NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian court has ruled that a powerful minister will not have to stand trial in a multibillion-dollar telecommunications scandal, giving the beleaguered government a reprieve.
Judge O.P. Saini on Saturday dismissed opposition politician Subramanian Swamy's request that Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram face prosecution in the …
A Nike Inc. executive says the U.S. sports outfitter is cautiously optimistic about overall trading prospects for the year, with sales of its football-related kit already up dramatically ahead of this year's World Cup.
Brand president Charlie Denson said Thursday that total revenue growth will likely mirror a global economic recovery, with the 32-nation World Cup in South Africa …
All week the vast majority of callers to Pittsburgh sportstalkradio shows focused on the Steelers, the resurgence of KordellStewart and their team's long-shot playoff hopes.
As of Thursday morning, all the talk was about Penguins ownerMario Lemieux planning to play again after a 44-month retirement.
"We had callers joking: `What's the name of the football team inthis town?' " producer Bob McLaughlin said. "It was Mario calls non-stop."
As news hit the hockey world, it was received with the same blendof shock and excitement.
"This is probably the biggest story we've seen since Wayne Gretzkywas traded (from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988)," former NHL …
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Memphis coach Josh Pastner has signed a five-year contract extension after leading the Tigers to the NCAA tournament in his second year on the job.
The university said Tuesday that Pastner's extension is worth $1.7 million annually and runs through the 2015-2016 season.
Pastner was hired in April 2009 to replace John Calipari when he took the Kentucky job. The …
Needing wins in a tense pennant race, the free-falling New York Mets can't find a way to beat the lowly Washington Nationals. Sounds the same as last September.
Odalis Perez shut down the slumping Mets and scored the only run of the game, sending Washington to a 1-0 victory Tuesday night that put New York's NL East lead in jeopardy.
The Mets, who began the day with a half-game edge over Philadelphia, lost for the fourth time in five games. The Phillies played at Atlanta.
Willie Harris made another key catch against New York, which went 1-5 versus the Nationals over the final two weeks last season _ a big reason for its massive meltdown. The Mets held …
Young women from Bath are proving you can have brains as well asbeauty as they battle it out to represent the city in the MissEngland pageant.
The organisers of the traditional competition are searching forgirls to buck the stereotype of the beauty queen and bring it up todate for the present day.
One of those hoping to represent Bath in the national finals is17-year-old Lina White, who is studying for A-levels in maths,further maths, economics, chemistry and Spanish at Ralph AllenSchool.
Over the summer she picked up 12 A*s in her GCSEs and is hopingto show people a new side to her in the contest.
Lina said: "My parents were the people who …
WASHINGTON - Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., acknowledged Sunday that he asked a U.S. attorney …
A graduate student this month photographed what some thought was a remarkable find: A complete tusk of a prehistoric pygmy mammoth.
It turned out to be something far older.
A team of researchers spent two days on Santa Cruz Island excavating and determined it was a jawbone from an extinct whale species.
Lotus Vermeer of the Nature Conservancy …
I have asked myself many times what I would have done if I'ddiscovered my husband and I couldn't conceive children. I've alwayssaid we would have adopted. I have a daughter who looks a lot likeme and two sons to whom I do not look remotely related, and I knowwithout question that my love for them has nothing to do with thefact that my blood runs in their veins.
Sometimes I will notice and take pleasure in the way Charlie'swalk resembles Steve's or the way Willy's cowlick matches my own. Itmay be that there are certain connections built into our chromosomes,but those things are only interesting oddities to me, notrequirements for our love. I think what I love best about …
DETROIT - Opponents are criticizing a key backer of a ballot initiative to end public affirmative action programs in Michigan after he made comments that appeared to welcome the Ku Klux Klan's support.
Ward Connerly, a California businessman who is pushing the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and helped to get similar measures passed elsewhere, was quoted in a documentary examining affirmative action. The measure on Tuesday's ballot would ban the use of race and gender preferences in state government and university admissions.
In a video posted to the Web site YouTube.com, Connerly is shown saying, "If the Ku Klux Klan thinks that equality is right, God bless them. Thank …
Italy's financial police visited 76 Italian branches of Swiss banks and related offices Tuesday to ensure they are correctly reporting their financial transactions, officials said.
The police and Italy's tax authority said the effort was part of the country's fight against illegal tax havens and international tax evasion.
Some 100 financial police agents checked the offices "particularly at risk" in a first wave of visits to guarantee the "precise and punctual" reporting of financial transactions to Italian authorities.
Switzerland has recently been forced to relax its venerated banking secrecy laws …
The HTVYAEDS Atlas, unveiled at a June 22 news conference, offers a new online tool for advocates to look at the burden of disease within their communities and how it breaks down along standard demographic and political lines.
It visually makes clear that 40 percent of the national HTV caseload is found in just 20 of the nation's 3,225 counties; 80 percent is found in 200 counties. After the largest cities, the epidemic is spread most broadly across the south.
"We believe that every community ought to know its status ... to make appropriate interventions as well as to advocate," said Gary Puckrein, president of the National Minority Quality Forum, which created the tool using existing health data. The group already maps other chronic conditions such as diabetes and kidney disease.
"We can begin to ask questions about prevention issues, access issues, quality of care issues, making sure that our resources are in alignment" with the caseload, he said, adding that it is hard for community-based organizations to collect and analyze that type of data on their own.
The interactive map uses 2006 data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and county public health officials. The Forum hopes to add to that as new data becomes available, and overlay it with additional information provided by Medicare and Medicaid.
The information can be searched down to the zip code level in New York City but is broader in many other jurisdictions where the caseload is lighter. That is because of privacy concerns for the confidentiality of those living with HIV.
GouldaDowner, with the National Minority AEDS Education and Training Center at Howard University, applauded the effort. "The number of people living with HEV continues to climb," she said, "therefore the population in need of prevention services continues to grow as well."
The HEV/AEDS Atlas is available at www.maphiv.org. Registration is required but the site is free.
Hamburger SV has signed midfielder Anton Putsilo on loan from Dinamo Minsk of Belarus until the end of the season.
The Bundesliga club said Wednesday it had the option to sign Putsilo on a longer contract.
DRIVING DISTANCE
1 J.B. Holmes 332.2
2 Tiger Woods 324.3
3 Davis Love 317.5
4 Geoff Ogilvy 309.0
5 Jason Gore 308.2
FAIRWAYS HIT
1 Heath Slocum 37 (88%)
2 Fred Funk 35 (83%)
3 Olin Browne 34 (81%)
Chris Riley 34 (81%)
5 7 tied 31 (74%)
Greens in regulation
1 Tiger Woods 44 (81%)
2 Mike Weir 43 (80%)
3 Shaun Micheel 42 (78%)
Geoff Ogilvy 42 (78%)
Retief Goosen 42 (78%)
PUTTS
1 J.B. Holmes 77
2 Ryan Palmer 78
3 Davis Love 80
Anders Hansen 80
5 5 tied 81
The traditional dinner of champions was less than a success.Defending champion Sandy Lyle, who picked the menu and paid the tab,showed up in kilts and provided haggis, a dish traditional in hisnative Scotland but not as well received by the former winners. Mark Calcavecchia, who finished second last year, believes GregNorman may be trying too hard. "He seems so intense, slower than I'veever seen him," said Calcavecchia. "He's grinding so hard. That'snot Greg." Norman concedes Calcavecchia may be right.
Norman said Seton Hall's Andrew Gaze, a fellow Australian, inspiredhis interest in the NCAA tournament. "I'm not a fan, but I watchedbecause of him," said Norman. "He looks a couple of years youngerthan I am, and when I grew up basketball wasn't that strong inAustralia." Six-time winner Jack Nicklaus has an aching back again. "I spent allMonday on the floor and wasn't sure I could play," he said. But hecarded a 34 for nine holes Tuesday and expects his back to improveeach day of the tournament. Tournament chairman Hord Hardin admitted he was bothered by FuzzyZoeller's criticism of the course last year. "When one of our formerchampions shoots 66 and is that critical of us, I have to worry," hesaid. "The players have been complimentary so far this year.Hopefully they'll remain so after they've three- or four-putted underthe strain of the tournament, but I know better." Lee Trevino, perhaps playing in his last Masters, always has beencritical of the tournament. Hardin hasn't taken it personally. "Iadmire the guy," said Hardin. "He's talented, funny and I like theway he handles his job on TV. It would be nice if he had a goodtournament because he's never had his best game here. Even if hewon, that would be fine with me." Rain hit the course Wednesday, but Seve Ballesteros echoed thethoughts of most of the players in saying, "I've never seen thecourse in better condition." Ballesteros is playing in his 13thMasters, but his first as a married man. His wife of four months iswith him. Bob Gilder parred the first extra hole to win a playoff from AndyMagee and capture the par-3 contest. The bad news for Gilder is thata par-3 winner never has won the Masters the same year.
Apple Inc.'s newest iPhone was in hot demand Thursday as hundreds lined up outside stores in Tokyo, Berlin, New York and elsewhere to become among the first to own the device.
The iPhone 4's launch began in Japan and moved across France, Germany and the U.K. before going on sale in the U.S. at 7 a.m. in each time zone.
Unlike past launches, there were worries about limited supplies after more than 600,000 people rushed to pre-order iPhones on the first day they were available, prompting Apple and its U.S. carrier, AT&T Inc., to stop taking orders for shipment by Thursday's launch. On Apple's website, new orders weren't promised for delivery until July 14.
AT&T stopped taking pre-orders entirely and won't have any iPhone 4s for people who didn't reserve them until June 29. That means people who didn't place an iPhone 4 order had to line up outside Apple stores Thursday in the hopes of snagging one on a first-come, first-served basis. Apple won't say whether it believes it has enough iPhones on hand to avoid disappointing those would-be buyers.
In Paris, 24-year-old shoe salesman Julien Remy went to buy one during his lunch break, only to learn the store had run out of the higher-capacity model he wanted.
"Either I'll look elsewhere or come back later," he said.
Long lines formed from early morning across the city at Apple stores and retail outlets across Tokyo. At the Apple store in the city's swanky Ginza shopping district, staff handed out bottled water and loaned black umbrellas with the company logo. A man dressed as a giant iPhone danced and waived his arms as he made it to the front of the line.
"I like the design. It's sleek _ I think it's cool!" said Yoko Kosugi, 41, a graphic designer, who took her new phone out of her bag to show it off, plastic wrapping still on the screen.
In Apple's newly opened store in the Georgetown section of Washington, employees handed out free pastries to people in line.
Beth Henriksen, 30, of Washington, was the first person in the pre-order pickup line at the Georgetown store. She got in line at 2:15 a.m. Henriksen, a sign language interpreter, said she is upgrading her old iPhone to the new model because of the Facetime application allowing face-to-face video calls.
"This is revolutionary in the U.S. for deaf people to have a mobile device they can use to communicate in their native language."
Maria Powell, 41, of Hollywood, Fla., made it a family affair. Her nephew, her son, his girlfriend and a friend had camped outside of the Apple store in Aventura, Fla., since 4:30 p.m. Wednesday _ more than 14 hours before the phones went on sale.
"My eyes are twitching, my body is going into shock ... but I am getting the newest gadget," said Powell's nephew, Steven Casillas, 25, of Miami Lake, Fla.
In Germany, exclusive carrier Deutsche Telekom AG allowed customers to order the phone starting June 15, so many who lined up at stores were assured of getting a device.
Frank Moravietz, a project developer in Berlin, stopped by a Telekom shop on the capital's main Unter den Linden boulevard around midday to pick up his new iPhone _ a birthday present for his wife.
"I ordered it in advance and everything has gone off without a problem," Moravietz said. "I only had to wait about 45 minutes."
Dirk Wende, a spokesman for Telekom, said that enough phones were also available for customers who did not pre-order them. Wende said one store in Germany _ Telekom's flagship store in Berlin _ opened ahead of the official launch at midnight to offer the phone.
"Hundreds of customers showed up to buy the new iPhone," Wende said.
In London, 23-year-old Ben Paton described his 16 hours in line to get one as "absolutely incredible, amazing. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity."
Alex Lee, a 27-year-old customer who flew in from Dubai to join the 500-person-long line along London's Regent Street, said his journey and hours of waiting had been worth it. "It's so thin, maybe five or six credit cards thick _ it's amazing," he said, clutching his new handset.
In the trendy Tokyo shopping district of Harajuku, over 300 people were lined up at the flagship store of Softbank, Japan's exclusive carrier, when its doors opened in the morning. That store ran out of phones by early afternoon, said company spokesman Naoki Nakayama.
"We've been selling out at each launch, it's the same conditions," he said, declining to release any numbers.
When the initial version of the iPhone was released in Japan two years ago, some questioned whether it could succeed without many of the advanced hardware features common on Japanese models. But the phone's addictive touch screen and broad selection of downloadable applications have made it a runaway hit in the country.
Yet some in Japan say the phone has become a victim of its own success, causing the network to slow down, as more people use them.
Motoki Sato, a university student waited through the night before the launch along with dozens of others at a store in Shibuya, to get "a birthday present for myself" when he turned 24 on Thursday.
The newest model is thinner with a better-resolution screen and longer battery life. It features a new operating system that can also be installed on some older models, such as the 3GS.
Some customers, though, weren't buying a new iPhone for its features.
"I have the 3GS, but my friend dropped it in a pitcher of beer last week," said Julia Glanternik, 28, a medical student in New York.
_____
Associated Press writers Jay Alabaster and Jun Stinson in Tokyo, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, David Stringer in London, Rafael Mesquita in Paris, Lauren Sausser in Washington, Annie Greenberg in Aventura, Fla., and Joel Schectman in New York contributed to this report.
Members of the embattled polygamist sect said life was relatively normal on their West Texas ranch at the center of one of the United States' largest child-custody cases.
The Yearning for Zion ranch is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that state authorities raided two weeks ago in search of a 16-year-old girl who claimed her husband beat and raped her.
Child welfare officials have removed all 416 children living there from the custody of their parents. The 16-year-old has yet to be found.
Members gave a few tours Wednesday to show their lives _ isolated from what they regard as a hostile and sinful outside world _ center on family and faith.
A gleaming, white limestone temple is the center of the 1,700-acre (688 hectares) ranch with large, log-style homes, a school, a dairy, a rock quarry and a community garden planted with vegetables, fruit trees and a grape arbor.
Set back some three miles (about 5 kilometers) from a state highway, the ranch sits behind two locked gates, which outsiders and excommunicated members suggest is a symbol of the control church elders have over the lives of the faithful.
No one who lives here calls it a compound.
"All of us say the ranch. It's the ranch. It's home," said Rozie, a 23-year-old married member of the sect. Members won't allow their last names to be used because they worry about the effect on their children in state custody.
Each family begins and ends the day with prayer, said Dan, 24, whose wife remains housed in the San Angelo Coliseum complex 45 miles (72 kilometers) to the north with their 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.
"It is lifeless here without our kids around here" he said.
On Thursday, a custody hearing starts in the Tom Green County Courthouse to decide whether the children, who range in age from six months to 17 years, will be in permanent state custody. State officials alleged a pattern of abuse by adults, including marriages between young girls to older men.
Sect members deny children were abused.
"It's the furtherest thing away from what we do here," Dan said of the abuse allegations. "There's nothing that's more disliked and more trained against.
Under Texas law, the Child Protective Services, an attorney for each child and attorneys for the parents must be given a chance to weigh in on whether the children should remain in state custody.
Typically, each child also is given a separate hearing, but given the number of cases, it's likely the judge will have the state, the children's attorneys and the parents' attorneys make consolidated presentations, at least initially, said Harper Estes, the president-elect of the state bar.
"You can't go one-by-one," Estes said.
A parade of attorneys appointed to represent each child _ many volunteers recruited by the bar association _ met with the children being housed in shelters and filed notices with the court on Wednesday. A separate group of attorneys arrived at the compound in Eldorado to meet with their parents.
The children have been held in shelters, first in Eldorado and then in San Angelo since they were removed from the sprawling compound nearly two weeks ago. All but the youngest children are being cared for by state workers and child care providers.
The FLDS came to West Texas in 2003, relocating some members from the church's traditional home along the Utah-Arizona border.
The faith traces its religious roots to the early theology of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which now denounces polygamy and excommunicates members found practicing it.
___
Associated Press writer Michelle Roberts contributed to this report from San Angelo.
REGION
Say you're a small business owner with a line of credit at the community bank you've used your whole career. You knowthe bank took some hits in its real estate loan portfolio recently, but your lending officer has assured you the problem is well in hand.
On tonight's 11 o'clock news, you learn the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized your bank after hours and shut it down, transferring its assets to a bank you know nothing about.
Well, everyone knows deposit accounts of up to $250,000 are insured, so those are safe. Butyou had a lending relationship that was vital to your business. What do you do about that?
The main thing is to be proactive, said George Millward, a longtime banker who now runs Millward Consulting, an industry advisory firm based in Berks County.
Call the new bank and find out if it acquired your loan, he said. Bank closures can be chaotic, and information may be limited for a few days, but be persistent and you should soon get answers, he said.
If the new bank has your loan, talk to the lending officers, he said. Set up a meeting and begin building a new banking relationship.
"I'd be pretty aggressive about that," he said. "If I'm a new customer, I want to make sure my story is heard and understood."
As was widely predicted, bank failures haverisen in 2010. Therewere 149 nationwide through last week, compared with 140 in 2009 and three in 2007, according to the FDIC.
In general, Pennsylvania's banks have been healthier than many other statesi experts said. The commonwealth saw its first closure of the year Nov. 19, when Allegiance Bank of North America, basedinLowerMerionTownship, Montgomery Countyt, closed.
The FDIC transferred its assets to Vist Bank, based in Wyomissing, Berks County. Vist officials declined to be interviewed for this article.
As a rule, the state Department of Banking advises clients of failed banks to continue making payments, spokesman Ed Novak said.
"As a regulatory agency, our concern is that both parties treat each other fairly and according to the law," Novak said.
Clients with loans at failed banks have little to worry about as long as they have stayed current on their payments, Millward said.
"If you're a good customer and you've been paying off your note ... the bank that buys the failed institution will probably pick up your note as well," he said.
Still, the acquiring bank has the right to change loan terms, decline to renew them, and even shut down lines of credit, FDIC spokeswoman Laluan Williams-Young said.
That's why it's so vital to present your case as soon as possible, Millward said.
If the new bank does want to change or end loan terms, businesses have to be ready to find new lenders, Millward said.
Business customers with credit problems may not have the option of dealing with the acquiring bank at all, Millward and Williams-Young said. The acquiring bank has no obligation to accept a given loan, in which case the FDIC will take it.
If that happens, "you are strongly encouraged to seek a new lender that will refinance your loan and serve as a replacement source of funding," the FDIC says in its "borrower's guide" to bank failures on its website.
"In some instances, the FDIC may offer borrowers an incentive to refinance by offsetting some or all of the associated closing costs," the FDIC says.
Borrowers who cannot find new lenders have to make payments to the FDIC. The agency hires contractors to service its loans until it packages them for resale on the open market, Millward said.
In other words, you are no longer dealing with a local bank that knows you well and has a stake in your long-term success, but with organizations with a primary incentive to maximize the payout of the loan, he said.
Under those circumstances, a business that needs to renegotiate a loan will have very limited leverage, he said.
"Conversations on the workout side will be a whole lot more difficult," he said. "Those are just ugly conversations."
Unfortunately for borrowers, the FDIC never announces bank takeovers in advance. That means all negotiations and decisions about apportioningloans between the FDIC and the acquiring bank are made in advance and in secret, without borrowers' input.
Nor can businesses influence those decisions retroactively, WilliamsYoung said.
Once the FDIC decides to shut a bank, "we put out some feelers" to see who might be interested in acquiring its assets, she said. Prospects are given information about the bank's size and business model, although details are kept vague so it cannot be identified.
The FDIC then solicits bids and accepts the one that will cost the deposit insurance fund the least, WilliamsYoung said. The whole process can take a few days to a few months, she said.
The FDIC typically sellsfailedbanks' assets through a loss-share agreement. That means the FDIC absorbs a fixed portion, usually 80 percent, of the loss on the assets of the failed institution, with the acquiring institution absorbing the remainder.
The agreements limit the acquiring banks' risk, while still giving them an incentive to salvage bad loans, the FDIC says. Loss-share agreements have saved the FDIC an estimated $35.6 billion compared with straight sales of assets, the agency said.
This year's bank failures are the most since the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s.
And in a possible sign of troubles to come, the number of "problem" banks on the FDICs watch list grew from 829 to 860 in the third quarter, according to the agency.
That's also the highest number since the savings and loan debacle. The FDIC does not reveal which banks make its list.
Mostbank closureshaveoccurredin the areas of the country most affected by the housing bubble and subprime crisis, places like Florida, Arizona and California.
The U.S. has more than 7,800 FDICinsured banks and savings institutions. Many analysts believe hundreds more community banks will fail due to commercial and residential real estate loan losses in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis.
The FDIC is budgeting more than $50 billion for banklosses over the next four years.
[Sidebar]
'Conversations on the workout side will be a whole lot more difficult. Those are just ugly conversations."
George Millward, Millward Consulting
[Sidebar]
YOUR TAKE
Have an opinion about this issue?
E-mail us at editorial@journalpub.com.
[Author Affiliation]
BY TIM STUHLDREHER
tims@journalpub.com
Joe Branch lost two of his best friends on the Northwesternbasketball team this year. He lost his starting job last week.
The junior forward from Houston, however, has no intentions ofjumping ship with the Wildcats (3-2) heading into Saturday'snon-conference battle with Seton Hall (3-2) at Welsh-Ryan Arena(noon, SportsChannel).
Branch came to NU with high school teammate Darreion Dean. Asseniors they led Kincaid High School to the championship of theSouthwest Preparatory Conference, which encompasses all privateschools in Texas and Oklahoma.Dean had limited playing time as a freshman and appeared in onlyone game during an injury-marred sophomore season. He has sincetranferred to a Texas community college.Two weeks ago Geno Carlisle, whom Branch calls "one of my bestfriends in school," made his exit. Last year's star guard, facingtrial on a battery charge next month, leaves NU as soon as thisweek's semester exams are over and plans to transfer to anotherschool next month.That leaves Branch as the only member of coach Ricky Byrdsong'sfirst recruiting class left on the roster."It feels different without Darreion and Geno, but I'm here tostay," Branch said. "I love Northwestern. The last two years havenot gone well basketball-wise, but academic- and social-wise I'mhaving a great time."The basketball part picked up last week, after Byrdsong benchedBranch in favor of freshman Carvell Ammons. It was a move thatinspired a 58-56 victory over DePaul, as Ammons grabbed 15 reboundsand Branch finally found his shooting touch coming off the bench. Hescored 10 points and hit his first three-point shot after going0-for-6 in four games as a starter.Branch started 24 of 27 games last season, when he averaged 6.7points and 3.7 rebounds. Those numbers dropped to 4.6 and 2.6,respectively, in Big Ten games, and didn't pick up in NU's first fourgames this season."Joe played his best game against DePaul," Byrdsong said."When he plays well, we can play well. Much of our problems a yearago had to do with him. We need him to play well, but he's beenthinking about his shooting so much, and practicing so much. Maybehe needs to get away from it."Branch doesn't agree."I hit them all in practice, but in games I'm not sure," hesaid. "I think I'll get better the more shots I put up. The bigthing is that I come in and produce. It's not who starts, but whofinishes. I've kept my confidence. If I lose it, the coaches won'thave any confidence in me."
