Justice Dept. Seeks to Block Anheuser's Deal for Modelo
By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED
The deal would add Corona to Anheuser-Busch InBev's brands of beer.Carolyn Kaster/Associated PressThe deal would add Corona to Anheuser-Busch InBev's brands of beer.
The Justice Department sued on Thursday to block Anheuser-Busch InBev's proposed $20.1 billion deal to buy control of Grupo Modelo of Mexico, arguing that the merger would significantly reduce competition in the American beer market.
The deal, announced last summer, would add Corona Extra to the company's formidable stable of brands, including Budweiser and Stella Artois.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/justice-dept-seeks-to-block-anheusers-deal-for-modelo/ (http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/justice-dept-seeks-to-block-anheusers-deal-for-modelo/)
Fireworks cause deadly highway collapse in China
Feb 1, 5:41 AM (ET)
By DIDI TANG
BEIJING (AP) - A truckload of fireworks intended for Lunar New Year celebrations went off Friday in a massive, deadly explosion that destroyed part of an elevated highway in central China, sending vehicles plummeting 30 meters (about 100 feet) to the ground.
State TV broadcaster CCTV said eight people were confirmed dead and 11 injured after seven vehicles were recovered from the wreckage. The death toll appeared likely to rise: The official Xinhua News Agency said the collapse smashed and buried at least 25 vehicles.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130201/DA45PNIO2.html (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130201/DA45PNIO2.html)
I'd rather hire a foreigner - they 'push themselves more'
Put simply, Ola Ayeni would rather hire a foreigner.
It's the conclusion this entrepreneur has made after four years of hiring for his tech startup. Ayeni thinks immigrants show better work ethic than the average American.
"Here in the United States, we do a lot of talking," he said. "Foreign people talk less. They just do. Results is what pays the bills."
That's why Ayeni supports U.S. immigration reform that would make it easier for foreigners who graduate from U.S. universities with degrees in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) to stay and work.
On one hand, there's the matter of cost. Ayeni said hiring the best American candidates can prove too expensive for a startup, because larger companies typically offer them better wages.
Instead of settling for second-tier American candidates, which would put him at a competitive disadvantage, Ayeni would prefer better access to "Class-A" foreigners.
There's also his view on their work ethic.
Ayeni feels that many Americans take for granted their inherited economic opportunities, the kind he didn't have back in Nigeria. The pursuit of entrepreneurial dreams in 1997 drove him to the United States at age 26. After several years in academia and the pharmaceutical industry, Ayeni launched the restaurant marketing company Eateria in 2009.
He values his six American employees as much as he does his two European workers. But the three employees he's fired so far -- all American -- have shown a lack of ambition.
One former employee was an account manager who had the nasty habit of going absent without explanation. On four separate occasions, she sent Ayeni text messages saying, "On my way," but she never showed up.
Another was a sales agent who refused to attend meetings. The third was a sales agent who claimed to be working from a nearby Starbucks but didn't produce a single account in 90 days.
Meanwhile, Ayeni describes the effort he's seen from his European staff as all execution and no excuses. He said they have a different mindset and "push themselves more than an average person who was born and raised here."
The key, he explained, is that foreigners have more on the line.
"The mentality is just different. Those who come from overseas have this huge drive to succeed," Ayeni said. "When you come here, your family expects you to succeed no matter what. You can't come here, the land of opportunity, and fail. They'll think you're crazy."
By Jose Pagliery 02/07 12:15 PM EST
http://cnnmoney.mobi/primary/article?url=http://money.cnn.com/mobile/json/2013/02/07/smallbusiness/hire-foreigner.json (http://cnnmoney.mobi/primary/article?url=http://money.cnn.com/mobile/json/2013/02/07/smallbusiness/hire-foreigner.json)
EU: a fucking joke.
Horsemeat found in British supermarkets 'may be donkey'
John Lichfield Author Biography
Sunday 10 February 2013
A law banning horses from Romanian roads may be responsible for the surge in the fraudulent sale of horsemeat on the European beef market, a French politician said yesterday.
Horse-drawn carts were a common form of transport for centuries in Romania, but hundreds of thousands of the animals are feared to have been sent to the abattoir after the change in road rules.
The law, which was passed six years ago but only enforced recently, also banned carts drawn by donkeys, leading to speculation among food-industry officials in France that some of the "horse meat" which has turned up on supermarket shelves in Britain, France and Sweden may, in fact, turn out to be donkey meat. "Horses have been banned from Romanian roads and millions of animals have been sent to the slaughterhouse," said Jose Bove, a veteran campaigner for small farmers who is now vice-president of the European Parliament agriculture committee.
After a couple of days in which the horse meat affair was seen as a largely British problem, the scandal began to be taken seriously by French politicians and newspapers over the weekend.
The French consumer minister, Benoît Hamon, said today that he would not hesitate to take legal action if evidence emerged that the two French companies which handled the meat had been aware of the fraud.
In passing, Mr Hamon also took a swipe at the British Government. He said that London was complaining about weak European food inspection while cutting the budget for EU food-safety checks in Brussels.
His warning came as France's biggest supermarket chains removed more of their own-label and Findus processed dishes from their shelves.
Mr Hamon said that preliminary investigation by the French agency that combats consumer fraud had uncovered the Byzantine route taken by the "fake" beef.
It came from abattoirs in Romania through a dealer in Cyprus working through another dealer in Holland to a meat plant in the south of France which sold it to a French-owned factory in Luxembourg which made it into frozen meals sold in supermarkets in 16 countries.
Meanwhile, legal action over the horse meat scandal is to be mounted in Europe, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has said as he described the contamination of beef products as a case of fraud against the public.
Mr Paterson said the scandal appeared to be "extensive" across Europe but he repeated his rejection of calls for a ban on meat imports, saying that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) advice was that all products on sale are safe for consumption.
"This is a case of fraud and a conspiracy against the public, this is a criminal action, substituting one material for another," he told BBC Breakfast in answer to questioning about calls for a ban on meat imports.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/horsemeat-found-in-british-supermarkets-may-be-donkey-8489030.html (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/horsemeat-found-in-british-supermarkets-may-be-donkey-8489030.html)
A ono sto su mislili da je jogurt je u stvari...
Pojma nemaju sta ce sve te neke Bugarske i Rumunije da im rade. Oni ljudi su prestali da funkcionisu na taj nacin jos u ranom srednjem veku. Zaboravili. Izvetrelo (sa)znanje o takvim nacinima egzistiranja. Jos kad se "spreme" tzv. zemlje tzv. zapadnog Balkana, Albanije, Turske...
Scale of the horse meat scandal is 'breathtaking', MPs say
The full scale of the horse meat scandal is "breathtaking" and may pose a danger to public health, MPs warn today.
Jonathan Becker
By Steven Swinford, Gordon Rayner and Christopher Hope
12:01AM GMT 14 Feb 2013
Comments468 Comments
David Cameron's previous claims that the scandal was merely a "food labelling" issue will be challenged by a report which says that more revelations are to come.
Having earlier told MPs in the Commons that beef was safe, the Prime Minister went further yesterday by eating a beef pie and a pork pie in front of photographers at a reception in Westminster Hall.
But in their report today, the MPs on the environment select committee say it is "improbable" that criminals who are prepared to pass off horse meat as beef are following good hygiene standards.
• Owen Paterson, the Environment Secretary, said that consumers had fallen victim to an international "criminal conspiracy".
• Labour warned that the meat of hundreds of horses slaughtered in British abattoirs may have been contaminated with a cancer-causing pain killer.
• It emerged that a Dutch trader involved in the supply of meat used in Findus lasagne ready meals had previously been jailed for passing off Argentine horse meat as beef.
• A Welsh meat processing plant was raided for a second time by the Food Standards Agency after The Daily Telegraph discovered that meat had been "moved" off the premises.
• It emerged that two more British companies have been investigated as part of the horse food scandal.
The FSA is preparing to announce the results of tests for bute, a veterinary drug, in horses killed in British slaughterhouses.
The drug is banned from the food chain because it has been linked to cancer. Tests have so far found no evidence of the drug in contaminated meat sold in British supermarkets. However, the environment select committee raised concerns about the wider health implications of the illegal trade.
The report cites evidence from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health which warned that shortcomings may "endanger health".
The MPs state: "We agree. It seems improbable that individuals prepared to pass horse meat off as beef illegally are applying the high hygiene standards rightly required in the food production industry."
Barry Gardiner, a Labour member of the select committee, said: "If people are prepared to lie to you about what's in your food then you can have no confidence they are not putting other stuff in as well.
"These people are criminals, they could be putting anything in there. When there's been a total failure of the food security system you can have no trust in the food." The European Commission announced yesterday that thousands more DNA tests on meat products are to be carried out by member states.
Experts warned that the cost of meat was likely to rise because of the increased surveillance and enforcement.
The MPs called for the FSA to be given statutory powers to order retailers to test their products.
Anne McIntosh, the committee chairman, said: "The scale of contamination in the meat supply chain is breathtaking. More revelations will doubtless come to light in the UK and across the EU.
"There is every indication that horse meat has been intentionally substituted for beef by criminals with access to the food industry. Elements within the food industry have duped consumers in the UK and across Europe in pursuit of profit."
The MPs conclude that the public have been "let down" by major retailers. They also warn that retailers will be unable to complete testing of a range of meat products by the deadline of tomorrow set by the FSA. "It was a promise made in haste", the MPs say.
Mr Paterson last night attended a European summit to discuss how to tackle the problem.
He said: "This is a criminal conspiracy to defraud the public. At the beginning of the week we talked about incompetence, it looks as if it has gone beyond incompetence, it now looks as if it is criminal. The question is who did what, where, when? I am confident we'll get to the bottom of this. Investigations are accelerating."
Mr Paterson said that processed meat, as well as fresh meat, should have its country of origin on the label.
He added: "We have already extended honest country of origin labelling on fresh meat, and it's right that the commission should also look at whether it's feasible to extend this to processed meats."
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that two other British companies have been investigated by the Food Standards Agency over the horse meat scandal.
A spokesman for Dinos & Sons Continental Foods Limited in north London denied any involvement in the scandal, while Norwest Foods International said in a statement: "We are not aware of any tests that have found horse in the meat we supply. We have spoken to our contact with the FSA [and] they are not aware of any investigation."
Like Mr Cameron, George Osborne, the Chancellor, was given an opportunity to show his confidence in meat products. He was ambushed by a TV crew in Eastleigh brandishing a spaghetti bolognese ready meal, but would not say whether he was happy to eat it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/9869087/Scale-of-the-horse-meat-scandal-is-breathtaking-MPs-say.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/9869087/Scale-of-the-horse-meat-scandal-is-breathtaking-MPs-say.html)
Quote from: Hate mail on February 11, 2013, 07:00:45 PM
Pojma nemaju sta ce sve te neke Bugarske i Rumunije da im rade. Oni ljudi su prestali da funkcionisu na taj nacin jos u ranom srednjem veku. Zaboravili. Izvetrelo (sa)znanje o takvim nacinima egzistiranja. Jos kad se "spreme" tzv. zemlje tzv. zapadnog Balkana, Albanije, Turske...
odlicno sroceno
US Treasury secretary says he has begun tapping federal retiree pension fund to avoid default
* Article by: MARTIN CRUTSINGER , Associated Press
* Updated: May 20, 2013 - 7:52 PM
WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said late Monday he will begin tapping into two government employee retirement funds to buy more time before the U.S. Treasury is faced with the prospect of defaulting on the national debt.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Lew said that he would tap the civil service retirement and disability fund and a similar fund that covers retired postal workers. The law allows him to remove investments from these funds to clear room for more borrowing until Congress votes to raise the debt limit
Under the law, any investments diverted from the pension funds must be replaced with interest once Congress approves raising the debt limit.
Lew has said the various bookkeeping measures he is allowed to employ should provide enough maneuvering room to keep the government from defaulting on its debt until after Labor Day. Other estimates say Lew may be able to forestall a default until as late as November.
In January, Congress voted to temporarily suspend the debt limit but that suspension ended Sunday.
Before the suspension, the debt limit stood at $16.4 trillion. The government has borrowed $300 billion since the suspension took effect. On Sunday, the debt limit reset at the higher level of $16.7 trillion.
The government has run annual deficits of more than $1 trillion for the past four years. But the Congressional Budget Office last week estimated that this year's deficit will drop to $643 billion, an improvement that reflects increased revenue from a stronger economy and the effect of tax increases that took effect in January.
Republicans want to reduce future deficits by cutting back on spending. Democrats have proposed a mix of spending cuts and tax increases, which Republicans oppose. The dispute has led to the current budget impasse.
A standoff over budget issues in August 2011 pushed the country close to its first-ever default before President Barack Obama and Republicans reached a last-minute compromise. That battle prompted Standard & Poor's to issue the first-ever downgrade on long-term Treasury debt. The administration has vowed to prevent Republicans from using the need to raise the borrowing limit as leverage in the current budget battle.
"I respectfully urge Congress to protect America's good credit and avoid the potentially catastrophic consequences of failing to act by increasing the debt limit in a timely fashion," Lew said in his Monday letter.
http://www.startribune.com/business/208236701.html?refer=y (http://www.startribune.com/business/208236701.html?refer=y)