Police used batons to disperse opposition activists taking part in a general strike in Bangladesh’s capital on Sunday. A party official said eight people were injured.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, is protesting a government decision to divide Dhaka into two administrative zones, a plan they say is aimed at removing the opposition-backed mayor.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Zia’s archrival, says the split is needed to provide better services to residents. Dhaka is a teeming city of 10 million people with poor infrastructure.
Amid an opposition boycott, the government passed a law in Parliament on Tuesday to appoint administrators for the two zones.
Schools and businesses were shut during the daylong general strike Sunday. A few vehicles were moving in the usually clogged streets.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, a senior opposition party official, said at least eight demonstrators were injured in the dispersal, which took place in front of the party’s headquarters.
He said at least 85 opposition supporters were arrested Saturday, the eve of the strike.
“The government has unleashed a reign of terror to frighten opposition activists,” Alamgir told reporters Sunday. “Police are out to halt our peaceful protests.”
Police say their goal is to maintain order, with some 10,000 security officials deployed in the city.
“It is our duty to protect the people and their property,” said Mehedy Hasan, a Dhaka Metropolitan Police official.
Opposition and government supporters clashed briefly in a separate incident Sunday in which several people were hurt, said APTN cameraman Al Emrun Gorjon, who suffered a head injury.
He said the clash broke out after opposition demonstrators hurled stones at a passing bus. Nearby government supporters then clashed with the demonstrators before police arrived, he said.
U.S. home prices are falling again in most major cities after posting small gains over the summer and spring, the latest evidence that the troubled housing market won’t recover any time soon.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday showed prices dropped in September from August in 17 of the 20 cities tracked. That was the first decline after five straight months in which at least half the cities in the survey showed monthly gains.
A separate index for the July-September quarter shows prices were mostly unchanged from the previous quarter.
David M. Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee, said that while the steep price declines seen between 2007 and 2009 appear to be over, home prices are down from the same time last year and do not show signs of easing.
“Any chance for a sustained recovery will probably need a stronger economy,” Blitzer said.
Atlanta, San Francisco and Tampa, Fla. posted the biggest monthly price declines. Prices in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix fell to their lowest points since the housing crisis began four years ago. Blitzer called the new lows reached in those three cities a “bit disturbing.”
Prices rose in New York, Portland, Ore. and Washington.
Americans are reluctant to purchase a home more than two years after the recession officially ended. High unemployment and weak job growth have deterred many would-be buyers. Even the lowest mortgage rates in history haven’t been enough to lift sales.
Some people can’t qualify for loans or meet higher down payment requirements. Many with good credit and stable jobs are holding off because they fear that prices will keep falling payday loan lenders.
Sales of previously occupied homes are on pace to match last year’s dismal figures _ the worst in 14 years. And sales of new homes are shaping up to be the worst since the government began keeping records a half century ago.
“Despite record high affordability of real estate, the psychology of home buyers is still being weighed down by economic uncertainty, keeping them on the fence when it comes to buying homes,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow.com, which measures home values.
The Case Shiller index covers half of all U.S. homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The September data is the latest available.
Prices are certain to fall further once banks resume millions of foreclosures. They have been delayed because of a yearlong government investigation into mortgage lending practices.
Home prices had stabilized in coastal cities over the past six months, helped by a rush of spring buyers and investors. But this year, prices in many cities, including Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tampa, have reached their lowest points since the housing bust more than four years ago.
Foreclosures and short sales _ when a lender accepts less for a home than what is owed on a mortgage _ are selling at an average discount of 20 percent.
A pair of triple button Ugg boots for just $209 at a U.S. online retailer looks like a better deal than the $285 price tag on Ugg
UPDATED AT 6:50 p.m. with more details.
Die-hard bargain shoppers might want to opt for some coffee after Thanksgiving dinner this year.
Not only are a number of big box and department stores opening at midnight on Thanksgiving, but now most of the shopping malls in the St. Louis region are following suit as well.
“Everybody wants to join the party,” said Marshal Cohen, retail analyst with consulting firm NPD Group. “It’s going to be midnight madness.”
Chesterfield Mall, Mid Rivers Mall, South County Center, St. Clair Square, and West County Center will all open their doors at midnight to accommodate stores that have asked to open at that hour, mall operator CBL & Associates announced Monday.
Victoria’s Secret, Aeropostale, The Limited, Bath and Body Works, and American Eagle are some of the stores that have said they will open at midnight. It will put a complete list of stores that will open at midnight at area malls on its website next week, CBL said.
“It seems to be growing as time goes on,” Sean Phillips, CBL’s regional marketing director, said of the list. “I think everyone feels they need to be open at midnight to be competitive.”
The rest of the stores in CBL malls will open at 5 a.m. Friday - an hour earlier than last year. Some eateries and coffee shops may also open in the middle of the night, too. For example, the Starbucks at West County Center has already said it would open at midnight.
The St. Louis Galleria will officially open at 6 a.m. - also an hour earlier than last year, said Earl Dorsett, manager of the St. Louis Galleria. But the Galleria will unlock the doors and turn on the lights in the mall so stores that want to open at midnight can do so, which is a first for that mall payday loans.
The mall has never opened this early - or been open on Thanksgiving Day - with the exception of the movie theaters, he said.
In recent weeks, a number of big retailers such as Target, Best Buy, Macy’s, and Kohl’s have said they will open at midnight this year to kick off Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping events of the year.
Walmart will roll out its first round of doorbusters at 10 p.m. Thanksgiving Day. And Toys R Us, which is trying to stay ahead of the pack, said Monday that it will open its stores at 9 p.m.
However, the midnight openings are not sitting well with some employees. A Target employee from Nebraska has started an online petition that has garnered thousands of signatures asking Target to open at 5 a.m. on Black Friday instead of at midnight.
“A midnight opening robs the hourly and in-store salary workers of time off with their families on Thanksgiving Day,” the petition says.
But Cohen said he thinks that in this economy, there are a number of employees out there who would be willing to volunteer to work the extra hours to make overtime pay.
He expects the midnight opening to be popular among shoppers who would be up then anyway and would prefer to shop at that hour than to have to wake up before dawn to get the best deals.
Besides, he added, shopping is not necessarily at odds with the spirit of the Thanksgiving, which is a family-oriented holiday.
“Guess what - shopping to some people is a family-centric activity,” he said.
A former Goldman Sachs board member on Wednesday surrendered to federal authorities to face criminal charges stemming from a massive hedge fund insider trading case.
Rajat Gupta appeared in Manhattan federal court. The charges were not immediately disclosed.
The Securities and Exchange Commissioner originally brought civil fraud charges against Gupta in March. The SEC alleged that, at the height of the financial crisis, he passed along privileged financial information that helped enrich Raj Rajaratnam, a former billionaire hedge fund manager who was the prime target of the criminal probe.
Gupta’s lawyer responded by accusing the SEC of launching a “flawed case premised in large part on unreliable evidence being used in an attempt to bring down a man of sterling reputation and remarkable achievements without the procedural safeguards historically accorded to all persons similarly charged.”
The Indian-born, Harvard-educated Gupta also has served on the boards of Procter & Gamble and the parent company for American Airlines. He was a guest at President Barack Obama’s first state dinner.
Gupta’s name played prominently at the criminal trial earlier this year of Rajaratnam, who was convicted after prosecutors used a trove of wiretaps on which he could be heard coaxing a crew of corporate tipsters into giving him an illegal edge on blockbuster trades.
Jurors heard testimony that at an Oct. 23, 2008, Goldman board meeting, members were told that the investment bank was facing a quarterly loss for the first time since it had gone public in 1999.
Prosecutors produced phone records showing Gupta called Rajaratnam 23 seconds after the meeting ended, causing Rajaratnam to sell his entire position in Goldman the next morning and save millions of dollars payday loans with no fax.
Rajaratnam also earned close to $1 million when Gupta told him that Goldman had received an offer from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to invest $5 billion in the banking giant, prosecutors said.
In one tape played at trial, Rajaratnam could be heard grilling Gupta about whether the Goldman Sachs board had discussed acquiring a commercial bank or an insurance company.
“Have you heard anything along that line?” Rajaratnam asked Gupta.
“Yeah,” Gupta responded. “This was a big discussion at the board meeting.”
Prosecutors sought to maximize the impact of the Gupta tape by calling Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein to testify that the phone call violated the investment bank’s confidentiality policies.
Gupta’s lawyer Gary P. Naftalis said Tuesday night that his client and Rajaratnam communicated for “legitimate reasons.” He said his client didn’t trade in any securities, didn’t tip Rajaratnam so he could trade and didn’t share in any profits.
“The facts demonstrate that Mr. Gupta is an innocent man and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity,” Naftalis said in an emailed statement.
Rajaratnam, who’s in his mid-50s, was sentenced earlier this year to 11 years in prison. His lawyers had argued for 6 1/2 to nine years. Defense attorney Terence Lynam asked the judge to show compassion because of Rajaratnam’s illnesses, saying: “He does not deserve to die in prison.”
Greek railway workers and journalists joined ferry crews, garbage collectors, tax officials and lawyers on Tuesday in a strike blitz against yet more austerity measures required if the country is to avoid defaulting on its debts.
The protests will lead into a general strike over the coming two days, culminating on Thursday when Parliament holds a crucial vote on the new painful cutbacks that follow nearly two years of austerity. A similar strike before an austerity bill in June was accompanied by large protest marches which degenerated into street battles between rioters and police.
The highly unpopular new measures include further pension and salary cuts, the suspension on reduced pay of 30,000 public servants out of a total of more than 750,000 and the suspension of collective labor contracts.
Meanwhile, European countries are trying to work out an overall solution to the continent’s deepening debt crisis, ahead of a weekend summit in Brussels.
“The situation is exceptionally difficult, because there is great uncertainty in Europe, great uncertainty internationally,” Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said in a meeting with the country’s president, Karolos Papoulias. “People … are making big sacrifices. We are carrying out a patriotic duty because we have to save the country.”
Venizelos also tempered expectations for reaching a definitive deal on a second rescue package for Greece at a European Union summit this weekend. The second bailout, worth euro109 billion, was initially agreed in July, but crucial details remain to be worked out.
“We must not have great expectations for Sunday’s summit,” Venizelos said. “We will seek what is best for the country and the eurozone. Everyone understands that if Greece is saved, the eurozone will be saved too. And the reverse is also true: if the Europeans fail on Greece they will not be able to safeguard themselves.”
Greece’s embattled Socialist government needs to pass the new measures _ which some of its own backbenchers have threatened to block _ to receive the next euro8 billion ($11 billion) installment of the original euro110 billion package of international rescue loans that have been keeping it afloat since May 2010.
“It must be understood that we are fighting a war here,” the finance minister said, adding that a “national fight” must be waged against tax evasion. “If some people think that we live under normal circumstances and we are implementing a policy we want to implement of cutbacks and austerity, they are very much mistaken.”
The bailout was needed after the country’s borrowing rates soared on international markets upon revelations that Athens had misrepresented its financial data for years. Rating agencies cut Greece’s credit grade to the lowest in the world.
The country has maintained a market presence through regular sales of short-term debt _ up to six months _ and on Tuesday successfully auctioned euro1.62 billion worth of 13-week treasury bills. The country had to offer buyers a slightly higher yield, 4.61 percent compared with 4.56 percent at the previous sale last month. Investor interest was slightly higher, with the auction 2.86 times oversubscribed.
The government has said it will run out of cash in mid-November if the next bailout loan installment is not forthcoming.
Tuesday’s strikes kept island ferries in port for a second day, while stinking mounds of rotting garbage remained uncollected for the 17th day on the streets of Greece’s cities, carpeting sidewalks and forcing pedestrians to make detours through speeding traffic.
Tax collectors and lawyers joined the strikes, while civil servants occupied the finance and labor ministry buildings.
The new austerity measures were announced after the government failed to meet its savings targets, despite some 22 months of austerity that saw a record loss of jobs during a deep recession.
In July, unemployment rose to 16.5 percent, from 16 percent in June and 12 percent a year earlier, according to data provided Tuesday by Greece’s statistical authority. The total number of unemployed exceeded 820,000.
On Wednesday and Thursday, teachers, doctors, taxi drivers and bank employees will be on strike, together with air traffic controllers _ whose walkout will halt all flights for two days.
The country’s two main labor unions have also called rallies and protest marches to Syntagma Square outside Parliament in central Athens during the general strike, while a Communist union has urged members to block off the assembly building on the day of the vote.
Vans mounted with loudspeakers did the rounds of central Athens Tuesday, urging workers to “flood Syntagma Square and surround Parliament.”
Some of the nation’s largest oil refineries are seeking huge tax refunds that could force school districts and local governments across Texas to give back tens of millions of dollars they were counting on to pay teachers and provide other services.
The refineries want the tax breaks in exchange for buying pollution-controlling equipment. But the cost to public schools would be dear, coming only months after lawmakers slashed education spending by more than $4 billion.
If a three-member commission appointed by Gov. Rick Perry grants the refunds, nearly half the money would be taken from schools. Classrooms in cities with refineries would be hurt most.
“We were already cut at the knees as it is, but more cuts? It’s appalling,” said Patricia Gonzales, a single mother of twins at Park View Intermediate School in Pasadena, a refinery town just south of Houston.
She is president of the parent-teacher organization, which was created this past summer after budget cuts left the school without basic supplies such as pencils and paper towels.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is evaluating 16 refund requests that could add up to more than $135 million, according to county tax data and application documents analyzed by The Associated Press.
What’s more, if the commission grants the requests, at least 12 other refineries that have not sought a refund also could qualify.
On Monday, about a dozen community activists handed out fliers in Pasadena as they conducted a mock bake sale offering $10,000 cookies, brownies and cupcakes to draw attention to the problem.
Gonzales lives near a miles-long stretch of refineries, where massive pipes and stacks light the night like skyscrapers do in other cities. An intense odor of burnt chemicals hangs over the town.
“There are days when we can’t go out because our children’s asthma is that bad,” she said. “And then they want money back?”
The state commission expressed some support for the refund last year, raising speculation that it is preparing to side with the industry.
Beginning in 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency began requiring refineries to remove sulfur dioxide from diesel and gasoline, and many refineries had to either upgrade existing “hydrotreater” units or purchase new, more effective equipment.
San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp. argues that the units should qualify for a tax exemption under an amendment to the Texas Constitution that says industrial plants don’t have to pay taxes on equipment purchased to reduce on-site pollution.
Valero first asked for the refund for six of its refineries in 2007. Since then, at least four other companies have asked for the same retroactive refund.
Valero’s initial request was denied. The company appealed, and the panel’s chairman, Bryan Shaw, said last April that the Legislature probably intended a broader interpretation of the law. He instructed his staff to research whether they could award partial exemptions to Valero.
Shaw declined to comment, saying it could present a conflict because the issue will be brought before him again.
Valero could potentially get a refund of more than $92 million, but company spokesman Bill Day said executives believe the final refund would be much smaller. He said appraisers will probably estimate the value of refinery properties below the amount submitted by the company.
There is no timeline for a ruling. The slow pace of the decision has put municipalities and school districts in the position of collecting and spending money they could be forced to return.
Schools alone could be forced to fork over $62.8 million, according to data compiled by the AP.
In smaller, more rural counties _ where property taxes from heavy industry provide a big chunk of funding for schools and government services _ the effect could be even greater. For example, in Moore County, where a Valero refinery is seeking two exemptions, a $15.8 million refund would amount to more than $720 per person.
“If it was a good year and property values were up, it wouldn’t be so bad,” said Hugh Landrom Jr., president of Hugh Landrom and Associates, an engineering firm that does industrial appraisals for Galveston and other counties that are home to large refineries and chemical plants.
But the pain is “compounded by the state budget cuts that are being passed down to everybody,” Landrom said.
If the abatements are approved, all Texas schools would be affected. Refinery towns would be hurt the most.
“The dollars that are lost by these school districts directly affect the children of the employees that help make these companies what they are,” said David Hodgins, consultant and attorney for the Texas Association of School Administrators.
The Pasadena schools will have to refund $11.3 million to two refineries, according to the AP analysis.
The school where the Gonzales children attend class has laid off eight staff members and is asking parents to donate money to pay for basketballs, volleyballs and even gloves for the science teachers.
The Valero spokesman insisted the refund would not “be a disaster.”
“I guarantee you, it’s not a surprise to the school districts,” Day said. “Yes, they spent the money. Yes, we’re asking for an abatement on our pollution-control equipment. … But this is really no different than a homeowner appealing their property tax, just on a larger scale.”
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Associated Press Writer Troy Thibodeaux contributed to this report from New Orleans.
Stocks are rising as investors pin their hopes on a key Federal Reserve meeting that could result in a decision to stimulate the economy.
Strong results from Carnival Corp. also suggest the upcoming earnings season could be better than expected.
The Fed began a two-day policy meeting Tuesday. On Wednesday, many analysts believe the central bank will announce new stimulus measures.
Carnival rose 6.7 percent, the most of any S&P 500 company, after the cruise operator said slimmer costs and strong ticket prices boosted its net income.
The Dow Jones industrial average is up 133 points, or 1.2 percent, at 11,532 in morning trading. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up 15, or 1.2 percent, at 1,218. The Nasdaq composite is up 25, or 1 percent, at 2,638.
The chief executive of UBS says he feels responsible but not guilty for the $2 billion loss a rogue trader has caused the Swiss bank.
Oswald Gruebel told the Swiss weekly Der Sonntag in an interview Sunday he also isn’t thinking about resigning.
Gruebel was brought in more than two years ago to lead UBS out of a series of missteps that have heavily damaged the biggest Swiss bank’s reputation. He told the paper in his first interview since UBS announced the loss Thursday that he was “responsible for everything that happens at the bank electronic check payday advance.”
He added “but if you ask me whether I feel guilty, then I would say no.”
A 31-year-old trader, Kweku Adoboli, is being held in London on charges of fraud and false accounting.
A tropical storm watch has been issued for Bermuda as Tropical Storm Maria crawls up the Atlantic.
Early Tuesday, Maria has maximum sustained winds near 50 mph (85 kph) with some strengthening forecast during the next two days.
Maria is centered about 340 miles (545 kilometers) east of the southeastern Bahamas and is moving north-northwest near 5 mph (7 kph) payday loans. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Maria is expected to pass west of Bermuda on Thursday.
Maria’s forecast track shows it curving away from the U.S.
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