Grim housing choice: help<br />today’s owners or future buyers
The unexpectedly deep plunge in home sales this summer is likely to force the Obama administration to choose between future homeowners and current ones, a predicament officials had been eager to avoid.
Labour politicians call for a second look at a phone scandal
LONDON — Senior opposition politicians are calling on the government to respond to renewed accusations that Downing Street’s chief communications officer, Andy Coulson, encouraged reporters to illegally intercept messages from the cell phones of public figures when he was editor of The News of the World.
American Muslims ask,<br />will we ever belong?
For nine years after the attacks of Sept. 11, many American Muslims made concerted efforts to build relationships with non-Muslims, to make it clear they abhor terrorism, to educate people about Islam and to participate in interfaith service projects. They took satisfaction in the observations by many scholars that Muslims in America were more successful and assimilated than Muslims in Europe.
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The unexpectedly deep plunge in home sales this summer is likely to force the Obama administration to choose between future homeowners and current ones, a predicament officials had been eager to avoid.
A warm start to classes, then rain and chilly winds
An area of high pressure centered to our south in the Atlantic will continue moving eastward. As it does so, southwesterly winds will reach New England, providing a quick surge of warm air for today. Highs will likely reach the mid 80s over the area, but remain below those of last week’s heat wave. Temperatures should cool off somewhat for Wednesday as the next storm system approaches, bringing a weakening low pressure across southern Canada toward Nova Scotia. This system will swing a cold front through the east Coast by Wednesday night. Skies will become cloudy and rain should begin falling on Wednesday as showers, or possibly thunderstorms. The fast moving cold front will give way to cooler temperatures (around 70°F) by Thursday, and allow some showers from the accompanying low pressure to move southward from Canada. Don’t worry, no tropical cyclones in sight for now.
Baghdad attack highlights still dangerous role of U.S.
BAGHDAD — Insurgents mounted a coordinated attack on one of the main military commands in Baghdad on Sunday, briefly drawing fire from American soldiers, an event that underscored the ambiguity of the American military role in Iraq after the declared end of its combat operations.
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Hurricane Earl closed in on North Carolina early Thursday evening, pelting the eastern part of the state with bands of rain and powerful blasts of wind as communities and seaside towns across the eastern seaboard braced for the storm’s devastating force.
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Stanford’s football team does not make it to many premier bowl games, but the Cardinal rules college sports by another influential measure: it has won the Directors’ Cup 16 years in a row.
In a shift, fewer young voters identify with democrats
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The college vote is up for grabs this year — to an extent that would have seemed unlikely two years ago, when a generation of young people seemed to swoon over Barack Obama.
Hurricane Earl Approaches
After five straight days sunny skies with temperatures greater than 90°F, today Cambridge will experience a different type of summer weather phenomenon; a hurricane. Hurricane Earl, which has been churning in the Atlantic for the last week, had an intensity of 115 mph and was located 670 miles south/southwest of Nantucket (off the coast of North Carolina). The hurricane is predicted to pass about 60 miles east of Chatham, MA (on Cape Cod) Friday night, and although it will have weakened due to the colder ocean waters, it should still pack some powerful winds. Cape Cod may experience winds of up to 80 mph, stormy seas with wave heights of 20 feet, as well as heavy rain. Here in Cambridge, further from the center of the storm, we should expect heavy rainfall this evening through early tomorrow morning and winds of up to 40 mph (tropical storm strength), with the possibility of stronger gusts. The rest of the holiday weekend should be sunny with milder temperatures.
Depositors panic over Afghan bank crisis
KABUL, Afghanistan — One of the principal owners of the Afghan bank at the center of an accelerating financial crisis here said depositors had withdrawn $180 million in the past two days. He predicted a “revolution” in the country’s financial system unless the Afghan government and the United States moved quickly to help stabilize the bank.
Bid to curb offshore drilling imperils payouts, BP says
BP is warning Congress that if lawmakers pass legislation that bars the company from getting new offshore drilling permits, it may not have the money to pay for all the damages caused by its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Mideast experts fear peace talks are too ambitious
JERUSALEM — As the Israeli and Palestinian leaders pledged at the peace summit meeting in Washington this week to try to resolve the core issues that have long divided their people and bloodied the land, a growing number of stakeholders here in Israel worried that the two sides were aiming too high.
Israel and Palestine prepare for peace negotiations
JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he hoped the peace negotiations that are to begin next week would include meetings every two weeks between him and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, an Israeli official said Friday.
Get the feeling that web ads are following you? They really are
The shoes that Julie Matlin recently saw on Zappos.com were kind of cute, or so she thought. But Matlin was not ready to buy and left the site.
Earl headed our way?
While the Atlantic hurricane season started relatively slowly in June and July, tropical cyclones have recently become more frequent, and now a major hurricane has the potential to impact the East Coast of the United States. As of 5 p.m. last night, Hurricane Earl had become a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 135 mph (217 km/h), and was situated just north of the Virgin Islands. Furthermore, global and regional computer models bring the track of the storm close to the Massachusetts coastline on Friday afternoon. If the storm does pass close to our area, high winds and heavy rainfall can be expected for the end of the week. However, it is still too soon to know whether the hurricane will affect our area, since track forecasts for the end of the week could be off by as many as several hundred miles.
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TEXAS CITY — While the world was focused on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a BP refinery here released huge amounts of toxic chemicals into the air that went unnoticed by residents until many saw their children develop respiratory problems.
Doctors heed call for medical books for Afghanistan
Imagine cutting out a diseased appendix without ever having seen a Gray’s Anatomy diagram, or calculating drug doses without a Physicians’ Desk Reference, and you’ll have an idea what it’s like to practice medicine in Afghanistan.
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WASHINGTON — It seems the ultimate thumb in the eye: that Glenn Beck would summon the Tea Party faithful to a rally on the anniversary of the March on Washington, and address them from the very place where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech 47 years ago. After all, the Tea Party and its critics have been facing off for months over accusations of racism.
Sanofi-Aventis offers $18.5 billion for Genzyme, a near-hostile bid
Sanofi-Aventis, the French drugmaker, publicly disclosed its $18.5 billion bid for Genzyme on Sunday, intensifying pressure on the U.S. biotechnology company to engage in discussions about a sale.