Word: weak
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Ford, while not seeking federal aid, has announced plans to extend its holiday shutdown at 10 assembly plants next month. Lewis Booth, Ford's chief financial officer, declined to make predictions about industry-wide sales for 2009, but noted, "We're seeing weak sales in Western Europe and in Eastern Europe, where sales in Russia dropped." Russia's weakness prompted Ford to trim production at its new assembly plant near St. Petersburg. "We're even seeing weakness in South America, where sales were very strong right through September," he said. Ford, however, has enough cash to make it through...
...ones, analysts say. Alongside Air France-KLM - Europe's biggest airline and still a favorite to grab a minority stake in beleaguered Italian flag carrier Alitalia - and the ever growing Lufthansa, an enlarged BA and Ryanair would mean "for most of the smaller network airlines who have a very weak balance sheet, they're going to have to fold into one of those four groups," says Exane BNP Paribas' Van Klaveren. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), for one, "will survive 2009, but I doubt it can survive 2010 on its own," he says. And while banks or carmakers...
...devising a "life-cycle" test designed to measure whether various biofuels really reduce overall carbon emissions from the field to the tank; the farm lobby is already pushing for a weak test, because a strict one could halt the biofuel revolution. The position Vilsack's department takes on this arcane test could signal whether it will really serve, as Obama pledged on Wednesday, "not big agribusiness or Washington influence peddlers but family farmers and the American people." But that would require real change - not only for the department but for Vilsack and for Obama...
...those actions take place in a failed or failing state - one with no law and little government - the consequences are negative. They include a refugee and disease exodus (such as from Zimbabwe), sex trafficking (Bangladesh and Nepal) and drug-smuggling and terrorism (Afghanistan and Tajikistan). Indonesia, which has a weak government and endemic poverty and also happens to abut another primary sea route, was the world's worst piracy hotspot for a decade, until a couple of years ago, when it was overtaken by Nigeria, which has little law but plenty of poverty and oil platforms...
...history of protest turning violent?student and otherwise. Some observers say the situation today is particularly volatile and unpredictable. "As in Greece and many European countries, the unions, opposition parties, and associations that usually take youth movements under their wing and organize protests in France are too weak and divided to play that role - meaning all the anger and resentment driving protests can surge out of control," warns French political analyst Dominique Reyni...