New rule cracks down on debt settlement industry

Companies that promise to reduce or eliminate credit card balances and other debt for customers will no longer be allowed to charge an upfront fee.

The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday the new rule is intended to crack down on the debt settlement industry, which has flourished in the downturn as borrowers struggle to pay their bills. The rule goes into effect October 27th.

Since the start of the recession, the Better Business Bureau says it received more than 3,500 complaints about debt settlement companies.

15 Killed in Mass Panic at Germany's Love Parade

A stampede inside a tunnel crowded with techno music fans crushed 15 people to death and injured dozens at the Love Parade festival in western Germany on Saturday.

Other revelers initially kept partying at the event in Duisburg, near Duesseldorf, unaware of the deadly panic that started when police tried to prevent thousands more people from entering the already-jammed parade grounds.

Police are still trying to determine exactly what happened at the event that drew hundreds of thousands of people, but the situation was "very chaotic," police commissioner Juergen Kieskemper said.

He said just before the stampede occurred at about 5 p.m. (1500 GMT, 11 a.m. EDT), police had closed off the area where the parade was being held because it was already overcrowded. They told revelers over loudspeakers to turn around and walk back in the other direction before the panic broke out, he said.

Emergency workers had trouble getting to the victims in the large tunnel that leads to the grounds.

A young man told WDR television that he was among those caught up in the crush.

"Both my legs were trapped — then, thank God, somebody helped me up, then I helped another up ... and then, kind of by luck, we were pushed back out of the crowd," he said. The station did not identify him.

Another young man who wasn't named told n-tv television the tunnel became so crowded that people fell over.

"It got tighter and tighter from minute to minute and at some point everyone just wanted out, and they only saw the two exits to the right and left," he said. "The pressure from behind become so high that ... we couldn't do anything any more. People were just pushed together until they fell over."

Duisburg city officials decided at a crisis meeting to let the parade go on to prevent more panic and another stampede, said city spokesman Frank Kopatschek.

"The crisis meeting determined not to stop the event because at the moment there are too many people on the grounds," he said.

Sabotage Blamed In India Train Crash Horror

More than 60 people are dead after a train crash at a station in eastern India, with one government official suggesting sabotage could be to blame.

A high-speed service was pulling away from Sainthia station in Bengal when it slammed into a passenger train waiting at a platform.

The force of the crash ripped the roof off one carriage and it landed on a bridge above the tracks.

Police said at least 61 people were killed, including the two drivers of the express train, and around 125 were injured.

Railway minister Mamata Banerjee said the incident was being investigated for signs of sabotage.

"We have some doubts in our mind," she said.

"We are still finding out the details and we will take all necessary steps and action and find out who is behind this calamity."

One Indian TV channel quoted unnamed railway officials as saying signal "tampering" could not be ruled out.

Less than two months ago a train derailment in West Bengal was blamed on Maoist rebels.

Some 145 people were killed when a passenger train came off the tracks and was hit by a cargo service heading in the opposite direction.

At Sainthia station, a huge crowd gathered as people climbed through the wreckage searching for survivors.

Officials said most of the dead were in the unreserved carriages, which are usually tightly packed.

Zsa Zsa Gabor reportedly hospitalized after falling out of bed

Ohh Zsa Zsa Gabor

Zsa Zsa Gabor is in hospital today after she fell of bed and broke several bones, reports say.

The 93-year-old actress and former beauty queen was watching Jeopardy in bed when tragedy struck. USA Today reported:
“She was watching her favorite show … when the phone rang,” her husband Prince Frederic von Anhalt says.
“She reached over to pick it up and fell.”
Ms. Gabor was rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center from her Bel Air mansion. Her publicist told the L.A. Times that Ms. Gabor likely has several broken bones:
“She’s fragile,” he said, but “she’s still very bright — she still makes me laugh. Her faculties are intact, but her body’s failing her.”
CNN reports that Ms. Gabor broke her hip.
Ms. Gabor is the last surviving sister of the famous trio of Gabor girls; the others were Magda and Eva Gabor.
A timeline of Zsa Zsa’s recent mishaps:1989: Ms. Gabor slaps a Beverly Hills police officer after she is pulled over because the car’s licence plates are expired. She was later found guilty of assault.
2002: A car accident leaves Ms. Gabor partially paralyzed to the point she requires a wheelchair.
July 2005: Ms. Gabor suffers a massive stroke that leaves her in critical condition in hospital. She has surgery to remove a blockage in her carotid artery.
September 2007: Ms. Gabor has surgery to deal with a leg infection. The infection is the result of her use of a wheelchair and walker.
July 2010: Ms. Gabor falls out of bed while watching Jeopardy, reportedly breaking a hip.

No leak from Gulf of Mexico oil well

British oil giant BP has said there has benn no sign of any oil leaking from its rouge well in the Gulf of Mexico since 24 hours. Further tests showed barely any pressure rising in the capped gusher.

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Goldman paying $550M to settle civil fraud charge

Resolving a high-profile government case linked to the mortgage meltdown, Goldman Sachs & Co. has agreed to pay a record $550 million to settle civil fraud charges that it misled buyers of complex investments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement Thursday with the Wall Street titan, just hours after Congress gave final approval to legislation imposing the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street firms since the Great Depresssion.

For Goldman, it was a chance to put behind it a case that had tarnished its reputation after it emerged relatively unscathed from the financial crisis. For the SEC, emerging from the embarrassment of a series of lapses, the charges and the settlement were a high-stakes opportunity to prove it could be tough on Wall Street.

And the agency's sweeping investigation of the conduct of financial firms in the run-up to the mortgage market collapse could bring more cases.

The deal calls for Goldman to pay a $535 million fine and $15 million in restitution of fees it collected. Of the total $550 million, $300 million will go to the government and $250 million goes to compensate two European banks that lost money on their investments.

The penalty was said to be the largest against a Wall Street firm in SEC history. But the settlement amounts to less than 5 percent of Goldman's 2009 net income of $12.2 billion after payment of dividends to preferred shareholders - or a little more than two weeks of net income.

Word that Goldman had settled began leaking about a half-hour before stock markets closed and appeared to please investors. Goldman had been trading at about $140 a share. The stock rose to close at $145.22, up $6.16, and shot up to $151.95 in after-hours trading.

The SEC had alleged that Goldman sold mortgage-related investments without telling buyers that the securities had been crafted with input from a client that was betting on them to fail.

The securities cost investors close to $1 billion while helping Goldman client Paulson & Co. capitalize on the housing bust, the SEC said in the charges filed April 16.

Goldman acknowledged Thursday that its marketing materials for the deal at the center of the charges omitted key information for buyers.

But the firm did not admit legal wrongdoing.

In a statement, Goldman said "it was a mistake" for the marketing materials to leave out that a Goldman client helped craft the portfolio and that the client's financial interests ran counter to those of investors.

"We believe that this settlement is the right outcome for our firm, our shareholders and our clients," Goldman's statement said.

"Even if the penalty was lower than the market expected, the fact that Goldman admitted that it made misleading and incomplete disclosures to its clients vindicates the SEC's legal theory for the future," Coffee said. "You have to understand that the defendant almost never makes such a concession in SEC settlements."

The settlement is subject to approval by a federal judge in New York.

The SEC said its case continues against Fabrice Tourre, a Goldman vice president accused of shepherding the deal.

Tourre is still employed by Goldman and remains on paid administrative leave, according to a person familiar with his status who wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Goldman is paying Tourre's legal expenses, the source said.

The Justice Department opened a criminal inquiry of Goldman in the spring, following a criminal referral by the SEC.

Of the $550 million Goldman agreed to pay, $250 million will go to the two big losers in the deal. German bank IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG will get $150 million. Royal Bank of Scotland, which bought ABN AMRO Bank, will receive $100 million.

Goldman also will pay back $15 million in fees it collected for managing the deal. The remaining $535 million is considered a civil penalty.

Paulson & Co. was not charged by the SEC.

The SEC brought the case after a series of embarrassing blunders - most notably its failure to detect the massive Ponzi scheme run by Bernard Madoff and the alleged $7 billion fraud by R. Allen Stanford. The Goldman case was a high-profile opportunity for the agency to prove it could be tough on Wall Street.

Jacob Frenkel, a former SEC enforcement attorney, said the SEC met that objective.

"This was a bet-the-agency case," Frenkel said. "They had a lot at stake here, and this did wonders to re-establish a strong enforcement image and presence."

Goldman dodged major risks as well. The company quieted a source of public criticism and can return to focusing on its business.

Goldman's legal troubles may not be over, though. Investors who lost money on the transactions could still sue the firm for civil damages, according to Thomas Ajamie, a Houston-based defense lawyer who specializes in financial fraud cases.

"Nothing stops the investors from filing their own claims," Ajamie said.

The chairman of a Senate panel that interrogated Goldman officials at a hearing after the SEC filed its charges applauded the settlement.

"Goldman played fast and loose ... misled its clients, and got called on it today," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Thursday. "A key factor in the settlement is that Goldman acknowledges wrongdoing, in addition to paying a fine and changing its practices."

Put Windows 98 Plus! themes on Windows 7

Do you miss Windows 98?  Well, with this download and a bit of tweaking you can at least put the look of the Plus! themes on your Windows 7 computer.  Download the themes here.  If the link gets broken, the download page with the provided instructions is here.  I'm going to improve them here. 

The download is a .zip file - double click on it to open it.  Right click the Plus! folder and click Copy.  Now open Computer, double click on C: drive, and then double click on Program Files.  Right click somewhere in an empty area of the folder and click Paste.  Now double click on the Plus! folder.  Right click on Themes.exe and click Properties. Click on the Compatibility tab and in Compatibility mode section, check Run this program in compatibility mode.  From the drop down menu, select Windows 98. Click Apply and then OK.

Now double click Themes.exe and from its drop down menu select the theme you want to apply.  You'll find that your wallpaper, cursor, font, etc. all have gone old school.  Blue screens of death originally included with Windows 98 are not included in this download.