TRAVELS BOOKS INTERNET SHOWBIZ Archive Nov 15 Archive Nov 22 Archive Nov 30 Archive Dec 6 Archive Dec 13

An independent view of the world seen from Tokelau

The Independent New York Times

Tokelau, Saturday, January 24 2009 Summary of Weekly News - Editor - contact sumpinein@gmail.com

EDITORIAL: The chickens come home to roost as Britain officially entered its worst recession since 1980. The City of London was shocked today by figures showing that the economy shrank by 1.5 per cent at the end of 2008. The much worse than expected gross domestic product data sent the pound plummeting to a 23-year low against the dollar and pushed the FTSE-100 index below the 4000 points It fell nearly 55 points to 3998 and the pound fell more than three cents to $1.360 and to €1.06. Gordon Brown in serious difficulties was forced to admit that he had not anticipated the severity of the downturn and said Britain could only pull out of the tail-spin this year if the United States, China and the rest of Europe took decisive action. Precisely what action  remains to be seen. Send your comments to sumpinein@gmail.com

AWARDS AND TEARS

Kate Winslet has won two Golden Globe awards in one of the best nights for British talent in recent memory. The Reading-born actress, 33, picked up gongs for best supporting actress for The Reader, in which she plays former Nazi guard who has an affair with a younger man, and for best actress for her role as a frustrated suburban housewife in Revolutionary Road. The actress was rendered speechless by the second win – one of the more unexpected of the night. "Is this really happening," she asked in an emotional address that paid tribute to her "spectacular" co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, and to her husband, Sam Mendes, who directed the film.

SECOND WAVE OF BANKING CRISIS HITS STERLING

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F Kennedy and America’s most celebrated political dynasty, will seek the United States Senate seat in New York being vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

SEEN FROM SPACE

Inauguration Day, seen from space looked like warms of bees landed on a street somewhere? A huge colony of worker ants on the march? Or the effects of a Predator strike in some distant battlefield.? You're probably way ahead of us already. Those aren't just any old buildings: that's how the National Mall and the US Capitol looked from space during Barack Obama's inauguration when more than 2 million people, according to some estimates, came to hear him take the oath of office and deliver his inaugural address. What a passing Martian would have made of it is anyone's guess. How do they all crowd together like that without crushing each other? Don't they have televisions?

CULTURE

CREOLE STOMP

This band incarnates the traditional values of Cajun music in the USA. The Cajuns live mainly in Louisiana and are the descendants of Acadian exiles. Today, the Cajuns make up a significant portion of south Louisiana's population, and have exerted an enormous impact on the state's culture.

Every now and again a band comes along that redefines a genre of music and carries it even further...that group is Dennis Stroughmatt and Creole Stomp.  Always leaving audiences wondering "who are they?," and "where do they come from?," Dennis and CS are based in southern Illinois and happily tell audiences "we are from upper Louisiana."  While this may bring chuckles from many and nodding heads from others "in the know," this is the group that does represent "old upper Louisiana." Dennis learned to speak French and play French Creole music in a southeast Missouri French Creole community before moving to the state of Louisiana.  After returning to Illinois from Louisiana, Dennis began a long odyssey that eventually culminated in the forming of Creole Stomp in 2002. And since that time he and his band have carried the torch of French Creole music and culture across  North America performing a blend of music from the state of Louisiana and old upper Louisiana.  Their unique sound and mix of ancient and modern Mississippi River valley musical tradition positions them as the only band to encompass French Creole and Folk Music from the entirety of the old Louisiana Territory.  And although Dennis continues to play with many of his Louisiana based friends on occasion, you can always find him at the helm of Creole Stomp playing somewhere from San Diego to Boston

Read DEATH OF A FINANCIER by JOHN FRANCIS KINSELLA

Tom Barton, a City mortgage broker, decides to quit his business in the wake of the subprime crisis and arrives in Kovalam, in the south of India. In the Maharaja Palace he finds himself in the company of holiday makers from the UK, Scandinavia and Russia. Stephen Parkly, the CEO of a successful City bank, and his young wife Emma are taking a well earned year end break. Parkly falls gravely ill with a mysterious infection, whilst back in the City, unknown to him his mortgage and investment bank, West Mercian Finance is in grave difficulties. Ryan Kavanagh, a doctor, comes to Emma’s aid with the help of Barton, after an attempted cover-up by the Indian authorities, who fear for their tourist industry and more especially medical tourism, as the disease threatens the resort with the tourist season in full swing. Thousands of British tourists enjoying the sun are unaware of the pending disaster, many are equally unaware their savings about are to be wiped out in the West Mercian collapse.

ADVERTISEMENTS

 

DEATH OF A FINANCIER

NOW AVAILABLE IN eBOOK FORM FOR ONLY $7.50 FROM

 

 

OR PRINT VERSION FROM

More books by John Francis Kinsella from Vincennes Books: Borneo Pulp, The Legacy of Solomon, Offshore Islands, The Lost Forest

LONDON TO TIMBUKTU BY FLYING-CAR

A voyage to fabled Timbuktu in a flying car may sound like a magical childhood fantasy. But this week a British adventurer will set off from London on an incredible journey through Europe and Africa in a souped-up sand buggy, travelling by road - and air. With the help of a parachute and a giant fan-motor, Neil Laughton plans to soar over the Pyrenees near Andorra, before taking to the skies again to hop across the 14-km (nine-mile) Straits of Gibraltar. The ex-SAS officer then aims to fly over the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, above stretches of the Sahara desert and, well, wherever else the road runs out. But forget Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - this flying machine is based on proven technology.

Lakeview Terrace

A gripping film about neighbourly hate that inverts racial stereotypes. Next door neighbour, (Eddie Murhpy) presents himself: “I’m your worst fucking nightmare, man. I’m a nigger with a badge.” When Chris and Lisa Mattson, a nice mixed-raced couple, move into their dream home on a quiet cul-de-sac in southern California, they discover their worst nightmare lives next door: a black cop with a badge and a hatred of mixed-race couples. Lakeview Terrace belongs to that genre of thrillers — Unlawful Entry, Fatal Attraction — in which good, white, well-off middle-class people have their lives invaded by former lovers, lunatics or the neighbour(s) from hell.

CHINESE GROWTH ZERO?

Although the annual rate of growth was 6.8pc, economists speculated that the actual growth between September and December last year could have been zero, or even negative. The annual rate of growth for the world's third-largest economy was the lowest since the second quarter of 1998. "The international financial crisis is deepening and spreading with a continuing negative impact on the domestic economy," said Ma Jiantang, head of the statistics bureau. In China, much of the slowdown has been blamed on a lack of demand from the rest of the world for Chinese-made goods. Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, said earlier this week that the outlook for Chinese employment is "very grim" as factories shut down and foreign companies rein in their spending. Mr Wen will visit the UK next week, and Gordon Brown has already called upon him to make sure that China plays its part in stabilising the global economy. "We need China to play a full role, in partnership with us, if we are to restore confidence, growth and jobs," said Mr Brown. China, however, has insisted that it must get its own house in order first, and there are indications that the government has already instructed banks to unleash credit into the market. The value of loans issued in November and December soared by nearly 19pc. "It is hard to overestimate the potential importance of this," said Mr Green. "Mature economies' banking systems are currently flooded with liquidity that is not being lent out. China's interbank market is similarly flooded, but the difference is that the banks are lending." The banks are likely to be ordered to finance a large chunk of the Pounds400 billion fiscal stimulus package that the Chinese government announced in November. There is a further Pounds2 trillion of spending demands from local governments across China that they may also be called upon to help with, irrespective of the possibility of bad loans. China was not alone in its difficulties Japanese exporters also endured a hard December as demand for a range of goods fell sharply. Exports to the US fell 26pc, those to Europe dropped 41.8pc and those to China were down 35pc.

Nevertheless, the International Red Cross continues to meet with the relevant Israeli authorities to persuade them of Israel's international obligations as a signatory to the convention. Eloi Fillion, protection coordinator of the International Committee of the Red Cross, explained to the Middle East Times that his organization also holds regular workshops on principles of international humanitarian law for Israeli security personnel and members of the IDF, which he says are positively received. But, he said, there was only so much that groups like his could do, as ultimately the protection of Palestinian civilians lay in a negotiated settlement. "Until there is a political settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," Fillion said, "the majority of casualties will continue to be civilian, who will also bear the brunt of the suffering."

MIDDLE EAST FACTS

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions, in favour of the Partition Plan, while making some adjustments to the boundaries between the two states proposed by it. Switching their votes from November 25 to November 29 to provide the two-thirds majority were Liberia, the Philippines, and Haiti. All heavily dependent on the United States, they had been lobbied to change their votes. The State Department noted that it had been shown that unauthorized U.S. pressure groups, including members of Congress, sought to impose U.S. views on members of foreign delegations. At that time Israel as a state did not exist and the UN was composed of only 54 nations and all Middle East members voted against the resolution, whilst South Africa, then under apartheid, was the only African nation to vote for the resolution, since there was no other African member state, except Egypt who voted against. Since that time the total member states risen to 192. It is of course difficult to change history and past resolutions, but some consideration should be given to the changes that have taken place in the world whilst protecting the position of Israel, as well as the Palestinian people - a small and weak nation facing a regional superpower.

I'll be gone before Obama finishes term, says Fidel Castro

THE INDEPENDENT NEW YORK TIMES PRESENTS SEASONAL GREETINGS TO ALL ITS READERS

PLEASE LET US HAVE YOUR COMMENTS AND OPINIONS

CONTACT OUR EDITOR AT sumpinein@gmail.com

KENNEDY WITHDRAWS

Caroline Kennedy announced early Thursday that she was withdrawing from consideration for the vacant Senate seat in New York, startling the state’s political world after weeks in which she was considered a top contender for the post.

Ms. Kennedy on Wednesday called Gov. David A. Paterson, who will choose a successor to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, to inform him that she was no longer interested. “I informed Governor Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate,” Ms. Kennedy said in a statement released by her public relations firm. Ms. Kennedy did not elaborate, but a person who spoke to her suggested that her concerns about the health of her uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who suffers from brain cancer and was hospitalized after a seizure on Tuesday, contributed to her decision. Ms. Kennedy believed that the job was hers if she would accept it, the person said, but aides to Mr. Paterson would not comment on whether that was true.

REBEL GENERAL ARRESTED

Laurent Nkunda, the Congolese general who has been fighting a bloody war against the government was arrested last night in neighbouring Rwanda, the chief of police in the Democratic Republic of Congo said in a statement on Friday. The DR Congo army and Rwandan army "inform the public of the arrest of deposed general Laurent Nkunda Thursday at 10:30 pm while fleeing in Rwandan territory after putting up brief resistance," said the statement. DR Congo and Rwandan troops advanced on Thursday on Nkunda's headquarters at Bunangana in the Nord-Kivu region of the east of the country. Rwanda sent thousands of troops into Congo on Tuesday as part of a joint agreement to eradicate Rwandan Hutu rebels based across the border and quash a revolt by Tutsis against Kinshasa. READ John Le Carré's novel 'The Mission Song'.

SENTENCED TO BLINDING

TEHRAN: An Iranian man has been sentenced to be blinded under Islamic laws in retribution for blinding a woman by throwing acid on her face for rejecting his marriage proposal, press reports said on Thursday.
A Tehran criminal court on Wednesday issued the ruling against the jilted suitor identified as Majid, 27, who confessed to throwing acid on Ameneh Bahrami's face four years ago, Kargozaran newspaper said.
Despite years of treatment in Spain, Bahrami has lost sight in both eyes and still bears serious injuries to the face and body, the report said. The newspaper did not say whether the convict would appeal against the ruling that he also be blinded by acid.
Under the Sharia-based law practised in the Islamic republic, those convicted of causing intentional physical injury are punishable by "qisas", or the eye-for-an-eye Islamic penalty.

 ICELAND THREATENS UK

It is a sign of the times that security has been increased at Reykjavik's small Parliament building, from one policeman to three. Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde faces almost daily calls for his resignation from small but angry protests - and has even been seen with an armed bodyguard at the gym. The crisis that saw Iceland's three largest banks collapse in October also soured relations with Britain. And while Mr Haarde insists "we need to move on", he also insists his government is considering court action against the UK. "I think there's a special case with regard to Kaupthing which needs to be looked into," he says, referring to Iceland's biggest bank which collapsed on 9 October. A decision on whether to go to court is expected by early January, focusing on action by the British authorities to put the UK operations of the bank's subsidiary, Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander (KSF), into administration. "We are looking at whether or not the action of the FSA (Financial Services Authority) led to the collapse of Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander in the UK, which in turn led to the collapse of the mother bank here in Iceland," he says. Iceland's financial sector imploded over 11 unprecedented days. First Glitnir, the third-largest bank, was nationalised on 29 September, then Landsbanki, the second-largest, was taken over under emergency legislation on 7 October.

'We have saved the world'

Gordon Brown's slip of the tongue provoked hilarity in the Commons. Gordon Brown is preparing to offer billions in loan guarantees to struggling businesses amid Tory claims that his bank rescue scheme is not working.

SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP?

Barack Obama’s grandfather was imprisoned and brutally tortured by the British during the violent struggle for Kenyan independence, according to the Kenyan family of the US President-elect. Hussein Onyango Obama, Mr Obama’s paternal grandfather, became involved in the Kenyan independence movement while working as a cook for a British army officer after the war. He was arrested in 1949 and jailed for two years in a high-security prison where, according to his family, he was subjected to horrific violence to extract information about the growing insurgency.

IMAMS AND RABBIS GATHER TO PROMOTE PEACE

logo_IR_Small.gifParis, 15 December 2008, the Foundation Hommes de Parole inaugurated the Third World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace at UNESCO. The theme of the Congress is The Sacredness of Peace.
Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal and President of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director general of UNESCO opened the proceedings.

CHINA DEVALUES

The central bank has shifted the central peg of its dollar band twice this week in a calculated move that suggests Beijing aims to offset the precipitous slide in Chinese manufacturing by trying to gain further export share abroad. The futures markets are pricing in a 6pc devaluation over the next year. "This is clearly a big shift in policy and we are now on alert," said Simon Derrick, currency chief at the Bank of New York Mellon. The move follows a Politburo speech by President Hu Jintao warning that China is "losing competitive edge in the world market".

DON'T CRY FOR HIM

Guy Ritchie will receive almost £50 million in cash and property in what may be the largest divorce settlement paid to a man, a spokeswoman for his former wife, Madonna, said last night. The film director and the pop singer were granted a divorce settlement in the High Court last month. Ritchie, who has an estimated fortune of £30 million, was originally reported not to be asking for any money from his wealthier wife, whose fortune is estimated at £300 million. The split, via a “quickie” procedure, was held up by lawyers as a model separation, devoid of acrimony, and Ritchie’s apparent refusal to demand a share of his former wife’s fortune was praised as a rare act of integrity. Last night, however, Madonna’s spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, said that Ritchie would receive a figure of between $76 million and $92 million (£49 million and £60 million) in cash and property. This includes the couple’s country home, Ashcombe House, in Wiltshire. worth an estimated £10 million to £12 million, and their West London pub, the Punchbowl, which they bought for £2.5 million. Their settlement is about twice the amount that Sir Paul McCartney paid to Heather Mills.

Harvard University Research: The Aftermath of Financial Crises

House prices likely to fall for up to six years suggests latest research from Harvard University Latest academic study on impact of previous financial crises suggests house prices have a long way to go both in duration and magnitude of fall (average of -36%). Authors say: "An examination of the aftermath of severe financial crises shows deep and lasting effects on asset prices, output and employment. Unemployment rises and housing price declines extend out for five and six years, respectively.”

Anglo Irish Bank Nationalized

The state had planned on pumping 1.5bn euros (£1.4bn) into the bank, but has decided that recapitalisation is not the way to secure its future. Anglo Irish has about 100 billion euros on its books, but there was no need for customers to act, the state said. It added that all employees would stay with the firm and that shareholder rights would be protected. The bank's board said it would work with the government to ensure its long-term commercial viability. Ministers had been due to hand over the 1.5bn euros bail-out in return for 75% shares with an annual fixed dividend being paid to the government of 10%. "In the current circumstances the State is the only available potential owner," the government said. "I would again stress that this government decision safeguards the interest of the depositors of Anglo, and the stability of the economy, given the significance of Anglo in this regard, as already recognised by the European Commission," said finance minister Brian Lenihan. "The bank will continue to operate as normal and depositors and creditors should continue to transact as normal." A lack of liquidity has made it increasingly difficult for the banks to lend money to their customers. And confidence in Irish banks has been undermined by the global credit crunch. They have been especially badly hit by a slump in the Irish property market which has led to a collapse in the value of investments linked to the property market. In October the government of the Irish Republic acted to shore up its financial system by guaranteeing all deposits in the republic's banks and all money borrowed by the banks from other financial institutions. This led to many savers in the UK putting money there as it came before the UK government had boosted its protection for savings. According to latest figure released at the end of September, 50% of the money saved with Anglo Irish came from UK customers. Anglo Irish recently lost top executives over a secret loans fiasco. In December the bank's chairman resigned after a 87m euros loan controversy. Sean Fitzpatrick confirmed that he had transferred millions of euros out of the Dublin-based bank's accounts. Chief executive David Drumm announced his resignation shortly afterwards.

 POUND STERLING FACING DIFFICULT DAYS

The pound is a currency with no underpinning and should fall against the dollar and the euro, says Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings and co-founder of the Quantum Fund with George Soros. He says his view reflects the UK’s dire economic situation: “It’s simple, the UK has nothing to sell.” Mr Rogers says the two main pillars of support for sterling have been North Sea oil and the strength of the UK financial services sector, in particular, the City of London’s role. But Mr Rogers says just as North Sea oil is running out, so London’s standing as a major financial centre is set to suffer. “I don’t think there is a sound UK bank now, at least, if there is one I don’t know about it,” he says. “The City of London is finished, the financial centre of the world is moving east. All the money is in Asia. Why would it go back to the west? You don’t need London,” says Mr Rogers. Mr Rogers thinks the pound is more vulnerable than the dollar or the euro. He says the UK housing market is arguably in a worse state than that of the US, given pockets of strength in the US and prices that are sliding across the board in the UK. Meanwhile, he says, the UK is in worse shape economically than the eurozone, where most countries are not big debtors and do not run huge trade deficits. “If the UK discovers more North Sea oil, I might change this view,” he says. “But I don’t see that happening.” The controversial comments from the investor and author came as fresh evidence emerged that the UK’s economy is falling deeper into recession. UK unemployment rose to its highest level since 1997 in the three months to November, while mortgage lending fell to a fresh record low in December. New figures released on Wednesday also showed UK public finances were deteriorating. December’s budget deficit – tax receipts minus expenditure – totalled £11.4bn against a shortfall of £4bn a year earlier, partly because of the £20bn state recapitalisation of the Royal Bank of Scotland which swelled the government’s net cash requirement to £44.2bn. The pound, which on Monday was trading as high as $1.4909 against the dollar, dropped to a low of $1.3713. This was its lowest level in more than seven years and just above the 23-year low of $1.3682 it hit in June 2001. The pound recovered some ground to stand down 1.3 per cent at $1.3730 by late morning in New York. Sterling also fell 1.1 per cent to £0.9370 against the euro and lost 3.8 per cent to a record low of Y120.16 against the yen. Meanwhile, the minutes of the Bank of England’s January meeting did nothing to support sterling, showing that eight members of its nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee voted for a 50 basis point cut in interest rates with the one dissenter voting for a more aggressive 100 basis-point move. The pound has fallen sharply this week, losing more than 7 per cent against the dollar, amid uncertainty over government attempts to bail out UK banks and fears of a creeping nationalisation of the sector. Analysts said given the UK bank bail-out had failed to help lift investor sentiment, unorthodox monetary policy steps looked more likely from the Bank of England now that interest rates were approaching zero.
 

GAZA CONFLICT

Hours after Israel declared a cease-fire on Sunday, Hamas declared one of its own, announcing that Israeli forces had one week to leave Gaza. Still, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired at least 15 rockets at southern Israel, including a couple after the militant groups’ cease-fire was announced. Most landed without causing casualties, but one struck a house in the Israeli port city of Ashdod, lightly wounding one person. More than 1,300 Palestinians died and 5,000 were wounded. Israel unilaterally called off its offensive, political leaders and the military have emphasized that Israel would respond to any attacks. Israeli forces remain in the north and south of Gaza and along the eastern border. The United Nations has reported that forces have begun to withdraw from some areas in Gaza City and Rafah after the cease-fire. Last Sunday, aid workers said they recovered 100 bodies from areas where the Israeli army has left. The number of dead is expected to rise as the army completes its withdrawal and aid workers are able to access damaged buildings.

 UK CLOSING DOWN SALE EVERYTHING MUST GO!

The London Evening Standard owned by Russian Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, former Soviet spy, paid just £1 for the only remaining London evening newspaper The Evening Standard and said he plans to pump tens of millions into it. The paper reports the British economy is, quote: ‘... bad, but not as bad as we fear ... the news comes at the end of a week in which we've seen yet more banking woes, further job losses and a dismissal of our chances of recovery from US investment guru, Jim Rogers. Before you jump, consider the following. A good major business hasn't gone down yet. There's been no failure that has caused me to pull up short — all the collapses that dominated the news are predictable. They were in God's waiting room anyway — fewer customers and a tightening of credit is all it took to send them under. Travel around and some areas of the country seem far less affected than others. And Bernard Lewis, the founder of River Island, says today: “I went into the malls last Saturday and they were busy — not just us. You can go around the shops and think — what recession? There is simply no evidence of it.” In property, the number of would-be buyers registering with estate agents has risen to its highest since 2006. In the US, there are stirrings of housing on the move again. But before I do a Baroness Vadera and hail the arrival of green shoots (since the minister uttered her words and was ridiculed, the order has gone out across Whitehall to keep quiet), it may prove to be illusory. Certainly, in the South-East, the impact of the shattered City continues to be felt. And there are those who think we're another Iceland in the making. Among them, Rogers. His view that we're too reliant on North Sea oil is wrong — as Royal Bank of Scotland points out, we've been running an oil deficit for years, well before the last drop from the North Sea expires. It's not a big deal. Likewise, his claim that we have nothing to sell is also misleading. UK exports, RBS reports again, reached almost 30 per cent of GDP in 2006-07. The City, upon which attention is focused, is not as vital as is commonly supposed. Given a bust bank can find reasons to be cheerful says it all. Yes, we're in recession but it won't last forever. When it does, we may just emerge stronger and certainly wiser. I promise I didn't write this with my fingers crossed. There is cause for optimism, there is…’

HIC! DID YOU SAY ALKA-SELTZER?

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

ECONOMIC MAGIC

USA AIDS AFRICAN STATE MILITARY

Thousands of miles from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, another side of America’s fight against terrorism is unfolding in this remote corner of West Africa. American Green Berets are training African armies to guard their borders and patrol vast desolate expanses against infiltration by Al Qaeda’s militants, so the United States does not have to.
A recent exercise by the United States military here was part of a wide-ranging plan, developed after the Sept. 11 attacks, to take counterterrorism training and assistance to places outside the Middle East, like the Philippines and Indonesia. In Africa, a five-year, $500 million partnership between the State and Defense Departments includes Algeria, Chad, Mauritania, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia, and Libya is on the verge of joining.  American efforts to fight terrorism in the region also include non-military programs, like instruction for teachers and job training for young Muslim men who could be singled out by militants’ recruiting campaigns. One goal of the program is to act quickly in these countries before terrorism becomes as entrenched as it is in Somalia, an East African nation where there is a heightened militant threat. And unlike Somalia, Mali is willing and able to have dozens of American and European military trainers conduct exercises here, and its leaders are plainly worried about militants who have taken refuge in its vast Saharan north. “Mali does not have the means to control its borders without the cooperation of the United States,” Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a former prime minister, said in an interview. Mali, a landlocked former French colony that is nearly twice the size of Texas with roughly half the population, has a relatively stable, though still fragile, democracy. But it borders Algeria, whose well-equipped military has chased Qaeda militants into northern Mali, where they have adopted a nomadic lifestyle, making them even more difficult to track.

POUND REGAINS LOST TERRITORY BUT FOR TOURISTS ONE EURO EQUALS ONE POUND

READING DEATH OF A FINANCIER

THE CREDIT CRUNCH SONG

EMERGENCY AID FOR EUROPEAN ECONOMY

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced earlier this week a new bailout for the British financial system that increased government control over lenders, saying it would offer banks insurance on troubled assets. The government also revised the terms of its bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland, raising its stake in the bank to 70 percent, from 58 percent. Governments in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain have also announced steps to bolster the capital of their lenders. The continued economic gloom extended to Spain, where the National Statistics Institute said the unemployment rate rose to 13.9 percent in the fourth quarter, from 11.3 percent, which was already the highest in the euro zone. The government said last week that it expected unemployment to rise to 16 percent this year, while the economy would contract 1.6 percent. Juan Carlos Martínez Lázaro, a professor of economics at the IE Business School in Madrid, said job losses had spread from real estate and construction to services and manufacturing, as consumers spent less and Spain’s tourism season ended. Mr. Martínez predicted that the rise in unemployment would continue this quarter, but ease in the second quarter as local governments put into place an 8-billion-euro public works plan. “The public works will help provide a lot of jobs for four, five months,” he said. “But it will only help up to a point.” Still, there have been some slightly more positive signs from the euro area this week. An index of purchasing managers on euro-area services and manufacturing stood at 38.5 in January, up from 38.2 in December, which was the lowest reading since the survey began in 1998. Other reports this week — like the January survey of consumer confidence in Belgium and the ZEW survey on German investor sentiment — have confounded the more negative expectations of some analysts.

EURO PUT STRAINS ON WEAKER ECONOMIES

“The Italians, the Spaniards, the Greeks, we all have been living in happy land, spending what we did not have,” said George Economou, a Greek shipping magnate, contemplating his country’s economic troubles and others’ from his spacious boardroom. “It was a fantasy world.” In Greece, another of the euro zone nations in trouble, stores like this one in Athens are offering deep discounts to stay open. For some of the countries on the periphery of the 16-member euro currency zone — Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain — this debt-fired dream of endless consumption has turned into the rudest of nightmares, raising the risk that a euro country may be forced to declare bankruptcy or abandon the currency. The prospect, however unlikely, is a humbling one. The adoption of the euro just a decade ago was meant to pull Europe together economically and politically, ending the sometimes furious battles over who could devalue their currency the fastest and beggar their neighbour.

RISING ECONOMIES OF ASIA TOO SMALL TO RESCUE WORLD

According to a Daily Telegraph article dated 12 December by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (know for his anti-European stance) "the rising economies of Asia are too small and deformed to rescue world growth as America, Britain, Australia, and Club Med face their day of debt reckoning. China may make matters worse, not better. The seven pillars of global demand over the last year - measured by current account deficits - have been the United States ($793bn) (£388bn), Spain ($126bn), Britain ($87bn), Australian ($50bn) Italy ($48bn), Greece ($42bn), and Turkey ($34bn). Most are facing a housing bust. All are in trouble. China cannot possibly step into the breach. Jahangir Aziz and Xiangming Li argue in a new IMF paper that China's economy is now so geared to the US and EU markets that a 1pc fall in external demand will lead to a 4.5pc slide in exports and 0.75pc fall in GDP. Assumptions that it will weather a global shock are "likely to be wrong, perhaps dramatically." China is indeed gobbling up iron ore, soybeans, and crude oil, but it still makes up less than 4pc of global consumption and is no longer adding to total demand. Imports have been more or less flat since April. China is boosting GDP at the world's expense, by snatching markets with a cheap yuan. It is beggar-thy-neighbour growth. Note that Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Lehman Brothers, have all begun to tear up the "decoupling" manual. - the pre-crunch script assuring us that the world could get along fine as the US buckled. "What began as a U.S.-specific shock is morphing into a global shock," said Peter Berezin, a Goldman Sachs strategist. "There is a clear risk that some of the hot housing markets in Europe and some emerging markets will cool dramatically," he said. The bank has begun "shorting" the Chilean peso. Is the metals boom over? In Europe, not a single junk bond has been issued since August. Spreads on Euribor - the rate used to price mortgages in Spain, France, Italy, and Ireland - reached 93 basis points last week, a new record. This is tantamount to four rate rises for homeowners. Thomas Mayer, Europe economist for Deutsche Bank, said the European Central Bank must cut rates immediately, regardless of the lingering inflation threat. "This could go beyond just a normal recession. It could turn into a real economy-wide crunch that we cannot stop," he said. Four months after the global credit system suffered its August heart attack, nothing has been resolved. The US market for Asset Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) shed another $23bn last week. The outstanding volume has fallen for 17 weeks in a row as lenders refuse to roll over loans, cutting off $393bn in funding since August. For now, consensus has settled on the view that subprime losses will total $500bn, and crimp lending by $2 trillion as bank multiples kick into reverse. This assumes there are no more shoes to drop. Yet shoes are dangling precariously across the global credit system. We may soon have to add the terms HELOCs and 'monoline insurers' to our crunch lexicon. HELOCs are home equity loans, the money extracted from houses to pay bills and keep shopping. Many borrowers pushed their debt to 110pc of house values at the top of the bubble. Moody's says 16.5pc of these loans are in arrears beyond 60 days. The HELOC market is roughly $600bn, so add another $100bn to the funeral pyre. These niches add up. Monoliners are specialist insurers who earn fees by lending their AAA ratings to US states, counties, and cities for bond issues - the safest corner of the credit industry. The nasty twist is that most have ventured into mortgage debt to spice returns. They now face enough losses to threaten their AAA standing. A downgrade means that every bond bearing their guarantee must be downgraded pari passu. Pension funds and institutions will be forced to liquidate sub-AAA holdings. A fresh cascade of distress sales will ravage the $2,400bn 'muni' market. The unthinkable now looms. Moody's said it was "somewhat likely" that top insurer MBIA would fall below the AAA capital requirement: Fitch warns of a "high probability" that CIFG Guaranty and Financial Guaranty will be placed on negative watch. Both agencies are poised to issue verdicts. The insurers will then have a month to raise capital, no easy task after a 70pc crash in share prices. US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson confronts the very real danger of a credit implosion spiralling into a full-blown depression. Given the risks, he can be forgiven for pushing through a rescue plan last week that amounts to a flagrant abuse of contract law and capitalist principles. His subprime rate freeze is undoubtedly a stinker. The reckless are bailed-out. Those who scrimped to amass a little equity get stiffed. Moral hazard runs amok. But bankruptcy settlements are always ugly. This differs only in scale. Mr Paulson's New Deal may at least reduce systemic risk. Frozen rates concentrate losses in the lower tiers of mortgage debt, but rescue the upper tiers, which is where the threat lies for the financial system. Would free marketeers rather see the whole edifice of capitalism burned to the ground to make their point? The root cause of this staggering debacle lies in errors made long ago by the Federal Reserve and fellow sinners. It was they who inflated the credit bubble by holding interest rates too low for too long. It was they who lulled their nations into suicidal levels of debt. The strategic failure of a whole generation of economists, bankers, and policy-makers has been so enormous that it may now take a strong draught of socialism to save the Western democracies. We start - but may not end - with the nationalization of Northern Rock". Whether Evans-Pritchard is right or wrong only time will tell, but his commentary certainly gives food for thought.

HELP THOSE IN NEED IN WAR ZONES

Since food prices began to rise 100 million more people have been pushed into poverty, according to the World Bank, with as many as two billion on the verge of disaster. Almost half the world's population, let's remember, live on less than $2.50 per day. Millions die annually of hunger and starvation, and more than a billion do not have access to fresh water.

GIVE GENEROUSLY - DIRECTLY TO THESE CHARITIES

With the world financial crisis these numbers are poised to rise dramatically with population growth, dwindling natural resources and higher consumer prices across all goods and services. So as the stock market tumbles and the world economy falters, it's important to remember that it's more than financial losses we are talking about, it's the loss of life.