The Morning News

The indications of a likely slowdown reflect concern by U.S. commanders that the improvement in security in Iraq since June – to a degree few had predicted when President Bush ordered five more Army brigades to Iraq a year ago – is tenuous and could be reversed if the extra troops come out too soon.

One of those extra brigades left in December and the other four are due to come out by July, leaving 15 brigades, or roughly 130,000 to 135,000 troops – the same number as before Bush sent the reinforcements.

The House plan, approved 385-35 after little debate, would send rebates to some 111 million families and give tax breaks to businesses, costing $161 billion over two years.

President Bush and House leaders urged the Senate to take the bipartisan agreement and pass it quickly. Sen. Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Committee chairman, planned a Wednesday vote in his panel on a $196 billion package that could face a slower path to passage.

Agency officials did not identify the companies under investigation but said the wide-ranging probe, which began in spring 2007, involves companies across the industry, from mortgage lenders to financial firms that bundle home loans into securities sold to investors.

The FBI is working in conjunction with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Neil Power, chief of the FBI’s economic crimes unit in Washington, said during a briefing with reporters.

“Addiction is hard to overcome. As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life,” Bush said during a visit to the Jericho Program, a project of Episcopal Community Services of Maryland that helps former prisoners deal with problems such as drug addiction so they can find jobs and reintegrate productively into society.

Bush spoke to reporters after meeting privately with two men who have graduated from Jericho’s program and dealt with drug problems. During that session, which the White House allowed one reporter to attend, Bush spoke frankly about himself.

More than six years after the U.S.-led invasion, the issue of security in Afghanistan came to a head this week when Prime Minister Stephen Harper threatened to pull out Canada’s 2,500 troops early next year unless NATO sent in more soldiers.

NATO said on Tuesday it shared Canada’s view of the need to bolster its peace operation but dismissed charges that allies were dragging their feet, noting a huge expansion since 2003.

The former UN chief said he hoped the immediate political issues could be resolved within four weeks and gave Kenya one year to resolve damage inflicted by a month of chaos in which almost 1,000 people have died, sparked by the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki.

The talks began as police reported 22 new deaths across the country, in brutal ethnic clashes and a police crackdown, particularly in strongholds of opposition leader Raila Odinga — who claims he was robbed of the presidency — in western Kenya and the capital’s slums.

“Human trafficking exists everywhere in the world, in all societies. There are no exceptions,” said Doris Buddenberg, head of UN.GIFT (the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking), an initiative by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

“It’s almost certainly one of the fastest growing crimes in our globalised world,” Buddenberg told a news conference here.

“These people were our neighbors, I knew them, but what I have seen is something that I cannot explain,” says Julia Muthoni, an elderly widow who found refuge in the city of Nakuru. “The problem is that we Kikuyus are being targeted because we voted for the reelection of President Mwai Kibaki. Even before the election, they were threatening us saying that whether Kibaki wins or not, Kikuyus are going to be evicted.”

Just a few weeks ago, Kenya remained an oasis of stability surrounded by nations at war. The tourist-friendly country is East Africa’s economic engine, a hub for global trade, and a base for international humanitarian work. It has been a been a model of what other African countries could achieve if they worked hard, developed their economies, and embraced free democracy. So the explosion of violence that has left more than 750 people dead – including more than 100 in the past few days – and forced a quarter-million to flee their homes since the disputed Dec. 27 presidential election came as a shock to many. But under the placid surface, Kenya boils with deep ethnic resentment that some observers say has been ignored for too long.

“I had to get more hours at work so I could send more money,” says Mr. Lucas. “I used to work 40 hours a week. Now, I work 56.” So far, the extra hours have made up the difference.

Across the US, the falling dollar value has sent ripples through immigrant communities that send money to family overseas. As some currencies for developing countries have risen substantially against the dollar, many immigrant workers are increasing their workweek by up to 20 hours or taking second jobs. If the dollar’s slide continues, the US may become less attractive to migrant workers, analysts say.

But how hard to push comes at a sensitive moment for the economy. Cut interest rates too little and already jumpy markets could plunge, worsening an economic slump. Cut rates too much and, because of the lag time involved, the central bank risks overheating an economy later in the year.

That is why only a week after the central bank cut interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, Fed watchers are divided over how much it will knock down rates: Some say only one-quarter of a percentage point; others expect the Fed to go with half a percentage point.

A dance craze mixing hip-hop, techno, and aerobics, “Tecktonik,” or “Tck,” is spreading among young working-class Parisians. Made popular via websites like YouTube, it’s inspiring a sub-subculture with a post-postmodern kaleidoscope of fashion, symbols, and moves. Like disco, it’s nonpolitical. As a scene, it ignores alcohol and drugs. The kids say it’s all about freedom.

Tecktonik claims French, or at least European, origins. In the past 18 months, huge numbers of suburban kids have latched onto the dance that started in small Paris circles in 2001, was put online, and then reemerged on the street.

Called Penumbra, the newly approved device is the latest in a series of inside-the-artery attempts to boost recovery from stroke, the nation’s No. 3 killer.

Now the question is how to determine which patients are good candidates – because, illogical as it may sound, unclogging isn’t always the best option.

“No, I’d tell him, ‘Thanks, John, I’ve been there, I’ve done that. You can find much better,'” Lieberman told The Associated Press during an interview Tuesday in his Senate office. “I’m not seeking anything else.”

The Connecticut senator said he was unequivocally ruling out sharing the GOP ticket with McCain.

The dog found by workers was too far gone to save – another example of how pets are becoming the newest victims of the nation’s mortgage crisis as homeowners leave animals behind when they can no longer afford their property.

Pets “are getting dumped all over,” said Traci Jennings, president of the Humane Society of Stanislaus County in northern California. “Farmers are finding dogs dumped on their grazing grounds, while house cats are showing up in wild cat colonies.”

The British and U.S. researchers found that happiness for people ranging from Albania to Zimbabwe follows a U-shaped curve where life begins cheerful before turning tough during middle age and then returning to the joys of youth in the golden years.

Previous studies have shown that psychological well-being remained flat throughout life but the new findings to be published in the journal Social Science & Medicine suggest we are in for a topsy-turvy emotional ride.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

Bush’s rosy outlook for a country that once hosted al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden didn’t contain any falsehoods. New roads and hospitals are being built, just as he told the nation Monday night.

Boys and girls are going to school in record numbers. Some 5.8 million students, including 2 million girls, are now in class, compared with less than a million under the Taliban.

The assessment, co-chaired by retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones and former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering, serves as a warning to the Bush administration at a time military and congressional officials are debating how best to juggle stretched warfighting resources.

The administration wants to re-energize anti-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where al-Qaida is regenerating. But the U.S. still remains heavily invested in Iraq, and officials are sending strong signals that troop reductions there will slow or stop altogether this summer.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher made the comments at a congressional hearing where lawmakers questioned whether a fair election was possible under President Pervez Musharraf, who has fired Supreme Court justices, placed restrictions on the media and detained opposition lawyers.

The election is meant to complete a transition to civilian rule in nuclear-armed Pakistan, a U.S. ally which has suffered from a surge of attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants based on the Afghan border.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide car bomber killed one civilian and wounded 15 others in an attack on a U.S. convoy, U.S. and Iraqi security officials said.

The U.S. military said none of its soldiers were wounded in the latest attack in Mosul, where extra Iraqi troops and police have been sent for what Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has called a “decisive” final push against al Qaeda.

The nine, including three women, had been targeted because they were suspected of being part of a local awakening council, or concerned local citizens group, that was working with U.S. troops to fight al Qaida in Iraq , said a police officer involved in the investigation.

The officer said the nine headless bodies were found with two DVDs showing one of the dead men confessing that he was a member of an awakening council and another man refusing to confess.

Obama, D-Ill., whose late father was Kenyan, spoke on a popular FM radio station and urged President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga to negotiate without conditions.

“To refuse to do so ignores the will of Kenyans and the urging of the united international community,” the Democratic presidential candidate said on Nairobi’s Capital FM. “Now is the time for Kenya’s leaders to rise above party affiliation and past divisions for the sake of peace.”

The attack occurred in Mosul , a city that the Iraqi government has dubbed al Qaida in Iraq’s last major stronghold, and the site of some of the biggest attacks in the country so far this year.

Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki last week announced a major offensive against Mosul , sending Iraqi troops and tanks to Iraq’s third-largest city. The prime minister promised a “decisive” push through the northwest province.

Fighting over the weekend spilled into previously peaceful parts of the tribal belt that borders Afghanistan and intensified in South Waziristan, Bajour and Mohmand. In Bannu, southwest of Peshawar , gunmen fleeing police took dozens of schoolchildren hostage for several hours Monday before tribal elders brokered a deal offering them safe passage, state-run television reported.

“It’s worsening day by day,” said Safraz Khan , a political scientist at the University of Peshawar . “People feel vulnerable. People feel scared.”

The talks, mediated by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, began with President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga attending a ceremony that was shown in real time on television despite a government ban on live broadcasts that has been maintained since shortly after the disputed December 27 vote. “We all have multiple identities but I hope you see yourselves as Kenyans first,” Annan said. “To the leaders gathered here today, I say that the people want you to take charge of the situation and do whatever possible to halt the downward spiral that is threatening this beautiful and prosperous country.”

The allegations, widely reported by Turkish newspapers, are certainly as dark as anything Pamuk ever wrote. Istanbul prosecutors have arrested 13 people, including a former general and a high-profile lawyer, on charges of “provoking armed rebellion against the government.” They are suspected of involvement in last year’s string of nationalist-motivated murders, which cost the lives of prominent ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and three Christian missionaries, according to newspapers.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, Mukasey said he has finished a review of Justice Department memos about the CIA’s current methods of interrogating terror suspects and finds them to be lawful. He said waterboarding currently is not used by the spy agency.

Since waterboarding is not part of what Mukasey described as a “limited set of methods” used by interrogators now, the attorney general said he would not rule on whether it is illegal.

Edward Strimlan, assistant chief deputy coroner under Wecht, was called by prosecutors trying to show that Wecht committed a crime in giving bodies to Carlow University.

Wecht’s attorneys, in their cross-examination of Strimlan on Tuesday, tried to show that the university still supports Wecht and that Strimlan himself engaged in the kinds of activities that led to the charges against his former boss.

The decline in the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index topped the 6.7 percent annual drop for October and was deeper than predicted by economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The consensus was for a 7.1 percent fall, Goldman economists said.

Home prices across big cities have now declined for 11 consecutive months and show little sign of bottoming, said economists, including Robert Shiller, a founder of the index and chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC. The decline in the index accelerated to 2.2 percent in November over October, from 1.4 percent in the previous month, S&P said.

Lawmakers had missed a golden opportunity for California to show the rest of the United States how to establish universal health care, Schwarzenegger said in a speech to the press club of the state capital.

“I’m as determined as ever,” Schwarzenegger said. “The issue is not going to go away.”

That’s the basis of a speed-dating event organized by a New York entrepreneur bringing together 20 “sugar mamas” and 20 “boy toys” vetted by an elite New York matchmaker.

“Symbiosis has allowed ugly rich men to attract young, gorgeous, money-hungry women for centuries; it’s now the women’s turn,” proclaims pocketchangenyc.com, the Web site that Jeremy Abelson is using to promote the event.

The bill would require sex offenders to register instant messaging and email addresses, which would then be passed to social networking sites. The sites could then block access to the network by the sex offenders.

MySpace and Facebook said they will block access to such offenders.

With barely 12 months before his term ends, and less before the race to the November elections all but sidelines him, Bush also vowed to “confront” Iran where necessary and do “everything we can” to reach a Middle East peace deal.

The president used his final annual State of the Union address to defend his deeply unpopular handling of what US voters say are their top two concerns: the nearly five-year-old Iraq war and economic turmoil.

The drug sorafenib attacks a genetic mutation active in about a third of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

“AML patients with this mutation have a particularly poor prognosis, so this highly targeted drug appears to be a significant step forward in leukemia therapy,” said senior author Michael Andreeff of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

RealtyTrac, a California-based research company, said 2.2 million foreclosure filings were issued by banks and lenders during 2007, marking a 75 percent increase compared with the prior year.

The percentage of American households in foreclosure almost doubled from 0.58 percent in 2006, signaling the slump in the US housing market has yet to abate.

Giuliani’s first surrogate at a rally Monday night in Miami told the story of the making of Midnight Cowboy in 1968-69, when it looked like the actor Jon Voight had no chance to play the lead, until the casting director declared: “There’s no doubt who’s the best actor: Jon Voight!” The surrogate: Jon Voight. The next surrogate recalled the story of the Republican revolution of 1994, when it looked like the G.O.P. had no chance to take Congress, before a Congressman named Bill McCollum assured Newt Gingrich they would pull off a miracle. The surrogate: Bill McCollum. Finally, Giuliani took the stage to tell a few confounding-expectations stories of his own about beating the Mafia and taming New York: “I’ve been doing the impossible all my life!”

As the two struggled for a triumph that could provide momentum for next week’s Super Tuesday voting by nearly half the states, they were dividing Floridians along generational lines, according to preliminary results from exit polls of voters conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks. McCain was doing best among the oldest voters, while Romney’s appeal was stronger among the middle-aged.

The survey showed Romney and McCain dividing those calling themselves Republicans about evenly.

On a voice vote, the House sent the proposed extension to the Senate for needed concurrence. President George W. Bush was expected to sign it into law, a House Republican aide said.

Bush and Republicans have pushed for passage of a bill that would replace a surveillance law, set to expire on Friday, that expanded the power of U.S. authorities last August to track suspected enemy targets without a court order.

“We are going to win today and then we will get the nomination,” Giuliani said, ignoring polls that had him running a poor third to Arizona Sen. John McCain and ex-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential contest in Florida, the state where he staked his political fortunes.

If the man whose international stature rose from the smoke and ash of the al Qaeda attacks six years ago was making his final stand, he did it with the brash confidence that marked his tenure as anti-mob prosecutor, crime-fighting mayor and icon of one of the worst days in American history.

A central bank spokesman said the Federal Open Market Committee opened the session around 2:00 pm (1900 GMT). A decision was expected Wednesday around 1915 GMT.

The meeting was expected to see heated debate on the economic outlook in view of a global stock market swoon and heightened recession fears that prompted the Fed to slash rates by 0.75 percentage points in an emergency move last week.

“We are certainly asking everyone to maintain calm. It’s deeply concerning,” Rice told reporters. “There needs to be a political resolution of this conflict.”

The United States considers Kenya, recently held up as a model for a more stable and prosperous Africa, a key strategic partner that fights terrorism and promotes stability across the Horn of Africa.

Societe Generale, which said last week that Kerviel’s actions cost it nearly 5 billion euros, quickly accused Kerviel of lying. In another twist to the multifaceted case, France’s financial markets authority opened an investigation into the bank, France’s second-largest.

Kerviel, a 31-year-old junior trader, told investigators of efforts to mask his massive transactions, but said the bank must nonetheless have noticed something suspicious, according to excerpts of his police testimony published in Le Monde newspaper. Kerviel’s remarks were confirmed by Isabelle Montagne, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office.

The Sunnyvale-based company disclosed the upcoming 7 percent reduction in its 14,300-employee work force during a Tuesday conference call to review a 23 percent decline in its fourth-quarter profit.

Yahoo didn’t specify which areas of its operations will be trimmed. Yahoo jettisoned 650 workers in the wake of the dot-com bust seven years ago. Management indicated further details will be released by mid-February.

District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she will extend the government’s oversight of Microsoft until November 12, 2009, two years after its original expiration date, due to delays by Microsoft in filing technical documents to software licensees.

The consent decree settled the landmark U.S. antitrust case against Microsoft in 2002. The decree covers the company’s ties to computer makers, how its software works with other types of software and enforcement to ensure it does not repeat past practices.

Finance Minister Christine Lagarde warned the bank was “in crisis”, calling on Societe Generale’s board to decide the fate of chairman Daniel Bouton following the losses of 4.82 billion euros (7.1 billion dollars).

Although Lagarde said she was “not convinced” the bank needed a “change of captain”, President Nicolas Sarkozy zeroed in on Bouton’s role as head of the chain of command on Monday.

The global economy is poised to grow 4.1 percent this year, down 0.3 percentage points from a previous estimate, the IMF report said.

The US economy, the world’s largest, will expand by 1.5 percent, 0.4 points lower, the IMF said in an update of its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook.

The protection of authors’ rights “cannot … affect the requirements of the protection of personal data,” the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ) said in its ruling.

European copyright laws “do not require the (EU) member states to lay down, in order to ensure effective protection of copyright, an obligation to communicate personal data in the context of civil proceedings,” the court said.

The global economy is poised to grow 4.1 percent this year, down 0.3 percentage points from a previous estimate, the IMF report said.

The US economy, the world’s largest, will expand by 1.5 percent, 0.4 points lower, the IMF said in an update of its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook.