| World News  | Putin blames US for war
Sydney Morning Herald
The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has shocked Europe by using the giant American broadcaster, CNN, to accuse his US counterpart, George Bush, of creating the war in Georgia as a plot to install John McCain as his successor. In the most outrageous and inflammatory claim since the crisis in South Ossetia erupted earlier this month, Putin accused the US of provoking the conflict to help the Republican candidate - an outspoken critic of the...
photo: AP /RIA-Novosti, Presidential Press Service, Dmitry Astakhov
|  | Obama seeks a personal touch within a huge stadium
The Examiner
The State - 12 hrs ago Barack Obama was unveiling a delicate balancing act Thursday, trying to get personal with 75,000 supporters in a massive stadium and millions more at home while explaining how as president he would make a difference in their lives.The sweep of history could be overwhelming in itself: The previous evening Obama became the first black man to be a major political party's presidential candidate, his acceptance of the Democratic...
photo: AP / Ron Edmonds
|  | Stocks jump on better-than-expected GDP, jobs data
The Boston Globe
NEW YORK—Wall Street barreled higher Thursday after a better-than-expected reading on the gross domestic product and a drop in jobless claims gave investors some reassurance that the economy is holding up. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped more than 200 points. A decline in oil prices also appeared to add force to the rally in stocks. But trading volume was again light heading toward the Labor Day weekend, a condition that can skew...
photo: AP / Jin Le
|  | Pakistan's next president: Mental health problems?
Canoe
By Robin Mcdowell, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A Pakistani lawyer tears down a poster of Bhutto's widower and political successor, Asif Ali Zardari, who will run for president in the Sept. 6 election by lawmakers, during a demonstration in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Emilio Morenatti ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Asif Ali Zardari, the man poised to become Pakistan's next president, is still known as "Mr. 10 per cent"...
photo: AP / Emilio Morenatti
|  | New Katrina death tally: Half of victims 75 and up
Syracuse
CHICAGO (AP) - As New Orleans residents warily track another threatening storm, a new report presents the clearest picture yet of deaths from Katrina in Louisiana. Of the nearly 1,000 who died, almost half were 75 or older, according to researchers. Most died on the day of the storm - August 29, 2005 - and drowning was the leading cause of death. More than one-third died in homes. The results present a tragic portrait of elderly residents who may...
photo: FEMA / Barry Bahler
|  | New Orleans asks: Will the rebuilt levees hold?
The Charlotte Observer
NEW ORLEANS Just three years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans confronts a new threat from Gustav and a stark question: Will the partially rebuilt levees hold? Despite $2 billion in improvements, including 220 miles of repaired, raised and replaced floodwalls, 17 new pump stations and more flood-resistant pump stations, nobody can say for sure the city won't be swamped again. And if it is, could it ever recover? "It's scary, man," said Robert...
photo: FEMA / Barry Bahler
|  | Karadzic won't enter plea
The Australian
RADOVAN Karadzic will not enter a plea when he appears this week at The Hague to answer a host of war crimes charges including over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, his legal adviser said today. A judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will ask the former Bosnian Serb political leader to issue his plea for 11 charges...
photo: AP / Srdjan Ilic
|  | The divided and broken city of Kirkuk faces up to the curse of oil
The Times
It should be Iraq's biggest success story. Beneath the soil of Kirkuk lies oil worth billions of dollars - the world's sixth-biggest reserve. Yet there is no sewerage system, the roads are cracked, rubbish is strewn all over the pavements, unemployment is as high as 40 per cent and there is no sign of any improvement. Even more worrying - to the Government as well as to the US-led coalition - is that the city is being pulled between different...
photo: WN / Jamal Penjweny
|  | Mugabe threat to rule alone
Canberra Times
Zimbabwe's veteran ruler, Robert Mugabe, would defy the opposition and form a new government despite the stalling of talks on power-sharing after contested polls, his deputy information minister said yesterday. ''Nothing is going to stop us from forming a new government,'' Bright Matonga...
photo: AP Photo /
|  | A 'Tipping Point' In The Arctic
The Press Democrat
The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that sea ice in the Arctic now covers about 2.03 million square miles. The lowest point since satellite measurements began in 1979 was 1.65 million square miles set last September. With about three weeks left in the Arctic summer, this year could wind up breaking that previous record, scientists said. Arctic ice always melts in summer and refreezes in winter. But over the years, more of the ice is...
photo: NOAA file / Commander Richard Behn
| Business News  | Is it time for a price on water ?
TVNZ
Aug 29, 2008 12:47 PM By Corin Dann It seems hard to believe given the rain we've had this winter, but according to the Business Council for Sustainable Development all of the country's fresh water resources will have been fully allocated by 2012. This means, says the Council in a new report, that there is a now a water gold rush underway. Now lets be clear, they are not talking about New Zealand running out of water. Rather it is about who gets...
photo: WN / Geeta
|  | A Nano attempt at idea cross pollination
The Times of India
Nanotechnology , the science that seeks to develop elemental devices from sub-atomic matter, is a good testimony to today’s spirit of a shrinking world. Credit Suisse analysts estimate nanotechnology to grow at 25%-30 % per year and command a market size of $ 220 billion by 2010. Dr Arindam Ghosh, assistant professor at the department of physics at the Indian Institute of Sciences,...
photo: WN / patricia
|  | Internal communication pulse beating in IT firms
The Times of India
Every employee can’t be present at an international conference to learn about the best trade practices . Likewise, not all can participate in a path-breaking deal. But everyone can benefit from the exposure thanks to the internal communication (IC) pulse beating in most IT/ ITeS firms. From Philip’s town hall meets, where the CEO shares his experience with all, to IBM’s attempts to...
photo: creative commons /
|  | Gold demand skyrockets in 2008
The Times of India
Investing in gold a safe bet. MUMBAI: Gold is enjoying a modern-day renaissance in the country. From retail sales of 300-400 kgs of gold bar per day at the start of 2008, demand has surged to 3,000 to 4,000 kgs per day. Barring the slight rise in price at the start of this week, most counters registered an unprecedented sale. Gold's dip below Rs...
photo: WN / Fatma Ceylan
|  | The school uniform price war
BBC News
When buying school uniforms for their children ahead of the new term, most mums will agree with Siobhan Freegard's "wear then tear" theory. "My children have not managed to grow out of their uniforms before they have worn them out or left them on the bus," says the mother-of-three. That makes cost the primary issue for Siobhan as she spends the next few days buying jumpers, shirts and trousers for Sean, 12, Aisling, eight, and Aran, five. But she...
photo: WN / Yolanda Leyba
|  | Johnnie Walker sales top £1bn as Diageo shows spirit
The Daily Telegraph
Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky has become the first spirits drink to surpass annual sales of £1bn, according to Diageo. The beverages giant said surging demand in the US, South America and Asia had propelled sales of the blend to historic levels. Chief executive Paul Walsh described Johnnie Walker, sponsor of Formula One team McLaren Mercedes, as the "star performer" in Diageo's latest results, which showed full-year profits marking...
photo: WN / Denise Yong
|  | House prices in biggest annual fall since 1991
International Herald Tribune
: House prices fell almost two percent on the month in August to post their biggest annual drop since monthly records began in 1991, the Nationwide building society said on Thursday. The decline, which was bigger than most analysts were expecting, heightened concern the economy is heading for recession and pushed sterling to a 12-year low on a trade-weighted basis. "If prices continue to fall at the pace they have done over the past three months,...
photo: Creative Commons / Ebyabe
|  | PSE to extend trading hours next year
The Manila Times
By Katrina Mennen A. Valdez, Reporter WITH its profit likely to suffer this year due to the ongoing market turmoil, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has decided to extend trading hours into the afternoon in hopes of increasing liquidity. Several years ago, the local bourse also attempted to extend trading hours, but dropped the extension after eight months due to low volumes. Under its board-approved plan, the PSE will extend trading next...
photo: AP/Bullit Marquez
| Entertainment News  | Buzz Briefs: Oprah, Kid Rock
CBS News
Winfrey Passes First Lady On Forbes "Most Powerful Women" List The way Forbes magazine figures it, Oprah Winfrey is more powerful than Laura Bush. Winfrey ranks 36th on the Forbes list of the 100 most powerful women in the world, eight places ahead of Bush. TV newswomen are all bunched together from number 61 to 65. Meredith Vieira is followed by Katie Couric, Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer. All are considered more powerful than the presidents...
photo: creative commons / flickr
|  | Vegas, baby
Toronto Sun
Is Celine Dion really taking chances anymore? Well, the name of her current world tour would say that she is, but the 40-year-old mega-selling pop star is basically Vegas personified. And after making people take the pilgrimage to Sin City from 2002 to 2007 to see the singer's A New Day hits package, Dion decided to basically take the show on the road and primarily to those same people. Such was the case last night for the first of two shows this...
photo: AP Photo / Peter Kramer
|  | Night of the Pop Stars
Syracuse
Hudgens and friends thrill crowd of tweens, teens Staff writer Vanessa Hudgens had a colorful backdrop with one word splashed across it - "Vground." The young pop star explained to the squealing fans exactly what that means before she even sang a note. "My own trends. My own turf. My own time," the star of Disney's oh-so-popular "High School Musical" films declared. Six dancers and a taped soundtrack helped get her message through Wednesday night...
photo: AP/Stephen Chernin
| Health News  | Cancer spread 'happens earlier'
BBC News
Apparently "normal" cells may carry cancer to new sites long before a tumour develops, lying dormant until key genes are activated, experts say. US researchers say their findings, published in Science, could explain why some breast cancers lead to new tumours long after the disease is treated. Secondary, or metastatic, cancers are responsible for the majority of deaths from the disease. UK experts said it was...
photo: Public domain /
|  | Too good to waste?
The Guardian
Reports that sludge from sewage plants is routinely used to fertilise edible crops have caused outrage. Is this simply a prudent use of so-called 'biosolids' or a grave threat to our health? Rose George investigates It is my first and last day at sewage school. The premises are nothing much to look at, consisting of a Portakabin in the car park of Barston, a small sewage-treatment works near Birmingham. This classroom is one of five run by Severn...
photo: U.S. Army/Kevin Bromley
|  | Epsom salts may protect against cerebral palsy
Scripps Howard
Preterm babies are significantly less likely to develop cerebral palsy if their mothers are given magnesium sulfate before childbirth, according to new research that could spark a shift in care for women who go into early labor. Researchers believe that magnesium sulfate, commonly referred to as Epsom salts, may offer some neurological protection and prevent damage that can occur when the brain lacks oxygen, according to the study just published...
photo: WN / Rubielyn Bunag
|  | Car Talk: Here's why you should never hose down your car's engine
Seattle Post-Intelligence
Dear Tom and Ray: My husband can be such a knucklehead. When he is through washing the car, he opens the hood and runs the garden hose in and all around the car's engine. Basically, he washes the engine. He says it removes the dirt and salt. I say it will rust the engine and get water in places it doesn't belong. I could understand the salt thing when we lived up north. But now we live in Florida, 13 miles from the ocean. So my questions are: 1)...
photo: WN / Rubielyn Bunag
|  | Indiana shareholders get unpasteurized milk
Scripps Howard
Although Indiana law forbids the sale of raw, unpasteurized milk directly to consumers, Gina Robinson Ungar manages to distribute it from her small Rose Hill Dairy to nearly 40 families. To circumvent the prohibition against sales, Ungar relies on what is known as herd sharing. The arrangement allows her to offer a part ownership in the four cows she tends in Warrick County. Shareholders pay her a fee each month for taking care of the animals. In...
photo: WN / Rubielyn Bunag
|  | Independent WHO study backs universal health care
San Diego
GENEVA - Major inequalities in health and life expectancy persist worldwide, according to an independent World Health Organisation commission which on Thursday called for all countries to offer universal health care. Huge discrepancies also exist within countries, including Scotland where a boy born in the deprived Glasgow suburb of Calton can expect to live 28 years less than one born in affluent Lenzie, just 13 km (8 miles) across town, it...
photo: WN
|  | Ranks of unvaccinated schoolchildren on the rise
The Columbus Dispatch
Hundreds of thousands of children are headed to school this fall without protection from deadly diseases. More parents are deciding not to vaccinate their children against mumps, measles, rubella, polio and other dangerous diseases because of concerns that the vaccinations are harmful, or because of the growing cost and complexity of getting the shots. A Scripps Howard News Service review of incomplete surveys submitted to the federal Centers for...
photo: AP/Chris Gardner
| Politics News  | Polit bureau swears by bandhs, snubs Buddha
The Times of India
NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s attempt at image transformation by denouncing strikes has run into a stiff headwind called the CPM polit bureau. The party’s top decision-making body said it firmly stood for the right to strike by the working class. “The CPM firmly stands for the right to strike by the working class as a fundamental right,” the party polit...
photo: WN / Bhaskar Mallick
|  | Gore likens Obama to Abraham Lincoln
The Australian
NOBEL laureate Al Gore has likened Barack Obama to the great US leader Abraham Lincoln, and blamed his former foe President George W. Bush for ¿one calamity after another¿. The former vice-president said that had he emerged triumphant from the disputed 2000 election against Mr Bush things would have been different, in a hard-hitting speech...
photo: creative commons / Elvert Barnes
|  | Obama: We are better than these last eight years
CNN
(CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke to the Democratic National Convention on Thursday. Here are excerpts of that speech, released before it was delivered: "Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story -- of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to....
photo: AP Photo/Jim Cole
|  | Analysis: Oprah, Affleck! Obama's goldmine or risk
The Tribune San Luis Obispo
By JENNIFER LOVEN Associated Press Writer WASHINTON -- Hollywood hasn't contributed official speakers to Barack Obama's convention this week. But, man, have celebrities flocked to Denver in droves. Oprah's in the house! Was that Matthew Modine just now? Oh, wow, there's Anne Hathaway. All that, along with Thursday's final-night lineup featuring A-list performers like Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder and Obama's splashy acceptance speech in a packed...
photo: AP Photo / Denis Farrell
|  | iReporters applaud Bill Clinton, Biden speeches
CNN
(CNN) -- Former President Clinton dismissed critics who say Sen. Barack Obama is too inexperienced for the presidency in his speech to the Democratic National Convention. On Wednesday night, Clinton rallied support for Obama by drawing comparisons between his candidacy in 1992, reminding the audience that "Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief."...
photo: AP / Charlie Neibergall
|  | N Rangaswamy resigns as Pondicherry CM
The Times of India
28 Aug 2008, 1530 hrs IST,PTI PONDICHERRY: Pondicherry Chief Minister N Rangswamy resigned on Thursday, bringing an end to the month-long political uncertainty following a revolt by his cabinet colleagues against his...
photo: PIB of India / Photo Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.
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