Transocean agrees to pay $1.4bn oil spill fine
Transocean, which owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, has agreed to a settlement with the US government.
The Swiss-based company will pay $400m (£248m) in criminal penalties and a $1bn civil fine after pleading guilty to violating the Clean Water Act.
The rig, which was leased by BP, exploded on 20 April 2010, killing 11 workers.
The oil spill damaged the Gulf of Mexico coast causing one of the biggest environmental disasters in US history.
"Transocean's rig crew accepted the direction of BP well site leaders to proceed in the face of clear danger signs at a tragic cost to many of them," said assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer.
In November, BP agreed a settlement with the US government worth $4.5bn, including a $1.26bn criminal fine.
It has spent $14bn on cleaning up the oil spill and compensating local people.
'Closer to justice'
A report from the US Chemical Safety Board in July 2012 criticised both BP and Transocean for having inadequate safety rules.
The two companies disagreed about who was in charge of interpreting a negative pressure test that could have warned workers of the problems.
Transocean's agreement with the Department of Justice still has to be approved by a federal judge.
As part of the settlement, the company has to make a series of improvements to the safety and emergency responses on its rigs.
"This resolution of criminal allegations and civil claims against Transocean brings us one significant step closer to justice for the human, environmental and economic devastation wrought by the Deepwater Horizon disaster," said US Attorney General Eric Holder.
The $1.4bn will mainly be spent on environmental projects, and research and training to prevent future spills.
In a statement, Transocean said: "These important agreements, which the company believes to be in the best interest of its shareholders and employees, remove much of the uncertainty associated with the accident."
The company plans to pay the fines over the next five years.
Its shares rose 6.4% in New York, while BP shares trading in New York rose 1.7%.
Analysts at Barclays said that the settlement was considerably less than they had been expecting Transocean to have to pay.
They noted that Halliburton was now the only one of the contractors that had not yet settled with the Department of Justice.
BP still faces a trial in New Orleans, which is due to begin on 25 February, which could lead to it paying civil damages of $21bn if it is found guilty of gross negligence.
US Congress: John Boehner re-elected as House speaker
The US Congress has begun its new term, with House Speaker John Boehner re-elected amid the prospect of more budget battles with the White House.
The 113th Congress began two days after the 112th passed an 11th-hour law to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff".
Thirteen new senators and 82 new representatives were sworn-in at noon.
Democrats made slight gains in the November elections, increasing their majority in the Senate, while Republicans still control the House.
In an address, Mr Boehner alluded to forthcoming discussions over government spending.
"The American dream is in peril so long as its namesake is weighed down by this anchor of debt.
"Break its hold, and we begin to set our economy free. Jobs will come home. Confidence will come back," the Ohio congressman said.
'Voice of the people'
He also addressed the new lawmakers, saying: "If you have come here humbled by the opportunity to serve; if you have come here to be the determined voice of the people; if you have come here to carry the standard of leadership demanded not just by our constituents but by the times, then you have come to the right place."
In the first major legislative battles of the new session, lawmakers in the coming weeks will seek to head off a raft of automatic spending cuts and debate legislation to raise the US government's borrowing ability - known as the debt ceiling.
Shortly after the House was gavelled into session, Ohio Republican John Boehner was re-elected as speaker by a roll-call vote.
Mr Boehner overcame dissatisfaction among fellow Republicans over his handling of this week's fiscal cliff vote, as well as a decision to delay a vote on an aid package for victims of December's "superstorm" Sandy.
The 220 to 192 vote saw several Republicans vote against him or abstain, but not enough to derail his re-election bid. No Republican stood against him, but Democrats voted for their party leader, Nancy Pelosi.
Mr Boehner calmed cries from East Coast politicians after promising to vote on the full $60bn (£37bn) package in two parts by 15 January.
A vote on $9bn in immediate aid will be among the lower chamber's first substantive business on Friday, Mr Boehner has said.
In the final hours of the session it approved a measure to avoid the fiscal cliff - a series of tax rises and automatic spending cuts that were due to begin on 1 January.
The deal prevented tax rises on the first $400,000 of income but suspended the spending cuts for two months. That postponement leaves it to the new Congress to negotiate a replacement package.
In addition, the US federal government is expected soon to reach the limit on its borrowing authority, known as the debt ceiling. Congressional Republicans have pledged to seek spending cuts in return for an increase in the debt ceiling.
Some lawmakers expressed cautious optimism the new Congress would work more smoothly and efficiently than the previous.
"Any time you have new members arriving, you have that expectation of bringing fresh ideas and kind of a vitality that is needed," West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said.
"We hope that they're coming eager to work hard and make some difficult decisions and put the country first and not be bogged down ideologically."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned President Barack Obama and the Democrats not to seek new tax revenue, noting they had won tax concessions in the recent fiscal cliff deal.
"Now the conversation turns to cutting spending on the government programmes that are the real source of the nation's fiscal imbalance," hewrote on the Yahoo! News website.
"The upcoming debate on the debt limit is the perfect time to have that discussion."
The two largest credit rating agencies have urged US politicians to do more to sort out the budget.
Black senator
The 113th Congress officially begins at mid-day on Thursday with swearing-in ceremonies.
A record 20 female senators will be seated in the 100-member body. Three Hispanic senators and 28 congressmen constitute a record number in Congress.
The Senate will also have its first black Republican in decades: Tim Scott, appointed by South Carolina's governor to replace retiring Senator Jim DeMint.
The Democrats will have a 55 to 45 majority in the Senate; The Republicans control the House with a 235 to 199 majority. Eighty-two representatives from both parties take their seats for the first time.
The composition of the 113th Congress will not stay the same for long. Senator John Kerry, nominated to become the next secretary of state, is expected to resign in a few weeks, launching a special election for his seat.
--BBC
Google makes concessions to avoid legal action in US
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided not to take legal action against Google at the end of a 19-month investigation into the search giant.
It found Google had not biased its search results to favour its products.
Google has agreed to give advertisers access to more information about their campaigns and has agreed not to use other providers' material such as product reviews in its search results.
Google is still awaiting a competition ruling from the European Commission.
Another key concession applies to how Google uses the patents it bought when it acquired Motorola Mobility last year for $12.5bn (£7.9bn).
Google has said it will charge "fair and reasonable" rates to companies that need to use its standard essential patents.
Standard essential patents are ones that are critical to industry standards, for example, the technology that allows devices such as smartphones and tablets to connect to the internet over wi-fi.
It has agreed not to take out injunctions forcing licensees to remove their products from sale if there are disagreements about how much a fair rate should be.
'Disappointing and premature'
Rivals had called for stronger sanctions to be taken against Google.
Fairsearch, an organisation representing several of Google's critics such as Microsoft, said in a statement: "The FTC's decision to close its investigation with only voluntary commitments from Google is disappointing and premature, coming just weeks before the company is expected to make a formal and detailed proposal to resolve the four abuses of dominance identified by the European Commission, first among them biased display of its own properties in search results."
The FTC was asked to investigate whether Google was favouring its own products in search results.
FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz told a press conference that the commission had found no evidence that Google's search engine was biased towards its own services.
"Some may believe the commission should have done more, but for our part we do follow the facts where they lead," he said.
"We do it with appropriate rigour. This brings to an end the investigation. It is good for consumers, it is good for competition and it is the right thing to do."
One of the biggest changes to be implemented by Google will allow advertisers to copy ad campaign data to other search engines, such as Microsoft's Bing.
Google is also promising that it will stop copying content from other websites to use in its summaries, even though the company had insisted the practice was legal under the fair-use provisions of US copyright law.
In response to the settlement, Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said in a blog post: "The US Federal Trade Commission today announced it has closed its investigation into Google after an exhaustive 19-month review that covered millions of pages of documents and involved many hours of testimony.
"The conclusion is clear: Google's services are good for users and good for competition."
Big fine
It does not mean that the search giant is out of the woods on the issue of anti-competitive practices.
Alongside the FTC investigation, Google is still under scrutiny from the European Union.
In December, the EU's Competition Commission gave the search giant a month to address four key areas:
- the manner in which Google displays "its own vertical search services differently" from other, competing products
- how Google "copies content" from other websites - such as restaurant reviews - to include within its own services
- the "exclusivity" Google has to sell advertising around search terms people use
- restrictions on advertisers from moving their online ad campaigns to rival search engines
Google is expected to respond to these concerns shortly.
If found guilty of breaching EU anti-trust rules, Google would face a fine of up to $4bn (£2.5bn).
--BBC
Concern over Federal Reserve's bond-buying programme
A number of senior figures at the Federal Reserve want the US central bank to stop or slow down its bond-buying programme "well before the end of 2013".
December minutes of its interest rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) showed that "several" of its 12 members made the call.
Their concerns are said to focus on the risk of higher inflation.
The Federal Reserve is spending up to $85bn (£53bn) a month on buying bonds.
After its December meeting, the FOMC announced that it would be purchasing both Treasury and mortgage bonds for an open-ended period.
This replaced an earlier bond-buying programme called Operation Twist, which expired at the end of 2012, and spent up to the same amount each month.
The aim of the bond-buying programme is to keep down long-term borrowing costs in the US.
The released minutes said: "Several [officials] thought that it would probably be appropriate to slow or to stop purchases well before the end of 2013, citing concerns about financial stability or the size of the balance sheet."
Analyst Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington, said the revelation was "somewhat surprising".
The Federal Reserve announced immediately following December's FOMC meeting that it would be keeping US interest rates near zero until the country's unemployment rate had fallen to 6.5%. It currently stands at 7.7%.
Spain sees jobless total fall in December
The number of people registered unemployed in Spain fell in December, the Labour Ministry has said, a rare glimmer of hope for its recession-hit economy.
Adjusted for seasonal swings, the total fell by 41,023, or 0.8%, in December from the previous month, the first drop since July.
Spain now has 4.85 million jobless.
But across 2012, the number registered out of work was 10% higher than a year earlier.
"It is still a very dire situation as far as unemployment is concerned," said economist Gilles Moec from Deutsche Bank.
He described the situation as concerning, but said there had been some improvements which should help strengthen Spain's economy.
"The corporate sector in Spain has made tremendous efforts in boosting productivity," he said, pointing out that this can hit the numbers of people in work.
"There has been an improvement in competitiveness and a very strong export performance," he added.
Different picture
In Germany, where two million fewer are unemployed, new figures showed the jobless rate was unchanged at 6.9% last month.
Germany's Federal Labour Agency said the seasonally-adjusted jobless rate was unchanged in December, having added 3,000 more unemployed people than the previous month.
The agency said that 2.94 million people were registered unemployed in Germany, Europe's biggest economy.
"Despite the economic dip the labour market is not suffering a breakdown," said Stefan Schilbe from HSBC Trinkaus.
"Companies are not willing to put qualified workers out of a job. Once the economy improves in the course of the year, unemployment too is likely to fall again with a delay."
Germany is the architect and chief backer of the eurozone's many bailouts as the region tries to extricate itself from a debt crisis.
Unlike most of its partners in the 17-nation eurozone, Germany has mainly escaped the worst effects of the crisis that has threatened to unravel the bloc.
But last month the central bank cut its growth forecast for 2013, saying the country's economy might be entering a recession.
'Groundwork being laid'
Spain, the eurozone's fourth-biggest economy, said that, seasonally adjusted, the number of unemployed was up by 10.3% in 2012.
But Spain's Labour Ministry said it was the best performance in the month of December since existing records began in 1996, with young people, women and first-time workers doing particularly well.
Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said on Tuesday he hoped for a return to job creation by the end of this year.
"I think 2013 will be better than 2012," Mr de Guindos told local radio. "The groundwork is being laid for us to begin to see positive employment growth rates in the fourth quarter of this year."
The whole 17-nation eurozone is in recession again - led by fast-shrinking economies such as Greece.
But Spain is also going through a long recession and has received a bailout for its banks from the eurozone's bailout fund.
US Agents Arrest 245 Suspects in Child Pornography Ring
U.S. federal agents have arrested 245 suspects in an international investigation of child pornography.
The head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, John Morton, said Thursday that authorities rescued 123 sexually abused children, some as young as three years old.
Morton calls child exploitation a wrong among wrongs. He said a relentless fight against such crimes is the only answer and said his agency will do everything it can to rescue the victims and prosecute the abusers.
Morton gave few details of the investigation, called “Operation Sunflower,” or the other countries involved.
JOHN MORTON, DIRECTOR, U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT:
“Let me also say that these rescues highlight the depth and global nature of this problem. I am deeply appreciative of the assistance we received from so many foreign and local law enforcement agencies in making them.”
MORTON:
“The grim reality is that on-line child exploitation is a very real part of our modern lives. It is going on throughout the world right now on a grand scale. My friends, we have to attack child exploitation relentlessly and together.”
Water Found in 2 Billion-Year-Old Mars Rock
Scientists examining a 2 billion-year-old rock from Mars that landed in the Sahara desert say it holds a large amount of water for a Martian meteorite.
Experts at the University of New Mexico say the rock has about 30 times the water of other Mars meteorites. They say this could lead to a better understanding of how Mars turned from a warm moist planet into a cold and dusty desert.
The scientists also say the rock is very similar to the volcanic rocks found by NASA's Spiritand Opportunity Mars rovers.
A Moroccan man found the meteorite in the Sahara desert last year. He sold it to an American collector who turned it over to the university for study.
Scientists are calling the rock a one-of-a-kind specimen.
Iraq Car Bomb Kills at Least 20
Iraqi authorities say a car bomb has killed at least 20 Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims on their way home from a religious procession in the country's south.
Police said Thursday's attack at a busy bus station in the town of Musayyib hit the pilgrims as they were returning from Iraq's shrine city of Karbala, where they performed mourning rituals for a revered figure in Shi'ite Islam. Dozens were wounded in the bombing.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which has renewed fears of an increase in sectarian violence that could further destabilize the country.
The blast comes just days after a wave of bombings across the country killed 23 people. Insurgents blew up several houses in Musayyib on Monday, killing seven people. Bombings also killed people in Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk.
Minority Sunni militants have targeted majority Shi'ite pilgrims frequently. Those militants also appear to be exploiting sectarian tensions in the ruling coalition of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is under political fire.
Sunni protesters have held more than a week of anti-government protests in the western province of Anbar, demanding an end to what they see as Mr. Maliki's marginalization of their community and its representatives in his Shi'ite-led coalition.
Suspected US Drone Strike Kills Top Militant Commander in Pakistan
Pakistani security officials say recent U.S. drone strikes in tribal regions bordering Afghanistan have killed at least 14 al-Qaida-linked militants, including a top militant commander.
Officials say several missiles were fired before dawn on Thursday in South and North Waziristan. They say the deadliest strike was in the South Waziristan village of Angoor Adda, where the main militant commander, Mullah Nazir, and his two deputies reportedly were among those killed.
Nazir had long been accused of harboring Arab al-Qaida operatives and sending fighters to attack U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.
His fighters reportedly have been more interested in attacking the coalition troops in Afghanistan than targeting Pakistan's security forces, and in 2007, Nazir signed a peace accord with the Pakistani government. This helped contribute to a contentious relationship between Nazir's group and the Pakistani Taliban, which targets Pakistani forces.
In November, Nazir was wounded in a suicide bombing that killed at least six people. A year earlier, suspected U.S. drone strikes killed Nazir's deputy leader, Khan Mohammed, as well as a younger brother.
The U.S. drone strikes are deeply unpopular with the Pakistani public.
Last year, President Barack Obama openly acknowledged for the first time that the U.S. had conducted drone strikes against militants in Pakistan. Mr. Obama defended the operations, saying they are used for “precision strikes” against al-Qaida.
Drone attacks against suspected militants in Pakistan's tribal territory have reportedly killed more than 3,000 people since 2004, including several hundred civilians.
Seven Stars Resort earns first time placement on Coveted Conde Nast Traveller Gold List
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The Seven Stars Resort, located on the island of Providenciales, Turks & Caicos has started the New Year on a high note, announcing its first-time placement to Conde Nast Traveler’s coveted 2013 Gold List of the World’s Best Places to Stay.
RTC’s Phaedrian Astwood tells us more about this latest accolade for the Seven Stars Resort.
Phaedrian:- “On the heels of Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Survey – which ranked Seven Stars highest among all resorts on Turks and Caicos – the publication shared its list of the highest-scoring hotels in the world, with Seven Stars included.
“This recognition is truly a milestone for our resort,” said Ken Patterson, Managing Director, Seven Stars Resort. “We couldn’t be prouder and we have our staff to thank for making each guest’s stay a memorable and personalized experience.”
“This award means a great deal to us given how diligently we have worked to make Seven Stars Resort the most sought-after destination resort in the Turks and Caicos,” said Bryan Guillot, Thomas Lee Group, who leads the resorts sales and marketing teams. “We would especially like to extend our sincere thanks to our loyal guests for their feedback, and to our travel partners, for their ongoing support.”
Seven Stars Resort received high marks for its location, activities, design, food and particularly for its service. Included among the top resorts in the Caribbean on the 2013 Gold List, Seven Stars lives up to its recent accolades by offering guests’ top-notch service and well-appointed luxury suites that are among the Island’s most spacious.
In addition to the luxurious accommodations, Seven Stars’ location along one of the best beaches in the world offers guests a true island oasis. Seven Stars is also home to the Island’s only heated salt water pool and additionally offers guests private pool deck cabanas for lounging, beach butler service, on-site spa and wellness services, a resort-owned boat with accompanying excursions and award-winning top gourmet dining options.
This recent Conde Nast Traveler ranking, follows Seven Stars’ recognition among Conde Nast Traveler’s Reader’s Choice list of the ‘Top 15 Hotels & Resorts in Caribbean’, in addition to other notable accolades in 2012, including being named the World Travel Awards’ ‘Best All Suite Resort,’ receiving Travel Weekly’s Ma-gel-lan Awards silver rankings in the Luxury Hotel/Resort and Beach Resort/Hotel categories, being named About.com’s 2012 “Favorite Caribbean Hotel” and being awarded TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence for its consistent praise and impressive overall customer satisfaction.
This isPhaedrian Astwood, reporting for RTC News.