IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • France Says Ready to Work With Rwanda at UN

    France has announced, its ready to work with Rwanda after joining the Security Council of the UN as a non-permanent member.

    “We hope that Rwanda, as a new member of the Security Council, will fully contribute to the maintenance of peace and international security, in accordance with the role that is assigned to this chamber by the UN Charter,” said Philippe Lalliot, spokesman of the Quai d’Orsay, in a press briefing.

    Outside Rwanda, four other countries (Argentina, Australia, South Korea and Luxembourg) were elected as non-permanent members of the Security Council of the UN.

    France welcomed the five states of their election and congratulate them for non-permanent position to serve on the Council from 1 January 2013.

  • Whitney Houston Daughter to Inherit US$20million

    The family of the late Whitney Houston is battling over a $20 million inheritance to the singers daughter.

    Houston’s 19-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, was slated to receive the money in a trust set up before the singer’s death just before the Grammy Awards broadcast in February.

    But now Whitney’s mother, the singer Cissy Houston, and Marion Houston, Whitney’s sister-in-law and business manager, have filed a petition as executors of the Houston estate against Brown in Georgia state court.

    Cissy Houston wants to restrict the inheritance payments to Brown, calling Brown ” a highly visible target for those who would exert undue influence over her inheritance and/or seek to benefit from respondent’s resources and celebrity.”

    Court documents say that the schedule of distributions of Brown’s inheritance aren’t in keeping with Whitney’s “intent to provide long-term financial security and protection for her child.”

    Media reports say Cissy Houston is worried that the money will make Brown a target for financial predators or tempt her into a dangerous lifestyle.

    While the Houston family has its own particular problems (and there have been many), wealthy families frequently confront the same question: how to leave millions to your kid without ruining her life?

  • Pope Names first Native American saint

    Pope Benedict XVI will name 17th century Mohawk Kateri Tekakwitha the first Native American saint.

    Another newly named saint is Marianne Cope, a German-born woman who emigrated to the United States as a child, became a nun and went on to devote 30 years of her life helping lepers in Hawaii.

    Their canonization, along with that of five other saints, will be celebrated at a special Mass in St. Peter’s Square Sunday morning.

    “This is a great weekend for America in the Vatican, and it’s really a great weekend for Native Americans. Sainthood is the guarantee that this person is close to God,” said Vatican senior communications adviser Greg Burke.

    “There’s a vast history of people the Catholic Church has made saints over the centuries. Holiness is absolutely a matter of equal opportunity, but this certainly is special because it marks the first time a Native American becomes a saint.”

    Kateri Tekakwitha’s canonization follows what has been judged a miracle by the Roman Catholic Church in the 2006 case of an American boy with a flesh-eating bug.

    Jake Finkbonner was only 5 when he became infected by the bacterium after falling down while playing basketball, CNN affiliate King 5 News in Seattle reported. The infection spread quickly through the tissue of his face, with drugs and surgeries apparently powerless to stop its progress.

    “It was dire,” his mother, Elsa Finkbonner, told the network. “He was air-lifted to children’s hospital, and he was fighting for his life at that point.”

  • US: Romney Says Obama Has no Agenda

    In the ongoing US presidential campaigns, Republican candidate Mitt Romney has said that President Barack Obama has “no agenda” worthy of a second term in office.

    At a campaign rally in Florida, he said the Obama campaign had been “reduced to petty attacks and silly word games”.

    Hours earlier, Mr Obama decried Mr Romney for shifting his positions as election day draws nearer, saying the Republican suffers from “Romnesia”.

    The two meet for their final debate, on foreign policy, in Florida on Monday.

    Mr Romney and the Republicans are continuing to focus on the Obama administration’s handling of a deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans including the US ambassador were killed.

    The incident provoked a flashpoint during Tuesday’s second debate, and is likely to be hotly debated again in Boca Raton.

  • Ugandan Doctor Heads World Medical Association

    Dr. Margaret Mungherera a Ugandan National has been elected to head the World Medical Association.

    Dr Mungherera, 54, has been a doctor for 30 years and a psychiatrist for 20 years with forensic psychiatry as her special area of interest.

    “My focus will be on urging national medical associations of poor countries to join and to participate in the activities of the WMA,”said Dr Mungherera.

    A statement from the World Medical Association says Dr Mungherera was elected unopposed during WMA’S annual general assembly held in Bangkok, Thailand.

  • Archbishop Sentamu Criticises African Nations

    UK’s Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu has criticised African nations for blaming their former colonial masters for their problems.

    Sentamu said, “Europe may have underdeveloped Africa, but I believe we have had the opportunity since then to shape our future and destiny and are in danger of squandering these opportunities”.

    Sentamu noted that African countries are bedeviled with corruption and lack of democracy, with several leaders amending constitutions to stay in power.

    Sentamu, the only black bishop in the Church of England, is a renowned speaker against racism.

    He has told young black people in the UK to stop blaming racism for their problems.

    Sentamu told Black people in UK that success does not lie in guns, gangs, knives or worshiping celebrities, observing that prisons, mental health units and young offender institutions are holding up too many black people.

  • Google Shares Drop 9%

    Google suffered an embarrassing gaff when its third quarter financial results were accidentally released early, which ultimately led to its stock price falling by more than $60 a share Oct. 18 while the markets remained open.

    Times got a bit rocky for Google Oct. 18 as the search company announced that its third-quarter profit totaled $2.18 billion, down from $2.73 billion a year ago.

    However, that wasn’t the worst of it – Google also suffered an embarrassing early release of its third-quarter Form 8-K report to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Web site, which meant the financial data was accidentally available four hours before the stock market was set to close.

    That accidental report release triggered an early selloff in Google shares, with share prices dropping by about 9 percent before the sale of shares were eventually halted, according to a report by Barron’s.

    Google’s third-quarter revenue for the period ending Sept. 30, 2012, totaled $11.33 billion, which is lower than the expectations of a survey of financial analysts, who expected revenue of $11.87 billion.

    In his opening remarks during the earnings call with analysts, Google CEO Larry Page said the early report at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time was accidentally caused by the company’s financial printer.

    “I’m sorry for the scramble early today,” said Page. “Our printers have said that they sent out the release just a bit early.”

    Google’s revenue for the third-quarter is listed by the company at $14.1 billion, which is before the deduction of traffic acquisition costs totaling $2.77 billion. Q3 revenue for the same period one year ago totaled $9.72 billion.

    This was Google’s second quarterly earnings report since acquiring its Motorola Mobility unit in May for $12.5 billion. In its second quarter earnings report this past July, Google posted revenue of $12.2 billion, which was a 35 percent year-over-year increase from 2011.

    “We had a strong quarter,” said Page. “Revenue was up 45 percent year-on-year, and we cleared our first $14 billion revenue quarter. Not bad for a teenager,” alluding to the 14 years since Google was incorporated.

  • 2013:Eurozone to Have Banking Supervisor

    Leaders of the European Union in Brussels have agreed October 18, to a deal for a eurozone-wide banking supervisor in 2013 that is designed to help prevent future catastrophic bank failures that could threaten the monetary union.

    The agreement sets the stage for development of a legal framework to allow the European Central Bank to give emergency funds to ailing banks directly without going through national governments — bailouts which, in turn, have required bailouts for the nations themselves, as was seen in Greece and Ireland.

    The move is necessary to “break the vicious circle between banks and sovereigns,” said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in a press conference early Friday.

    “Next hurdle to set up a single supervisory mechanism to prevent banking risks and cross-border contagion from emerging … built with the integrity of the single market in mind.”

    The leaders set a goal of approving the legislative framework by January 1, with the new supervisory mechanism “operational in the course of 2013,” Van Rompuy said.

  • Euro Crisis: Europeans Migrate to Africa for Better Life

    According to the Portuguese consulate in Maputo, there is a rise in experienced, university-educated Portuguese migrating to Mozambique looking for a brighter future.

    “In the last two or three years, people began to come increasingly,” she says. “Lots of people for small investments, some others working with the companies, some others working contract by other people.”

    According to the African Economic Outlook,Mozambique’s real gross domestic product grew by 7.2%, boosted by the country’s first overseas export of coal, as well as strong performances by the transport, communications, construction and financial services sectors.

    Portugese couple Bruno Gabriel and his girlfriend, relocated to the southeastern African country a few months ago, making a deliberate career move to swap the economic uncertainty of their crisis-hit country for the prospect of a better future abroad.

    They are part of a growing Portuguese community fleeing the severe eurozone crisis in search for jobs and economic opportunities in their country’s former colony.

    “In Europe everybody is a little bit afraid with their own future because (of) the crisis, worldwide crisis, in terms of economics,” says Gabriel, a marketing director who has head-hunted to work in Maputo.

    “Once we start to enter the labor business, once we start to work, we understand that to plan the future is a little bit more difficult than what you expected.”

  • Mitt Romney to Declare China a ‘Currency Manipulator’

    US Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney has insisted that he would declare China a “currency manipulator” after entering White House.

    This is what previous US presidents both Mr. Obama and George W. Bush resisted doing.

    Despite intense pressure from Congress, this has caused speculation over Romney’s motivations.

    Is he serious, some international economists wonder, about carrying out an action they say could lead to a devastating tit-for-tat trade war and even, in the extreme, to an economic depression in the US if China reacted by no longer buying US Treasury debt?

    Some political analysts assume that Romney would simply forget his pledge once in office.

    Others say, “Don’t bet on it” – but they also advise paying close attention to the caveats Romney usually throws in when he makes the “currency manipulator” pledge, as he did Tuesday when he said that “if necessary” he would move from the symbolic act of tagging China as a currency manipulator to a concrete step such as slapping tariffs on specific Chinese goods.

    Romney’s advisers on trade policy say the point of designating China a currency manipulator would be to set a “new tone” in US-China relations.

    Romney would be putting China on notice that it either stop its unfair trade practices – such as keeping its currency artificially low to make its goods cheaper on the export market – or face US action.

    Advisers such as domestic policy director Oren Cass underscore that naming China a currency manipulator would not automatically lead to punitive measures. The designation would trigger a US-China dialogue on the yuan’s value.

    But it would be up to China, say Romney advisers, to avoid stiff US measures such as tariffs by taking actions such as letting its currency appreciate and addressing the theft of intellectual property.

    The risk, some international economists say, is that China would react in a very different way – for example, by beating the US to the punch and slapping tariffs on US goods, or by turning away from the US bond market.

    The Obama administration has followed a different approach than the one Romney advocates, pressing China through regular dialogue to allow its currency to appreciate.

    Obama said at Tuesday’s debate that because his administration has “pushed [China] hard” the yuan has appreciated 11 percent during his presidency, which is correct.

    The Obama administration has also imposed some punitive trade measures. Obama cited his 2009 action slapping tariffs on Chinese tires, and claimed his approach overall has saved jobs at home and boosted US exports to China.

    But economists generally pan actions like the tire tariffs, saying the trade-off for what Obama claimed was 1,000 jobs saved is higher tire prices for the US consumer.

    Some political analysts say Romney’s China-bashing serves another purpose: to deflect criticism from the Obama camp that Romney, the former Bain Capital CEO, built his wealth on outsourcing jobs to China.

    Obama followed that line of criticism Tuesday when he described Romney as “the last person who will be tough on China.”

    Former Secretary of State and Nixon-to-China architect Henry Kissinger may find, as he declared recently, that the campaign’s China-bashing is “deplorable,” but he and other voters can count on hearing more of it.

    Monday’s final debate of the presidential campaign, to be held in Boca Raton, Fla., will focus on foreign policy and will have a segment dedicated to the implications of the rise of China.