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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Manufacturing activity in the New York region weakened again in September, according to data released Thursday, raising fresh concern over the strength of the factory sector in the third quarter. The Empire State index decreased slightly to negative 8.8 in September from negative 7.7 in August, according to the manufacturing survey released by the New York Federal Reserve. This is the fourth month in negative territory. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected the index to improve to negative 4.0.

Priests and church members in China’s immense underground Catholic Church were arrested this weekend in the community of Tianshui — as the Chinese government continues its persecution of Christians. Among those rounded up were the administrator of the underground diocese, Father John Baptist Wang Ruohan, retired Bishop Casmir Wang Milu, Father John Wang Ruowang, as well as several other priests and dozens of parish lay leaders, according to sources. Bishop Wang and the two Wang priests are all brothers. They are being held in different places and subjected to political indoctrination sessions designed to break their will. The Chinese government...

EXCLUSIVE The drag queen, 12 Schoolboy is ‘Naughty Nora’ By JOHN COLES  A SCHOOLBOY aged 12 has been crowned the DRAG QUEEN of his village - and his parents are delighted. Redvers Stokes slips on his mum's bra, a tight pink dress, blonde wig and towering heels to become "Naughty Nora". He clinched the title against tough competition from local men by belting out camp versions of Michael Jackson's Thriller and Dolly Parton hits. The tiny Cornish village of Sticker, near St Austell, started its drag queen contest two years ago - because not enough girls among the population...

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, tucked away in the northwest corner of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, won the title of "Good Morning America's" Most Beautiful Place in America. Tens of thousands of viewers voted online for this Michigan park, which is one of the nation's best-kept secrets. The hidden gem boasts 64 miles of beaches along Lake Michigan, two islands, 26 inland lakes, more than 50,000 acres of land, and the monumental sand dunes from which it gets its name. In June, "GMA" set out in search of the most beautiful places in America. Viewers nominated their favorite places online, sending...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Manufacturing activity in the New York region remained below zero for the third straight month, raising concern that the downshift in manufacturing in the second quarter may last longer than expected. The Empire State index fell to negative 7.7 in August from negative 3.8 in July, according to the Empire State manufacturing survey released Monday by the New York Federal Reserve.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi confirmed that they would be moving toward a balance budget amendment on Friday, after rampant speculation that the European Central Bank would intervene bond markets and purchase Italian and Spanish debt in exchange for structural reforms.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Manufacturers in the New York region said business activity had weakened slightly in early July, according to a report released Friday by the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The Empire State index remained below zero for the second straight month, rising only to negative 3.8 in July from negative 7.8 in June. The index has fallen dramatically the past three months after hitting a 12-month high of 21.7 in April. Readings below zero indicate more firms said business was worsening than said it was improving.

Iceland is resolving the economic problems left by the financial crisis. It is well advanced in implementing the comprehensive programme agreed with the IMF to overcome these problems. Iceland is slowly emerging from a deep recession following the collapse of its main banks. The economy stopped contracting by late 2010 and a consumption and business investment-led recovery is projected to gather momentum, lifting economic growth to 3 per cent by 2012. Inflation is projected to remain low and the underlying current account surplus to be sustained.

America’s Census results show that the country is being transformed “into a much browner, more suburban, more southern and western place”. The Economist reports: According to a recent study from the Census Bureau, the majority of them are now from groups normally considered minorities, chiefly Hispanics and blacks. The latest release of data from last year’s decennial census confirms that whites still constitute a slender majority, 54%, of those under 18, and a larger one, 64%, of the population as a whole. America’s demographic change is rapid enough to be called a revolution. Over the past decade minorities accounted for...

Attention GOP hopefuls for 2012! You’re all vying and jockeying, looking for ideas and proposals that will help you rise above the pack. You’re policy shopping at the moment, perusing think-tank whitepapers on Most Favored Nation trade status and the relative benefits of block grants for education. Maybe you’re kibitzing with important U.S. allies to burnish your foreign policy credentials, or just trying to convince people that you really are the governor of Minnesota. Well forget all that. What I offer today is beyond mere political positioning, beyond campaigning. This is the real audacity of hope. The American Empire TM...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is poised to axe or significantly restructure a number of high-profile weapons platforms, and otherwise rein in the Pentagon’s budget. The reports present these initiatives as intended to preempt greater scrutiny of the military’s budget by Congress. The cuts will be announced later today, but it seems pretty clear that Gates will call for terminating the unnecessary Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), a Marine Corps program that is more than 176 percent over its original per-vehicle cost. Unhappily for taxpayers, the Pentagon has already spent $3 billion on the program, which has managed to deliver only...

A soft landing for America 40 years from now? Don’t bet on it. The demise of the United States as the global superpower could come far more quickly than anyone imagines. If Washington is dreaming of 2040 or 2050 as the end of the American Century, a more realistic assessment of domestic and global trends suggests that in 2025, just 15 years from now, it could all be over except for the shouting. Despite the aura of omnipotence most empires project, a look at their history should remind us that they are fragile organisms. So delicate is their ecology of...

I was able to get a draft of an upcoming address to the American people on what is to come. Citizens of the civilized US, on this day we mark a transition. For hundreds of years, the United States Republic stood as the crowning achievement of civilized Americans. But there were those who would set us against one another, and we took arms to defend our way of life against the Radical Tea Parties. In doing so, we never suspected that the greatest threat came from within. The GOP, and some within our own Senate, had conspired to create the...

President Obama, with a coarse voice, warned a crowd in Ohio: "They're fighting back. The empire is striking back. To win this election, they are plowing tens of millions of dollars into front groups. They are running misleading negative ads all across the country." http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/10/17/obama_on_gop_the_empire_is_striking_back.html The Case for the Empire Everything you think you know about Star Wars is wrong. May 16, 2002 12:00 AM STAR WARS RETURNS today with its fifth installment, "Attack of the Clones." There will be talk of the Force and the Dark Side and the epic morality of George Lucas's series. But the truth is...

President Obama, with a coarse voice, warned a crowd in Ohio: "They're fighting back. The empire is striking back. To win this election, they are plowing ten's of millions of dollars into front groups. They are running misleading negative ads all across the country."

Philip Manduca Says There Has Never Been An Empire So Willing To Give Its Wealth And Power Away Like America Gregory White Sep. 29, 2010, 4:23 PM Philip Manduca of ECU Group spoke to CNBC this afternoon about the dollar's decline, the rise in gold, and the failure in decision making by the U.S. government. 0:30 There has been a covering up of the cracks in the EU. They will resurface in 2011 because the problem of a lack of fiscal union in a monetary union persists. Growth will not rise to the point where tax revenues will be high...

For a century, archeologists have been looking for a gate through a wall built by the Vikings in northern Europe. This summer, it was found. Researchers now believe the extensive barrier was built to protect an important trading route.Their attacks out of nowhere in rapid longboats have led many to call Vikings the inventors of the Blitzkrieg. "Like wild hornets," reads an ancient description, the Vikings would plunder monasteries and entire cities from Ireland to Spain. The fact that the Vikings, who have since found their place as droll comic book characters, were also avid masons is slightly less well...

As we counsel young men concerning military service, we must clarify for them our nation's role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is a path now chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover, I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. These are the times for real choices and not false...

New York - The Empire State Building was lit in red, white and blue on Thursday night for women's suffrage as more than 100 people protested a refusal by the iconic skyscraper's owner to mark Mother Teresa's 100th birthday. Yet the colors that the Catholic League had requested in her honor were the most luminous against the darkened skyline: The building's 203-foot pinnacle blazed a brilliant blue, while the stories just below glowed a frosty white. A fading red was just visible underneath. (Snip) But the building's owner, Anthony Malkin, declined the Catholic League's request to honor the ethnic Albanian

The West Is Facing A Debt Crisis And It's Now Or Never For The American Empire Gregory White May. 16, 2010, 12:28 PM Historian Niall Ferguson spoke with the Big Think about where the world's future is heading, with the end of the American Empire very much in the cards. Ferguson feels there is still a chance for Western dominance of the next age, if the U.S. can serious trim its budget deficit because it has a political advantage over China due to its pluralistic democracy. Ferguson also spoke with the BBC late last week on how the same issues...