Top court judge rejects doctor's request 24 minutes ago

Top court judge rejects doctor's request 24 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - A Supreme Court justice on Monday rejected a request by a cancer researcher in a dispute with a university over ownership of thousands of blood and tissue samples.

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Dr. William Catalona spearheaded creation of a repository of more than 3,500 prostate tissue samples and 100,000 blood samples during a 27-year career at Washington University in St. Louis.

In 2003, Catalona became director of the Clinical Prostate Cancer Program at Northwestern University in Chicago, asking participants in research efforts that he oversaw at Washington University if they would consent to transferring their tissue to Northwestern.

Donors of 4,000 tissue samples agreed to the transfer, but Washington University sued to keep the samples there, and won rulings from a U.S. District Court judge and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In papers filed with Justice Samuel Alito, Catalona said he and the research participants could suffer irreparable harm if the appeals court decision is allowed to go into effect. Alito refused to grant a delay in the appeals court decision while the full Supreme Court decides whether it will review the case.

Washington University could use the tissue in studies the patients would find objectionable, or publish research results in a way that could identify the patients, Catalona's lawyers argued, raising the possibility that participants or their family members might be denied health, life or disability insurance.

In June, Dr. Larry Shapiro, dean of Washington University's School of Medicine, called the appeals court decision a precedent that assures the right of research institutions to use repositories without fear they will be taken or disrupted.

A dozen major research universities, as well as the American Cancer Society and associations of medical colleges and universities, had filed briefs supporting Washington University.

Stocks end mostly higher on lack of news By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer

Stocks end mostly higher on lack of news By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer
37 minutes ago



NEW YORK - Stocks closed mostly higher Monday as investors appeared relieved that little bad news emerged about risky mortgages and shrinking credit markets. Still, many on Wall Street were still seeking safety, and pressed into shorter-term Treasurys.

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The market endured back-and-forth trading following a rally Friday that came in response to the Federal Reserve's decision to lower its discount rate. The Fed said at the time it stood ready to make further moves to keep credit and stock market losses from hurting the economy, but because it stopped short of a cut in the more important federal funds rate, uncertainty lingered on Wall Street Monday about policymakers' intentions. The Fed is not scheduled to meet formally until Sept. 18, which means investors could remain jittery until then.

Brian Levitt, corporate economist at OppenheimerFunds Inc., said the Fed's move, while helpful, won't erase all the market's unease.

"Fed action certainly doesn't make unsound credit sound. It allows some confidence for the higher quality deals to get done. It's more psychological. It provides confidence that the Fed will be a stopgap and a lender of last resort."

Treasury bonds, which have rallied in recent weeks as investors fled to safe-haven securities, continued their move higher Monday. Because bond prices move opposite their yields, the yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.63 percent from 4.68 late Friday, while the shorter-duration notes saw yields fall sharply as some investors wagered that the Fed might be forced to lower interest rates and therefore avoided longer-duration notes.

The Dow Jones industrials finished up 42.27, or 0.32 percent, at 13,121.35, after seeing 100-point swings higher and lower.

Broader indexes were mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 0.39, or 0.03 percent, to 1,445.55; the Nasdaq composite index rose 3.56, or 0.14 percent, to 2,508.59.

While Wall Street largely shrugged off layoffs at Countrywide Financial Corp. and a big sale of more liquid investments at Thornburg Mortgage Inc., stocks could face pressure Tuesday following word that Capital One Financial Corp. plans to close its wholesale mortgage business and book charges of $860 million in charges in 2007. The company, which also slashed its profit forecast, made the announcement after the closing bell.

Monday's erratic trading wasn't unexpected; analysts had questioned how much conviction buyers had on Friday, as much of the rally was pinned on big institutional investors like hedge funds buying shares to cover their positions. Some investors had been shorting the market — betting stocks would move lower — and were caught off guard when the central bank cut the discount rate.

"There's a lot of uncertainties out there," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at New York-based brokerage house Avalon Partners. "The question is if the Fed did enough to satisfy the markets. Wall Street will be relentless until they cut the fed funds rate."

The Fed also said Monday it injected another $3.5 billion into the banking system. The central bank has infused the market with nearly $120 billion of liquidity in recent weeks.

Light, sweet crude fell 90 cents to $71.08 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Investors have been wary as Hurricane Dean has moved toward Mexico, where major oil companies have already begun battening down oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

The dollar was mixed against major currencies, while gold prices rose.

This week will be light on economic reports, which makes it a bit more difficult for investors to assess what the Fed might do at its rate-setting meeting. In one economic reading that arrived Monday, the Conference Board said its gauge of future economic activity moved slightly higher in July.

The research group's index of leading economic indicators rose 0.4 percent in July, as analysts expected. The index fell 0.3 percent in June, after rising 0.2 percent in May. The report is designed for forecast economic activity over the next three to six months.

With earnings season mostly wrapped up, there was little in the way of corporate news for investors to go by. August is typically one of the slowest periods for equities markets.

Thornburg fell $1.54, or 10.2 percent, to $13.50 after the company said it sold $20.5 billion of its safest investments to raise enough cash to allow the mortgage lender to operate amid a crisis in the mortgage industry. Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender, has begun laying off staff amid the credit crunch. The stock fell $1.62, or 7.6 percent, to $19.81.

Energy and transportation stocks showed gains Monday, while financial stocks, which spiked on Friday after the Fed announcement, lost ground Monday. The downtrodden sector stands to benefit from the Fed's discount rate cut. Exxon Mobil Corp. rose 39 cents to $84.53, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fell $2.24 to $172.76, while Citigroup Inc. dropped 42 cents to $48.39.

Lowe's Cos., the No. 2 U.S. home improvement chain, reported a second-quarter profit that surpassed Wall Street projections. Despite the slumping housing market, the company said it will open 40 stores during the current quarter, and believes sales will rise 6 percent for the year. Lowe's shares rose $1.63, or 6.1 percent, to $28.50.

Advancing issues outweighed decliners by about 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume fell to 3.3 billion shares — typical of an August session — from a heavy 5.01 billion shares traded Friday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 1.42, or 0.18 percent, to 787.45.

Overseas, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.24 percent, Germany's DAX index gained 0.40 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.67 percent. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei stock average closed up 3 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 5.93 percent, while the often-volatile Shanghai Composite Exchange surged 5.33 percent.

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Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

Countrywide said to begin layoffs By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

Countrywide said to begin layoffs By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer
26 minutes ago



LOS ANGELES - Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender, sought to reassure customers Monday that the liquidity problems dogging its mortgage operations were not affecting its banking unit. The assurance came amid a report that Countrywide has started laying off an undisclosed number of employees as it tries to ride out the credit crunch that has rocked the home loan industry.

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The job cuts occurred in Countrywide's Full Spectrum Lending unit, which handles mortgages given to customers with minor credit problems or who can't provide full income documentation required for traditional prime loans, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an internal e-mail sent Friday to employees of that division.

Countrywide Financial spokesman Daniel Weidman did not immediately respond to a phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The Calabasas-based company ran full-page ads on Monday in U.S. newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and Detroit Free Press, in which it asserted "the future is bright" at Countrywide Bank FSB.

The ads noted the bank has more than $100 billion in assets, investment-grade ratings from three major credit agencies, and that the credit woes rocking its mortgage lending business don't affect federally insured deposits at its 105 financial centers around the nation.

It's a message Countrywide has tried to get across since last week, when a Wall Street analyst suggested the company could end up in bankruptcy if the liquidity crunch sparked by rising mortgage defaults worsens.

Countrywide said last Thursday it had borrowed $11.5 billion so it could keep making home loans.

The developments left many Countrywide Bank customers frazzled over the security of their deposits. Many have converged on bank branches in search of answers.

The lobby of a branch in West Los Angeles was packed Monday with nervous people waiting to speak with bank officers to make sure their assets were safe.

"It is worse for people who are senior citizens," said customer Ruben Krakauer, 68. "If something should go wrong ... they don't have enough time to make up for their losses. How many people would hire me?"

Some customers came away feeling confident about leaving their money at Countrywide Bank.

"Everything I've got is federally insured," said Jim Maurer, 59. "I don't think there's going to be any problem with Countrywide."

Countrywide employs a total of about 61,000 people.

Its shares fell $1.62, or 7.6 percent, to finish at $19.81 after rising 13 percent on Friday.

The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $15 to $45.26.

Countrywide is the largest mortgage lender by volume, accounting for more than 13 percent of the loan servicing market as of June 30, according to the mortgage industry publication Inside Mortgage Finance.

The mortgage lending industry has been grappling with a spike in mortgage defaults and foreclosures as the housing market has cooled.

Many homebuyers have been forced into default or foreclosure because they haven't been able to sell their homes or end up owing more than their home is worth.

Like other lenders, Countrywide has also tightened its credit guidelines and stopped selling some types of adjustable rate loans.

• Associated Press Writer Noaki Schwartz contributed to this report.

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On the Net: http://www.Countrywide.com

165 safe after plane explodes in Japan By DEBBY WU, Associated Press Writer

165 safe after plane explodes in Japan By DEBBY WU, Associated Press Writer
55 minutes ago



NAHA, Japan - Taiwan grounded its fleet of Boeing 737-800 jetliners after a China Airlines plane exploded in a fireball Monday on the tarmac in Okinawa, and officials said a fuel leak may be to blame. All 165 passengers and crew scrambled down emergency chutes or jumped from cockpit windows — some just seconds before the blast.

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Passengers described a normal landing after Flight CI-120 landed on the resort island of Okinawa from the Taiwanese capital of Taipei. But as the jet came to a stop near the terminal, they said that the left engine began smoking, followed by the right one.

Okinawa Airport traffic controllers had received no report from the pilot indicating anything was wrong as the plane came in to land and even as it stopped near the terminal to unload passengers, said Japanese Transport Ministry official Akihiko Tamura.

When the smoke started billowing outside the plane, the cabin crew already was standing by the doors, said a passenger who gave his surname as Tsang and identified himself as a guide for Taipei's Southeast Tours.

"The passengers saw the smoke first and they began to yell and demand that the doors be opened," he said.

Tamura said the fire started "when the left engine exploded a minute after the aircraft entered the parking spot."

Inside the plane, passengers recalled a scene of panic.

"When the smoke started, people were just pushing and shoving each other," said an unidentified female Taiwanese passenger. "It was total chaos."

The main explosion, which engulfed the center of the aircraft in flames, occurred after the passengers slid down the emergency chutes at the front and rear of the plane.

Screams erupted as passengers raced across the tarmac to get away from the burning plane, and emergency personnel moved in to fight the fire.

A figure believed to be the pilot hung onto the cockpit window for several seconds before dropping to the tarmac and sprinting away from the exploding plane.

There were no serious injuries among the 157 passengers, including two infants, and crew of eight, the Taiwan-based China Airlines said.

A Taiwanese woman said she was stricken with fear as she slid down the chute.

"I was running and crying, running and crying" said the woman, who declined to give her name.

Another passenger who gave only his surname, Chen, said he started running the moment he slid off the plane. "I ran so hard my sock tore," he said. "I think I got my life back."

Tsang said the evacuation took no more than 90 seconds.

"About 30 seconds after I slid down the chute and began to run toward the terminal, I heard two big explosions," he said. "I had no idea it would be this serious."

Video from Japanese broadcaster NHK showed a lone firefighter trying to douse the fire immediately after the explosion. But the plane was quickly rocked by two more explosions, which brought the fuselage crashing to the tarmac.

China Airlines spokesman Sun Hung-wen said "the plane landed safely so we are still checking why there was a fire."

A statement on the airline's Web site said the plane "caught fire during taxi operations at Okinawa Airport."

Capt. Yu Chien-kuo, 48, has been flying 737-800s for the airline for six years, the statement said.

Initial reports from ground personnel said a fuel leak from the right engine could have led to the explosions, according to another Japanese Transport Ministry official, Fumio Yasukawa.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board sent two investigators to Japan to look into the fire, spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said in Washington.

China Airlines has a troubled safety record. One of its 747s crashed in 2002 as it flew from Taipei to Hong Kong, leading to 225 deaths. Accidents involving the airline killed about 450 people in the 1990s.

"We are prepared to do our best to get to the bottom of this incident," China Airlines president Zhao Guo-shi told reporters at the airport. "I apologize for the trouble we have caused our passengers."

The fire was extinguished after about an hour, leaving the aircraft sagging on its side, charred in the middle, with part of its roof burned away.

Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration head Chang Kuo-cheng said authorities ordered China Airlines and its subsidiary Mandarin Airlines to ground their 13 other Boeing 737-800s pending a thorough inspection.

Japanese aviation authorities also ordered an emergency inspection of all Boeing 737-800 planes owned by Japanese carriers, as well as some 737-700 models that have similar engines.

As of July 31, there were about 1,220 737-800s flying worldwide, with more than 1,000 of the aircraft on order.

Boeing has delivered more than 5,400 737s since the plane entered commercial service in 1968. Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said he could not say exactly how many of the single-aisle jets are still flying, but noted that a "significant" number of older models have been retired.

Airlines started flying the 737-800 in 1998, about four years after Boeing won its first order for the plane.

The plane that exploded had CFM 56 engines, made by CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aviation, a unit of General Electric Co., and France's Snecma, said Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx. All 737-800s are built with the same engine.

The Japan Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission requested technical assistance from Boeing, Proulx said. The Boeing investigator is expected in Japan by Wednesday.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board also sent in investigators.

Two passengers — a 7-year-old girl and a man in his 50s — were hospitalized because they did not feel well, but they were uninjured, said fire official Hiroki Shimabukuro. A ground engineer who was knocked off his feet by the blast was not hurt, the Transport Ministry said.

Kristen Bell to appear on NBC's 'Heroes' By MIKE HOUSEHOLDER, Associated Press Writer

Kristen Bell to appear on NBC's 'Heroes' By MIKE HOUSEHOLDER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 29 minutes ago



DETROIT - Kristen Bell is going from solving mysteries to being a part of one. The 27-year-old actress, who starred for three seasons as teenage detective Veronica Mars on the now-canceled show of the same name, will appear in a multi-episode arc on NBC's "Heroes" this fall.

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"This was not easy to pull off. But since we're an ensemble show, with many arcs playing out through the year, we found a way to jump into a small window in her schedule," Tim Kring, the show's executive producer and creator, said in a statement Monday.

Kring said Bell's character, Elle, will appear in October and will be "a sexy, intriguing, mysterious young lady" who will commit a terrible crime, but it won't be clear whose side she is really on.

"Heroes" won't be the Detroit-area native's only TV work this fall.

She's providing the voice of the narrator (something she also did on "Veronica Mars") for the CW's new "Gossip Girl."

Bell also has some big-screen projects in the works, including a turn as the title character in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," a comedy produced by Judd Apatow ("The 40 Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up").

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NBC is owned by General Electric Co. The CW is a joint venture between Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. unit and CBS Corp.

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On the Net:

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Study finds virus contributes to obesity By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

Study finds virus contributes to obesity By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
26 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - In the buffet of reasons for why Americans are getting fatter, researchers are piling more evidence on the plate for one still-controversial cause: a virus.

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New research announced Monday found that when human stem cells — the blank slate of the cell world — were exposed to a common virus they turned into fat cells. They didn't just change, they stored fat, too.

While this may be a guilt-free explanation for putting on pounds, it doesn't explain all or even most of America's growing obesity problem. But it adds to other recent evidence that blames expanding waistlines on more than just super-sized appetites and underused muscles.

For several years, researchers have looked at a possible link between obesity and this common virus, called adenovirus-36, from a family of viruses that cause colds and pinkeye in people. They had already found that a higher percentage of fat people had been infected with the virus than nonfat people. They had exposed animals to the virus and got them to fatten up and even found a a gene in the virus that causes animals to get obese.

But ethical restraints kept researchers from exposing people to the virus to see what happens. So they did what would be considered the next best thing, said Nikhil Dhurandhar, who headed the research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in the Louisiana State University system.

They took fat tissue from people who had liposuction, removed adult stem cells from the tissue and exposed the cells to the virus in the lab. Adult stem cells can regenerate and turn into different types of specialized cells to help the body heal itself.

More than half the stem cells exposed to the virus turned into fat cells and accumulated fats, while only a small percentage of the non-exposed stem cells did the same, said researcher Dr. Magdalena Pasarica, who presented the results Monday at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in Boston.

"It's the first time we see an effect in human cells," Pasarica said in a phone interview.

If a viral cause of obesity can be confirmed, a vaccine could be developed, maybe within five to 10 years, to prevent the virus from making some people fat, Dhurandhar said. However, it wouldn't help people already obese, he said.

Outside experts are intrigued but worry about people blaming all obesity on viruses, when this may be just one of many causes. It doesn't mean it's OK to overeat, blame a bug or wait for some kind of antivirus medicine, they said.

"The cause for obesity in everyone is the same," said Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "You eat more calories than you burn up; You can't get away from that basic law of physics."

But there are many causes that trigger overeating and extra storage of fat in the body, including the virus, Klein said. However, he said he considers the virus only a small factor, easily outweighed by genetics and even childhood eating habits.

Dhurandhar said some of his earlier research found that 30 percent of obese Americans had developed antibodies to the virus, showing they had been exposed to it at some point. But for non-obese people, only 11 percent had antibodies, he said.

That means for some people it is not their fault they are fat, Dhurandhar said.

But Klein said that's not completely right.

"We don't want obese people to feel that it's all their fault because it is not all their fault ... but clearly the buck finally lies with the person," Klein said

Web's 'Obama girl' is no hit with Obama By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

Web's 'Obama girl' is no hit with Obama By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago



SALEM, N.H. - Obama girl has upset Obama's girls. The Web video of a scantily clad actress pledging her affection for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has been a hit online, but not in his own home. Obama says his 6-year-old daughter Sasha has noticed news coverage of the video.

"Sasha asked Mommy about it," Obama said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press. "She said, 'Daddy already has a wife' or something like that."

"I Got A Crush On Obama" stars an aspiring model and actress named Amber Lee Ettinger, aka Obama Girl. Her song, which has lines like "Universal health care reform, it makes me warm," has gotten more than 3 million hits and nearly 10,000 comments since being posted two months ago on YouTube, the online video-sharing site.

Sen. Obama, D-Ill., said he knows the video was meant to be lighthearted, but he wasn't smiling when asked about it in the interview.

"I guess it's too much to ask, but you do wish people would think about what impact their actions have on kids and families," Obama said during the interview, held in the den of a supporter who just had hosted a campaign stop on her front lawn attended by about 120 people.

"This is part of the process of politics that can be difficult, (that) is making sure that your kids and your wife and your family are insulated from both things like this and what I suspect will be at some point some negative campaigning," Obama said.

When the campaign gets negative, Obama said, he'll be able to be tough without being inconsistent with his call for a new politics of hope.

"I feel pretty comfortable about the tone that we've taken during the course of this campaign," Obama said. "I think I've been respectful of all the candidates. I would challenge anyone to find a statement that I've made that has been personal as opposed to a substantive difference with a candidate."

He said calling rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's refusal to negotiate with rogue foreign leaders "Bush-Cheney lite" didn't cross the line. Clinton responded to that earlier comment by asking, "What's ever happened to the politics of hope?"

"The Clinton campaign reacted as, `Oh, whatever happened to the politics of hope. That's negative campaigning,'" Obama said. "If you actually look at the quote, I wasn't accusing her of being Bush."

"If Senator Clinton thinks that we should to continue with that type of approach of setting preconditions before we meet as opposed to preparation, then that is a light version of that policy," he said. "So that wasn't a sort of personal attack or an ad hominem attack. That was a very specific argument about the need to break away from some of this administration's policies. That is inevitable. Otherwise we're not going to be having any conversations during the course of this debate, other than a bunch of platitudes."

Obama said he understood the view of a New Hampshire voter who warned him last week to avoid public spats with his Democratic rivals or risk becoming part of politics as usual.

"Listen, I understand and am sympathetic to her view," Obama said. "And I do think that we've got to be careful not to fall into those habits. The way that I try to balance in my own mind is we should respond rapidly and aggressively to attacks that are made, but our responses should be truthful."

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On the Net:

http://www.barackobama.com

Obama girl video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?vwKsoXHYICqU

Bomb kills provincial chief in Iraq By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer

Bomb kills provincial chief in Iraq By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 6 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed a governor in southern Iraq on Monday, the second provincial boss assassinated in nine days and a likely prelude to an even more brutal contest among rival Shiite militias battling for control of some of Iraq's main oil regions.

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Iraqi police blamed the attack on the powerful Mahdi Army, whose fighters are nominally loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr but have recently splintered as breakaway factions set their own course.

The showdowns in southern Iraq — pitting Mahdi groups against the mainstream Shiite group in parliament — could intensify as the British forces overseeing the south gradually withdraw in the coming months.

Meanwhile, a range of initiatives, both political and diplomatic, reached a near dizzying pace as the Sept. 15 deadline approached for the Bush administration to report to Congress on its Iraq policies.

During the second day of a groundbreaking fact-finding tour, the French foreign minister warned Iraqi officials against complacency in the face of violence.

And Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, sought improved relations and help in the immediate neighborhood at the start of a three-day mission to Syria. Iran said its firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would soon pay a first-ever call on the Iraqi leader in Baghdad.

An equally intense round of political meetings was held in Baghdad as al-Maliki and his Shiite and Kurdish allies have sought to entice moderate Sunnis into a new alliance formed last week to try to save the government from collapse.

The viability of al-Maliki's government — and its ability to enact U.S.-backed reforms — will be one of the main themes of next month's progress report to lawmakers. The U.S.-led mission to regain control of Baghdad and central Iraq — with the help of 30,000 additional U.S. troops — was intended to give the Iraqi leadership more room to exert its authority.

The offensive, announced on Feb. 14, had made some notable successes against extremists. But, at the same time, al-Maliki's government was crippled by defections and boycotts by both Sunni and Shiite groups.

The Mahdi leader al-Sadr, once a key government ally, predicted in an interview with Britain's The Independent newspaper that al-Maliki's leadership role is doomed because he is seen as a "tool for the Americans."

Al-Maliki and his remaining allies formed a new Shiite-Kurdish coalition last week. But al-Maliki knows he also must have support from Iraq's neighbors for any real hopes in stabilizing the nation.

He was in Iran — the center of Shiite political power — earlier this month and invited Amadinejad to pay a return visit. The Iraqi leader now seeks better links with Sunni officials in Damascus, where he was to meet President Bashar Assad on Tuesday.

Syrian and Iran, despite having different Muslim majorities, are both seen as major actors in the Middle East through their support for the radical Hezbollah Shiite group in Lebanon and the Sunni Hamas organization in the Palestinian territories.

There were reports Assad was prepared to offer a security pact that could tighten the Syrian border against foreign fighters who have crossed into Iraq since the summer of 2003. Syria and Saudi Arabia are believed to be a main pipeline for groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq, which was blamed for the deadliest coordinated attack of the war last week when suicide bombers killed at least 400 people belonging to a small religious sect near the Syrian border.

"We will discuss the serious security file and its challenges, which concern not only Iraq but the whole region. We will discuss the Iraqi community and immigrants in Syria and the ways to provide them with services," al-Maliki told reporters in Damascus.

Bernard Kouchner, the charismatic French foreign minister, sat down with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani and other Iraqi officials Monday — the second day of a visit whose symbolism could boost White House efforts to prolong the American mission in Iraq. France was among strongest Western opponents of the 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

Kouchner's unannounced appearance in Baghdad on Sunday was the first by a senior French official since the war.

"It is true that, in the past, we did not agree with certain countries about the events in 2003, but all that has been put behind us now," he said in French at a joint news conference with Talabani. "Today, we have to look toward the future."

Kouchner said the United Nations should take a key role in brokering a political solution among Iraq's squabbling factions. "We must not become accustomed to violence in Iraq."

A political accord in Iraq could entice the French to take a role, he said.

"We, then, would be ready to participate here beside the Iraqis. We hope this solution comes through the U.N. participation."

Talabani promised Kouchner a "complete picture" of today's Iraq and called the visit a "historic chance" to solidify relations.

Monday's roadside bomb assassination killed Gov. Mohammed Ali al-Hassani as he drove to his office in the provincial capital of Samawah, about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad. Al-Hassani, his driver and a guard were killed. His office manager and two other guards were seriously wounded, police said.

Authorities clamped a curfew on Samawah. New checkpoints were erected.

On Aug. 11, a roadside bombing killed the governor and police chief of Qadasiyah, another southern province. Gov. Khalil Jalil Hamza and Maj. Gen. Khalid Hassan were returning to the provincial capital of Diwaniyah from a funeral for a tribal sheik.

Both governors were members of a powerhouse among Shiite political organizations, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or SIIC, led by Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. His loyalists, who dominate the police in the south of Iraq, have been fighting Mahdi Army militiamen for dominance in the oil-rich south — which may hold 70 percent or more of Iraq's oil reserves, according to various estimates.

Al-Hassani, 52, was from a prominent clan in the area and had been governor for about two years despite several attempts by rivals in the provincial council to dismiss him.

SIIC dominates the Muthanna provincial council, holding half the 40 seats. The others are divided among other Shiite parties.

"There was nothing against the governor inside the province except the confrontations between Mahdi Army and SIIC, which have claimed the lives of dozens of people," a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution.

At least five provincial governors — all Shiites — have been killed in Iraq, with three assassinated in the 2004-05 period by Sunni insurgents.

In other violence, a car packed with explosives blew up in Sadr City, a Mahdi Army stronghold in eastern Baghdad. Four people died and 15 were wounded, police said.

The bombing came after thousands rallied in the district demanding the withdrawal of American forces and an end to U.S.-Iraqi military raids.

Earlier in the day, a bomb planted on a motorcycle struck a market district elsewhere in the capital, killing three and wounding 11, according to police. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

'Queen of mean' hotelier Helmsley dies By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer

'Queen of mean' hotelier Helmsley dies By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 18 minutes ago



NEW YORK - Leona Helmsley, the cutthroat hotel magnate whose title as the "queen of mean" was sealed during a tax evasion case in which she was quoted as snarling "only little people pay taxes," died Monday at age 87. Helmsley died of heart failure at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn., said her publicist, Howard Rubenstein.

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Already experienced in real estate before her marriage, Helmsley helped her husband run a $5 billion empire that included managing the Empire State Building. She became a household name in 1989 when she was tried for tax evasion. The sensational trial included testimony from disgruntled employees who said she terrorized both the menial and the executive help at her homes and hotels.

That image of Helmsley as the "queen of mean" was sealed when a former housekeeper testified that she heard Helmsley say: "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."

Helmsley denied having said it, but the words followed her for the rest of her life.

She clearly enjoyed the luxury of her private fortune, flying the globe in a 100-seat jet with a bedroom suite. She and her husband's residences included a nine-room penthouse with a swimming pool overlooking Central Park atop their own Park Lane Hotel; an $8 million estate in Connecticut; a condo in Palm Beach; and a mountaintop hideaway near Phoenix.

"Leona Helmsley was definitely one of a kind," said Donald Trump, whose rivalry with the Helmsleys made headlines in the 1990s. "Harry loved being with her and the excitement she brought, and that is all that really matters."

The Helmsleys' financial excesses overshadowed millions in contributions for medical research and other causes. In recent years, she contributed $25 million to New York Presbyterian Hospital, $5 million to Katrina relief and $5 million after Sept. 11 to help the families of firefighters.

Yet Helmsley nickel-and-dimed merchants on her personal purchases, stiffed contractors who worked on her Connecticut home and terrorized both menial and executive help at her homes and hotels, detractors say.

When her husband died in 1997 at age 87, Helmsley said in a statement: "My fairy tale is over. I lived a magical life with Harry."

Earlier this year, Forbes magazine ranked her as the 369th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion.

She was 51, with the good looks of a former model and already a successful seller of residential real estate in a hot New York market, when she married Harry Helmsley in 1972.

He was 63 and one of the richest men in America.

In 1980 he made her president of Helmsley Hotels, a subsidiary which at the time operated more than two dozen hotels in 10 states, including the Park Lane, St. Moritz and Palace in New York and the Harley Hotels. Harley was a contraction of Harry and Leona.

For the better part of a decade, a glamorous Leona Helmsley smiled out of magazine ads dressed in luxurious gowns and tiara, advertising that the Palace was the only hotel in the world "where the Queen stands guard."

The press portrayed them as an adoring couple, with Leona calling Harry "gorgeous one" and "pussycat." Friends and acquaintances described her as generous, charming, playful and having a good sense of humor.

She threw parties on his birthdays at which guests wore buttons that said "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and he wore a button that said "I'm Harry." The couple would dance until dawn.

On July 4, 1976, Harry Helmsley lit the Empire State Building in red, white and blue — a tribute not to the Bicentennial, but to his wife's birthday. It cost $100,000 — "less than a necklace," he said.

But the Helmsleys' charmed life ended in 1988 when they were hit with tax-evasion charges.

Harry's health and memory were so poor that he was judged incompetent to stand trial. His wife, after an eight-week trial, was convicted of evading $1.2 million in federal taxes by billing Helmsley businesses for personal expenses ranging from her underwear to $3 million worth of renovations to the Dunellen Hall estate in Connecticut.

Sentenced to four years in prison, she tried to avoid jail by pleading that Harry might die without her at his side. Her doctor said that prison might kill her because of high blood pressure and other problems. (At a March 1992 hearing, the judge rejected that argument and even ordered her to surrender on April 15 — tax day.)

Helmsley served a total of 21 months and was released in January 1994. She had 150 hours added to her 750 hours of community service because employees had done some of the chores for her.

Several top executives at Helmsley companies said their firings coincided with her release. She maintained she couldn't have fired them because she had given up her management post — as a convicted felon she was barred from running enterprises with liquor licenses, such as hotels. The State Liquor Authority said it had no evidence that she was still in charge.

In 1996, two of Harry Helmsley's longtime partners accused his wife of scheming to loot the main corporation, Helmsley-Spear Inc. They said she was stripping away company assets to avoid paying $11.4 million owed them and to make the company worthless, because Harry Helmsley had given them an option to buy Helmsley-Spear at a bargain price upon his death.

After he died a few months later, the dispute with the partners was eventually settled and control of Helmsley-Spear was turned over to them. The settlement freed Leona Helmsley to sell off other assets.

The Helmsleys' charitable gifts may have run to the tens of millions, but people who dealt with them spoke bitterly of being stiffed.

One of them, a painting contractor, said Leona Helmsley wouldn't pay an $88,000 bill for work on Dunellen Hall because she was entitled to a "commission" for the $800,000 worth of other jobs he got in Helmsley buildings.

After making a sales clerk rewrite a bill for earrings to save $4 in sales tax, she reportedly said: "That's how the rich get richer." Her lawyers suggested that the government came after her to make an example of someone with high visibility.

Helmsley was born Leona Mindy Rosenthal on July 4, 1920, the daughter of a Manhattan hat maker. She left college after two years to become a model.

She married a lawyer, Leo Panzirer, whom she divorced in 1959. Their only child, Jay Panzirer, later ran a Florida-based building supplies company that did extensive business with Helmsley properties. She later was briefly married to a garment industry executive, Joe Lubin.

Before her son's death of a heart attack in 1982, she told interviewers she would not talk about him "because terrible things can happen to people these days."

She evidently was referring to being knifed by robbers at her Palm Beach home in 1973. She was stabbed in the chest and suffered a collapsed lung, and Harry was wounded in the arm.

After her son died, she sued the estate for money and property she said her son had borrowed, and an eviction notice was served on her son's widow, Mimi.

Mimi Panzirer said afterward that the legal costs wiped her out and "to this day I don't know why they did it."

Helmsley is survived by her brother and his wife, four grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.

Iowa museum mummies to undergo CT scans 1 hour, 25 minutes ago

Iowa museum mummies to undergo CT scans 1 hour, 25 minutes ago



DAVENPORT, Iowa - The Putnam Museum is sending two of its mummies on a field trip in hopes of learning more about their history.

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The mummies, described as among the Davenport museum's most prized and popular possessions, will be carefully removed from their cases on Tuesday and taken by ambulance to Genesis Medical Center's West Central Park Avenue Campus, where they will undergo CT scans.

The scans, being donated by the hospital, are expected to reveal new information about the mummies, such as their ages, genders and maybe even how they died.

"I've never seen them out of their cases," said Eunice Schlichting, the museum's chief curator. "We're so excited. The stars must be aligned or something."

One of the mummies, believed to be 3,000 years old, is named Isis and rests in the museum's lower gallery. Another unnamed mummy rests beside Isis and also will be tested.

The museum hopes to post new information about their history by November, when the mummies will be placed in new humidity controlled cases and their displays updated with new interactive features.

That would coincide with the opening of a new interactive exhibit about Egypt and mummification.

The mummy named Isis was donated to the museum in 1965 by the estate of B.J. Palmer, who purchased the mummy, which is unwrapped in his case, on a trip to Egypt in or around the 1920s. The unnamed mummy remains wrapped, so Schlichting hopes the scans will provide new information about its origin.

Curators will carefully open the cases and wrap the mummies in a plastic-like sheet, meant to capture any salts or pollen samples that can be used for later analysis. The mummies will then be padded with rolls of ethafoam to protect them from bumps along the way.

Once they are wrapped, the mummies will be carefully loaded onto stretchers and taken to the hospital for the scans.

"We have done a lot of research about how best to handle the move," Schlichting said. "We think the benefits far outweigh the risks."

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Information from: Quad-City Times, http://www.qctimes.com

Capital One to shut unit, cut 1,900 jobs By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Writer

Capital One to shut unit, cut 1,900 jobs By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Writer
12 minutes ago



Capital One Financial Corp. said Monday it will cut 1,900 jobs and shutter its wholesale mortgage banking business, a move that comes as lenders continue to struggle in the nation's housing and mortgage markets.

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Capital One said it will shut down GreenPoint Mortgage and eliminate most of the jobs by the end of year. The McLean, Va.-based company will close 31 GreenPoint locations in 19 states and "cease residential mortgage origination" effective immediately but said it will honor commitments to customers with locked rates who have loans already in the pipeline.

"Over the past few months, we have experienced an unprecedented disruption in the secondary mortgage markets," Capital One Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard D. Fairbank wrote in an internal memo to employees. "I made the decision to wind down the business with a heavy heart."

GreenPoint, based in Novato, Calif., specializes in no-documentation and Alt-A mortgage loans for borrowers with slightly better credit than subprime borrowers. In his memo, Fairbank said that market has seen a "significant reduction in liquidity and continuing volatility."

The decision to close GreenPoint will hit Capital One with an $860 million charge, or $2.15 per share, the vast majority of which will come in 2007. The company lowered its 2007 earnings guidance by 14 percent to $5 per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected earnings of $7.05 per share. Analysts estimates typically exclude one-time charges.

Capital One made the announcement after markets closed Monday. Its shares fell $2.03 to close at $66.72, then gained 19 cents in after-hours trading.

Bart Narter, a senior analyst with Celent, a Boston-based financial research and consulting firm, said GreenPoint's model of processing, packaging and selling loans to investors didn't mix well with Capital One's historical strengths.

"Capital One was smart to say, 'We shouldn't be in this business,'" Narter said. "Capital One is in the business of understanding their customers well and keeping direct relationships with their customers. So I'm not surprised by their decision."

Capital One said its other business lines remain solid and in line with expectations, adding that it will continue to sell home loans through Capital One Home Loans and its bank branches.

"Capital One's other businesses are supported by ample liquidity and funding including deep access to deposits, a 'stockpile' of subordinated credit card funding in place that allows approximately $9 billion of AAA credit card funding going forward, and a $25 billion portfolio of highly liquid securities," Perlin said.

As the nation's housing market has cooled, the mortgage lending industry has struggled with a dramatic rise in mortgage defaults and foreclosures. Many homebuyers have been forced into default or foreclosure because they haven't been able to sell their homes or end up owing more than their home is worth.

As a result, it has become more difficult for lenders like GreenPoint to sell the mortgages they originate to investors.

"The reductions in demand and pricing in the secondary mortgage markets make it difficult to operate our wholesale mortgage banking business profitably," said Gary Perlin, Capital One's chief financial officer.

Once a stand-alone credit card company, Capital One has moved in the past two years to acquire traditional banks as part of an effort to diversify. In acquired GreenPoint in December as a part of a $13.2 billion purchase of North Fork Bancorp, which operates banks in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Fairbank told employees Monday that he had expected GreenPoint's business to continue growing.

"Unfortunately, GreenPoint has run into unforeseen challenges that are beyond its control," Fairbank said.

Head of Utah mine lowers expectations By CHELSEA J. CARTER and MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writers

Head of Utah mine lowers expectations By CHELSEA J. CARTER and MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writers
13 minutes ago



HUNTINGTON, Utah - Faced with a backlash over dimming hopes, a coal mine boss broke his self-imposed silence Monday to issue e-mails lowering expectations that six trapped coal miners will ever be recovered, dead or alive.

Bob Murray, chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., issued an initial statement that promised "we will not be deterred, and we will not leave this mountain until we find our people."

That was followed a few hours later by another release, saying: "We will not leave this mountain until we achieve a resolution to this tragedy."

The once-outspoken Murray has been noticeably absent from meetings with relatives and from news briefings since three rescuers were killed last week in a tunnel collapse.

Sonny J. Olsen, an attorney who is acting as spokesman for the families, said they were upset by his absence.

Murray's e-mail said the "efforts in the digging and recovering have left me such that I cannot be a good spokesman to the public media on behalf of our efforts to rescue the original six miners."

As the rescue effort entered its third week, families pushed for rescuers to bore a hole into the mountain wide enough to accommodate a rescue capsule. Such capsules have been used to save miners in other disasters, but the men in the Crandall Canyon mine were thought to be more than 1,500 feet deeper than in previous rescues.

An attorney for the co-owners of the mine said safety experts believed lowering a capsule would be impossible because the mountain is too unstable.

"It's an unsafe activity," Murray Energy Corp. lawyer Chris Van Bever said Monday.

But as rescuers drilled a fifth hole in their search for the men, family members of the men said they feel betrayed and abandoned by the very people who promised never to give up.

"The problem that the families perceive right now — and it's not that we don't have enough effort or that there aren't enough people involved — but the wrong decisions are being made," Olsen said.

On Sunday, Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corp., expressed doubt that a tunneling operation would ever resume.

Mine owners and federal officials have insisted for nearly two weeks that the men might be alive. But repeated efforts to signal the men have been met with silence, and air readings from a fourth narrow hole drilled more than 1,500 feet into the mountainside detected insufficient oxygen to support life in that part of the mine. Previous bore holes indicated better air in other cavities but no signs of the miners.

Decisions about drilling a rescue hole and continuing with other rescue activities were being made jointly by federal and company officials in consultation with mining experts, officials said. The capsule had been considered a last, best option since the rescue tunnel collapsed.

Federal and company officials met twice with the families on Monday. It was unclear what, if any, results the meetings yielded.

But federal and company officials were apparently either reconsidering their options or at the very least backing off their earlier statements questioning whether the men would ever be found.

Bob Ferriter, a former federal mine safety engineer who teaches at the Colorado School of Mines, said the rescue effort has stuck to a predictable script: Hope and optimism that trapped miners will be found alive, followed by a reality check, followed by a bout of recriminations and finger-pointing.

In the first hours and days of a rescue attempt, "everybody is really excited because there is the possibility of finding them. But as time goes on, the realization sets in that these guys are not alive. The longer it goes, the greater the realization that the changes of finding anyone alive are less and less and less," he said.

The decision to call off the rescue effort rests with Richard Stickler, head of the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration, according to Ferriter.

"There's no formula, no checkoff list. You gather all the information and rely on your experience and listen to the advice of the people you have there. You have to make a hard decision," he said.

But Olsen said the families have not reached a "grieving point" and had faith that Kerry Allred, a veteran miner who is among those trapped, could be keeping the men alive.

"If he survived the initial cave-in, the families are very confident that he himself would have led them to areas where they would have had enough oxygen, and where they could have sustained themselves for weeks," Olsen said.

In fact, signs of hope were everywhere in the surrounding communities where signs continued to go up asking for prayers and blessings for the miners.

But even then, they struggle with their own inner debate over the issue.

"There is no right answer," said Sue Dirks, who painted her bookstore windows with "Pray for all miners."

"If it was my family in there, I'd want them to get them out. But if it's my family going in there to get them, you know, I don't know."

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Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko in Price and Jennifer Dobner in Huntington contributed to this report.