Personal wealth shrinks

Personal wealth shrinks

WASHINGTON — The brute force of the recession earlier this year turned back the clock on Americans’ personal wealth to 2004 and wiped out a staggering $1.3 trillion as home values shrank and investments withered.

Net worth, or the value of assets such as homes, checking accounts and investments minus debts such as mortgages and credit cards, declined 2.6 percent in the first three months of the year, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.

Those months were some of the worst of the recession so far for job losses, and the stock market sank to its lowest point of the year in March. Since then, some signs suggest the economy is stabilizing.

Still, partly because of the carnage earlier in the recession, Americans are putting plans on hold until the economy improves.

Court: U.S. can keep detainee photos secret

NEW YORK — The U.S. government can keep pictures of detainee abuse secret while it asks the Supreme Court to permanently block release of the photographs on the grounds they could incite violence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, a federal appeals court said Thursday.

The one-paragraph ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan came after the Obama administration asked the court to keep the pictures secret so it could appeal to the nation’s highest court.

The administration last month said the disturbing photographs pose “a clear and grave risk of inciting violence and riots against American and coalition forces, as well as civilian personnel, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Body identification begins

RECIFE, Brazil — Authorities started to identify bodies from a jetliner crash Thursday, and the names of victims found far apart in the ocean could help prove whether the Air France plane broke up in the air as investigators link them to seat assignments.

A Brazilian ship picked up three more bodies, raising the number recovered to 44, Brazilian Air Force Gen. Ramon Cardoso said.

Officials said the bodies found are among the best evidence investigators now have. Flight 447 was packed with 228 people, and the passengers were likely in their assigned seats as the jet flew into heavy storms, he said.

Giant solar-energy plant planned for N.M. desert

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Utility officials announced plans Thursday to build a giant solar- energy plant in the New Mexico desert in what is believed to be the largest such project in the nation.

The 92-megawatt solar thermal plant could produce enough electricity to power 74,000 homes, far exceeding the size of other solar plants in the United States. The largest solar thermal plant in operation now is about 70 megawatts, said Dave Knox, a spokesman for New Jersey-based NRG Energy, the company building and running the facility.

Afghan violence surges

WASHINGTON — The violence that has surged for two years in Afghanistan reached a new high last week, and more difficulty lies ahead, the commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East said Thursday.

Gen. David Petraeus said the number of attacks in Afghanistan over the last week hit the highest level since the December 2001 fall of the Taliban.

There were more than 400 insurgent attacks last week, including ambushes, small arms volleys, assaults on Afghan infrastructure and government offices, and roadside bomb and mine explosions. In comparison, attacks in January 2004 were less than 50 per week.

Lawmakers decline to pass loud-commercial rules

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers stepped aside Thursday and agreed to let broadcasters come up with a system for toning down loud TV ads.

However, they warned that if the broadcasters don’t cooperate, they’d reintroduc e a bill next year to make the Federal Communications Commission turn down the volume on loud commercials.

Industry leaders said they’d reach an agreement by September on what David Donovan, president of the Association for Maximum Service Television, called “recommended practice” for the sound levels of shows and ads.

“We get it,” Donovan said of the loud-ad complaints. “As a matter of pure economics, we do not want to lose viewers.”

Donavan, whose Washington-based association lobbies on technical matters, said he was confident that broadcasters would abide by the new standards.

Combined dispatches