2 Mayor: suicide bomb kills 14 in Somali capital
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 24, 7:59 am ET
| MOGADISHU, Somalia - A suicide car-bomb attack near an African Union peacekeepers' base killed 14 people in the Somali capital on Saturday, the mayor of Mogadishu said.
The bombing occurred days before a planned deployment of Ugandan and Burundian soldiers to beef up the current peacekeeping contingent.
Most of southern and central Somalia is held by Islamic insurgents and peacekeepers and government forces come under regular attack in the capital. |
3 Despite poor economy, Super Bowl won't lose luster
By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 56 mins ago
| TAMPA, Fla. - The sagging economy has put a hit on plans for this year's Super Bowl, not that visitors to Tampa for the game and hundreds of millions watching on TV will be able to tell the difference.
America's bacchanalian bash in honor of football will still roll for the TV cameras with all its over-the-top glitz. Yet there are signs - fewer and smaller parties, maybe not quite so many reporters and traveling fans - that the shine will be a little less bright this year.
The game will still be sold out. The town will be crawling with party-hopping celebrities. Hotels will be busy, fans wearing Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals garb will be ubiquitous on the streets, and hundreds of media members will descend to cover the event, which will still likely be the nation's most-watched TV broadcast this year. |
4 Cleanup continues despite transition at Hanford
By SHANNON DININNY, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 24, 5:51 am ET
| RICHLAND, Wash. - Each year, the federal government spends roughly $2 billion to rid the nation's most contaminated nuclear site of toxic and radioactive waste. Now, winds of change are blowing across southeast Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation.
Three new contractors won bids to handle some of the work. A new president and new Congress assumed office with their own ideas about how taxpayers' money should be spent. The state filed suit, charging the federal government with failing to meet its legal obligations there.
The changes mark a period of transition for everyone involved with cleaning up the sprawling 586-square-mile site, from pumping and treating miles of contaminated groundwater to building a massive plant to convert radioactive waste into a stable glass for long-term disposal. |
5 China dismisses US remark on currency manipulation
Associated Press
Sat Jan 24, 5:46 am ET
| BEIJING - A top official at China's central bank has dismissed U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner's comment that President Barack Obama believes Beijing is "manipulating" its currency, state media said Saturday.
Su Ning, a deputy governor of China's central bank, was cited as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency that the remarks were "not in line with the facts."
"We thought in the face of the financial crisis, there would be a spirit of self-criticism beneficial to finding ways of resolving the issue and overcoming the crisis," Su said, adding that it was imperative to avoid any excuses to encourage trade protectionism. |
6 Obama reverses Bush abortion-funds policy
By MATTHEW LEE and LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writers
Sat Jan 24, 4:12 am ET
| WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration's ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information - an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century.
Obama's move, the latest in an aggressive first week reversing contentious Bush policies, was warmly welcomed by liberal groups and denounced by abortion rights foes.
The ban has been a political football between Democratic and Republican administrations since GOP President Ronald Reagan first adopted it 1984. Democrat Bill Clinton ended the ban in 1993, but Republican George W. Bush re-instituted it in 2001 as one of his first acts in office. |
7 Disgraced pastor faces more gay sex accusations
By ERIC GORSKI, AP Religion Writer
Sat Jan 24, 1:23 am ET
| DENVER - Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard's former church disclosed Friday that the gay sex scandal that caused his downfall extends to a young male church volunteer who reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard - a revelation that comes as Haggard tries to repair his public image.
Brady Boyd, who succeeded Haggard as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, told The Associated Press that the man came forward to church officials in late 2006 shortly after a Denver male prostitute claimed to have had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard.
Boyd said an "overwhelming pool of evidence" pointed to an "inappropriate, consensual sexual relationship" that "went on for a long period of time ... it wasn't a one-time act." Boyd said the man was in his early 20s at the time. He said he was certain the man was of legal age when it began. |
8 Pfizer-Wyeth deal talks heat up: sources
By Ransdell Pierson and Jessica Hall, Reuters
Fri Jan 23, 9:51 pm ET
| NEW YORK/PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc, the world's largest drugmaker, is in talks to buy Wyeth, sources familiar with the situation said on Friday, and one source put the possible value of the deal at about $67 billion.
Pfizer may pay about $50 per share for Wyeth, but the price may change as negotiations continue throughout the weekend, the source said. At $50 per share, Wyeth would fetch roughly $66.6 billion.
Such an acquisition, which sources said could come within days, would help Pfizer cope with a major gap in revenue in 2011 when its blockbuster Lipitor cholesterol treatment will begin to face U.S. generic competition. |
9 Marines force of 20,000 seen for Afghanistan
Reuters
Fri Jan 23, 2:26 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Up to 20,000 U.S. Marines could be deployed in Afghanistan as part of a planned major troop build-up to battle worsening insurgent violence, the top U.S. Marine officer said on Friday.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway said any buildup of Marines in Afghanistan would have to be accompanied by an equivalent cut in the 22,000-strong Marine force in Iraq to maintain the corps' schedule of seven-month deployments.
U.S. military planners have proposed injecting up to 30,000 U.S. troops into Afghanistan over the next 12 to 18 months to combat an intensifying insurgency from Taliban militants and other fighters. |
10 FDA allows first test of human stem cell therapy
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Fri Jan 23, 11:51 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for the first trial to see if human embryonic stem cells can treat people safely, a company involved in the controversial research on Friday.
Geron Corp, a California biotechnology company, said it plans a clinical trial to try to use the stem cells to regrow nerve tissue in patients with crushed, but not severed, spinal cords.
The issue of human embryonic stem cell research has been a political touchstone, with anti-abortion forces backed by former president George W. Bush arguing the technique involves the destruction of human embryos. Advocates say it could transform medicine. |
11 GE profit down 44 percent, CEO stands by dividend
By Scott Malone, Reuters
Fri Jan 23, 4:20 pm ET
| BOSTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co reported a 44 percent drop in quarterly profit on weakness at GE Capital and its lighting and appliance units, and warned that 2009 would be "extremely difficult."
Its shares tumbled nearly 11 percent to their lowest point since early 1996 as investors continued to worry about the U.S. conglomerate's ability to maintain its dividend.
GE Capital -- the company's Achilles heel for the past year -- remained the biggest drag on its results, with profit tumbling 67 percent. GE's energy infrastructure unit, which makes electric turbines and windmills, was the highlight, recording 11 percent profit growth. |
12 Britain enters recession
By Daniel Trotta, Reuters
Fri Jan 23, 5:22 pm ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama declared his $825 billion stimulus plan "on target" for passage in February as Britain officially entered recession on Friday and Japan expressed frustration it was running out of tools to combat the global financial crisis.
European data pointed toward deeper recession and General Electric -- a conglomerate seen as a bellwether for the world economy -- reported a 44 percent drop in quarterly profit, among the factors sending investors to seek shelter in gold, which jumped more than 5 percent and topped $900 an ounce for the first time since October.
Obama said efforts to win passage of an $825 billion economic stimulus plan by mid-February appeared to be "on target" despite some opposition from congressional Republicans. |
13 Senegal clinic leads fight to wipe out leprosy
by Bineta Diagne, AFP
Sat Jan 24, 6:36 am ET
| DAKAR (AFP) - Senegal's sole leprosy clinic bears witness to the will of the world's poorest continent to wipe out a disfiguring disease that once struck terror in human hearts and spelt misery and excommunication.
"We discovered his disease the moment he started school," says the mother of eight-year-old Cheikh, who is being treated at Dakar's leprosy centre at the capital's Fann hospital and university complex.
Tucked away in a corner, the facility is serviced by 20 doctors who diligently attend to the patients, some of whom are still shunned by society. |
14 Indian police arrest two Pricewaterhouse officials: reports
AFP
1 hr 35 mins ago
| NEW DELHI (AFP) - Indian police have arrested two senior officials of global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers over fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services, reports said Saturday.
The Press Trust of India and and other Indian media said the two officials were taken into custody in connection with the billion-dollar fraud at India's fourth-largest outsourcing firm based in the southern city of Hyderabad.
The arrests came after B. Ramalinga Raju, founder of Satyam, was arrested earlier this month, days after owning up to the scandal that has shaken corporate India. |
15 Congo's Nkunda arrested in Rwanda, faces extradition
AFP
Fri Jan 23, 5:41 pm ET
| KINSHASA (AFP) - Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was under arrest Friday in neighbouring Rwanda awaiting extradition on war crimes charges after his erstwhile Tutsi allies turned against him.
In a startling reversal of fortune, Nkunda was captured late Thursday after he fled to Rwanda to escape a joint operation by ethnic Tutsi Rwandan troops and Congolese army forces, officials from both countries said.
UN peacekeeping force MONUC urged Nkunda's remaining rebels to give themselves up, saying his arrest "offers new opportunities to take part in the process of reintegration" into the formal armed forces. |
16 Iraq PM urges big poll turnout despite violence
by Arthur MacMillan, AFP
Fri Jan 23, 12:49 pm ET
| BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki appealed on Friday for a big turnout in next week's provincial elections as the gunning down of a Sunni family of nine highlighted the fragile security situation.
Maliki urged voters to go to the polls in large numbers, saying the ballot represented their best chance of securing a safe and stable future amid continued violence almost six years after the US-led ouster of Saddam Hussein.
The January 31 provincial elections are seen as a crucial step in helping to secure Iraq's stability amid simmering unrest, a problem underscored by the killing of the Sunni Arab family in Diyala province north of the capital. |
17 Wood worth more than money at Mexican market
by Sofia Miselem, AFP
Fri Jan 23, 10:32 am ET
| SANTIAGO TIANGUISTENCO, Mexico (AFP) - As some look to alternative economies to cope with the financial crisis, inhabitants of this village outside Mexico City are ahead of the game, using a centuries-old wooden currency.
Every Tuesday, local women arrive from the mountains with piles of broken firewood on their backs to the village of mainly indigenous people.
No money or credit cards change hands at the Santiago Tianguistenco market, some 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the Mexican capital, only pieces of wood, in exchange for food, soap, clothes and toys. |
18 Thailand accused of mistreating Muslim refugees
By Simon Montlake, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Jan 23, 3:00 am ET
| BANGKOK, THAILAND - Hundreds of Muslim refugees from Burma (Myanmar) are feared missing or dead after Thai troops forced them onto boats without engines and cut them adrift in international waters, according to human rights activists and authorities in India who rescued survivors. The revelations have shone a spotlight on the Thai military's expulsion policy toward Muslims it sees as a security threat.
Nearly 1,000 refugees were detained on a remote island in December before being towed out to sea in two batches and abandoned with little food or water, according to a tally by a migrant-rights group based on survivors' accounts and media reports. The detainees, mostly members of Burma's oppressed Rohingya minority, then drifted for weeks. One group was later rescued by Indonesia's Navy, and two others made landfall in India's Andaman Islands.
Photos of refugees on a Thai island show rows of bedraggled men stripped to the waist as soldiers stand guard. In a separate incident, foreign tourists snapped pictures of detainees trussed on a beach. Thailand's Andaman coastline, where the abuses took place, is a popular vacation spot. |
19 Iraqi voters show preference for can-do over creed
By Jane Arraf, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Jan 23, 3:00 am ET
| Baghdad - Mohamed al-Rubeiy, the image of a prosperous businessman in a dark blue suit and gold watch, beams from thousands of posters plastered on walls advertising his run for a seat in Iraq's provincial elections.
The liberal, middle-aged businessman is running a campaign that he says was inspired by Barack Obama - blending American-style tactics with traditional Iraqi politics - and is emblematic of what appears to be a groundswell against rule by religious parties.
"There has been a backlash," says Adnan Pachachi, a former Iraqi foreign minister and now a member of parliament. Mr. Rubeiy is affiliated with his party. "There has been so much corruption because the religious parties got people who were not qualified to run the ministries.... It's really been a bitter disappointment in some places because they say we voted for them and they did nothing." |
20 Tasmanian devils threatened by contagious cancer
By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Writer
43 mins ago
| CANBERRA, Australia - Tasmania is trying to save the devil.
The Tasmanian devil, a ferocious, snarling fox-sized marsupial, is in danger of going extinct because of a contagious facial cancer. In the meantime, its biggest rival - the European fox - is thriving, and may become so dominant that the devil never comes back.
Scientists now want to build a double fence standing more than three feet tall to stop the cancer's relentless spread toward the rugged northwest of the island, home to disease-free devils and World Heritage-listed rain forest. Devils spread the cancer when they bite each other during mating or squabble over food. |
21 Iraq asks Iran opposition group to move voluntary
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 24, 6:04 am ET
| BAGHDAD - Iraq will not forcibly expel members of an Iranian opposition group living north of Baghdad, but the the group is not wanted and the government has urged them to leave the country voluntarily, an Iraqi spokesman said Saturday.
The comments by government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, were an apparent bid to ease concerns that the Iraqis were planning an imminent ouster of the group, the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, which has a base north of Baghdad.
Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, had taken a firm stance against the group during a visit to Iran this week, saying its members had two months to return to Iran or move to a third country. |
22 Pope lifts excommunications of 4 bishops
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 4 mins ago
| VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops, including that of a Holocaust denier whose rehabilitation sparked outrage among Jewish groups.
The four bishops were excommunicated 20 years ago after they were consecrated by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent - a move the Vatican said at the time was an act of schism.
The Vatican said Saturday that Benedict rehabilitated the four as part of his efforts to bring Lefebvre's Society of St. Pius X back into the Vatican's fold. |
23 Indian PM has successful heart surgery
By Alistair Scrutton, Reuters
2 hrs 5 mins ago
| NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underwent successful coronary bypass surgery on Saturday, while confusion surrounded who was in charge of government just months before a general election.
The 76-year-old leader will be in hospital for at least a week and may be able to return to work in a month, doctors involved in his operation said.
"The entire country is rejoicing because our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has come out ... successfully from the operation," ruling Congress party general secretary Veerappa Moily told reporters. |
24 Russia says "ice thawing" with NATO: envoy
By Gleb Bryanski, Reuters
Sat Jan 24, 5:13 am ET
| MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia sees its relations with NATO improving and wants the military alliance to succeed in Afghanistan, to reduce a regional threat, Russia's NATO envoy Dmitry Ragozin said Saturday.
Ambassadors from the 26-member alliance will meet in a joint council with Russia Monday for the first time since NATO suspended the sessions in protest at what it called Russia's "disproportionate" use of force against Georgia last August.
"The ice is thawing. An informal meeting of the Russia-NATO council is a de-facto resumption of work," Ragozin told Echo Moskvy radio station. |
25 Sudanese forces bomb town in Darfur: U.N.
Reuters
Sat Jan 24, 6:51 am ET
| KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese government planes bombed a key town in south Darfur Saturday, a week after it was seized by Darfuri JEM rebels, peacekeepers and insurgents said.
Bombs landed close to a base run by the joint U.N./African Union peacekeeping force, UNAMID, in the town of Muhajiriya and destroyed houses, a U.N. official said.
The attack marked an escalation in recent clashes between government troops and forces from Darfur's Justice And Equality Movement (JEM). |
26 Turkey urges EU to lift political hurdles in accession talks
AFP
1 hr 1 min ago
| ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan called on the European Union Saturday to remove political barriers and accelerate the process in his country's bid to join the bloc.
Although Turkey began EU membership talks in October 2005, it has so far opened discussions on only 10 of the 35 policy areas that candidates must successfully negotiate. One of the main stumbling blocks has been a trade row over Cyprus and opposition from bloc members.
"Unfortunately, nearly half of the policy chapters are not being advanced due to an artificial link to Cyprus and due to domestic political concerns in some countries," Babacan said at the opening of a high-level meeting in Ankara to discuss Turkey's roadmap towards EU membership. |
27 Vatican official accuses Obama of 'arrogance'
AFP
2 hrs 15 mins ago
| ROME (AFP) - A senior Vatican official on Saturday attacked US President Barack Obama for "arrogance" for overturning a ban on state funding for family-planning groups that carry out or facilitate abortions overseas.
It is "the arrogance of someone who believes they are right, in signing a decree which will open the door to abortion and thus to the destruction of human life," Archbishop Rino Fisichella was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera daily.
Fisichella is president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, one of a number of so-called pontifical academies which are formed by or under the direction of the Holy See. |
28 Saakashvili lambasts 'relentless enemy' Putin in TV phone-in
by Irakli Metreveli, AFP
Fri Jan 23, 1:35 pm ET
| TBILISI (AFP) - President Mikheil Saakashvili Friday described Vladimir Putin as a "relentless enemy" of Georgia during a television show that curiously resembled the Russian prime minister's own live phone-in sessions.
"Georgia has not had such a relentless enemy as Putin since Shah Abbas," Saakashvili said, in reference to a 17th century ruler of Persia notorious in Georgia for having repeatedly invaded the country.
Saakashvili said Russia had sought to destroy the Georgian state during a brief war between the two countries in August over Georgia's rebel region of South Ossetia. |
29 Iceland to hold early elections in May
by Svanborg Sigmarsdottir, AFP
Fri Jan 23, 12:00 pm ET
| REYKJAVIK (AFP) - Iceland will hold early general elections on May 9, Prime Minister Geir Haarde told reporters on Friday, saying he would be stepping down as he had cancer.
The two-party coalition government was not legally required to call a general election until 2011, but has come under increasing pressure since Iceland's once booming financial sector withered last October under the global credit crunch.
"I would like to announce that the central committee of the Independence Party desires election on Saturday, May 9," Haarde, prime minister since June 2006, told reporters in Reykjavik. |
30 Marine commander: 'Time is right' for Marines to leave Iraq
By Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Jan 23, 12:43 pm ET
| WASHINGTON - The top Marine commander said Friday that his forces already had begun pulling equipment out of Iraq and that nearly all of his troops could be out in as little as six months.
"The time is right for the Marines to leave Iraq ," Gen. James Conway , the commandant of the Marine Corps , said at a breakfast with reporters. Any "sustainment force" in Iraq , he added, will be almost exclusively from the Army .
The Marine withdrawal from Iraq is one of many efforts to shift forces from Iraq to Afghanistan , where President Barack Obama has pledged to send more U.S. troops. At the Pentagon , which until now has focused principally on Iraq , officials are reassessing their tactics and reconfiguring their equipment to shift toward Afghanistan . |
31 Bolivia's native peoples poised to win new rights
By Tyler Bridges, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Jan 23, 3:00 pm ET
| COTA COTA BAJA, Bolivia - Highland Indian communities here remain rooted in the past. The towns have dirt streets. Farmers till their fields with hand plows. Pigs, sheep and cattle graze alongside dogs that run loose.
The men wear trousers, sandals and fedoras. Women prefer bowler hats, colorful shawls and multilayered skirts known as polleras. They carry infants on their backs, wrapped in the shawls. Most everyone chews green coca leaves to ward off hunger and the cold.
For the past three years, Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales , has made mostly symbolic improvements that have opened doors for the country's Indian majority. However, he's now put forth a new constitution Bolivians are expected to approve Sunday that seeks to empower the Indians and end their longtime status as second-class citizens. |
32 Iraqi candidates stumping for Jan. 31 provincial elections
By Trenton Daniel, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Jan 23, 5:01 pm ET
| BAGHDAD, Iraq - If any single image can capture Iraq's precarious position, suspended between dictatorship and democracy, it's the campaign posters that are pasted on towering concrete blast walls throughout Baghdad and in the provinces, reflecting the country's brutal past and its hopes for a different future.
A week before voters go to the polls to fill several hundred council seats in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces, more than 14,400 candidates are jostling to make their pitches in an election that many Iraqis hope will distribute power more equitably. On campaign signs wallpapered throughout most of the country, office seekers are pledging to create jobs, stamp out violence and build a "modern" Iraq .
"The number of posters is extreme," said Mazin Fouad , 34, the owner of a bodega-style shop in central Baghdad . "You can see them here, there, everywhere." |
33 The pound not so sterling, Britain grapples with deepening recession
By Julie Sell and Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Jan 23, 6:18 pm ET
| LONDON - The British economy on Friday was officially declared in recession as a galloping economic crisis has driven down the value of the British pound to a 23-year low and threatened to remake the country's political landscape.
Britain's Office for National Statistics said Friday that the economy contracted by a stunning 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. That followed a 0.6 percent contraction in the three months between July and September.
Recessions typically are defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, and the last time Britain found itself in this state was in 1991. Like the United States , Britain is wrestling with a financial crisis that seems only to grow worse. |
34 Layers of graffiti on walls tell history of Iraq war
By Leila Fadel, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Jan 23, 6:21 pm ET
| BAGHDAD - Iraq is a nation of walls: Tall concrete blast walls built during the past six years, ancient mud-brick barricades that date to antiquity and walls built of various materials from the centuries in between. The newest walls protect Iraqis from one another, but they also divide families. They separate the government from the people, and foreigners from Iraqis.
The walls don't just stand there; they're a constantly changing record of recent history.
Idyllic murals of flowers and scenic canoe rides mask bullet holes and graffiti, and campaign posters for the candidates who are running in provincial elections Jan. 31 paper many of the remaining free surfaces. |
35 Why Afghanistan may be Obama's toughest foreign challenge
By Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Jan 23, 8:41 pm ET
| WASHINGTON - Ten days before President Barack Obama's inauguration, the Afghan government added a new wrinkle to the toughest foreign policy challenge confronting the new president by demanding a share of control over the 30,000-strong, NATO -led security force in Afghanistan .
The Afghan government's Jan. 10 plan, a copy of which was obtained by McClatchy , would give the Afghan government authority to approve an increase in International Security Assistance Force troops, which include about 19,500 Americans. It also would limit home searches or detention of Afghans to Afghan forces and require coordination of "all phases of" NATO ground and air operations "at the highest possible level."
The deteriorating relationship between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his foreign allies, however, is only one of myriad obstacles that Obama and his just-named special envoy, Richard Holbrooke , are confronting in Afghanistan , Obama on Thursday called "the central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism." |
36 Why France's 35 Hour Week Won't Die
Time Magazine
Fri Jan 23, 10:30 am ET
| Call it the law that just won't die. Six months after France's ruling Conservatives voted to gut the nation's famous 35-hour work week, anecdotal evidence suggests most companies are sticking with it. French corporations and smaller firms furiously denounced the Socialist's 1998 work-week reduction, and last year's law change allows employers to force staff to work longer hours. But most bosses appear to have stuck with the shorter week, to avoid disputes with leisure-loving employees, and, it seems, as a useful tool in dealing with the growing economic downturn. |
37 China's Web Vigilantes Take on the Government
Time Magazine
Fri Jan 23, 11:55 am ET
| For all the talk of the threat of the Internet to authoritarian regimes, China's Communist Party has capably rebuffed the Web's challenge to its rule. But a growing trend on the Chinese Internet could make life unpleasant for a handful of government bureaucrats who offend the cyber-citizenry. |
38 Why Europe Will Remain Dependent on Russian Gas
Time Magazine
Fri Jan 23, 12:05 pm ET
| Moscow sent a chilly reminder, over the New Year, of the urgency behind Europe's quest to wean itself off a dependence on Russian natural gas. Millions of Germans, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Moldovans and Italians were left without heat for a week in sub-zero temperatures, as a result of a commercial dispute between Russia and Ukraine - Moscow had turned off the gas supply piped across the vast former Soviet Republic, hoping to turn up the heat on the Western-aligned government in Kiev by turning off the heat in Europe. Restarting the flow required urgent diplomatic shuttling by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders. But as much as the episode highlighted the problem of depending on energy supplies from an increasingly churlish Russia, finding alternative supply sources will be far from simple. |
39 Behind Rwanda's Arrest of General Laurent Nkunda
Time Magazine
Fri Jan 23, 12:20 pm ET
| The arrest of the Democratic Republic of Congo's notorious rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda removes a major impediment to peace in one of the world's most war-torn countries. The fact that he was arrested in Rwanda also helps the government of President Paul Kagame restore a reputation severely tarnished last month, when the U.N. accused it of arming and supplying men to Nkunda and using him as a proxy inside Congo. |
40 Stranger than Fiction: From Soviet Agent to London Newspaper Proprietor
Time Magazine
Sat Jan 24, 1:55 am ET
| What can you get for a single unit of Britain's poor, battered currency? Not much - apart from power, influence and an entrÉe into the highest echelons of the British establishment. These are the potential byproducts of an agreement reached on Jan. 21 by Russian oligarch and politician Alexander Lebedev to buy London's largest newspaper, the Evening Standard, from its current owners Associated Newspapers for the nominal fee of one pound sterling. |
41 By Forgiving Traditionalists, the Pope Offends Jews
Time Magazine
Sat Jan 24, 1:55 am ET
| Pope Benedict XVI has reinstated four bishops from an archconservative breakaway wing of the Roman Catholic Church, a decision that is bound to stir controversy within his own flock. But Saturday's announcement that the Vatican will undo the 20-year schism between the Vatican and the so-called Lefebvrian movement is all the more sensitive because it comes only days after the broadcast of an interview in which British-born Bishop Richard Williamson, one of those Benedict is bringing back into the fold, denies that the Nazi Holocaust ever happened. |
| From Yahoo News U.S. News |
42 Beauties vie for Miss America crown in Las Vegas
By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 24, 1:58 pm ET
| LAS VEGAS - In ball gowns, blue jeans and bikinis, 52 young women were set to compete for the Miss America 2009 title, capping a mini-reality series on pageant prep work and a week of preliminary competition.
The winner will be crowned by reigning Miss America Kirsten Haglund of Michigan and take home a $50,000 scholarship before embarking on a year of travel and public appearances. The pageant airs live on TLC at 8 p.m. EST Saturday from the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
In a new twist to the 88-year-old pageant, four of the top 15 finalists are being chosen by viewers of the lead-in reality show, "Miss America: Countdown to the Crown." |
43 Governors seek concessions from public workers
By JULIE CARR SMYTH, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 24, 3:52 am ET
| COLUMBUS, Ohio - Governors across the nation are seeking significant concessions from public employee unions in hopes of helping to balance their teetering budgets during the economic downturn.
From Maryland to California, Ohio to Hawaii, governors have asked or ordered state workers to accept furloughs, salary reductions, truncated workweeks or benefit cuts. They say the concessions are a better alternative to further job losses in the face of record-breaking unemployment.
Unions argue their members shouldn't be singled out and are even more vital in hard times - securing neighborhoods and prisons, educating children and providing social services to growing numbers of citizens. |
44 Starbucks may cut 1,000 more jobs: report
Reuters
1 hr 51 mins ago
| LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Coffee chain Starbucks Corp could cut another 1,000 jobs in the coming weeks, according to a report in the Seattle Times on Saturday.
The latest cuts could include employees at its Seattle headquarters, district managers and field employees but not the so-called baristas, who serve customers, said the report, which cited a client note from an analyst at McAdams Wright Ragen.
A Starbucks spokeswoman declined to comment. |
45 Las Vegas casinos hoping for lucky Chinese New Year
By Deena Beasley, Reuters
Fri Jan 23, 12:24 pm ET
| LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Golden dragons hang from the ceilings and lion dances are poised to start as Las Vegas Strip casinos prepare to ring in the lunar New Year -- one of biggest money-making events for the gambling corridor.
While the global financial crisis has stilled the hand of many gamblers, Las Vegas is doing what it can to keep them coming in the year of the Ox.
The Chinese New Year, which starts this year on Monday, ranks with the western New Year and the National Football League's Super Bowl weekend as the three busiest times for Las Vegas casinos. |
46 Two businessmen win a round in Madoff lawsuits
By Grant McCool, Reuters
Fri Jan 23, 6:04 pm ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some $11 million invested by two businessmen with the firm of accused swindler Bernard Madoff just days before his arrest will be set aside from other money recovered for investors, their lawyer said on Friday.
The attorney had argued in filing two lawsuits that his clients' money in Madoff firm bank accounts should not be part of assets eventually distributed to investors by a court-appointed trustee overseeing the firm's liquidation.
"We are pleased that the bankruptcy court has stipulated that when the money comes to the trustee he will hold that until our claim is resolved," attorney Howard Kleinhendler said. "The money can be traced because it was deposited soon before Madoff's assets were frozen." |
47 Senator asks Microsoft about job cuts, visas (Reuters)
Reuters
Posted on Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:50PM EST
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. senator has asked Microsoft Corp about its plans to slash up to 5,000 jobs, urging the world's biggest software company to preserve the jobs of Americans ahead of foreigners working on visas.
"I am concerned that Microsoft will be retaining foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American employees when it implements its layoff plan," Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in a January 22 letter.
Microsoft shocked investors on Thursday when it released quarterly results that missed Wall Street expectations, announced up to 5,000 layoffs and said it would no longer give forecasts for the rest of the fiscal year. |
48 Newly unemployed need help to stay insured: report
By Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters
Fri Jan 23, 12:04 am ET
| CHICAGO (Reuters) - Few laid off workers can afford to take advantage of a U.S. program that helps people keep their health benefits, and many low-income workers are not eligible, a report released on Friday said.
The report by the Commonwealth Fund found only 9 percent of people who are eligible for COBRA -- a program that allows people to keep their employer-sponsored health insurance -- actually sign up.
The group urged policymakers to spend money to help newly unemployed workers keep company health benefits under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, or COBRA, and expand insurance coverage options for low-wage workers who are not eligible. |
49 Macintosh computers hitting stride at age 25 (AFP)
AFP
Posted on Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:06PM EST
| SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - As Macintosh computers turn 25 years old with renewed vigor, Peter Friess professes a faith in Apple dating back to when founder Steve Jobs handed him one of the early machines in a German museum.
Friess, now president of The Tech Museum of Innovation in the heart of Silicon Valley, is not surprised that the world is catching on as "Macs" hit age 25 on Saturday.
Friess, 49, was in his twenties and cataloguing centuries-old watches in The Deutches Museum when he learned that Apple had built a computer. |
50 Freddie Mac to seek 30-35 billion dollar Treasury injection
AFP
Fri Jan 23, 7:46 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - US government-controlled mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac said late Friday that it would ask the Treasury for an additional 30 to 35 billion dollars to prevent its collapse.
Freddie Mac, which along with its sister institution Fannie Mae was taken over by the government in a September rescue, said that it determined the size of the shortfall while preparing fourth-quarter and full-year 2008 results.
"The amount of the estimated additional draw ... reflects management's current estimate of the impact of operating losses as well as other items that have a direct impact on the company's net worth in the fourth quarter," Freddie Mac said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. |
51 Bush Returns to a Divided Texas Republican Party
Time Magazine
Sat Jan 24, 12:25 am ET
| As he returns to his hometown of Midland, Texas, George W. Bush is surely happy to be back in the friendly confines of the Lone Star State. But he may be surprised to find a very different, and divided, Republican party from the one he left behind eight years ago. Rural conservatives in the party are losing clout to more moderate and urban forces, while a potentially nasty internal battle for the Governor's Mansion in 2010 is brewing. |
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