Thursday, 23 April 2009
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Tuesday, 9 December 2008
fresh news Tue Dec 09 23:09:44 PST 2008
AP - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was roused from bed and arrested Tuesday after prosecutors said he was caught on wiretaps audaciously scheming to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for cash or a plum job for himself in the new administration.
AP - Though Barack Obama isn't accused of anything, the charges against his home-state governor — concerning Obama's own Senate seat no less — are an unwelcome distraction. And the ultimate fallout is unclear.
AP - Weary Democratic congressional leaders pushed to clear the final obstacles to a $15 billion bailout of U.S. automakers Tuesday night, but the rescue plan faced new snags as Republicans raised deep concerns.
AP - The creditor of a Chicago plant where laid-off employees are conducting a sit-in to demand severance pay said Tuesday it would extend limited loans to the factory so it could resolve the dispute, but the workers declared their protest unfinished.
AP - Masked youths and looters marauded through Greek cities for a fourth night Tuesday, in an explosion of rage triggered by the police shooting of a teenager that has unleashed the most violent riots in a quarter century.
AP - Both engines of a military jet fighter failed before the aircraft crashed and burned in a residential area, killing four people on the ground as it destroyed two houses, a congressional aide said Tuesday.
AP - Cancer will overtake heart disease as the world's top killer by 2010, part of a trend that should more than double global cancer cases and deaths by 2030, international health experts said in a report released Tuesday. Rising tobacco use in developing countries is believed to be a huge reason for the shift, particularly in China and India, where 40 percent of the world's smokers now live.
AP - The star of "The Nanny" wants to go from playing nasally New Yawkers to succeeding Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate.
AP - Me-ouch! Veterinarians in Boston on Tuesday performed an unusual surgery to reattach the face of a cat they believe was injured by a car's fan belt, probably because she tried to stay warm under the hood.
AP - Record-setting closer Francisco Rodriguez and the New York Mets reached a preliminary agreement Tuesday on a $37 million, three-year contract. The sides still have to work out a written agreement and the pitcher must pass a physical, two people familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the contract had not yet been completed.
Reuters - The governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, was arrested on Tuesday on "staggering" corruption charges that alleged he tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by fellow Democrat, President-elect Barack Obama.
Reuters - White House and Democratic negotiators pushed to clinch a deal on Tuesday that would provide $15 billion in loans to U.S. automakers, force the wounded giants to answer to a "car czar" and make the government their biggest shareholder.
Reuters - Japan's Sony Corp said it will cut 16,000 jobs, curb investment and pull out of businesses to save $1.1 billion a year as the financial crisis ravages demand for its electronics products.
Reuters - Riot police battled protesters outside Greece's parliament and in Athens suburbs on Tuesday while opposition socialists called for the conservative government to quit to end the worst civil unrest in decades.
Reuters - The United States and other rich nations must pledge by the end of next year specific targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to win agreement on a U.N. climate pact, the U.N.'s top climate official said on Tuesday.
Reuters - Cancer is on pace to supplant heart disease as the No. 1 cause of death worldwide in 2010, with a growing burden in poor countries thanks to more cigarette smoking and other factors, global health experts said on Tuesday.
Reuters - The National Football League said on Tuesday it will lay off almost 14 percent of the league's staff as part of a cost-cutting plan in response to the recession.
Reuters - Violence in Iraq has in the past few weeks fallen to its lowest level since summer 2003 and security gains, while still at risk of reversal, are less fragile than before, General David Petraeus said on Tuesday.
AFP - Riot police clashed with protesters Tuesday near the funeral of the Athens schoolboy whose killing by police set off a wave of violence, which Greece's prime minister blamed on the "enemies of democracy."
AFP - Pakistan said Tuesday it would not hand over suspects in the Mumbai terror strikes to India and warned that while it wanted peace with its neighbour, it was ready for war if New Delhi decided to attack.
Monday, 8 December 2008
fresh news Mon Dec 08 23:57:09 PST 2008
AP - Congressional Democrats sent the White House an emergency $15 billion auto bailout plan Monday, complete with provision of a "car czar" to oversee the industry's reinvention of itself. The Bush administration said there had been progress toward agreement but pressed further negotiations into the night.
AP - Wild, unprovoked gunfire and grenades killed 14 innocent Iraqis and hurt dozens more in a 2007 Baghdad attack, prosecutors said Monday in announcing charges with mandatory 30-year prison terms against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards.
AP - A military fighter jet preparing to land at a Marine base crashed in a densely populated San Diego neighborhood Monday, killing two people on the ground and destroying three houses.
AP - The Marine Corps left troops in Iraq vulnerable to deadly roadside bombs by failing to answer an urgent request from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, according to an internal Pentagon investigation obtained by The Associated Press.
AP - The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth. The court did not comment on its order Monday rejecting the call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., to intervene in the presidential election.
AP - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said Monday he will confess to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks, throwing his death-penalty trial into disarray and shocking victims' relatives who watched from behind a glass partition.
AP - O.J. Simpson was transferred Monday from jail to a Nevada state prison to begin serving nine to 33 years for his felony convictions in a gunpoint confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers, a state corrections official said.
AP - Here's a health tip in a nutshell: Eating a handful of nuts a day for a year — along with a Mediterranean diet rich in fruit, vegetables and fish — may help undo a collection of risk factors for heart disease.
Reuters - The White House and Democrats edged toward agreement on Monday to rescue U.S. automakers by extending emergency loans but their plan leaves key restructuring decisions to the incoming Obama administration.
Reuters - The self-styled mastermind of the September 11 attacks and four co-defendants told a military judge at Guantanamo on Monday that they wanted to confess and plead guilty.
Reuters - Five Blackwater security guards were charged on Monday with killing 14 unarmed civilians and wounding 20 others in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that outraged Iraqis and strained U.S.-Iraqi relations.
Reuters - A military jet crashed into a California neighborhood near San Diego on Monday after the pilot ejected, killing two people on the ground and destroying two homes, officials said.
Reuters - Dow Chemical Co said on Monday it will close 20 facilities, divest several businesses and cut 5,000 jobs, making it the latest large chemical company to throttle back operations due to the global economic slump.
Reuters - Progress toward a U.S. auto bailout and hopes for massive public works injected life into equity markets on Monday despite distress signals including new corporate job cuts and a pillar of American media filing for bankruptcy.
Reuters - Thousands of protesters rampaged through the heart of Athens on Monday, burning and looting shops on a third day of riots sparked by the killing of a teenager by police.
Reuters - Pakistani security forces have arrested a suspected planner of last month's militant attack on India's financial capital in Mumbai in a raid on a militant camp in Pakistani Kashmir, sources said on Monday.
AFP - Self-proclaimed architect of the September 11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants said Monday they would confess to terror charges that could bring the death penalty but postponed their guilty pleas.
AFP - Fury at the fatal police shooting of a schoolboy erupted in a third day of rioting across Greece on Monday, with youths looting stores, attacking hotels and clashing with the security forces by parliament.