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Originally posted by jojobeach:
Aiyah.. guys thinks the girls who likes Ang Mohs are sluts.
Then foreign girls who come here to marry Singaporean guys are not slut meh ?
slut ?Jojo, aiyo white man more handsome and more loaded leh
so asian girls sure prefer them wat
like man from sg also prefer overseas girls
LoL
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Sweden to come to rescue of struggling carmakers Saab and Volvo
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - - Sweden will come to the rescue of its US-owned carmakers crippled by the financial crisis, Saab and Volvo, to secure the future of an automobile industry which accounts for 15 percent of exports, officials say
f course the Swedish government is committed to supporting the carmakers. We can guarantee that we will have car manufacturing in Sweden because it is an important part of our economy," Frank Nilsson, a spokesman for the enterprise and energy ministry, told AFP.
Volvo Cars' owner, US giant Ford, said Monday it was considering selling the marque given the challenges facing the US auto sector, clouding the future for the Swedish brand.
But no matter who ends up as the owner, the government is committed to supporting the industry, well aware that Volvo and Saab and their hundreds of suppliers are "big employers" in Sweden with "lots of know-how," Nilsson said.
"We want to keep that here and to protect it," he said, adding that Enterprise and Energy Minister Maud Olofsson had developed "close connections and a close dialogue" with the Swedish manufacturers and their US owners, General Motors for Saab, and Ford for Volvo.
The Swedish car industry employs 140,000 people in a country of just nine million.
It counts some 700 companies, including internationally renowned truckmakers Volvo Trucks and Scania, as well as airbag and safety belt manufacturer Autoliv, special steels maker SSAB and the world's leading manufacturer of ballbearings, SKF.
In recent months, as the financial crisis has widened in Europe and the United States, the sector has seen numerous savings and restructuring programmes involving thousands of job cuts.
At the end of July, Autoliv announced 3,000 jobs would go.
Volvo Cars, which was sold to Ford in 1999, has announced it will slash 6,000 jobs, including 3,900 in Sweden, out of 24,400 employees worldwide.
Ford and GM, as well as the third largest US carmaker Chrysler, have been hit head-on by a collapse in demand for their gas-guzzling models and this week will ask US lawmakers for a bailout of 25 billion dollars in government-backed low-cost loans.
Ford said the possible sale of loss-making Volvo Cars was part of its restructuring efforts.
"Given the unprecedented external challenges facing Ford and the entire industry, it is prudent for Ford to evaluate options for Volvo as we implement our ONE Ford plan," Ford president and chief executive Alan Mulally said in a statement.
A poll published at the weekend showed that seven of 10 Swedes want the state to take over Volvo Cars temporarily.
Volvo group chairman Finn Johnsson recently told Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri that his company was not interested in buying back Volvo Car and voiced opposition to calls for the government to acquire it.
"The state knows nothing about the car industry and Volvo needs an owner that can increase sales and cooperate with suppliers on components and development," he said, suggesting French carmaker Renault.
Volvo Cars has been hit hard by declining sales, as interest for its big, costly models dwindles.
In the third quarter, the company posted a net loss of 458 million dollars, nearly three times its full-year 2007 loss of 164 million dollars.
Meanwhile, Saab, fully-owned by GM since 2000, has tried to avoid lay-offs at its Trollhaettan plant in southwestern Sweden, which employs some 1,200 people, by reducing its two shifts to one.
"We have held intense negotiations with the Swedish government," Saab spokesman Eric Geers told AFP, adding that the centre-right government planned to increase its subsidies for research and development.
According to Nilsson, these subsidies will amount to 450 million kronor (55 million dollars, 43 million euros) annually for 2009-2012, compared to 430 million this year.
The government also has other measures already in place -- since 2007, it has given car buyers a 10,000 kronor rebate if they buy an environmentally-friendly car, an offer that is scheduled to expire at the end of 2009.
"It is extremely important for us to get demand going. So anything that would increase demand like (incentives to) scrap old cars" would help, Geers said, noting that Sweden "has one of the largest old car markets in Europe."
Nilsson meanwhile ruled out aid similar to the bank rescue packages, saying the Swedish government would prefer to see "joint action in Europe.
"Each country needs to keep in mind that it's important to follow the rules of competition," he stressed.
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Originally posted by laURanaBabe:
I hope New age men do not expect women to be submissive all the time...
a bf once asked me when we were in the early stage of dating. "Shouldn't you be afraid of me?"
i am like wtf!!?? y shld i be afraid of you? lol
Then it occurred to me that he expects his women to cower and literally be afraid of him and not disobey him in everything -_-". submissive i guess is what he is looking for. i wondered at that point if all sg men think this way.
har afraid for wat?
why the woman must be afraid of the guy?
something wrong leh
should be both happy leh
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WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush expressed remorse that the global financial crisis has cost jobs and harmed retirement accounts and said he'll back more government intervention if needed to ease the recession
"I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said in a wide-ranging interview with ABC's "World News," which was airing Monday. "Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."
The U.S. economy fell into a recession in December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research reported on Monday. Many economists believe the current downturn will last until the middle of 2009 and will be the most severe slump since the 1981-82 recession.
On the war in Iraq, Bush said the biggest regret of his presidency was the "intelligence failure" regarding the extent of the Saddam Hussein threat to the United States. With the support of Congress, Bush ordered the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 _ a decision largely justified on grounds _ later proved false _ that Saddam was building weapons of mass destruction.
Asked if he would have ordered the U.S.-led invasion if intelligence reports had accurately indicated that Saddam did not have the weapons, Bush replied: "You know, that's an interesting question. That is a do-over that I can't do. It's hard for me to speculate."
During a discussion about what Americans should know about what it is like to be president, Bush was asked what he was most unprepared for going into the office.
"I think I was unprepared for war," he said. "In other words, I didn't campaign and say, `Please vote for me, I'll be able to handle an attack.' In other words, I didn't anticipate war. Presidents _ one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen."
On the presidential election, Bush called Barack Obama's victory a "repudiation of Republicans."
"I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me," said Bush, who leaves office with low approval ratings. "I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy. In other words, they made a conscious choice to put him in as president."
As he leaves office, Bush said he felt responsible for the economic downturn because it's occurring on his watch, but he added: "I think when the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so" before he became president.
He said he would like to see "instant liquidity" in the markets given the extent of the financial rescue plan, yet he understands that fear has paralyzed the markets.
"It is hard for the average citizen to understand how frozen the system became and how over-leveraged the system became," Bush said. "And so what we're watching is the de-leveraging of our financial markets, which is obviously affecting the growth of the economy."
Last week, the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve pledged $800 billion to break through blockades on credit cards, auto loans, mortgages and other borrowing. The latest moves raised U.S. commitments to contain the financial crisis to nearly $7 trillion _ though no one thinks the government will actually spend that much.
The figures include loans that are expected to be repaid, loan authorities to back mortgages, purchases of stock in banks, guarantees to support loans among banks and pledges backing other transactions.
"This economy will recover," Bush said in the interview conducted last Wednesday at the Camp David, Md., presidential retreat. "And when it recovers, many of the assets backed by the government now will be redeemed, and we will _ could conceivably _ make money off of some of the holdings."
Later in the interview, he said: "I can't guarantee that we'll get all our money back, but it's conceivable we could."
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