Global News

– Bailout Bank Blows Millions Partying in L.A. (TMZ):
Northern Trust, a Chicago-based bank, sponsored the Northern Trust Open at the Riviera Country Club in L.A. We’re told Northern Trust paid millions to sponsor the PGA event which ended Sunday, but what happened off the golf course is even more shocking. (!)

– Troops’ revolt rocks Bangladesh capital (Guardian):
Soldiers in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, have revolted against senior officers apparently over rations and pay, with television reports claiming the troops killed a major general.

– FBI raids University of Florida nuclear power institute (Orlando Sentinel):
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Federal investigators are alleging that a University of Florida professor and three other members of his family fraudulently received millions of dollars from NASA and then allegedly funneled money to their personal bank accounts, court documents show.

– Big Brother spy planes that track the Taliban may soon hover over your home (Daily Mail):
Britain already has more CCTV cameras than the rest of Europe put together.

– Anti-terror fight ‘will need privacy sacrifice’ (Independent):
Citizens will have to sacrifice their right to privacy in the fight against terrorism, a former senior security official warned today. Sir David Omand, the Cabinet Office’s former security and intelligence co-ordinator, said in future the security services would need access to a wide range of personal data, including phone records, emails and travel information.
(The real enemy here is the New World Order and Big Brother.)

– Zimbabwe’s vice-president foiled in 3600kg gold deal (Times Online):
The Vice-President of Zimbabwe has been accused of trying to sell millions of dollars in gold nuggets and diamonds in defiance of international sanctions.

– Gold investors make 120pc return in four months (Telegraph):
Private investors who have bought exchange traded funds that track the performance of gold miners have more than doubled their money since October last year.

– Exxon drags its feet for 20 years to avoid paying damages to struggling Alaskans, while making record profits (BuzzFlash)

– Anti-Putin oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky transferred to Moscow to face new charges (Telegraph):
Khodorkovsky, Russia’s richest man until his arrest in 2003, will go on trial next month after being accused of fresh counts of embezzlement and theft. Human rights activists and defence lawyers said the new charges were a politically-motivated concoction to keep the tycoon behind bars.

– Obama to Seek $75.5 Billion More for Wars in 2009 (Bloomberg):
(MORE!)

– Wall Street sinks as Obama warns of oversight (Reuters):
The Dow is down 9.1 percent for the month and 17.2 percent year-to-date. “As we came close to the bell we got the curveball: our president came on TV,” he said.

– San Francisco Chronicle may shut down (Reuters):
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – San Francisco may lose its main newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, as owner Hearst Corp cuts a “significant” number of jobs and decides whether to shut or sell the money-losing daily.

– Miliband faces high court battle in UK over Gaza rights (Guardian):
Lawyers for Palestinian families claim foreign secretary’s failure to ban arms sales to Israel flouted international law

– Russian economy hit by 8.8% decline (Financial Times)

– Russia’s 2009 budget deficit to be 8% of GDP – economics minister (RIA Novosti)

– RUSSIA: Problems Rise With Falling Oil Prices (IPS):
MOSCOW, Feb 24 (IPS) – The Russian economy is plunging into a crisis as oil prices fall and the government digs deep into its reserve fund.

– A look at economic developments around the world (IHT)

– European banking bail-outs threaten common market, finance baron warns (Guardian):
European government efforts to shore up their national banking systems could end up as a “dismal failure” by backfiring on the “real” economy and aggravating and prolonging the current crisis.

– UK recession deepens as manufacturing wilts (Times Online)

– Corporate Bonds Are Next ‘Bubble,’ RBS’s Janjuah Says (Bloomberg)

– NYSE in talks to relax its $1 minimum rule (Financial Times):
NYSE Euronext is in talks with US regulators about relaxing its requirement that companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange maintain a share price of more than $1 to protect itself from a possible wave of delistings.

– Best hope is recovery in 2010, Ben Bernanke tells US Congress (Guardian):
(Best ‘hope‘? … at worst there will be a total collapse in 2009, at best best in 2010.
“We ‘believe‘ the effect of the troubles in the subprime sector on the broader housing market will likely be limited”
– Ben Bernanke, May 2007 – Hope = Believe = Don’t Know)

– Bernanke says recession to linger (Reuters)

– Bank of America fights to hide bonus payouts (Times Online)

– Pacific Brands: Shock as 1800 jobs vaporise (Daily Telegraph):
THE maker of iconic clothing brands including Bonds and King Gee will slash more than 1,800 jobs after the company announced it no longer has a future manufacturing in Australia.

– Tomkins cuts 2,500 more jobs (Financial Times):
Tomkins, the car parts maker that also supplies industrial belts and building products, is to shed a further 2,500 jobs and close 15 plants.

– US house prices fall back to 2003 levels (Times Online)

– Diebold ‘offices’ listed in yellow pages are mostly Wal-Marts (Raw Story):
Across the country, curious bloggers are calling up their local Diebold offices, and no one is answering. However, when calls were made to all of these offices, only one picked up the phone. And when the addresses of offices listed under Diebold in the White Pages were visited, the addresses turned out to belong to either a Wal-Mart, a Sam’s Club, or no building at all. In the end, 16 of the 18 Diebold offices in Utah listed in the White Pages were false listings.

– Man charged with sending terrorist material by email (Daily Mail)

– Five US soldiers, two Iraqi translators killed in Iraq (Monsters and Critics)

– Depleted Uranium Hazard Awareness – US Army Training Video:
STILL TODAY the vast majority of servicemen and women in the U.S. military, and likely in the armed forces of other countries which are developing or have obtained depleted uranium munitions, are unaware of the use and dangers of depleted uranium munitions, or of the protective clothing and procedures which can minimize or prevent serious short-term exposures.

– Excessive PlayStation gaming causes new skin condition (Telegraph)

– Long hours put workers at risk of dementia, according to research into damage to brain (Telegraph):
Millions of workers are being put at greater risk of dementia by Britain’s long working hours culture, research has found.
Extreme tiredness and stress could be as bad for the brain as smoking, according to the study.

– Worse than my darkest nightmare (Guardian):
I hope you will understand that after everything I have been through, I am neither physically nor mentally capable of facing the media on the moment of my arrival back to Britain. Please forgive me if I make a simple statement through my lawyer. I hope to be able to do better in days to come, when I am on the road to recovery.

– Green light for a close encounter: ‘Jupiter-sized’ comet to streak past Earth tonight (Mail on Sunday):
We have known of its existence for only two years. But if you raise your eyes heavenwards over the next few nights, you might just catch a glimpse of the comet Lulin. Glowing green, it will come within 38million miles of Earth, the closest it has ever been, and about the same distance away as Mars.

– US carbon-tracking satellite crashes (Financial Times):
The US government’s pioneering attempt to map carbon dioxide levels in the Earth’s atmosphere flopped on Tuesday when a satellite plunged into the southern Pacific Ocean near Antarctica. The $278m Orbiting Carbon Observatory… (… flushed down the toilet.)

– UK Army may use James Bond-style spy camera (Telegraph):
British soldiers and anti-terrorist police may soon be using a new James Bond-style spy camera hidden in a gadget the size of a cricket ball. The ball can be thrown at enemy suspects and will then send back pictures of their movements using wireless technology, the Daily Mirror said.It was first successfully used by Israeli forces during the Gaza conflict last month.

– Defaults by Franchisees Soar as the Recession Deepens (Wall Street Journal):
List of Small Business Administration-Backed Bad Loans at 500 Brands Increased 52% in Most Recent Fiscal Year

– Thousands of police to lose jobs as forces feel the pinch (Times):
Large numbers of police forces are planning to cut thousands of officers despite the threat of a recession-driven surge in crime and disorder. Representatives from dozens of police forces contacted by The Times last night gave a grim picture of falling numbers and “significant and painful” cuts.

– US home prices fall at record pace, consumers fret (Washington Post):
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. home prices plunged at a record pace in December and consumer confidence hit a new low in February, …

– Obama administration tries to kill e-mail case (AP):
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails.

– Obama flops on secrecy (Houston Chronicle):
A few days ago in a San Francisco courtroom, the Obama administration faced a crucial early test — and, in the view of many liberal supporters, failed miserably.

– Soldier questions eligibility, doubts president’s authority (WorldNetDaily)

– Stanford Had Links to a Fund Run by Bidens (Wall Street Journal):
A fund of hedge funds run by two members of Vice President Joe Biden’s family was marketed exclusively by companies controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who is facing Securities and Exchange Commission accusations of engaging in an $8 billion fraud.

– Bank Nationalization Isn’t the Answer (Wall Street Journal):
Trust me. I’ve done this before. Mr. Isaac, chairman of the FDIC from 1981-1985, is chairman of the Washington financial services consulting firm The Secura Group, an LECG company.

– High street job losses hit record level in UK (Guardian):
The CBI’s latest distributive trades survey showed that a balance of -49% of retailers said they had cut staff numbers in February, the worst level since the quarterly survey began in August 1983. A similar record rate of job cuts is expected for March.

– ECB’s Trichet sounds alarm over Europe’s credit contraction (Telegraph):
The eurozone’s financial system is under “severe strain” and risks setting off a downward spiral as the banking crisis and economic recession feed on each other, according to European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet.

– Ritz Camera seeks bankruptcy protection (BusinessWeek):
Ritz Camera Centers, the nation’s largest retail photography chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

– Chapter 11 an option for Chrysler and GM (Financial Times):
Law firms advising the US Treasury are preparing for possible bankruptcy protection for General Motors and Chrysler, US officials acknowledged on Monday.

– Latvia debt rating cut to ‘junk’ (Financial Times):
Riga, February 24 – Latvia on Tuesday became the second European Union nation after Romania to receive a “junk” level credit rating after Standard & Poor’s reduced its rating on the crisis-hit nation.

– Japan’s Nikkei 225 flirts with 26-year low (Financial Times):
The Nikkei 225 closed for the lunch break down 2.6 per cent at 7,181.20, just shy of its October close of 7,162.90 in October, the lowest level in 26 years.

– States agree €13bn HSH bail-out package (Financial Times):
Two German federal states on Tuesday agreed a €13bn ($16.6bn) bail-out of HSH Nordbank, the shipping financier, whose losses on complex structured financial products have crippled the regional lender and blown a hole in government finances.

– Home Depot swings to $54 million loss (MarketWatch)

– TomTom lost $1.3bn in fourth quarter (Financial Times):
AMSTERDAM, Feb 24 – Dutch navigation device maker TomTom reported a €989m ($1.3bn) net loss on Tuesday, citing a writedown on its Tele Atlas acquisition, and said it was considering renegotiating its debt again.

– McDonald’s gets $423.7M loan from Japanese banks (IHT)

– Georgia furloughs 25,000 workers (CNN Money):
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Georgia regulators confirmed Tuesday that 25,000 state workers at various agencies have been furloughed over the last six months as part of ongoing budget reduction requirements.

– Vatican complains to Israel about ‘blasphemous’ TV programme (Telegraph):
In the programme, the host denied Christian traditions – that Mary was a virgin and that Jesus walked on water – saying he would do so as a “lesson” to Christians who deny the Holocaust, a reference to the Vatican’s recent lifting of the excommunication of a bishop who denied 6 million Jews were killed during the Second World War. The rehabilitation sparked outrage among Jews.

– China bars foreigners from Tibet (BBC News)

– US set to offer ‘substantial’ aid to Gaza (Scotsman)

– UK sees diabetes cases rise by three-quarters (Guardian)

– Manila to slaughter 6000 pigs to stop Ebola spread (Reuters)

– Scientists discover genetic ‘off switch’ for series of cancers (Scotsman):
SCIENTISTS have identified a cancer “master switch” that could open the door to revolutionary new treatments, research published today reveals.

– UK blood enquiry finds fault in US practices (Philippines News):
Tainted blood supplies in Britain and other countries were partially responsible for the spread of Hepatitis-C and the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

– 50 Child prostitutes rescued by FBI (Telegraph):
The FBI has rescued nearly 50 child prostitutes in the United States, some as young as 13, in a nationwide operation against the trafficking of children for sex.

– Air America Poll: 90% Want Bush Crimes Investigation (Huffington Post)

– Secret US unit trains commandos in Pakistan (IHT):
BARA, Pakistan: More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed forces battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country’s lawless tribal areas, American military officials said.

– America unmasked: The images that reveal the Ku Klux Klan is alive and kicking in 2009 (Independent):
These images show members of the Ku Klux Klan as they want to be seen, scary and secretive and waiting in the wings for Barack and his colour-blind vision for America to fail. Anthony Karen, a former Marine and self-taught photojournalist was granted access to the innermost sanctum of the Klan. He doesn’t tell us how he did it but he was considered trustworthy enough to be invited into their homes and allowed to photograph their most secretive ceremonies, such as the infamous cross burnings.

– Jail the men who stole our economy, demands former DPP (Daily Mail):
Britain’s former chief prosecutor has attacked Labour’s record on tackling financial crime and declared that fraudulent bankers are more of a danger to society than terrorists.

– Economic crisis ‘is as bad as they come’ (San Francisco Chronicle):
“The global economy is now literally in free fall as the contraction of consumption, capital spending, residential investment, production, employment, exports and imports is accelerating rather than decelerating,” Roubini wrote.

– Desperate Gordon Brown plans £500billion bank gamble (Telegraph):
A £500 billion banking bail-out will be at the centre of a rescue package announced by Gordon Brown this week amid desperation over the Government’s failure to save the economy.

– Billions to be pumped into Northern Rock (IHT):
LONDON (Reuters) – The government will inject billions of pounds into state-owned Northern Rock bank to try to unlock lending and help the economy emerge from recession, Chancellor Alistair Darling said on Monday.

– World Financial System In A State Of Insolvency (Financial Forecaster):
The global financial system is in a tailspin and world leadership in Europe, china, Japan and the US act like the situation is some temporary breakdown. The system is beyond saving and the elitists planned it that way.

– When Consumers Cut Back: A Lesson From Japan (New York Times):
“Japan is so dependent on exports that when overseas markets slow down, Japan’s economy teeters on collapse,” said Hideo Kumano, an economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. “On the surface, Japan looked like it had recovered from its Lost Decade of the 1990s. But Japan in fact entered a second Lost Decade — that of lost consumption.”

– Police fear UK ‘summer of rage’ (BBC News):
Police are preparing to face a “summer of rage” in the UK as people join protests over the economic downturn, says a senior Met Police officer.

– “Stress tests” for big banks to begin this week (Seattle Times):
(…and the poor banks will need another big bailout of taxpayers’ money, so that they can lend the money back to the people.)

– Nouriel Roubini: ‘Nationalize’ the Banks (Wall Street Journal)

– US government eyes large stake in Citigroup (Telegraph)

– Citigroup’s Clever Plan To Screw Taxpayers Again (The Business Insider)

– Tony Blair cashing in after launching economic advice firm (Telegraph):
Tony Blair is to cash in on his experience as prime minister after establishing a business offering clients political and economic advice.

– Dubai’s $10 billion bailout (CNN Money):
United Arab Emirates steps in and buys half of the country’s $20 billion long-term bond offering.

– Airbus exec: Planemaker wants more government aid (USA Today):
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A senior Airbus official says the plane maker wants financing help from other European governments following a $6.4 billion aid package from France last month. The company’s Middle East president, Habib Fekih, says the euro 5 billion that Paris pledged is “not enough.”

– VW Halts Production As Car Crisis Deepens (Deutsche Welle):
Europe’s biggest carmaker has introduced short-time work for the first time in 25 years. Some 61,000 VW workers in five different plants have been given an enforced five-day break in response to poor sales forecasts.

– Brown: World needs ‘global New Deal’ (CNN):
“We need a global New Deal — a grand bargain between the countries and continents of this world — so that the world economy can not only recover but… so the banking system can be based on… best principles,” he said, referring to the 1930s American plan to fight the Great Depression.

– IMF emergency fund is doubled to $500bn in global rescue effort (Guardian):
European leaders yesterday agreed that an emergency IMF fund should be doubled to $500bn prevent the worldwide recession turning into a fullscale depression.

– Thai Economy Shrinks More Than Expected on Exports (Bloomberg):
Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy contracted 4.3 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31 from a year earlier, and may shrink by at least that much in the first quarter, the government said today.

– Up to 20000 jobs will go as RBS chief prepares to sell off unwanted assets (Times Online):
Royal Bank of Scotland will embark this week on a radical plan to split itself in two as it cuts tens of thousands of staff across the globe and confirms the biggest annual loss in British corporate history.

– SFCG Files for Bankruptcy With 338 Billion Yen Debt (Bloomberg):
SFCG, which focuses on loans to small businesses, listed 338 billion yen ($3.6 billion) in liabilities, making it the biggest bankruptcy by a publicly traded Japanese company in almost seven years. The firm owed Citigroup 71 billion yen as of July 31, according to a filing by SFCG on Oct. 27.

– China prepares to buy up foreign oil companies (Telegraph):
China is preparing to open a new phase in its race for the world’s resources by using its huge currency reserves to buy foreign oil and gas companies.

– US stocks on course for 11-year low (Financial Times)

– Nigerian Accused in Scheme to Swindle Citibank (New York Times)

– Tourists targeted in Cairo market bombing (Independent):
Terrorism returned to the streets of Egypt’s capital, Cairo on Sunday when a bomb tore through a crowded market, killing a French tourist.

– Thousands of foreign workers exploiting British jobs market (Telegraph):
The number of workers taking advantage of ‘intra-company transfers’ has increased by almost half in four years.

– Amnesty calls on US to suspend arms sales to Israel (Guardian):
Hellfire missiles and white phosphorus artillery shells among weapons used in ‘indiscriminate’ attacks on civilians, says human rights group

– Probe finds Army charity is hoarding millions (MSNBC):
Military’s biggest charity is stockpiling cash, rather than using it for aid

– Soldiers still waiting for tour bonuses (USA Today):
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has not started complying with a law requiring the payment of monthly bonuses of up to $500 to soldiers forced to remain on active duty beyond their enlistment period, military officials said.

– Colombian wiretap scandal grows (BBC News):
The director of Colombia’s secret police, Felipe Munoz Gomez, says he has the letters of resignation from the entire high command.

– British Muslims ‘providing Taliban with electronic devices for roadside bombs’ (Telegraph):
British Muslims are providing the Taliban with electronic devices to make roadside bombs for use in attacks against British forces serving in southern Afghanistan, The Telegraph can disclose.

– Iran’s First Nuclear Power Plant Set for Tests Before Launch (Washington Post)

– Iraq faces a new war as tensions rise in north (Independent):
Violence between Iraqi Kurds and Arabs is threatening an all out conflict that could complicate US plans to withdraw troops

– Australia bushfires: More than 100 evacuated as fresh blazes erupt in Melbourne (Guardian)

– McDonald’s: No workers comp for employee shot protecting patron (Raw Story):
Fast food giant McDonald’s has denied workers compensation benefits to a minimum wage employee who was shot when he ejected a customer who had been beating a woman inside the restaurant.

– Karzai is US stooge says Afghan deputy president (Telegraph):
Afghanistan’s president and vice-president accused each other of being US stooges during a recent cabinet meeting which degenerated into a furious row, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

– Swiss party wants to punish US for UBS probe (Reuters):
ZURICH, Feb 21 (Reuters) – The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) called on Saturday for retaliation against the United States over a U.S. tax probe into the country’s biggest bank UBS that threatens prized banking secrecy.

– Death threat to Greek media as terrorists plot bomb havoc (Guardian):
Amid growing fears that Greece could become a centre of terrorism in Europe, political extremists yesterday issued a warning to journalists, saying it had them within its sights because they represented a corrupt establishment.

– After squalls in the Caribbean, Sarkozy faces a storm at home (Guardian):
Guadeloupe is 4,000 miles from the French mainland, but the demands of the rioters in Pointe-à-Pitre are the same as those of Parisians. With his approval ratings at a low, the president now faces a general strike and, potentially, a wave of social panic. Jason Burke reports from Paris

– Demons of 1968 rise up to spook Sarkozy (Times Online):
The president is spooked as a new extremism hits France
RIOT police gathered outside the Sorbonne University in Paris on Thursday night. About 200 students had occupied it to display their opposition to the government. Then one of them stepped forward to make what sounded like an appeal for a general uprising.

– Privacy law threat to Gordon Brown’s phone tap plan (Times Online):
(Gordon Brown is a ‘threat’ to freedom: here )

– Past probes sought to tie Stanford to drugs (Houston Chronicle):
Authorities for years have investigated R. Allen Stanford, looking for ties to organized drug cartels and money laundering, going back at least a decade when the Texas billionaire’s offshore bank surrendered $3 million in drug money, state and federal sources told the Houston Chronicle Friday.

– Obama Plans to Slash US Budget Deficit by 2013 (Bloomberg):
Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama plans to increase taxes on the wealthy and cut spending for the war in Iraq as part of a plan to slash the U.S. budget deficit to $533 billion by the end of his first term, according to an administration official. (Change you can believe in … but it will never happen.)

– We will put people first, not bankers by Gordon Brown (Guardian):
(Then why are you looting taxpayers’, destroying the economy and the pound with everything you do???)

– UAE Central Bank Steps In to Support Dubai Debt, Spending (Bloomberg):
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — The United Arab Emirates’ central bank stepped in to support Dubai after concern increased the emirate will struggle to repay its debt as global financial turmoil pushed up credit costs and burst a real-estate bubble.
(Dubai is collapsing. It has been bailed out already by Abu Dhabi. No other investor will by Dubai bonds = Trying to catch a falling knife.)

– America’s Top 15 Emptiest Cities (ABC News):
These Once Boom Cities Are Now Quickly Turning Into Recession Ghost Towns

– RBS and Lloyds close in on £500bn Treasury deal (Telegraph)

– RBS signals £300bn asset sale (Telegraph):
Stephen Hester, the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), will this week trigger the dismantling of the empire assembled by his predecessor, Sir Fred Goodwin, by announcing plans to create a “non-core” subsidiary into which about £300bn of unwanted assets will be placed.

– Clinton Urges China to Keep Buying US Treasury Securities (Bloomberg)

– China, taking advantage of global recession, goes on a buying spree (Christian Science Monitor)

– Galloway seeks inquiry into convoy arrests (Guardian):
The Respect MP George Galloway has called for an investigation after police stopped a convoy taking aid, toys and medical supplies to Gaza and arrested nine people under anti-terror laws. All nine men arrested on the M65 near Preston last Friday have been released without charge, but the organisers of the Viva Palestina convoy, which is headed by Galloway, said that aid donations dropped by 80% after news of the arrests.

– Greatest 101 questions of all time: 1-20 (Telegraph):
(Maybe good questions at best. Not one of them should belong to the greatest questions.)

– We’re a fast-food nation slowly eating ourselves to death (Guardian)

– Shot arms dealer ‘knew too much’ (Times Online):
THE death of an American arms dealer in Iraq has led to one of the most intricate and far-reaching inquiries into corruption among US military officers in Iraq. Some suspect that he was killed because he was a whistleblower who knew too much.

– Waste wars: how Britain became obsessed with bins (Telegraph):
“My name is Alan Price from Worcester City Council Environmental Services,” said the man. “I’ve just witnessed you throw a cigarette butt straight out the window of the car. Did you realise that that is an offence?’
“That’s an £80 fine,” he said.

– Parents told: avoid morality in sex lessons (Times Online):
(Don’t teach your children! The government knows what is best for them … and the economy.)

– NHS blunders are behind a spate of ‘vaccine overloads’ (Mail on Sunday):
Children are being given the wrong vaccinations and repeat doses of jabs they have already had due to mix-ups at GPs’ surgeries. Nearly 1,000 safety incidents involving child immunisations were reported in a single year. Of those studied in detail, more than a third involved babies and children given a different vaccine to the one they were supposed to have.

– Up to 120000 protest in recession-hit Ireland (AFP):
DUBLIN (AFP) – Up to 120,000 protesters brought Dublin city centre to a standstill on Saturday over government austerity measures aimed at stabilising the once high-flying economy now wracked by recession.

– Binyamin Netanyahu warns of Iranian nuclear threat (Times Online)

– Rocket from Lebanon wounds three Israelis: medics (Reuters):
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – At least one rocket fired from Lebanon landed in northern Israel on Saturday, lightly wounding three people and prompting Israel to respond with a brief artillery barrage, the Israeli army said.

– US Concedes Afghan Attack Mainly Killed Civilians (New York Times):
KABUL, Afghanistan — An airstrike by the United States-led military coalition killed 13 civilians and 3 militants last Tuesday in western Afghanistan, not “up to 15 militants” as was initially claimed by American forces, military officials here said Saturday.

– Guantánamo ‘is within Geneva conventions’ (Guardian):
The Pentagon report looked into various allegations of abuse. But Walsh’s report contains only two major recommendations for improving the prisoners’ lives: allowing them more opportunities to communicate with one another and to pray together. (Real change!)

– Gates Sees Need for at Least $83 Billion More in 2009 for Wars (Bloomberg):
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — The Pentagon needs at least $83 billion more for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of this fiscal year, Pentagon officials told the White House.

– Nearly 5 million Americans drawing jobless benefits (Reuters):
“The data indicates an accelerated deterioration … jobs are being lost and the pool of unemployed is growing faster,” said Kevin Logan, senior U.S. economist at Dresdner Kleinwort in New York. “People cannot find jobs.”

– UK “could experience a crash similar to Iceland” (HedgeWeek):
The global financial crisis could be entering a ‘new and more treacherous phase’, which could push international countries to the brink of failure and further hinder the global economic recovery, according to Hennessee Group.

– United they fall: post-communist states pull EU into the red (Guardian):

– This financial crisis is now truly global (Telegraph):
The financial crisis has moved from Wall Street to all streets, as the economic shock causes strains and suffering in every part of the world economy.

– Money for Idiots (New York Times)

– Gaddafi offers oil and power to people (Times Online):
Forty years into the revolution he unleashed on Libya Muammar Gaddafi has announced plans to dismantle the Government, hand the riches from Africa’s biggest oil reserves to the people and nationalise foreign oil operations that have recently been allowed back into the country.
“The administration has failed and the state economy has failed. Enough is enough. The solution is, we Libyans take directly the oil money and decide what to do with the money,” he says.

– US Wants UBS to Break Swiss Law By Naming Clients, Bank Says (Bloomberg):
Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — U.S. efforts to force UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, to disclose the names of 52,000 American customers would require the bank to violate Swiss sovereignty and criminal law, bank lawyers said.

– Major indexes fall more than 6 percent for week (AP):
NEW YORK (AP) – Wall Street ended another terrible week Friday, leaving major indexes down more than 6 percent as investors worried that the recession will persist for at least the rest of the year and that government intervention will do little to hasten a recovery. (The Government intervention will make it much worse.)

– Fears for BofA and Citi rattle markets (Financial Times):
Fears that Citigroup and Bank of America would be nationalised shook global markets on Friday, prompting the Obama administration to reaffirm its commitment to private ownership of financial institutions.

– Bank of America chief Kenneth Lewis denies bank is facing nationalisation (Times Online):
Kenneth Lewis, the chairman and chief executive of Bank of America (BoA), was forced to defend the country’s biggest bank as its shares scraped historic lows on fears of nationalisation.

– Thanks for the philanthropy, billionaires. Now pay your tax (Guardian)

– Julie Christie: ‘I feared Bush would unleash a wave of sadism – he did’ (Independent):
This week she was back again highlighting Britain’s role in the alleged torture of a British resident held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

– WTA Fines Dubai Tournament $300000 for Blocking Peer (Bloomberg):
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — The organizers of the women’s tennis event in Dubai were fined a record $300,000 today by the WTA Tour for blocking the entry of Israeli player Shahar Peer.

– Hamas tells Israel it will not surrender captured soldier (Telegraph):
Hamas has told Israel that it will not succumb to pressure to release a captured soldier, Gilad Shalit, in return for peace in Gaza.

– Meet iCub – the robot that moves and learns like a child (Daily Mail):
A sophisticated robot that is able to move and learn like a three-year-old child has made its first outing in the UK.
The iCub is able to crawl and walk, make human-like eye and head movements and recognise and grasp objects like a toddler, scientists say.

– Big Pharma Quietly Hikes Drug Prices 100 Percent or More (Natural News)

– Czech leader attacks EU (Independent):
The Czech Republic President said the EU was undemocratic, elitist and reminiscent of Soviet-era Communist dictatorships in an attack which provoked an angry response from EU legislators.

– Binyamin Netanyahu to be Israel’s next Prime Minister (Times Online):
(I am sure Iran has raised the threat level to ‘blood’ red already.)

– Gold rises over $1000 on haven buying (Reuters):
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – Gold rose above $1,000 an ounce on Friday for the first time since March last year as nervous investors piled into the yellow metal to preserve wealth amid a tumbling stock market.

– Police documents linking New York governor Eliot Spitzer to prostitutes to be released (Telegraph):
A US federal judge ordered the release of documents from the investigation that linked former New York governor Eliot Spitzer to a prostitution ring.

– White House says world can’t delay on Iran (AP):
WASHINGTON — The White House says the international community must work together to urgently address Iran’s uranium enrichment activities.

– Iran has enough uranium ‘to build a nuclear bomb’ (Telegraph):
(Iran’s uranium is enriched at 3%, for a nuclear weapon Iran needs 95% enriched uranium. Still a looong way to go. I just saw a documentary (aired by a big German TV station) that for only $ 5 million you can get a suitcase nuke. Besides everything that Iran does is “perfectly legal” says Ron Paul.)

– Official: Pentagon report says Gitmo is humane (AP):
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says the Guantanamo Bay prison meets the standard for humane treatment laid out in the Geneva Conventions, according to a report for President Barack Obama, who has ordered the terrorist detention center closed within a year.

– Former RNC director convicted in phone jamming case gets off without penalty (Raw Story)

– AP IMPACT: Jobless Hit With Bank Fees on Benefits (ABC News):
First, Arthur Santa-Maria called Bank of America to ask how to check the balance of his new unemployment benefits debit card. The bank charged him 50 cents. He chose not to complain. That would have cost another 50 cents. So he took out some of the money and then decided to pull out the rest. But that made two withdrawals on the same day, and that was $1.50.

– US bank stocks fall to 17-year low (Financial Times):
US banking shares hit their lowest level since 1992 on Thursday as fears mounted that the government would be forced to nationalise a key institution.

– No TARP Can Mend the Economy Now (International Forecaster):
The collapse we see in the distance will bring about social dislocation and Martial law.

– Russians Retrench as Crisis Evokes Memories of 1998 ‘Nightmare’ (Bloomberg)

– Qantas Rating Cut to Baa2 at Moody’s on Travel Plunge (Bloomberg):
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — Qantas Airways Ltd., Australia’s largest carrier, had its credit rating cut for the first time in more than 15 years by Moody’s Investors Service as the global recession hammers demand for air travel.

– Anglo American to shed 9,000 jobs (Financial Times)

– Newly Poor Swell Lines at Food Banks (New York Times):
MORRISTOWN, N.J. — Once a crutch for the most needy, food pantries have responded to the deepening recession by opening their doors to what Rosemary Gilmartin, who runs the Interfaith Food Pantry here, described as “the next layer of people” — a rapidly expanding roster of child-care workers, nurse’s aides, real estate agents and secretaries facing a financial crisis for the first time.

– Saab seeks bankruptcy protection in battle for survival (Times Online)

– Japan turns to ‘work-sharing’ to avoid layoffs (AP):
Work-sharing is the latest buzzword in Japan Inc. Proponents say it’s a good way to avoid American-style layoffs in a society that has long fostered lifetime employment. Toyota Motor Corp., Mazda Motor Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Fujitsu Inc., have all taken up some kind of work-sharing. Nissan Motor Co. and others are considering it.

– Highland Capital CDO Fund Is Insolvent, Wiping Out Investors (Bloomberg)

– Obama Picks Bilderberger for Health Secretary (Prison Planet):
Obama has picked a Bilderberger to be his choice for health secretary — Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. Obama initially picked former Senate Democrat leader Tom Daschle for the position, but Daschle “withdrew because of personal tax issues,” in other words he didn’t bother to pay any taxes because minions of the elite are not required to do so, except for public relations reasons. (Obama has also given 10 key positions to members of the Trilateral Commission. Obama is a New World Order puppet.)

– GM shares hit 74-year low (AP)

– Berkshire stock hits 5-year low below $74000 (BusinessWeek)

– Sun-powered device converts CO2 into fuel (New Scientist):
Powered only by natural sunlight, an array of nanotubes is able to convert a mixture of carbon dioxide and water vapour into natural gas at unprecedented rates.

– China recalls more than 320000 doses of flawed rabies vaccine: official (Xinhua)

– Drinking two cups of coffee a day ‘cuts stroke risk by 20 per cent’ (Telegraph):
A study involving more than 80,000 women over a period of more than 20 years showed those who consumed several cups a day were much less likely to suffer a clot on the brain.

– Texans to shoot wild pigs from helicopters (Telegraph):
Texans may be allowed to take to the air in helicopters to gun down the millions of pigs that are running wild in the state’s countryside.

– Brian Eno: The well of freedom is running dry (Independent):
Nobody bothers about civil liberties until they’ve gone. As the old country song warns: “You don’t miss your water till your well runs dry.”

– Brzezinski: US Recession Could Lead to Riots (U.S. News & World Report):
And if we don’t get some sort of voluntary National Solidarity Fund, at some point there’ll be such political pressure that Congress will start getting in the act, there’s going to be growing conflict between the classes and if people are unemployed and really hurting, hell, there could be even riots.

– Kabul on the edge (Stars and Stripes):
“People are saying that for six or seven years we have all these international troops, but everything is getting worse … security, the economy, everything. So they think America must be supporting the Taliban.”

– Russian navy accused of sinking Chinese cargo ship (Telegraph):
The New Star was pursued out of port in Nakhodka in the Siberian Far East on Sunday by a Russian naval vessel which believed it was involved in smuggling. The pursuing ship fired at least 500 rounds, forcing it to turn back to port, but it sank on the way.

– California Lawmakers Approve Tax Increases to Close $42 Billion Budget Gap (Bloomberg):
A $13 billion tax increase passed….

– Rising debt may overwhelm Barack Obama’s effort to rescue the economy (Times Online):
President Obama was hit with another wave of grim financial news yesterday, amid signs that his Administration is in danger of being overwhelmed by the scale of the economic crisis.

– Pentagon issues performance pay and bonuses averaging 8.35 percent (GovExec.com):
Nearly all of the employees in the Defense Department’s new personnel system were rewarded for their job performance in their first paychecks of 2009, with the average pay raise and bonus totaling 8.35 percent.

– Feb. could be worst month yet for jobless claims (AP):
WASHINGTON – February is shaping up to be another brutal month of job losses: The number of laid-off workers receiving unemployment benefits hit an all-time high of nearly 5 million, and new jobless claims are at levels not seen since the early 1980s.

– Stock Decline Hits Depression Levels (BusinessWeek):
During the darkest 10 years of the Great Depression, from September 1929 to September 1939, the stock market dropped roughly 50%, adjusted for inflation. With today’s drop in the stock market, the U.S. has now matched that unfortunate milestone.

– Greenwald: U.S. Is Bound By Treaty to Prosecute Torture Crimes (Crooks and Liars)

– SEC Uncovers Ponzi Scheme Targeting Deaf Investors (CNBC)

– Benefits neglected for civil retirees (USA Today):
State and local governments have set aside virtually no money to pay $1 trillion or more in medical benefits for retired civil servants, a USA TODAY survey found. With bills coming due as Baby Boomers start to retire, states, cities, school districts and other governments may be forced to raise taxes, cut benefits or both — a task made especially difficult in an economic downturn.

– Foreign firms and investors flee from wounded Celtic Tiger (Guardian):
Brussels lumped Ireland together with Greece and Latvia yesterday on a hit list of countries with “excessive” government deficits, in the latest blow to the pride of the economy once envied across Europe and dubbed the Celtic Tiger.

– Nicolas Sarkozy announces 2.65 bn euro in aid in bid to avert French unrest (Telegraph):
His speech came as violence in the French island of Guadeloupe put pressure on him to avert unrest on the mainland.

– Anger over Labour’s ‘secret plan to push up council taxes’ (Daily Mail):
Labour was last night accused of secretly plotting to raise extra cash from millions of households with a nationwide council tax revaluation. The Government has quietly renewed a multi-million pound deal with one of Britain’s leading property websites to access details of sale prices and floorplans of tens of thousands of homes.

– UK overshoots borrowing target (Financial Times):
… in the 12 months to the end of January 2009, tax revenues have been so weak that borrowing has already exceeded the pre-Budget report forecast and reached £79.3bn. For the past two months, the degree to which the government’s finances have been in deficit over the most recent year of data has deteriorated by £10bn a month.

– UK public finances deteriorate dramatically (Telegraph):
The UK’s public finances deteriorated dramatically in January as the Government’s bank bail-out boosted debt levels and tax revenues dropped sharply.

– Civil servants to benefit from £26 million bonuses (Telegraph)

– Brown leads global drive to close down tax havens (Independent):
Britain is leading moves to end the privileged status of tax havens as part of a planned “global new deal” to tackle the international recession. (Can’t hide from the New World Order.)

– EU fights plan to ring-fence British banks’ toxic assets (Guardian)

– Banks agree to European CDS clearer (Financial Times):
Weeks of battling between regulators in Brussels and some of the biggest players in the huge $60,000bn credit derivatives industry ended on Thursday when the industry agreed to clear most EU-based credit default swap contracts in Europe.

– Brown calls on world to strike ‘grand bargain’ to solve economic crisis (Times Online)

– Venezuela Takes Over Local Bank Owned by Stanford (Bloomberg)

– BNP Paribas, Axa Post Losses After Financial Markets Tumble (Bloomberg):
BNP Paribas, the biggest French bank, had a 1.37 billion- euro ($1.72 billion) fourth-quarter loss…
Axa, Europe’s second-largest insurer, had a deficit of 1.24 billion euros in the second half…

– Bank of Japan Widens Asset-Purchase Program to Ease Credit Woes (Bloomberg)

– Germany ready to help eurozone members (Financial Times):
Germany signalled that it would support emergency action to protect the eurozone if one of its 16 member-states found itself in such serious difficulties that it could not refinance its debt.

– China Feasts on Miners as ‘Bank of Last Resort’ (Bloomberg):
“China has turned out to be the bank of last resort,” said Glyn Lawcock, head of resources research at UBS AG in Sydney. “China is a net importer of copper, bauxite, alumina, nickel, zircon, uranium. China is looking for ways to secure supply of these raw materials.” (Excellent investment strategy, because commodities will go through the roof.)

– World Bank president Zoellick urges EU to help east Europe (Financial Times):

– European banks warn of more job cuts (Guardian):
Mainland European banks today warned of a worsening economic environment throughout this year as they confirmed they had plunged into the red in the final quarter of 2008 and warned of thousands of job losses to come.

– US Sen. Kerry goes to Gaza Strip, avoids Hamas (AP)

– Geronimo’s kin sue Skull and Bones over remains (AP):
HARTFORD, Conn. – Geronimo’s descendants have sued Skull and Bones the secret society at Yale University linked to presidents and other powerful figures claiming that its members stole the remains of the legendary Apache leader decades ago and have kept them ever since.

– What a mess! Experts ponder space junk problem (AP):
VIENNA – Think of it as a galactic garbage dump. With a recent satellite collision still fresh on minds, participants at a meeting in the Austrian capital this week are discussing ways to deal with space debris — junk that is clogging up the orbit around the Earth.

– Gold hits record against euro on fear of Zimbabwean-style response to bank crisis (Telegraph):
Gold has surged to an all-time high against the euro, sterling, and a string of Asian currencies on mounting concerns that global authorities are embarking on a “Zimbabwe-style” debasement of the international monetary system.

– Israel engaged in covert war inside Iran: report (Reuters):
LONDON (Reuters) – Israel is involved in a covert war of sabotage inside Iran to try to delay Tehran’s alleged attempts to develop a nuclear weapon, a British newspaper said on Tuesday, quoting a former CIA agent and intelligence experts.

– Surveillance will cost more than £34 billion (Times Online)

– Obama orders 17000 US troops to Afghanistan (Reuters)

– US privately backs Pakistan’s ‘Sharia law for peace’ deal with Taliban (Telegraph):
American officials have privately backed Pakistan’s “Sharia law for peace” deal with Taliban militants in the Swat Valley despite publicly criticising it as a “negative development”.

– Barack Obama gambles billions to save homes and jobs (Times Online):
President Obama will reveal a plan today to stem the flood of home repossessions afflicting millions of American families after signing his $787 billion economic stimulus package into law last night.

– Miami banker gives $60 million of his own to employees (Miami Herald):
Lots of bosses say they value their employees. Some even mean it. And then there’s Leonard Abess Jr. After selling a majority stake in Miami-based City National Bancshares last November, all he did was take $60 million of the proceeds — $60 million out of his own pocket — and hand it to his tellers, bookkeepers, clerks, everyone on the payroll. All 399 workers on the staff received bonuses, and he even tracked down 72 former employees so they could share in the windfall.

– Investors flee stockmarkets on fears that global recession is deepening (Guardian)

– Treasuries Tumble as Fed Signals US Debt Purchases on Hold (Bloomberg)

– GM seeks up to $30B in aid, will cut 47000 jobs (AP):
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors Corp., presenting a dire outlook for the future, said Tuesday it may need $30 billion in total government financing to weather the economic downturn and would cut 47,000 jobs worldwide and shutter five more U.S. factories in a massive restructuring plan.

– GM seeks up to US$30b to avoid failure (Manawatu Standard):
Carmaker General Motors, facing 47,000 job cuts worldwide, says it could need up to US$30 billion in US government aid or will run out of cash as soon as March.

– Saab may go bust in 10 days, warns GM (Times Online):
Saab, the Swedish carmaker owned by America’s General Motors (GM), could go bust within ten days without an immediate injection of state aid, the US company warned last night.

– One in five California public workers to be fired as Arnold Schwarzenegger cuts deep (Times):
The state of California was yesterday set to fire 20,000 public employees as it teetered on the brink of a total financial collapse.

– Barack Obama refuses to rule out second stimulus pakage (Telegraph)

– US housing starts hit record low (Financial Times):
Housing starts fell for the seventh month running, sliding by 16.8 per cent from December and leaving January’s adjusted annual rate of construction at 466,000, commerce department figures showed on Wednesday. The results fell far below economists’ expectations of 527,000.

– Panicked Antiguans besiege Stanford bank (Financial Times):
The reverberations from Texas billionaire Sir Allen Stanford’s alleged $8bn fraud continued to spread on Wednesday, as Antiguan authorities attempted to calm panicked locals who had been queuing up to withdraw money from a Stanford-owned retail bank.

– Stanford’s Whereabouts Aren’t Known After Fraud Charge, SEC Official Says (Bloomberg):
Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — U.S. regulators don’t know the whereabouts of R. Allen Stanford, the billionaire accused of running a “massive, ongoing fraud” through his Houston-based Stanford Group Co., a Securities and Exchange Commission official said.

– Explosives haul missing in Gaza (BBC News):
A large stockpile of unexploded weapons has disappeared in Gaza, before United Nations experts were able to dispose of it safely, the BBC has learned. The explosives, including aircraft bombs and white phosphorus shells, were fired by the Israeli military during its recent offensive in the Gaza Strip.

– Goodyear sheds 5,000 jobs amid Detroit downturn (Financial Times)

– Kansas Governor Signs Budget So State Employees Can Be Paid (Bloomberg)

– Greenspan backs bank nationalisation (Financial Times):
(Greenspan was a main cause of the crisis, so you can trust he has the best solution.)

– Downgrades Loom for Hungary, Poland, Bond Yields Show (Bloomberg):
“Everybody is running for the door,” said Lars Christensen, head of emerging-market strategy at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “The markets have decided the central and eastern European region is the subprime area of Europe.”

– John Deere posts 45% fall in profits (Financial Times)

– Lawyers from 21 countries tackle Madoff case (Times Online)

– Greek police defuse bomb outside Citibank in Athens (Reuters):
Police in Athens defused a “powerful” makeshift time bomb on Wednesday outside the Greek headquarters of US banking group Citibank, a police source said.

– MI5 fed questions to CIA for interrogation (Guardian)

– Secret papers on Iraq war stolen from Eversheds lawyer on train (Times Online)

– Coffee Risks Squeezing Starbucks, Funds on Supply (Bloomberg):
Demand may exceed output by 8 million 60-kilogram bags in the coming year — almost what Germany consumes — and exporter stockpiles are the lowest since 1965, the International Coffee Organization said.

– Los Angeles nears water rationing (Reuters):
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – With a recent flurry of winter storms doing little to dampen California’s latest drought, the nation’s biggest public utility voted on Tuesday to impose water rationing in Los Angeles for the first time in nearly two decades.

– In Flurry Of Studies, Researcher Details Role Of Apples In Inhibiting Breast Cancer (ScienceDaily):
“We not only observed that the treated animals had fewer tumors, but the tumors were smaller, less malignant and grew more slowly compared with the tumors in the untreated rats,”

– Aids is China’s deadliest disease (BBC News):
Chinese officials have said that HIV/Aids was the leading cause of death last year, compared with other infectious diseases.

– Elderly New Yorkers angry as crisis hits poorest (Reuters)

– Toxic British waste illegally sent to Africa (Times Online):
Tonnes of material left at municipal dumps in Britain – including hundreds of thousands of items such as televisions and computers – is being bought by dealers who are shipping the waste abroad, where it is harvested by young men and children trawling through toxic dumps.

– Contraceptive implants given to girls as young as 12 (Telegraph):
Girls as young as 12 are being given contraceptive implants on the NHS without the consent of their parents.

– “Worst Is Yet to Come:” Americans’ Standard of Living Permanently Changed (Yahoo Finance):
…the standard of living is undergoing a “permanent change” – and not for the better as a result of:
An $8 trillion negative wealth effect from declining home values.
A $10 trillion negative wealth effect from weakened capital markets.
A $14 trillion consumer debt load amid “exploding unemployment”, leading to “exploding bankruptcies.”

– Homeless families face strict new rules (Boston Globe):
Less than two years after vowing to end homelessness in Massachusetts, the Patrick administration has proposed new regulations that it acknowledges could force hundreds of homeless families back on the street.

– Arnie Schwarzenegger joins the ranks of the girlie men (Times Online):
After years on the brink, California is finally going out of business

– Abandon nuclear programme or lose aid, Hillary Clinton warns North Korea (Guardian):
(Excellent foreign policy! What a change!)

– Will there be another Russian revolution? (Independent):
These are hard times for the town of Asbest, deep in Russia’s Urals industrial belt. For more than a century, asbestos has been mined here on a grand scale. And in recent years, despite an EU ban on the use of asbestos, the 19 factories that make up the world’s biggest asbestos mining and processing operation have been working at full stretch, fuelled by Russia’s construction boom. (Gesundheit!)

– State sovereignty resolution passes in Senate Judiciary Committee (Red Dirt Report):
And while it is not getting a whole lot of attention in the mainstream press, a number of states, including Washington, New Hampshire, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, California, and Georgia have all introduced bills and resolutions declaring sovereignty under the 10th Amendment. Additionally, Colorado, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Alaska, Kansas, Alabama, Nevada, Maine, and Illinois are considering such measures.

– Sarkozy aide warns of risk of social unrest (Reuters):
“This crisis is already going through all the chapters of an economics textbook. We should be careful that it doesn’t also go through a history textbook as well,” he said.

– Afghan civilian casualty rate ‘at highest’ since Taliban (Guardian):
The number of civilians killed in the war in Afghanistan increased by 40% last year to a record 2,118 people, the UN said in a report today.

– Texas Financial Firm Is Accused by US of $8 Billion Fraud (New York Times):
HOUSTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission accused Robert Allen Stanford, the chief of the Stanford Financial Group, on Tuesday of conducting “a massive ongoing fraud” in the sale of about $8 billion of high-yielding certificates of deposit held in the firm’s bank in Antigua.

– Whitehall devised torture policy for terror detainees (Guardian):
MI5 interrogations in Pakistan agreed by lawyers and government
A policy governing the interrogation of terrorism suspects in Pakistan that led to British citizens and residents being tortured was devised by MI5 lawyers and figures in government, according to evidence heard in court.

– Trump Entertainment files for Chapter 11 (Financial Times):
In a stinging statement released last week following his resignation from the board, Mr Trump laid the blame for the group’s demise squarely on the bondholders. He accused their representatives of making “a series of bad decisions” and said they had “encouraged wasteful spending, which has led to severe problems with the company”.

– House prices falling at record rate (Telegraph):
House prices in the UK dropped by 2.3 per cent during December, pushing the annual rate at which values are falling to a new record, figures show. (What will your house be worth one year from now?!)

– Lloyds facing further writeoffs as HBOS loan losses mount (Guardian)

– Market surprised by size of Daimler’s loss (Financial Times):
The group’s loss of €1.95bn before interest and tax in the last quarter of 2008 surprised the market….

– Eastern Europe fears hit bank stocks (Financial Times)

– US envoy Richard Holbrooke warns of Islamist threat (Telegraph):
An Islamist militancy in Pakistan’s Swat region is a common threat to the United States, India and Pakistan, a special US envoy said on Monday, after meeting India’s foreign minister and top security officials.

– Redundant bankers to bolster Treasury (Financial Times):
Bankers who lost their jobs in the credit crunch are to be offered work in the Treasury as Alistair Darling beefs up his department to try to keep pace with the financial crisis.The chancellor is looking to hire up to 70 people, with a focus on sharpening up the Treasury’s dealings with the Square Mile. He is expecting a flood of applications from former bankers.

– European investment fund assets fall by 20% (Financial Times):
According to figures published on Tuesday by the European Fund and Asset Management Association, total net assets of European investment funds plunged to €6,142bn by end-2008. That compared with €7,909bn a year earlier.

– Madoff Victims Face Grim Prospects in Court (Bloomberg):

– Cash bonuses cut by 90% at RBS (Financial Times)

– New case of vCJD found in Britain (Times Online):
The first case of a person infected with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) from contaminated blood plasma will be confirmed today.

– Thousands at risk of human form of mad cow disease after haemophiliac’s death (Telegraph):
Thousands of haemophiliacs are at risk of developing vCJD after the death of a man who had received infected blood clotting products.

– Rise in number of pregnant women receiving anti-depressants (Times Online):
(Alternative medicine can easily help pregnant woman. Anti-depressants impair the development of the brain. Besides: Antidepressant drugs don’t work – official study)

– British, French nuclear subs collide in Atlantic (AP):
LONDON (AP) — Nuclear submarines from Britain and France collided deep in the Atlantic Ocean this month, authorities said Monday in the first acknowledgment of a highly unusual accident that one expert called the gravest in nearly two decades.

– Top Mexico drug cop charged with working for cartel (IHT):
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The former head of Mexico’s special organized crime bureau has been charged with selling information to one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels, the attorney general’s office said on Sunday.

– US missile strike kills 30 in Pakistan (Guardian)

– America Has To Come To Grips With The Fact It Is Bankrupt (Financial Forecaster)

– Japan Economy Shrinks 12.7%, Steepest Drop Since 1974 Oil Shock (Bloomberg):
Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s economy shrank at an annual 12.7 percent pace last quarter, the most since the 1974 oil shock, as recessions in the U.S. and Europe triggered a record drop in exports.

– Unemployment forecast to reach 3 million before next election (Guardian)

– Russia’s super-rich down to last few billions as fortunes slip away (Times Online)

– Householders to be charged for each flush of toilet (The Sunday Telegraph):
HOUSEHOLDERS would be charged for each flush under a radical new toilet tax designed to help beat the drought. The scheme would replace the current system, which sees sewage charges based on a home’s value – not its waste water output.

– Central banks urged to buy corporate debt (Financial Times)

– Government pension agency braces for recession (AP):
WASHINGTON (AP) — The deepening recession spells trouble for a little-known government corporation that insures the pensions of 44 million workers and retirees.

– Pound falls as CBI warns borrowing will have to rise by another £100bn (Telegraph):
The pound weakened on Monday after business leaders warned Alistair Darling will have to take on another £100bn in debt, requiring tax rises that risk depressing the economy for years.

– BMW to shed 850 jobs at Mini plant (Financial Times)

– UK’s richest landowner hit by slump (Guardian):
Britain’s wealthiest landowner, the Duke of Westminster, is in advanced talks with his bankers to prevent his £2bn property fund business breaching bank covenants. Pressure on the multibillionaire duke has intensified with investors in his funds suggesting that his property managers failed to heed advice to reduce borrowings 18 months ago, ahead of the collapse in property values.

– Rich Chinese fly in to buy bargain homes in US (Times Online):
(Rich, but ignorant. This strategy has paid of for them in the Philippines, but not in the US. The U.S. is about to collapse. If you would buy that home to have a safe place for your family far outside of any major city, then that will be a good investment, besides from food, water, clothes, guns, gold and silver.)

– Santander fund seeks to halt redemptions (Financial Times):
Spanish bank Santander has sought regulatory permission to freeze payouts from its main real-estate fund after investors sought to withdraw 80 per cent of the vehicle’s capital at once.

– Pakistan to Seek Additional $4.5 Billion IMF Loan (Bloomberg)

– Bad news dominates media businesses (Financial Times):
Real estate may be the gloomiest sector in the Gulf but its woes are spreading to other parts of the regional economy. Increasingly, the print media industry is feeling the pinch.

– Alleged ‘brains’ of £360m fraud says he is victim (Times Online)

– UK mobile phone firms to sell data about customer activity (Guardian):
The UK’s mobile phone networks are to start selling data about the internet sites visited by their customers to advertisers. The companies have been collecting the information over the past year and will use it in an attempt to generate more advertising. News that the industry has been monitoring what users do on the mobile web is likely to infuriate privacy campaigners.

– Tony Blair wins million-dollar prize for global leadership (Guardian):
(… for lying GB into war.)

– Iranian bioweapon researcher dies suspiciously (PRESS TV):
A US-based Iranian doctor working to discover an antitoxin therapy for biological weapons has purportedly died a “suspicious death.”

– Students angered by Gaza revive sit-ins (Guardian):
“There is a new level of anger among students that we haven’t seen before,” he said. “There is definitely a new confidence among students who are beginning to realise that if they want to achieve anything simple negotiation won’t work, our actions have to escalate.”

– Israel takes control of more West Bank land (AP):
JERUSALEM – Israel has taken control of a large chunk of land near a prominent West Bank settlement, paving the way for the possible construction of 2,500 settlement homes, officials said Monday, in a new challenge to Mideast peacemaking. Successive Israeli governments have broken promises to the United States to halt settlement expansion, defined by Washington as an obstacle to peace.

– Livni: Give up half of ‘Land of Israel’ (AP):
JERUSALEM – Tzipi Livni, who hopes to be appointed Israel’s prime minister-designate, said Monday Israel must give up considerable territory in exchange for peace with the Palestinians, drawing a clear distinction with her rival, Benjamin Netanyahu.

– Israeli brinkmanship puts Gaza truce in peril (Reuters)

– Study takes step toward erasing bad memories (Reuters):
LONDON (Reuters) – A widely available blood pressure pill could one day help people erase bad memories, perhaps treating some anxiety disorders and phobias, according to a Dutch study published on Sunday. The generic beta-blocker propranolol significantly weakened people’s fearful memories of spiders among a group of healthy volunteers who took it, said Merel Kindt, a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, who led the study.
(Bad memories are not the only thing that is weakened by beta-blockers.)

– Monkeys and apes know right from wrong, scientists say (Daily Mail)

– Galaxy has ‘billions of Earths’ (BBC News)

– Aliens ‘may be living among us’ undetected by science (Times Online)

– Indian experts find bacteria to beat global heat (The Economic Times):
ALLAHABAD: In a major breakthrough that could help in the fight against global warming, a team of five Indian scientists from four institutes of the country have discovered a naturally occurring bacteria which converts carbon dioxide (CO2) into a compound found in limestone and chalk. When used as an enzyme — biomolecules that speed up a chemical reaction — the bacteria has been found to transform CO2 into calcium carbonate (CaCO3)

– Wanted: ‘survival strategies’ for dying US newspapers (AFP):
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The fate of US newspapers is in the news as journalists, editors, bloggers, media pundits and concerned citizens debate the future of the troubled industry.”How to Save Your Newspaper,” is the cover story in Time in which Walter Isaacson, a former managing editor of the magazine, revives a plan to make readers pay for news online through a “micropayments” system.

– Prosperous Spanish city falls victim to hard times (Independent):
In a country destroying jobs at a breathtaking rhythm, once flourishing Zaragoza and the region around it is declining even faster than the national average – with unemployment up 75% in a year. The shock has already sent protesters on to the city’s streets in their tens of thousands. “If this isn’t fixed: Strike! Strike! Strike!”, they chanted at a recent rally.

– Scientists warn of first ever case of human mad cow disease from blood plasma (Telegraph):
Warnings were sent to 4,000 haemophiliacs, and patients suffering from other rare blood conditions in 2004 to warn them that they had had received transfusions from 200 batches of blood products at risk of contamination with vCJD. The plasma was collected from nine people who went on to develop the brain-wasting disease.

– Japan’s economy shrinks 3.3% (Financial Times):
On an annualised basis, gross domestic product declined at a rate of 12.7 per cent… (Japan is in a Depression)

– Despite Pledges, Package Has Some Pork (Washington Post):
(Some? Read the Stimulus Bill: Nancy Pelosi)

– UN lobbies for share of bank rescue funds (Times Online):
The UN and the World Bank are lobbying for a portion of the billions of dollars allocated to bailing out the West’s banking systems to be diverted to prevent 400 million people sinking into poverty across Asia in the wake of the global economic crisis. UN officials say that such a plan is necessary to prevent severe social unrest in poor countries, especially among the tens of millions of migrant workers who are being forced back to their villages as jobs dry up in the cities of Asia.

– Fraud probe into UK firm’s role in collapse of world’s largest insurer AIG (Daily Mail)

– Large US banks on brink of insolvency, experts say (IHT)

– US Making Same Mistakes that Led to Japan’s Lost Decade, Say Analysts (Money Morning)

– Boycott UN forum, says Israeli ex-envoy (Sydney Morning Herald):
A FORMER senior Israeli diplomat, Dan Gillerman, has urged Kevin Rudd to cancel Australia’s attendance at a United Nations forum on racism, saying it will be used as a platform to bash Israel.

– Food banks toss out food linked to peanut recall (Chicago Tribune)

– Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production (Market Skeptics):
The countries that make up two thirds of the world’s agricultural output are experiencing drought conditions. Whether you watch a video of the drought in China, Australia, Africa, South America, or the US, the scene will be the same: misery, ruined crop, and dying cattle. The world is heading for a drop in agricultural production of 20 to 40 percent, depending on the severity and length of the current global droughts. Food producing nations are imposing food export restrictions. Food prices will soar, and, in poor countries with food deficits, millions will starve.

– Feds charge NYPD officer with laundering $230000 (AP)

– USS Cole Families Press Obama to Open Commission to Investigate Attack (FOX News)

– Figures reveal Blair’s charity empire (Guardian)

– NYPD okays Velcro handcuffs for use on unruly children (Daily News)

– Intense light ‘could detect Parkinson’s’ (Telegraph)

– Autism ruling fails to convince many vaccine-link believers (CNN)

– The Wounds of Gaza (The Lancet):
Two Surgeons from the UK, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr Swee Ang, managed to get into Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Here they describe their experiences, share their views, and conclude that the people of Gaza are extremely vulnerable and defenseless in the event of another attack.

– US foreclosure image is 2008 World Press Photo (Independent):

This picture by US photographer Anthony Suau, for Time won the World Press Photo of the Year 2008 award, it was announced by the organisers on 13 February 2009 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. US Economy in Crisis: Following eviction, Detective Robert Kole must ensure residents have moved out of their home in Cleveland, Ohio, 26 March 2008.

– G7 sets sights on new world economic order (AFP):
ROME (AFP) – The world’s richest nations called Saturday for urgent reform of global finance to save the world from the economic devastation that is dragging more and more countries into recession. Italy’s Finance Minister called for a “new world economic order” as he wrapped up the crisis meeting of finance leaders from the Group of Seven leading economies over which he presided here.

– US stimulus clears Congress (Financial Times):
The biggest economic stimulus in US history cleared the US Congress late on Friday night.

– Britain’s bankers plumb new depths (Times Online):
Jon Moulton, the private equity chief, warned a City lunch this week that he feared serious civil unrest. There was, he said, a 25 per cent chance of one of the 15 member countries of the eurozone pulling out of the currency club. That, he said, would be a catastrophic shock leading to a “far greater financial crisis” than the current one.

– Europe’s industrial base may never recover from crisis (Telegraph):
The European Commission has issued a red alert over the unprecedented collapse of industrial production, warning that EU states are running out of money for rescue packages.

– Car sales across Europe plunge to 20-year low (Times Online):
France proved most resilient in terms of the drop in its market with a fall of 7.9 per cent while Germany, the Continent’s biggest seller, experienced a 14.2 per cent fall. The decline in the British market, published last week, was 30.9 per cent. In Western Europe the biggest falls were in Italy, at 32.6 per cent, and Spain, with 41.6 per cent.

– Trump Quits Trump Entertainment as Debt Payment Deadline Looms (Bloomberg):
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — Donald Trump resigned from the board of debt-laden Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. as bondholders weighed forcing the casino company he founded into involuntary bankruptcy next week.

– The Coming Crisis: White Collar Homelessness (End Homelessness)

– 100000 Parents of Citizens Were Deported Over 10 Years (New York Times):
WASHINGTON — Of nearly 2.2 million immigrants deported in the decade ended 2007, more than 100,000 were the parents of children who, having been born in the United States, were American citizens, according to a report issued Friday by the Department of Homeland Security.

– Obama’s Wealth Destruction (Ludwig von Mises Institute)

– Europe set for deep recession, economists warn (Telegraph):
The Eurozone economy, whose biggest members are Germany and France, shrank 1.5pc in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter – a steeper fall than economists had expected. Germany had the worst fall, with the economy shrinking the most since the country was reunified in 1990.

– US drone attack kills 25 Taliban in Pakistan (Telegraph)

– Mystery of New York flight that dropped out of sky, killing 49 in Buffalo suburb (Times Online)

– Blackwater Sheds Name, Shifts Focus (Washington Post):
Blackwater Worldwide, a private security (mercenary) company whose work in Iraq was plagued by trouble, said yesterday that it is changing its name to Xe as it shifts its business focus.

– Four More US Banks Are Shut, Bringing Total for Year to 13 (Bloomberg)

– Secret plan to deprive independent Scotland of North Sea oil fields (Times Online)

– Four in ten unaware that cancer is linked to poor diet (Scotsman)

– Toxic waste blamed for birth defects (Independent)

– Medical Director of Switzerland’s Paracelsus Clinic Takes Stand on Hazards of Electromagnetic Pollution – ‘Electromagnetic Load’ a Hidden Factor in Many Illnesses (Electromagnetic Health)

– “Kill yourself. Save us the paperwork” (Salon):
Pfc. Ryan Alderman, now deceased, sought medical help from the Army. He got a fistful of powerful drugs instead.

– Dutch MP refused entry to Britain (BBC News):
A Dutch MP who called the Koran a “fascist book” has been sent back to the Netherlands after attempting to defy a ban on entering the UK.

– US unemployment climbs to a 32-year high (Telegraph)

– Why Geithner’s bank bailout plan got a Bronx cheer (Money and Markets):
Problem #2: The “same old, same old” efforts:
These programs appear to be nothing more than expanded versions of efforts that have already had either limited success, or failed entirely.
Problem #3: Investors may finally be starting to face reality:
“This latest scheme to save the world will fail just like all the others. That is because nothing … NOTHING … can prevent a painful adjustment process.

– Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts:
The Washington Morons – Driving Over the Cliff (CounterPunch)

– Eurozone slump worst in 50 years (Financial Times)

– France to call for hedge fund crackdown (Financial Times)

– Lloyds hit by £10bn HBOS losses (Financial Times):
Shares in the banking group fell 35 per cent after it warned that its newly acquired HBOS had suffered a worse-than-expected £10bn loss in 2008.

– US Auto-Parts Suppliers Seek $18.5 Billion in Aid (Bloomberg)

– Inflation: Brace yourself for higher food prices (Telegraph):
The Telegraph’s measure of “real” inflation, the Real Cost of Living Index, is at minus 3.4pc. But the era of cheap food could be over within a decade. (I say within 7 months.)

– Auto Workers’ 54-Year Safety-Net Pay May Be Scrapped in Talks (Bloomberg):
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, trying to keep $17.4 billion in U.S. aid, are asking the United Auto Workers union to end a 54-year-old benefit that ensures almost full pay during layoffs.

– Bernard Madoff could escape trial with guilty plea (Times Online):
The 70-year-old is currently under house arrest at his $7 million Manhattan penthouse apartment.
(What a horrible punishment!)

– Japan PM faces potential revolt (Financial Times)

– US envoy in Kabul to map out surge (Independent)

– PepsiCo defies global gloom (Financial Times):
(Soon people can only afford to drink tap water and then Pepsi will go down.)

– Female suicide bomber kills 35 women and children near Iraq religious festival (CNN)

– World in denial about trafficking, says UN (Independent)

– Energy experts to visit every home to help them go green (Telegraph)

– Millions ‘opt for DIY dentistry’ (BBC News)

– Teenage handbag thief outpaced by 72-year-old ex-sprinter (Telegraph)

– Bank chief warns economy could shrink by 6%… just three months after Alistair Darling predicted a fall of 1.25% (Daily Mail)

– Meet Labour’s City cronies: The roll call of bankers rewarded by rewarded by Brown and Blair (Daily Mail):
An analysis by the Daily Mail reveals that while ministers are now railing against the role of bankers in causing the economic crisis, they have spent the last decade cosying up to the industry. Labour has given 23 bankers honours, brought three into the Government as ministers and involved 37 in commissions and advisory bodies.

– Bank will print money as UK sees ‘deep recession’ (Independent)

– Millions face ‘stealth tax’ on heating bills to subsidise green energy (Daily Mail)

– Australia’s Senate blocks A$42bn stimulus plan (Financial Times)

– EU faces ‘toxic’ debt spiral (Telegraph):
It is not surprising that European Union finance ministers looked ashen faced in Brussels on Tuesday.

– Jim Rogers: Treasury Bonds Last Bubble Left (Money News)

– Treasury 30-Year Bonds Fall After Record Sale; U.S. Notes Rise (Bloomberg)

– Economic And Financial Systems Deliberately Destabilized (Financial Forecaster)

– ‘Here’s the problem… people really hate you,’ US bankers told (Independent):
Announcing the hearings last week, Barney Frank, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said that public patience with Wall Street bailouts had worn thin. “As I’ve said to a couple of the bankers, ‘Here’s this problem: People really hate you, and they’re starting to hate us because we’re hanging out with you,'” Mr Frank said.

– Wall Street Men Find World According to TARP Worth Fleeing (Bloomberg):

– Bush-era offshore drilling plan is set aside (MSNBC):
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Tuesday overturned another Bush-era energy policy, setting aside a draft plan to allow drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

– Home prices in record plunge (CNN Money):
The National Association of Realtors reports that home prices dropped a record 12.4% in the final quarter of 2008 – the biggest decline in 30 years.

– Meltdown 101: Highlights of economic stimulus plan (AP):
Many leading economists have concluded that the stimulus alone may be insufficient to bring a quick turnaround for the economy. (No government can turn around an entire economy and is also not supposed to do so.)

– Schwarzenegger and California legislators reach tentative budget deal (Guardian):
Schwarzenegger threatened this week to send 20,000 layoff notices to state employees, on top of the other cuts, if lawmakers do not commit to a budget deal by then.

– I Could Have Made a Fortune Wrecking a Bank: Margaret Carlson (Bloomberg)

– Oil industry needs tax breaks to avert slump (Times Online)

– Rio Tinto Drops After Chinalco Agrees to Invest $19.5 Billion (Bloomberg):
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — Aluminum Corp. of China agreed to invest $19.5 billion in debt-laden Rio Tinto Group, gaining access to copper and iron ore resources in the nation’s largest overseas acquisition.

– France imposes limits on bank bonuses (Financial Times)

– Take low-skilled jobs, class of 2009 told (Guardian)

– US bankers yield to foreclosure demands (Financial Times)

– The CIA and NSA Want You to Be Their Friend on Facebook (U.S. News & World Report):
The spy agencies are using the popular social-networking site as part of their recruiting efforts

– Okla. town in ‘shock’ after tornado kills 9 (USA Today):
“The last February tornado to occur in Oklahoma was in 2000,” Carbin said. “They’re not common.”

– Big satellites collide 500 miles over Siberia (AP):
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Two big communications satellites collided in the first-ever crash of two intact spacecraft in orbit, shooting out a pair of massive debris clouds and posing a slight risk to the international space station.

– Powerful earthquake hits Indonesia, 42 injured (AP)

– Chavez reports attempted coup (AFP):
CARACAS, (AFP) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reported an attempted coup against his palace by army troops in contact with “a soldier on the run in the United States,” but said the government had everything under control.

– The Vatican claims Darwin’s theory of evolution is compatible with Christianity (Telegraph):
The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution should not have been dismissed and claimed it is compatible with the Christian view of Creation.

– Strip-Club Chief Is What Obama Could Afford With Bank-Pay Limit (Bloomberg):
The heads of the five biggest Wall Street firms took home more than $1 billion in the five years through 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. On Wall Street, “$500,000 will get you someone five years out of Harvard Business School or a sixth-year associate at a major law firm,” Reda said. “It’s not going to get you a lot.”
(Those banksters will be happy if they can manifest their daily bread in the future.)

– Top Four Merrill Bonus Recipients Got $121 Million (Bloomberg)

– Fox News producer arrested for child pornography (Boston Herald)

– Madoff’s Wife Withdrew $15.5 Million Before His Fraud Arrest (Bloomberg)

– Pain Beam to Get Tougher, Smaller, More Powerful (Wired News):
The Pentagon’s pain beam weapon could get tougher, smaller, more powerful, and more mobile under a series of new research and development projects. And that could pave the way for the so-called “Active Denial System” to finally be sent to war.

– Credit Suisse losses widen to SFr8bn (Financial Times)

– Coca-Cola Enterprises Swings To Loss On $2.3 Billion Write-Down (CNN Money)

– Banking inquisition intensifies after whistleblower allegations (Guardian)

– European bank bail-out could push EU into crisis (Telegraph):
A bail-out of the toxic assets held by European banks’ could plunge the European Union into crisis, according to a confidential Brussels document.

– Pimco’s Gross Sold U.S. Debt Last Month (Bloomberg)

– Wholesale inventories plunge by most in 17 years (AP)

– Nokia to ax 320 jobs, temporarily lay off 2500 (BusinessWeek)

– Afghan Government Offices Targeted as Bombers Kill 26 (Bloomberg)

– France says it protects jobs, not breaking EU rules (Reuters)

– Gates orders review of ban on photos of coffins (AP)

– Obama’s $20 Billion Stirs Secrets-for-Sale Health Record Clash (Bloomberg)

– Obama Could Order More Troops to Afghanistan This Week (Voice of America)

– US launches spy operation over North Korea (Times Online)

– China will build special railway for Muslim pilgrims in Saudi Arabia (Telegraph)

– Global warming is not our fault … it’s nature (Scotsman)

– Dubai tanker bursts into flames after collision with container ship (Telegraph)

– US military develops anti-aircraft laser (Telegraph):
The Laser Avenger successfully shot down a series of unmanned aerial vehicles during recent tests and is being hailed as a revolutionary weapon for future warfare.

– Chinese TV station sorry for accidentally burning down brand-new luxury hotel (Daily Mail)

– RBS to axe 2300 jobs.. but still plans to pay out £1bn in bonuses to bankers (Daily Mail)

– RBS slashes 2300 jobs (Scotsman):
‘The four ex-chiefs of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HBOS admitted to having no formal banking qualifications.’

– Asian shares fall after President Obama says US faces ‘full-blown’ crisis (Telegraph)

– Geithner unveils bank rescue plan (Los Angeles):
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner this morning unveiled the Obama administration’s $1.5-trillion-to-$2-trillion plan for stabilizing the nation’s malfunctioning financial markets, including a public-private partnership to boost lending, warning that the new strategy “will cost money, involve risk and take time.” (… the new strategy will fail, continue to loot taxpayers’, destroy the dollar and create the ‘Greatest Depression’.)

– $2,000bn US bank clean-up (Financial Times):
US shares tumbled on Tuesday as investors gave a thumbs-down to plans by the Obama administration to deploy up to $2,000bn to clean up toxic assets in the financial system and restart credit markets.

– New Bailout May Top $1.5 Trillion (Washington Post)

– Senate backs Obama’s bank bailout as details of new $1.5trillion rescue deal are revealed (Daily Mail)

– Treasury revamps financial rescue plan (Financial Times)

– US Treasury plans to set up ‘aggregator bank’ to buy toxic assets (Guardian)

– ‘Top Brown adviser sacked and gagged me for warning banks were taking too many risks’, says whistleblower (Daily Mail):
One of Gordon Brown’s key advisers was today accused of sacking a whistleblower who warned banks were heading for disaster years before the financial meltdown.
Paul Moore, HBOS’s head of risk between 2002 and 2005, alleges he told directors as early as 2004 that the company was in danger of becoming out of control.
‘Anyone whose eyes were not blinded by money, power and pride’ would have realised problems were mounting for HBOS and the other high street banks, he said.

– Czech PM attacks eurozone governments (Financial Times)

– Europe ambushes Germany on debt bail-out (Telegraph)

– UBS makes £11.3bn loss and axes another 2000 jobs (Guardian)

– Temasek portfolio falls 31% (Financial Times):
Temasek Holdings, the Singapore state investment company, suffered a 31 per cent fall in the value of its portfolio from S$185bn ($123bn) to S$127bn in the eight months to the end of November last year, the government said on Tuesday.

– Air freight drops as global trade siezes up (Telegraph)

– Even elderly are facing eviction (Seattle Post Intelligencer)

– Gordon Brown calls for World Bank and IMF reform (Telegraph)

– Parents find cure for son’s ‘untreatable’ blood disorder (Telegraph):
(Western medicine is in most aspects so unbelievable backwards, especially if you know what is possible with alternative medicine.)

– Bank chiefs admit buying ABN was a ‘bad mistake’ (Financial Times)

– Bad economy forcing immigrants to reconsider US (CNN)

– FBI Believed that Bombs Were Used on 9/11:
Following the massive terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, the FBI dedicated 7,000 of its 11,000 Special Agents and thousands of FBI support personnel to the PENTTBOM investigation. “PENTTBOM” is short for Pentagon, Twin Towers Bombing.

– GM, Chrysler May Face Bankruptcy to Protect US Debt (Bloomberg):
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC may have to be forced into bankruptcy by the U.S. government to assure repayment of $17.4 billion in federal bailout loans, a course of action the automakers claim would destroy them.

– Mafia millions buoying banks: UN (Calgary Herald):
VIENNA — Cash-rich Mafia groups have been channelling funds into banks desperate to survive the global credit crisis, the UN anti-crime chief said on Monday.

– China fights drought with chemical cloud-seeding (AP)

– Florida’s Crossroads of Foreclosure and Despair (New York Times)

– France unveils €6bn auto sector bail-out (Financial Times)

– Got the Treasury Bubble Blues? (Morningstar)

– Overview: US bond yields climb amid oversupply fears (Financial Times):
US government bonds yields climbed to their highest levels for more than two months on Monday ahead of the Treasury’s record $67bn of issuance this week. “If the market chokes on this supply, it might not only mean higher yields but it could start to weigh on the dollar,” suggested Steve Barrow, currency strategist at Standard Bank.

– No Safety In Treasuries (Forbes):
Investors flee U.S. government securities on fears about massive borrowing to repair the economy.

– Latvia reports 10.5% contraction (Financial Times):
Latvia’s economy contracted at an annual rate of 10.5 per cent in the fourth quarter, raising fears it may be unable to stick to the conditions of its IMF rescue package.

– Millions for charities hit by recession (Guardian):
£40m government aid contrasts with £500bn to bail out banks

– Record 19 Million US Homes Stood Vacant in 2008 (Bloomberg)

– US Army Lab Freezes Research on Dangerous Pathogens (Science Now):
The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases has suspended research activities involving biological select agents and toxins. Army officials took the step on Friday after discovering apparent problems with the system of accounting for high-risk microbes and biomaterials at the Fort Detrick, Maryland, facility.

– UK companies fear worst is still to come (Financial Times)

– US using British atomic weapons factory for its nuclear programme (Guardian)

– $9.3 bn drains from quant funds as volatility continues (Financial Times)

– Netanyahu digs for election victory (Independent):
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud leader who is the favourite in what is expected to be a close electoral contest tomorrow, planted a eucalyptus tree in the occupied Golan Heights yesterday, demonstrating the uncompromising posture he intends to take towards Israel’s Arab neighbours.

– Hamas declares victory in Gaza but vows to rearm against Israel (Telegraph)

– Seminary ‘sacks holocaust denier bishop’ (Independent)

– House Approves Whitelist of People Who Aren’t Terrorists (Wired News)

– Ukraine pushes for loans to meet shortfall (Financial Times):
Ukraine has appealed for emergency loans from the world’s richest countries to help support its economy, which has been battered by the global financial crisis.

– Job Losses in US Spreading to Workers With College Degrees (Bloomberg)

– Over 200 Americans killed in Mexico since ’04 (MSNBC)

– UK suppressed torture evidence to protect MI6 (The Age)

– Analysis: Australia’s split weather system (Times Online)

– Drug Made In Milk of Altered Goats Is Approved (Washington Post)

– Genetic mapping of babies by 2019 will transform preventive medicine (Times Online)

– A Protected Forest’s Fast Decline (Washington Post)

– President Blair: Former PM set to become EU chief as Sarkozy battles to win him the post (Daily Mail)

– US warns of battle worse than Iraq in Afghanistan (AFP):
MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – The United States warned its allies Sunday that fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan could prove tougher than in Iraq and appealed, along with Britain, for more troops and equipment.

– Obama’s NSC Will Get New Power (Washington Post)

– Scottish politicians urge BBC to take Clarkson off air over Brown jibes (Guardian):
Scottish politicians today called for the Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson to be taken off the air until he apologised for calling Gordon Brown a “one-eyed Scottish idiot”. The BBC presenter also accused the prime minster of lying.

– Along With Everything Else Taxpayers Stuck With Billions In Losses (International Forecaster)

– Bank of England to issue grimmest warning yet on economy (Guardian)

– Vince Cable: ‘Bring back the guillotine…for bankers’ (Daily Mail)

– US Treasury ‘overpaid’ $78bn in bank bailout (Telegraph):
The US Government overpaid $78 billion last year for stakes in troubled banks as part of its $700 billion bailout, the Congressional panel overseeing the rescue said.

– Geithner Says US Financial System Remains ‘Badly Damanged’ (Wall Street Journal)

– US Treasury to pump billions more into banks (Times Online)

– Obama puts brake on Afghan surge (Times Online)

– Netanyahu stokes fears to take poll lead (Times Online)

– SCENARIOS-Here’s what happens next on US stimulus package (Reuters)

– Massacres follow failed US-aided Uganda mission: report (Washington Post)

– The rise and (almost) fall of America’s banks (AP)

– Ecuador’s president orders US diplomat expelled (AP)

– Report: More than 300,000 children ‘at risk’ in Israel (Haaretz)

– FACTBOX: Where has the US bailout money gone? (Reuters)

– Chrysler to idle four plants next week (Reuters)

– NYPD officer caught in drug scandal takes plea, dishes on corrupt cops (New York Daily News)

– 84 killed in deadliest-ever Australian wildfires (AP)

– Sharpton calls for justice outside Madoff’s home (Reuters):
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Saying Bernard Madoff enjoys a “gilded penthouse incarceration,” civil rights activist Al Sharpton led a rally outside the accused swindler’s Manhattan home on Saturday urging equal justice for the rich and poor.

– IMF Says Advanced Economies Already in Depression (Bloomberg):
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — Advanced economies are already in a “depression” and the financial crisis may deepen unless the banking system is fixed,International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.
“The worst cannot be ruled out,” Strauss-Kahn said in Kuala Lumpur, where he was attending a gathering of central bankers from Southeast Asia. “There’s a lot of downside risk.”

– We’re in denial: afraid to face up to the real causes of recession (Telegraph):
As Niall Ferguson, professor of history at Harvard University, wrote in the Financial Times: “The reality being repressed is that the western world is suffering a crisis of indebtedness.” In which case, pumping out yet more debt will not be the answer. It is simply a short-term fix that in the long-run creates an even bigger disaster, like giving a shivering alcoholic a case of Special Brew.
Dr Ros Altmann, a former adviser to Number 11, points out: “They punish those who actually did the right thing [savers], while benefiting the very groups (the banks in particular) whose actions caused this mess.”

– Canada January job losses biggest on record (Reuters)

– Barclays set to give big bonuses to bankers who scuttled Woolworths (Times Online)

– Barack Obama’s army is mobilised in bid to save his recovery plan (Times Online):
It is the first occasion since November that the President has deployed the massed ranks of his volunteers. His campaign machine, now calling itself Organising for America, issued the mobilisation call last week to a database of 13 million supporters. Even among loyal troops some admit to harbouring doubts. Albert Ngoytz, in Des Moines, Iowa said: “We worked so hard to beat Hillary but we don’t understand why all these Clintonian people got the top jobs.”
(Obama is a puppet of the elite, thats why: Obama: Trilateral Commission Endgame. The U.S. is still suffering from ‘Hopenosis’, but it’s soon all over.)

– Obama pushes stimulus plan while GOP pushes back (AP):
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Saturday championed his economic stimulus plan as “absolutely necessary” — if imperfect — while Senate Republicans dug in against an $827 billion measure they said hadn’t even been written, let alone properly reviewed or sufficiently revised.

– Cold warrior Henry Kissinger woos Russia for Barack Obama (Telegraph)

– Israel to Obama: hold Iran’s feet to fire, or else (Reuters)

– German economy minister offers to resign (Financial Times)

– Will Ukraine follow Iceland into financial meltdown? (McClatchy)

– GM may cut thousands of salaried workers-report (Reuters)

– Three US Banks Shut by Regulators as Financial Crisis Deepens (Bloomberg)

– 38000 companies expected to go bust (Telegraph)

– CBO sees accelerating US budget deficit (Reuters)

– Salt wars break out as demand escalates (Financial Times)

– Obama’s executive pay limits have loopholes: report (Reuters)

– UN halts aid to Gaza after Hamas seizure (Independent)

– Can the all-seeing, all-knowing Google be trusted to rule the world? (Times Online)

– Savings lost to Madoff, elderly forced back to work (Reuters)

– ‘Up to 40 dead’ in Australia wildfires (Telegraph)

– China orders $13-billion drought relief for wheat growers (Los Angeles Times)

– Child porn scourge creates more suspects than can be arrested (Edmonton Sun)

– Pentagon sets sights on public opinion (MSNBC):
Money spent on winning hearts and minds at least $4.7 billion this year

– Lords: rise of CCTV is threat to freedom (Guardian):
The steady expansion of the “surveillance society” risks undermining fundamental freedoms including the right to privacy, according to a House of Lords report published today.

– Julius Baer hit by ‘defamatory’ accusations (Financial Times):
Julius Baer shares fell as much as 40 per cent on Friday after an anonymous letter to regulators about alleged trading irregularities at the Swiss private bank came to light.

– US unemployment expected to rocket (Telegraph)

– Forecast 2009: There Will Be Blood (ChartingStocks):
2009 will be a year of complete destruction for the US economy. 5 Million will lose their jobs. The Dow Jones Industrial average will break below 6,000. Municipalities will fail. Insurers will fail. The unemployed and foreclosed American population will take to the streets and begin rioting. The Greatest Depression is upon us.

– Calif. Counties Threaten Tax Revolt Against State (CBS):
SPRINGFIELD – Facing an ever-growing pile of bills, crushing debt and less tax money flowing into the state treasury, Illinois is broke. But could the state climb out of its nearly $9 billion budget hole by declaring bankruptcy? No, say tax and budget experts

– State can run out of money, but can’t file for bankruptcy (Chicago Daily Herald)

– Irish economy ‘worst hit in eurozone’ (Independent):
Every five minutes a job is lost.

– UBS predicts gold to hit $1000 (Telegraph)

– Thousands of Royal Mail jobs under threat (Financial Times)

– Schools seize homes over fees (Sydney Morning Herald):
EVERY week parents of private school students are losing their homes to bankruptcy actions taken by cash-strapped schools that can no longer wait for overdue fees.

– Wall Street CEOs, investment bankers charged prostitutes on corporate cards, madam says (The Raw Story):
Kristin Davis, the madam in question, went public to ABC News this week; ABC will be broadcasting her interview Friday at 10 pm. Davis says she has a list of 9,800 clients, many of whom she says New York prosecutors deliberately avoided when taking her case, even though she offered them her annotated client list.

– Royal Mail delivers more bad news as 16,000 workers learn they will lose their jobs (Daily Mail)

– BA freezes pay amid a £70 million pre-tax loss (Times Online)

– Manufacturing falls at fastest rate for 28 years (Times Online)

– No 10 angered as Sarkozy hits out at Brown’s economic ‘mistakes’ (Guardian)

– Toyota triples year loss forecast (BBC News):
The Japanese car giant has now tripled that figure and expects to make a 450bn yen operating loss, the first annual loss at the firm in 70 years.

– FDIC Announces 7th ’09 Bank Closing: FirstBank Financial (CNN Money):
Earlier this week, the FDIC boosted its estimate for the cost of U.S. bank failures amid signs that industry conditions and the broader economy are worsening.

– Bank details £50bn plan to help ease credit markets (Financial Times)

– Japanese bank giant reports first ever loss (CNN)

– Gross Says US Must Spend to Avoid Mini Depression (Bloomberg)
(“U.S. may slump into a “mini depression” unless policy makers spend trillions of dollars to spur growth” … if the U.S. continues to spend trillions of dollars, then it will slump into the ‘Greatest Depression.” To me it looks like the USS Titanic has already hit the iceberg.)

– Acts Of Insanity Are What Destroyed The Economy (International Forecaster)

– SEC Officials Can’t Find Their Own Backsides: Lawmaker (CNBC):
Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) attacked SEC officials testifying before the House Financial Services committee for failing to detect Bernie Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scheme on Wednesday.
“What the heck went on? Your mission, you said, was to protect investors and detect fraud quickly,” he said. “You couldn’t find your backside with two hands if the lights were on.”

– State employee: I get $93803 for no work (Albany Times Union)

– Time Warner Reports $16 Billion Quarterly Loss On Write Offs (CNN Money)

– News Corp profits fall 42% on ‘grim’ economy (Times Online)

– Ministers ‘misled’ judges over torture evidence (Independent)

– Hamas official stopped trying to bring £8 million in cash into Gaza Strip (Telegraph)

– Israeli politicians offer territory swaps and tunnels to solve the endless crisis (Times Online)

– Porn Star Provides In-Flight ‘Entertainment’ (NBC Bay Area):
Shortly afterward, she leaned over and performed a sex act on Martz.
Puma said it was a way to repay Martz for allowing the crew to use his chopper and hangar at Montgomery Field.

– Woman Robs Restaurant While Tearfully Apologizing (WCTV)

– Professor makes his mark, but it costs him his job (Globe and Mail)

– Transparent Frogs Discovered in Colombia (EcoWorldly)

– Arrests made in what could be biggest investment scam in Japanese history (Guardian):

– Report: Air Force units failed 2 more nuke surety inspections (Stars and Stripes)

– Goldman, JPMorgan Won’t Feel Effects of Executive-Salary Caps (Bloomberg):
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — Executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and hundreds of financial institutions receiving federal aid aren’t likely to be affected by pay restrictions announced yesterday by President Barack Obama.

– Unhappy voters jam Capitol Hill phone lines (CNN):
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The recent debate over the nearly $900 billion economic stimulus plan and revelations of tax problems by three Obama administration appointees have voters angrily jamming phone lines on Capitol Hill to air their frustrations to their elected representatives.

– House speaker Nancy Pelosi predicts job losses for babies (Guardian):
Basically, Pelosi says that if legislators don’t move quickly to pass President Barack Obama’s stimulus package, “500 million Americans lose their jobs”.

– Shoe thrown at Israel’s ambassador in Stockholm (The Local)

– Australia warns of Buy American ‘trade war’ (Financial Times)

– Now Russia gets caught in the credit crunch (Georgiandaily)

– Moscow abandons bail-outs for bank aid (Financial Times)

– German industrial orders fall sharply (Financial Times):
Germany’s economic ministry reported orders fell by 6.9 per cent in December, extending a 5.3 per cent fall in November. It was the fourth consecutive monthly fall and much larger than expected. December’s industrial orders from within the eurozone were tumbled by more than 15 per cent.

– Obama Warns of ‘Catastrophe:’ What Happened to ‘Hope’ and ‘Change?’ (Yahoo Finance):
“A failure to act, and act now [on the bill], will turn crisis into a catastrophe,” Obama said, sounding a lot more like his predecessor than the candidate of hope and change. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss?

– Barack Obama fights to maintain a grip on the US political agenda (Telegraph):
President Barack Obama is seeking to reassert control over the American political agenda after a series of embarrassing setbacks.

– Obama Names 26-Year-Old Director of Faith-Based Office (ABC News):
President Barack Obama has named a 26-year-old Pentecostal minister to head the White House office that coordinates outreach to religious and community organizations.

– State furloughs may further delay unemployment benefits (LA Times)

– TREASURIES-Bonds gain as jobless claims reach 26-year high (Reuters)

– US Treasury to Sell $67 Billion in Long-Term Debt (Bloomberg)

– Bank Of America Hits Multi-Decade Low On Nationalization Fears (CNN Money)

– Bank of America CEO Buys 200000 Shares; Price Slumps (Bloomberg)

– High street shakeup on way as Hamleys and House of Fraser investor collapses (Guardian):
The Icelandic-backed Baugur group, which transformed itself from a family-owned Reykjavik discount store into a major retail group with 3,500 stores and some 50,000 staff, is expected to fall into administration by Friday after the group’s main backer, the nationalised Icelandic bank Landsbanki, pulled the plug on the business tonight.

– Car sales plunge in worst figures since 1974 (Telegraph)

– UK interest rates cut by half a point to 1% (Financial Times):
The U.K. economy will shrink the most since 1946 this year and faster than any other industrialized country, International Monetary Fund forecasts show.

– List of Madoff’s presumed victims runs into the thousands (CNN)

– Hovnanian CEO Gets $979,302 Performance Bonus as Company’s Value Drops 76% (Bloomberg)

– Recession: the road to revolution (Guardian)

– Bank of England Cuts Main Rate a Half Point to 1% (Bloomberg)

– Gordon Brown planning international agreement on tax avoiders (Guardian)

– Mega-earthquake Risk For West Coast, US And Canada? Seismic Slip Linked To Tremor, With Implications For Subduction Zone (Science Daily)

– Worker Anger Sees Brown Facing Winter of Discontent (Bloomberg):
“They’ve sold us down the river,” said Charles Hilton, 61, an electrician from Hull in northern England who was out on strike yesterday with local oil-refinery workers. “We’re going to see civil unrest in this country. It’s already started. It will grow unless things are sorted.”

– Wildcat strikers go back to work after concession from Brown on workers’ rights (Times Online)

– Rising unemployment hits 98 percent of metro areas (AP)

– Volcker Chafes at Obama Panel Delay, Strains With Summers Rise (Bloomberg)

– US troops ordered out of Kyrgyzstan after Russia deal (Telegraph)

– International Criminal Court to consider Gaza investigation (LA Times)

– Vatican orders cleric to recant Holocaust views (Guardian)

– Man pulls out 13 of his own teeth with pliers ‘because he couldn’t find an NHS dentist’ (Daily Mail)

– Detainee ‘just skin and bones’ after six years in custody (Guardian)

– Goose stepping may have encouraged people to follow Nazis (Telegraph)

– This is your pilot slurring: Garbled message from cockpit sparks passenger rebellion (Independent):
The Moscow Times, which had a reporter on board the plane, claimed that an Aeroflot representative boarded the aircraft and told the passengers it wasn’t a big deal if the pilot was drunk.

– Antibiotics blamed for child deafness (Independent)

– Britain ‘headed’ for deepest slump in 60 years (Times Online):
The sharpest plunge in consumer spending since the Second World War will drive Britain this year into its deepest economic slump for 60 years, according to the country’s leading economic research institute.

– Cheney Warns Of New Attacks (CBS News):
Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.

– Dick Cheney Is A Liar (The Washington Independent)

– President Obama to water down ‘Buy American’ plan after EU trade war threat (Times Online):
The European Union warned the US yesterday against plunging the world into depression by adopting a planned “Buy American” policy, intensifying fears of a trade war.

– Europe and Canada warn US over ‘Buy America’ clause (Telegraph)

– EU issues warning over Buy American plan (Financial Times):
The European Union has warned of possible trade litigation against the US if Washington presses ahead with a Buy American provision in its forthcoming economic stimulus bill.

– Senate Republicans Slam Obama Stimulus (CBS News)

– PM slams economic protection (Scotsman):
AUSTRALIA’S prime minister Kevin Rudd warned that nations using protectionist policies to stimulate economies would throw “a spear at the heart” of his country’s economy.

– Japan slams Buy American plan (Financial Times)

– ADP index shows 522000 jobs lost in January (MarketWatch)

– Kazakhstan devalues currency (Financial Times):
Kazakhstan allowed its currency, the tenge, to drop by almost one-fifth in a move it blamed on falling world oil prices and the sharp depreciation of the Russian rouble.

— Russia and Belarus sign air defence pact (Telegraph)

– Japan’s Panasonic to cut 15000 jobs, shut plants (AP)

– Abu Dhabi injects liquidity (Financial Times)

– Obama caps executive pay tied to bailout money (AP):
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Wednesday imposed $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying Americans are upset with “executives being rewarded for failure.”

– Treasury reveals record US debt sale plans (Financial Times):
The US Treasury on Wednesday opened the floodgates of government bond issuance, revealing plans for a record debt sale in February and more frequent auctions in the months to come.

– Foreclosures Now One in Five Home Sales (NewsMax)

– Wells Fargo defends, then cancels Vegas junket (AP):
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a tradition for Wells Fargo & Co. to reward top employees with a lavish junket. In previous years, though, the company hadn’t just received a $25 billion bailout from taxpayers.

– Chinese earthquake may have been man-made, say scientists (Telegraph):
An earthquake that killed at least 80,000 people in Sichuan last year may have been triggered by an enormous dam just miles from the epicentre

– Time seen running out for attack on Iran (Reuters):
HERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) – Israel has a year in which to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities preemptively, an Israeli legislator and weapons expert said Wednesday.

– UK and US put Iran at heart of the agenda (Independent)

– State pension funds tally their losses (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

– Editorial: Judges Sentenced (Philadelphia Inquirer):
Kids for cash – The setting is Pennsylvania coal country, but it’s a story right out of Dickens’ grim 19th-century landscape: Two of Luzerne County’s most senior judges on Monday were accused of sending children to jail in return for kickbacks.

– British colonel ‘passed Afghan casualty secrets to female friend’ (Times Online)

– Lovells hired to trace Bernard Madoff’s UK assets (Times Online)

– Exploding mobile phone kills man in China (Telegraph)

– The Army’s Remote-Controlled Beetle (MIT Technology Review):
A giant flower beetle with implanted electrodes and a radio receiver on its back can be wirelessly controlled, according to research presented this week. Scientists at the University of California developed a tiny rig that receives control signals from a nearby computer. Electrical signals delivered via the electrodes command the insect to take off, turn left or right, or hover in midflight. The research, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), could one day be used for surveillance purposes or for search-and-rescue missions.

– FACTBOX – Banks, funds, insurers cut 312500 jobs in crisis (Forbes)

– Daschle withdraws as health secretary nominee (Guardian)

– Obama: Enough Of This Crap (The Market Ticker):
This is FOUR people who you’ve appointed that can’t pay their damn taxes, including your Treasury Secretary?
The latest is that Daschle has withdrawn, of course. CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN?
“Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter.” Sen. Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, May 7, 1998, p. S4507.

– Firms’ secret tax avoidance schemes cost UK billions (Guardian):
British taxpayers are being left to plug a multibillion-pound hole in the public finances as hundreds of the country’s biggest companies increasingly employ complex and secretive tax arrangements to limit the amount they hand over to the exchequer.

– Now China’s premier gets flying shoe treatment (Independent)

– Central bank tested as rouble hits floor (Financial Times)

– Beijing rocked by 26 million lost jobs (Independent):
Before the Telegraph reported: 40 Million Chinese Set to Lose Their Job as New Year Celebrations End

– New Jersey earthquake sparks panic (Telegraph)

– California Cut to Lowest Credit Rating Among States (Bloomberg)

– IMF almost halves Asia’s growth prospects (Financial Times)

– Worse Than the Great Depression (Gold Seek)

– Bad bank, bad plan (Guardian):
(Dean Baker is co-director of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research.)

– Iran launches first homemade satellite (Guardian)

– Funding crisis forced lenders to access Bank for £185bn (Telegraph):
Britain’s lenders have borrowed £185bn from the Bank of England in a desperate attempt to fund themselves through the financial crisis.

– Hitachi set for biggest loss suffered by Japanese firm (Guardian)

– US car sales near 27-year low (Reuters)

– GM, Chrysler Look to Cut Workforce (Washington Post)

– BP ahead 39% to record $25.6bn (Financial Times):
He also warned that the company needed an oil price of $50-$60 a barrel to be able to pay for its capital spending and dividends without borrowing, compared with a price of about $40 on Tuesday morning.

– Hawker Beechcraft announces 2300 layoffs (Forbes)

– German memory-chip maker closing US plant (IHT)

– Fidelity starts second round of layoffs (Reuters)

– EU Raids Undersea Power Cable Makers in Cartel Probe (Bloomberg)

– European equity issues could raise €300bn (Financial Times)

– German Jews break with pope (IHT):
BERLIN: A leading member of Germany’s Jewish community said Monday that Benedict XVI, the German-born pope and leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide, was sowing divisions and abetting far-right groups by rehabilitating four ultra-conservative bishops, one of whom has denied the Holocaust.

– Gingrich: Economy headed ‘off a cliff’ (Washington Times):
Says Obama response is ‘more of the same’

– Israel restrictions on al-Jazeera (BBC News)

– Ehud Barak proposes tunnel connecting Gaza to West Bank (Telegraph)

– Your ISP is watching you (Guardian):
Did you know … BT wants to monitor your online activities to serve you targeted ads? Don’t let it spy on you

– Snow Britain: Another 10 inches of snow to hit by Thursday (Telegraph)

– Pentagon Letter Complicates Blackwater Case (Washington Post):
The Pentagon wrote in 2007 that Blackwater Worldwide contractors in Iraq are not subject to U.S. civilian criminal laws, a position that undercuts the Justice Department’s effort to prosecute five Blackwater security guards on manslaughter charges.

– Riot police clash with protesters at Davos summit (Sunday Herald):
RIOT POLICE fired tear gas and water cannons at bottle-throwing demonstrators in Geneva who protested?yesterday against the annual World Economic Forum meeting in the Swiss Alps.

– Riot police fire tear gas at Greek farmers (AP)

– Heaviest snow in 20 years brings large parts of Britain to a halt (Times Online)

– Travel chaos as Europe shivers in heavy snowfalls (ABC News)

– California delays $3.5B in payments (CNN Money)

– Europeans are finally waking up to the demise of democracy (Telegraph)

– Let banks fail, says Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz (Telegraph)

– Personal bankruptcies soar 33% (MSN Money)

– Macy’s cutting 7000 jobs (CNN)

– Nuclear power workers join wildcat strike action over foreign labour (Guardian)

– Italy bans kebabs and foreign food from cities (Times Online)

– Huge rise in speed cameras (Telegraph):
The number of speed cameras sites nearly trebled in just six years, according to figures released by the Government.

– Jamie’s food fuels pupils’ brain power (Times Online):
An independent study shows the performance of 11-year-old pupils eating Oliver’s meals improved by up to 8% in science and as much as 6% in English, while absenteeism due to ill-health fell by 15%.

– Fed Monetizes Debt, Investors Buy Gold (Gold Seek)

– Where Are US Consumer Goods Prices Headed? (Lew Rockwell)

– WEF 2009: Global crisis ‘has destroyed 40pc of world wealth’ (Telegraph):
The past five quarters have seen 40pc of the world’s wealth destroyed and business leaders expect the global economic crisis can only get worse.

– Vladimir Putin faces more protests over economy (Telegraph):
Russian opposition groups are planning new protests over the economy after weekend demonstrations that challenged the authority of Vladimir Putin.

– Nuclear workers join UK wildcat strikes (Financial Times)

– Number of UK long-term jobless set to soar (Financial Times)

– Australia faces first budget deficit for 7 years (Financial Times)

– Two children should be limit, says green guru (Times Online)

– Folding dealers shock car buyers with unpaid liens (AP)

– India risks losing its nuclear ally in Washington (The National)

– Wars And Economic Failure Have Been Marching Us Towards One World Government (The International Forecaster)

– Welfare Aid Isn’t Growing as Economy Drops Off (New York Times)

– Federal Agency Kills Thousands of Birds with Pesticide (Natural News)

– Google blacklists entire internet (Guardian):
Glitch causes world’s most popular search engine to classify all web pages as dangerous

– Davos Delegates in ‘Denial’ as $25 Trillion of Wealth Vanishes (Bloomberg)

– Exclusive: Peers for cash investigation – new undercover footage (Times)

– Barack Obama to dilute ‘Buy American’ plan after Europe threatens US with trade war (Telegraph)

– Obama Proposes Defense Cut (To Above 2007 Levels): Wingnut Outrage (Crooks and Liars):
The Pentagon’s budget (not including expenditures for Iraq and Afghanistan) has grown from $316B in 2001 to $536B in 2009. This represents a 70% increase. So a 10% decrease is funding will take us from $536B to $483B, which is still more than the $463B the Pentagon had for 2007. All Obama is doing is preventing the budget from growing an average of 10% year after year when there’s no discernible advantage to doing so.

– Obama prepares to unveil plan to rescue US banking industry from from $2 trillion hole (Times Online): It is believed that President Obama has estimated that total losses among America’s lenders could cost the US (Taxpayers’) up to $2 trillion.

– €7bn to be pumped into Irish banks (Times Online)

– Exxon and Chevron made $6m an hour amid record profits (Telegraph):
Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two biggest oil companies in the world, made a combined profit of almost $6m (£4.1m) an hour in the final quarter of 2008, despite a 56pc slump in the oil price during the period.

– Hedge fund to offer shares priced in gold (Telegraph):
A hedge fund is to offer its shares priced in ounces of gold rather than pounds or dollars to investors worried that inflation will take hold as a result of countries around the world printing more money.

– Sewage yields more gold than top mines (Reuters)

– Florida, Maryland, Utah Banks Shut as Financial Crisis Deepens (Bloomberg):
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Banks in Florida, Maryland and Utah were closed yesterday as regulators wrapped up the busiest month for failures since the housing slump began in 2006.

– GlaxoSmithKline to slash 6000 jobs (Telegraph)

– Financed by the British taxpayer, brutal torturers of the West Bank (Daily Mail)

– Intervening to prop up pound is ‘recipe for failure’, says Brown (Independent):
(The Bank of England is ‘printing money’ which will destroy the pound. The pound is beyond help.)

– Russian newspaper mourns another murdered reporter (AP)

– Treasuries purchases will depend on risk – China’s Wen (Reuters):
(Looks like the Obama/Geithner strategy pays off already.) China is the single biggest foreign investor of U.S. Treasuries, with $681.9 billion as of November, according to U.S. data.

– Scientist see holes in glacier at Alaska volcano (AP):
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Geologists monitoring Mount Redoubt for signs of a possible eruption noticed that a hole in the glacier clinging to the north side of the volcano had doubled in size overnight — and now spans the length of two football fields.

– Fines fraud hits Italian drivers (BBC News):
Thousands of drivers in Italy are expected to seek compensation after it was revealed that a system to catch them jumping red lights was rigged.

– How the BBC’s stand on Gaza made a front-page protester out of me (Independent)

– Intervening to prop up pound is ‘recipe for failure’, says Brown (Independent)

– Americans’ saving more, spending less (AP)

– Joblessness Probably Rose to 16-Year High: US Economy Preview (Bloomberg)

– Rio Tinto in £6bn talks with China (Times)