| Ready To Consolidate That Debt?
IF YOU'RE A homeowner saddled with debt (and we're talking about bad, high-interest debt like the kind you pile up on credit cards) then Alan Greenspan has offered you an escape route. How so? Well, while credit-card interest rates have become increasingly immune to Fed rate cuts (with the average fixed-rate credit card now charging 13.5%), home-equity lines of credit, or HELOCs, have fallen below 4.0%. That's one of the lowest rates we've seen since these products first became popular back in the mid-1980s. And better yet, that rate is before you consider the tax break on your interest payments. Indeed, from a pure number-crunching perspective, consolidating high-interest, nondeductible debt into a HELOC or a home-equity loan, or HEL, is a no-brainer. Of course, your home is the collateral for such a loan, and foreclosure could leave you bunking down in Mom's den.
II. Sources of Weapons for Militias in Punjab and Kashmir
II. Sources of Weapons for Militias in Punjab and Kashmir India has long accused the government of Pakistan of directly supplying weapons, as well as other forms of military support, to militants in Punjab and Kashmir. Most long-time observers of the region concur.(5) Both Sikh and Kashmiri militant leaders have acknowledged as much,(6) and many of the weapons used by militants in both states clearly were acquired in Pakistan. Nevertheless, there are many complexities and uncertainties about the arms supply relationship. Available evidence suggests that most weapons obtained by Sikh and Kashmiri militants have come from two sources inside Pakistan: the arms bazaar in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (nwfp)--a vast black market for weapons--and members of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (isi), operating either on their own or with the tacit or explicit complicity of the central Pakistani government.
Time to rise up for Sharapova and Ivanovic at Aussie final
You have to go all the way back to the 2006 U.S. Open, where Sharapova beat Henin in a brisk 6-4, 6-4 affair, to find a championship match where both women even showed up. The Wimbledon three-setter that summer won by Amelie Mauresmo had some dramatic tension because of the circumstances -- her opponent was Henin, who had controversially withdrawn in the second set of the Australian Open final. Keep scrolling back through the pages. It's not a pretty picture. The last truly classic women's final was probably the 2005 Wimbledon barn burner between Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport, and it stands isolated. By contrast, you have to rewind several years to find real stinkers on the men's side. Given the ugly way in which both Aussie semifinals played out -- for entirely different reasons -- we just have to hope there are recessive genes in those matches that combine to make good competitive chemistry when fifth-seeded Sharapova takes on Ivanovic, the fourth seed, Saturday afternoon, Melbourne time (9:30 p.m.
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