Wow. A tough and iron-fisted Generalissimo of the totalitarian Left left the world stage yesterday . . . but enough about Hillary Clinton.

With this Wisconsin iceberg now slamming into the Clinton campaign, I'm reminded of the scene in Cameron's Titanic where the ship's designer rushes to the bridge, unrolls the construction plans, and informs the Captain that despite the small shudder of the impact and the normal feeling on the bridge, the great ship is doomed.

Witch Creek Fire a costly natural disaster

S.D. Malkins plan to build a resort hotel complex on two Oside city-owned blocks facing the muni pier and blue Pacific has received approval of its Environmental Impact Report as well as a coppla other major permits. The $l87-mil. development is expected to be completed by 2010. Its original concept was approved in 2005. Pricey coffee goes for a buck a cup In order to compete with some of the fast food joints, Seattle-based Starbucks is offering 8-ounce cups of coffee with unlimited refills for a buck on a trial basis in some of its 6,793 outlets. Question is will some of Starbucks ritzy customers want to be seen toting a cheap cuppa joe when they are usta to paying at least twice that much? The coffeetorium is following the lead of other food outlets that are now competing with 99-cent stores by matching their prices on some items.

Cotton plantings could be lowest since 1983

The National Cotton Council may project that U.S. farmers will plant the fewest acres with the fiber since 1983, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

"I expect farmers have been making decisions to reduce cotton acreage as we go along week by week," said Carl Anderson, professor emeritus at the agriculture department of Texas A&M University in College Station.

Frugal Norway saves for life after the boom

And yet the Big Oil companies including Talisman and Petro-Canada are there. This goes to show that Canadians can and should be demanding more of the oil profits here in Canada and should not be so easily conned by dire warnings that it will "kill the golden goose".

Besides having the government oil fund, Norwegians also have their widely-respected state-owned oil company, Statoil.

We used to have Petro-Canada, which according to the US Department of Energy's website, the Canadian government formed "in 1975 in an effort to reduce the dominance of U.S. companies in Canada's oil industry."

So of course Mulroney began selling off Petro-Canada in 1991, and Conservative-Lite Paul Martin completed the sell-off in 2004. What they privatized for just $5.7 billion, giving taxpayers an estimated profit of just $0.75 billion, is today worth some $23 billion as valued by the markets.

L U D H I A N A S T O R I E S

The exemption, applicable on setting up of new units and for the expansion of existing ones, is applicable in designated areas of the Focal Point and the industrial estates. It comes as a major relief for entrepreneurs who had to obtain clearances from at least 12 departments.

The director of factories, Punjab, said this was decided during the 39th meeting of the SCA-cum-SAC, wherein units falling in the designated areas would be exempted from obtaining the clearance for the site.

The condition to obtain the SAC clearance was imposed about two years ago. Despite repeated requests by the industry the government had not withdrawn it. As a result, the existing units that wanted to expand were particularly in a tight spot.

Setting up of a new unit meant obtaining approvals from at least 12 departments, including the forest and the electricity.

Yesterday's trading: Disaster at Debenhams

Wall Street jumped 68 points in the early stages ahead of President Bush's sub-prime aid package. Speculation suggested he was ready to freeze interest rates for a long as five years for sub-prime borrowers.

Housebuilders certainly thought the reduction in mortgage rates would be insufficient to resuscitate the housing market. Persimmon lost 45½p to 750½p, Barratt Developments 19½p to 448¼p and Taylor Wimpey 3.95p to 199.3p.

In the absence of an increased offer from BHP Billiton (28p off at 1619p) or a rival bid from Chinese top steelmaker Baosteel, Rio Tinto succumbed to profit-taking and shed 137p to 5583p.

Nervous selling ahead of Tuesday's thirdquarter trading statement left Whitbread 22p off at 1390p.

Tracker buying following its historic promotion into the Footsie helped the London Stock Exchange climb 67p to 1870p.

Euro receives support from Weber

The stock market decline this time had no (negative) impact on EUR/USD.

On the sidelines, there is also still a debate enfolding whether or not the OPEC should seriously consider pricing oil in euro. This debate isn't a really a hot theme yet and we wouldn't give too much weight to this item now, as it will take a lot of time and high political hurdles need to be removed to implement such change.

Report Raises Alarm over 'Superweeds'

It's been 12 years since the first genetically modified crop was sown in the U.S., and controversy has raged since. Now, another salvo has been launched, in the form of a new report from environmental activist organization Friends of the Earth International and the Center for Food Safety, a Washington (D.C.) advocacy group. Called Who Benefits from GM Crops?, the study examines the emergence of "superweeds" that have developed a resistance to conventional herbicides such as Monsanto's (MON) Roundup. The culprits, says the report, are plants like corn, soybeans, and cotton that have been genetically modified to survive Roundup. Farmers can spray their fields and the weeds will die but the crops will thrive.

As more acres of "Roundup Ready" crops are planted, the use of the pesticide has increased.