In Wednesday's Americas papers

14 May 2008 12:38  [Source: ICIS news]

China earthquake exposes a widening wealth gap
With the death toll from China's earthquake mounting, the disaster is throwing a harsh spotlight on the widening gap between the nation's rich and poor. Soldiers and paramilitary police rushed to dig victims out from collapsed schools, homes and hospitals.

Clinton's win brings little reward
Hillary Clinton trounced Barack Obama in West Virginia's Democratic presidential primary, as expected. But her negligible payback in convention delegates illustrates why her rival and her party are turning away from her candidacy to begin the fight against Republican John McCain.

PC, camera, flat-screen TV sales help Sony swing to net profit
Sony said Wednesday its swung to a net profit in its fiscal fourth quarter, helped by increased sales of flat-screen TVs, personal computers and digital cameras.

Icahn buys Yahoo shares; mulls board proxy contest
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has purchased roughly 50m Yahoo shares since Microsoft withdrew its offer to buy the Web company, and is leaning toward launching a proxy contest to unseat at least part of Yahoo's board, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Recession? Not so fast, say some
A funny thing happened to the economy on its way to recession: It's taken a detour. That, at least, is the view of a growing number of economists - including some who not long ago were saying a recession was all but inevitable.

Two charged in tax case tied to UBS, billionaire
As part of a widening probe, the US has charged a former UBS banker and a Liechtenstein consultant with helping clients avoid taxes by opening secret bank accounts, destroying documents, using Swiss credit cards and filing false tax returns.

Quake toll rises; China struggles to reach victims
The battle for survival here is as stark as anywhere in the earthquake zone. On Tuesday morning, Wang Guofei and his younger brother drove to look for their mother in the rugged southwestern county of Beichuan, where at least 5,000 people have died as a result of the earthquake on Monday.

Clinton beats Obama handily in West Virginia
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won a lopsided victory on Tuesday over Senator Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary, where racial considerations emerged as an unusually salient factor. Mrs Clinton drew strong support from white, working-class voters, who have spurned Mr Obama in recent contests.

Congress votes to stop stockpiling oil
Groping for a quick response to rising gas prices, Congress voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to order the Bush administration to stop depositing oil in a national reserve even though lawmakers predicted the impact for consumers would be modest at best.

Oil refiners see profits sink as consumption falls
While drivers are facing sticker shock at the pump these days, here is a bigger shock: high prices are putting a strain on oil refiners. After last year’s stellar profits, American refiners are going through a traumatic period. In a time of record gasoline prices, some of them actually lost money in the first quarter, and for virtually all refiners, profits are down sharply.

Clinton handily defeats Obama in West Virginia
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton routed Senator Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary yesterday, scoring one of her most lopsided victories of the long campaign even as she continued to battle overwhelming odds in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Some detainees are drugged for deportation
The US government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.

Burdened by the weight of inflation
Nearly seven in 10 Americans are worried about maintaining their standard of living, as concern has spiked higher in just the past five months, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Soaring consumer prices are a major challenge, with many people struggling under the weight of the rising costs of fuel, food and health care

Banker sees a rich market in the poor
To Brian Richardson, the next frontier in banking looks like this: A farm laborer gets her wages not in cash but in an account she can access with her cellphone. With a few punches on the keypad, she pays her rent, buys groceries and sends money to her parents.

Tories consider giving up on bid for top UN seat
Stephen Harper's government is expected to decide this week whether to pull Canada out of the race for a seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2011-12 because of fears the country might suffer an embarrassing loss on the world stage, sources say.

Crashing copter kills student mailing letter home to Kenya
At 6 foot 9, and one of the few black residents in Cranbrook, BC, Isaiah Otieno stood out like few others. The 23-year-old Kenyan, an international student who arrived in the small community just two years ago to study business at the College of the Rockies, was often the target of small-town racism.

Commodity prices too pumped, TD warns
Bankers should be wary of high commodity prices, Toronto-Dominion Bank chief executive officer Ed Clark warns. Anyone lending money in Western Canada should do so under the assumption that commodity prices are too high, he told a financial services conference in New York Tuesday, after being asked whether the prices are worrying him.

GM lobbies for funds as job losses mount
General Motors of Canada is seeking a fresh infusion of government funding for new projects in Ontario, even as it slashes 2,300 jobs at two other operations in the province.

Chinese quake kills 10,000
A powerful earthquake toppled buildings, schools and chemical plants in central China yesterday, killing up to 10,000 people and trapping untold numbers in mounds of concrete, steel and earth in the worst quake in three decades.

Evo sets date
Bolivian President Evo Morales agreed yesterday to face a recall vote in August, hoping to shore up public support for leftist reforms bitterly opposed by his powerful conservative opponents.

Lebanese army steps in today
Lebanon’s army said it will use force from today to stop fighting in the country between pro and anti-government forces that has recalled the 1975-90 civil war.