A MULTIWAVE PUBLIC ATION

THE LOS ANGELES

PROFESSIONAL EXPRESS

REVOLT!
EGYPT TO MUBARAK: “GET OUT!”
COMPLIMENTARY ISSUE NUMBER 2 - 8 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2011

News Briefing
Story Title Goes Here
Nobel Peace laureate Mo-
hamed ElBaradei’s appearance
in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square
Do the people of Egypt deserve the right to self determination?
CAIRO (AP) -- Supporters of Presi-
dent Hosni Mubarak charged into
Cairo’s central square on horses and

Revolutionaries now control majority of Libya!

underscored the jockeying for
leadership of the mass protest
movement that erupted seem-
ingly out of nowhere in the past
week to shake the Arab world’s
camels brandishing whips while
others rained firebombs from roof-
tops in what appeared to be an or-
chestrated assault against protesters

Gaddafi continues genocide against civilians using war machines

most populous nation. Page 4
trying to topple Egypt’s leader of 30
years. Three people died and 600
Story Title Goes Here were injured.
Nobel Peace laureate Mo- The protesters accused Mubarak’s
hamed ElBaradei’s appearance
regime of unleashing
BENGHAZI, Libyaa force
-- Col.ofGad- paid
News Summary
in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square
underscored the jockeying for dafi
thugs and plainclothes police to
power
was struggling
in Libya
to
on Thursday
hold on
as reb-
to
leadership of the mass protest crush their unprecedented 9-day-old
movement that erupted seem- els extended their territory by seiz-
ingly out of nowhere in the past movement,
ing important a day townsafterclose
the 82-year-
to the
BAHRAIN
week to shake
Thousands the Arab world’s
of anti-government old president refused to step down.
capital.
most populous nation. Page
protesters flood Manama’s 4
Pearl TheyTheshowed
democracy off police ID badges
movement al-
Square following the release of ready
they saidcontrolsweremajor wrestedcenters
fromintheir the
at least 100 political prisoners - east, including
attackers. Some the regional work-
government capi-
Story Title
including Goes
25 Shiite Hereon
activists tal Benghazi, and reports that the
ers said
towns their employers
of Misrata and Zuaraordered in the
Nobel
trial sincePeace
last yearlaureate
for allegedly Mo-
hamed ElBaradei’s them into the streets.
west have also fallen brought the
plotting against the appearance
state. The
in Tahrir,
move or Liberation,
underlines how much Square
the Mustafa
tide el-Fiqqi,ever
of rebellion a top official
closer from
to Gad-
underscored
absolute rulers the
of thejockeying
Gulf king-for dafi’s power base.
the ruling National Democratic Par-
leadership of the mass protest
dom want tothat
movement geterupted
reform seem-talks ty, The
told town of Az-Zawiyah,
The Associated Press just that
with 50 km (30 miles) west of the capi-
ingly out of nowhere in theway.
protest leaders under past businessmen connected
tal Tripoli, may also have fallen. to the rul-
The
weekrelease
to shakeof the
theactivists was
Arab world’s ingJazeera
party were responsible for what
one ofpopulous
the majornation.
demands of the Al television broadcast pic-
most Page 4 happened.
emboldened political movement tures on Thursday of what it said
was
The anotion
burning police
that station
the state may there.have
seeking constitutional reform. The brief, violence
grainy pictures
Storyconcerns
Amid Title Goes that the Hereisland coordinated against were pro-
followed by footage of around 20
Nobel uprising
nation’s Peace laureate
could spread Mo- testers, most
bodies, who with had kept their ahands peaceful tied country, stubbornly proclaiming he to depict the movement as foreign- ing and lawlessness and the escape “The army is neglectful. They let
hamed
to ElBaradei’s
Saudi Arabia, whereappearance
the mon- would die on Egyptian soil. fueled. of thousands of prisoners from jails them in,” said Emad Nafa, a 52-year-
in Tahrir, or few
Liberation, behind their backs. The satellitedays,
vigil in Tahrir Square for five sta-
archy permits politicalSquare
free- prompted
tion said the a sharp
men had rebuke
beenfrom shot for the His words were a blow to the pro- After midnight, 10 hours after the in the chaos. old among the protesters, who for
underscored the jockeying for
doms, King Hamad
leadership of the mass bin Isa Al
protest refusing to shoot
Obama administration. protesters. testers. They also suggest that au- clashes began, the two sides were Soldiers surrounding Tahrir Square days had showered the military with
Khalifa holds talks on the unrest
movement that erupted seem-
with “IfAlanyArabiya televisionis said
of the violence Gad-
instigated thorities want to turn back the clock locked in a standoff at a street cor- fired occasional shots in the air affection for its neutral stance.
inglythe
outSaudi king in Riyadh.
of nowhere in the past dafi would address residents of the
Bahrain
week to holds
shakeparticular
the Arabimpor-world’s by the
town government, it should stop
shortly. to the tight state control enforced ner, with the anti-Mubarak protest- throughout the day but did not ap- Egyptian Health Minister Ahmed
tance to Washington
most populous nation. as Page
the host4 immediately,”
The uprising said White wiped
has virtually House before the protests began. ers hunkered behind a line of metal pear to otherwise intervene in the Sameh Farid said three people died
of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, Press
out Secretary
Libyan Robertsaid
oil exports, Gibbs. the head Mubarak’s supporters turned up on sheets hurling firebombs back and fierce clashes and no uniformed po- and at least 611 were injured in Ta-
which is the main U.S. military of
The Italy’s
clashesENI,markedLibya’s abiggestdangerous for- the streets Wednesday in significant forth with government backers on lice were seen. Most of the troops hir Square. One of those killed fell
Story Title to
counterweight Goes
Iranian Here
efforts eign oil operator. Theupheaval:
unrest has
Nobel new phase in Egypt’s the numbers for the first time. Some the rooftop above. The rain of bot- took shelter behind or inside the ar- from a bridge near the square; Farid
to expandPeace laureate
its military influenceMo- driven world oil prices up to around
hamed ElBaradei’s
into the Gulf. appearance first asignificant violence between were hostile to journalists and for- tles of flaming gasoline set nearby mored vehicles and tanks stationed said the man was in civilian clothes
$117 barrel, stoking concern about
in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square government supporters and oppo- eigners. Two Associated Press cor- cars and wreckage on the sidewalk at the entrances to the square. but may have been a member of the
underscored the jockeying for the economic recovery.
EGYPT
leadership of the mass protest nents.
Anti-government militias turn
The crisis took a sharp are respondents and several other jour- ablaze. “Why don’t you protect us?” some security forces.
Egyptian
movement authorities
that eruptedimpose
seem- in control
for the worse of Zuara,
almostabout 120 km
immediately nalists were roughed up in Cairo. The scenes of mayhem were certain protesters shouted at the soldiers,
aingly
travel
out ban on former
of nowhere Prime
in the past (75
aftermiles)
Mubarak westrejected
of Tripoli,
the callsfleeing for State
LibyanTV had reported
protesters stand onthattheforeign-
rooftop of to add to the
a burned fearstation,
police that isduring
alreadya demonstration
run- who repliedagainstthey
theirdid not Leader
Libyan have or- By HADEEL
Mommar Gaddafi, inAL-SHALCHI,
Tobruk, Libya, Asso-
Minister
week to Atef
shakeObeid and world’s
the Arab long- Egyptian
him to give up power or leavewho
construction workers the ers were caught
Wednesday Feb. 23,distributing
2011. Heavy anti-
gunfire ning
brokehigh inTripoli
out in this capital of loyal
as forces 18 mil- ders to
to Gaddafi do so and
tightened theirtold
grippeople to go capital
on the Libyan while anti-government protesters
serving Culture nation.
most populous MinisterPage
Farouq
4 crossed into Tunisia told Reuters on ciated Press.
Thursday. claimed control
Mubarak of many
leaflets, cities elsewhere
apparently and top
trying lion government
people officials and
after a weekend diplomats
of loot- turn against the longtime leader. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
home.
Hosni. The restrictions also

China says Democracy activists

cover the head of state TV and There was no sign of police
StoryasTitle
radio, Goes
well as Here
nine business- or military and the town was con- neighbors, the presidents of Tunisia
NobelSuchPeace
men. measureslaureate Mo-
are normal- trolled by “popular committees” and Egypt, who were brought down
hamed ElBaradei’s appearance armed with automatic weapons. by popular unrest in the past few
ly a prelude to a criminal inves- weeks.
in Tahrir,
tigation andorpossible
Liberation,
trial. Square “The people are in control. Po-
underscored the jockeying for lice stations have been burned and Italy’s foreign minister said as
leadership of the mass protest many as 1,000 people may have

Fed easing arrested in China

JORDAN we didn’t see any police or army in
movement that erupted seem- the past few days,” Egyptian laborer been killed in Libya. Unconfirmed
Jordan’s
ingly outCabinet approves
of nowhere in thelaws
past reports spoke of troops and African
making
week toit shake
easier to
theorganize pro-
Arab world’s Ahmed Osman said after leaving
the town and crossing the border mercenaries firing on protesters.
tests
most and will revive
populous nation.a Page
govern-
4 As in other parts of the Arab
ment body that works to ensure into Tunisia.
Separately, lawyers and judges world, protesters in Libya appear to
basic commodities remain af-

ineffective
said they had the coastal city of be driven mainly by frustration with
Story Title
fordable Goes Here
to the poor. political oppression and economic
Nobel Peace laureate Mo- Misrata, 125 miles east of Tripoli, in
hamed ARABIA
ElBaradei’s appearance their grip, according to an Internet hardship, and are largely secular. BEIJING -- Jittery Chinese au- a slogan that highlights common which are well-funded and well-
SAUDI statement. Yet al Qaeda’s North African thorities staged a show of force to complaints among Chinese. equipped. A pro-democracy move-
in Tahrir,
Saudi or Liberation,
Arabia’s Square
King Abdullah
underscored the jockeying for With help from “honest” military wing threw its weight behind their squelch a mysterious online call China’s authoritarian govern- ment in 1989 that directly chal-
nearly doubles
leadership a development
of the mass protest officers, they had removed agents of cause, urging protesters to “contin- for a “Jasmine Revolution,” with ment is ever alert for domestic lenged the Communist government

& dangerous
fund that helps citizens seem-
movement that erupted buy the “oppressive regime” in Misrata, ue their struggle and revolution and hundreds of onlookers but only a discontent and has appeared un- was crushed by the military and
homes,
ingly outget married in
of nowhere andthestart
past said the statement, which could not to escalate it to oust the criminal ty- handful of people actively joining nerved by protests in Egypt, Tuni- hundreds, perhaps thousands, were
businesses,
week to shakeand the
setsArab
up unem-
world’s immediately be verified. rant,” according to the SITE Intel- protests inspired by pro-democra- sia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria and killed.
ployment assistance
most populous forPage
nation. the first
4 World leaders condemned Gad- ligence Group. cy demonstrations sweeping the Libya. It has limited media reports On Saturday, President Hu Jin-
time. The move pumps 40 bil- dafi’s bloody crackdown on the As elements of the security Middle East. about them, stressing the instabil- tao ordered national and provincial
Story
lion Title
riyals Goes
($10.7 Here
billion) into week-long revolt that has split Lib- forces and other senior government Authorities detained activists ity caused by the protests, and re- officials to “solve prominent prob-
Nobel
the fund, Peace
in a steplaureate
that appearsMo- figures defected to the protesters, it Sunday, increased the number of stricted Internet searches to keep lems which might harm the har-
hamedat ElBaradei’s appearance ya, but did little to halt the blood-
aimed shoring up popular sup- shed from the latest upheaval re- was unclear how long Gaddafi could police on the streets, disconnected Chinese uninformed about Middle mony and stability of the society.”
in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square

Heavy gunfire rings

port and fending off unrest that shaping the Arab world. hang on to power. some cell phone text messaging Easterners’ grievances against One person sitting in the Mc-
underscored the jockeying for
has spread to
leadership of neighboring Bah-
the mass protest U.S. President
Quantitative easingBarackby the Obama Federal Thousands
central bank said of foreigners
in its 59-page -- from
re- services and censored Internet their autocratic rulers. Donald’s after the brief protest in
rain.
movement that erupted seem- made his first public comments, doctors to oil contractors -- fled Lib- postings about the call to stage Though there are many simi- Beijing said he saw Sunday’s gath-
Reserve and other central banks port.
ya “It is its
through creating imported
ports and borders infla-
in
The
inglymeasures were ordered
out of nowhere by
in the past condemning as “outrageous” and protests in Beijing, Shanghai and larities between the complaints ering as a dry run.
the king
week toeven
shake before he returned
the Arab world’s cannot address fundamental eco- tion and short-term
mass emergency evacuations. capital inflows, 11 other major cities. voiced by Middle East citizens and “Lots of people in here are
“unacceptable” attacks on protest-
Wednesday to nation.
Saudi Page
Arabia. nomicthatproblems but hundreds
may lead to in ex- pressuring
In cities emerging
like Benghazi markets,”
and To-it Police took at least three people the everyday troubles of Chinese, Twitter users and came to watch

out in Cairo protest

most populous 4 ers have killed 10
The 86-year-old monarch was cessive
days. global liquidity and compet- bruk,
said. troops and police have either away in Beijing, one of whom tried Beijing’s tight grip on the coun- like me,” said 42-year-old Hu Di.
abroad for medical treatment in Washington
itive and BrusselsChina’s
currency depreciation, spoke withdrawn As aorresult,
haveChina
joinedneededdiffuse
to to place white jasmine flowers on try’s media, Internet and other “Actually this didn’t have much
Story
the UnitedTitle Goes
States Here
and recupera- of possible and disparate opposition groups to a planter while hundreds of people communication forums poses dif- organization, but it’s a chance to
central banksanctions against a man
said on Sunday. work hard to soak up liquidity
start providing some order and ser- from
Nobel Peace laureate Mo- whose 41Inyears in power have milled about the protest gathering ficulties for anyone trying to orga- meet each other. It’s like preparing
tion in Morocco.
hamed ElBaradei’s appearance its monetary policybeen re- foreign exchange inflows in order to
vices. spot, outside a McDonald’s on the nize mass demonstrations. for the future.”
marked by idiosyncratic defiance
in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square
YEMEN port
of theforWest,the yetfinaltherequarter
seemed of 2010,little minimize
In Tobruk the there
impact wasonevidence
the domes- of capital’s busiest shopping street. Police stepped up their presence With foot traffic always heavy
underscored the jockeying for the People’s violent protest. An interior ministry
Thousands
leadership stream
of the into a square
mass protest cohesion andBankurgency of China
in the(PBOC)global tic economy, it added. In Shanghai, police led away three near major public squares and can- at the Wangfujing pedestrian mall,
in the capitalthat
of Sanaa, trying to response
also confirmedto the Libyan
that it crisis.
would target building Thehas been
centralburned
bank out, a Re-
reiterated CAIRO
people (AP)
near --theBursts of heavy
planned protest dead
celedprotesters
holidays being carriedacross
for officers to- ing whipsdifficult
it was while others rained fire-
to discern who
movement erupted seem- uters correspondent there said, and
bolster anti-government
of nowhere in protest- 16 The desert
percent nationofpumps
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peared andbewho was out shopping.
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PageSaleh
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tried to drive them out. Amnesty and peoples world Many activists said they didn’t Rights and Democracy reported. lebrity in the area because of the
corded at the end of
one voice,” Obama said. “The suf-2010. graduate,The said:central
“With bank
1,000 saidpeopleit demonstrators
know who was among crowds
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and dozens
International says two people dead, none of the clans will go back
Story fering and The bloodshed
central bank aresaid outra-the would continue to use different trying
paignto and
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that squads
most Chi- people diedreporters
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and newsviolence
cam-
are killedTitle Goes Here
in Sanaa. to Gaddafi. We don’t know who will
Nobel Peace laureate Mo- geous.”
Fed’s monetary easing was pushing tools, including interest make
sault byofsupporters
the call to of protest, which
President nese
for dayswere unlikely
to try to keeptosome
knoworder,
about eras.
and 600 were injured.
Protesters also rally in the Red govern the country nowrates,
but Liby-bank
first Mubarak,
circulatedaccording
Saturdayto aonpro-
the thenot
call to protest Sunday. Boxun. The As the crowd swelledMubarak’s
and police
up French Defense Minister prices Alain
hamed ElBaradei’s appearance
Sea city of Hodeida, the south- Hosni did intervene. protesters accused
international commodity reserve requirements and
ans must act with one hand. No one open- U.S.-based Chinese-language com is from
blocked,
in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square
ern port of Aden theandjockeying
the eastern Juppe said he hoped Gaddafi was
and asset test organizer. Footage AP as are Twitter
Television Newsand urged people to move
regime of unleashing a force on, 25-year-
of
underscored
port city of al-Mukalla.
for “living his prices
last momentsin emergingas leader.” mar- marketrule
should operations, to rein
just the east in money
or the west.” news website Boxun.com. Facebook, which were instrumen- old Liu Xiaobai placed a white jas-
leadership of the mass protest kets, including
British ForeignChina. Secretary William In Tripoli,
supply and bank which remains
credit growth largely
as a Sustained bursts ofnotice
The unsigned automatic
called showed two bodies
tal in Egypt’s beingmovement.
protest dragged paid thugs and plainclothes
mine flower on a planter in front police
The demonstrators
movement are calling
that erupted seem- closed
for theout
ingly ouster of Saleh,inwho
of nowhere the has
past
Hague urged the worldeasing
“Quantitative to increase
policy way oftohandling
foreign media, localspres-
inflationary said weapons fire and powerful
for a “Jasmine Revolution” single
- the from the scene. The health
Tech-savvy Chinese can circum- minister toofcrush their unprecedented
the McDonald’s and took nine-
some
pressure on Gaddafi, whose gripeco- on streets were calm but that they were name
shots giveninto
rattled to the square
Tunisian protest
starting vent
did notcontrols,
answer abut fewcall
phone of the coun-
seeking photos with
day-old his cellaphone.
movement, day after the
ruled
weekfor to 32 years.the
shake Saleh’s
Arab prom-
world’s cannot fundamentally address sure.scared to go outside for fear of
too
ises
mostnot to run for
populous re-election
nation. Page 4in power appeared to be
nomic problems, and it may cause slipping. at movement
around 4 a.m., - andand urged
was people
continu-“to try’s Internetofusers
confirmation seek out politi-
the deaths. Boxun.com
82-year-old said its website
president refused wasto
The oil exports which Gaddafi being shot by pro-government forc- take responsibility for the future.” cally subversive content.Mubarak attacked Saturday after it posted
2013 or to set up his son as an excessive liquidity ing more than an hour later. Throughout Wednesday, step down. They showed off police
used to help end hisonisolation
a globalinscale the Reporting by Zhou Xin and Michael
es. Participants were urged to shout, Anti-government gatherings in the call to protest.
heir have failed to quell the an- as well as risks of
past decade have given him meanscompetitive cur- By ALEXANDER
Martina; Editing by Simon DZIADOSZ
Rabino- Protest organizer
“We want food, Mustafa el-Nag-
we want work, we supporters
China arecharged
routinelyintostamped
the square
out ID badges they said were wrested
ger. to resistdepreciation,”
rency the fate of histheimmediate Chinese (Reuters).
vitch (Reuters)Edited by Yuri Isacov. garwant
saidhousing,
he saw the we bodies of three -
want fairness” onbyhorses and camels
its pervasive brandish-
security forces, fromBy their
ANITAattackers.
CHANG Some (AP)govern-
“Death to Tyrants”
WORLD NEWS THE PROFESSIONAL EXPRESS | FEBRUARY 24, 2011 | PAGE 2

A wave of unrest has swept across the Arab world and beyond. The suicide of a street vendor in Tunisia led to a revolt that ousted that country’s dictator, and less than a month later, Egypt’s dictator was gone
as well. The revolution continues in many countries. In the wake of the overthrow of the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, here is a look at next targets for democratic revolution. By Yuri Isacov (News Editor)

Tunisia
Dictator: President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali
Status: Deposed
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (born 3 September 1936) was the second President of the Tuni-
sian Republic. He held the office from 7 November 1987, until he was forced to step down
and flee the country on 14 January 2011. Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October
1987, and assumed the Presidency in November 1987 in a bloodless coup d’état from then
President Habib Bourguiba, who was declared incompetent. Ben Ali was subsequently re-
elected with enormous majorities at every election, the final time being 25 October 2009.
Following the 2010–2011 Tunisian revolution, he fled the country. Interpol issued a war-
rant for his arrest. After initially being refused permission to land in France he went on to
Saudi Arabia, where he was residing at the time.
On 17 February 2011, it was reported that Ben Ali had suffered a stroke, and had been
hospitalised for an indefinite period. Aljazeera Satellite Channel reported that a Saudi source
has confirmed that Ben Ali has indeed sustained severe complications of a stroke and that
he is in critical condition.

Egypt
Dictator: President Hosni Mubarak
Status: Deposed
Egyptian authorities impose a travel ban on former Prime Minister Atef Obeid and long-
serving Culture Minister Farouq Hosni. The restrictions also cover the head of state TV and
radio, as well as nine businessmen. Such measures are normally a prelude to a criminal in-
vestigation and possible trial.
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarakserved as the fourth President of Egypt, from 1981 to
2011. He was appointed Vice President of Egypt in 1975, and assumed the presidency on
14 October 1981, following the assassination of President Anwar El Sadat. The length of his
presidency made him Egypt’s longest-serving ruler since Muhammad Ali Pasha.
During 18 days of protests beginning on 25 January 2011, demonstrators called for
Mubarak’s resignation. On 11 February, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that
Mubarak had resigned as president and transferred authority to the Supreme Council of the
Armed Forces. On that day Mubarak and his family left the presidential palace in Cairo and
moved to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Libya
Dictator: Col. Muammar Gaddafi
Militiamen loyal to Moammar Gaddafi clamp down in Tripoli, but cracks in his regime
spread elsewhere across the nation, as the protest-fueled rebellion controlling much of east-
ern Libya claim new gains closer to the capital.
The opposition says it has taken over Misrata, which would be the largest city in the west-
ern half of the country to fall into its hands. Protesters have claimed control all the way to the
city of Ajdabiya, about 480 miles (800 kilometers) east of Tripoli, encroaching on the key
oil fields around the Gulf of Sidra. That has left Gaddafi’s power centered around Tripoli, in
the far west and parts of the country’s center.
Clashes have broken out over the past two days in the town of Sabratha, west of the capi-
tal, where the army and militiamen were trying to put down protesters who overwhelmed
security headquarters and government buildings.
International outrage over the Gaddafi’s hardline stance and the bloodshed continues to
mount, with the U.S. and EU vowing to consider sanctions on Libya over the crackdown.

Bahrain
Dictator: King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa
Thousands of anti-government protesters flood Manama’s Pearl Square following the
release of at least 100 political prisoners - including 25 Shiite activists on trial since last year
for allegedly plotting against the state. The move underlines how much the absolute rulers
of the Gulf kingdom want to get reform talks with protest leaders under way. The release of
the activists was one of the major demands of the emboldened political movement seeking
constitutional reform.
Amid concerns that the island nation’s uprising could spread to Saudi Arabia, where the
monarchy permits few political freedoms, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa holds talks on the
unrest with the Saudi king in Riyadh.
Bahrain holds particular importance to Washington as the host of the U.S. Navy’s 5th
Fleet, which is the main U.S. military counterweight to Iranian efforts to expand its military
influence into the Gulf.

Algeria
Dictator: President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
The Algerian president’s office agreed Tuesday to lift a 19-year state of emergency in a
bid to defuse spiraling and potentially dangerous discontent across the nation.
The office of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said the president had approved a govern-
ment decision earlier in the day to lift the restrictive measure, put in place by the army in
February 1992 to combat Islamist extremists.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika (born March 2, 1937) is the tenth President of Algeria. He has been
in office since 1999. He has continued emergency rule and presided over the end of the
bloody Algerian Civil War in 2002. More recently, thousands in Algiers have marched call-
ing for his resignation in the 2010-2011 Algerian protests.
The 2010–2011 Algerian protests are a continuing series of protests taking place through-
out Algeria from January 2011 onwards, part of similar protests across the Arab world.
Causes cited by the protestors include unemployment, the lack of housing, food-price infla-
tion, corruption, restrictions on freedom of speech and poor living conditions.
WORLD NEWS THE PROFESSIONAL EXPRESS | FEBRUARY 24, 2011 | PAGE 3

Jordan
Dictator: King Abdullah II
Jordan’s Cabinet approves laws making it easier to organize protests and will revive
a government body that works to ensure basic commodities remain affordable to the
poor.
Abdullah II bin al-Hussein (born 30 January 1962) is the current King of the Hash-
emite Kingdom of Jordan. He ascended the throne on 7 February 1999 after the death of
his father King Hussein. King Abdullah is a member of the Hashemite family.
A protest turned violent in the Jordanian capital as government supporters clashed
with demonstrators calling for political change, injuring several. Antigovernment pro-
tests have become routine on Fridays in the past weeks, but this was the first time that
one ended in confrontation.

Morocco
Dictator: King Mohammed VI
M6, as Mohammed VI is known, is Morocco’s third king since the country won
independence from France in 1956. Mohammed is slightly less authoritarian than other
Arab leaders, allowing token political participation. But Morocco is no democracy. Mo-
hammed considers himself Morocco’s absolute authority and “leader of the faithful,”
fostering a legend that he’s a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. He’s more inter-
ested in power than governance, barely involving himself in domestic or international
affairs. Under Mohammed’s rule, Morocco has been stable but poor. Inequality is rife.
Prospects for change are slight.
Convened via Facebook and Twitter, thousands of demonstrators gathered in the
square outside Rabat’s El Had gate on Sunday. Shouting the now familiar slogans —
“Down with dictatorship!” “End the corruption!” “We want change!” — they slowly
marched down the city’s central artery before coming to a halt at Morocco’s Parliament
building.

Saudi Arabia
Dictator: King Abdullah
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah nearly doubles a development fund that helps citizens
buy homes, get married and start businesses, and sets up unemployment assistance for
the first time. The move pumps 40 billion riyals ($10.7 billion) into the fund, in a step
that appears aimed at shoring up popular support and fending off unrest that has spread
to neighboring Bahrain.
The measures were ordered by the king even before he returned Wednesday to Saudi
Arabia. The 86-year-old monarch was abroad for medical treatment in the United States
and recuperation in Morocco.
Other measures include a 15 percent cost of living adjustment for government work-
ers, a year of unemployment assistance for youth and nearly doubling to 15 individuals
the size of families that are eligible for state aid.
King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz is one of the world’s wealthiest men.

Syria
Dictator: President Bashar al-Assad
In contrast to the regimes of other Arab countries, the Syrian regime has so far man-
aged to suppress the protest, and has in fact used the Middle East crisis to strengthen
its position both inside and outside the country. The regime’s firm grip is maintained
through a years-long policy of attacking and squelching any opposition forces, which
has been tightened even further in the recent weeks; a nearly absolute control of the
media and the maintaining of media obscurity regarding events in the country; and
widespread deployment of the security forces and the harnessing of popular forces.
Bashar al-Assad (born 11 September 1965) is the President of the Syrian Arab Re-
public, Regional Secretary of the Ba’ath Party, and the son of former President Hafez
al-Assad. Al-Assad is a controversial figure both in Syria and Internationally. He has
been criticized for his disregard for human rights, economic lapses, sponsorship of ter-
rorism, and corruption. Al-Assad is an outspoken critic of the United States and Israel.

Yemen
Dictator: President Ali Abdullah Saleh
Thousands stream into a square in the capital of Sanaa, trying to bolster anti-gov-
ernment protesters after club-wielding backers of President Ali Abdullah Saleh tried to
drive them out. Amnesty International says two people are killed in Sanaa.
Protesters also rally in the Red Sea city of Hodeida, the southern port of Aden and
the eastern port city of al-Mukalla.
The demonstrators are calling for the ouster of Saleh, who has ruled for 32 years.
Saleh’s promises not to run for re-election in 2013 or to set up his son as an heir have
failed to quell the anger.
Also, seven lawmakers who belong to Saleh’s ruling Congress Party resign from the
group because of the situation in the country and say they will form their own indepen-
dent bloc. The resignations raise to nine the number of legislators who left the party
since protests began nearly a month ago.

China
Dictators: Chinese Communist Party / Hu Jintao
Jittery Chinese authorities staged a show of force to squelch a mysterious online call
for a “Jasmine Revolution,” with hundreds of onlookers but only a handful of people ac-
tively joining protests inspired by pro-democracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle
East.
Authorities detained activists Sunday, increased the number of police on the streets,
disconnected some cell phone text messaging services and censored Internet postings
about the call to stage protests in Beijing, Shanghai and 11 other major cities.
The party was founded in May 1921 in Shanghai. After a lengthy civil war, the party
defeated its primary rival, the Kuomintang (KMT), and expanded into all of mainland
China by 1949. The Kuomintang retreated to the island of Taiwan, which it still retains
to this day.
OPINION / EDITORIAL THE PROFESSIONAL EXPRESS | FEBRUARY 24, 2011 | PAGE 7

Celebrities are Prostelitutes

Controlling the Billoins of America
Jessica Simpson’s Clothing line
makes 1 billion dollars?? Blonde
Bombshell/Mogul/YoYo Dieter/
Possible Ex of Billy Corgan/mas-
terful manipulator? has successful-
ly transformed herself into a brand
that people can identify with, with-
out them realizing it. Clothing cer-
tainly isn’t the first thing that comes
to mind when thinking about the tit-
ular “popstar” (or whatever she is).
Perhaps it was her TV show, she’s
done a good job of keeping her
name in the headlines somehow. Is
it through some calculated scheme
of hers to get us to buy things, or
is it that we want her there because
she helps fill a void? You see her
name on the cover of magazines
and tabloids, details of her life em-
blazoned in the headlines as though
she were relevant. Music is scarce-
ly mentioned, which is presumably
the “product” she is most equipped
to sell, because it is larger than that
now. She’s clearly inspiring a lot of
people to buy her shit. I performed
a Google Image Search on her and
other Starlets, based on the highest
earners in the last year, and at least
50% of their photographs feature
them in scarce amounts of cloth-
ing (exposed crotch) and excessive
make-up or airbrushing.
It appears that these girls are re-
ally trying quite literally to capital-
ize on their assets.
Fame and financial success
aren’t the result of the ‘product’ or
‘talent’ of a particular individual in
any way at all. Lady Gaga perhaps
tops the bunch because she is will-
ing to show more of her azz, cross-
ing the thin line between Just Fun
and porn. Life in Hollywood is a
constant cleavage carnival, it is put
on display in an exaggerated fash-
ion. Fame becomes accelerated
due to monumental body parts, and
the ability to pose seductively. Jen-
nifer Lopez, Coco, and Kim Kar-
dashian are prime examples, and
previously, Marilyn Monroe.
It’s a prerequisite to fame to be
photographed in a bikini, and scru-
tinized. What they essentially are is
expensive personas that may have
arisen naturally or were whittled
through intensive market research.
Franchises, whorporations, com-
plete with endorsements and not-
so-clandestine advertiSEMENts in
music videos. Sonic Wal-Marts,
symbols of our culture’s skinden-
tured servitude to girls who are
nude. anticipation. As evidenced by ram-
The circulation of popular “tab-
loid” magazines is substantial, and
even if you’re not actually purchas-
ing them, just idly reading them,
you are still opening yourself up
to screaming headlines, urging you
to evaluate the best celebrity bi-
kini body, sordid tales of infidelity
and closeted homosexuality, soul-
less faces shining perfect smiles at
you, challenging you to read about
them, even if you’re feeling dis-
gusted the whole time or “making
fun” of them, you are still making
an investment of both your time
and attention to a brand and falling
for their effective (sly) advertising.
I rarely even watch TV or movies,
but I am aware of various celebrity
foibles through osmosis and just
existing in this world of McMusic-
Makers. I have not found myself
inclined to purposefully put on a
song by Beyonce (I couldn’t really
relay to you any of her merits aside
from a highly unnatural ability to
swivel her hips and Exude an Un-
deniable “sassy diva energy” and
live a life of seemingly endless red-
carpets and flawless skin designed
solely for the purpose of inspiring
insecurity in women) but I often
find that sometimes songs of hers
are just STUCK IN MY HEAD,
from the ether, recurring forever,
generating a suffocating inability to
obey my mind’s pleas for silence.
Simultaneously, a new breed
of young more wholesome celeb-
rities are emerging from Disney
who hearken back to the days of
old when it was a different Justin
who was reigning over the charts
and our hearts. A magical, overly-
sexualized transformation occurs
upon the arbitrary age of eighteen,
beginning with Barney to…who
knows where. Sometimes it seems
like legal issues pertaining to ages
of conscent are manufactured sim-
ply to promote a sense of delicious
pant nationalism (including sports
teams) and general stupidity of the
population due to the combined
force of various factors, people are
quite fond of arbitrary associations.
Interestingly enough, there are
tits ALL OVER the internet bare
and ready to view, but it’s the scin-
tillating nip-slip or paparazzi crotch
shot that creates the ultimate inter-
net rubberneck, because although
these girls are essentially nude all
the time and perpetually only few
millimeters away from indecent
exposure, the microscopic areola
shot will ignite boners and curious
stares all throughout cyberspace be-
cause it takes the brand and extends
it into another dimention where the
falsely chaste let themselves go.
In conclusion, based on the
preceding arguments, I think it is
safe to say that popstars and other
such pub(l)ic figures are effectively
whores and prostitutes. The men
too. Read the definition in the dic-
tionary, and I’m sure you too will
agree. But let’s not forget, it takes
two to prostit2t.
P.S. Barbie makes more than all
the popstars.
P.P.S. Please disregard all pRe-
ceding text and spend more time at
your Local Library instead.
By Phyllis Bromwell (Editor)
Photo Credit: Associted Press

Can monetary policy really create jobs?

In terms of keeping stable prices, the Federal Reserve has failed miserably. According to the
government’s own CPI calculators, it takes $2.65 today to purchase what cost one dollar in 1980.
For the past three decades, the
Federal Reserve has been tasked
with a dual mandate: keeping prices
stable and maximizing employ-
ment. Influenced by Keynesian
economics and the supposed trad-
eoff between inflation and unem-
ployment, the dual mandate relies
on the idea that a handful of experts
can successfully steer the Ameri-
can economy and create economic
growth. This has forced upon us an
interventionist monetary policy that
believes that creation of money out
of thin air is the cure for all that ails
us.
This policy relies not only on
the fatal conceit of believing in the
wisdom of supposed experts, but
also on numerical chicanery. Rather
than understanding inflation in the
classical sense as a monetary phe-
nomenon-- an increase in the mon-
ey supply- it has been redefined as
an increase in the Consumer Price
Index (CPI). The CPI is calculated
based upon a weighted basket of
goods which is constantly fluctuat-
ing, allowing for manipulation of
the index to keep inflation expecta-
tions low. Employment figures are
much the same, relying on survey
data, seasonal adjustments, and
birth/death models, while the major
focus remains on the unemployment
rate. Of course, the unemployment
rate can fall as discouraged workers
drop out of the labor market alto-
gether, leading to the phenomenon
of a falling unemployment rate with
no job growth.
In terms of keeping stable prices,
the Fed has failed miserably. Ac-
cording to the government’s own
CPI calculators, it takes $2.65 to-
day to purchase what cost one dol-
lar in 1980. And since its creation
in 1913, the Federal Reserve has
presided over a 98% decline in the
dollar’s purchasing power. Recent
news stories have offered numer-
ous anecdotes of prices rising far
faster than would be expected if
official inflation figures were ac-
curate. With commodities, oil, or
food prices, speculation is that the
Federal Reserve’s quantitative eas-
ing is leading to hot money flood-
ing world markets. The average
American family sees the price of
milk, eggs, and meat increasing,
while packaged household goods
decrease in size rather than price.
People around the world are re-
acting against the specter of sharp
price increases. While the focus of
this hearing does not deal with in-
flation or even specifically with the
dual mandate, this subcommittee
undoubtedly will hold further hear-
ings on these topics in the future.
Today’s hearing focuses on
jobs, and the inability of the Fed-
eral Reserve’s monetary policy
to create jobs or to achieve maxi-
mum employment. The stagflation
of the 1970s should have taught
us this lesson already The Federal
Reserve’s loose monetary policy,
rather than leading to a tradeoff
between jobs and inflation, instead
led to both high inflation and high
unemployment. Hopefully we will
learn the lesson this time around.
Of course loose fiscal policy
has failed to create jobs too. Con-
sider that we had a $700 billion
TARP program, nearly $1 trillion
in stimulus spending, a govern-
ment takeover of General Motors,
and hundreds of billions of dollars
of guarantees to Fannie Mae, Fred-
die Mac, HUD, FDIC, etc. On top
of those programs the Federal Re-
serve has provided over $4 trillion
worth of assistance over the past
few years through its credit facili-
ties, purchases of mortgage-backed
securities, and now its second round
of quantitative easing. Yet even af-
ter all these trillions of dollars of
spending and bailouts, total non-
farm payroll employment is still
seven million jobs lower than it
was before this crisis began. Since
employment levels bottomed out
last year, the government reports
that roughly one million jobs have
been created. This means that each
job created has cost upwards of five
million dollars. We probably would
have been better off just printing
out these trillions of dollars and
throwing them out the window of a
helicopter.
In this same period of time that
we lost seven million jobs, the to-
tal U.S. population has increased
by nine million people. We would
expect that roughly four million
of these people should have been
employed, so we are really dealing
with eleven million fewer employed
people than would otherwise be
expected. Let us put this figure in
perspective. Eleven million people
represents almost the population
of Ohio, a figure greater than the
population of 43 of the 50 states.
Eleven million people is twice as
many people as are currently em-
ployed in construction, 45% more
people than are currently employed
in financial activities, and almost as
many people as are currently em-
ployed in manufacturing.
Unfortunately, numbers like
these are often ignored or over-
looked. Everyone pays attention to
the unemployment rate, which has
just recently declined. Part of this
is due to discouraged workers who
have given up looking for work and
have taken themselves out of the la-
bor force, but the employment num-
bers are rigged in such a way as to
make it look as though the employ-
ment situation is improving.
Another curious anomaly in em-
ployment data relates to seasonal
adjustments. Seasonal variations are
understandable-- for instance work-
ers hired for the Christmas season
and laid off immediately afterward.
But such statistical adjustments are
easy to manipulate. When unem-
ployment figures were released in
February of 2010, non-seasonally
adjusted figures showed an ad-
ditional 1.4 million unemployed
workers from December 2009 to
January 2010, while the seasonally
adjusted numbers showed 69,000
fewer unemployed. The most recent
figures released in February of 2011
showed an additional 3.1 million
unemployed workers from Decem-
ber 2010 to January 2011, yet the
seasonal adjustment shows 367,000
fewer unemployed. Spinning a 22%
increase in the number of unem-
Ben Bernanke (above) is the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
ployed workers into a statistical de-
crease should be met with a healthy
dose of skepticism.
It should not be surprising that
monetary policy is ineffective at
creating jobs. For one thing, there
are numerous other factors that af-
fect employment, including taxes,
labor laws, and other regulations
that contribute to labor market ri-
gidity and institutional unemploy-
ment. But it is the effects of mon-
etary policy itself that cause the
boom and bust of the business cycle
that leads to swings in the unem-
ployment rate.
By lowering interest rates
through its loose monetary policy,
the Fed spurs investment in long-
term projects that would not be
profitable at market-determined in-
terest rates. The signal to business-
es is that consumers are increasing
savings and deferring consumption
in order to consume more capital-
intensive more in the future. If the
Fed-mandated interest rate is in
fact lower than the market interest
rate, the reality is that consumer
preferences between consumption
and savings have not changed, but
businesses act as though they have.
The result of lower interest rates is
an economic boom which manifests
itself as a bubble.
Everything seems to go well for
awhile until businesses realize that
they cannot sell their newly-built
houses, their inventories of iron
ore, or their new cars. Low inter-
est rates have spurred production,
but because the low interest rates
resulted from Fed intervention and
not through changes in consump-
tion patterns, the result is overca-
pacity. Resources have been “mal-
invested,” directed into sectors of
the economy which are not truly in
demand from consumers. These re-
sources must be liquidated, and this
is the corresponding bursting of the
bubble. Until these resources are re-
directed, often with great economic
pain for all involved, true economic
recovery cannot begin.
Labor is one of these resources
that can be malinvested. As inflation
rises due to the Fed’s monetary in-
tervention, real wage rates decrease,
increasing the demand for labor and
leading to lower unemployment.
Sectors into which this new money
flows see hiring increases, as we
recently saw in financial services,
mortgage lending, and construction
during the housing boom. When the
bust comes, however, these work-
ers end up being laid off. They find
it difficult to find employment in
other industries due to an inability
to sell their houses and move, or to
retrain for a new skilled labor po-
sition, or for any number of other
reasons. However the result of that
initial meddling in monetary policy
is an eventual increase in the unem-
ployment rate.
We find ourselves now in the
midst of the worst economic crisis
in decades. Unemployment remains
persistently high, and the United
States cannot afford increased med-
dling by the Federal Reserve. Over
$4 trillion in bailout facilities and
outright debt monetization, com-
bined with interest rates near zero
for over two years, have not and will
not contribute to increased employ-
ment. I shudder to think of what the
Fed might do if the unemployment
rate were to continue to increase.
By falsely diagnosing the cause
of the crisis, the Fed’s solution is
fatally flawed. What is needed is
liquidation of debt and of malin-
vested resources. Pumping money
into the same sectors that have just
crashed merely prolongs the crisis
and ensures that the day of finan-
cial reckoning that eventually will
come will be far more severe than
otherwise. Until we learn the les-
son that jobs are produced through
real savings and investment and not
through the creation of new money,
we are doomed to repeat this boom
and bust cycle.
Transcript from a speech given
by Rep. RON PAUL (TX) on
02/09/2011. Transcription source:
votesmart.org
OPINION / EDITORIAL THE PROFESSIONAL EXPRESS | FEBRUARY 24, 2011 | PAGE 7

What’s behind the currency war?

In September 2010, a short time before the interna-
tional financial summit of the Group of Twenty (G20)
took place in South Korea, Brazilian finance minister
Guido Mantega declared that the world is experiencing
a “currency war” where “devaluing currencies artifi-
cially is a global strategy.”
By announcing the outbreak of a “currency war,”
Mantega wanted to draw attention to the problems
caused by the ongoing exchange-rate manipulations
that governments put in place in order to gain economic
advantages. In this sense, “currency war” denotes the
conflict among nations that arises from the deliberate
manipulation of the exchange rate in order to gain in-
ternational competitiveness by way of currency devalu-
ation.
Competitive Devaluation
Calling competitive devaluation a “war” may seem
like a gross exaggeration. Yet in terms of its potential
of destruction, the current global financial conflict may
well rank at a level similar to that of a real war.
In a wider historical perspective, the current currency
war is the latest conflict in a series of acute crises of the
modern international monetary system. In a world of
national monetary regimes based on fiat money without
physical anchors, domestic monetary instability auto-
matically transforms into exchange-rate instability. As
before, the current crisis of the international economic
order is mainly the result of monetary fragilities coming
from the unsound national monetary systems and reck-
less domestic monetary and fiscal policies.
The immediate cause of the currency war entering an
acute stage is the policy of massive quantitative easing
practiced by the US central bank. Whatever the original
intention of this policy may have been, the consequenc-
es of the Fed’s measures include monetary expansion,
low interest rates, and a weaker US dollar. With dollar
interest rates approaching the “zero bound,” the United
States is joining Japan in the effort to stimulate a slug-
gish economy with massive monetary impulses.
Until recently, the currency war was contained as a
kind of financial cold war. The conflict entered its hot
phase as a result of the expansive monetary policies that
were put in place in the wake of the financial-market
crisis that began in 2007. In defiance of the fact that
the financial crisis itself was the result of the extremely
expansive monetary policies in the years before, many
central banks have now accelerated monetary expan-
sion in the vain attempt to cure the disease with the
same measures that had caused it in the first place.
Easy Money
What has emerged in the global financial arena over
the past couple of years is the interplay among easy
money, low interest rates, international trade imbalanc-
es, financial flows, and exchange-rate manipulations.
The failure of attempts to cure overindebtedness with
more debt, and to stimulate weak economies by giving
them interest rates as low as possible, provokes a repeti-
tive pattern of bubble and crash where each phase ends
in a higher level of government debt.
A global search for higher yields has been going on
not unlike what happened in the late 1960s and 1970s,
when the United States inflated and the countries that
had linked their exchange rates to the US dollar suffered
from imported inflation. Nowadays, the formal dollar-
based fixed-exchange-rate system no longer exists. It
has been replaced by a system that sometimes is called
“Bretton Woods II”: a series of countries, particularly in
Asia this time, have pegged their exchange rates (albeit
without a formal agreement) to the US dollar.
If a country wants to slow down the appreciation of
its exchange rate that comes as a consequence of the
financial inflows from abroad, it must intervene in the
foreign-exchange markets and monetize at least a part
of the foreign exchange. This way, the monetary author-
ities will automatically increase the domestic money
stock. Additionally, under this system relatively poor
countries feel forced not only to buy the debt issued by
the relatively wealthy countries like the United States
but also to buy these bonds at their current extremely
low yields.
Under current conditions, the monetary expansion
gets globalized and invades even those countries that
wish to practice restrictive monetary policy. Relatively
high levels of the interest rate improve the restrictive
currency’s attractiveness. Thus, more and more mon-
etary expansion happens on a global scale, which in
turn provides the fuel for the next great wave of inter-
national financial flows.
The weaker countries, which compete with each oth-
er on the basis of low prices, are getting pushed to the
side; it was just a matter of time until more and more
governments would begin to intervene in the foreign-
exchange markets by buying up foreign currencies in
order to try to prevent their exchange rates from appre-
ciating too much, too fast.
Yet using the exchange rate as a tool in order to gain
economic advantage or avert damage for the domestic
economy is inherently at variance with a sound global
monetary order, because one country’s devaluation au-
tomatically implies the revaluation of another country’s
currency and thus the advantage that one tries to obtain
will be achieved by putting a burden on other countries.
Escalation
By recycling the monetary equivalent of the trade
surplus into the financial markets around the globe,
monetary authorities in surplus countries form a symbi-
osis with trade-deficit countries in fabricating a world-
wide monetary expansion of extreme proportions.
The paradoxical, or rather perverse, features of the
current state of affairs were highlighted a short time ago
when in January 2011 the monetary authorities of Tur-
key decided to lower the policy interest rates so as to
make the inflow of foreign funds less attractive, despite
a booming Turkish economy that shows plenty charac-
teristics of a bubble.
Exchange-rate policies produce the usual spiral of
interventionism: the de facto consequences tend to di-
verge from the original intentions, prompting further
rounds of doomed interventions. This interventionist
escalation is not only limited to an incessant repetition
of the same failed policies, but the errors committed in
one policy area also affect other parts of the economy.
Thus, it is only a matter of time until errors of monetary
policy lead to fiscal fiascos, and exchange-rate interven-
tions lead to trade conflicts.
At first sight, exchange-rate intervention may appear
tolerable as the legitimate pursuit of national self-in-
terest. But exchange-rate policies are intrinsically mat-
ters that tend to stir transnational controversies. When
a country’s exchange rate policy collides with the in-
terests of the trading partners, the tit-for-tat of mutual
retaliation automatically tends to lead to an escalation
of the conflict. Once the process of competitive devalu-
ation has started, a devaluation by one country invites
other countries to devaluate their exchange rates as well.
As a consequence, the international monetary order will
eventually disintegrate, and sooner or later the conflict
will go beyond currency issues and affect a wide spec-
trum of economic and political relations.
Therefore, because of the unsound monetary sys-
tem, a peaceful international political system also is
constantly at risk. Monetary conflicts provoke po-
litical confrontations. Besides the immediate costs of
exchange-rate conflicts that come from the damage to
international trade and investment, and thereby to the
international division of labor, harm will also be done to
confidence and trust in the international political arena.
The dispute about exchange rates is the consequence
of contradictory tensions that are innate to the modern
monetary system. In this respect the currency war is an
expression of the defects that characterize an unsound
and destructive financial system. The outbreak of the
currency war is a symptom of a deeply flawed interna-
tional monetary order.
Brazil
When Brazil’s finance minister repeated his warn-
ings in January 2011 and said that “the currency war is
turning into a trade war,” Mantega sent a signal to the
world that the escalation of the trade war had started.
Because of the massive inflow of money from abroad,
the Brazilian currency had sharply appreciated and the
Brazilian economy was losing competitiveness.
In order to reduce the impact on is domestic econo-
my, Brazil had been intervening in the foreign-exchange
markets, diminishing the degree of currency apprecia-
tion. In doing so, the monetary authorities had to buy
foreign currencies, mainly US dollars, in exchange for
its domestic money.
By pursuing such a policy over the past couple of
years, Brazil has increased its foreign-exchange re-
serves from around 50 billion to 300 billion US dollars.
Yet even despite these foreign-exchange interventions,
the Brazilian currency appreciated drastically against
the US dollar and other currencies.
By various estimates, Brazilian foreign trade suffers
from an exchange-rate overvaluation of around 40 per-
cent. As a consequence, Brazil’s current account bal-
ance, which was still at surplus in 2007, has plunged
into a deficit of 47.5 billion US dollars in 2010. At the
same time when an artificial boom is taking place as
the result of massive monetary expansion, the Brazilian
economy suffers from creeping deindustrialization.
Part of the explosion of Brazil’s current-account def-
icit can be explained by weak demand from its trading
partners, which have plunged into a prolonged recession.
Yet beyond this circumstance, there has been another
causal chain at work: the inflow of funds from abroad
that boosts the exchange rate provides the grounds for
an exorbitant increase of the country’s monetary base.
The combination of ample liquidity at home, weak
demand from some trading partners abroad, and a
strong exchange-rate appreciation provides the basis
for an extreme import expansion that vastly exceeds ex-
ports. Unlike a country such as Germany, for example,
whose industry is pretty resilient against currency ap-
preciation, Brazil resembles in this respect the countries
of the Southern periphery of the eurozone in its inca-
pacity to cope effectively with an overvalued currency.
When, in January 2011, a new government took
power in Brazil, the newly-elected president, Dilma
Rousseff, declared in her inauguration speech that she
will protect Brazil “from unfair competition and from
the indiscriminate flow of speculative capital.” Guido
Mantega, the former and new Brazilian finance minis-
ter, did not hesitate to join in when he asserted that the
government has an “infinite” number of interventionist
tools at its disposal with which to protect national inter-
ests. Mantega said that the government is ready to use
taxation and trade measures in order to stop the deterio-
ration of Brazil’s trade balance.
China
The countries that form the favored group that gets
targeted by international financial flows in search of
higher yields compete among themselves in order to
prevent their currencies from appreciating too much,
and as a group these countries compete against China
in their efforts to maintain a competitive exchange rate.
China’s position forms part of a long causal chain,
which includes low interest rates and monetary ex-
pansion in the United States, that fuels higher import
demand. Given that China drastically devalued its ex-
change rate as early as in the 1980s, this country was at
the forefront of gaining advantage of America’s import
surge; China grabbed the golden opportunity to turn it-
self into the major exporter to the United States.
In order to maintain its currency at its undervalued
level, the Chinese monetary authorities must buy up the
excess of foreign exchange that accumulates from its
trade surplus, preferably by buying US treasury notes
and bonds. In this way, China became America’s main
creditor. Over the past decade, China increased its for-
eign exchange position from a meager $165 billion in
2000 to an amount that was approaching $3 trillion at
the end of 2010.
From the 1980s up to the early 1990s, China deval-
ued its currency from less than 2 yuan to the US dollar
to an exchange rate of 9 yuan against the US dollar. And
despite its huge trade surpluses, China has only slightly
revalued the yuan ever since, establishing the current
exchange rate at 6.56 yuan per US dollar.
Over the past decade, China has become the major
financier of the US budget deficit. Together with other
monies flowing in from abroad, the US government was
relieved from the need to cut spending. The inflow of
foreign capital also allowed the US government to pay
lower interest rates for its debt than it would have if
only domestic supply of savings were available. For-
eign imports put pressure on the price level, and the US
central bank could continue monetary expansion with-
out an immediate effect on the price-inflation rate.
If China wants to hold its competitive position
through an undervalued currency, the Chinese monetary
authorities must continue their policy of intervention
in the foreign-exchange markets. As a consequence of
buying dollars from its exporters, the domestic money
supply in China continues to rise, throwing additional
fuel on a domestic boom that is already in full swing.
Even more so than their Brazilian counterparts,
China’s political-decision makers have failed to exert
moderation or restraint when it comes to interventionist
measures. As long as China’s leadership presumes that
it gains from exchange-rate manipulation, its currency
interventions will go on.
Global Financial Fragilities
Since the abandonment of the gold standard, the
global financial system has been in disarray. All the
international monetary arrangements that have been
established since then have ended in crisis and finally
collapsed. For almost a hundred years now, one inter-
ventionist scheme has been established and then soon
fallen to pieces.
When the monetary and fiscal decision makers in
the United States and Europe discarded all restraints
against intervention in the wake of the financial market
crisis, socialist and interventionist governments around
the globe felt vindicated. They had long been convinced
that only through state control could financial stability
be obtained. Due to the policies adopted by Western
countries in their futile attempt to overcome the finan-
cial-market crisis, the leaders of the so-called emerg-
ing economies have become even more unscrupulous
interventionists.
Political leaders around the globe have shed the little
that was left of support for free markets and set the con-
trols for a way back on the road to serfdom.
It is mainly due to ignorance that the modern mone-
tary system gets labeled as a laissez-faire or free market
system. In fact not only the basic “commodity” of this
scheme, i.e., fiat money, but also its price and quantity
are largely determined by political institutions such as
central banks.
It is more than absurd when, in the face of crises
and conflicts, more government intervention gets called
upon: it was state intervention in the first place that laid
the groundwork for the trouble to appear.
So-called “speculative” international capital flows
already happened decades ago. What has changed since
then is the amount of hot money and the speed with
which it floats around the world. It would be wrong to
describe these financial movements as an expression of
free markets. The fact, for instance, that in 2010 daily
transactions on the international currency market have
reached a volume of four trillion US dollars is the result
of unhampered fiat-money expansion and massive state
intervention in the foreign-exchange markets.
The increase in the global money supply that has
been going on for many years finds its complement in a
global asset boom. The inflation of money drives up the
price of precious metals, natural resources, and food.
Once more, the world experiences a period of fake pros-
perity not much different from the real-estate bubble,
and many other episodes, that led to previous financial
crises.
Conclusion
The political endeavors to gain competitive advan-
tages through exchange-rate devaluation sows mistrust
among nations; and the ensuing regime uncertainties
frustrate the business community. Over time the conflict
over exchange rates tends to destroy the global division
of labor.
Once again, the international monetary system is
on the brink of a breakdown. As in the past, the main
reason behind the current conflict is extreme monetary
expansion. Unsound monetary systems produce tur-
moil not just at home but also in the international arena.
Excessive monetary expansion, which is the cause of
domestic malinvestment, is also the root of economic
distortions at a global level.
Without a fundamental change of the monetary sys-
tem itself, without a return to sound money, the inter-
national monetary system will remain in a state of per-
manent fragility — ever oscillating between the abyss
of deflationary depression and the fake escape of hy-
perinflation. This is the fate of the world when nations
implement fiat monetary systems and put them under
political authority.
By ANTONY P. MUELLER. Antony Mueller is a
German-born economist who lives in Aracaju in North-
eastern Brazil where he teaches at the Federal Univer-
sity of Sergipe (UFS). He is an adjunct scholar of the
Mises Institute USA and academic director of the Insti-
tuto Ludwig von Mises Brasil.

The Truth Behind China’s Currency Peg

A focal problem is the Chinese govern-
ment’s policy of fixing the value of the ren-
minbi against the U.S. dollar. While many
correctly perceive that this ‘peg’ has con-
tributed greatly to the current global imbal-
ances, few fully comprehend the ramifica-
tions should that peg be discarded.
The common understanding is both in-
complete and naïve. Most analysts simply
see the peg as China’s principal weapon
in an economic struggle for global ascen-
dancy. The peg, they argue, offers China
a competitive advantage by making its
products cheaper in U.S. markets, thus al-
lowing Chinese firms to gobble up market
share and steal jobs from U.S. manufactur-
ers. The thought is that were China to al-
low its currency to rise, American manufac-
tures would regain their lost edge, and both
manufacturing firms and the jobs formerly
associated with them would return. In this
narrative, the struggle centers on the United
States’ diminishing leverage in persuading
the Chinese to lay down their unfair weap-
onry. It’s a sympathetic picture, but it tells
the wrong story.
While the peg certainly is responsible for
much of the world’s problems, its abandon-
ment would cause severe hardship in the
United States. In fact, for the U.S., de-peg-
ging would cause the economic equivalent
of cardiac arrest. Our economy is current-
ly on life support provided by an endless
flow of debt financing from China. These
purchases are the means by which China
maintains the relative value of its currency
against the dollar. As the dollar comes un-
der even more downward pressure, China’s
purchases must increase to keep the ren-
minbi from rising. By maintaining the peg,
China enables our politicians and citizens to
continue spending more than they have and
avoiding the hard choices necessary to re-
store our long-term economic health.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom,
when China drops the peg, the immediate
benefits will flow to the Chinese, not to
Americans. Yes, prices for Chinese goods
will rise in the United States — but so will
prices for domestic goods. As a corollary,
the Chinese will see falling prices across
the board. As anyone who has ever been
shopping can explain, low prices are a good
thing.
In addition, credit will expand in China
while it contracts here. When China aban-
dons the peg, it will no longer need to swell
its currency reserves by buying Treasuries
or other dollar-denominated debt instru-
ments. Other nations will no longer feel the
pressure to keep their currencies from ris-
ing, so they too could throttle down on their
onerous dollar purchases.
As demand falls for both dollars and
Treasuries, prices and interest rates in the
United States will rise. Rising rates will
restrict the flow of credit that is currently
financing government and consumer spend-
ing. This change will finally force a long
overdue decline in borrowing. So, not only
will Americans lose access to the consumer
credit that funds their current spending, but
the things they buy will also get more ex-
pensive.
Our short-term loss will be in sharp con-
trast to the gain felt by foreigners, who will
be rewarded with falling consumer prices
and a more abundant supply of investment
capital. In other words, the American stan-
dard of living will fall while that of our trad-
ing partners will rise.
However, this does not mean that I want
the Chinese to maintain the status quo. In
the long run, the U.S. economy will ben-
efit from the abandonment of a system that
guarantees our dependency and inevitable
downfall. De-pegging will force the hand
of U.S. politicians toward pursuing realis-
tic policies. The Chinese will come to their
senses eventually because it is in their in-
terest to do so. Meanwhile, the longer the
peg is maintained, the more indebted we
become, the more out of balance our econo-
my grows, and the more our industrial base
shrivels. In short, the longer they wait, the
steeper our fall.
A weaker dollar will price many im-
ported products beyond the reach of most
Americas, giving our hollowed out manu-
facturing sector the opportunity to rebound.
However, if our industry has any chance of
getting off the mat, we must reduce taxes,
repeal regulations, reform our cumbersome
legal system, and, most importantly, replen-
ish our savings to finance the necessary
capital investment.
If we position ourselves to deal with the
consequences, tough love from China will
provide a path back to genuine economic
growth. However, if our politicians con-
tinue to misread the problem and push us
deeper in the red, the inevitable ‘rebalanc-
ing’ could be truly ruinous.
By PETER SCHIFF, president of Euro
Pacific Capital and author of The Little
Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets and
Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Com-
ing Economic Collapse.
NATIONAL NEWS THE PROFESSIONAL EXPRESS | FEBRUARY 24, 2011 | PAGE 4

4 American hostages killed by pirates off Somalia

NAIROBI, Kenya -- A U.S. Navy de-
stroyer was shadowing a hijacked yacht
with four Americans aboard when a pirate
fired a rocket-propelled grenade, followed
by bursts of gunfire. U.S. special forces
scrambled onto the occupied vessel only to
find the four Americans fatally wounded.
The yachting enthusiasts from California
and Washington killed off the coast of East
Africa on Tuesday were the first Ameri-
cans slain by Somali pirates since a wave
of attacks began six years ago. One of the
American couples had been sailing around
the world since 2004 handing out Bibles.
The deaths of the four travelers, all in
their late 50s or 60s, appeared to underscore
an increasingly brutal and aggressive shift
by pirates in their treatment of hostages.
Killing hostages “has now become part
of our rules,” said a pirate who identified
himself as Muse Abdi. He referred as a turn-
ing point to last week’s sentencing of a pi-
rate to 33 years in prison for the 2009 attack
on the U.S. cargo vessel the Maersk Ala-
bama - just two days before the hijacking.
“From now on, anyone who tries to rescue
the hostages in our hands will only collect
dead bodies,” Abdi said. “It will never, ever
happen that hostages are rescued and we are
hauled to prison.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clin-
ton strongly condemned the killing of the
Americans as “deplorable,” saying in a
statement the slayings underscored the need
for international cooperation in fighting the
scourge of piracy in waters off the Horn of
Africa.
Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey,
near Los Angeles, had been sailing their 58-
foot yacht Quest around the world since De-
cember 2004, and had been joined in recent
months by Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle
of Seattle.
Four U.S. warships had been shadowing
the Quest since shortly after it was seized
south of Oman on Friday, and U.S. officials
were in radio contact with the captors as the
pirates tried to sail it to the Somali shore.
The power behind such abductions for ran-
som - a multimillion-dollar business - lies
not with the pirates at sea but their financial
backers on land. And once the kidnappers
reach shore with their hostages, options for
rescue are limited.
A channel of negotiations had been
opened, and on Monday two pirates boarded
the USS Sterett, a guided-missile destroyer
some 600 yards (meters) from the seized
yacht, and they stayed overnight, said Vice
Adm. Mark Fox, commander of the U.S.
5th Fleet in Bahrain. By the next morning,
though, things quickly turned deadly, with
all signs pointing to a dispute among the
pirates. At 8 a.m. local time, Fox said, a
rocket-propelled grenade was fired from the
Quest at the Sterett and missed, followed
almost immediately by the sound of small
arms fire coming from the yacht.
Several pirates then appeared on the
yacht deck with their hands up. U.S. naval
forces rushed aboard the vessel and found
all four Americans had been shot; two pi-
rates also lay dead from gun shot wounds.
The special forces troops tried to provide
lifesaving care to the Americans, but they
died, Fox said.
Fifteen pirates were taken into custody -
13 aboard the yacht as well as the two who
had been negotiating aboard the Sterett, Fox
said. In addition, two pirates were killed in
the operation, including one who was knifed
by a member of the U.S. force, Fox said.
By JASON STRAZIUSO and MALKHA-
DIR M. MUHUMED (Associated Press).
Associated Press writers Pauline Jelinek in
Washington; Abdi Guled in Mogadishu, So-
malia; and George Tibbits and Doug Esser
in Seattle, contributed to this report.

Home Rahm Emanuel elected

prices
plummet MAYOR OF CHICAGO
in most CHICAGO -- Former
White House chief of

US cities
WASHINGTON --
Home prices are hitting
new depths in most major
U.S. cities and are expect-
ed to fall further over the
next six months.
In a majority of metro
areas tracked by Standard
& Poor’s/Case-Shiller,
prices have fallen to their
lowest points since the
housing bubble burst.
High unemployment,
stricter lending rules and
fears that prices will con-
tinue to fall are among the
reasons why few people
are buying homes. A ris-
ing number of foreclo-
sures are also weighing
down prices. And as more
people get stuck in depre-
ciating homes, housing
could slow the economy.
Across the country, the
housing industry is recov-
ering unevenly. Many of
the cities now setting new
lows have been struggling
with high unemployment,
more foreclosures and, in
some cases, a delayed re-
sponse to the housing bust
in 2006 and 2007.
Homes in more estab-
lished areas - those that
had little room to build
during the housing boom
- are doing a better job
holding their value. Coast-
al cities in California and
Northeast are seeing much
smaller price declines. In
Washington and San Di-
ego, home prices even
rose over the past year.
Still, many people who
want to buy can’t. Nearly
25 percent of households
cannot move because they
owe more on their mort-
gage than their home is
worth, according to Capi-
tal Economics. An ad-
ditional 25 percent can’t
qualify for a new mort-
gage because selling their
homes would leave them
with too little money for a
down payment.
“We’re likely to see
new lows hit across most
major markets at some
point in 2011,” said Mark
Vitner, a senior economist
at Wells Fargo Securities.
“We’re afraid of all this
turning into another vi-
cious cycle.”
Housing prices in all
but one of the 20 cities
tracked by Standard &
Poor’s/Case Shiller fell in
December from Novem-
ber. And the overall in-
dex declined for the sixth
straight month. Washing-
ton was the only metro
area where prices rose
month to month.
Eleven of the markets
hit their lowest point since
the housing bubble burst
in 2006 and 2007: Atlanta,
Charlotte, N.C., Chicago,
Detroit, Las Vegas, Mi-
ami, New York, Phoenix,
Seattle, Tampa, Fla., and
Portland, Ore.
The housing sector
is struggling even while
much of the economy is
recovering slowly but
steadily. The latest evi-
dence of the divide came
Tuesday when the Con-
ference Board said its
Consumer Confidence
Index rose in February to
its highest point in three
years. The report suggest-
ed that many people are
more hopeful about hiring
and income gains over the
next six months.
By contrast, the out-
look for housing this year
is dim. Construction of
new homes is on pace for
little more than half the
million units a year that
economists consider to be
healthy.
By DEREK KRAVITZ
and JANNA HERRON
AP Real Estate Writers
staff Rahm Emanuel was
elected mayor of Chicago
on Tuesday, easily over-
whelming five rivals to
take the helm of the na-
tion’s third-largest city as
it prepares to chart a new
course without the retir-
ing Richard M. Daley.
Emanuel trounced all
opponents with 55 per-
cent of the vote - a margin
that allowed him to avoid
an April runoff. He need-
ed more than 50 percent
to win outright.
It was the city’s first
mayoral race in more
than 60 years without an
incumbent on the ballot
and the first in more than
two decades without Dal-
ey among the candidates.
Daley and his father have
led Chicago for more than
43 out of the last 56 years.
Emanuel called the
victory “humbling” and
said the outgoing mayor
had “earned a special
place in our hearts and
our history.”
But he added: “We
have not won anything
until a kid can go to school
thinking of their studies
and not their safety. Until
the parent of that child is
thinking about their work
and not where they are Emanuel was elected mayor of Chicago Tuesday, easily overwhelming five rivals to take the helm of the nation’s third-largest city as it
going to find work, we prepares to chart a new course without the retiring Richard M. Daley. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
have not won anything.”
Reginald Bachus, the
51-year-old pastor of a for six more weeks. But he takes office on May 16. He visited all 50 wards traction. ship with Obama won
West Side church who they were no match for He’s a well-known figure and made regular stops Emanuel had just been him votes from a number
voted for Emanuel, said Emanuel’s momentum in national Democratic at all the city’s elevated elected to his fourth term of people who believed
the next four years will be and money. politics, having worked train stations. He talked in Congress when he re- his White House connec-
“a very critical time for Chico had 24 percent for two presidents and confidently about local signed in 2008 to work for tions would be an advan-
Chicago. of the vote compared with represented Chicago’s issues - mass transit, bike President Barack Obama, tage.
“We really need a 9 percent for both del Val- North Side in the House paths and after-school a fellow Chicagoan. It Obama political ad-
mayor who has vision. le and Braun. Two lesser- of Representatives for programs - and refused to was a job he held until he viser David Axelrod said
It’s my personal opinion known candidates got 1 three terms. be goaded. resigned in October 2010 Chicago would get “what-
everyone else would have and 2 percent each. He’s also known as an His lead in the polls to run for mayor. He had ever the city’s entitled to.
been a manager, and I The campaign began abrasive, often profane grew and so did his cam- also worked as a top aide ... And I don’t think Rahm
think Rahm has vision,” last fall when Daley - with political operative with a paign, becoming a $13 to Bill Clinton. will leave one dollar on
Bachus said. an ailing wife, six terms famous take-no-prisoners million juggernaut. Obama quickly sent the table.”
The other major can- under his belt and a future style that was even paro- All three of his main his congratulations to the
didates - former Chicago in which Chicago’s fiscal died on “Saturday Night rivals tried to put Eman- mayor-elect. “As a Chi- By DEANNA BELLAN-
schools president Gery challenges loomed large - Live.” uel on the defensive, cast- cagoan and a friend, I DI and TAMMY WEB-
Chico, former Sen. Carol announced he would not But Emanuel was on ing him as an outsider couldn’t be prouder,” the BER (AP)
Moseley Braun and City seek re-election. his best behavior on the and questioning his tem- president said in a state- Associated Press Writer
Clerk Miguel del Valle Emanuel, a 51-year- campaign trail, where his perament. But he stayed ment. “Rahm will be a Don Babwin contributed
- had hoped to force a old married father of swagger and hard edg- above the fray, and his terrific mayor for all the to this report. Edited by
runoff that would have three, will be the city’s es gave way to unusual celebrity made it hard for people of Chicago.” Yuri Isacov.
extended the campaign first Jewish mayor when calm. the criticism to gain any Emanuel’s relation-

Govt child welfare agency fails to care for children

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- State
child welfare officials said Tuesday they
never contacted police after receiving an
abuse allegation that 10-year-old twins were
being tied up and locked in the bathroom of
a Florida home. The girl’s body was later
found in her adoptive father’s truck beside
the road.
The official account differs from the ini-
tial one provided by the Department of Chil-
dren and Families - that the agency notified
police four days after the alleged abuse was
reported on a Feb. 10 call to a state hotline.
Child welfare investigators searched for
the twin boy and girl for four days, repeat-
edly stopping by the family’s home, visiting
the school and calling the father on his cell
phone, officials said. But they said Jorge
and Carmen Barahona, who adopted the
children out of foster care, gave investiga-
tors the run-around, each one saying the
twins were with the other parent. Child in-
vestigators never saw the twins.
The Department of Children and Fami-
lies last week detailed their attempts to
search for the children after a judge criti-
cized their hasty investigation. DCF region-
al director Jacqui Colyer said they called
police Monday, four days after a report
came to the hotline.
On Feb. 14 “we begin to realize that
something is amiss and we immediately be-
gin to put out all kinds of alerts to the po-
lice,” Colyer said last week.
When asked by The Associated Press
for records of the agency’s contact with po-
lice, DCF officials said Tuesday they were
mistaken about notifying police. West Palm
Beach Police first contacted child-welfare
investigators on Feb. 14 after finding the
twin boy, coated in a toxic chemical with
critical burns, in the front seat of his father’s
truck. Only then did DCF call authorities
in Miami, where the family lives, agency
spokesman Mark Riordan acknowledged.
The boy’s sister, Nubia Docter, was
found dead, wrapped in plastic bags in
the back of her father’s exterminator truck
parked alongside Interstate 95. Jorge Bara-
hona was nearby on the ground, unrespon-
sive and doused in gasoline after what po-
lice say he told them was a failed suicide.
The case has reignited criticism of the
state Department of Children and Families,
an agency that overhauled its system a de-
cade ago after a foster child went missing
for more than a year before anyone realized
it.
Department of Children and Families
Secretary David Wilkins has called for an
outside review of the case. He acknowl-
edged last week that the agency’s handling
of the abuse allegation had raised questions.
“Should we have called the police be-
cause we went to the house and the mom’s
story was sort of odd and obviously the dad
was gone. Should she have called police
right then and there? That’s something we
have to look at,” Wilkins told The Associ-
ated Press on Friday.
Jorge Barahona has pleaded not guilty to
attempted first-degree murder and aggravat-
ed child abuse for allegedly pouring chemi-
cals on his son. On Tuesday, his wife’s at-
torney said she plans to file for divorce.
DCF officials said they expect charges will
also be filed against Carmen Barahona.
Meanwhile, young Victor remains hospital-
ized with severe burns. A biological aunt
and uncle from Texas are seeking custody.
“The kids need love. We have plenty to
give them,” their uncle said in one applica-
tion at the time. The couple’s attorney, Ste-
ven Grossbard, said in court last week that
his clients had raised “red flags” about the
Barahonas years earlier.
By KELLI KENNEDY
(AP)
ECONOMY THE PROFESSIONAL EXPRESS | FEBRUARY 24, 2011 | PAGE 5

Perpetual war is an economic drain

We have been militarily involved
in the Persian Gulf region now for
20 years. Experts have predicted
that the cost of this continuous and
expanding war will reach $6 trillion.
The hostilities and our overt in-
volvement in Iraq can be dated back
to January 16, 1991, when the de-
fensive Operation Desert Shield be-
came the offensive Operation Des-
ert Storm. Though the end of the
Persian Gulf war was declared on
April 6, 1991, with a U.S. military
victory, the 20-year war was just be-
ginning.
The U.S. and Britain have had an
intense interest in controlling the oil
of the Middle East dating back to
the overthrow of the Ottoman Em-
pire during World War I. This inter-
est expanded during World War II
with FDR’s promise to protect the
puppet governments in the Persian
Gulf region, especially Saudi Ara-
bia.
Though this arrangement never
sat well with the citizens in the re-
gion, a fairly decent relationship
remained between the Arab people
and the American public. But ani-
mosity continued to build with our
ever-present military involvement
in Iraq.
Our military assistance to the
Mujahedeen in the 1980s, now the
Taliban, helped the Muslim defend-
ers, one of whom was Osama bin
Laden, oust the Soviets from Af-
ghanistan. At that time we were still
not seen as occupiers, and the radical
Muslims, encouraged by the U.S.,
were expected to direct all their ef-
forts toward the Communist threat.
That all changed with the breakup
of the Soviet system and the end of
the Cold War when, as the lone su-
perpower left standing, we named
ourselves the world’s policeman. It
was then that the resentment by Ar-
abs and Muslims became directed
toward the United States, now seen
as an invader and occupier.
Continuous bombing and crip-
pling sanctions against Iraq during
the 1990s, the appearance that the
U.S. did not care about the plight
of the Palestinians, and our mili-
tary bases in Saudi Arabia led to
attention-getting attacks against the
United States. The 1998 embassy
attacks in Kenya and Tanzania and
the attack on the USS Cole in the
year 2000 were warnings that the
war was far from over. The horrible
tragedy of 9/11 shouldn’t have been
a surprise, and many believe it was
preventable.
Currently, the war has morphed
into a huge battle for control of
the Persian Gulf region and central
Asia. This involves Iraq, Afghani-
stan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia,
and Iran. Foolish policies lead to
foolhardy conflicts. Foolhardy con-
flicts lead to unsustainable costs and
a multitude of unintended conse-
quences. To name a few, we have
spent trillions of dollars based on
the false pretense of defending free-
dom and our Constitution. The no-
tion has been further solidified that
war no longer needs to be declared
by Congress and can be pursued as
a prerogative of the President. We
are now seen by the world not as
a peacemaker, but rather a trouble-
maker and aggressor.
Thousands of American service
members have been killed and tens
of thousands wounded, with a sharp
increase in service-connected sui-
cides. Over 500,000 veterans are
seeking medical treatment and dis-
ability benefits. Millions of citizens
have been killed, wounded, and
displaced in the countries on the re-
ceiving end of our bombs, drones,
sanctions, and occupation. The re-
gion has suffered huge environmen-
tal damage as a consequence of our
military occupation.
Christians from Iraq have suf-
fered the worst rout in the history of
Christendom. Iran and Iraq are now
better allies than ever, with strong
anti-American sentiment. Iraqi po- Ron Paul (above) is a Republican Congressman from Texas and Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy (AP)
litical stability is a joke. Ending
hostilities in Afghanistan is a dream. of mass destruction were ever found Act-type legislation. Senseless war history will record that the sacrifices change our ways for economic rea-
China and Iran have been drawn into in Iraq. and senseless destruction and death were all in vain. sons. It’s time to bring our troops
a closer alliance against the United War always leads to government should not be rationalized as pro- A policy of peace, friendship, home.
States. America’s uncontrolled defi- growth and the sacrifice of civil lib- viding a great service in protecting and trade is far superior to one of
cits are senselessly fueled by need- erties. In the past 10 years, this has our freedoms, our Constitution, or occupation, entangling alliances, Transcript from a speech given by
less militarism. We are now much been particularly costly to us, with maintaining peace. The only value and sanctions which guarantee war. Representative RONALD E. ‘RON’
poorer and less safe. There was no the acceptance of military tribu- that can come of this is to recognize We should pursue such a policy PAUL of Texas on the U.S. House
al Qaeda in Iraq before we invaded nals, torture, assassinations, abuse that our policies are flawed and they for moral reasons. But if we don’t, floor on 01/20/2011. Transcription
in 2003. Today there is. No weapons of habeas corpus, and PATRIOT need to be changed. Without this, we will nevertheless be forced to source: votesmart.org

Higher oil prices will Troubled

hamper global economy
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Just as
the U.S. and global economies are fi-
nally strengthening, they face a new
danger: Rocketing oil prices, which
topped $100 a barrel Wednesday.
The U.S. economy can likely ab-
sorb $100 oil and keep expanding,
even though gasoline prices would
rise further and growth would slow.
But it would hurt.
Gasoline for U.S. motorists al-
ready costs more than at any point
since 2008, despite ample supplies.
The national average for a gallon of
unleaded was $3.19 on Wednesday -
53 cents more than a year ago. Ana-
lysts expect the average to range be-
tween $3.25 and $3.75 this spring.
Oil prices had been rising for
months, but they jumped this week
as violence gripped Libya. Analysts
say any production declines in Lib-
ya could likely be absorbed by other
producers like Saudi Arabia. Libyan
oil accounts for less than 1 percent
of U.S. crude imports.
Still, analysts say concerns about
violence in North Africa and Mid-
dle East have put a “fear premium”
that’s added about $10 a barrel.
Consumers and businesses would
feel pinched by a sustained pe-
riod of $100-a-barrel oil - and not
just motorists. Stock prices, which
have lost more than 2 percent so far
this week, could sink further. That
would reduce household wealth and
consumer confidence. As fuel costs
price rise, so would prices for travel
services and products containing
plastics.
This month, several airlines
tacked on fuel surcharges - extra
fees that help cover fuel bills.
Rising oil prices have pushed jet
fuel close to $3 a gallon. Fuel ac-
counts for roughly one-third of the
budget for U.S. airlines, up from less
than one-fifth a decade ago. Fitch
Ratings analyst William Warlick
said if jet fuel reaches about $3.20 a
gallon, “the whole industry will be
challenged to stay profitable.”
Airlines may soon decide to
eliminate some flights and ground
older jets to cut fuel consumption,
Warlick said. Delta Air Lines has
already scaled back plans to add
flights this year.
Analysts estimate that over a year,
$100 oil would reduce U.S. eco-
nomic growth by 0.2 or 0.3 of a per-
centage point. So rather than grow
an estimated 3.7 percent this year,
the economy would expand 3.4
percent or 3.5 percent. That would
likely mean less hiring and higher
unemployment.
The global economy wouldn’t
be affected as much. In part, that’s
because emerging economies con-
sume less oil, per person, than in-
dustrialized countries do. In addi-
tion, many developing countries
regulate or subsidize the cost of gas.
Global growth would slip about 0.1
percentage point, economists esti-
mate.
But oil prices around $100 a bar-
rel could threaten European econo-
mies, many of which are net im-
porters of oil and gas, haven’t fully
recovered from the financial crisis
and face heavy debt loads. Spain
and Italy, for example, where gas at
the pump already goes for about $8
a gallon, face years of a slow, grind-
ing recovery. A spike in oil would
deal their economies another set-
back.
Pricier oil would also push up in-
flation in Europe, where it already
exceeds official targets, and in
countries with surging food prices,
like China, Brazil and India. Those
countries might then have to raise
interest rates to cool inflation. Do-
ing so, in turn, would slow growth
in Latin America and Asia.
A darker possibility - one that few
analysts expect - is that oil prices
will keep rising until they reach
$150 or more and then stay there for
months. Under that scenario, anoth-
er recession is possible, economists
say.
Gasoline prices would near $5
a gallon. Consumers would spend
much less. So would businesses,
which would slash jobs.
“It would nail the economy,” said
Mark Zandi, chief economist at
Moody’s Analytics. “All the ben-
efits of the tax breaks we got in last
year’s tax-cut deal would be com-
pletely wiped out and then some.”
One reason the United States and
other developed countries can still
grow with oil at $100 a barrel is
they’ve become more energy-effi-
cient since the oil-price shocks of
the 1970s. U.S. retailers and manu-
facturers that use oil-produced plas-
tics, for example, have been shrink-
ing packaging and packing more
items onto their trucks. A new wave
of redesigned products, like ultra-
thin plastic bottles of water, has also
emerged.
“Companies have been very clev-
er in what they can do to reduce the
production costs without affecting
performance,” said Jonathan Asher
of Perception Research Services,
which works with consumer prod-
uct companies. The latest surge
in oil “will turn up the heat even
more.”
Marc Rosenberg, a marketing of-
ficial for WowWee Toys, says its
products use 30 percent less plastic
compared with five years ago.
“Can we live with $100 a barrel
oil?” said economist Ken Mayland
of ClearView Economics. “I think
so. Can that economy still grow if
oil is at $110 a barrel? Yes. But past
that, you start getting uncomfort-
ably close to the point where people
start curbing their spending.”
An example was in July 2008.
That’s when Americans faced re-
cord-high oil prices - $147 a barrel.
Gasoline prices followed suit. They
hit a record $4.11 a gallon nation-
wide.
The economy was already in a
recession in the summer of 2008.
But consumers hadn’t yet cut their
spending much. That changed in the
third quarter of 2008 as oil and gas
prices soared. Consumers slashed
spending at a 3.5 percent annualized
rate. It was the sharpest drop since
1980.
Ken Perkins of RetailMetrics, a
retail research firm, thinks higher
gas prices at the tank are already af-
fecting low-income shoppers who
are also paying higher grocery pric-
es. He says gas prices would have to
reach $4 a gallon or more to affect
moderate-income consumers.
Perkins said more people will
shop at neighborhood dollar chains
or drugstores to pick up milk or
bread and save on gas, further hurt-
ing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Wal-Mart’s
sales have already been hammered
by stepped-up competition.
Fears of another unchecked jump
in prices have rattled investors.
This week, investors have dumped
stocks and shifted money into the
safety of Treasury bonds, causing
Treasury yields to fall.
The rise in Treasury prices this
week lowered the yield on the 10-
year Treasury note to 3.49 percent.
That yield is used to peg rates on
home mortgages and other con-
sumer loans. Borrowers would face
lower costs as such rates fall.
That said, interest rates are al-
ready relatively low by historical
standards. So even a sustained de-
cline in rates, by itself, wouldn’t
much stimulate Americans’ appetite
to spend, economists say.
A persistent drop in the stock
market, though, would likely chill
spending, especially by wealthier
Americans. Europe’s debt crisis in
the spring of 2010 jolted Wall Street
and slowed the U.S. economy as
Americans reined in their spending.
“But if the price keeps going up,
and it’s accompanied by falling
stock prices, then it takes on a more
sinister tone,” Hensley said.
By JEANNINE AVERSA and
CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
(AP Economics Writers)
AP Writers Sandy Shore in Denver,
Carlo Piovano in London, David
Koenig in Dallas and Samantha
Bomkamp, Anne D’Innocenzio and
Chris Kahn in New York contrib-
uted to this report.
banks rise to
highest level
in 18 years
WASHINGTON -- The number
of banks at risk of failing made
up nearly 12 percent of all feder-
ally insured banks in the final three
months of 2010, the highest level
in 18 years.
The Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp said Wednesday that the
number of banks on its confiden-
tial “problem” list rose to 884 in
the October-December quarter, up
from 860 in the previous quarter.
Those are banks rated by exam-
iners as having very low capital
cushions against risk.
Twenty-two banks have failed
so far this year. And more banks
are at risk, even as the FDIC re-
ported the industry’s highest earn-
ings as a group since the financial
crisis hit three years ago.
Only a small fraction of the
7,657 federally insured banks -
about 1.4 percent with assets of
more than $10 billion - are driving
the bulk of the earnings growth.
They are the largest banks, includ-
ing Bank of America Corp., Citi-
group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co.
and Wells Fargo & Co.
The big banks accounted for
about $20.6 billion of the indus-
try earnings of $21.7 billion in the
fourth quarter. The total earnings
compared with a net loss of $1.8
billion in the same quarter of 2009.
The agency said bank earnings
were buoyed in the latest quar-
ter by reduced charges for soured
loans.
Most of the big banks have re-
covered with help from federal
bailout money and record-low bor-
rowing rates. On the other side,
many smaller banks are struggling.
Last year, 157 U.S. banks
were brought down by the soured
economy and mounting loan de-
faults. That was the most in one
year since 1992, the height of the
savings and loan crisis. They were
mostly smaller or regional banks.
The failures compare with 25 in
2008 and three in 2007. They cost
the federal deposit insurance fund
an estimated $21 billion in 2010.
Smaller and regional banks de-
pend heavily on making loans for
commercial property and develop-
ment - sectors that have suffered
huge losses. Companies shut down
in the recession, vacating shopping
malls and office buildings financed
by the loans.
Overall, banks’ net income
reached a three-year high of $87.5
billion in 2010. That contrasted
with a loss of $10.6 billion in 2009.
But FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair
said banks need to lend more vig-
orously as the economy recovers.
Bank industry revenue re-
mained fairly strong through the fi-
nancial crisis, Bair noted, but there
is little “upward momentum.”
“A key reason why revenues
haven’t grown faster is that loans
have not been growing,” she said
at a news conference. “It’s not go-
ing as at fast a pace as I would like
to see.”
The problem is partly due to
continued uncertainty about the
economy on the part of bankers,
Bair said. But she added: “I also
think that banks need to get back
to the basics of making loans.”
The FDIC’s deposit insurance
fund, which fell into the red in
2009, posted a slight improvement
in the October-December quarter.
Its deficit narrowed to $7.4 billion
from $8 billion in the third quarter.
Bair said the agency expects the
balance to turn positive this year.
The spate of bank failures that
began to accelerate in 2008 are ex-
pected to cost the insurance fund
about $100 billion through 2013.
By MARCY GORDON (AP)
 SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY THE PROFESSIONAL EXPRESS | FEBRUARY 24, 2011 | PAGE 8

Price tag can change the way people experience wine: study
In what will be music to the ears
of marketers, the old adage that you
get what you pay for really is true
when it comes to that most ephem-
eral of products: bottled wine.
According to researchers at the
Stanford Graduate School of Busi-
ness and the California Institute of
Technology, if a person is told he or
she is tasting two different wines—
and that one costs $5 and the other
$45 when they are, in fact, the same
wine—the part of the brain that
experiences pleasure will become
more active when the drinker thinks
he or she is enjoying the more ex-
pensive vintage.
“What we document is that price
is not just about inferences of qual-
ity, but it can actually affect real
quality,” said Baba Shiv, a profes-
sor of marketing who co-authored
a paper titled “Marketing Actions
Can Modulate Neural Representa-
tions of Experienced Pleasantness,”
published online Jan. 14 in the Pro-
ceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences. “So, in essence, [price]
is changing people’s experiences
with a product and, therefore, the
outcomes from consuming this
product.”
Shiv, an expert in how emotion
affects decision-making, used func-
tional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) to conduct the study with
co-authors Hilke Plassmann, a for-
mer Stanford postdoctoral research-
er; Antonio Rangel, a former Stan-
ford economist; and psychologist
John O’Doherty. (Both Plassmann
and Rangel are now at Caltech.) Al-
though researchers have used fMRI
scans in recent years to gauge brain
activity, the study is one of the first
to test subjects as they swallow liq-
uid—in this case, wine—through
a pump attached to their mouths,
a tricky complication because the
scanner requires people to lie very
still as it measures blood flow in the
brain.
According to Shiv, a basic as-
sumption in economics is that a per-
son’s “experienced pleasantness”
(EP) from consuming a product de-
pends only on its intrinsic properties
and the individual’s thirst. However,
marketers try to influence this ex-
perience by changing a drink’s ex-
ternal properties, such as its price.
“This type of influence is valuable
for companies, because EP serves
as a learning signal that is used by
the brain to guide future choices,”
the paper says. Contrary to this ba-
sic assumption, several studies have
shown that marketing can influence
how people value goods. For ex-
ample, Shiv has shown that people
who paid a higher price for an en-
ergy drink, such as Red Bull, were
able to solve more brain teasers than
those who paid a discounted price
for the same product.
Despite the pervasive influence
of marketing, very little is known
about how neural mechanisms affect
decision-making, the researchers
said. “Here, we propose a mecha-
nism though which marketing ac-
tions can affect decision-making,”
they write. “We hypothesized that
changes in the price of a product can
influence neural computations as-
forehead.
The researchers recruited 11
male Caltech graduate students
who said they liked and occasion-
ally drank red wine. The subjects
were told that they would be trying
five different Cabernet Sauvignons,
identified by price, to study the ef-
fect of sampling time on flavor. In
fact, only three wines were used—
two were given twice. The first
wine was identified by its real bottle
price of $5 and by a fake $45 price
tag. The second wine was marked
with its actual $90 price and by a
fictitious $10 tag. The third wine,
which was used to distract the par-
ticipants, was marked with its cor-
rect $35 price. A tasteless water was
also given in between wine samples
to rinse the subjects’ mouths. The
wines were given in random order,
added that the wines identified as
more expensive tasted better. The
researchers found that an increase
in the perceived price of a wine
did lead to increased activity in the
mOFC because of an associated
increase in taste expectation. Shiv
said he expects enophiles will chal-
lenge the results, since his subjects
were not professional connoisseurs.
According to Shiv, the emotional
and hedonic areas of the brain could
be fundamental to making good de-
cisions because they serve as a navi-
gational device. “The brain is super-
efficient,” he said. “There seems to
be this perfect overlap in one part
of the brain between what happens
in real time and what happens when
people anticipate something. It’s al-
most acting as a GPS system. This
seems to be the navigational device

Cellular technology is
sociated with EP.” ipulating that
a person’s anticipated experience
would prompt higher activity in
the part of the brain that experi-
ences pleasure, the medial orbi-
tofrontal cortex, or mOFC, in the
and the students were asked to fo-
cus on flavor and how much they
enjoyed each sample.
The participants said they could
taste five different wines, even
though there were only three, and
that helps us learn what is the right
thing to do the next time around.”
Source: Stanford University Press
Release

changing our brains

CHICAGO -- Spending
50 minutes with a cell-
phone plastered to your
ear is enough to change
brain cell activity in the
part of the brain closest to
the antenna.
But whether that causes
any harm is not clear, sci-
entists at the National In-
stitutes of Health said on
Tuesday, adding that the
study will likely not settle
recurring concerns of a
link between cellphones
and brain cancer.
“What we showed is
glucose metabolism (a
sign of brain activity)
increases in the brain in
People talk on their cell phones at Grand Central Station
netic radiation from cell-
phone exposures.”
direct effect of cellphone
signals on brain function.
But he said much larg-
er fluctuations in brain
metabolic rate can occur
naturally, such as when a
person is thinking.
“If further studies con-
firm that mobile phone
signals do have direct
effects on brain metabo-
lism, then it will be im-
portant to investigate
whether such effects have
implications for health,”
he said.
John Walls, a spokes-
man for CTIA-The Wire-
antenna when the phone less Association, an in-
was on. dustry group, said the

people who were exposed
to a cellphone in the area
closet to the antenna,”
said Dr. Nora Volkow of
the NIH, whose study was
Use of the devices has
increased dramatically
since they were intro-
duced in the early-to-mid
1980s, with about 5 bil-
Experts said the results
were intriguing, but urged
that they be interpreted
with caution.
“Although the biologi-
UK court to rule on
scientific evidence so far
“has overwhelmingly in-
dicated that wireless de-
vices, within the limits
established by the FCC

published in the Journal
of the American Medical
Association.
The study was meant
to examine how the brain
reacts to electromagnetic
fields caused by wireless
phone signals.
Volkow said she was
surprised that the weak
electromagnetic radiation
from cellphones could af-
fect brain activity, but she
said the findings do not
shed any light on whether
cellphones cause cancer.
“This study does not
in any way indicate that.
What the study does is to
show the human brain is
sensitive to electromag-
lion mobile phones now
in use worldwide.
Some studies have
linked cellphone expo-
sure to an increased risk
of brain cancers, but a
large study by the World
Health Organization was
inconclusive.
Volkow’s team studied
47 people who had brain
scans while a cellphone
was turned on for 50 min-
utes and another while the
phone was turned off.
While there was no
overall change in brain
metabolism, they found a
7 percent increase in brain
metabolism in the region
closest to the cellphone
cal significance, if any, of
increased glucose metabo-
lism from acute cellphone
exposure is unknown, the
results warrant further
investigation,” Henry
Lai of the University of
Washington, Seattle, and
Dr. Lennart Hardell of
University Hospital in
Orebro, Sweden, wrote in
a commentary in JAMA.
“Much has to be done
to further investigate and
understand these effects,”
they wrote.
Professor Patrick Hag-
gard of University Col-
lege London said the
results were interesting
since the study suggests a
(Federal Communications
Commission), do not pose
a public health risk or
cause any adverse health
effects.”
Volkow said her the
findings suggest the need
for more study to see if
cellphones have a nega-
tive effect on brain cells.
Meanwhile, Volkow
isn’t taking any chances.
She now uses an ear
phone instead of placing a
cellphone next to her ear.
“I don’t say there is any
risk, but in case there is,
why not?”
By JULIE STEENHUY-
SEN (Reuters). Editing
by Philip Barbara
Assange extradition
LONDON -- A British court
is expected to rule on Thursday
whether WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange should be extradited to
Sweden where he is accused of sex
crimes.
During three days of legal argu-
ment earlier this month, lawyers for
Assange, who has angered the U.S.
government by releasing thousands
of secret U.S. diplomatic cables on
his website, argued he would not
get a fair trial in Sweden.
They also said the 39-year-old
Australian computer expert, if he is
extradited from Britain, may wind
him to use a condom during sex.
The second woman has said As-
sange had sex with her while she
was asleep and that he was not
wearing a condom.
Prosecutors say the second alle-
gation falls into the least severe of
three categories of rape in Sweden,
carrying a maximum of four years
in jail, and are seeking his extradi-
tion from Britain under a fast-track
European arrest warrant.
The court, based in London, can
only refuse such requests for spe-
cific legal reasons, such as a war-
rant not being properly issued, or
However, lawyers prosecuting
the case at London’s top-security
Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court ar-
gued the warrant complied with the
legal requirements.
They also dismissed suggestions
Assange could be extradited to the
United States, saying Britain would
have to give its consent first to such
a move.
Judge Howard Riddle is expect-
ed to give his decision on Thurs-
day and if he agrees to extradition,
Assange, who has been free under
strict conditions since he was re-
leased him on bail in December,

Solar flares are headed

up being sent to the United States
where he could face execution.
Swedish prosecutors want to
question Assange about allegations
of sexual misconduct, which he de-
nies, made by two WikiLeaks vol-
because it would breach Assange’s
human rights.
Assange’s legal team offered a
lengthy case in which they accused
Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik
Reinfeldt of creating a “toxic atmo-
must be extradited within 10 days.
However, the WikiLeaks found-
er would have seven days in which
to launch an appeal to London’s
High Court.

for EARTH this week

unteers during his time in Sweden sphere” in Sweden and damaging By MICHAEL HOLDEN (Reuters)
last August. his chances of a fair trial by portray- Editing by Michael Roddy
One alleges he sexually molest- ing him as “public enemy number
ed her by ignoring her request for one.”

CERN collider restarts

CHICAGO -- Radia-
tion from the largest solar
flare in four years is ex-
pected to reach Earth late
on Thursday or Friday.

search for mysteries

Such events can cause
radio blackouts and inter-
fere with communication
satellites, but the most
likely outcome this time
will be brilliant Northern
Lights displays, U.S. sci- GENEVA -- CERN’s Large Had- TeV -- since it first went into opera- It could also help back up the
entists said. ron Collider (LHC) is gearing up tion on March 31 last year. string theory concept which pro-
NASA scientists on to resume full-speed particle colli- “Our analyst teams are prepar- vides for extra dimensions other
Monday reported an X- sions next month aimed at resolving ing to work on ‘new physics’ data than the known four -- length,
class solar flare, the first key mysteries of the universe, sci- that will start flowing once colli- breadth, depth and time -- and for
in more than four years. entists and engineers at the research sions start up again in about three the existence of parallel universes.
X-class flares are the center said on Monday. weeks,” said Oliver Buchmueller, Black holes are collapsed stars,
most powerful of all so- The large X2 solar flare as seen in extreme ultraviolet light, the largest solar flare since 2006. They reported that the giant team leader on the LHC’s CMS de- observed in many galaxies in the
lar events that can trigger subterranean machine was in fine tector, one of the project’s four ma- known universe, around which the
radio blackouts and long- of the quietest ever 11- communications, disrupt space weather and its ef- shape after a 10-week shutdown jor experiments. force of gravity is so strong that
lasting radiation storms. year periods,” he said in a Global Positioning Sys- fects on GPS software re- and that particle beams circulating New Physics, the motto of the nothing, not even light, can escape.
It was one of a series telephone interview. tem signals and interrupt ceivers, says people who in it again since the weekend would LHC, refers to knowledge that will But scientists want to know more
of three solar flares and Solar flares are intense, civilian communications, have come to rely on their be boosted to top speed by the end take research beyond the “Standard about how they come about.
prompted speculation that short-lived releases of according to the National GPS technology during of the day. Model” of how the universe works The Higgs boson has been pos-
a new solar cycle may be energy. They show up as Oceanic and Atmospheric the period of quiet solar “Everything is going very well that emerged from the work of Al- ited for over 30 years as the agent
ramping up. bright areas on the sun, Administration, which activity may see more in- indeed. Progress has been extreme- bert Einstein and his 1905 Theory that gives mass to matter, and made
“This is one of the producing high levels of tracks solar flares. terference with their navi- ly rapid since we switched the LHC of Special Relativity. formation of the universe possible
first real solar events of radiation and charged par- NASA says the particle gation systems as solar ac- on again late on Saturday,” Mike “We will be focusing this year on immediately after the Big Bang
the next solar maximum ticles that can intensify cloud produced by Febru- tivity picks up. Lamont, head of operations at the super-symmetry, extra dimensions, 13.7 billion years ago. But proof
-- that is when you would solar winds -- electrically ary 14 event is relatively “It’s been minimum ac- LHC control room just outside Ge- how black holes are produced, and that it exists has still to be found.
see the highest number of charged particles continu- weak, and most likely will tivity, and we haven’t had neva, told Reuters. the Higgs boson. We expect some Information on all these is ex-
solar flares,” said Brady ously spewing outward only result in some beau- to really worry about GPS. The LHC was closed down on first results by the summer,” said pected to emerge as CERN -- the
O’Hanlon, a doctoral stu- from the sun. tiful sightings of the au- That may not be quite the December 6 for technical checks of Buchmueller. 21-nation European Organization
dent at Cornell University The Earth’s magnetic rora borealis -- shimmery case over the next few its hugely complex apparatus after Super-symmetry, dubbed SUSY, for Nuclear Research -- pursues its
in Ithaca, New York. field largely protects the displays of red, green and years,” he said. eight months of operations. is a theory allowing for the exis- simulations of the Big Bang with
O’Hanlon said solar planet from space weather. purple that are expected to “We hope to ramp up to full tence of unseen doubles of elemen- billions of high-energy collisions in
activity typically peaks in But massive solar flares light up the northern sky By JULIE STEEN- beam within the next few hours,” tary particles and if proven correct the LHC.
11-year cycles. “We’ve can disrupt power grids, this week. HUYSEN (Reuters). Ed- said Lamont, referring to the high- would explain the mystery of dark
been at the depths of one interfere with high-fre- But O’Hanlon, who iting by Xavier Briand est energy achieved so far in the matter, believed to make up nearly a By ROBERT EVANS (Reuters)
quency airline and military conducts research on machine -- 3.5 tera electron volts, or quarter of the known universe.
WHAT THE HECK
Man has 39 wives and 94 children
“Even today, I am ready to expand my family and willing to go to any extent to marry”
GUWAHATI, India -- The more,
the merrier is certainly true for Zi-
ona Chana, a 66-year-old man in
India’s remote northeast who has
39 wives, 94 children and 33 grand-
children -- and wouldn’t mind hav-
ing more.
They all live in a four storied
building with 100 rooms in a moun-
tainous village in Mizoram state,
sharing borders with Myanmar and
Doctors remove
knife from man’s
head after 4 years
BEIJING (AP) -- Sur-
geons in southern China
successfully removed a
rusty, 4-inch (10-centime-
ter) knife from the skull
of a man who said it had
been stuck in there for
four years, the hospital
said Friday.
Li Fuyan, 30, had been
suffering from severe
headaches, bad breath and
breathing difficulties but
never knew the cause of
his discomfort, said the
senior official at the Yuxi
City People’s Hospital in
Yunnan Province.
Li told doctors he had
been stabbed in the lower
right jaw by a robber four
years ago and the blade
Bangladesh, media reports said.
“I once married 10 women in
one year,” he was quoted as saying.
His wives share a dormitory near
Ziona’s private bedroom and locals
said he likes to have seven or eight
of them by his side at all times.
The sons and their wives, and
all their children, live in different
rooms in the same building, but
share a common kitchen.
broke off inside his head
without anyone realiz-
ing it, said the director of
the hospital’s Communist
Party committee’s office
who would only give his
surname, He.
Surgeons worked cau-
tiously to remove the bad-
ly-corroded blade without
shattering it, He said. The
hospital’s website also re-
ported the successful sur-
gery.
The case, which one of
the doctors described as a
“miracle,” has been wide-
ly covered by the Chinese
media and discussed on
the Internet.
“We checked his
mouth, but no wound or
The wives take turns cooking,
while his daughters clean the house
and do washing. The men do out-
door jobs like farming and taking
care of livestock.
The family, all 167 of them, con-
sumes around 91 kg (200 pounds)
of rice and more than 59 kg (130
pounds) of potatoes a day. They are
supported by their own resources
and occasional donations from fol-
scar has been found. It is the man’s throat, having
very strange as to how the missed the carotid artery
blade got into his head,” and other key structures.
Xu Wen, deputy director “There are planes and
of the hospital’s stomatol- spaces between important
ogy department, told state organs. That’s how one
broadcaster CCTV. does surgery - you dis-
CCTV showed footage sect in those planes, move
of the rusted knife and in- the trachea one way, the
terviewed Li, who said: esophagus the other,” he
“As time passed, I used said.
injections to kill the pain “Maybe out of sheer
in my head and ears. It has luck this knife passed
been four years already.” through” one such area,
Dr. Eugene Flamm, Flamm said, adding that
chairman of neurosur- he was still surprised at
gery at New York’s Mon- the time the blade suppos-
tefiore Medical Center, edly spent in the man’s
said X-ray images of the body.
man’s head posted on the
hospital’s website show By GILLIAN WONG
the knife sitting behind (AP)
THE PROFESSIONAL EXPRESS
lowers.
“Even today, I am ready to ex-
pand my family and willing to go to
any extent to marry,” Ziona said.
“I have so many people to care
(for) and look after, and I consider
myself a lucky man.”
Ziona met his oldest wife, who
is three years older than he is, when
he was 17.
He heads a local Christian re-
Brazil woman finds gator
behind couch after flood
SAO PAULO (AP) -- After
floodwaters receded from her home,
a Brazilian woman was shocked
to find a most unwelcome house
guest: a 5-foot (1.5-meter) alligator
lying tamely in the living room as
her 3-year-old son petted the rep-
tile’s head.
The animal apparently was
washed inside by the high water
Monday night, said Luiz Claudio
Farias, a captain of firefighters in
the north-central city of Parauape-
bas.
When the woman went to clean
up the following day, she saw the
boy playing with something behind
the couch, Farias said. It turned out
to be a gator.
Dispute over Thin
Mints gets physical
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) -- Police
say a brawl between roommates
over Girl Scout cookies led to as-
sault charges against one of them.
According to the Naples Daily
News, the Collier County Sheriff’s
Office reports that 31-year-old Her-
sha Howard woke up her roommate
early Sunday and accused her of
eating her Thin Mints.
They argued and deputies say
that it turned physical with Howard
chasing her roommate with scissors
Big cleaning bill for
missing snake on train
BOSTON (AP) -- A woman
whose 3-foot-long snake slithered
away from her in a Boston subway
car and hid there for nearly a month
has gotten a hefty cleaning bill.
Transit officials want Allston,
Mass., resident Melissa Moorhouse
to pay $650 to cover the costs of
disinfecting and sanitizing the Red
Line train to protect passengers
from germs such as salmonella that
may have been left by a boa con-
strictor named Penelope.
| FEBRUARY 24, 2011
ligious sect, called the “Chana,”
which allows polygamy. Formed in
June 1942, the sect believes it will
soon be ruling the world with Christ
and has a membership of around
400 families.
Reporting by BISWAJYOTI DAS,
editing by Elaine Lies (AP)
“She snatched the boy away and
called us,” he said.
Farias said it was lucky the rep-
tile apparently wasn’t in the mood
for a meal: “If he was hungry, he
could have seriously hurt or even
killed the boy.”
Firefighters trapped the alligator
and took it to a nearby environmen-
tal preserve, where they set it free.
“Cities in this region were built
very near rivers and the rain forests,
which is why it is not uncommon
to see animals like alligators and
snakes entering people’s houses,”
Farias said.
He declined to identify the wom-
an or her son.
and hitting her repeatedly with a
board and then a sign.
Police say the roommate’s hus-
band tried to separate them. The
roommate said she gave the cookies
to Howard’s children.
Howard is charged with aggra-
vated battery with a deadly weapon
and aggravated assault with a dead-
ly weapon. She was released Mon-
day on $10,000 bail.
A telephone listing for Howard
could not be immediately found.
Moorhouse had traveled with the
snake around her neck and lost it
between stations Jan. 6. The snake
was spotted on the train earlier this
month by a commuter.
The Boston Globe reported
Tuesday the Massachusetts Bay
Transportation Authority says some
subway riders wrote in with health
concerns.
Moorhouse says she’ll pay more
attention the next time she takes the
snake out in public.
| PAGE 9
Massive
iceberg
shears off
after New
Zealand
quake
CHRISTCHURCH (AFP) –
A 30 million tonne block of ice
sheared off a New Zealand gla-
cier just minutes after a violent
earthquake devastated the city
of Christchurch, officials said
Wednesday.
The huge iceberg crashed into
a lake shortly after the 6.3 mag-
nitude tremor rocked the South
Island on Tuesday and created
waves up to three metres high
for 30 minutes which rocked two
sightseeing boats on the lake at
the time.
The enormous iceberg -- esti-
mated to weigh 30 to 40 million
tonnes -- began ripping off the
Tasman Glacier at Aoraki Mount
Cook National Park accompanied
by a loud noise which sounded
like a rifle shot, a local tourism
official said.
Aoraki Mount Cook Alpine
Village tourism manager Denis
Callesen said locals had been
expecting a major iceberg to
drop from the glacier for the past
month, but the “curve ball” was
that the event was caused by an
earthquake.
“The earthquake that we felt
here was a swaying motion for
about a minute, then it stopped
and then it swayed for about an-
other minute,” he told AFP.
“Within about a minute of that
happening, the staff at the lake
heard from five kilometres away
(from the glacier) a sound that
sounded like a rifle shot and then
over the next two minutes all the
events started to unfold.
“I have absolutely no doubt in
my mind that the earthquake was
the trigger.”
The Department of Conser-
vation confirmed that a “large
chunk” of the glacier fell into the
lake but was unable to say if this
was caused by the earthquake,
which was only felt lightly around
Mt Cook some 150 kilometres (93
miles) from the epicentre.
“You could argue whether the
earthquake precipitated it or not
-- the fact is that the terminal face
was about due to carve anyway,”
area manager Richard McNamara
told AFP.
“The estimate of around 30 to
40 million tonnes of ice would be
at a rough estimate about right.”
McNamara said the one-ki-
lometre long piece of ice which
carved off the glacier had broken
into smaller icebergs, some of
which were now about 200 me-
tres (650 metres) in length, and
towering up to 50 metres above
the lake.
“It carved in one big lot; a face
about a kilometre long carving
is a spectacular sight,” McNa-
mara said, adding that the iceberg
would then have popped up to the
water like a porpoise before start-
ing to break into smaller pieces.
He said that particular face of
the glacier had experienced simi-
lar events in recent years and it
was not unusual to see huge ice-
bergs in the lake. However, the
7.0 magnitude quake which hit
New Zealand in September had
not produced a similar event at Mt
Cook, he said.
Clown turned
congressman
messes up
first vote
RIO DE JANEIRO -- A clown
who won a seat in Brazil’s Con-
gress by a landslide has stayed
true to his former profession by
accidentally messing up his first
vote.
Francisco Everardo Oliveira
Silva, better known by his clown
name Tiririca, had pledged to
back the government’s auster-
ity proposal for a new national
minimum wage in a crucial vote
on Wednesday night.AIsland on
Tuesday and created waves up to
three metres high for 30 minutes
which rocked two sightseeing
boats on the lake at the time.
(Reporting by STUART
GRUDGINGS; editing by Philip
Barbara)
WHAT THE HECK
LA(ID) REALATIONSHIP ADVICE
Dearest Dear Sex Advisor,
I’ve had numerous sex-
ual partners in the past
six months. How is it that
none of them seem to
have noticed my crying
throughout our sexual ex-
periences? And if so, why
don’t they address the is-
sue rather than chalking it
up to extreme physical in-
timacy and/or ecstasy?
-I Spring a Leak with my
Freak of the Week
Dearest Lacrimose with your Hos,
To solve this problem, please ingest
two bumps of sugar with your after-
noon tea.se.
Issues to redress once you are
dressed: Crippling Loneliness and
Idealistic Noceans of Morality. The
desiccated sur-face of the moon.
Her kiss made me quite sick. But
not in my dick.
My knightrous in shining armor-
phine, there is a metaphormula you
must follow to suck at the pool of
cess. One day we will exit our bod-
ies and none of this toiling will have
even mattered. Look around and
ask yourself, is this a discotheque
or an infirmary? At some point ev-
eryone collectively transitioned and
began to display signs of a most dire
illness of the mind. We think we’ve
come to dance away our woes, the
flashing lights…our fancy clothes,
blinding twinkles in our toes, is this
my nose or a vacuum hose? Per-
haps tonight is the night you will fi-
nally WOO the girl of your dreams
and her best friend too!
A pair of wilted tits were flying in
the wind. She plunged her head
deep inside the passenger’s side and
asked me for a ride, not listening to
THE PROFESSIONAL EXPRESS
what I replied, she got in, so I start-
ed to drive.
She said I was an imporntant man
with a lot to say, so much that
needed to be heard…her fists flail-
ing with forTITude, her body shak-
ing with her words. Her voice
rises higher and higher, like the
sines. I can feel something grow-
ing in my spine, squealing gleefully
like swine, standing in an endless
line stretching to the end of time.
There’s the sound of a distant echo-
ing chime from somewhere soft,
sweet, and sublime. She hums a
gentle nursery rhyme as we shiver
| FEBRUARY 24, 2011
with climaximum force, altering my
whole life’s course.
(N)WARP. The shrimp spiraled
round and round, it was the coeF-
ISHnet of beauty and sound. A
phosphorescent odor fills the room
while we all try to remain steady
during the bass drum booms. The
kilograms we insufflate while we
mentally masturbate disappear with
great rapidity, replaced with a most
profound vapidity.
If you take a hit of acid and then
smoke some base, will they cancel
each other out? I’ll return home on
the scenic route and stop by a few
| PAGE 10
orphanajizz to give the ripest cheeks
a kiss and squeeze, the ones most
stained with tears and disease.
More bang for your buck, more
tummy for your tuck.
Arriving at home, finally, I per-
formed some intensive homoncal-
culus homuncalculus until I passed
out from sexhaustion.
Tectonically,
Vitus S. Hearn
Fodder for your dreams: