HIGHWAY TIMES dot COM

Automakers will get a federal bailout after all. This morning, President Bush announced a $17.4 billion plan to help America’s largest carmakers stay afloat in a troubled economy. The money will be available almost immediately. The plan requires the companies to restructure and creates a de facto “auto czar” in Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (and his eventual replacement in the next administration) to oversee automakers’ efforts to regain competitiveness.

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Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) – The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

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Administrators at Woolworths say that all 807 stores will close by 5 January.

The first shops will shut on 27 December and all 27,000 permanent and temporary staff will lose their jobs if no last-minute buyer is found.

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The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody.

Muntadar al-Zaidi has allegedly suffered a broken arm, broken ribs and internal bleeding, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC.

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(HT DISCLAIMER: before reading this it is important to note this story is deliberately misleading.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7785118.stm
People with bedtime snoring and breathing problems may be using up far more calories while they sleep.

Those with the worst sleep apnoea symptoms burned 373 extra calories a day compared with those with only mild symptoms, US researchers found.

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It is a sign of the times that security has been increased at Reykjavik’s small Parliament building, from one policeman to three.

Iceland’s Prime Minister Geir Haarde faces almost daily calls for his resignation from small but angry protests - and has even been seen with an armed bodyguard at the gym.

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650 to dissent at U.N. climate change conference

WASHINGTON - A United Nations climate change conference in Poland is about to get a surprise from 650 leading scientists who scoff at doomsday reports of man-made global warming - labeling them variously a lie, a hoax and part of a new religion.

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Bettie Page, one of the most famous US pin-up models of the 1950s, has died in Los Angeles, aged 85.

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Not content with destroying the only vestige of stability that Somalia had known for almost two decades by arming, backing and participating in a brutal “regime change” invasion by Ethiopia, the Bush Administration now wants to turn the ravaged land into an international “free fire zone,” a giant Fallujah where any powerful nation on earth can launch armed incursions on Somali soil, wreaking the usual “collateral damage” in the search for pirates – or for those arbitrarily designated as pirates.

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The Chinese government is clearly in crisis over how to deal with the rapid slowdown of the country’s economy under the impact of a deepening global recession. Like its counterparts around the world, Beijing has little understanding of, let alone control over, economic events that are already leading to widespread plant closures, rising unemployment and social unrest.

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Progress has been made on a multi-million dollar bail-out deal for the three big US carmakers, officials say.

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Two copies of the same story have come out but the wording in them seems to be entirely different. The subtleties seem small but what are the vested interests of those writing the stories. The BBC, or Her Royal Majesties News, has a vested interest in the U.S. and its affairs. Al Jazeera has been attacked by the U.S. and U.K. in the past.

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Last week the world was stunned by the bloody scenes of carnage in the aftermath of the terrorist onslaught across Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The attack, which began late Wednesday night extended over ten different sites in India’s financial capital. It struck Mumbai’s two best-known luxury hotels and other landmarks in the city of 18 million. It was carried out by a small group of gunmen, who had apparently arrived by sea, split into groups to attack multiple targets across the city, including the main railway station and a hospital. TV channels described the attacks as “India’s 9/11.”

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US President-elect Barack Obama says he will not allow the country’s car industry to collapse, but any state help must come with strict conditions.

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US President elect, Barack Obama said that banking executives should renounce to their hefty bonuses as a show of responsibility considering the serious situation facing millions of unemployed and the economy, while the multi billion dollar “bailouts” continue and more and more executives are going to Washington to ask for money.

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Gold slipped on Thursday as the dollar gained against the euro and worries about demand weighed on oil, driving investors away from bullion ahead of the release of U.S. nonfarm payrolls data later this week.

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In what’s been called George W. Bush’s first exit interview, the outgoing President continues a lie that he first unveiled several months after launching the Iraq War, justifying the invasion by claiming that Saddam Hussein didn’t let the U.N. inspectors in.

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