Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday December 28 2007 - (813)

Friday December 28 2007 edition
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Mortgage Meltdown, Phase 2 2007-12-28 02:56:40 Delinquencies among holders of risky option ARMs are increasing as their minimum payments climb. Thought the mortgage meltdown was just a sub-prime affair? Think again. There's another time bomb waiting to explode, experts say: risky loans made to people with good credit. So-called pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages, or option ARMs, were the easiest and most profitable home loans for lenders and brokers to make for much of this decade. Last year, they accounted for about 9% of the volume of all mortgages made in the U.S. and were especially popular in California, Florida and Nevada - states where home prices rose the most during the housing boom and are now falling most sharply. An option ARM loan gives a borrower the option of paying less than the interest due, causing the loan balance to rise. If it rises too much - say, by 10% or 15% - the opportunity to make a low payment vanishes and the required payment skyrockets. Read The Full Story Commentary: 'The Common Defense' 2007-12-28 02:56:15 Intellpuke: The following commentary appeared in the Los Angeles Times edition for Thursday, December 27, 2007. It is one of a series of L.A. Times editorials examining American values and the candidates for president. From the wreckage of the Bush administration's foreign policies, the next president will inherit many intractable problems. Underlying many of them is a hard fact that some of the candidates recognize, but that none dare speak: Although the United States still leads the world economically, politically and militarily, its power and prestige, and hence its ability to lead, have been sharply eroded. The overwhelming military superiority the U.S. enjoys has not been matched by a comparable ability to master the geopolitical challenges that threaten our peace and prosperity. This relative decline in power predated the Bush administration but has been accelerated by its wars, its antiterrorism policies, its unilateralism and its failure to address domestic woes, notably the twin fiscal and trade deficits. The result of eight years of arrogant and unwise stewardship will be a weaker and more vulnerable America. The challenge for the presidential candidates is to explain how they plan to defend the United States, particularly how they would combat international terrorist networks and how they would restore American prestige and leadership in the aftermath of the Iraq war. Most are struggling to do so while trying mightily to avoid awkward truths. It's not politic to admitthat the U.S. is weaker than it was a decade ago. And there is no campaign advantage to acknowledging that our current troubles cannot be blamed solely on either the very real failures of President Bush (as the Democrats would prefer to do) or on the very real dangers posed by Islamist terrorists, nuclear proliferators or oil-flush anti-American strongmen (the preferred targets of Republicans). We believe that the restoration of American leadership amid rising global anti-Americanism requires an explicit repudiation of the exceptionalism that has soured this administration's dealings with other nations, and so hindered the collective defense of the world's democracies. Read The Full Story Clinton, Obama Seize On Bhutto Assassination 2007-12-28 02:55:40 News of Benazir Bhutto's assassination came just hours before Sen. Barack Obama delivered what his campaign had billed as the "closing argument" in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday, forcing his campaign to scramble to incorporate the Pakistani opposition leader into his message of change. For his chief rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York), Bhutto's death helped underscore the line she has been driving home for months - about who is best suited to lead the nation at a time of international peril. In her comments Thursday, Clinton described Bhutto in terms Obama (D-Illinois) could not: as a fellow mother, a pioneering woman following in a man's footsteps, and a longtime peer on the world stage. The differing reactions of Clinton and Obama to the assassination crystallized the debate between the two just a week before Iowans will decide the first contest in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. While aides said Clinton was anxious not to appear to be politicizing Bhutto's death, they nonetheless saw it as a potential turning point in the race with Obama and former senator John Edwards (D-North Carolina). "I have known Benazir Bhutto for more than 12 years; she's someone whom I was honored to visit as first lady when she was prime minister," Clinton said at a campaign event in a firehouse in western Iowa. "Certainly on a personal level, for those of us who knew her, who were impressed by her commitment, her dedication, her willingness to pick up the mantle of her father, who was also assassinated, it is a terrible, terrible tragedy," she said. Read The Full Story Bhutto Assassination Shatters Hopes For Stability In Pakistan 2007-12-28 02:55:05 The nation mourns the former prime minister, slain in Rawalpindi after an election rally. It is unclear whether the vote will proceed; some fear Musharraf may again impose emergency rule. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the charismatic opposition leader who had promised to restore democracy in Pakistan, set off a nationwide wave of grief and fury Thursday and raised the specter of violent unrest that could threaten the government of U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf. At least 20 other people died in the assault just outside the main gates of a Rawalpindi park where Pakistan's first prime minister was assassinated in 1951. The attack occurred with devastating speed, and even witnesses in the vehicle just behind Bhutto's were unsure of the precise sequence of events. Several onlookers said they saw the blurred figure of a wiry-looking gunman dash toward the vehicle, fire at Bhutto and then blow himself up, but others believed there were two assailants. Read The Full Story U.S. Commission Backs Health Benefit Cut At 65 In Retirement Plans 2007-12-27 15:34:34 The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday that employers could reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare. The policy, set forth in a new regulation, allows employers to establish two classes of retirees, with more comprehensive benefits for those under 65 and more limited benefits - or none at all - for those older. More than 10 million retirees rely on employer-sponsored health plans as a primary source of coverage or as a supplement to Medicare, and Naomi C. Earp, the commission’s chairwoman, said, “This rule will help employers continue to voluntarily provide and maintain these critically important health benefits.” The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and other advocates for older Americans attacked the rule. “This rule gives employers free rein to use age as a basis for reducing or eliminating health care benefits for retirees 65 and older,” said Christopher G. Mackaronis, a lawyer for AARP, which represents millions of people age 50 or above and which had sued in an effort to block issuance of the final regulation. “Ten million people could be affected -  adversely affected - by the rule.” The new policy creates an explicit exemption from age-discrimination laws for employers that scale back benefits of retirees 65 and over. Mackaronis asserted that the exemption was “in direct conflict” with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Read The Full Story Mortgage Ivestigations Face Large Legal Hurdles 2007-12-27 02:56:26 Tangled system of bank regulation and the task of proving that executives intended to break the law could pose significant challenges for investigators. The nation's largest banks are losing billions of dollars from the mortgage debacle, but will pain from bad housing bets be compounded by government investigations? As credit woes sparked by the troubled housing market threaten the broader economy, investigators are trying to determine whether Wall Street investment banks bundled risky loans with good ones without properly disclosing such risk to investors. Law enforcement officials including those at the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York attorney general's office are scrutinizing whether banks and mortgage lenders helped fuel the crisis by misleading investors about dicey housing assets and then covered up losses when the markets turned sour. Government subpoenas are flying, investor lawsuits are mounting, and in the nastiest cases, businesses are pointing the finger of blame at one another. The tangled system of bank regulation and the challenge of proving that executives intended to break the law when they unloaded bum assets could pose significant hurdles for investigators, current and former government officials say. Many of the assets that tumbled were explicitly marketed as involving borrowers with troubled credit histories, alerting investors that they were high-risk bets. Read The Full Story Debate Ignites Over New Armored Vehicles In Iraq 2007-12-27 02:55:57 It was just what American soldiers had been longing for - a patrol vehicle designed to withstand the powerful roadside bomb blasts that have killed more service members than any other insurgent weapon in the Iraq war; but just as the Defense Department hits its year-end goal of delivering 1,500 heavily armored, V-hulled "mine resistant ambush protected" trucks to Iraq, the feeling in the Pentagon is far from elation. Instead, an intense debate has broken out over whether the vehicle that is saving lives also could undermine one of the most important lessons of the whole war: How to counter an insurgency. While offering needed armor, the MRAPs lack the agility vital to urban warfare. "It's very heavy; it's relatively large; it's not maneuverable as you'd like it to be," Gen. William S. Wallace, the officer in charge of Army doctrine and training, said recently. "All of those things should be of concern." With nearly 12,000 of the trucks on order in a program that has a projected cost of more than $17 billion, the MRAP -  the most expensive new Army weapons systems acquired since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - is likely to influence how the Army fights future wars. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said MRAPs are an important part of the military's response to the needs of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Read The Full Story Poor Americans Infected With Worms 2007-12-27 02:55:03 Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, said a U.S. expert. Recent studies show many of the poorest Americans living in the United States carry some of the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease expert at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Writing in the journal, Hotez said these parasitic infections had been ignored by most health experts in the United States. "I feel strongly that this is such an important health issue and yet because it only affects the poor it has been ignored," Hotez said via e-mail. He said the United States spent hundreds of millions of dollars to defend against bio-terrorism threats like anthrax or smallpox or avian flu, which were more a theoretical concern than a real threat at present. Read The Full Story 2 Arrested In Deaths Of 6 In Rural Washington 2007-12-27 02:54:13 Six people, likely three generations of a family, were found dead Wednesday at a rural property east of Seattle, Washington, and a law enforcement official said police arrested the property owners' daughter and her boyfriend. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the names, identified the pair as Michele Anderson, 29, and her boyfriend, Joseph McEnroe. Both were booked into the King County Jail late Wednesday for investigation of six counts of homicide. A message left at a telephone listing for a Michele Anderson in the Carnation area was not immediately returned. The victims included a boy about age 3, a girl about age 6, a man and woman in their 30s, and a man and woman in their 50s. Their names were not released, but they were "likely three generations" of one family, said King County sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart. Autopsies have not been performed on the bodies, but the cause of death was apparently gunshots, Urquhart said. They were likely killed late afternoon or early evening on Christmas Eve, he said. Read The Full Story Eight Years Hard Labor In Chad For Charity Group In Bogus Orphans Scam 2007-12-27 02:53:26 Six French charity workers were sentenced Wednesday to eight years' hard labor for trying to fly more than 100 children out of Chad to France by claiming they were Darfur war orphans. The members of Zoe's Ark, a charity set up by a former firefighter, were found guilty of attempted child kidnap and fraud by a court in Chad capital, N'Djamena. In October, the group, one of them a doctor and another a nurse, illegally attempted to fly out 103 children aged from one to 10 to live with European families who had each paid thousands of euros. The operation had not been approved by any government. Its discovery created a scandal which threatened diplomatic relations between France and Chad, its former colony and complicated the work of bona fide aid workers in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. Read The Full Story	Global Warming Brings Busy Year For U.N. Disaster Teams 2007-12-28 02:56:26 The United Nations office that sends expert teams around the world to help governments deal with natural disasters was busier than ever in Latin America this year, a fact it at least partially blames on global warming. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said in a statement that a record nine missions were dispatched to the region during 2007, among 14 sent around the globe, itself a higher than usual number. Of the 14 global missions, 70% were in response to hurricanes and floods, said the OCHA statement, calling this "possibly a glimpse of the shape of things to come given the reality of climate change". In Latin America the proportion was even higher. There were the rains in November that left most of the southern Mexican state of Tabasco under water for weeks, including large parts of the city of Villahermosa. Read The Full Story Commentary: Plan B For Pakistan 2007-12-28 02:55:58 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Paul Cruickshank and appeared in the Guardian edition for Thursday, December 27, 2007. Mr. Cruickshank is a fellow at the center on law and security at New York University’s school of law. He previously worked as an investigative journalist in London, reporting on al-Qaeda and its European affiliates. In his commentary, Mr. Cruickshank writes: "The U.S. had placed its hopes for Pakistan in Benazir Bhutto. Now it must prevent her death from becoming a victory for al-Qaeda." His commentary follows: The closing scene of Benazir Bhutto's life had a shocking aura of inevitability. The identity of the motorbike-riding assassin that shot her before exploding his suicide vest is not yet known, but the sophistication of the attack on the first day of official campaigning in Pakistan has all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda. Bhutto was Osama bin Laden's nemesis. The idea of the secular, liberal and (worse still) female politician returning to govern Pakistan was an anathema to the terrorists now entrenched in Pakistan's tribal areas. "They don't believe in women governing nations so they will try and plot against me," Bhutto told CNN's Wolf Blitzer before returning to Pakistan this October. "I know the dangers but I'm prepared to take that risk." Bin Laden has plotted against Bhutto since she first became prime minister of Pakistan. In the fall of 1989, in the lead up to a crunch no-confidence vote in Pakistan's parliament, Bin Laden, based then in Peshawar, tried to sway the outcome by sending money to Islamabad to buy votes. According to testimony in Peter Bergen's 2006 oral history "The Osama bin Laden I Know", Bhutto, on discovering Bin Laden's involvement, personally phoned up King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and demanded the Saudis rein him in. The Saudis called Bin Laden back for consultations and promptly confiscated his passport, cutting him off for a while from the al-Qaeda organization he had founded in Pakistan the year before. The episode presumably did not endear Bhutto to Bin Laden. Read The Full Story 'Fair Tax' Boosts Huckabee Campaign 2007-12-28 02:55:27 To former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, supporting a national retail sales tax is more than a policy proposal. It has provided much-needed muscle for his campaign, filling rallies and events with fervent supporters hoping to replace the entire income and payroll tax system. There's one problem: A national sales tax won't work, at least not according to tax experts and economists of all political stripes. Even President Bush's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform dedicated a chapter of its 2005 final report to dismissing such proposals. "After careful evaluation, the Panel decided to reject a complete replacement of the federal income tax system with a retail sales tax," sasid the panel. It concluded that such a move would shift the tax burden from the rich to the poor or create the largest entitlement program in history to mitigate that new burden. Under the proposal, known to supporters as the FairTax, the Internal Revenue Service and the entire income and payroll tax system would be abolished. Americans would then pay a sales tax on virtually everything: a new home, yard work, food, health care. Only education would be broadly exempted. Read The Full Story Indian Museum Director Spent Lavishly On Travel 2007-12-28 02:54:20 The founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian spent more than $250,000 in institution funds over the past four years on first-class transportation and plush lodging in hotels around the world, including more than a dozen trips to Paris. In that time, W. Richard West, Jr., was away from Washington traveling for 576 days on trips that included speaking engagements, fundraising and work for other nonprofit groups, according to a review of travel vouchers for West's trips obtained by the Washington Post. West's travel often took him far from American Indian culture: Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand; Athens, Greece; Bali, Indonesia; Sydney and Brisbane, Australia; London, England; Singapore; Florence, Rome and Venice, Italy; Paris, France; Gothenburg, Sweden; Seville, Spain; Seoul, South Korea; Vienna, Austria; and Zagreb, Croatia. At the time, top Smithsonian officials were allowed unlimited leave with pay. "At all times," said West, "my travel authorizations and reimbursements, and their direct connection to NMAI and Smithsonian business, were reviewed and approved fully by my supervisors. Read The Full Story Benazir Bhutto Assassinated At Political Rally 2007-12-27 15:12:00 Former prime minister killed 12 days before parliamentary elections. Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday at a campaign rally, two months after returning from exile to attempt a political comeback. Bhutto, 54, was leaving the rally in her bulletproof vehicle when she asked that the rooftop hatch be opened so she could bid supporters farewell, aides who were with her said. She leaned her head through the hatch, and several gunshots rang out, an aide seated next to her said. Just as Bhutto sank into her seat, a large bomb detonated outside the vehicle. The left side of Bhutto's face was badly bloodied, aides said, but it was not clear whether she'd been hit by bullets or shrapnel from the bombing. She lost consciousness, and never regained it. "Today there is no more Pakistan. The woman who has defended us has died," said Sher Zaman as he beat his chest in mourning, crowding with hundreds of others into a narrow corridor outside the hospital room where Bhutto's body lay. "I'm 70 years old, but today I feel like an orphan." The explosion, apparently by a suicide bomber, killed at least 20 people outside the car and injured many others. Police were investigating whether the bomber was also the gunman. One possibility was that the assailant fired the shots and then, after being tackled by security officials, detonated the bomb. Earlier Thursday, at a different political rally in this garrison city south of Islamabad, a rooftop sniper opened fire on supporters of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, leaving four people dead and at least five injured. The violence comes 12 days before national parliamentary elections which have already been marked by enormous political turmoil. President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in November - a move that he said was to combat terrorism but was widely perceived as an effort to stave off legal challenges to his authority. At a heavily guarded Bhutto rally in Peshawar on Wednesday, police stopped a would-be bomber with explosives around his neck. Read The Full Story Russia Will Supply New Anti-Aircraft Missiles To Iran 2007-12-27 02:56:09 Russia is to supply Iran with a new and lethal anti-aircraft system capable of shooting down American or Israeli fighter jets in the event of any strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Iran Wednesday confirmed that Russia had agreed to deliver the S-300 air defense system, a move that is likely to irk the Bush administration and gives further proof of Russia and Iran's deepening strategic partnership. Iran's defense minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, told Iranian TV that the deal had been agreed under a previous "contract". He did not say when the system would be shipped to Iran. Russian defense experts Wednesday acknowledged that the missile system, originally designed in the 1970s, would significantly enhance Iran's ability to shoot down enemy aircraft. Read The Full Story Wars Cost U.S. $15 Billion A Month Says U.S. Sen. Stevens 2007-12-27 02:55:40 The latest estimate of the growing costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the worldwide battle against terrorism -  nearly $15 billion a month - came last week from one of the Senate's leading proponents of a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq. "This cost of this war is approaching $15 billion a month, with the Army spending $4.2 billion of that every month," Sen. Ted Stevens(Alaska), the ranking Republican on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, said in a little-noticed floor speech Dec. 18. His remarks came in support of adding $70 billion to the omnibus fiscal 2008 spending legislation to pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, as well as counterterrorism activities, for the six months from Oct. 1, 2007, through March 31 of next year. While most of the public focus has been on the political fight over troop levels, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reported this month that the Bush administration's request for the 2008 fiscal year of $189.3 billion for Defense Department operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and worldwide counterterrorism activities was 20 percent higher than for fiscal 2007 and 60 percent higher than for fiscal 2006. Pentagon spokesmen would not comment last week on Stevens's figure but said their latest estimate for monthly spending for Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terrorism was $11.7 billion as of Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2007. Read The Full Story Commentary: Could You Vote For A Man Who Abides By Moronish Wisdom? 2007-12-27 02:54:30 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Timothy Garton Ash and appears in the Guardian edition for Thursday, December 27, 2007. Mr. Ash writes: "The recent contortions of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney show why faith should not trump reason in the public square." His commentary follows: In this season of goodwill, I have been trying to think of a kinder adjective to describe "of or pertaining to the revelation of the angel Moroni". Moronish? Moronical? The angel Moroni allegedly appeared in the 1820s to a young American treasure hunter called Joseph Smith, and led him to some golden plates buried on a hillside near his home in western New York. Allegedly written in an otherwise unknown language called Reformed Egyptian, and deciphered with the aid of two stones called Urim and Thummim, these texts became the Book of Mormon, regarded by Mormons as divine revelation alongside the Bible. "Mormon", Smith explained in a letter to a newspaper, derives from the Reformed Egyptian word mon, meaning good, "hence with the addition of more, or the contraction mor, we have the word Mormon; which means, literally, more good". In this holy book, North America was described as "a land which is choice above all other lands" (II Nephi 1:5), and 19th-century Americans were assured, in a kind of retrospective prophecy, that "it shall be a land of liberty" (II Nephi 1:7). What is more, if the Native Americans converted to the true faith, they would have the chance to become again "a white and a delightsome people" (II Nephi 30:6). (The official online version has corrected this to "a pure and a delightsome people".) Adherents of this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can, by their own strenuous efforts and good works, themselves aspire to become gods. Failing that, they can aspire to become the next best thing - president of the United States. The only reason we are recalling this Moronish wisdom is, of course, that one leading Republican contender for the presidency, Mitt Romney, professes to be a devout Mormon, and his religion has become an election issue. According to a profile in the New York Times, Romney's father, George, was born in Mexico "in a colony of Mormons who had fled a crackdown on polygamy ... As a Mormon missionary, he was assigned to proselytize in London from a soapbox in Hyde Park, where he developed a gift for salesmanship that became the hallmark of his career". Mitt Romney did his own Mormon missionary work in France. Romney's Mormonism is a problem for many evangelical Christians from the religious right, who would otherwise be his natural constituency. Instead, they might prefer the Southern Baptist Mike Huckabee, who merely takes the book of Genesis literally. Read The Full Story Afghanistan Expels U.N., E.U. Diplomats 2007-12-27 02:53:55 United Nations officials were working Wednesday night to prevent the expulsion from Afghanistan of two senior western diplomats who have been accused of holding illegal talks with Taliban leaders in the British theatre of operations in the southern province of Helmand. The intervention on behalf of a Briton working for the U.N. and an Irishman working as the European Union's acting mission - both due to be deported Thursday - comes amid renewed questioning of military tactics in the region. Both organizations insisted Wednesday that the row was the result of a "misunderstanding", but there was pressure on the UK government from opposition parties to answer separate claims that talks had been held with Taliban leaders on a number of occasions in the summer. President Hamid Karzai and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have publicly insisted that there can be no negotiations with the Taliban, while at the same time offering reconciliation to fighters who turn away from the Islamist militants. The diplomats were ordered to leave by the Afghan president's office, which said they had engaged in activities "that were not their jobs". One western official told the Guardian that the initial complaint had come from the governor of Helmand province, Asadullah Wafa. Read The Full Story Venezuela's Chavez Says Columbian Hostages Could Be Freed Thursday 2007-12-27 02:53:02 Venezuela had planes and helicopters ready on standby Wednesday night to pick up three hostages from inside Colombia as president Hugo Chavez expressed hope they would be freed by rebels by the end of Thursday. "The only thing we need is the authorization of the Colombian government," Chavez said at a news conference in the presidential palace. "We are ready to activate the humanitarian operation." He said the hostages could be freed by the end of Thursday once the Colombians give approval for Venezuelan aircraft to cross the border. The hostages are former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez, Clara Rojas, an aide to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, and Rojas' young son, Emmanuel, reportedly born of a relationship with a guerrilla fighter. Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday December 27 2007 - (813)

Thursday December 27 2007 edition
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Mortgage Ivestigations Face Large Legal Hurdles 2007-12-27 02:56:26 Tangled system of bank regulation and the task of proving that executives intended to break the law could pose significant challenges for investigators. The nation's largest banks are losing billions of dollars from the mortgage debacle, but will pain from bad housing bets be compounded by government investigations? As credit woes sparked by the troubled housing market threaten the broader economy, investigators are trying to determine whether Wall Street investment banks bundled risky loans with good ones without properly disclosing such risk to investors. Law enforcement officials including those at the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York attorney general's office are scrutinizing whether banks and mortgage lenders helped fuel the crisis by misleading investors about dicey housing assets and then covered up losses when the markets turned sour. Government subpoenas are flying, investor lawsuits are mounting, and in the nastiest cases, businesses are pointing the finger of blame at one another. The tangled system of bank regulation and the challenge of proving that executives intended to break the law when they unloaded bum assets could pose significant hurdles for investigators, current and former government officials say. Many of the assets that tumbled were explicitly marketed as involving borrowers with troubled credit histories, alerting investors that they were high-risk bets. Read The Full Story Debate Ignites Over New Armored Vehicles In Iraq 2007-12-27 02:55:57 It was just what American soldiers had been longing for - a patrol vehicle designed to withstand the powerful roadside bomb blasts that have killed more service members than any other insurgent weapon in the Iraq war; but just as the Defense Department hits its year-end goal of delivering 1,500 heavily armored, V-hulled "mine resistant ambush protected" trucks to Iraq, the feeling in the Pentagon is far from elation. Instead, an intense debate has broken out over whether the vehicle that is saving lives also could undermine one of the most important lessons of the whole war: How to counter an insurgency. While offering needed armor, the MRAPs lack the agility vital to urban warfare. "It's very heavy; it's relatively large; it's not maneuverable as you'd like it to be," Gen. William S. Wallace, the officer in charge of Army doctrine and training, said recently. "All of those things should be of concern." With nearly 12,000 of the trucks on order in a program that has a projected cost of more than $17 billion, the MRAP -  the most expensive new Army weapons systems acquired since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - is likely to influence how the Army fights future wars. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said MRAPs are an important part of the military's response to the needs of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Read The Full Story Poor Americans Infected With Worms 2007-12-27 02:55:03 Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, said a U.S. expert. Recent studies show many of the poorest Americans living in the United States carry some of the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease expert at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Writing in the journal, Hotez said these parasitic infections had been ignored by most health experts in the United States. "I feel strongly that this is such an important health issue and yet because it only affects the poor it has been ignored," Hotez said via e-mail. He said the United States spent hundreds of millions of dollars to defend against bio-terrorism threats like anthrax or smallpox or avian flu, which were more a theoretical concern than a real threat at present. Read The Full Story 2 Arrested In Deaths Of 6 In Rural Washington 2007-12-27 02:54:13 Six people, likely three generations of a family, were found dead Wednesday at a rural property east of Seattle, Washington, and a law enforcement official said police arrested the property owners' daughter and her boyfriend. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the names, identified the pair as Michele Anderson, 29, and her boyfriend, Joseph McEnroe. Both were booked into the King County Jail late Wednesday for investigation of six counts of homicide. A message left at a telephone listing for a Michele Anderson in the Carnation area was not immediately returned. The victims included a boy about age 3, a girl about age 6, a man and woman in their 30s, and a man and woman in their 50s. Their names were not released, but they were "likely three generations" of one family, said King County sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart. Autopsies have not been performed on the bodies, but the cause of death was apparently gunshots, Urquhart said. They were likely killed late afternoon or early evening on Christmas Eve, he said. Read The Full Story Eight Years Hard Labor In Chad For Charity Group In Bogus Orphans Scam 2007-12-27 02:53:26 Six French charity workers were sentenced Wednesday to eight years' hard labor for trying to fly more than 100 children out of Chad to France by claiming they were Darfur war orphans. The members of Zoe's Ark, a charity set up by a former firefighter, were found guilty of attempted child kidnap and fraud by a court in Chad capital, N'Djamena. In October, the group, one of them a doctor and another a nurse, illegally attempted to fly out 103 children aged from one to 10 to live with European families who had each paid thousands of euros. The operation had not been approved by any government. Its discovery created a scandal which threatened diplomatic relations between France and Chad, its former colony and complicated the work of bona fide aid workers in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. Read The Full Story U.S. Home Prices Post Largest Monthly Drop In A Decade 2007-12-26 15:38:14 U.S. home prices fell in October for the 10th consecutive month, posting their largest monthly drop since early 1991, a widely watched index showed Wednesday. The record 6.7 percent drop in the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index also marked the 23rd consecutive month prices either grew more slowly or declined. "No matter how you look at these data, it is obvious that the current state of the single-family housing market remains grim," said Robert Shiller, who helped create the index, in a statement. The previous record decline was 6.3 percent, recorded in April 1991. The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index tracks prices of existing single-family homes in 10 metropolitan areas compared to a year earlier. The index is considered a strong measure of home prices because it examines price changes of the same property over time, instead of calculating a median price of homes sold during the month. Read The Full Story Editorial: The Work Remaining 2007-12-26 15:37:46 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Wednesday, December 26, 2007. It has been nearly a year since the United States attorneys scandal broke, and much has changed. Many people at the center of the scandal have fled Washington, and new laws and rules have been put in place making it harder to use prosecutors’ offices to win elections. Much, however, remains to be done, starting with a full investigation into the misconduct that may have occurred - something the American people have been denied. The primary responsibility for giving the public the final answers about what happened, and assurances that it will not happen again, lies with Attorney General Michael Mukasey, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Over the course of the year, considerable evidence emerged that the Bush administration did what seemed unthinkable: it used federal prosecutors, who are supposed to be scrupulously nonpartisan, to help the Republican Party win elections. As many as nine United States attorneys were fired, apparently because they brought cases against powerful Republicans or refused to bring cases that would hurt Democrats. Read The Full Story San Francisco Zoo Tiger Kills 1, Mauls 2 2007-12-26 15:37:17 The San Francisco Zoo was closed to visitors Wednesday as investigators returned to the scene to determine how a tiger escaped from its enclosure and attacked three visitors, killing one of the men and mauling two others. Police said they did not expect to find any other victims, but wanted to conduct a thorough sweep of the grounds because it was unclear how long the tiger had been loose on Christmas Day before she was killed by officers. "There's no better light than daylight," said police Sgt. Neville Gittens. "The idea was to come back and quadruple check to make sure nobody's out there. We just want to know." The tiger, a female named Tatiana, was the same animal that ripped the flesh off a zookeeper's arm just before Christmas 2006. An investigation of that incident by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health faulted the zoo, which beefed up the pen where big cats are kept. Read The Full Story 12-Year-Old U.S. Girl Survives Panama Plane Crash 2007-12-26 15:36:42 A 12-year-old U.S. girl who was the sole survivor of a weekend plane crash was airlifted Wednesday to a Panamanian hospital after rescue workers trekked for several hours through remote mountains to deliver her to safety and reunite her with anxious relatives. Francesca Lewis, wearing a neck brace and with one arm bandaged, met her family at a hospital in the town of David, capital of the province of Chiriqui, 30 miles east of the crash site. "She apparently has some fractures, but she is stable and talking," said Dr. Manuel de la Cruz. Francesca's mother, father, uncle and sister came down from the United States. The girl had been on vacation with a friend's family when the plane crashed Sunday. Earlier Wednesday, Francesca's mother, Valerie Lewis, told the Associated Press her daughter could walk, but had apparently suffered a broken arm and hypothermia. Read The Full Story	Russia Will Supply New Anti-Aircraft Missiles To Iran 2007-12-27 02:56:09 Russia is to supply Iran with a new and lethal anti-aircraft system capable of shooting down American or Israeli fighter jets in the event of any strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Iran Wednesday confirmed that Russia had agreed to deliver the S-300 air defense system, a move that is likely to irk the Bush administration and gives further proof of Russia and Iran's deepening strategic partnership. Iran's defense minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, told Iranian TV that the deal had been agreed under a previous "contract". He did not say when the system would be shipped to Iran. Russian defense experts Wednesday acknowledged that the missile system, originally designed in the 1970s, would significantly enhance Iran's ability to shoot down enemy aircraft. Read The Full Story Wars Cost U.S. $15 Billion A Month Says U.S. Sen. Stevens 2007-12-27 02:55:40 The latest estimate of the growing costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the worldwide battle against terrorism -  nearly $15 billion a month - came last week from one of the Senate's leading proponents of a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq. "This cost of this war is approaching $15 billion a month, with the Army spending $4.2 billion of that every month," Sen. Ted Stevens(Alaska), the ranking Republican on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, said in a little-noticed floor speech Dec. 18. His remarks came in support of adding $70 billion to the omnibus fiscal 2008 spending legislation to pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, as well as counterterrorism activities, for the six months from Oct. 1, 2007, through March 31 of next year. While most of the public focus has been on the political fight over troop levels, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reported this month that the Bush administration's request for the 2008 fiscal year of $189.3 billion for Defense Department operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and worldwide counterterrorism activities was 20 percent higher than for fiscal 2007 and 60 percent higher than for fiscal 2006. Pentagon spokesmen would not comment last week on Stevens's figure but said their latest estimate for monthly spending for Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terrorism was $11.7 billion as of Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2007. Read The Full Story Commentary: Could You Vote For A Man Who Abides By Moronish Wisdom? 2007-12-27 02:54:30 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Timothy Garton Ash and appears in the Guardian edition for Thursday, December 27, 2007. Mr. Ash writes: "The recent contortions of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney show why faith should not trump reason in the public square." His commentary follows: In this season of goodwill, I have been trying to think of a kinder adjective to describe "of or pertaining to the revelation of the angel Moroni". Moronish? Moronical? The angel Moroni allegedly appeared in the 1820s to a young American treasure hunter called Joseph Smith, and led him to some golden plates buried on a hillside near his home in western New York. Allegedly written in an otherwise unknown language called Reformed Egyptian, and deciphered with the aid of two stones called Urim and Thummim, these texts became the Book of Mormon, regarded by Mormons as divine revelation alongside the Bible. "Mormon", Smith explained in a letter to a newspaper, derives from the Reformed Egyptian word mon, meaning good, "hence with the addition of more, or the contraction mor, we have the word Mormon; which means, literally, more good". In this holy book, North America was described as "a land which is choice above all other lands" (II Nephi 1:5), and 19th-century Americans were assured, in a kind of retrospective prophecy, that "it shall be a land of liberty" (II Nephi 1:7). What is more, if the Native Americans converted to the true faith, they would have the chance to become again "a white and a delightsome people" (II Nephi 30:6). (The official online version has corrected this to "a pure and a delightsome people".) Adherents of this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can, by their own strenuous efforts and good works, themselves aspire to become gods. Failing that, they can aspire to become the next best thing - president of the United States. The only reason we are recalling this Moronish wisdom is, of course, that one leading Republican contender for the presidency, Mitt Romney, professes to be a devout Mormon, and his religion has become an election issue. According to a profile in the New York Times, Romney's father, George, was born in Mexico "in a colony of Mormons who had fled a crackdown on polygamy ... As a Mormon missionary, he was assigned to proselytize in London from a soapbox in Hyde Park, where he developed a gift for salesmanship that became the hallmark of his career". Mitt Romney did his own Mormon missionary work in France. Romney's Mormonism is a problem for many evangelical Christians from the religious right, who would otherwise be his natural constituency. Instead, they might prefer the Southern Baptist Mike Huckabee, who merely takes the book of Genesis literally. Read The Full Story Afghanistan Expels U.N., E.U. Diplomats 2007-12-27 02:53:55 United Nations officials were working Wednesday night to prevent the expulsion from Afghanistan of two senior western diplomats who have been accused of holding illegal talks with Taliban leaders in the British theatre of operations in the southern province of Helmand. The intervention on behalf of a Briton working for the U.N. and an Irishman working as the European Union's acting mission - both due to be deported Thursday - comes amid renewed questioning of military tactics in the region. Both organizations insisted Wednesday that the row was the result of a "misunderstanding", but there was pressure on the UK government from opposition parties to answer separate claims that talks had been held with Taliban leaders on a number of occasions in the summer. President Hamid Karzai and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have publicly insisted that there can be no negotiations with the Taliban, while at the same time offering reconciliation to fighters who turn away from the Islamist militants. The diplomats were ordered to leave by the Afghan president's office, which said they had engaged in activities "that were not their jobs". One western official told the Guardian that the initial complaint had come from the governor of Helmand province, Asadullah Wafa. Read The Full Story Venezuela's Chavez Says Columbian Hostages Could Be Freed Thursday 2007-12-27 02:53:02 Venezuela had planes and helicopters ready on standby Wednesday night to pick up three hostages from inside Colombia as president Hugo Chavez expressed hope they would be freed by rebels by the end of Thursday. "The only thing we need is the authorization of the Colombian government," Chavez said at a news conference in the presidential palace. "We are ready to activate the humanitarian operation." He said the hostages could be freed by the end of Thursday once the Colombians give approval for Venezuelan aircraft to cross the border. The hostages are former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez, Clara Rojas, an aide to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, and Rojas' young son, Emmanuel, reportedly born of a relationship with a guerrilla fighter. Read The Full Story Stocks Slip Following Weak Holiday Sales 2007-12-26 15:38:02 Stocks pulled back moderately Wednesday as investors returned from the Christmas holiday to news of weaker-than-expected retail sales. A jump in oil prices also raised concerns among investors. The International Council of Shopping Centers said its index of retail chain store sales rose 2.8 percent last week, rounding out a sluggish December performance that puts retailers on track for a smaller sales gain than the trade group originally expected. Still, there is some hope sales will rebound as shoppers start spending with holiday gift cards. Other reports released alongside Christmas proved disappointing. Target Corp. indicated its sales may have fallen in December, while MasterCard Inc. said holiday spending - including credit, cash and checks - climbed a modest 3.6 percent between Thanksgiving and Christmas, weighed by a slowdown in sales of women's apparel. That compares with a rise of 6.6 percent over the same period last year. The news could raise concerns about the strength of consumer spending and, in turn, the economy. However, it has been widely expected that holiday sales would be slower than in years past. Read The Full Story U.S. Manufacturers Seek More Sales Overseas 2007-12-26 15:37:34 Once blamed for the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, global business is shaping up as a bulwark against what some fear is a looming recession. Challenged by a troubled U.S. economy and the steeply falling dollar, a growing number of U.S. manufacturers are making up for slowing domestic sales by expanding them overseas, often with sophisticated products. Once fingered as a prime culprit in the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, global business is shaping up as a bulwark against what some analysts fear is a looming recession. Some forecasters predict that the export boom will allow the United States to cut its huge trade deficit. An expanding foreign appetite for capital goods such as tractors, medical equipment and electrical machinery is driving much of the boom. Much of that growth is in China, the fourth-largest export market for U.S. goods, where U.S. sales are growing 17 percent this year, according to federal officials. In the first nine months of this year, sales of U.S. aircraft to China are up 30 percent and plastics are up 37 percent. Read The Full Story Turkish Jets Strike Kurdish Rebel Bases In Iraq 2007-12-26 15:37:02 Turkey pressed an intensifying offensive against Kurdish guerrillas in neighboring Iraq on Wednesday, sending warplanes across the border to bomb suspected winter hideouts of the rebels, said the Turkish military. The warplanes hit eight caves or other hideouts in the Zap valley, in northern Iraq, Turkey's military general staff said in a statement on its Web site. Turkish armed forces had been watching the sites for some time and believed that rebels had been preparing the hideouts as winter bases, the statement said. Turkey's military called the bombing "a pinpoint operation." It gave no casualty estimates, but Kurdish officials in the area said later that no one was killed. The strike was the latest in a series of attacks Turkey has launched in northern Iraq since forging an agreement with the United States to share intelligence on the activity of the rebels, whom both the Turkish and U.S. governments have accused of terrorist activity. Read The Full Story 78 Feared Dead In Indonesian Landslides 2007-12-26 15:36:26 Rescuers dug through mountains of mud Wednesday in search of survivors from landslides in western Indonesia, some using their bare hands because blocked roads delayed the arrival of heavy-lifting equipment. At least 78 people were feared dead - most of them killed in a single landslide in the Karanganyar district that buried a late-night dinner party, said a rescue official. The victims had just cleaned up a mud-covered home. "They were having dinner together when they were hit by another landslide," said search and rescue chief Eko Prayitno.  "At least 61 people were buried." In nearby Wonogiri district, 17 people were feared dead when landslides hit their homes following a half-day of nonstop rain. Hundreds of soldiers, police and volunteers struggled to get heavy-lifting equipment to villages on the main island of Java, but roads blocked by the mud and flooding were hampering the rescue efforts, said Prayitno. 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 December 26 2007 - (813)

Wednesday December 26 2007 edition
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U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Voter I.D. Challenge 2007-12-25 19:38:52 The U.S. Supreme Court will open the new year with its most politically divisive case since Bush v. Gore decided the 2000 presidential election, and its decision could force a major reinterpretation of the rules of the 2008 elections. The case presents what seems to be a straightforward and even unremarkable question: Does a state requirement that voters show a specific kind of photo identification before casting a ballot violate the Constitution? The answer so far has depended greatly on whether you are a Democratic or Republican politician - or even, some believe, judge. "It is exceedingly difficult to maneuver in today's America without a photo I.D. (try flying, or even entering a tall building such as the courthouse in which we sit, without one)," Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote in deciding that Indiana's strictest-in-the-nation law is not burdensome enough to violate constitutional protections. Read The Full Story At Least 15 Dead, 100 Missing In Nepal Bridge Collapse 2007-12-25 19:38:10 A steel footbridge collapsed Tuesday in western Nepal under the weight of hundreds of people on their way to a fair, plunging scores about 100 feet into icy Himalayan waters. At least 15 were killed and more than 100 were missing and feared dead, said officials. Troops were being rushed to the area to assist with search-and-rescue operations. But with efforts halted by nightfall, hopes were slim of finding more survivors in the fast-flowing mountain river, said Anil Pandey, the top government official in the area. Authorities believe some 500 people traveling to a village fair were crossing the Bheri River on the bridge when its support cables snapped under the weight, said Pandey. "Some of them managed to climb to safety, some fell on the banks, but the ones who plunged in the river are the ones who are still missing," he said. Crowds gathered on both sides of the river, trying to save the victims and treating the wounded. Some of those who had fallen used the bridge's cables to haul themselves up. Read The Full Story	Proposed Alaska Gold Mine Could Imperil Salmon, Way Of Life 2007-12-25 19:38:35 The gold mine proposed for this stunning open country might be the largest in North America. It would involve building the biggest dam in the world at the headwaters of the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery, which it would risk obliterating. Epic even by Alaskan standards, the planned Pebble Mine has divided a state normally enthusiastic about extracting whatever value can be found in its wide-open spaces. It is an ambivalence that has upended traditional politics, divided families and come to rest at kitchen tables like the one 75-year-old Olga Balluta sat beside one autumn afternoon, listing her favorite foods. "Brown bear fat and black bear fat. Fish gut salad - crackly when you eat it," said Balluta, a member of the local Native population that would be most directly affected by the mine. From his chair by the sink, neighbor Rick Delkittie said, "I know my grandfather used to tell me, 'Don't ever get used to the white man's food'." That lesson, with its implied warning against dependence on anyone outside the land and waters that have nourished local residents for nearly 10,000 years, guides the subtle, shifting and uniquely Alaskan calculation that will decide whether Pebble goes forward. Read The Full Story 34 Killed In Two Iraq Bombings 2007-12-25 19:37:50 Two bombs in separate Iraqi cities ripped through crowds of people Tuesday, causing some of the worst carnage in the country in recent weeks and revealing that - despite the relative calm of recent months -- insurgent groups remain capable of devastating attacks. The morning bombs detonated in two major cities north of the capital: Baiji, an oil refinery town, and Baqubah, a provincial capital where the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq remains lethal, even though it has lost some of its earlier dominance. The attacks, which killed at least 34 people and wounded as many as 100, prompted calls by Iraqi officials for more Iraqi soldiers and police in the northern provinces to quell the violence. The more devastating attack occurred in Baiji, near a checkpoint outside a two-story housing complex for oil industry employees. The complex was guarded by members of the Facilities Protection Service, part of the Interior Ministry, and members of the local Sunni volunteer security force, one of the many groups increasingly targeted by insurgents after joining forces with the American military. Police and provincial officials said a small car loaded with explosives detonated about 9:30 a.m. outside the checkpoint, killing at least 22 people and wounding between 60 and 80 other people. The U.S. military put the death toll at 20 plus 80 injuries. Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday December 25 2007 - (813)

Tuesday December 25 2007 edition
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Battle In The Cornfields 2007-12-24 18:16:44 Not even three million people live in the U.S. state of Iowa. But on Jan. 3, voters there will determine the fate of those seeking to become America's next president. The battle has begun in earnest. The United States is a country that likes to explain democracy to other nations. It is also a country that starts wars to bring democracy to the world. It allows the candidates for its highest office, the presidency, to spend a year and a half campaigning, leaving no stone unturned as it delves into their past. Its political mood is gauged on a daily basis by anywhere from 10 to 20 opinion polls. There are smart thinkers at every medium-sized newspaper in America and astute analysts at every television station and in the campaign offices of each candidate who aspires to be the country's next president. It is a highly intellectual debate that has developed over the fast few months, usually fast-paced, often bold and full of risks at every turn. And then there is Iowa. Iowa - a flat state of corn, cows and the occasional small town. Iowa, a sparsely populated state in the U.S. Midwest, is home to 2,982,000 people, 94 percent of them white. Read The Full Story Jazz Great Oscar Peterson Dies 2007-12-24 18:16:11 Oscar Peterson, whose early talent, speedy fingers and musical genius made him one of the world's best known jazz pianists, has died. He was 82. Peterson died at his home in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga on Sunday, said Oliver Jones, a family friend and jazz musician. He said Peterson's family were with him during his final moments. The cause of death was kidney failure, said Mississauga's mayor, Hazel McCallion. "He's been going downhill in the last few months," said McCallion, calling Peterson a "very close friend". During an illustrious career spanning seven decades, Peterson played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. He is also remembered for touring in a trio with Ray Brown on bass and Herb Ellis on guitar in the 1950s. Peterson's impressive collection of awards include all of Canada's highest honors, such as the Order of Canada, as well as a Lifetime Grammy (1997) and a spot in the International Jazz Hall of Fame. Read The Full Story DOH! Billions In Aid To Pakistan Was Wasted 2007-12-24 01:22:57 After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money. The strategy to improve the Pakistani military, they said, needs to be completely revamped. In interviews in Islamabad and Washington, Bush administration and military officials said they believed that much of the American money was not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. Money has been diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not al-Qaeda or the Taliban, said the officials, adding that the United States has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs. “I personally believe there is exaggeration and inflation,” said a senior American military official who has reviewed the program, referring to Pakistani requests for reimbursement. “Then, I point back to the United States and say we didn’t have to give them money this way.” Pakistani officials say they are incensed at what they see as American ingratitude for Pakistani counterterrorism efforts that have left about 1,000 Pakistani soldiers and police officers dead. They deny that any overcharging has occurred. Read The Full Story Britain's Parliament Members Call For Investigation On Iraq Security Contractor Cover-Up 2007-12-24 01:22:20 U.K. security firm accused of failing to pass intelligence on to British Army in Basra. Members of the Britain's Parliament called Sunday for a full parliamentary inquiry into the British security company ArmorGroup after allegations made about its operations in Iraq by former employees. Two Parliament members have issued the call in response to claims that an employee had been told to withhold intelligence from the British armed forces and that the company had exaggerated the numbers of its employees on the ground. ArmorGroup vigorously contested the claims and said Sunday they were either too vague to be checked or were old and had already been dealt with. The company said it had the best ethical record of any security firm working in the field and had offered the Parliament members full cooperation in investigating their claims since they were first aired earlier this year. The most serious allegations have been made by Colin Williamson, 44, a former member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (now the Police Service of Northern Ireland) who joined ArmorGroup in December 2004. He was in Iraq until summer 2005. As someone who had been used to liaising with the British army during his time with the RUC, he said he was shocked at the way the operation was run. Read The Full Story U.S. Dollar's Fall Is Felt Around The Globe 2007-12-24 01:21:19 Weakening U.S. currency harms overseas markets. The sharp decline of the U.S. dollar since 2000 is affecting a broad swath of the world's population, with its drop on global markets being blamed at least in part for misfortunes as diverse as labor strikes in the Middle East, lost jobs in Europe and the end of an era of globe-trotting rich Americans. It marks a shift for Americans in the global economy. In times of strength, a mightier dollar allowed Americans to feed their insatiable appetite for foreign goods at cheap prices while providing Yankees abroad with virtually unrivaled economic clout. But now, as the United States struggles to fend off a recession, observers say the less lofty dollar is having both a tangible and intangible diminishing effect. "The dollar was the dominant force in world economics for 100 years - we had no competition," said C. Fred Bergsten, an American economist and director of the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics. "There was no other economy close to the size of the United States. But all that is now changing." Read The Full Story Snowstorm In U.S. Midwest Blamed For 11 Deaths, Power Outages 2007-12-24 01:20:27 Highways were hazardous for holiday travelers Sunday and thousands of homes and businesses had no electricity in the Midwest as a storm blustered through the region with heavy snow and howling wind. At least 11 deaths had been blamed on the storm. Winter storm warnings were posted for parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan on Sunday as the core of the storm headed north across the Great Lakes. Parts of Wisconsin already had a foot of snow, and up to a foot was forecast Sunday in northeastern Minnesota, said the National Weather Service. Radar showed snow falling across much of Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota on Sunday and moving into parts of Michigan and Indiana. "Everything is just an ice rink out there," said Sgt. Steve Selby with the sheriff's department in Rock County, Wisconsin. The weather system also spread locally heavy rain on Sunday from the Southeast to the lower Great Lakes. The storm rolled through Colorado and Wyoming on Friday, then spread snow and ice on Saturday from the Texas Panhandle to Minnesota. Multi-car pileups closed parts of several major highways Saturday in the Plains states. Read The Full Story Israel's Olmert Rules Out Cease Fire As Strikes On Hamas Continue 2007-12-24 01:19:29 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Sunday ruled out ceasefire negotiations with the Islamist movement Hamas and said his military was fighting a "true war" against armed groups in Gaza. He warned of further Israeli military strikes in the days ahead which he said were intended to prevent Palestinian militants from firing makeshift rockets into Israel. "Counter-terrorist operations will continue as they have for months," Olmert told his weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. "There is no other way to describe what is happening in the Gaza Strip except as a true war between the IDF [Israel Defense Force] and terrorist elements." In the past week more than a dozen militants from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have been killed during Israeli strikes in Gaza. In recent days there have been suggestions that Hamas, which won Palestinian elections early last year and then seized full control of Gaza in June, was seeking a ceasefire with Israel. Read The Full Story	Analysis: How A Misstep Could Spell Mayhem In Taiwan 2007-12-24 18:16:24 It's a highly volatile mixture of ingredients: a fast-rising superpower, a rebellious island, an arms race, dueling missiles, claims of independence, and a spate of high-profile political events that could trigger a reckless reaction. Taiwan, the feisty democracy that is fighting desperately for world recognition, is emerging as one of the most dangerous flashpoints for conflict in 2008. Outside of the Middle East, it remains the likeliest place where the United States could find itself embroiled in a new war. China and Taiwan have been preparing for war for years, building up their arsenals of missiles, fighter jets, naval ships and other weapons. China has close to 1,000 ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwanese targets and the number is constantly rising. Taiwan has its own missiles ready to hit China, including its recently developed Brave Wind cruise missile, capable of striking Shanghai and other Chinese targets. The rhetoric on both sides has been ferocious. China's military often threatens to use force to prevent Taiwanese independence. Beijing has passed legislation to authorize violence against Taiwan if necessary. Taiwan's pro-independence President, Chen Shui-bian, has infuriated Beijing with his frequent talk of sovereignty. Tensions have been high for years, but 2008 could be the most dangerous year of all. It is filled with potential trigger points, including two Taiwanese elections, a controversial referendum, the final days of Mr. Chen's presidency and the Summer Olympics. Read The Full Story 12,000 Suspects In Child Porn Investigation 2007-12-24 18:15:55 German prosecutors are investigating 12,000 suspects in a child pornography network, the largest ever found in Germany, the head of a special unit said on German radio. The investigation is also focusing on suspects in 70 other countries, Peter Vogt, head of the central office tackling child pornography and also a prosecutor in Halle in eastern Germany, told Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR). About 300 suspects in Saxe-Anhalt, the region where Halle is located, allegedly "downloaded or possess child pornography material", he said. A Berlin supplier of Internet services who discovered an enormous exchange of data alerted investigators, according to police. Read The Full Story Warnings Unheeded On Security Contractors In Iraq 2007-12-24 01:22:40 The U.S. government disregarded numerous warnings over the past two years about the risks of using Blackwater Worldwide and other private security firms in Iraq, expanding their presence even after a series of shooting incidents showed that the firms were operating with little regulation or oversight, according to government officials, private security firms and documents. The warnings were conveyed in letters and memorandums from defense and legal experts and in high-level discussions between U.S. and Iraqi officials. They reflected growing concern about the lack of control over the tens of thousands of private guards in Iraq, the largest private security force ever employed by the United States in wartime. Neither the Pentagon nor the State Department took substantive action to regulate private security companies until Blackwater guards opened fire Sept. 16 at a Baghdad traffic circle, killing 17 Iraqi civilians and provoking protests over the role of security contractors in Iraq. "Why is it they couldn't see this coming?" said Christopher Beese, chief administrative officer for ArmorGroup International, a British security firm with extensive operations in Iraq. "That amazes me. Somebody - it could have been military officers, it could have been State - anybody could have waved a flag and said, 'Stop, this is not good news for us'." Private security firms rushed into Iraq after the March 2003 invasion. The U.S. military, which entered the country with 130,000 troops, needed additional manpower to protect supply convoys, military installations and diplomats. Private security companies appeared "like mushrooms after a rainstorm," recalled Michael J. Arrighi, who has worked in private security in Iraq since 2004. Read The Full Story Cheney Accused Of Blocking California Bid To Reduce Car Emissions 2007-12-24 01:21:54 U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney was behind a controversial decision to block California's attempt to impose tough emission limits on car manufacturers, according to insiders at the government Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Staff at the agency, which announced last week that California's proposed limits were redundant, said the agency's chief went against their expert advice after car executives met Cheney, and a Chrysler executive delivered a letter to the EPA saying why the state should not be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases. EPA staff members told the Los Angeles Times that the agency's head, the Bush appointee Stephen Johnson, ignored their conclusions and shut himself off from consultation in the month before the announcement. He then informed them of his decision and instructed them to provide the legal rationale for it, they said. "California met every criteria ... on the merits," an anonymous member of the EPA staff told the Times. "The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years ... We told him that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts." Read The Full Story Editorial: Broken Polls 2007-12-24 01:20:56 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Monday, December 24, 2007. Election officials hate to admit how vulnerable their voting systems are to errors and vote theft. The Ohio and Colorado secretaries of state, however, have recently spoken openly about the weaknesses of the voting machines used in their states - and are pushing to get them fixed. Election officials in other states, whose voting machines have similar vulnerabilities, should follow Ohio’s and Colorado’s lead. Jennifer Brunner, Ohio’s new secretary of state, has been working to promote fair and honest elections, with particular attention to voting machines. She commissioned an expert study of the five kinds of voting systems used in Ohio. Her report, released on Dec. 14, revealed serious security flaws that could put the state’s elections in jeopardy. Some are simple. For example, the locks used to secure machines and ballots can easily be picked. This is a problem critics of electronic voting have been pointing out for several years, but it has not been addressed. Other flaws are more technical, like the fact that the computer servers that tally the ballots are poorly guarded. An infiltrator could slip malicious computer software onto them, which could change the results of an election. Read The Full Story Commentary: When The Powerful Can Live Beyond The Law, Corruption Is Not Far Away 2007-12-24 01:19:58 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Max Hastings and appears in the Guardian edition for Monday, December 24, 2007. Mr. Hastings writes: "In Russia, as elsewhere, a lack of transparency feeds a gangster culture that hamstrings social and economic progress." His commentary follows: Some of us speculate occasionally, albeit without real cupidity, about what we would do if we suddenly found ourselves in possession of a billion pounds. Even after funding a big house with lots of staff, car with chauffeur, yacht, helicopter and suchlike, there would be enough left to live on the interest, with a few hundred million to spare. I suppose one could entrust the money to Polly Toynbee and George Monbiot to give to deserving causes, but not many billionaires are enlightened enough to do that. Instead, there are today so many doggedly materialistic possessors of surplus wealth that a huge luxury goods industry exists to succor their plight. In Paris recently, I heard of a restaurant frequented by Russian oligarchs, where woodcock features on the menu. In France it is illegal to sell this delicious little bird. The restaurant exploits its scarcity value by charging £220 ($440), and finds plenty of takers. Indeed, the place's average bill for lunch for two is over £600 ($1,200). This is a boon for those with more cash than they know what to do with. Yet how could any human being, however devoted to consuming illegal woodcock, want £20 billion ($40 billion)? This was my first thought, on reading the Guardian's report last week about the alleged secret fortune of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin. It is comprehensible that he should want to put away a little something, or even a big something, for his old age. But even if he buys an Airbus as a personal jet and bathes in Krug, he can hardly hope to make much of a dent in £20 billion. Read The Full Story Thailand Election Could Herald Thaksin's Return 2007-12-24 01:19:10 The successor party of deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra claimed victory last night in the first election since the military coup 15 months ago, fuelling fears of further political uncertainty. The Thai election authority's unofficial tally with most votes counted showed that the People Power party (PPP) won 228 seats, less than an outright majority in the 480-seat parliament, but well ahead of its key rival, the Democrat party, which was headed for just 166. Article continues The electorate's damning verdict on the military coup, if borne out by the final results revealed Monday, is likely to provoke a protracted period of negotiation as the PPP seeks to form a coalition government. The outcome heralds the strong possibility of Thaksin's return from his London exile as the PPP leadership pledged on the campaign trail that it would dissolve the agencies appointed by the junta to probe corruption charges against the billionaire tycoon who bought Manchester City football club in England. 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 December 24 2007 - (813)

Monday December 24 2007 edition
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DOH! Billions In Aid To Pakistan Was Wasted 2007-12-24 01:22:57 After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money. The strategy to improve the Pakistani military, they said, needs to be completely revamped. In interviews in Islamabad and Washington, Bush administration and military officials said they believed that much of the American money was not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. Money has been diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not al-Qaeda or the Taliban, said the officials, adding that the United States has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs. “I personally believe there is exaggeration and inflation,” said a senior American military official who has reviewed the program, referring to Pakistani requests for reimbursement. “Then, I point back to the United States and say we didn’t have to give them money this way.” Pakistani officials say they are incensed at what they see as American ingratitude for Pakistani counterterrorism efforts that have left about 1,000 Pakistani soldiers and police officers dead. They deny that any overcharging has occurred. Read The Full Story Britain's Parliament Members Call For Investigation On Iraq Security Contractor Cover-Up 2007-12-24 01:22:20 U.K. security firm accused of failing to pass intelligence on to British Army in Basra. Members of the Britain's Parliament called Sunday for a full parliamentary inquiry into the British security company ArmorGroup after allegations made about its operations in Iraq by former employees. Two Parliament members have issued the call in response to claims that an employee had been told to withhold intelligence from the British armed forces and that the company had exaggerated the numbers of its employees on the ground. ArmorGroup vigorously contested the claims and said Sunday they were either too vague to be checked or were old and had already been dealt with. The company said it had the best ethical record of any security firm working in the field and had offered the Parliament members full cooperation in investigating their claims since they were first aired earlier this year. The most serious allegations have been made by Colin Williamson, 44, a former member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (now the Police Service of Northern Ireland) who joined ArmorGroup in December 2004. He was in Iraq until summer 2005. As someone who had been used to liaising with the British army during his time with the RUC, he said he was shocked at the way the operation was run. Read The Full Story U.S. Dollar's Fall Is Felt Around The Globe 2007-12-24 01:21:19 Weakening U.S. currency harms overseas markets. The sharp decline of the U.S. dollar since 2000 is affecting a broad swath of the world's population, with its drop on global markets being blamed at least in part for misfortunes as diverse as labor strikes in the Middle East, lost jobs in Europe and the end of an era of globe-trotting rich Americans. It marks a shift for Americans in the global economy. In times of strength, a mightier dollar allowed Americans to feed their insatiable appetite for foreign goods at cheap prices while providing Yankees abroad with virtually unrivaled economic clout. But now, as the United States struggles to fend off a recession, observers say the less lofty dollar is having both a tangible and intangible diminishing effect. "The dollar was the dominant force in world economics for 100 years - we had no competition," said C. Fred Bergsten, an American economist and director of the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics. "There was no other economy close to the size of the United States. But all that is now changing." Read The Full Story Snowstorm In U.S. Midwest Blamed For 11 Deaths, Power Outages 2007-12-24 01:20:27 Highways were hazardous for holiday travelers Sunday and thousands of homes and businesses had no electricity in the Midwest as a storm blustered through the region with heavy snow and howling wind. At least 11 deaths had been blamed on the storm. Winter storm warnings were posted for parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan on Sunday as the core of the storm headed north across the Great Lakes. Parts of Wisconsin already had a foot of snow, and up to a foot was forecast Sunday in northeastern Minnesota, said the National Weather Service. Radar showed snow falling across much of Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota on Sunday and moving into parts of Michigan and Indiana. "Everything is just an ice rink out there," said Sgt. Steve Selby with the sheriff's department in Rock County, Wisconsin. The weather system also spread locally heavy rain on Sunday from the Southeast to the lower Great Lakes. The storm rolled through Colorado and Wyoming on Friday, then spread snow and ice on Saturday from the Texas Panhandle to Minnesota. Multi-car pileups closed parts of several major highways Saturday in the Plains states. Read The Full Story Israel's Olmert Rules Out Cease Fire As Strikes On Hamas Continue 2007-12-24 01:19:29 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Sunday ruled out ceasefire negotiations with the Islamist movement Hamas and said his military was fighting a "true war" against armed groups in Gaza. He warned of further Israeli military strikes in the days ahead which he said were intended to prevent Palestinian militants from firing makeshift rockets into Israel. "Counter-terrorist operations will continue as they have for months," Olmert told his weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. "There is no other way to describe what is happening in the Gaza Strip except as a true war between the IDF [Israel Defense Force] and terrorist elements." In the past week more than a dozen militants from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have been killed during Israeli strikes in Gaza. In recent days there have been suggestions that Hamas, which won Palestinian elections early last year and then seized full control of Gaza in June, was seeking a ceasefire with Israel. Read The Full Story How Queen Elizabeth Became Very Well Connected 2007-12-23 01:19:48 In a bid to appeal to the internet generation, Britain's royals launch their own YouTube channel. The Queen has taken a bold stride into cyberspace by launching her own channel on the video-sharing website YouTube. The Royal Channel launches Sunday as Buckingham Palace seeks to promote Britain's monarch to a youthful global audience. While aides were utterly convinced it was the way forward, the 81-year-old Queen - who only recently mastered emailing and had never used a personal computer until two years ago - was not immediately acquainted with the YouTube phenomenon. But after the concept was explained to her by, among others, her granddaughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie - both avid Facebook fans - she personally approved the channel's go-ahead after viewing its contents. It is launched with rarely-seen silent newsreel footage of the 1923 wedding of the future George VI to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and historic, albeit grainy, footage from 1917 of Queen Alexandra visiting rose sellers in London's West End. Three films made by the late Lord Wakehurst, a former governor of New South Wales and Northern Ireland, which have never before been publicly released, also feature, showing public reaction to the death of George VI, the Queen's accession and her coronation. Read The Full Story Camel 'Plague' Puzzles Scientists 2007-12-23 01:19:20 An unprecedented number of camels across North Africa and the Middle East died last year, researchers have discovered. The several thousand deaths have baffled scientists who are probing toxins, antibiotic pollution, viruses and even climate change as possible causes. In Saudi Arabia alone, between 2,000 and 5,000 perished inexplicably, it was revealed in the journal Science last week. The ships of the desert are being sunk in unusual, and worrying, numbers, the journal warned. "The numbers of deaths we are seeing at present are unprecedented," said camel researcher Bernard Faye, who is based at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD). "A great many animals are dying and it is not at all obvious what is the cause. The problem is that there is a real lack of good epidemiological evidence, and until we can get that we will struggle to find the causes of these deaths and to find ways of stopping them." There were several outbreaks of sudden deaths among camels - which are exploited for their milk and meat and as beasts of burden in North Africa and Asia - in many countries last year. However, the worst occurred in Saudi Arabia. At least 2,000 dromedaries perished in a region south of Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Unofficial estimates put the death toll as closer to 5,000. Read The Full Story	Warnings Unheeded On Security Contractors In Iraq 2007-12-24 01:22:40 The U.S. government disregarded numerous warnings over the past two years about the risks of using Blackwater Worldwide and other private security firms in Iraq, expanding their presence even after a series of shooting incidents showed that the firms were operating with little regulation or oversight, according to government officials, private security firms and documents. The warnings were conveyed in letters and memorandums from defense and legal experts and in high-level discussions between U.S. and Iraqi officials. They reflected growing concern about the lack of control over the tens of thousands of private guards in Iraq, the largest private security force ever employed by the United States in wartime. Neither the Pentagon nor the State Department took substantive action to regulate private security companies until Blackwater guards opened fire Sept. 16 at a Baghdad traffic circle, killing 17 Iraqi civilians and provoking protests over the role of security contractors in Iraq. "Why is it they couldn't see this coming?" said Christopher Beese, chief administrative officer for ArmorGroup International, a British security firm with extensive operations in Iraq. "That amazes me. Somebody - it could have been military officers, it could have been State - anybody could have waved a flag and said, 'Stop, this is not good news for us'." Private security firms rushed into Iraq after the March 2003 invasion. The U.S. military, which entered the country with 130,000 troops, needed additional manpower to protect supply convoys, military installations and diplomats. Private security companies appeared "like mushrooms after a rainstorm," recalled Michael J. Arrighi, who has worked in private security in Iraq since 2004. Read The Full Story Cheney Accused Of Blocking California Bid To Reduce Car Emissions 2007-12-24 01:21:54 U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney was behind a controversial decision to block California's attempt to impose tough emission limits on car manufacturers, according to insiders at the government Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Staff at the agency, which announced last week that California's proposed limits were redundant, said the agency's chief went against their expert advice after car executives met Cheney, and a Chrysler executive delivered a letter to the EPA saying why the state should not be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases. EPA staff members told the Los Angeles Times that the agency's head, the Bush appointee Stephen Johnson, ignored their conclusions and shut himself off from consultation in the month before the announcement. He then informed them of his decision and instructed them to provide the legal rationale for it, they said. "California met every criteria ... on the merits," an anonymous member of the EPA staff told the Times. "The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years ... We told him that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts." Read The Full Story Editorial: Broken Polls 2007-12-24 01:20:56 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Monday, December 24, 2007. Election officials hate to admit how vulnerable their voting systems are to errors and vote theft. The Ohio and Colorado secretaries of state, however, have recently spoken openly about the weaknesses of the voting machines used in their states - and are pushing to get them fixed. Election officials in other states, whose voting machines have similar vulnerabilities, should follow Ohio’s and Colorado’s lead. Jennifer Brunner, Ohio’s new secretary of state, has been working to promote fair and honest elections, with particular attention to voting machines. She commissioned an expert study of the five kinds of voting systems used in Ohio. Her report, released on Dec. 14, revealed serious security flaws that could put the state’s elections in jeopardy. Some are simple. For example, the locks used to secure machines and ballots can easily be picked. This is a problem critics of electronic voting have been pointing out for several years, but it has not been addressed. Other flaws are more technical, like the fact that the computer servers that tally the ballots are poorly guarded. An infiltrator could slip malicious computer software onto them, which could change the results of an election. Read The Full Story Commentary: When The Powerful Can Live Beyond The Law, Corruption Is Not Far Away 2007-12-24 01:19:58 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Max Hastings and appears in the Guardian edition for Monday, December 24, 2007. Mr. Hastings writes: "In Russia, as elsewhere, a lack of transparency feeds a gangster culture that hamstrings social and economic progress." His commentary follows: Some of us speculate occasionally, albeit without real cupidity, about what we would do if we suddenly found ourselves in possession of a billion pounds. Even after funding a big house with lots of staff, car with chauffeur, yacht, helicopter and suchlike, there would be enough left to live on the interest, with a few hundred million to spare. I suppose one could entrust the money to Polly Toynbee and George Monbiot to give to deserving causes, but not many billionaires are enlightened enough to do that. Instead, there are today so many doggedly materialistic possessors of surplus wealth that a huge luxury goods industry exists to succor their plight. In Paris recently, I heard of a restaurant frequented by Russian oligarchs, where woodcock features on the menu. In France it is illegal to sell this delicious little bird. The restaurant exploits its scarcity value by charging £220 ($440), and finds plenty of takers. Indeed, the place's average bill for lunch for two is over £600 ($1,200). This is a boon for those with more cash than they know what to do with. Yet how could any human being, however devoted to consuming illegal woodcock, want £20 billion ($40 billion)? This was my first thought, on reading the Guardian's report last week about the alleged secret fortune of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin. It is comprehensible that he should want to put away a little something, or even a big something, for his old age. But even if he buys an Airbus as a personal jet and bathes in Krug, he can hardly hope to make much of a dent in £20 billion. Read The Full Story Thailand Election Could Herald Thaksin's Return 2007-12-24 01:19:10 The successor party of deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra claimed victory last night in the first election since the military coup 15 months ago, fuelling fears of further political uncertainty. The Thai election authority's unofficial tally with most votes counted showed that the People Power party (PPP) won 228 seats, less than an outright majority in the 480-seat parliament, but well ahead of its key rival, the Democrat party, which was headed for just 166. Article continues The electorate's damning verdict on the military coup, if borne out by the final results revealed Monday, is likely to provoke a protracted period of negotiation as the PPP seeks to form a coalition government. The outcome heralds the strong possibility of Thaksin's return from his London exile as the PPP leadership pledged on the campaign trail that it would dissolve the agencies appointed by the junta to probe corruption charges against the billionaire tycoon who bought Manchester City football club in England. Read The Full Story New Crisis To Hit Banks In 2008 2007-12-23 01:19:34 Banks may be forced to seek huge injections of fresh capital as the credit crunch shows no sign of abating, experts warned Saturday night. Analysts are talking about the possibility of rights issues, which would involve banks asking shareholders to subscribe to new equity in order to provide cash to bolster balance sheets that have been crippled by the U.S. sub-prime debacle. Rumors were circulating in New York and London on Friday that western banks face intense pain in the new year, with bad-debt provisions set to soar from $59 billion to more than $250 billion. "That would knock the banks' balance sheets for six," said one analyst. Several brokers fear Merrill Lynch, in particular, could be hit further in 2008. Last week, it emerged that Merrill was seeking a $5 billion investment from Temasek, an arm of the Singaporean state. Citigroup has already secured cash from Abu Dhabi, the Gulf state. Gerard Lyons, chief economist and head of global research at Standard Chartered, said: "Next year, we shall find out whether the crisis moves from being a liquidity squeeze to one about funding, with questions raised about whether banks are adequately capitalized." Read The Full Story Commentary: Five Bright Ideas That Illuminated 2007 2007-12-23 01:19:01 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Will Hutton for The Observer. Mr. Hutton is a columnist for The Observer and chief executive of the Work Foundation, an independent, not for dividend research-based consultancy that is one of the most influential voices on work, workplace and employment issues in Britain. In his commentary he writes, "There's much to celebrate in the moves toward greater tolerance of others and understanding of ourselves and the world around us." His commentary follows: It is a little embarrassing how late I saw the potential for environmental catastrophe. I recognized that sustainability would be helpful, and did my bit because it was a good cause, but it has only been over the last few years that I have begun to see it as a global imperative. Campaigners, scientists and intellectuals shifted my opinions and millions with me. Ideas start deep below public consciousness. So what have been the ideas that have incubated in 2007? Here are my five ideas - not, I am the first to concede, the only five - that I believe will surely have an impact and, in the round, for the better. Don't Trash Our Gods If 2006 was the year of the rampant secularists, Richard Dawkins assailing religion as the source of much evil, 2007 has seen the case for faith begin to make a comeback. A life well lived for many is helped by a sense of higher moral purpose. Human beings still require a sense of the sacred. The controversies over Islam should not blind us to the advantage of a belief in a God who rewards good and punishes bad. A master work by Professor Charles Taylor, "A Secular Age", argues that while faith today may be harder to achieve when so much is explicable by science, that does not mean that it is not worth the effort or that those who make the attempt should be mocked by the rationalist secularists. 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