plus 3, Israelis disciplined in attack on UN warehouse - San Francisco Chronicle |
- Israelis disciplined in attack on UN warehouse - San Francisco Chronicle
- TrustCo Bank Corp NY (TRST) Chairman, President and Chief Executive ... - Yahoo Finance
- US consumer spending weaker than expected in December - YAHOO!
- Germany, Switzerland in fresh tax clash - YAHOO!
| Israelis disciplined in attack on UN warehouse - San Francisco Chronicle Posted: 01 Feb 2010 07:41 AM PST Israel announced the punishment in a document submitted to the United Nations last Friday in response to a U.N. report that has accused Israel's military of committing war crimes, including the use of white phosphorus, an incendiary munition, in the warehouse attack. Israel is trying to stave off the report's central threat of launching war crimes proceedings if it does not carry out an independent investigation into the military's conduct during the fighting. There was no immediate comment from U.N. officials, and it remained unclear whether the relatively minor punishments would mollify international concerns that the military is not capable of investigating itself. The artillery attack, which took place while more than 700 Palestinian civilians were taking refuge in the compound, set ablaze a warehouse that services more than 1 million Gazans and destroyed thousands of pounds (kilograms) of food and other aid. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was visiting the region at the time, and three people were wounded, according to U.N. officials. Israel has said militants opened fire on Israeli troops from the compound — a charge the U.N. disputes. Nonetheless, the Israeli report said, a brigadier general and a colonel "exceeded their authority in a manner that jeopardized the lives of others" by authorizing the firing of artillery shells in the area. Military officials denied a Haaretz newspaper report that the officers were reprimanded for firing white phosphorous shells. White phosphorus can be used legally in some battlefield situations, but its use in built-up areas of Gaza has drawn war crimes allegations. The U.N. report has said it was improperly used in warehouse attack. "The most important thing that I want to emphasize is we have absolutely nothing to hide," said military spokesman Capt. Barak Raz. The military would not name the reprimanded officers. But Israeli newspapers and radio stations identified them as Gaza division commander Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg and Col. Ilan Malka, then-commander of the elite Givati brigade. Disciplinary action could compromise their chances for promotion. Israel launched the war to end years of Palestinian rocket attacks on its southern communities. More than 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 900 civilians, were killed, along with 13 Israelis. Large areas of Gaza were devastated and remain desolate because an ongoing Israeli and Egyptian blockade has prevented rebuilding. The U.N. report, authored by veteran war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, has accused Israel of using disproportionate force and deliberately targeting civilians. It also accused Hamas of firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians. Both sides reject the charges. They have until Friday to respond, but have signaled they would not meet the central demand of allowing credible, independent probes. That could lead the way to formal war crimes proceedings, though Israel's ally, the United States, is expected to block any efforts to prosecute. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the punishment of the two officers were "clear proof" that Israel committed war crimes. He said the rulings were a "preemptive step" to escape war crimes prosecution, and urged the international community to put Israelis on trial. He made no mention of the charges against Hamas. The Israeli military has conducted more than 140 inquiries into alleged violations of international law in connection with the war. Thirty-seven criminal investigations were launched, resulting in one minor conviction so far of a soldier who stole a Palestinian's credit card and made about $400 in purchases. Twenty-nine cases remain open, the military said. Israel-Palestinian peace talks broke down during the fighting, and U.S.-backed efforts to relaunch them have failed. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded Israel first declare a total freeze of construction on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state. On Monday, the Palestinians signaled they're willing to scale back their demands for an Israeli settlement freeze, from six months to three months. Abbas believes that once negotiations begin, they can lead to an agreement quickly, said Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide. "He wants a freeze during the talks, and he said we don't need more than three months," Erekat said. Israel has agreed to slow down construction in the West Bank for 10 months, but not in east Jerusalem, the disputed section of the city claimed by the Palestinians for their future capital. _______ Karin Laub in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| TrustCo Bank Corp NY (TRST) Chairman, President and Chief Executive ... - Yahoo Finance Posted: 01 Feb 2010 07:34 AM PST ADVISORY, Feb. 1, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- What: Where: When: Contacts: NASDAQ MarketSite: Feed Information: Radio Feed: Facebook and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/pages/NASDAQ-OMX/108167527653 For news tweets, please visit our Twitter page at: Webcast: Photos: About TrustCo Bank Corp. NY (TRST): The company currently operates 132 banking offices in 28 counties in New York, Florida, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Jersey. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Glenville, New York. Visit www.trustcobank.com for additional information. About NASDAQ OMX: NDAQA Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| US consumer spending weaker than expected in December - YAHOO! Posted: 01 Feb 2010 06:44 AM PST WASHINGTON (AFP) – US consumer spending edged up 0.2 percent in December, the critical holiday shopping month, government data showed Monday, highlighting sluggish growth in the key driver of economic activity. Personal incomes increased twice as much, at a 0.4 percent clip, the Commerce Department reported, as consumers kept their wallets shut in the face of rising job insecurity and worries about the strength of recovery from a severe recession. The increase in spending during the year-end holiday shopping season was the smallest since September, according to the seasonally adjusted Commerce Department data, and followed an upwardly revised 0.7 percent rise in November. Most analysts had forecast a 0.3 percent rise in both spending and incomes. The anemic spending rise supported expectations that the US economy will have tepid growth in 2010, after expanding in the third quarter for the first time after a year of contraction. The government's initial estimate that fourth-quarter gross domestic product, the broad measure of the country's goods and services output, surged at a sizzling 5.7 percent rate was mainly driven by factors linked to inventory restocking. Most analysts expect consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of US output, will remain under pressure from the double-digit unemployment rate, at 10.0 percent in December. The Labor Department is scheduled to release the January labor report Friday. The Commerce Department release showed the personal savings rate -- the savings ratio to disposable income -- advanced to 4.8 percent in December, the highest level since June, while disposable income rose 0.4 percent, down a tick from November. On a 12-month basis, spending was up 1.8 percent and incomes rose 1.5 percent from December 2008. Inflation related to consumer spending accelerated in the final month of 2009, pushing the annual rate above the Federal Reserve's comfort zone. The price index for personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose 2.1 percent from the year-earlier number, above the central bank's range of 1.7-2.0 percent. Excluding food and energy prices, the so-called "core" PCE price index, was up 1.5 percent. Still, confronted with weak consumer demand, prices moved only marginally higher in December from November. The PCE index rose 0.1 percent, after a 0.3 percent increase the prior month, while core PCE was up 0.1 percent after a less than 0.1 percent gain.
Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Germany, Switzerland in fresh tax clash - YAHOO! Posted: 01 Feb 2010 06:58 AM PST BERLIN (AFP) – Germany and Switzerland were on collision course on Monday over the Alpine state's cherished banking secrecy after Berlin said it might buy the names of suspected tax-dodgers from a whistle-blower. Press reports said that a mystery informer had offered Berlin the names of between 1,300 and 1,500 people hiding money from the German tax authorities in Switzerland for 2.5 million euros (3.5 million dollars). Switzerland warned Germany that buying stolen information "violates public policy and the principle of good faith ... (and) constitutes a breach of the privacy of the clients concerned," refusing to cooperate if Berlin went ahead. But with reports that the information would net Germany around 100 million euros in recovered taxes, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "everything must be done to get hold of these data." "Like every sensible person, I want to clamp down on tax evasion," Merkel told reporters in Berlin. "If these data are relevant we should aim to get hold of them." She did not say, however, whether Germany might pay for the names. The German finance ministry said that Berlin was considering following a 2008 "precedent" involving Liechtenstein, another Alpine country that has come under fire for helping investors conceal their wealth from the taxman. In that case, the German secret service handed over five million euros for the names of hundreds of German business executives, sports stars and entertainers allegedly hiding some four billion euros. In the ensuing investigation, Germany clawed back some 180 million euros. The scandal also claimed the scalp of Deutsche Post chief Klaus Zumwinkel, who got a two-year suspended jail sentence and was fined close to one million euros after admitting hiding money in the principality. Germany handed other countries the names of some their nationals and the scandal put tax havens in the international firing line just as the financial crisis sparked new calls for transparency in the banking industry. Switzerland and Liechtenstein have since moved to clean up their acts, agreeing to share more tax information with other countries. As a result, both have since been removed from an OECD "grey list" of tax havens. Swiss banking giant UBS last year agreed to hand over details of about 4,450 clients and US taxpayers, although last month a Swiss court upheld an appeal by one taxpayer against the transfer. Some in Germany, however, are cautious about paying for the information and with a new government in power after elections late last year, it is not clear that Berlin would cough up again. Karl Heinz Daeke, head of the BDST German taxpayers' association, told NTV television that the government had to be "very careful" how it handled the situation. Doubts emerged meanwhile about the identity of the whistle-blower. The Financial Times Deutschland daily named him as Herve Falciani, an IT specialist formerly employed by British bank HSBC in Geneva, who passed on data to the French tax authorities. "This is just a rumour," Falciani, 37, told AFP. "If they have any shred of proof, they should produce it." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Add Images to any RSS Feed To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
.gif "OBAT KUAT")
.gif)
No comments:
Post a Comment