The World in Review
A snapshot of events around the world | Updated each Friday
1. Canada:
Calgary-based Canadian Pacific Railway gave 600 employees across the country temporary layoff notices as a result of economic circumstances. The company said it hopes to rehire those laid-off as soon as the economy regains momentum. (See related article: “The Credit Crunch! – How You Can Protect Yourself”)
“Canada would lose 582,000 jobs within five years if the Big Three automakers completely shut down, according to a report prepared for the Ontario Manufacturing Council, a government advisory panel of industry and labour representatives…The report, which was prepared by the Centre for Spatial Economics, projects a bleak economic picture for the province and the rest of the country if the automakers were to go out of business…Effects on employment would be felt right away, the report states, with Canada losing 323,000 jobs if production ceased immediately, 281,800 in Ontario alone…Those figures would climb in five years to 582,000 jobs nationally in 2014, 517,000 of those in Ontario” (CBC News).
Technical difficulties on Wednesday shut down the Toronto Stock Exchange, the third largest in North America.
“Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a grim forecast for the Canadian economy, saying in an interview with broadcaster CTV a depression is possible…‘The truth is, I’ve never seen such uncertainty in terms of looking forward to the future,’ Harper told CTV. ‘I’m very worried about the Canadian economy’” (CTV Television Network). (See related article: “The Great Canadian Shift”)
2. United States:
The nation’s first near-total face transplant was performed by a team of eight doctors at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic.
Police officially declared serial killer Ottis Toole responsible for the abduction and decapitation of eight-year old Adam Walsh in 1981. The case gained notoriety and spawned fingerprinting programs for children across the nation, the formation of missing persons units at police departments, and legislation to develop the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which now retains information for more than 80,000 missing children nationwide.
“Oil fell below $40 a barrel for the first time in more than four years as OPEC failed to convince traders that the glut in crude will diminish and the U.S. government said supplies climbed for the 11th time in 12 weeks…The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed that the group’s 11 members with quotas will trim current production by 2.46 million barrels a day to 24.845 million barrels a day, OPEC president Chakib Khelil said in Oran, Algeria” (Bloomberg). (See related article: “If the Oil Runs Out…”)
“General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC will shutter about 59 factories over the next month as they struggle to adapt to the worst sales in 26 years and await a verdict on a U.S. rescue of the industry…The closings show how far automakers are going to conserve cash and prune output under the pressures of a shrinking U.S. market, dwindling access to credit for dealers and demands for advance payments by some GM and Chrysler parts suppliers” (Bloomberg).
The amount of U.S. workers filing for jobless benefits fell, but Labor Department data shows that the number of claims is still more than 200,000 higher than last year.
A recently released FBI report has confirmed that white supremacists are increasingly infiltrating the military. “According to the unclassified FBI Intelligence Assessment, ‘White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel Since 9/11,’ which was released to law enforcement agencies nationwide: ‘Sensitive and reliable source reporting indicates supremacist leaders are encouraging followers who lack documented histories of neo-Nazi activity and overt racist insignia such as tattoos to infiltrate the military as “ghost skins,” in order to recruit and receive training for the benefit of the extremist movement’” (Southern Poverty Law Center).
Billionaire investor Bernard Madoff of Bernard L. Madoff Investments Securities LLC was arrested after being accused of orchestrating a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, which has left charities, banks and financial institutions worldwide, especially in Asia and Europe, on the brink of financial collapse. Several of the organizations that could lose the largest amount of money include Fairfield Greenwich Advisors, an investment management firm that had $7.5 billion invested with Madoff, and Austrian Bank Medici who had two funds with $2.1 billion invested with him.
3. Mexico: Three agents in the state attorney general’s office in Tijuana were wounded after gunmen opened fire on them. In the past year, violence against government institutions and police officers has increased as police have begun to crackdown on gangs trying to control drug trade routes into the United States from Mexico. (See related news brief: “Police Killings Mark Increase in Mexican Drug Violence”)
4. Cuba: For the first time since the end of the Cold War in 1991, a group of Russian warships have docked in Cuba’s waters, part of a five-day visit of a larger Latin America tour. Other stops include Venezuela and Nicaragua. (See related article: “Wanted: A Replacement Superpower”)
5. Brazil: The Rio Group summit, composed of Latin American and Caribbean countries, invited Cuba, but excluded the United States, Portugal and Spain for the first time since the founding of the meeting. Leaders from more than 20 different countries, including left-wing proponents Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and Bolivian President Evo Morales, who met to discuss problems facing the region, blamed the economic crisis on wealthy nations and called for president-elect Barack Obama to end the trade embargo against Cuba. (See related article: “Venezuela’s Shift to the Left”)
6. Ireland: A $13.8 billion USD fund will be provided by the Irish government to recapitalize its listed banks.
7. United Kingdom:
The Bank of England reported that disposable income had fallen for 71% of British households, and almost one-third of households had at least £100 ($154.6 USD) less spending money in September compared to the same month last year.
The number of jobless persons increased 137,000 to 1.86 million from August to October according to the Office for National Statistics.
A top executive at Barclays bank John Varley expects housing prices will continue to decline to about 30% by the end of 2009.
“Britain’s taxpayers face a £650bn bill for the pensions of public sector workers. Many local authorities have already had to increase council tax to pay off deficits in their schemes; a recent report showed that 25pc of council tax funds the retirement pots of local government workers” (Telegraph).
Prime Minister Gordon Brown officially announced that British troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by July 31, 2009. Only a few hundred troops will remain to help train Iraqi forces.
8. Germany: “Far right extremists and neo-Nazis in Germany are growing bolder, says Konrad Freiberg, head of the Union of German Police Officers. ‘In the past the violent right-wing activists were respectful to the police. That has changed radically,’ he said. ‘Now, in demonstrations that include the NPD, the police are frequently targets of physical attacks by the far right. They verbally abuse the police as well. That represents a change’” (UPI).
9. France: Due to the dramatic rise in binge drinking among French youth, the government is considering raising the legal age to buy alcohol from 16 to 18 years old.
10. Spain: “In the first worldwide study of pesticides in fruit-based soft drinks, researchers in Spain are reporting relatively high levels of pesticides in drinks in some countries, especially the United Kingdom and Spain. Drinks sampled from the United States, however, had relatively low levels, the researchers note” (Science Daily).
11. Greece: Riotous demonstrations continued throughout Athens, with rocks being hurled at police and cars and storefronts set on fire. The sporadic riots began after a 15-year-old boy was shot by the authorities on Dec. 6. Some link the unrest to the credit crisis and fear it may spread to other European nations. (See news brief: “Riots in Athens Escalating”)
12. Democratic Republic of Congo: According to military officials in Uganda, the armies of Uganda, DR Congo and the government of South Sudan launched a joint offensive against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Garamba region of DR Congo. The LRA has led a rebellion for more than 20 years in northern Uganda, and the fighting has displaced some two million people. Uganda’s government has been involved in lengthy peace negotiations with the LRA, but the rebels’ leader has demanded that arrest warrants for him and his associates are dropped before any agreement can be struck (BBC).
13. Somalia: President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed fired Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, naming Mohamoud Mohamed Gouled as his replacement. But the Somali Parliament voted overwhelmingly to endorse Mr. Hussein and his government.
14. Israel:
In Ramallah, the Israeli government released 227 Palestinian prisoners. More than 8,000 others remain behind bars.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the world should press Iran to stop it from building nuclear weapons, warning that a nuclear-armed Iran might attack the United States. “If it built even a primitive nuclear weapon like the type that destroyed Hiroshima, Iran would not hesitate to load it on a ship, arm it with a detonator operated by GPS and sail it into a vital port on the east coast of North America” (Associated Press).
15. Iraq: During a news conference with U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, televised live, an Iraqi journalist threw shoes at the U.S. president and shouted insults. Showing to someone the soles of shoes is considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture (AFP).
16. India: Experts fear the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, confirmed in West Bengal, might mutate or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic that could kill millions of people (Reuters). (See related article: “Avian Flu Pandemic – Is It Only a Matter of Time?”)
17. China:
Beijing warned it would not lend money to the U.S. economy indefinitely, even as new data showed it had consolidated its position as the top buyer of American government bonds (Sydney Morning Herald). (See related article: “America’s Banking Crisis – A Financial Tsunami Approaching!”)
The government announced it is preparing to send naval ships to fight rampant Somali piracy in the Gulf of Aden (BBC).
More than 370,000 chickens have been culled in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu after an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, said officials (BBC). (See related news brief: “Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) Plague Could Happen, Warns CDC”)
18. Hong Kong: Scores of people were hurt when two bottles of acid were dropped from a building into a busy shopping area (Telegraph).
19. Japan: The prime minister met with the South Korean president and China’s prime minister, and agreed to boost trade and greatly increase currency swaps (BBC).
20. Australia:
Green groups responded angrily to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s announcement that Australia will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 5% of 2000 levels by 2020, but could make a cut of up to 15% if other countries also sign up to stronger reductions. “This is a complete failure of a system,” Greens Senator Christine Milne said, adding that “5% is a global embarrassment, 15% is way below even the minimum the rest of the world wants to see. The Europeans have said 20% targets by 2020. How can the Rudd Government face the rest of the world when Australia has done nothing?” (ABC News).
“Dengue, the world’s most common mosquito-borne virus, has sickened 34 people in the northeastern Australian city of Cairns and may strike hundreds more, a senior health official said...‘The worst is to come,’ Brian Montgomery, a Cairns-based senior entomologist with Queensland Health, said…‘It’s shaping up to be a similarly severe outbreak as in 2003 and ‘04,’ when the disease struck almost 900 people throughout northern Queensland state, killing one.” (Bloomberg). (See related literature: “And There Shall Be Pestilences”)
Research conducted by Newcastle and Queensland universities reveals that anti-depressants are the most commonly prescribed medication for Australian women.
Despite current economic conditions, holiday shoppers on average will buy gifts for 11 people, with each consumer spending $871 on presents, according to the Sensis Consumer Report.
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