The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

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1 McCain backs off his no-new-tax pledge

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 11 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s signal that he may be open to a higher payroll tax for Social Security, despite previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind, is drawing sharp rebukes from conservatives.

McCain’s shift has come in stages, catching some Republicans by surprise. Speaking with reporters on his campaign bus on July 9, he cited a need to shore up Social Security. “I cannot tell you what I would do, except to put everything on the table,” he said.

He went a step farther Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” in response to a question about payroll tax increases.

2 Ted Stevens indicted, longest-serving GOP senator

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

34 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Sen. Ted Stevens, the nation’s longest-serving Republican senator and a major figure in Alaska politics since before statehood, was indicted Tuesday on seven felony counts of concealing more than a quarter of a million dollars in house renovations and gifts from a powerful oil contractor that lobbied him for government aid.

Stevens, 84, is the first sitting U.S. senator to face federal indictment since 1993. He declared, “I am innocent of these charges and intend to prove that.”

He is accused of lying on his annual Senate financial disclosure reports between 1999 and 2006 – an indictment that caps a lengthy FBI investigation that has upended Alaska politics and brought unfavorable attention to both Stevens and his congressional colleague, GOP Rep. Don Young. Both are running for re-election this year.

3 Olympic panel ends ban, says Iraq can go to games

By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer

28 minutes ago

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – The International Olympic Committee agreed Tuesday to allow Iraq to participate in the Beijing games, reversing itself after Baghdad pledged to ensure the independence of its national Olympics panel.

The decision followed last-minute talks between Iraqi officials and the IOC ahead of Wednesday’s deadline to submit competitors’ names for track and field events. The Olympics begin Aug. 8.

Iraq is now expected to send two athletes to Beijing to compete in track and field. The decision came too late for five other hopefuls in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting. The deadline to submit names for those sports expired last week.

4 NBA scandal: Corrupt ref gets 15-month sentence

By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jul 29, 5:14 PM ET

NEW YORK – Disgraced ex-NBA official Tim Donaghy admitted that he’d brought shame on his profession Tuesday as a federal judge sentenced him to 15 months behind bars for a gambling scandal that still has the league on the defensive.

U.S. District Judge Carol Amon sentenced Donaghy to prison time plus three years of supervised release, saying he’d let the sport down by taking thousands of dollars from a professional gambler in exchange for inside tips on games – including ones he refereed.

“The NBA, the players and the fans relied on him to perform his job in an honest manner,” Amon said. Donaghy listened with his arms folded but showed no emotion.

5 S&P: Home prices drop by record 15.8 pct. in May

By J.W. ELPHINSTONE, AP Business Writer

Tue Jul 29, 11:22 AM ET

NEW YORK – Home prices tumbled by the steepest rate ever in May, according to a closely watched housing index released Tuesday, as the housing slump deepened nationwide.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index dropped by 15.8 percent in May compared with a year ago, a record decline since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index plunged 16.9 percent, its biggest decline in its 21-year history.

No city in the Case-Shiller 20-city index saw price gains in May, the second straight month that’s happened. The monthly indices have not recorded an overall home price increase in any month since August 2006.

6 Bennigan’s files for bankruptcy protection

By LAUREN SHEPHERD, AP Business Writer

2 hours, 36 minutes ago

NEW YORK – Restaurant chains Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and stores owned by its parent company will shut their doors.

The companies owned by privately held Metromedia Restaurant Group of Plano, Texas, filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in the Eastern District of Texas, less than two months after Metromedia said it was not preparing to do so. Metromedia Restaurant Group is a part of Metromedia Co., owned by billionaire John Kluge, that has interests in entertainment, radio stations and medical equipment.

In a Chapter 7 filing, a company seeks to liquidate its assets and shut down.

7 Marathon WTO talks collapse in U.S.-India farm row

By Jonathan Lynn and Doug Palmer, Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 4:18 PM ET

GENEVA (Reuters) – Marathon talks on a new global trade pact collapsed on Tuesday as the United States and India refused to compromise over a proposal to help poor farmers deal with floods of imports.

Ministers from other countries expressed incredulity that the trade liberalization talks could have foundered in their ninth day over a technical measure to restrict imports.

“Someone coming from another planet would not believe that after the progress made, we would not be able to conclude,” Brazil’s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said.

8 Karadzic supporters clash with police in Belgrade

By Ivana Sekularac, Reuters

2 hours, 12 minutes ago

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Police fired tear gas to break up scuffles with youths during a demonstration by hardline Serbian nationalists in support of war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic on Tuesday.

Karadzic’s legal team meanwhile worked on its campaign to block the former Bosnian Serb leader’s extradition to an international tribunal to answer charges of genocide for his actions in the 1992-95 Bosnia war.

He was arrested last week in Serbia after 11 years on the run, most recently living under an assumed name as a bearded, long-haired alternative healer.

9 Mixed ruling on controversial Florida gun law

By Michael Peltier, Reuters

2 hours, 5 minutes ago

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) – Florida employers cannot bar their employees from keeping guns locked in their cars at work but businesses can stop customers from keeping firearms in cars while shopping, a U.S. judge has ruled.

Both gun advocates and business groups claimed victory in a legal battle over guns and property rights following the ruling on Monday on a challenge to Florida’s so-called “take-your-guns-to-work” law, which took effect on July 1.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle upheld a provision of the controversial law that allows employees holding a state-issued concealed weapons permit to keep a gun locked in their vehicle in the parking lot.

10 Three senators call for EPA chief to resign

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent, Reuters

1 hour, 37 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic senators called on Tuesday for the resignation of Stephen Johnson, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, saying he sided with polluters instead of fighting global warming and other ecological problems.

The three senators, all active in the climate change debate, also asked the U.S. attorney general to investigate whether Johnson has made false or misleading statements in sworn testimony before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee.

“Mr. Johnson has consistently chosen special interests over the American people’s interests in protecting health and safety,” Sen. Barbara Boxer of California told reporters. “He has become a secretive and dangerous ally of polluters and we cannot stand by and allow more damage to be done.”

11 Wall Street analysts see bigger 2008 loss for Merrill

By Sweta Singh, Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 9:17 AM ET

BANGALORE (Reuters) – Several analysts, including Oppenheimer’s Meredith Whitney, widened their loss view on Merrill Lynch (MER.N), after the Wall Street investment bank and brokerage said it will take a $5.7 billion third-quarter writedown as it unloads risky debt and raises $8.5 billion in capital.

The announcement follows Merrill’s second-quarter loss of $4.9 billion, hurt by more than $9 billion in write-downs. Merrill has already recorded billions of dollars of writedowns from subprime mortgages and risky debt.

The $8.5 billion fund-raising efforts will include Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings (TEM.UL) investing an additional $900 million into Merrill Lynch.

12 Bush nudges China on rights ahead of Olympics

Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 3:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush urged China’s leadership on Tuesday to use the Beijing Olympics to show a commitment to human rights, the White House said, as he nudged his Chinese hosts about U.S. concerns 10 days before attending the games’ opening ceremonies.

Under pressure from U.S. lawmakers and advocacy groups to take a stronger stand on China’s rights record, Bush — who has repeatedly said he is going to the Olympics for sports and not for politics — held separate meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Chinese democracy activists.

He used his talks with five activists to “discuss his concerns about human rights in China,” the White House said in a statement. “The president assured them that he will carry the message of freedom as he travels to Beijing for the games, just as he has regularly made this a priority in all of his meetings with Chinese officials.

13 Billionaire investor Pickens dumps Yahoo stock: report

AFP

30 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Influential US investor T. Boone Pickens told a major California newspaper that he has dumped millions of shares of Yahoo stock at a loss.

In a San Francisco Chronicle interview published Tuesday, the billionaire said Yahoo executives’ handling of failed takeover talks with Microsoft was “pathetic” and that he is tired of waiting for a deal to come together.

Pickens did not disclose how much money he lost speculating on a Yahoo-Microsoft tie-up but the price of Yahoo shares has slipped several dollars since May, the month Pickens says he acquired the shares.

14 BP profits jump on back of record high oil prices

by Ben Perry, AFP

Tue Jul 29, 1:48 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) – British energy giant BP said Tuesday its net profit rallied by 28 percent to 9.47 billion dollars (6.02 billion euros) in the second quarter, when oil prices surged to record highs.

BP’s revenue soared by 49 percent to 111 billion dollars in the three months to June 30 compared with a year earlier as gas prices also surged, but production was flat at 3.83 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

At a press conference to discuss the results, chief executive Tony Hayward also vowed to defend BP’s rights in the face of “intimidation” and “strong-arm tactics” from Moscow regarding the Anglo-Russian joint venture TNK-BP.

15 Bomb attacks in Iraq kill at least 56

by Salam Faraj, AFP

Mon Jul 28, 3:20 PM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Three women bombers blew themselves up on Monday in a crowd of Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad, one of a string of attacks in Iraq that killed at least 56 people, undermining hopes of a drop in violence.

Scores of people were also wounded in the attacks, which came after a relative lull in the sectarian violence that has ravaged Iraq since February 2006, when insurgents blew up a Shiite mosque in the central city of Samarra.

The triple attack in Baghdad killed at least 25 pilgrims as they headed to a holy shrine for a major religious ceremony on the Shiite Muslim calendar that has been marred by bloodshed in the past, security officials said.

16 Kurdish rebels condemned at funeral of Istanbul bomb victims

AFP

Mon Jul 28, 3:34 PM ET

ISTANBUL (AFP) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday joined thousands at the funerals of victims of two Istanbul bomb attacks which killed 17 people amid accusations they were planted by Kurdish separatists.

The attack Sunday night, in which more than 150 people were wounded, heightened tensions as the Constitutional Court met to decide whether Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) should be banned on charges that it sought to undermine Turkey’s secular system.

Erdogan did not name the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) but called the two explosions “the cost” of an intensified crackdown against the outlawed rebels in Turkey and neighbouring northern Iraq.

17 Citizen journalists make new inroads into political reporting

By Uri Friedman, The Christian Science Monitor

Mon Jul 28, 5:00 AM ET

If you click onto MSNBC.com for political updates, a month from now you may get some of your news from a fresh-faced, accordion-playing college sophomore named Nathan Robinson.

One of five finalists in a contest sponsored by MSNBC.com, NBC News, and MySpace, Mr. Robinson finds out Tuesday if he’ll be one of two citizen journalists covering either the Democratic or Republican convention for MSNBC.com. For him, it’s a chance to liven up mainstream journalism. For MSNBC, it’s an attempt to bring a new perspective to the news.

Stuck with rising competition from Internet-mediated news, traditional media have been reaching out to Web-savvy citizen journalists to expand their online audiences. But only this year have major television networks and their web affiliates begun carving out reporting slots for nonprofessionals on one of their marquee topics: the presidential election.

18 POW! ZOWIE! Scholars discover the comic book.

By Randy Dotinga, The Christian Science Monitor

Tue Jul 29, 4:00 AM ET

San Diego – Amid the spectacle of the world’s largest comics convention, tens of thousands of attendees had Batman on the brain.

But only graduate student Kate McClancy came armed with an analysis of how an asylum in the Caped Crusader’s world reflects the American debate over treatment of the mentally ill.

It’s an obscure topic, to be sure. But Ms. McClancy’s treatise was right at home at Comic-Con International, which was held here this past weekend.

19 Russia’s plan to avert second cold war

By Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor

Tue Jul 29, 4:00 AM ET

Moscow – The dark clouds gathering this summer between Moscow and the West have some experts concerned that the world is on the brink of a new cold war. They point to two flash points. One, the ex-Soviet state of Georgia, is largely driven by Moscow’s fear of NATO expanding into its traditional sphere of influence. The other is a proposed US missile-defense shield in Eastern Europe. Russia has promised to retaliate – possibly by basing nuclear-capable bombers in Cuba, according to an unofficial news report quoting unnamed top security officials last week.

“It’s no longer just rhetoric, it could start to get quite serious,” says Dmitri Trenin, an analyst with the Carnegie Center in Moscow. “The message being put out by Moscow is that the West needs to realize that it’s approaching a line, beyond which there could be a real showdown.”

But Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, has a plan to arrest the slide by creating an alternative to NATO. Though it has yet to gain traction in the West, Mr. Medvedev’s plan, announced in Berlin last month, has been much discussed in the Russian media. In short, it would redesign Europe’s security system from the bottom up – but this time, Russian would participate as an equal partner and founder of the new bloc. Russian experts are dubbing the concept “EATO” – Euro-Atlantic Treaty Organization – a big-tent security grouping that would replace NATO – the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – and say it is likely to become the signature foreign policy theme of Medvedev’s presidency. It would also, say supporters, remove the main irritant in Russia’s relations with the West today.

20 Tourism rises globally, but not to U.S.

By Howard LaFranchi, The Christian Science Monitor

Tue Jul 29, 4:00 AM ET

Washington – A recent headline in The Guardian of London – “America – more hassle than it’s worth?” – underscores a stubborn global view that the United States is not an easy or a desirable place to visit.

It’s a perception reflected in the numbers. The world’s long-haul international travelers have jumped by 35 million since 2000, yet America has been largely overlooked by those new travelers, despite favorable exchange rates resulting from a weak dollar and attractions like Disney World and the Grand Canyon. In fact, the annual number of foreign visitors to the US is about 2 million lower than in 2000, leading travel-industry experts to figure that from 2000 to 2007, the US economy took a hit of about $150 billion.

This all comes at a time when the economy could use a little boost from free-spending foreigners.

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21 Audit questions millions in Blackwater contracts

By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Writer

Mon Jul 28, 7:29 PM ET

RALEIGH, N.C. – Private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide and its affiliates may have misrepresented their size to win more than $100 million in government contracts set aside for small businesses, federal auditors said Monday.

A report by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General questioned the agency’s decision to approve Blackwater as a small business even though there were signs the company could be much larger than executives claimed.

In fiscal 2005 through 2007, Blackwater and affiliates won 32 small business contracts worth more than $2.1 million even though the work was restricted to companies with revenue of $6.5 million or less, according to the audit. One contract had a revenue ceiling of $750,000. Meanwhile, Blackwater’s airline affiliate Presidential Airways won more than $107 million in contracts set aside for companies with revenues of less than $25.5 million or fewer than 1,500 employees.

22 Judge ruling on Sprint fees is blow to industry

By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jul 29, 4:22 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO – The fees that cell phone carriers charge customers who break service contracts took a big hit in a California courtroom when a judge said such charges by Sprint Nextel Corp. likely violate state law.

The judge, in a tentative ruling issued late Monday, said Sprint will have to pay $18.3 million to customers who sued over the fees and credit $54.8 million to those who were charged but did not pay the fees.

The same judge is considering other lawsuits against telecommunications companies over their so-called early termination fees, which can range from $150 to $225. This month Verizon Wireless agreed to pay $21 million to settle an identical lawsuit just as trial was starting.

23 Former JPMorgan executive accused of embezzlement

By Martha Graybow, Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 11:26 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former JPMorgan Chase & Co private banking executive has been indicted on charges of embezzling about $5.4 million, according to federal court papers.

The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accuses former executive Hernan Arbizu of 15 criminal counts. Arbizu was arrested on Monday in Argentina, according to a person close to the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The indictment contends Arbizu engaged in a scheme to withdraw funds from bank customers without their knowledge through the use of unauthorized wire transfers. The U.S. government is also seeking the forfeiture of the roughly $5.4 million it contends was embezzled.

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24 Giant chunks break off Canadian ice shelf

By David Ljunggren, Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 1:30 PM ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Giant sheets of ice totaling almost eight square miles broke off an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic last week and more could follow later this year, scientists said on Tuesday.

Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that experts say is linked to global warming.

The ice broke away from the shelf on Ward Hunt Island, an small island just off giant Ellesmere Island in one of the northernmost parts of Canada.

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25 Militants capture 25 Pakistani security personnel

By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jul 29, 2:20 PM ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Islamic militants seized a security post in Pakistan’s troubled northwest Tuesday, capturing at least 25 police and troops in a raid that underscored the government’s weak grip on territory near the Afghan border.

Extremists also killed two security officers elsewhere in the Swat Valley, a day after three intelligence agents died in an ambush in the same area in further blows to the hopes of Pakistani leaders that they can tame Islamic hard-liners through peace negotiations.

Tuesday’s incidents came a day after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani won praise from President Bush, whose administration is pressing Pakistan for tougher action against militants, as a reliable ally against terrorism.

26 7 Bosnian Serbs guilty of genocide in Srebrenica

By AIDA CERKEZ-ROBINSON, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jul 29, 1:42 PM ET

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina – The Bosnian war crimes court convicted seven Bosnian Serbs of genocide Tuesday in the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica and handed down prison sentences ranging from 38 to 42 years. Four others were acquitted.

Issuing their first sentence related to Europe’s worst massacre since World War II, judges at the war crimes court sent three of the former policemen to jail for 42 years, another three away for 40 years and one for 38 years.

The verdict comes as Serbia prepares to extradite former Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic – also indicted for genocide in Srebrenica – to the separate U.N. war crimes tribunal in Netherlands. Karadzic was arrested last week in Belgrade after hiding for over a decade.

27 Turkish planes attack rebel Kurds in Iraq

By C. ONUR ANT, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jul 29, 1:59 PM ET

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkish warplanes attacked Kurdish rebels in Iraq’s north on Tuesday, killing a group of guerrillas gathered at a mountain cave, the military said.

The Turkish strikes, which a pro-Kurdish news agency said were followed by shelling from Iran, came two days after bombs planted in an Istanbul neighborhood killed 17 people. The government blamed Kurdish rebels, who denied involvement in the deadliest attack on civilians in five years.

The military said in a statement Tuesday that warplanes attacked rebel targets in northern Iraq, where the leadership of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, is based. The statement said many of a 40-strong rebel group outside a cave at Mount Qandil were killed.

28 Mbeki: Zimbabwe power-sharing talks ‘going well’

By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jul 29, 11:56 AM ET

HARARE, Zimbabwe – South African President Thabo Mbeki insisted Tuesday that talks in Pretoria aimed at building a power-sharing government to resolve Zimbabwe’s deadly political crisis were going well, despite reports of disagreements.

The negotiations broke off Monday. Opposition negotiators were unhappy with the government’s insistence that Robert Mugabe remain president with rival Morgan Tsvangirai serving as one of several vice presidents, two officials close to the talks told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of a media blackout on coverage of the talks.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai had agreed last week to embark on the power-sharing talks as a way out of a political impasse four months after Zimbabwe’s presidential election. Dozens have been killed and thousands forced from their homes in the violence that followed the disputed polls.

29 Police defuse 18 bombs near another Indian market

By R.K. MISRA, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jul 29, 11:59 AM ET

AHMADABAD, India – Police defused 18 bombs found Tuesday near the main diamond markets in the city of Surat and issued a sketch of a young man believed to be linked to one of two explosives-filled cars discovered there.

The announcement came as authorities in a Mumbai suburb probed ties to a series of blasts over the weekend that killed 42 people and wounded 183 in Ahmadabad, about 175 miles north of Surat. An obscure Islamic militant group claimed responsibility for the Ahmadabad attack.

“I request you not to go to crowded places unnecessarily,” Surat Police Commissioner R.M.S. Brar told the public during a news conference, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

30 Cambodian, Thai wait for other to redeploy first

By KER MUNTHIT, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jul 29, 1:53 AM ET

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – An agreement to end a tense border standoff between Cambodian and Thai troops near an ancient temple stalled Tuesday as both sides waited for the other to make the first move and redeploy their forces.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen said he was ready to pull troops back, but was leaving the timing up to Thailand.

A Thai army commander said his troops had made no immediate plan to leave.

31 Mistrust risks violence, interfaith meet told

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor, Reuters

1 hour, 13 minutes ago

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (Reuters) – Christians and Muslims mistrust each other so much that a few terrorist attacks could trigger dramatic and violent religious tensions, a Jordanian prince told an interfaith conference on Tuesday.

Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, sponsor of a Muslim appeal to Christian leaders to work together for peace, said the two religions must work together or face possible violence that risks turning into genocide.

The warning was a stark reminder to the 150 participants, theologians and faith leaders who came to discuss common views on love of God and neighbor, of the dangerous potential religion can have when intertwined with political conflicts.

32 Haitian ex-soldiers occupy former army buildings

By Joseph Guyler Delva, Reuters

55 minutes ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – About 200 ex-soldiers occupied former military buildings in northern Haiti on Tuesday to demand the reinstatement of the disbanded army and 14 years of back pay, the group’s leader and witnesses said.

The men took over the buildings in Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city, and in Ouaminthes, a town on the border with the Dominican Republic.

A bloody rebellion of former soldiers and street gangs in 2004 led to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who fled Haiti for exile in Africa.

33 Iran tells developing states to fight U.N. "bias"

By Fredrik Dahl, Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 10:51 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s president called on Tuesday for developing nations to unite against what he said was bias by the U.N. Security Council, which the Islamic Republic accuses of siding with the West in a nuclear row.

Iran wants to broaden international support for what it says is a peaceful drive to use nuclear technology but which the United States and the West says is a bid to make atomic bombs.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told ministers from the Non- Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran that the Security Council and other world bodies were being manipulated by some world powers.

34 South Africa tells ICC: "Give peace a chance" in Darfur

By Louis Charbonneau, Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 5:21 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – South Africa said on Tuesday that an increasing number of countries want the International Criminal Court, in the interest of peace in Darfur, to halt any genocide indictment of Sudan’s president.

The U.N. Security Council is split on a South African and Libyan proposal that it call on the ICC’s judges to refrain from taking any action on a request by their chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, for an arrest warrant against Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur.

Moreno-Ocampo accused Bashir of orchestrating a campaign of genocide during the 5-year-old conflict that has killed 35,000 people outright and at least 100,000 through starvation and disease, and forced 2.5 million from their homes.

35 Pakistanis urge tougher IAEA stance on India deal

By Mark Heinrich, Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 3:34 PM ET

VIENNA (Reuters) – Senior Pakistani figures have accused the Islamabad government of buckling to U.S. pressure not to hold up a nuclear trade deal between Washington and Pakistan’s arch-rival India.

The deal would give India access to the world market in nuclear fuel and technology for first time after a decades-long ban due to India having tested atom bombs and staying out of the international Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Pakistanis are unhappy because of their history of three wars and enduring tensions with neighboring India. Pakistan feels it should get a similar deal from the United States.

36 Afghans must command foreign troops: state newspaper

Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 8:59 AM ET

KABUL (Reuters) – To defeat Taliban militants, foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military in Afghanistan should come under the command of the Afghan government, otherwise the war will drag on, a government-owned newspaper said on Tuesday.

More than 71,000 foreign troops are currently stationed in Afghanistan fighting Taliban militants who have made a come back in the past two years, the bloodiest period since the militants’ removal from power in 2001.

The lack of a unified command amongst the troops and failure to coordinate operations with the government has been a factor in the escalation of violence and the rebirth of the insurgents, the English-language Kabul Times newspaper said.

37 US Congress acts to suspend bid to upgrade Pakistan fighter fleet

AFP

10 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Congress moved Tuesday to suspend a bid by President George W. Bush’s administration to shift millions of dollars in aid to Pakistan from counter-terrorism programs to upgrading Islamabad’s F-16 fighter jets.

“We have requested a hold on the administration’s planned reprogramming pending additional information,” said a joint statement by Democratic lawmakers Howard Berman and Nita Lowey, who head key panels in the House of Representatives.

“We are concerned that the administration’s proposal to use military assistance to pay for the F-16 upgrades will divert funds from more effective counterterrorism tools like helicopters, TOW missiles, and night-vision goggles,” said Berman, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, and Lowey, chairwoman of the appropriations subcommittee on foreign programs.

38 Myanmar aid losses ‘unacceptable:’ UN aid coordinator

AFP

Mon Jul 28, 7:23 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The UN aid operation in cyclone-hit Myanmar has lost around 10 million dollars due to distortions in the country’s official exchange rate, the world body’s humanitarian chief said Monday.

John Holmes, the UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, called the losses “a significant problem,” and said about 15 per cent of the aid delivered to Myanmar in the past three months had been lost.

The UN has spent 200 million dollars (125 million euros) on aid to Myanmar since Cyclone Nargis struck in May, leaving an estimated 140,000 people dead or missing.

39 Sabotage forces Shell to cut output in Nigeria: company

by Joel Olatunde Agoi, AFP

Mon Jul 28, 3:13 PM ET

LAGOS (AFP) – Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell cut output in southern Nigeria Monday after militants sabotaged at least one of its pipelines supplying crude, officials said.

Shell declined to say by how much production was being reduced, stressing that the amount should not be exaggerated because of the possible effect on oil prices.

Oil prices had already risen on news of the attack, with Brent North Sea crude for September delivery climbing 1.58 dollars to 126.10 dollars a barrel, while New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for September, rose by 1.50 dollars to 124.76 dollars a barrel.

40 Chile faces its dark history by tracking down torture centers

By Jack Chang, McClatchy Newspapers

Tue Jul 29, 3:26 PM ET

LONQUEN, Chile – This quiet town nestled in the hills of central Chile has a horrifying history.

In 1978, in a stone oven on the town’s outskirts, the Roman Catholic Church found the bodies of 11 poor farmers and four youths who were executed by Chile’s military dictatorship. Police had accused the victims of being leftist subversives and arrested them five years earlier, but no charges were ever filed.

After the 15 bodies were discovered, government agents buried them in a common grave, and the site’s landlord blew up the oven. However, the oven’s ruins, which now are next door to a gated community, have become a memorial for hundreds of people who come every year to honor the victims.

41 Chile proposes turning torture house into museum

By Jack Chang, McClatchy Newspapers

Tue Jul 29, 3:25 PM ET

SANTIAGO, Chile – An innocuous two-story house on a cobblestone street in downtown Santiago has become a symbol of human-rights activists’ fight for Chile’s history.

Known by its former street address, Londres 38, the house was the headquarters of Chile’s Socialist Party until Sept. 11, 1973 , when Augusto Pinochet ousted Socialist President Salvador Allende and Pinochet’s forces took over the building.

Nearly 100 dissidents, many of them young members of the Revolutionary Left Movement political party, died after they were taken to the house and tortured during interrogations.

42 Afghanistan more deadly for U.S. troops than Iraq so far in July

By Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers

Tue Jul 29, 4:44 PM ET

BAGHDAD – Nearly twice as many U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq so far this month, marking the lowest death toll of the Iraq war and the first time that the American military has suffered more casualties in Afghanistan than it has in Iraq .

As of Tuesday, 11 U.S. service members had been killed in Iraq and 20 in Afghanistan in July, according to icasualties.org, which tracks coalition casualties in both wars.

If the July statistics hold for the next two days, they’ll mark the lowest American military death toll in Iraq since February 2004 , when 20 service members were killed, and the second highest toll in Afghanistan , after June, when 27 U.S. troops were killed there and 29 Americans were killed in Iraq .

43 Who Was Behind the Turkish Blasts?

By PELIN TURGUT / ISTANBUL, Time Magazine

Tue Jul 29, 1:30 PM ET

Who did it? In smoky cafes and on street stoops, that’s what Turks are asking after Sunday’s devastating bomb attack on a quiet Istanbul street. The attack’s timing has fueled the conjecture, since it occurred on the eve of a politically charged court case to ban the governing party. No one has yet claimed responsibility, so the answer – like so much else in a country divided between secularists and Islamists, nationalists and liberal pro-Europeans – depends very much on who’s doing the talking.

44 Fatal Bombings in an Edgy Turkey

By PELIN TURGUT / ISTANBUL, Time Magazine

Tue Jul 29, 4:40 PM ET

Temperatures in Turkey are rising, but it’s not just a matter of the fierce July sun. A verdict in a landmark case to shut down the government for alleged Islamism is expected by next week, and a prosecutor recently alleged that a powerful cabal of nationalist hit men has plotted to bring the country’s institutions to a fall. So when two fatal bombs ripped through a working-class Istanbul neighborhood on Sunday night, killing 17 and injuring another 150, the already palpable tension in Turkey went up another few notches.

45 Thousands of UK Passports Stolen

By PATRICE POLTZER / LONDON, Time Magazine

Tue Jul 29, 4:25 PM ET

Anyone in search of a new identity in coming years might find it easiest to opt for becoming British. Robbers hijacked a security van on its way from Manchester to London Monday morning and made off with about 3,000 blank British passports and visas that were destined for embassies overseas. The Foreign Office said the heist amounted to a “serious breach of security,” but insisted the blank documents are unusable because of their high-tech chip security features. “A blank isn’t able to be used for crossing a border,” said a Foreign Office spokesperson.

46 Why Karadzic Wants No Lawyer

By KRISTINA DELL, Time Magazine

2 hours, 36 minutes ago

It should have come as no surprise that accused war criminal Radovan Karadzic had no use for a lawyer once he was apprehended for trial in the Hague. Choosing to represent themselves is a time-honored tactic in trials where the accused reject the authority of the court and the legitimacy of the proceedings, seeing the trial instead as a platform for political protest. Gandhi did it; Fidel Castro did it; Nelson Mandela did it; and, more recently, so did former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic and accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
From Yahoo News U.S. News

47 Mass. House votes to let out-of-state gays marry

By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jul 29, 6:22 PM ET

BOSTON – The Massachusetts House voted Tuesday to repeal a 1913 law that had been used to block gay marriages involving out-of-state couples, all but assuring that the state will allow same-sex couples to wed regardless of where they live.

The 119-36 vote came after the state Senate approved the repeal earlier this month, and Gov. Deval Patrick has said he will sign the bill. The measure requires one more procedural vote in each chamber before it is to the governor.

“Sometimes what you hope and pray for actually happens, which is kind of overwhelming,” Michael Thorne, 55, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, said after telling his 6-year-old son his parents could soon get married. Thorne and his partner of 25 years, James Theberge, have an Aug. 18 wedding planned in Provincetown, although the repeal will not take effect until 90 days after Patrick’s signature.

48 After Dallas DA’s death, 19 convictions are undone

By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jul 29, 1:54 PM ET

DALLAS – As district attorney of Dallas for an unprecedented 36 years, Henry Wade was the embodiment of Texas justice.

Nineteen convictions – three for murder and the rest involving rape or burglary – won by Wade and two successors who trained under him have been overturned after DNA evidence exonerated the defendants. About 250 more cases are under review.

No other county in America – and almost no state, for that matter – has freed more innocent people from prison in recent years than Dallas County, where Wade was DA from 1951 through 1986.

49 Colorado experts find Salmonella in jalapeno

Reuters

2 hours, 14 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Colorado health officials said they had found a Salmonella-tainted jalapeno in the home of someone sickened in a recent outbreak of the food poisoning — a vital clue in tracking down the source of the illness.

The pepper carried bacteria with the same unusual strain of Salmonella saintpaul that has made 1,307 people sick in the United States, the state health department said.

“The pepper was purchased at a local Wal-Mart, likely on June 24, and the individual became ill on July 4. This is the first pepper linked directly to an ill person in this outbreak,” the health department said in a statement posted on its Web site this week.

50 Court revives case against Whole Foods

By Peter Kaplan, Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 3:34 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday revived a government antitrust case against Whole Foods Market Inc’s (WFMI.O) purchase of rival Wild Oats Markets Inc, reversing a lower court decision that allowed the deal to proceed.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said a district court judge erred when he turned down a Federal Trade Commission request for an injunction to block the deal.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman “underestimated the FTC’s likelihood of success on the merits” when he denied the agency’s request, the three-judge appeals court panel said in its ruling. One of the judges dissented from the opinion.

51 More road privatization, fewer gas taxes: Bush official

Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 1:35 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government should begin weaning itself from gasoline taxes and unwind other programs to make way for more state involvement and private investment in road construction and transit, the Bush administration proposed on Tuesday.

The plan unveiled by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters would streamline bureaucracy and make federal requirements more flexible to accelerate the time it takes to design, build or improve highways, bridges, rail and other transportation projects.

“Our plan creates an easier and more sustainable way to pay for and build roads and transit systems,” Peters said in a speech in Atlanta.

52 Firms owe billions in unpaid payroll taxes

By Donna Smith, Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 11:59 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More than 1.6 million U.S. businesses owe the Internal Revenue Service more than $58 billion in unpaid taxes for Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance, a government watchdog agency said on Tuesday.

In a report to the Senate Homeland Security investigations subcommittee, the Government Accountability Office said the IRS fails to take full advantage of tools available to collect unpaid taxes and to prevent further cheating on payroll taxes.

“When businesses do not remit payroll taxes, they are using employees’ money to fund business operations or the personal lifestyle of the businesses’ owners,” GAO Director of Financial Management and Assurance Steven Sebastian said in testimony to the committee.

53 Guantanamo trial views graphic 9/11 video

By Randall Mikkelsen, Reuters

Tue Jul 29, 12:05 PM ET

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Prosecutors in the trial of Osama bin Laden’s driver unveiled a graphic video on Monday of the September 11 attacks and other al Qaeda operations that is likely to play a repeated role in pending war crimes cases.

The video is entitled “The Al Qaida Plan,” an echo of “The Nazi Plan” made by Oscar-winning director George Stevens as evidence in the Nuremberg war crimes trials of German leaders after World War II.

“Oh my God” was heard repeatedly as crowds watched the twin towers of the World Trade center collapse on September 11, 2001, in a vivid highlight of the movie shown over defense objections at the terrorism conspiracy trial of Salim Hamdan.

54 US high court urged to revisit death penalty for child rape

AFP

Tue Jul 29, 5:45 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Justice Department has appealed to nation’s highest court to re-hear a major death penalty case involving sentencing for child rapists, saying the ruling was made without all the facts.

The Supreme Court last month ruled 5-4 against the death sentence for child rapists, but did so without considering a 2007 executive order that makes child rape a crime punishable by death according to military law, the Justice Department said in a rare motion filed this week.

In the high court’s ruling in Kennedy v. Louisiana on June 25, Justice Anthony Kennedy said “there is a national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of child rape,” due to the lack of recent executions and the low number of states that permit the death penalty for such crimes.

55 Los Angeles passes ban on new fast-food outlets

AFP

1 hour, 6 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Los Angeles officials on Tuesday approved a one-year ban on fast-food chains opening in a poor neighborhood of the city battling higher-than-average obesity, officials said.

The moratorium covers the 500,000 people living in the 32-square mile area of South Los Angeles, which is predominantly Hispanic and African-American.

Designed to encourage healthier eating habits, the move is believed to be the first time fast-food outlets have been restricted from opening on health grounds.

56 Soy reduces sperm count: study

AFP

Tue Jul 29, 6:35 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Eating or drinking a lot of products containing soy and isoflavones can result in reduced sperm count among men, a Harvard School of Public Health study has shown.

“There has been a lot of interest on whether soy affects fertility because many studies in animals suggest that this is the case, but there are very few studies in humans,” said researcher and lead study author Jorge Chavarro.

“This only the third study to look at whether soy food has a relationship with fertility in humans and the first one to find an association in agreement to the animal studies,” he told AFP.

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  1. From Yahoo News Politics

    57 Analysis: Stevens indictment adds to GOP troubles

    By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

    2 hours, 46 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON – Just when it looked like things couldn’t get much worse for Republicans in this election year, they did.

    The indictment Tuesday of Ted Stevens of Alaska, the party’s longest-serving senator, gave Democrats a new edge in their drive to win his seat and more momentum in their push to capture a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate.

    It was the latest bad news in a year of setbacks for Republican candidates across the country. The party has been buffeted by retirements and surprise defeats in districts they thought were safe.

    58 McCain tries to show independence and conservatism

    By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer

    1 hour, 30 minutes ago

    SPARKS, Nev. – Republican presidential candidate John McCain tried to strike a balance at a town hall meeting Tuesday between the independence he boasts of and his avowed conservatism.

    “As many of you know, I’ve been called a maverick, someone who marches to the beat of his own drum,” McCain said proudly before being peppered with questions on offshore oil drilling, taxes and stem cell research from a largely Republican audience that nonetheless displayed a range of ideological views.

    The Arizona senator insisted anew he would not raise taxes if elected president and vowed to appoint judges like Samuel Alito and John Roberts, conservatives named to the Supreme Court by President Bush.

    59 Bush pushes Congress to expand offshore drilling

    By Tom Doggett, Reuters

    1 hour, 2 minutes ago

    Euclid, OHIO (Reuters) – President George W. Bush on Tuesday again called on Congress to pass legislation that would give energy companies access to billions of barrels of oil in U.S. waters where energy exploration is now banned.

    Speaking to workers at a welding plant in Euclid, Ohio, Bush said gasoline prices are high because global oil supplies are not able to keep up with growing demand in countries like India and China, whose economies are strong and whose citizens are buying more cars.

    To help bring down fuel prices, Bush said the United States needed to develop more of its oil resources, particularly those located offshore, which Bush said held enough supply to meet current U.S. oil demand for 10 years.

    60 Violence in Iraq nearing ‘normal’ levels: Petraeus

    AFP

    Tue Jul 29, 11:18 AM ET

    WASHINGTON (AFP) – Overall violence in Iraq is declining to almost “normal” levels, General David Petraeus told USA Today in an interview published Tuesday, following a string of attacks the day before.

    The commander of US forces in Iraq warned however that the trend could be reversed by “sensational attacks” like those Monday in Baghdad and Kirkuk that killed some 56 Iraqis.

    “If you could reduce these sensational attacks further, I think you are almost approaching a level of normal or latent violence,” he told the newspaper in a phone interview from Baghdad.

  2. From Yahoo News Business

    61 FTC: Kids target of FTC: Kids target of $1.6 billion in food ads.6 billion in food ads

    By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer

    Tue Jul 29, 6:56 PM ET

    WASHINGTON – Marketing food and drinks to children these days occurs with more than just a few television ads. It involves promotional displays at grocery stores and packaging that directs them to Web sites where they can play games, win prizes or send e-cards to a friend.

    In all, the nation’s largest food and beverage companies spent about $1.6 billion in 2006 marketing their products to children, according to a Federal Trade Commission report released Tuesday.

    About $200 million of that went to cross-promotional campaigns designed to provide children and teens with repeated product exposure across several venues. For example, some 80 films, television shows and video games were used to also promote food and beverages to children and teens, the FTC found.

    62 Americans look for ray of hope in economic gloom

    By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writer

    Tue Jul 29, 3:58 PM ET

    NEW YORK – Americans see a slice of sunlight for the economy, as a widely watched report Tuesday showed people are not as pessimistic about the future as they were a month ago.

    The housing market is still falling, but so have gas prices – at least a little – and that was enough to spark a little hope amid the deepest economic gloom in 16 years.

    But economists warn that the slight uptick, which reverses a six-month slide since January, is likely to be only temporary and doesn’t signal the beginning of a rally.

    63 MetLife posts earnings drop; misses view

    By Lilla Zuill, Reuters

    Tue Jul 29, 6:48 PM ET

    NEW YORK (Reuters) – MetLife Inc (MET.N), the largest U.S. life insurer, said on Tuesday its second-quarter profit fell on investment losses and a decline in insurance earnings, sending its shares sliding nearly 10 percent.

    Net earnings dropped about 19 percent to $915 million, or $1.26 a share, as catastrophe losses also took a hit on its homeowners business. The results missed Wall Street’s estimates.

    Chief Executive C. Robert Henrikson blamed lower earnings on higher-than-expected catastrophe losses after tornadoes and hail storms wreaked havoc across parts of the United States earlier this year, and “the continuing decline in the equity markets.”

    64 GMAC and Ford pull back on leases as credit tightens

    By Kevin Krolicki, Reuters

    2 hours, 6 minutes ago

    DETROIT (Reuters) – GMAC and Ford Motor Credit disclosed steps on Tuesday to cut back on auto leases in a move that leaves automakers facing the risk of even more pressure on auto sales already at decade lows.

    The steps by GMAC and Ford Motor Credit stopped short of Chrysler Financial’s wholesale abandonment of lease financing that shocked the struggling carmaker’s dealers on Friday.

    Analysts said the steps could protect the balance sheets of the auto finance companies, but cautioned the new financial constraints could make a tough market even harder for the Detroit-based automakers.

    65 Billion-dollar bankruptcies highest since 2003

    By Emily Chasan, Reuters

    Tue Jul 29, 6:21 PM ET

    NEW YORK (Reuters) – Billion-dollar bankruptcies are at their highest in five years only half way through 2008, according to bankruptcy filing tracker BankruptcyData.com.

    A total of seven U.S. companies with more than a billion dollars in assets have filed for bankruptcy protection so far this year, it said.

    Fremont General Corp (FMNTQ.PK), which was one of the largest U.S. providers of subprime mortgages before regulators ordered it to stop making the loans, was the largest filing of the year with $13 billion in pre-petition assets, BankruptcyData.com said. Fremont filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, after arranging to sell bank branches and deposits to CapitalSource Inc (CSE.N).

  3. From Yahoo News Science

    66 Inventor says jet packs ready to take off

    By DINESH RAMDE, AP Business Writer

    Tue Jul 29, 6:57 PM ET

    OSHKOSH, Wis. – This isn’t how a jet pack is supposed to look, is it? Hollywood has envisioned jet packs as upside-down fire extinguishers strapped to people’s backs. But Glenn Martin’s invention is far more unwieldy – a 250-pound piano-sized contraption that people settle into rather than strap on.

    As thousands looked on Tuesday, the inventor’s 16-year-old son donned a helmet, fastened himself to a prototype Martin jet pack and revved the engine, which sounded like a motorcycle. Harrison Martin eased about three feet off the ground, the engine roaring with a whine so loud that some kids covered their ears.

    With two spotters preventing the jet pack from drifting in a mild wind, the pilot hovered for 45 seconds and then set the device down as the audience applauded.

    67 Judge: EPA turned ‘blind eye’ to Everglades

    By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer

    Tue Jul 29, 6:57 PM ET

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The U.S Environmental Protection Agency has turned a “blind eye” to Florida’s Everglades cleanup efforts, while the state is violating its own commitment to restore the vast ecosystem, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

    In a stinging ruling from Miami, U.S. District Judge Alan Gold put to rest a 2004 lawsuit filed against the EPA, ordering the agency to review water pollution standards and timelines set by Florida for the Everglades.

    Gold repeatedly accused EPA of acting “arbitrarily and capriciously” in its failure to adhere to the mandates of the Clean Water Act.

    68 Scientists aim camera at fossilized dino tracks

    Associated Press

    Tue Jul 29, 6:58 PM ET

    KANAB, Utah – Call them the paleo-paparazzi. Scientists trying to learn more about dinosaurs are snapping aerial photos of tracks left behind millions of years ago near southern Utah’s Coral Pink Sand Dunes.

    Researchers in a specially equipped helicopter crisscrossed an area called the Moccasin Mountain track site, shooting photos of fossilized footprints scattered across the red sandstone.

    Alan Titus, a Bureau of Land Management paleontologist, said it’s the first time a helicopter has been used to take detailed images of a track site.

    69 Russia sub’s deep lake dive fails to set record

    By Olga Petrova, Reuters

    Tue Jul 29, 11:15 AM ET

    ABOARD THE METROPOLIA PLATFORM, Russia (Reuters) – Russian explorers plunged to the bed of the world’s deepest lake on Tuesday in a show of Moscow’s resurgent scientific ambitions, but had to withdraw a claim to have set a new record.

    The mission to the depths of Siberia’s Lake Baikal was led by Artur Chilingarov, a scientist and Kremlin-backed member of parliament who was part of an earlier mission to the North Pole that sparked criticism in the West.

    The mission’s twin submersibles, used last year to plant a Russian flag on the seabed under the North Pole, descended 1,580 meters (5,180 feet) to the lake bed. This was well short of their 1,680 meter target, which would have set a world record for freshwater submersion.

    70 There’s life in space, says someone who’s been there

    Reuters

    Tue Jul 29, 6:44 AM ET

    TOKYO (Reuters) – The U.S. commander of space shuttle Discovery believes life probably exists somewhere in outer space, but there is a simple reason why aliens have not visited earth — the journey is too tough.

    “We have seen some evidence that there is a possibility of some life on Mars in the past, so there is probably life all over the universe,” astronaut Mark Kelly told a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, where he was joined by other members of the Discovery crew.

    “From our experience, it is very difficult to travel through space, and I personally think aliens have not visited our planet.”

    71 Scientists question dinosaur soft tissue find

    Reuters

    1 hour, 53 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Soft tissue taken from preserved dinosaur bones may not be dinosaur protein at all, but bacteria, paleontologists said on Tuesday.

    Dinosaur experts made headlines around the world when they found what appeared to be soft tissue in a broken Tyrannosaurus rex thighbone.

    Last April, a team at Harvard University in Massachusetts said they had analyzed a small amount of protein from the sample and shown it had characteristics of living bird and, more distantly, alligators.

    72 China claims pollution success as skies clear

    AFP

    Tue Jul 29, 12:04 PM ET

    BEIJING (AFP) – China claimed success on Tuesday in its pre-Olympic battle against Beijing’s infamous pollution, as strong winds helped clear the thick smog that has hung over the Chinese capital this month.

    Pollution levels had fallen by at least 20 percent since the first of a raft of short-term measures began at the beginning of July, Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau deputy director Du Shaozhong told reporters.

    Despite visible signs of heavy smog that had pervaded the city in recent weeks, and some branches of China’s state-run press highlighting the pollution problems, Du insisted there had been 25 days of “clean air” in July.

    73 Japan adopts action plan against global warming

    AFP

    Tue Jul 29, 12:02 PM ET

    TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s cabinet on Tuesday adopted a plan to slash carbon emissions up to 80 percent by 2050 by starting carbon trading and stepping up research on carbon-capture technologies.

    “Japan must continue showing leadership on the issue of environment,” Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told the cabinet meeting. “To lead the world, Japan must take the initiative by achieving a low-carbon society.”

    Japanese industry leaders, particularly steelmakers and the power industry, have strongly opposed Fukuda’s plan, arguing it would hurt an already weak economy.

    74 Laos to protect ancient capital to preserve World Heritage status

    AFP

    Tue Jul 29, 2:42 AM ET

    HANOI (AFP) – Laos has halted plans for new hotels in the town centre of the ancient royal capital Luang Prabang after receiving a warning from UNESCO about its World Heritage status, media reported Tuesday.

    The city’s heritage office chief, Manivone Thoummabouth, said the provincial government had decided not to allow foreign investors to turn any more state buildings into hotels, the Vientiane Times reported online.

    “There are many hotels in the city and if more are built, the area would be too crowded with tourists, causing difficulty for state officials to access their workplaces,” she was quoted as saying by the daily.

    75 Mars Dirt Found Surprisingly Sticky

    Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer SPACE.com

    Tue Jul 29, 11:31 AM ET

    The icy dirt mixture that NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander is trying to sample is surprisingly sticky, mission scientists learned this weekend, as they tried to deliver a clump to one of the craft’s instruments.

    The difficulties of delivering the sticky dirt, thought to be a mixture of water ice and dust and other unknown minerals similar to terrestrial soil, but without microbes, to one of the ovens in Phoenix’s Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) are forcing scientists to delay those plans and dig for another sample of dry dirt instead. The lander analyzed its first dry dirt sample about a month ago.

    “While we continue with determining the best way to get an icy sample, we intend to proceed with analyzing dry samples that we already know how to deliver,” said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith, of the University of Arizona.

  4. Well, since I’m posting comments.

  5. Impressive ek.

    The only news I have to share is that I really want a Bamix hand blender.

    I am a consumer.

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