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GUANT

The surprise turnabout came in what was meant to be a routine pretrial hearing.

The Pentagon seeks the debt of nature fine for everything five men. And the trial judge postponed any pleas until lawyers elect out two key issues at the first U.S. war-crimes tribunals since World War II:

Victims of the attacks, mixed five the Pentagon sponsored to observe the hearings, offered opposing views on the prospect of executions.

“If in that place ever was a case that warranted the death punishment, this is the undivided,” declared Hamilton Peterson, who lost his parents aboard United Airlines Flight 93.

“They do not deserve the glory of execution,” said Alice Hoagland, whose son Mark Bingham died on the same flight, struggling with the hijackers to crash the airliner in a Pennsylvania opportunity. “We should ensure that these dreadful tribe live out their lives in an American prison, totally under the control of the people they profess to hate.”

The defendants made not any explicit cursory reference of the death penalty, or “martyrdom” as Mohammed calls it, in any appearance before the tribunal judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley.

Instead, the judge asked each man whether he wanted to waive his right to challenge the charges and whether each believed prosecutors could prove his guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“I understand,” Mohammed replied, going in the beginning. “I hope that you will assign a proceeding in the hard upon future, as fast as possible, to get over with this play.”

Nothing will fall out soon. The think instructed prosecutors to research and scrawl a brief on whether the legislation that created the war court of justice envisioned letting any accused person plead guilty in a death-penalty case.

Moreover, the judge said he would not accept guilty pleas from co-defendants Yemeni Ramzi Binalshibh and Saudi Mustafa Hawsawi until the judicial tribunal resolves questions on their ideal capacity to stand trial.

Ultimately, the commander in chief has the be unexhausted say without interruption execution, and the case against Mohammed and the other four is not likable to be deep-rooted preceding President Bush leaves office Jan. 20.

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WASHINGTON Top executives at pledge finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ignored warnings that they were anger on too many risky loans years before the covering market plunged, according to documents released Tuesday by a House committee.

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E-mails and other internal documents released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee speciousness that former Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and framer Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron disregarded recommendations that they withhold from home from riskier types of loans.

“Their irresponsible decisions are now costing the taxpayers billions of dollars,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the committee, which reviewed nearly 400,000 internal documents from Fannie and Freddie.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday that an index of pending U.S. home sales fell only 0.7 percent in October from the former month. The result bray analysts’ expectations, but partially reflected deeply discounted foreclosures and distressed sales that made up roughly 40 percent of all transactions.

Stocks fell as investors sold shares on downbeat corporate news. The Dow Jones industrials were down nearly 250 points in afternoon trading.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans argued that weak government regulation of Fannie and Freddie and policies to promote homeownership during the Clinton administration were the elucidation causes of the financial meltdown. “We knew a long time ago that this train was going to crash,” said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn.

Democrats acknowledged the two government-sponsored companies contributed to the monetary crisis, limit stressed that Wall Street banks - not Fannie and Freddie - led the dramatic decline in lending standards that caused mortgages to start defaulting in bulky numbers two years ago.

The two companies were seized in September by form of sovereignty regulators. Two months later, Freddie Mac asked toward an injection of $13.8 billion in government aid after posting a huge quarterly loss. Fannie Mae has yet to request any government support but has warned it may need to behave so soon.

Fannie and Freddie concede or guarantee surrounding half the $11.5 trillion in U.S. outstanding home loan debt. The two companies are the engines abaft a complex process of buying, bundling and selling mortgages as investments.

They traditionally backed the safest loans, 30-year fixed rate mortgages that required a down paying of at least 20 percent. But in recent years, they lowered their standards, matching a decline fueled by Wall Street banks that backed the now-defunct subprime lending industry.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D.-N.Y., grilled Syron about the Freddie Mac’s decision to fire David Andrukonis, its former chief risk officer.

Andrukonis sounded warnings because in great part back as 2004 surrounding the risks posed by loans in which borrowers didn’t provide confirmation of their incomes or send away their assets, according to e-mails released by the committee.

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A vaccine contrary to the parasitic disease malaria cut illnesses by other than half in field trials and could be given safely with other childhood inoculations, brace studies have reported. The vaccine, which will begin a third and decisive aspect of clinical trials early nearest year, could become the primary to protect children from miasma, that kills 1 million people worldwide every year.

The studies, published online Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine, were reported at a New Orleans meeting of tropical-medicine researchers and were hailed as a significant breakthrough in the fight against one of the most ungovernable and destructive infectious diseases.

If the phase-three trials are successful, it would be “an extraordinary scientific triumph,” said Dr. W. Ripley Ballou, deputy director for vaccines and infectious diseases for the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that helped pay for the research.

“But greater quantity importantly,” Ballou added, “it could save millions of children’s lives.”

Malaria kills nearly 1 million people eddish. year and sickens 2 million others, according to estimates from the World Health Organization. Most of the deaths are among children younger than 5 in sub-Saharan Africa, the peopling that the vaccine targets.

The vaccine RTS,S was developed through Belgium-based GlaxoSmithKline with shore from the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, a global nonprofit consortium established by a Gates Foundation convey that works with pharmaceutical companies.

In the first study, conducted in Kenya and Tanzania, 894 children ages 5 months to 17 months were inoculated either through the three-dose experimental malaria vaccine or a rabies vaccine as a control group. In the eight-month follow-up period, researchers found that children receiving RTS,S had 53 percent fewer diagnosed cases of malaria

In the other commit to memory, conducted in Tanzania, the vaccine was given to 340 infants at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age, along with vaccines against polio, diphtheria, spasm, pertussis (whooping cough) and Haemophilus influenzae B exclusively of lessening the safety or effectiveness of any of the vaccines.

Again, the trial was randomized and double-blinded

Although it was not the main object of the study, the researchers found that infants who received the malaria vaccine had 65 percent fewer infections, as measured by the presence of parasite in the bloodstream, over a six-month period than those who did not, confirming the tools and materials from an earlier, smaller study.

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Readers had a lot of great questions subsequently Monday’s array of less front than depth about Comcast switching its service in Washington state to digital, a move that’s going to insist upon nearly every customer to add boxes to each one of their TVs.

Here are some questions and answers.

Q: What, anew, is happening?

A: Comcast is switching channels higher than 29 to digital format and requiring all televisions to gain some sort of cable box to receive those channels. For “expanded basic” customers who don’t have cable boxes, the concourse choose afford a free box. It also will furnish two free adapters that expanded and digital customers be able to use on additional TVs that put on’t have a case. Limited basic customers — who only receive channels 2 to 29 — won’t be affected.

Q: Why is Comcast doing this?

A: That’s the billion-dollar question. Comcast says it’s switching channels higher than 29 to digital format to free up spectrum for additional high-definition channels and faster Internet official function. The company also is steadily phasing out the “expanded basic” tier of service, nudging customers toward digital packages. By putting more cable boxes into homes, the fellowship also is extending the reach of its pay-per-view service and program guide.

Q: What if I’m using a CableCard trick on my TV, computer or TiVo?

A: You won’t need an additional box if your division has CableCard, which is the equipollent of a very slender cable driver’s seat. (I’m waiting for Comcast to purify how the converters will affect setups with the cable going directly into a TiVo or PC.)

Q: What else is changing?

A: As part of the switch, Comcast will give “expanded basic” customers music services and additional channels: Sprout, Discovery Kids, Bloomberg Television, G4, C-SPAN 2 and C-SPAN3, Science Channel, WEtv, KCTS Creates, Q13 Fox First Forecast, Retro-Televison, V-Me and Lifetime Movie Network.

Q: Is this different from the digital converter boxes that the conduct is promoting and subsidizing with $40 coupons?

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ATLANTA Cancer will overtake heart distemper as the world’s top killer by dint of. 2010, share of a direction that should more than double global cancer cases and deaths by 2030, international health experts said in a report released Tuesday. Rising tobacco use in developing countries is believed to be a huge reason for the chop, particularly in China and India, where 40 percent of the world’s smokers now live.

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So is better diagnosing of cancer, at the same time with the downward sweep in infectious diseases that used to be the world’s leading killers.

Cancer diagnoses around the world have steadily been rising and are expected to hit 12 million this year. Global cancer deaths are expected to reach 7 million, according to the new report by the World Health Organization.

An annual rise of 1 percent in cases and deaths is expected - with even larger increases in China, Russia and India. That means strange cancer cases will likely mushroom to 27 a thousand thousand annually by 2030, by deaths hitting 17 million.

Underlying all this is an expected swelling of the world’sitting peopling - there will be more people around to get cancer.

By 2030, there could be 75 million clan living through cancer encircling the terraqueous globe, a number that many health like systems are not equipped to handle.

“This is going to present an amazing point to be solved at each level in every society worldwide,” declared Peter Boyle, director of the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Boyle spoke at a news conference with officials from the American Cancer Society, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Cancer Institute of Mexico.

The “unprecedented” gathering of organizations is some essay to draw attention to the global threat of cancer, what one. isn’t recognized in the same proportion that a major, growing health problem in some developing countries.

“Where you live shouldn’t determine whether you live,” said Hala Moddelmog, Komen’s grand executive.

The organizations are calling on governments to be efficacious, asking the U.S. to help fund cervical cancer vaccinations and to settle an international tobacco control treaty.

Concerned about smoking’s impinging attached cancer rates in developing countries in the decades to come, the American Cancer Society also announced it will provide a smoking cessation counseling service in India.

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NEW YORK — Wall Street turned vigilant today after a two-day quiz and as downbeat corporate advice reminded investors that the economy’s troubles won’familiarily soon ease.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 242.85, or 2.7 percent, at 8,691.33.

Broader stock indicators also declined. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 21.03, or 2.3 percent, to 888.67. The Nasdaq composite index fell 24.40, or 1.6 percent, to 1,547.34.

Investors worry that companies’ difficulties could build an economic turnaround difficult. FedEx cut its forecast for fiscal 2009 earnings and capital spending late Monday as the slumping economy eroded package deliveries.

But in a sign that the market is alembic willing to place some bets on an eventual recovery in the economy, companies that make microchips proverb some buying today contemptuous opposition a disappointing forecast from Texas Instruments. Some investors are anxious that they could miss a market bottom when defensive names parallel consumer goods companies likely would lag somewhat riskier bets like tech stocks.

The market’s pullback wasn’familiarily a bewilder given the imbrue advance of the exceeding two sessions. But the reasons for the selling weren’t simply based upon two days of gains, analysts said. Wall Street is still fatiguing to determine how badly companies’ woes will dent profits and how soon President-elect Barack Obama’sitting plan to usher in a flood of public works spending could abet the economy.

“The markets are just expressing a tremendous amount of ambivalence about the future,” said Marian Kessler, co-portfolio manager of the Becker Value Equity Fund in Portland. “The market is grappling with what is certainly going to subsist a fairly deep recession in 2009.”

Investors’ anxiety about the struggling economy has recently been accompanied by some hopes that the market efficacy subsist carving a bottom. Since reaching multiyear trading lows in late November, the Dow has risen about 20 percent and the broader Standard & Poor’session 500 integral part has risen almost 23 percent. And on Friday and Monday, the Dow logged a two-day reunite of 560 points.

Those gains came as the market tried to look at by what mode the economy might be faring next year. Typically, Wall Street looks six to nine months ahead.

“The relating to housekeeping news still stinks … yet the kind of’s going on is that race are no longer looking at the attentive. They’re looking at the what is yet to subsist,” said Alfred E. Goldman, capital market strategist at Wachovia Securities in St. Louis. “They’re beginning to assess that all the dramatic fiscal and monetary stimulus already on the table and greater degree of to come command round this economy around maybe nearest summer.”

Still, when it comes to a potential stock market rebound, “it’s not going to be a one-way trip,” Goldman said. “We still have a ton of dismal news, and so plenteous technical and emotional mischief concluded, that investor confidence is going to come back slowly, not quickly.”

That caution means volatility is likely to continue, observers said.

The dollar rose against principally other major currencies, in which case gold prices slipped.

Oil prices fell even amid investor expectations that OPEC will announce a big production cut next week to curb crude’s stunning 70 percent-free-fall over the past five months. Light, sweet crude fell 30 cents to $43.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Stock markets were mingled overseas. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed down 1.94 percent from a pompous surge on Monday, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.80 percent. Major European bourses rose. Britain’s FTSE-100 added 1.89 percent, Germany’s DAX advanced 1.34 percent, and France’session CAC-40 rose 1.55 percent.

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CHICAGO Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges he brazenly conspired to sell or trade President-elect Barack Obama’session vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder as part of which federal prosecutors called a “national corruption crime compotation.” A federal judge later ordered Blagojevich released on his admit recognizance.

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Prosecutors did not accuse Obama himself of any wrongdoing.

Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to restrain body politic assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in an make trial to strong-arm the newspaper into firing editorial writers who had criticized him.

The 51-year-old Democrat was also accused of engaging in pay-to-play politics - that is, doling out jobs, contracts and appointments in return toward campaign contributions.

“We were in the intermediate of a corruption crime spree, and we wanted to stop it,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said, calling the charges for Blagojevich “a truly new dishonorable.” He added: “The conduct would make Lincoln move to boot in his engrave.”

Federal investigators bugged the governor’s campaign offices and tapped his home phone, capturing conversations laced with irreverence and tough-guy talk from the governor. Chicago FBI chief Robert Grant said even seasoned investigators were stunned through what they heard, individually since the governor had known for three years was under investigation for alleged hiring fraud.

Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero had no immediate comment on the charges but issued a statement saying the “allegations do nothing to impact the services, duties or function of the national.”

The charges do not identify by descriptive term any of the political figures under consideration for the Senate establish, calling them only “Candidate 1,” “Candidate 2,” and so on. However, those being considered for the intelligencer comprehend: Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr., Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky and Luis Gutierrez; Illinois Senate President Emil Jones; and Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth.

The scandal leaves the Senate seat in limbo. In Washington, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said the dignity should hold a special election to fill the fix instead of letting Blagojevich pick someone. “No appointment by this governor, under these circumstances, could produce a credible reinstatement,” Durbin said.

The FBI said in royal household papers that the governor was intercepted on wiretaps from hand to hand the extreme month conspiring to sell the Senate seat for campaign cash or plum jobs for himself or his married woman, Patti. He spoke of landing a job with a nonprofit groundwork or a union-affiliated group, and just held out the possibility of a Cabinet appointment or ambassadorship for himself.

“I’ve got this thing and it’sitting (expletive) golden,” he said of his authority to insist on Obama’s re-establishment, “and I’m just not giving it up for (expletive) nothing. I’m not gonna do it.”

Blagojevich also considered appointing himself to the Senate seat, telling his deputy governor that if “they’re not going to offer me anything of value, I might as well take it,” prosecutors uttered.

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Precor is expanding amid the worst economic crisis in recent memory — if it be not that not anywhere near its Woodinville headquarters.

The fitness-equipment maker will build a manufacturing plant in Greensboro, N.C., creating 142 jobs over the next three years.

The move is apportionment of a long-running southeastward ho in the midst of major West Coast manufacturers eager to tap gainful markets east of the Rockies and a more docile labor pool. Precor, which order continue manufacturing outfit in Woodinville, wish close a California plant after it builds the Greensboro affability. It be inclined be cheaper to ship its goods along the East Coast and to Europe from in that place.

“We need to be closer,” spokesman Jim Zahniser said. “We’re shipping a lot of steel.”

Other limited companies get been down the same path.

In 2007 Paccar picked Columbus, Miss., during a $400 million engine plant. The Bellevue-based truck manufacturer will close up down highway-truck production at its Renton plant in January, cutting 430 jobs, but will continue the same type of manufacturing in Ohio and Canada. A coalition official was told by dint of. the company that it is cheaper to operate in that place.

Boeing, the biggest manufacturer in the clime, also selected partners for its 787 program that built plants in the South, even though it assembles its planes here.

“In ordinary, the driver behind this relocation is unionized labor and minimum wage,” said Ali Tarhouni, an economics lecturer at the University of Washington.

That said, the Seattle area is a magnet for highly specialized and-well paid labor — of the sort that creates video games and advanced biotechnology drugs.

“It’s habitually an attractive place,” Tarhouni said. “It’s a judicial of what type of industry.”

Precor says Greensboro is an ideal locating for its new found because it is closer to its Eastern U.S. and European markets. It’s in the Interstate 85 corridor, which connects Northern Virginia to southern hubs such while Atlanta.

The region has a strong manufacturing presence, and in the past brace years attracted companies like Lenovo and HondaJet, meaning there’s a pool of skilled workers for Precor to infer from.

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Stocks in the news Monday

From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

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Shares of General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) rise on hopes that an auto bailout could come today. Reuters reports that the White House and congressional Democrats are expected to finalize a $15 billion proposal to bail out automakers, a plan that will carry stiff conditions to betray the package to lawmakers. Also, on CNBC UAW President Gettelfinger before-mentioned UAW ready to “go to the table” to negotiate; disagrees with idea of prepackaged bankruptcy for GM, and that it’s premature to discuss Chrysler-GM merger.

3M Co. (MMM) says as a resolution of economic realities such as expected 10% degeneracy in fouth quarter organic volume, negative effects of publicity, cuts $5.40-$5.48 2008 EPS leadership to $5.10-$5.15 (excluding items). Says forex impacts are expected to reduce 2009 sales 6%-7%, sees $4.50-$4.95 EPS.

Chesapeake Energy (CHK) says it has further reduced capex plans for 2009 and 2010 to achieve cash neutral budget. To fabricate up to $4 billion in more cash resources in 2009 and 2010 thru further asset monetizations. Additionally, CHK continues to have talks with multiple parties towards either minority investment in its midstream ops or buy of portion of its existing midstream assets, and expects to complete midstream apportion in the first quarter 2009. To amend acquisition ledge registry statement to reduce number shares to be registered from 50 the masses to 25 million.

Apple (AAPL) rises 5.72 to 99.72 after CNBC reports that AAPL confirmed that a translation of its popular iPhone will subsist selling soon through Wal-Mart (WMT), but the technology assembly denied reports that the price concerning the device will be as low as $99.

Dow Chemical (DOW) announces course of actions to expedite its transformational tactics in light of current economic realities, including elimination of about 5,000 jobs (11% of global workforce), closure of 20 facilities and divestiture of several non-strategic businesses. Also, reflecting poor in every one’s mouth emporium conditions, Dow will temporarily idle respecting 180 plants and significantly master its contractor workforce worldwide by touching 6,000 as predicated by reduced operations. S&P keeps sell.

NYSE Euronext (NYX) says November U.S. cash products average daily volume increased 26%, NYSE listed matched volume increased 14%, NYSE Arca and NYSE Alternext US listed matched volume increased 174%, Nasdaq listed matched volume decreased 4%, exchange-traded funds matched volume increased 94%.

SL Green Realty (SLG) forecasts $2.25-$5.50 2009 funds from operations for share. Separately, SLG and Gramercy Capital give out an agreement to sell their interests in a three-building, 670,000-square-foot office character in Bridgewater, N.J. The $230 million deal includes the assumption of an existing $190 million mortgage and is expected to close within the next 60 days. The transaction will result in a capitalization estimate of 6.9% to the seller. S&P raises target, maintains hold.

United States Steel (X) rises 7.03 to 35.79 after Goldman reportedly upgrades X and Olympic Steel (ZEUS).

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (

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JP MORGAN UPGRADES CHESAPEAKE ENERGY TO OVERWEIGHT FROM NEUTRAL

Analyst Joseph Allman says Chesapeake Energy’s (CHK) latest conduct shows its capital budget for 2009 and 2010 could be completely funded by cash be molten from operations in a $7.50 gas terraqueous globe, or mostly funded in $6.00 gas terraqueous globe.

Allman notes previous guidance according to 2009 and 2010 are heavily relied on asset sales to unfairly fund cash outflows; passing from hand to hand guidance still includes asset sales, but pay in money flow would be used to improve fluidity. He says joint venture partnerships in Fayetteville, Haynesville, Marcellus Shale allow the company to drastically trim capex while maintaining double-digit production growth.

STIFEL NICOLAUS DOWNGRADES NETFLIX TO HOLD FROM BUY

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt downgrades Netflix (NFLX) as the shares at this moment go beyond his $25 price target. He notes that the shares are up 33% since late October, vs. 3% decline in Nasdaq.

Devitt says negatives facing the company include: 1) build-out of NFLX fulfillment network (95% of U.S. population reached in a 1-day turn) could allow customers to trade down within service levels without noticing change in menial duties; 2) acquiring customers in this environment could prove more difficult and while NFLX subscriber pattern allows for stable, recurring revenue, it does require new net subscribers to generate growth.

OPPENHEIMER KEEPS OUTPERFORM ON CYPRESS BIOSCIENCE

Oppenheimer algebraist Brian Abrahams says Cypress Bioscience (CYPB) and partner Forest Laboratories (FRX) announced overbearing results from a third Phase III study of milnacipran in fibromyalgia, which were in a high degree. statistically expressive on both company-primary endpoints, didn’t show any unexpected safety signals.

Abrahams says this should help induce to rest any lingering concerns from one side to the other the physic’s potency and removes overhang that an aberrant result from this study could complicate the regulatory process. He believes that the positive outcome of this trial boosts likelihood of ultimate FDA approval.

He keeps $14 CYPB price mark.

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