Rights group: Angola must drop journalist charges

JOHANNESBURG — A rights group on Monday called on Angola to drop criminal defamation charges against an investigative journalist who wrote a book on human rights abuses in Angola's diamond-rich region.

Rafael Marques de Morais attended a hearing on July 31 for 10 new lawsuits that were brought against him, along with one pre-existing suit, Human Rights Watch said. The lawsuits revolve around a book that alleges Angolan generals own a diamond company and a security firm that carried out killings and the torture of workers toiling in the southern African nation's mines.

Marques is one of Angola's most prominent investigative journalists, who has also exposed corruption cases and human rights violations through his blog, the group said. Several high-ranking Angolan generals brought the suit against Marques. The journalist had filed a criminal complaint against the plaintiffs in 2011, which were shelved.

The rights group called on Angola to repeal its criminal defamation laws, which are the basis for the charges against Marques. Neither Marques nor his lawyer were allowed to review the materials related to the lawsuits, Human Rights Watch said.

"Angola has found its criminal defamation laws very useful to try to squelch reports about corruption and human rights violations," said Human Rights Watch deputy Africa director Leslie Lefkow. "Angola should be investigating these reports of serious human rights violations instead of trying to silence the bearers of bad news."

A number of journalists have been prosecuted in recent years by senior government officials for defamation, which is a criminal offense in Angola, the group said.

Marques was sentenced to six months in prison and payment of damages after being convicted of defaming President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos in 2002. The U.N. Human Rights Committee ordered Angola in 2005 to pay damages to Marques for wrongful conviction, though the government has yet to carry out those orders, Human Rights Watch said.

In February, Portuguese prosecutors threw out a libel suit brought by nine Angolan generals against Marques. His book, "Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola," was published in Portugal, Angola's former colonial ruler.

The Lisbon Attorney General's office issued a ruling that said it decided the book falls within the scope of legitimate use of a legal right — freedom of expression and information — which is constitutionally guaranteed.

Angola's government is accused of corruption and mismanagement of the country's oil and diamond riches.

The country was a Cold War battlefield for 27 years, with Cuban soldiers and Soviet money supporting dos Santos' government and apartheid South Africa and the United States backing UNITA. Half a million people died in the war, and more than 4 million — a third of the population — were displaced and much infrastructure was destroyed.

Since the war ended in 2002, Angola has dominated the list of the world's fastest growing economies and is sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest oil producer, after Nigeria. Oil-backed credit lines from China — Angola is China's No. 1 oil supplier and its second biggest importer is the United States — have fueled a building boom of houses, hospitals, schools, roads and bridges.

But 87 percent of urban Angolans live in shanty towns, often with no access to clean water, according to UNICEF, and more than a third of Angolans live below the poverty line. Meanwhile, human rights activists accuse government and military officials of looting their country's oil and diamond wealth.

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Campbell negotiating to sell European business

NEW YORK — Campbell Soup says it's in final negotiations to sell its European business to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum, the latest move by CEO Denise Morrison to reshape the company.

The proposed sale includes the company's soups, sauces and other products that are sold under a variety of names in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany and Sweden. The deal, which is not yet final, doesn't include products in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Middle East or Africa, or the export of its Pepperidge Farm baked goods.

The announcement is just the latest structural change for the soup maker since Morrison took over two years ago. Morrison has vowed to right the company's struggling canned soup business in the U.S. and has been moving to diversify with the type of fresher products that are growing in popularity.

Campbell Soup Co. recently purchased Bolthouse Farms, which makes premium juices, salad dressings and baby carrots, as well as Plum Organics, which makes food for babies and kids.

The company noted that the proposed sale of the European brands, which includes four plants, is subject to regulatory approvals.

"It's not a definitive agreement, therefore we can't provide any more detail," said Carla Burigatto, a Campbell representative. She did not immediately know whether any of the company's namesake products are sold in the countries named in the deal.

Campbell, based in Camden, N.J., says the brands included in the deal generate annual sales of $530 million. That represents about 7 percent of the company's net sales last year. Among the brands being sold are Devos Lemmens and Royco in Belgium, Liebig and Royco in France, Erasco in Germany and Bia Band in Sweden.

Campbell's European business is based in Belgium and employs around 1,300 people, according to CVC Capital.

Campbell said deal would be expected to close in the first quarter of its fiscal 2014.

Its stock was down almost 1 percent at $47.35. Shares are up almost 39 percent over the past year.

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CEO to take Dole Food private in $1.21B deal

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — Dole Food said Monday its CEO will take it private, in a deal that values the company at approximately $1.21 billion.

Dole shareholders will receive $13.50 per share, a 5 percent premium to its $12.81 Friday closing price. This is a sweetened bid for the fresh fruits and vegetable business, up from the $12 per share Chairman and CEO David Murdock offered in June.

Dole currently has about 89.9 million outstanding shares, according to FactSet.

The company put the transaction's total value at about $1.6 billion, which includes debt.

Dole Food Company Inc.'s stock jumped 64 cents, or 5 percent, to $13.45 in morning trading. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $9.25 to $15.19.

Dole has gone through a number of major changes recently.

It sold its packaged foods and Asia fresh business for $1.69 billion in a deal that closed in April. That allowed Dole to become solely an international commodity produce company, with a narrower focus that also makes its earnings more volatile.

In May, Dole said it would indefinitely suspend its $200 million share repurchase program and use its cash instead to update its shipping fleet to enhance growth prospects. The company said that another factor in the suspension of the repurchase plan was the drag on earnings, due to recent losses in its strawberry business.

The acquisition will be financed with cash and equity from Murdock and financing committed by Deutsche Bank, Bank of America and The Bank of Nova Scotia.

Dole's board unanimously approved the offer, which still needs the approval of at least a majority of outstanding shares held by stockholders other than Murdock and his affiliates. Murdock abstained from the board vote.

Dole, which is based in Westlake Village, Calif., will have a 30-day go-shop period in which it can actively seek out alternative bids from other parties.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

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Greece beats budget targets so far this year

ATHENS, Greece — Greece is beating its budget targets by a wide margin so far this year, finance ministry figures showed Monday, a sign the country's painful cost cuts and tax increases, combined with international bailout funds, are paying off.

The economy, however, remains deep in recession and unemployment at a record high.

Deputy Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said preliminary figures show the state budget had a primary surplus — which excludes interest payments on debt — of 2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) euros for the January-July period.

That is a far better result than its target of a 3.1 billion euro ($4.2 billion) deficit, and marks the first time the government has logged a significant primary surplus.

The actual deficit, including interest payments, came in at 1.9 billion euros, also better than the targeted 7.5 billion euros deficit, the finance ministry's figures showed. In the same period last year, the country posted a 13.2 billion-euro deficit.

The deficit now stands at 1 percent of gross domestic product, from 6.8 percent in the same period last year, Staikouras said.

Greece has depended on international rescue loans since 2010. In return, it has pledged to overhaul its economy, and has imposed repeated waves of austerity measures. It has reduced spending across the board, including cuts to state salaries and pensions, and increased taxes.

The improvements in the budget this year were achieved by a combination of cutting spending and increased revenues in some taxes.

It was also helped by a one-off payment of about 1.5 billion euros from other European central banks. The money came from Greek government bonds that the European Central Bank had bought earlier during the financial crisis. Rather than keep the money accrued on the bonds, the ECB handed it down to the 17 national central banks in the eurozone, who in turn gave it to the Greek government.

Despite the improvements, the economy remains in trouble.

Unemployment hit a record of 27.6 percent in May. Almost two-thirds of young people are without a job. The country is mired in the sixth year of a deep recession that has seen the economy shrink by about a quarter, though the latest figures suggested a slight easing in the drop.

The statistical authority on Monday said economic output shrank by 4.6 percent in the second quarter of 2013, compared with the same three months last year. That is less than the 5.6 percent it contracted in the first quarter of the year.

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras welcomed the figures, saying they showed "a clear slowing of the recession."

"We are closing a period with good results, which I'm sure we will continue," he said, during the signing of the sale of a 33 percent stake in the country's gambling monopoly, OPAP.

The sale to a Czech-Greek investment fund, Emma Delta, is part of an ambitious but long-delayed privatization program that is part of the country's bailout conditions.

Greece sold the stake in OPAP for 654 million euros ($874.59 million), the country's asset development fund said.

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UK bars trash cans from tracking people with Wi-Fi

LONDON — Officials demanded Monday that an advertising firm stop using a network of high-tech trash cans to track people walking through London's financial district.

The Renew ad firm has been using technology embedded in the hulking receptacles to measure the Wi-Fi signals emitted by smartphones, and suggested that it would apply the concept of "cookies" — tracking files that follow Internet users across the Web — to the physical world.

"We will cookie the street," Renew Chief Executive Kaveh Memari said in June.

But the City of London Corporation insisted that Renew pull the plug on the program, which captures smartphones' serial numbers and analyzes signal strength to follow people up and down the street. Renew didn't immediately return a call seeking comment on whether it would comply with the authorities' demand.

The trash cans join a host of everyday objects from televisions to toilets that are being manufactured with the ability to send and receive data, opening up new potential for interaction — and surveillance.

It's unclear how Renew had planned to use the data, which were gathered by its reinforced, shoulder-height pods stationed near St. Paul's Cathedral and Liverpool Street Station.

But if a company could see that a certain smartphone user spent 20 minutes in a McDonald's every day, it could approach Burger King about airing an ad on the bin's video display whenever that user walks by at lunchtime. Or it could target its commercials in real time by distinguishing between people who work in the area and visiting tourists.

The prospect drew comparisons to the creepy "Good evening, John Anderton" ads from the Tom Cruise thriller "Minority Report."

Renew first tested the technology using 12 trash cans in May, but the story didn't get traction until last week when a sudden burst of publicity surrounding the "spy bins" put authorities on the defensive.

"Anything that happens like this on the streets needs to be done carefully, with the backing of an informed public," read a statement from the City of London Corporation, which is responsible for the city's historic "square mile," home to financial institutions, law firms and tourist landmarks.

A spokesman for the body said it had been blindsided the tests, which he said it learned about through the press only last week.

Britain's data protection watchdog said it would investigate, while Nick Pickles of the privacy advocacy group Big Brother Watch said questions need to be asked "about how such a blatant attack on people's privacy was able to occur."

In a recent statement, Memari said media coverage of the "spy bins" had been a bit breathless.

"A lot of what had been extrapolated is capabilities that could be developed and none of which are workable right now," he said.

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Online:

Renew: http://renewlondon.com

City of London Corporation: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://raphae.li/twitter

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Slower Japanese growth weighs on markets

LONDON — Weaker-than-expected economic growth in Japan weighed on markets Monday on what is a fairly light day on the global economic calendar.

The main indicator of the day was the 2.6 percent annualized second-quarter growth rate recorded in Japan, the world's third-largest economy. The number was below the 3.8 percent rate recorded in the first quarter and the 3.6 percent predicted by analysts and dented sentiment around the world.

Investors are concerned that the big monetary stimulus that is being pursued by the government may not be reaping the rewards hoped for. Japan is trying to come out of a two-decade economic stagnation. The Nikkei 225 index slid back following the news, to end the day 0.7 percent lower at 13,519.43, while the yen fell. The dollar was up 0.1 percent at 96.45 yen.

The slower growth could make it difficult for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to carry out plans to raise the sales tax by 3 percentage points in April to improve public finances. The tax is now 5 percent.

"Raising the consumption tax is key to long-term fiscal consolidation in Japan," said Lee Hardman, an analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. He said that if Abe doesn't raise the tax as planned, he "would risk undermining foreign investor confidence" in his policies.

Following the Japanese news, stock markets in Europe and the U.S. were lackluster amid a dearth of economic data.

Britain's FTSE 100 shed 0.1 percent to close at 6,574.34 while Germany's DAX rose 0.3 percent to 8,359.25. The CAC-40 in France lost 0.1 percent to 4,071.68.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.1 percent at 15,416.74 while the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.1 percent to 1,689.41.

Last week, U.S. stocks suffered their worst week since June amid worries over when the U.S. Federal Reserve will start to reduce its monetary stimulus. Recent comments from a raft of Fed officials have indicated that it may start as soon as September.

This week's U.S. economic data, including retail sales figures for July, will be assessed in the context of when the Fed will begin the so-called tapering.

Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets, said it seems investors are becoming concerned about the Fed's timing and reluctant to push stock indexes any higher.

"Given the proximity to all-time highs it appears that prudence is taking precedence over risk, with little in the way of new factors to stimulate new buying," he added.

In Europe, the main point of interest will be Wednesday's second-quarter economic growth figures for the 17-country eurozone. Most analysts think that the region will post modest growth, which will mean it emerged from recession.

Earlier in Asia, a possible upswing in China's economy helped boost stocks in Hong Kong and on mainland China.

Data released Friday showed a 9.7 percent rise in China's industrial production for July. Some other indicators such as auto sales also showed improvement. Analysts said the figures added weight to the argument that the recent soft patch in the world's second-largest economy may have come to an end.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 2.1 percent to 22,271.28. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.4 percent to 2,101.28. The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.3 percent to 1,009.13.

Elsewhere, the euro was 0.1 percent lower at $1.3312 while a barrel of benchmark New York crude oil was 9 cents lower at $105.88.

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BlackBerry weighs putting itself up for sale

TORONTO — BlackBerry will consider selling itself after the long-awaited debut of its new phones failed to turn around the struggling smartphone maker.

The company said Monday that its board has formed a special committee to explore "strategic alternatives" in hopes of enhancing the company's value and boosting adoption of its BlackBerry 10 platform.

The company said its options could also include joint ventures, partnerships, or other moves.

The Canadian company's stock jumped 5.2 percent to $10.26 in midday trading Monday.

The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, had been the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people and other consumers before Apple debuted the iPhone in 2007 and showed that phones can handle much more than email and phone calls. BlackBerry Ltd. has since been hammered by competition from the iPhone as well as Android-based rivals. In January, the company unveiled new phones running a revamped operating system called BlackBerry 10 designed to better compete. But its market share continues to lag, and the company warned in June of future losses.

Mike Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, said sales are getting worse even with price reductions for the new phones.

"Now they have to go to the next step of what's best for the company and shareholders to survive long term because it doesn't look promising on BlackBerry 10 sales," Walkley said.

Monday's announcement marks the second time BlackBerry has said it has hired bankers to help weigh its options since Thorsten Heins became CEO in early 2012. The company had faced numerous delays modernizing its operating system with the BlackBerry 10. During that time, it had to cut more than 5,000 jobs, and shareholder wealth declined by more than $70 billion.

Heins had said then he was not actively looking to sell BlackBerry, but wanted to be prepared given the challenging environment. He ended up focusing on launching BlackBerry 10 this year, but the company warned in June of future losses.

The strategic review will be headed by Timothy Dattels, who joined BlackBerry's board last year and is a senior partner at TPG Capital, one of the world's largest private equity firms.

BlackBerry also announced Monday that board member Prem Watsa, the company's largest investor with a 9.9 percent stake, resigned from the board "due to potential conflicts that may arise during the process."

Watsa could be a bidder. Watsa has said that he believes BlackBerry can turn itself around, but that it might take three to five years. He's the founder of insurance company Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. and is one of Canada's best-known investors.

Watsa stepping down from the board doesn't necessarily mean he's interested in buying the company, Walkley said — if Watsa were interested, he would have made that move some time ago.

But BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said Watsa, partnered with some financial backers like a pension fund, could be bidders. He said technology companies like Apple, Google or Microsoft would not be interested because already have their own mobile platforms.

"Anyone who is a player in the space has taken a sniff and moved on," Gillis said. "Now you've got financials."

Gillis also said he doesn't see Canadian or U.S. regulators allowing BlackBerry to be owned by a Chinese company. Major clients like the U.S. Department of Defense would abandon the company, he said.

"Its core reputation for security would fall apart really fast," Gillis said.

Gillis said if BlackBerry is able to find a private buyer it would allow management to focus on a turnaround and get out of the glaring public spotlight.

"If they can get it done they should absolutely do it. If they have a future it would be better to do out of the public eye," Gillis said.

BlackBerry said in its release that there can be no assurance that the exploration process will result in any transaction and declined further comment unless and until its board approves a specific sale or concludes a review of strategic alternatives.

JP Morgan Chase & Co. is serving as its financial adviser and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Torys LLP are legal advisers.

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Feds: Trinidad casino owner stiffed US on taxes

NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey man is charged with failing to pay taxes on nearly $4 million in earnings from a casino he owned in Trinidad.

David Migliore is scheduled to make an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Newark. He's charged with failing to pay taxes on about $3.9 million in income for 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The U.S. attorney's office says Migliore owned the Island Club Casino in Trinidad as well as several limited liability corporations in New Jersey.

The 50-year-old Brielle resident faces three counts of tax evasion and three counts of failing to file personal income taxes. A message seeking comment was left for his attorney.

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Maine company seeks approval to make absinthe

OAKLAND, Maine — A Maine company is awaiting the OK from the federal government to begin producing and selling absinthe, an alcoholic beverage that was banned in the U.S. until 2007.

Tree Spirits of Oakland has created its first gallon of the anise-flavored spirit, which was banned for nearly a century due to unfounded concerns it contained high levels of a chemical compound that made it hallucinogenic.

Before the absinthe can be sold, the alcohol and the label it'll be sold under have to be approved by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Tree Spirits co-owner Bruce Olson tells the Morning Sentinel (http://bit.ly/17J6dkL ) he and his business partner could get approval and start selling the product within two months, making them the first in Maine to receive approval for the drink.

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Information from: Morning Sentinel, http://www.onlinesentinel.com/

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Car company's big plans haven't come to fruition

TUNICA, Miss. — It seemed like a win for everyone involved when a startup car company, backed by political heavyweights, wooed investors with plans to build a massive auto plant in the Mississippi Delta, hire thousands of people and pump out a brand new line of fuel-efficient vehicles.

GreenTech Automotive Inc. announced in 2009 production would start in three years and foreign investors who plunked down at least $500,000 for the venture would get the opportunity to live in the United States while an impoverished area of Mississippi would get desperately needed jobs and tax revenues.

But today, the company is under a federal investigation and about the only thing on its land in Tunica County is a temporary construction office. The company says it will be producing cars by April, but its plans have changed drastically, from a goal of 250,000 a year to 30,000.

And the federal investigation is reverberating far beyond Mississippi, bringing scrutiny to a Virginia gubernatorial candidate and the company run by the brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Back in 2009, it was a big deal," said 21-year-old casino employee Perry Turner, who lives across the highway from GreenTech's mostly empty site in rural Tunica County. "I haven't heard much else about it."

Some analysts say it was a risky business plan and foreign investors may have been more interested in an easy way to get a visa than trying to support a venture that had a good chance to turn a profit or create jobs.

In October 2009, GreenTech's owner, Chinese businessman Xiaolin "Charles" Wang, unveiled four prototype cars during a flashy ceremony and promised to build a $2 billon plant in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.

Besides backing from foreign investors, some 100 acres were donated by Tunica County's economic development foundation, at a cost of $1.8 million, and in 2011 the state gave a $3 million loan toward site preparation. For a time, the company's chairman was politically connected heavyweight Terry McAuliffe, a close adviser to both former President Bill Clinton and his wife, a former Democratic national chairman. McAuliffe is now a contender for Virginia governor.

The cars were supposed to start rolling off the assembly line in 2012. The company now hopes to start producing cars next year. And while they say they still plan to build a plant in Tunica County, all that was on the land on a recent afternoon was a construction trailer, a few pieces of equipment and a few workers strolling around.

The company instead now uses a former elevator factory 30 miles away in Horn Lake. A McAuliffe spokesman said about 100 small electric vehicles were built by the time McAuliffe resigned from the company in December 2012. But in an email Monday, Marianne McInerney, GreenTech's vice president of sales and marketing, disputed that figure. She said the company does not release production numbers.

"It takes time to build a brand new company in a capital-intensive industry like electric vehicles, and we will not cut corners on quality or safety as we progress. We have a plan. The plan is working. We're sticking to it," GreenTech said in a statement.

The company said it has more than 100 workers and "once production is ramped up" should employ at least 350 — the same number of jobs required under the state loan agreement.

Jeff Rent, a spokesman for the Mississippi Development Authority, said the company has assured the agency they're on track to meet hiring goals.

Industry analysts say the company faces hurdles to succeed.

"A brand-new electric car company without an established U.S. partner, or global partner, is a lofty goal," said Joe McCabe, president of AutomotiveCompass, which forecasts global vehicle and power train production. "They're one of several other electric manufacturing startups entering a tough market. They have to come with something better to the game, not just an also-ran."

Other analysts say GreenTech exposes problems with a program used to attract foreign investors — known as the EB-5 visa program.

David North, a fellow with the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that examines immigration policies, said the foreign investors in the EB-5 program are primarily motivated by a desire to get green cards for them and their families, not to find lucrative propositions.

"So this EB-5 program by its very nature is often linked to second- and third-class investments," he said.

Under the EB-5 visa program, foreigners can invest $500,000 or $1 million in American business ventures depending on the location of the project. In GreenTech's case, the program called for $500,000 investments.

The EB-5 program is capped at 10,000 investors a year, and had 6,106 applicants in 2012.

Under the rules of the program, each EB-5 investment must create at least 10 jobs. In exchange, the foreign investors and their families get to stay in the United States for up to two years and can then apply for permanent legal residency, allowing them to permanently live and work in the country.

The federal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' Immigrant Investor Program also designates so-called "regional centers," companies that have authorization to handle the company's EB-5 investments — and can collect thousands of dollars in fees from foreign investors to process their visa applications.

In this case, Gulf Coast Funds Management — a company headed by Tony Rodham, Hillary Clinton's brother — is the designated "regional center" and has raised $45.5 million from foreign investors for GreenTech, according to an internal immigration services document obtained by The Associated Press that outlines background information about the firm. Rodham has not responded to phone messages at Gulf Coast Funds or a message sent to an email address listed in government reports submitted to the government.

Hybrid Kinetic Motors, a predecessor to GreenTech, paid Gulf Coast $250,000 for assistance in setting up the EB-5 program, according to a lawsuit between Wang and his former partner. Regional centers collect additional fees for processing the investments.

Of GreenTech's 91 foreign investors, only one has received permanent residency status, according to an internal immigration services document obtained by the AP that outlines background information about the firm; the name of the investor was not disclosed.

Simone Williams of GreenTech said "every one of our first two rounds of EB-5 investors was approved and their investment was released to GreenTech Automotive." But she did not provide the number of investors.

She said the government's pace in approving foreign investors has slowed down plans to start construction at its Tunica County facility.

Christopher Bentley, spokesman for immigration services, said in an email he couldn't comment on details on the plans by GreenTech and Gulf Coast Funds.

In May, the SEC subpoenaed unspecified documents from GreenTech and banking records from Gulf Coast, according to nearly 100 pages of documents recently released by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

The documents indicate that GreenTech allegedly improperly guaranteed investors returns on their money. GreenTech has acknowledged receiving the subpoenas and said the company is cooperating with investigators.

"We are confident that we have strictly adhered to all statutory and regulatory requirements, and have always had open communications with our industry's regulators," GreenTech said in a news release Monday.

The Department of Homeland Security inspector general also is investigating allegations that USCIS director Alejandro Mayorkas— President Barack Obama's pick for the No. 2 slot at DHS — used his influence to help Gulf Coast obtain a foreign investor visa for a Chinese executive.

Since the 2009 groundbreaking, GreenTech has changed its business plan. Instead of producing versions of the four prototypes it showcased then, including hybrid cars, it now says its plant, when built, will have the capacity to make 30,000 electric vehicles each year, including a sedan and small electric vehicles known as MyCars. It now aims to have the first ones rolling off the line in Tunica by April.

In the meantime, GreenTech has been using space at an old elevator factory in Horn Lake, Miss., where the company says it's building MyCars, neighborhood electric cars that are a cross between a golf cart and a full-sized vehicle. It's not clear how many of the MyCars — which are not legal to drive on U.S. highways — have been sold.

GreenTech recently declined an AP request to tour the Horn Lake facility. The company won't say how many MyCars it has produced or sold, but says it has "international distribution agreements for 30,000 vehicles over the next three years."

Local officials haven't lost hope it will all still happen as advertised.

"I still look at this as an ongoing economic development project," said Lyn Arnold, president and CEO of the Tunica County Chamber of Commerce.

Some residents are ready to see results, like 33-year-old waitress Shaquita Pickett, who said a car plant would be a big boost for the county.

"We really do need one here because we need better jobs," she said.

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Weiss reported from Charlotte, N.C. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Jackson, Miss.; Bob Lewis in Richmond, Va.; Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington D.C.; Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans; and AP researchers Judy Ausuebel and Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

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Follow Holbrook Mohr on Twitter at http://twitter.com/holbrookmohr

Follow Mitch Weiss on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mitchsweiss

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