Six In The Morning

Next They’ll Be Charging You For The Oxygen You Breathe    

Airlines’ path for profits: Fly less, charge more

After a decade of multibillion-dollar losses, U.S. airlines appear to be on course to prosper for years to come for a simple reason: They are flying less.

By grounding planes and eliminating flights, airlines have cut costs and pushed fares higher. As the global economy rebounds, travel demand is rising and planes are as full as they’ve been in years.

Profit margins at big airlines are the highest in at least a decade, according to the government. The eight largest U.S. airlines are forecast to earn more than $5 billion this year and $5.6 billion in 2012.U.S. airlines are in the midst of reporting fourth-quarter results that should cap the industry’s first moneymaking year since 2007.

“The industry is in the best position – certainly in a decade – to post profitability,” says Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly. “The industry is much better prepared today than it was a decade ago.”

Morality In The Stock Market? Talk About Living In Wonderland!



Sarkozy lays out plans for ‘moral’ reforms of global money markets

Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France and “president of the world” until November, yesterday laid out plans to impose “moral” rules on global financial and commodity markets.

At a press conference devoted mostly to his 2011 presidency of the G8 and G20 groups of developed and emerging economies, Mr Sarkozy proposed sweeping ideas for a new world financial order in which global speculation would be subjected to new forms of global regulation. He acknowledged that many of his ideas had already been shot down by other countries and by the self-appointed guardians of “free” global markets in “the Anglo-Saxon press”.

Who Should Lead Kosovo?  That Mafia Guy

Western powers backing Kosovo’s government considered its prime minister one of the country’s “biggest fish” in organised crime, according to leaked Nato military cables  

Leaked Nato cables allege Kosovo PM was ‘biggest fish’ in organised crime

The documents, produced by Nato’s peace-keeping force in Kosovo, also described Xhavit Haliti, a senior ruling politician and a close ally of Hashim Thaci, as having links to the Albanian mafia.

The Guardian, which reported the leaks, quoted a Kosovo government spokesman as dismissing the allegations.

“These are allegations that have circulated for over a decade… They are based on hearsay and intentional false Serbian intelligence,” the spokesman said.

Use Your Authority To Enrich Yourself  

 

30 Brazilian soldiers suspended amid looting allegations

BRAZIL’S ARMY has suspended 30 soldiers accused of looting in a Rio de Janeiro slum they occupied last November after chasing out the drug traffickers who previously controlled it.

The move follows dozens of complaints of abuses committed by police officers against local residents, complicating the government’s attempts to return to state control large swathes of Brazil’s second city which for decades have been run by heavily armed drug gangs.

More serious accusations were denounced to the United Nations by local human rights groups who documented cases of illegal entry, extortion, intimidation, illegal detention and threats of torture and death by police officers against shanty town or favela residents.

No More Hot Chocolate With Marshmallows For You  

 

Ouattara calls for cocoa export ban amid lingering crisis

COTE D’IVOIRE’S internationally recognised leader, Alassane Ouattara, has called for a one-month ban on cocoa exports in a move that could cut off one of the last sources of funding to incumbent leader, Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to cede power.

The statement from Ouattara’s camp comes at the height of Cote d’Ivoire’s cocoa export season, though it is unclear whether the ban will be heeded by cocoa growers or how it will be enforced.

“The government informs all the economic operators of the immediate halt to all coffee and cocoa exports,” Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted the statement as saying late Sunday, adding that anyone who did not follow the order would be “subject to national and international sanctions.”

While the United Nations, U.S., France and the African Union have endorsed Ouattara’s presidency, he is attempting to run the country from a hotel being protected by UN peacekeepers.

The Video Showed Them Torturing A Man. They Were Convicted Of Insubordination  

 

Indonesian military trial outrages activists who charge torture

Jakarta, Indonesia

An Indonesian military court today handed down light sentences to three soldiers for their role in the torture of two farmers from Papua, sparking an outcry from human rights activists who slammed the verdict as weak.

The accused were caught on a cell phone video, posted on YouTube last October, torturing two farmers who were believed to have information on a secret weapons cache belonging to a group of separatists known as the Free Papua Movement.

But because the military Criminal Code does not recognize torture as a punishable crime, despite Indonesia having ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture in 1999, the men were found guilty of “not following orders.”