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Court rules against Obama’s stem cell policy

By Jeremy Pelofsky and Maggie Fox

August 24, 2010

(Reuters) – A district court issued a preliminary injunction on Monday stopping federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, in a slap to the Obama administration’s new guidelines on the sensitive issue.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth granted the injunction because he found that the doctors who challenged the policy would likely succeed because U.S. law blocked federal funding of embryonic stem cell research if the embryos were destroyed.

“(Embryonic stem cell) research is clearly research in which an embryo is destroyed,” Lamberth wrote in a 15-page ruling. The Obama administration could appeal his decision or try to rewrite the guidelines to comply with U.S. law.

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Compensation czar takes charge of $20 billion BP fund

By Matthew Bigg

August 23, 2010

(Reuters) – A $20 billion compensation fund for economic victims of the BP Gulf oil spill opens for business on Monday amid accusations that the rules established by its administrator are unfair.

Kenneth Feinberg who will run the fund said those who sustained financial loss because of the spill could claim for damages and he promised claimants more generous treatment than they would get if they sued the energy giant for damages.

“The goal here is to try and explain to eligible claimants: ‘It is not in your interest to tie up yourself and the courts in years of uncertain protracted litigation when … there is a more efficient quick alternative'” Feinberg told a news conference on Sunday.

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Iran to fire up its first nuclear power plant

By Robin Pomeroy

August 20, 2010

(Reuters) – Iran’s first nuclear power station will be loaded with fuel on Saturday, a showcase for Tehran’s claim that its atomic ambitions are purely peaceful.

Experts say firing up the $1-billion Bushehr plant will not take Iran any closer to building a nuclear bomb as Russia will supply the enriched uranium for the reactor and take away spent fuel rods which could be used to make weapons-grade plutonium.

Iran insists it does not want nuclear weapons anyway.

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Jobless claims at 9-month high

By Lucia Mutikani

August 19, 2010

(Reuters) – New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly climbed to a nine-month high last week, yet another setback to the frail economic recovery.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 500,000 in the week ended August 14, the highest since mid-November, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 476,000 from the previously reported 484,000 the prior week, which was revised up to 488,000 in Thursday’s report.

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Dozens missing after landslide in southwest China

By Huang Yan and Chris Buckley

August 18, 2010

(Reuters) – At least 67 people were missing after mudslides hit a remote southwest Chinese town near Myanmar, state media reported on Wednesday, adding to the thousands killed or missing in floods and landslides this year.

Mudslides triggered by torrential rains hit a township in Gongshan County, located in a mountainous corner of Yunnan province, early on Wednesday morning, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

“The number of casualties is unknown at the moment,” the report said.

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Special report: Flipping, flopping and booming mortgage fraud

By Nick Carey

August 17, 2010

(Reuters) – The house on the 53rd block of South Wood Street in Chicago’s Back of the Yards doesn’t look like a $355,000 home. There is no front door and most of the windows are boarded up.

Public records show it sold in foreclosure for $25,500 in January 2009, then resold for $355,000 in October. In between, a $110,000 mortgage was taken out on the home, supposedly for renovations. This June, the property went back into foreclosure.

To Emilio Carrasquillo, head of the local office of non-profit lender Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago (NHS), the numbers don’t add up. He believes this is a case of mortgage fraud.

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(today is the 33rd Anniversary of Elvis’ death)

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