Moldova elects Communist majority in parliament

The Communist Party in the former Soviet republic of Moldova garnered 50.2 percent of the vote in Sunday's national parliamentary election. Moldovans were attracted to the Communists' platform of closer ties with Russia and promises of lower unemployment. The party said it would use food-price controls to lower the current unemployment level of 15 percent. Food prices are one of the key issues in Moldova, one of Europe's poorest states, because its citizens receive an average monthly salary of $30 in an economy whose annual inflation hovers near 26 percent. The Communists' popular electoral program included pledges to add new jobs, revert to a Soviet-era health care system and pay back savings confiscated through a currency change 10 years ago. Their platform also included winning back governmental control of privatized utilities, and the tobacco and alcohol industries. The Communists will receive nearly 70 seats in the nation's 101-seat parliament, in which the western-European aligned Popular Christian Party holds the third most. The communists hailed their victory as "inevitable," claiming that "It is not possible ... to go back to the old times."

The United States

Consumer confidence levels tumble to four-year low

For the fifth straight month, the Consumer Confidence Index fell, reaching its lowest point since June 1996. The main index, which measures the overall confidence level in the economy, fell to 106.8 from 115.7 in January. Experts only predicted a fall to 110.5. More telling may be the fact that a measure of expectations over the next six months fell 13 percent, but there was only a 0.1 percent increase in the number of people that thought it was difficult to find a job. Accompanied by "less than rosey" Commerce Department numbers on new home construction-which fell 10.9 percent in January compared to a 14.9 percent rise in December-forecasters are beginning to worry about the specter of recession. "I'm very disturbed by this," Ian C. Shepherdson, chief domestic economist at High Frequency Economics told The New York Times. "It seems it's going to be very difficult to avoid recession." However, the economy continues to display small growth with key sectors showing increased sales during January. These new surveys fuel the anticipation of the Federal Reserve Board's next move with respect to interest rate cuts before it's next meeting on March 20.

Charlton, Mass.

HMO pays $5.5 million for botched medical exam

Fallon Clinic Inc., six of its doctors, one nurse practitioner and a doctor at St. Vincent's Hospital agreed to pay $5.5 million to settle a malpractice suit brought against them by the family of Patricia Letourneau five years after she suffered massive brain damage which left her unable to move or speak. Letourneau, then a 24-year-old newlywed, visited a Fallon clinic complaining of a sore throat; clinic personnel diagnosed a strep throat and recommended antibiotic treatment. No testing was done, according to The Boston Globe. Over the next four days, as her condition deteriorated, Letourneaus returned to the Fallon clinic and was treated by different doctors who tried more medications. Even when her heart was racing at nearly twice the normal speed, she was released from treatment simply because she was "feeling better," said The Globe. Doctors finally sent her to St. Vincent's when she collapsed at the clinic. Once there, she waited three hours for treatment, during which time her heart stopped-from the infection which had now spread throughout her body-leaving her in a vegetative state. The settlement is the largest pretrial monetary payment in a malpractice case in Massachusetts history.