PARIS (AFP) – France has to carry out its planned cuts in spending and reduce its deficit in order to keep its top AAA credit rating, budget minister Francois Baroin told French television.

"The objective of maintaining the AAA rating is an objective that is a stretch and which in part conditions the savings policies that we want to have," he told Canal Plus on Sunday.

"We have to maintain our AAA, reduce our indebtedness to avoid being too dependent on the markets…," he added.

The crucial "AAA" rating is the top ranking attributed by the international financial ratings agencies who evaluate the financial health of states, which allows them to borrow at more favourable rates.

Sarkozy's government has forecast the public deficit will run to 8.2 percent of gross domestic product this year, 6.0 percent in 2011 and 4.6 percent in 2012.

If this trend continues, the French public deficit will not return to the eurozone Stability Pact's theoretical maximum limit of three percent in 2013, and that is conditional on achieving growth of 2.5 percent from 2011.

While many of France's neighbours have announced harsh spending cuts, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has been cautious, refusing to speak of an austerity programme.

But the government is planning to tighten health spending, reform pension rules and raise the minimum age for retirement in a bid to control mounting debt.

Źródło: astropsychologia http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100531/bs_afp/franceeconomybudgetminister_20100531061509

TOKYO (AFP) – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned Monday that the world must stay alert to the risk of relapsing into economic crisis as Europe's debt woes drag on, and not withdraw stimulus measures prematurely.

During a visit to Tokyo where he met Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama, Wen said the global economy is recovering but remains fragile and faces various risks that require international cooperation.

"Some people argue that the global economy has already recovered and that we can now take stimulus exit measures but I think that judgment is too early," Wen said in a speech to business leaders in Tokyo.

"The world economy is recovering steadily but the pace of recovery is very slow. There are many uncertain factors," he said.

"We need to prepare for (future) difficulty. The debt crisis in some European countries may impede Europe's economic recovery and bring change to European markets," he said.

"China will make sure it maintains a sense of crisis," he added.

Exporting nations such as China have eyed the eurozone cautiously amid fears that tough austerity measures being introduced to tackle fiscal debt could weigh on growth in the region and erode demand for their goods.

Wen added that "individual countries need to cooperate and increase their support to the economy through policy. There is no room for slacking."

China's exports in April were up 30.5 percent from the same month a year earlier, according to state media, as shipments help drive soaring economic growth that registered a blistering rate of 11.9 percent in the first quarter.

On the domestic front, Wen added that it was "very important to control inflation," in China and maintain the yuan "at a reasonable level" despite international pressure on Beijing to alter its exchange rate policy.

The yuan has been effectively pegged at about 6.8 to the dollar since mid-2008 to aid exporters during the global financial crisis — a policy some in the United States and Europe say gives those exporters an unfair advantage.

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The crisis in Europe is being driven by debt and public deficit levels which have soared way above EU rules as governments increased spending to get their economies through the worst recession in generations.

Fitch Ratings downgraded the sovereign debt of Spain to AA+ from its top AAA rating due to concerns austerity measures will hit growth.

The downgrade came a day after Madrid approved a tough package to shore up public finances and reassure investors that it will not follow Greece into a debt crisis.

Markets remain concerned despite a near trillion-dollar package to prevent the troubles of debt-ridden Greece spreading to the rest of Europe.

Źródło: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100531/bs_afp/japanchinaeuropeeconomystimulus_20100531072910

LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Prudential's bid for rival AIG's Asian unit was close to collapse after it failed to secure a price cut, raising questions over the British insurer's own future.

Tidjane Thiam, Prudential's ambitious new boss, had faced rising shareholder pressure about the hefty $35.5 billion price tag for American International Assurance (AIA), forcing the 47-year-old executive to last-minute talks over a lower price.

Britain's largest insurer had proposed to shave off $5 billion off its cash-and-shares offer and reduce the price tag to $30.375 billion, it said on Tuesday.

But AIG's terse statement that it would stick to the original terms of the deal, left Ivory Coast-born Thiam — who launched the bid after just six months in the job — with few options to save the deal.

"The good thing would be for the Pru to withdraw gracefully," said Paul Mumford, senior fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management. "If they do put it to a vote, I'd be very surprised if shareholders vote it through."

Prudential has said it would make a further statement "when appropriate." Its top management was talking to its top shareholders ahead of a final decision on the board which could come as early as later on Tuesday.

The company has little time left ahead of a shareholder vote planned for June 7, meaning that large investors will have to make up their minds within days in the unlikely case that it wishes to proceed with the deal.

Prudential was dramatically forced to reopen price negotiations with AIG last week as it feared it might fail to attract the required 75 percent approval for the deal and a related $21 billion rights issue.

The unraveling of the insurance sector's biggest deal would put paid to Prudential's plan to transform itself into a largely Asia-focused business, and is likely to revive speculation of a break-up bid for the group.

Failure would also cast doubt over the future of Thiam, who has sometimes been described as "arrogant" by investors to whom he has been pitching the deal in the last few weeks.

"Pru will have to explain to us what is strategic plan B," said one shareholder, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

"You are probably talking about putting the company under strategic review and maybe not under the current chief executive," the shareholder said.

A failure of the deal would also be a blow to AIG boss Robert Benmosche, who wants to use the proceeds of the AIA disposal to repay part of the $132 billion bailout the U.S. insurer received at the height of the financial crisis.

Prudential shares were up 3.6 percent at 561 pence at 1022 GMT, outperforming a 1.7 percent drop in the European insurance sector, helped by relief that the company may not now launch its highly dilutive rights issue.

Inevitably, a failure of the bid would also bring back speculation of a break-up of Prudential, though a lack of well-funded buyers would karty tarota make imminent takeover bids for Prudential unlikely.

"There's a possibility of that in the medium to long term, but I don't see it in the short to medium term," said Panmure Gordon analyst Barrie Cornes. "I don't think there are any obvious takers."

(Editing by Douwe Miedema and Michael Shields)

Źródło: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100601/ts_nm/us_prudential_aia_5

NEW YORK (AFP) – Hewlett-Packard, the world's leading computer maker, said Tuesday it would cut 9,000 jobs in the next few years tresura psa as part of restructuring measures.

Źródło: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100601/tc_afp/uscomputercompanystructurecutshp_20100601124434

UNITED NATIONS – The United States introduced a United Nations resolution aimed at Iran”s suspected nuclear weapons program on Tuesday, having won long-sought and pivotal support from China and Russia for new sanctions against its powerful Revolutionary Guard and new measures to try to curtail Iran”s military, financial and shipping activities.

The agreement appeared to be a significant victory for the Obama administration, which has doggedly pursued sanctions since Iran rebuffed U.S. overtures last year.

The draft resolution would ban Iran from pursuing ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons, freeze assets of nuclear-related companies linked to the Revolutionary Guard, bar Iranian investment in activities such as uranium mining and prohibit Iran from buying several categories of heavy weapons, a senior U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the resolution has not been released publicly.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the resolution, backed by all five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, would give “greater teeth” to existing sanctions and add “strong” new measures to intensify pressure on the Iranian government to resolve concerns that its nuclear program is peaceful and not aimed at producing nuclear weapons.

Russia and China, which have close ties to Iran, joined fellow permanent council members Britain, France and the United States as well as non-member Germany in supporting the sanctions proposal, ignoring a deal that Tehran struck with Turkey and Brazil a day earlier in an effort to stave off the penalties.

Either Russia and China could have vetoed the deal, and both resisted sanctions before they were persuaded to support the stepped up pressure on Iran in recent weeks. Proposed sanctions relating to Iran”s oil and gas industry were removed due to opposition from the two countries, which have vast investments and interests in Iran”s energy sector.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a Senate committee that she spent Tuesday on the phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov “finalizing the resolution.”

Rice said the pursuit of new sanctions has “nothing to do with” the proposed swap of nuclear material for Tehran”s research reactor that Iran agreed to Monday with Brazil and Turkey. podręczniki szkolne She stressed that the proposed resolution is targeting the Islamic Republic”s refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program and its plans to build 10 new nuclear facilities.

She presented the draft to the 10 non-permanent council members — including Brazil and Turkey — and said the U.S. will work hard to win support from as many members as possible. She said she is confident the resolution will get the minimum 9 “yes” votes.

Rice said the U.S. considers new sanctions “urgent” but wouldn”t speculate on when the resolution will be put to a vote.

The draft resolution would target a range of activities related to Iran”s nuclear program, including the Revolutionary Guard, which controls companies and organizations that have links to weapons proliferation, the U.S. official said. These companies and individuals would be added to a list of those subject to an asset freeze and travel ban that is still being compiled.

The official said the draft would also:

• Ban Iranian investment in such sensitive nuclear activities abroad as uranium mining.

• Prohibit the sale of eight categories of heavy weapons including attack helicoopters, warships and missiles to the Islamic Republic.

• Ban Iran from undertaking any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

The last sanctions resolution, adopted in March 2008, authorized inspection of cargo suspected of containing banned items on planes and ships owned or operated by Iran Air Cargo and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line. The U.S. official said the new proposal would call on countries to cooperate in inspections — which must receive the consent of the ship”s flag state — and ban services to Iranian owned or contracted vessels suspected of carrying prohibited cargo.

The draft resolution is weaker than the original Western-backed proposal, especially on financial and energy-related measures. Rather than place sanctions on Iran”s oil industry, the proposed resolution simply notes the “potential connection” between Iranian energy revenues and funding for the country”s nuclear program and calls on U.N. members to be aware of it.

On the financial side, the draft calls on — but does not require — countries to block financial transactions, including insurance and reinsurance, and ban the licensing of Iranian banks if they have information that provides “reasonable grounds” to believe these activities could contribute to Iranian nuclear activities, the U.S. official said.

The draft, in its preamble, recalls the needs for states “to exercise vigilance” over all Iranian banks, including the Central Bank, to prevent transactions contributing to proliferation activities — but there is not even an official “call” by the council to do this.

To improve compliance by the 192 U.N. member states, the draft resolution calls for the establishment of a panel of experts to monitor implementation of the four sanctions resolutions against Iran, the official said.

Many had believed Monday”s Iran-Turkey-Brazil deal would blunt the U.S.-led drive for new sanctions, but Clinton said the six-power agreement on a new resolution was a rejection of Iran”s efforts to forestall penalties.

“This announcement is as convincing an answer to the efforts undertaken by Tehran over the last few days as any we could provide,” she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We don”t believe it was any accident that Iran agreed to this declaration as we were preparing to move forward in New York.”

Iran on Monday agreed to ship much of its low-enriched uranium abroad to Turkey, and in exchange receive within a year higher-enriched fuel rods to be used in a U.S.-built medical research reactor in Tehran. But it then rolled out a new obstacle to nuclear compromise by insisting it would press ahead with higher enrichment.

In October, the six powers had backed a similar uranium swap proposed by the U.N. nuclear agency as a confidence-building measure. It called for sending the low-enriched uranium to Russia, and then to France to be turned into fuel rods.

Brazil”s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who were in Tehran for the announcement of the uranium deal, urged the international community to support the deal.

“I think Iran has taken a leap forward,” Erdogan told on Tuesday.

But Rice, the U.S. ambassador, said Iran”s decision to continue enriching uranium to 20 percent hastens the time that it could produce a nuclear weapon. She said it “eliminates any confidence-building potential … and intensifies Iran”s violations of existing sanctions regimes.”

Ahead of the council meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Iran has failed to meet its international obligations on its nuclear program and called on Tehran to comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency”s demands, said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky.

The secretary-general said Iran”s deal with Turkey and Brazil “could be a positive step in building confidence about Iran”s nuclear program, if followed by broader engagement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the international community,” Nesirky said.

The Vienna-based IAEA has received the text of the Iran-Turkey-Brazil pact and expects written confirmation of the terms from Tehran, Nesirky said.

___

Associated Press writers Anne Flaherty, Matthew Lee and Barry Schweid in Washington and John Heilprin at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Źródło: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100518/ap_on_re_us/us_us_iran

NEW YORK – Stock futures are pointing to a modest rebound in the market Wednesday, a day after major indexes plunged shortly before the close of trading.

The expected higher open comes even as world markets mostly fell. U.S. markets tumbled late Tuesday and Asian and European markets followed that decline, reacting to news that the U.S. government launched criminal and civil investigations of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Attorney General Eric Holder”s disclosure of the investigations led to a sell-off at the end of the day. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled nearly 113 points, its fifth decline in the last six sessions.

Futures are getting a boost as the euro rebounds slightly after hitting a four-year low Tuesday. The euro, which is used by 16 European countries, has heavily influenced trading over the past month. It has particularly influenced futures trading when there are few other economic reports kart tarota out for investors to review and help drive trading.

The currency has become an indicator of confidence in Europe”s ability to contain a sovereign debt crisis that began in Greece, but has spread to other countries, including Spain and Portugal. The euro rose to $1.2207.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 44, or 0.4 percent, to 10,063. Standard & Poor”s 500 index futures rose 5.70, or 0.5 percent, to 1,075.20, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 15.00, or 0.8 percent, to 1,846.00.

With traders mostly focused on the health of Europe”s economy and political events over the past month, domestic economic reports have taken somewhat of a backseat. Stocks couldn”t hold onto early gains Tuesday following a better-than-expected report on the manufacturing sector from the Institute for Supply Management.

A report Wednesday is expected to show pending home sales surged in April. However, like many other housing reports from the month, investors are likely to dismiss the results. That”s because April was the final month for home buyers to qualify for a tax credit. Analysts widely expect housing data to weaken in the coming months because the credit has expired.

The National Association of Realtors pending home sales index, which tracks signed contracts to buy previously occupied homes, likely rose to 108 in April, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters. That would represent a 5 percent increase from March”s reading of 102.9.

The report is due out at 10 a.m. EDT.

One economic report that should draw the attention of investors will be the Labor Department”s monthly employment report due out on Friday. High unemployment still remains a major obstacle to a sustained recovery in the country. A strong report could provide relief for investors worried about a potential slowdown in the nation”s recovery.

Economists predict the unemployment rate dipped to 9.8 percent in April as employers added 513,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, bond prices were narrowly mixed Wednesday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.28 percent from 3.27 percent late Tuesday.

Oil and gold prices both fell.

Overseas, Britain”s FTSE 100 dropped 1 percent, Germany”s DAX index fell 0.8 percent, and France”s CAC-40 fell 1.2 percent. Japan”s Nikkei stock average fell 1.1 percent.

Źródło: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100602/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

WASHINGTON – Regulators on Friday shut down three banks in Florida and one each in Nevada and California, bringing the number of U.S. bank failures this year to 78.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the Florida banks, all owned by holding company Bank of Florida Corp. They are Bank of Florida-Southeast, based in Fort Lauderdale, with $595.3 million in assets; Bank of Florida-Southwest, based in Naples, with $640.9 million in assets; and Bank of Florida-Tampa Bay, based in Tampa, with $245.2 million in assets.

The FDIC also seized Las Vegas-based Sun West Bank, with $360.7 million in assets, and Granite Community Bank, located in Granite Bay, Calif., with $102.9 million in assets.

EverBank, based in Jacksonville, Fla., agreed to acquire the assets and deposits of the failed Florida banks. Los Angeles-based City National Bank is assuming all the assets and deposits of Sun West Bank, and Tri Counties Bank, based in Chico, Calif., is assuming those of Granite Community Bank.

In addition, the FDIC and EverBank agreed to share losses on the three Florida banks” loans and other assets. Losses will be shared on $437.3 million of Bank of Florida-Southeast”s assets, $568.1 million of Bank of Florida-Southwest”s assets and $210.8 million of Bank of Florida-Tampa Bay”s assets. The federal agency and City National Bank agreed to share losses on $280 million of Sun West Bank”s assets. The FDIC is sharing with Tri Counties Bank losses on $89.3 million of Granite Community Bank”s assets.

The failures of the three Florida banks are expected to cost the deposit insurance fund a total of about $203 million. The failures of Sun West Bank are expected to cost around $96.7 million, while losses at Granite Community Bank are expected to cost $17.3 million.

The three Florida closures brought to 13 the number of bank failures this year in Florida, a state with one of the highest concentrations of bank collapses and where the meltdown in the real estate market brought an avalanche of soured mortgage loans. Fourteen banks in the state failed last year.

California is another state with a heavy concentration of bank failures, and Granite Community Bank was the sixth bank to fall in the state this year, following the shutdown of several big California banks in the last months of 2009. Seventeen banks failed in California last year.

Georgia and Illinois also are high on the list of states with concentrated bank failures.

With 78 closures nationwide so far this year, the pace of bank failures is more than double that of 2009, which was already a brisk year for shutdowns. By this time last year, regulators had closed 36 banks. The pace has accelerated as banks” losses mount on loans made for commercial property and development.

The number of bank failures is expected to peak this year and to be slightly higher than the 140 that fell in 2009. That was the highest annual tally since 1992, at the height of wróżba z kart tarota the savings and loan crisis. The 2009 failures cost the insurance fund more than $30 billion. Twenty-five banks failed in 2008, the year the financial crisis struck with force, and only three succumbed in 2007.

As losses have mounted on loans made for commercial property and development, the growing bank failures have sapped billions of dollars out of the deposit insurance fund. It fell into the red last year, and its deficit stood at $20.7 billion as of March 31.

The number of banks on the FDIC”s confidential “problem” list jumped to 775 in the first quarter from 702 three months earlier, even as the industry as a whole had its best quarter in two years.

A majority of institutions posted profit gains in the January-March quarter. But many small and mid-sized banks are likely to continue to suffer distress in the coming months and years, especially from soured loans for office buildings and development projects.

The FDIC expects the cost of resolving failed banks to grow to about $100 billion over the next four years.

The agency mandated last year that banks prepay about $45 billion in premiums, for 2010 through 2012, to replenish the insurance fund.

Depositors” money — insured up to $250,000 per account — is not at risk, with the FDIC backed by the government.

Źródło: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100529/ap_on_bi_ge/us_bank_closures

WASHINGTON – Federal safety regulators are investigating a few reports of gas pedals becoming trapped by floor mats in 2010 Ford Fusions and Mercury Milans.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary investigation Friday after receiving three such complaints involving unsecured all-weather floor mats. There are no reports of crashes or injuries.

A Ford spokesman, Said Deep, said the problem was due to drivers stacking all-weather mats on top of floor mats that come with the vehicle. Ford”s all-weather mats have warnings advising customers not to pile them and to secure them properly to the floor, he said.

In a consumer advisory Tuesday, NHTSA said the problem was most likely to occur when a driver pressed on the pedal while merging or passing in traffic. The safety agency also warned Fusion and Milan owners not to stack mats.

The issue is similar to Toyota”s problems with floor mats that led to the recall of more than 5 million vehicles worldwide. In those cases, drivers said their vehicles sped up when pedals became lodged under all-weather mats that were stacked on top of the floor mats.

To solve the problem, Toyota shortened its gas pedals and took out some of the carpet padding below the pedal.

Safety officials said the investigation covers about 250,000 Fusions and Milans. The preliminary investigation is meant to try to verify whether the complaints have merit and gauge the seriousness of any potential problems.

The Fusion, a midsize sedan, is one of Ford”s most popular models, with more than 70,000 sold in the first four months of 2010. This year, Ford has sold about 11,500 Mercury Milans, a car that is essentially the same as the Fusion.

podręczniki szkolne

Ford shares fell 32 cents, or 2.7 percent, to close Tuesday at $11.41.

Źródło: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100601/ap_on_bi_ge/us_ford_floor_mats

LAHORE, Pakistan – Pakistan lifted a ban on Facebook on Monday after officials from the social networking site apologized for a page deemed offensive to Muslims and removed its contents, a top information technology official said.

The move came almost two weeks after Pakistan imposed the ban amid anger over a page that encouraged users to post images of Islam”s Prophet Muhammad. Many Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.

“In response to our protest, Facebook has tendered their apology and informed us that all the sacrilegious material has been removed from the URL,” said Najibullah Malik, secretary of Pakistan”s information technology ministry, referring to the technical term for a Web page.

Facebook assured the Pakistani government that “nothing of this sort will happen in the future,” Malik said.

Officials from the website could not immediately be reached for comment. They said earlier the contents of the “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” page did not violate Facebook”s terms.

The page encouraged users to post images of the prophet to protest threats made by a radical Muslim group against the creators of the American TV series “South Park” for depicting Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year.

Pakistan blocked Facebook on May 19 following a ruling by one of the country”s highest courts. The Lahore High Court reversed its ruling Monday because of Facebook”s response, paving the way for the government to restore access, Malik said.

The government will continue to block some Web pages that contain “sacrilegious material,” but Malik declined to specify which ones.

The Facebook controversy sparked a handful of protests across Pakistan, many by student members amulety of radical Islamic groups. Some of the protesters carried signs advocating holy war against the website for allowing the page.

Bangladesh also decided to block Facebook on Sunday but said it would restore access to the site if the offensive material was removed.

It is not the first time that images of the prophet have sparked anger. Pakistan and other Muslim countries saw large and sometimes violent protests in 2006 when a Danish newspaper published cartoons of Muhammad, and again in 2008 when they were reprinted. Later the same year, a suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber attacked the Danish Embassy in Islamabad, killing six people.

Anger over the Facebook controversy also prompted the Pakistani government to block access to YouTube briefly, saying there was growing sacrilegious content on the video sharing website. The government restored access to YouTube last week but said it would continue to block videos offensive to Muslims that are posted on the site.

Źródło: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100531/ap_on_hi_te/as_pakistan_internet_crackdown

About 17,000 years ago, one of the largest megafloods inEarth's history inundated a large area of Alaska, releasing millions of gallonsof water every second and forever changing the area's landscape.

One of at least four megafloods from ancient Glacial LakeAtna, the deluge breached ice dams and covered more than 3,500 square miles (9,065square kilometers) of land of what is today the Copper River Basin northeast ofAnchorage. (The lake would've covered Rhode Island three times.)

Megafloods by definition have a flow of at least 264 milliongallons of water per second (1,000 million liters of water per second). The largestknown freshwater megafloodreleased about 4,500 million gallons of water per second (17,000 million liters ofwater per second) and originated out of Glacial Lake Missoula in Montana.

The megaflood from Atna likely had a flow of about 792million gallons of water per second (3,000 million liters of water per second), andreleased a total of as much as 336 cubic miles (1,400 cubic kilometers) ofwater – enough to cover an area the size of Washington, D.C., to a depth of 5miles (8 km).

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The signs of the Atna megaflood, detailed in May issue of the journal QuaternaryResearch, were found by MichaelWiedmer, an Anchorage native and graduate student at the University ofWashington in Seattle, who formerly worked for the Alaska Department of Fish andGame.

In 2005, Wiedmer discovered pygmy whitefish living in LakeGeorge, a glacial lake 50 miles (80 km) from Anchorage that was virtually emptied manytimes during its history and was not thought to support much life.

Wiedmer examined the fish and found they had physical traitsthat suggested they were closely related to pygmy whitefish living in threeother mountain lakes, all remnants of Lake Atna. The existence of the pygmywhitefish in Lake George is one piece of evidence for the megaflood of Atna.

"Lake Atna linked up with four distinct drainages, andwe think that helped it act like a pump for freshwater organisms," Wiedmersaid.

Different geological formations also present evidence of theflood, including huge dunes formed by the lake drainage that appear ontopographical maps but are now covered by roads, buildings and otherdevelopment. The dunes reached 110 feet (34 meters) high with a half-milebetween crests.

"We believe the very large dunes were formed during thepeak of the flood and then modified as the flood waned," Wiedmer toldLiveScience in an e-mail.

Wiedmer's research also turned up evidence for another suspected megaflood from Atnaalong a different course that could have had a flow of 2,904 million gallons per second(11,000 million liters of water per second), as well as for two smaller megafloods.

Top10 Natural Disaster ThreatsWhat'sthe Deadliest Natural Phenomenon?101Amazing Earth Facts

Original Story: Ancient Megaflood Washed Across Alaska LandscapeLiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.

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