US to increase use of spy planes in the Caribbean
The Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) is reporting that the United States (US) plans to step up the use of Predator drones in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico as it increases drug smuggling surveillance.
Predator drones were used by American Intelligence to find and kill al-Qaida suspects in Pakistan and Yemen.
The US Department of Homeland Security officials said Washington has been quietly testing the drones over the Bahamas for more than 18 months.
They say the latest move would dramatically increase US drone flights in the Western Hemisphere, more than doubling the number of square miles now covered by the Department of Homeland Security’s fleet of nine surveillance drones, which are used primarily on the northern and southwestern US borders.
Last Pinta giant tortoise Lonesome George dies
Staff at the Galapagos National Park in Ecuador say Lonesome George, a giant tortoise believed to be the last of its subspecies, has died.
Scientists estimate he was about 100 years old.
Park officials said they would carry out a post-mortem to determine the cause of his death.
With no offspring and no known individuals from his subspecies left, Lonesome George became known as the rarest creature in the world.
For decades, environmentalists unsuccessfully tried to get the Pinta Island tortoise to reproduce with females from a similar subspecies on the Galapagos Islands.
Park officials said the tortoise was found dead in his corral by his keeper of 40 years, Fausto Llerena.
While his exact age was not known, Lonesome George was estimated to be about 100, which made him a young adult as the subspecies can live up to an age of 200.
Galapagos icon
Lonesome George was first seen by a Hungarian scientist on the Galapagos island of Pinta in 1972.
Environmentalists had believed his subspecies (Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni) had become extinct.
Lonesome George became part of the Galapagos National Park breeding programme.
After 15 years of living with a female tortoise from the nearby Wolf volcano, Lonesome George did mate, but the eggs were infertile.
He also shared his corral with female tortoises from Espanola island, which are genetically closer to him than those from Wolf volcano, but Lonesome George failed to mate with them.
He became a become a symbol of the Galapagos Islands, which attract some 180,000 visitors a year.
Hunted to extinction
Galapagos National Park officials said that with George's death, the Pinta tortoise subspecies has become extinct.
They said his body would probably be embalmed to conserve him for future generations.
Tortoises were plentiful on the Galapagos islands until the late 19th century, but were later hunted for their meat by sailors and fishermen to the point of extinction.
Their habitat furthermore suffered when goats were introduced from the mainland.
The differences in appearance between tortoises from different Galapagos islands were among the features which helped the British naturalist Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution.
Some 20,000 giant tortoises of other subspecies still live on the Galapagos.
Bolivia police protests continue after deal is rejected
Police in Bolivia, who have been on strike in protest at low pay, have rejected a deal their representative struck with the government.
The officers burned the document their negotiator had signed after all-night talks with the Interior Minister and said they would elect new leaders.
They demand their pay be raised to equal that of soldiers of the same rank.
The government has accused the officers of setting the scene for a coup.
The police protests turned violent on Thursday when a group of officers and their wives seized control of an elite police unit in Bolivia's main city, La Paz, and expelled their superiors.
Other officers joined the protest on Friday in other major Bolivian cities such as Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and Oruro.
After rejecting the pay deal, officers in La Paz took their protest to city's central square, Plaza Murillo.
Officers on strike in Cochabamba, Oruro and Tarija also rejected the deal, while those in Santa Cruz are reportedly still debating whether to accept it.
Greek PM Samaras to miss EU summit following surgery
Greece's new Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will miss this week's EU summit while he recovers from eye surgery, according to a government spokesman.
He underwent routine surgery on Saturday for a damaged retina, with the operation said to have been a success.
Mr Samaras was sworn in as prime minister only last Wednesday to head a three-party pro-austerity coalition.
The "troika" of rescue lenders have also postponed a planned visit to Athens due to Mr Samaras' poor health.
Inspectors from the EU, European Central Bank and IMF had been due to review Greece's progress in meeting bailout conditions on Monday.
The new date for the trip will be determined later in the week.
Negotiations
Greece is under huge international pressure to fulfil bailout terms.
The new governing coalition consists of two "pro-memorandum" parties who broadly support continuing the austerity and reforms demanded by Greece's lenders - Mr Samaras' centre-right New Democracy and the beleaguered socialist Pasok party - as well as the more sceptical Democratic Left.
The new government is seeking to water down the requirements imposed on it by other EU countries and by the International Monetary Fund, including an extension to the deadline for it to reduce its budget deficit by at least two years, to 2016.
The Greek reform programme was expected to be a major item on the agenda of the two-day EU summit in Brussels that begins this Thursday.
A government spokesman said that Mr Samaras cannot attend because doctors have forbidden him from flying, and that the new foreign minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos, will go in his place.
To compound the government's difficulties, the new finance minister Vassilis Rapanos is in hospital after apparently fainting on Friday.
His condition was said on Saturday to be "stable and improving". He was originally due to be sworn in on Saturday.
The outgoing finance minister, Giorgos Zanias, will instead travel to the summit along with two deputy ministers.
Both politicians are expected to be discharged on Monday, but Mr Samaras is likely to be confined to his home for a week.
In a policy document, the government said its aim was for the fiscal target envisaged by the bailout deal to be met without further cuts to salaries and pensions.
Elections held last week ended a two-month deadlock over its implementation.
Pro-bailout parties gained a narrow majority in parliament, despite widespread public anger at austerity measures stipulated in the bailout.
'Avoiding layoffs'
The government's negotiation document was published following agreement on policy goals between the coalition partners New Democracy, Pasok and Democraftic Left, and precedes a confidence vote in parliament.
It includes provision for "an extension to the period for the fiscal adjustment by at least two years, so that the fiscal target is met without further cuts in salaries and pensions".
"The aim is to avoid layoffs of permanent staff, but to economise a serious amount through non-salary operational costs and less bureaucracy," it said, quoted by AFP.
Under the current bailout deal, Greece has agreed to take 150,000 civil servants off the payroll by 2015.
Other provisions include:
- reviewing minimum wage cuts and measures to facilitate private-sector layoffs
- employers and unions to be allowed to set a private sector minimum wage
- rearranging taxpayers' arrears for the year so that they do not exceed 25% of income
- reducing VAT in catering from 23% to 13%
- extending unemployment benefits
Greece's new cabinet was announced two days ago.
All three parties have signed a agreement to fully support the coalition, giving it a majority of 29 in parliament.
However, the cabinet is dominated by the conservative New Democracy party, after its left-wing partners Pasok and Democratic Left barred their MPs from joining.They are represented by two party officials each. It is believed that they may not want to be associated with austerity measures.
GM recalls Chevrolet Cruze over fire risk
US car manufacturer General Motors has recalled almost half a million cars to reduce the risk of fire.
It plans to modify Chevrolet Cruze sedans, a popular model, so that flammable liquids are not caught in the engine, GM said.
The recall affects 475,418 cars sold in the US, Canada and Israel that were assembled in Lordstown, Ohio, between September 2010 and May 2012.
GM said no crashes or injuries have been reported over the issue.
Recall notices are due to be sent out to Cruze owners in mid-July and the company estimates it will take about half-an-hour at a Chevrolet dealership to fix the problem, which has to do with the car's engine shield.
Cars of the same model built at other GM plants are not thought to have the same problem, the spokesman added, although its unit in Australia is investigating whether 10,000 cars sold there could be affected.
Nintendo to revamp 3DS handheld with bigger screens
Nintendo will start selling a version of its 3DS handheld gaming console with bigger screens from July.
The 3DS LL, which will be known as the XL outside Japan, will have displays that are almost twice as big as those on the current version.
It will be priced at 18,900 yen (£150) in Japan and $199.99 (£128) in the US. No European prices have been given.
The 3DS faces growing competition from smartphones, tablets and Sony's Playstation Vita handheld.
The gadget will go on sale in Japan and Europe from 28 July but will not reach the US until 19 August.
Screens on the 3DS LL will be 4.88in (124mm) and 4.18in (106mm) across as compared to 3.53in (90mm) and 3.02in (77mm) in the older model.
The larger size of the gadget will also mean it has a longer battery life. For 3D games, the device should run for more than six hours between recharges. For 2D games it should last up to 10 hours.
About 17 million 3DS devices have been sold since the device was released in 2011
In April, Nintendo reported its first annual loss as sales of its Wii console and other gadgets started to slow. It has hopes that a revamped games console, the Wii U, will return it to profitability.
Nintendo's shares have fallen 60% since the first 3DS launched in February 2011.
Eurozone four leaders agree economic growth package
Leaders of the eurozone's four biggest nations have agreed in principle to measures to boost growth equal to 1% of the currency area's economic output.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain outlined plans to push for a 130bn-euros (£104bn; $163bn) package.
But analysts suggest that with little or no new money involved, the significance of the agreement between the four was more symbolic than actual.
There is also still no consensus on issues such as common eurobonds.
"We want there to be a significant European growth package," said Italian PM Mario Monti.
He appeared at the press conference alongside Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
The four met in Rome ahead of an EU summit on the euro crisis next week.
The growth package is expected to comprise several measures already in the works to boost spending on infrastructure and other investments, backed by European taxpayer money:
- Increasing the capital of the European Investment Bank by 10bn euros, which would enable the EU government-backed institution to increase its lending capacity by several times that amount;
- Fully deploying unused money in the European Commission's regional funds;
- The creation of pan-European "project bonds" - common debts used to finance specific investment projects such as the construction of pan-european transport networks.
The agreement may represent a political victory for the recently elected French president, who has demanded a growth pact despite strong reservations expressed by his Germany counterpart.
The leaders also sought to agree other proposals on closer integration - including a banking union and a financial transactions tax - to be put forward at the broader EU summit.
However, at the end of less than two hours of talks, they did not reach any agreement on the idea of eurobonds - jointly-backed eurozone government debts used to finance EU government budgets.
'Here to stay'
Mr Monti had warned his EU peers that failure to agree on joint action would encourage market attacks on their economies.
He had predicted "progressively greater speculative attacks" without unified action from all the eurozone members.
Speaking after the talks, Mr Monti asserted in English that "the euro is here to stay, and we all mean it".
"We expect the conclusions of the EU summit will be more solid and credible compared with previous summits as far as growth is concerned," he predicted.
French President Francois Hollande, who made agreement of a European growth pact the central plank of his election platform last month, said the package would be "indispensable".
He said the four eurozone leaders had, he said, "made the prospect for growth much more concrete", asking whether anyone would have imagined a few weeks ago that the idea of growth would be on the agenda of the EU summit.
The French president said the four had also agreed to push for a pan-European tax on financial transactions - also known as a Tobin tax - another of the French President's election pledges.
The idea is opposed by the UK government, who says it would hurt the City of London unless the tax were also implemented in other non-European international financial centres, as well as by Sweden.
At the same time as the meeting in Rome, EU finance ministers - including the UK's George Osborne - agreed at a separate meeting in Luxembourg that no financial transaction tax would be applied to the EU as a whole, although some member states could push ahead with the idea on their own.
No agreement was reached on the idea of eurobonds - common eurozone government debts, which have been opposed, at least in the near term, by Germany.
Mr Hollande reasserted his support for the idea, saying "I consider eurobonds to be an option... and not in 10 years" - an implicit criticism of German Chancellor Merkel's position.
Spanish banks
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that growth and solid finances were two sides of the same coin and she stressed the importance of greater political integration.
Friday's talks had been expected to involve a formal Spanish request for eurozone financial assistance.
However, no mention of a request was made in the press conference following the talks.
Spain is expected to ask for up to 100bn euros to save its distressed banks.
The Spanish, Italian and French leaders have advocated a banking union for the eurozone, likely to entail much stronger central regulation and supervision of European banks, as well as the creation of a common Europe-wide deposit guarantee scheme.
Spanish and Greek banks have experienced significant withdrawals of deposits in recent months, on fears that they may be insolvent, or that their home nations may exit the euro.
All the banks in eurozone peripheral economies, including Italy, have found it very hard to borrow from other banks and money managers since last autumn, forcing the European Central Bank to provide them with an unprecedented trillion euros of three-year emergency loans over the New Year.
Chile's Lan and Brazil's Tam merge to create huge airline
Chile's Lan airline has completed a takeover of Brazil's Tam, creating the world's second largest airline by market value, to be known as Latam.
After two years of negotiations, Tam shareholders agreed to the takeover.
The new company will have its headquarters in the Chilean capital, Santiago.
Brazil and Chile have enjoyed years of economic growth, which has brought about a massive increase in air travel but also recently tougher competition.
Tam, once Brazil's leading airline, has seen its profits drop as rivals began to offer cheaper tickets and better deals.
Lan - a much bigger company flying to more than 20 countries - has the financial resources to make Latam Airlines Group a serious competitor in Brazil's huge internal market as well as overseas.
Latam's chief executive, Enrique Cueto, told the Reuters news agency that the new carrier "will focus on Brazil and will introduce important changes in the local airline market".
The combined revenues of Lan and Tam last year exceeded $13bn (£8.3bn). Their combined market value is second among the world's airlines to Air China.
Analysts say both companies gain from the deal.
The takeover is expected to save $700m in operating costs in the next four years.
Tropical Storm Debby Threatens US Gulf Coast
A tropical storm advisory has been issued for parts of four southern U.S. states as tropical Tropical Storm Debby, the fourth storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, makes its way to the Gulf Coast bringing heavy rains and thunderstorms.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center on Sunday afternoon said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour, and was expected to move northeast over the Gulf of Mexico over the next few days.
The storm is expected to make landfall on some of the low-lying coastal areas in Louisiana, prompting Governor Bobby Jindal to declare a state of emergency.
Tropical storm warnings also were issued for the Mississippi-Alabama border and parts of Florida.
Debby has forced the suspension of 8 percent of the region's oil and gas production.
Officials said nine production platforms and one drilling rig were evacuated. The reduced production is not expected to impact oil prices unless the storm strengthens and forces more production platforms to close.
This is the first time that four tropical storms have formed before July 1 during the Atlantic hurricane season, since record keeping began in 1851.
Western Powers Condemn Syria for Downing Turkish Military Jet
Western powers have condemned Syria for shooting down a Turkish military jet in a maritime border area, and have pledged to cooperate with Ankara in holding Damascus to account for Friday's incident.
In a statement issued Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the downing of the aircraft was a “brazen act” that reflects what she called Syria's “callous disregard for international norms, human life, peace and security.”
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said London is ready to purse “robust” U.N. Security Council action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.
Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said Rome will play an “active role” in a NATO meeting scheduled for Tuesday to respond to Syria's attack on the jet. A NATO spokeswoman said Turkey requested the NATO meeting under the alliance's founding treaty, which commits all members to protect one another's security and borders.
Details of the aircraft incident are still not clear.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused Syria on Sunday of shooting down the jet without warning in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea. He said the jet's two pilots were on a training mission and inadvertently entered Syrian airspace for a brief period before leaving and being struck by Syrian fire several minutes later.
“The plane was not on a covert operation — it was on training mission to test radar, and the plane was unarmed.”
The Turkish pilots remain unaccounted for. Syria has said it fired on the jet because it was flying close to its coast, in violation of Syrian airspace.
Relations between Turkey and Syria have been tense since last year, when Ankara began criticizing Mr. Assad's deadly crackdown on an opposition uprising against his autocratic rule. Syria has criticized Turkey for hosting Syrian opposition forces. It accuses Turkish authorities of providing weapons and intelligence to the rebels.
Political observers in Turkey say the Turkish government's response to the attack on its aircraft has been restrained and measured so far. Ankara has promised to take strong, decisive and legitimate action once the facts of the incident are known.
In Syria Sunday, opposition activists said attacks by government and rebel forces killed at least 40 people across the country. They said fighting in the northeastern region of Deir el-Zour killed at least 13 people, while government shelling killed seven members of the same family in the northwestern province of Idlib.
Activists also said Syrian rebels captured a military post in the northern province of Aleppo, seizing a large amount of weapons. The activists' claims could not be independently confirmed.