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just breaking, Oberoi Trident hotel is secure

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Seve Ballesteros' brain tumor is cancerous and he will undergo another operation to relieve pressure caused by swelling and bleeding that have recently developed. The remaining parts of the malignant tumor, located in a very deep part of the brain, will be removed in Friday's procedure. La Paz Hospital said Thursday that the surgery is "of great complexity." Three doctors will operate on Ballesteros. Javier Heredero, head of the hospital's neurosurgery unit, will be accompanied by neurosurgeons Marcelino Perez Alvarez and Alberto Isla. The operation is due to begin early in the morning and is expected...

Washington Mutual Inc.'s new CEO, Alan Fishman, will be eligible for at least $12.65 million or more in salary and bonuses next year, the company said Thursday in a securities filing. Fishman, who replaced Kerry Killinger as CEO on Monday, also received a $7.5 million signing bonus for joining the company, according to a regulatory filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Under his employment agreement, Fishman will receive a base salary of $1 million, a target bonus of up to $3.65 million and a long-term incentive award starting in 2009 of at least $8 million. In addition, he...

BEIJING, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Chinese regulators have told domestic banks to stop interbank lending to U.S. financial institutions to prevent possible losses during the financial crisis, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday. The Hong Kong newspaper cited unidentified industry sources as saying the instruction from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) applied to interbank lending of all currencies to U.S. banks but not to banks from other countries. "The decree appears to be Beijing's first attempt to erect defences against the deepening U.S. financial meltdown after the mainland's major lenders reported billions of U.S. dollars in exposure...

Expect gasoline prices to rise overnight as much as a dollar and-a-half a gallon. That's the warning from several business sources including one major Baton Rouge multi-station operation. However, a spokesman for Triple A Louisiana discounted the report. "We still have at least a 20 day supply, said spokesman Don Redman. "We certainly wish we had a healthier supply than that but we are certainly asking the service station industry to refrain from any panic pricing," Redman said. The approach of Hurricane Ike to the Houston area has produced a panic gasoline markets. The fears are driven by the fact...

Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska won the Republican primary in his home state on Tuesday, soundly defeating six Republican challengers less than a month after he was indicted by a federal grand jury for concealing more than $250,000 in gifts from an oil services company. The victory for Mr. Stevens, 84, means he now moves to a tough general election campaign against Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, who easily won the Democratic primary on Tuesday and leads the senator in polls. Mr. Stevens enters the general election also having to prepare for his trial, which is scheduled to begin in...

Water experts of all stripes were left questioning the prudence of Republican presidential candidate and Arizona Sen. John McCain after he told a newspaper the critical 1922 water compact between seven Western states should be revisited. “I don’t think there’s any doubt the major, major issue is water and can be as important as oil. So the compact that is in effect, obviously, needs to be renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties,” McCain told The Pueblo Chieftain. “I think that there’s a movement amongst the governors to try, if not, quote, renegotiate, certainly adjust to the new realities of...

HEMET, Calif. (KABC) -- He gave his life serving this country in the war zone of Afghanistan. But a local bank has refused to cash the government check to pay for his burial. Now his family is fighting back. Navy Corpsman Marc Retmier was the 500th Californian to die in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He had dreams of coming home to Hemet to become a doctor. Click in the Eyewitness News Story Window above to watch the accompanying video to this story. But now his family says a controversy involving a bank and his bereavement check is adding...

Maybe there’s another reason Barack Obama decided to deliver his convention acceptance speech in a football stadium. As Howard Mortman points out this morning, Obama’s August 28 address will coincide with the start of the college football season, with at least four nationally televised games on the docket. Sure, most of the games scheduled are of regional interest at best, involving middling Division I-A schools and even I-AA teams, and the kickoff times for most of the televised games are early enough to allow viewers to flip over to Obama’ speech (which will probably start around (10 p.m.) without missing...

Is Gov. Bobby Jindal at odds with LSU? Better put, does Jindal have a beef with LSU system president John V. Lombardi, or vice versa? Those are fair questions to ask in light of the governor's recent appointments to the LSU Board of Supervisors, a powerful board that's responsible for setting the direction of the state's flagship university. The new men on the block, or Jindal's appointments, are R. Blake Chatelain of Alexandria and James W. Moore of Monroe. If confirmed by the state Senate, Chatelain and Moore will represent the 5th District on the LSU board, or the two...

To find the future of the auto industry, Doug Pelmear looked to the past. He says he's perfected an engine developed by his grandfather 60 years ago. An engine that gives his 1987 mustang 110 miles to the gallon. Doug Pelmear says "my grandfather had the idea back in the 40's that he can make a difference then. There was quite a need at that time also with the war going on and everything, there was quite the need then." And quite the need now. So, Pelmear, a mechanic in Napoleon, has been tweaking this engine for the past 10...

The nation's largest immigration law firm is under federal scrutiny over whether it helped major U.S. corporations disqualify American job applicants and give thousands of high-paying positions to immigrants. The unprecedented Labor Department inquiry centers on Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy -- a New York firm at the forefront of a political effort to ease hiring of skilled foreign workers. The Labor Department is auditing all pending applications for legal immigrant workers the firm has filed on behalf of its corporate clients. Fragomen's prestigious client roster includes General Electric Co., IBM Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp. and Bank...

RALEIGH - To defend itself against a lawsuit by the widows of three American soldiers who died on one of its planes in Afghanistan, a sister company of the private military firm Blackwater has asked a federal court to decide the case using the Islamic law known as Shari’a. The lawsuit “is governed by the law of Afghanistan,” Presidential Airways argued in a Florida federal court. “Afghan law is largely religion-based and evidences a strong concern for ensuring moral responsibility, and deterring violations of obligations within its borders.” If the judge agrees, it would essentially end the lawsuit over a...

Is our Governor--Jindal the Spineless, the Bonehead or the Deceiver? It pains me to express such since two weeks ago I praised him effusively after a press conference. Now, the question is whether Dorothy should help him find a noggin, starch for his courage shirt or a light beam to honesty. Something is now sorely lacking in our Governor. Meanwhile, the honeymoon clock is screeching. The love affair with Bobby Jindal is officially dead. More importantly, the public needs answers, now, for Jindal to be effective in the future. It appears that certain legislators put a legislative gun to Jindal’s...

story can't be excerpted due to copyright issues, here's the URL: http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080613/NEWS01/806130316/1001/NEWS This is LA-05, which is basically the eastern half of north Louisiana. Rodney Alexander was a Democrat who switched parties, and the Democrats have never forgiven him, but this is the first time they've been able to recruit a serious candidate to challenge him. This is probably a safe sear (although in this climate who knows) but the GOP will have to play defense in a district that they ordinarily wouldn't have to worry about.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Scuba divers swept away in strong currents survived 12 hours in shark-infested waters before scrambling onto a remote Indonesian island where they faced yet another threat: a Komodo dragon. ADVERTISEMENT The divers — three from Britain and one each from France and Sweden — came face-to-face with the giant, carnivorous lizard on Rinca's palm-fringed beach, and fought it off by pelting it with rocks and pieces of wood, Pariman, a port official said Sunday. "Luckily, they were able to chase it away," said Pariman, who, like many Indonesians, goes by only one name. The beasts have sharp,...

Every appointment that Gov. Bobby Jindal has made since he took office in January is in jeopardy because he has not forwarded their names for Senate confirmation. The appointments by Jindal for 437 jobs — including his top aides — will no longer be valid and they will have to stop working as of June 23, when the legislative session adjourns, according to the state law governing the confirmation process. Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman state Sen. Bob Kostelka, R-Monroe, asked Jimmy Faircloth, the governor’s executive counsel, Wednesday to send the official list. As of 5 p.m. Friday, the...

The two top Republican candidates from the spring election for the 6th U.S. Congressional District seat are considering another go at it this fall. Meanwhile, another potential GOP contender withdrew his name from consideration Tuesday. Former state Rep. Woody Jenkins and health industry consultant Laurinda Calongne, the two Republicans who made it to the second closed primary election for the 6th District seat in April, indicated Tuesday that they are strongly considering another run. Jenkins won the April runoff against Calongne. But Jenkins lost to Don Cazayoux, a Democratic state representative from New Roads, in the general election on May...

click the link to see video of these two specimens who stole from a girl scout selling cookies. There's a commercial first, then the video.

Sen. Ted Stevens warned of a “mass exodus” from the military Saturday if the so-called 21st Century GI Bill goes into law without major changes. The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 passed the Senate on Thursday with wide bipartisan support, but with many differences from the version earlier passed by the House of Representatives. While visiting Fairbanks with Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake, Stevens took issue with the bill giving benefits to veterans after only three years of military service. “There are worries that people who are already in for two years will serve one more and...