Jul 14
One dies, over 8 lakh devotees witness Sunavesh in Puri
Puri/Bhubaneswar ( Orissa): Over 8 lakh devotees thronged Puri to witness the Sunavesh of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra on Sunday amid tight security.
The Suna Besa ritual of the three deities placed on their respective chariots went off smoothly. The deities had completed their return journey (bahuda) from Gundicha Temple back to the Jagannath Temple after their annual nine-day sojourn yesterday.
At around 6 pm the servitors took out huge and heavy gold ornaments from the temple treasury and began dressing the lords on the Raths.
Rare and precious jewels were used in the Vesh (attire) of the deities that includes fixing of huge limbs like feet (sri payara), hands (sri bhuja), palms and giant gold tiaras (kiriti) and ear rings (kundalas) besides a number of jewel studded garlands.
Their weapons mace, chakra, conch and lotus, gold plough also figure in the dressing. It took a dozen dressers two hours to complete the decoration.
The people were allowed to view the Sunavesh from by 6 pm.
However, in a tragic incident a devotee from Bengal died late on Sunday near the chariots parked in front of the Jagannath Temple during the Suna Besha, police sources said on Monday.
The deceased was identified as Ranjit Singh alias Rana (40), a resident of Kulti College Square in Burdwan, Bengal.
Initially it was believed that Rana died in a stampede. However, the police said that the death was not due to any stampede. “The deceased suffered from chronic asthma. He apparently died of suffocation.
However, the exact cause can be known after the post-mortem reports are out,” said Puri chief district medical officer Trilochan Baral.
Puri SP Asit Panigrahi, who was present near the spot, denied that there was any stampede, though there was a huge rush of devotees.
Quoting the relatives of the deceased, Baral said a medicine specialist in Bhubaneswar treated Ranjit three days ago.
There is a belief that devotees achieve salvation if they catch a glimpse of the gods on this day. The three were before the public view today after they returned from their stay in Mausima temple, 3km from the Jagannath Temple in Puri.
Keeping view of stampede during Rathyatra, elaborate security arrangement was made during the Suna vesha. Policemen in plain clothes and bomb disposal squads were around to ensure safe conduct of the festival.
No commentsJul 14
Pope rests ahead of World Youth Day
SYDNEY (AFP) — Pope Benedict XVI was resting in Australia Monday as hundreds of thousands of Catholic pilgrims converged on Sydney for World Youth Day celebrations.
The spiritual leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics, who arrived here from Rome on Sunday, was preparing for the week’s festivities at a semi-rural Catholic retreat in the Sydney suburbs.
“This morning, he would have had early morning mass at the Kenthurst Chapel and then he’s got time for quiet prayer and he’ll be resting up, he’ll be taking a good sleep,” said World Youth Day spokesman Danny Casey.
The pope makes his first formal appearance for the World Youth Day celebrations on Thursday, when he is due to arrive in Sydney Harbour in a spectacular papal “boat-a-cade” in place of his usual “Popemobile”.
But the city is already teeming with more than 100,000 foreign pilgrims ahead of the opening harbourside mass Tuesday by the leader of Australia’s Catholics, Cardinal George Pell.
The celebration, which has been held in different cities around the globe since 1986 in an attempt to rejuvenate the Catholic church, ends on Sunday with a papal mass at Randwick racecourse expected to draw 500,000 people.
A major security operation has been launched against the possibility of an attack or disaster, with all police leave cancelled and a network of closed circuit cameras monitoring thousands of sites throughout the city.
Pilgrims cheered as a 3.8-metre (12-foot) cross and a 15-kilogramme (33 pound) World Youth Day icon portraying Mary and Jesus completed a journey around Australia on Monday, arriving in central Sydney by ferry.
Thousands of singing and chanting young Catholics flying the flags of countries around the world trooped with the cross through the city, where hundreds of roads will be closed for the festivities.
“For us, the cross is a message from Christ,” said Italian pilgrim Paola Verde. “It’s a message of hope and love.”
The pope has said that during his visit he will apologise to victims of sexual abuse by priests in Australia, as he did in the United States in April.
Speaking to journalists during his flight, the 81-year-old pontiff said the main messages of his visit would also include an emphasis on environmental concerns and “our responsibility towards creation.”
Benedict’s warnings about climate change are likely to go down well in Australia, already the driest inhabited continent on earth, but some of the Catholic church’s other messages are likely to provoke protests.
Gay rights activists and others are set to protest against the pope’s stance on homosexuality and contraception, with the recently-formed NoToPope Coalition preparing to hand out condoms to pilgrims.
In an attempt to limit such protests, the New South Wales state government has granted special powers to police to arrest people deemed to be “annoying” World Youth Day participants.
The NoToPope group has mounted a legal challenge against the new powers in the Federal Court and a decision is expected Tuesday.
International research has found that Australia is one of the least religious nations in the western world, coming in 17th out of 21 surveyed by Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation.
Nearly three out of four Australians say they are either not at all religious or that religion does not play a central role in their lives, the research showed.
Cardinal Pell said Monday that Western youth were being led astray by commercialism.
“There is a crisis in the Western world,” he said, with young people facing the “temptation to believe that you can have a good, happy life without God”.
No commentsJul 14
9 Americans killed in attack in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — More than 100 militants firing machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars fought their way into a remote base built last week, killing nine American soldiers in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in three years.
The assault was launched at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday in the village of Wanat in the mountainous northeatern province of Kunar near the Pakistan border. The attack came from multiple sides, with insurgents firing from homes and a mosque.
It was a “concerted attempt” to overrun the small base that was built only about three days ago, said an official with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. The official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.
The insurgent force was described as being in the “low three figures,” meaning low hundreds, the official said.
An unknown number of militants got inside the outpost, the reason the fighters were able to inflict such high casualties, a second military official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
After the breach, U.S. troops pushed back against the invading militants, and attack helicopters swooped in. The second official said more than 40 insurgents were killed in the fighting. Fifteen U.S. soldiers also were wounded.
U.S. officials say militant attacks in Afghanistan are becoming more complex, intense and better coordinated than a year ago. Monthly death tolls of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan surpassed U.S. military deaths in Iraq in May and June. And last Monday, a suicide bomber attacked the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing 58 people in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since 2001.
U.S. officials are considering drawing down additional forces from Iraq in coming months, in part because of less violence in Iraq and the need for additional U.S. troops in Afghanistan. U.S. officials have said they need at least three more brigades in Afghanistan — or more than 10,000 troops.
NATO confirmed nine of its soldiers had been killed and 15 wounded. A Western official said the nine dead were Americans, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the troops’ nationalities. Four Afghan soldiers also were wounded, NATO said.
The attack was the deadliest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since June 2005, when 16 American troops were killed — also in Kunar province — when their helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.
The latest assault came at a time of rising violence in Afghanistan. Also on Sunday, a suicide bomber targeting a police patrol killed 24 people, including 19 civilians, while U.S. coalition and Afghan soldiers killed 40 militants elsewhere in the south.
More than 2,300 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of official figures. Attacks in eastern Afghanistan are up 40 percent this year compared with last year.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned during a visit to Kabul last week that there are more foreign fighters, including al-Qaida members, in Pakistan’s tribal areas, militants who cross the border and launch attacks against U.S. and Afghan troops.
Meanwhile, police said a roadside blast Sunday killed six Afghan private security guards escorting a supply convoy for NATO-led troops in the south.
Provincial police Chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said two other guards were wounded in the attack in Gereshk district of Helmand province. Insurgents regularly attack NATO and U.S. military supply convoys in the country.
Elsewhere, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up next to a police patrol in the southern province of Uruzgan, killing 24 people. The bomb attack on a police patrol at a busy intersection of the Deh Rawood district killed five police officers and 19 civilians, wounding more than 30 others, said Juma Gul Himat, Uruzgan’s police chief.
At least 40 militants were killed following an attack on Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces in Helmand province, the coalition said in a statement. The militants attacked the combined forces near Sangin on Saturday from “multiple concealed and fortified positions,” the coalition said.
Thirty “enemy boats” and several small bridges have been destroyed on the Helmand River during two days of fighting, it said.
Associated Press writers Noor Khan in Kandahar and Rahim Faiez and Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul contributed to this report.
No commentsJul 14
Med Union seat decision put off to November
The controversial issue of which member country of the new Mediterranean Union (MU) will host its seat has been postponed until November in the absence of an agreement between the 43 participating states.
After the summit in Paris yesterday, senior EU diplomats said there were “very slim” chances that the secretariat will be hosted in Malta.
The seat issue did not even appear on the agenda of yesterday’s summit as talks at senior official level held in Brussels last week indicated there is still a long way to go before a compromise is reached.
EU diplomats said that the only decision taken so far is that the summit is not the appropriate forum where such a decision is made. Thus, the matter will now be discussed in November and possibly decided upon during a Med Union Foreign Affairs Ministers’ meeting in Marseilles.
Malta is one of the contenders to host the Med Union’s secretariat together with Tunisia and Morocco. A last-minute move by Spain last week to nominate another candidate - Barcelona - is being viewed as another blow to Malta’s chances.
“Given the fact that Barcelona was the place where all this started (the Euro Med Process), Spain has made a very good move,” sources said.
“As the Med Union will basically take over from the so-called Barcelona Process, it will be seen as ‘politically correct’ to give the Spanish something back for what is indirectly being taken away from them,’ the sources added.
Another problem for Malta, according to the EU diplomats, is the lack of lobbying on its side.
“Although Malta has said that it wants to host the secretariat we are not really seeing any enthusiasm from Valletta on this issue,” a senior EU diplomat involved in the talks told The Times.
“We are not really feeling any lobbying blitz on Malta’s side as is normally done on such occasions. Another important thing is that Malta should try to win over the endorsement of the Commission, something which it had not really tried to do,’ the official commented.
France is more likely to push Tunisia while many in the Commission have already taken Spain’s side.
Despite the four candidacies, it is not being excluded that the secretariat will remain in Brussels together with the other administrative services of the EU. Many Commission officials are of the opinion that this will send the message that the new Union is just a continuation of the Euro Med Process and not a completely new mechanism, as the French would like it to be.
Six priority projects:
1. Environment: Combating pollution in the Mediterranean - Horizon 2020 project will be launched to clean up the Mediterranean until 2020.
2. Transport: A project to develop maritime highways linking eastern and western Mediterranean regions through the improved connection of ports and specific action to reinforce maritime security.
3. Civil protection: Development of a civil protection network enabling enhanced pooling of resources to combat and prevent natural disasters including fires, earthquakes and tsunamis.
4. Alternative energy: Drawing up a Mediterranean solar plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions, reduce the vulnerability of the energy system and improve the access of isolated communities to energy.
5. Education and research: Creation of a Mediterranean University and research area through the development of networks among universities, research centres and science academies.
6. Business: An initiative to encourage the development of micro, small and medium sized enterprises that will offer technical assistance programmes and support from financial institutions.
Jul 14
Attack on US base in Afghanistan kills 9 Americans
on a remote U.S. base close to the Pakistan border killed nine American soldiers and wounded 15 Sunday in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in three years, officials said.
The attack on the American troops began around 4:30 a.m. and lasted throughout the day. Militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat in the mountainous northeastern province of Kunar, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
Elsewhere, Taliban militants executed two women in central Afghanistan late Saturday after accusing them of working as prostitutes on a U.S. base.
The women, dressed in blue burqas, were shot and killed just outside Ghazni city in central Afghanistan, said Sayed Ismal, a spokesman for Ghazni’s governor. He called the two “innocent local people.”
Taliban fighters told Associated Press Television News the two women were executed for allegedly running a prostitution ring catering to U.S. soldiers and other foreign contractors at a U.S. base in Ghazni city.
1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a U.S. military spokesman, said he had not heard allegations “anything close to that nature.”
Meanwhile, at least 40 militants were killed following an attack on Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces in Helmand province, the coalition said in a statement. The militants attacked the combined forces near Sangin on Saturday from “multiple concealed and fortified positions,” the coalition said. Thirty “enemy boats” and several small bridges have been destroyed on the Helmand River during two days of fighting, it said.
Also Sunday, a soldier with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force died in a roadside blast in Helmand province, a statement said. The soldier’s nationality was not released and it wasn’t clear if the death was connected to the two-day battle.
In the north, a soldier serving with ISAF died of wounds caused by an explosion Saturday, the military alliance said in a statement. The statement did not give any further details of the explosion. The soldier’s nationality was not disclosed.
There are nearly 53,000 troops from 40 nations serving in the ISAF in Afghanistan.
___
Associated Press writers Noor Khan in Kandahar and Rahim Faiez and Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul contributed to this report.
Several militants were able to get inside the base’s outer wall in a “concerted attempt to overrun” the outpost but the insurgents were not able to overtake it, a Western official in Kabul said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.
U.S. officials say militant attacks in Afghanistan are becoming more complex, intense and better coordinated than a year ago. Monthly death tolls of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan surpassed U.S. military deaths in Iraq in May and June. And last Monday, a suicide bomber attacked the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing 58 people in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since 2001.
U.S. officials are considering drawing down additional forces from Iraq in coming months, in part because of the need for additional U.S. troops in Afghanistan. U.S. officials have said they need at least three more brigades in Afghanistan — or more than 10,000 troops.
NATO confirmed nine of its soldiers had been killed and 15 wounded. A Western official said the nine dead were Americans, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the troops’ nationalities. Four Afghan soldiers also were wounded, NATO said.
“Although no final assessment has been made, it is believed insurgents suffered heavy casualties during several hours of fighting,” NATO said in a statement.
The attack was the deadliest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since June 2005, when 16 American troops were killed — also in Kunar province — when their helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. Those troops were on their way to rescue a four-man team of Navy SEALs caught in a militant ambush. Three SEALs were killed, the fourth was rescued days later by a farmer.
The latest assault came at a time of rising violence in Afghanistan. Also on Sunday, a suicide bomber targeting a police patrol killed 24 people, including 19 civilians, while U.S. coalition and Afghan soldiers killed 40 militants elsewhere in the south.
More than 2,300 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of official figures. Attacks in eastern Afghanistan are up 40 percent this year compared with last year.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned during a visit to Kabul last week that there are more foreign fighters, including al-Qaida members, in Pakistan’s tribal areas, militants who cross the border and launch attacks against U.S. and Afghan troops.
Mullen has said he hopes improved security in Iraq will allow troops to be shifted this year from Iraq to Afghanistan, where violence is rising.
Violence in Iraq is at its lowest level in four years and Iraqi forces are taking on more responsibility, trends that could allow Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, to recommend to President Bush in September that he resume a troop withdrawal that is being put on hold this month so Petraeus has time to assess the overall situation. A top Bush aide, Ed Gillespie, said Sunday that withdrawing more troops from Iraq after that assessment always has “been a possibility.”
Another cause for concern in Afghanistan is the high casualty tolls for civilians killed in violence. This month, an Afghan government commission found that U.S. aircraft killed 47 civilians during a bombing run in Nangarhar province, while a separate incident in Nuristan province is alleged by an Afghan officials to have killed 22 civilians.
The tolls have prompted the International Committee of the Red Cross this week to ask all sides to show restraint and avoid civilian casualties. But violence continued around the country on Sunday.
A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up next to a police patrol in the southern province of Uruzgan, killing 24 people. The bomb attack on a police patrol at a busy intersection of the Deh Rawood district killed five police officers and 19 civilians, wounding more than 30 others, said Juma Gul Himat, Uruzgan’s police chief. Most of those killed and wounded were shopkeepers and young boys selling goods in the street, he said.
No commentsJul 14
NC supporters, separatists clash
SRINAGAR: At least 15 people were injured in clashes between the supporters of the National Conference and separatist parties at the martyrs’ graveyard here on Sunday, observed as Martyrs’ Day.
Leaders from both the NC and the People’s Democratic Party had to face a hostile crowd amid tight security at the graveyard.
The day was observed to pay tributes to 22 people who were martyred by the then Dogra ruler on July 13, 1931.
Witnesses said the trouble began when PDP president Mehbooba Mufti arrived at the graveyard in the compound of the shrine of Hazrat Naqashband Sahib here.
A group of people shouted slogans against the PDP and its president. They forced the leaders to leave, though after offering prayers. Security guards accompanying Ms. Mehbooba whisked her away, but protesters continued to shout slogans.
Later NC president Omar Abdullah accompanied by supporters reached the spot and faced a similar situation. They pelted stones on NC leaders and NC supporters retaliated. Tension continued for some time. Police resorted to a lathi charge and fired some shots in the air. Those who had come from villages to participate in the NC rally bore the brunt. They were beaten up in the bylanes near Khanyar Chowk. However, Mr. Abdullah managed to speak for a few minutes and he came down heavily on separatists.
The former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was the first to reach the graveyard early in the morning.
Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq addressed a gathering at the graveyard. Leader of another Hurriyat faction Syed Ali Geelani paid floral tributes to the martyrs.
No commentsJul 14
NC supporters, separatists clash
SRINAGAR: At least 15 people were injured in clashes between the supporters of the National Conference and separatist parties at the martyrs’ graveyard here on Sunday, observed as Martyrs’ Day.
Leaders from both the NC and the People’s Democratic Party had to face a hostile crowd amid tight security at the graveyard.
The day was observed to pay tributes to 22 people who were martyred by the then Dogra ruler on July 13, 1931.
Witnesses said the trouble began when PDP president Mehbooba Mufti arrived at the graveyard in the compound of the shrine of Hazrat Naqashband Sahib here.
A group of people shouted slogans against the PDP and its president. They forced the leaders to leave, though after offering prayers. Security guards accompanying Ms. Mehbooba whisked her away, but protesters continued to shout slogans.
Later NC president Omar Abdullah accompanied by supporters reached the spot and faced a similar situation. They pelted stones on NC leaders and NC supporters retaliated. Tension continued for some time. Police resorted to a lathi charge and fired some shots in the air. Those who had come from villages to participate in the NC rally bore the brunt. They were beaten up in the bylanes near Khanyar Chowk. However, Mr. Abdullah managed to speak for a few minutes and he came down heavily on separatists.
The former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was the first to reach the graveyard early in the morning.
Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq addressed a gathering at the graveyard. Leader of another Hurriyat faction Syed Ali Geelani paid floral tributes to the martyrs.
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Jul 14
Government not expected to help more companies
NEW YORK - The U.S. government is signaling it won’t throw a lifeline to struggling financial companies — except for mortgage linchpins Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — marking a shift to a new and potentially more volatile phase of the credit crisis.
Such an approach could mean beaten-down investment banks like Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and regional banks must now fend for themselves as they try to recover from billions of dollars in mortgage-related losses — unlike Bear Stearns Cos., whose buyout the government helped orchestrate in March. That is bound to unnerve an already turbulent Wall Street and make investors even more anxious as they await financial companies’ earnings expected to be down a stunning 69 percent from a year ago when all the numbers are in.
And, for consumers already squeezed by tightening credit standards, it could mean getting a mortgage will become even harder.
The short-term uncertainty about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae — which together hold or guarantee half the nation’s mortgage debt — was to an extent relieved on Sunday. Federal officials again threw their support behind the government-sponsored enterprises; the Treasury pledged to expand its current line of credit to the two companies and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson also said the government could, if needed, buy equity capital in the companies, whose stocks lost half their value last week. The Treasury’s moves would require congressional approval.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve said it will provide additional loans if needed.
But some of Wall Street’s biggest investors believe there was another message in the government’s announcement — the rest of the financial sector seems unlikely to get a helping hand. Global banks and brokerages have already written down nearly $300 billion in soured mortgage investments — a number projected to ultimately reach $1 trillion.
“The credit crisis has obviously entered into a new phase — the government has one bailout left in them, and this is it,” said Jeffrey Gundlach, chief investment officer of TCW Group in Los Angeles, which invests $160 billion.
“One consequence of Freddie and Fannie is that other firms are allowed to go under,” he said. “If you couldn’t get your act together after four months of unprecedented financing terms, maybe you don’t deserve to be thrown yet another lifeline.”
Worries about financial companies failing intensified after a run on IndyMac Bancorp Inc. led to the bank’s takeover by the government on Friday. It wasn’t the Treasury or Fed helping to keep IndyMac in business, but a transfer of control to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. — which backs deposits on all the nation’s banks.
Analysts said these kind of failures will curtail competition among financial institutions, which might in turn make it even harder for some borrowers to get mortgages, personal or auto loans or credit cards.
On Wall Street, Monday could be a critical day, with investors quite nervous amid the uncertainty in the financial sector. Friday, as investors tried to assess the health of the mortgage financiers, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped below 11,000 for the first time in nearly two years, and the overall market was left with its fourth straight weekly loss. The government’s support of Fannie and Freddie in part was meant to assuage investors around the world.
Wall Street will get a better sense of how concerned investors are with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s future immediately Monday morning. Freddie Mac is scheduled to hold its weekly debt auction beginning at 8 a.m. EDT. The auction closes at 9:45 a.m., shortly after U.S. markets open.
Successful completion of the debt auctions allows both lenders to remain liquid — replacing old debt with new. Liquidity has been one of the key questions facing financial companies during the credit crisis.
Freddie Mac is auctioning off a combined $3 billion in three- and six-month securities. Wall Street will be looking very closely at the number of bidders and the rate at which the securities are auctioned, said Bert Ely, a banking consultant who has been critical of the companies in the past.
“I’ll be surprised if the results aren’t strong,” he said, noting the government was likely heavily encouraging investors throughout the weekend.
The banking industry was already dealt a severe blow in March when Bear Stearns nearly collapsed amid the evaporation of its liquidity. JPMorgan Chase & Co. stepped in to purchase Bear Stearns in a deal orchestrated by the Federal Reserve.
Bear Stearns was unhinged by mounting losses tied to investments in bonds backed by mortgages. As the mortgages increasingly defaulted, the value of bonds backed by the troubled loans tumbled. After Bear collapsed, investment banks were given the opportunity to borrow directly from the Fed, an option that was previously only granted to retail banks.
Financial companies’ reports of write-downs of troubled debt are likely to increase this week as some of the country’s largest institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup Inc., report second-quarter results. That trio has already taken a combined $73 billion in write-downs since the credit crisis began last summer.
Lehman Brothers, whose shares have lost 78 percent since this year’s peak in February, is considered to be on the shakiest ground because it is the smallest Wall Street bank and has significant mortgage holdings. Last month, the investment bank announced it lost nearly $3 billion during the second quarter and was forced to offset that by raising $6 billion of fresh capital.
Meanwhile, analysts believe regional banks in areas hardest hit by the real estate downturn are also at risk for failure. Some of the most bandied about names include Washington Mutual Inc., National City Corp., and Fifth Third Bancorp.
“Fannie and Freddie are too big to fail only because of the repercussions, not to just the mortgage and housing markets but the entire financial market,” said Joe Balestrino, fixed-income market strategist at Federated Investors. “The U.S. is in disarray … these regionals could be gone, they are in a tough spot with housing and employment going south.”
No commentsMay 12
Winning the Internet Marketing Game
Winning the Internet Marketing Game
Winning is what it’s all about, and in the internet marketing game, you’re going to have to be dedicated to success if you stand half a chance of winning. Competition is at its peak on the internet. Nobody sets out with any though less than winning. You have to reach the top before you will even think about succeeding. You need to become known even before you sell a product. That’s the very nature of online businesses.
You will need to know and successfully target the customers in your area of sales. With all the competition out there, consumers have a great deal of choice and you risk being skipped over if your sales tactics aren’t the best. You need to know your customer and how he purchases both inside and out. If you have the money to do an actual market research, great; if not, you still need to seek that intimate knowledge of the people you wish to sell to.
Article writing is a very effective way to advertise your web presence. With the right content, you catch the attention of those seeking answers and lead them to your website. You can write articles yourself or have others write for you. The object is to get people thinking of you as an expert in your field. They will be more likely to view your website if that is the case.
E-mail selling is one of the simplest yet most effective ways of reaching your consumers. You start out at an advantage because the customer has already signed up for your list and indicated he was interested in what you had to say.A personalized e-mail message will help deepen the connection between you and your customer. This is the only method used by online marketers that has that advantage.
You ultimately decide if this is a game you will win. Whatever marketing methods you try, make sure you have done your homework and know exactly who your customer is and what your customer want to spend his money on. This is the first major step in success..
No commentsMay 11
Why You Need Affiliate Programs
Why You Need Affiliate Programs
Internet marketing is such a large business today, and there are a so many varied chances for the online business to grow, that often it’s hard to find your way through. It is difficult for anyone just entering the world of online commerce to know what is and isn’t successful. The reading and research needed to develop a good online business strategy is so daunting that some people find it easier to just give up. There is one method of earning money online that takes little effort and has been proven to work. That is what this article is about.
This section concerns the online merchant selling products or services. Whatever amount of time you have been in business, the main thing you must accomplish is getting customers to visit your website. This is where affiliate programs enter the picture. The way it works for the seller of products or services is this: you sign up for an affiliate program, others sign up and place ads for your site somewhere on their site. They send you leads and you pay them for the leads. The wonderful thing about these programs is you only pay for the actual leads from the affiliate. Keep in mind that the person with nothing to sell will want to make money so will work harder to promote you. In this way, you will both benefit.
For the person who doesn’t have a product to sell there are unique benefits to signing on as an affiliate. First, you will be giving your visitors a chance to visit the merchant. You earn money by promoting your site, and then convincing visitors to go to the merchant. You earn money for the amount of leads or sales accomplished by your efforts. In addition, you have the chance to increase this traffic by having others advertise your site. Granted, you will end up paying these people to promote your site, but the rewards are well worth the money spent.
Affiliate programs are quite simple and inexpensive to run. Their business consists of generating customers for all of their members. For this reason, it is normally cheaper, and takes less effort, for you to sign onto an affiliate program than it would be for you to attempt to start your own affiliate program. In addition, with the large number of people these affiliate programs have signed up, you are in a position to reach a larger area of the market than you could ever accomplish by going it alone.
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