IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • UK’s Cavendish wins Stage 5 of Tour de France

    {{British sprinter Mark Cavendish finally hit form to win the fifth stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish on Wednesday and Australian veteran Simon Gerrans kept the yellow jersey.}}

    Cavendish made a poor start to the Tour but this 24th career Tour stage win will boost his confidence and launch his bid to win the sprinters’ green jersey.

    “I’m super happy,” Cavendish said. “Now the pressure’s off and hopefully it has started the ball rolling.”

    With a few hundred meters to go, Cavendish sat on his teammate Gert Steegmans’ wheel and got into a perfect position to attack and held off a challenge from Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen.

    Peter Sagan, who leads the green jersey contest, finished in third place. But Cavendish pulled back to within 35 points in second place overall.

    “I’m motivated, I’ve got good form and a great team around me,” Cavendish said, praising Steegmans. “He did a great job.”

    The 84-year-old Andre Darrigade, who won 22 Tour stages as a sprinter, warmly greeted Cavendish after his win.

    Cavendish needs one more stage win to tie Andre Leducq for third on the Tour’s all-time list of stage winners, and he could do that on Thursday as stage six again favors sprinters.

    If he does that, he could eye Bernard Hinault’s 28 wins, the second-highest total after Eddie Merckx’s imperious record of 34.

    While Cavendish was raising his arms in triumph, behind him there was more chaos as about a dozen riders hit the tarmac in a crash. It was unclear who caused it.

    The 228.5-kilometer (142-mile) route featured some small climbs but was otherwise flat, starting out from the tourist beach resort of Cagnes-sur-Mer and finishing in the southern sea port of Marseille.

    It was a quiet afternoon with the pack rolling along at a slow pace until a crash toward the end brought down 15-20 riders.

    Gerrans held off Sagan to win Monday’s third stage in a sprint finish and helped his Orica Greenedge team to narrowly win Tuesday’s time trial on stage four in a Tour record time. It was enough to take the leader’s jersey from Belgian Jan Bakelants.

    Gerrans is only the sixth Australian to wear the yellow jersey – the first was Phil Anderson in 1981 – and to celebrate Orica Greenedge took the start line with yellow helmets on.

    Japanese rider Yukiya Arashiro and Frenchman Kevin Reza formed part of an early six-man breakaway group.

    None has even won a Tour stage, so the pack let them go. They opened up a lead of more than 10 minutes, which was whittled down to about eight minutes when the peloton reached the foot of the day’s third small climb.

    {France24}

  • China Economy to Grow 7.6% in Second Half

    {{China’s economy is expected to grow 7.6% in the second half of 2013, but risks of bad local government loans, slowing growth of central government revenue, diminished export competitiveness and industrial capacity are growing, the official China Securities Journal reported on Thursday.}}

    Economists have been cutting their forecasts for the world’s second-largest economy following a string of weak data recently, with some predicting the government will not be able to meet it full-year target of 7.5%. China’s economy expanded 7.8% last year, the slowest pace in 13 years.

    At the same time, Chinese markets are struggling to recover from a crunch in the country’s financial markets that saw short-term money rates spike to record highs and stock markets swoon in recent weeks.

    Investors feared that the increase in rates, set off by the central bank when it refrained from injecting liquidity in recent weeks, meant Beijing was preparing to tighten monetary policy to seize control of its shadow banking sector, which some fear is misallocating capital to speculative ventures such as real estate.

    The report, which was authored by an economic research unit at the State Information Centre, said that China’s economic growth model remained fundamentally stable.

    Whole year inflation was expected to clock in at a moderate 2.5%, and China should maintain its growth targets and stable financial and monetary policy stances.

    The report said local government debt was posing increasing risks to economic recovery, and so was industrial overcapacity, increasing investment in real estate that is pushing up housing prices, and the increase in the value of the yuan against other currencies which has hurt export competitiveness.

    The report recommended that China make minor adjustments to monetary and financial policy to sustain growth while “eliminating waste.”

    {agencies}

  • Inventor of computer mouse dies at 88

    {{Douglas Engelbart, a technologist who conceived of the computer mouse and laid out a vision of an Internet decades before others brought those ideas to the mass market, died on Tuesday night. He was 88.}}

    His eldest daughter, Gerda, said by telephone that her father died of kidney failure.

    Engelbart arrived at his crowning moment relatively early in his career, on a winter afternoon in 1968, when he delivered an hour-long presentation containing so many far-reaching ideas that it would be referred to decades later as the “mother of all demos”.

    Speaking before an audience of 1,000 leading technologists in San Francisco, Engelbart, a computer scientist at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), showed off a cubic device with two rolling discs called an “X-Y position indicator for a display system”. It was the mouse’s public debut.

    Engelbart then summoned, in real-time, the image and voice of a colleague 48 km away. That was the first videoconference. And he explained a theory of how pages of information could be tied together using text-based links, an idea that would later form the bedrock of the Web’s architecture.

    At a time when computing was largely pursued by government researchers or hobbyists with a countercultural bent, Engelbart never sought or enjoyed the explosive wealth that would later become synonymous with Silicon Valley success. For instance, he never received any royalties for the mouse, which SRI patented and later licensed to Apple.

    He was intensely driven instead by a belief that computers could be used to augment human intellect. In talks and papers, he described with zeal and bravado a vision of a society in which groups of highly productive workers would spend many hours a day collectively manipulating information on shared computers.

    “The possibilities we are pursuing involve an integrated man-machine working relationship, where close, continuous interaction with a computer avails the human of radically changed information-handling and -portrayal skills,” he wrote in a 1961 research proposal at SRI.

    His work, he argued with typical conviction, “competes in social significance with research toward harnessing
    thermonuclear power, exploring outer space, or conquering cancer.”

    He is survived by Karen O’Leary Engelbart, his second wife, and four children: Gerda, Diana, Christina and Norman. His first wife, Ballard, died in 1997.

    aljazeera

  • Snowden Waiting for Sovereign Backer

    {{As U.S. intelligence analyst Edward Snowden remains in territorial and legal limbo at Sheremetyevo Airport and has apparently abandoned any attempt of staying in Russia, his opportunities for seeking asylum have significantly narrowed, given the obstacles in his path.}}

    According to government officials and experts interviewed by The Moscow Times, Snowden’s fate is now in the hands of a few countries that can afford the political risk and offer him official legal status, while Russia could continue to support him behind the scenes.

    But while Russia and other governments have cited technical issues as one of the main obstacles preventing Snowden from gaining travel documents or refugee status, political will from a sovereign backer seems to be the key ingredient that is lacking.

    “The problem is that if he stayed in Russia, his disclosures would be compromised, so for now the Kremlin will support his public image and look for a third way to solve the problem,” said Andrei Soldatov, a well-connected intelligence analyst.

    Federal Migration Service head Konstantin Romodanovsky suggested Wednesday that the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) could help Snowden, who was stripped of his U.S. passport and apparently has no valid identification or travel documents. Similar suggestions were made Tuesday by Kremlin human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin and Kremlin human rights council head Mikhail Fedotov.

    “I believe Russia definitely should not extradite Snowden to the U.S., where he can then be executed. This is not possible for us as members of the Council of Europe,” Lukin said. “I think two organizations should deal with his problems: the airline that carried him from Hong Kong and the UN, in particular its High Commissioner for Refugees.”

    But officials at UNHCR’s Moscow office were perplexed on how they could help.

    “We can only offer legal help and guidance for refugee applicants, but it is up to a sovereign state to decide what to do,” Ivan Saleyev, legal adviser for the UNHCR in Russia, said by telephone. “Being a developed country, Russia has its own system of refugee protection. We can only facilitate the way it works.”

    If Snowden had not withdrawn his asylum application to Russia, the Russian government, even without accepting the request, could have issued him a temporary refugee status claimant document that would have allowed him to enter the country from Sheremetyevo’s transit zone and visit foreign embassies in Moscow. But even that could have carried political risk for Russia.

    According to the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and a subsequent protocol, a person unable to avail himself of the protection of his home country while fearing persecution there on the basis of political opinion is classified as a refugee.

    But Vladimir Rucheinikov, head of the refugee department at Russia’s Federal Migration Service, said it was still up to another sovereign country to grant such a person this status or even to put it under consideration.

    Former migration service deputy chief Konstantin Postavnin said that by revoking Snowden’s passport, the U.S. government had severely limited his options. “They are compelling him to come back to the U.S,” he said.

    Historically, Russia has been one of the least refugee-friendly countries in the world.

    “There are only 800 people in Russia who have refugee status,” said Svetlana Gannushkina, a prominent Russian migration rights activist.

    “For such a big country, it basically means that the refugee mechanism is not working at all. There is a clear government directive to reject most applications,” Gannushkina said.

    The only alternative seems to be for Snowden to seek asylum in other countries. On Monday, he sent applications to some 20 countries including France, Germany, Ireland, China and Cuba.

    Five of the countries Snowden has applied to have rejected his request, while seven have said they would consider his application if made on their soil. Eight have said they had either not made a decision or not received a request.

    The Moscowtimes

  • Youth unemployment to top EU summit

    {{The number of jobless youth in the European Union is now at an all-time high and Germany’s Chancellor wants action.

    Angela Merkel is inviting EU leaders to a summit in Berlin where they will try to come up with a plan to get Europe’s under 25-year-old’s back to work.}}

    {EU youths protesting against rising unemployment }

  • Cuba Removes Ricardo Alarcon from top Communist body

    {{Cuban leader Raul Castro has removed several senior Communists from the party’s powerful Central Committee.}}

    They include former parliament speaker and foreign minister Ricardo Alarcon, a close ally of ex-leader Fidel Castro.

    Mr Castro said those leaving had not made any mistakes or committed any crimes. He said the changes marked a normal course of events.

    Mr Alarcon, 76, one of Cuba’s most visible politicians, had been a member of the committee since 1992.

    He stepped down as speaker in February.

    Among the four others removed were Jose Miguel Miyar Barruecos, 81, who was secretary of the Council of State for three decades, and Misael Enamorado, 60, the party chief in Santiago de Cuba.

    Mr Castro played down the significance of the move in comments broadcast on state television.

    “There’s a door you come in through; there’s a door you go out, without it meaning anything negative,” he said.

    Raul Castro became Cuba’s leader when his elder brother stepped down in 2008. In February he was elected to a second five-year term, which he said would be his last.

  • U.S. and Russia Want Syria Conference Soon

    {{U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that both the U.S. and Russia are seriously committed to having an international conference on Syria and setting up a transitional government to end the bloodshed and “save the state of Syria.”}}

    “There are still things that have to be worked out over the course of these next days, but Foreign Minister [Sergei] Lavrov and I felt that this meeting was a very useful meeting, it was constructive and productive,” Kerry told reporters in Brunei, where he was attending an Asian regional security summit.

    Kerry said the two countries both believed the meeting should take place sooner rather than later, but acknowledged that it might not be possible until August or later.

    Such an international meeting, which has been delayed several times before, is known as “Geneva II” because it follows a Syria meeting in the Swiss city in June last year.

    Kerry spoke outside the U.S. Embassy in Brunei after a 90-minute-plus meeting with Lavrov on the sidelines of the security summit.

    Russia has been a key backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in the two-year civil war that has claimed more than 93,000 lives, while the Obama administration decided last month to supply military aid to the rebels fighting Assad.

    Kerry has been on a whirlwind tour of Arab-speaking nations to try to coordinate aid to the rebels.

    But Kerry said the U.S. and Russia agreed that they had an ability to make a difference if they could pull together.

    “Our objective remains the same — to recognize the notion that there really isn’t a military victory, per se, for Syria that keeps Syria as a country,” Kerry said.

    “And No. 2, that we have an obligation to try to work towards a peaceful resolution because a peaceful settlement is the best way to save the state of Syria and to minimize destruction.”

    He emphasized that the first international conference called for a transitional government for Syria “with a neutral environment by mutual consent to a full transfer of power.”

    Last month, Lavrov said the U.S. was sending conflicting signals to the rebels. While the U.S. said it favored a peace conference in Geneva, Lavrov said, talk about a possible no-fly zone encouraged the opposition to step up fighting instead of sitting down for talks.

    “The message the opposition is getting: Guys, don’t go to Geneva, don’t say you are going to negotiate with the regime, soon things will change in your favor,” Lavrov said then.

    On Tuesday, Lavrov declined to sum up his meeting with Kerry, telling reporters only that their discussion was “excellent.”

    The United States, like the Syrian rebels, says Assad and his family should play no role in a transitional government. Russia says there should be no conditions on the talks.

    Washington has opposed including Iran in the talks amid continuing disagreement about its disputed nuclear program.

    While the United States and its European and Arab allies are seeking to convince rebels to attend the conference, Russia’s role is to bring government officials to the table.

    Kerry said that both he and Lavrov were “more than serious” and committed to the Geneva process. “We both agreed that our countries will … be able to pull together in that effort,” Kerry said.

    Syria was also the focus of Kerry’s discussion with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. A senior State Department official said the two discussed ways to strengthen support to the opposition and step up plans for an international conference to resolve the crisis.

    The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose details of the closed-door meeting, said Kerry and his Turkish counterpart also discussed how to expand the Syrian people’s access to humanitarian aid.

    He said both men expressed concern over recent Assad regime attacks on civilians in the central province of Homs and the influx of fighters from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

    Kerry said he spoke briefly with Lavrov about National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, an issue that has strained relations between the two nations.

    Itar-Tass reported that the two did not discuss Snowden, but Kerry said he raised U.S. concerns and hoped Lavrov would pass them to Russian officials.

    Before the meeting, when a reporter asked whether he and Kerry would talk about asylum for Snowden, Lavrov scolded the reporter, saying, “Don’t shout at me, please.”

    Irritated by reporters who chased him down the hall after the meeting, Lavrov said, “I am on my way because I missed my lunch” and “You are absolutely crazy. I don’t know how you can work like this.”

    {The Moscow Times }

  • Portugal Tensions Spook Markets

    {{World shares pulled back on Wednesday as signs of slowing Chinese growth and escalating political tensions in Portugal, one of the euro zone’s crisis hot-spots, spooked investors.}}

    European shares .FTEU3 opened down 1.2 percent and euro zone periphery bonds tumbled after two high profile government resignations in two days threatened to plunge Portugal into a political crisis.

    Portugal’s bond yields surged more than 1 percentage point to 8% . Spanish, Italian yields jumped too while nervousness over the state of Greece’s next tranche of bail-out money also caused jitters.

    “With disorder and uncertainty over the political situation in Egypt threatening stability in the Middle East, and a Greek deadline looming to prove it can action its bail-out conditions before receiving the next tranche of aid, volatility is likely to be high,” Mark Ward, head of trading at Sanlam Securities, said.

    It came after Asian stock markets had dropped overnight as official figures showed that growth in China’s services sector sagged to its weakest pace in nine months in June, adding to signs of a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

    The U.S. dollar hit a one-month high against a basket of major currencies, staying firm after a recent string of generally solid U.S. economic data supported the view that the Federal Reserve could scale back its monetary stimulus later this year.

    The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback’s value against a basket of major currencies, rose to as high as 83.635, its highest level since late May, while the troubles in Portugal left the euro at its lowest level in a month.

    In commodities markets, oil was hovering around $105 a barrel, a 14-month high, as political turmoil in Egypt where the army is looking to remove the president, threatened to destabilize the Middle East and disrupt oil supplies.

    wirestory

  • Bolivia Denies Snowden on President’s Plane

    {{Bolivia has said President Evo Morales’ plane was forced to land in Austria after France and Portugal refused air permits, apparently because they suspected it was carrying Edward Snowden, the former US spy agency contractor wanted by Washington on espionage charges}}.

    Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca on Tuesday furiously accused France and Portugal of putting Morales’ life at risk and insisted that Snowden was not on Morales’ plane.

    Choquehuanca told reporters that Portugal and France had abruptly cancelled the air permits, forcing the unscheduled Vienna stopover as Morales was returning on a Bolivian government aircraft from Russia.

    “They say it was due to technical issues, but after getting explanations from some authorities we found that there appeared to be some unfounded suspicions that Mr Snowden was on the plane … We don’t know who invented this lie,” he said.

    “We want to express our displeasure because this has put the president’s life at risk.”

    While attending an energy conference in Russia this week, Morales said he would consider granting asylum to Snowden if requested.

    Bolivian Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra said the US State Department may have been behind the decisions to not allow Morales’ plane to land in Portugal or fly over French air space.

    “We have the suspicion that they (the two European governments) were used by a foreign power, in this case the United States, as a way of intimidating the Bolivian state and President Evo Morales,” he said.

  • Toyota says to recall 185,000 cars globally

    {{Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said it is recalling around 185,000 vehicles globally including the Yaris compact due to a glitch in the electric power steering system, which could make the steering heavier.}}

    Yaris models, known as the Vitz in Japan, made between November 2010 to March 2012 have been recalled. Toyota said it is also recalling the Verso-S, known as the Lactis in Japan, manufactured from August 2010 to August 2011.

    The world’s best selling carmaker is recalling around 130,000 vehicles in Japan, some 7,050 vehicles in Germany and about 7,000 vehicles in France, as well as in several other countries.

    No accidents have been reported from this glitch, said Toyota spokeswoman Shiori Hashimoto.

    {agencies}