Fiat, GM in Negotiations Over Terms of Partnership

Officials of Italian industrial group Fiat said that they have to wait until at least February 2 to exercise its right to sell the troubled Fiat Auto division to US giant General Motors. The Italian firm Fiat said mediation talks with General Motors Corp that started on December 16 regarding their industrial partnership will end on February 1. “Although the put option is exercisable on Jan. 24, 2005, Fiat has decided to await the completion of the mediation process,” the Italian industrial group said in a statement. “As a result, Fiat will be in a position to exercise the put option from Feb. 2, 2005 through to July 24, 2010.”

Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne and General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner are working within a mediation period in which to reach a solution. If none is found within 10 days, either side can take the matter to court in New York. An analyst at Nuovi Investment in Biella, said “Fiat and GM know that the best solution for both of them is to find an agreement, I don’t think Fiat will exercise the put option on Monday.” (more…)

Car bomb explodes near green zone in Baghdad

A large explosion near the Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi’s party ’s headquarters on Monday has injured several people. The huge explosion considered to be a car bombing jolted central Baghdad Monday. Hospital sources said several people were injured in the blast. There is no immediate word on the exact number of casualties. Around 10 people are suspected to be dead. This blast is near to Baghdad’s Green zone, which is heavily fortified compound that houses the U.S. Embassy and the offices of the Iraqui interim government.

Insurgents have been regularly attacking across the country, in opposition of general election due to take place on Sunday. Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi one of the top most Iraq’s most wanted list declared war on the election. The US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, said on Sunday that serious efforts were being made to enable Iraqis to vote, but acknowledged that there were “problematic areas”. The interim government has announced that they will take all necessasary measures to protect voters against any type of violence. (more…)

‘Great Dying’ linked to climate changes

An international team of researchers reports in the latest issue of a Science magazine that global warming was to blame for the mass extinction of species 250 million years ago and not an asteroid impact. The event known as the ‘’Great Dying.'’ Nearly all life on the planet - up to 96 per cent of sea life and 75 per cent of that on land - was wiped out, it was thought, by a huge asteroid impact. However, new findings suggest it was global warming, not a big rock, that triggered the largest recorded mass extinction.

The two reports, prepared independently, cast doubt on another theory: that “The Great Dying” was caused by the impact of an asteroid or comet like the one that triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Both studies were published yesterday by Science Express, the online version of the journal Science. (more…)

President George W. Bush’s Inaugural Address

January 20, 2001

The 200th anniversary of the Presidency was observed as George Bush took the executive oath on the same Bible George Washington used in 1789. The ceremony took place on the terrace of the West Front of the Capitol. The oath of office was administered by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Here is the complete Inaugural Address of George W Bush.

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President Clinton, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens, the peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet common in our country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and make new beginnings.

As I begin, I thank President Clinton for his service to our nation.

And I thank Vice President Gore for a contest conducted with spirit and ended with grace.

I am honored and humbled to stand here, where so many of America’s leaders have come before me, and so many will follow.

We have a place, all of us, in a long story–a story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, a story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer.

It is the American story–a story of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. (more…)