NEWS, NOUVELLES, NOTICIAS, NACHRICHTEN

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OF THE WORLD, DU MONDE, DEL MUNDO, DER WELT

YOUTUBE: KAGUYA
"Earthrise, Earthset"
Look! There's you!


WEIRD TALES AND STOOOOOPIT STUFFS FROM AROUND THE PLANET

Why Watch FuxSnooze When You Can Get The Nitty-Gritty Direct From Every Foreign City?

As the big self-important newspapers and television networks die out for lack of an audience, there is still plenty of business going on between millions of news-junkies and all those little flat-footed beat reporters in every little town and big city neighborhood on Earth. Get some coffee, maybe a doughnut and check out the latest sense and nonsense from the rest of humanity. And save me a chocolate coconut.


TIME MAGAZINE
"Coming to an Ex-U.S. Car Dealer Near You: Pickups From India"
The race to the bottom is over. We won!

' Dramatically weakened by recession, U.S. automakers in the next few years are likely to be challenged on their home turf by car manufacturers from the developing world. But, while the Chinese were expected to be the first to land in North America, it now looks like India will beat China to the U.S. market - and not with cars, but with light trucks. But U.S. consumers have in the past shunned diesel-powered vehicles, and it's unclear whether the Mahindra trucks, which will be manufactured in India, will have a clear advantage when it comes to sticker price. Mahindra says the price, which analysts expect to be around $20,000, will be divulged closer to the December launch date. Perez says the trucks "will not be cheap, but will be reasonably priced." Competitors have base models starting at around $15,000. "Mahindra will have to tread the thin line between cheap and value," says Mohit Arora, J.D. Power's senior director for India. "Too cheap will affect quality perceptions, while a higher price will alienate buyers." (See pictures of the world’s cheapest car.) Mahindra will also have to contend with skepticism surrounding the made-in-India tag. Indian companies are recognized by Americans for outsourcing and call centers, not for manufacturing prowess. The most famous Indian manufacturer today may be Tata Motors, which garnered international recognition earlier this year when it launched its $2,000 minicar, the Nano. Tata plans to start selling the Nano in the U.S. in 2011. To create brand awareness for its pickups and SUVs, Mahindra is expected to spend around $20 million on Internet and print advertising leading up to the trucks' debut. The vehicles will be imported from India; the company has no immediate plans to build pickups in the U.S. '

YAHOO NEWS
"Okla. paramedic wants trooper's gun and badge"
Super trooper?

' Martin stopped the ambulance May 24 for failing to yield. White says he got out of the ambulance to tell the trooper they were taking a patient to the hospital. The argument quickly escalated into a scuffle and Martin put White in a choke hold. '

YAHOO NEWS
"Oregon woman obsessed with rabbits arrested again"
Silly trick! Rabbits are for kids!

' Problems for Sakewitz started in October 2006 when police in Hillsboro, about 15 miles west of Portland, found and confiscated nearly 250 rabbits in her home, including about 100 dead ones in freezers and refrigerators. Police said she broke into the facility where the survivors were being cared for in January 2007 and stole most of them back. Authorities found her a few days later in Chehalis, Wash., with eight live rabbits and two dead ones in her car. Another 130 rabbits were recovered at a nearby horse farm. '

YAHOO NEWS
"NY man charged with impersonating dead mother"
The funny thing is, he's not a psycho.

' Authorities claim that following his arrest, Parkin told them that because he held Prusik when she breathed her last breath, "I am my mother." Parkin, who lived with his mother, was accused of hatching the scheme after she passed away in 2003 at age 73. He managed to conceal the death by falsifying her death certificate, then collected $52,000 from her $700-a-month Social Security checks over the next six years, prosecutors said. Authorities say Parkin also got another $65,000 in rent subsidies by falsely claiming he had a disability and that his mother was still alive and was his landlord. Parkin used his friend Rimolo to pose as the mother's nephew when going to cash checks and do other business, prosecutors said. A security camera photo from the DMV office shows a frail-looking Parkin in a wig and dark glasses, Rimolo by his side, as he fills out paperwork. The ruse began to unravel amid a dispute over the mother's home, which was sold at foreclosure in 2003. Parkin challenged the purchase by suing the new owner on his mother's behalf so he wouldn't be evicted. '

YAHOO NEWS
"Police: Man attacked in Okla. for bologna sandwich"
I dunno. Sounds like baloney to me. I could kill for a good pastrami sandwich, though...

' A man in Oklahoma City said he was attacked for his bologna and cheese sandwich. Police say 24-year-old Roger Hamilton told them he was sitting on a bus station bench Wednesday, about to put mayonnaise on his sandwich, when another man began staring at him. Hamilton told police that the man then punched him in the mouth and grabbed his sandwich and left. '

YAHOO NEWS
"Dead pilot's wife: He was in 'perfect health'"
Please fasten your seat belts. We are now headed into... the Twilight Zone.

' The Continental Airlines pilot who died on a trans-Atlantic flight from Brussels to Newark was in "perfect health" and fellow crew members initially thought he had just fallen asleep, his wife told a Houston television station. '

REUTERS
"U.S. SEC says "dark pools" are emerging risk to market"
Where the big fish feed.

' Dark pools, where orders are anonymously matched so that traders do not alert the wider market to their intentions, have triggered concerns that stock pricing may not be transparent and that a privileged few are benefiting. The lack of post-trade transparency makes it difficult for the public to assess dark pool trading and to identify pools that are most active in particular stocks. "This ... has the potential to undermine public confidence in the equity markets, particularly if the volume of trading activity in dark pools increases substantially," SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in remarks prepared for delivery to the New York Financial Writers Association. "The lack of reliable information can prompt speculation and suspicion about the basis for market fluctuations," she said. Dark pools, she said, are among the emerging risks to investors and markets that the SEC is focusing on. '

AFP
"US Senate votes formal apology for slavery"
Fingers crossed.

' In a step that has angered some African-American lawmakers, the measure takes pains not to fuel the push for the US government to pay reparations to the descendants of African slaves. "Nothing in this resolution (a) authorizes or supports any claim against the United States; or (b) serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States," it says. '

LA TIMES
"NASA launches mission to explore the moon"
TAKE ME!!!

' NASA took the first concrete step toward returning human beings to the moon Thursday, successfully launching the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on a mission to find the best place to land and build Earth's first off-world colony. '

NPR
"More Families Pull The Plug On Their Home Phone"
Do not ask for whom the bell tolls...

' The concept of a home phone may soon be going the way of the corner pay phone. Government research shows that more and more households are getting rid of their land line. And for the first time, cell-phone-only homes outnumber those with just land lines. '

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