ARKANSAS PLANS TO DESEGREGATE SCHOOLS

More than a half-century after federal troops escorted nine black students into an all-white school, efforts to desegregate the classrooms of the southern city of Little Rock, Ark., are at another turning point.

The state wants to end its long-running payments for desegregation programs, which date back to the era when schools were segregated by law in the south. But three school districts that receive the money say they need it to continue key programs. And a federal judge has accused the schools of delaying desegregation so they can keep receiving an annual infusion of $70 million.

A federal appeals court will hear arguments Monday from both sides. The judges are expected to decide eventually whether Arkansas still has to make the payments and whether two of the districts should remain under court supervision.

The schools, which serve about 50,000 students, have come a long way since 1957, when the governor and hundreds of protesters famously tried to stop the nine black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, from entering Central High School. But thousands of white and black children still have to be bused to different neighborhoods every day under one of America's largest remaining court-ordered desegregation systems.

GADDAFI'S SON BLAMES BROTHER 'S SPEECH FOR TALKS COLLAPSE.

Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi has blamed his high-profile brother for the collapse of talks with Libya's new rulers, CNN television reported late on Sunday.

Saadi Gaddafi told CNN in a telephone interview that an "aggressive" speech broadcast by his brother, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a few days ago had led to the breakdown in negotiations, paving the way for an attack.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED : STRAUSS-KAHN

FORMER International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn returned home to France yesterday for the first time since a New York hotel maid accused him of attempted rape, unleashing an international scandal that dashed his chances for the French presidency.

Mr Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair, arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and passed rapidly through the terminal before being whisked away in a waiting car. They were smiling but made no statement to journalists.

Mission accomplished. He has been removed from the IMF and will not seek presidency of France .

U S TO SUE BANKS OVER MORTGAGES

The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of dollars in compensation.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency suits will argue that banks failed to perform due diligence and missed evidence that borrowers’ incomes were inflated or falsified.

Bank of America Corporation

Citigroup Inc

Goldman Sachs Group Inc

JPMorgan Chase & Company

Deutsche Bank AG

American International Group Inc

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (Freddie Mac)

UBS AG

Federal National Mortgage Association Fannie Mae

The Federal Housing Finance Agency suits, which are expected to be filed in the coming days in federal court, are aimed at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, among others, according to three individuals briefed on the matter.

The suits stem from subpoenas the finance agency issued to banks a year ago. If the case is not filed Friday, they said, it will come Tuesday, shortly before a deadline expires for the housing agency to file claims.

FDA ALERT ON AVASTIN

The latest cases of blindness follow an alert from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday that repackaged injections of the Avastin, also known as bevacizumab, had caused eye serious eye infections in 12 Miami-area patients.

Avastin is a cancer drug, but is commonly used to treat the wet form of age-related macular degeneration and other eye diseases because it costs only about $50 an injection, compared with some $2,000 for Roche's Lucentis, which is approved for treatment of eye diseases.

The company has argued for years the process of dividing up doses creates the risk of contamination.

The tainted Florida injections were traced to a single pharmacy located in Hollywood, Florida. The pharmacy repackaged the Avastin from sterile injectable 100 mg/4 ml, single-use, preservative-free vials into individual 1 ml single-use syringes.

The pharmacy then distributed the Avastin to multiple eye clinics.

In the Los Angeles cases, no contaminant has yet been identified, the Times reported.

In its alert on Tuesday, the FDA did not tell doctors to avoid using Avastin, only to be careful about contamination.

"Health care professionals should ensure that drug products are obtained from appropriate, reliable sources and properly administered," it said.

THE WHITE HOUSE IS PLAYING GAMES

Why are they scheduling a speech before congress at the same time as a GOP debate has been scheduled