President Barack Obama said on Saturday he is "ready to fight" for a tough new agency to protect consumers from risky loans and other financial products and lashed out at groups that might stand in the way.
"These interests argue against reform even as millions of people are facing the consequences of this crisis in their own lives," Obama said in a weekly radio address.
"These interests defend business-as-usual even though we know that it was business-as-usual that allowed this crisis to take place."
Obama said opponents were already "mobilizing" against his proposal earlier this week to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency as part of the most sweeping set of financial regulatory reforms since the 1930s.
The new agency, which Congress would have to approve, would have the power to write rules and design or ban financial products. It could also examine firms and impose fines and other penalties on almost any institution that offers products such as home loans or credit cards.
Critics argue that the new agency would stifle financial product innovation, boost the cost of regulatory compliance and cause prices for consumers to rise.
"It's going to create exactly the type of duplication, second-guessing and layering that we feared," David Hirschman, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Capital Markets, said earlier this week.
Obama said the proposed agency was badly needed to help consumers make sense of complex financial instruments and to keep loan companies honest.
"Today, folks signing up for a mortgage, student loan, or credit card face a bewildering array of incomprehensible options. Companies compete not by offering better products, but more complicated ones -- with more fine print and hidden terms," Obama said.
"The American people sent me to Washington to stand up for their interests. And while I'm not spoiling for a fight, I'm ready for one."
Senior lawmakers have said they expect to pass financial reform regulation by the end of the year.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, at a Senate hearing on Thursday, faced the most opposition to Obama's proposal to give the Federal Reserve new powers to police broad risks in the economy.
Some lawmakers believe the central bank failed to halt practices that led to the global financial crisis.
Giving the Federal Reserve more authority "is like a parent giving his son a bigger, faster car right after he crashed the family station wagon," said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat.
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Automaker Volkswagen will temporarily shut parts of its plant in central Mexico from next week until early August but exports of the popular New Beetle should not be affected, a union spokesman said on Saturday.
The partial closure, starting Wednesday, will be the latest in a series of temporary shutdowns at the plant in recent months as the global slowdown hurts demand for new cars.
Union spokesman Arturo Monter said by idling some operations at the plant in the city of Puebla, the German auto maker hoped to save jobs while also taking advantage of the drop in orders to make adjustments to assembly lines.
He said about one-third of union workers on assembly lines for the Bora and Bora Variant models would be off work for 14 days. For 10 of those days, their pay would be cut by 50 percent.
The Puebla plant is Volkswagen's only factory in North America and most of the cars it produces are shipped to the United States, Canada and Europe.
About 70 percent of cars produced across Mexico are destined for the U.S. market, which is suffering its worst downturn in almost 30 years.
Mexico is the world's No. 10 producer of autos but output fell 39.4 percent in May year-on-year, hit by slumping U.S. demand. The country's plants assembled 108,162 automobiles in May and exported 83,910, industry group AMIA said.
Unsettled Argentina forward Carlos Tevez is to leave Manchester United, the Premier League champions said on Saturday.
Tevez, 25, whose "economic rights" are owned by agent Kia Joorabchian, left West Ham United for Manchester United on a two-year deal in August 2007.
He spent much of last season on the bench and his last appearance was as a substitute in the 2-0 Champions League final defeat by Barcelona in May.
A statement on the club website (www.manutd.com) said United had agreed a fee of 25.5 million pounds ($41.71 million) and offered a five-year contract which would have made Tevez one of the team's highest-paid players.
"Disappointingly, however, his advisers informed the club that despite the success he has enjoyed during the club's most successful periods he does not wish to continue playing for Manchester United," the statement said.
Joorabchian responded by saying money had never been an issue and the club had not given Tevez enough time to make up his mind.
"When United made their offer about 10 days ago, for the first time in two years, we never went back to them to ask about money," Joorabchian told Sky Sports News.
NO REJECTION
"We just asked for some time to think about it. Obviously they have had two years to think about it and Carlos had to make a decision based on his family.
"Just to make it clear, this has been Carlos's decision. Nobody else would make this decision for him.
"We didn't actually reject the offer. Manchester United have ruled themselves out of the running. We actually asked for more time and if they could not give that we would have to walk away."
Joorabchian ruled out a Tevez move to United's arch rivals Liverpool and told Talksport Radio that "Manchester City and Chelsea probably would be the two clubs that are on the table".
There will be no issues over who owns the player's rights in future, with his next deal expected to be a permanent one.
Joorabchian said: "The Premier League have changed their rules now, when you do make a transfer it has to be a permanent transfer.
"All his rights will be sold, all his economical rights will be sold and he will belong to the club he will play for."
Tevez caught Manchester United's eye by scoring at Old Trafford as West Ham avoided relegation by winning 1-0 in the final game of the 2006-07 season.
In his first campaign at Old Trafford he scored 19 goals and was a vital cog in a side that won the Premier League and Champions League double.
Tevez netted a total of 34 goals in 98 appearances for Alex Ferguson's side.
US President Barack Obama has written a letter for his daughters on the occasion of Father's Day Sunday, saying that he could not be a perfect father.
'I know I have been an imperfect father. I know I have made mistakes,' said Obama in the letter that will be published in a magazine reported people.com
'I drove Michelle and newborn Malia home from the hospital nearly 11 years ago and I think about the pledge I made to her that I would give her what I never had. And that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father,' he added.
Obama has two daughters Malia,10, and Sasha, eight.
After a thorough interrogation and search Indian authorities confirmed that the military cargo aircraft, which has landed in Mumbai air port yesterday was carrying medicines to the US troops operating in Afghanistan and no weapons or ammunition were on board said IAF spokesperson Wg Cdr Tarun Kumar Singha.
Speaking to ANI Wg Cdr Singha said the aircraft was hired by the US military, from a Russian agency. All the 18 persons including the crewmembers who were in the aircraft were civilians and belonged to the Russian agency.
The hired military cargo aircraft violated the Indian air space near Gujarat yesterday and was forced to land at Mumbai's Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
The aircraft was travelling from Diego Garcia island, a military base of the US near Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, to Kandahar in Afghanistan.
Wg Cdr Singha said that according to norms any hired civilian aircrafts for the military purposes has to get an AOR clearance form the IAF on this case the Russian agency did not obtain the clearance, the Mumbai ATR instructed the captain to land the aircraft.
He denied the report of IAF planes escorting the intruded aircraft and said the pilot followed the instruction given by the ATR, so the question of escort does not arise.
The Indian authorities have given the clearance to the aircraft to fly. Shreeraj Gudi
Six people, including two minors, across the country Saturday tested positive for the influenza A (H1N1) virus, taking the total number of affected people in India to 56 though 21 of them have been discharged on recovery.
Among the new cases, three were reported from Delhi, and one each from Hyderabad, Bangalore and Fatehgarh in Punjab, the health ministry said in a statement.
'Three more people have tested positive for the swine flu Saturday, including an indigenous case where the patient contracted the flu without going abroad,' Delhi Health Secretary J.P. Singh told IANS.
Three cases in the national capital include: a 27-year-old male passenger who had travelled from Canada to New Delhi transiting Brussels June 17 and self-reported at the identified health facility, a four-and-half-year-old boy who travelled from Toronto transiting Brussels reaching Delhi June 17, and a 30-year-old man and a family contact of a positive case reported June 17.
The new case in Hyderabad is a 32-year-old man who had travelled from New York, transiting Mumbai. On reaching Hyderabad June 13, he self-reported at the identified health facility with swine flu-like symptoms June 18.
The single case in Fatehgarh Sahib is a 15-year-old boy, part of a group of 20 children and four teachers who had gone to Orlando, the US, on a NASA trip and had reached the Punjab town June 16.
Punjab health authorities were examining all children who had returned from the US study tour. Subsequent to this screening, the boy reported with symptoms of fever, running nose and sore throat June 18. All the contacts of these children have been traced and given chemoprophylaxis.
The single case reported in Bangalore is a 25-year-old man coming from Philaldephia via New York and London. A day after reaching Bangalore June 17, he reported at the health facility with the swine flu symptoms.
Indian health authorities have so far tested samples of 412 people, of whom 56 have been tested positive for the Influenza A(H1N1) virus.
Six of them are indigenous cases who got the infection from the positive cases traveled from abroad.
Among these people, 134 were identified through health screening at international airports, 20 through contact tracing and the rest had self-reported.
Twenty-one of the confirmed cases have been discharged while the rest of them are all stable and remain admitted to the identified health facility.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported 44,287 laboratory confirmed cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection from 94 countries as on June 19. The pandemic has claimed 180 lives.
Another person tested positive for the swine flu virus today, taking the number of such cases in the country to 16, even as the Government asserted that there was no need to panic as the disease was still containable in India despite WHO's "level six" pandemic alert. The latest case was from Hyderabad where a six-year old girl, who came back from the United States along with her parents on June 10, tested positive for the virus.
With this, the total number of cases in Hyderabad has reached eight. In order to ensure better screening of passengers, the Government has decided to install thermal scanners at airports to detect people who were entering the country with fever.
"The scanners would be installed at the Delhi airport first and later at other airports," Vineet Chaudhary, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry said. The Government has also asked Indian missions abroad to tell people having symptoms of swine flu to defer travelling to India.
Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the number of persons infected in the country is "too less and too small" compared to its size and population. "I don't think there is any need for panic.
So far our country is concerned.
In view of the size and population of the country, the number of persons infected is too less and too small," he said.
The financial sector will make up a smaller part of the U.S. economy in the future as new regulations clamp down on "massive risk-taking," President Barack Obama said in an interview published on Saturday.
Obama, whose young administration has spearheaded a raft of reforms in the banking sector as part of efforts to tackle the financial crisis, said the industry's role in the United States would look different at the end of the current recession.
"What I think will change, what I think was an aberration, was a situation where corporate profits in the financial sector were such a heavy part of our overall profitability over the last decade," he said told the New York Times Magazine.
"Part of that has to do with the effects of regulation that will inhibit some of the massive leveraging and the massive risk-taking that had become so common."
Obama said some of the job-seekers who may normally have gone to the financial sector would shift to other areas of the economy, such as engineering.
"Wall Street will remain a big, important part of our economy, just as it was in the '70s and the '80s. It just won't be half of our economy," he said.
"We don't want every single college grad with mathematical aptitude to become a derivatives trader."
The Obama administration in March proposed sweeping reforms to curb risk-taking on Wall Street and close regulatory gaps to prevent the kind of excesses that led to the worst financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression.
The president said in the interview that better regulation would help restore confidence in the U.S. financial system.
"A more vigorous regulatory regime, I think, will help restore confidence, and you're still going to see a lot of global capital wanting to park itself in the United States," he said.
REGAINING TRUST AND CONFIDENCE
Obama expressed optimism that the market for securitized products would pick up, though he said that could take time.
The Federal Reserve, with taxpayer capital from the U.S. Treasury, is supporting consumer and real estate lending markets through a loan facility that could reach $1 trillion.
Holders of existing asset-backed and commercial mortgage-backed securities can get loans from the Fed by putting up their securities as collateral.
The facility aims to unclog frozen credit markets and jumpstart securitization.
"We're going to have to determine whether or not as a consequence of some of the steps that the Fed has been taking, the Treasury has been taking, that we see the market for securitized products restored," Obama said.
"I'm optimistic that ultimately we're going to be able to get that part of the financial sector going again, but it could take some time to regain confidence and trust."
Part of Obama's regulatory reforms include the creation of a new "systemic risk regulator" with broad powers to seize large non-bank financial firms, such as insurers, hedge funds or private equity companies, if they are deemed to threaten the stability of the financial system.
Large, "systemically important" firms would be required to hold bigger capital cushions.
Obama also said financial rules should be crafted according to what an institution actually does to avoid a regulatory gap in areas such as commercial and investment banking.
"Other countries that have not seen some of the problems in their financial markets that we have nevertheless don't separate between investment banks and commercial banks," he said, citing Canada as one example in that area.
"The experience in a country like Canada would indicate that good, strong regulation that focuses less on the legal form of the institution and more on the functions that they're carrying out is probably the right approach to take."
Washington, President Barack Obama's tech-savvy administration has taken another leap into cyberspace with the roll-out of 'White House 2.0.' linking it to social networks MySpace and Facebook and hot micro-blogging service Twitter.
'Today the White House is taking steps to expand how the administration is communicating with the public,' the White House blog said Friday announcing the additions to the recently launched official Flickr photostream.
'Technology has profoundly impacted how - and where - we all consume information and communicate with one another. WhiteHouse.gov is an important part of the Administration's effort to use the internet to reach the public quickly and effectively - but it isn't the only place.'
The blog post contains links to the White House's pages on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Vimeo, YouTube, and iTunes.
'The WhiteHouse blog will power a lot of the content in these networks,' the blog post explains, 'but we're looking forward to hearing from our fans, friends and followers.'
During the White House race, Obama's campaign pioneered extensive use of social networking technologies that helped power him into the Oval Office.
Content from Obama's website WhiteHouse.gov is being fed in real time to White House profile pages on MySpace and Facebook and members of the communities can sign up as Facebook 'fans' or MySpace 'friends.'
The White House had more than 31,000 fans on Facebook and more than 4,000 friends on MySpace within a few hours of the pages going online while more than 8,500 people had signed up as 'followers' of the White House on Twitter.
The blog post referred to an Obama speech from a week earlier in which he said the government needs to 'recognize that we cannot meet the challenges of today with old habits and stale thinking.'
Besides revamping WhiteHouse.gov, the Obama administration has created several other websites including recovery.gov to track the economic stimulus bill and transparency.gov to monitor spending.
Asia got its first case of swine flu in Hong Kong, an official announced Friday.
The patient is a visitor from Mexico, the worst-hit country in the swine-flu outbreak, who travelled to Hong Kong from Shanghai Thursday and was staying at a hotel in the city's Wan Chai district, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Donald Tsang said.
The patient has been taken to the city's Ruttonjee Hospital and was in stable condition Friday evening, he said at a press briefing Friday night.
The hotel where the patient was staying, the Metropark, has been quarantined with all guests barred from leaving, reporters were told.
Guests staying at the hotel told the government-run radio station RTHK that no one was being allowed to leave or enter the hotel.
Tsang announced the case after a meeting of top government officials was convened Friday afternoon in response to news of the confirmed case.
The Hong Kong leader appealed to the public not to panic and said everything would be done to prevent the virus from spreading in the city of seven million.
Hong Kong has raised its swine-flu alert level from 'serious' to 'emergency' in response to the confirmation of the case. Details of the heightened measures were due to be announced later.
Schools were to remain open and public gatherings and exhibitions were to continue as normal but under more stringent hygiene measures, Tsang said in advance of the details being released.
News of the case came after Tsang warned earlier this week that Hong Kong was at a greater risk of a swine-flu outbreak because it is one of the world's most densely populated cities.
Before Hong Kong's announcement of its case, the World Health Organization said Friday that 331 human cases of swine flu have been reported in 11 countries. Ten cases have been fatal - nine in Mexico and one in the United States.
Ironically, the first case of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in Hong Kong in 2003 was traced back to a patient from China staying in another hotel in the city.
A total of 299 people died and about 1,800 were infected with the SARS virus in the city of seven million, and the virus spread from Hong Kong around the world.
WHO Assistant Director General Dr Keiji Fukuda said it signalled a "significant step towards pandemic influenza", but added "we are not there yet".
Mexico earlier said it believed 149 people had now died from the swine flu outbreak - only 20 cases are confirmed.
Other, milder, cases are confirmed in the US, Canada, Spain and Britain.
The WHO's decision to raise the alert level to four came after an emergency meeting of experts, brought forward by a day because of concerns over the outbreak.
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Level four means the virus is showing a sustained ability to pass from human to human, and is able to cause community-level outbreaks.
"What this can really be interpreted as is a significant step towards pandemic influenza. But also, it is a phase that says we are not there yet," Mr Fukuda said.
"In other words, at this time we think we have taken a step in that direction, but a pandemic is not considered inevitable."
He said the virus had become too widespread to make containment a feasible option, and said countries must focus on trying to put measures in place to protect the population.
He also stressed that the experts did not recommend closing borders or restricting travel. "With the virus being widespread... closing borders or restricting travel really has very little effects in stopping the movement of this virus," he said.
The first batches of a swine flu vaccine could be ready between four to six months, but it will take several more months to produce large quantities of it, Mr Fukuda said.
Health experts say the virus comes from the same strain that causes seasonal outbreaks in humans. But they say this newly-detected version contains genetic material from versions of flu which usually affect pigs and birds.
Mexico deaths
Earlier, Mexico's Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the suspected death toll from swine flu had now risen from just over 100 to 149. Of that number, 20 have been confirmed as swine flu.
All of those who had died were aged between 20 and 50, he said. Infections among young healthy adults was a characteristic of past pandemics.
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"We're in the decisive moment of the crisis, the number [of deaths] will continue rising," Mr Codova told a news conference.
He said the first suspected case of swine flu occurred in the southern state of Oaxaca.
He said nearly 2,000 people had been hospitalised since the first case of swine flu was reported on 13 April, but half had now been allowed home.
Schools nationwide are to remain closed until 6 May as the country attempts to grapple with the outbreak.
As Mr Cordova spoke, Mexico City - where the outbreak is centred - was rocked by a 5.6-magnitude earthquake. It shook tall buildings and led to evacuations, but there have been no reports of damage or injuries.
| SWINE FLU Swine flu is a respiratory disease thought to spread through coughing and sneezing Symptoms mimic those of normal flu Good hygiene like using a tissue and washing hands thoroughly can help reduce transmission |
In almost all swine flu cases outside Mexico, people have been only mildly ill and have made a full recovery.
In the US, a further 20 cases of swine flu were confirmed in New York. Cases have also been reported in Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California, bringing the total across the country to more than 40.
It is thought that only person in the US had been hospitalised as a result of contracting the virus, and all had recovered.
Dr Richard Besser, acting director of the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has warned that a new US travel advisory is being prepared suggesting "non-essential travel to Mexico be avoided".
Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou separately urged caution for those considering travelling to Mexico.
In Canada, six cases have been recorded at opposite ends of the country, in British Columbia and in Nova Scotia.
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Swine flu officially arrived in Europe on Monday, when tests confirmed that a young man in spain and two people in Scotland - all of whom had recently returned from Mexico - had the virus. They were said to be recovering well.
Tests are also being carried out on individuals or groups in New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Israel and South Korea who fell ill following travel to Mexico.
A number of countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe have begun screening airport passengers for symptoms, while Germany's biggest tour operator has suspended trips to Mexico.
Several countries have banned imports of raw pork and pork products from Mexico and parts of the US, although experts say there is no evidence to link exposure to pork with infection.
Russia is planning to build a fleet of floating and submersible nuclear power stations to exploit Arctic oil and gas reserves.
This is causing widespread alarm among environmentalists, reports The Guardian. prototype floating nuclear power station being constructed at the SevMash shipyard in Severodvinsk is due to be completed next year.
An agreement to build a further four was reached between the Russian state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, and the northern Siberian republic of Yakutiya in February.
The 70-megawatt plants, each of which would consist of two reactors on board giant steel platforms, would provide power to Gazprom, Russia's largest oil firm.
The building of the nuclear power stations would allow Gazprom to power drills needed to exploit some of the remotest oil and gas fields in the world in the Barents and Kara seas.
The self-propelled vessels would store their own waste and fuel and would need to be serviced only once every 12 to 14 years.
In addition, designers are known to have developed submarine nuclear-powered drilling rigs that could allow eight wells to be drilled at a time.
Bellona, a leading Scandinavian environmental watchdog group, yesterday condemned the idea of using nuclear power to open the Arctic to oil, gas and mineral production, terming it as a highly risky proposition.
Environmentalists also fear that if additional radioactive waste is produced, it will be dumped into the sea.
Russia has a long record of polluting the Arctic with radioactive waste.
Countries including Britain have had to offer Russia billions of dollars to decommission more than 160 nuclear submarines, but at least 12 nuclear reactors have been dumped, along with more than 5,000 containers of solid and liquid nuclear waste, on the northern coast and on the island of Novaya Zemlya.
The US Geological Survey believes the Arctic holds up to 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves, leading some experts to call the region the next Saudi Arabia.
The technological exploitation of the region is next to impossible due to sea ice, strong winds and temperatures that can dip to below -50C.
Russia, Norway, Denmark, Canada and the US have all claimed large areas of the Arctic in the past five years. But many countries bordering the Arctic see climate change as the chance to exploit areas that were once inaccessible and to open trade routes between the Pacific and Atlantic.
A large passenger jet flew low over Manhattan, closely pursued by a fighter aircraft. Unsurprisingly, New Yorkers panicked. Few were amused to discover later that the plane was Air Force One, and that the White House had ordered it to buzz the Statue of Liberty for a publicity photo. For Barack Obama's detractors, the incident perfectly captured the new president's penchant for style over substance. "Wouldn't Photoshop have been cheaper?" asked a conservative blogger.
After 100 days in office, Mr Obama is still scorned by the people who scorned him as a candidate. But they are a minority. A YouGov/Polimetrix poll for The Economist (see left) found that fully 70 per cent of Americans like Mr Obama as a person. Many are struck by his intelligence and wholesome family, complete with new dog. Few can see in him any personal vices worse than the occasional cigarette.
Mr Obama scores less well as a president than as a person, but not much. YouGov found that 60 per cent of Americans like the way he is handling the job. Other pollsters put the number even higher. In general, Mr Obama is much more popular than Congress and slightly more popular than the policies he espouses. So long as this lasts, he is in a strong position to cajole Congress into approving his agenda.
On April 28th, his position grew even stronger. Arlen Specter, a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, announced that he would defect to the Democrats (see article). If the Democrats also win a disputed seat in Minnesota, as seems likely, Mr Specter's defection would give them a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate. This would make it much easier for Mr Obama to pass his two big domestic proposals: heath-care reform and a cap-and-trade system for curbing carbon emissions. However, Mr Specter said he would continue to oppose a bill that would let unions dispense with secret-ballot elections.
Mr Obama is both cursed and blessed to have taken over in the middle of a blazing financial crisis. Cursed, because he has had to spend his first 100 days frenziedly fire-fighting. Blessed, because no one blames him. Even as joblessness soars and Americans' savings turn to cinders, Mr Obama wins plaudits for acting boldly to douse the flames. He has enacted a huge fiscal stimulus, unveiled a hyper-Keynesian budget, propped up tottering car firms and hastily drafted new rules for how financial bail-outs will proceed.
No one knows if Mr Obama's fiscal firehose will work. The economy shrank at an annualised rate of 6.1 per cent in the first three months of this year, as businesses slashed inventories and cut investment by a shocking 38 per cent. This makes the current recession at least as bad as any since the second world war. And it is unlikely to end soon: the commercial property market is groaning and swine flu is sure to cause jitters.
Republicans protest that since the money Mr Obama is spraying about is borrowed, he is dooming the nation to higher taxes in the future. On April 15th, the day by which Americans must file their taxes, hundreds of thousands held "tea party" protests against Mr Obama's plan to double the deficit.
But overall, Americans are much more optimistic about the economy since Mr Obama took over. Most think he is handling economic issues well. Most do not mind if he increases the size of government to tackle the crisis, so long as he scales it back when it is over. Strikingly, 45 per cent of Americans now think the country is on the right track, up from a miserable 15 per cent before Mr Obama was elected. The stock-market, too, is up by a quarter since its low point on March 9th.
Mr Obama has been able to keep some of his campaign promises without Congressional say-so, simply by signing executive orders. In January, he ordered the closure within a year of the prison for terrorist suspects at Guantánamo Bay. This delighted his supporters, but he has not yet decided what to do with the detainees, and has not ruled out detaining some of them indefinitely. In March, he gave an order to lift George Bush's restrictions on federal funding for stem-cell research, while delegating the task of drafting more detailed ethical rules to the National Institutes of Health. And in April, he lifted some restrictions on Cuban-Americans travelling and sending money to Cuba.
Abroad, Mr Obama has won applause. He was received warmly during a visit to Europe, where audiences appreciated his promise to show more respect for world opinion than his predecessor did. Republicans berate him for exuding weakness, noting that his big speech on nuclear disarmament was upstaged by a North Korean missile test. Democrats retort that Mr Obama can be tough when necessary. He has fired missiles into Pakistan to kill suspected Taliban fighters hiding there. And he is ramping up the war in Afghanistan even as he withdraws troops from Iraq. Republicans snipe that however much foreigners may like Mr Obama, they are still not prepared to send many troops to help America in Afghanistan.
Some of Mr Obama's biggest headaches are being aggravated by his own party. He has banned "waterboarding", a form of torture that was used on at least three al-Qaeda members thought to have information about impending attacks. But he is resisting his supporters' demands that Bush-era officials be prosecuted for authorising such methods of interrogation. His reluctance may stem from the knowledge that his own party is also complicit. For example, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, was briefed about waterboarding and raised no objections.
Plus, he has bigger priorities. He is trying to save what is salvageable of the American car industry. He wants to reshape the American health-care system, which is nearly a fifth of the economy. He wants to tackle climate change, but has not yet begun to explain to voters that this will raise their energy bills. His honeymoon will not last for ever. If he is to build on the promise of his first 100 days, he must spend his political capital cautiously.
Hollywood star Tom Hanks has promised his fans in India that his controversial 'Angels & Demons' will live up to their expectations as they have a 'soulful liking for thrillers'. He also says he would love to come to India to 'be among the most lovable human fraternity'.
Hanks is glad that 'Angels & Demons', a sequel to worldwide hit 'The Da Vinci Code', is releasing the same day in India as in the US.
'I am happy that it is not being released in phases ... We would like to give our (Indian) audiences the thrill of seeing an exceptionally adventurous thriller along with the US on May 15,' Hanks told IANS in an e-mail interview.
'They have a soulful liking especially for thrillers...I hereby promise my fans in India that they would surely enjoy this movie and it would definitely live up to their expectations,' he added.
Asked if he had visited India, the 52-year-old actor said: 'Honestly, I did not get an opportunity to be there. But I wish some day I will be among the most lovable human fraternity. Indians are considered very warm- hearted and humble people so I also want to have a share of that warmth.'
The Oscar-winning actor, best known for his performances in 'Philadelphia', 'Forrest Gump' and 'The Terminal', has heard a lot about the Indian film industry and is game for working here though he has not been 'approached yet' for any project.
'Who doesn't know about the Indian film industry nowadays...but I never have been part of it. I know many actors but can't really pronounce their names well. Sorry for that though.
'If I get an opportunity to venture into such a project, I will seriously think about it. I want to experience the uniqueness of foreign movies and their calibre,' he added.
Directed by Ron Howard, 'Angels & Demons' is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Dan Brown. While the book is a prequel to 'The Da Vinci Code', Howard chose to treat 'Angels & Demons' as a sequel since many had read the novel after 'The Da Vinci Code'.
Distributed worldwide by Columbia Pictures, it also stars Ayelet Zurer and Ewan McGregor apart from Hanks, who reprises his role as Harvard professor and religious expert Robert Langdon.
In the film, Langdon attempts to thwart the Illuminati, a 400-year-old underground organisation and their plans to wreak havoc on the Vatican.
The movie, like 'The Da Vinci Code', is facing the ire of church officials for its alleged 'religious overtones' and 'anti-Catholic sentiments'. But Hanks stressed that the film does not intend to offend any religious community.
'The film is not made to raise debates or ensue into offensive gestures over any community. Neither have we come up with any stringent solution. At the core of it all is the age-old contrast between science and religion.
''Angels & Demons' is an exemplary attempt by Ron to showcase the impact of technology to keep the faith alive among humans. I don't see it as an offence made on the Catholic community over the globe,' the actor said.
Hanks is also 'excited' and 'overwhelmed' that the 138-minute thriller 'has captured mass-fan following' despite the controversies. The trailer for the movie has already crossed a hit of over 1.2 million views on YouTube.
The actor said he had to read 'a lot of stuff on Illuminati era and ancient symbols' and William Manchester's book 'A World Lit only By Fire' for his role. He added that the film 'has the same dose of high-end thrill and is equally fast-paced as the novel'.
Apart from 'Angels & Demons', his upcoming movies include 'Major Matt Mason', 'Toy Story 3' and 'Boone's Lick'.
US President Barack Obama is new Oprah? Every book that gets tagged to with him sees a spurt in sales, as it has now happened with a novel on 9/11 and cricket that he is reading these days.
In an interview on economic policies, published in the New York Times magazine Sunday but available on the net since Thursday, the president was asked about his reading. 'At the end of our conversation, when I asked him if he was reading anything good, he said he had become sick enough of briefing books to begin reading a novel in the evenings - 'Netherland,' by Joseph O'Neill,' interviewer David Leonhardt wrote.
That casual hint was enough to send publisher Random House to the press.
'The May 2008 book, published by Random House's Pantheon imprint and one of the New York Times's Best Books of the Year, has already gained market traction. According to Random House's Paul Bogaards, the title has sold 90,000 copies. But with this new presidential seal of approval, RH has decided to go back to press for an additional 2,500 copies as 'a start', according to Bogaards,' the trade publication Publishers Weekly has reported.
'The bigger message is that the president, at the end of the day, is making time to read a book,' Bogaards said.
'Netherland' is about a European man in Manhattan after 9/11 who has two loves - that for his wife, and that for his adopted country. Among other themes, the novel explores the cricketing subculture of New York, as well as a tragic friendship with a Trinidadian immigrant.
The New York Times review last year had described it as 'the wittiest, angriest, most exacting and most desolate work of fiction we've yet had about life in New York and London after the World Trade Center fell'.
Last month, a lesser-know title 'Open Veins of Latin America' by Eduardo Galeano, published in English translation in 1971, reached Amazon's sales ranking No. 2 after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gifted a copy of it to Obama.
Given the effects of 'Obama plug' on book sales, the Publishers Weekly wondered if the president was the new Oprah Winfrey whose recommendations have seen even classics like 'Anna Karenina' getting a new lease of life in the US.
Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection in New York on Thursday and announced an alliance with Fiat SpA that would see new small cars from the Italian automaker built in the United States.
Following are key facts on the planned alliance.
NEW COMPANY STRUCTURE
* Chrysler will ask the bankruptcy court in New York to approve the sale of substantially all of its assets to a new company.
* Pending this approval, the current Chrysler will continue normal business operations, and the U.S. Treasury and the Canadian government will provide the company with debtor-in-possession financing.
* The restructured company will assume the corporate name of Chrysler and become the owner of substantially all the Chrysler's businesses without certain debts and liabilities.
OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE
* Fiat will initially hold a 20 percent ownership stake in the new Chrysler.
* Fiat's ownership stake will increase to 35 percent in three increments as it meets the following criteria: 5 percent for bringing a 40 mpg vehicle platform to Chrysler to be produced in the United States; 5 percent for providing a fuel-efficient engine family to be produced in the United States for use in Chrysler vehicles, and 5 percent for providing Chrysler with access to its global distribution network to export Chrysler vehicles. (Each of the 5 percent increments will be held in trust until Fiat is able to claim them.)
* Fiat will be granted an option to acquire an additional 16 percent shareholding that will bring its total ownership stake to 51 percent.
* The option, exercisable from Jan. 1, 2013, until June 30, 2016, will allow Fiat to raise its shareholding to 49 percent once outstanding U.S. Treasury loans have fallen to $3 billion or less. When all U.S. government loans have been repaid, Fiat will be able to take a full 51 percent stake.
* The United Auto Workers union retiree healthcare trust, Voluntary Employee Benefit Association, will own 55 percent of the new company.
* The U.S. Treasury and the Canadian Government will collectively hold a 10 percent equity interest.
NEW BOARD
* The new Chrysler will be managed by a board consisting of nine directors, three of whom will be appointed by Fiat.
* U.S. Treasury will have the right to make the initial appointment of four directors. The union healthcare trust and the government of Canada will have the right to appoint one director, respectively.
PRODUCT TIE-UP
* Chrysler will provide Fiat with access to the North American market.
* Chrysler will use all Fiat car platforms for the production of Chrysler vehicles in North America, and certain of Fiat's other key technology, such as engine technology.
* Chrysler will participate in Fiat's purchasing and procurement programs.
* Fiat will give Chrysler access to its distribution network outside North America, particularly in countries in which Chrysler currently has a limited presence.
Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc, a Florida-based subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories, on Saturday said it is conducting a voluntary recall of the whole lot of nitrofurantoin (monohydrate/m-acrocrystals) capsules, USP 100 mg, currently on the market in the US. The drug is an antibiotic used to cure urinary track infection.
"Although certain lots of the product were determined to not be in conformity with the approved laboratory specifications, Ranbaxy decided to recall all the lots, as a matter of abundant caution, given its commitment to the health and safety of patients. Ranbaxy is continuing to look into the cause of such non-conformity," the company said in a media release.
The size of the US sales of the drug being recalled could not be immediately ascertained and a company spokesperson refused to comment. But sources in the company said although the drug was launched in 2005 in the US, it does not have significant sales there.
Ranbaxy had already seen a 14% drop in US sales in the first quarter (Jan-Mar 2009) to Rs 340 crore. Moreover, the pullback comes just months after the company faced USFDA ire on several drugs being manufactured at two of its facilities in India. Following a survey that started in 2006, the USFDA, in 2008 banned 30 drugs manufactured by Ranbaxy at its he Paonta Sahib and Dewas plants for sales in the United States. The USFDA has also put a freeze on sanction of pending and new marketing applications for drugs from these plants.
The withdrawn drug is learnt to have been manufactured from the Paonta Sahib plant.
The recall is being conducted in coordination with the FDA and will be at the retail level. "To the best of Ranbaxy's knowledge, the recalled product is unlikely to produce any serious adverse health effects. However, there is a remote possibility that the non-conforming product may increase the incidence of local non-serious gastrointestinal adverse events such as nausea and vomiting," it said. All patients at present consuming and/or prescribed this formulation should consult their physicians for alternate and appropriate medication/treatment options, it added
Ranbaxy, in which Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo last year bought a controlling 64% stake, had said last week it expected net losses of about Rs 750 crore and a 9% drip in revenue to Rs 7,000 crore.
Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc is engaged in the sale and distribution of generic and branded prescription products in the US healthcare system. Ranbaxy Labs has ground operations in 49 countries and manufacturing operations in 11 countries. USP is an official public standards-setting authority for all prescription and over-the-counter medicines and other health care products manufactured or sold in the US.
Share prices of Indian companies seem to get a boost from the amount of FII money being pumped in. An extensive research done recently by CNI Research Ltd, a BSE (^BSESN : 11403.25 0
Scrips of 44% companies where FII raised stakes showed a significant rise, compared to 29% where their holding was below 5% and 23% where their holding was above 5% after selling.
The study was conducted when the stock markets were on a continuous downward spiral for the entire fourth quarter after the fantastic rally in December 2008. Of the 394 companies studied, FIIs' stake dropped below 5% in 121 while 164 companies saw FIIs selling but the holding was still above 5%, and in 109 companies FIIs increased their stake.
"This study should act as precursor for investors to decide on stocks they should be investing in. Share prices of companies in which FIIs were raising stakes have a greater probability of seeing a rise as against others. The drop in scrips of 56% of the companies where FII stake went up was purely on account of period discrimination. The market trend reversal started from March 17, and the effect of the buying in these companies was not reflected in the share prices due to lesser timespan," said CNI Research CMD Kishor P Ostwal.
The analysis also suggests that the prices have shown a downward trend in companies in which FII holdings have dropped. The drop is 71% in cases where the FII holding has come down below 5% and 77% in cases which saw selling but the holding was above 5%.
"The former represents a safe zone for investors as there is very little left with FIIs for selling and hence the price reversal will be sharp and very soon. This will help investors interested in bottom fishing", Ostwal added.
The only segment which poses a high risk is where FII holding is still above 5%. While this may not hold true if the market itself goes up substantially, but if for any reason there is a trend reversal and the markets start correcting, this segment faces the maximum risk as any negative outlook could mean fresh FII selling to generate cash, he said.
Thus, the study concludes that investors in companies which are in strong sectors and with visible growth, and those which have seen a steady rise in FIIs holding, should go all out. The bottom fishing should be done in the category where FIIs holding is below 5% or almost nil, eg. Century Textiles, Bombay Dyeing, CCL Products all these stocks have shown marked recovery from its low prices on FII selling.
Warren Buffett is fond of newspapers -- he reads five a day -- but the billionaire investor warned shareholders of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc that the reeling industry may never recover because it lacks a sustainable business model.
At Saturday's annual meeting of Berkshire, which owns the Buffalo News and has a big stake in Washington Post Co, Buffett said that as readership falls, so does the attraction of newspapers for advertisers, and for investors in the companies that publish them.
"For most newspapers in the United States, we would not buy them at any price," Buffett said. "They have the possibility of nearly unending losses. ... I do not see anything on the horizon that sees that erosion coming to an end."
Many U.S. newspapers have lost 20 percent or more of their advertising revenue as changes in technology and reading habits shrink circulation and more readers to get their news online.
Several newspapers in large U.S. cities have closed in recent months, and the future of the money-losing Boston Globe, owned by The New York Times Co, remains up in the air.
"Twenty, thirty years ago, they were a product that had pricing power that was essential," said Buffett. "They have lost that essential nature."
Buffett said Berkshire would hold on to the Buffalo News, a daily newspaper in the New York state city of the same name, if only because Berkshire buys businesses for the long term and does not sell simply because the companies hit a rough patch.
He did not rule out having to squeeze out excess costs, including possible job cuts, or eventually shuttering the paper if it goes too deeply into the red.
"On an economic basis you should sell this business. I said I agree 100 percent but I am not going to do it," he said. "The union has been cooperative in having an economic model that will at least give us a little bit of money."
Charlie Munger, Berkshire's vice chairman, called the decline of the newspaper industry "a national tragedy."
"What replaces it will not be as desirable as what we are losing," he said.
Stepping up pressure on Pakistan to take concrete action against the Taliban, the US has given Islamabad two weeks time to eliminate the insurgents from its soil before Washington determines what it will do next.
General David Petraeus, who heads the US Central Command, has told US officials that the coming two weeks would be 'critical to determining whether the Pakistani government will survive', Fox News reported.
'The Pakistanis have run out of excuses' and are 'finally getting serious' about combating the threat from Taliban and Al Qaeda extremists operating out of the country's northwest, the general said.
Criticising Pakistan's attitude towards fighting the insurgents, Petraeus said 'we have heard it all before' that Pakistan was doing its best to eliminate the Taliban threat.
He said that he is looking forward to see concrete action by Islamabad in the next two weeks before determining the US' next course of action, which is presently set on propping up the Pakistani government and military with counter-insurgency training and aid.
Petraeus made these assessment in talks with lawmakers and Obama administration officials this week, the news channel reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.
The sources also told the channel that no one in Washington has an 'understanding of Taliban's true objective'.
It remains unclear to policymakers here whether the Taliban wants to overthrow the Zardari government or merely to carve out territory within Pakistan in which it can establish safe haven, impose Sharia law, and plot attacks against external targets.