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US claims profit on bank bailout program

The United States said Wednesday its bank bailouts had earned a profit, 30 months after the Treasury committed hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue financial institutions as the economy plunged into crisis.

After enduring deep criticism over the use of taxpayer funds to rescue banks run aground by billionaire executives, the Treasury said bank repayments to the Troubled Asset Relief Program had brought in $251 billion, compared to outlays of $245 billion.

"While our overriding objective with TARP was to break the back of the financial crisis and save American jobs, the fact that our investment in banks has also delivered a significant profit for taxpayers is a welcome development," said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

"Today is an important milestone in our efforts to recover taxpayer dollars as we continue winding down TARP," he said in a statement.

The announcement came after three banks repaid $7.38 billion in funds supplied by the program at the height of the crisis, together with $25.9 million in dividends.

Geithner predicted another $20 billion in profits from the bank support programs.

TARP was initiated by the administration of former president George W. Bush in late 2008 as the US financial sector faced a meltdown.

The goal was "to help stop a financial panic and prevent a second Great Depression," the Treasury said Wednesday.

But it sparked a nationwide debate that continues to resound over whether public funds should be used to rescue private businesses, even large ones whose failure could damage the entire system.

Initially funded with $700 billion, the program in execution was roughly half that size. Aside from the bank rescues, $40 billion were used to prop up insurer AIG, $21 billion for failing automakers, and another $40 billion used to buy stock in Bank of America and Citigroup.

TARP did not include the government's rescue of semi-government mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which is expected to lose the government and taxpayers $73 billion, according to Treasury data.

The AIG bailout could also rack up a loss of $28.1 billion, it said.

No threat from Japanese radiation spread across US

Traces of radioactive material from the endangered Japanese nuclear plant are being detected from coast to coast in the United States and in Iceland, but amounts continue to be far below levels that would cause health problems.

The development of super-sensitive equipment to detect radiation is both a blessing and a curse, allowing scientists to monitor materials released in nuclear accidents, but also causing unnecessary worry, said Kathryn Higley, director of the nuclear engineering and radiation health physics at Oregon State University.

Traces of radioactive cesium and iodine are being reported from Nevada to Vermont, South Carolina to Massachusetts, thanks to equipment that Higley says can detect material "many orders of magnitude below what would be hazardous."

The traces of radiation outside of Japan are "absolutely of no concern," added Ahmed Hassanein, head of nuclear engineering at the Purdue School of Nuclear Engineering.

Curiously, one spot where extremely small amounts of the radioactive isotopes were detected was Las Vegas' Atomic Testing Museum, about 65 miles from the desert site where the United States tested atomic bombs in the 1950s.

Ted Hartwell, manager of environmental monitoring at the Desert Research Institute, said he's certain the isotopes came from Japan because they're not usually detected in Nevada. But he said the readings were far below levels that could pose any health risks.

Gerhard Wotawa of Austria's Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, said the amounts of radiation detected so far were a fraction of what people are normally exposed to, adding that doctors, pilots and others are often confronted with much higher concentrations.

He also said that several types of material flung into the air at the Chernobyl plant 25 years ago are not turning up in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident because there has been no explosion to propel these heavier elements in the atmosphere.

Graham Andrew, a senior aide to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano, said it was too early to compare Chernobyl and Fukushima, but also suggested that to some degree the two accidents are like comparing apples and oranges.

"In the case of Chernobyl there was a large graphite fire that lifted radioactivity to high altitudes and spread it over large distances," he said. "To the best of my knowledge, there has not been that process in the case of Fukushima."

Highly sensitive equipment to detect radiation was first developed to make sure countries were observing the nuclear test ban treaty, Higley explained, and more recently there has been a focus on preventing terrorism.

In addition, she noted, iodine-131 is often used in medical treatments, meaning it may be released around manufacturing plants and also in wastewater from hospitals where people undergo treatment. Indeed, she noted, radiation detectors are scattered around her university and at others where researchers work with radioactive isotopes.

Recent increases in levels of iodine and cesium are being attributed to the Japan release because of the timing and tracking of winds from the region. Southern utility companies on Monday said air monitors at power plants in Florida and South Carolina had detected iodine-131, which they concluded was coming from Japan.

Unlike Chernobyl when the isotopes were blasted high into the stratosphere where it could spread quickly, the radiation from Japan has remained in the lower atmosphere, noted Ross J. Salawitch, a University of Maryland researcher who has been tracking the plume from Japan.

Jeffrey Stehr, an atmospheric research scientist at the University of Maryland, said that while the radiation from Japan has been widely detected, it could take as much as a year to spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It could take another year before it is widespread in the Southern Hemisphere because of blocking at the equator caused by rising air currents where winds from north and south collide.

While memories of the Chernobyl disaster in what is now Ukraine have raised concerns, the amounts of radioactive material released in Japan have been much less than at that event., said William H. Miller, a professor at the University of Missouri Research Reactor.

As much as 5 percent of the core at Chernobyl went directly into the atmosphere, Miller explained, while that has not occurred at Fukushima.

"This is not anywhere close to Chernobyl," said Miller.

In its study of Chernobyl, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation noted that in that disaster large quantities of radioactive substances were released into the air for about 10 days as the reactor burned.

"The radioactive cloud dispersed over the entire Northern Hemisphere, and deposited substantial amounts of radioactive material over large areas of the former Soviet Union and some other countries in Europe," contaminating land and water, the report said.

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Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada; Karen Testa in Boston; Tom Tait in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Kadhafi exile 'the best option': analysts

World powers meeting in London on Tuesday should give Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi a chance to go into exile, with African nations or even Venezuela the most likely destinations, analysts said.

The 35 nations gathered in the British capital are reportedly considering the possibility of offering an exit plan to Kadhafi to avoid the spectre of a drawn-out military operation in Libya.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Kadhafi should still face the International Criminal Court, a call echoed by Libya's rebels, but Hague refused to rule out exile.

Giving Kadhafi a "way out" would reduce the chances of a drawn-out civil conflict in Libya, said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics.

"The reality is that Kadhafi is cornered, his back is against the wall. Unless Kadhafi is offered a way out this will be a fight to the last man and the last bullet, there is no doubt in my mind," Gerges told AFP.

"Even if the rebels succeed in two or three weeks it will harden the country and it will be much messier and more dangerous" for Libya and for foreign powers alike, he added.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Sunday gave the outlines of a diplomatic plan that could include exile for Kadhafi.

Spanish Foreign Minister Minister Trinidad Jimenez said oMonday that exile for Kadhafi was still a legal option because the International Criminal Court has not yet charged him with crimes against humanity.

And while countries like Britain say they want Kadhafi to face justice, in reality they would "jump at the chance" to see him slip out of Libya, said Shashank Joshi, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

"Regardless of what the rebels want, the Western powers intervening in Libya will place a much higher priority on resolving this without a bloody ending," Joshi said.

He said Saudi Arabia, which took in toppled Tunisian leader Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in January, was unlikely to host Kadhafi because the Libyan leader had previously criticised its ruling family.

He said the most likely exile boltholes were countries with close ties to Kadhafi, particularly Venezuela because of Kadhafi's friendship with Hugo Chavez, followed by Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe and "somewhere non-descript like Burkina Faso".

African countries were particularly likely because Kadhafi had used Libya's oil wealth to fund many countries on the continent and also the African Union.

While it is "clear that no one has done any serious legwork into how it (exile) would work," the mechanics of allowing him into exile would be "very simple," Joshi added.

Since his international rehabilitation in 2003 Kadhafi has developed intelligence channels with the West through which he could communicate his desire to step down, he said.

The coalition could then set up an "air corridor" through the no-fly zone to let him out, he said.

The analysts agreed however that it should be a final, one-off offer for Kadhafi, with secondary players perhaps being given a chance to negotiate it.

"That is why I hope that the Italians and African Union are given the space and also the leeway to try to see if Kadhafi is interested. It doesn't have to come from Western leaders," Gerges said.

But it is also vital that Kadhafi's family, tribe and wider supporters should be factored in to prevent future unrest of the type that devastated Afghanistan and Iraq.

"They must give him an incentive, not just for him but for his family and clan and tribe and the people who are willing to die for him," said Saad Djebbar, a London-based political commentator and lawyer who represented Libyan interests in the case of the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Gerges said any political plan for Libya "must be two-pronged."

"Firstly a way out for Kadhafi and his family -- this should be the last offer for him, this is it. But also a concerted effort to appeal to the people who are fighting the rebels that this is not about you," he added.

Cerro Wire Announces Video Highlighting True Sequential Footage™ Benefits

benefits include precision wire cutting and cost control

Hartselle, AL (PRWEB) March 28, 2011

Cerro Wire LLC, a leading manufacturer of copper electrical building wire and cable, announces a new video that features Cerro Wire’s True Sequential Footage™, a sequentially printed cable reel that provides accurate wire length with each cut. The video can be found on Cerro Wire’s .

The video explains that mechanical wire counters can slip, leading to inconsistent methods of calibration and excess inventory.This coupled with unstable copper prices cause distributors to lose revenue.Fortunately, True Sequential Footage prevents the need to carry excess cable inventory, providing precision length, accurate footage, and cost control.

True Sequential Footage uses a footage mark to document remaining wire, beginning with zero at the bottom of the reel and ending with the finished length at the top. The accurate footage mark allows for quick identification of the re-order point, guaranteeing the full purchasedand reducing random lengths. This better controls end-of-reel scrap.

The video reveals that without True Sequential Footage, more than 10% could be lost on a cut. For example, on a 200 foot cut, if the operator pulls wire through a mechanical counter and wraps it around the reel before zeroing out the counter, he loses 11 feet.Stomping the pedal causes another 6 feet to slip through, uncounted; then wire slips little-by-little during the cut, losing another 3 feet.At the end, the operator adds an extra 2 feet, just to be sure. The total loss, 22 feet, is 11 percent of the cut.

“Cerro Wire developed True Sequential Footage to address a problem that plagues every electrical distributor – the need to carry more inventory to coverinconsistencies,” says Rick McDonald, President of Cerro Wire’s Electrical Distribution Division. “It’s one of the most innovative products on the market, and it also increases our distributors’ profits.”

Press Contacts: Paula Kirtley        617.367.0100 ext. 118        paula.kirtley(at)mgr1(dot)com

About Cerro Wire LLCCerro Wire LLC, a leading manufacturer of copper electrical building wire and cable, supplies its products to wholesale electrical distributors and retail home improvement centers across North America. Cerrowire’s Electrical Distribution Division offers building wire for residential, commercial and industrial use. Our operating philosophy focuses on customer service, low cost operations, simplification and innovation. Our employees operate manufacturing and distribution facilities around the United States. Cerro Wire is a Marmon Wire & Cable/Berkshire Hathaway company.

Please visit our website atfor a complete description of our products and services. For more information, please contact Dale Crawford at 256-773-2522, or via email at dcrawford(at)cerrowire(dot)com.

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Kristin Nugent617-367-0100Email Information

Benin court denies appeals, says president re-elected

Benin's constitutional court on Wednesday rejected opposition appeals over the results of this month's disputed presidential vote and declared incumbent Boni Yayi re-elected.

In its decision, the court said it had rejected all appeals filed over the results showing Yayi won with 53 percent and "proclaims Mr. Boni Yayi definitively elected president of the republic."

"The constitutional court says that the term of Mr. Boni Yayi, elected president of the republic, takes effect beginning April 6, 2011 ...," it said.

Yayi's main challenger, Adrien Houngbedji, rejected the results of the March 13 election, alleging fraud and proclaiming himself the winner in the small West African nation. The results showed Houngbedji with 36 percent.

Tensions have risen since the vote, which had previously been postponed twice because preparations were not complete, with police firing tear gas to break up an opposition protest in the economic capital Cotonou last week.

Both Houngbedji and Abdoulaye Bio Tchane, who had been seen as a third major candidate but who finished far behind at six percent, filed appeals with the court, alleging Yayi benefited from illegal voting stations. Houngbedji has also alleged ballot stuffing.

Yayi also filed an appeal, arguing he won with a larger margin.

The court rejected the three candidates' appeals, saying they failed to prove their allegations.

Houngbedji's next move will now be closely watched in the ex-French colony of some 9.2 million people, with the president's camp having called on him to concede defeat.

There have been sporadic protests of several hundred people both before and after the vote, but it remained unclear whether such demonstrations could spread.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon's special representative for west Africa, Said Djinnit, expressed concern over the post-electoral situation last week.

Voting day passed calmly despite chaotic preparations that had caused two earlier postponements of the ballot.

The first time use of an electronic voter register had led to opposition allegations that more than a million people had been left off it -- a figure others said was exaggerated.

A mop-up voter registration was to be held on Wednesday and Thursday before the election, but was extended into Saturday -- the day before the vote -- when crowds mobbed sign-up centres and equipment broke down.

Other issues had also led to the two earlier poll delays, including failure to distribute electoral cards on time and designate and train polling station agents.

Houngbedji, 69, running in his fifth presidential election, had pushed for a third postponement of the ballot, arguing that voter registration should continue.

The United Nations and African Union backed the second delay of the vote to allow preparations to move ahead, but did not join calls for a third postponement.

Yayi, a 58-year-old economist, was seen as a symbol of change when he took office in 2006 in the country dependent on cotton cultivation and its port, but has since been weighed down by corruption scandals.

Houngbedji was supported by many of the country's traditional political elites. He will not be able to run in future presidential elections since the constitution sets the age limit at 70.