Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez headed back to Cuba on Saturday for a fourth phase of chemotherapy that he expects to be his last round of treatment for cancer.
Supporters greeted Chavez with songs and a prayer outside the presidential palace before he left for the airport along with Bolivian President Evo Morales, who was accompanying him to the island.
Chavez told the crowd that he is confident he is overcoming the illness.
“I’m sure that this week we will close the cycle of chemotherapy and we will be turning the page,” he told supporters, standing at the doors of the presidential palace.
“Chavez’s cancer is now part of this history,” he added, likening it to the short-lived coup he survived in 2002.
Chavez waved to the crowd wearing the red beret and fatigues from his years as an army paratroop commander.
Later, a military band played Venezuela’s national anthem at the airport as Chavez and Morales prepared to board their flight to Havana pay day loans.
Speaking earlier at the presidential palace, Chavez said he expected to undergo medical tests in Havana on Saturday night and then resume chemotherapy Sunday. He said he would return from Cuba before next weekend.
Once the treatments are finished, he said, it will be “goodbye to the threat of cancer, and then on to life.”
“I will come out strengthened,” Chavez said.
The 57-year-old leader referred to his 2012 re-election campaign saying “the battle that lies ahead is hard.”
He underwent surgery in Cuba in June to remove a tumor from his pelvic region. Since then, he has undergone three rounds of chemotherapy treatments, two of those in Cuba.
He has said that the treatment aims to prevent any cancerous cells from reappearing and that tests have shown no signs of a recurrence.
Japan’s new prime minister has promised to restart nuclear plants following safety checks ordered after the crisis at the tsunami-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda also said Tuesday in his first policy speech since taking office two weeks ago that the country should reduce its reliance on atomic energy over the long term, but offered no specifics.
More than 30 of Japan’s 54 reactors have been idled, causing electricity shortages amid sweltering summer temperatures.
Noda also said he would press ahead with the recovery of the tsunami-battered northeastern region, calling on his fellow citizens not to forget “the spirit of dignity of all Japanese” in the face of disaster.
The economic news is gloomy, and the stock market is down 4 percent this year.
So where are mutual fund managers finding real values, aside from bargain-hunting among stocks with depressed prices? Top fund manager Chuck Akre sees lasting value in the stocks of three discount retailers, each with a gain more than 20 percent this year.
They’re among the top holdings in the Akre Focus Fund. One of Akre’s largest stakes is in Dollar Tree Stores Inc. The other two are off-price apparel rivals: Ross Stores Inc., owner of Ross Dress for Less stores, and TJX Cos., which runs the T.J.Maxx and Marshalls chains.
The impressive rise of these stocks in a down market
Stocks are plunging at the opening of trading on news that the U.S. economy added no new jobs last month. Treasury yields fell and gold rose.
The jobs report was the weakest in almost a year. It renewed fears that the U.S. might slip back into recession.
A strike by 45,000 Verizon workers lowered the job totals. Those workers are back on the job. Private employers added 17,000 jobs. Without the Verizon strike the total would have been 62,000.
Ten minutes after the opening bell, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 245 points, or 2.1 percent, at 11,248. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is down 27, or 2.3 percent, at 1,176. The Nasdaq composite index is down 56, or 2.2 percent, at 2,490.
Annual retail sales rose 4.6 per cent to $37.8 billion in June, compared to the year earlier period, driven mainly by strong gains in sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.
On a monthly basis, sales rose 0.7 per cent in June compared to May, the third month in a row that retail sales made gains, the agency said.
All of the gains were driven by strong sales in automotive and gasoline. Excluding sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales decreased 0.1 per cent month over month.
Higher sales and lower prices at new car dealers accounted for most of the 1.6 per cent increase in volume terms over May.
Gains were reported in 6 of 11 subsectors. On a month over month basis, the largest increase was registered by motor vehicle and parts dealers, up 3.4 per cent. New car dealers led the gain with growth in sales of 3.3 per cent, the third increase in four months. Sales at used car dealers rose 10.4 per cent in June, more than offsetting the declines in the three previous months.
Building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers registered a second consecutive increase, rising 2 no faxing 1 hour payday loans.1 per cent. Stronger sales of hardware and home renovation products continued in June.
Sales at food and beverage stores rose 0.3 per cent, after three months of declines. Higher sales at supermarkets and other grocery stores accounted for most of the gain.
Receipts at gasoline stations fell 1.3 per cent after four consecutive monthly increases. This was the second decline in 12 months.
Electronics and appliance store sales declined 3 per cent in June. Sales in this subsector have been relatively flat since the third quarter of 2010.
Miscellaneous store retailers reported a 2.4 per cent decline in sales, offsetting gains made in April and May. Stores in this subsector include office supplies and stationery stores, gift stores and pet supplies stores.
Retail sales rose in seven provinces in June. Ontario retailers registered sales gains of 0.5%, a third consecutive monthly gain. Sales in this province have been on an upward trend since early 2009.
Pyongyang’s vow Monday to scrap all South Korean property at a joint mountain resort could mark the end of what was once a rare haven for curious southern tourists within the borders of North Korea.
For a decade, visitors from the South came in droves to Diamond Mountain, essentially a modern South Korean resort an hour’s drive into the North, where they could play golf, relax in hot springs and soak up the folklore of the beautiful nearby mountain.
However, one of the few bright spots of cooperation between the divided countries has been on hold since a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean woman visiting the resort three years ago.
North Korea is now threatening to end it completely by getting rid of South Korean assets and opening up the resort to international investors. On Monday, Pyongyang ordered all South Korean workers at the resort to leave within 72 hours and banned any South Korean property from being removed.
The North is angered by Seoul’s refusal to resume the lucrative tours until Pyongyang formally apologizes for the shooting death and allows a joint investigation.
Diplomats from the United States and the two Koreas are separately pursuing tentative talks meant to jump-start North Korean nuclear disarmament talks, but the meltdown at Diamond Mountain of what was once a promising symbol of potential inter-Korean cooperation shows how deep animosity runs on the Korean peninsula.
The South immediately expressed regret Monday about the North’s comments on Diamond Mountain and voiced its intention to seek international mediation.
Nestled near a craggy mountain range that stretches down to the sea, the resort drew hundreds of millions of dollars of South Korean investment until the shooting death brought cross-border tours to a halt in July 2008.
Diamond Mountain tours kicked off in 1998 under the initiative of a South Korean tycoon with roots in the North. Nearly 2 million South Koreans flocked to the resort, eager to see its beauty and be part of a spirit of reconciliation that blossomed during two liberal South Korean governments’ engagement with the North.
Often hailed as the peninsula’s most beautiful peak, Diamond Mountain has been a subject of praise by both ancient and modern Korean musicians, painters and historians. The North’s media often tout its beauty, describing the way white clouds drift over its saw-toothed peaks.
The land around Diamond Mountain, however, has been seen tension since the 1950-53 Korean War. Thousands of troops died fighting to conquer hills lying south of the mountain during the war. Two years before the tours began, a group of armed North Korean infiltrators slipped south of the border aboard a submarine, rattling South Koreans until most of the agents were killed.
The start of the tours led to many of the troops guarding the border to fall back and allowed South Korean businesses to capitalize on a tourism asset they had long eyed.
The languishing resort appeared in fair condition last year when family members separated by the truce that ended the Korean War were briefly reunited under a Red Cross program. A handful of workers were stationed there by South Korea’s Hyundai Asan company, the resort’s operator. Slogans were carved into hillside rocks, with propaganda billboards hailing North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as “the sun of the 21st century.”
Ties between the Koreas frayed badly last year. The North bombarded a South Korean island last November, killing four people. It also denies responsibility for the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors in March last year.
North Korea in June told the South to draw up plans to salvage its assets. Hyundai Asan estimates $370 million in sales have been lost since the tours were suspended. North Korea had annually won tens of millions of dollars from the tours, analysts believe.
Hope that tours could be revived followed a meeting of nuclear envoys from North and South Korea held in Indonesia last month. A later visit by a high-level North Korean diplomat to New York was another sign that a thaw could be looming in the Korean peninsula’s icy ties.
But last month the two countries failed to agree on an additional round of talks on the fate of the resort.
“The Diamond Mount program is holding on to its last breath,” Kang Sung-yoon, a North Korea professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University, said.
So your 401(k) has shrunk into a 301(k)
Relief at the approval of a second bailout package for Greece is driving global stocks higher.
The euro109 billion ($156 billion) deal will not only lend money to the financially struggling country, but also reduces the size of Greece’s crushing debts by asking investors who hold Athens’ bonds to make sacrifices.
A first bailout of euro110 billion last year did not put Greece back on its feet financially cash advances pay day loan.
The three major European indexes rose, led by banking stocks. Asian shares were also up strongly. Commerzbank was up 1.1 percent, Deutsche Bank 1.3 percent, and Italy’s Unicredit 0.5 percent.
Several years ago at a strategy meeting I was thumbing through some charts and a fundamental analyst asked me what I was trying to do. I replied
President Barack Obama says people need to be patient about the economic recovery and that training workers for manufacturing jobs will help with the turnaround.
The recession didn’t happen overnight and won’t end that way, either, the president said Saturday in his weekly radio and online address.
“It’s going to take time,” Obama said.
Recent polling found broad disapproval with Obama’s handling of the economy as the 2012 presidential election takes shape. It reached 59 percent in a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Job growth slowed sharply in May and unemployment inched up to 9.1 percent. Economic indicators also showed that manufacturers cut 5,000 jobs last month. Those were the first job losses in that sector in seven months.
No president since World War II has won a second term with a jobless rate above 7.2 percent, and Obama’s options for achieving faster economic growth before the November 2012 election appear limited.
Obama scheduled a visit to Durham, N.C., on Monday for a session with his jobs council on how Washington can encourage private-sector hiring. Council members and administration officials also planned to hear from businesses in the region.
Last Wednesday, Obama announced an effort by the private sector, colleges and the National Association of Manufacturers to help half a million community college students become trained and certified for manufacturing jobs. They would get a credential guaranteeing that they are skilled.
“If you’re a company that’s hiring, you’ll know that anyone who has this degree has the skills you’re looking for,” the president said Saturday. “If you’re a student considering community college, you’ll know that your diploma will give you a leg up in the job market.”
Obama said other steps, such as providing students with a quality education and investing in new jobs in the clean energy sector, will aid economic growth.
In the weekly Republican message, also on jobs, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., recalled the administration’s promise that unemployment would go no higher than 8 percent after Obama pumped billions of dollars into the economy soon after taking office.
Kinzinger said the “road to refueling our economy and creating jobs” includes tackling government debt, simplifying tax laws, limiting regulations, passing free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, and boosting domestic energy production.
“These are some of the steps we need to take to get government out of the way and let our economy grow and get back to producing jobs,” he said.
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