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CFA’s survey of 100 Internet payday loan sites showed that loans from $200 to $2,500 were available, with $500 the most frequently offered. Finance charges ranged from $10 per $100 up to $30 per $100 borrowed. The most frequent rate was $25 per $100, or 650% annual interest rate (APR) if the loan is repaid in two weeks.

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Recent congressional and public attention has focused on access problems at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, which provides medical care to servicemen and women once they have left active duty in a time of war or an official period of hostility. Although investigators note that improvements are under way, they say the VA has a long way to go.

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GÖTTINGEN, Germany: Decades of underfunding and a distaste for the elitism nurtured by Nazis have left the third-largest economy in the world trailing its global competitors.

It may have brought the world aspirin, rocket science, quantum physics and the diesel engine, but the days of German scientific glory are long gone and the country is hunting for a new generation of Einsteins.

Decades of underfunding and a distaste for the elitism nurtured by Nazis have left Germany, with the third-largest economy in the world, trailing its global competitors.

With only five universities in the U.S.-dominated top 100 - the University of Munich is highest at 48 - Germany has started a program to compete for funding and create its own “Ivy League.”

Nobel Prizes awarded last month to a German physicist and a German chemist have revived pride in the country's scientific heritage.

“There is a fresh wind,” said Kurt von Figura, president of Georg-August University in Göttingen, one of the oldest and most prestigious educational institutions in the country.

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BlackRock, a large U.S. investment company, is expected to be the main asset manager for the $75 billion fund being created by three large banks to help shore up the market for asset-backed securities, according to a person briefed on the situation.

A custodian for the fund could also be appointed shortly, according to people with knowledge of the matter, and the Bank of New York Mellon is a leading contender for that role.

No official announcements have been made on either position.

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LOS ANGELES: 23andMe, a Google-funded online company selling a $999 DNA test, was unveiled this week as a kind of genetics-based MySpace or Facebook that has the more serious aim of allowing medicine someday to target Americans' ills more precisely.

Users sign up for the DNA saliva test online and receive and return it by mail.

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This story was written and reported by CBS News technology analyst Larry Magid.

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A major data breach in the United Kingdom could expose the personal data of more than 25 million people - nearly half the country’s population. The data relates to details about families with children, including names, dates of birth, addresses, bank account information and insurance records. (Content Read …)

NEW YORK: Turmoil in the U.S. housing sector reverberated across the industry Tuesday, reinforcing the mood among investors that the downturn has not yet reached bottom.

Freddie Mac, the big mortgage finance company, posted a $2 billion loss for the third quarter and warned that it might not have enough capital on hand to cover the mandatory reserves for its mortgage commitments.

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The homeless of New Orleans have left the city’s shelters and gutted buildings to set up camp on the mayor’s doorstep.

About 250 homeless people have erected pup-tents - the only affordable housing they say they could find since Hurricane Katrina — and created a colony of despair in a grassy plaza outside City Hall.

Mayor Ray Nagin’s second-floor office faces the camp, and its residents rally almost daily with the chant: Hey, Ray! (Content Read …)

LONDON: The crowded London Heathrow airport might be allowed to charge airlines 15.6 percent more next year, the British aviation regulator said Tuesday, but in return it wanted better service and fewer lines at security points.

Airlines reacted angrily to the final proposals from the Civil Aviation Authority, or CAA, which would also allow BAA, the operator of Heathrow, to raise charges by 8.2 percent at Gatwick, the second London airport.

“Passengers and airlines deserve better than they have been provided with at Heathrow and Gatwick in recent years, but need to recognize that improvements have to be paid for,” said the CAA's director of economic regulation, Harry Bush.

But airlines said that the regulator was rewarding BAA, a division of Ferrovial of Spain, for its failures.

The CAA said that it was proposing to increase potential penalties on BAA for poor service to 7 percent of airport charge revenues, from 3 percent.

Average times in line at security gates should not exceed 5 minutes, it added.

BAA controls seven British airports and is facing government investigations of its plans and performance that could lead to a forced breakup of its London terminals.

Heathrow has become a headache for airlines and travelers alike, particularly since security was tightened in August 2006, when police foiled a plot to bomb trans-Atlantic airliners using liquid explosives.

Lines, delays and lost baggage have become commonplace.

The airport's runways are 99 percent full and its terminals are struggling with 67 million passengers a year, around 40 percent more than they were designed to handle.

The CAA is proposing setting the cap for charges that BAA can levy at £11.97, or $24.57, per passenger at Heathrow for 2008/2009 and at £6.07 at Gatwick.

Over the following four years, BAA should be able to raise charges by inflation plus 7.5 percent at Heathrow and by inflation plus 2 percent at Gatwick, it added.

Ferrovial said that the price increases were not enough.

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