IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • EU Leaders Pledge to Push on With Banking Union

    {{EU finance ministers agreed on Thursday on an intermediate step towards what is known as banking union, which involves tighter oversight of Europe’s banks and coordinated resolution of any problems.

    Thursday’s agreement means investors and wealthy savers will share the costs of future bank failures.}}

    That moves the EU closer to drawing a line under years of taxpayer-funded bailouts that have caused public outrage.

    But the law only sets out common rules that national authorities in the 27-nation bloc have to follow when dealing with their own banks. It does not allow for sharing power or financial costs of closing down or rescuing banks at EU level.

    It is only a stepping stone to a broader deal which would create a central EU body to deal with failing banks, including big financial institutions that operate across national borders.

    The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is to propose how to create such a central resolution body, called the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM), in July, although some officials indicate that it could be delayed beyond that date.

    There will be little progress on the SRM until after the September parliamentary elections in Germany, which wants to avoid discussions that could involve some form of financial support for institutions in other countries.

    Taxpayers across much of Europe have had to pay for a series of deeply unpopular bank and government rescues since the financial crisis erupted in Greece in 2010 and spread across the bloc and even threatened the survival of the euro.

    The European Union spent the equivalent of a third of its economic output on saving its banks between 2008 and 2011, using taxpayer cash but struggling to contain the crisis and – in the case of Ireland – almost bankrupting the country.

    The SRM is to complement the work of the European Central Bank in the role of a single supervisor of all euro zone banks.

    “The European Council… underlined the following points: a fully effective SSM (single supervisor) requires a Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) for banks covered by the SSM, with strong resolution powers, allowing quick, effective and coherent decision-making at central level,” the leaders said, using the careful legal language employed in summit declarations.

    “The European Council looks forward to the Commission’s proposal establishing an SRM with a view to reaching agreement in the Council by the end of the year so that it can be adopted before the end of the current parliamentary term,” they said.

    The European Parliament has its last plenary session in mid April 2014.

  • EU Opens New Front in China Trade Battle With Stone Case

    {{The European Union has opened a new front in its trade battle with China by launching an investigation into alleged dumping by Chinese producers of stone used for counter tops and tiles.}}

    The European Commission said on Friday it was starting the study after a complaint lodged last month by A.St.A., the European association of manufacturers of agglomerated stones.

    The association accuses Chinese manufacturers of dumping – selling products below fair value or even cost price.

    The EU market is worth an annual 480 million euros ($624 million), according to a source familiar with the case, with Chinese imports representing some 9 percent of that, making it a small to medium case for Commission investigators.

    In the past two months, the Commission has imposed duties to counter dumping of Chinese solar panels and told Beijing it is prepared to launch an investigation into anti-competitive behavior by producers of mobile telecoms equipment.

    EU solar panel imports from China totaled 21 billion euros in 2011. China has warned that duties on panels would seriously harm bilateral trade, and threatened to retaliate if an EU telecoms investigation begins.

    It has since launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidy inquiries into sales there of European wine.

    A.St.A has 15 members, including six from Italy and two each from Spain and non-EU member Turkey.

    Agglomerated stones are made from stone dust and particles mixed and stuck together with polymer resin, and are typically less expensive, less porous and harder than natural granite or marble. ($1 = 0.7691 euros)

    {wirestory}

  • BlackBerry Reports Quarterly Loss

    {{BlackBerry reported a fiscal first quarter loss on Friday and forecast a loss in the current quarter, sending its shares plunging 18 percent before the market opened.

    The smartphone maker reported a net loss of $84 million, or 16 cents a share, in the quarter to June 1. That compared with a year earlier loss of $518 million or 99 cents a share.}}

    {wirestory}

  • EU aid to Africa Badly Spent–Inquiry

    {{A British parliamentary inquiry has heard that more than $650m ( £420m) worth of European Union aid to Africa may have been badly spent.}}

    The House of Lords Committee on External Affairs is looking into about $1.3bn worth of water projects in sub-Saharan Africa during the past decade.

    Fewer than half of a sample of 23 projects met poor people’s needs, the committee heard from EU auditors.

    The problems ranged from the planning stages to the projects’ implementation.

    Auditor David Bostock told the committee that his sample study was fairly representative of the water aid worth over $1.3bn (£800m) that had been undertaken by the EU in the past 10 years.

    Water aid projects are usually a combination of supplying clean water and, equally importantly, building toilets that stop the spread of disease.

    The auditors found that the equipment managers chose – like pumps and pipes – was, on the whole, appropriate.

    The problems came in the sustainability of the projects.

    In some cases, not enough local people were trained in how to maintain the necessary equipment – so after a few years it just stopped being used.

    But the biggest problem was finance – or getting long-term agreement from the communities and governments of poorer countries on how the water supply would be funded.

    {wirestory}

  • UK government backs three-person IVF

    {{The UK looks set to become the first country to allow the creation of babies using DNA from three people, after the government backed the IVF technique.}}

    It will produce draft regulations later this year and the procedure could be offered within two years.

    Experts say three-person IVF could eliminate debilitating and potentially fatal mitochondrial diseases that are passed on from mother to child.

    Opponents say it is unethical and could set the UK on a “slippery slope”.

    They also argue that affected couples could adopt or use egg donors instead.

    Mitochondria are the tiny, biological “power stations” that give the body energy. They are passed from a mother, through the egg, to her child.

    Defective mitochondria affect one in every 6,500 babies. This can leave them starved of energy, resulting in muscle weakness, blindness, heart failure and death in the most extreme cases.

    Research suggests that using mitochondria from a donor egg can prevent the diseases.

    It is envisaged that up to 10 couples a year would benefit from the treatment.

    However, it would result in babies having DNA from two parents and a tiny amount from a third donor as the mitochondria themselves have their own DNA.

    ‘Clearly sensitive’
    Earlier this year, a public consultation by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) concluded there was “general support” for the idea and that there was no evidence that the advanced form of IVF was unsafe.

    The chief medical officer for England, Prof Dame Sally Davies, said: “Scientists have developed ground-breaking new procedures which could stop these disease being passed on, bringing hope to many families seeking to prevent their future children inheriting them.

    “It’s only right that we look to introduce this life-saving treatment as soon as we can.”

    She said there were “clearly some sensitive issues here” but said she was “personally very comfortable” with altering mitochondria.

    Scientists have devised two techniques that allow them to take the genetic information from the mother and place it into the egg of a donor with healthy mitochondria.

    BBC

  • China Urged to End Forced Resettlements in Tibet

    {{A human rights group appealed to China on Thursday to end what it called forced “mass rehousing and relocation” of ethnic Tibetans that it said had uprooted more than two million people in the past seven years.}}

    The report, by New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Chinese authorities threw lives into disarray by denying rights to forcibly relocated ethnic Tibetans with insufficient compensation, sub-par housing and lack of help in finding jobs.

    “The scale and speed at which the Tibetan rural population is being remodeled by mass rehousing and relocation policies are unprecedented in the post-Mao era,” said Human Rights Watch China Director Sophie Richardson.

    “Tibetans have no say in the design of policies that are radically altering their way of life, and – in an already highly repressive context – no ways to challenge them.”

    More than two million Tibetans had been relocated in Tibet since 2006, as well as hundreds of thousands of nomadic herders in the eastern part of the Tibetan plateau such as in Qinghai province, the report said.

    The aim of the program, it added, was in part to help economically, but also to combat separatist sentiment “and is designed to strengthen political control over the Tibetan rural population”.

    Phone calls to the Tibet autonomous region government office seeking comment were not answered.

    Violence has flared in Tibet since 1950, when Beijing says it “peacefully liberated” the region. Many Tibetans say Chinese rule has eroded their culture and religion and agitate for the return of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule.

    The Chinese government, which brands the Dalai Lama a dangerous “splittist”, denies trampling on Tibetan rights and boasts of having brought prosperity to the region and ending serfdom.

    {agencies}

  • Gold Dives as Safe-Haven Appeal Dims

    {{Gold fell to a near three-year low on Wednesday, tumbling nearly 4% as a rally in the equity markets further weighed down on bullion’s investment appeal as a hedge against economic uncertainty. }}

    Silver dropped almost 5% and platinum group metals also declined sharply.

    Bullion was pummelled despite some easing fears that the US Federal Reserve would begin to withdraw its stimulus early after the US government slashed its estimate for first-quarter economic growth.

    “We bought gold for two reasons – because we were worried about the inflationary impact of policy and because we thought the financial system was going to fall apart,” said Sean Corrigan, chief investment strategist at Diapason Commodities Management.

    “Although it may be completely the wrong judgement, the market has decided that none of those at the moment is a concern,” Corrigan said.

    Spot gold earlier slumped to its lowest since August 2010 at $1 223.54 an ounce. It was last down 3.6% at $1 230.31 an ounce by 17:17 GMT.

    Bullion has now lost $120 in the last four sessions after the Fed last week gave its most explicit signal yet it plans to wind down the era of easy money.

    US gold futures for August delivery dropped $45.10 to $1 230, with trading volume approaching 300 000 lots versus its 30-day average at 211 000, preliminary Reuters data showed.

    The metal has lost more than a quarter of its value this year and by around 23% in the second quarter, its biggest quarterly loss since Reuters began tracking gold prices in 1968.

    US stocks advanced for a second straight day on hopes that the worse-than-expected US GDP data might delay the Fed in scaling back its stimulus, a key factor behind gold’s rally in recent years.

    “Equities are up again. People want risk-on and gold is therefore seen as a source of cash and not as a safe haven, because that’s not needed,” said Simon Weeks, head of precious metals at the Bank of Nova Scotia.

    Silver fell to its lowest since August 2010 at $18.39 an ounce. Spot prices were later down 4.5% at $18.71 an ounce.

    {wirestory}

  • Premier Gillard Ousted from Leadership of Australia’s Labor Party

    {{Kevin Rudd has ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard as leader of Australia’s Labor Party.}}

    He won by 57 votes to 45, in a leadership ballot of Labor lawmakers.

    The change comes ahead of a general election due in September, which polls suggest Labor is set to lose.

    This is the latest twist in a long and bitter rivalry between the two politicians – but it could be the last as Ms Gillard has said she will now leave politics.

    “I will not re-contest the federal electorate… at the forthcoming election,” said Ms Gillard, Australia’s first female prime minister.

    “What I am absolutely confident of is it will be easier for the next woman and the woman after that and the woman after that, and I’m proud of that,” she added.

    Despite their bitter rivalry, Mr Rudd praised his predecessor, describing her as a woman of extraordinary intelligence, with great strength and energy.

    “Julia, as prime minister and prior to that as deputy prime minister, has achieved much under the difficult circumstances of a minority government,” he told a news conference after his victory.

    Mr Rudd is more popular with voters than Ms Gillard, and many believe Labor will perform better in the election under him.

    Meanwhile, opposition leader Tony Abbott called on Mr Rudd to name an election date, arguing that it should be sooner than 14 September – the date set by Ms Gillard.

    “The Australian people are yearning to make a choice. The Australian people are well and truly over this low and dishonourable parliament,” he told a news conference.

    {wirestory}

  • Italy Court Hands Berlusconi 7 Years in Jail Over Sex Charges

    {{Silvio Berlusconi was handed a seven-year jail sentence on Monday for abuse of office and paying for sex with a minor, adding to the complications facing Italy’s fragile left-right government.}}

    The former prime minister will not have to serve any jail time before he has exhausted an appeals process that could take years, but the conviction angered members of his centre-right party who questioned whether he should continue to support the coalition.

    The 76-year-old media tycoon expressed outrage at the verdict which he said was politically motivated.

    “An incredible sentence has been issued of a violence never seen or heard of before, to try to eliminate me from the political life of this country,” Berlusconi said in a statement.

    “Yet again I intend to resist against this persecution because I am absolutely innocent and I don’t want in any way to abandon my battle to make Italy a country that is truly free and just.”

    Berlusconi’s lawyers announced they would appeal against the ruling that also banned him from holding public office.

    Berlusconi was found guilty of paying for sex with former teenage nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, better known under her stage name “Ruby the Heartstealer”, during “bunga bunga” sex parties at his palatial home near Milan.

    The panel of three women judges also convicted him of abuse of office by arranging to have El Mahroug released from police custody when she was held in a separate theft case.

    The verdict closes a two-year trial that has mesmerised Italy with its accounts of wild sex parties at the billionaire’s villa outside Milan while he was premier in 2010.

  • Obama, Karzai back Taliban talks in Qatar

    {{The White House said that President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai support the idea of holding talks with the Taliban in the Islamist group’s Qatar office.}}

    In a video call, the two leaders “reaffirmed that an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process is the surest way to end violence and ensure lasting stability in Afghanistan and the region,” it said.

    “They reiterated their support for an office in Doha for the purpose of negotiations between the (the Afghan government’s) High Peace Council and authorized representatives of the Taliban.”

    Obama appeared to have persuaded Karzai to renew peace efforts after the Afghan leader’s furious response to the Taliban’s portrayal of its newly opened Qatar office as the headquarters of a state-in-exile.

    US envoy James Dobbins said Monday that Washington was also “outraged” at how the Taliban opened the office, which had been intended as a first step towards a peace deal to end the decade-long war in Afghanistan.

    The Taliban opened the office under the rebel group’s white flag and referred to themselves as the “Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan,” the name of their hardline 1996-2001 regime.

    The flag and the name were the focus of a diplomatic bust-up that derailed an early stage of efforts to start peace talks as the US-led NATO combat mission winds down 12 years after the Taliban were ousted.

    The Afghan government, which has said it is still committed to the peace process, insists the Taliban’s office in the Gulf state must only be used for direct negotiations with Karzai’s appointed negotiators.

    The contentious sign, flag and flagpole unveiled at the opening of the office last Tuesday have now been moved.

    Karzai, angered at how the Taliban had been allowed to pull off such a publicity coup, also broke off Afghan-US talks on an agreement that could allow the US to maintain soldiers in Afghanistan after the NATO combat mission ends.

    The White House statement said Obama welcomed the June 18 “milestone” at which Afghan security forces take the lead for operations countrywide.

    {Wirestory}