Every Wednesday you will find links and top-line summaries of current events around the globe.
Obama, Occasional Smoker, 47, Signs Tobacco Bill [New York Times]
- Obama signed legislation on June 22, 2009, bringing tobacco products under federal control for the first time
- The new law, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, allows the Food and Drug Administration not only to forbid advertising geared toward children but also to lower the amount of nicotine in tobacco products, ban sweetened cigarettes that appeal to young taste buds and prohibit labels like “light” and “low tar.”
- Mr. Obama noted that 90 percent of smokers began on or before their 18th birthday.
Ford, Nissan, Tesla to get U.S. technology loans totaling $8 Billion [Reuters]
- Ford Motor Co will receive nearly $5.9 billion in U.S. government loans to build fuel-efficient vehicles as the Obama administration deepened its commitment to reshaping the cash-strapped auto industry.
- Japan’s Nissan Motor Co Ltd will receive $1.6 billion and start-up Tesla Motors Inc will receive $465 million in low-cost loans to build all-electric cars in the first wave of financing from an Energy Department program intended to offset the cost meeting sharply higher new fuel economy standards
- The Energy Department has $17 billion remaining in funding under a program first authorized by Congress in 2007
Italian ‘Mafia man’ arrested in Venezuela [BBC]
- Italian Mafia fugitive Salvatore Miceli, on the run since 2001 and listed as one of the country’s 30 most dangerous men, has been arrested in Venezuela, Italian police say
- Arrests have included the man known as the “boss of bosses” Bernardo Provenzano in 2006, followed by the arrest of his heir apparent Salvatore Lo Piccolo in 2007.
- Pasquale Condello, the boss of the ‘Ndrangheta – which operates from Calabria in southern Italy and is considered even more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia – was arrested in February 2008
ESPN buys rights to Setanta games [BBC]
- ESPN has bought the rights to show 46 games in next season’s English Premier League that were to have been shown by struggling broadcaster Setanta
- Disney-owned ESPN has won the two packages of games shown on Saturday teatimes and Monday evenings. Both will be sold to customers through BSkyB
- It has also won the 23 games per season Setanta was due to show from 2010-13 after the league took the broadcasting rights back from Setanta on Friday after it missed a payment deadline.
Hedge Funds Step Up Efforts to Avert Tougher Rules [Reuters]
- Richard H. Baker, the former Republican congressman who now leads the industry’s main lobbying group, the Managed Funds Association has tried to persuade hedge fund managers to support proposals to require funds to register with federal regulators
- The effort seems to be working. The proposals for hedge funds laid out by the Obama administration last week, as part of its overhaul of financial regulation, are strikingly similar to those that hedge fund lobbyists said they would accept
- Donations in the industry have long been slanted toward Democratic candidates, and $11 million of last year’s nearly $17 million in donations were doled out to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics
Apple chief Steve Jobs, ‘back at work’ [BBC]
- Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has reportedly returned to work following six months of medical leave
- The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Mr Jobs underwent a liver transplant over two months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004
- Analysts have predicted that Mr Jobs will stay on as chief executive officer on a part-time basis with a view to moving on to become chairman of the company
More Headlines
- In a Death Seen Around the World, a Symbol of Iranian Protests [New York Times]
- Apple Sells more than 1 million iPhone 3GS in three days [Reuters]
- Suspected U.S. Strike Kills at Least 60 in Pakistan [New Yrok Times]
- Death toll from Iraq’s Kirkuk blast rises to 73, deadliest in over a year [Reuters]
- Rwanda minister given 30 years’ jail for genocide [Reuters]
- Stanford indicted in massive U.S. fraud case [Reuters]
- Redbox’s Vending Machines Are Giving Netflix Competition [New York Times]
From one of four galleries by Boston.Com’s Big Picture covering the recent turmoil in Iran
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