TwistedSifter

Every Wednesday you will find links and top-line summaries to current events around the globe.

Philippine Floods Test Rescuers [BBC]

- Rescue workers are being overwhelmed by the scale of floods in the Philippines that are estimated to have killed at least 240 people, officials say
- Torrential rains from Tropical Storm Ketsana flooded the capital, Manila, and 25 nearby provinces on Saturday. Some 80% of Manila was submerged, displacing 450,000 people. More than 115,000 are now in makeshift shelters
- The Philippines chief weather forecaster, Nathaniel Cruz, said more than 40cm (16in) of rain fell on Manila within 12 hours on Saturday, exceeding the 39cm average for the whole month of September

Merkel Wins as Germans Choose Center-Right [Reuters]

- German voters gave Chancellor Angela Merkel a second term on Sunday and a mandate to partner with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) in a government that will rein in the role of the state in Europe’s largest economy
- Merkel, 55, has ruled for the past four years in a “grand coalition” with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), an awkward partnership of traditional rivals
- Germany’s first woman chancellor and the first to have grown up in the former communist east, Merkel ran a cautious campaign that steered clear of the bold economic reform plans she advocated before the 2005 vote and sought to leverage her high personal popularity ratings

Zapatero Unveils Budget Plan With Tax Increases [New York Times]

- Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero plans to raise almost $16 billion, mostly by repealing a two-year-old tax rebate and raising the value-added tax in an effort to fix one of the biggest budget deficits in Europe
- The Spanish economy has been one of Europe’s worst performers in the recession. The government said it expected the economy to shrink 3.6% this year and another 0.3% in 2010, while unemployment is expected to top 19%
- Spain is not alone in its deficit troubles. Many Western governments are struggling to pay for higher social spending as revenue has fallen in tandem with a deteriorating global economy. Ireland has already increased taxes, Britain will bring its valued-added tax back to 17.5%, and Finland will raise its value-added tax next year

Toyota Plans Recall of 3.8 Million Vehicles [Reuters]

- Toyota Motor Corp said on Tuesday it will recall some 3.8 million vehicles because of the risk that a loose floor-mat could force down the accelerator, a problem suspected of causing crashes that killed five people
- Toyota and U.S. safety regulators warned owners to remove all driver-side floor mats from eight Toyota and Lexus models manufactured in the last six years as an immediate safety precaution. The safety recall would be the largest ever such step for Toyota, the top global automaker. Toyota said it was too early to provide a cost estimate for the recall
- The recall will cover the Camry and Avalon sedans, the Prius hybrid, the Tacoma and Tundra pickup trucks and luxury Lexus models, the IS250 and the IS350 as well as the ES350. Toyota’s largest previous largest recall was in 2005 for a problem with steering rods. That recall covered about 900,000 vehicles.

Xerox Buys Affiliated, Fueling Shift to Services [New York times]

- Ursula M. Burns, the chief executive of Xerox, declared on Monday that the company’s plan to buy Affiliated Computer Services, an outsourcing services company, for $6.4 billion. The landscape is changing for big technology suppliers catering to corporate customers as they shift to depend less on products and more on services
- Last week, Dell announced that it would buy Perot Systems for $3.9 billion and last year, Hewlett-Packard bought another large technology services company, Electronic Data Systems, for $13.9 billion. The shift to services is being fueled by financial and strategic considerations and by the evolution of technology itself
- Xerox said that the combined company would have $22 billion in revenue and that nearly 80% of that total would be recurring revenue based on services and equipment contracts. The company’s services business would triple, to $10 billion

Abbott in $6.6 Billion Deal for Drug Unit [New York Times]

- In acquiring Solvay’s pharmaceuticals business, Abbott will take sole possession of the TriCor cholesterol pill, which it was sharing with Solvay and had more than $1.3 billion in sales for Abbott last year. Abbott will also acquire sole rights to Trilipix, a new cholesterol treatment approved by the FDA last December and marketed as TriCor’s successor
- Cash-rich drug makers have been on buying sprees this year that includes: Pfizer’s $68 billion deal for Wyeth in January; in March, Merck paid $41 billion to acquire Schering Plough; and Roche paid $47 billion to buy the remainder of Genentech
- Pending health care legislation in Congress is not considered a deterrent for pharmaceutical acquisitions. The industry has a potentially winning political argument that its drugs prevent disease and save medical costs, and the industry stands to benefit from the addition of tens of millions of Americans to the ranks of the insured, under a health care overhaul

‘Space Clown’ Ready For Blast-Off [BBC]

- Space tourist and circus entrepreneur Guy Laliberte is all set to begin his journey to orbit. The Canadian billionaire will sit in the right-hand seat of the Soyuz craft which blasts off to the International Space Station (ISS)
- Laliberte was a street performer when he founded the Cirque du Soleil theatrical company in 1984. The enterprise has since become an international brand. The success has brought Mr Laliberte immense wealth, enabling him to buy the reported $35 million ticket to go to the orbiting platform. The Canadian will be the seventh private individual to make the trip
- Laliberte has described his flight as a “poetic social mission”. He says he will make the ISS astronauts laugh during his 12-day stay, and produce a web event that highlights the issue of clean water for all

- Billionaires at Play: Mike Versus Mikhail [New York Times]
- Unilever Pays $1.87 Billion for Sara Lee Brands [Reuters]
- $35 Billion Tanker Contract Opens [New York Times]
- Under Pressure, Honduras Shuts Pro-Zelaya Media [Reuters]
- U.S. Large-Loan Bank Losses Triple to $53 billion [Reuters]
- Banged Up, Allen Stanford Back in Jail After Brawl [Reuters]
- Disney Tries to Pull the Storybook Ritual Onto the Web [New York Times]
- Roadside Bomb Kills 30 Afghan Civilians [Reuters]
- JPMorgan Reshuffles Leadership in Succession Clue [Reuters]
- Guinea’s Capital Fades Into a Ghost Town After Soldiers’ Rampage [New York Times]

China prepares for their national day parade

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