Prosecution Opens Case Against Bosnian Wartime Commander Monday
United Nations prosecutors will open their case against Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic on Monday, with their first witness testifying in his war crimes trial.
Bosnian Muslim Elvedin Pasic will tell the court in The Hague how he survived the execution of 150 men by Bosnian Serb troops in November 1992 in the northern village of Grabovica. He was 14 at the time.
Mladic has been indicted on 11 counts, including genocide, in connection with the crimes committed during the three-year ethnic conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina which began in 1992.
In Bosnia Sunday, thousands of people marked the 1995 Srebrenica genocide with a march through mountains that Muslims crossed while fleeing Serb forces who overran the U.N.-protected enclave.
Serbian troops summarily killed about 8,000 Muslim men from Srebrenica in July 1995. Mass graves were discovered in the area after the war.
For Sabahudin Isic, who survived the massacre, the Sunday march brought back painful memories.
“This is very hard for me. I cannot even put in words what I am feeling right now, what I feel in my chest. Especially when the march passes the place where I was held captive and where hundreds of people were left behind, dead and butchered.”
U.S. actress Angelina Jolie, who made her directorial debut in Bosnia, arrived in the capital, Sarajevo, on Saturday to attend a film festival. Jolie, whose movie, In the Land of Blood and Honey, depicts suffering of women in the Bosnian war, also met with young Bosnian movie makers in Sarajevo.
Computer Virus Could Leave Hundreds of Thousands Unable to Use Internet
Hundreds of thousands of people could be in for an unwelcome surprise on Monday, unless they check their computers now for a global virus that infected their machines last year.
The virus caused by Eastern European hackers will make it impossible to access the Internet.
Facebook and Google are alerting users who they suspect may have infected computers.
The hackers used an online advertising scam to take control of nearly 600,000 computers last year, harvesting information about users.
A temporary fix set up by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation closes down at 0401 UTC Monday.
The FBI has a website where users can find out if their computers are infected and how to fix them — www.dcwg.org.
Former NFLer Anthony Wayne Smith Charged in 3 Murders
Former Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders lineman Anthony Wayne Smith finds himself in more major trouble.
Smith has been charged with the murders of two brothers and another man who were kidnapped and robbed before they were killed.
A criminal complaint filed earlier this week in Los Angeles charges Smith with murder with special circumstances, making him eligible for the death penalty.
The former NFL player is currently awaiting retrial in the 2008 murder of Maurilio Pence. A jury failed to reach a verdict in April.
Smith was charged with the November 1999 slayings of brothers Kevin and Ricky Nettles and the 2001 death of Dennis Henderson.
A phone message left for defense attorney Michael Evans was not immediately returned Friday.
Smith was a defensive end with Oakland and later the Los Angeles Raiders of the National Football League from 1991 to 1998.
Tyson Gay beats Justin Gatlin to win 100m in Paris
Tyson Gay recovered from a poor start to pip fellow American Justin Gatlin and win the Diamond League 100m in Paris in 9.99 seconds.
Gay, beaten by Gatlin at the recent US Olympic trials, came through powerfully ahead of Gatlin, who clocked 10.03, and Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre in 10.08.
Gay was delighted with his victory, which was a reversal of the result when the sprinters met at the US trials.
Jamaicans Micheal frater and Nickel Ashmeade tied for fourth in a time of 10.14.
LIAT cancel flights!
LIAT wishes to advise customers, that the following flights for Wednesday July 4, 2012 have been cancelled.
LI 774 Guyana-Barbados
LI 362 Barbados-Antigua
LI 562 Antigua-St. Maarten-Tortola-San Juan
LI 561 San Juan-Tortola-St. Maarten-Nevis-Antigua
LI 775 Antigua-Dominica-St. Lucia-Trinidad
LI 726 Trinidad-Grenada-Barbados
LI 512 Barbados-Antigua
Customers who are booked to travel on these services will be accommodated on the next available flight.
Passengers affected by these cancellations are kindly asked to contact the Reservations Department: - from Antigua – 1-268-480-5582; toll free from the rest of the Caribbean – 1-888-844-5428 and from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands – 1-866-549-5428 for information on flights on which they will be accommodated.
LIAT sincerely apologises to affected passengers for any inconvenience caused as a result of these cancellations.
REDjet’s bankruptcy protection expires today
It's not yet known if troubled air carrier REDjet will be seeking an extension of bankruptcy protection which expires today.
The airline last month announced that it had filed for bankruptcy protection and will not be liable to pay any debts for at least 30 days.
The company did not declare how much it owed but said when the period of bankruptcy protection ends today, it may apply for further extensions until a proposal to pay creditors is completed.
However it said on completion, creditors owed 250 U.S. dollars or more...including passengers who purchased tickets which could not be honoured because of the grounding of the airline on March 16, will be invited to make claims.
RJ
Barclays credit rating outlook cut by Moody's and S&P
Rating agencies Moody's and Standard and Poor's have lowered their outlook on Barclays from stable to negative amid the bank rate-rigging scandal.
Moody's said shareholder and political pressure was creating uncertainty about the bank's future.
S&P said the emergence of "weak business practices" had hit the company's prospects.
The move comes a day after ex-Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond told MPs the rate fixing was "reprehensible".
One MP, however, called some of Mr Diamond's evidence "implausible".
MPs will vote later on whether to have a judge-led inquiry over the scandal, favoured by the opposition, or a parliamentary one, favoured by ministers.
Moody's said pressure on the bank could force it to move away from investment banking.
"Although this could have potentially positive implications over the longer term, the uncertainty surrounding such a change in direction is credit negative in the short term," the agency said.
It added that Barclays may find it difficult to replace Mr Diamond, chief operating officer Jerry del Missier, and chairman Marcus Agius, all of whom resigned this week. Mr Agius is staying on at the bank to oversee finding a replacement for Mr Diamond, but will step down once someone has been found.
S&P said "weak compliance" and "current management flux" had knocked the company's outlook.
'Physically ill'
Mr Diamond underwent a three-hour grilling by MPs on Wednesday, some of whom expressed surprise at some of his evidence.
Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Committee, said some of what the banker said seemed "implausible", while another committee member, David Ruffley, said he was not satisfied with Mr Diamond's explanation.
Mr Diamond said he had only learned the true extent of the scandal in the past month, and that he had felt "physically ill" when reading incriminating emails from traders that they had conspired to manipulate the Libor rate - the interest rate at which banks lend to one another and which is used to set lending rates across the economy.
Mr Diamond said he "loved" Barclays and had resigned on Tuesday to protect its reputation. "I'm sorry, disappointed and angry," he said.
But Mr Tyrie, who has been asked to lead a parliamentary inquiry into banking following the scandal, was sceptical about some of what he heard.
He told the BBC after the hearing: "We learnt that Bob Diamond says he didn't know anything about this until about a month ago, which I find rather surprising.
"I think, cumulatively, the whole package looks somewhat implausible. And if it is plausible, it's only because there is something wrong with the culture of Barclays and, of course, it's the culture that needs to be put right."
In a separate BBC interview, committee member David Ruffley said: "Either [Mr Diamond] was complicit or, frankly, incompetent."
Misunderstanding
Paul Tucker, the Bank of England's deputy governor, will give evidence to the committee next week.
Mr Diamond said that, during a telephone conversation in October 2008, Mr Tucker told him "senior figures within Whitehall" were concerned about why Barclays was setting its Libor rate higher than some other major banks.
Subsequently, the Libor borrowing rates submitted by Barclays fell, potentially understating the extent of the bank's borrowing costs.
Mr Diamond maintains that he did not view his conversation with Mr Tucker as an instruction to change the bank's rates submissions.
However, he said his chief operating officer Jerry del Missier, who also resigned on Tuesday, misunderstood the message from the Bank, and directed traders to take actions to lower Barclays' Libor rates.
The Financial Services Authority has investigated Mr del Missier's actions, and will take no further action.
Banks borrow from each other daily, and report at what rate they got the money. A high rate can indicate a bank is having trouble borrowing money because it is in financial trouble.
Bank of England pumps £50bn more into economy
The Bank of England has announced it will pump a further £50bn into the UK economy over the next four months through its quantitative easing (QE) programme to try and boost demand.
QE is the Bank's scheme which aims to boost the economy by buying bonds. The stimulus currently stands at £325bn.
The Bank also said it would leave UK interest rates unchanged at 0.5%.
The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has held rates at their current record low for more than three years.
The Bank said that the UK economy, which is back in recession, had "barely grown for a year and a half". It added that growth in export markets had also slowed.
The additional stimulus had been expected following last month's MPC meeting, when four of the nine members voted to increase QE.
Since then, the UK economy has shown no real signs of recovery.
Last month, the Bank announced two new stimulus measures. The first of these will provide banks with access to tens of billions of pounds of cheap credit on the basis that they lend this on to businesses.
The second provides banks with access to cash, should they encounter any short-term funding difficulties.
Volkswagen agrees to buy rest of Porsche for $5.6bn
Volkswagen says it has agreed a deal to buy the remaining 50.1% stake in Porsche it doesn't already own by the start of next month.
VW will pay 4.46bn euros ($5.6bn; £3.6bn) plus one VW common share to acquire the stake.
The two firms had agreed in 2009 to merge by the end of 2011, but have since faced legal obstacles.
The deal is likely to reduce costs and boost VW's earnings as it seeks to become the world's biggest carmaker.
"The accelerated integration will allow us to start implementing a joint strategy for Porsche's automotive business more quickly and to realize key joint projects more rapidly," said Hans Dieter Poetsch, chief financial officer of Volkswagen.
Both the firms had been seeking to accelerate the merger. However, one of the stumbling blocks for the deal was the likelihood of a big tax bill for both the firms.
Volkswagen had acquired a 49.9% stake in Porsche in 2009.
According to various reports, if it bought the remaining stake before 2014, the two companies may have had to pay more than 1bn euros in taxes, making the move less attractive.
Analysts said that by structuring the deal as one which involved the payment of one VW common share to Porsche, the firms may be able to avoid that bill.
They said that such a move means that the deal may see it being classified as a restructuring of the company rather than a takeover.
"It's a great deal for Volkswagen, both financially and in operative terms," said David Arnold, an analyst with Credit Suisse.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen said in a statement that "the accelerated integration model that has now been agreed can be implemented on economically feasible terms".
Role reversal?
Once completed, the deal will bring an end to one of the most dramatic takeovers in the car manufacturing industry.
Porsche had been trying to takeover Volkswagen for many years.
Its attempt failed in 2009 as it fell short of acquiring the required 75% stake.
The global financial crisis and the slump in the global automotive sector made it difficult for the carmaker to raise enough money to buy the required stake.
But none the less, Porsche accumulated large amounts of debt in the process and was sued by investors who accused it of misleading them.
In a turnaround of events, the firms agreed a deal in 2009 under which Volkswagen agreed to takeover Porsche.
GKN agrees to buy Volvo's aero engines division
Engineering group GKN has agreed to buy the aero engine business of Swedish truck-maker Volvo for £633m ($986m).
GKN's chief executive, Nigel Stein, said the deal was, "a highly attractive acquisition... creating a market leader in aero engine components".
The deal will give GKN more exposure to the civil aircraft sector, offsetting falling defence sales as governments cut back on defence spending.
Shares in GKN rose 12% on news of the deal.
The British engineering group said the payment broke down into £513m for the business, plus a pension settlement of £50m and refinancing of £70m.
GKN has plants in Bristol and Cowes, Isle of Wight.
GKN's aerospace business is the firm's second biggest division. It makes parts for civilian and combat aircraft as well as helicopters.
Last year it had sales of £1.5bn.