（英國‧倫敦）英國一名擁有兩個子宮、兩個子宮頸、兩條陰道的婦女早前平安誕下健康女嬰，她的情況在100萬人中才有1人與她相同，醫學界對她誕下這“萬中無一”的寶貝都感到很訝異。
去年11月，懷了孕的林賽腹痛，她擔心自己是宮外孕，但醫生檢查後發現她有兩組生殖器官，有雙子宮和雙子宮頸。
一萬名婦女中，有約8人會出現類似雙子宮的狀況，但有林賽身體構造的機會卻是100萬分之1。
受孕機會比常人低50%
醫生指出，林賽受孕的機會比常人低50%，有兩個子宮，會令胎兒生長的空間變小了，她有可能早產。
在懷孕後，她加倍注重身體，每兩週要替胎兒做一次超聲波掃描。
她很擔心，“一點小事例如胎兒活動減少，也令我整晚睡不著。”
林賽終於在上週三有驚無險地誕下可愛女兒。她說：“我和丈夫是世界上最幸運的父母。”
筆者認為一個公平的對待陳水扁貪污案的程序，會是司法能否取得人民信賴的一個非常重要的試金石；因為在可能的將來，馬英九、劉兆玄及中國國民黨所有的官員，也會面臨相同的審判。
司法應該要做到不分藍綠的公平公正，這不是高道德標準的問題，而是法律問題；就如同歐巴馬要取消關達那摩的監禁和中情局其他的黑牢一樣，只有可以信賴的司法才會有真正的民主，這正是民主與法治不可分的原因。
納 粹法官佛萊斯勒何許人也？或許在台灣較少人知道，但如果看過「帝國大審判」這部描述「慕尼黑白玫瑰學生運動」為背景的電影者，會看到一個法官在庭上大聲咆 哮，不准當事人發言，甚至在被白玫瑰反希特勒學生辯倒時，馬上叫著「不准發言，我知道了！」、「你給我坐下」之類的話，這個人就是納粹時代最得希特勒信任 的大法官佛萊斯勒。
佛萊斯勒這個人最厲害的地方，是他常常告訴大家，「自己是正港的左派民主人士，而且也曾經是共產黨員，但是，在希特勒的 國家社會主義之下，他認為共產主義變得沒有說服力，因為真正的烏托邦是在希特勒領導之下才能完成的，沒有希特勒就沒有德意志，真正的人類幸福和和平的追求 者是希特勒領導下的德意志帝國。」
佛萊斯勒更厲害的地方，是出賣了有猶太血統的法官同事，並且強調自己是「正港的德國人，為了德意志民族的未來，他必須做到公平正義，他必須為了法律而犧牲自己的私人感情。」
希特勒信任佛萊斯勒到什麼程度呢？希特勒自己說，「只要是佛萊斯勒判決的，都是絕對正確的，不單單是我個人意志的貫徹，也是社會公平正義的實現，是有利於全民族的」。
希特勒這麼放心正港的共產黨員和民主人士佛萊斯勒可見一斑，甚至在史陶芬堡刺殺希特勒的「女武神行動」之後，肅清帝國鐵衛裡的高階叛亂軍官也是佛萊斯勒的司法任務。
佛 萊斯勒的法庭秩序維持，就是對於被告所採行的辯護詞完全不理，在被告反駁時，他會大叫，「你這個背叛國家的混蛋，給我閉嘴坐下」、「夠了，我不想再聽你污 衊元首的發言」、「你確定你說的符合事實嗎？」、「我知道了！我已經說過我知道了！」而且和檢察官、納粹指定的律師三方一起糾問被告，最後他最愛說的就 是：「以德意志人民之名，判處你死刑。」
後來盟軍反攻時，佛萊斯勒被視為頭等戰犯，與希特勒、納粹宣傳部的葛培爾、黨衛軍的頭頭希姆萊、帝國空軍元帥戈林，是屬於同一個級數的。但是，佛萊斯勒運氣很好，後來沒有被盟軍抓到，他是在一場空襲中，被司法大廈倒下的樑柱壓死的。
看看蔡守訓在報紙上強調自己正港台灣人的身分，以及他在法庭上的言行，再對比司法節時，慶啟人編劇，張安箴及另外毫無人權、刑訴基本素養的檢察官的搭配演出，心中實在感慨萬千。
台灣甚麼時候也實行納粹德國司法制度了，這就是所謂司法改革的成果嗎？陳水扁有罪，難道不該有公平的司法審判！而必須用這種嘲弄的方式來對付他嗎？這難道不是佛萊斯勒式的糾問嗎？何時佛萊斯勒變成台灣司法界的偶像了！
白玫瑰起義的學生漢斯‧蕭爾說的一句話，或許可以給蔡守訓和那些心中沒有法律制度，以取笑當事人為樂的檢察官和法官作為警惕：「今天你判處我們死刑，明天就輪到你們自己。」（段正明／律師，現留學德國）
本文係讀者投書，不代表本報立場。---編輯部
雅加達市中心的「麗池卡爾頓飯店」（Ritz-Carlton Hotel）和「萬豪飯店」（JW Marriott）今天上午8時之前先後發生爆炸爆炸，至少9人死亡、41人受傷，多數是外國人。
紐西蘭總理凱伊（John Key）已經證實，一名紐西蘭人在今天的爆炸事件中喪生。據了解，他是居住在萬豪飯店的商務旅客，姓名未公布。
凱伊說：「政府仍在透過（雅加達）大使館瞭解事件經過。我也向這名不幸喪生的紐西蘭旅客的親友，表達最深的哀悼之意。」
根據紐西蘭雅加達大使館官員的回報，另有一名紐西蘭旅客傷勢嚴重。目前大使館正設法聯絡當地的另外281名紐西蘭旅客。
另方面，澳洲外交部表示，雅加達大使館收到通知，有2名澳洲人在這次被形容為「野蠻攻擊」的爆炸事件中受傷。
澳洲外交部一名女發言人向法新社（AFP）表示，大使館官員正在積極尋找受傷的澳洲人，並提供相關協助，同時也正確認是否還有其他澳洲籍旅客受傷。
她說：「政府從來沒有忽略此一區域的恐怖威脅。
」
稍早一名自稱為吉姆（Jim)的男子向一家商業電台表示，他兒子從印尼首都打電話回家，說他因為萬豪飯店爆炸案，腿部受傷，一隻耳朵也失去聽力。
他向「費法克斯」（Fairfax）廣播網說：「他正好在爆炸案現場，左腿流血。不過聽起來，傷勢應該不嚴重。他有一隻耳朵聽不見，但他認為聽力會逐漸恢復，並說他正往醫院的路上。他還OK。」（譯者：中央社江今葉）
尤多約諾在當地電視台轉播的記者會上說：「我確信，我們可以逮捕到這項恐怖攻擊的凶手，並根據法律予以懲處。」
他表示，攻擊者「毫無人性，不在乎這項恐怖行為為國家帶來的損害。此舉對國家經濟、貿易、觀光以及在全球的形象都會帶來廣泛的影響」。
他說：「我已經指示執法部門，不論涉案人是誰、政治背景為何，都必須懲處。」
這兩起發生在雅加達高級市區梅嘉古寧岸（MegaKuningan）麗池卡爾頓飯店（Ritz-CarltonHotel）和萬豪飯店（JW Marriott）的爆炸案，造成至少 41 人受傷，其中18人為外國人。（譯者：中央社江今葉）
TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- U.S. capital-flow data on China's Treasury holdings show Beijing is still buying American, even as the two nations' dueling rhetoric over currency policy continued Friday.
"We simply want to see China's currency to float freely," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke reportedly said at an event in Shanghai hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce. See full story on Locke's comments.
For its part, China, as the largest holder of dollar-denominated reserves, has repeatedly taken aim at the U.S. dollar and voiced concerns this year over the world economy's reliance on the greenback as a reserve currency.
In March, People's Bank of China Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan proposed the creation a new international reserve currency in an essay published on the central bank's Web site, a call repeated several times since.
But the U.S. Treasury's international capital flow (TIC) report for May released Thursday showed China has not been backing up its expressed concerns with action.
"Despite media efforts to portray China's U.S. Treasury portfolio holdings as a looming crisis, the data does not bear this out," said Win Thin, currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. "Bottom line: The big global reserve managers are not dumping U.S. dollar assets."
In May, China's net holdings of U.S. Treasury securities rose $38 billion, and the total rise in China's holdings across all U.S. securities in May was $36 billion -- the highest monthly increase since October 2008, Thin said.
All told, China's total U.S. dollar holdings have increased $229 billion since June 2008 to $1.43 trillion, he said, citing the TIC data. China's U.S. Treasury holdings have increased by $266.5 billion since then.
Locke's comments Friday had no currency market impact, as China tightly controls the yuan's trading range. Since it ended its currency's peg to the U.S. dollar in July 2005, China has permitted the yuan to trade in a narrow band -- now 0.5% -- on either side of its official parity rate, which it sets daily.
In stock market trading, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.4%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.1%.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 Average was up 0.4%, South Korea's Kospi added 0.3%, and Australia's S&P ASX 200 was down less than 0.1%.
For years, China has shrugged off similar calls from U.S. and European officials to allow the yuan to appreciate, as its relative weakness to other currencies gives Chinese exports a competitive edge in overseas markets.
The yuan gained about 6% against the dollar in the first half of 2008, before China abruptly halted the appreciation as the global credit crisis deepened and investors around the world sought the safety of U.S. assets, supporting the dollar.
Economists estimate around 65% of China's official holdings are in U.S. dollar assets, so the greenback's recent depreciation in line with investors' improving risk appetite has boosted the value of China's foreign-exchange reserves.
Already the largest in the world, Chinese foreign-exchange reserves swelled to $2.13 trillion at the end of June, as a record $178 billion were added to the reserves during the April to June period, the People's Bank of China said Wednesday. See full story on Chinese foreign reserves.
Reserves ballooned at a record pace, even as the nation's exports remained under pressure during the period because of weak global demand.
"We understand China's currency policy is aimed toward an eventual balance between inflows and outflows. But for now, inflows are dominant," said Patrick Bennett, strategist at Société Générale in Hong Kong.
The resultant higher foreign-exchange reserves "raise questions about China's intention to eventually diversify those holdings away from the U.S. dollar," he said in a note Friday.
Bennett said a modest yuan appreciation would work to slow inflows, as assets become more expensive, and also would be a damping influence on the trade surplus.
"We have expected that China will re-engage (yuan) appreciation in the second-half of this year," he said.
A separate set of data Thursday showed China's gross domestic product grew at a higher-than-expected 7.9% in the second quarter from the year-earlier period, as government-led stimulus measures and strong bank lending spurred domestic consumption and industrial activity. See Economic Report on China's GDP.
Lisa Twaronite reports for MarketWatch from Tokyo.
By Lisa Twaronite, MarketWatchSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Some CIT Group Inc. debt holders are considering rescue financing for the troubled lender, according to participants on a conference call organized late Thursday by law firm White & Case LLP.
A small group of investors holding several billion dollars of CIT /quotes/comstock/13*!cit/quotes/nls/cit (CIT 0.38, -1.26, -76.83%) debt has formally engaged White & Case, said Thomas Lauria, global practice head of the law firm's financial restructuring and insolvency group, during the conference call.
The group is willing to put in roughly $2 billion, and White & Case has lined up a bank that has agreed to be the agent for such an investment, Lauria added later in the call.
Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday that a group of CIT's "large bondholders" are discussing a plan to exchange $5 billion in debt for equity in the firm -- though it's unclear whether the groups of bondholders overlap. The Wall Street Journal story cited unnamed sources.
Shares of CIT slumped 75% Thursday as investors girded for what may be the fourth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history after the troubled lender failed to get a government bailout. See full story.
A CIT spokesman didn't immediately respond to an email asking about possible rescue finance and whether the company is meeting its funding obligations.
Some investors on the White & Case call, including David Marshak of Wellington Management, pointed out that CIT has a lot of assets that could be used as collateral to get at least short-term rescue financing, giving the company more time.
"Why are we in the 11th hour?" Marshak asked.
Still, one participant on the call expressed concern that CIT wasn't meeting its funding obligations anymore, which could undermine its credibility.
Lauria said that CIT may be facing a liquidity issue because some of its customers may be drawing down their credit lines. "It's arguably game over -- if word gets out that a lender can't meet its obligations," he commented.
Wellington's Marshak said that some CIT customers may be drawing down their credit lines even if they don't need the cash.
Toward the end of the conference call, Lauria remarked that he planned to contact CIT and one of its main advisers, David Ying, a senior managing director at Evercore Partners /quotes/comstock/13*!evr/quotes/nls/evr (EVR 18.68, +0.09, +0.48%) who is co-head of the firm's restructuring practice.
"I urge your group, if there is a check available, that you be in contact with the company this evening," Ronald Brandon of New York Life Investment Management said on the call.（美國‧紐約）紀念人類登月40週年，美國紐約寶龍拍賣行拍賣一批“阿波羅11號”飛船登月紀念品，太空人曾使用的導航圖意料之外地成為拍賣亮點。
紐約寶龍拍賣行指出，“阿波羅11號”太空人使用的地球地面星圖，週四（7月16日）以21萬8000美元（約馬幣78萬令吉）天價售出。拍賣行原預測這個直徑9英寸的導航圖可賺進7萬至9萬美元。
另一個值得留意的拍賣物是由另一名太空人奧爾德林署名的3個“檢查清單”，但當天卻未售出。拍賣行預測檢查清單可進賬12萬5000至17萬5000美元（約馬幣44萬7000至62萬6000令吉）。
當天拍賣的400件紀念品，包括1969年7月16日發射當天有3名太空人簽名、蓋有起飛地點美國佛羅里達州肯尼迪航天中心郵戳的首日封、幾頁宇航日誌、美國太空總署為“阿波羅11號”制定的飛行計劃以及太空人以小時為間隔記錄下的宇航日記等。
（美國‧華盛頓）美國太空總署（NASA）官員週四（7月16日）承認，1969年7月20日人類首次登6月球的珍貴錄影母帶被洗掉和重覆使用，但“還原”的畫面更加清晰。
NASA當天公佈40年前（1969年7月16日）“阿波羅11號”發射升空創下人類首次踏足月球歷史壯舉的“高清”片段。
這一批之前從未曝光的月球漫步片段，首位登月太空人阿姆斯特朗踏足月球表面第一步的歷史性一刻，重現在公眾眼前。
NASA透過加州數碼影像公司，利用現代科技使母帶呈現更清晰的影像。完整影像將在9月全面公佈。
NASA在2006年承認，美國第一次登陸月球的原始記錄母帶已經失蹤，包括登月漫步的太空人阿姆斯特朗說出那句名言的畫面：“這是一個人邁出的一小步，卻是人類跨出的一大步”。
電視台檔案存有影帶
在這之後，馬里蘭州戈達德航天中心的工程師納夫茲格便全力追查母帶的下落。納夫茲格曾負責“阿波羅11號”面接收站的電視信號處理。
皇天不負有心人，納夫茲格終於找到了這珍貴的母帶，但是它和其他20萬卷錄影帶一樣，被洗掉和重覆使用。
納夫茲格指出，他們過後把希望寄托當年曾進行轉播的電視台。
NASA隨後在哥倫比亞廣播公司（CBS）的檔案，以及約翰遜太空中心尋找到紀錄有關歷史性一刻的影像，慶幸的是這些影帶狀況良好。
以復原好萊塢舊片聞名的加州數碼影像公司，用現代科技數碼化這些影帶和其他片段，終於還原人類登月的畫面。
不擔心騙局流言死灰復燃
曾有流言指出，當年“阿波羅11號”登月任務根本是一個大騙局，事實上美國人從未登陸月球，阿姆斯特朗踏6月球寧靜海的影像，是在內華達州某個沙漠拍攝的。
但納夫茲格對委托這家公司還原母帶，可能會使有關流言死灰復燃並不感到擔心。
他說：“這家公司還原的是歷史性錄影帶，我不介意它來自何處。”
加州數碼影像公司首席營運員因奇利克說：“這些陰謀論者將要相信他們將會相信的。”
悉尼或有當年錄影紀錄
納夫茲格指出，澳洲悉尼可能有當年的錄影紀錄，美國太空總署將會全力尋找。
1969年7月20日，阿姆斯特朗踏6月球第一步的影像透過電視轉播傳遍全世界，當時宇宙飛船先把影像信號傳到澳洲、希臘和美國加州的追蹤站，再轉送到休士頓的太空中心。
這項轉播是當年全世界矚目焦點，距估計有6億觀眾，之後太空總署將原始資料——包括影像最清晰的母帶交給國家檔案局收藏，1970年代末期，國家檔案局把這些資料交回太空總署，之後就下落不明。
Don Eyles says getting a job on the Apollo mission was probably the greatest stroke of luck in his life (Archive footage: MIT and Nasa)
As Apollo 11 sped silently on its way to landing the first men on the Moon, its safe arrival depended on the work of a long-haired maths student fresh out of college and a computer knitted together by a team of "little old ladies".
Now, 40 years after Apollo 11 landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, the work of these unsung heroes who designed and built the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) is back in the spotlight.
"I wasn't so aware of the responsibility at the time - it sort of sunk in later," said Don Eyles, a 23-year-old self-described "beatnik" who had just graduated from Boston University and was set the task of programming the software for the Moon landing.
"I don't recall the risk and the responsibility and the fact that other people's lives were to some extent in our hands."
But if Mr Eyles embodied the young, can-do attitude of many of the 400,000 people who are estimated to have worked on the Apollo programme, the "little old ladies" epitomised a more cautious approach.
The team of ex-textile workers and watch-makers were employed by defence firm Raytheon to "weave" the software into the memory of the computer.
"The astronauts toured the production facilities and got people to realise that it was real and they were real," explained Eldon Hall, designer of the AGC.
"The little old ladies said: 'that could be my son so I am going to do my job as well as I can'."
Computer Jam
The AGC was a first-of-its-kind device that would become the forerunner of all "fly-by-wire" aircraft systems and the computer that would land man on the Moon.
"The computer was tiny compared to the one in your cell phone," said Mr Eyles. "Tiny in every dimension except size."
The one cubic-foot-sized machine had the equivalent of 160 kilobytes of memory and could do a very simple addition in 24 microseconds.
"That may sound very fast, but compared to modern computers that's extremely slow," said Mr Eyles. "You have to understand that anything the computer did was made up of thousands if not millions of instructions."
Although relatively lethargic and cumbersome, Nasa realised early on that an onboard digital computer was the only way to guarantee success.
"Why was onboard navigation a basic requirement for Apollo? Well, because the Russians might not play fair. They might jam communications," Dr Richard Battin, director of the AGC project, recently told a conference.
In addition, the missions were so complex that the fledgling space agency could see no other way for the astronauts to reach the Moon.
"The pilots could not fly the thing… even though they kept thinking they would," explained Mr Hall.
In fact, some engineers thought that any intervention from the astronauts was completely unnecessary.
"From our point of view the guidance system could be completely without the pilot," Mr Hall told BBC News.
The contract to build the system - between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Nasa - was the first of the Apollo programme and was signed just 76 days after JFK outlined his plans, highlighting the importance placed on the machine.
But Mr Hall remembers that many remained sceptical that it would work.
"The biggest problem was convincing people that a computer could be reliable," he said. "That was harder than designing it."
In the 1960s most computers were still housed in their own building and required huge amounts of power and frequent repairs.
In contrast, the AGC had to be small, lightweight, never fail and consume less power than a 60 watt light bulb. It also had to be designed and built in eight years or less by a team that were themselves grappling with new ideas.
"I only heard the word 'digital' once through my entire time at university," admitted Mr Hall.
But the MIT lab had a long history of designing instrumentation for weapons and aircraft and it was felt that the team of engineers were up to the task.
In this archive MIT footage, science reporter John Fitch speaks to Eldon Hall about Apollo's guidance and navigation system
Early on, the constraints of the size and the requirements of the computer forced the team to make some bold decisions.
One of these was to use a fledgling technology known as integrated circuits - today, more commonly known as silicon chips. The first working circuit had only been shown off in 1958.
"It was an extremely courageous decision that was probably vital to the success of the mission," said Mr Eyles.
To simplify the design and manufacture - and, crucially, minimise the risk of failure - the computer used just one type of circuit.
The decision also ensured that the fast-changing silicon industry had an incentive to continue to produce the chips for the whole of the Apollo programme.
"The whole field was changing so rapidly that it was almost a suicide risk to choose one and use that thing to fly to the Moon 10 years later but that's what we had to do," said Mr Hall.
However, the entire computer was not so hi-tech. In order to make sure that the software was robust it was "woven" into so-called "rope core memories".
These used copper wires threaded through or around tiny magnetic cores to produce the ones and zeroes of binary code at the heart of the software.
Pass the copper wire through the core and the computer read it as a one. Pass it around and it was read as a zero.
"Once you get it wired it's not going to change without breaking those wires," said Mr Hall.
The rope core memories would become know as "LOL memory" after the "little old ladies" who knitted together the software at a factory just outside Boston.
These ladies would sit in pairs with a memory unit between them, threading metres and metres of slender copper wires through and around the cores.
"It's an extremely time-consuming process and it meant that the programs had to be finished and fully tested months in advance," said Mr Eyles.
"But it is extremely robust - that information probably still exists despite being left on the Moon."
To ensure reliability and the highest possible standards from the ladies, Nasa also chose to go on a PR mission to the factories.
"We used to go to the cafeteria and the astronauts would come in," said Mary Lou Rogers, one of the ladies who worked on the Apollo line.
"They'd explain the Moon shot and thank us for what a good job we were doing.
"Everybody got all excited when they came in - we were a bunch of married women with children."
However, Nasa did not just leave quality control to good will and chance, said Mrs Rogers, who also worked on Intercontinental Ballistic Missile programmes.
"[Each component] had to be looked at by three of four people before it was stamped off. We had a group of inspectors come in for the Federal Government to check our work all the time."
"It was bad when we worked on Poseidon and Trident. But nothing as bad as when we were on Apollo."
'Spring loaded'
In the end, the attention to detail seemed to have paid off. On 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin separated from the command module containing Michael Collins and began their descent to the lunar surface.
But just minutes before Neil Armstrong confirmed to Houston that the "Eagle had landed", the normally cool-headed astronaut was having a slightly more urgent exchange with mission control.
"Program alarm," the ex-fighter pilot called out over the radio.
Armstrong was confronted with a yellow warning light on the AGC, indicating a problem.
"When I heard that the computer was restarting I was very nervous because I thought something serious was going on, really serious," said Mr Hall, who - like 600 million other people - was watching the Moon landing on television.
"I was shaking in my boots. I was very concerned that they would have to abort."
Over the course of the next seven-and-a-half minutes the alarms sounded five more times; the last one went off just 2,000ft above the dusty lunar surface.
Each time Mission Control gave the command to press on with the landing.
Armstrong later explained: "In simulations we have a large number of failures and we are usually spring-loaded to the abort position.
"In the real flight, we are spring-loaded to the land position."
Seven-and-a-half-minutes after the first program alarm, Armstrong uttered the immortal words: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."
But Mission Control had not been reckless. The Apollo Guidance Computer had worked perfectly.
Frantic analysis at MIT and in Houston determined that the alarms stemmed from a mistake in the astronauts' training.
Although not needed for the landing, the rendezvous radar - used when the astronauts returned to the Command Module - was switched on in case the descent had to be aborted at short notice.
The data had overloaded the computer, which dealt with the problem by shedding "low priority tasks" and keeping life-critical functions running.
"The operating system was designed to handle that kind of problem," said Mr Hall.
"The computer was still functioning even though people still say it was failing," he added. "It was saving the mission."
In the end, the AGC and the sometimes-unlikely list of characters who designed and built the machine had succeeded: they had helped land the first men on the Moon and return them safely to Earth.
"It's only now with the perspective of 40 years that Apollo stands out as a unique event, probably never to be repeated in my lifetime," said Mr Eyles.
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--A U.S. judge has denied a motion by a group of airlines to depose several Federal Bureau of Investigation agents regarding the government's probes into the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
In an order Thursday, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan denied a motion by the airlines to question six current and former FBI agents, a potential setback for their defense.
The judge indicated the airline defendants hoped to show at trial that the government's failure to apprehend the terrorists and stop the attacks was so considerable that it mitigates and excuses any alleged faults of the airlines and the terrorists likely would have succeeded even if the defendants had exercised due care.
"The government's failures to detect and abort the terrorists' plots would not affect the aviation defendants' potential liability," the judge wrote. "Moreover, efforts to prove these propositions would cause confusion and prejudice, and burden court and jury with long delays and unduly lengthy trial proceedings."
The rulings relate to three wrongful death cases and 19 property-damage cases.
The defendants include units of UAL Corp. (UAUA), US Airways Group Inc. (LCC), Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL) and AirTran Holdings Inc. (AAI).
A lawyer for the airlines didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment Thursday.
The judge did allow some of the testimony of two of the FBI agents from the trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, who is serving a life sentence - namely what they learned in their investigations.
"Testimony as to what their superiors did or did not do is not relevant, and is not admissible," the judge said.
The judge also denied a motion to admit the 9/11 Commission report as a whole as evidence in the case, instead only admitting the chronology provided in the report.
-By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires
(WMR) -- They were always seen by all who passed by, broke and idle in a number of Washington, DC, parks and grassy nooks. After 9/11, however, they began to disappear and in large numbers. “They” were the familiar faces of Washington’s homeless.
From Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, to Virginia Avenue across from the State Department, and Franklin Square, amid the city’s glass and steel towers housing DC’s power elite to tony Georgetown, many homeless people, both those truly down on their luck and those who were mentally ill, began to disappear.
As one Washington homeless advocate told this editor, “These people simply vanished.”
The disappearance of homeless people from the streets of Washington began under the administration of Mayor Anthony Williams and continues in force under that of Adrian Fenty. Both African-American mayors, Democrats but beholden to deep-pocketed land developers in a city that rarely elects Republicans to office, began to quietly make it tougher for the homeless to survive in the nation’s capital. Last year, Fenty announced that the Franklin School Shelter at 13th an K Streets would be phased out, leaving the homeless residents of that shelter little choice but to move to the streets.
Last August, a number of homeless activists picketed Fenty’s home over the plans to close the Franklin shelter. WMR was told by one spokesperson for the homeless that one of the protesters, John McDermott, has also now “vanished.” The spokesperson added that there are many cases of people known to live on the streets of Washington simply “disappearing” without a trace.
Some major cities, including New York and Atlanta, have been discovered to be “dumping” their homeless residents on other smaller towns and cities. Others threaten their homeless with prison unless they leave town with usually a one-way bus ticket provided.
However, there is no evidence that Washington, DC, has been dumping homeless on other cities or paying their transportation out of town. The homeless spokesperson interviewed by WMR said that DC’s homeless are simply “vanishing” without a trace. DC officials in charge of the homeless are very tight-lipped when asked about the fate of unaccounted for homeless in the city.
Although the best-case scenario is that these unfortunate people have, in fact, been relocated to other areas, the spokesman ended the interview on a chilling note. He said with federal camps and a high demand for any usable body parts by the lucrative transplant industry, he feared the worst may have befallen some of DC’s “invisible residents.”
Australia’s government nannies have officially banned 1,370 web sites. They’ve drawn up a blacklist, just like the medieval index of banned books. Right now it’s a voluntary pilot project to which Internet service providers can submit. But if the trial run is deemed a success and made law, anyone who links to a blacklisted site can be fined $11,000 a day. That means it will be a crime not just to provide the contents of a web site, but to merely reproduce its address.
That’s not just like banning books. It’s like banning books, and banning saying the banned book’s title. It’s a lot of banning.
But here’s the tricky part: the government won’t even say what those 1,370 banned web sites are. It’s secret. So there are 1,370 web sites out there that could result in your criminal prosecution in Australia. But you won’t find out what they are — until you link to one of them. That’s right out of Alice in Wonderland. The pretzelian logic goes like this: if the Australian government were to list those 1,370 banned web sites, then not only would they be breaking the rules themselves, but that list would serve as an advertisement. Out of the billions of web pages on the Internet, 1,370 would be given special attention, inviting anyone curious to check them out.
Of course, people who compile the secret blacklist know what’s on it. But apparently they can be trusted not to succumb to the temptation to look at the sites. And the list was sent to selected Australian Internet companies for a trial run. That didn’t work out quite as well. The list was leaked to Wikileaks, the web site that specializes in publishing confidential documents, especially embarrassing internal government memoranda.
And that’s when things got even weirder. Wikileaks published the entire blacklist on one of its pages. So now that Wikileaks page, too, has been added to the blacklist. It’s number 1,371.
Needless to say, I was tempted to skim the names of the banned sites. Most of them are porn sites, and some have names that suggest child pornography, which is a crime. But that’s what we have courts for. The Australian blacklist wasn’t written by a court; there was no hearing where evidence was brought that these sites were criminal sites. A group of busybody human rights activists simply wrote the blacklist. Sounds Canadian, actually.
Many banned sites are merely offensive, but not illegal. And some sites are perfectly innocuous. For some secret reason, the web site www.vanbokhorst.nl is on the blacklist. If you’re not in Australia, feel free to give that one a click. It’s not a pornographic site. My Dutch is rusty, but it appears to be a web site for a forklift rental company in Holland.
How did Van Bokhorst get on the blacklist in Australia? Nobody knows because the process was kept secret, even from Van Bokhorst. It’s unlikely that Van Bokhorst had any Australian customers. But that’s not the point. Someone is making these clandestine decisions about what Australians can or can’t see.
We’ve seen this sort of censorship in other countries — and not just from the likes of communist China. Thailand brought in a similar blacklist in the name of protecting its citizens from child pornography. But — surprise! — within months, the blacklist had other web sites on it, including 1,200 banned for criticizing the Thai royal family. A secret list, in the hands of a government, practically guarantees that sort of political abuse.
Australia’s trial-run blacklist has plenty of questionable items on it, and not just Dutch forklift companies. Hundreds of Internet poker sites are banned. Poker, unlike child pornography, is not a crime. It may be a vice, but how to handle that is a political debate. Australia’s blacklist ends that discussion with force.
And now a web site about abortion politics is on the blacklist. You can probably guess which side of the debate is being censored, but either way, it’s abominable censorship.
That blacklist was sold as a way to stop child porn. But that’s the thing about slippery slopes, isn’t it; you don’t really see the dangers until you’ve started sliding into them.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission wants an Internet blacklist, too. It wants to expand Canada’s cybertip.ca to cover political sites, not just child porn sites it targets now.
We associate book burnings with witch trials and the Nazis, not with mild-mannered bureaucrats. But book burnings in the 21st century require no matches — just self-righteous censors and a somnolent public.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Foreign demand for long-term U.S. financial assets dropped by the largest amount in four months in May, as Japan and Russia trimmed their holdings of Treasury securities.
The Treasury Department said Thursday that foreigners actually sold $19.8 billion more long-term U.S. securities than they purchased in May. That compared with net purchases of $11.5 billion in April.
China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities, bucked that trend. Its holdings rose to $801.5 billion, an increase of 5 percent from $763.5 billion in April.
China's holdings are a direct result of the huge trade deficits the U.S. runs with the emerging Asian power. The Chinese take the dollars Americans pay for Chinese products and invest them in Treasury securities.
American manufacturers argue that gives China unfair trade advantages by keeping the dollar overvalued against the Chinese currency, which makes U.S. goods more expensive for Chinese consumers and Chinese products cheaper here.
Both the Bush and Obama administrations have argued that China should allow its currency to rise faster in value against the dollar but the yuan has stopped appreciating against the dollar in recent months.
Foreigners last sold more long-term U.S. securities than they purchased, $36.8 billion worth, in January.
Japan, the second largest foreign owner of Treasury securities, trimmed its holdings 1.3 percent to $677.2 billion in May, from $685.9 billion in April.
Russia cut holdings even more sharply, reducing them 9.1 percent to $124.5 billion in May from April.
Oil exporting countries, another large holder of Treasury securities, boosted their holdings by 1.8 percent to $192.9 billion.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner traveled to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates this week to assure those governments that the administration is committed to getting its soaring budget deficits under control once the current recession and financial crisis have been contained. Geithner delivered a similar message to the Chinese in a trip to Beijing a month ago.
In Paris on Thursday, his last stop before returning to Washington, Geithner said financial leaders need to avoid the mistakes the U.S. made during the Great Depression when the government stopped providing economic stimulus before a sustained recovery was under way.
"Probably why I'm doing this (tour) is to make sure we keep working with governments around the world to continue to provide enough support to lift this global economy back to a sustained pattern of growth," he told reporters in Paris.
The slow, tedious work unfolded as the shuttle rocketed toward the international space station for a Friday linkup. It was the first full day in orbit for the seven astronauts, who are delivering a veranda for Japan’s enormous lab. It also happened to be the 40th anniversary of the launch of the first manned moon landing.
Mission Control told the astronauts late Wednesday that Endeavour’s launch damage looked less extensive at first glance than what occurred on the last shuttle flight, but it will take days to sort through available data to reach a conclusion.
o |
Endeavour heads for station
LIVE VIDEO: Watch coverage of the space shuttle Endeavour's international space station mission. NBC News |
Eight or nine pieces of foam insulation came off the external fuel tank during Wednesday evening’s liftoff, and Endeavour was hit at least two or three times, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s space operations chief. Some scuff marks were spotted, but that probably is coating loss and considered minor, he said.
The impacts that occurred less than two minutes into the flight were around the edge of the shuttle where the right wing joins the fuselage.
Any additional damage should be evident when the space station residents use zoom lenses to photograph the entire shuttle as it performs a backflip right before Friday afternoon’s docking.
“The bottom line is we saw some stuff,” launch manager Mike Moses said Wednesday night. “Some of it doesn’t concern us. Some of it you just can’t really speculate on right now. But we have the tools in front of us and the processes in front of us to go clear this vehicle for entry” in 16 days.
These tools and processes were put in place after Columbia was destroyed during re-entry in 2003 because of a hole in its wing, left there by flyaway foam at liftoff.When commander Mark Polansky and his crew catch up with the space station, it will be the first time 13 people are together in space.
Endeavour will remain docked at the space station for nearly two weeks. During that time, the shuttle astronauts will help install the third and final piece of the Japanese space station lab, a porch for outdoor experiments. Five spacewalks are planned.
ews | Video |
 | Endeavour lifts off
July 15: Space shuttle rockets into the sky on a mission to the international space station. MSNBC |
After 9-11, with the knowledge I had of the bitter internal dispute inside the FBI that was being hushed up but had kept some of our better agents from possibly uncovering more of the 9-11 plot before it happened, I couldn’t forget two of the slides in that Law Enforcement ethics curriculum: “DO NOT: Puff, Shade, Tailor, Firm up, Stretch, Massage, or Tidy up statements of fact.” And “Misplaced Loyalties: As employees of the FBI, we must be aware that our highest loyalty is to the United States Constitution. We should never sacrifice the truth in order to obtain a desired result (e.g. conviction of a defendant) or to avoid personal or institutional embarrassment.”
The official dissembling and excuse-making about the true causes and prior mistakes that gave rise to and allowed the terrorist attacks to happen, almost immediately ushered in the Bush-Cheney Administration’s egregious and lawless, post 9-11 “war on terror” agenda which bore no connection to the original causes and no connection to the goal of reducing terrorism and making the world safer. When I got a chance, about 8 ½ months after 9-11 to tell what I knew, I did so and my disclosures led to further investigation by the Department of Justice Inspector General and figured in the 9-11 Commission Report.
But it was way too late for this emerging bit of truth that has continued to leak out in dribs and drabs to have any impact. The laws themselves, especially the criminal procedure ones rooted in the Constitution that I had spent my career teaching to law enforcement, have largely gone up in smoke. Having seen the cost of remaining silent, I publicly warned, a few months after my first memo, against launching the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq. But false agendas had already filled the vacuum created by lack of truth. And we are still dealing with the disastrous consequences of these unjustified, pre-emptive wars.
Let me therefore simply repeat the request I made to the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2002: “Foremost, we owe it to the public, especially the victims of terrorism, to be completely honest. I can only imagine what these crime and terrorism victims continue to go through. They deserve nothing but the complete, unfettered truth.”
Therefore, I fully support the 9/11 families, first responders, survivors and over 60,000 other New Yorkers who have endorsed a new 9/11 investigation in New York City as advanced by ballot referendum this coming November election.
Coleen Rowley is a former FBI staff attorney who turned whistle-blower after witnessing repeated failures within the bureau to properly investigate alleged 9/11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. She was one of three Time Magazine Persons of the Year in 2002.
By Coleen RowleyNEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The foreclosure plague is not going away -- it's only getting worse.
A record 1.53 million properties were in the foreclosure process -- default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- during the first six months of 2009. That was 9% more than the previous six months and 15% more than the same period of 2008, according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac.
There were a total of 1.91 million filings resulting in 1 out of every 84 U.S. properties receiving at least one filing in the first half of the year. Banks repossessed 386,800 properties.
"What this means is, despite the intensity of the efforts on the part of government and lenders we don't have a handle on foreclosures yet," said Rick Sharga, a spokesman for RealtyTrac.
And, in a bad sign for a housing recovery, there was no recorded improvement in June, the last month of the cycle. More than 336,000 homes reported foreclosure filings, the fourth straight 300,000-plus month. Filings were up 33% over last June and nearly 5% compared with May.
"Foreclosure activity continues to increase to record levels," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac in a prepared statement. "Unemployment-related foreclosures account for much of this increased activity, and the high number of borrowers who find themselves owing more on their mortgages than their homes' are now worth represent a potentially significant future risk."
The biggest problem affecting foreclosure figures is the recession. As job losses mount, more out-of-work borrowers are falling behind on payments. And home prices are still falling, albeit at a slower rate, which by itself is enough to drive more homeowners into default.
The home-price drop means more homeowners are underwater on their mortgages, owing more than their home is worth. That discourages some borrowers from repaying loans because they see it as a poor financial decision to keep paying on a declining asset.
Homeowners are apt to walk away from their mortgages once their home values fall 15% below their mortgage balances, according to recent research reported by Paola Sapienza of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
They claim that at least 25% of all mortgage defaults may be "strategic," borrowers walking away from their homes because they've lost so much value. And in many of the areas hardest hit by foreclosure, home prices have fallen by 40% or more.
Others, however, are working with their lenders, trying to get the terms of their loans modified so they can stay in their homes. But that process has been slow and infuriating to many borrowers and community activists.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the government watchdog created to manage Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500), reported Wednesday that only 13,800 mortgages had been modified by Fannie/Freddie lenders in April. That is down 12% from March.
The stats did not include workouts arranged through the Home Affordable Modification Program, the administration's foreclosure prevention effort that seems to be making very slow progress.
The program, which got up to speed starting in April, has resulted in more than 200,000 trial modifications and 20,000 refinancings. But borrowers with modified loans must make three months of on-time payments before their restructuring can be recorded as a final modification.
Another reason for the slow progress, according to a research paper released by the Federal Reserve of Boston, is that some banks have some sound financial reasons to drag their heels.
Many delinquent homeowners, for example, "self-cure," that is, start paying again without assistance. In a report issued last week, the Fed found that an estimated 30% of all borrowers who miss two payments start repaying on their own.
If the lenders had modified these loans, the would have lost money unnecessarily.
A second reason, according to the report, is that so many modified loans re-default, with up to 50% of all modified mortgages succumbing. That costs the banks twice: They bear the expenses of the initial workouts and they pay again to finish the foreclosures, including any additional missed payments.
And by postponing foreclosures, lenders absorb any subsequent housing value losses. If the final repossessions are delayed a year, the lenders could be getting houses worth 10%, 20% or even 50% less than they were at the point of the original default. The banks would have been better off foreclosing then.
"We think these are very powerful forces [acting against modification]," said Manuel Adelino, one of the authors of the report.
The Sun Belt suffered more foreclosures than other region during the last six months.
California, with 391,611 filings, one for every 34 households, recorded more than any other state. Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate with one for every 16 households. Arizona, one for every 30, and Florida, one for every 33, were next. Utah had the fifth highest rate at one for every 69.
Midwestern industrial states did little better with Michigan recording one foreclosure for every 74 households, seventh among the states. Illinois came in eighth with one for every 76; and Ohio, with one for every 86, was twelfth.
Georgia, at one for every 70 households, and Idaho, one for every 79, were sixth and ninth respectively. Colorado, with one for every 80, rounded out the top 10.Elizabeth Coleman is the inspector general of the Federal Reserve of the United States, commonly referred to as the Fed. This is the little-understood institution which prints and regulates all U.S. money. As inspector general, the Federal Reserve website states Elizabeth Coleman is "responsible for preventing and detecting waste, fraud, and abuse." Yet in eye-opening, videotaped Congressional testimony, Fed Inspector General Coleman acknowledged that she can't account for many trillions – yes trillions – of dollars of taxpayers' money.
Do you know how much one trillion dollars is? It's over $3,000 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. If you only count taxpayers, it's equivalent to $7,000 for every taxpayer. Yet Coleman acknowledges the Fed is not missing just $1 trillion, but many trillions of taxpayers' dollars. In the video clip she says she knows nothing about nine trillion dollars ($9,000,000,000,000) that is claimed to be unaccounted for. That's $63,000 for each taxpayer. It's also three times the amount of the entire annual federal budget of the United States missing in action! These numbers are simply staggering, yet they are getting amazingly little media coverage.
There are many other problems with the Federal Reserve, which by the way, is not really federal nor a true reserve. Members of the Fed's board of governors are appointed by the president, yet during their 14-year terms the U.S. president and Congress have no power over them. Even more revealing is the fact the the Fed is actually owned by the largest banks in the U.S. Take a look and see you if can find who owns the Fed on their website. They avoid talking about this. Nor does the Fed have a full reserve as most people would expect. You can verify and learn lots more about these and other unusual aspects of the Fed by clicking here.
If you care about the many thousands of missing dollars you personally have paid in taxes, you must watch the astonishing five-minute video clip and read the accompanying commentary I've posted at the link below. This is incredibly important information. And please let your friends and colleagues know about this. By informing caring citizens about what's going on behind the scenes with banking and with our tax dollars, we can create a powerful wave of concern which will force major change for the better in our world. Thank you for caring.
http://tinyurl.com/moalzr - Article & five-minute clip of Fed Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman's testimony
With best wishes for a better world,
Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team
Former language interpreter for Presidents Bush and Clinton
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Eight years after the tragedy of 9/11, questions remain unanswered. A group of experts has convened in Washington to discuss what they think happened. Their theories are in stark contrast to the official version.
The US government said that the World Trade Center buildings collapsed as a result of fires ignited by jet fuel.
But according to members of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth these are lies. The organization is made up of experts and professionals who believe that the real story behind the destruction of the towers is still up in smoke.
Employment minister Jim Knight: "Clearly we are in the middle of a global recession"
Today’s comments are the latest in a long line of bellicose rhetoric coming from the Secretary of State. Last month during a television interview she said that Iran was risking the possibility of a US invasion, citing the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq as a model.
The US has been demanding that the Iranian government abandon its civilian nuclear energy generation program, and several officials have claimed, despite a stark lack of evidence, that Iran is working on nuclear weapons. The IAEA has pointed out no evidence for the accusation exists, and America’s own National Intelligence Estimate says they don’t believe Iran has an active weapons program either.
UK unemployment rose by a record 281,000 to 2.38 million in the three months to May, the Office for National Statistics has said.
The jobless rate increased to 7.6%, the highest in more than 10 years.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefit increased by 23,800 in June to 1.56 million, which was less than analysts had forecast.
Unemployment among young people has been especially acute, as firms cut jobs to reduce costs in the downturn.
Fear of unemployment
Young people - those up to 24 years old - have been particularly hard hit with unemployment leaping to a 16-year high of 726,000.
The number of those out of work for more than a year rose by 46,000 to 528,000, the highest for 11 years.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "It's particularly worrying that over half a million unemployed people have been out of work for at least a year, including 133,000 young unemployed people."
"With a new generation of school and college leavers soon starting to look for work, our unemployment crisis will get even bigger.
Separately on Wednesday a BBC survey suggested two-thirds of people across the UK know someone who has lost a job in the recession.
A further four in 10 fear losing their job in the current climate, the survey of 1,048 people by ComRes indicates.
'Conflicting signals'
Even though economic conditions may be stabilising, economists expect unemployment to continue rising this year, as financial uncertainty persists.
Vicky Redwood of Capital Economics said the latest figures contained "conflicting signals about whether conditions in the labour market are getting better or worse".
The increase in the unemployment total of 281,000 in the three months to May was the biggest quarterly rise since records of the ILO measure began in 1971.
However, the rise in the claimant count in June was less than expected, and May's increase in the claimant count was revised down to 30,800 from the original estimate of 39,000.
"The claimant count measure of unemployment in June posted its smallest rise in a year. However, the wider ILO measure posted its biggest rise on record," said Ms Redwood.
But, she said, unemployment was unlikely to fall until economic growth returned to its trend rate, and this would take a long time.
Of the different figures released, it is the internationally recognised ILO figure of 2.38 million that is the government's preferred measure for unemployment, because it is a more comprehensive indicator of the job market.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has called for an enquiry into this "conundrum" of the differing figures.
Vacancies
Average UK earnings including bonuses increased at their highest rate since December, up 2.3% in the three months to May from a year ago.
However, excluding bonuses average earnings rose at 2.6% - the lowest rate since records started in 2001.
David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce described the figures as "grim reading".
"On the basis of these numbers, we reaffirm our forecast that unemployment will peak at around 3.2 million next year."
Not only is unemployment rising, figures show that the number of jobs available has also fallen.
The number of vacancies dropped to a record low of 429,000 in the three months to June, down by 35,000 from the previous quarter.
The number of unemployed men increased by almost 200,000 to 1.46 million, and 84,000 more women were out of work, putting female unemployment at 923,000.
Manufacturing
Wales was the only part of the UK to see unemployment fall. During the three months to May, Wales saw 1,000 fewer unemployed people, putting the total at 107,000.
In terms of unemployment rates, the West Midlands has the highest rate at 10.3% while the South East has the lowest at 6.1%.
Manufacturing jobs kept declining, down by 201,000 to a record low of 2.6 million.
Urgent action is needed to address unemployment, explained Rachel Reeves, parliamentary candidate for West Leeds and a co-author of a report published on Wednesday by the Institute for Public Policy Research.
"If we are to get Britain back to work, there will have to be large increases in the jobs available in hi-tech manufacturing and private service sectors such as the creative industries."
