China’s new satellite

BEIJING: China will launch a new direct broadcast satellite later this year after its predecessor, Sinosat-2, suffered a fatal technical failure in space one month after its launch. Chinasat-9, also the country’s second direct-to-home satellite scheduled to be launched in September or October, said Du Baichuan, deputy director of the science and technology sector of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Du gave no specific timetable for the launch.—Xinhua

Mortgage debt crisis

NEW YORK: Aggressive mortgage selling has plunged millions of badly-off Americans into financial disaster. At particular danger of losing their homes were the now one in five of borrowers with “sub-prime mortgages” - people who have poor credit ratings and are thus offered higher interest rates as they are considered higher risk. Amid the coverage of plummeting US stocks, followed by a nosedive in Asian equities and the tanking of European markets, there were few references to the people who had set the panic off.— The Guardian