Jittery global markets brought on by the subprime mortgage crisis led the Federal Reserve to cut its discount rate on loans to banks by half a percentage point.1
Citing America's $1 trillion debt to China, Senator Joe Biden warned, “We have to get off that sucking off of that breast which is China.” 2
It was reported that a South Carolina small-parts supplier run by twin sisters had cheated the Pentagon out of $20.5 million in shipping costs; two 19-cent washers sent to an Army base in Texas, for instance, incurred a $998,798 charge.3
Jenna Bush, the younger of the President's twin daughters by one minute, got engaged to tobacco heir Henry Hager.4
Baptist pastor Wiley S. Drake instructed his Buena Park, California, congregation to pray for the deaths of two members of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “Let his days be few,” read the prayer, “and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”5
It emerged that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will allow the National Security Agency to intercept telephone calls, emails, and other Internet communications made by British citizens across American networks.6
The CIA was editing Wikipedia; one CIA entry concerned lyrics in a song from the television show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” A CIA spokesperson responding to queries about the edits stated, “I cannot confirm that the traffic you cite came from agency computers. I'd like in any case to underscore a far larger and more significant point that no one should doubt or forget: The CIA has a vital mission in protecting the United States, and the focus of this agency is there, on that decisive work.”7 8 9
Interpol sought the arrest of Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter and his first wife for allegedly providing support to Iraqi insurgents.1 In northern Iraq, a series of bombings targeting the Yazidi Kurds killed 344 people.2
A 1994 interview with Dick Cheney regarding the first Gulf war was released to the web. Asked whether U.S. forces should have invaded Baghdad in an attempt to oust Saddam Hussein, Cheney said, “No . . . we would have been all alone . . . It would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place?” Cheney described Iraq as a “quagmire,” predicting sectarian conflict and the pointless loss of American lives. “How many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? Our judgment was, uh, not very many, and I think we got it right.”3
A federal jury convicted Jose Padilla on terrorism conspiracy charges,4 while six of the Bali bombers got their jail terms reduced for good behavior.5
Two Manhattan firefighters died fighting a blaze in an abandoned skyscraper next to Ground Zero.6
A car bomb in Kandahar, Afghanistan, killed 13 civilians,7 and toy manufacturer Mattel recalled 436,000 miniature cars shaped like the character Sarge from the animated film “Cars” because they were coated with lead paint.8
Scientists analyzing the urine of the lonely found higher levels of epinephrine, a “fight or flight” chemical that contributes to physiological decay over time;1 a study suggested that women with breast implants were three times more likely to commit suicide than those without;2 and the Army's suicide rate was at an all-time high, leading the Army to hold a poster contest.3 4
A Massachusetts man pleaded guilty to intentionally eating glass in over a dozen restaurants to collect insurance compensation.5
German physicists claimed to have broken the speed of light,7 and Scottish physicists reversed the Casimir force to make objects levitate.8
David Beckham scored on a free kick during his first game for the LA Galaxy,9 and astronomers observed a dying star named Mira shedding a dazzling, comet-like tail.10
A study found that mothers who ate junk food while pregnant predisposed their children to obesity.11
After widespread flooding, 53,000 Bangladeshis contracted diarrhea,12 an Australian woman was crushed to death by her sexually aroused pet camel,13 and a couple in China named their baby “@.”14
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