The World in Review

1. Canada

“Canada plunged into the grip of a full-blown automotive recession last month as vehicle sales tumbled 21%, led by a slump among auto makers that had been performing well…Massive declines at Honda Canada Inc. and Toyota Canada Inc. helped push December sales to their lowest level since 1996, the overall total for 2008 to a year-over-year decline and the Canadian market into territory the United States has been experiencing for six months” (Globe and Mail).

“Teck Cominco Ltd. said Thursday it will eliminate 1,400 jobs or roughly 13% of its worldwide workforce in the face of ‘persistently weak commodity prices’…The Vancouver-based mining giant said in a news release it expects annual savings of approximately $85-million as a result” (Financial Times).

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority claimed that 32 deaths in hospitals last year were not a result of the patients’ health conditions, but were due to “unintended events” from treatment. (See related article: “Medicated! Society’s Dependence on Prescription Drugs”)

2. United States

Luis Fortuno was elected governor of Puerto Rico. The election of Mr. Fortuno, who favors statehood for Puerto Rico, comes at a grim time for the U.S. territory, which has seen 800 homicides in the past year, the highest number since 1996.

State lawmakers voted 114-1 to impeach Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, setting the stage for a Senate trial to decide if he should be removed from office for corruption and abuse of power (Fox News).

“Companies in the U.S. eliminated an estimated 693,000 jobs in December, the most since records began in 2001, a private report based on payroll data showed” (Bloomberg).

Mississippi has the nation’s highest teen birthrate, according to the statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s current birthrate is approximately 60% higher than the national average in 2006.

A cold front in Alaska pushed temperatures to 60 degrees below zero during the past two weeks, shutting down schools, grounding planes, disabling cars and freezing water pipes. Officials are concerned that if the extreme cold snap continues, food and fuel will be unable to arrive at certain regions of the state. (See related Trends and Conditions Report: What’s Wrong With the Weather?)

Riots broke out in Oakland, Calif., after a police officer shot and killed a handcuffed, unarmed man at a subway station.

A Salmonella outbreak across 42 states poisoned 388 people. Officials have not yet determined its cause.

3. Mexico: The daily newspaper El Universal reported a 103% increase in the amount of deaths nationwide related to drug-trafficking. According to tallies by the paper, during the first five days of 2009 there were 63 deaths, as opposed to 31 in 2008. This begins a bloody year for Mexico, whose death toll doubled last year as a result of drug cartel violence. (See related news brief: “Mexican Drug-Cartel Violence Claims 5,300 Lives”)

4. Guatemala: A 10,000-ton landslide killed 34 coffee workers in Northern Guatemala.

5. United Kingdom:

UK consumers spent an all-time high of $4.99 billion in 2008 on videogame software and consoles, according to the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association.

In a continued effort to ease the economic crisis, the Bank of England cut interest rates to 1.5%, its lowest level since the bank was founded in 1694.

“The number of people searching for flights [on the Internet] in the week after Christmas fell 42% [in 2008] compared to the same period last year, as consumers rein in their spending as a result of the slowdown” (The Times).

6. Spain: The number of Spain’s unemployed citizens surged in 2008, increasing by 1 million. Eurostat reported the jobless figure was 29.4% in November 2008—the highest in the EU.

7. Germany: “Adolf Merckle, one of Germany’s wealthiest men, committed suicide after weeks of talks with creditors designed to save his businesses from being consumed by disastrous investments and the global financial crisis” (Financial Times). (See related news brief: “WHO Warns Economic-Motivated Suicide Will Increase in 2009”)

8. Ukraine: An escalating natural gas price dispute between Russia and Ukraine, which included shutting off gas supplies to the former Soviet state, has begun to disrupt supplies to other European nations. (See news brief: “Russia Stops Gas Flow—Europe in Crisis”)

9. Greece: Rioters armed with automatic weapons attacked riot police guarding the culture ministry building. The assailants used a hand grenade to cover their escape and wounded one police officer in the skirmish. The attack is linked to ongoing violence after the police shooting of a teenager in December. (See related news brief: “Riots in Athens Escalating”)

10. Israel: The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for Israel to withdrawal its troops from Gaza and to allow humanitarian access. Meanwhile, fighting continues, with rockets being fired into Israel from Lebanon. Hezbollah denied responsibility for the attack. (See related news brief: “Israel Strikes Back at Hamas With ‘Iron Fist’”)

11. Zimbabwe:

The Zimbabwe Independent reported that, according to military sources, the Zimbabwe Defense Forces have struck a deal with the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to slaughter elephants to feed the nation’s soldiers, due to a severe food shortage. However, the Parks Authority director-general said that no such a deal was made.

The official death toll resulting from Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak rose to nearly 1,800, with almost 36,000 reported infections nationwide. The unofficial death toll is feared to be well over 3,000 (SW Radio Africa).

12. China: Beijing issued an alert against the appearance of Avian Flu due to the disease-related death of a 19-year-old woman. Since its outbreak in 2003, 21 people in China have died from bird flu and 247 have died from it worldwide (BBC). (See related news brief: “Avian Flu – A Continued Threat”)

13. Japan:

“Japanese electronics component maker TDK Corp. said it would cut 8,000 workers and post its biggest net loss ever this fiscal year, due to falling orders and a stronger yen” (Associated Press).

“Japan’s stocks dropped, ending a seven-day winning streak, after U.S. job cuts exceeded estimates and stoked concern a deepening economic slump will further reduce demand for Japanese-made products” (Bloomberg).

14. Vietnam: Tens of thousands of Cambodians packed into a stadium in Phnom Penh to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge and its murderous campaign of genocide (BBC).

15. Indonesia: The number of Indonesians forced into tent camps by a pair of powerful earthquakes last weekend has risen to 17,400, an official said. Many people who fled their homes after Sunday’s 7.3 and 7.6 magnitude quakes were already weak from illness and could become sicker (Sydney Morning Herald).

16. Australia

Thirteen people at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital tested positive for an antibiotic-resistant infectious disease (ABC News). (See related literature: “And There Shall Be Pestilences”)

After winding down operations to protect Iraq’s oil terminals, Australia will deploy a warship to guard against piracy off the coast of Somalia (Sydney Morning Herald).

Home-building approvals crashed the most since 2002, and exports dropped for the first time in nine months, stoking speculation that the central bank will extend the biggest round of interest-rate cuts in 17 years (Bloomberg).

“The mining industry…stepped up its attack on the government over its proposed emissions trading scheme, producing figures that reveal the export coal sector will face a $5 billion carbon burden in the first five years alone if the system becomes law” (The Australian).

Australian car industry sales fell 14.5%, “its worst sales performance in 30 years” (The Australian).

17. New Zealand: The average household net worth dropped nearly $40,000 from 2007, to just under $356,000.