Paris, France (4E) – President-elect Francoise Hollande on Tuesday flew to Germany for a eurozone debt crisis meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel but his plane was hit by lightning and it returned to Paris. He was unhurt and took another plane to resume his flight to Berlin.

The incident came just hours after his inaugural as the new leader of France at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy formally turned over power to the 57-year-old Hollande.

According to a presidential spokesman, the plane hit by lightning turned back for safety reasons. Planes are usually hit by lightning with the electricity being dispelled through their wingtips, but turning around after a strike is rare, according to a BBC transport correspondent.

Hollande decided to have a dinner meeting with Merkel, his second act as president after naming Jean-Marc Ayrault as his prime minister at 5 p.m., to renegotiate the European Union fiscal pact and make it growth-oriented instead of austerity-oriented as the German leader wanted it to be.

In his televised inaugural speech, Hollande said he will propose to Merkel a plan to reduce public debt while stimulating the economy.

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Arlington, VA, United States (AHN) – Mortgage rates fell to new lows again for the week ended May 10, with the 30-year averaging 3.83 percent.

Freddie Mac said in a statement Thursday, “Following April’s weaker than expected employment report and the French and Greek election results raising concerns over the stability of the eurozone, long-term Treasury bond yields declined, allowing fixed mortgage rates to ease to new all-time lows this week.”

The rate for the 30-year averaged 3.84 percent in the prior week and 4.63 percent in the same period a year ago.

Rates on the 15-year fixed mortgage averaged 3.05 percent in the latest week, down from 3.07 percent last week and 3.82 percent a year ago.

According to Freddie Mac, average interest rates on five-year Treasury indexed hybrid adjustable mortgages averaged 2.81 percent, down from 2.85 percent last week and 3.41 percent from a year ago.

Rates for 30-year conforming mortgages also fell to a record low in the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey released Wednesday.

The MBA also reported that mortgage applications increased 1.7 percent in the current period, a hopeful sign for the ailing housing market.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks fell on the open Tuesday as political uncertainty in Greece kept investors wary and on edge.

Just after the opening bell on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 83 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 8 points and the NASDAQ suffered a 20-point drop.

Market participants were keeping a close eye on developments in Europe, one day after Greece’s main central-right party failed to form a coalition government. The left-wing coalition, opposed to austerity measures as a means to close Greece’s mounting debt gap, has just three days to form a new government.

These new developments have raised fears that Greece might be forced to drop out of the eurozone and have investors on edge.

While various parties move to form a new coalition government in Greece, new elections will most likely be held come June. The imposing question is whether Greece will be forced to renegotiate its bailout funding.

In world markets Tuesday, European stocks faltered in morning trading and Asian markets ended mixed.

U.S. markets shrugged off early jitters Monday following weekend elections in Greece and France and recovered somewhat. But stocks tumbled Tuesday on the open on renewed European debt fears.

In corporate news, McDonald’s reported same-store sales increased 3.3 percent globally and in the U.S. While the fast food chain’s sales rose 3.5 percent in Europe, it recorded just a 1.1 percent gain in its Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions. Those numbers failed to impress, sending McDonald’s shares lower by 2.6 percent.

Rival Wendy’s also reported and also disappointed, falling short of analysts’ expectations. Shares slipped some 4 percent in morning trading.

After the close Tuesday, Dow component Disney will report,. The studio had a blockbuster weekend with ‘The Avengers,” but also had a major bomb with “John Carter” early in the year.

In currencies and commodities, the dollar gained against the euro and British pound, but dropped against the Japanese yen.

Oil continued its slide, falling 85 cents to $97.09 a barrel.

Gold for June delivery gave back $10.30 to $1,628.80 a troy ounce.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – On Wednesday, GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is set to suspend his presidential bid and back Mitt Romney.

In an interview Tuesday with USA Today, Gingrich said he will back Romney’s candidacy and is prepared to campaign for his former foe. In return, Romney will help Gingrich pay off some of his millions of dollars of campaign debt.

Gingrich said, “Mitt Romney met the first criteria of being a good candidate: He won. Now, you have to respect that.”

Gingrich will make the official announcement at 3 p.m. Wednesday in Arlington, Va.

Romney is not scheduled to be there.

It has been a rollercoaster ride for Gingrich, who in January sat at the top of the polls. However, in the months that followed it became apparent he was not a GOP favorite.

Gingrich has maintained that he is committed to the Republican party and his goal is to make certain Obama is not re-elected.

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Tripoli, Libya (IRIN) – Six months after an uprising brought down Muammar Gaddafi’s government, thousands of displaced Libyans are still living in abandoned construction sites, empty student dormitories or with host families, too afraid to return to their homes.

“We want to go back but cannot,” said Abdul Aziz al-Irwi, who lives in Sidi Slim camp in the capital, Tripoli. “Some people from another camp tried to return about two months ago, but about seven of them were captured by forces from Zintan and imprisoned.”

Al-Irwi is from the Mshashiya community, an ethnic group from the Nefusa Mountains in Western Libya who were targeted during the uprising by opposition fighters from Zintan, allegedly for being allied with pro-Gaddafi forces. Zintan is a small city also located in the Nefusa Mountains area.

“I am here because Gaddafi’s forces came to the town of Mshashya, so we had to leave,” he told IRIN. “They used our town to bomb other areas. We went to Gharyan, and then came to Tripoli.”

Records from the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, show that an estimated-,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were living in Tripoli as of March. Across Libya, the total number of those still displaced is estimated at 70,000.

Apart from the Mshashiya, others included the Qawalish, also from the Nefusa Mountains, the Tawergha, a group of Touareg families from the west, and those perceived as being loyal to the previous regime from al-Zawiya, Bani Walid and Sirte.

A sizeable group of the displaced living in Tripoli and Benghazi cities were Tawergha. They were accused of participating in Gaddafi’s assault on Misrata, murdering and raping thousands of people. Reprisal attacks ensued, forcing their entire town of more than 30,000 to flee their homes. Today, the Tawergha-Misrata case remains a particularly sensitive one in post-Gaddafi Libya.

Until recently, the dark-skinned Tawergha minority – former slaves brought to Libya in the 18th and’th centuries – lived in a coastal town of the same name 250km east of Tripoli. With the rise to power of the rebels, the Tawergha are now on the defensive. The sign leading to their city has been changed to New Misrata and its population told not to return.

Needs and security

According to UNHCR, an estimated 100-150,000 people were displaced in October 2011, but that number has reduced progressively with many returning to their communities, including in Bani Walid and Sirte.

Camp managers at Sidi Slim say conditions are difficult, and the monthly supply of food delivered by agencies and Libaid, the humanitarian arm of the Libyan government, is not enough for each family.

“In our opinion, food is not a problem,” Muftah M Etwilb, the Chief Executive Officer of Libaid, told IRIN. “There are other needs like education, health and protection. Health is free of charge for all Libyans, but still some people in the camp need immediate services from a dispensary. The other issue is proper housing. We are trying to get the government to provide alternative housing since some of these camps are owned by international companies.”

Providing protection for the displaced communities, particularly from armed militias still roaming the main cities, remains one of the biggest challenges to date for the transitional government.

“Since August 2011, we have been subjected to arbitrary attacks and detention,” Abdelrahman Mahmoud, head of the Local Council of the Tawergha in Tripoli, told IRIN. “If Tripoli is safe, then the camps are safe, but if it is not, then we are not safe,”

In February, militias raided the Marine Academy where about 2,000 Tawergha had taken shelter, killing seven people and abducting three men. Witnesses claim the militias were from Misrata.

“The guards from the Marine Academy didn’t have any weapons. When the Misrata brigades came in with weapons, they just moved aside,” Emmanuel Gignac, UNHCR head of mission told IRIN. “What you see now is individual cases inside or outside camps, for instance the Tawergha, including kidnapping for ransom. You can attack people from Tawergha and there is total impunity.”

Amnesty International and other groups have also documented testimonies from among the Mshashiya and Qawalish in Tripoli, who say they were detained and tortured by militias.

Responsibility

A common refrain heard among agencies and ordinary Libyans is that the government needs to assume responsibility for a host of problems, and internal displacement is no exception. To address the humanitarian needs of IDPs across the country, Libaid is organizing a national conference in May involving government ministries, agencies and representatives of the displaced.

“It is not exactly a neglected issue, but it’s not the number one priority in Libya. People also have to deal with security, and with the upcoming elections,” said Etwilb. “But we want to make the IDP issue visible on the day-to-day agenda of the government.”

Contacted for comment, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Social Affairs said: “We have made available a fund of 400 dinar [US$ 320] a month for people who wish to rent a house outside the camps,” Naima Etaher said. “Concerning the non-Tawergha people, a lot of their houses were not destroyed, and it’s safe to go back, but they just stay in these camps to take advantage of the government.”

But families in Sidi Slim camp saw things differently.

In the sweltering heat of a room occupied by a Mshashiya family, people gather to look at footage on a mobile phone which they claim is of destroyed buildings in their home town. “I want to go back. We have been in Mshashiya for over 1,200 years,” said Khalifa Saad Mabrouk, tracing on the floor with his finger what his farm looks like. “I have my trees there, and my houses, my land.”

When asked if remaining in Tripoli or moving elsewhere would be a solution, Mabrouk and his family were unequivocal. “Absolutely not. Even if conditions here are okay, we want to go home.”

Reconciliation

What has still not been addressed, and will determine when people might return to their abandoned homes, are the underlying political tensions fueling animosity between different groups and deterring reconciliation, say observers.

The upcoming conference organized by Libaid is aimed at dealing with the short-term humanitarian needs of displaced populations, but not the political issues. “We try not to politicize the conference,” said Etwilb. “There is a risk if we just make it very open.”

Likewise, the “Reconciliation committees”, set up by recently by the government to restore relations between different communities, can only deal with minor disputes. “We are trying to get people out of prison, but we are not able to do much for people who killed, raped or stole,” Naji Regebi, a member of one of the committees, told IRIN. “The more serious issues will have to go to the justice system.”

Some Tawergha like Ismael Shaaban, an elder in Fallah Ladco camp in Tripoli, believe both sides should go to court. “We will hand over anyone who is guilty to the Libyan government, but we also want people torturing and abusing Tawerghans to be brought to justice,” he said.

Others like Khadija Absalaam (not real name), whose three sons she claims were detained in Misrata, are more skeptical. “We don’t want peace with the Misratans, we just want a wall between our two cities,” she said. “We can live without communicating.”

The Misratan Local Council, in response to concerns raised by Human Rights Watch about widespread torture and crimes committed in detention centres and toward the Tawergha, denied responsibility saying: “Treatment in the city’s prisons is good….many accusations have been wrongly and falsely attributed to Misrata revolutionaries.”

For the Tawergha and Misratans, long-term reconciliation will need a fully functional formal justice process. But, given that the government is still “settling down” in the words of one official, that is not likely to occur until after the elections, scheduled to take place in June. And even then, true reconciliation on the ground is likely to take time.

“Even if the humanitarian issues are dealt with by organisations, it is not enough,” said Gignac. “It is about coming to terms with the past and it is going to be a long process.”

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– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Milk, bananas, bread, paper towels, mortgages. Yup, add mortgages to your Costco shopping list. It’s true; the USA’s largest warehouse membership chain now offers mortgages.

After a year of testing the waters, Costco is launching a full service mortgage lending program on its website in partnership with New Jersey based commercial bank First Choice Bank, and 10 other lenders.

To date, under the program, Costco partners have issued over 10,000 mortgages. The numbers is expected to soar as the warehouse retailer markets the service more aggressively to its millions of loyal customers in its myriad stores and in its widely circulated publication Connection.

Like others, Costco’s mortgage lending site gathers quotes from a variety of lenders. But, unlike others in the industry, under the Costco program, the borrower’s identity is revealed only after they formally choose the lender.

Costco makes no profit on the lending itself, but it does get paid to market the service.

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Charlotte, NC, United States (AHN) – Bank of America Corp. saw its first-quarter profit drop to $653 million, compared to a profit of $2 billion for the same period last year.

Earnings were 3 cents per share, down from 17 cent per share a year ago.

The bank said that an accounting charge related to the bank’s debt affected first-quarter profits.

However, revenue was also down for the quarter to $22.3 billion, versus $26.9 billion for the same quarter last year.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) was not alone in falling profits. Rival bank Morgan Stanley also saw its profits drop because of an accounting charge.

However, Morgan Stanley went into the negative territory, reporting a first-quarter loss of $119 million, compared to a profit of $736 million during the same period last year.

Morgan Stanley also saw revenues drop, slipping to $6.9 billion, compared to $7.6 billion last year.

Both Bank of America and Morgan Stanley have passed recent bank stress tests.

In addition, Bank of America is one of the largest banks in the world with 57 million customers.

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New York City, NY, United States (AHN) – Short sales out paced foreclosures in 12 states in January, market research form Realty Trac reported Friday.

The increase highlights that more homeowners are finding an easier way out of a distressed home loans with short sales, and that more lenders are embracing them.

Short sales occur when a lender agrees to a home sale for less than what is owed. In January, the number surged 33 percent year-over-year, and preliminary data suggests February numbers will also come in robust.

Lenders have become increasingly acceptable to short sales, which tend to hurt neighboring homeowners less than foreclosures. In addition, homeowners may regain eligibility for a new mortgage quicker than those who go through a foreclosure.

Foreclosure sales occur after a bank has repossessed a property, and they still outnumber short sales, but the gap is narrowing.

Data from mortgage tracker Lender Processing Services, as reported this week from Bloomberg News, revealed that short sales exceeded foreclosures in January for the very first time.

States which led in short sales include those beaten up most in the housing downturn, and include California, Arizona and Florida, and nine others.

New rules have slowed foreclosures in many states, spurring short sales, industry analysts note.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Mortgage rates fell in the week ending April 12.

Fixed mortgage rates slid a full tenth of a percent in the latest week, and mark the third consecutive week of declines, mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday

The 15-year fixed rate average hit a new record low of 3.11 percent. That was down from 3.21 percent last week, and way lower than the 4.12 percent one year ago. The previous low for the 15-year was set in March when the average hit 3.13 percent.

The 30-year also headed near its record low of 3.87 percent (set in February), averaging 3.88 percent this week. It has lingered just below 4 percent the last two weeks. At this same period a year earlier, the 30-year averaged 4.91 percent.

The 5-year and 1-year hybrid adjustable rate averages remained relatively unchanged from last week at 2.85 percent and 2.80 percent respectfully.

The drop in mortgage rates was spurred by a disappointing report on jobs growth for the month of March. News that the U.S. economy added just 120,000 jobs renewed fears of whether the economic recovery has legs.

Worries over the mounting and ongoing European debt crisis, coupled with warnings for slowing growth in corporate earnings, also helped push mortgage rates down.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Mortgage rates remained virtually unchanged in the week ended April 5, another mixed signal about the pace of the economic recovery in the United States.

According to the latest report out Thursday by mortgage giant Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average remained just below 4 percent after falling below that significant threshold two weeks ago for the first time in months. The average this past week was 3.98 percent, a hair lower than the 3.99 percent posted in the prior week. It remains well below the 4.87 percent registered this same time a year ago.

The 15-year average also slipped slightly, falling from 3.23 percent last week to 3.21 percent, and down from 4.10 a year ago.

The 5-year hybrid adjustable rate mortgage dropped from 2.90 percent to 2.86 percent. The 1-year ARM held steady at 2.7 percent.

News this past week on the housing market has been less than encouraging.

Sales of foreclosed homes are expected to rise 25 percent to 1.2 million this year, according to recently released data from Moody’s Analytics. In addition, nearly one third of real estate agents surveyed in a recent National Association of Realtors report they faced more closing cancelations in March from what they saw in February.

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