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A 50-year-old Muslim man, who allegedly made a blasphemous statement against Prophet Muhammad, was beaten to death in Kano on Saturday. The man was killed at Sheka Aci Lafiya quarters when some angry Muslim youths besieged his house and beat him to a state of coma. He died shortly after a team of police and Hisbah officials rescued him from the mob, the police said. The man died as he was being rushed to the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital. Witnesses told Daily Trust that the man, though a Muslim, made a statement residents considered as blasphemous against the Holy Prophet...

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Dennis Pflueger and his wife won a rent-free year in a nice new house in an expensive subdivision not far from the headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. As part of the prize, they then have the option to buy the four-bedroom home for $452,000. Mr. Pflueger, a telephone-cable installer who describes himself as an "old redneck," is in the middle of his free year. But the Pfluegers are a bit lonely. Just one other family lives in any of the 28 new or unfinished houses on Foxboro Court. ...Since real-estate tanked, many new planned communities across the...

More News on the Tolkien vs. New Line Lawsuit July 20th, 2008 by Altaira Thanks again to Voronwe_the_Faithful for posting another update on the Tolkien vs. New Line Lawsuit on our message boards: The plaintiffs filed a First Amended Complaint last Monday (which I believe was the last day for them to do so). They have dropped the fiduciary duty cause of action (as expected), but they have asserted new allegations to support the fraud cause of action. They added more specific claims as to how they contend that New Line misrepresented the amount of expenses that it had in...

This past week, Congress had an opportunity to permanently repeal the death tax by amending the Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007 to include language that ends the estate tax forever. This would have been a good provision in an overall bad bill. 212 Democrats were enough to keep this spectre looming on the horizon if the Bush tax cuts are not renewed in 2011. The bill passed without this silver lining and now we face big in increases taxes and penalties in the next five years. The underlying attitude behind this bill, and the estate tax, is what I...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson offered a sobering view Tuesday of the pressure the housing market was having across the country, saying the decline stood "as the most significant current risk to our economy." Mr. Paulson even acknowledged that problems in credit, mortgage, and housing markets were much more severe than anticipated. "The ongoing housing correction is not ending as quickly as it might have appeared late last year," he said in a speech. "And it now looks like it will continue to adversely impact our economy, our capital markets, and many homeowners for some time yet." Housing prices have...

Wall Street extended its retreat Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the night before that the slumping housing market remains a "significant drag" on the economy. Bernanke's comments during a speech at the New York Economic Club revived concerns that a recovery from the summer's credit crisis might take longer than expected _ a sobering thought for investors, who are sifting through mixed third-quarter earnings and watching energy costs rise. The stock market had its biggest drop in more than five weeks Monday after a consortium of banks led by Citigroup Inc., which reported a steep profit decline...

"Today the Senate has rightly rejected another shortsighted attempt to repeal the estate tax. It is my hope that today’s vote sends a clear message that another tax cut for the wealthiest Americans at a cost of $1 trillion is exactly the wrong priority for this nation. Indeed, we are still in a time of record deficits, sacrifices are being made by our troops in harms way in Iraq and Afghanistan and many areas of the Gulf Coast remain unlivable with its residents dispersed throughout the country. We have raised the debt limit to $9 trillion. Foreign countries now finance...

The men originally named as trustees of James Brown's estate haven't exactly lived up to the nature of their job titles yet. A South Carolina judge ordered ex-trustee David Cannon to return $370,000 to the Godfather of Soul's estate after special administrators appointed to monitor Brown's assets determined that he may have misappropriated up to $7 million. Cannon resigned from his position as coexecutor of Brown's will last month after he was ordered to cut a check back to the estate for $350,000. He now has 10 days to fork over the additional sum and 20 days to pay $30,000...

What price tag would you put on your house: a real estate agent's suggested price, the price a nearby home recently sold at, an appraiser's estimate, or another number? ...Location, location, location" still applies — now more than ever, agents and appraisers say. Home values can vary by whether the neighborhood's clean and quiet, in a good school district or even by its proximity to an upscale supermarket. So factor area amenities into the pricing equation ...Great kitchens and baths, with new fixtures, help sell homes. But buyers are getting more energy-conscious and real estate agents say efficient heating and...

Very soon a new real-estate tax may be introduced in Russia, the tax, which was originally thought to redress social injustice, to oblige rich Russians to pay more for their apartments. However, the true consequences the tax will cause can hardly be predicted, as it is common practice for the Russian government to introduce a tax without proper preparation works. Russian civil servants obviously think that only rich people can own big apartments in fashionable districts, that is why the new tax isn’t planned for 90% of the country’s inhabitants, whose apartments’ size matches the “tax-free minimal living room”. The...

John Edwards appeared on yesterday's "Meet the Press," and host Tim Russert questioned him to the point of overkill on Iraq (more than half the interview), which was still useful since it revealed many self contradictions in his views on the war. He also talked about his plan to raise taxes in order to create universal health care (or, Breck-care). His primary opponents, check; his poll ratings in Iowa, check...and the nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain?! Yeah, check that one too. Gay marriage, the 2004 campaign, his current campaign strategy, and Barack Obama -- all covered. But what did notoriously...

I've discovered a "missing link" in Alabama's state law regarding estates. It turns out that step families or adults who live together in a home that only one of the adults own have no estate rights should one of the adults die. I spoke to the my local state legislative office last Fall (prior to the elections) and they were surprised that this loophole exists. Here is the body of the letter that I emailed to them explaining my particular situation: My elderly mother lives in my late Stepfather’s house. (It is a large 3 bedroom, 2 bath home and...

LONDON (AFX) - The dollar's early afternoon recovery, in the wake of a solid US jobs report for August, came to an abrupt halt on mounting concerns that the US housing market is teetering on the verge of collapse. The National Association of Realtors revealed that pending home sales slumped by 7 pct in July to their lowest level in three years. Its pending home sales index, based on contracts signed in July, fell to a seasonally adjusted 105.6 in July from a downwardly revised 113.5 in June. Paul Ashworth, senior US economist at Capital Economics, said outright falls in...

They promise the American Dream: A home of your own -- with ultra-low rates and payments anyone can afford. Now, the trap has sprung For cash-strapped homeowners, it was a pitch they couldn't refuse: Refinance your mortgage at a bargain rate and cut your payments in half. New home buyers, stretching to afford something in a super-heated market, didn't even need to produce documentation, much less a downpayment. Those who took the bait are in for a nasty surprise. While many Americans have started to worry about falling home prices, borrowers who jumped into so-called option ARM loans have another,...

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Sales and home prices fell at a faster clip than expected and inventories climbed further in August as the housing market continued to deteriorate, according to a Banc of America Real Estate Agent survey.And market experts believe the housing downturn will likely last longer than homebuilding stocks currently reflect.The study, released Tuesday, shows consumer sentiment toward buying a home soured in August."Consumers are shifting from a mindset of waiting for a better price to one where they do not want to buy at this time, no matter what the price is," the study said."We think this...

Sam Webber had it all during the real estate boom. The former accountant bought old houses, fixed them up and resold them for more than he paid. It was a good independent living until four months ago when the bottom fell out of his game. Now as home prices have declined 5 percent from last year in Sacramento County, Webber is what analysts call "upside down." He owes banks more than his two remaining fixer-uppers are worth. He's missed mortgage payments on each. Worse, he's tied up his entire savings and previous profits in remodeling the houses. Webber has one...

REAL bubbles pop. They are fully formed one moment and gone the next. Financial bubbles rarely meet with such a definitive end, which has always been the biggest problem with the metaphor. They let out their air in unpredictable bursts, and it’s usually impossible to figure out whether they have finished deflating or are just starting to.Still, the latest housing numbers seem like they could be a turning point. A real estate crash might not be the most likely outcome, but it certainly seems legitimate to think about what one would look like.The number of building permits being issued is...

The downturn in the US housing market will force businesses to slash 73,000 jobs a month in the new year and could be more damaging to the world economy than the dotcom crash, economists have warned. After official figures last week showed that the number of new homes sold in July was 22 per cent lower than a year earlier, while prices were almost flat, fears are mounting that the 'orderly' housing slowdown predicted by the Federal Reserve will become a full-blown crash. 'Things do seem to be getting worse very quickly. Freefall is a strong word, but I think...

There are four moving parts that make up the Treasure Coast's new housing reality: sellers, brokers, builders and buyers. We asked 10 experts with professional ties to the housing industry in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties 10 questions about the new housing reality. Here's how they explained the new reality to sellers, brokers, builders and buyers. Q: Looking at today's housing market, what in your opinion is the new housing reality on Treasure Coast? A: I don't think you'll see any improvement until late 2007, early 2008, but I'm probably more pessimistic than most. The last two months...

Sellers are offering perks like car leases and granite countertops to drum up interest. If that fails, they may try to sell for less than they owe on the home.

Missed in last week's 'Fed is done' euphoria was more stark evidence the housing bubble has burst. Growing numbers of homeowners can't make their payments.

Sales of existing single-family homes in Palm Beach County posted the biggest second-quarter decline in the state as one of the hottest real estate markets in the nation continued to cool down, a Florida Association of Realtors report released today shows. Indeed, home sales dropped in all 20 markets in Florida, with all but two posting double-digit slides compared with the same quarter a year ago. Chart: Second quarter home sales In Palm Beach County, buyers closed on 2,733 single-family homes in the second quarter, a 36 percent drop from the same period last year, when buyers bought 4,293 single-family...

WASHINGTON - A Republican election-year effort to fuse a cut in inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates with the first minimum wage increase in nearly a decade was rejected by the Senate late Thursday. Republicans needed 60 votes to advance their bill, which links a $2.10 increase in the $5.15 federal minimum wage over three years to reductions an estate taxes next decade. The bill got a 56-42 vote, four votes short of succeeding. The House passed it last Saturday. For Republicans, the combination could have neutralized a Democratic campaign issue while also advancing an estate tax cut, a priority that...

Now that Congress has returned from its Independence Day recess, Republican senators will try again to declare America permanently independent of the death tax. A June 8 bid to scrap this levy fell three votes short, when Democrats (and Republican renegades Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Ohio’s George Voinovich) filibustered. If abolitionists can secure three more votes than the 57 they mustered (opposite 41 opponents), a majority of senators would kill this odious tax for good.

Lawmakers say constituents wary of deficit, help for rich WASHINGTON -- Support for tax cuts -- a signature campaign issue for congressional Republicans -- is waning on Capitol Hill, with the GOP-led Congress reaching its Independence Day recess with no tax-trimming victories to tout in home districts. Senate majority leader Bill Frist last week was forced to withdraw a measure to cut the estate tax, which foes derisively call the ``death tax," because there was not enough support for it. Income tax cuts and credits -- including an expansion of the very popular child tax credit -- are still...

WASHINGTON - The House voted Thursday to cut taxes on inherited estates and relieve thousands of heirs from paying tax collectors beginning next decade. The 269-156 vote, just a few months before an election with control of Congress at stake, saw majority Republicans temporarily setting aside their ambition to abolish the tax. Instead, they voted to exempt from taxation individual estates up to $5 million and couple's estates up to $10 million, while also blunting the impact on even richer families. The compromise measure now goes to the Senate. The White House called the bill "a step in the right...

WASHINGTON - The House's top tax writer revealed a proposal Monday to reduce taxes on inherited estates and rewrite a quirky law that repeals the tax for only one year. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., introduced the bill after Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee asked House GOP leaders for help reducing the estate tax before this fall's midterm elections. Frist lost a bid this month to push forward legislation repealing the tax, unable to overcome opposition from most Democrats and a pair of Republicans. Under President Bush's first tax cut, the estate tax decreases...

Jim and Shelby Griffin figured their condominium was a sure seller. It was a spacious, three-bedroom place close to the best schools and a few minutes’ drive from the Atlantic oceanfront in Virginia Beach, Va.—a city that for two years had been in the grip of a real-estate frenzy. The Griffins had watched friends sell homes within hours of listing them. They’d seen multiple offers above the asking price become common. Through 2004 and most of 2005, prices seemed to leap by the week. “If you found something you liked, you had to make an offer that day,� recalls...

Less than two weeks after former Twins center fielder Kirby Puckett died from a stroke, his ex-wife has taken legal steps to keep the Hall of Famer's personal memorabilia from falling into the wrong hands. In a court document filed Friday in Maricopa County, Ariz., where Puckett lived when he died March 6, Tonya Puckett asked that a special administrator be appointed to inventory the contents of the ballplayer's Scottsdale home, which he shared with his fiancée.

Mystery over London bomber's '£120,000 estate' By Philip Johnston and Paul Stokes (Filed: 07/01/2006) Claims that one of the July 7 suicide bombers left a six-figure fortune mystified investigators last night. A report in The Sun said that Shehzad Tanweer, 22, who detonated a bomb on the Underground at Aldgate station, killing eight people, had an estate valued at £121,000 net of taxes and debts. Yet Tanweer, a British national of Pakistani descent, was a student until 2004 and worked for a few hours a week as an assistant in the fish and chip shop run by his father in...

Real Angry Over Real Estate Why a recent Supreme Court ruling has lots of homeowners hot under the collar By Silla Brush 10/10/05 Stan Dunn and his wife, Barbara, had just sold their home in California and were about to retire to the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga this spring when they heard the rumblings: A developer might tear down their new home--and more than 300 other nearby houses--in order to build a new complex of apartments, townhouses, and businesses to eliminate blight and boost the economy. And while town officials are excited at the prospect, the Dunns say they have...

Lenders are pushing risky loans with low payments.  Desperate home buyers snap them up. Worried yet? NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - Feeling nervous about real estate prices? Who can blame you? Even if you haven't bought or sold lately, the constant debate over whether or not there's a housing bubble is probably making you uneasy.

Vanguard of the Revolution http://www.theVanguard.orgD-DAY FOR THE DEATH TAX by Rod D. Martin, 31 August 2005 Tuesday is D-Day. The Senate votes on whether to do what the House has long since done: end the Death Tax, the most obscene tax in America. And we may -- just may -- have the votes to win. Since its enactment in 1916, the Death Tax has actually cost more jobs and destroyed more small businesses and family farms than it’s raised in government revenue. That’s no accident. Death Tax proponents never meant their handiwork to raise real money: the levy was, from...

WASHINGTON - To slow the rapidly growing Medicaid program, some lawmakers would like to make it harder for the elderly to shelter their assets as a way to have the government cover more of their nursing home expenses. GOP members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked state Medicaid directors on Wednesday what they have done to curb "Medicaid estate planning," in which assets are transferred so people look poor on paper and thus qualify for Medicaid. Federal law subjects beneficiaries to eligibility delays when assets are transferred at below-market values, but estate planning allows people to evade those...

WASHINGTON - Republicans in Congress are renewing their drive to abolish the estate tax for good, but some party leaders fear that their long-held goal remains out of reach despite significant GOP gains in the 2004 congressional elections. As a result, a senior GOP leader has opened negotiations with Democrats on a possible compromise that would keep the tax in place, but apply it only to very large estates. That would allow the vast majority of taxpayers to pass on wealth tax-free to their heirs. But it would mark a retreat by President Bush and GOP activists for full repeal...

Is it a bubble? Experts debate surging US real estate prices Sun Apr 3, 5:32 PM ET  Top Stories - AFP WASHINGTON (AFP) - Is real estate another bubble ready to burst? Experts are cautiously watching the red-hot US housing market, but remain divided on the likelihood of a crash that could be a devastating economic blow. AFP/Getty Images/File Photo   On a national level, home prices last year rose 8.3 percent, the fastest pace in a decade, to a median level of 184,100 dollars, government figures show. But in some big metropolitan areas including Washington and San Francisco, prices...

Commissioner accuses county manager of sweetheart home deal By PETER J. HOVANEC -- MONROE (March 19, 2005) The latest bout in the ongoing dispute between Union County Commissioner Stony Rushing and county manager Mike Shalati came to a head Monday night when Shalati defended himself, yet again, against a number of allegations. Shalati took the podium near the end of Monday's meeting to respond to allegations of impropriety, which Rushing sent to various investigative organizations, as well as numerous county residents. While Shalati contends that he had to defend his professional reputation, Rushing said he just wants the truth to...

OLYMPIA — The state Supreme Court threw out a Washington's estate tax today, causing a potential loss of $430 million over the next two years at a time when lawmakers are already facing a $1.8 billion spending gap. The unanimous decision by the nine-member court concluded that "when an estate has no federal estate tax, there is no obligation to pay any state estate tax." It ordered a refund of estate taxes collected from the Department of Revenue since Jan. 1, 2002. The refund could be as high as $150 million, said Mike Gowrylow, a spokesman for the state agency....

From the Nile to the Euphrates River. It is God's land given to the Jew.

08.01.05 | Various sources report that El Charcote ranch, owned by British Vestey group, was seized this morning by Venezuelan authorities and the army. This is the first illegal seizure that the Chavez regime conducts against private property owned by foreign groups. With this precedent, will anyone be intrepid enough to invest in Venezuela?

I spent 3 days of R & R at the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay last week, and thought it would be fun to spend a day driving around town doing some on the ground reconnaissance of the most expansive real estate bubble in the US. Based on my 8 hour survey of the Summerlin and Anthem suburbs of LV, I can say with 90% certainty that the bubble has burst and prices may spiral down for years to come. The latest finished phase of a Dell Webb development had over a hundred homes that had been completed back in August...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Does a Re-election of President Bush and a Republican House and Senate give us the hope that true Estate Tax reform might be passed. I personally hope so. As a small Businessman its critical to my business as it is to other who employee American. -------------------------------------------------------- REASONS TO ELIMINATE THE FEDERAL ESTATE TAX Estate tax rates, which range from 41% to 48%, are substantially higher than other tax rates - the lowest estate tax rate is almost as high as the highest income tax rate of 39.6%. Moreover, the estate tax is imposed on earnings and assets that have already...

An attorney for the estate of the late U.S. Sen. H. John Heinz III argued that too much time has passed for news organizations to try to unseal records that were sealed the day after his death in 1991. Heinz - the husband of Teresa Heinz Kerry, who is now married to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry - died in a plane crash near Philadelphia. His estate calls a petition by newspapers a belated effort to "rummage through" the estate, which was finalized in 1998. At a hearing Thursday, estate attorney Gregory B. Jordan argued that the case should be...

Two newspapers want a judge to unseal the estate records of the late Sen. H. John Heinz III, contending the documents possibly could shed light on Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign. The Morning Call of Allentown and the Los Angeles Times petitioned Allegheny County Court to make the records public. Common Pleas Administrative Judge Frank Lucchino has scheduled a Sept. 14 hearing on the request. The day after (PA Senator) John Heinz died, Common Pleas Judge Nathan Schwartz ordered that all documents in the senator's estate be shielded from public view. The court edict did not reveal why the...

I have been harrassed, followed, suffered property damage and the introduction of substances into my home and vehicle that have been making my family (my 10 year old son and I) ill for over 2 years, I purchased a small bungalow on the south side of Chicago in a neighborhood at the southeast most tip of Chicago that borders Lake Michigan and a lakefront park. The parties involved: I believe are individuals from city government agencies (Department Water and Sewer, Department of Planning, Purchasing, Police Department), It seems that there is interest in this area and I believe there is...

Your Mom and Dad have a ton of money, and much of it will be hit with heavy estate taxes when they both pass on. So, let's say your Dad dies, and your Mom has all the money. Now, if marriage is going to be defined as an agreement between consenting adults, simply marry your Mother. She does love you, doesn't she? And you love her! You become her husband. If necessary, she can legally disown you as her son. When she passes on, her estate, which you share as you're married, will go laterally to you, her spouse, rather...

<p>BEND, Ore. (CNN/Money) – Terri Moloney, a real estate agent in Gastonia, N.C., used to sell a couple of foreclosed properties a year.</p> <p>"Now, they've taken over my life," she said. "In the last three years this area has gone from a bustling economy to 'where's my paycheck.'"</p>

Can Japan Ever Emerge from Stagnation? By Andrew L. Jaffee, November 13, 2003 Home   Search   Forum   Terms Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), lost seats in parliamentary elections held last weekend. Elected in 2001 on a pro-economic reform platform, Koizumi has been slow to deliver. Some fear the LDP's election losses will mean even slower reforms. Remember "Japan, Inc.", the envy of American corporate bosses? Remember when many Americans were afraid that prime property in U.S. downtowns and golf courses would all be bought by Japanese? That was then (1970 - 1990), when Japanese corporations seemed unstoppable...

Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, considered for the 2000 vice presidential nomination but now the life insurance industry's lobbyist, has come out against repeal of the estate tax. Ending the "death tax" has been a longtime Republican objective. Keating has told an insurance trade publication (the National Underwriter) that he is a "populist" who wants to retain the estate tax because "we don't have a class system in this country." He added that keeping the estate tax "encourages responsible social behavior." As president of the American Council of Life Insurers, Keating enjoys the estate tax's incentive for purchase of life...