Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Only weeks before the Canadian government in Ottawa is expected to table a budget which may trigger a national election, the announcement of a proposed 3.2 billion CAD merger between the Toronto (TSX:X) and London (LSE:LSE) stock exchanges to produce the largest single exchange.

Even as news was beginning to leak about the mega-merger, Deutsche Börse AG (FWB:DB1) and NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) announced deep negotiations under way regarding a merger between the third and second, respectively, largest exchange groups by total revenues. The proposed TMX-LSE group merger would produce the largest market in terms of listings – approximately 6,700 companies are traded between the two groups – but total annual receipts would likely not make it the largest in dollars.

Technically the merger is a takeover of Toronto-based TMX by the LSE Group, with LSE shareholders owning 55% of the new company. TMX head Thomas Kloet would become CEO of the new firm, while LSE’s executive would take chairmanship of a new board consisting of 8 members from LSE and 7 from TMX.

Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement has said the government will review the merger, which raises the spectre of a government rejection of a deal which would see yet another large Canadian corporation under foreign ownership. The ruling conservatives have been dogged by the issue, and have blocked two other foreign ownership bids during the current government’s terms – last year’s Potash Corp. (TSX:POT) takeover bid from BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) and the earlier Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK) bid for MacDonald (TSX:MDA) space technologies branch, the only two such blocks ever made by a Canadian government.

Canadian opposition parties challenged the Prime Minister over the proposal, with New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton questioning the benefits of the deal. “Of course, Canadian companies need access to foreign capital, but not at the expense of our own capital markets,” he said. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to comment on the proposal, having been criticised for involving his office in the Potash bid.

Both the Quebec and Ontario regulatory commissions are also involved in reviewing the deal, which is set for October 2011, as their provincial exchanges are in Montreal and Toronto respectively.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

According to the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, Palestinians may need to abandon their goal of creating an independent state should Israel continue expanding Jewish settlements on contested land. Erekat stated it was time for Mahmoud Abbas to “tell his people the truth, that with the continuation of settlement activities, the two-state solution is no longer an option”.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unsuccessfully asked Abbas to negotiate with Israel in order to solve the settlement issue, saying “[g]etting into final status negotiations will allow us to bring an end to settlement activity.” On a visit to Cairo, Clinton mentioned that Washington wanted an end to the activities in Israel.

Erekat commented that Clinton was only leading to more settlements in the following two years.

To “refocus their attention on the one-state solution where Muslims, Christians and Jews can live as equals”, Erekat said, is the only door open for the Palestinians. “It is very serious. This is the moment of truth for us.”

Erekat said Netanyahu told Abbas, “Jerusalem will be the eternal and united capital of Israel, that refugees won’t be discussed, that our state will be demilitarised, that we have to recognise the Jewish state, that it’s not going to be the 1967 borders, that the skies will be under his control”.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Dale Ogden, a 2010 California gubernatorial candidate, talks with Wikinews reporter Mike Morales about his platform.

Ogden is a member of the United States’ Libertarian Party.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Sam Brownback is perplexed. The U.S. Senator from Kansas and Presidential candidate is a Republican whose politics—he is against marriage for gay people, he is against abortion, and he has a clean image in a party tainted by scandal—should speak favorably to the party’s base. But it has not. “I’m baffled by that myself,” Senator Brownback told Wikinews reporter David Shankbone. “We haven’t been able to raise money.”

A recent poll in Iowa has put him in eighth place, with 2% supporting his campaign. “If we don’t finish fourth or better in Iowa…we’ll pull out.”

Senator Brownback’s relationship with God infuses almost every answer you find below. Although he doesn’t feel “competent” to explain why God would dislike gays, he does feel strongly that allowing two men or two women to enter into the union of marriage will destroy it for heterosexuals. Pointing to the research of Stanley Kurtz at the Hoover Institution, Brownback asserts that Northern Europeans have “taken the sacredness out of the institution.”

In the interview, Senator Brownback discusses the tug-and-pull that befalls him when his constituents show up at his office and say, “Look, I’m a conservative, but we need this bridge, we need this subsidy, we need this hospital.” Brownback feels this spending system needs to be changed; however, when it comes to energy policy, Brownback is there for his constituents. David Shankbone asked the Kansas Senator, a supporter of cellulosic ethanol, why he doesn’t support the lowering of tariffs on sugar since sugar ethanol delivers 8 times the energy output of cellulosic ethanol. Brazil, in particular, has become energy independent because of its sugar ethanol program. It’s cheaper to produce, and there is vastly more bang for the buck in sugar fuel than in corn fuel; an entire country no longer needs to import oil because of it. Federal tariffs currently make sugar ethanol too expensive in the United States. “You’re going to kill the ethanol industry here just as it gets going,” was Senator Brownback’s response. However, there is a debate over whether the process to make corn ethanol uses more energy than the ethanol itself produces.

Below is David Shankbone’s interview with Senator Sam Brownback.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Approximately seven videos showing school children beating their peers have been put on the Google-owned video service, YouTube.

The videos are recorded using cellphone cameras from students at Auckland Grammar School, Tauranga Boys’ College and Saint Kentigern College and other unidentified schools, according to New Zealand newspaper, The Press.

Auckland Grammar has three videos of bullying and Tauranga Boys College and St Kentigern College both have one video each.

According to The Press one video filmed in Auckland Grammar shows two students, surrounded by a large circle of boys, knock another boy unconscious. The boy appears to have convulsions. The clip was put on YouTube by I0pex a month ago and was titled “Some guy getting KNocked the fuck out.” It had a rating of four and a half stars out of a possible five.

The video was not accessible on YouTube by 27 October, 2006 at 7.36 a.m. UTC, a notice displayed said, “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.” The Press said an unidentified clip shows two girls fighting, which was also removed for the same reason.

YouTube guidelines state: “Real violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked or humiliated, don’t post it.”

According to NewsRoom the video showing the bullying from Tauranga Boys’ College shows three students, one student holding another while being punched on the ground in the face. When a teacher breaks up the fight, the comments for the video criticise the teacher for doing so.

One other video shows one Asian student bullying another Asian, according to The Press.

Annabel Taylor, Family Help Trust chairwoman, said: “The clips represented the worst aspects of bullying. It is premeditated, organised, intentional, choreographed even, and that’s what distinguishes it from common schoolyard bullying.”

Tauranga Boys’ College deputy principal, Robert Naumann, said: “While appropriate disciplinary action was taken against the boys involved in the incident, and none of those filmed had given their permission for the footage to be posted on the web, the film has remained within the public domain despite attempts by college staff to have it removed,” he said, “Youtube has continued to support its placement”. The video was not accessible on 27 October, 2006 at 7.36 a.m. UTC. Graham Young, principal of Tauranga Boys’ College, said: “A video posted on the Internet showing two of his students fighting is inappropriate and bizarre, but not unusual. Unfortunately technology allows teenagers to put all sorts of material about each other on websites.”

Martin Crocker, Netsafe director, said that while posting the videos did not break any law, the actions filmed in the videos did. “The terrible thing is that the aim of online notoriety is driving people to do quite extreme things,” Crocker said.

Dave Turnbull, principal of Cashmere High School, said that he is unaware of anything like that has happened in Christchurch. “The reality is it could have been any school.”

According to Paul Shamy from Stopping Violence Services Christchurch, “[I am] not surprised that the violence was in well-to-do schools such as Auckland Grammar as violence is spread throughout society.”

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Currency exchanges offices in the United Kingdom have today stopped the sale of €500 notes after an investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) concluded that up to 90% of the notes were being used by money launderers and other organised criminals. Ian Cruxton, deputy director of SOCA, said that the Euro had been chosen as the currency of choice by criminal gangs due to the large denomination of the notes, adding “[i]t should now be impossible now to buy a €500 note over the counter from one of the suppliers. And that’s going to have an effect on the criminals — it means they are going to have to find other means of trying to move their money.”

The note was introduced by the European Central Bank in 2002, when the currency itself officially entered into circulation. The notoriety of the note’s criminal uses has earned it the nickname “the Bin Laden” after Al-Qaeda suspect Osama bin Laden — something that everyone knows is out there, but law-abiding people rarely see. The Euro is the official currency of 16 European countries, colloquially known as the Eurozone, as well as unofficially in a further 4 nations.

Since its introduction, there has been mounting international concern over criminal use of the large denomination note, which facilitates money laundering by allowing large concentrations of cash to be concealed in small spaces, for example, €20,000 can be concealed in a cigarette packet and £1 million in €500 notes weighs 2.2kg while the equivalent in £20 notes weighs 50kg. The highest denomination note in Sterling is £50, making high-value denominations in other currencies, such as the Euro, tempting for those wishing to move large amounts of money.

When asked if criminal demand for the note would simply be displaced to other high-value notes, such as the €200 note (the next-highest denomination), Ian Cruxton, deputy director of SOCA said he believed that would be the case, however, with less of the €200 note in circulation, their movements would be easier to track than those of the €500.

Tourists returning to the UK from holidays in Europe will still be able to change their €500 notes for Sterling but will be unable to purchase them. The European Central Bank has no plans for a withdrawal of the note, given the legitimate demand for it in countries such as Germany and Italy, where cash is used far more frequently than alternatives such as credit cards.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005File:JacobZuma.jpg

Today at about 1600 UTC/GMT, South African President Thabo Mbeki announced in a special session of parliament that he has taken action he feels is necessary, that is to “release [his deputy president], Jacob Zuma, from his responsibilities as deputy president of the republic and member of the cabinet”.

Zuma was implicated in corruption arising from his relationship with his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, who was convicted of corruption and fraud earlier this month. Shaik was found guilty by Durban High Court of two counts of corruption and one of fraud and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

The President has called this one of his toughest decisions. Opposition leader of the Democratic Alliance immediately praised the president for holding “principle over politics”, and, while deeply saddened, former president Nelson Mandela supported Mbeki’s decision. Jacob Zuma was the favourite of the ruling African National Congress party to succeed Thabo Mbeki as president.

Following this ordeal, the government of South Africa has reaffirmed its dedication to the reduction and eventual elimination of corruption in all areas of politics.

UPDATE (July 7)

The African National Congress held a meeting of it’s National General Council over the weekend of 2-3 July. Zuma attracted a lot of favourable attention, mostly from people who wished to defeat policy initiatives that included relaxing some of the legal constraints on employers. He was reinstated as ANC deputy president and, in a first for the party, granted a salary (details not revealed). It now appears that Jacob Zuma’s political future is closely tied to that of the “left wing” of the ANC.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Since the August 20 release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, who was convicted of planting a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, there has been growing controversy surrounding the events which led to his release. Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in-flight in 1988 as the aircraft flew over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and eleven more on the ground. Al Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of the bombing.

In recent years, the British government has negotiated oil development deals with Libya. As part of the negotiations, at least three UK ministers traveled to Libya in the months leading up to Al Megrahi’s release.

Leaked letters from UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw to his Scottish counterpart, Kenny MacAskill, stated that it was in the “overwhelming national interests” of the UK to include Al Megrahi in prisoner transfer agreements which were part of the oil trade deals. These letters have lead to widespread speculation that the British government influenced the Scottish decision to release Al Megrahi.

Al Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds as he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. However, this diagnosis was called into question as The Times revealed that the health director of the Scottish Prison Service, Dr. Andrew Fraser, relied on the advice of a general practitioner instead of an oncologist, when issuing his recommendation for release.

When Al Megrahi returned to Libyan soil, Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi thanked Gordon Brown and Queen Elizabeth for his release.

Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi, the son of Muammar al-Gaddafi, has stated that during the prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) phase the trade negotiations, the Al Megrahi case was not specifically named, yet it was implied.

“The fight to get the [prisoner transfer] agreement lasted a long time and was very political, but I want to make clear that we didn’t mention Mr Megrahi. At all times we talked about the PTA. It was obvious we were talking about him. We all knew that was what we were talking about,” he said.

In Scotland, the release of Al Megrahi has caused significant debate. A poll conducted for the BBC by ICM Research found that 60% of Scots thought the Scottish Government was wrong to allow the release. 68% believe the decision was made fore reasons that did not pertain to Al Megrahi’s health.

“No one I think seriously believes we made any other decision except for the right reasons,” First Minister Alex Salmond said on Wednesday. “I think it was the right decision. I also absolutely know it was for the right reasons.”

“We didn’t think that the Lockerbie decision should be linked to trade or oil decisions by anyone who looked at the coincidence that the prisoner transfer agreement was being negotiated at the same time as commercial contracts,” Salmon also stated.

The UK Prime Minister’s office stated Monday that, “There was no deal over [the] release of al-Megrahi nor could there ever be, since all decisions were for the Scottish, not U.K. government.”

“The central assertion in this story is completely untrue and deeply misleading,” Downing Street added.

Correspondence released on Tuesday by the UK government shows that Abdulati Alobidi, the Libyan minister to Europe warned of “catastrophic effects for the relationship between Libya and the UK,” if Al Megrahi were to die in prison in Scotland.

When Salmond asked Straw what the national interests of the UK were, Jack Straw replied, “Having sponsored terrorist attacks in the past, it [Libya] is now an important partner in the fight against terrorism.” Libya approved a large oil exploration contract to BP within days of the letter.

Libyan officials have said that since al-Megrahi’s return to Libya, his health has deteriorated. He was not part of the 40th anniversary celebrations for Gaddafi’s coup d’état held on Tuesday.