Free Internet Press Newsletter - Saturday January 31 2009 - (813)

Saturday January 31 2009 edition
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Stocks Slump, Dow Drops 150 Points, Finishes Week Lower Than It Began 2009-01-30 16:42:17 Stocks slumped for a second day on Friday as investors took a milder-than-expected reading on the economy as a sign that the worst is yet to come. The Dow Jones industrials sank about 150 points, while the broader indexes fell more than 2.2 percent. The Dow closed just above 8,000 but ended the week below where it began, 8,077.56. The U.s. Commerce Department said Friday that gross domestic product, the widely followed measure of the economy, shrank at a 3.8 percent pace in the final three months of 2008. That compared with a 0.5 percent decline the previous quarter. Friday’s reading was much better than the 5.4 percent drop economists expected. Still, the figure could be revised lower in the months ahead - and many analysts believe the economy has been contracting in early 2009 at an even faster pace. “We expected fourth quarter to be the worst of the recession,” said Randy Frederick, director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab. “From an investor’s perspective, they may see this stronger-than-expected report setting us up for the first quarter to be worse.” “Each time you get a report that indicates that maybe we hadn’t bottomed out yet, it prolongs the recovery,” said  Frederick. Read The Full Story U.S. Economy Shrinks As Unsold Goods Pile Up 2009-01-30 15:39:37 The United States economy shrank at its fastest pace in a quarter-century from October through December, the government reported on Friday, as consumer spending and business investment collapsed, signaling more economic contraction in the months ahead. In the broadest official accounting of the toll of the credit crisis, the government reported that gross domestic product shrank at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. While that was less than economists’ expectations of a 5.5 percent drop, the decline would have been much steeper - more than 5 percent - if shipments of goods had fallen as sharply as orders. President Obama seized on the figures Friday morning, calling the contraction a “continuing disaster” for working families, and again urged Congress to pass a package of tax cuts and spending. The House, divided on party lines, passed an $819 billion stimulus plan on Wednesday, and Senate is expected to take up the measure next week. “What we can’t do is drag our feet or delay much longer,” said Obama. “The American people expect us to act.” The president also announced the first meeting of a Task Force on Middle-Class Working Families, which will seek to raise living standards of working families. . Read The Full Story Exxon Mobil Shatters U.S. Shatters U.S. Annual Profit Record: $45.2 Billion 2009-01-30 15:39:15 Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent from a year ago. The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which the world's largest publicly traded oil company set in 2007. The extraordinary full-year profit wasn't a surprise given crude's triple-digit price for much of 2008, peaking near an unheard of $150 a barrel in July. Since then, however, prices have fallen roughly 70 percent amid a deepening global economic crisis. In the fourth quarter alone crude tumbled 60 percent, prompting spending and job cuts in an industry that was reporting robust, often record, profits as recently as last summer. With piles of cash and diversified operations, the majors like Exxon Mobil have fared better than many smaller oil and gas companies, but Friday's results show no one is completely insulated from the ongoing malaise. Read The Full Story Biden To Chair Task Force On Middle Class 2009-01-30 15:38:36 For anyone expecting Vice President Biden to disappear in a sea of strong-willed Cabinet heavyweights, an event at the White House on Friday morning was a signal: President Obama is really interested in giving Biden a higher profile. At a crowded ceremony in the East Wing of the White House, Obama launched a task force on the middle class - and put Biden in charge of it. Obama acknowledged that the task force comes at a moment of crisis - just as the economy is experiencing, he said, the "worst contraction in close to three decades" with the release of new data showing the economy had shrunk 3.8 percent last quarter. "This isn't just an economic concept. This is a continuing disaster for America's working families. As worrying as these numbers are, it's what they mean to the American people that really matters," Obama said. He said that Biden will be especially suited to the task of studying the middle class and coming up with solutions, given his working-class, Scranton roots. Biden announced that his chief economic adviser, Jared Bernstein, will be the executive director of the task force - a welcome announcement to more liberal economists and the labor movement, who regard Bernstein as one of their greatest allies within the administration. The task force also has its own web site - astrongmiddleclass.gov - that will not only post information but also solicit ideas, said Biden . Read The Full Story Economic Signs Turn From Shinola To ... Well, You Get The Idea 2009-01-30 03:48:46 On the eve of what is expected to be the clearest evidence yet of the nation's deepening recession, bad news rolled in from across the economy and the world. Sales of new homes in December plummeted, corporations announced plans to cut 13,000 more U.S. jobs, unemployment claims jumped, and a troubled icon of U.S. manufacturing, Ford Motor, Thursday announced a massive loss. Early Friday morning, the Japanese government announced that factory output had fallen 9.6 percent and that joblessness in the world's second-largest economy jumped to 4.4 percent, in the largest increase in 41 years. The accelerating pattern of grim indicators has led up to a report scheduled for release Friday morning on U.S. economic performance in the final three months of last year. Many economists think the economy shrank by as much as a 6 percent annual rate - that would be the worst quarter for the economy since 1982 - and they see little potential for growth until later this year. Capturing the sentiment of a nation caught in an economic tailspin, President Obama said Thursday that it was "shameful" that Wall Street firms doled out nearly $20 billion in executive bonuses even as the government was spending billions of dollars to rescue financial firms. Stocks stumbled Thursday on the dire economic data, with the Dow Jones industrial averagte dropping 2.7 percent, or 226.44 points, to close at 8149.01. Read The Full Story American Indian Museum Will Put Entire Collection Online 2009-01-30 03:48:23 Even with three locations in its empire, the National Museum of the American Indian can display barely 1 percent of its 800,000 objects. To help close that gap, the museum has decided to set up a digital showcase. On Monday, the museum plans to launch its "Fourth Museum" to give scholars, students, teachers, cultural historians and those far away from the museum's homes in Washington, D.C., and New York City, N.Y., the opportunity to look into its archives. The move has been in the works for nearly three years, as staff reexamined each item and its scholarship. The online project, part of the museum's regular Web site, will begin with 5,500 items and photographs. The goal is to have all 800,000 objects on the Web site, but it will take at least four years to achieve that. "Most Americans will never see the Smithsonian, and Native Americans aren't any different," said Kevin Gover, the museum's director. "This Web site has always been part of our long-term strategic plan. Quite simply, given we know most native people will never visit any of our three museums ... we wanted to provide this experience." Money to travel isn't plentiful in native communities, said Gover, but most reservations and schools have been equipped with the latest Internet and satellite technology. So now the historian or descendant of the Kalaallitt can study a harpoon head resembling a polar bear, made around 1880 by a member of those Greenland Inuit. It was probably collected during Robert E. Peary's Arctic expedition in 1891-92 and since 1929 has been in the archives that preceded the museum. "We started with objects where we were sure the information was accurate," said Ann McMullen, chief curator of the project. Read The Full Story	U.S. Will Not Renew Blackwater Contract In Iraq 2009-01-30 16:42:08 The U.S. State Department will not renew the contract of security contractor Blackwater Worldwide when it expires in May, a senior State Department official said Friday. The decision was made after the Iraqi government refused last week to renew the firm's operating license because of a 2007 incident in which the Iraqi government says security guards - then employed by Blackwater - fired on and killed 17 Iraqis. Blackwater's latest "task order" expires in May, and the senior official said that "one of the conditions is that you have to have a license" to continue working in the country. "No license, no renewal," the official said. "If they don't have a license to operate, we would certainly not renew the task order." The official said the decision would not affect other the contracts Blackwater has with the State Department to protect American diplomats around the world. Read The Full Story Rising Acidity Threatens Oceans 2009-01-30 15:39:24 The oceans have long buffered the effects of climate change by absorbing a substantial portion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Yet this benefit has a catch: as the gas dissolves, it makes seawater more acidic. Now an international panel of marine scientists says this acidity is accelerating so fast it threatens the survival of coral reefs, shellfish and the marine food web generally. The panel, comprising 155 scientists from 26 countries and organized by the United Nations and other international groups, is not the first to point to growing ocean acidity as an environmental threat. For example, a group of eminent scientists convened by The Nature Conservancy issued a similar assessment in August; but its blunt language and international credentials give its assessment unusual force. It called for “urgent action” to sharply reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. “Severe damages are imminent,” the group said Friday in a statement summing up its deliberations at a symposium in Monaco last October. The statement, called the Monaco Declaration, said increasing acidity is interfering with the growth and health of shellfish and eating away at coral reefs, processes that would eventually affect marine food webs generally. Already, the group said, there have been detectable decreases in shellfish, shell weights and interference with the growth of coral skeletons. Read The Full Story N. Korea Vows To Abandon Peace Pact With S. Korea 2009-01-30 15:39:01 North Korea's vow to abandon all peace agreements with Seoul drew a mild response Friday from South Korea's president, who continued to express optimism that the rivals could hold negotiations soon. President Lee Myung-bak dismissed the North's claim that his government's tougher policies were pushing the divided peninsula toward armed conflict. "I hope North Korea understands that (South Korea) has affection toward the North, and I think that the two Koreas can hold negotiations before long," Lee said, without elaborating. Still, he was skeptical about sending an envoy to North Korea to help break the deadlock. Lee's comments came hours after the North vowed to abandon a nonaggression pact and all other peace agreements with South Korea. The communist country also said it would not respect a disputed sea border with the South. Read The Full Story Zombies In Austin Texas! Run! 2009-01-30 13:19:23 Austin, Texas drivers making their morning commute were in for a surprise when two road signs on a busy stretch of road were taken over by hackers. The signs near the intersection of Lamar and Martin Luther King boulevards usually warn drivers about upcoming construction, but Monday morning they warned of  "zombies ahead." Read The Full Story U.S. Senate Passes Children's Health Insurance Bill 2009-01-30 03:48:34 The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation Thursday to provide health insurance to 11 million low-income children, a bill that would for the first time spend federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants. The State Children's Health Insurance Program, which is aimed at families earning too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance, currently covers close to 7 million youngsters at a cost of $25 billion. Lawmakers voted 66 to 32, largely along party lines, to renew the joint state-federal program and spend an additional $32.8 billion to expand coverage to 4 million more children. The expansion would be paid for by raising the cigarette tax from 39 cents a pack to $1. The House approved similar legislation on Jan. 14, and President Obama is expected to sign a final version as early as next week. During the presidential campaign, Obama pledged to provide coverage to every American child. Experts estimate that once the program is fully implemented about 5 million youngsters will remain uninsured. 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 - Friday January 30 2009 - (813)

Friday January 30 2009 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Economic Signs Turn From Shinola To ... Well, You Get The Idea 2009-01-30 03:48:46 On the eve of what is expected to be the clearest evidence yet of the nation's deepening recession, bad news rolled in from across the economy and the world. Sales of new homes in December plummeted, corporations announced plans to cut 13,000 more U.S. jobs, unemployment claims jumped, and a troubled icon of U.S. manufacturing, Ford Motor, Thursday announced a massive loss. Early Friday morning, the Japanese government announced that factory output had fallen 9.6 percent and that joblessness in the world's second-largest economy jumped to 4.4 percent, in the largest increase in 41 years. The accelerating pattern of grim indicators has led up to a report scheduled for release Friday morning on U.S. economic performance in the final three months of last year. Many economists think the economy shrank by as much as a 6 percent annual rate - that would be the worst quarter for the economy since 1982 - and they see little potential for growth until later this year. Capturing the sentiment of a nation caught in an economic tailspin, President Obama said Thursday that it was "shameful" that Wall Street firms doled out nearly $20 billion in executive bonuses even as the government was spending billions of dollars to rescue financial firms. Stocks stumbled Thursday on the dire economic data, with the Dow Jones industrial averagte dropping 2.7 percent, or 226.44 points, to close at 8149.01. Read The Full Story American Indian Museum Will Put Entire Collection Online 2009-01-30 03:48:23 Even with three locations in its empire, the National Museum of the American Indian can display barely 1 percent of its 800,000 objects. To help close that gap, the museum has decided to set up a digital showcase. On Monday, the museum plans to launch its "Fourth Museum" to give scholars, students, teachers, cultural historians and those far away from the museum's homes in Washington, D.C., and New York City, N.Y., the opportunity to look into its archives. The move has been in the works for nearly three years, as staff reexamined each item and its scholarship. The online project, part of the museum's regular Web site, will begin with 5,500 items and photographs. The goal is to have all 800,000 objects on the Web site, but it will take at least four years to achieve that. "Most Americans will never see the Smithsonian, and Native Americans aren't any different," said Kevin Gover, the museum's director. "This Web site has always been part of our long-term strategic plan. Quite simply, given we know most native people will never visit any of our three museums ... we wanted to provide this experience." Money to travel isn't plentiful in native communities, said Gover, but most reservations and schools have been equipped with the latest Internet and satellite technology. So now the historian or descendant of the Kalaallitt can study a harpoon head resembling a polar bear, made around 1880 by a member of those Greenland Inuit. It was probably collected during Robert E. Peary's Arctic expedition in 1891-92 and since 1929 has been in the archives that preceded the museum. "We started with objects where we were sure the information was accurate," said Ann McMullen, chief curator of the project. Read The Full Story Obama Signs Equal-Pay Legislation 2009-01-29 14:43:43 President Obama signed his first bill into law on Thursday, approving equal-pay legislation that he said would “send a clear message that making our economy work means making sure it works for everybody.” Obama was surrounded by a group of beaming lawmakers, most but not all of them Democrats, in the East Room of the White House as he affixed his signature to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a law named for an Alabama woman who at the end of a 19-year career as a supervisor in a tire factory complained that she had been paid less than men. After a Supreme Court ruling against her, Congress approved the legislation that expands workers’ rights to sue in this kind of case, relaxing the statute of limitations. “It is fitting that with the very first bill I sign - the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - we are upholding one of this nation’s first principles: that we are all created equal and each deserve a chance to pursue our own version of happiness,” said the president. Read The Full Story U.S. New Home Sales Fall Almost 15 Percent In December 2009-01-29 14:43:23 New home sales in the U.S. plummeted by nearly 15 percent last month as builders struggled to unload a glut of homes on the market, according to new government data. That month-over-month drop caps one of the worst years on record. Sales fell 44.8 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. The market was weakest in the Northeast and West. Sales in those regions fell by 50 percent and 47 percent, respectively. "I am surprised they are this bad," said David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. In the South, the region that includes Washington, D.C., sales were down 12 percent; they were off 6 percent in the Midwest. In all of 2008, only 482,000 new single-family homes were sold, down 37.8 percent from 2007. That is the biggest year-over-year decline in sales on record, according to the Commerce Department. Prices also tumbled. The median price for homes sold in December was $206,500, falling 9.3 percent from $227,700 a year earlier. Median prices have fallen to 2004 levels. It was the biggest drop since 1970. The median price for all of 2008 was $230,600, down from $247,900 in 2007. Read The Full Story Illinois Hears Gov. Blagojevich Make His Case 2009-01-29 14:42:29 For a trial that has at times seemed sleepy in the absence of its star defendant, a dramatic turn came Thursday morning as Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich arrived here in Springfield, the capitol of Illinois, and delivered an impassioned closing argument in his impeachment trial before the Illinois State Senate. The capital city was captivated - as were people all across the state - as Blagojevich pleaded his innocence in blunt, unsparing terms. "You haven’t proved a crime and you can’t because it hasn’t happened," he told the legislators. "How can you throw a governor out of office with incomplete or insufficient evidence?" Blagojevich asked the senators to put themselves in his shoes, and cast himself as a hard-working pragmatist who did whatever it took to help the people of his state - even when that sometimes meant skirting legislators and their rules. He flatly denied any criminal wrongdoing, excoriating the process that led him to the low point of essentially begging to keep his job; and he picked apart the articles of impeachment against him one by one, straining at times to present his point of view in sympathetic terms. "I’m appealing to your sense of fairness," he said, adding later, "I did a lot of things that were mostly right." Read The Full Story Markets Fall On Home Sales, Goods Orders, Jobless Claims 2009-01-29 14:41:57 Stocks tumbled in early trading Thursday as investors faced more poor economic news. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.3 percent, or 109 points, and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 1.7 percent, or 15 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was down about 1.8 percent, or 28 points. The sell-off has already wiped away most of yesterday's gains. New homes sales fell 14.7 percent in December, compared with the previous month, and about 45 percent compared with the same period last year, according to government data. That was worse than analysts expected. Orders for big-ticket durable goods fell 2.6 percent in December, the fifth monthly decline in a row, according to Commerce Department data. Excluding defense purchases, orders fell even faster, 4.9 percent. The "industrial recession is deep and broad and there's no prospect of any easing of the downward pressure anytime soon," Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics, said in a research note. Read The Full Story Kentucky Hit By Vicious Winter Storm, 525,000 Without Power 2009-01-29 14:40:52 Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has asked the Obama administration for a federal emergency disaster declaration to deal with widespread power outages and cleanup after a powerful winter storm hammered Kentucky this week. The state, along with 68 counties and 36 cities, was operating under states of emergency as ice continued to drag down power lines and branches clogged roadways. A state emergency official said Thursday that three deaths in Kentucky are associated with a vicious winter storm. An estimated 525,000 Kentuckians were without power Wednesday night, the second-largest outage in the state's history. More than 36,500 in Lexington were without electricity by Wednesday evening. Many cities were struggling to find generators to keep water and sewage plants operating, and thousands of people sought warmth in 91 shelters statewide. Read The Full Story What Financial Crisis? Wall Street Paid $18.4 Billion In Annual Bonuses 2009-01-29 00:44:48 By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street - except, that is, when the bonuses arrived. Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year. That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller. While the payouts paled next to the riches of recent years, Wall Street workers still took home about as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high. Some bankers took home millions last year even as their employers lost billions. The comptroller’s estimate, a closely watched guidepost of the annual December-January bonus season, is based largely on personal income tax collections. It excludes stock option awards that could push the figures even higher. Read The Full Story U.S. Army To Report Record Number Of Suicides 2009-01-29 00:44:24 The U.S. Army will report Thursday the highest level of suicides among its soldiers since it began tracking the rate 28 years ago. Statistics obtained by CNN show the Army will report 128 confirmed suicides last year and another 15 suspected suicides in cases under investigation among active-duty soldiers and activated National Guard and reserves. The confirmed rate of suicides for the Army was 20.2 per 100,000. Army officials were reviewing the suspected suicides Wednesday. If any of them are confirmed, the rate would rise. Last month, Army officials said the nation's suicide rate was 19.5 people per 100,000, a 2005 figure considered the most recent. Read The Full Story	U.S. Senate Passes Children's Health Insurance Bill 2009-01-30 03:48:34 The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation Thursday to provide health insurance to 11 million low-income children, a bill that would for the first time spend federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants. The State Children's Health Insurance Program, which is aimed at families earning too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance, currently covers close to 7 million youngsters at a cost of $25 billion. Lawmakers voted 66 to 32, largely along party lines, to renew the joint state-federal program and spend an additional $32.8 billion to expand coverage to 4 million more children. The expansion would be paid for by raising the cigarette tax from 39 cents a pack to $1. The House approved similar legislation on Jan. 14, and President Obama is expected to sign a final version as early as next week. During the presidential campaign, Obama pledged to provide coverage to every American child. Experts estimate that once the program is fully implemented about 5 million youngsters will remain uninsured. Read The Full Story Illinois Senate Votes Unanimously To Impeach, Remove Blagojevich 2009-01-29 18:05:27 The Illinois Senate voted overwhelmingly, 59 - 0, Thursday to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) from office for abuse of power, ending a weeks-long impeachment ordeal that ranged between drama and farce. One by one, Republicans and Democrats stood to call for the governor's ouster, rejecting his last-minute pleas and criticizing him as a liar and a hypocrite. With the vote, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn (D), a former running mate who hasn't spoken with the increasingly isolated Blagojevich in 17 months, became Illinois' 41st governor. Blagojevich, who addressed the senators in the state capitol in Springfield Thursday morning and told them he had done nothing wrong, was already home in Chicago went the votes were tallied. When he arrived home, he changed into running clothes and went for a jog. Earlier in the day, the Illinois State House prosecutor told the senators that "the pattern of abuse of power is unmistakable" and Blagojevich should be removed from office. Read The Full Story Rights Manifesto Gains Ground In China Despite Efforts To Quash It 2009-01-29 14:43:35 When Tang Xiaozhao first saw a copy of the pro-democracy petition in her e-mail inbox, she silently acknowledged she agreed with everything in it but didn't want to get involved. Tang, a pigtailed, 30-something cosmetology major, had never considered herself the activist type. Like many other Chinese citizens, she kept a blog where she wrote about current events and her life, but she wasn't political. A few days later, however, Tang surprised herself. She logged on to her computer and signed the document by sending her full name, location and occupation to a special e-mail address. "I was afraid, but I had already signed it hundreds of times in my heart," Tang said in an interview. Hers is the 3,943rd signature on the list that has swelled to more than 8,100 from across China. Although their numbers are still small, those signing the document, and the broad spectrum from which they come, have made the human rights manifesto, known as Charter 08, a significant marker in the demands for democracy in China, one of the few sustained campaigns since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Those who sign the charter risk arrest and punishment. When the document first appeared online in mid-December, its impact was limited. Many of the original signers were lawyers, writers and other intellectuals who had long been known for their pro-democracy stance. The Chinese government moved quickly to censor the charter - putting those suspected of having written it under surveillance, interrogating those who had signed, and deleting any mention of it from the Internet behind its great firewall. Read The Full Story Iraq To Deny New License To Blackwater Security 2009-01-29 14:43:05 The Iraqi government has informed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that it will not issue a new operating license to Blackwater Worldwide, the embassy's primary security company, which has come under scrutiny for allegedly using excessive force while protecting American diplomats, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday. Iraq's Interior Ministry conveyed its decision to U.S. officials in Baghdad on Friday, in one of the boldest moves the government has made since the Jan. 1 implementation of a security agreement with the United States that sharply curbed American power in Iraq. Blackwater employees who have not been accused of improper conduct will be allowed to continue working as private security contractors in Iraq if they switch employers, Iraqi officials said Wednesday. The officials said Blackwater must leave the country as soon as a joint Iraqi-U.S. committee finishes drawing up guidelines for private contractors under the security agreement. It is unclear how long that will take. Blackwater employees and other U.S. contractors had been immune from prosecution under Iraqi law. "When the work of this committee ends," said Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, private security companies "will be under the authority of the Iraqi government, and those companies that don't have licenses, such as Blackwater, should leave Iraq immediately." Read The Full Story Ford Posts $5.9 Billion 4th Quarter Loss, $14.6 Billion Annual Loss 2009-01-29 14:42:10 Ford lost $14.6 billion in 2008 amid a crash in global auto sales but maintained that it does not yet need to tap billions in federal loans, like other U.S. automakers. The results include a nearly $6 billion loss in the last three months of the year as Ford ran through some $5.5 billion of its available cash - a closely watched metric among the Big Three Detroit automakers who appealed for federal help last year on the grounds that they were running out of funds to keep operating. This morning Ford gave notice to its banks to fully draw $10.1 billion from an existing line of credit. The company stressed that it is tapping the credit line to simply have it available, not fund operations. "We took this action because of our concerns about the growing instability of the capital markets," said Ford chief executive Alan Mulally. Mulally insisted that Ford still does not need the same sort of government bridge loans that General Motors and Chrysler lobbied hard for last year. Read The Full Story ACLU Tests Obama With Requests For Secret Bush-Era Memos 2009-01-29 14:41:23 Dozens of secret documents justifying the Bush administration's spying and interrogation programs could see the light of day because of a new presidential directive. The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Obama administration on Wednesday to release Justice Department memos that provided the legal underpinning for harsh interrogations, eavesdropping and secret prisons. For years, the Bush administration refused to release them, citing national security, attorney-client privilege and the need to protect the government's deliberative process. The ACLU's request, however, comes after President Barack Obama last week rescinded a 2001 Justice Department memo that gave agencies broad legal cover to reject public disclosure requests. Obama also urged agencies to be more transparent when deciding what documents to release under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The ACLU now sees a new opening. Read The Full Story Alaska Volcano Mt. Redoubt Expected To Erupt Soon 2009-01-29 14:40:36 In the shadows of Mount Redoubt, Alaskans are calmly waiting for the volcano to erupt - an event that could occur at any time. "The level of seismic activity" has "increased markedly" in recent days at the 10,197-foot peak located about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, the state's most populous city, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. "We don't have a crystal ball," said Peter Cervelli, a research geophysicist with the observatory, which is aggressively monitoring the volcano. "We expect based on the past behavior of this volcano that this activity is going to culminate in an eruption." The activity has consisted "of a combination of discrete, relatively small earthquakes and periods of more continuous volcanic tremor," said Cervelli. Scientists raised the alert status Sunday to a "watch" level, the second-highest, based on seismic activity detected January 23. Read The Full Story CIA Station Chief In Algeria Accused In 2 Sex Assaults 2009-01-29 00:44:36 The CIA's top officer in Algeria has been returned to Washington, D.C., amid allegations that he drugged and raped two women at his Algiers residence, an accusation that presents the Obama administration's new intelligence team with an unexpected legal and diplomatic crisis even before it officially takes office. The 41-year-old Algiers station chief was ordered home by the State Department after a months-long investigation of alleged sexual assaults in September 2007 and February of last year, U.S. officials confirmed yesterday. The two women involved in the incidents told U.S. diplomats that they became unconscious after receiving what they believed were knockout drugs served to them in drinks. The alleged assaults, if confirmed, are viewed as particularly serious because they could potentially damage diplomatic relations with Algeria, a U.S. ally, and undermine U.S. efforts to improve its image in the Muslim world, said former diplomats and foreign policy experts. The CIA and State Department declined to comment on the alleged assaults, which were first described in an Internet report yesterday by ABC News. State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood confirmed that an investigation was ongoing and that the officer involved had been recalled to Washington. 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 - Thursday January 29 2009 - (813)

Thursday January 29 2009 edition
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What Financial Crisis? Wall Street Paid $18.4 Billion In Annual Bonuses 2009-01-29 00:44:48 By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street - except, that is, when the bonuses arrived. Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year. That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller. While the payouts paled next to the riches of recent years, Wall Street workers still took home about as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high. Some bankers took home millions last year even as their employers lost billions. The comptroller’s estimate, a closely watched guidepost of the annual December-January bonus season, is based largely on personal income tax collections. It excludes stock option awards that could push the figures even higher. Read The Full Story U.S. Army To Report Record Number Of Suicides 2009-01-29 00:44:24 The U.S. Army will report Thursday the highest level of suicides among its soldiers since it began tracking the rate 28 years ago. Statistics obtained by CNN show the Army will report 128 confirmed suicides last year and another 15 suspected suicides in cases under investigation among active-duty soldiers and activated National Guard and reserves. The confirmed rate of suicides for the Army was 20.2 per 100,000. Army officials were reviewing the suspected suicides Wednesday. If any of them are confirmed, the rate would rise. Last month, Army officials said the nation's suicide rate was 19.5 people per 100,000, a 2005 figure considered the most recent. Read The Full Story Al Gore To Congress: Move Swiftly Or Face Catastrophic Global Warming 2009-01-28 20:47:19 Former vice president Al Gore urged lawmakers Wednesday to adopt a binding carbon cap and push for a new international climate pact by the end of this year in order to avert catastrophic global warming. Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Gore delivered a short slide show that amounted to an update of his Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," lecturing some of his former colleagues that even if the world halted greenhouse gas emissions now, it could experience a temperature rise of between 2.5 to 7.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. "This would bring a screeching halt to human civilization and threaten life everywhere on Earth, and this is by the end of this century," said Gore. The high-tech display included a graphic illustration of how the Arctic's permanent summer ice cover has melted in recent decades, a pulsating image the Nobel Peace Prize winner described as "30 years in less than 30 seconds," and a short video clip of a scientist who ignited the methane gas seeping out of the melting Arctic permafrost. After the audience watched the flames leap up and the researcher scurry away, Gore remarked, "She's okay. The question is, are we?" Read The Full Story Obama: Not A 'Moment To Spare' On Stimulus Plan 2009-01-28 16:15:15 Declaring that “we don’t have a moment to spare,” President Obama on Wednesday pushed hard for passage of his economic stimulus plan, promising that it would be not just enormous in scope but run with a transparency and accountability not always associated with huge Washington projects. “We’ll invest in what works,” the president said after what he called “a sober meeting” with prominent business executives at the White House to discuss not just the immediate economic crisis but the ability of America to compete in the global marketplace in the 21st century. Hours before the House was expected to approve his proposed $825 billion program, largely along partisan lines and in the face of heavy criticism, Obama tried to convey his message far beyond the corridors of the Capitol and into boardrooms and living rooms. The future of the American economy rests less in his hands than it does “with American companies and workers,” said Obama. “They are the ones whose efforts and ideas will determine our economic destiny, just as they always have,” the president said. “For in the end, it’s businesses, large and small, that generate the jobs, provide the salaries and serve as the foundation on which the American people’s lives and dreams depend.” Read The Full Story Despite Huge Inventory Buildup, Oil Prices Rise 2009-01-28 16:14:53 Oil prices rose Wednesday despite another government report showing that U.S. crude stockpiles are growing as consumers and business slash spending on energy. Traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange instead looked to Washington, D.C., where the House was expected to approve an $816 billion economic stimulus plan that could help jump-start the ailing economy. Light, sweet crude for March delivery rose $1.09 to $42.67 a barrel in trading on Nymex. The contract fell $4.15 Monday with bad news about housing and jobs sapping consumer confidence. Supporters of the massive stimulus bill say it would create up to 4 million jobs. The bill, which includes roughly $550 billion in spending and $275 billion in tax cuts, could be signed by President Barack Obama by mid-February. If so, it would lead to more energy spending by manufacturers as they ramp up production, and perhaps millions of Americans who have lost jobs since last year. Read The Full Story U.S. Interior Dept. Ignored Science When Limiting Water To Grand Canyon 2009-01-28 16:14:33 U.S. Interior Department officials ignored key scientific findings when they limited water flows in the Grand Canyon to optimize generation of electric power there, risking damage to the ecology of the spectacular national landmark, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post. A Jan. 15 memo written by Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Steve Martin suggests that the department produced a flawed environmental assessment to defend its actions against environmentalists in court. The Grand Canyon Trust, an advocacy group, has sued Interior for reducing the flow of water from Glen Canyon Dam at night, when consumer demand for electricity is low, on the grounds that the policy hurts imperiled fish species such as the endangered humpback chub and erodes the canyon's beaches. "The government's brief as presented continues to misinterpret key scientific findings related to the humpback chub, status of downstream resources in Grand Canyon, and the need for the Secretary to acknowledge [National Park Service] authorities and responsibilities to protect resources under [National Park Service] administration," Martin wrote in a memo that the Washington Post obtained from the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Martin added that his agency continues to fear that the current policy "will significantly impair Grand Canyon resources." The behind-the-scenes skirmish, which took place just days before President George W. Bush left the White House, highlights the sort of challenges Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will face in his new position. While Salazar declined to comment specifically on the Grand Canyon case because it is the subject of an ongoing legal battle, he said in an interview Tuesday that he would emphasize "the need to have sound science in all decision making in the Department of Interior." "Science should not be shoved under the table in order to deal with special interests that are knocking at the door," said Salazar, adding that he will be looking at several last-minute decisions made by Bush before he left office. "My point of view is, nothing is sacrosanct in terms of being reexamined." Read The Full Story U.S. Postmaster General Says Mail Service May Need To Be Cut 2009-01-28 16:14:03 Massive deficits could force the post office to cut out one day of mail delivery per week, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday. Postmaster General John E. Potter asked lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week. Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year and, "if current trends continue, we could experience a net loss of $6 billion or more this fiscal year," Potter said in testimony for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee. Total mail volume was 202 billion items last year, more than 9 billion less than the year before, the largest single volume drop in history. Despite annual rate increases, Potter said 2009 could be the first year since 1946 that the actual amount of money collected by the post office declines. "It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable," said Potter. "I reluctantly request that Congress remove the annual appropriation bill rider, first added in 1983, that requires the Postal Service to deliver mail six days each week." Read The Full Story U.S. House Votes Against Delaying Switch To Digital TV 2009-01-28 16:13:12 The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday defeated a bill to delay the nation's switch to all-digital television by four months. The action comes less than two days after the Senate unanimously passed a plan to postpone the Feb. 17 switch to June 12. The defeat was a setback for the Obama administration and Hill Democrats, who are concerned that too many Americans are not ready to get digital programming. House Republicans have argued that postponing the date would cause confusion for consumers and cost millions for broadcasters who have planned to make the transition. Congress three years ago mandated that all television broadcasters shut off analog signals and air only digital programming. As a result, viewers who rely on older analog TV sets and antennas to receive broadcasts will need to upgrade to a digital TV or install a converter box to continue watching television. The Nielsen Co. estimates more than 6.5 million U.S. households that rely on over-the-air broadcast signals, or 5.7 percent of the population, are not prepared for the transition and could see their TV sets go dark next month. Read The Full Story China Raids Homes, Businesses In Lhasa, Tibet 2009-01-28 16:12:38 Chinese authorities carrying out a "strike hard" campaign in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa have raided thousands of homes and businesses, run checks on 5,766 suspects and detained at least 81 people, including two for having reactionary music on their cellphones, according to official reports and news accounts. The state-controlled Tibetan Daily, in a Sunday report, and the Lhasa Evening News last week said the campaign targets criminal activity such as burglary, prostitution and theft, and is needed to uphold the city's social order; but experts and activists who support greater autonomy for Tibet said the motive behind the campaign, which began Jan. 18, is to detain those involved in last spring's riots and warn off others who support Tibetan independence. Chinese leaders are worried about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising. On March 10, 1959, Tibetans rose up against Chinese rule, but the rebellion ended after 20 days with the flight of the Dalai Lama into exile in India. Beijing-backed Tibetan lawmakers have proposed a new holiday this year, on March 28, the day China  announced the dissolution of the Tibetan government, to mark the "liberation" of Tibetan serfs. Lhasa's entire investigative police force mobilized more than 600 people and 160 vehicles to check 2,922 rented apartments or houses, 14 hotels and guest houses, 18 bars and 3 Internet cafes, the Lhasa Evening News said, according to a translation e-mailed by the International Campaign for Tibet, which advocates for more autonomy for the Himalayan region. The police push follows 10 months of tight security after rioting broke out March 14 last year, leading to the deaths of at least 18 civilians and one police officer and sparking anti-government protests and a massive government crackdown. Read The Full Story Tribunal: British Government Must Cabinet Minutes On Lead-Up To Iraq War 2009-01-28 03:22:07 Secret British government discussions about the Iraq war are to be disclosed after an information tribunal Tuesday ordered the release of cabinet minutes from 2003. The decision follows a lengthy battle by campaigners, who have argued that the public interest in learning what was said about the planned invasion outweighs the public interest in cabinet discussions being kept secret. Cabinet ministers have strongly opposed the request, arguing that the Freedom of Information Act was never intended to allow for the publication of information of this kind. The tribunal upheld a decision by the information commissioner that details of the sessions on March 13 and 17 should be disclosed. The meetings considered the highly controversial issue of whether the invasion was allowed under international law. Lord Goldsmith, who was attorney general at the time, initially suggested that the legality of the invasion was legally questionable before subsequently issuing legal advice saying that it would be compatible with international law. This has given rise to persistent claims that ministers were not fully briefed on the possible legal pitfalls of an invasion. Tuesday's ruling does not necessarily mean the minutes will be published because the government has 28 days to appeal.The tribunal said that the exceptional circumstances relating to the two cabinet meetings meant that publication was justified and that it would not set a precedent for the publication of all cabinet minutes. Read The Full Story Obama Calls For Green Battle Against Economic Crisis 2009-01-28 03:21:32 U.S. President Barack Obama has said this week he wants to fight climate change, making the kind of statements the rest of the world has been waiting to hear for a long time. He's dressing his proposals up as an economic stimulus package, but can he drum up enough U.S. support for a deal in Copenhagen later this year? When the new United States president walked into the East Room of the White House on Monday, he was supposed to focus on climate change, but Barack Obama first wanted to say a few words about the bleak economic climate, an area where he has some immediate decisions to make. Frightening new figures have been jolting the U.S. economy in recent days. The list of companies making large cuts in employees is long: construction-machine builder Caterpillar is cutting 20,000 jobs, mobile phone giant Sprint is shedding 8,000, home improvement chain Home Depot will eliminate 7,000 workers. And the list doesn't end there - it is getting longer and longer, and includes blue chip companies like Microsoft, Intel and United Airlines. "These are not just numbers on a page," Obama says. "As with the millions of jobs lost in 2008, these are working men and women whose families have been disrupted and whose dreams have been put on hold. We owe it to each of them and to every single American to act with a sense of urgency and common purpose." Read The Full Story	CIA Station Chief In Algeria Accused In 2 Sex Assaults 2009-01-29 00:44:36 The CIA's top officer in Algeria has been returned to Washington, D.C., amid allegations that he drugged and raped two women at his Algiers residence, an accusation that presents the Obama administration's new intelligence team with an unexpected legal and diplomatic crisis even before it officially takes office. The 41-year-old Algiers station chief was ordered home by the State Department after a months-long investigation of alleged sexual assaults in September 2007 and February of last year, U.S. officials confirmed yesterday. The two women involved in the incidents told U.S. diplomats that they became unconscious after receiving what they believed were knockout drugs served to them in drinks. The alleged assaults, if confirmed, are viewed as particularly serious because they could potentially damage diplomatic relations with Algeria, a U.S. ally, and undermine U.S. efforts to improve its image in the Muslim world, said former diplomats and foreign policy experts. The CIA and State Department declined to comment on the alleged assaults, which were first described in an Internet report yesterday by ABC News. State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood confirmed that an investigation was ongoing and that the officer involved had been recalled to Washington. Read The Full Story Stocks Rise 200 Points On Reports Of Obama Plan For Bad Assets 2009-01-28 20:47:29 The stock market notched a broad-based gain Wednesday thanks to a powerful rally in financial stocks that was driven by the government's latest anticipated effort to boost the banking sector. The Dow Jones industrial average gained more than 200 points and other major indexes surged higher amid anticipation over a plan expected from the Obama administration to remove troubled assets from bank balance sheets. Shares of Citigroup were up 19%, while Bank of America surged 14% and State Street ballooned 31%. The KBW bank stock index gained 14%. The government's bank plan eased fears that it would move in effect to nationalize the industry, which has rattled investors all month. "There's just a little bit more of a level of confidence that the government is doing something without saying, 'We're going to call the shots from here on out,' " said Joe Cusick, senior market analyst at Chicago-based brokerage OptionsXpress. Read The Full Story California's Cardinal Mahoney Under Federal Fraud Investigation Over Abusive Priests 2009-01-28 20:47:07 The U.S. attorney in Los Angeles has launched a federal grand jury investigation into Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in connection with his response to the alleged molestation of children by priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the case. The probe, in which U.S. Atty. Thomas P. O'Brien is personally involved, is aimed at determining whether Mahony, and possibly other church leaders, committed "honest services fraud" by failing to adequately deal with priests accused of sexually abusing children, said the sources, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation. One federal law enforcement source said such a prosecution could be brought under a federal statute that makes it illegal to "scheme ... to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services." In this case, the victims would be parishioners who relied on Mahony and other church leaders to keep their children safe from predatory priests, said the source. To convict on such a charge, prosecutors would have to prove that Mahony used the U.S. mail or some form of electronic communication in committing the alleged fraud, the source said. Read The Full Story Federal Reserve Is Ready To Expand Assistance As Needed 2009-01-28 16:15:04 Conceding that the economy is still spiraling downward on most fronts, the Federal Reserve signaled on Wednesday that it would expand its use of unconventional measures to directly prop up lending for mortgages, consumer loans and businesses. “The Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote the resumption of sustainable economic growth and to preserve price stability,” the Fed said in its statement. The Federal Reserve has already been buying mortgage-backed securities and it said Wednesday in its statement that it would expand its intervention as needed. The committee also served notice that it would purchase longer term Treasury bonds, a move that would drive down long-term interest rates of all types. It expressed its most pointed concern so far that deflation could be a problem, and it saw “some risk” that price inflation remained uncomfortably low. Read The Full Story Wells Fargo Posts $2.55 Billion Loss As Wachovia Takes Toll 2009-01-28 16:14:43 Wells Fargo reported a $2.55 billion fourth-quarter loss on Wednesday in the first signs that its hurried acquisition of the troubled Wachovia Corporation was the start of a long and difficult struggle. Wells Fargo, the country’s biggest consumer bank, set aside more than $21.7 billion to cover losses amid a nationwide housing slump and a deepening recession. Wells Fargo already had one of the biggest real estate portfolios of any bank, but with the Wachovia deal it absorbed more than $219 billion worth of commercial real estate and corporate loans and a big book of toxic pay-option mortgages. The firm’s $2.55 billion fourth-quarter loss, which amounts to 79 cents a share, compares with the $1.36 billion profit, or 41 cents a share, that it earned at the same time last year. Revenue in the quarter was $9.8 billion, down 4 percent from $10.2 billion in the period a year ago. “The environment in which Wells Fargo operates continued to be challenging in the fourth quarter and, if anything, became even more difficult, with the unexpected, abrupt and sharp decline in economic activity late in the quarter,” John Stumpf, Wells Fargo’s chief executive, said in a statement. Stumpf added that he felt better about the Wachovia deal now than he did when it was first announced, and the bank said it had no plans to request additional government money. Read The Full Story Officials: Peanut Plant Knew Of Salmonella And Sold Products Anyway 2009-01-28 16:14:22 The Georgia food plant that federal investigators say deliberately shipped contaminated peanut butter also had mold growing on its ceiling and walls, and it has foot-long gaps in its roof, according to results of a federal inspection. More than 500 people in 43 states have been sickened, and eight have died, after eating crackers and other products made with peanut butter from the plant, which is owned by the Peanut Corporation of America. More than 100 children under the age of 5 are among those who have been sickened. The plant sells its peanut paste to some of the nation’s largest food manufacturers, including Kellogg and McKee Foods. As a result of the contamination, more than 100 products have been recalled, mostly cookies and crackers. Officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, traced the outbreak to the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Georgia. On Jan. 9, investigators descended on the plant for a thorough inspection, which was completed Tuesday. The report from the inspection, first posted on the Internet by Bill Marler, a lawyer, cites 12 instances in 2007 and 2008 in which the company’s own tests of its product found contamination by salmonella. Read The Full Story GM And Chrysler Closing Jobs Banks 2009-01-28 16:13:32 The era when factory workers who lost their jobs could still collect nearly their full salary will be over by next week at General Motors and Chrysler,the two automakers that have borrowed billions of dollars from the federal government to avoid bankruptcy. G.M. on Wednesday said that it would eliminate its jobs bank, a program often held up by critics as a symbol of Detroit’s inefficiency, as of next Monday. Chrysler ended its jobs bank last Monday. The United Automobile Workers union agreed to let the car makers terminate the programs as one of several concessions offered by its leadership to help win support for the so-called bridge loans. The union also said it would delay required payments into a new retiree health care trust and has begun talks with the companies about other ways to cut costs in its labor agreements. G.M. said about 1,600 of its workers are currently in the jobs bank. They will officially be laid off and begin collecting about 72 percent of their full-time pay, through a combination of state unemployment benefits and supplemental benefits from G.M. Read The Full Story Senate Panel Approves Eric Holder As Attorney General 2009-01-28 16:12:58 The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee this morning approved the nomination of Eric H. Holder, Jr., to serve as the nation's first African American attorney general. Holder, 58, ultimately won support from all of the Democrats on the panel; many cited his credentials and backing by 130 law enforcement groups. In a surprise, given comments over the past two months, several Republican lawmakers also cast their votes for Holder. Only two Republican senators, John Cornyn, of Texas, and Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma, voted "nay" on the nomination. Cornyn expressed concern about the nominee's role in controversial Clinton era pardons, Holder's view on terrorism issues and his approach to gun rights. Read The Full Story U.S. Workers Joining Unions Increases Significantly For First Time In 25 Years 2009-01-28 16:12:17 The percentage of American workers belonging to a union jumped in 2008, the first statistically significant increase in the figure in the 25 years that it has been reported. In 2008, union members represented 12.4 percent of employed workers, up from 12.1 percent a year earlier, according to a report from Bureau of Labor Statistics issued this morning. Until last year, union membership had generally been in a slow and steady decline since the 1950s. "We saw what looked like a bottoming out last year, and this suggests that we might have turned the corner," said John Schmitt, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "These results do not suggest that the labor movement is out of the woods in any way. What it does suggest is that some of the biggest structural problems they have faced have abated." Read The Full Story Europe's Gas Pipeline War 2009-01-28 03:21:54 The most recent conflict between Moscow and Kiev over natural gas supplies has reignited the controversy over new transit routes. Europe could get its future gas from the highly controversial Nord Stream pipeline to the north, or via the Nabucco pipeline to the south - but will either ever get built? A grey-green carpet lies on the snow, leading to a wooden stage erected between construction trailers and bulldozers. Heavy snowflakes are falling under a gray sky. They land on the neatly parted hair of two men as they cross the carpet, walking almost in lockstep, and step onto the stage. They have come here to this spot in the Russian taiga to celebrate a "historic event," as one them says: the launch of "one of the biggest projects of its kind in the world." He waves to two workers in red protective suits standing below, and they switch on their welding equipment. As the sparks fly, they weld together two thick gas pipes. Viktor Zubkov, the chairman of energy giant Gazprom since stepping down as Russian prime minister, and Alexei Miller, the company's CEO, are symbolically inaugurating a new pipeline. It will run from the city of Ukhta, where the ceremony is being held, northeast to the Yamal Peninsula in the Artic. Ukhta is a provincial city in the autonomous republic of Komi, 350 kilometers (218 miles) from the Arctic Circle. Built by prisoners, the city was once part of the famous Gulag archipelago described by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. The only trees that can survive the biting cold so far north are small birch trees and stunted pines. Yet there are riches in the region. By 2030, up to 360 billion cubic meters of natural gas are expected to be flowing through Ukhta toward the West each year. A portion of that gas is intended for a pipeline that has become the center of a bitter dispute in Europe that now borders on a clash of cultures. Read The Full Story Commentary: Rewriting The Rulebook For 21st Century Capitalism 2009-01-28 03:21:16 Intellpuke: This commentary was written by Jeffrey Sachs and appeared in the Guardian online edition for Wednesday, January 28, 2009. Mr. Sachs is professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is also a special adviser to the United Nations Secretary General on the millennium development goals; and author of the book "Common Wealth". In his commentary he writes: "Technology is at the core of Obama's plans for a sustainable future. In this new era of public action, the U.S. is back in the lead." Prof. Sachs' commentary follows: One of President Barack Obama's historic contributions will be a grand act of policy jujitsu - turning the crushing economic crisis into the launch of a new age of sustainable development. His macroeconomic stimulus may or may not cushion the recession, and bitter partisan fights over priorities no doubt lie ahead. But Obama is already setting a new historic course by reorienting the economy from private consumption to public investments directed at the great challenges of energy, climate, food production, water and biodiversity. The new president has taken every opportunity to underscore that the economic crisis will not slow, but rather will accelerate, the much-needed economic transformation to sustainability. He made this clear again on Monday with new commitments on climate change. The fiscal stimulus, soon to go before Congress, will lay down the first steps of a massive generation-long technological overhaul - embracing the power sector, energy efficiency in buildings, public and private transportation, and much more. The U.S. has lagged behind the world in such efforts for 30 years. Yet with America's technological prowess, and Obama's pivotal commitment, it is likely to jump to the lead. Obama has started with the most important first step: a team of scientific and technological advisers of stunning quality, including two Nobel laureates (Steven Chu and Harold Varmus), and longstanding leaders in climate, energy, ecology and cutting-edge technologies. He has also focused on two core truths of sustainable development: that technological overhaul lies at the core of the challenge, and that such an overhaul requires a public-private partnership for success. Taking shape, therefore, is nothing less than a new 21st-century model of capitalism itself, one which is committed to the dual objectives of economic development and sustainability, and is organized to steer core technologies to achieve these twin goals. Consider the challenge of a bankrupt automobile sector, with General Motors and Chrysler on the verge of insolvency, and Ford not far behind. Rather than viewing the crisis merely as a traditional left-right debate over bail-outs versus market-driven bankruptcy, Obama recognized that the near-bankruptcy of the sector calls for a hands-on approach to transform the core of automotive technology itself. In the Obama strategy, GM will not be closed to punish it for past corporate or societal mistakes. It's worth far too much as a world leader in the electric vehicles of the 21st century. Read The Full Story
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Wednesday January 28 2009 edition
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Tribunal: British Government Must Cabinet Minutes On Lead-Up To Iraq War 2009-01-28 03:22:07 Secret British government discussions about the Iraq war are to be disclosed after an information tribunal Tuesday ordered the release of cabinet minutes from 2003. The decision follows a lengthy battle by campaigners, who have argued that the public interest in learning what was said about the planned invasion outweighs the public interest in cabinet discussions being kept secret. Cabinet ministers have strongly opposed the request, arguing that the Freedom of Information Act was never intended to allow for the publication of information of this kind. The tribunal upheld a decision by the information commissioner that details of the sessions on March 13 and 17 should be disclosed. The meetings considered the highly controversial issue of whether the invasion was allowed under international law. Lord Goldsmith, who was attorney general at the time, initially suggested that the legality of the invasion was legally questionable before subsequently issuing legal advice saying that it would be compatible with international law. This has given rise to persistent claims that ministers were not fully briefed on the possible legal pitfalls of an invasion. Tuesday's ruling does not necessarily mean the minutes will be published because the government has 28 days to appeal.The tribunal said that the exceptional circumstances relating to the two cabinet meetings meant that publication was justified and that it would not set a precedent for the publication of all cabinet minutes. Read The Full Story Obama Calls For Green Battle Against Economic Crisis 2009-01-28 03:21:32 U.S. President Barack Obama has said this week he wants to fight climate change, making the kind of statements the rest of the world has been waiting to hear for a long time. He's dressing his proposals up as an economic stimulus package, but can he drum up enough U.S. support for a deal in Copenhagen later this year? When the new United States president walked into the East Room of the White House on Monday, he was supposed to focus on climate change, but Barack Obama first wanted to say a few words about the bleak economic climate, an area where he has some immediate decisions to make. Frightening new figures have been jolting the U.S. economy in recent days. The list of companies making large cuts in employees is long: construction-machine builder Caterpillar is cutting 20,000 jobs, mobile phone giant Sprint is shedding 8,000, home improvement chain Home Depot will eliminate 7,000 workers. And the list doesn't end there - it is getting longer and longer, and includes blue chip companies like Microsoft, Intel and United Airlines. "These are not just numbers on a page," Obama says. "As with the millions of jobs lost in 2008, these are working men and women whose families have been disrupted and whose dreams have been put on hold. We owe it to each of them and to every single American to act with a sense of urgency and common purpose." Read The Full Story Obama Meets With Republican Caucus On Economic Stimulus 2009-01-27 16:05:24 President Obama arrived on Capitol Hill early Tuesday afternoon for back-to-back meetings with Republicans in the House and Senate to try to draw bipartisan support for - and tamp down criticism of - his $825 billion economic stimulus plan. A week after being sworn into office, Obama returned to the Capitol for the first of what his advisers said would be frequent visits with members of Congress. Yet it was still a rare event for a president, particularly a Democratic one, to sit down with the entire Republican conference. Several Republicans said they would like the tax cuts to move more swiftly, according to people in the room, but the president replied that $275 billion was the most he would be willing to negotiate. The session stretched longer than an hour, with both sides conceding at several points that they have unwavable philosophical differences on many of the issues. Obama walked into a meeting room in the basement of the capitol at 12:17 p.m., greeted by a moderate burst of applause from the audience of dozens of House Republicans. After a short while, another round of applause could be heard in the hallway outside the closed-door session taking place in Room HC-5. The loudest applause, attendees said, came when Obama decided to let the questioning go on, even though that meant senators would have to wait for him a while longer. The questioning lasted an hour. “We had a wonderful exchange of ideas and I continue to be optimistic about our ability to get this recovery package done to put people back to work,” said Obama, speaking to reporters as he left the House meeting. Read The Full Story Obama To Islamic World: 'The Americans Are Not Your Enemy' 2009-01-27 16:04:46 In an interview with one of the Middle East’s major broadcasters, President Barack Obama struck a conciliatory tone toward the Islamic world, saying he wanted to persuade Muslims that “the Americans are not your enemy.” He also said “the moment is ripe” for negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. The interview with Al Arabiya, an Arabic-language news channel based in Dubai, signaled a shift - in style and manner at least - from the Bush administration, offering what he depicted as a new readiness to listen rather than dictate. It was Obama’s first televised interview from the White House and the first with any foreign news outlet. In a transcript published on Al Arabiya’s English language Web site, Obama said it is his job “to communicate to the Muslim world that the Americans are not your enemy.” He added that “we sometimes make mistakes,” but said that America was not born as a colonial power and that he hoped for a restoration of “the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago.” Read The Full Story Treasury Secretary Geithner Sets New Lobbying Rules 2009-01-27 16:04:10 Timothy F. Geithner was confirmed by the Senate Monday as Treasury secretary and will immediately face tough sledding as the Obama administration prepares to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to try to rescue the financial system. Geithner's first act at Treasury, announced Tuesday morning, was issuing new rules that take aim at limiting the influence of lobbyists seeking rescue funds from the department's $700 billion financial rescue program. The rules, which are modeled on restrictions already in use that limit lobbying on tax matters, would restrict employees' contact with lobbyists in connection with applications for bailout funds or disbursement of those funds. They also require certification to Congress that decisions for using the bailout money are based only on investment criteria and the facts of the case. In a statement on Treasury's Web page, Geithner said the rules were designed to ensure that taxpayers "know that their money is spent in the most effective way to stabilize the financial system." His next steps could be more controversial. Within a week or so, Geithner and other senior administration officials are likely to announce a mix of initiatives that would offer more government money to financial firms and help these institutions deal with mounting losses from toxic assets, which are backed by failing mortgages and other troubled loans, according to two sources in contact with Obama officials. Read The Full Story Commentary: Elevating Science, Elevating Democracy 2009-01-27 16:02:39 Intellpuke: This commentary was written by New York Times writer Dennis Overbye and appeared in the New York Times' edition for Monday, January 26, 2009. Mr. Overbye's commentary follows: All right, I was weeping too. To be honest, the restoration of science was the least of it, but when Barack Obama proclaimed during his Inaugural  Address that he would “restore science to its rightful place,” you could feel a dark cloud lifting like a sigh from the shoulders of the scientific community in this country. When the new president went on vowing to harness the sun, the wind and the soil, and to “wield technology’s wonders,” I felt the glow of a spring sunrise washing my cheeks, and I could almost imagine I heard the music of swords being hammered into plowshares. Wow. My first reaction was to worry that scientists were now in the awkward position of being expected to save the world. As they say, be careful what you wish for. My second reaction was to wonder what the “rightful place” of science in our society really is. Read The Full Story Bombings, Killings Threaten Gaza Truce 2009-01-27 16:01:58 Palestinian fighters detonated a bomb near the fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, killing an Israeli soldier, the Israeli military said. Later in the day, Israeli gunfire killed a Palestinian farmer, and an air strike critically wounded two men, at least one of whom was a Hamas gunman, according to Gazan medical officials. The attacks marked the worst outbreak of violence since Israel and Hamas pledged to hold their fire more than a week ago, following 22 days of war. Although there was no indication that either side planned to resume full-scale hostilities, the killings escalated tensions on the eve of a visit by Washington's new Middle East envoy, former Democratic senator George J. Mitchell. An Israeli soldier was severely wounded in the bomb blast, and two were lightly injured, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The soldiers had been patrolling on the Israeli side of the fence at the time of the attack. There was no immediate assertion of responsibility. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement that the attack on the Israeli forces was "a grave and unacceptable incident," adding, "and we will respond." A 27-year-old Palestinian farmer was killed soon after the attack, Gazan medical officials said, but it was unclear if the two incidents were related. Late in the afternoon, a drone aircraft fired on a motorbike in the city of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. The driver and another man were injured, and medical officials said they believed that at least one of the men was a Hamas fighter. The Israeli military would not immediately comment on the report. Read The Full Story American Author John Updike Dies At 76 2009-01-27 16:00:52 John Updike, the Pulitizer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire, died Tuesday at age 76. Updike, a resident of Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, died of lung cancer, according to a statement from his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. A literary writer who frequently appeared on best-seller lists, the tall, hawk-nosed Updike wrote novels, short stories, poems, criticism, the memoir ''Self-Consciousness'' and even a famous essay about baseball great Ted Williams. He was prolific, even compulsive, releasing more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s. Updike won virtually every literary prize, including two Pulitzers, for ''Rabbit Is Rich'' and ''Rabbit at Rest,'' and two National Book Awards. Although deprived of a Nobel, he did bestow it upon one of his fictional characters, Henry Bech, the womanizing, egotistical Jewish novelist who collected the literature prize in 1999. Read The Full Story In Europe, Financial Crisis Drives Down The Cost Of Pollution 2009-01-27 03:48:59 As the economic effects of the financial crisis deepen, it has become surprisingly cheap to pollute. Prices for carbon dioxide emissions permits have fallen below 12 euros per ton. Some companies are selling them to generate much  needed cash. The ongoing financial crisis, as has become clear in recent weeks, is bad for both budgets and business. It is also, it turns out, bad for the environment. Prices for carbon dioxide emission certificates in Europe have fallen drastically in recent weeks as companies have slowed down production to keep pace with falling demand. In addition, some companies have begun selling their certificates as a way of generating much needed - and otherwise difficult to obtain - cash. The result has been an oversupply of emissions certificates that has driven the price down below €12 ($15.58) for every ton of CO2 emitted. As recently as last summer the price was close to €30 ($38.94) per ton. Such a low price is concerning for two reasons. On the one hand, it removes the incentive for companies to make improvements aimed at cutting back their greenhouse gas emissions. The idea behind the European Union Emission Trading Scheme is to create a financial disincentive to pollute. Analysts say that a price per ton of emissions of at least €20 is necessary before it becomes cost effective for companies to install environmentally friendly technology. Read The Full Story	Europe's Gas Pipeline War 2009-01-28 03:21:54 The most recent conflict between Moscow and Kiev over natural gas supplies has reignited the controversy over new transit routes. Europe could get its future gas from the highly controversial Nord Stream pipeline to the north, or via the Nabucco pipeline to the south - but will either ever get built? A grey-green carpet lies on the snow, leading to a wooden stage erected between construction trailers and bulldozers. Heavy snowflakes are falling under a gray sky. They land on the neatly parted hair of two men as they cross the carpet, walking almost in lockstep, and step onto the stage. They have come here to this spot in the Russian taiga to celebrate a "historic event," as one them says: the launch of "one of the biggest projects of its kind in the world." He waves to two workers in red protective suits standing below, and they switch on their welding equipment. As the sparks fly, they weld together two thick gas pipes. Viktor Zubkov, the chairman of energy giant Gazprom since stepping down as Russian prime minister, and Alexei Miller, the company's CEO, are symbolically inaugurating a new pipeline. It will run from the city of Ukhta, where the ceremony is being held, northeast to the Yamal Peninsula in the Artic. Ukhta is a provincial city in the autonomous republic of Komi, 350 kilometers (218 miles) from the Arctic Circle. Built by prisoners, the city was once part of the famous Gulag archipelago described by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. The only trees that can survive the biting cold so far north are small birch trees and stunted pines. Yet there are riches in the region. By 2030, up to 360 billion cubic meters of natural gas are expected to be flowing through Ukhta toward the West each year. A portion of that gas is intended for a pipeline that has become the center of a bitter dispute in Europe that now borders on a clash of cultures. Read The Full Story Commentary: Rewriting The Rulebook For 21st Century Capitalism 2009-01-28 03:21:16 Intellpuke: This commentary was written by Jeffrey Sachs and appeared in the Guardian online edition for Wednesday, January 28, 2009. Mr. Sachs is professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is also a special adviser to the United Nations Secretary General on the millennium development goals; and author of the book "Common Wealth". In his commentary he writes: "Technology is at the core of Obama's plans for a sustainable future. In this new era of public action, the U.S. is back in the lead." Prof. Sachs' commentary follows: One of President Barack Obama's historic contributions will be a grand act of policy jujitsu - turning the crushing economic crisis into the launch of a new age of sustainable development. His macroeconomic stimulus may or may not cushion the recession, and bitter partisan fights over priorities no doubt lie ahead. But Obama is already setting a new historic course by reorienting the economy from private consumption to public investments directed at the great challenges of energy, climate, food production, water and biodiversity. The new president has taken every opportunity to underscore that the economic crisis will not slow, but rather will accelerate, the much-needed economic transformation to sustainability. He made this clear again on Monday with new commitments on climate change. The fiscal stimulus, soon to go before Congress, will lay down the first steps of a massive generation-long technological overhaul - embracing the power sector, energy efficiency in buildings, public and private transportation, and much more. The U.S. has lagged behind the world in such efforts for 30 years. Yet with America's technological prowess, and Obama's pivotal commitment, it is likely to jump to the lead. Obama has started with the most important first step: a team of scientific and technological advisers of stunning quality, including two Nobel laureates (Steven Chu and Harold Varmus), and longstanding leaders in climate, energy, ecology and cutting-edge technologies. He has also focused on two core truths of sustainable development: that technological overhaul lies at the core of the challenge, and that such an overhaul requires a public-private partnership for success. Taking shape, therefore, is nothing less than a new 21st-century model of capitalism itself, one which is committed to the dual objectives of economic development and sustainability, and is organized to steer core technologies to achieve these twin goals. Consider the challenge of a bankrupt automobile sector, with General Motors and Chrysler on the verge of insolvency, and Ford not far behind. Rather than viewing the crisis merely as a traditional left-right debate over bail-outs versus market-driven bankruptcy, Obama recognized that the near-bankruptcy of the sector calls for a hands-on approach to transform the core of automotive technology itself. In the Obama strategy, GM will not be closed to punish it for past corporate or societal mistakes. It's worth far too much as a world leader in the electric vehicles of the 21st century. Read The Full Story U.S. Consumer Confidence Drops Further In January 2009-01-27 16:05:14 Americans' mood about the economy darkened further in January, sending a widely watched barometer of consumer sentiment to a new low, a private research group said Tuesday, as people worry about their jobs and watch their retirement funds dwindle. The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index edged down to 37.7 from a revised 38.6 in December, lower than the reading of 39 that economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected. In recent months the index has hit its lowest troughs since it began in 1967, and is hovering at less than half its level of January 2007, when it was 87.3. ''It appears that consumers have begun the new year with the same degree of pessimism that they exhibited in the final months of 2008,'' Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in a statement. ''Looking ahead, consumers remain quite pessimistic about the state of the economy and about their earnings.'' The Present Situation Index, which measures how shoppers feel now about the economy, declined slightly to 29.9 from 30.2 last month. The Expectations Index,which measures shoppers' outlook over the next six months, decreased to 43.0 from 44.2. Read The Full Story Defense Secretary Gates: More Troops Need For 'Long Slog' In Afghanistan 2009-01-27 16:04:27 Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates Tuesday signaled sharply lower expectations for the war in Afghanistan, warning the conflict will be "a long slog" that U.S. and allied military forces - even at higher levels - cannot win alone. Gates said the U.S. military expects to be able to send three additional combat brigades to Afghanistan from late spring through midsummer to fill a security vacuum "that increasingly has been filled by the Taliban." Still he said that he would be "deeply skeptical" of any further U.S. troop increases, saying that Afghan soldiers and police must take the lead - in part so that the Afghan public does not turn against U.S. forces as they have against foreign troops throughout history. U.S. goals in Afghanistan must be "modest" and "realistic," Gates said in his first congressional testimony as Pentagon chief under President Obama. "If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of central Asian Valhalla over there, we will lose, because nobody in the world has that kind of time, patience and money," Gates testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Valhalla is used as a synonym for heaven, but in Norse mythology it is a great hall where heroes slain in battle are received. Civilian casualties resulting from U.S. combat and air strikes have been particularly harmful to progress in Afghanistan and must be avoided, Gates stressed. "My worry is that the Afghans come to see us as part of their problem rather than part of their solution; and then we are lost." Read The Full Story In Effort To Take U.S. In New Direction, Obama Continues To Roll Back Bush Policies 2009-01-27 16:03:52 President Obama announced a series of new policies Monday intended to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, capping a week of widespread changes aimed at reversing the legacy of George W. Bush. In his first seven days in office, Obama has banned the use of controversial CIA interrogation tactics, ordered the closure of the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and begun planning for the drawdown of troops in Iraq. He also imposed stringent limits on lobbyists, unveiled an $825 billion stimulus plan, and ordered a halt to any last-minute rules and regulations put in place by his predecessor. The moves are part of an effort by Obama to follow through on his campaign promise to forge a new direction in Washington, administration officials said. "What you have seen in the first week is rapid change and a resetting of our global agenda," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. "The president believes we can't afford to continue what we are doing. We can't afford to slow down." Yet despite such ambitions, Obama and his aides are also facing a stark reality: Rolling back eight years of the Bush administration is not going to happen overnight. Obama's call for tougher vehicle emissions standards, for example, ran into immediate opposition from major business and auto industry groups. His plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison has angered Republicans who object to transferring suspected terrorists to U.S. facilities. Many of those same Republicans are also fighting his economic stimulus proposal, arguing that it is too costly and would ultimately be ineffective, while others have attacked his plan to quicken the pace of troop withdrawals from Iraq. Read The Full Story U.S. Home Price Index Fell Again In November 2009-01-27 16:02:24 Battered home values in 20 of America’s biggest metropolitan areas fell even farther in November as the full force of the financial crisis broke over American homeowners, according to a widely watched measure of housing prices released Tuesday. Home prices in November dropped 18.2 percent from a year earlier, not quite as bad as economists had expected, but still the steepest plunge on record, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Prices in 11 of the 20 metropolitan areas surveyed fell at record rates, and 14 areas reported double-digit declines from November 2007. The 20-city index for November fell to 154.59, its lowest point since January 2004. “The disappointing news is that the declines are still accelerating,” said Adam York, an economic analyst at Wachovia. “It emphasizes just how much stress the housing market is under.” Read The Full Story New York's Attorney General Subpoenas Thain Over Merrill Bonuses 2009-01-27 16:01:24 The New York state attorney general on Tuesday issued subpoenas to former Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain and Bank of America's chief administrative officer, J. Steele Alphin, amid an investigation into bonuses Merrill paid executives just before being sold to Bank of America. Thain, 53, was serving as the head of the newly combined company's wealth management division before he resigned last week. The resignation came shortly after reports surfaced that billions of dollars were paid to Merrill executives in late December. Those bonuses were paid as Merrill was about to report a $15 billion fourth-quarter loss, and while Bank of America was seeking more federal funds to help it absorb the mounting losses at the New York-based investment bank. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation will center on trying to determine why the timetable for paying the bonuses was moved up to December from its normal period in January; who knew about the bonuses; and how Merrill could justify spending billions of dollars on bonuses knowing its was on the brink of reporting a multi-billion loss for the quarter, a person familiar with the probe told the Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Read The Full Story Iceland's Center-Left Party To Lead New Government 2009-01-27 16:00:37 Iceland's center-left Social Democratic Alliance Party was chosen Tuesday to form a new government with the Left-Green movement following the collapse of the conservative government amid deep economic troubles. President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson made the decision after Prime Minister Geir Haarde, who had led the island nation since 2006, was toppled Monday by angry protests over the country's slide into economic ruin. The Greens will be a junior partner until general elections are held. Haarde had called for new elections in May, but Grimsson said Tuesday that elections could be called at any time from late March to early June. The shift portends a renewed debate over Iceland's place in Europe. Haarde's conservative Independence Party had dominated coalition governments since 1991 and has long been skeptical over the prospects of Iceland joining the  27-nation European Union. Read The Full Story Russian Journalists Put Their Lives On The Line 2009-01-27 03:48:51 Nowhere in Europe is live more dangerous for journalists than in Russia, and no Russian newspaper has as many of its journalists killed as Novaya Gazeta. After the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasia Baburova, the newspaper's publisher wants to provide its reporters with guns. A simple glass case stands next to the door leading to the editorial offices of the Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Inside are displayed the newspaper's trophies, including the mobile telephone that former first lady Raisa Gorbachyova gave the paper a decade-and-a-half ago, as well as various awards and certificates. The display cabinet also contains shrapnel that was removed from the bodies of war correspondents during surgery, and the computer that investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya used to write her articles. The upper shelf is reserved for the portraits of the victims of contract killings: Politkovskaya, Yuri Shchekochikhin and Igor Domnikov. Now space will have to be made for two more portraits. They are still hanging on the wall, together with a black ribbon of mourning: a photo of prominent attorney Stanislav Markelov, 34, who represented the newspaper in various trials, and a portrait of Anastasia Baburova, 25, who wrote about Russian fascists for the paper. Neo-Nazis have been celebrating her violent death on the Internet since she was killed last week - and plotting to hunt down other journalists. Read The Full Story
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