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The powers could be used in a range of even relatively minor criminal investigations, not just terrorism cases.

They would allow ASIO and federal and state police forces to demand that phone companies and internet service providers stream information to them in “near real-time” – just a few minutes after calls are made or websites visited. The information would have to be provided for up to 90 days for ASIO investigations, and 45 days if state or federal police are involved.

Justified as a counter-terrorism measure, the legislation has already been passed by government and Labor members of the lower house. But it remains deeply unpopular with legal experts and privacy advocates.

As well as not requiring a warrant signed by a judicial officer, the powers could be used in any criminal investigation into a suspected offence that carries a jail term of three years or more.

The regime applies to all “telecommunications data”, including the time and destination of phone calls made and received, the duration of the calls and the location of the callers.

As soon as news of the bank’s problem broke last night, customers with E-savings – accounts that pay higher interest rates but can only be accessed online – were trying to log on to withdraw their money.

Jess Lawes, who is retired and lives in Whitstable, Kent was one of those trying to access the “few thousand pounds” he keeps his Northern Rock account.

“I heard the news that the Bank of England had been called in late on Thursday night. I was up early in the morning and immediately logged on to withdraw my money. But every time I clicked on the button to move the cash nothing happened. I tried several times throughout the day, but each time it failed.”

He described the company’s apparent decision to treat its online customers in this way as “appalling”.

“It just adds to the fear factor,” he said.

Other callers to Guardian Unlimited reported a similar story, and none had been able to made online withdrawals.

One woman, who declined to give her name, was panicking because her online account contained her life savings – well above the £33,000 compensation limit.

Online customers accused the Bank of deliberately turning off its web servers in a bid to reduce the amount of cash being withdrawn from its coffers – something denied by chief executive Adam Applegarth.

Baltimore City received bad checks for 53 properties – a total of about $63,500. Baltimore County said American Home Mortgage checks bounced for 21 properties, totaling $41,000. Taxes are due at the end of the month.

Finance officials in the rest of the region – Anne Arundel, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties – reported no similar problems.

“This is just another chapter in what is a very difficult time for the mortgage industry,” said Donald I. Mohler III, a spokesman for Baltimore County, which no longer accepts checks from American Home Mortgage.

“It’s an unfortunate situation and we certainly hope these individuals will be able to work out some kind of agreement with their mortgage company,” Mohler said.

Anthony McCarthy, a spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon, said the city does not plan to notify the affected homeowners. They will get a notice in November along with all other delinquent taxpayers if the problem isn’t resolved by then.

Baltimore County said it has sent bills directly to the property owners to alert them.

But the problem might not be limited to bounced checks.

“What I’d heard is the checks weren’t being sent,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

Homeowners often make monthly payments for property taxes, insurance and other fees to their mortgage companies to be set aside in escrow funds until the money is due.

“I’ve been in the mining industry long enough to know that all commodities are volatile,” said Ian Smith, managing director of Australia’s largest home-grown gold producer, Newcrest Mining Ltd and a former Rio Tinto executive.

Newcrest this week was forced to dilute its stock and offer A$2 billion ($1.6 billion) in new deeply discounted shares to pay for closing out 4 million ounces of hedge contracts assembled a decade ago when gold was much lower and no one believed prices would rise to current levels.

Investors are favouring gold miners such as Newmont , Barrick Gold, and Harmony that have cleared away most hedging, to better weather any fallout from the U.S.-induced debt crisis.

Hedging guarantees that miners get a minimum price for their products and essentially involves the producer agreeing to sell some or all of its output at a set price over a period of years.

While hedging can protect a mining company against price falls, it also means they can miss out when the market rises.

City analysts predict the banks will have to write down as much as 10% of the $300 billion of leveraged loans currently agreed but not yet syndicated when they report third-quarter results to the market.

Banks are also expected to announce further hefty provisions to cover their exposure to commercial paper, including the so-called conduits and SIVs, a type of highly leveraged investment fund. In some cases profits for the third quarter could have been almost wiped out by a combination of exposure to bad debts and complicated commercial paper.

Kian Abouhossein, banking analyst at JP Morgan, said: “The hits will essentially mean that some investment banks will have made almost no money over the last quarter. Profits will be close to zero.”

In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.

However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.

The bank’s phone lines were jammed for most of the day, its website crashed and the company’s 72 branches were besieged by worried customers after it admitted being forced to ask the Bank of England for emergency funding.

The unprecedented scenes came as the financial turmoil that has engulfed the money markets in the past month spilled out on to the High Street.

On a day of widespread concern over the future of the economy:

Northern Rock’s shares fell by almost a third, leading to speculation that the bank – the UK’s fifth largest lender – could be put up for sale.

Other major lenders including Bradford & Bingley, Coventry and Paragon to issue statements insisting they were not in similar trouble

The Chancellor appealed for calm and insisted that both the banking system and the economy were stable

But for longer than most economists would have been willing to predict a decade ago, the world has been a willing partner in American excess – until a new and home-grown financial crisis this summer rattled confidence in the country, the world’s largest economy.

On Thursday, the dollar briefly fell to another low against the euro of $1.3927, as a slow decline that has been under way for months picked up steam this past week.

Base officials say 20-year-old Airman 1st Class Todd Blue died Monday while visiting family members in Wytheville, Virginia.

Blue enlisted in the Air Force in March of last year and joined the 5th Security Forces at Minot Air Force Base the following August.

Caddo Parish sheriff’s deputies worked a wreck this morning in which two people from Barksdale Air Force Base were killed.

The accident, in the 5100 block of Shreveport-Blanchard Highway at 11:30 a.m., claimed the lives of a married couple. Their names have not been released, but the man was 29 and the woman was 32, according to a release from Caddo Parish sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick.

The two were riding a 2007 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, with the husband driving and the wife the passenger, Chadwick said.

“They were traveling behind a northbound Pontiac Aztec driven by Erica Jerry, 35, of Shreveport,” Chadwick’s release said. “Jerry initiated a left turn into a business parking lot at the same time the man driving the motorcycle attempted to pass her van on the left in a no passing zone. They collided.”

The woman passenger on the motorcycle died at the scene, while the husband was taken to LSU Hospital in Shreveport, where he died, the release said.

Base officials say 20-year-old Adam Barrs was a passenger in a vehicle that failed to negotiate a curve, hit an approach, hit a tree and started on fire late Tuesday night.

Barrs was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver is identified as 20-year-old Airman Stephen Garrett.

1st Lt. Weston Kissel, 28, was a B-52 pilot assigned to the 23rd Bomb Wing at the Minot base, said Lt. Col. Gerald Hounchell, the 23rd Bomb Squadron commander. Kissel died Tuesday in the crash, while on leave, the base said.

Story Updated: Sep 10, 2007 at 8:13 AM PDT
By Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The body of a missing Air Force captain from Florida has been found near Badger Peak in northeast Skamania County, Wash., Portland police said Sunday.

Acting on a tip from Portland police, Skamania County authorities found Capt. John Frueh’s rental car about noon on Saturday. They quickly began a search and rescue mission and, with the help of search dogs, found Frueh’s body near the vehicle about 5 p.m., the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office said.

Authorities said foul play is not suspected.

Skamania County is located in south-central Washington along the Columbia River Gorge, a popular spot for hiking and other outdoor activities.

Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Tinsley suffered a gunshot wound to his chest late Sunday night and was pronounced dead within a half hour, said Col. Richard Walberg, who assumed command at Elmendorf Air Force Base after Tinsley’s death.

The weapon was likely a handgun, Walberg said.

Medical responders who rushed to Tinsley’s home on base were unable to save him. Tinsley’s wife and college-age daughter were home at the time.

Tinsley was named base commander in May 2007. He had served as an F-15 instructor pilot, F-15C test pilot, wing weapons officer, exchange officer and instructor with the Royal Australian Air Force.

His previous 22-month assignment was executive officer to the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. T. Michael “Buzz” Mosely, who resigned in June under pressure in an agency shake-up.

Mosely, the Air Force military chief, and Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne, the agency’s civilian head, were held accountable for failing to fully correct an erosion of nuclear-related performance standards. One concern was a cross-country flight in August of a B-52 carrying armed nuclear weapons.

Walberg said Tinsley was not under investigation or undue stress.

“As far as stress, sir, this job, by nature of being an Air Force officer in a nation at war, is stressful,” he said. “Undue stress, no.”

A statement issued by the base Sunday said the body of Capt. Jonathan Bayless, 28, was found Friday night. Police did not give details but said it was in an area north of the city soccer complex and they are awaiting autopsy results.

Col. Christopher Ayres, the base’s 91st Missile Wing commander, said Bayless was a training chief with the 91st Operations Support Squadron. He had been at the Minot Air Force Base since March 2005.

Bayless went on active duty in May 2003, the statement said. Base officials did not list his hometown but said he had been assigned earlier to Vandenberg Air Force Base for missile combat crew member training.

”The 91st Missile Wing has lost not only a valuable member of our team, but a member of our family, and he will be missed.” Ayres said in the statement.