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Main » 2012 » August » 03

(Reuters) - Thomson Reuters said the blogging platform of the Reuters News website was compromised on Friday and a false posting purporting to carry an interview with a Syrian rebel leader was illegally posted on a Reuters' journalist's blog.

"Reuters.com was a target of a hack on Friday," the company said in a statement. "Our blogging platform was compromised and fabricated blog posts were falsely attributed to several Reuters journalists."

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Views: 260 | Added by: Teesus | Date: 2012/08/03

AIG, the bailed-out insurer, is considering whether to close its bank unit as the company prepares for more government regulation.

“We are discussing internally the effects the Volcker rule could have on us,” Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche said today in a conference call discussing second-quarter results. “We are giving thought to whether we should now close the bank we have.”

MetLife Inc. (MET), the largest U.S. life insurer, is seeking to limit U.S. oversight by getting rid of its bank status after the Federal Reserve blocked buybacks and a dividend increase. Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Allstate Corp. and Ameriprise Financial Inc. (AMP) have also retreated from banking. Insurance units are overseen by watchdogs in the 50 states.

“They can be subject to less regulation and all the associated costs by simply disposing of the bank,” James Barth, a finance professor at Auburn University, said by phone. “If the bank is a small p ... Read more »
Views: 264 | Added by: Teesus | Date: 2012/08/03

After one of the darkest days in its 17-year history, the Knight Capital Group saw its stock rise sharply on Friday.

Shares in the beleaguered trading firm were up nearly 33 percent, to $3.43, as Knight officials told customers that it had financing lined up for the day, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The move offered some relief. Knight has been battered by its disclosure of a $440 million loss tied to an errant trading program that moved the stocks of 148 companies earlier this week.

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Views: 254 | Added by: Teesus | Date: 2012/08/03

You want a disaster? How about the fact that President Obama now holds a lead on the issue of taxes. The GOP should be crushing the President on taxes if they hope to take back the Presidency, but they are not, and considering that their number one issue is taxes, how high they supposedly are and how deeply they should be cut, the fact that Obama has a lead over the GOP on taxes is nothing short of a truly unmittigated disaster for the Republican party.

In short, this is the price you pay for making tax cuts for the rich a priority over everything else and then running a clueless multi-millionaire for President.

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Views: 278 | Added by: Teesus | Date: 2012/08/03

On top of the approximately 3 km thick ice sheet in Greenland the temperature is normally around minus 10-15 degrees C in the summer and about minus 60 degrees in the winter. This year, researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute observed temperatures above zero and a significant warming and melting of the upper 1 1/2 meter layer of snow at the NEEM ice core drilling project in northwestern Greenland.

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Views: 293 | Added by: Teesus | Date: 2012/08/03

Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Mohamed El-Erian called recent declines in purchasing manager indexes in Europe and Asia “frightening” and said the world economy is suffering its severest slowdown since the global recession ended in 2009.

El-Erian, who is chief executive officer of the Newport Beach, California-based Pimco, predicted global growth of 2.25 percent over the next 12 months. That’s down from the 3.9 percent in 2011 and 5.3 percent in 2010 recorded by the International Monetary Fund. The world economy contracted 0.6 percent in 2009.

“This is a serious, synchronized slowdown,” El-Erian said in an interview Thursday.

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Views: 225 | Added by: Teesus | Date: 2012/08/03

An Oregon man is expected to spend a month in jail after being convicted on nine misdemeanor charges related to his illegal use of…water. Gary Harrington was sentenced after being found guilty of illegally collecting water on his own rural property.

Harrington, of Eagle Point, Oregon, has been fighting for his right to do what he wishes with water since 2002. Now more than a decade after he first defended himself over allegations that the man-made ponds on his 170 acres of land violated local law, Harrington has been sentenced to 30 days behind bars and fined over $1,500.

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Views: 205 | Added by: Teesus | Date: 2012/08/03

WASHINGTON -- Retiring Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) offered scathing assessments Thursday of Congress and of the tax policy pushed on his party by anti-tax hardliner Grover Norquist.

Congress, LaTourette said, is like a drunk who needs to hit bottom in order to straighten out. While Republicans and Democrats share blame for that, he especially singled out the arguments of Norquist and his group Americans for Tax Reform, calling them "crap."

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Views: 290 | Added by: Teesus | Date: 2012/08/03

Chicago's largest music festival kicks off Friday, a day before the city's new marijuana policy officially takes effect.

Starting Saturday, Chicago Police have the option to issue $250 to $500 tickets instead of making arrests for possession of 15 grams of marijuana or less. The City Council voted 43-3 in June to approve the new rules.

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Views: 245 | Added by: Teesus | Date: 2012/08/03

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says his country will work to bring relations with China to a higher level.

Kim gave that assurance Thursday to visiting Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

Kim said it is the unswerving will of his government and the Workers' Party of Korea to carry on the legacy of the late Kim Jong Il, to deepen the traditional friendship with China, the report said. At home, Kim said the goal of his government is developing the economy and improving people's livelihood, the report said.

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Views: 271 | Added by: Teesus | Date: 2012/08/02

My Twitter buddy Josh Rogin wrote a great piece for ForeignPolicy.com, and it’s chock full o’ fun. He describes his interviews with a few Republican senators and how they are looking for the best way to explain their candidate’s credentials to be commander-in-chief, and failing miserably:

The answers ranged from the fact that he led the state national guard as governor of Massachusetts to his extensive travel abroad to his two years as a missionary in France and his all-around management ability.

No seriously, they did. Josh isn’t kidding. Those are the straws at which Republicans are grasping, listing his time as a missionary in France as a bona fide credential. Oui, la France!

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Views: 220 | Added by: Teesus | Date: 2012/08/02



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