Noisia Records

HANOI Jan 5 (Reuters) – These are some of the leading
stories in the official Vietnamese press on Thursday. Reuters
has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their
accuracy.

FINANCIAL NEWS:

THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM

– The market capitalisation of the Hanoi Stock Exchange as
of Dec. 30 had fallen 36.5 percent from a year earlier to 83.72
trillion dong ($3.98 billion), the exchange said.

– Vietnams loans for real estate in 2011 totalled 203.6
trillion dong ($9.7 billion), which was 31 trillion dong lower
than in 2010. Among the real estate loans, long-term loans
accounted for 80 percent, the Construction Ministry said.

– Sacombank said it had bought back 100 million
shares, or 9.31 percent of its registered capital.

– The authorities granted trading accounts to 33 foreign
investors in December, raising the total number at the end of
2011 to 15,569, the Vietnam Securities Depository center said.

ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:

NHAN DAN

– The Phu My Urea Plant is scheduled to produce 800,000
tonnes of the fertiliser this year, while the Ca Mau plant would
turn out 560,000 tonnes, jointly meeting nearly 70 percent of
domestic urea demand this year.

TUOI TRE

– About 2,500 chickens found to be infected with bird flu
were killed in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, the
provincial animal health department said.

THANH NIEN

– The government has requested that the Ministry of Science
and Technology inspect the quality of petrol and oil products
following recent cases of motorcycles and cars exploding
nationwide.

LAO DONG

– Market watchdogs in the south-central province of Khanh
Hoa said they had fined two Chinese dealers 15 million dong
($713.3) each for illegal seafood stockpiling, and confiscated
40 tonnes of fish.

(Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom)

In need of some distraction as you settle back into the post-holiday malaise at work? USA TODAYs TV team can help you out there.

TV critic Robert Bianco and reporter/ratings guru Gary Levin are out in Los Angeles for the annual Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, where the networks will parade their executives, writers and stars in front of the media all week. Theyll be talking about what you can expect from your favorite shows (and perhaps your future favorites) from now until May. And well be bringing it all to you.

11 hours ago

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Michael Biesecker, an award-winning reporter and investigative journalist for The News & Observer of Raleigh, has been hired by The Associated Press to cover federal courts, investigations and politics in North Carolina.

Biesecker is a North Carolina native and has spent his 15-year-career in his home state. He worked at the Winston-Salem Journal in a variety of positions including as a columnist and reporter before going to work for The News & Observer in 2003. He has covered the state capital for the newspaper since 2009.

His work probing the failings of North Carolina’s mental health care system in 2008 uncovered more than 80 questionable deaths in state mental hospitals. The newspaper’s series “Mental Disorder: The Failure of Reform” led to new policies on how state facilities report deaths and monitor care. He has won numerous awards from the North Carolina Press Association, including for general news and for investigative reporting. In 2008, he was part of a team that won an Associated Press Managing Editors Association First Amendment Award for reporting on access to email written by public officials.

The appointment was announced Monday by South Editor Lisa Marie Pane, Chief of Bureau Michelle Williams and Carolinas News Editor Evan Berland.

“Biesecker has some serious reporting chops and we’re looking forward to his using those to cover the vitally important federal courts beat and being involved in some important investigative projects,” Pane said.

“Michael brings the right mix of investigative reporting skills and deep North Carolina knowledge to our staff,” Williams said. “He will be a great addition to our already aggressive news reporting team.”

Biesecker, 38, is a graduate of North Carolina State University and has a master’s degree from Wake Forest University.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Ben and Amber Sessions were forced to foreclose on their Idaho house after they discovered it was infested with garters snakes. (Jessie L. Bonner/Associated Press)An Idaho couple was forced to foreclose on their newly purchased home after they discovered that it was infested with hundreds of garter snakes.

Ben and Amber Sessions bought the house in Rexburg in 2009. They signed a document that noted the snake infestation, but claim their real estate agent had told them it was just a fiction made up by the previous owners, The Associated Press reports.

But fiction quickly turned to a real-life horror story for the young couple. At times the ground surrounding the home was so thick with snakes it appeared to move, AP reports. At night, the couple would lie awake to the sound of snakes slithering inside the walls.

Turns out all the neighbours knew about the snake house, as they called it.

The Sessionses were unable to get out of their mortgage and filed for bankruptcy. Ben Sessions has since been diagnosed with snake-related post-traumatic stress disorder.

The house is currently off the market.

Do you have a homebuyer horror story? Was it an infestation, or a leaky roof? Would you have abandoned the snake house the way the Sessions did? Let us know in the comments field below.

What would be your worst home infestation nightmare?customer surveys

(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers responses.)

Twelve US senators urged the
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to work with state
attorneys general and other federal agencies as it considers
banks’ plans for addressing mortgage-servicing deficiencies.

The Senate Democrats, including Banking Committee Chairman
Tim Johnson and Patrick Leahy, head of the Judiciary Committee,
made the request after the OCC granted banks a 30-day extension
to meet terms of consent orders issued on April 13. Regulators
seek “action plans” from eight loan servicers including
JPMorgan Chase amp; Co. (JPM), Wells Fargo amp; Co. (WFC) and Citigroup Inc. (C)

“As the OCC assesses these action plans to determine
whether they are acceptable, we urge you to work with the State
Attorneys General, the Department of Justice, the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, and the other authorities who are
involved,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to John Walsh, the
acting comptroller of the currency.

State and federal investigators are looking into servicers’
lapses in foreclosure procedures after firms were accused of
improperly seizing homes and relying on inexperienced workers
who failed to track paperwork or improperly signed documents.
Allegations of so-called robo-signing of legal documents led
several lenders to temporarily suspend foreclosures last year.

The OCC granted the extension yesterday at the request of
the Department of Justice to permit coordination by federal and
state agencies in response to the servicers’ proposals.

‘Effective Framework’

“Our enforcement actions were intended to ensure that
national bank servicers fix the parts of the process that were
broken and provide effective remediation for borrowers,” Robert Garsson, the OCC’s spokesman, said in a statement. “Those
orders can also provide an effective framework for any remedial
steps that state officials believe are necessary, and we were
happy to accommodate the Justice Department’s request.”

The 10 other senators who signed the letter included the
second- and third-ranked Democrats in the Senate — Richard Durbin of Illinois and Charles Schumer of New York — as well as
Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island,
Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Robert Menendez of New
Jersey, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jeff Merkley of Oregon andAl Franken of Minnesota.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Phil Mattingly in Washington at
pmattingly@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Lawrence Roberts at
lroberts13@bloomberg.net

NEW YORK — As Congress increases pressure on the White House to define the legal grounds for US military involvement in Libya, one of the country’s most influential news organizations has updated its definition of the nearly three-month old conflict.

The Associated Press is now guiding its staff to refer to the situation in Libya as a civil war.

The move isnt just an issue of semantics. Given the media’s role in helping frame debates over politics and policy, language can make a difference in public perceptions.

For instance, public opinion over the use of waterboarding can vary, depending on whether news organizations describe the practice accurately as torture or euphemistically as enhanced interrogation, the preferred terminology of Bush administration officials. Or building an Islamic cultural center in Lower Manhattan is less likely to meet opposition than constructing a Ground Zero mosque, the more sinister-sounding name used by many news outlets last summer.

Similarly, the White House may find it tougher to sell the public on taking sides in a North African civil war rather than getting involved in a NATO-supported, limited military campaign to protect democracy-seeking rebels from a dictators brutality.

The APs new language has already been visible in recent articles, including a report Monday on Muammar Gaddafis chess match with the Russian head of the World Chess Federation.

Some other news organizations have also used the term civil war in the past week, including Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal.

Syrian troops press forward as presidential envoy is despatched to Turkey

Syrian troops have extended operations to tighten their stranglehold on towns and villages that joined an uprising against the regime.

With their pay hanging in the balance on Wednesdayâ??s deadline for a state budget, Democratic lawmakers are preparing to push through a spending plan that would tax purchases from online outlets such as Amazon.com, bump up car registration fees and local sales tax rates, and tack a new fee on residents in fire zones.

The plan would also cut more deeply into higher education, public safety and the courts. And it would defer billions of dollars in bill payments and revive a controversial plan to sell state buildings that was abandoned months ago because it was deemed too costly.

Crafted without Republican input or support, the proposal would rely on complex accounting maneuvers to raise the levies, according to Assembly budget staff involved in the process, so that it can pass without the GOP votes typically needed to increase taxes.

After Democrats slashed billions in spending earlier this year, mostly from programs for the poor, they would close much of the remaining deficit with the sort of accounting sleight-of-hand that for years has merely papered over Californiaâ??s fiscal shortfalls.

It is not clear whether Gov. Jerry Brown will sign such a budget.

Democrats openly admitted that the plan, which many rank-and-file Democrats learned of Tuesday afternoon, was their distant second choice. They said stiff Republican opposition to Gov. Jerry Brownâ??s plan to renew vehicle and sales taxes that expire this month forced their hand. Brown wants lawmakers to extend those taxes until a fall referendum on them could be held.

If there was a glimmer of hope that if we waited until Friday, or Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday of next week, that we could get the better solution with Republicans votes, obviously we wouldnâ??t be taking this up, said Assembly Speaker John A. PÃrez (D-Los Angeles). â??But that glimmer isnâ??t out there right now.#0160;

This is the first year since voters empowered the Legislature to pass a budget with a simple majority vote. It#39;s also the first year lawmakers will lose their pay if they don#39;t pass a budget on time. If approved in both houses Wednesday, it would mark only the second time a quarter-century that the Legislature would have met its constitutional deadline for a spending plan.

Itâ??s essential that we deliver on the promise of an on-time budget, PÃrez said. The majority party has to go and continue to be responsible actors in the absence of anybody else.

– Shane Goldmacher in Sacramento

Associated Press

Bosnian Serb Milorad Dodik, President of the Bosnian Serb region of Republic of Srpska, reacts during and interview with Associated Press in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kms (150 miles) northwest of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Milorad Dodik told the AP Wednesday that the Bosnian Serbs are “the victims of Bosnia” and would be much better off without being part of it. Since the end of the 1992-95 war, Bosnia has been divided into two autonomous regions one for the Serbs, the other shared by Bosnians and Croats. Bosnians are trying to unify the country, Serbs to keep their autonomy and Croats are keen on getting their own autonomous region.

Associated Press

Bosnian Serb Milorad Dodik, President of the Bosnian Serb region of Republic of Srpska, reacts during and interview with Associated Press in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kms (150 miles) northwest of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Milorad Dodik told the AP Wednesday that the Bosnian Serbs are “the victims of Bosnia” and would be much better off without being part of it. Since the end of the 1992-95 war, Bosnia has been divided into two autonomous regions one for the Serbs, the other shared by Bosnians and Croats. Bosnians are trying to unify the country, Serbs to keep their autonomy and Croats are keen on getting their own autonomous region.

Associated Press

Bosnian Serb Milorad Dodik, President of the Bosnian Serb region of Republic of Srpska, reacts during and interview with Associated Press in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kms (150 miles) northwest of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Milorad Dodik told the AP Wednesday that the Bosnian Serbs are “the victims of Bosnia” and would be much better off without being part of it. Since the end of the 1992-95 war, Bosnia has been divided into two autonomous regions one for the Serbs, the other shared by Bosnians and Croats. Bosnians are trying to unify the country, Serbs to keep their autonomy and Croats are keen on getting their own autonomous region.

Associated Press

Bosnian Serb Milorad Dodik, President of the Bosnian Serb region of Republic of Srpska, steps into his car after an interview with Associated Press in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kms (150 miles) northwest of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Milorad Dodik told the AP Wednesday that the Bosnian Serbs are “the victims of Bosnia” and would be much better off without being part of it. Since the end of the 1992-95 war, Bosnia has been divided into two autonomous regions one for the Serbs, the other shared by Bosnians and Croats. Bosnians are trying to unify the country, Serbs to keep their autonomy and Croats are keen on getting their own autonomous region.

Associated Press

Bosnian Serb Milorad Dodik, President of the Bosnian Serb region of Republic of Srpska, reacts during and interview with Associated Press in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kms (150 miles) northwest of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Milorad Dodik told the AP Wednesday that the Bosnian Serbs are “the victims of Bosnia” and would be much better off without being part of it. Since the end of the 1992-95 war, Bosnia has been divided into two autonomous regions one for the Serbs, the other shared by Bosnians and Croats. Bosnians are trying to unify the country, Serbs to keep their autonomy and Croats are keen on getting their own autonomous region.

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BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina June 15, 2011, 12:05 pm ET

The leader of Bosnia’s Serb republic said Wednesday his people are victims of a dysfunctional country and would be much better off on their own, but the EU insists on them staying part of Bosnia.

Milorad Dodik told The Associated Press in an interview that this is why Bosnian Serbs insist on strong autonomy within Bosnia, and if they can’t keep that, then the country should forget about its EU aspirations.

Balkan countries are trying to move toward EU membership as fast as they can, but Bosnia is lagging behind because its three ethnic groups keep arguing over the country’s future political setup.

“We can be part of that train toward Europe, but we will not sacrifice our rights, not even for Europe,” Dodik said. “The only way we can continue historically to exist is to enter the European Union as a republic with its own rights.”

Since the end of the 1992-95 war, Bosnia has been divided into two autonomous regions — one for the Serbs, the other shared by Bosniaks and Croats. The two regions are only loosely tied to the central government, parliament and the presidency.

The EU has insisted on a stronger central government. The 27-nation bloc’s position suits the Bosniaks, who want a unified country, but it scares off Serbs, who believe a stronger central government means them losing some of their autonomy.

Dodik said he believes the Bosnian Serb region “alone could meet EU standards within five years, but within Bosnia we won’t do that within 30 years. We are the victims of Bosnia-Herzegovina,” he said.

However, reaching the EU as a region is not possible because Brussels insists on “one country, one address,” he said.

Bosnian Serbs have been trying to explain this to EU diplomats for years, but the bad image from the war is hindering them, he said.

“As soon as you say Bosnia, the old stereotype of the ‘bad guys’ pops up, and Dodik turns out to be the bad guy,” he said.

The war’s main spark was the Bosnian Serb drive to split from Bosnia and join up with Serbia as Bosnia seceded from Yugoslavia. More than 100,000 people, mostly Bosniaks, died in the war, while most of the war crimes were committed by Serbs.

“That’s a big burden for us,” Dodik said.

He said the Bosniaks’ uncompromising stance on a unified country prevents Bosnia from moving faster toward the EU.

“The Bosniaks have tried everything to turn this into a story about a victim that has all the rights,” Dodik said. “But the Bosniaks were not the only victims.”

———

Irena Knezevic contributed to this report.

5 days ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Black members of Congress pressed President Barack Obama Thursday for a greater focus on creating jobs in urban areas where unemployment is often highest. Obama said he was trying to fix the economy as a whole, said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The exchange happened at the first meeting between Obama and the full Black Caucus since Obama became president. It follows longstanding complaints from some in the African-American community that the nation’s first black president hasn’t done more to help minority communities on jobs and other issues.

Cleaver told reporters at the White House that lawmakers in the group — which has about 40 members, all but one of them Democrats — highlighted to the president the difficulties of communities beset by high unemployment and stressed the need to address it, especially with summer approaching and teens looking for jobs. The overall unemployment rate is 9 percent but it’s 16.1 percent among blacks.

“He understands clearly what we spoke to him about, and that is the pain that is taking place in the urban core and many of the districts we represent,” Cleaver said.

“The president did speak to us about things that the administration is already doing and he said to us twice that he’s working on trying to heal the economy, and that if he heals the economy it will also take care of the issues that we raised,” Cleaver said.

Obama’s consistent response to questions about whether he should be doing more for blacks or other individual groups is that the best way to help any community is by growing the overall economy.

Cleaver said that lawmakers offered ideas including targeting census tracts where poverty is persistent and seeing whether federal emergency declarations for flood-hit areas or elsewhere can be used to generate jobs in those areas.

People who are unemployed “are begging for help and I think that the Congressional Black Caucus and the president are both interested in trying to come up with some means of addressing that and doing it rather quickly,” said Emanuel.

Emanuel said Obama didn’t promise anything specific, and it wasn’t clear whether anything new would be forthcoming from the White House.

A senior administration official said in an interview later that the president has various proposals that address Black Caucus concerns, including proposals in Obama’s 2012 budget blueprint that would send $40 million in grants and $2.5 billion in employment and investment tax credits to economically distressed areas; and a Department of Labor program meant to publicize job opportunities for low-income youths. The official spoke anonymously to discuss issues raised in the private meeting.

Asked whether the group was unsatisfied with what Obama’s been doing to address their concerns Cleaver said: “We’re not satisfied that the poor and the vulnerable are hurting. We are satisfied that the attention of the president is on that.”

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.