Shares plunged on Wall Street and the dollar fell sharply tonight after an increase in jobless claims and weak signals from industry prompted fears that the US is heading for a double-dip recession.
The Dow Jones index fell 200 points at one stage in morning trading in New York after the US labour department reported that 500,000 new claims for unemployment benefit were filed in the week ending 14 August – an increase of 12,000 on the previous week and the highest figure for nine months.
The already gloomy mood was compounded when the Philadelphia Fed, one of the Federal Reserve's 12 regional reserve banks, published its monthly health check on manufacturing in America's mid-Atlantic region. The survey, seen by Wall Street as a barometer of US industrial conditions, showed activity had contracted unexpectedly for the first time since July 2009.
President Barack Obama called on Congress to pass a bill providing support for small businesses, but Wall Street believes the threat to the world's biggest economy will also require action by the Federal Reserve to expand the money supply through its quantitative easing programme. James Bullard, president of the St Louis Fed, said tonight that the central bank would need to step up its purchases of bonds should the threat of deflation intensify.
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip—A France-based satellite provider is halting broadcasts of the Hamas TV channel to Europe and parts of the Arab world because of concerns that it spreads incitement, a station official said Tuesday.
The decision will deprive Gaza-based al-Aqsa TV of most of its viewers, said the channel's head, Hazem Sharawy.
The Hamas station -- best known for its children's programs glorifying violence against Israel -- is the centerpiece of a growing media operation of Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers. Losing the satellite provider will hamper the group's attempts to spread its message and raise funds abroad.
The decision to cut off the Hamas station came six years after a similar move by France and the U.S. against al-Manar, the channel of Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.
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Maze Cartoon of the Afghanistan hand-off between Petraeus and McCrystal.
Cartoon maze sports analogy of an NFL football handoff between Petraeus and McCrystal as generals for the war in Afghanistan. Created by Yonatan Frimer
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WASHINGTON - US PRESIDENT Barack Obama yesterday removed his top US commander in Afghanistan following a public flap over the general's controversial remarks to a magazine.
The unceremonious exit of General Stanley McChrystal injected greater uncertainty into the troubled war effort, taking place just as the United States was about to launch a major offensive in and around the key southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the stronghold of the Taleban.
Gen McChrystal, who derided the Obama administration and its handling of the war in Afghanistan in a lengthy profile in the Rolling Stone magazine, was summoned to the White House yesterday to explain his remarks.
After a 30-minute face-to-face meeting, Mr Obama said he accepted the resignation of the petulant general and relieved him of his command of US forces in Afghanistan. 'It was a difficult decision, it saddens me to lose a soldier who I've come to respect and admire,' said Mr Obama, noting that the decision was not prompted by the 'personal insult'.
'But war is bigger than any one man or woman. Difficult as this is, it is the right decision for our national security.'
The United States appears to be moving toward early implementation of the New START treaty signed with Russian less than one month ago.
The rapid implementation is evident in the State Department’s latest fact sheet, which declares that the United States as of December 31, 2009, deployed 1,968 strategic warheads.
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| Current pace of U.S. strategic warhead downloading could reach New START limit in 2010. |
The New START force level of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads is not required to be reached until 2017 at the earliest. But at the current downloading rate, the United States could reach the limit before the end of this year.
Since the signing of the Moscow Treaty in 2002, the United States has removed an average of 490 warheads each year from ballistic missiles and bomber bases, for a total of approximately 3,436 warheads. There are now only a few hundred strategic warheads left at U.S. bomber bases, with most of the deployed warheads concentrated on ballistic missiles.
The last time the United States deployed less than 2,000 strategic warheads was in 1956. The peak was nearly 12,790 deployed strategic warheads in 1987.
The Promise from Obama Maze
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By Ian Swanson - 04/30/10 09:18 AM ET
The nation’s gross domestic product increased 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010, bolstering the Obama administration’s arguments that the economy is improving.
The jump in GDP was lower that the 5.6 percent increase registered in the last quarter of 2009, but still represents significant economic growth. It’s the third quarter in a row that the U.S. economy has expanded.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to make a statement on the figures from the Rose Garden on Friday morning. (Read More)
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Arnold Schwarzenegger on Hummer Hybrid that gets 100mpg
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California governor and Hummer aficionado Arnold Schwarzenegger hailed a 100-mpg hybrid version of the much-maligned SUV when it was unveiled Monday in Detroit.
The Raser H3 range-extended electric vehicle was among the vehicles Schwarzenegger checked out during the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress, where he called for a national energy policy that promotes efficient vehicles. The governor, a self-professed car lover who owns 12 vehicles, seemed impressed by what he saw.
"There is nothing wrong with the Hummer; it’s great vehicle," he said, according to The Detroit News. "We should change the technology within those vehicles."
Read More http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/04/hybrid-hummer-c/
