Newser Story Index from February, 2009
Welcome to the Newser Story Index. Here you find stories written by Newser writers and editors, assembled with supporting photos and videos from the files of the news story.
Trump Casinos Expected to Go Bankrupt
Wall Street Journal
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Feb 16, 2009 8:41 PM CST
(Newser) -
Owing bondholders more than a billion dollars, Donald Trump's Atlantic City casino company is expected to file for chapter 11 tomorrow, the Wall Street Journal reports. Board members are discussing it tonight, but if they don't file, creditors will force them into bankruptcy tomorrow. It will mark Trump Entertainment Resorts' third visit to bankruptcy...
Oscar-Nom Films Still Slumping; Here's Why
Associated Press
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Feb 16, 2009 8:12 PM CST
(Newser) -
Is the so-called "Oscar bump" fading? Academy favorites like Slumdog Millionaire and Frost/Nixon are stalled at the box office this year; only The Reader has filled more seats since being nominated. Yes, a stream of bona fide Hollywood hits has held them back, but it's more than that, Patrick Goldstein writes in the Los Angeles...
Lilo Visits Chace—at 6am
OK!
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Feb 16, 2009 7:41 PM CST
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Lindsay Lohan stirred the rumor mill today by visiting hunky Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford in New York at 6am, OK! reports. Meanwhile Lilo's girlfriend, Sam Ronson, is recovering from an ear infection in Los Angeles. Lohan denies any trouble in paradise, but didn't bother to hide her crush on Chace last fall. One source says she's been texting...
US Surge Troops See First Combat in Afghanistan
Associated Press
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Feb 16, 2009 7:14 PM CST
(AP) -
Close to 3,000 American soldiers who recently arrived in Afghanistan to secure two violent provinces near Kabul have begun operations in the field and already are seeing combat, the AP reports. The new troops are the first wave of an expected surge of reinforcements this year. The process began to take shape under President Bush but has been given...
France Admits Guilt in WWII Deportations
Times (UK)
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Feb 16, 2009 6:45 PM CST
(Newser) -
A top judicial authority in France ruled today that the nation was guilty of deporting Jews in the Second World War, the Times of London reports. The landmark decision, confirming France's legal responsibility for the first time, left victims' families frustrated by refusing to give compensation. “The different measures taken since the end...
Casinos Onto iPhone Card-Counting App
Las Vegas Review-Journal
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Feb 16, 2009 6:10 PM CST
(Newser) -
Las Vegas card-counters beware, if you're using an iPhone, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. A California gaming authority has tipped off Nevada officials about an iPhone program that helps users count cards in blackjack. "The program calculates the true count and does it significantly more accurately," a Gaming Control Board memo said.
Microsoft Muscles Into Cell Market With New OS
New York Times
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Feb 16, 2009 5:41 PM CST
(Newser) -
Microsoft is pushing deeper into the cellphone market with a deal to put a new operating system on 50 LG smartphones, the New York Times reports. The company unveiled a more user-friendly OS—"We were dinged for not having a friendly consumer interface," an exec says—and plans to open an online store selling 20,000...
Phelps Won't Be Charged
State (Columbia, SC)
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Feb 16, 2009 5:16 PM CST
(Newser) -
South Carolina officials won't charge Michael Phelps for smoking that bong after all, The State reports. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said today he'd investigated Phelps' marijuana use at a November party, but came up short on evidence—even though Phelps had admitted to doing it. Legal analysts said Phelps would walk because he wasn't...
Clive Owen+Stubble=Everyman
New York
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Feb 16, 2009 4:53 PM CST
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Clive Owen may be good-looking, but his success in recent years depends squarely on his ability to inhabit scruffy Everyman characters that connect with audiences, New York reports. His new film, The International , heightens the illusion, as Owen’s everyday character is thrust into the middle of a shadowy financial runaround. The film has...
Supreme Court May Have Too Many Judges
New York Times
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Feb 16, 2009 4:30 PM CST
(Newser) -
Chief Justice John Roberts recently praised the present makeup of the Supreme Court, which, for the first time in history, consists only of former federal appeals judges. The move towards a Court dominated by those with judicial experience has been afoot since the 1950s, writes Adam Liptak in the New York Times , but not all watchers think it’s...
Fairey Makes 'Pop Masquerading as Art'
New Yorker
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Feb 16, 2009 4:11 PM CST
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Shepard Fairey’s iconic Obama image inspires “a thrill of concerted purpose,” writes Peter Schjeldahl in the New Yorker , but the same can't be said for the rest of Fairey’s work, on exhibition in Boston. While the Obama poster made something new and vibrant, writes Schjeldahl, Fairey tends to traffic in the old and eventually...
Mugabe's Police to Hold Opposition Pol for 2nd Day
BBC
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Feb 16, 2009 3:51 PM CST
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In another blow to Zimbabwe's fledgling unity government, police moved to hold a prominent opposition politician in jail for second day, the BBC reports. Roy Bennett will most likely spend the night in jail after prosecutors failed to come to court today to present insurgency and terrorism charges against the nominee for deputy agriculture minister....
Coldplay Tops World Chart for '08
BBC
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Feb 16, 2009 3:28 PM CST
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Coldplay’s Viva La Vida was the best-selling album in the world last year, the BBC reports, selling 6.8 million copies. Coldplay was one of four British acts to crack the top 10. Here’s the rest of the list: AC/DC: Black Ice The Mama Mia! soundtrack
Carbon Dioxide Gets Buried in Midwest Experiment
Wired
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Feb 16, 2009 3:07 PM CST
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Construction began this week on an Energy Department project that aims to bury a million metric tons of carbon dioxide beneath Illinois' surface by 2012, Wired reports. While that's peanuts compared to the billions of tons emitted each year, the project—the largest such injection to date—could pave the way for a multi-state storage site...
Nate Silver Turns Crystal Ball on Oscars
New York
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Feb 16, 2009 2:40 PM CST
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FiveThirtyEight.com stats-cruncher extraordinaire Nate Silver shifts his sights from politics to the Oscars in New York magazine. He compiled data from 30 years of Academy Awards to discover the best predictors of success, and found that other awards (SAGs, Golden Globes) carry the most weight. Genre is also key; release date and MPAA rating don’t...
Don't Like the Stimulus? Don't Take the Cash
CNN
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Feb 16, 2009 2:21 PM CST
(Newser) -
Here’s a clear way for political leaders to oppose spending in the stimulus package: “refuse to take the money,” Paul Begala writes for CNN. Case in point: South Carolina’s governor, who opposes the plan, shouldn’t help his struggling state with federal cash. Instead, he can follow his own advice and revive the state economy...
Killer Robots Pose Danger to Humans: Report
Times (UK)
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Feb 16, 2009 1:58 PM CST
(Newser) -
The warfare of the not-so-distant future will rely on robots that can make decisions for themselves—and for our own safety, they’ll need a firm code of conduct, says a US Navy report in the first “serious” study of robot ethics. “There is a common misconception that robots will do only what we have programmed them to do,”...
Burris: I Never Changed My Story
Chicago Sun-Times
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Feb 16, 2009 1:39 PM CST
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Roland Burris denied today that an affidavit sent to the Illinois House conveyed a shift in his testimony in the Rod Blagojevich scandal, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “There was no change,” Burris said of three statements he gave to the committee that recommended Blago's impeachment. Burris also called rumors that he filed the last...
New Times Investor Silences Bad Press, Times Says
New York Times
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Feb 16, 2009 1:20 PM CST
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Carlos Slim has a history of intimidating the press, but not the New York Times , which strives manfully to dish the dirt on Mexico’s richest man today, even though he just lent the paper $250 million. Slim loves making such big investments in media companies, but he hates the spotlight and tends to use his financial might to suppress bad press.
Right America Divides Critics
News-Herald (Ohio)
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Feb 16, 2009 1:11 PM CST
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Right America, Feeling Wronged , a documentary airing tonight on HBO, follows filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi as she chats with die-hard McCain/Palin supporters on the campaign trail, some of whom fear Barack Obama is the anti-Christ. Critics are mixed on the result: While David S. Glasier calls it “one of the most profoundly disturbing programs...
Obama Plays 'Gandhian Hardball'
New Yorker
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Feb 16, 2009 12:55 PM CST
(Newser) -
Barack Obama got his stimulus passed, but he couldn’t convince any Republicans to vote for it, and that sent the media fretting. Had the president, as one paper put it, “delivered the post-partisan era” he’d promised? “The man had been in office for eight days,” writes Hendrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker , “a...
Mayors, Guvs Jockey for Piece of Stimulus Pie
New York Times
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Feb 16, 2009 12:40 PM CST
(Newser) -
As the stimulus bill becomes law this week, state officials across the country are competing for their share of federal largess, the New York Times reports. Complex rules govern how money is doled out, and states are still catching up. “This is all rather daunting,” said the director of the National Association of State Governors. “It’s...
The Stimulus Battle Is Just Getting Started
Washington Post
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Feb 16, 2009 12:21 PM CST
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At $790 billion, the stimulus package that Barack Obama signs into law this week carried enormous economic risks. But as the Washington Post reports, the political stakes of the stimulus are nearly as large. By denying the president a single vote in the House, the GOP is betting that the recovery package will look like a failure in 2010, when...
Octuplet Granny: Nadya's a Good Mom After All
Us Weekly
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Feb 16, 2009 12:15 PM CST
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The grandmother of the California octuplets has backtracked on a well-publicized, and rather dim opinion of her daughter, Us reports. Nadya Suleman “is trying so hard to take care of these children, and she's a good mother,” her mother, Angela, said. “She's a very good mother,” the elder Suleman said, “but then, she...
A-Rod Juiced but Fellow Players Will Pay
Advertising Age
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Feb 16, 2009 11:54 AM CST
(Newser) -
A lot of people will pay for Alex Rodriguez’s admission that he used steroids—and A-Rod isn’t one of them, writes Jeremy Mullman in Advertising Age . A-Rod’s already shallow pool of endorsements isn’t likely to dry up, but by bringing steroids back into the spotlight, he’s cast a shadow over young, scandal-free...
ABC's Donaldson to Retire Next Week
Washington Post
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Feb 16, 2009 11:33 AM CST
(Newser) -
Sam Donaldson is calling it quits after a 41-year career distinguished by a booming voice and tough demeanor, Howard Kurtz reports in the Washington Post . “I guess it’ll be on my tombstone,” Donaldson muses. “He yelled at Ronald Reagan.” Donaldson became famous for shouting questions at the Gipper on the White House...
Killer Talks Up Prison Time on Facebook
Sun (UK)
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Feb 16, 2009 11:23 AM CST
(Newser) -
A murder convict jailed for life is enjoying his “holiday” behind bars—and shares the news on his Facebook page. His British prison is “a place where men can come for a nice relaxin break from their moanin women and crying kids. No stress just rest,” wrote Ashley Graham. Officials say inmates aren’t allowed to use...
Obama Takes Time on Troop Decisions
Politico
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Feb 16, 2009 11:07 AM CST
(Newser) -
Barack Obama is resisting pressure from the Pentagon to swiftly approve a major shift of forces to Afghanistan, Politico reports. For weeks officials have been predicting the new president would, within days, OK the request for 10,000 more troops. Instead Obama has insisted on a methodical strategic review, debating the timetable, mission, and...
Sirius Creditors Ready to Go After CEO
Wall Street Journal
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Feb 16, 2009 10:54 AM CST
(Newser) -
Sirius XM Radio's creditors want the company to make a deal with an investor rather than file for bankruptcy, and they're prepared to go after CEO Mel Karmazin's job if things don't go their way, the Wall Street Journal reports. "The board of directors should carefully consider the ramifications" of bankruptcy, a lawyer for the creditor...
Bio Sheds Light on Palin's 'Secret Pregnancy'
People
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Feb 16, 2009 10:42 AM CST
(Newser) -
Sarah Palin kept her pregnancy with son Trig a secret from her girls until late in the game—but almost outed herself when one of her daughters found an ultrasound scan, People reports. This and other tidbits are revealed in Trailblazer, an unauthorized biography of the guv out tomorrow: Palin didn't tell her children that Trig had...
Long Dormant, Scarlet Fever Returns to UK
Independent (UK)
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Feb 16, 2009 10:31 AM CST
(Newser) -
Scarlet fever may seem like a disease of bygone times—it's what took Beth away from the Little Women and sealed the fate of the Velveteen Rabbit—but for many Britons it has become all too current. England and Wales have seen a spike in cases, with 3,000 last year, and it may be getting more virulent, the Independent reports.
Salma Marries Her Babydaddy
People
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Feb 16, 2009 10:17 AM CST
(Newser) -
Salma Hayek married French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault in Paris on Valentine’s Day, People reports. The pair, who have a daughter together, were originally engaged in March 2007 but called it off in July 2008. They rekindled their love during two trips to Paris a few months later, and were “very evidently in love with each other,...
Russia Loses Half of Its Billionaires
Associated Press
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Feb 16, 2009 10:00 AM CST
(Newser) -
The 10 wealthiest Russians have lost two-thirds of their fortunes in the past year, AP reports, based on the magazine Finans' annual list of billionaires. The ranks of billionaires have been cut in half, from 101 to just 49. Last year's richest Russian, Oleg Deripaska, has fallen to eighth on the list, after his fortune skidded 85% to a mere $4.9...
Crazy Airport Tantrum Goes Viral
Gawker
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Feb 16, 2009 9:55 AM CST
(Newser) -
Congratulations are probably in order for YouTube’s latest celebrity: a Chinese woman whose temper tantrum at Hong Kong’s international airport has become the viral sideshow du jour, attracting more than half a million viewers to date. After missing her flight to San Francisco, the hysterical woman charges the security guard at the departure...
New Energy Draws Obama to Colo. to Sign Stimulus
Rocky Mountain News
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Feb 16, 2009 9:53 AM CST
(Newser) -
Last week Barack Obama's team chose Denver for the site of a stimulus rally like the one in Elkhart, Ind., but now that the bill’s been passed, the visit Wednesday has been repurposed as a bill signing. In both cases, the point of picking Colorado was to highlight what Gov. Bill Ritter calls the state's “new energy economy,” the ...
Plane Plummeted 20 Times Faster Than Normal
Buffalo News
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Feb 16, 2009 9:30 AM CST
(Newser) -
Nothing went wrong on Flight 3407 until 26 seconds before the plane slammed into the ground. But in that time, it fell more than 20 times faster than normal, at one point dropping 800 feet in 5 seconds, the Buffalo News reports. Black box recorders found on the ground in Buffalo show that crew members couldn't regain control of the plane after it...
As Milk Prices Sour, Cows Head to Slaughter
Associated Press
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Feb 16, 2009 9:17 AM CST
(AP) -
Hundreds of thousands of America's dairy cows are being turned into hamburgers because milk prices have dropped so low that farmers can no longer afford to feed the animals. Dairy farmers say they face a perfect storm of destructive economic forces: At home, feed prices are rising and consumers are eating out less often. Meanwhile, abroad, the...
Stimulus Devotes $1B to Weighing Medical Treatments
New York Times
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Feb 16, 2009 9:00 AM CST
(Newser) -
The stimulus bill sinks $1.1 billion into the first major government comparison of different medical treatments, the New York Times reports. The provision is a reaction to concerns that treatments are being prescribed without solid evidence to back their usefulness and cost-effectiveness. But some say such studies would mean undue government interference...
Krugman: We've All Been Madoffed
New York Times
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Feb 16, 2009 8:38 AM CST
(Newser) -
Bernie Madoff’s investors thought they were getting richer every quarter. Then, one day, they discovered their wealth “was a figment of someone else’s imagination,” writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times . And sadly, that’s a pretty good metaphor for America’s experience this decade. We thought we were getting...
Baby-Faced Teen May Not Be the Dad
Daily Mail (UK)
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Feb 16, 2009 8:33 AM CST
(Newser) -
Four-foot-tall teen dad Alfie Patten will take a DNA test to prove he really is the father of girlfriend Chantelle Steadman’s daughter Maisie, the Mail reports. Photos of the baby-faced 13-year-old caused an uproar last week, and two other teens came forward to claim they also slept with Chantelle. Patten’s father wants the DNA test,...
Madge-Jesus Fling Is—Get This— a Sham: Pals
Daily Mirror (UK)
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Feb 16, 2009 8:24 AM CST
(Newser) -
How did Madonna score a Brazilian model less than half her age? His parents cried “kidnapping,” but pals claim the whole thing is a well-played publicity stunt typical of the Material Pentagenarian, the Mirror reports. “Taking Jesus to Kaballah is a masterstroke as she always historically introduces her lovers to the religion,”...
Ian McEwan: I Sheltered Rushdie After 1989 Fatwa
New Yorker
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Feb 16, 2009 7:55 AM CST
(Newser) -
Twenty years after the Iranian leadership declared a death sentence on Salman Rushdie, fellow novelist Ian McEwan reveals that he sheltered the writer in a house in the English countryside. In a long profile of McEwan in the New Yorker , the novelist describes how the pair listened to news of the Rushdie fatwa on the radio after the publication of...
Clinton Arrives in Japan, Warns North Korea
Associated Press
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Feb 16, 2009 7:47 AM CST
(AP) -
Hillary Clinton, on her first trip as secretary of state, arrived today in Tokyo, where she warned North Korea to live up to its commitments to dismantle its nuclear programs, reports the AP. Clinton said the main issues on her agenda include climate change, clean energy, and nuclear proliferation, as well as the global financial crisis.
US, France Scuffle Over 1679 Shipwreck in Great Lakes
Guardian (UK)
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Feb 16, 2009 7:42 AM CST
(Newser) -
The state of Michigan, French officials, and an American diver are battling over a wreck discovered at the bottom of Lake Michigan that's believed to be a French ship laden with furs and muskets on a mission for King Louis XIV. The Griffin, launched by famous French explorer La Salle on orders from the Sun King, went down in a storm in 1679. Michigan...
Pakistan Peace Deal Imposes Sharia Law
BBC
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Feb 16, 2009 7:32 AM CST
(Newser) -
A peace deal between Pakistan and the Taliban will bring the country's troubled Swat valley under Islamic Sharia law, the BBC reports. The agreement "was reached after realization that it was the demand of the people," a regional official says. Since a violent Taliban campaign to impose Sharia began in 2007, thousands of residents have fled...
Heirs Decry 'Immoral' Sale of Gandhi's Stuff
Telegraph (UK)
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Feb 16, 2009 7:13 AM CST
(Newser) -
Mahatma Gandhi’s heirs have slammed a New York auction of his few belongings, calling it “immoral,” the Daily Telegraph reports. “It must be stopped," said Gandhi’s great-grandson. "It would be a grave insult to the nation if these items”—including sandals, pocket watch, and spectacles—“were...
Horse Tail Thieves Rile Colo. Ranchers
Los Angeles Times
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Feb 16, 2009 7:06 AM CST
(Newser) -
Angry horse owners are bridling at bizarre new attacks on their four-hoofed friends, reports the Los Angeles Times : tail theft. One Colorado rancher woke up recently to find someone had chopped off the long flaxen tails of all of his Belgian draft horses. "It makes me so mad," he complained. "If they were mean horses, they would have...
Japan Economy Shrinks by Most in 35 Years
Financial Times (UK)
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Feb 16, 2009 6:38 AM CST
(Newser) -
Japan's economy contracted by a shocking 3.3% in the fourth quarter of 2008, three times worse than the US and the worst performance in 35 years. The Financial Times reports that a sharp drop in exports contributed to the slump—the third straight quarter of negative growth. The figures released today put pressure on the government and the Bank...
Oil Prices Plunge, Gas Not So Much
USA Today
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Feb 16, 2009 6:33 AM CST
(Newser) -
Gas is pumping toward $2 per gallon—a 22% increase since Dec. 30—even though oil prices have dipped 16% over the same period. What gives? When penny-pinched Americans cut back on fuel last fall, oil refineries were slow to ease production. Now they're overcompensating with production cuts to recover lost profit. The gallon should peak...
Iranian Lesbian Wins Asylum in Britain
Independent (UK)
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Feb 16, 2009 6:07 AM CST
(Newser) -
A woman who fled Iran for Britain after her girlfriend was arrested has won her battle for asylum in the UK. In 2007 Pegah Emambakhsh was refused asylum, but gay rights groups claimed that she would be executed if she was forced to return to Iran and led a campaign to overturn the ruling. She is the second gay Iranian to receive asylum in Britain—last...
