2 Karadzic genocide trial resumes in his absence
by Mariette le Roux, AFP
2 hrs 25 mins ago
| THE HAGUE (AFP) - The genocide trial of Radovan Karadzic went ahead without him Tuesday, with prosecutors branding him "supreme commander" of an ethnic cleansing campaign during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
"This case is about that supreme commander, a man who harnessed the forces of nationalism, hatred and fear to implement his vision of an ethnically separated Bosnia: Radovan Karadzic," prosecutor Alan Tieger told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
Karadzic, who faces 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, had "ethnically cleansed vast portions of Bosnia and Hercegovina" during the war that claimed some 100,000 lives and forced 2.2 million people to flee their homes, said the prosecutor. |
3 Scientologists convicted of fraud in France
by Dorothee Moisan, AFP
2 hrs 17 mins ago
| PARIS (AFP) - French judges fined the Church of Scientology almost a million dollars on Tuesday for fleecing vulnerable followers but stopped short of banning the group from operating in France.
Scientology's Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris, the two branches of its French operations, were ordered to pay 600,000 euros (900,000 dollars) in fines for preying financially on several followers in the 1990s.
Alain Rosenberg, the French leader of a movement best known for its Hollywood followers Tom Cruise and John Travolta, was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence and fined 30,000 euros on the same charge of fraud. |
"If you want to get rich in America, invent a religion."- L. Ron Hubbard
4 US consumer confidence tanks
by Veronica Smith, AFP
1 hr 33 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - US consumer confidence tanked in October amid growing worries about jobs in the recession-wracked economy, boding ill for the key holiday shopping season, the Conference Board said Tuesday.
The private research firm said its consumer confidence index declined for the second month in a row, to 47.7 in October from a revised 53.4 in September. The September reading initially was reported at 53.1.
The decline in the October index was much steeper than expected by Wall Street, with most analysts expecting a 53.5 reading. |
5 France's Sarkozy announces 1.65-billion-euro farm aid plan
by Nadege Puljak, AFP
52 mins ago
| POLIGNY, France (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a 650-million-euro aid plan Tuesday for France's subsidised but still struggling farmers, along with one billion euros in cheap loans.
"I will not let French agriculture be swept away by the crisis," Sarkozy said, in a speech in an eastern cheese-making town in which he declared farming an integral part of the country's identity.
"I have come to offer you an unprecedented plan of exceptional support for our agriculture which includes one billion euros in bank loans and 650 million euros of exceptional state aid," he said. |
6 Obama vows not to rush Afghan troop decision
by Stephen Collinson, AFP
Mon Oct 26, 4:34 pm ET
| JACKSONVILLE, Florida (AFP) - US President Barack Obama vowed Monday after his latest Afghan war council that he would not rush a decision on whether to send tens of thousands more troops into the eight-year conflict.
Obama flew to a naval air station in Florida to address servicemen and women after meeting his top national security advisors, as critics accused him of "dithering" in a vital test of his role as US commander-in-chief.
"I will never hesitate to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests, I also promise you this -- and this is very important as we consider our next steps in Afghanistan," Obama told the military personnel. |
7 German tax cut gamble meets wall of scepticism
by Simon Sturdee, AFP
Mon Oct 26, 3:03 pm ET
| BERLIN (AFP) - Doubts grew on Monday over the viability of the new German government's choice to rely mostly on tax cuts to boost the ailing economy, a gamble that will send its immense national debt soaring even higher.
Under plans for the next four years finalised on Friday by Angela Merkel's conservatives and her new pro-business partners, the tax burden on families and workers will be eased by some 24 billion euros (36 billion dollars).
The Bavarian sister party to the chancellor's Christian Democrats (CDU) rubber stamped the plans at a meeting on Monday, and the CDU followed suit later in the day. Their Free Democrat (FDP) partners did so on Sunday. |
8 Eurozone lending contracts for the first time: ECB
by William Ickes, AFP
Tue Oct 27, 11:31 am ET
| FRANKFURT (AFP) - Eurozone bank lending to the private sector shrank in September for the first time on record, the European Central Bank said on Tuesday, a stark warning that any recovery is fraught with uncertainty.
Lending contracted by 0.3 percent, an ECB spokesman said, after growing by 0.1 percent in August.
It was the first time the figure was negative since the ECB's records began in January 1992. |
9 Bomb blasts kill 8 U.S. troops in Afghan south
By Maria Golovnina, Reuters
2 hrs 24 mins ago
| KABUL (Reuters) - Eight U.S. troops were killed in bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday ahead of a run-off presidential election, the NATO-led alliance said, in the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the start of the war eight years ago.
The mounting violence comes at a time when U.S. President Barack Obama is weighing up his options on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight a Taliban insurgency that is at its fiercest since 2001.
NATO-led forces said several troops were also wounded in "multiple complex (bomb) attacks" in the south, just a day after 11 U.S. troops died in separate helicopter crashes in Afghanistan. |
10 Senate panel kicks off climate bill drive
By Richard Cowan, Reuters
Tue Oct 27, 11:05 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate committee on Tuesday launched three days of hearings on a Democratic climate bill aimed at reducing carbon pollution while making the United States a world leader in cleaner energy.
In an uphill battle to pass legislation, especially before an international summit convenes in Copenhagen in December, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer said the bill would only cost consumers about 30 cents a day and make the United States the "world's leader in clean energy technology."
The committee was set to hear testimony from heavy-hitters from President Barack Obama's Cabinet: the secretaries of energy, transportation and interior and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Joining them will be the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. |
11 Obama announces $3.4 billion in grants for smart grid
By Steve Holland, Reuters
1 hr 48 mins ago
| ARCADIA, Florida (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced $3.4 billion in grants to help build a "smart" electric grid meant to trim utility bills, reduce blackouts and carry power generated by solar and wind energy.
It was the largest award made in a single day from the $787 billion stimulus package approved by Congress. The White House said the award will create tens of thousands of jobs while upgrading the U.S. electric grid.
Republicans have heavily criticized the stimulus as wasteful spending that has done little to reduce America's 9.8 percent jobless rate. |
12 Senate healthcare bill includes public option
By John Whitesides and Donna Smith, Reuters
Tue Oct 27, 10:08 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic leader Harry Reid said on Monday the Senate's healthcare overhaul will include a government-run insurance plan that lets states opt out, handing liberals an early victory on the bill's most contentious issue.
After days of closed-door talks, Reid said he would include the "public" insurance option in a healthcare reform bill headed to the Senate floor for debate because it was the best way to lower costs and create competition.
"I believe there's a strong consensus to move forward in this direction," he told reporters, declining to say if he had commitments for the 60 Senate votes needed to pass a healthcare bill including the public option. |
13 Karadzic boycotts own trial
By Robert Marquand, The Christian Science Monitor
Mon Oct 26, 5:00 am ET
| The Hague - With Bosnian mothers from Srebrenica shouting from the steps outside, the opening day of Radovan Karadzic's much anticipated war crimes trial lasted just 25 minutes. The Bosnian Serb leader accused of genocide and war crimes did not appear, as he earlier warned, saying he needed more time to prepare. He was apprehended 15 months ago, on a Belgrade bus in July 2008, posing as a bearded new age healer named Dragan Dabic.
"In light of the absence of the accused ... the chamber will adjourn ... until 2:15 p.m. tomorrow," said Chief Judge O-Gon Kown of South Korea. "We request Mr. Karadzic to attend so that his trial is not further obstructed."
Options appear limited to giving Karadzic more time, or appointing a legal counsel that he says he doesn't want, and that could prove disruptive in court. So far, no defendant in the 13-year-old Yugoslav tribunal has been forcibly seated. |
14 Senate moderates voice concern over public option
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 40 mins ago
| WASHINGTON - Inclusion of a government insurance plan in Senate health care legislation is posing problems for moderate senators whose votes are critical to passing the bill. Reverberations could be felt across the Capitol, where House Democratic leaders are finalizing a bill with a government plan.
Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Tuesday that while he won't vote to block Majority Leader Harry Reid's plan from going to the Senate floor for debate, he would ultimately oppose the measure because it includes a public option.
Meanwhile, Maine Republican Susan Collins, who had earlier indicated interest in trying to pass a bipartisan bill this year, issued a statement underscoring her opposition to "a taxpayer-subsidized, government-run health insurance company." |
Typical AP Concern Trolling.
15 New safety worry: Laptops, devices in the cockpit
By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 27, 6:20 am ET
| WASHINGTON - Two Northwest Airlines pilots who flew 150 miles past their destination because they were focused on laptop computers instead of cockpit displays may have opened a new avenue of concern for safety regulators - distracting personal electronic devices on the flight deck.
The pilots of Northwest flight 188 told the National Transportation Safety Board that they were so engrossed in a complicated new crew-scheduling program on their laptops - a cockpit violation of airline policy that could cost them their licenses - that they lost track of time and place for more than an hour until they were brought back to alertness by a flight attendant on an intercom.
By then, the Airbus A320 with its 144 passengers and five crew members had cruised past its Minneapolis destination and was over Wisconsin, at 37,000 feet. |
16 Fate of oil-rich Kirkuk stalls Iraq election law
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 8 mins ago
| BAGHDAD - A long-sought political consensus in Iraq over how to conduct crucial upcoming elections fell apart Tuesday over the thorny issue of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, an Iraqi lawmaker said.
The new snag came as an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for the twin suicide bombings in the heart of Baghdad Sunday that killed at least 155 people.
Many fear the political deadlock over the new law will delay elections, now slated for January, and open the door to renewed violence in Iraq after it stepped back from the brink of civil war two years ago. |
17 UN signals delay in climate change treaty
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 27, 9:45 am ET
| UNITED NATIONS - Just weeks before an international conference on climate change, the United Nations signaled it was scaling back expectations of reaching agreement on a new treaty to slow global warming.
Janos Pasztor, director of the secretary-general's Climate Change Support Team, said Monday "it's hard to say how far the conference will be able to go" because the U.S. Congress has not agreed on a climate bill, and industrialized nations have not agreed on targets to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions or funding to help developing countries limit their discharges.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has made a new climate treaty his top priority, hosting a Sept. 22 summit on climate change to spur political support and traveling extensively to build political momentum for a global agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which only requires 37 industrialized nations to cut emissions. |
18 US reps worry ocean policy will block development
By MARY PEMBERTON, Associated Press Writer
Mon Oct 26, 9:20 pm ET
| ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Dozens of U.S. representatives sent a letter Monday to the head of the President's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force with concerns that the policy will block offshore energy development and cost jobs.
Sixty-nine House members, including Alaska Rep. Don Young, signed the letter in which they responded to the task force's interim report released last month.
The task force is working on a national policy for governance of the country's oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. Two dozen senior policy members from numerous agencies are working on the national policy. |
19 Mass. man says Brazilian husband denied US asylum
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS, Associated Press Writer
Mon Oct 26, 7:46 pm ET
| BOSTON - A gay Brazilian man has been denied asylum by the Obama administration and won't be reunited with his Massachusetts husband in the U.S., the husband said Monday.
Tim Coco said Attorney General Eric Holder did not act on a Friday deadline in the case of Genesio "Junior" Oliveira, effectively denying the 30-year-old Brazilian man's request for asylum in the U.S. on humanitarian grounds.
"We needed the Attorney General to make a decision on whether Junior could come home," said Coco, 48, of Haverhill. "He didn't take this request seriously." |
20 AP IMPACT: Troops already outnumber Taliban 12-1
By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer
14 mins ago
| BRUSSELS - There are already more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan working with 200,000 Afghan security forces and police. It adds up to a 12-1 numerical advantage over Taliban rebels, but it hasn't led to anything close to victory.
Now, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is asking for tens of thousands more troops to stem the escalating insurgency, raising the question of how many more troops it would take to succeed.
The commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, says the extra forces are needed to implement a new strategy that focuses on protecting civilians and depriving the militants of popular support in a country where tribal militias may be Taliban today and farmers tomorrow. |
21 Re-Stalinization of Moscow subway sparks debate
By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer
55 mins ago
| MOSCOW - A Moscow subway station is the newest focus of Russia's bitter dispute over the legacy of Josef Stalin, whose outsize shadow still haunts the nation more than 50 years after his death.
Critics of the Communist era were outraged when old Soviet national anthem lyrics praising Stalin were restored to a rotunda in the Kurskaya station this summer. Now there is talk of putting a statue of the dictator back where one used to stand, facing commuters entering the station.
Moscow's chief municipal architect Alexander Kuzmin, who raised the idea of returning the Stalin statue last week, said there was nothing behind it but a desire for historical accuracy. |
22 Ex-Gitmo detainees sue UK to make evidence public
By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 26 mins ago
| LONDON - Seven former Guantanamo Bay detainees asked the High Court in London on Tuesday to reject a government request to use secret sessions to hear allegations that Britain was complicit in their torture overseas.
Britain's government and intelligence agencies want parts of a claim for damages filed by the detainees to be heard in private, and to restrict their lawyers' access to documents that the attorneys say may prove whether Britain was aware of the detainees' mistreatment.
The seven men allege they were tortured or abused at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at detention centers in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Morocco. |
23 Japanese hope Obama will visit A-bomb cities soon
By MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
57 mins ago
| TOKYO - A speech and a Nobel prize have raised hopes in Japan that Barack Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the two cities devastated by U.S. atomic bombs in World War II.
Past presidents have avoided a visit that could raise controversy at home, and U.S. officials say it is highly unlikely Obama will travel to either city during a two-day stop in Tokyo next month.
On Tuesday, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki went to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo to formally invite Obama to their cities before a U.N. review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty next May. |
24 Ex-French minister gets jail in Angola arms trial
By VERENA VON DERSCHAU, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 5 mins ago
| PARIS - A Paris court sentenced a former interior minister to a year in prison Tuesday and fined the son of the late President Francois Mitterrand for links to arms trafficking to Angola in a case that involved corruption at the highest levels.
The trial of 42 defendants began last October, after seven years of international investigations into a sensitive, far-reaching case the French dubbed "Angolagate."
The toughest sentences were handed to the two men accused of masterminding the trafficking of Soviet-made weapons to Angola during a civil war in the 1990s: Israeli billionaire Arkady Gaydamak and French businessman Pierre Falcone. Both were sentenced to six years in prison. |
25 Senegal: IMF official given cash farewell gift
By SADIBOU MARONE, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 52 mins ago
| DAKAR, Senegal - Senegal's president said Tuesday that he hosted a special dinner at his palace for a departing International Monetary Fund representative - only to have a top aide erroneously send him off with nearly $200,000 in cash as a goodbye gift.
President Abdoulaye Wade's admission has prompted the opposition in the West African nation to call for an investigation.
Wade said his top aide gave the cash to IMF country director Alex Segura after a Sept. 25 dinner at the presidential palace marking the end of Segura's three-year term. Wade issued a statement Tuesday in which he said the gift was not a bribe. |
26 2 Tibetans executed in China over riots last year
By HENRY SANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 27, 6:48 am ET
| BEIJING - Two people have been put to death for their roles in deadly protests last year in the Chinese-controlled region of Tibet, the first known executions for the violence, an overseas monitoring group said Tuesday.
China confirmed the executions but gave no details.
Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak, who goes by one name, were sentenced to death in April on charges relating to "starting fatal fires," according to the International Campaign for Tibet, a Washington-based advocacy group. |
27 Nazi hit man goes on trial in Germany
By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 27, 7:52 am ET
| BERLIN - Heinrich Boere has admitted to gunning down three men as part of a Waffen SS death squad - civilians killed in retribution for partisan attacks in Holland as the tide of World War II turned against the Nazis.
But for more than six decades after the war, he managed to avoid punishment - first escaping from a prisoner of war camp in the Netherlands, then successfully eluding the courts in Germany.
On Wednesday, the 88-year-old goes on trial at the state court in Aachen, charged with three murders - hits on a bicycle-shop owner, a pharmacist and another civilian. |
28 China to hunt remains at 1950 US bomber crash site
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 55 mins ago
| BEIJING - China will search for the remains of U.S. victims from an Air Force bomber that crashed nearly 60 years ago, state media said Tuesday, a likely gesture of goodwill just weeks ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's first visit to the country.
Efforts to find missing servicemen are deeply symbolic for the U.S. and Chinese militaries, whose ties have been strained by U.S. criticism of China's military buildup and Chinese objections to U.S. surveillance operations.
China last year yielded to a long-standing U.S. request to provide access to military records that might resolve the fate of thousands of U.S. servicemen missing from the Korean War and other Cold War-era conflicts. |
29 Czech court delays Lisbon verdict till after EU summit
AFP
1 hr 4 mins ago
| PRAGUE (AFP) - The highest court in the Czech Republic on Tuesday delayed until after an upcoming EU summit its decision on whether the Lisbon Treaty dovetails with the nation's constitution.
Its one-week adjournment leaves on tenterhooks the fate of the treaty to overhaul EU decision-making, with eurosceptic President Vaclav Klaus refusing to sign it before the court hands down judgement.
"The court will confer," constitutional court chairman Pavel Rychetsky said during a televised hearing on Tuesday. "For this purpose, the court hearing is adjourned till Tuesday, November 3, 9:00 am (0800 GMT)." |
30 Bosnian Serb ex-leader Plavsic in Belgrade after prison release
AFP
Tue Oct 27, 2:01 pm ET
| BELGRADE (AFP) - Bosnian Serb ex-leader Biljana Plavsic returned to her home in Serbia Tuesday from a prison in Sweden after a UN court granted her early release from an 11-year jail sentence for war crimes.
Plavsic, 79, landed shortly after 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) at Belgrade airport and immediately left for her apartment in the Serbian capital, accompanied by Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik.
Upon arriving at her home, Plavsic, who also has Serbian citizenship, briefly said she would spend some time with her brother and sister-in-law, B92 television reported. |
31 Zimbabwe leaders 'poles apart' as unity talks stall
by Godfrey Marawanyika, AFP
Mon Oct 26, 4:00 pm ET
| HARARE (AFP) - President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai are "poles apart" on key unity government issues, a minister said Monday after Zimbabwe's feuding leaders failed to break a 10-day deadlock.
"The principals met. Sadly and tragically the stalemate continues," cabinet minister and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesman Nelson Chamisa told AFP. "We are poles apart on fundamental issues."
The three-hour talks were the first between the long-term rivals since Tsvangirai shelved ties with Mugabe's "dishonest and unreliable" camp on October 16, sparking a crisis in the fragile, eight-month partnership. |
32 US diplomat resigns over Afghan war: report
AFP
Tue Oct 27, 9:41 am ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - A diplomat disillusioned with US involvement in Afghanistan has become the first US official known to have resigned in protest over the eight-year war, The Washington Post said Tuesday.
Matthew Hoh, 36, was the senior State Department official in Afghanistan's Zabul province, a hotbed for Taliban militants, until he resigned last month.
His background in both civil and military fields may have seemed the perfect fit for President Barack Obama's administration as it steps up its counterinsurgency efforts in the war-torn country. |
33 China military growth the 'minimum requirement'
by Jim Mannion, AFP
Tue Oct 27, 6:56 am ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - Beijing's rapid military modernization, including the development of advanced weapons in the Pacific, merely meets its minimum defense requirements, a top Chinese general said ahead of meetings Tuesday at the Pentagon.
General Xu Caihou, the highest level Chinese military official to visit in years of rocky relations between the superpowers, holds talks with Defense Secretary Robert Gates amid US concerns over China's emergence as a potential high tech military rival.
But Xu, who is vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, set out Monday by trying to allay US suspicions, insisting that Beijing harbors no expansionist ambitions and wants collaborative international relations. |
34 Bolivia Frees Its Circus Animals. Now They Need Homes
By JEAN FRIEDMAN-RUDOVSKY / LA PAZ, Time Magazine
Tue Oct 27, 12:05 pm ET
| "Lions hate circuses" has long been a bumper sticker slogan of the animal rights movement, and Bolivia has heard the message: The left-leaning government of the Andean country recently passed the world's first legislation prohibiting the use of all animals in circuses. That's a huge victory for the London-based organization Animal Defenders International (ADI), which agitated for the ban. But it has left the organization, and others like it, facing the challenge of finding homes for 22 lions and a few primates, who will be euthanized if none are available. |
35 In Kenya, Room Enough For British Soldiers and Wildlife Tourists?
By NICK WADHAMS / NAIROBI, Time Magazine
Tue Oct 27, 12:05 pm ET
| James Christian remembers the night a few years ago when he and his wife took a Scottish travel agent out camping on their land in Kenya's Laikipia plateau. As they sat under the starry African sky, the hill opposite them suddenly erupted with gunfire and loud booms. "Red tracer fire opened up and there were these massive explosions - all of this was opposite us enjoying our African wilderness experience," Christian says. |
| From Yahoo News U.S. News |
36 Palin paid $1.25M for book by time she left office
By RACHEL D'ORO, Associated Press
13 mins ago
| ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin reported that she has received at least $1.25 million for her hugely anticipated upcoming memoir "Going Rogue."
A disclosure statement released Tuesday discusses Palin's finances from Jan. 1 to July 27, when she resigned as Alaska governor. Palin says she received the money from publisher HarperCollins for the book.
The document only provides a partial picture of the book deal because it doesn't cover the three months she has been out of office. Palin doesn't elaborate on her book compensation, describing the $1.25 million figure only as a "retainer," a word rarely used in publishing. |
37 More immigrants cite sexual orientation for asylum
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS, Associated Press Writer
53 mins ago
| WORCESTER, Mass. - For weeks, Nathaniel Cunningham and his boyfriend secretly lived together in rural Jamaica. They showed no affection in public and rarely spoke to neighbors.
Then one morning, Cunningham picked up a local newspaper with a front-page story under the headline, "Homosexual Prostitutes Move into Residential Neighborhood." His address was listed below.
For days afterward, Cunningham said an angry mob gathered on his lawn hurling rocks and bricks and calling them "batty boys" - a Jamaican slang term for gay. Eventually, the pair grabbed what they could and fled on foot. Cunningham said neither he nor his boyfriend were prostitutes - the slur was just another example of the abuse gay men faced in Jamaica. |
38 Great Lakes shippers oppose air pollution rules
By JOHN FLESHER, AP Environmental Writer
45 mins ago
| TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - Shipping companies that haul iron ore, coal and other freight on the Great Lakes have enlisted support from leading congressional Democrats to ward off air pollution regulations they say would be a financial burden.
A group representing the 55 U.S.-flagged vessels that operate on the lakes is hoping for relief from a House-Senate conference committee expected to meet this week in Washington, D.C., to negotiate a compromise on a natural resources spending bill.
The Lake Carriers' Association was seeking at least a partial exemption from rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency that would require large vessels operating within 200 miles of a U.S. coast to use cleaner - and costlier - fuel and improve engine technology. |
39 Man says Home Depot fired him over God button
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 1 min ago
| WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Trevor Keezer calls himself an American patriot, a man who loves his country, God and religion. He never imagined his beliefs would get him fired.
But that's exactly what the 20-year-old says happened when he reported for work at The Home Depot in the rural Florida town of Okeechobee, about 140 miles north of Miami.
Keezer said he'd been wearing an American flag button on his Home Depot apron since he began working as a cashier at the store in March 2008. The button read, "One nation under God, indivisible." |
40 Twitter user list favors Dems in Calif. gov race
By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 27, 2009 4:22PM EDT
| SACRAMENTO, Calif. - When people sign up for Twitter, the popular social-networking site presents a list of suggested users to follow, driving significant traffic to sports figures, celebrities, politicians and other prominent posters.
In California, the list has attracted the attention of political watchdogs because it apparently favors Democrats over Republicans in next year's race for governor. That raises questions about whether Twitter should change its policy at a time when the site is catching on as a popular recruiting tool for candidates.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is on the suggested user list and has 1.2 million followers. His likely opponent for the Democratic nomination, Attorney General Jerry Brown, has 960,000 followers even though he is not a declared candidate and has posted the fewest tweets of all the gubernatorial hopefuls. |
41 FDA to ban sale of raw oysters from Gulf of Mexico
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 24 mins ago
| NEW ORLEANS - Federal officials plan to ban sales of raw oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico unless the shellfish are treated to destroy potentially deadly bacteria - a requirement that opponents say could deprive diners of a delicacy cherished for generations.
The plan has also raised concern among oystermen that they could be pushed out of business.
The Gulf region supplies about two-thirds of U.S. oysters, and some people in the $500 million industry argue that the anti-bacterial procedures are too costly. They insist adequate measures are already being taken to battle germs, including increased refrigeration on oyster boats and warnings posted in restaurants. |
42 Ford rises, Chrysler falters in key quality survey
By Soyoung Kim and Bernie Woodall, Reuters
2 hrs 11 mins ago
| DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co has made the most progress in improving vehicle quality among major automakers, while Chrysler ranks at the bottom of the industry for reliability, according to an annual Consumer Reports survey released on Tuesday.
Asian automakers dominated the magazine's influential list of recommended vehicles, with Toyota Motor Corp's Scion ranked the top brand followed by Honda Motor Co's flagship brand. Toyota's flagship brand placed third.
Ford ranks as the only U.S. automaker that is competing with Asian brands with "world-class reliability," Consumer Reports said. |
43 U.S. schools homeowners to spot loan rescue scams
By Mary Milliken, Reuters
Tue Oct 27, 3:35 am ET
| LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sun Valley, a sun-baked and struggling corner of Los Angeles, is fertile ground for mortgage rescue scams with its high proportion of subprime borrowers, Spanish speakers and a sharp drop in home values.
And it is one of the first places targeted in the homeowner education campaign launched on Monday by government agencies, local leaders and housing advocates to stop scammers preying on desperate borrowers nationwide.
Officials do not know how many scams have been perpetrated among millions of American families who have lost their homes or face foreclosure. But they do know that scams exacerbate the foreclosure crisis because borrowers lose precious time and money that could have kept them out of default. |
44 U.S. sees "mixed picture" on world religious liberty
By Andrew Quinn, Reuters
Mon Oct 26, 4:36 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States sees a mixed picture on world religious freedom, with progress in interfaith dialogue weighed against government repression and sectarian strife in many countries.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday unveiled the latest State Department report on global religious freedom, which particularly criticized Iran and North Korea among other countries for harsh limits on religious expression.
"It is our hope that the ... report will encourage existing religious freedom movements around the world," Clinton said, adding that all people should have the right to believe or not as they see fit. |
45 Disgraced Former Governor Blagojevich Stays in Spotlight
By ALEX ALTMAN / CHICAGO, Time Magazine
Tue Oct 27, 11:55 am ET
| Rod Blagojevich is still campaigning. Despite his fall into the seventh circle of ignominy - perhaps you heard he was impeached as Illinois governor and faces federal corruption charges after allegedly auctioning off Barack Obama's empty U.S. Senate seat - Blagojevich is passing a crystalline afternoon pressing the flesh at a cafÉ near his home on Chicago's northwest side, eager to dispel the notion that he's a pariah. In part because Blagojevich is a very good politician, the reception is warmer than you might expect. He embraces an elderly supporter, quizzes a high school track team about its choice of running shoes (these days he clocks seven miles in under an hour) and assures tourists from Detroit that he's "innocent of all charges." |
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Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
