Greece: Eurozone ministers to make crunch decision
Eurozone finance ministers meet later to decide whether to release the next 33bn euros ($42bn; £27bn) of bailout cash needed by Greece to stay afloat.
On the agenda will be a two-year delay to Greece's austerity programme, how to meet the country's extra funding needs, and how to make its debts sustainable.
The International Monetary Fund, which will also be at the meeting, insists Greece's debtload must be alleviated.
But Germany and the European Central Bank oppose writing off Greece's debts.
The EU has already accepted the need to give Athens two more years to get its overspending under control.
Spending cuts have added to the devastation the Greek economy, which it was confirmed last week shrank a further 7.2% in the third quarter of 2012 from a year earlier.
The far-right Golden Dawn movement is on the rise - and is rumoured to have infiltrated the Greek police - and there are concerns that the country's pro-austerity government - a shaky coalition of right-wing and left-wing former adversary parties - may fall apart.
Debt forgiveness
However, giving Greece more time inevitably means that the government will also be borrowing more for longer.
Athens is supposed to cut its total debtload to 120% of annual economic output by 2020 under the current bailout programme.
Some eurozone ministers appear to want to postpone this deadline by two years, but the IMF opposes this, believing that the 2020 deadline must be retained if it is to deem Greece's debts "sustainable".
The Fund is not allowed to lend to a country that it deems incapable of repaying its debts.
But it is unclear what Greece can do to cut its debtload.
As a precondition to its current, second bailout package, Greece has already negotiated with its private sector lenders a write-off of three-quarters of the value of what it owed them.
There has been talk of a similar write-off of what Greece owes its official lenders - including the ECB and the eurozone's bailout funds - but almost certainly not the IMF.
However, any such debt forgiveness has been fiercely resisted by the German government, who deems such a move politically untenable with German voters.
The German finance minister has made clear that it could not permit any further lending to Greece if the country fails to honour its existing debts.
The ECB is also against cancelling the Greek debts it owns, something that it would consider "monetisation of government debt", which is forbidden by the central bank's constitution.
Greece has earned itself one new ally in the Netherlands. The previous Dutch government took a similarly hard line to Germany, but elections in September brought a new centre-left government to power on a wave of anti-austerity sentiment.
The new Dutch finance minister told his country's parliament on Monday that the onus was on Europe to do more: "In the end, European countries will have to meet Greece halfway to get a sustainable perspective."
UBS trader Kweku Adoboli guilty of fraud over £1.4bn loss
A City trader who lost £1.4bn ($2.2bn) of Swiss bank UBS's money has been found guilty of one count of fraud.
Kweku Adoboli, 32, of Whitechapel, east London, denied four charges of false accounting and two of fraud between October 2008 and September 2011.
The prosecution told Southwark Crown Court he was "a gamble or two away from destroying Switzerland's largest bank".
Adoboli said he was encouraged to take risks by his bosses. The jury is deliberating on the other charges.
Adoboli, who was arrested on 15 September 2011, worked in UBS's global synthetic equities division, buying and selling exchange traded funds (ETFs), which track stocks, bonds and commodities.
He had joined the bank as a junior trader in 2006.
The court was told Adoboli lost £1.4bn of the bank's money in "unprotected, unhedged, incautious and reckless" trades.
But Adoboli, the Ghana-born son of a diplomat, told the jury his senior managers were aware of his actions and encouraged him to take risks.
'Magic touch'
He claimed he lost control over his trades during a period of market turbulence last year.
The court heard that at one point he stood to lose the bank £7.5bn ($12bn).
The judge, Mr Justice Keith, gave the jury a majority verdict direction, saying they could deliver a 9-1 verdict on the remaining five charges.
The jury has been reduced to five men and five women after two jurors were discharged.
The prosecution said Adoboli was a gambler who believed he had the "magic touch".
But, giving evidence, Adoboli said everything he had done was aimed at benefiting the bank, where he viewed his colleagues as "family".
Adoboli said he had "lost control in the maelstrom of the financial crisis", and was doing well until he changed from a conservative "bearish" position to an aggressive "bullish" stance under pressure from senior managers.
He told the jury that staff were encouraged to take risks until they got "a slap on the back of the wrist".
IMF hails Dominican Republic’s tax reform, warns of slumping economy
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Sunday said the recently passed tax reform will contribute to make Dominican Republic economy less vulnerable, but cautioned that the economic performance has deteriorated and the private sector’s activity has slumped
It said the deficit grew even further in 2012 on rising government spending and reduced transparency in budget execution.
The IMF said the country's economic growth weakened in the last 24 months after reaching 7.8% in 2010, slowing to 4.5% in 2011 and is expected to remain below 4% this year.
Suggests lowering the debt
The IMF suggests that the Government to reduce the public debt to 35% of the GDP), which was the level in 2007-2008, before the crisis and required, to achieve that goal," a strategy to reduce the overall fiscal deficit to a prudent level in 2013-2014."
"To reduce external vulnerabilities, and strengthen the fiscal position, it will be necessary to maintain a tight monetary stance that is consistent with the strengthening of the international reserve position.”
“The moderation in domestic absorption as a result of these policies will help safeguard external stability," the statement said.
In its evaluation of the Dominican economy, the IMF mission led by Przemek Gajdeczka said policy implementation has deteriorated, significantly increasing the fiscal deficit in 2012.
It said revenue was low (excluding exceptional factors), while the primary public spending jumped nearly 40%, and the consolidated government deficit doubled the projected for 2011 (at 8.5% of the GDP), in addition, a large proportion of expenditure was conducted above the corresponding budgetary appropriations, reducing the transparency of those operations. "The projected total public debt will reach 44% of GDP in 2012, compared with 35% of GDP in 2007-08."
IMF supports government plan
The IMF delegation agrees with the recently approved tax reform, with which the Government would reduce public debt to the ratio of GDP in 2007-08.
"The mission supports the authorities' plan to improve the business climate, promote competitiveness and create better conditions for economic growth, intensive job creation. Comprehensive implementation of reforms in the power sector is critical to ensuring a stable infrastructure for private sector development. The mission hails the recent adoption of the process of "one-stop window to register new companies and plans to expand the registration of titles to real estate and other properties," says the IMF report.
Total sells Nigeria Offshore Oil stake for $2.5B
French oil company Total SA said yesterday it had sold its stake in an offshore oil field near Nigeria for US$2.5 billion to China’s state-run firm Sinopec Corp, a sign of the growing Chinese thirst for the West African nation’s oil production.
US Charges 4 Men in Alleged Terror Plot
U.S. authorities have charged four men with plotting to kill Americans overseas by joining al-Qaida and the Taliban.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said late Monday the group was planning to engage in “violent jihad” with bombings of military bases and other government facilities.
The FBI says that in 2010, Sohiel Omar Kabir, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Afghanistan, introduced two of the men to the radical Islamic doctrine of cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed last year by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.
They later recruited the fourth man, and Kabir traveled to Afghanistan where he planned to arrange meetings with terrorists.
Kabir is being held in Afghanistan. The other three men — a U.S. citizen, and U.S. residents born in Mexico and the Philippines — are in federal custody in the western U.S. state of California.
Each defendant faces up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted.
Pakistani Court Dismisses Blasphemy Charges Against Christian Girl
A Pakistani court has dismissed charges against a 14-year-old Christian girl accused of blasphemy in a case that drew international outrage.
The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday threw out the case against Rimsha Masih, whose neighbors accused her in August of burning pages from the Quran.
She was arrested and spent three weeks in jail before being released on bail in September.
Police have arrested a Muslim cleric on suspicion that he planted evidence against Rimsha.
Muslim-majority Pakistan has some of the world's toughest penalties against blasphemy. Anyone found guilty of insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad faces the death penalty
US Government-Backed Panel Recommends AIDS Testing for Everyone
The influential Preventive Services Task Force on Monday said its previous recommendation for testing was only for high-risk individuals. But now it says as many as 25 percent of the more than 1 million Americans infected with HIV do not know they have it.
Advocates for AIDS patients call Monday's recommendation a “monumental shift” in how HIV can be prevented, diagnose and treated.
Experts say early diagnosis can cut the transmission risk for AIDS by 96 percent.
UN Calls For Urgent Aid to Pakistan
A senior United Nations relief coordinator is calling for $79 million in urgent aid for displaced communities in Pakistan.
Catherine Bragg said the money is needed to help families displaced by violence in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan and those uprooted by flooding in the south.
She said that as winter approaches, $196 million is required to provide essential services, including health care, water, sanitation and shelter.
In 2010, massive floods in Pakistan killed 1,700 people, affected 20 million others and submerged one-fifth of the country.
Last year, monsoon rains triggered floods that killed at least 300 people and destroyed more than 1.5 million homes in Pakistan's southern Sindh province and neighboring Baluchistan province.
Obama Presses Cambodia PM on Rights
U.S. President Barack Obama has voiced concerns about Cambodia's human rights record in what U.S. officials describe as a “tense” meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Mr. Obama, who arrived in the capital, Phnom Penh, Monday, raised the issue of free and fair elections and the detention of political prisoners.
U.S Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said Mr. Obama told the prime minister those issues are an “impediment” to the United States and Cambodia developing a deeper relationship.
Cambodian officials said in response that the concerns about human rights are exaggerated.
After the talks with Mr. Hun Sen, the U.S. president met with the 10 leaders attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in the capital.
In another development, Cambodian rights groups voiced disappointment about the adoption at the summit of an ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights, saying the declaration does not go far enough to ensure rights for all people. The head of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights said that, for example, the declaration gives people the right to demonstrate, but not if the demonstrations affect a country's social order.
President Obama arrived in Phnom Penh from Burma, where he addressed a crowd at the University of Rangoon earlier in the day. Mr. Obama said he had come to keep his promise and extend “the hand of friendship.” He added that “flickers of progress” that have been seen must not be extinguished, but must become “a shining North Star” for all the nation's people.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Obama met separately with Burmese President Thein Sein and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in the country's main city of Rangoon.
TCI OFFICIAL OPPOSITION LEADER APPOINTED
The first female Leader of the Official Opposition in the Turks and Caicos Islands House of Assembly will be appointed by His Excellency the Governor tomorrow, Fri, 16 Nov 2012.
The People’s Democratic Movement’s (PDM) deputy leader Sharlene Cartwright Robinson will be appointed in accordance with Article 56 of the Turks and Caicos Islands Constitution Order 2011 by Governor Ric Todd.
Ahead of the recall and inauguration of the Assembly on Wed, 28 Nov, and in accordance with the Constitution, Premier Dr Rufus Ewing and Leader of the Opposition Mrs Cartwright-Robinson have been invited to propose their nominations for appointed members of the House of Assembly. These appointments are made by His Excellency The Governor who will also appoint two further member of the Assembly.
The Constitution requires that all four additional nominated persons should, “...so far as possible from among persons representing shades of opinion which would not otherwise be represented in the House...’, (TCI Constitution Article 47).