President Barack Obama, offering an election-year prescription to spur the economy, said the wealthiest Americans should pay more taxes in the name of fairness, to bring down the deficit and ensure those trying to make ends meet don
The body of a woman wearing a life vest was recovered by Italian coast guard divers Saturday from a narrow underwater corridor of the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia, raising the death toll to 12 in the week-old accident that has sent some light fuel spilling into the Mediterranean off Tuscany.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro told The Associated Press that the victim was found during a particularly risky inspection of an evacuation staging point at the ship’s rear.
“The corridor was very narrow, and the divers’ lines risked snagging” on objects in the passageway, Nicastro said. To permit the coast guard divers to get into the area, Italian navy divers had preceded them, setting off charges to blast holes for easier entrance and exit, he said.
The woman’s nationality and identity were not immediately known.
Before the corpse was found, 21 people were listed as missing. One of the women on the list is a Peruvian crew member, the others are passengers.
Three bodies were found in the waters near the ship in the first hours after the accident’ since then the rest of the victims have all been found inside the Concordia, apparently unable to get off the ship during a chaotic evacuation via lifeboats and later by helicopters. Some survivors jumped off and swam to safety.
The Concordia hit a reef and ran aground on Jan. 14, while passengers dined, about two hours after the ship had set sail from the port of Civitavecchia on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Costa Crociere has said the captain had deviated without permission from the vessels in an apparent maneuver to sail close to Giglio, a Tuscan island, to impress passengers aboard.
Search and rescue efforts for survivors and bodies have meant that an operation to remove heavy fuel in the Concordia’s tanks hasn’t yet begun, although specialized equipment has been standing by for days.
On Saturday, light fuel, apparently from machinery aboard the capsized Costa Concordia, was detected near the ship.
But Nicastro said there was no indication that any of the nearly 500,000 gallons (2,200 metric tons) of heavy fuel oil has leaked from the ship’s double-bottomed tanks. He said the leaked substance appears to be diesel, which is used to fuel rescue boats and dinghies and as a lubricant for ship machinery.
There are 185 tons of diesel and lubricants on board the crippled vessel, which is lying on its side just outside Giglio’s port. Nicastro described the light fuel’s presence in the sea as “very light, very superficial” and appearing to be under control.
Although attention has been concentrated on the heavy fuel oil in the tanks, “we must not forget that on that ship there are oils, solvents, detergents, everything that a city of 4,000 people needs,” Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy’s civil protection agency, told reporters in Giglio.
Gabrielli, who is leading rescue, search and anti-pollution efforts for the Concordia, was referring to the roughly 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew who were aboard the cruise liner when it ran into the reef, and then, with sea water rushing into a 70-meter (230-foot) gash in its hull, listed and finally fell onto its side.
Considering all the substances aboard the Concordia, “contamination of the environment, ladies and gentlemen, already occurred” when the cruise liner capsized, Gabrielli told a news conference.
Vessels equipped with machinery to suck out the light fuel oil were in the area, officials told Italian TV.
Earlier on Saturday, crews removed oil-absorbing booms used to prevent environmental damage in case of a leak. Originally white, the booms were grayish.
Divers resumed their search of the wreckage Saturday after data indicated the cruise ship had stabilized in the sea off Tuscany. Italian news reports said that the divers were also trying to locate the captain’s safe, in case it might contain documentation useful to the criminal probe.
The Italian captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest for investigation of alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all were evacuated. Schettino insists he helped coordinate the evacuation from Giglio’s docks after leaving the ship when the Concordia lurched to one side.
The search had been suspended Friday after the Concordia shifted, prompting fears the ship could roll off a rocky ledge of sea bed and plunge deeper into the sea. An abrupt shift could also cause a leak in the Concordia’s fuel tanks, polluting the pristine waters around Giglio, part of a seven-island Tuscan archipelago.
Strikes and demonstrations against Greek austerity measures hit the capital Athens on Tuesday, as international debt inspectors returned to decide whether the country’s reforms are strong enough for it to secure a vital bailout.
The officials from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, which are lending money to Greece to keep it from bankruptcy, are expected to press the government for faster cost-cutting reforms.
Greece’s continued access to bailout loans depends not only on delivery on its austerity promises but also on negotiations with private creditors on a bond swap deal aiming to cut its debt by euro100 billion ($127 billion). It needs to get an agreement soon if it is to secure more rescue loans, with a bond repayment of euro14.5 billion due in late March.
Some 10,000 protesters took part in rallies in central Athens over potential pay cuts in the recession-battered private sector. Anti-austerity strikes in the capital disrupted public transport and other services. Journalist unions also launched a 48-hour strike.
Police said a plain-clothed officer from the anti-terrorism division was beaten and seriously injured by a group of some 30 protesters who took his handgun. The rally was otherwise peaceful.
Under government pressure, unions and employers are due to launch talks Wednesday to explore ways of slashing labor costs. Lower-level members of the debt of the debt inspection team started the talks in Athens on Tuesday, with the mission chiefs due Friday.
Meanwhile, Greece saw its borrowing rates ease marginally in a bill auction on Tuesday. Unable to issue long-term debt due to untenably high borrowing interest rates of 33 percent, the country maintains a market presence through regular treasury bill auctions.
The public debt agency said it raised euro1.625 billion ($2.06 billion) in a sale of 13-week treasury bills, an interest rate of 4.64 percent, compared with 4.68 percent in the last such auction in December.
Demand for the bills was 2.90 times the amount on offer, roughly the same as last month.
U.K. factory output prices unexpectedly fell in December for the first time in 18 months as the cost of petroleum products such as gasoline plunged.
The cost of goods at factory gates declined 0.2 percent from November, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. Annual price growth slowed to 4.8 percent, the least in a year. On the month, economists had forecast a 0.1 percent gain in December, according to the median of 17 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.
Declines in prices for commodities such as oil may ease inflation pressure in the economy as producers and manufacturers pass lower costs onto consumers. The Bank of England, which maintained its bond-purchase target at 275 billion pounds ($422 billion) yesterday, has forecast that consumer-price growth will ease
Republican Senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Bob Corker of Tennessee criticized the Federal Reserve for overstepping its role by making policy recommendations on how the U.S. government should try new ways to spur the housing market.
Hatch, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said the housing study sent by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to Congress last week, along with recent Fed speeches,
+%3Cp%3ETORONTO%97The+Toronto+stock+market+opened+higher+as+oil+and+gold+prices+rose+and+traders+digested+positive+economic+news.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+S%26P%2FTSX+composite+index+was+up+25.01+points+at+11%2C660.39.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+Canadian+dollar+added+0.24+of+a+cent+to+96.67+cents+US%2C+with+gains+accelerating+after+the+release+of+statistics+showing+wholesale+trade+grew+more+than+expected+in+October.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EWall+Street+also+opened+higher%2C+with+the+Dow+Jones+up+46.7+points+11%2C913%2C+the+Nasdaq+ahead+12.4+points+at+2%2C567.73+and+the+broader+S%26P+500+up+4.7+points+at+1%2C224.34.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EAnd+commodities+were+mostly+higher%2C+with+the+January+oil+contract+up+85+cents+to+%2494.38.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+February+gold+contract+added+US%245.70+to+US%241%2C603.60+per+ounce%2C+while+copper+shed+a+penny+to+US%243.32+per+pound.%3C%2Fp%3E++%3Cp%3E%3Ca+href%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestar.com%2Farticle%2F1104172%27+rel%3D%27nofollow%27%3ESource%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E+
Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it will resume paying a dividend in March, more than five years after it halted payments because of its financial problems.
The company’s board approved a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share. It will be paid on March 1 to shareholders of record as of Jan. 31.
“We have made tremendous progress in reducing debt and generating consistent positive earnings and cash flow,” Executive Chairman Bill Ford said in a statement. “The board believes it is important to share the benefits of our improved financial performance with our shareholders.”
Its stock pared its loss for the day after the announcement. Ford shares fell 4 cents to $11.04 per share in midday trading. Before the dividend was announced, it had traded as low as $9.84 earlier in the session.
The company stopped paying a dividend in September 2006, when it was deeply in debt. The company lost $12.7 billion that year fast cash advance.
But since then Ford has shed brands like Volvo and Mercury, closed factories, offered buyouts to thousands of employees and earned praise for new products like the Ford Explorer SUV and Ford Fiesta subcompact. Ford reported its tenth straight profitable quarter in the third quarter of this year, and it earned $6.6 billion in 2010.
“We have demonstrated our capability to finance our plans and we are confident that we can begin to pay a dividend that will be sustainable through economic cycles,” Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said in a statement.
Ford spokesman Todd Nissen said the New York Stock Exchange halted trading of Ford shares temporarily just before the noon announcement. Trading resumed about 10 minutes later.
British police are investigating whether computers belonging to former government minister Peter Hain were hacked by the tabloid News of the World while he was the official responsible for Northern Ireland, Hain’s office said Wednesday.
It said in a statement that Hain had met with police officers “regarding an investigation into the alleged hacking of his official and personal computers during his time as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.”
Hain was Northern Ireland secretary between 2005 and 2007 and would have had access to classified intelligence information.
Police are investigating phone hacking by the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper have set up a parallel probe into whether computers also were targeted.
Murdoch’s News International said it was “co-operating fully with the police” on all investigations.
Earlier Wednesday, Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former spin doctor, told a media ethics inquiry set up in the wake of the hacking scandal that a minority of journalists had turned the country’s press “putrid” and tarnished the whole industry. Campbell said journalists such as those who hacked phones for the News of the World tabloid had “besmirched the name” of almost every other reporter in the country.
“A very, very small number of people have completely changed the newspaper industry,” said Campbell, who is credited with running a sophisticated _ and manipulative _ media operation when he worked for the then-prime minister at 10 Downing Street between 1997 and 2003.
“We have a press that has just become frankly putrid in many of its elements,” Campbell said, criticizing the “inhumane treatment” meted out to celebrities and ordinary people alike by newspapers in relentless pursuit of exclusives.
Campbell was giving evidence to Judge Brian Leveson’s inquiry, which was established to examine media ethics and practices and recommend changes to Britain’s system of media self-regulation.
Prime Minister David Cameron set up the inquiry in response to the scandal that began with the exposure of illegal eavesdropping by the News of the World.
Murdoch shut down the tabloid in July after evidence emerged that it had accessed the mobile phone voice mails of celebrities, politicians and even crime victims in its search for scoops.
Campbell said police had told him details about his working life were included in the notes of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who worked for the News of the World and was jailed in 2007 for phone hacking.
In a written witness statement, Campbell said he suspected the phone of Blair’s wife, Cherie, had been hacked _ although he acknowledged he had no proof.
He said stories about her “often involved details of where Cherie was going, the kind of thing routinely discussed on phones when planning visits, private as well as public.”
He said phone hacking could explain how the Daily Mirror learned that Cherie Blair was pregnant in 1999.
“As I recall it, at the time only a tiny number of people in Downing Street knew that she was pregnant,” Campbell said. “I have heard all sorts of stories as to how the information got out, but none of them strike me as credible.”
Campbell told the inquiry he had accused Cherie Blair’s adviser Carole Caplin of tipping off the press about Cherie Blair’s whereabouts. Caplin has since been told by police her phone may have been hacked.
Campbell said he had apologized to Caplin for blaming her.
More than a dozen current and former News of the World journalists and editors have been arrested, and two top London police officers and several senior Murdoch executives have resigned over the still-unfolding hacking scandal.
Police said they had made a new arrest, a 31-year-old woman detained in northern England on Wednesday. Her name was not disclosed, although media including Sky News _ which is 39 percent owned by Murdoch’s News Corp. _ identified her as a former News of the World reporter.
The only people charged with crimes so far are Mulcaire and former News of the World reporter Clive Goodman, who were jailed in 2007 for hacking into the voicemails of royal aides.
Powered by WordPress