Eeyore's News and View

Report: Al Qaeda Group Bungled Test of Unconventional Weapon
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
By Eli Lake, Washington Times
An Al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria closed a base earlier this month after an experiment with unconventional weapons went awry, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Monday.
The official, who spoke on the condition he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said he could not confirm press reports that the accident killed at least 40 Al Qaeda operatives, but he said the mishap led the militant group to shut down a base in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou province in eastern Algeria.
He said authorities in the first week of January intercepted an urgent communication between the leadership of Al Qaeda in the Land of the Maghreb (AQIM) and Al Qaeda's leadership in the tribal region of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. The communication suggested that an area sealed to prevent leakage of a biological or chemical substance had been breached, according to the official.
"We don't know if this is biological or chemical," the official said.
The story was first reported by the British tabloid the Sun, which said the Al Qaeda operatives died after being infected with a strain of bubonic plague, the disease that killed a third of Europe's population in the 14th century. But the intelligence official dismissed that claim.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480864,00.html

Oil dips below $33 on recession fears
Oil slipped below $33 a barrel in New York, hitting a new low for the year, on persistently weak expectations for the global economy.
By Josephine Moulds
Last Updated: 5:41PM GMT 20 Jan 2009
Analysts said the price was distorted by regional factors, such as limited storage availability, but it was indicative of the severe recession in developed countries and a drop in global demand for oil.
David Fyfe, head of oil industry and markets at the International Energy Agency, said: "There was a little support for prices with what was happening in Gaza, the cold weather, and a bit of a bump up for the Russia-Ukraine gas crisis.
"As those elements have ebbed, the market focus remains on a very weak demand prognosis. Opec is cutting back its supplies, but they are essentially chasing the market down, because all the indicators for demand are coming in so weak."
His comments come just days after Jeff Currie, head of Goldman Sachs' commodities research team and one of the industry's most closely watched analysts, said the oil price would average $30 a barrel in the first quarter, and not recover until the second half. He predicts a price of $65 a barrel by the end of the year.
Goldman Sachs, which is the bank with the biggest share of the commodities and energy markets, has been among the most bullish forecasters of the oil price. Last year it predicted a crude oil spike to $200 a barrel.
Mr Currie said oil, which has plunged from a record of $147 last July, may have reached a bottom.
The "super-cycle" was alive and well, he said, adding: "We're still true believers."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/4299222/Oil-dips-below-33-on-recession-fears.html

State of mining is bad, but it could get worse
Jan 20 03:53 PM US/Eastern
By SANDY SHORE
AP Business Writer
DENVER (AP) - Withering cost cuts across the mining industry have left tens of thousands of people without jobs from the Arizona desert to the Andes—and there is a litany of evidence that the situation is growing worse.
International mining companies also have postponed or canceled projects and padlocked the gates to mines as consumers have cut spending on cars, jewelry and housing.
Global mining giant Rio Tinto announced last week that iron ore production, used to make steel, tumbled 18 percent in the fourth quarter and said Tuesday its aluminum subsidiary would double previously announced production cuts.
Unwanted copper, gold, bauxite (used in aluminum) and iron ore, is piling up or being left underground as the worst recession in at least a generation saps demand.
"Expect inventories to get bigger and expect this continuing process (of cutbacks)," said Andrew Martyn, a portfolio manager who specializes in mining for Toronto-based Davis-Rea Ltd. "It's going to go for quite some time here."
The effect on many communities worldwide that rely on mining has been immediate. Workers are protesting job cuts and others are expected to begin migrating in large numbers in search of work, some across international borders.
"A lot of the communities are remote so that when (mines) do shut down, the town actually collapses," Martyn said.
The bulk of the layoffs in the United States are in base metals such as copper and zinc, although major companies are scaling back production of metallurgical coal for use in steel manufacturing.
Coal companies have slowed production from Wyoming to Australia.
Coal jobs are among the highest paying in many rural U.S. communities, potentially creating a dire economic ripple effect. In the past, coal companies have been more recession proof, but the average price per ton for Appalachian coal has fallen more than 35 percent since the summer.
At least 700 job cuts are likely in Tennessee and Montana by Swiss-based Glencore International AG, a commodities company.
Still, job losses have been most severe outside the United States.
Glencore's Bolivian subsidiary recently announced it will layoff several hundred people, triggering labor protests.
Thousands of miners who dig primarily for zinc in Bolivia either have been laid off or left their jobs in the Andes, the poorest region in South America's poorest country. In the mines around the small cities of Potosi and Oruro, the work force of roughly 25,000 miners and refiners has been cut roughly in half.
A controlling stake in Bolivia's largest mine, San Cristobal, has been put up for sale by Denver-based Apex Silver Mines Ltd., which is reorganizing under bankruptcy protection.
Local officials say workers may flood back into villages emptied during a two-year zinc boom that ended in 2007, or they may emigrate to Argentina in search of jobs.
Tens of thousands of mining jobs have been lost in recent months from South Africa to Jamaica as manufacturers shut down. U.S. industrial production plunged by double the amount analysts expected in December, capping the worst year for manufacturers since 2001.
"As little as three to six months ago, steel companies were running flat out around the world because China was making factories to ship goods to the rest of the Western world," Martyn said. "That process has come to a grinding halt."
There are no reliable employment numbers available for the mining industry globally because it spans such a broad geographic, economic and political spectrum, but it is clear that the number of jobs already lost is vast.
The fall off in copper, used in everything from housing to computers, has triggered thousands of layoffs in Peru, Arizona and New Mexico.
Aluminum producers like Alcoa have also slashed production, along with thousands of jobs. Those cuts have spilled over into mining.
"What all companies are doing that have bauxite and alumina facilities is they're basically retrenching," Argus Research analyst Bill Selesky said. "They may be running them at lower production levels now just to keep up with what's going on. And they won't rehire these people until they actually see an uptick in demand."
In a December address, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced a $6.7 million plan to boost tourism and small businesses to help offset the effects of the downturn in the bauxite-alumina industry.
Industry analysts speculate some signs of improvement could start appearing in the latter half of this year, though others say it could take up to two years.
"Companies still looking to cut costs are going to be cutting out high cost operations. A lot of that should be still to come," Barnard Jacobs Mellet analyst Patrick Chidley said.
BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's largest miner, is expected to reveal more about the state of production and exploration for the last quarter of 2008 on Wednesday, Australia time. The figures should be available late Tuesday in the United States.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95R3LRG0&show_article=1

Japanese security robot nets intruders
Jan 22 12:34 PM US/Eastern
Japanese on Thursday unveiled a security robot that can be operated remotely by cellphone and launch a net to capture an intruder.
The prototype T-34, jointly developed by robot developer tmsuk Co. Ltd. and security company Alacom Co. Ltd., looks like a small wheeled vehicle and is loaded with sensors that detect anything untoward in an office building.
It can move at a maximum speed of 10 kilometres (six miles) per hour under the command of a person who sees real-time images of where the robot is on the screen of his cellphone.
"Security sensors often set off false alarms but examining the location with the robot will lead to more efficient operations," the companies said in a joint statement.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.c2041e940f4762afd9c98babc6561ae5.41&show_article=1

Obama to stop ousting illegals?
President asked for executive order to halt deportation, work raids
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Elvira Arellano
A former illegal alien who sought sanctuary in a Chicago church in 2006 before being deported back to Mexico has written a letter to President Barack Obama, asking him to issue an executive order to stop sending illegals home.
Elvira Arellano came to the United States illegally in 1997 and was deported. But she returned less than a week later and began working as a cleaning employee for the O'Hare International Airport. After being convicted of Social Security fraud, she faced another deportation in August 2006. She took refuge in Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago and called for the suspension of the nation's immigration laws and a "campaign of resistance."
She remained there for months before traveling to California where she was arrested and deported from Los Angeles in 2007.
Today, outside the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, Arellano announced that she gave American officials a letter for Obama, asking him to stop workplace raids and deportations, the Associated Press reports. She said she believes the new president will reform U.S. immigration policy and stop separating families.
The announcement came during an immigration march in Washington, D.C., today. Several groups, organized by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, or FIRM, marched on the offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for "just and humane" immigration reform. According to its website, the group aims to "lay to rest 8 years of enforcement-only immigration policy at the hands of the Bush administration."
President Obama's immigration agenda has been posted on the WhiteHouse website, where he said, "Our broken immigration system can only be fixed by putting politics aside and offering a complete solution that secures our border, enforces our laws, and reaffirms our heritage as a nation of immigrants."
The agenda calls for the following actions:
* Create Secure Borders: Protect the integrity of our borders. Support additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.
* Improve Our Immigration System: Fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill
* Remove Incentives to Enter Illegally: Remove incentives to enter the country illegally by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants
* Bring People Out of the Shadows: Support a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens
* Work with Mexico: Promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration
As WND reported earlier, Obama has also advocated issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens.
As U.S. senator, Obama voted voted against an amendment aimed at reducing document fraud and preserving the integrity of the Social Security system. He also sponsored a bill to provide in-state tuition rates at state and community colleges to illegals.
Oscar Chacón, executive director of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, told New York's El Diario Americans can expect to see a change in immigration policy as early as this year.
"There is no doubt that the Obama Administration will push immigration reform," Chacón said. "In a meeting we ... had recently with the Obama transition team's immigration advisers, they assured us that he has in his plans an immigration reform for the first year of his government."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86733

Eeyores News and View

Stocks sink on financial fears; Dow drops 332 points to below 8000
By Tim Paradis, AP Business Writers
NEW YORK — The dawn of the Obama presidency could not shake the stock market from its dejection over the rapidly deteriorating state of the banking industry.
Financial stocks, many of them falling by double digit percentages, led a huge drop on Wall Street Tuesday that left the major indexes down more than 4% and the Dow Jones industrials down 332 points.
Although traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange paused to watch the inauguration ceremony and Obama's remarks, the transition of power didn't erase investors' intensifying concerns about struggling banks and their impact on the overall economy.
The market's angst, which began with multibillion losses reported last week by Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., intensified after the Royal Bank of Scotland's forecast that its losses for 2008 could top $41.3 billion.
The collapse in bank stocks was swift Tuesday: State Street plunged 59%, Citigroup fell 20% and Bank of America lost 29%. Royal Bank of Scotland fell 69% in New York trading.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2 ... sday_N.htm

16-year-old Chinese boy dies of bird flu
January 20, 2009 - 3:55am
A man catches chickens at a poultry market in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu province, Monday, Jan. 19, 2009. A 16-year-old boy infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus has died in central China, the third fatality from the disease this month. (AP Photo) BEIJING (AP) - A 16-year-old boy infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus has died in central China, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday, the country's third fatality from the disease this month.
Authorities also stepped up bird flu precautions on fears that the deadly virus can spread more quickly in cold weather and as tens of millions of people travel between cities and rural hometowns for the Lunar New Year holiday, which typically includes feasts with poultry.
The student surnamed Wu, who had been in critical condition, died Tuesday morning in Huaihua, a city in Hunan province, Xinhua said. He fell ill on Jan. 8 in his hometown in the neighboring province of Guizhou and was transferred to a hospital in Huaihua on Jan. 16, when his condition worsened.
He had had contact with dead poultry, the report said without giving other details.
The two other bird flu deaths were a 27-year-old woman in Shandong province in the country's east who died on Saturday and a 19-year-old woman who died in Beijing on Jan. 5.
Also Tuesday, a 2-year-old girl who had been critically ill with the H5N1 virus in Hunan was in stable condition and had returned to her home in the north, China Central Television said in its noon newscast. The state television report said the girl had been to live poultry markets "many times" but did not elaborate.
The girl's mother died earlier this month from pneumonia after being exposed to poultry, a Hunan health official said in an interview with a state-run newspaper published Tuesday. However, he could not confirm a link to H5N1.
Most bird flu cases stem from exposure to sick birds, but human-to-human transmission of bird flu has happened about a dozen times in the past in countries including China, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Turkey. In nearly every case, transmission has occurred among blood relatives who have been in close contact, and the virus has not spread into the wider community.
While the disease remains hard for humans to catch, scientists have warned that if outbreaks among poultry are not controlled, the virus may mutate into a form more easily passed between people. A new influenza virus could quickly turn into a pandemic, infecting millions of people with no immunity.
No sick poultry has been found in the areas where the four people fell ill this year, despite officials inspecting hundreds of thousands of birds. This could mean that surveillance needs to be tightened or that poultry may be carrying the virus but not showing symptoms or falling sick. Vaccinations also reduce the amount of virus circulating, but low levels of H5N1 may still be causing outbreaks _ without the obvious signs of dying birds.
Until this month, no new human cases had been reported in China since February 2007. Shu Yuelong, a flu expert at China's National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said a spike in infections was likely because the H5N1 virus is more active in lower temperatures.
The cases come as an estimated 188 million people travel between cities and rural hometowns for Lunar New Year, the country's biggest holiday, which begins next week.
Celebratory family meals often include dishes made from freshly slaughtered chicken and duck feature, meaning a potentially greater risk of exposure to sick birds as people shop in markets for poultry or when the birds are transported to be sold.
The Agriculture Ministry has ordered tighter monitoring of disease outbreaks at all levels and proper vaccination of all poultry. It would also increase checks across the country and at borders.
According to World Health Organization, bird flu has killed 249 people worldwide since 2003. The tally does not include Tuesday's death in China, where a total of 34 infections have been reported.
http://wtop.com/?nid=105&sid=1565513

Some Little Debbie products join snack food recall January 19, 2009 - 5:51am
WASHINGTON (AP) - The company that sells Little Debbie snacks announced a recall Sunday of peanut butter crackers because of a potential link to a deadly salmonella outbreak.
The voluntary recall came one day after the government advised consumers to avoid eating cookies, cakes, ice cream and other foods with peanut butter until health officials learn more about the contamination.
The announcement by McKee Foods Corp. of Collegedale, Tenn., about two kinds of Little Debbie products was another in a string of voluntary recalls following the most recent guidance by health officials.
The South Bend Chocolate Co. in Indiana said Sunday it too was recalling various candies containing peanut butter from Peanut Corp. of America. In suburban Chicago, Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products recalled several brands of peanut butter cookies it sells through Wal-Mart stores.
Peanut Corp. expanded its recall Sunday to all peanut butter and all peanut paste produced at its Blakely, Ga., plant since July 1.
McKee said it had not received any complaints about illnesses from people who ate any size peanut butter toasty sandwich crackers or peanut butter cheese sandwich crackers. The recall covers crackers produced on or after July 1.
Officials are focusing on peanut paste, as well as peanut butter, produced at Peanut Corp.'s Georgia facility. Its peanut butter is not sold directly to consumers but distributed to institutions and food companies. But the peanut paste, made from roasted peanuts, is an ingredient in cookies, cakes and other products that people buy in the supermarket.
So far, more than 470 people have gotten sick in 43 states, and at least 90 had to be hospitalized. At least six deaths are being blamed on the outbreak. Salmonella is a bacteria and the most common source of food poisoning in the U.S., causing diarrhea, cramping and fever.
Also Sunday, the maker of Peter Pan peanut butter said none of its products are associated with the outbreak. Peter Pan and other peanut butter produced by ConAgra Foods Inc. were linked in 2007 to a salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 625 people in 47 states.
The company recalled all its peanut butter and eventually traced the contamination to a leaky roof and faulty sprinkler head at its Georgia plant. In a statement, ConAgra said it does not buy any ingredients from Peanut Corp.
The Kellogg Co., which listed Peanut Corp. as one of its suppliers, has recalled 16 products. McKee said Kellogg manufactured the Little Debbie crackers covered by the recall.
The Kellogg products recalled include Austin and Keebler branded peanut butter sandwich crackers, and some snack-size packs of Famous Amos peanut butter cookies and Keebler Soft Batch Homestyle peanut butter cookies.
Late Saturday, the Midwest supermarket chain Hy-Vee Inc. of West Des Moines, Iowa, said it was voluntarily recalling products made in its bakery departments with peanut butter because they had the potential to be contaminated with salmonella. The recall covered seven states: Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota.
Perry's Ice Cream Co., based in Akron, N.Y., said it was recalling select ice cream products containing peanut butter because of the PCA investigation. Its recall covered New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.
Most peanut butter sold in jars at supermarkets appears to be safe, the Food and Drug Administration said Saturday.
Health officials are focusing on 30 companies out of a total of 85 that received peanut products from the Georgia plant.
On the Net:
FDA: http://tinyurl.com/8srctw
http://wtop.com/?nid=34&sid=1578833

ANTI-TERROR bosses last night hailed their latest ally in the war on
terror — the BLACK DEATH.
By ALEX WEST
At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the
disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.
Epidemic ... in Britain in 1665
The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training
at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security
forces found a body by a roadside.
The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic
Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle
East.
It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.
Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells —
or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
One security source said: “This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war
against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical
supplies needed to treat the disease.
“It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying
al-Qaeda.”
Black Death comes in various forms.
ubonic Plague is spread by bites from infected rat fleas. Symptoms include
boils in the groin, neck and armpits. In Pneumonic Plague, airborn bacteria
spread like flu.
It can be in the body for more than a week — highly contagious but not
revealing tell-tale symptoms.
Deadly ... the plague bacteria causes horrific symptoms
The al-Qaeda epidemic began in the cave hideouts of AQLIM in Tizi Ouzou
province, 150km east of the capital Algiers. The group, led by wanted terror
boss Abdelmalek Droudkal, was forced to turn its shelters in the Yakouren
forest into mass graves and flee.
The extremists supporting madman Osama bin Laden went to Bejaia and Jijel
provinces — hoping the plague did not go with them.
A source said: “The emirs (leaders) fear surviving terrorists will surrender
to escape a horrible death.”
AQLIM boss Droudkal claims to command around 1,000 insurgents. Training
camps are also based in Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria.
AQLIM bombed the UN headquarters in Algiers in 2007, killing 41. Attacks
across Algeria last year killed at least 70 people.
In an interview last July, Droudkal boasted his cell was in constant contact
with other al-Qaeda “brothers”.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cle2146286.ece

More than six in 10 Americans do not want any more of their tax dollars to be devoted to bailing out financial institutions, according to a new poll.
A CNN/Opinion Research survey found that the majority of people feel the first bailout was not successful and do not want to spend more in this way.
"One reason for the opposition to more money being spent may be that more than eight in 10 said that the first $350 billion of taxpayer money for the bailout didn’t work," said CNN’s polling director Keating Holland.
In fact, a similar poll taken by CNN back in October, before the bailout had been approved found that 56 percent of the public opposed the measure.
However, the newest findings do reveal that some people are in support of the government’s proposed actions, with 38 percent agreeing more money should be given to struggling financial institutions.
On Thursday, the Senate voted to release the remaining $350 billion of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to the incoming administration.
http://www.personalliberty.com/news/pol ... -18978805/

Bush Pardons Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean
Jan 19th 2009 1:45PM
Filed Under:eBush Administration, Immigration
AP News
In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.
Bush's decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. They had long argued that the agents were merely doing their jobs, defending the American border against criminals. They also maintained that the more than 10-year prison sentences the pair was given were too harsh.
Well, good. As noted in the article, these two have become a cause celebre for those concerned with border issues. Not so much for what they did (which was bad) but because the key witness was an illegal and a drug smuggler and he was given immunity for his testimony against two of the good guys. Well, maybe not so good, but you get the idea.
I don't, of course, agree with what they did, but do feel the maximum possible punishment should have been no more than dismissal from the border patrol. But ten years? Ridiculous.
Expect GWB's approval rating among Republicans to go up about five points. For the life of me I don't understand why he didn't do this months ago if he was going to do it at all. In general, the whole concept of last minute pardons means that either you couldn't be bothered to pay attention to this kind of stuff earlier, or that you believe that the pardons will have some kind of negative political repercussion.
http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2 ... d-compean/

Eeyore's News and View

The plauge kills 40 al-Qaeda fanatics
By ALEX WEST Published: Today
ANTI-TERROR bosses last night hailed their latest ally in the war on terror — the BLACK DEATH. At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.

Epidemic ... in Britain in 1665 The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside. The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East. It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops. Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. One security source said: “This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease. “It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda.” Black Death comes in various forms. Bubonic Plague is spread by bites from infected rat fleas. Symptoms include boils in the groin, neck and armpits. In Pneumonic Plague, airborn bacteria spread like flu. It can be in the body for more than a week — highly contagious but not revealing tell-tale symptoms.

Deadly ... the plague bacteria causes horrific symptoms The al-Qaeda epidemic began in the cave hideouts of AQLIM in Tizi Ouzou province, 150km east of the capital Algiers. The group, led by wanted terror boss Abdelmalek Droudkal, was forced to turn its shelters in the Yakouren forest into mass graves and flee. The extremists supporting madman Osama bin Laden went to Bejaia and Jijel provinces — hoping the plague did not go with them. A source said: “The emirs (leaders) fear surviving terrorists will surrender to escape a horrible death.” AQLIM boss Droudkal claims to command around 1,000 insurgents. Training camps are also based in Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria. AQLIM bombed the UN headquarters in Algiers in 2007, killing 41. Attacks across Algeria last year killed at least 70 people. In an interview last July, Droudkal boasted his cell was in constant contact with other al-Qaeda berrothers”.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2146286.ece

EU sees recession being deep and long-lasting Britain announces second massive bank bailout in three monthsupdated 2:21 p.m. ET, Mon., Jan. 19, 2009 BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union said Monday it is facing a "deep and protracted recession" and slashed growth forecasts, while Britain announced its second massive bank bailout in just over three months in another wave of bad economic news in Europe.The economy in the 16 nations that use the euro will shrink by 1.9 percent in 2009, with the entire EU contracting 1.8 percent, the European Commission said. That is a drastic cut from its earlier forecasts of 0.1 percent for the euro zone and 0.2 percent for the EU.The 27-member bloc said 3.5 million jobs will disappear in the EU in the year ahead as business and household spending falls and banks tighten lending.Government demand and investment will be the only source of growth — but that carries a heavy price tag. Government deficits will hit the highest level in 15 years as they borrow heavily to stoke growth to combat the world economic crisis that began with bank losses on securities backed by shaky U.S. mortgages.The EU executive raised warning flags about credit conditions, saying European states may need to inject more than the $398 billion they have already put into banks "to avoid a sustained drag on bank lending."It said the economy would be faring much worse without current EU nations' plans to boost growth by spending 1 percent of gross domestic product this year, which should bring an additional 0.75 percent growth.Britain — an EU member which has not joined the euro — said it would launch its second bank bailout in just over three months by offering banks a chance to guarantee bad securities for a fee in return for a requirement to increase lending to businesses and consumers. It also set aside $74 billion for the Bank of England to buy troubled assets from banks.Bank stocks plunged, with Royal Bank of Scotland shares falling 70 percent to only 10 pence after it announced the largest loss in British corporate history and the government raised the 58 percent stake it took as part of the first bailout to around 70 percent.The EU said the downswing will be particularly marked in Britain and more protracted in Spain.It warned that the outlook was still exceptionally uncertain, describing the global economic crisis as the worst since the second world war. The EU predicted a moderate recovery in 2010, when the EU could grow 0.5 percent, with the first green shoots to come in the second half of 2009.European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was more gloomy, saying this year would be "very difficult" and a rebound might only come in 2010.In a speech in Paris, he said officials had underestimated the risks facing the economy in the last two years and growth this year would be substantially lower than the ECB's last forecast that the euro area would contract by up to 1 percent this year.The EU warned that "the main issue is whether the recovery will be a lasting one."In Europe, it cautioned that it could not rule out that "very weak economic sentiment may continue for some time as concerns about a long and deep recession spread, particularly with unemployment now on the rise."Falling exports will hit Germany hard. Europe's largest economy is also the world's biggest exporter and will likely shrink 2.3 percent this year, it said. German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said this chimed with Berlin's own figures.A sharp German slowdown will hit its nearest neighbors and trading partners.The EU says the British economy will also shrink, about 2.8 percent this year, as the financial sector contracts and a housing bubble deflates, while France will contract by 1.8 percent.Spain and Ireland will also suffer sharply as recent booms go bust and jobless queues lengthen — with nearly one in five Spanish workers without a job by 2010.But the EU's top economy official, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, dismissed speculation that either nation's soaring public debt would force them to quit the euro currency — which limits the power governments have over fiscal policy.Ratings agency Standard & Poors put euro nations Ireland and Portugal on negative watch last week and have downgraded Spain and Greece as they see more risk of default on public debt."In the case of the euro area members, I don't think at all that the risks are high or are significant," Almunia told reporters.He was more critical of Italy and Britain, which he said missed the chance to pay off debt during good times.Governments will see debt and deficits soar as they spend billions of euros to speed up the economy and save banks while unemployment benefits increase and tax revenues fall.For euro nations, efforts to balance the books will be swept away as Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia will this year break a key EU budget rule to keep their deficits under 3 percent. Germany, Belgium, Austria and Slovakia could join them in 2010.The EU forecast sees bank lending falling further this year and was supportive of banking bailouts to downsize lenders' balance sheets.However, it did not think much of some governments' rescue measures, particularly temporary cuts in corporate profit taxes and sales tax, saying these simply delayed problems for the future.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28735459/

Something fishy? Counterfeit foods enter the U.S. market
Some of your favorite foods may be fakes.
Foods masquerading as something else — a more nutritious something else — have been big news in the past two years. Chinese food companies in particular have been blamed for making deadly alterations to dairy, baby and pet foods by adding melamine. The chemical makes it appear that the food or beverage has the required level of protein.
But what about food producers in this country? What fraudulent foods do U.S. consumers have to fear from American companies?
Experts say dangerous U.S.-produced foods are comparatively few, but producers have been known to practice "economic adulteration" — adding a little to their bottom line by padding, thinning or substituting something cheap for something expensive.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration regulate the food industry, but with safety issues to deal with, economic adulteration has "really been back-burnered," says Bruce Silverglade of the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest. So in a caveat emptor world, what should consumers look out for?
Fish is the most frequently faked food Americans buy. In the business, it's called "species adulteration" — selling a cheaper fish such as pen-raised Atlantic salmon as wild Alaska salmon.
When Consumer Reports tested 23 supposedly wild-caught salmon fillets bought nationwide in 2005-2006, only 10 were wild salmon. The rest were farmed. In 2004, University of North Carolina scientists found 77% of fish labeled red snapper was actually something else. Last year, the Chicago Sun-Times tested fish at 17 sushi restaurants and found that fish being sold as red snapper actually was mostly tilapia.
"It's really just fraud, plain and simple," says Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, an industry group.
One thing consumers don't need to worry about is scallops. Tales of skate wings cut into circles and sold as scallops are common. But Randolph says the FDA has never found an actual case of it.
Salmon is tricky. Randolph does have one tip, though. Farmed salmon gets its coloring from dyes added to food pellets the fish are fed, while wild salmon gets it from the plankton they eat.
"When you cook it, the wild salmon retains its color, and in the aquaculture salmon, the color tends to leak out," she says. Suspicious consumers can call the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Nutrition hotline at 1-888-SAFEFOOD.
Olive oil
This luxury oil, touted for its heart-health properties and taste, has become a gourmet must-have. Americans consumed about 575 million pounds of the silky stuff last year, according to the North American Olive Oil Association. Sixty-three percent was the higher-grade extra virgin, which comes from the first pressing of the olives.
It's also one of the most frequently counterfeited food products, says Martin Stutsman, the FDA's consumer safety officer for edible oils.
There are no national figures on olive-oil fakery. But after complaints, Connecticut began testing two years ago. "We were coming across a lot of products labeled as extra-virgin olive oil that contained up to 90% soybean oil," says Jerry Farrell Jr., Connecticut's commissioner of consumer protection.
Most name brands were fine, Farrell says. It was often off-brands sold in discount stores that were the problem.
Connecticut was so concerned that in November, it became the first state in the nation to set standards for olive oil, enabling officials there to levy fines and pull adulterated products off store shelves. California is set to create its own standards this year. Reports from panels of testers have found as much as 60% to 70% of the olive oil sold as extra virgin in the state is a lower-quality olive oil, says Dan Flynn of the Olive Center at the University of California-Davis.
The easiest thing is for fakers to add 10% vegetable oil in extra virgin, says Stutsman. "It will still smell as it should, but you've saved 10% of the cost."
Bob Bauer, president of the North American Olive Oil Association, says it's more of a problem in restaurants than in supermarkets.
Honey
An expensive natural product that's mostly sugar, honey is easily faked. "If you can Substitute a less expensive source of sugar for the expensive one, you can save some money and gain market share," says the FDA's Stutsman.
It used to be that cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup was mostly used to thin out honey. But chemically, that was easy to spot. FDA used an isotope test that would easily identify the adulteration.
So counterfeiters got wily and started using beet sugar. Its profile is similar to honey, so the FDA had to switch to a much more complicated, multistep test comparing the sugar profiles to see if the proportions and trace materials match.
"But once we started catching people, they create a moving target. They'll switch to something more difficult (to detect)," says Stutsman.
Maple syrup
Maple syrup is another high-value item that can be adulterated. In these tough economic times, Vermont, the USA's largest supplier to flapjacks everywhere, may up its testing programs.
The boiled-down sap of the sugar maple tree can be diluted with water or sugar by sellers "trying to get more bang for the buck," says Kristin Haas, food safety director in the state's Agency for Agriculture, Food and Markets.
Vermont's testing program has found fraud only three times in the past 17 years, says Haas, but it's not taken lightly. "A couple of years back, there was a gentleman who actually went to prison because of this issue."
When times get tight, the incentive to cheat can rise like sap in the spring, so the state may have to work harder to keep its premier product pure.
Vanilla
A product of the tropics, vanilla pods can be soaked in milk or stored in sugar to impart a delicate vanilla scent to foods. More commonly, they're soaked in alcohol that is then used as a flavoring.
But vanillin (pronounced VAN-ah-lynn), a chemical copy of the richly organic vanilla flavor, was created in the laboratory in the 19th century. When used in foods, it's supposed to be labeled as an artificial flavor and usually is.
One "too good to be true" product to watch out for is really inexpensive vanilla extract sometimes sold in Mexico and Latin America, says the FDA. It's often made with coumarin, a toxic substance that has been banned in U.S. foods since 1954.
Coumarin is chemically related to warfarin, a blood thinner, and can be dangerous. It's "no bargain," the FDA says.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-01-19-fake-foods_N.htm

What Recession? The $170 Million Inauguration
Obama's Inauguration Has Been Financed Partially by Bailed-Out Wall Street Executives
By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
ABC NEWS Business Unit
Jan. 19, 2009
The country is in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, which isn't stopping rich donors and the government from spending $170 million, or more, on the inauguration of Barack Obama .
Employees at banks, brokerages and Wall Street firms donated $7 million Barack Obama's inauguration.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)The actual swearing-in ceremony will cost $1.24 million, according to Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
It's the security, parties and countless Porta-a-Potty rentals that really run up the bill.
The federal government estimates that it will spend roughly $49 million on the inaugural weekend. Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland have requested another $75 million from the federal government to help pay for their share of police, fire and medical services.
And then there is the party bill.
"We have a budget of roughly $45 million, maybe a little bit more," said Linda Douglass, spokeswoman for the inaugural committee.
Douglass said that this will be the "most open and accessible inauguration in history," with members of the general public able to participate on a greater scale than ever before.
"The money is going toward providing events which we hope are going to connect people, make them feel like we are all in this together and reinforce the notion that when we pull together, we're stronger," Douglass said. "And we need to pull together to face the challenges that are before us today."
Among the expenses: a Bruce Springsteen concert, the parade, large-screen TV rentals for all-free viewing on the national Mall, $700,000 to the Smithsonian Institution to stay open and, of course, the balls, including three that are being pitched as free or low cost for the public.
But there are plenty of rich donors willing to pick up the tab.
"They are not the $20 and $50 donors who helped propel Obama through Election Day," said Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics. "These are people giving mostly $50,000 apiece. They tend to be corporate executives, celebrities, the elite of the elite."
Best Seats in the House
The biggest group of donors were none other than the recently bailed-out Wall Street executives and employees.
"The finance sector is well represented, despite its recent troubles," Ritsch said. "Those who worked in finance still managed to pull together nearly $7 million for the inauguration."
The donors will get some of the best seats in the house for the inauguration, as well as admittance to some of the best balls and other events.
"I don't think that they're going to get a whole lot of face time with the new president himself," Ritsch said, "but they are certainly establishing themselves from day one as his biggest financial supporters. And if there's something they need or to tell him down the road, they will have an easier time doing that than everyone else."
Besides Wall Street firms, a large chunk of the money came from employees at companies such as Microsoft, Google and DreamWorks Animation, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer and his wife, Connie, each gave $50,000. So did Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda.
DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and his wife, Marilyn, each gave $50,000. Filmmaker and DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate, both also gave $50,000. And DreamWorks employees gave a total of $275,000.
Billionaire investor George Soros and his family contributed $250,000 to the inauguration, and Google co-founder Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt each donated $25,000.
Other big-name donors who gave $50,000 include filmmaker George Lucas, artist Dale Chihuly, Los Angeles Dodgers President Jamie McCourt. Citigroup managing director Raymond J. McGuire; Oracle President Charles E. Phillips Jr.; actresses Halle Berry and Sharon Stone; and Melvin Simon, co-founder of Simon Property Group, the largest mall owner in the United States.
Despite all the donations, Obama's team has made donations much more restrictive than in the past.
Obama capped donations at $50,000 per person, which is still more than 10 times what individuals could give to his campaign, but a lot less than the $250,000 cap President Bush had at his last inauguration. Contributions from corporations, labor unions, political action committees and registered lobbyists are not being accepted by Obama.
The Real Money
For Bill Clinton's second inaugural in 1997, contributions were capped to $100. But that committee had some leftover money from the previous inauguration and charged people up to $3,000 for inaugural tickets.
"We have the broadest fundraising restrictions in inaugural history," Douglas said.
The inauguration team is also posting all donations of $200 or more on the Internet almost as quickly as they are coming in. The law only requires it to disclose the information 90 days after the actual swearing-in.
"The transparency of this inaugural fundraising effort is unprecedented as far as we can remember," Ritsch said. "We see that as a positive step and hope it's an indication that President Obama will use technology to make government more responsive and transparent to people."
That's all the play money. The bulk of cash will actually be spent on security and logistics.
In a letter to members of Congress, the governors of Maryland and Virginia, and the mayor of Washington said that their combined costs could exceed $75 million. That's on top of the $49 million the federal government is spending, again mostly for security.
"The historical significance of inaugurating the first African-American president of the United States alone makes the event unprecedented," they wrote. "Given its political significance, we expect that the event will be attended by hundreds, if not thousands, of elected U.S. government officials and foreign dignitaries. Turnout by the general public for the swearing-in ceremony alone is likely to exceed 2 million. Transportation officials estimate that roughly 10,000 charter buses will enter the District with approximately 500,000 riders alone, a number which nearly matches the city's population."
The emergency managers for the three jurisdictions said they expect this to be the most complex and challenging inaugural in history.
"The mass of attendees expected will challenge fire, law enforcement, emergency medical and mass transit capabilities," the governors and mayor wrote. "Moreover, the high volume of buses/traffic, weather factor and other threats will create additional demands."
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Inauguration/story?id=6665946&page=1