Here’s some news to get you ready for the upcoming week.

International Developments

❖ “ Syria bans Turkey civilian flights over its territory”. “ Turkey bans all Syrian flights over its territory”.

❖ Fallujah, Iraq was subjected to intense military barrages by US and allied forces in 2004, including use of white phosphorus. Results: “a ‘staggering rise’ in birth defects among children conceived in the aftermath . . . [h]igh rates of miscarriage, toxic levels of lead and mercury contamination and spiraling numbers of birth defects”. The World Health Organization’s complete report will be released in November.

International Finance

❖ “The Punch Line: All The Charts That’s Fit To Print “. Don’t miss: “17 pages of charts and news blurbs indicating the true state of the economy in an easily digestible format.”

❖ Sign of the times? German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Greece for six hours, during which 7,000 police were on duty on her behalf. Afterward, she returned to Germany and tried to give a speech in Stuttgart (in the rain), which resulted in 14 minutes of booing by the crowd.

❖ “ Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has defended the central bank’s measures to bolster the US economy” amid criticisms from emerging nations that his “monetary easing” has hurt them. (Great picture of BB accompanies the article.)

Money Matters USA

❖ Wild tale out of Aspen. William Koch of the infamous Koch Brothers has been accused in federal court of having a former Koch executive taken to a remote ranch, where he supposedly was “interrogated, searched and held against his will for over twenty-four hours before finally being freed.”

❖ A Morgan Stanley “top bond writer” was accused of refusing to pay his cab fare–and then stabbing the

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