itsjohntime

Date: Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 8:02 PM
TOP STORIES as of 0900 HKT -- 28 February, 2010

MASSIVE QUAKE JOLTS CHILE; TSUNAMI WARNING ISSUED
• 214 confirmed dead; number expected to rise• Chilean Pres.
Bachelet to address nation• Hawaii 'dodged a bullet' on
tsunami• Obama: We stand ready to help Chile.

> CLINTON ON LATIN AMERICAN TOUR
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit five Latin
American nations next week, seeking to foster relationships with
some new leaders and cement ties with others.

> U.N. BACKS ISRAEL-GAZA WAR PROBE
The United Nations' General Assembly on Friday passed an Arab
League-backed resolution calling on Israeli and Palestinian
leaders to further investigate alleged war crimes during the
Israel-Gaza war.

> ISRAEL: NUCLEAR IRAN DANGER TO STABILITY
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday that Iran's
nuclear program poses a danger that extends beyond Israel. "It
is a challenge for the whole world," he said.

> U.S. MILITARY OKS ONLINE SOCIAL MEDIA
U.S. military personnel are officially allowed to tweet.

> MARIE OSMOND'S TEENAGE SON DIES
Marie Osmond's 18-year-old son, Michael Blosil, has died, a
family spokesman said Saturday.

> BRIDGE SNUBS TERRY AS CHELSEA CRASH
Manchester City upset nine-man Chelsea 4-2 on Saturday in an
emotion-charged match that began with the visitors' defender
Wayne Bridge refusing to shake the hand of the Premier League
leaders' captain John Terry.

> MILLER MISSES OUT IN RECORD MEDAL BID
The United States' bid to earn a record 37th medal of the 2010
Winter Olympics faltered on Saturday as skiing hopes Bode Miller
and Ted Ligety failed to make it past the first round of the
men's slalom.

BUSINESS
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> LLOYDS LOSSES NARROW TO $9.6B
Lloyds Banking Group has reported a £6.3bn ($9.6bn) underlying
pre-tax loss for 2009, a slight improvement on the £6.7bn
deficit recorded a year earlier.

> GOLDMAN ROLE IN GREEK CRISIS PROBED
The US central bank is looking into Goldman Sachs's role in
arranging contentious derivatives trades for Greece, which
helped the country to massage its public finances, Ben Bernanke,
chairman of the Federal Reserve, revealed on Thursday.

> GOOGLE ON THE DEFENSIVE IN EUROPE
Google on Thursday mounted a renewed defence of the way it ranks
search results, as fresh questions emerged about its practice of
sometimes manually intervening to override its automated ranking
system.