Free Republic

NEW YORK, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Gold prices fell sharply to a one-week low on Wednesday in choppy trading as funds frantically liquidated positions to cover margin calls amid steep losses, triggering a broad sell-off in commodities. A sharply higher dollar versus the euro after hawkish comments from a European Central Bank official and signs of slowing demand for physical gold from top consumer India also weighed heavily on gold. With a recovering dollar, sliding energy prices and little support from buyers, the weakness in gold prices was expected to continue into Thursday, dealers said. "Today was the day traders,...

30 Dec 2007 ISLAMABAD: The decision not to conduct an autopsy on slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto's body was taken by the Rawalpindi police chief even though a medico-legal report based on a mandatory post-mortem examination is a must in a murder case under Pakistani laws. "Even if the family of a murder victim refuses to allow the autopsy, no investigation can be completed if doctors do not perform the autopsy and conclusively find the cause of death," said Athar Minallah, a top lawyer and a member of the board of management of Rawalpindi General Hospital where Bhutto was taken after...

What would you like to tell President Bush? I ask this riddle of a woman. She would tell him, she replies, that propping up Musharraf’s government, which is infested with radical Islamists, is only hastening disaster. “I would say, ‘Your policy of supporting dictatorship is breaking up my country.’ I now think al-Qaeda can be marching on Islamabad in two to four years.”

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Home foreclosures shot up to an all-time high in the third quarter, fresh evidence of the problems afflicting distressed homeowners amid the housing meltdown. The Mortgage Bankers Association in its quarterly snapshot of the mortgage market released Thursday said that the percentage of all mortgages nationwide that started the foreclosure process jumped to a record high of 0.78 percent during the July-to-September period. That surpassed the previous high of 0.65 percent set in the prior quarter.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures rallied Friday to close above $800 at their highest level in nearly 28 years, boosted by rallying crude-oil prices and the dollar's tumble to a new record low against the euro. Gold for December delivery rallied $14.80 to finish at $808.50 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the contract hit an intraday high of $810.70, a level not seen since 1980.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Facing its first annual loss in decades, the International Monetary Fund on Thursday turned to a group of international financial heavyweights to figure out how to pay its bills. Managing Director Rodrigo Rato named a panel of advisers, including former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet, to evaluate how to finance IMF operations. (snip) In the past the 184-country lending organization has resorted to selling some of its gold reserves to finance operations.

Legislation seeks to put in place a system to save the life of the disabled Florida woman. The U.S. House of Representatives is set to consider legislation this week that would save Terri Schiavo's life by granting the disabled Florida woman the same right to due process as criminals......

The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland denied Bob and Mary Schindler's motion to delay issuing an order it plans to release at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. That order could allow Terri's husband, Michael, to seek removal of the feeding tube

Schiavo could live up to two weeks after that.

...Mr Schiavo, who lives with a girlfriend by whom he has two children, plans to withdraw the gastric tube through which his wife is fed when a temporary court order barring him expires tomorrow. He insists that his wife once told him that she would not want to be kept alive should she ever suffer brain damage, although he recalled the conversation three years after her collapse and only after winning $1 million in medical negligence damages relating to her early care....

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (Reuters) - With their legal options almost gone, the parents of a brain-damaged Florida woman began a campaign of public protests and political pressure on Wednesday to keep their daughter alive. ..... "We will not rest until we save Terri from starvation. This is not someone who is brain-dead," Randall Terry said at a news conference with Robert Schindler. ...... He said he would also picket Michael Schiavo's home and workplace. ...... "This guy (Michael Schiavo) is a monster. The gloves are coming off," Terry said.

I have had two opportunities to visit Terri Schiavo, most recently on the first Sunday of February. I have been able to talk to her, to listen to her struggle to speak, to watch her focus her eyes and smile and attempt to kiss her parents. I have prayed with her, blessed her, and assured her that she has many friends around the country and around the world, who love her and want her to enjoy the same protections we all enjoy, even when we're wounded.

"Basically we are going to fight tooth and nail to save Terri from starvation," Terry said. "Part of this has to do with who has the will to save her and who has the will to kill her and whose will is stronger."

Unless Michael Doesn't Want to Know What She Thinks. If Michael Schiavo is so sure that Terri wants to die why does he refuse to give her speech therapy? Over and over Terri Schindler Schiavo's parents have asked that Terri be given speech therapy. Terri's parents filed an emergency motion for immediate therapy in October of 2003, asking for 8 weeks of speech and swallow therapy. Michael Schiavo objected and the court sided with him. In the light of Sarah Scantlin's recovery of her speech after 20 years, why won't Michael Schivo reconsider? Speech Language Pathologist, Sara Green Mele, M.S....

How To Talk When You Can't Speak How To Talk When You Can't Speak Communicating with unconscious minds. By Clive Thompson Posted Thursday, Feb. 10, 2005, at 3:33 PM PT This week, Neurology published an unsettling study of two brain-damaged men who are "minimally conscious"—able to breathe on their own but otherwise generally unresponsive. When neuroscientists scanned the patients' brains as they played audiotapes of loved ones, the activity was strikingly normal. The visual cortex of one of the men even lit up in a way that suggested he was visualizing the stories..... If these devices ever do become ready...

The Washington Dispatch Commentary by Paul M. Weyrich July 28, 2004 Every now and then I have loosely related matters I think would be useful to tell you, but independently do not warrant an entire commentary. So here are the items for your consideration: A number of important Members of Congress believe that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger leaked the problem he had about stolen documents on himself. The theory is that he knew he had been caught red handed. It is presumed that he knew the matter was coming to a head and would likely be made public....

CDC initiates lab testing to fight smallpox Bioterror research follows lessons of anthrax response By Dahleen Glanton Tribune national correspondent June 13, 2002 ATLANTA -- Scientists this week began one of the boldest experiments in decades to intensify their defenses against smallpox, a deadly and easily transmitted virus among those President Bush called "potentially the most dangerous weapons in the world." Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are preparing to inject monkeys with the virus to determine if newly developed medications are effective and to devise tests to quickly diagnose symptoms--the first major study of anti-viral smallpox...

Friday, February 22 Interested in owning the Expos? A small pledge will do By Alan Schwarz Special to ESPN.com Bud Selig says he is "open to any possibility" with regard to the fate of the Montreal Expos. But he probably hasn't considered this. A group of renegade college students at the University of Pennsylvania have begun a Buy The Expos drive on the Internet that is gaining momentum faster than Jeffrey Loria hands out pink slips. Pledges have topped $100,000 in two weeks and are heading skyward, the ultimate goal being the price Major League Baseball paid Loria for its ...

Just a reminder that Elian turned eight years old today for all of those of you cared for his freedom. I want to wish him a happy birthday despite his circumstances.

Homeopathy Has Preventive Remedy for Anthrax? CALCUTTA, India (Reuters) - Indian homeopathic practitioners say that homeopathy, a traditional alternative system of medicine, has a magic pill that can prevent anthrax from infecting humans. Fears of germ warfare have spread worldwide since last month's attacks on New York and Washington as an outbreak of anthrax has spread in the United States through tainted mail. Twelve people have contracted the disease so far -- either skin anthrax or the more deadly inhaled version -- and three have died. ``Anthracinum, which is prepared by triturating (grinding) the puss from anthrax, is a ...