Athens, Greece (4E) – Fitch Ratings downgraded the credit rating of Greece’s government again on Thursday.

Greece’s credit rating dropped from a B- to a CCC, which puts it deeper into junk bond territory. That means many investors cannot buy Greek debt even if they thought it was a good investment.

The drop in ratings also increases the risk that Greece may not be able to hold on to its membership in the Economic and Monetary Union.

In addition, Fitch downgraded Greece’s short-term foreign currency rating to C from B.

Greece is now operating under a caretaker government with elections scheduled for next month. Fitch cited the increased risk that Greece could be forced to leave the eurozone following those elections.

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New York, N.Y., United States (4E) – Moody’s Investor Service downgraded the debt rating of 26 Italian banks Monday amid worries about a double dip recession.

The move means Moody’s now ranks Italy’s banks lower than most of their Western European peers.

Italy’s banks have been struggling from the effects of a weak economy and government austerity measures.

Moody’s noted that support from the European Central Bank lowered the default risk of many of the banks.

The ratings agency lowered its long-term debt and deposit rating by one notch each for 10 banks, by two notches for eight banks, by three notches for six banks and by four notches for two banks.

Moody’s also downgraded the short-term rating on 21 banks by one or two notches, which resulted in long-term rating downgrades.

The firm maintains a negative outlook for all 26 banks.

Moody’s said that Italy relapsed into recession early this year and there are no clear signs of a recovery.

Government austerity measures and other reforms are weighing on Italy’s economy, which could result in further loan delinquencies, in particular among corporate and small business borrowers.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Fannie Mae has put its hands back in its pocket.

On Wednesday, the troubled mortgage backer reported its best quarterly results since the housing bubble burst five years ago, and says it doesn’t need to extend it hands out for more bailout money.

Even better, the struggling company reported just enough profit in the there months ended March 31 to cover its latest payment to the Treasury Department. Fannie May also forecast a rosier picture for its future.

Fannie May attributed the much-improved results to a slowing decline in home prices, a drop in its inventory of foreclosed homes and better sale prices for the foreclosed homes it sold.

Following the earnings release, chief financial officer Susan McFarland said in a statement, “We expect our financial results for 2012 to be significantly better than 2011.”

When the housing bubble burst in 2007, Fannie was very adversely affected. The company faced scores of foreclosures that resulted in huge losses.

In the summer of 2008, Congress agreed to cover Fannie Mae’s, and sister company Freddie Mac’s, staggering losses, hoping to prevent both companies from going under and to shore up the ailing housing market.

Since that time, Fannie has been the recipient of $116.1 billion in bailout funds. It has made $22.6 billion in dividend payments to the U.S. Treasury, including the most recent $2.8 billion. The result cost taxpayers $93.5 billion.

Freddie Mac was given $72.3 billion from the Treasury and has paid back $18.3 billion.

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Arlington, VA, United States (AHN) – Mortgage rates in the U.S. have fallen to a record low-again.

The average rate for 30-year fixed loan slipped to 3.84 percent for the week ending May 3, down from 3.88 percent in theor week. It is the lowest ever for the 30-year since mortgage giant Freddie Mac started tracking rates in 1971.

The average rate for the 15-year dipped to 3.07 percent from 3.12 percent.

Lower interest rates will provide some cushion and support for the struggling housing market, but unfortunately, the U.S. economic recovery appears to be stalling, and that does not provide the confidence consumers want to take on the obligation of purchasing a home.

The Census Bureau reported earlier this week that homeownership in the U.S. dropped to the lowest level in 15 years, sliding to 65.4 percent in the first quarter of 2012, down from 66 percent in the previous quarter.

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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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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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Kayes, Mali (IRIN) – “It was the drought that made people move away from here,” Ousmane Touré said in Kayes, 450 kilometers northwest of Bamako, the capital of Mali, and a 10-hour bus ride across the scorched scrubland of the western Sahel. “There had been a tradition of emigration, but it was when the harvests failed in the 1970s that we saw a real surge in emigration. There was simply not enough to eat, so people took off for France, Germany and the United States. They knew it was only the way of feeding their families back home in Kayes. The same thing is happening this year.”

Touré heads the Association of Returning Migrants of Kayes (AMRK), a welfare organization that tries to provide short-term shelter and counseling to people coming back to this part of the country. The returnees, particularly those from the ethnic Soninké community, which spreads across Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, have played a major role in developing western Mali through their remittances and other cash transfers, giving it a stronger identity and economic base. Many of them are now deportees who have fallen foul of immigration restrictions in France and other countries.

“The emigrants have been well-organized and have always ensured money gets channeled back, building health centers, schools, even roads,” said Touré, but the economic crisis in Europe and tighter immigration controls are having a serious knock-on effect, and impoverished villages can no longer count on the same level of support.

In Mali the three-month rainy season starts in June, with the heaviest falls in July and August. This is the time when everyone participates in the intense agricultural activity of the main cropping season, which provides most of the food for the rest of the year. The lean period occurs in the driest months, just before the next rains come.

For Kayes, the capital of Mali’s First Region, which borders Mauritania, Senegal and Guinea, 2012 is a particularly tough year. Besides the effects of political turbulence elsewhere in the country and a rebellion in the north, serious food security problems appeared months ago, after sparse rains. Surveys by the government and international agencies identified Kayes and the surrounding areas as particularly vulnerable, and likely to be exposed to severe food shortages as an already impoverished population experienced the impact of failed harvests.

By February, market prices for sorghum, millet, groundnuts and other basic foodstuffs were grossly inflated; food reserves were depleted well ahead of the usual lean season, with alarming shortages of seeds. There were complaints that the government’s emergency food rations had given temporary respite to some villages but had ignored dozens more, as well as serious nutritional concerns, particularly for children. The UN estimated that 1.6 million Malians would be food insecure in 2012.

The events in the capital and the north have overshadowed the food crisis in the west. “A lot of things have been put on standby,” said Abdoulaye Samoura, advocacy officer for NGO Oxfam. “There have been serious delays in getting food distributed.” The dramatic price hikes at local markets in January and February have eased off, but there is no reason for complacency.

“What do you do when there is no food and you have to take care of five, 10, 20 people?” Touré asked. The answer is an exodus of men to Bamako, or across the border into Senegal, or to the gold-mining areas 75 kilometers to the south.

Mariam Cissoko, who heads the women’s section of the Association des Organisations Professionnelles Paysannes – Association of Professional Peasant Farmers (AOPP) – in Kayes, confirms that 2012 has been markedly worse. “It rained for only month of the usual three (in 2011) and that has meant drought and everything that comes with it,” she said.

“For us, the Bambara people, we don’t have the same tradition of emigration as the Soninké. We are agro-pastoralists. If you work the land, you will also have some livestock. But there is a strong spirit of solidarity here. In normal times, if you have something in reserve, you will give to those who don’t. But times like these, people just don’t have anything to spare.”

The priorities are stark. “Feed us and feed our animals,” stressed Cissoko. “If NGOs come and talk to us about education, that is all well and good, but we need food first. Without that, everything falls to pieces. People will get sick. Children won’t go to school. Men may be able to take off and look for opportunities elsewhere, but women and children are stuck where they are.”

Kayes has been described as the second hottest place in Africa after Djibouti. “I grew up here and I remember an abundance of corn. We didn’t have droughts like we get now,” Cissoko told IRIN. “In the hottest months, the temperature normally goes to 42 or 43 degrees Celsius, but last year it was 47 or 48 at times, in the shade. The desert is advancing and the climatic changes are here for everyone to see. It has all come progressively.”

Food aid from the UN World Food Program (WFP) and others may ease the problem, but Cissoko says rural communities in the Kayes region are exhausted by the cycle of drought and dependency. They need long-term practical help as they confront shrinking pasture and ongoing food deficits.

“We need proper cereal banks in villages; we need irrigation systems that protect agriculture; we need a credit system that can work, where people can afford the interest rates,” she told IRIN.

Kayes town lies on the banks of the Senegal River. In stark contrast to the dominating barrenness of the western Sahel, the riverbanks are studded with neatly tended plots yielding tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and other crops. This is all part of the maraîchage, or market gardening, that provides women in particular with a livelihood. “When I was a child, people said: ‘You will never get to plant fruit and vegetables here,’” but they were wrong. That was forty years ago. It began timidly, but the gardening has really picked up.”

But Cissoko acknowledges that cereal production is critical, and Ousmane Touré is equally blunt in demanding that the state and its international partners step up their efforts to help Kayes cope with the food deficits and the devastating drought. “What do you do when there is no food?” he asked. “People will not stay here. Families will disappear.”

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– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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Topeka, KS, United States (AHN) – The first of three very lucky Mega Millions lottery winners has claimed his or her winning share.

The Kansas winner will share the world-record $656 million jackpot with two other unidentified winners in Maryland and Illinois.

Kansas law allows lottery winners to remain anonymous, so in a grand ceremony, Kansas lottery officials presented a jumbo check for an estimated $218 million to a smiling cardboard cut-out figure with the words “anonymous jackpot winner” printed on its chest.

The name, age, and gender of the Kansas winner were not revealed, but lottery authorities said the winner does play the lottery often and is looking forward to retiring. The ticket was sold at Casey’s General Store in the town on Otawa.

The winner chose to take the cash option of $157 million instead of the yearly payments over 26 years, which would have matched the $218 million check.

The winning number in the drawing that caused a country-wide frenzy were: 2-4-23-38-46 with the Mega Ball number 23

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Cairo, Egypt (IRIN) – It has been three months since a fuel shortage hit Egypt, and people’s patience is wearing thin amid fears the crisis could disrupt the production of subsidized bread.

“I move from one petrol station to another every day to find the fuel necessary for the work of the bakery,” Omar Muselhi, a bakery owner from Giza, told IRIN. “I cannot do this for long. If things get worse, I will close down.”

Most of Egypt’s subsidized bakeries need diesel to operate, and some have had to close, for example in the Nile Delta governorate of Monofiya.

Outside Muselhi’s bakery, men, women and children form two long lines, and wait their turn.

“I buy 20 loaves of this bread for one pound, whereas the same number sells for four pounds at unsubsidized bakeries,” said Ayman Farahat, standing in line outside the bakery. “This shows how important these bakeries are for people like me.”

Observers say there is a 35 percent shortfall in fuel supplies. The government blames hoarding for the crisis. Thousands of cars queue outside petrol stations from early morning, while long queues form outside gas cylinder centers.

“We are doing our best to solve the problem, but what is happening is abnormal,” Petroleum Minister Abdallah Ghorab said on 24 March. “Some people take the subsidized fuel and sell it on the black market.”

The Petroleum Ministry has increased daily diesel supplies from 36,000 tons to 38,000 tons; petrol supplies from 16,000 to 18,000 tons; and gas cylinders from one million to 1.3 million.

But despite the move, there are numerous reports of fighting over fuel, reflecting citizens’ exasperation, and the need for further government intervention

Ambulance services are also at risk.

“The drivers go to petrol stations from early morning,” Naeem Rizk, the operations manager at Cairo’s main ambulance point, told IRIN. “Sometimes they spend the whole day waiting, but when their turn comes, they are told the fuel is over.”

When a policeman recently called Rizk to ask for help after he was wounded in a fight against armed men on the outskirts of Cairo, Rizk could not find an ambulance with enough fuel to take the policeman to hospital. The policeman’s colleagues had to call the Interior Ministry to borrow some.

Mohamed Abdullah, a 30-year-old ambulance driver, says his job has become even more stressful. “There are always long queues at petrol stations…This prevents me from reaching patients in time. The patients’ relatives always yell at me.”

Rethinking subsidies

Some economists believe the current crisis may force the government to rethink its fuel subsidies’ policy. Egypt spent the equivalent of US$83.3 billion subsidizing fuel over the past five years, according to the Petroleum Ministry.

“Around 60 percent of these subsidies go to people who do not deserve them,” said Rashad Abdo, a leading economist from Cairo University. “This makes it necessary for the government to rethink these subsidies.”

The government is currently reconsidering its support to major industrial institutions, which account for almost 70 percent of fuel subventions.

“If we can reduce petroleum subsidies by 10 percent, we can channel this money for the building of houses, hospitals, or schools,” said Petroleum Minister Ghorab. “We need to deliver subsidies to those who deserve them,” he was quoted as saying by al Masry Al Youm newspaper on 11 March.

Another government plan envisages the issuing of vouchers to poorer citizens to enable them to buy cooking gas for the equivalent of 83 US cents instead of US$5 for everyone else.

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– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Home prices dropped for the fifth consecutive month in January, reaching the lowest point since the end of 2002.

The average home sold in the first month of 2012 lost 0.8 percent of its value, compared with a month earlier, and prices were down 3.8 percent from 12 months earlier, according to the S&P Case Shiller home price index of 20 major markets report released on Tuesday.

Home prices have tumbled a whopping 34.4 percent from the peak set in July 2006.

While several economic reports have signaled a recovery for the long-ailing housing market, home prices have continued to drop, with new lows seen in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Las Vegas, New York, Portland, Seattle and Tampa.

Only three of the 20 index cities registered gains in January. Phoenix led with a 0.9 percent gain month-over-month, followed up Washington up 0.7 percent and Miami up 0.6 percent.

Potential homebuyers lack confidence in the market, industry analysts note. Lending standards are still tight, and last week the average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to more than 4 percent for the first time since October 2011.

Still looming in the fragile market is the massive number of potential foreclosures,

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