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d228cbd65d04ca966f80977250d5c7a1 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1724473120070717 | Army starts stress program but lacks resources | Army starts stress program but lacks resources
By Kristin Roberts2 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army will start training all soldiers on Wednesday to recognize signs of post-traumatic stress and seek help when needed, but it still lacks the mental health resources to treat those troops.
U.S. soldiers walk on a street during a night mission in Baquba early June 28, 2007. The U.S. Army will start training all soldiers on Wednesday to recognize signs of post-traumatic stress and seek help when needed, but it still lacks the mental health resources to treat those troops. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic
About 1.5 million U.S. service members have been sent to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001. Repeated and extended deployments to those war zones have driven up the need for mental health services.
But the military’s mental health system is too short of funds and staff to help service members, according to the Pentagon and the American Psychological Association, which found more than 30 percent of all soldiers met the criteria for a mental disorder.
Starting on Wednesday, the Army plans to train every service member, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan, within 90 days to gauge symptoms in themselves and those around them.
While the program -- a one-hour briefing to be delivered in small groups -- is expected to boost the number of soldiers reporting symptoms of stress, the Army has too few mental health professionals to treat them.
Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a psychiatrist and the Army’s expert on post-traumatic stress disorder, said the Army needs to hire another 270 people to treat mental illness. “We also know that it’s a challenge to hire in many locations so I’m not sure if we’re going to get 270,” she said.
To alleviate the crunch, the Army is using chaplains to help provide counseling and mental health referrals.
Ritchie said the Army wants to catch symptoms early so soldiers do not live with combat-related stress for years, as have many veterans of previous wars.
“We don’t want another Vietnam,” Ritchie said on Tuesday.
“We don’t want people with chronic symptoms who first present 15, 20, 25 years later when it’s really hard to get rid of the symptoms. We want to take care of them, help the person, right away.”
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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96b02aa266736b2d92659d2de4bafed5 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1724898920080117 | Lawmaker mistakes Bernanke for Paulson at hearing | Lawmaker mistakes Bernanke for Paulson at hearing
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur came to a House committee hearing on Thursday prepared to ask U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson tough questions about his involvement in the subprime mortgage crisis.
Unfortunately, she was questioning the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The Ohio Democrat, at a House of Representatives Budget Committee hearing, said she wanted to know what Wall Street firms were responsible for the securitization of subprime mortgages.
She then asked: “Seeing as how you were the former CEO of Goldman Sachs ...” But the only person testifying at the hearing interrupted.
“No, no, no, you’re confusing me with the Treasury Secretary,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
“I’ve got the wrong firm? Paulson, Oh, OK. Where were you sir?” Kaptur said.
Bernanke noted that he was head of the Princeton University economics department.
“Oh, Princeton, oh, all right, sorry. I got you confused with the other one ... I’m glad you clarified that for the record,” she said.
Paulson was chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs before Bush tapped him to head the U.S. Treasury Department.
Reporting by Neil Stempleman; editing by Gary CrosseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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beafed5fb7e500b1c63f5163c0df3d29 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1730263720080617 | Senate blocks debate of clean energy tax credits | Senate blocks debate of clean energy tax credits
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday blocked debate of a bill to offer about $17.7 billion in tax incentives for consumers to build renewable energy sources like windmills and solar arrays, and buy plug-in cars that run on electricity rather than gasoline.
The Energy Independence and Tax Relief Act of 2008 would have extended a tax credit to build windmills by one year through December 31, 2009, and extend for three years similar credits for renewable energy sources like biomass, geothermal, landfill gas and trash combustion.
The bill failed to garner enough votes to limit debate and move to a vote, leaving the fate of the clean-energy credits uncertain.
Extension of renewable energy credits was the most expensive portion of the bill, at about $7 billion over 10 years.
The bill also offered incentives for demonstrating ways to capture heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired electric plants, and offered at least $3,000 in tax incentives for consumers to buy plug-in electric vehicles.
Reporting by Chris Baltimore; Editing by David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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719e83d680e254e168933c18a6c0a0ab | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1824791220080319?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true | Obama's lead over Clinton narrows: Reuters poll | Obama's lead over Clinton narrows: Reuters poll
By Steve Holland3 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama’s big national lead over Hillary Clinton has all but evaporated in the U.S. presidential race, and both Democrats trail Republican John McCain, according a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.
The poll showed Obama had only a statistically insignificant lead of 47 percent to 44 percent over Clinton, down sharply from a 14 point edge he held over her in February when he was riding the tide of 10 straight victories.
Illinois Sen. Obama, who would be America’s first black president, has been buffeted by attacks in recent weeks from New York Sen. Clinton over his fitness to serve as commander-in-chief and by a tempest over racially charged sermons given by his Chicago preacher.
The poll showed Arizona Sen. McCain, who has clinched the Republican presidential nomination, is benefiting from the lengthy campaign battle between Obama and Clinton, who are now battling to win Pennsylvania on April 22.
McCain leads 46 percent to 40 percent in a hypothetical matchup against Obama in the November presidential election, according to the poll.
Related CoverageObama says Clinton showed lack of judgment on Iraq
That is a sharp turnaround from the Reuters/Zogby poll from last month, which showed in a head-to-head matchup that Obama would beat McCain 47 percent to 40 percent.
“The last couple of weeks have taken a toll on Obama and in a general election match-up, on both Democrats,” said pollster John Zogby.
Matched up against Clinton, McCain leads 48 percent to 40 percent, narrower than his 50 to 38 percent advantage over her in February.
“It’s not surprising to me that McCain’s on top because there is disarray and confusion on the Democratic side,” Zogby said
Slideshow ( 6 images )
Obama gave a speech on Tuesday rebuking his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for sermons sometimes laced with inflammatory tirades but said he could not disown him and it was time for Americans to bind the country’s racial wounds.
The poll showed Obama continues to have strong support from the African-American community but that he is experiencing some slippage among moderates and independents.
Slideshow ( 6 images )
Among independents, McCain led for the first time in the poll, 46 percent to 36 percent over Obama.
He was behind McCain by 21 percent among white voters.
Zogby attributed this to a combination of the fallout from Clinton’s victory in Ohio earlier this month and the controversy over Wright’s sermons.
“And, just the closer he gets to the nomination, the tougher questions whites ask about an African-American candidate,” Zogby said.
The March 13-14 poll surveyed 525 likely Democratic primary voters for the matchup between Clinton and Obama. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
For the matchup between McCain and his Democratic rivals, 1004 likely voters were surveyed. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/
Editing by Todd EasthamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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883ada1b2e75285386eb3d2d20bb5222 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1843138420080718 | U.S. Hispanics ramp up drive to register voters | U.S. Hispanics ramp up drive to register voters
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. Hispanic activists laid out plans on Friday to register 2 million new Latino voters to boost the clout of the United States’ fastest-growing voter bloc in the November presidential election.
Organizers representing more than 100 grass-roots Hispanic organizations from a dozen states met in Los Angeles to fine-tune a drive to get Latinos to sign up and vote in the November 4 election.
Hispanics account for about 9 percent of the U.S. electorate and are the nation’s fastest growing minority group. They could be a critical swing voting bloc in battleground states like Florida and those in the Southwest.
Organizers of the initiative say activists will seek to register voters through community-based drives, focused on battleground states such as Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico that they say have been overlooked by both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.
“The candidates have articulated generally well on the issues that relate to Latinos, but have insufficiently invested in our community in terms of campaign operations on the ground in those battleground sates,” said Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican-American Political Association.
In recent weeks both McCain and Obama have addressed several national Hispanic organizations in their hunt for votes, stressing economic and educational proposals they said would help Latinos as well as reviving plans for a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws.
In 2004, President George W. Bush won about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote -- a Republican record -- in defeating Democrat John Kerry. But opinion polls show Republican standing among Latinos has since been hurt by a shrill debate over immigration reform.
Last year, Republican lawmakers killed a bipartisan bill in the Senate that would have offered many of the estimated 12 million, mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants, a path to citizenship, along with tighter enforcement. It had been backed by both McCain and Obama.
The drive to encourage Latinos to vote began in earnest last year after hundreds of thousands of Hispanics marched through the streets of many U.S. cities calling for an overhaul of immigration laws.
Reporting by Syantani Chatterjee; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Eric WalshOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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aa1f21db75613b15ae3f8c5e8bac555c | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2040982720080620 | Obama says Republicans will use race to stoke fear | Obama says Republicans will use race to stoke fear
By Caren Bohan2 Min Read
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) addresses a news conference after meeting with his foreign policy advisory panel of former Democratic U.S. government officials at a hotel in Washington June 18, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Bourg
JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said on Friday he expects Republicans to highlight the fact that he is black as part of an effort to make voters afraid of him.
“It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy,” Obama told a fundraiser in Jacksonville, Florida. “We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid.
“They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”
He said he was also set for Republicans to say “he’s got a feisty wife,” in trying to attack his wife Michelle.
“We know the strategy because they’ve already shown their cards. Ultimately I think the American people recognize that old stuff hasn’t moved us forward. That old stuff just divides us,” he said.
Obama, born to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, has cast himself as a candidate who can bridge divides within the country, including those involving race.
It has been rare for him to bring up the topic during his presidential bid. In March he gave a widely praised speech on the subject after receiving criticism over racially charged comments by his longtime pastor.
Obama, who faces Republican John McCain in the November election, would be the first black U.S. president.
Editing by Xavier BriandOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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16e45413b1c3f32c0c7b62fd14ebbad4 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2428418520080125 | Obama with 13-point lead in South Carolina: poll | Obama with 13-point lead in South Carolina: poll
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent3 Min Read
CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Barack Obama has a 13-point lead on rival Hillary Clinton but his support has eroded slightly on the eve of South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Friday.
Obama’s edge on Clinton slipped by two points overnight but remained in double digits, 38 percent to 25 percent, in the rolling poll, with John Edwards gaining two points to climb to 21 percent and inch closer to second place.
The poll has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black U.S. president, had an 18-point lead over Clinton in the initial poll published three days ago but has seen his support fall from 43 percent to 38 percent.
Obama and Clinton have battled fiercely over the last week, trading accusations about their records in an increasingly rancorous duel for the right to represent the Democratic Party in November’s election.
Obama continues to enjoy strong backing among black voters, who are expected to be more than half of the electorate in Saturday’s Democratic primary. Obama won 55 percent of blacks in the poll, with Clinton at 18 percent.
“Obama still leads, but the lead keeps going down,” pollster John Zogby said.
Slideshow ( 10 images )
In the last day of polling on Thursday, Obama’s advantage over Clinton, a New York senator who would be the first woman U.S. president, was only 7 percentage points.
EDWARDS CLIMBS AGAIN
Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who won South Carolina during his failed 2004 presidential bid, has climbed steadily each day of the poll. He started at 15 percent and is now at 21 percent.
Edwards held a slight lead over Clinton among likely white voters at 36 percent to 33 percent. Obama had 18 percent.
“Edwards is in a battle for second place,” Zogby said. “He’s getting the lion’s share of the undecideds.”
The number of likely Democratic voters who said they were uncertain of their choice dropped two points to 11 percent, a still sizable figure one day before the voting.
Slideshow ( 10 images )
South Carolina is the next test in the back-and-forth battle for the Democratic nomination. Obama won the first contest in Iowa but Clinton won the next two in New Hampshire and Nevada.
Obama has offered pointed criticism of not only Clinton but also her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who has criticized Obama and called the idea of his consistent opposition to the Iraq war “a fairy tale.”
But the attacks have not dimmed admiration for Bill Clinton among the party faithful, with 75 percent saying they had a favorable view of him and only 20 percent holding an unfavorable view.
The rolling poll of 811 likely Democratic voters in South Carolina was taken Tuesday through Thursday. In a rolling poll, the most recent day’s results are added while the oldest day’s results are dropped in order to track changing momentum.
(Editing by Jackie Frank)
For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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c1a9f1ad43170262789c0d98c457f0eb | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2428822920080125 | Phone company immunity wins Senate test vote | Phone company immunity wins Senate test vote
By Thomas Ferraro3 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush won a test vote in the U.S. Senate on Thursday on his demand that any telephone company that participated in his warrantless domestic spying program receive immunity from lawsuits.
Such a blanket protection, which has split Democrats who control the Senate, is included in a bill to tighten rules on the federal surveillance of suspected terrorists.
On a vote of 60-36, the Senate rejected an alternative proposal, which would bolster protection of privacy rights of U.S. citizens without shielding phone companies from lawsuits.
Nearly 40 lawsuits have been filed accusing AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp of violating Americans’ privacy rights in helping the government’s warrantless domestic spying program.
Senate Republicans filed a motion to force another showdown for Monday. They will need 60 votes then in the 100-member Senate to end debate and move toward passage of the bill. Democrats and Republicans agreed the vote would be close.
If and when approved by the Senate, the bill would go to the House of Representatives for needed concurrence. It would replace a temporary surveillance law that Bush pushed through Congress last August and is set to expire next Friday.
Immunity foes contend that the courts should decide if the companies violated the law. And in doing so, they say, the courts would examine what Bush did in secretly ordering warrantless electronic surveillance shortly after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Supporters of immunity contend companies acted in good faith to protect the United States and should not be punished.
“They relied on the legal conclusion of this nation’s most senior law enforcement official and they provided assistance because they wanted to help stop terrorist attacks,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat who is a chief sponsor of the bill and a leading proponent of immunity.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, opposed immunity. He reiterated complaints that Bush violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in ordering warrantless surveillance.
Bush contends he had the wartime power to take the action, first disclosed in late 2005 by The New York Times. Bush put the program under supervision of a FISA court last January. Yet terms remain secret.
“They are not as concerned about the telephone companies as they are about insulating themselves from accountability,” Leahy said.
Editing by Tim DobbynOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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f07dd3a34d0c045ab512d26dd5d7a905 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2432913920070924 | Bush says U.S. willing to be flexible in trade talks | Bush says U.S. willing to be flexible in trade talks
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
U.S. President George W. Bush (R) meets with Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (L) at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, September 24, 2007. REUTERS/Larry Downing
NEW YORK (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Monday the United States was willing to show flexibility in the Doha trade talks, particularly on agriculture.
“We had a good discussion on Doha, a shared commitment to a successful round of trade talks,” Bush said after meeting with Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“I assured the president that the United States would show flexibility, particularly on our agricultural differences, in order to help achieve a breakthrough,” Bush said.
“On the Doha round, Brazil is willing to do whatever is necessary so that we reach agreement,” added Lula.
Many experts see the next weeks as a final make-or-break opportunity for the World Trade Organization talks, launched in late 2001 in Doha, Qatar. Negotiators have been poring over a pair of draft texts released in July in Geneva for reaching a deal on agricultural and industrial trade.
The United States last week agreed to cut its farm subsidy ceiling to between $13 billion and $16.4 billion a year, according to the mediator of the farm talks, New Zealand’s ambassador to the WTO, Crawford Falconer.
Brazil regards the latest U.S. offer to cut its agricultural subsides as a positive move, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said earlier.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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5348f022bf49cafe0d59e5429504da9d | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2633098420080327 | Democratic race over? Clinton doesn't think so | Democratic race over? Clinton doesn't think so
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent5 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Somebody forgot to tell Hillary Clinton the Democratic presidential race is over and Barack Obama won.
Obama has captured more state contests, more votes and more of the pledged convention delegates who will help decide which Democrat faces Republican Sen. John McCain in November’s presidential election.
But Clinton, a New York senator who has flirted with disaster before in the back-and-forth nominating battle with Obama, shrugs off growing predictions of doom and still sees at least a narrow path to victory.
“I hear it in the atmosphere,” Clinton said of the increasingly loud chatter about whether she should drop out and let Democrats focus on the general election campaign.
“But the most common thing that people say to me ... is ‘Don’t give up, keep going. We’re with you.’ And I feel really good about that because that’s what I intend to do,” she told reporters on Tuesday.
Clinton has not been hearing those words of encouragement from a chorus of media commentators and Obama supporters who have questioned why she is pursuing her uphill fight to catch the Illinois senator.
The Politico newspaper declared Clinton “has virtually no chance of winning.” A New York Times columnist called her campaign “the audacity of hopelessness” -- a pun on Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope.”
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Cabinet member for her husband Bill, the former president, said it was time for Democrats to rally around Obama -- and was called a “Judas” by Clinton loyalist James Carville for his views.
Clinton and her campaign aides have worked hard to debunk the idea the race is over, holding daily conference calls to tout their viability and issuing a lengthy memo to rebut the “myth” that Clinton cannot win.
US Democratic presidential candidates Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) square off in the last debate before the Ohio primary in Cleveland, Ohio, February 26, 2008. REUTERS/Matt Sullivan
“In a campaign with dozens of unexpected twists and turns, bold prognostications should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism,” the memo said.
But Clinton needs almost everything to go her way in the next few months.
She had a setback last week when her push for revotes in Michigan and Florida failed. Her victories there did not count because the contests were not sanctioned by the national party. She also faced an uproar this week over her misstatements about coming under sniper fire on her arrival in Bosnia in 1996.
TARGET: SUPERDELEGATES
The Clinton case for victory in the Democratic nomination fight is built on the backs of nearly 800 superdelegates -- elected officials and party insiders who are free to support anyone.
With 10 nominating contests remaining, Clinton lags Obama by more than 100 in the count of pledged delegates won in the state-by-state voting since January and has little chance of catching Obama.
But neither candidate is on track to win the 2,024 delegates needed to clinch the nomination -- making superdelegates the ultimate kingmakers.
Both camps have wooed them heavily, with Obama contending they should follow the will of Democratic voters. By the last nominating contests on June 3 in Montana and South Dakota, Obama says, he will have won the most votes and delegates.
Clinton says she offers the best chance of beating McCain in November.
To help her make that argument she needs to close the gap on Obama by rolling up big wins in many of the remaining contests, beginning on April 22 with Pennsylvania.
“The Obama campaign is trying to persuade everybody that this is over. I hope they don’t get their hands on the federal budget because they surely can’t count,” said Clinton adviser Harold Ickes.
“We think that both candidates are going to be within a hair of each other by the time the last state votes. At the end of this process, neither candidate will have the nomination” and superdelegates will decide,” Ickes said.
Clinton says she has won more big, diverse states crucial to Democratic hopes in November like Ohio, New Jersey and California, proving her worth in a general election battle.
The longer she continues, the more chance Obama might slip up and make a mistake that turns the tide of the campaign. Clinton has made it clear she will not consider bowing out of the race until all of the states have concluded their voting.
At that point, Democrats hope, a winner will emerge without the battle continuing all the way to the August party convention in Denver.
“I think that what we have to wait and see is what happens in the next three months, and there’s been a lot of talk about what-if, what-if, what-if. Let’s wait until we get some votes,” Clinton said.
(Editing by Patricia Wilson and Frances Kerry)
To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters “Tales from the Trail: 2008” online at http:blogs.reuters.com/trail08/Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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809bace5e25e525648a4adbd0e47ff8c | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2751309820080828?feedType | Biden accepts nomination, hails Obama, rips McCain | Biden accepts nomination, hails Obama, rips McCain
By Thomas Ferraro4 Min Read
DENVER (Reuters) - Veteran Sen. Joe Biden accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination on Wednesday and hailed running mate Barack Obama as a wise leader who will take the United States in a new direction and out of the Iraq war.
“Since I’ve never been called a man of few words, let me say this simply as I can: Yes. Yes, I accept your nomination to run and serve with Barack Obama, the next president of the United States,” declared Biden, who’s been ridiculed for long-winded speeches during his 35 years in Congress.
Biden heaped praise on the 47-year-old, first-term senator, who will accept the party’s nomination as presidential candidate in a speech in Denver on Thursday, as an inspirational force.
“He has tapped into the oldest American belief of all. We don’t have to accept the situation we cannot bear. We have the power to change it,” said Biden, 65.
At the end of his remarks, Obama made a surprise appearance on stage to thunderous applause. He embraced Biden and said he was proud to have Biden, who ran unsuccessfully against him in the Democratic primaries, on his team.
Biden was formally nominated by acclamation. He and Obama will face Republican candidate John McCain, who has yet to announce his pick for No. 2, in the November 4 election.
With McCain moving even in the polls in recent days after weeks of Republican attacks on Obama, the normally affable Biden took on the role of political attack dog traditionally assigned to vice presidential candidates and tied McCain to unpopular President George W. Bush.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
Biden hit McCain for backing Bush on a host of fronts, including the president’s tax cuts for the rich, opposition to an increase in the minimum wage and unpopular Iraq war.
“Should we trust John McCain’s judgment when he says there can be no timelines to draw down our troops from Iraq. That we must stay indefinitely,” Biden said to cries of “No.”
“Or should we listen to Barack Obama who says shift responsibility to the Iraqis and set a time to bring our combat troops home?” Biden said as the crowd roared, “Yes.”
Noting that after six years the Bush White House and Iraqi government are moving toward setting a date for withdrawal, Biden roared, “John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.”
In another swipe at McCain, a 71-year-old former Navy pilot and Vietnam war prisoner, Biden said, “These times require more than a good soldier. They need a wise leader, a leader who can deliver change, the change everybody knows we need.”
“Barack Obama will deliver that change,” said Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with an internationally recognized expertise in global affairs.
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Obama’s selection of Biden for his running mate angered some Democrats, who had favored New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who made a failed bid to become the first woman U.S. president.
Shortly before Biden spoke, Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, strongly endorsed Obama and praised his selection of Biden.
“In his first presidential decision, the selection of a running mate, he (Obama) hit it out of the park,” Clinton thundered.
McCain recently began airing an attack ad that features tough words by Biden against Obama during the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In challenging Obama’s fitness for the presidency, Biden said last year, “I think he can be ready, but right now, I don’t believe he is.”
More recently, Biden has said Obama has learned much the past year in crisscrossing the country and traveling abroad, talking with American people and foreign figures.
Reporting by Tom Ferraro; Editing by David WiesslerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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9f443cd5797fe279b61f0f6ed22b9133 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2948587520071230 | Clinton leads in Iowa; Huckabee, Romney even | Clinton leads in Iowa; Huckabee, Romney even
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent4 Min Read
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton holds a narrow lead in Iowa four days before the state opens the presidential nominating race, while Republicans Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are virtually tied, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Sunday.
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY)(R) is applauded by her daughter Chelsea during a campaign stop at Vinton-Shellsburg High School in Vinton, Iowa, December 30, 2007. REUTERS/Jim Young
Clinton, a New York senator, led Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois 31 percent to 27 percent, with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards a close third at 24 percent and no other Democratic contender registering in double-digits.
Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, held a statistically insignificant one-point edge over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 29 percent to 28 percent. Arizona Sen. John McCain was a distant third with 11 percent.
Three Republicans, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, registered 8 percent in the poll.
The poll found about 6 percent of likely caucus-goers in each party are uncertain of their choice in Thursday’s contest, the first big test in the state-by-state battle to choose candidates for the November presidential election.
“We have two very tight races that are too close to call,” said pollster John Zogby. “But there is a lot of potential for things to change here.”
The poll of 934 likely Democratic caucus-goers and 867 likely Republican caucus-goers was taken Wednesday through Saturday and has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points for the Democrats and 3.4 percentage points for the Republicans.
CLINTON’S NARROW EDGE WITH WOMEN VOTERS
Clinton, Obama and Edwards have battled for the Democratic lead for months in Iowa, where a win can generate huge momentum for later contests. The new poll showed Clinton, who would be the first woman in the White House, narrowly leading Obama among women voters and ahead among older voters, who are the most likely to participate.
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Obama, who would be the first black president, held a big lead among younger voters, whose participation is more unpredictable.
Delaware Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson each earned 5 percent, with Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd at 1 percent and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich below 1 percent.
The poll found Clinton’s supporters were the most dedicated, with 76 percent saying their support was “very” strong, compared to 65 percent for Edwards and 56 percent for Obama.
Under Iowa’s arcane caucus rules, candidates must receive support from 15 percent of the participants in each precinct to be viable. If not, their supporters can switch to other candidates.
Edwards was the most popular second choice with 30 percent, while Obama had 25 percent and Clinton only 12 percent.
Among Republicans, where Huckabee’s recent surge to the top of many Iowa polls has been fueled by support among religious conservatives, the former Baptist preacher led among those who said they were “very” conservative, and born-again Christians.
About half of Romney and Huckabee’s supporters described their backing as “very” strong.
The race for third among Republicans is wide open between McCain, Thompson, Giuliani and Paul, all of whom could take some solace from a strong finish and hope to generate momentum for the next contests.
McCain and Giuliani have barely competed in Iowa, preferring to focus on New Hampshire and a big round of contests on February 5, respectively. Thompson largely ignored the state until launching a final push here in the week before Christmas.
The rolling three-day tracking poll will continue each day through the Iowa caucus on Thursday.
(Editing by Todd Eastham)
For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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10edd2a6d9a0bac238ea13534b34be87 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSPEK8649220071210 | U.S. conciliatory on safety ahead of China summit | U.S. conciliatory on safety ahead of China summit
By Ben Blanchard4 Min Read
BEIJING (Reuters) - A senior U.S. official struck a conciliatory tone on product safety on Monday ahead of high-level talks with China likely to be dominated by U.S. fears of substandard Chinese-made food and drugs.
"Polly Pocket" merchandise sit on a shelf in a store in Arlington, Virginia, August 14, 2007. A senior U.S. official struck a conciliatory tone on product safety on Monday ahead of high-level talks with China likely to be dominated by U.S. fears of substandard Chinese-made food, drugs and toys. REUTERS/Jim Young
The made-in-China label has come under global scrutiny following scares over tainted pet food, toothpaste and fish. In one of the biggest cases, U.S. firm Mattel had to recall millions of toys.
Insisting that Washington and Beijing were working well on safety issues, Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said this was a question of improving the monitoring of imports not only from China but from the rest of the world.
“We think we are on a glide pattern which will produce a successful outcome in our relationship with the Chinese government,” Leavitt told reporters in Beijing where he will sign agreements to strengthen product safety.
Later in the day, however, other Washington officials said the talks with China would also cover U.S. worries about intellectual property protection, market access and Beijing’s efforts to nurture champion companies through industrial policy -- areas where room for quick, tangible progress is less clear.
“Our preference is always dialogue, but we know that in addition to dialogue we have other tools at our disposal,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez told reporters. “I believe that we have shown that we are willing to use those tools”.
He pointed to U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing duty rules and World Trade Organisation complaints as options when dialogue fails.
Mattel has recalled more than 21 million Chinese-made products in the past few months, adding to a growing tally of similar cases.
Those scandals have provoked protectionist trade calls from some U.S. politicians, already angered by what they see as China’s artificially undervalued currency, the yuan.
“We don’t believe protectionism is good for the U.S. or good for China,” Gutierrez told Reuters.
CARRYING STONES, MOVING MOUNTAINS
Food and product safety is likely to dominate cabinet-level Sino-U.S. talks that start on Wednesday just outside Beijing, even if currency issues are on participants’ minds, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said last week.
“Clearly that has been the highest profile of the issues,” U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said of safety worries.
“I suspect that at the end of the day that will end up being the highest profile outcome,” she told reporters of the proposed agreements on product safety.
Adding to the conciliatory tone, Wal-Mart said it had won permission to open its 100th China store and U.S. bearings company Timken unveiled a $38 million joint venture in the southern province of Hunan.
But not all was good cheer.
China has repeatedly warned other countries not to make political capital out of trade rows. They should be dealt with through dialogue on an equal footing, a senior Commerce Ministry official said in remarks published on Monday.
Chen Deming told the official China Daily he was worried the trend towards politicizing trade and economic issues could mount as the November 2008 U.S. presidential election approaches.
Ensuring a proper, fully functioning system was in place to ensure the safety of imports would take time, he said.
“I think there’s a Chinese proverb -- the man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. This is not going to happen overnight.”
Schwab said she saw no signs of “imminent resolution” of complaints against China that Washington has taken to the World Trade Organisation.
Last month, Beijing settled one WTO case by agreeing to eliminate a dozen tax breaks and other subsidies the United States challenged. But Washington still has WTO litigation over China’s policies on car parts, tax subsidies, and intellectual property enforcement and entertainment distribution.
“We have not received any indication that the Chinese are prepared to address the problems in those three cases,” Schwab said.
Additional reporting by Kirby Chien; editing by Nick Macfie and Roger CrabbOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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244bdff2d8c1d745064cd0d33778ecb4 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE48P05S20080926?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews | Angry White House meeting roils bailout talks | Angry White House meeting roils bailout talks
By Kevin Drawbaugh, Thomas Ferraro5 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Negotiations in Congress toward a massive bailout for Wall Street fell into disarray on Thursday night after a contentious White House meeting, with lawmakers later offering conflicting reports about the position of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.
The White House meeting -- attended by McCain, Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama, President George W. Bush and lawmakers from both parties -- “devolved into a contentious shouting match,” according to a statement from the McCain campaign.
“At today’s cabinet meeting, John McCain did not attack any proposal or endorse any plan,” the statement said.
Senior Democrats said they came away from the afternoon White House session with the impression that McCain was backing an entirely new Wall Street rescue plan, one differing markedly from a Bush administration proposal under discussion for days.
Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee and a participant in the White House gathering, said negotiations could be set back by the confusion.
“House Republicans, in some kind of arrangement with McCain, went off to wherever. I don’t know whether they’re ready to negotiate this. Their thing was some totally different mortgage insurance plan ... that would clearly delay this for a week or more,” Frank told reporters.
Frank has played a key role in talks over the Bush administration proposal, which would spend taxpayer money to buy up bad mortgage debt from distressed banks in an effort to free up capital markets clogged with billions of dollars of illiquid securities created during the home price bubble.
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“We’re not going to give up,” Frank said, pledging that Democrats will not bring a bill to the floor that lacks support from both parties. But he added, “If the House Republicans continue to reject the president’s approach, there’s no bill.”
Frank said negotiations would continue on Friday, but with no sign that House Republicans would take part.
COUNTER PROPOSAL
Bush’s plan has met fierce opposition on Capitol Hill. Democrats have offered a counter-proposal adding provisions to impose more oversight; boost efforts to prevent foreclosures; give the government a stake in companies participating in the program; and limit executive pay of participating companies.
On Thursday, a small group of conservative House Republicans -- including Texas’ Jeb Hensarling and Virginia’s Eric Cantor -- offered their own alternative to the Bush proposal. Focused on mortgage insurance, the one-page alternative plan was presented to reporters at a briefing.
The plan calls for the U.S. government to offer insurance coverage for the roughly half of all mortgage-backed securities that it does not already insure. The Treasury Department would charge premiums to holders of the securities, under the plan.
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It also called for temporary tax cuts and regulatory relief for businesses. In addition, financial institutions participating in the proposed program would have to disclose more about their mortgage asset holdings.
Cantor, one of the authors of the plan, said McCain had not endorsed it. “This is not part of his campaign,” he said.
McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said, “John McCain has been resolutely on the side of a responsible bipartisan agreement to protect homeowners, taxpayers and Main Street businesses -- he’s on the side of a responsible solution.”
Speaking after a meeting of House Democrats where lawmakers were briefed on the White House meeting, California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman said McCain appeared to have embraced the proposal from Cantor, Hensarling and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.
“It seems like (McCain) embraced Jeb Hensarling’s position ... It’s a completely different approach,” Waxman said. “It’s hard to imagine where we go from here.”
Frank said his committee held a hearing on Wednesday where witnesses included Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the two officials who have championed the Bush administration’s massive bailout plan.
Frank said Hensarling attended the hearing as a committee member, “but he never mentioned an alternative plan.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was “a little stunned” when he heard talk at the White House about a completely new plan drawn up by House Republicans.
Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Carol BishopricOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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501feda0b2ac7d117d1a221b70b620c1 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE4969EQ20081007 | McCain and Obama comic book biographies hit stands | McCain and Obama comic book biographies hit stands
By Alex Dobuzinskis2 Min Read
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The life stories of U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama hit comic book stands on Wednesday -- and the company behind the illustrated bios hopes plenty of adults will buy them.
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IDW Publishing, a San Diego-based company, said it produced the comic book biographies of the two candidates to capitalize on the election. The two biographies will be sold separately in comic stores, and together in a bound edition at bookstores.
In his comic, McCain, the Republican nominee for president, is shown being struck by captors in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. Obama, the Democratic nominee, is portrayed as a community organizer sitting around a kitchen table listening to Chicago residents.
“It really is a kick to do something that is something so out of the norm for comic books,” said Scott Dunbier, special projects editor with IDW.
Dunbier said he came to appreciate the two candidates more after fact-checking their biographies.
“Both men have very compelling stories,” he said.
The company tried to stay neutral as it told the life stories of the two senators.
Both comics feature the candidates on the cover standing in front of the U.S. flag. McCain smiles as he faces to the right, while Obama has a stoic expression as he looks left.
Both publications run 28 pages and rely on news stories, official websites and books by the candidates themselves.
“I think that people who normally don’t go to comic shops are really going to be part of the audience that pick this up,” Dunbier said.
Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Mary MillikenOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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565f784c912a53fbc03b47193501b580 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE4970PR20081008 | McCain, Obama discuss possible Treasury secretary picks | McCain, Obama discuss possible Treasury secretary picks
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) (L) answers a question during his debate with Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee October 7, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Young
NASHVILLE (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama both mentioned investor Warren Buffett as a possible pick for Treasury secretary on Tuesday but both spoke in only general terms about the qualities they would seek for that job.
“It is going to have be somebody who inspires trust and confidence,” McCain, a Republican, said during the second of three debates the two candidates are taking part in ahead of the November 4 election.
McCain, an Arizona senator, also mentioned former eBay chief Meg Whitman for the Treasury job when asked by the debate moderator about some names for the post.
The Treasury pick is always considered key but the job has taken on even more importance amid the Wall Street meltdown and after the approval last week by Congress of a $700 billion bailout package for financial institutions.
Many analysts believe that the winner of White House race might move quickly to make a decision about the Treasury secretary, a post now held by Henry Paulson.
Obama agreed with McCain that Buffett “would be a pretty good choice” but he added there are “other folks out there” who could be considered. Buffett, a billionaire whose financial expertise is widely respected, is a supporter of the Democratic candidate.
Obama, an Illinois senator, said he would want to make sure that the next Treasury secretary shares his view that economic policy should focus on improving living standards for the middle class.
“The key is making sure the next Treasury secretary understands that it is not enough just to help those at the top. We have to help the middle class,” he said.
Reporting by Caren Bohan, Editing by Frances KerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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55117cfa891b514a6377b81cb0708624 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE4998YH20081011 | Alaska ethics probe finds Palin abused her power | Alaska ethics probe finds Palin abused her power
By Yereth Rosen4 Min Read
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - An Alaska ethics inquiry found that Gov. Sarah Palin, the U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate, abused the power of her office by pressuring subordinates to fire a state trooper involved in a feud with her family, a report released on Friday said.
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The investigation also found that the removal of Walt Monegan, the state’s public safety commissioner whose firing triggered the probe, was likely due in part to his refusal to fire Michael Wooten, the trooper involved in a contentious divorce and custody battle with the governor’s sister.
The inquiry found that while it was within the governor’s authority to dismiss Monegan, Palin violated the public trust by pressuring those who worked for her in a way that advanced her personal wishes.
The investigation, which was commissioned in July by Alaska’s Legislative Council composed of 10 Republican lawmakers and four Democrats, became politically charged after Palin was selected to be Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate in August.
Responding to the probe’s findings, the McCain-Palin campaign said on Friday night, “Today’s report shows that the Governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan.”
The campaign has attacked the investigation as a partisan effort led by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and said the public safety commissioner was dismissed because of poor performance.
“Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact,” the campaign said in a statement.
The campaign has said the Palins were justified in their actions because they were trying to protect their family from Wooten who they said had made threats of violence.
In its findings, the report, written by Steve Branchflower, a retired state prosecutor, said, “Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired.”
“Such impermissible and repeated contacts create conflicts of interest for subordinate employees who must choose to either please a superior or run the risk of facing that superior’s displeasure and the possible consequences.”
According to the report, Palin allowed her husband, Todd Palin, to use the governor’s office and resources to continue to meet and speak to state employees in an effort to find some way to get Wooten fired.
“The problem with power is that people pay attention to it, and it’s very easy to ...use it in the wrong way. And you have to leave personal business at home,” said Alaska Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican member of the Legislative Council.
The report did not recommend any action be taken against the governor, but called for changes in statutes for handling government personnel.
While the scandal, known locally as “Troopergate,” has garnered national media attention, the Obama campaign has not used the inquiry to attack McCain or Palin.
The report said the governor’s public statements about fearing that Wooten would attack her family were not true.
“I conclude that such claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palins’ real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family related reasons,” Branchflower said in the report.
Reporting by Yereth Rosen; Editing by Daisuke Wakabayashi and Peter CooneyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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542ff918e5a56f3dbe0fd87b742433b8 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE49G0HC20081017 | Obama and McCain trade wisecracks, not attacks | Obama and McCain trade wisecracks, not attacks
By John Whitesides, Jeff Mason3 Min Read
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain shared the same stage and microphone again on Thursday, but this time they traded wisecracks instead of campaign attacks.
One night after battling in their final debate, the rivals in the White House race donned white ties for a more genial political tradition -- a New York dinner that has attracted presidential candidates in every election but two since 1945.
McCain told the glittering Manhattan crowd at the annual Al Smith dinner, a fundraiser for area Catholic charities named after the four-term former New York governor, that he had an announcement -- he had dismissed all of his campaign advisers.
“All of their positions will now be held by a man named Joe the plumber,” McCain said, citing the Ohio small business owner who McCain made an overnight sensation in Wednesday’s debate.
The Arizona senator also poked fun at his reference to Obama as “that one” in an earlier debate.
“He doesn’t mind at all. In fact he even has a pet name for me: George Bush,” McCain said.
McCain saluted Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, Obama’s bitter rival in the Democratic primary whose level of enthusiasm for Obama’s campaign for the November 4 election has been a subject of great media fascination.
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“I can’t shake the feeling that some people here are pulling for me,” McCain said. “I’m delighted to see you here tonight Hillary.”
When Obama took the microphone, he said he needed to correct some misconceptions since McCain had been asking “Who is Barack Obama?”
“I was not born in a manger,” he said, adding the name Barack, given by his Kenyan father, was Swahili for “that one.” He also had an explanation for his middle name, Hussein.
“I got my middle name from somebody who didn’t think I would ever run for president,” he said.
Obama listed his greatest strength as humility and his greatest weakness: “I’m a little too awesome.”
Without naming her, he also made reference to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate. She has been touted by Republicans for her foreign policy expertise because of Alaska’s proximity to Russia.
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Obama noted the dinner was held at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
“I’m told from the doorstep you can see all the way to The Russian Tea Room,” he said.
The only times presidential candidates did not speak at the Al Smith dinner were 1996, when President Bill Clinton was not invited after he vetoed a late-term abortion ban, and 2004, when sponsors cited the divisive nature of the campaign and skipped the invitations.
Both candidates closed with warm words for each other, with Obama praising McCain’s service to country in the Navy and as a Vietnam prisoner of war.
McCain noted Obama’s history-making bid to be the first black U.S. president.
“I won’t wish my opponent luck but I do wish him well,” McCain said.
Editing by John O’CallaghanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b0c150e69199c8939b501cbd617f09aa | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE4A267Q20081103 | European Union draws up letter to new U.S. leader | European Union draws up letter to new U.S. leader
By Crispian Balmer3 Min Read
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - The European Union has prepared a letter for the next U.S. president, seeking more involvement for the 27-nation EU in resolving world problems, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Monday.
The six-page document will be dispatched after the winner of Tuesday’s election emerges and Kouchner said the EU hoped for close ties with the new administration.
“There is a need to open a new chapter in global harmony, global balance, global change,” Kouchner said following talks with his EU counterparts in the French port city of Marseille.
France’s foreign minister said the letter focused on the need for multilateral solutions to world problems, including seeking peace in the Middle East and developing relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Times have changed. I think unilateral decisions that try to resolve the problems of the world will be more difficult to take,” Kouchner said.
“I know that the two candidates have turned their gaze on Europe and have shown their interest in seeing our two sides of the Atlantic working together,” he said, referring to Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.
GLOBALISATION
Transatlantic relations suffered a severe crisis in 2003 over U.S. President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, backed by Britain, Spain, Italy and central European countries but strongly opposed by old powers, led by France and Germany.
Kouchner said the rapidly evolving nature of globalization coupled with the financial crisis showed no one nation could impose its will on the world.
“The United States will remain a very important country. I don’t say a dominant power, but a great power,” he said.
European leaders are looking to assert themselves following the leading role played by the continent this year, including decisive action to ease the financial turmoil and directing negotiations to end the fighting between Russia and Georgia.
“We have said it is important to work where we have shown leadership and offer this leadership also to the United States,” said the EU’s external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
“We have to be an outward looking partnership. Not only with the United States, but also looking to China, to India, to Brazil, to the important big players,” she added.
Public opinion polls show a clear preference among Europeans for Obama, seen not only as a clean break from Bush but also as more attuned to European concerns on human rights and dialogue with Iran.
McCain’s tough rhetoric toward Iran and Russia and his military demeanor frighten some Europeans, while his choice of Sarah Palin, who has virtually no international experience, as his running mate has also raised eyebrows.
The EU ministers gathered in Marseille refused to be drawn on who they would prefer to deal with next in Washington.
“It is for the American people to elect their president. We will then work with whoever is there,” said Ferrero-Waldner.
Editing by Janet LawrenceOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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6d5634f3a2809eaea064ea150c219f8a | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE4BH7DR20081218 | Obama's next pastor controversy - at inauguration | Obama's next pastor controversy - at inauguration
By Peter Henderson3 Min Read
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a pastor who opposes gay marriage as a speaker at his inauguration, creating a commotion over what inclusiveness will mean for his administration.
Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren participates in a panel discussion during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York in this September 26, 2008 file photo. REUTERS/Chip East/Files
Obama chose Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor of the southern California megachurch Saddleback, to give the invocation when he takes office in January.
The president-elect on Thursday said that he held views “absolutely contrary” to Warren on gay rights and abortion and described himself as “a fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans.”
“During the course of the entire inaugural festivities, there are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented. And that’s how it should be, because that’s what America is about. That’s part of the magic of this country is that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated,” he said.
Warren is known as an evangelical focused on fighting poverty and disease, including AIDS in Africa, but he also advocated California Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban passed by voters last month.
Obama opposed California’s ban on gay marriage. He generally has said he supports equal rights under the law for same-sex couples.
“He selected someone who actively worked to eliminate the rights of me and millions of others,” said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California and a leader in the fight against Prop 8, which is in effect while it is challenged in court.
The choice was “appalling” he added. “If that’s Obama’s idea of a new day, we are in a lot of trouble.”
Some religious conservatives said they welcomed the selection, noting that it indicated among other things that Obama was prepared to reach out to them.
“I think it’s an excellent choice. Rick Warren is loved by millions of people ... radical gays don’t like him but most people do,” Bill Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League, told Reuters.
“Had Obama been so stupid as to choose a lesbian minister, all the attention would be on the minister and not the person becoming president. But if Obama is reaching out to social conservatives it would be plain stupid of them to close the door on him,” he said.
Warren in August hosted a forum between Obama and his Republican opponent in the White House race John McCain.
(Additional reporting by Ed Stoddard in Dallas)
Editing Sandra MalerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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6f0a942a1cd08f2c8bcd200ac3d98f37 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE50405S20090105 | Democrat wins Minnesota Senate seat in recount | Democrat wins Minnesota Senate seat in recount
By Todd Melby3 Min Read
MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Democrat Al Franken beat Republican incumbent Norm Coleman to win the U.S. Senate seat from Minnesota, officials conducting a final recount said on Monday, though the loser promised to challenge the result.
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The outcome found Franken edged Coleman by 225 votes out of nearly 2.9 million votes cast, but Coleman’s lawyers complained the recount was conducted unfairly and promised a court contest that could take weeks to resolve.
“I don’t think this is the last chapter. No system was designed to handle a race this close without a few squeaks,” said Eric Magnuson, chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court and a member of the state Canvassing Board that oversaw the recount.
“All lawful votes were counted,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat, who was on the five-member board and defended its work as fair and transparent.
If the recount decision holds up President-elect Barack Obama’s Democrats will control at least 58 of the 100 Senate seats in the new U.S. Congress, with one more possible once the Illinois seat vacated by Obama is filled. That seat is still in limbo because of the controversy over corruption charges against Illinois’ Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Coleman, seeking a second term, had held a razor thin lead after the November 4 election over Franken, a well known satirist and a former writer and actor for the popular Saturday Night Live television show.
“After 62 days of careful, painstaking inspection of ballots, I am proud to stand before you as the next senator from Minnesota,” Franken, 57, told a news conference in front of his Minneapolis home with his wife Franni beside him.
He described the recount as “long, fair and thorough” and pronounced himself anxious to get to work as soon as possible.
However, it was doubtful Franken can take his seat when Congress convenes on Tuesday. Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s office said he cannot certify the result until the court challenge is resolved, giving Senate Republicans justification to block Franken from taking office.
COLEMAN’S CHALLENGE
Minnesota’s Supreme Court on Monday turned down Coleman’s motion asking that 654 excluded absentee ballots be added to the recount, with the court saying the issue would be better handled in the court challenge.
Coleman’s campaign said the process was “broken” and the court’s ruling made it inevitable it will contest the result, which a lawyer said will be filed on Tuesday. A three-judge panel will then investigate the claims.
“Let’s take the extra time and get the right result,” said Coleman lawyer Tony Trimble.
Coleman’s campaign has complained the recount has favored Franken by excluding some absentee ballots, double-counting some votes and counting some ballots that went missing. Franken’s campaign countered with similar claims of uncounted ballots and Coleman votes counted twice.
Writing by Andrew Stern; editing by Michael Conlon and Jackie FrankOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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0a98f44cba081b3c588beac610fbb5c9 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE50C0V220090113 | Obama's FCC choice faces long list of issues | Obama's FCC choice faces long list of issues
By Kim Dixon5 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to lead the Federal Communications Commission faces issues ranging from promoting wireless carrier competition to the problem-plagued shift to digital television, if approved by the U.S. Senate as expected.
Obama has selected Julius Genachowski, a technology executive and former classmate from Harvard Law School, to lead the FCC, a Democratic source said late on Monday.
Genachowski, who had been considered the front-runner for the job, was praised on Tuesday for his knowledge of technology issues gained from experience in Washington and as an investor.
“From Wall Street’s standpoint, it’s hugely positive because of his extensive background in technology and funding technology companies,” said analyst Jessica Zufolo of Medley Global Advisors, which advises investors. “He has a keen and sophisticated grasp on how the markets work.”
Genachowski was chief counsel for Reed Hundt, an FCC chairman under former President Bill Clinton. He also worked at Internet search and media company IAC/InterActiveCorp and several firms investing in technology, including Rock Creek Ventures and LaunchBox Digital.
Among the FCC’s responsibilities are the regulation of telephone and cable companies, overseeing the concentration of radio and television station ownership, and auctioning public airwaves.
Analysts say they expect Obama’s FCC to cast a more critical eye on the dominance of heavyweights AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications.
“We suspect Mr. Genachowski would seek to spur and protect competition from wireless carriers (including Sprint Nextel Corp and Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile) and others as a counterweight to telco/cable wired broadband dominance,” Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast said.
Sen. John Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Senate’s Commerce Committee which weigh the nomination, called Genachowski’s resume “brilliant.”
Among those counting the days until Genachowski takes over is the U.S. cable industry. Current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, is seen as an ardent cable industry foe who has sought to force cable companies to sell channels separately instead of requiring consumers to buy packages of programing.
Martin has not announced his plans, although he has the option to remain an FCC commissioner with far less power. There is also a vacant Republican seat on the five-member panel.
DTV, SPECTRUM AND MORE
The FCC’s immediate headache is ensuring a congressionally mandated shift to digital television on February 17 goes smoothly, a switch affecting some 20 million consumers. Owners of older TV sets receiving over-the-air signals must buy a converter box, replace it with a digital TV, or subscribe to satellite or digital cable service.
The government ran out of money for coupons to subsidize converter boxes with 1.8 million people on a waiting list. An Obama aide asked Congress to postpone the deadline but many Republicans oppose the idea.
Companies involved in the transition are split on the issue.
CTIA, a wireless industry group, said a delay may “decrease confidence in the auction model for spectrum allocation.” AT&T and Verizon paid a combined $16 billion at an FCC auction last year to sell the spectrum used by analog television.
Verizon opposes a delay, but AT&T said it could accept a short one.
Broadcasters, on the other hand, are worried about angry consumers who will lose analog TV if the deadline remains.
Other hot topics at the FCC include an attempt by public interest groups, Google Inc and Microsoft Corp to bar Internet service providers (ISPs) from favoring certain traffic over others. Comcast Corp and other ISPs, mainly big phone and cable companies that manage Internet traffic, have been accused of interfering with some file-sharing programs.
The FCC also has a controversial spectrum auction coming.
T-Mobile and wireless carriers oppose a proposal to auction off a portion of spectrum with a mandate that some of it be set aside for free Internet. The companies say such a requirement is unrealistic and that the plan would create interference with nearby spectrum. T-Mobile paid $4.2 billion for an adjacent piece of spectrum.
Consumer groups praised the nomination of Genachowski, saying he and the Obama administration would bring a new era of consumer-oriented policies.
Obama, whose savvy use of the Internet and Facebook raised millions of campaign dollars, wants broadband technology incentives included in a $800 billion economic stimulus package that Congress is preparing.
Genachowski sits on the boards of several technology and media related groups including the Motley Fool Inc., a multimedia financial services company, and Common Sense Media, a consumer group that gives ratings on media and entertainment to aid child development.
Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Tim DobbynOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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417f62f247928d4cfc027b5acc21ae04 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5130HV20090204 | Senate rejects cutting repatriation tax rate | Senate rejects cutting repatriation tax rate
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday defeated a provision to slash the tax rate on profits that companies bring into the United States from overseas, voting not to include it in the economic stimulus package.
The measure would have temporarily cut the tax rate to 5.25 percent from 35 percent and was aimed at some $800 billion that companies hold abroad, said Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who sponsored it.
“At a time when we want to inject dollars into this economy, those dollars are sitting offshore,” she said. “We have tightened the strings on what the companies can do” with their funds.
Boxer and Sen. John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, tried to attach the measure to the approximately $900 billion stimulus package but other senators said it violated budgeting rules.
The measure, which needed 60 votes, fell 18 votes short as a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in defeating it.
A similar measure sponsored by the two senators was approved in 2004 and some $362 billion was repatriated, of which $312 billion qualified for the deduction.
The measure they offered this year would have had additional conditions, requiring companies to spend the money on hiring and training workers, research and development and capital improvements.
The companies would have been prohibited from using the funds for executive compensation or to replace money that designed for that purpose. They also would have been subject to audits to ensure compliance.
However several Democrats said the previous tax break did not create jobs and cited a report that the measure this year could have cost taxpayers some $29 billion.
“It did not increase domestic investment or employment,” said Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat. “The fact is that many of the firms that benefited from this during that period of time laid off workers after they brought that money back. They passed on the benefits to their shareholders.”
Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by Alan ElsnerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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f49b799d89433249dfb5c15f15449d9e | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5161GC20090207 | Biden vows break with Bush era foreign policy | Biden vows break with Bush era foreign policy
By Ross Colvin, Noah Barkin5 Min Read
MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden promised a sharp break from the go-it-alone policies of the Bush era in a major speech on Saturday, saying it was time to “reset” Washington’s ties with Russia and talk to Iran.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, an annual gathering of leaders and defense experts, Biden said the new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama was determined to “set a new tone” in Washington and with its allies.
In the wide-ranging 25-minute address, Biden focused on relations with Moscow, badly strained by Russia’s brief war last year with Georgia and U.S. plans to put a missile shield in central Europe.
“The last few years have seen a dangerous drift in relations between Russia and the members of our Alliance,” Biden said in the first major foreign policy speech by the new administration.
“It’s time, to paraphrase President Obama, to press the reset button and to revisit the many areas where we can and should work together,” he said.
Biden conceded that Washington and Moscow would not agree on everything, citing the Georgia conflict and referring to Russia’s resistance to its neighbors joining NATO.
“We will not recognize any nation having a sphere of influence. It will remain our view that sovereign states have the right to make their own decisions and choose their own alliances,” Biden said. “But the United States and Russia can disagree and still work together where our interests coincide and they coincide in many places.”
In the audience as Biden spoke were the leaders of Germany and France as well as the deputy prime minister of Russia -- all countries that clashed with former President George W. Bush over his invasion of Iraq six years ago.
At this same conference in 2003, German foreign minister Joschka Fischer stared down Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, telling him he was “not convinced” by the U.S. case for war.
Related CoverageWest threatens Iran sanctions, offers talks
LESS TENSE
The atmosphere this year has been far less tense.
European countries broadly welcomed Obama’s election and Biden’s presence at a conference normally attended by the U.S. defense secretary sent an important signal to Europe that the Obama administration was keen to rebuild relations.
“We will engage. We will listen. We will consult. America needs the world, just as I believe the world needs America,” Biden said.
In a jibe at the policies of Bush, he vowed to end torture, close the Guantanamo military prison in Cuba and advance democracy “not through its imposition by force from the outside, but by working with moderates” in foreign governments.
Biden urged a united effort by the international community to convince Iran to abandon its nuclear program, which the West believes is a cover to build an atomic bomb and Tehran insists is for the peaceful generation of electricity.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Sarkozy threatened, before Biden’s speech, to introduce new, tougher sanctions against Tehran if it did not meet western demands.
“We are willing to talk to Iran, and to offer a very clear choice: continue down your current course and there will be pressure and isolation; abandon your illicit nuclear program and support for terrorism and there will be meaningful incentives,” Biden said.
Vice President Joseph Biden smiles during the 45th Conference on Security Policy in Munich February 7, 2009. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
ALLIES MUST DO MORE
But while Biden promised to consult and listen more to allies, he also said Washington would ask for more from them, for example by taking in inmates from Guantanamo, which Obama has said will be closed within a year.
“America will do more. That’s the good news. The bad news is that America will ask for more from our partners as well.”
Biden also stopped short of promising a review of U.S. missile shield plans, as some had speculated before the conference and as Moscow has demanded.
“We will continue to develop missile defenses to counter a growing Iranian capability, provided the technology is proven to work and cost effective,” he said, adding that it would be done in consultation NATO allies and Russia.
Moscow has sent contradictory signals over what kind of relationship it wants with the new administration -- first suspending the deployment of missiles on its Polish border, and then appearing to engineer the closure of an important U.S. military base in Kyrgyzstan.
(Additional reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich, David Brunnstrom)
Writing by Noah Barkin and Ross Colvin; Editing by Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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178606bb8a0b7a1656288f9d16c1a00e | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE51I61D20090220?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true | NY Post apologizes for chimpanzee cartoon | NY Post apologizes for chimpanzee cartoon
By Edith Honan4 Min Read
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Post apologized on Thursday to those offended by an editorial cartoon that critics said was racist because it likened President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee.
The newspaper acknowledged that the cartoon published on Wednesday had drawn controversy because African-Americans and others saw it as a depiction of Obama.
“This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize,” the paper said in an editorial on its website headlined “That Cartoon.”
“It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period,” the paper said.
The cartoon of a policeman shooting an ape played on the real shooting of a pet chimpanzee in Connecticut this week. A police officer in the cartoon says, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”
The cartoon ran a day after Obama signed into law the $787 billion economic stimulus that he had strongly promoted. Critics interpreted the cartoon’s dead chimp as a reference to Obama, who became the first black president of the United States on January 20.
Demonstrators led by civil rights activist Al Sharpton chanted “End racism now!” outside the skyscraper headquarters of the newspaper’s parent company in midtown Manhattan on Thursday. They called for the jailing of Rupert Murdoch, whose international media conglomerate News Corp owns the Post.
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The newspaper initially defended the cartoon as a parody of Washington politics, but Sharpton said it exploited a potent image in the history of racism toward blacks.
“I guess they thought we were chimpanzees,” Sharpton said. “They will find out we are lions.”
Sharpton said in a statement on Thursday night that groups protesting the cartoon would go ahead with a previously scheduled rally outside the Post on Friday afternoon and decide on a response to the Post editorial.
He added that “though we think it is the right thing for them to apologize to those they offended, they seem to want to blame the offense on those of whom raised the issue, rather than take responsibility for what they did.”
The Post said it was not apologizing to all of its critics.
“There are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past -- and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback. To them, no apology is due,” the editorial said.
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“Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon -- even as the opportunists seek to make it something else,” it said.
Critics said the racist message was clear.
“You would have to be in a time warp or in a whole other world not to know what that means,” said demonstrator Charles Ashley, 25, a model who did not believe the cartoon was an innocent political joke.
Others said it made light of assassinating Obama, a possibility they said that worries many Americans.
“Just the fact that they put a monkey with gunshot wounds in his chest, it gives the idea of an assassination,” said Peter Aviles, 48, a building superintendent.
Police in Stamford, Connecticut, shot and killed a 200-pound (90-kg) chimpanzee on Monday after the pet nearly killed its owner’s friend and attacked a police car. The chimp, named Travis, had once starred in television commercials and was taking medication for Lyme disease.
Additional reporting by JoAnne Allen in Washington; Editing by Anthony BoadleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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5e03eaee9dae80d977e17fc5ec824d66 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE51P5H420090226 | SNAP ANALYSIS: Obama healthcare plan relies on efficiency | SNAP ANALYSIS: Obama healthcare plan relies on efficiency
By Maggie Fox, Health, Science Editor2 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama would reform the healthcare system with a 10-year fund of $634 billion in a budget proposal he put forward on Thursday. He offered few details but the budget reflects new priorities:
* It stresses a shift from an unwieldy paper-based health system in which doctors and clinics share little information to health information technology, including electronic records. This requires setting up a common platform so that records can be exchanged.
* Obama is gambling that although costly in the beginning, the system will reduce errors caused by poor communication and scribbled prescriptions, save tens of thousands of lives every year and billions of dollars that go into the federal Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs.
* The budget includes a controversial $1.1 billion measure for the federal government to get into the business of comparing medical treatments. This is often left up to the private sector now, and drug companies have little interest in proving the benefits of cheap, generic treatments although studies have shown they often work better against disease such as heart failure and diabetes.
* It allocates $6 billion for cancer research at the National Institutes of Health. Cancer is the No. 2 killer of Americans and costs billions of dollars. For instance, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimates the average hospital cost for a single lung cancer patient in 2006 was $14,200 or about $1,900 a day. The total cost for all lung cancer patients was about $2.1 billion in 2007.
* The budget proposes cleaning up inefficiencies and reducing overpayments in Medicare, the federal health insurance plan for people over 65 and the disabled, which covers 45 million people and makes up 13 percent of federal spending.
* The budget says that using more competitive bids for Medicare will save more than $175 billion over 10 years. Critics call this unrealistic.
Reporting by Maggie Fox, Editing by Howard Goller and David WiesslerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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8cf0d8d4de6203cb3c17837acb8f77be | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE52163F20090302 | Bush-era memo saw wide powers in U.S. terrorism war | Bush-era memo saw wide powers in U.S. terrorism war
By Randall Mikkelsen4 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military could have kicked in doors to raid a suspected terrorist cell in the United States without a warrant under a Bush-era legal memo the Justice Department made public on Monday.
The memo, from October 23, 2001, also said constitutional free-speech protections and a prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure could take a back seat to military needs in fighting terrorism inside the country.
It was one of nine previously undisclosed memos and legal opinions which shed light on former U.S. President George W. Bush’s legal guidance as he launched a war against terrorism after the September 11 attacks.
They depict an administration apparently determined to expand the president’s power after the shock of September 11, and add fuel to critics’ charges that fundamental constitutional protections were threatened in the process.
“The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically,” Justice Department officials John Yoo and Robert Delahunty wrote White House counsel Alberto Gonzales in the October 23 memo.
“We do not think that a military commander carrying out a raid on a terrorist cell would be required to demonstrate probable cause or to obtain a (search) warrant,” they said.
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ordinarily requires a probable cause and a warrant to execute a search. However, the memo said those requirements “are unsuited to the demands of wartime.”
Furthermore, it said, “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.”
“The government’s compelling interests in wartime justify restrictions on the scope of individual liberty,” it said. The Justice Department under Bush had fought a lawsuit which sought to make the memo public.
But the department disavowed most of the advice in a final memo dated days before U.S. President Barack Obama took office in January, and Obama later declared all of the memos no longer valid.
“The following propositions contained in the opinions .... do not currently reflect, and have not for some years reflected, the views of the (Justice Department legal counsel),” a January 15, 2009 memo from the Bush Justice Department said.
It said the counsel’s office had not relied on the opinions since 2003 “and on several occasions we have already acknowledged the doubtful nature of these propositions,” the memo said.
The release of the memo was the latest move in the Obama administration’s swift repudiation of many of Bush’s counterterrorism policies, which have been criticized by U.S. allies and advocates of human rights and civil liberties.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said he hoped to release future legal counsel opinions “while still protecting national security information and ensuring robust internal executive branch debate and decision-making.”
“Americans deserve a government that operates with transparency and openness,” he said.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has sued to secure release of numerous Bush legal memos on the terrorism war, welcomed the decision to make the documents public but said it hoped this was the first step in a broader release.
Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen, editing by David StoreyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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06a7bd02e0bf3475b319c4b6c54c51f4 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE52N7KY20090324 | Business groups tell Lamy need more from Doha | Business groups tell Lamy need more from Doha
By Doug Palmer3 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading U.S. business groups told World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy on Tuesday they can not support current proposals for finishing seven years of talks on a global trade deal.
“We stressed repeatedly that our three organizations want this to work. We’re not throwing up roadblocks,” said Frank Vargo, vice president for international economic affairs at the National Association of Manufacturers.
“But what we want is for it to produce results (by increasing trade). We’re the organizations that are going to have to get this through Congress,” Vargo told reporters.
Lamy met with leaders from the manufacturers groups, the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Coalition of Service Industries near the end of two days of meetings with members of Congress and Obama administration officials.
The three business groups, in a recent letter to President Barack Obama, said they did not believe the round could be concluded on the basis of texts proposed in December.
They complained it required too much in manufacturing tariff and farm subsidy cuts from the United States in exchange for meager new export opportunities.
U.S. trade officials have taken the same line, saying leading developing countries such as Brazil, India and China must make much better offers to open their markets.
Obama, in an opinion piece that ran in 30 newspapers around the world on Tuesday, called on countries to take collective action to rescue the global economy.
He did not mention the Doha round launched in late 2001 with the goal of helping poor countries prosper through trade.
Lamy has argued successfully that concluding the Doha round would give the global economy a much-needed boost.
The Geneva-based WTO forecast on Monday world trade could fall 9 percent in 2009, the biggest drop since the end of World War Two, as a result of the turmoil.
But Vargo said any payoff from the Doha round would take years to materialize even if a quick deal on the main formulas for cutting subsidies and tariffs was reached.
John Engler, president of the manufacturer’s group, said the sharp trade decline bolstered the need for a strong line against protectionism at the Group of 20 developed and developing country summit in London on April 2.
“The standstill should be absolutely number one priority,” Robert Vastine, president of services coalition, said, referring to the pledge G20 leaders took in November not to impose new trade or investment restrictions for 12 months.
The WTO chief also faced resistance from Senator Charles Grassley to the idea of resuming Doha negotiations on the basis of the texts produced in December.
“Lamy did make his pitch that the talks should take up where they left off. Grassley said that’s really a no-go. He’s the most pro-free trade guy around, and he won’t go for the deal on the table,” a Senate aide said.
Reporting by Doug Palmer; editing by Chris WilsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4bf61bd468bf901829777f7fd75322ba | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE53L5B820090422?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews | Clinton: Pakistan abdicates to Taliban, extremists | Clinton: Pakistan abdicates to Taliban, extremists
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington April 22, 2009. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday Pakistan’s government had abdicated to the Taliban by agreeing to Islamic law in part of the country and that the nuclear-armed nation posed a “mortal threat” to world security.
Clinton was asked by U.S. lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee about Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, under pressure from conservatives, earlier this month signing a regulation imposing Islamic law in Swat, once one of Pakistan’s main tourist destinations.
“I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists,” she said.
Earlier she had told the committee that Pakistan “poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world.”
Clinton said the Pakistani government had to deliver basic services to its people or it would find itself losing ground to the Taliban, whose influence has spread in northern Pakistan and has raised concerns about the stability of the country.
“The government of Pakistan ... must begin to deliver government services, otherwise they are going to lose out to those who show up and claim that they can solve people’s problems and then they will impose this harsh form of oppression on women and others,” she said.
Editing by Bill TrottOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4492a92ea24ea6c7314c8bdb7dbe9329 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE54545N20090506?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true | Pentagon to create 20,000 jobs to manage arms buys | Pentagon to create 20,000 jobs to manage arms buys
By Jim Wolf6 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama’s Defense Department plans to create 20,000 new government jobs to help revise how it buys more than $100 billion of weapons each year, the Pentagon’s No. 2 official told Congress.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in an undated image. REUTERS/Handout
The Pentagon also plans to tie contract fees more closely to performance and make deals spanning two years, or more, only when “real, substantial” savings result to taxpayers, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
Lynn said the planned jobs growth would take place over the next five years. Included would be more than 9,000 positions at two Pentagon agencies that audit and manage contracts for everything from bullets, to bombs, to bread rolls.
The remaining 11,000 new hires would come from the conversion to federal civilian slots of jobs that had been outsourced to contractors.
“This unprecedented, five-year planned workforce initiative will result in a properly sized, well-trained, capable and ethical workforce,” he said.
Lynn and Shay Assad, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition, said bringing more work in-house would cost less than relying on contractors over the long run.
The current workforce is made up of 127,000 government employees and 52,000 contractors for a total of 179,000, said Chris Isleib, a Pentagon spokesman.
“We are going to 147,000 and 41,000 contractors for a new total integrated workforce of 188,000,” he said in an emailed reply to Reuters.
Assad told Reuters after the hearing that the U.S. Army would seek to restructure its costliest arms program, the $159 billion Future Combat Systems, as part of the Pentagon drive to link contractors’ profits more closely to their performance.
Boeing Co is managing the Army modernization program, due to be reorganized soon, with Science Applications International Corp as its junior partner.
“Our commitment is to provide best value to our soldiers and the taxpayers and we are confident we can resolve any concerns raised,” said Matthew Billingsley, a Boeing spokesman.
OVER-BUDGET AND BEHIND
Pentagon weapons-buying practices have been widely criticized for decades. The Government Accountability Office has found that cost overruns on the 97 largest arms acquisition programs now total almost $300 billion. The programs are an average of 22 months behind schedule, the congressional watchdog has found.
The Defense Department’s top suppliers by value of prime contracts are Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing, Northrop Grumman Corp, General Dynamics Corp, BAE Systems Plc and Raytheon Co.
Lynn welcomed bills moving through the House and Senate that would beef up contract oversight at the Pentagon -- a goal strongly pushed by Obama. In February, Obama called an over-budget White House helicopter fleet being built by Lockheed as an example of an acquisition process “gone amok.”
Among other changes, the Defense Department plans to explore greater use of fixed-price development contracts, Lynn said. Although this could boost development costs as arms makers price in more of a risk premium, it would make cost estimates more accurate and overruns less frequent, he said.
The Aerospace Industries Association, a trade and lobbying group that represents arms makers and others, said stable budgets would be essential to any meaningful reform.
The use of fixed-priced arms-development contracts would not be appropriate “unless we have a program with fixed technologies, fixed requirements, and fixed budgets,” Cord Sterling, a vice president of the association, said in an emailed reply to Reuters.
Opening floor debate on the Senate’s version of an acquisition reform bill, Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said it was aimed at putting major arms purchases “on a sound footing from the outset by addressing program shortcomings in the early phases of the acquisition process.”
Senator John McCain, a Republican who sponsored the legislation with Levin and who has long faulted Pentagon arms-buying procedures, added: “We cannot afford to take care of our obligations in at least two wars and potential flash points all over the world and continue on the spending spree we are on.”
Lynn said only about 20 percent to 25 percent of Pentagon spending would fall under the provisions of the House and Senate bills.
In response to a question from Representative John McHugh of New York, the House panel’s top Republican, Lynn confirmed that Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a memo dated April 30, had instructed the secretaries of the armed services and the joint chiefs of staff to brief him first on any significant shortfalls they might perceive in Obama’s detailed fiscal 2010 budget, which goes to Congress on Thursday.
For more than a decade, the armed forces’ chiefs have been encouraged by lawmakers to submit such wish lists of “unfunded requirements” to Congress for consideration.
“I think the secretary wants to make sure he is informed prior to the submission of the lists but the advice that the chiefs would give would be their own,” Lynn said.
Reporting by Jim Wolf; additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Matthew Lewis, Tim DobbynOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4d3af2dee4b356d114946e60059ca2cc | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE54E69220090515 | California budget woes may force government overhaul | California budget woes may force government overhaul
By Jim Christie4 Min Read
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California’s government may see a dramatic overhaul because its budget is in such disarray and on track for a staggering shortfall of at least $15.4 billion, lawmakers and analysts said on Friday.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks at a news conference after being briefed on the Jesusita fire in Santa Barbara, California May 7, 2009. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called that deficit estimate “certain” on Thursday, warning the budget gap for the next fiscal year would swell to $21.3 billion if voters reject budget-related ballot measures in a special election on Tuesday.
Surveys suggest voters will reject the measures.
In either case, the most populous U.S. state faces sharply reduced spending, with Schwarzenegger, a Republican, seeking deep cuts in education and health and human service programs. Additionally, 5,000 state employees will receive pink slips and the state will need to borrow $6 billion with a revenue anticipation warrant.
Lawmakers responded with vows of fiscal austerity. But Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico said a more dramatic effort may be needed.
“We are in dire need of streamlining,” he told Reuters. “We should have a conversation about what our priorities are as a state. ... I don’t think we can go through this budget and try to offend the least amount of people.”
That marks a dramatic shift for the legislature’s Democrats, who typically fight against spending cuts, said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and former speechwriter for former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson.
Republicans likewise must make a bold gesture, Whalen said, noting they could back new revenues despite their anti-tax pledges and over Schwarzenegger’s opposition to tax increases.
“Both parties have to be mature about this and be open to compromise,” Whalen said.
For officials across California, Schwarzenegger’s shortfall estimates and proposals to address them, including a shorter school year and releasing prisoners, were sobering.
“The order of magnitude and ultimate composition was eye-opening,” said Steven Frates, of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College. “By Wednesday many minds around the state will be highly focused on how to address the situation. ... This may be one of those times pregnant with the possibility for an overhaul.”
The state government also may tap local governments for money -- even if cash is in short supply at city halls across the state and as local officials slash their own budgets to cope with declining revenues.
“Our members don’t have any more to give,” said John Shirey, director of the California Redevelopment Association. “They’re imposing furloughs, they’re not filling vacant positions and they’re cutting back services in order to balance their budgets.”
Schwarzenegger made sure on Thursday to drive the pain of spending cuts home -- and scolded lawmakers for not tackling California’s “budget madness” as he has long urged.
“Behind those numbers are kindergarteners that are learning how to read, firefighters risking their lives to keep us safe, or health care workers ensuring that our elders remain at home, or our law enforcement protecting our streets and so on,” he said. But “we have to only spend what we have.”
Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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c331bcaad93441c684e2554cb7422a5a | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE55G5LZ20090617 | Clinton says U.S.-India ties need "upgrade" | Clinton says U.S.-India ties need "upgrade"
By Sue Pleming3 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday Washington’s relations with India needed an “upgrade” and urged closer cooperation on security, trade and other issues.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes remarks after receiving the 2009 Alice Award at Sewall-Belmont House and Museum in Washington June 8, 2009. REUTERS/Jim Young
Clinton is set to visit India next month and she said she hoped the two nations could work together to solve global challenges from climate change to securing Afghanistan.
“As we pursue an enhanced bilateral relationship, we should recognize that, compared to other metrics of our cooperation, our official ties are past due for an upgrade,” Clinton said in a speech to the U.S.-India Business Council.
“We need the bilateral cooperation between our governments to catch up with our people-to-people and economic ties.”
Last year, India and Washington signed a landmark civil nuclear deal, overturning a 30-year ban on global nuclear commerce with India.
That deal will allow India to procure nuclear technology and fuel for its reactors from the international market.
To improve ties, she said Washington and New Delhi must overcome mistrust and address what she said were lingering uncertainties in the relationship.
She said some Americans feared that greater economic ties with India would mean lost jobs and falling wages, while Indians felt a closer partnership ran counter to the country’s strong tradition of independence.
She also pledged closer economic and trade ties and said negotiations would begin soon on a bilateral investment treaty, creating more opportunities for trade between the two countries.
“President Obama has been clear that the United States has learned the lessons of the past. We will not use the global financial crisis as an excuse to fall back on protectionism,” she said.
Without providing details, Clinton said the two countries needed to increase cooperation in fighting terrorism and improve intelligence-sharing.
“The president and I are committed to enhancing India’s ability to protect itself,” she said, adding that six Americans died in the November attacks on India’s financial capital, Mumbai.
She welcomed Tuesday’s meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan, their first talks since the Mumbai attacks, which New Delhi blamed on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.
“As Pakistan now works to take on the challenge of terrorists in its own country, I am confident India, as well as the United States, will support that effort,” Clinton said.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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03e02f4583584d99bde69b3b7f154698 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE56938J20090710 | Obama uses G8 debut to issue warning to Iran | Obama uses G8 debut to issue warning to Iran
By Matt Spetalnick4 Min Read
L’AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama warned Iran on Friday the world will not wait indefinitely for it to end its nuclear defiance, saying Tehran had until September to comply or else face consequences.
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at a news conference at the end of the G8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy, June 10, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Reed
Obama, speaking at the end of a G8 summit in Italy, said leaders had sent a message condemning the “appalling” events surrounding Iran’s disputed presidential election and expressing solidarity against Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
He said he hoped Iran would enter negotiations on the issue and that leaders would review the situation again at a G20 meeting of developed and developing countries in Pittsburgh in September.
“If Iran chooses not to walk through that door, then you have on record the G8, to begin with, but I think potentially a lot of other countries that are going to say we need to take further steps,” Obama told reporters.
“We also say we’re not going to just wait indefinitely and allow for the development of a nuclear weapon, the breach of international treaties, and wake up one day and find ourselves in a much worse situation and unable to act,” he said.
Obama made clear he was sticking to his strategy of trying to engage Iran diplomatically, a departure from his predecessor George W. Bush, who pursued a policy of isolation.
But Obama’s approach has been complicated by Iran’s June 12 presidential election, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the victor by a wide margin and security forces cracked down violently on protesters who claimed voting fraud.
SHARPER LINE
Obama, who sharpened his line against Tehran after being criticized at home for a cautious approach in the election aftermath, wanted to forge a united front at the summit.
He said that he and others had sought only the strong condemnation that the G8 delivered and not for the summit to embrace new sanctions against Iran, despite news reports to the contrary.
But it remained unclear what further pressure could be exerted on Tehran, which has rejected international demands to suspend a nuclear program the West believes is for developing weapons but which Tehran says is for electricity generation.
Though Russia signed up to the G8 statement, it has usually been reluctant to tighten sanctions on Iran, a key trading partner and arms customer.
Iran figured prominently on the agenda of Obama’s first G8 summit, but three days of talks also focused heavily on climate change.
Having pledged to lead the fight against climate change, Obama helped secure agreement by major economies to back a goal of limiting global warming to no more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.
But the Group of Eight rich nations failed to persuade top emitter China and India to join in a push to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050 -- a blow to efforts to secure a new U.N. pact by year end.
Diplomats said Obama had led a push for the G8 to up its pledge of farm aid for poor nations to $20 billion, surpassing expectations of how much would be offered.
The aid announcements came just hours before Obama was due to head to Ghana on his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since he was elected the first black U.S. president.
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e67c0d0c00dcb88850b6bca888f8e955 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE56F6GT20090716 | CBO says costs will rise as healthcare expanded | CBO says costs will rise as healthcare expanded
By Reuters Staff4 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf told lawmakers on Thursday legislation to expand health care coverage would increase federal healthcare costs “to a significant degree” and revenue will need to be found to keep from increasing the deficit.
Asked by the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee about his remarks to a Senate committee earlier Thursday that the legislation would not hold down healthcare costs, he said, “The point I made earlier this morning is that it raises future federal outlays more than it reduces future federal outlays.”
Elmendorf told the panel, “The coverage proposals in this legislation would expand federal spending on health care to a significant degree and in our analysis so far we don’t see other provisions in this legislation reducing federal health spending by a corresponding degree.”
He said ways to pay for the healthcare programs could include further savings from the Medicare health program or changes to the current exclusion from taxes of employer-paid insurance premiums.
The nonpartisan budget analysis arm of Congress has not yet estimated the cost of the full House healthcare legislation working its way through three House committees.
The House bill pays for the roughly $1 trillion 10-year cost of the healthcare overhaul with a combination of estimated savings in health costs and taxes worth $587 billion over the period. It sets up a government-run health plan to cover many of the uninsured and expands coverage in other government health programs.
The Senate Finance Committee is considering other options, including a tax on health insurers and a tax on employer-paid premiums. Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat, said their task was not helped by President Barack Obama’s opposition to counting the value of employer-paid premiums as income.
Republicans seized on the CBO director’s comments as evidence the legislation should be rejected or at least more time should be taken to examine it. Obama has urged Congress to pass it out of each chamber by August.
“Today’s CBO testimony should be a wake-up call,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said. “Instead of rushing through one expensive proposal after another, we should take the time we need to get things right -- especially at a time when hundreds of thousands of Americans are losing jobs every month.”
Backers of the House bill disputed this assertion. “It is true that we don’t know how much reform will bend the cost curve (slow the increase in healthcare spending); but we know it is better than doing nothing,” Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who backs the House bill said on a call organized by backers of the bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters that she hoped the formula for paying for healthcare reform could change. Instead of half of the more than $1 trillion in costs being covered by savings program spending and the other half from new revenues, Pelosi said, “I hope that we can change that percentage” and “squeeze more savings.”
Editing by Bill TrottOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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142eccfd49179365982ccaed2aa51da1 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5765Y420090807 | Obama sees early 2010 start on immigration reform | Obama sees early 2010 start on immigration reform
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he expects Congress to overhaul the country’s immigration system, an issue that fires up emotions on both sides of the political divide, by “early next year.”
Speaking to Hispanic reporters at the White House, Obama said he hopes a bill for comprehensive immigration reform will be drafted by the end of this year.
Obama tapped Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on June 25 to work with Congress to speed up immigration reform as senators warned another failed effort could doom chances for a generation.
Obama said he asked Napolitano to meet regularly with lawmakers to systematically work through a number of controversial issues, such as how to handle the 12 million illegal immigrants already in the United States and how to prevent future illegal immigration.
“We have convened a meeting of all the relevant stakeholders, and Secretary Napolitano is working with the group to start creating the framework for a comprehensive immigration reform,” the president said.
Congress failed in 2006 and 2007 to pass immigration reform despite a push by former Republican President George W. Bush.
Earlier this year, Vice President Joe Biden said the U.S. economic slump and soaring unemployment made it a bad time to take on the issue.
Obama has been criticized for not following through on a campaign pledge to tackle the issue this year. He has urged the Democratic-controlled Congress to start pushing now to pass legislation.
Asked if an immigration bill would have enough votes to pass Congress, Obama said he did not know. He also noted as a further complication that next year is an election year.
Obama joked that his opponents had another reason to block his immigration reform effort: “There are many members of the Republican Party who think now that I am illegal immigrant,” he said.
Anti-Obama activists have claimed that the president, the son of a Kenyan man and a U.S. woman, was born in Kenya and ineligible to be U.S. president.
Reporting by Anthony Boadle, editing by Philip BarbaraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e68e7b565431ae12be42e76a03904121 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5842R020090907 | Senator eyes insurer fee for health reform plan | Senator eyes insurer fee for health reform plan
By Donna Smith6 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading U.S. senator seeking to forge agreement on healthcare reform will put forward a plan that includes sweeping insurance market changes and a fee on companies that will help pay to cover the uninsured, a source familiar with the proposal said on Monday.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat who leads a group of six senators trying to craft compromise legislation on President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority, plans to discuss the proposal when the group meets on Tuesday.
The source said the Baucus plan, reflecting negotiations by the group and circulated among them over the weekend, would cost less than $900 billion over 10 years.
It calls for non-profit cooperatives to compete with insurance companies but does not contain a new government-run health insurance plan -- the “public option” -- sought by many liberal Democrats and backed by Obama, the source said.
Fiscal, political and philosophical battles are raging over the reforms as critics question the cost during an economic crisis, insurance companies lobby hard against parts of the plan, Republicans stand fast against the Democratic president and conservative commentators warn of a socialist takeover of healthcare.
Saying “it’s time to act,” Obama sought to shore up support for his overhaul of the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system in economically hard-hit Ohio on Monday before a major address to Congress on Wednesday.
“It’s time to do what’s right for America’s working families and put aside partisanship, stop saying things that aren’t true, come together as a nation, pass health insurance reform now -- this year,” he told a cheering crowd at a Labor Day picnic held by the AFL-CIO union coalition in Cincinnati.
With 46 million Americans without health coverage, Obama said, “A public option within that basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs.”
“I want a health insurance system that works as well for the American people as it does for the insurance industry. They should be free to make a profit. But they also have to be fair,” he said.
CAN AGREEMENT BE REACHED?
With his poll numbers down from once-lofty heights, Obama’s effort to reclaim control of the debate is seen as a key test of his leadership that could define his young presidency.
U.S. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) (Right) looks over at Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) as he speaks about their meeting with President Barack Obama about the "cash-for-clunkers" program and healthcare legislation at the White House in Washington, August 4, 2009. REUTERS/Jim Young
After a summer of sometimes bitter words, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Sunday that Obama will “draw some lines in the sand” in his speech on Wednesday.
It was unclear whether the Baucus proposal will be enough to secure agreement on the Senate panel after the three Democrats and three Republicans, known as the “Gang of Six,” struggled for months to forge a bipartisan agreement.
In recent weeks, Republican panel members Charles Grassley and Michael Enzi have voiced concerns about Obama’s plans and legislation pending in the House of Representatives.
The third Republican negotiator, Olympia Snowe, has been much more supportive of the effort and the White House has reached out to her for possible compromise.
A spokesman for House Republican leader John Boehner said the Baucus plan, based on media reports, “would still include increased health insurance costs for the American people, cuts to Medicare without improvements in care, and some sort of government takeover of healthcare.”
“We don’t need a new backroom deal,” said the spokesman, Michael Steel. “We need real, bipartisan reforms that lower costs and increase access.”
Baucus said on Friday he was prepared to move forward on legislation quickly in the Democratic-controlled Congress -- with or without Republican support.
“I am committed to getting healthcare reform done -- done soon and done right,” he said in a statement.
The source said a new tax on insurance companies proposed by Baucus would raise about $6 billion a year and help pay for the reform plan.
The Senate panel had been looking at taxing some employer-provided health plans. But unions and Obama opposed that, prompting negotiators to look at the insurers fee.
Liberal Democrats have criticized the idea of non-profit cooperatives, saying they will not have enough clout to compete with big insurance companies, but the proposal could appeal to more moderate members of the party who represent rural states.
COMPETITION AND TRANSPARENCY
The source said the Baucus plan aimed to inject more competition into the insurance market and included transparency provisions that would make it difficult for companies to pass on the new fee to consumers.
It also seeks to improve the quality of care and increase coverage of prevention and wellness programs, the source said.
The Senate Finance package, like bills passed by other panels in the Senate and House, would stop insurers from excluding people for pre-existing conditions or charging more because of health history.
It also would limit out-of-pocket expenses for patients, bar insurers from placing caps on benefits and expand the Medicaid program for the poor.
Without bipartisan agreement, Baucus will likely move a bill through his committee with just Democrats and possibly the support of Snowe, a moderate Republican from Maine, a state that backed Obama in last November’s presidential election.
That also means Obama will have to unify his Democrats in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed from among the 100 members to pass controversial legislation.
Snowe’s support might also help shore up backing from centrist Democrats who are wary about creating a new government healthcare program.
Snowe supports a compromise plan that would not initially include a public option but would “trigger” the creation of a government program if insurance companies failed to meet cost and quality benchmarks.
Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Cincinnati; Editing by John O’CallaghanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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36e371fcaebb463a013b9673eb066fa0 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5850B020090906 | Obama's "green jobs" guru Jones resigns after uproar | Obama's "green jobs" guru Jones resigns after uproar
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Energy executive T. Boone Pickens (L) speaks during a roundtable at the National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 in Las Vegas, Nevada August 10, 2009. At right is Van Jones, the special advisor for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. REUTERS/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A White House environmental policy adviser who specialized in “green jobs” resigned on Sunday after an uproar over his previous affiliation with a September 11 conspiracy group.
Van Jones, special adviser on green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, apologized on Thursday after videotape surfaced of him using a crude epithet to describe Republicans and amid revelations he had signed a petition suggesting U.S. government involvement in the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.
The apology did little to quell Republican criticism, however, and President Barack Obama’s chief spokesman gave only tepid support to the adviser on Friday.
Jones said he was resigning to avoid being a distraction in the administration’s effort to pass healthcare reform and climate change legislation.
“On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Jones said in a resignation letter that was released to the media.
“I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future,” he wrote.
Reporting by Jeff Mason; editing by Todd EasthamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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19c8459cbc4d7c987f67427f2cf31360 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE59I6CO20091019 | Activists snare media with Chamber of Commerce hoax | Activists snare media with Chamber of Commerce hoax
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An activist group seeking to draw attention to the debate over climate change policy staged a hoax on Monday, posing as representatives of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The Yes Men group issued a press release and held a news conference at the National Press Club, purporting that the business group had decided to support climate change legislation currently before the U.S. Congress.
A spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce broke into the news conference, alerting media to the hoax, but Reuters and other outlets had already issued reports.
The Chamber said it would ask police to investigate.
“Public relations hoaxes undermine the genuine effort to find solutions on the challenge of climate change,” Thomas Collamore, a spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.
“These irresponsible tactics are a foolish distraction from the serious effort by our nation to reduce greenhouse gases.”
Reuters issued a correction to its report as soon as it confirmed the hoax and subsequently withdrew the story and sent an advisory to readers.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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a8ea5605d79fe65579397e2a916e4928 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5A24WG20091103 | Pentagon eyes crash analysis on 1,300 satellites | Pentagon eyes crash analysis on 1,300 satellites
By Andrea Shalal-Esa3 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Tuesday it is now tracking 800 maneuverable satellites on a daily basis for possible collisions and expects to add 500 more non-maneuvering satellites by year’s end.
A ball of twisted metal, purported to be fallen space junk, is pictured in James Stirton's farm in southwestern Queensland in this undated handout photograph received March 28, 2008. REUTERS/James Stirton/Handout
The U.S. Air Force began upgrading its ability to predict possible collisions in space after a dead Russian military communications satellite and a commercial U.S. satellite owned by Iridium collided on February 10.
General Kevin Chilton, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, called the collision the “seminal event” in the satellite industry during the past year and said it destroyed any sense that space was so vast that collisions were highly improbable.
He said military officials had wanted to do more thorough analysis of possible collisions in space, but had lacked the resources. Before the collision, he said they were tracking less than 100 satellites a day.
“It’s amazing what one collision will do to the resource spigot,” he told a space conference in Omaha, Nebraska.
The crash, which was not predicted by the U.S. military or private tracking groups, underscored the vulnerability of U.S. satellites, which are used for a huge array of military and civilian purposes.
Chilton said the Air Force was tracking more than 20,000 satellites, spent rocket stages and other objects in space, up from just 14,000 a few years ago.
But he said that was just what U.S. could “see” and there were estimates that the actual number was much greater, posing a potential threat to satellites on orbit.
Air Force Lieutenant General Larry James, who heads U.S. Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Component Command for Space, told reporters the Air Force met its goal for tracking possible collisions among 800 satellites that have the ability to be moved in September, ahead of an October target date.
“Our goal now is to do that conjunction assessment for all active satellites ... roughly around 1,300 satellites ... by the end of the year and provide that information to users as required,” James told reporters on a teleconference during a space conference in Omaha, Nebraska.
Some of the 500 satellites still to be assessed cannot be shifted because they do not carry extra fuel that would be needed to move them once in orbit.
To increase its ability to predict possible collisions, the Air Force has been buying more computers and hiring analysts. It also works with commercial satellite operators to share data collected by their spacecraft and by U.S. government sources.
Chilton lauded the efforts, but said the work was still too reliant on Air Force analysts and needed further improvement. “We are decades behind where we should be,” he said.
Victoria Samson, with the nonprofit Center for Defense Information, said the Air Force needed more trained operators to do the analyses and the goal of adding 500 more satellites to the analysis might be “somewhat optimistic.” (Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa, editing by Alan Elsner and Chris Wilson)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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819cc9ffd676800e544c65937511c0d8 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5AE09W20091115 | Russia, U.S. leaders discuss arms pact, Iran | Russia, U.S. leaders discuss arms pact, Iran
By Oleg Shchedrov3 Min Read
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The Russian and U.S. presidents said on Sunday they hoped to strike a new deal for arms cuts by the end of the year.
U.S. President Barack Obama (L) meets Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during their bilateral meeting in Singapore, November 15, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Reed
After talks in Singapore as part of efforts to “reset” relations between the two countries, officials on both sides acknowledged unresolved problems in the talks on a new arms pact to replace START I, which expires in December.
“I hope that, as we agreed earlier ... we can finalize the treaty by December,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in Singapore.
The two leaders view the new treaty as an important element of maintaining global strategic stability and healing relations which sank to post-Cold War lows during the presidency of Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush.
Officials expressed optimism that a new document could be ready by the time or soon after the START I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) arms cuts pact expires on December 5.
“On the new START Treaty, we progressed,” Michael McFaul, senior White House adviser said after Sunday’s meeting.
“We talked about some sticking issues that still have to be resolved and both presidents committed to trying to get a new treaty in place by the end of the year.
“They said that publicly and that was a big part of the discussions on the substance of that treaty,” he told reporters.
Officials on both sides said Obama and Medvedev also discussed Iran’s nuclear program and Afghanistan during their 90-minute talks on the sidelines of a regional summit.
“Each meeting with the U.S. president gives a new substantial impetus to bilateral ties,” Sergei Prikhodko, Medvedev’s chief foreign policy adviser, told reporters ahead of the meeting.
BIGGEST IRRITANT
Earlier this year, Obama removed the biggest irritant in bilateral ties by scrapping plans to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic, parts of a projected U.S. anti-missile defense against a strike by Iran.
Russia insists that anti-missile defense and strategic arms cuts pacts are closely interlinked.
However, before the Obama-Medvedev meeting the Russian media reported major unresolved problems concerning the new arms cuts pact. Kommersant daily said Moscow and Washington had no agreement on ceilings for the number of nuclear warheads and on whether the pact should handle Russian mobile missile complexes.
Prikhodko did not comment on the differences and on whether they could be overcome by December 5. He said the leaders viewed the quality of the new pact rather than the timing as a priority.
“We are satisfied at the moment by the quality of open and pragmatic dialogue with the U.S. administration,” he said.
“It allows us to hope for fruitful work on problems, where a solution has not been found yet.”
Editing by Michael RoddyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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84b27c269829e6e9b1ed8ed5ac7ae910 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5AQ4HG20091127? | Treasury, Fed delay Internet gambling ban 6 months | Treasury, Fed delay Internet gambling ban 6 months
By David Lawder3 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve on Friday delayed the implementation date for a new Internet gambling payment ban for six months, a move that gives lawmakers time to overturn it or end confusion over illegal practices.
A computer screen displays an online gambling website, October 2, 2006. REUTERS/Toby Melville
In a joint statement, the Treasury and Fed said the December 1 implementation date for the law passed in 2006 would not be achievable for some financial institutions. They set a new compliance deadline of June 1, 2010.
“Commentators expressed concern that the act and the final regulation do not provide a clear definition of ‘unlawful Internet gambling,’ which is central to compliance,” the two agencies said.
In addition, they said certain members of Congress have “expressed an intent to consider legislation that would allow problematic aspects of the act to be addressed.”
The 2006 law, which cost European Internet gambling companies billions of euros in lost market value, prohibits credit card, check, and electronic fund transfer payments by U.S.-regulated financial institutions in connection with “unlawful Internet gambling.”
But rather than define what types of gambling are illegal online, the bill relied on existing federal and state laws to answer that question. It also still allowed any online horse race betting permissible under the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978.
FRANK SEEKING TO OVERTURN BAN
Congress passed the anti-gambling legislation in 2006, when Republicans still controlled both the House and Senate. The final regulations issued to enforce the ban were issued by the Treasury and Fed just before former President George W. Bush left office in January.
Representative Barney Frank, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, in October urged a 12-month delay in the implementation because of confusion over what kinds of online gambling were illegal under the bill.
Frank’s committee in September 2008 passed a bill to overturn the ban, but the full House never acted on the measure. Frank earlier this year reintroduced the bill, which would effectively overturn the ban and create a framework for the Treasury to license Internet gambling operators, collect taxes from them and enforce rules for transparency.
On Friday, Frank praised the Treasury and the Fed for delaying the regulations, which he said would “curtail the freedom of Americans to use the Internet as they choose” and put unrealistic burdens on financial institutions.
“This will give us a chance to act in an unhurried manner on my legislation to undo this regulatory excess by the Bush administration and to undo this ill-advised law,” Frank said in a statement.
Frank has scheduled a hearing next Thursday on the legislation, dubbed the “Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act.”
The six-month delay will allow banks to establish policies and procedures to require gambling businesses to document the legality of their activities, the Treasury and Fed said.
Editing by Kenneth BarryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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a6fb5d88008ab5ae37b8d5e06221fd9e | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE61O0G020100225 | Split decision on Toyoda's congressional performance | Split decision on Toyoda's congressional performance
By Bernie Woodall2 Min Read
DETROIT (Reuters) - Crisis management communications experts gave Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda roses and rotten tomatoes on his appearance before a U.S. congressional committee on Wednesday.
Four experts interviewed by Reuters were split evenly on whether Toyoda performed well and whether his appearance would help stem damage to the world’s biggest automaker.
“Oh, man, did he miss the mark,” said Lauren Bloom, author of the 2008 book, “The Art of the Apology.”
“I thought he did OK,” said Gene Grabowski, senior vice president of Levick Strategic Communications in Washington.
“He touched all the right bases,” Grabowski said. “He apologized. He announced the creation of this expert panel (on quality). That’s a really good move at a congressional hearing because it demonstrates that you are committing resources to the issue and they are assigning responsibility.”
Toyoda, the 53-year-old grandson of the company’s founder, was peppered with questions from members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for more than three hours.
Joel Kurtzman, author of “Common Purpose,” a book on management and leadership, said Toyoda underperformed.
“His performance is poor because he essentially looked like he was reading from a brochure,” said Kurtzman, adding Toyoda’s comments he said could have been written by a Toyota executive decades ago.
But Chris Gidez, director of risk management and crisis communications at public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, said Toyoda did well.
“He gets points for showing up,” said Gidez.”At the end of the day, judgments won’t be made good or bad in just one hearing. This is going to be a marathon for Toyota. Considering the theater of congressional hearings, the company seems to be doing as well as can be expected,” Gidez said.
Reporting by Bernie WoodallOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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6e01f831bc2c5e4ecc7507d90fa1b742 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE62D0QF20100314?rpc=21 | Republicans need more than opposition: Rove | Republicans need more than opposition: Rove
By Steve Holland4 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Karl Rove, architect of George W. Bush’s two presidential election wins, says he believes Republicans need to offer more than just opposition to Democrats in the November congressional elections.
Former Bush White House official Karl Rove drives by reporters after being interviewed by federal prosecutors at his attorney's offices in Washington, May 15, 2009. REUTERS/Robert Giroux
Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate have been largely in lock-step opposition to President Barack Obama’s proposals on healthcare and spending, drawing charges from Democrats that they represent the “party of no.”
Rove sees nothing wrong with a strategy of opposition, but thinks Republicans should offer an optimistic vision of the country and alternatives to Democratic proposals, such as their recently proposed moratorium on targeted pet spending projects called “earmarks.”
“It’s got to be measured and reasonable dissent from Obama, criticism based on the facts and hard evidence and not just hard rhetoric, matched with a positive and optimistic agenda,” Rove said.
“They can’t be content to surf the wave of discontent with Democrats through the fall,” he said.
Rove spoke in an interview as part of the roll-out of his memoir, “Courage and Consequences -- My Life as a Conservative in the Fight.”
Popular with conservatives, Rove is a man Democrats love to hate for advocating what they called a “Rovian,” take-no-prisoners style of politics.
For all his successes in helping Bush win back-to-back terms, his vision of seeing a more lasting Republican majority collapsed in 2006 when Democrats took advantage of Americans’ fatigue with Bush and gained control of Congress and then won the White House in 2008.
Rove, like most Republicans, believes Obama and his Democrats are headed for trouble on healthcare if their sweeping overhaul passes, because many Americans are unhappy with it.
“This is one of those odd pieces of legislation that the longer the public discussion has gone on, the greater the opposition and the more ardent the opposition,” he said.
Obama has rejected this kind of thinking, saying the goal of changing the healthcare system is more important than short-term politics.
“You don’t govern by the polls; you govern by principles. You don’t put your finger to the wind; you put your shoulder to the wheel,” Obama said last week at a fund-raiser for Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill.
Rove said Obama could put Republicans in a tight spot on the subject by scaling back his plan and forcing them to vote on banning health insurance companies from discriminating against anyone based on a pre-existing condition.
Other snippets from Rove’s interview with Reuters:
* Bush’s book on 12 important decisions he made as president is coming out in November, and its roll-out will prompt him to take on a more visible role than he has had since he left Washington in January 2009.
Bush is about to enter a challenging phase when he has his book edited.
* Republicans considering a run to challenge Obama in 2012 are in “the training season” in which they try out themes and find their voices.
* One presidential wannabe, Mitt Romney, will face questions of consistency and how to explain why the healthcare system adopted in Massachusetts when he was governor is different than Obama’s proposals.
* Sarah Palin will face greater scrutiny than other potential Republican candidates such as Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana, because she gained a high profile as John McCain’s running mate in 2008.
* Daniels could emerge as a sleeper candidate for Republicans with his nerdy, low-profile competent style.
* One of the more amusing experiences of Rove’s political career came when he was 25 years old and helping Senator John Warner of Virginia with a speech at a time when Warner was married to movie star Elizabeth Taylor.
Rove, arriving at the Warner home for breakfast, was goggle-eyed when Taylor answered the door wearing a revealing nightgown.
“Dang it, that was one weird experience,” he said.
Editing by Eric BeechOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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6ee74138267429ffe3fae6fb3998f540 | https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSWAT00994020080825 | Obama: World must press Iran or Israel may respond | Obama: World must press Iran or Israel may respond
By Caren Bohan3 Min Read
DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Monday the world must increase pressure on Iran over its nuclear program to avoid a situation where Israel feels that “its back is to the wall” and may respond.
The United States and others accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, using a nuclear energy program as cover. Tehran rejects the charge.
But the dispute, harsh rhetoric, and U.S. and Israeli military maneuvers in the region have fed speculation of a rising likelihood of confrontation between Iran and either the United States or Israel.
“My job as president would be to try to make sure that we are tightening the screws diplomatically on Iran, that we’ve mobilized the world community to go after Iran’s program in a serious way, to get sanctions in place so that Iran starts making a difficult calculation,” Obama said.
“We’ve got to do that before Israel feels like its back is to the wall,” said Obama, when asked at a campaign event in Iowa whether Israel felt it had a “green light” to take military action against Iran in the absence of progress bye world powers to pressure Tehran.
Concern about the potential for an Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities roiled oil markets last month, driving crude prices to new highs. Israel is believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, but has never confirmed or denied this.
SANCTIONS DELAYED
“I don’t want to speculate on whether or not Israel feels like it has a green light or not because that would be speculation,” Obama said.
“What is not speculation is that we have to act much more forcefully and effectively on the world stage to contain Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” he said.
The United States and its Western allies have been pushing for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, but negotiations have dragged on as Russia and China sought to delay and water down measures.
Obama’s comments came hours before opening night of the Democratic convention, where the party will formally nominate the Illinois senator as its presidential candidate. His opponent, Republican John McCain, has said Obama does not have the foreign policy experience to be president.
Obama, who is vying against McCain in the November 4 election, spent two nights in Israel in July as part of a weeklong tour abroad and met with several Israeli officials.
He said the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq had strengthened Iran’s hand by getting rid of an historical enemy in Saddam Hussein.
But he has expressed solidarity with the Bush administration’s calls for the world to move quickly to impose tougher sanctions on Iran.
“I will tell you having visited Israel a month and a half ago, their general attitude is we will not allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon,” Obama said.
“They recognize that there are no good military options. but they also recognize that it is -- from their perspective it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Eric WalshOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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1a9a178493f639c7fae380f0f5a2c320 | https://www.reuters.com/article/pope-diplomats-individuals-idUSKBN2A81IR | Mature democracies should shun political personality cults, pope says | Mature democracies should shun political personality cults, pope says
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Pope Francis greets people as he leads the Angelus prayer from his window at the Vatican, February 7, 2021. Picture taken February 7, 2021. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERS
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Mature democracies must shun the temptation to glorify an individual political personality and make sure that the rule of law prevails over partisan interests, Pope Francis said on Monday.
Without naming any country or specific incident in his speech to diplomats, he spoke of events in the past year “in countries with a long democratic tradition” that had shown the need for “inclusive, peaceful, constructive and respectful dialogue”.
“The development of a democratic consciousness demands that emphasis on individual personalities be overcome and that respect for the rule of law prevail,” he said, without naming any individual politician.
“Indeed, law is the indispensable prerequisite for the exercise of all power and must be guaranteed by the responsible governing bodies, regardless of dominant political interests,” he said.
Recent years have seen the rise of populist politicians in the United States, Latin America and some European countries.
Democracy demands the pursuit of “inclusive, peaceful, constructive and respectful dialogue among all the components of civil society in every city and nation”, the pope said.
Francis made his comments in a long speech at his yearly meeting with diplomats accredited to the Vatican, which has relations with more than 180 countries.
Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alison WilliamsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b63d371a8aa923a61b37b1296555fc23 | https://www.reuters.com/article/pope-holyyear-idINKBN0TR03J20151208?edition-redirect=in | Machine guns, no-fly zone guard pope's opening of Holy Year | Machine guns, no-fly zone guard pope's opening of Holy Year
By Philip Pullella4 Min Read
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Roman Catholics backed up for blocks at the Vatican on Tuesday for the strictest security checks in living memory as Pope Francis began a Holy Year with a call to set aside “fear and dread”.
Francis launched the year-long religious event, also known as a Jubilee, by pushing open the usually bricked up bronze Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica and passing through it, following a Mass attended by about 70,000 people in the square outside, according to a Vatican estimate.
Holy Year has long been expected to draw millions to Rome but is opening in the immediate aftermath of attacks in Paris and California.
From early morning, police checked pilgrims, reporters, diplomats and even priests entering the area starting several blocks from St. Peter’s Square. Some underwent two body and bag searches as they made their way forward before passing through metal detectors.
“The risk of terrorism will never be zero, we cannot provide absolute security, but we are working to attain the level of security that people rightly ask for,” Rome police chief Franco Gabrielli said.
In his homily, Francis urged the faithful to have courage in their spiritual and daily lives: “Let us set aside all fear and dread, for these do not befit men and women who are loved.
“Instead, let us experience the joy of encountering that grace which transforms all things,” he said.
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During the year-long celebrations, one of the most important events in the 1.2 billion-member Church, the faithful will make pilgrimages to Rome and other religious sites around the world.
A frail looking former Pope Benedict, 88, made one of his few appearances since his shock resignation in 2013. Benedict, who lives in seclusion in the Vatican, embraced Francis before the door.
RITE OF PASSAGE
By passing through the holy door of a church during a Holy Year, Catholics symbolically pass from sin to grace.
Holy Years normally take place every 25 years unless a pope decrees an extraordinary one to bring attention to a particular need or topic.
The next one was to be held in 2025 but Francis, 78, called a special one on the theme of mercy, a major part of his push for a less judgmental and more inclusive Church. “We have to put mercy before judgment,” the pontiff said in his homily.
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The Church teaches that a Holy Year should be a time of reconciliation with adversaries and an occasion to promote solidarity, hope and justice in the world.
Faithful who make pilgrimages to religious sites or do good works during a Holy Year can receive indulgences, or the remission of punishment for sins, under certain conditions.
The airspace over most of Rome was closed and transport of petrol, gas, weapons, explosives and fireworks was banned. A no-go zone was instituted for vehicles around the Vatican and rubbish bins sealed or removed.
“This security was necessary. It worked very well and it was worth it because we feel safe,” said Corrado De Gioia, who came to Rome from Treviso in northern Italy.
Soldiers augmented regular police for a total security force of around 3,000, making the area around the Vatican sometimes seem more like one where a protest demonstration was expected instead of a religious event
Some were unnerved by the show of force.
“Regarding the security, it made me afraid. Those who come here as pilgrims meet the soldiers carrying machine guns, it’s scary, you feel threatened,” said Italian tourist Daniela Santi.
Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer and Eleanor Biles; Editing by Tom HeneghanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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adf39ca99a0d2d48c91cf35f234240fc | https://www.reuters.com/article/pope-iraq-ur-preparations-int-idUSKBN2AM0XW | Pope's visit to Iraqi Ziggurat to bring together several faiths - and hopefully lure more visitors | Pope's visit to Iraqi Ziggurat to bring together several faiths - and hopefully lure more visitors
By Mohammed Aty3 Min Read
BAGHADAD (Reuters) - Pope Francis is due to hold an inter-religious prayer service at the ancient Mesopotamian site of Ur when he visits Iraq next week - an event local archeologists hope will draw renewed attention to the place revered as the birthplace of Abraham.
Popular with Western visitors in the 1970s and 1980s, Ur is scarcely visited today after decades of war and political instability shattered Iraq’s international tourism industry. The coronavirus crisis now also keeps local tourists away.
Located about 300 km (200 miles) south of the capital Baghdad, the site comprises a pyramid-style Ziggurat and an adjacent residential complex as well as temples and palaces.
It was excavated about 100 years ago by Leonard Woolley, a Briton who recovered treasures rivalling those found in Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt. But little work has since been done
on one of the world’s oldest cities, where urban dwelling, writing and central state power began.
According to the State Board for Antiquities and Heritage director for Ur, Ali Kadhim Ghanim, the complex next to the Ziggurat dates back to about 1900 BC.
The father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Abraham is described in the biblical book of Genesis as living in the city before God called upon him to create a new nation in a land he later learned was Canaan.
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“This is why it is believed that this building, or house, was the house of the prophet Abraham,” Ghanim said, pointing at the residential complex.
According to Ghanim, the housing settlement was restored in 1999, after Pope Francis’ predecessor, Pope John Paul II, announced a trip to Iraq. But his visit was cancelled when negotiations with the government of then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein broke down.
This time, Ghanim hopes that Pope Francis’ visit will attract international attention to the site, which he says is badly needed to fund restoration works on its palaces and temples.
“Not only tourism, but we believe that there will be a Christian pilgrimage season,” Ghanim said.
Un Ponte Per, an Italian-based organisation, is working with the United Nations Development Programme on infrastructure works such as paths, rest areas and signposts to help visitors.
Roads around the site are being rennovated and powerlines extended ahead of the pope’s visit.
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But without adequate funding, Ghanim says his administration has been limited to containing further damage to the site, such as digging trenches to divert rainwater from the ruins.
Basra’s Archbishop Habib al-Naufaly stressed the symbolic importance of the pope’s March 5-8 visit as Iraq is still recovering from the war against Islamic State that destroyed scores of Christian heritage sites.
The inter-religious prayer service will be attended by Christians, Muslims, Mandaean-Sabaean, Yazidi and other religious minorities present in Iraq.
The focus will be on harmony between religious groups in a service the Vatican has named “Prayer for the sons and daughters of Abraham”.
Reporting by Mohammed Aty and Charlotte Bruneau, Editing by Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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499cac1996e52e52ac92739132afee0b | https://www.reuters.com/article/pope-latam-ecuador-idINKCN0PG1FE20150706 | In Ecuador, Pope Francis appeals for more inclusive Church | In Ecuador, Pope Francis appeals for more inclusive Church
By Philip Pullella, Yury Garcia5 Min Read
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (Reuters) - Pope Francis used his first Mass in Ecuador on Monday to ask for support in his efforts to reach out to Catholics who feel shunned by the Church when the world’s bishops gather at the Vatican in October.
Speaking to 800,000 people on the first leg of his “homecoming” tour of South America, the 78-year-old pope weaved his homily around the theme of the family, which will be the subject of the month-long synod at the Vatican.
The meeting is expected to discuss ways to reach out to Catholics who have divorced and remarried outside the Church. Under current rules, they are prohibited from receiving communion unless they abstain from sexual relations.
The gathering is also expected to discuss how the Church should reach out to homosexual Catholics.
The pope said the synod “would consider concrete solutions to the many difficult and significant challenges facing families in our time.”
He asked for prayers for the synod “so that God can take even what might seem to us impure, scandalous or threatening and turn it ... into a miracle. The family today is in need of a miracle.”
Conservative bishops oppose any changes regarding the divorced and remarried. At a preparatory meeting last year they botched conciliatory language on the pastoral care of gay couples.
Asked about the pope’s words on the synod, the Vatican spokesman said Francis was not referring to specific controversies but that he wanted the synod to find ways “to help people move from a situation of sin to a situation of grace.”
The Argentine-born pontiff delivered his remarks in Ecuador’s second city Guayaquil, a steamy port sometimes referred to as the world’s “banana capital.”
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In line with his simple style, Francis rode into the city in a small silver Fiat marked for the occasion with Vatican City number plates - “SCV 1” - standing for Stato della Citta del Vaticano or State of Vatican City.
Tens of thousands of people lined the route from the airport, at times rushing police to touch the car and throw flower petals before it.
His eyes often squinting in the sun, Francis switched to an open jeep when he reached the sprawling Mass site and rode though the crowd, which authorities estimated at about 800,000.
“I’ve come to this spiritual encounter to ask the pope to heal me because I have cancer,” said Franklin Borbor, 48, who despite his illness travelled more than five hours to find his place in the park.
Others came from as far away as Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico.
FAMILY VALUES
In his homily, the pope also called for a rekindling of family values and solidarity with the elderly, the abandoned and the unemployed.
“How many of our adolescents and young people sense that (love and happiness) are no longer found in their homes? How many women, sad and lonely, wonder when love left, when it slipped away from their lives? How many elderly people feel left out of family celebrations, cast aside and longing each day for a little love?” he said.
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He said the family was the “best social capital” and could not be replaced by other institutions.
After the mass, Francis went to a Jesuit-run school to visit an old friend he has not seen in three decades, the cigar-smoking Rev. Francisco Cortes.
When he was a seminary director in Argentina, Francis, then Father Jorge Bergoglio, would send seminarians to the school to study theology with Cortes, now a diminutive 91-year-old Spaniard affectionately known as “Father Paquito.”
The pope’s visit to Guayaquil took on extra significance for Ecuador, and its leftist President Rafael Correa, given it has been the epicentre of anti-government protests for weeks.
Francis was to hold talks with Correa later on Monday.
Thousands have been taking to the streets in Guayaquil and elsewhere to protest tax changes and what they see as state authoritarianism. Correa says the reforms will only affect the super-wealthy and accuses his foes of seeking a coup d’etat.
Protest leaders have called a truce during the papal visit.
“The pope’s coming is putting a bit of peace in the hearts of we Ecuadoreans,” said Jose Paldarreaga, 64, a participant at the Mass in Guayaquil.
After Ecuador, the pope visits Bolivia and Paraguay on a tour encompassing three of the poorest and smallest countries in South America. The pope visited Brazil for a youth festival in 2013 but that was to substitute for predecessor Benedict after his sudden resignation.
Additional reporting by Alexandra Valencia, Girish Gupta in Quito; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Grant McCoolOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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25f4903e61f0203b56db1a3ea401af8b | https://www.reuters.com/article/pope-motherteresa-idINKBN0U10YG20151218 | Mother Teresa of Calcutta to be made a saint | Mother Teresa of Calcutta to be made a saint
By Philip Pullella4 Min Read
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Nobel peace laureate who dedicated her life to helping the poorest, is to be made a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican said on Friday.
Pope Francis has cleared the way for sainthood by approving a decree recognising a second miracle attributed to her intercession with God, a requirement of sainthood.
The nun, who died in 1997 at the age of 87, became an international icon but has also been criticised for trying to convert people to Christianity.
The late Pope John Paul II bent Vatican rules to allow the procedure to establish her case for sainthood to be launched two years after her death instead of the usual five. She was beatified in 2003, a mere six years after her death.
Beatification requires one miracle and is the last step before sainthood, which requires a second.
The church defines saints as those believed to have been holy enough during their lives to now be in Heaven with God.
Francis, who has made concern for the poor a major plank of his papacy, was keen to make Mother Teresa a saint during the church’s current Holy Year.
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Church officials say Mother Teresa’s second miracle involved the healing of a Brazilian man suffering from a viral brain infection that resulted in multiple abscesses with hydrocephalus.
Relatives prayed to Mother Teresa and he recovered, leaving his doctors mystified, they said. A Vatican medical commission deemed the sudden recovery “inexplicable in the light of present-day medical knowledge,” according to Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, the chief promoter of the sainthood cause.
“CHRISTMAS GIFT”
In Kolkata, as Calcutta is now called, Sunita Kumar, spokeswoman for the Missionaries of Charity religious order which Mother Teresa founded, said the nuns were “over the moon” at the news.
“We thought her whole life was a miracle. Her whole life was dedicated to the poor and there was nothing else in her mind than service. Everyone was accepted and there was no obstruction in her work,” she told Reuters.
Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Kolkata told Reuters the news from Rome was “the best Christmas gift”, adding: “Her entire life and work was for the poor. Now it is in a way officially recognised. We are grateful to God.”
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In the years since her death, some have accused Mother Teresa and the order of having ulterior motives in helping the destitute, saying their aim was to convert them to Christianity.
The order rejects that, saying, for example, that most of those helped in the Kalighat Home for Dying Destitutes in Kolkata were non-Christians with just a few days left to live and noting that conversion is a lengthy process.
The order has also denied allegations of financial mismanagement of the huge sums it received from donors.
Known as the “saint of the gutters”, the diminutive nun is expected to be canonised - formally made a saint - in early September. It is not clear if the ceremony will take place in Rome or if the pope will travel to India to preside.
It would be the first trip by a pope to India since 1999.
Mother Teresa was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in Macedonia in 1910 in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire.
She founded the Missionaries of Charity with about a dozen nuns in the 1950s to help the poor on the streets of Kolkata and the religious order spread throughout the world. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
Additional reporting by Sujoy Dhar; Editing by Jeremy GauntOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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dbe30e113775924cbcf10705d6dba582 | https://www.reuters.com/article/pope-pornography-usa/vatican-recalls-washington-diplomat-amid-child-pornography-investigation-idINKCN1BQ1P8?edition-redirect=in | Vatican recalls Washington diplomat amid child pornography investigation | Vatican recalls Washington diplomat amid child pornography investigation
By Crispian Balmer4 Min Read
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A Vatican diplomat working in Washington has been recalled to the Holy See after the U.S. State Department said the priest may have violated child pornography laws, the Vatican said on Friday.
Prosecutors in the Vatican have opened an investigation into the case, which represents a fresh blow to the Roman Catholic Church as it struggles to overcome repeated sex abuse scandals among its clergy.
The State Department notified the Holy See in August “of a possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images by a member of the diplomatic corps of the Holy See accredited to Washington,” the Vatican statement said.
A State Department spokesman said the United States had requested that the man’s diplomatic immunity be waived to open the way for possible prosecution, but the Vatican refused.
The priest, who was not named, has returned to Vatican City and is awaiting the outcome of the Holy See investigation, which could lead to a trial in the tiny city state.
The U.S.-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said possession of child pornography was not a victimless crime because the children involved were being abused.
“(Pope Francis) must bring the diplomat back to the United States in order to adhere to his promises of complying with investigations by civil authorities in cases of child sexual abuse,” SNAP managing director Barbara Dorris said.
Pope Francis has declared zero tolerance over abuse scandals that have beset the Church for decades, but has appeared to struggle to overcome resistance within the Vatican hierarchy.
The State Department spokesman said the pope had promised to “act decisively with regard to cases of sexual abuse” and punish those found guilty of wrongdoing.
“The United States encourages the Holy See to ensure full implementation of its reforms and policies designed to protect minors and provide justice regarding allegations,” the spokesman said.
Two years ago the Vatican put the former papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic on trial for child sex offences, a case that was seen as showing the pope’s determination to clean up the Church.
The priest, Jozef Wesolowski, was charged with paying boys to perform sexual acts, of downloading and buying paedophile material. He died before a verdict was reached.
He was the first high-ranking Catholic official to stand trial in the Vatican on such sex charges and the case was closely watched by victims of priestly abuse, who have accused the Vatican of repeatedly hushing up previous scandals.
Earlier this year, Cardinal George Pell, a top adviser to Pope Francis, was charged with multiple historical sex crimes in his native Australia. The highest-ranking Church official to face such accusations, Pell has denied any wrongdoing.
Just last month, in the foreword to a new book written by a Swiss man who was raped by a priest when he was eight years old, Pope Francis said sexual abuse of children by priests was a “monstrosity” and pledged to take action against perpetrators.
Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome and David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Matthew Mpoke BiggOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e440ea5eeb38f886a9fa903324160392 | https://www.reuters.com/article/portugal-banks-africa/portugal-cenbanker-urges-african-states-to-align-supervision-with-eu-idUSL8N0ZB2LP20150625 | Portugal cenbanker urges African states to align supervision with EU | Portugal cenbanker urges African states to align supervision with EU
By Sergio Goncalves, Shrikesh Laxmidas3 Min Read
LISBON, June 25 (Reuters) - The Bank of Portugal urged central banks in Portuguese-speaking Africa to raise supervision standards to the European banking union’s tougher requirements to avoid capital cost hikes for European banks in Africa.
Bank of Portugal Governor Carlos Costa, who is also a member of the European Central Bank governing council, said on Thursday that so-called Basel 3 rules for risk-weighted assets would have an impact in all these countries, marking a division - “a before and after the creation of the banking union”.
In 2012, euro zone governments agreed to transfer responsibility for most large banks to the European Central Bank to make sovereign debt less dependent on countries’ banking systems, helping to prevent contagion and new debt crises.
Basel 3 rules are being implemented in phases, the latest having kicked in from the start of this year.
“It is in the common interest that we align the practices with the more demanding banking union rules. I’m not talking just about Portugal, all institutions in the banking union are interested in and would benefit from supervision equivalence,” Costa told a meeting of Portuguese-speaking central bankers.
Portuguese banks are working actively in former colonies like Angola and Mozambique, where they churned out profits in the past few years in contrast with the domestic activity that was undermined by Portugal’s recession and debt crisis.
In December, Portugal’s second-largest listed lender, Banco BPI, which controls Angolan bank BFA, took a 90-basis-point hit on its solvency ratio after the European Commission excluded Angola from a list of countries where regulatory rules are equivalent to the European Union’s.
“A European bank ... with an affiliate in a country that is not part of the banking union has its capital requirements and financing costs conditioned by the level of recognition of the local supervision,” Costa told the meeting, which did not discuss his suggestion.
“The less recognised it is, the higher the capital costs, and naturally, the higher the financing costs will be for the economy,” he added. (Writing by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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bb3fd85b3c288983a1e02167306f8eee | https://www.reuters.com/article/portugal-banks-fitch/fitch-sees-portugal-banks-steadier-sector-consolidation-idUSS8N12P02W | Fitch sees Portugal banks steadier, sector consolidation | Fitch sees Portugal banks steadier, sector consolidation
By Andrei Khalip, Shrikesh Laxmidas3 Min Read
LISBON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The asset quality of Portugal’s banking sector is stabilising, and recent resolutions at two lenders - Novo Banco and Banif - have little spillover to other local banks, allowing Fitch Ratings to maintain the sector’s stable outlook.
Erwin Van Lumich, managing director for financial institutions in southern Europe, told Reuters on Thursday the still fragile sector would benefiit from consolidation, likely to be driven by the planned sale of Novo Banco, where Spanish banking giants Santander and Caixabank could play a key role.
“Our assumption is that this spillover effect (from bank resolutions) is relatively limited, because some of the other banks that have a rating, they are under very different dynamics, for example than those that Banif was undergoing,” he said.
He said Novo Banco itself may still suffer from some investor uncertainty, likely to be reflected in refinancing coming at a price.
Roger Turro, director of financial instiitutions at Fitch said the stable outlook, which did not change after the December resolutions “is driven by the recovery which we think will support an asset-quality stabilization, by reducing non-performing loan entries and by recoveries, also this stabilization has to support improvement in profitability.”
He said some recovery in profitability has already happened in 2015 after increased regulator scrutiny, which led to measures to improve management of bad loans and asset quality.
But he warned that more pronounced improvements on that front will depend on investors, who so far have shown only limited appetite for real estate in Portugal.
As for the Novo Banco sale, the analysts said that after the second resolution in December when 2 billion euros in senior debt were removed from its books, the operation has better prospects of being accomplished at a better price, reducing any potential loss for Portugal’s bank resolution fund.
“It might be fair to assume that it will have been positive for this gap, because ultimately you have 2 billion less of obligations,” he said. (Reporting By Andrei Khalip, editing by Axel Bugge)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b84f639669146e8e487f9d2065013dfd | https://www.reuters.com/article/portugal-banks/angolas-dos-santos-shifts-focus-in-portugal-from-telecoms-to-banks-idUSL5N0W63LM20150304 | Angola's Dos Santos shifts focus in Portugal from telecoms to banks | Angola's Dos Santos shifts focus in Portugal from telecoms to banks
By Sergio Goncalves, Shrikesh Laxmidas4 Min Read
LISBON, March 4 (Reuters) - An attempt by Isabel dos Santos to orchestrate a merger of two of Portugal’s largest banks has a better chance of success than past attempts by Africa’s richest woman to shake up Portugal Inc, analysts and industry sources say.
Much of her fortune, estimated at $3.3 billion by Forbes, comprises assets in Portugal.
Her foray into banking started in 2005, in partnership with Portugal’s richest man, Americo Amorim, when she established Banco BIC, which now has Angola’s biggest private branch network and has expanded to Portugal and several sub-Saharan African countries. She has since bought Amorim’s stake.
The daughter of Angloa’s president, she is also the second-largest shareholder in Banco BPI SA with 18.6 percent and on Tuesday suggested that BPI should consider merging with Millennium bcp as an alternative to being taken over by Spain’s Caixabank.
Caixabank, BPI’s largest shareholder with a 44 percent stake, launched its bid for BPI last month, valuing the other 56 percent at about 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion).
Dos Santos’s intervention comes just months after she tried to take over Portugal Telecom SGSP, a holding company with a key stake in Brazilian telecoms group Oi.
Like the banking proposal, dos Santos’s offer for Portugal Telecom was aimed at thwarting a third-party transaction - the proposed sale by Oi of PT Portugal, the national telecoms network operator, to rival Altice.
In the event her bid failed, leaving the sale to Altice to proceed.
But Tuesday’s move has more chance of success for a number of reasons, people close to dos Santos and analysts say, not least the fact that Millennium is willing to discuss the proposal.
Dos Santos is also likely to have the support of Angola’s state oil company Sonangol, a key player in the Portuguese banking world, one source familiar with the matter said.
Millennium’s largest shareholder is Sonangol, whose banking interests in Portugal have long competed with Isabel’s, with BPI and Millennium competitors both in Angola and in Portugal.
Now, however, “Sonangol is on board with Isabel dos Santos,” said a person with knowledge of dos Santos’s proposal. “That gives greater force to the merger proposal, that’s obvious.”
Dos Santos’s proposal still faces high regulatory hurdles since a merged BPI and Millennium would be the same size as state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos, the country’s largest bank, with about 30 percent of deposits.
But she is also promoting the prospect of the merger creating a national champion in banking across the Portuguese-speaking world, with headquarters in Lisbon.
Andre Rodrigues, a banking analyst at Caixa BI, said that should dos Santos’s merger proposal succeed Caixabank would end up with a stake of around 14 percent of the new entity, while Sonangol and dos Santos together would own about 20 percent.
“That puts the ball squarely in Caixabank’s court - either it raises the bid price or it accepts the (merger) proposal,” said Rodrigues. (Editing by Alessandra Galloni and Greg Mahlich)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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6d55f23448bb43d021a9d20511433953 | https://www.reuters.com/article/portugal-cgd-resignation/portugal-state-banks-top-brass-resign-after-asset-disclosure-row-idUSL8N1DT269 | Portugal state bank's top brass resign after asset disclosure row | Portugal state bank's top brass resign after asset disclosure row
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
LISBON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The recently appointed chief executive and six board members of Portugal’s state-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depositos (CGD) have resigned, the government said on Monday, potentially delaying a 5 billion euro ($5.3 billion) recapitalisation of the ailing bank.
The resignations follow a court demand that the management team, which took over in late August, declare their incomes and assets. The team argued that their contracts included a waiver of such disclosures, and refused to budge.
CGD is the country’s largest bank by assets and its problems have contributed to the general weakness of Portugal’s banking sector, which is still reeling from two bank rescues in 2014 and 2015 that have undermined investor confidence.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa earlier this month urged the board to declare their incomes and assets “in the name of transparency and to uphold the national interest”.
In a statement, the finance ministry said it regretted the decision by the CEO, Antonio Domingues, to step down. Domingues, who had previously served as a board member at Banco BPI , was not available for comment.
The ministry said the resignation would take effect at the end of the year. A new candidate would be nominated very soon for the role of president of the executive board “to give continuity to the business plan and the recapitalisation already approved”.
The European Commission and Portugal reached an agreement in August on recapitalising CGD, which has been plagued by massive bad loans. The plan includes a direct injection of up to 2.7 billion euros by the state and the issuing of 1 billion euros in bonds by CGD, with the rest to come from other equity and debt mechanisms.
The government has said it expects to carry out the injection in the first quarter of next year, when CGD would also issue the first 500 million euros worth of bonds. ($1 = 0.9404 euros) (Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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f4a63eba6085e249359aef138244c367 | https://www.reuters.com/article/portugal-economy-tourism/portugal-tourism-growth-slows-sharply-in-2018-still-ekes-out-record-idUSL5N2096HT | Portugal tourism growth slows sharply in 2018, still ekes out record | Portugal tourism growth slows sharply in 2018, still ekes out record
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
LISBON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The number of foreign tourists visiting Portugal edged up to break another record last year, but the 0.4 percent increase was a far cry from the previous year’s 12 percent surge, signalling that the tourism boom is slowing, data showed on Thursday.
The National Statistics Institute (INE), which monitors hotel stays, said total arrivals grew to 12.8 million in 2018.
Portugal’s tourism has been growing for eight years in a row, helping the country recover from a severe debt crisis and economic recession. However, some in the industry believe it is set to reverse in 2019, party due to a drop in British visitors due to Brexit.
Hotel revenues rose 6 percent last year, mainly benefiting from domestic tourism, to reach 3.6 billion euros ($4.06 billion), but that growth slowed from 16 percent a year earlier.
Holiday seekers from the UK, Portugal’s largest tourism market, stayed fewer nights in the country last year, dropping 7.3 percent. There was also a drop among German, French, Dutch and Irish visitors.
On the other hand, Portugal received more visitors from Brazil and North America, with a 20 percent increase in the number of tourists from the United States, the data showed.
The total contribution of travel and tourism to Portugal’s gross domestic product reached 17.3 percent, or 33.5 billion euros ($41.1 billion), in 2017, according to the International Tourism Association. Data for 2018 is not yet available.
$1 = 0.8864 euros Reporting by Catarina Demony and Goncalo Almeida Editing by Andrei Khalip and Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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ea008f62d0de311a20974f767bcf6ea5 | https://www.reuters.com/article/portugal-portuc/portugals-portucel-to-raise-capex-debt-with-new-paper-business-ceo-idUSL5N0VN2V320150213 | Portugal's Portucel to raise capex, debt with new paper business-CEO | Portugal's Portucel to raise capex, debt with new paper business-CEO
By Shrikesh Laxmidas, Sergio Goncalves2 Min Read
LISBON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Portugal’s pulp and paper maker Portucel should double or even triple its capital expenditure this year, with more borrowing likely as it enters a new cycle of growth after buying tissue producer AMS, whose output it wants to quadruple by 2017.
Portucel CEO Diogo da Silveira told Reuters in an interview Europe’s tissue market was expected to grow at an annual pace of over two percent for the next 10 years, while Portucel’s main market for uncoated woodfree paper was “at best flat” in Europe.
AMS, whose acquisition for 80 million euros ($91 million) Portucel announced this week, will double capacity from 30,000 tonnes by July. By early 2017, it will lift capacity to 120,000 tonnes.
After 50 million euros invested by Portucel in 2014, “capex will clearly grow significantly, I’d say times two or times three”, said da Silveira, who became CEO last April.
He said the company’s net debt/EBITDA ratio of 0.8 was below the average for the sector in Europe, and the planned increase in spending and borrowing will still leave Portucel with a comfortable debt level.
“In the short term, the ratio will rise maybe to around 1.2 times. But seeing what I see in the sector, I’d be calm if we raised it to 2.5-3 times. We don’t have that plan, but if necessary it would be acceptable,” he said. ($1 = 0.8767 euros) (Writing by Andrei Khalip)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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51632e71c37ad54de7d3cf2cfda064b4 | https://www.reuters.com/article/portugal-tourism-loans-idUSL8N2KF6LP | Portugal's Millennium bcp wants longer loan repayments freeze for tourism sector | Portugal's Millennium bcp wants longer loan repayments freeze for tourism sector
By Sergio Goncalves2 Min Read
LISBON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Portugal’s largest listed bank Millennium bcp wants the government to extend the loan repayments freeze for pandemic-hit tourism companies beyond September if the health crisis has not been overcome by then, Chief Executive Officer Miguel Maya said.
He told a webinar on saving Portugal’s vital tourism industry on Tuesday that “requiring the repayment of loans at a time when companies have no income - as a result of a market failure due to the pandemic - does not make any sense”.
“Millennium bcp will continue to defend the extension of (loan repayment) moratoriums for the tourism sector as long as the pandemic situation is not controlled, not only for companies, but also for workers”, he said.
Portugal’s banks have suspended capital and interest repayments on 46 billion euros of corporate and household debt to avoid a jump in bad loans, according to latest Bank of Portugal data up to the end of September.
The freeze will be lifted on around a quarter of affected loans in March - mostly consumer loans, mortgages and some corporate loans - but will continue for the rest until September.
Tourism was crucial for Portugal’s recovery from the 2010 economic and debt crisis and in 2019 reached about 15% of Portugal’s gross domestic product.
Since the first quarter of 2020, lockdowns and travel restrictions in Portugal and elsewhere have practically paralysed the entire sector.
“It is necessary to preserve the capacities of the sector even to ensure that, once the health crisis is resolved, the recovery can take place at an accelerated pace,” Maya said. (Reporting by Sergio Goncalves, Editing by Andrei Khalip and Alison Williams)
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719f21ca94d8951e959fe923b5956522 | https://www.reuters.com/article/portugal-websummit-uber/uber-in-deal-with-nasa-to-build-flying-taxi-air-control-software-idUKL5N1NE2M8?edition-redirect=uk | Uber in deal with NASA to build flying taxi air control software | Uber in deal with NASA to build flying taxi air control software
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
LISBON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Uber has struck a deal with NASA to develop software for managing “flying taxi” routes in the air along the lines of ride-hailing services it has pioneered on the ground, the company said on Wednesday.
Uber said it is the first formal services contract by the U.S. National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) covering low-altitude airspace rather than outer space. NASA has used such contract to develop rockets since the late 1950s.
Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden also said Uber would begin testing four-passenger, 200-mile-per hour flying taxi services across Los Angeles in 2020, its second test market after Dallas/Fort Worth.
Holden is set to reveal the company’s latest air taxi plans at Web Summit, an annual internet conference taking place in Lisbon this week. (Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3c0c72fe9e94cde4899635e47cb5f32a | https://www.reuters.com/article/premier-foods-ceo/premier-foods-should-sell-batchelors-soup-brand-activist-investor-idUSL4N1U130T | Premier Foods should sell Batchelors Soup brand -activist investor | Premier Foods should sell Batchelors Soup brand -activist investor
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
July 5 (Reuters) - UK canned foods maker Premier Foods should hold an open auction to sell off its flagship Batchelors Soup brand in a bid to improve the company’s financial outlook, activist investor Oasis Management said on Thursday.
The call from one of the company’s biggest shareholders comes ahead of an annual meeting later this month at which it has called for the removal of Premier Foods’ chief executive Gavin Darby. Oasis has previously said the company’s brands were strong and had been mismanaged by the current leadership.
“Using conservative assumptions, Oasis believes that the sale of Batchelors ... would generate more than 200 million pounds ($264.72 million)of proceeds, or more than 60 percent of the current market capitalisation of the company,” Oasis said in an email on Thursday. ($1 = 0.7555 pounds) (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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85a46228625e3f944eb9c316a5881119 | https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada-idCAL3N27M380 | PRESS DIGEST- Canada- Nov 6 | PRESS DIGEST- Canada- Nov 6
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Nov 6 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** China has reopened its market to imports of Canadian pork and beef after a four-month ban in a move that signals a partial thaw in trade relations and will significantly help Canadian farmers. tgam.ca/2re3Xs8
** GFL Environmental Inc is pulling its initial public offering after institutional investors pressed the Canadian waste management giant to price its shares below the deal's marketing range. tgam.ca/36EMs4A
** Quebec City entrepreneur Louis Têtu's latest firm, Coveo Solutions Inc raised $227 million in an equity financing led by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. tgam.ca/2Chau7L
** A U.S. regulator on Tuesday ordered that a segment of the Keystone pipeline that spilled more than 9,000 barrels of crude in rural North Dakota remain shut until operator TC Energy Corp submits a restart and return-to-service plan because of the hazards posed. tgam.ca/32mfSkL
NATIONAL POST
** Hootsuite founder and chief executive Ryan Holmes announced Tuesday that he plans to step aside, and the company will begin a search for a new CEO. bit.ly/34ByLBs
Compiled by Bengaluru newsroomOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4ae9ddf45a6c03b2a6a31b3c9a7ee135 | https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-feb-21-idUSL3N20G3OS?feedType=RSS&feedName=companyNews&rpc=31 | PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Feb 21 | PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Feb 21
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Feb 21 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** Sun Life Financial Inc has hired long-time Toronto-Dominion Bank wealth executive, Rowena Chan, as the president of Sun Life Financial Distributors, a position that will oversee the company's 4,000-adviser network, as the insurer sharpens its focus on customer service. tgam.ca/2T46Bx8
** Devon Energy Corp has put its Alberta oil sands and heavy crude operations on the auction block, adding to an exodus of foreign oil and gas companies from the Canadian oil patch. tgam.ca/2IsOixs
** Alberta election candidate Jason Kenney is promising to rip up crude-by-rail contracts signed by the NDP government if his United Conservative Party wins the Alberta election, as he seeks to turn the fate of the oil sands into a central issue of the spring campaign. tgam.ca/2TXtO0Y
NATIONAL POST
** An owner of a franchisee of Tim Hortons Inc accused the coffee chain on Wednesday of baiting him into spending "millions" on an ill-fated expansion, according to a lawsuit filed in Minnesota district court. bit.ly/2EmfYQz
** Newly released court documents reveal further details of the contact Toronto police had with Bruce McArthur in the midst of what would become his eight-man murder spree. bit.ly/2GVnSBY
Compiled by Bengaluru newsroomOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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8829c8cd1cbf005918b68790a40f4333 | https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-june-19-idUSL4N2DW2FX?feedType=RSS&feedName=companyNews&rpc=31 | PRESS DIGEST-Canada - June 19 | PRESS DIGEST-Canada - June 19
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
June 19 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** Montreal cancer drug developer Repare Therapeutics Inc is set to start trading Friday on the Nasdaq exchange after increasing the size of its initial public offering Thursday for the third time this week. tgam.ca/37FpzPs
** Telus Corp is rolling out its initial 5G service in five major cities and has struck a deal with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to supply equipment for its next-generation wireless network. tgam.ca/3ehA26b
** Executives of major grocery store chains will be summoned to appear before a parliamentary committee this summer to explain to members of Parliament why they're cutting COVID-19 pay premiums for workers. tgam.ca/2BjxrKg
NATIONAL POST
** Canadian grocery giant behind Sobeys, Safeway and FreshCo on Thursday announced it will raise its shareholder dividend after profits soared during the coronavirus pandemic, less than a week after the company cut its pay bonuses for frontline staff. bit.ly/3dgk4I6
Compiled by Bengaluru newsroomOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4f785cc854d89b100d8316e296f37c21 | https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj-idUSL3N15Q0JP | PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Feb 11 | PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Feb 11
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Feb 11 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
- Theranos' main retail partner Walgreens threatened to terminate its relationship with the blood-testing company unless it quickly fixes the problems found by federal inspectors at a laboratory in California, people familiar with the matter said. (on.wsj.com/1QsIXxI)
- Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen hinted to Congress Wednesday that the central bank had increased trepidation over the path of interest-rate increases, pointing to accumulating risks to the economy in recent weeks.(on.wsj.com/1QsJ1NK)
- Twitter for the first time failed to show any user growth in an earnings report, pushing its shares to new lows and fueling investor anxiety that the company doesn't have a turnaround plan.(on.wsj.com/1QsJ6kF)
- Bernie Sanders' resounding New Hampshire victory over Hillary Clinton, facing the twin questions of whether his appeal is broad enough to replicate his performance elsewhere, and whether her support is strong enough to reverse the tide.(on.wsj.com/1Si1XEY)
- A top North Korean general was executed this month after being charged with corruption, the latest in a series of purges by leader Kim Jong Un, according to South Korean intelligence officials. (on.wsj.com/1Si8LCs) (Compiled by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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9df79fe38bd59d4e2210b592ee1f5067 | https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-june-19-idUSL4N2DW19A?feedType=RSS&feedName=companyNews&rpc=31 | PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - June 19 | PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - June 19
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
June 19 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
- Office Depot Inc hired ABM Industries Inc's former Chief Financial Officer D. Anthony Scaglione as its finance chief, the company said Thursday. on.wsj.com/2NdAiqV
- Facebook Inc said it took down posts and ads for President Donald Trump's reelection campaign because they violated the social-media giant's policy against "organized hate". on.wsj.com/3dewsbu
- Andrew Tyrie plans to step down as chairman of the U.K.'s competition regulator Competition and Markets Authority, citing "inherent limits" of the position. on.wsj.com/37OhuIb
- Private-equity-owned Chisholm Oil & Gas Operating LLC has become the latest shale driller to file for bankruptcy, pushed into chapter 11 by a decline in commodity prices and production challenges in Oklahoma that have also caused other energy companies to fail. on.wsj.com/3ehqCaz
Compiled by Bengaluru newsroomOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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d665d3185528e0f669e4bc5a789a6795 | https://www.reuters.com/article/privateequity-diversity/private-equity-firms-investors-sign-global-initiative-on-diversity-idUSL1N2IN1NW | Private equity firms, investors sign global initiative on diversity | Private equity firms, investors sign global initiative on diversity
By Chibuike Oguh3 Min Read
(Reuters) - Nearly 50 buyout firms and investors have signed a global initiative that aims to improve diversity and inclusion among their ranks, a U.S. private equity investor association said on Monday.
The move comes as Wall Street tries to shake off its male- and white-dominated image. Only about a fifth of the employees in the alternative asset management industry are women, a Preqin survey found in February.
About 46 private equity firms and investors, including Blackstone Group Inc, KKR & Co Inc, France-based Ardian, Canada’s CPP Investments and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, are founding signatories to the initiative launched by the Institutional Limited Partners Association. The Washington, D.C.-based ILPA represents many large public and private pension funds, endowments, family offices and foundations.
Many companies have launched diversity initiatives this year following the death of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis who died while in police custody on May 25. Floyd’s death sparked protests in the United States and beyond.
Under the ILPA initiative, participating private equity firms and investors are required to adopt a public diversity and inclusion statement or strategy, track internal statistics on hiring and promotion by gender and diversity, specify organizational goals to attain more inclusive recruitment and retention, and provide data to investors making new commitments during fundraising.
The initiative also calls for providing unconscious bias training for employees, tracking gender and race statistics among portfolio companies, and assigning a senior manager to be accountable for diversity and inclusion.
“Beyond work from home, 2020 was a catalytic year which sparked a different kind of conversation that brought a lot of issues to fore around culture, which is essentially diversity and inclusion,” said Jennifer Choi, ILPA’s managing director for industry affairs.
ILPA said it expects to welcome more signatories from private equity firms and institutional investors. It will begin publishing a quarterly analysis of actions taken by signatories on diversity and inclusion next year.
Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e11cadcdd9f2b8ce6bc06ddb8e91cd2d | https://www.reuters.com/article/products-mdl/qa-georgia-universitys-elizabeth-burch-on-new-womens-health-mdl-research-project-idUSL1N1YI2E3 | Q&A: Georgia University's Elizabeth Burch on new women's health MDL research project | Q&A: Georgia University's Elizabeth Burch on new women's health MDL research project
By Tina Bellon1 Min Read
Several trends are changing the landscape of multidistrict litigation, including the introduction of deep-pocketed third-party funders and lawmakers curtailing what they see as abuse by the plaintiffs’ bar in mass torts and class actions. A subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules is currently mulling changes to MDL guidelines.
A new research project by University of Georgia’s School of Law Professor Elizabeth Chamblee Burch is using the microcosm of women plaintiffs in health product MDLs to shed light on this changing landscape, analyzing the women’s experiences within the legal system, their interaction with lawyers and their contact to third-party funders to recommend MDL reforms that benefit the plaintiffs themselves.
To read the full story on WestlawNext Practitioner Insights, click here: bit.ly/2EurDOv
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aa87ae368edda19fe77fbc17c2fca233 | https://www.reuters.com/article/prokon-payout-idUKL5N0KR2K420140117?edition-redirect=uk | German wind park group Prokon says halts payouts | German wind park group Prokon says halts payouts
By Ludwig Burger3 Min Read
FRANKFURT, Jan 17 (Reuters) - German wind park operator Prokon said it had to stop interest payments and would not for now redeem the millions of euros worth of so-called profit-sharing certificates sold to mainly retail investors, as too many were demanding their money back.
“In the current situation we are unable to make repayments or interest payouts,” the group’s managing director Carsten Rodbertus said in a statement on the group’s website on Friday, addressing its 75,000 certificate holders.
“Any payments could be and would be claimed back by an administrator in case of insolvency proceedings anyway,” he added.
The company, which had raised some 1.4 billion euros ($1.9 billion) by selling the profit-participation certificates, said via its website it would not respond to media questions following the statement.
The company had won mainly retail investors through TV advertising campaigns on German prime-time television, but last week warned it may have to file for insolvency if it was unable to strike a deal with investors.
It had drawn criticism from consumer advocate groups for luring investors with promises of possible returns of at least 6 percent, without sufficiently warning of the risks.
More and more investors have requested their money back following several reports in German media that have questioned whether Prokon’s payouts are backed by actual profits. The company has maintained it has a viable business model.
The company added that to avert insolvency, at least 95 percent of investors’ capital would have to remain with the company until the end of October, urging investors not to cancel their securities.
Financial reports posted by Prokon on its website showed that as of October 2013, it had paid out 330 million euros in interest, even though it had made a loss of 210 million euros ($287 million).
Profit-participation certificates offer high coupon payments but the investor also participates in the losses of a company. Unlike shares, the securities do not give holders any say in the company.
Prokon operates 50 wind parks in Germany and Poland and employs roughly 1,300 staff. ($1 = 0.7352 euros) (Editing by David Holmes)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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c36c1cbb51701940d580506c7792463c | https://www.reuters.com/article/proximus-results-idUSL8N164463 | Proximus guides for slight growth in 2016 | Proximus guides for slight growth in 2016
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
BRUSSELS, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Belgian telecoms group Proximus said on Friday it expected revenues and profit to grow slightly this year despite of price caps on using mobile phones abroad and slightly higher investments.
The company, majority owned by the Belgian state said it would spend 950 million euros on its network in 2016, up from 926 million euros last year.
For the group as a whole, core profit rose 8.4 percent in the fourth quarter to 414 million euros ($457.84 million), above the 407 million expected in a Reuters poll of nine analysts.
The market consensus currently forecasts core profit to increase by about 2 percent in 2016.
Proximus, which competes with mobile phone group Mobistar and cable operators such as Telenet, repeated it would pay out a total dividend of 1.50 euros, a commitment it has set for the period 2014 to 2016. ($1 = 0.9042 euros) (Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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27a17373dc51b0296b8bc39f77d43b72 | https://www.reuters.com/article/psa-results-idUSL8N1630QF | UPDATE 1-PSA Peugeot Citroen hits medium-term goals early | UPDATE 1-PSA Peugeot Citroen hits medium-term goals early
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
* Peugeot delivers 5 pct automotive division margin in 2015
* Goals reached ahead of time on Europe recovery, cuts
* Pays no dividend for 2015 to resume payouts for FY 2016 (Adds detail, background)
PARIS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - PSA Peugeot Citroen said on Wednesday it would consider paying a dividend for 2016 after reaching its medium-term targets ahead of schedule, helped by cost cuts, price increases and a recovery in European demand.
The French carmaker said its automotive division hit a 5 percent operating margin, a goal it had set for 2019-23, as a turnaround plan engineered by Chief Executive Carlos Tavares gained traction in the aftermath of a 3 billion euro ($3.3 billion) bailout in 2012.
“I am delighted with this collective success. It puts our company back in the race and proves its potential,” Tavares said in a statement accompanying Peugeot’s full-year results.
The company posted a full-year net profit of 1.2 billion euros, reversing a 555 million loss in 2014. Group recurring operating income more than tripled to 2.7 billion.
Tavares overhauled Peugeot in the wake of the bailout which saw the French government and China’s Dongfeng each buy 14 percent stakes. Tavares, who defected from Renault, where he was second-in-command, pledged to cut labour costs, inventory and model line-ups to restore profitability. . On Wednesday, Peugeot said its group operational cash flow had reached 3.8 billion euros, beating a 2 billion target for 2015-17, on the back of improved demand in Europe where the market saw car sales rise 9.2 percent last year. .
The company surpassed its medium-term recovery goals of reaching a 2 percent auto division margin and 2 billion euros of cumulative cash flow by 2018.
PSA said it would not pay a dividend for 2015 but that a dividend policy “in line with sector practices” would be proposed from the 2016 financial year.
$1 = 0.9083 euros Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Edward Taylor and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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260c4184290519b06326159156be89cb | https://www.reuters.com/article/ptt-electric-car-idUSL3N1AW1JG | Thailand's PTT in with 6 automakers to develop electric car sector | Thailand's PTT in with 6 automakers to develop electric car sector
By Khettiya Jittapong, Manunphattr Dhanananphorn2 Min Read
BANGKOK, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Thailand’s largest energy firm, PTT Pcl, on Monday signed contracts with six major automakers for cooperation in developing electric cars, opening the first in a series of electric vehicle charging stations associated with the project.
State-controlled PTT will be responsible for building a network of 20 charging stations under the accord, while the automakers pledged to develop electric vehicles (EV) and boost awareness and confidence in the Thai market, according to a joint statement.
The six firms are the Thai units of BMW Group, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi Motors Corp, Nissan Motor, Porsche and Volvo.
The move is in line with the Thai military government’s policy of promoting the electric vehicle industry, at the same time strengthening security of energy supply. Thailand is a regional auto industry production and export hub, and the sector accounts for around 10 percent of Thai gross domestic product.
PTT, which began researching EV technology in 2012, already operates four EV charging stations. It aimed to open two more later this year and reach 20 by 2017, Chief Executive Tevin Vonvanich said.
Meanwhile Thailand has ambitious plans to boost the number of electric cars to 1.2 million by 2036, Energy Minister Anantaporn Karnchanarat said, compared with just under 68,000 currently in the country. Sales of hybrid petrol-electric cars or plug-in hybrid cars in Thailand accounted for just 1 percent of total auto sales in 2015.
The limited number of charging stations so far has made both manufacturing and selling EVs unappealing. To help spur the industry, the government has already offered tax incentives for makers of EV auto parts, including batteries and motors. (Reporting by Khettiya Jittapong and Manunphattr Dhanananphorn; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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cb64a9b2ce1a6ff3e28d84eba43efc57 | https://www.reuters.com/article/pttep-investment-idUKL3N1C91NE?edition-redirect=uk | Thai PTTEP to invest at least $1.7 bln in 2017 to maintain output | Thai PTTEP to invest at least $1.7 bln in 2017 to maintain output
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
BANGKOK, Oct 3 (Reuters) - PTT Exploration and Production Pcl, Thailand’s largest oil and gas explorer, plans to invest at least $1.7 billion in 2017 to maintain its production at the same level as last year, chief executive said.
PTTEP, the upstream exploration business of PTT Pcl , aims to produce around 323,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day next year, the same level as last year, Somporn Vongvuthipornchai told reporters.
Hit by weaker oil prices, PTTEP has focused on cost cutting and expects its cost per unit to fall by more than 10 percent to between $31 to $32 a barrel this year after a decline to $29 to $30 a barrel in the first half, he said. (Reporting by Khettiya Jittapong; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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36a81fd850f277a7169cf9ae9a7a047d | https://www.reuters.com/article/public-power-sale-hedno-idINA8N2IN021 | Greek power grid operator HEDNO attracts 11 investors | Greek power grid operator HEDNO attracts 11 investors
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
ATHENS, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Eleven investors have expressed interest in an auction for a minority stake in Greece’s sole power network operator HEDNO, the country’s biggest state-owned power utility Public Power Corp. (PPC) said on Friday.
Strategic investors, grid operators and investment funds submitted expressions of interest for a 49% stake in HEDNO by Friday’s deadline, PPC, who fully owns HEDNO and is managing the sale, said in a statement.
It did not disclose the names of the investors. (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Alison Williams)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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2b6565825d334ae941559a2d8ee2d931 | https://www.reuters.com/article/puertorico-debt-default-idUSL1N1FM1CE | UPDATE 1-Puerto Rico says it will miss some Feb. 1 debt payments | UPDATE 1-Puerto Rico says it will miss some Feb. 1 debt payments
By Nick Brown2 Min Read
(New throughout, adds details on payments, background on fiscal crisis)
Feb 1 (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s government said it will miss some debt payments due on Wednesday, including another payment on general obligation (GO) bonds backed by the U.S. territory’s constitution.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority (FAFAA) said the island will miss the GO debt payment; payments owed at Puerto Rico’s public finance and infrastructure agencies; and $279 million owed by its Government Development Bank.
Puerto Rico has been defaulting on debt periodically for more than a year, including on GO debt, and the missed payments were expected.
FAFAA said Puerto Rico will make full payments due Wednesday on so-called COFINA debt, which is backed by sales tax, as well as payments owed by the island’s retirement system, water authority, municipal finance authority and industrial development agency.
Puerto Rico is facing $70 billion in total debt, and nearly half its 3.5 million residents live in poverty. New Governor Ricardo Rossello, sworn in on Jan. 2, on Sunday signed a law to ensure the government continues to provide essential services.
Rossello has said paying debt is also crucial, and has proposed a number of measures to reduce government spending to free up cash for debt payments.
Still, the island likely cannot afford to pay its debt in full, and is in talks with bondholders to restructure. (Reporting by Nick Brown)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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ecd18e6c8f2bddf698bff5a801725e5a | https://www.reuters.com/article/puertorico-debt-idUSL1N1I109O | Puerto Rico bondholders shun island's debt-cutting offer | Puerto Rico bondholders shun island's debt-cutting offer
By Nick Brown3 Min Read
NEW YORK, April 29 (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s government presented a debt restructuring offer late on Friday that could repay as much as 77 percent of general obligation (GO) bonds and 58 percent of tax-backed bonds, but both bondholder groups quickly rejected it early on Saturday.
The plan comes ahead of a Monday deadline to reach a debt-cutting agreement before creditors can sue Puerto Rico over defaults. The U.S. territory, shouldering $70 billion in debt it cannot pay, could also file an in-court debt workout akin to U.S. bankruptcy.
The island’s largest and highest-priority debt classes, accounting for more than half the total, are GO debt guaranteed by Puerto Rico’s constitution, and so-called COFINA debt, backed by sales tax revenue.
Both groups believe their legal protections to be sacrosanct, and are litigating against each other for top priority.
Puerto Rico’s proposal would appear to treat GO debt more favorably, threatening COFINA holders with much smaller recoveries if they reject the plan.
Under its proposal, Puerto Rico would issue $16.75 billion of new senior bonds and $10 billion in “cash flow bonds,” essentially a growth bond, payable only if the island exceeds fiscal targets.
GO holders would get $9.8 billion of the senior bonds, recouping them a guaranteed 52 cents on the dollar, as well as $4.7 billion of the conditional cash flow bond, which could up their recoveries to 77 cents.
COFINA holders, meanwhile, would get $6.9 billion of the senior bond and $3.3 billion of the cash flow bond - a recovery of up to 58 percent - but only if they accept the deal. Otherwise, Puerto Rico would repay senior COFINA holders with $450 million in short-term notes, while junior COFINA holders would get nothing.
Matt Rodrigue, a financial adviser to senior COFINA holders, called the plan “absurd,” saying in an interview it disregards the priority of senior COFINA holders over junior ones, and could threaten the wellbeing of average Puerto Ricans because COFINA debt is widely held by locals.
“This is a misfire” by Puerto Rico’s government and its advisers, Rodrigue said.
Andrew Rosenberg, a lawyer for a key GO bondholder group, said in a statement the plan was “not a credible starting point for negotiations.”
Debt from Puerto Rican public agencies, like its highway and infrastructure authorities, would recover less than 30 cents on the dollar under the plan, and only in the form of conditional cash flow bonds. (Reporting by Nick Brown, Editing by Franklin Paul)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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99335d26adcb1e04263805c4442f4430 | https://www.reuters.com/article/punjab-natl-bank-fraud-modi/newsmaker-indias-jeweller-to-hollywood-stars-now-accused-of-massive-bank-fraud-idUSL4N1Q53IE?src=ilaw | NEWSMAKER-India's jeweller to Hollywood stars, now accused of massive bank fraud | NEWSMAKER-India's jeweller to Hollywood stars, now accused of massive bank fraud
By Rajendra Jadhav, Rupam Jain, Tom Lasseter5 Min Read
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI Feb 15 (Reuters) - Nirav Modi’s name is a stamp of corporate India’s growing global prestige. On Hollywood red carpets, his diamonds have sparkled on the necklines and dangled from the earlobes of actors and models like Kate Winslet, Dakota Johnson and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
Back in India, billboards above the traffic jams of New Delhi bear the image of Priyanka Chopra, a Bollywood star and former Miss World who is fast becoming a household name in the United States, also draped in Modi’s jewels.
But on Thursday, officials at the nation’s federal investigative agency announced it was looking for Modi as law enforcement officials fanned out to raid his jewellery stores and other businesses in Mumbai and New Delhi.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials told reporters the agency had on Feb. 4 issued a lookout circular in the country for Modi, who they say had left four weeks earlier.
Modi has not yet responded to the allegations and could not be reached for comment. His flagship company, Firestar Diamond, has said it had no involvement in the case.
The setback in Modi’s climb to fame and fortune was abrupt, even by the rough-and-tumble standards of one of the world’s fastest growing major economies.
During an interview with Reuters in November, Modi - net worth of some $1.8 billion according to Forbes magazine rankings, and famously soft-spoken - discussed his love for art, poetry and paintings. He spoke, too, of his wife and three children with whom he lives in central Mumbai.
Asked how he planned to raise funds to add new stores, he seemed unconcerned.
“All options are open,” he said, sitting in his cavernous Mumbai office. “We could use internal accruals. We can take loans from banks or we could do an initial public offering.”
But last month, India’s second-largest state-run lender filed a criminal complaint with the CBI that accused Modi and others of defrauding the bank and causing it a loss of 2.8 billion rupees ($43.8 million).
Then on Thursday, the same bank, Punjab National Bank , publicly alleged that Modi was involved with a much larger fraud case: $1.77 billion from a single branch stretching back to 2011.
“HAUT DIAMANTAIRE”
The news was a shock for the circles in which Modi moved.
As recently as last month, he was at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Indian media carried a group photograph with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the foreground and Nirav Modi, who is no relation, grinning between rows of Indian business leaders behind him.
“Top industrialists invited him home to display his collections,” said a Mumbai investment banker at a U.S.-based firm who has worked directly with Modi’s company. “There was a personal touch in everything he sold. Nirav Modi is a brand.”
A senior member at Bharat Diamond Bourse, a Mumbai-based industry body with more than 13,000 members, sketched a similar profile of Modi.
“In one of the industry meetings in 2013 he said that when people wear a Cartier ring they don’t say it’s a diamond ring, they say it’s Cartier,” said the member, who did not want to be named. “He always wanted people to say they are ‘wearing Nirav Modi’.”
Modi grew up in Antwerp, Belgium, in a diamond-dealing family. At the age of 19 he moved to Mumbai in 1990, according to the November interview.
Nine years later, Modi started his own company, Firestar Diamond Ltd., selling loose stones. He employed fewer than a dozen people at the time - by last year the number was more than 2,000.
He said he came to realize the margins were better in retail.
Firestar Group, the parent company Modi controls as a majority shareholder, saw its revenue grow over three years from 103 billion rupees (about $1.6 billion at current rates) to some 147 billion rupees ($2.3 billion) by the 2016-17 fiscal year, according to figures previously provided by the company.
In 2010, Modi launched an eponymous jewellery business branded NIRAV MODI, in capitals, with the tagline “Haut Diamantaire”. New boutiques in Las Vegas and Hawaii have since been added to a stable that stretches from New York to London to Beijing.
He became a man whose diamond necklaces were sold, with his name attached, by Sotheby’s: “pure feminine elegance,” says a Hong Kong auction catalogue note of one 85.33 carat diamond necklace.
The auction house posted an online slideshow of jewellery-on-stars at the 2017 Oscars and highlighted supermodel Karlie Kloss having “a major Nirav Modi moment with her diamond ‘Mughal’ choker.” (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav, Rupam Jain and Tom Lasseter; Additional reporting by Aditya Kalra and Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Writing by Tom Lasseter; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e1b8e3df02e03bdf4ab313ff224ef32e | https://www.reuters.com/article/qantas-results/update-1-australias-qantas-soars-to-record-first-half-profit-announces-buyback-idUSL4N1QB4GC | UPDATE 2-Qantas soars to record profit, unveils buyback amid rosy outlook | UPDATE 2-Qantas soars to record profit, unveils buyback amid rosy outlook
By 4 Min Read
* Underlying H1 profit A$976 mln vs guidance A$950 mln
* Domestic revenue rises 20 pct
* Shares climb as much 10 pct, biggest daily jump in 3 yrs
* Air NZ, Flight Centre, Singapore Air also post robust results (Recasts, adds CEO and shareholder quotes)
By Tom Westbrook
SYDNEY, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd said half-year profit jumped to a record on cost cuts and hikes in domestic fares - which combined with a share buyback sent its stock bounding higher.
The results are the latest in a slew of robust earnings for the aviation sector and Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was upbeat about future earnings prospects, noting that Australia’s all-important resources sector was growing for the first time in three years.
“We’ve a lot of work to do to maintain it, but if we deliver on that work I have no doubt that the company can keep on maintaining this kind of performance,” he told a news conference.
It also outlined plans for its own pilot academy to address a severe pilot shortage globally. The academy will start next year and aims to train 500 pilots a year when fully established.
The “Flying Kangaroo”, which controls nearly two-thirds of Australia’s domestic market, has pushed average domestic ticket prices to their highest levels in almost a decade while trimming capacity.
At the same time, demand has gathered pace. In addition to the pick-up in the resources sector, Joyce said growth in the financial services, construction and infrastructure sectors were driving business travel demand. Leisure demand was also strong, with international tourist numbers at record highs.
Underlying profit before tax, its most closely watched measure, surged 15 percent to A$976 million ($760 million) for the six months ending Dec. 31, its best result for a first-half and around 3 percent higher than the top of its own guidance. Domestic revenue jumped by a fifth.
Investors also cheered a A$378 million buyback, sending its shares up as much as 10 percent, their biggest daily gain in three years. They last traded 6 percent higher.
“Capacity and capital discipline at a time where demand growth remains robust is driving the stock and its outlook,” said Sondal Bensan, an analyst at Qantas’ biggest shareholder, BT Investment Management wrote in an email.
” next leg will be in the international business that has been held back the past two years,” he said.
Other airlines and aviation firms are also basking in better times for the industry.
Also reporting on Thursday, Air New Zealand said it was destined for its second-highest annual profit ever on the back of a tourism boom.
Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd, Australia’s biggest listed travel agency, sent its shares to a record high after beating half-year profit expectations and lifting its guidance. Its online rival Webjet Ltd saw it stock rocket 15 percent higher as revenue more than tripled.
Last week Singapore Airlines said it had lifted its quarterly profit by almost two-thirds as passenger numbers and cargo revenues rose.
Qantas also confirmed the purchase of 18 long-range Airbus A331LRneo aircraft for budget arm Jetstar. ($1 = 1.2817 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Tom Westbrook in Sydney. Additional reporting by Shashwat Pradhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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a052d4f4e47e7bfb8b8c6dc189ce7791 | https://www.reuters.com/article/qatar-bonds/update-4-qatar-sells-10-bln-bonds-as-it-postpones-project-spending-idUSL8N2BV0G6 | UPDATE 4-Qatar sells $10 bln bonds as it postpones project spending | UPDATE 4-Qatar sells $10 bln bonds as it postpones project spending
By Davide Barbuscia, Saeed Azhar, Yousef Saba4 Min Read
(Adds size, final terms, PIX available)
DUBAI, April 7 (Reuters) - Qatar sold $10 billion in bonds in tranches of 5, 10, and 30 years on Tuesday, the first Gulf state to raise cash in the debt markets against a backdrop of low oil prices and market uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The deal received over $44 billion in demand, two sources said, in a sign of strong investor appetite despite a plunge in crude prices that pushed up borrowing costs for governments of the oil-producing region.
A Dubai-based fund manager said that the deal was “successful” given its size.
“They had to probably pay up relative to a normal environment, but you have to expect something like that in these current circumstances,” the manager said.
Qatar offered interest equivalent to 300 basis points (bps) over U.S. Treasuries for a $2-billion five-year tranche, 305 bps over the same benchmark for a $3-billion 10-year tranche and 4.4% for the 30-year paper, a document issued by one of the banks leading the deal showed.
That was some 35 basis points below where it started marketing the paper earlier on Tuesday but still around 40 basis points above Qatar’s existing bonds due in 2024, 2029 and 2049, Refinitiv data showed.
The 30-year notes are Formosa bonds, or bonds sold in Taiwan by foreign borrowers and denominated in currencies other than the Taiwanese dollar.
“The bond sale’s success will depend on the pricing, which will determine investor appetite for a deal,” Castlereagh Associates, a London-based research consultancy, said in a note this week. “The Qatari leadership will want to steal ahead of its neighbours and demonstrate there is demand for the issue.”
Qatar hired Barclays, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, QNB Capital, Standard Chartered, and UBS to arrange the debt sale.
The presence of an American bank, JPMorgan, in the group of advisers was a sign that Qatar was aiming to tap as much global liquidity as possible, said a source close to the deal. JPMorgan declined to comment.
Only European and Qatari banks had arranged Qatar’s public dollar bonds after an embargo imposed on Doha by neighbouring countries since mid-2017 in a row over security issues.
VIRUS IMPACT
The bond prospectus, seen by Reuters, said the new coronavirus outbreak could continue to hurt Qatar’s economy and financial markets, and could even lead to recession this year.
Qatar’s ruler, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, has asked the government to postpone $8.2 billion of unawarded contracts on capital expenditure projects, the prospectus said.
A government spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Lower oil prices have “had a significant impact” on state revenues and financial conditions, the prospectus said. The oil and gas sector contributed 83.3% of Qatar’s total revenue in 2018 and 34% of its total nominal GDP last year.
“Almost every economy will contract this year, and Qatar has done well with crisis management in the past ten years,” said Richard Segal, a senior investment analyst at Manulife Asset Management. “Thus, I don’t think investors will be too concerned.”
Other governments in the region are also exploring funding options.
“If oil prices are staying on average where they are, the whole Gulf will decide to issue bonds and obviously they’ll be competing on liquidity, so (Qatar) pre-empting on all of that and issuing before is not a bad decision,” the Dubai fund manager said. (Editing by David Goodman and Nick Zieminski)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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41d60dee24a1a34b681b3e4661816d44 | https://www.reuters.com/article/qatar-budget-int/qatar-expects-9-5-billion-deficit-next-year-on-lower-revenues-idUSKBN28K1DE | Qatar expects $9.5 billion deficit next year on lower revenues | Qatar expects $9.5 billion deficit next year on lower revenues
By Davide Barbuscia3 Min Read
DUBAI (Reuters) -Qatar set a 2021 budget of 194.7 billion riyals ($53.5 billion) on Thursday, a 7.5% cut in expenditure from 2020, and forecast a deficit of 34.6 billion riyals next year on lower revenues
However, a conservative oil price assumption means the actual shortfall could be lower, analysts said.
The Gulf state expects total revenues of 160.1 billion riyals next year, compared with 211 billion riyals in the 2020 budget, based on an average oil price of $40 per barrel, the finance ministry said in a statement.
Oil revenues are expected to be 121.6 billion riyals next year, a 27.6% drop when compared to what was budgeted for 2020.
Crude oil prices provide a benchmark for gas prices, which has an impact on Qatar as one of the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporters.
The $40 per barrel oil price assumption “reflects a continued policy of conservative revenue estimation to maintain a fiscal balance and minimize the impact of the fluctuation in energy prices on the state budget,” the finance ministry said.
James Swanston, MENA economist at Capital Economics, said the projected drop in revenue was slightly surprising but was likely a result of Qatar’s conservative oil price estimate.
“We anticipate Brent crude to rise to around $60 per barrel by the end of next year and, on that basis, the budget deficit may be narrower,” he said.
Oil prices have recovered since tumbling to their lowest in almost two decades this year as the COVID-19 pandemic hit demand, but they are still largely below last year’s levels.
Qatar’s projected deficit will be covered using available financial resources or through issuing debt in the local and international markets if needed, the ministry said.
Next year, Qatar plans to spend 72.1 billion riyals for major projects, the ministry said, including some related to the soccer World Cup, which the country will host in 2022.
That represents be a 19.9% annual reduction in spending on major projects. Qatar also plans to cut spending, though to a smaller extent, on salaries and wages and on current expenditure.
“The spending plans are broadly in line with expectations and well within Qatar’s ability to finance even if oil is at or below its assumption,” said Rory Fyfe, managing director at MENA Advisors.
Qatar could see its economy shrink by 4.5% this year, the International Monetary Fund has predicted. That would be the smallest contraction among Gulf countries, it said.
($1 = 3.64 Qatar riyals)
Reporting by Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Jane Merriman and Alexander SmithOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b942e03f5b2d65bc1b36e3d74a81c1cb | https://www.reuters.com/article/qatar-egypt-int/qatar-egypt-foreign-ministers-meet-in-cairo-after-end-of-row-idUSKCN2AV2RH | Qatar, Egypt foreign ministers meet in Cairo after end of row | Qatar, Egypt foreign ministers meet in Cairo after end of row
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, is pictured at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon February 9, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar’s foreign minister met with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo on Wednesday on the sidelines of a meeting of Arab states, Qatar’s state news agency reported, two months after the end of a bitter regional dispute that placed the countries on opposing sides.
Egypt, along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, had cut ties with Qatar in 2017 over accusations that Doha supported terrorism, a charge it denies. But in January of this year, the Arab bloc agreed to restore diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Qatar.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on the sidelines of an Arab League meeting, QNA reported.
Sheikh Mohammed was cited as saying both countries were keen on a return to warm relations and that the meeting was characterised by a positive spirit and of optimism.
Egypt’s foreign ministry confirmed in a tweet the two had met.
Egyptian and Qatari delegates met in Kuwait last month for the first time since the dispute ended.
The United States, which has close ties with all states involved, has seen the rift as a threat to efforts to contain Iran and pushed for a united Gulf front.
The row also rattled Arab power politics in the region, where Gulf states have used their financial and political clout to influence events in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Writing by Alexander Cornwell in Doha; Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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d19c9b65d041f8eccee68bb708183e83 | https://www.reuters.com/article/qatar-energy-qp/update-3-qatar-plans-to-boost-lng-production-to-126-mln-t-by-2027-idUSL8N2851HI | UPDATE 4-Qatar plans to boost LNG production to 126 mln T by 2027 | UPDATE 4-Qatar plans to boost LNG production to 126 mln T by 2027
By Dahlia Nehme5 Min Read
* New expansion plans come after drilling, appraisal work
* QP plans to build 2 more LNG mega trains
* Qatar’s LNG production now is 77 million tons per year
* Oil and gas majors are racing for stake in new LNG project (Adds market context, graphic)
DOHA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Qatar topped up its expansion plan for its vast liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facilities after drilling and appraisal work at its gas fields and now expects to produce 126 million tonnes a year (mtpa) by 2027.
The announcement by the world's biggest LNG supplier comes as prices for the super-chilled gas languish at multi-year lows thanks to a surge in production from the United States, Russia and Australia. LNG-AS
The increased expansion plans, however, may not be enough to keep rival producing countries at bay who are fast closing in on Qatar’s dominance of the opaque but fast-growing market.
The chief executive of state energy giant Qatar Petroleum, Saad al-Kaabi, said on Monday the rise in output estimates is a result of new drilling and appraisal work in the expanded North Field mega field that confirmed gas reserves now exceeded 1,760 trillion cubic feet.
“These results will ... enable us to immediately commence the necessary engineering work for two additional LNG mega trains with a combined annual capacity of 16 million tons per annum (mtpa),” Kaabi told a news conference in Doha.
“This will raise Qatar’s LNG production from currently 77 million tons to 126 million tons per annum by 2027, representing an increase of about 64%.”
Qatar’s expansion plans, announced earlier on a smaller scale in 2017 and 2018, are seen as a lucrative opportunity, given the size of the development and easy access to gas, for oil majors who have showered Qatar Petroleum with some of their prized ventures for a role in QP’s projects.
QP had said it was lifting its LNG production to around 110 million tonnes per annum by 2024, and that it would build four new production facilities, known as LNG trains.
Kaabi said on Monday the timeline was extended for the additional production.
“Now that we have added two mega trains and 16 million tonnes, the (new) target has become 126 million tonnes and this of course needs a longer period so this will be achieved in 2027,” he said.
The allure is cheap gas from the North Field, the world’s biggest natural gas field which Qatar shares with Iran. Qatar’s gas extraction costs are some of the lowest in the world.
QP did not disclose the cost of expansion, but it is expected that the expansion phase will still cost dozens of billions of dollars.
RIVALS CLOSE BEHIND
Qatar has dominated the LNG market for over a decade and has been able to influence its mechanisms such as bedding down inflexible supply contracts with very long-term buyers.
But this power has been eroded with the rise of other producers especially in the United States, which have shaken up the market with looser and shorter contracts.
The currently oversupply market comes partly from a rise in U.S. production from below a tonne in 2015 to an expected 40 mtpa this year. Australia, also, has splashed out on big LNG projects and Wood Mackenzie expects the country’s production to be on par with Qatar’s from next year until about 2024.
Later in the decade, the United States will vie for top spot with Qatar although this latest plan from QP will make U.S. companies, private with little state support, more hesitant to finalise projects if the market becomes oversupplied again.
“(Qatar’s plans) will put more pressure in the post-2025 period. We forecast the market to remain relatively oversupplied for the next two years before tightening 2022 to 2024 and the second wave of LNG coming (on stream),” Giles Farrer, research director global LNG at Wood Mackenzie.
“We’re expecting at least one other U.S. project to go ahead. Will those other ones still be able attract sponsors -- that will be the question.”
Kaabi told Reuters in September that QP has short-listed international oil firms for a stake in its expanded North Field mega project, but may still choose to go it alone unless oil majors offer it significant value.
Qatar’s total hydrocarbon output will also rise to 6.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) from around 4.8 million boed in the next eight years, Kaabi said.
Additional reporting and writing by Rania El Gamal in Dubai and Sabina Zawadzki in London; Editing by Ghaida Ghantous, Ed Osmond and David EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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40c7c1a67f7d4671a8cde421e0d28949 | https://www.reuters.com/article/qatar-natl-bank-loans/qatar-national-banks-2017-loan-growth-to-rise-12-14-pct-analysts-idINL8N1MS498 | Qatar National Bank's 2017 loan growth to rise 12-14 pct -analysts | Qatar National Bank's 2017 loan growth to rise 12-14 pct -analysts
By Tom Arnold2 Min Read
DUBAI, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Qatar National Bank (QNB), the largest lender in the Middle East and Africa by assets, expects loan growth of 12-14 percent this year, propelled by government infrastructure spending, analysts said after a call with QNB’s finance chief.
The country’s banking sector has had to contend with fallout from a June decision by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar, though the Qatari government has shown little sign of weakening its commitment to spending on infrastructure projects.
QNB expects net profit growth of 6-8 percent for 2017 and for 2018, analysts said after an investor relations conference call with QNB Chief Financial Officer Ramzi Mari.
A QNB spokesman declined to comment, saying the information discussed on the call was not for media circulation.
The bank last week reported a 5.6 percent rise in third-quarter net profit to 3.6 billion riyals ($960 million).
Qatari banks have relied on infrastructure lending in recent years, helped by projects in preparation for Qatar hosting soccer’s 2022 World Cup tournament.
QNB’s public sector lending has grown at around twice the pace of its private sector loan growth this year, the analyst sources said, citing Mari.
Though it achieved loan growth of 34 percent last year, that was helped by its 2.7 billion euro ($3.17 billion) takeover of Turkey’s Finansbank. Roughly a third of the 2016 growth was from international sources.
The previous year’s loan growth was 14.8 percent.
Qatar’s diplomatic row with its neighbours has cut off many of its banks’ funding sources in the Gulf and has led to an outflow of deposits from those four countries.
QNB still has 1.9 percent of total deposits from the Gulf countries that are at odds with Qatar and expects those funds to exit within the next six to nine months, the analyst sources said, citing Mari. ($1 = 0.8512 euros) ($1 = 3.7502 riyals)
Reporting by Tom Arnold; Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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6651e36370a067ff4ffe04a1e3f39011 | https://www.reuters.com/article/qiagen-results-idUSL8N14U0TC20160110 | UPDATE 1-Qiagen says 2015 results miss expectations | UPDATE 1-Qiagen says 2015 results miss expectations
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
* 2015 sales rise estimated 3 pct at constant currency
* Qiagen had predicted growth of 4 pct
* EPS also misses view at $1.13-$1.14
* CEO says timing of some revenues was volatile (Adds comment from CEO on reasons for miss)
BERLIN, Jan 10 (Reuters) - German genetic testing specialist Qiagen has missed its own forecast for sales and profits last year, saying on Sunday it now estimates sales were up about 3 percent at constant currency exchange rates.
Qiagen, which had predicted sales would be up 4 percent at constant currency rates, said adjusted diluted earnings per share for 2015 were now estimated to have been $1.13-$1.14, down from its previous expectation of $1.16.
“This performance was hampered by factors that included volatility in the timing of revenues from the growing portfolio of companion diagnostic partnerships as well as lower revenues from instruments,” Chief Executive Peer M. Schatz said in a statement.
However, a strengthening of the dollar, Qiagen’s reporting currency, means that at actual rates, sales declined about 5 percent to some $1.2 billion, Qiagen said in a statement.
It said it expected adjusted net sales to rise about 6 percent at constant exchange rates in 2016, with adjusted diluted EPS to rise in line with that.
Qiagen will report final 2015 results on Feb. 2. (Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Mark Trevelyan)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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305afe1ecf2ceb3a08704c45e09a7bd5 | https://www.reuters.com/article/quake-chile-idINKCN0ZA3M0?edition-redirect=in | Magnitude 5.5 quake hits near Chile's copper mining area - USGS | Magnitude 5.5 quake hits near Chile's copper mining area - USGS
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
(Reuters) - A magnitude 5.5 quake struck near Chile’s copper mining area in the north of the country, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Friday.
The earthquake, located 116 miles (187 km) north of the city of Copiapo, was relatively deep, 80.8 miles (130 km) below the earth’s surface, the USGS said.
Chile, located in the earthquake-prone Ring of Fire, is the world’s largest producer of copper.
Reporting by Sandra Maler in Washington; Editing by Chris ReeseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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9d96da322f70ef13d622e2f0f8128775 | https://www.reuters.com/article/quake-nepal-predictions/quake-warnings-of-minutes-not-hours-are-possible-but-pricey-idINKBN0NI07B20150427?edition-redirect=in | Quake warnings of minutes, not hours, are possible, but pricey | Quake warnings of minutes, not hours, are possible, but pricey
By Sharon Begley4 Min Read
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nepal’s record of earthquakes dates to at least the 13th century, with significant temblors striking every 75 years or so. And through all that time, in Nepal as in most seismically active areas, there has been one constant: people in the path of destruction have had no idea when the shaking would start.
A boy looks out from a makeshift shelter in an open ground after an earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal April 26, 2015, a day after Saturday's 7.9 magnitude earthquake which killed more than 2,400 people and devastated Kathmandu valley. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
Even after decades of research, “our ability to predict earthquakes is still non-existent,” said seismologist Peggy Hellweg, of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.
The area around Kathmandu suffered damaging quakes in 1934 and 1988, but when disaster experts met in Nepal’s capital earlier this month, all they could forecast was that the next one would probably come in the next couple of decades.
Policy makers have, in at least one case, reacted harshly to seismologists’ limited foresight. In 2012, an Italian court found six scientists guilty of manslaughter because they failed to predict and warn residents in advance of the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake, which was preceded by months of minor rumblings and killed just over 300 people. The verdict was overturned in 2014.
But if predictions, meaning alerts days or weeks ahead, are still a distant goal, progress has been made on early warnings of earthquakes, giving precious seconds that can save lives. But the world is divided into haves and have-nots.
Earthquake early-warning systems have been deployed in only a handful of the world’s seismic hot zones, Hellweg said. They can warn of quakes as much as a few minutes before they strike. Countries with such systems include Mexico, Japan, and the United States, where the most advanced system is California’s state-run ShakeAlert.
They consist of stations housing seismometers that can detect P waves, non-destructive waves produced by an earthquake, that travel through Earth’s crust faster than S waves, the ones that shake the ground.
Once P waves reach a seismic station, the information is transmitted via phone lines, modems or satellite to labs. There, computers deploy advanced algorithms to calculate the origin and magnitude of the earthquake that generated the waves.
ShakeAlert gave the San Francisco Bay Area five to 10 seconds notice when the 2014 Napa earthquake hit.
“If Nepal had a seismic network that operated as the seismic stations in Northern California did in the Napa quake,” Hellweg said, “people in Kathmandu would probably have had 15 to 20 seconds warning.” That could have been enough to take cover under tables or even escape some collapsing buildings.
The systems do not come cheap. Capital investment costs for an early warning system for the entire west coast of the United States would total $38.3 million, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated last year, with annual maintenance and operations totaling $16.1 million.
TRANSIT SYSTEM WARNING
Since 2012, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in the San Francisco area has been tied into ShakeAlert. A signal from the earthquake warning system automatically decelerates BART trains before a quake of magnitude 4 (if local) or 5 (if distant) arrives, averting potentially disastrous derailments.
The system is not perfect, however. If the epicenter of a quake were actually in the San Francisco Bay Area, BART would have no warning: the P and S waves arrive almost simultaneously.
Japan’s early-warning system, operated by the Meteorological Agency, is more extensive.
Designed to send alerts to computers, municipal agencies and others when an earthquake will be powerful enough to crack walls, Japan’s system has issued public alerts since 2007. Bullet trains, nuclear reactors, and factories are tied into the system, and shut down automatically when the 2011 Tohoku quake struck, triggering a tsunami that caused a nuclear accident at Fukushima. Cellphone alerts told schoolchildren to take cover.
The system saved “thousands of lives,” Berkeley seismologist Richard Allen told a recent scientific conference.
Reporting by Sharon Begley; Editing by Frances Kerry and Sue HortonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3c2828b842c9706fc7fc49d341cf7d7a | https://www.reuters.com/article/qualcomm-huawei-tech-idUSKBN27U0MW? | Qualcomm receives U.S. permission to sell 4G chips to Huawei in exception to ban | Qualcomm receives U.S. permission to sell 4G chips to Huawei in exception to ban
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: A Qualcomm sign is shown outside one of the company's many buildings in San Diego, California, U.S., September 17, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
(Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc on Friday received a license from the U.S. government to sell 4G mobile phone chips to China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, an exemption to U.S. trade restrictions imposed amid rising tensions with China.
“We received a license for a number of products, which includes some 4G products,” a Qualcomm spokeswoman told Reuters.
Qualcomm and all other American semiconductor companies were forced to stop selling to the Chinese technology firm in September after U.S. trade restrictions took effect.
The spokeswoman declined to comment on the specific 4G products Qualcomm can sell to Huawei but said they were related to mobile devices. Qualcomm has other license applications pending with the U.S. government, she said.
In the past Huawei was a relatively small chip customer for Qualcomm, which is the biggest supplier of mobile phone chips. Huawei used its own house-designed chips in its flagship handsets but used Qualcomm chips in lower-priced models.
Huawei’s potential to design its own chips was thwarted in September by U.S. trade restrictions that blocked its access to chip design software and fabrication tools. Industry analysts believe Huawei’s stockpile of chips purchased before the ban could run out early next year, crippling its smartphone business.
Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon said the Qualcomm license would have a “limited impact” because it covers only 4G chips while consumers are shifting to newer 5G devices. Rasgon said it is still unclear whether U.S. officials will grant Qualcomm licenses for 5G smartphone chips.
Representatives for Huawei and the U.S. Department of Commerce, which grants the licenses, declined to comment.
Other U.S. companies such as Micron Technology Inc were also stopped from selling to Huawei and have said they have applied for licenses. Intel Corp has also said it has a license to sell to Huawei.
Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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f6408db17bf362ee2edcbb4a902dbdde | https://www.reuters.com/article/qudian-ipo-pricing/online-micro-lender-qudian-ipo-prices-at-24-per-ads-sources-idUSL4N1MS5QQ | Online micro-lender Qudian' IPO prices at $24 per ADS - sources | Online micro-lender Qudian' IPO prices at $24 per ADS - sources
By Nikhil Subba, Diptendu Lahiri2 Min Read
Oct 17 (Reuters) - Chinese online micro-credit provider Qudian Inc’s initial public offering was priced at $24 per American depository share, according to sources close to the matter, above the expected range of $19-$22 each.
The 37.5 million shares offering raised about $900 million, making it the largest U.S.-listing by a Chinese company this year.
At $24 per share price, Qudian has a market value of as much as $7.9 billion.
Backed by Alibaba’s banking unit Ant Financial, Qudian operates a website that allows college students and young white-collar workers to buy laptops, smartphones and other consumer electronics on monthly installments.
Founded over three years ago, the company provided $5.6 billion of credit in H1 2017 to 7 million active borrowers.
Qudian’s net income jumped near eight-times to 973.7 million yuan ($143.6 million) in the six months ended June 30, while revenue rose near five-fold to 1.83 billion yuan ($270.4 million) in the same period.
Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, CICC and UBS are joint bookrunners on the IPO. (Reporting by Roopal Verma, Nikhil Subba and Diptendu Lahiri in Bengaluru; editing by Ankur Banerjee)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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ff982fe7df716b6f6ce0786058b48c63 | https://www.reuters.com/article/questdiagnostics-results/quest-expects-covid-19-tests-turnaround-time-at-acceptable-levels-by-sept-idUSL3N2EU30O | Quest expects COVID-19 tests turnaround time at 'acceptable' levels by Sept | Quest expects COVID-19 tests turnaround time at 'acceptable' levels by Sept
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
July 23 (Reuters) - Quest Diagnostics Inc said on Thursday it expects to get turnaround times for COVID-19 tests to “acceptable” levels by this September by boosting capacity and prioritizing the most at-risk patients.
The company on an earnings conference call said its turnaround time for non-priority testing is now as long as seven days and added it aims to increase COVID-19 diagnostic testing to 150,000 per day by next month. (Reporting by Dania Nadeem and Carl O’ Donnell; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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79753a746eab2cd5e699265929a38960 | https://www.reuters.com/article/raiffeisen-intl-results-idUSL1N2KB0G6 | Raiffeisen Bank beats Q4 profit estimates, proposes dividend | Raiffeisen Bank beats Q4 profit estimates, proposes dividend
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
Feb 5 (Reuters) - Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International AG reported a quarterly profit on Friday that beat estimates and said it plans to pay a 2020 dividend of 0.48 euro ($0.5742) per share.
The lender, which does business across central and eastern Europe, said it would propose the dividend distribution at its annual general meeting on April 22.
The company said it may also consider an additional dividend distribution once the European Central Bank’s recommendation on dividend payments has been lifted.
Raiffeisen’s fourth-quarter consolidated profit came in at 205 million euros, compared with company-compiled estimates of 139 million euros.
$1 = 0.8359 euros Reporting by Zuzanna Szymanska in Gdansk; Editing by Shounak DasguptaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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1ef198eb7a7bbb10fef65955953b2e27 | https://www.reuters.com/article/rayonier-marcato/update-1-marcatos-mcguire-bets-rayonier-advanced-materials-stock-will-jump-idUSL1N1RU1GC | UPDATE 1-Marcato's McGuire bets Rayonier Advanced Materials stock will jump | UPDATE 1-Marcato's McGuire bets Rayonier Advanced Materials stock will jump
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss2 Min Read
(Adds details about investment, stock price)
NEW YORK, April 17 (Reuters) - Hedge fund manager Mick McGuire said on Tuesday that Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc’s stock price could triple if the company focuses on integrating a recent acquisition and cutting costs.
McGuire’s Marcato Capital Management began buying the stock last year and spoke about the chemical company that specializes in cellulose-based products publicly for the first time on Tuesday at the 13D Monitor’s 2018 Active-Passive Investor Summit.
“The company should concentrate on integrating its recent acquisition, paying down debt and buying back stock,” McGuire said.
Rayonier late last year made a “very accretive acquisition” and there are plenty of what McGuire calls “self-help” actions to help boost the share price.
McGuire said Rayonier’s stock price could rise to somewhere between $34 to $60 a share from its current level of $21.94 in roughly three years.
The hedge fund, which is based in San Francisco and delivered a 26 percent gain last year, engaged with management earlier this and agreed to put Marcato partner Matthew Hepler onto its board.
McGuire said his team could be a resource to management and support the board with analysis that it might not otherwise be able to access.
Thanks to its Tembec acquisition, Rayonier now has 47 percent of market share, up from 32 percent, and the hedge fund expects that there will be fresh synergies between the two companies. Also McGuire said that the company will become stronger by selling off some businesses that came along with Tembec but are not critical to the core business.
The stock price climbed over 3 percent after McGuire made his presentation.
Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia OstermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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818351b9abda6d85ebd83fe32acde258 | https://www.reuters.com/article/raytheon-forcepoint/raytheon-cfo-signals-company-open-to-options-for-forcepoint-unit-idUSL2N1X50S7 | Raytheon CFO signals company open to options for Forcepoint unit | Raytheon CFO signals company open to options for Forcepoint unit
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
WASHINGTON, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Raytheon’s Forcepoint business unit, a commercial-focused cybersecurity business, may not be a permanent part of the company, the CFO said on a conference call.
“All options are out there that we will consider at the right time,” Raytheon’s CFO Toby O’Brien said during the company’s earnings call with analysts.
The company expects Forcepoint sales to increase in the fourth quarter. (Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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18eda0532ecc732bf81c8b413a391794 | https://www.reuters.com/article/rbc-results/wrapup-2-rbc-warns-of-credit-performance-dependence-on-government-aid-after-profit-beat-idUSL4N2KU3YY | RBC warns of credit performance dependence on government aid after profit beat | RBC warns of credit performance dependence on government aid after profit beat
By Nichola Saminather, Noor Zainab Hussain3 Min Read
(Reuters) - Royal Bank of Canada executives cautioned on Wednesday that the company’s 2021 credit performance hinges on the outlook for government support after its quarterly profit beat estimates on much lower than expected provisions for loan losses.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
RBC, Canada’s top lender, also flagged a moderation in trading activity this year.
National Bank of Canada, which also beat profit expectations, said trading revenues could decline if volumes come off following recent surges, some of which Chief Executive Louis Vachon attributed to “pockets of irrational exuberance” and distortions caused by quantitative easing.
Both banks posted record earnings in their capital markets businesses in the first quarter.
RBC and National Bank, the smallest of Canada’s six major lenders, followed rivals Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia in posting better-than-expected profits that have also now surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
Canadian banks have largely avoided an increase in soured loans thanks to several government assistance measures, expected to end this summer.
While BMO and RBC released some reserves on performing loans during the quarter, signaling an improving outlook for loan losses, RBC said delinquencies will still increase for the remainder of 2021, accompanied by a rise in impaired loan provisions.
RBC Chief Risk Officer Graeme Hepworth told analysts the degree to which the government support is extended or transformed “will drive ... the expectations and implications for our credit performance in the latter half of the year.”
National Bank executives said that while loan losses could be lower than initially thought, the bank is maintaining its provisions on performing loans.
Despite the somewhat murky credit picture, RBC executives said they were heartened by expected improvement in the second half on expectations of growth in higher-margin loans like commercial and credit cards as businesses reopen and the economy recovers.
RBC shares rose 0.3% to C$112.53 in afternoon trading in Toronto, while National Bank stock was up 4.6% at C$79.30, both heading for their highest close on record. The Toronto stock benchmark was up 0.9%.
Canadian lending rose 6% in the three months through January at RBC but this was driven entirely by increases in residential mortgages.
RBC expects continued mortgage growth will help drive a consumer-led recovery in its Canadian banking unit, based on a forecast of high-single-digit growth in Canadian housing prices this year, following a record year in 2020 for resale activity.
RBC reported adjusted cash earnings of C$2.69 per share versus analysts’ expectations of C$2.26. National Bank’s adjusted income rose to C$2.15 per share, compared with estimates of C$1.71.
Reporting by Nichola Saminather in Toronto and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel, Matthew Lewis and Marguerita ChoyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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87e84689627bb7eea25d4d1109943940 | https://www.reuters.com/article/rbs-branches-corsair-idUKL5N0HN2D120130927?edition-redirect=uk | UPDATE 3-Church of England teams with U.S. investors to back new "ethical" bank | UPDATE 3-Church of England teams with U.S. investors to back new "ethical" bank
By 5 Min Read
* Corsair-led consortium sees off competition for 314 RBS branches
* Group to pay 600 mln stg for minority stake
* RBS reviving Williams & Glyn’s brand for UK “challenger” bank
* Church of England among investors in consortium
By Steve Slater
LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The Church of England is backing a new “ethical” British bank which will be created out of branches sold by Royal Bank of Scotland.
RBS dusted off the dormant Williams & Glyn’s brand which dates back 260 years, to rename the 314 branches it was ordered by European authorities to sell in return for receiving a taxpayer bailout in 2008.
The new bank is expected it to be a “challenger” to the existing big four names on Britain’s high street, with a particular strength in small business banking.
The Church of England said Williams & Glyn’s will operate “to the highest ethical standards”.
British banks have been hit by a series of mis-selling scandals and huge compensation payments over recent years, involving the sale of pensions, insurance and endowment mortgages.
RBS said on Friday it had picked the consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Corsair, which bid 600 million pounds ($960 million) to take “a significant minority stake” of up to 49 percent in the new bank when it lists on the stock market.
That is likely to take place in 2015, said John Maltby, who fronted Corsair’s winning bid in an auction and is chief executive designate of the Williams & Glyn’s business.
“This is a great opportunity to bring some more competition to banking in the UK,” Maltby said in an interview.
The deal will enable RBS to share in any upside if bank valuations improve.
Rival Lloyds Banking Group is also separating hundreds of branches to create a new bank. Lloyds this month renamed 630 branches as TSB and plans to float them next year.
Corsair’s team includes U.S. private equity firm Centerbridge, the Church of England’s investment fund and RIT Capital Partners, an investment trust of Lord Rothschild.
It had emerged in the past few weeks as the front-runner for the deal, seeing off competition from a Blackstone-led consortium and from W&G Investments, a group of investors.
RBS had agreed to sell the branches, dubbed Project Rainbow, to Santander for about 1.65 billion pounds, but that deal collapsed a year ago.
OLD NAME REVIVED
Williams & Glyn’s origins date back to 1753 and the name has been dormant for almost 30 years.
“I well remember the Williams and Glyn’s brand. In the 1980s...they had a very strong values system, and that is even more important today in banking,” said Mervyn Davies, the former CEO of Standard Chartered who is vice chairman of Corsair.
Maltby said the investment by the Church of England was “material”. The Church Commissioners manage 5.5 billion pounds, and its returns support Church of England work, mission activities, pay for cathedral costs and run the payroll for serving and retired clergy.
Williams & Glyn’s has nearly 1.7 million customers and employs around 4,500 people, and is likely to have 6,000 staff in the future, RBS said. It has a 5 percent share of the UK market for small business banking and about 2 percent of personal current accounts.
The task of separating the branches and the need to split the legal entity means it will take some time for the business to be ready for its own stock market listing.
The deal values the branches at a minimum of 1.2 billion pounds. Some estimates have put a value of 1.5 billion pounds on the network, which would give the Corsair group a 40 percent stake for its investment.
Under the structure of the deal, RBS has issued a 600 million pound bond to the investors, which will be exchangeable into shares at the time of the listing. RBS will pay annual interest of between 8 percent and 14 percent on the bond.
The branches have 19.7 billion pounds in loans and 22.2 billion pounds in customer deposits and made an operating profit of 168 million pounds in the first half of this year. The business made a post-tax return on equity of about 16 percent, well above the levels that most banks in Europe are generating.
Philip Green, the former CEO of United Utilities, a director of Lloyds and an advisor on corporate responsibility to the UK Prime Minister, is due to become chairman of Williams & Glyn’s prior to its stock market listing. Maltby was previously head of commercial banking at Lloyds.
RBS was advised by UBS on the deal and the Corsair consortium was advised by HSBC and Barclays.
BreakingviewsReuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time.Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on Twitter @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com. All opinions expressed are those of the authors.
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7cad89537477254f66e4436c734842fd | https://www.reuters.com/article/rbs-natwest-markets-redundancies/rbs-presses-on-with-natwest-markets-cuts-axing-130-jobs-ft-idUKL4N2BW2IQ?edition-redirect=uk | RBS presses on with NatWest Markets cuts, axing 130 jobs-FT | RBS presses on with NatWest Markets cuts, axing 130 jobs-FT
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland has cut around 130 jobs in its investment banking division NatWest Markets, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
The state-backed lender has paused much of its cost-cutting and restructuring initiatives to deal with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, but has decided to press ahead with cuts to its loss-making NWM unit.
“Where restructurings proceed, we will seek to mitigate impacts for employees and customers, which will include delaying exits and continuing to pay employees, in certain cases, until 30 September 2020,” a spokeswoman for NWM said. (Reporting by Iain Withers, editing by Sinead Cruise)
BreakingviewsReuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time.Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on Twitter @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com. All opinions expressed are those of the authors.
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ecc826abc34d1b5868277ec2ad68ca2f | https://www.reuters.com/article/rbssAirlines/idUSBNG49051220090525 | CORRECTED - UPDATE 3-Southwest, WestJet delay code-share | CORRECTED - UPDATE 3-Southwest, WestJet delay code-share
By 3 Min Read
(Corrects paragraph 4 to remove reference to Southwest’s stock move as market was closed)
* Delay blamed on recessionary revenue environment
* Analyst says move disappointing but not a big revenue hit
* WestJet: Southwest says remains committed to partnership
By Nicole Mordant
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 25 (Reuters) - A planned code-share partnership between low-cost carriers WestJet Airlines Ltd WJA.TO and Southwest Airlines Co LUV.N will be delayed because of a sharp slowdown in air travel, WestJet, Canada's No. 2 airline, said in a surprise announcement on Monday.
WestJet said U.S.-based Southwest has decided to put the funds earmarked for the code-share program to other, unnamed, uses in the current slow sales environment.
The code-share program, which was announced in July last year and was expected to be operating by the end of 2009, would have seen the two airlines selling seats on each other’s flights. This would have meant cheaper and easier access to new customers for each carrier.
Shares of WestJet were slightly weaker at midday on Monday. WestJet’s stock was down 24 Canadian cents at C$12.24 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Southwest’s stock was untraded in New York with U.S. markets closed for the Memorial Day holiday.
“We are kind of disappointed but it’s not a big deal,” said Research Capital analyst Jacques Kavafian, who researches WestJet’s stock.
“The revenue potential from this was not great and so it is not a big loss,” he told Reuters.
He noted that the tie-up was delayed, not canceled.
Southwest has not given WestJet any indication when the codeshare implementation might be revived, Hugh Dunleavy, WestJet’s executive vice-president of commercial distribution told Reuters.
Bob Jordan, Southwest’s executive vice-president of strategy and planning, said in the statement that Southwest remained “absolutely committed” to its partnership with WestJet and to code-sharing in general.
The two airlines have already implemented a distribution agreement and are close to starting a cargo program.
The codeshare agreement with Southwest was WestJet's first such deal. In February, it said it had agreed to study a code-sharing alliance with Air France-KLM AIRF.PA.
WestJet also said on Monday that implementation of its Sabre reservation system, which is key to code-sharing, is continuing on track. It will be ready for launch in the fourth quarter, the company said.
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de605e0ebd625fd4aa2c397addfc6188 | https://www.reuters.com/article/rbssAirlines/idUSL770053620090807 | Norwegian Air Shuttle traffic up 16 pct in July | Norwegian Air Shuttle traffic up 16 pct in July
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
OSLO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Budget airline Norwegian Air Shuttle NWC.OL said it carried 16 percent more passengers in July than a year earlier and its yield rose year on year.
Norwegian Air, a rival of Scandinavian airline SAS SAS.STSAS.COSASNOK.OL, said on Friday it carried 1,048,684 passengers in July, up from 900,983 a year earlier.
Total passenger traffic measured by the number of passengers and kilometres flown (RPK), rose by 10 percent.
“The increase in passenger traffic, production and passengers is related to the group’s expansion in established markets and to the introduction of new routes from August 2008 to July 2009, as well as adjustments in production capacity,” Norwegian said in a statement.
The yield -- the average revenue per passenger carried and kilometre flown -- was estimated at 0.59 Norwegian crowns in July, down from 0.64 crowns in June, but up from 0.57 crowns in July last year, it said.
The load factor, an indicator of seats sold as a percentage of capacity, rose in July by one percentage point from a year ago to 88 percent, the airline said.
It said the average flying distance fell by 4 percent in July compared to the same period last year.
Reporting by Wojciech Moskwa; editing by John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b87d0f07d269d1c4c2fd26cbe54a173a | https://www.reuters.com/article/rbssAutoTruckManufacturers/idUSLK46057920090820 | UPDATE 2-VW CEO says Suzuki would be interesting -magazine | UPDATE 2-VW CEO says Suzuki would be interesting -magazine
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
* VW CEO says Suzuki interesting due to small car expertise
* German magazine says VW interested in 10 pct stake, JV
* Three new Porsche models envisaged to help double sales
* VW shares down 3.4 pct (Adds comments on new Porsche models)
FRANKFURT, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Volkswagen VOWG.DE could be interested in a tie-up with Japanese carmaker Suzuki Motor Corp 7269.T, Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn told a German magazine.
“Suzuki would be an interesting partner because of its competency in small cars,” he said in an interview with Manager Magazin released ahead of publication on Friday.
Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, was not immediately available for comment, while Suzuki had no comment.
A person familiar with the matter said there had already been talks between VW and Suzuki.
The magazine said, without citing sources, that Volkswagen was interested in taking a 10 percent stake in Suzuki or forming a joint venture. It said France's Renault RENA.PA was also in talks with Suzuki. Renault was not immediately available.
Suzuki CEO Osamu Suzuki had last told media in late June that he had had no contact with VW, shooting down a Manager Magazin report at the time that Europe’s largest carmaker was exploring a deal with its Japanese rival to boost its presence in ultra small cars. [ID:nT342548]
Shares of Volkswagen were down 3.4 percent at 141 euros by 0934 GMT, while Renault was up 3.3 percent at 32.50 euros. The DJ Stoxx European car sector index .SXAP was up 1.5 percent.
In the magazine interview, Winterkorn defended terms of VW's deal to buy an initial minority stake in Porsche's PSHG_p.DE sports car business for up to 3.3 billion euros ($4.65 billion) as a step toward a full merger of the carmakers. [ID:nLE574300]
“We are not giving away any money here,” he said, adding several investment banks and auditors had confirmed it was paying a fair price in the deal.
The transaction is set to make Porsche the 10th brand in Volkswagen’s camp, which ranges from small cars to heavy trucks.
Winterkorn said he could imagine Porsche’s annual vehicle sales doubling to around 150,000 units “in the foreseeable future, say 2012 or 2013” as it adds more models.
These could include a new model smaller than the Boxster, its smallest car so far; a “little brother” to the Cayenne sport utility vehicle and an additional version of the new Panamera four-door sedan, he said. (Additional reporting Benjamin Mallet in Paris, Arno Schuetze in Hanover and Chang-Ran Kim in Tokyo) (Reporting by Maria Sheahan)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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97c613dc7379a51bc923b85f2dd882c8 | https://www.reuters.com/article/rbssAutoTruckManufacturers/idUSLP5128320090625 | UPDATE 2-Volkswagen mulls cooperation with Suzuki - source | UPDATE 2-Volkswagen mulls cooperation with Suzuki - source
By Christiaan Hetzner3 Min Read
* VW eyes Suzuki’s success in small cars
* Tiny sells big in emerging markets
(Adds detail)
FRANKFURT, June 25 (Reuters) - Volkswagen VOWG.DE is exploring a cooperation deal with Japanese rival Suzuki Motor 7269.T to boost the German carmaker's expertise in ultra small cars, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
“You have see it through an Asian perspective, particularly a Japanese one. There are vehicle sizes and classes that cannot be found here,” the person said.
“You only see them at the Tokyo motor show but it is undoubtedly an interesting segment, just have a quick look at the developing markets like India. It’s correct that there is a gap there that could be closed.”
The cooperation could provide a model below the upcoming “New Small Family” of mini cars based on the Up! concept. VW currently plans to release the range of small cars starting with a VW brand car which will be built in Bratislava and due to hit markets in 2011.
Germany’s manager magazin reported on Thursday Volkswagen was looking to secure a cooperation deal by taking a 10 percent stake in Suzuki.
“It’s not that far along,” the source said, adding “(Volkswagen) are first discussing the possibilities of a cooperation”.
A spokesman for Suzuki could not comment, saying he had not heard anything on a potential tie-up, while VW declined to comment.
Ferdinand Piech, Volkswagen’s chairman, signalled interest in Suzuki after praising it when asked at the Polo’s media launch last month in Sardinia which other brands could be added to the group’s stable.
MOBILITY SPREADING
Suzuki is benefiting in Japan from the popularity of 660cc ultra small vehicles -- a sector dominates with Toyota unit Daihatsu Motor Co 7262.T.
That helped Suzuki and Daihatsu overtake Nissan Motor Co 7201.T to become the second and third-ranked brands in Japan after Toyota in the past financial year.
The company also has a dominant leader similar to VW’s Piech. Chief executive Osamu Suzuki, in his late 70s, has held the post for the past 30 years and recently reclaimed the position of president -- a post he had previously relinquished.
Suzuki is also enjoying success in emerging markets like India, where its 54 percent unit Maruti Suzuki MRTI.BO is the country's biggest carmaker thanks in part to its best-selling Alto, a tiny model built in India together with Nissan's 7201.T Pixo, which share underpinnings.
These small cars have served as a major source of growth in markets like India, where mobility has spread to the populace.
Tata Motor's TAMO.BO new car that costs just 100,000 rupees ($3,500), dubbed the Nano due to its tiny size, has provoked a flood of orders and prepayments that helped Tata refinance a $2 billion of bridge loans due this month and used to fund its acquisition of Jaguar-Land Rover last year.
Additional reporting by Jan Schwartz in Hamburg and Nobuhiro Kubo in Tokyo; Editing by Dan LalorOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4c9c460429a12202da6bfc7bfd9719a3 | https://www.reuters.com/article/rbssBanks/idUSL739266120080807 | Talaat Moustafa drops, Egypt's main index ends down | Talaat Moustafa drops, Egypt's main index ends down
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
CAIRO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Talaat Moustafa Holding TMGH.CA dragged Egypt's benchmark index lower on Thursday with the share making its sharpest single-day drop in over a month as investors worried real estate prices could decline and hit profits.
Shares of Egypt's largest developer by market value shed 3.77 percent to 7.91 Egyptian pounds ($1.49). Heliopolis Housing HELI.CA, Egypt's second largest developer, retreated 2.79 percent to last trade at 57.76 pounds.
“Based on net asset value, the stocks are trading at a big discount, but there has been a cautious sentiment toward real estate in general,” said Mohamed Radwan, trader at Pharos Securities in Cairo. “Given the international problems with subprime, people don’t want to get in that position.”
Shares of Talaat Moustafa have fallen more than 30 percent this year and Heliopolis Housing has shed nearly 50 percent.
Shares of Commercial International Bank COMI.CACOMIq.L, Egypt's largest lender by market value, gained 1.7 percent to 50.30 pounds. The stock has risen more than 2 percent since August 3, when a Dubai state-owned fund said it bought a 5.24 percent stake in the lender.
“Dubai’s acquisition has given a push to institutional investors in general,” Radwan said. “It gives them confidence.”
Shares of Orascom Construction Industries OCIC.CAOCICq.L dropped 2.46 percent to 366.10 pounds.
Egypt's benchmark CASE 30 index .CASE30, down about 15 percent this year, dipped 0.49 percent to 8,878.86 points. The Hermes index .HRMS was near flat at 773.68 points, and the broader CIBC index .CIBC rose 0.71 percent to 433.74 points. ($1 = 5.30 Egyptian pounds) (Writing by Will Rasmussen)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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65e589e8a82c15006e37be8e7a378ceb | https://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConstructionAgriculturalMachinery/idUST6311720090123 | Komatsu cuts 2008/09 profit forecast by one-third | Komatsu cuts 2008/09 profit forecast by one-third
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
TOKYO, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Construction machinery maker Komatsu Ltd 6301.T slashed its profit forecast for this year by a third to a level well below the market consensus on Friday, blaming a sudden, steep fall in global demand.
Komatsu, which competes with the world's No.1 Caterpillar Inc CAT.N, said it now saw an operating profit of 200 billion yen ($2.3 billion) for the year to March 2009, down from its previous profit estimate of 300 billion yen. [ID:nT2368WYFA]
That would be down 40 percent from the previous year and lag the consensus estimate in a poll of 16 analysts by Reuters Estimates of 273.7 billion yen.
“This is not good for its stock price,” Hidehiko Hoshino, an analyst at UBS, said.
“The market will focus on a possible sharp deterioration in profit in the next business year and a lack of visibility in its earnings environment.”
Hoshino said he expected Komatsu’s operating profit in the year to March 2010 could fall below 80 billion yen, given a swift fall in demand particularly in emerging economies.
Komatsu said production cutbacks and depreciation of currencies in Australia, Russia, South Africa and Brazil will weigh on its earnings this year. ($1=88.86 Yen) (Reporting by Yuko Inoue)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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157e3ec5aabc05393e9e94e4a6116f0d | https://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerElectronics/idUSLH12337620090417 | UPDATE 4-Pirate Bay's fileshare four get year's jail | UPDATE 4-Pirate Bay's fileshare four get year's jail
By 4 Min Read
* Guilty verdict in copyright test case
* Quartet also ordered to pay $3.6 mln compensation
* Appeal likely
* Analysts see limited impact on illegal downloading
(Adds defendant comment, lawyers appealing)
By Veronica Ek
STOCKHOLM, April 17 (Reuters) - Four men behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world’s biggest free file-sharing websites, were each sentenced to a year in jail on Friday for breaching copyright, and ordered to pay $3.6 million in compensation.
Analysts said the guilty verdict in the closely-watched test case could help music and film companies recoup millions of dollars in lost revenues, though they doubted it would stem the tide of illegal downloading.
In a broadcast on The Pirate Bay’s website one of the four defendants, Peter Sunde, taunted the court, holding up a mock IOU note for 31 million Swedish crowns ($3.6 million) followed by the initials “JK” -- Internet lingo for “just kidding”.
“That’s the closest they’re going to get to getting money from me,” Sunde said.
International trade body IFPI, which represents some 1,400 record companies across the world, reported earlier this year that about 95 percent of music downloaded in 2008 was illegal. [ID:nLF736426]
On its website, The Pirate Bay scorned the ruling, calling it a “crazy verdict”.
“It was lol (laugh out loud) to read and hear,” the message read. “But as in all good movies, the heroes lose in the beginning but have an epic victory in the end anyhow. That’s the only thing Hollywood has ever taught us.”
IFPI Chairman John Kennedy welcomed the court sentence which he said in a statement provided a “a strong deterrent” against copyright infringement.
“This is good news for everyone, in Sweden and internationally, who is making a living or a business from creative activity and who needs to know their rights will protected by law,” he said.
The men linked to The Pirate Bay -- Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom -- were charged early last year by a Swedish prosecutor with conspiracy to break copyright law and related offences. They denied the charges.
Companies including Warner Bros. WMG.N, MGM, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG 6758.T, Universal GE.NVIV.PA and EMI also sought damages of more than 100 million crowns ($12 million) to cover lost revenues.
The Stockholm district court said in a statement the four were found guilty of breaching copyright laws and each sentenced to a year in prison.
APPEAL
Lundstrom’s attorney, Per Samuelson, told journalists he was shocked by the verdict and the severity of the sentence.
“That’s outrageous, in my point of view. Of course we will appeal,” he said. “This is the first word, not the last. The last word will be ours.”
The lawyers defending Sunde and Neij told Reuters their clients would also appeal the verdict.
The group that controls The Pirate Bay, launched in 2003, says that no copyrighted material is stored on its servers and no exchange of files actually takes place there so it cannot be held responsible for what material is being exchanged.
The prosecution said that by financing, programming and administering the site, the four men promoted the infringement of property rights by the site’s users.
Industry experts were not convinced the verdict would have a lasting effect.
“Every time you get rid of one, another bigger one pops up. Napster went, and then up came a whole host of others ... The problem of file-sharing just keeps growing year on year, and it’s increasingly difficult for the industry to do anything about it,” said music analyst Mark Mulligan of research firm Forrester.
Dan Cryan, senior analyst at media research firm Screen Digest, said the lack of international copyright law meant websites dedicated to illegal downloads could simply move on to a new country if legislation tightened where they operated.
“Pirate Bay was brilliant at self-publicity, but the reality is there are lots of other torrent-tracker sites,” he said.
“The closing of the one that shouts the loudest won’t make any difference.”
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