GM announces plan to cut 47,000 jobs and close five plants in U.S.

By Calvin Palmer

General Motors today announced a survival plan that includes cutting 47,000 jobs and closing five more factories in the United States.

The Detroit auto-maker also said it may also need up to $30 billion in government loans.

GM submitted its draconian plan to the Treasury Department today to explain how it will become viable and repay its loans. The plan states GM will try to borrow up to $16.6 billion more from the government, on top of the $13.4 billion it has already received.

By restructuring, GM expects to start repaying the government in 2012 and fully pay off the loans by 2017.

Reports that GM officials woke up at this point have not been confirmed.

The company says that it has considered the option of bankruptcy, but the only credit available to finance a reorganization would be from the government, and it could cost as much as $100 billion.

The Melbourne Herald Sun is reporting that 26,000 of the propsed job losses will be outside the United States and Saab could file for bankruptcy this month.

[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]

Guadeloupe strikers bring island closer to rebellion

By Calvin Palmer

The French island of Guadeloupe is on the verge of rebellion after stone-throwing protesters set cars and buildings on fire and clashed with police.

Nearly four weeks of work stoppages and demonstrations for lower prices and higher pay on the Caribbean island have caused thousands of tourists to flee or cancel holidays.  Many hotels have closed and cruise ships are heading elsewhere.

“It is a political crisis, an institutional crisis and we are on the brink of sedition,” Guadeloupe’s Regional Council President Victorin Lurel said in a radio broadcast.

He warned that the island was heading toward “radicalization, a rise in extremism.”

“We have the impression that we have been abandoned, that there is an organized indifference,” he said.

France’s Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said the protests had caused “degradation, devastation and confrontations” on Guadeloupe and its sister island, Martinique, where most shops and offices have been closed by the protests.

She urged “calm, responsibility and restraint” and said she hoped for a resumption of talks with protesters that broke down last week.

Police said they arrested 18 people overnight as protesters burned cars, a library and a boat-rental store in Sainte-Anne and Point-a-Pitre.
Three officer suffered minor gunshot wounds as armed looters took advantage of the chaos.

Guadeloupe’s main airport was closed today and several flights canceled because workers could not pass through barricaded and debris-clogged roads, said Guadeloupe’s senior appointed official, Nicolas Desforges.

Paris has refused to budge on strikers’ demands for a 200 euro ($250) monthly raise for low-paid workers who now make roughly 900 euros ($1,130) a month.

But business leaders in Martinique did agree today to a 20 percent price cut on most supermarket products, despite initial refusal.

Stephane Hayot, a spokesman for the National Union of Wholesale Distributors, earlier said the move “would represent our death sentence” by forcing them to sell at prices that don’t cover their costs.

[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]

Remains of missing boy found in crocodile

By Calvin Palmer

Human remains found in a crocodile caught near where a five-year-old boy went missing at the Daintree River in Queensland, Australia, are those of the youngster.

Jeremy Doble disappeared on February 8 after he followed his dog into the river.

His seven-year-old brother, Ryan,  told police he saw a crocodile in the water moments later. Despite an extensive search of the area, Jeremy was never found.

Queensland Police announced today that a surgical procedure carried out at the John Tonge Center forensic lab, in Brisbane, on a crocodile trapped near the spot had revealed remains of the boy in its stomach.

[Based on reports by the Melbourne Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph.]

Cruise ship runs aground in Antarctic

By Calvin Palmer

A cruise ship, with 21 Americans and 17 Britons on board, ran aground today near an Argentine base in Antarctica.

The Ocean Nova, registered in the Bahamas, ran aground about one mile from the San Martin base after being pushed by extremely high winds on to craggy rocks, said Quark Expeditions president Patrick Shaw.

The tour company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, specializes in cruises to the Arctic and Antarctic.

“An initial assessment of damage indicated that there was no imminent danger and no threat to lives,” the company said. “There is no sign of leakage of any kind from the vessel.”

The 240-foot Danish-built vessel was on the eighth day of a two-week expedition that embarked from from Ushuaia, Argentina’s southernmost city.

Among the passengers and crew were 21 Americans, 18 Filipinos, 17 Britons, seven Canadians, seven Australians, four Germans, five Irish, five South Africans, three Dutch, three New Zealanders, three Danish, two Argentines and one each from Switzerland, Romania, the Ukraine, Panama, Guatemala, Colombia, Russia, Indonesia and Honduras.

Ocean Nova officials informed the San Martin base that the ship should be able to break free on its own as the tide rises.

“We’re going to take all the passengers off to be extra safe,” Shaw said.

Inspections of the ship may take some time, and the company wants passengers to be able to continue on their expedition, he said.

The company has dispatched another of its ships Clipper Adventurer.  If Ocean Nova does not refloat on the high tide, all passengers will transferred to the Clipper Adventurer for the return to Ushuaia.

“The safety and comfort of our guests are forefront in all our decisions,” said Shaw.

[Based on a report by newsday.com.]

Toledo man accused of kidnapping woman read the Bible to her

By Calvin Palmer

Police believe a Toledo man accused of kidnapping a 22-year-old women he picked up off the streets in Detroit may have been trying to save her.

Troy Brisport, 34, met Shykea Boykin just before midnight last Wednesday on a Detroit street.  He told her she could “crash” at his place and then drove her 55 miles to his apartment in West Toledo.

Boykin told investigators Brisport handcuffed her by the wrists and ankles, took off her clothes, dressed her in an adult diaper and read the Bible to her. He gave her little to eat and drink.

Brisport also tried to choke her but there was no sexual assault, authorities said.

Three days later Boykin managed to sneak out of the apartment, still handcuffed and wearing the diaper and a T-shirt.

Police say they are somewhat baffled by the incident.

“It’s kind of a mixed bag,” said Capt. Ray Carroll of Toledo Police. “He takes her to his house, holds her captive, handcuffs her. We don’t know what the diapers are about. And then he’s reading the Bible to her. I don’t know. Maybe it was a saving-her kind of thing.”  

A bespectacled Brisport, who listed his address until late last year as Mount Vernon, New York, stood briefly before a Toledo Municipal Court judge, but the hearing was postponed until tomorrow.

He is charged with felonious assault and kidnapping, and his bond was set at $400,000.

Searching Brisport’s apartment, police seized, among other things, a pack of adult diapers, two pairs of handcuffs, duct tape and rope.

Boykin has since been in contact with family, Carroll said.

[Based on a report by the Detroit Free Press.]

SEC files charges against Stanford over $8 billion fraud

By Calvin Palmer

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today filed civil charges against Texas billionaire Robert Allen Stanford, his offshore bank, two of his Houston-based companies and two other officers, alleging that they have orchestrated a multibillion-dollar investment fraud scheme on certificates of deposit.

“We are alleging a fraud of shocking magnitude that has spread its tentacles throughout the world,” said Rose Romero, regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth office, which filed the charges.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor issued an order freezing the defendants’ assets and appointed a receiver to administrate them.

“As we allege in our complaint, Stanford and the close circle of family and friends with whom he runs his businesses perpetrated a massive fraud based on false promises and fabricated historical return data to prey on investors,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, in a statement.

“We are moving quickly and decisively in this enforcement action to stop this fraudulent conduct and preserve assets for investors,” she said.

A company spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.

The SEC complaint, filed in federal court in Dallas, names Stanford himself, Stanford International Bank in the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, Houston-based broker-dealer and investment adviser Stanford Group Company, and investment adviser Stanford Capital Management.

It also names James Davis, chief financial officer for the bank and Stanford’s roommate at Baylor University in the 1970s, as well as Laura Pendergest-Holt, chief investment officer for Stanford Financial Group.

Doors were locked at the Houston headquarters of Stanford Group late this morning.

The SEC, FBI and the Internal Revenue Service have been investigating the operations. Also investigating are the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation.

The SEC complaint alleges that acting through a network of Stanford Group Company financial advisers, the bank has sold about $8 billion of certificates of deposit to investors by promising “improbable and unsubstantiated” high interest rates, the agency said in a statement.

The bank claims that its high rates of return are earned through its unique investment strategy, which provided double-digit returns over the last 15 years.

The complaint alleges further that the defendants misrepresented to CD purchasers that their deposits are safe and falsely claim that: the bank re-invests client funds primarily in “liquid” assets; the portfolio is monitored through a team of 20-plus analysts; the portfolio is subject to annual audits by Antiguan regulators.

The complaint also alleges that the bank is operated by a close circle of Stanford’s family and friends. The firm is a privately held network of financial services companies led by Stanford, the chairman and chief executive.

The company claims on its Web site to have more than $50 billion in assets under management or advisement. It has more than 50 offices in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe.

Stanford is a cricket enthusiast and sponsor of the world’s richest cricket match, Twenty20.  He had been in negotiations with the England and Wales Cricket Board about further sponsorship of the game. 

Those negotiations came to an end after today’s news. 

“Following allegations made today by the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission and their decision to apply for a temporary restraining order which was filed in a Dallas/Fort Worth court, the England and Wales Cricket Board and the West Indies Cricket Board have suspended negotiations with Sir Allen Stanford and his financial corporation concerning a new sponsorship deal,” said an ECB statement.

[Based on reports by the Houston Chronicle and The Daily Telegraph.]

Stocks tumble on Wall Street amid fears of deepening recession

By Calvin Palmer

Stocks tumbled on Wall Street this morning as investors worried about how about how banks, automakers and entire countries would fare in a deepening recession.

At 11:00  a.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 240 points, coming within range of its lowest levels in more than a decade. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index slid more than 3.5 percent, dropping below 800.

Wall Street is worried that General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC might not be able to prove by today’s deadline that they can repay billions of dollars in loans and return to profitability.

General Motors has already received $9.4 billion from the government, and could get another $4 billion if the Treasury Department signs off on its viability plan. Chrysler has borrowed $4 billion, and is seeking another $3 billion.

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor’s, said Wall Street is nervous GM will say it cannot survive without additional funds — an admission that would then lead investors to ask, “What if GM does go under?”

The failure of a company with the name recognition of GM would “impact the psyche of the average consumer,” Stovall said.

The market also got some more grim economic news on Tuesday. The New York Federal Reserve’s regional manufacturing index showed a much deeper contraction in activity than expected. It fell to a new low of minus 34.7 in February, from minus 22.2 in January.

President Barack Obama is set to sign the $787 billion stimulus package into law today. He will also be outlining a plan to help stem mortgage foreclosures Wednesday. Wall Street had eagerly awaited the government’s plans to help the economy, but now that the programs have become reality, it is realizing the effects will not be immediate.

Investors are looking at the stimulus package “as something that will be helpful, but not a silver bullet,” Stovall said. “People are realizing the recession will take time.”

Investors are still nervous about the Treasury Department’s plans to shore up the financial system and help remove billions of dollars in troubled mortgage-related assets from the balance sheets of major banks.

“The administration is great at floating the rumors, but we need concrete plans to back that up,” said Ryan Larson, head equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management. “Without any further concreted details, the market’s really left to wonder. And in this environment, they wonder the worst-case scenario.”

In Europe, attention turned to the plight of lenders active in Eastern Europe after Moody’s Investors Service said it might downgrade banks with units in the region. Investors are worried about the debts owed by banks in Eastern Europe to financial institutions in western European countries, especially Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece and Italy.

“The effects of the slowdown are continuing to widen geographically, especially to countries that have been reliant on demand in the West,” said Henk Potts, equity strategist at Barclays Wealth in London.

Amid fears about exposure to Eastern Europe, Erste, a bank based in Vienna, lost 7.7 percent. Swedbank, based in Stockholm, fell 3.6 percent, while UniCredit, the Italian bank, lost 5 percent.

The International Monetary Fund has offered loans to Hungary, Latvia, Serbia and Ukraine but there is speculation that it will have to go back into the region and offer more.

“Market sentiment still remains very poor, corporate profits are under pressure and management is expressing a cautious view through 2009,” Potts said.

Investors also fear that more banks across Europe will require capital injections from governments.

The FTSE 100 index in London was down more than 2.3 percent while the DAX in Frankfurt slid nearly 3.2 percent.
 
[Based on reports by The New York Times and Associated Press.]

America ‘recruiting sergeant’ for extremists, says former MI5 chief

By Calvin Palmer

The former head of MI5 has accused both Britain and America of exploiting people’s fear of terrorism to restrict civil rights.

Dame Stella Rimington, in an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, said ministers in Britain risked handing a victory to terrorists who want people to “live in fear and under a police state”.

She said America was even more to blame and had acted as a recruiting sergeant for extremists through harsh anti-terror measures that have been accused of breaching human rights law.

“The U.S. has gone too far with Guantanamo and the tortures,” she said. “MI5 does not do that. Furthermore, it has achieved the opposite effect: there are more and more suicide terrorists finding a greater justification.”

Dame Stella, 73, has been a harsh critic of Government policies, including attempts to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects to 42 days and the controversial ID cards plan, since she retired as Director General of the Security Service in 1996.

She said: “Since I have retired I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the Government, especially the attempt to pass laws which interfere with people’s privacy.

“It would be better that the Government recognized that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, which is precisely one of the objects of terrorism: that we live in fear and under a police state.”

Her comments came as the Home Office prepares to publish plans to expand state surveillance, with powers for the police and security services to monitor e-mail, telephone and Internet activity.

Yesterday, an international group of judges and lawyers, the International Commission of Jurists, based in Geneva, echoed Dame Stella’s views, warning that systemic torture and other abuses in the global “war on terror” have “undermined cherished values” of civil rights in the United States, Britain and other nations.

“We have been shocked by the damage done over the past seven years by excessive or abusive counterterrorism measures in a wide range of countries around the world,” said Arthur Chaskalson, a former chief justice of South Africa, in a statement announcing results of a three-year study of counterterrorism measures since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“Many governments, ignoring the lessons of history, have allowed themselves to be rushed into hasty responses to terrorism that have undermined cherished values and violated human rights,” said Chaskalson.

Britain’s Home Office countered Dame Stella’s criticisms and said that any new surveillance measures would be “proportionate”.

“The Government has been clear that, where surveillance or data collection will impact on privacy, they should only be used where it is necessary and proportionate,” a spokesman said.

“The key is to strike the right balance between privacy, protection and sharing of personal data.

“This provides law enforcement agencies with the tools to protect the public as well as ensuring Government has the ability to provide effective public services while ensuring there are effective safeguards and a solid legal framework that protects civil liberties.”

[Based on reports by The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Washington Post.]

Jade Goody to wed on Sunday

By Calvin Palmer

Reality TV star Jade Goody, terminally ill with cancer, is to wed fiancé Jack Tweed on Sunday.

The Big Brother contestant was told last Friday that she has only months to live after her cervical cancer spread to her bowel, liver and groin and became incurable.

The 27-year-old’s publicist Max Clifford confirmed today that the couple will wed on Sunday and are hoping to hold the ceremony at the Down Hall country house, in Hatfield Heath, Hertfordshire.

Goody told The Sun newspaper she was desperate to marry outside the hospital and hoped to walk down the aisle.

“I am going to die in this hospital, so I don’t want to get married here,” she said. “But wherever we tie the knot, I’m determined to walk down that aisle.”

Goody, who became a household name after taking part in the 2002 series of Channel 4’s Big Brother, said she has “lost her balance”, which the doctors said could be a sign of her illness or general weakness.

“But I’m hoping I will have the strength to walk on my big day,” she said.

Demand for cervical screening has increased since Goody’s diagnosis. Cervical cancer specialists are putting it down to a “Jade Goody effect”.

University Hospital Lewisham, in south-east London, has carried out 21 percent more tests in the months since Goody was diagnosed with cervical cancer last August compared with the same period in 2007.

 “We have definitely seen an increase in uptake due to Jade Goody,” said Robert Music, director of the cervical cancer organisation, Jo’s Trust. “The fact that it is in the news a lot of the time clearly makes a difference. I think that in this celebrity age, many people relate to Goody. It is almost as if she has become a part of their lives — a family member.”

Cervical cancer is the most preventable form of cancer, yet it is still the second biggest cancer killer of women in their early 30s in the UK. It is estimated that 40 percent of women under the age of 35 do not have a regular smear or pap test.

Katie Boyd, consultant pathologist for Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust, said cervical screening workloads had increased markedly in the past four months, particularly among women of Goody’s age.

“We have seen a lot more women coming for smear tests who have not come before and therefore an increase in the number of abnormalities among that group,” she said. “Women read magazines and are influenced by these things.

“I am very sad for Jade Goody but if it encourages more people to have tests then that is positive.”

[Based on reports by The Times and The Guardian.]

TV chimpanzee shot dead by police after attack on owner’s friend

By Calvin Palmer

Travis, a 200-pound chimpanzee was shot dead by police in Connecticut yesterday after he attacked a female friend of the owner.

Sandra Herold, 70, tried to stop the attack by stabbing the pet chimpanzee with a butcher’s knife.

Her friend, Charla Nash, 55, was badly mauled in the attack. She was being treated at Stamford Hospital and might not survive, authorities said.

“I’ve been doing this a long time and have never seen anything this dramatic on a living patient,” said the head of the paramedic crew that treated her, Capt. Bill Ackley of Stamford Emergency Medical Service.

Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin said: “She suffered a tremendous loss of blood, terrible facial injuries and hand injuries.”

Herold and two police officers were also hurt.  The extent of their injuries wasn’t clear.

Nash had just left her car when 15-year-old Travis attacked.  Owner Herold called 911, grabbed a butcher’s knife and stabbed Travis a number of times.

After police arrived to clear the way for emergency medical workers to treat the critically injured friend, the chimpanzee revived and opened the door of the police cruiser. The officer inside fired several shots.

“He had no choice but to pull his pistol and fire several rounds,” Conklin said.

Travis retreated to his living quarters in the house. Police followed a trail of blood and found him dead.

Conklin said that charges against Ms. Herold were unlikely.

“We’ll certainly speak to the experts and the prosecutors,” he said, “but we truly hope that there are no charges. It’s a modern-day tragedy.”

The Herolds got Travis when he was three days old.

When he was younger, Travis appeared on TV commercials for Old Navy and Coca-Cola, made an appearance on the Maury Povich Show and took part in a television pilot.

The chimpanzee was well known around Stamford because he rode around in trucks belonging to the towing company operated by his owners.

He was toilet trained, dressed himself, took his own bath, ate at the table and drank wine from a stemmed glass. He logged on to the computer to look at pictures, and watched television using the remote control.

[Based on reports by The Advocate , The New York Times and Associated Press.]