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Sindiswa's family was one of the poorest families in Indwe, the poorest district in Eastern Cape, one of the poorest provinces in South Africa. Ninety-five percent of the residents of her township fall below the poverty line, more than a quarter have HIV, and most survive by clinging to government grants. Orphaned at 16, she had to leave school to support herself. Last February, a woman from a neighboring town offered to find work for her and her 15-year-old best friend, Elizabeth, who, like Sindiswa, was poor but was also desperate to escape her violent older...
...anymore. Earlier this week, aluminum giant Alcoa posted fourth-quarter results that fell short of Wall Street's expectations, triggering a sell-off in the company's shares. The company reported a loss of 28 cents a share, which was narrower than the $1.49-a-share loss a year earlier. However, it missed analysts' projections. Investors were particularly miffed at Alcoa's revenue number, which totaled $5.43 billion, down 4.6% from $5.69 billion a year ago. Analysts had been expecting revenue growth. Investors subsequently dumped shares, causing the stock to plunge 11%, its worst one-day drop since last March...
First Cash Financial recently raised earnings guidance for fiscal 2009 and 2010 to reflect higher than expected revenue from the company's pawnshop operations in the U.S. and Mexico. "Our fourth-quarter pawn revenues significantly exceeded our expectations," said Rick Wessel, the company's chief executive, in a statement. The revised projections imply earnings growth of 20% to 26% for the fourth quarter, up to 14% for fiscal 2009 and as much as 16% in fiscal 2010. (See the worst business deals...
...those two functions balance out, but a new paper in the Jan. 14 issue of Science has provided some hard numbers. Using satellite data, investigators determined that wetlands contribute from 53% to 58% of global methane emissions and that rice paddies are responsible for more than a quarter of that output. The study could help make climate-change models more accurate, and help scientists understand whether increasing temperatures will lead to even higher methane emissions down the road. "It's all about more accurately describing climate in these models," says Paul Palmer, a geoscientist at the University of Edinburgh...
...would be far less than the $12.9 billion Goldman received when AIG was bailed out by the Federal Government. And it's a fraction of what Goldman has been making in the market at a time when the government is spending trillions to support asset prices. In the third quarter alone, Goldman raked in nearly $100 million a day in trading profits. In all, the firm is expected to have earned $12 billion...