
Today's P.M. News Roundup
Business and Finance
Source: The Wall Street Journal (subscription may be required)
Former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan said, “I still believe there is a greater than 50 per cent probability of recession,” and that the question of whether economic conditions would worsen depends on the housing crisis.
Source: Financial Times (free registration may be required)
Anheuser Busch and Belgian brewer InBev may start merger talks on Tuesday. The Belgian brewer of such brands as Beck's and Stella Artois sees Anheuser as a way to break into the U.S. market, and is considering a bid of $65 per share.
Source: CNBC
The U.S. car industry is expected to have the worst year in a decade—possibly sparking a domino effect across the rest of the economy. “With less money available to bolster the industry’s growth, the businesses that support it are also facing the prospect of a sharp slowdown,” writes The New York Times.
Source: The New York Times (free registration may be required)
Merrill Lynch wrote, in a report titled “US Green Light for the GCC,” that the oil economies of the Gulf Cooperation Council will likely depeg their national currencies from the U.S. dollar and move to a basket of currencies. The U.S. government, according to the investment bank, feels more confident about the greenback and is not as reliant on the Gulf economies for support.
Source: Arabian Business
Politics
Source: NPR
Ill. Sen. Barack Obama and Ariz. Sen. John McCain campaigned in New Mexico on Monday. Neither of the two presidential contenders “used the solemn day to launch political attacks, despite the increasingly sharp-edged comments from both camps about foreign policy experience,” writes The Washington Post.
Source: The Washington Post (free registration may be required)
National
Source: The New York Times (free registration may be required)
Source: The Washington Post (free registration may be required)
A chain of tornadoes ripped through Minnesota and Iowa over the holiday weekend. St. Paul suburb Hugo sustained $25 million in damages to personal property. Two-year-old Nathaniel Prindle was killed when winds blew him into a neighbor's swimming pool. Fifty homes were destroyed and 159 homes were damaged.
Source: Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune (free registration may be required)
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required)
International
Source: The Jerusalem Post
Source: The Associated Press
Myanmar’s ruling junta renewed house arrest for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking further criticism of the military regime after misappropriating foreign aid. “The extension was issued despite a Myanmar law that stipulates no one can be held longer than five years without being released or put on trial,” writes the Associated Press. The junta has detained 20 members of Suu Kyi’s opposition party.
Source: Huron Daily Tribune (AP)
At least 16 were wounded in a gunfight in Beirut between supporters of Hezbollah and backers of the Lebanese government. Officials said that the scuffle arose after insults were yelled by both sides “as Hezbollah supporters drove by waving flags and saluting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah shortly after he finished giving a speech.”
Source: Gulf News
Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier was “forced to resign” after admitting to leaving classified documents about a NATO summit at the apartment of his girlfriend, Julie Couillard. According to Canadian daily paper The Globe and Mail, Couillard “has ties to criminal biker gangs.”
Source: The Globe and Mail
China is pushing to evacuate 80,000 people near the trajectory of possible flooding from a dam created by the May 12 earthquake. This would bring the “the number of people moved out of the threatened valley to 160,000.”
Source: USA Today
Science
The Phoenix exploratory lander arrived on Mars on Sunday. The main goal of the mission is to sample deep-ground Martian ice to test for signs of organic molecules and whether liquid water existed.
Source: New Scientist
Entertainment
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Sports
Geremi Gonzalez, former pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers, was killed by a bolt of lightning in his native Venezuela on Sunday. The Chicago Tribune writes, “Gonzalez played for current Cubs manager Lou Piniella in Tampa Bay and was on the mound when Sammy Sosa's corked bat exploded in a game at Wrigley Field on June 3, 2003.”
Source: Chicago Tribune (free registration may be required)

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