EU leaders set for crucial budget summit
European Union leaders are due to begin a two-day summit in Brussels to try to strike a deal on the next seven years of EU spending.
High EU expenditure at a time of cutbacks and austerity across the continent is the main issue dividing the 27 member states.
They failed to reach a compromise at a similar summit last November.
The BBC's Europe editor Gavin Hewitt says the summit will almost certainly demand cuts in EU administration.
However, whatever is agreed still has to go to the European Parliament and MEPs are big backers of EU spending, he adds.
The EU Commission - the EU's executive body - had originally wanted a budget ceiling of 1.025tn euros (£885bn; $1.4tn) for 2014-2020, a 5% increase. In November that was trimmed back to 973bn euros and later revised down to 943bn euros.
However, with other EU spending commitments included, that would still give an overall budget of 1.011tn euros.
The UK, Germany and other northern European nations want to lower EU spending to mirror the cuts being made by national governments across the continent.
Hamas and Fatah in unity talks, says Khaled Meshaal
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has told the BBC he is in talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about forming a national unity government.
Mr Meshaal also said preparations were being made for presidential and parliamentary elections.
The split between the militant group and Mr Abbas's Fatah party has led to Palestinian elections being postponed for several years.
Hamas controls Gaza while Fatah remains dominant in the West Bank.
In May 2011 the two Palestinian factions signed a reconciliation deal but it has not yet been implemented.
However, in recent months there have been signs of a closer relationship between the two.
"We are forging ahead with the reconciliation," Mr Meshaal told the BBC'sHardtalk programme.
"We are consulting about forming a government of national accord. Preparations for presidential, parliamentary and executive council elections are under way. We are reinvigorating the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) and organising its meetings until new national council and executive committee are elected."
In relation to Syria - a long-time ally of Hamas - Mr Meshaal said the party had been forced out of Damascus because it disagreed with how President Bashar al-Assad was dealing with the conflict.
But he said President Assad still supported Hamas.
"There is no doubt that we have disagreed with the Syrian regime on the manner with which they managed the crisis, and their resorting to the security-military option," he said.
"The massacre taking place in Syria pains us very much. We were forced to leave Damascus even though the regime used to support us. We also had differences with Iran on what goes on in Syria."
He added: "We are keen on having good relations with all countries of the Arab and Muslim community, and the international community, with those who support our cause."
In 2006 Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections, sparking a bitter conflict with Fatah.
Clashes erupted in Gaza between the two factions and Hamas violently forced Fatah from Gaza in June 2007.
Hamas is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the US and EU due to its long record of attacks and its refusal to renounce violence.
But its supporters say it is a legitimate resistance movement and a democratically elected government.
Teams start assessing tsunami-hit Solomon Islands
Aftershocks continued to rock the Solomon Islands, a day after a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami that left at least six people dead.
A metre-high wave swamped several villages on Santa Cruz island, in the far east of the Pacific nation, after the quake early on Wednesday.
Dozens of houses were damaged or swept away in at least five affected villages.
An official said several people were thought to be missing.
A number of aftershocks have struck since the initial magnitude 8.0 earthquake. One, on Thursday morning, had a magnitude of 6.2, the US Geological Survey said.
Six people - five elderly villagers and a child who were sucked under by the water - have been confirmed dead.
"There are signs that there might be increases in the number of casualties," Red Cross disaster manager Cameron Vudi told AFP news agency.
"There are still reports coming in. Most of the reports are confined to areas that are accessible by road but there are a lot more communities that have been damaged."
The National Disaster Management Office said up to 3,000 people were believed to have been displaced.
Santa Cruz island, also known as Nendo, is the largest island in the Santa Cruz island chain which lies more than 600km (370 miles) from the Solomons capital, Honiara.
The airstrip in Lata, the island's main town, was swamped by the tsunami and left littered with debris.
"The airport is being cleared by some workers, by the end of today the airport would be clear of all the debris so people are now working on it and any time tomorrow or the following day airplanes should be landing," said Temotu Province Premier Father Charles Brown Beu.
Boats carrying supplies are expected to leave Honiara later in the day but are not due to arrive at the island until the weekend, AFP news agency said.
Police teams based in Lata were also trying to reach areas to assess damage, a government statement said.
India child sex victims 'humiliated' - Human Rights Watch
Child victims of sexual abuse in India are often mistreated and humiliated by police, says the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a new report.
Government systems to deal with the issue of abuse are inadequate, it says.
The report says sexual abuse is "disturbingly common" in Indian homes, schools and care homes.
Reports say more than 7,200 children, including infants, are raped every year in India. Child rights activists believe many more cases go unreported.
A government study in 2007 reported that two out of every three children in India were physically abused and that 53% of the nearly 12,300 surveyed children reported one or more forms of sexual abuse.
'Dismissed, ignored, mistreated'
The 82-page report - Breaking the Silence: Child Sexual Abuse in India - was released in the Indian capital, Delhi, on Thursday morning.
It says that the authorities are failing to protect children both from sexual abuse and also when it comes to treating victims.
"Children who bravely complain of sexual abuse are often dismissed or ignored by the police, medical staff, and other authorities," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of HRW.
The report says that many children are "mistreated a second time by traumatic medical examinations and by police and other authorities who do not want to hear or believe their accounts".
It says that government efforts to tackle the problem, including new legislation to protect children from sexual abuse, will also fail "unless protection mechanisms are properly implemented and the justice system reformed to ensure that abuse is reported and fully prosecuted".
Campaigners say children are sexually abused by relatives, neighbours, at school and at care homes for orphans and that most of the cases go unreported because in India's traditional system, parents and families are afraid of attracting social stigma.
In May last year, India's parliament passed the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act which, for the first time ever in the country, made all forms of child sexual abuse a criminal offence.
But campaigners say that better laws alone will not help - what is needed is a change in the prevailing social attitudes and the way the police, medical officials and the judiciary deal with cases of sexual abuse of children.
Venezuelan politics heating up in Chavez's absence
Corruption accusations and insults are flying between allies and opponents of President Hugo Chavez nearly two months after the Venezuelan leader disappeared from the political stage to undergo cancer surgery in Cuba.
Analysts say the increasingly heated attacks between the two camps appear to be a preamble to what many expect to be a bruising campaign ahead of a possible new presidential election this year.
National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello on Tuesday night accused three lawmakers in the party Justice First of involvement in corruption.
Opposition lawmaker Julio Borges responded on Wednesday saying members of the party are totally innocent and that senior government officials are the ones who have enriched themselves during Chavez’s 14 years in office.
Prime Minister juggles national issues
Prime Minister Dean Barrow has been juggling enough balls on a number of national issues. Most recently, the dilemma has been keeping the unions at bay while trying to re-structure the five hundred and forty-four million U.S. dollar superbond. Going into the meeting with union leaders last Friday, all eyes were on the leader of the nation because he made it clear that any salary adjustment to teachers and public officers would send absolutely the wrong message to bondholders at a time when they needed to be assured of the nation’s economic distress. But perhaps due more to timing than any particular dexterity, the Prime Minister keeps on juggling, with additional pressure from an I.M.F. Team that is in town.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“The IMF is here and of course the first thing they questioned officials about yesterday is what does this mean in terms of sustainability going forward. I believe we were able to answer their questions. We have not yet heard from CDB, which is far more important than IMF—the IMF isn’t giving us anything. CDB has promised to assist with our policy based loans to help us bridge the financing gap that will still remain. Because though, the proposal confirms the position that the raise cannot materialize unless we have the money to pay for it, I don’t think it will affect us going forward. We hope to conclude the restructuring process; at least in so far as the official launch is concerned by next Thursday. What may have been in jeopardy I suggest is financing from the IFIs—from people like the IDB and the World Bank and so on—but I believe that since it is quite clear that we are not going to tax people; we are not going to try to find money, pluck money out of thin air; the IFIs will be able to live with the formula that we have agreed so far with the teachers.”
With the salary adjustment issue just days from being pushed onto the 2014 list of things which may or may not happen, one of the biggest rocks blocking the road to successfully negotiating the superbond has been taken out of play.
Three schoolboys arrested for Marijuana trafficking
Three 15-year-old schoolboys from two schools in east Trinidad have been arrested for marijuana trafficking. Two were arrested on Tuesday at their school while the other was held by police at his school in Rio Claro. Police went to the schools in search of the suspects after receiving numerous reports that the teenagers were selling the illegal drug to fellow students as well as to some of their neighbours. The drugs were found hidden in the students’ schoolbags and shoes.
The boys were arrested and later charged with marijuana trafficking. In an unrelated incident, the police recovered a homemade shotgun and four rounds of ammunition at a house in Brazil. Acting on a tip-off, police found the weapon at New Lands Village in Brazil and arrested the two men who were in the house where the weapon was found. ASP Neville Sankar, Cpl Garcia and PC Hosein were involved in the exercise.
Jamaica's Budget slashed by $10 billion
THE Government cut the 2012/13 Budget by just under $10 billion yesterday, as it tabled its first supplementary estimates for the year, in an economic climate dictated by falling tax revenues, a declining dollar and the likelihood of failing to meet its fiscal targets, again.
The cuts were expected to counter a $14-billion loss in tax revenues, which should impact negatively on Government's attempt to meet a 6.3 per cent, or $88 million primary surplus this year.
However, the cuts were limited mainly to debt programmes in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, including the withdrawal of $7 billion in statutory allocations to meet projected interest payments on Government of Jamaica bonds, which failed to perform up to expectations.
Just over $12 billion, which was allocated in the ministry to meet contingencies -- including $7.6 billion for teachers' salaries and $1.3 billion for travel arrears owed to Government travelling officers -- was transferred to the various ministries, among them the Ministry of Education, which got $5 billion more.
The Ministry of National Security and the police department combined for an increase in their allocation of $2.7 billion, while the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing got almost $2 billion more for projects, including the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme.
Hundreds of beneficiaries of the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education, who have failed to comply with the requirements of the programme will be disenfranchised, however, as some $400 million has been cut from their benefits.
The beneficiaries are required to attend health clinics on regular occasions and maintain almost perfect attendance records at school but, as the economic situation deteriorates, there appears an increase in the challenge for some families to meet the requirements, resulting in suspension of their benefits.
The Jamaica Observer has learnt that the ministry is taking steps to ensure that penalised beneficiaries still receive basic funding, and that full benefits are restored whenever they resume meeting the rules.
In summary, the estimates showed that there was a $7-billion cut in the recurrent expenditures and a $2.8-billion cut in capital expenditure adding up to a $9.9-billion cut in the budget, reducing the total figure from the $612.4 billion approved last May to $602.5 billion.
The Public Administration and Appropriations Committee will meet today and tomorrow at Gordon House to review the figures, after which the estimates will go to the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives (which comprises all 63 members of parliament) next Tuesday before being debated that afternoon during the regular meeting of the House.
Australian sport rocked by doping inquiry
The use of banned drugs in Australian professional sport is "widespread", a year-long investigation has found.
The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) said scientists, coaches and support staff were involved in the provision of drugs across multiple sporting codes, without naming any individuals.
In some cases, the drugs were supplied by organised crime syndicates, it said.
Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said the findings were "shocking and will disgust Australian sports fans".
"Multiple athletes from a number of clubs in major Australian sporting codes are suspected of currently using or having previously used peptides, potentially constituting anti-doping rule violations," Mr Clare said.
"It's cheating but it's worse than that, it's cheating with the help of criminals."
The BBC's Nick Bryant in Australia says that in a sports-loving nation like Australia the impact of the report has been huge.
With fans asking which sportsmen and women can be trusted, it is a black day for Australian sport, he adds.
In its report, the commission said it looked at the use of a new form of PIEDs (performance and image enhancing drugs) known as peptides and hormones, which provide effects similar to anabolic steroids.
"Despite being prohibited substances in professional sport, peptides and hormones are being used by professional athletes in Australia, facilitated by sports scientists, high-performance coaches and sports staff," it said.
"Widespread use of these substances has been identified, or is suspected by the ACC, in a number of professional sporting codes in Australia."
The use of illicit drugs in some sports was thought to be "significantly higher" than official statistics showed, it added.
In some cases, players had been administered with drugs not yet approved for human use, the report also said.
The commission found that organised crime syndicates were involved in the distribution of the banned substances - something Mr Clare, the home affairs minister, called particularly serious.
"Links between organised crime and players exposes players to the risk of being co-opted for match-fixing and this investigation has identified one possible example of that and that is currently under investigation," he said.
Because criminal investigations are under way the report does not go into details, our correspondent says.
Sports Minister Kate Lundy said sports organisations would be encouraged to establish "integrity units" and engage the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency and law enforcement agencies to root out the problems.
"If you want to cheat, we will catch you, if you want to fix a match, we will catch you," Ms Lundy said.
The report said there were "clear parallels" between what had been discovered in Australia and the US Anti-Doping Agency investigation into disgraced Tour de France cyclist Lance Armstrong.
It said the links underlined "the trans-national threat posed by doping to professional sport".
"The difference is that the Australian threat is current, crosses sporting codes and is evolving," it concluded.
Source-BBC
Reggae Boyz hold Mexico nil all at the Azteca
Goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts came to the rescue twice in the second half blocking what seemed certain goals as the Reggae Boyz kept a clean sheet against Mexico at the dreaded Azteca Wednesday night.
Although dominating the first half Mexico saw the better chances for a goal in the first 45 minutes falling to the defiant Boyz.
Both teams are on one point each after playing to a nil all draw in the World Cup Qualifier. Earlier in the day the United States lost to Honduras 1-2 in their CONCACAF playoff. Honduras now lead the tables.