Archive for the 'Top Stories' Category
O Banco de Construção da China SA, um dos maiores bancos chineses, está em negociações para comprar os ativos sul-americanos do banco alemão WestLB AG, que enfrenta dificuldades, na mais recente cartada de um grande banco chinês para pôr um pé no mercado latino-americano.
Separadamente, o CCB, como é mais conhecido, também está explorando potenciais aquisições bancárias no Brasil, disse ontem uma pessoa a par do assunto.
O CCB quer os ativos para ampliar sua presença no setor de banco comercial na região, com um acordo que poderia custar até US$ 300 milhões, disse essa pessoa. Um acordo poderia ser finalizado até junho.
O WestLB, banco controlado pelo governo alemão e formalmente conhecido como Westdeutsche Landesbank, teve problemas depois de assumir muitos riscos e pedir bilhões de euros em ajuda estatal. A Comissão Europeia aprovou em dezembro um plano para dividir o banco, o que levou a uma mudança na estrutura societária, ao encerramento progressivo de suas atividades bancárias e ao desaparecimento de um nome que já teve grande prestígio.
O CCB, que está sendo assessorado no negócio com o WestLB pelo BTG Pactual, tem uma rede de cerca de 13.629 agências, a maioria no continente chinês. Tem filiais no exterior em Cingapura, Frankfurt, Joanesburgo, Tóquio, Seul, Nova York, Saigon e Sydney.
Sua possível expansão ocorre depois que o Banco Industrial e Comercial da China Ltd. (ICBC), o maior banco chinês em ativos, adquiriu em agosto uma fatia de 80% das operações do Standard Bank Group Ltd. na Argentina, num negócio avaliado em US$ 600 milhões e realizado poucos meses após o banco iniciar suas operações no Brasil.
As petrolíferas estatais chinesas entraram com força na América Latina nos últimos dois anos, como parte dos esforços para garantir o abastecimento de energia e diversificar seus investimentos no exterior, e agora os bancos chineses estão se unindo a elas e também investindo na região.
No mês passado, o ministro equatoriano de Indústrias Estratégicas, Jorge Glas, disse que a maior petrolífera e o maior banco comercial chineses mostraram forte interesse em participar de um projeto conjunto entre Equador e Venezuela para construir uma refinaria na costa equatoriana do Pacífico.
Glas disse que a China National Petroleum Corp e o ICBC vão prosseguir as negociações com Quito em junho sobre sua entrada no empreendimento. Glas fez esses comentários enquanto estava na China, em abril, onde foi conversar com petrolíferas e instituições financeiras sobre uma possível participação nesse projeto de US$ 13 bilhões — a Refineria del Pacifico, refinaria e complexo petroquímico de 300.000 barris por dia que deverá ser construída pelo Equador e a Venezuela até o fim de 2016.
O instituto de pesquisa Diálogo Interamericano, de Washington, disse em fevereiro que os compromissos de empréstimo da China para a América Latina em 2010 chegaram a US$ 37 bilhões, mais do que o total combinado dos compromissos do Banco Mundial, Banco de Exportação e Importação dos Estados Unidos e Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento. Venezuela, Brasil, Argentina e Equador foram os maiores beneficiários.
May 18 2012 | Top Stories | Comments Off
In 2006, Britain’s foreign aid agency began funding India’s national “Reproductive and Child Health Programme.” British taxpayers have since spent £162.2 million on the scheme, with the goal of reducing “disparities in access and use of essential reproductive and child health services,” according to the Department for International Development (DflD).
This sounded benign enough until the Guardian reported this week that the British-funded program has “forcibly sterilized Indian women and men”—a practice India supposedly left behind in the 1970s. In the 1990s India also abandoned central population targets, though some of its poorer states have maintained their own population-control programs. In February India Today reported on several cases in Madhya Pradesh—which has India’s fourth-highest fertility rate—of state officials blackmailing, threatening or bribing men and women into undergoing vasectomies and hysterectomies.
DfID issued a statement objecting to the Guardian’s report, saying that its funding was not meant to be going to “sterilization” centers, only to helping “women access a mix of reversible methods of family planning,” such as contraceptive pills, and to “improve the quality of services.” DfID says it has also offered technical support to help Indian authorities crack down on forced sterilization.
There’s no reason to doubt those gentler U.K. intentions. But this wouldn’t be the first time that recipients have flouted donor intent with aid that is fungible. A DfID official, who declined to be named, clarified to us that the national Indian program funded by British taxpayers does include voluntary sterilization, but that sterilization specifically is “not part of what we fund.” He added that DfID will end its support for the national Indian program next year and will focus family-planning aid only on state governments in India’s poorest regions, as David Cameron’s government attempts to decentralize international aid disbursements.
All that may help Westminster better track how its money is spent. But taxpayers are still left to ask why they should pay for any population control half a world away when budgets are squeezed at home. The DfID official who spoke with us offered a list of benefits associated with trimming Third World birth rates: “a more stable and profitable world, less terrorism and trafficking, less war, less instability.”
That’s been the view of population-control advocates for decades, but the reality is that around the world economic development has led to falling birth rates, not vice versa. British aid that assists coercive population control offends British values even as it harms the people it is supposed to help.
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page 11
May 18 2012 | Top Stories | Comments Off
Dubai: The unified academic calendar for schools and colleges will be implemented fully in all schools and universities across the country from the new academic year.
The decision has been taken at the federal level and no exemptions will be permitted, according to Humaid Mohammad Obaid Al Qutami, Minister of Education.
Al Qutami told Gulf News: "When deciding the calendar we were aware of the difficulties faced by many schools and universities, which are linked to foreign educational systems. We see no harm in these schools having links to foreign systems. But we don’t see this has anything to do with the unification of the holidays and breaks."
He said the ministry is willing to be flexible on minor issues and added that the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research as well as the Ministry of Education were entrusted by the Cabinet to implement the goals of unification, which will be achieved completely from the following academic year nationwide.
Article continues below
May 18 2012 | Top Stories | Comments Off
The mood of many at the news the BBC is to move its children's programmes, including Blue Peter, off BBC One and Two, was summed up – in thoroughly modern fashion – in the hashtags on Twitter.
"Many US programmes are written as pure product placement, while some of the BBC children's television of the past was groundbreaking in helping children ask questions about science, literature, nature and current affairs.
"I only hope that today's decision does not pave the way for a generation that loses a sense of cultural identity and who do not reflect on their viewing choices."
Dr Oswell also dismisses the argument that, because children's programmes can no longer be followed by shows aimed at all ages, viewing as a family will be reduced.
The "watch with mother" idea has always been "fairly mythic", he believes.
But former Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan feels strongly that losing a show with its history and philosophy from the mainstream of the BBC is "wrong-headed thinking".
Duncan, who was the Scout Association's chief scout from 2004-09, believes the decision is symptomatic of a general marginalisation of young people and their interests.
"It's not recognising the importance of young people in society," he says. "Separating them from the rest of society is wrong – we should be making young people feel they are more important, not just in their own world."
Citing the example of another legendary BBC children's show that was thought moribund before being reinvented to international success, Duncan wonders whether Blue Peter too could have had a Doctor Who-style revamp.
"Blue Peter is so iconic, I would go in the opposite direction," he says. "I would make it into something that is a bit more exciting and bigger.
"I would put it at prime-time and put more resources into it and make it something very special – because it has the history."
Announcing the decision as part of the corporation's Delivering Quality First cost-saving plans, the BBC Trust was quick to point out: "Children's programmes are absolutely fundamental to the BBC and that is why we have protected investment in them in the light of cuts elsewhere."
This, more than where programmes are found by a generation of viewers "quite happy flicking through the channels", is the all-important issue, says Dr Oswell.
"As long as the BBC continues to invest properly in children's programmes, and to market those programmes properly, that's what really counts."
May 17 2012 | Top Stories | Comments Off
A capital da Argentina pode enfrentar um aumento substancial nos seus custos se o governo conseguir empurrar a responsabilidade pelo transporte público para o prefeito Mauricio Macri, mas sua já baixa nota de crédito deve continuar a mesma.
As agências de classificação de crédito Fitch Ratings e Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services dão a Buenos Aires nota B, bem dentro da faixa de alto risco, e com previsão de permanecer assim.
“A incerteza está incorporada à nota de crédito de Buenos Aires”, disse esta semana a analista de crédito da S&P Delfina Cavanagh à agência de notícias Dow Jones.
A Fitch manteve em 29 de março sua avaliação de crédito para a cidade, mas notou que a elevada proporção de dívidas em moeda estrangeira e a necessidade substancial de obras públicas são riscos para a atual nota.
A avaliação da cidade como investimento especulativo não impediu que investidores comprassem US$ 415 milhões em novos títulos de dívida com vencimento em cinco anos e juro de 9,95%, emitidos por Buenos Aires em fevereiro. Foi um juro consideravelmente menor que os 12,5% exigidos pelo mercado em março de 2011 para comprar US$ 475 milhões em títulos de cinco anos.
O governo da presidente Cristina Kirchner e Macri negociaram no início do ano a transferência para Buenos Aires da administração do sistema de metrô da cidade.
Macri rapidamente mais que dobrou o preço do bilhete, um tema politicamente sensível, para 2,50 pesos argentinos (US$ 0,57). Mas o prefeito recusou-se a concluir a transferência do debilitado sistema, depois que um acidente num trem suburbano matou 51 pessoas em fevereiro.
Em retaliação, o Congresso controlado pela presidente aprovou uma lei forçando a cidade a administrar o metrô e suas 33 linhas de ônibus.
Macri disse que a cidade não aceitará responsabilidade pelo sistema de transporte público da cidade se vigorarem os termos oferecidos pelo governo, e prometeu levar a disputa aos tribunais.
A disputa sobre a transferência do controle do metrô deve percorrer lentamente a câmera de vereadores e os tribunais, disse Abel Fernandez, secretário da Fazenda da cidade.
A presidente está ansiosa para eliminar os cerca de 70 bilhões de pesos (US$ 16 bilhões) que gasta por ano com subsídios para transportes e energia. Transferir o controle do metrô e dos ônibus para a cidade economizará ao governo federal cerca de 1 bilhão de pesos por ano.
Mas a mudança também custará à cidade cerca de 5,5% de sua receita operacional, segundo a Fitch Ratings.
Embora considere ainda muito cedo para medir o impacto da transferência nas contas da cidade, Cavanagh, da S&P, notou que Buenos Aires tem flexibilidade para determinar seus gastos e poucas dívidas.
A cidade teve um orçamento operacional de 22 bilhões de pesos ano passado e superávit fiscal, disse ela.
Apesar das finanças relativamente sadias, a nota de crédito da cidade continua de alto risco porque “elas estão operando na Argentina” e a cidade está sujeita à imprevisibilidade das políticas do governo federal, disse Cavanagh.
A Argentina, terceira maior economia da América Latina, continua sendo considerada de alto risco mesmo depois de anos de crescimento econômico veloz e da reestruturação bem-sucedida de cerca de 93% dos US$ 100 bilhões da dívida soberana do país, que remonta à moratória de 2001.
May 16 2012 | Top Stories | Comments Off
For internet entrepreneur Njeri Rionge, Africa represents the next economic frontier. She say strong indigenous, African-owned companies are needed to take advantage of the boom times ahead.
"I touched many things before I touched the thing that I turned to gold," she told the BBC's African Dream series.
African Dream is broadcast on the BBC Network Africa programme every Monday morning.
Every week, one successful business man or woman will explain how they started off and what others could learn from them.
May 16 2012 | Top Stories | Comments Off
Eritrea emerged from its long war of independence in 1993 only to plunge once again into military conflict, first with Yemen and then, more devastatingly, with its old adversary, Ethiopia.
This culminated in independence after an alliance of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and a coalition of Ethiopian resistance movements defeated Haile Selassie's communist successor, Mengistu Haile Mariam.
In 1993, in a referendum supported by Ethiopia, Eritreans voted almost unanimously for independence, leaving Ethiopia landlocked.
The two countries hardly became good neighbours, with the issues of Ethiopian access to the Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab and unequal trade terms souring relations.
In 1998 border disputes around the town of Badme erupted into open hostilities. This conflict ended with a peace deal in June 2000, but not before leaving both sides with tens of thousands of soldiers dead. A security zone separates the two countries. The UN patrolled the zone at one time but pulled out, unable to fulfil its mandate.
The unresolved border issue compounds other pressing problems. These include Eritrea's inability to provide enough food; two thirds of the population receive food aid. Moreover, economic progress is hampered by the proportion of Eritreans who are in the army rather than the workforce.
May 16 2012 | Top Stories | Comments Off
Story By: by Larry Abramson
- Elaine Miller-Karas, director of the Trauma Resource Institute
The new Army guidance clarifies other pieces of the PTSD diagnosis that might mean one thing for civilians, and something completely different in the military.
Take “malingering,” or faking illness. Dr. Charles Hoge of the Army Surgeon General’s office says that for a service member, that word could lead to denial of benefits, or even punishment.
“These are legitimate diagnoses, but they do have different implications and ramifications in the military because of the administrative processes that can happen around those types of diagnoses,” he says.
Removing The Stigma
Through these changes, the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs are hoping to peel away the stigma still associated with this condition. In doing so, there’s also a good chance that more people will seek treatment. And that could add to the growing number of PTSD cases in the military.
The VA recently announced it will hire more therapists, doctors and support staff, in an effort to shorten the long wait times for an appointment in some places.
Dr. Mary Schohn, director of mental health operations at the VA, says rural areas are a particular problem. So the agency is sponsoring special training internships.
“So some of the last internship positions that have opened up have been in rural areas because we know that people who tend to train in areas are more likely to stay there,” she says.
But some say no amount of hiring can keep pace with the growing number of cases.
“There aren’t enough therapists in our country to deal with the number of individuals coming back with traumatic stress symptoms,” says Elaine Miller-Karas, director of the Trauma Resource Institute, based on the West Coast.
Alternative Approaches
Miller-Karas says that simply rounding up enough psychiatrists and therapists for all these men and women isn’t enough. Alternative approaches are essential, she says â relaxation techniques, exercise and other ways to help people who don’t want to be labeled with a disorder.
“Many of our young men and women coming back don’t want to go to a mental health therapist. But they will go someplace and learn skills for wellness to increase their resiliency,” she says. Miller-Karas is focusing on training community health workers and family members in coping with post-traumatic stress.
Hoge of the Army’s Surgeon General’s office says says clinicians usually turn to traditional talk therapy and medication first because they’ve been tested. “But if they don’t work, clinicians will very often move to treatments that don’t have as strong evidence,” he says.
Proven or not, alternative therapies may be needed to manage the workload created by all the troops seeking help.
May 15 2012 | Top Stories | Comments Off
By Brendan O’Brien
MILWAUKEE |
Sat May 12, 2012 2:42pm EDT
MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – Wisconsin’s controversial Republican Governor Scott Walker is under fire from Democrats following the release of a year-old video clip in which he describes to a supporter his “divide and conquer” strategy for dealing with organized labor.
In the video clip, part of a documentary filmed by a man who has contributed to the campaign of Walker’s main Democratic opponent, Walker is chatting with Beloit, Wisconsin billionaire Diane Hendricks before meeting with a local economic development group shortly after he took office in 2011.
“The first step is we are going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions because you divide and conquer,” Walker said to Hendricks, who has contributed $510,000 to his campaign, according to a state campaign finance database.
Walker used the phrase in response to a question from Hendricks, who asked the governor if Wisconsin “would ever become a completely red (Republican) state and work on these unions and become a right-to-work” state?
Walker faces a recall election on June 5 after he angered unions and Democrats by pushing through the state legislature last spring a substantial diminution of the power of public sector unions. He faces Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in a vote that polls have so far shown will be close.
The law championed by Walker forced local and state government workers such as teachers to pay a portion of the cost of health insurance and pensions, limited wage increases to the level of inflation, made union dues voluntary and forced unions to be recertified every year.
The “divide and conquer” comment drew a sharp response from Barrett.
“Scott Walker is finally honest about his secret plot to ‘divide and conquer’ Wisconsin by launching an ideological civil war against working, middle-class families,” Barrett spokesman Phil Walzak said on Saturday.
Barrett, who lost to Walker in the 2010 gubernatorial race, won a primary Tuesday against a field of three other Democrats.
Asked about the comment at the start of the Wisconsin state Republican party convention in Green Bay on Friday, Walker did not deny he said it. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel quoted him as responding: “It’s about standing up and saying I’m drawing the line in the sand and saying, ‘I’m putting the government firmly on the side of the taxpayer again.’”
Walker has consistently defended the union measures as needed to close a yawning state budget deficit. If he prevails in the recall vote, Democrats said they believe he has a more nefarious agenda for unions.
They accused Walker of wanting to follow in the footsteps of another Midwest state, Indiana, in making Wisconsin a “right to work” state. Right to work legislation allows an employee to opt out of paying union dues even at a unionized private workplace.
“I have no interest in pursuing right-to-work legislation,” Walker said Friday in Green Bay.
The video of Walker last year was filmed by Brad Lichtenstein, who was working on a documentary on the city of Janesville, Wisconsin. The documentary “As Goes Janesville” is about the closing of a General Motors plant and the city’s attempt to create jobs.
Lichtenstein gave $100 to Barrett in 2010 when the mayor unsuccessfully ran against Walker for governor, according to the state political contributions database.
The latest public poll, by Rasmussen Reports earlier this week, showed Walker leading Barrett by 50 to 45 percent in the recall. It is unclear if the video will have an impact on the campaign as almost everyone in Wisconsin has already decided what they think of Walker.
Polls show an extraordinarily low 5 or 6 percent undecided with more than three weeks to go until the June 5 vote.
(Editing by Greg McCune)
May 15 2012 | Top Stories | Comments Off
A landlocked, mountainous country, Switzerland's geographical position in central Europe and studious neutrality have given it the access and political stability to become one of the world's wealthiest countries, largely through its banking industry.
Formally neutral since just after the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century and informally for about 300 years before that, Switzerland joined the United Nations only in September 2002. Surrounded by the European Union, it is gradually engaging more closely with its powerful neighbour and other international organisations.
Although it lies close to the geographical centre of Europe, and most of its trade is with its European neighbours, it is not an EU member. A referendum in 2001 went against opening talks on joining.
Membership of the European Economic Area was also rejected by referendum in 1992 and Swiss-EU relations are now based on an extensive range of bilateral agreements.
Ties became closer in 2005 when a referendum backed membership of the EU Schengen and Dublin agreements, bringing Switzerland into Europe's passport-free zone and increasing cooperation on crime and asylum issues. A further referendum the same year opened the job market to workers from the 10 newest EU member countries.
At the same time Switzerland has been gradually acceding to international pressure to allow greater scrutiny of its famously secretive banking sector, amid growing concerns about money-laundering and the financing of terrorist groups.
The country forms a European cultural and linguistic crossroads, with about two-thirds of the population speaking German, around one-fifth French and about 7% Italian. Romansch, the fourth national language, is spoken by less than 1% of the population.
The people are given a direct say in their own affairs under Switzerland's system of direct democracy, which has no parallel in any other country.
They are invited to the polls several times a year to vote in national or regional referendums and people's initiatives. Constitutional proposals and major international treaties must be put to the vote, and parliamentary decisions can be subjected to a vote by collecting 50,000 signatures.
The tradition of a citizen army, seen as an essential part of Swiss neutrality, runs deep. During the Cold War the Swiss maintained one of Europe's largest land-based armies. The extremely costly militia system, under which every adult male was conscripted and remained in the reserves until middle age, has been slowly streamlined.
The government expressed its regrets over the country's behaviour in World War II following a report by an independent panel of historians on Swiss relations with the Nazis. The report found that the authorities had known what lay in store for the Jewish refugees to whom they closed their borders in 1942, and had assisted the economy of Nazi Germany, although not to a degree that prolonged the war.
May 14 2012 | Top Stories | Comments Off
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