Blow job at Dutch government

VVD counsil member Jolanda van Veluw gave blow job to political opponent Paul Depla in the bike parking lot at City hall. A surveillance camera taped everything and the rest is history. Dutch media attempted to speak to either one of them but got nothing more than "no comment" out of them. Since these two people are each others opponents in the counsil, people are wondering what Depla is to do in return politically speaking. People fear their work is going to be influenced by their relationship.

This is how you take advantage of the devaluating dollar

Say, you want to buy a house in the UK. You loan $450.000 and immediatly convert them to Euros. You will then have approximately €300.000. Now you have a house worth €300.000 in combination with a loan that is worth €300.000. When the dollar sinks even further, which it will, your loan is becoming worth less measured in Euro while your house will just gain value. And don't worry about geting a loan because American bankers will prefer goodwilling Europeans over deadbeat Yankees who can't come up with their mortgage.

Pound hits 26-year US dollar high

The UK pound has hit its highest level against the US dollar in 26 years.
The pound has gained on the perception that US interest rates will be cut this week, while UK interest rates will be left unchanged next week.
When UK rates are higher than US rates, investors are encouraged to exchange dollars for pounds to benefit from better rates of return.
At one point the pound touched $2.070, before paring gains to $2.067, while the dollar sank to a new euro low.
The last time the pound was at these sorts of levels was 5 November, 1980, when it reached $2.446.
Many analysts expect the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, in an attempt to limit the impact of a housing market slowdown.
The Fed cut its main interest rate by half a percentage point to 4.75% from 5.25% last month, after problems in the housing market were seen to be spreading to the wider economy.
The move sent the greenback in a downward spiral against the euro, sliding to a new record low on Tuesday at $1.4444, its third record low in as many days.
Recession risks
House prices in the US have been falling and the number of foreclosures has surged in recent months after the Fed spent almost two years between 2004 and 2006 raising rates in an attempt to slow inflation.
While inflation fears have been simmering in previous months, mainly stoked by the surging oil price, many analysts now say that the biggest worry is consumers reining in their spending.
Should that happen, they argue, the US economy could splutter into a recession.

Happy UK shoppers hit US

department store and one thing is striking.
An awful lot of the voices - and particularly those coming from the people clutching the biggest number of bulging bags - seem to be British.
Stop by other large retailers - Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue or any Gap store - and the same experience is repeated, with the odd French or other European accent thrown in.
While Americans are feeling the pinch of a credit crunch, housing slump and rising fuel prices, it seems their European cousins are ready to make the most of a dollar which has slid to near record lows.
As the Brits happily point out, an exchange rate of over $2 to £1 makes clothes, cosmetics and electronic goods so much cheaper that it seems worth paying for a flight and hotel.

Steep rise in Europe cocaine use

An annual report on drug use says around 4.5 million Europeans are likely to have used cocaine in the past year - a million more than in 2006.
The EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) says the increase in cocaine seizures and quantities also confirms its status as "Europe's stimulant drug of choice".
Prevalence of the drug is highest in Spain and the UK but the biggest increases are in Denmark and Italy.
About two million Europeans are said to have used cocaine in the past month.
The drugs agency bases its figures on information covering 2005. In that year, it says that seizures of cocaine reached record levels. A total of 107 tons of the drug was recovered - up more than 45% on the previous year.
Spain and Portugal are the main points of entry into Europe.

U.S. dollar falls to all-time low vs euro

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- The U.S. dollar fell to an all-time low against the 13-nation euro Tuesday as traders awaited housing data from Washington.

The dollar has been falling steadily against the euro since August.

In morning European trading the euro bought $1.4767, up from $1.4667 late Monday in New York.
The British pound rose to $2.0597 from $2.0497 in New York, while the dollar rose to purchase 110.42 Japanese yen from 109.85.
The euro and the pound have been climbing steadily against the dollar since August amid fears for the health of the U.S. economy, stoked by the subprime credit crisis.
The euro hit its last all-time high of $1.4752 on November 9.

Dalai Lama 'may pick successor'

The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, says he is considering breaking with centuries of tradition and naming his own successor.
Usually, following the death of a Dalai Lama, senior Tibetan Buddhist officials, guided by dreams and signs, identify a young child to succeed him.
But the Dalai Lama said he feared China would try to influence this process.
He said he was considering whether his successor should be picked by him, or elected by high ranking Buddhist monks.
"If the Tibetan people want to keep the Dalai Lama system, one of the possibilities I have been considering with my aides is to select the next Dalai Lama while I'm alive," he told the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun during a visit to Japan.