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Recent
International Highlights and Points of Interest:
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Greece
Failed to Notify EU of 2001 Swap Contract, Eurostat Says
-
Greece
failed to notify the European Union about a 2001 swap contract that
helped mask the size of its debt and told the EU in 2008 that the
government was prohibited from using off-balance-sheet derivatives,
the EU’s statistics office said. Bloomberg
– 2/24/10
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Global
trade slumped 12% last year - Pascal Lamy, head of World
Trade Organisation, reveals fall in trade flows as he urges members
to revive
Doha
trade talks. Global
trade flows contracted by a catastrophic 12% in 2009, the fastest
pace since the second world war, Pascal Lamy, director general of
the World Trade Organisation revealed today, as he urged its 153
member countries to breathe new life into the ailing Doha trade
round. This latest
estimate is considerably worse than the WTO's previous forecast of a
10% decline for last year, underlining the hefty costs of the
financial crisis for the world economy.
UK
Guardian – 2/24/10
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GM
to Wind Down Hummer After
Sale
to Tengzhong Fails - General Motors Co. said it will
close Hummer, the maker of military-inspired sport-utility vehicles,
after Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. couldn’t
win Chinese approval to buy the unit.
GM doesn’t know how many jobs will be lost among the 3,000
people now employed at Hummer, because some employees work on other
vehicles, Nick Richards, a spokesman, said today. Richards said
winding down the brand would take several months. Bloomberg
- 2/24/10
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Venezuela
violates human rights, OAS commission reports -
Venezuela
routinely violates human rights, often intimidating or punishing
citizens based on their political beliefs, an Organization of
American States commission said in a report released Wednesday.
The 319-page report by the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights says a lack of independence by
Venezuela
's judiciary and legislature in their dealings with leftist
President Hugo Chavez often leads to the abuses.
CNN
– 2/24/10
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Iberdrola
May Invest 16 Billion Euros Through 2012 - Iberdrola SA,
Spain
’s biggest electricity company, said net investment from 2010
through 2012 may total 16 billion euros ($22 billion) as it spends
more on renewable-energy projects and networks. Gross
investment may climb to 18 billion euros, while asset sales may
raise as much as 2.5 billion euros through 2012, Iberdrola said
today in a filing. The utility targets average annual growth of 5
percent to 9 percent in profit excluding one- time items and in
earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization from
2009 through 2012. Bloomberg
– 2/24/10
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Biofuel
power plant plan refused - An application to build a
biofuel power station at Avonmouth, capable of powering 25,000
homes, has been refused by city councillors. The plant, which would
had been fuelled initially by palm oil, was attacked by critics who
blamed the demand for palm oil for rainforest destruction. The
meeting was told the decision had to be made according to material
planning considerations, not emotions. But
councillors went against advice from planners and voted 6-2 against
it. BBC
– 2/24/10
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Clashes
as workers strike in
Athens
- Police fired tear gas and clashed with youths on
Athens
' streets Wednesday, during otherwise peaceful demonstrations
against an austerity program designed to bring down the country's
deficit. The
confrontations between police and the youths -- who appeared to not
be a part of the organized strikes -- lasted about half an hour on
Wednesday afternoon. A CNN crew later saw smashed windows and
restaurants with broken chairs.
CNN
– 2/24/10
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Severe
winter hits German business sentiment - German business
confidence fell this month for the first time in almost a year as
severe winter weather blew the recovery in
Europe
’s largest economy off course.
The Munich-based Ifo institute reported its business climate
index slipped from 95.8 in January to 95.2, suggesting that after
its early escape from recession last year,
Germany
’s economy was seeing only lacklustre growth or even a contraction
at the start of 2010. Financial
Times – 2/23/10
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UPS
Opens Hub in
Calgary
- UPS on Monday opened a distribution center at the
Calgary
International
Airport
in
Calgary
,
Alberta
. The state-of-the-art hub is expected to provide direct access to
the
United States
and international markets such as
China
,
India
and
Mexico
, the company said. “Despite
the recent recession,
Calgary
’s economy still stands as a growth engine for
Canada
with many businesses in the area looking to take advantage of
emerging markets overseas,” said Mike Tierney, president of UPS
Canada. Journal
of Commerce – 2/23/10
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German
Business Confidence May
Increase
on
Export Outlook - German business confidence may rise to a
19-month high in February as the global economic recovery and a
falling euro improve the outlook for exports.
Global trade, fueled by demand from emerging economies, will
expand 5.8 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund said
on Jan. 26. That may boost German sales abroad and help offset a
slide in domestic spending. Exporters
may also benefit from
Greece
’s fiscal crisis, which has pushed the euro to a nine-month low
against the dollar. Business
Week – 2/23/10
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Americas
bloc excluding US and
Canada
is proposed - The proposed new grouping was one of the
main issues of the
Cancun
summit. Latin American
and Caribbean nations have agreed to set up a new regional body
without the
US
and
Canada
, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has said. The
new bloc would be an alternative to the Organisation of American
States (OAS), the main forum for regional affairs in the past 50
years. BBC News
– 2/23/10
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Afghan
Leader Asserts Control Over Election Body - To the dismay
of his political opponents and his international backers, President
Hamid Karzai has moved to ensure that he can hand-pick members of an
electoral monitoring commission, removing significant United Nations
oversight of future elections. Using a
loophole in the Afghan Constitution, the president unilaterally
rewrote the election law and put it into effect by an emergency
presidential decree on Feb. 13. New
York Times – 2/23/10
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The
euro's Greek tragedy - The Greek crisis has thrown
another detour into the euro's march to world currency domination.
The rise of the European common currency has been a market
theme for years. At its peak early in the financial crisis, the euro
had gained 59% against the dollar since its inception in 2000,
thanks to the European Central Bank's inflation-fighting mandate and
years of lax policy in the
United States
. CNN
Money – 2/22/10
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Green
efforts spring from
Chinese
desert
- He has never heard of global warming or
Copenhagen
, where leaders from 193 countries gathered for a major climate
change summit last weekend. But
Ulandalai, 43, a farmer in one of
China
's most isolated desert regions, says he's doing his part to help
the environment anyway. As
part of a clean energy initiative partly sponsored by the Chinese
government, Ulandalai, who uses just one name, planted sand willows
three years ago on land where he used to graze sheep.
USA
Today – 2/22/10
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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WORLD
TRADE CENTER RECOGNIZED FOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN CITIZEN
DIPLOMACY: The State Department on International Visitor
Leadership Programs (IVLP) has selected the
Northern
California
World
Trade
Center
to participate in a pilot project designed to show the future
benefits and past accomplishments of citizen diplomacy through the
IVLP. The project will involve filming the NorCalWTC’s Associate
Programmer discussing a program that was facilitated a year ago for
a group of Bee Keepers traveling from
Uzbekistan
to the
Sacramento
region. The video will not only tell the story of the global visit,
but will reflect the importance of creating overseas relationships
and the positive impacts on the lives of all involved in the IVLP
program. The NorCalWTC was selected based on the following writing
submission and will be a part of the filming while they are back on
the East Coast for the National conference in February. Click
here to read winning story.
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Cargo
projects rolling
- Transportation officials are creating a regional strategy to
increase the volume of cargo moving in and out of the area as part
of an aggressive effort to help the economy get back on track.
From land to sea to air, efforts are under way to move more
goods more efficiently through and around
Sacramento
. Projects include improving rail service to
McClellan
Park
, deepening the deep-water channel to the
Port
of
West Sacramento
and attracting international carriers to
Sacramento
’s airports. The hope is to spur economic development with a more
cost-effective and efficient transport system. “The
opportunity in the region is just astonishing,” said
Michael Faust, president and chief executive of the
Northern
California
World
Trade
Center
. “We
need to think big, act strategically and pursue bold projects.”
Sacramento
Business Journal – 11/09
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