POLITICS
50 oil firms got N232b
illegally
Fifty oil marketers fraudulently collected N232 billion from
the Federal Government of Nigeria as
fuel subsidy, says Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. According to her,
a forensic investigation carried out by the government revealed the subsidy fraud
and the government has recovered only N29 billion through debt swap.
George Osborne, Britain’s
Chancellor of the Exchequer, told the House of Commons that austerity would
continue until 2018, longer than he had hoped. The government is struggling
with stubbornly high debt and a very weak economy.Mr. Osborne announced further
cuts to benefits, but he surprised markets by reducing corporation tax by one
percentage point, to 21%.
Pier Luigi Bersani won a clear victory in a contest for the
leadership of Italy’s recent-left
Democratic Party. Meanwhile Silvio Berlusconi’s disintegrating centre-right
party could not agree on a programme, or on who will lead it in an election
that is expected in the spring.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Mykola Azarov, and
his cabinet resigned, just ahead of talks with the IMF over financial
assistance. It was unclear whom the President, Viktor Yanukovych, would appoint
to lead a new government.
Borut Pahor, a former prime minister of Slovenia, won the country’s presidential run-off election against
Danilo Turk, the incumbent. During and after the election, Slovenians took to
the streets to denounce the political elite and alleged government corruption.
Angela Merkel, Germany’s
chancellor, opened her campaign for re-election next September. Delegates from her
Christian Democratic Union elected her to a seventh term as a party leader with
a record 98% of the vote.
Plans to create a banking
union in the euro zone ran into trouble after Germany warned against moving
too quickly. Another meeting is to be held on December 12th, just
before the next European summit.
Deficient on the
Deficit
The Republicans in congress put forward a counter-offer to
the White House’s proposals to avoid painful tax rises and spending cuts that
are due to take effects at the start of 2013. The Republicans made some minor
concessions to avert the “fiscal cliff’’
but insisted the rich should not see the taxes rise, a key sticking point. The
White House said the offer “includes nothing new’’.
Clerical workers went back to work at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex
after a week long strike. The dispute over the outsourcing of clerical jobs,
had shut down most of the terminals at America’s busiest container port.
Reaching out
Enrique Pefia Nieto took office as Mexico’s President. He promised speedy reforms of tax, energy,
television and education and secured a wide-ranging pact in which all three
main parties pledged to implement them.
Peasant leader murdered
The leader of a landless peasant movement in Paraguay was murdered by two gunmen.
Eleven of his followers and six police died in a disputed
incident in June that precipitated the impeachment of the country’s leftist
President, Fernando Lugo.
Colombia’s army said it had killed at least 20
FARC guerillas in the deadliest military operation since peace talks began in October.
The government has rejected a temporary ceasefire by the FARC. President Juan
Manuel Santos wants the negotiations to conclude by November 2013.
Watchdog’s verdict
In its annual survey of perceptions of corruption,
Transparency International, a Berlin-based watchdog, found that Venezuela was the most corrupt Latin
America; Chile was the least corrupt in the region.
Morsi’s mischief
There were rowdy and bloody demonstrations in Egypt as liberals and secularists
rallied en masse in Cairo and other cities. They were opposed to a decree by Muhammad
Morsi, the Islamist President, that gives him wideranging if temporary extra
powers.
Mr. Morsi’s supporters held large counter-demonstrations. The
president seemed determined to hold a referendum quickly on his proposed new
constitution, which is opponents say will be too Islamist.
Israeli settlement
plans spark protest
Israel thumbed its nose at the UN General
Assembly’s vote to recognize Palestine
as a non-member observer state, by pushing ahead with plans to build 3,000
settler homes on part of the West Bank that would cut across any future
sovereign Palestinian state.
The decision includes, construction in the corridor linking
Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, an area known as E-1. While the
building would not totally sever the West Bank in two, it would effectively
isolate East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the Capital of their future
state.
NATO approved a request by Turkey to send Patriot anti-missile batteries to defend its border
with Syria. After reports that the
Syrian regime was moving chemical weapons around the country, Barack Obama
warned the Assad regime that any use of such weapons would be “totally
unacceptable” and would result in “consequences”.Meanwhile, increasingly
confident rebel forces, armed with weapons captured from military bases, were
preparing for a battle for Damascus.
Kuwait held a general election, but a
boycott by the opposition calling for more democracy saw turnout drop to 40%.
Two of the rebel groups that took over the northern half of Mali earlier this year-a Tuareg one and
an Islamist movement with ties to al-Qauda-said that they accepted the unity of
the country and would negotiate with the government. The Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS), the region’s influential club, had pledged to use
force to roll them back.
Rebels retreat
A rebel army in eastern Congo,
known as the M23, retreated from Goma, 11 days after capturing it. The M23 were
under pressure from Rwanda and Uganda, neighbouring counties that had
been backing them.
Reforms approved
India’s government won a crucial vote in
Parliament on its controversial plans to open the retail sector to foreign
competition. The government says the reforms are needed to revive the slowing
economy. Opposition party say allowing foreign supermarket chains will put
small shops out of business.
The death toll from a storm that hit the southern Philippines rose to more than 325, with
hundreds still missing. Rescuers had difficulty reaching isolated areas on the
island of Mindanao that have been devastated by Typhoon Bopha.
The UN’s senior humanitarian official for displaced Muslim
Rohingyas in Myanmar as “dire”.
Valerie Amos called on the Burmese government to act after she visited camps in
western Myanmar. More than 135,000 people, mostly Rohinghas, who were uprooted
during six months of ethnic conflict, are living in camps in Rakhine state.
No comments:
Post a Comment