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The president of local biotechnology firm GenPhar is accused of defrauding the federal government out of at least $3.6 million the company received to research vaccines against deadly diseases. The charges are contained in federal indictments unsealed today that also accuse GenPhar president Jian-Yun Dong and his estranged wife of making at least $31,000 in illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and his political action committee. Dong, who also is chief executive officer of GenPhar, is accused of submitting false claims to federal agencies, converting grant funds to his own use and committing wire fraud to scam the...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicted Tuesday that House Democrats would retain their majority in Congress. On her way in to meet with Democrats just returning to Capitol Hill after a six-week summer break, Pelosi told reporters she was confident in her party's chances of prevailing in November's congressional elections. "I am not yielding one grain of sand. I want to have the same big, strong majority that we have," said Pelosi, D-California.

Vietnamese Hoarding U.S. Dollars As Dong Crashes Post-Emergency Devaluation Vincent Fernando Feb. 11, 2010, 12:01 AM Vietnam's currency, the dong, is crashing after the government was forced to devalue it by 3.4% against the U.S. dollar for the second time in under three months. The new fixed rate for the currency is 18,544 dong per dollar, versus 17,941 previously. The central bank also imposed a 1% ceiling on interest rates for dollar deposits at banks in a bid to disincentive the hoarding of dollars. Yet the black market thinks that the government will have to slash the dong's exchange rate...

Vietnam devalued its currency by 5.4 per cent against the dollar yesterday and raised interest rates by a full percentage point in an effort to cut inflation and underpin the beleaguered dong. The dong has come under pressure recently as inflation started climbing and domestic demand, driven by the country's $8bn stimulus programme, drove the current account deficit to close to $2bn a month. It was trading on the grey market at 19,800 to the dollar on Tuesday but came back to 19,500 after the government move. Analysts, however, questioned whether financial markets would believe the latest move had put...

Hanoi - Vietnam's central bank devalued the country's currency by nearly 2 per cent Wednesday and raised interest rates to fight rising trade deficits and inflation. The bank lowered the official exchange rate of the Vietnamese to 16,461 to the dollar, from the previous peg of 16,139. The black market exchange rate had jumped to over 18,000 over the weekend, before falling back to about 17,300 Wednesday, with the high rates driven by worries over inflation and the trade deficit. The bank also raised the prime interest rate from 11 to 13 per cent, the third increase this year. Prime...

A lone llama has been roaming the fields of Pitt Meadows since last week, managing to evade capture and creating a stir in the suburban community. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and residents have tried unsuccessfully to capture the llama, which has been visiting farms looking for food. Macky Bains, who owns a cranberry farm and a turf farm, says the llama has damaged his fields and overstayed its welcome. "It was running around on the grass and it was chewing up the turf, and we have got some netting on the fields to hold the...

Danish companies say they wish to avoid 'controversy' Ashley Perry, EJP The main sponsors of the Danish soccer team, Arla Foods and the DONG energy company, are to remove their logos from the national team shirts for their game against Israel on 1 March. A spokesman for Arla Foods, which is bearing the brunt of the Arab world’s boycott of Danish products, said it does not want any extra controversy. "We would like to maintain the focus on soccer, so we will hold off with putting the Arla logo on until the next match," Arla spokesperson Astrid Gade-Nielsen told the...

A funny thing happened over the weekend to the big "Cops Gone Wild" video scandal in San Francisco -- it started getting very quiet. Apparently, Mayor Gavin Newsom and his handlers realized that while the videos were bad, they didn't quite prove -- at least in the public's mind -- Newsom's charge that they were evidence of a "deep-seated" culture of sexism, racism and homophobia running through the department. By Sunday, the message was going out that Newsom -- having made his point and formed a "blue-ribbon" commission to look into the department's culture -- was now ready to get...

Local bomb suspect posed as ministerFeds say Reamstown man who was angry over plastic surgery mailed explosive to Chicago doctor. By Tim Mekeel Lancaster New EraPublished: Apr 15, 2005 2:00 PM EST LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - A Reamstown man, unhappy with his penile-enlargement surgery, allegedly posed as a Methodist minister when he mailed a small bomb to his Chicago surgeon, a new indictment says.Blake R. Steidler, 24, of East Church Street, was charged by a federal grand jury on Wednesday with four counts of wrongdoing. He faces up to life in prison and a $1 million penalty. The eight-page indictment...

Last Saturday night brought His Imperial Highness Prince Nguyen Phuc Buu Chanh of Vietnam, Regent of the Imperial Dynasty and President of the Vietnamese Constitutional Monarchist League, to Cornell. The Prince, a member of the Vietnamese imperial family gave a lecture, entitled "Revival of Vietnamese Culture: The Nguyen Dynasty," before a crowd of about 50 people. Maria Nguyen '05, vice president of the Cornell Vietnamese Association sang the American national anthem and then played the national anthem of South Vietnam. Aided by PowerPoint slides, Prince Buu Chanh then began his lecture speaking from a podium draped with the American flag...

The Imperial Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam is politically pressuring the government of Vietnam to protect the liberty, religious rights of the Vietnamese people as well as the culture, traditions, languages of the Montagnards and Khmer Krom in Vietnam. (PRWEB) October 23, 2004 -- Today, Vietnam is experiencing a minor period of outward growth. Even the most dedicated Communists are abandoning old communist economic policies, which have proven to be ineffective and sometimes harmful. Capitalism is being introduced, with the Communist Party maintained only as a vehicle to exercise absolute control of the elite Party leaders over the common people. The...

Aurora,IL (PRWEB) September 8, 2004 -- OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS - From the Office of the Leadership of the The Imperial Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam & Vietnamese Constitutional Monarchist League: His Imperial Highness Prince Nguyen Phuc Buu Chanh of Vietnam, Regent of the Imperial Nguyen Dynasty and President of The Vietnamese Constitutional Monarchist League denounces the Communist Government on the return of United States Servicemen MIA or possible POWs’ and Human Rights Record. It has been stated by American Marines and Army Soldiers who are in Vietnam searching for MIA's, that there is corruption within the government of Vietnam. They stated that...

January 16, 2004, 7:12 a.m. How Much Does Dean Get? The frontrunner's understanding of the terror threat. By Joel C. Rosenberg It's easy, indeed tempting, for Republicans to write off Howard Dean as "another McGovernite Democrat who can't win." Maybe he can't. But stranger things have happened. Think back a decade. How many Republicans really believed on the eve of the 1992 Iowa caucuses that Bill and Hillary Clinton would control the White House and the U.S. national-security apparatus for the next eight years? That said, it's time for the media to turn up the heat and require Dean to...

Manchester United, which has a huge following in Asia, is close to signing its first Chinese player. Manager Alex Ferguson wouldn't name the player but he is widely known to be Dong Fangzhuo, an 18-year-old striker who spent a month on trial at United in September. "We're signing a Chinese boy, hopefully in the next few weeks," Ferguson said on the club's Website. Dong plays for Chinese champions Dalian Shide. He scored in United's reserve game in September. "What United have offered is not meant to be disclosed, but I can assure you that it is more than a million...

<p>A major worry among U.S. officials is that the upcoming test, which would be the third in recent weeks, will be a second flight test of its new long-range Taepo-Dong 2 ballistic missile, which was flight-tested for the first time in August 1998.</p>

LEONIA, N.J. -- There's a dispute going to court in New Jersey over what can politely be called the disposal of canine waste. Rick Heckman is accused of trespassing with his dog Shiner on William Ramos' narrow strip of grass in front of his home. Shiner apparently left a calling card behind. Ramos says there is an ordinance in Leonia that a dog owner must get the property owner's permission before the dog is allowed to do what it needs to do. Heckman says the strip of grass is a public right-of-way. A prosecutor says there is some logic...