Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina assured the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) of necessary cooperation in continuing the anticorruption drive, which climbed its climax during the past interim regime throwing many high-profile graft suspects behind bars.(UNB)
"The PM has assured us of providing all cooperation for continuation of the anti-graft drive," ACC Chairman Lieutenant General (Retd) Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury told reporters after meeting with Hasina at her Secretariat office on Wednesday afternoon.
During the anti-graft watchdog's maiden meeting with the newly elected Prime Minister, ACC commissioners Habibur Rahman and Abul Hasan Manjur Mannan accompanied the chairman. Apart from the PM, no one from the government side was present. Several cases have been filed by the ACC against Sheikh Hasina herself under the stormy action during the interim period.
The ACC chairman told reporters that the Prime Minister was apprised of the ongoing activities of the Commission. He said there would always be challenges in fighting corruption and people do want the anti-graft drive to continue. "Through this meeting we could have been assured that we would get cooperation from the government in fighting corruption," Mashhud said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2009 00:00 ||
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HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro watched the U.S. inauguration on television and said Wednesday that Barack Obama seems "like a man who is absolutely sincere," Argentina's president said after meeting with the ailing Cuban icon. "Fidel believes in Obama," Cristina Fernandez said. "He told me he had followed the inauguration of Barack Obama very closely, that he had watched the inauguration on television all day," Fernandez said. "He had a very good perception of President Obama."
Fernandez said Castro called Obama "a man who seems absolutely sincere," who believes strongly in his ideas "and who hopefully can carry them out."
Earlier Wednesday, Raul Castro said Obama "seemed like a good man" and wished him luck.
Obama has pledged to ease limits on Cuban-Americans' visits to the island and on how much money they can send home to relatives. He has also offered to negotiate personally with Raul Castro, though he has said he won't push Congress to lift the U.S. trade embargo, at least not right away.
#1
When facing the end of life, the religiously unaffiliated often find themselves looking for something or someone to worship.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/22/2009 11:45 Comments ||
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#2
Fidel Castro: Barack Obama seems "like a man who is absolutely sincere."
Sam Goldwyn: "The most important thing in acting is sincerity. Once you learn how to fake that, you're in."
Two men have been given the death penalty for their involvement in China's contaminated milk scandal. The former boss of the Sanlu dairy at the centre of the scandal was given life imprisonment.
They are among 21 sentences being handed down by the court in northern China, where Sanlu is based. The scandal, in which melamine was added to raw milk to make it appear higher in protein, led to the deaths of six babies and made some 300,000 ill. It caused outrage in China and has tainted the image of the country's food industry both at home and abroad.
The most senior figure to be sentenced was Tian Wenhua, who was chairwoman of the Sanlu Group, the largest producer of baby milk powder. When the scandal broke in September, it emerged that Sanlu had known it was selling toxic milk - and allowed around 900 tonnes of it to leave its dairies.
It was only when its New Zealand partner intervened that production stopped.
Tian Wenhua pleaded guilty to charges of producing and selling fake or substandard produce in December. The Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang gave her a life sentence and ordered her to pay a fine of 20m ($2.9m) yuan. Sanlu itself was fined 50m yuan ($7.3m), Xinhua news agency reports, even though the firm has been declared bankrupt.
Three other former Sanlu executives were given between five years and 15 years.
Earlier the court sentenced Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping to death. Zhang Yujun was accused of running an illegal workshop in Shandong province in eastern China, producing 600 tonnes of the fake protein powder - the largest source of melamine in the country. He was sentenced along with Zhang Yanzhang - accused of selling on Zhang Yujun's protein powder - who was given a life sentence.
Milk producer, Geng Jinping had been convicted of producing and selling toxic food to dairy companies. His associate Geng Jinzhu was given eight years in prison. Gao Junjie, who was also accused of selling protein powder to milk producers, received a suspended death sentence, Xinhua said.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/22/2009 05:06 ||
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#1
I agree with the chinese government on this one. If the US did more of these things..wall street might be a more honest place.
#4
I agree with the chinese government on this one. If the US did more of these things..wall street might be a more honest place.
I disagree. My belief is that these people could not have done what they did without approval from the upper ranks of government. This is a state-owned company, after all, and information about the milk was disclosed to the Communist leadership in 2007. The Communists are picking out 21 scapegoats in lieu of giving out prison sentences to the thousands of party members and business people who poisoned the milk and compensating the parents whose babies were poisoned by the milk. Ultimately, if anyone's to be shot, it should be Hu Jintao, not his minions.
#6
Word on the street is that the milk company CEO was highly-regarded within the company, and that the Chinese regulatory authorities had OK'd melamine as a milk additive (probably without either knowing about its effects or bothering to check its effects on humans). I think at worst, melamine adulteration by suppliers merits the closure of the company and the seizure of its assets, especially when Chinese regulatory authorities approved its use. Instead of reforming the appropriate regulatory authority and compensating the aggrieved, the Communists are executing someone who built the company up from scratch, had the company confiscated from her by greedy Party members, who then saddled her with the blame for an additive that they approved. If there's anyone who needs to be shot, it's Hu Jintao and the entire senior cohort of the Communist Party, not her. The real problem here isn't evil Chinese businessmen - it's lazy, conniving and murderous Party higher-ups who kill law-abiding scapegoats rather than look in the mirror for the real criminals.
It's the Goodfellas way, with a twist. Restaurateur gives a share of his business to a mobster in exchange for "protection" that he never needed before that mobster's thugs showed up to give him a hard time. Over time, mobster takes over the restaurant and loots it. Then he burns it down for insurance. In Hu Jintao's China, the proprietor who got gypped even gets a life term.
#1
Looks like they played by the rules; better yet they didn't trash the value of VW or their stocks. They never hid that they wanted to acquire VW, they just never told the short sellers (that wanted the stocks to fall) what they were doing. Wah!
Iraq's government will tow the late dictator Saddam Hussein's yacht from France back to Iraq after the global economic crisis left the luxurious yacht without a buyer, a spokesman said Wednesday. That's a long way. How much insurance is on it?
Just sayin...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2009 00:00 ||
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The president of the United States has to be happy with no yacht, and a house that is tiny and poor by arab potentate standards. Saddam thought he was an emperor and deserved giant yachts and more than 78 palaces, most of them build during the US embargo that muslims like to call the starving of Iraqi children. I wonder why they didn't notice all those new palaces going up all over Iraq?
#4
The president of the United States has to be happy with no yacht
Well, the previous one was. The new one likens himself to FDR and JFK, so maybe in the 2009 Democratic Reelection Stimulus Package they can get the old one back. We know there are a number of equally expensive figurative palaces in the package, we haven't had enough time to find any literal ones yet, but we won't be surprised if there are one or two.
#5
Excuse me, why would the President want ONE smallish boat, when he effectively has a whole Navy?
Who would fall all ove themselves to have a "Ship" for the Presidents use.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
01/22/2009 15:05 Comments ||
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Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka expanded a safe zone for civilians fleeing fighting in the north as the army captured Tamil Tiger defense lines in its drive to seize the last main rebel base and end the countrys 26-year civil war. Soldiers overran LTTE defense lines at Udayarkattukulam, west of Mullaitivu, after hours of fierce fighting, the ministry said in a statement late yesterday. The LTTE hasnt commented on the report.
Civilians are making constant efforts to flee from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to areas in Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts captured by the army in the past three weeks, the Defense Ministry said on its Web site.
The Tamil Tigers have been driven to the northeastern region after suffering the biggest defeats in their fight for a separate homeland in the north and east of the island nation. Clashes in the past three weeks have displaced tens of thousands of civilians inside the conflict zones, the International Committee of the Red Cross said this week.
President Mahinda Rajapaksas government said two days ago it is taking steps to deal with the increasing numbers of displaced people in Wanni and Mullaitivu districts. Three centers have been set up to house about 30,000 people, it said in a statement.
The United Nations yesterday called on the government to ensure the safety of civilians and appealed to the LTTE to allow children and families to leave conflict zones and to release child soldiers. Any camp set up for IDPs has to meet international standards, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN special representative for children in armed conflict, said in a statement. The government of Sri Lanka should work with international and local humanitarian actors to ensure their safety and security.
As many as 200,000 civilians are trapped in the conflict zone, Dharmalingham Sidharthan, leader of the Peoples Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam, said earlier this week in a telephone interview from the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
People are fleeing from indiscriminate shelling by the army, the TamilNet news agency in the north reported. There are no international rights groups in the region to protect civilians who are facing a slow genocide, it said, citing the Vanni Peoples Welfare Organization.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
There are no international rights groups in the region to protect civilians who are facing "a slow genocide,"
FWIW Credit markets are showing some signs of life after months of inactivity, with energy companies helping to lead a surge in new debt and equity deals in recent weeks.
Companies have started to raise funds through sales of debt and equity at a pace not seen since last spring, according to data tracking firm Dealogic.
Globally, new corporate debt sales totaled $91.4 billion last week, the highest since last May when $103 billion was sold.
So far this year energy firms have raised $6.8 billion in debt in the U.S., while globally energy firms account for $37.5 billion in new debt. The surge has included firms with strong Houston ties.
In December, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Enbridge Energy Partners and El Paso each raised $500 million in debt. And earlier this month Devon Energy, Weatherford International and Nabors Industries raised close to $1.2 billion each.
Most of the companies are the kind that benefited from the high oil prices last year or have steady cash flows through assets like pipelines, said Bryce Linsenmayer, an attorney with Haynes & Boone in Houston. "But I'm still surprised at how January has started," Linsenmayer said.
Kinder Morgan originally wasn't planning to raise money through the debt markets in the fourth quarter of last year, President Park Shaper said. But the pipeline and terminals giant decided to raise $500 million in December in part to show the markets that it could.
"There was so much uncertainty that we wanted to show everyone we could access capital and take away some of the concerns about our needs later in 2009," Shaper said.
The proceeds from the 10-year notes the firm sold and another $177 million raised in December through issuing new equity will go toward expansion projects.
"We don't need it for our ongoing operations because our assets are the kind that need to operate in any business environment, moving fuel to drivers in Arizona and California or natural gas from suppliers to the users," Shaper said. Rest at the link. Knowledgeable Rantburgers, please chime in.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/22/2009 14:23 ||
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Simple. The government is taking actions that are basically going to require the expansion of the money supply; when this happens investors will seek various commodities and futures markets as a safe haven, and the prices of these commodities will increace, probably by more than the rate of inflation.
NOTE: LINK IS TO PDF of The Implications of a Gasoline Price Floor for the California Budget and Greenhouse Gas Emissions, by Severin Borenstein of CSEM.
(Summary here is from subscription newsletter, so not linked.)
A variable surcharge on transportation fuels could help California curb greenhouse gas emissions and generate revenue the state needs to shrink its budget deficit, Severin Borenstein, a University of California Berkeley economist, said Jan. 15. Kinda hard to do with everybody leaving the state, isn't it?
Unless you spread it to all 57 states. Stay tuned ...
At a conference on clean transportation technologies and policies, Borenstein outlined a proposal he floated late last year soon after state Democratic leaders proposed a 1.5 percent sales tax increase to boost revenue.
Borenstein said the "Fuel Price Stabilization Program" would create a "price floor" for gasoline and provide clear long-term price signals for consumers that we intend to screw over them as much as possible and for investors in clean technology.
Under the plan, a surcharge would be imposed on fuel whenever the price falls below a certain target. The surcharge would apply to retail sales of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels, and it would move inversely to the world price of oil, Borenstein explained. The mind boggles. This guy is an economist?
The price target would depend on how much revenue the state wants to generate and the "price signal" it wants to send to discourage increased fuel use, according to the plan. Ummmm - it might not work out quite that way....
Rapid drops in gasoline prices, like the one that began in July 2008, are likely to turn drivers back to gas-guzzling vehicles and habits and we can't have that, hindering the state's effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Borenstein said. Then why don't you quit breathing? There'd be less CO2 right there.
The surcharge would be a tough sell in the Legislature and to the public because in all some cases it would could mean higher gasoline prices, Borenstein, a professor at Berkeley's Haas School of Business and director of the UC Energy Institute, acknowledged. "We'd make sure it happened. It's for the children, you know."
Borenstein's Fuel Price Stabilization Program, however, does appeal to clean technology developers who want a price floor for oil that would encourage investor and consumer interest in their products. So the palms are greased fix is in? (They hope.)
CALSTART, the consortium of businesses and groups that support clean transportation technologies and host of the two-day conference, is recommending that the state adopt such a fuel surcharge. "It's further bankrupt the state, if that's possible, but what the hell, we'll get ours."
State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D) led a discussion on how best to motivate consumers to admit they exist to support the state reduce their carbon footprints. Carbon taxes, fuel surcharges, and other hidden fees were among the options panelists said would be most effective.
The Sierra Club's Bill Magavern, however, said the fees cannot appear to be penalizing consumers. "It's OK to penalize the rubes consumers, just make it look like you're not."
"We need to give them choices, like non-vehicle ways to get around," he said. They can walk, after all. Though of course we don't have to.
Good grief.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/22/2009 13:09 ||
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thats great, especially considering they've spent the last 50 years creating road infrastructure so that people now routinely commute hours (many, many, miles ) to and from work daily.
Posted by: beach boys ||
01/22/2009 14:10 Comments ||
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#2
And here I thought the market was doing to California what their fruits-flakes-and-nuts have espoused for decades and moving quickly to a second world economy with a third world population with first world academic twits in charge.
#3
The "floor" is to cover up the fact that the taxes collected from gasoline are in freefall 'cos a) the economy stinks and everyone's driving less/not buying stuff that has to be delivered by truck and b) the hybrid/alternative fuel vehicles are starting to have an impact.
#7
While I'd prefer an oil tariff to set a price floor on imported oil, this would be OK if the proceeds went to energy development. But you just know it'll go into the general funds to vanish into the sucking maw.
#8
"But you just know it'll go into the general funds pockets of the politicians to vanish into the sucking maw of their perks and their special interest buddies."
Fixed that for ya', K.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/22/2009 19:04 Comments ||
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#9
Arizona and New Mexico have got to love this plan : Cali should just call it the "2009 Jobs and Industrialization Transfer Act".
No, my property tax went up with the last election to subsidize the thing. It's a front to subsidize government employees who can't afford to live in Santa Fe because of the usual suspects driving prices up. So we're providing them 'affordable' transportation from Albuquerque.
Arizona and New Mexico have got to love this plan
Nah. most of our communities near civilization have passed building ordinances that require builders to show where they're getting the water to sustain any new developments. Not that the local corrupt government isn't open to Kelo the old folks [see article on Richardson's nomination withdraw down below], but that has a tendency to upset their usual voting block. The one big exception is the Indian Reservations, who are not about to sale land though very expensive leasing deals are possible [they've discovered the wonders of Washington lobbyists]. Arizona and Nevada can have the Californistas.
#12
Expect even more high tech and aerospace jobs to move to the Greater Las Vegas area in the next two years - since Cali is doing everything in its power to bankrupt them instate.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
