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By: eminem

By ROXANA HEGEMAN,

SENECA, Mo. - Stunned survivors picked through the little that was left of their communities Sunday after tornadoes tore across the Plains and South, killing at least 22 people in three states and leaving behind a trail of destruction and stories of loss.

At least 15 people died in southwestern Missouri. In the fading mining town of Picher, Okla., at least six people were killed, and at least one person died in storms in Georgia.

Susan Roberts, 61, stared at the smashed remains of her classic 1985 Cadillac sitting on her living room floor — the only thing left of her Seneca home. A woman who had apparently sought shelter in the car died there, she said.

"That is what is tearing me up," Roberts said. She had warned the woman — who stopped to change a tire as Roberts and her 13-year-old grandson drove away from the rental house — to escape. The tornado hit just minutes later.

I'm from Kansas. I grew up watching storms," she said as she walked through the debris. "If I didn't have my grandson with me, I probably wouldn't have left."

The same storm system earlier hit Oklahoma, where at least six people died and 150 people were injured in Picher.

The town, once a bustling mining center of 20,000 that dwindled to about 800 people as families fled lead pollution there, was a surreal scene of overturned cars, smashed homes and mattresses, and twisted metal high stuck in the canopy of trees.

"I swear I could see cars floating," said Herman Hernandez, 68. "And there was a roar, louder and louder."

Ed Keheley was headed to town to help out Saturday night when he heard a woman screaming. He looked over to see her hand reaching out of debris.

"She was sitting in the bathtub, she had curlers in her hair and she wanted out of there," said Keheley, who along with several others pulled her out.

The area is part of a Superfund site, and residents have been asked to take part in state and federal buyouts in recent years.

"From what I've been able to determine, that wouldn't have any bearing on whether a disaster declaration would come forth," said Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Earl Armstrong.

One storm victim's child was initially reported dead, but state emergency management spokeswoman Michelann Ooten later said the infant was actually alive at a Tulsa hospital.

As the system moved east on Sunday, one of at least six tornadoes in Georgia killed a person in Dublin, about 120 miles southeast of Atlanta, the National Weather Service said.

The small town of Kite was destroyed by the storm, said Caroline Pope, a spokeswoman for the Johnson County Sheriff's Department. Close to 1,000 people live in the community, she said.

"From what they're telling me, it's gone," she said from the dispatch center in the jail, which was operating on a generator because the power was out.

Storms later Sunday in North Carolina destroyed several mobile homes, but there was no word on injuries, said Patty McQuillan of the state police. And in South Carolina, a possible tornado damaged several homes, but no injuries were reported, said Charleston County spokeswoman Jennie Davis.

President Bush has talked with governors to express his condolences for the lives lost and to discuss needs for recovery, according to the White House.

"The federal government will be moving hard to help," Bush said.

In Missouri, the tornado hit the rural area about eight miles north of Seneca and continued east.

Jane Lant climbed over splintered wood to go through the mud-caked remains of her bridal shop.

"I just feel so awful, going through this rubble when they are out looking for bodies," she said as she motioned to the search dogs wandering the field behind her. An unidentified body lay under a blue tarp nearby.

Among the dead were five family members of her neighbor who had been going to a wedding when the tornado caught their vehicle in front of her store, she said.

Next door, her husband's feed store also lay in shambles. But one bright moment came Sunday when rescuers heard chirping from the mound and found a half-dozen chicks. They had rescued about 100 the night before.

Susie Stonner, spokeswoman for the state Emergency Management Agency, said it was unclear how many homes had been damaged. But she said officials in Newton County, which includes Seneca, had initial estimates of 50 homes damaged or destroyed there.

In storm-weary Arkansas, a tornado caused significant damage in Stuttgart, but no one was seriously injured, said Weather Service meteorologist Joe Goudsward.

Tornadoes killed 13 people in Arkansas on Feb. 5, and another seven were killed in an outbreak May 2. In between was freezing weather, persistent rain and river flooding that damaged homes and has slowed farmers in their planting.

___

Associated Press writers Murray Evans in Picher, Dorie Turner in Atlanta and Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

GENEVA (AFP) - Myanmar could suffer another major storm this season even as it braces for more bad weather after the devastating impact of Cyclone Nargis, a UN weather expert warned Friday.

"It's not rare if they have another (cyclone)," said Yuichi Ono, a programme officer for the UN's International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).

The Bay of Bengal generally sees two cyclone 'peaks' either side of the monsoon season which is likely to start by the end of May, Ono told AFP.

An estimated 1.5 million people have been left homeless in Myanmar by the disaster, which has killed tens of thousands and left the country's infrastructure in tatters.

The World Meteorological Organisation said Friday its forecasts predict further adverse weather conditions for Myanmar in the week ahead.

In a statement, the UN weather agency said current forecasts point to occasional tropical rain showers from now until next Thursday, with a shift towards heavy rainfall around Thursday.

Total rainfall around Thursday is seen reaching "around 100 mm expected for a period of 3 days".

It added that winds are expected to revert towards the most affected regions, "thus also compound the situation in the coastal region" by enhancing rainfall and "possibly affecting runoff or surge".

Ono said that the impact of any further cyclone would be much more devastating and even if early warnings were issued, it is not clear where people could go amid the devastation.

"But they shouldn't be in low-lying areas or stay in destroyed houses," he added.

UN relief spokesman Richard Horsey warned that another storm was heading in Myanmar's direction, which could further complicate the slow-moving relief efforts.

"Our meteorological people tell us there's likely to be fairly strong rainfall in the next seven days," he told AFP in neighbouring Thailand.

"That's going to be a big issue with unpaved roads. Heavy rainfall could complicate things for all those people going without shelter," Horsey said.

"If there's an epidemic of water-borne disease and a lack of shelter when a storm comes in ... if we have another storm coming into the delta, that's going to be a significant concern for all those people without shelter."

Myanmar's reclusive military leaders have blocked journalists and international aid workers from coming in to assess the situation, making it difficult to get a true picture after the storm, which the government says left 60,000 dead or missing.

YANGON, Myanmar - Relief supplies from the United Nations began arriving in Myanmar Thursday, but U.S. military planes loaded with aid were still denied access by the country's isolationist regime five days after a devastating cyclone.

The military junta also continued to stall on visas for U.N. teams seeking entry to ensure the aid is delivered to the victims amid fears that lack of safe food and drinking water could push the death toll above 100,000.

Two airplanes carrying high-energy biscuits, medicine and other supplies arrived in Yangon, and two others were to follow, U.N. officials said. The planes had waited for the last two days while the world body negotiated with the military regime to allow the material into the Southeast Asian nation.

By rejecting the U.S. offer, the junta is refusing to take advantage of Washington's enormous ability to deliver aid quickly, which was evident during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.

"We have demonstrated in crises around the world ... our logistical capability to get humanitarian assistance quickly in to the people who need it," said Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar.

U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Eric John told reporters that U.S. and Thai authorities earlier believe they had permission from Myanmar to land U.S. military C-130s. But Myanmar officials later made it clear that this was not the case.

Gordon Johndroe, President Bush's national security spokesman, said the U.S. was still working to gain permission to enter Myanmar.

Specially designed Olympic torch lit on top of Mount Everest
By ANITA CHANG
"One World, One Dream," team captain Nyima Cering yelled as the torch was lit on the final icy incline leading to the peak, repeating the slogan for the Beijing Olympics. "We have lit the torch on top of the world," another climber said.

The 19-member team, dressed in red parkas emblazoned with Olympic logos, broke camp before dawn and reached the top of the 29,035-foot mountain a little more than six hours later.

Organizers hope the dramatic image of the torch atop Everest will counter some of the damaging publicity from protests during the international leg of the torch relay.

Criticized from the outset because of China's often harsh rule over Tibet — where Everest is located — the relay drew more intense scrutiny after Tibetans across western China erupted in anti-government protests in March.

The Everest torch is separate from the main torch but organizers say the flames are from the same source. Before the Olympic flame left on its world tour, it was split, with one flame going to light the torch carried up Everest. The main torch could not be used on the mountain because of concerns weather problems could disrupt its schedule.

The Everest flame had been carried in a special metal canister during the ascent. As the team neared the top, they used a wand to pass the flame from the canister to the torch, which had been designed to withstand the frigid, windy, oxygen-thin Himalayan air.

The climbers could be heard struggling for breath as five torchbearers each inched a few feet before passing on the flame to the next person. A colorful Tibetan prayer flag lined the path and fluttered in the wind.

The final torchbearer, a Tibetan woman named Cering Wangmo, stood silently on the peak with her torch while other team members unfurled flags Chinese and Olympic flags. They then clustered together, cheering "We made it," and "Beijing welcomes you."

One person was heard breathing heavily, murmuring "not enough oxygen."

The head of the Everest leg of the relay, Li Zhixin, was overcome with emotion as the flame reached the top. "It was so difficult," he said at the CCTV studio set up at base camp, choking on tears.

The Everest leg has largely unfolded amid secrecy, in part to deter protesters who have criticized the event as symbolizing China's domination over Tibet.

The 19-member final assault team was comprised of both ethnic Han Chinese and Tibetan members and also included university students. The team captain, Nyima Cering, is a Tibetan, while deputy Luo Shen is Han Chinese, CCTV and the Xinhua News Agency said.

The main Olympic torch is on the opposite side of China. The relay leg scheduled for Thursday, in the boomtown of Shenzhen, was postponed until the afternoon to allow for the Everest ascent. The main flame will cross every region and province of China, returning to Beijing on Aug. 6, two days ahead of the opening ceremony for the games.





The torch seems to be having a smooth relay through China. After the tour kickoff Sunday, the flame has been greeted by jubilant crowds in such places as the port city of Haikou and the southern city of Guangzhou, also known as Canton.

Relieved corporate sponsors like Samsung and Coca-Cola, whose logos were seldom seen along the torch relay outside China, now are splashing their names everywhere.

While most of the more than 100 stops across China should go smoothly, legs through Tibet and the largely Muslim province of Xinjiang — areas with recent protests against Chinese rule or policies — could test security and crowd control.

Crowds in Haikou were friendly to foreigners, showing little of the angry, anti-Western sentiments of recent weeks after protests in London, Paris and San Francisco that some Chinese saw as an attack against China and the Olympics.

"Welcome to China!" university students called out, some sporting face paint and tooting plastic horns as the convoy streamed by.

SAN FRANCISCO - Computer attacks typically don't inflict physical pain on their victims. But in a rare example of an attack apparently motivated by malice rather than money, hackers recently bombarded the Epilepsy Foundation's Web site with hundreds of pictures and links to pages with rapidly flashing images.

The breach triggered severe migraines and near-seizure reactions in some site visitors who viewed the images. People with photosensitive epilepsy can get seizures when they're exposed to flickering images, a response also caused by some video games and cartoons.

The attack happened when hackers exploited a security hole in the foundation's publishing software that allowed them to quickly make numerous posts and overwhelm the site's support forums.

Within the hackers' posts were small flashing pictures and links — masquerading as helpful — to pages that exploded with kaleidoscopic images pulsating with different colors.

"They were out to create seizures," said Ken Lowenberg, senior director of Web and print publishing for the foundation.

He said legitimate users are no longer able to post animated images to the support forum or create direct links to other sites, and it is now moderated around the clock. He said the FBI is investigating the breach.

Security experts said the attack highlights the dangers of Web sites giving visitors great freedom to post content to different parts of the site.

In another recent attack, hackers exploited a simple coding vulnerability in Sen. Barack Obama's Web site to redirect users visiting the community blogs section to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's official campaign site.

The hackers who infiltrated the Epilepsy Foundation's site didn't appear to care about profit. The harmful pages didn't appear to try to push down code that would allow the hacker to gain control of the victims' computers, for instance.

"I count this in the same category of teenagers who think it's funny to put a cat in a bag and throw it over a clothesline — they don't realize how cruel it is," said Paul Ferguson, a security researcher at antivirus software maker Trend Micro Inc. "It was an opportunity waiting to happen for some mean-spirited kid."

In a similar attack this year, a piece of malicious code was released that disabled software that reads text aloud from a computer screen for blind and visually impaired people. That attack appeared to have been designed to cripple the computers of people using illegal copies of the software, researchers said.

High oil prices could "snuff out" any recovery in the UK economy during the coming two years, economists have warned.

The Ernst & Young Item Club said the modest upswing in economic growth it was predicting for 2009 and 2010 was predicated on the price of oil remaining below 100 US dollars (£51) per barrel.

But it warned that if the cost of oil increased to 120 US dollars (£61) per barrel or 150 US dollars (£76) per barrel in the long-term, it would have serious implications for the strength of the wider economy.

It added that if the cost hit 200 US dollars (£102) per barrel, as one Opec minister recently predicted, then "all bets may well be off".

The group said if oil prices climbed to 150 US dollars per barrel it would trim its forecast for economic growth for 2009 from its current prediction of 1.5% to a weak 1.1%.

It said the following year, when many commentators had pencilled in a strong recover in GDP growth to 2.7%, high oil prices could dampen growth to less than 2%.

A long-term price of 200 US dollars per barrel for oil would cut economic growth even further to just 0.9% for 2009 and 1.2% in 2010.

It warned that such high oil prices would have an impact across the whole economy, adding that one of the main factors driving the predicted recovery in 2010 was increased consumption as high street spending picked up.

But it said if oil prices did hit 200 US dollars per barrel next year, consumption would turn negative and there would be only a modest improvement in 2010.

Hetal Mehta, an economist at the Ernst & Young Item Club, said: "Our predictions don't take into account the impact on public confidence that this type of oil price increase would have and how that would feed back into the economy, so we may well be underestimating the potential downside."

The Government has vastly underestimated the cost of building a new generation of nuclear power plants, according to the head of the world's largest power company.

Wulf Bernotat, chairman and chief executive of E.ON, the German energy giant that owns Powergen, has told The Times that the cost per plant could be as high as €6 billion (£4.8 billion) - nearly double the Government's latest £2.8 billion estimate.

His figures indicate that the cost of replacing Britain's ten nuclear power stations could reach £48 billion, excluding the cost of decommissioning ageing reactors or dealing with nuclear waste. “We are talking easily about €5 billion to €6 billion [each],” Dr Bernotat said.

The news comes as EDF, of France, RWE, of Germany, and Iberdrola, of Spain, prepare to submit offers for British Energy, the nuclear generator, by Friday. Centrica, the owner of British Gas, is in talks with EDF and others about a possible joint approach E.ON's cost estimates provoked an angry response from anti-nuclear campaigners. Tim Jackson, of the Sustainable Development Commission, said: “Combined with the myriad concerns about the legacy of nuclear waste, it should now be clear that a new generation of nuclear plants is the wrong option.”

Dr Bernotat's estimates are based on E.ON's experience as a partner in the construction of a nuclear plant in Finland to a French design viewed as the most likely for deployment in Britain. He estimated the cost of that project at €4.5 billion.

The Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said the £2.8 billion figure, contained in a White Paper published in January, was an estimate and that the final costs would hinge on many factors.

By Andrew Alderson, Jasper Copping and Richard Gray
Last Updated: 10:45am BST 27/04/2008
Staff at the Grangemouth oil refinery began their 48 hour strike this morning, as preparations were made to ship fuel from Europe to prevent pumps from running dry.

An emergency convoy of seven tankers carrying 65,000 tons of fuel, mostly diesel, is due to arrive from Europe in the next few days.

The shipments from Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Gothenburg will be unloaded on the river Forth, Scotland's busiest shipping lane. They will provide enough fuel to keep Scotland running for nearly 10 days.

Officials hope that the deliveries will avert the panic buying that was spreading south of the border yesterday, with the first pumps running dry in the north of England.

Announcing the deliveries, Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, said: "From across Europe, unprecedented supplies of additional fuel are arriving in, and heading for, the Forth over the coming days to make up for the loss of production at Grangemouth refinery in Stirlingshire."

Mr Salmond said public servants would be urged to cut their use of petrol and switch to public transport where possible. "By pulling together we can minimise the disruption Scotland faces."

As concern grew, the Government admitted the country faced a "challenge" to keep fuel on garage forecourts.

The Forties oil pipeline, Britain's biggest, was due to shut completely from 6am today because of a 48-hour walkout by 1,200 workers at the Grangemouth refinery in Stirlingshire.

As fuel shortages and queues spread south from Scotland, there were isolated reports of garages out of petrol.

At Peter Marwood's Total Garage in Richmond, North Yorks, some pumps ran dry as the filling station was overrun with motorists. Jeff Savage, a cashier at the garage, on Darlington Road, said: "This morning was manic. People were panic-buying, desperate to fill up."

John Hutton, the Business Secretary, urged Britain's 33 million motorists not to panic buy and suggested the strike would create problems if they started to stockpile petrol. "There is every reason to believe that we will get through this period sensibly if people continue to buy fuel sensibly, too," he said. "But of course there is going to be a challenge if people change the way that they consume fuel."

He said a national emergency plan - in place since the fuel protest of 2000 - would only be triggered by a shortage of supplies which, he said, would not be the case for "a significant period of time".

Petrol and diesel prices are soaring, with the average price of unleaded petrol poised to top £5 a gallon (£1.10 a litre). A small number of garages were already rationing customers, with some permitting each motorist to buy just £10 worth of petrol. Others have been accused of profiteering.

In Edinburgh, the forecourt was virtually empty at the Shell garage at Crewe Toll, with most nozzles out of use. A sign on one pump said "diesel only".

Diesel had run out at the BP station on Edinburgh's Queensferry Road, and the Shell station on Glasgow's Woodlands Road. The Shell garage at East Marketgaite, Dundee, was out of petrol, with staff saying they did not know when they would receive another delivery.

Val Pattinson, 47, the manager of a petrol station in Blaydon, Tyneside, where she has worked for 13 years, said she had not seen anything like it since 2000. "People are panic buying. We are always a busy garage but it's been extremely busy and the fills people are doing are very large. You are going to get the hauliers coming here for fuel and to fill up and that's when we will run out. I just don't think there is any need to panic-buy at all."

INEOS, which owns Grangemouth, accused Unite, the striking union, of jeopardising future jobs and investment. "They are holding the country to ransom. This is the first time in living memory that the whole plant has been shut down," a spokesman said.

Experts predict it could be two or three weeks before the company is back in full production. It is estimated the pipeline closure will cost the economy £50 million a day.

The Forties pipeline brings in 700,000 barrels of oil a day from the North Sea - 30 per cent of Britain's output - as well as 2.8 billion cubic feet (80 million cubic metres) of gas a day.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, said: "The price of oil is going in only one direction and that's upwards and fast. We need to start weaning ourselves off our dependency on oil."

Eleven big retailers and two tobacco companies are facing a government-backed inquiry into allegations that they colluded over the price of cigarettes.

Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda, as well as Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher, were among those accused of increasing profits illegally by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) yesterday. Cigarette brands at the centre of the investigation include Embassy, John Player Special, Lambert & Butler, Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut.

The initial findings are part of the latest OFT clampdown on alleged anticompetitive practices and could result in fines of tens of millions of pounds.

Anti-smoking groups said that the findings of the OFT showed the cynicism of tobacco companies and retailers that trade in cigarettes.

"The hypocrisy of the industry knows no bounds," said Deborah Arnott, the director of Action on Smoking and Health. "While complaining bitterly about tax increases, these companies have been raising the price of cigarettes to fill their own coffers while hiding behind the screen of tax rises."

The investigation by the OFT found that the companies were illegally coordinating the prices of brands to increase their profit margins.

Some companies coordinated to link the price of some brands to rival products. Others arranged to swap information on future pricing.

In a statement, the OFT said that the named companies struck deals that "restricted the ability of each of these retailers to determine its selling prices independently" between 2000 and 2003.

Gallaher, Imperial Tobacco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Shell, Somerfield and Tesco were also accused of exchanging proposed future retail prices through a third party between 2001 to 2003. First Quench, which trades under several names including Threshers, Morrisons and the Cooperative Group, is also among those named in the inquiry. Each company now has about two months to respond to the OFT's statement of objections.

Companies involved in anticompetitive pricing practices can face fines of up to 10 per cent of the relevant annual turnover. Penalties can be cut if businesses cooperate with an investigation.

The OFT declined to say whether any of the companies have applied for leniency or admitted illegal collusion. It is understood that most of the companies named in the investigation are preparing to fight the allegations.

The clampdown was prompted in part by new laws and international pressure. This month the OFT announced an investigation into price-fixing in the construction industry.

The largest fine imposed to date was the £121.5 million levied on British Airways last year over a conspiracy with Virgin Atlantic to fix passenger fuel surcharges on transatlantic flights. Virgin escaped financial penalty because it had blown the whistle to the OFT.

On Thursday the watchdog won a critical High Court ruling over its efforts to regulate bank overdraft charges. The decision clears the way for a further hearing to decide whether the charges are actually unfair and, if so, what a fair charge should be.

A final defeat for the banks in the courts would result in a bill for well over £1 billion in repayments.

Critics have complained that these costs are likely to be passed on to current account holders in charges.

Tesco denied any wrongdoing. "We do not believe that Tesco has acted in a way that has harmed consumers," a spokesman said yesterday.

Imperial Tobacco said it would respond to the allegations in due course. "Imperial Tobacco takes compliance with competition law very seriously and rejects any suggestion that it has acted in any way contrary to the interests of consumers," a spokesman said.

By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 1:00am BST 22/04/2008

Oil and gas prices have hit new highs, spelling more pain for consumers and businesses. Oil reached a record $117.40 a barrel at one stage yesterday, dragging up the price of gas to a new peak, amid concerns about crude supplies after a Japanese tanker was attacked in the Middle East and militants blew up a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline in Nigeria.
The head of Opec dashed hopes that members of the oil producers' cartel might help ease prices by opening the taps, telling a conference in Rome that there is no shortage of crude on world markets.

· More from energy and mining industries

Oil for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose to a record $117.40 a barrel, before falling back to $116.63. Oil prices had touched $117 on Friday. In the UK, gas for delivery over the next six months rose 5.1pc to 83.6p a therm.

Malcolm Wicks, UK energy minister, acknowledged that the rises are hurting. He told the conference: "Record prices for energy are hitting businesses and they're hitting the domestic customer." But there is little the Government can do, with prices being driven by geopolitical events and speculation by oil traders.

Yesterday, off the coast of Yemen, a Japanese tanker was hit by a rocket. Meanwhile, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta warned that it would intensify attacks on Shell pipelines.

Abdalla Salem el-Badri, secretary-general of Opec, said on Sunday that oil prices would likely go higher, but that he doubted there was a need to raise output. "Oil prices - there is a common understanding that has nothing to do with supply and demand," Mr el-Badri said. Over the weekend, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that crude oil prices at $115 a barrel are too low, and that oil must "discover its real value".

However, Opec was warned that high energy prices threatened economic growth. "Oil prices are at an extraordinary high level today," said Akira Amari, Japan's economy, trade and industry minister. "I have been repeatedly stating my strong sense of crisis that the global economy would suffer a setback if these conditions are left as they are."

By Madlen Read, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- The stock market has reacted well to the recent stream of glum earnings. But this week, Wall Street faces an even bigger flood of first-quarter results, and as General Electric Co.'s bleak report earlier this month showed, bad earnings can even hurt a stock market with low expectations.

Out of the 30 components that make up the Dow Jones industrial average, Bank of America Corp., American Express Co., Merck & Co., McDonald's Corp., AT&T, DuPont, Boeing Co., 3M Co. and Microsoft Corp. will be reporting quarterly results this week.

Other big technology players besides Microsoft -- notably Yahoo Inc. and Apple Inc. -- are also scheduled to release earnings. So are toy makers Hasbro Inc. and Mattel Inc., homebuilder Pulte Homes Inc., and shipper UPS Inc.

Overall, Wall Street has been pleased with how companies fared during the first quarter. Their upbeat mood, however, is relative. After months of shocking news -- financial institutions on the brink of failure, demand sapped in the credit markets, and declines in the nation's payrolls and discretionary spending -- even poor earnings gave investors relief.

A case in point is Citigroup Inc., which along with Google Inc. and Caterpillar Inc. helped the stock market soar Friday. Citigroup posted a first-quarter loss that was wider than the average analyst estimate, but compared to its even-bleaker results in the fourth quarter, the first three months of 2008 looked practically decent.

"The takeaway from that is that the news is still bad, but it's not catastrophic," said Claire Gruppo, the co-founder of the boutique investment bank Gruppo, Levey & Co. "There's an underlying fear factor that it's going to be an unmitigated disaster. So when it just continued to be pretty bad, there's a 'phew' factor."

Last week, the Dow finished up 4.25 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 index ended up 4.31 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 4.92 percent.

Though sentiment on Wall Street is clearly better than it was earlier this year, the market can rise only so much due to mediocre news -- no matter how much investors have already priced in a recession.

For retailers, Gruppo said, "the month of March was the worst March in 13 years. We haven't seen that reflected yet in the earnings for retail. That will be another blow to confidence."

And General Electric's profit decline and lowered forecast on April 11 caused the Dow to plunge more than 250 points.

Meanwhile, with the housing market still weakening, the nation's economic and credit troubles are likely to last for a while. Economists surveyed by Thomson Financial/IFR predict the National Association of Realtors will report on Wednesday that existing home sales fell in March, and that the Commerce Department on Thursday will report that new home sales also fell that month.

Simon Watkins, Financial Mail
16 March 2008, 12:36pm

Is your bank about to go bust? Before anyone gets too panicked by this aggressive opening gambit, I should say that despite Northern Rock and now Bear Stearns in the US, the likelihood of any High Street bank going bust is slim indeed.

But not impossible. And as with everything that is theoretically possible, the markets have a way to put a price on that risk and that is the price of a credit default swap.

CDSs are quite simple. They are contracts that allow someone who owns bonds issued by a company to insure themselves against it defaulting. The price of CDSs is measured in percentage points and is essentially a price for insuring debt.

For example, CDSs on Lloyds TSB are priced at about 1.33%, or 133 basis points. That means anyone with £10m of Lloyds TSB bonds could insure against it defaulting for £133,000 a year.

These prices move constantly because there is a market in CDS contracts, so watching the figures gives an idea of just how risky the market thinks a bank or any other company is. The higher the figure, the higher the risk.

Lloyds TSB has low exposure to US mortgage market toxicity and its 133-point figure is one of the lowest among banks. Most are in the same ballpark. Barclays, for example, is at about 170 basis points and HSBC 145.

To get a sense of what is a bad figure, let us take Bear Stearns, the bank that needed an emergency bailout last week. In the days and hours before the crisis hit Bear Stearns, its CDS price hit 720 points.

The message being sent out by the credit markets was clear - the bank's debt is very high risk.

So what are the other interesting figures? In the UK it is worth noting HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland). Its CDS price was about 235 points last week, a long way from seriously worrying but markedly higher than most other British banks.

This reflects its high mortgage exposure in the UK, its relatively high exposure to certain types of near-prime mortgages in the US and its slightly higher dependence on financial markets to fund lending.

More risky is Alliance & Leicester, whose price was about 342 points last week, again reflecting its high dependence on wholesale financial markets, which have become frozen in recent months. But the real horrors are in Iceland.

Credit insurance for debts at Iceland's biggest bank, Landsbanki, is priced at 610 points while that for Kaupthing is priced at a hair-raising 856. Given that these two have taken billions in UK retail deposits, it may be a sobering thought for savers to consider where they are putting their cash. These banks are now seen as the most unsafe in the developed world.

Of course, no one can be sure that disaster looms for anyone, but the figures on credit default swaps show clearly where investment professionals think the big risks are.

You have been warned.

Rupert Steiner, Daily Mail
2 April 2008, 9:52am

Britain's largest grocer has become an international success story but a recent spate of bad news has got investors worried the wheels may be coming off Tesco's trolley.

Critics and competitors alike will have found it hard to stifle a grin when suppliers to its Fresh & Easy start-up in America recently warned of disappointing sales.

This alone is not significant enough to wound the Hertfordshire-based grocer but what is causing nervousness is the timing of the announcements which have come thick and fast.

Investors are worried by a stream of senior managers departing to rivals, the loss of ground to rivals as its market share slips from 31.2pc to 31pc in latest TNS figures, and the withdrawal of its online clothing trial less than six months after it was launched.

The shares have dipped 477¼p since the beginning of the year to 405¼p, leading analysts to downgrade the stock. Yesterday, however, the shares rose 26p on the back of new data.

But Andrew Higginson, Tesco's finance and strategy director, says the doom and gloom is overdone.

'The share price is up on the back of our business performing well,' he said. 'The latest TNS numbers put our growth at 8.9pc over the past four weeks and a lot of retailers would kill for that.

'UK consumers have been hit hard by energy cost rises and interest rates and we have managed our costs down so we can trade hard this year.'

The future promises a hammering from the deteriorating economy and increased restrictions from regulators that are affecting the sector as a whole.

It all seems a far cry from two years ago, when basking in the afterglow of another set of record figures, Tesco executives plotted a renewed international assault.

Boss Sir Terry Leahy, the poster boy of the grocery sector, has built his reputation on fostering rapid growth and delivering unrivalled dominance at home.

It was in the 1990s he first turned his hand to developing the business abroad. It has now swollen into 12 different markets employing 450,000 with the international business generating £7.6bn in sales and £370m profit.

Much depends on Tesco's attempt to break into the US market with its Fresh & Easy concept. It will form the launchpad for a wider push against its bigger rival Wal-Mart in years to come. All eyes are on the west coast of America for news on the 50 stores it has opened in California, Nevada and Arizona.

Investors will be worried by research carried out by Mike Dennis, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, who reckons suppliers indicated the business was running 70pc below budget on American sales. He said: 'The issue is very weak footfall across all three states.'

But Higginson says these are not figures he recognises: 'I think it's a load of rubbish. You have competitors queuing up to knock it [Fresh & Easy]. The business is doing fine and the consumer reaction is terrific. To be honest it's a voyage of discovery, a bit like when the dotcom boom. If customers say they love it that's the key metric really and the rest is just logistics.'

Higginson countered accusations that the wider group was haemorrhaging staff, despite five key departures over the past 12 months.

He explained that good people come and go, and that despite Leahy's relative youth, staff do not feel there is a promotions log jam that is causing them to leave.

'Very few people leave,' he said. 'It's a very large and talented senior pool. You can have a complete career in Tesco, we are growing in double digits each year and with that comes opportunities. But not everyone is going to get Terry Leahy's job.'

While Leahy has the track record to blast his way through the combination of problems before him, few really believe the current turn of events will be his downfall.

Little did you know ...... after reading THIS, you'll NEVER look at petai in the same way again!

Petai contains three natural sugars -sucrose, fructose and glucose. Combined with fiber, petai gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research has proved that just two servings of petai provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute wor kout. No wonder petai is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes. But energy isn't the only way petai can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Depression:
According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND among people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating petai. This is because petai contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS(premenstrual syndrome):
Forget the pills - eat petai. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Anaemi a:
High in iron, petai can stimulate the production of haemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anaemia.

Blood Pressure:
This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the petai industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power :
200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating petai at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipatio n:
High in fiber, including petai in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers:
One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a petai milkshake, sweetened with honey. The petai calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn:
Petai has a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating petai for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness :
Snacking on petai between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito b ites :
Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of the petai skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.


Nerves:
Petai is high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight:
Studies at the <?
xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = 'urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags' /> Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report c oncluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers:
Petai is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control :
Many other cultures see petai as a 'cooling' fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In hoiland, for example, pregnant women eat petai to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affecti ve Disorder (SAD) :
Petai can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer, tryptophan.

Smoking:
Petai can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress:
Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium petai snack.

Strokes:
According to research in 'The New Engla nd Journal of Medicine, ' eating petai as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%'.

Warts:
Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of petai and place it on the wart. Carefully hold the petai in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

So, as you can see, petai really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrates, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around. So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, 'A Petai a day keeps the doctor away'.

Europe : Within a few years, a fully broadband mobile internet will be taken for granted by users in many parts of the world, and operators are already gearing up to put the networks in place to support this.

Whether they are traditional mobile carriers or providers entering the wireless world from other sectors, most are focusing their efforts on two new technologies, Mobile WiMAX and LTE. Existing cellcos will look to implement these in parallel with extending systems using HSPA+ or EV-DO Rev A/B. Wireline operators will often be using mobile broadband to complement a fiber , DSL or cable model.

All this will lead to an explosion of investment in the key next generation wireless networks from this year until 2012, when mobile broadband will be mainstream in developed economies. The latest report from Rethink Technology Research provides forecasts of the dollars that will be invested in base stations and RAN infrastructure for WiMAX, LTE and HSPA+ during this period, based on surveys of 500 operators with firm intentions to purchase one or more new technologies before 2012.

Based on their input, key trends emerge. Mobile broadband systems based on the key technologies will generate RAN investment of $16.2 billion by 2012, almost one-third of the total spend on cellular base stations and infrastructure. Within this, LTE will overtake Mobile WiMAX around 2011.

The new wireless landscape will not just be formed by new technologies, however. Operators have learned the risks of deploying high cost networks without proven return on investment, from the 3G experience in regions such as western Europe. This time, they are demanding networks with lower cost of ownership and cost of delivery, and are looking to new base station formats to help achieve this, and support more flexible business models.

Important developments, which will have a major impact on operator spending patterns by 2012, include the emergence of picocells and femtocells, which will account for almost 25% of investment by the end of 2012. Other key trends will be the increasing uptake of flat network designs, remote radio heads, flexible or software defined base stations, and standardized board level architectures like ATCA.

Rethink Research's latest report, "Taking the internet to the handset: Base Station Technology Forecast 2008-2012", provides detailed forecasts of the impact of these new developments, and the dollar investments they represent, based on the most comprehensive survey of operator spending intentions available today.

Marketers face an ever growing challenge in attracting the attention of consumers according to new research from the Direct Marketing Association. A combination of new technology, the blurring of boundaries between work and personal space, an increase in consumers describing themselves as 'hectic' and consumer empowerment means that marketers need to work even harder to stand out and get their messages heard.

Published today, the DMA Participation Media Report, sponsored by Experian, explores the consumer's actual experience of direct marketing using an innovative diary approach. The report shows that consumers are actively getting involved in the marketing process in an attempt to filter out the information that they need marking a shift from "push" to "pull" marketing.

This increased consumer empowerment is clear when gathering information before making a purchase – the research shows that the majority of consumers prefer to be in control of how and when they gather information, rating talking to the retailer and word of mouth as being the preferred method. Such empowerment is also evident with the report highlighting decreasing levels of loyalty. The level of positive responses from past customers had decreased from 43% to 34%, showing that consumers are more willing to switch suppliers.

Consumers are also taking more control of who can contact them. The research illustrated a reluctance on the part of consumers to share their personal information with companies which is no doubt in light of heightened awareness of identity fraud and high profile incidences of companies and government departments losing personal data. A further contributing factor is that most people who took part in the research feel overwhelmed by the number of marketing communications that they are receiving. However, the research also shows a significant increase in consumers who are happy to pick and choose how they get information about companies and their products and services.

Victoria Bytel, head of research at the DMA, says: "As consumers are increasingly taking control of how and when they access marketing communications, marketers need to avoid becoming wallpaper and achieve stand out through gaining heightened insight of their target audience and developing new stimuli and stand out accordingly. "What is clear from the research is that each medium has a different role to play in the marketing mix whether individually or together as part of an integrated campaign. It's all about targeting the right audience at the right time – a basic tenet of direct marketing."

Unsurprisingly the report shows that growth in internet access has increased across all demographics as confidence in the medium grows and access costs decrease – including an increase in the number of people accessing internet services at work. This may be one of the factors that lies behind findings showing that the majority of purchases made in response to email marketing were at work. For the first time since the research began, the internet has overtaken mail order for purchasing goods. This is another reflection of the increase in the number of consumers describing themselves as 'hectic', with timesaving and flexibility cited as the main benefits of using direct marketing as a way of purchasing goods.

However, catalogues remain an important reference tool for consumers with many being used alongside the internet as a means of purchasing goods. The more traditional direct marketing channels of direct mail, door drops and inserts were viewed more positively by consumers than in the research in 2005. Door drops were considered to be the most interesting of all communications recorded in the diary and scored highly with regards to convenience and provision of information while direct mail saw a 10% increase in positive views of the medium on 2005. Interactive TV, field marketing and email marketing form the top three direct media in generating a purchase while television and radio ads, customer magazines and inserts lead the field in generating retail traffic.

Telephone calls, interactive TV and mobile messaging are most likely to result in respondents seeking further information. The research also highlights the difference in consumers' perceived use of direct marketing with reality. On the whole, actions taken in response to receiving direct communications (as recorded in the diaries) are more positive in reality than perception.

This is particularly true of email (17.6% perceived positive response versus 33% actual positive response) and direct mail (22.7% perceived positive response versus 44.4% actual positive response). Byte added, "It is vital that marketers reduce wastage and ensure consumers are on the receiving end of well thought-through, targeted and relevant communications."

Nike, P&G, J&J Have Adopted to the New Digital

RealityBy Richard Rawlinson and Christopher Vollme

In the evolving digital environment, the central issue is that the skills and capabilities required to succeed as a marketer have changed significantly. While every marketing executive recognizes the pervasive pull of the internet, most allocate only 5% to 10% of their ad budgets to digital media. And unfortunately, many marketers -- by their own admission -- have not adapted to the new reality. Fewer than one in four of the participants in Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010 -- Booz Allen Hamilton's cross-industry study completed with the Association of National Advertisers -- consider their organizations "digitally savvy." The principal impediments are lack of senior organizational support, lack of experience in new media and the dearth of digital talent.

Leading marketers such as Nike, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble are indeed recognizing that digital and interactive are no longer niche capabilities; they are a requisite skill set for all marketers. In response, there's a lot consumer marketers have to do: prioritize internal training in digital marketing; hire technologically savvy talent; cultivate a progressive culture that embraces -- and uses -- new technology and media; institutionalize flexibility in responding to customer needs; and create and formalize processes for integrating consumer insight into products.

The problem for many companies is that this is a journey without maps. Most marketers will have to stretch beyond their comfort zones to figure out the answers.

People are the first place to start. The new marketing uses data to select and integrate a wider range of tools more precisely to smaller groups of consumers. It places a premium on the ability to access, integrate, analyze and apply data. That means recruiting people with data-analysis skills.

Companies will still need generalists, of course, perhaps more than ever. Most marketing departments need fewer vertical people trained within a discipline and more flexible operators. It's better to have someone who knows how to integrate customer-relationship management with digital or retail communications.

Marketers must also cultivate and train their existing ranks. Reverse-mentoring and rotational programs can help. Companies such as J&J are using externship programs to enable selected executives to spend time directly with their advertising and media partners and thereby accelerate the development of digital-marketing capabilities.

Beyond experiments with new marketing techniques and tactics, most marketing departments remain structured around organizational legacies, chiefly the output of TV and print advertising. What they need is to integrate analysis, thinking and planning across all communications and media technologies. In practice, that means media must become strategic, rooted early in the fundamental architecture of brand planning.

To build and invest in new ways of communicating, more communication will be needed, internally across finance, IT, marketing and the sales organization and externally with communications agencies and retailers.

The second big change is in incentives. Successful companies will align key incentives around overall brand or business objectives. The incentives can also reflect the development of marketing analytics.

People, process and organization: These must change. Marketers know their world has been altered. What they need more quickly is the corresponding action around both human capital and the marketing processes and organizational structures within which they work. The companies that get those answers right will find future success.