Spain’s new conservative government is about to unveil its first austerity measures as it embarks on an urgent mission to energize an economy saddled with shrinking output, sky-high unemployment and mountains of debt.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is presiding over a Cabinet meeting Friday that will approve the first in what is expected to be a painful series of spending freezes or cuts and other reforms over the next few months.
Rajoy’s Popular Party won a sweeping victory in Nov. 20 elections over the discredited Socialists.
Like other troubled governments in Europe, Rajoy faces the delicate task of enacting growth-discouraging deficit reduction measures in a country whose economy is expected to contract in the last quarter of 2011 and the first of 2012.
Your phone bill can soar because of roaming charges when you take your mobile device with you on a trip.
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Carmaker Volkswagen AG says net profit more than tripled in the second quarter on stronger sales in emerging markets and the United States, but warns that the outlook is difficult.
Net profit reached euro4.78 billion ($6.86 billion), far above the euro1.35 billion recorded in the same quarter a year ago.
Despite rising sales, the company fell just short of analyst estimates on some earnings figures, and chief executive Martin Winterkorn warned the months ahead would challenge the company payday loan lenders.
VW shares are trading down 6 percent.
Revenues rose 21.5 percent to euro40.3 billion. The company said Thursday that unit sales rose strongly in emerging markets such as Russia, Turkey, South Africa, China and Argentina. U.S. sales also rose.
A bomb hidden under a parked car exploded near Muslim pilgrims Friday, killing at least two and wounding four as they made their way to an annual Shiite religious festival in a holy city south of Iraq’s capital.
Pilgrims are an easy target for insurgents looking to stoke sectarian violence as U.S. troops prepare to depart Iraq by the end of the year.
Friday’s bomb exploded in a parking lot about 14 miles (22 kilometers) from the holy city of Karbala, where thousands of pilgrims are flocking this weekend for the annual Shiite festival of Shabaniyah.
The blast ignited five nearby cars, causing a second explosion when a gas tank caught fire, said Maj. Gen. Othman al-Ghanimy, commander of Karbala military operations. Two pilgrims were killed and four wounded, he said.
Karbala provincial councilman Hussein Shadhan al-Aboudi put the toll at three dead and 28 injured.
The weekend’s religious festival celebrates the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, the twelfth and so-called hidden imam, who disappeared in the ninth century. It is always held in the Islamic month before the Muslim fasting month Ramadan which this year falls in August.
Also Friday, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in Baghdad’s southern Dora neighborhood, killing one passer-by and wounding three instant credit reports.
With Iraq still plagued by widespread violence, Washington and Baghdad are considering keeping as many as 10,000 U.S. forces in Iraq beyond a year-end departure deadline. In excepts from an interview to air Friday night, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki repeated his long-standing offer for a small number of American military trainers to stay and help Iraq’s fledgling security forces.
Both nations are moving toward a troops withdrawal.
On Friday, officials said the last 10 Iraqi detainees in U.S. military custody are about to be turned over to Iraqi authorities.
Justice Ministry spokesman Haider al-Saadi said nearly 200 inmates were transferred to Iraq’s custody earlier this week. They were among the last inmates to be held by the U.S. and included some top allies and relatives of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
The handover of the prisoners is the final step by the U.S. to relinquish control of Camp Cropper on Baghdad’s western outskirts.
The process began a year ago, but since has been marred by high-profile escapes by some of its inmates.
Britain’s phone hacking scandal reached a new intensity Wednesday as the scope of tabloid intrusion into private voicemails became more clear: Murder victims. Terror victims. Film stars. Sports figures. Politicians. The royal family’s entourage.
Almost no one, it seems, was safe from the reporters and investigators toiling for a tabloid determined to beat its rivals, whatever it takes.
The focal point was the News of the World tabloid, which faced a growing advertising boycott from major firms over the alleged phone hacking, and the top executives of its parent companies: Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, and her boss, media potentate Rupert Murdoch.
Murdoch on Wednesday released a statement indicating that Brooks would continue to lead his British newspaper operation despite calls for her resignation.
The breathtaking scandal, which has already touched the offices of Prime Minister David Cameron and the London Police, widened as News International provided police with evidence that the tabloid had made illegal payments to police officers in its quest for information. Possible victims cited those payments to police as the reasons why an earlier police inquiry did not begin to turn up the extent of the hacking.
The list of potential victims grew as well. New revelations emerged Wednesday that the phones of relatives of people killed in the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks on London’s transit system, as well those tied to slain schoolgirls, may also have been targeted.
The true extent of the hacking is not yet clear _ and may not be known for months as inquiries unfold.
Graham Foulkes, whose son died in the terrorist attacks, was told by police that he was on a list of potential hacking victims.
“I just felt stunned and horrified,” Foulkes told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I find it hard to believe someone could be so wicked and so evil, and that someone could work for an organization that even today is trying to defend what they see as normal practices.”
Foulkes, who was to mourn his son Thursday on the sixth anniversary of the attack, said a completely independent investigation was needed because new information showed that the police were compromised by accepting “bribes” from the tabloid.
“The police are now implicated,” he said. “The prime minister must have an independent inquiry and all concerned should be prosecuted.”
Foulkes also demanded the resignation of Brooks, the former News of the World editor who is now chief executive of News International, the U.K. newspaper division of Murdoch’s News Corp. media empire. News Corp. owns a swath of newspapers, including News of the World, the Sun, and the Wall Street Journal.
“She’s gotta go,” Foulkes said. “She cannot say, oops, sorry, we’ve been caught out. Of course she’s responsible for the ethos and practices of her department. Her position is untenable.”
Yet Brooks, one of the most powerful women in British journalism, maintains she did not know about the phone hacking and has declared she will continue to direct the company.
Foulkes also challenged Murdoch _ a global media titan with vast newspaper, television, movie and book publishing interests in the United States, Britain, Australia and elsewhere _ to meet with him to discuss the gross intrusion into his privacy.
“I doubt he’s brave enough to face me,” said Foulkes.
In Parliament, lawmakers held an emergency debate to call for the prosecution of those responsible for hacking into the phone of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old murder victim, and others.
The Dowler case touched a raw national nerve because the paper is accused of hampering the police investigation by deleting some of Milly’s phone messages, and giving them and her parents false hope that she was still alive after she was abducted in 2002 personal business card.
Cameron called for inquiries into the News of the World’s behavior as well as into the failure of the police’s original phone hacking inquiry, which did not uncover the allegations now emerging.
“We are no longer talking here about politicians and celebrities, we are talking about murder victims, potentially terrorist victims, having their phones hacked into,” Cameron said. “It is absolutely disgusting, what has taken place, and I think everyone in this House and indeed this country will be revolted by what they have heard.”
Ordinary Britons were equally horrified.
“It’s disgusting,” said Danny Wright, 25, of Liverpool. “It’s heartless and inconsiderate that they’d do it to victims and family of murder victims.”
He said it was wrong to hack into celebrities’ phones but far worse to do it to victims’ families “because of what they’ve been through.”
According to opposition Labour Party lawmaker Tom Watson, an April 2002 story in the News of the World made a specific reference to messages that had been left on Milly’s voicemail.
Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, said the Dowler case was crucial.
“That’s why the case has gotten so big,” he said. “If celebrities or politicians have their phones intercepted, that’s one thing. But the idea that they were doing this while a little girl was missing and a police inquiry was going on makes it a really gross intrusion.”
Satchwell said the hacking has become politically sensitive not only because Cameron’s communications chief Andy Coulson was forced to resign earlier this year because of his previous stewardship of the tabloid, but also because lawmakers opposed to Murdoch’s growing media power in Britain want to slow down his takeover of other properties.
He said the hacking of Dowler’s phone was revealed just as government regulators are preparing to decide whether Murdoch can take full control of British Sky Broadcasting.
“You have to ask yourself why that happened right now,” Satchwell said, cautioning that the public has yet to see clear evidence of illegal phone hacking except for two News of the World employees _ reporter Clive Goodman and investigator Glenn Mulcaire _ who have already served time in jail.
When police arrested Mulcaire, they seized 11,000 pages of notes, including the phone numbers of many suspected hacking victims. But police, still investigating, have in most cases not yet made clear who was actually hacked.
News of the World executives have admitted wrongdoing and offered cash settlements to a number of its victims.
The scandal has its roots in the tabloid’s efforts to scoop its competitors with news about the royal family. Representatives of the royals complained to police in late 2005 with suspicions that some of their voicemails had been hacked into.
Tabloid executives claimed at the time the two were rogue employees but that assertion has been undermined by a series of arrests at the newspaper earlier this year and by the company’s willingness to settle with other victims.
The tabloid’s parent company, News International, has insisted it is working closely with police and has a zero-tolerance policy for any wrongdoing or sketchy tactics.
Several companies hastily pulled ads Wednesday from the News of the World amid the public uproar.
Virgin Holidays canceled several ads due to run in the Sunday newspaper this week. Car makers Ford UK and Vauxhall and Halifax bank also said they have suspended advertising.
Mumsnet _ a popular online community for mothers _ removed ads from Murdoch broadcaster Sky after its members complained about the tabloid hacking.
A unique initiative to improve labour relations at auto parts giant Magna International is fizzling.
Aurora-based Magna and the Canadian Auto Workers say they continue talking about expanding the
Germany has reported another three deaths in its E. coli outbreak _ bringing the total to at least 47.
The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s disease control center, said Monday that 46 deaths have now been reported in the country. One person has died in Sweden, and officials say one death in the U.S. may be linked to the outbreak.
The number of new infections has declined significantly over recent weeks but overall numbers are still rising _ due largely to delays in notification guaranteed payday loans.
The disease control center says 3,801 people have been reported sick in Germany. That includes 834 suffering from a complication that can lead to kidney failure.
A further 119 cases have been reported in 15 other countries.
The source has been traced to a sprout farm in northern Germany. It’s unclear how the sprouts were contaminated.
39 Stereotaxis-17.3%
40 Build-A-Bear Workshop-17.4%
41 Insituform Technologies-17.5%
42 Reliv International-18.7%
43 MEMC Electronic Materials-30.1%
44 Isle of Capri Casinos-31.4%
45 Furniture Brands International-33 Low fee payday loans.0%
46 Brown Shoe-40.9%
47 CPI-49.2%
48 Spartech-49.8%
Kevin Garland still remembers the pessimistic prediction of a well-wisher when she took over as executive director of the National Ballet of Canada a decade ago.
The marriage of square burgers and roast beef sandwiches is about to end.
Wendy’s/Arby’s Group said Monday that it will sell a majority stake in its struggling Arby’s brand to Roark Capital Group, the Atlanta private equity firm. The move marks the end of a short-lived union between the two fast-food chains, and represents a role reversal. Arby’s started as the suitor in the relationship, and ended up on the chopping block.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Wendy’s/Arby’s Group CEO Roland Smith said that the combination of the two fast-food chains in 2008 had “absolutely not” been a failure.
“I think that at the time we put the two brands together it was the exact right thing to do,” Smith said, “but any business that continues to do well and perform has to be nimble and adapt to what the market is.”
Wendy’s/Arby’s shares rose 19 cents, or 4 percent, to $4.71 in morning trading.
Roark, which already owns Moe’s Southwest Grill, Cinnabon and other restaurants, will pay $130 million in cash for an 81.5 percent stake in Arby’s. It will also assume $190 million worth of Arby’s debt.
Smith said Wendy’s/Arby’s had entertained offers from “quite a number” of bidders, but declined to give details. He said that the company’s decision to keep an 18.5 percent stake in Arby’s should signal its confidence in Arby’s future.
Smith is a veteran of the Arby’s side, having served as CEO of Arby’s Inc. from 1997 to 1999 and again starting in 2006. He has been CEO of the combined Wendy’s and Arby’s since it was formed in September 2008. He said that selling Arby’s was “a little bittersweet.”
Smith will receive a cash bonus of $350,000 when the sale goes through, and general counsel Nils Okeson will receive a bonus of $100,000, according to regulatory filings.
Smith said in the interview that he didn’t think employees would be bothered by the bonuses.
“I would say that the folks in our company understand clearly how compensation works, and it is a very typical (bonus) that would come up any time we go through a change in our organization,” he said. “I quite honestly don’t think anyone’s going to focus on it.”
Wendy’s/Arby’s will change its name after the sale is completed. Spokesman Bob Bertini said the company is considering options, and the new name will include the word “Wendy’s.”
Wendy’s/Arby’s Group will also get a tax benefit worth $80 million related to the sale, which Bertini described as an “offset to taxable income.”
Wendy’s and Arby’s first came together when billionaire investor Nelson Peltz and his Triarc hedge fund, which already owned Arby’s, agreed to scoop up Wendy’s as well. Peltz remains involved as the company’s chairman. Smith said Peltz is “a tough taskmaster, but he’s fair,” and said they have a “very, very solid relationship.”
Atlanta-based Wendy’s/Arby’s Group has struggled since its formation in late 2008, the depths of the recession, losing money for seven of its 10 quarters. In January, the company said it would consider selling Arby’s in order to focus on Wendy’s, which it hopes to expand by launching breakfast in more locations and by opening more restaurants overseas.
Wendy’s has about twice as many restaurants _ 6,500 to Arby’s 3,600 _ and represents about 70 percent of the company’s revenue. However, in the first quarter, Arby’s seemed like the stronger player by some measures. Its revenue rose by 5 percent, while Wendy’s revenue fell less than 1 percent, though some of Arby’s performance was likely due to sale prices.
The sale is expected to close in the third quarter, which starts in July. Roark managing partner Neal Aronson said in a statement that Roark looks forward to helping Arby’s “great brand achieve its full potential.”
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