Investors should brace themselves for a prolonged period of market turmoil, Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, said yesterday as he held emergency meetings with the Chancellor and the French Finance Minister. Mr Paulson flew to London to discuss the financial crisis with Alistair Darling as markets remained in the grip of anxieties over the continuing toll from the global credit squeeze. Speaking after talks with his counterparts in France and Britain, Mr Paulson insisted that the global economy remained strong despite the seizures in interbank lending, but admitted that the American economy would take a knock from the turmoil. After meeting Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, Mr Paulson said: ‘It will take a while to work through the turbulence in capital markets.’ Mr Paulson acknowledged that bad lending practices were to blame for the present financial crisis, which has been triggered by the high number of American homeowners falling into arrears on their mortgages. However, he added that ‘the whole world, including the US, has benefited from . . . credit availability’. Ms Lagarde had called for new rules to prevent a repeat of the credit turmoil, but Mr Paulson argued that […]
The number of times that private security contractors working for the U.S. military fired warning or deadly shots at Iraqis nearly doubled during the past year, according to the U.S. military command in Iraq. The records from Multi-National Force-Iraq illustrate the expanding role of private contractors in Iraq and highlight concerns about the growing reliance on civilian security workers who operate in a sometimes ambiguous legal area. In the year ending May 2007, there were 207 reported incidents of private contractors firing shots, up from 115 during the same period the year prior, according to the Multi-National Force-Iraq. The incidents resulted in four deaths of Iraqis in separate shootings. The records track incidents in which warning or deadly shots are fired at people or motorists who appear threatening. Military officials don’t know why shooting incidents increased, said Capt. Michael Greenberger, who released the data. FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iraq | US military | Multi-National Force The higher numbers seem to follow the increased use of private security contractors to protect U.S. supply convoys. Contractors protect more than 500 convoys per month, compared with about 200 to 300 a month two years ago, U.S. military records […]
LOMITA, Calif. — Enterovirus, a common pathogen that can cause acute respiratory or gastrointestinal infections, may be a factor in chronic fatigue syndrome, according to researchers here. Action Points * Explain to interested patients that this study suggested a link between a common viral infection and chronic fatigue syndrome but the finding requires confirmation. * Explain to patients that no microbiologic cause of chronic fatigue syndrome has been established definitively. Eighty-two percent of stomach biopsy samples from 165 chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients tested positive for enterovirus infection versus 7% of samples from controls (P
It was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way. At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames. Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea. The Israeli government was not saying. ‘The security sources and IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] soldiers are demonstrating unusual courage,’ said Ehud Olmert, the prime minister. ‘We naturally cannot always show the public our cards.’ Related Links * A tale of two dictatorships: The links between North Korea and Syria The Syrians were also keeping mum. ‘I cannot reveal the details,’ said Farouk al-Sharaa, the vice-president. ‘All I can […]
US house prices are likely to fall significantly from their present levels, Alan Greenspan has told the Financial Times, admitting that there was a bubble in the US housing market. In an interview ahead of the release on Monday of his widely-anticipated memoirs, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve said the decline in house prices ‘is going to be larger than most people expect’. But Mr Greenspan said that his successors at the Fed – who meet on Tuesday to set interest rates – would have to be careful not to ease rates too aggressively, because the risk of an ‘inflationary resurgence’ was greater now than when he was Fed chief. Mr Greenspan said he would expect ‘as a minimum, large single-digit’ percentage declines in US house prices from peak to trough and added that he would not be surprised if the fall was ‘in double digits’. Fed expected to cut rates The US Federal Reserve is expected to ease monetary policy this week, with its main interest rate expected to be cut by up to half a point on Tuesday. Economists differ about whether the […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
