vicariously_i's calendar


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1/25/08 (Day 302)

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live while the whole world dies: the top google news clipping of each and every day.
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The Israeli military launched a major operation against Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing 60 people -- about half of them civilians -- and sending in a large contingent of ground troops to stop rockets streaming daily out of the territory into southern Israel.
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Dmitry Medvedev, the man Vladimir Putin hand-picked to be his successor, scored a crushing victory in Russia’s presidential elections Sunday, a result that was long anticipated but that still raises questions about who will run this resurgent global power.
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Plans for a new resolution against Iran at the UN's nuclear watchdog have been dropped, reports quoting diplomats say. Diplomats speaking anonymously to news agencies said Western states had scrapped the plans in the face of opposition led by China and Russia.
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It will either be the beginning of the end, or a new beginning for Hillary Clinton. With her dreams of becoming America's first female president hanging on the results of key primaries today in Texas and Ohio, the New York senator expressed optimism that momentum had turned back in her favour after several days spent harshly criticizing rival Barack Obama on national security,
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The Organization of American States approved a resolution on Wednesday declaring the Colombian military raid into Ecuador a violation of sovereignty, in a move aimed at easing a diplomatic crisis in the Andes involving Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.
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A small explosion caused minor damage to a US military recruiting center in New York’s Times Square area in the early hours of yesterday but there were no injuries, police said. Police said a small improvised explosive device caused minor damage to the building around 3:45am (0845 GMT). The thick glass door was cracked and the lower part of its metal frame was twisted. The blast also shattered a window encasing the classic recruiting poster of Uncle Sam saying, “I want you.�
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U.S. employers cut payrolls for a second straight month during February, slashing 63,000 jobs for the biggest monthly job decline in nearly five years as the labor market weakened steadily, a government report on Friday showed. The Labor Department said last month's cut in jobs followed an upwardly revised loss of 22,000 jobs in January instead of 17,000 reported a month ago. In addition, it said that only 41,000 jobs were created in December, half the 82,000 originally reported.
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President Bush on Saturday blocked an effort by congressional Democrats to limit interrogation measures used in the fight against terrorism by vetoing an intelligence authorization bill that would have outlawed waterboarding and other harsh methods. A rare veto in the last year of his two-term presidency, Bush's action was as much a rebuke of Democrats on Capitol Hill as it was a bid to maintain the strong presidential authority to wage war on foreign terrorists that he has asserted since the Sept. 11 attacks.
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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday he would support an incoming coalition government that could potentially seek his resignation, so long as peace was maintained. Musharraf, who came to power as a general in a 1999 coup, will face a hostile parliament after the crushing defeat of his allies in a parliamentary election on February 18.
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A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
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Today, 2008 National STD Prevention Conference by Center for Disease Control (CDC) is publishing a study which estimates ONE IN FOUR -- or 26 percent -- of young women between the ages of 14 and 19 in the United States is infected with at least one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases (human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, herpes simplex virus, and trichomoniasis).
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State Republicans in New York have given Gov. Eliot Spitzer a one-to-two day deadline to quit or face impeachment over a sex scandal. Spitzer is reportedly under investigation for an alleged involvement with a prostitution ring. 'If he does not resign within the next 24 to 48 hours, we will prepare articles of impeachment to remove him,'
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The Senate passed a budget plan on Friday to eliminate the federal deficit by 2012 while spending more than President George W. Bush wants on domestic programs like schools and roads.
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U.S. stocks plunged for the third day this week after Bear Stearns Cos. required a bailout from the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to avoid collapse.
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It's a scene reminiscent of 9-11 ..captured on a cell phone on New York's east side. With buckets in hand and stretchers at the ready, hundreds of rescue crews dig through the rubble of a building crushed underneath a giant metal crane...in what the mayor calls one of the worst construction accidents the city has ever seen.
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THE near-collapse of the US investment bank Bear Stearns is set to reverberate through the sharemarket today, with strategists expecting banks and financial engineers to bear the brunt of a sell-off that could wipe more than 100 points from the bourse. The bail-out of the cash-starved Wall Street investment bank is also likely to make it even more costly for Australian institutions to borrow from money markets. This, in turn, could result in retail banks raising interest rates on home loans even further as they seek to recoup the higher borrowing costs.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Monday defended government moves to rescue Bear Stearns Cos Inc from bankruptcy, saying it was important to ensure the orderly function of financial markets. Speaking to reporters following a White House meeting between President George W. Bush and his economic advisers, Paulson said those worried about the government rescue creating a 'moral hazard' should keep in mind that Bear Stearns shareholders face considerable losses with the sale of the investment firm to JPMorgan Chase for $2 a share. Moral hazard is the concept that investors might take greater risks on the belief that government policy would protect them from suffering losses. The $236 million value of the Bear buyout deal represents less than 90 percent of the company's value as of Friday at its closing share price of $30.85.
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The source of his latest troubles are sermons by the church's founder, the Rev Jeremiah Wright, which date back to 2003 but have been recently uploaded to YouTube. For the past week, the Illinois senator has been under attack as these incendiary clips showing the fire-breathing Mr Wright denouncing US foreign and domestic policy and casual racism against African Americans, have made national news.
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hina said it is 'seriously concerned' about a planned meeting between Gordon Brown and the Dalai Lama, telling the British Prime Minister not to offer support to Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader. The Dalai Lama is a 'political refugee engaged in activities of splitting China under the camouflage of religion,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in remarks issued late Wednesday by the official Xinhua News Agency.
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'It's a bizarre accident,' said Jorge Pino, an agent with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The woman and her family were aboard a boat in the Atlantic Ocean, off the city of Marathon in the Florida Keys, he said. 'A large ray jumped out of the water and collided with the victim and somehow the barb penetrated some part of her body, which caused her to fall back and hit her head on some portion of the vessel,' Mr. Pino said. 'We don't know exactly which one of those things caused her death.'
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Democratic US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has been endorsed by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, himself a former candidate. At a rally in Oregon, he praised a speech Mr Obama gave earlier this week on the issue of racial divisions. It comes after footage of controversial comments made by Mr Obama's pastor threatened to damage his campaign. Both Mr Obama and Hillary Clinton had sought the backing of Mr Richardson, the only Hispanic US governor.
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Awakening council members, a Sunni group fighting al-Qaida, stand around the bodies of six of their comrades killed in a U.S. air strike near Samarra, Iraq, Saturday, March 22, 2008. Police say a U.S. airstrike has struck checkpoints manned by U.S.-allied Sunni fighters north of Baghdad, killing six guards and wounding two. A police officer says the six members of the so-called awakening council were killed and two others were wounded when an airstrike hit two checkpoints about 100 meters (yards) apart. A local awakening council leader says the airstrikes came some two hours after U.S. soldiers stopped at the two checkpoints to meet with the Sunni fighters.
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US Death Toll in Iraq War Hits 4,000 — A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, pushing the overall American death toll in the five-year war to at least 4,000. The grim milestone came on a day when at least 61 people were killed across the country. Rockets and mortars pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone, underscoring the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups despite an overall lull in violence. The soldiers with Multi-National Division — Baghdad were on a patrol when their vehicle was struck at about 10 p.m. in southern Baghdad, the military said. Another soldier was wounded in the attack.
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A significant part of the attraction that the Olympic Games hold for us –and their curse—is national pride. In their best moments, the achievements of an individual or a team against the very best athletes in the world can uplift an entire nation with an impact far beyond sports. All of us who have watched the Olympics remember such times. When the Games become not about individual athletes, however, but about national success, the end result is to bring out the worst in us. All too often judges are influenced in their scoring by the nationality of the athletes. Countries go to extraordinary lengths such as providing vast subsidies to young athletes to take up esoteric sports in hopes of increasing their “medals won.”
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The Air Force mistakenly shipped to Taiwan four electrical fuses designed for use on intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Pentagon said Tuesday, but has since recovered them and launched an investigation. The error is particularly disturbing because of its indirect link to nuclear weaponry and because of the sensitivity of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, which China regularly denounces as provocative.
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The only thing the stunningly beautiful high school senior thought she was missing? Perfect breasts. So the Florida teen decided to have cosmetic surgery - a decision that cost her her life. Kuleba suffered a rare fatal reaction to the anesthesia at an outpatient facility and was rushed to an area hospital.
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Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militiamen Tuesday in the southern oil port of Basra and rockets rained down on the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad as followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr expanded a nationwide backlash against government crackdowns. The U.S. Embassy said no deaths or serious casualties were reported in the Green Zone attacks — the second major barrage this week launched from Shiite areas. Two rockets landed on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's compound, but did not explode, an Iraqi government security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to disclose the information.
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A series of attacks on dyed-hair, eye-makeup-wearing emo kids began in early March when several hundred people went on an emo-beating rampage in Querétaro, a town of 1.5 million about 160 miles north of Mexico City. The next week, shaggy-haired emo teenagers were harassed again by punks and rockabillys in the capital, prompting police protection and a segment on the TV news. Most recently, a Mexican newspaper reported that metal heads and gangsters have warned Tijuana's emo kids to stay away from the town's fair next month. But the so-called emos are organizing, too. Last week, they demonstrated against the violence, pictured above, and Wednesday some met with police in Mexico City. 'They're organizing to defend their right to be emo, which has provided stellar coverage of the whole affair.'
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Fighters loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr with their weapons in Basra, southern Iraq on 27 March 2008. Fighting between Iraqi security forces and the Mehdi Army militia continued in Basra. A health official said 50 people had been killed and 200 wounded since a major Iraqi military operation began on 25 March 2008.
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A private contractor under investigation for the compensation it received to run the Road Home grant program for Katrina victims says that in the rush to deliver aid to homeowners in need some people got too much. Now it wants to hire a separate company to collect millions in grant overpayments. The contractor, ICF International of Fairfax, Va., revealed the extent of the overpayments when it issued a March 11 request for bids from companies willing to handle 'approximately 1,000 to 5,000 cases that will necessitate collection effort.'
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Hud Chief Resigns Amid Criminal Probe: HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, his tenure tarnished by allegations of political favoritism and a criminal investigation, announced his resignation Monday amid the wreckage of the national housing crisis. He leaves behind a trail of unanswered questions about whether he tilted the Department of Housing and Urban Development toward Republican contractors and cronies. The move comes at a shaky time for the economy, with soaring mortgage foreclosures imperiling the nation's credit markets. In announcing that his last day at HUD will be April 18, Jackson said only, 'There comes a time when one must attend more diligently to personal and family matters.'
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