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Maruti Suzuki plans to introduce a new model to replace its best selling Alto model in India. Declining demand for gasoline powered cars compared to diesel in the Indian market, because diesel costs 4% less, led to total sale decline of 11% in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, to 1.01 million cars. Maruti sold 308,228 units of the Alto, which also declined by 11%.

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DW report Christmas eve 2025 from Kviv- families sheltered in metro stations with air raids alerts for 10 hours. Ukraine's Zelensky meets US president in Washington DC on December 27 2025.

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Ukraine war Jan 2026- Kviv has only half of electricity needs after missile attacks. Winter temperatures drop to -19 C in Kviv as Kviv faces a winter without heat in the bitter cold.

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Ohtani Grand Slam at Tokyo Dome March 5 2026 in a 10-0 World Baseball Classic game against Taiwan. The game is called of in the seventh inning because of the large margin.

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Worsenign outbreaks of coronavirus in the midwest U.S. comes with resumption of sports games on Oct. 23. Campuses at Michigan State, Minnesota and Nebraska see infection rates in the general population of over 5%. Rates are also high at the University of Michigan  in Ann Arbor. Community viral spread factor is missing in the effort to restart sports games, and has drawn criticism from local governments.

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Studies by research institutions in the UK show a mutant variant of the coronavirus now in Britain and spreading in the US is about 30% more lethal as well as more contagious.

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Russia begins evacuation of residents of Ukraine as the city becomes a war zone. The war on the Dnieper river in the south of Ukraine near the Black Sea enters a new phase as Ukraine seeks to preserve its coastline on the Black sea ports including Odessa. These ports are its lifeline to Western Europe and the world to ship its grain and food that supplies the Middle East and Africa. This makes it a vital connection for Turkey, Egypt and other parts of Africa that depend on Ukrainian food supplies. Any future peace agreement is likely to take into account this food connection. The other connection Ukraine seeks to preserve is its industrial region in the east in the area around Kharkiv.

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Both China and Taiwan have applied to join the 11 nation Transpacific Trade Agreement. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, and Japan. Taiwan says if China is admitted this obviously affects its application.

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This exceptional account by WSJ's Shira Ovide on Microsoft Windows 10 looks at ways CEO Satya Nadella is changing Microsoft's culture and old way of doing business. Microsoft is changing its culture and strategy of charging for all its products. It will let businesses and individual buyers upgrade for free to the new Windows 10 product. This means $500 million less in sales revenues in 2015, but opens up new oppoortunities in sale of add-on apps and services on more devices, such as health sensors and smartphones. The failure to penetrate the smartphone business- with a meager 3% penetration for Windows in smartphones - is a problem facing Microsoft as it competes with Apple, Google and other companies. Terry Myerson describing the thinking behind this change at Microsoft puts it in a cultural perspective, saying that it should result in a more engaged user base. There is a sense that the space Microsoft is in stretches way beyond PC's to all the new computing devices now in place, including smartphones and other devices, with Windows taking up only 15% of these devices. Founder Bill Gates calls this "exciting" and is excited to see the reaction in the market....

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Britain's general election results show Conservatives losing their majority in parliament. Conservatives gained 318 seats, but only because voters in Scotland voted tactically for Conservatives to avoid Scottish independence, leading to 19 fewer seats for the Scottish National Party. Labor gained seats in England and Wales. The Liberals added 3 seats. The final tally was Conservatives 318 seats, Labor 260 seats, Scottish National Party 35 seat, Liberals 12 seats Democratic Unionist Party 10 seats, others 13 seats, UKIP 0 seats. Conservatives can form a government only by joining with the Unionist Party based in Northern Ireland to have the 226 seats for forming a government. This election creates questions about the whole idea of Brexit, as a majority of the voters supported Labor, SNP and Liberal Democrats, with a total of 50.4% of the vote, according to BBC, for parties that did not see Brexit as the priority for Britain. Labor 40.0%, SNP 3.0% and LD 7.4%. By contrast UKIP, Conservatives and DU, pro-Brexit together had total of 46.1% of the vote. Any Conservative government is likely to be weak, and according to this report in WSJ may lead to new elections by the end of the year. The high turnout of 69% shows voters wanted to send a message about their doubts on Brexit. A Labor government cannot be ruled out. ...

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Teaching method on Western Civilization favored by charter schools in the US for K-12 and a growing number of private schools. Extensive in California, Washington, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and other states.

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Here are the 10 drugs with their negotiated prices for one-month supply: Januvia treats diabetes. The negotiated price is $113 (£103), down 79%. Fiasp, Fiasp FlexTouch, Fiasp PenFill, NovoLog, NovoLog FlexPen, NovoLog PenFill: These are insulin medications, treat diabetes. The negotiated price is $119, down 76%. Farxiga treats diabetes, heart failure and chronic kidney disease. The negotiated price is $178.50, down 68 %. Enbrel treats rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. The negotiated price is $2,355, down 67%. Jardiance treats diabetes, heart failure and chronic kidney disease. The negotiated price is $197, down 66%. Stelara treats psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The negotiated price is $4,695, down 66%. Xarelto prevents and treats blood clots and reduces risk of coronary or peripheral artery disease. The negotiated price is $197, down 62%. Eliquis prevents and treats blood clots. The negotiated price is $23, down 56%. Entresto treats heart failure. The negotiated price is $628, down 53%. Imbruvica treats blood cancers. The negotiated price is $9,319, down 38%. ...

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Barley says Greece's debt buyback plan in Dec. 2012 is attractive for private investors. Earlier some private investors had bought Greek debt at 10-15% of face value. Greece now has 10 billion euros, including 0.5 billion for accrued interest to buy back Greek bonds at 32.1- 34.1% of face value. This should help Greece retire 28 billion euros face value in Greek debt, reducing the debt burden by 18 billion euros The IMF had pushed hard in negotiations for reducing Greek debt as a percentage of GDP by 2020 to levels where it could again access private markets. This is critical to making the Greece bailout work. Nomura estimates this will reduce Greece's debt by about 10% of GDP by 2020. Every little bit helps in Greece's struggle to recover financial stability.

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The government of Pedro Sanchez has announced additional $10 billion in cost of living aid to take the total to $45 billion. It comes through reduced VAT and $200 one off payments to households making less than 27,000 euros a year. The government has been able to bring inflation down to 6.8%, lowest in the European Union, though food inflation is higher.

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Petrobras remains stuck in 2016 with a huge debt load of over $125 billion and a slump in oil prices. CEO Aldemir Bendine is a career government banker appointed by President Rousseff in 2015, as she faces impeachment proceedings for a corruption scandal involving Petrobras. His 11 months in office have been marked by disagreements with the board, with Bendine walking out from one meeting. Petrobras has changed chairmen twice in the 11 months. Bendine's goal of divesting assets worth $15 billion in 2016 may not be achievable say analysts, with other oil companies also divesting assets. As an outsider Bendine faces skepticism from insiders in the company. A oil strike went on for weeks before workers won a raise, resulting in lost production.

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The housing crisis and cost of living issues resonated with young voters in Canada who voted Conservative in large numbers. Only 18% of voters 18-29 years considered Trump an issue, which goes up to 45% for voters over 60 years. Support from voters 18-34 years was 44% for Conservatives and 31% for Liberals.

In the final election result Liberals got 43%, Conservatives got 41%. Liberals got 169 seats, Conservatives got 144 seats, gaining 25 seats. Clearly Carney of Liberals has a job to do to get young people's support, says the BBC.

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This report in the WSJ points to Democrats having won consistently 18 states plus District of Columbia adding upto 242 Electoral College votes in every election since 1992. Democrats need 28 more to cross the needed 270 votes. Republicans consistently having 13 states with 102 electoral College votes. Demographic changes in recent years have shifted to where Hillary Clinton may not need to devote resources to Colorado and Virginia because of a more favorable position there.  Carrying Pennsylvania with these 2 states would put Clinton over the 270 required. Vice Presidential candidate for Clinton, Senator Keane is from Virginia and is popular in the state.  Pennsylvania has a long history favoring Democrats. North Carolina has also seen demographic changes favoring Democrats. The Clinton campaign is focussing ads on these states as well as the swing states of Nevada, Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as Georgia, Arizona and Utah which are becoming competitive for Democrats. By keeping up the effort in Georgia, Arizona and Utah, Clinton hopes to make Trump divert resources there. Other two swing states are Ohio and Florida, but this WSJ report says Clinton has to win only one of the four swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina to go over 270 and Trump needs all four. Of the 20 media markets Clinton or her super PACs have focussed their ads on 16 are in these 4 states. The Clinton campaign is looking at several alternative routes to 270 Electoral College votes, which gives it more flexibility to plan the campaign.  ...

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Prime minister Modi cites the successful Mars mission "Mangalayan" as showing India's technological capabilities and its ability to do things speedily at very low cost. For foreign investors India offers a stable politcal climate because his party has an absolute majority in parliament and controls many state governments, as well as being a democracy with a vibrant and internet connected young generation. A young population with 55% of the people under age 35 makes India the manufacturing powerhouse of the next two decades, said Modi. And the consumer base of over 1.2 billion people an attractive market. It was a rare combination of hands on salesmanship rarely seen ever on television from a prime minister. In one exceptional response about the condition of women, Modi said he personally led his ministers and legislators through Gujarat state's rural areas house to house in 45 degree centigrade summer heat on June 11-13 school opening days. He did this urging parents to send their daughters to school with the slogan "Send your daughter to school, Save a Girl." The result he said was 100% school enrollment in these rural areas for girls. A rare person at a special moment in India's history pushing the goals of development with uncommon tenacity....

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IEA-oil surplus declines for 2026 with overhang of sanctioned oil at seat that is 15% of supplies. Gas prices at pump drop to as low as $1.99 a gallon in some states in the US.

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The question whether the source of the coronavirus that led to deaths of more than 1 million Americans is a lab leak at a Wuhan lab in China is still being checked. The Energy Department says that with  "low confidence" it emerged from a lab leak at Wuhan, China. Earlier in 2021 the FBI stated that it was the result of a lab leak not a natural transmission. The Energy Department runs many labs doing research in the field. Petroleum exports supported the allied war effort in two world wars says this report in the WSJ. Europe is shunning Russian oil after its invasion of Ukraine.