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TODAY HEADLINES
New York state businesses say U.S. passport rules are 'war on tourism'. New York state businesses warned the U.S. Congress on Thursday requiring passports at the Canadian border will disrupt trade and hurt tourism, while one official tried to reassure legislators an alternative ID would probably cost about $50 US. Howard Zemsky, leader of a Buffalo-area business group, warned legislators: "Don't turn the war on terrorism into the war on tourism."...Full story U.S. lawsuit accuses tire maker of using slave labor in Liberia, West Africa. A U.S. federal lawsuit filed Thursday accuses tire maker Bridgestone Firestone of employing slave labor and child labor on its massive rubber plantation in Liberia. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks class action on behalf of 12 adult workers and 23 children who work and live on the Firestone Plantation in Harbel, Liberia. The suit claims the workers are trapped in a "gulag of misery" and forced to work under conditions that have changed little since the plantation was founded in 1926...Full story
U.S. housing construction tumbles, adding more evidence boom is cooling. U.S. housing construction and new building permits were down sharply in October, providing fresh evidence that rising mortgage rates are beginning to cool the five-year housing boom...Full story Retailers missing the point of loyalty reward programs, Air Miles head says. Retailers have lost their way and have become too focused on using loyalty reward programs as a currency to attract customers, says the president of Air Miles. Bryan Pearson says most retailers are neglecting the wealth of shopper data that is collected by the programs that could be used to better market to their customers, which was one of the purposes the program was created in the first place... .Full story Chrysler announces new incentives in Detroit price war with GM and Ford. DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group said Thursday it will give two years of free gas to customers who buy a 2005 or 2006 vehicle before Jan. 3, following announcements of new discounts by rivals General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. Chrysler will also kick in two years of free scheduled maintenance and increase the warranty on mechanical parts to five years or about 96,500 kilometres. Chrysler now offers a three-year, 58,000-kilometre warranty....Full story
At age 30, Microsoft tries to untangle bureaucratic snags with a shakeup. Microsoft Corp. promises its software will make people better workers - more productive, more profitable, more able, as the company likes to say, to achieve their potential. Yet some wonder why the software behemoth isn't taking more of its own medicine....Full story Delphi Corp., the largest U.S. auto supplier, files for bankruptcy. Delphi Corp., the largest U.S. auto supplier, filed for bankruptcy Saturday, sending shock waves through the country's auto industry, which already is weakened by high labor costs and falling market share...Full story
GOVERNMENT. COMPANIES: U.S. Attorney General indicts Conrad Black and others on criminal fraud charges. The U.S. government has charged fallen Canadian media baron Conrad Black and three other former executives of Hollinger International with fraud, in connection with an alleged scheme to steal more than $80 million US from the media company...Full story Google shares top $400 threshold. Shares in Google have risen above $400 each for the first time, capping a strong period of growth for the internet search firm. Google shares closed up $5.30, or 1.3%, at $403.45, giving the firm a higher market value than stalwarts Coca-Cola, Walt Disney and Cisco Systems...Full story Investors cheer Hewlett-Packard. Investors cheered as the US computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) reported figures that suggest it is recovering. HP's $416m (£242m) profits for the August to October quarter fell far short of the $1.091bn made during the same period last year...Full story
Criminals 'getting jobs at banks'. Financial regulators have repeated a warning that members of criminal gangs are getting jobs in financial services firms so they can carry out frauds. The warning was given by Sir Callum McCarthy, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, at a conference in London on financial crime. He said the criminals were using the knowledge they gained to circumvent their employers' systems and controls... Full story ATM fees 'to reach £250m in 2006'. UK bank customers could pay up to £250m to withdraw their own money from cash machines in 2006, the Nationwide building society has predicted. In 2004 the private companies who install and operate charging ATMs made £140m in withdrawal fees. In total, nearly 22,000 of the UK's 54,000 ATMs levy a cash withdrawal fee and increasing numbers are being put in newsagents and convenience stores. Operators argue customers can choose whether or not to use their machines...Full story POLITIC: Bush and South Korean leader take united stand on North Korean nuclear program. President George W. Bush took a hardline stance against North Korea on Thursday, saying the U.S. won't help the communist country build a civilian nuclear reactor to produce electricity until it dismantles its nuclear weapons programs...Full storyFrance enjoys break from riots but polygamy suggestions cause uproar . French streets were relatively peaceful overnight after three weeks of unrest, police said Thursday. But protest has erupted amid suggestions polygamy played a role in the violence. Human rights groups are reacting with outrage to comments by French officials who have said polygamy is one of the reasons youths from underprivileged Muslim households have been rioting. France's League of Human Rights called the comments "sickening and irresponsible," while the anti-racist group MRAP said such remarks would only feed the "racism and exclusion" that incited youths to riots...Full storyAriel Sharon favors general elections in February. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed Thursday to hold early elections, possibly as soon as February, kicking off a political campaign certain to freeze all moves to restart Mideast peace talks. After meeting Thursday morning with Sharon, newly elected Labor party leader Amir Peretz said they had discussed holding the ballot between late February and the end of March, instead of next November as scheduled...Full story Terrorist threatens U.S., allies in video seized by Indonesian police. A masked man believed to be one of Asia's most wanted terrorists warned the United States, Britain and Australia in a video seized from his hide-out: "You will be the target of our next attack." Malaysian fugitive Noordin Mohamad Top is allegedly a key leader of the al-Qaida-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been accused of orchestrating at least four deadly bombings targeting westerners since 2002...Full story MIDDLE EAST: At least 100 Shiite worshippers killed near the Iranian border. BAGHDAD, Iraq- Suicide bombers struck in eastern Iraq and the capital on Friday, killing at least 100 Shiite worshippers near the Iranian border and eight Iraqis at a hotel - the second attack against a compound housing Western media and contractors in less than a month. At sunset, hours after the nearly simultaneous bombings of two mosques in the border town of Khanaqin, dozens of people were still searching for relatives and friends. Others collected shredded copies of the Muslim holy book, the Qur'an...Full story Al-Zarqawi threatens Jordan's king, says bombers did not target Amman wedding AMMAN, Jordan- An audiotape in the name of "al-Qaida in Iraq" threatened on Friday to chop off King Abdullah's head and bomb more hotels and tourist sites. The speaker on the tape, identified as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also said the group's suicide bombers did not intend to bomb a Jordanian wedding party at an Amman hotel last week, killing about 30 people. "Your star is fading. You will not escape your fate, you descendant of traitors. We will be able to reach your head and chop it off," al-Zarqawi said, referring to the king. Al-Zarqawi told Jordanians to stay away from bases used by U.S. forces in Jordan, hotels and tourist sites in Amman, the Dead Sea and the southern resort of Aqaba and embassies of governments participating in the war in Iraq, saying they would be targeted. He underlined that ...Full story USA: U.S. House rejects immediate troop-withdrawal from Iraq after fiery debate. WASHINGTON, DC- The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected calls Friday for an immediate troop-withdrawal from Iraq, a vote engineered by the Republicans that was intended to fail. Democrats derided the vote as a political stunt. "Our troops have become the enemy. We need to change direction in Iraq," said U.S. Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania...Full story
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