Textos Mastigados: Independence Day

Ooh! Ah! Sis-Boom-Bah! Some Music to Go With the Fireworks on the Fourth of July

A special program for Independence Day in the United States.

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Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. America's Declaration of Independence from Britain was signed on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. Today, Mary Tillotson and Steve Ember bring you an Independence Day program of songs that celebrate America.

(MUSIC)

Americans celebrate the Fourth of July with family gatherings, parades, speeches and fireworks. They also celebrate with patriotic music.

The official song of the United States is "The Star-Spangled Banner." Francis Scott Key wrote the words in eighteen-fourteen. At that time, America and Britain were at war. Francis Scott Key watched as British forces attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. Through the smoke and fire, he could see a huge American flag flying over the army base.

The next morning, after the battle, he looked to see which flag flew over Fort McHenry. It would tell which side had won. Key saw that the American flag still flew. He wrote a poem re-creating the event. Soon after, music was added to his words. The United States Congress made "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national song in nineteen-thirty-one.

Americans sing it at the beginning of many public meetings and sports events. Here is America’s national song, performed by Faith Hill.

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Some people say "The Star-Spangled Banner" is difficult to sing. Others do not like the words. Some people have suggested that the United States change its national song. They say many other songs that celebrate America would be better.

One of these is called "America." It is also known as "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Samuel Smith wrote it in Eighteen-Thirty-Two. The music is the same as the British national song, "God Save the Queen." The Southwestern Christian College Chorus sings “America.”

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Some people think "America the Beautiful" is one of the best songs that celebrates America. Katherine Lee Bates wrote the words in eighteen-ninety-three. Samuel Ward wrote the music. Many singers and groups have recorded "America the Beautiful." Ray Charles sings his version.

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Many people think "God Bless America" is the best song that celebrates America. Irving Berlin wrote it in nineteen-seventeen. It became popular twenty years later when Kate Smith sang it on a national radio broadcast. Listen now to the young voices of the American Boychoir as they perform “God Bless America.”

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Other people would like America's national song to be "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie wrote the words in nineteen-forty. It became one of the most popular folk songs in America. Pete Seeger and the Weavers sing "This Land is Your Land."

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Years ago, Lee Greenwood recorded a song called “God Bless the U.S.A.” This song has gained new meaning and popularity since the terrorist attacks on the United States, September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Listen as Lee Greenwood sings “God Bless the U.S.A.”

(MUSIC)

This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Mary Tillotson.

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA.

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Textos Mastigados: Banks Look to Expand Microfinance Services

Banks Look to Expand Microfinance Services

A nonprofit group, Women's World Banking, is working with lenders to go beyond just offering loans to start businesses.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Officials from some of the world’s leading banks were in the Netherlands last week for a conference on microfinance lending. The Dutch government and the nonprofit organization Women's World Banking organized the two-day meeting.

Mary Ellen Iskenderian is president of New York-based Women's World Banking. She told us from The Hague that people generally think of microfinance only as credit -- a small loan to start a business. But she says her group has found more and more demand for other kinds of services. The organization is working with banks to offer products like, for example, life insurance policies.

She says the question is not if commercial banks can offer microfinance services in a profitable way. The question is how. The bankers discussed things like the use of mobile phone technology in banking, and the ability of banks to offer services in rural areas. Could people do their banking at the point of sale in a village store, for example?

The meeting brought together representatives of the Global Network for Banking Innovation. Women's World Banking formed this network six years ago. It says the aim is to guarantee responsible lending to poor borrowers.

The network is an alliance of twenty-four major banks and microfinance lenders in fifteen countries. Members include Citigroup in the United States, ING and Triodos Bank of the Netherlands, Equity Bank of Kenya and Banco Azteca of Mexico.

Women's World Banking offers support, advice and training to more than fifty microfinance organizations. The group says it has helped twenty-three million people in forty-three countries receive financial services over the last thirty years. Most but not all of the borrowers are women.

As more commercial banks enter microfinance, Mary Ellen Iskenderian says women must continue to be served, to reduce poverty. She says research has shown that for every dollar a female borrower earns from her business, ninety-eight cents is reinvested.

Women use their earnings to educate their children and to improve their homes and communities, she says. A similar male borrower, she says, will reinvest only sixty cents.

The idea for Women's World Banking came out of the first United Nations Conference on Women, held in Mexico City in nineteen seventy-five.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about women's issues at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus.

Textos mastigados: Ear Care: Do-It-Yourself Wax Removal

Ear Care: Do-It-Yourself Wax Removal

Advice from experts about what to do -- and not to do -- when your ear is blocked with wax.
22 May 2007

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Some people's ears produce wax like busy little bees. This can be a problem even though earwax appears to serve an important purpose.

Experts say it protects and cleans the ear. It traps dirt and other matter and keep insects out. Doctors think it might also help protect against infections. And the waxy oil keeps ears from getting too dry.

So earwax is good. It even has a medical name: cerumen. And there are two kinds. Most people of European or African ancestry have the "wet" kind: thick and sticky. East Asians commonly have "dry" earwax.

But you can have too much of a good thing.

The glands in the ear canal that produce the wax make too much in some people. Earwax is normally expelled; it falls out of the ear or gets washed away. But extra wax can harden and form a blockage that interferes with sound waves and reduces hearing.

People can also cause a blockage when they try to clean out their ears -- but only push the wax deeper inside. Earwax removal is sometimes necessary. But you have to use a safe method or you could do a lot of damage.

Experts at N.I.H., the National Institutes of Health, suggest some ways to treat excessive earwax yourself. They say the wax can be softened with mineral oil, glycerin or ear drops. They say hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide may also help.

Another way to remove wax is known as irrigation. With the head upright, take hold of the outer part of the ear. Gently pull upward to straighten the ear canal. Use a syringe device to gently direct water against the wall of the ear canal. Then turn the head to the side to let the water out.

The experts at N.I.H. say you may have to repeat this process a few times. Use water that is body temperature. If the water is cooler or warmer, it could make you feel dizzy. Never try irrigation if the eardrum is broken. It could lead to infection and other problems.

After the earwax is gone, gently dry the ear. But if irrigation fails, the best thing to do is to go to a health care provider for professional assistance.

You should never put a cotton swab or other object into the ear canal. But you can use a swab or cloth to clean the outer part of the ear. The experts agree with the old saying that you should never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein.

Textos Mastigados: Ella Fitzgerald, 1917-1996: She Was America's First Lady of Song

Ella Fitzgerald, 1917-1996: She Was America's First Lady of Song

Critics said she raised the American popular song to the level of art.
27 May 2007

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ANNOUNCER: Now, the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the jazz singer, Ella Fitzgerald. She was known as America's first lady of song.

(MUSIC: "How High The Moon")

VOICE ONE: The year was nineteen thirty-three. The place was New York City. Ella Fitzgerald was sixteen years old. She had entered a competition [concurso] at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. She was going to dance. But she had just watched two dancers perform. They were better dancers than she.

So, instead of dancing, she sang a song called "Judy. " People watching the competition urged her to sing another song. She did. She won first prize - twenty-five dollars.

That competition at the Apollo Theater changed Ella Fitzgerald's life forever. Band leader Chick Webb was watching the competition. He hired Ella to sing with his band. He taught her about singing in public. He even showed her what kind of clothes to wear. In three years, she had her first hit record, "A-Tisket-a-Tasket":

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VOICE TWO: Ella Fitzgerald was born in the southern city of Newport News, Virginia in nineteen seventeen. Her father left soon after her birth. Her mother took Ella and moved to New York City. Ella's mother died when Ella was fifteen years old.

The next year, Ella started singing with Chick Webb's band. She stayed with Chick Webb until he died in nineteen thirty-nine. Ella kept his band together after he died until World War Two started. Then most of the band members joined the armed forces. While she was with the band, Ella recorded almost one hundred fifty songs.

VOICE ONE: Ella Fitzgerald was greatly influenced by the experimental music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It was called be-bop. She used be-bop rhythms in her singing. In nineteen forty-five, she recorded the song "Flying Home," using the be-bop method known as "scat". In scat, the singer's voice sounds like another instrument in the orchestra. Critics say it was the most influential jazz record of the time.

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VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-nine, jazz musician Norman Granz invited her to join his band. It was with his band in Berlin, Germany in nineteen sixty that Ella sang a famous song in a very different way. A man asked her if she knew the song "Mack the Knife. " Ella said she had heard it a few times but the band did not have the music for it. She said she would try to sing it anyway. This recording shows how she continued to sing "Mack the Knife" when she did not remember the words. The people listening loved it.

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VOICE ONE: Norman Granz later became her manager [empresário]. He started a new recording company just for her. It was his idea for Ella to record the now famous series of record albums called the “Songbooks." On each record, she sang works of a different songwriter.

She recorded songbooks of the music of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. Critics say the best songbook is Ella singing the songs of George and Ira Gershwin. Ira Gershwin reportedly said [teria dito]: "I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them. Here, she sings the Gershwin song, "I Got Rhythm":

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO: Ella Fitzgerald also appeared in movies and on television. She became popular internationally. She performed in concerts around the world sometimes forty weeks a year. She also recorded for different record companies.

In the nineteen sixties, she began to sing more modern songs such as those written by the Beatles and Burt Bacharach. But she was not very successful with that kind of popular music. She returned to jazz in Nineteen seventy-three, again with Norman Granz. She also began performing with symphony orchestras.

VOICE ONE: Ella Fitzgerald was married two times. Both marriages ended in divorce. She raised three children who were not her own.

Ella lived quietly in Beverly Hills, California. Throughout her life she was a very private person. She wanted to be known only for her music. Her friends included members of the Duke Ellington band, Count Basie's band, and singers like Sarah Vaughn and Peggy Lee.

Ella Fitzgerald began to have health problems during the nineteen seventies. She had the disease diabetes which caused problems with her eyes. She had a heart operation in nineteen eighty-six. In nineteen ninety-three, the effects of diabetes led to operations to remove both her legs. She died June fifteenth, nineteen ninety-six.

VOICE TWO: People around the world loved Ella Fitzgerald's joyful singing. Critics said she had raised the American popular song to the level of art.

She won many awards. She received the National Medal of the Arts and a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime work. The University of Maryland named a performing arts center for her.

Ella Fitzgerald's wonderful voice lives on [continua viva] in her two hundred fifty albums. She won thirteen Grammy awards given each year for the best recordings. Her last Grammy was for the nineteen ninety record: "All That Jazz":

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. The announcers were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Sarah Long. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.

Textos Mastigados: US and China Hold High-Level Trade Discussions

US and China Hold High-Level Trade Discussions

The talks in Washington end with an agreement to increase air links, but no word of progress on the deficit issue.
24 May 2007

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Top officials from the United States and China held two days of trade talks this week in Washington.

They agreed to increase the number of direct flights between the United States and China. And Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi said the talks cleared the way for other progress. But no progress was reported on the issue of the trade deficit.

It was the second in a series of talks, the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue. The next meeting is later this year in Beijing. Vice Premier Wu says talks are better than threats of what she calls "irresponsible" protectionist measures against China.

Some American lawmakers say China is taking too long to raise the value of the yuan. They say China unfairly keeps its currency weak. They say this fuels the deficit by pushing down the cost of its exports and raising the price of American-made imports.

China eased controls on the yuan this week, but not enough to satisfy many critics. China promises more but says a large increase would hurt its fast-growing economy. Some experts say the yuan would rise fifty percent if permitted to trade freely. Others think it would be much less.

China's huge trade surplus has left it with the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, more than one trillion dollars. Most of that is held in United States government debt. But China took steps this week to change the way it invests its reserves, in order to seek higher returns.

China will invest three billion dollars in the Blackstone Group, a private-equity company based in New York. The deal will take place as Blackstone sells stock to the public for the first time. But China said it did not want any voting rights in the company.

President Bush met Thursday with Vice Premier Wu. He later said the two countries have a complex relationship but the two hundred thirty-three billion dollar trade deficit must be dealt with.

One of the ways, he said, is to get the Chinese people to spend more, to change from savers to consumers. For example, the United States has been trying to get China to open up its beef market.

The negotiators talked about food safety. The United States is importing more and more food products from China. Yet there is growing concern that they are not always very safe.

Still another issue: The United States is pushing China to do more about illegal copying of movies, music, software and books.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

Textos Mastigados: Charles Lindbergh Flew to Paris, and Into History, 80 Years Ago

Charles Lindbergh Flew to Paris, and Into History, 80 Years Ago

On May 21, 1927, he flew the Spirit of Saint Louis across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris and became the first pilot to make the flight without stopping.

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ANNOUNCER:

EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

Today, Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal tell the story of one of America's most famous pilots, Charles Lindbergh.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Charles Lindbergh is probably one of the best-known people in the history of flight. He was a hero of the world. Yet, years later, he was denounced as an enemy of his country. He had what is called a "storybook" marriage and family life. Yet he suffered a terrible family tragedy.

Charles Lindbergh was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, on February fourth, nineteen-oh-two. He grew up on a farm in Minnesota. His mother was a school teacher. His father was a lawyer who later became a United States congressman. The family spent ten years in Washington, D.C. while Mister Lindbergh served in the Congress.

Young Charles studied mechanical engineering for a time at the University of Wisconsin. But he did not like sitting in a classroom. So, after one-and-one-half years, he left the university. He traveled around the country on a motorcycle.

VOICE TWO:

He settled in Lincoln, Nebraska. He took his first flying lessons there and passed the test to become a flier. But he had to wait one year before he could fly alone. That is how long it took him to save five hundred dollars to buy his own plane.

Charles Lindbergh later wrote about being a new pilot. He said he felt different from people who never flew. "In flying," he said, "I tasted a wine of the gods of which people on the ground could know nothing."

He said he hoped to fly for at least ten years. After that, if he died in a crash, he said it would be all right. He was willing to give up a long, normal life for a short, exciting life as a flier.

VOICE ONE:

From Nebraska, Lindbergh moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he joined the United States Army Air Corps Reserve. When he finished flight training school, he was named best pilot in his class.

After he completed his Army training, the Robertson Aircraft Company of Saint Louis hired him. His job was to fly mail between Saint Louis and Chicago.

Lindbergh flew mostly at night through all kinds of weather. Two times, fog or storms forced him to jump out of his plane. Both times, he landed safely by parachute. Other fliers called him "Lucky Lindy."

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen nineteen, a wealthy hotel owner in New York City offered a prize for flying across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. The first pilot who flew non-stop from New York to Paris would get twenty-five thousand dollars.

A number of pilots tried. Several were killed. After eight years, no one had won the prize. Charles Lindbergh believed he could win the money if he could get the right airplane.

A group of businessmen in Saint Louis agreed to provide most of the money he needed for the kind of plane he wanted. He designed the aircraft himself for long-distance flying. It carried a large amount of fuel. Some people described it as a "fuel tank with wings, a motor and a seat." Lindbergh named it the Spirit of Saint Louis.

VOICE ONE:

In May, nineteen twenty-seven, Lindbergh flew his plane from San Diego, California, to an airfield outside New York City. He made the flight in the record time of twenty-one hours, twenty minutes.

At the New York airfield, he spent a few days preparing for his flight across the Atlantic. He wanted to make sure his plane's engine worked perfectly. He loaded a rubber boat in case of emergency. He also loaded some food and water, but only enough for a meal or two.

"If I get to Paris," Lindbergh said, "I will not need any more food or water than that. If I do not get to Paris, I will not need any more, either."

VOICE TWO:

May twentieth started as a rainy day. But experts told Lindbergh that weather conditions over the Atlantic Ocean were improving. A mechanic started the engine of the Spirit of Saint Louis.

"It sounds good to me," the mechanic said. "Well, then," said Lindbergh, "I might as well go."

The plane carried a heavy load of fuel. It struggled to fly up and over the telephone wires at the end of the field. Then, climbing slowly, the Spirit of Saint Louis flew out of sight. Lindbergh was on his way to Paris.

VOICE ONE:

Part of the flight was through rain, sleet and snow. At times, Lindbergh flew just three meters above the water. At other times, he flew more than three thousand meters up. He said his greatest fear was falling asleep. He had not slept the night before he left.

During the thirty-three-hour flight, thousands of people waited by their radios to hear if any ships had seen Lindbergh's plane. There was no news from Lindbergh himself. He did not carry a radio. He had removed it to provide more space for fuel.

On the evening of May twenty-first, people heard the exciting news. Lindbergh had landed at Le Bourget airport near Paris. Even before the plane's engine stopped, Lindbergh and the Spirit of Saint Louis were surrounded by a huge crowd of shouting, crying, joyful people.

From the moment he landed in France, he was a hero. The French, British and Belgian governments gave him their highest honors.

VOICE TWO:

Back home in the United States, he received his own country's highest awards. The cities of Washington and New York honored him with big parades. He flew to cities all over the United States for celebrations.

He also flew to several Latin American countries as a representative of the United States government. During a trip to Mexico, he met Anne Morrow, the daughter of the American ambassador. They were married in nineteen twenty-nine.

Lindbergh taught his new wife to fly. Together, they made many long flights. Life seemed perfect. Then, everything changed.

On a stormy night in nineteen thirty-two, kidnappers [seqüestradores] took the baby son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh from their home in New Jersey. Ten weeks later, the boy's body was found. Police caught the murderer several years later. A court found him guilty and sentenced him to death.

The kidnapping and the trial were big news. Reporters gave the Lindberghs no privacy. So Charles and Anne fled to Britain and then to France to try to escape the press. They lived in Europe for four years. But they saw the nations of Europe preparing for war. They returned home before war broke out in nineteen thirty-nine.

VOICE ONE:

Charles Lindbergh did not believe the United States should take part in the war. He made many speeches calling for the United States to remain neutral. He said he did not think the other countries of Europe could defeat the strong military forces of Germany. He said the answer was a negotiated peace.

President Franklin Roosevelt did not agree. A Congressman speaking for the president called Lindbergh an enemy of his country. Many people also criticized Lindbergh for not returning a medal of honor he received from Nazi Germany.

Charles Lindbergh no longer was America's hero.

VOICE TWO:

Lindbergh stopped calling for American neutrality two years later, when Japan attacked the United States navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack brought America into the war.

Lindbergh spent the war years as an advisor to companies that made American warplanes. He also helped train American military pilots. Although he was a civilian, he flew about fifty combat flights.

Lindbergh loved flying. But flying was not his only interest.

While living in France, he worked with a French doctor to develop a mechanical heart. He helped scientists to discover Maya Indian ruins in Mexico. He became interested in the cultures of people from African countries and from the Philippines. And he led campaigns to make people understand the need to protect nature and the environment.

VOICE ONE:

Charles Lindbergh died in nineteen seventy-four, once again recognized as an American hero. President Gerald Ford said Lindbergh represented all that was best in America -- honesty, courage and the desire to succeed.

Today, the Spirit of Saint Louis -- the plane Lindbergh flew to Paris -- hangs in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. And the man who flew it -- Charles Lindbergh -- remains a symbol of the skill and courage that opened the skies to human flight.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER:

This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal.

I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.

Textos Mastigados: Study: Southern Ocean saturated with CO2

Study: Southern Ocean saturated with CO2

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is so loaded with carbon dioxide that it can barely absorb any more, so more of the gas will stay in the atmosphere to warm up the planet, scientists reported Thursday.

Human activity is the main culprit, said researcher Corinne Le Quere, who called the finding very alarming.

The phenomenon wasn't expected to be apparent for decades, Le Quere said in a telephone interview from the University of East Anglia in Britain.

"We thought we would be able to detect these only the second half of this century, say 2050 or so," she said. But data from 1981 through 2004 show the sink is already full of carbon dioxide. "So I find this really quite alarming."

The Southern Ocean is one of the world's biggest reservoirs of carbon, known as a carbon sink. When carbon is in a sink -- whether it's an ocean or a forest, both of which can lock up carbon dioxide -- it stays out of the atmosphere and does not contribute to global warming.

The new research, published in the latest edition of the journal Science, indicates that the Southern Ocean has been saturated with carbon dioxide at least since the 1980s.

This is significant because the Southern Ocean accounts for 15 percent of the global carbon sink, Le Quere said.

Increased winds over the last half-century are to blame for the change, Le Quere said. These winds blend the carbon dioxide throughout the Southern Ocean, mixing the naturally occurring carbon that usually stays deep down with the human-caused carbon.

When natural carbon is brought up to the surface by the winds, it is harder for the Southern Ocean to accommodate more human-generated carbon, which comes from factories, coal-fired power plants and petroleum-powered motor vehicle exhaust.

The winds themselves are caused by two separate human factors.

First, the human-spawned ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere over the Southern Ocean has created large changes in temperature throughout the atmosphere, Le Quere said.

Second, the uneven nature of global warming has produced higher temperatures in the northern parts of the world than in the south, which has also made the winds accelerate in the Southern Ocean.

"Since the beginning of the industrial revolution the world's oceans have absorbed about a quarter of the 500 gigatons of carbon emitted into the atmosphere by humans," Chris Rapley of the British Antarctic Survey said in a statement.

"The possibility that in a warmer world the Southern Ocean -- the strongest ocean sink -- is weakening is a cause for concern," Rapley said.

Another sign of warming in the Antarctic was reported Tuesday by NASA, which found vast areas of snow melted on the southern continent in 2005 in a process that may accelerate invisible melting deep beneath the surface.

Textos Mastigados: Chrysler bought by Cerberus for $7.4B

Chrysler bought by Cerberus for $7.4B

Private equity firm to buy 80 percent stake [def. 6a] in U.S. automaker. Debt free at first, the company will assume billions in retiree health care costs down the line [def. 68b].
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- DaimlerChrysler moved to undo the most expensive and one of the least successful mergers in auto industry history Monday as it agreed to sell its money-losing Chrysler unit for only a fraction of what it paid nine years ago.

DaimlerChrysler announced it will sell an 80 percent stake in its U.S. brand for $7.4 billion to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity investment firm.

Shares of DaimlerChrysler were up 3.5 percent in both Frankfurt and New York trading just before 10 a.m. ET, although that is off from earlier gains soon after the announcement. Shares of the company have risen more than 30 percent in the three months since it announced it was looking to sell Chrysler.

The private equity sector has become a major force in the acquisition of publicly owned companies in recent years, often buying troubled operations at a bargain price.

"We are aware that Chrysler faces significant challenges, but we are confident that they can and will be overcome," said a statement from John Snow, the chairman of Cerberus and the U.S. Treasury Secretary from 2003 to 2006. "A private investment firm like Cerberus will provide management with the opportunity to focus on their long-term plans rather than the pressures of short-term earnings expectations."

Crucial cars for Chrysler
This is not Cerberus' first entry into the troubled U.S. auto industry. Last year it bought a 51 percent stake in GMAC, the finance unit of General Motors, and it is in negotiations to become a major investor in Delphi, the world's No. 1 auto parts maker which has been in bankruptcy since October 2005.

The German automaker then known as Daimler-Benz paid $37 billion for the U.S. automaker in 1998, but it soon found itself weighed down by uncompetitive labor costs and losing sales to nimbler Japanese rivals.

Toyota Motor passed DaimlerChrysler in U.S. sales for the first time 2006, as GM, Ford Motor and Chrysler all lost money on their North American operations and announced plans to close plants and make deep cuts in staff.

The U.S.-based automakers such as Chrysler, which includes the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands, have been hurt by high gasoline prices over the last year and a half; they depend much more on sales of light truck models such as SUVs, pickups and minivans, than on the more fuel efficient car models, where Japanese automakers dominate U.S. sales.

About three out of every four vehicles that Chrysler Group sells in the United States is a light truck, the highest percentage of any automaker. But sales of light trucks have seen their overall share of the U.S. market fall, to 53 percent in 2006 from nearly 56 percent in 2004.

The newly independent automaker, to be known as Chrysler Holding, will begin debt free, as its former German parent, now to be known as Daimler, assumes its debt. Daimler will also retain a 20 percent stake in Chrysler Holding.

But the U.S. automaker, which is projected to not return to profitability until at least 2008, will take with it responsibility for billions in health care coverage promised to union employees, retirees and their families, costs than are adding thousands of dollars to each automobile made in North America.

On Feb. 14, as DaimlerChrysler announced it would look at all options for Chrysler, including a possible sale, at the same time it announced plans to cut 13,000 jobs as it closes an assembly line in Delaware and a parts center in Cleveland, while it eliminates shifts at other plants. That same day the company announced that Chrysler losses reached $1.5 billion in 2006, even as DaimlerChrysler made $7.3 billion in the period.

Ford family may give up control
Chrysler attracted interest from a number of other private equity firms, as well as Canadian auto parts maker Magna International. In addition, financier Kirk Kerkorian, who had been the largest shareholder in Chrysler when it was sold to Daimler-Benz, offered $4.5 billion for Chrysler, proposing to share ownership of the company with its unions and management. But that bid never appeared to be taken seriously by DaimlerChrysler.

Still over the last three months pressure from German shareholders to dump the unit mounted in the face of the prospect for future losses in North America. At the company's annual shareholder meeting in April, major institutional shareholders pushed for a sale.

"We're confident that we've found the solution that will create the greatest overall value -- both for Daimler and Chrysler," said a statement from DaimlerChrysler Chairman Dieter Zetsche. "With this transaction, we have created the right conditions for a new start for Chrysler and Daimler."

Zetsche did admit during the news conference that DaimlerChrysler had a made a mistake in overestimating the cost savings that could be obtained by combining luxury car-maker Daimler with mass-market automaker Chrysler Group. He also said that the Chrysler buyer wasn't willing to pay the premium for the advance features and technology that were being developed by Daimler for its Mercedes Benz brand.

But he defended the decision to go forward with the purchase of Chrysler, arguing that it was impossible to know the shortcomings of the combination in advance. And Zetsche, who had been in charge of Chrysler before being named chairman of the parent company last year, said it was personally very difficult for him to sell the Chrysler unit.

The United Auto Workers union, which had previously stated opposition to the sale of Chrysler to a private equity firm, issued a statement Monday backing the deal.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union leadership "concluded that the transaction with Cerberus is in the best interest of our membership, the Chrysler Group and Daimler. We are satisfied now that the decision has been made so that our membership and management can focus on designing, engineering and manufacturing the finest quality products for the future success of the Chrysler Group."

Snow said he was gratified by the support that the UAW voiced for the deal and argued that Cerberus' ownership of Delphi will be good for the union and its members since it will help Chrysler to succeed long-term.

"I think Cerberus has a good record of working with companies that are organized. We respect the role of organized labor and we appreciate the support that UAW has given this transaction," he said.

But Cerberus has seen its investment plans at Delphi stalled as management there has not been able to win a new labor deal in prolonged talks with the UAW. And the next five months will include a new round [noun, def. 2] of difficult negotiations at Chrysler over issues such as health care costs for both active employees and retirees and their families.

The UAW contracts with Chrysler, GM and Ford all expire in September. The sale to Cerebus could close about the same time, as Zetsche said it is expected to close in the third quarter.

Textos Mastigados: Giant exploding star outshines previous supernovas

Giant exploding star outshines previous supernovas

By Marsha Walton - CNN

(CNN) -- Scientists have just released images of the brightest stellar explosion recorded. The supernova, known as SN 2006gy, was believed to be about 150 times as massive as the sun. The explosion could help astronomers better understand how the first generation of stars in the universe died.

"This supernova stands out as the brightest supernova that's ever been observed," said Nathan Smith, astrophysicist at the University of California at Berkeley. "The reason we're so excited is because it was so powerful we think it may require a new type of explosion mechanism that we've never observed before," said Smith at a news conference from NASA headquarters in Washington.

A supernova is a rare and often dramatic phenomenon that involves the explosion of most of the material within a star. Supernovas can be very bright for a short time and usually release huge amounts of energy.

A graduate student using a robotic telescope that was part of the Texas Supernova Search project first detected SN 2006gy on September 18, 2006. For about 70 days it got brighter, peaking with a brightness comparable to 50 billion suns, much brighter than most other supernovas. Supernovas are usually bright for a couple of weeks at most. Astronomers captured the star's demise using NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and ground-based telescopes at the Lick Observatory in California and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The explosion was estimated about 238 million light years away from Earth.

Scientists believe supernova SN 2006gy expelled many of its outer layers in an eruption before its violent collapse. When it exploded, it plowed into the cooler gases that had already been expelled, creating the brightest light show ever from a supernova.

Mario Livio, astrophysicist from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, calls the discovery "extraordinarily intriguing" for a theorist such as himself. "We may be learning something entirely new about how massive stars explode," said Livio. "We are seeing a new type of explosion that has so far only existed in theory, and we believe the first stars in the universe exploded by this mechanism. It may provide a new lesson in the evolution of stars, and a star in our own galaxy may do the same thing tomorrow," he said.

Astronomers say the star that became SN 2006gy expelled a large amount of its mass before it exploded. A huge star in the Milky Way, Eta Carinae, has already erupted in a similar fashion. So if it explodes as a supernova, it could present the best light show seen, because it is a mere 7,500 light years away from our planet.

The orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, which began its mission July 23, 1999, can detect and capture images of X-ray sources that are billions of light years away. Scientists all over the world use it to get insight about high temperature events, such as black holes and collapsed stars that are millions of degrees Celsius. Chandra is the largest satellite deployed from the space shuttle. The observatory was named after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the Indian-American astrophysicist who worked at the University of Chicago and won the 1983 Nobel prize in physics. "Chandra" means "moon" or "luminous" in the Sanskrit language.

Textos Mastigados: Delta exits bankruptcy with planes full

Delta exits bankruptcy with planes full

No. 3 U.S. carrier ends 19-month overhaul after fighting takeover bid, shedding jets and staff, raising fares.

By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Delta Air Lines emerged from bankruptcy early Monday as a leaner but still independent carrier after a 19-month reorganization that saw it fight off a $10 billion hostile takeover.

The overhaul at Atlanta-based Delta, the nation's No. 3 airline, left it a much smaller carrier than the one that flew into bankruptcy in September 2005 - and helped feed an industry trend that has resulted in higher fares and much fuller planes on most U.S. carriers over the past year.

Delta has shed about one jet in six used by its mainline operations at the time of the bankruptcy filing, and it has cut more than 20 percent of the 60,000 employees it had at that time.

Delta's domestic capacity is down about 10 percent since its bankruptcy, allowing it to fill about 84 percent of its seats on U.S. routes in the most recent month, compared to only 72 percent the month it filed for bankruptcy. That has helped it receive 15 percent more per mile flown by passengers in the most recent quarter, compared to the quarter in which it filed for bankruptcy.

But because Delta was able to emerge from bankruptcy as an independent airline, holding off a hostile bid by rival US Airways, many markets that could have seen significantly less competition and even higher fares now still have a choice of air carriers. That is particularly true in many markets in the East.

Delta, which got its name from its roots as a mail carrier in the Louisiana Delta in the early days of commercial aviation, will have $2.5 billion exit financing to fund operations and a cost structure about $3 billion a year less than when it went into bankruptcy, according to the airline.

Among the moves it made was turning over its underfunded pilots' pension plans to a federal pension agency, while winning concessions on wages and work rules from its pilots.

Shares of its new stock, which is being issued to Delta creditors, started trading on a "when issued" basis last Thursday. It is due to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under its old DAL symbol. Federal Bankruptcy Court Judge Adlai Hardin gave final approval to its reorganization plan last week, after he rejected four final objections filed by bondholders and shareholders who complained that they weren't being treated fairly.

The company had to fight off a takeover effort by US Airways Group, which made a $10 billion cash-and-stock offer for its larger East Coast rival. Delta management had to convince creditors that it would become more valuable as an independent carrier than it would in the combination. US Air eventually dropped its takeover efforts in January.

Delta CEO Gerald Grinstein, who testified before Congress as he led efforts to hold off the US Airways takeover bid, is expected to retire as soon as a successor is found. He has said he prefers some from inside Delta.

Delta filed for bankruptcy protection the same day as Northwest Airlines, which is still working to emerge from bankruptcy itself. Low airfares on falling demand for air travel starting in early 2001, coupled with a spike (acepção 7c) in jet fuel prices, also caused United Airlines and US Air to go into bankruptcy over the last five years.

Among U.S. airlines, Delta trails (acepção 5) only No. 1 American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp. and No. 2 United, a unit of UAL Corp, in terms of miles flown by paying passengers.

But it has faced growing competition from low fare carriers, particularly JetBlue Airways and AirTran Airways.