Month: March 2009

– Suspicions grow that attack was ‘inside job’ (Independent):
Conspiracy theories fuelled by security lapses as hunt for gunmen continues

– Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez tightens state control of food amid rocketing inflation and food shortages (Telegraph):
Venezuela’s public finances are unravelling, with oil prices at $40 a barrel, while the national budget is calculated at $60 a barrel. Inflation is running at over 30 per cent, yet with the new measures Mr Chavez is seeking to ensure that his core support, the poor, can still fill their shopping baskets with food.

– Iran says its missiles could reach Israel’s nuclear facilities (Telegraph):
The country’s military chief, Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Iran now has a mighty military force capable of deterring any US or Israeli attack. “All nuclear facilities in various parts of the lands under occupation of the Zionist regime are within the range of Iran’s missiles,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Jafari as saying Wednesday.

– Ukraine in new gas showdown with Russia (Independent):
Police raid state energy firm days ahead of deadline for next gas payment:
Armed agents of Ukraine’s national security service raided the head office of the state energy company, Naftogaz, in Kiev yesterday, as part of an investigation into the alleged diversion of gas.

– Now As The Much Greater Depression Progresses (International Forecaster)

– US military chief to offer help to Mexico in violent drug war (AFP):
WASHINGTON (AFP) — America’s top military officer heads to Mexico this week to offer help to a government battling powerful drug cartels, amid alarm in Washington over escalating violence across the border.

– NKorea threatens SKorean planes amid tensions (AP):
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea threatened South Korean passenger planes flying near its airspace on Thursday and accused the U.S. and South Korea of attempting to provoke a nuclear war with upcoming joint military drills.

– US private sector cuts 697,000 jobs (Financial Times):
“The nightmare continues,” said Ian Sheperdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics. “Every indicator tells us that employment is tanking across the economy.”

– Citigroup Falls Below $1 as Investor Faith Erodes (Bloomberg):
March 5 (Bloomberg) — Citigroup Inc., once the world’s biggest bank by market value, dropped below $1 in New York trading for the first time as investors lose confidence the shares can recover after more than $37.5 billion in losses and a government rescue.

– Beer tax increases cost 20000 jobs so far (Guardian):
A record 2,000 British pubs have closed with the loss of 20,000 jobs since the chancellor, Alistair Darling, increased beer tax in the 2008 budget, new figures published by the British Beer and Pub Association reveal today.

– GM’s auditors raise the specter of Chapter 11 (Houston Chronicle):
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors Corp.’s auditors have raised “substantial doubt” about the troubled automaker’s ability to continue operations, and the company said it may have to seek bankruptcy protection if it can’t execute a huge restructuring plan.

– Fed Refuses to Release Bank Data, Insists on Secrecy (Bloomberg):
March 5 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve Board of Governors receives daily reports on bailout loans to financial institutions and won’t make the information public, the central bank said in a reply to a Bloomberg News lawsuit.

– One in 8 US homeowners late paying or in foreclosure (Reuters):
NEW YORK, March 5 (Reuters) – About one in eight U.S. homeowners with mortgages, a record share, ended 2008 behind on their loan payments or in the foreclosure process as job losses intensified a housing crisis spawned by lax lending practices, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.

– World’s poor suffering most in the credit crunch (Guardian):
The credit crunch is hitting the income of the world’s poorest people the most and will make the UN’s Millennium Development Goals more difficult to achieve than ever, according to research released today. The Global Monitoring Report from Unesco estimates the 390 million poorest Africans will see their income drop by around 20% – far more than in the developed world.

– JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Bank America Face Ratings Cuts (Bloomberg):
March 5 (Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp., the three largest U.S. banks by market value, may face credit-rating downgrades by Moody’s Investors Service amid signs they’ll set aside additional cash for loan losses.

– Rights versus liberty (Guardian):
Hidden by the spirit of the Convention On Modern Liberty was a row about the Human Rights Act, which I want to bring out into the open

– Pakistan poses global security worry, says top US official (Guardian):
The top US diplomat in Kabul warned yesterday that Pakistan posed a bigger security challenge to America and the world than Afghanistan, as Islamabad grappled with the latest terrorist attack on its soil and the escalating Taliban ­insurgency on its north-western border.

– Merrill Lynch executives subpoenaed over bonuses (Guardian):
The row over bankers’ bonuses has intensified after subpoenas were issued to several top Merrill Lynch executives over payments for last year.

– Obama bid to stamp out tax havens (Guardian):
The world’s most secretive tax havens are to be prised open after Barack Obama’s new administration endorsed far-reaching legislation to crack down on them.

– Bank cuts rates by 50 points to 0.5% (Financial Times):
The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee cut its key rate by half a percentage point to 0.5 per cent on Thursday and unveiled a programme under which it will buy up to £150bn in government gilts and corporate bonds.
It is the first European central bank to begin this process – known as quantitative easing – in an effort to kick-start demand. (The Zimbabwe school of economics)

– Pimco Says Closed-End Funds Delay Dividend Payments (Bloomberg):
March 2 (Bloomberg) — Pacific Investment Management Co. said three of its closed-end funds had postponed dividend payments declared Feb. 2 because they failed to meet the ratio of assets to borrowing set by regulators.

– Bogus peer Hugh Rodley tried to pull off world’s biggest bank raid (Times Online):
A fake British aristocrat was convicted yesterday of playing a leading role in an audacious attempt to carry out the world’s biggest bank raid.

– Snow closes roads and railways in southern England (Guardian):
Snow has returned to parts of southern England with blizzards closing several roads and freezing temperatures bringing rail services to a standstill. (Global Freezing)

– US court allows man to sue Vatican over sexual abuse by priest (Telegraph):
A US federal appeals court has opened the way for a man to sue the Vatican after he was allegedly sexually abused 40 years ago as a teenager by a Roman Catholic priest.

– Patients can sue drug companies, Supreme Court rules (Chicago Tribune):
Patients have the right to sue drug companies when they’ve been harmed by medications whose risks aren’t adequately disclosed, the Supreme Court ruled today in an important 6-3 decision.

– Two-year-old girl can see for the first time following stem cell treatment (Telegraph):
The £30,000 treatment, which involves stems cells taken from an umbilical cord being fed into her forehead, has allowed her to see people, objects, colours and lights around her.

– You’re Dead? That Won’t Stop the Debt Collector (New York Times):
MINNEAPOLIS — The banks need another bailout and countless homeowners cannot handle their mortgage payments, but one group is paying its bills: the dead.

– The D-word: Will recession become something worse? (AP):
“We’re probably in a depression now. But it’s not going to be acknowledged until years go by. Because you have to see it behind you,” said Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland. (It won’t take years, maybe just a few months, until it is clear that the U.S. is in a depression, the ‘Greatest Depression’.)

The single currency may not survive the recession Photo: Reuters

– It’s the Europhiles versus reality, and reality is going to win (Telegraph):
During the current crisis we have several times heard invoked the wisdom of Milton Friedman about the unfeasibility of the euro as a currency surviving a recession. In an interview not long before his death three years ago, Friedman said: “The euro is going to be a big source of problems, not a source of help. The euro has no precedent. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a monetary union, putting out a fiat currency, composed of independent states. There have been unions based on gold or silver, but not on fiat money – money tempted to inflate – put out by politically independent entities.” (The dollar and the pound are even worse. The dollar will never survive, the pound most probably not. And the euro? To have a monetary union before a economic union was putting the cart before the horse and a major mistake. I still think that the euro has more chances to stay alive a few more years longer than the dollar, unless the elite pulls the plug on the entire world economy, which hasn’t happened yet. This economic crisis has just started.)

– Projecting CDS Curve US Treasuries (USA Credit Rating Will Plummet):
Everyone wants to know, how long will it take before the Uncle Sam goes bust?

– Bernanke Says Insurer AIG Operated Like a Hedge Fund (Bloomberg):
March 3 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said American International Group Inc. operated like a hedge fund and having to rescue the insurer made him “more angry” than any other episode during the financial crisis. “If there is a single episode in this entire 18 months that has made me more angry, I can’t think of one other than AIG,” Bernanke told lawmakers today. “AIG exploited a huge gap in the regulatory system, there was no oversight of the financial- products division, this was a hedge fund basically that was attached to a large and stable insurance company.”

– US banks may need more bail-outs, says Ben Bernanke (Telegraph):
Stock markets across the world suffered a second day of turbulence as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve warned that the US Government may have to pour even more cash into the twin bail-outs of its financial and economic systems.

– Bernanke says deficit is the price of growth (Financial Times):
(“Mr. Bernanke has never been right. He has been in the government for six or seven years, he has never been right.” – Jim Rogers)

– Schwarzenegger calls for end to ‘whining’ about economic crisis (Telegraph):
(“Arnie” is right, stop whining! …. because the economic crisis will get a lot worse soon.)

– Projecting CDS Curve US Treasuries (USA Credit Rating Will Plummet):
Everyone wants to know, how long will it take before the Uncle Sam goes bust? (Just a few months left.)

– In US prison spending outpaces all but Medicaid (International Herald Tribune):
One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to the states of $47 billion in 2008, according to a new study.

– Food prices surge 9% despite inflation fall (Times Online):
Shop price inflation rose last month because of the increasing cost of meat, fresh produce and tinned goods, with overall prices up at an annual rate of 9 per cent, from 7.5 per cent in January.

– Antigua moves to seize back Stanford’s idyllic island (Guardian)

– Madoff revealed as ‘cold-hearted control freak’ (Times Online):
Bernard Madoff was a cold-hearted control freak who ripped off friends’ widows weeks after their funerals and ruled his family with fear, according to a revealing new report published today.

– China to increase defence spending by 15 per cent (Telegraph)

– Argentina holds fire on grain controls (Financial Times):
The Argentine government on Tuesday confirmed it was considering a national board to regulate grains trading, but said it would take no immediate action.

– Airlines that break emission rules could have planes seized (Guardian):
The Environment Agency is to be given powers to seize planes from airlines which break the rules of a new scheme to limit flights’ carbon emissions.

– Pakistan declares: ‘We are at war’ (Independent):
Pakistan in shock after masked gunmen ambush Sri Lankan cricket team, leaving seven people dead and six players injured

– Former Countrywide executives cash in on federal housing bailout (Raw Story):
The company’s biggest deal has been with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. It paid the government agency just $43.2 million for $560 million worth of residential loans, which were formerly on the books of the failed First National Bank of Nevada.

– World Bank grants $2bn loan to Indonesia (Financial Times):
The World Bank on Tuesday approved its largest ever loan to a country not classified as being in crisis when its board signed off on a “unique” $2bn contingency facility to Indonesia to support government spending and external fundraising during the current market turmoil.

– Australian GDP shrinks for first time in 8 years (Times Online):
The Australian economy has slipped into negative growth for the first time in eight years, raising fears that the country is on the brink of recession.

– Cash-back car scheme triggers record sales (Times Online):
Motor manufacturers hope a £2,000 cash-back car scheme could come to UK following its early success in Germany
( When the consumers realize that the economy is only getting worse, they will not be fooled into buying a new car anymore. And it will get a lot worse. So this is a momentary success and then?)

– Israelis react with fury to British boycott call (Independent)

– Italian doctor claims he cloned three babies (Telegraph):
An Italian doctor known for helping post-menopausal women to have children has claimed to have cloned three babies who are now living in eastern Europe.

– GPs are medicalising healthy elderly people, professor warns (Telegraph):
Elderly people are being turned into patients by GPs blindly following guidelines to hand out pills for high blood pressure and cholesterol, a professor has said.

– Wartime troop brain injures could reach 360000 (AP):
The number of U.S. troops who have suffered wartime brain injuries may be as high as 360,000 and could cast more attention on such injuries among civilians, Defense Department doctors said Wednesday.The previous high estimate offered publicly was 320,000 in a study released a year ago by the private Rand Corp. It was based on about 1.6 million who had done tours of duty in the wars from late 2001.

– Mars had ‘recent’ running water (BBC News):
Mars appears to have had running water on its surface about one million years ago, according to new evidence.

– The Bank’s £200bn gamble (Independent):
“The Bank of England will this week announce its intention to flood the economy with ‘helicopter money’, its latest attempt to tackle the recession. Won’t quantitative easing cause inflation? Yes – and that is the general idea. Warren Buffett, the world’s most successful investor, has warned of “an onslaught of inflation” as a result of current policies.”

Destroying the value of your money through inflation is the general idea?(!!!)

Quantitative easing = Increasing the money supply (by creating money out of thin air) = Inflation

Inflation is a hidden tax:
“By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
– John Maynard Keynes

Quantitative easing = Zimbabwe school of economics (Stealing)

– Former Northern Rock chief gets £800000 payout as repossessions soar (Guardian):
Northern Rock revealed yesterday that it was forced to pay disgraced former chief executive Adam Applegarth more than £800,000 last year in pay and pension top-ups following his departure from the bank after he failed to find another job. Applegarth was paid £731,000 after he quit the bank in November 2007 following a deal that awarded him a year’s pay until he found another job. The Newcastle-based bank also had to stump up an extra £108,000 to fund Applegarth’s guaranteed £305,000-a-year pension which pays out from the age of 60.(Failure is so rewarding these days!)

– Shares crash as savers raid £8bn from accounts (Independent):
The pressure of an intensifying recession saw British companies and households launch an £8bn raid on their savings in January, according to the figures from the Bank of England.

– Geithner Says US Financial Rescue ‘Might Cost More’ (Bloomberg):
March 3 (Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the U.S. bank rescue program may cost more than the $700 billion Congress approved, and he pledged to crack down on companies and individuals who try to avoid paying taxes. (Surprise!)

– Medvedev rejects Obama missile defence deal (Financial Times):
Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday rejected any suggestion that Moscow would “trade or exchange” in policies in order to dissuade the US from installing an anti-ballistic missile system near its borders in Eastern Europe.

– Japan to use forex reserves to fight credit crunch (AFP):
TOKYO (AFP) — Japan said Wednesday it would use five billion dollars from its currency reserves to help companies raise funds as auto giant Toyota Motor asked the government for financial aid. (Looks like Japan is starting to dump the dollar.)

– Ukraine: Nation on the brink of bankruptcy (Independent)

– Secret report reveals how MEPs make millions (Times Online):
Ukraine is so broke the nation is expecting to be cut off this week for failing to pay the gas bill.

– HSBC attacks ‘perverse’ pay as it awards banker £13m (Telegraph):
HSBC chairman Stephen Green attacked “perverse” pay practices in banking and called for a “more sober and reasonable approach to compensation” as it emerged the bank paid two senior employees almost £25m last year.

– GM urges EU states to come to its aid (Financial Times):
General Motors said on Tuesday that its European arm could run out of money by as early as next month, putting up to 300,000 jobs on the continent at risk.

– Fed launches new $200B consumer credit program (AP):
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve on Tuesday rolled out a much-awaited program aimed at boosting the availability of credit to consumers and small businesses. (Wow. First you create the money out of thin air, then you lend it to the people. Sounds like a plan to me.)

– The Obama Economy (Wall Street Journal):
As the Dow keeps dropping, the President is running out of people to blame.

– US Auto-Sales Rate Falls to 27-Year Low, Led by GM (Bloomberg)

– Harvard Losing AAA Benefit in Market Shows Swap Risk (Bloomberg)

– Eurozone ready to rescue members (Financial Times):
“If crisis emerges in one eurozone country, there is a solution before visiting the IMF,” Joaquín Almunia, the EU’s monetary affairs commissioner, said. “It’s not clever to tell you in public the solution. But the solution exists.”

– Brown to remain defiant on economy (Financial Times):
Gordon Brown has told aides he has no intention of admitting mistakes in his handling of the economy when he makes a keynote speech in Washington on Wednesday … (… everything Mr. Brown did was a economic disaster. He is the Bushbama of the U.K.)

– Madoff’s Wife Says $62 Million ‘Unrelated’ to Fraud (Bloomberg):
March 2 (Bloomberg) — Ruth Madoff, the wife of accused fraudster Bernard Madoff, said she owns a Manhattan apartment, $45 million in bonds, and $17 million in cash that are “unrelated” to her husband’s alleged Ponzi scheme.
(Oh, sure!)

– Rod Blagojevich signs six-figure book deal (Chicago Tribune):
Blagojevich, who was recently impeached for abuse of power, “plans on exposing the dark side of politics that he witnessed on both the state and national level,” Glenn Selig said in a statement.

– Stanford investors set to recover only millions (Times Online)

– Toyota’s car loan arm asks for $2bn in aid (Financial Times)

– Freddie Mac chief resigns after five months (Times Online):
Freddie Mac, which is due to report its fourth-quarter figures this month, is expected to ask for between $30 billion and $35 billion in Government aid, having already received almost $14 billion last November.

– Global recession will be ‘worse than forecast’ (Times Online)

– Taxpayers hit by expanding black hole of AIG (Telegraph)

– Asia markets gyrate on global financial fears (Times Online):
Fears over the global banking market dragged down shares across Asia overnight, sending Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng below the critical 12,000 mark as Japan’s Nikkei briefly headed towards a 26-year low.

– Empty Containers Clog South Korea’s Busan Port as Trade Slumps (Bloomberg):
March 3 (Bloomberg) — South Korea’s biggest port is running out of room to store shipping containers, said Park Jung Ho, an official at one of Busan’s nine operators. The bigger concern is that the boxes are almost all empty.

– Russia Stock Gains Strengthen Putin as Ukraine Drops (Bloomberg):
March 2 (Bloomberg) — Russia, the worst-performing major stock market in 2008, was Europe’s best last month as the ruble rose and reserves stabilized. Every neighboring market crumbled.

– New ruling to force British voters to show ID before voting (Times Online):
In an historic shift, which comes after years of campaigning by the Electoral Commission and The Times, the Government finally agreed yesterday to end the system whereby one person in each household names all those eligible to vote in their property.

– This revolting trade in human lives is an incentive to lock people up (Guardian):
It’s a staggering case; more staggering still that it has scarcely been mentioned on this side of the ocean. Last week two judges in Pennsylvania were convicted of jailing some 2,000 children in exchange for bribes from private prison companies.

– To politicians, we’re little more than meaningless blobs on a monitor. Bring on the summer of rage (Guardian):
We’re the ants in their garden. The bacteria in their stools. Politicians have nothing but contempt for us

– Scientists make HIV strain that can infect monkeys (Reuters)

– Gypsy vaccination scheme starts (Financial Times):
Italy’s Red Cross has launched its biggest vaccination programme since the second world war, with the goal of immunising several thousand gypsy children living in camps around Rome.

– Scientists warn of drug-resistant ‘super-flu’ (Times Online):
Warn??? Want to get a shock?: Here

– Warning of attacks on Sri Lanka cricket team was ignored (Guardian)

– Stem cell breakthrough ends ethical dilemma (Guardian):
Scientists have found a way to make an almost limitless supply of stem cells that could safely be used in patients while avoiding the ethical dilemma of destroying embryos.

– Dow Jones decline rate mimics Great Depression (CNET News):
With the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling below the psychological watermark of 7,000, investors may be wondering how they stack up against the stock market crash of the Great Depression.
“It’s very troubling if you have a mirror image,” said Phil Dow, market strategist for RBC Dain Rauscher & James.

– Wall Street’s Dow index sinks 4pc to below 7000 points (The Australian)

– US takes another crack at AIG rescue (CNN Money):
Wracked by turmoil in the credit markets, the insurance giant posts $62 billion quarterly loss. Government amends bailout to insulate financial system.

– Hugo Chavez seizes control of rice mills in price dispute (Telegraph):
Soldiers were ordered to take control of the rice mills, which include installations owned by US food giant Cargill.
Mr Chavez accused the companies of disrupting the supply chain by refusing to produce rice at prices set by the government.

– President of Guinea-Bissau killed by soldiers (Telegraph):
The president of Guinea-Bissau, Joao Bernardo Vieira, has been killed by soldiers in an apparent revenge attack following the assassination of the army chief of staff.

– Ukraine Teeters as Citizens Blame Banks and Government (New York Times):
KIEV, Ukraine — Steel and chemical factories, once the muscle of Ukraine’s economy, are dismissing thousands of workers. Cities have had days without heat or water because they cannot pay their bills, and Kiev’s subway service is being threatened. Lines are sprouting at banks, the currency is wilting and even a government default seems possible.

– RBS pays for Goodwin’s security (Independent):
Mr Osborne told BBC Scotland’s Politics Show today he thought most people would find the situation “very surprising”.
He said: “I don’t think it’s appropriate that the taxpayer should be providing any more benefits to Fred Goodwin.”

– Factory downturn ‘accelerating’ (BBC NEWS):
Manufacturers in the UK cut jobs and output at a record pace in February, according to the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI).

– Worst job losses in 60 years expected (MarketWatch):
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The recession tightened its grip on U.S. businesses and consumers in February, according to economists, who are predicting the largest one-month job loss in almost 60 years.

– 140000 British manufacturing jobs to be lost this year (Guardian)

– Bank of England set to pump cash into economy to avoid deflation (Times):
The Bank of England is set this week to begin “printing money” in a ground-breaking move that will mark its most forceful action yet to curb the slump in the economy. (The Zimbabwe school of economics.)

– FTSE 100 falls to six-year low (Telegraph):
The sharp decline takes the FTSE 100 below the lows experienced last October as UK banks teetered on the edge of collapse and were bailed out by the Government.

– Pressure mounts over secret HBOS papers (The Observer):
The government was under pressure last night to publish confidential documents relating to the merger of failed bank HBOS and Lloyds TSB. Their existence emerged during a recent two-day hearing at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in which HBOS shareholders challenged the government’s decision to allow the takeover without referring it to the competition authorities.

– New ‘Iron Curtain’ will split EU’s rich and poor (Times Online):
Eastern European countries gave an apocalyptic warning yesterday of hordes of unemployed workers heading west as a new Iron Curtain divides rich from poor inside Europe. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Western leaders were told yesterday that five million jobs could be lost in the “new” European Union countries of the East unless radical action were taken to bail them out.

– Hillary Clinton to offer $1bn to Gaza in move to sideline Hamas (Telegraph):
(Ron Paul: Israel Created Hamas)

– Feds defy judge’s order in Islamic group case (San Francisco Chronicle):
A federal appeals court rejected the Obama administration’s attempt Friday to stop a judge in San Francisco from reviewing a challenge to the wiretapping program ordered by former President George W. Bush.
Hours later, President Obama’s Justice Department filed papers that appeared to defy the judge’s order to allow lawyers for an Islamic organization to see a classified surveillance document at the heart of the case. The department said the judge had no power to enforce such an order. (More CHANGE!)

– Six years later in Iraq: still no good news (Washington Square News):
First, there’s how bad things were before the surge: “The strategic edifice of the American effort in Iraq was collapsing,” according to Col. Peter Mansoor, executive officer to Gen. David Petraeus. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker put it like this: “Iraq came pretty close, I think, to just unraveling.” Washington Post reporter Thomas Ricks sums up the surge this way: “It is unclear in 2009 if [it] did much more than lengthen the war.” In other words, the surge prevented the imminent defeat of the U.S. (a defeat that by most estimates would have been worse than losing in Vietnam). (” We are brilliantly succeeding in Iraq!” – Dick Cheney)

– Older soldiers find a niche in new Army (MiamiHerald):
‘GI Jorge,’ a father, grandfather and struggling property appraiser, is becoming a soldier at 40 to secure his family’s financial future.

– HRT ‘could double the threat of skin cancer’ (Daily Mail):
Those on HRT for more than six months at a time are twice as likely to develop a malignant melanoma, researchers discovered.

– Banks earn $900m with state-backed debt (Financial Times):
The world’s biggest banks have earned more than $900m in fees in less than four months by selling government-guaranteed bank debt to investors.

– GOP senator Orrin Hatch’s charity tied to massive pharmaceutical donations (Raw Story):
A charity founded by a senior Republican lawmaker who was a key ally to the pharmaceutical industry received more than $170,000 in 2007 from drugmakers, far in excess of campaign finance rules had the money been donated to him directly, leaked documents show.

– France poised to slash GDP forecasts (Financial Times):
France is steeling itself for the worst recession of the postwar era as the government prepares to admit the economy will contract by as much as 1.5 per cent this year, against previous official forecasts for growth.

– Starvation and Strife Menace Torn Kenya (New York Times):
Ten million people face starvation, partly because farmers in crucial food-producing areas who fled their homes last year have not returned, instead withdrawing deeper into their ethnic enclaves, deeper into fear.

– Scores of stranded whales and dolphins saved (Telegraph)

– Fat children should be given gastric bands to tackle diabetes says expert (Telegraph):
Obese children with weight-related diabetes should be given gastric band surgery from the age of 15, according to expert paediatrician Professor Julian Shield. (Maybe someone should give this expert a brain! Children that get the the right food, teachers, doctors (alternative medicine) and parents will never ever get fat. Did you know that mice are injected with MSG to create those super fat lab mice? MSG also destroys the brain.)

– Pink dolphin appears in US lake (Telegraph):