Sunday, Dec 14th
Last update09:33:21 AM GMT
A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems.
In the survey, commissioned by the rig’s owner, Transocean, workers said that company plans were not carried out properly and that they “often saw unsafe behaviors on the rig.”
A federal judge ordered the immediate release of a Yemeni man who has spent long periods of captivity in the Guantánamo psych ward in split decisions Wednesday that upheld the indefinite detention of another Yemeni.
The U.S. District Court rulings left the so-called habeas corpus scorecard of government-detainee wins at 15-38. That means that judges have ruled more than twice as often for the release of detainees at Guantánamo, rather than holding them.
A Senate committee approved two proposals today to boost plug-in hybrid vehicles and expand a $25-billion loan program for fuel-efficient vehicles to include commercial trucks and possibly more money.
The Justice Department has concluded its two-year investigation into the Bush administration's firing of U.S. attorneys and will file no charges, people close to the case said Wednesday.
The investigation looked into whether the Bush administration dismissed the nine U.S. attorneys as a way to influence investigations. The scandal contributed to mounting criticism that the administration had politicized the Justice Department, a charge that contributed to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Reveling in victory, President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression, a package that aims to protect consumers and ensure economic stability from Main Street to Wall Street.
The law, pushed through mainly by Democrats in Washington's deeply partisan environment, comes almost two years after the infamous near financial meltdown in 2008 in the United States that was felt around the globe.
Harvard Medical School's 11,000 faculty will face stricter regulations governing their relationship with pharmaceutical and medical device-making companies starting January, under a new policy designed to prevent conflicts of interest with industry.
The new conflict-of-interest rules, unveiled Wednesday after an 18 month-long review, prohibit faculty from giving industry-sponsored talks and accepting personal gifts. The cap on faculty compensation from outside companies has been cut in half to $10,000 annually.
A British team aiming to smash the current land speed record has unveiled the design of a pencil-shaped car that it hopes will travel at more than 1,000 miles an hour.
After three years of aerodynamic research, construction is about to begin on the Bloodhound Supersonic Car which will be powered by a jet engine and a rocket with the record attempt slated for 2012 in South Africa.
The heaviest known star – with a mass 320 times greater than the Sun's – has been discovered at the edge of our galaxy by British astronomers. Scientists at the University of Sheffield found the stellar giant – named R136a1 – using the European southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile and data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
The star is located in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small "satellite" galaxy which orbits the Milky Way. Previously, the heaviest known stars were around 150 times the mass of the Sun, and this was believed to be close to the cosmic size limit.
A global network of lobby groups has spent nearly $100 million since the mid-1980s to preserve the international market for asbestos, a known carcinogen that's taken millions of lives and is banned or restricted in 52 countries, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found in a nine-month investigation.
Backed by public and private money and aided by scientists and friendly governments, the groups helped facilitate the sale of 2.2 million tons of asbestos last year, mostly in developing nations. Anchored by the Montreal-based Chrysotile Institute, the network stretches from New Delhi to Mexico City to the city of Asbest in Russia's Ural Mountains. Its message is that asbestos can be used safely under "controlled" conditions.
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