| The defence sector goes from strength to strength
Perhaps more pertinent is the extent to which aerospace and defence has prospered since the onset of the credit crunch. Since June, Citigroup shows, the sector has outpaced the UK stock market by 13 per cent. That makes it the sixth best performer out of 36 sectors, and ranks it alongside gas and water utilities - a niche commonly cited as the defensive play par excellence. The likes of Ultra Electronics, Chemring, which makes flares that ward off surface-to-air missiles, and QinetiQ, the former defence research group, have all held their level of late June. BAE Systems has even risen in the interim - up 6 per cent. But the issue for investors who have seen their capital preserved, if not modestly enhanced, amid a seven-month sell-off, is for how long the sector can maintain its fortress-like stand.
Gallas says sorry to team-mates
The 30-year-old believes he is ready to return and accepts it has not been an easy time as the former Chelsea man worked his way back to fitness. "The last few weeks have been very difficult for me. Sometimes I have been okay, but at other times I have been very unhappy," said Gallas, whose side are currently top of the Premier League. "Because of that I know it might have been difficult for the rest of the group as well because I wasn't always smiling when I was in the dressing room. "It's difficult for everyone. I have experienced it before when I have been injured, and it's always the same. "The first week or so you can deal with it, but three, four, five weeks later? Trust me it's hard to keep smiling. "So I want to say sorry to all of the players, and also the staff at the training ground, because they could see I wasn't always happy.
The fragile superpower
Soros argues that the current US credit crunch is "less likely to cause a global recession than a radical realignment of the global economy with a relative decline of the US and the rise of China", Exactly. But no presidential candidate in this watershed election year has come to reconcile the American people to such decline. The truth is that beneath the beauty contests of the primaries the political system is not addressing the structural problems that beset the US. The primaries are about political sex appeal, not policy answers. It may be true the key to US politics is inspiration as an enabler of policy. Leaders such as Ronald Reagan mobilised enough goodwill to run audacious policies (some good, some bad). Observe that Barack Obama infuriated many Democrats last week by saying "I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not." Obama invites the public to perceive him as a Reagan.
ITT Educational confident in 2008 view
CARMEL, Ind. - Post-secondary education provider ITT Educational Services Inc. said Thursday it is "confident" it can achieve 2008 earnings per share of $4.50 to $4.60 despite the reduction in lender subsidies under federal student loan programs and tight credit markets which are pressuring students. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expect full-year profit of $4.47 per share, on average. The company said it expects to continue to improve student retention, but believes future increases in the quarterly persistence rate will moderate from 2007 levels. "Recently, there has been a lot of speculation in the market with respect to the ability of our students to obtain the financing needed to pay their education costs," said Chief Executive Kevin Modany in a statement. "This speculation was caused by a recent reduction in lender subsidies under the federal student loan programs and the current credit crunch that arose from the subprime mortgage crisis." ITT said it has arranged for Bank of America, Chase Education Finance and Citibank, The Student Loan Corp.
Pay Rs 100 to encroach upon MC land
Imtiaz, a 25-year-old worker in a hosiery, used to iron clothes. In the Shingar blast, his right arm was burnt and had to be mutilated. Now, he is without any livlihood. Twenty-year-old Pawan Kumar lost his left leg with which he operated a sewing machine while working in a hosiery. These victims have been scarred for life. The government has played a cruel joke on the victims. The relief amount is meagre. Each time Intiaz looks at his shoulder with no arm, he begins to shiver. We are trying everything to keep hope alive in him. But he is disappointed and has lost the will to live, says Mohammad Ishrafil, brother -in-law of Intiaz. Pawan Kumar has a vacant look in his eyes. Still in hospital, he wishes he had died. Without a leg, I am useless. Ive got three unmarried sisters.
Lisa Feldstein
Lisa Feldstein is a consultant as well as a Ph.D. student at the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. She is formerly the Senior Policy Director with the Public Health Law Program, in which capacity she directed the organization's Land Use and Health Program. The project engage advocates in the land-use decision-making process throughout California, develops tools for training advocates about the relationship between the built environment and public health, and provides technical assistance for creating and implementing land use policies that support healthier communities. Lisa has worked on affordable housing and land use issues, with a focus on low-income communities, for more than 16 years. From 2000-2005, she worked as an independent consultant providing technical assistance to local governments and nonprofits on a broad range of housing, community development, and land use-related issues.
Pryor won't dis Limbaugh
Forty-one Democratic senators signed a letter castigating Rush Limbaugh for his remark that military who criticized the war in Iraq were "phony" soldiers. Mark Pryor was one of nine who didn't sign. Here's Joe Conason's description of the episode in event any trolls try to claim Limbaugh has been misquoted. More good anti-Rush stuff here, including a link to Wesley Clark's petition to get Limbaugh off taxpayer-financed armed forces radio, where he's free to trash Democrats as traitors and talk about phony soldiers and belittle a vet wounded in Iraq as suicide bomber. .
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