this weeks news

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- General Motors Corp. (GM) Tuesday announced further restructuring plans, including a 50% reduction in its cash dividend and a revision to its health-care benefit plan for retirees that it expects will reduce its liability by about $4.8 billion. The company also plans to restructure its U.S. salaried pension benefit plan and cut compensation for outside board members by 50%. (By Michael Baron)

Bush submitted to Congress a $2.77 trillion spending plan that provides big increases for the military and homeland security.(WSJ)

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is studying 12 hours of audio recordings between Saddam Hussein and his top advisers that may provide clues to the whereabouts of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. (NY SUN)

We were pleased to learn we're not corrupt, just stupid," one congressman said after the caucusing. (NY SUN)

IRAN secretly tested a new surface-to-surface missile (SSM) on January 17, seeking to establish the measurements needed for long-range missiles, the German daily Die Welt reported in its issue to appear today.

February 7, 2006 -- WALL Street was certain there were going to be at least 250,000 new jobs created in January. But the folks in the investment community were also "whispering" — like they knew a secret — as loudly as they could that the number could be a "real blowout." One after another, the stooges visited CNBC last Thursday to let everyone in on this not-so-secret secret. Alas, the employment figure released last Friday wasn't a blowout, and it wasn't even nearly as good as the highly paid experts who ply their secrets to investors thought. As I suspected (and wrote in a number of previous columns), the number stunk. (NEW YORK POST)

Royal Caribbean is spending $1.24 billion for its new vessel — the length of three football fields — giving the line bragging rights for having the biggest ship on the high seas — but just barely. (NEW YORK POST)

UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. agency is in the middle of an escalating war of words between Washington and Caracas after awarding President Chavez of Venezuela its $5,000 Jose Marti prize, bestowed in Havana by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.(NY SUN)

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Powered by Renewables (PBR) of Nevada http://www.pbrcorp.com, announced today it will partner with SunEdison of Maryland to develop the world's largest solar photovoltaic (PV) project in Nevada. The 18 megawatt (MW) project almost doubles what is currently the world's largest PV project (10MW) located in Germany. PBR and SunEdison will develop a total of 36 MWs of PV projects in Nevada, enough energy to power 36,000 homes. Construction in Clark County is expected to begin in July and at other sites in early 2007.

DENVER (Reuters) - An injection of two drugs normally used to treat HIV patients completely protected monkeys from becoming infected with the AIDS virus, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Russia's foreign minister warned against threatening Iran over its nuclear program Monday after Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reportedly agreed with a German interviewer that all options, including military response, remained on the table. (By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV AP)

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove surveillance cameras and agency seals from sites and nuclear equipment by the end of next week in response to referral to the U.N. Security Council, the agency said Monday

ABU DHABI — Iran has forced the United Arab Emirates of Dubai to halt live Persian-language television broadcasts. Western diplomatic sources said the broadcasts contained Western programming and discussed democracy. They said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his advisers regarded these broadcasts as part of a U.S.-led effort to foment unrest in Iran. (World Tribune .com)

The burning this past weekend of Danish government offices in Damascus and Beirut in protest of newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad were directed by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in part using undercover soldiers acting as rioters, Lebanese leader Walid Jumblatt charged today during an exclusive WorldNetDaily interview.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's prime minister said on Tuesday violent Muslim protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad were a worldwide crisis spinning out of the control of governments.