Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch’s former British CEO, says she is “assisting the police with their inquiries” after being arrested in the British phone hacking and police bribery scandal.
Brooks, 43, was arrested at a London police station at noon Sunday by appointment. She is being questioned on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications _ phone hacking _ and on suspicion of corruption, which relates to bribing police for information free instant credit score.
The first time Illinois tried to sell Asian carp to China, officials couldn’t give it away. But some marketing magic
About 50 Yemeni soldiers are missing after battling Islamic militants in the south of the country, a military official said Saturday.
The soldiers have been missing since Thursday, following fierce clashes with the al-Qaida-linked group Ansar al-Sharia in the southern city of Zinjibar, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. On Thursday, 15 soldiers and eight Islamic militants were killed in fighting in Zinjibar, the official said.
He said he had no further information on the fate of the missing soldiers.
Elsewhere in Yemen, gunmen blew up an unused oil pipeline in the central province of Marib, the latest in a series of attacks on the same target in recent weeks, officials said Saturday. The attack occurred Thursday, they said.
Yemeni authorities stopped producing oil in May because of repeated attacks and labor unrest.
Yemen’s growing turmoil, including the government’s battle against al-Qaida’s most dangerous wing in the south of the country, come at a time when the weakened regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh faces an array of opponents. Government forces do not appear to have the will to fight the Islamists, raising fears that al-Qaida is making significant gains.
Recent advances made by the militants in the increasingly lawless south are a clear attempt to exploit the power vacuum and turmoil caused by a popular uprising against Saleh that began in February. The revolt gained momentum when a coterie of the president’s close aides, military commanders and Cabinet ministers joined the protesters.
Government troops and warplanes have so far targeted only two southern cities, Zinjibar and Jaar, in Abyan province.
Yemen’s president, meanwhile, remains in Saudi Arabia, where he is being treated for injuries sustained in a June 3 attack on his palace in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. Saleh suffered serious burns and other wounds.
Yemeni officials said Saturday that after undergoing two surgeries, Saleh remains bedridden and has trouble breathing and talking. Only relatives and his top adviser are allowed to visit him, one official said.
Earlier this week, a Yemeni TV network sent a crew to the Saudi capital to record an audio message from Saleh to the Yemeni people, but authorities prevented them from entering the hospital, a Yemeni official in Riyadh said.
“They were only allowed to film the hospital from outside,” the official said, citing an example of the Saudi restrictions on Saleh’s visitors.
Over the past week, Yemeni ruling party officials in Sanaa have suggested Saleh may deliver an audio message on state TV to assure his people. However, a week passed without word from Saleh.
“If he (Saleh) delivered a speech through an audio message, people would not believe it is him because they will not recognize his voice,” said another official, adding that Saleh’s voice box was harmed.
All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
The president has not been seen in public since the attack. On June 5, hours before he flew to Saudi Arabia, he aired a brief audio message, blaming an “armed gang of outlaws” for the attack on his palace.
Saudi Arabia has been pressing Saleh to step down within 30 days and hand power to his vice president, in exchange for immunity from prosecution. A national unity government would run the country until elections are held, according to the deal brokered by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.
The United States, in favor of peaceful power transfer, fears that al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen could further exploit Yemen’s turmoil to strengthen its presence there. Al-Qaida-linked groups have already used Yemen as a base for plotting two attempted anti-U.S. attacks.
Greece’s prime minister was gambling his government’s survival and the danger of a devastating debt default on a Tuesday night confidence vote aimed at helping him passing deeply disliked austerity measures that have provoked strikes, protests and a slump in his popularity.
Greek deputies began voting after midnight in a crucial confidence motion called by Prime Minister George Papandreou after he reshuffled his cabinet to face down an internal party revolt and help him pass deeply unpopular austerity measures.
The vote was being conducted by roll call after a heated debate that saw sections of the opposition briefly walk out. Papandreou needs 151 votes in the 300-member parliament to win, which he is expected to do.
A loss would likely lead to early elections and throw into question whether Greece can pass a new austerity bill by the end of June as demanded by the country’s international creditors. Unless the new measures pass, Greece will not receive the next batch of funds from its bailout loans, and will face a disastrous default.
Greece is being kept financially afloat by euro110 billion ($157 billion) EU-IMF bailout fund.
A default by Greece could spark a financial maelstrom around the world, dragging down Greek and European banks as well as stoking renewed fears over the finances of other eurozone countries, such as Portugal, Ireland and Spain.
Expectations that Papandreou would win lifted world markets. His Socialist party holds a five-seat majority in the 300-member legislature, and a simple majority is needed to pass.
“Indications over the last 24 hours or so have certainly been that the government will survive, if only because the alternative would be so dire,” said Beat Siegenthaler, an analyst at UBS.
Papandreou reshuffled his Cabinet last week and replaced his finance minister to ease growing dissent within the governing party.
On Tuesday the new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, promised that parliament will pass the unpopular austerity package by the end of June in order to comply with European Union demands to receive the next payment in its bailout loan.
Venizelos said Parliament is set to vote on euro28 billion ($40.2 billion) worth of budget cuts and other savings next week.
Greece has said it will face a default unless it receives the euro12 billion ($17.3 billion) rescue loan installment from European countries and the International Monetary Fund.
“We must follow this course to save the country,” Venizelos said.
“Our European partners … face is with distrust,” he said. “This is an atmosphere that we have to change.”
Papandreou’s popularity has been hammered by the latest austerity measures, with an opinion poll published Tuesday giving the Socialists a 20 loans for people with bad credit.1 percent approval rating. Rival conservatives faired marginally better, at 21 percent, in the GPO survey for private Mega television of 1,000 adults. No margin of error was given.
Some 7,000 protesters, chanting “thieves! thieves!” were gathered outside parliament, while a strike by the country’s powerful electricity workers’ union continued to cause rolling blackouts for a second day.
Socialist skeptics, however, appeared to shy away from another fight.
Prominent dissenter Nikolas Salagiannis, said he would vote in favor of the government following the cabinet reshuffle.
“This has generated a slim hope that the issues can be addressed … We back the new government,” Salagiannis said. But he added: “Make no mistake, our connection with people in the street and in the squares is dwindling by the day. We have gone from austerity to more austerity, from denial to denial to get where we are … and the public’s tolerance has been used up.”
Though considered unlikely, if Papandreou loses Tuesday’s vote he would have little choice but to call early elections or try to form a coalition government. However, all opposition parties have said they want elections.
But even after winning, he faces an even more difficult task: Getting parliament to back the new austerity measures as well as an unpopular euro50 billion ($71 billion) privatization program by the end of the month.
If the new austerity measures pass, the finance ministers of the 17-nation eurozone will meet July 3 to give Greece its next bailout installment.
A key requirement from the eurozone and the IMF is that Greece steps up its privatization drive.
European officials are also discussing a second, similar-sized bailout for Greece since it’s obvious the country won’t be able to return to the bond markets and raise money to pay creditors any time soon.
“I trust that the new Greek government will receive the confidence of parliament,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said after meeting with Papandreou Monday, but added the crucial vote was the one on the new austerity package.
“I therefore trust that Greece’s elected representatives will back these measures next week in a spirit of national and indeed European responsibility,” Barroso said. “These choices are not easy, but nor are the problems that need to be addressed. Now is not the time to falter.”
Air India pilots demanding more pay are on strike for a fifth day in defiance of a court order to return to work and spare the airline from further losses.
The strike has forced India’s national carrier to stop taking new bookings and to cancel all but 40 of its scheduled 165 flights Sunday. It has forced after similar cancelations each day since the strike started Wednesday.
The airline is also coping by hiring chartered flights for some routes. It says the action is now costing around 12 million rupees ($2.67 million) a day.
The Delhi High Court had ordered the 800 striking pilots last week to call off their “brazen” strike. It launched contempt of court proceedings Saturday when the pilots refused to go back to work.
Airfares are going up yet again.
Late Tuesday, Southwest Airlines raised all of its round-trip fares by $10. Delta (DAL, Fortune 500) initiated this latest round of price increases on Monday, and as of midday Wednesday American Airlines (AMR, Fortune 500), JetBlue (JBLU) and United Airlines (UAL) had matched it.
Industry experts say the $10 increase is likely to be adopted industrywide.
If so, this would mark the seventh time this year that domestic airlines have jacked up fares.
In the past five years, no industrywide attempt to raise fares failed when Southwest was on-board.
Southwest (LUV, Fortune 500) blames the price of fuel.
"This higher fare is to offset higher fuel costs that we continue to face in the industry," said company spokeswoman Laurel Moffat.
This year is similar to 2008, when oil prices were surging and oil hit a record high of $145 a barrel. In 2008, there were 17 successful hikes.
Oil was trading at about $111 a barrel on Wednesday.
Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, said the industry is "on pace to break that record this year," though he believes prices won’t go too high.
"In 2007, it was not unusual to have one-third of a plane empty," Seaney said. "Today to keep revenues up, planes have to be full. And to fill up those planes, you have to be price conscious. So prices can’t get too out of whack."
When airlines announce these price increases, they are doing two things: gauging consumer appetite and the willingness of competitors to follow. Airlines are only able to charge higher prices if customers are willing to pay. And, these hikes aren’t successful unless most or all competitors match the hike.
If only one airline announces a hike, it will end up on the last few pages on airline ticket comparison sites — effectively out of view for many online shoppers.
Industry experts believe that fliers will see more airfare hikes throughout the year. Seaney said it wouldn’t surprise him if we saw one a week for the next month.
And with the summer travel season right around the corner, consumers can expect even higher airline prices.
Between June 9 and Aug. 21, airlines are charging additional summer premiums. Last year was the first year that airlines started charging summer premiums.
Demand is typically higher at this time or year, so airlines are able to charge more.
Spain’s Treasury sold 4.66 billion euros ($6.68 billion) of Treasury bills, and its borrowing costs rose after elections in Finland threatened to disrupt European efforts to stem the debt crisis.
The Treasury said it sold 3.5 billion euros of 12-month bills at an average yield of 2.77 percent, compared with 2.128 percent at the previous auction on March 15. It also sold 1.15 billion euros of 18-month bills at 3.364 percent, compared with 2.436 percent in March.
Demand for the 12-month debt was 1.63 times the amount sold, compared with 2.37 last month, and the bid-to-cover ratio for the 18-month debt was 2.04, compared with 3.51. The Treasury aimed to sell a maximum of 5.5 billion euros.
Spanish 10-year borrowing costs rose for a fourth day today after a Finnish party that opposes euro-region bailouts won enough support in elections yesterday to form part of a coalition government in the AAA-rated nation best payday advance. Borrowing costs in the euro region’s periphery also rose amid increasing expectations that Greece may restructure its debt, even as Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said the “pain” of doing so would be worse than repaying lenders.
The gap between Spanish and German 10-year yields widened to 219 basis points after the auction, from 204 basis points on April 15. That compares with a euro-era record of 298 basis points on Nov. 30, after Ireland became the second euro nation following Greece to seek a European bailout, and an average of 15 basis points in the first decade of monetary union.
OTTAWA
Residents barricaded themselves inside their homes Sunday, blanketing windows and pushing furniture against doors as this country on Africa’s western coast tensely awaited the final battle between the two men who claim the presidency.
Fighters backing the internationally recognized president, Alassane Ouattara, amassed at a tollbooth on the city’s northern edge, preparing for the final assault. Their leader was declared the winner of last November’s election, but Ouattara has not been able to assume office because outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo is refusing to yield power.
Water has been cut off to much of Abidjan, and on the empty streets, a handful of women with basins could be seen hurriedly crossing the waterfront highway to reach the lagoon. Men ventured out with plastic bags to scoop up water, holding the bags high in the air to signal to soldiers in firing positions that they were not armed.
Only about 20 miles separates the thousands of pro-Ouattara foot soldiers readying for battle from the lagoonside district where the presidential palace and mansion are located.
A resident of the Cocody neighborhood where the mansion is located said around 700 Gbagbo supporters had gathered at the gates of the compound Sunday, after state television, still controlled by the entrenched ruler, called on the population to form a human shield to protect the presidential palace. The resident, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said the supporters had been armed with AK-47 assault rifles.
Toussaint Alain, Gbagbo’s representative in Europe, told reporters in Paris that Gbagbo is not giving up.
“President Gbagbo, I have said, is at the residence of the head of state, his usual workplace, and he is managing the crisis with teams that have been put into place to deal with this aggression coming from the outside,” Alain said. “It’s not up to America or France to decide who must lead the Ivory Coast.”
The international community has been nearly unanimous in backing Ouattara, whose win with over 54 percent of the vote was confirmed by Ivorian election officials and a 900-strong United Nations observation mission.
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Gbagbo to step down immediately. She expressed concern about a massacre in the western town of Duekoue, where U.N. investigators said Sunday at least 430 people were killed last week, after pro-Ouattara forces moved in. It’s unclear which side committed the killings, with both camps denying responsibility.
In Nairobi, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated the call.
“There has been too much bloodshed,” Ban said. “I renew my call on Mr quick cash. Gbagbo to step down to avoid further violence and transfer power immediately to the legitimate general candidate president Ouattara.”
As the city waited tensely, many people were running out of food. One woman blocked inside her office when the violence erupted said she survived for four days on a pack of diet cookies, a bottle of whiskey and a few cans of soda.
The armed group backing Ouattara began its advance on the city six days ago, taking nearly 80 percent of the country before reaching the perimeter of Abidjan.
Heavy artillery could be heard for days. In neighborhoods near the palace, the explosions were loud enough to make walls shake.
At the Malian Embassy, more than 2,000 Malian nationals have taken refuge after Gbagbo’s forces began attacking citizens of neighboring African nations. Mali, like most countries in Africa, has followed the United Nations position, calling on Gbagbo to step down and angering his supporters, who have carried out revenge killings.
“People are sleeping in the basement and in the halls. There’s no more room,” said Nouhou Diallo, a Malian community leader huddled inside. “The water was cut off yesterday. We’re scared to go out but we were so thirsty today that some of us ran across the road to get water from the lagoon.”
The United Nations began evacuating 200 employees by helicopter, relocating them in a city in the north controlled by Ouattara.
On Sunday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he had arranged for all French citizens in Ivory Coast to meet at a single location to guarantee their safety.
Cmdr. Frederic Daguillon, military spokesman for the French base here, confirmed that French forces had occupied the Abidjan airport, in hopes of allowing the return of commercial flights so foreign citizens could be evacuated.
Even if the airport is now secure, however, it was close to impossible to reach.
Troops loyal to the defiant Gbagbo opened fire with automatic weapons on a three-car convoy that attempted to drive through Abidjan on Sunday morning, blasting out the windows and wounding one of the passengers, said driver Ahmed Yoda.
A United Nations armored personnel carrier was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade a day earlier, seriously injuring four peacekeepers.
Even diplomats were stranded. A consular officer living in a diplomatic residence not far from the besieged palace said she filled her bathtub with water and had been using it for washing and drinking for the past three days.
The U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 8.9 percent in February, the lowest in almost two years, employers added 192,000 jobs in a sign of growing confidence in the recovery.
The increase in payrolls partly reflected a return to more seasonable weather and followed a 63,000 gain in January, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists was for an addition of 196,000 jobs last month.
Manufacturing, construction and transportation were among industries adding workers, underscoring Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s testimony to Congress this week that there are “grounds for optimism” about improvements in the labor market. Employment growth is giving Americans the means to keep spending at retailers such as J.C. Penney Co. and Macy’s Inc. (M)
“The economy has been clawing its way back up the side of the mountain for the better part of a year and these numbers are consistent with that,” Paul O’Neill, a special adviser to the New York-based Blackstone Group LP and a former Treasury Secretary, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Where we are is the process of natural healing of our economy.”
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 1.2 percent to 1,314.84 at 12:43 p.m. in New York on concern wage gains may not keep up with rising energy prices. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.49 percent from 3.56 percent late yesterday.
Unemployment Projections
The unemployment rate was projected to rise to 9.1 percent from 9 percent, according to the survey median. The number of unemployed fell by 190,000, and those employed rose by 250,000. The size of the labor force increased by 60,000.
Some U.S. companies are ramping up hiring. Intel Corp. (INTC), the world’s largest chipmaker, and Home Depot Inc. (HD) announced plans last month to hire thousands of workers.
President Barack Obama last week told the first meeting of his panel of outside economic advisers that the U.S. must deal with stubbornly high unemployment even as the recovery is well under way.
“We still have a ways to go,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in an interview today with Bloomberg Television. “We still have a lot of people who need jobs.”
Last month’s increase in payrolls was the biggest since May. If sustained, that pace would reduce the unemployment rate to 6.9 percent by November 2012, when Obama faces re-election, said Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia. The rate was 7.8 percent when Obama took office in January 2009.
Bernanke Comments
The labor market “has improved only slowly,” and it may take “several years” for the unemployment rate to reach a “more normal level,” Bernanke said March 1 during testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.
Still, “we do see some grounds for optimism about the job market over the next few quarters, including notable declines in the unemployment rate in December and January, a drop in new claims for unemployment insurance, and an improvement in firms’ hiring plans,” Bernanke said.
Payroll estimates in a Bloomberg survey of 84 economists ranged from gains of 100,000 to 297,000. January employment was revised up from an initially reported gain of 36,000, while December payrolls increased 152,000 after a previously reported 121,000 rise.
Private hiring, which excludes government agencies, rose by 222,000 in February, exceeding the 200,000 median forecast in the Bloomberg survey. Private payroll gains averaged 145,000 during the first two months of the year, compared with 120,000 during the last half of 2010.
Government Payrolls
Government payrolls decreased by 30,000 last month, reflecting cuts at the state and local level. Federal government employment was unchanged.
Factory payrolls increased by 33,000, exceeding the survey forecast of a 25,000 gain. A measure of the share of industries showing job gains last month rose to 68.2, the highest since May 1998.
Orders to U.S. factories climbed in January by the most in more than four years as demand for commercial aircraft rebounded after slumping the previous month. Bookings for manufacturers’ goods rose 3.1 percent, the biggest gain since September 2006, after a revised 1.4 percent increase in December, the Commerce Department said today.
‘Solid Start’
“We are encouraged by our solid start to the year,” Michael Balmuth, chief executive officer of Pleasanton, California-based discounter Ross Stores, said in a statement. Even so, “the much more important March/April holiday selling period is still ahead.”
Employment at service-providers rose 122,000. Construction payrolls rose 33,000 and transportation and warehousing jobs increased by 22,000. Retail trade employment declined 8,100.
A return to more seasonable temperatures helped boost payrolls last month.
Nationwide, temperatures during the week of the February employment survey were near normal, except for the central and southern Great Plains, according to National Weather Service. Economists said a snowstorm that spread from the Midwest and the South to New England during the prior month’s survey week likely depressed January numbers as businesses temporarily closed.
Hourly Earnings
Weather may have also skewed figures for average hourly earnings and the length of the workweek. Earnings averaged $22.87 an hour last month, little changed after a 0.4 percent jump in January. The average work week for all workers held at 34.2 hours.
“We believe that the workweek has been depressed by bad weather in recent months and the unchanged wage rate in February probably reflects a payback for an outsized gain” in January, Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York.
The so-called underemployment rate — which includes part- time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking — decreased to 15.9 percent, the lowest since April 2009.
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