South Beach: Whopper and a beer

A new Burger King restaurant model will open in Miami Beach's South Beach in mid-February. The Whopper Bar will feature the usual BK fare plus Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors beers served in special designed aluminum bottles to keep them extra cold.

A Whopper combo with a beer will cost roughly $2 more than the same combo with a soda; Sorry, no free refills.

Don't expect a Whopper Bar to come to your neighborhood any time soon. Regular Burger Kings across the nation will not be retro-fitted with this high-end features.

If you find your self in Germany, Burger Kings have been selling beer for years; In Singapore and Venezuela, Whopper Bars have already opened.

Should the South Beach Whopper Bar become a success, could NYC be next? -- Maybe.

— USA Today Story

Christmas memories jogged as UK's Woolworth Stores Close

I have fond memories of Woolworth's. They had a lunch counter that couldn't be beat. Eating many a tuna fish sandwich "cut 4 ways" and they had a banana split that couldn't be any better.

They had a long-time marketing plan on those banana split. Balloons hanging over the counter included a slip of paper with a price of your banana split written on it. I believe the prices ranged from a penny to 99¢.

While I was looked after by friends of Mama, who worked behind the counter, my parents shopped for just about anything that was needed in the house, including Christmas toys for me.

Years later, I purchased my first color TV from Woolco, a subsidiary of F. W. Woolworth Company. That TV lasted longer than any other TV I have ever owned. In fact, when in the Navy, Mama and Daddy used it and never gave it back. In the early 80s, Woolco was closed. It was devastating to us in Key West, as it was the last discount store and Woolco offered many items not offered anywhere else.

In Fredericksburg, VA (where I grew up), Woolworth's eventually moved into a smaller store at the Mall and closed its downtown store. That beautiful building, built on the property where the Fredericksburg Opera House had once stood is now a mixture of antique stores "under one roof." The Woolco building became K-Mart and is now a Burlington Coat Factory store.

By Woolworth’s 100th anniversary in 1979, it had become the largest department store chain in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Today, all that is left of this mighty business is The Foot Locker, Inc.

This all brings me to today's news:

Woolworths to close in January

Administrators at Woolworths say that all 807 stores will close by 5 January.

The first shops will shut on 27 December and all 27,000 permanent and temporary staff will lose their jobs if no last-minute buyer is found.

The administrators said there was still interest in parts of the business but admitted they had "not come close" to finding a buyer for the firm.

A range of food, clothes and "value retailers" have made offers to take over the leases at about 300 stores. And efforts would be made to put Woolworths staff who were losing their jobs in contact with these potential employers, the administrators Deloitte said.

Deloitte's Neville Kahn said it was unclear how much of its debts would be paid, but added it was "clear that the creditors and suppliers will not get paid in full".

— BBC News Report

European, Asian markets bounce back this morning

A woman walks past a display showing stock index in Hong Kong Monday, Oct. 13, 2008. Hong Kong's key index surged more than 9.7 percent as Asian markets rebounded after last week's dramatic sell-off. The Hang Seng Index was up 1515.29 points, or 9.7 percent, at 16312.16. Associated Press © 2008

Goat 'condoms' save Kenyan herds

Maasai herdsmen in Kenya have turned to an age-old contraceptive device, the "olor", to protect their precious goat herds from an ongoing drought.

The olor is made from cowhide or a square piece of plastic, and is tied around the belly of the male goat.

It prevents the bucks from mating with the female goats. [see photo]

The herdsmen are using the device to limit the goat population and ensure there are not too many animals grazing on sparse vegetation.

"We don't want them to breed in this drought," says Mr Ole Ngoshoi Kipameto, a goat owner in Kajiado district.

— Click here for full story:

The World's Response: Credit Crunch

After the worst day ever for the Irish stock exchange, on Tuesday, Ireland guaranteed all the debt and deposits of all domestic banks for two years, citing "a serious disturbance in the economy caused by the recent turmoil in the international financial markets."

Also on Tuesday India's central bank took the rarely comforting step of declaring that one of the nation's largest banks ICICI, had sufficient "liquidity to cover liabilities to its depositors." Meanwhile, the governments of Iceland, Norway and Sweden all jumped in to bail out local banks.

Also this week: A Chinese insurance company reeled from losses on its stake in Fortis, a bank bailed out by the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments on Monday. On Tuesday, the Belgian government also came to the rescue of another big European bank, Dexia.

On Monday trading on Brazil's stock market had to be halted after stock prices plunged following the rejection of the bailout plan by the U.S. House of Representatives. On Tuesday, the Russian stock market also halted trading for two hours, and the government announced $50 billion worth of loans to Russian banks and corporations to help pay off foreign debts.

— Full Salon.com article

Asia stocks fall after US failure

Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock index has fallen almost 5% in early trading, hours after a US financial rescue plan failed to gain Congressional backing.

The US House of Representatives on Monday rejected a $700bn (£380bn) plan aimed at bailing out Wall Street.

The Dow Jones index fell 7% and suffered its biggest ever one-day points fall, ending 778 down.

President George W Bush is to make a statement on the deadlock over the bail-out plan early on Tuesday morning.

A White House spokesman said that the president was "very disappointed" by the vote's result.

Congress will not meet again until Thursday, with another vote unlikely before the weekend, the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington says.

— Full BBC Story

World News: Shares slide despite rescue deal

President Bush is expected to talk to the nation about the economy at 7:30 am today. Of course, most of the nation will be driving to work at the time.

Meanwhile, in markets around the world ...

Shares in Europe and Asia have fallen after news of an agreement on a $700bn (£380bn) US finance sector rescue deal failed to calm investors' nerves.

Confidence was also hit by the part-nationalisation of finance group Fortis, and the nationalisation of UK lender Bradford & Bingley.

The main European share markets all fell sharply, with the UK FTSE 100 down 2.5% and Germany's Dax 2.8% lower.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 1.3%.

However, news that a US rescue deal was set to be approved boosted the dollar, which climbed strongly against the pound and the euro.

In early trade in Europe, the euro was down 1.8% against the dollar at $1.4344, while the pound fell 1.9% to $1.8094.

— Full BBC Story.

Bid to keep kilt-making in check

From the BBC:

SCOTLAND | Some of the country's leading kilt-makers are meeting in Perth to determine exactly what is, and what is not, a Scottish kilt.

The organisers hope by outlining the skills needed to make a genuine kilt, they will be better able to protect the craft from cheap imitations.

Fashion and textiles body Skillfast-UK wants to create a set of National Occupational Standards.

They want to create a blueprint for the traditional kilt-making industry. The meeting will cover general tailoring skills as well as construction techniques and specialist knowledge of tartan.

— Full BBC Story

Japanese May Buy Part Of Lehmans

Japanese bank Nomura is in talks to take over Lehman Brothers' European operations.

The move centres on the investment and private equities arms of the collapsed US investment bank.

It comes as Nomura said it had reached a deal to buy the company's Asian operations.

Meanwhile, Barclays has completed its purchase of the US arm of Lehman Brothers.

— Full Story

Troubles in Hershey, PA

On the Campaign Trail

Can Obama keep Hershey sweet?

Free trade - and the job losses that the unions say come with free trade pacts - are big news in Hershey.

The Hershey company - the town's biggest employer and America's biggest confectionery manufacturer - last year announced plans to shed 1500 jobs in the US, 900 of them in Hershey itself.

The firm also announced its intention to move some of its operations to Mexico, where labour is cheaper.

The unions say that the job losses are a direct result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) between the US, Mexico and Canada, and that more deals - like the proposed free trade agreement with Colombia - will mean more job losses.

Mr Obama has pledged to renegotiate America's trade deals to include greater protection for workers and the environment, partly in order to level the playing field and reduce the flow of American jobs abroad.

— Full BBC Story

Green Revolution

Watched this today on CNN. If you didn't see this interview with Tom Friedman, please take a little time and watch it.

As Oil Prices Dip ...

OPEC has told its members to strictly limit their production to agreed quotas as Brent crude dipped below $100 a barrel for the first time since April.

After talks in Vienna, Opec president Chakib Khelil said the measures to curb over-production amounted to a cut of 520,000 barrels a day within 40 days.

— Full Story

We've got to find other ways to power our lives. This controlled yo-yo by OPEC is not in our interest.

Protests over world's cheapest car

A $2,500 car!

Can you imagine the riots we would have around here?

Well.. looks like low tech and high tech is clashing in India regarding the manufacturing of this vehicle.

Talks are taking place to resolve a dispute over the planned manufacture of the cheapest car in the world.

Protesters claim that 400 acres of farmland was seized from local villagers to build the factory that makes the Nano, produced by India's Tata group.

Violent demonstrations have been taking place outside the plant.

— Karishma Vaswani reports.

Full Video Report