Iraq PM Nouri al-Maliki calls for US investment
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has called on US business leaders to invest in his country to help it recover from years of war.
The call comes as the last US troops prepare to pull out of Iraq.
Speaking during a visit to Washington, Mr Maliki said security had improved and corporations rather than generals were now leading Iraq's future.
The US currently accounts for slightly more than a tenth of total foreign investment in Iraq.
Mr Maliki is in Washington with some 40 Iraqi business leaders hoping to sign business and trade deals.
He told potential investors at the US Chamber of Commerce that as well as oil, there were many other sectors which could be of interest, including healthcare, telecommunications, construction and financial services.
He said the possibilities for US firms were "limitless" and that they best-placed to help Iraq diversify its economy.
"It is not now the generals but the businessmen and the corporations that are at the forefront," he said.
"All sectors of the economy are there, open for business for American business."
After meeting Mr Maliki on Monday, US President Barack Obama said he believed the Iraqi economy would grow at an even faster rate than that of India or China.
He confirmed that no US bases or troops would remain in the country next year but said the US would maintain a strong relationship with the country.mark mardell
"We've got an enormous investment of blood and treasure in Iraq," Mr Obama said.
"And we want to make sure that even as we bring the last troops out, that it's well understood, both in Iraq and here in the United States, that our commitment to Iraq's success is going to be enduring."
Foreign investment in Iraq has this year totalled $70bn (£45bn).
But the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Washington says there are lingering concerns in the US about security and about Iraq's sometimes confusing regulation of key sectors.
Olympus submits earnings to try and avoid delisting
Japan's scandal-hit camera maker Olympus has filed revised earnings reports to try and avoid being delisted by the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The firm filed reports going back five years, three hours before a deadline passed which would have seen it automatically delisted.
However, Olympus has not yet filed earnings for the year to March 2011.
The company could still be delisted because of its accounting irregularities.
In early November Olympus admitted that it had been hiding $1.5bn (£968m) in investment losses for almost two decades.
The deception came to light when former president and chief executive Michael Woodford challenged payments at the company.
Elaborate deception
Mr Woodford was fired in October after raising doubts about massive fees paid in the purchase of British medical equipment maker Gyrus Group in 2008.
He returned to Japan this week to meet investors to try and head a turnaround at the company.
Olympus has seen its fortunes slide after it fired Mr Woodford.
The ensuing investigation caused Olympus shares to plunge and forced its chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa to step down.
No one has yet been charged in the scandal.
Olympus has said several top executives were involved in the scheme and has promised to investigate former and current executives and auditors, and to pursue possible criminal charges.
Fees for financial advice and acquisitions were part of an elaborate deception to keep the massive losses off the company's books.
Euro drops below $1.31 for first time since January
The euro has dropped to an 11-month low against the dollar as concerns continue over the future of the eurozone.
The euro fell below $1.31 for the first time since January. Against the pound, one euro bought 84.20 pence.
Last week, 26 of the 27 members of the European Union backed new fiscal rules, with only the UK abstaining.
But many fear that the budget pact will still not be enough to prevent more countries from seeking a bailout.
Stocks were higher and remained so in the US, but turned lower in Germany and France towards the end of the day.
Jose Manuel Barroso, head of the European Commission, told the European Parliament the UK's stance had made compromise impossible at last week's EU summit on economic integration.
He said the "greatest" risk of the summit, a split between the 17 euro states and the other 10, had been avoided.
"This is not an agreement at 17-plus, but an agreement at 27-minus," Mr Barroso said.
Spain also managed to borrow 4.941bn euros of short-term debt at lower rates than recently.
But the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, said the new fiscal deal would not be signed by most EU states before March.
US Federal Reserve continues 'Operation Twist' stimulus
The US Federal Reserve has left interest rates unchanged and said that it will continue with its bond-buying stimulus programme.
However, one member of the Fed's rate-setting dissented and wanted more stimulus to the economy.
The Fed said it "continues to expect a moderate pace of economic growth over coming quarters".
Rates in the US are at a record low of between zero and 0.25%, and have been that way for three years.
The US unemployment rate dropped sharply to 8.6% in November, its lowest level in two-and-a-half years, from 9% the month before.
"While indicators point to some improvement in overall labor market conditions, the unemployment rate remains elevated," the Fed said in a statement.
Referring to the eurozone debt crisis, the Fed said: "Strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risks to the economic outlook."
In September, the Fed announced a $400bn (£254bn) bond programme, dubbed "Operation Twist" by observers.
Under the programme, the Fed said it would sell about $400bn of short-term bonds and buy longer-term debt. Buying bonds pushes the price up and lowers the interest rate, or yield.
The Fed hopes the move will help to keep long-term interest rates low, thereby boosting mortgage lending and loans to businesses.
Unlike quantitative easing, the policy does not inject any new money into the economy.
Apple founding papers sold at auction for nearly $1.6m
Apple's founding papers have been sold at auction for $1,594,500 (£1.03m).
Sotheby's had estimated the three typed partnership agreements would sell for between $100,000 and$150,000.
The documents were signed by the firm's three co-founders, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on 1 April 1976. The papers include an amendment added 11 days later when Mr Wayne quit.
The buyer was Eduardo Cisneros, chief executive of Cisneros Corporation.
His Miami-based firm owns stakes in a range of businesses covering real estate, TV production and telecommunications.
Sotheby's said five other bidders took part in the sale.
The sale price includes a 12% buyer's premium paid to the auction house Sotheby's for holding the auction. That values the documents themselves at $1.35m.
The third man
The seller was Wade Saadi - founder and chief executive of the IT recruitment firm Pencom Systems.
He bought them from Mr Wayne in 1994 for "several thousand dollars".
The documents reveal that Mr Wayne was paid $800 when he decided to hand back his 10% stake in the firm. He later received a further $1,500.
Mr Wayne played a crucial role in the firm's creation, helping Mr Jobs convince his friend Mr Wozniak to leave Hewlett-Packard and set up the new company.
He was given a 10% stake in the company so he could act as a tie-breaker if the other two men had a disagreement.
However, Mr Wayne left the company after less than a fortnight because he was worried that if it failed his assets could be seized by Apple's creditors.
Instead he returned to the computer games maker, Atari, where he had first met Mr Jobs.
When interviewed by the Daily Telegraph last year, Mr Wayne said he was happy with his decision, despite the outcome.
"I felt the enterprise would be successful but at the same time there could be bumps along the way and I just couldn't risk it," he said.
"Would I like to be rich? Everybody would like to be rich but I couldn't keep up the pace. I would have been wealthy, but I would have been the richest man in the cemetery."
The auction is the latest evidence of the public's interest in Apple's history.
Earlier this week Amazon revealed that the biography of Steve Jobs was its best-selling title of 2011. The book was released in October following the death of the company's co-founder.
US official to visit Turkey over shield plan, terror
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will visit Turkey to discuss a U.S. radar system to be installed in eastern Turkey as part of NATO's missile shield project, a report said here on Tuesday.
Turkish Daily News quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Leon Panetta will visit Turkey later this week for talks that are expected to focus on enhancing defense cooperation and the ongoing fight against terrorism.
The radar system has prompted Iranian reactions against Turkey. Vice Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Ebrahimi warned that in case of any attack on Iran, it will definitely hit the defense system to be based in Turkey's Malatya province.
Panetta's visit comes just two weeks before the end of the year, by which time a U.S. radar system will be installed in eastern Turkey as part of NATO's missile shield project.
According to the report, "The fight against the PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party] will be a priority on the agenda for talks with Panetta."
The report added that the meetings scheduled on Dec. 15-16 would also touch upon a 111 million U.S. dollar deal between Ankara and Washington for U.S. drones that would be transferred from Iraq to Turkey to provide surveillance support in the fight against the PKK, as well as three AH-1 Super Cobra helicopters that the Pentagon will sell to Turkey.
The U.S. deployed four MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles ( UAV) at Turkey's southern airbase of Incirlik last month. The Cobra helicopters will be dispatched to Turkey in early January, the report said.
Turkey has been asking the United States for purchasing four MQ- 1 Predator surveillance drones and two armed versions of the UAV, the MQ-9 Reaper, but Washington has yet to respond because of its concerns that the sale would be vetoed in the U.S. Congress due to Ankara's policies regarding Israel.
Panetta is also expected to raise the issue of Turkey's strained relations with Israel. He recently called on Israel to find a way to normalize its relations with Turkey, Egypt and Jordan in order to break the isolation surrounding it and sit at the table with Palestinians.
US May Freeze $700 Billion in Aid to Pakistan
The U.S. Congress is expected later this week to pass a measure that would freeze up to $700 million in aid to Pakistan because of fears that Islamabad is not doing enough to combat the spread of homemade bombs.
U.S. lawmakers are concerned that militants in Afghanistan are using fertilizer produced in Pakistan to develop improvised explosive devices – one of the militants' most effective weapons against U.S.-led forces there.
State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that the proposed suspension would not automatically cut the funding, but will make it dependent on making progress with Pakistan on the issue of homemade bombs.
“We have not cut 700 million [U.S. dollars] in aid to Pakistan. What we have is something on the defense authorization bill, which is currently moving in the Congress, which would require the Department of Defense to continue providing a strategy on how we will use certain military systems and measure its progress, in particular, on progress that we are making on the IED issue.”
The aid suspension is part of a larger defense spending bill that U.S. lawmakers are expected to pass later this week.
Several Pakistani officials criticized the move on Tuesday, saying it would only lead to worse relations with Washington.
U.S.-Pakistani ties have suffered since a secret U.S. strike killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in early May.
Relations reached a new low following a NATO airstrike in November that killed 24 Pakistani troops along the border with Afghanistan.
In response to the airstrike, Islamabad ordered the United States to vacate a Pakistan airbase and has indefinitely closed the two main overland routes NATO uses to send supplies to Afghanistan.
But the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, said Tuesday that he achieved progress during talks with Pakistan on rebuilding cross-border security cooperation after the incident.
“I do have a sense of progress, and, in fact, I have had a conversation with [Pakistani] General [Ashfaq Pervez] Kayani. The intent of the conversation, the outcome of the conversation, was that we stated our mutual commitment to address any shortfalls that might have caused this event, but also to ensure that we work closely together, because the border is always going to be there.”
Allen said he spoke on the phone Monday with Pakistan's army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.
Many in the U.S. have become increasingly frustrated with what they see as Islamabad's lack of cooperation in fighting Pakistani-based militant groups who attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, the U.S. suspended $800 million of the $2.7 billion in annual military aid it gives to Pakistan.
Roadside Bomb Kills 6 in Southern Afghanistan
A roadside bomb has killed at least six civilians, including women and children, in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province.
Local officials issued a statement Tuesday saying that the victims were killed when their vehicle hit a bomb along a road in Hidar Abad Monday. They were traveling in a minivan in the Greshk district of Helmand more than 500 kilometers south of Kabul.
Two other women were injured in the blast. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Roadside bombs are frequently planted by Taliban insurgents.
The United Nations has reported that 1,462 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in the first six months of this year, a 15 percent increase over the same time last year.
4 Killed, 123 Wounded in Attack in Belgium
Five people have been killed and more than 120 others wounded in an attack in the eastern Belgian city of Liege.
Belgian officials say the attacker lobbed hand grenades and fired a rifle at a bus stop in Saint Lambert Square, a busy shopping area in Liege.
The victims include two teenage boys, a seventy-five-year-old woman, and a child under two years old, who died while being treated in the hospital for injuries.
The gunman, who authorities have identified as Nordine Amrani, also died during the attack. Police have not determined how he was killed, but say it was not by police action. Witnesses said he committed suicide.
Authorities say Amrani had been convicted in the past of drug and illegal arms possession, among other crimes. They say he has never been linked to terrorist activity, and they have not explained his motive for the attack. However, officials said Amrani but say he had been summoned for police questioning the morning of the attack.
US House Passes Payroll Tax Cut, Links it to Pipeline Plan
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation to extend a payroll tax cut that expires at the end of the year, but the extension is tied to a provision that restarts work on a much-disputed U.S.-Canada oil pipeline project.
Despite the threat of a presidential veto of the pipeline provision, lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House Tuesday approved the bill by a margin of 234 to 193. The bill now goes to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where it is expected to fail.
President Barack Obama has called on Congress not to go home for the holidays until legislators extend the payroll tax cut that saved a typical middle class family about $1,000 last year. He has warned of a “massive blow to the economy” if Congress fails to extend the cut, which expires December 31. The president says the wealthiest Americans should pay what he calls “their fair share,” while middle class Americans should not have to pay more taxes during these difficult economic times.
After Tuesday's vote, a White House statement said this Congress needs to do its job and stop the tax increase that is scheduled to affect 160 million Americans in 18 days. The statement said this is a time to help the middle class and all those trying to reach it by extending the tax cut.
Republicans oppose raising taxes for the wealthiest Americans, saying that would hurt economic growth.
The measure passed by the House would require the Obama administration to sign off on the controversial “Keystone XL” pipeline by early next year. President Obama wants to delay a decision on the Canada to Texas pipeline project until after the 2012 elections.
Approval of the project has been delayed to allow for more review of its environmental impact.