Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
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1 Tibet protests spread to other provinces
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer
34 minutes ago
| BEIJING – Violence in Tibet spilled over into neighboring provinces Sunday where Tibetan protesters defied a Chinese government crackdown. The Dalai Lama warned Tibet faced “cultural genocide” and appealed to the world for help.
Protests against Chinese rule of Tibet were reported in neighboring Sichuan and Qinghai provinces and also in western Gansu province. All are home to sizable Tibetan populations. The demonstrations come after protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa escalated into violence Friday, with Buddhist monks and others torching police cars and shops in the fiercest challenge to Beijing’s rule over the region in nearly two decades. |
2 Paulson: Govt will act to aid economy
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
26 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON – The Bush administration will “do what its takes” to stabilize chaotic markets and minimize the economic damage, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Sunday after a tumultuous week capped by the government rescue of a teetering investment bank.
All eyes now are on Wall Street as leading financial advisers prepared for a Monday meeting with President Bush and the Federal Reserve weighs another deep interest rate cut Tuesday to stem even more deterioration. Paulson, in a series of news show appearances, defended the Federal Reserve’s extraordinary step Friday to provide emergency financing to one of Wall Street’s most venerable firms, Bear Stearns Cos. The central bank’s intervention was “the right decision,” he said. |
3 Iran high on Cheney’s Mideast agenda
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
31 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON – High gasoline prices and prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal headline Vice President Dick Cheney’s trip to the Mideast, but fears about Iran’s rising influence will be a key topic of his private talks at each stop.
Cheney left Sunday on a 10-day trip that includes visits to Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Turkey. His trip coincides with the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which has tainted the U.S. image in the Mideast and changed the balance of power in the region. Cheney is the latest top U.S. official to go the Mideast to coax Israel and moderate Palestinian leaders to move forward on a peace deal. Bush went to Israel and the West Bank in January. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice just got back from a troubleshooting mission there, and Bush is to return in May. Sen. John McCain, the soon-to-be GOP presidential nominee, and other lawmakers are visiting Israel this week. |
4 McCain in Iraq on fact-finding trip
By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago
| BAGHDAD – Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee who has linked his political future to U.S. success in Iraq, was in Baghdad on Sunday for meetings with Iraqi and U.S. diplomatic and military officials, a U.S. government official said.
Details of McCain’s visit, which had been anticipated, were not being released for security reasons, the U.S. Embassy said. It was unclear who he met with; no media opportunities or news conferences were planned. McCain, a strong supporter of the U.S. military mission in Iraq, is believed to be staying in the country for about 24 hours. |
5 Pope: Enough with slaughters in Iraq
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
30 minutes ago
| VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI issued one of his strongest appeals for peace in Iraq on Sunday, days after the body of the kidnapped Chaldean Catholic archbishop was found near the northern city of Mosul.
The pope also denounced the 5-year-long Iraq war, saying it had provoked the complete breakup of Iraqi civilian life. “Enough with the slaughters. Enough with the violence. Enough with the hatred in Iraq!” Benedict said to applause at the end of his Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square. |
6 U.S. veterans, Japanese mark 1968 Vietnam massacre
Reuters
Sun Mar 16, 8:52 AM ET
| MY LAI, Vietnam (Reuters) – Japanese survivors of atomic bombs and American war veterans calling for peace joined hundreds of villagers on Sunday in prayers to mark 40 years since the worst U.S. atrocity of the Vietnam War.
On March 16, 1968, the men of Charlie Company entered the hamlet of My Lai in central Quang Ngai province and killed 504 civilians, mostly women and children. My Lai came to symbolize in the United States all that was wrong with the Vietnam conflict, which ended in 1975 when communist North Vietnam took over U.S.-backed South Vietnam, unifying the country. |
7 Missile strike kills 16 as Pakistan unrest grows
by Masroor Gilani, AFP
2 hours, 50 minutes ago
| ISLAMABAD (AFP) – A missile strike in Pakistan’s tribal belt killed 16 people Sunday, witnesses and state media said, a day after a bomb targeting foreigners at an Islamabad restaurant left a Turkish woman dead.
The deteriorating security in nuclear-armed Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led “war on terror”, piles pressure on the incoming government which is set to be sworn in when the country’s new parliament meets on Monday. With the country on alert after Saturday evening’s blast at an Italian eatery in the capital, one of several missiles fired into the South Waziristan tribal region slammed into a suspected militant compound, residents said. |
8 Iran conservatives retain grip on parliament
by Stuart Williams, AFP
Sun Mar 16, 11:28 AM ET
| TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran’s conservatives were set Sunday to hold two-thirds of the seats in parliament after winning legislative elections, despite a respectable showing by reformists who suffered heavy pre-vote vetoes.
Conservatives are expected to secure 71 percent of seats, the interior ministry announced, in a vote the European Union said was “neither free nor fair” owing to the mass disqualification of reformist candidates. It remains to be seen how supportive the new parliament will be of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who must seek re-election next year against a background of popular discontent over Iran’s high inflation. |
9 UN warns climate change melting glaciers at alarming rate
AFP
Sun Mar 16, 5:04 AM ET
| ZURICH (AFP) – The world’s glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, the UN said Sunday, calling for immediate action to prevent further constraints on water resources for large populations.
“Millions if not billions of people depend directly or indirectly on these natural water storage facilities for drinking water, agriculture, industry and power generation during key parts of the year,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The culprit is climate change, according to data from the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), based at the University of Zurich and supported by UNEP. |
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10 Protesters across the world condemn Iraq war
AFP
Sat Mar 15, 8:36 PM ET
| LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Thousands of protestors marched against the Iraq war in Los Angeles on Saturday as part of a global day of action that drew huge crowds in London and smaller protests elsewhere in Europe and Canada.
Police said about 2,000 people marched through Hollywood, while organizers put the figure at 10,000. They carried banners denouncing President George W. Bush and urged an end to the conflict in Iraq, where 155,000 US troops are deployed. Earlier, thousands of people gathered in London and the Scottish city of Glasgow ahead of the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20, calling for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. |
11 Poll: More see government as secretive
By The Associated Press
Sun Mar 16, 2:15 AM ET
| Nearly nine in 10 Americans say it’s important to know presidential and congressional candidates’ positions on open government, but three out of four view the federal government as secretive, according to a survey released Sunday.
Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University conducted the survey in conjunction with Sunshine Week, a nationwide effort by media organizations to draw attention to the public’s right to know. The survey found a significant increase in the percentage of Americans who believe the federal government is very or somewhat secretive, from 62 percent of those surveyed in 2006 to 74 percent in 2008. That’s a sobering jump, said David Westphal, Washington editor for McClatchy Newspapers and co-chairman of the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Freedom of Information Committee. |
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12 After five years, the Iraq war is transforming the military
By Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers
Sun Mar 16, 6:00 AM ET
| WASHINGTON – When U.S. forces crossed the Kuwaiti border into Iraq in the pre-dawn hours of March 20, 2003 , the military set out to shock and awe the Middle East with the swiftest transformation the region had ever seen.
Five years and hundreds of billions of dollars later, it’s the U.S. military that’s been transformed. The efficient, tech-savvy Army , built, armed and trained to fight conventional wars against aggressor states, is now making deals with tribal sheiks and building its power on friendly conversations with civilians. Instead of planning for quick, decisive battles against other nations, as it was five years ago, today’s American military is planning for protracted, nuanced conflicts with terrorist groups, insurgents, guerrillas, militias and other shadowy forces that seldom stand and fight. |
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13 Left seeks gains as voters decide in French election
By Crispian Balmer, Reuters
2 hours, 50 minutes ago
| PARIS (Reuters) – France went to the polls for the final round of municipal elections on Sunday, which could leave the left in charge of most major French cities and put pressure on President Nicolas Sarkozy to change his style of government.
In the first round last weekend, opposition leftist parties won 48 percent of the overall vote against 41 percent for the centre-right, making gains in town halls around the country but failing to impose any shock defeats on Sarkozy and his allies. By midday (1100 GMT), official government figures put the turnout at 23.68 percent. |
14 Sarkozy braces for setback in French local polls
by Carole Landry, AFP
2 hours, 2 minutes ago
| PARIS (AFP) – France voted on Sunday in the final round of local elections that look set to inflict heavy losses to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing party as the left vies for control of the top four cities.
The elections are the first major test of Sarkozy’s popularity since he took office 10 months ago on a platform that called for sweeping economic and social reforms. The president made no comment as he turned up in the afternoon at a school in central Paris to cast his ballot. He was not accompanied by his new wife, supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni. |
15 Sarkozy suffers setback in French local polls: projections
by Rory Mulholland, AFP
19 minutes ago
| PARIS (AFP) – President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing party suffered losses in French local elections Sunday that were the first major test of his popularity since he took office, projections from polling firms showed.
Sarkozy’s opinion poll ratings have plummeted since his triumphant presidential victory last May and these elections, while fought mostly on local issues, were seen as a referendum on his achievements. The opposition Socialists took control of cities across the country including the three right-wing bastions of Amiens, Caen and Reims after the final round of the vote, projections from Ipsos-Dell and TNS Sofres said. |
16 The costs of the Iraq war: A fall in U.S. power, prestige and influence
By Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers
Sun Mar 16, 6:00 AM ET
| WASHINGTON – It was a decision that only President Bush had the power to make: At about 9 a.m. on March 19, 2003 , in the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing of the White House, he gave the “execute order” to begin Operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq .
Now, five years later, the consequences of that act will soon be beyond Bush’s grasp. In 10 months, they’ll land on the desk of his successor. Thanks in part to the Iraq war, the next U.S. president- Republican or Democrat, black or white, man or woman- will take office with America’s power, prestige and popularity in decline, according to bipartisan reports, polls and foreign observers. |
17 5 years after Iraq’s ‘liberation,’ there are worms in the water
By Hannah Allam, McClatchy Newspapers
Sun Mar 16, 6:00 AM ET
| BAGHDAD – Iraq’s most prominent clerics have ruled that using a water pump on one’s own pipes is akin to stealing resources from a neighbor, so what does a person do when it takes half an hour to fill a cooking pot with water from the tap?
Iraqis pray for forgiveness, then pump away. To them, the real crime is that five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq , they still swelter in the summer and freeze in the winter because of a lack of electricity. Government rations are inevitably late, incomplete or expired. Garbage piles up for days, sometimes weeks, emanating toxic fumes. The list goes on: black-market fuel, phone bills for land lines that haven’t worked in years, education and health-care systems degraded by the flight of thousands of Iraq’s best teachers and doctors. |
18 Violence is down, but Iraq still faces a long, hard road
By Leila Fadel, McClatchy Newspapers
Sun Mar 16, 6:00 AM ET
| BAGHDAD – Five years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq remains a divided country with an unstable government and endemic violence.
The violence has subsided some, however, and that’s opened new prospects for the top two U.S. officials in Iraq . “As progress is made, it clears away some of the smoke and dust that maybe has obscured challenges down the road, so you see those with greater clarity,” U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told McClatchy in an interview. “It is going to be a long, long process of building and developing a stable and safe society.” |
19 Uprising Spurns Dalai Lama’s Way
By MADHUR SINGH/UNA DISTRICT, HIMACHAL PRADESH & SIMON ROBINSON/NEW DELHI, Time Magazine
Sun Mar 16, 2:20 AM ET
| Violent anti-China demonstrations in Tibet eased Saturday, and a tentative calm – and electricity supplies – returned to the Tibetan capital Lhasa following four days of unrest. China’s state-run news agency said protestors had killed ten people, while Tibetan activists based in India said that at least 30, and as many as 100 had died in the protests and subsequent crackdown by security forces. The authorities on Saturday issued an ultimatum demanding that the “lawbreakers” surrender themselves by Monday, but for many Tibetans, the current uprising is a sign that the prospects for a compromise with Beijing are dimming. |
20 Foreigners Targeted by Pakistan Bomb
By ARYN BAKER/ISLAMABAD, Time Magazine
Sun Mar 16, 3:35 AM ET
| A powerful bomb ripped through the garden seating area of a restaurant in Islamabad on Saturday evening, killing a Turkish aid worker and wounding 11 others, including a British diplomat, two Japanese nationals, four Americans, a Canadian and the Italian owner, according to Pakistan police officials. Luna Caprese is an Italian-style casual restaurant that specializes in pizza, and is popular among foreigners because it is one of the few restaurants that serves alcohol in the Pakistani capital. Waiter Shaukat Abassi had just returned to the kitchen with a load of dirty dishes when the bomb hit. “It felt like an earthquake,” he said. “I saw a lot of blood.” Abassi had been working at the restaurant for more than 12 years. Not once had they ever received a threat, he said, even though the back of the garden abuts a local mosque. Police investigators are still unsure about the origin of the bomb, but it does not appear to be a suicide bomber – more likely, the bomb was either placed in the garden and remotely detonated, or lobbed over the wall. |
21 Ban Sought on Turkey Rulers
By PELIN TURGUT/ISTANBUL, Time Magazine
Sun Mar 16, 3:35 AM ET
| Turkey’s militant secularists may have lost their battle against the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the ballot box, but they’re hoping that what the electorate denied them might be granted by the judiciary. To popular disbelief, the country’s secularist chief prosecutor has applied to ban the ruling party, re-elected last July with 47% of the vote, on the grounds that it is supposedly seeking to destroy secularism. The move comes on the heels of a controversial government move to overturn a ban on wearing headscarves at universities. |
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22 Katrina aftermath erodes bayou culture
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 23 minutes ago
| GRAND BAYOU, La. – When Ruby Ancar talks about her fishing village on the bayou, she says a divine hand has protected her Atakapa-Ishak kinfolk for generations.
But Grand Bayou is forsaken these days, 30 months after Hurricane Katrina washed over it and dragged one of Louisiana’s last authentic outposts of bayou culture into a world defined by insurers, money lenders, building code enforcers and government auditors. “We’re facing a greater hurricane now than we did with Katrina, with the bureaucracy,” Ancar, 60, said, gesticulating passionately and flashing a toothy grin as she glided down the bayou in a boat. “The government – that’s our hurricane right now that we’re in.” |
23 Century-old law tied to Spitzer scandal
By MARCUS FRANKLIN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 9 minutes ago
| NEW YORK – Among the charges Gov. Eliot Spitzer could face in the call-girl scandal that has cost him his job is one that has been brought against a slew of other prominent men in the past century.
In court papers, Client 9, identified by law enforcement officials as Spitzer, paid for a prostitute to take a train in February from New York to Washington and have sex with him at an upscale hotel. Spitzer has not been charged with a crime, but four people accused of running the prostitution operation that authorities say he used have been charged with violating the Mann Act, a federal law that bans carrying women or girls across state lines for “prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” |
24 Fed set to slash U.S. rates as credit turmoil rages
By Ros Krasny, Reuters
2 hours, 41 minutes ago
| CHICAGO (Reuters) – Faced with a raging credit crisis and an economy that may be mired in recession, the U.S. Federal Reserve looks set to cut interest rates sharply on Tuesday in a bid to avert a possibly severe downturn.
The scenario confronting the central bank is a thankless one: the threat of a deep recession comes even as inflation licks at the economy’s heels. And no-one seems especially happy. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is undergoing a “trashing … by people who think the Bernanke Fed has eased too much, and those who think it has eased too little,” said Ethan Harris, an economist at Lehman Brothers. |
25 US military growing weary in Iraq
by Jim Mannion, AFP
1 hour, 50 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – Five years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the US military is flagging under long and repeated deployments that have taken a toll on troops and hurt its readiness to deal with other crises.
“People are tired,” is the way Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, summed it up at a congressional hearing last month. The third longest war in US history — after the Revolutionary War and Vietnam — has forged a battle-hardened ground force with bitterly won experience in counter-insurgency warfare. But military leaders and experts say it also has left the US Army in particular, but also the marines, with major equipment shortfalls, inadequate training in conventional warfare, and not enough troops. |
26 Veterans Rally Against Iraq War
By DARRIN MORTENSON/SILVER SPRING, Time Magazine
Sun Mar 16, 4:00 AM ET
| When a company of U.S. Marines first battled their way into the southern city of Nasiriyah in the opening days of the Iraq war, they fired at almost anything that moved in the dark. Their aggressiveness was not wanton, but had a purpose: to protect the main convoy from attack by gunmen in civilian clothes who often fired from homes and from among women and children. Less than 24 hours later, however, the shock of all they’d just experienced began sinking in and some of the Marines started to question their actions. During a lull in the fighting their commander told them that if they ever fired at women and children like that again, there’d be hell to pay. But, he added, “no one will question you if you feel you or your Marines are threatened.”
Next week marks the end of the fifth year that U.S. troops have fought in the moral swamp of Iraq; and this weekend, at an event dubbed “Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan,” nearly 140 veterans are describing the wars in all their disturbing detail. Billed as the largest gathering of veterans to take a public stand against those wars, veterans and a few active duty troops have filled the National Labor College in Silver Spring, MD, just outside Washington, D.C. to testify about the human cost of the war: the killing of civilians and noncombatants, abuse of prisoners and mistreating the dead. |
27 Scrutiny for a Bush Judicial Nominee
By ADAM ZAGORIN/WASHINGTON, Time Magazine
Sun Mar 16, 4:00 AM ET
| As the top lawyer for America’s biggest private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), Gus Puryear IV is known to sport well-pressed preppy pink shirts, and his brownish mop of hair stands out among most of President Bush’s graying nominees to the federal bench. A favorite of G.O.P. hard-liners, Puryear, 39, prepped Dick Cheney for the vice presidential debates – both in 2000 and 2004 – and served as a senior aide to two former Senators and onetime presidential hopefuls, Bill Frist and Fred Thompson.
Political connections, though, may not be enough to get Puryear a lifetime post as a federal district judge in Tennessee. Puryear recently confronted tough questions about his conduct, experience and potential conflicts of interest from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which must approve him before a full Senate vote. Now, a former CCA manager tells TIME that Puryear oversaw a reporting system in which accounts of major, sometimes violent prison disturbances and other significant events were often masked or minimized in accounts provided to government agencies with oversight over prison contracts. Ronald T. Jones, the former CCA manager, alleges that the company even began keeping two sets of books – one for internal use that described prison deficiencies in telling detail, and a second set that Jones describes as “doctored” for public consumption, to limit bad publicity, litigation or fines that could derail CCA’s multimillion-dollar contracts with federal, state or local agencies. |
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28 US Supreme Court in historic hearing on gun laws
by Kerry Sheridan, AFP
1 hour, 19 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Supreme Court on Tuesday takes up for the first time in 70 years the thorny issue of the right to bear arms, an emotional subject that has long divided the American public.
The court’s decision — on whether the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamentally an individual or collective right — is expected to have a far reaching impact on US gun control laws, experts say. The high court has never before issued a ruling on the interpretation of the second amendment to the constitution, which states: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” |
29 Democrats upbeat, eye bigger majority in US Congress
by Charlotte Raab, AFP
2 hours, 17 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – Opposition Democrats are upbeat about the odds of boosting majorities they won in Congress in 2008, and see a promising sign in the election of a Democrat to replace the Republican former House leader.
“This is going to be a Democratic year,” Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean glowed on learning that Democrat Bill Foster last Saturday had won the seat held for 20 years by Republican Dennis Hastert, a Republican Party bigwig. All of the House of Representatives 435 seats are up for grabs in November, as are 23 posts in the 100-seat Senate. And for now, things are looking up for the Democrats: 47 percent of Americans now describe themselves as Democrats, compared to just 35 percent who say they are Republicans, according to a poll out Thursday by The Wall Street Journal. It gave outgoing Republican President George W. Bush a 32 percent approval rating. |
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30 Investors await Bear report, Fed meeting
By MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer
39 minutes ago
| NEW YORK – Wall Street is facing a paradox of sorts right now as the damage from the credit crisis continues – the more investors find out about the problems caused by billions of dollars in failed mortgages and investments, the more unknowns seem to crop up. The Street is hoping that this week, the Federal Reserve and the wounded Bear Stearns Cos. provide more answers than new, baffling questions.
The Fed has been using the various tools at its disposal – even creating some that investors have never seen before – to try to mend the ailing financial markets. Just last week, the Fed said it would pump up to $200 billion into the system by taking mortgage-backed securities as collateral, and then with the aid of JPMorgan Chase & Co. created a plan to lend funds to the Bear Stearns after the investment bank ran short of cash. On one hand, Wall Street has been relieved the Fed has proved it is willing to act aggressively. But on the other, investors are more anxious than they’ve been in years; many didn’t believe the credit crisis that began last year due to spiking mortgage defaults would reach this magnitude. |
31 Analysts: govt funds heat up oil prices
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Business Writer
33 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON – As oil prices charge past $110 a barrel, analysts say government-run investment funds from oil-rich nations may be adding speculative heat to an already red-hot market.
By placing bets in futures markets, these sovereign-wealth funds are no different than hedge funds, pension funds and other institutional investors, with one exception: at the same time they profit by trading “paper” barrels, their governments’ oil companies also reap huge sums pumping black gold for consumers worldwide. While there is no public data proving that sovereign wealth funds invest in oil futures contracts, energy analysts say it’s likely they’re making financial wagers on oil – and other commodities – for the same reasons as other institutional investors: to take advantage of rising global demand and to cushion them from the falling dollar. |
32 Employer bias thwarts many blind workers
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
1 hour, 25 minutes ago
| NEW YORK – Technology and training have improved to the point that blind people can adeptly perform a dazzling array of jobs – soon to include the governorship of New York. The biggest obstacle still in their way, advocates say, is the negative attitude of many employers.
The most recent available statistics suggest that only about 30 percent of working-age blind people have jobs. That figure was calculated more than 10 years ago, but the major groups lobbying on behalf of blind Americans believe it remains accurate despite numerous technological advances. “Most people don’t know a blind person, so they assume that blind people are not capable of doing most jobs when in fact that’s not true,” said Chris Danielsen, spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind. |
33 Maine seeks green label for lobsters
By CLARKE CANFIELD, Associated Press Writer
5 minutes ago
| PORTLAND, Maine – The Maine lobster industry has long been held up as a well-run fishery. Now it’s seeking a seal of approval to prove it.
Efforts are under way to have the state’s signature seafood certified as sustainable by an international organization that evaluates fishing practices worldwide. With consumers demanding more “green” food products, the lobster industry stands to lose out if it doesn’t get certified, supporters say. “It’ll open up a lot of markets for us,” said John Hathaway, owner of Shucks Maine Lobster processing company in Richmond. “If we don’t do it, we’ll probably lose markets.” |
34 ex-National Century exec goes on trial
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press Writer
8 minutes ago
| COLUMBUS, Ohio – Before Lance Poulsen can fight charges that he was the mastermind behind a $1.9 billion fraud scheme, the former CEO of National Century Financial must first deal with allegations that he proposed paying a government witness $500,000 to lie on the stand.
The federal witness tampering trial of the former owner of National Century, a health care financing company, was scheduled to begin Monday. Once that trial ends, Poulsen faces a second trial in August on multiple counts of conspiracy, wire and securities fraud and money laundering. Five former executives at National Century were convicted of similar charges on Thursday in a fraud scheme that prosecutors likened to the cases of Enron and WorldCom. |
35 Dollar caught in Fed, ECB cross-fire
By Emily Kaiser, Reuters
14 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve is poised to cut interest rates again this week while the European Central Bank remains on hold for a while, leaving the beleaguered U.S. dollar caught in the cross-fire.
The slumping U.S. currency has contributed to oil’s climb to $111 per barrel. It is part of the reason behind investors’ mad dash to buy other commodities, ranging from wheat to gold. The slide is also feeding malaise among European exporters struggling to compete with cheaper U.S. goods, and prompting some big oil exporters who pegged their own currency to the dollar to rethink that policy. While calls have intensified for official government intervention to stem the dollar’s decline, Washington has shown no inclination to act. Finance leaders in Europe and Japan ratcheted up the rhetoric last week as the dollar hit an all-time low against the euro, and sank below 100 yen for the first time in more than a decade. So far, it remains all talk. |
36 U.S. ready to maintain financial stability: Paulson
By Donna Smith, Reuters
Sun Mar 16, 12:13 PM ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Sunday tried to allay election-year fears about the economy amid growing market turmoil, saying the government was prepared to do what it takes to maintain stability in the financial system.
Paulson appeared on several Sunday television talk shows to express confidence in the U.S. economy and financial firms after the Federal Reserve moved on Friday to inject capital into Bear Stearns (BSC.N), the fifth-largest U.S. investment bank, which ran short of cash to repay its lenders. Paulson told “Fox News Sunday” the Fed made the right decision to come to the rescue of the investment firm and that maintaining stability in financial markets was a top priority of the government. |
37 Housing group challenges Fed’s Bear Stearns deal
By Joanne Morrison, Reuters
2 hours, 13 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A housing and fair lending activist group has challenged the legality of the Federal Reserve’s quick approval of financing for Bear Stearns (BSC.N) via JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), questioning the Fed’s authority to approve the deal because it involves a non-bank institution.
Inner City Press Community on the Move, in a complaint filed with the Fed late Saturday, called the central bank’s brokering of the deal “entirely illegal” and anticompetitive, and questioned whether sufficient Fed members had voted for it. In a first step toward challenging the bailout, Inner City Press questioned the legality of the Fed approving the deal without public notice, on the grounds Bear Stearns “is not a banking holding company and does not own a bank.” |
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38 New drug holds promise for parasitic worm disease
By Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters
1 hour, 2 minutes ago
| CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. researchers have discovered a promising new drug for schistosomiasis — a parasitic worm disease that affects more than 200 million people in 70 countries.
The compound killed worms in the lab, and cured mice infected with the disease, said David Williams of Illinois State University, who reported his findings on Sunday in the journal Nature Medicine. The only existing drug that works against schistosomiasis, praziquantel, is more than 20 years old. |
39 India can lead world in renewable energy: Al Gore
AFP
1 hour, 46 minutes ago
| NEW DELHI (AFP) – India, as an advanced developing nation, can help lead the world in renewable energy technologies to solve “the climate change crisis,” former US vice president and Nobel Peace winner Al Gore said.
“India has proven its capability in sectors like information technology and can be a leader in the world in developing new renewable technologies to combat climate change,” Gore told reporters here in New Delhi on the weekend. Gore was speaking at the launch on Saturday of the India wing of “The Climate Project”, a US-based non-profit group that supports the former vice president’s efforts to tackle climate change globally. |
40 Svalbard, where man and polar bears share the art of living
by Pierre-Henry Deshayes, AFP
1 hour, 56 minutes ago
| LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (AFP) – The road sign depicts a white polar bear against a black background, a vivid reminder of the danger the animals present in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, where bears outnumber people and encounters sometimes prove fatal.
Just 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the North Pole, this remote part of Norway also known as Spitzberg is home to 3,000 polar bears and 2,300 people, who live together peacefully for the most part in an area twice the size of Belgium. While people live primarily on the west coast of the archipelago, which is milder thanks to the Gulf Stream, and the polar bears stick mainly to the east coast, with its broad expanses of sea ice offering the bears better seal hunting, the two do occasionally cross paths. |
41 Top polluters divided on climate change goals
by Kyoko Hasegawa, AFP
Sun Mar 16, 7:40 AM ET
| MAKUHARI, Japan (AFP) – The world’s top 20 greenhouse gas emitters agreed Sunday to work together to draft a successor to the Kyoto Protocol but rich and developing nations remained divided on their roles.
Envoys from the 20 countries, which are together responsible for 80 percent of the world’s emissions blamed for global warming, were trying to bridge gaps on what to do after Kyoto’s obligations expire at the end of 2012. “We reconfirmed the principle of common but differentiated responsibility in negotiating the next deal for 2013 and onward,” said Japan’s Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita, the co-chair of the weekend talks in suburban Tokyo. |
Cheney Five Years Ago: ‘We Will, In Fact, Be Greeted As Liberators’
IVAW Group photos, of those participating
The 
~ Rachel Corrie ~
Rest In Peace Rachel, You Will and Are, Not Forgotten!