reprieve

After losing a non legally binding vote of no confidence earlier this week, Joan Laporta has managed to remain as Chairman of Barcelona CF, despite the resignations of eight of his board members. Only five board members chose to support Laporta, including the club president Alfonso Castro, which may have helped his cause, I don’t know. Surely [...]

My ES TREND Chart above... Last night's session ended with a Leg 1 of Bear Break towards the close. And with only 2 more trading sessions below the long weekend holiday, I suspected a possible bounce could well be on the cards. A PRIME PPF of Support above would be the best gift for this coming Independence Day weekend.

Well, my marathon week is finally over!  There isn’t a better way to end this week than like this: I myself look horrible in this picture.  Just focus on the kids!  Now off for some peaceful slumber before a fun-filled day of allergy testing for my daughter!  I’ll keep you posted.

One sordid revelation pursues another in the gradual unravelling of the Bush administration's "extraordinary rendition" programme. This is, perhaps, because "extraordinary rendition" is a newfangled phrase for an ancient crime - aggravated kidnapping. Hardly surprising, then, that each time something trickles out, the news is always bad. Yesterday's disclosure - reported on the front page o

After 5 straight days of losses, I finally was able to breathe a little today. All 3 stocks in the portfolio were up today (AMR, UAUA, & SFI). The total amount gained was a little over $4,600. An amount that I would normally be ecstatic about, but after losing $31,000 in the previous 5 days, I am just relieved.The largest gainer was UAUA, which was up almost 9%, or $2,750 to me. The main catalyst

For weeks, I have been asking you to sign the petition to save Microsoft Windows XP. Microsoft Company was due to stop most sales of XP on June 30. If you signed the petition here -xp/ congratulations. It worked, more or less. Microsoft Company has announced that it will continue to make [...]

The king of blow-pop avoided foreclosure on his kiddie polygamy playland yesterday when a new bank took over its mortgage. The 2,700 acre amusement park was supposed to have been auctioned off this week after Jacko defaulted on payments. The investment firm is called Colony Capital. They bought the mortgage at a whopping $23.5 million dollars and they are working out a payment plan with Jacko.

To spare you from the escalating bombardment of bad economic news, no new material will be posted on Boom2Bust.com for the remainder of this week. In all seriousness, I will be doing some re-tooling of both B2B and its sibling blog, Investorazzi.com. In addition, there are some other projects, including two new websites focusing on [...]

After a very unfortunate experience previously, I was surprised to receive a personal call from the owner, Mr Aston Soon, whom invited me back to Aston Prime as a mystery diner as a way of compensating my last dining experience as well as to help provide feedback to him. So with that in mind, I rounded a couple of friends (in view that a biased review will not take place) and off we went to Katong for our Sunday lunch. Lunch took place at 1.30pm and there were only two tables – us and another table (2 more tables were occupied by the time we left). With the review in mind, I ordered most of the items that was ordered previously. As always, the meal began with the Complimentary Bread and Homemade Garlic Spread. For a good start, the bread was served slightly warm and soft, however, the sp

The Washignton Post reports that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) will now allow executions to proceed in his State as the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the use of lethal injection in the State of Kentucky. Kaine suspended the practice earlier this month (details here) while he awaited the Court's decision. He also says that he will continue to decide, on a "case by case basis," whether to grant clemency in death penalty cases. See story here.

Walking slowly towards the beach, Thundering Woman noted how large, rounded stones gradually gave way to smooth sand. The waves came skittering towards her, washing her feet with their salty essence. In the wind above, the grey clouds were slowly giving way to the soft glow of rosy, golden dawn. Stooping to touch the sand, her rough fingers caressed the glistening grains, where tIny shells dotted a broken shell line. A long shadow of her great rounded, body danced across the white and grey stones of the beach.As Thundering Woman picked a few magical, glowing shells, she put them into a small leather pouch hanging from her waist. Little bells on the fringe jingled with her movements. A few moments later small pieces of glistening mica found their way from her hands into her bag, which she p

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday stayed a lower court’s proceedings against actor Aamir Khan in the chinkara case. The court stayed bailable arrest warrants issued by the Bhuj court against Aamir and four others for allegedly filming chinkaras (a protected species) in his film Lagaan at Jam Kunaria village in Kutch in 2000. The High Court [...]

Billionaire George Soros called the current financial crisis the worst since the Great Depression and said markets will fall more this year after a brief rebound.``We had a good bottom,'' Soros said yesterday in an interview in New York, referring to the rally in stocks and the dollar after JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to buy Bear Stearns Cos. on March 17. ``This will probably not prove to be the final bottom,'' he said, adding the rebound may last six weeks to three months as the U.S. moves closer to a recession.Soros has bet on declines in the dollar, 10-year Treasuries and U.S. and European stocks. He expected foreign currencies to rise, as well as Chinese and Indian equities. The latter bet helped Quantum return 32 percent in 2007. Quantum's returns this year have ranged from up 3 p

Richard Timbrook, whose police son, Police Sgt. Rick L. Timbrook, was shot to death while chasing a suspect has criticized Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for delaying the execution of Edward Nathaniel Bell, his son's killer. Bell was convicted seven years ago. Timbrook says he left a message at the governor's office telling Kaine that he had the right to oppose the death penalty but "he didn't have the right to push his views" on others. Kaine committed himself to upholding the death penalty as a feature of Virginia's law during the 2005 campaign, but Timbrook says the Governor "bare-face lied to us" and is failing his "obligation to the people." See story here. See also: Virginia: Reprieve (Background, Update) and Virginia: Reprieve

By Katherine BurtonApril 3 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire George Soros called the current financial crisis the worst since the Great Depression and said markets will fall more this year after a brief rebound.``We had a good bottom,'' Soros said yesterday in an interview in New York, referring to the rally in stocks and the dollar after JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to buy Bear Stearns Cos. on March 17. ``This will probably not prove to be the final bottom,'' he said, adding the rebound may last six weeks to three months as the U.S. moves closer to a recession.Last summer, worried about market disruptions that started with rising subprime-mortgage defaults, Soros, 77, returned to a more active role in managing the $17 billion Quantum Endowment Fund, whose profits pay for his philanthropic pro

Virginia has executed 98 people since 1976, a figure that is second only to the State of Texas. Since becoming governor in 2006, Timothy M. Kaine Kaine (D) has carried out four executions. He has issued three stays, but has yet to commute a death sentence. Yesterday, Kaine rescheduled Edward Nathaniel Bell's execution for July 24. It is hoped that, by that point in time, the Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of lethal injection (in the case Baze v. Rees). A separate Virginia execution scheduled for next week and three others scheduled for July, will also be delayed. Meanwhile, 30 executions in other states have also been put on hold, dating back to September of last year, in apparent anticipation of the High Court's ruling. So, arguably, Virginia is simply lining up with ev

You might find it hard to believe (I don’t), but Tim Kaine has broken another one of his 2005 campaign promises.  Simultaneously granting reprieve to a cop killer and putting a moratorium on the death penalty in the Commonwealth, Kaine has both betrayed Virginians and stopped otherwise legal executions not under the realm of the [...]

Governor Timothy M. Kaine today issued the following statement regarding the execution of Edward Nathaniel Bell and other scheduled executions in the Commonwealth of Virginia:“On September 25, 2007, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case of Baze v. Rees in order to consider the constitutionality of using lethal injection as a method of execution. There has been no execution carried out in the United States since that date, as courts around the country await the Supreme Court’s ruling, which will likely be issued at some time before the middle of July. Approximately 30 execution dates in 13 states have been stayed in the interim, either by actions of the Supreme Court, lower federal courts, state courts or gubernatorial action. In one of these cases, the Supreme

Although Microsoft is pushing hard to move everyone to the latest version of Windows, there are some market realities that are going to keep Windows XP around for some time–likely well beyond the current June deadline for large computer makers to stop selling the older operating system. Microsoft has already extended the deadline once (XP [...]

The American Federal Reserve's three-quarter-point cut in its key lending rate extended a stock-market rally that began after a pair of investment-banking giants (Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers) reported earnings results that, while weaker than a year ago, were free of nasty surprises.  The Dow was up by more than 400 points and the S&P 500 rose 4%. The Australian, Asian and European markets should rally as well and most likely the euphoria will extend for a few days and perhaps to the end of the week. However, I think this would be a good time to "sell into the rally" rather than look for buying opportunities. The credit crisis is still around and it will take 3-6 months more before all the bad/dirty news is out. Also, a looming threat on the US economy is Inflatio

Webmasters can stop fretting about Google's supplemental results - they're not really there anymore. Google has lifted the veil between indices.Google introduced its supplemental results in 2003, much to the chagrin of webmasters actively looking to have more of their content indexed for search. In what the company then called "a new Google experiment," a pair of indexes were created, one for the search engine's main results, and a second for more obscure queries.

After a full day of being on edge playing phone tag with various agencies and sending fax after to fax , we finally received word at 5:00 that they are extending our time to Friday. We have yet to hear that the SIPP program (state inpatient psychiatric program) is even going to accept her but considering its more cost affective for them than paying for these several times a week Baker Act Program , I would think they'll approve. One would think we would feel more relaxed now that we have another time extension but I'll tell you what ....we are exhausted. This really takes a lot out of you. Today we sat figuring out all the hours we put into this stuff and we realized even with Ebony outside of the home, she takes up a lot of our time. It certainly hasn't made our lives easier at all. I'm going to sleep well tonight.

Declining bluefin tuna stocks have been in the news with growing frequency, and have also been the subject of a number of my blog entries over the past year (see Troubles for Tuna). When any species faces potential extinction it becomes a grave issue, but the popularity of this fish makes any news pertinent to sushi lovers around the world. Today there is an update on the situation. The news is good and bad. The European Union today banned bluefin tuna fishing in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic ocean for the remainder of the year. EU fisherman have already caught the 2007 quota (16,779 tonnes) and the world will now have to rely on the remaining stock of frozen and stored bluefin tuna to satisfy our sushi and sashimi requirements. “Clearly there are problems both of overfishing a stock already threatened with collapse and of equity between the member states concerned,” EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg was quoted as saying. While this is not gong to be the magic bul

Ryan loses appeal but remains free - Reprieve a small victory as options shrinkExcerpt:"After losing his appeal for a new trial Tuesday, former Gov. George Ryan and his legal team were pinning their hopes on a blistering dissent by an appellate judge who called the jury's controversial deliberations "dysfunctional" and cited "a flood of errors."With the appellate ruling Tuesday morning, Ryan was within 72 hours of reporting to prison to serve his 6 1/2 -year sentence for a sweeping corruption conviction. But late Tuesday his lawyers won a reprieve, allowing the former governor to remain free on bail for likely at least several weeks while they try to persuade the full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the decision."Read Story

Diet drug Acomplia (rimonabant) was discussed by European regulators at their June meeting this week, but the only decision reached was to discuss the matter again at their July 16-to-19 meeting. The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency, which approved Acomplia for sale in Europe more than a year ago, said it will continue to review data on the diet drug, which has been purchased by more than 100,000 Europeans. The agency’s discussion of Acomplia this week followed the overwhelming vote by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee last week to recommend against sale of the diet drug in the United States based on currently available safety date. The advisory panel’s vote was based on newer data presented by FDA staff — including data from post-marketing reports on usage in Europe. The FDA is expected to go along with that recommendation in the next several weeks. While Acomplia for the

A Filipino nurse in the United Kingdom got a reprieve from the British government, which had earlier wanted to kick him out for missing a deadline for the filling of an immigration form.Aldrin Quibuyen, a nurse who works at Caeffair Nursing Home in Llanelli, was allowed to stay in the country after being granted a reprieve by House of Commons, Immigration Minister Liam Byrne.Quibuyen has been in the UK since 2003, while his wife and son Buzz joined him in 2004. They have a daughter, Phebe, who was born in the UK.

AUSTRALIA’S Richard Green has been handed an Open Championship start, following American Woody Austin’s decision not to travel to Carnoustie next week. Austin, 43, a three-time US PGA Tour winner, was offered a spot along with Hunter Mahan on the basis of a mini Order of Merit on the tour. But he declined, saying: "I don’t know how to play that type of golf and I would probably go over there and shoot two high numbers and make a fool of myself." Green replaces him as the more…

More than 5,000 families scheduled for eviction from their homes in Meruya Selatan, West Jakarta, earned a reprieve Monday following a meeting between the families' representatives and the head of the West Jakarta District Court. "The head of the West Jakarta District Court said there would be no acquisition of land taking place on May 21," Meruya Selatan Residents Forum spokesman Bambang Edhar said after the meeting. He said the head of the court made the decision after receiving complaints from residents, promising to check the relevant land borders.Earlier: Meruya residents plan Supreme Court appeal

Vonage won a temporary reprieve from an appeals court on Friday, hours after a lower court barred it from adding new customers while it appeals a finding it infringed Verizon Communications Inc....

I am alive!Yippee!! Lennox the Bully is off school with the flu. Ha! Ha! Ha!No one is speaking to me because of the computer club thing. But it doesn't matter that they think I'm the teacher's pet. Lennox isn't here to duff me up, debag me or give me one of his special Chinese burns where he twists the whole of your arm.Mum and Miv have gone to karate together. Mum said she might give it a go.Good luck to her. She'll need it with that mad Welshman Sensei Thomas taking the class.I am spending my time in more profitable ways. I have a history essay to hand in by tomorrow - 'How was life during World War II different from today?' I should have done it over the weekend but I was so busy with Operation Pond Watch that I forgot.Fat Bob is spending most of his free time, ie. when he's not eating or asleep, sitting by Mr Purefoy's pond staring at the koi carp. Every so often Mr Purefoy rushes out of his house flapping a tea towel at him but Fat Bob just moves away for a bit then comes

A last Balintore Castle in Angus, Scotland, is going to be restored.  The castle has been derelict as long as I can remember.  My grandparents lived in the nearby Kirriemuir and I was always amazed that such a grand building was just being left to rot. Evidently there have been several attempts to buy Balintore Castle but in common with many other historic buidlings, the main stumbling block has been the unwillingness of current owners to sell at a realistic price. The castle was faced with possible demolition until the local council used their compulsory purchase powers after the previous owner failed to respond to repairs notices.  The council will now transfer ownership to a buyer who will restore the castle as a private home. I think that is it important to preserve historic buildings, even if they do stay in private ownership.  It makes a visit to Scotland all the more culturally interesting if there are beautiful buildings in good condition.  If you would like to see the cas

Superstar Amitabh Bachchan has got a major reprieve from a tribunal that ruled against Income Tax Department’s plea to tax the entire about Rs 51 crore earned from hosting blockbuster game show Kaun Banega Crorepati. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal upheld an order of Commissioner (Appeals) and rejected I-T department’s arguments that the entire income of [...]

{mosgoogle right}SHUNAN, Yamaguchi -- A private high school teacher fired for not greeting his principal has won his job back after his employers offered him a settlement following their defeat in a labor court case.The 48-year-old teacher whose name is being withheld is poised to accept the settlement after his job and back pay was offered by the Sakuragaoka High School and it should be formalized on April 16."I now feel at ease having caused some tough memories for my [...]