Markets are up, at least for now: The Dow was up more than 100 points at open, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq following suit, up about 11 and 13 points, respectively, MarketWatch reports. An upbeat report on retail sales no doubt prodded stocks upward: July sales rose a seasonally…
Continue reading …TEPCO is constructing an airtight polyester tent measuring 177 feet tall and 154 feet in length to cover one of the worst-hit reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, hoping the tent will stop leaked radioactive materials from spreading and prevent possible future leaks, reports the AP . Unsafe radiation…
Continue reading …Most inmates are trying to get out of prison, but authorities say they caught a California parolee trying to sneak back in. Marvin Ussery was spotted late Wednesday night scaling the 7-foot tall, barbed wire-topped fence that encircles a large wooded area behind the California State Prison in Sacramento, a…
Continue reading …US Rep. Tom Graves is a Tea Party favorite and has argued for fiscal responsibility in Washington. But according to his attorney, he should not be held responsible for defaulting on a $2.2 million loan because the bank should never have issued it to him in the first place….
Continue reading …Following embarrassing reports of fake Apple Stores in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, city officials decided to track down all the shops improperly using Apple brands and logos—and discovered 22 of them, reports the BBC . The shops were ordered to stop using Apple’s logo, as local law prohibits…
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Russian PM ‘discovers’ two amphorae in shallow waters on the floor of the Black Sea in latest stage of televised heroics When a scuba-diving Vladimir Putin found two ancient Greek urns on the floor of the Black Sea this week, it seemed a startling discovery. In his latest spurt of televised heroics, the Russian prime minister raised a triumphant thumb as he circled the pair of amphorae in shallow waters off the Taman peninsula near Ukraine. The find came to “everyone’s utter surprise”, claimed the slavishly devotional Russia Today and other state-controlled TV channels. Once on dry land, Putin posed in his wetsuit with a jug in each hand. But independent media and Russia’s lively blogosphere are now ridiculing the incident, in a sign of increasing weariness of Putin’s macho photo ops – such as bare-chested fishing, piloting a “water bomber” over forest fires and diving to the bottom of lake Baikal in a mini-submarine. Critics said Putin’s pots were suspiciously unmossy and were probably planted specially for him to discover. “Diving in the Taman gulf, the Russian prime minister immediately found two amphorae that had been waiting for him since the 6th century AD at a depth of two metres,” wrote the Novaya Gazeta newspaper in an editorial dripping with sarcasm. “He was lucky: in the same place, over the last two years archaeologists and divers of the Russian Academy of Sciences managed to find only a few pottery shards.” Putin’s visit was meant to highlight the work of Russian scientists exploring the remains of an ancient Greek city, Phanagoria, sometimes called “Russia’s Atlantis”. The site is not far from Sochi, the Black Sea resort that will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, and authorities hope to develop its tourism potential. Yet critics saw the dive as another farcical stunt designed to boost Putin’s image before elections in December and March. “We have become witnesses of a remake of The Brilliant Hand and the famous fishing scene at the white cliff,” said radio host Anton Orekh, referring to a scene from a Soviet film in which a diver attaches fish to an angler’s hook in order to simulate a plentiful catch. Russia Vladimir Putin Tom Parfitt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …European markets are up today following the decision by four countries to ban short-selling of some stocks. After stumbling this morning, London’s FTSE 100, Frankfurt’s Dax, and Paris’ Cac rose between 1.5% and 2.5%, the BBC reports. The last major Western short-selling ban came in the US and…
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Two people killed as government forces launch raid on country’s second-largest city Syria’s uprising spread into the country’s commercial hub of Aleppo today, where two people died during rare government raids, which also saw at least 13 protesters killed in other towns and cities. The foray into Aleppo, which remains a stronghold of the regime, came as observers outside Syria began to question whether five months of violence and implacable defiance had now reached a tipping point for Bashar al-Assad and the ruling Ba’ath party. The mood in the country’s second-largest city has long been considered a key barometer of the regime’s standing inside the country it has ruled with ruthless control for more than four decades. “If [Aleppo] turns, the Assads have lost Damascus,” said one western official. “It is very important to them. It is the only part of the country where the economy has remained relatively resolute.” Across the country, security forces today were widely reported to have opened fire near people as they emerged from mosques and public gathering places, in a bid to deny them a chance to organise after weekly prayers. The Muslim prayer day of Friday has become the most volatile day of each week, since the uprising began in March – and this was no different, with demonstrators turning out in large numbers in many cities. “In many places they started to shoot and use teargas the moment prayer ended,” said Razan Zeitouneh, a lawyer and activist based in Damascus, from where she monitors the protest movement. “We noticed they used gunfire everywhere, as well as thugs with batons in many places.” Deir Ezzor, in the north-east of the country, was under siege for a third consecutive day, as were the battered cities of Homs and Hama along the western border with Lebanon. The regime regards all three predominantly Sunni Muslim towns as hostile and continues to claim that foreign-backed extremists inside them are driving ever-escalating violence. Aleppo is also a largely Sunni city, with a sizeable Christian minority, but its residents are mainly middle-class, with strong links to Turkey and considered to be more invested in the ruling Allawite sect. “There were protests today in the rural areas but also in at least three central neighbourhoods, which is new,” said one man who lives near the Aleppo district of Sakhour. “The one in Sakhour was 1,000 people at most but there is lots of security in Aleppo so this is a good size.” “Unrest has been growing in Aleppo during Ramadan because more people are going to prayers and can gather to protest,” said a second activist in Aleppo. “Then the increased violence here and in other cities has made people angrier, too. Opposition is slowly increasing here.” At least 257 people have been killed nationwide during the past 11 days, which has seen a renewed push by the military to crush anti-regime protests. Dissent also continues to mount in the international community, which has struggled to counter a regime that shows little sign of withdrawing its military from civilian areas, despite months of increasingly vehement criticism. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton intensified calls for an economic boycott of Syria, urging countries to “get on the right side of history” and stop buying oil from and selling weapons to regime figures. Russia and China have continued to stand alongside their ally, but the Arab League this week rounded on Damascus and tensions sharply increased with Saudi Arabia and Turkey. One western official in Beirut said a point of no return for Mr Assad had drawn nearer this week, with the embattled autocrat unable to convince friend or foe that he had a solution for the instability that threatens to end the uncontested four-decade rule of the Assad clan. During that time, Syria has become entrenched as a strategic key to the region’s fortunes and regional and western observers increasingly fear a drastic increase in volatility throughout the Middle East if Mr Assad were to fall. “Syria has networks and influence on all of its borders,” said a second diplomat in Beirut. “This is where they have leverage – in uncertainty. As the regime continues down this misguided path, things have a very real risk of going badly for many of its neighbours.” Nour Ali is the pseudonym of a journalist based in Damascus Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Nour Ali guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Just as overly generous property appraisals fueled a bubble that led to the housing bust, now overly stingy appraisals are keeping the American economy in the doldrums, reports the Wall Street Journal . The problem is causing increasing disputes over valuations, with sale cancelations jumping to 16% in June from 9%…
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Rick Perry is to join former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in seeking the nomination to take on Barack Obama The Republican White House race is shaping up as a contest between two of the party’s heavyweights, Texas governor Rick Perry and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Perry, who has been labelled “Bush on steroids”, is to formally announce he is standing on Saturday at a conservative conference in Charleston, while Romney emerged unscathed from a debate of the presidential candidates in Iowa on Thursday night. The two are likely to leave the rest of the crowded field behind. The debate, which was lacklustre apart from a series of personal jibes early on, confirmed the status as stragglers of candidates such as businessman Herman Cain, former senator Rick Santorum, and former governor of Utah Jon Huntsman. Perry’s announcement comes in the middle of the busiest four days in the Republican calendar so far, with all the candidates concentrated in Iowa, where the first of the party caucuses is scheduled for February. The eight declared candidates, plus Perry, are seeking the Republican nomination to take on Barack Obama as he looks for a second White House term next November. Perry did not take part in the debate in Ames, Iowa, on Thursday because he is not yet officially a candidate, but he is scheduled to visit the state on Sunday. With the skirmishing almost over and the contest becoming serious, the only major question left is whether former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin will join the race. Palin kept speculation alive with an email to supporters saying she would put in an appearance at the Iowa state fair, an agricultural show where the candidates were scheduled to make stump speeches throughout Friday. Republicans in Iowa expressed resentment about the timing of Perry’s announcement, which threatens to overshadow party events in the state this weekend. A straw poll of candidates, described by the organisers as the most important event in the Republican nomination calendar outside of an election year, is to be held on Saturday night. But Perry supporters in Iowa insisted the timing was not deliberately disruptive and that Saturday was the earliest he could have made the announcement. Bob Schuman, a Perry supporter speaking on his behalf in the spin room after the debate, said Perry had said he would not make his announcement until after an evangelical prayer rally in Houston last Saturday and had stuck to that promise. Although Perry was not in the debate, Schuman, in the spin room under a placard “Americans for Rick Perry”, attracted as much media attention as representatives of the other candidates and even some of the candidates themselves. Asked how Perry, who makes much of a record of job growth in Texas compared with the national unemployment rate of 9.1%, would campaign against Obama if he won the Republican nomination, he said: “Jobs versus no jobs.” But Obama’s campaign adviser, David Axelrod, interviewed by ABC, challenged Perry’s performance as governor. “When you examine the entire record, what’s happened to education in that state, what’s happened to health care in that state, it’s a record of decimation not of progress,” Axelrod said. Reviewing the debate, Schuman said: “No one really jumped out. Romney has made a decision to play safe but he can’t keep doing that.” He looked forward to the next debate, in California in September, when Perry will be on the stage with the other candidates. “It will be very different next time,” Schuman said. Robert Haus, a veteran political campaigner in Iowa, who helped run the failed campaign of actor and Republican Fred Thompson in 2008, has to remain neutral until after this weekend because he is organising the straw poll. But, asked about Perry, he was enthusiastic. “Perry is a candidate that can bridge the differences in the Republican party. He has a strong record on jobs in Texas and is deeply religious,” Haus said, after a meeting of the right-wing Heritage group in Ames. “He can calm any angry room inside the Republican party.” Iowa, though a small state whose demographics, mainly white, are not typical of the US as a whole, plays a pivotal role in US politics as traditionally the first state to vote in either caucuses or primaries. A good showing can sink a campaign or propel a candidate from obscurity to frontrunner status. The straw poll tonight, though invested with huge importance by some of the candidates, has with hindsight proved to be a poor indicator of the eventual result in Iowa. The liveliest parts of the two-hour debate in Ames were feisty exchanges between Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who is close to the Tea Party movement, and the former governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, a dull campaigner who has so far failed to make much of an impression. Needing to win or at least achieve a second or third place in the straw poll, Pawlenty denigrated the record in Congress of Bachmann, who is the frontrunner in polls in Iowa. Adopting a patronising tone, he said Bachmann had done little in her five years in Congress. “She has done some wonderful things in her life but it is an indisputable fact that her record of accomplishment and results is non-existent,” he said. But he picked on the wrong candidate. Bachmann came back recalling his record in office as governor on health, energy and trade. “That sounds a lot more like Barack Obama’s record,” she said. Although Bachmann appeared flustered and at one point even disappeared briefly from the stage, with the television anchor telling viewers that one of the debate candidates was missing, Pawlenty repeatedly fluffed his prepared lines. Afterwards, in the spin-room, Nick Ayers, Pawlenty’s campaign manager, accused Bachmann of starting the fight, claiming she had gone along to the debate with “a pre-planned assault full of misstatements and factual inaccuracies”. Former governor of Utah Huntsman made his debate debut. He has struggled in the polls, too close to the centre for many conservatives and also, unforgivable for many Republicans, he worked in the Obama administration as ambassador to China. But his opening answer was poor. Asked for a detailed plan for tackling the economy, he said limply: “It is coming.” Rick Perry Mitt Romney Republican presidential nomination 2012 United States Republicans Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
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