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Myanmar's movie industry, one of the answers was this: It got harder to earn a living being evil.
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As newer planes meet airlines' needs, Boeing's iconic 747 faces an uncertain future
• For decades, the Boeing 747 was the Queen of the Skies. But the glamorous double-decker jumbo jet that revolutionized air travel and shrunk the globe could be nearing the end of the line.
• Boeing has cut its production target twice in six months. Just 18 will be produced in each of the next two years. Counting cancellations, it hasn't sold a single 747 this year. Some brand-new 747s go into storage as soon as they leave the plant.
• Boeing says it's committed to the 747, and sees a market for it in regions like Asia. But most airlines simply don't want big, four-engine planes anymore. They prefer newer two-engine jets that fly the same distance while burning less fuel.
• "We had four engines when jet engine technology wasn't advanced," Delta Air Lines Inc. CEO Richard Anderson said at a recent conference. "Now jet engines are amazing, amazing machines and you only need two of them."
• Delta inherited 16 747s when it bought Northwest Airlines in 2008. Northwest last ordered a 747 in 2001, according to Flightglobal's Ascend Online Fleets.
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Despite billions in foreign aid over the past 12 years, most Afghans can't find full-time jobs
• KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Hundreds of men, some on crutches, all wearing tattered clothing, gather shortly before dawn at major intersections throughout Kabul and other Afghan cities. Displaying primitive tools such as a level or a trowel, they seek labor that is often backbreaking, always temporary and will earn just a few dollars for a day's work.
• Employers circle the intersections, eyeing the crowds. Usually they are looking for one or two workers for minor construction tasks. Before they even stop, dozens of men swarm their vehicle, fighting with each other to get one of perhaps five or six jobs available that morning.
• Despite billions of dollars from abroad to develop this impoverished country since the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime in 2001, roughly 12 million people, or eight out of every 10 working-age Afghan are unskilled day laborers, according to (Continued on page 30)
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