Jan 11 2011

Punting the Pundits

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Robert Kuttner: Zero Hour for Social Security

As I have previously warned–and I hope I’m wrong–President Obama seems on the verge of needlessly cutting America’s most valued social program and the one that best differentiates Republicans from Democrats. This is part of a vain effort to appease deficit hawks in his own party and on Wall Street, as well as Republicans who are utter hypocrites when it comes to deficits–increasing them as long as the purpose is tax cuts but then turning around and demanding program cuts in order to reduce the deficits they created.

All the choreography is in place for the president to embrace Social Security cuts in his upcoming State of the Union address.

Cutting Social Security is financially needless–the program is in sound shape for the next 27 years. It has nothing to do with the current deficit. It will be solvent indefinitely if we can get some wage growth going again. Failing that, we should raise the lid on income taxed, so that millionaires pay the same rate as regular people. For more detail, see ourfiscalsecurity.org.

Chris Hedges: Even Lost Wars Make Corporations Rich

Power does not rest with the electorate. It does not reside with either of the two major political parties. It is not represented by the press. It is not arbitrated by a judiciary that protects us from predators. Power rests with corporations. And corporations gain very lucrative profits from war, even wars we have no chance of winning. All polite appeals to the formal systems of power will not end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We must physically obstruct the war machine or accept a role as its accomplice.

The moratorium on anti-war protests in 2004 was designed to help elect the Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry. It was a foolish and humiliating concession. Kerry snapped to salute like a windup doll when he was nominated. He talked endlessly about victory in Iraq. He assured the country that he would not have withdrawn from Fallujah. And by the time George W. Bush was elected for another term the anti-war movement had lost its momentum. The effort to return Congress to Democratic control in 2006 and end the war in Iraq became another sad lesson in incredulity. The Democratic Party, once in the majority, funded and expanded the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Barack Obama in 2008 proved to be yet another advertising gimmick for the corporate and military elite. All our efforts to work within the political process to stop these wars have been abject and miserable failures. And while we wasted our time, tens of thousands of Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani civilians, as well as U.S. soldiers and Marines, were traumatized, maimed and killed.

Bob Herbert: A Flood Tide of Murder

By all means, condemn the hateful rhetoric that has poured so much poison into our political discourse. The crazies don’t kill in a vacuum, and the vilest of our political leaders and commentators deserve to be called to account for their demagoguery and the danger that comes with it. But that’s the easy part.

If we want to reverse the flood tide of killing in this country, we’ll have to do a hell of a lot more than bad-mouth a few sorry politicians and lame-brained talking heads. We need to face up to the fact that this is an insanely violent society. The vitriol that has become an integral part of our political rhetoric, most egregiously from the right, is just one of the myriad contributing factors in a society saturated in blood.

According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, more than a million people have been killed with guns in the United States since 1968, when Robert Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were killed. That figure includes suicides and accidental deaths. But homicides, deliberate killings, are a perennial scourge, and not just with guns.

David Weigel: There Will Be Guns

Arizona’s response to the Gifford shooting: Only guns can stop gun violence.

Arizona’s legislature began its new session on Monday, guns in tow. At a rally outside of the state Capitol, a 73-year-old Tea Party activist named Arthur Olivas, Jr. was photographed wearing a holstered pistol. Anyone who blamed the Tea Party for the slaughter outside of a Tucson Safeway, he said, didn’t understand the movement and didn’t understand gun rights.

The Tea Party Senate is off to a solid start. On day one, Sen. Jack Harper was moving H.B. 2001, legislation that would allow community college faculty members to carry concealed weapons on campus.

Amanda Marcotte: Giffords Shooting Raises Questions About Mental Health Care

The problems with our mental health systems in the U.S. are just part of a larger problem with health care in general—people fall through the cracks, diseases that could have been prevented or minimized with early interventions instead fester and become bigger, more expensive problems down the road, and we don’t do enough to connect the available services with the patients in need.  This is something that Rep. Giffords understands.  Giffords supported health care reform because she understands that a universal system actually saves us money (and grief) through the “ounce of prevention” method. Giffords is also a supporter of Planned Parenthood, which provides an excellent model for patching up holes in health care access, both by being low cost but also by having a recognizable brand that points people in need in the right direction.

If a community college student with poor access to health care needs contraception, she knows who to call: Planned Parenthood.  We need something like that for people who find themselves in need of mental health services.  Unfortunately, the push towards cuts for social services means that we’re running away from and not towards that goal. Take the state of Arizona, where all this went down. Mental health services were cut by $36 million in 2010, a 37 percent budget cut.  That’s introducing a lot more cracks to an already cracked system.  And it’s increasingly looking like Loughner is one of the people who fell through the cracks in the system.  

John Nichols: Tom DeLay Is Finally Rewarded for His Years of Public Service: With a Jail Sentence

No one did more to corrupt the public life of the country during the Bush-Cheney era than the cruelest and most crooked of their henchmen, Thomas Dale “Tom” DeLay, the Republican Majority Leader turned the U.S. House of Representatives into a cesspool of pay–to-play politics and the elections of his home state of Texas into empty charades.

“DeLay’s brand of politics was one of reckless disregard for the American people. By funneling illegal corporate money into Texas state elections, he helped elect Republican candidates to the Texas Legislature, which led to the tainted redistricting of his state,” says Tom “Smitty” Smith, the director of the Texas office of Public Citizen, which with the group Texans for Public Justice waged the long campaign to hold the former Majority Leader to account.

The evidence of DeLay’s wrongdoing was so clear, and his the Republican fixer’s defense was so lame, that there was never much doubt that he would be convicted.

Sophie Meunier: French Fried? The G20 Will Soon Find Out How “American” Sarkozy Really Is

French President Nicolas Sarkozy meets with Barack Obama in Washington today, ostensibly to discuss the agenda for the upcoming G8 and G20 summits, both of which France presides over this year. Sarkozy has much to gain from this opportunity to showcase France as the first country ever to head both international forums simultaneously. Should the United States be concerned?

After all, despite Sarkozy’s sincere love of the United States, the objectives he has laid out for the June G8 summit in Deauville and November G20 summit in Cannes look like a typically French frontal assault against Washington. France’s stated ambition is no less than a brand new international monetary system -throw in also the regulation of commodities markets and the renovation of global economic governance for good measure. The underlying analysis behind this ambitious objective is that international financial instability comes from the privilege of the dollar as reserve currency. Eliminating this privilege, the argument goes, would also better reflect the new multipolar economic reality. Absent a world currency to replace the dollar and serious competition from the euro and the yuan, a revamping of the international monetary system would start with an increased role for the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights.

Jan 11 2011

On This Day in History January 11

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 354 days remaining until the end of the year (355 in leap years).

On January 11, 1908, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument.

Though Native Americans lived in the area as early as the 13th century, the first European sighting of the canyon wasn’t until 1540, by members of an expedition headed by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Because of its remote and inaccessible location, several centuries passed before North American settlers really explored the canyon. In 1869, geologist John Wesley Powell led a group of 10 men in the first difficult journey down the rapids of the Colorado River and along the length of the 277-mile gorge in four rowboats.

By the end of the 19th century, the Grand Canyon was attracting thousands of tourists each year. One famous visitor was President Theodore Roosevelt, a New Yorker with a particular affection for the American West. After becoming president in 1901 after the assassination of President William McKinley, Roosevelt made environmental conservation a major part of his presidency. After establishing the National Wildlife Refuge to protect the country’s animals, fish and birds, Roosevelt turned his attention to federal regulation of public lands. Though a region could be given national park status–indicating that all private development on that land was illegal–only by an act of Congress, Roosevelt cut down on red tape by beginning a new presidential practice of granting a similar “national monument” designation to some of the West’s greatest treasures.

Grand Canyon National Park became a national park in 1919. So famous is this landmark to modern Americans that it seems surprising that it took more than thirty years for it to become a national park. President Theodore Roosevelt visited the rim in 1903 and exclaimed: “The Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It is beyond comparison–beyond description; absolutely unparalleled throughout the wide world …. Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.”

Despite Roosevelt’s enthusiasm and his strong interest in preserving land for public use, the Grand Canyon was not immediately designated as a national park. The first bill to create Grand Canyon National Park had been introduced in 1882 and again in 1883 and 1886 by Senator Benjamin Harrison. As President, Harrison established the Grand Canyon Forest Reserve in 1893. Theodore Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon Game Preserve by proclamation in 1906 and Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908. Senate bills to establish a national park were introduced and defeated in 1910 and 1911; the Grand Canyon National Park Act was finally signed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. The National Park Service, which had been established in 1916, assumed administration of the park.

The creation of the park was an early success of the environmental conservation movement; its National Park status may have helped thwart proposals to dam the Colorado River within its boundaries. (Lack of this fame may have enabled Glen Canyon Dam to be built upriver, flooding Glen Canyon and creating Lake Powell.) In 1975, the former Marble Canyon National Monument, which followed the Colorado River northeast from the Grand Canyon to Lee’s Ferry, was made part of Grand Canyon National Park. In 1979, UNESCO declared it as a World Heritage Site.

The Grand Canyon itself, including its extensive system of tributary canyons, is valued for the combination of large size, depth, and the exposed layering of colorful rocks dating back to Precambrian times. It was created through the incision of the Colorado River and its tributaries after the Colorado Plateau was uplifted and the Colorado River system developed along its present path.

 630 – Prophet of Islam Muhammad leads an army of 10,000 Muslims to conquer Mecca.

1055 – Theodora is crowned Empress of the Byzantine Empire.

1158 – Vladislav II becomes King of Bohemia.

1569 – First recorded lottery in England.

1571 – Austrian nobility is granted freedom of religion.

1693 – Mt. Etna erupts in Sicily, Italy. A powerful earthquake destroys parts of Sicily and Malta.

1759 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.

1779 – Ching-Thang Khomba is crowned King of Manipur.

1787 – William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.

1794 – Robert Forsythe, a U.S. Marshal is killed in Augusta, Georgia when trying to serve court papers, the first US marshal to die while carrying out his duties.

1805 – The Michigan Territory is created.

1861 – Alabama secedes from the United States.

1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post – General John McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter capture the Arkansas River for the Union.

1863 – American Civil War: CSS Alabama encountered and sank the USS Hatteras (1861) off Galveston Lighthouse in Texas.

1878 – Milk is first delivered in bottles.

1879 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins.

1908 – Grand Canyon National Monument is created.

1912 – The Lawrence textile strike begins in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

1917 – The Kingsland munitions factory explosion occurs as a result of sabotage.

1919 – Romania annexes Transylvania.

1922 – First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.

1923 – Occupation of the Ruhr: Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to make its World War I reparation payments.

1927 – Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), announced the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at a banquet in Los Angeles, California.

1935 – Amelia Earhart is the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1942 – World War II: Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.

1942 – World War II: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.

1943 – World War II: The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.

1943 – Italian-American Anarchist Carlo Tresca is assassinated in New York

1946 – Enver Hoxha declares the People’s Republic of Albania with himself as president.

1949 – First recorded case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California.

1957 – The African Convention is founded in Dakar.

1957 – Mass-murderer Jack Gilbert Graham is executed in Colorado by gas chamber.

1960 – Henry Lee Lucas, once listed as America’s most prolific serial killer, commits his first known murder.

1962 – An avalanche on Huascaran in Peru causes 4,000 deaths.

1964 – United States Surgeon General Dr. Luther Leonidas Terry, M.D., publishes a landmark report saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking nation- and worldwide anti-smoking efforts.

1972 – East Pakistan renames itself Bangladesh.

1986 – The Gateway Bridge, Brisbane in Queensland, Australia is officially opened.

1990 – 300,000 march in favor of Lithuanian independence.

1994 – The Irish Government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Fein.

1996 – Space Shuttle program: STS-72 launches from the Kennedy Space Center marking the start of the 74th Space Shuttle mission and the 10th flight of Endeavour.

1998 – Sidi-Hamed massacre takes place in Algeria, over 100 people are killed.

2005 – 9 people die in the Black Tuesday bushfire on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.

2007 – China conducts the first successful anti-satellite missile test of any nation since 1985.

Holidays and observances

   Christian Feast Day:

       Leucius of Brindisi (Roman Catholic)

       Paulinus II of Aquileia

       Theodosius the Cenobiarch

       January 11 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   Earliest day on which Triodion can fall, while February 14 is the latest; celebrated 70 days before Easter. (Eastern Orthodox)

   Eugenio Maria de Hostos Day (Puerto Rico)

   First day of Carmentalia, in honor of Carmenta. (Roman Empire)

   Independence Resistance Day (Morocco)

   Kagami Biraki (Japan)

   Republic Day (Albania)

Jan 11 2011

Six In The Morning

Don’t worry the media in the U.S. and its political leaders won’t allow this to happen as they enjoy conflict too much  



Spirit of unity after Arizona slayings may be fleeting

Reporting from Washington and Phoenix – Silence fell in Washington on Monday as President Obama, members of Congress and hundreds of officials bowed their heads in the wake of Arizona’s mass shooting and promised a new spirit of comity that harkened back to the days after the terrorist attacks of 2001.

“Harsh words are offered from both sides,” said Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas). “I hope this tragedy will play a role in diminishing some of the strident statements that we have heard.”

How many times have they done this?  

But Spanish politicians say announcement is heavy on rhetoric and flimsy on details  

Basque separatists Eta declare a ‘permanent’ end to violence

After months of anticipation, the armed separatist group Eta yesterday declared a permanent ceasefire in order to seek a “democratic” end to its 51-year-long violent campaign in Spain for an independent Basque nation.

“Eta has decided to declare a permanent and general ceasefire which will be verifiable by the international community,” the group said in a statement. “This is Eta’s firm commitment towards a process to achieve a lasting resolution and towards an end to the armed confrontation.”

The politics of the onion or how to find yourself out of government



High onion prices leave India’s ruling party in tears

THE SOARING price of onions across India, which in the past has been an issue over which federal and provincial governments were voted out of office, is now threatening prime minister Manmohan Singh’s administration.

A staple ingredient in almost all kinds of Indian food, onions have been selling in Delhi and other northern cities in recent days at 60 rupees (€1.02) per kg, up from 30 rupees, registering a 100 per cent increase.

Enterprising traders across the country were even offering kilos of free onions along with the purchase of each tyre, television and any other electrical item.

Creating boarders for colonial power has consequences  



Neighbours fear division of Sudan may have domino effect

If Southern Sudan, why not Southern Nigeria, or Northern Ivory Coast, or multiple Congos? The Sudanese vote has implications for all of Africa, signalling that the borders drawn by colonial cartographers are no longer sacrosanct. Some fear it may spur the Balkanisation of the continent.

”The referendum in Sudan could have a domino effect,” said Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress in Nigeria. ”It is likely to be infectious to other parts of Africa in the sense that most countries … are divided along the lines of Christians and Muslims.”

Finding spies of convenience

State television identifies a young Iranian as “main element” behind death of a nuclear scientist in January last year.  

Iran ‘uncovers Israel spy network’

Iran’s state media has reported the arrest of a “network of spies” linked to Israel’s Mossad intelligence service it blamed for the murder of an Iranian nuclear scientist.

The station on Monday aired the footage of a young man identified as Majid Jamalifash, who it said was the “main element” behind the assassination of the scientist.

In a statement, the intelligence ministry said Israel had used European, non-European and some neighbouring countries to carry out the assassination plot.

“The ministry … has identified and arrested members of a spy and terrorist network linked to the Zionist regime,” the station said on Monday quoting the statement.

The less fortunate always get left behind



Residents of Colombia oil patch complain boom is passing them by

Reporting from Yopal, Colombia – Weather-beaten rancher Leonardo Bautista brings to mind the character in a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel who waited years in vain for a pension. Only Bautista is waiting for a new road, or any other benefit to filter down to those who live at ground zero of Colombia’s oil boom.

Every day, 150 crude-laden semitrailer trucks grind over his town’s dirt road, raising dust and spewing oil. Bautista and his neighbors want a paved road to mitigate the noise and environmental damage, and to leave room for other vehicles, which often get muscled off course as the lumbering tankers swerve to avoid potholes.

Jan 11 2011

Prime Time

PBS has a biography of U.S. Grant.  Other premiers.  College Throwball Championship.

Oh, fascinating. Twenty particles of space dust per cubic meter, 52 ultraviolet radiation spikes, and a class-2 comet. Well, this is certainly worthy of our attention.

Later-

Dave hosts Bill Cosby and the Black Keys.  Jon has Denis Leary (those interviews always suck), Stephen Fen Montaigne.  Alton does Meringue and Banana Pudding.  Conan hosts Donald Glover and Guster.

I suppose I’ll be watching the BCS game so there might be periodic updates below.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Jan 10 2011

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Huge turnout again on 2nd day of south Sudan vote

by Steve Kirby, AFP

1 hr 48 mins ago

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) – Thousands of south Sudanese poured out to vote for a second straight day in a landmark independence referendum on Monday, bringing the region a step closer to becoming the world’s newest state.

Repeating the jubilant scenes witnessed on Sunday, huge queues formed outside polling stations in the regional capital Juba from long before dawn as voters seized the chance to have their say on whether to split Africa’s largest nation and put the seal on five decades of north-south conflict.

The scale of the turnout on the first of the seven days of polling has already put the south well on the way to reaching the 60-percent threshold set by a 2005 peace deal between north and south for the referendum to be valid.

2 Joyful south Sudanese vote en masse in referendum

by Peter Martell, AFP

Sun Jan 9, 6:30 pm ET

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) – Vast crowds of jubilant south Sudanese voted on Sunday in a landmark referendum expected to create the world’s newest state, forcing many polling stations to stay open late into the evening.

Thousands of voters had begun waiting from early hours, eager to be among the first to have their say on whether the impoverished south should finally break away from rule by Khartoum, ending five decades of north-south conflict.

When the polls finally opened at 8:00 am (0500 GMT), the excitement was electric. Each time another vote was inserted in the ballot box, women began ululating in celebration.

3 ETA declares ceasefire, Spain urges it to disband

by Gabriel Rubio, AFP

9 mins ago

MADRID (AFP) – Armed Basque separatists ETA announced Monday a permanent, verifiable ceasefire after more than 40 years of bloodshed, but Spain’s government demanded it go further and disband entirely.

It was the first unilateral declaration of a permanent ceasefire in ETA’s campaign of bombings and shootings for a homeland independent of Spain, which has claimed the lives of 829 people.

“ETA has decided to declare a permanent and general ceasefire which will be verifiable by the international community,” the group said in a video declaration, with no promise of disbanding or disarming.

4 Optimism returns to Detroit auto show

by Mira Oberman, AFP

1 hr 17 mins ago

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) – Optimism returned to the Detroit auto show Monday as US automakers celebrated rising sales and a remarkable recovery after years of painful restructuring and the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler.

“This is the feel good movie of the year,” Barron Meade, the show’s chairman, said at the opening ceremony.

GM and Ford scored an early win after the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid and Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle were named the North American Car and Truck of the Year by an association of automotive journalists.

5 DuPont to buy Danisco for $6.3 bn

by Slim Allagui, AFP

Mon Jan 10, 11:33 am ET

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – Danish food ingredient and enzyme company Danisco said Monday it agreed to be acquired by US chemical giant DuPont in a deal worth $6.3 billion (4.9 billion euros), pending approval by regulators.

The acquisition of Danisco, a profitable leader in the agri-food and biotechnology sectors, is set to make DuPont “a clear leader in industrial biotechnology,” the Wilmington, Delaware-based company said.

The purchase involves $5.8 billion paid in cash and $500 million of Danisco’s net debt, DuPont announced late Sunday.

6 Shot US lawmaker responsive but still critical

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

Sun Jan 9, 7:17 pm ET

TUCSON, Arizona (AFP) – The US lawmaker shot in the head by a would-be assassin in a shooting spree remains critical but shows positive signs, medics said Sunday as prosecutors announced charges against the gunman.

Gabrielle Giffords, 40, was in a medically-induced coma but could respond to basic verbal commands, said doctors at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson, who were “cautiously optimistic” about her recovery chances.

A nine-year-old girl and a federal judge were among six people killed and at least 14 others were wounded before bystanders at the event in Tucson on Saturday grappled a gunman armed with a 9mm Glock pistol to the ground.

7 Pope urges Pakistan to scrap blasphemy law

by Dario Thuburn, AFP

Mon Jan 10, 11:35 am ET

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Monday called on Pakistan to scrap a controversial law against blasphemy, saying it served as “a pretext for acts of injustice and violence against religious minorities.”

“I once more encourage the leaders of that country to take the necessary steps to abrogate that law,” the leader of the world’s one billion Catholics said in a traditional New Year’s address to ambassadors to the Vatican.

“The tragic murder of the governor of Punjab shows the urgent need to make progress in this direction,” he said, referring to the killing of Salman Taseer by one of his bodyguards last week over his liberal position on the law.

8 Biden on surprise Afghan trip for talks with Karzai

By Patricia Zengerle, Reuters

2 hrs 47 mins ago

KABUL (Reuters) – Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Afghanistan on Monday on a surprise trip to assess a shift in security operations to Afghan forces before a gradual U.S. troop withdrawal starts in July.

Biden, whose trip was not announced in advance for security reasons, is due to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai for talks on Tuesday.

Violence is at its worst in the near-decade-long war against a Taliban-led insurgency, with the insurgency spreading from traditional strongholds in the south and east into once-peaceful areas in the north and west.

9 ECB gives Portugal temporary lifeline, traders say

By William James and Jan Strupczewski, Reuters

Mon Jan 10, 12:25 pm ET

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Central Bank threw Portugal a temporary lifeline on Monday by buying up its bonds, traders said, as market and peer pressure mounted for Lisbon to seek an international bailout soon.

A senior euro zone source said on Sunday that Germany, France and other euro zone countries were pushing Portugal to seek an EU-IMF assistance program, following Greece and Ireland, to prevent contagion spreading to much larger Spain, the fourth biggest economy in the euro area.

The Reuters report drew official denials from German Chancellor Angela Merkel on down, but economists and market analysts said it was only a question of time before Lisbon too would need a rescue.

10 Sudan border clashes kill 36 as south votes

By Andrew Heavens, Reuters

2 hrs 8 mins ago

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – At least 36 people have died in clashes between Arab nomads and southerners near Sudan’s north- south border, leaders in the contested Abyei region said on Monday, on the second day of a vote on southern independence.

Analysts say the central region of Abyei is the most likely place for north-south tensions to erupt into violence during and after the vote, the climax of a troubled peace deal that ended decades of civil war.

Southerners are expected to vote to split from the mostly Muslim north, depriving Khartoum of most of its oil reserves.

11 Duke Energy to buy Progress Energy for $13.7 billion

By Matt Daily, Reuters

44 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Duke Energy’s planned $13.7 billion purchase of Progress Energy Inc is the biggest test yet of whether regulators will allow utilities to merge and fortify their finances for huge new investments.

The deal, announced on Monday, would create the largest U.S. power company, if it wins approval from regulators, with 7.1 million electricity customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, and 57,000 megawatts of generating capacity.

Duke Energy Chief Executive and Chairman Jim Rogers said the combined company would be financially stronger and better able to cope with the huge costs facing the industry, from upgrading the power grid and adding new environmental controls to building a new generation of power plants, including new nuclear reactors.

12 Quake amputees embody resilience in broken Haiti

By Tom Brown, Reuters

Mon Jan 10, 12:46 pm ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Sprinting on their crutches at breakneck speed, the young amputee soccer players who lost limbs in Haiti’s earthquake last year project a symbol of hope and resilience in a land where so much is broken.

Playing a weekend warm-up match days before the anniversary of the devastating January 12 quake, the players, all lower extremity amputees, control the ball artfully with their good legs, avoiding “illegal” contact with their crutches.

The teams train on a dusty pitch near Cite Soleil, Haiti’s largest slum on the outskirts of the wrecked capital Port-au-Prince. They were to face off again on Monday in the National Stadium as part of a low-key yet poignant commemoration of the disaster that killed around a quarter of a million people.

13 U.S., China say deeper military ties needed to avoid missteps

By Phil Stewart and Ben Blanchard, Reuters

Mon Jan 10, 1:32 pm ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his Chinese counterpart said on Monday stronger military ties were needed to avoid missteps between the two global giants, whose forces have pushed up against each other in Asia.

Gates is in China on a bridge-building trip a week ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States for a January 19 summit with President Barack Obama.

U.S. and Chinese military ties were curtailed for much of last year after Beijing protested against Obama’s proposed sale of $6.4 billion in weapons to Taiwan, the self-ruled island China deems an illegitimate breakaway.

14 Ford sees pickups as harbinger for 2011 sales

By Bernie Woodall, Reuters

Mon Jan 10, 1:07 pm ET

DETROIT (Reuters) – A top Ford Motor Co executive said on Monday that the strength of pickup truck sales in the first quarter will be a key early signal for the overall 2011 U.S. auto market.

Global sales and marketing chief Jim Farley said that Ford for now is maintaining its annual sales forecast of between 12.5 million and 13.5 million, up from 11.5 million in 2010.

Speaking on the sidelines of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Farley declined to give a specific forecast for Ford sales, other than to say the automaker is just as optimistic about 2011 as it was in 2010 when its sales increased 19 percent. Last year was Ford’s largest year-on-year sales increase in its home market since 1984.

15 Signs point to U.S. auto resurgence

By David Bailey, Reuters

Mon Jan 10, 12:44 pm ET

DETROIT (Reuters) – The North American International Auto Show opened on Monday with fresh signs the comeback by U.S. carmakers is gaining traction.

In the first big event of the show, the Chevy Volt, the centerpiece of General Motors’ return from bankruptcy and already the winner of both Motor Trend Magazine’s car of the year and Green Car of the Year awards, was named 2011 North American Car of the Year award, beating out rival vehicles from Japan’s Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co.

The latest version of Ford Motor Co’s Explorer sport utility vehicle, meanwhile, was named 2011 North American Truck of the Year — the third year in a row that Ford has dominated the category.

16 Alaska oil pipeline disruption enters third day, boosts prices

Reuters

Mon Jan 10, 5:58 am ET

ANCHORAGE/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A shutdown of the Trans Alaska Pipeline, which ships 12 percent of U.S. crude output, entered a third day on Monday, boosting prices and raising pressure on operators including BP to restore shipments.

A leak was discovered at the northern end of the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay early Saturday, near production facilities, forcing oil companies to cut output to 5 percent of their average 630,000 barrels per day.

The shutdown is the latest setback for the 33-year old duct, which is becoming more expensive to maintain as it ages. It currently handles less than a third of the oil it did at its peak in the 1980s.

17 DuPont buying Danisco for $5.8 billion in food sector push

By Ernest Scheyder and Megan Davies, Reuters

Mon Jan 10, 1:57 am ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. chemicals group DuPont said on Sunday it will buy Danish food ingredients and enzymes firm Danisco for $5.8 billion to boost its position in the fast-growing food sector.

The cash deal would enable DuPont to enter a niche in the chemical industry – food additives – long dominated by smaller rival International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. It would also solidify existing cooperation between the two companies in the field of technology for advanced bioethanol.

However the acquisition will reduce DuPont’s 2011 earnings of $3.30 to $3.60 per share by a range of 30 cents to 45 cents per share, the company said.

18 Sanofi’s shares slip as reveals Genzyme talks

By James Regan and Ben Hirschler, Reuters

Mon Jan 10, 6:49 am ET

PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) – Sanofi-Aventis shares fell 2 percent on Monday after the French drugmaker said it was in direct talks with bid target Genzyme but that significant differences remained over the price of its offer.

Sanofi said late on Sunday that representatives from both companies had entered discussions about ways to value key Genzyme drug Campath, which the U.S. biotech hopes to market as a multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment under brand name Lemtrada.

Genzyme has rejected Sanofi’s takeover offer price of $69 a share as too low, but the two sides are now talking about a way to bridge the valuation gap by focusing on prospects for Campath via a deal structure known as a contingent value right (CVR).

19 Portugal under pressure to seek EU/IMF aid: source

By Jan Strupczewski, Reuters

Sun Jan 9, 6:43 pm ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Pressure is growing on Portugal from Germany, France and other euro zone countries to seek financial help from the EU and IMF to stop the bloc’s debt crisis from spreading, a senior euro zone source said on Sunday.

Some preliminary discussions on the possibility of Portugal asking for help if its financing costs on markets become too high have taken place since July, the source said.

No formal talks on aid have started yet, a number of euro zone sources said, but the pressure was rising in the Eurogroup, which brings together euro zone finance ministers.

20 Can New Jersey’s Chris Christie overcome his weight?

By Daniel Trotta, Reuters

2 hrs 36 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is a rising star of the Republican Party seen as having a shot at a White House run, raising questions whether his obesity could impede his chances.

American views on overweight candidates may help determine the political future of Christie, an alternative to fit fellow-Republican Sarah Palin. While Americans like female candidates slim, they seem to better tolerate their male politicians on the heavy side.

Christie rose to prominence on the national scene after his 2009 election when he closed an $11 billion deficit on a $29 billion budget while putting a cap on property tax increases.

21 Analysis: Obama urged to step up yuan pressure in Hu meeting

By Alister Bull and Simon Rabinovitch, Reuters

Mon Jan 10, 1:33 am ET

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – When President Barack Obama meets China’s Hu Jintao this month, he might remind his guest of an old U.S. proverb: owe $10,000 and you have a problem; owe $10 million and the lender has a problem.

The United States owes China at least $907 billion and needs to have a careful conversation with its largest creditor when the Chinese president visits the White House on January 19.

Obama wants Beijing to let its yuan currency rise, helping him to cut U.S. unemployment by lifting exports to China.

22 Judge sentences Tom DeLay to 3 years in prison

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press

26 mins ago

AUSTIN, Texas – A judge ordered former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to serve three years in prison Monday for his role in a scheme to illegally funnel corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002.

The sentence comes after a jury in November convicted DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The Republican who represented the Houston area was once one of the most powerful people in U.S. politics, ascending to the No. 2 job in the House of Representatives. During a several-minute statement to the judge prior to sentencing, DeLay repeated his longstanding claims that the prosecution was politically motivated and that he never intended to break the law.

23 Petraeus says Taliban weaker in Afghan south

By HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press

1 hr 13 mins ago

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan – NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan said Monday that a recent pledge by a southern Afghan tribe to stand up to the Taliban shows the military push in the country’s most violent region is making headway and stifling the insurgents’ “central nervous system.”

U.S. Gen. David Petraeus told The Associated Press in the southern city of Lashkar Gah that a shift in thinking by the Afghan government and NATO means that the tribe’s risky move is being embraced rather than ignored. And that brings the hope that others may follow suit, he said.

Later Monday, Petraeus was on hand in Kabul to greet Vice President Joe Biden, who made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to assess progress toward the key objective of handing over security from international forces to Afghans. The White House said Biden, who was last here in January 2009, was to meet with President Hamid Karzai as well as U.S. troops.

24 Brown seeks 5-year extension of California taxes

By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press

36 mins ago

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a budget for the coming fiscal year Monday that deals with the state’s ongoing deficit with tough medicine for nearly every Californian, making deep cuts to most areas of government while calling for a five-year extension of tax increases enacted in 2009.

In releasing his first budget plan, the newly elected Democratic governor said he wanted to end the types of acccounting gimmicks, borrowing tricks and overly optimistic revenue assumptions that characterized the recent budgets signed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

His budget projects the deficit at $25.4 billion over the next 18 months.

25 APNewsBreak: OAS says boot Haiti gov’t candidate

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press

16 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – An international team of election experts will recommend that Haiti’s government-backed candidate be eliminated from a presidential runoff ballot due to strong evidence of fraud in voting that led to riots, according to a draft of the report obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

The report by the Organization of American States team has not been released publicly but officials confirmed its conclusions. It was to be presented to President Rene Preval later Monday, foreign and Haitian sources confirmed.

The report’s most important conclusions are that the disputed Nov. 28 vote should neither be thrown out entirely nor recounted, and that enough fraudulent or improper ballots should be invalidated to drop governing-party candidate Jude Celestin into third place and out of the second-round runoff.

26 AP IMPACT: Meth flourishes despite tracking laws

By JIM SALTER, Associated Press

1 hr 17 mins ago

ST. LOUIS – Electronic systems that track sales of the cold medicine used to make methamphetamine have failed to curb the drug trade and instead created a vast, highly lucrative market for profiteers to buy over-the-counter pills and sell them to meth producers at a huge markup.

An Associated Press review of federal data shows that the lure of such easy money has drawn thousands of new people into the methamphetamine underworld over the last few years.

“It’s almost like a sub-criminal culture,” said Gary Boggs, an agent at the Drug Enforcement Administration. “You’ll see them with a GPS unit set up in a van with a list of every single pharmacy or retail outlet. They’ll spend the entire week going store to store and buy to the limit.”

27 Study: Spacing babies close may raise autism risk

By CARLA K. JOHNSON, AP Medical Writer

Mon Jan 10, 6:08 am ET

CHICAGO – Close birth spacing may put a second-born child at higher risk for autism, suggests a preliminary study based on more than a half-million California children.

Children born less than two years after their siblings were considerably more likely to have an autism diagnosis compared to those born after at least three years.

The sooner the second child was conceived the greater the likelihood of that child later being diagnosed with autism. The effect was found for parents of all ages, decreasing the chance that it was older parents and not the birth spacing behind the higher risk.

28 BCS: Defense won’t rest when Tigers, Ducks meet

By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer

Mon Jan 10, 12:55 pm ET

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – It’s almost unheard of – a quarterback cranking out a string of 13 straight games with never an off day. But Auburn’s Cam Newton spent the 2010 season redefining what’s possible at that position.

Every bit as rare: an offense that can’t be stopped. But Oregon, led by running back LaMichael James, has scored 37 or more points 11 times in an equally impressive undefeated season.

These are the reasons people are envisioning scores like 60-55 and 55-53 for the BCS title game Monday in nearby Glendale, a reason the matchup has turned into such a red-hot ticket.

29 Ravens, Packers advance from wild-card round

By BARRY WILNER, AP Pro Football Writer

Mon Jan 10, 6:34 am ET

PHILADELPHIA – Lovers of bone-crunching defensive football, the AFC has just the game for you: Ravens-Steelers III.

The NFC has a juicy one upcoming, too: surging Green Bay at Atlanta.

The Packers discovered a running game Sunday in beating the Eagles 21-16, the third road victory during wild-card weekend. Shockingly, the only home winner was Seattle, which beat defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans on Saturday.

30 Violence breaks out by Sudan’s north-south border

By MAGGIE FICK and JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press

9 mins ago

JUBA, Sudan – Violence in the disputed region of Abyei has killed at least 30 people along Sudan’s north-south divide, officials said Monday. Observers fear the latest unrest could spark more fighting amid an otherwise peaceful and jubilant independence referendum in the south.

Abyei remains the most contentious sticking point between north and south following a two-decade civil war that left 2 million dead. Even President Barack Obama, who applauded this week’s historic referendum on independence in the south, warned that violence in the Abyei region should cease.

United Nations spokesman Martin Nesirky said Monday the organisation is “extremely concerned” about the reports of clashes and casualties in Abyei.

31 What was hot at this year’s Vegas gadget show

By RACHEL METZ and PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writers

Sun Jan 9, 11:46 pm ET

LAS VEGAS – Gadgets revealed at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas flop more often than they pop. This year’s show, however, delivered many products that are bound to make a difference for years to come.

Microsoft provided a sneak peek at a radical new version of Windows, Verizon showed the first consumer gadgets for a wireless network that’s faster in many cases than wired broadband, and many manufacturers showed tablet computers with the potential to give Apple’s iPad a run for its money.

The show itself, the largest trade show in the Americas, was back in high form, after two lean years. A pre-show estimate put attendance at more than 126,000 people, and the crowds pointed to attendance well above that, but perhaps not as many as the 141,150 people that showed up in 2008.

32 US, China defense chiefs mend frayed military ties

By ANNE GEARAN, AP National Security Writer

Mon Jan 10, 7:29 am ET

BEIJING – The U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs took a step Monday toward mending frayed relations between their powerful militaries, though China warned ties could be cut again if Washington does not heed Beijing’s wishes.

Military contacts are fewer and less substantive than U.S.-Chinese interaction in the economic, political and diplomatic arenas, and both nations wanted to put a better face on the military relationship ahead of a high-stakes visit to Washington by Chinese President Hu Jintao next week.

The agreement stops short of the robust cooperation sought by Washington, and China pointedly refused to promise that friction over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan might not interfere.

33 Ex DC school chief takes reform message nationwide

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO, Associated Press

Mon Jan 10, 6:07 am ET

MIAMI – Looking back, Michelle Rhee says there are a few things she didn’t do successfully during her three years as chancellor of the District of Columbia public schools.

One: She failed to engage and mobilize parents, residents and community leaders who supported her ambitious education reform agenda, but were never vocal about it.

“The people who were vocal were the people who were opposing,” Rhee said in an interview with The Associated Press, three months after announcing her resignation.

34 After diversity lawsuit, FDNY hiring sits in limbo

By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press

53 mins ago

NEW YORK – Paul Washington is a New York City firefighter, like his dad and his uncle before him. His brother is also on the job. Some of his cousins are firefighters, too.

Family legacies aren’t unusual in the Fire Department of New York, but the Washingtons are – because they are black. And the nation’s largest fire department remains an overwhelmingly white force.

But a federal lawsuit, a court order and a revamped application system are offering a glimmer of a future in which the FDNY could become as diverse as the population it serves – a goal other big-city departments have already achieved.

35 Fidel Castro’s nemesis goes on trial in Texas

By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ, AP Hispanic Affairs Writer

1 hr 16 mins ago

DORAL, Fla. – Fidel Castro’s nemesis has filled the walls of his Miami-area condo with his canvases: Revolutionaries on horseback charging Spanish soldiers; dark waves crashing against the shore; the sun setting on a peaceful farmer.

For some Cuban exiles, avowed militant Luis Posada Carriles is like the horsemen, a patriot who has long battled a fearsome oppressor. To his foes, Posada is like the waves, a dangerous force responsible for Havana hotel bombings, assassination attempts on Castro and one of the deadliest pre-9/11 airliner explosions.

To others, the 82-year-old is simply the farmer, a harmless relic living out his twilight.

36 APNewsBreak: Feds drop Laos conspiracy case in CA

By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press

1 hr 37 mins ago

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Federal prosecutors on Monday dropped all remaining charges against 12 defendants accused of plotting to overthrow the communist government of Laos.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento filed a motion to drop the charges “in the interests of justice,” according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.

U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell Jr. granted the motion.

37 Ex-CIA officer accused of leak waives extradition

By JIM SUHR, Associated Press

1 min ago

ST. LOUIS – A former CIA operative agreed Monday to be returned to Virginia to face felony charges that he disclosed confidential documents to a New York Times reporter in retaliation for what he considered mistreatment by the spy agency.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Terry Adelman ordered Jeffrey Sterling, 43, to remain held without bond pending a full detention hearing in Virginia once federal marshals escort him back there by commercial jet. He has been jailed since his arrest last week in St. Louis.

The indictment did not say specifically what information was leaked, but the dates and other details indicate the case centered on leaks to James Risen, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. His 2006 book “State of War” revealed details about the CIA’s covert spy war with Iran.

38 NYC official: Snow emergency declaration missed

By SARA KUGLER FRAZIER, Associated Press

2 hrs 32 mins ago

NEW YORK – Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration admitted multiple breakdowns in its decisions before, during and after a post-Christmas blizzard that paralyzed the city, telling lawmakers at a hearing Monday that the city is sorry and making changes.

A top deputy mayor and several commissioners testified at a City Council hearing about the Dec. 26 storm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow in parts of the city.

More than 100 ambulances became stuck as streets went unplowed and 911 calls backed up. Then, the overworked sanitation department fell behind on trash pickups, and garbage piled up.

39 In hard times, states still spend to protect farms

By STEPHEN SINGER, Associated Press

Mon Jan 10, 10:37 am ET

HAMDEN, Conn. – Despite tough financial times following the worst recession in decades, some states continue to spend millions of dollars to preserve American farmland and stem its rapid loss to development and suburban sprawl.

Advocates say the preservation efforts are needed to ensure food is available locally if the national distribution system is ever disrupted. They also say it helps maintain a way of life important to many Americans.

Twenty-five states have farmland preservation programs, and nearly half of them are in the densely populated Northeast, where the loss of fields to housing developments and shopping malls has been rapid and pressing. After losing 21 percent of its farmland in less than two decades, Connecticut increased spending on preservation efforts.

40 Ohio State studies symptoms of cat stress, disease

By SUE MANNING, Associated Press

Mon Jan 10, 8:01 am ET

LOS ANGELES – It’s not just people who get sick from stress.

A recent Ohio State University study found that healthy cats show signs of illness when stressed.

At the same time, cats diagnosed with feline interstitial cystitis (FIC) became healthier when stress levels were reduced, the study showed.

41 Sudanese refugees in the US vote on independence

By KAREN HAWKINS, Associated Press

Sun Jan 9, 7:18 pm ET

CHICAGO – Thousands of jubilant Sudanese refugees living in the United States turned polling places into victory parties Sunday with chanting, singing and flag-waving as they voted on a historic referendum that could separate their homeland, Southern Sudan, from the north and create the world’s newest country.

In eight cities across the U.S., voters swarmed the makeshift polling places where the weeklong elections were being held.

In Chicago, basketball star Luol Deng arrived at the office-turned-polling station on the city’s North Side to a hero’s welcome, drawing cheers from the Sudanese waiting to vote when he briefly draped himself with a flag. One man yelled in response, “Hey Lu, that’s a good color on you, man!”

Jan 10 2011

Birth of a Country: South Sudan

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

South Sudan is probably not very high on your news radar but the voting that started there on Sunday that would split the Republic of Sudan into two countries is momentous, not just because of the democratic process but also the shedding of the vestiges of colonialism that created the largest country in Africa and the Arab world. Voting on the referendum started Sunday and is being conducted around the world including the United States and will continue until January 15. The referendum is part of an agreement worked out in 2005 with the central government in Khartoum. The agreement, The Nairobi Comprehensive Peace Agreement, granted Southern Sudan autonomy for six years, is now being followed by the referendum about independence. It created a co-vice president position and allowed the north and south to split oil deposits equally, but also left both the north’s and south’s armies in place.

There are great concerns that the split will cause even more war in a country torn by the violence of militant groups and factions, much of it fueled by religious and tribal differences and, of course, oil. US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton  and actor/human rights activist, George Clooney have expressed those concerns amidst the hope of a peaceful process. Mr. Clooney has been at the forefront of keeping Sudan in the news. He along with activist John Prendergast have created a novel solution to monitor the situation using Google satellites, Satellite Sentinel, the “anti-genocide paparazzi”.

A Message From George Clooney and John Prendergast

A new state is being born in Southern Sudan against a backdrop of decades of war between the South and North of Sudan. A peace deal in 2005 ended the latest round of open conflict, but the possibility of a return to war remains high as Southern Sudan prepares for independence.

One of the biggest risks in this dangerous moment is that an incident on the highly armed border could lead to wider conflict. The government in Khartoum has armed militias in contested bordering regions, the government air force has bombed border areas, and both sides have massed military units and equipment along the hottest border spots.

These areas have witnessed some of the most deadly conflict in the world since World War II. The former director of national intelligence says that Southern Sudan is the place in the world most likely to experience genocide.  

We can’t allow another deadly war, and we surely cannot stand by in the face of a genocide threat.

We were late to Rwanda. We were late to the Congo. We were late to Darfur. There is no time to wait. With your support, we will swiftly call the world to witness and respond. We aim to provide an ever more effective early-warning system: better, faster visual evidence and on-the-ground reporting of human rights concerns to facilitate better, faster responses.

This is why we have launched the Satellite Sentinel Project. There has never been a sustained effort to systematically monitor potential hot spots and threats to human security, in near real-time, with the aim of heading off humanitarian disaster and war crimes before they occur.

Previously, when mass atrocities occurred in Darfur, the Government of Sudan denied its involvement. Since photographers could not get access, it took years to amass evidence of genocide. But now we can witness in near real-time and put all parties on notice that if they commit war crimes, we will all be watching, and pressuring policymakers to take action.

We want to cast a spotlight – literally – on the hot spots along the border to record any actions that might escalate the chances of conflict. We hope that if many eyes are on the potential spoilers, we can all help detect, deter and interdict actions that could lead to a return to deadly violence. At the very least, if war crimes do occur, we’ll have plenty of evidence of the actions of the perpetrators to share with the International Criminal Court and the UN Security Council.

The world is watching because you are watching. This is our opportunity to prevent a war, to deter genocide. Make your voice heard. Click here to take action in support of peace in Sudan.

Jan 10 2011

Permanent Bases U.S. Objective in Afghanistan?

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Rahimullah Yusufzai is a Senior Analyst with the Pakistani TV channel Geo TV, and the Resident Editor of The News International in Peshawar, an English newspaper from Pakistan. He’s worked as a correspondent for Time Magazine, BBC World Service, BBC Pashto, BBC Urdu, Geo TV, and ABC News. Mr. Yusufzai has interviewed Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, and a range of other militants across the tribal areas of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Here Yusufzai talks from Peshawar, Pakistan with Real News Network’s Paul Jay about the real U.S. objectives in Afghanistan, and notes that the U.S. now has more than 100,000 troops in AfPak fighting at the most a couple of hundred Al Qaeda members, with only 50 of them in Afghanistan.



Real News Network – January 10, 2011

Permanent Bases Objective in Afghan War?

Sen. Lindsay Graham may have revealed the real objective

with an open call for permanent bases in Afghanistan

…transcript follows…

Transcript:

PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay in Washington. And in Washington, one of the main topics of debate these days is US policy in Afghanistan. A national intelligence estimate released just before the new year said that the prospects for success of the US military operations in Afghanistan are not looking very good. This contradicted the estimations coming from the Pentagon that talked about success. Now joining us from Peshawar, Pakistan, to give his opinion on just how things are going on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan is Rahimullah Yusufzai. He’s a senior analyst with the Pakistani TV channel Geo TV; resident editor of The News International in Peshawar, an English newspaper from Pakistan; and he has served as a correspondent for Time magazine, BBC world service, and BBC news. Thanks for joining us again, Rahimullah.

RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, RESIDENT EDITOR, THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL: Thank you.

JAY: So on December 16, President Obama announced his strategic review of what’s going on in Afghanistan, and once again he repeated the reasons why the United States are in Afghanistan. Here’s a little clip of what he had to say.

~~~

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: We are focused on disrupting, dismantling, and defeating al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and preventing its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future.

~~~

JAY: So President Obama repeated his rationale for being in Afghanistan. Rahimullah, do you think that’s why the United States is in Afghanistan, because of al-Qaeda?

YUSUFZAI: I think maybe initially the Americans came here because of al-Qaeda, because Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were based, were headquartered in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is still arguably alive, and his number two, Dr. [Ayman] Zawahiri, is also alive. They should be in the region. They haven’t been captured or killed. But most of their other colleagues have either been killed or captured, and some have left this area. And the CIA chief was saying essentially that only about 50 al-Qaeda members remain in Afghanistan. Maybe there are about 200 left in the Pakistani tribal areas. So we have not more than 250 or 300 al-Qaeda members, and to defeat them we have more than 100,000 American soldiers plus 50,000 NATO soldiers from 48 countries. We have this large force fighting al-Qaeda, which is in very small numbers now. I think the main fight is not against al-Qaeda now; it’s against Taliban and the Afghan people who are part of other militant groups or Taliban. This is actually basically now a fight for control of the country, for Afghanistan.

JAY: The American argument is that even if they’re relatively weaker now (and they say they are; Obama talks about a certain amount of success, and that’s one of the things they claim), they say that if the Taliban were to regain or the militants were to regain control of the Afghan government, then it would once again allow al-Qaeda to come back and gain strength. Do you think there’s truth to that? Because we’ve also heard the Afghan Taliban saying they don’t want anything more to do with al-Qaeda.

YUSUFZAI: The Afghan Taliban actually have yet to say these things officially. You know, they haven’t said that they will delink, they will dissociate from al-Qaeda. I have this view that Taliban would be willing to discuss the possibility of denying any sanctuary to al-Qaeda in the future. This actually is an issue which needs to be discussed. You know, Taliban should be helped to try to delink from al-Qaeda. But this, to continue fighting them, then they will definitely look for allies, they will look for financers, and al-Qaeda can help them. They actually are fighting a very large force, they are fighting a so-called power in Afghanistan, so they will look for allies. But if there’s no fighting and if there is a political solution, maybe they would have an incentive to try and make an agreement and expel al-Qaeda from Afghanistan.

JAY: Now, Rahim, if you look at why US is in Afghanistan, many people suggest it’s for bigger geopolitical, geostrategic objectives, fundamentally, as a base in the region to defend or protect American broader economic and political interests. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham put it in so many words. Here’s what he had to say.

~~~

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I am hopeful the Pakistani army will be more bold in attacking safe havens across the border that lie in Pakistan. I hope the Karzai government will better address corruption. I hope we can find an enduring relationship with Afghanistan that will make sure that country never goes back in the hands of terrorists. And the idea of putting permanent military bases on the table in 2011, I think, would secure our national interest and tell the bad guys and the good guys we’re not leaving, we’re staying in a responsible way if the Afghan people want us to stay.

~~~

JAY: So, Rahim, Senator Graham is openly now calling for permanent US military bases–he’s saying a couple of Air Force bases in Afghanistan. I mean, is this what this war is about?

YUSUFZAI: I think this is what many people were expecting. You know, July 2011 was to be the starting date for the withdrawal of US forces. Now the goalposts have been pushed back; now it is 2014 when the mission would be completed. Maybe there would be a symbolic withdrawal of some troops in July this year. But I think that there’s going to be now fighting for four more years. That is the idea. You keep your forces here, you fight the Taliban, try to reverse the momentum, and strengthen the Afghan government and security forces. That’s the idea. But even now–except Vice President Joe Biden was saying that we have to leave by a cutoff date, which is 2014. But I think that the military thinks otherwise. And even this very hopeful assessment of the war given by President Obama after the review is basically the position of the US army, the Pentagon, or General Petraeus. They actually are claiming a lot of success in recent military operations. So I think that the view here on the ground is that there’s no way that all the Americans troops would be withdrawn, even by 2014. They’re saying that there is so much of heavy investment by the US in trying to expand these air bases at Bagram, at Jalalabad, at Shindand, in Herat, at Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif–it’s not one or two, but there’s a number of such bases, and new constructions are taking place. And that’s why people say that it’s not for nothing. There would be some American military presence. These bases would be maintained.

JAY: Thanks for joining us again, Rahimullah. And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.

Jan 10 2011

Punting the Pundits

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

New York Times Editorial: Can You Trust the Market?

The stock market was up in the first week of 2011 – following rallies in 2009 and 2010 – but many investors are still wary. According to the Investment Company Institute, a mutual funds trade group, 2010 was the fourth year in a row that individual investors withdrew more money than they added to funds that invest in American stocks. Some $80 billion was withdrawn in 2010, on top of nearly $240 billion in the three years before that.

Why the retreat? One explanation is reasonable doubt about the economy. Of late, profits, and related stock-market gains, have been fueled not by increased revenues but by layoffs and other cuts – an unsustainable pattern. Another explanation is a loss of faith in financial markets. The Dodd-Frank reform law could help restore that faith, but the new Republican majority in the House has vowed to try to block the law’s implementation, including regulations to make deal-making by banks more transparent. Some Democrats may join in.

Paul Krugman: Climate of Hate

When you heard the terrible news from Arizona, were you completely surprised? Or were you, at some level, expecting something like this atrocity to happen?  

Put me in the latter category. I’ve had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since the final stages of the 2008campaign. I remembered the upsurge in political hatred after Bill Clinton’s election in 1992 – an upsurge that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. And you could see, just by watching the crowds at McCain-Palin rallies, that it was ready to happen again. The Department of Homeland Security reached the same conclusion: in April 2009 an internal report (pdf file) warned that right-wing extremism was on the rise, with a growing potential for violence.

Conservatives denounced that report. But there has, in fact, been a rising tide of threats and vandalism aimed at elected officials, including both Judge John Roll, who was killed Saturday, and Representative Gabrielle Giffords. One of these days, someone was bound to take it to the next level. And now someone has.

E.J. Dionne, Jr.: Turning the Tables on Health Care

Rule One of politics: When you have the advantage, don’t allow your opponents to turn the tables.

House Republicans violated this rule when they decided to make repeal of the health care law their first major act in the 112th Congress. The mistake will haunt them for years.

It was a surprising error from a leadership that showed shrewd judgment and exceptional discipline during President Barack Obama’s first two years. John Boehner is now speaker of the House because he and his party focused on demonizing everything Obama did and winning the public argument over both the health care plan and the stimulus. . . .

Already, that impending vote had forced the GOP to fudge its pledge to respect the minority’s rights, since the leadership ruled out any amendments to its bill. The inconsistency led Boehner to produce one of the lamest sound bites of his career. “Well, listen, I promised a more open process,” he said. “I didn’t promise that every single bill was going to be an open bill.”

In other words, he was for an open process before he was against it, and it depends on what the meaning of the word open is. Not a good start.

Ralph Nader: Tea Party Republicans May End Party Discipline

The hot question buzzing through Washington is: What impact will the many faces of the Tea Party have on congressional Republicans, now in charge of the House of Representatives?

Republicans under Mitch McConnell in the Senate and John Boehner in the House have been almost 100 percent unified — a feat that has given them many victories over the Democrats. Any fracturing of that discipline can weaken the Republican Party on Capitol Hill and give new headaches for business interests.

The Tea Party phenomenon is really composed of three layers of political energy. First are the Tea Party people who range from pure libertarian Ron and Rand Paul types to defenders of plutocracy. They are mostly from the long-neglected conservative wing of the Republican Party that dislikes both the corporate Republicans such as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as well as the Democrats like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.

The second layer is those new members of Congress who owe their election, many over incumbent Democrats, to the fund- raising energy and voter turnout of grassroots Tea Partiers.

While the third layer is composed of incumbent Republicans such as Representatives Steve King of Iowa and Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, and Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who have declared their fealty to the Tea Party, though what that specifically means isn’t clear.

John Dickerson: The Paucity of Hope

After the Arizona shootings, can Obama, or anyone, bring America back from the brink?

Who will be the Daniel Hernandez of this political moment? In the chaos that followed the shots outside an Arizona supermarket on Saturday, the young intern calmly sought out his boss and held her upright, pressing her wound and probably saving the life of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The political conversation could use that combination of wisdom and action. So far, the voices have been defensive, accusatory or noncommittal. The first two are unhelpful and the third is ineffective.

Who will be the Daniel Hernandez of this political moment? In the chaos that followed the shots outside an Arizona supermarket on Saturday, the young intern calmly sought out his boss and held her upright, pressing her wound and probably saving the life of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The political conversation could use that combination of wisdom and action. So far, the voices have been defensive, accusatory or noncommittal. The first two are unhelpful and the third is ineffective.

Emily Bazelon: Anchors Aweigh

If conservatives want to deny “anchor babies” U.S. citizenship, they’ll have to change the Constitution.

“Anchor babies” are back in the news: Be prepared for another round of railing against the granting of automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. There was a burst of this last summer, when Sen. Lindsey Graham rumbled about pregnant Mexican women crossing the border to give birth and win American citizenship for their babies-which he inelegantly called “drop and leave”-and how it was necessary to change the Constitution to stop them. Now Rep. Steve King of Iowa promises to end automatic birthright citizenship through legislation, and conservative legislators from five states are talking about excluding kids from a new thing called state citizenship, and also creating distinct (second-class) birth certificates for these kids.

Jan 10 2011

Gold

Monday Business Edition

One of the things we know about Loughner is that he’s a Gold Bug.  This is the derisive term given to people who think that ‘money’ has some unique and special snowflake identification with a particular commodity.

Money is a medium of exchange and a store of value.

Let’s examine that ‘store of value’ part.  What Gold Bugs are arguing for is an arbitrary limit on the supply of the primary medium of exchange.

Leverage says that financial institutions can create unlimited amounts of fictional exchanges of perceived value.

So that horse hasn’t only left the barn, but the barn has burned down so there isn’t even a door to close.

Any commodity’s price is fundamentally related to it’s economic utility unless speculation, sentiment, and marketing distort the market.  Diamonds should be dirt cheap because they’re actually a very common gem stone.

On the other hand you have pork bellies, cotton, and oil,

William Jennings Bryan had at least to his credit that he didn’t want to crucify the economy on a cross of gold.  Limiting your medium of exchange wastes resources that could otherwise be put to productive use.

‘Money’ is electrons in a database and photons on a screen.  It’s worth what you can get for it.

Sad to say Gold Bugginess is not limited to fringe lunatic assassins.  Perfectly respectable Republican lawmakers in Georgia and Virginia think this is a good idea too.

Business News below.

From Yahoo News Business

1 China’s trade surplus shrinks in December

by Fran Wang, AFP

Mon Jan 10, 2:58 am ET

BEIJING (AFP) – China said Monday its trade surplus shrank sharply in December, but the hefty figure is still likely to be a sticking point in trade talks when President Hu Jintao visits Washington next week.

The trade surplus narrowed to $13.1 billion in December, customs authorities said — a sharp drop from the $22.9 billion recorded in November and below analyst forecasts given by Dow Jones Newswires of $21.7 billion.

But the figure will nevertheless add to the already huge volume of money flowing into the world’s second-largest economy, and could fuel soaring inflation.

2 Nissan confident in Renault’s handling of spy ring

by Mira Oberman, AFP

Mon Jan 10, 1:09 am ET

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) – Nissan has confidence in how Renault is handling an international spy ring’s attempt to steal secrets about their shared electric car program, a top executive has said.

“Our partner is very focused on making sure they understand what went wrong,” said Carlos Tavares, chairman of Nissan’s Americas division.

“We at Nissan trust that our partner Renault will do the right thing to fix it.”

3 Chrysler hopes iconic Jeep will boost global sales

by Joseph Szczesny, AFP

Sun Jan 9, 9:17 pm ET

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) – Chrysler has its eye on China and is counting on its iconic Jeep brand to boost global sales and help return the US automaker to profitability after a government-backed bankruptcy.

The first boatload of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee exported from Detroit is expected to reach China soon and Chrysler is also preparing to expand sales in South America, Eastern Europe and Russia, officials said.

The push coincides with the brand’s 70th anniversary, which Chrysler will be celebrating Monday at the Detroit auto show.

4 Glitz returns to Detroit auto show after gloom

by Mira Oberman, AFP

Mon Jan 10, 3:19 am ET

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) – The glitz returns to the Detroit auto show Monday as US automakers celebrate a remarkable recovery and rising sales after years of painful restructuring and the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler.

The Motor City has been under the pall of the Detroit Three’s decline amid a steady loss of market share to Asian rivals and the worst economic downtown in decades.

Factories were closed, suppliers went out of business, iconic brands were shed and millions of jobs disappeared across the country.

5 Google’s Android stars at electronics show

by Charlotte Raab, AFP

Sun Jan 9, 4:38 pm ET

LAS VEGAS (AFP) – Google may not have had any gadgets on display at the Consumer Electronics Show which closed here Sunday but the Internet giant made its presence felt.

At a show where touchscreen tablet computers were king, Google’s Android operating system was the crown prince.

Motorola Mobility’s Xoom tablet powered by Honeycomb software, a version of Android designed specifically for the touchscreen computers, took the coveted title of best gadget at CES.

6 Insurance fraud rings find fertile ground in Canada

by Judi Rever, AFP

Sun Jan 9, 6:57 pm ET

MONTREAL (AFP) – It starts with a seemingly courteous gesture behind the wheel: an innocent driver signals to turn left, and a driver in an oncoming lane waves for him to go ahead — when another vehicle speeds up and crashes into the turning car.

Unbeknownst to the person just hit, the collision was staged in order to collect hefty insurance payouts under provincial no-fault insurance programs. The scammers first collect insurance for their car’s replacement value then submit bogus injury claims at health clinics.

Ken Bowman, Vice-President of RBC Insurance, said the growing trend of staged accidents involves buying vehicles, often luxury cars such as Mercedes, and having “seat sales”, in which fraudsters “pay 1,000 dollars for every person recruited to be in the car.”

7 Car tech dazzles at Consumer Electronics Show

by Chris Lefkow, AFP

Sun Jan 9, 4:35 pm ET

LAS VEGAS (AFP) – Automakers are taking a drive into the future at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The annual event is traditionally a showplace for mobile phones, computers and television sets but car makers are grabbing a lot of attention this year with the latest in automotive technology and a glimpse at what’s to come.

US automaker Ford even chose Las Vegas over next week’s Detroit Auto Show to reveal its first all-electric car, the Focus Electric, which can get up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) on a single battery charge and goes on sale this year.

8 Hangover sets in on Spanish debt markets

by David Williams, AFP

Sun Jan 9, 12:06 am ET

MADRID (AFP) – A hangover has already set in on Spanish debt markets after a brief celebration over China’s promise to buy government bonds despite fears of a 2011 debt crunch.

The rate Spain has to pay to borrow on the debt markets ballooned Friday to 5.543 percent, the highest since at least 2000. Its benchmark 10-year bond closed at 5.526 percent, up sharply from 5.46 percent a day before.

The immediate headache was caused by news that Portugal will join Spain, Greece and Italy in issuing debt in the next two weeks, potentially overloading markets already depressed by the prospect of a spreading debt crisis.

9 Prices rise as ECB stares into eurozone divide

by William Ickes, AFP

Sun Jan 9, 12:29 am ET

FRANKFURT (AFP) – Inflation is on the rise as the European Central Bank tries to deal with diverging eurozone economic trends and China positions itself as a potential friend for indebted governments.

The ECB has been battling solvency crises in peripheral eurozone countries and supplying commercial banks with cash to ensure lending to the 17-nation economy but must now consider again its primary mandate: price stability.

Eurozone inflation was expected to hit 2.2 percent in December, the first time in two years it will have breached the central bank’s target of just below 2.0 percent.

10 Belgium’s shoddy political record poses financial threat

by Laurent Thomet, AFP

Sun Jan 9, 12:15 am ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Without a government for nearly seven months, Belgium now holds a dubious record in Europe and with no end in sight to the political crisis, fears are growing of a backlash from watchful markets.

The divided country on Saturday broke the 208-day mark set by the Netherlands in 1977 for being without a government after a bid to coax feuding Flemish and French-speaking politicians back to the negotiating table failed.

All eyes will turn to King Albert II on Monday when he decides whether to accept the resignation tendered by his mediator, Flemish socialist Johan Vande Lanotte, whose compromise plan to revive coalition talks was rejected.

11 Renault says target of international spy ring

by Alix Rickjaert, AFP

Sat Jan 8, 1:15 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – A boss of French automaker Renault said Saturday the company had been targeted by an international spy ring but claimed it had lost no major secrets in the affair which has seen top managers suspended.

The French government meanwhile refused to confirm reports that the three managers were supplying details of the company’s electric cars to China.

Renault number two Patrick Pelata told Saturday’s Le Monde daily that the inquiry that led to the suspensions had concluded that the carmaker was faced with “an organised system of collecting economic, technological and strategic information to serve foreign interests”.

12 CES triumphs bode well for Motorola Mobility rebirth

by Glenn Chapman, AFP

Sun Jan 9, 1:41 am ET

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) – Motorola Mobility’s Xoom tablet computer was the star of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in what could be a sign of renewed glory for a faded technology star.

“Motorola’s got game, again,” Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Geldblum said when the Xoom made its debut on Wednesday.

Along with being declared the top creation at the dazzling gadget extravaganza, Xoom was also honored as the best of the scores of tablets introduced here as fresh competitors in a market dominated by Apple iPads.

13 Wall Street divided over Facebook prospects

by Veronique Dupont, AFP

Sat Jan 8, 2:32 pm ET

NEW YORK (AFP) – Wall Street sentiment is mixed over Facebook’s financial prospects as the privately held social-networking website faces a possible entry into the market next year.

A memo distributed to potential investors in Facebook shares sold by Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs suggested the emerging Internet giant earned about $500 million last year on sales of nearly $2 billion.

“The document disclosed says $355 million of operating profits for $1.2 billion for the first three quarters” of 2010, said Lou Kerner of Wedbush Securities, a brokerage that owns Facebook shares.

14 China December trade surplus shrinks to $13.1 bn

by Fran Wang, AFP

Mon Jan 10, 12:28 am ET

BEIJING (AFP) – China said Monday its trade surplus shrank sharply in December, but the hefty figure is still likely to be a sticking point in trade talks when President Hu Jintao visits Washington next week.

The trade surplus narrowed to $13.1 billion in December, customs authorities said — a sharp drop from the $22.9 billion recorded in November and below analyst forecasts given by Dow Jones Newswires for $21.7 billion.

But the figure will nevertheless add to the already huge volume of money flowing into the world’s second-largest economy, and could fuel inflation.

15 Motorola Xoom tablet crowned best CES gadget

by Glenn Chapman, AFP

Sat Jan 8, 4:49 pm ET

LAS VEGAS (AFP) – Motorola Mobility’s Xoom tablet computer powered by new “Honeycomb” software from Google was crowned the best gadget at the giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Saturday.

Along with being declared the top creation at the dazzling gadget extravaganza, Xoom was also honored as the best of the scores of tablets introduced here as fresh competitors in a market dominated by Apple iPads.

Motorola also scored a victory with its Atrix smartphone designed to work with high-speed 4G wireless networks and which can be used in a dock to power a laptop.

16 Ford unveils its first all-electric car

by Chris Lefkow, AFP

Fri Jan 7, 7:16 pm ET

LAS VEGAS (AFP) – Ford unveiled its first strictly electric car on Friday, a Focus which is expected to get up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) on a single charge and will be available in North America late this year.

Alan Mulally, chief executive of the number two US automaker, introduced the four-door passenger car at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Mulally declined to detail the hatchback’s total range or how much it would cost, but a Ford spokesman said the Focus Electric’s mileage on a single charge would be “competitive” with similar electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf.

17 Commodities show ties that bind

By Emily Kaiser, Reuters

Sun Jan 9, 3:01 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – If there was any doubt that the global economy remains tightly intertwined, rising commodity prices should put it to rest.

Both the U.S. unemployment rate and the amount of idle factory space are abnormally high, stark evidence that the economy is still well below its full potential.

But price pressures are building in commodities despite the ample U.S. economic slack, thanks in large part to demand from emerging markets. The Reuters Jefferies CRB index (.CRB) of commodities is up 28 percent since July.

18 DuPont buying Danisco for $5.8 billion in food sector push

By Ernest Scheyder and Megan Davies, Reuters

Mon Jan 10, 1:57 am ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. chemicals group DuPont said on Sunday it will buy Danish food ingredients and enzymes firm Danisco for $5.8 billion to boost its position in the fast-growing food sector.

The cash deal would enable DuPont to enter a niche in the chemical industry – food additives – long dominated by smaller rival International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. It would also solidify existing cooperation between the two companies in the field of technology for advanced bioethanol.

However the acquisition will reduce DuPont’s 2011 earnings of $3.30 to $3.60 per share by a range of 30 cents to 45 cents per share, the company said.

19 China’s trade surplus dips, taking heat off yuan

By Aileen Wang and Kevin Yao, Reuters

Sun Jan 9, 11:58 pm ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s trade surplus narrowed in 2010 for the second straight year, giving Beijing grounds to rebuff U.S. pressure for faster currency appreciation ahead of President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington next week.

The Chinese government will point to the latest numbers as evidence that it is making steady progress in rebalancing its economy toward domestic consumption, cutting reliance on exports and giving the world a lift through surging demand for imports.

For the United States, however, this may be happening too slowly, with the politically sensitive bilateral trade gap between the world’s two biggest economies widening further in 2010.

20 Portugal under pressure to seek EU/IMF aid: source

By Jan Strupczewski, Reuters

Sun Jan 9, 6:43 pm ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Pressure is growing on Portugal from Germany, France and other euro zone countries to seek financial help from the EU and IMF to stop the bloc’s debt crisis from spreading, a senior euro zone source said on Sunday.

Some preliminary discussions on the possibility of Portugal asking for help if its financing costs on markets become too high have taken place since July, the source said.

No formal talks on aid have started yet, a number of euro zone sources said, but the pressure was rising in the Eurogroup, which brings together euro zone finance ministers.

21 Duke Energy near deal for Progress Energy: sources

By Michael Erman, Reuters

Sun Jan 9, 6:05 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Duke Energy Corp (DUK.N) is near $13 billion-plus deal to buy Progress Energy Inc (PGN.N), a move that would create the largest U.S. power company, sources familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. power industry has seen a resurgence of deal activity in the past year — despite high regulatory barriers — as utility companies consolidate to cut costs and pool funds for investing in new projects, such as nuclear power plants.

Duke, which has a market value of $23.6 billion, wants to buy Progress in a stock-based deal priced at a low premium to its $13.1 billion market value, one source said. The companies hope to announce a deal on Monday, according to another source, but the talks could still be delayed or even derailed.

22 Fed officials not attached to dual mandate

By Mark Felsenthal, Reuters

Sun Jan 9, 5:38 pm ET

DENVER (Reuters) – One thing’s for sure: no one at the Federal Reserve is leaping out of their chair to defend the central bank’s mandate to ensure full employment from proposals it focus solely on delivering price stability.

As it currently stands, the Fed is assigned by law “to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.”

But some members of Congress are unhappy with the Fed’s recently launched $600 billion bond buying program, which officials at the central bank say is needed in part because unemployment has been stuck at elevated levels for almost two years.

23 Economists foretell of U.S. decline, China’s ascension

By Mark Felsenthal, Reuters

Sun Jan 9, 12:32 pm ET

DENVER (Reuters) – To hear a number of prominent economists tell it, it doesn’t look good for the U.S. economy, not this year, not in 10 years.

Leading thinkers in the dismal science speaking at an annual convention offered varying visions of U.S. economic decline, in the short, medium and long term. This year, the recovery may bog down as government stimulus measures dry up.

In the long run, the United States must face up to inevitably being overtaken by China as the world’s largest economy. And it may have missed a chance to rein in its largest financial institutions, many of whom remain too big to fail and are getting bigger.

24 Detroit auto show to open with newfound optimism

By David Bailey, Reuters

Sun Jan 9, 8:24 pm ET

DETROIT (Reuters) – The most significant arrival at this year’s Detroit auto show is something of a throwback to the heady days of the late 1990s: optimism that growth is accelerating in an infamously cyclical industry.

Coming just at the start of the new year, the Detroit event that opens to the media on Monday is the first of a string of trade shows where automakers clamor to build buzz for vehicles months before they hit showrooms.

The U.S. auto industry snapped a four-year sales decline in 2010, including three consecutive sales months above the 12 million unit annual rate to close the year. Most analysts expect double-digit growth in 2011 and further gains in 2012.

25 Renault says technology safe in industrial spy case

By John Irish, Reuters

Sat Jan 8, 8:19 am ET

PARIS (Reuters) – An international network may have obtained data about Renault’s electric car program, but its vital technology secrets are safe and production of the vehicles will not be held up, the French carmaker said on Saturday.

Three Renault (RENA.PA) executives, including one member of its management committee, were suspended on Monday over the leaking of data, which prompted the government to warn of a widespread risk to French industry.

“This is the work of professionals,” Chief Operating Officer Patrick Pelata said in an interview with Le Monde newspaper’s weekend edition. “Renault is the victim of an organized international network.”

26 Banks lose key foreclosure ruling in top Massachusetts court

By Jonathan Stempel and Dena Aubin, Reuters

Fri Jan 7, 4:58 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – In a decision that may slow foreclosures nationwide, Massachusetts’ highest court voided the seizure of two homes by Wells Fargo & Co and US Bancorp after the banks failed to show they held the mortgages at the time they foreclosed.

Bank shares fell, weighing on broader stock indexes, on fears the decision could threaten lenders’ ability to work through hundreds of thousands of pending foreclosures.

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts’ unanimous decision on Friday upheld a lower court ruling. It is among the earliest cases to address the validity of foreclosures done without proper documentation.

27 Jobs growth disappoints, but jobless rate falls

By Lucia Mutikani, Reuters

Fri Jan 7, 4:57 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Employers hired fewer workers than expected in December and a surprisingly large number of people gave up searching for work, tempering the positive news of a big drop in the unemployment rate.

The disappointing jobs growth figure reported by the Labor Department on Friday suggested the Federal Reserve would likely stay the course with its effort to support the world’s biggest economy with the purchase of $600 billion in government bonds.

The department’s survey of nonfarm employers showed payrolls increased 103,000 last month, below economists’ expectations for 175,000. Private hiring rose 113,000, while government employment fell 10,000.

28 Special Report: How Ford became last man standing

By Bernie Woodall and Kevin Krolicki, Reuters

Fri Jan 7, 4:57 pm ET

DETROIT (Reuters) – Bill Ford Jr. just can’t let the good times roll. In late December, Ford, 53, was on a family ski vacation in Colorado but found himself unable to put aside dark visions of how too much success could lead to the next crisis for the auto industry.

As Ford Motor Co prepared to close the books on its biggest comeback year for sales and earnings since the 1980s, Ford was talking to friends about the risk of gridlock choking booming urban centers from Sao Paolo to Shanghai — and potentially choking auto sales, too.

“I want us to start thinking now about how we’re going to solve it,” he said. “Nobody is thinking about it yet in our industry, but it’s going to be upon us fast.”

29 A sea of tablets at CES, but no iPad-killer

By Gabriel Madway, Reuters

Fri Jan 7, 4:53 pm ET

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – It was easier to find a tablet this week in Las Vegas than a taxi.

Rivals determined to prevent Apple Inc from dominating the tablet market the way it did with digital music players unleashed a tidal wave of touchscreen devices at the Consumer Electronics Show.

This year may well produce a viable competitor to Apple’s iPad. But CES only served to underscore the challenge they face.

30 Portugal bailout talk hits stocks, euro

By PAN PYLAS, AP Business Writer

1 hr 59 mins ago

LONDON – Europe’s debt crisis returned to the fore of investor concerns on Monday amid reports Portugal is facing mounting pressure to accept an aid package to prevent contagion to other countries.

Stocks in Europe have fallen sharply as Portugal’s market borrowing rates have jumped higher in the wake of the renewed bailout talk.

As stocks dropped, the yield on Portugal’s ten-year bonds rose nearly half a percentage point to 7.14 percent. That’s unsustainable in the medium-term and comes ahead of an auction of euro1.25 billion in three year and nine year bonds on Wednesday.

31 China’s December exports up amid tensions

By JOE McDONALD, AP Business Writer

Mon Jan 10, 5:01 am ET

BEIJING – China’s December exports rose by double digits, possibly fueling tension with Washington ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s U.S. visit next week.

The country’s politically sensitive trade surplus shrank to $13.1 billion, customs data showed Monday, but analysts said that decline was likely to be temporary and the gap should rebound later in the year.

Hu meets President Barack Obama on Jan. 19 and the White House says Obama will press him over currency controls that critics say are swelling China’s trade surplus and wiping out jobs abroad. Voter anger over the large and rising U.S. trade deficit with China became an issue in October elections.

32 Chrysler hopes to rev up comeback with new 300

By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer

Sun Jan 9, 11:39 pm ET

DETROIT – The Chrysler 300, once a hot-selling sedan distinguished by a tall grille and big wheels, will attempt a comeback at the Detroit auto show. It’s an important car in a pivotal year for the company, which must start making money before a public stock sale can happen.

The new 300, which will be revealed Monday during the show’s opening media day, keeps the basic look of the old: It’s a muscular car with a long hood and short back. But the remade version is sleeker, and Chrysler toned down the gangster-mobile grille and replaced its round headlamps with subtle rectangular ones. Gas mileage went up 8 percent and the interior has softer-looking surfaces and cool-blue dashboard lighting.

Chrysler wants it to attract a broad range of buyers, from those who want a larger car to those who seek high-performance luxury.

33 Stocks are riding on higher profit margins

By BERNARD CONDON, AP Business Writer

Sun Jan 9, 2:09 pm ET

NEW YORK – Can Corporate America continue to cut its way to profits?

If you’re betting that stocks will rise in 2011, the answer is critical. Profits jumped last year largely because companies ran smarter and squeezed more from workers. Sales are picking up, but probably not enough to keep profits from rising fast in the new year unless companies can get even more out of their workers.

“How can they squeeze costs more than they are now?” asks Howard Silverblatt, a senior analyst at Standard & Poor’s. “Are they going to fire more people? We’re down to the skeleton.”

34 In hard times, states still spend to protect farms

By STEPHEN SINGER, Associated Press

Mon Jan 10, 4:20 am ET

HAMDEN, Conn. – Despite tough financial times following the worst recession in decades, some states continue to spend millions of dollars to preserve American farmland and stem its rapid loss to development and suburban sprawl.

Advocates say the preservation efforts are needed to ensure food is available locally if the national distribution system is ever disrupted. They also say it helps maintain a way of life important to many Americans.

Twenty-five states have farmland preservation programs, and nearly half of them are in the densely populated Northeast, where the loss of fields to housing developments and shopping malls has been rapid and pressing. After losing 21 percent of its farmland in less than two decades, Connecticut increased spending on preservation efforts.

35 Toxic tower damaged on 9/11 finally coming down

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press

Mon Jan 10, 1:26 am ET

NEW YORK – The contaminated bank tower stood shrouded in black netting for years over ground zero, filled with toxic dust and the remains of 9/11 victims. It stayed where it was, not coming down even as the towers at the World Trade Center site slowly began to rise.

Nearly a decade after the trade center’s south tower fell into it, the building with a sad history of legal and regulatory fights, multiple accidents and a blaze that killed two firefighters will finally be gone. The demise of the 41-story former Deutsche Bank building, just south of ground zero, is at least as welcome to its neighbors as the construction of new trade center towers.

“I love having the light,” said Mary Perillo, whose eighth-floor kitchen window overlooks the busy work site where the steel framework of the Deutsche Bank building is being disassembled. “I love having that black monolith out of my face.”

36 Mortgage modifications daunting for homeowners

By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press

Sun Jan 9, 7:07 am ET

HELENA, Mont. – Laverl “Nick” Nicholson used to look out of his kitchen window at the weeping willows that mark the burial place of two of his daughters. Then a debilitating car wreck left him unable to pay the $220,000 he owed on his northwestern Montana home.

He tried for a year and a half to lower his mortgage payments through a loan modification, but the government-insured loan that he took out three years ago came with restrictions. The best the bank could offer him was a reduction of $124 per month, leaving Nicholson with a $1,585 payment that he still couldn’t afford.

The bank foreclosed last April, forcing him to move next door into a mobile home on two of the original property’s 10 acres that he had given his daughter a few years before.

37 Haiti suffers year of crisis with nobody in charge

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press

Sat Jan 8, 12:00 pm ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The silhouetted bodies moved in waves through the night, climbing out of crumbled homes and across mounds of rubble. Hundreds of thousands of people made their way to the center of the shattered city by the thin light of a waning crescent moon. There was hardly a sound.

It took a few moments to recognize the great white dome bowing forward into the night. Another had fallen onto itself, its peak barely visible over the iron gate. The white walls of the 90-year-old mansion were crushed, the portico collapsed. Haiti’s national palace was destroyed.

It was clear from the first, terrible moments after the quake, when I ran out of my broken house to find the neighborhood behind it gone, that Haiti had suffered a catastrophe unique even in its long history of tragedy.

38 Slow growth in jobs underscores challenge ahead

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

Fri Jan 7, 5:25 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The U.S. economy is steadily adding jobs, but still just barely enough to keep up with the growth of the work force. The weakness underscores the nation’s struggle to get back to something resembling normal employment.

The economy added 103,000 jobs in December, a figure that fell short of what most economists were hoping for. The unemployment rate did come down, to 9.4 percent from 9.8, but that was partly because people gave up looking for work.

“The labor market ended last year with a bit of a thud,” Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, said after the Labor Department released its monthly jobs report Friday. He said the drop in unemployment wasn’t likely to be sustained.

39 New biz expansion: Hello Africa, India’s calling

By TOM MALITI and BASHIR ADIGUN, Associated Press

Mon Jan 10, 12:01 am ET

NAIROBI, Kenya – Millions of mobile phone subscribers in Africa saw the icon on their phone screens change from Bahrain company Zain to Indian company Airtel last fall. The change means little to the average customer, but for the continent, it’s another sign that India is moving in.

The expansion by Bharti Airtel into 16 African countries underscores the rise of India in Africa, at a time when much of the focus on foreign investment here has been on China.

The Indian government is raising its diplomatic profile in Africa, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet leading several business delegations in recent years. And Indian companies are striving to keep up with China’s business profile in Africa, taking advantage of historical ties with the continent.

40 Calif nonprofit: We’ll store digital data forever

By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press

Sun Jan 9, 12:30 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Like every other dad with a digital camera, Kai Pommerenke started taking lots of photos after his daughter was born. But the more he researched, the less convinced he became that he could ensure those pictures would still be around when she grew up.

Hard drives crash. CDs and DVDs warp. Companies that store your photos online can go out of business.

Rather than trust his most treasured digital mementoes to technology he saw as all-too-fallible, a team led by the University of California, Santa Cruz economist last month launched a nonprofit he calls the first online storage service to guarantee your data forever.

41 Vt. nuke fights for future but chances are dimming

By DAVE GRAM, Associated Press

Sun Jan 9, 12:16 pm ET

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont’s piece of the nuclear age, launched four decades ago, seems to be coming to a close, even as advocates push for a renaissance of nuclear power in the United States.

The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant’s initial 40-year license expires March 21, 2012, less than 15 months from now. And despite a safety and performance record no worse than many of the other 61 reactors that have won 20-year license extensions from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Vernon power plant’s future looks short.

That’s largely because it’s located in the only state in the country with a law saying both houses of its legislature have to give their approval before Vermont regulators can issue a state license for the plant to continue operating.

42 Ford says culture change has led to success

By DEE-ANN DURBIN and TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writers

Sun Jan 9, 12:03 am ET

DEARBORN, Mich. – In every boom cycle of its 107-year life, Ford Motor Co. became complacent, unprepared for the inevitable bust in the auto business.

From the 1920s, when Ford lost its dominant position in the U.S. because it was slow to update the Model T, to the 2000s, when it squandered billions in SUV profits and narrowly avoided bankruptcy, the company stuck with some strategies too long and didn’t pay enough attention to others.

“You often hear people at Ford say we can’t manage prosperity. I think it’s really quite different than that. It’s that we stop changing,” Executive Chairman Bill Ford told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

43 NYC overprepares for new snow after blizzard mess

By SARA KUGLER FRAZIER, Associated Press

Sat Jan 8, 2:52 am ET

NEW YORK – New York City came out overprepared Friday for a weak storm that delivered just a few inches of snow – not enough to plow in most places and likely not enough for the mayor to redeem himself from a disastrous response to a post-Christmas blizzard.

Flakes melted onto wet streets as snowplows – some equipped with global positioning devices since the blizzard foul-up – and salt spreaders sat idle in neighborhoods all over the city.

By nightfall, the National Weather Service reported the highest accumulation citywide was 2 inches in Queens, a mere dusting compared with the holiday storm that dumped 29 inches in Staten Island, 2 feet in Brooklyn and 20 inches in Central Park.

44 Oil still fouling La. marshes, tour finds

By HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press

Fri Jan 7, 6:50 pm ET

PORT SULPHUR, La. – Federal and Louisiana officials got into a heated argument Friday over the cleanup of oiled marshes during a tour of an area that remains fouled 8 1/2 months after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

State and Plaquemines Parish officials took media on a boat tour of Barataria Bay, pointing out an area where oil continues to eat away at marshes and protective boom is either absent or has been gobbled up by the oil. The heavily saturated area that reporters saw was 30 feet to 100 feet wide in sections. No cleanup workers were there when reporters toured the area.

The marshes are critical to the Louisiana coast because they protect the shore from hurricanes and serve as a nursery for Gulf sea life.

45 Guidant case judge expected to rule on plea deal

By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press

Fri Jan 7, 6:47 pm ET

MINNEAPOLIS – Boston Scientific Corp. has strengthened its programs to make sure it complies with laws regulating its medical devices, after its Guidant unit failed to properly disclose changes it made to some implantable heart devices in 2002 and 2005, according to a court document aimed at trying to resolve criminal charges against the heart device maker.

The document, filed this week by an attorney for Guidant, was requested by U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, who earlier rejected a guilty plea by Guidant LLC and asked for more information about its compliance programs and community service efforts.

Guidant pleaded guilty last spring to submitting a false and misleading report to the Federal Drug Administration about one defibrillator model, and failing to notify regulators about a safety correction to another line of devices. Guidant agreed to pay $296 million in fines and forfeiture fees in what prosecutors called the largest criminal penalty assessed against a medical device company.

46 What worked for mutual funds in ’10: Go small

By MARK JEWELL, AP Personal Finance Writer

Fri Jan 7, 5:45 pm ET

BOSTON – By most measures 2010 was a good year for investors. After a few anxious years the stock market generated a return of more than 15 percent.

But some mutual fund investors were rewarded with eyebrow-raising returns of more than 40 percent. The key strategy in their playbook? Going small.

The success of that approach stands out in a list of last year’s top-performing stock funds. The largest returns among nine fund categories tracked by Morningstar Inc. are concentrated in those that specialize in stocks of small companies. And “small” is a relative term – it generally refers to companies valued at $2 billion or less.

47 Commerce secretary denies fish catch limit hike

By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press

Fri Jan 7, 5:33 pm ET

BOSTON – The U.S. commerce secretary Friday denied a request by the governor of Massachusetts for emergency increases in New England’s fish catch limits, saying there’s no new science to justify them.

Secretary Gary Locke had said in October he was open to ordering increases, but needed evidence to support it.

Gov. Deval Patrick responded in a November, sending a letter and scientific report to Locke that said unnecessarily low catch limits were creating an “economic disaster” for local fishermen. The report estimated a $40 million hit in direct losses and foregone catch.

48 Amusement park chain investor seeks board shake-up

By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press

Fri Jan 7, 5:05 pm ET

TOLEDO, Ohio – The head of one of the nation’s biggest amusement park operators is on a bumpy ride as he tries to maintain control of the company.

A hedge fund that holds the most shares of North America’s third-largest chain, Ohio-based Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., wants the company’s longtime chief executive ousted as board chairman, accusing him of mismanaging the parks while receiving a bloated salary.

Shareholders will decide at a special meeting Tuesday whether to block company officeholders, including current CEO Richard Kinzel, from serving as chairman. They’ll also decided whether to increase Cedar Fair’s shareholder dividends.

Jan 10 2011

On This Day in History January 10

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 355 days remaining until the end of the year (356 in leap years).

On this day in 1901, a gusher signals start of U.S. oil industry

A drilling derrick at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, Texas, produces an enormous gusher of crude oil, coating the landscape for hundreds of feet and signaling the advent of the American oil industry. The geyser was discovered at a depth of over 1,000 feet, flowed at an initial rate of approximately 100,000 barrels a day and took nine days to cap. Following the discovery, petroleum, which until that time had been used in the U.S. primarily as a lubricant and in kerosene for lamps, would become the main fuel source for new inventions such as cars and airplanes; coal-powered forms of transportation including ships and trains would also convert to the liquid fuel.

Crude oil, which became the world’s first trillion-dollar industry, is a natural mix of hundreds of different hydrocarbon compounds trapped in underground rock. The hydrocarbons were formed millions of years ago when tiny aquatic plants and animals died and settled on the bottoms of ancient waterways, creating a thick layer of organic material. Sediment later covered this material, putting heat and pressure on it and transforming it into the petroleum that comes out of the ground today.

(emphasis mine)

There had long been suspicions that oil might be under [“Spindletop Hill.” The area was known for its sulfur springs and bubbling gas seepages that would ignite if lit. In August 1892, George W. O’Brien, George W. Carroll, Pattillo Higgins and others formed the Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Company to do exploratory drilling on Spindletop Hill. The company drilled many dry holes and ran into trouble, as investors began to balk at pouring more money into drilling with no oil to show for it.

Pattillo Higgins left the company and teamed with Captain Anthony F. Lucas, the leading expert in the U.S. on salt dome formations. Lucas made a lease agreement in 1899 with the Gladys City Company and a later agreement with Higgins. Lucas drilled to 575 feet (180 m) before running out of money. He secured additional funding from John H. Galey and James M. Guffey of Pittsburgh, but the deal left Lucas with only a small share of the lease and Higgins with nothing.

Lucas continued drilling and on January 10, 1901, at a depth of 1,139 ft (347 m), what is known as the Lucas Gusher or the Lucas Geyser blew oil over 150 feet (50 m) in the air at a rate of 100,000 barrels per day (16,000 m3/d)(4,200,000 gallons). It took nine days before the well was brought under control. Spindletop was the largest gusher the world had seen and catapulted Beaumont into an oil-fueled boomtown. Beaumont’s population of 10,000 tripled in three months and eventually rose to 50,000. Speculation led land prices to increase rapidly. By the end of 1902, over 500 companies were formed and 285 active wells were in operation.

Production began to decline rapidly after 1902, and the wells produced only 10,000 barrels per day (1,600 m3/d) by 1904. On November 14, 1925, the Yount-Lee Oil Company brought in its McFaddin No. 2 at a depth of about 2,500 feet (800 m), sparking a second boom, which culminated in the field’s peak production year of 1927, during which 21,000,000 barrels (3.3 GL) were produced. Over the ten years following the McFaddin discovery, over 72,000,000 barrels (11.4 GL) of oil were produced, mostly from the newer areas of the field. Spindletop continued as a productive source of oil until about 1936. It was then mined for sulfur from the 1950s to about 1975.

America’s first documented oil spill

 49 BC – Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war.

69 – Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus is appointed by Galba to deputy Roman Emperor.

236 – Pope Fabian succeeds Anterus as the twentieth pope of Rome.

1072 – Robert Guiscard conquers Palermo.

1475 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeats the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.

1645 – Archbishop William Laud is beheaded at the Tower of London.

1776 – Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense.

1806 – Dutch settlers in Cape Town surrender to the British.

1810 – Napoleon divorces his first wife Josephine.

1861 – American Civil War: Florida secedes from the Union.

1863 – The London Underground, the world’s oldest underground railway, opens between London Paddington station and Farringdon station.

1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.

1901 – The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.

1916 – Erzerum Offensive during World War I, Russian victory over Ottoman Empire.

1920 – The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I.

1922 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Irish Free State.

1923 – Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel.

1941 – World War II: The Greek army captures Kleisoura.

1946 – The first General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented.

1946 – The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the moon and receiving the reflected signals.

1962 – Apollo Project: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket booster. It became better known as the Saturn V moon rocket, which launched every Apollo moon mission.

1972 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returns to the newly independent Bangladesh as president after spending over nine months in prison in Pakistan.

1981 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensive, gaining control of most of Morazan and Chalatenango departments

1984 – The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations after 117 years.

1990 – Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.

1999 – Sanjeev Nanda killed three policemen in New Delhi with his car, an act for which he was later acquitted, resulting in a sharp drop in public confidence in the Indian legal system.

2001 – A large piece of the chalk cliff at Beachy Head collapses into the sea.

2003 – Illinois Governor George Ryan commutes the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois’ death row based on the Jon Burge scandal.

2005 – A mudslide occurs in La Conchita, California, killing 10 people, injuring many more and closing the Highway 101, the main coastal corridor between San Francisco and Los Angeles, for 10 days.

2010 – Somali Civil War: Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a forces attack and initially capture East Beledweyne which was being held by the Hizbul Islam insurgent group, before being beaten back.

Holidays and observances

   Christian Feast Day:

       Obadiah (Coptic Church)

       Peter Orseolo

       Pope Agatho (Roman Catholic)

       January 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   Traditional Day (Benin

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