A self-serving state deliberately impoverishes the countryside, stifling business and sending illiteracy soaring, in favor of building skyscraper-raked metropolises admired by the foreign capitalists it woos.

Gas prices fell for the tenth consecutive day Monday, according to motorist group AAA. Regular unleaded fell to an average of $1.619 a gallon, the lowest since gas hit $1.617 a gallon in January 2004.

U.S. retailers’ sales fell as much as 4 percent during the holiday season, as the weak economy and bad weather created one of the worst holiday shopping climates in modern times, according to data released on Thursday by SpendingPulse.

Gasoline prices declined for the fourth straight day on Tuesday, falling below the $1.66 per gallon mark, according to a national survey of credit card swipes at gasoline stations. The national average fell .4 cents to $1.659 per gallon for regular unleaded, according to motorist group AAA. A recent 86-day streak of declines ended at $1.656 in mid-December when prices bumped slightly higher.

Retirement health care for as many as three-quarters of a million Americans will be placed at high risk if conditions proposed as part of auto rescue loans are enforced by the incoming Congress and Obama administration, labor experts say.

Kuwait’s cabinet may have defused a new row with parliament by bowing to calls to scrap a $17 billion deal with Dow Chemical but the move is a blow to its plans to attract investment and diversify the economy.