CNBC – September and October hold bad news for stock markets and banks remain overleveraged as we head into the second leg of the financial crisis according to Pedro De Noronha, the managing partner at Noster Capital in London. “We are seeing one of the most challenging years for investors ever,” De Noronha told CNBC Tuesday. “Major investors are simply leaving the market. When it looks like markets are about to fall off the cliff they rally and vice versa. Read Article
ABC – Indigenous academic Mick Dodson has delivered a warning to the WA Premier, describing compulsory acquisition of land for the Kimberley gas hub as theft and an invasion. The Premier Colin Barnett is expected to start proceedings to acquire the land at James Price Point through the courts this week. He says negotiations between traditional owners and Woodside have dragged on too long, cost too much, and he has run out of patience. Professor Dodson, who’s a Yawuru man from Broome, says it is an appalling path to take. Read article
Wall Street Journal – A top shareholder in Afghanistan’s largest bank called on the U.S. to shore up the lender after depositors withdrew about a third of its cash reserves in two days, while the country sought to avert a destabilizing crisis at a crucial moment in the fight against the Taliban. Mahmood Karzai, brother of Afghanistan’s president and the third-largest shareholder in Kabul Bank, urged the U.S. to calm the situation, saying the lender could keep up with the pace of withdrawals for only a few more days. Read Article
Daily Telegraph – Julian Assange, the founder of the Wikileaks whistleblower website, admitted that he had sexual relations with one of two Swedish women who accused him of sex crimes. Mr Assange said that he had consensual sex more than once with a woman who has accused him of molestation. Sweden’s top prosecutor reopened investigations into allegations of molestation from the woman and of rape by another Swedish female on Tuesday. Read Article
Financial Times – Alistair Darling admitted on Wednesday that Britain’s controversial supertax on bankers’ bonuses had failed to change the industry’s behaviour over pay as “imaginative” financiers devised ways to avoid it. The former Labour chancellor of the exchequer, who introduced the levy last year amid an unprecedented outcry over bank pay, said he thought it was unlikely that the tax would be reinstated by the current Con-Lib coalition government. Read Article
AFP — Two US soldiers in Afghanistan died Thursday after separate insurgent attacks, NATO said, compounding the bloodiest year yet for American forces in the Afghan war. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said both had died following insurgent attacks, one in the country’s east, the other in the south.ISAF confirmed to AFP that both were Americans.A total of 326 US soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war in 2010, compared with 317 for all of 2009, according to AFP figures based on the independent icasualties.org website. Read Article
ABC – Every police patrol in the Northern Territory will be armed with at least one Taser by the end of the year. Police Commissioner John McRoberts says the stun guns are a useful tool for police and he wants every patrol to be armed with at least one of them. “This is not something the community should be concerned about,” he said. Read article
AOL News-A Boston lab hired by the United Commercial Fishermen’s Association to analyze coastal fishing waters says findings suggest the government’s claim that Gulf of Mexico seafood is safe to eat may be premature. The lab, Boston Chemical Data Corp., said it found dispersant in a sample taken near Biloxi, Miss., almost a month after BP said it had stopped using the toxic chemical to break up the record amounts of crude spewed by the Gulf oil spill. The leak was finally capped on July 15 -Read Article
BBC – Four of the “big six” UK energy suppliers are to be investigated amid concerns of mis-selling to customers, the regulator has announced. Npower, Scottish Power, Scottish and Southern Energy, and EDF Energy all face questions over face-to-face and telephone sales of energy contracts. Ofgem said it had received information from a variety of sources suggesting they could have breached new rules. The quartet said they would work with Ofgem on the investigation. Read Article
Reuters – Widely used anticonvulsant drugs, including Pfizer’s Neurontin and Novartis’ Trileptal, may increase the risk of suicide, attempted suicide and violent death in patients taking them for the first time, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. Compared with Johnson & Johnson’s generic epilepsy drug topiramate or Topamax, the team found an increased risk for suicide in new users of Neurontin, sold generically as gabapentin, GlaxoSmithKline’s Lamictal or lamotrigine, Novartis’ Trileptal or oxcarbazepine and Cephalon’s Gabitril or tiagabine. [The] team also found an increased risk of suicide with the drug valproate sold by Sanofi-Aventis as Epilim and as Depakine in the United States by Abbott Laboratories Inc. Read article
Send an e-mail to thehistorian@openyoureyesnews.com with the subject heading “Mailing List” to receive our periodical newsletter summarising the biggest stories of the previous weeks, and also receive other updates on developments at Open Your Eyes News.
Daily Times – Former British premier Tony Blair warned in an interview on Wednesday that the international community may have ‘no alternative’ to taking military action against Iran if it develops a nuclear weapon. “I am saying that I think it is wholly unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapons capability and I think we have got to be prepared to confront them, if necessary militarily,” he said in extracts pre-released by the BBC from an interview to publicise his memoirs. “I think there is no alternative to that if they continue to develop nuclear weapons. They need to get that message loud and clear.” Read Article
ABC – Attorney-General Delia Lawrie has introduced legislation to stop Northern Territory courts asking people to swear to God. Ms Lawrie says the change is needed because the current oath is too complicated to translate accurately into Indigenous languages. Read article
New York Times – Ismail Haji Noor, a local government official, recently arrived in this notorious pirate den with a simple message: we need your help. With the Shabab militant group sweeping across Somalia and the American-backed central government teetering on life support, Mr. Noor stood on a beach flanked by dozens of pirate gunmen, two hijacked ships over his shoulder, and announced, “From now on we’ll be working together.” He hugged several well-known pirate bosses and called them “brother” and later explained that while he saw the pirates as criminals and eventually wanted to rehabilitate them, right now the Shabab were a much graver threat. Read Article
AP-Another oil rig exploded and caught fire Thursday off the Louisiana coast, spreading a mile-long oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico west of the site of BP’s massive spill. All 13 crew members were rescued. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Coklough said the sheen, about 100 feet wide, was spotted near the platform. Firefighting vessels were battling the flames -Read Article
ScienceDaily — While preterm birth is a known risk factor for cerebral palsy, an examination of data for infants born at term or later finds that compared with delivery at 40 weeks, birth at 37 or 38 weeks or at 42 weeks or later was associated with an increased risk of cerebral palsy, according to a study in the September 1 issue of JAMA [Journal of the American Medical Association]. Read article
Daily Telegraph – Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, has asked to examine files on the death of David Kelly, the former weapons inspector, it was reported. Mr Grieve, the senior law officer to the Government, has requested reports relating to the post-mortem examination carried out on Dr Kelly following his death in 2003, it was claimed. His alleged request followed comments earlier this month in which Mr Grieve indicated he would need to see new evidence before an application for a full inquest into Dr Kelly’s death could be considered. Read Article
Epoch Times – A Qantas employee, removed from her job after being deported from China for practising Falun Gong, was likely targeted by Chinese spies, says a representative of Falun Gong in Australia. Mr. John Deller, spokesman for the New South Wales Falun Dafa Association, said that Falun Gong practitioner Sheridan Genrich, a Qantas flight attendant, was stopped and interrogated before she was searched during a stopover in Beijing. Read Article
Daily Mail – TV should be banned for toddlers and severely rationed for other youngsters to protect their health and family life, a leading psychologist will tell MEPs today. Dr Aric Sigman claims that millions of children spending hours slumped in front of TVs and computers is ‘the greatest unacknowledged health scandal of our time’. He says it is linked to ills ranging from obesity and heart disease to poor grades and lack of empathy. Read article
Associated Press – Human Rights Watch has urged Bahraini authorities to immediately look into allegations of torture made by four Shiite activists in detention since mid-August. In a statement Wednesday, the group said Abdul-Jalil al-Singace, one of the detainees, told prosecutors that his captors beat him on his fingers with a hard instrument, slapped him around, and pulled and twisted his nipples and ears with tongs. Read Article
Digital Journal – US Army officials expect an increase of unmanned aircraft flights in Iraq despite the government’s decision to withdraw some of its American combat troops. The US Army is predicting flight hours for drones will increase as the mission in Iraq changes due to a much-publicized troop withdrawal, even as President Barack Obama announced on Saturday that “the war is ending.” Read Article
Telegraph – Afghanistan’s authorities have ousted the managers of the country’s biggest bank to try and prevent a collapse due to toxic property investments and murky loans to politically powerful customers, it has been reported. Hamid Karzai personally approved the intervention to prevent a meltdown at Kabul Bank which could send shock waves through the Afghan economy. Sher Khan Farnood, the chairman, and his chief executive Khalilullah Frozi were replaced by staff from the Afghan central bank this week. Read Article
NY Times — The front pages of South Africa’s newspapers are regularly splashed with articles about politicians living it up at public expense in a country blighted by poverty. Reporters recently pounced on news that a black empowerment deal meant to benefit “previously disadvantaged” South Africans under government guidelines was enriching a company led by President Jacob Zuma’s 28-year-old son, Duduzane, among others, giving them a lucrative stake in the South African arm of a steel giant, ArcelorMittal. Read article
The Guardian – The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, today edged closer to retaining power when an independent MP said he would back her centre-left Labor party to form the country’s first minority government in almost seven decades. A bloc of three independents will now decide whether Labor governs for a second three-year term or a conservative Liberal party-led coalition forms the next administration after the 21 August elections failed to deliver a majority for any party. The conservative coalition needs the backing of all three independents to reach a 76-seat majority in the 150-seat House of Representatives, while Labor needs only two. Read Article
Telegraph – The extension of existing laws to the internet, which will come into effect from next March, has “the protection of children and consumers at its heart”, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said. Currently the ASA’s remit only extends to advertisements in paid-for space and all sales promotions. But the change will see its rules on misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of children will be applied in full to all online marketing by all sectors, businesses and organisations, regardless of size. Read Article
