Attorney General and Education Secretary Call for National Conversation on Values and Student Violence

U.S. Department of Justice to Release Study on Children’s Exposure to Violence; U.S. Department of Education to Provide $500,000 Grant to Help Fenger Community

Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan today joined with Chicago city officials to call for a national conversation on values to address youth violence in the wake of the fatal beating of a Chicago high school student. The announcement followed meetings with City officials, community leaders, students, and parents.

“Youth violence isn’t a Chicago problem, any more than it is a black problem or a white problem. It’s something that affects communities big and small, and people of all races and colors. Today is the beginning of what will be a sustained, national effort on behalf of this entire administration to address youth violence and to make our streets safe for everyone,” Holder said.

“Chicago will not be defined by this incident but rather by our response to it – so we came here today to join with you and with communities all across America – to call for a national conversation on values. It’s a conversation that must happen every place in America where violence, intolerance, and discrimination exists,” Duncan said.
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Earthquakes rock South Pacific

(CNN) — Two major earthquakes struck an hour and 10 minutes apart Thursday morning near Vanuatu in the South Pacific, prompting a tsunami warning that was quickly lifted, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The first quake, with a magnitude of 7.8, struck at 9:03 a.m. (6:03 p.m. ET) at a depth of 35 km (22 miles) and an epicenter 295 km (180 miles) north-northwest of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu.

The second quake, with a magnitude of 7.1, struck at 10:13 a.m. (7:13 p.m. ET) at about the same depth and an epicenter of 280 km (175 miles) north-northwest of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu.

A third earthquake, with a moderate magnitude of 5.7, struck 35 minutes after the second in about the same location, the USGS said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued and then quickly lifted a regional tsunami warning and watch for parts of the Pacific near the first earthquake’s epicenter.

The first data from a buoy at Luganville on Vanuatu detected a tsunami wave of 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) at Luganville on Vanuatu, said Victor Sardina, a geophysicist with the center.
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Berlusconi immunity law overruled

Italy’s Constitutional Court has overturned a law granting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while in office.

The move opens the possibility that Mr Berlusconi, 73, could stand trial in at least three court cases, including one in which he is accused of corruption.

The judges said immunity violated the principle that all citizens were equal.

Mr Berlusconi said he had expected the ruling as the court was dominated by left-wing judges, and would not resign.

“We have a very organised minority of red [left-wing] magistrates who use justice for a political fight,” he told reporters outside his residence in Rome.

“We must govern for five years with or without the law.”
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Nobel Prize for chemistry of life

The 2009 chemistry Nobel Prize has been awarded to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath.

The prize is awarded for the study of the structure and function of the ribosome – the cell’s protein factory.

The ribosome translates genetic code into proteins – which are the building blocks of all living organisms.

It is also the main target of new antibiotics, which combat bacterial strains that have developed resistance to traditional antibiotic drugs.

These new drugs work by blocking the function of ribosomes in bacterial cells, preventing them from making the proteins they need to survive.
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Coming back down under

Australia is the first large, rich country to raise interest rates in more than a year

AUSTRALIA’S central bank is the first in a big, rich economy to raise interest rates since July last year. On Tuesday October 6th the overnight “cash rate” was raised by a quarter of a percentage point, to 3.25%. Glenn Stevens, the bank’s governor, explained that economic conditions in Australia have been stronger than expected and measures of confidence have recovered and that “forecasts are being revised higher…and growth in 2010 is likely to be close to trend.”

Is this the beginning of a general shift in monetary policy as central bankers around the world begin to prepare for economic recovery? In fact Australia is a special case. Interest rates remain four percentage points below their recent peak in March 2008 and local markets had been expecting a rate rise before the end of the year. The big Australian banks anticipated the central bank’s move, and have been increasing their fixed lending rates throughout the year. More rises are expected, especially as Mr Stevens has concluded that the risk of serious economic contraction in Australia has passed. Annual inflation is 1.5%, but it is 2.5% when volatile items are excluded. It seems set to go higher.
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Letterman affairs spotlight sex, romance in the workplace

(CNN) — As the “sextortion” plot involving David Letterman continues to unfold, chit-chat about sex and the workplace — always a water-cooler favorite — is getting extra play.

That’s good news for Nicole Williams, a career expert and author of the in-stores-next-week “Girl on Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success.”

The media storm surrounding Letterman, she says, is bringing to the forefront an issue that’s as relevant and pervasive as ever.

“Eight million Americans every year enter into at least one romance starting from work,” she said, quoting a statistic from Vault.com, an online career site.
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NBA wants regular-season game in London

(CNN) — The NBA is hoping to stage a regular-season game in London in the next two years before the British capital hosts the 2012 Olympics.

David Stern, commissioner of the world’s premier basketball league, revealed that it might even be possible to hold the match at London’s O2 Arena next year.

“Who knows? We have not set the schedule yet for 2010, so we’ll see,” Stern told the UK Press Association ahead of Tuesday night’s preseason exhibition at the venue, in which the Chicago Bulls snatched a last-gasp 102-101 victory over the Utah Jazz in front a sell-out crowd of almost 19,000.

“We’re running out of runway a little bit, but we still hope to do it,” Stern said.
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What if oil weren’t priced in dollars?

Robert Fisk’s report in the Independent that the Persian Gulf countries are planning to stop pricing oil in dollars by 2018 and start using a basket of currencies instead has caused quite the big stir today. Gold hit a new record of $1,043 an ounce as investors worried about the future of the dollar, and the Internets were aflame with the news (especially the right-wing Internets, apparently.) Saudi and Kuwaiti officials immediately said there’s no such move in the offing, but it’s obviously something they’ve been thinking about. Just under two years ago there was a big flurry of discussion on the subject, including an OPEC vote to study switching to a currency basket.

If the Gulf countries stopped pricing oil in dollars, they would also presumably stop pegging their currencies to the dollar, a more significant development. And of course Chinese officials have been making noise for several years about the need to move away from a dollar-dominated world. The problem that both China and the oil exporters have is that they’re holding gigantic stashes of dollars that would suddenly be worth a lot less if they started trying to sell them off. So we’ve got this impasse, where lots of people complain about the dollar’s supremacy but nobody seems willing to do anything about it. In fact, a succession of U.S. Treasury Secretaries has trooped to Beijing trying to persuade the Chinese to do something about the dollar’s supremacy by letting the yuan float or at least rise sharply against the dollar, and met with strong resistance.
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Obama aware of Afghan differences

US President Barack Obama has said his decision on a new strategy in Afghanistan will not please everyone.

He told key figures from Congress, gathered to discuss future US plans, that he would decide on a course of action with a sense of urgency.

Democratic Senator Harry Reid said members from both parties told Mr Obama they would support his decision.

But Republican Senator Mitch McConnell stressed backing would depend on Mr Obama following his generals’ advice.

The talks at the White House came as debate intensifies over whether the US should send more troops to Afghanistan.

A US official, quoted by Reuters news agency, said of the meeting: “He… made it clear that his decision won’t make everybody in the room or the nation happy, but underscored his commitment to work on a collaborative basis.”
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Nobel honours ‘masters of light’

Three scientists who corralled light to transform our communications systems share this year’s physics Nobel Prize.

Briton Charles Kao is lauded for his work in helping to develop fibre optic cables, the slender threads of glass that carry phone and net data as light.

Willard Boyle and George Smith, both North Americans, are recognised for their part in the invention of the charge-coupled device, or CCD.

This light detector initiated the digital camera revolution.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which administers the prize, said half of the award would go to Kao, who was born in Shanghai, China, in 1933 and holds UK-US citizenship.

It was his insight while working in Britain in the 1960s, said the academy, which allowed researchers to take fibre optics to a new level – to enable these thin cables to transmit light over much longer distances than had previously been possible.
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