Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and energy bills.

NEW YORK, Oct. 21--The calculus of living paycheck to paycheck in America is getting harder. What used to last four days might last half that long now. Pay the gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can have a healthy dinner.
Across the nation, Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and energy bills. It’s starting to affect middle-income working families as well as the poor, and has reached the point of affecting day-to-day calculations of merchants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 7-Eleven Inc. and Family Dollar Stores Inc., AP reported
Food pantries, which distribute foodstuffs to the needy, are reporting severe shortages and reduced government funding at the very time that they are seeing a surge of new people seeking their help.
While economists debate whether the country is headed for a recession, some say the financial stress is already the worst since the last downturn at the start of this decade.
From Family Dollar to Wal-Mart, merchants have adjusted their product mix and pricing accordingly. Sales data show a marked and more prolonged drop in spending in the days before shoppers get their paychecks, when they buy only the barest essentials before splurging around payday.
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said the imbalance in spending before and after payday in July was the biggest it has ever seen, though the drop-off wasn’t as steep in August.
And 7-Eleven says its grocery sales have jumped 12-13 percent over the past year, compared with only slight increases for non-necessities like gloves and toys. Shoppers can’t afford to load up at the supermarket and are going to the most convenient places to buy emergency food items like milk and eggs.
With the fastest-rising food and energy prices since the 1980s, low-income consumers are stretching their budgets by eating cheap foods like peanut butter and pasta.
Industry analysts and some economists fear the strain will get worse as people are hit with higher home heating bills this winter and mortgage rates go up.
Many consumers, particularly those making less than $30,000 a year, are cutting spending on nutritious food like milk and vegetables, and analysts fear they’re further skimping on basic medical care and other critical services.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21ÑThe economies of sub-Saharan Africa, home to some of the most extreme and pervasive poverty in the world, will grow at a healthy pace next year, International Monetary Fund economists said on Saturday.
The news came at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank this weekend, where leaders of the latter group are trying to raise money to fight poverty on the continent--and grappling with the difficulty of trying to help some of the world’s poorest people, many of whom live in countries with considerably corrupt governance, Google News reported.
The fund’s projections have African nations growing more slowly than emerging East Asia, but on the right track; its economists expect 6 percent growth in total output forecast this year and nearly 7 percent growth in 2008. Inflation has been contained across most of Africa, excluding Zimbabwe (where there has been hyperinflation recently), according to the fund’s annual regional economic outlook.
“African economic policies are far better than in the past,“ Abdoulaye Bio-Tchan, African development director of the IMF, said of the improvement. “Deficits are going down, inflation is going down, and as I suggested, the growth rate is picking up based on those strong policies.“
Robert B. Zoellick, president of the World Bank, is trying to raise nearly $40 billion over the coming months for a fund that will pay for development projects for the world’s 81 poorest nations, most of them in Africa. But raising the money is likely to be challenging. Many nations are facing tight budgets and wish to control their aid activities themselves rather than turn money over to the World Bank as an intermediary.
Developing countries such as China and India are home to hundreds of millions of very poor individuals, but those countries can handily raise money for development projects through private capital. The countries that don’t have access to private capital markets and thus most need help from an organization like the World Bank tend to have unstable or corrupt governments.
Zoellick said last week that the bank’s role must go beyond financing roads, dams and other infrastructure. “Our real role is helping to create the markets, the intermediation, the institutions, so these things go on long beyond us.“

Despite the success of the Toyota Motors Hybrid vehicle, automakers are still hedging their bets on green technologies, with electricity, biofuels, clean diesel and fuel cells also seen as potential alternative power sources.

TOKYO, Oct. 21--Many of the whacky vehicles unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show over the years have been consigned to the annals of auto history. When Toyota wheeled out a futuristic Prius prototype in 1995 powered by a combination of petrol and electricity, many believed it would go the same way.
Twelve years later, its rivals are still trying to catch up and the hybrid will remain center stage when the show gets under way again this week. But the hybrid is not the only contender in the fuel efficiency race, with a host of environmentally-friendly technologies snapping at its heels, AFP reported.
Despite the success of the Prius, automakers are still hedging their bets on green technologies, with electricity, biofuels, clean diesel and fuel cells also seen as potential alternative power sources.
“The future is not just about hybrids,“ said Christopher Richter, an auto analyst at the investment bank CLSA. “When I talk to automakers I sense a lot of uncertainty about what is going to be the dominant technology going forward,“ he said.
“Toyota has made a big push into hybrids, but other makers are looking at clean diesel. We’re looking at a cocktail of different (technologies) that are going to be present, probably for the next few decades.“
Japanese automakers are competing to be the first to launch low pollution diesel engines, which some analysts predict could eventually become more popular than petrol-electric hybrids due to their lower production cost. And one day hybrids and clean diesel vehicles may come together.
“My guess is that in future actually many of the gasoline and diesel engines are going to be equipped with hybrid (technology). It’s not really diesel against hybrid,“ said Credit Suisse auto analyst Koji Endo.
Nissan, which was slower than Toyota and Honda to embrace hybrids, plans to launch its first clean diesel engine vehicle in Japan in the second half of next year and will try to drum up interest in the technology at the motor show.
Richter at CLSA said diesel hybrid was “a very interesting possibility but still very costly.“
Unsurprisingly, hybrids will dominate Toyota’s stand at the show, which gets under way on Wednesday and opens to the public from Saturday.

This NASA handout photo shows the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft transported by railcar to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, Oct. 21--In this remote and rusting town on the barren steppes of Central Asia, the space race and the Sputnik era seem much more than a memory. Rockets still pierce the heavens in a halo of smoke during launches, and engineers and military men still celebrate a successful launch, AP wrote.
What has changed are the passengers. Nowadays Baikonur embraces the world, from wealthy space tourists to the world’s first Malaysian cosmonaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who blasted off for the international space station on Oct. 10.
The city itself is a rusting relic of the golden age of Russian rocketry, yet if anything, its place in the space industry is heading toward expansion. For at least four years after the space shuttle program ends in 2010, the US will completely depend on Russia--and BaikonurÑto send its crews to the international space station.
Facilities and equipment are workable but old. The launch pad used this month was the same one that blasted Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961 to become the first man in space. Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, took off nearby in 1957.
Even the technology hasn’t changed much. The Soyuz spacecraft designed in the mid-1960s is still in service, somewhat modified. It can only be used once, but costs just US$25 million. The newest Endeavor space shuttle cost US$2 billion, but is reusable.
The town of 70,000 is isolated from the outside world by hundreds of miles (kilometers) of scrubland. Baikonur, once one of the Soviet Union’s most secret cities, is still closed to outsiders and surrounded by barbed wire.
Russia rents Baikonur from Kazakhstan for US$115 million a year. The mayor is jointly appointed by the Russian and Kazakh presidents.
As Russia’s economy has recovered and oil prices swell, Moscow has begun spending on Baikonur again. The city also benefits from Russia’s booming trade in commercial satellite launches and space tourism. In April, Charles Simonyi, the US billionaire who helped design Microsoft Word and Excel, became the world’s fifth such tourist, spending US$25 million to visit the space station.
So despite its Soviet character, Baikonur remains a magnet for Russians and Kazakhs looking for a decent job.
The town is expected to remain the world’s primary space gate for decades to come.

BEIJING, Oct. 21--China is likely to become the world’s second largest consumer market by 2015, said a report released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on Saturday.
The report is based on a survey of 4,258 consumers in 13 Chinese cities from February to March 2007. According to the report, Chinese consumers are experiencing unprecedented wealth growth which is 3 to 5 times faster than developed countries in the past 50 years, Xinhua reported.
Most Chinese consumers plan to spend more in near future to fulfill their family dreams.
“The past decade of rapid economic growth has brought prosperity but also uncertainty, resulting in a highly complex consumer market with diverse consumer attitudes,“ said Hubert Hsu, senior partner and managing director of BCG, at a press conference in Beijing. “Capturing the next wave of consumer growth in China will involve developing deep consumer insights,“ said Hsu.
The report said there are significant generational differences in terms of spending attitude among Chinese consumers. The strong interest in trading, which means spending more money for more expensive products, was driven up by consumers’ increasing desire for better goods and services and rising concern over safety and quality of cheap products.
Chinese consumers put more faith in brand names compared with the US consumers and they believe good brand represents quality, safety, effectiveness and durability, said Hsu. The report suggested that global suppliers in China should establish strong relationships with China’s treasure-hunting consumers, provide the kinds of products that appeal to customers’ tastes.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21--The global credit crisis and volatility across developed financial markets could yet hurt Russia and hinder long-term investment, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said late on Saturday. “It is still early to say that we have moved through the risk zone; inflows and outflows could still increase,“ Kudrin told reporters after taking part in an annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
“The period of influence on Russia from certain crises in the West has still not passed,“ he said. “It was recognized that today it is still to early to talk about stability on Western currency and stock markets“, Reuters reported.
A global credit squeeze sparked by concerns over how to value high-risk US mortgage-backed securities has made it harder for borrowers in Russia and neighboring Kazakhstan to access debt markets and drained financial sector liquidity.
Kudrin, who oversees Russia’s fiscal and monetary policy, said Russia was in a strong position to ride out external shocks thanks to its vast gold and foreign exchange reserves, which rose to a record $434 billion on October 12. But he said high inflation and the appreciation of the rouble made Russia attractive for “speculative capital.“
Russia attracted heavy capital inflows in the first half of 2007, but they went sharply into reverse as the credit crunch hit in August.
Inflows resumed after the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates on September 18, as portfolio investors increased their exposure to emerging markets. Many analysts say the rouble is undervalued and should be allowed to rise to contain inflation.
“In conditions of high inflation and the appreciation of the rouble we remain attractive for speculative capital,“ Kudrin said. “Accordingly we are unable to fully hold the money supply and this influences inflation, and this in turn influences the volatility of capital flows and liquidity.“
Russia’s central bank runs a managed float of the rouble and typically buys oil export dollars on the currency market to eliminate appreciation pressures on the Russian currency that might undermine the country’s economic competitiveness.
Dollar-buying intervention totaled around $10 billion in the first 12 days of October, the head of the central bank, Sergei Ignatyev, said at the beginning of this week.
Kudrin said the measures to boost liquidity were fuelling inflation.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly told the government to get a grip on price rises after ministers admitted that inflation would miss this year’s 8 percent inflation target.

BERLIN, Oct. 21--Germany’s longest bridge, linking the country’s northeast with the Baltic sea tourist island of Ruegen, was inaugurated Saturday in a bid to reduce traffic jams and rake in revenue.
Spanning 4.1 kilometers (2.6 miles) and reaching a height of 42 meters above the ocean, the new, three-lane bridge was built in just over three years, and can carry up to 23,000 vehicles daily, AFP reported.
Officials hope it will relieve the traffic-choked, 71-year-old Ruegendamm span which served as the only connection between the island and mainland until now.
“With its 128-metre pylon as the highest architectonic point, this bridge is a plus for German architecture and construction,“ German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tienfensee said, during the inauguration ceremony.
The bridge expected to be open to pedestrians Saturday and Sunday before opening to vehicle traffic as of Monday.
The Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania region hopes the new, 125-million-euro (178-million-dollar) link will prove an economic and tourism boon, given the popularity of Ruegen island.