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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

US blames Hamas for Gaza bloodshed

WORLD powers called for an immediate end to violence after massive Israeli air strikes on Gaza and rocket attacks by Palestinian militants, but the US said it "holds Hamas responsible"……..

Read more US blames Hamas for Gaza bloodshed


Source: world news

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Terror, chaos grip Gaza, U.N. official says

Palestinians in Gaza's densely populated capital are in a state of panic as Israel continues its air assault and readies tanks at the border, a United Nations humanitarian spokeswoman told CNN on Monday....

Read more Terror, chaos grip Gaza

Source: cnn

UK dire warning over 2009 job cuts

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development says even those who escape redundancy face pay freezes.

It says that while total unemployment will not hit three million, the time between New Year and Easter will be the worst for job losses since 1991....

Read more warning over 2009 job cuts


Source: bbc news

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI under-fire for 'negative' statements

Pope Benedict XVI has come under fire from a leading Vatican watcher as "The Pope who says No" following a series of "negative" Vatican statements on homosexuality, the disabled and bio-ethics….

Read more Pope still under-fire for statements


Source: times online

Friday, December 26, 2008

Pope's gay edict gets spirit of the season all wrong

For, apparently, gay people threaten the planet in a comparable way to the destruction of the rainforest. I guess the idea is that if we all were gay, then we wouldn't be making any babies.

Yes, it's a bit like saying that if we all were to become celibate priests we wouldn't be making any babies either. Except that would mean the Catholic church has itself become a threat to the planet. OK, that's a cheap shot....

Read more Pope's gay edict all wrong

Source: canberra times

Queen to deliver somber message to crisis-hit nation

The Queen will use her Christmas Day message to voice her concern at the "insecurity" millions are feeling in recession-hit Britain.

Read more Queen to deliver somber news


Source: gulfnews

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Mortgage activity surges at US banks

Applications for home loans more than doubled in the two weeks after the Federal Reserve said it would buy mortgage bonds to help stabilise the market, prompting mortgage rates to fall by more than three-quarters of a percentage point….

Read more Mortgage activity surges


Source: ft.com

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The crisis spreads to East Asia

The global credit crunch set off by Wall Street’s collapse is spilling over into domestic banking systems and squeezing capital resources for corporate investment…..

Read more The crisis spreads to East Asia

Source: manila times

Monday, December 22, 2008

Medicaid applicants increases

Since the recession began a year ago, many states have seen increases in the Medicaid rolls just as tax revenues are falling below projections.

Governors have lobbied President-elect Barack Obama and Congress to help them weather the downturn by increasing the federal government's share of Medicaid spending for at least two years…

Read more Medicaid applicants grow as recession widens

Source: sfgate

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Schwarzenegger Orders Unpaid Leave for State Workers

The furloughs will begin in February and will last through June 2010, Schwarzenegger said in an executive order. He also ordered all departments to cut 10 percent of their workforce costs, through firings if necessary…

Read more Unpaid Leave for Cal State Workers


Source: Bloomberg

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Will War Crimes Be Outed?

There are many reasons to anticipate that the incoming Obama administration and the new Congress will let sleeping dogs lie.

Attention to criminal acts by the former administration would probably anger Republicans, whose support Obama is hoping to win for his first priority, his economic program...

Read more Iraq War Crimes Be Outed


Source: truthout.org

Friday, December 19, 2008

Federal spending soars 25% before bailout

A joint report by the White House budget office and Treasury Department said that much of the increase in obligations came from an unexpected jump in veterans benefits liabilities, while revenues remained mostly flat because of the recession that began a year ago…..

Read more Federal spending soars


Source: Washington times

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Gay leaders Angry with Obama

“Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans,” the president of Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solomonese, wrote Obama Wednesday. “[W]e feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination.”

Read more Gay leaders furious with Obama


Source: politico

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Obama named 'Person of the Year'

"He has come to dominate the public sphere so completely that it beggars belief to recall that half the people in America had never heard of him two years ago.

"He hit the American scene like a thunderclap, upended our politics, shattered decades of conventional wisdom and overcame centuries of the social pecking order."

Read more Obama, 'Person of the Year'


Source: bbc news

Madoff's kiss of death for hedge funds

The Madoff situation is, at a time of mass redemptions and dwindling returns, what hedge funds needed least. A spectacular scandal causing huge losses that undermines trust in the industry. The financier's apparent scam, which may have cost investors $50bn....

Read more Madoff's kiss of death ..


Source: the independent

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Caroline Kennedy seek's Clinton's Senate seat

The decision came after a series of deeply personal and political conversations, in which Kennedy, whom friends describe as unflashy but determined, wrestled with whether to give up what has been a lifetime of avoiding the spotlight...

Read more Caroline Kennedy run's for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat


Source: international herald tribune

Monday, December 15, 2008

Playboy lays off 14% staff; eyes India for expansion


In an investor presentation, it said that as part of measures to cut costs in "corporate and other overhead, the company has slashed its headcount by 14%," in addition to which finance, HR and IT staffing have also been reduced...

Read more Playboy lays off 14% staff


Source: times of india

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Bush gets' 'shoed' during Iraq visit

Bush appeared at a Baghdad news conference yesterday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and said there is more work to be done with the war now in its sixth year...

Read moreBush 'shoed' in Iraq


Source: arab news

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Welcome To Financial Ruin 101


“It’s over with,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor in Washington last night. “I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow. It’s not going to be a pleasant sight.”..

Read more Bye,Bye: Global Stocks and Dollar Tumble as Auto Bailout Fails; GM Slumps


Source: dontfear65.com

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Obama to offer Israel "nuclear umbrella"

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama plans to offer Israel a strategic pact designed to fend off any nuclear attack on the Jewish state by Iran, an Israeli newspaper reported on Thursday.

Quoting an unnamed American source close to Obama's administration, the Haaretz daily said Washington would pledge under the proposed "nuclear umbrella" to respond to any Iranian nuclear strike against Israel with a U.S. retaliation in kind...

Read more Obama to offer Israel "nuclear umbrella" - newspaper


Source: the star online

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

New Nobel peace laureate wants stronger U.S. role in Mideast

Nobel peace laureate Martti Ahtisaari said Wednesday that the United States and other powers can no longer sit back and watch Israel and Palestinians destroy each other if the goal is to achieve Middle East peace. ..

Read more Nobel peace laureate wants stronger U.S. role


Source: chron.com


Tuesday, December 9, 2008

One billion people hungry: UN report

High food prices have pushed the number of hungry people in the world close to 1 billion, a United Nations agency said yesterday...

Read more One billion people hungry


Source: nzherald.co.nz

Monday, December 8, 2008

China takes lead on N Korea draft

On Saturday North Korea said it would not recognise Japan as a member of the talks at all, following Japan's refusal to provide aid to North Korea until a dispute with Pyongyang over North Korea's kidnapping of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s is resolved....

Read more China takes lead on N Korea


Source: bbc news

Sunday, December 7, 2008

HSBC creates $5 billion fund for businesses

HSBC Holdings has created a $5 billion global working capital fund for small and medium-sized businesses to help them weather the credit crisis, the bank said on Sunday.

One billion pounds ($1.47 billion) of the fund has been earmarked for customers in the United Kingdom, HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, added in a statement. Businesses in Hong Kong would also be targeted in the first phase of operations...

Read more SBC creates $5 billion fund


Source: guardian.co.uk

Thursday, December 4, 2008

US November retail sales drop

Many US retailers posted sharply lower November sales at stores open at least a year, prompting some investors to pour into the sector on hopes the dismal results signaled a bottom for share values...

Read more US retail sales drop


Source: business inquirer

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Rice flies to India to help ease tension

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was flying to New Delhi on Tuesday to try to ease tension between India and Pakistan that has surged over the Mumbai attacks and put at risk U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the region...

Read more Rice flies to India


Source: international herald tribune

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Pakistan is global migraine

“...My own sense is Pakistan has everything that gives you an international migraine. It has nuclear weapons, it has terrorism, extremists, corruption, very poor and it’s in a location that’s really, really important to us. And now with this issue with India. So, I think that president Bush and the secretary of state, who’s on her way to India now, have a very big job ahead of them,” said Ms Albright...

Read more Pakistan is global migraine: Albright


Source: the economic times

Monday, December 1, 2008

HIV testing can save newborns

"Without appropriate treatment, half of children with HIV will die from an HIV-related cause by their second birthday," Ann Veneman, executive director of the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, said in a statement....

Read more HIV testing


Source: boston herald