Post-mortem of Wall St. plunge puts focus on computer trading
Investigators seeking an explanation for last week’s brief stock market panic said Sunday that they were focusing increasingly on how a broad decline of blue-chip stocks might have set off an uncontrolled response from new high-speed trading networks.
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MOSCOW — Twin methane gas explosions killed 12 coal miners and trapped 80 underground in western Siberia under conditions so dangerous that officials called off all rescue operations for fear of sending additional men to their deaths.
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LONDON — After one of the most passionately contested elections in decades, Britain faced the stalemate of a hung Parliament on Friday, with no party likely to command an outright majority despite significant gains by the opposition Conservatives and damaging losses for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Cool Weather Now
Below normal temperatures have arrived early this week and will continue for a few days. A strong cold front moved through New England Saturday night, which brought strong northwesterly winds on Sunday. These winds have ushered in much cooler air over the region, bringing low temperatures almost near freezing. The highs have been 5-10°F below normal and not welcoming for warm-weather fans. The good news, however, is that a gradual warm-up is expected and temperatures should reach the upper 60s by the weekend.
Dow’s rapid fall of 1,000 points rattles traders, terrifies investors
A bad day in the stock market turned into one of the most terrifying moments in Wall Street history on Thursday with a brief, 1,000-point plunge that recalled the panic of 2008.
The oil spill: tackling questions of liability, cleanup, & consequences
On the evening of April 20, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and injuring 17. Two days later it sank in 5,000 feet of water.
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As its legal troubles mount, Goldman Sachs is losing a big corporate client: the American International Group.
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In a controversial change to a longstanding policy concerning the practice of female circumcision in some African and Asian cultures, the American Academy of Pediatrics is suggesting that American doctors be given permission to perform a ceremonial pinprick or “nick” on girls from these cultures if it would keep their families from sending them overseas for the full circumcision.
A messy situation
Weather plays a pivotal role in disaster responses. As we witnessed with the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, wind patterns can disperse ash into the upper atmosphere causing severe travel disruptions. Modeling the ash cloud is an incredibly hard job to do with accuracy due to uncertainties in the ash plume itself and the limited predictability of the atmospheric flow. Likewise, winds have played a critical role in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. High winds and waves in the days after the oil spill stymied cleanup efforts. Forecasted winds out of the south will continue to transport the oil slick slowly toward the coast of Louisiana.
In Washington, Toyota’s problems lead to a new appetite for car safety
In the new world of auto regulation, cars could be required to have “black boxes” to record crash data and be able to stop even with the engine at full power. Automakers could be ordered to recall defective vehicles immediately and pay safety fees to cover the costs of federal oversight.
Cancer society criticizes federal panel as overstating risk
A dire government report on cancer risks from chemicals and other hazards in the environment has drawn criticism from the American Cancer Society, which says government experts are overstating their case.
Gulf spill is bad, but how bad remains much in doubt
WASHINGTON — The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is bad — no one would dispute it. But just how bad?
Deadly flooding forces evacuations in Nashville
NASHVILLE — Parts of downtown Nashville were evacuated Monday as the rising Cumberland River, swollen by two days of drenching thunderstorms, flowed into streets near the country music joints and honky-tonk bars that have made the city a tourist attraction.
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The birth control pill, whose 50th anniversary is being celebrated this month, helped turn countless girls into women and boys into men. But a little-told part of the pill’s history is that it also helped bring about the adulthood of the Food and Drug Administration itself.
N.Y. governor’s policy may help immigrants facing deportation
ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson announced on Monday that the state would accelerate consideration and granting of pardons to legal immigrants for old or minor criminal convictions, in an effort to prevent them from being deported.
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For the first time in 43,000 years, a woolly mammoth has breathed again on earth.
How to listen to warnings
The National Weather Service in Taunton has declared this week as severe weather preparedness week in southern New England, and will be issuing informational statements each day of this week on their website. On that note, it is important to be aware of severe weather in the Boston area, which does occur in the summer months. Commonly, lighting, hail, tornadoes, and flash flooding are associated with severe weather. On days in which conditions are favorable for the development of severe thunderstorms or tornadoes, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK issues a watch.
Iran angrily defends nuclear program at conference
UNITED NATIONS — The United States and Iran used the U.N. General Assembly’s famous green marble podium Monday to trade punches over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program, adding sudden drama to the normally staid opening of the international conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
U.S. intensifies bid to control oil spill in Gulf of Mexico
NEW ORLEANS — The response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico intensified abruptly on Thursday, with the federal government intervening more aggressively as the rapidly growing slick drifted ever closer to the fragile coastline of Louisiana.
Vast wind farm off Cape Cod coast gains federal approval
BOSTON — After nine years of regulatory review, the federal government gave the green light on Wednesday to the nation’s first offshore wind farm, a fiercely contested project off the coast of Cape Cod.