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To: TobagoJack who wrote (53363)	2/10/2006 9:27:17 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

DJ German Labor Body:Public Sector Strikes To Spread Next Wk el mat better get back to the fatherland and leave iran BERLIN (AP)--Strikes by public workers will spread across western Germany starting Monday, labor union officials said Friday, expanding the country's biggest public service stoppage in 14 years. Public workers will go on strike next week in five western states, the white-collar DBB union said. The main police officers union said it would strike in six states. Frank Bsirske, head of the ver.di service workers' union, said hospitals, highway maintenance and local government offices would be affected. It was unclear how many workers would participate. Unions are pressing state authorities to match wage deals struck with federal and municipal agencies. The union is also protesting at plans to extend weekly working hours for municipal workers from 38.5 to 40 hours. Thousands of public workers began rolling strikes Monday in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, leaving garbage uncollected and forcing the temporary closure of child daycare centers. State governor Guenther Oettinger Thursday proposed a pay increase in return for accepting the longer hours. (END) Dow Jones Newswires February 10, 2006 07:56 ET (12:56 GMT) Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 07 56 AM EST 02-10-06

To: TobagoJack who wrote (53363)	2/10/2006 9:29:10 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

=DJ Bush Admin's Return To Cold-War Rhetoric Raises Eyebrows . By Rebecca Christie Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Almost seventeen years after the Berlin Wall fell, the White House has returned to Cold War rhetoric to justify its political and military goals. President George W. Bush, whose father oversaw the fall of the Soviet Union and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989, described a generational struggle in his 2006 State of the Union speech. The U.S. is in "a long war against a determined enemy," Bush said, harkening back to Ronald Reagan's 1983 description of "the aggressive impulses of an evil empire." Senior officials have played up the Cold War comparison. In budget testimony this week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld invoked President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Cold War comments "that seem to have resonance today." Analysts say the new rhetoric distorts current conditions. The al-Qaeda network isn't a Soviet-style major economy spanning 12 time zones, said defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a Washington-area think tank. "Since it's actually a handful of nuts with no real resources at their command, it's a little hard to see why such imagery is appropriate," Thompson said. Even so, the imagery may be a political winner. The Brookings Institute's Michael O'Hanlon said national security is once again a political wedge issue, in a way that was less prevalent during the 1990s. "I tend to think it's actually more common now for Republicans to be using very much the old rhetoric and for Democrats to be reverting more to post-Cold War approaches still, where things like civil liberties and union rights are given a higher importance," O'Hanlon said. "I think [this trend] is ultimately to the Democrats' detriment in most of these debates," he said. After six years of the Bush administration, Rumsfeld's Pentagon still lacks support for some of its most ambitious weapons systems. Congress has consistently cut requested funding for behemoth, communications-oriented programs like the $19 billion Transformational Satellite Communications System, or TSAT, led by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), and the Army's $161 billion Future Combat Systems modernization initiative, led by Boeing Co. (BA) and Science Applications International Corp. (SAP.XX). Defense officials have offered the long struggle against terrorism as the latest reason why their technology efforts deserve funding, despite technical setbacks and lengthy development schedules. The 2006 quadrennial defense review offers a "top level" overview of why the Pentagon's plans make sense, said Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary for policy, at a Defense Writer's Group breakfast this week. "If you look at this long war we're engaged in, and we think of it relative to the Cold War, we're kind of still in the Truman administration," Henry said. -By Rebecca Christie, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9243; rebecca.christie@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires February 10, 2006 07:36 ET (12:36 GMT)

To: TobagoJack who wrote (53363)	2/10/2006 9:30:38 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

=DJ Financiers Ponder How To Bankroll Nuclear Energy Wave Instead of underwriting houses with new corian countertops - why dont foreign investors buy into nukular? By Angel Gonzalez OF DOW JONES NEWSWIRES HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--Nuclear energy is sparking interest both among power generators and U.S. powers that be, but potential lenders lack the experience to underwrite nuclear projects, said Citigroup Managing Director Sandip Sen. Nuclear reactors haven't been commissioned in the U.S. since the 1970s, and financial institutions are debating "when and how a nuclear plant is going to be financed," said Sen, during the Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference here. Nevertheless, "the economics are very compelling," he said. U.S. legislation contains financial incentives for nuclear energy generation, such as tax credits and federally-regulated disaster insurance, said Sen. Nuclear facilities, which emit no carbon dioxide, are also a hedge against potential future penalties on greenhouse gases. Large capital influx from hedge funds and private equity funds could be channeled into building a new nuclear facility, Sen said. Volatile hydrocarbon prices, growing environmental concerns and increased interest in energy independence have fostered a renaissance of nuclear plant projects in the U.S. -By Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9207; angel.gonzalez@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires

To: TobagoJack who wrote (53363)	2/10/2006 9:32:34 AM
From: shades	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

=DJ DATA SNAP:Canada Jan Jobs Rebound;Jobless Rate Up Unexpectedly-2 Canadian employers hired 16,100 full-time workers last month and 10,200 part-timers. The public sector added 42,800 employees, but the private sector laid off 12,900. The biggest job gain was in public administration, which saw an increase of 15,000, bolstered by temporary workers hired for the Jan. 23 federal election. Employers in the natural resources sector hired 12,300 workers with the strongest gains in Alberta and British Columbia. Employment in this sector has jumped 19.2% since the end of 2002, fueled by Alberta's strong oil and gas sector. Employment in the "other services" category was up 12,400 and finance, insurance and real estate jobs were up 10,800. The construction sector added a modest 5,000 workers. However, the manufacturing sector continued to bleed jobs, shedding 41,600 workers, the most since February 1991. Most of the layoffs occurred in Ontario and was concentrated in the furniture and auto sectors. Manufacturers have had to deal with the impact of the strong Canadian dollar, competition from cheaper imports and fewer new orders in recent months, the statistics agency noted. Manufacturing employment has fallen 8.2% since the end of 2002, the agecny added. Overall, the goods producing sector laid off 34,400 workers last month, but hiring in the services producing sector was up 60,700. Compared with the year earlier period, Canadian employment is up 1.7% or 269,000, marginally less than the 2.0% increase in the U.S., Statistics Canada said. The Canadian dollar was slightly weaker after the data was released at 7 a.m. EST, with the U.S. dollar quoted at C$1.1475 compared with C$1.1485 just before the data was released. (END) Dow Jones Newswires February 10, 2006 07:24 ET (12:24 GMT) Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 07 24 AM EST 02-10-06