Thursday, June 25, 2009
安華：中央政府報復‧人均撥款民聯5州最少
（吉隆坡）國會反對黨領袖拿督斯里安華週三（6月24日）揭發，中央政府對5個由民聯執政州屬的人均撥款，是全國最低的5位。
他說，例如檳城人均撥款只有區區的119令吉，占全國各州的人均撥款的1.3%而已。
他形容，上述對民聯執政州屬的人均撥款，含有報復意味，因為所有由民聯執政的州屬，都獲得偏低的人均撥款，包括屬貧窮州的吉蘭丹與吉打。
他說，這是過去從未發生的事，由於5個州屬的人民投選了民聯政府，中央政府便通過人均撥款來“報復”5州人民。不過，各州人民都是納稅人，中央政府不應厚此薄彼，減少民聯執政州屬的人均撥款。
他週三在國會下議院參與財政部提出財政部長在4月10日改組內閣後，重新分配2009年度預算案動議時表示，除了檳城的人均撥款只有119令吉，是全國最低州屬、吉打則獲得172令吉、吉蘭丹179令吉、雪蘭莪221令吉及霹靂230令吉。
“很明顯的，這樣的人均撥款有報復意味，財政部為甚麼要削減這些州屬的撥款？為甚麼要懲罰那些投選民聯州政府的人民？”
至於“風頭頗健”的巫統巴西沙叻國會議員達祖丁在打岔安華談話時，指民聯政府尤其是霹靂州政府向承包商、受惠者及人民訛稱中央政府的撥款為民聯政府撥款，犯了誤導人民的錯誤。
倪可漢要達祖丁出示證據
他說，向人民訛稱中央政府撥款是民聯撥款，已經成為民聯州政府的“習慣”，因此他非議民聯州政府的做法，並認為民聯應坦誠向人民交待撥款來源。
此番談話引起行動黨木威國會議員拿督倪可漢的不滿，即刻站起來要達祖丁出示證據，否則便要他道歉，並將他交由國會特權委員會處置。
California set to issue IOUs as fiscal crisis weighs
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) – California's controller said on Wednesday that he would have to issue IOUs in a week if lawmakers can't quickly solve a $24 billion budget deficit, and the state's treasurer plans to tap a reserve fund to meet debt service costs.
The measures came as a budget crisis deepened in the most populous U.S. state and the gridlocked legislature failed to pass a proposed $11 billion in cuts.
"Next Wednesday we start a fiscal year with a massively unbalanced spending plan and a cash shortfall not seen since the Great Depression," Controller John Chiang said in a statement announcing that he would be forced to use IOUs to pay the state's bills beginning on July 2.
"The state's $2.8 billion cash shortage in July grows to $6.5 billion in September and after that we see a double digit freefall," Chiang said. "Unfortunately, the state's inability to balance its checkbook will now mean short-changing taxpayers, local governments and small businesses."
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, meanwhile, is planning to draw on reserves for economic recovery sales tax bonds, according to a spokesman.
Rating agency Standard & Poor's warned it may downgrade the bonds, given the problems California is likely to face in replenishing its emergency funds.
The state is expecting to file a material event notice on Thursday to alert bondholders to the move that comes in response to plunging sales tax receipts, said spokesman Tom Dresslar.
"The senior coverage account will be drawn on and debt service on all economic recovery bonds will be paid in full on July 1," Dresslar said.
California has been in crisis since the housing slump and credit crunch caused a severe decline in revenues. The state has seen its unemployment rate climb steadily to 11.5 percent in May from 6.8 percent a year earlier, according to labor department data.
LAWMAKERS REJECT CUTS
The government dipped into the same reserve fund in December to make a principal payment on economic recovery bonds, but was able to top the reserve back up within days.
The California Legislature on Wednesday voted down $11 billion in proposed cuts to state services, sending members seeking a budget deal back to the drawing board.
The vote failed largely along party lines in both houses, with the Republicans saying it falls short of the savings needed and amounted to posturing by Democrats.
Standard & Poor's said it will review its economic recovery bond, or ERB ratings "after further evaluation of state projections as to the size and timing of potential draws on the ERBs' reserves."
The bonds, which were approved by voters in 2004 to help the state through another fiscal crisis, are secured by a sales tax and a general obligation pledge of the state.
California has about $8.6 billion of the bonds outstanding, although some have credit support and will not be affected by any rating change, S&P analyst David Hitchcock said.
S&P rates the bonds at A-plus, or fifth-highest investment grade and six notches above speculative, or "junk" status.
That's one notch above the A rating assigned to California's $57 billion of general obligation debt, the lowest rating of any U.S. state.
S&P has the GO debt on alert for a downgrade.
Moody's also has the state on review and has warned of a potential multi-notch downgrade.
Draws on debt service reserve funds are rare and will likely make waves in the bond market, said Dick Larkin, director of credit analysis at the Iselin, New Jersey, office of broker Herbert J. Sims & Co.
"I am not aware of a situation where an issuer has drawn on a debt reserve for sales tax bonds," he said in emailed comments.
"I am also not aware of a situation where a unit needed to draw on a formal debt reserve fund to pay normal debt service on general obligation bonds," he said.
Larkin said the latest developments reflect the strain on California's cash flow and may signal a situation that leads to a temporary disruption of normal debt service payments.
"In the end, though, I still believe that California debt holders would be paid in full, even if there is a temporary disruption because of this financial crisis," he said.
旅澳大馬人：流感病例雖多‧澳洲人如常生活
（雪蘭莪‧八打靈再也）一名居住在澳洲墨爾本的大馬人郭美麟說，儘管墨爾本出現百多宗A型流感病例，但當地人的生活作息如常，購物廣場或菜市場人潮依然、學生照常上課、打工族照常上班。
她今日（週四，6月25日）通過電郵向《星洲日報》分享澳洲政府對A型流感的防範措施，以及當地的情況時說：“我們都如常地生活，但會注意本身的清潔與衛生。”
她說，她居住在墨爾本東南部，維多利亞發生了多宗的A型流感，尤其是在墨爾本。
不過，這裡的居民都相信政府會在這課題上提供最好的解決方案。
提供標準防範訊息
“一些學校提供抗病毒素給學生，一些證實感染A型流感的學生則進行一週的自行隔離。”
她說，有關當局向墨爾本居民提供一些標準的防範訊息，即打噴嚏和咳嗽時要掩蓋嘴，已使用的紙巾應即刻丟進垃圾桶，使用肥皂和清水洗手，使用有酒精的消毒洗手液，避免在工作或放學後，與病人接觸。
“真的不需要太過敏。根據維多利亞人民服務局，大部份流感是不嚴重的，並在不靠藥物下痊癒。不過，當局也指出，健康屬高風險的一族則要提高警惕。”
US Officials Leaked False Story Blaming Iran for Khobar Attack
In March 1997, FBI Director Louis Freeh got what he calls in his memoirs "the first truly big break in the case": the arrest in Canada of one of the Saudi Hezbollah members the Saudis accused of being the driver of the getaway car at Khobar Towers.
Hani al-Sayegh, then 28 years old, had arrived in Canada in August 1996 after having left Saudi Arabia, by his own account, in August 1995, for Iran and Syria. The Canadian government charged him with being a terrorist, based on claims by the Saudi regime.
In order to be transferred to the United States without facing deportation to Saudi Arabia, where he was believed to face the death penalty, al-Sayegh had to agreed to a plea bargain under which he would admit to having proposed an attack on U.S. personnel, for which he would have to serve up to 10 years in prison.
In fact, the only thing al-Sayegh had actually admitted to, according to FBI sources, was having proposed an attack on one AWACS plane that had been turned over to the Saudi Air Force – a proposal he said had been rejected. Both before and after being brought to Washington, moreover, Al-Sayegh steadfastly denied any knowledge of the Khobar Towers bombing.
Despite that consistent denial by al-Sayegh, a Washington Post story on Apr. 14, 1997 quoted U.S. and Saudi officials as saying that al-Sayegh had met two years earlier with senior Iranian intelligence officer Brig. Gen. Ahmad Sherifi and that Iran was the "organizing force" behind the Khobar bombing. That story, leaked by officials supporting the Saudi version of the Khobar story, cited Canadian intercepts of al-Sayegh’s phone conversations in Ottawa before his arrest as allegedly incriminating evidence.
The story lent further credence to the general belief in Washington that Iran had masterminded the bombing, mainly because U.S. intelligence had observed the surveillance of U.S. military and civilian sites in Saudi Arabia by Iranians and their Saudi allies in 1994 and 1995.
What al-Sayegh actually told FBI agents in a series of interviews in Ottawa and Washington, however, contradicted the leaked story, according to sources familiar with those interviews.
Al-Sayegh admitted having carried out the surveillance of one military site other than Khobar for the Iranians, but insisted that it was not to prepare for a possible terrorist bombing but to identify potential targets for Iranian retaliation in the event of a U.S. attack on Iran.
His testimony was consistent with what Ambassador Ron Neumann, who was director of the Office for Iran and Iraq in the State Department’s Bureau of Near East Affairs from 1991 through 1994, had been saying about the Iranian reconnaissance of U.S. targets.
While most official analysts were ready to believe that Iran was plotting a terrorist attack against the United States, Neumann recalls that he had discerned a pattern in Iranian behavior: every time U.S.-Iran tensions rose, there was an increase in Iranian reconnaissance of U.S. diplomatic and military faculties.
"The pattern could be taken as hostile but it could equally have been defensive," says Neumann, meaning that the Iranians viewed such reconnaissance of possible U.S. targets as part of their deterrent to a U.S. attack.
Hani al-Sayegh would have been a strange choice for driver of the getaway car at Khobar Towers. A frail man whose frequent asthma attacks repeatedly interrupted his interviews with the FBI, al-Sayegh recounted to investigators he had entered military training with the Iranian IRGC, but had been told by his IRGC handler after one particularly disastrous exercise that his asthma made him unfit for military operations.
FBI veteran Jack Cloonan, who was talking with the agents interviewing al-Sayegh that spring and summer, told al-Sayegh’s immigration lawyer, Michael Wildes, that he was convinced al-Sayegh had not participated in the operation, according to notes in the diary Wildes kept on the case.
Hani al-Sayegh continued to deny either that he was involved or the Iranians had anything to do with Khobar, and as a result was deported to Saudi Arabia in 1999 – despite the widespread assumption within the FBI that he would be beheaded on his return.
Freeh had no case against the Iranians and their Saudi allies unless he could get access to the Saudi Shi’a detainees. In the memoir "My FBI", Freeh charged that President Bill Clinton refused to press Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah for access to those prisoners and then asked him for a contribution to the future Clinton presidential library at a meeting at the Hay-Adams Hotel in September 1998.
That account is disputed, however, by numerous Clinton administration officials. Freeh, who was not present, cites only "my sources", strongly suggesting that he got it from the self-interested Prince Bandar.
Freeh claimed that former President George Bush had then interceded with Abdullah at Freeh’s request, resulting in a meeting between Freeh and Abdullah at Bandar’s Virginia estate Sep. 29, 1998. At that meeting, Abdullah offered to allow the FBI to submit questions to the detainees and observe the questions and answers from behind one-way glass.
But what Freeh left out of the story is that Abdullah’s new offer came at a time when the Saudis felt a greater need to appease Washington on the Khobar Towers investigation than they had previously.
In May 1998, the CIA had learned that Saudi intelligence had broken up an al Qaeda plot to smuggle Sagger anti-tank missiles from Yemen into Saudi Arabia about a week before a scheduled visit to Saudi by Vice-President Al Gore and had not informed U.S. intelligence about the incident.
Then, on Aug. 7, 1998, the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania had been bombed 10 minutes apart. The CIA had quickly ascertained that al Qaeda was responsible for the bombings, with the result that U.S. intelligence began to focus more on bin Laden’s operations in Saudi Arabia.
Gore had met with Abdullah on Sep. 24, and had pressed hard for access to an important al Qaeda finance official, Madani al Tayyib, who had been detained by the Saudi government the previous year, but kept away from U.S. intelligence.
The Saudi regime had long acted to keep the United States away from the bin Laden trail in Saudi. During the Afghan War, high-ranking Saudi officials, including interior minister Prince Nayef himself, had worked closely with bin Laden. And those ties had apparently continued even after the Saudi government revoked bin Laden’s citizenship, froze his assets, and began cracking down on some anti-government Islamic extremists in 1994.
Evidence soon appeared that the regime had allowed Saudi supporters of bin Laden to finance his operations through Saudi charities, while encouraging bin Laden to focus on the U.S. military rather than the regime.
9/11 Commission investigators later learned that, after bin Laden’s move from Sudan to Afghanistan in May 1996, a delegation of Saudi officials had asked top Taliban leaders to tell bin Laden that if he didn’t attack the regime, "recognition will follow".
Meanwhile, Nayef was resisting CIA requests for bin Laden’s birth certificate, passport and bank records.
The CIA had been sharing its own intelligence on bin Laden with the Mabahith, the Saudi secret police, including copies of National Security Agency interceptions of the cell phone conversations of suspected al Qaeda officials. Then the militants suddenly stopped using their cell phones, indicating they had been tipped off by the Mabahith.
In early 1997, the CIA’s bin Laden station even issued a memorandum for CIA Director George Tenet, who was about to travel to Saudi Arabia, identifying Saudi intelligence as a "hostile service".
By late September 1998, the Saudi regime was feeling the heat from the Clinton administration for its failure to cooperate on bin Laden’s operations in Saudi Arabia. Abdullah’s proposal was a way to demonstrate cooperation on terrorism while helping Freeh promote the Saudi line on Khobar Towers.
Lawmaker accuses Fed of "cover-up" in BofA deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve sought to hide its involvement in Bank of America Corp's (BAC.N) acquisition of Merrill Lynch as Merrill's financial condition worsened, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said on Wednesday.
The Fed "engaged in a cover-up and deliberately hid concerns and pertinent details regarding the merger from other federal regulatory agencies," Representative Darrell Issa said in a statement released to Reuters.
Bernanke has in the past denied any inappropriate pressure on Bank of America. Fed spokeswoman Michelle Smith on Wednesday referred to a letter Bernanke sent Representative Dennis Kucinich on April 30 and later testimony in which he offered an "unconditional assertion" that he did not ask Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis to withhold information regarding Merrill.
"The Federal Reserve acted with the highest integrity throughout its discussions with Bank of America," Bernanke wrote to the Ohio Democrat, who chairs a subcommittee on the Oversight panel.
The Democrat who heads the committee, Edolphus Towns of New York, has called Bernanke to testify on Thursday. "I am not going to prejudge these issues. We are not even close to finishing the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch investigation at this point," Towns said in a statement.
POLITICAL FOOTBALL
Democrats on the panel have focused on whether Bank of America's Lewis illegally misled investors about Merrill's finances, while Republicans have zeroed in on whether the Fed and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson inappropriately pressured Lewis to seal the deal.
The issue has become a political football as lawmakers look to blame someone for the troubled deal amid taxpayer anger over the billions of dollars the government infused into banks to try to ease the world financial crisis.
A Democratic source close to the committee said Republican members leaked documents just before a hearing earlier this month where Lewis testified. "They framed the story by looking at only a few of the documents," said the source, who was not authorized to be quoted on the matter.
Some Democrats believe Bank of America's Lewis had to know about Merrill's deepening losses and that Lewis was threatening to pull out of the deal as a way to get more assistance from the Fed. Still, the Democratic source said, "The Fed does not come out smelling like roses."
Kucinich said what is remarkable about the situation was that the Fed required no changes in the bank's leadership or conditions on the billions that did go to Bank of America.
The bank, which did not return a phone call seeking comment, has taken $45 billion in bailout funds from the government.
Other documents released by the committee earlier this month revealed that a Fed analysis found deficiencies in the due diligence conducted by Bank of America prior to the Merrill deal.
PRESSURE, DISCLOSURE
Earlier this month, the same panel questioned Lewis about whether he was pressured to complete the deal with Merrill, which lost $15.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008. Lewis told the lawmakers that Bernanke never asked him to keep secret any information the bank wanted to disclose to shareholders.The committee has obtained a number of emails and documents from the Fed about its behind-the-scenes role in the merger, which was quickly brokered late in 2008 amid turmoil in the U.S. banking sector, according to sources familiar with documents. The sources declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The sources said documents showed the Fed tried to keep some information about the Bank of America deal secret from the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, the North Carolina-based bank's direct regulator, and from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The bank is also regulated by the Fed.
In one email cited, then-Merrill Lynch chief financial officer Nelson Chai wrote to then-Merrill CEO John Thain, about a discussion he had just had with New York Federal Reserve official Arthur Angulo:
"His hope is that there is no disclosure prior to (Bank of America) quarterly announcement. We told him this was current plan."
That behavior "raises important questions" about whether the Fed can work collaboratively with other regulators and should gain additional power, as proposed in the Obama administration's financial regulation plan, the sources said.
Documents obtained by Republican panel members suggest that the Fed pushed Bank of America to complete the deal by threatening to fire Lewis and the board, according to the sources.
They cited a December 20, 2008 email in which Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Fed, said he had spoken to Bernanke about Bank of America potentially trying to get out of the deal by claiming that a "material adverse change" (MAC) had occurred.
"Just had a long talk with Ben (Bernanke). Says that they think the MAC threat is irrelevant because it's not credible. Also intends to make it even more clear that if they play that card and they need assistance, management is gone," Lacker wrote, according to the sources.
Bernanke's term as Fed chairman expires in January.
(Reporting by Julie Vorman and Kim Dixon; Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Gary Hill and Carol Bishopric)
How the Wall Street Bankers Bought Congress
You would think that causing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression might have repercussions. You would think being a major factor in the destruction of around 40 percent of the world’s wealth might get you in trouble. You would think being the cause of the worst housing crisis in history — with millions of people losing their homes because of you — might force a restructuring of how Wall Street does things.
You would think that. But you’d be wrong.
For Wall Street’s lobbyists in Washington, it’s business as usual. Since Barack Obama took office, the bankers have succeeded in pushing through bogus “stress tests” of financial institutions’ solvency, escaping tougher government oversight, and steamrolling attempts to give working-class borrowers a break.
Even the much-hyped limits on CEO pay are being rolled back. In mid-June, Barack Obama lifted a five-month-old limit on executive compensation at financial firms that took federal bailout money. Apparently, only $500,000 a year in salaries and other perks was just too much of a sacrifice for the financial system to bear. Instead, Obama has established a “special master of compensation,” who will decide on pay to top executives at banks still reliant on government money.
While having a “special master” oversee pay might sound like a big deal, the banks aren’t sweating it. “Our people kind of thought it was a non-event,” one unnamed executive of a large bank told the Washington Post. “I don’t think there are worries about it on Wall Street.” And, the executive added, “It’s not like the horrible and unethical action from Congress, where they were putting artificial caps on pay or trying to steal back bonuses.”
The sense of entitlement on display in comments like these is staggering — as if the “wizards” of Wall Street deserve the billions in compensation showered upon them in the past decade for producing what has proved to be fictitious wealth, while destabilizing the economy and destroying the lives of people across the U.S.
As for legislation aimed at stemming the kinds of predatory lending practices that helped exacerbate the housing bubble and ultimately triggered the financial crisis, Senate Banking Committee Chair Christopher Dodd recently said, “We’ve got a lot on our plate. We’ve got other things to do.”
Apparently, however, one of those “other things to do” was not passing “cramdown” legislation — a measure that would have enabled bankruptcy court judges to lower the principal on existing mortgages for homeowners facing foreclosure, thereby helping people to keep their homes. In that bill, defeated in early May, the Senate sided with banks over homeowners by a 51-45 margin.
Housing rights activists estimate the legislation could have staved off 1.7 million foreclosures and preserved $300 billion in home equity. Nevertheless, a dozen Democrats in Senate voted against it.
“Instead of defending ordinary Americans, the majority of the senators went with the banks,” said the Center for Responsible Lending in a statement. “Yes, the same banks who have benefited so richly in the [$700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP] bailout.”
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department was celebrating the fact that 10 banks would be paying back TARP funds — insinuating that the financial system is on stable enough ground that the government could begin backing off.
But the same day that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner talked up the TARP repayments, TARP Oversight Panel Chair Elizabeth Warren said the so-called stress tests, conducted to determine whether the big banks were on safe financial footing, should be redone.
“The employment numbers for 2009 have already exceeded the harshest scenario considered so far, suggesting that the stress tests should be repeated,” Warren’s report stated.
There was just one piece of legislation that didn’t go entirely the banks’ way: a bill, signed into law by Obama in May, that put some restraints on the out-of-control credit card industry,
The new law bans increases in annual percentage rate interest charges during the first 12 months after opening up an account. Consumers must get 45 days’ notice of changes in rates or contracts, and 30 days’ notice for account closures. The law also eliminates the notorious practice of “double billing,” in which credit card issuers impose finance charges based on balances already paid.
Yet even here, industry lobbyists were able to block changes sought by industry critics. Crucially, there’s still no cap on the interest rates that credit card companies can charge.
That’s why John Taylor, chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said in a recent interview: “It’s the bottom of the ninth, and it’s bankers 10, consumers zero. It’s like being in a street fight, and you and a few friends just went up against 100 other people, and you’re just picking yourself up off the ground. And you’re just bloodied.”
One reason bank lobbyists have been so successful is that they have convinced Congress to take on financial issues piecemeal, rather than in a single piece of legislation. That way, the lobbyists could focus on one battle at a time.
And on each bill, they made the case that new rules would restrict credit and jack up interest rates, thereby hurting consumers. Overall, the financial industry spent $42 million in lobbying efforts in the first quarter of 2009 — even as many banks were still being bailed out with taxpayer money.
By and large, this tactic has been successful. Scott Talbott, a lobbyist at the Financial Services Roundtable, admitted, “We knew we were going to be up against it. Yeah, we know it was going to be a tough year. And so far, it has not been a tough as expected.”
So despite Wall Street’s greatest crisis since the 1930s, the banking system is still calling the shots in Washington. Indeed, in a rare moment of candor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said: “And the banks–hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created–are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.”
What’s more, the same people move seamlessly back and forth between the corridors of power in finance and politics. Consider the case of Michael Paese, an ex-JP Morgan employee who became the top staffer to Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee — which oversees Wall Street. Last September, Paese bolted to become Goldman Sachs’ top lobbyist. There he replaced Mark Patterson, who, in turn, left Goldman Sachs to become chief of staff at the Treasury Department.
Goldman Sachs, remember, is the firm that was run by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson before he went to Washington to work in the Bush administration. And don’t forget that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner himself is a disciple of Ronald Rubin, another former Goldman Sachs executive turned treasury secretary during the Clinton administration.
Given this Wall Street-Washington circuit, it’s little surprise that Barney Frank has written a piece of legislation on lending “reform” that seems tailored to Wall Street.
His proposed measure has nine consumer, housing and civil rights groups up in arms. The National Consumer Law Center, for example, says the proposed legislation would “do more harm than good,” and added in a statement, “The bill is complex, convoluted and simply will not accomplish its main goal–to fundamentally change the way mortgages are made in this country.”
Just in case the Wall Street/Washington revolving door isn’t sufficient to get their way, the finance capitalists spread enormous amounts of money around Congress.
In the 2008 election cycle, securities and investment firms donated a whopping $154.9 million to political campaigns — $57 million more than the 2004 elections, according to OpenSecrets.org. Of that, 57 percent went to Democrats and 43 percent to Republicans. Real estate, which became deeply enmeshed with Wall Street during the housing bubble, donated another $136.7 million. The split was 49 percent Democrats and 51 percent Republicans.
Commercial banks, meanwhile, contributed $37.1 million to politicians–the most ever from that sector–with 48 percent going to Democrats and 52 percent to Republicans. Lastly, hedge funds tossed in another $16.7 million — four times as much as the sector had donated in any other election cycle. Hedge funds favored Democrats by a 65-35 percent margin. Altogether, that comes to $345.4 million.
While the numbers may have been larger than ever, Wall Street has long bought members of Congress in both parties to advance its legislative agenda. And it was a Democrat, President Bill Clinton, who signed into law two key pieces of legislation that set the stage for the current financial crisis.
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, passed by a Republican Congress in 1999, repealed the Depression-era Glass-Steagall laws, which had separated risky investment banking from traditional, deposit-taking commercial banks. A year later, Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which kept large parts of commodities trading beyond the reach of regulators — including complex financial instruments that triggered the financial meltdown.
Today, Democrats have total control of the legislative process. But Wall Street is still getting its way, despite the bankers’ shattered credibility for their role in crashing the economy. Real financial reform that provides relief to working people will come only when social movements can put enough pressure on politicians to force them act.
Source: Dissedent Voice
印尼：週五生效‧印尼女傭停止來馬
（印尼‧雅加達）在發生一連串印尼女傭遭僱主虐待的事件後，印尼人力與移民部長爾曼今日（週四，6月25日）披露，印尼已指示國內的職業介紹所停止送國民到大馬當女傭。
據美聯社報導，爾曼在與其他政府部門舉行會議後說，這項宣佈將在週五（26日）生效，直至大馬方面實行保護措施。
他表示，印尼將於7月15日與大馬的相關政府高層官員舉行會談，以尋求解決方案。
他也說，超過30萬名的印尼女性在大馬當女傭，每月有約3000名新女傭到大馬工作，其中大多數是通過特定的職業介紹所做出安排。
這些女傭每月向印尼當局做出達150宗的投訴，這包括在大馬工作時被虐待、工作太多及沒有付薪等。
爾曼說：“我們要保護我們在外地工作的國民，以免受到肉體上的虐待。”
大馬在6月8日發生一宗女傭被虐案件，34歲的受害人西蒂哈嘉，全身上下都有新傷舊痕，有些傷口依舊滲著血水，疑遭到43歲的女僱主淋熱水灼傷、持木棍和其他硬物毒打造成。
內政部長拿督斯里希山慕丁週三（24日）指出，政府將從其他管道引進女傭，以滿足人民及各個領域對女傭的需求。
新加坡‧雖是大學畢業‧女講師丈夫吃軟飯18年
（新加坡）一名女講師的丈夫，雖是大學畢業，卻吃軟飯18年，沒有出外工作。
法庭文件顯示，一名女講師和丈夫鬧離婚時爆出，丈夫18年來都沒有出外工作。
47歲的女講師與同齡的丈夫在1989年7月結婚。1999年，她就帶著兒子到澳洲生活，在澳洲一所大學任助理講師，丈夫則留在新加坡生活。
她在2006到2008年成功攻讀博士學位後，2008年7月擢升為講師，每月收入約有6292澳幣（約7320新元）。
2007年12月，這名妻子申請離婚，由於夫妻倆已分居超過4年，離婚獲得批准。
這名女講師的丈夫，雖是大學畢業生，曾是自雇人士，但目前失業，在家靠炒股票維生。他聲稱自己在2006年，每個月收入只有1000新元。
丈夫有付組屋貸款
法官判定，2人共有擁有的組屋要出售，售價的62%歸妻子，38%歸丈夫。
對此，女講師的丈夫提出上訴，說他付了57%的房貸，要求得到組屋售價的45%。
妻子則認為，自己應得售價的80%之多。她說，自己一直是家中的經濟支柱，家中的雜費、房貸、水電費、伙食費等，都是她一手包辦。從1999年去澳洲開始，兒子就由她一手照顧。
法官最終裁決，丈夫付的房貸雖較多，但其他開銷是妻子在出錢，所以應給她62%的售屋款項。
法官︰丈夫沒盡責
2人的兒子現年17歲，在澳洲念高中。
法官也判定，丈夫必須每個月給孩子800新元的贍養費。孩子歸妻子撫養，他回來新加坡時，丈夫能與他見面。
丈夫對此也提出上訴，要求贍養費減半，改為400新元。
妻子則要求每月1250澳幣（約1454新元）的贍養費。法官認為，丈夫無法支付這麼多，但是須考慮到，他有提高自己收入的能力。
法官也認為︰“這麼多年來，他沒有盡足夠的責任來照顧他的孩子和家人。他唯一照顧孩子的時候，是在93年妻子去澳洲讀學士學位時，當時也是母親幫忙才照顧得來的。”
因此，法官認為800元的贍養費是一個中肯公平的數目。
新加坡‧聖淘沙名勝世界明年開業‧受矚目賭場也將開張
（新加坡）聖淘沙名勝世界預訂在明年第一季開業，備受矚目的賭場也將開張。
這個賭場佔地1萬5000平方公尺，位於美星豪華酒店（Maxims Tower）地下層，是聖淘沙名勝世界中的唯一賭場。
這個綜合度假勝地佔地49公頃，在2007年7月動工興建，大約60%建築面積將在明年初啟用，包括新加坡環球影城、賭場、表演劇院、節慶大道的部份餐飲地帶、以及四家酒店。
聖淘沙名勝世界今日（週四，6月25日）宣佈，率先開業的的4家酒店包括︰美星豪華酒店、邁克爾酒店（Hotel Michael）、節慶酒店（Festive Hotel）、新加坡硬石酒店（Hard Rock Hotel）。
爭取在農歷年間開業針對聖淘沙名勝世界是否會在明年農歷新年期間開業，該綜合度假勝地發言人說，他們會儘量爭取。
到了7月，結構性建築將全部完工，而主題區設施測試工作，將在今年較後時期進行。
聖淘沙名勝世界總共興建6家酒店，至於其餘兩家酒店，就是Equarius酒店以及Spa別墅，還有兩個景點，就是海洋生物園、海事博物館將會以後陸續開業。
計劃聘請1萬員工聖淘沙名勝世界工程部執行副總裁秦永國週四宣佈，聖淘沙名勝世界將如期在明年初開業，提供世界級的住宿、娛樂體驗。聖淘沙名勝世界計劃聘請1萬員工，目前，聖淘沙名勝世界的受薪員工總共有600人，隨著它即將開業，正在加緊聘請員工。
California May Be Forced to Issue I.O.U.’s
If the i.o.u.’s are issued as threatened, it would be the first time since 1992 — when Gov. Pete Wilson paid roughly 100,000 state employees with them — that the warrants were used to hold over those to whom the state owed money. Before that budget crisis, California last issued the warrants during the Depression.
“Next Wednesday we start a fiscal year with a massively unbalanced spending plan and a cash shortfall not seen since the Great Depression,” the controller, John Chiang, said in a written statement. He added, “Unfortunately, the state’s inability to balance its checkbook will now mean short-changing taxpayers, local governments and small businesses.”
The issuing of the i.o.u.’s would reflect the state’s lack of cash flow and its Legislature’s inability to agree on a way to close the roughly $24 billion budget gap, as tax revenues have continued to fall.
On Wednesday, shortly after Mr. Chiang made his announcement, lawmakers rejected a plan presented by Democrats to close the gap through service cuts, tax increases and accounting maneuvers intended to push some of the problem into the next fiscal year.
Before even broaching the tax increase — which Republican legislators said they would not accept and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, vowed to veto — Democrats failed to get enough Republican votes in the Assembly or Senate for the first of 20 proposed budget bills, which contained $11 billion in cuts. After the vote, the Senate president, Darrell Steinberg, dismissed lawmakers until Thursday.
In February, the Legislature passed a budget for both the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years, but the legislation was dependent on the passage of several ballot propositions that were rejected by voters in May.
In response, Mr. Schwarzenegger has proposed $16 billion in cuts, largely to state programs for the poor, like the Healthy Family Program, the health insurance program that covers more than 900,000 children, and the state’s main welfare program, known as CalWorks, which provides temporary financial assistance to poor families. He also wants to borrow millions from local governments and release some prisoners early to save money.
Republican lawmakers are more or less on board with the governor other than on his plan to borrow from localities and release prisoners or lay off corrections officers.
Democrats wish to reduce the cuts, increase taxes on cigarettes, oil production and cars, and use some accounting maneuvers to get through the years.
The threat of i.o.u. warrants “underscores just how serious this situation is,” H. D. Palmer, the spokesman for the state’s Department of Finance, said in an e-mail message, “and why it’s absolutely critical for the Legislature to get a budget package to the governor in a form that he can sign — and do it in a matter of days.”
If all sides cannot come to an agreement by July 2, the unusual i.o.u’s will be issued to a plethora of creditors.
Borrowing money to cover the shortfalls, which is usually done as the Legislature bickers its ways to a budget this time of year, was made impossible this June by the banking crisis, and the Obama administration refused a request to back loans as well.
In 1992, Governor Wilson, a Republican, issued the i.o.u.’s to state workers; the workers immediately brought a lawsuit, contending that the state had violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. A federal judge approved a $558 million settlement, and some workers received additional vacation time.Related
California’s Solution to $24 Billion Budget Gap Is Going to Bring Some Pain (June 22, 2009)
Crash Puts Focus on Aging Rail Fleets
More than a third of the equipment in the nation’s seven largest rail transit agencies was rated in marginal or poor condition by the Federal Transit Administration this spring. Replacing all the equipment that has exceeded its useful life and finishing all outstanding station rehabilitations for just those seven large systems would cost roughly $50 billion, the agency estimated, and keeping the systems in a state of good repair after that would cost an estimated $5.9 billion a year.
By contrast, the $787 billion stimulus law contains only $8.4 billion for transit capital improvements across the nation.
Outdated equipment does not necessarily mean unsafe trains, and the cause of the Washington crash is still under investigation. But federal safety officials had warned that the Washington train cars could be unsafe in crashes, and called for them to be replaced, or at least strengthened. Transit officials there said they could not afford to replace the cars, which make up more than a quarter of their rolling stock, and added that they were obliged to keep them in service until 2014 because of the terms of a complicated tax shelter.
That the vulnerabilities in the nation’s capital were well known is a jarring reminder of the problems that transit agencies across the nation face trying to keep their aging systems in a state of good repair. Another federal report found last year that the nation’s transit systems were deteriorating, and warned that, “Decaying transit capital assets raise concerns for service reliability and rider safety.”
The effects of the aging systems are apparent to any straphanger whose train has broken down or who has been late to work because of “necessary track work.” But while rail transit is still one of the safest modes of transportation, old, decaying equipment has contributed to accidents in some cases.
When a northbound train on the Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line derailed in July 2006, injuring more than 150 people, the National Transportation Safety Board noted that the line had been placed into service 55 years earlier, and that many components of the track had never been replaced. The board’s report described corroded rails and fasteners, and rotten wood on the ties, and questioned why the problems had not been identified and repaired before the derailment.
Paying for capital improvements has been a struggle for many agencies. Although federal financing for capital improvements to transit systems has been rising, the share going to the largest systems has been shrinking as they have had to compete with new, smaller systems. So while the nation’s seven largest systems — in New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, New Jersey and San Francisco — carry 80 percent of the nation’s rail riders, and are in many cases among the oldest systems, they have received only 23 percent of federal financing eligible for bringing systems into a state of good repair, according to the transit administration.
Mechanically, the New York City subway runs in a remarkably similar manner to the day that the system first opened, in 1904. In 2005, after a fire destroyed a single Depression-era relay room, service was disrupted for months; at the time officials said only two companies in the world were able to perform the proper repairs. But despite this antiquated system, the subway’s safety record remains impressive: the last fatality because of a derailment or collision occurred more than a decade ago. “Our infrastructure is older than we would like it to be, but it is safe,” said Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Other old systems are struggling to maintain what they have while modernizing the system and expanding to meet growing demands. “Do we or any other transit authority have the financial resources to get to a state of good repair overnight?” asked Jonathan R. Davis, the deputy general manager of the transit system in Boston. “Probably not.”
When Washington was warned in 2006 that the cars involved in Monday’s crash should be replaced or at least strengthened to better resist crashes, the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority’s hands were tied. Not only would replacing the cars right away have been prohibitively expensive, but the agency noted that it was constrained by a deal that it, along with many other transit agencies, had entered into to raise much-needed money. The deals essentially involved selling assets like train cars to private entities, which could then get tax breaks by writing off the depreciation, and then lease them back. There were penalties for breaking the deal.
A spokeswoman for the Washington transit agency, Lisa Farbstein, said that deal and others had raised $104 million, which was spent on capital improvements.
Henry Fountain, Michael Grynbaum and Lynnley Browning contributed reporting.Gov. Sanford Admits Affair and Explains Disappearance
Sanford Case a New Dose of Bad News for Republicans
王丹:中國逮捕劉曉波 推測將判重刑
拖了七個月，在六四天安門事件20週年紀念之後，劉曉波被逮捕依舊引起國際社會關注。王丹接受「自由亞洲電台」訪問時，做出三點聲明。
他說，中國經濟雖然增長，但中共極權主義本質、以國家暴力維護統治的執政方式，沒有改變；同時證明中國所謂言論自由空間的說法完全是假的。
王丹推測，中共將對劉曉波處以重刑，果真如此，顯然是對國際人權的公然挑釁，但也反映出國際社會近來對中共人權問題一再姑息的結果，鼓勵中共繼續作惡。
王丹同時認為，中共此舉不無藉此恐嚇中國正在成長的公民社會力量意味，也顯示中國當局的恐慌。全球目前出現風起雲湧大規模示威活動，一個歷史變動時期即將到來。春江水暖鴨先知，審判劉案代表中國的色厲內荏，中國也將進入另一新階段。
對於中國在六四天安門事件屆滿20週年之際，逮捕多位針對六四事件發表意見的青年，王丹表示，這是中共秋後算帳的做法，顯示中共人權還在惡化中，專制本質並未改變。
另外，普林斯頓大學中國學社與紐約市立大學史塔登島學院（College of Staten Island），26、27日兩天，將在史塔登島學院舉行「中國憲政民主化」國際學術研討會。
出席學者包括普林斯頓大學中國學社董事長林培瑞、紐約市立大學教授夏明、中國海外異議學者嚴家祺、魏京生、王軍濤、胡平、王丹和楊建利等。
北韓大言讓美國消失 五角大廈罵"愚蠢"
北韓「中央通信社」今天說：「如果美國帝國主義者挑起另一場戰爭，韓國軍民…將一次而永遠地把侵略者從地球上掃除。」
五角大廈發言人莫瑞爾（Geoff Morrell）今天在例行記者會上，被問到這個問題時笑著回答說：「我真不知道要如何回應。那是愚蠢。」接著他反問：「用什麼？」
北韓一艘疑似載運非法武器赴緬甸的船隻，「江南一號」（Kang Nam 1，譯音），上週從南浦港（Nampo）出海，美軍驅逐艦「馬侃號」（USS John S. McCain）一路跟隨監視。昨天將監視任務移交給驅逐艦「麥康貝爾號」（USS McCampbell）繼續跟蹤。
如果美國軍艦攔檢這艘北韓船隻，將是聯合國安理會本月13日通過制裁決議案以來，首次對北韓執行海上攔檢任務。
北韓於決議案通過後宣佈，任何攔檢北韓船隻的行動，將被視為對北韓宣戰。北韓並指控美國的跟蹤監視行動，是試圖挑起第二次韓戰。
日本媒體則報導，北韓可能於7月4日美國國慶日前後，朝夏威夷發射長程飛彈。
針對北韓的可能飛彈攻擊，美國國防部長蓋茨（Robert Gates）上週宣佈，將在夏威夷部署戰區高空防衛系統（THAAD）。他並說，阿拉斯加的地面防禦已準備就緒。
莫瑞爾在今天的記者會上表示，蓋茨之所以決定在夏威夷部署THAAD，一定有他的道理。莫瑞爾說：「我不相信他會決定部署THADD，如果不是他認為有理由如此做的話。」
一位國防部資深官員則表示，他有信心THAAD將可攔截任何一枚北韓發射的飛彈。
綠霸效應? 中國Google英文網站莫名中斷2小時
| 中國政府為了杜絕網路色情，持續對網路巨擘Google施壓。中國媒體今天報導，Google英文網站在中國中斷超過2小時。 「中國日報」（China Daily）報導，網站中斷事件發生於昨晚，而Google的中文網站Google.cn未受影響。 法新社無法即刻聯絡上谷歌在中國的發言人。然而，谷歌在中國的公關公司證實Google已接到使用者的抱怨。 一名不願具名的奧美公關公司（Ogilvy）發言人說：「Google昨天接到使用者通報，稱有時候無法登入Google.com，但我們沒有進一步評論。」
官方的中國日報表示，Google發言人對該報證實服務曾遭到中斷，但是不願推測原由。這家報紙說，Google電子郵件信箱Gmail也曾中斷。 Google中英文網站今天似乎運作正常。 在一個官方網路監督機構指責Google持續容許與色情相關的搜尋結果後，Google上週承諾將更加努力杜絕中文搜尋引擎的色情問題。 中國政府誓言打擊官方認定不健康的網路內容，包括網路色情和批評政府的資訊。這套審查系統被稱為「中國網路長城」（Great Firewall of China）。 |
英特爾200萬美元建教合作培訓越南工程師
英特爾正在越南胡志明市興建新廠，完工之後將成為英特爾全球各地所有分廠當中規模最大的半導體封裝測試廠。
為了幫這座新廠儲備高階管理人才，英特爾投資200 萬美元與波特蘭州立大學（Portland StateUniversity）展開建教合作，讓20多名越南籍電腦相關科系學生到波特蘭參加至少兩年的培訓課程，並取得學士學位。
這些學生22日已經抵達波特蘭州立大學並接受新生講習。他們將在2011年夏季結訓回到越南，然後至少在英特爾越南廠服務三年。
平均起來，英特爾在這項建教合作計畫當中，投資在每名儲備工程師身上的費用約八萬美元。除了提供身為國際學生的全額學費之外，英特爾還提供這些電腦工程師住宿費、每月零用錢等開銷。
英特爾表示，興建越南廠總金額估計約10億美元，未來員工總數約3500人，預計2010年中期啟用。
英特爾在波特蘭郊區設有分廠，由於許多員工都是波特蘭州立大學校友，因此與校方關係密切。英特爾創辦人之一穆爾（Gordon Moore）2003年曾捐款250萬美元給波特蘭州立大學工學院。
Bernanke to face questioning on BofA deal
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke likely will face hostile questions from a House committee investigating whether he and other government officials pressured Bank of America Corp. into a "shotgun wedding" with Merrill Lynch that cost taxpayers $20 billion.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has scheduled a hearing Thursday as it probes whether federal officials urged Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis to keep quiet last fall about Merrill Lynch's financial problems and stick with the plan to combine the two financial powers.
Not divulging that information would have violated Lewis' fiduciary duty to the bank's shareholders.
Spokesmen for the Fed and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have denied they pressured Lewis to get the deal done and to not disclose his concerns about Merrill's finances.
Earlier this month, Lewis said his job was threatened after he expressed second thoughts about the merger. Lewis said Paulson and federal regulators made clear that if the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank reneged on its promise, that he and the bank's board members would be ousted.
Bank of America received $45 billion from the government's financial bailout program, $20 billion of which was linked to its acquisition of New York-based Merrill Lynch.
The House panel has subpoenaed documents from the Fed.
In one e-mail, Bernanke said he thought Lewis' threat to pull out of the deal was a "bargaining chip," and "we do not see it as a very likely scenario at all."
The government helped orchestrate the deal at a time when the country's economic and financial landscape was especially fragile. Lending, the lifeblood of the economy, had come to a near halt and the financial system was on the brink of a meltdown.
The transaction was hammered out over the same weekend in September that another investment bank, Lehman Brothers, went under, leading to the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history and plunging financial markets worldwide into crisis. Bank of America completed its purchase of Merrill Lynch on Jan. 1.
Bernanke is likely to defend the deal and government bailout, saying the action was needed to avoid even more problems.
Committee Chairman Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., and ranking member Darrell Issa, R-Calif., earlier this month said the panel had reviewed documents that proved the merger was a "shotgun wedding" that came at taxpayers' expense.
U.S. Trade Officials Urge China to Revoke PC Rule
U.S. trade officials called on China to revoke an order for personal computers to be shipped with Web-filtering software, the highest-level U.S. complaint yet against the rule, as the two superpowers spar over a host of trade and security issues.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a letter to two Chinese ministries Wednesday that the requirement, which takes effect July 1, could conflict with Beijing's World Trade Organization obligations.
"China is putting companies in an untenable position by requiring them, with virtually no public notice, to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues," Mr. Locke said.
China notified manufacturers of the requirement in May, and made it public two weeks ago.
Wednesday's letter, sent to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which issued the rule, and the Ministry of Commerce, said the rule raises "fundamental questions regarding regulatory transparency." The MIIT declined to comment. The Ministry of Commerce couldn't be reached to comment.
U.S. officials have expressed concerns privately with Chinese officials about the Web filter, and the letter represents an effort to bring more public pressure on Beijing.
In another developing trade dispute, Beijing defended its curbs on exports of industrial raw materials against complaints by the U.S. and European Union and said Wednesday it has filed a challenge to a U.S. ban on imports of Chinese poultry imposed after a bird flu outbreak in 2004.
The U.S. and EU filed complaints to the WTO Tuesday accusing Beijing of unfairly favoring its steel, chemicals and other industries by restricting foreign access to key materials of which China is a major supplier.
With Wednesday's letter, the U.S. raised the specter of bringing a WTO complaint against China over the Web-filter software, which is called Green Dam-Youth Escort. The prospect of winning such a case is murky, however, since the WTO allows countries to impose regulations to protect public morals, as China says it is doing here.
U.S. officials argue the tight deadline for implementing the software requirement constitutes an unfair trade barrier. PC makers have expressed concerns about being able to meet the July 1 start date.
Foreign and domestic PC makers in China are required to begin shipping computers with the software on July 1, so the U.S. would have to show Chinese manufacturers had more notice or information to meet that deadline for a WTO complaint to succeed.
Wednesday's letter, however, adds to the growing pressure on Beijing over the requirement. Japanese officials met with MIIT officials Wednesday to express their "very big" concerns about Green Dam, according to a Japanese Embassy official.
U.S. officials from the State and Commerce departments, as well as U.S. Trade Representative officials based in Beijing, met Friday with officials from the MIIT and Ministry of Commerce to express concerns that Green Dam would restrict access to the Internet and infringe on "internationally recognized rights to freedom of expression," a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.
Also last week, a group of 18 business groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers, the Business Software Alliance and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, asked Chinese officials to revoke the new policy.
U.S. technology-industry groups say the filtering software could depress sales of PCs in China, the world's second-largest PC market in terms of shipments.
The top U.S. sellers of PCs in China, by market share, are Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. Lenovo Group Ltd. of China sells the most PCs in the country. The three companies have said they are looking into the matter. A Lenovo spokesman said "we obey the law and abide by local regulations wherever we do business and we will continue to do so."
A U.S. official familiar with Wednesday's trade letter indicated concerns about the rule have been magnified by Beijing's unwillingness to explain the intent and scope of the new measure. The software, which the government says was designed to filter out pornography and other content inappropriate for children, has been found by researchers to be capable of filtering political content as well. It would add an extra layer to Beijing's wide-reaching methods of regulating Internet use.
The researchers say the software has major security flaws, even after its primary Chinese creator, Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co., made alterations to it last week. They also say parts of the program were copied from software produced in the U.S. -- an allegation Jinhui has denied.
Jinhui's founder, Bryan Zhang, said his company has received more than 1,000 harassing calls, as well as attacks by hackers, since the Green Dam requirement was made public, China's Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday.
Separately, in the first high-level U.S.-China defense talks in 18 months, officials agreed to convene a special meeting of military experts in July to discuss a spate of run-ins between the two sides' navies.
Most encounters involved Chinese ships trying to hinder U.S. surveillance vessels from operating in China's economic zone, which Beijing says is off-limits to intelligence-gathering. A lasting solution will require higher-level discussions, a U.S. official said after the two-day talks concluded in Beijing Wednesday.
—Gao Sen and Ian Johnson contributed to this article.美國‧學電視節目求生‧迷失荒野‧9歲童脫險
（美國‧猶他）美國1名9歲男童在猶他州北部一座森林與家人一起遠足共度週末時迷路了。但機智的他想到利用電視節目上的求生技能求救，結果平安脫險。
格雷森每天都與兄弟和父親一起看“發現頻道”的《荒野求生秘技》節目。在這個節目上，主持人和冒險家格里爾斯讓自己被困在荒野中，然後向觀眾展示他如何在險境中求生。
當格雷森上週六（6月20日）在阿什利國家公園獨自一人，恐慌萬狀之際，他便不顧大雨滂沱，開始撕碎他的黃色雨衣，然後把碎片繫在樹上。
倒樹下過夜
與家人失散後，雷格森還獨自一人在一棵倒下的樹底做了一個過夜的棲息處。第二天，他決定沿一條溪流走，希望可以找到救援。
將於秋天讀四年級的格雷森還在無意中為搜尋者留下另一些線索。他在距主路線約300碼處留下一條燕麥餅乾棒的包裝紙。
當格雷森聽到頭上有直升機，他便奔向一片草地，搖晃他最後一件上衣。
他父親說：“他從電視節目上學到一點，就是無論你在甚麼環境下，你都有能力生存下去。”
美國‧眾議會通過提案‧要加州就排華法案道歉
（美國‧薩克拉門托）美國加利福尼亞州眾議會通過提案，要求加州政府就美國歷史上歧視華人的排華法案，鄭重道歉。
據報導，這項編號為ACR42提案，要求加州政府承認過去150年裡華人在加州受到的不公正待遇，並向華人社區道歉。
至於提案人正是加州現任華裔眾議員方文忠，他已在週二（6月23日）代表加州議會首次向華人道歉。
他表示，為了讓美國社會瞭解當年的排華法案對華人既不合理，也是一項污辱，他才會在數月前提出ACR42提案。
在加州眾議會司法委員會表決通過提案後，下一階段將送交加州參議會司法委員會表決，通過後會再回到參議會與眾議會的全院會議討論並投票。
將要求聯邦政府道歉
這項提案經過立法程序後會在7月送到州府大廈，由州長阿諾舒華辛力加瓦辛格簽署後生效，同時還會由州政府行文對早年通過的排華法案正式道歉。
他相信，透過法律程序先由加州政府表達道歉，接下來會進一步要求聯邦政府也必須對當年制訂排華法案，向美國社會廣大華人道歉。
中國一醫生語出驚人‧“檳美食脂肪高易致癌”
（新加坡）檳城美食很好吃，但一名醫生研究發現，檳城美食脂肪高，容易導致癌症。
目前在百麗宮國健衛生科學診所行醫的李福民教授，經多年的經驗發現，檳城人的癌症病發率，看來比馬國其他地方的人來得高。
今年65歲的李醫師是中西醫結合腫瘤專家，原為中國蘇州大學附屬第一醫院中醫內科主任醫師，蘇州大學教授；目前受邀擔任新加坡國健衛生科學私人有限公司榮譽醫學顧問，他以中西醫結合治療癌症病人而享譽中外。
李教授是從眾多名癌症患者中，無意之間發現檳城人特別多；這項發現，引起了李教授對檳城人飲食習慣的關注，這麼多檳城人在患癌後來求診，必然事出有因。
追本溯源，李教授發現檳城市民平日偏愛煎炸燒烤的食物，於是他得到一個小結論︰高脂飲食加上煎炸、燒烤的烹調方式，極有可能是檳城人較易患癌的根源。
這個研究結果，目前純為李教授個人的印象，尚未有醫學調查統計數據佐證。
不宜攝取過多蛋白質
李教授說，飲食中的高蛋白和高含量糖份也有關系，這類飲食，可能會對乳癌、腸癌及前列腺癌產生一定的影響，加上烹調方法多用煎炸、燒烤，致癌幾率就大為提昇。
他說，蛋白質固然是不可缺少的重要營養成份，但攝取量不宜過多，蛋白含蛋元素，腎臟吸收和消化蛋白，通過小便排毒，蛋白太多使到腎臟排除蛋元素的負荷過重，蛋元素就是俗稱的“毒”，日久會造成腎臟衰竭。
另一方面，如果蛋白過多而其他營養譬如礦物質過少，就會造成營養不均衡。
李福民教授臨床經驗豐富，著作與論文繁多，並為世界各地知名人士治病，療效顯卓，享譽中外。
他說，中醫治療在腫瘤手術之前及化療之後都大有好處。
新加坡‧金融海嘯襲擊剩6萬1000人‧百萬富翁減22%
（新加坡）新加坡百萬富豪受金融海嘯襲擊，百萬富翁人數過去1年減22%，從前年的7萬8000人，減少至去年的6萬1000人！
新加坡在2006年度全球富裕人士增長率排行榜上奪得第一，今年卻減少逾萬人，跌幅超越全球與亞太區的平均跌幅。
美林 國際銀行（Merrill Lynch Wealth Management）和凱捷顧問公司（Capgemini）公佈的2008年度全球財富報告顯示，全球擁有超過100萬美元（約145萬新元）金融資產 的高資產淨值人士，人數下跌14.9%，從2007年的1010萬人減少至2008年的860萬人。
2007年度全球財富報告原本預測，全球富豪總資產將延續那年9.4%的增長，每年增加7.7%。但是，2008年度的全球富豪總資產，卻從40.7兆美元，減少近20%而至32.8兆美元。
資產超過3000萬美元的超級富豪人數，則減少近25%而剩7萬8000人。他們的總資產也減少23.9%。
美仍是全球“富豪國”之首
美國仍然是全球“富豪國”之首，富豪人數儘管下跌18.5%，仍達246萬人。全球富豪仍聚集在美國、日本和德國，共佔全球富豪人數的54%。
一向表現突出的亞太區富豪人數，則下跌14.2%，只有日本和中國擠入全球10大“富豪國”中，澳洲則跌出10大至第11位。香港的富豪人數則猛跌61.3%至3萬7000人。
中國的富豪人數僅減少11.8%至36萬4000人，超越英國的36萬2000人，這也使中國成為全球第4大“富豪國”。
亞太2013年成全球財富聚集地
報告預料，隨著全球經濟回穩，全球富豪總資產在接下來的5年內，每年將增加8.1%，在2013達48.5兆美元。隨著美國消費支出增加，中國經濟愈加獨立，北美與亞太區將帶動全球區域增長。
亞太區預計將在2013年取代歐洲與北美，成為全球財富聚集地。
2008年全球10大富豪國排名
1.美國246萬人
2.日本136萬6000人
3.德國81萬人
4.中國36萬4000人
5.英國36萬2000人
6.法國34萬6000人
7.加拿大21萬3000人
8.瑞士18萬5000人
9.意大利16萬4000人
10.巴西13萬1000人
Marc Faber on Alex Jones Tv:Hyperinflation Coming to The USA!
CIA Discovered Planning “Soft Revolution” in Early 2009
TEHRAN, Jan. 19 (Mehr News Agency) — Iran has broken up a CIA-backed network that sought to carry out a “soft revolution” in Iran through people-to-people contacts.
The “soft revolution” plan is based in Dubai and is similar to a U.S. plan that targeted the Soviet Union in 1959, the director of the counterespionage department of the Intelligence Ministry told reporters at a press conference here on Monday.
He said the CIA was seeking to implement the plan under the cover of scientific and cultural contacts between Iranian and U.S. nationals.
Unfortunately, some Iranian nationals, especially cultural and scientific figures, were deceived through such activities, he added.
“The U.S. intelligence agency was seeking to (repeat) its experiences of color revolutions through such public contacts with influential persons and elites.”
The CIA tried to attain its goals by taking advantage of people-to-people contacts, joint studies, efforts to share scientific experiences, and other similar projects, he added.
The soft revolution plan was carried out through “NGOs, union protests, non-violent demonstrations, civil disobedience… and (efforts to) foment ethnic strife” all across Iran, the official stated.
Four of the people who led the network inside Iran were actively and intentionally cooperating with CIA agents, he noted.
These four persons were put on trial, some others were pardoned, and some others were acquitted due to lack of sufficient evidence, he explained.
These four persons confessed and videotapes of parts of their confessions will be released soon, he noted.
He only named two of the persons, the brothers Dr. Arash Alaei and Dr. Kamyar Alaei.
The Intelligence Ministry official said that $32 million of the $75 million allocated by the U.S. Congress to destabilize Iran was spent on this project.
The CIA used institutions such as the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Soros Foundation, AIPAC, and charity organizations and sought the help of William Burns and other people in the United States and agents in the Azerbaijan Republic, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait.
He stated that the CIA enlisted scientists, physicians, university professors, clergymen, artists, athletes, and dress designers for its plot.
He went on to say that these people were invited to the United States in groups of 10-15 people, with visas issued for them in Dubai in the shortest possible time, and according to their professions, they participated in scientific seminars and toured various states, and when they returned home they were asked to write “analyses” of the situation inside Iran.
The CIA was actively seeking to recruit more people for the network, who also would have been invited to visit the United States, he added.
These persons were ordered to put pressure on the government to change its policy and to sow discord between the government and the people, he explained.
The Intelligence Ministry found out about the secret plan from the very beginning and “even allowed the operation to be conducted to a (certain level) so that we could inform talented people with full confidence that they should not be deceived by such scientific centers,” he stated.
The Iranian Intelligence Ministry countered the plot by “infiltrating” the network and even derailed it from its path by providing false information, but the CIA eventually discovered the ruse, he explained.
Advice for Obama
The official advised the incoming U.S. administration to avoid repeating the previous “failed” policies toward Iran.
He made the remarks one day before Barack Obama is officially inaugurated as the next U.S. president.
The Intelligence Ministry official said the U.S. is discrediting its scientific and charity organizations by allowing the CIA to use them as cover for its activities.
“It is not in the interests of scientific and political institutions (to allow themselves) to be used by the CIA for its hidden agenda.”
Employing such organizations to conduct spy activities will create skepticism about them that will be very difficult to eliminate, he noted.