IMF details risks to UK economic growth
The International Monetary Fund says there are still "significant" risks to inflation, growth and unemployment in the UK.
In its latest assessment of the UK, the IMF said growth would be 1.5% this year - less than the government expects.
It backed the current austerity measures as "appropriate" to the present economic conditions.
However, it warned the government may need to react to new economic problems such as falling house prices.
The Office of Budget Responsibility had forecast 1.7% growth for 2011.
In its most likely "central scenario", the international financial regulator and lender predicted inflation would fall from 5% in 2011 to 2% by the end of 2012, while growth would accelerate to 2.5%.
Contagion fear
But the IMF warned that there was "substantial" uncertainty about this scenario.
The impact of spending cuts, higher prices for commodities such as oil, economic "turmoil" in the eurozone and falling house prices could throw the economy off course.
The report warned that the ratio of house prices compared with average earnings was still 30% above its historical average - meaning prices could fall, so limiting consumer spending.
It also estimated that the UK banking system had $178bn (£111bn) worth of loans to the three most troubled eurozone economies, Greece, the Irish Republic and Portugal - 25% of the total capital held by UK banks in the first quarter of 2011.
Continuing uncertainty about the ability of these countries to pay their debts therefore poses significant risks to the UK financial system.
If these risks materialised and growth stalled, "significant loosening of macroeconomic policies" would be required, it said.
This could include tax cuts to boost spending.
The IMF also suggested the Bank of England might need to return to quantitative easing - the process of increasing the amount of credit available in the economy.
However, should growth be better than expected, the IMF suggested that the Bank of England may have to increase interest rates to control inflation.
'Hold the course'
"We know we're in for a choppy time. What I think is important is that we stick to our course. That we continue to reduce the deficit," said the Conservative Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban.
He said government policy to encourage manufacturing while cutting the deficit had been endorsed by the IMF.
The opposition Labour party, however, blamed government spending cuts for the slowdown in growth.
"The government have missed every target they've set on relation to growth so far, they've missed their growth targets completely," said Labour shadow treasury minister David Hanson.
The report supported measures to limit the risk of collapse in the UK's banking and financial system, but said risks remained.
It also called for improvements in financial reporting, where it said the UK remained less advanced than other developed economies.
Ambassador: US Not Against Mugabe’s Party
The U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe says the United States is not against the party of President Robert Mugabe, which it has accused of human rights abuses.
In a speech on U.S.-Zimbabwean relations, Ambassador Charles Ray said “the U.S. does not favor one party over another in Zimbabwe.”
He said the U.S. is “not anti-ZANU-PF,” and recognizes the party's achievements for the good of Zimbabwe's people.
But Mr. Ray said the U.S. believes other parties, including the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change, have critical roles to play in Zimbabwe's future.
He also said the United States wants to see non-violent and credible elections in Zimbabwe where the people's will is honored.
In its most recent human rights report, the U.S. State Department said ZANU-PF supporters use beatings, intimidation, and arbitrary arrests to abuse and harass political opponents and obstruct their activities.
It also said the party has repeatedly violated the Global Political Agreement, the basis of the current unity government.
ZANU-PF and the MDC formed the unity government after the disputed 2008 elections, which observers said were seriously marred by violence, most of it committed by ZANU-PF supporters.
Ambassador Ray made the remarks in Harare last Thursday. His speech was posted this week to the website of the U.S. embassy in Zimbabwe.
Kidnapped Bangladeshi Workers Freed in Afghanistan
Officials say five Bangladeshi workers kidnapped in Afghanistan late last year have been freed.
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told reporters in Dhaka that the hostages were released early Tuesday following negotiations between their captors and Afghan tribal elders.
Seven Bangladeshis working for a South Korean construction company were kidnapped in December of 2010 when assailants attacked a workers' camp near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Another Bangladeshi was killed in the attack. Two of the abducted were released within days.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The foreign minister said the five freed workers were expected to return to Bangladesh within a week or so.
Bus Collision Kills 16 in Bangladesh
Bangladeshi police say a head-on collision between two passenger buses has killed at least 16 people and injured more than 50 others.
Police say the two buses were traveling on a major highway just outside the capital of Dhaka when they collided early Tuesday.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered a probe into the crash, the latest in a series of deadly road accidents in Bangladesh.
On Thursday, 17 people died after a bus crashed into a truck in the Bogra district. And last month, a vehicle carrying school students overturned in the southeastern district of Chittagong, killing 44 people, mostly children.
Traffic accidents kill about 10,000 people in Bangladesh every year. The most common causes are reckless driving, poor road conditions and insufficiently maintained vehicles.
Suicide Bombers Kill 4 in Northern Afghanistan
Afghan officials say a suicide bomb attack has killed at least four people and wounded 10 others in northern Afghanistan.
Officials say a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb just before dawn Tuesday outside a compound that houses two separate private security companies in the city of Kunduz.
Police say two other militants then stormed the facility, resulting in a two-hour-long firefight with police. The fighting ended when the two militants inside one of the buildings detonated their explosives.
Four private Afghan security guards were killed. An Afghan policeman was among those wounded.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Separately, Afghan officials said Monday a NATO airstrike killed four Afghan police officers and wounded two others in the country's east.
The governor of Nuristan province, Jamaluddin Badar, said coalition forces also detained 12 police officers after NATO aircraft bombed the police post in the Wama district late Sunday.
Badar said the strike was based on wrong intelligence. He said the officers were wearing police uniforms and an Afghan flag was flying at the post when it was attacked.
NATO says it is aware of the statements by Afghan officials alleging friendly fire and is investigating the incident.
Bolt On Track Again
The eyes of the world will be fixed squarely on Jamaican sprinting king Usain Bolt, as he lines up in the 200m later this afternoon at the DN Galan Samsung Diamond League meeting in Stockholm, Sweden.
Not only will it be the world and Olympic champion's final 200 metres before he defends his title in a month's time at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, South Korea, but it will also be interesting to see if the powerful Jamaican guns for the stadium record of 19.77 seconds, which was set by American Michael Johnson in 1996.
Stadium records at the DN Galan Samsung Diamond League meet are rewarded with a 1-carat diamond, valued at US$10,000 (J$855,000), and having already gone 19.86 this season, Bolt is in prime condition to reset the record books at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium.
In truth, there is little in way of any real test for the 100m and 200m world record holder, as the field in Sweden is rather sparse in terms of real threats. Bolt, for instance, is the only person in the field among the top 20 athletes in the event this year.
However, compatriots Marvin Anderson and Ainsley Waugh, who themselves have gone 20.27 seconds and 20.51 seconds this year, respectively, will certainly be looking to impress in front of the Swedish crowd, with Trinidadian Olympic 100m silver medallist Richard Thompson also expected to start in his first 200m of the season.
National record holder Jermaine Gonzales, who has gone 45.07 seconds this season, will have his work cut out for him in the 400m, as he looks to build some form going into the World Championships against a solid field that includes the world's No. 1 quarter-miler so far this year, Grenada's Rondell Bartholomew, 44.65 seconds. Gonzales, along with Jonathan Borlee (Belgium), 44.97 seconds, and Christopher Brown (Bahamas), 44.94 seconds, are all in with a shot here and should ensure a close contest.
This event also sees the return of American LaShawn Merritt, who is making his return to competition after serving a two-year drug ban, which came on the heels of his 2009 World Championships triumph.
The women's 800m is easily one of the most competitive at the meet, with 10 of the competitors clocking under 1:59.00 already this year. It's a rematch between Jamaica's Daegu medal hopeful Kenia Sinclair, 1:58.29, who is returning from her injury sustained in Paris earlier this month, and world champion Caster Semenya, 1:58.61 seconds, after their intense clash earlier this year in Eugene, Oregon, at the Prefontaine Classic. Sinclair has not lost a race this year.
The winner may also come from one of Svetiana Klyuka who, despite running 1:58.03 at the recent Russian National Championships, could only manage fourth place, and her Bulgarian namesake Svetiana Usovich, who has a year's best of 1:58.12 seconds.
Jamaican duo Kerron Stewart and Schillonie Calvert will face the formidable American Car-melita Jeter in the women's 100m, as she, too, home in on the stadium record for a diamond of her own. Jeter's season best 10.70 seconds is much lower than the 10.90 seconds stadium record, which is currently being held by Russian great Irina Privalova. Stewart, 10.87 seconds and Marshavet Myers, 10.87 seconds, will, however, be looking to pull an upset on the in-form Jeter.
Kaliese Spencer, 53.45 seconds, and her training partner Melaine Walker, 53.56 seconds, are miles better than their rivals here and should record a comfortable one-two; one way or the other. Thethird Jamaican in the event, Nickiesha Wilson, 55.57 seconds, is some way off her 53.97 seconds personal best and has some work to do if she is to become a real factor in the event.
National 110m hurdles record holder Dwight Thomas will join his training partner and world leader David Oliver in what should be an interesting contest, with the hope of playing more the role of an 'extra' in the hotly anticipated clash between Oliver and his nemesis, world record holder Dayron Robles, who will be looking to improve on his 13.07 seconds season's best.
Thomas set a new national record early last month with a 13.15 seconds run in Oslo, and is desperate to break the 13-seconds mark and join Oliver in the 2011 12-seconds club.
Selected events
Men's 110m Hurdles
(Heats - 12:30 p.m; Final - 1:50 p.m.)
Dwight Thomas
Men's 400m (1:03 p.m.)
Jermaine Gonzales
Women's 800m (1:15 p.m.)
Kenia Sinclair
Women's 100m (1:25 p.m.)
Kerron Stewart
Schillonie Calvert
Women's 400m hurdles (2:15 p.m.)
Kaliese Spencer
Melaine Walker
Nickiesha Wilson
Men's 200m (2:25 p.m.)
Usain Bolt
Marvin Anderson
Ainsley Waugh
CARICOM wants stronger UN presence in Region
CARICOM has noted the decreased United Nations (UN) representation in the Region, and is calling for a stronger presence in the Caribbean community.
This was disclosed at the opening ceremony of the Sixth General Meeting of the Caribbean Community and the United Nations System at the CARICOM Secretariat, Pattensen, East Coast Demerara, yesterday.
Addressing the participants, Secretary-General (ag) of CARICOM, Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite, called attention to the closure of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Barbados “even while it was simultaneously being acknowledged that crime posed one of the biggest threats to our Region”; and the closure of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Office in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. She also pointed out that the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC) Sub-Regional Headquarters in Port-of-Spain, had been without a Director since Mr. Neil Pierre demitted office early last year.
“We in CARICOM are of the firm belief, that while we enjoy very good working relations with our counterparts at the Head Office in New York, much more can be achieved by having a stronger UN presence in the Region, with the appropriate level of representation. We trust that this is a matter which the UN will take into favourable consideration and we look forward to positive feedback in the near future, regarding the re-opening of these critical agencies and the relevant appointments, which, we are confident, will enhance an already strong partnership,” Ms Applewhaite said.
She also expressed appreciation of the UN System’s significant support and cooperation that assisted the Community’s efforts to achieve sustained social and economic development in what she characterised as an increasingly hostile international environment.
The biennial meetings between CARICOM and the UN System, she said, represented an invaluable forum to review cooperation between the two parties, and, through frank exchanges, facilitate strategic planning to enhance collaboration.
Discussions at the two-day meeting will provide an opportunity to assess the progress made in the four areas which were identified under the Regional Strategic Framework, adopted at the Fifth General Meeting in 2009, as the main focus for collaboration.
Those areas are: (i) momentum towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; (ii) support to regional economic integration, growth and development; (iii) the creation of a safe and secure environment for citizens and respect for the rights of all; and (iv) enhanced governance, transparency and accountability in CARICOM.
Brazil feds seize 18,000 ecstasy pills, arrest Guyanese, two others
Federal Police found 18,000 ecstasy tablets in north Brazil, in the country’s largest synthetic drug seizure so far this year, according to O Globo newspaper.
Authorities arrested two Brazilians and one Guyanese national in the operation, which was carried out Wednesday afternoon.
The pills were confiscated by police in the state of Roraima, in north Brazil, near the borders with Venezuela and Guyana. Police said that the goods had been brought from neighboring Guyana, and were meant for distribution in southeastern Brazil.
Brazil has become an important drug market, as well as a transit country for the drug trade. According to the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime (UNODC), Brazil is now the largest cocaine consumer in South America, while more than three percent of university students reported trying ecstasy in 2009.
Wiretap legislation headed back to Cabinet
More than a year after Christopher 'Dudus' Coke was extradited with evidence collected using the Interception of Communi-cations Act and the controversial memoranda of understanding (MOUs) between Jamaica and the United States, the Government and Opposition remain worlds apart on the interpretation of the legislation.
Yesterday, after locking horns over differences on several sections of the bill, senators voted to amend some aspects of the existing legislation with the Opposition not voting 'aye' but not saying 'nay'.
The Opposition signalled its dissent through Senator Mark Golding, who said some of the changes being proposed were unnecessary.
Under the existing Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, the sharing of information was given the green light, and the 2006 MOUs signed by former National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips allowed for the taped conversations to be used as evidence in indictments for extradition.
However, since the extradition of Coke, the former Tivoli Gardens strongman, the Government has said changes to the legislation must be made.
The debate centred on Clause (3) Section 15 of the Principal Act and leader of government business in the Senate, Dwight Nelson, outlined some of what was being sought.
At the heart of Government's contention is that foreign countries must share information collected during the tapping of the phones of suspects with authorities in the requested state.
The Government wants disclosure of the officer and entity making the request for the warrant under the section, the facts or allegations giving rise to the application, and disclosure if the applicant will be seeking the assistance of any person or entity in implementing the warrant and for sufficient information for a judge to direct in accordance with the section.
Provisions adequate
However, the Opposition said the existing provisions were adequate and the suggested change would only tip off suspects.
After lengthy discussions, senators agreed that the matter would go back to Cabinet for consideration to remove the responsible minister from the process and leave it to the courts to determine whether information gathered during the wiretap should be revealed.
"It is better to have the court do it rather than a minister because that minister may become compromised," Opposition Senator A.J. Nicholson later told The Gleaner.
After Cabinet consideration, the bill will return to the House of Representatives for debate and passage before returning to the Senate.
Source-JA Gleaner
Schoolboys get varying sentences for murder/manslaughter
Prison sentences ranging from seven to 15 years were imposed yesterday on three schoolboys who had pleaded guilty last week to charges of murder and manslaughter.
Supreme Court judge Donald McIntosh, who was presiding in the St Ann Circuit Court, had put off sentencing to get social enquiry reports.
One of the schoolboys, Emanuel Newland, who is now 20 years old, had pleaded guilty to the murder of 74-year-old pensioner, Florist Clarke, of Brown's Town, St Ann, in 2007.
The other two schoolboys, who are brothers, were sentenced in connection with the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Ferncourt High School student Gavon Jones in 2009. They had pleaded guilty to manslaughter. One was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, while the other was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.
Clarke was stabbed, beaten and her throat slashed on October 26, 2007 at her home in Brown's Town.
Kill for money
Newland was charged jointly with another schoolboy and the deceased's husband, 57-year-old Betram Clarke, for the murder. They pleaded not guilty and their trial is pending in the St Ann Circuit Court. It is being alleged that the husband hired the two schoolboys to murder his wife.
The Crown, represented by Claudette Thompson, assistant director of public prosecutions, and Adley Duncan, Crown Counsel, alleged that money was the motive for the murder because the deceased had a substantial amount of money and the husband was the beneficiary.
In the case of the two brothers, the court was told that they and the deceased Jones had a fight in St Ann's Bay, St Ann, in October 2009.
Stabbing of jones
Shortly after the incident, the brothers were on the Ferncourt High School compound in St Ann when they again attacked Jones. He was stabbed twice and died shortly after.
Garfield Jones, 19, who attended the Ferncourt High School, was sentenced to seven years, while his brother, 18-year-old Demar Jones, who attended Marcus Garvey Technical High School, was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.
Demar had worn a Ferncourt High School crest on his shirt to gain entry to the school compound when the deceased was stabbed. The brothers are not related to the deceased.
Source-JA.Gleaner