China Turns to Brazil to Satisfy a Surmounting Hunger For Soybeans
For more than 2,000 years, the Chinese have turned soybeans into tofu, a staple of the country's diet.
April Showers
The saying goes "April showers bring May flowers." We will certainly get to experience those April showers this week, as we return to work after the break.
Top Shiite Cleric Opposes U.S. Plan Concerning Baath Party
The most powerful Shiite cleric in Iraq has rejected an American-backed proposal to allow thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to return to government service, an aide to the cleric said on Monday.
EPA Has Power to Regulate Gases, Rules Supreme Court
In one of its most important environmental decisions in years, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases in automobile emissions. The court further ruled that the agency could not sidestep its authority to regulate the greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change unless it can provide a scientific basis for its refusal.
Shorts (right)
Gov. Deval L. Patrick of Massachusetts has ordered the state Department of Public Health to register the marriages of 26 out-of-state same-sex couples whose licenses were kept from state records by the former governor.
Shorts (left)
A day after members of an American congressional delegation led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pointed to their brief visit to Baghdad's central market as evidence that the new security plan for the city was working, the merchants there were incredulous about the Americans' conclusions.
South Korea, U.S. Agree on World's Largest Bilateral Free Trade Deal
U.S. and South Korean negotiators struck the world's largest bilateral free trade agreement on Monday, giving the United States a badly needed lift to its trade policy at home and South Korea a chance to reinvigorate its export economy.
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Detainees' Habeas Corpus Case
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear urgent appeals from two groups of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The 45 men sought to challenge the constitutionality of a new law stripping federal judges of the authority to hear challenges to the open-ended confinement of foreign citizens held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba and designated as enemy combatants.
British Police Arrest Three in Connection With '05 Bombings
The British counterterrorism police seized three men on Thursday for offenses related to the bombings in the London transit system on July 7, 2005, in which four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 passengers.
Melting Away the Winter
Fairly tranquil weather is in store for the first weekend of the spring season in Cambridge. We will be under the influence of a high pressure system today and tomorrow, keeping skies clear and temperatures seasonal. A developing low pressure system will skirt to our south on Saturday night and Sunday, potentially close enough to give us some light snow or rain showers. However, it is most likely that we will just see an increase in cloud cover.
More U.S. Soldiers Deserted Than Was Earlier Reported
A total of 3,196 active-duty soldiers deserted the Army last year, or 853 more than previously reported, according to revised figures from the Army.
Shorts (right)
As mayor of New York City, Rudolph W. Giuliani became the favorite Republican of gun control advocates.
Residents Hold Out as Egyptian Govt. Evicts Hundreds of Peasants
The Egyptian authorities have evicted hundreds of peasants from this village in southern Egypt because their mud brick houses, which have sat atop some of the world's most treasured and ancient tombs for centuries, were leaking sewage onto priceless antiquities.
Edwards Says Presidential Bid 'Goes On' Despite His Wife's Breast Cancer
John Edwards, the North Carolina Democrat, said Thursday that his wife's cancer had returned, but that his bid for the presidency "goes on strongly."
Shorts (left)
Trade negotiations between the United States and South Korea have failed to narrow gaps on issues like agriculture, automobiles and textiles, leaving them for next week, negotiators said Thursday.
Pentagon Chief Gates Sought Early Guantanamo Shutdown
In his first weeks as defense secretary, Robert M. Gates repeatedly argued that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had become so tainted abroad that legal proceedings at Guantanamo would be viewed as illegitimate, according to senior administration officials. He told President Bush and others that it should be shut down as quickly as possible.
Back Taxes Unchecked By Gov’t As Doctors Accumulate Wealth
Thousands of doctors and other health professionals who participate in Medicare are delinquent in paying federal income and payroll taxes, owing more than $1.3 billion, but they continue to receive Medicare payments because the government does little to check their background, federal investigators said Monday.
Spring Snow?
This weekend’s snowfall was eight inches, but it could have been a lot more. With the air temperature close enough to freezing, most of the snowflakes were in the form of wet snow. With all the ice, sleet, and rain at the tail end of the storm, the snow to liquid ratio was only 4:1. On average, a winter storm’s ratio is 10:1 and when the temperature is around 20°F, the ratio can get up to 20:1. Thus, if we had gotten the “fluff” factor, Boston could have received 40 inches of snow! Nonetheless, the observed eight inches more than doubled the season’s low snow totals and cost us our chance at setting the lowest recorded snowfall total (9") ever in Boston.
Shorts (left)
President Bush marked the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq on Monday with a stark warning against the temptation “to pack up and go home.”
McCain and Brownback Discover Immigration is Big Issue For Iowans
Immigration, an issue that has divided Republicans in Washington for the last several years, is reverberating across the party’s presidential campaign field, causing particular complications for Sen. John McCain of Arizona.