behavior among their employees, starting by reducing emissions from company cars and offices. Among the companies are BP, the supermarket operator Tesco and the phone company BT. Read The Full Story	Boycott Of Tehran Hits Germany's Coffers 2007-11-27 02:02:59 Germany's Finance Ministry is estimating that the current business boycott against Iran has already led to a triple-digit million shortfall in the federal budget. If addition sanctions are imposed, the figure could soon soar to a few billion euros. The German government's efforts to intensify sanctions against Iran could soon hit taxpayers if the government is forced to pass expected budget shortfalls on to them. Under pressure from Washington, the European Union could place Bank Melli, an Iranian business responsible for the majority of Germany's trade with Iran, on its embargo list. The German government backs domestic exports to Iran with so-called Hermes export credit protection, and if Iran doesn't pay for the exports, the German government would be forced to foot the bill to German businesses. Experts at the German Finance Ministry have estimated that budget losses in 2008 alone could amount to 700 million euros ($1.03 billion) to 800 million euros. In the medium-term, however, that figure could swell to 2 billion euros. Read The Full Story China Revels In View From Its First Lunar Orbiter 2007-11-27 02:02:30 China on Monday proudly unveiled images of the moon taken by its first lunar satellite, launched last month, calling the achievement proof of the country's technological prowess and ability to eventually land an astronaut on the moon. "The full success of our country's first lunar exploration mission is helping to turn the Chinese nation's 1,000-year-old dream of reaching the moon a reality," Premier Wen Jiabao said at a ceremony in which he displayed a framed, black-and-white composite photograph of the moon, the official New China News Agency reported. The photograph showed craters large and small, scattered across rugged terrain on the moon's surface. According to the Chinese government, the image merged 19 smaller ones shot from space and covered an area of about 285 by 170 miles. The ceremony, held at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, also featured music, including the Chinese communist anthem "The East is Red," that officials said was being broadcast by the lunar orbiter. The song was also played by China's first Earth satellite as it circled the globe in 1970. Read The Full Story 2 Teens Die, 25 Police And 1 Fireman Injured As Riots Return To Paris 2007-11-26 20:38:41 Violence in suburbs after youths die in police crash; Sarkozy urges calm. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, called for calm Monday after a night of riots in a Paris suburb left 25 police officers and a fireman injured amid a trail of destruction. The riots broke out on Sunday, hours after two teenagers were killed in a motorcycle accident involving a police car. The accident resembled the event which triggered suburban riots throughout France in 2005, sparking fears of more violence to come. Two years ago the death of two boys allegedly fleeing the police in Clichy-sous-Bois sparked weeks of violence in France's rundown estates. Dozens of youths descended on Villiers-le-Bel on Sunday evening, torching the police station, looting shops and setting cars and dustbins on fire. The police station in neighboring Arnouville was ransacked, as well as at least one petrol station, in more than six hours of violence. Read The Full Story British Teacher In Sudan Faces 40 Lashes For Letting Students Name Teddy Bear 'Muhammad' 2007-11-26 20:38:13 Class of 7-year-olds chose name for cuddly toy; British diplomats urgently trying to secure teacher's release. It seemed the most innocent of school projects. To encourage her seven-year-old pupils to learn about the animal kingdom, Gillian Gibbons asked them to find a name for a teddy bear. Unfortunately, they chose Muhammad. Now the 54-year-old teacher from Liverpool, England, is being held in a Sudanese jail facing charges of insulting Islam's prophet. She was detained at her residence at the exclusive British-styled Unity High School in the capital Khartoum on Sunday after a number of parents complained to the Ministry of Education. The state-run Sudanese Media Center reported that Khartoum's attorney's office would charge her under an act of Sharia Law dealing with "insult of faith". She could face a punishment of 40 lashes, six months in prison or a fine. Read The Full Story U.S. Sen. Tren Lott Announces Retirement 2007-11-26 15:25:34 U.S. Sen. Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) announced Monday that he will retire from the Senate effective late next month or early January, stunning Republicans who had only last year reinstated Lott to their leadership ranks. "It's time for us to do something else," he said at a press conference in his hometown of Pascagoula, Mississippi. Lott, 66, made the decision over the Thanksgiving weekend at home with his family, saying that his state's recovery from Hurricane Katrina had improved sufficiently so that he felt he could pass "the flag" to a younger generation of Mississippians. Lott's move shocked Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have seen a wave of veterans announce their decision to retire next year as the GOP looks increasingly certain to remain in the minority. Read The Full Story U.S. Obtains Swiss Records, Flies In British Witness In BAE Investigation 2007-11-26 03:01:28 Justice Dept. investigators want papers from Britain's Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) Saudi investigation. Brown government trying to block questions on payments. U.S. corruption investigators have gone behind the back of Downing Street to fly a British witness to Washington, D.C., to testify about Saudi arms deals with the U.K. arms firm BAE Systems, the Guardian newspaper disclosed Monday. In a hitherto secret move, Swiss federal prosecutors have also agreed to hand over to U.S. Justice Department investigators financial records linked to the Saudi royal family. The U.S. is seeking - but has so far been refused - more than a million pages of documents seized from BAE, its bankers, Lloyds TSB, and Britain's Ministry of Defense during an investigation by Britain's Serious Fraud Office. Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the U.S., who says there was no impropriety about a $2 billion (£1 billion) payment he received for brokering arms deals with BAE, has hired a former head of the FBI and a retired British high court judge to defend his position. The British government has been attempting to block all investigations into payments from BAE to members of the Saudi regime. Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php

Free Internet Press Newsletter - Monday November 26 2007 - (813)

Monday November 26 2007 edition
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U.S. Obtains Swiss Records, Flies In British Witness In BAE Investigation 2007-11-26 03:01:28 Justice Dept. investigators want papers from Britain's Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) Saudi investigation. Brown government trying to block questions on payments. U.S. corruption investigators have gone behind the back of Downing Street to fly a British witness to Washington, D.C., to testify about Saudi arms deals with the U.K. arms firm BAE Systems, the Guardian newspaper disclosed Monday. In a hitherto secret move, Swiss federal prosecutors have also agreed to hand over to U.S. Justice Department investigators financial records linked to the Saudi royal family. The U.S. is seeking - but has so far been refused - more than a million pages of documents seized from BAE, its bankers, Lloyds TSB, and Britain's Ministry of Defense during an investigation by Britain's Serious Fraud Office. Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the U.S., who says there was no impropriety about a $2 billion (£1 billion) payment he received for brokering arms deals with BAE, has hired a former head of the FBI and a retired British high court judge to defend his position. The British government has been attempting to block all investigations into payments from BAE to members of the Saudi regime. Read The Full Story Bush Administration Scales Back Political Goals For Iraq 2007-11-25 18:27:26 With American military successes outpacing political gains in Iraq, the Bush administration has lowered its expectation of quickly achieving major steps toward unifying the country, including passage of a long-stymied plan to share oil revenues and holding regional elections. Instead, administration officials say they are focusing their immediate efforts on several more limited but achievable goals in the hope of convincing Iraqis, foreign governments and Americans that progress is being made toward the political breakthroughs that the military campaign of the past 10 months was supposed to promote. The short-term American targets include passage of a $48 billion Iraqi budget, something the Iraqis say they are on their way to doing anyway; renewing the United Nations mandate that authorizes an American presence in the country, which the Iraqis have done repeatedly before; and passing legislation to allow thousands of Baath Party members from Saddam Hussein's era to rejoin the government. A senior Bush administration official described that goal as largely symbolic since rehirings have been quietly taking place already. Bush administration officials have not abandoned their larger goals and emphasize the importance of reaching them eventually. They say that even modest steps, taken soon, could set the stage for more progress, in the same manner that this year’s troop “surge” opened the way, unexpectedly, for drawing Sunni tribesmen to the American side. Read The Full Story Strong Earthquakes Rattle Indonesia 2007-11-25 18:26:45 Strong earthquakes shook western and eastern Indonesia on Sunday, sending panicked residents fleeing from their homes. There were no immediate reports of injuries. A 6.1-magnitude quake early Sunday was centered 110 miles from Bengkulu, a coastal town on Sumatra island that has been hit by a series of tremors in recent months, said the U.S. Geological Survey. It was followed 13 hours later by a quake with a preliminary strength of 6.7 on Sumbawa island, to the west, said the agency. The morning temblor near Sumatra had a depth of just six miles beneath the ocean floor, the USGS said, but did not trigger a tsunami. "It was very strong ... even utility poles were shaking," said Dina Ramadani, a resident in Bengkulu, adding that people started screaming after one pole toppled over and crashed into a street. Read The Full Story Russian Police Detain Prominent Opposition Leaders 2007-11-25 18:26:09 Belykh, Nemtsov in custody after Russian police disperse hundreds at rally. Russian riot police detained the leaders of one of Russia's oldest opposition parties Sunday and violently dispersed what officials described as an illegal rally and march in St. Petersburg. Among those detained were Nikita Belykh, chairman of the Union of Right Forces (SPS) and Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister in the 1990s. Both men are standing for the SPS in next Sunday's parliamentary elections, and Nemtsov was chosen Friday as the party's candidate in next March's presidential election. Nearly 200 people were detained in the city, including activists allied with the chess grandmaster and anti-Putin activist Garry Kasparov, who was sentenced to five days in jail in Moscow Saturday for participating in an "illegal procession." He and his allies attempted to march to the Russian Central Election Commission to hand in a letter following a rally in central Moscow. In St. Petersburg, both Russian and foreign correspondents said police beat activists with their batons and fists before hustling them into buses that took them to police stations. Read The Full Story Fortunes Shift As Oil Prices Soar 2007-11-25 01:27:04 Millionaires are created in Moscow but French fishermen riot over lost profit as oil price effects ripple around the world. Oil makes the world go 'round. Each day, more than 85 million barrels of black gold are pumped from the ground - that's nearly 70 ounces for each of the 6.6 billion men, women and children on Earth. Since January, the price of a barrel of oil has almost doubled and is now approaching $100. Blame tensions in the Middle East, speculators on a quest for profit and the hunger for energy of rising powers, including India and China. The ripples from this price surge are washing up on every shore. It's creating new wealth in such locales as Moscow, where oil barons are almost at a loss about how to spend their riches. But the effects in some other places are less predictable. Israelis fear a rush of people will chop down trees to heat their homes. Farmers in northern Iraq are abandoning their fields to sell gas. Fishermen in France, stung by the price of diesel, have rioted. As Californians cope with gasoline near $3.50 a gallon and other Americans brace for a winter of high heating bills, we asked Times correspondents how the skyrocketing prices are affecting their corner of the world. Here's what they found. Read The Full Story Commentary: Banks Gone Wild 2007-11-25 01:26:28 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and appeared in the Times edition for Friday, November 23, 2007. “What were they smoking?” asks the cover of the current issue of Fortune magazine. Underneath the headline are photos of recently deposed Wall Street titans, captioned with the staggering sums they managed to lose. The answer, of course, is that they were high on the usual drug - greed. And they were encouraged to make socially destructive decisions by a system of executive compensation that should have been reformed after the Enron and WorldCom scandals, but wasn’t. In a direct sense, the carnage on Wall Street is all about the great housing slump. This slump was both predictable and predicted. “These days,” I wrote in August 2005, “Americans make a living selling each other houses, paid for with money borrowed from the Chinese. Somehow, that doesn’t seem like a sustainable lifestyle.” It wasn’t. Read The Full Story Australia Prime Minister John Howard, A Bush Ally, Defeated In Election 2007-11-25 01:25:11 Next prime minister promises new course on Iraq, global warming. Australia's Conservative Party Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat Saturday at the hands of the left-leaning opposition, whose leader has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia's combat troops from Iraq.  Labor Party head Kevin Rudd's pledges move Australia sharply away from policies that had made Howard one of President Bush's staunchest allies. Rudd has named global warming as his top priority, and his signing of the Kyoto Protocol will leave the United States as the only industrialized country not to have joined the 1997 pact that set mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases. Rudd said he would withdraw Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq, leaving twice that number in mostly security roles. Howard had said that all the troops would stay as long as needed. Read The Full Story Wisconsin Company Recalls Beef Products On E. Coli Concerns 2007-11-25 01:24:15 American Foods Group voluntarily recalled nearly 96,000 pounds of ground beef products after two people were sickened, possibly by the E. coli bacteria, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said Saturday. The beef products recalled by the company include coarse and fine ground beef chuck, sirloin and chop beef. They were distributed to retailers and distributors in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Virginia. The problem surfaced after an investigation by the Illinois Department of Health, which was looking into two reports of illnesses. The bacteria is E. coli O157:H7. E. coli is harbored in the intestines of cattle. Improper butchering and processing can cause the E. coli to get onto meat. Thorough cooking, to at least 160 degrees internal temperature, can destroy the bacteria. E. coli O157:H7 is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause bloody diarrhea and dehydration. The very young, seniors and people with compromised immune systems are the most susceptible to E. coli. Read The Full Story	Huckabee Making Gains In Iowa, Now Neck-And-Neck With Romney 2007-11-25 18:27:42 For six months, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has owned Iowa.  He spent millions on TV and unleashed his extended family to blanket the state. He survived a farm-town blitz by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) and the late entrance of former Tennessee senator Fred D. Thompson into the Republican race. Romney's money and organization bought him a convincing victory at the Ames presidential straw poll and a seemingly unshakable lead in the Iowa survey. Yet his vision of quick, one-two victories here in Iowa and in New Hampshire is crumbling, suddenly threatened by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a candidate who spent most of 2007 out of the spotlight and has struggled to raise money. Polls now show the pair in a virtual tie in Iowa, a development that not only threatens Romney's carefully laid plans but could reshape the entire Republican nominating contest. Huckabee has received glowing reviews for his debate performances, showing off his folksy charm and playing to conservatives. Despite his second-place showing in the straw poll this summer, his campaign didn't take off until this month, when polls began to show him overtaking everyone but Romney in Iowa. Money started flowing in - $1 million online in less than one week, according to his campaign - and he started to catch the attention of both pundits and rivals. Read The Full Story News Analysis: Hope For Mideast Leaders On Cooperation, But Little For Results 2007-11-25 18:27:10 Israeli and Palestinian leaders gather tomorrow under American tutelage, with Arab foreign ministers in attendance amid anxiety about Iran, to try again to negotiate an end to nearly 60 years of conflict. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, respect each other. They have the potential to negotiate and sign the most far-reaching agreement ever between Israelis and Palestinians. But even if they do, can they carry it out? “There’s never been less skepticism about the peaceful intentions of the leadership of the other side,” said David Makovsky, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “But there’s never been more skepticism about their capabilities to deliver.” If Israel is serious about peace, it has a major internal conflict coming with the settler movement, with those who do not wish to risk the security of Israel by withdrawing from the West Bank and from those who believe that Jerusalem must never again be divided. Read The Full Story Update: Fire Crews Make Progress Against Malibu Fires 2007-11-25 18:26:35 Fire crews hoped mild temperatures and gentle winds Sunday would help them solidify gains against the sprawling wildfire that destroyed dozens of homes in this upscale coastal community. Hot, powerful winds that fanned the blaze across 4,720 acres starting early Saturday were not expected Sunday, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Ron Haralson said. The fire was about 40 percent contained, with few flames visible to the three water-dropping helicopters deployed over the fire zone, said Haralson. "Winds have subsided considerably and we're making good headway," he said. Read The Full Story Fire Destroys 49 Homes In Malibu, 5,000 Acres Burned 2007-11-25 01:27:18 Blaze is city's most destructive in 15 years, thousands evacuated. The most destructive fire in Malibu in nearly 15 years raced through parched canyons Saturday, destroying 49 homes and forcing the evacuations of thousands of residents. The so-called Corral Fire burned nearly 5,000 acres before the fierce Santa Ana winds died down, allowing firefighters to make a stand against the blaze. By evening, the fire was 25% contained. Six firefighters sustained minor injuries, said authorities. Meteorologists said the winds were subsiding and not expected to return Sunday. A red flag warning, issued when the humidity level drops below 8%, would remain in effect in Los Angeles and Ventura counties until Sunday evening. Read The Full Story Commentary: What Ever Happened To 'We The People'? 2007-11-25 01:26:45 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by author and nationally syndicated talk show host Thom Hartman and is an excerpt from his new book, "Cracking The Code: How To Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America's Original Vision", and first appeared on AlterNet.org's edition for Friday, November 23, 2007. Mr. Hartman's book is published by Berret-Koehler Publishing. The excerpt follows: We the people The traditional American liberal story is the story of We the People. As Americans, the most important part of our social identity is our role as citizens. To be a citizen means to be part of, and a de- fender of, the commons of our nation. The water we drink, the air we breathe, the streets we drive on, the schools that we use, the departments that protect us - these are all the physical commons. And there are also the cultural commons - the stories we tell ourselves, our histories, our religions, and our notions of ourselves. And there are the commons of our power systems (in the majority of American communities), our health-care system (stolen from us and privatized over the past twenty-five years, our hospitals in particular used to be mostly nonprofit or run by mostly city or county governments), and the electronic commons of our radio and TV spectrum and the Internet. Most important for citizenship is the commons of government - the creation and the servant of We the People. Franklin D. Roosevelt understood this commons. In his "Four Freedoms" speech, he said, "Necessitous men are not free men." Hungry people aren't free people, no matter what you want to call them. Hungry people can't be good citizens: they're too busy taking care of the hungry part of themselves to care about the citizen part. Read The Full Story Revised Rule For U.S. Employers That Hire Immigrants 2007-11-25 01:26:10 The Bush administration will suspend its legal defense of a new rule issued in August to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, conceding a hard-fought opening round in a court battle over a central measure in its strategy to curb illegal immigration, according to government papers filed late Friday in federal court. Instead, the administration plans to revise the rule to try to meet concerns raised by a federal judge and issue it again by late March, hoping to pass court scrutiny on the second try. The rule would have forced employers to fire workers within 90 days if their Social Security information could not be verified. The government’s proposal was a response to an indefinite delay to the rule ordered Oct. 10 by the judge, Charles R. Breyer of Federal District Court in San Francisco. Judge Breyer found that the government had failed to follow proper procedures in issuing the rule and that it should have completed a survey of its impact on small business. He also found that the Social Security database the government would use to verify workers’ status was full of errors, so the rule could lead to the dismissal of many thousands of workers who were American citizens or legal immigrants. Read The Full Story U.S. FDA: Flu Drugs Affecting Childrens' Behavior 2007-11-25 01:24:37 U.S. government health regulators recommended adding label precautions about neurological problems seen in children who have taken flu drugs made by Roche and GlaxoSmithKline. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday released its safety review of Roche's Tamiflu and Glaxo's Relenza. Next week, an outside group of pediatric experts is scheduled to review the safety of several such drugs when used in children. FDA began reviewing Tamiflu's safety in 2005 after receiving reports of children experiencing neurological problems, including hallucinations and convulsions. Twenty-five patients under age 21 have died while taking the drug, most of them in Japan. Five deaths resulted from children "falling from windows or balconies or running into traffic". There have been no child deaths connected with Relenza, but regulators said children taking the drug have shown similar neurological problems. Read The Full Story
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