European law-enforcement officials uncovered a highly sophisticated credit-card fraud ring that funnels account data to Pakistan from hundreds of grocery-store card machines across Europe, according to U.S. intelligence officials and other people familiar with the case. Specialists say the theft technology is the most advanced they have seen, and a person close to British law enforcement said it has affected big retailers including a British unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Tesco Ltd.
The account data have been used to make repeated bank withdrawals and Internet purchases, such as airline tickets, in several countries including the U.S. Investigators haven't pinpointed the culprits. Early estimates of the losses range of $50 million to $100 million, but the figure could grow, said the person close to British law enforcement.
The scheme uses untraceable devices inserted into credit-card readers that were made in China. The devices selectively send account data by a wireless connection to computer servers in Lahore, Pakisan, and constantly change the pattern of theft so it is hard to detect, officials say.
"Pretty small but intelligent criminal organizations are pulling off transnational, multicontinent heists that only a foreign intelligence service would have been able to do a few years ago," said Joel F. Brenner, the U.S. government's top counterintelligence officer.
U.S. intelligence officials, including senior National Security Agency officials, are monitoring the case, in part because of its ties to Pakistan, which has become home to a resurgent al Qaeda.
The scheme comes on the heels of the August indictment of a fraud ring that stole more than 40 million credit-card numbers from U.S. companies, including TJX Cos., the parent company of TJ Maxx.
In March, security officials at MasterCard Inc. saw a pattern of potential fraud in northern England. Meanwhile, a security guard at a U.K. grocery store noticed suspicious static on his cellphone and alerted authorities. Scotland Yard learned of the report and eventually connected it with the warning from MasterCard, according to the person close to British law enforcement.
Examining the store's credit-card readers, investigators discovered a high-tech bug tucked behind the motherboard. It was small card containing wireless communication technology. The bug would read an individual's card number and the corresponding personal identification number, then package and store the data. The device would once a day call a number in Lahore to upload the data to servers there and obtain instructions on what to steal next.
A MasterCard spokesman declined to discuss details of the case but said safeguarding financial information is a top priority for the company.
There is no obvious visual indication that a machine has been altered, but those with the bugs weigh about four ounces more. For the past several months, teams of investigators have been weighing thousands of machines across Europe with a precision scale.
So far, investigators have found hundreds of machines in at least five countries: Britain, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark. They have turned up at European grocery chains including Asda, which is owned by Wal-Mart; Tesco; and J Sainsbury PLC, according to the person close to British law enforcement.
A spokeswoman for Asda said, "It's subject to a police investigation, so we can't comment." A spokeswoman for Sainsbury denied its stores were hit by the scheme. A spokeswoman for Tesco said: "We're aware that this was an issue for retailers." She said Tesco tested its devices and is confident they are now secure.
The device can be told to copy certain types of transactions -- for example, five Visa platinum cards or every tenth transaction. It can also be instructed to go dormant to evade detection. On average, only five to 10 card numbers would be phoned in to Pakistan, the person close to British law enforcement said.
#1
"Pretty small but intelligent criminal organizations are pulling off transnational, multicontinent heists that only a foreign intelligence service would have been able to do a few years ago," said Joel F. Brenner, the U.S. government's top counterintelligence officer.
Perhaps these small criminal organizations are being run by a foreign intelligence.. cough... ISI... cough... organization?
Posted by: john frum ||
10/12/2008 12:36 Comments ||
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Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider, a charismatic politician who helped bring anti-immigrant politics into the European mainstream and sparked outrage with comments praising Nazi policies, was killed in a car accident on Saturday. Haider, 58, leader of the Alliance for the Future of Austria party (BZOe), was at the wheel of his official car in the early hours of Saturday when it veered off the road south of Klagenfurt, the capital of the province of Carinthia where he was governor.
Last month, after years of retreat into provincial politics, he helped Austria's far right win about 30 percent of the vote in a parliamentary election, mining discontent over feuding centrist governing parties, inflation and immigration.
His spokesman Stefan Petzner said Haider, who was governor of Carinthia province, had been driving to his rural home near Klagenfurt early on Saturday morning for a family gathering to mark his mother's 90th birthday when the accident occurred.
The government car he was driving skidded out of control after he overtook another vehicle. His car hit a concrete traffic barrier and rolled over several times, police said. Haider was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital.
Haider shook up Austria's stiff, formal political scene with his blunt and engaging manner. He struck a chord with ordinary people and was on good personal terms even with political foes.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Far 'Right' or Far 'Left'. He was in the same shed as Gorgeous George Galloway, at least on their favourite issues.
#2
And he was a personal friend of saif islam, one of K-daffy's spawn, who IIRC offered him his pet leopard, and was supposedly the witness to haider's conversion to islam (or so saif said in an interview I once read online). Also, haider was an advocate of turkey's entry into the EU, to counterbalance US influence.
But, already the french wingnut blogopshere is all ablaze with assassination theories, with the usual suspects blaming the jooooooos, no matter how haider was a red-green-brown, and actually an adversary of the ideals and goals they supposedly follow; but, just as pépé le pen has been screwing and conning french rightwingers for decades and yet still is the Man-On-An-Horse for them, what can I say? Some people are so used to being defeated over and over, continually for 200 years+, that they must indulge in fantasies.
Libya will withdraw $7 billion of assets in Swiss banks and stop supplying it with oil to protest against poor treatment of Libyan diplomats and businessmen, Libyan news agency JANA said. Tripoli will "also put an end to all economic cooperation with Switzerland."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Deliberate act of soft jihad. Oil and money are safer to use than WMDs.
#2
Libya's just pissed because the Swiss expect Qhaddafy Duck's kid and cohorts to act civilized when in their country
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2008 8:20 Comments ||
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LOL. $7bn in a Swiss bank is like a thimble of water out of my swimming pool.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/12/2008 10:56 Comments ||
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#4
So where is G'Daffy gonna put the money? Cayman Islands? I'm sure that other banks will be more than happy to help out. And how much total does G'Daffy have in Swiss banks? Maybe this is just a PR stunt.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/12/2008 15:21 Comments ||
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#5
maybe he needed the cash to rent one of those Russian boats that just showed up in Tripoli...
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
10/12/2008 15:26 Comments ||
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Russian warships, bound for Venezuela for joint naval exercises next month, put in Saturday at the Libyan port of Tripoli for refueling.
The rare visit by the Russian warships to Tripoli port was the latest signal of re-warming of ties between Libya and Russia-- its main backer during the Soviet Union era.
The warships, led by the nuclear-powered heavy missile cruiser Peter the Great, left their home base on Sept. 22 in a show of strength by Moscow as it forges links with Caracas.
Libya was seen as a rogue state by Washington until it agreed to give up a weapons of mass destruction program.
Last month U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Libyan leader Moammar Qaddhafi in Tripoli, the first such visit in 55 years.
Libya wants to expand ties with Russia which it sees as counterbalance to U.S. influence in the Mediterranean region.
Vladimir Putin, when Russian President, visited Libya in April to strengthen energy ties with the OPEC member and discuss the possibility of Russian cooperation in building an atomic power plant in Libya.
Putin said Libya was also seeking to buy Russian weapons.
Russia and Venezuela announced their joint military exercises last month amid high tensions between Moscow and Washington and Russian irritation at the presence of U.S. warships near Russian waters in the Black Sea.
The exercises with Venezuela will be closely watched by Western navies as the first such projection of Russian power close to U.S. shores since the demise of the Soviet Union.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2008 00:00 ||
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I don't think one cruiser and a couple of tin cans are gonna start any trouble.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has asserted claim to disputed government ministries, outraging the opposition and imperiling a fragile power-sharing agreement signed three weeks ago.
The state-owned Herald newspaper published a list Saturday that handed the ruling ZANU-PF party several powerful ministries, including defense, justice, foreign affairs and home affairs -- which controls Zimbabwe's police. Those cabinet posts would essentially secure Mugabe's 28-year grip on power and make the recent deal meaningless.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the main opposition party, denounced the list as a "midnight ambush" by ZANU-PF and said no agreement on ministries had been reached. The opposition released a list depicting its own "general understanding" of the state of negotiations and showing justice, home affairs and foreign affairs under MDC control.
"It is a giant act of madness which puts the whole deal in jeopardy," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said in a statement.
The ruling party, the MDC and a splinter opposition party have been squabbling for weeks over 31 cabinet slots. On Friday, the parties agreed to summon former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who brokered the power-sharing deal, to help break the deadlock, news services reported.
"ZANU-PF cannot nocturnally allocate ministries barely hours after the three principals agreed to disagree by referring the matter to the mediator after a logjam over all key ministries," Chamisa said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Color me surprised!
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2008 6:32 Comments ||
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#3
Cries of 'Diebold' is democratic projection - hoping that, by declaring the other side is 'cheating' first, they will get a pass when they actually get caught at it.
#4
I doubt the lily white faculties of academia [who are hot on their student population being diverse but not their tenured fellow travelers] are in the bag for Black Nationalism except as an exotic trendy 'color' to their old tired socialist dogma.
#5
Sure they are interested - Someone has to do the plantation work while the elite think good thoughts, attend parties, and pat themselves on the back for how 'progressive' they are.
#7
Would somebody please explain to me how 50,000 fraudulent registrations would be used? Would 1,000 crooks actually vote 50 times each on election day, or is it mostly an absentee ballot scam?
#10
I'll stand by my statement. Democraphics have irreconcilably changed the governance of our cities and large population centers. The momentum of this change has rapidly begun to effect and alter the body politic of the entire nation. Our "father's Oldsmobile" along with his work ethic, honesty, and his beliefs about our great nation are gone. They have been replaced by greed and a tribal socialist attitude of entitlement. I fear for our fragile democracy. I fear for our nation and my children.
#12
. Democraphics have irreconcilably changed the governance of our cities and large population centers.
Well, time to forcibly break up and disperse these large population centers. Candidly, short of armed intervention I do not see how Socialism can be prevented in this country.
From my perspective I see it as inexorable, as distasteful as that is. The socialist run school system has done its job well. People are (most anyway) lazy and getting more so.
I keep hearing and reading people saying: "God help America!" Well, God helps those that help themselves. Be ready, the time is near.
#13
Well, time to forcibly break up and disperse these large population centers.
Katrina did a rather good job of that. The core blue centers [even 'Blue State' are largely composed of a few concentrations by counties] are very dependent upon stuff they NIMBY'ed outside their immediate control like energy, food, clean water, waste disposal, etc.
In 2004, Democrats watched as any chance of defeating President Bush slipped away in a wave of Republican turnout that exceeded even the goal-beating numbers that their own side had produced. And you thought your vote didn't count!
Four years later, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign intends to avoid a repeat by building an organization modeled in part on what Karl Rove used to engineer Bush's victory: a heavy reliance on local volunteers to pitch to their own neighbors, micro-targeting techniques to identify persuadable independents and Republicans using consumer data, and a focus on exurban and rural areas.
But in scale and ambition, the Obama organization goes beyond even what Rove built. The campaign has used its record-breaking fundraising to open more than 700 offices in more than a dozen battleground states, pay several thousand organizers and manage tens of thousands more volunteers.
In many states, the Democratic candidate is hewing more closely to the Rove organizational model than is rival Sen. John McCain, whose emphasis on ground operations has been less intensive and clinical than that of his Republican predecessor.
"They've invested in a civic infrastructure on a scale that has never happened," said Marshall Ganz, a labor organizer who worked with César Chávez's farmworker movement and has led training sessions for Obama staff members and volunteers. "It's been an investment in the development of thousands of young people equipped with the skills and leadership ability to mobilize people and in the development of leadership at the local level. It's profound." Community organizer.
But sheer size and scope guarantee little, especially for an operation that is untested on this scale, and the next three weeks will determine whether Obama's approach will become a model for future campaigns or yet another example of how not to do it.
The campaign faces no shortage of challenges. It must meet its ambitious goals for voter contacts - with repeat visits to undecided and first-time voters - while being careful not to turn people off by being overly persistent. Though it relies on homegrown backers, it must still incorporate thousands of out-of-state volunteers. And above all, its foot soldiers must make the case for a candidate who remains an unknown to many would-be supporters.
Jane Goodman, a city council member in South Euclid, Ohio, who is leading the Obama effort in her ward, said she has never seen such a grass-roots push in her Cleveland suburb of Jewish voters, Russian immigrants and African Americans. But she has also never seen such a need for it.
"We haven't had much Democratic outreach here before because it was assumed the Democrats are going to win," she said. "This year, we can't make that assumption." Don't they read the papers in Ohio?
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/12/2008 05:45 ||
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If McCain thinks it's unecessary to make an all-out effort at the micro level on at least the scale that Rove did, it is a catastrophic mistake.
#2
It's not that he thinks it is unnecessary, he just doesn't have a history of doing it well. McCain was ahead of his peers in using the Internet for political purposes (see the 2000 primaries), but he's always been behind in the GOTV side of politics.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/12/2008 13:02 Comments ||
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#3
To be honest, it's appearing more and more as if McCain would rather lose gracefully than scrap for the win.
It was a mistake to have him as the candidate this year.
#4
too bad we couldn't find a real republican... :(
seriously, i had to preface who i was planing to vote for wiht a long list of 'even though mccain...'
short list.. McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, The gang of 14...
any one of them should have excluded him from serious consideration. but i must hold my nose and vote against O-man.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
10/12/2008 15:32 Comments ||
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The sign went up Sunday evening, bold black letters against the stark white background of the marquee at the Colony South Hotel and Conference Center in Clinton(MD): "Country First. McCain/Palin."
By daybreak, pandemonium had broken loose all across heavily Democratic Prince George's County. Many local supporters of Democrat Barack Obama, jolted by the message as they headed down Branch Avenue on their Monday morning commutes, grabbed cellphones and BlackBerrys to notify friends. Operators of neighborhood e-mail group lists cried foul to their memberships. The NAACP logged calls. Community leaders demanded boycotts of the hotel, a common venue for Democratic events.
"Businesspeople have to be mindful of the sentiments and sensibilities of their market trading area, and Prince George's County is overwhelmingly for Obama," said community activist Arthur Turner of Kettering, who was among those advocating a boycott. "People I have talked to look at the sign as a slap in the face. They feel it was blatant disrespect. . . . I have heard people say they will no longer patronize Colony South because of that disrespect."
The outcry over the hotel marquee tapped into the passion - and sometimes anger - that has characterized this fall's presidential campaign. Supporters of Republican candidate John McCain have vented their rage at rallies this week, applauding thunderously as McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists."
Prince George's, though, is clearly Obama Country. As the nation's wealthiest mostly black community, where about 77 percent of registered voters are Democrats, residents have Obama placards in their yards, bumper stickers on their cars and the candidate's visage on their T-shirts.
The marquee supporting the GOP ticket in "an area that is strongly African American was like putting a stink bomb in the middle of the living room," said University of Maryland political Professor Ron Walters. "What it does show is the emotions that are around this campaign and this election."
Colony South General Manager Alan Vahabzadeh said that the hotel, one of several Washington area businesses that has dared to venture into the political thicket, got the message after about 100 phone calls and three dozen e-mails. The sign came down Wednesday afternoon.
more froth at link
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/12/2008 05:38 ||
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Prince George's, though, is clearly Obama Country .....and full of high paid gummit workers who owe their careers to affirmative action.
And does anyone thing converative talk shows and blogs (free speech) will survive an Obama adminsitration?
#2
So basically, what the article doesn't point out is that based on where you live, you should not have your own opinion and should follow the crowd or else.
So many examples of why lefties are nothing but fascists.
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), the countrys monopoly atomic energy generator, plans to place orders for as much as 2,000 metric tonnes of uranium, equal to almost a fifth of Japans annual demand, before the end of 2008 to ensure fuel supplies.
NPCIL is in talks for long-term contracts and is also willing to invest up to $1 billion to buy stakes in as many as four uranium mines overseas, Chairman Shreyans Kumar Jain said in a telephone interview from Mumbai today.
India, where homes and industry suffer peak power shortages of as much as 17 per cent, will buy nuclear power reactors and uranium for the first time after a US-backed deal helped end a three-decade ban. The South Asian nation needs the radioactive fuel to fire the 28 reactors it plans to build to meet its target of adding 40,000 megawatts of nuclear generation by 2020.
The next step is to ensure fuel supplies for our ongoing and planned projects, Jain said. We need long-term supplies and were looking to buy stakes in assets.
President George W Bush on October 8 signed into law approval for US companies such as General Electric to sell India atomic fuel and technology. A group of 45 nuclear-supplier nations waived international restrictions on India last month.
NPCIL has approached companies in Canada, Kazakhstan, Africa and members of the Russian Federation for long-term supply contracts, he said. The company is also examining possible joint ventures in mining and buying stakes in uranium mines that havent been developed because of lack of funds.
Canadas Cameco Corporation, the worlds largest supplier of uranium, said it is interested in selling the fuel to India as soon as legally possible.
The lifting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) ban opens up the Indian nuclear market to the world and Cameco is looking forward to having access to that market, Lyle Krahn, spokesman for Cameco, said on September 12.
Its a potential new source of demand for uranium.
The state-run explorers current estimated consumption is 1.2 million pounds of uranium to supply 4,120 megawatts capacity at 17 plants across India, many of which are running below capacity for want of fuel.
NPCIL is yet to approach Australia for supplies, Jain said. Australia, home to the worlds biggest-known reserves, reiterated on September 11 that it wont sell uranium to countries that havent signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
JPMorgan Chase & Co cut its forecast for uranium prices through 2010 because of increased spot-market sales of the radioactive metal in September and the potential for the credit freeze to slow nuclear power project development.
Spot prices may average $65.98 a pound this year, down from an earlier forecast of $69.62, JPMorgan said in a report. It cut its 2009 forecast by 14 per cent to $64.75 and the 2010 estimate by 4.7 per cent to $71.50.
India is planning to spend as much as $14 billion to buy nuclear reactors from suppliers such as Frances Areva SA, US- based General Electric Co and Westinghouse Electric Co, Jain said in an earlier interview on September 8.
Uranium, a heavy metal, is concentrated through an enrichment process to produce fuel for a reactor.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/12/2008 13:46 ||
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One of George Bush's better, and more quiet, diplomatic triumphs.
WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI -- Silencing sceptics in both countries, India and the US have signed the 123 civil nuclear pact after over three years of intense diplomatic and political debate -- a historic move that will restore nuclear trade and transform ties between the once estranged democracies. The landmark deal signed on Friday will allow India access to nuclear reactors, fuel and technologies from the US after a gap of 34 years when Washington terminated nuclear cooperation as New Delhi conducted a nuclear test in the Pokhran desert of Rajasthan in 1974.
The deal also marks a paradigm shift in relations between India and the US, which were marked by mutual distrust and suspicion till a turnaround warming of ties began around 2000.
India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed the bilateral 123 agreement at an elegant ceremony on Friday. "This is truly an historic occasion," said Rice before signing what she called an "unprecedented" agreement that makes a one-time exception for India, which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to resume nuclear trade with Washington while retaining its strategic programme.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/12/2008 00:00 ||
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a George Bush triumph... even a blind pig can occasionally find an acorn.
Bush has consistently failed to lead, and we will likely get O-man as a result..
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
10/12/2008 15:35 Comments ||
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#2
We'll "get" the O-man because the American people have been fed a pablum of egalitarianism, affirmative action, and social entitlement.
The US and EU's moves to curb the financial crisis have so far failed to achieve the goal of stabilizing markets and creating confidence, the IMF chief says.
"The world financial system is on the verge of downturn and further measures will likely be needed to overcome the crunch to prevent it from spreading", International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned on Saturday at the IMF's annual meeting in Washington.
He said that a crisis response is necessary to prevent the spreading of the crisis, adding the time is short after industrialized nations failed to agree on concrete measures to end the crisis on Friday.
US President George W. Bush tried to bolster Americans' confidence in a G7 meeting in Washington on Saturday, saying, the financial crisis requires an serious global response and coordinated work to address the situation as quickly as possible.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meeting in France, said they will present a number of decisions at a Sunday meeting.
The finance ministers from the G20 group of rich and emerging nations are gathering at an emergency meeting to find ways to combat the growing crisis.
They will discuss the implications of the financial crisis on employment and growth.
In Singapore about 600 protestors lost their savings because of the global financial chaos and they have urged the central bank to help them recover their money.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Rocked by a financial crisis that is battering the world U.S. President George W. Bush and finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich countries opened talks on Saturday, as the leaders of France and Germany met to discuss a rescue package.
Massive financial market selloffs in the past week "gets everybody's attention and brings the leaders of the world together with a clear mandate to take urgent and decisive action," David McCormick, U.S. Treasury official, told ABC's Good Morning America program.
McCormick declined to call the week's steepest fall on record a "crash," and said the U.S. government was taking action to deal with the crisis.
One day ahead of a Paris summit on the global credit crisis, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met as they moved towards a British-style plan of partial bank nationalization.
The heads of the European Union's four biggest economies -- Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- had held a first emergency summit one week earlier but Merkel and Sarkozy were split over the need for a common plan.
Now, after a week of plunging stock markets, and crisis talks on Friday between the finance ministers of the G7 industrial powers, the single-currency bloc has agreed to try once more to coordinate a response.
After the G7 talks in Washington, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said his government was ready to invest directly in banks for the first time since the Great Depression in a bid to restore confidence.
This move followed the decision by Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown to guarantee inter-bank lending and to offer to take stakes in some of the country's biggest banks in a programme of partial nationalization.
Europe, after reluctance in particular from Merkel's Germany, now seems likely to follow London down this route, which bankers hope will restart frozen lending between banks and pump vital liquidity into financial institutions.
France's finance minister, Christine Lagarde, said French banks were relatively well positioned and would probably not need a government buy-in, but that other European economies might follow the British example.
"It's very likely, because European banks are also under-capitalized," she said in an interview with France Info radio on Saturday.
"We have seen Great Britain, which is outside the eurozone, make propositions in this area," she added. "We'll have to see about that in the eurozone, but I suppose it's one of the options."
On Friday, the German daily Die Welt reported that Germany was working on a British-style plan, and a senior European official told AFP that Brown's idea was a "good one" and would be discussed by the eurozone 15. "It would be smart to follow the British example at the European level," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt the summit. "I spoke to Madame Merkel and I think she's open to a European decision."
Under the British programme, unveiled on Wednesday, 50 billion pounds (64 billion euros, 87 billion dollars) of taxpayers' money has been made available to buy shares in the country's banks.
Across the Atlantic, Paulson has a 700-billion-dollar pot with which to act since Congress approved his bail-out plan, initially focused on buying out bad loans or so-called "toxic assets" from banks in difficulty.
Under a five-point G7 "action plan" announced Friday, economic powers will ensure banks "can raise capital from public as well as private sources in sufficient amounts to re-establish confidence."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2008 00:00 ||
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I suspect nothing good will come from these European discussions for the US investor and tax payer. The more involved in banking the government becomes, the more likely it will be that we will see banking holidays and other limits on banking activities. I am not at all encouraged.
#3
The more involved in banking the government becomes, the more likely it will be that we will see banking holidays and other limits on banking activities. You left the other part out -- if the government does not involve itself in banking, there will be massive runs on banks and/or banks collapsing, a different sort of "bank holiday" than what you refer to. This happened between the 1932 presidential election and FDR's taking office in March 1933.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The US and EU's moves to curb the financial crisis have so far failed to achieve the goal of stabilizing markets and creating confidence, the IMF chief says. 
Rocked by a financial crisis that is battering the world U.S. President George W. Bush and finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich countries opened talks on Saturday, as the leaders of France and Germany met to discuss a rescue package. 
