Experts to debate fiscal policy, debt and growth in the Caribbean
The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says fiscal authorities from central banks as well as economy and finance ministries from the region and Spain will this week debate fiscal policy, debt and growth in the region.
ECLAC said the authorities will meet on Monday and Tuesday with international experts at the 16th regional seminar at ECLAC’s headquarters in Chile.
The annual meeting promotes the discussion of current affairs in the field of public finances and the role of the state in the region's economies.
The two-day meeting is being co-sponsored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB), with the support of Germany's federal ministry for economic cooperation and development.
ECLAC said the seminar will address the issues of fiscal policy, debt and growth, and proposals will be presented that aim to construct quality public finances, incorporating the objectives of fiscal sustainability as well as income distribution and economic growth.
ECLAC said it would also present the “fiscal panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2014,” which summarizes the fiscal situation in the region and addresses timely topics, such as the relationship of fiscal policy to income distribution and the initiatives that seek to improve the quality and transparency of public spending.
Delegates will also discuss fiscal income, natural resources and green taxes, and the ECLAC said the third edition of the report, “Revenue statistics in Latin America 1990-2012,” will be unveiled.
The report “systematises regional tax statistics and contains a special chapter on fiscal income and basic products,” ECLAC said.ECLAC said the public finance workshop 2014 will be held to “examine the effects of fiscal action on income distribution and the policies needed to improve them, both in terms of taxes and public spending”.
Source-CMC
Irish debt upgraded from junk status by Moody's
The credit rating agency Moody's has upgraded Ireland's debt from junk status to investment grade, saying its economy has growth potential.
The news is the latest in a run of positive reports for Ireland and comes as investors start to welcome the chance to invest in the country through its government-issued bonds.
Moody's was the only one of three key agencies to class the debt as "junk".
An investment grade mark means more investors can buy Irish debt.
Moody's has lifted its rating, which appear as a sometimes complex series of numbers from Ba1 to Baa3.
It says the recovering economy and its improved growth potential along with its return to the international bond market merit the higher score.
Ireland was effectively locked out of international credit markets after its banking collapse left only the European Union and the International Monetary Fund willing to support its needs.
The interest rate being demanded by investors to the country - a sign of investors' confidence - has fallen to 3.5% from 15% in mid-2011 on one key bond.
Ireland's Finance Minister Michael Noonan said: "Today's upgrade will have benefits for the economy as a whole by putting downward pressure on the price of credit for companies and organisations who are reliant on the markets for funding."
Official figures recently showed a stronger construction sector drove growth in Ireland's economy in the July-to-September quarter leaving gross domestic product up 1.5% quarter-on-quarter.
Source-BBC.Business
Royal Dutch Shell issues profit warning
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has issued a profit warning after it made less money than expected in the final quarter of 2013.
"Fourth-quarter 2013 figures... are expected to be significantly lower than recent levels of profitability," the company said in a statement.
It now expects profits for the quarter to be about $2.2bn (£1.3bn) and profits for 2013 as a whole to be $16.8bn.
Shell's shares fell more than 4% at the beginning of trading in London.
Profits for 2013 are expected to be down significantly on 2012, when it made $27.2bn.
"Our 2013 performance was not what I expect from Shell," Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden said in a statement.
"Our focus will be on improving Shell's financial results, achieving better capital efficiency and on continuing to strengthen our operational performance and project delivery."
Mr van Beurden became chief executive at the beginning of this year, taking over from Peter Voser.
Shell said its profits in the fourth quarter were hurt by a range of factors, including higher exploration costs, security problems in oil-rich Nigeria, and maintenance work that hit oil and gas production.
It said the weakening of the Australian dollar also had an effect.
Expected profits of $2.2bn for the quarter include impairments of $700m. When these are discounted, the expected profits are $2.9bn.
Shell's official annual results are scheduled to be published on 30 January.
It has seen a string of disappointing quarterly results over the past 12 months.
Earlier this week, it detailed plans to sell off some of its North Sea oilfield investments, and last year it began selling off some interests in the US shale gas industry.
In December, the Anglo-Dutch company also cancelled a $20bn project to build a gas processing plant in Louisiana.
Source-BBC
Syria's Bashar al-Assad: Quitting not up for debate
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is quoted as saying he has no intention of quitting, and the issue is not up for discussion at forthcoming peace talks.
"If we wanted to surrender we would have surrendered from the start," Mr Assad told Russian MPs in Damascus, according to Interfax news agency.
The government, opposition groups and Western diplomats will attend peace talks in Switzerland from Wednesday.
More than 100,000 have been killed and millions displaced in Syria's conflict.
The Syrian presidency later said the comments reported by Interfax were "inaccurate", without giving further details.
According to Syrian news agency Sana, Mr Assad told the delegation that Syrian people were confronting "terrorism and foreign intervention".
Opposition groups have previously demanded the removal of Mr Assad as a condition of any discussions on a possible transitional government.
But the Syrian National Coalition, the exiled opposition body, announced on Saturday that it would attend the talks.
The decision was praised by the US which, with Russia and the UN, is taking a leading role in organising the negotiations.
The path to the talks began in May last year when US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov agreed to try to bring both sides together.
Later, the UN Security Council called for a conference to implement the Geneva communique - a deal on a transitional government agreed at a UN-backed meeting in 2012.
Damascus agreed to take part in the talks, but said its delegation would pursue "first and foremost eliminating terrorism".
Mr Assad is said to have reiterated that point of view in his talks with the Russian MPs.
Source-BBC
Egypt's Morsi Faces New Trial
Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, already on trial for allegedly inciting violence, also will be tried on charges of insulting the judiciary.
Egypt's state-run news agency reported Sunday that just before the military threw him out of power, Mr. Morsi accused a judge of election fraud during a speech.
The former president already is being tried for inciting violence that led to the deaths of protesters. He also is facing two other trials -- one for alleged spying and another on charges of organizing a prison break.
Leaders of Mr. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement also face similar charges.
Egypt's military overthrew Mr. Morsi in July when the opposition accused him of grabbing too much power.
Source-Voice Of America
Eight Candidates Listed for CAR Interim Presidency
Lawmakers in the Central African Republic have shortlisted eight candidates, including two sons of former presidents, to become interim leader and pull the country out of months of turmoil and factional killings.
The members of a transitional assembly are to select one as president on Monday after former leader Michel Djotodia resigned under international pressure over his failure to end the bloodshed.
Among eight candidates selected from an initial field of 24 are Sylvain Patasse, whose father was the country's only democratically elected leader and governed from 1993 to 2003.
Also chosen was Desire Zanga-Kolingba, whose father took power in a coup and ruled from 1981 to 1993. The current mayor of Bangui, Catherine Samba-Panza, is also in the running as is a second female candidate, Regina Konzi-Mongo.
Excluded from standing for president are any political officials who worked for Djotodia, party leaders, active soldiers and anyone who has belonged to a militia or rebel group in the last 20 years.
Source-Voice Of America
Iraq Forces Assault Militants in Ramadi
Iraqi tribal militias backed by police special forces and helicopter gunships have launched an offensive to push al-Qaida-linked militants from Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province.
Iraqi officials said ground forces retook a police station Sunday as they moved into key neighborhoods of the largely Sunni Arab city. They said the fighting was continuing late Sunday, but gave no further details.
A group called The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant - an al-Qaida offshoot also fighting in Syria - and its local allies overran parts of Ramadi and the nearby city of Fallujah earlier this month.
Iraqi army units have deployed around Fallujah, but Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ruled out an assault for now, saying the city's tribes must evict al-Qaida militants themselves.
Hours after the offensive on Ramadi was announced, Mr. Maliki blamed "diabolical" and "treacherous" Arab countries for supporting the unrest, and insisted he was "confident that the Iraqi people will defeat terrorism."
He did not single out specific countries, but Iraqi officials have alleged Saudi Arabia and Qatar in particular have supported disaffected Sunni Arabs in western Iraq as they have staged anti-government protests in the past year.
The militant takeovers in Ramadi and Fallujah came after security forces of Iraq's Shi'ite-led government broke up a Sunni protest camp and arrested an outspoken Sunni lawmaker.
Elsewhere Sunday, gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint run by a pro-government Sunni tribal militia outside the city of Baquba, killing the local leader and four assistants. The former al-Qaida stronghold is about 60 kilometers northeast of the capital, Baghdad.
Such Sunni "Awakening" militias were formed by U.S. forces during the height of Iraq's sectarian warfare. Al-Qaida-linked groups view them as traitors.
Sunday's fighting in Ramadi came as Jordan said it would host a U.S. training program for Iraqi forces following a request from Washington.
Two years after U.S. troops left Iraq, violence has soared to its highest levels since the Sunni-Shi'ite bloodletting of 2006-2007, when tens of thousands of people were killed.
The United Nations says nearly 9,000 people died violently in Iraq last year, all but 1,050 of them civilians.
Twenty Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Bomb Blast
A bombing claimed by the Pakistani Taliban has killed at least 20 Pakistani soldiers and wounded 30 others.
The explosion on Sunday ripped through a military convoy as it prepared to leave the town of Bannu to go to the North Waziristan tribal region, a stronghold for al-Qaida-linked militants.
Officials of Pakistan's army said the bomb was planted in a civilian vehicle that had been rented locally to transport the troops. The army says it frequently hires vehicles from the local population.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. A spokesman said the group will "carry out more such attacks in the future."
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the bombing and canceled his trip to this week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The Taliban has conducted a bloody insurgency against the Pakistani state since 2007. The bombing Sunday was the biggest against Pakistani security forces in months.
Michael Misick bailed: Turks and Caicos SIPT Update
Former Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), Michael Misick, was released on conditional bail by the TCI Supreme Court today, Monday, 13 January 2014.
Mr Misick faces charges of conspiracy to receive bribes, conspiracy to defraud government, and money laundering related to his time in office. He will appear next at the TCI Supreme Court for a sufficiency hearing on Friday, 7 March 2014.
The Supreme Court has ordered that the terms of Misick’s bail are not to be made public.
Misick’s bail application was initially rejected by a Magistrate on Tuesday, 7 January 2014, before being accepted on appeal by the Turks and Caicos Supreme Court later in the day. While his bail was agreed, the conditions were not met, and he was remanded in custody at Her Majesty’s Prison Grand Turk, from where he was released today.
Michael Misick was arrested December by 2012 by Brazilian Federal Police acting on a provisional arrest warrant.
Arrest was sought by the TCI Special Investigation and Prosecution Team, who then submitted formal extradition papers in January 2013. He arrived back in TCI on Tuesday, 7 January 2014.
There are 11 defendants on related charges who are scheduled to face trial on 7 July 2014. These are: Floyd Basil Hall; McAllister Eugene Hanchell, Lillian Elaine Boyce, Jeffrey Cristoval Hall, Clayton Stanfield Greene, Thomas Chalmers Misick, Lisa Michelle Hall, Melbourne Arthur Wilson, Quinton Albert Hall, Earlson McDonald Robinson, Norman Saunders Jnr.
Co-charged developer Richard Michael Padgett has already pled guilty to bribery and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and will be sentenced on 31st March 2014.
STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER OF BORDER CONTROL AND LABOR ON MDDLE CAICOS
Following reports this morning of unrest in the neighboring island of Middle Caicos, over perceived irregularities in the hiring of labourers in a Government-award contract for the cleaning of the roads in that island, Hon. Donhue Gardiner, Minister of Border Control and Labour released this statement.
“I am aware of the demonstration that took place in Middle Caicos today. I have today instructed my Ministry to dispatch a Senior Labor Inspector and an Assistant Director of Immigration to Middle Caicos to investigate this matter. I will also be calling on the Cabinet to review the manner in which these contracts are awarded at the next meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday. I will further ask for a full review of the contracts that pertain to this incident, and where the hiring practices are in breach of the contract, the necessary actions will be undertaken. It is my view that contracts should only be awarded to individuals, who are prepared to exercise hiring practices, wherever possible, that would benefit the communities in which these works are to be done.”
“I am dismayed that contractors would, by their hiring practices, sideline and bypasses Turks and Caicos Islanders, and bring disrepute to a Government Program that was meant keep our Turks and Caicos roads clean and beautiful and in addition, assist the unemployed to find temporary work.”
RTC news will continue to follow this story and may have further updates later.