Sunday, March 31, 2013

QUICK OVERVIEW

  • The deaths of two men in Shanghai from a strain of bird flu have raised the specter of a new epidemic.

  • The head of Cyprus' influential Orthodox Church has dealt a hammer blow to the island's economic leaders by becoming the first major figure to call for their resignations.

  • Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister has said about North Korea: “The situation could simply get out of control, it is slipping toward the spiral of a vicious cycle,”.

  • U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly rose in March. Sentiment edged up to a four- month high of 78.6 in March from 77.6 in the previous month.
  • U.S. Existing home sales rose 0.8% to an annual rate of 4.98 million in February. The sales rate was the highest since November 2009
  • U.S. economy rose 0.4% in Q4

  • Japan's consumer prices fell 0.3% in February
  • Japan's unemployment rate rose to 4. 3% in February from 4.2% the previous month
  • Japan's retail sales accelerated their drop in February, falling 2.3% YoY after a 1.1% fall the previous month

  • Portugal's public debt reaches 123.6 % of GDP

  • Spain's economy to contract by 1.5 % in 2013

  • Climate change denying Chris Stewart (R-Utah) to head subcommittee on Climate Change.

  • (Telegraph) Japan has extracted natural "ice" gas from methane hydrates beneath the sea off its coasts in a technological coup, opening up a super-resource that could meet the country's gas needs for the next century and radically change the world's energy outlook.


  • U.S. Insider selling has risen to 6.3 sells for every buy - eight year high.

  • (Spiegel) As the euro crisis wears on, the tough austerity measures implemented in ailing member states are resulting in serious health issues, a study revealed. Mental illness, suicide rates and epidemics are on the rise, while access to care has dwindled.

  • (Spiegel) Twelve years ago, Portugal eliminated criminal penalties for drug users. Since then, those caught with small amounts of marijuana, cocaine or heroin go unindicted and possession is a misdemeanor on par with illegal parking. Experts are pleased with the results.

  • More than half of the rivers and streams in the United States are in poor biological health, unable to support healthy populations of aquatic insects and other creatures, according to a nationwide survey.

  • The US Food and Drug Administration approved a first-of-its-kind diabetes drug from Johnson & Johnson that uses a new method to lower blood sugar flushing it out in patients' urine.

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