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Memorial Day Weekend Corona Virus Thread

The first residents have moved into a new housing scheme that mixes seniors, young people and foreigners who came to Sweden as unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. They are required to socialize with each other. Kristin Ohman, 74, in the communal dining room at SällBo The first time the young immigrant men met their future Swedish neighbors, it was Kristin Ohman (photo above) who made contact. "They were standing alone so I came over to meet them and I gave them some flowers," the 74-year-old smiles, as she remembers the gathering of the 70 people hand-picked to live in her new...

Yesterday as I was doing some work and surfing Free Republic, I got a knock on the door. I never answer the door when home alone and didn't yesterday. I didn't think much of it initially as we get a lot of solicitors, Jehovah Witnesses, etc. The individual kept knocking rather aggressively and ringing the bell. I looked out a side window and saw a car. Because there can sometimes be lawsuits at my husband's company, my immediate thought was that perhaps he was receiving a summons for a court case that needed his testimony. While this has never happened...

NICOSIA - Al Qaeda warned Germans on Friday to change their government in the September 27 election, saying they will face a ‘bad awakening’ if they do not, according to two intelligence monitoring services. Germany was also told to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan or face attacks at home, the US-based monitoring groups said. In video footage a man identified as Abu Talha the German, and speaking in German, asks his Muslim ‘brethren’ to ‘stay away from anything not vital for two weeks after the election,’ according to IntelCenter. Abu Talha, whose real name is said to be Bekkay Harrach,...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate negotiators are finding common ground on a healthcare reform bill and a bipartisan compromise will soon be unveiled, a senior Democrat said Monday. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., told reporters in Washington Monday that the negotiators, known as the "Gang of Six," are coming together on a healthcare bill that will "have some significant bipartisan support," CNN reported. "As senators on and off the committee, (including) Republicans, begin to know more about all of this, their comfort level is starting to come up a bit," Baucus said, adding that the group...

An Arizona state legislative committee has approved a resolution calling for the dissolution of the federal government in the event that it abolishes the U.S. Constitution, declares martial law or confiscates firearms -- scenarios some say are not unrealistic. Critics of the resolution, however, call the measure a "total waste of time." Rep. Karen Johnson, a Mesa Republican and chair of the House Committee on Federal Mandates and States' Rights, authored the resolution which the committee approved 3-2. Only the committee's vice-chair, Republican Rep. Gail Griffin, abstained from voting. Specifically, House Concurrent Resolution 2034 outlines the origin of the United...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As an economist, Beth Armington, 41, knows the value of saving money for the future, and she puts money aside from every paycheck for retirement. But as a divorced mother of two a week before Christmas, she's thrilled with the sale at Hecht's department store. "Hecht's is practically giving it away," she said as she browsed the upscale store. "I can buy five different presents for my kids but spend only half as much as last year." With small children, a "huge mortgage" and a nanny to pay for, Armington echoes the sentiments of many Americans fighting...

Toward that end, Pavlansky is launching an unprecedented employee-awareness campaign that will be anchored by the bulletin-board display of a list of "pro-manufacturing" congressional and presidential candidates on one side, and "anti-manufacturing" on the other.Manufacturers pulling workers into political fray

BEIJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- China's information technology industry output will triple in 2010 to become the world's largest, a senior official from the National Development and Reform Committee said Friday at a conference in Beijing. Besides strong output, the country is also emerging as a leader in technology, thanks to the growth of domestic companies, said Xu Qing, vice director of the committee's high-tech division. This year, the IT industry output is expected to hit 2.4 trillion yuan (US$289.16 billion) to become the world's third-largest following the United States and Japan, Xu said. Xu's confidence is based on some...

The Bush administration's decision this week to limit imports of some textiles and apparel from China heightened the world's perception of growing protectionism in the U.S. The move comes just a week after the World Trade Organization ruled U.S. steel tariffs imposed last year are illegal. The European Union is threatening retaliation. Europe also says it'll impose $4 billion in punitive duties on U.S. goods if Congress doesn't repeal tax breaks for exporters ? also struck down by the WTO. All this follows the failure of world trade talks over the summer in which U.S. and European farm subsidies were...

Trade focus: Central America A deal could open markets, lead to wider agreements, and support democracy. BLOOMBERG NEWS Negotiators from the United States and five Central American nations are trying to reach agreement on cutting tariffs on factory goods and creating rules for investment as a step toward reaching a free-trade accord this year. Procter & Gamble Co., Intel Corp., and other U.S. companies are urging the United States, during talks in Houston this week, to ensure that any agreement will make it easier for them to build factories, invest in government-owned utilities, cut piracy, and tap new markets to...

So what's going on these days in the world of offshoring and foreign outsourcing? * The latest to sound warnings about the dangers of sending technology-based jobs offshore is Intel Corp. Chairman Andrew Grove. Speaking to a conference last week, Grove said the software and information-technology industries are going the way of the steel and semiconductor industries. But at least one reader responded with "gee Andy, now you tell us," noting that Intel has been among the more aggressive American companies in shifting work abroad. * But why wander so far afield for an explanation of whether this stuff matters?...

<p>ROCKFORD, Ill. -- On April 15, Ingersoll International Co., a manufacturing mainstay here for 112 years, told its 300 employees to stop work midshift because it was shutting down. The company, one of two in the nation that had produced drilling machines to build F-35 fighter jets, had recently lost a defense contract to a Spanish firm and had been staggered by fast-growing competition from Asia.</p>

<p>Washington, D.C. - Democratic presidential candidates are fighting over whether it is a good idea to keep pursuing the free-trade policy that was a hallmark of the Clinton administration.</p> <p>Because of the importance of trade to Iowa farmers and manufacturers, the intraparty struggle will have implications for the state if Democrats retake the White House.</p>

For Levi Strauss & Co., the future is stacked on the shelves at Wal-Mart. The struggling San Francisco-based apparel maker said Tuesday that its fiscal third-quarter profit nearly doubled, thanks to a new low-priced brand it began selling at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s 3,000 U.S. outlets two months ago. Earnings in the quarter ended Aug. 24 jumped 95% to $26.7 million, compared with $13.7 million in the year-earlier period. The results, which also were helped by favorable currency rates, were in line with Levi's projections.

There are socks, socks, and more socks, everywhere at Network Knitwear Fabrics (NKF). [NFK knitting and sewing machines] About 700 people are employed by the sock factory It is a manufacturing and export company, located at the industrial and port city of Tema, 18km east of Accra, established a year and a half ago. Its purpose is to take advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), a US legislation designed to allow more than a thousand products, including textiles, to be sold in the United States without paying any tariffs. With the Agoa sock factory, what we bring...

Many Arizona voters are disgruntled with President Bush's handling of the economy and funding for the Iraq war and wouldn't re-elect him right now, according to a poll released Thursday by Arizona State University. Only 34 percent questioned during a weekend telephone survey would vote to give Bush a second term, according to the poll results. Forty-four percent said they would prefer someone else and 22 percent said they were undecided. Bush's standing in Arizona has national implications |because |while |the president won the state in 2000, voters narrowly picked a Democratic governor last year. "People have kind of looked...

<p>An analysis of the latest government monthly economic data suggests the unemployment situation is worse than the headlines portray.</p> <p>August numbers from the Department of Labor found a 6.1 percent unemployment rate, or about 8.9 million people out of work. But in its analysis of other monthly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reported the real unemployment rate was 9.1 percent.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - A group of Republican and Democratic senators said Tuesday they will push for tariffs on imports from China if the Chinese government does not take steps toward letting its currency float freely on world markets. "It's a shot across the bow," said Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky. Chinese goods would face a 27.5 percent American tariff and China would lose its special trading status under the senators' bill, designed to prod China into changing its currency practices. The lawmakers argue that China unfairly undervalues its currency, making goods produced in China less expensive and making foreign imports too...

A PATIENT at the Singapore General Hospital tested positive for the Sars virus on Monday, triggering concern that the respiratory disease may have resurfaced here. Hospital staff asked visitors to leave wards 74 and 78 in the late afternoon. The Straits Times learnt that more tests were done on the Singaporean man to confirm if the preliminary test result was correct, or if it was a false positive. He worked in a virology laboratory at Kent Ridge, but apparently was not working with the Sars virus. A Health Ministry spokesman said that Acting Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan will hold...