Paris, France (4E) – President-elect Francoise Hollande on Tuesday flew to Germany for a eurozone debt crisis meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel but his plane was hit by lightning and it returned to Paris. He was unhurt and took another plane to resume his flight to Berlin.

The incident came just hours after his inaugural as the new leader of France at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy formally turned over power to the 57-year-old Hollande.

According to a presidential spokesman, the plane hit by lightning turned back for safety reasons. Planes are usually hit by lightning with the electricity being dispelled through their wingtips, but turning around after a strike is rare, according to a BBC transport correspondent.

Hollande decided to have a dinner meeting with Merkel, his second act as president after naming Jean-Marc Ayrault as his prime minister at 5 p.m., to renegotiate the European Union fiscal pact and make it growth-oriented instead of austerity-oriented as the German leader wanted it to be.

In his televised inaugural speech, Hollande said he will propose to Merkel a plan to reduce public debt while stimulating the economy.

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Beijing, China (AHN) – A US university has offered a fellowship to Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng that would allow him to bring his wife and children with him.

The blind activist made headlines for taking refuge at the US Embassy in Beijing after his daring escape from house arrest. He later left to go to the hospital accompanied by US officials who were later barred from the hospital.

Chen initially said he wanted to remain in China, as long as he could be free.

However, Chen caused tensions to rise between the US and China when he announced that he had changed his mind and wanted to immigrate to the US. Chen said he changed his mind because Chinese officials were threatening his family members and he no longer felt safe there.

The Chinese government said he could apply to travel to the US to study. In addition, a university has offered him a full fellowship.

US government officials have said they would expedite visas for Chen and his family members.

However, the Chinese media is now lashing out at Chen, depicting him as a tool of the US.

China is the second-largest economy in the world and it is the largest nation with a Communist form of government.

It often clamps down on citizens that criticize its policies. Chen spent the last seven years under some form of imprisonment as a result of his outspoken views.

 

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Washingon, D.C., United States (AHN) – Recovery? Not so fast.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the U.S. economy, grew at a slower-than-expected 2.2 percent annual rate in the first three months of 2012, down from a 3 percent growth rate in the prior quarter, and less than the 2.5 percent rate forecast.

Growth at the tepid rate is viewed as too weak to lead to the hiring needed to employ the millions of Americans out of work and searching for jobs.

Retail sales were a bright spot in the first quarter, and job growth started out strong, with a robust growth spurt experienced in January. However, by March, unemployment numbers began inching up.

Also, home construction that had increased during the start of 2012 has since fallen off.

Inflation that worried Americans earlier in the year amid soaring gas prices has since moderated.

Consumer spending rose 2.9 percent, with auto sales enjoying a big pick up. Durable goods spending increased 15.3 percent in the quarter.

The mediocre report has led many economists to conclude that the mild winter afforded the economy only a temporary boost since the start of the year.

Even the Federal Reserve maintains its cautious stance, with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke saying at this week’s FOMC meeting that the U.S. economy still faces “significant risk to the recovery.”

Friday’s numbers are the first from the Commerce Department and will be revised twice in the next several months.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Conservative front-group American Legislative Exchange Council announced Wednesday that it would stop pushing non-economic legislation, such as the controversial stand your ground laws and restrictions on voter registration to focus on economic issues.

ALEC is comprised of hundreds of state legislators and private companies. Critics say that the voting law changes the organization support amount to a suppression of voting rights for black people.

People who have been angered by the voting law changes and stand your ground gun laws put pressure on many corporations that supported ALEC, causing some of them to sever ties. ALEC criticized the backlash against it as an “organized intimidation” campaign.

The group, which favors federalism and conservative public policy solutions, has bowed to public pressure that intensified after the shooting death of a black high school student in Florida.

Trayvon Martin, 17, was trying to walk home from the store when he was profiled by a white neighbor who followed him, confronted him and then claimed Florida’s stand your ground law as his defense in shooting the teen to death.

It took more than a month for Florida authorities to arrest George Zimmerman, 28, on charges of murdering Martin.

That delay caused murder charges caused a public outcry that focused attention on the controversial stand your ground laws, as well as on ALEC for its part in successfully pushing them into law in more than two dozen states.

A press release on behalf of ALEC’s Legislative Board of Directors was issued by David Frizzell, Indiana State Representative and 2012 National Chairman of the ALEC.

“We are refocusing our commitment to free-market, limited government and pro-growth principles, and have made changes internally to reflect this renewed focus, Frizzell said.

“We are eliminating the ALEC Public Safety and Elections task force that dealt with non-economic issues, and reinvesting these resources in the task forces that focus on the economy. The remaining budgetary and economic issues will be reassigned.”

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Amman, Jordan Abdullah Omar (The Media – Jordan is facing an uphill battle to build its first nuclear reactor to supply badly needed electric power amid serious concern over environmental hazards and financial risks the cash-strapped kingdom would have to endure.

Lacking the oil and gas reserves of its neighbors, Jordan has been reliant on imports to provide power for its homes and vehicles. Chaos in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula over the past year virtually cut off natural gas imports because the pipeline has been sabotaged 14 times in succession, most recently this week when a blast cut the line near Al-Arish.

Nuclear power could help full the gap, but the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant last year has cast fresh doubt over safety and viability of such projects at a time when environmentalists are pushing for clean sources of energy.

Aware of the growing opposition to the multi-billion dollar project, the government in Amman has appointed a public relations team to persuade the public of its importance to the country’s energy independence. The Jordan Nuclear Commission said recently government is preparing to announce it has chosen the French nuclear power contractor AREVA to build the country’s first reactor.

Construction of the facility would not start before 2013 after the paper work needed to win the approval of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear monitoring body, and find financing.

The kingdom’s program calls for the construction of a 1,000-megawatt reactor by the end of the decade, with plans in place for an additional three reactors, all of which would transform the country from an energy importer to an electricity exporter.

But environmentalists warn that developing countries such as Jordan risk getting into immensely sophisticated and expensive projects without fully understanding their impact on the ecosystem and the populations living within close proximity.

And on Sunday, Jordan’s largest opposition party Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, announced it too was opposed to the nuclear reactor because it was not in the interests of Jordanians. IAF Secretary General Hamzah Mansour said the project should be canceled, preferring safer ones that rely on renewable energy.

“If implemented, Jordan will suffer the project’s dangerous political, economic, social, financial, health, environmental and security burdens in return for selling others clean electricity at cheap prices and on their terms,” Mansour warned at a press conference.

For residents of the town of Majdal, where the government said it will construct the reactor, the project is a no-go.

Community leaders joined hands with environmentalists to lobby against the project on hope of pushing authorities reconsider placing what they term a ticking bomb away from their backyards. They have held several protests in their town and in Amman near the prime minister’s office as well as near the nuclear energy commission’s offices in protest against the project.

Basel Burqan, an environmentalist and anti-nuclear technology advocate, says residents of the northern town face serious health risks if the project is constructed within close proximity of their homes.

Dominated by members of the influential tribe of Bani Hassan, Majdal doesn’t accept the government’s assurances over the plant’s safety. Burqan says the town residents will oppose any move by the government to construct the reactor around their homes.

The government also promised the local community a good financial return, but residents vehemently refuse to budge.

Majdal’s residents aren’t the only ones wary about having a nuke as a neighbor. The government had to rescind its original plans to build the reactor near the port city of Aqaba, near the Saudi border, after political pressure from Riyadh.

Majdal is a mix of blue collar workers and farming community between two big cities of Zarqa and Mafraq. Burqan says the location is in violation of international norms.

“The government is studying putting the reactor in a new location, in the desert of Azraq, but there is no water and that is also in violation of the international atomic energy regulations because there is no big source of water,” Burqan told The Media Line.

The tsunami that wrecked the Japanese nuclear site in 2011 has weighed on Areva, whose share have lost 58 percent of their value since the accident, the worst since the Chernobyl reactor failed 25 years earlier. While in the Middle East nuclear plans are moving ahead in places such as Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, Japan has idled all but one of its 54 reactors, and Germany has reversed a decision to extend the lifespan of its atomic facilities.

The Jordanian-French Uranium Mining Company, a consortium formed by AREVA and Jordan Energy Resources Inc., has been conducting exploratory activities for uranium mining in the central region since 2009.

The nuclear commission says it embarked on the nuclear project because, it says, there is an abundance of uranium in the country’s soil. But Burqan says authorities are exaggerating the amount of uranium in the country, with officials from the nuclear commission giving a variety of figures ranging from 100 million tons.

He says the authorities are giving distorted figures to justify embarking on the controversial project. The concentration of uranium in the soil is not commercially viable and well below international standards, he insists.

“Now, and after withdrawal of two Australian and Chinese companies from a deal to mine for uranium due to lack of economic feasibility, the government continues to say uranium reserves are commercial and can be utilized. This is not true,” he says.

Burqan said the aid dependent kingdom would also struggle to meet its financial commitments when it borrows money to build the reactor.

He says the official estimated cost of the reactor $5.2 billion does not include the added expense of military protection, insurance, revamping electric networks, special roads to sustain the weight of equipment that will be transported, including 800 metric-ton fans. Other costs also include storing toxic waste and a desalination plant to provide water.

“When looking into the astronomical costs of the project and what impact it will have on the economy of the country, it looks more feasible to focus attention on renewable energy projects such as solar and wind power,” said Burqan.

He points out that Jordan can take advantage of the winds in the western hills overlooking the Jordan Valley as well as the vast country’s ample sunlight in the southern and eastern deserts to develop alternative sources of power.

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Berlin, Germany (AHN) – Consumer spending fell in February, with retail sales registering a 1.1 percent drop compared to January, according to the Federal Statistics Office.

Sales figures seem to be a bit volatile. Economists had expected growth. However, heavy snowfall during the first part of the month kept shoppers at home and rising energy costs pinched consumer budgets.

However, with the help of an extra day because of Leap Year, February retail sales on an annual basis were up by 1.7 percent.

Expectations for Europe’s largest economy are brighter for 2012 as a whole with analysts anticipating that growth will increase this year.

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Dublin, Ireland (AHN) – Ireland fell back into recession during the last quarter of 2011, according to data from the Central Statistics Office.

The Irish economy contracted by 0.2 percent from October to December, after shrinking by 1.1 percent during the third quarter.

Although consumer spending rose by 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, Ireland’s exports fell by 1.1 percent.

Officials also revised growth estimates for the second quarter of 2012 to 1.1 percent from the prior estimate of 1.4 percent.

That fits the standard definition of a recession as being two consecutive quarters of contraction in a nation’s gross domestic product.

The last time Ireland experienced a contraction of its GDP for two successive quarters was in 2009.

News that Ireland has slipped into a recession comes as the government tries to persuade lenders that bailed the nation out to give a break of $40.97 billion on promissory notes that propped up failed banks.

Ireland needed an international bailout in November 2010.

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NYC, NY, United States (AHN) – As widely expected, the Federal Reserve took no action Tuesday, leaving interest rates at their historically low levels, and made no announcement to change its monetary policy through at least 2014.

Following the 2:15 p.m. announcement, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 114 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was higher by 11 points and the NASDAQ was better by 31 points.

Recent economic data has indicated that the economy is slowly picking up steam. Unemployment is falling and consumer sentiment is rising. While optimism is growing, many, including the Fed, remain cautious.

The Fed pointed out that the recent increases in oil will push up inflation temporarily, and looks for the unemployment rate to continue to fall. It also noted that the housing market remains depressed, but sees improvement in the sector in the months ahead.

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Dallas, TX, United States (AHN) – There is no such thing as a free lunch on short airline flights anymore, and there is no such thing a free leg room, either.

On Thursday, American Airlines made the grand announcement that it is adding some roomier seats to the front of its economy class cabins, offering more leg room. But those opting for the additional space will have to pay for it.

American said it would add four to six inches of leg room to some seats at the front of its economy cabins, charging most customers $8 to $108 for the extra space, depending on the length of the flight, and giving its most elite frequent fliers complimentary access to the seats.

AA said it would remove at least one row of seats from each cabin, a minimum of four-to-nine seats per aircraft, to create the extra leg room.

The program, called Main Cabin Extra, will begin with the hundreds of new aircraft scheduled for delivery starting this year. American will add the new seating to most of its 617 existing aircraft with 18 months.

The extra leg room offering follows similar moves by rivals United and Delta,

American Airlines is unit of AMR Corp., which filed bankruptcy protection November, and had said it hopes to improve annual revenue by $1 billion through restructuring and adding flights.

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London, United Kingdom (AHN) – Lloyds Banking Group reported it had an annual loss of $5.5 billion for 2011, compared to a pre-tax profit of $444.4 million for 2010.

The loss was figured on what was left after the bank set $5.1 billion aside to cover payment protection insurance claims. That is for claims over mis-sold PPI loan repayment insurance that covers borrowers in case they lose their job.

Moreover, Lloyds said the amount of bonus it would pay each of its staff would be less because its bonus pool for 2011 was down by 30 percent compared to 2010.

Lloyds is the nation’s largest retail bank. UK taxpayers own a 40 percent share of the bank.

The bank is undergoing reorganization, which entails eliminating about 632 branches and cutting 15,000 jobs. Bank officials say they are dealing with numerous challenges, some of which stem from regulatory issues related to the eurozone economy.

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