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Monday, 8 February 2010

Google Ad In Super Bowl - Search On... -

Watching - Google Ad In Super Bowl - Search On... -

Tim Geithner says U.S. is in no danger of losing its Aaa debt rating even though the Obama predicted a $1.6 T deficit in 2010

Reading - Tim Geithner says U.S. is in no danger of losing its Aaa debt rating even though the Obama predicted a $1.6 T deficit in 2010

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. is in no danger of losing its Aaa debt rating even though the Obama administration has predicted a $1.6 trillion budget deficit in 2010.

“Absolutely not,” Geithner said, when asked in an ABC News interview broadcast yesterday whether a downgrade is a concern. “That will never happen to this country.”

Geithner said investors around the world turn to U.S. Treasury securities and dollar-denominated assets whenever they are worried about global stability. That reflects “basic confidence” in the U.S. and its ability to bounce back from the global recession, he said.

Moody’s Investors Service Inc. last week said the U.S. government’s bond rating will come under pressure in the future unless additional measures are taken to reduce budget deficits projected for the next decade.

The U.S. plans to rein in the deficit once the labor market recovers, Geithner said. In the short run, that means focusing on ways to “make sure that this economy is growing again,” he said. The administration says the deficit will shrink over the next four years as more Americans find jobs and the economy accelerates.

“This is within our capacity to do,” Geithner said.

The Obama administration has proposed additional tax cuts and small-business assistance in its bid to jumpstart the U.S. economy. Geithner and other officials have said it’s too soon to start cutting spending because ending stimulus programs now could derail the economy.

‘Very Unlikely’

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, who was first deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund from 1994 to 2001, said today he agreed with Geithner’s assessment that the U.S. wasn’t in danger of losing its Aaa debt rating.

“That’s very unlikely,” Fischer said in an interview in Sydney, where he was attending a symposium organized by the Reserve Bank of Australia to celebrate its 50th anniversary. “I don’t know who else would be the gold standard at this stage.”

Geithner said the risk of a “double dip” recession in the U.S. has declined, particularly given recent reports showing the economy grew at a 5.7 percent pace in the fourth quarter of last year.

“We have much, much lower risk of that today than at any time over the last 12 months or so,” Geithner said. “We are beginning the process of healing.”

Helping Homeowners

Geithner defended the Obama administration’s efforts to help homeowners avoid foreclosure through subsidized mortgage modifications. When asked why few homeowners have so far received permanent reworked loans, the Treasury chief responded that the administration is “absolutely committed” to following through on its promises.

“For eligible Americans -- they’re getting permanent modifications that substantially lower their monthly payment,” he said. “For the average household that translates into hundreds and hundreds of dollars every month for them.”

Geithner taped the interview before heading to Iqaluit, in Canada’s northern territory of Nunavut, for a meeting with finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial nations. He told ABC that he wasn’t worried that tighter financial regulation would put U.S. banks at an international disadvantage.

“I’m very confident we can make sure that we are working very closely to raise global standards around the world so we have a level playing field,” Geithner said.

A body was found inside a wheel well of a Delta Air Lines plane after it landed in Tokyo from New York -

Reading - A body was found inside a wheel well of a Delta Air Lines plane after it landed in Tokyo from New York -

A body was found inside a wheel well of a Delta Air Lines plane after it landed in Tokyo from New York, and Japanese authorities Monday were trying to identify the man.

The body of the apparent stowaway was clad only in a long-sleeved, plaid shirt and jeans, police at Narita International Airport said.

A mechanic found the body lying inside the landing gear compartment of the Boeing 777-200 during maintenance after Delta Flight 59 landed Sunday night, police official Zenjiro Watanabe said.

"All we know is that he must have sneaked in just before departure, because it is impossible for him to enter the storage during flight," Watanabe said. Police are trying to identify the man.

He had no visible injuries except frostbite and may have died of hypothermia, Watanabe said. The temperature in that part of the plane falls to about minus 58 degrees during the long flight.

Police were investigating the case both as an accident and a possible crime, Watanabe said.

Delta officials were not immediately available for comment.

Similar cases have occurred in the past. In 2007, a man was found dead in the nose gear wheel well on a United Airlines flight that arrived in San Francisco from Shanghai. He, too, was thought to be a stowaway.

Jay Leno and David Letterman Super Bowl commercial -

Watching - Jay Leno and David Letterman Super Bowl commercial -

Sunday, 7 February 2010

U.S. soldier 'waterboarded his own daughter, 4, because she couldn't recite alphabet' -

Reading - U.S. soldier 'waterboarded his own daughter, 4, because she couldn't recite alphabet' -

A soldier waterboarded his four-year-old daughter because she was unable to recite her alphabet.

Joshua Tabor admitted to police he had used the CIA torture technique because he was so angry.

As his daughter 'squirmed' to get away, Tabor said he submerged her face three or four times until the water was lapping around her forehead and jawline.

Tabor, 27, who had won custody of his daughter only four weeks earlier, admitted choosing the punishment because the girl was terrified of water.

The practice of waterboarding was used by the CIA to break Al Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Detainees had water poured over their face until they feared they would drown. President Barack Obama has since outlawed the practice.

Tabor, a soldier at the Lewis-McChord base in Tacoma, Washington, was arrested after being seen walking around his neighbourhood wearing a Kevlar military helmet and threatening to break windows.

Police discovered the alleged waterboarding when they went to his home in the Tacoma suburb of Yelm and spoke to his girlfriend.

She told them about the alleged torture and the terrified girl was found hiding in a closet, with bruising on her back and scratch marks on her neck and throat.

Asked how she got the bruises, the girl is said to have replied: 'Daddy did it.'

During a police interview Tabor allegedly admitted grabbing his daughter, placing her on the kitchen counter and submerging her face into a bowl of water.

Sergeant Rob Carlson said the punishment was carried out because the girl would not recite the alphabet.

Police have not revealed Tabor's military service, but his base is home to units that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tabor has been charged with assault and ordered to remain on his base and have no contact with his daughter or girlfriend, who has not been named. He is due to appear in court this week.

The girl has been taken into care. Her natural mother lives in Kansas but Tabor had been granted custody by a court.

School bombing exposes Obama’s secret war inside Pakistan - 3 American soldiers among the dead INSIDE - Pakistan

Reading - School bombing exposes Obama’s secret war inside Pakistan - 3 American soldiers among the dead INSIDE - Pakistan

THE discovery of three American soldiers among the dead in a suicide bombing at the opening of a girls’ school in the northwestern Pakistan town of Dir last week reignited the fears of many Pakistanis that Washington was set on invading their country.

Barack Obama has banned the Bush-era term “war on terror” and dithered about sending extra troops to Afghanistan, but across the border in Pakistan, the US president has dramatically stepped up the covert war against Islamic extremists.

US airstrikes in Pakistan, launched from unmanned drones, are now averaging three a week, triple the number last year. “We're quietly seeing a geographical shift,” an intelligence officer said.

For the past month drones have pounded the tribal region of North Waziristan in apparent retaliation for the murder of seven CIA officers in Afghanistan by a Jordanian suicide bomber working with the Pakistani Taliban.

Last week America launched its first multiple drone attack, according to Pakistani security officials. Eighteen missiles were fired from eight unmanned aircraft in Dattakhel village, killing 16 people.

The discovery of the dead US soldiers revealed that America’s shadowy war in Pakistan not only involves drones but also small cadres of special operations soldiers.

Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, insisted that US troops were in Pakistan only to provide counter-insurgency training for the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force operating in the tribal areas.

Other sources said there were about 200 US military inside the country. “I’m not sure you could just call it training,” one official said. “They are hardly behind the wire if they are on trips to schools in Dir.”

The three US soldiers, who have been described variously as special operations forces and civil affairs troops, were killed when their convoy was bombed as it travelled to the re-opening of the school. It had been rebuilt with US aid after being bombed by the Taliban last year.

Three schoolgirls, two villagers and a Pakistani soldier were also killed in the attack, for which the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility. More than 100 were wounded, mostly schoolgirls.

It was officially reported that the device was a remote-controlled bomb. It has now emerged that a suicide bomber rammed into the vehicle carrying the Americans. This suggests the bomber had inside information. “This attack was too perfect: they lay in wait for the convoy to pass and knew exactly which vehicle to hit,” a US military officer told the Long War Journal.

One of those killed was Sergeant Matthew Sluss-Tiller, 35, the father of a three-year-old daughter. His mother, Jane Blankenship, said her son had been in Pakistan on a civil affairs mission and had grown a beard for it.

One official suggested the “trainers” may be used to pick up intelligence on drone targets, particularly because the CIA did not trust its counterparts from the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service that has close links to the Taliban.

The Americans insist the drone attacks have been a success, picking off the second and third tier of Al-Qaeda’s leadership. In August they killed Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban. They recently claimed to have killed his successor, Hakimullah Mehsud, but Pakistan’s foreign minister said this had not been confirmed.

To the irritation of Washington, Islamabad has kept up a pretence that drone attacks are carried out without its approval, even though the aircraft are based in Pakistan.

Among the Pakistani public, there has been outcry at the attacks. Surveys constantly show that Pakistanis consider the US a greater threat than the Taliban, despite 3,021 Pakistani deaths in terrorist attacks last year.

If the drones are controversial, the presence of US soldiers on Pakistani soil is far more so. Despite a $1.5 billion (£959m) aid programme, Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, had to fly into Pakistan two weeks ago to reassure its military leadership. “Let me say definitively the US does not covet a single inch of Pakistani soil,” he told Pakistan’s National Defence University.

United States' Largest Outbreak - 303 Diagnosed With Mumps In NYC Suburbs -

Reading - United States' Largest Outbreak - 303 Diagnosed With Mumps In NYC Suburbs -

More than 300 people have been diagnosed with the mumps in suburban New York as the nation's largest outbreak of the disease in years continues to spread.

A health official says a total of 303 people in the Rockland County towns of Monsey and New Square have been diagnosed with the highly infectious disease. Almost all the cases are among Orthodox or Hasidic Jews.

Investigators say the outbreak started in August 2009 at a Jewish summer camp in Sullivan County with an 11-year-old boy who brought the disease from England.

It has since spread to Jewish communities in Brooklyn, New Jersey and Orange county.

Mumps spreads through saliva, coughing and sneezing. Common symptoms are flu-like and include swelling of the salivary glands.

Saturday, 6 February 2010

Few people upstage Oprah Winfrey - Tiny Torontonian decided to enter the world while mother was in audience -

Reading - Few people upstage Oprah Winfrey - Tiny Torontonian decided to enter the world while mother was in audience -

Few people upstage Oprah Winfrey on her own show, but a tiny Torontonian came close this week.

Little Justin McCrindle, 2 pounds and 13 ounces, decided to enter the world while his mother was in the audience at the show in Chicago on Thursday afternoon.

Minutes after an ambulance left the studio with the 27-week pregnant Lori McCrindle, Justin was born.

"We're nicknaming him Harpo," the excited mom told Winfrey by phone Friday, referring to the talk show queen's Harpo Studios.

The infant is "battered and bruised" from the birth but is doing quite well, McCrindle, 34, an occupational therapist in Toronto, told the Star from Chicago's Rush University Medical Centre.

"We are just doing what we need to do – be together," she said.

McCrindle had been trying to get on the Oprah show for years.

Finally, she did, and with husband Kyle decided to spend two days in Chicago. But at the studio, her water broke.

When Winfrey learned that an audience member was in labour, she rushed backstage and found McCrindle already in the ambulance. She helped the labouring mom – already wearing an oxygen mask – through a contraction.

McCrindle was a bit upset that she couldn't sit through the show, but Winfrey extended an open invitation to return.

"Whenever you're ready, I'll fly you back, okay?" she said.

Anthrax contaminated Heroin spreads - all Heroin in London carries the risk of Anthrax contamination -

Reading - Anthrax contaminated Heroin spreads - all Heroin in London carries the risk of Anthrax contamination -

BRITISH authorities today warned drug users that heroin in London was highly likely to be contaminated with anthrax, after a first confirmed case there and following nine deaths in Scotland.

"While public health investigations are ongoing, it must be assumed that all heroin in London carries the risk of anthrax contamination," said Dr. Brian McCloskey, who is director of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in London.

"Heroin users are advised to cease taking heroin by any route, if at all possible, and to seek help from their local drug treatment services."

McCloskey added that the risk to the general population was "negligible."

Anthrax has been found in 19 heroin users in Scotland since December and nine of those people died, six of them in the Glasgow area, officials said.

The first case in London was confirmed yesterday, and the user was in hospital receiving treatment.

"Similarities to the cases in Scotland suggest that the heroin, or a contaminated cutting agent mixed with the heroin, is the likely source of infection," a spokesman for the HPA said.

Last month, the French health ministry issued a warning about contaminated heroin, noting the Scottish cases and one other case in Germany, and saying the drug could also be circulating in other European countries."Similarities to the cases in Scotland suggest that the heroin, or a contaminated cutting agent mixed with the heroin, is the likely source of infection," a spokesman for the HPA said.

Anthrax is a potentially lethal bacterium that exists naturally in the soil and can also occur among cattle.

It is also, more notoriously, a potential bio-terror weapon.

At last! Have they finally found a 'weapon of mass destruction' in Iraq? -

Reading - At last! Have they finally found a 'weapon of mass destruction' in Iraq? -

They have been searching in Iraq for the past nine years, 10 months and 15 days.

Today, the hard work finally paid off as soldiers found one of those elusive ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that Saddam Hussein was supposed to have been hiding.

So is it all round to Tony Blair's house for celebratory drinks?

Explosive discovery: Iraqi army officials with the rocket they found

Unfortunately the discovery came just a few days late for the former prime minister, who could have used the extraordinary find as proof he was right about Iraq all along during the Chilcot Inquiry.

But from the looks of the rocket, it would appear unlikely it could be deployed anywhere in 45 minutes, let alone be fired at the UK, as a certain dossier led us to believe.

The bomb is thought to have been buried by Saddam Hussein's regime before the UK and U.S. invasion of Iraq started in 2003.

Iraqi guards were as surprised as the rest of us to discover the 'missile' during an operation in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib suburb.

It is not yet known whether the seven-metre rocket is armed with a warhead.

Buried: It is thought the 'missile' had been hidden by Saddam Hussein's regime