National / International News

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is condemned by the US, Israel and the UN for branding Zionism a "crime against humanity".

A selection of photos from the news

Rick Snyder said the city could soon have a new overseer, expected to bring the city's dire financial situation to order. Snyder said while it was a sad day, it was "also a day of optimism and promise."

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

On the occasion of the first day of the sequester -- the across the board cuts to the federal budget that kick in today -- we thought it'd be useful to ask the question: What might the economy look like March 1, 2014, if Congress didn't do anything to change them.

Let’s do a little time travel.

Imagine it’s March 1, 2014 and you’re at the airport. Cuts to the Homeland Security Budget would likely result in fewer TSA workers, meaning it will likely take longer to get through security lines. Meanwhile more than a hundred air traffic control towers at airports across the country are set to operate under limited hours, or close entirely. The combination could result “longer lines at the airport, flight delays -- that makes workers less productive, it makes businesses less willing to have their employees travel, so that could be a drag on growth,” says economist Gus Faucher, at PNC financial.

Bottlenecks at shipping ports could be another ripple effect. Customs and Border Patrol are preparing to furlough approximately 10 percent of its daily work force, meaning there could be fewer people to do things like inspecting imported cargo containers for radioactive material -- a practice put in place after the 911 terrorist attacks.

“If the shipping lines start seeing a huge bottleneck here, they're going to start planning around it and planning to move more cargo to other ports” in Canada and Mexico,” says Daniel Yi, spokesman for the Port of Long Beach, which supports 300,000 jobs and $155 billion worth of trade.

But before we get too doom and gloom, some economists see potential upsides to the sequester. A reduction in federal debt could rev up confidence on Wall Street. If the government is spending less, and borrowing less, that might free up tight credit, prompting businesses and banks that are currently investing in treasury bonds to look elsewhere. Private capital would have to “go out and lend to other institutions—businesses and households,” says Faucher.

A happy chain reaction could ensue, that stimulates the economy. “Businesses go out and invest in equipment and software and buildings to make their firms more productive and increase profits, so that would be a positive to the economy,” he says. “And households would be borrowing to purchase a new home, or cars or appliances.”

Mark Zandi, economist at Moody’s Analytics, predicts the housing market, which is slowly recovering right now, will “help provide enough juice to keep us out of recession despite the fiscal headwinds.”

And in a sequester best-case-scenario, the housing market could even get a boost, says housing economist Nic Retsinas, at the Harvard Business School. “If the result is a signal to the market and investors that we are on a road to a more balanced budget, that we are on the road to a more efficient and more effective government, then that could lead to more private capital coming in to the housing market,” he says.

But Retsinas cautions, those gains could be dampened by sequester cuts that would create a backlog in mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration. In the last few years, he says, FHA loans have made up almost 35 percent of home sales.

Retsinas, housing for low-income families would likely by hurt by the sequester. So, by March 1, 2014, “if you were very poor, and you were a beneficiary of federal housing programs, you might have lost your subsidy,” he says. “If you were in a shelter, you might find that the doors were closed.”

Lloyds bank narrows its losses for 2012 to £570m, from £3.5bn the previous year, and says the loss was mainly due to provisions for PPI mis-selling.

The Supreme Court heard arguments this week on the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. It's been called the most effective civil rights law in U.S. history, but plaintiffs say it's time to throw out some key provisions. Host Michel Martin speaks with law professor Spencer Overton and the Heritage Foundation's Hans Von Spakovsky.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

From skinny teenager to Premier League great

The prospect of an early repeat vote in Italy to break the February election gridlock recedes after the outgoing head of state rejects the idea.

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice for his role in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Several states are scrambling to decide what information about quality would be useful to the millions of people and small businesses expected to shop for insurance coverage in new marketplaces beginning in October.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The president met with Congressional leaders at the White House. But as before, Democratic and Republican leaders could not agree on a way forward. So at the end of the day, $85 billion worth of automatic spending cuts start kicking in.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

An appeals court overruled decisions that the U.S. government had to provide broad access to its evidence against Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, in order to satisfy the requirements of an extradition hearing.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

A couple of years ago, Brent Goldberg's two young sons downloaded "Dolphin Play," a free game onto their iPod Touch. In the game, you raise dolphins and other fish in a tank. There are also spending opportunities. You would get coins and exchange them for virtual fish. In the case of Goldberg's seven-year-old son, $50 worth of virtual fish.

"I found out two hours later when the credit card company called and said I had some weird charges coming through," he says. "I'm like, 'Oh, where's it from?' They're like, 'Oh, it's from Apple.' I'm like, 'Boys, what are you doing?'"

That cry has echoed through homes across the country -- roughly 23 million homes. That's how many families Apple will compensate under the terms of a proposed legal settlement. Two years ago, peeved moms and dads filed a class-action lawsuit, alleging that Apple didn't have proper parental controls on free mobile-device games. That allowed children to rack up big iTunes charges on so-called "in-app purchases." Depending on the game, these purchases could give players a bigger sword, better house or bonus points.

Parents like Mike Bertrand got stuck with stuck paying for his children's iTunes spree.

"The kids were very surprised to learn that they were spending real money and really confused about it," he says.

Bertrand's three young kids started playing a free iPad game called "Tap Fish."

"It's a little virtual aquarium, but if you want to buy different tanks or you want to buy little castles or little fish for your virtual fish tank or different species of fish, you have to use what appears to be play money," he says.

It's not play money. Bertrand realized what was going on when he noticed an email receipt from the iTunes store for $150.

"I started going through some other ones that were trapped in my spam folder and found that over the course of about a week, my kids tallied about $1,500 on the game," he says.

Apple reimbursed both Betrand and Goldberg. The two fathers didn't join the class-action suit. In agreeing to settle that case, Apple will give many parents a $5 iTunes gift card. Those parents whose kids' fishy charges topped $30 will get cash refunds. The settlement adds up to at least $100 million.

The question is whether the supposedly free games represent a deceptive business practice, says Colby Zintl with the advocacy group Common Sense Media. She applauds the settlement and points out Apple has added some barriers to stop unauthorized iTunes purchases. There's now a setting on iPhones, iPads and other devices that requires a password before any real money can be spent in a game or app. Still, Zintl takes issue with some free games aimed at children.

"The ability to press a button and move to a next level and you're charging your parents's credit card, you have to question what the business practices are," she says.

Those business practices grew out of the app marketplace, says Rene Ritchie of tech news site iMore.

"When the app store originally launched in 2008, there were apps like 'Super Monkey Ball' and they were $10," he says. adding that no one wanted to pay that much.

"And this model emerged called freemium," Ritchie says.

"Freemium" means the game itself is free, but things inside the game costs money.

"Instead of having to earn something in a game, you just buy it," Ritchie says.

Betting on impatience paid off. Ritchie says all of the top-grossing games right now are free...ish.

Mike Bertrand has found a way to keep his children's games genuinely free.  "My kids don't know my iTunes password anymore," he laughs.

US political leaders meet for a deadline-day summit at the White House as hopes fade for a deal to avoid $85bn (£56bn) in budget cuts.

Local authorities in England have been told how they will share a £4bn allocation of funds to provide extra school places and repair school buildings over the next two years.

Lotus's Romain Grosjean sets the pace on a rain-interrupted second day of the final pre-season test.

Activity in the UK's manufacturing sector unexpectedly shrank in February, according to a closely watched survey.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk says the resupply mission to the space station experienced a thruster problem, which appears to have been at least partially solved.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Giant cranes have been transported by a specially built ship from Shanghai to help build the UK's newest deep water container port on the Thames Estuary.

Broadcaster Andrew Marr leaves hospital almost two months after suffering a stroke, and will continue his recovery at home, the BBC says.