La soeur aînée de Mark vogue vers de nouvelles aventures. L'information, révélée par All Things Digital (site du Wall Street Journal), a été confirmée par Facebook. Celle qui était directrice marketing du réseau social s'en va pour fonder sa propre compagnie de conseil média, RtoZ Media (jeu de mot sur son nom). A Facebook, elle s'était notamment occupée de lancer la plateforme live, qui lui avait valu une nomination aux Emmy Awards.
03 août, 2011
Etats-Unis: Un vaste un réseau pédophilie sur internet démantelé
INTERNET - 52 personnes à travers le monde ont été arrêtées...
Les Etats-Unis ont annoncé mercredi le démantèlement d'un vaste réseau pédophile sévissant dans une dizaine de pays, dont la France, avec l'inculpation de 72 personnes liées à un site internet qui visait à «encourager les agressions sexuelles de très jeunes enfants».
L'enquête, lancée en 2009 et baptisée «Opération Delego», a conduit à l'arrestation de 52 personnes dans 14 pays: Etats-Unis, Canada, France, Equateur, Allemagne, Hongrie, Pays-Bas, Kenya, Philippines, Qatar, Serbie, Suède, Suisse et Danemark, a indiqué le ministère de la Justice américain dans un communiqué.
72 inculpations
Parmi les personnes arrêtées, treize ont d'ores et déjà plaidé coupable et quatre d'entre elles ont été condamnées aux Etats-Unis à des peines allant jusqu'à 30 ans de prison.
Les vingt autres personnes concernées par les 72 inculpations et qui n'ont pas encore été arrêtées ne sont à ce stade connues que par leur pseudo en ligne, a ajouté le ministère.
Les membres du site internet échangeaient des images et vidéos montrant des scènes de violence contre des enfants de 12 ans ou moins, et prétendaient «qu'agresser sexuellement des enfants est un comportement acceptable qui ne doit pas être criminalisé», a déclaré le ministre américain de la Justice, Eric Holder, dans le communiqué.
Une communauté en ligne
«Les membres de ce réseau criminel partageaient le projet fou de créer une communauté en ligne destinée à promouvoir l'exploitation sexuelle des enfants, mais pour leurs victimes, ce n'était rien d'autre qu'un cauchemar», a ajouté M. Holder.
Le site demandait à ses membres d'envoyer régulièrement du contenu sous peine d'exclusion, proposait des statuts "VIP" pour récompenser les meilleurs adhérents, et ses règles étaient disponibles en anglais, russe, japonais et espagnol.
Programmes de cryptage
Pour dissimuler leurs activités, les membres du site avaient recours à toute une série de techniques, faux noms, serveurs informatiques maquillant leur adresse, ou utilisation des programmes de cryptage.
Le réseau a pu être démantelé grâce à la collaboration entre les autorités américaines, l'organisation européenne de coopération judiciaire Eurojust et des dizaines de services de police à travers le monde.
© 2011 AFP
Libye – Misrata : débacle des rebelles
Diantre !
Les mauvaises nouvelles s’accumulent en Libye pour l’Otan, qui bombarde depuis 5 mois, les mêmes cibles, comme le disait Thierry Meyssan. A part les autistes comme Botul, tout va bien. Du coup, les médias « meanstream » ne nous vantent plus les héroïques renégats qui conquièrent au quotidien, de nouveaux territoires. Trois jours que ça dure. Trois jours que ça coince. Or, les combats continuent. Tiens, les amis de Botul ont déclaré ce mercredi avoir repoussé une contre-offensive à Zliten. Bon, aucun mort côté loyaliste, mais 7 morts dans leur camp. « Hé, hé ! » comme le dit souvent jean-paul de la mata, c’est dur…
C’est décidé, je me protège contre les lésions prépropagandistes et propagandistes de la désinformation. C’est sûr, je me lance dans le porno chic. Succès garanti. Aucune attaque envers ma petite personne en perspective. Mais, je suis surpris qu’il n’y ait aucune information sur Misrata. Amusez-vous en allant sur Google Actualités. Le dernier sujet sur cette ville date de Mathusalem or, les renégats de Big Ben, au temps pour moi, de Benghazi, qui disent contrôler cette ville ont été mis en déroute, hier, par les forces légitimes de Libye.
Aaaargh ! Décidément, c’est délicieusement envoûtant, non ? De savoir que 7 islamistes ont été tués à Misrata est quand même terrible. Ce sont des hommes après tout, même comme ils sèment la mort. Ce sont des traîtres tombés l’arme à la main. On se demande où étaient passés les Tornado anglais et les Rafale français pour les protéger. C’est vrai que les deux belliqueux Cameron et Sarkozy n’arrivent plus à supporter cette guerre qui coûte la bagatelle somme de 1,2 million par jour…
Allez, n’accablons pas davantage ces soldats de pacotille। Voici la vidéo qui prouve que, même à Misrata, ils ne tiennent pas la route, après les mensonges de Brega et le chaos qui se précise à Big Ben. Ça leur sied à merveille, non ? Ils veulent l’ »american way of life ». il ne reste plus qu’à débaptiser Benghazi en la dénommant Big Ben…Quels clowns !
allainjules.com/Libye: des dissensions au sein de la rébellion après l'assassinat de Younès
BENGHAZI — Des acteurs clés de la révolte contre Mouammar Kadhafi ont appelé mercredi au "limogeage" de plusieurs responsables de la rébellion libyenne après l'assassinat du chef d'état-major rebelle, ravivant les craintes de division au sein des insurgés.
L'influente Coalition du 17 février, groupement d'associations impliquées dans le soulèvement populaire puis la mise en place des institutions rebelles à Benghazi (est), a exigé le départ de trois membres du Conseil national de transition (CNT, organe politique des rebelles) suite à la mort du général Abdel Fatah Younès.
Rallié à la rébellion après avoir été un pilier du régime de Mouammar Kadhafi, le général Younès avait été tué vendredi dans de mystérieuses circonstances après avoir été rappelé du front pour un interrogatoire à Benghazi, la "capitale" du mouvement rebelle.
La Coalition du 17 février a dénoncé l'action du responsable chargé des Affaires internationales, Ali al-Essaoui, qui a paraphé la demande de "l'arrestation illégale et humiliante" de l'officier supérieur.
Elle a sévèrement critiqué la gestion de l'affaire par Jalal al-Digheily, chargé de la Défense, et son adjoint Fauzi Aboukatif, tous deux ayant "choisi de voyager en dehors du pays" après avoir été informés de l'arrestation de leur chef d'état-major.
Pour la Coalition du 17 février, le leadership du CNT ne doit "pas permettre la mise en place d'une armée parallèle, sous quelque nom que ce soit, aux côtés des institutions légitimes".
Le corps criblé de balles et partiellement brûlé du général Younès avait été retrouvé en périphérie de la ville. Deux colonels ont trouvé la mort en même temps que lui.
Agé de 67 ans, le général Younès avait participé au coup d'Etat qui a porté M. Kadhafi au pouvoir en 1969, avant de devenir son éminence grise. Envoyé à Benghazi pour mater la révolte naissante mi-février, il avait contre toute attente rallié la rébellion.
Plusieurs responsables du CNT ont accusé les services du colonel Kadhafi, faisant étant de l'arrestation du "chef" des tueurs. Mais le mouvement rebelle, qui affirme avoir mis en place une commission d'enquête, n'a à ce jour pas révélé l'identité précise des responsables ou des commanditaires.
L'assassinat a suscité d'intenses spéculations sur l'identité des meurtriers, les divisions au sein de la rébellion, l'influence croissante des islamistes, ou l'existence d'une possible "cinquième colonne" derrière les lignes rebelles.
Des signes de tensions sont depuis lors perceptibles dans Benghazi, quadrillée par des hommes en armes et où une cellule dormante d'éléments pro-Kadhafi agissant sous la couverture d'une brigade rebelle a été démantelée ces derniers jours.
Contribuant à ce malaise, la puissante tribu des Al-Obeïdi, à laquelle appartenait le général Younès, a menacé de se faire justice elle-même si le CNT ne donne pas au plus vite une version crédible des faits et n'arrête pas les coupables présumés.
Organisées chaque soir au domicile du défunt, les condoléances à la famille sont l'occasion pour les chefs de cette tribu d'exprimer leur colère et leur suspicion contre certains hauts responsables de l'exécutif rebelle.
Plusieurs incidents, dont des tirs sur un grand hôtel de Benghazi, avaient été provoqués vendredi par des fidèles du général assassiné peu après l'annonce de sa mort.
Sur le plan militaire, le gouvernement Kadhafi à Tripoli a démenti les informations faisant état d'une avancée des rebelles dans Zliten, verrou stratégique en direction de la capitale, et théâtre mardi de violents combats.
"Zliten est une ville libre sous notre contrôle total", a affirmé le porte-parole du gouvernement Moussa Ibrahim, selon qui les rebelles ont été repoussés après avoir subi de lourdes pertes.
Un porte-parole rebelle dans la ville voisine de Misrata a pour sa part assuré que, si les rebelles n'étaient pas présents dans le centre de Zliten, ils contrôlaient plusieurs quartiers de la ville.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. Tous droits réservésMexique: Le directeur de la prison de Ciudad Juarez arrêté
Le directeur de la prison de Ciudad Juarez, au Mexique, où a eu lieu une fusillade le 25 juillet dernier, ainsi que cinq gardiens, ont été arrêtés.
Quatre détenus devraient également être interrogés dans le cadre de l'enquête sur la fusillade qui avait fait 17 morts, dont 16 détenus et une femme entrée illégalement au sein de l'institution pénitentiaire.
Avec AFP
Paraguay: Une fillette de 12 ans arrêtée avec 1 kilo de crack
Une enfant de 12 ans a été arrêtée ce mercredi en possession d'un kilo de crack alors qu'elle se rendait à la prison de Tacumbu, à Asuncion, où son père est détenu. Celui-ci purge en effet une peine de prison pour trafic de drogue.
Des policiers antidrogue ont arrêté la fillette à quelques mètres de la prison. La drogue se trouvait dans son cartable.
Avec AFP
La Cnil enquête sur les données de localisation stockées sur l'iPhone et l'iPad
ENQUÊTE - Les utilisateurs sont suivis à la trace...
Haro sur la géolocalisation «sauvage»? La Cnil enquête sur la capacité des iPhone à enregistrer les mouvements de l'utilisateur à son insu, révélée en avril par des chercheurs et pour laquelle son constructeur, le géant américain des technologies Apple, a déjà été mis à l'amende en Corée.
«Nous nous sommes également penchés sur le système à la suite de l'étude des chercheurs britanniques», a indiqué Yann Padova, secrétaire général de la Cnil, joint par l'AFP.
Les chercheurs Alasdair Allan et Peter Warden avaient révélé en avril que la dernière version du système d'exploitation des iPhone et iPad possédait une fonction permettant de garder sur un dossier non protégé la trace des déplacements de ses utilisateurs.
Des «éclaircissements» pas complets
«Nous avons envoyé deux courriers à Apple, qui nous a répondu en partie. On a eu des éclaircissements mais ils ne sont pas complets, le dossier est encore à l'instruction», a précisé M. Padova. «Il devrait être bouclé à l'automne».
M. Padova a toutefois assuré que, sur le base des informations fournies par Apple, il était apparu que «les données collectées étaient stockées dans l'appareil et ne remontaient pas à Apple ou à des partenaires commerciaux».
«Apple s'est engagé à améliorer l'information» de ses clients sur l'existence d'un tel stockage de données, a-t-il ajouté. Mais certaines «questions techniques» de l'organisme chargé de protéger la vie privée sont restées sans réponse, comme la façon dont Apple sécurise les données ou encore leur protection lors de la synchronisation de l'appareil avec un ordinateur.
Vers une mise en demeure?
Si la Cnil concluait à un «manquement caractérisé», elle procèderait d'abord à une mise en demeure d'Apple, assortie d'un délai pour permettre à l'entreprise de se mettre en conformité. Si Apple refusait alors d'obtempérer, la Cnil pourrait imposer une amende.
En Corée du Sud, une amende symbolique allant jusqu'à 3 millions de wons (1.980 euros) va être réclamée par le régulateur des télécoms à la firme à la pomme «pour avoir collecté des données sur les mouvements des utilisateurs, bien que certains avaient refusé» ce suivi, a annoncé la Commission coréenne des communications (KCC).
© 2011 AFP
Déclaré mort à l'hôpital, un bébé crie lors de ses funérailles
C’est O Globo qui rapporte l’affaire: une prématuré de 28 semaines qui a été déclaré mort à son arrivé, sous incubateur, à l’hôpital Santa Casa de Misericordia, a failli être enterré vivant. Heureusement, le jour de ses funérailles, alors qu’elle était dans le funérarium, la petite fille s’est mise à pleurer. L’enfant a immédiatement été transféré à l’hôpital, dans un état grave. L’établissement Santa Casa de Misericordia confirme les faits, sans apporter de précision.
M.P.
L'infection du sida se propage parmi les homosexuels dans des pays arabes
DUBAI (© 2011 AFP) - L'infection par le virus du sida dans des pays du Moyen-Orient et d'Afrique du nord s'est propagée, prenant l'allure d'une épidémie, en particulier dans les milieux des homosexuels et bisexuels, selon une étude publiée par le journal spécialisé PLoS Medecine.
© AFP/Archives Aris Messinis. Une rue du Caire, le 12 mars 2011
L'étude précise que le taux d'infection par le virus de l'immunodéficience humaine (VIH) parmi les hommes ayant des rapports sexuels avec des hommes a dépassé les 5%, un seuil annonciateur d'une épidémie, dans plusieurs régions comme en Egypte, au Soudan et en Tunisie.
"Une épidémie du sida semble se dessiner parmi les homosexuels dans au moins certains pays de la région", indique l'étude, la première menée dans ces pays musulmans où le sida est encore considéré parfois comme un tabou.
Les auteurs de l'étude, à l'initiative du Weill Cornell Medical College au Qatar, préconisent le renforcement de la surveillance sanitaire et des moyens de dépistage et de prévention, notamment dans les milieux des populations à risque.
"Il y a un besoin urgent d'étendre la surveillance du sida, l'accès au dépistage, la prévention et les services de traitement de l'infection (...) pour prévenir que la propagation du virus n'empire au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique du nord", conclut l'étude.
Le Real Madrid va ouvrir une académie de football en Chine
LEMONDE.FR avec Reuters |
Les joueurs du Real Madrid, le 3 août dans la province du Guangdong, en Chine.AFP/STR
Le Real Madrid va participer à la création de la plus grande académie de football en Chine, dans la ville de Guangzhou, rapporte l'agence Chine nouvelle. Les dirigeants du club madrilène, actuellement en tournée de pré-saison en Asie, ont signé une lettre d'intention avec les responsables du leader du championnat chinois, Guangzhou Evergrande, pour la mise sur pied de cette académie, qui pourrait accueillir, à terme, plus de 10 000 jeunes footballeurs.
"Nous travaillons ensemble pour créer une académie de football en Chine. Il s'agit, je pense, de la première étape de notre coopération", a déclaré le président du Real Madrid, Florentino Perez, cité par l'agence de presse officielle chinoise. Ce partenariat pourrait inclure des échanges de joueurs, ainsi que la venue de techniciens du Real Madrid en Chine afin d'aider à la formation des jeunes talents locaux. En dépit de la faiblesse du football en Chine, tant sur le plan technique que financier, de nombreux clubs européens tentent depuis plusieurs mois de se rapprocher du marché chinois. Nombre d'entre eux ont disputé des matches de préparation en Chine, sans réel intérêt sportif.
France Libye : 15 agents étrangers Français, Anglais, Qataris seraient pris en Otage par la tribu de Younès Obeidi
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En signe de vengeance de l'assassinat du général Younès Obeidi, quinze agents et conseillers militaires opérant à Benghazi seraient pris en Otage par la tribu de Younès Obeidi . La tribu Obeidi, l’une des plus puissantes de Libye, a capturé 15 instructeurs étrangers (Français, Anglais, Qataris).
Il faut donc payer des rançons pour espérer leur libération et les autorités françaises ont institué une omerta médiatique sur ces faits, de peur de courroucer l’opinion publique face à ce qui s’avère aujourd’hui comme un échec cuisant en Libye.
Libye – Le CNT ne contrôlerait plus Benghazi.
Centre ville de Benghazi
Tôt ce matin, j’ai essayé de suivre les informations sur tous les médias « meanstream » anglophone et arabe car je ne suis pas à Paris en ce moment. Et par conséquent, je ne sais pas si les francophones en ont fait état. D’ailleurs, ça m’étonnerait. Les journalistes sur place à Benghazi -la deuxième ville de Libye avec environ 632 000 habitants et 1 630 000 avec son agglomération-, sont sous le contrôle étroit des factions et sont pour la plupart expulsés, notamment les Russes, qui disent la réalité du terrain…
Suite à une série de délestage (coupure de courant), hier, pour l’instant, les informations sont encore parcellaires mais, les renégats de Benghazi et/ou Conseil national de transition (CNT) aurait perdu le contrôle de « leur » capitale…Benghazi.
Le clan du général assassiné Younès, les Obedei, auraient pris le contrôle de la ville après d’âpres combats et auraient mis en déroute les autres factions, notamment les éléments islamistes d’Al Qaïda qui avaient déjà la mainmise sur le CNT.
Le couvre-feu a été imposé à Benghazi par les troupes de Younes depuis hier soir. La ville étant désormais l’une des plus dangereux au monde à cause de la circulation des armes, l’Otan survole néanmoins la ville, avec ses hélicoptères…Selon des informations fiables par des personnes bien introduites, personnes ne sait où se cachent le chef du CNT, Moustapha Abdeljalil.
Les soldats pro-Younçs sont-ils devenus pro-Kadhafi ? Là est le noeud du problème et actuellement, il est impossible de le savoir. En revanche, leur porte parole a déclaré que le mobile de la prise de la ville est de chasser les envahisseurs de l’Est de la Libye. De qui parle-t-il ? Des éléments d’Al Qaïda ou de l’Otan ? Ça sent de plus en plus le roussi et la déroute de l’Otan se précise. Sa présence en Libye s’inscrit visiblement en pointillé.
Plus d’informations dans la journée।
allainjules.comIraq negotiating U.S. troop presence
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's political leaders gave the government the green light Tuesday to begin negotiating a deal with the U.S. to keep American troops in the country past the end of the year to train Iraqi security forces.
Maya Alleruzzo, AP
Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen says U.S. troops must be given protection from legal prosecution as part of any agreement to keep them in Iraq beyond the end of the year.
Maya Alleruzzo, AP
Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen says U.S. troops must be given protection from legal prosecution as part of any agreement to keep them in Iraq beyond the end of the year.
But Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said a final agreement is still far from settled, and cautioned that Baghdad could still insist the U.S. military leave by the end of 2011 as required under a 2008 security agreement.
"The government still might not do it (allow U.S. troops to stay)," Zebari told The Associated Press after the closed-door discussions.
"This is a politically highly charged issue, and there was division," he said. "But this meeting unified all the political leaders to back the government and start the negotiations."
The small step forward was the result of five hours of often-heated debate among several dozen Iraqi political leaders and Cabinet ministers. Zebari said no details were settled — like how many U.S. troops would stay, or for how long, or whether they would be given legal immunity from prosecution.
Those issues will be key factors as Washington weighs whether it will continue its military presence in Iraq after more than eight years of war.
In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said it would review the Iraqi leaders' decision.
"We are committed to a broad and long-term partnership with the Iraqi people, and will review our security relationship within that context," the statement said.
Iraq's leaders are torn between the nation's shaky security and its war-weary public in deciding whether U.S. forces should leave by Dec. 31. The issue has also put Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in an uncomfortable position with one of his top allies, anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who is bent on driving American forces from the country.
Washington has offered to have up to 10,000 U.S. troops stay and continue training Iraqi forces on tanks, fighter jets and other military equipment.
Al-Maliki, who likely will lead the negotiations, has proposed that parliament ultimately could vote on the troop dilemma. That would shield him from political fallout should lawmakers approve asking the U.S. military to stay, although American officials fear there's not enough support in parliament for such a motion to pass.
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen left Iraq after a brief visit during which he urged the government to quickly request the troops to stay — or face their imminent departure.
"A significant part of this is just a physics problem," Mullen, the outgoing top U.S. military officer, told reporters in Baghdad Tuesday morning. "You get to a point in time where you just can't turn back and all the troops must leave. That's why it's so important to make the decision absolutely as soon as possible."
Mullen also said the troops must be given immunity as part of any agreement, and that it must be approved by Iraq's parliament.
About 46,000 American troops are currently in Iraq.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Investors Made a Fortune on U.S. Treasuries in July
For all the anxiety among politicians and their constituents over playing chicken with the debt ceiling and the prospect of the first-ever downgrade of U.S. debt, the people with the most at stake made more money buying Treasury securities in July than any month this year. Actually, they made a fortune, or $183,000 for every $10 million invested.
While commentators bemoaned America’s lost respect around the world, investors from Argentina to New Zealand snapped up Uncle Sam’s bonds in the $9.34 trillion market, driving yields on 10-year notes -- a benchmark for everything from mortgage rates to corporate debt -- to the lowest levels since November. U.S. government debt returned 1.83 percent in July, about three times more than the rest of the global sovereign bond market, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show.
“The bond market saw through the debate and saw that it would have to be resolved,” said Mark MacQueen, a partner and money manager at Austin, Texas-based Sage Advisory Services, which oversees $9.5 billion. “The market expected a resolution, which is less spending, hitting future growth, which is not good for stocks but is good for bonds.”
The Senate voted yesterday to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, currently $14.3 trillion, for the 79th time since 1960, before missing a payment. As a bonus to bond investors, the government will reduce spending by $2.4 trillion or more.
Target Rate
While an increase in the borrowing limit averts a default, it may not be enough to save the U.S.’s top AAA credit rating. Bond yields show investors are also concerned that the reduction in outlays by the government will weigh on growth at a time when reports on everything from manufacturing to jobs show the economy is weakening.
Interest-rate futures signal traders are pushing back expectations for when the Federal Reserve raises its target for overnight loans between banks to 2013. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 2.03 percent in July, the worst performance since August 2010.
“Regardless of the rating, Treasuries are going to be seen as the safe haven,” said Matthew Freund, a senior vice president at USAA Investment Management Co. in San Antonio, where he helps oversee about $50 billion in mutual fund assets. “The U.S. remains one of the strongest, most dynamic economies in the world.”
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note’s yield fell as low as 2.6 percent yesterday, down from 3.014 percent on July 22, when President Barack Obama complained that he had been “left at the altar” by Republicans who walked away from talks to avoid a default.
Yield History
The yield is below the 4.05 percent average over the past decade and the average of 5.48 percent when the U.S. was running a budget surplus from 1998 through 2001.
Treasuries yield about 0.7 percentage point less than the rest of the world’s sovereign debt markets, Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes show. The difference has expanded from 0.15 percentage point in January and is the most since 1993, when the data began. July’s returns for Treasuries compare with 0.62 percent for the rest of the world.
In auctions of two-, five- and seven-year notes last week totaling $99 billion, indirect bidders, a class of investors that includes international central banks, bought 35 percent of the bonds, up from 30 percent in the June sales. Saudi Arabia is pumping oil profits into U.S. bonds even as China, the biggest foreign holder of Treasuries, slows purchases.
‘Highest Quality Asset’
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency’s holdings of foreign securities rose 12 percent this year to a record 1.32 trillion riyals ($350 billion) as of June 30, central bank data show. HSBC Holdings Plc estimates a “large proportion” of those investments are in Treasuries. China’s ownership was $1.16 trillion as of May 31, unchanged from the end of 2010, U.S. government data show.
“The bond market wasn’t viewing this as that big of an issue and the Treasury is still the highest quality asset on the globe,” said Hank Smith, the chief investment officer in Philadelphia at Haverford Trust Co., which oversees $6.5 billion.
The bond market has a long history of accurately predicting the future. Economists use the relationship between short- and long-term yields to forecast the nation’s growth. Three-month bill rates have topped 10-year note yields eight times since 1960, with recessions following in six of those cases. There hasn’t been a recession that wasn’t preceded by an inverted yield curve in that period.
S&P Indications
The performance of the bond market also suggests that investors aren’t worried about the U.S. having its credit rating cut and seeing borrowing cost rise.
Standard & Poor’s indicated last week that anything less than a reduction of $4 trillion in spending would jeopardize the U.S.’s AAA. “A grand bargain of that nature would signal the seriousness of policy makers to address the fiscal situation in the U.S.,” John Chambers, chairman of S&P’s sovereign rating committee, said in a video interview distributed by the New York-based firm on July 28.
Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings affirmed their AAA credit ratings for the U.S. while warning that the ratings could be downgraded if lawmakers fail to enact debt reduction measures and the economy weakens.
‘Positive Step’
The debt-limit compromise “is a positive step toward reducing the future path of the deficit and the debt levels,” said Steven Hess, senior credit officer at Moody’s in New York. “We do think more needs to be done to ensure a reduction in the debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio, for example, going forward.”
A decision on the rating may be made within two years, or “considerably sooner,” according to Hess. Fitch’s David Riley, the London-based head of sovereign ratings, said that while the rating may be cut in the medium term, its risks in the near-term “are not high."
If the U.S. was cut by S&P or Moody’s for the first time in history, disruptions would be unlikely in the Treasury market, said Freund of USAA Investment. JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimates that funds holding Treasuries may only need to sell as much as $40 billion of the debt in a downgrade.
“The difference between AA+ and AA and AAA really is going to be very modest outside of bragging rights,” Freund said. “I feel better about Treasuries in the long run if we address the problems now rather than just kicking the can down the road.”
Government Spending
Prospects for lower expenditures by the government come as signs emerge that the economy is faltering with unemployment above 9 percent. Government spending accounts for about 25 percent of GDP, a level exceeded only by three years in the 1940s, according to Bianco Research LLC in Chicago.
The Institute for Supply Management said Aug. 1 that its factory index slumped to 50.9 for July, the lowest since July 2009, from 55.3 a month earlier. Figures less than 50 signal contraction, and the July index was lower than the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.
“With these numbers that are coming in, we could we be looking at another recession and if so, should we be buying bonds,” said Laura LaRosa, director of fixed income at Philadelphia-based Glenmede, which oversees $20 billion. “When you have slow growth you’re a little bit closer to recession. That makes everybody very concerned.”
To contact the reporter on this story: John Detrixhe in New York at jdetrixhe1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net
Autopsy Results Pending for New Hampshire Girl Found Dead in River
Autopsy results are pending for an 11-year-old New Hampshire girl whose body was pulled from the Connecticut River in what authorities are calling a "suspicious" death, authorities said Tuesday night at a press conference.
Jane Young, New Hampshire senior assistant attorney general, said investigators are waiting for further toxicology reports before making any determinations.
Without going into details about why initial results could not be released to the media, Young said, "Both the cause and manner of death are pending."
The fifth-grader was last seen the night of July 25 in her West Stewartstown, N.H., home, where she lived with her mother, stepfather and 13-year-old sister. She was last seen in her bedroom and on her computer, according to authorities.
The state's attorney general's office is conducting a criminal investigation and the death is being considered suspicious, she said.
After an extensive search for the child -- which included help from the FBI -- divers discovered her body Monday morning near a hydroelectric dam that spans the Connecticut River between her hometown and Canaan, Vt., not far from the Canadian border. Her body was pulled from the New Hampshire side of the river, near the Canaan Hydro-Dam, at around 5 p.m., according to local reports.
"We have made no determination on where her body was eventually put in the river," Young said on Monday.
Authorities have said there was no sign of a struggle inside the home, and there was no indication the girl ran away or that someone took her.
"Based on what we have seen visually, we are treating it as suspicious," Young said.
Celina's father, Adam Laro, had described his daughter to Fox News as "shy but very friendly" and said he can't imagine she'd leave on her own.
"I can't picture why she would leave at night," said Laro, who was in the hospital when Celina was last seen. "She seemed to be happy where she was."
Her stepfather, Wendell Noyes, described her as a quiet girl who would not have left the family's three-story home on her own. Noyes, who reportedly has a history of schizophrenia, was taken by ambulance to a hospital Monday morning, though the reason for his hospitalization it not yet known.
Young told FoxNews.com last week that authorities did not issue an Amber Alert for Celina because the case did not meet the criteria for one. Amber Alerts usually require a description of a vehicle or person the child was last with, Young said.
The girl's close-knit community held a candlelight vigil for the girl on Monday, just hours after her body was pulled from the river, the Boston Herald reports.
"She was a dream student," Jennifer Mathieu, who taught Celina in second and third grade, said of the girl. "If one of her friends was in a bad mood, she was the first to go over and try to cheer them up. She wanted everyone to be happy."
In the search for the tall, gap-toothed girl, investigators knocked on hundreds of doors and posted fliers with her photo throughout Stewartstown and nearby communities. Law enforcement agencies had set up a command post at the local school.
The FBI had offered a $25,000 reward for any information leading to Celina's whereabouts and an anonymous donor had added $5,000 to the reward.
FoxNews.com's Cristina Corbin and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click for more on the disappearance of Celina Cass from MyFoxBoston.com
Economic Fears Hit Global Markets
Worries about the global economy rippled through financial markets on Tuesday, driving down share prices from Tokyo to New York and placing new strains on Spanish and Italian bonds.
Concerns that have been building for days erupted into a selloff that began in Asia, gathered steam in Europe and culminated in a sharp, late-day drop in New York. As the dust settled from the acrimonious debate in Washington over the debt ceiling, investors turned their attention to mounting evidence that the global economy is weakening. Data in recent weeks has shown that the economic "soft-patch" seen around the world in the second quarter is proving deeper and more entrenched than many investors had thought would be the case.
Worries about the economy pushed the Dow down 265-points , it's eighth consecutive decline and longest losing streak in nearly three years. Meanwhile, bond prices soared and yields tumbled. Paul Vigna, Jonathan Cheng and Kelly Evans discuss.
"As people take their focus off the debt ceiling…they're focusing on an economy that looks worse than they had thought," said Erik Weisman, a portfolio manager at MFS Investment Management.
U.S. stocks fell for the eighth straight day, the longest stretch of declines since the 2008 financial crisis. Several measures fell into negative territory for 2011. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped below 12000, plunging 265.87 points, or 2.2%, to 11866.62. In its eight-day decline, the blue-chip index is down 6.7%. In Europe, Italian and Spanish bond markets continued their decline, sending yields to euro-era highs. European bank stocks, too, also suffered sharp losses and broader stock indexes tumbled.
Investors sought safe havens, driving yields on U.S. Treasurys and German Bunds to their lowest levels since November. U.K. 10-year bonds hit their lowest yields in history. Gold prices hit a fresh record high at $1,641.90 per ounce, up $22.90.
The concern among investors is that with the U.S. and Europe hamstrung by heavy government and consumer borrowing, slowing economies will make it that much harder to whittle down those debt levels. A string of weak economic reports, including an unexpected decline in July consumer spending posted Tuesday, has investors rethinking expectations for a strong second-half rebound. Investors are bracing for a poor July employment report on Friday.
While the resolution of the debt-ceiling crisis soothed investors' worst fears of a U.S. default, it left hanging over the market the prospects of a credit downgrade. Moody's Investors Service said late Tuesday it would keep the U.S. at its top triple-A rating, but with a negative outlook. Among the potential triggers for a downgrade are weaker-than-expected economic growth, Moody's said. Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's are also reviewing their top ratings for U.S. debt.
In Europe, there has been a steady erosion of the relief seen just two weeks ago when officials there unveiled a new bailout plan for Greece. That plan was supposed to shore up confidence that Italy and Spain would be walled off from damaging contagion of the euro zone's debt crisis. But with each passing day, skepticism has mounted that the deal didn't go nearly far enough.
"The whole point…in July was to put an end to the rot," said Gabriel Stein, director at Lombard Street Research in London. "And they didn't."
MFS's Mr. Weisman echoed the sentiment: "It increasingly looks like they're going to have to do a much, much larger package."
The selloff in the Italian bond market took yields to 6.1%, a gap of 3.7 percentage points above 10-year German debt, the widest since the start of the crisis. Spanish 10-year bond yields hit 6.2%, 3.8 percentage points higher than German Bunds.
Higher rates in Italy and Spain, if sustained, hold the potential to cause serious disruption. Both countries are running wide budget deficits, and they need consistent access to fresh financing to cover those gaps and to repay maturing loans.
In Italy, the government shifted into emergency mode Tuesday as government-bond yields climbed and the share prices of the Italian banks that hold them slid precipitously. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is planning to address Parliament on the economy Wednesday amid calls for more budget cuts, and his economy minister, Giulio Tremonti, will be dispatched to Luxembourg for talks with Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the group of 17 nations that use the euro.
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero Tuesday delayed his planned vacation to southern Spain "to more closely follow" the country's "economic indicators," his office said. He later decided to go.
Among the concerns plaguing the European bond market is the heft of the euro zone's bailout fund: Even with promised changes that will increase its lending capacity, it is far from sufficient to provide support to Italy. And the changes—which would give it more firepower to help Spain—haven't actually materialized.
Analysts are also concerned that Italy could see its access to funding strained in September when the country is scheduled to auction €61.7 billion ($87.6 billion) in sovereign bonds, more than double the amount of bonds Italy usually auctions in a month—though still only a small fraction of Italy's more than €1.8 trillion in debt.
A joke making the rounds in the markets is that European officials had done just enough with the July bailout to get through August vacations. "I fear that once everyone is back from holiday things will blow up again," said Lombard Street's Mr. Stein.
In the U.S., euro zone jitters added to worries about the U.S. economy's recent swoon. Unlike last summer, when the Federal Reserve was able to soothe worries about a double-dip into recession with a second round of quantitative easing, the central bank's ability to prop up the U.S. economy and financial markets is seen as limited this time around.
In addition, investors are worried about collateral damage to the already fragile economy from the acrimonious debate in Washington over raising the debt ceiling, said Jeremy Zirin, chief U.S. equity strategist at UBS. That is being reflected in more cautious outlooks from companies when it comes to corporate earnings for coming quarters, he said.
As a result, stocks have tanked despite strong second-quarter earnings.
The Dow remains up 2.5% so far in 2011, but Tuesday's rout took the broader Standard & Poor's 500-Stock Index into the red for the year. The S&P 500 lost 32.89 points, or 2.56% to 1254.05. That left it down 0.29% in 2011.
Amid the worries, investors around world flocked to investments perceived as safer. The yield on the U.S. Treasury 10-year note fell to 2.62%, its lowest level since November. German 10-year bonds saw the yield fall to 2.4%, also a nine-month low. In the U.K., the yield on the 10-year gilt fell to a record low of 2.77%.
The 30-year Treasury yield dropped below 4% for the first time since late last year, and the two-year note yield fell to a record low.
Meanwhile, the strains in short-term money markets eased on Tuesday as lawmakers passed the bill enabling the debt ceiling to be increased, and to avoid the government defaulting on its debts.
Rates on Treasury bills—which move in the opposite direction of prices—had shot higher as worries about a possible default grew last week. In the Fed Funds market, where banks and financial institutions get day-to-day funding, rates were at 0.16% on Tuesday, according to Wrightson ICAP LLC, a money-market brokerage, after popping up to 0.18% Monday from near zero just a few days earlier.
But most short-term rates dropped Tuesday. In the repurchase or "repo" markets, where brokers, banks, hedge funds and institutional investors borrow and lend cash and securities for short periods every day, rates for borrowing overnight using Treasurys as collateral were around 0.25% Tuesday.
That is lower than their peak of as high as 0.40% Monday, but still higher than a couple of weeks ago, when rates were near zero.
—Matt Phillips and Jonathan Cheng contributed to this article.Strict law on explosive fertilizer yet to be implemented
WASHINGTON — Three years after Congress passed legislation requiring tighter controls on ammonium nitrate fertilizer, a common ingredient in improvised explosives used by terrorists and suspected in the deadly Norway attacks, the law has yet to be implemented in the United States.
Under the 2008 law, which Congress wanted ready for enforcement by 2009, dealers and purchasers of the fertilizer would be required to register with the government and be checked against the U.S. terrorist database.
The law also calls for ammonium nitrate dealers to record sales and for dealers and purchasers to report theft or loss of the material to federal authorities. Mixed with fuel, the fertilizer concoction can be a powerful explosive. The fertilizer was the main component in the 1995 Oklahoma City truck bomb.
Department of Homeland Security officials, charged with enforcing the law, said the agency still is formulating rules that will govern the reporting process for more than 100,000 industry users, ranging from agriculture to construction to mining.
On Tuesday, Homeland Security published a set of "proposed" rules that will be subject to a four-month comment period during which industry representatives and the public will be invited to voice concerns. No date has been set for the "final" regulations.
"In today's ever-evolving threat environment, we must continually reinforce the security of substances, such as ammonium nitrate, which can be used for legitimate purposes or exploited by terrorists," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
The timeline has frustrated some congressional officials, including Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., who said the "delay was unacceptable." This year, Casey sought to cut off supplies of ammonium nitrate from Pakistan to Afghanistan, where it was being used to construct deadly explosives targeting Afghan forces and U.S. troops.
Said Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee who authored the bill: "I am disappointed that more progress has not been made to put reasonable protections in place … since we acted to fix this in 2007," Thompson said, adding that the release of proposed rules is "a positive development, especially given the events in Norway."
Last month, Anders Behring Breivik, 32, is alleged to have bombed an Oslo government office building, using an ammonium nitrate explosive. The bombing and a shooting rampage resulted in 77 deaths.
The call for more controls on the fertilizer date to the Oklahoma City bombing in which Timothy McVeigh used 2 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel to assemble a truck bomb that killed 168 people, the most deadly attack on U.S. soil prior to 9/11.
"I think most Americans would be outraged to know that we haven't made much progress on ammonium nitrate since Timothy McVeigh," Casey said.
Ryan Harris jumps from Broncos to Philadelphia Eagles
Ryan Harris (Denver Post file photo)
Ryan Harris, the Broncos' starting right tackle since the start of the 2008 season, has agreed to sign with the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Broncos visited with Harris on Tuesday and thought they had a good chance to sign him. But Harris decided it would be a better career move to get a fresh start elsewhere, especially a team that's been a perennial playoff contender.
Tallest Skyscraper Set For Saudi Arabia
(NewsCore) - JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Co., run by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said Tuesday it had signed a 4.6 billion Saudi riyal ($1.23 billion) deal with Bin Laden Group to build the world's tallest tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The planned tower, which will soar to more than 3,280 feet (1,000 meters), will include a hotel, serviced apartments, luxury condominiums and offices and will occupy an area of 5.38 million square feet (500,000 square meters).
"This project will provide sustainable profits to Kingdom Holding shareholders," Prince Alwaleed said at a news conference in Riyadh. It "has been in discussion since four years because of our emphasis to have it very economically viable ... this project is very feasible for the shareholders, and everybody is satisfied with the potential returns."
Construction on the Kingdom Tower, which will take 63 months to complete, is expected to start soon, Prince Alwaleed said. He said finances for the tower were in place, without giving any further details.
The tower would top Dubai's 2,717-foot (828-meter) Burj Khalifa, which currently is the world's tallest building. Kingdom's project will be part of the more than 57 million square-foot (5.3 million square-meter) Kingdom City, north of Jeddah, which overlooks the Red Sea and Obhur Creek and is expected to cost $20 billion.
"The critics will say it's unnecessary when resources may be deployed for other much needed development and infrastructure," said Saud Masud, financial analyst at regional investment bank Rasmala. "However, as a symbolic undertaking, this project may carry merit. Saudi is the largest economy in the Middle East with a need for socioeconomic advancement and development. The tower may reflect inspiration to that effect."
Bin Laden Group is the largest construction firm in Saudi Arabia and is owned by the Bin Laden family, which in the 1990s distanced itself from Osama bin Laden.
Chicago-based Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture led an interdisciplinary team that designed the tower.
"Building this tower in Jeddah sends a financial and economic message that should not be ignored. It has a political depth to it to tell the world that we Saudis invest in our country," Prince Alwaleed said.
Read more: Wall Street Journal
Suspect arrested in burglary, fire at Frisco museum
Anthony Bana ( | )
A suspect in a June fire intended to mask a burglary at a Summit County museum was arrested Sunday, the town of Frisco said in a media release today.
Anthony James Bana, 34, was arrested in Adams County and taken to the Summit County Jail in Breckenridge, where he is being held without bond.
Bana has been arrested several times in Summit County, Clear Creek and Eagle counties on burglary, theft and domestic violence, weapons and drunken driving charges, court records show.
Records also show Bana operates Bear Plumbing & Heating in Arvada, and formerly operated a plumbing business in Dillon. He has lived in Arvada, Denver, Dillon and Frisco in recent years.
On July 21, Frisco police named him a suspect in the Frisco Historic Park fire and burglary on June 19.
A fire damaged the 120-year-old Ruth House building, and as investigators looked into the arson, they found several items missing.
Those items have not been identified publicly, but the home included a variety of women's historical artifacts, including clothing, a hat collection, an antique sewing machine and related items.
Bin Ladens bid to build world's tallest tower
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The Twin Towers after being hit by Osama bin Laden's suicide bombers. Photo: Reuters
After one of their own destroyed what were once the world's tallest buildings, Saudi Arabia's bin Laden family is in the running to build the world's tallest tower.
The Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, the world's tallest from 1971 to 1973, were destroyed by plane hijackers as part of a 2001 plot by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Now, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has launched a project to build the world's tallest tower in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
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Prince Alwaleed bin Talal unveils plans for the world's tallest tower in Jeddah. Photo: Reuters
And he plans to use the local construction giant Bin Laden Group to build the tower, which will soar more than 1000 metres into the sky.
The bin Laden family disowned their jihadist relative long before the September 11 terror attacks rocked the world.
If the latest building goes ahead, it will top Dubai's world's highest building, Burj Khalifa.
What the Jeddah tower is expected to look like.
The project "will soon see the light after the signing of a $1.2 billion agreement" between Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding Co and Bin Laden Group, Prince Alwaleed said.
It will take three years to build the tower, said the Saudi businessman, a nephew of King Abdullah and one of the kingdom's wealthiest men. He did not say when construction would begin.
Prince Alwaleed said the tower was intended to "send a message of strength" reflecting the OPEC kingpin's economic and political stability.
"Our message is political," he said.
Saudi Arabia has been spared a wave of protests that has rocked the region, leading to the downfall of autocratic rulers in Tunisia and Egypt, despite sporadic small protests staged by Shi'ites in the Eastern Province.
The tower, which will be part of a $US20 billion ($A18.3 billion) project north of Jeddah, would top Dubai's 828-metre Burj Khalifa, which was opened last year.
It will include a hotel, apartments and offices occupying an area of 500,000 square metres.
AFP
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/
MotoActive Tipped as Athletic Oriented Android Watch for Motorola
Motorola has has one other Android-based device in its potential ranks before, that being the seemingly very similar Tracy XL, this name being in place because it was to be aimed at the lovers of said last name of the original wristwatch-clad Dick Tracy, investigator deluxe. Now we’re seeing several watches of a slightly similar build come through – back in December of 2010 we saw the Sony Ericsson LiveView, just this June the first we got to see a glimpse of the Tracy XL in part of its lovely glory, then even so recent as this morning we’re privy to some hands-on feels for the WIMM Wearable Platform, again running Android.
What this MotoActive has to offer is a tiny display (likely around 1-inch), touch screen, several physical input buttons around the edge, a single Android back button, and a cool red and black wristwatch band with which you’ll be sporting the new device in public. This device clearly has exercise in mind, a running made, some recent, running, and cycling options, and some specs on running sitting in the first row of previews. Of course there’s always room for music, Rihanna with her bright red hair in back of a play, fast forward and fast back buttons in the watch-based image.
All of this is of course based on the idea that this leak is of a real device, these images clearly being mock-ups and renders of a product that may not be complete as of yet. Why on earth there’s a need to bring the time of day back to one’s wrist is another question your humble narrator would ask, when it’s perfectly simple to take the smartphone out of your pocket and tap once. What do you think, time to get funky with some wrist-based Androids?
[via Android Community]
Investigators haven't been able to trace salmonella
For months, federal and state officials have searched for the cause of an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant salmonella responsible for one death and 76 illnesses, but they have yet to trace it back to a producer. The closest they've been able to get is that it's linked to eating ground turkey.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an investigation of the outbreak Monday night. The microbe involved is called salmonella Heidelberg. A DNA "fingerprint" of the bacteria shows it is resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics. Because of this, people infected in this outbreak could be at higher risk for hospitalization, and the infection can be harder to treat.
Neil Gaffney, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service, says "despite an "extensive investigation," there is little information linking the illnesses to any specific product or establishment and so it would "not be appropriate to issue a recall notice," yet the investigation is continuing.
The illnesses apparently began after March 1, and the most recent victim was reported Monday, the CDC says. Ground turkey is frequently frozen, so a contaminated batch could stay in circulation for quite awhile.
Those stricken range in age from 1 to 88. Of 58 taken ill about whom information is available, 38% have been hospitalized, a relatively high rate for salmonella — the average is 22%. One death related to the outbreak occurred in California.
The origins of this specific antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella aren't pinned down, but turkey has somewhat high levels of antibiotic resistance, says Gail Hansen, a veterinarian with the Pew Charitable Trusts. Antibiotics are commonly given at low levels to turkeys and other animals to help them grow faster, she says.
Symptoms from salmonellosis include diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within eight to 72 hours of eating tainted food, in addition to chills, headache, nausea and vomiting. In the very young, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, salmonella can be life-threatening.
The USDA says consumers need to be aware "of the critical importance of following cooking instructions " and to always allow ground turkey to reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
Moody’s, Fitch Affirm U.S. Ratings While Warning of Downgrades
Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings affirmed their AAA credit ratings for the U.S. while warning that the ratings could be downgraded if lawmakers fail to enact debt reduction measures and the economy weakens.
The rating outlook is now negative, Moody’s said in a statement yesterday after President Barack Obama signed into law a plan to lift the nation’s borrowing limit and cut spending.
The debt-limit compromise “is a positive step toward reducing the future path of the deficit and the debt levels,” Steven Hess, senior credit officer at Moody’s in New York, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “We do think more needs to be done to ensure a reduction in the debt to GDP ratio, for example, going forward.”
A ratings cut would raise the specter that the wrangling between Obama and Republican lawmakers over spending cuts and taxes will harm American prestige and the global financial system. JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimated that a downgrade would raise the nation’s borrowing costs by $100 billion a year. It could also hurt the rest of the U.S. economy by increasing the cost of mortgages, auto loans and other types of lending tied to the interest rates paid on Treasuries.
“A downgrade is a sign that Congress is failing to address a real fiscal issue,” Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia, said in an interview before the announcements.
‘Tough Choices’
A decision on the rating may be made within two years, or “considerably sooner,” according to Moody’s Hess. For Fitch, while the rating may be cut in the medium term, its risks in the near-term “are not high,” David Riley said in an interview.
Fitch expects to complete the ratings review by the end of August. The U.S. must confront “tough choices on tax and spending against a weak economic backdrop if the budget deficit and government debt is to be cut,” Fitch said in a statement.
“Although the agreement is a good first step in adjusting the fiscal challenges that the U.S. faces, it is just a first step,” Riley, Fitch’s London-based head of sovereign ratings, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “Does it mean that the AAA rating is completely secure of the medium term? No.”
The ratio of general government debt, including state and local governments, to gross domestic product is projected to climb to 100 percent in 2012, the most of any country with an AAA ranking, Fitch said in April.
Standard & Poor’s put the U.S. government on notice on April 18 that it risks losing its AAA rating unless lawmakers agree on a plan by 2013 to reduce budget deficits and the national debt. S&P indicated last week that anything less than $4 trillion in cuts would jeopardize the U.S.’s AAA rating.
Debt-Limit Compromise
An increase in Treasury yields of 50 basis points would reduce U.S. economic growth by about 0.4 percentage points, JPMorgan said in a report, citing Federal Reserve research and data.
Obama signed the debt-limit compromise on the day the Treasury had warned the nation’s borrowing authority would expire, ending a months-long debate that reinforced partisan divisions over federal spending.
The Senate voted 74-26 for the measure, which raises the nation’s debt ceiling until 2013 and threatens automatic spending cuts to enforce $2.4 trillion in spending reductions over the next 10 years. The House passed the plan Aug. 1.
“While the combination of the congressional committee process and automatic triggers provides a mechanism to induce fiscal discipline, this framework is untested,” Moody’s said in the statement. Moody’s said its baseline scenario assumes that fiscal discipline is maintained in 2012.
Debt-to-GDP
“Further measures will likely be required to ensure that the long-run fiscal trajectory remains compatible with a Aaa rating,” Moody’s said. The credit rater expects a stabilization of the federal government’s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio not too far above its projected 2012 level of 73 percent by the middle of the decade, followed by a decline.
Recent downward revisions of economic growth rates and the very low growth rate recorded in the first half of 2011 call into question the strength of potential growth in the next year or two, Moody’s said. Moody’s, which has rated the U.S. Aaa since 1917, put the U.S. under review for a downgrade on July 13 for the first time since 1996.
Still, U.S. bonds and the dollar have signaled increased demand for the assets of the world’s largest economy even as the prospects of losing the AAA rating rose as the debt talks extended to the deadline when the Treasury said it would exhaust its ability to borrow.
Yields Decline
Treasury yields average about 0.70 percentage point less than the rest of the world’s sovereign debt markets, Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes show. The difference has expanded from 0.15 percentage point in January.
Investors from China to the U.K. are lending money to the U.S. government for a decade at the lowest rates of the year. For many of them, there are few alternatives outside the U.S., no matter what its credit rating.
Treasury 10-year yields fell to as low as 2.60 percent yesterday in New York, the least since November. The dollar represents 60.7 percent of the world’s currency reserves, compared with the 26.6 percent for the euro, which has the next biggest portion, according to the International Monetary Fund in Washington.
“Regardless of the rating, Treasuries are going to be seen as the safe haven,” said Matthew Freund, a senior vice president at USAA Investment Management Co. in San Antonio, where he helps oversee about $50 billion in mutual fund assets. “The U.S. remains one of the strongest, most dynamic economies in the world.”
To contact the reporter on this story: John Detrixhe in New York at jdetrixhe1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net
Post-Katrina police shooting case goes to jury
(Reuters) - Prosecutors told a New Orleans jury on Tuesday that testimony showed police officers had gone on an "an unjustifiable rampage" when they shot civilians in the chaotic 2005 aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Prosecutor Theodore Carter, in closing arguments in the federal civil rights trial of five officers charged in the case, said the killing of James Brissette, 17, and Ronald Madison, 40, "was murder, plain and simple".
Carter told the jury that immediately after the shootings, in which four other civilians were also seriously wounded, police began concocting stories to make their actions appear justified.
Officers Kenneth Bowen, Robert Faulcon, Robert Gisevius and Anthony Villavaso are charged in the shooting, and along with former detective Arthur Kaufman, are also accused of conducting a lengthy cover-up.
The shootings occurred when a dozen officers responded to a radio call that police had been fired on and that the shooters were headed toward the Danziger Bridge, when much of the city was still underwater from the storm.
A dozen officers who heard the call jumped into a rental truck and sped toward the bridge. Witnesses have said that when the police saw a group of civilians walking on the bridge, officers jumped out and began firing indiscriminately.
Multiple witnesses, including several officers who have pleaded guilty to roles in the incident, have said all the victims were unarmed.
Defense lawyers, however, have tried to cast doubt on the premise that the shooting victims were unarmed and raised the possibility that persons not involved in the trial may have fired guns from the ground near the bridge.
"Prosecutors made a classic rookie mistake. They developed a theory of the case and went about trying to prove it," defense lawyer Paul Fleming told jurors, adding that the government ignored evidence that didn't fit its theory.
DEFENSE CITES POST-STORM CHAOS
The prosecution asked the jury to consider how reasonable officers would have behaved when they saw members of the Bartholomew family walking up the bridge that day. Carter asked why police hadn't pulled up close to the civilians, showed their guns and shouted "Freeze. Police."
"Is there anybody here who doubts that, if they had done that, the Bartholomews would have stopped and put up their hands?" he asked.
Paraphrasing officer Ignatius Hills, who pleaded guilty to participating in the shooting and testified at trial, Carter said: "You shot these people to smithereens. Where are the guns?"
Defense lawyers repeatedly noted that fear and chaos reigned in New Orleans at the time, and that officers were under severe stress after evacuating their homes and spending days rescuing people from the flood waters.
"I ask you to look at this to see what kind of men these men are," lawyer Lindsay Larson said.
Noting that the defendants had remained on the job when some officers fled the city, he said: "Robert Faulcon didn't even know what happened to his pregnant wife for three weeks, but he stayed and did his job."
Villavaso's lawyer Timothy Meche told the jury that what happened to all the victims that day was "a terrible tragedy," but he asked the jury to understand that officers "were operating in terrible circumstances and they were doing the best they could."
Lead prosecutor Barbara Bernstein took issue with that in her rebuttal.
"They assumed that everybody they saw on the bridge that day was going to be a bad guy," she said. "Confident that nobody would question them, they went out there and delivered their own sort of post-apocalyptic justice."
But it wasn't bad guys on the bridge, she said. "It was two good families minding their own business."
The judge will give the jury their instructions on Wednesday morning and they will immediately begin deliberating the guilt or innocence of the defendants.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
Libya - By the death of the CNT
This is the field of the swan for the CNT and the likely withdrawal of NATO tails between their legs ...
Summer is a nightmare for the homeless but also for the French Government has relied on a shameful loser in Libya. Saif el-Islam (video below) has taunted the soldiers of the Apocalypse. The 258 million that Sarkozy has just granted the renegades of Benghazi, the Islamists assumed and traitors to their nation without compensation, will not be used for war (pays the salaries of soldiers or junk arms purchases). This money was given only for the purchase of consciences. Damn.
Since the violent death of General Younis, the situation has changed locally in Benghazi. There is now daily skirmishes between the insurgents. First is the uprising of the tribe of Warfallah we were talking about this morning. Then, the revolt of Yunis clan of the tribe of super-powerful Obeidi who has sworn to avenge his death. This internal conflict in CNT has killed at least 300 people, not to mention the kidnappings. At a time when we complete this post, the fighting is still reported in Benghazi between factions of urchins in Benghazi.
Ironically, the collateral victims of clashes in Benghazi are French and English. Obeidi tribe, one of the most powerful of Libya, has captured 15 foreign instructors (French, English, Qatar). We must therefore expect to pay ransoms for their release and the French authorities have instituted a media code of silence on these facts, for fear of public anger against what is now a dismal failure in Libya.
What is criticized today by CNT and its members .. NATO is to have allowed its phagocytosis by the Islamists of Al Qaeda. When the old leader proclaimed loud and clear that this terrorist group was behind the crazy Benghazi, no one believed him. Moreover, the officials knew, but they preferred to ally with the worst scum because he hoped to quickly gain an advantage. Alas, nothing is as agreed or expected.
More than 2,000 tribal leaders have re allegiance to Muammar Gaddafi, where the triumphant exit of his son Saif al-Islam yesterday. He thanked the Libyans came, more than ever behind his father. Worse, these tribal leaders, in turn, require the immediate cessation of NATO bombing murderers who can not only focus on the civilian population or deposits of foods. The wish is that the population rises. But the Libyan authorities aware of this diabolical plan, quickly responded, to put away food.
Recent events in Benghazi showed the advanced stage of putrefaction of the viper's nest behind the CNT. Without a psychic, dissolution, nay, the dislocation of CNT reaches unbelievable speed Without playing the Nostradamus of Sunday in the image of Sarkozy duo amateur-Cameron who had bet on a "blitzkrieg" in Libya, the CNT will not survive the death of General Younis.
The question now is whether, after the ultimatum of the clan Obeidi received by NATO to stop its bombing on Libyan soil, if they will run. The fact is that Abdeljalil Mustafa, the leader of the pseudo CNT, was rebuffed by the rebels in his camp. Nobody listens to Benghazi over the sorcerer's apprentice. Now, think he finally exile somewhere in London or Paris? It is clear, Muammar Gaddafi is to make a spirited fight against imperialist coalition of Western arms broken ...
allainjules.com
Summer is a nightmare for the homeless but also for the French Government has relied on a shameful loser in Libya. Saif el-Islam (video below) has taunted the soldiers of the Apocalypse. The 258 million that Sarkozy has just granted the renegades of Benghazi, the Islamists assumed and traitors to their nation without compensation, will not be used for war (pays the salaries of soldiers or junk arms purchases). This money was given only for the purchase of consciences. Damn.
Since the violent death of General Younis, the situation has changed locally in Benghazi. There is now daily skirmishes between the insurgents. First is the uprising of the tribe of Warfallah we were talking about this morning. Then, the revolt of Yunis clan of the tribe of super-powerful Obeidi who has sworn to avenge his death. This internal conflict in CNT has killed at least 300 people, not to mention the kidnappings. At a time when we complete this post, the fighting is still reported in Benghazi between factions of urchins in Benghazi.
Ironically, the collateral victims of clashes in Benghazi are French and English. Obeidi tribe, one of the most powerful of Libya, has captured 15 foreign instructors (French, English, Qatar). We must therefore expect to pay ransoms for their release and the French authorities have instituted a media code of silence on these facts, for fear of public anger against what is now a dismal failure in Libya.
What is criticized today by CNT and its members .. NATO is to have allowed its phagocytosis by the Islamists of Al Qaeda. When the old leader proclaimed loud and clear that this terrorist group was behind the crazy Benghazi, no one believed him. Moreover, the officials knew, but they preferred to ally with the worst scum because he hoped to quickly gain an advantage. Alas, nothing is as agreed or expected.
More than 2,000 tribal leaders have re allegiance to Muammar Gaddafi, where the triumphant exit of his son Saif al-Islam yesterday. He thanked the Libyans came, more than ever behind his father. Worse, these tribal leaders, in turn, require the immediate cessation of NATO bombing murderers who can not only focus on the civilian population or deposits of foods. The wish is that the population rises. But the Libyan authorities aware of this diabolical plan, quickly responded, to put away food.
Recent events in Benghazi showed the advanced stage of putrefaction of the viper's nest behind the CNT. Without a psychic, dissolution, nay, the dislocation of CNT reaches unbelievable speed Without playing the Nostradamus of Sunday in the image of Sarkozy duo amateur-Cameron who had bet on a "blitzkrieg" in Libya, the CNT will not survive the death of General Younis.
The question now is whether, after the ultimatum of the clan Obeidi received by NATO to stop its bombing on Libyan soil, if they will run. The fact is that Abdeljalil Mustafa, the leader of the pseudo CNT, was rebuffed by the rebels in his camp. Nobody listens to Benghazi over the sorcerer's apprentice. Now, think he finally exile somewhere in London or Paris? It is clear, Muammar Gaddafi is to make a spirited fight against imperialist coalition of Western arms broken ...
allainjules.com
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