Latest News Clips 2013.01.17

                

1.      Japan’s Abe Unveils 10.3 Trillion Yen Fiscal Boost to Growth

The Bloomberg    Jan 10, 2013

The Japanese government will spend 10.3 trillion yen ($116 billion) to drive a recovery from a recession, in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s first major policy initiative to end deflation and boost growth.

Around 3.8 trillion will be for disaster prevention and reconstruction, with 3.1 trillion yen directed to stimulating private investment and other measures, according to a statement released today by the Cabinet Office. The package will increase gross domestic product by about 2 percentage points and create about 600,000 jobs, according to the statement.

A fiscal boost may help Abe maintain support for his Liberal Democratic Party before upper house elections in July as the yen weakens and stocks rally. The extra spending may heighten concerns that the government’s commitment to fiscal reform is slipping, adding to the risk that a public debt at more than twice the size of the economy may trigger a surge in bond yields.

“Abe will probably give the economy more shots in the arm and turn a blind eye to fiscal discipline until the elections,” said Hiroaki Muto, a senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “There’s a risk that long-term bond yields will rise unless the government takes measures to restore fiscal health.”

The government will compile a 13.1 trillion yen extra budget to help pay for the stimulus, according to the statement. The Ministry of Finance told bond investors during meetings yesterday that the extra spending will require additional bond issuance to the market.

2.      Customized mass production using 3D

DW    2012.12.26

Until now, products printed using 3D have mostly been prototypes. But the technology can also be applied to serial production, and is set to revolutionize industry, the nature of production, and consumption.

New components - T-girders and mechanical casings - sit in a heap of powder. The Voxeljet company is printing them using a 3D machine. On the other side of the powder mound, a slider moves back and forth. It's fitted with an extrusion head, like that of an ink-jet printer, which shoots an adhesive into the powder. This is the way components are manufactured using 3D technology: layer by layer.

The technology for printing components in 3D form has already been available for several years. Until now, it has mainly been used for manufacturing rare or expensive prototypes for the research and development departments of major companies. But the technology has advanced enough to be put to use elsewhere, and is now increasingly being used in serial production. The big advantage of this technique is that each component can still be different, even as part of a series.

The sky's the limit

All sorts of objects can be printed directly using 3D technology. The most common process involves selective laser melting (SLM), which works in a similar way to the adhesive process described above. First a laser beam fuses the contours of the object into an extremely thin layer of plastic and metal powder. Then the machine pushes fresh powder over it, and the laser melts on another layer. Layer for layer, a new component is created.

3.      Switzerland initials pact on US tax evasion law

The US Internal Revenue Service expects to collect $8 billion dollars in the next 10 years through Fatca (swissinfo)

swissinfo.ch  Dec 4, 2012

The Swiss government has initialed an agreement with the United States which helps American authorities crack down on wealthy citizens evading taxes in their home country.

The pact, which was agreed upon in Washington and must still be officially signed, approved by parliament and allowed to proceed by the Swiss people, aims to simplify the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca), according to a statement by the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters (SIF).

The text of the agreement will be made public once the treaty is officially signed.

US lawmakers adopted Fatca in March 2010 to clamp down on US citizens hiding their assets overseas. It requires foreign financial institutions to agree to notify US authorities of accounts held by US citizens. Fatca is due to be phased in from 2014. The US is the only industrialised country which requires its citizens living abroad to pay taxes.

According to the pact, Americans holding accounts with Swiss financial institutions will be reported to the US tax authorities either with their consent or through administrative cooperation, SIF said in its release.

If the account holder does not consent, information is not exchanged automatically, but only on the basis of the administrative assistance provisions in the double taxation treaty, the secretariat explained. The Swiss-US tax treaty is still under negotiation.

Under Fatca, financial institutions must hold back 30 per cent of all funds paid into undeclared accounts from the US for American tax authorities.

The agreement reached in Washington on Monday excludes institutions providing social security, private pensions and indemnity and property insurance from Fatca, according to SIF.

Institutional costs associated with identifying US clients will be “reasonable” under the initialed pact.

Institutions which refuse or fail to comply with Fatca will face bills for the taxes due, a penalty of 40 per cent of the amount in question as well as heightened scrutiny by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Fatca is expected to raise $8 billion (SFr7.4 billion) in extra tax revenue over the next ten years.

swissinfo.ch and agencies

5.  Flu reaches epidemic level in U.S., says CDC

      Reuter,  Jan 11 2013

 

(Reuters) - Influenza has officially reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with 7.3 percent of deaths last week caused by pneumonia and the flu, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.

The early start and fast spread of flu this season - especially after 2011-2012's very mild outbreak - has overwhelmed doctors' offices and hospitals, forcing some patients to wait through the night to be seen in emergency departments.

Nine of the 10 U.S. regions had "elevated" flu activity last week, confirming that seasonal flu has spread across the country and reached high levels several weeks before the usual late January or February, CDC reported.

Only one region - the Southwest and California - had "normal" flu activity last week.

Tens of thousands of Americans die every year from flu, even in non-epidemic years. The threshold for an epidemic is that it causes more than 7.2 percent of deaths, but as yet there is no definitive count of the total caused by flu this year.

In Boston, flu cases are 10 times higher than they were last year, causing Mayor Thomas Menino to declare a public health emergency on Wednesday.

In Illinois, 24 hospitals struggling to cope with the flood of flu cases had to turn away people arriving in the emergency department, while in Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley Hospital outside Allentown has set up a tent for people who arrive with less-severe flu.

A total of 20 children have now died from this season's flu, up two from the previous week, the CDC said. That compares to 34 during the full 2011-2012 flu season and 282 during the severe 2009-2010 season.

The outbreak has led to attempts at prevention that go beyond the standard advice of getting vaccinated, avoiding contact with sick people and frequently washing hands with soap.

Latest News Clips 2013.01.10

                    1.      Al-Assad touts plan for resolution, says enemies of Syria 'will go to hell'

CNN     January 7, 2013

        

(CNN) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stood firm Sunday against global calls for him to step down, insisting that his vision should be the foundation of any future solution to the country's crisis.

In a rare public speech, al-Assad lambasted those who want to "fragment Syria" and accused foreigners of helping fuel terrorism on the ground.

"Those are the enemies of the people and the enemies of God. And the enemies of God will go to hell," the president told a packed auditorium of supporters.

Al-Assad laid out a plan for a solution to the crisis, which he said should start with regional countries ending their support for "terrorists." The government frequently describes dissidents as terrorists.

The president's plan includes a national dialogue as well as the writing of a new constitution that would be put up for a public referendum.

But there's a major caveat to the plan: Al-Assad said he will not deal with "terrorists" -- a description that, in his view, includes the vast majority of the opposition.

Similarly, opposition members have said they will not work directly with al-Assad's "criminal" government, nor will they accept any solution that doesn't involve al-Assad's departure.

"There can be no solution to the conflict in Syria until he is pushed out with his team. His speech is continuing the war against the Syrian people," said George Sabra, vice president of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.

In a statement, the opposition coalition described the speech as a "preemptive strike against both Arab and international diplomatic solutions."

2.  Chavez battling 'severe' lung infection, respiratory failure

CNN  January 4, 2013

(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is battling a "severe" lung infection that has caused respiratory failure, a top official said.

Chavez, 58, has been hospitalized in Cuba since undergoing cancer surgery more than three weeks ago.

He is following a strict treatment regimen for "respiratory insufficiency" caused by the infection, Venezuelan Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said in a televised statement Thursday night.

The information minister did not provide details about the treatment or prognosis.

How Venezuela is coping with uncertain times

"It is something quite serious in many cases," said Dr. Elmer Huerta, an oncologist and past president of the American Cancer Society.

Chavez is likely on artificial respiration and receiving high does of antibiotics, Huerta told CNN en Español. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Chavez's immune system is already weakened from cancer, he said.

3.  Newsmaker: Republican maverick Hagel forged bond with Obama over Iraq

Reuters   2013.01.06

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From his lonely position as an early Republican critic of the Iraq war, former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel sometimes lectured his more timid Senate colleagues. "If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes," he told them.

Now Democratic President Barack Obama, putting together his team for his second term, is poised to choose the intensely independent thinker to run the Pentagon. If Hagel is confirmed by the Senate, he will have to oversee the withdrawal of U.S. troops from another war zone - Afghanistan - and grapple with spending cuts.

The formal announcement of Hagel's nomination could come as early as Monday, Democratic Party sources said.

A social conservative and strong internationalist who co-chaired John McCain's failed Republican presidential campaign back in 2000, Hagel might seem an unlikely pick for Obama's Secretary of Defense, were it not for his opposition to the Iraq war launched by former President George W. Bush. That war was the issue on which Obama also rose to national prominence.

Four years ago, Obama said Iraq was not the only matter where he held similar views with Hagel, a decorated Vietnam veteran who was also once touted as presidential material.

"He's a staunch Republican, but Chuck and I agree almost on every item of foreign policy," Obama said in August 2008, a month after taking Hagel with him on a tour of Iraq.

Since his name emerged last year as a candidate for the Pentagon, some Republicans contend that Hagel has at times opposed Israel's interests. His critics note he voted against U.S. sanctions on Iran and made disparaging remarks about the influence of what he called a "Jewish lobby" in Washington.

4.  Regulators ease key bank rule to spur credit

Reuters   2013.01.06

BASEL, Switzerland/LONDON (Reuters) - Global regulators gave banks four more years and greater flexibility on Sunday to build up cash buffers so they can use some of their reserves to help struggling economies grow.

The pull-back from a draconian earlier draft of new global bank liquidity rule to help prevent another financial crisis went further than banks had expected by allowing them a broader range of eligible assets.

Banks had complained they could not meet the January 2015 deadline to comply with the new rule on minimum holdings of easily sellable assets from the Basel Committee of banking supervisors and also supply credit to businesses and consumers.

The committee's oversight body agreed on Sunday to phase in the rule from 2015 over four years, as reported by Reuters on Thursday, and widen the range of assets banks can put in the buffer to include shares and retail mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), as well as lower rated company bonds.

The new, less liquid assets can only be included at a hefty discount to their value, but the changes are a significant move from the draft version of the rule unveiled two years ago.

The Basel Committee, drawn from nearly 30 countries representing nearly all the world's markets, hopes they will stop banks from shrinking loan books to comply with the rule.

"For the first time in regulatory history, we have a truly global minimum standard for bank liquidity," the oversight body's chairman Mervyn King told a news conference in Basel, Switzerland.

"Importantly, introducing a phased timetable for the introduction of the liquidity coverage ratio ... will ensure that the new liquidity standard will in no way hinder the ability of the global banking system to finance a recovery," said King, who is also Bank of England governor.

Latest News Clips 2013.01.03

1.      House staves off fiscal cliff, but more money squabbles lie ahead CNN        January 2, 2013

 

Washington (CNN) -- After exhaustive negotiations that strained the country's patience, the House approved a Senate bill to thwart a dreaded fiscal cliff.

The 257-167 vote largely fell along partisan lines: 172 Democrats voted yes and 16 Democrats voted no; 85 Republicans voted yes and 151 Republicans voted no.

Just hours earlier, House Speaker John Boehner pitched to fellow Republicans the idea of amending the Senate-approved bill to add a package of spending cuts. He cautioned about the risk in such a strategy, saying there is no guarantee the Senate would act on it.

But by the end of the night, he was among the Republicans who voted for the bill as written.

Had the House not acted, and the Bush-era tax cuts that were set last decade expired fully, broad tax increases would kick in. In addition, $110 billion in automatic cuts to domestic and military spending would take place.

     

The combined effect could have dampened economic growth by 0.5%, possibly tipping the U.S. economy back into a recession and driving unemployment from its current 7.7% back over 9%.

While the package provides some short-term certainty, it leaves a range of big issues unaddressed.

It doesn't mention the $16.3 trillion debt ceiling that the United States reached Monday.

It also temporarily puts off for two months the so-called sequester -- a series of automatic cuts in federal spending that would have taken effect Wednesday and reduced the budgets of most agencies and programs by 8% to 10%.

This means that, come late February, Congress will have to tackle both those thorny issues.

2.      Hillary Clinton treated for blood clot in her head CNN    January 1, 2013

Hillary Clinton hospitalized          Secretary Clinton has blood clot in head

(CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was treated with blood thinners on Monday at a New York hospital to help dissolve a blood clot in her head and doctors were confident she would make a full recovery.

Clinton was admitted to New York Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday due to the clot that was discovered during a follow-up exam related to a concussion she suffered this month, her spokesman, Philippe Reines, said.

The clot was located in the vein between the brain and and the skull behind Clinton's right ear and did not result in any stroke or neurological damage, her doctors said in a statement.

Clinton was treated with blood thinners to help dissolve the clot and would be released once the medication dose had been established, they said.

"In all other aspects of her recovery, the secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff," Clinton's doctors said.

Clinton, 65, was suffering from a stomach virus earlier this month when she fainted because of dehydration, causing the concussion.

Blood clots "are clumps that occur when blood hardens from a liquid to a solid," according to the National Institutes for Health.

Clots can form inside veins or arteries or even the heart, the NIH says. "A blockage in the vein will usually cause fluid buildup and swelling," the NIH website says. Among the possible threats: Sometimes, a "clot can break loose and travel from one location in the body to another."

3.      Indian prime minister calls for calm after violence erupts during anti-rape rallies

CNN      December 23, 2012

New Delhi (CNN) -- India's prime minister called for calm Sunday after clashes erupted between police and demonstrators protesting a gang rape in the country's capital.

"We will make all possible efforts to ensure security and safety to all women in this country," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said. "I appeal to all concerned citizens to maintain peace and calm."

Public outrage has surged after the gang rape and beating of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus on December 16.

The prime minister's comments came after thousands of protesters defied a ban on demonstrations in New Delhi on Sunday.

For a second day, demonstrators were blasted with water cannons. While some dispersed, others huddled tightly in a circle to brave high-pressure streams in the cold December weather.

"We want justice!" the protesters shouted in chorus.

In addition to banners and cardboard placards, many demonstrators carried Indian flags as they scuffled with police. Authorities fired tear gas to try to break up crowds.

Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said "hooligans who had joined the protesters" hurled stones, injuring 78 officers.

At least 65 protesters were also injured, he said.

4.  China Opens Longest High-Speed Railway

The Wall Street Journal   December 26, 2012

European Pressphoto Agency

A worker at a high-speed train maintenance base in Wuhan city, central China’s Hubei province, Dec. 25.

China has became home to what it says is the world’s longest high-speed rail line, a 2,298 kilometer stretch of metal bisecting the country between the capital Beijing in the north and the southern boom city of Guangzhou.

The opening of the line on Wednesday was greeted with much fanfare in state media and even its own  bit of aircraft carrier style . The project signals that China hasn’t given up on its rail ambitions despite major setbacks. Last year’s deadly train crash near the city of Wenzhou laid bare deep problems with China’s high-speed rail surge. China’s Ministry of Railways has also endured hits to its finances. But the new line will help China reach its goal of having 18,000 kilometers of high-speed railway by 2015.

The question for Chinese travelers is whether the route beats the hassle of flying.

Anyone who has taken both in China knows that the process of getting on a train is much easier than getting on a plane – provided, of course, that you already have a ticket and aren’t traveling during the Lunar New Year . The food’s nothing to write home about, unless you like writing home about instant noodles, but the cars tend to be clean and the ride smooth.

In the case of the Beijing-Guangzhou line, a passenger will also need an extra dollop of patience. The ride takes eight hours, a sharp reduction from the previous 20 on the still-operational old-fashioned track between Beijing and Guangzhou. But that’s roughly enough time to fly between the two cities twice with some airport shopping in between. Unlike the traditional line, the new line doesn’t appear to offer an overnight service yet, so it isn’t much of an alternative for a passenger hoping to catch some Zs.