Levitown is a bus ride beyond the aptly named Hicksville in the outer suburbs of New York. Its lawns are neat and its houses boxy. From many gardens fly American flags and yellow ribbons: typical displays of suburban patriotism.It was here, almost 60 years ago, that modern American suburbia was born. Work began on the town in 1947 and Long Island potato fields were soon covered with a radical new form of housing: single, similar, purpose-built houses designed for car-owners and aimed at families. At the time it was a shock. Social scientists scoffed at Levittown. But within decades the suburban experiment had come to define US life and what began in Levittown now covers the country in urban sprawl, strip malls and a way of life revolving around the car.Now there are fears it is coming to an end. For the past five years America has been gripped by a housing price bubble. It has funded a huge expansion of suburbia as Americans poured their wealth into their homes. ...
http://observer.guardian.co.uk
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Editor - 22:17:00 08-06-06
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 Fed admits US recession on cards |
The United States faces almost a 40 % chance of slipping into recession in the next 12 months, according to the Federal Reserve's own market model. As Fed chairman Ben Bernanke prepares to decide whether to raise American interest rates for the 18th time on Tues, bond prices and the high level of borrowing costs are now showing a 38 % chance of recession, according to a model published by Fed economist Jonathan Wright earlier this year. After official payroll figures released on Friday showed that the economy created fewer jobs than expected last month, Wall Street began predicting Bernanke would halt the Fed's rate-hiking campaign this week. But some economists believe the central bank has already gone too far. 'They've hiked far too much,' said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics. 'The Fed has a long and inglorious history of raising rates too far, and cutting them too far.' He expects growth in the world's largest economy to have ground to a halt by the end of the year...
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1838081,00.html
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Editor - 22:10:00 08-06-06
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| US troops attempt to stem Baghdad's sectarian bloodshed |
US troop reinforcements sent to help stem sectarian bloodshed in Baghdad fanned out across mainly Sunni districts in the west of the city yesterday, in what a senior military official described as the first stage of a "make-or-break" operation to prevent civil war. With neither the inexperienced Iraqi security forces nor the weak central government capable of halting the killings, US commanders have redeployed about 3,700 soldiers of the army's 172nd Stryker brigade from the province of Nineveh. At least 100 people were killed in violence over the weekend. The military hopes the fresh show of US might in Baghdad will bolster Iraqi security operations, deter the death squads, and reassure frightened citizens that a semblance of normal life is possible. In the suburb of Ghazaliyah, which residents say has become a centre for Sunni insurgents, criminal gangs and Shia militia, Stryker's armoured fighting vehicles rumbled through deserted streets ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1838792,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
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Editor - 21:55:00 08-06-06
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| King faces land seizure by government |
Nepal's government is likely to seize land owned by King Gyanendra, who recently lost most of his power as well as his command of the army, a cabinet minister said yesterday.Prabhu Narayan Chaudhary, the land reform minister, said the government was investigating the amount of land owned by the king and other members of the royal family and would have details of the investigation in a week....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1838580,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
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Editor - 21:51:00 08-06-06
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| CIA Contractor to Stand Trial in Afghan Beating Death |
In the weeks after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal stunned Iraq, a story emerged from Afghanistan about a CIA contractor accused of beating a detainee so severely that he later died. More than three years later, after several soldiers working at Abu Ghraib have been sentenced to military prison, the contractor, David Passaro, will finally stand trial when jury selection begins Monday — in a civilian court in his home state of North Carolina.The former Special Forces medic is the first, and so far only, civilian charged with mistreating a detainee during the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.To bring charges against Passaro, who isn't subject to military justice, prosecutors turned to the USA Patriot Act, arguing the law passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks allows the government to charge U.S. nationals with crimes committed on land or facilities designated for use by the U.S. government....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,207246,00.html
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Editor - 21:49:00 08-06-06
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| Researcher: New passports vulnerable Defcon showcases latest discovered security weaknesses |
Electronic passports being introduced in the United States and other countries have a major vulnerability that could allow criminals to clone embedded secret code and enter countries illegally, an expert warned.A demonstration late Friday by German computer security expert Lukas Grunwald showed how personal information stored on the documents could be copied and transferred to another device.It appeared to contradict assurances by officials in government and private industry that the electronic information stored in passports could not be duplicated."If there is an automatic inspection system, I can use this card to enter any country," Grunwald said, holding up a computer chip containing electronic information he had copied from his German passport....
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/08/06/passport.security.ap/index.html?section=cnn_us
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Editor - 21:47:00 08-06-06
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