squaremilecity

_{Ken Odeluga, July 8th 2014}

 

Middle East

 

(Updated) Iraq Parliament Postpones, Reconvenes next Sitting

Iraq’s new parliament put off its next session for five weeks on Monday, fuelling concerns that the country’s political paralysis would be extended amid a Sunni Islamist insurgency that claimed the life of an army general near Baghdad. However early Tuesday, The Financial Times reported on its website that Iraqi politicians had decided late on Monday to hold a meeting the following Sunday after all.

The initial postponement had been due to failure to reach “understanding and agreement” on nominations for the top three posts in government, the office of acting speaker Mehdi al-Hafidh had said earlier, indicating parliament would not meet again until Aug. 12.

Iraqi officials described the announcement of a hastily reconvened meeting as a “clarification”, according to the FT.

The United States, the United Nations and Iran, have all urged the swift formation of an inclusive government to hold the country together.

_{Sources: Reuters, FT.com} 

 

Yemen forces clash with Rebels in North, South

 

Clashes in the north Yemen town of Omran continued on Sunday between the army and fighters from the Houthi movement after at least 104 people were killed on Saturday, while in the south six soldiers were shot dead by al Qaeda militants.

 

Yemen’s government is struggling to regain stability in a country facing a deadly uprising in the north, a separatist movement in the south and a growing al Qaeda insurgency that has survived repeated assaults by the military.

 

Western and Gulf governments fear the spread of al Qaeda in Yemen and persistent fighting in the north could allow the militants room to plot attacks on international targets and in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

Kuwait Opposition Leader Bailed

A prominent Kuwaiti opposition politician whose detention last week set off a wave of sometimes violent protests in the oil-rich Gulf Arab state was freed on bail on Monday, his lawyer said.

 

Musallam al-Barrak, who had been detained for questioning after allegedly insulting Kuwait’s judiciary, has long been at loggerheads with the authorities over changes made in 2012 to an election law which he and other opposition politicians said were intended to prevent them taking power.

 

One of Barrak’s lawyers, Mohammed Abdel-Kader al-Jassim, said a Kuwaiti court on Monday had ordered the former lawmaker be freed on payment of a 5,000-dinar ($17,700) bail and delayed his case until September.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

Islamic State Extends Gains in Syria

Around 30 Islamic State fighters broke out of a makeshift jail where rival Syrian Islamists had been holding them, a monitoring group said on Friday as it detailed the latest territorial gains by the al Qaeda offshoot.

The insurgents demolished a wall to escape the building – a former school – after fellow Islamic State fighters took control of al-Hawaaj village where al Qaeda loyalists had been holding them, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In the same province on Thursday, Islamic State seized control of Syria’s largest oil field from the Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s official wing in Syria, consolidating its position in the eastern Deir al-Zor province bordering Iraq.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

Three European Engineers believed Kidnapped in Libya

 

Three Europeans working for an Italian construction company have probably been kidnapped in Libya, officials from the Libyan and Italian governments said on Sunday.

 

A car used by Italian, Macedonian and Bosnian engineers was found abandoned in the town of Zuwara, west of the capital Tripoli, an official in the local town council told Reuters.

 

“They are missing and we suspect they have been kidnapped,” said the official, without giving further details.

 

A spokesman for the Italian Foreign Ministry named the missing Italian as Marco Vallisa, an employee of Piacentini Costruzioni SpA based in northern Italy, and said the ministry “presumes him to have been kidnapped”.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

Violent Protests spread to Israel

 

Violent protests sparked by the abduction and killing of a Palestinian teenager spread to Arab villages in Israel on Saturday, presenting a new challenge to the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli-Palestinian tensions have risen sharply since three Israeli teens were kidnapped on June 12 and later found dead in the occupied West Bank.

 

Latest updates – Monday July 7 (haaretz.com)

11:50 P.M. Hundreds of Israeli protesters, most of them Orthodox, continuing to clash with Israel Police and Border Police at Bar-Ilan Junction. The protesters are attempting to block the intersection by burning tires, but police scatter them with batons and horses. (Nir Hasson)

 

11:45 P.M. IAF planes strike a Gaza rocket-launching cell. The IDF has identified a direct hit. (Gili Cohen)

 

11:34 P.M. A rocket launched from Gaza explodes in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council. In Tel Sheva, near the southern city of Be’er Sheva, Israel Police arrest eight people suspected of rioting and stone-throwing. (Shirly Seidler)

_{Sources: Reuters, Haaretz}

 

Ukraine

 

Ukraine Forces Capture Separatist Stronghold

 

Ukrainian forces routed pro-Russian rebels in a flashpoint area of eastern Ukraine on Saturday and raised the country’s blue and yellow flag again over what had for months been the separatist redoubt of Slaviansk.

A Reuters reporter saw a convoy of about 20 military transport vehicles and buses filled with armed rebels driving out of Kramatorsk where they had gone after apparently fleeing Slaviansk 20 km (12 miles) to the north.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

Pro-Russian Rebels Consolidate in Donetsk

Pro-Russian rebels erected new barricades on the streets of Donetsk on Monday, preparing to make a stand in the city of a million people after losing their bastion in the town of Slaviansk in the worst defeat of their three-month uprising.

 

Occasional bursts of gunfire could be heard in the distance from the centre of Donetsk, where residents said they were now living in fear of a potential battle between government forces and the separatist gunmen now out in force.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

 

Kenya

 

Gunman Kill at least 29 in Kenya

Gunmen killed at least 29 people in raids on two coastal areas of Kenya, Reuters reported on Sunday. The attacks are the latest in a series claimed by Somali Islamists who have vowed to drive Kenyan forces out of Somalia, although police cast doubt on their role.

The Interior Ministry said one attack killed nine in the trading town of Hindi in Lamu County, the same district where about 65 people were killed by gunmen last month. Another was further south in the Gamba area, where 20 died.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

 

 

M2

 

Chinese hackers Switch Focus to US Experts on Iraq

 

A sophisticated group of hackers believed to be associated with the Chinese government, who for years targeted U.S experts on Asian geopolitical matters, suddenly began breaching computers of experts on Iraq as the rebellion there escalated, a security firm said on Monday.

 

CrowdStrike Inc said that the group is one of the most sophisticated of the 30 it tracks in China and that its operations are better hidden than many attributed to military and other government units.

 

CrowdStrike co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch said he has “great confidence” the hackers are affiliated with the government, though he declined to provide many details on the matter. A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

IMF Hints at Global Growth Forecast Cut

Global economic activity should strengthen in the second half of the year and accelerate in 2015, although momentum could be weaker than expected, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said on Sunday, hinting at a slight cut in the Fund’s growth forecasts.

Lagarde said central banks’ accommodative policies may have only limited impact on demand and that countries should boost growth by investing in infrastructure, education and health, provided their debt stays sustainable.

The IMF’s update of its global economic outlook, expected later this month, will be “very slightly different” from the forecasts published in April, she said. In April, the IMF had forecast that global output would grow by 3.6 percent in 2014 and 3.9 percent in 2015.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

American Apparel Creditor, Legal Worries Intensify

Lion Capital has ordered American Apparel to immediately repay a $10 million loan, after the retailer failed to do so by a July 4 deadline, a source close to the matter said on Monday.

 

The ousting of American Apparel Chief Executive Officer Dov Charney more than two weeks ago prompted Lion Capital to demand repayment of a loan that was originally due in 2018.

 

In an unrelated matter, a shareholder named Tammy Federman sued Charney and American Apparel board members, saying they failed to take appropriate, timely actions despite knowing about Charney’s misconduct, according to a case filed in a U.S. district court in California on Monday.

 

A spokesperson for American Apparel declined to comment on the Lion Capital loan and was not immediately available to comment on the lawsuit. Federman’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

American Apparel’s legal and credit-related issues intensified as investment firm Standard General LP said it gained voting control of ousted CEO Dov Charney’s shares in the firm and that it would back the retailer in its battle against bankruptcy.

^{Source: Reuters}

 

BHP has Six Bidders for Australia Nickel Unit – AFR

Six potential bidders, including Dutch commodity trader Trafigura and Hong Kong-listed MMG Ltd, are looking at the books of BHP Billiton’s Australian nickel unit, the Australian Financial Review reported on Sunday, without saying where it got the information.

X2 Resources, a private company run by former Xstrata chief executive Mick Davis, Canadian nickel miner Sherritt International Corp, Glencore Plc and Chinese nickel refining company Jinchuan Group are also doing due diligence on Nickel West, which could be worth as much as A$800 million ($749 million), the newspaper said.

^{Sources: Australian Financial Review, Reuters}

 

More US Companies adopting ‘tax efficient’ measures

Seventy-six U.S. corporations have shifted their tax domiciles out of the United States to other countries since 1983 to avoid U.S. taxes, with a sharp increase recently in such deals, a policy research arm of Congress said on Monday.

Known as inversions, these transactions are still rare but are becoming more common and causing concern in Washington. Responding to a request from lawmakers for background, the Congressional Research Service said it had found 47 such deals had been done in the past decade and more are in the works.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

New CEO at Portugal’s BES faces Questions about Loans to Founding Family

The naming of the first CEO from outside the founding clan of Banco Espirito Santo (BES) has reassured investors, but he will be under pressure to explain how Portugal’s biggest bank will recover nearly a billion euros lent to family-controlled firms.

BES nominated respected economist Vitor Bento on Saturday as CEO, just five days after revealing it was owed 980 million euros by firms controlled by the founding Espirito Santo family, 700 million more than had been disclosed when it raised 1.045 billion in new capital from shareholders on June 11.

_{Source: Reuters}

 _{Ken Odeluga, July 4th, 2014}

Britain planned to train 100, 000-strong Syrian Rebel Army

Britain at one point had planned to train and equip a 100,000-strong rebel army to defeat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to the BBC’s Newsnight show.

 

The plan was shelved before being put into action because it was deemed too risky, Newsnight reported on Thursday.

 

The BBC said the secret “extract, equip, train” proposal, put forward two years ago, was the idea of General David Richards, then Chief of the Defence Staff of the United Kingdom.

The UK Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the article, according to Reuters.

 

The secret initiative was considered by Prime Minister David Cameron and the National Security Council, as well as U.S. officials, the BBC said, citing Whitehall sources.

Richards’s initiative proposed vetting and training “a substantial army” of moderate Syrian rebels at bases in Turkey and Jordan.

 

_{Sources: BBC, Reuters}

US Embassy in Algeria On Alert for potential Terror Attack

 

The United States embassy in Algeria has warned about a potential attack by a “terrorist group” on targets in Algiers, possibly near a U.S.-branded hotel in the capital.

 

A statement on the embassy website told embassy employees to avoid hotels owned or operated by U.S. companies on the July 4th U.S. Independence Day holiday and Algerian Independence Day on July 5.

The warning posted on Wednesday was one of several U.S. security alerts about possible attacks by radical groups.

 

The U.S. embassy in Uganda warned on Thursday about a “specific threat” of an attack on Entebbe International Airport near Kampala “by an unknown terrorist group”.

In the United States, airlines with direct flights arriving from abroad were told to tighten screening of mobile phones and shoes in response to intelligence reports of increased threats from al Qaeda affiliated militant groups, U.S. officials said.

 

“As of June 2014, an unspecified terrorist group may have been considering attacks in Algiers, possibly in the vicinity of a U.S. branded hotel,” said the statement dated July 2 on the Algiers embassy website.

 

Algeria is concerned about militants using the political chaos in neighbouring Libya as a refuge.

 

In January last year, militants raided Algeria’s Amenas gas plant near Libya’s border, killing 40 oil contractors, all but one of them foreigners.

Following that attack, British-based BP and Norway’s Statoil pulled employees out of the region.

 

Fighters loyal to veteran Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar carried out the attack.

 

 

_{Source: Reuters}

 

Deadly overpass collapse in World Cup City

 

An unfinished overpass collapsed in the Brazilian World Cup host city of Belo Horizonte on Thursday, killing at least two people.

The bridge, located about two miles from Mineirao Stadium where the World Cup is being played, collapsed as vehicles were passing on a busy road underneath.

Part of a passenger bus was crushed and another car was still trapped in the wreckage hours later, as the news emerged.

Reports suggested that further passengers might still be trapped in vehicles involved in the accident.

Belo Horizonte has already hosted five World Cup games and the semi-final of the World Cup is due to be played in the city on Tuesday.

 

_{Source: Reuters}

 

Israel boosts forces at border with Gaza Strip

 

Israel has reinforced its forces along its frontier with the Gaza Strip whilst launching air strikes against militant Hamas targets there on Thursday.

The moves follow Palestinian cross-border rocket attacks staged in recent days.

The developments come amid a second day of violent Palestinian protests in Jerusalem after the discovery of the body of a 16-year-old Palestinian boy on Wednesday in a forest near the city.

 

Israeli police are investigating the possibility that he was the victim of a revenge killing over the deaths of three Jewish teenagers, whose abduction on June 12 Israel has blamed on Islamist Hamas militants in the occupied West Bank.

Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said troops were taking up “defence positions” in Israeli communities that have been struck by the rockets from Gaza. He did not comment on the scale of the deployment.

 

It is the first time since the border began to heat up in mid-June – in tandem with an Israeli military sweep and search for the three abducted Israeli youths in the West Bank – that Israel has announced troop movements near the Gaza Strip.

 

_{Source: Reuters}

 

 

Five Die in Egypt Violence as Anniversary of Mursi Exit Looms

 

Five people died in a bomb blast and clashes that broke out between security forces and protesters on Thursday on the first anniversary of the army’s ouster of elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

 

_{Source: Reuters}

 

81 Migrants Dead or Missing off Southern Italy Coast – UNHCR

 

Migrants arriving on boats in southern Italy say 81 other people travelling with them died or are missing following their sea journeys from North Africa, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR said on Wednesday.

 

A group of 27 migrants picked up on Tuesday by Italy’s naval rescue mission and brought to the town of Catania said there had been 75 other people on their boat, who were feared drowned, the agency said in a statement.

 

Other migrants arriving in Sicily’s Porto Empedocle said two of the party they travelled with had died and four had disappeared.

 

Authorities said the death toll on another packed fishing boat, discovered by an Italian rescue mission on Monday, had reached 45. The victims are believed to have suffocated.

 

All those found dead on Monday by the “Mare Nostrum” or “Our Sea” naval operation were men from Sub-Saharan Africa, the U.N. said.

 

_{Source: Reuters}

 

 

TECH

Now you see it: Google Un-disappears News Stories

Google Inc. said on Thursday it had reversed a decision to remove several links to stories in The Guardian newspaper, having initially said the links would be removed from its search engine as a consequence of implementation of the European Union’s “right to be forgotten” ruling.

The Guardian protested the removal of its stories describing how a football referee lied about reversing a penalty decision. It was unclear who asked Google to remove the stories.

 

Separately, Google has not restored links to a BBC article that described how former Merrill Lynch Chief Executive Officer E. Stanley O’Neal was ousted after the investment bank racked up billions of dollars in losses.

 

In a further twist, E. Stanley O’Neal, Merrill Lynch’s former CEO, said on Thursday he had “no knowledge” of an apparent effort to remove a BBC article mentioning him from Google search results in Europe.

 

Google intends to adhere to a May European court ruling that gave its citizens the “right to be forgotten:” to request the scrubbing of links to articles that pop up under a name search.

 

_{Source: Reuters}

  

FINANCE – M²

  UBS Forex Strategy Chief Exits

UBS AG’s chief currency strategist Mansoor Mohi-uddin has left the Swiss bank as part of cost-cutting measures, WSJ.com said Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the situation.

Mr. Mohi-uddin joined Swiss Bank Corp. in 1998 as an emerging-markets strategist just before the company’s merger with Union Bank of Switzerland.

Through his numerous and frequent strategy reports, Mr. Mohi-uddin’s strategy came to be known for its staunch bullishness about the U.S. dollar.

_{Source: WSJ.com}

 

Abbvie quietly presses case for Shire bid

AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez has pressed the case for his $46 billion pursuit of drugmaker Shire in discreet meetings with shareholders in London this week and is now weighing his next move, according to Reuters, which cites people familiar with the matter.

 

Shire shareholders who met with Gonzalez said he had reiterated the case for a deal, arguing that AbbVie would create more value from Shire’s assets than the hyperactivity and rare diseases specialist could do on its own, Reuters said.

 

The news agency said one person described the meeting he attended as fairly uneventful, with AbbVie giving no indication on the possibility of raising its offer – although analysts widely expect the offer to be raised in order to get the deal done.

 

Gonzalez, who under British takeover rules has until July 18 to make a firm bid for Shire or walk away, has flown back to Chicago for the U.S. long holiday weekend.

 

AbbVie declined to comment on the meetings.

 

Shire has rejected three separate proposals from the U.S. group, arguing the last offer of £46.26 a share in cash and stock fundamentally undervalues the company.

 

While AbbVie has yet to budge on price since Reuters first revealed its bid interest on June 19, it has stated that a deal at £46.26 would lift its earnings “materially” – a comment taken by analysts as a signal that it can afford to pay more.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

Dented Gowex to announce Action Plan on Monday

Spanish wireless network provider Gowex said late Thursday it would present an action plan on Monday after a report by Gotham City Research LLC questioned the company’s revenue reporting, wiping about 60 percent off the value of the shares over two days.

 

Shares in Gowex had been suspended earlier on Thursday from Spain’s alternative stock exchange, MAB, pending a statement from the company.

 

Spain’ stock market regulator said on Wednesday it had asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide information about Gotham City Research LLC and its administrators to investigate whether the publication of the report could constitute a market abuse.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

 

VW Denies plans for US Truckmaker Acquisition

 

Volkswagen on Thursday denied reports that it was planning to bid for U.S. truck maker Paccar next year.

 

A note by Singapore-based Bernstein Research analyst Max Warburton published earlier on Thursday quoted Daimler Trucks Chief Wolfgang Bernhard as saying that VW was preparing a takeover bid for 2015, citing “serious, multiple sources”.

_{Source: Reuters}

 

Trainline May come to Market

The owner of popular Internet ticketing website, trainline.com, has hired Morgan Stanley to oversee a potential listing, according to Sky News.

Exponent, which has had a controlling stake in Trainline since 2006, hopes to raise as much as £400 million, according to Sky News.

_{Source: Reuters}