More signs of US economic growth

US durable goods orders and new home sales both soared last month, the latest positive indications of the state of the world’s largest economy.

Orders for goods expected to last more than three years increased 4.9% in July, beating analyst expectations of a 3% gain, said the Commerce Department.

Durable goods orders were lifted by the popularity of the government’s “cash for clunkers” car scrappage scheme.

This helped US car orders rise 0.9%, recovering from June and May falls.
At the same time, the annual rate of sales of new US homes rose 9.6% last month, also ahead of market targets.
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Science fiction breaks free from fantasy

Renowned physicist Dr Michio Kaku says that the world of science fiction may be closer to reality than fantasy.

So if you thought that invisibility cloaks, time travel and teleportation were for the silver screen only, think again.

Dr Kaku is a theoretical physicist and the co-founder of string field theory, a branch of string theory, often referred to as “the theory of everything”.

In his recent published book, Physics of the Impossible, he considers the phenomena of science fiction, including time travel and invisibility.

He was shocked to find that almost all of them were consistent with the known laws of physics.
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Genetic advance raises IVF hopes

Researchers have found a potential way to correct an inherited disorder affecting thousands of women.

Working on monkeys, they transferred genetic material needed to create a baby from a defective egg to a healthy one, resulting in healthy births.

The US work, featured in the journal Nature, raises hopes of a treatment enabling women with defective eggs to have a child without using donor eggs.

However, the child would have a small number of genes from a “third parent”.
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Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy dead at 77

(CNN) — Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the patriarch of the first family of Democratic politics, died late Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. He was 77.

“We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,” a family statement said. “We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice.”

Kennedy, nicknamed “Ted,” was the younger brother of slain President John F. Kennedy and New York Sen. Robert Kennedy, who was gunned down while seeking the White House in 1968. However, his own presidential aspirations were hobbled by the controversy around a 1969 auto accident that left a young woman dead, and a 1980 primary challenge to then-President Jimmy Carter that ended in defeat.
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Freaky news about your brain may change your mind

(CNN) — Space. Sound. Smell. Humans constantly process a slew of variables in their surroundings. According to new research, the wiring of the brain may be even more complex than we knew.

These studies, while small, suggest avenues of research that could change the way we think about our perception of the world:

Lost? You’re not walking straight

Have you ever been lost in the woods and felt as if you were going in circles? New research in the journal Current Biology suggests that, in fact, people do tend to walk in circles if they do not have a reference point such as the sun.
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Sleepless night preceded Jackson’s death

(CNN) — Michael Jackson couldn’t sleep.

Maybe it was anxiety over his upcoming comeback concert series in London, England. Perhaps his body was trying to process too many different medications.

The reason may never be known, but a sworn affidavit makes clear that the King of Pop couldn’t get rest the night before he died on June 25.

The affidavit, from Detective Orlando Martinez of the Los Angeles Police Department, outlines probable cause for search warrants on the offices of doctors who are thought to have treated Jackson.
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Brown sentenced for Rihanna assault; other incidents surface

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Pop singer Chris Brown was sentenced Tuesday to serve five years probation and to spend more than 1,400 hours in “labor-oriented service” for assaulting his pop star girlfriend, Rihanna.

Also Tuesday, CNN obtained a probation report for Brown that says the pair were involved in at least two other domestic violence incidents before the February attack for which Brown was sentenced.

The probation report, which CNN obtained after Brown’s sentencing, was used to reach his plea agreement.

Brown, 20, was arrested after an early morning argument inside a rented Lamborghini on a Hollywood street on February 8.
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Hu calls for reform in China’s Uyghur region

(CNN) — China’s President Hu Jintao called Tuesday for a “prosperous and harmonious” Xinjiang province during his first visit to the country’s western Uyghur region since last month’s deadly riots, state-run media reported.

“The key to our work in Xinjiang is to properly handle development and stability,” said Hu.

Hu, calling for reform, development, ethnic unity and stability in the region, expressed gratitude to the armed forces, militia and police for their work in quelling the July 5 ethnic riots in Urumqi, the capital of China’s remote northwestern Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Xinhua news agency said.
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Japan’s Exports Tumbled 35.7% in July Amid Weak Global Demand

Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s exports fell for a tenth straight month in July as demand from all of the nation’s major markets deteriorated.

Shipments abroad tumbled 36.5 percent from a year earlier, steeper than June’s 35.7 percent drop, the Finance Ministry said today in Tokyo. The median estimate of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 38.4 percent decrease.

Manufacturers are still reeling from plunging sales of cars and electronics even as the economy emerges from its worst postwar recession. Toyota Motor Corp., Japan’s largest carmaker, said today it will cut domestic production by 220,000 vehicles.
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Report Shows Tight C.I.A. Control on Interrogations

WASHINGTON — Two 17-watt fluorescent-tube bulbs — no more, no less — illuminated each cell, 24 hours a day. White noise played constantly but was never to exceed 79 decibels. A prisoner could be doused with 41-degree water but for only 20 minutes at a stretch.

The Central Intelligence Agency’s secret interrogation program operated under strict rules, and the rules were dictated from Washington with the painstaking, eye-glazing detail beloved by any bureaucracy.

The first news reports this week about hundreds of pages of newly released documents on the C.I.A. program focused on aberrations in the field: threats of execution by handgun or assault by power drill; a prisoner lifted off the ground by his arms, which were tied behind his back; another detainee repeatedly knocked out with pressure applied to the carotid artery.
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