“Bloomberg Businessweek” - Dark Chocolate May Harbor Benefits for the Heart

Despite possible upside, cocoa carries risks and won't overcome bad health habits, expert says

Bloomberg Businessweek

March 24, 2011

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/651201.html

(HealthDay News) -- If you can handle the fat and calories, there may be a health benefit to enjoying dark chocolate on occasion. New research suggests that the cocoa ingredient may lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels while preventing diabetes and improving the health of blood vessels.

So why not chow down on a candy bar or two every day? Here's the rub: Scientists aren't sure whether the downsides of cocoa consumption -- such as potential obesity -- could outweigh the benefits.

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“Reuters” - US OKs 6th deepwater drill permit since BP spill

Reuters

March 25, 2011

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/25/usa-drilling-permit-idUSN2560433620110325

* Statoil permitted to drill at Alaminos Canyon 810

* New well will be in deep water off Texas

HOUSTON, March 25 (Reuters) - Statoil (STL.OL) has been awarded the sixth new permit to drill in deep waters of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico since last year's oil spill, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy said on Friday.

Statoil's permit authorizes a new well to be drilled in Alaminos Canyon Block 810 in water 7,134 feet (2,174 meters) deep, about 216 miles (348 km) off the Texas coast south of Texas City, the news release said.

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“Marketwire” - India Globalization Capital Announces the Exchange of Outstanding Promissory Note for New Note

Marketwire

March 25, 2011

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/India-Globalization-Capital-Announces-Exchange-Outstanding-Promissory-Note-New-Note-NYSE-Amex-IGC-1417883.htm

BETHESDA, MD--(Marketwire - March 25, 2011) - India Globalization Capital, Inc. (NYSE Amex: IGC), a company competing in the rapidly growing materials and infrastructure industry in India, today announced that it consummated the exchange of an outstanding promissory note for a new note and shares of the Company's common stock.

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“Steven F. Hayward” - Weekly Standard: Against A Fossil Fuel Renaissance

Steven F. Hayward

March 24, 2011

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/24/134818457/weekly-standard-a-fossil-fuel-renaissance

Steven F. Hayward is the F. K. Weyerhaeuser fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of the Almanac of Environmental Trends.

The catastrophe at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is being regarded as the atomic power equivalent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which set back offshore oil drilling just as it appeared on the brink of a substantial expansion. This means we've now come full circle, as critics of offshore drilling compared the Gulf oil spill to Chernobyl. At the very least the events in Japan are going to reinforce the reluctance of Wall Street to invest in new nuclear power in the United States, deter insurance companies from covering nuclear plants, and increase resistance on Capitol Hill to extending the loan guarantees the nuclear industry says are essential to kick-starting more nuclear installations.

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“Yoweri Museveni” - Foreign Policy: The Gadhafi I Know

Yoweri Museveni

March 25, 2011

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/25/134857870/foreign-policy-the-gadhafi-i-know

Yoweri Museveni is president of Uganda.

By the time Col. Moammar Gadhafi came to power in 1969, I was a third-year university student at Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. We welcomed his rise because he was a leader in the tradition of Col. Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt who had a nationalist and pan-Arabist position.

Soon, however, problems cropped up with Gadhafi as far as Uganda and black Africa were concerned:

Backing Idi Amin: Idi Amin came to power in 1971 with the support of Britain and Israel because they thought he was uneducated enough to be used by them. Amin, however, turned against his sponsors when they refused to sell him guns to fight Tanzania. Unfortunately, Gadhafi, without first getting enough information about Uganda, jumped in to support Idi Amin. He did this because Amin was a "Muslim" and Uganda was a "Muslim country," where Muslims were being "oppressed" by Christians. Amin killed a lot of people extrajudicially, and Gadhafi was identified with these mistakes.

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“Joshua Zumbrum” - Duke Says Recovery May Be Slower on Households’ Caution

Joshua Zumbrun

March 24, 2011

 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-24/fed-s-duke-says-recovery-may-be-slower-on-households-caution.html

Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke said that baby boomers, the generation nearing retirement, are less likely to spend any gains in wealth than in 2007, potentially holding back the recovery in consumer spending.

“Some of the effects of recent economic turmoil may result in a longer period of economic adjustment than has been the case in past recessions, as fundamental attitudes appear to have shifted,” Duke said today in a speech in Richmond, Virginia, citing data from the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances released today.

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“Associated Press” - House approves $34B budget that restores some education funds; Senate panel OKs alcohol tax

Associated Press

March 24, 2011

http://www.washingtonpost.com/house-approves-34b-budget-that-restores-some-education-funds-senate-panel-oks-alcohol-tax/2011/03/24/ABAUhlRB_story.html

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Maryland House of Delegates voted Thursday to adopt a $34 billion state budget, as a Senate panel approved a new 3 percent tax on alcohol sales that would raise $90 million over three years for the state.

The 97-42 vote was almost completely along party lines. During a budget debate in the House, Democrats praised the restoration of $58 million of $94 million in education funds that had been cut by Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget plan.

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“The Economist” - Turmoil in the Middle East and disaster in Japan arouse economic angst. Central banks must not make it worse

The Economist

Mar 24th 2011

http://www.economist.com/node/18440781

THIS was supposed to be a stress-free year for the global economy. By January the financial crisis had faded and Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis seemed less acute. America’s economy was resurgent. Investors piled into equities and sold some of the government bonds they’d bought for troubled times. If there was a worry, it was that emerging economies would grow too quickly, inflating commodity prices.

The year without crisis is not to be. First, Arabian upheaval put oil markets on edge. Then earthquake, tsunami and a nuclear accident clobbered the world’s third-largest economy. How much of a setback to growth do these twin crises represent? And how should economic policymakers react to them?

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"AP" - Leaders OK bailout funds, coordination

Associated Press

March 24, 2011

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/business/2011-03-24/european-leaders-approve-plan-debt-crisis

BRUSSELS --- European Union leaders gave final approval early today to a raft of new measures they hope will contain the debt crisis that has rocked the continent for more than a year.

 "I think today we reached a real breakthrough," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said just after midnight.

Leaders signed off the size and powers of its current and future bailout funds and closer economic coordination. They had already nailed down the cornerstones of their "comprehensive solution" to the crisis over the last weeks. But they left some details, including how to ensure their existing bailout fund can actually lend out the promised 440 billion euros, for later meetings.

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“The Guardian” - EU economy: Cuts, growth, debt and democracy

Never before has the EU's political elite been so far apart from its citizens, or so fragmented

The Guardian

March 25, 2011

They thought it was all over. It isn't now. Europe's debt crisis remains toxic and unresolved, even as EU leaders meet in Brussels to back action that is supposed to restore the continent to good financial health.

Yesterday Moody's, a credit ratings agency, exercised irresponsible omniscience to downgrade 30 Spanish banks and warn Britain that cuts in George Osborne's budget may not be severe enough to sustain Britain's AAA rating, while Ireland reported that last year its economy had shrunk for a third year in a row. Yields on Irish government 10-year bonds peaked at 10.21% – which is market code for the rising risk of a default. To put this in context, Ireland, an independent nation still with a big economy, is now trusted less by investors than John Lewis, the British retailer, whose bond offer, at a much lower rate, was oversubscribed this month.

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