Police say unknown bombers detonated locally made dynamite near an important bridge in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta overnight, though no one was injured.
The blast happened Friday night in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa state, the home of President Goodluck Jonathan. Bayelsa state police spokesman Eguavoen Emokpae said the bomb targeted a bridge, but caused little damage.
The blast occurred as Bayelsa state is under increasing political pressure over an upcoming gubernatorial race in the state no teletrack payday loan. The winner of the race will control a state budget that’s larger than some nations surrounding oil-rich Nigeria. Violence remains common in elections in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people and a top crude oil supplier to the U.S.
Leaving behind a year of bruising legislative battles, President Barack Obama enters his fourth year in office having calculated that he no longer needs Congress to promote his agenda and may even benefit in his re-election campaign if lawmakers accomplish little in 2012.
Absent any major policy pushes, much of the year will focus on winning a second term. The president will keep up a robust domestic travel schedule and aggressive campaign fundraising and use executive action to try to boost the economy.
Partisan, down-to-the-wire fights over allowing the nation to take on more debt and sharply reducing government spending defined 2011. In the new year, there are almost no must-do pieces of legislation facing the president and Congress.
The one exception is the looming debate on a full-year extension of a cut in the Social Security payroll tax rate from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. Democrats and Republicans are divided over how to put in place that extension.
The White House believes GOP lawmakers boxed themselves in during the pre-Christmas debate on the tax break and will be hard-pressed to back off their own assertions that it should continue through the end of 2012.
Once that debate is over, the White House says, Obama’s political fate will no longer be tied to Washington.
“Now that he’s sort of free from having to put out these fires, the president will have a larger playing field. If that includes Congress, all the better,” said Josh Earnest, White House deputy press secretary. But, he added, “that’s no longer a requirement.”
Aides say the president will not turn his back on Congress completely in the new year. He is expected to once again push lawmakers to pass elements of his jobs bill that were blocked by Republicans last fall.
If those efforts fail, the White House says, Obama’s re-election year will focus almost exclusively on executive action.
Earnest said Obama will come out with at least two or three directives per week, continuing the “We Can’t Wait” campaign the administration began this fall, and try to define Republicans in Congress as gridlocked and dysfunctional.
Obama’s election year retreat from legislative fights means this term will end without significant progress on two of his 2008 campaign promises, an immigration overhaul and closing the military prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Presidential directives probably won’t make a big dent in the nation’s 8.6 percent unemployment rate or lead to significant improvements in the economy. That’s the chief concern for many voters and the issue on which Republican candidates are most likely to criticize Obama.
In focusing on executive actions rather than ambitious legislation, the president risks appearing to be putting election-year strategy ahead of economic action at a time when millions of Americans are still out of work.
“Americans expect their elected leaders to work together to boost job creation, even in an election year,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Still, Obama and his advisers are beginning 2012 with a renewed sense of confidence, buoyed by a series of polls that show the president’s approval rating climbing as Congress becomes increasingly unpopular.
They believe his victory over Republicans in the payroll tax debate has boosted his credentials as a fighter for the middle class, a theme he will look to seize on in his Jan. 24 State of the Union address.
Obama’s campaign-driven, domestic-travel schedule starts in Cleveland on Wednesday, the day after GOP presidential hopefuls square off in the Iowa caucuses. He will also keep up an aggressive re-election fundraising schedule, with events already lined up in Chicago on Jan. 11.
Campaign officials say Obama will fully engage in the re-election campaign once the Republicans pick their nominee. He will focus almost exclusively on campaigning after the late summer Democratic National Convention, barring unexpected developments at home or abroad.
Among the issues that could disrupt Obama’s re-election plans: further economic turmoil in Europe, instability in North Korea following its leadership transition and threats from Iran.
The president’s signature legislative accomplishment will also come under greater scrutiny in the new year, when a critical part of his health care overhaul is debated before the Supreme Court.
Obama’s foreign travel next year will be limited mainly to the summits and international gatherings every U.S. president traditionally attends. He’s expected to travel to South Korea in March for a nuclear security summit and to Colombia in April for the Summit of the Americas. He’s also likely to visit Mexico in June for the G-20 economic summit.
Two other major international gatherings _ the NATO summit and the G-8 economic meeting _ will be held in Chicago, on home turf.
Four new types of American shoppers have emerged this holiday season.
There’s the bargain hunter who times deals. The midnight buyer who stays up late for discounts. The returner who gets buyer’s remorse. And the “me” shopper who self-gifts.
It’s the latest shift by consumers in the fourth year of a weak U.S. economy. Shoppers are expected to spend $469.1 billion during the holiday shopping season that runs from November through December. While it won’t be known just how much Americans spent until the season ends on Saturday, it’s already clear they are shopping differently than they have in years past.
“We’re seeing different types of buying behavior in a new economic reality,” says C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group.
THE BARGAIN TIMER
Cost-conscious shoppers haven’t just been looking for bargains this season. They’ve also been more deliberate about when to find those deals. Many believe the biggest bargains come at the beginning and end of the season, which has created a kind of “dumbbell effect” in sales.
For the week ended on Nov. 26, which included the traditional start of the holiday shopping season on the day after Thanksgiving, stores had the biggest sales surge compared with the prior week since 1993, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Stores Sales Index. The cumulative two-week-sales drop-off that followed marked the biggest percentage decline since 2000. Then, stores had another surge in the final days, as retailers stepped up their promotions again.
“Shoppers are budgeting their money and time,” says Paco Underhill, whose company, Envirosell, studies how consumers behave in stores. “They’re focused on being opportunistic bargain shopping vultures.”
Kalilah Middleton, 30, of Queens, is one of them. Starting late on Thanksgiving night, she spent five hours and $400 at Wal-Mart and Target. She bought a TV and clothing at 50 percent off. Then, she waited until Christmas Eve to shop again because she believed she’d get better deals later in the season.
“This is when you get the best deals,” says Middleton, an office manager, about her holiday shopping.
Going forward, shoppers are expecting even bigger discounts. According to America’s Research Group research firm, 34 percent of shoppers say they want to see post-Christmas discounts of about 70 to 80 percent, up from 20 percent last year.
THE MIDNIGHT BUYER
Used to be, bargain shoppers would wake up at the crack of dawn to take advantage of big discounts on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. This year, some shoppers instead stayed up late on Thanksgiving night to get deals.
This behavior was in large part due to retailers’ efforts to outdo each other during the traditional start to the holiday shopping season. Stores like Macy’s, Best Buy and Target for the first time opened at midnight on Thanksgiving night, offering deals that once were reserved for the next day.
Twenty-four percent of Black Friday shoppers were at stores at midnight, according to a poll by the National Retail Federation, the industry’s biggest trade group. That’s up from 9.5 percent the year before when only a few stores were open during that time.
Of those shopping at midnight on Black Friday, 37 percent were ages 18 to 34. That percentage was higher than among 35- to 54-year-olds, of whom 23.5 percent were in stores by midnight.
Macy’s, for one, drew 10,000 people to its midnight opening. Terry Lundgren, Macy’s CEO, says many of them were young people who turned out for the Justin Bieber $65 gift sets and discounted fashions.
Anika Ruud, 15, of Boca Raton, Fla., went out with her four cousins to Macy’s at midnight and then shopped at Target until 2:30 a.m. She picked up two bras at Macy’s for $10. Then, she and her cousins went home to bed.
“It’s always been inconvenient,” Ruud says of the traditional 4 a.m. Black Friday openings of years past. “No one likes to wake up early.”
THE RETURNER
Shoppers who were lured into stores by bargains gleefully loaded up on everything from discounted tablet computers to clothing early in the holiday season. But soon after, many of them were rushing back to return the items they bought.
For instance, Elizabeth Yamada, 55, of Fort Lee, N.J., says she got caught up with the shopping frenzy over the Thanksgiving weekend and picked up a $350 coat that was marked down more than 50 percent off at Macy’s. She ended up returning the item one week later.
“It was nice, but I didn’t need it,” says Yamada, who works part-time as a waitress and a hospital aide. “It was impulsive shopping. But I am doing more reflecting.”
It’s all about buyer’s remorse.
For every dollar stores take in this holiday season, it’s expected they will have to give back 9.9 cents in returns, up from 9.8 last year, according to the a survey of 110 retailers the NRF. It would be the highest return rate since the recession. In better economic times, it’s about 7 cents.
Stores have themselves to blame for the higher returns. They lured shoppers in with deals of up to 60 percent off as early as October. Because of the deals, shoppers spent more than they normally would. And retailers’ return policies have been more lax since 2008, with some sweetening their policies even more this year.
THE “ME” SHOPPER
One for you; one for me.
After scrimping on themselves during the recession, Americans turned to shopping for themselves. It’s a trend that started last year but became more prevalent this season.
According to the NRF, spending for non-gift items will increase by 16 percent this holiday season to $130.43 per person. That’s the highest number recorded since it started tracking it in 2004.
“This season, the consumer put herself ahead of the giving,” says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with market research firm The NPD Group.
Betty Thomas, a health care coordinator at a hospital in Raleigh, N.C., says she spent $1,700 on a ring and bracelet for herself and a rug for her home during the holiday season. That’s up dramatically from the $200 she spent last year.
“I have been putting other people first,” Thomas says. “I definitely felt I earned it.”
Stores have been encouraging such self-gifting.
AnnTaylor’s campaign “Perfect Presents: One for you. One for her” highlighted merchandise like brightly colored sweaters. Brookstone’s print ads urged shoppers to get accessories for their iPads and other electronics with the words: “gifts for your gadgets.” And Shopittome.com, an online site that alerts consumers to clothing sales they’re interested in, launched “Treat Yourself Tuesday” after Thanksgiving weekend.
_____
Anne D’Innocenzio reported from New York.
Christina Rexrode in Raleigh, N.C. contributed to this report.
Follow AP retail coverage at http://www.twitter.com/AP–Retail.
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In its 26-year history, Gateway Greening has helped transform the city’s landscape, building nearly 200 community and youth gardens, beautifying street medians and venturing into urban farming.
Now the organization has a new leader in Michael Sorth, who is trading his “old” life as an investment banker with Stifel Nicolaus & Co. for a new one in community gardening.
The transition, he says, will be drastic in some ways. Instead of millions, he’ll be dealing in smaller sums: Gateway Greening’s budget is about $800,000. But he views the position as a prime chance to make the city more self-sufficient, more sustainable, and a greener, more farm-friendly place to live
Thailand’s prime minister says she hopes the process of draining floodwater through Bangkok can be sped up now that peak high tides have passed.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Monday that “if there is no more additional water, the current runoff might not cause heavy flooding in Bangkok.” She said there was still a massive amount of water that needs to pass through the capital’s drainage network as it makes its way down from flooded provinces in the north quick cash.
Record high tides pushing up the Chao Phraya River from the Gulf of Thailand have made draining the water from Thailand’s worst flooding in a half-century more difficult. That has put extreme pressure on Bangkok’s flood defenses, though they have largely held and most of the city remains dry.
Toronto
International pressure grew on Europe to find a lasting solution to the debt crisis that is shaking global financial markets, as the leaders of Greece, Germany and France were to hold talks Wednesday in an emergency teleconference.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Europe’s leaders know they’ve “been behind the curve” but he also sought to soothe investors, claiming the eurozone governments understood the severity of the situation and have the financial firepower “to do what it takes to hold this thing together.”
Fears that Greece was heading rapidly towards a chaotic default have roiled markets for days, both across the 17-nation eurozone and globally.
Many investors are convinced Greece will not be able to fix its public finances under its current economic plans. Interest rates on the country’s 10-year government bonds soared to new record highs hitting the alarming level of 25.3 percent on Wednesday, more than 23 points higher than the German equivalent.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke out this week to calm the market jitters and to distance herself from her vice chancellor, Philipp Roesler, and others who suggested a Greek bankruptcy was possible.
Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will discuss the situation Wednesday evening, after a government meeting Papandreou called to address urgent fiscal reforms. The finance ministers from the wider 17-nation eurozone will meet on Friday in Poland.
Hours before the teleconference, Sarkozy and his prime minister “with a single voice reaffirmed France’s determination to put everything in place to save Greece,” French government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said of a Cabinet meeting in Paris.
Sarkozy wants the call to focus on “the need for efforts in return and commitment from Greece,” she said.
Europe’s big trading partners, like the U.S. and China, made clear that they want the crisis contained.
Geithner, who will join eurozone finance ministers this weekend in a meeting in Poland, stressed that European governments have to show they “stand behind” the financial system so that it can fund and finance the economic recovery.
“I think they recognize that they’re going to have to do more to earn the confidence of the world,” Geithner said in an interview with American news channel CNBC.
As Treasury chief and previously in his role as head of the New York Federal Reserve, Geithner has been central in the U.S. response to the financial crisis that flared up after the collapse of Lehman Brothers investment bank in 2008.
He dismissed suggestions Europe was about to have its own Lehman moment. “Europe has a tradition of much more indulgence, support for their institutions. … there is no chance that the major countries of Europe will let their institutions be at risk,” he said.
China’s Premier Wen Jiabao said European countries needed to tackle their debt problems and make changes to help restore global financial stability and steady economic growth. Beijing has shown interest in helping financially troubled European countries by investing or buying their bonds.
“Countries must first put their own house in order,” Wen said.
It was unclear whether there would be statements after Wednesday’s teleconference from any of the three countries involved. Indications as to how the talks went would likely affect markets.
Roesler said Germany would deliver a “clear signal to the Greek government” that it must push ahead with reforms, including an ambitious privatization program that has lagged far behind targets.
Speaking during a visit to Rome, Roesler said it was “fundamentally important to re-establish the strength of the Greek state.” He said he planned to go to Greece with a delegation of German industrialists to see what investments could be made to help the Greek economy.
Traders hoped that some form of new support would emerge from the talks, pushing Greek shares higher. The main Athens index outperformed its counterparts in Europe, closing up 1.67 percent.
Some analysts were more skeptical, however.
“I could only see (the teleconference) having a damage-limitation objective because there have been too many rumors … as to what Germany or what our European partners are thinking about Greece,” said economist Vangelis Agapitos.
The main fear of a Greek bankruptcy is that it could destabilize other financially troubled European countries such as Portugal, Ireland, Spain or Italy. It would also have a knock-on effect on banks, many of which are large holders of Greek government bonds. Moody’s on Wednesday downgraded the credit ratings of two French banks, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole.
“We are confronted with the most serious challenge of a generation. This is a fight for the jobs and prosperity of families in all our member states,” European Union Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “This is a fight for the economic and political future of Europe. This is a fight for what Europe represents in the world. This is a fight for European integration itself.”
Greece relies on funds from last year’s euro110 billion ($150 billion) international bailout. But the lifeline could be cut if the country continues to miss fiscal and reform targets.
The quarterly payout depends on reviews by Greece’s international debt inspectors _ the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, known as the troika.
The next batch, worth euro8 billion, is due in late September, but there were fears the troika would not approve its disbursement after the debt inspectors suspended their review earlier this month. They are due to return to Athens in coming days. Without the next installment, the country has enough cash to keep it going only until mid-October.
Greece’s government spokesman, Elias Mossialos, said Monday he believed the country would receive the funds.
In July, Greece was granted a second, euro109 billion rescue package, but the terms of that deal have yet to be finalized, with Finland asking for extra collateral guarantees.
____
Pylas reported from London. Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Theodora Tongas in Athens and Frances D’Emilio in Rome contributed.
The eurozone needs a “quantum” leap toward economic integration, the incoming chief of the European Central Bank said Monday, as the bond yields of countries with shaky finances, like Greece and Italy, jumped amid increased investor tensions.
Mario Draghi warned that measures like the bank’s buying of bonds to stabilize markets were only temporary fixes and that only substantially more integration would address the fundamental problem of a lack of coordination of the eurozone’s fiscal policies.
The movement in bond yields on Monday showed just how varied investors’ confidence was in different eurozone countries. Borrowing rates jumped in countries considered high-risk, such as Greece, Italy and Spain and fell in Germany, widely considered a safe haven in times of financial turmoil.
Speaking at a conference in Paris, Draghi dismissed the idea of eurobonds _ debt issued jointly by the eurozone countries. Some have argued this would help weaker countries borrow more easily because they wouldn’t have to pay such high interest rates, which in turn make their debts bigger. But stable countries like Germany would likely see their rates rise.
Instead, Draghi suggested the eurozone should adopt rules that would require more budget discipline. There is already a proposal that would require all eurozone countries to balance their budgets. Profligate spending during boom times funded by cheap debt is one of the root causes of the current crisis.
Market tensions were high on Monday, both due to worries about some countries’ debt problems and a global financial sell-off triggered by concerns that the U.S. economy may slip back into recession.
The difference in interest rates between the Greek and benchmark German 10-year bonds, known as the spread, spiraled to new records on Monday, topping 17.3 percentage points. Yields on the Greek bonds were above 18 percent.
High yields mean borrowing is more expensive for Greece, making it even harder to reduce its debt load.
In fact, its yields are so high that Greece has been relying since last year on funds from a euro110 billion ($157 billion) package of bailout loans from other European Union countries and the International Monetary Fund. On July 21, European leaders agreed on a second bailout, worth an additional euro109 billion.
Italy’s own 10-year bond yields jumped to 5.45 percent amid signs that the government in Rome is wavering in its commitment to enforce its austerity program.
ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet in recent days has called on Silvio Berlusconi’s government to push through with the deficit-cutting measures promised in August.
Italy’s stability is of particular concern because it would be too expensive to rescue for the eurozone. In an effort to steady the yields, the ECB has been buying Italian and Spanish bonds in recent weeks, driving down the interest rates fast cash without a hassle.
On Monday, the bank announced that it had increased its purchases last week to euro13.3 billion ($18.8 billion). That’s double the euro6.65 billion spent the previous week.
Draghi indicated that such makeshift measures would continue, including making sure the European Financial Stability Facility _ the eurozone’s bailout fund _ takes over the bond purchases and has enough cash in it.
But, not forever.
“The Programme (of bond-buying) is temporary and fully sterilized,” he said in the version of his speech published on the Bank of Italy’s website. “In other words, it should not be taken for granted by member states.”
The eurozone needs to quickly solve the root of their problems, he said.
“The crisis starts from the incompleteness of the European construction,” he said, and important reforms need to be made to solve it. “Overall, the aim of this effort should be a quantum step up in European economic integration.”
Draghi’s remarks echoed those made by the current ECB chief, who spoke at the same conference.
Trichet said that one solution for the debt crisis would be to eventually create a “federation” with a central finance ministry for the continent that would have the power to force countries to make the difficult decisions that European leaders can only now pressure them to make.
He did not mention Italy, but he and other European officials have recently had to urge Rome to make budget cuts or risk destabilizing the entire eurozone.
“We can imagine a federal government with a federal finance minister,” he said, who would “be capable of imposing this or that decision on any country that is not acting in the interest of the greater good of the federation.”
In the heyday of the boom, several European countries spent more than the EU rules allowed. After the global financial crisis further hurt their finances, countries like Greece and Portugal came close to bankruptcy and were saved only by international rescue packages.
New legislation that would give budget rules more teeth has been floundering for months as the European Parliament and EU member states have failed to agree on more automatic sanctions.
Trichet called Monday for those news rules to be strengthened further.
Separately in Brussels, a group of former European leaders and economists also called for closer economic and fiscal integration to save the currency union.
But the group, which includes former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. economist Nouriel Roubini _ went further, demanding the creation of eurobonds. France and Germany, the eurozone heavy weights, have so far rejected issuing such bonds.
Stocks are falling at the close of trading as investors’ attention returns to the weak economy and Europe’s debt problems.
The Dow Jones industrial average is down 519, or 4.6 percent, to 10,720. It’s the third time in the last five trading days that the Dow lost more than 500 points. The S&P 500 is down 51 points, or 4.4 percent, to 1,121. The Nasdaq is down 101, or 4.1 percent, to 2,381.
European bank stocks fell on worries that the region’s debt problems are getting worse bad credit payday advance. That pulled down U.S. bank stocks. Financial stocks in the S&P 500 lost more than 7 percent.
The drop erases Tuesday’s big gain following a Federal Reserve pledge to keep rates low. The Fed said it expects the recovery to remain slow.
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