FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 674

Voted down, 205-228.

Question now is, are we gonna get something even worse? (I'm guessing 'yes.')



Citigroup buys Wachovia bank assets for $2.2B

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Citigroup will acquire the banking operations of Wachovia for $2.2 billion in an all-stock deal announced Monday, following much speculation over the weekend about the fate of the nation's fourth-largest bank.

To help finance the transaction, Citigroup said it would raise $10 billion through a sale of common stock and announced it would slash its quarterly dividend yet again, cutting it in half to 16 cents a share to preserve capital.

As part of the deal, Citigroup will acquire Wachovia's massive deposit network, giving it more than $600 billion in deposits in the U.S., about a 9.8% market share, and broadening its presence in such key regions as the Southeast and the West.

At the same time, Citi will assume about $53 billion in the Wachovia's debt and take hold of the same loan portfolio that ultimately sank Wachovia in the end.




Central banks pump in $620bn as shares plummet

Central banks around the world unveiled a plan to pump massive amounts of cash into the global banking system in a concerted effort to boost market confidence and inject liquidity into the global markets.

The move followed a fall in the Dow Jones of nearly 300 points in morning trade to 10,869 as the market took fright at several bank nationalisations in Europe and the US despite the approval of the "son of Tarp" — the Troubled Asset Relief Programme —bailout. The FTSE 100 index of leading shares was down almost 5 per cent, taking it to a new low for the year and below the psychologically significant threshold of 5,000.

As nine central banks used currency swaps to oil the wheels of dollar liquidity in the money markets, sterling plunged and was on course for its steepest one-day drop against the dollar for at least a decade and a half.




Stocks, Oil Plunge After Congress Rejects Bailout; Bonds Rise

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks lost $1.2 trillion in market value, oil plunged and Treasury bonds rallied after lawmakers rejected the Bush administration's $700 billion financial rescue.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 8.8 percent, the most since the crash of October 1987, led by a 16 percent decline in financial shares. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley decreased over 13 percent. The MSCI World Index of 23 developed markets sank as much as 7 percent, the most in the measure's 38- year history. The euro and the pound sank, while bonds rose as governments raced to prop up banks infected by growing U.S. mortgage losses. Crude futures tumbled more than $10 a barrel.

"Fear is permeating all markets and everyone is pretty much running for the hills,'' said Jack Ablin, who helps manage about $55 billion as chief investment officer of Harris Private Bank in Chicago. "We're watching this thing crumble.''




US Navy watches seized ship with Sudan-bound tanks

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.S. helicopters on Monday buzzed a hijacked Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 Soviet-designed tanks and other weapons that officials fear could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia if the pirates are allowed to escape.
...
Christensen said the arms shipment was destined for Sudan — not Kenya, which had been claiming to be the arms' destination. "We are aware that the actual cargo was intended for Sudan, not Kenya," he said.

The 5th Fleet said the ship was headed for the Kenyan port of Mombasa, but that "additional reports state the cargo was intended for Sudan."

U.N. officials said there is no blanket arms embargo on Sudan's government, but any movement of military equipment and supplies into the Darfur region would violate a U.N. arms embargo if it were not first requested by the government and approved by the Security Council's Sudan sanctions committee.

The United States has expressed opposition to all arms transfers to Sudan, which it considers a state sponsor of terrorism. U.S. officials also have warned that the transfer of lethal military equipment to state sponsors of terrorism could lead to sanctions under U.S. law.




Deadly suicide attack in Algeria

A suicide attack east of the Algerian capital, Algiers, has killed three people and injured another six, the state news agency has reported.

The attack took place at Dellys, about 100km (60 miles) east of Algiers on Sunday, APS news agency said.

Reports said a suicide car bomber hit a checkpoint there at the end of iftar, the meal that breaks the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Algeria has suffered regular suicide attacks by rebels linked to al-Qaeda.




Deadly blast rocks Lebanese city

At least five people have been killed in a suspected car bomb attack on a military bus carrying soldiers in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.

Witnesses said the blast happened on the outskirts of the city during morning rush hour. Some 30 people are believed to be wounded.

Several soldiers as well as civilians were killed in a similar blast on a bus in the city last month.
Lebanon's leaders said the attacks were an attempt to destabilise the country.




Cadbury Says Chinese-Made Chocolate Have Melamine

A Cadbury spokesman says preliminary results show its Chinese-made chocolates contain the industrial chemical melamine.

The spokesman said Monday it was too early to say how much melamine the chocolates contained.



China tainted milk scandal: Cadbury confirms melamine and 22 arrested

Police have arrested 22 people accused of being involved in China's tainted milk scandal.

The arrests came as Cadbury recalled Dairy Milk bars and other chocolates from across the Far East after traces of melamine were found in its Chinese made chocolates.

State media Xinhau reported that more than 480lb of the industrial chemical melamine was seized during raids.

The arrests took place in Hebei province and Chinese media reported that a police investigation showed that melamine had been produced in underground plants and then sold to farms and milk purchasers.




Egypt: European abductees released

A rescue mission has freed 19 European and Egyptian hostages and killed several of the kidnappers who snatched the tour group more than a week ago during a desert safari, Egypt's state news agency and television reported.

The Egyptian report referred to a Monday morning operation that resulted in the rescue of the 19 hostages but did not say where it took place. It said the rescued hostages were in good health and that at least half of the kidnappers were killed but gave no specific number of the dead.

The hostages, including five Germans, five Italians, a Romanian and eight Egyptians, disappeared September 19 in a remote corner of southwestern Egypt and were taken by their abductors to Sudan and later Libya.




Olmert: We must leave most of W. Bank

Israel will have to give up virtually all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem if it wants peace with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a farewell interview published Monday, saying Israel faced a stark choice and needed to make a decision soon.

Olmert also said Israel would have to leave the Golan Heights in order to obtain peace with Syria.

The comments were the clearest sign to date of Olmert's willingness to meet the Palestinians' demands, but their significance was uncertain, since Olmert's days in office are numbered and peace negotiations will soon become the responsibility of a different Israeli leader.

More than anything, the interview marked Olmert's transformation from a vocal hard-liner who for decades opposed any territorial concessions to the Palestinians to a leader whose views are virtually identical to those of the dovish politicians he once pilloried.




Israel slams fresh Arab move to isolate it at IAEA

Israel on Monday condemned the renewed Iranian-backed Arab effort to isolate it at a UN atomic watchdog assembly. Arab League states prepared to table a resolution called "Israel's nuclear capabilities" urging all Middle East states not to test or develop atom bombs and not to stand in the way of a regional nuclear-free zone.

The Arab states shelved a similar measure at the annual conference of 145 International Atomic Energy Agency member states a year ago.

But resentment continues to fester over inaction regarding what is assumed to be the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal in Israel, which critics say causes an imbalance of power and spurs adversaries in an unstable region to seek nuclear weaponry.

Israel, which has called the Arab move "substantially unwarranted and flawed", filed a motion on Monday for it to be struck off the IAEA General Conference agenda.

The measure is expected to be considered later this week.

"Among sponsors of this draft resolution are states which openly do not recognize the state of Israel and even call for its annihilation," Israel Atomic Energy Commission Director Shaul Chorev said, alluding to Iran.

"What is the moral standing of sponsors of this agenda item who do not recognise Israel's right to exist while criticizing Israeli policies aiming at securing its very existence?"




Israel worried Hizballah may attack during holidays


Israeli military officials are preparing for a possible Hizballah attack in northern Israel over the holiday season starting Monday evening with Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year.

During Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Succot, Israelis congregate in homes, synagogues and other public venues, making them an easier target for terrorists who may infiltrate from southern Lebanon.

The Jerusalem Post reported that intelligence assessments are that Hizballah also sees this time as an opportunity to attack due to the transitory status of Israel's government.




Prepare for elections, Livni tells Kadima

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni instructed Kadima Director-General Adi Sternberg to begin preparing the party for a general election that would ensue if she were unable to form a new coalition, Livni told the Kadima faction Sunday at the party's headquarters in Petah Tikva.

Sources close to Livni said she made a point of mentioning her instructions to Sternberg when the cameras were rolling in order to send a message to the heads of Labor and Shas. They said she said the same thing when she met briefly with Labor chairman Ehud Barak during Sunday's cabinet meeting.

Kadima teams met Sunday with representatives of Shas and United Torah Judaism. No significant progress was reported in any of the meetings.




Iran Avoids New Sanctions in Security Council Vote

The United Nations Security Council has adopted a resolution ordering Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program -- but the council did not impose any new sanctions.

The 15 council members voted unanimously Saturday for a measure that reaffirms three previous sets of sanctions on Iran.

The resolution states that previous resolutions are legally binding and must be carried out. It also calls on Iran to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is investigating whether Iran has conducted research on nuclear weapons.

The resolution offers Iran the choice of incentives to stop enriching uranium or face the threat of more sanctions.




Ukraine's Gold-Plaited Comeback Kid

Charismatic, prone to giggling, and fond of chic clothing, Yulia Tymoshenko is a woman of grand gestures.

Challenged once that her famous braid was phony, she called a press conference and then, quite literally, let her hair down. When a political rival accused her of hypocrisy during a parliamentary debate on legislative privilege, claiming that her pearls would be enough to feed an average Ukrainian family for five years, Tymoshenko tore off the necklace and threw it at the deputy with the retort: "There's not a single real pearl on this necklace!"

Tymoshenko is either adored or reviled. A prominent Ukrainian commentator once compared her to a nuclear powerhouse. If she is not contained, she will rage out of control, Yulia Mostova wrote in "Dzerkalo Tyzhnia."

Tymoshenko's supporters fervently believe that only she has remained true to her principles, never wavering from her commitment to Ukraine; her critics, on ther other hand, claim that she is a corrupt, power-hungry opportunist given to populist gestures.




OSCE says Belarus election short of standards

MINSK (Reuters) - Western monitors said on Monday a parliamentary election in ex-Soviet Belarus that produced no seats for the opposition fell short of international standards despite minor improvements over previous polls.

The EU had said it might consider easing sanctions, which include a ban on entry to the United States and EU for President Alexander Lukashenko and 40 top officials, if the election went well.
Lukashenko, voting on Sunday, said it would be "hard for those among the Western monitors not to recognise the election."

Monitors had said in the run-up to the vote that they had been impressed with the staging of the poll. But their report said the count had been plagued by problems and cheating and access had been hindered in 35 percent of cases.

"Voting was generally well conducted but the process deteriorated considerably during the vote count. Promises to ensure transparency of the vote count were not implemented," the monitors' report said.




Soviet power returns to life
Dominic O’Connell braves the cold in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia

IT IS just above freezing and there is a touch of sleet in the air. For Vasiliy Tatarnikov, engineering boss at the Boguchanskaya hydroelectric dam in central Siberia, this is a mild autumn day. In winter, it can get to -58C. What does he and his 4,000 workers do then? “We work on the dam,” he says, looking puzzled.

Boguchanskaya is a monster in the middle of nowhere. One-and-a-half miles wide and 300ft high, it spans the Angara river, a slate-grey torrent that drains Lake Baikal north through Siberia. It’s 800 miles south to the Mongolian border, and 2,000 miles west to Moscow.

Work on the project started in 1974, when Leonid Brezhnev ran the Soviet Union. It ground to a halt in the early 1990s, when the Communist empire fell apart and the money ran out.

For the past two years, however, it has been full steam ahead. UC Rusal, a metals group that emerged from the chaotic days of postSoviet capitalism to become the world’s largest aluminium maker, is putting $5 billion (£2.7 billion) into completing the dam in partnership with Rus Hydro.



***


Magnitude 6.4 - OFF THE COAST OF COLIMA, MEXICO
2008 September 24 02:33:05 UTC
Magnitude 6.3 Quake Hits Mexico; Tsunami Alert Issued

Magnitude 5.1 - SOLOMON ISLANDS
2008 September 24 06:00:50 UTC

Magnitude 2.5 - ARKANSAS
2008 September 24 15:20:02 UTC

Magnitude 5.4 - SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
2008 September 24 17:12:16 UTC

Magnitude 5.2 - HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
2008 September 24 17:59:33 UTC

Magnitude 6.0 - WESTERN XIZANG
2008 September 25 01:47:12 UTC

Magnitude 3.2 - COLORADO
2008 September 25 16:55:35 UTC

Magnitude 4.3 - WESTERN IRAN
2008 September 25 15:32:12 UTC

Magnitude 5.0 - SOUTHERN IRAN
2008 September 26 15:52:24 UTC

Magnitude 5.6 - CARLSBERG RIDGE
2008 September 26 18:46:18 UTC

Magnitude 5.3 - BANDA SEA
2008 September 26 23:10:04 UTC

Magnitude 5.7 - MINDORO, PHILIPPINES
2008 September 27 03:05:00 UTC
Magnitude 6.0 - MINDORO, PHILIPPINES
2008 September 27 03:09:13 UTC
Two earthquakes jolt Mindoro, Metro Manila

Magnitude 3.1 - SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
2008 September 27 22:55:13 UTC

Magnitude 5.1 - BANDA SEA
2008 September 28 13:42:57 UTC

Magnitude 5.4 - JAN MAYEN ISLAND REGION
2008 September 28 22:20:21 UTC

Magnitude 4.1 - GREECE
2008 September 29 03:05:37 UTC

Magnitude 4.6 - SALTA, ARGENTINA
2008 September 29 13:03:58 UTC

Magnitude 7.0 - KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND
2008 September 29 15:19:31 UTC
Magnitude 5.3 - KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND
2008 September 29 16:10:38 UTC
7.3 quake strikes outer New Zealand islands

Magnitude 2.9 - OHIO
2008 September 30 01:06:39 UTC
2.9 quake jolts rural area of western Ohio



Mudslides and flood threaten to wipe out Beichuan

The ongoing mudslides and an anticipated flood could do what the Sichuan earthquake couldn't - wipe out Beichuan from the face of the earth.

As a result of heavy rains and incessant mudslides, the plan to rebuild quake-devastated Beichuan county in northern Sichuan province as an earthquake museum has been put on hold, a local official said.

Rejection!

House votes down massive bailout measure
Debate prior to balloting showed deep reservations about $700 billion plan

Pirates release Japanese ship with Filipinos for $2M

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somali pirates holding more than a dozen merchant ships hostage released a Japanese vessel Saturday for a ransom of two million dollars, a local official said.

The Stella Maris, which was hijacked on July 20, had been loaded with lead and zinc and had a crew of some 20 Filipinos.




Pirates seize another ship off Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Pirates have seized a Greek chemical tanker with a crew of 19 off Somalia's coast, days after hijacking a Ukrainian cargo ship loaded with tanks, an international anti-piracy group said Saturday.
...
The Greek tanker, carrying refined petroleum from Europe to the Middle East, was ambushed Friday in the Gulf of Aden, said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center based in Malaysia. He said pirates chased and fired at the ship before boarding it.



Captain of hijacked ship says 1 crew member dead

A Russian crew member of a hijacked Ukrainian-operated cargo ship, boarded by pirates off the coast of Somalia three days ago, died of hypertension on Sunday, the captain of the vessel said.

Viktor Nikolsky reported the death to a U.S. news agency from the deck of the MV Faina via a satellite phone, provided by one of the pirates who seized the ship last Thursday.

Nikolsky also told the Associated Press he could see a U.S. ship about one kilometre from his freighter.

The U.S. navy destroyer, USS Howard, is stationed off the coast of Somalia. According to an unidentified U.S. official quoted by AP, the destroyer's crew is watching for any movement of cargo off the ship.



Somali pirates, besieged by foreign warships, demand 20 mln dlrs

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Somali pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian freighter carrying supposed Kenyan military weapons defiantly demanded 20 million dollars in ransom despite being surrounded by three foreign warships on Sunday.

The spokesman for the pirates, contacted by AFP via satellite telephone, confirmed that they were surrounded by three foreign war vessels off Somalia's central coast and said the ship's crew was "safe and not harmed."

"What we are awaiting eagerly is the 20 million dollars (13.7 million euros), nothing less, nothing more," Sugule Ali said. On Saturday, figures ranging between five and 35 million dollars had been put forward.

Ali confirmed that the ship was under siege, but he said the pirates would not give themselves up.



Warships of 2 big powers pursue Somali pirates

NAIROBI: For a moment, the pirates might have thought that they had really struck gold — Somalia-style.

The gun-toting, seafaring thieves, who routinely pounce on cargo ships bobbing along on the Indian Ocean, suddenly found themselves in command of a vessel crammed with $30 million worth of grenade launchers, piles of ammunition, even battle tanks.

But this time, they might have gotten far more than they bargained for. Unlike so many other hijackings off the coast of Somalia that have gone virtually unnoticed — and unpunished — the attack Thursday evening on the Faina, a Ukrainian vessel bringing military equipment to Kenya, has provoked the wrath of two of the most powerful militaries on the planet.

The United States Navy was in hot pursuit of the ship Friday. And the Russians were not far behind.

"This is really getting out of control," said Mohammed Osman, a Somali government official in Kenya. "You see how many countries are involved now? These pirates aren't going to get away with this."



Tensions Rise Over Ship Hijacked Off Somalia

NAIROBI, Kenya — Tensions increased Sunday over what to do about the arms-carrying cargo ship hijacked off the coast of Somalia, as the pirates vowed to fight to the death, a hostage died and Somali officials urged the American Navy to send in commandos.

According to a broadcast on the BBC Somali service, the pirates said that they could see an American destroyer nearby and several military aircraft tracking them, but that they were not afraid.

“They can’t catch us like goats,” said a man who said he was a spokesman for the pirates. “We will fight, and everyone here will die with us.”



Sea piracy threatens future of global shipping industry (Sept. 2)

As the world's shipping industry grapples with the challenges of declining global trade, lack of finance, and shortage of ship crew, the industry's future is under threat due to the escalating levels of piracy along major sea trade routes, believe senior industry players.

Piracy has long been a problem in the Gulf of Aden, where one of the world's busiest shipping lanes connecting the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, passes by lawless Somalia, which has been without an effective central government since 1991.




A prisoner in 'pirate alley'

MUMBAI - In a startling throwback to 17th century days of Spanish galleons, Barbary pirates and avenging royal navies, pirates attacked a record 17 ships in the Gulf of Aden in the first two weeks of September compared to just 10 in the entire year of 2007, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Center.

"This is the highest number of piracy attacks we have seen in the past five years," said Cyrus Mody, manager of the London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB) which runs the Piracy Reporting Center, the word's nodal anti-pirate organization.
...

An Indian sailor, Maria Vijayan, who was held captive by Somalian pirates for 174 days, told Asia Times Online of the existence of a pirate town called Harardheere, 400 kilometers north of the capital Mogadishu.

Harardheere is a stronghold for hundreds of pirates and their families, and Cyrus Mody of the International Maritime Bureau confirmed its existence.

The other more well known modern pirate town is the port of Eyl in the Somalian region of Puntland, a modern day version of Tortuga, the 18th century Haitian island pirate town made more famous in the movie trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean .

Eyl is an infamous nest for Somali pirate-captured ships as well as a supporting industry feeding off an estimated $30 million in ransom booty that Gulf of Aden pirates bagged in 2007, a staggering indication of the extent of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.




[Meanwhile, some Somalis are trying to smuggle themselves out by boat.]

At least 52 Somali refugees dead on boat: UNHCR

The United Nations refugee agency on says least 52 Somalis died after being adrift for 18 days in a broken smuggler boat ferrying them to Yemen.

The UNHCR said Yemeni coast guards rescued 71 survivors on the boast as it drifted near the coast. Most of the dead were thrown overboard by the passengers while four survivors later died in hospital, the UNHCR said quoting survivors.

It said the boat left strife-torn Somalia with 124 passengers aboard on September 3 headed for Yemen when it broke down a few hours later.

The crew abandoned the boat on another craft and never returned. Three passengers tried to swim ashore as it drifted near the coast of southern Yemen, and two managed to alert rescuers. The third never made it.

We haz a bailout.

At least, that's what they're saying. Looks like a go.

We'll see how this plays out when the market opens tomorrow.

Draft of Rescue Plan Makes It Into Writing

"The era of Wall Street recklessness is over,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said of the bill, which promises more regulation as well as future limits to be imposed upon executive compensation.

Pelosi, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) each spoke in support of the bill that will be presented to the House for a vote sometime Monday.

Now, even some of the more reluctant House Republicans are supporting the rescue plan. Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.), Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), House Republican Whip, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) gave their support of the revised plan in a press conference Sunday evening.

“When we stood up and blocked the ‘so-called’ deal last week we did so because we thought taxpayers weren’t being protected,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) Sunday evening. “It’s a bill that does entail risk; taxpayer risk. But I think what you see is we’ve reduced the amount of taxpayer risk in this bill considerably.”

If passed by the House, the bill will then move to the Senate, which will likely consider it Wednesday, after the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah ends.

TEXT OF THE DRAFT


***

Syrian car bomb attack kills 17

At least 17 people have been killed by a car bomb on the outskirts of Syria's capital Damascus, officials have said.

The blast happened near buildings used by security forces at an intersection leading to an important Shia shrine.

Such attacks are rare in Syria, but the country has seen two major assassinations in the past year.

Many killed in Baghdad bombings

At least 32 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a string of bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, police have said.

Twelve died in a car-bomb attack in the south of the city, shortly before the Iftar meal, when Muslims break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

Two further bombings struck the Karrada district later in the evening, leaving at least 19 people dead and 70 wounded.

Another person died in a car bomb earlier in the day in western Baghdad.

Last week, the senior US military commander in the capital, Maj-Gen Jeffery Hammond, said it had so far witnessed the least violent Ramadan in three years. However, he cautioned that the past few days had seen a spike in attacks.

Europeans abducted on desert safari taken to Libya (Sept. 25)

CAIRO, Egypt: A group of kidnappers who abducted a 19-member European tour group during a desert safari moved their captives from Sudan to Libya on Thursday in a new complication to the week-old hostage ordeal, the Sudanese government said.

Sudanese troops "monitored" the kidnappers as they drove in three 4x4 vehicles from the Oweinat Mountain area in northwest Sudan and crossed the border into Libya, Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Youssef told The Associated Press.

The kidnappers, believed to be desert tribesmen, are demanding a ransom, reportedly of up to $15 million, and Germany has been negotiating with them, but there has been no word on the progress of these contacts.

Well, it's working for the pirates, why not on land?

Sudan: Six Alleged Kidnappers Killed in Desert Chase; Hostages Still Captive (Sept. 28)

KHARTOUM, Sudan — The Sudanese army says that it killed six alleged kidnappers in a high speed chase across the northern Sudanese desert, but the missing Europeans themselves are still being held in Chad.

Sudanese military spokesman, Sawarmy Khaled, has told The Associated Press that the army came upon a vehicle filled with eight armed men not far from the Egyptian border and gave chase when they refused to stop.

In the ensuing gunbattle, he said, six were killed. The remaining two said the kidnapped Europeans were being held in Chad.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stung in Bavarian polls

Bavaria's voters have ended over 50 years of conservative rule after regional elections on Sunday delivered a political blow to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose fragile ruling coalition relies on the Bavarian Christian Social Union.
...
The election result will trouble Miss Merkel in Berlin because it comes just one year before national elections and may signify growing popular discontent with the political establishment and Germany's Christian Democrats.

The vote also brought bad news for the Social Democrats, partners in Miss Merkel's "grand coalition" government, who scored a disappointing 19 per cent, a figure nearly unchanged from 19.6 per cent in 2003.

In line with national trends, minority parties, the environmentalist Greens, the pro-business Free Democrats and the independent Free Voters all made major gains.

There is an ugly trend forming in European politics...

Far Right storms election as Austrians back anti-EU rhetoric

The far Right has made a grand return in Austria, emerging from yesterday’s elections as the second biggest parliamentary block, according to preliminary results.

The two parties that campaigned on an anti-immigrant and anti-European Union ticket have captured about 29 per cent of the vote, pushing the country’s traditional conservative party into third place.

Heinz-Christian Strache and his Freedom Party, who were accused of xenophobia and waging an antiMuslim campaign, won 18 per cent — a rise of 7 per cent compared with the last elections. Mr Strache’s former mentor, Jörg Haider, won 11 per cent of the vote with his new party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria.
...
— Heinz-Christian Strache was born on June 12, 1969, in Vienna
— He trained as a dental technician, began his political career in 1991 as a Vienna
district councillor for the Freedom Party, and became a protégé of its leader, Jörg Haider
— He fell out with Mr Haider after a series of election defeats and took over the Freedom Party in 2005 Mr Strache has cultivated a youthful image. His website has pictures of him wearing a Che Guevara-style beret, with a rap song, Viva HC!, downloadable as a mobile phone ringtone
— Old photos resurfaced in 2007 showing him in paramilitary uniform apparently giving a neo-Nazi salute (above). He said that he was merely ordering three beers
— The Freedom Party demands a halt to immigration, a ministry for repatriating
foreigners and the return of powers ceded to the EU

He's also had contact with Vlaams Belang. Ugh.




***

Cops: Teen hired pair to kill his mom for money
Son allegedly sought cash to pay for breast implants for his girlfriend

FOUNTAIN, Colo. - A Colorado teenager hired men to kill his mother so he could use her money to get breast implants for his girlfriend, police said.

Nikita Lee Weis, 18, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, said Fountain Deputy Police Chief Mike Barnett.

His girlfriend, Sophia Nicole Alsept, and two men police said he hired, Juan Antonio Velez Gonzalez, 18, and Brandon Michael Soroka, 19, were arrested on the same charge.

Vale experiences delays in shipping iron ore

September 29, 2008

VALE do Rio Doce, the world's biggest iron ore producer, says it has almost no stockpiles of the steelmaking raw material at its ports, signalling possible delays in shipments.

While the company had made no decision to halt shipments to China, "we don't even have one tonne of stocks", chief executive officer Roger Agnelli said yesterday in Rio de Janeiro.

Negotiations with Chinese steelmakers over a possible price increase this year were proceeding "calmly", and any suggestion that the two sides had been arguing was "a lot of hot air", Mr Agnelli said.

Chinese steel makers, the world's biggest iron ore consumers, would not buy from Vale in the short term, the China Iron and Steel Association said on Saturday.

Where is U.S. agriculture headed?

I ran into a former colleague the other day, and he asked me an intriguing question: Where is U.S. agriculture headed. Flattered he would ask me, I was determined to not give him my true thoughts — I don’t know. I said something like, “Some of it will likely go offshore and some will struggle to cope with high input costs.”

In reality, I don’t have any evidence U.S. agriculture is moving to foreign countries. History leads us that way by looking at what happened to the steel industry and more recently the textile industry.

It seems every farmer I talk to these days is troubled by the huge amounts of money being handled, with little assurance these big dollars will ultimately mean any profit, much less big profit.

The one thing I can say with some assurance is that it costs a lot more money to farm these days — a lot more money. Handling more money generally equates with handling more risk. More risk is definitely something farmers don’t need.

I am fairly sure the commodity marketing system that has helped farmers cope with risk over the past half century or so is in big trouble. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, in fact, recently acknowledged their wheat futures contracts are broken.

Big money found agriculture at a time when it needed cash the most, but the price of such a huge cash infusion may turn out to be more than most farmers can afford. Large investment portfolios pumped billions of dollars into the U.S. commodity market and took millions in profit away, and are still doing it.

Russian Oil Reserve Could Affect Prices

Russia will work to influence global oil prices, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said Thursday.

Oil prices now depend on such conditions as production levels in the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, financial speculation and U.S. oil reserves, he said.

"We hold such a significant position in the high society of world oil that a Russian factor should appear and maybe not a single one," Shmatko told reporters in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, where he was accompanying President Dmitry Medvedev on a tour of the Far East. "We didn't work on this before. We want to formulate these approaches."

Russia currently accounts for 12.3 percent of the world's oil output, making it the biggest producer after Saudi Arabia.

The decision to seek leverage over prices, Shmatko said, was prompted by oil prices' "rollercoaster ride" in the past few months, when they reached an all-time record in July, lost one-third of their value in the following weeks and began climbing again recently.

As one tool, Russia could create a reserve of oil fields that can swiftly begin producing if necessary, Shmatko said. It could also change forecasts of its oil production as a way of affecting the price, he said.

That one was too good to pass up.


SEC scraps bank oversight program
SEC ends 'fundamentally flawed' program of voluntary oversight for Wall Street banks.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday it was ending a program of voluntary oversight for Wall Street investment banks that its chairman said clearly has not worked.

It was the latest shift in the regulatory landscape stemming from the financial crisis that has gripped the markets and thrown Washington into fevered negotiations over a $700 billion bailout plan.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox announced the agency's decision to end the program under which SEC examiners inspected the five biggest Wall Street banks: Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), Lehman Brothers (LEH, Fortune 500), Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) and Bear Stearns Cos.

The financial upheaval of the last six months has "made it absolutely clear that voluntary regulation does not work" for the bank supervision program, Cox said in a statement. The program "was fundamentally flawed from the beginning, because investment banks could opt in or out of supervision voluntarily," he said.



Wachovia Suitors May Delay Bidding After Dimon's Deal for WaMu

Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Wachovia Corp.'s suitors may use a template honed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon last week: Wait to see whether regulators will seize the bank, then buy the best assets and let the government sort out the rest, according to analysts.

Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Banco Santander SA are in talks with Wachovia, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. They're part of the same group that passed on a chance to buy Washington Mutual Inc., which the U.S. closed two days ago, leaving JPMorgan to buy WaMu for $1.9 billion, a fraction of its previous offer in March.

The bidders may try that tactic again at Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia following its 27 percent plunge in New York trading yesterday, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Egan-Jones Ratings Co. They may get help from regulators, who said the U.S. benefited from seizing and selling WaMu because the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. didn't have to tap its $45 billion insurance fund.




Britain to nationalize Bradford & Bingley: report

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will nationalize troubled mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley (BB.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the BBC reported on Saturday, but the government said discussions on the bank's future were still going on.

It would be the second British bank to be nationalized this year after Britain, buffeted by the global financial crisis, was forced to take Northern Rock into public ownership in February.
The credit crunch, sparked by losses on poor-quality U.S. home loans, has claimed a growing number of high-profile banking victims around the world.

The BBC said the decision to nationalize Bradford & Bingley, using legislation put through to deal with the Northern Rock crisis, would be announced on Sunday evening or early Monday.



Belgian, Dutch Officials Seek `Solution' for Fortis

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Discussions between European, Dutch and Belgian officials on the future of Fortis, Belgium's largest financial-services firm, carried into the evening as they sought a "solution'' for the beleaguered bank.

Dutch central bank chief Nout Wellink and Finance Minister Wouter Bos went to Brussels for talks with the Belgian government and regulators. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet met with Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme and Finance Minister Didier Reynders today.

Fortis fell a record 20 percent in Brussels trading two days ago on concern the firm would struggle to raise the 8.3 billion euros ($12.1 billion) it's seeking to bolster reserves. The bank said Sept. 26 its financial position is "solid,'' and replaced interim Chief Executive Officer Herman Verwilst with Filip Dierckx, who heads the banking unit. Managers and government officials are considering a possible sale of part or all of the bank, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.

The pirates were asking for a $35 million ransom for the Ukrainian ship:

Somali pirates demand 35 million dollars for 'tank' ship: official

But now they're dropping it to five:

Pirates' demand now $5M for weapons vessel

Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya Seafarers Association said while pirates initially asked for $35 million for the vessel's safe return, they lowered their demand significantly due to the secondhand nature of the weapons and the fact the vessel's crew is not from the United States, CNN reported Saturday.

Meanwhile, they've released an Egyptian vessel and a Malaysian ship today. Malaysia paid the ransom, and it's likely Egypt did too, but they're not admitting it.

Appease Iran?
By DANIEL PIPES

After Hitler, the policy of appeasing dictators - ridiculed by Winston Churchill as feeding a crocodile, hoping it will eat one last - appeared to be permanently discredited. Yet the policy has enjoyed some successes and remains a live temptation today in dealing with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Academics have long challenged the facile vilification of appeasement. Already in 1961, A.J.P. Taylor of Oxford justified Neville Chamberlain's efforts, while Christopher Layne of Texas A&M currently argues that Chamberlain "did the best that he could with the cards he was dealt." Daniel Treisman, a political scientist at UCLA, finds the common presumption against appeasement to be "far too strong," while his University of Florida colleague Ralph B.A. Dimuccio calls it "simplistic."

Neville Chamberlain mistakenly declared "peace in our time" on September 30, 1938. In perhaps the most convincing treatment of the pro-appeasement thesis, Paul M. Kennedy, a British historian teaching at Yale University, established that appeasement has a long and credible history. In his 1976 article, "The Tradition of Appeasement in British Foreign Policy, 1865-1939," Kennedy defined appeasement as a method of settling quarrels "by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and compromise," thereby avoiding the horrors of warfare. It is, he noted, an optimistic approach, presuming humans to be reasonable and peaceful.
...



Solar panels are new hot property for thieves

Glenda Hoffman has an answer for the thieves, should they choose to return to her home in Desert Hot Springs, California. "I have a shotgun right next to the bed and a .22 under my pillow."

Hoffman was the victim of a theft that one industry professional has dubbed "the crime of the future". Another observer has come up with the term "grand theft solar" to describe the spate of recent burglaries in sunny California.

In May Hoffman lost 16 solar panels from her roof in three separate burglaries, one while she slept below. Happily for Hoffman her insurers have agreed to pay the $95,000 (£48,000) cost of replacing the panels. But as energy prices soar, and solar power takes off - at least in California - so opportunistic thieves have turned to the lucrative, and complicated, business of dismantling solar panels.




Suspects seized at airport

BERLIN: German police have arrested two suspected terrorists on board a Dutch aeroplane, minutes before it was due to take off from Cologne-Bonn airport for Amsterdam.

A police spokesman said a Somali man aged 23 and a 24-year-old German born in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, were escorted off the KLM flight at 6.55 am (1455 Sydney time).

The two men had been under observation for several months. A search of their apartment had turned up farewell letters in which they declared their readiness to die in a jihad or holy war, the police spokesman said.




All Eyes on Kyle
The 11th Named Storm of the Season Likely to Strengthen, Could Hit New England

Parts of New England could be in for a beating if Tropical Storm Kyle stays on its current path.

Kyle, the 11th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, could become a Category 1 hurricane as early as Saturday, Dennis Feltgen, public affairs officer for the National Hurricane Center, said today.

ARRRRRRR! Avast ye, mateys!


Somali pirates hijack Greek ship with 19 crew members

NAIROBI, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Armed Somali pirates hijacked another Greek ship with 19 crew members off the coast of Somalia in the latest attacks along the world's most dangerous waters, a regional maritime official said on Sunday.

Andrew Mwangura, the coordinator of the East Africa Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP), said the vessel flying Bahamas MV CAPT, STEPHANOS was carrying coal when it was seized off the eastern coast of Somalia, the 15th such seizure by the pirates since July 20.




US Navy Fires Warning Shots Off Coast of Somalia

The U.S. Navy says a security team fired warning shots Wednesday at two small boats that tried to approach a naval supply ship off the coast of Somalia.

The Navy's Fifth Fleet says the shots were fired after a number of "defensive measures" were taken to deter the boats from approaching the USNS John Lenthall.

A naval statement says the shots landed about 50 meters from the closest boat and resulted in both small boats ending their pursuit. There were no reported casualties.



Pirates seize Ukrainian ship off Somalia coast: official

NAIROBI (AFP) — Pirates on Thursday seized a Ukrainian cargo ship off the coast of Somalia while it was en route to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, a maritime official told AFP.

The hijackers commandeered the Belize-flagged Faina to a yet unknown location, said Andrew Mwngura who runs the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme.

"It was sailing from the Baltics and was expected in Mombasa on September 27," he added. "As usual, the pirates were armed on a speedboat when they seized the ship, but we do not know where they have taken it."



Russia warship heads to Africa after pirate attack

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian warship on Friday rushed to intercept a Ukrainian vessel carrying 33 battle tanks and a hoard of ammunition that was seized by pirates off the Horn of Africa — a bold hijacking that again heightened fears about surging piracy and high-seas terrorism.

A U.S. warship is tracking the vessel but there has been no decision about intercepting it, U.S. Defense Department officials said.

"I think we're looking at the full range of options here," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
...
Ukrainian Defense Minister Yury Yekhanurov, meanwhile, said the hijacked vessel Faina was carrying 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks and a substantial quantity of ammunition and spare parts. He said the tanks were sold to Kenya in accordance with international law.

Ukrainian officials and an anti-piracy watchdog said 21 crew members were aboard the seized ship, including three Russians. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko ordered unspecified measures to free the crew, but it was unclear whether any of the former Soviet republic's naval vessels had been dispatched.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-72



Somalia is a bad place to be.

Getting food ships past Somalian pirates

HMCS Ville de Québec, NEAR SOMALIA - On the bridge of the HMCS Ville de Québec, Cmdr. Chris Dickinson keeps a watchful eye on his charge.
...
As the MV Golina, filled with food for Somalia's poor, approaches the port city of Mogadishu, he remains alert. The Canadian naval frigate gently rocks two miles off the coast. His crew scans for fast-moving skiffs that could launch a suicide attack; the ships' guns are armed and ready.

Until last month, Commander Dickinson's 47,000-ton frigate was stationed in the Mediterranean. His crew is trained to hunt subs. But at the request of the United Nation's World Food Program (WFP), his assignment now is to keep the pirates at bay. He shadows cargo ships full of grain and other supplies as they make the 510-mile journey from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Somalia.



Thousands of Somalis flee capital after fresh fighting this week – UN agency

25 September 2008 – At least 12,000 civilian residents of Mogadishu have fled their homes in the Somali capital since last weekend because of a surge in fighting between Islamist insurgents and Government forces backed by the Ethiopian military, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.

Half of the newly displaced have found shelter in different neighbourhoods within Mogadishu, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), while the remainder have escaped to the town of Afgooye, about 30 kilometres away.

Afgooye is already home to an estimated 350,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), mostly from Mogadishu, where the fighting between the Government forces and the Islamists has been particularly intense over the past year.

Honorary Ahmadinejad event criticized

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A scheduled New York event meant to honor Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is "obscene," Catholic League President Bill Donohue said Monday.
The religious leader called on his supporters to attend a rally Monday night in New York aimed at disrupting Thursday's Ramadan event, a Catholic League news release said.

"Catholics need to stand with their Jewish brothers and sisters in protesting this obscene event. Ahmadinejad is a menace to freedom-loving people the world over, and the sight of religious groups embracing him is nauseating," Donohue said. "The Catholic League is proud to take part in this rally and we encourage people of all religious groups to have a contingent represent them on Thursday evening." [You tell 'em!--Amanda]

The religious groups behind the honorary event at the Grand Hyatt Hotel are the Americans Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, Quaker United Nations Office, Religions for Peace and the World Council of Churches.

The rally was initially organized by Women International and the Jewish Action Alliance.




Leaders call for stronger action against world poverty

UNITED NATIONS, New York: World leaders pushed Thursday for stronger action to reduce global poverty as financial turmoil spreads and high food prices threaten to aggravate the problems of the poor.

Addressing world leaders at a summit meeting on poverty, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon of the United Nations called on countries to be bold and generous.

With sufficient funds and political will, the fight against poverty, hunger, disease and inequality could be won, he said.
...
Ban said this week that the fight against poverty could be won if rich countries provided about $72 billion a year.




Obama and McCain Pledge Action on Global Poverty and Disease, Says Global AIDS Alliance Fund

WASHINGTON, Sept 25, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Today at the Clinton Global Initiative, Senators Obama and McCain spoke about why Americans, even in the context of financial crisis, should back bold action to end global disease and expand access to primary education.

Each explained how aid was essential to strengthening American security and promised further action, though only Obama made clear funding commitments and set specific deadlines for success linked to the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals. [To the tune of almost $900 billion.]




Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe accuses Britain of genocide in UN

Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe has used an address to the United Nations general assembly to accuse Britain and America of genocide.

In an angry diatribe delivered to the assembly hall, the veteran African leader brushed off accusations he has badly damaged his country and blamed Western countries for Zimbabwe's problems.

"By the way, those who falsely accuse us of these violations are themselves international perpetrators of genocide, acts of aggression and mass destruction," Mr Mugabe said in his speech.

"The masses of innocent men, women and children who have perished in their thousands in Iraq surely demand retribution and vengeance. Who shall heed their cry?"



Doesn't that make you want to hold hands and sing "Kumbaya"?

In Europe, bank regulations haven't kept up with cross-border realities

PARIS: Major European banks have begun expanding across the Continent in recent years, amassing large pools of capital and customers. Yet bank regulation at the European Union level has hardly kept up.

Should one of the new European giants find itself on the verge of collapse or under threat, as has happened to some U.S. banks, it might be forced to scramble for help from a multitude of potential crisis managers, none with overarching authority.

"If, God forbid, we get to that point, the arrangements will prove inadequate," Richard Portes, professor of economics at the London Business School, said.



Nomura Rises After Buying Lehman in Asia, Europe

Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's biggest securities firm, rose in Tokyo after agreeing to pay less than a month's revenue for units of bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in Asia and Europe.

Nomura will pay a ``nominal'' amount for Lehman's investment banking and equities businesses in Europe, Nomura special adviser Sadeq Sayeed told reporters on a conference call yesterday. A day before, the company agreed to pay $225 million to take over Lehman's Asian-Pacific unit.



Mitsubishi UFJ Falls on Morgan Stanley Stake Purchase

Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's largest bank, fell in Tokyo trading after agreeing to acquire as much as 20 percent of Morgan Stanley for $8.4 billion.

Mitsubishi UFJ declined 1.2 percent to 887 yen at 10:20 a.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as the bank stepped up its U.S. expansion. Markets were closed in Japan yesterday for a holiday.



JPMorgan Buys WaMu's Deposits as Thrift Is Seized

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third- biggest U.S. bank by assets, agreed to pay $1.9 billion for the deposits of Washington Mutual Inc. after the thrift was seized by regulators in the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.

The U.S. government closed Seattle-based Washington Mutual amid customer withdrawals of $16.7 billion since Sept. 15, the Office of Thrift Supervision said in a statement. WaMu had ``insufficient liquidity'' and was in an ``unsound'' condition, the OTS said.



HSBC Cuts 1,100 Jobs in Wholesale Banking Division

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's largest bank by market value, cut 1,100 jobs in its global banking and markets division as the deepening financial crisis threatens to extend a decline in profit.

The reductions in the division's back-office operations amount to about 4 percent of HSBC's wholesale banking workforce, Hong Kong-based spokesman Gareth Hewett said in a phone interview. Global banking and markets includes corporate and investment banking, and markets operations.

HSBC is adding to the about 120,000 financial jobs lost worldwide since the global credit crisis began just over a year ago, leading to more than $520 billion of writedowns and credit losses. The London-based bank last month posted its steepest profit decline since 2001 on subprime mortgage losses.



Putin, Hugo Chávez plug `multi-polar world'

NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday to make relations with Latin America a top foreign policy priority, a pledge backed by the first Russian naval deployment to the Caribbean since the Cold War.

Putin greeted Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, on his second trip to Russia in just over two months, with offers to discuss further arms sales to Venezuela and possibly helping it to develop nuclear energy.

Chávez's visit takes place as a Russian naval squadron sails to Venezuela, across the Caribbean from the United States, in a pointed response to what the Kremlin has cast as threatening U.S. encroachment near its own borders.



The accelerating race to get oil and natural gas from the Arctic

BRUSSELS: Rising energy prices have made the expensive work of discovering and pumping oil and natural gas from such an unforgiving environment as the Arctic more feasible. So has the drastic retreat of Arctic ice cover in recent years, which facilitates drilling and delivery by ship to distant markets.

The result is an accelerating race to exploit the Arctic's potentially huge hydrocarbon resources.
Oil executives say areas of the Arctic like the Barents Sea could provide a new way for them to increase their reserves and keep supplies flowing to important nearby markets.

"The potential size of the resource base could make it emerge as Europe's new leading oil and gas province," said Helge Lund, the chief executive of StatoilHydro, the leading Norwegian producer of oil and natural gas.



Russian Railways seeks stake in Deutsche Bahn

BERLIN: Russian Railways, one of the largest railroad companies in the world, said Wednesday that it would submit a bid to buy up to 5 percent of Deutsche Bahn when the German state-owned railroad network is partly privatized this year.

"We are thinking of trying to obtain, approximately, a 5 percent stake," Vladimir Yakunin, president of Russian Railways, said in an interview here after he held talks with Deutsche Bahn executives. "For us, integration is an essential part of our strategy. Obtaining a stake in Deutsche Bahn's international public offering would be a good investment."

Under the terms of Deutsche Bahn's privatization, the German government will remain the sole owner of the railroad infrastructure, including the track, the stations and the energy supply, while 24.9 percent of the passenger and freight business will be sold to private investors, with the government retaining the remainder.



***

And on a silly note:

Petroleum exec says governor should cancel Georgia-Alabama football game to save gas

In an op-ed piece on Wednesday in the AJC, Tex Pitfield, president and CEO of Saraguay Petroleum in Atlanta, said Gov. Sonny Perdue ignored a warning from Pitfield to invoke gasoline rationing well before Hurricane Ike struck the Texas coast and its refineries.

Pitfield had another suggestion today.

In a radio interview, the petroleum company chief said he’d advise Perdue to cancel Saturday’s game Georgia-Alabama, to prevent the burning of the precious gasoline required to move a hundred thousand and more people into Athens and out again.

The business executive, obviously not a Perdue fan, also takes a shot at the governor for leaving on a trade mission to Europe on Saturday. (Which means he’ll miss a tremendous game.)

Barak: 'Shame Netanyahu said no to unity government'



Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak called Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to participate in an emergency government "a shame", adding that his party "will exhaust every opportunity to establish a stable government with the ability to function and achieve its goals."

Barak went on to say, "At this time Israel needs a national emergency government, not as a slogan but as a real national requirement. I was pleased to hear that Tzipi Livni, after being charged by the president with the task of assembling a government, also joined in the call for a national unity government."







Car plows into soldiers in Jerusalem; 19 hurt
Palestinian shot dead after ramming car into crowd of soldiers in Old City



JERUSALEM - A Palestinian rammed his car into a group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem on Monday, hours after Foreign Minster Tzipi Livni agreed to try to form a new government that can avert an election and forge a peace deal.


The man, who neighbors said lived in Jerusalem, was shot dead after injuring 15 of the soldiers and four others, under the walls of the Old City on a road that marks the dividing "Green Line" between Arab East Jerusalem and the Jewish west.







'J'lem terrorist was a Hamas member'



The terrorist who rammed his BMW into a group of soldiers at a central Jerusalem thoroughfare late Monday was a member of Hamas, according to the Palestinian Ma'an news agency.

Qassem Mughrabi, 19, from east Jerusalem's Jebl Mukaber, the same village that was home to the Mercaz Harav terrorist who killed eight students in March, wounded fifteen people before being shot dead by an off-duty IDF officer.


The assailant had no previous security record, police said Tuesday.


The 19-year-old had wanted to marry his cousin, and when she refused his offer, he decided to carry out a terror attack, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.





[Do I hear 'Dueling Banjos" in the background?--Amanda]









US report: Rise in violence against Messianic Jews and Christians



Violence against Christian evangelical and Messianic Jewish communities in Israel increased significantly during the period between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008, according to the US State Department's Annual Report on International Religious Freedom.


The report, released last week, put blame for the "tensions" on "certain Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities."


But except in one case, the report, which noted numerous incidents of discrimination or violence against Christian or Messianic Jewish communities or individuals, failed to prove that the perpetrators were Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox.

Israel ambassador to UN: General Assembly chief is an Israel hater

Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev on Thursday called the President of the UN General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann an "Israel hater" for having hugged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a vocal enemy of Israel.

Brockmann has incurred the wrath of the Israeli delegation before, when in his first speech as the president of the international body he said that "the greatest case failure of the United Nations is the lack of a Palestinian state."

Shalev voiced her outrage in an interview on Thursday, condemning Brockmann's gesture at the end of Ahmadinejad's address at the opening of the 63rd General Assembly on Tuesday, which was aggressive and anti-Israel.

Brockmann, a 75-year-old Catholic priest, was scheduled to dine alongside Ahmadinejad in a meal marking the end the Ramadan fast, organized by five American religious groups.

McCain 'Would Not Promote Israel-PA Talks'

(IsraelNN.com) A U.S. administration under John McCain would discourage Israeli-Syrian peace talks and refrain from actively engaging in the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process. That was the message delivered over the weekend by two McCain advisers – Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Richard Williamson, the Bush administration's special envoy to Sudan – during a retreat hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy at the Lansdowne Resort in rural Virginia.

Richard Danzig, a representative of Barack Obama, said the Democratic presidential candidate would take the opposite approach on both issues.

In an interview with the Atlantic magazine over the summer, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) insisted that in his presidency he would serve as the chief negotiator in the peace process. But at the retreat this weekend, Boot said pursuing a deal between Israel and the PA would not be a top priority in a McCain administration.

Boot called the Bush administration’s renewed efforts to promote Israeli-PA talks "a mistake." He also claimed Israel's talks with Syria betray the stake that the United States has invested in Lebanon's fragile democracy. "John McCain is not going to betray the lawfully elected government of Lebanon," Boot said.

Williamson said that "Israel should not be dictated to in dealing with Syria or dealing with Lebanon," but added: "Hopefully as friends they will listen to us."

Oregon boy, 12, invents solar cell to help solve country's energy crisis



BEAVERTON, Ore. – A new invention could revolutionize solar energy – and it was made by a 12-year-old in Beaverton.


Despite his age, William Yuan has already studied nuclear fusion and nanotechnology, and he is on his way to solving the energy crisis.

...

Encouraged by his Meadow Park Middle School science teacher, the 12-year-old developed a 3D solar cell.


"Regular solar cells are only 2D and only allow light interaction once," he said.


And his cell can absorb both visible and UV light.









Nigeria: Cholera Outbreak Kills 97 in North



Local government officials say cholera outbreaks across Katsina, Zamfara, Bauchi and Kano states in northern Nigeria have killed 97 people in the past two weeks, making it the worst outbreak in the north for several years, according to an official from National Primary Healthcare Agency (NPHA) in Abuja.

More than 60 people have died in Zamfara state in the past two weeks, according to Tukur Sani Jangebe, Zamfara's state commissioner for religious affairs.

"It is quite alarming and it is quite unusual for northern Nigeria. If up to 100 people have died from cholera in just two weeks, you can only imagine how many more are affected by the disease," an official from the government-run NPHA who requested anonymity, told IRIN.



Finnish college gunman kills 10

A gunman has killed 10 people at a college in the town of Kauhajoki in Finland before shooting himself and later dying in hospital.

Media reports named the gunman as Matti Juhani Saari, 22, a trainee chef at the vocational college.

The suspect posted a video of himself on the internet last week firing a gun.

As a result of this, police interviewed him on Monday but decided they did not have enough evidence to revoke his licence, the interior minister said.



Copycat fears spark panic among students in Finland

KAUHAJOKI, Finland (AP) -- Bomb threats and a flurry of menacing mobile phone messages sparked panic Thursday among students in Finland, as fears grew that copycat attacks would follow the nation's second school massacre in less than a year.

Police have linked the attacks carried out by Matti Saari (left) and Pekka-Eric Auvinen.

At least one school was evacuated, police questioned two young men about violent Internet postings and a 15-year-old boy was reportedly detained for sending threats to another school.



CERN says collider will have to wait until spring

GENEVA: Scientists will have to wait until spring to use the world's largest particle collider for groundbreaking research because previously announced repairs will run into the normal winter shutdown, the operators said Tuesday.




China’s Top Food Quality Official Resigns

SHANGHAI — The chief of China’s food and product quality agency was forced to resign Monday in a growing scandal over the country’s tainted milk supply, which has already sickened more than 50,000 infants and killed at least three children, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.



EU Bans Baby Food Imports From China Containing Milk Products

The European Union has banned imports of baby food that contains Chinese milk and is considering restrictions on other Chinese food products with powdered milk, as a tainted milk scandal in China takes on international proportions. Lisa Bryant has more from Paris.

The European Commission said in a statement it would ban all products for children that contained milk from China - regardless of how small the quantity. The European Union's executive arm also said authorities would test products coming from China that had more than 15 percent of milk powder.




Drought claims more of NSW

Expectations for this year's harvest in NSW now vary widely as drought now grips are wider area of the State.

Minister for Primary Industries Ian Macdonald says that some good rain has fallen in parts of central and northern NSW in recent days, farmers in the south continue to pray for the same good fortune.

Even so, the northen and central falls have done little to impact the latest drought figures, which have seen the area of NSW in drought increase from 66.2pc to 71.6pc.



Militants kidnap 155 workers building Afghan base

KABUL, Afghanistan: Militants stopped three buses carrying Afghan laborers through western Afghanistan and kidnapped everyone on board — around 155 people, officials said Monday.

The laborers were working on a military base for the Afghan army in the city of Farah, said Gov. Younis Rasouli. He said 156 Afghans were seized on Sunday, while Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said 155 were taken.

No one immediately claimed responsibility. Bashary said he knew of no demands from the kidnappers.



Death toll rises in Orissa floods

At least 17 people have been killed by floods triggered by monsoon rains in India's eastern state of Orissa.

Some 2.4 million people in Orissa have been affected, officials say. More than 200,000 people have been evacuated from the worst-hit areas to relief camps.

Nearly 1,850 villages are under water, in the worst floods in 50 years.




Myanmar government frees 9,000 prisoners

YANGON, Myanmar: The military government of Myanmar said it had freed 9,002 prisoners Tuesday, including the longest-serving political prisoner, Win Tin, and about six other members of the opposition.

The vast majority of those released appeared to have been convicted of crimes not related to political activity, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Myanmar, a group based in neighboring Thailand.



North Korea ousts U.N. nuclear inspectors

VIENNA -- North Korea kicked out U.N. weapons inspectors from a plant that previously produced weapons-grade plutonium and notified the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would restart operations as early as next week, the nuclear watchdog said Wednesday.

The moves mean that North Korea could be reprocessing plutonium in a matter of months.

They also kill what little hope remained that the Bush administration could complete a denuclearization deal in the president's remaining months in office. Although the government in Pyongyang has been warning for weeks that it would restart nuclear activities, the speed and extent of its moves have been discouraging to Washington.



Family barred from burying their dead stepfather on a Saturday ... because he isn't a Muslim

The family of a 75-year-old man have been refused permission to bury him on a Saturday because he is not a Muslim.

Harold Lemaire died last week and his family wanted the service to be held this Saturday to make it easier for far-flung relatives to attend.

But their plans were scuppered after the council said only Muslim and Jewish funerals are allowed on weekends and bank holidays.

Sheffield City Council offers the 'extended service' to Jews and Muslims because their faith and traditions require the dead to be buried as soon as possible.

But as Jews cannot bury their dead on the Sabbath – from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday – it means that effectively only Muslims can use the service.



Spanish soldier killed in car bombing

MADRID: A soldier was killed early Monday in a car bombing for which the authorities blamed the Basque separatist group ETA. It was the third attack in northern Spain within 24 hours, Interior Ministry officials said.

The bomb exploded around 1 a.m. outside a military residence in the town of Santoña in northern Cantabria Province. The soldier, Luis Conde de la Cruz, 46, was killed as the police evacuated the residence after receiving a phone call in the name of ETA warning of the attack, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Six people were wounded, including an army captain and a 70-year-old woman who was passing by the residence. They were reported to be in serious but stable condition.

Less than 24 hours before, a 100-kilogram, or 220-pound, bomb exploded outside the police headquarters in the Basque town of Ondarroa, wounding 10 people, and another outside a savings bank in the Basque city Vitoria, destroying the building's facade.



Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon.

The former U.S. vice president, whose climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Academy Award, told a philanthropic meeting in New York City that "the world has lost ground to the climate crisis."

"If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration," Gore told the Clinton Global Initiative gathering to loud applause.


[Maybe someone can go all 'civil disobedience' on his energy-hog private jet and mansion.--Amanda]

Journal of the United Nations
Programme of meetings and agenda
(pdf)

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http://www.un.org/news/


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Upheaval on Wall St. Stirs Anger in the U.N.

UNITED NATIONS — Wall Street and the Bush administration’s record of financial oversight came under attack at the United Nations on Tuesday, with one world leader after another saying that market turmoil in the United States threatened the global economy.
...
“The global financial crisis endangers all our work,” said the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who used his opening remarks at the General Assembly to question the reliance on free markets. “We need a new understanding on business ethics and governance, with more compassion and less uncritical faith in the ‘magic’ of markets.”

President Bush, making his eighth and last address to the United Nations, with which he has had a troubled relationship, sought to reassure world leaders that his administration was taking “bold steps” to stanch the economic crisis in the United States, which, he said, “would have a devastating effect on other economies around the world.”

In other words, more socialism! Never fear, comrade, the government will protect us from ourselves!




Ahmadinejad: 'American empire' nearing its end

(CNN) -- In a blistering speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed "a few bullying powers" for creating the world's problems and said the "American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road."

At the United Nations, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said countries are turning their backs on "bullying powers."

And while he insisted Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful, Ahmadinejad blamed the same powers for seeking to hinder it "by exerting political and economic pressures on Iran, and threatening and pressuring" the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Those powers, meanwhile, are building or maintaining nuclear stockpiles themselves, unchecked by anyone, he said.

As Ahmadinejad spoke, the only person at the United States table was a note-taker; no U.S. diplomat was present. When President Bush spoke earlier Tuesday, however, Ahmadinejad was in the room.

Bolton on Ahmadinejad's U.N. Address

COLMES: The controversy with Ahmadinejad — the President Bush, today, also said — President Bush, speaking at the U.N., said the United Nations and other multi-lateral organizations are needed more urgently than ever now.
Do you agree with that?

BOLTON: Not necessarily. I mean I think that was kind of a gratuitous line for the crowd there in the general assembly hall. Much more pertinent was what the president said about — to the assembled foreign ministers and heads of state that you can't just pass resolutions about terrorism without trying to do something to prevent the terrorism from happening in the first place.

That's a plea that will fall on deaf ears up there. I can tell you that.

COLMES: Despite that you're a former U.N. ambassador, you don't agree with the president's statement of how urgently that organization is now needed — a place where you can actually or try to — if you use it correctly — have a dialogue with people like your enemies, like five former secretaries of states said we should have which is to talk to Iran?

BOLTON: You know you can ask yourself — and we've got plenty of time to wait for the answer — what exactly the United Nations and the Security Council, in particular, has done to stop terrorism.

They can't even agree on what a definition of terrorism is. It's a form of gridlock in the organization that's not at all helpful to the United States.

Russia Refuses to Discuss Imposing More UN Sanctions on Iran

Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Russia is refusing to discuss further United Nations sanctions to block Iran's nuclear ambitions, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a sign of continuing acrimony with the U.S. over last month's war in Georgia.

Russia pulled out of a planned meeting on Iran tomorrow in New York with the foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Germany and the U.S., and Lavrov said the subject of sanctions didn't come up in a meeting he had late today in New York with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Lavrov, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, said further high-level talks on Iran wouldn't take place until "some time down the road.'' He said it would "take some time'' for Russia to calm down from the tensions with the U.S. over the Bush administration's support for Georgia.

Georgia is just an excuse, IMO. Russia's got some really nice oil-for-arms deals going, and Iran is among them. Speaking of...


Russia drone shot down, Georgia says

Georgia says it has shot down a Russian reconnaissance drone over Georgian territory, just south of the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

The drone was brought down on Monday morning (local time) near the town of Gori, some 30km from the de facto border with South Ossetia, Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.

"It was flying over the territory between the villages of Khurvaleti and Tsitelutani," he said. "We believe it was patrolling the territory where the Baku-Supsa [oil] pipeline runs."

Russia engages in 'gangland' diplomacy as it sends warship to the Caribbean

Russia flexed its muscles in America’s backyard yesterday as it sent one of its largest warships to join military exercises in the Caribbean. The nuclear-powered flagship Peter the Great set off for Venezuela with the submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels in the first Russian naval mission in Latin America since the end of the Cold War.

“The St Andrew flag, the flag of the Russian Navy, is confidently returning to the world oceans,” Igor Dygalo, a spokesman for the Russian Navy, said. He declined to comment on Russian newspaper reports that nuclear submarines were also part of the expedition.

The voyage to join the Venezuelan Navy for manoeuvres came only days after Russian strategic nuclear bombers made their first visit to the country. Hugo Chávez, the President, said then that the arrival of the strike force was a warning to the US. The vehemently antiAmerican Venezuelan leader is due to visit Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian President, in Moscow this week as part of a tour that includes visits to Cuba and China.