Internet failure hits two continents

High-technology services across large tracts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa were crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope.
Industry experts are blaming damage to two undersea cables but it is not known what caused the damage.
Reports say that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain Pakistan and India, are all experiencing severe problems.
Nations that have been spared the chaos include Israel -- whose traffic uses a different route -- and Lebanon and Iraq. Many Middle East governments have backup satellite systems in case of cable failure.
Stephan Beckert, an analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that consults on global Internet issues, said the damaged cables collectively account for the majority of international communications between Europe and the Middle East.

Internet failure hits two continents

High-technology services across large tracts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa were crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope.
Industry experts are blaming damage to two undersea cables but it is not known what caused the damage.
Reports say that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain Pakistan and India, are all experiencing severe problems.
Nations that have been spared the chaos include Israel -- whose traffic uses a different route -- and Lebanon and Iraq. Many Middle East governments have backup satellite systems in case of cable failure.
Stephan Beckert, an analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that consults on global Internet issues, said the damaged cables collectively account for the majority of international communications between Europe and the Middle East.

Hillary Clinton trumpets win in Florida despite lack of delegates

Sen. Hillary Clinton will win Florida's Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, CNN projects, although party sanctions have stripped the state of its convention delegates and no Democrats campaigned there.
Published polls showed the New York senator and former first lady was heavily favored in the state. Her leading rivals, South Carolina primary winner Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John Edwards, did not campaign in Florida. They opted to concentrate on next week's "Super Tuesday" contests in states such as New York, California, Missouri and Georgia.
The sanctions make Tuesday night's results largely meaningless to the Democratic presidential race. Obama described the primary as a "beauty contest" Tuesday, and his campaign issued a statement declaring the race a tie in the delegate count: "Zero for Obama, zero for Clinton."
But Clinton has pledged to fight to have the state's delegates seated at the August convention in Denver, and has increasingly stressed the state's importance since losing Saturday's hotly contested primary in South Carolina to Obama.

Bush opens up on past alcohol use

In a rare public comment on his past problems with alcohol, President Bush told a group at a Baltimore non-profit Tuesday that he had had a drinking problem in the past, and that “addiction is hard to overcome.”
Last month, he told an ABC interviewer that he had never been a "knee-walking drunk," but that "I doubt I'd be standing here if I hadn't quit drinking whiskey, and beer, and wine and all that."
On Tuesday, during his visit to the Jericho Program, he said that “if you remember, I drank too much at one time in my life.
“I understand faith based programs. I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem,” he added.
Bush has said several times that he often drank too much when he was younger, and that he quit drinking after overindulging on his 40th birthday.
Shortly before the 2000 presidential vote, news reports revealed he had been arrested in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol near his parents' home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
“Alcohol can compete with your affections. It sure did in my case — affections with your family, or affections for exercise,” Bush told the ABC News interviewer last month.
"It was the competition that I decided just wasn't worth it.”
The president also maintained then that he has not had a drink of alcohol since he quit more than two decades ago, and said he's a "better man for it."

Unfinished business for Bush in final State of the Union address

President Bush's last State of the Union address is expected to be heavy on Iraq and the economy, but he also will say he is entering a congressional fray over earmarking taxpayer dollars, administration officials said.
The president plans to sign an executive order Tuesday "directing agencies to ignore any future earmarks included in report language, but not in the legislation," Fratto said. The order will not be retroactive, he added.
"The president will say that if these spending items are worthy, Congress should debate them in the open and hold a public vote," Fratto said. "He will state his commitment to veto any spending bill that does not succeed in cutting earmarks in half from 2008 levels."
The move comes after House Republicans challenged Democrats in a letter Friday to join a bipartisan effort to overhaul earmarks. Republicans are expected to use earmarking as an issue against Democrats in the 2008 elections.

Beirut blast kills anti-terror chief

An explosion in Beirut has killed four people, including Lebanon's top anti-terror investigating officer, sources with the Lebanese Internal Security Forces and a government minister told CNN.
The attack in Hazmiyeh, a Christian neighborhood northeast of the capital, also wounded 38 others, security sources said.
"It was a powerful blast," CNN's Anthony Mills said. "I was less than half a mile away when it occurred and I felt the shock waves in the car I was traveling in.
"I arrived on the scene several minutes later and there was widespread damage -- several vehicles that had been reduced to hulks of burning, twisted metal ... debris scattered over a wide area."
The explosion killed Capt. Wissam Eid and his driver, the sources said.
Attacks of this nature have escalated as Lebanon has been in the midst of a political crisis as pro- and anti-Syrian lawmakers in parliament are locked in a battle to elect a president.

Snow strands hundreds of vehicles north of Los Angeles

Heavy snow kept a mountain stretch of Interstate 5 closed Thursday, as several hundred vehicles were stranded south of Bakersfield to north of Santa Clarita, the California Highway Patrol said.
"It's going to be awhile," said California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Ehly. He said motorists who were free from the snow were spinning out on black ice along the 40 miles of closed expressway.
A Web site for The Mountain Enterprise, a newspaper in Gorman, quoted the patrol as reporting "a lot of collisions" on I-5 as a result of the weather. Snowplows were working Thursday to clear the highway, which was closed on Wednesday evening, the patrol said.
Tow trucks were rescuing stranded drivers and their vehicles from the nearby frozen interstate, according to an employee at the Flying J truck stop in Frazier Park.
The slow-moving storm prompted the National Weather Service to issue a winter storm warning for the mountain areas Thursday lasting until Friday. Travel through the area was "highly discouraged," the service said, warning of gusty winds and drifting snow that could reduce visibility to near zero.
Heavy rain played havoc in lower-lying areas of Southern California. Santa Barbara reported a record rainfall Wednesday -- 4.16 inches in 24 hours at Santa Barbara Airport, according to the National Weather Service -- smashing the old record of 2.5 inches set in 1943, the service said.
In Long Beach, rain forced 11 residents of an apartment building to find shelter elsewhere after a tarp on a roof under construction failed, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
Forecasters predicted more snow and rain Thursday around Los Angeles.

Stocks take a big hit at open

Apple's disappointing outlook sent tech stocks reeling at the start of trading Wednesday, with investors still bothered by the prospects of a recession.
The tech-laden Nasdaq composite index lost nearly 3 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 188 points, or more than 1.5 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 1.1 percent.
Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) posted record quarterly earnings late Tuesday but issued an outlook for revenue and earnings that both fell far short of forecasts, further raising fears that even hot companies won't be immune to the downturn in the U.S. economy.
Motorola (MOT, Fortune 500), the nation's largest cell phone maker, announced a sharp drop in earnings and said it now is looking for a loss of 5 to 7 cents a share in the current quarter, rather than the 10 cents a share profit that had been forecast by earnings tracker Thomson First Call.
Chipmaker Texas Instruments (TXN, Fortune 500) said fourth-quarter profit rose 10 percent on strong sales, as it topped forecasts. Shares gained 4 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday.
Early Wednesday, Dow component United Technologies (UTX, Fortune 500) reported better than forecast earnings for the fourth quarter. The diversified manufacturer also reaffirmed its 2008 outlook which put full-year earnings at or below the current First Call forecast.

Fed slashes key rate to 3.5%

The Federal Reserve slashed two key interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point Tuesday following an unscheduled meeting, citing continued concerns about a weakening economy and turmoil in the financial markets.
The Fed lowered its federal funds rate, which impacts how much consumers pay on credit card debt, home equity lines of credit and auto loans, to 3.5 percent from 4.25 percent.
The rate cut came more than a week before the Fed's next regularly scheduled meeting, a two day session that concludes on Jan. 30. Some market observers think the Fed will cut rates again at this meeting.
The Fed also lowered its discount rate, which is what it costs banks to borrow directly from the central bank, by three-quarters of a point, to 4 percent.
This was the biggest rate cut by the Fed since October 1984. And it was the first cut between regularly scheduled meetings since a half-point cut on the day the market reopened following the September 2001 terrorist attacks
"Broader financial market conditions have continued to deteriorate and credit has tightened further for some businesses and households. Moreover, incoming information indicates a deepening of the housing contraction as well as some softening in labor markets," the Fed said in a statement.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington Tuesday morning, said that he hoped the rate cut would restore some confidence in the financial markets and U.S. economy.

Caffeine may boost miscarriage risk

A new study has found that pregnant women who consumed more than 200 milligrams of caffeine a day, equivalent to about two cups of coffee, had twice the risk of miscarriage as the women who consumed no caffeine at all. The findings are published in Monday's Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Previous studies have found similar results, but Dr. De-Kun Li, lead author and investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, is quick to point out the significance of his findings. "We were able to address the issue of if the increase is really due to caffeine or due to women changing their drinking patterns.

Bush to offer ideas for more cash in your pocket

President Bush is putting together his first public call for an emergency fiscal stimulus bill while negotiations on Capitol Hill focus on rebates for taxpayers and other steps to jump-start the sagging economy.
Bush planned to lay out his position Friday, but he wasn't expected to go into specifics. Press secretary Dana Perino said Bush would demand that any package be effective, simple and temporary -- mirroring calls by Democratic lawmakers for a "timely, targeted and temporary" stimulus measure.
Taxpayers could receive rebates of up to $800 for individuals and $1,600 for married couples under a White House plan. Although lawmakers were considering smaller rebate checks and more money for food stamp recipients and the unemployed, Bush told congressional leaders that he favors income tax rebates for people and tax breaks for business investment.
"What he believes is that we've got to do something that is robust. It's going to be temporary and get money into the economy quickly," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday on CBS's "The Early Show." "It's going to be focused on consumers, individuals, families -- putting money in their pocket. And it's going to be focused on giving businesses the incentive to hire people, to create jobs."
White House counselor Ed Gillespie said Friday on CNN the White House would still like to see the tax cuts made permanent, but the president believes a stimulus plan needs to be put into place within the next few weeks.

Snow, sleet close schools in Georgia

The lingering effects of a wintry mix of snow, sleet and rain forced the cancellation of dozens of airline flights and closed some schools Thursday morning.
Sleet and snow started falling Wednesday in central Georgia as moisture from the Gulf of Mexico collided with a blast of cold air from the northeast. It moved north gradually, hitting metro Atlanta and northeast Georgia late Wednesday.
The northeast Georgia mountains received up to 3 inches of snow, with the rest of north Georgia getting rain and some sleet Wednesday into early Thursday morning.
Rain was expected to end during the day with temperatures continuing to climb to the upper 30s in the northeast Georgia mountain. The forecast called for highs in the upper 30s to lower 40s in the rest of north Georgia.
With icy surfaces at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta Air Lines canceled about 70 flights early Thursday, Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott said. AirTran canceled 12 flights, said spokesman Tad Hutcheson, who said more cancellations were possible at airports further north as the storm moved up the East Coast.

Police hunt suspects after two officers gunned down

Two off-duty police officers were shot and killed Wednesday while working security at an apartment complex near Atlanta, Georgia, the police chief said.
The officers, who were in uniform, were responding to a call about a suspicious person when someone fired at them shortly before 1 a.m., said Chief Terrell Bolton of the DeKalb County Police Department.
One officer died at the scene, the other at a hospital.
"They didn't stand a chance," Bolton told reporters.
Authorities are looking for two men who ran from the scene after the shooting at the Glenwood Gardens apartments, about eight miles east of downtown Atlanta.
"They know who they are," Bolton said. "They know we're hunting them down."
One of the officers had been with the DeKalb County Police Department for four years; the other had a slightly shorter tenure. Both have children.

Apple rolls out super-slim laptop, says it will offer movies

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs took the wraps off a super-slim new laptop at the Macworld trade show on Tuesday, unveiling a personal computer less than an inch thick that turns on the moment it's opened.
Jobs also confirmed the consumer electronics company's foray into online movie rentals, revealing an alliance with all six major movie studios to offer films over high-speed Internet connections within 30 days after they're released on DVD.
Always a showman, Jobs unwound the string on a standard-sized manila office envelope and slid out the ultra-thin MacBook Air notebook computer to coos and peals of laughter from fans at the conference.
At its beefiest, the new computer is 0.76 inches thick; at its thinnest, it's 0.16 inches, he said. It comes standard with an 80-gigabyte hard drive, with the option of a 64GB flash-based solid state drive as an upgrade.
The machine doesn't come with a built-in optical drive for reading CDs and DVDs, a feature Jobs says consumers won't miss because they can download movies and music over the Internet and access the optical drives on other PCs and Macs to install new software. They can buy an external drive, however, that will retail for $99.

Trees

Trees are an important component of the natural landscape because of their prevention of erosion and the provision of a specific weather-sheltered ecosystem in and under their foliage. Trees have also been found to play an important role in producing oxygen and reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as well as moderating ground temperatures. They are also significant elements in landscaping and agriculture, both for their aesthetic appeal and their orchard crops. Wood from trees is a common building material. Trees also play an intimate role in many of the world's mythologies.