Brazil banker Henrique Pizzolato flees to escape jail
An ex-director of the Brazilian state-run bank Banco do Brasil who has been convicted in a major corruption trial has fled the country to avoid jail.
Henrique Pizzolato, who also has an Italian passport, said in a letter he had fled to seek a fair trial in Italy.
On Friday the Brazilian Supreme Court issued 12 arrest warrants in connection with the case.
Eleven defendants have surrendered, including the chief of staff of ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Last year, the Supreme Court convicted 25 politicians, businessmen and bankers over the "Mensalao" (big monthly allowance) case.
The scheme that used public funds to pay coalition parties for political support during the government of President Lula came to light in 2005.
President Lula was not implicated in the case.
The first sentences were only handed down at the end of 2012.
Nearly a year later, on Friday, the Supreme Court issued the first 12 arrest warrants.
Pizzolato, an ex-marketing director of Banco do Brasil, was the only one who did not turn himself in.
He was sentenced to more than 12 years in jail for money laundering, embezzlement and active corruption.
His lawyer released a letter from Pizzolato and said he hoped to get another trial, free of media pressure in Italy..
JP Morgan agrees to $4.5bn mortgage settlement
US investment bank JP Morgan has agreed to pay $4.5bn (£2.8bn) to investors who lost money on mortgage-related securities during the financial crisis.
The settlement is with 21 major institutional investors.
Mortgage-related investments were a major factor in the crisis, which began in 2007 with the collapse of the US housing market.
Last month JP Morgan agreed a separate, preliminary $13bn deal with the US government over mortgage securities.
As part of that deal $5.1bn would go to settle charges that the bank misled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the housing boom. That settlement was the biggest ever by a US bank.
Now, 21 institutional investors that put money into more than 300 residential mortgage-backed securities are to be reimbursed by the bank.
The securities in question were issued between 2005 and 2008 by JP Morgan and Bear Stearns - a bank which it took over during the financial crisis.
"This settlement is another important step in JP Morgan's efforts to resolve legacy related... matters" stemming from mortgage-related securities, JP Morgan spokeswoman Jennifer Zuccarelli said in a statement on Friday.
Friday's deal still has to be accepted by trustees for the trusts that hold the securities.
A final settlement with the US Justice Department is expected to be announced soon.
Mortgage-backed securities were sophisticated financial products created by many investment banks in the run-up to the financial crisis.
These special bonds contained a mix of investments but at their heart were supposed to be risk-free home loans.
When the housing bubble burst, the value of these assets fell sharply and the credit markets seized up. The balance sheets of many US and European banks, including those in the UK, became toxic and they had to be bailed out by their governments.
What JP Morgan is alleged to have done was sell the mortgage-backed assets knowing full well that many of the home loans were in fact very risky.
Boeing leads order books race in Dubai
Airlines in the Gulf have placed a number of high-value plane orders on the first day of the Dubai Air Show, with US giant Boeing a major winner.
Dubai-based Emirates airline placed an order for 150 of Boeing's new 777 mini-jumbos, in a $76bn (£47bn) deal.
Other orders from Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Lufthansa for some 109 of the new 777, previously codenamed 777X, brought its sales total to $95bn.
Emirates has also ordered 50 Airbus A380s, in a deal worth $23bn.
The airline is already the biggest customer of the A380 and the new deal will bring its total orders for the plane to 140.
And local rival Etihad Airways has also announced a firm order for 87 Airbus aircraft - some 50 A350 XWBs, 36 A320neo aircraft and one A330-200F as part of its fleet modernisation strategy.
The deal - valued at $19bn - includes options for 30 more planes.
Boeing said its 777 mini-jumbo sales represented "the largest product launch in commercial jetliner history by dollar value".
"The response to the 777X has been astounding," Boeing chairman James McNerney added at the official launch of the new plane in Dubai.
The 777 will come in two models, one seating 350 passengers, and another seating 406 people.
Boeing's new aircraft is designed to compete with the largest version of Airbus's A350 in the mini-jumbo market.
European rival Airbus has launched a campaign for a minimum standard seat width of 18 inches on long trips, as it seeks to draw the focus of airlines to what it says will be the 777's narrower seats.
Meanwhile, Airbus will be looking to sell more of its A380 super-jumbo aircraft, the world's biggest passenger aircraft, which is facing a potential cut in production unless some more orders are secured.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has visited the airshow site, with the UK competing with France for a potential 60-plane fighter jet deal with the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Cameron welcomed the Airbus orders from Emirates and Eithad Airways, as well as the news that Rolls-Royce had won a $5bn order from Etihad Airways to supply Trent XWB engines for the 50 Airbus A350s.
"This is a great day for the British aerospace industry," he said. Earlier, Airbus had said the order from Emirates would protect 2,500 jobs at its UK bases in Flintshire and Bristol.
Government to sell 20% in Air New Zealand
New Zealand's government is to sell a 20% stake in national carrier Air New Zealand, leaving it with a 53% holding.
Trading in the airline's shares was halted on Monday following the government's announcement.
Based on the last trading price of NZ$1.65 per share, the 20% stake is valued at 363 million New Zealand dollars ($302m; £187m).
The sale will help the government's target of raising NZ$5bn to trim public debt and spend on infrastructure.
The Air New Zealand stake sale is part of a programme of asset sales by New Zealand's government, which has so far raised NZ$3.6bn.
Those funds came from the sale of government stakes in power companies Meridian Energy and Mighty River Power. Another stake sale, in power company Genesis Energy, is scheduled for next year.
As the government will retain a 53% stake in Air New Zealand after the sale, it will still have the power to appoint the majority of the airline's board of directors.
The New Zealand government became a majority shareholder in Air New Zealand in 2002, when it stepped in to save the carrier from collapse.
EU warns Spain and Italy over their budget
The European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, has warned Spain and Italy that their draft budgets for 2014 may not comply with new debt and deficit rules.
It also said French and Dutch plans only just passed muster.
Non-complying countries may have to revise their tax and spending plans before re-submitting them to national parliaments.
It is the first time the Commission has done this.
Under EU rules, eurozone member states are obliged to cut deficits until they achieve a balanced budget. They also have to reduce public debt levels.
The Commission gives countries some flexibility if their deficit is below the EU ceiling of 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) and their debt levels are falling.
But when Italy, the eurozone's third largest economy, asked for such leniency over its 2014 budget plans, the Commission refused because its public debt was still rising.
France, whose economy shrank in the third quarter, has taken steps to cut its deficit to below the 3% threshold, but its structural reform plans were only making "limited progress", the Commission said.
The country had "no margin" for error in reducing its public deficit, the executive warned.
Spain's draft 2014 spending plans were "at risk of non-compliance", said the Commission, as the country does not envisage returning to EU financial norms until 2016 at the earliest.
Other countries at risk of breaking EU finance rules included Finland, Luxembourg and Malta.
The countries coming under the Commission's "budgetary surveillance" are Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.
Those heavily indebted countries that received EU bail-outs at the height of the financial crisis - Ireland, Cyprus, Portugal and Greece - were not included in the review.
On Thursday, official figures showed that the eurozone economy grew by just 0.1% in the July-to-September period, down from 0.3% growth in the previous quarter.
The European Central Bank (ECB) last week cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.25% in an attempt to give some impetus to the fragile recovery.
Meanwhile, the annual rate of inflation across the eurozone fell to 0.7% in October, the lowest level for four years in the 17-country currency area, the EU's statistics agency Eurostat said, confirming an earlier estimate.
This compared to a rate of 1.1% in September. The ECB's target rate is just under 2%.
The October figures revealed a sharp divergence between countries, with Germany's 1.2% contrasting with Spain's 0%.
EnQuest cleared to develop £4bn Kraken oil field
A £4bn investment in a major oil field off Shetland has been given the go-ahead.
The Kraken field, which is estimated to contain nearly 140m barrels of oil, is majority-owned by Aberdeen-based EnQuest.
The construction phase of the project is expected to support 20,000 jobs.
EnQuest also expects to take on an average of about 1,000 operational jobs in the UK for each year of Kraken's 25-year life.
The development, which was approved by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, is the largest investment announced in the UK North Sea this year.
Kraken's two heavy oil fields will receive tax allowances introduced by the UK government in a bid to stimulate investment in the sector.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said: "This is a big investment that will create jobs and boost the British economic plan.
"It is also evidence that our efforts to create a competitive tax regime that gets the most oil and gas out of the North Sea are working."
Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing also welcomed the announcement.
He said: "I had the pleasure of meeting with EnQuest in September this year and I warmly welcome this announcement of £4bn investment in the Kraken field east of Shetland and the job creation and supply chain opportunities it will bring.
"This follows on from a host of significant investment announcements recently - unequivocal evidence of the faith that the oil and gas industry has in the future of the North Sea as an oil producing province."
Former President Wins Chilean Vote; Faces Runoff
Former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet won nearly twice as many votes as her closest rival in Chile's presidential election Sunday, but she fell short of the outright majority needed to avoid a December 15 runoff.
The moderate socialist had nearly 47 percent of the vote, to 25 percent for conservative Evelyn Matthei.
Ms. Bachelet left office with an 84-percent approval rating after her 2006-2010 presidency. Chile allows presidents to serve more than one term, but not consecutively.
Ms. Bachelet is backed by her New Majority alliance of socialists, Christian Democrats and communists.
She has pledged to narrow the country's wage income gap and revise the constitution, which dates back to the 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
All 120 lower house seats and 20 out of 38 Senate seats were also being contested. Ms. Bachelet's coalition had 51 percent in the Senate and 48 percent in the lower chamber.
Aquino Vows to Stay in Typhoon-Hit Central Philippines
Philippine President Benigno Aquino has vowed to stay in the typhoon-battered center of the country until he is satisfied with efforts to help survivors of a devastating November 8 storm.
Mr. Aquino made the pledge Sunday as he visited the hard-hit central islands of Samar and Leyte, where thousands of people flocked to ruined churches for weekly prayers. Some gave thanks for surviving Super Typhoon Haiyan, while others prayed for the souls of the thousands of people who were killed.
Sunday services typically are a time of reflection in the Philippines, whose population is 80 percent Roman Catholic.
The pace of international aid deliveries to the typhoon zone also gained momentum. U.S. military helicopters brought food to remote areas and were mobbed by hungry and thankful residents.
The Philippine government says the typhoon killed at least 3,974 people and left about 1,200 others missing. Many of them were swept away and drowned in a huge storm surge triggered by one of the strongest cyclones on record to make landfall anywhere in the world.
Syria Rebels Bomb Government Building, Kill 31 – Report
Syria monitors say rebels bombed a government building near Damascus on Sunday, killing 31.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the building was destroyed. A spokesman tells the French News Agency that three generals and a brigadier general are among the dead.
The group also says Syrian forces launched a second straight day of air raids on the town of Qara in the mountainous Qalamoun region, close to the Lebanese border.
That region has the few remaining rebel supply lines between Syria and the outside world. But the bombings have forced several thousand Syrians to seek refuge in Lebanon, overwhelming small towns that cannot handle such a crisis.
Hollande to Israel: France Will Keep Sanctions on Iran
French President Francois Hollande says his government will maintain sanctions and pressure against Iran until he is certain that it has renounced a suspected nuclear weapons program.
Hollande made the pledge to Israeli leaders after arriving in Israel Sunday at the start of a three-day visit. In a welcome ceremony at the airport, the French president said Paris will not tolerate nuclear proliferation. Speaking in Hebrew, Hollande also said, "I will always remain a friend of Israel."
Israel has been urging France and five other world powers not to ease sanctions on Iran as they negotiate with the government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who took office in August. Israeli leaders see a nuclear armed Iran as a threat to their nation's existence. Tehran has repeatedly called for Israel's demise.
The six world powers, known as the P5+1, held a second round of talks with the Rouhani government in Geneva earlier this month, hoping to reach a diplomatic solution to international concerns about possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program. Another round is due to begin in Geneva Wednesday.
Iran has demanded relief from sanctions that have hurt its economy, but has refused to stop uranium enrichment, a process with civilian and military uses.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly warned against easing pressure on Iran without forcing it to give up uranium enrichment. Speaking Sunday at a joint news conference with Hollande, the Israeli prime minister said such a concession would be a "dream deal" for Iran and the "worst nightmare" for the world.
In a report published Sunday, the Iranian news agency ISNA quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying Iran does need other countries to explicitly "recognize" an Iranian right to enrich uranium. Zarif said enrichment already is a fundamental right that "all countries should respect."
France has said it opposes any deal that would do too little to curb Iran's enrichment or to stop its development of a reactor capable of producing plutonium, another nuclear weapons ingredient.
Western powers accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the guise of civilian energy and medical research, a charge Tehran denies.