[BrotherJonathan]

A 50% increase is not "doubling". It takes a 100% increase to double. It is still plenty bad, but only half as bad as your headline.

[callisto]

It's Reuters headline, not mine...I always try to keep the same headline for search purposes. But headlines are written to grab attention.

[rw4site]

Read the first paragraph more carefully.

The 50% increase is referring to the first four months of this year as compared to the same period last year when the full year rate more than doubled from 1999.