Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday November 29 2007 - (813)

Thursday November 29 2007 edition
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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
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