Daughters in the White House

From Bill- Clinton to George W. Bush to the charismatic Barack Obama, the recent US Presidents have one thing in common — all have daughters and no sons.

While Bill Clinton has only one daughter, both George W.Bush and Barack Obama have two each.

In fact,go through the 17 men who have been either President or Vice-President since 1961 — from the era of John F.Kennedy to that of Obama and their daughters actually outnumber their sons, by 28 to 27.

It was nearly 16 years ago when Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea called the White House home. Chelsea went to a local school and had always tried to lead a normal life as the First Daughter.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/

Secret list of United States nukes out accidentally

The United States government mistakenly made public a 266-page report, its pages marked “highly confidential,” that gives detailed information about hundreds of American civilian nuclear sites and programmes, including maps showing the precise locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons.

The publication of the document was revealed Monday in an online newsletter devoted to issues of federal secrecy.

That set off a debate among nuclear experts about what dangers, if any, the disclosures posed. It also prompted a flurry of investigations in Washington into why the document had been made public.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.asianage.com

Obama offered Russia deal on Iran

President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Russia’s President in February suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defence system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long range weapons, American officials said on Monday.

The letter to President Dmitri A. Medvedev was hand-delivered in Moscow by top administration officials three weeks ago. It said the United States would not need to proceed with the interceptor system, which has been vehemently opposed by Russia since it was proposed by the Bush administration, if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.

The officials who described the contents of the message requested anonymity because it has not been made public. While they said it did not offer a direct quid pro quo, the letter was intended to give Moscow incentive to join the US in a common front against Iran.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.asianage.com

Obama telephones Sleiman to reiterate America's support

US President Barack Obama reiterated the United States' support to Lebanon's independence and sovereignty during a phone conversation with President Michel Sleiman on Thursday.

A Presidential Palace statement said that Obama thanked Sleiman for congratulating him upon his election and vowed that the US would maintain its support for Lebanon.

"The US also values your efforts to achieve political and economic stability in Lebanon," Obama was quoted as telling Sleiman. The US president also told his Lebanese counterpart that the US was in process of reviewing its policy in the Middle East, especially in Syria.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.dailystar.com.lb

World worried about its nukes, Iran fires satellite

Iran said on Tuesday it had launched what it described as its first satellite produced domestically as part of an effort to build a space industry. The launch on Monday, coinciding with celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, came at a time when the United States and other powers are worried about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its deployment of long-range ballistic missiles with potential military uses.

It also came soon after President Obama struck a conciliatory tone toward Iran, conditionally offering dialogue after years of increasing tension over fears that Tehran wants to develop nuclear missiles — which Iran’s leaders deny.

The official news agency, IRNA, said the satellite was launched using a Safir-2 rocket and was “successfully set into orbit.” The satellite was named Omid, meaning hope, IRNA said, and was sent into space as a “data-processing satellite project” that began in March 2005 as “the first practical step toward acquiring national space technology.”

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.indianexpress.com

Renewal, Responsibility, Accountability

As a growing celebratory spirit began to consume the nation’s capital, President-elect Barack Obama on Sunday stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and declared a “celebration of American renewal”.

“Behind me, watching over the union he saved, sits the man who in so many ways made this day possible,” Obama said, in front of the marble statue of Abraham Lincoln.

Obama’s advisors began to give a taste of the inaugural address that he will deliver on Tuesday, saying it will emphasise the themes of responsibility and restoring public confidence.

In a series of appearances that culminated in the concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, Obama ventured across a city transformed into a miles-long block party, with tourists covered in Obama gear.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.indianexpress.com

Obama man calls for civilian control of ISI

Islamabad on Monday continued to face pressure from the United States over the Mumbai attacks with Democratic Senator John Kerry agreeing with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Pakistan needs to do more to combat terrorists based on its territory.

Kerry, who is considered close to US President-elect Barack Obama, suggested that Pakistan must act against the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the leaders of such terrorist organisations. He also said Pakistan’s InterServices Intelligence should be under civilian control.

India has said that the LeT had carried out the Mumbai attacks. Delhi has also thrown hints that ISI had a hand in planning the operation.

Kerry, who is slated to be the next chairperson of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is travelling next to Islamabad and is expected to tell Pakistani leaders to take on terror groups on its territory.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.newindpress.com

Bush critic Krugman wins economics Nobel

US Economist Paul Krugman, a wellknown critic of the Bush administration for policies that he argues led to the current financial crisis, won the 2008 Nobel prize for economics on Monday.

The committee said the award was for Krugma's work that helps explain why some countries dominate international trade.

A prominent economist who writes columns for the New York Times, Krugman is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University.

Krugman, speaking by telephone to a news conference, said: "I rushed to take a shower so that I could take part in the press conference. I called my wife and my parents. I've not yet managed to get myself a cup of coffee," he said. But lack of caffein did not stop him offering an ad-hoc diagnosis of how the world economy was faring. "We are now witnessing a crisis that is as severe as the crisis that hit Asia in the 90's. This crisis bears some resemblance to the Great Depression."

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com

Twin bombs go off in Baghdad as Negroponte wraps up visit

Bombs exploded outside the Iraqi capital's tightly guarded Green Zone on Tuesday as US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte wrapped up a visit focusing on a controversial military pact.

Two powerful explosions went off in quick succession at a time of heavy traffic.An Iraqi security official said a soldier and six civilians were wounded in the attack on the edge of the Green Zone.

Inside the zone, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters an agreement was "very close," but nothing was final. However, there were "new ideas and new language" on a mutually acceptable deal with the US, he said.

"This needs some bold political decisions now," he added.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.dailystar.com.lb

United States House begins action on Nuclear deal

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Washington on Thursday (US time) for a meeting with US President George W. Bush later in the day while the Indo-US nuclear deal, which was approved by the Senate foreign relations committee, was tabled before the House of Representatives.

This was seen as the final leap before the Manmohan dream turns into reality. Reports that US House international affairs committee chairman Howard Berman has introduced a bill in the House of Representatives linking passage of the nuclear deal with diplomatic support on US engagement of Iran was denied by committee staffers.

There was speculation all through Wednesday after the Indian American Republican Council said Mr Berman was going to incorporate language on Iran that would lead to the bill being defeated on the House floor. This was denied by the committee’s chief spokeswoman Lynne Weil, who said: “That is not true. Congressman Berman has not introduced any legislation on the US-India nuclear agreement.” The Indian team remained tightlipped.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.asianage.com

United States takes over mortgage giants Fannie, Freddie

The US government on Sunday seized control of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an aggressive move to help the distressed US housing market and economy.

Officials were concerned mounting losses at the two companies, which own or guarantee almost half of the country's $12 trillion in outstanding home mortgage debt, was sapping their vitality and threatening to undermine them at a time other sources of housing finance have largely run dry.

"Our economy and our markets will not recover until the bulk of this housing correction is behind us," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said at a news conference. "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are critical to turning the corner on housing."

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.indianexpress.com

Wildlife smugglers hunt on Orkut

Even stringent laws and a recently constituted bureau dedicated to check wildlife crime, it seems, cannot deter country’s wildlife smugglers from trading.

In a first of its kind case for Indian authorities, two men have been arrested who had hit upon a rather clever way to smuggle endangered species through social networking website Orkut.

Registering country’s first case of wildlife smuggling through internet, authorities now are busy trying to find out how this trading was being operated. Though there have been cases of wildlife smuggling through internet in countries like US and UK, for Indian authorities its first such case. Authorities maintain that the duo were well connected to customers worldwide through internet.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit:
http://www.dc-epaper.com/DC/DCH/2008/08/28/index.shtml

Air hostess picks up chocolate bar, wins space trip

A French air hostess will become one of Europe's pioneer space tourists after picking a chocolate wrapper out of the rubbish and finding a winning number in a competition to fly to the upper reaches of the earth's atmosphere.

Mathilde Epron, 32, said she had bought a Kit Kat chocolate bar at her local supermarket but initially threw the wrapper in the bin, telling herself that "it's only others who win."

Two hours later, thinking back to the competition, she decided to try her luck and fished the wrapper out of the bin, only to find a code marked inside.

"For someone who works in air travel it's really a dream come true," she told France Info radio.

A spokeswoman for Nestle in France confirmed that Epron had won the prize to take a flight on a four-seater, fighter-sized aircraft built by Rocketplane, a company that builds aircraft intended to provide cheap flights into space.

She will receive four days of astronaut training in Oklahoma City in the United States before boarding the Rocket plane XP aircraft which will reach an altitude of 100 km (60 miles) and allow a five-minute experience of weightlessness.

Fans line-up in Asia 2 days before new iPhone launch

Seeking to be one of the world's first to grab the new-generation iPhone, fanatical Apple fans around Asia are queuing up two days before its launch, undiscouraged by rain or freezing temperatures.


The July 11 launch will be the first chance for Asian consumers to own an iPhone, and related websites have been swamped with inquiries and early orders.

In Japan, one of the world's most advanced mobile markets, about 20 people were lined up outside Softbank Corp's flag ship mobile store in Tokyo on Wednesday morning, with a sign at the head of the queue reading "We Love iPhone".

"The big appeal (of the iPhone) is that this is an Apple product," said Hiroyuki Sano, a 24-year-old graduate student who early on Tuesday arrived in rainy Tokyo from Nagoya, 225 miles west of the capital, to be first in line.

He will turn 25 on Thursday while waiting to get his hands on the high-end version of the iPhone with 16 gigabytes of memory. Apple also offers an entry-level version with an 8 gigabyte memory.

"I've told my professor I was going to go buy an iPhone, and he gave me permission," said Sano, wearing a T-shirt with an Apple logo. "He is an Apple-lover too, and he sent me off cheerfully."

The long-anticipated 3G iPhone, which has faster Web links than its predecessor and supports third-party applications such as games and email, will debut in Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand on Friday as part of the global launch in 22 countries.

The original iPhone was only available in the United States and Europe, and the next-generation model is expected to go on sale in 70 countries by the end of the year.

Shares of Apple gained 2.5 percent on Tuesday ahead of the launch. Softbank shares rose 1.9 percent on Wednesday.

Softbank, Japan's third-biggest mobile carrier, will start selling iPhones at its flagship store at 7 a.m. on Friday (2200 GMT Thursday) and expand sales nationwide at noon.

Targeting a far bigger market with its new iPhone, Apple slashed the handset price and is allowing carriers to subsidize the phone this time around, making it easier for users to bring home the device.

Research firm Enterbrain said 6.7 percent of 1,200 people it surveyed in Japan wanted to buy an iPhone immediately.

WORLD'S FIRST

Four New Zealanders with deck chairs, sleeping bags and a small tent started queuing on a chilly Tuesday night outside the Auckland shop of Vodafone, which will launch the iPhone at 12:01 a.m. Friday (1201 GMT Thursday), the first in the world.

"I'm really just doing it to be able to say that I'm the first one in the world with one of these phones," 22-year-old student Jonny Gladwell told the New Zealand Herald.

Vodafone, New Zealand's top mobile carrier, is selling the phone for as little as NZ$199 ($150) in the country if consumers sign up for a two-year contract. Demand for pricing details was so heavy it crashed Vodafone's New Zealand website on Tuesday.

In Hong Kong, Hutchison Telecom International was flooded by 60,000 online applications over the weekend from consumers who are hoping to grab one of just 500 phones on sale.

A number of the more desperate would-be users pleaded online they needed the iPhone to appease demanding wives or stressed it was their birthday, according to Hong Kong media.

The only woman in the Tokyo queue said she was securing places in line with her co-workers so that her company, Ubiquitous Entertainment Inc, can own iPhones and develop content for the device.

Despite the hype, analysts say Japan's 108 million mobile subscribers who are already frequent users of Web browsing and email on 3G networks might not be easily wowed by the iPhone.

Most of the people in the Tokyo queue told Reuters they plan to buy the device as their second cellphone.

"We can expect certain demand from core Apple fans and others, but there will be users who would hesitate about buying the iPhone because of the high monthly charges of some 8,000 yen," said Hironobu Sawake, a JPMorgan senior analyst in Tokyo.

"Even though there will be other features that are more attractive than ordinary phones, the fact that the iPhone does not offer some features that are available on most handsets could turn off some users too," he said.

United States Airline Stocks can be hazardous to your wealth

When equity analysts qualify their recommendations with warnings like "investing in airline stocks is very risky" and "trading airline stocks can be hazardous to your wealth," you kind of get the picture.

The warnings, which appeared in recent notes from Lehman Brothers and UBS, respectively, are well placed.

Shares of most major U.S. airlines have plummeted during the past year amid record oil prices and a weakening economy, wiping out billions of dollars in stock market value.

Take United Airlines parent UAL Corp. Its stock has fallen from $51.60 last October to under $8 on Wednesday.

Then there is AMR Corp, parent of American Airlines. It has seen its share price fall from $29.32 last July to around $6.35 on Wednesday.

Some experts believe U.S. airline stocks have now become the domain only of professional traders and speculators who can profit from short-term price movements, or short sellers who make money if stocks decline.

"For long-term investors, these are not investments that they should be looking at," said Brian Nelson, analyst at Morningstar.

"Airline stocks are of a different breed -- the structural features are horrible in terms of the industry," Nelson added.

Sky-high fuel prices and a weakening U.S. economy have stalled the U.S. airline industry's modest recovery from the 2001-2006 downturn. Oil prices have roughly doubled in the past year.

To survive, U.S. airlines are slimming down. They have reduced services and capacity, cut jobs, hiked fares, and added new fees and surcharges. But unless oil prices ease soon, some experts believe these measures might not be enough.

A MATTER OF TIME

At least seven small airlines have filed for bankruptcy or stopped operating in recent months.

And if oil prices do not retreat soon, some analysts believe it is a matter of time before a major airline files for bankruptcy.

"The state of the airline industry is one of disrepair and the industry faces a crisis as oil prices soar," said Calyon Securities analyst Ray Neidl.

Meanwhile, most airline shares keep falling.

The stock of Delta Air Lines, which has announced plans to acquire Northwest Airlines, has declined from $21.80 last July to less than $6 today. Over the same period, Northwest shares have fallen from $24.23 to around $6.50.

Continental Airlines has dropped from $38.61 to around $12.50 in the last 11 months and US Airways Group has plummeted from $36.19 to around $3.50 over the same period.

Most U.S. airline stocks have fallen so much that Germany's Lufthansa now has a stock market value worth more than AMR, UAL, Delta, Northwest, Continental and US Airways combined.

Indeed, South west Airlines , which has a history of successfully hedging against high fuel costs reflected in a stronger stock price also has a stock market value higher than its six rivals put together. Southwest shares have declined much less than its rivals, from $16.96 last August to under $14 on Wednesday.

"Airline equities could go to zero ... you are betting that crude oil could fall," said Morningstar's Nelson.

"Crude oil could definitely fall at some point -- however airline stocks could very well be bankrupt well before then," Nelson added.

JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker has estimated a collective loss of $7.2 billion for U.S. airlines this year.

WORTH A GAMBLE

And yet there are some who believe that selected airline stocks are worth a gamble.

In a note to clients last week, Lehman Brothers' Gary Chase, the analyst who said "investing in airline stocks is very risky," also said his firm sees "substantial upside potential in selected airline equities as the industry undertakes an historic restructuring."

Chase wrote: "Risks are extreme, but we believe justified by substantial upside potential," adding that his favorites are Delta and Northwest as they have the "best balance sheets, liquidity, and cash burn profiles."

Neidl of Calyon Securities said U.S. airline stocks have become merely "trading vehicles" for professionals who know what they are doing.

"We continue to believe that the major carriers will make it through what will be a difficult 2008 and that as trading vehicles the stocks will be attractive acquisitions at current low prices -- but the time is too early," said Neidl.

Morningstar's Nelson agreed, saying U.S. airline stocks have not yet reflected the rising risk of bankruptcy.

Even at their current low levels, Nelson added: "I still think most of them are overvalued."

International Energy Agency head urges "revolution" to fight oil crisis

An "energy revolution" to cut demand is necessary to combat the world's third energy crisis in 35 years, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday.

IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said the current oil price shock was unique because demand has remained robust despite prices climbing to $135 a barrel two weeks ago.

In contrast, global consumption fell after the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the Iranian revolution of 1979 as countries turned to more energy efficient transportation and power plants.

"We are in a third energy crisis," he said during the Reuters Energy Summit.

"Our response should be an energy revolution. We have to change dramatically the demand side by efficiency and new technologies."

The IEA sees an increase in world oil demand this year as consumption in emerging economies outweighs a slowdown in the United States and Europe.

"In China, India the Middle East, demand is very, very robust. We haven't seen any indication that there is a slow down," he said.

In the IEA's outlook report last month, the adviser to 27 industrialized nations forecast global demand will rise by 1.03 million barrels per day.

But that is down significantly from its estimates a year ago due to the economic slowdown in the United States.

Tanaka has urged industrialized countries to speed up plans to boost automobile fuel efficiency standards, improve efficiency of power plants and take hard action on heat trapping greenhouse gases.

Even with these changes, he believed oil prices were likely to remain at historically high levels because of a variety of factors, including limited spare capacity and stock levels.

"Oil prices may not easily go back to the level of two, three years ago, probably that is very unlikely," he said.

Brand clout keeps United States shoe buyers loyal in slump

If you thought cash-strapped U.S. consumers would walk out on their favorite branded shoes for a bargain-priced pair, think again.

Brand power has driven sales at mid-tier footwear makers like Deckers Outdoor and Wolverine World Wide over the past year even as sellers of other consumer goods fail to woo U.S. shoppers pinched by rising fuel and food costs, falling home values and tighter lending conditions.

"Nothing's worse than an ill-fitting pair of shoes, and nothing is more emotionally disturbing than buying a pair of an unknown brand of shoes," Marshal Cohen, an expert on consumer behavior and an analyst with market research firm NPD Group, said.

Some branded footwear makers are also looking to capitalize on the fierce loyalty shown towards their brands by passing on a portion of rising manufacturing costs to customers.

Shoppers are willing to pay extra to get their hands on popular brands like Nike, Deckers' UGG and Skechers USA's Cali and Sport.

Deckers has posted better-than-expected results in the last five quarters as its core UGG brand, made famous by the company's sheepskin boots and slippers, fueled sales.

In the latest first quarter, UGG sales rose by a whopping 84 percent and contributed more than 56 percent of Deckers' total revenue even as skeptical Wall Street analysts debated whether to classify UGG as a fad or a must-have brand.

Industry goliath Nike's combined sales for its top three brands, Nike, Jordan and Converse, outperformed the industry in both March and April, analysts said.

Deckers' stock has jumped nearly 62 percent over the past year while Nike's shares have climbed nearly 22 percent. Both outstripped the wider S&P 1500 Footwear Sub-Industry Index , which rose about 3.7 percent in the same period.

"Consumers have always reached back to their favorite footwear brands because of the physical comfort factor as well as the psychological comfort factor," NPD's Cohen, who is also the author of "Why Customers Do What They Do," said.

In a recent visit to several stores in New York, JP Morgan analyst Robert Samuels observed consumers focusing on quality brand names such as Nike, Liz Claiborne Inc's Juicy and UGG at discount-oriented malls as well as their upscale counter parts.

"People are just buying less frequently and they are really being a little bit more nitpicky about what they really want to spend their dollars on," Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Christopher Svezia said from New York.

BETTING ON WINNERS

Amid the current turmoil rocking the retail industry, department stores such as Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus have made orders and reorders for proven winners, sustaining the momentum of several brands like UGG and Wolverine's Merrell and Hush Puppies.

Wolverine's market value has risen 17 percent this year on strong sales of its lifestyle brands that target different countries and consumer groups.

Retailers are also increasingly maintaining leaner inventories to avoid selling a large pile of goods at discounted prices at the end of a season.

But NPD's Cohen was skeptical of the move to trim inventories. "Consumers get very frustrated when shopping in these tough times, not finding what they want and being forced to go elsewhere.

"Loyalty becomes very vulnerable in lean times... Retailers are shooting themselves in the foot when cutting footwear inventories down both in assortment and stock per style."

Footwear companies are also trying to attract loyalists of non-shoe brands by teaming up with sellers of items like clothing, handbags and jewelry.

Skechers, whose stock jumped 22 percent this year through Wednesday, has said it will partner with Bebe Stores to design and sell Bebe-branded footwear for women. The Bebe Sport footwear line is set to launch in the United States in spring 2008 with a campaign featuring actress Eva Longoria.

And since brand visibility propels sales, footwear makers have been spending a good chunk of their annual budgets on brand-building initiatives.

"Footwear is a very emotional and relationship-oriented product. Experimenting with footwear is not an area where consumers are willing to 'play'. Apparel is less fit specific and accessories even less so," NPD's Cohen said.

A day in the life of America's last lighthouse keeper

The sole remaining lighthouse keeper in the United States may be the last one but she isn't about to disappear.

Sally Snowman, 56, is part historian, part tour guide and part maintenance worker who tends Boston Light, a beacon that rises 89 feet (27 meter) on its own island and had guided sailors for almost three centuries.

Her charge, and specifically the 12-sided rotating lens that casts its beam 27 nautical miles out to sea, fills her with a great sense of security.

"When you're out at night on the island, you can actually see the 12 rays," said the ex-schoolteacher. "It actually looks like the rays are going out to the curvature of the earth and it feels so protected, like nothing's going to harm me. It's awesome."

The U.S. Coast Guard has automated the other 278 federally run lighthouses, finding this a more cost-effective way to manage navigational aids that have become less critical since the advent of global positioning systems that harness satellite technology.

But Boston Light, which in 1716 became the first lighthouse in the former British colonies, keeps its keeper thanks to Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy who two decades ago helped push through legislation requiring a full-time attendant.

Snowman got the job in 2003 when the Coast Guard decided it could be held by a civilian. Now she resides on the three-acre

island for up to a week at a time.

She makes sure the lighthouse, keeper's cottage and other buildings are maintained, the 1,000-watt light is lit, and the grounds are in shape for the 4,000 tourists who travel the nine nautical miles from Boston Harbor each year.

RADIATING HOPE AND SECURITY

Snowman dresses the part, wearing a bonnet and long dress to reflect how women dressed in 1783 when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts rebuilt the tower that was blown up by retreating British troops in 1776, as the Revolutionary War got underway.

Twice a day she walks the island's perimeter to inspect its buildings, making sure that the light is still drawing power from an undersea cable stretching from the mainland, and that the island's water and communications systems work properly.

In between, she oversees a crew of about 100 volunteers who help to take weather readings and fill the hundreds of tiny holes that pock the island, thanks to a population of muskrats.

Automation is not the only change facing lighthouses.

As navigators rely on other technologies to find their way, the U.S. government has begun selling or donating to historic preservation groups lights no longer necessary for navigation.

More than 300 lights have passed into private hands this way, according to Coast Guard officials.

But for recreational boaters and small fishing vessels, which represent a sizable chunk of Boston Harbor traffic, the lights still play a role.

"They help with approaches because they can be seen from a great distance away," said David Bryan, general manager of the Boston Sailing Club, which teaches sailing and navigation.

"If the idea is that now everyone is using GPS and you don't need light houses, I would say that redundant information is very important when navigating."

Beyond its role in navigation, Boston Light is also a tourist draw. Snowman has a theory as to why.

"For many, it has a sense of hope and spirituality, not religion, but spirituality," she said in an interview atop the tower, looking out over Boston Harbor. "They look at it and see it as a coming home and safety."

U.S. spacecraft lands safely at Mars north pole

A small science probe blazed through the salmon-colored skies of Mars on Sunday, touching down on a frozen desert at the planet's north pole to search for water and assess conditions for sustaining life, NASA officials said.

The spacecraft, known as Phoenix, landed at 4:53 p.m. PDT after a do-or-die plunge through the planet's thin atmosphere and thruster-jet landing to the Mars surface. It marked the first time that a spacecraft had successfully landed at one of the planet's polar regions.

"It was a hell of a lot scarier than the two Mars rovers," NASA's space sciences chief Ed Weiler said, referring to the cushioned landings of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. "I kept thinking, 'I wish I had airbags.'

" Pulled by Mars' gravity, Phoenix was tearing along at 12,700 mph before it entered the atmosphere, which slowed the craft so it could pop out a parachute and fire thruster rockets to gently float to the ground.

"It's down, baby, it's down!," yelled a NASA flight controller, looking at signals from Mars showing that Phoenix had landed.

Flight controllers and scientists battled nerves as Phoenix wrapped up its 10-month, 423 million-mile journey. In 14 minutes, the probe transformed from an interplanetary cruiser to a free-standing science station.

"People got really uncomfortable," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which oversees the mission.

Scientists found in 2002 that Mars' polar regions have vast reservoirs of water frozen beneath a shallow layer of soil. Phoenix was launched August 4, 2007, to sample the water and determine if the right ingredients for life are present.

NASA attempted a landing on Mars' south pole in 1999, but a problem during the final minutes of descent ended the mission.

The U.S. space agency canceled its next Mars lander but successfully dispatched Spirit and Opportunity to the planet's equatorial region to search for signs of past surface water.

Phoenix was created out of spare parts from the failed Polar Lander mission and the mothballed probe. Unlike the rovers, Phoenix did not bounce to the planet's surface in airbags, which are not suitable for larger spacecraft.

Instead, like the 1970s-era Viking probes and the failed Polar Lander mission, it used a jet pack to lower itself to the ground and fold-out legs to land on. "We haven't landed successfully on legs and propulsive rockets in 32 years," Weiler said. "When we send humans there, women and men, they're going to be landing on rockets and legs, so it's important to show that we still know how to do this."

U.S. spacecraft lands safely at Mars north pole

A small science probe blazed through the salmon-colored skies of Mars on Sunday, touching down on a frozen desert at the planet's north pole to search for water and assess conditions for sustaining life, NASA officials said.

The spacecraft, known as Phoenix, landed at 4:53 p.m. PDT after a do-or-die plunge through the planet's thin atmosphere and thruster-jet landing to the Mars surface. It marked the first time that a spacecraft had successfully landed at one of the planet's polar regions.

"It was a hell of a lot scarier than the two Mars rovers," NASA's space sciences chief Ed Weiler said, referring to the cushioned landings of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. "I kept thinking, 'I wish I had airbags.'"

Pulled by Mars' gravity, Phoenix was tearing along at 12,700 mph before it entered the atmosphere, which slowed the craft so it could pop out a parachute and fire thruster rockets to gently float to the ground.

"It's down, baby, it's down!," yelled a NASA flight controller, looking at signals from Mars showing that Phoenix had landed.

Flight controllers and scientists battled nerves as Phoenix wrapped up its 10-month, 423 million-mile journey. In 14 minutes, the probe transformed from an interplanetary cruiser to a free-standing science station.

"People got really uncomfortable," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which oversees the mission.

Scientists found in 2002 that Mars' polar regions have vast reservoirs of water frozen beneath a shallow layer of soil. Phoenix was launched August 4, 2007, to sample the water and determine if the right ingredients for life are present.

NASA attempted a landing on Mars' south pole in 1999, but a problem during the final minutes of descent ended the mission.

The U.S. space agency canceled its next Mars lander but successfully dispatched Spirit and Opportunity to the planet's equatorial region to search for signs of past surface water.

Phoenix was created out of spare parts from the failed Polar Lander mission and the mothballed probe. Unlike the rovers, Phoenix did not bounce to the planet's surface in airbags, which are not suitable for larger spacecraft.

Instead, like the 1970s-era Viking probes and the failed Polar Lander mission, it used a jet pack to lower itself to the ground and fold-out legs to land on.

"We haven't landed successfully on legs and propulsive rockets in 32 years," Weiler said. "When we send humans there, women and men, they're going to be landing on rockets and legs, so it's important to show that we still know how to do this."

"American Idol" concludes on ratings upswing

The upset "American Idol" victory by rock singer David Cook drew nearly 32 million U.S. television viewers on Wednesday night, up 3 percent from last year's finale, Nielsen Media Research reported on Thursday.

The two-hour broadcast on News Corp's Fox network marked the second-most-watched episode of the smash hit talent contest this season, behind only the 33 million-plus viewers who tuned in for the debut of the show's seventh installment in January.

The Nielsens rally came after weeks of record low ratings. And "American Idol" finished its latest run down year-to-year for the season as a whole in both overall average audience size and in ratings for viewers aged 18 to 49, the group most prized by advertisers.

It was the second straight year of season-to-season declines though the finale's ratings could be adjusted when the final Nielsen data comes in.

"Idol," which generally airs twice weekly, averaged about 28.1 million viewers per broadcast for the current season, compared with 30.8 million at the height of show's popularity in 2006. But it remains by the far the most watched show on U.S. television.

The unexpected triumph of Cook, 25, who was tending bar and playing in a band before he auditioned for the singing competition, marked one of the more surprising outcomes of the series.

His rival, 17-year-old David Archuleta, went from being the contestant widely dubbed "The Chosen One" to runner-up after a record 97.5 million votes were cast by fans of the show on Tuesday night, final performance episode.

The show is produced by 19 Entertainment, a unit of CKX Inc, and by FremantleMedia, a division of British-based RTL Group., which is controlled by media giant Bertelsmann AG.

Senate panel passes housing rescue plan

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee approved legislation on Tuesday that could save a half million homeowners from fore closure and help stabilize the nation's rattled housing market.

Under the plan, lenders who agree to erase a large share of the original loan amount could win a government guarantee on future mortgage payments. The bill would also create a stronger regulator for mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Both the Senate bill and a similar plan passed by the House of Representatives earlier this month would create a fund under the Federal Housing Administration to allow distressed homeowners to refinance into government-guaranteed loans.

Congress is trying to stem a wave of foreclosures estimated at about 1.4 million this year with home prices falling and many borrowers unable to make payments on costly mortgages taken out before the real estate bubble burst.

Senate Republicans and the White House had worried a new FHA program would put taxpayers on the hook for failing loans. But under the compromise bill passed by the Senate panel, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will absorb loan losses.

The bill that cleared the Senate committee on Tuesday now must go before the full Senate for a vote. If approved, lawmakers will need to hammer out a compromise between the competing House and Senate versions.

Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and the author of the House legislation, said he had questions about how the Senate plan would fund mortgage rescues. But he said he expects lawmakers from both chambers to agree on a bill that can go to President George W. Bush.

Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate panel, has said he hopes to see the mortgage rescue package reach Bush by July 4.

While the White House had threatened to veto the House bill, it said it will take a close look at the Senate version.

"I don't believe the president will veto this," Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the banking panel, told reporters after the vote.

DIFFERENT PLANS

The foreclosure prevention plan that cleared the House could assist about 500,000 borrowers at a cost to taxpayers of about $1.7 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The White House objected specifically to the cost of the House plan and Shelby demanded that its sponsors find a way to fund it without tapping governmen coffers.

After weeks of haggling, Shelby and Dodd agreed to scale back the FHA refinancing fund so it would cost only about $500 million. Dodd said the bill would still help a similar number of homeowners as the House version.

The Senate bill would cover the cost of the program by diverting money from an affordable housing trust fund to be set up under Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Under the trust fund proposal, the two companies would contribute a share of their profits to create a pot of money for housing advocacy groups to expand affordable housing.

The affordable housing trust fund was a key element in the housing rescue package authored by Frank, who said he was concerned about the Senate plan to divert those funds.

"A fight is brewing on the affordable housing trust fund," the Massachusetts Democrat said. "That would be one of the most contentious issues between us ... So we will deal with that."

Freddie Mac's chief financial officer said the company is "generally supportive" of the legislation.

Speaking at a Lehman Brothers conference in London via Webcast, Buddy Piszel said, however, that the new regulator for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae should maintain the companies' funding flexibility as they are the main sources of stability in "the worst housing downturn anyone has ever seen."

A spokesman for Fannie Mae said the company was concerned that the legislation might put a crimp in its ability to invest in the nation's housing market.

New bin Laden message to focus on Israel: monitors

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden will address the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding in a Web message expected to underscore a growing focus on the Jewish state, U.S.-based Internet monitors said on Thursday.

Militant Islamist message boards on the Internet carried a banner announcing the statement with Israel's anniversary as the topic, said the monitoring service of the U.S. author and analyst who goes by the name Laura Mansfield.

The speech is addressed to "Western peoples" and entitled "The Causes of Conflict on the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israeli Occupation," the SITE Institute monitoring group said. The monitor IntelCenter said an audio-video statement was expected to be released within 72 hours.

"Bin Laden seems to be shifting gears," over the last decade, Mansfield said. "In his initial messages, bin Laden's focus was on the removal of U.S. forces from (Saudi Arabia) but in recent years he has more closely wedded himself to the Palestinian issue."

In a message on March 20, his second in 2008, bin Laden urged Muslims to maintain the struggle against U.S. forces in Iraq as a path toward "liberating Palestine."

Al Qaeda has vowed attacks on Jews both within and outside Israel, and regularly expressed support for the Palestinians. Al Qaeda was blamed for a suicide attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya and a simultaneous failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli charter jet near the Mombasa, Kenya, airport in 2002.

But despite calls by al Qaeda supporters for the militant network to establish a presence in Palestinian areas, U.S. intelligence officials see no evidence it has done so. Analysts say al Qaeda faces competition for turf from the well established Hamas.

Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, criticized Hamas in March 2007 as a servant of U.S. interests by agreeing to respect past Palestinian accords with Israel.

He denounced Saudi Arabia and Egypt in December for serving U.S. interests, as he accused Arab leaders of betraying Palestinians by attending a Middle East peace conference in the United States.

A new message from Zawahri was likely in the coming week and was expected to pertain to Egypt, Mansfield said.

Hewlett-Packard in talks to buy Electronic Data Systems Corp to compete with International Business Machines Corp

Hewlett-Packard Co is in talks to buy technology outsourcing company Electronic Data Systems Corp for $12 billion to $13 billion in a deal which would vault it to a close second to IBM in technology services.

The acquisition would be HP's biggest since its $19 billion acquisition of Compaq in 2002. Shares of EDS rose nearly 28 percent, taking its market value to about $12 billion.

HP shares fell nearly 5 percent amid some skepticism that slow-growing EDS, still considered in turnaround mode, would provide more than a one-time boost, and might not be worth a premium of as much as 37 percent.

A source briefed on the matter told Reuters about the talks and that the plan was to announce a deal by the close of Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal first reported the discussions, and later HP and EDS both said they were in talks about a business combination but gave no details.

"While Hewlett-Packard has over time built up its own outsourcing practice, this clearly is a move by Mark Hurd to challenge IBM in the services area," said David Garrity, director of research at Dinosaur Securities, referring to HP's chief executive.

A bigger HP could compete better against International Business Machines Corp going after large clients and help it keep costs in line, analysts said. If HP completes the acquisition, it would be by far the largest under CEO Hurd.

"It would put Hewlett-Packard in the sweet spot of an IT spending trend. It would definitely improve their position against IBM," said CRT Capital Group analyst Ashok Kumar.

SKEPTICISM ABOUT TARGET

HP has long considered an acquisition to beef up its tech services business, a sector that offers relatively stable income and high margins even in an economic downturn.

Worldwide computer services revenue rose 10.5 percent to $748 billion in 2007, according to data released on Monday by market research firm Gartner Inc.

IBM continued to be the leader, with 7.2 percent share. EDS weighed in at No. 2, with 3.0 percent of the market, while HP was No. 5, with 2.2 percent market share.

Together HP and EDS would have roughly $39.4 billion in services revenue, compared with IBM's $54.1 billion last year.

"HP gains a very strong No. 2 position in total services market share and professional services market share behind IBM," said Gartner analyst Allie Young.

If EDS were to remain independent it would have a tough time holding on to its number 2 slot in IT services market, Young said.

EDS brings to HP a strong base in infrastructure outsourcing, Young said. But neither HP nor EDS is strong in high-end consulting, which is a strong suit for IBM.

Yet there was some skepticism about HP's target, EDS.

"Unless HP has some synergies where they can dramatically impact earnings growth of EDS, I'm not sure why they'd want to buy it," said Jim Huguet, co-chief executive at Great Companies LLC. He noted that EDS's earnings growth has averaged 2.8 percent.

"EDS is trading at about half its historical PE, so they're obviously seeing it as a value, which it is if you can generate earnings growth at 15-20 percent. But my question is whether it will become a drain on Hewlett-Packard?"

In April, EDS reported a 62 percent decline in first quarter profit, though the results had topped Wall Street expectations. Despite the beat, analysts said EDS faced intense competition from Indian rivals and saw little catalyst for growth.

"Growth could temporarily stall but then the opportunity is for the merged operations to be extremely strong and competitive," Young said.

Besides HP and IBM, EDS also competes with Accenture Ltd and Computer Sciences Corp in the United States, as well as Indian companies Infosys Technologies Ltd , Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.

"EDS has been relatively stagnant over the past few years. HP has been trying to promote themselves as a major services organization over the past few years. This will certainly help them with that," said Chad Hersh, an analyst at Novarica.

EDS has cut thousands of jobs to boost profits, and also is generating revenue from contracts including a lucrative deal last year with the U.S. Navy.

"We believe that Hewlett would be acquiring a fairly clean book of business, at least one that has been well scrubbed. So there shouldn't be any untoward surprises," Garrity said.

In 2000, HP pulled out of talks to buy the consulting business of Price water house Coopers for as much as $18 billion. IBM in October 2002 closed its $3.5 billion acquisition of Price water house Coopers' consulting division.

Comment: Is the housing tsunami receding?

Contrary to popular belief, a tsunami is not a single gigantic wave, but is a series of massive waves that can pummel shorelines thousands of miles from its origin, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake.

The current U.S. housing slump - the worst in 70 years - has been likened to a tsunami because of the carnage it has caused in financial markets worldwide, many of which were quite distant from the epicenter. The estimated damage in terms of market capitalization that has been vaporized over the past six months already exceeds hundreds of billions of dollars.

There are signs the worst is over and investors are cautiously picking up the pieces. But before you get too comfortable, realize that hazards remain.

Last week, Linens 'n Things became the latest casualty of the slowdown, as it filed for bankruptcy in the largest leveraged buyout failure since July.

The second-largest U.S. houseware retailer was unable to cope with competition and tight liquidity conditions as consumers cut back spending on home furnishings. Smaller rival Home Interiors & Gifts, a direct-marketer of home decorative products, also filed for bankruptcy last week.

Revenues and earnings at lumber producers have also taken a hit. Weyerhaeuser reported a loss of $148 million in its first quarter, and Canada's Canfor reported a loss of close to $84 million.

The slump has also slashed the market value of homebuilders in the S&P 500 by two-thirds from their peak in January 2006. The five companies in the S&P 500 Homebuilding index currently have a total market capitalization of $16 billion, compared with over $49 billion in the heady days of early 2006.

Nevertheless, judging by the performance of homebuilding stocks such as Pulte Homes and DR Horton, it appears as though investors believe the worst is behind them. The S&P 500 Homebuilding index was up 11 percent for the year as of Friday, led by Pulte with a 34 percent gain and DR Horton with 19 percent.

But the most telling indicator of improving sentiment is that top-rated securities backed by subprime loans rose - albeit modestly - in April, after falling over 9 percent in the preceding six months. As the implosion in U.S. subprime mortgage-backed securities was one of the major shocks that triggered the housing tsunami, any improvement in that asset class would be a positive factor for markets across the board.

For the moment, investors are willing to look beyond U.S. housing data, which continues on its dismal trend. Last week, real estate data company Radar Logic reported that home prices fell in 22 U.S. metropolitan areas in February, as foreclosures reached record levels. Prices per square foot in areas such as Sacramento plunged almost 30 percent from year earlier levels. Prices in Las Vegas fell 26 percent.

Markets may have stabilized in recent weeks as the leading wave of the housing tsunami recedes, but don't take your eyes off the water: there may be more waves on the horizon.

What the Fed is considering at its meeting

The Federal Reserve looks set to deliver a small interest rate cut on Wednesday to help an economy moving sideways at best and could signal the move is the last in a cycle as officials eye inflation warily.

The Fed has already cut interest rates to 2.25 percent from 5.25 percent in six steps since mid-September in an effort to keep U.S. economic activity going in spite of a credit crunch and a deep housing downturn.

Food, fuel and raw material prices are rising, boosting inflationary pressures, a Fed report said recently.

"This meeting's accompanying statement poses a special challenge for the committee justify easing another quarter point to avoid a deeper recession, and simultaneously acknowledging the risk of commodity inflationary pressures," RBS Greenwich Capital analysts David Ader and Ian Lyngen said in a research note.

Interest rate futures prices imply about an 80 percent probability of a further quarter-point reduction and about a one-in-five chance of no move at all when the Fed wraps up a two-day meeting on Wednesday.

The government reports on first-quarter U.S. gross domestic product on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters expect the economy expanded at a sickly 0.2 percent annual rate, which would be the weakest since the closing months of 2002.

In addition to cuts in benchmark rates, the U.S. central bank has unleashed a series of emergency measures, sometimes in coordination with other central banks around the world, to keep banks and major financial firms lending and borrowing. In a dramatic intervention last month, it stepped in to prevent the failure of wounded investment bank Bear Stearns .

With some signs financial markets are stabilizing, Fed officials expect the combined effects of rate cuts and a $152 billion government stimulus package to revive the economy.

They are likely to discuss whether borrowing costs are appropriately positioned to aid recovery without fostering inflation. Their statement will provide clues to the tone of that debate.

Following are some factors Fed policy makers will be considering on Tuesday and Wednesday:

LIQUIDITY: Fed officials are worried about continued signs of strains in short-term funding markets, as evidenced by elevated risk premiums institutions are continuing to pay. Elevated spreads between the London Interbank Offered Rate, a gauge of what banks charge each other for loans, and overnight indexed swaps, a measure of anticipated central bank interest rate targets, fuel those concerns.

Policy-makers have offered more than $400 billion in liquidity to banks and primary dealers in Treasury securities, and suggest they are ready to bring more liquidity measures to bear if necessary to restore normal market functioning.

INFLATION: Fed officials are hearing from their contacts around the country that food, fuel and raw material prices are rising and contributing to inflationary pressures, the central bank's Beige Book survey released on March 16 showed.

Also, two members of the Fed's interest-rate setting committee voted against the March decision to cut rates by a sharp three-quarters of a percentage point, preferring less aggressive action and citing the potential for higher inflation -- and higher inflation expectations as a worry.

But other Fed officials believe that higher-than-desirable levels of inflation will not persist as the slowing economy raises unemployment levels.

RECESSION WATCH: The economy is growing sluggishly and possibly even contracting. Of most concern to policy-makers is evidence from measures of confidence that the slowdown is driven by a retrenchment in consumer spending, rather than in business investment.

However, Fed officials' chief concern is that growth could brake more than expected. Gloomy consumer sentiment could feed a sharper slowdown and persistently tight credit could neutralize the effect of Fed rate cuts in providing a boost to economic activity.

Finally, housing markets remain very weak. But policy-makers expect those doldrums to lift over the course of the year and look for housing to exert less of a drag on economic growth in coming quarters.

RECENT COMMENTS:

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher, April 22: "It's really a question of, are we getting the bang for the buck (from interest rate cuts). And clearly we're not. The system is sputtering."

Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser, April 18: "A slowing economy is no guarantee of slowing inflation pressures. The role of monetary policy is to ensure the stability of the purchasing power of the nation's currency, so that markets are not distorted by inflation. To insure the credibility of monetary policy we should never ask monetary policy to do more than it can do."

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, April 2: "Overall, the near-term economic outlook has weakened relative to the projections released by the (Fed) at the end of January. It now appears likely that real gross domestic product will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly.

"We expect economic activity to strengthen in the second half of the year, in part as the result of stimulative monetary and fiscal policies; and growth is expected to proceed at or a little above its sustainable pace in 2009, bolstered by a stabilization of housing activity, albeit at low levels, and gradually improving financial conditions. However, in light of the recent turbulence in financial markets, the uncertainty attending this forecast is quite high and the risks remain to the downside."

Unlikely street friendship leads to Hollywood

When newspaper columnist Steve Lopez spotted a homeless man playing Beethoven on a battered violin on a street corner in Los Angeles, he had no idea this was going to be one of his life's defining moments.

Lopez, who writes for the Los Angeles Times, was startled by the skill of Nathaniel Ayers who was playing with two strings missing and thought it could be a good way into a column looking at the lives of the estimated 65,000 homeless in Los Angeles.

But after meeting in March 2005 in downtown Los Angeles an area with the U.S.'s largest homeless population -- Lopez found himself drawn into Ayers' life, his battle with schizophrenia and his fall from promising classically trained musician to skid row.

"At first he was scared of me, jumpy and suspicious, and it took several visits before I began to get his story," said Lopez who has written a book about Ayers, "The Soloist," that is being made into a movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx.

"One day he was scribbling names on the sideway with chalk and he told me these were his classmates at (the world-class New York arts conservatory) Juilliard. I checked it out and everything was true. I just couldn't walk away."

Lopez's first column about Ayers led to readers sending in donations such as six violins and two cellos which Ayers insisted on keeping in the shopping cart he used to store his belongings.

The columnist then followed this up with other columns about homelessness and life on skid row, which is a stone's throw from the city's prestigious Disney Concert Hall.

"The mentally ill often don't trust people, they may have had bad experiences with prescribed drugs, so it took a year to convince Nathaniel to move off the streets," said Lopez.

HUMAN FACE OF HOMELESSNESS

Lopez's columns struck a chord with readers.

"Nathaniel opened people's lives to homelessness because here was a human story about a man with a talent that I wish I had that who deserves compassion and help. I've never had a response like this in 35 years in journalism."

Ayers was raised in Cleveland and attended Ohio State University, winning a scholarship to study at The Juilliard School. But at age 20, he developed a schizophrenia and ended up living on the streets of Cleveland then Los Angeles for 35 years.

"Although he does not have regrets or self pity, he likes the idea that somebody is paying notice to a black kid from Cleveland who made it into an almost all white institution in New York City," said Lopez.

Lopez said he was courted by a few film studios to make a movie of the book but was insistent that Ayers not be disturbed by this and also he did not want a happy Hollywood ending.

"When he is feeling well and in the right mood he is one of the most charming people you've ever met," said Lopez.

"But there are time when he is incoherent and aggressive and can be very ugly as the illness rises up in him. He is a sick man and I don't want to sugarcoat that but his story does have hope."

Lopez said he would like to think one day that Ayers will agree to try a new generation of anti-psychotic medication.

However he said it was not just Ayers who comes out of their meeting better off -- this also changed his life.

"He has taken me into his world of classical music that I knew very little about and has become one of the dearest friends I have ever had," said Lopez.

"I also got a reminder from Nathaniel that I have my own passion that I got very jaded about - which is to write. I ended up thinking in some ways this guy is happier and saner than most people I know, with a passion most people never know in life."

Bank's mail jingles as borrowers walk: James Saft

Increasing numbers of Americans are simply walking away from their houses and mortgages, increasing pressure on banks and the economy.

Rapid house price falls in many parts of the United States will soon leave as many as one in five borrowers owing more on their loan than the house will fetch, removing at a stroke the single most powerful incentive to keep up with payments.

The phenomenon of "walk aways" or "jingle mail," so called because of the noise the house keys make in the envelope mailed to the bank, is hard to measure but shows every sign of gathering pace and having a substantial impact.

Wachovia Corp went so far as to change its models on how quickly loans will go bad in the face of what it called "unprecedented" changes in consumer behavior.

"I don't know where the tipping point is, but somewhere when a borrower crosses the 100 percent loan to value, somewhere north of that their propensity to just default and stop paying their mortgage rises dramatically and really accelerates up. It's almost regardless of how they scored, say, on FICO or other kinds of credit characteristics," Wachovia chief risk officer Don Truslow told analysts on a conference call.

FICO, a credit score developed by Fair Isaac Corp., is one of many barometers of credit worthiness used in home lending to help predict the likelihood that a borrower will repay.

Wachovia this week announced that it would make a $2.8 billion provision for credit losses as it posted a first quarter loss, cut its dividend and sought to raise $7 billion in fresh capital.

While the law varies from state to state, in many parts of the United States mortgage lenders cannot go after defaulting borrowers' other assets. And even where they can, few lenders take the expensive and low-yielding option of chasing down borrowers who walk away from loans.

The scale of the potential problem is huge.

Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com estimates that 10.6 million homeowners will have zero or negative equity by the end of June, or 21 percent of first mortgage holders.

The impact of a new wave of defaults will also be potentially important. Banks and other investors in mortgages, as has been seen, will take further hits to their already weakened capital.

While few might shed tears for banks, this means a longer and deeper credit crunch. It will also mean a wave of new properties hitting the real estate market, driving prices lower still, as banks seize and seek to sell the houses homeowners have fled.

To give a flavor of the impact, Zandi has estimated that every foreclosure on a neighborhood block reduces the value of all homes on that block by almost 1.5 percent.

GROWING PHENOMENON

To be fair, not every loan default by someone whose house isn't worth as much as the loan is a walk away, but the two are closely linked. Wachovia is far from alone in feeling the impact from "walk aways."

Regions Financial Corp (RF.N: Quote, Profile, Research), a large U.S. bank active in the southeast, on Tuesday announced that nonperforming assets had nearly tripled to $1.2 billion, driven in part by deterioration in its home equity loan portfolio.

Regions chief executive C. Dowd Ritter gave analysts a similar picture of how borrowers react when confronted with steep drops in home valuations.

"As they started to sell it or refinance, they realized that valuation was 40 percent below what it was that 18-24 months ago and they are walking away from those homes in those markets," he said.

Data from real estate firm RealtyTrac not only shows a rapid rise in overall foreclosures, but also suggests a rising number of walk aways.

Home foreclosure filings surged 57 percent in the 12 months to March and bank repossessions soared 129 percent from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac.

In most of the United States, foreclosures follow a sequence of an initial notice of default, then notice of a scheduled auction, and finally a "REO" filing indicating repossession.

If borrowers walk away, lenders can skip the auction notice and accelerate repossession.

"On a year-over-year basis, default notices were up nearly 57 percent and bank repossessions were up nearly 129 percent, but auction notices were up only 32 percent, indicating that more defaulting homeowners are simply walking away and deeding their properties back to the foreclosing lender," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

While borrowers acting in their own best interests really shouldn't shock anyone, the costs associated will be just another unwelcome drag on the economy and finance until the value of U.S. houses stops falling.

Rowling tells court she's stopped working

An emotional J.K. Rowling said on Monday she had stopped working on a new novel because her creativity was stifled by a fan's bid to print an unofficial encyclopedic companion to her Harry Potter series.

The 42-year-old British author and Warner Bros. are suing independent U.S. publisher RDR Books, which plans to publish "The Harry Potter Lexicon," a 400-page reference book written by New York court and based on his popular fan Web site (www.hp-lexicon.org).

Rowling told a New York court on Monday that the demands of the case had caused her to halt work on a new novel. The author, who wrote seven novels about the boy wizard, said the stress has "decimated my creative work over the past month."

A lawyer for RDR books said the book by Vander Ark, a librarian who has spoken at Harry Potter conferences in several countries, would promote Rowling's series and not hurt sales.

Rowling, whose Harry Potter series has sold around 400 million copies, gave no further details about her new book, but has previously said she has half-finished a children's book.

When asked what Potter meant to her, the mother-of-three said: "I really don't want to cry, because I am British ... It's like asking how do you feel about your child."

"This is very personal to me," said Rowling, who wrote the first Potter book as a poverty-stricken single mother and is now estimated by The Sunday Times to be worth about $1 billion. "I am an author -- 17-years of my work is being exploited here. This is not about money."

Rowling has said she plans to write her own Harry Potter encyclopedia, which would include material that did not make it into the novels, and donate the proceeds to charity.

But she told U.S. District Court Judge Robert Patterson that she was now not sure if she had "the will or the heart" to publish her own encyclopedia and that if she did, "I would rather lock it away; it's associated with stress."

After she finished testifying, Rowling read a statement outside court. She said she felt strongly about the case because it "affects everyone and not just me."

"If books that plagiarize other works are permitted, authors, fans and readers stand to lose," Rowling said.

SALES THREAT?

The lawsuit filed in October names Michigan-based RDR Books and unidentified persons. It seeks to stop publication and requests damages for copyright and federal trademark infringement and any profits to be gained.

Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc, which owns the copyright and trademark rights to the Potter books.

"This is a case about the massive wholesale copying," Dale Cendali, a lawyer for Rowling and Warner said in court. "The lexicon is drawn almost entirely from Ms. Rowling's work."

Cendali said it was not a research guide as it lacked original material.

RDR publisher Roger Rappaport told the court that a timeline Vander Ark created was used by Warner Bros. in DVD releases of the Harry Potter films. He added that any reference to Harry Potter had been removed from the cover of the lexicon.

The company and Vander Ark have said the book would only promote the sale of Rowling's work and that Vander Ark's Web site, used by 25 million visitors, had been called "a great site" by Rowling herself.

"The lexicon is not a plausible substitute for any of the Harry Potter novels," said Anthony Falzone, a lawyer for RDR Books. "It's simply not plausible to argue that Ms. Rowling's sales will be hurt in any meaningful way."

He said Vander Ark's Harry Potter interest began "as a labor of love" and his expertise was so sought after that Warner Bros. flew him to the set of the fifth Harry Potter movie and used his lexicon everyday during production.

"It is, above all else, a reference guide," Falzone said. "Profit was never the point."

Pope and President Bush have foreign policy differences

Pope Benedict and President George W. Bush disagree on the Iraq war and other foreign policy issues, but their White House meeting this week may focus more on areas of agreement like abortion.

The Vatican strongly opposed the Iraq war which it believed did not follow the Catholic "just war" doctrine which justifies defensive conflicts but not preemptive attacks, analysts say.

Bush argued that the U.S.-invasion of Iraq in 2003 was necessary to remove a threat from Saddam Hussein and help spread democracy in the Middle East.

The war will likely come up in the talks but no public statement is expected because the pope usually avoids conflict with leaders of countries he visits. Pope Benedict has been deeply concerned about the Iraq situation, especially the plight of minority Christians and the death of a Chaldean archbishop who was kidnapped by gunmen.

"From the beginning the Vatican had serious concerns about the appropriateness of the war," said Stephen Schneck, a political scientist at Catholic University.

In other foreign policy differences, the Vatican has diplomatic relations with Cuba, supports dialogue with Iran and Syria and is more enthusiastic about working through the United Nations and other international bodies.

"The Vatican's approach is you should talk to everybody, talking never hurts you. And you try and find peaceful solutions to these problems," said Rev. Thomas Reese, a Georgetown University theologian. "The Vatican has always been a strong supporter of the United Nations, of multilateral, multinational approaches to problems."

Both seek an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. Bush is pushing for an agreement in his last year in office, having visited Israel and the West Bank for the first time as president.

The two men present contrasting personalities and management styles.

"He (the pope) really does have a European's outlook on the world. And that of course is quite different from the way the Bush administration looks at the world," Schneck said.

The affable Bush sets great store in personal relationships and distrusts academics while the German-born Benedict, a theoretician and theologian, rose through church ranks on the basis of his intellectual brilliance.

"The pope is somebody who came through the ranks in an institution that is very hierarchical, very structured, very legalistically oriented," Schneck said. "And so he's an institution man and therefore tends to give deference to procedures by which institutions operate."

"In contrast, I think President Bush prefers a more personal approach, he likes the direct one-on-one, mano-a-mano kind of approach."

Bush, a Methodist, and the pope both oppose abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research. But they differ on the death penalty, which Bush supports while the Catholic Church opposes in almost all cases.

Benedict recently praised "the American people's historic appreciation of the role of religion in shaping public discourse and in shedding light on the inherent moral dimension of social issues."

Regardless of their differences, the United States must maintain a relationship with the Vatican, said John Green of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

"The United States and the Roman Catholic Church have to deal with each other, whether they see eye-to-eye or not," he said. "This kind of meeting presents an opportunity for these leaders to get to know each other, to talk about things, maybe to say some things to each other that they wouldn't want to say publicly."

The two met for the first time last June at the Vatican and discussed the Middle East, aid to Africa and the Iraq war.

Bush greets Pope Benedict at Andrews Air Force Base on his arrival on Tuesday and will hold a special South Lawn ceremony, a private Oval Office meeting, and then a dinner for the pontiff at the White House on Wednesday, which happens to be the pope's 81st birthday.

San Francisco braces for wild Olympic torch run

The Olympic torch embarks on its only U.S. relay in San Francisco on Wednesday, where large protests against Chinese policies are expected in a city famous for its tradition of demonstrations.

The fierce protests in London and Paris in recent days -- efforts that succeeded even in extinguishing the flame for brief periods -- have put city officials on edge and prompted a continuous revision of their planning.

"It's getting a little scarier," said retired State Appellate Court Judge Harry Low, a prominent figure in the city's Chinese-American community. "The intensity of the opposition to the torch and to China seems to be increasing."

"It may be a very touchy situation for law enforcement."

The official route takes the torch from near the city's baseball stadium along its scenic waterfront to the Fisherman's Wharf area favored by tourists. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said he expected tens of thousands to attend and hundreds of police to patrol the route.

"I'm not naive to the challenge associated with this event," he said on Tuesday.

The mayor said the route and other details of the running could change to respond to events in a city where a fifth are of Chinese descent. Newsom said one of 80 torchbearers had pulled out of the event.

Authorities are also stepping up patrols on the Golden Gate Bridge after three protesters scaled its cables on Monday to hang pro-Tibet banners.

China's crackdown on anti-government protests in Tibet in March, which it says were orchestrated by Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has drawn sharp international criticism and clouded preparations for the Beijing Olympics in August.

On Wednesday, Qiangba Puncog, the head of the Himalayan region, said Chinese police have detained 953 people suspected of involvement in last month's riots.

DIVIDED REACTION

How to respond to the torch has divided the Chinese-American community and San Francisco's most prominent politicians, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Pelosi has called on U.S. President George W. Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies in China and she traveled last month to India to meet the Dalai Lama. "I commend those who speak out for their commitment to shining a light on the causes that challenge the conscience of the world," Pelosi said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The people are making a significant statement that the Olympic ideals of peace and harmony should apply to all people, including those in Tibet and Darfur."

Feinstein has urged a moderate line to encourage dialogue with China and the people of Tibet.

The planned San Francisco protests have irritated some in the Chinese community, the largest of any major U.S. city, many of whom are proud their ancestral motherland is hosting the global sporting event.

The Olympics first held a torch relay in 1936, the year dictator Adolf Hitler made the Berlin games a showcase of Nazi propaganda. That torch run is captured in one of the most famous -- and infamous -- Olympic movies ever made, Leni Riefenstahl's "Olympia."

Although subsequent Olympics have sparked political controversy -- such as the 1980 Games in Moscow shortly after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and a U.S. boycott -- the torch run has not lured protesters.

"Up to this moment, the Olympic torch relay has been free of any protest actions," said Anthony Bijkerk, secretary general of the International Society of Olympic Historians in the Netherlands. "It has nothing to do with politics."

Americans prefer energy fix to cancer cure: poll

A nationwide survey of nearly 700 people suggests that Americans would prefer more money be invested in technology to solve the nation's energy ailments than to cure cancer or other diseases.

Some 37 percent of respondents to the poll, conducted by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority in Virginia, said they would rank spending to raise energy efficiency and develop alternative fuel technology a top priority for future investment. That compares with 30 percent who ranked more cash for medical breakthroughs as most important.

"I think it's a combination of things like high gas prices and the need for alternative fuels, but also things that are emotional like greenhouse effects, global warming and the need for reducing carbon emissions," said Gerald Gordon, chief executive of the FCEDA.

The survey results come as U.S. gasoline prices continue to rocket to new highs, with average retail prices hitting a record $3.29 a gallon on Monday, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

Men were more likely to choose fuel efficiency as their highest priority, with 43 percent placing it on top compared with only 30 percent of women, the FCEDA survey showed.

Women were more likely to pick medical technology as a priority, with 33 percent pegging it as a top investment, compared with 26 percent of men.

A next iteration of the survey will break down priorities in fuel and medical breakthroughs, Gordon said.

"When they say alternative fuels and energy, are they talking about energy or things like greenhouse effect -- what's really on people's minds?" he said.

The environment placed third in the survey, with 14 percent of respondents tagging it as the most important area for greater investment, while defense spending took 10 percent of the vote.

Britons, however, ranked healthcare breakthroughs as the top priority (38 percent) over fuel efficiency and alternative fuels (33 percent), according to a parallel study by FCEDA in Great Britain.

The U.S. FCEDA study, which had a 4 percent margin of error and 95 percent confidence level, was based on telephone interviews with 692 adults from March 7-9, 2008.

Australian farmer finds mystery space junk

A cattle farmer in Australia's remote northern outback on Friday said he had found a giant ball of twisted metal, which he believes is space junk from a rocket used to launch communications satellites.

Farmer James Stirton found the odd-shaped ball last year on his 40,000 hectare property, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) west of the northern Queensland state capital of Brisbane.

But Stirton only started inquiring into what the ball of metal really was, and where it had come from, in the past week.

"I was riding out to check some cattle, and I came around the corner and there it was in a paddock," Stirton told Reuters on Friday.

"I know a lot of about sheep and cattle but I don't know much about satellites. But I would say it is a fuel cell off some stage of a rocket."

He said the object was hollow, and covered in a carbon-fiber material. He has contacted some U.S.-based aerospace companies to try to find out what the object really is.

Sydney's Powerhouse Museum said it was not uncommon for people to find space junk in remote areas of Australia.

In 1979, large parts of the Skylab space station fell to earth near a tiny outback town in Australia's west. A local council sent NASA a ticket for littering and then the United States President Jimmy Carter rang a local motel to apologize.

Gates urges United States to free up more spectrum for Wi-Fi

Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates urged U.S. communications regulators on Thursday to free up more vacant television airwaves to be used for wireless services such as broadband Internet access.

During an appearance before a Northern Virginia technology group, Gates said the so-called "white space" spectrum between analog broadcast channels could be used to expand access of wireless broadband service using Wi-Fi technology.

"We're hopeful that that will be made available so that WiFi can explode in terms of its usage, even out into some of these less dense areas (of the United States) where distance has been a big problem for Wi-Fi," Gates said in response to a question from the audience.

Microsoft is part of a coalition of technology companies that has been lobbying the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to allow unlicensed use of white space spectrum.

The group also includes Google Inc, Dell, Intel Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and the north American unit of Philips Electronics.

However, the idea is opposed by U.S. broadcasters and makers of wireless microphones, who fear the devices would cause interference.

"Broadband penetration could be drastically improved through a fixed, licensed service without interference to TV reception. Unfortunately, Microsoft continues to push for an unlicensed technology that simply does not work," said Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters.

"TV viewers should not be inundated by the inevitable interference caused by such faulty devices," Wharton said.

A proposal being studied by the FCC would create two categories of users for the airwaves: one for low-power, personal, portable devices like Wi-Fi and a second group for fixed commercial operations.

The proposal would require that the devices include technology to identify unused spectrum and avoid interference.

The FCC currently is testing prototype devices to see if they can make use of the white space spectrum without interfering with TV broadcasts.

Also appearing with Gates was Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, who said a shortage of spectrum could hurt U.S. competitiveness. He said past decisions have not made enough spectrum available.

"White space activity today is sort of our last hope to get some good spectrum," Mundie said.