The two main cultivated species of the coffee plant are Coffea canephora and Coffea arabica. Arabica coffee (from C. arabica) is considered more suitable for drinking than robusta coffee (from C. canephora); robusta tends to be bitter and have less flavor than arabica. For this reason, about three-quarters of coffee cultivated worldwide is C. arabica. However, C. canephora is less susceptible to disease than C. arabica and can be cultivated in environments where C. arabica will not thrive.

Brazil remains the largest coffee exporting nation, but in recent years Vietnam has become a major producer of robusta beans. Colombia is the third exporter and the largest producer of washed arabica coffee. Robusta coffees, traded in London at much lower prices than New York's arabica, are preferred by large industrial clients, such as multinational roasters and instant coffee producers, because of the lower cost. Four single roaster companies buy more than 50 percent of all of the annual production: Kraft, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, and Sara Lee. The preference of the "Big Four" coffee companies for cheap robusta is believed by many to have been a major contributing factor to the crash in coffee prices, and the demand for high-quality arabica beans is only slowly recovering.

Here

WASHINGTON – Old people get sick more than young people, and in most states that adds up to them paying a lot more for their health insurance premiums.
President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats want to restrict that practice as part of a top-to-bottom reshaping of the nation's health care system, a change that will help them politically with aging Americans skeptical about the government's plans. Urging them to do it is AARP, the powerful senior citizens' lobby, which says making older people pay more amounts to age discrimination.
On the opposite side is the health insurance industry, which says it's an unavoidable business decision because premiums are based on expected expenses and older people have higher health care costs.
Caught in the middle are people like Colleen Malone-Engel, 53, of Culver City, Calif., who says her insurance premiums jumped when she turned 50 even though she's in good health.
"I don't think it's fair," said Malone-Engel, whose name was provided to The Associated Press by AARP. "I understand why the insurance companies do that — because they know that older people need more health care — but I was pretty stunned to have that hit me at 50. Because 50 is still young."
Age rating has the biggest impact on people like Malone-Engel who are in their 50s or early 60s and buy coverage plans directly from insurers. Once they turn 65 they become eligible for Medicare and it's no longer an issue.
In states without restrictions on the practice — around a dozen limit it to one degree or another — insurance companies will typically charge six or seven times as much to older customers as to younger ones. For example, a 20-year-old might be able to buy an insurance plan for a monthly premium of $100 that would cost a 60-year-old $700.
The price difference could happen even if the 20-year-old is overweight, while the 60-year-old exercises and has no health problems. However, other factors, such as whether someone smokes, also are considered by companies when setting premiums.
House Democrats have proposed imposing an age rating limit of 2 to 1, meaning that a 60-year-old could only be charged twice as much as a 20-year-old based on age. That's the level embraced by AARP, but insurance companies say it could drive premium prices up for younger workers by as much as 59 percent. They say young people would be bearing larger costs because there would be less flexibility to charge older people more money.
An estimated 40 percent of the uninsured are between the ages of 18 to 34.
"We're very concerned that the impact is to raise rates so much for young people as to make it unaffordable," said Alissa Fox, a top lobbyist for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
Higher rates could have the effect of discouraging younger people from buying insurance, resulting in fewer healthy people in the insured population and more costly premiums for all, Blue Cross and Blue Shield wrote in a joint letter with America's Health Insurance Plans. The letter was sent to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., on Sept. 23.
In his committee's bill, Baucus originally had proposed a 5 to 1 age rating limit. But after complaints from more liberal Democrats — who prefer the 2 to 1 ratio embraced by the House and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — Baucus lowered it to 4 to 1.
The move by Baucus pleased no one. Insurers already thought the 5 to 1 ratio was too compressed and said 4 to 1 was even worse. AARP said it was a step in the right direction but still not good enough.
"Some people would characterize this as an age discrimination issue," said AARP Executive Vice President John Rother.
It's uncertain where age rating will end up in any final bill that passes Congress, and Obama's position is unclear. The White House Web site says Obama's plan "will limit premium variation based on age" but doesn't give any details, and a spokeswoman declined to elaborate.
Baucus aides said they tried to strike a balance between making coverage affordable for older people and getting young people into the market, but some committee Democrats are still pushing for a 2 to 1 limit. They say they hope to prevail with help from seniors monitoring the debate.
"Now they're watching the Congress talk about health care reform and the Congress is talking about passing a law that says it's OK to make them pay four times more than somebody else. And I just think the Congress will have to do better," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in an interview.

CALAIS, France (AFP) –
French riot police on Tuesday rounded up scores of mainly Afghan migrants in a dawn raid on a makeshift camp known as the "Jungle," used as a base to make risky attempts to reach Britain.

Minor scuffles broke out between police and some 80 activists who set up a human chain around the camp dwellers in the Channel port of Calais, but the migrants did not resist as they were led away one by one.

Immigration Minister Eric Besson said 276 people were detained in a two-hour raid involving 500 officers and he hailed the operation as a key blow to smuggling networks.

Besson warned of more raids to come on nearby squats and camps.

"This is the end of the law of the jungle and of people-traffickers," Besson told reporters as he toured the sandy scrubland, where bulldozers and woodcutters were tearing down the shacks and tents.

The camp's makeshift mosque was taken down by hand and Besson said its contents would be transferred to the Calais mosque.

The police operation "targeted the tools of the criminal gangs who sell migrants passage to Britain, exploit them and have them living in what had become an open air garbage dump," he said.

Nearly half the migrants identified themselves as minors and were to be taken to shelters, he said. The adults will be offered the chance to apply for asylum, money for a voluntary return home or a place in a shelter.

For adults who refuse, France would "consider a forced return to the country of origin," based on a case-by-case assessment of the security risks involved for them. He did not confirm how many of those detained were Afghans.

From a peak of 700 mostly Afghan Pashtuns in the "jungle" in June, aid groups say two thirds had fled ahead of the operation, heading to Britain, Belgium, Holland, Norway or elsewhere.

After a watchful night, the remaining dwellers rose at dawn with the muezzin's call, performing morning ablutions before bracing for the raid.

The men and boys huddled together behind banners that pleaded with the authorities for shelter, but were led away, some in tears.

Eighteen-year-old Bilal Hazarbauz said: "Maybe they will deport me to Afghanistan.

"But where else can we go? This is our home, there is no other place."

Besson said the Calais crisis was partly caused by the lack of a coherent European Union migration policy, saying states should agree to share the asylum burden more fairly, while boosting the powers of the border police Frontex.

Thousands of mainly male migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq and other troubled nations, have headed to Calais in the past decade to try to jump on a truck, ferry or a train crossing to Britain.

The "jungle" sprung up after the authorities closed a shelter at Sangatte, near Calais, in 2002 because of crime and British accusations that it was a magnet for migrants.

Calais officials said the situation had become unbearable, with a spike in offences against locals and appalling sanitary conditions blamed for a recent outbreak of scabies.

In Britain, which stopped 28,000 people trying to cross the Channel last year, Home Secretary Alan Johnson hailed the crackdown as "decisive."

But activists denounced it as a media stunt, that would not stop migrants heading to Calais and instead drive them further underground.

"It's a scandal," said Jean-Claude Lenoir of the Salam migrant support group. "We can't have soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and treat Afghans seeking refuge here with such little dignity."

Aid groups predict many will end up back on the streets.

"They are going to be scattered across the countryside, at the mercy of traffickers," said Lenoir. "At least here the young people had built a kind of community. It's tragic."

From Saint Malo in Brittany to the Belgian border, aid groups still count some 17 migrant camps and squats along the Channel coast, where hundreds of Iraqis, Afghans or Eritreans await their attempt at the British El Dorado.

TULSA, Okla. – Oil and gas company Ram Energy Resources Inc. said Monday it received a notification letter from the Nasdaq Stock Market for failing to maintain listing requirements.
For the past 30 consecutive business days, the bid price of the company's stock has closed below the minimum $1 per share required for continued listing on the stock exchange.
RAM has been given 180 days to regain compliance with the minimum bid price rule of $1 per share for a period of at least 10 consecutive trading days.
Provided the company meets all other listing requirements, it will be given a second 180 day period to comply with the minimum bid requirement.
"RAM's share price, like that of approximately 200 other companies currently not in compliance with NASDAQ's minimum bid rule, has not fully recovered from the dramatic overall market volatility of the past year despite its substantial rise from the low price recorded earlier this year," said Larry Lee, president and CEO of Ram Energy.
Shares of Ram added 6 cents, or 5.2 percent, to close at $1.22.