The bank said Sunday it has “now covered the risk resulting from the unauthorized trading” and its equities business “is again operating normally within its previously defined risk limits.”

UBS says the loss resulted from unauthorized speculative trading in various stock markets over the last three months.

It says the trader responsible hid the magnitude of the risk to which the bank was exposed by creating fictious future orders.

The trader, 31-year-old Kweku Adoboli, was arrested Thursday and charged Friday with acts of fraud and false accounting dating back to 2008.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

GENEVA (AP) — Oswald Gruebel, the chief executive of Swiss banking giant UBS, says he feels responsible — but not guilty — for the $2 billion loss allegedly incurred by a rogue trader that plunged the bank back into scandal just as it was rebuilding its tattered reputation.

Speaking for the first time since UBS revealed the loss Thursday, Gruebel also told the Swiss weekly Der Sonntag that he isn’t thinking about resigning because of the latest financial fiasco to befall the Zurich-based bank.

Some Swiss politicians and commentators have called for Gruebel’s head to roll over the loss, which is likely to put UBS’s third-quarter results deep in the red. Such a move signal a defeat for the gravel-voiced German, who was brought in more than two years ago to revive the bank’s fortunes after a series of missteps that included vast losses in the U.S. subprime mortgage market and an embarrassing U.S. tax evasion case. – MORE

The Misrata Military Council reported clashes south of the Al-Gordabia military base and said at least three anti-Gadhafi fighters were killed.

NATO planes, meanwhile, bombed targets in the Sirte area Friday. But Gadhafi’s forces unleashed hails of gunfire, using snipers in tall buildings to target their enemies.

Expected support from Sirte residents did not materialize as loyalists fought house to house with unexpected intensity. The revolutionaries were forced to retreat after the chaotic and fierce urban warfare.

But in Sahara towns more sympathetic to the revolution, people cheered the anti-Gadhafi forces as they made their way toward the southern city of Sabha.

In Shati, there was no combat; only a peaceful transfer of power, perhaps the first in the eight-month uprising. In the morning the tiny town had been under Gadhafi’s grip. By afternoon, no more.

Residents fired their guns in celebration and burned the green flags of the former regime.

They welcomed the ordinary Libyans — teachers, doctors, engineers — who dropped everything to join the fight against Gadhafi. They were rebels once. Now they were the armed wing of Libya’s new governing body, the National Transitional Council.

The anti-Gadhafi fighters know the situation will be different once they reach Sabha, another diehard Gadhafi city.

“For everything that’s happened since 2005, all the things said in the media and everything, I feel guilty for, yeah,” van der Sloot, 22, said in the interview, portions of which were aired on NBC’s “Today” on Tuesday.

The Dutch citizen is jailed in Lima, Peru, where he is awaiting trial on a murder charge in the death of Peruvian student Stephany Flores. Her body was found in May in a hotel room registered to van der Sloot, which the two were seen entering on surveillance camera video. He also is charged with a count of wire fraud and a count of extortion in Alabama for allegedly trying to extort more than $250,000 from Holloway’s family in return for disclosing the location of her body.

Holloway was last seen in the early hours of May 30, 2005, leaving an Oranjestad, Aruba, nightclub with van der Sloot and two other men, brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. She was visiting the island with about 100 classmates to celebrate their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama.

Van der Sloot was arrested twice in Aruba in connection with Holloway’s disappearance, but was never charged. He has denied responsibility for her disappearance.

In the interview, van der Sloot said he feels guilty about his father’s fatal heart attack, for not listening to his mother and for telling lies, as well as his past behavior.

“I was doing a lot of things that I shouldn’t have been doing, and mostly only going out all the night and sleeping all the day,” he said, describing himself as “impulsive.”

Asked why he’s told so many different stories about the Holloway case, he said, “There were people who were paying me to make up stories, and I was really good at making up stories. Everybody keeps coming at you asking questions … if you want something, I’ll tell you whatever you want to hear, sure.”

Still, he said, he has “misused the situation for my own advantage.” He said he feels bad about that and would take it back if he had the opportunity. – MORE

Bachmann told Leno that Perry’s action had been “an abuse of executive power” and had sparked concern over “crony capitalism,” an apparent reference to the fact that a former Perry aide was a top lobbyist for Merck, the manufacturer for the HPV vaccine. Merck donated to Perry’s campaign fund.

She added: “The concern is that there’s, you know, potentially side effects that can come with something like that. But it gives a false sense of assurance to a young woman when she has that that if she’s sexually active that she doesn’t have to worry about sexually transmitted diseases.”

Leno responded: “Well, I don’t know if it gives assurance. It can prevent cervical cancer; correct?”

He then pressed Bachmann over comments she made earlier this week in which she said a woman had approached the congresswoman to say her daughter had suffered “mental retardation” as a result of receiving the vaccination.

There had been no recorded cases of such side effects despite 30 million people receiving the jab, Leno pointed out.

“I wasn’t speaking as a doctor. I wasn’t speaking as a scientist. I was just relating what this woman said,” Bachmann replied.

Before you shell out your hard earned money for the next ebook, CD software and such that claims to raise your websites page rank in Search Engines, do read through this article. Although I may create some new unhappy adversaries here by the nature of the information in this article, this is already common knowledge. In fact, I recently created a new website just to prove that these theories worked. It is my sincere hope that you too can make use of this knowledge to your advantage. – MORE

Many people are said to be injured – some critically however there are no reports of deaths..

Video of the crash showed an horrific scene of bodies and wreckage.

The jury is expected to return its verdicts Monday afternoon.

Charges against Blagojevich include trying to peddle the U.S. Senate seat held by Barack Obama before he resigned to become president. Blagojevich has denied any intention of bribery.

Last August, after a two-month trial and 14 days of deliberation, jurors deadlocked on 23 of the 24 charges Blagojevich had faced. They found him guilty on one count of lying to FBI investigators, a conviction that could carry a prison sentence of five years.

The accusation that Blagojevich tried to profit as he considered whom to appoint to succeed Obama, among other allegations, prompted his impeachment by Illinois’ House of Representatives and his removal from office by the state Senate in 2009.

Ten of the counts against him in the current trial are wire fraud. The other 10 involve extortion and bribery. Most of the counts have a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

A leading criminologist says she now thinks it’s highly unlikely Anthony will take the stand – because prosecutors would “eat her alive.”

On Friday, Day 27, attention was focused on dramatic testimony of her brother, Lee Anthony, who broke down in tears on the stand, as Casey cried from her seat.

She’s pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, and could face the death penalty if convicted on that charge.

Her lawyers say they could wrap up their case by Thursday.

Earlier Friday, it was Casey’s mother, Cindy Anthony, who became emotional after being shown pictures of her getting into the family’s swimming pool with Caylee.

Casey’s attorneys claim the tot died when she accidentally drowned in the pool.

Prosecutors have sought to implicate Casey by saying she had researched possible murder techniques on the Internet.

But on Thursday, Cindy admitted that in March of 2008 she had searched online for the term “chloroform,” just a few months before her granddaughter went missing.

Under cross-examination, Cindy said her searches only went so far – not Googling how to make chloroform, any on Googling the term chloroform.

On “The Early Show on Saturday Morning,” criminologist Casey Jordan admitted she doesn’t know what Casey’s defense team is up to, adding, “I don’t know whether anybody knows. We’ve been waiting and waiting and for Lee to take the stand. Four weeks ago, we heard in opening statements allegations by (Casey lawyer) Jose Baez that Lee was sexually inappropriate, molested his sister. Of course, (Casey’s father) George was accused of the same, and already had the opportunity to deny it.

“When Lee was on the stand, we kept waiting for that question. And it never came. Instead, we get all of this emotional, this teary, ‘My family didn’t accept me, I was always excluded.’ We got a lot of emotions we weren’t expecting, and we didn’t get the confrontational direct examination we were thinking we would see.

Any idea why?

AGE: 81

DATE OF BIRTH: Sept. 3, 1929

FAMILY: Grew up in South Boston. His younger brother, William, was one of the most powerful politicians in Massachusetts, leading the state Senate for 17 years and later serving as president of the University of Massachusetts for seven years. William Bulger testified about his brother before a congressional committee and has said he has only heard from his brother once since he became a fugitive.

BACKGROUND: Whitey Bulger led the violent Winter Hill Gang, a largely Irish mob that ran loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets in the Boston area. He was nicknamed “Whitey” for his shock of bright platinum hair.

FBI DEALINGS: He was a top-echelon informant who provided the Boston FBI with information on his gang’s main rival, the New England Mob. Bulger later was listed as one of the agency’s “Ten Most Wanted” for his alleged role in 19 murders, including the slayings of businessmen in Florida and Oklahoma. He was next to Osama bin Laden on the list and had a $2 million reward on his head.

The prosecution of James “Whitey” Bulger, who faces a host of charges – including racketeering and 19 counts of murder – could also bring embarrassment and public humiliation for corrupt public officials, says a former associate of the Boston crime boss.

On “The Early Show on Saturday Morning,” Eddie MacKenzie, who was an enforcer for Bulger and the author of  “Street Soldier: My Life as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob” (Random House), said he believes “there’s a hole dug with a big portfolio full of a lot of dirty public officials and maybe some dirty law enforcement officials that ‘Whitey’ Bulger has had for years, waiting for this day of his capture, so that he can use it for some sort of bargaining tool.”

When asked whom some of those officials might be, Mackenzie replied, “I live in Boston; I’m not about to say anything like that.”

Bulger, who was arrested after 16 years as a fugitive, does not frighten Mackenzie now that he is in custody. “I’m not afraid to say anything because of ‘Whitey’ Bulger because he’s just a rat. He’s a scum bag, an 81-year-old guy. I’m afraid because if there’s law enforcement people out there, any public official out there that knows that they’re dirty and I throw their name out there, you know, I’m going to get myself in trouble.”

A heavy police presence remained outside the airport nearly four hours after the explosion, and more than 10 ambulances left the airport with lights flashing and sirens screeching.

Incoming flights scheduled to land at Domodedovo were being diverted to Moscow’s other airports, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo, Russian TV said.

“There have been no departure delays. We were shut for only about 20 minutes after the explosion,” she told state TV.

Elina Bakhtina told state TV she was at the airport cafe she owns when the explosion occurred.

“The blast must have been very strong, because our cafe is about 100 meters from the arrivals area. When we heard the blast, glass just started falling from the ceiling,” she said.

U.S. President Barack Obama called the bombing a “premeditated attack against innocent civilians.”

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. government had no information that any Americans were injured.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said British officials are “in urgent contact with Russian authorities to establish the facts and to provide consular support to any British nationals who may have been affected.”

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen condemned the attack and urged greater cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

German, French, and Isreali leaders also condemned the attacks.

Will Geddes, terrorism expert and managing director of International Corporate Protection Group, called the bombing a “very significant terror strike.”

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The suspect in custody is 22, but declined to name him. An Arizona law enforcement source and a federal law enforcement source, meanwhile, identified the suspect as Jared Lee Loughner.

Investigators are not convinced that the suspect came to the supermarket alone. Investigators are looking for a man seen near the suspect.

The attack happened about 10 minutes after the start of a previously scheduled constituent meeting outside a Safeway grocery store.

Police recovered a 9mm Glock Model 19 handgun believed used in the shooting, according to senior law enforcement sources. The weapon had a 30-round magazine, according to a federal law enforcement source briefed on the investigation.

Five people, including Chief Judge John Roll of the U.S. District Court for Arizona and Gabe Zimmerman, a Giffords staffer, died at the scene. The sixth victim, a 9-year-old girl, was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Giffords, 40, was shot once in the head at close range, authorities said. She underwent surgery at University Medical Center in Tucson and was listed in critical condition.

Then 500 red-winged blackbirds, starlings and sparrows were found dead Monday morning in the southern Louisiana community of Labarre.

Now in the city of Falköping, Sweden, on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, a large number of birds were found dead, according to the Swedish National Veterinary Institute.

Autopsies were performed on five of the birds. The institute said they died due to “sudden, hard external blows,” according to its website. They had no signs of infection or other illnesses, and there were no external signs indicating what killed them.

“We have determined that the birds have died from severe internal bleedings caused by external blows,” said the institute’s Marianne Elvander.

The investigation comes days after the deaths of an estimated 100,000 fish in northwest Arkansas. Authorities suspect disease was to blame there, a state spokesman said.

“Natural causes appear to be the reason for the deaths of about 2 million fish in Chesapeake Bay,” the Maryland Department of the Environment said in a news release. “Cold water stress exacerbated by a large population of the affected species (juvenile spot fish) appears to be the cause of the kill.”

Large winter kills of spot fish have occurred at least twice before in the state, in 1976 and 1980, the department said.

“I’m happy that it’s human. And the initial finding is that it’s from a young woman, so maybe we will be able to solve this case. I hope so. But we will wait to see what the findings are,” Aruban prosecutor Peter Blanken told CNN.

The prosecutor said a forensic expert in Aruba made the initial determination. He cautioned that a final determination would be made by the Netherlands Forensic Institute in the Hague, but he did say the agency is “testing for a DNA match.”

Tourists found the bone Nov. 12 on a beach on Caribbean island of Aruba, according to the Dutch daily De Telegraaf. The tourists turned the bone in to the front desk of the nearby Phoenix Hotel. Officials there subsequently notified police of the find.

Photos of the bone, which is believed to be a human lower jawbone, show a mandible with an intact molar, ABC News reported. According to CNN, experts will extract DNA from where the tooth meets the bone and compare it to DNA obtained from Holloway’s biological parents.

Citing potential climate-related GDP losses of up to 20 percent by 2050 and the economic benefits of shifting to low-carbon and resource-efficient economies, investors released a major statement today calling for national and international policies that will spur private investment into low-carbon technology.

The statement was signed by 259 investors from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, Latin America and North America, with collective assets under management totaling over $15 trillion-more than one-quarter of global market capitalization. Signatories do not only include global giants Allianz and HSBC, but also investment organizations from many developing countries and emerging economies, including South Africa, Nigeria and Brazil.

It is the largest-ever group of investors to call for government action on climate change.

Read More >

Lewis’s husband Julian, 51, and stepson, Charles Lewis, 25, were later found dead from shotgun blasts.

Lawyers for Lewis filed a petition for clemency on 25 August 2010, but the US Supreme Court refused to intervene. Two of three women in the nine-judge court voted to halt the execution.

Lewis, who has an IQ of 72, claimed that she did not possess the intelligence to have planned the killings, and that new defence evidence allegedly proved one of the gunmen manipulated her.

She was the first woman to be put to death in the US for five years and in Virginia since 1912.

Lewis, who had learning difficulties, used sex and cash to persuade hitmen to kill her family in 2002.

The US Supreme Court and Virginia’s governor refused to stop her execution, which took place at 2100 (0100 GMT) at Greensville Correctional Center.

They just recalled more than 1 million of its Corolla and Matrix cars, just days after U.S. auto safety regulators stepped up a probe into the risk that the vehicles could stall because of defective electronic engine control units.

“We have known about the fact that there have been complaints of stalling engines,” Toyota spokesman John Hanson said. The automaker decided to issue a recall after it conducted more rigorous testing recently and found that the component was failing about 13 percent of the tests, Hanson said.

Did you ever think to fix it??????????? Quality is going down in so many of US products. Its about time that Americans take a bit more pride in what we make, and what we allow in our country!!

In a statement run on the state-run Korean Central News Agency, the commission said, “The army and people of the [North] will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises.”

Pyongyang routinely threatens war when its southern neighbor  and the US hold joint military exercises. South Korea’s defense ministry said no unusual North Korean military movements were detected.

Yesterday, a North Korea spokesman, Ri Tong-il, told reporters at the Asean regional security forum in Hanoi, Vietnam, there would be a “physical response” to the drills in the Sea of Japan, which he branded another sign of US “hostility”.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said “isolated and belligerent” North Korea would have to end its “campaign of provocative, dangerous behavior” if it wanted better relations with the US and the rest of Asia.

Weighing 11,875 pounds, the sparkling sphere features 2,668 crystals woven into a triangular pattern and is powered by 32,256 LED lights. It is capable of producing a kaleidoscopic array of 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns, according to the event’s official Web site.

This New Year’s ball is also greener, consuming 10 to 20 percent less energy than last year’s ball and 78 percent less energy than the 2007 ball. It uses the equivalent amount of energy per hour as two traditional home ovens.

The 2010 numerals are also more energy efficient, as Duracell Batteries set up a lab in which visitors ride stationary bikes to provide the power to light the numbers on the ball.

Time Square has served as one of the most popular sites of New Year’s festivities since 1904, though the New Year’s Eve ball made its inaugural drop down the flagpole at One Times Square in 1907. That first ball, built with iron and wood, featured a hundred 25-watt light bulbs and was designed by Jacob Starr, a young immigrant metalworker.

The New Year’s Eve ball has beamed every year since with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when America was embroiled in World War II and New York City observed a city-wide “dimout” to cut energy costs.

As in previous years, security was tight. Police searched garages and subway tunnels for bombs, trash cans were removed and mailboxes and manhole covers were sealed. Detectives were asking hotel and restaurant personnel if they had noticed any suspicious people or activity.

If the White House thought they could slip the bailout of Fannie and Freddie through by announcing it in a Christmas Eve news dump, think again. Dennis Kucinich just released this statement:

On Christmas Eve, they also announced $4-$6 million compensation packages for their top executives. But they’ll start foreclosing on homeowners again in January.

Fannie and Freddie have been corrupt cesspools for years, a place where presidents of both parties parked friends like Dennis DeConcini and Rahm Emanuel, giving them lucrative spots on the board of directors as political payoff. As government sponsored entities (GSEs) selling shares to the public, they operate like hedge funds that socialize losses and privatize profits. From the LA Times last year:

It appears they kept looking. The Democrats have been too intimidated by leadership to start looking into the utter corruption at these entities, but Kucinich just doesn’t care.

This is the latest of this inexcusable situation:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) – The pair of uninvited guests at last week’s White House state dinner have been summoned to appear before a Congressional panel later this week, the committee chair said Monday.

The Salahis unabashedly talked their way into the event honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh………MORE

Swayze died of pancreatic cancer.

Swayze’s doctor, Dr. George Fisher, revealed in early March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from the disease.

“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,” Wolf said in a statement Monday.

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Today, we are holding an H1N1 Influenza Preparedness Summit in conjunction with the White House to discuss our Nation’s preparedness. We are working together to monitor the spread of 2009-H1N1 and to prepare to initiate a voluntary fall vaccination program against the 2009-H1N1 flu virus, assuming we have a safe vaccine and do not see changes in the virus that would render the vaccine ineffective.

But the most critical steps to mitigating the effects of 2009-H1N1 won’t take place in Washington — they will take place in your homes, schools and community businesses.

Taking precautions for this fall’s flu season is a responsibility we all share. Visit Flu.gov to make sure you are ready and learn how you can help promote public awareness.

We are making every effort to have a safe and effective vaccine available for distribution as soon as possible, but our current estimate is that it won’t be ready before mid-October. This makes individual prevention even more critical. Wash your hands regularly. Take the necessary precautions to stay healthy and if you do get sick, stay home from work or school.

We are doing everything possible to prepare for the fall flu season and encourage all Americans to do the same — this is a shared responsibility and now is the time to prepare. Please visit Flu.gov to learn what steps you can take to prepare and do your part to mitigate the effects of H1N1.

U.S. government Web sites — including those of the White House and the State Department — have been under attack since the Fourth of July, along with financial and commercial sites like Yahoo Finance and the New York Stock Exchange, cybersecurity experts said Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Security, which is one of the targets, according to a security expert, confirmed that the attacks were taking place.

Web sites in South Korea, including the president’s, were targets of the same attack, said Jose Nazario, manager of security research at Arbor Networks in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Washington Post said it, too, had been attacked.

There is some indication that the attack comes from China, Nazario said, but he added that he could not be certain of the origin. Even if it is coming from China, it would be difficult to determine whether officials or individual hackers were responsible.

He said the attack was of moderate size, involving “a few tens of thousands” of infected computers “around the world.”

“We measured a peak of 25 megabits/second” in data transmission, he said, calling it “about the size of a big PowerPoint presentation, well in the garden variety of what we see.”

But other cybersecurity experts said that even if the current attack was not particularly worrisome, it was a window into potentially more serious problems.

Jim Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said that the attack was simple and primitive but that the fact that it worked on some agencies shows the government is still “disorganized.”

Some parts of the government were able to “beat this off,” while others haven’t, he said.

“That’s a problem. Everyone is marching to a different drummer,” he said. “We should have been able to beat this back. Someone needs to step back and say why not.”

Alan Paller of the Sans Institute said the attack “is not a small thing.”

“This is a harbinger of how people who are angry or at war with us can effect government Web sites,” he said, adding that he did not have direct knowledge of the current attacks.

Disabling a Web site matters, he said. “If people rely on that Web site for information, it’s important. If it stops government from functioning, it matters.”

The top U.S. military officer said Wednesday that cybersecurity is “a growing concern.”

“I grow increasingly concerned about the cyber world and the attacks, whether they’re from individual hackers or state entities, and that’s something we all need to be concerned about,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Web sites are facing a “distributed denial of service” attack or, more specifically, an “http flood attack,” in which computers are infected with a virus that makes them repeatedly try to access a Web page. The increased demand can overload the page’s servers, cutting off access.

The malware, or the program that is running the attack, does not seem to be stealing information from the computers it infects or the ones it attacks, Nazario said.

Amy Kudwa, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said no data has been stolen from any of the government Web sites. She stressed that the attacks were against some of the government’s public Web sites, not internal ones.

People trying to access the affected sites might have had difficulty getting into them or may have found the sites sluggish, she said.

Kudwa would not say which government agency sites were affected.

The department warned other federal departments and agencies, as well as partner organizations, about the activity and advised them of steps to take to help mitigate such attacks, she said.

“We see attacks on federal networks every day, and measures in place have minimized the impact to federal Web sites,” she said.

White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said the “attacks had absolutely no affect on the White House’s day-to-day operations” but added that some “visitors from regions in Asia may have been affected.”

A South Korean presidential office spokesman said the attack on their computers only slowed down the system and caused no damage.

Workers are in the process of figuring out where the attack came from, the spokesman said.

Unnamed South Korean parliamentary sources said Wednesday that North Korea appeared to have orchestrated the attack, the official South Korean news agency reported. The sources cited informal reports by the country’s top spy agency.

But Nazario said he had seen “nothing that would suggest that North Korea is an accurate claim.”

He said his company was one of many working with “appropriate authorities around the world” to stop the attack.

He said that progress was being made but that the attack was not over.