Hurricane Earl Approaches
After five straight days sunny skies with temperatures greater than 90°F, today Cambridge will experience a different type of summer weather phenomenon; a hurricane. Hurricane Earl, which has been churning in the Atlantic for the last week, had an intensity of 115 mph and was located 670 miles south/southwest of Nantucket (off the coast of North Carolina). The hurricane is predicted to pass about 60 miles east of Chatham, MA (on Cape Cod) Friday night, and although it will have weakened due to the colder ocean waters, it should still pack some powerful winds. Cape Cod may experience winds of up to 80 mph, stormy seas with wave heights of 20 feet, as well as heavy rain. Here in Cambridge, further from the center of the storm, we should expect heavy rainfall this evening through early tomorrow morning and winds of up to 40 mph (tropical storm strength), with the possibility of stronger gusts. The rest of the holiday weekend should be sunny with milder temperatures.
Depositors panic over Afghan bank crisis
KABUL, Afghanistan — One of the principal owners of the Afghan bank at the center of an accelerating financial crisis here said depositors had withdrawn $180 million in the past two days. He predicted a “revolution” in the country’s financial system unless the Afghan government and the United States moved quickly to help stabilize the bank.
Bid to curb offshore drilling imperils payouts, BP says
BP is warning Congress that if lawmakers pass legislation that bars the company from getting new offshore drilling permits, it may not have the money to pay for all the damages caused by its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Mideast experts fear peace talks are too ambitious
JERUSALEM — As the Israeli and Palestinian leaders pledged at the peace summit meeting in Washington this week to try to resolve the core issues that have long divided their people and bloodied the land, a growing number of stakeholders here in Israel worried that the two sides were aiming too high.
Israel and Palestine prepare for peace negotiations
JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he hoped the peace negotiations that are to begin next week would include meetings every two weeks between him and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, an Israeli official said Friday.
Get the feeling that web ads are following you? They really are
The shoes that Julie Matlin recently saw on Zappos.com were kind of cute, or so she thought. But Matlin was not ready to buy and left the site.
Earl headed our way?
While the Atlantic hurricane season started relatively slowly in June and July, tropical cyclones have recently become more frequent, and now a major hurricane has the potential to impact the East Coast of the United States. As of 5 p.m. last night, Hurricane Earl had become a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 135 mph (217 km/h), and was situated just north of the Virgin Islands. Furthermore, global and regional computer models bring the track of the storm close to the Massachusetts coastline on Friday afternoon. If the storm does pass close to our area, high winds and heavy rainfall can be expected for the end of the week. However, it is still too soon to know whether the hurricane will affect our area, since track forecasts for the end of the week could be off by as many as several hundred miles.
Shorts (right)
TEXAS CITY — While the world was focused on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a BP refinery here released huge amounts of toxic chemicals into the air that went unnoticed by residents until many saw their children develop respiratory problems.
Doctors heed call for medical books for Afghanistan
Imagine cutting out a diseased appendix without ever having seen a Gray’s Anatomy diagram, or calculating drug doses without a Physicians’ Desk Reference, and you’ll have an idea what it’s like to practice medicine in Afghanistan.
Shorts (left)
WASHINGTON — It seems the ultimate thumb in the eye: that Glenn Beck would summon the Tea Party faithful to a rally on the anniversary of the March on Washington, and address them from the very place where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech 47 years ago. After all, the Tea Party and its critics have been facing off for months over accusations of racism.
Sanofi-Aventis offers $18.5 billion for Genzyme, a near-hostile bid
Sanofi-Aventis, the French drugmaker, publicly disclosed its $18.5 billion bid for Genzyme on Sunday, intensifying pressure on the U.S. biotechnology company to engage in discussions about a sale.
Much of Pakistan’s progress is lost in its floodwaters
SUKKUR, Pakistan — Men waded waist deep all week wedging stones with their bare hands into an embankment to hold back Pakistan’s surging floodwaters. It was a rudimentary and ultimately vain effort to save their town. On Thursday, the waters breached the levy, a demoralizing show of how fragile Pakistan’s infrastructure remains, and how overwhelming the task is to save it.
Struggling cities shut down firehouses in budget crisis
SAN DIEGO — Fire departments around the nation are cutting jobs, closing firehouses and increasingly resorting to “rolling brownouts” in which they shut different fire companies on different days as the economic downturn forces many cities and towns to make deep cuts that are slowing their responses to fires and other emergencies.
As miners face long wait, <br />Chile filters notes and food
SAN JOSE MINE, Chile — The government has consulted NASA about the extreme isolation of space. Chilean Navy officers have come to discuss the emotional stress of living in a submarine. Doctors stand at the ready with antidepressants. Even a tiny home theater is being funneled down in plastic tubes to occupy the 33 miners stuck in their subterranean home.
Shorts (left)
WASHINGTON — Two weeks ago, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced a sweeping effort to improve efficiency that, among other things, takes aim at the military’s sacrosanct corps of generals and admirals. He ordered his staff to cut at least 50 positions and made clear that he would be happier if they cut more.
Shorts (right)
The foreclosure crisis might have finally peaked in the first half of this year, but with the continued weakness in the economy and the recent deterioration of the housing market, the gains may prove fleeting.
High pressure in control
No need to worry about rainfall! New England should see sunny skies for the next several days as a large area of high pressure dominates the weather across the northeastern U.S.
Tensions in Iowa town at the heart of the eggs recall
CLARION, Iowa — The conversation at the weekly gathering of local ladies at a coffee shop here turned uncharacteristically tense.
Shorts (left)
BOSTON — Children at a day camp near here were pulled from the swimming pool once an hour so the lifeguards could plunge in and cool off. Commuter trains in Washington were slowed because of overheating tracks. Horse-racing tracks were closed in Philadelphia and Wilmington, Del.
Colleges learn cheaters’ tricks to stop them; this includes TEAL
ORLANDO, Fla. — The frontier in the battle to defeat student cheating may be here at the testing center of the University of Central Florida.