| Stipend delay irks students
A group of girl students and their parents told Dawn that the stipend for July to September 2007 had not been delivered so far and none of the officials was taking responsibility for it or explaining reasons for delay in the provision of incentive.
They quoted an official of the EDOs office as claiming that the amount required for disbursing stipend among the students had not reached Vehari so far and that was the reason for delay. They criticised the Punjab government for not giving the girls the promised amount even after a lapse of six months.
EDO (Education) Iqbal Naveed said the required amount (about Rs20 million) had reached the district and it would be given to the students through postal order during the next few days. He did not give the exact date of delivery.
Calls grow to probe Suharto scams
But it doesn't mean the law works like that". Suharto's 32-year tenure as leader of the world's most populous Muslim nation was marked by repression, from the killings of at least half a million communists and their sympathisers after the abortive coup that saw him seize power in 1966, to invading East Timor and quelling separatist movements in Aceh and Papua. Emerson Yuntho, from International Corruption Watch, said: "Suharto's dead, but the process of law may not be stopped - because the parliamentary order which accused him also specified that his family and cronies must be investigated. If we think of thissituation as being like a train, and Suharto is the locomotive with all the corrupters the carriages, now that he's gone they'll be saying, 'Now what? He didn't get touched.
Blunt Wants To Criminalize Mortgage Fraud
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- As national concern about home foreclosures and sub-prime loans grows, Gov. Matt Blunt on Monday proposed sending swindlers to prison. Blunt's plan would make mortgage fraud a state felony, with a sentence of up to seven years in prison. It also would allow state departments to punish those who committed mortgage fraud. In a written statement, the governor said his plan would help at-risk homeowners forestall foreclosure. A spokeswoman for Blunt said the main targets are "foreclosure consultants" who advertise that they can help homeowners who are worried about losing their homes but then never help out. The governor calls for a hot line within the Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration so that borrowers can get information about avoiding foreclosures.
Sluggish sales and falling housing prices ruled the California scene
The housing market suffered a major slump in 2007, representing this year's top business story. Reminiscent of the housing slump of the last decade, home sales took a major dive in 2007, with a double-digit year-over-year plunge nationwide. That was followed by a drop in home prices that also reached double digits in some markets, including Southern California. In November, Los Angeles County saw a nearly 12percent drop in the value of previously owned houses compared with a year earlier, according to the Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors. Sales fell almost 37percent. Statewide, prices also sank about 12percent, with sales down 36percent. According to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller national home price index, prices in October posted the largest drop since early 1991.
Extremists plotted attacks across Europe, Spanish paper says
If we attack the metro [subway system in Barcelona], the emergency services can't get there," one of the suspected suicide bombers told the informant, El Pais reported on Saturday. "Our preference is public transport, especially the metro." El Pais reported that it had access to the informant's testimony to Spanish officials. CNN has confirmed that authorities have given high importance to an informant's testimony. The judge who ordered 10 suspects held for allegedly plotting a suicide attack in Barcelona, cited in his rulings the testimony of an informant. CNN has viewed the rulings. Spain's Interior Minister last Friday said an informant warned of a planned suicide attack against Barcelona's metro on the weekend of January 18 to 20.
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