Pakistan bomb kills 41

A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle near a market in Pakistan's city of Peshawar on Friday, killing 41 people and underlining the militants' ability to strike major cities despite American-backed military offensives.

Associated Press
Published: 9:32AM BST 09 Oct 2009

Pakistani volunteers and bystanders shift an injured car bomb blast victim into an ambulance at a bomb blast site in Peshawar Photo: AFP/GETTY

The attack in the Khyber Bazaar area came as Pakistan's army prepares for another major operation in the al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan tribal region. The militants have threatened bombings if the army doesn't back off, but the U.S. has continued to prod Pakistan to take action against insurgents using its soil to fuel the insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan.
Television footage showed the charred skeleton of a bus flipped on its side in the middle of a major road. Twisted remains of a motorbike lay alongside the bus. A nearby vehicle was in flames.
Noor Alam saw the vehicle explode, and suffered wounds on his legs and face.
"I saw a blood soaked leg landing close to me," Alam told The Associated Press at the overwhelmed Lady Reading hospital. "I understood for the first time in my life what a doomsday would look like."
Peshawar Police Chief Liaqat Ali Khan said the attacker was in a car packed with "a huge quantity of explosives and artillery rounds." A minibus apparently carrying passengers nearby was also leveled in the blast.
It came days after a suicide attack killed five at a U.N. office in the capital, Islamabad and two weeks after another explosion killed 11 in a Peshawar commercial area.
It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since a suicide bomber demolished a packed mosque near the northwestern town of Jamrud in March, killing about 50.
Provincial Health Minister Syed Zahir Ali Shah said 41 people were killed and more than 100 wounded Friday.
"Death has to come one day, but we will keep chasing these terrorists, and this attack cannot deter our resolve," Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said as he visited the bloody scene.
Also Friday, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said a suspect had been arrested in Monday's suicide attack at the office of the U.N.'s World Food Program in Islamabad. Malik says the man was alleged to have given the attacker shelter, but gave few details.
Militants in Pakistan also have targeted trucks carrying supplies for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Early Friday, militants ambushed a tanker carrying fuel for the Western troops at a gas station near Peshawar, torching it, said Fazal Rabi, a police official. No injuries or deaths were reported.
The attacks come amid growing tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan over a multibillion-dollar U.S. aid package that is aimed at helping Pakistan's economy and other nonmilitary sectors.
Pakistan's army has raised concern over strings attached to the aid, bolstering critics who say it will invite U.S. interference.
The debate over the proposal also has exposed rifts between Pakistan's military and its weak civilian government.
The government has hailed the package, which would provide $1.5 billion a year over the next five years. But the measure, which awaits President Barack Obama's signature, makes U.S. aid contingent on whether Pakistan's government maintains effective control over the military, among other conditions.
The army, which has ruled Pakistan for around half its 62-year existence, raised "serious concern" over the conditions, while the government said nothing in it was against Pakistan's interests.

India in new anti-Maoist strategy

By Sunil Raman BBC News, Delhi

Maoists have a presence in more than 200 districts of India

The Indian government has agreed on a new tactic to fight Maoists who are operating in several states.

Officials say state police are to take the lead in co-ordinating operations against the Maoists, while central forces are only to lend assistance.
The decision came hours after at least 17 policemen were killed in a battle with Maoist insurgents in the western state of Maharashtra.
India says that Maoist insurgents pose its biggest security threat.
They operate in many states and say they are fighting for the rights of the poor and landless.
Remanded
Maoists have a presence in over 223 of India's 600-odd districts across 20 states, according to the government.
Around 70,000 central paramilitary troops along with elite commando and special forces will be deployed in the upcoming operation against the rebels.
The troops will be provided cover by the army and armoured air force helicopters.
A senior government official told the BBC that the operation is to be launched within weeks to "wipe out the top leadership" of the rebels and secure some 40,000 sq km of territory that is being held by them.
The government believes there are less than 20 top rebel leaders, nearly 30 commanders, and some 12,000 cadres.
A top Maoist leader recently told the BBC that their strength was "overestimated" by the government.
Areas under Maoist influence are poor and dominated by tribes people. But the areas are rich in mineral wealth which the Maoist says are being handed over to corporate firms while the poor remain deprived.

A massive security operation against the rebels will be launched soon

The government has come to the conclusion that development work can take place in the affected areas only after the rebels are defeated.
A recent statement by the Maoist leadership called upon its armed cadres to paralyse government functioning, attack and kill police and paramilitary soldiers and destabilise administrative functioning.
There have been over 1,400 cases related to violence by Maoists between January and August, according to official records. Nearly 600 civilians have died over that period.
In the latest attack on Thursday evening, a group of Maoists attacked a police station in Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra.
At least 17 policemen, including a top commander, were killed in the battle. It was not clear whether the rebels suffered any casualties.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told police chiefs last month that a campaign against the rebels had failed to produce results.
In September Kobad Ghandy, one of the Maoists' most senior leaders, was arrested in Delhi. A court in Delhi has remanded him in custody for another week.

Aug. trade deficit narrows unexpectedly to $30.7B

In this Aug. 12, 2009 photo, containers are shown stacked and ready for export at the Port of Long Beach, Calif. The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in August as exports posted a small gain and imports fell on a big drop in demand for foreign oil. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER (AP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in August as exports posted a small gain, while imports fell on a big drop in demand for foreign oil.
The Commerce Department said Friday that the trade deficit declined 3.5 percent to $30.7 billion, surprising economists who had expected higher oil prices to push the imbalance to $33 billion. Oil prices did shoot up, but the volume of shipments dropped sharply in August.
The continued rise in exports may be viewed as an encouraging sign that the global economy is starting to recover from a severe recession that began in the United States and quickly spread to other parts of the world.
For August, exports of goods and services edged up 0.2 percent to $28.2 billion, the fourth straight gain. The strength reflected higher sales of American farm products including soybeans and wheat, and increases in sales of autos and related parts, industrial engines and telecommunications equipment.
Through the first eight months of this year, the trade deficit is running at an annual rate of $357 billion, about half of last year's $695.9 billion imbalance. That huge decline reflects the recession that sharply dampened demand for imported goods.
Despite the August improvement, economists expect the deficit to rise in coming months on the back of a rebounding U.S. economy, which will start importing more foreign products. But that impact will be dampened somewhat by rising exports as American manufacturers benefit from a revival in the global economy.
The deficit with China dipped slightly to $20.2 billion, down 0.9 percent from July. Through August, the deficit with China totals $143.7 billion, down 15.1 percent from last year's record pace. Even with the small improvement, trade tensions have been rising between the two economic powers with China denouncing a move by the Obama administration last month to impose punitive tariffs on imports of Chinese tires.
Imports dropped 0.6 percent to $158.9 billion, reflecting a 5.7 fall in petroleum imports to $21 billion. A big decrease in the volume of shipments offset a sharp rise in prices. The average price of a barrel of imported crude oil rose to $64.75, up from $62.48 in July and the highest since last November.
The drop in oil imports in August offset a jump in foreign-made autos and parts, which rose 8.6 percent to $14.6 billion. Economists believe the government's Cash for Clunkers' sales incentives for buyers to trade in their old cars for more fuel efficient vehicles helped drive the increase.
Imports of autos and related parts had jumped even more in July, as plants owned by General Motors and Chrysler ramped up production. Those companies had curtailed operations in May and June as they struggled to emerge from bankruptcy protection.
Both companies, as well as foreign automakers with plants in the U.S., make use of foreign-made auto parts in their U.S. manufacturing operations.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Contest for Air Force refueling tanker contract again hits turbulence

An artist's rendering of a Northrop-Airbus tanker plane in action. Politicians and others have taken sides as Boeing and Northrop Grumman vie for the Air Force contract. (Associated Press / March 1, 2008)

When the U.S. Air Force recently launched its third attempt to award a $35-billion contract for aerial refueling tankers, Pentagon officials said the competition would be fair and transparent.

But it was only a matter of days before the process was under attack.

Interest groups, politicians and the contenders -- Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. -- began blasting the way the bids were evaluated, prompting some defense industry analysts to question whether the Air Force would ever get its much-needed tankers.

"I don't see how either of these two companies walk away being the sole winner of the contract," said Loren Thompson, defense policy analyst for the Lexington Institute in Virginia. "The Pentagon says the competition will be objective, but that's going to be hard. It's a very complicated framework."

Handing out one of the largest military contracts in U.S. history hasn't been easy for the Pentagon. Twice it has held a competition to replace its fleet of 415 Eisenhower administration-era Air Force refueling tankers, and both times it has failed amid accusations of underhanded politics and discriminatory rule-making. The process first started in 2001.

The tankers, modified Boeing 707 passenger jets, have enabled the U.S. to project its military might all over the world because they can refuel bombers, fighters and cargo planes in midair.

Last month, the Pentagon unveiled the new criteria it would use to award the contract.

Just days later, Century City-based Northrop complained that the latest competition was flawed because its pricing information from the previous tanker bid was provided to Boeing by the government but it had not been given Boeing's pricing information.

"It is fundamentally unfair, and distorts any new competition, to provide such critical information to only one of the bidders," said Paul K. Meyer, Northrop's vice president and general manager of advanced technology and programs.

The Pentagon immediately fired back, saying that "it created no competitive disadvantage because the data in question are inaccurate, outdated and not germane to this source-selection strategy."

Then a collection of eight leaders from conservative groups went on the offensive for Chicago-based Boeing.

They collaborated on a letter that was sent to each member of Congress, asking them to factor in a recent World Trade Organization ruling that found that European Union governments illegally subsidized Airbus, whose parent company, European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co., is teamed with Northrop in the tanker contest.

"The illegal trade subsidies were specifically intended to enable Airbus to underbid its chief rival Boeing," said Kerri Toloczko, senior vice president for policy at the Institute for Liberty. "If the only way you can win is by cheating, what does it say about your team? I don't think the American taxpayer wants their hard-earned dollars going toward a company like that."

The latest scuttlebutt has added to the nearly decade-long controversy that the Pentagon had hoped would end when it awarded a contract last year.

Boeing won the first contract in 2004, but it fell apart because of an ethics scandal that resulted in prison terms for a former senior Boeing executive and a former high-ranking Air Force official.

The competition was relaunched and in 2008 Northrop took home the $35-billion contract to build 179 tankers based on a modified Airbus A330 passenger jet.

It was a huge upset since Boeing had built all of the tankers in the current fleet.

Northrop said the contract award would have created more than 7,500 jobs for California's struggling aerospace industry, even though the planes would be assembled in Alabama.

But the decision was overturned after the Government Accountability Office found that the Air Force mishandled the yearlong competition by failing to credit Boeing, which had offered a tanker based on its 767 airliner, for some of its plane's capabilities.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates was hoping to avoid similar problems, said James McAleese, a lawyer in McLean, Va., who specializes in defense contracts.

Justice Dept probing IBM's computer market conduct

By JORDAN ROBERTSON

The Associated Press
Thursday, October 8, 2009; 2:55 AM

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Justice Department is looking into allegations that IBM Corp. has abused its dominant position in the market for mainframe computers, the data-crunching heavy lifters of the computing world that IBM introduced in the 1960s and which are now used to process some of the most sensitive data in banking, government and health care.
The accusations stem from claims by IBM rivals that they've been illegally frozen out of the mainframe market because of IBM's refusal to allow its mainframe operating software to run on non-IBM computers. IBM doesn't have many rivals anymore that make mainframe computers, but some smaller companies are trying to develop technologies that would allow the software to run on cheaper hardware.
They allege that IBM, which used to license its mainframe software to competitors and for the back half of the last century operated under an antitrust agreement with the government, stopped doing so in recent years to choke off competition.
Known for their reliability, mainframes can cost $1 million or more each and are behind many everyday transactions. Withdrawing cash from an ATM, for example, often involves the ATM pinging a mainframe at the bank where the customer's data is stored to make sure there's enough money in the account.
The Computer and Communications Industry Association, an industry organization that complained to the Justice Department last month about IBM's behavior, said Wednesday the government has started examining its allegations by sending out formal requests for information about the mainframe market to IBM rivals.
"IBM will tell big customers that if you buy that other stuff, we're not going to let that stuff talk to our stuff," said Ed Black, CEO of the trade group. "We think of the Internet as open and innovative, but that's a lock 'em up and keep 'em locked up strategy. That's very unsatisfactory for the customer base."

One of the companies that received a request from the Justice Department was Tampa, Fla.-based T3 Technologies Inc., which in January lodged a formal complaint against IBM with European antitrust regulators and is suing IBM in the U.S. alleging antitrust abuses.
The company, a reseller of IBM mainframes from 1992 to 2002, says IBM has tried to thwart its expansion into making mainframes by denying it licenses for IBM's mainframe software, something done "for no reason other than to remove all competition from the mainframe market."
T3's president, Steven Friedman, didn't respond to messages from The Associated Press late Wednesday.
The Justice Department would not comment on a potential antitrust investigation.
In a statement, IBM pointed to a decision last week by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissing T3's complaint against IBM.
"We understand the Department of Justice has asked T3 for documents from the litigation," IBM said. "We continue to believe there is no merit to T3's claims, and that IBM is fully entitled to enforce our intellectual property rights and protect the investments that we have made in our technologies."

Alcoa announces surprise profit

Alcoa said demand for aluminium was now rising

The US aluminium-maker Alcoa has announced a surprise profit after three consecutive quarterly losses.

Analysts had expected another loss but the firm reported a net income of $77m (£48m) in the third quarter.
The result was better than the $454m loss it made in the previous quarter, but was still well below the $268m it made in the third quarter of 2008.
The company said it had benefited from an increase in aluminium prices and cost savings.
The price of aluminium has risen 16% to $1,890 per tonne in the last three months.
'Big improvement'
In the past year the company has been forced to cut jobs, sell parts of the business and reduce production after a fall in orders.
But Alcoa said global demand for aluminium was now on the increase.
"Due to low inventories at distributors and rising shipments, regional premiums are improving and global aluminium consumption is expected to increase 11% in the second half of 2009," the firm said in a statement.
"It's a pretty big improvement," said Brian Hicks from US Global Investors.
"The company has really streamlined itself during these softer economic times."
Alcoa is traditionally the first company in the Dow Jones industrial average to report quarterly earnings.
Its results are being watched closely for any sign of economic recovery.

Turned down for an auto loan? There are options

(ARA) - In the current climate of declining property values, higher interest rates, and changes in available mortgage products, more and more homeowners are becoming delinquent or going into foreclosure. Many folks are losing their hat, their home and their good credit, through no fault of their own.

In addition, as a result of these challenges, many Americans also face the difficulty of getting approved for a car loan. Crawling out of the hole that a bad credit score creates can take years of persistence and patience. So, what can Americans in that predicament do until their score goes up? And what can they do to help get their scores up?

There are many lenders out there who understand this dilemma and offer an excellent way to start the long process of credit recovery. An auto loan with a trend of on-time payments is a great way to reestablish credit. A great place to start the loan process is online at a site like Car.com, a popular consumer automotive information site committed to helping customers with special finance needs get approved for a loan and into the right vehicle.  

Car.com is a free service that works with a nationwide network of finance companies and dealers to help customers with special finance needs. The service connects consumers with a dealer or lender who operates in the consumer's area, who specializes in secondary finance, and who is dedicated to helping car-buyers get the vehicle they want at a price they can afford. The advantage a site like Car.com provides is that consumers who have been turned down by other dealers or banks have an opportunity to find the right lender for their particular situation online and in the comfort of their own home.

"Knowing we would have to work with a bank that handled 'second chance' cases, I thought that they would put us in a cheap car, but this was not the case! They showed us a VW Jetta that was right within our price range and looked and drove like new!" says Kellie M., Waycross, Ga.

A site like Car.com also provides help for students or first-time car buyers, who struggle from the catch 22: How do you get a loan if you don't have credit, since you need credit to get a loan? Car.com believes that there is a lender for everyone.

Here is how the process works: Click on Car.com to help find your car loan, the online questionnaire only takes a few minutes to complete. Car.com then securely delivers your information to its network of third party lenders and dealers. Loan decisions normally occur within hours. While you're there, if you need to find out your credit rating, use Experian Automotive to receive a copy of your credit report online.

Also at Car.com you can search for a vehicle, see vehicle reviews, previews, videos, histories and discussions. Find a form, fill out the short application and learn about financing. You can compare vehicles and figure out your payment schedule with an online payment calculator.

To find out what vehicle you will qualify for, fill out the short application at www.car.com, and start improving your credit.

Copyright © 2007, ARAnet, inc.

Sponsored content provided by ARALifestyle. Copyright ARAnet, Inc.