Montano must quit or be fired as TT’s Goodwill Ambassador to the UN as he faces convictions
Machel Montano must quit his post of TT’s Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) or be fired from that post, because of his conviction by the courts on charges of assault and using obscene language.
This is the call being made by president of the International Radio Emergency Support Coalition (IRESC) Julien Mervyn Dedier. In a one-page letter dated January 1, addressed to UN Women Caribbean Sub-Regional Programme Director Roberta Clarke, in Barbados.
The letter stated: “Machel’s action is not in keeping with the United Nations’ theme on the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls.”
Montano, the reigning Power Soca Monarch and Road March King, was found guilty by Port-of-Spain Magistrate Maureen Baboolal-Gafoor last month on four charges.
The charges stemmed from a fracas outside the Zen nightclub, in Port-of-Spain, in April 2007. Three of the charges were for assaulting patrons Gerard Bowrin, Brandis Browne, Janelle Lee Chee and Russell Pollonais. The fourth charge against Montano was for using obscene language during the same incident.
Also charged with offences out of the same incident were Kernel Roberts, the son of legendary Calypso icon Lord Kitchener, Joel “Zan” Feveck, a member of Montano HD Family, and Rodney “Benjai” LeBlanc. Roberts was also found guilty on two charges of assault while LeBlanc and Feveck were found not guilty.
“Machel’s action and convictions, is enough for him to be removed as Goodwill UN Ambassador,” the letter added. Sentencing against Montano and Roberts is expected to be handed down on January 17.
Source--Newsday
Kimmel beats TV rival Letterman
US TV presenter Jimmy Kimmel has beaten David Letterman in the battle of the late night talkshow hosts.
ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live moved from its midnight slot to 2335 on Tuesday, putting it in direct competition with top-rated hosts Letterman and Jay Leno.
The debut show, featuring Jennifer Aniston, won 3.1 million viewers, against Letterman's 2.9 million on CBS, according to Nielsen figures.
Jay Leno's Tonight Show on NBC topped the ratings with 3.3 million viewers.
"I am now 25 minutes closer to my lifelong dream of co-hosting The View," joked Kimmel about his show's earlier time slot, referring to the popular daytime talk show hosted by Barbara Walters.
New generation
Kimmel, 45, is being pushed as the new face of late night television, with both Leno, 62, and Letterman, 65, seeing their ratings fall in recent months.
The younger presenter fares particularly well with the key 18-49 demographic, an area in which he beat Letterman by 30 per cent on Tuesday, with 887,000 viewers versus 683,000.
The earlier show also saw Kimmel add more than a million to his usual audience numbers. His show typically drew 1.9 million in its former midnight time slot.
However, it remains to be seen whether Kimmel will continue to attract high ratings. When NBC moved Conan O'Brien to the same slot in 2009, the early results were strong but O'Brien's ratings quickly slumped and the comedian was axed from the network.
Volkswagen sales hit record high in 2012
Volkswagen says its group sales hit a record high last year despite slowing sales in Western Europe.
The German carmaker sold 9.07 million cars last year, up 11% from 2011.
Sales in North America and Asia-Pacific rose 26.2% and 23.3% respectively, helping to offset a 6.5% drop in sales in Western Europe, excluding Germany where sales were up 1.9%.
Volkswagen said it was optimistic for this year despite the economic problems in the eurozone.
"Tough challenges lie ahead. The Volkswagen Group has everything it takes to face these challenges and to play a leading role on world markets," said Volkswagen chairman Dr Martin Winterkorn.
However, sales at Volkswagen are still expected to lag those at rival Toyota, which has forecast a 22% jump in sales last year to 9.7 million vehicles.
Toyota has not yet released its official global sales figures for 2012.
At Volkswagen, its passenger cars remained the most popular, recording sales of 5.7 million last year.
Sales of sports car Porsche, which Volkswagen took over last August, were 59,500 between August and December.
The economic turmoil in the eurozone, which has seen several countries including Greece, Portugal and the Republic of Ireland need international financial help, has hurt car sales in the region.
Last week, Peugeot Citroen reported worldwide sales down 16.5% for 2012, which it blamed on "the crisis affecting the European automobile market".
Meanwhile, Honda revealed plans to cut 800 jobs at its Swindon plant which it also blamed on weak demand in European markets.
Heathrow: 2012 'busiest year on record'
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Heathrow has said that it handled 70 million passengers in 2012, the highest number on record, as the crowded airport saw bigger and fuller planes.
Numbers rose 0.9% from 2011, with 3.2% growth in its staple North Atlantic business, and traffic to the Far East and Brazil boosted by new routes.
December was also a record month at the airport, with China traffic up 23%.
But the growth in passenger numbers during 2012 was balanced by a 1.3% drop in cargo passing through the airport.
Heathrow has been operating close to official full capacity for several years.
Besides the spare capacity freed up by cargo, the airport said that the higher passenger numbers had been due to an increase in the aircraft load factor - a measure of how full planes are - from 75.2% to 75.6%, as well as in average aircraft size from 194.8 seats to 197.4.
It meant that the average plane flying through Heathrow was carrying almost 2% more passengers in 2012 than the year before.
The distribution of traffic across different destinations last year reflected the changing fortunes of various countries' economies:
East Asia rose 6.2% in the year, in part due to recovery from Japan's 2011 tsunami, and climbed by 14.8% in December from a year earlier as new routes opened
The recession-struck eurozone economies of Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain saw a collective 4.5% drop in traffic in 2012
Middle Eastern passenger numbers rebounded 3.4% as the political situation in most of the region stabilised
Passenger numbers to India and Africa fell, as routes shifted away from these regions in favour of higher-growth developing economies
"The figures for 2012 show Heathrow is delivering higher passenger numbers despite a tough economic climate," said Heathrow chief executive Colin Matthews.
"At the same time, passenger satisfaction levels reached record levels."
The airport is due to complete the reconstruction of Terminal 2 in 2014, which will increase the number of passengers it can handle, but not the number of flights.
Meanwhile, Stansted airport is close to being sold by parent company Heathrow Airports Holdings Ltd - which used to be known as BAA.
Three groups are expected to submit final bids this week for the single-runway airport in Essex.
The favourite is a joint venture between Manchester Airport and the Australian infrastructure investment fund Industry Fund Management.
BAA was told to sell Stansted - as well as Gatwick and either of Glasgow or Edinburgh - in 2009 following an investigation by the Competition Commission.
UPS drops 5.2bn-euro bid for TNT over EU competition
Package delivery firm United Parcel Service (UPS) has pulled out of its 5.2bn-euro ($6.8bn; £4.3bn) bid for Dutch rival TNT Express after discovering EU competition authorities would probably block the deal.
UPS said it saw "no realistic prospect" of approval of the deal from the European Commission.
UPS had offered to buy TNT in March in a bid to expand its European business.
UPS said it would pay TNT a 200m-euro break fee for dropping the deal.
"UPS informed TNT Express that UPS sees no realistic prospect that [European Commission] clearance can be obtained and that UPS will not pursue the transaction on any other basis," TNT said in a statement.
UPS had offered to sell parts of the company's small package operations and airline assets to try to appease the Commission's concerns, but said it had decided to pull out after a final meeting with regulators last week.
"We proposed significant and tangible remedies designed to address the European Commission's concerns with the transaction," UPS chief executive Scott Davis said.
Mr Davis said he was "extremely disappointed" with the stance taken by regulators.
The Commission had been due to announce its official decision on the deal early next month.
Shares in Amsterdam-listed TNT, Europe's second-largest delivery company after Deutsche Post's DHL, plunged 50% immediately after the announcement, before recovering slightly to trade 42% lower at 4.762 euros.
TNT, which reported a 3m-euro loss for its third quarter in its most recent trading update, said the "protracted merger process has been a distraction for management".
It said it would now focus on reassuring customers, encouraging employees and making money.
"Management will provide an update on its strategy in due course," the firm added in a statement.
German truck maker MAN cuts shifts
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MAN, a truck and bus maker with headquarters in southern Germany's largest city, Munich, provides clear evidence that the eurozone financial crisis is hitting the common currency's most powerful economy.
The firm's workers coming back from the Christmas and New Year break face shorter hours and lower pay.
This is a company that is thinking for the long term.
Their futuristic looking concept truck is something you won't see on the roads just yet. The chief executive, Anders Nielsen, says its aerodynamic shape could produce fuel savings of 25%.
But Mr Nielsen has a more immediate concern: "Due to the debt crisis, demand in Europe is dropping. It started in the southern part of Europe and has spread a little bit to the north."
He says selling trucks is a volatile and cyclical business, with investment decisions - such as buying a truck - affected by the uncertainty that has hit the eurozone.
So MAN needs to adjust its production to match demand, Mr Nielsen says.
There are no job losses in the pipeline, but workers will be doing shorter hours.
More than 5,000 people are affected. In the first instance the company expects the reduced shift pattern to continue for six months and then there will be a review.
The blow is being softened by a government scheme for reduced hours work, known in German as Kurzarbeit. The government makes up 60% of the lost income. In the case of MAN, another 30% is being found by changing the timing of workers' bonus payments.
Even so, the workers going on to shorter hours are taking pay cuts.
Athanasios Stimoniaris is a former forklift truck driver who now represents workers' interests on the works council at MAN in Munich.
He says it will be tough for families where the worker on reduced hours is the only earner. But he says this arrangement is preferable to having people losing their jobs altogether.
Germany more widely has so far weathered the eurozone storms relatively well. Unemployment is just 5.6%. Only Austria and Luxembourg in the eurozone can better that.
But opinions are divided among German economists about how worried the country should be about the impact of the crisis.
Prof Peter Bofinger of Wurzburg University is a member of the Council of Economic Experts, independent advisers to the government. He says recent indicators show German growth being negatively affected. The idea of Germany as the locomotive to pull the eurozone forward did not materialise, he says.
But Hans-Werner Sinn, head of the Ifo economic research institute at Munich University, is much more upbeat.
He says export industries are doing "quite well", though the importance of sales to other euro countries has declined dramatically.
When the eurozone was created, he says it accounted for 47% of German exports. Now the figure is 39%, as German firms have found new opportunities in faster growing economies.
MAN already sells trucks outside the eurozone, but Anders Nielsen is keen to expand that side of the business.
For now, MAN really is feeling the effects of Europe's financial crisis.
--BBC
Indian inflation eases to 11-month low in December
Indian inflation slowed last month, boosting hopes of an interest rate cut when the central bank meets later this month.
The annual rate of inflation eased to 7.18% in December, down from 7.24% in November, according to the Wholesale Price Index - the country's main gauge of inflation.
Inflation is now at its lowest rate in 11 months.
The slight fall continues the downward trend which started in October.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) meets on 29 January to discuss interest rates.
Siddhartha Sanyal, chief India economist with Barclays Capital, said he now expected the main interest rate to be cut to 7.75% from 8%.
"The numbers are a relief and core inflation is easing," said Mr Sanyal.
Economic growth has been slowing since last year, falling to an annual pace of 5.3% in the July to September quarter, and there are hopes a rate cut could help to stimulate the economy.
The central bank has not lowered interest rates since April because inflation, fuelled by a weak rupee and more expensive oil imports, has remained above 7%.
Thousands of Demonstrators Gather in Islamabad
Thousands of Pakistanis are converging on the capital for a protest march led by a cleric who has called for political change.
Tahirul Qadri, who recently returned home from Canada, had promised to bring a million demonstrators to the streets of Islamabad Monday in his call for electoral reform, but early estimates say he will not reach that goal. Still, a huge crowd is gathering.
The cleric wants an interim government to root out graft and mismanagement blamed for chronic energy shortages, stunted growth, and allowing crime and a Taliban insurgency to flourish.
Thousands of security officers have been deployed in Islamabad to protect government and diplomatic areas as the protesters gather in the city.
The protest comes just after a three-day demonstration by Hazara Shi'ite in Quetta, capital of eastern Baluchistan province, protesting against one of the worst sectarian attacks in the country's history in which nearly 100 in their community were killed.
After thousands of Shi'ites sat in the roads by the bodies of their dead, the federal government finally gave in to one of the protesters' key demands and fired the provincial government.
Millions of Hindus Flock to the Ganges
A million Hindus plunged into the freezing waters of the holy Ganges River Monday, marking the beginning of the world's largest religious festival.
The Kumbh Mela festival, held every 12 years in the Indian town of Allahabad, will see up to 100 million worshippers gather over the next 55 days to take a ritual bath in the Ganges, whose waters are believed to cleanse sins and bestow blessings.
According to Hindu mythology, the Kumbh Mela celebrates the victory of gods over demons in a battle over a nectar that would bestow immortality.
Drops of the nectar of immortality are said to have fallen during the battle on Allahabad, Nasik, Ujjain and Haridwar. The Kumbh Mela is held periodically in all the towns.
Organizing and managing the onslaught of so many people is a massive undertaking. To cope with the flow of people, authorities in the state of Uttar Pradesh have installed thousand of toilets, laid hundreds of kilometers of water pipes and roads, and deployed thousands of police.
Despite its importance in Hinduism, the Ganges is tainted by industry and the settlements along its banks, which quickly turn the clear waters from the Himalayas into a murky, frothy brown downstream.
India Orders ‘Aggressive’ Response to Any Kashmir Firing
India's army chief says he has ordered his commanders to deliver an “aggressive” response to any firing from Pakistani forces in disputed Kashmir.
General Bikram Singh said Monday that he expects his troops to fire back if they are provoked by Pakistani forces.
Singh's comments were made ahead of a meeting Monday between Indian and Pakistani commanders to discuss last week's deadly flare ups along the de factor border in Kashmir in which both Indian and Pakistani troops were killed.
The clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbors are the worst outbreak of violence in Kashmir since a cease-fire took effect in 2003. But Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said she does not believe the violence will derail an ongoing bilateral peace process.
Pakistan's Foreign Office Friday said “such unprovoked attacks” are against the spirit of the ongoing peace process and create “unnecessary and unavoidable distractions” in peace efforts. Pakistan also said it has pursued dialogue with India “with seriousness” and taken “significant steps” to create a peaceful environment.
The South Asian neighbors have fought two wars over Kashmir since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. India and Pakistan both claim the region in full.