MASON CITY, Iowa ? Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry said Friday he would like English to be made the national language of the United States, agreeing with a frustrated voter who railed over the presence of multiple languages in everyday American life.
Perry, whose campaign needs a boost before Tuesday's lead-off Iowa caucuses, spoke at a Cerro Gordo County GOP fundraiser and took questions from the audience at the Mason County Country Club.
The voter who told the Texas governor he was tired of multilingual directions for products drew applause when he said he'd like to see English become the official language of the U.S. government.
"I don't know how the rest of the conservatives in the room feel, but personally, I'm fed up with seeing the directions on every single product on every single shelf of every single store written in four languages," said the man, who didn't give his name.
Perry replied, "That is a statement, that's not a question, and I can agree with it."
Perry, whose state is home to millions of Spanish speakers, is struggling to regain momentum in Iowa. He joined the presidential race in August to great fanfare and then crashed after campaign missteps and lackluster debates.
Trying to connect with conservatives, Perry has seemed willing to embrace more conservative positions as time runs short.
Earlier this week, Perry strengthened his opposition to abortion even in cases of rape and incest. He previously had said he would allow abortion in those instances, as well as when the woman's life was in jeopardy.
A pastor asked Perry about the cases when he'd allow abortion and Perry surprised the audience when he said he had undergone a "transformation" on the subject. He seemed to say he opposed abortion in all cases.
A day later, the governor told reporters that he would still allow abortion when a woman's life was at stake. He did not elaborate.
Six children and a teacher were wounded when assailants threw a homemade bomb at an Islamic school in a predominantly Christian area, police in Nigeria said Wednesday.
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The attack took place in the city of Sapele, as about 50 children were gathered for an Arabic class.
Delta State police spokesman Charles Muka said that the attackers drove by a school and threw homemade explosives into a classroom Tuesday morning.
Story: Nigeria fears more bombs after 39 killed in Christmas attacks
The wounded children were all aged younger than nine, Reuters reported. At least one was aged four.
Investigators suspect a local vigilante group was behind the incident, Muka added.
The latest incident follows coordinated attacks by radical Islamist militants on Christmas Day, which killed at least 39 people.
Video: Deadly bombings strike Nigeria (on this page)
Analysts say the attacks risk reviving sectarian violence between the mostly Muslim north and Christian south, which has claimed thousands of lives in the past decade.
The radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram? has claimed responsbility for the church attacks. Boko Haram aims to impose Islamic Shariah law across Nigeria.
Many northern Nigerian Christians fear the Christmas Day bombings could lead to a religious war in Africa's most populous country.
Meanwhile, a family of four was killed in a machete attack on Wednesday in Nigeria's ethnically and religiously mixed Plateau state ? on the threshold of the country's largely Muslim north and its mostly Christian south.
There was no immediate suggestion the killings had any link to Sunday's church bombings.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
They saved George Bush's brain (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)
If you can all bear with me here, today we're going to pretend that Rick Perry has a chance in hell of winning the nomination for (anything outside Texas). That allows us to pretend, in turn, that the stuff he says has relevance, as opposed to being just whatever red-meat-for-the-base he happens to come up with in that cavernous empty skull of his, which in turn allows us a bit of relief from having to take Newt Gingrich seriously. Really. Newt Gingrich.
So here's yet another of Perry's Deep Thoughts for Iowa Republicans. These will all be printed in a brightly colored pop-up book after the Perry campaign is over. (I'm betting the execution-themed pages alone will be worth the twenty dollars.)
Rick Perry on Wednesday criticized President Obama for not arranging a parade to welcome U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq, accusing him of not properly thanking the military.
"It really disturbs me that nearly after nine years of war in Iraq that this president wouldn?t welcome home our many heroes with a simple parade in their honor," Perry said at a campaign stop in Iowa. "Maybe it?s because this war is unpopular with the Democrats. I don?t know. But Mr. President, our soldiers come first. And it comes before party politics. We need to welcome our soldiers home. Give them that parade. Give them that pat on the back. Tell them thank you for the freedom that we have."
Yes. That's exactly what we need to do for our returning soldiers?have a parade. Welcome back, troops: Sorry about the lack of jobs, sorry about all those Republican attempts to screw you out of your healthcare, but Perry would have at least done the honest Republican thing and had a big ol' victory parade in his your honor. Here, welcome back: Have a float.
I admit perhaps I might be out of touch, but I can't imagine a lot of soldiers really want, after spending gawdawful years of their lives in Iraq, to be forced to march around some city streets for a while so that some people feel a proper sense of closure about the whole thing. Me, I'd rather just be allowed to go the hell home already. And what about all the troops that came home earlier? What about the troops still in Afghanistan, many of them shuffled from Iraq?
More to the point, you can imagine what would happen if Obama did have a "Mission Accomplished" event for/with the troops. The outrage among Republicans would be deafening. Fox News satellites would be exploding left and right just from the bile. (Note to self: hmm. An upside.) How dare Obama politicize the end of a war that good Republican warmongers are still peeved about ending. How dare he use the troops as props. Blah blah blah, outrage outrage outrage, now let's go to Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity and Rick Perry to tell us all how offended they are.
If you want to thank a soldier, here's some ways to do it. Protect and expand their healthcare benefits. Pay them better. Give them body armor without them having to take up collections from their family and friends to get it. Send them a "Welcome Home" card with five hundred bucks in it, for crying out loud.
And don't get them involved in nine-year "cakewalks" based on bizarre ideological gambits, but that goes without saying.
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The Colorado Buffaloes women's basketball team has gone 11-0 in non-conference play and begins its first-ever Pac-12 conference schedule on Dec. 31 against the other new member of the Pac-12, the Utah Utes. But not even an undefeated record can get the Buffs even one vote in the latest AP poll.
Maybe if they defeat the currently-No. 4 Stanford Cardinal on Saturday, Jan. 14, the women's basketball team will crack the poll.
BBC's Jon Donnison: "People believe what is happening in Beit Shemesh is a microcosm of the broader Israeli society"
Thousands of Israelis have rallied in the town of Beit Shemesh against ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremism.
The protest follows two days of clashes after an eight-year-old girl said she had been harassed on her way to school.
Some ultra-Orthodox in Beit Shemesh are seeking to segregate men and women.
President Shimon Peres backed the protest. "The entire nation must be recruited in order to save the majority from the hands of a small minority," Mr Peres said hours before the rally.
He said the demonstration was a defence of the "character" of the state of Israel "against a minority which breaks our national solidarity".
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni also condemned "the extremist elements that are rearing their heads and are trying to impose their world view on us".
'Afraid to go to school'
Ultra-Orthodox Jews clashed with police in the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem
Protesters, some holding signs reading "Free Israel from religious coercion" and "Stop Israel from becoming Iran", gathered on Tuesday evening.
Anger spilled over after an eight-year-old American girl, Naama Margolese, said she was afraid to walk to school in the town because ultra-Orthodox men shouted at her.
"When I walk to school in the morning, I used to get a tummy ache because I was so scared... that they were going to stand and start yelling and spitting," she said in a subsequent interview with The Associated Press on Monday.
In his statement, Mr Peres said: "No person has the right to threaten a girl, a woman or any person in any way. They are not the lords of this land."
Other women have reported similar incidents in the town of 100,000, some 18 miles (30km) south-west of Jerusalem.
Continue reading the main story
At the scene
By early evening thousands of demonstrators had gathered in Beit Shemesh, waving banners saying "Free Israel". People are angry at the growing influence of Israel's conservative ultra-Orthodox Jews and in particular their treatment of women.
It is a tiny minority of ultra-Orthodox who carry out such attacks. But many Israelis believe the country's character is at stake. They resent the fact that most ultra-Orthodox men don't work or serve in the army. Instead, the government gives them subsidies to carry out religious studies. One man here told me Jewish religious extremism posed a bigger threat to the country than Iran.
The Israeli government, so often critical of religious extremism in Islamic countries, has ordered a crackdown on intolerance at home. In this country there is often a debate about co-existence between Jews and Arabs. In Beit Shemesh, people were asking whether the varying strands of Judaism could co-exist.
Sarit Ramon described the situation in the town, where religiously observant immigrants live alongside Israelis embracing a more modern lifestyle, as having been "catastrophic for years".
"When I told that I was spat at a year and a half ago, people raised an eyebrow, and that was about it," she told Reuters.
Microcosm
Alisa Coleman told the BBC that she had been called a prostitute when dressed in a short-sleeved T-shirt and a skirt.
Though underlining that this behaviour was carried out by only a tiny proportion of the community, she said what was happening in Beit Shemesh was "a microcosm of what's happening in the whole country".
On Monday, one police officer was slightly hurt and a number of Orthodox Jews were detained after a group of some 300 ultra-Orthodox residents pelted police with stones and eggs in an incident reportedly triggered after police tried to remove a sign ordering segregation.
A television crew attempting to film in the town were surrounded and harassed - the second alleged attack on journalists in as many days.
Continue reading the main story
Ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel
Ultra-orthodox Jews account for just under 10% of Israel's population
Rapidly growing community due to a high birth rate - meaning this proportion is set to double within next 20 years
Beit Shemesh, which lies about 30 km (18 miles) to the west of Jerusalem, is a city of about 100,000; Ultra-orthodox Jews account for about half of the population
On Sunday, a crew from Channel 2 news, which originally aired Naama Margolese's story, were attacked as they were filming, say reports, with rocks allegedly thrown at their van.
After Monday's clashes, unnamed ultra-Orthodox activists from Beit Shemesh issued a statement condemning the violence, but also accusing the media of initiating "deliberate provocations in order to make the peaceful, quiet and tolerant residents, who live their lives according to their beliefs, look bad".
Such clashes have become more frequent in Israel in recent years as the authorities have challenged efforts by ultra-Orthodox Jews to segregate women in public places.
The BBC's Jon Donnison, in Beit Shemesh, says the events have highlighted what is a growing religious divide in Israel.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 10% of the population in Israel. The community has a high birth rate and is growing rapidly.
SEOUL (Reuters) ? Above the ballooning dress of Marilyn Monroe is the face of the late North Korean despot Kim Jong-il. A pigeon flies overhead and a feather lies nearby on the ground.
North Korean artist Song Byeok once proudly drew the "Dear Leader" in propaganda paintings. But he was sent to labor in one of the reclusive state's notorious prisons after hunger forced him to try to flee.
Now a defector living in the South Korean capital, Seoul, Song has turned to mocking a ruler who led his country into famine, isolation and economic ruin.
"The day I finished this, he passed away," Song said of his painting and the death of Kim on December 17.
"He's not an eternal creature but the same as the feather of a pigeon," said Song, using the feather to symbolize something inconsequential.
"I thought it would've been better if he made North Koreans better off and forget hunger before he died."
Kim, who was 69 when he died, was a patron of the arts in his hermit kingdom and at times went to extreme means to promote the arts.
He once kidnapped a film director and forced him to make movies for him. Kim amassed a big hoard of South Korean movies on DVD and commissioned works of art.
Song never had a sitting with Kim, the second member of a dynasty that has ruled North Korea since its birth in 1948.
Every morning, he was handed a sketch of whatever piece of propaganda the state wanted illustrated that day.
"How could I, just a commoner, meet Kim Jong-il? He is the sun," the 42-year-old painter and sculptor recalled.
STARVATION, ESCAPE
Song, like most other North Koreans, practically worshipped Kim and before that, his father, Kim Il-sung.
But starvation, a result of chronic mismanagement and natural disasters, changed that. After floods in the late 1990s, conditions deteriorated to the point of desperation.
In August 2000, Song and his father, driven by hunger, tried to swim across the Tumen river to China in the hope of getting food from relatives there.
But his father was swept away in the swollen river and Song was caught and sent to a labor camp, the North Korean equivalent of the Soviet-era gulags where the human rights group Amnesty International says 200,000 citizens are forced to work with little food and under threat of execution.
In the freezing Korean winter, Song recalls he was as lightly dressed as when he was arrested in summer.
A finger on his right hand became infected and eventually, he says he was so close to death that his captors could get no work out of him and released him.
But Song was determined to try to get out and in 2002, leaving his mother and sister behind, he made it and ended up in Seoul. After his mother died in 2005, he brought his sister and her family out in 2007 with the help of a broker in China.
"If we had had enough to eat, I would have not come," Song said.
Despite losing his finger, Song took up his brush again. Some of his paintings now show hollow-eyed North Korean girls and smiling, homeless children, known in the North as "fluttering swallows," surrounding Kim.
As for Kim Jong-un, the twenty something son of Kim Jong-il, who will become the third member of the Kim dynasty to rule North Korea, Song says for now, he has no plan to paint him.
"He's too young and I don't want to say yet," said Song.
The Frank Capra classic isn't known for its special effects. But since It's a Wonderful Life was shot in the sweltering heat of June and July of 1946, the filmmakers had to develop a new type of artificial snow. More »
For the past several weeks, I?ve stated consistently that it was critical that Congress not go home without preventing a tax increase on 160 million working Americans. Today, I congratulate members of Congress for ending the partisan stalemate by reaching an agreement that meets that test.
Because of this agreement, every working American will keep his or her tax cut ? about $1,000 for the average family. That?s about $40 in every paycheck. Vital unemployment insurance will continue for millions of Americans who are looking for work. And when Congress returns, I urge them to keep working to reach an agreement that will extend this tax cut and unemployment insurance for all of 2012 without drama or delay.
This is good news, just in time for the holidays. This is the right thing to do to strengthen our families, grow our economy, and create new jobs. This is real money that will make a real difference in people?s lives. And I want to thank every American who raised your voice to remind folks in this town what this debate was all about. It was about you. And today, your voices made all the difference.
All smiles: House Speaker John Boehner had refused to back the compromise bill from the Senate. Mr Boehner's decision to back down is a victory for President Obama.
22.15 In Moody's speak:
The first driver underlying Moody's decision to downgrade Slovenia's debt rating are ongoing risks and uncertainties for the Slovenian government's balance sheet stemming from the banking sector which at about 136% of total assets over the national GDP is relatively large when compared to other systems in Eastern Europe.
The second driver of Moody's rating decision is the significant increase in the medium-term risks to economic growth, beyond any normal cyclical adjustment, in the small and very open Slovenian economy. This is in part driven by the deleveraging under way across the euro area financial, corporate, household and government sectors, and its adverse impact on Slovenia's export demand and funding conditions for Slovenian banks.
The third driver of today's rating action are the heightened risks posed by the sustained deterioration in government funding conditions in the euro area. Moody's recognizes that the government has already pre-financed in 2011 the bulk of the roughly EUR 2.8 billion refinancing needs in 2012 through the recent sale of treasury bonds and the availability of cash reserves.
22.10 The ratings agency said the downgrade was due to increasing pressure on the Slovenian government's balance sheet from the possibility of having to shore up its banks, as well as continuing eurozone woes.
22.07 From one downgrade to another (this one's real).
Slovenia has just been downgraded by Moody's to A1, from Aa3.
21.41 While Standard & Poor's continues to be a little too trigger happy with its downgrade button, more serious developments are happening in Congress over payroll taxes. Raf Sanchez brings us the latest from Washington:
The Republicans in Congress appear to have blinked first in a standoff with President Obama over payroll taxes.
For the last three days, House Speaker John Boehner has been holding out and refusing to back a compromise bill from the Senate that would prevent payroll taxes from rising on January 1 and hitting the pay cheques of 160 million workers.
Boehner has been demanding that the tax cut be extended for a full year but the Senate was only able to agree on a two month extension. Word from Capitol Hill is that, under increasing pressure from both inside and outside of the party, Boehner has now caved and is prepared to accept the compromise bill.
If confirmed, and we're expecting a formal announcement at 10pm GMT, then it's a major political victory for President Obama and good news for the still faltering American economy.
21.15 US markets have now closed, and stocks scored solid gains in thin pre-Christmas trade, helped by encouraging data on the jobs market.
The Dow Jones was up 0.54pc, the broader S&P 500 rose 0.83pc and the Nasdaq gained 0.83pc.
20.44 It seems that Standard & Poor's hasn't downgraded Goldman Sachs after all. They just accidentally said that they had on their website. Again.
This has echoes of November 10, when the ratings agency announced it had downgraded France, then sheepishly had to admit that it was all a terrible mistake.
As you were...
20.14 Standard & Poor's has cut Goldman Sach's credit rating from AA- to A+. We'll bring you more on that as we have it...
19.56 Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has told EC head Jose Manuel Barroso that he won't consider dropping proposed laws to reform the way his country's central bank operates, in a letter including "a polite but negative answer".
I told him in the letter that... it is not an option to postpone the passing of the two laws. All bills on the floor of the parliament are within European values and jurisprudence. We are not going to adopt a law that goes against European rules.
19.25 We mentioned earlier on (16.49) that Mervyn King was concerned about the eurozone economy, but he still has time to crack the occasional joke...
18.55 A quick update on the US markets, which have continued climbing. The Dow Jones is up 0.56pc, the S&P 500 has gained 0.85 and the Nasdaq is 0.86pc higher.
18.12 President Obama has just spoken in Washington, blaming ?a faction of House Republicans? for standing in the way of a temporary extension of a payroll tax cut:
This is about the American people, and whether they win. It?s not a contest between politicians. How can we not get that done? Has this place become so dysfunctional that even when people agree we can't get things done?
17.30 As we mentioned earlier, this is the 100th day that we've run the debt crisis live blog.
As a reward The Daily Telegraph has treated the City desk to a batch of lurid and delicious cupcakes. A big thank you from us bloggers...
17.14 More from Mervyn King: he said that the warning lights for Europe's financial system were "flashing red".
There is no doubt that the ESRB is concerned. The actions taken by the ECB very recently will ease funding pressures and I think you'll see increasing evidence of that in the next six months.
16.49 Bank of England governor Mervyn King is speaking in Frankfurt at the moment, following a meeting of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB).
He says that the group hasn't discussed the possibility of a single country leaving the eurozone. He added that if any banker thinks in the future that they are too big to fail, they are "very much mistaken".
16.45 European markets are now closed, having risen on the back of mostly upbeat US economic data, and with banks gaining after taking advantage of cheap finance offered by the ECB.
The FTSE 100 climbed 1.09pc, the CAC rose 1.35pc and the DAX ended the day 1.11pc higher.
David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index, said:
There has been a steady stream of economic data today but the market has been broadly flat-lining since mid-morning. Despite all this news flow, it does feel that investors and traders alike have already packed up for the year with markets stuck in relatively tight ranges and volumes low. With just a half day of trading left before Christmas it looks set to be an uneventful finish ahead of the holidays, with many understandably postponing any major decisions until the new year.
Angus Campbell, head of sales at Capital Spreads, said:
A word of caution comes with today?s move higher, however, as it was on the back of very low volumes, so can?t be considered a significant indication of future gains ahead. With a half day tomorrow and then the Christmas break I am not expecting to see many people in the City apart from a lot of prams and children. I would expect trading to be as quiet tomorrow as it has been today.
16.12 The ECB has hit out at Hungary's controversial plans for a radical shake-up in the way it runs its own central bank, the MNB.
In a statement the ECB expressed concern about a draft law that could "undermine the central bank's independence". That concept is enshrined in EU treaties, but Hungarian PM Viktor Orban hopes to use his majority in parliament to push through changes.
The ECB said it was particularly concerned about the proposed changes to the monetary policy council. Orban wants to increase the number of council members and also increase the number of deputy governors, effectively increasingly parliament's influence over the setting of interest rates.
The ECB said such an increase in numbers "without due consideration of the MNB's needs, gives rise to concern as to whether this could be used to influence the decision-making process, to the detriment of central bank independence."
15.32 We have some more detail on Italy's new ?33 billion austerity plan, which includes a range of tax hikes and spending cuts:
? New tax on first homes, increase in rates for second houses.
? A 2 percentage point hike in VAT from October next year.
? Tax on money brought back to Italy under "shields" for tax evaders.
? Tax on bank accounts, shares and financial instruments.
? Increase in excise duty on petrol.
? Tax increase on luxury assets: boats, aeroplanes and sports cars.
? Cuts to funding for city councils of ?1.45 billion per year.
? Minimum retirement age for womens' pensions raised to 62 from 60. Mens' minimum retirement age to rise to 66 from 65.
15.09 As we mentioned earlier, today is the 100th day of The Daily Telegraph's debt crisis blog. It's been a rollercoaster ride, but we'd like to know what your defining moment was:
14.45 US markets have just opened, rising in early trading following encouraging signs that the economy was growing at a faster rate than earlier in the year and fewer people are applying for unemployment benefits. The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped last week to its lowest level since April 2008.
The Dow Jones is up 0.24pc, the S&P 500 index is 0.25pc higher and the Nasdaq rose 0.41pc.
14.33 Speaking before the vote, Mario Monti said:
There is no growth without financial discipline, there is no stability with accounts that are not in order but that is not enough.
The choices made by all the members of the European Union have to be to pursue the objective of stable growth, employment and cohesion.
There is still enormous work to be done to free the Italian economy from the brakes that have held back growth for too long.
14.25 We weren't expecting this so soon this afternoon, but Italian senators have adopted a package of austerity measures including tax increases and pension reforms aimed at averting bankruptcy.
The approval came in a confidence vote called by Prime Minister Mario Monti's government in order to speed up approval and prevent what he calls a Greek-style scenario in which Italy would need a debt bailout.
Perhaps the Italian parliament was keen to wrap things up early and head off home for Christmas...
14.15 The ECB has expressed 'concern' over the independence of the Hungarian central bank.
13.59Bill Gross from top bond manager PIMCO:
Zero [interest] rates [in the US] caused too many distortions. Too late for Fed to correct.
13.56 Here's a breakdown of US GDP:
(You can see bigger versions of these graphs by clicking the right-hand-side of the main picture at the top of this blog).
13.46 Greece?s state budget deficit in the 11 months to the end of November widened to ?20.5bn compared with ?19.5bn in the same period a year earlier, according to final figures released by e-mail from the Athens-based Finance Ministry.
Ordinary budget revenue declined 3pc to ?43.9bn while spending rose 6.2pc, or by ?3.7bn, the e-mail said.
13.31 BREAKING NEWS...
US GDP fell to 1.8pc in the third quarter from 2pc in the second. Jobless claims at 364k (lowest in three-and-a-half years) against 368k and continuing claims fall to 3546k against 3625k.
13.20 Quick piece of corporate news: Societe Generale's investment banking chief has stepped down.
13.19 And the Telegraph's head of business Damian Reece has commented on today's UK GDP figures: UK GDP figures are more cod's roe than caviar
The truth is we?re bumping along the bottom, flatlining, after a severe recession and now facing a material risk of a further recession over the end of 2011 and into 2012 caused mainly by the economic fallout of the eurozone crisis.
And here is some reaction from Rachel Reeves, shadow Treasury chief secretary:
12.56 What can you buy with 0.1pc of the UK's GDP? The Telegraph's Anna White finds out.
In absolute terms, this means the UK is ?252m richer than at the last count. It won't pay for another London Olympics but here's what the country could buy with that surprise Christmas bonus...
One and a half airlines - if International Airlines Group's ?172.5m offer for BMI this morning is anything to go by... [or] 10 million Heston Blumenthal turkey kits - Waitrose prices start at ?25.
12.47 Ed Balls, shadow Chancellor, has rejected the idea of another Labour tax-and-spend bonanza:
No way. Not in a million years. Absolutely not, because that is a totally irresponsible way to get into government. You've got to show that you can make the tough decisions [and] be tough with public spending. There will be no splurge giveaways.
12.38 Business is booming at John Lewis. Sales have risen 20.7pc year-on-year in the four days to December 21, albeit against a snow-hit period last year.
12.28 Update on the markets:
FTSE 100 +1.2pc
CAC +1.4pc
DAX +1.2pc
IBEX +0.9pc
MIB +1.4pc
12.20 ECB deposit facility as of December 21: ?265bn (+?15bn).
12.08 The war of words with Britain is over, says French foreign minister Alain Jupp?:
"The comments [of the past few days] went further than their authors wished, [but there is] no need for excuses on either side. There is not an ounce of doubt that Franco-British relations will become excellent once again as we have too much in common to allow them to deteriorate. I cannot imagine that we will push Britain out of the European Union.
12.01 Good news! Latvia's three-year ?7.5bn bailout program that helped the Baltic country avert bankruptcy has come to an end.
Latvia's government says it used only ?4.4bn - or nearly 60pc - of the loan, which was provided by the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.
Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis praised Latvians, saying they weathered the greatest crisis in the country's history.
Latvia's economy suffered one of the worst collapses in the world, with output shrinking 23pc over 2008-2010 and unemployment reaching nearly 25pc.
11.58 After protests in the UK and Belgium recently, the Greeks have demonstrated that their outrage at taxes hasn't died.
Hearse owners have taken part in a protest drive through the center of Greece's two main cities - Thessaloniki and Athens - complaining that a sharp rise in annual road taxes could put them out of business.
The protesters say their cars have been reclassified as private instead of business vehicles, obliging them to pay up to six times more in road tax by the end of next week for 2012.
11.55 Now the Pope has waded into the eurozone debt crisis, calling it an "ethical crisis".
"As this year draws to a close, Europe is undergoing an economic and financial crisis, which is ultimately based on the ethical crisis looming over the Old Continent. Such values as solidarity, commitment to one's neighbour and responsibility towards the poor and suffering are largely uncontroversial. [But] the motivation is often lacking for individuals and large sectors of society to practise renunciation and make sacrifices."
11.46 Further to our emigration story (see 06.34), Angela Merkel has insisted that the eurozone's sinner states must save and work their way out of the crisis - but will she give them a job?
Data just out from Germany's statistics office show that immigration from struggling EU countries into Germany has surged during the crisis.
The number of Greek immigrants into Germany soared 84pc in the first six months of 2011; and there was a 49pc increase in the number of Spannish immigrants. In total 67,000 more foreigners arrived in Germany than during the same period last year.
"It's striking to see the strong rise in immigration from European Union countries particularly hard-hit by the financial and debt crises," the office said, according to Reuters.
11.40 Italian PM Mario Monti, who faces a confidence vote that he called to speed up final approval of a ?33bn austerity package aimed at restoring confidence in the country's economy. He has just said that yesterday's ECB action "goes in the right direction to restore confidence" and will favour credit flow to the whole European economy.
He adds that it is essential Italians buy government bonds and that the country's public debt is balanced by household wealth. He believes Italy cannot have growth without financial discipline and says his country will bring a contribution to stability with a budget surplus.
11.36 So it's not just the Brits who are against Merkozy's planned Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), seems the Dutch don't see the point either. I've just seen a report by the CPB - Netherland's Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, which feeds economic forecasts to the Dutch cabinet and government. Here's their view on the controversial tax:
We find little evidence that the FTT will be effective in correcting market failures. Taxing of transactions is not well targeted at behaviour that leads to excessive risk and systemic risk creation. The empirical evidence does not suggest that the introduction of an FTT reduces volatility or asset price bubbles. Transaction taxes will likely reduce investment in trading activity and information acquisition, but also raise the costs of insurance against currency and interest risks by companies, insurers and pension funds. The welfare effect of that is unclear.?
11.25 Further to our cost of Christmas dinner entry (see 10.44), Ferratum, Europe?s biggest online microloan lender, has revealed that more than four times as many people applied for a payday loan in the past two weeks than in the whole of November.
Ferratum, which operates in 18 countries after launching this month in Australia, has seen rapid growth since opening for business in the UK in July.
But even if you bought items you might not get them in time for Christmas - Sainsbury's confirms some home deliveries will not be made.
11.21 At last, some good news. Druids said the omens are good that 2012 will be an excellent year after the sun shone on Stonehenge during a dawn ceremony to mark the winter solstice today.
Will George Osborne, Mario Draghi, Angela Merkel and her little friend Nicolas Sarkozy take heart from this?
11.17 Bill O'Neill, chief investment officer at EMEA Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, looks ahead to investing in 2012:
Actions by the ECB to support the interbank funding market should be marginally positive in the near term, reducing the threat of immediate bank failure. However, the lifeline of medium-term liquidity support will likely not be enough to re-open the interbank unsecured funding market ? banks are still nervous to lend to other Eurozone banks for even just three months. Improving investor confidence in bank solvency will likely require lower yields on Eurozone sovereign debt. A big concern for 2012 is the ?wall of funding? due to hit the bond markets. Sovereigns and banks alike have a large amount of debt falling due in 2012 ? around ?1.5 trillion for sovereigns (including ?600bn for peripherals) ? and around ?800bn for banks. We advise clients to focus on quality, yield and diversity in 2012, with investment portfolios positioned to allow critical longer-term growth themes.
11.05 A new survey of more than 1,000 members of the Institute of Directors conducted after the recent EU summit has revealed strong support among business leaders for both the Prime Minister?s veto and for a looser relationship with the EU.
The key findings of the survey are that 77pc of IoD members agree with the Prime Minister?s use of the veto at the EU summit, including 46pc strongly agreeing. 63pc of IoD members would like to see the UK in a looser relationship with the EU.
10.50 We are hearing that a suspicious package has been delivered to the Italian Stock Exchange. Giorgio Ciconali, a health official for the Lombardy region, said the package was discovered in the last 24 hours. Police and fire department officers, including hazardous materials specialists, are outside the stock exchange. A spokeswoman for the exchange said the bourse?s offices weren?t evacuated.
10.44 The ONS has revealed that the average cost of some of the items needed for a Christmas dinner has risen by as much as 50pc in a year.
The cost of turkey steaks has risen from an average price of ?7.85 per kg last November to ?8.15 per kg this November, an increase of 3.8pc.
The picture on vegetables is mixed. The prices of carrots (-20.5pc), old potatoes (-10.4pc) and new potatoes (-9pc) have all dropped, but broccoli (+4.4pc), cauliflower (+6.3pc) and frozen peas (+4.6pc) have all risen.
The ingredients for pigs in blankets have both gone up. The average cost of back bacon has risen from ?8.58 to ?9.11 per kg, with the cost of pork sausages rising from ?4.10 to ?4.33 per kg.
Cream crackers to accompany a cheese course have risen by the most, increasing from 55p to 83p, a rise of 50.9pc.
10.34 Economists have been reacting to the surprise rise in UK GDP.
Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist, IHS Global Insight
Third-quarter GDP growth of 0.6pc quarter-on-quarter substantially overstates the underlying health of the economy as it was lifted by a catch-up effect from activity lost to temporary dampening factors in the second quarter (working day lost to Royal Wedding, manufacturing supply-chain disruptions resulting from the Japanese tsunami, money spent on Olympic ticket sales but not yet counting towards growth etc).
Indeed, the component breakdown of the third-quarter GDP data still hardly makes encouraging reading although it is a bit better than previously indicated as business investment has been revised up to show modest growth.
George Buckley, Deutsche Bank
The detail looks a bit better, even though total domestic demand is growing at a slightly slower rate. First of all, the headline rate of GDP has been revised up, secondly we've got a much better contrast between government spending and investment; investment fell by 0.2pc in the original numbers, now rising by 1.3pc. And we've got much weaker general government spending, which looks a lot more reasonable based on what we were expecting to see.
The mix of domestic demand looks a little bit better, but we've still got very weak consumption and that remains an issue. The current account figures are exceptionally volatile.
10.19 S&P has downgraded Hungary to BB+/B on "unpredictable policy framework".
The country will also pay ?650m to the IMF in February.
10.15 Further to the Guardian's story today on Greek emigration (see 06.34), the World Bank has said that 1.21m Greeks left the country in 2010... that's 10.8pc of the population.
A Greek debt deal is reportedly just days away.
10.11 Quick update on the markets:
FTSE 100 +1.2pc (boosted by upward revision of GDP - see 09.30)
CAC +1.4pc
DAX +1.5pc
IBEX +1pc
MIB +1.5pc
10.06 We are hearing reports that the Bank of Italy pressed local lenders into tapping ECB funds yesterday for more than they needed.
Echoes of the TARP funds forced on US banks?
10.00 Just 9pc of Britons expect their local economy to improve in the next six months, half the level seen in America, according to new research from Ipsos? Global @dvisor online survey - conducted in 24 countries. Only the Hungarians (6pc), Japanese (6pc), Belgians (4pc) and the French (2pc) are more pessimistic about the future of their local economy.
Even the Spanish are more optimistic than Britons (17pc). By the far the most optimistic of the 24 countries are the Brazilians, with 72pc expecting improvement.
Just 10pc of UK citizens described the British economy as "good", compared with 72pc of Swedes that describe their economy as good and 64pc of Germans.
09.55 Hungary, which saw EC and IMF talks over a standby credit line cut short earlier this month, will hold fresh meetings with the organisations in January.
09.42 Those nice people at the Office for National Statistics have put together a video that explains how, in 2010, there was ?48.6bn more debits from the UK than credits coming in, driven by imports:
BREAKING NEWS...
09.30 UK GDP revised up to 0.6pc from 0.5pc in the third quarter (month-on-month). Production up 0.2pc, services up 0.7pc and construction up 0.3pc. Annual rate flat.
Real household disposable income rose by 0.3pc. Now up 1.6pc in the past six months.
09.28 Peter Bofinger, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's council of economic advisers, has said that the future of the euro will be decided in the next six months. He added that the single currency has "no future" unless Germany changes its stand.
09.24 Fancy a million-pound present this Christmas? Most of Spain does, and its citizens have the chance to win up to ?3.36m in the annual ?1.26bn El Gordo Christmas lottery.
A group of people assist the traditional Spanish National Lottery 'El Gordo' dressed as houses - the Christmas Lottery has highest jackpot in its history
A single El Gordo ticket costs ?200 (?168).
09.09 The UK isn't the only country struggling with festive strikes. A 24-hour pre-Christmas public sector strike to protest pension reform has hit rail and bus traffic across Belgium. The action was taken after the government confirmed plans to make people wait two more years before they can take early retirement, and other measures to get a handle on the pensions budget. The reforms are part of a slate of austerity measures approved by Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo's coalition to get Belgium out of an economic crisis.
09.06 We are expecting the final UK GDP revision figure at 9.30am. We'll have the latest here.
09.04 Paul Krugman, in the New York Times, writes:
"[IMF chief economist] Blanchard?s blog post on what went wrong in 2011 is, in fact, totally sensible and on point. Furthermore, if I am reading it right, it contains something of a bombshell: 'Some preliminary estimates that the IMF is working on suggest that it does not take large multipliers for the joint effects of fiscal consolidation and the implied lower growth to lead in the end to an increase, not a decrease, in risk spreads on government bonds.'
"If I have this right, Olivier is suggesting that harsh austerity programs may be literally self-defeating, hurting the economy so much that they worsen fiscal prospects.
"This in turn means that the analogy to medieval doctors who bled their patients, then bled them even more when the bleeding made them sicker, is exactly right: austerity reduces growth prospects, leading to calls for even more austerity.
08.47 Also in the news, Fitch has warned the US that it may be stripped of its AAA rating by 2013 because of rising debt levels.
Yesterday's ECB action managed to make 523 banks happy - to the tune of ?489bn in loans - but seemed to spook rather than reassure the markets.
08.39 Let's take you back to the FT and an interesting interview with Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive of DoubleLine Capital. He is also the US's best-performing bond manager this year. He expects the eurozone crisis to reach a "crescendo" next year:
I'm not sure what it's going to look like but I really think this flower has got to bloom. I really expect a very substantial shift in the paradigm for the economy, globally and for the investment markets... People keep looking for a solution that can't happen, that the genie goes back in the bottle. People who are looking for an explosion in bond yields on a better economy are thinking that somehow the world is still in 1995, where we have moderate economic growth, low inflation, stable tax policy and people getting along.
08.22 I can't believe it's 8.20 and we haven't had a graph yet. So, here's a great one from Bloomberg showing how global banks are now paying three times more Libor for dollar loans than British banks.
(You can see a bigger version of this graph by clicking the right-hand-side of the main picture at the top of this blog).
08.14 Justin Urquhart Stewart, director and co-founder of Seven Investment Management, has tweeted on China's housing bubble, which was also the subject of the Today Programme on Radio 4 this morning:
Chinese bubble? More like a bar of Aero - lots of little bubbles. As ever it will be a question of confidence.
08.04 European stock markets have opened. Britain's FTSE 100 has risen 0.3pc, France's CAC is up 0.7pc, Germany's DAX is up 0.8pc, Spain's IBEX is up 0.5pc and Italy's MIB is up 0.9pc.
07.54 Quick update on corporate news: BA-owner IAG is to buy bmifrom Lufthansa for ?172m in cash. IAG's Heathrow slot portfolio will increase by up to 56 additional daily slot pairs.
07.52 Top economist and Telegraph columnist Roger Bootle has given his unique review of 2011. Definitely worth a watch.
07.47 Just flicking through the Financial Times and there is an opinion piece on banks entitled "averting fallout of financial meltdown".
What the Government must not do is to water down its rules simply in order to prevent a bank relocating. That would be a very poor bargain for the taxpayer.
07.40 Italian prime minister Mario Monti is facing a confidence vote today that he called to speed up final approval of a ?33bn austerity package aimed at restoring confidence in the country's economy.
07.39 As it's the live blog's 100th birthday today, we want to know what your defining moment of the eurozone debt crisis has been
07.34 Elsewhere on the Telegraph site today, Britain's most senior civil servant Sir Gus O?Donnell has publicly questioned whether the United Kingdom will still exist in a few years? time.
Over the next few years there will be enormous challenges, such as whether to keep our kingdom united.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Economics and Business Research expects one in six workers, some five million people, to take two weeks' holiday this Christmas because business is so slow there is no point in them coming in. Douglas McWilliams, the centre?s chief executive, said:
People are thinking 'If I can?t make money I might as well take the time off?. I would be amazed if the number of people taking long holidays is not over five million.
07.26 Damian Reece, head of business at the Telegraph, has commented on yesterday's ECB measures in today's paper: Eurozone zombies follow Mario Draghi's cheap money
Draghi has had to ignore any sense of moral hazard and agree to fund weak banks at the expense of strong. He has opened a quantitative easing (money printing) exercise of enormous proportions. Weak banks unable to fund themselves on the open market are now hooked on cheap ECB money.
07.00 Later today we will get revised third-quarter GDP figures for the UK and US. The expectation is for unrevised growth of 0.5pc in Britain and 2pc in the US. In an hour, the FTSE 100 is predicted to open up 0.3pc. Later, the Dow is expected to open down 0.1pc.
06.34 The Guardian is carrying a feature today claiming that a new generation of Greeks are leaving the country and heading to Australia, the US, Russia, China and Iran because of the debt crisis. Australia is particularly popular due to its substantial Hellenic population - Melbourne claims to be the largest Greek city in the world outside of Greece.
06.30 Back to the (very large) matter at hand. And Sir Philip Hampton, the chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland, expects a "small country" to leave the eurozone, putting more strain on the world's banking system.
"It could be any of them because I think that some of these things will be driven by political events as much as by economic circumstances and social unrest, and all of those sorts of things. But I think there is a very good chance that one country will fall out."
06.25 Big news! Today is the 100th day of our eurozone debt crisis live blog. So, from all at the Telegraph Business section, thanks for reading, and we hope you have a great Christmas.
06.22 Madrid-based Vega Asset Management, one of the most prominent hedge funds holding Greek bonds, has threatened legal action against officials negotiating the country?s debt restructuring if losses are too deep, raising a hurdle to eurozone leaders? hopes of quickly reducing Greece's debt levels.
Jes?s S?a Requejo, a senior Vega executive, wrote:
Vega believes that, given the current position of the official sector, a voluntary exchange that implies a NPV loss of 50pc or less is not now a likely outcome Vega needs to start considering all available legal options to refuse and challenge any exchange that implies a NPV loss of more than 50pc.
6.15 ?489,000,000,000. The amount that eurozone banks received in cheap loans from the ECB in a special refinancing operation. Yet it still wasn't big enough to calm the bond markets. Bazooka, anyone? Louise Armitstead reports:
A total of 523 banks scrambled to take up the ECB?s offer to exchange illiquid assets for cut-price funding in the first of two three-year refinancing operations.
The record half-trillion euro take-up ? which was far greater than the market had expected ? initially triggered a ?sugar rush? of euphoria as the move was hailed as a decisive ?game changer?.
But stock markets fell as economists and financiers recognised that while the imminent danger of another credit crunch had been averted, the threat of sovereign defaults had not.
Nick Matthews, at Royal Bank of Scotland, said: ?While the action is very important to help stabilise the situation and reduce the funding risk for the banks, it is unlikely to bring about a turning point in this crisis as the problems are much greater than those in the banking sector and has other political and economic dimensions.?
06.08 A quick look at this morning's papers:
Telegraph: ?489,000,000,000 - how much the ECB has lent troubled European banks
Financial Times (?): Banks snap up ?489bn in ECB loan offer
Guardian: ECB loans highlight funding pressure on eurozone banks
The Times (?): Banks clamour for ECB cash
06.05 Good morning and welcome back to live coverage of the global debt crisis.
Why, hello there. ^_^ I'm kind of a new member, but not really, so kind of a returning member but then again... not really. I was on here once before and really enjoyed it but "high school" caught up with me so I never got back on. Now that I'm well into college and finding myself bored with every other forum I'm on and struggling to find a multi-genre forum I enjoy quite as much as I did this one I figured... Well, hell; why not just come back here?
I'm not sure how to navigate through the "Role Plays" tab option so I'm just going to stick with the post-by-post role-playing style I'm comfortable with. To start out, I'm just looking for a couple threads here and there and am more than happy to move them to even IMs, should the other partner have AOL Instant Messenger.
Now, the types of role-plays I like to do are modern fantasy or sci-fi (vampires, werewolves, ZOMBIES, ect) but I do like to deviate to both medieval and futuristic. The fandoms I enjoy are Supernatural (I like to play both Winchesters and Castiel), Harry Potter (Draco), Mass Effect (Kaidan and Garrus), The Boondock Saints (Connor), and a few others... Just ask. Of course, I have originals for each fandom and have a plethora of originals that could fit into any situation.
I'm more than comfortable of gay/lesbian and in fact prefer those types of relationships-- as I mostly play males, gay.
If you have any ideas, feel free to suggest them. Right now, I'm just so bored, I'm up for nearly anything.
The VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand PDS-ST415-VP ($100 street) sounds like something that should be on the Hogwarts back-to-school recommended purchase list. But in reality (pun unavoidable), it's a portable scanner?one of the most portable available. If you need to scan on the go, and don't want to be weighted down with hardware, that alone makes it worth considering.
At 1.2 by 10.1 by 1.1 inches (HWD) and 0.4 pounds, you could argue that the PDS-ST415-VP is too big to call a magic wand. It certainly doesn't look as much like one as the PlanOn DocuPen Xtreme X05 ($369.99 direct 3.5 stars). However, both work essentially the same way for scanning. The sensor and rollers in both cases define the bottom. To scan, you start at the top of a page and sweep down, or start on the side and sweep across.
One other feature the two scanners share is that they don't need a computer to scan to. Instead they scan to memory and let you move the files to a computer later. Connect the PDS-ST415-VP by the supplied USB cable, and it will look like a USB drive to your computer so you can copy the files.
Setup and Scanning There is not much to set up with this scanner. Just put in the two supplied AA batteries and insert a microSD or microSDHC card as memory to scan to. The only potential issue is that the scanner doesn't come with a memory card and there's no internal memory, so be sure you have one handy. According to the company, you can use cards with up to 32GB capacity.
Scanning is easy. The scanner offers one button to set it to color or black and white mode and another to set it to 300 or 600 pixels per inch (ppi). Simply choose your settings, and then scan. Just as important, there isn't much of a learning curve. I got acceptable scans starting with my first try, both for recognizing text, and for scanning photos well enough for, say, scanning an article and winding up with recognizable images in the photos.
Recognizing Text In addition to setting up the hardware, you can optionally install Abbyy Screenshot Reader, which comes with the scanner and offers a limited ability to translate images of text into editable text. However, it's important to understand that Screenshot Reader is an OCR (optical character recognition) utility rather than a full-fledged OCR program.
The PDS-ST415-VP scans to JPG image file format. An OCR program would be able to recognize the text for at least one full file at a time. Screenshot Reader recognizes text showing on screen, and it can recognize only as much text as can fit on the screen.
Depending on your screen resolution, you may need to recognize a letter-size page of text in two or more pieces. In my tests using a 1,280 by 1024 screen resolution, for example, with the image zoomed in Photoshop to 33 percent and the text just fitting within the screen width, I had to recognize each page in three sections.
At smaller zoom sizes I could recognize more of the page, but the recognition accuracy dropped. At 33 percent zoom, the program read our Arial test page at font sizes as small as 8 points without a mistake and our Times New Roman test page at 12 points. At 12.5 percent, which is the largest zoom size that showed the full page at once, it couldn't read any font size without mistakes.
Other Issues It's worth mention that although not needing a computer for scanning has the advantage of giving you less to carry with you, it has a disadvantage too. You can't see the scan and confirm that it's good enough to be usable until you connect to a computer, at which point you may no longer have the original handy to rescan. Depending on the situation, you may be better off skipping the scanner and taking a photo instead, so you can check the image quality on your camera or cameraphone's screen.
You can't count this too heavily against the PDS-ST415-VP, because it's pretty much standard today for portable scanners that don't need a computer, including, for example, the IRIScan anywhere 2 ($199, 3 stars) from I.R.I.S. and the Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter PanScn06 ($149.99, 3 stars). One the few exceptions is the Editors' Choice Visioneer Mobility ($199.99 direct, 4 stars), which lets you scan to a smartphone and see the results on the spot.
Despite this limitation, if you want to use a scanner rather than a camera, and you want one that's portable enough to carry with you virtually all the time, the PDS-ST415-VP is definitely in the running. When you compare prices with the alternatives, keep in mind that you'll need to buy a memory card and may want a more capable OCR program or a document management program as well. Even so, the VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand PDS-ST415-VP is a more than reasonable choice. It has little to no learning curve, it's easy to use, and its scan quality is up to the task.
More Scanner Reviews: ??? VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand PDS-ST415-VP ??? Pandigital Personal Scanner/Converter-5x7 PanScn04 ??? IRISphoto 4 ??? Kodak i2600 ??? Kodak i2400 ?? more
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For the past several weeks, I?ve stated consistently that it was critical that Congress not go home without preventing a tax increase on 160 million working Americans. Today, I congratulate members of Congress for ending the partisan stalemate by reaching an agreement that meets that test. 
Chinese bubble? More like a bar of Aero - lots of little bubbles. As ever it will be a question of confidence.