The Morning News

Appearing tired after a weekend of helping to broker a fire sale takeover of Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns to keep it from outright collapse, Paulson pushed back against efforts to have him admit a recession was under way.

“There’s no doubt that the American people know that the economy has turned down sharply. So to me much less important is the label that’s placed on it today. Much more important is what we do about it,” he told NBC’s Today Show.

The Buddhist leader, speaking in the northern Indian town where his exiled government is based, stressed he was opposed to the violence that erupted in Tibet last week, which saw Chinese shops and banks torched and smashed.

The Nobel Peace laureate, 72, said Tibetans and Chinese needed to live “side by side,” urged his countrymen not to resort to violence and reiterated he was not trying to wrest the remote region from Beijing’s control.

Democrats are aiming to rein in the White House’s power to wiretap without a warrant and assert “state secrecy” in key court battles.

As Congress broke for a two-week recess last Friday, President Bush warned that the latest House version of the surveillance bill would “undermine America’s security.”

The US central bank is guaranteeing loans, taking questionable loans off the books of banks, and dropping interest rates at a near-record pace. Despite the Fed’s efforts, the credit markets remain wary. Most economists agree that the Fed has now moved from crisis prevention to crisis management, trying to limit any cascading effect from problems on Wall Street.

“This is like nothing I have ever seen before in 50 years of looking at the economy,” says Lyle Gramley, a former Fed governor. “We are in a very serious situation.”

Seen for decades as the power brokers in emerging market finance, Wall St firms’ sudden underdog status points to the magnitude of fear surrounding them — and perhaps a degree of confidence in the longer-term stability of developing countries.

Shortly before it received a Federal Reserve-backed rescue package late last week, the cost of insuring the debt of U.S. bank Bear Stearns (BSC.N) was higher than that for banks in Kazakhstan, one trader said.

“Thickness is an indicator of long-term health of sea ice, and that’s not looking good at the moment,” Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center told reporters in a telephone briefing.

This adds to the litany of disturbing news about Arctic sea ice, which has been retreating over the last three decades, especially last year, when it ebbed to its lowest level.

Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. It’s among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65-million-year-old rock tomb.

“This is the closest many people will ever get to seeing what large parts of a dinosaur actually looked like, in the flesh,” said Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Manchester University in England, a member of the international team researching Dakota.

The State Department said U.S. Embassy officials in Yemen had concluded that the attack was “directed against our embassy.” U.S. officials refused to comment further, saying it was still under investigation.

The embassy issued a statement in Arabic saying none of its employees was wounded, adding that “we pray for the victims and their families.” The embassy closed for the rest of the day.

Marine Reserve Col. Matthew Bogdanos claimed both Sunni insurgents such as al-Qaida in Iraq and Shiite militias are receiving funding from the trafficking.

Bogdanos, a New York assistant district attorney, noted that kidnappings and extortion remain the insurgents’ main source of funds. But he said the link between extremist groups and antiquities smuggling in Iraq was “undeniable.”

The Dalai Lama urged his followers to remain peaceful, saying he would resign as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile if violence got out of control. But he also suggested China may have fomented unrest in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and nearby provinces to discredit him.

In striking an uncompromising line, Wen underscored the communist leadership’s determination to restore order in Tibet and Tibetan areas of neighboring provinces.

Such a protest by world leaders would be a huge slap in the face for China’s Communist leadership.

France’s outspoken foreign minister, former humanitarian campaigner Bernard Kouchner, said the idea “is interesting.”

Kouchner said he wants to discuss it with other foreign ministers from the 27-nation European Union next week. His comments opened a crack in what until now had been solid opposition to a full boycott, a stance that Kouchner said remains the official government position.

It’s a warning he has used before – telling Tibetans to return to peaceful protests during 1989 unrest – but this time it comes amid deep divisions within the Tibetan community between those who back his pacifist approach and an angry young generation that demands action.

While the situation inside Tibet remains unclear, much of the violence last week appears to have been committed by Tibetans against Han Chinese – a fact that troubles the 72-year-old Dalai Lama, who has long called for Tibetans to have significant autonomy within China.

Kosovo Serb police followed U.N. officers in suspending normal duties in the Serb north of the flashpoint town, under orders from the NATO-led peacekeeping force and U.N. mission still in charge of the newly-independent state.

French, Belgian and Spanish troops in armored personnel carriers secured the area, and 150 U.S. troops were deployed on the southern, Albanian side of Mitrovica.

Legislators passed the legal changes needed for a coalition government in which President Mwai Kibaki can bring in rival Raila Odinga as prime minister following their agreement last month.

Investors in Kenya’s economy — knocked hard by the crisis but still seen as being among Africa’s most promising — are keenly watching whether the deal will go through smoothly.

Hundreds of politicians gathered for the conference a day after U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, on a visit marking the fifth anniversary of the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, hailed what he called “phenomenal” political and security improvements.

The war has cost the United States $500 billion since it began. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and millions displaced. Almost 4,000 U.S. soldiers have also been killed in the war, a major issue in November’s U.S. presidential election.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, flanked by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told reporters that both sides had made “steady progress” on work to combat nuclear terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

“We also discussed some contentious issues where we haven’t reached agreement as of now,” Lavrov said after two days of talks that also involved US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov.

“I’m talking primarily about missile defence and about the strategic arms reduction regime,” Lavrov said in a four-way press conference where all the participants grew stern at each mention of missile defence.

Lawyers challenged the US capital’s restrictions on gun ownership, which aim to clamp down on murders and street violence, saying those laws infringed on the right of citizens to use weapons at home for self-defense.

The nine justices argued during the hearing over whether the right to “keep and bear arms,” as described in the constitution, is an individual or a collective right, and whether the capital’s regulations on gun-carrying were “reasonable.”

In Baghdad , a long-anticipated Iraqi national reconciliation conference began with great fanfare, then quickly dissolved into the usual sectarian and political stalemates that have marred several similar gatherings in recent years.

But Vice President Dick Cheney gave an upbeat view of conditions in Iraq as he concluded his unannounced trip to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion. Cheney also defended the toppling of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as part of the struggle against terrorism following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

New York -based Human Rights Watch found evidence that hundreds of people were killed in planned ethnic attacks following the disputed presidential election in December. In many cases, the group said, the attacks were planned and financed by prominent civic leaders, although the group didn’t directly implicate any top national politicians.

In a report titled “Ballots to Bullets,” the group also charged that Kenyan police used excessive force to break up demonstrations in opposition strongholds, fatally shooting hundreds of people, including children.

Despite presiding over one of the most stunning economic collapses in modern African history, Mugabe has held on to power through fear, bullying and a series of less-than-fair elections. But with the next vote just days away, many weary Zimbabweans are asking: Could Mugabe finally be defeated?

The 84-year-old president faces his toughest election challenge ever March 29 , including, for the first time, a contender from within his all-powerful ruling party. The entry of Simba Makoni , a polished former finance minister, into the race last month prompted a flood of people to register to vote. Many Zimbabweans think that the end is nigh for one of Africa’s longest-running dictatorships.

With the incoming government committed to restoring the judges who were fired by Musharraf and stripping the powers of the presidency, a battle seems inevitable in which Washington may find itself on the losing side. Critics said Musharraf is unwilling to retreat to the figurehead role prescribed for the president in Pakistan’s original constitution.

“The conspiracies of the (presidential) palace will be fought with the strength of parliament,” said Ahmed Mukhtar , a possible candidate for the post of prime minister from the Pakistan People’s Party , just before the assembly met. “We have the numbers to do whatever we want.”

The city is under police lockdown. Convoys of troops whirr by, some with flashing lights. Most residents stay indoors. A massive paramilitary buildup appears under way in the region, but no one knows where or when it might unleash its force.

As in many Chinese cities with heavy ethnic Tibetan populations, authorities in Litang are racing to prevent new racial riots after a week of bloody clashes in Tibet and several neighboring provinces. Since early Monday, they’ve banned private vehicles from the streets and ordered store owners to close up.

That five-minute spot being beamed out night after night on prime time TV is part of a campaign by President Felipe Calderon to sell foreigners a piece of Mexico’s most sacred cow: the state-owned oil monopoly. Tuesday marks 70 years since the country nationalized its oil fields that were drilled by U.S. and British companies, but Calderon wants to bring back foreign oil companies by allowing some private investment in the industry. And his proposal has sparked a debate whose pitch nears hysteria on all sides of the political spectrum: Conservatives scream that Mexico’s economy will collapse unless it takes action; while rabble-rousing leftists warn that a corrupt government wants to sell the nation’s patrimony to the gringos.

Yesterday, in China’s Sichuan province, at least eight bodies were brought to a Buddhist monastery in Aba prefecture, allegedly shot dead by Chinese riot control police, according to an eyewitness account quoted by Radio Free Asia. The escalating confrontation in and around Tibet is a nightmare for China’s top leadership, but one, some diplomats believe, that could not have taken anyone in the central government completely by surprise. It pits the leadership in Beijing against its domestic opponents – who include not only Tibetan dissidents, but also separatist groups in the heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang, as well as human rights and political activists throughout the country.

Workers are removing 2.2 million cubic yards of the muck – and dismantling the 101-year-old Milltown Dam – in a breathtakingly scenic part of Montana trout-fishing country celebrated in Norman Maclean’s novel “A River Runs Through It.”

For decades, metals released into the river by mining and ore-processing in the Butte area collected downstream in the sediment behind the hydroelectric dam, where the toxins are now threatening fish and polluting drinking water in the ground below.

Spc. Michael A. McQueen II died of a single gunshot to the right temple in September 2006, in the apartment he began sharing with Sgt. Gary Smith just 20 days earlier.

Smith threw the weapon, a .38-caliber revolver, into a nearby lake before calling 911. He was covered in McQueen’s blood and had gunshot residue on his hands when he was arrested, and prosecutor John Maloney said he repeatedly changed his story to investigators.

The Justice Department said that CVS switched patients from a tablet version of the prescription drug ranitidine, the generic version of Zantac, to a more expensive capsule version.

Officials claimed CVS did this, between 2000 and 2006, to gain bigger government reimbursements related to patients who receive government assistance to pay for their drugs.

McCain, expressing concern about Iran’s rising sway in the Mideast, said, “Al-Qaida is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran.” He made the comments Tuesday at a news conference in Jordan; he made similar comments earlier to radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt.

Iran is a predominantly Shiite Muslim country and has been at pains to close its borders to al-Qaida fighters of the rival Sunni sect.

Bush spoke at the Jacksonville port at the same time the Federal Reserve was slashing a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point as part of an effort to hold off a deep recession and avert financial meltdown.

He said the Fed and the U.S. Treasury Department were closely monitoring the situation in the financial markets that if further action were needed it would be done “in a way that does not damage the long-term health of our economy.”

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) was divided, voting 8-2 in favor of the rate cut and issuing a statement that highlighted inflation risks. Still, many analysts said the Fed left the door open to further cuts if needed.

Stock markets rallied strongly amid hopes the Fed action would revive a sputtering US economy and ease a global credit crunch. The Dow Jones industrials surged 3.5 percent or 420 points.

Cheney was to hold talks with Sultan Qaboos after working to rally top Iraqi political leaders behind plans for a US-Iraq long-term security pact and push them on legislation seen as key to quelling sectarian strife.

In the city of Arbil on the eve of the Iraq war’s fifth anniversary, Cheney pushed a key Iraqi Kurd leader to back the long-range strategic partnership and work to pass laws to govern oil revenue sharing and upcoming elections.

The drop in Bear Stearns’ share price has resulted in a loss for the city’s public pension funds of about $10 million, City Comptroller William Thompson told Reuters in a phone interview.

“I think a lot of people are going to be taking a look. … Was there some deception in there or was this just a miscalculation?” Thompson, a Democrat, said when asked about a possible lawsuit against Bear Stearns.

Separately, Dow Jones said it would not renew an existing news accord with the Associated Press news agency.

Neither company gave the terms of the deal, under which AFP said it will provide worldwide political and general news services to Dow Jones Newswires in English, French and German.

Yahoo predicts boom times ahead for the struggling Internet company in a three-year financial and strategic plan that its board of directors factored into its decision to reject Microsoft’s cash-and-stock bid in February.

Ann Zoidis, director of the research project, said the sounds may be expressions of curiosity or warnings of potential danger.

The sounds are not as complex as the continuous, repetitive and highly structured phrases and themes of older males, the researchers found.

The National Marine Fisheries Service authorized Oregon and Washington officials to first attempt to catch the sea lions that arrive at the base of the Bonneville Dam and hold them 48 hours to see whether an aquarium, zoo or similar facility will take them. Otherwise, they could be euthanized, along with those that avoid trapping.

About 60 of the California sea lions, identified by branding, scars or other markings, were deemed the worst offenders and qualify for “immediate removal.”

A drop in vaquita numbers to as few as 150 from around 600 at the start of the decade could see the famously shy animal go the same way as the Chinese river dolphin, which was declared all but extinct in 2006.

“The urgency now is to prevent the vaquita becoming extinct,” Omar Vidal, the WWF conservation group’s director in Mexico, told Reuters in San Felipe, a fishing town in the upper Gulf of California, or Sea of Cortez, where the vaquitas live.

Air pollution measured between levels four and five at monitoring stations throughout the capital, according to the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau’s website.

Level five represents the worst air quality under the bureau’s monitoring system and automatically triggers warnings for people to stay indoors and refrain from outdoor activities.

Honore Mashagiro, a member of the Congolese nature conservation institute, was arrested in Goma, Nord-Kivu, Environment Minister Felicite Kalume told AFP.

He is accused of “orchestrating” the killing of the animals, in the Virunga National Park of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2007. Another two of them are missing.

In the study out Monday researchers looked back 550 million years in the fossil catalogue from today, checking several evolutionary branches of the crustacean family tree to see where animals evolved that became simpler than their ancestors.

But instead they found organisms that developed increasingly complicated structures and characteristics.

Modified to support the Canadian Space Agency’s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), or Dextre robot, this Spacelab Logistics Pallet (SLP) was making its fourth and final flight to space, concluding a long history that can be traced back before the first shuttle left the launch pad.

The pallet is not the only item making the roundtrip from the Earth to the space station and back. Stowed on-board Endeavour’s middeck is a collection of soon-to-be space artifacts, ranging from a few hundred mission patches to a celebrity’s playbill title page.

When astronomers discovered these celestial objects 300 years ago, they couldn’t tell what they were and so named them for the resemblance they had to the planet Uranus as seen through early, relatively crude telescopes. But by the mid-19th century, it was realized that they were actually great clouds of dust emitted by dying stars.

Now, researchers at the University of Rochester have found that low-mass stars or possibly even giant gas planets orbiting these aged stars could be pivotal in creating some of the nebulae’s unusual shapes.

March is the month where Arctic sea ice traditionally hits its highest extent after the Northern Hemisphere winter and Antarctic sea ice reaches its lowest extent. NASA satellites have monitored sea ice coverage over both poles for nearly 40 years.

Arctic sea ice reached a record low this past summer, with 23 percent less sea ice cover than the previous record low and 39 percent less than the average amount that has previously spanned the Arctic Ocean in the summer months.

Each year, spring runoff washes nitrogen-rich fertilizers from farms in the Mississippi River basin and carries them into the river and the streams that feed it. The nitrogen eventually empties out of the mouth of the Mississippi and into the Gulf of Mexico, where tiny phytoplankton feed off of it and spread into an enormous bloom.

When these creatures die, they sink to the ocean floor, and their decomposition strips the water of oxygen. This condition, called hypoxia, prevents animals that depend on oxygen, such as fish or shrimp, from living in those waters. In recent years, this so-called “dead zone” has grown to the size of New Jersey-about 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 square miles)-each summer.

Archaeologists have discovered a spectacularly preserved ancient harbor town of the Mycenaeans, the civilization on which many ancient Greek legends were based. Though the settlement was built 3,500 years ago, hundreds of walls are still standing.

The site, which is partially underwater, lies along a rocky, isolated stretch of shoreline. Scientists suspect it may have been built as a military outpost.