Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday November 8 2007 - (813)

Thursday November 8 2007 edition
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Dow Sinks More Than 360 Points As Dollar Falls 2007-11-07 21:38:44 Passel of worries tormented investors, including a weakening dollar and fallout from credit crisis. Wall Street suffered its second big drop in a week Wednesday, with investors worried about spreading fallout from the credit crisis at banks and about a dollar that just keeps getting weaker. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 360 points - just about matching its pullback of last Thursday. A passel of worries tormented investors, including comments by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo about conflicts of interest in the mortgage industry that exacerbated declines among bank stocks. Meanwhile, the dollar swooned amid speculation that China will seek to diversify some of its foreign currency stockpiles beyond the greenback and General Motors Corp. further dampened sentiment by posting a record loss tied to an accounting adjustment. Oil hit a record, rising above $98 per barrel before retreating, and gold pushed higher, moves exacerbated by an anemic dollar. Read The Full Story A Story Of Surveillance 2007-11-07 21:38:08 Former technician 'turning in' AT&T over NSA surveillance program. His first inkling that something was amiss came in summer 2002 when he opened the door to admit a visitor from the National Security Agency (NSA) to an office of AT&T in San Francisco, Califonria. "What the heck is the NSA doing here?" Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician, said he asked himself. A year or so later, he stumbled upon documents that, he said, nearly caused him to fall out of his chair. The documents, he said, show that the NSA gained access to massive amounts of e-mail and search and other Internet records of more than a dozen global and regional telecommunications providers. AT&T allowed the agency to hook into its network at a facility in San Francisco and, according to Klein, many of the other telecom companies probably knew nothing about it. Read The Full Story Finnish Student Shoots Himself After Shooting Rampage That Killed 7 Other Students, 1 Teacher 2007-11-07 21:37:27 Shooter cited contempt for 'ordinary mortals' in YouTube video. Seven teenagers were killed when an 18-year-old student went on a rampage at his school in southern Finland after announcing the bloodbath with a posting on the internet site YouTube. The murderer, named by police as Pekka-Eric Auvinen, then shot himself in the head and died in a hospital Wednesday  night. He killed eight people, including his headteacher, after moving from classroom to classroom and spraying them with gunfire at the secondary he attended in Tuusula, a small town north of Helsinki. "He was moving systematically through the school corridors, knocking on doors and shooting through doors," a teacher, Kim Kiuru, told a local radio station. Read The Full Story Britain Expects Tenfold Increase In Terrorism Prisoners 2007-11-07 21:36:47 The number of terrorist prisoners held in jails in England and Wales is expected to increase tenfold from 131 to more than 1,600 over the next 10 years, according to internal British Ministry of Justice forecasts, it was revealed Wednesday. The initial projections handed to parliament members on the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee suggest that 1,300 of them will need to be dealt with as high-security category A prisoners. The estimate emerged as Phil Wheatley, the director general of the Prison Service, warned against a strategy of concentrating convicted terrorists, arguing that the experience of the H-blocks in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland had shown that it led to their forming tight cells in which they could plot further acts in and out of prison and radicalize others. "If we have a very large increase that takes us beyond our current category A capacity then we would have to build more high-security prisons or convert existing prisons, giving them extra security," said Wheatley. "I am confident we would not be left trying to look after category A prisoners with no prisons to keep them in." Read The Full Story Stock Market Drops On Resurgent Credit Fears 2007-11-07 15:02:46 Stocks dropped sharply on Wednesday, with the S&P index briefly falling more than 2 percent, as fear of more credit market turmoil heightened worry about prospects for the economy and profits. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced his office was sending subpoenas to government-sponsored mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of a probe of the home loan industry. Shares of Fannie Mae were down 9.7 percent at $50.01 while Freddie Mac was down 7.3 percent at $45.82. Earlier, Washington Mutual Inc., the largest U.S. savings and loan company, said the housing slump will persist through 2008, loan losses will rise and mortgage lending will fall to an eight-year low. Read The Full Story State Of Emergency Declared In Nation Of Georgia 2007-11-07 15:02:05 U.S.-allied President Mikhail Saakashvili declared a state of emergency Wednesday in the capital of Georgia, where six days of demonstrations have fueled a worsening crisis. Saakashvili has blamed Russia for fomenting the unrest in the former Soviet nation. His prime minister, Zurab Nogaideli, said in a televised statement that there had been an effort to overthrow the pro-Western government. ''An attempt to conduct a coup was made, and we had to react to that,'' said Nogaideli. The emergency declaration ''will temporarily ban demonstrations and protests, and calls in the media for violence, and the ouster of the government by force,'' said Nogaideli. Read The Full Story U.S. Sen. Grassley Probing Televangelists' Finances 2007-11-07 02:44:05 Acting on tips about preachers who ride in Rolls Royces and have purportedly paid $30,000 for a conference table, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee said Tuesday he's investigating the finances of six well-known TV ministers. Sen. Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, said those under scrutiny include faith healer Benny Hinn, Georgia megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar and one of the nation's best known female preachers, Joyce Meyer. Grassley sent letters to the half-dozen Christian media ministries earlier this week requesting answers by Dec. 6 about their expenses, executive compensation and amenities, including use of fancy cars and private jets. In a statement, Grassley said he was acting on complaints from the public and news coverage of the organizations. ''The allegations involve governing boards that aren't independent and allow generous salaries and housing allowances and amenities such as private jets and Rolls Royces,'' said Grassley. Read The Full Story E.U. Tells Airlines They Must Reveal Passenger Data 2007-11-07 02:43:36 Plan is among series of E.U. anti-terrorism measures; civil liberties groups says plan won't work. The European Union unveiled a range of measures Tuesday to combat terrorism, draft laws which would criminalize use of the internet to incite or recruit for acts of terrorism and compel airlines to supply information, to be stored for 13 years, on all air passengers flying into or out of the E.U. The proposals, likely to be in force across the E.U. within three years, could turn Europe into the most monitored space on the planet, according to civil rights campaigners. Article continues Arguing that the internet was a "virtual training ground" for international terrorism, Franco Frattini, the European commissioner for justice and security, denied that internet service providers or electronic media would need to police their content. "This is not feasible and could actually be Orwellian," he said, unveiling the package. "Those telling others how to commit acts of destruction - with a clear terrorist intention - should be put behind bars. Be it on the internet or print." Read The Full Story Kentucky Governor Loses Bid For Second Term 2007-11-07 02:42:44 Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican whose lone term was dogged by a hiring scandal, lost badly Tuesday despite an election-eve effort to woo conservative voters by displaying the Ten Commandments in the state Capitol. In Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour, practically the only politician to come out of Hurricane Katrina looking good, easily defeated a Democratic challenger Tuesday to win a second term. In other races, Philadelphia elected Michael Nutter as the new mayor on his promises to reduce gun violence and clean up the city, Baltimore made Sheila Dixon its first black woman elected mayor, and Pittsburgh decided to keep the youngest big-city mayor in the nation, 27-year-old Luke Ravenstahl. The Kentucky governor's race marked an unlikely political comeback for Democrat Steve Beshear, a former attorney general and lieutenant governor who hadn't held office in two decades and only ran for governor because he couldn't recruit another candidate. Read The Full Story	Big Food Companies Accused Of Risking Climate Catastrophe 2007-11-07 21:38:27 The rush to palm oil and biofuels threatens to release 14 billion tons of carbon from Indonesia's peat lands. Many of the largest food and fuel companies risk climate change disaster by driving the demand for palm oil and biofuels grown on the world's greatest peat deposits, a report will say Thursday. Unilever, Cargill, Nestle, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, as well as all leading U.K. supermarkets, are large users of Indonesian palm oil, much of which comes from the province of Riau in Sumatra, where an estimated 14.6 billion tons of carbon - equivalent to nearly one year's entire global carbon emissions - is locked up in the world's deepest peat beds. More than 1.4 million hectares of virgin forest in Riau has already been converted to plantations to provide cooking oil, but a further 3 million hectares is planned to be turned to biofuels, says the Greenpeace report Carbon is released when virgin forests are felled and the swampy peatlands are drained to provide plantation land. The peat decomposes and is broken down by bacteria and the land becomes vulnerable to fires which often smolder and release greenhouse gases for decades. Read The Full Story Morgan Stanley Sees $3.7 Billion Loss From Subprime Loans 2007-11-07 21:37:50 Morgan Stanley on Wednesday said it has suffered a $3.7 billion loss stemming from its U.S. subprime mortgage exposure, which it expects will reduce fourth-quarter earnings by about $2.5 billion. The Wall Street investment bank said the loss occurred in September and October, and might change before its fiscal quarter ends this month. It attributed the loss to deterioration in capital markets, which was triggered in large part by the struggles of thousands of homeowners to keep up with mortgage payments. Morgan Stanley said markets may remain unsettled for several quarters. The loss is the first significant financial setback for Chief Executive John Mack since he took over the investment bank in 2005. Read The Full Story Credit Crunch To Trigger Repossessions 2007-11-07 21:37:09 The U.K. housing market is poised to become one of the biggest casualties of the global credit crunch. The housing market is poised to become one of the biggest casualties of the global credit crunch with house prices forecast to mark the lowest annual growth since the mid-1990s and repossessions expected to soar to a 15-year high, a report shows. In its latest regional planning report, economic forecasting group Experian says the housing markets in the southwest and Midlands will see the steepest price corrections. The slowdown in the property market over the next two years will be driven by tighter lending sparked by rising defaults in the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market. Read The Full Story Bhutto's Call For Protest Sets Up Confrontation With Musharraf 2007-11-07 15:03:01 Pakistani police clashed violently with supporters of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto Wednesday after she announced that her party would carry out a mass demonstration on Friday and a protest march next week if the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, refuses to end emergency rule. The authorities have said they will not allow the demonstration, and Bhutto’s statements set up an immediate confrontation with General Musharraf, who declared emergency rule on Saturday, suspending the Constitution, arresting hundreds of lawyers, other protesters and political opponents, and shutting down independent television news outlets. Under the decree, public protests are banned. “We are going ahead with the protest on the ninth,” Bhutto announced at a news conference in Islamabad after meeting with other opposition parties. “I understand my liberty might be at stake.” After the news conference, police officers fired tear gas and beat about 100 of her party workers when they tried to push through police barriers blocking access to the Parliament building. Read The Full Story G.M. Posts Its Biggest Quarterly Loss - $39 Billion 2007-11-07 15:02:32 General Motors reported a nearly $39 billion third-quarter loss today, its largest ever, after it took a huge noncash charge to write down deferred tax credits. The company also lost far more on its operations than analysts expected and warned the outlook for markets in North America and Europe is challenging. The loss ended G.M.’s streak of profitable quarters at three and marked a setback in the company’s restructuring efforts, which have been under way since 2005. G.M. took a $38.6 billion deferred tax charge and also had other one-time items. Without them, G.M. said it lost $1.6 billion, or $2.80 a share, in the third quarter - more than 10 times the lost forecast by a consensus of industry analysts. That compared with a profit of $497 million, or 88 cents a share, in the period a year earlier, excluding items. “Things are bad and getting worse,” Peter Nesvold, an auto analyst with Bear Stearns, wrote to clients this morning, assuring them that the number was “not a typo.” Read The Full Story High-Priced Oil Has Redrawn Economic, Political Map Of World 2007-11-07 02:44:18 As the price of oil surges toward a symbolic milestone of $100 a barrel - hitting $96.70 Tuesday - it is creating new winners and losers across the globe. In southern China, high oil prices forced Wang Pui, a trucker, to wait in line 90 minutes the other day to fill up, just to be told he could pump only 25 gallons, as China faced spot shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel. When Vladimir V. Putin was making Russia’s bid to be host of the 2014 Winter Olympics last July, he reached into the country’s deep pockets, bulging with oil profits, and pledged $12 billion to turn a Black Sea summer resort into a winter-sports paradise. Russia, which was nearly bankrupt a decade ago, won the Games. The prospect of triple-digit oil prices has redrawn the economic and political map of the world, challenging some old notions of power. Oil-rich nations are enjoying historic gains and opportunities, while major importers - including China and India, home to a third of the world’s population - confront rising economic and social costs. Read The Full Story House Republicans Join Vote To Override Bush's Veto Of Water Bill 2007-11-07 02:43:54 Congressional Democrats escalated a confrontation with President Bush over federal spending on Tuesday as the House overrode Bush’s veto of a popular water projects measure and approved a $215 billion bill to pay for health, education, labor and veterans programs despite a veto threat. The vote on the water measure was 361 to 54, far more than needed to reject the veto. If the Senate follows suit, it will be the first time Mr. Bush has had a veto overturned. After a long night of skirmishing on the House floor, 222 Democrats were joined by 47 Republicans in finally approving the $215 billion spending bill. Voting against the measure were 142 Republicans. With an eye to the 2008 elections, Bush and Congressional Republicans are trying to re-establish the party’s faded reputation for fiscal responsibility, while Democrats are working to portray Republicans as being out of touch with the priorities of ordinary Americans. Read The Full Story Nicaraguans Awarded $3.2 Million Over U.S. Pesticides 2007-11-07 02:43:09 Six farmworkers win $3.2 million in damages after being rendered strile by banned pesticide from U.S. company. Six Nicaraguan farmworkers have won $3.2 million (£1.53 million) in damages after a Los Angeles, California, jury agreed that they had been rendered sterile by the use of a banned pesticide by the U.S. company Dole Food. The judgment is the first in what could be a series of lawsuits against the company, and marks the first time that foreign farmworkers have successfully sued the U.S. food giant in a U.S. court. Four more cases are pending in Los Angeles, brought by thousands of workers from Central America. The pesticide, DBCP, was sprayed on banana crops at night. Its makers, Dow Chemical Co, claimed that it eradicated pests that attack roots and boosted the weight of banana crops by 20%. But its use was suspended in the U.S. in 1977 after workers in California were found to have a low or zero sperm count. Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that Dole continued to use the chemical even though it was aware of the potential health risks. The chemical, argued Duane Miller, lead counsel for the workers, robbed the workers of their "male sexual identity". Read The Full Story Virginia Democrats Take Control Of State Senate 2007-11-07 02:42:29 Democrats wrest control of state senate from GOP, gaining four additional seats to secure a 21-19 majority; party also makes gains in the House. Virginia Democrats wrested control of the state senate from Republicans Tuesday, gaining four additional seats to secure a 21-19 majority in the chamber for the first time in a decade. The party also made historic gains in the House of Delegates and won key local races. In a speech to Democratic Party activists at a hotel in Tysons Corner, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) hailed the political changes that have swept through Virginia, beginning with the election of Gov. Mark R. Warner in 2001, his own election four years later and last year's victory by U.S. Sen. James Webb. In an interview moments later, Kaine said Democrats picked up four seats in the Senate, with two races still outstanding. "It's an exciting time," Kaine said. "The state is really a competitive state." The gains mean there is a new Democratic partner for him in Richmond, he said. "It enables me to get even more done," said Kaine. Read The Full Story
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