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money.cnn.com — Plunging auto sales, high gas prices and election year politics could help convince Congress to approve a $50 billion loan package to embattled U.S. automakers that Detroit's Big Three claim is key to their future success. General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler reported monthly sales declines of at least 20 percent from a year ago, as American car buyers continued to turn away from SUVs and pickups and towards more fuel efficient car models. The Big Three are now in the process of closing truck assembly lines and rushing to catch up with hybrid and other fuel efficient offerings from Toyota and Honda. But junk bond debt ratings and thin capital cushions make such investment difficult if not impossible.

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iht.com — Aid to poor nations has slumped even as higher food and energy prices and slowing global economic growth have made such assistance more urgent, according to a report released by the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. The United Nations report showed that aid dropped 8.4 percent in 2007, after a 4.7 percent drop in 2006. Commitments to help Africa in particular have lagged. The Group of 8 industrialized nations pledged in 2005 to donate more than $25 billion to Africa by 2010, but just $4 billion has actually been delivered. The United Nations wants the richest 22 countries to commit to donating 0.7 percent of their overall national income to aid, but the only countries that have done that are Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

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iht.com — The number of newly laid-off American workers seeking unemployment benefits jumped unexpectedly last week, the U.S. government said, reversing three weeks of declines. The Labor Department reported that new applications for unemployment insurance in the United States rose to a seasonally adjusted 444,000, up 15,000 from the previous week. Economists expected claims to drop to 420,000. The increase indicated that the slowing economy was taking a toll on the job market. Many economists consider claims above 400,000 to be a sign of a weak economy. Initial claims were 320,000 in the same week last year.

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reuters.com — Even as world financial markets broke down last year, personal wealth around the world grew 5 percent to $109.5 trillion, according to a global wealth report released by Boston Consulting Group. It was the sixth consecutive year of expanding wealth. The fastest growth was among households in developing regions, such as China and the Gulf States and among families who were already rich. That wealth also is increasingly concentrated among the richest. The top 1 percent of all households owned 35 percent of the world's wealth last year. Meanwhile, the top 0.001 percent, ultra-rich households holding at least $5 million in assets, commanded $21 trillion — a fifth of the worl's wealth.

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usatoday.com — Several colleges and universities in Texas, Ohio, Maryland and New York are freezing 2008-2009 tuitions at last year's levels in an effort to make college more affordable for the nation's middle class. In the 13-campus Texas Tech system, chancellor Kent Hance says the decision to keep in-state undergrad tuition at $4,310 stems in part from a five-year decline in students with annual family incomes of between $40,000 and $80,000. But in some systems where there are tuition freezes for in-state undergrads, other costs — like room and board charges, and out of state tuition — are still increasing.

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money.cnn.com — Falling gasoline prices were not enough to revive sales of SUVs and pickups in August as major automakers all reported a sharp fall in sales once again. Sales tracker Autodata said industrywide sales fell 15.5 percent from a year ago, a bit worse than forecasts of a 14.4 percent decline from Edmunds.com. Sales were up 10 percent from July but sales are typically higher in August as automakers offer deals to clear out the previous year's models ahead of the introduction of new models in the fall. This was the weakest August for industrywide U.S. sales in 10 years and it could force automakers to offer even more attractive inducements to move the light trucks Americans are now shunning.

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