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France, Malone Lead Purdue Past Utah

Two months ago, Purdue had a losing record. Now, the Boilermakers are heading to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Kalika France and FahKara Malone scored 17 points each, and ninth-seeded Purdue beat No. 8 Utah 66-59 on Sunday night in the first round of the Oklahoma City regional.

Danielle Campbell added 14 points for the Boilermakers (19-14), who next will play top-seeded Tennessee.

France, who averages eight points, had 12 in the first half.

"I just realized we weren't being aggressive, or as aggressive as we can be," she said. "I felt like in the first half, we weren't giving the effort we needed to win."

…

Cendant halves CEO's pay, will expense stock options

NEW YORK--Cendant Corp., the hotel and real estate brokeragefranchiser whose shares haven't recovered from a 1998 accountingscandal, will cut Chairman and Chief Executive Henry Silverman's payby more than half and begin accounting for stock options as anoperating expense.

Silverman's 2002 pay will be about $15 million, down from $36million in 2001, spokesman Elliot Bloom said. He declined to commenton the reason for the changes. New York-based Cendant is the biggestfranchiser of hotels, with chains such as Days Inn and HowardJohnson, and of residential brokerages, including Century 21 andColdwell Banker.

Cendant shares are at about half their level in 1998 before …

The Intranet advantage

Technology has tackled a lot of issues in the past decade; imaging checks, banking through the Internet, expanded ATM services, check cards and many more.

Now technology is tackling what is possibly the most universal challenge in every organization in America: effective communications between management, departments and employees.

Most banks today use the same communication infrastructure: telephones, faxes, break room bulletin boards, interoffice mail and word of mouth. This process is effective "most" of the time, rarely efficient and expensive.

Take the simple matter of advising employees of your loan and deposit rates for the week. The document is created, …

US Open women's final delayed until Sunday

Serena Williams waited six years to return to the U.S. Open final. What's another day?

The title match between two-time champion Williams and first-time Grand Slam finalist Jelena Jankovic was postponed from Saturday to Sunday because of heavy rain brought by Tropical Storm Hanna.

Williams vs. Jankovic originally was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. (2300 GMT) Saturday, but about 3 1/2 hours before that, organizers announced they were shifting it. Eventually, the tournament announced play will start at 9 p.m. Sunday (0100 Monday).

The men's final was rescheduled from Sunday afternoon to Monday evening (2100 GMT). It's the first Monday final for the men …

US stock futures fall as home construction drops

U.S. stock futures are lower, pointing to a weaker opening, as the government says home construction fell unexpectedly last month.

Futures had been lower Wednesday following new signs China might tighten lending.

The Commerce Department says construction of new homes and apartments fell 4 percent in December.

The …

SAY WHAT?

"It's incredible. I demand a recount."

- James Taylor, elected into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame "Thesets will all be pink."

- Academy Awards co-producer Lili Fini Zanuck on the woman's touchshe plans for the March 26 ceremony "As soon as Michael Jackson seesthis, he's going to go out and buy …

Tigers 6, Diamondbacks 0

…

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RRorts 3b	4 0 0 0		AJcksn cf	4 1 2 0
KJhnsn 2b	4 0 0 0		Boesch lf	3 0 1 0
J.Upton rf	4 0 1 0		Kelly lf	0 0 0 0
S.Drew ss	4 0 0 0

Bonnaroo crowds endure heat for Jay-Z, Conan

The festival experience _ for all its glory and its port-a-johns _ was on full display at this year's Bonnaroo.

More than 75,000 endured days that frequently topped 100 on the heat index. Heavy rain fell when the festival gates opened on Wednesday night, muddying the grounds. Bodies splayed out in exhaustion across the grass were common, as were umbrellas to shield the sun.

"How do you do it?" marveled singer-songwriter Regina Spektor just one number into her Sunday afternoon set. "You guys are like heat superheroes."

And yet, with few exceptions, the crowd remained enthused, eagerly soaking up some 100 acts, traipsing from stage …

High Mobility Engineer Excavator-Type I

The U.S. Army will soon begin production verification testing on the latest addition to its mobility/countermobility platform inventory: the high mobility engineer excavatorType I (HMEE-I).

As described by representatives from the Program Executive Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support (PEO CS & CSS), the HMEE-I "is a highly mobile, on/off road, selfdeployable excavator system capable of providing mobility/countermobility and survivability to support the Stryker brigade combat teams (SBCT) and brigade combat teams (BCT). Besides speed and mobility, the HMEE-I provides needed engineer tasks in the areas of excavation/trenching, lifting and loading capabilities. It …

North Africa's Al-Qaida takes credit for latest Algeria suicide bombing

Al-Qaida's Algerian branch has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack that killed four police officers, according to a statement that appeared on militant Web sites.

A vehicle rigged with explosives ripped the walls off the police station in Naciria, east of the capital, on Wednesday, killing at least four officers and at injuring 20 others, the Algerian Interior Ministry has said.

The online statement, posted Thursday, identified the attacker as Abdullah al-Shaayani and carried his photo.

"With the grace and guidance of God, he surprised the apostates and destroyed the entire headquarters over their heads, leaving behind dozens of …

Facebook: You’ve got a friend or foe?

Facebook — the best invention since the Clapper or the devil's favorite device? Today we hear both sides:

SUSAN: I'd been searching for my best friend for nearly 20 years, ever since a misunderstanding led to an estrangement. Even though I found a city listed for him on the Internet — the last city I had an address for him — I figured it was old news because he was in the Marine Corps and he couldn't possibly still be stationed in the same town for so long.

A few days after I joined Facebook in 2009, I typed his name into the search, and there was a guy with the same name on the opposite side of the country. The picture with the profile looked enough like him that I …

GETTING SMART ABOUT GUNS

SAFETY

AROUND 1.7 MILLION U.S. children live in homes with loaded, unlocked firearms, and one-third of adults have hand-guns, rifles or shotguns at home, according to a survey published in the Pediatrics online journal in September. Faced with frightening statistics like these, industrial and manufacturing engineering professor Donald Sebastian is battling to make homes with guns safer for children. He and his colleagues at the New Jersey Institute of Technology are developing a smart gun, one that can tell friend from foe, user from nonuser. Within the first tenth of a second of the trigger squeeze, the gun's computerized sensors can measure the size, strength and structure of a person's hand and stop the gun from firing if the shooter isn't authorized. The smart gun has all sorts of potentially far-reaching benefits-stopping a thief from using a stolen gun is an obvious one, but Sebastian's focus is on safeguarding the kids. -LYNNE SHALLCROSS

Analysis: In `squeeze play,' Iraq uses US political rifts to bolster position on troop pullout

The Iraqi prime minister's seeming endorsement of Barack Obama's troop withdrawal plan is part of Baghdad's strategy to play U.S. politics for the best deal possible over America's military mission.

The goal is not necessarily to push out the Americans quickly, but instead give Iraqis a major voice in how long U.S. troops stay and what they will do while still there.

It also is designed to refurbish the nationalist credentials of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who owes his political survival to the steadfast support of U.S. President George W. Bush. Now, an increasingly confident Iraqi government seems to be undermining long-standing White House policies on Iraq.

The flap began Saturday when Germany's Der Spiegel magazine released an interview quoting al-Maliki as saying U.S. troops should leave Iraq "as soon as possible" and that Obama's proposed 16-month timeline to remove combat troops was "the right timeframe for a withdrawal."

With Obama due to visit Iraq soon, al-Maliki's spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh was quick to discredit the report, saying the prime minister's remarks were "not conveyed accurately." A top al-Maliki adviser, Sadiq al-Rikabi, insisted the Iraqi government does not intend to be "part of the electoral campaign in the United States."

But that is precisely what the Iraqis intended to do: exploit Obama's position on the war to force the Bush administration into accepting concessions considered unthinkable a few months ago.

Already, the Iraqi strategy has succeeded in persuading the White House to agree to a "general time horizon" for removing U.S. troops _ long a goal of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government.

According to senior Iraqi officials, the decision to play U.S. politics emerged last month after Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari's trip to Washington for meetings with Bush, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Obama and Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee.

The visit took place as the U.S. and Iraq were negotiating rules that would govern the American military presence in Iraq once the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

The talks had bogged down over U.S. demands for extensive basing rights, control of Iraqi airspace and immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law for U.S. soldiers and private contractors.

In the past, the Iraqis would have bowed to American pressure. This time, they saw an option in Obama, a longtime critic of the war. They could press for a short-term agreement with the administration and take their chances with a new president _ Obama or McCain.

Also, the Iraqis could flirt with Obama's withdrawal timetable, increasing pressure on Bush to cut a deal more favorable to them.

With the talks bogged down, the Iraqis sensed desperation by the Americans to wrap up a deal quickly before the presidential campaign was in full swing.

"Let's squeeze them," al-Maliki told his advisers, who related the conversation to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The squeeze came July 7, when al-Maliki announced in Abu Dhabi that Iraq wanted the base deal to include some kind of timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops. The prime minister also proposed a short-term interim memorandum of agreement rather than the more formal status of forces agreement the two sides had been negotiating.

Talk of a full agreement fell by the wayside in favor of a short-term memorandum.

More significantly, the White House agreed this past week to a "general time horizon" for withdrawing American troops _ short of a firm timetable but a dramatic shift from the administration's refusal to accept any deadline for ending the mission in Iraq.

U.S. officials in Baghdad have sought to put a positive spin on all this, explaining it as a sign that Iraqis are acting more like a sovereign government.

Nonetheless, the Iraqi stand comes at a delicate time. Voters in the U.S. are faced with choosing between two presidential candidates with vastly differing views on the U.S. mission in Iraq.

Military commanders are wondering whether all the political bargaining about withdrawal timetables could create its own unstoppable momentum, leaving Iraqi security forces increasingly in charge when they may not be ready for the task.

When asked Sunday about the possibility of removing U.S. combat troops within two years, the Pentagon's top military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, did not mince words: "I think the consequences could be very dangerous."

"I'd worry about any kind of rapid movement out and creating instability where we have stability," Mullen said on "Fox News Sunday."

Facing down the Americans on such a critical issue would have been unthinkable months ago, when the very survival of the Iraqi government depended on U.S. military support.

Last year, the administration stood against suggestions by its Arab allies to dump al-Maliki in favor of Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite and former prime minister deemed less hostile to the Sunni minority.

But the sharp reduction in violence _ now at its lowest level in four years _ and the routing of Shiite and Sunni extremists from most of their urban strongholds have bolstered the government's self-confidence.

The decision this weekend by the main Sunni Arab political bloc to end its nearly yearlong boycott of the government has enhanced al-Maliki's stature as leader with support beyond his fellow Shiites.

With oil now at record prices, Iraq is awash in petrodollars, with estimated revenue this year likely to reach US$70 billion.

All that has given many Iraqis the feeling they do not really need the Americans _ certainly not on terms they find distasteful.

"We want a new president who can deal with the Iraqi people with a new approach and policy that aims to put an end to the occupation," said Juma al-Quraishi, a Baghdad newspaper vendor. "Then he can plan how to build a new Iraq."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE _ Robert H. Reid is The Associated Press chief of bureau in Baghdad and has reported from Iraq since 2003.

Britain, US step up pressure on Zimbabwe's Mugabe

Britain and the United States increased pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to step down, accusing him of presiding over the country's economic collapse blamed for a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 1,000 people.

But the calls are more likely to harden the stance of Mugabe, who does not want to be seen as bowing to demands from white Westerners.

Britain's Africa Minister Mark Malloch Brown said Monday that Mugabe must retire for a power-sharing government to succeed in the former British colony facing a mounting economic and humanitarian crisis.

He told BBC radio that Mugabe was incapable of making good on a deal reached in September to govern alongside opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

"Power-sharing isn't dead but Mugabe has become an absolute impossible obstacle to achieving it," Malloch Brown said. "He's so distrusted by all sides that I think the Americans are absolutely right _ he's going to have to step aside."

The remarks came a day after the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said Washington can no longer support a Zimbabwean deal that leaves Mugabe in office as president. Also stepping up pressure, the Roman Catholic Bishops Conference of Southern Africa called for Africans and especially regional giant South Africa "to isolate Mugabe completely."

But Mugabe, once considered a hero among African freedom fighters, has shrugged off such criticism, drawing many Africans to his side with claims he is fighting a Western imperialist plot.

"The only likelihood is that they (African leaders) will harden in their stand against so-called Western imperialism," said John Makumbe, a political science professor in Zimbabwe. "I think (Mugabe) actually enjoys all that pressure and sees it as giving him the limelight."

African leaders are also wary of being seen as simply following the U.S. and now the British lead. Frazer on Sunday acknowledged that stepping up the pressure against Mugabe could backfire. But she said it was a risk worth taking, because "at some point we have to say what we really believe."

Mugabe, 84, has ruled the country since its 1980 independence from Britain and refused to leave office following disputed elections in March.

He has faced renewed criticism amid a humanitarian crisis that has pushed millions of Zimbabweans to the point of starvation and spawned a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 1,000 people since August.

U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy all have called for Mugabe to step down.

Those few Africans who have spoken out against him have been denounced as "lackeys" obeying the orders of white masters. The Catholic bishops said it was time for that to stop.

"Some African leaders, to their shame, have felt it necessary to stand in solidarity with Mugabe against the supposed machinations of former colonial and present imperial powers; it is time for them to redirect their solidarity towards the needs of the suffering people of this once-thriving country," they said Sunday.

Britain and the United States keep urging African governments, especially those in southern Africa, to take concerted action against Mugabe. But there is little they can do to put pressure on the Africans.

"I think this is a hardening of rhetoric by the U.S. and the U.K., but I don't think that is reflected in the thinking of the Southern African Development Community, or the African Union," said Alex Vines, head of the Africa program at London's Chatham House think tank.

Meanwhile, he thinks "the impasse will continue."

On Friday, an ever-defiant Mugabe declared that "Zimbabwe is mine," saying only Zimbabweans can remove him from power and that no African nation is brave enough to wrest it from him.

"The real pressure will have to come from within Zimbabwe, through civic action, through the military rioting, work boycotts by teachers, the nurses and the doctors to keep the hospitals and schools closed," Makumbe said.

Zimbabwe, once the region's breadbasket, has seen its agricultural sector collapse under Mugabe. There are chronic shortages of everything including food, medicine, fuel and cash.

Critics blame Mugabe's policies for the nation's ruin. Mugabe blames Western sanctions, though the European Union and U.S. sanctions are targeted only at Mugabe and dozens of his clique with frozen bank accounts and travel bans.

This month, soldiers rioted in downtown Harare when they could not withdraw their salaries from banks that ran out of cash; all the main hospitals in Harare are closed, because staff have not been paid or because they have no medication.

The bishops called for South Africa's President Kgalema Motlanthe "to stop immediately all collusion with Mugabe and to cut off any lifeblood that South Africa is offering him." Specifically, they suggested cutting fuel and electricity supplies to landlocked Zimbabwe.

Last month, Botswana's Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani called for African nations to close their borders with Zimbabwe, saying it would bring Mugabe down in just a week or two.

But South Africa maintains the answer for Zimbabwe is power-sharing, not ousting Mugabe.

Malloch Brown suggested that Mugabe might be moved by a promise of immunity from international prosecution for alleged crimes against humanity.

"I think that if President Mugabe was to come to the U.K. and the U.S. or other third parties _ African neighbors _ and say 'I'll go if I can be offered a quiet retirement,' I expect people would look at what's possible," he told the BBC.

___

Associated Press Writer David Stringer contributed from London.

Bombs Kill at Least 13 People in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two bombs exploded in Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighborhood Thursday, killing 13 people and wounding at least 25, police said.

An officer at the Mansour police station, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said two parked cars exploded one after another near a fuel station. The blast set fire to the station, and burned several cars in the area, he said.

The officer initially put the death toll at seven, but later said that some of the wounded died.

Hours later, firefighters sprayed streams of water over at least six smoldering cars, as Iraqi soldiers and civilians staggered around the wreckage. Associated Press Television News footage showed blood pooling amid scattered fuel containers. Nearby, tea cups lay toppled on a blanket spread over wood crates.

A woman in a black Muslim veil sat crying on a curb outside Yarmouk hospital where the victims were taken. The wounded lay on stretchers crowded in the hallway inside.

Mansour is a primarily Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad.

As he turns 30, Michael eludes time

He is still the Peter Pan of the pop world, still hits the highnotes and still counts his take in millions.

But Michael Jackson turns 30 on Monday, working - he will singat a concert in Leeds, England, on his birthday - and refusing to lettime catch up with him.

He thrives in a pop world once dominated by teenagers, likes icecream, seldom travels without his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles, and has apersonal "hot dog" stand in his home for guests.

He may be the richest entertainer of the pop world - Forbesmagazine estimated he would earn $31 million last year - but he hasdescribed himself as one of the world's loneliest people. He hasbeen working for 25 of his 30 years.

He has said he wants to marry and have nine children, the samenumber as his parents had. But he has also said his relationshipswith women have not had happy endings, and he seems to mix moreeasily with mature types. His friends have included ElizabethTaylor, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross and, now 78, Katharine Hepburn.

Jackson and his mother, Katherine Jackson, have deniedsuggestions he takes hormones to keep his voice artificially high."It is hereditary," she said. "Both his grandfathers had highvoices."

Jackson did leave his family home in Los Angeles recently andmoved to a $17 million ranch he bought in the mountains of southernCalifornia. It will give him more room for his llama, his giraffeand Thriller, his Arabian stallion.

It is also home to Bubbles, who can roller skate, ride a horse,play hide and seek and blow bubbles, and is the pet closest toJackson.

Outdoor stereo speakers often play themes from Disney films.

His mother has said Jackson had his nose bobbed, but she hasdenied reports he has also had a face-lift and added a cleft chin.He does not smoke or drink and avoids taking drugs even for pain.

Asked if Jackson had plans to celebrate his 30th birthday, hispress agent said simply: "I haven't heard of any plans."

It could be just another working day for the 30-year-oldmultimillionaire.

Nakshbandi

Mill Report

The Exporting Giant Adheres to International Standards

Pakistan's Nakshbandi Industries Ltd. increases its range of Monforts dyeing and finishing equipment with a new "Sanforiser" to meet expansion and maintain international standards.

A long established user of Monforts dyeing and finishing equipment, Nakshbandi has taken delivery of a new "Sanforiser" to meet increased demand and maintain international standards.

Nakshbandi was the first publicly owned company in Pakistan to specialize in the extensive and diversified manufacturing of terry towels, bathrobes, terry accessories, sheets, pillow covers, duvet covers and apparel fabrics.

Director Murtaza Teli says that Nakshbandi is principally exportoriented, with its markets including the U.S., EU (primarily the U.K., France, Germany, Sweden and Italy), New Zealand, the U.A.E. and Bangladesh.

As such, he says, the company is continually endeavoring to meet the increasing international standards of buyers in these and other overseas markets.

"We are certified to ISO 9002:2000, having originally gained ISO 9002 in 1998," he says. "Nakshbandi also considers socially responsible manufacturing to be of paramount importance, and we have already been audited by Gemex and Wal-Mart for SA-8000 and found to be compliant.

"Additionally, we have the OEKOTEX 100 label to show that our products are eco friendly, and we are well on the way towards achieving ISO-14000 certification."

Among the environmentally friendly measures undertaken by Nakshbandi is the purchase of all its dyestuffs and chemicals from ISO certified European and American manufacturers, and the construction of a water recycling plant on the premises to process all the water contaminated by the manufacturing process.

"We are a global concern/' says TeIi. "Our standards also have to be global."

The company took delivery of its first Monforts unit, a "Pad-Thermosole", in 1988 followed by a second in 2001. Nakshbandi installed its first Monforts stenter in 1997 and also took delivery of a second in 2001. With the recent installation of the new "Sanforiser", the company today has a range of five Monforts units.

"We use Monforts technology because the company is the leader in dyeing and finishing," says Teli. "Because of our policy on international standards, we select the kind of equipment that we know will help us achieve those standards."

As a high-volume producer, Nakshbandi's output is formidable. The company processes 50,000 meters of fabric a day, which adds up to 1.5 million meters a month.

Production of towels alone runs to 20 tons per day, with plans to double this next year, with Nakshbandi playing a dominant role in towel weaving, processing and towel made-ups. The company specializes in pure white institutional towels, under the brand name "Seagull", while solid colors, geometries and florals are produced to specification.

"With checks at every stage of production and post-production to measure the quality status of the product, we are able to assure our clients of a consistent, high grade product of terry towels," says Teli.

The two Monforts stenters are working at production speeds of 70 meters per minute, working on fabric widths of 1.8 meters and weights of 280 grams per square meter.

Nakshbandi, which employs 1,800 people, has a turnover of US$25 million per year. TeIi says that the company sees its export markets expanding in the fields of bedwear, towels and garments, and is very optimistic for the future. Investment plans include more facilities for color printing and for the production of narrow width fabrics.

Nakshbandi is a supplier to many of the leading brand-name stores, including Walmart, Macy's, Carrefour, IKEA, Gap, and JC Penney.

Sales Manager

Education and Training Bachelor's degree minimum and prior experience

Salary Median— $84,220 per year

Employment Outlook Very good

Definition and Nature of the Work

Sales managers train, direct, and supervise their sales staff. They coordinate the operation of their sales department by establishing territories, goals, and quotas for their sales workers. Reviewing market analyses helps them to determine customer needs, sales volume potential, and pricing schedules that will meet company goals.

The specific duties of sales managers vary from company to company. In general sales managers hire, train, and are responsible for the sales workers. In some large companies specialized sales training managers perform these duties. In all companies sales managers assign sales territories, or geographic regions, to selling personnel. They also evaluate the performance of the sales workers. Sales managers represent their companies at trade association conventions and meetings to promote their products. Some monitor customer preferences and direct and supervise product research and development. They may also be in charge of recommending or approving budgets for product research and development.

A company that employs a sales manager usually does so because the firm has many sales workers on its staff. In addition to employing a staff of sales workers, a company may also arrange to have its goods or services marketed by independent companies such as dealers, distributors, and jobbers. In this situation a sales manager may work closely with the sales staffs of these independent companies. Some sales managers offer direction to the sales personnel of retailers or wholesalers that market their employer's products.

The size of the company dictates the scope and responsibility of the sales manager's job. Small companies may have only one sales manager, while some very large corporations employ managers to direct each level of the sales operation. A large company may employ a general sales manager, home office and overseas sales managers, and regional sales managers.

Education and Training Requirements

Sales managers must be experienced in sales and marketing. They need knowledge of statistics and mathematics. Some employers prefer to hire candidates with a master's degree in business. Sales managers working in highly technical fields such as computer manufacturing may be required to have both a technical degree and a business degree.

Getting the Job

It takes years of accumulated experience to become a sales manager. Many prospective sales managers begin as sales workers or start out in marketing, advertising, or product management. Candidates may apply directly to the firms for which they would like to work or check Internet job banks and the classified ads for entry-level positions.

Advancement Possibilities and Employment Outlook

Sales managers are already at the top of their field. Some sales managers change jobs because they are offered higher salaries or more challenging work. They may advance to the position of company president or vice president.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, sales managers held 337,000 jobs in 2004. Employment of sales managers was expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations between 2004 and 2014. The number of products and services competing for American dollars will likely increase in coming years. As the marketplace becomes more competitive, more sales managers will be needed to ensure products find their way into the hands of customers.

Working Conditions

Sales managers generally work long, unpredictable hours. Their work revolves around a set number of projects rather than a set number of working hours. The job can be stressful because sales managers are often confronted with problems stemming from other departments such as marketing, product development, and advertising.

Earnings and Benefits

Sales managers in 2004 earned a median annual salary of $84,220, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those in the high-tech industry made much more. Sales managers for computer systems design companies, for instance, made a median salary of $119,140 per year in 2004.

Where to Go for More Information

American Management Association
1601 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
(212) 586-8100
http://www.amanet.org/

Sales and Marketing Executives International
P.O. Box 1390
Sumas, WA 98295-1390
(312) 893-0751
http://www.smei.org/

Benefits usually include paid vacations, health and life insurance, and retirement plans. Many companies also offer stock options to their sales managers.

Markets have displaced national governments as our rulers

Benjamin Franklin is an American icon. One of the "Founding Fathers" of the United States, he was a man of many talents: inventor, writer, diplomat, traveller, media mogul, statesman. He was also one of the small group who drew up the Constitution of the United States in 1787. At the time it was regarded as a radical leap forward for the concept of "democracy" as a system of governance. Every American politician and most American voters will still tell you that it is the basis of the best democracy in the world.

It might seem surprising, then, to learn that Franklin held a more realistic view of the document he helped to create. It was, he thought, merely a temporary creation: one which would probably serve the new nation well for a while, but certainly not forever. His last words before the Constitution was signed in 1787 are never quoted by today's American politicians, and with good reason.

"I agree to this Constitution," he said, "with all its faults, if they are such, because I think a general government necessary for us. . . [but] I believe. . . that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other."

Today, even the fiercest critics of the Bush presidency would have trouble maintaining that the U.S. has become a despotism. It might do us all good, though, to take Franklin's warning seriously-for it is hard to claim that the U.S. is still a real democracy either. Indeed, it is hard to make that claim for almost any system of national governance anywhere on Earth.

"Democracy" is the last great sacred cow. Even in dictatorships (the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea, anyone?) its name is taken in vain. From Washington to Moscow, from Davos to Porto Alegre, democracy is the only system seen to being promoted. The reason is obvious: democracy may not be perfect, but it is, in Winston Churchill's oft-quoted words, "the worst form of government except for all the others." It may not be a panacea, but it does at least let the people decide.

Except that, increasingly, it doesn't. The world finds itself in a strange situation. There are more "democracies" on Earth than there have ever been; more people can elect or reject their governments than at any time in history. And yet more people, too, are disillusioned. In most Western democracies, the numbers of people bothering to vote are at an all-time low and still falling. In newer democracies, things are rarely much better.

In late 2002, the World Economic Forum released the results of one of the biggest surveys of global opinion ever carried out. It took the views of 36,000 people from 47 countries, which the Forum said could be extrapolated to represent the views of 1.4 billion of us. Two-thirds of those questioned-most of whom live in democracies-did not believe that their country was "governed by the will of the people." Democracy, in other words, may well be spreading faster and further than ever before-but people didn't seem to believe it.

There is a reason for this. It is a simple reason, but one that is not discussed as often as it should be. It is this: The global free market and systems of democracy are not complementary: they are antagonistic. You can have one, but you cannot have both. The spread of the free market does not aid the spread of a free politics. Quite the opposite: it eats democracy for breakfast.

The reasons for this have been well rehearsed. Put crudely, the more globalized the economy becomes, the less control national governments have over their own economies. The liberalization of banking and investment laws has meant that distant shareholders and brokers can bankrupt entire economies in hours if they perceive a threat to their "stability"-a threat, in other words, to their ability to make a quick buck within the boundaries of a nationstate.

At the same time, the liberalization of trade through GATT and the WTO, in tandem with the neoliberal recipes pushed onto the poor world by the World Bank and the IMF, has empowered and enlarged transnational corporations, while weakening governments to the point where national economic policies can no longer be decided by elected officials alone and must favour the interests of huge corporate blocs.

The results of this process are not hard to spot. Sit on a bus or visit a bar in many nations in the world and you can hear the same complaints about politicians: They don't listen. They make promises they never keep. They're all the same. They don't understand us. No matter how or for whom we vote, nothing ever changes. Voting makes no difference. Some of these complaints have probably been directed at political �lites since the dawn of time, but they have a new and very real edge today. For it is demonstrably true that, as the power of the global market has eaten away at the power of the people, politicians, like politics itself, have changed. In virtually every democracy on Earth, "right" and "left" have become almost meaningless terms. Whoever you vote for, they will have to keep the big corporations happy or see their economy crushed. Whatever and whoever you vote for today, you will always get eoliberalism.

American journalist Thomas Friedman has famously called this the "golden straitjacket"-a process by which the global economy "narrows the political and economic policy choices of those in power to relatively tight parameters. . . Once your country puts on the Golden Straitjacket, its political choices get reduced to Pepsi or Coke-to slight nuances of taste, slight nuances of policy."

Plenty of people question Friedman's optimistic view of just how "golden" the straitjacket of the global market really is-but the Coke-vs.-Pepsi effect is plain to see. Moving back to the U.S. for a moment, the similarities of the two main parties there are much commented upon. In the recent presidential election, there was barely enough difference between the Bush and Kerry camps to make it worth voting. No one with their eyes open imagined that a Kerry presidency would turn out to be a simple continuation of Bush's first term-at least not in foreign policy-but in the economic big picture there would have been no change.

It is in the developing countries where the truly dangerous impact of the slow death of democracy can be seen. Take, for example, the case of Brazil. The Workers' Party (PT) swept into government in 2002, led by Brazil's first working-class president, "Lula" da Silva, on a wave of resentment against the neoliberal policies of previous governments. Within a year, Lula had bowed to neoliberalism himself, accepting an IMF loan and its accompanying conditions, slashing benefits for state employees, and expelling critics within the PT. Brazil's cities are filling up with expensive foreign chain-stores while their shanties remain crowded and the rich-poor gap widens.

Few would suggest that the Lula government has made no improvements in the country, and even fewer would suggest that Lula and his party do not have the best intentions. But good faith is not the issue. Maria Victoria Benevides, a Sao Paulo University academic who helped draw up the PT's governing program, summed it up when she explained to a journalist why the LuIa government seemed so hamstrung: "The mission they had in mind is much more difficult than they had hoped," she said. Their good intentions had been exposed to the powerful pressure of the market, and many had not survived that pressure.

Over in South Africa, a similar situation has developed, as I discovered for myself when I visited the country a few years ago. The ANC - another great liberating government welcomed with joy by its people-has also given over its hugely divided country to the neoliberal machine. Two years after it came to power in 1994, it adopted an economic program largely drawn up by the World Bank. This has resulted in more unemployment, a widening gulf between rich and poor, and, most controversially of all, massive cut-offs of electricity and water in some of the poorest communities in the country, as newly privatized utilities screw the poor for payments they simply can't afford to meet.

Why would the ANC do this? Again, their hands have been, to a great extent, tied. Michael Sachs, the ANC's head of policy and research, admitted this to me in a candid interview in his office. "The approach we take," he told me, "is saying, how do we engage with globalization? And if we engage with it in a way which is unrealistic-that is dictated by probably what are good principles, but which don't recognize the reality of a unipolar world with the strength of finance capital that exists out there. . . no, we've got to take these things into consideration."

The problem, then, is stark and similar all over the world: the global market is undermining democracy. We know this, and we also know the resuit: the end of true political choice. And yet few people seem to have drawn the obvious conclusion: either democracy goes, or the market does. The two-at least as now configured-cannot exist together.

What, then, can be done? There are plenty of suggestions out there, but none of them is self-contained and none of them is ultimately convincing. We probably shouldn't expect them to be; this is, after all, a fundamental and structural problem. It is not insoluble, but it requires vision. If we can't roll back the tide of corporate globalization-and it looks increasingly unlikely-then we will have to do something else: we will have to reinvent democracy and take it to its next stage.

We will have to move on, in other words, from the assumption that "democracy" means voting for one of two or more groups of neoliberals every four years, then letting them get on with running the country. We will have to begin to take power right back to the local level on the one hand, and look at reining in markets and financial flows globally on the other. And nobody pretends it's going to be easy.

What seems clear, though, is that for this to happen we need first to face the facts. We need to look at this problem in the cold light of day and say out loud what we already know, deep down, to be the case: democracy, as we have known it, is dead. It was murdered by the global market, and there is no bringing it back, at least in the form we used to know. We need to accept this reality and move on-into what can hopefully become a new phase of genuine people-power, with the market as its servant, not as its master.

[Sidebar]

"The terms 'right' and 'left' have become almost meaningless. Whoever you vote for, they will have to keep the corporations happy or see their economy crushed."

[Sidebar]

No matter who or what we vote for, we get neoliberalism

[Sidebar]

"We will have to reinvent democracy-take it to its next stage. We will have to begin to take power back to the local level on the one hand, and rein in global markets and financial flows on the other."

[Author Affiliation]

(Paul Kingsnorth-www.paulkingsnorth.net -is the author of One No, Many Yeses: A Journey to the Heart of the Global Resistance Movement.)

Toyota troubles put spotlight on US safety agency

Toyota's massive recalls are prompting Congress to reconsider whether the nation's auto safety agency has lived up to its mission of protecting motorists.

A House panel on Thursday planned to examine the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's oversight of the auto industry in the latest congressional hearing linked to Toyota's recall of more than 8 million vehicles worldwide. Safety groups have accused NHTSA of being too cozy with the Japanese automaker while lacking the resources to test for vehicle problems that could be electronic, not mechanical.

"NHTSA has been viewed by the motor vehicle industry for years as a lapdog, not a watchdog," Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator under President Jimmy Carter, said in prepared testimony.

David Strickland, the agency's administrator, said in prepared remarks the agency takes its "responsibility to protect consumers very seriously and will continue to ensure that manufacturers fulfill their obligations to identify and remedy safety defects in vehicles and equipment."

Congress is considering new auto industry reforms following Toyota's recalls to fix problems with accelerator pedals and brakes. NHTSA has tied 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by the accelerator problems, and the agency has received new complaints from owners who had their cars fixed and said their vehicles suddenly accelerated afterward.

A panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee was to hear from Democratic former Rep. David McCurdy, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group which represents 11 vehicle manufacturers; Ami Gadhia, policy counsel with Consumers Union; Claybrook, the former head of watchdog group Public Citizen, and Strickland.

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who chairs the subcommittee, said in prepared remarks the hearing would focus on the agency, not Toyota's troubled safety record. He urged his fellow lawmakers not to veer from scrutinizing NHTSA's performance on vehicle safety.

The Transportation Department has defended its work in policing the auto industry, noting that it dispatched safety officials to Japan late last year to urge the company to take safety concerns seriously. Toyota president Akio Toyoda recently met with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and told him the company would "advance safety to the next level."

Strickland, in prepared testimony, said NHTSA receives more than 30,000 complaints a year and has a staff of 57 people to investigate potential defects. He said the "defects program has functioned extremely well over the years in identifying defects that create unreasonable risks."

The agency has been investigating potential electronic problems in Toyota cars and trucks. Toyota has said it has found no evidence of problems with its vehicles' electronic throttle controls but is also studying the issue.

Automakers point to declines in highway fatalities and the use of safety technology such as anti-rollover electronic stability control as signs of safety improvements on the road. "This is not an industrywide crisis," McCurdy said in an interview.

Crisis or not, Congress is considering several reforms that could bring the biggest auto safety changes since the TREAD Act, which was approved in 2000 to help the government spot safety defects more quickly following the massive Firestone tire recall.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who leads a Senate committee with oversight of the industry, has expressed interest in "strong legislative action," including requiring a brake override system on all vehicles. Toyota is bringing the system to new vehicles and many of the cars and trucks under recall to provide an additional safety precaution.

LaHood told lawmakers his agency may recommend every new vehicle sold in the United States be equipped with the brake overrides, something that would require a relatively inexpensive software upgrade.

Other potential reforms include raising penalties on automakers who fail to recall defective vehicles in a timely manner, requiring car executives to certify the information they provide to NHTSA and mandating car makers provide hardware that dealers need to read electronic data recorders. The "black box" information could help investigators make their own judgments about what has been going wrong.

NHTSA could also receive more funding. Many lawmakers question whether the agency has enough skilled engineers who can understand the complicated electronics of modern cars and trucks.

President Barack Obama has recommended 66 new jobs for NHTSA in his 2011 budget.

Finland's Fortum applies to build nuclear plant

Finnish utility Fortum Corp. on Thursday said it has applied for permission to build the country's sixth nuclear power plant on the southern coast near Helsinki.

The 1,000-1,600 megawatt unit would be situated next to two existing reactors at Loviisa, 55 miles (90 kilometers) east of the capital. Construction would begin during the next decade and the plant could be operational in 2020, Fortum said.

A similar application for a new nuclear reactor has been made by Fennovoima, a consortium of companies, including Germany's E.On AG, stainless steel maker Outokumpu Oyj, regional utilities and Swedish mining and smelting group Boliden.

Finnish utility TVO, which is building Europe's first European Pressurized Reactor, or EPR, on Finland's west coast has also applied to build a new nuclear plant.

No decision has been made about a sixth reactor, which would require a government license and parliamentary approval. But some officials and industrial leaders have said that Finland needs another nuclear plant to meet growing energy demand.

The construction of Finland's fifth nuclear plant, ordered by TVO, has been plagued with problems. In October, energy officials said it will be delayed by another three years and is not expected to be online until 2012. The 1,600-megawatt EPR unit was supposed to be online this year.

The postponement _ the fourth so far since building began in 2005 _ was announced by French-German supplier Areva-Siemens, which did not give a reason.

Fortum, which is 51-percent owned by the Finnish government, is the No. 2 power company in the Nordic region.

On Thursday, it reported a 54-percent increase in fourth-quarter net profit to euro607 million ($780 million). Revenue grew to euro1.6 billion ($2 billion), from euro1.3 billion a year earlier.

___

On the Net:

http://www.fortum.com

'Ties' first time on the deck at Como's

FERNDALE- On June 18 the outdoor deck at Como's Restaurant and Pizzeria promises to be overflowing with LGBT networkers from 5:50 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

For the first time since its inception in October 2006, Ties Like Me will gather at Cornos. From small roundtable discussions to guest speakers and a business expo, Ties has become the place for LGBT business owners and employees to meet, greet and exchange business cards.

For more information visit the Ties Web site at tieslikeme. org.

Comos is located at 22812 Woodward Ave. in Ferndale.

Changing times in `new' England

L ONDON - When Britain's last state-run passenger train whistled outof Euston station here one recent night, it evoked nostalgia andknowing smiles: 50 years after a socialist government nationalizedrailroads, the farewell service of much-mocked British Rail left 24minutes late.

Today, 25 profit-seeking franchise holders operate Britain'srail network across tracks, signals and stations owned by a 26thprivate company, making the privatized railroads a giant symbol ofchange in a country that has dramatically rewritten the rules of itssocial and economic contract.

If you haven't been paying attention, it's time to consign any"quaint Britain" notions to the trunk of Aunt Harriet's Edsel.Boring, stodgy Old Britain is history. In New Britain, the future'sbright, and blue jeans are as cool as tweeds, the free market rules,and the outlook is keenly international."When I lived here 20 years ago, it all seemed so gray, dowdyand down at heel. I can't believe the changes," said returningAmerican Brigette Kavanaugh, dazzled by a slick, up-market London andnonstop shops bursting with ethnic foods and fresh produce fromaround the world.For the record, the busiest highway in Europe is a section ofthe 117-mile M25 beltway around London, finished in 1986. Only 155of the 500 richest people in Britain inherited their wealth, sayswealth tracker Philip Beresford. That's 31 percent, compared with 57percent as recently as 1989 - evidence, he says, that "long-cherishedhopes of developing an enterprise culture are at last beingrealized."Now comes an election that will crystallize nearly two decadesof transformation that Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister,and her Conservative Party successors claim as their legacy.Welcome, paradox. The opposition Labor Party, rejected asradical spendthrifts in four consecutive elections since 1979, seemsheaded for a landslide victory Thursday.Stripping an old workers party of its socialist ethic andpushing it toward the fashionable free-market center, leader TonyBlair has made Labor modish and middle class. The biggest questionis not whether Labor will win, but by how much.A Gallup poll published Monday showed Labor 19 points ahead.Is something wrong, then, with Britain's picture of progress?Why should voters shun the establishment Conservative Party and itspromise of more of what Prime Minister John Major calls "wealth andwelfare"?One reason is that it is time for a change, voters tellpollsters. Class, historically the Conservatives' ace in the hole,counts for less in Britain than ever before. Today, performance -good management - counts most.Under the beleaguered Major, the Conservatives are torn byinternal dissent, especially over Britain's role in a united Europe,and by middling corruption and sexual misdeeds by lawmakers.Labor, by contrast, seems united under squeaky-clean Blair,who, in a neat reversal of type, was born with a silver spoon and isa lawyer trained at Oxford.Disaffection with the status quo means many people are moreenamored with the train of apparent progress than with its drivers."I've done better under the Tories than I could ever haveimagined, and I hate change. But the Conservatives all seem tired -like their policies," said Jerl Le Hane, a London businessman.Official figures show that about 90 percent of people are betteroff in real economic terms today than they were at the end of the'70s, when the weight of militant unions and state-owned rust-bucketindustries - steel, mines, shipyards - mired the country instrike-bound nonproductiveness.The 1979 election Thatcher won is sometimes depicted as theshowdown between the unions and Parliament.In office, a prime minister nicknamed the Iron Lady broke theunions' power and turned Britain more quickly and successfully awayfrom a state-dominated economy than did governments in Germany,France or Italy. Today, Britain is growing faster economically thanany of its major partners in the European Union, even while it isgoverned far more to the left on social issues than any government inWashington could contemplate.State schools in Britain are free, including universities.Everyone has access, cradle to grave, to the free national healthservice. The government is quick to offer job training, unemploymentbenefits and subsidized housing.Tellingly, in a country that prizes both the free market and thewelfare state, the election debate is not about the wisdom of either,but how to make both work better.Thatcher laments that many people today feel so confident in theBritish future they think they can afford a change of government."They feel that they can change the political faces butpreserve the political direction," she said. "The whole of Mr.Blair's strategy in creating the boneless wonder that calls itselfNew Labor is to reassure the electorate in the illusion. Butillusion it remains."In the New Britain, it is not the remaining miners and steelworkers who will elect a government, but the middle class,particularly workers and managers in young, growing service andtechnological industries.The Conservative arias may sound off-key, but Labor is singingremarkably similar lyrics: efficient, honest, well-managed governmentand steady free-market economic growth with improved welfare stateprograms.Lifelong Conservative Stuart Eastwood, a retired Royal Air Forcewing commander, is sold."Blair is a very safe pair of hands. I believe in him," saidEastwood, 58, a new Labor Party volunteer in west London."Conservatives can't claim the credit for what has happened heresince 1979. It's happened in a lot of other places as well. Look atthe computer. In 1979, it took up half a room; today, it fits inyour shirt pocket."

Can outsourcing cut costs?

Louis N. Benoit, partner, Losier, Dorion and

Larocque, Tracadie, New Brunswick

Yes, outsourcing can save costs, especially in a small community like ours, where most of the businesses are small or mediumsized. These organizations can effectively save salaries and costs by outsourcing their payroll activities to their financial institution or by having specialized external services handle their bookkeeping.

Elizabeth Kosteniuk, sole practitioner, Saskatoon

When the chartered accountant has confidence in the quality of the subcontractors work and its sta ing practices, outsourcing can provide good inexpensive service to clients. My concerns, however, are a lack of job opportunities for young CAs, lessening personal attention to client accounts and an overly competitive environment for all CAs.

John T. Holdstock, partner, KPMG, Victoria

Outsourcing complete functional areas such as finance, HR or IT is becoming a major trend. It should not be looked at as a cost-cutting exercise but, instead, as a way to transform the organization. To maximize its benefits, it is necessary to partner with an organization that is committed to best practices and technology solutions.

Okla bomber seeks lawyer for suit over prison food

Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols is asking for a court-appointed lawyer to help him with a lawsuit complaining about the food he gets in prison.

Nichols claims in his suit that the federal Supermax prison in Colorado is causing him to "sin against God" because he doesn't get enough whole grains and fresh food.

Nichols asked for the legal aid in a document addressed to a federal judge in Denver on Monday.

Amy Padden of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Tuesday about the suit Nichols filed in March.

Nichols is serving life for conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 federal building bombing that killed 168 people. Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder and executed.

Not forgotten

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