New Jamaica PM to be sworn in on Thursday
The governor-general of Jamaica, Sir Patrick Allen, on Tuesday received the official results of last week’s general election from the director of elections, Orrette Fisher.
This clears the way for prime minister designate, Portia Simpson Miller, to be formally sworn in as prime minister.
“Following the completion of the official count of ballots cast in the December 29 poll, the director of elections, Orrette Fisher, sent an advisory to Governor-General Sir Patrick Allen, officially notifying him of the political party that secured the majority seats in Parliament. This will now clear the way for the swearing in of the new prime minister,” a release from the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) read.
Simpson Miller is scheduled to be sworn in on Thursday.
The Electoral Office of Jamaica's (EOJ) official count has confirmed that the People's National Party (PNP) won 42 of the 63 seats, with the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), securing the remaining 21.
The release noted that all candidates who contested the December 29 poll have four days, following the completion of the official count in each constituency, within which to file for magisterial recounts.
It also stated that returning officers are now required to submit results and returns of writs, along with a report, seven days after the completion of the final count in their respective constituencies. Copies of the writs will be issued to the Clerk of the Houses to facilitate the swearing in of Members of Parliament.
"The Electoral Office will now be focusing its energies on paying the over 30,000 election day workers who served in various capacities on Election Day. It is anticipated that these payments will be completed by the end of January," the release said .
JIS
FAO examines high Caribbean food import bill
THE increasing Caribbean food import bill has led to several public concerns, including the impact it is having on domestic food production.
This is one of the key findings of a study which the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) conducted on behalf of the region.
“As the price of shopping baskets increases and as domestic producers lose market share to imported substitutes, there is increasing public pressure on governments to formulate strategies to lower food imports,” said the findings of the FAO study done in collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat as part of a project on Promoting CARICOM/CARIFORUM Food Security.
It said that most prominently, many Caribbean governments, private sector and civil society are concerned about rising volumes of food imports from developed economies – particularly where they enjoy the advantage of large production scales, subsidised inputs and/or sophisticated marketing campaigns.
The concern is that these high import volumes “have crowded out regional food production and that the region’s competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis imports has led to losses in employment, food security and rural well being.
The study found that the region spent Bds$8 billion on food imports up to 2008. What is very significant based on data unearthed in the study is that some countries have doubled their food import bill in the space of 10 years. This has also coincided with stagnant agricultural output in some countries.
That 2008 figure has further increased since then.
“The study finds that while the Caribbean continues to produce a large share of several foodstuffs (including fruits, vegetables, pulses, meat, fish, rice and beverages), there are key categories of staples where the region’s food producers have lost competitive market share to cheaper and/or more expensively branded imports,” according to the report.
This loss of market share, it is pointed out, has fed a vicious circle where lower domestic production leads to higher imports, which in turn, affect consumer preferences through the lower priced and often more consistently available imported substitutes.
“These imports further restrict the domestic market and squeeze profit margins for producers,” it added. (JB)
Sir Roland Saunders Wanted by Antigua Police
Sir Ronald Saunders is wanted by Antigua Police for questioning as criminal investigations into the multi-million dollar (IHI) fraud case progressing at what lawmen say is a steady pace. Notwithstanding the recent break in and theft of sensitive documents, at the office that housed the detectives who are working on the said case, police say they are ready to proceed.
According to information coming from the Office of Strategic Communication (STRATCOM), based on the contents of a report that was done by financial forensic investigator Mr. Robert Lindquist, which was corroborated by preliminary police enquiries, the “persons of interest” in the case have been narrowed down to former Prime Minister, now Leader of the Opposition and Member of Parliament, Hon. Lester Bird, Member of Parliament, Hon. Asot Michael, Patrick. A. Michael & Co. Ltd., Mrs. Gesel Michael, Sir. Ronald Saunders (a former Antigua and Barbuda government ambassador to the united kingdom) and others.
Police say that so far most of the “significant persons” or “individuals of interest,” have already assisted the investigations and presented themselves to the police to be interviewed.
“Against such backdrop and in the Police’s quest to advance this gigantic multi-million dollar criminal conspiracy, the police are making a specific public appeal to Sir Ronald Saunders and requests that he presents himself to the (IHI) detectives to be interviewed. Hence, his full co-operation for the duration of this criminal enquiry will be appreciated,” STRATCOM said.
The department added that all efforts to privately contact Sir Ronald Saunders have proven futile.
“Therefore, Sir Ronald Saunders is being asked to urgently get in touch with Commissioner of Police Mr. Vere Browne, at 1(268) 764-6323 or by email, ( cop@ab.gov.ag ),” STRATCOM said.
Additionally, the department said he can contact detective Superintendent Mr. Nurfield Burnette, at 1(268) 764-2285 as soon as possible.
Lawmen further asks that any member of the public who may know how the police can contact Sir Ronald Sanders, to get in touch with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), at 4623913 or 4623914.
Antiguachronicle.net
IXP for Dominica expected in January
Dominica is expected to have an internet exchange point (IXP) up and running in January, the third in the English-speaking Caribbean, Bernadette Lewis, secretary general of the Caribbean Telecoms Union (CTU), told BNamericas.
At the end of May, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Grenada both launched IXPs. Other countries that have begun discussions on IXPs are St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The launches in Grenada and the BVI are part of the Caribbean regional IXP initiative, spearheaded by the CTU and research institute Packet Clearing House (PCH), both of which donated the initial IXP equipment.
The perceived benefits of having local IXPs include faster and cheaper internet, the encouragement of local content development, hosting and development of e-government.
The importance of having regional IXPs is something that the CTU has been promoting heavily during its ICT road shows carried out during 2011 in 16 countries.
For 2012, road shows are scheduled for Dominica in January), Haiti in April, Grenada in May and Barbados in September, as well as dates to be determined in Montserrat and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Bnamermicas.com
Swiss bankers charged in $1.2 billion tax fraud
Three Swiss bankers have been charged with helping American taxpayers hide more than $1.2 billion from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan announced Tuesday.
Michael Berlinka, Urs Frei and Roger Keller face up to five years in prison for their roles in the scheme, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. They are accused of helping more than 100 clients hide assets between 2005 and 2010.
The indictment identifies the defendants' place of employment only as the Zurich branch of "Swiss Bank A," though accounts in the names of Berlinka and Keller appear on the professional networking site Xing.com with Wegelin & Co., a bank in Switzerland, listed as their employer.
Wegelin did not respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.
The three accused currently reside in Switzerland, according to the indictment, and it wasn't clear Tuesday if or when they might face extradition. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment on the matter, and the Swiss Embassy in Washington did not return a request for comment.
In 2009, the U.S. government settled a tax fraud case involving American customers with Swiss banking giant UBS that proved diplomatically challenging due to Switzerland's strict bank secrecy laws. UBS ultimately paid $780 million in fines and restitution and agreed to hand over the identities of a number of its U.S. customers.
Tuesday's indictment alleges that as UBS and another unidentified Swiss bank stopped handling undeclared U.S. accounts in 2008 and 2009 amid scrutiny from American authorities, the defendants' firm attempted to scoop up their business.
"As part of their sales pitch to U.S. taxpayer-clients who were fleeing UBS, [the defendants] told U.S. taxpayer-clients that their undeclared accounts at Swiss Bank A would not be disclosed to the United States authorities because Swiss Bank A had a long tradition of bank secrecy," the indictment states.
The case has been assigned to Judge Jed Rakoff, who has made headlines for his hard-charging approach to financial crime in cases against firms like Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500)
Ecuador appeals court rules against Chevron in oil case
An Ecuadorean appeals court has upheld a ruling that Chevron should pay damages totalling $18.2bn (£11.5bn) over Amazon oil pollution.
Chevron said the judgement was "illegitimate" and "a fraud".
Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, was accused of dumping toxic materials in the Ecuadorean Amazon.
In February, an Ecuadorean court ordered Chevron to pay $5.9bn in damages. That figure more than doubled in a later ruling.
"We ratify the ruling of February 14 2011 in all its parts, including the sentence for moral reparation," the court in the Amazonian city of Lago Agrio said in its ruling, according to Reuters.
Long-running battle
In a statement released in response, Chevron said the decision was a "glaring example of the politicization and corruption of Ecuador's judiciary". It said it would continue to seek recourse through proceedings outside Ecuador.
The decision is the latest twist in a long-running legal battle between Chevron and the Ecuadorean plaintiffs.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadoreans, in a case which has dragged on for years.
Ecuadorean indigenous groups said Texaco dumped more than 18bn gallons (68bn litres) of toxic materials into unlined pits and rivers between 1972 and 1992.
But Chevron says Texaco spent $40m cleaning up the area during the 1990s, and signed an agreement with Ecuador in 1998 absolving it of any further responsibility.
In September, a US appeals court overturned a decision to block the collection of the fine from the company.
Plaintiffs, who had agreed not to attempt to collect the damages until the appeals process was completed in Ecuador, welcomed Tuesday's ruling.
"This (ruling) confirms and ratifies that the company polluted and affected the Amazon," they said in a statement.
"It is necessary to clarify that no amount will be enough to repair all the crime they did in our area, nor will it be enough to bring the dead back to life."
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa described the dispute as a "David and Goliath" battle.
"I think justice has been done," he said after the decision was announced.
"The harm that Chevron caused to the Amazon cannot be denied."
Chevron has challenged the fine, arguing that lawyers and supporters of the indigenous groups who brought the case conspired to fabricate evidence.
In a separate case, International arbitrators have ordered the Ecuadorean government to pay $96m to Chevron because Ecuador's courts had violated international law as a result of delays in resolving commercial disputes involving Texaco.
BP asks Halliburton to pay for Gulf of Mexico spill
Oil giant BP has asked its contractor Halliburton to pay for all costs and damages that arose from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The claims were made in a filing by BP's lawyer Don Haycraft in a US Federal court.
BP and Halliburton are locked in a legal battle with a trial expected this year to settle damages claims.
The offshore spill was the worst in US history, while a blast at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers.
The accident, which happened at BP's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to cost the company tens of billions of dollars.
BP has spent $14bn (£9bn) so far in its spill response and cleanup operation and has set aside a further $20bn for damages claims.
According to the filing, BP has sought "the amount of costs and expenses incurred by BP to clean up and remediate the oil spill, the lost profits from and/or diminution in value of the Macondo prospect, and all other costs and damages incurred by BP related to the Deepwater Horizon incident and resulting oil spill".
Cement
BP has so far failed to give an exact figure for its claim.
Halliburton made the cement cap on the well which blew when the blow-out preventer failed.
The explosion killed 11 workers and led to more than 4 million barrels of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.
The action against Halliburton is part of a string of legal disputes resulting from the spill.
Last month, Cameron International, which manufactured the well's blow-out preventer, agreed to pay BP $250m for costs associated with the spill.
Legal action
BP also remains in legal action with Transocean, the owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig.
In January last year, a US commission which investigated the oil spill reported that BP, Halliburton and Transocean shared blame for the incident.
"Whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blow-out clearly saved those companies significant time (and money)," the presidential panel wrote.
The case between BP and Halliburton is due to being in February.
Chinese oil company Sinopec agrees $2.2bn US shale deal
Chinese oil firm Sinopec has agreed a $2.2bn (£1.4bn) deal with Devon Energy, giving it access to shale deposits in the US.
Sinopec will get a one-third stake in five new shale projects, with the firms expecting to drill 125 wells this year.
China has been buying energy sources to feed its fast-growing economy, and wants to improve its ability to extract domestic shale deposits.
China has some of the biggest shale deposits in the world.
'More exposure'
Analysts said that the recent increase in demand for shale oil and gas meant that many companies were now looking to tie-ups to help them expand quickly.
Sinopec, meanwhile, is not alone in trying to access US shale deposits, and France's Total announced a separate $2.3bn shale deal with Chesapeake Energy and EnerVest.
"It looks like the preferred transaction structure for a lot of these players, whether they are European or Asian, who are behind the curve on this technology," said Mark Hanson of Morningstar.
"The more exposure they get, the better."
Under the terms of the deal with Devon, Sinopec will pay $900m in cash, with the remainder of the investment being paid by the end of 2014.
The deal could be worth as much as $2.5bn when all the payments are made.
"This arrangement improves Devon's capital efficiency by recovering our land and drilling costs to date and by significantly reducing our future capital commitments," John Richels, Devon's president and chief executive, said in a statement.
Not just shale
China's hunger for energy sources has also seen it snapping up other global deals.
On Tuesday, another big Chinese oil firm PetroChina announced a major deal giving it access to Canadian oil sand reserves.
The company owned a 60% stake in the Mackay River oil sands project, and said it had bought the remaining 40% share for $673m.
Last month, China National Petroleum Corporation won an approval for oil exploration and extraction in Afghanistan.
According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Chinese companies announced $18.3bn-worth of bids in 2011 for overseas oil and gas exploration and production companies.
Oil prices soared Tuesday as tensions grew over key Persian Gulf oil
In midday trading, benchmark crude jumped US$3.55, or 3.6 per cent, to US$102.38 per barrel in New York.
Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oil varieties that are imported by US refineries, rose US$3.26, or three per cent, to US$110.64 per barrel in London.
Prices shot up as exchanges opened for the first day of 2012 trading. Commodity prices tend to rise at the beginning of January as investors start the new year with a fresh round of trading. This year prices were driven by heightened concerns that Iran might try to close the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to oil tankers, if Western nations impose new sanctions.
Iran warned the US to stay out of the strategic waterway, where one-sixth of the world's oil shipments pass every day. On Monday its navy fired a cruise missile as part of a military exercise.
The US and European nations are mulling further economic sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear programme.
A stand-off could be damaging to the global economy.
A dustup with Iran could slow crucial oil supplies at a time when the world needs every drop.
Global oil demand is expected to rise to a record 89.5 million barrels per day in 2012. Demand was an estimated 89 million bpd in 2011.
Three of the world's largest economies - the US, China and India - continued to grow with increased manufacturing activity in December.
A private trade group said US manufacturing expanded last month at the fastest pace in six months. The US Commerce Department also said US construction spending jumped in November on a spate of new projects for single-family homes and apartments.
In other energy trading at midday Tuesday, heating oil rose 10 cents, or 3.5 per cent, to US$3.02 per gallon, while gasolene futures rose by seven cents, or 2.8 per cent, to US$2.7310 per gallon and natural gas fell by about a penny to US$2.98 per 1,000 cubic feet at midday.
- AP
Nicki Minaj performed at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve & Rihanna was where?
First lady of Hip Hop ended the old year by giving a fierce performance at at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, even though she wasn’t in New York City for the live segment of the show, but her Hollywood performance was still very festive. Other stars include Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga during the evening.
Nicki Minaj was also spotted with Fergie at Dick Clark‘s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve‘.
Meanwhile, Rihanna was spotted at CIROC The New Year 2012 party at a private estate in Miami Beach, Florida for NYE, hosted by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Looking gorgeous wearing a sheer black patterned dress paired with matching heels, Rihanna partied with other guest such as Vivica A. Fox, NeNe Leakes and Kim Porter.
What a night for the divas!