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Tag: InternationalNews

  • Indian Rupee Hurtles Lower as Foreign Investors Flee

    Indian Rupee Hurtles Lower as Foreign Investors Flee

    {{The Indian rupee slumped to a record low below 68 per dollar and shares tumbled on Wednesday on growing worries that foreign investors will continue to sell out of a country facing stiff economic challenges and volatile global markets.}}

    Foreign investors sold nearly $1 billion of Indian shares in the eight sessions through Tuesday – a worrisome prospect given stocks had been the country’s one sturdy source of capital inflows, although net purchases so far this year still total $12 billion.

    The partially convertible rupee hit a record low of 68.75, down 3.7 percent on the day, after posting its biggest daily percentage fall in 18 years on Tuesday.

    “It is just impossible to put any realistic value to the rupee anymore,” said Uday Bhatt, a forex dealer with UCO Bank.

    The need to attract foreign capital is critical for a country whose record high current account deficit is a key reason behind the rupee’s slump.

    Yet policymakers have consistently struggled to come up with measures that can convince markets they can stabilize the currency and attract funds into the country.

    That failure is becoming an increasing source of tension for India at a time when fears of a possible U.S.-led military strike against Syria are knocking down Asian markets, with prospect that the Federal Reserve will end its period of cheap money as early as next month further raising concerns.

    In its latest initiative, the government late on Tuesday proposed setting up a task force to look into currency swap agreements, a measure analysts said could bring some relief if carried out in time by reducing market demand for dollars or other major currencies.

    “Let’s see what the authorities do, but if the government can come out with some really big currency swap arrangement with some countries, that can be a strong positive,” Bhatt said.

    The rupee has now fallen around 19 percent so far this year, by far the biggest decliner among the Asian currencies tracked by Reuters.

    Meanwhile, India’s main NSE index fell more than 2 percent while 10-year bonds yields rose to as high as 9.04%.

    {wirestory}

  • Mourinho sets Wayne Rooney 48-hour deadline

    {{Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has given Wayne Rooney 48 hours to decide if he wants to leave Manchester United and move to Stamford Bridge.}}

    United insist Rooney is not for sale and he was outstanding as the sides played out a goalless draw on Monday.

    “The person that started the story has to finish the story. For the good of everyone it is time to finish the story,” said Mourinho.

    “One way or another he has to say ‘I want to leave’ or ‘I want to stay’.”

    He suggested the 27-year-old striker himself was the catalyst for Chelsea’s move saying “he told someone very important in his career” that he wanted to leave United.

    Asked how long he was prepared to wait before moving on to other targets – with Anzhi Makhachkala’s Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o understood to be the alternative – Mourinho replied: “Twenty-four hours, 48 hours.”

    He added: “If you look at a manager like me, a club like us and the people who work at the club with me, we are not silly enough to try and get a player from a big club that doesn’t want to sell.

    “We are not silly enough to try something if somebody didn’t start it.”

    He added: “After that, if he wants to leave he has to say – or if he has decided now he doesn’t want to leave any more then he has to say.”

    The former Everton forward was given huge support throughout by United’s fans and indeed Chelsea’s supporters who want him to switch to Stamford Bridge.

  • Turkey’s ‘standing man’ wins German award

    A Turkish choreographer who gained international fame by standing motionless for hours during protests that swept the country a few months ago, is to be honoured with an award in Germany.

    Erdem Gunduz, 34, who earned the epithet of “standing man” for his passive protest against the redevelopment of Istanbul’s Gezi Park, will be honoured for his “courageous commitment to freedom of expression and human rights” with the M100 Media Award.

    On the night of June 17th, Gunduz put his hands in his pockets, and stood still and silent for eight hours.

    Within hours his passive resistence had gained attention on the internet, prompting hundreds to join him in his silent vigil.

    “With his silent protest, he became the icon of peaceful resistance and has been emulated around the world,” said the jury of journalists, which will present the award on September 5 at Potsdam, just outside Berlin.

    “His weapon is creativity, his trademarks are courage and perseverance. That is what you need to promote free speech and human rights,” said Potsdam mayor and M100 chairman Jann Jakobs.

    The M100 award is presented annually to someone who panellists believe has helped safeguard freedom of expression and promoted democracy.

    Last year it was awarded to European Central Bank chief, Mario Draghi. Previous recipients were Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who drew controversial pictures of the Prophet Mohammed, and the former French foreign minister and founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres, Bernard Kouchner.

    aljazeera

  • Kyrgyzstan boy dies of bubonic plague

    {{Doctors in Kyrgyzstan have said a teenage boy has died of bubonic plague, but that an epidemic is not likely.}}

    The death of the 15-year-old herder was confirmed on Monday, several days after his death in the Karakol regional hospital.

    Health ministers said the boy, from the small mountain village Ichke-Zhergez in eastern Kyrgyzstan, died last Thursday after being diagnosed with bubonic plague, which is carried by rodents and caused millions of deaths throughout Europe in the 14th century.

    “After a meeting of doctors, he was diagnosed with bubonic plague,” a statement said.

    His body was cremated and remains were buried with special precautions.

    “We suspect that the patient was infected with the plague through the bite of a flea,” Tolo Isakov, a ministry official who heads the sanitation department, said in Bishkek on Monday.

    The oriental rat flea carries the bubonic plague after biting an infected rodent and may then pass the disease to a human.

    Officials have dispatched two teams to the area to “catch, exterminate, and study rodents,” Isakov said.

    He said the last recorded case of bubonic plague occurred in Kyrgyzstan 30 years ago.

    wirestory

  • Croatia clashes with EU over extradition law

    {{Zagreb could face legal action for failing to apply EU extradition law, the European Commission said on Monday, weeks after Croatia became the bloc’s newest member.}}

    The small Adriatic state became the 28th member of the European Union on July 1, marking a recovery from years of war after Yugoslavia collapsed in the 1990s.

    Days before entry, Zagreb changed its laws to prevent authorities from extraditing suspects of crimes committed before 2002, when EU rules were changed, potentially protecting veterans from Croatia’s 1991-95 independence war from facing inquires elsewhere in the EU.

    The Commission has accused Zagreb of contravening EU rules and said its top officials would meet next to discuss whether punitive action should be taken.

    “The fact that Croatia’s national legislation has been changed a few days before accession to contradict EU law is really not a minor issue for us,” a spokeswoman for EU justice chief Viviane Reding told a news briefing.

    “This infringement of EU law goes to the very heart of European judicial cooperation.”

    Reding has said measures could include some cuts in financial aid to Zagreb – Croatia is due to receive billions of euros in the next seven years in funds meant to bring living standards closer to EU average.

    The Commission may also introduce a monitoring mechanism to check Croatia’s efforts in complying with EU rules. Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, face similar EU scrutiny over their progress in fighting corruption, and governments there view such measures as embarrassing and unnecessary.

    EU governments could also use the dispute over the European Arrest Warrant as an excuse to delay discussions over bringing Croatia into Europe’s passport-free Schengen travel zone, which Zagreb said was its next priority.

    Croatia’s opposition HDZ party, which ruled the country in the 1990s and between 2004-2011, has accused Zagreb’s leftist-led government of tweaking EU rules to protect former Croatian intelligence chief Josip Perkovic.

    The official had worked for communist Yugoslavia’s secret service, the UDBA, and led intelligence services after Croatia became independent, and now faces charges in Germany over the 1983 murder of a Yugoslav dissident in Bavaria.

    Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has denied any connection with the German case and says Croatia only sought to exercise the same privileges as its EU peers.

    EU members could request exemptions from the European Arrest Warrant before 2002, but the Commission says that only applies to states that were in the bloc at the time.

    Croatia could have asked for exemptions when it was negotiating its entry to the European Union, but did not do so.

    wirestory

  • US warns Assad over ‘undeniable’ chemical weapons attack

    {{The United States put Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on notice on Monday that it believes he was responsible for using chemical weapons against civilians last week in what Secretary of State John Kerry called a “moral obscenity.”}}

    “President (Barack) Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people,” Kerry said in the most forceful U.S. reaction yet to the August 21 attack.

    Speaking after U.N. chemical weapons experts came under sniper fire on their way to investigate the scene of the attack, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the use of chemical weapons was undeniable and “there is very little doubt in our mind that the Syrian regime is culpable.”

    Kerry said Obama was consulting with allies before he decides on how to respond.

    “What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world,” Kerry told reporters.

    “The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable. And despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable.”

    Military chiefs from the United States and its European and Middle Eastern allies met in Jordan for what could be a council of war, should they decide to punish Assad, who has denied using chemical weapons and blamed rebels for staging such attacks.

    Many hundreds of people died in Damascus suburbs in what appears to have been the worst chemical weapons attack since Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein fatally gassed thousands of Kurds in 1988.

    U.N. investigators crossed the front line from the center of the capital, which remains under Assad’s control, to inspect the Mouadamiya suburb, one of at least four neighborhoods hit by the poison gas before dawn last Wednesday.

    The United Nations said one vehicle in its convoy was crippled by gunshots fired by “unidentified snipers.” The team continued on after turning back for a replacement car.

    Syrian state television blamed rebel “terrorists” for the shooting. The opposition blamed pro-Assad militiamen.

    “I am with the team now,” a doctor who uses the name Abu Karam told Reuters by telephone from Mouadamiya. “We are in the Rawda mosque and they are meeting with the wounded. Our medics and the inspectors are talking to the patients and taking samples from the victims now.”

    Wassim al-Ahmad, an opposition activist, said members of the Free Syrian Army umbrella rebel organization and the opposition’s Mouadamiya Local Council were accompanying the inspectors on their tour of the suburb.

    “The inspectors are now examining victims being treated at a makeshift hospital in Mouadamiya and are taking blood samples from them,” Ahmad said.

    {reuters}

  • Cocaine ‘Rapidly Changes the Brain’

    {{Taking cocaine can change the structure of the brain within hours in what could be the first steps of drug addiction, according to US researchers.}}

    Animal tests, reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience, showed new structures linked to learning and memory began to grow soon after the drug was taken.

    Mice with the most brain changes showed a greater preference for cocaine.

    Experts described it as the brain “learning addiction”.

    The team at University of California, Berkeley and UC San Francisco looked for tiny protrusions from brain cells called dendritic spines. They are heavily implicated in memory formation.

    {{Cocaine hunting}}

    The place or environment that drugs are taken plays an important role in addiction.

    In the experiments, the mice were allowed to explore freely two very different chambers – each with a different smell and surface texture.

    Once they had picked a favourite they were injected with cocaine in the other chamber.

    A type of laser microscopy was used to look inside the brains of living mice to hunt for the dendritic spines.

    More new spines were produced when the mice were injected with cocaine than with water, suggesting new memories being formed around drug use.

    The difference could be detected two hours after the first dose.

    Researcher Linda Wilbrecht, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley, said: “Our images provide clear evidence that cocaine induces rapid gains in new spines, and the more spines the mice gain, the more they show they learned about the drug.

    “This gives us a possible mechanism for how drug use fuels further drug-seeking behaviour.

    “These drug-induced changes in the brain may explain how drug-related cues come to dominate decision making in a human drug user.”

  • UN to examine Syria ‘chemical attack’ site

    United Nations inspectors have been granted access to the site of an alleged chemical-weapons attack near Damascus, Syrian state TV has said, with the UN announcing that the Syrian government has also agreed to observe a ceasefire during the visit.

    It followed an agreement between the Syrian foreign minister and the head of the UN delegation of chemical experts to the country on Sunday.

    The agreement “is effective immediately and it will allow UN delegation to investigate allegations of using chemical weapons on August 22 in Damascus suburbs”, the state TV reported.

    The alleged chemical-weapons attack in Ghouta on Wednesday killed 355 people, according to the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres.

    A team of UN inspectors arrived in the Syrian capital last week to investigate claims of chemical weapons use by opposition fighters and the Syrian government, which UN officials originally said would last two weeks and cover three sites.

    A UN statement said on Sunday that the inspectors were preparing to conduct “on-site fact-finding activities starting tomorrow, Monday, 26 August”.

    It also said that Damascus had agreed to a ceasefire while the UN experts are at the site for inspections, a statement confirmed by the Syrian government.

    The international organisation added that the rebels and government were responsible for the safety of the UN inspectors on the ground since a local ceasefire had been agreed.

    aljazeera

  • Migrants Die in Mexico Train Crash

    {{At least six people were killed and dozens injured after a cargo train carrying US-bound migrants derailed in southern Mexico, officials said.}}

    According to local media reports, ambulances were unable to reach the scene of the accident in the southern state of Tabasco because of the difficult terrain.

    Luis Felipe Puente, national emergency service coordinator, told local television four people had been confirmed dead in Sunday’s accident and another 35 people were injured, with 16 of those in a serious condition.

    The train, known as “La Bestia” or “The Beast”, carries Mexican and Central American migrants with many sitting on top of the freight cars after paying smugglers upwards of $100.

    The train derailed on a stretch of tracks alongside a river and the site of the accident is only accessible by boat, a public security official from the municipality of Huimanguillo told journalists.

    The official said between 250 and 300 migrants were aboard.

    The Tabasco state civil protection agency said the train derailed at about 3am local time (8am GMT) and that rescuers were using hydraulic tools to cut through the metal to find survivors. The site is far away from any roads in the area, it added.

    A photograph broadcast by Milenio television showed freight cars lying on their side with the wheels detached from the bottom. The tracks are seen in a wooded area and covered with plants.

    AFP

  • Report: US Spied on UN Headquarters

    {{The US National Security Agency bugged the United Nations’ New York headquarters, German weekly magazine Der Spiegel has reported.}}

    Citing secret US documents obtained by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Der Spiegel said on Sunday the US systematically spied on other states and institutions.

    In the summer of 2012, NSA experts cracked the UN video conferencing system’s codes, according to one of the documents cited by Der Spiegel. “Within three weeks the number of decoded communications rose to 458 from 12”, the magazine said.

    Der Spiegel said UN’s Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, was among those targeted by the US.

    Internal files also show the NSA spied on the EU legation in New York after it moved to new rooms during the autumn of 2012.

    Among the documents copied by Snowden from NSA computers were plans of the EU mission, its IT infrastructure and servers.

    According to the documents, the NSA runs a bugging programme in more than 80 embassies and consulates worldwide called “Special Collection Service”.

    “The surveillance is intensive and well organised and has little or nothing to do with warding off terrorists,” wrote Der Spiegel.

    Snowden’s leaks have embarrassed the United States by exposing the global extent of its spying. Washington has said its spies operate within the law and that the leaks have damaged national security.

    Earlier this month, US President Barack Obama announced plans to limit government surveillance programmes, saying the US could and should be more transparent.

    Source: Agencies