GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Thirty years ago today, 2 April 1982, the Falklands War began, when the UK sent troops to rebuff what the British refer to as an invasion of the island they have ruled since 1833. Argentina sees it differently and despite defeat at the hands of the British 30 years ago, the South American nation is renewing its claims to the island it calls Malvinas. The anniversary in both countries is being observed by paying tribute to the 225 British and 650 Argentinian soldiers who died during the war, which lasted 74 days.
In the US, files from the period that are now available to the public for the first time, show President Ronald Reagan quietly backing the UK while publicly the US acted as a supposedly neutral negotiator.
Links to other sites: BBC, Buenos Aires Herald, George Washington University National Security Archives
Related tax news: Upper house commission backs government’s proposed fiscal administrative assistance process
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The United Kingdom and Switzerland signed a Protocol of Amendment to their new double taxation treaty Tuesday 20 March, with the Swiss government noting that “The agreement remains unchanged in essence” and that “the concerns of the EU Commission regarding compatibility with EU law have been removed.” The agreement was initialed 6 October 2011 and followed a new treaty between the two countries that entered into force in January 2011.
Agreements with Britain and Germany were two of the nearly 40 revised double taxation agreements Switzerland has drawn up with other countries since it agreed to follow OECD recommendations in this area, but they prompted negative reactions from the EU, which threatened to take its two member states to court.
Switzerland, in a statement Tuesday notes that “Effectively, nothing will change for bank clients; their tax obligations will be fulfilled. Only the legal structure will change.”
Key points of the final version include:
- Interest payments will be excluded from the agreement; “at the same time, it will be ensured that UK taxpayers can discharge their tax liability on interest payments”
- Inheritance is now also covered by the agreement in order to eliminate a loophole. In the case of inheritance, the heirs must consent to either collection of a tax or disclosure.
The agreement is now ready for the two countries’ parliaments, which must approve it before the agreement enters into force in 2013.
The economic commission of the upper house of parliament agreed Tuesday to back the Federal Council’s revised process in case of requests from foreign goverments for fiscal administrative assistance, also adapted as a result of OECD criticism of Swiss agreements with other countries. Revised procedure, fiscal administrative assistance (Fre), pdf
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The UK budget, to be unveiled Wednesday 21 March, could well hold some surprises, but one of its most unusual features is already under discussion: a partial privatization plan that would allow wealth funds from sovereign states to lease British motorways and highways. The Guardian reports that “In his most eye-catching proposal, [Prime Minister David] Cameron will announce that the Treasury and Department for Transport are to carry out a feasibility study looking at using private-sector funds to improve and maintain trunk roads and motorways.”
China is one of the targeted countries, but any funds investing in the roads programme would need to meet a set of targets to improve roads and reduce congestion, areas where the government says Britain is falling behind.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, reports the Wall St Journla, says that “the bulk of the measures in the budget will be aimed at helping low and middle income earners, in a move that is likely to appease junior coalition partners the Liberal Democrats and offset speculation about a controversial cut to the top income tax rate.”
Links to other sites: Guardian, Independent, Wall St Journal
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – You won’t yet find this news in The Sun, but five more senior journalists were arrested in an early hours raid Saturday 11 February at their homes in London, Essex and Kent, two weeks after four others were arrested. The total number of those taken in by police as part of Scotland Yard’s Elveden investigation into corruption, including journalists bribing police officers.
Today’s arrests pulled in deputy editor Geoff Webster, picture editor John Edwards, chief reporter John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker and deputy news editor John Sturgis, according to Sun owner News Corp. The five arrested earlier were all released on bail.
Owner Ruport Murdoch says the newspaper will continue to publish, unlike its sister tabloid News of the World, forced to close in the summer of 2011.
Links to other sites: BBC, Guardian, Scotland Yard, The Sun
Britain, France, Germany, Italy Spain: US citizens’ bank data in exchange for US reporting some of their citizens’ bank accounts
Overseas Americans already caught in crosshairs
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A proposed deal that is being hailed by the six countries involved as a step forward in their fight against international tax evasion ironically borrows from a Swiss solution proposed as part of new double taxation treaties. In both cases data on foreign citizens is not turned over directly to the other government by financial institutions. Instead, the banks would hand data on foreign clients to their own governments, which would pass it on.
The US and EU-5 proposal comes as Swiss and US negotiators grapple with differing interpretations of a pending a new tax treaty. Strict Swiss data protection laws have been a sticking point. The Swiss have insisted they will not accept “fishing expeditions” but will accept bulk requests where tax fraud or evasion is shown to be likely.
Switzerland proposed for its recently negotiated double taxation treaties with Germany and the UK that Swiss banks collect withholding taxes that the Swiss government will then pay to these countries. Their citizens can elect to declare the assets and get the withholding tax back or cede it to their governments if they do not want to declare their accounts.
The news of the six nation proposal came at the same time 8 February as the publication of 355 pages of regulations for Fatca, new US legislation designed to fight tax evasion.
EC applauds government to government approach
Europolitics reports that the European Commission was happy with the news.
“The European Commission issued a statement applauding these arrangements: ‘Thanks to this intergovernmental approach – the only one conceivable for now because it is rapid – to the exchange of tax information, the extra administrative costs, compliance costs and legal impediments (related to data protection) that financial institutions in the EU would have experienced will be considerably reduced’. The financial sector itself has estimated at US$100 million the extra costs for a multinational European bank as a result of implementation of the new legislation.
“For the Commission, which opened the debate on FATCA with Washington in April 2011, any EU member state should now be able to adopt this government-to-government approach to information exchange by concluding ‘coordinated bilateral agreements’ with the United States. Washington is considering developing other partnerships with third countries.”
Automatic data handover part of the likely new deal, but reciprocal
The new agreement between the US and Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain would see financial data for all Americans automatically handed by these countries to the IRS, the US tax arm.
In return, the US would hand over data, too, but, in addition, the other countries’ financial institutions would benefit from being included in a group registration with the IRS. The result: complying with Fatca would be far less expensive.
The US argues the new arrangement would lower the cost of implementing Fatca—and that it will at the same time bring the other governments information about bank accounts held in the US by some of their own citizens, those with offshore accounts.
Significantly, too, “the Fatca partner [country] would not be required to terminate the account of a recalcitrant account holder”, an American who did not report account information to the IRS, according to the US Treasury.
The reporting requirements and burdens would not be the same: the US is asking for all US accounts to be reported because it is the only country besides Eritrea to tax its citizens on the basis of citizenship rather than residence. The five European countries would be given data only on their citizens who have US accounts but who are resident in the home country.
Ed. note: Eritrea was condemned in 2009 and again in December 2011 by United Nations Security Council resolution 2023, for destabilizing the Horn of Africa region. Eritrea is sanctioned in part for its diaspora tax, used for military purposes. The US voted in favour of the sanctions. The only other country, according to Wikipedia, that has a citizenship-based tax system as opposed to residence system, was the Philippines, but it changed to a residence system in 1995.
Fatca: data privacy concerns circumvented by reporting to banks’ own governments
Fatca, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, is a US law that went into effect in March 2010 but which is only gradually being implemented. It requires foreign financial institutions (FFI’s) to report to the US government US accounts, according to the US Treasury Department’s press release on the six-nation proposed agreement Wednesday 8 February.
Fatca’s implementation has been rescheduled several times and it has been the subject of much heated debate in the financial industry. The US Treasury Department in its press release concedes that Fatca “has raised a number of issues, including that FFIs established in these countries may not be able to comply with the reporting, withholding and account closure requirements because of legal restrictions.”
Data protection laws have been part of this debate in the UK, for example.
Questions have also been raised about the legitimacy of the American government writing laws that apply to non-US businesses, the FFIs, outside the US.
Fatca and Americans living outside the US: not tax evaders
US expatriates have voiced a number of concerns about Fatca, starting with its failure to distinguish between Americans in the US with offshore accounts and Americans who are resident, particularly long-term, overseas.
American Citizens Abroad (ACA), a Geneva-based international non-profit organization, in 2011 and after public debate in town hall meetings, called for the outright repeal of Fatca, saying it “destroys lives and the US economy”.
Growing number of Americans in Switzerland refused regular bank accounts
A Town Hall meeting of Americans in Geneva Wednesday 8 February called for a show of hands of those who have been turned down for a bank account in the past year: an estimated 50 percent said yes, and afterwards some people admitted privately they haven’t told their banks they are American for fear their accounts will be closed.
The US is currently investigating 11 Swiss banks for aiding wealthy Americans based in the US to evade taxes. More importantly, for Americans who live in Switzerland, Swiss banks, like those elsewhere, are preparing for Fatca, and US clients may be viewed as a liability.
ACA has been gathering growing evidence that US residents abroad, even if they file taxes, are being refused bank accounts and that financial institutions are beginning to divest themselves of US securities.
The New York Times in an article published 9 February says “Fatca has also been criticized by American expatriates because it imposes new reporting requirements. Some have said it makes Americans less attractive as clients for financial institutions, raising the cost of doing business overseas. Those criticisms were not addressed in the proposed rules.”
Tax evasion effort tacked onto jobs bill
Fatca was passed by the US Congress to little fanfare in 2010, tacked onto a much larger jobs bill called the Hire Act. President Barack Obama when he signed it, made reference to four of the five parts of the Hire Act, never mentioning the foreign tax compliance section. The IRS web page devoted to Hire initially failed to mention Fatca as well (Hire Act (pdf).
The US Treasury Department press release yesterday mentions that the five Fatca partners of the US would look at “certain accounts” as part of the agreement.
The law itself is more precise, stating that FFIs will be obliged “in the case of any United States account maintained by such institution, to report on an annual basis” several pieces of information:
“(A) The name, address, and TIN of each account holder
which is a specified United States person and, in the case of any account holder which is a United States owned foreign entity, the name, address, and TIN of each substantial United States owner of such entity.
(B) The account number.
(C) The account balance or value (determined at such time and in such manner as the Secretary may provide).
(D) Except to the extent provided by the Secretary, the gross receipts and gross withdrawals or payments from the account (determined for such period and in such manner as the Secretary may provide).”
It defines a US account: “In general.—The term ‘United States account’ means any financial account which is held by one or more
specified United States persons or United States owned foreign entities.” The exception is an individual whose aggregate accounts at one financial institution, including for example retirement accounts, are under CHF50,000 in a given year.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The London Wapping offices of News Corp, owner of British tabloid The Sun, were raided by Scotland Yard police early Saturday 28 January and during the morning Saturday four journalists and a police officer were arrested. The journalists are all current or former Sun journalists. The Metropolitan Police issued a statement that “Today’s operation is the result of information provided to police by News Corporation’s Management and Standards Committee. It relates to suspected payments to police officers and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately.”
The raid and arrests are part of an investigation dubbed Elveden into police corruption that involves The Sun possibly paying police for news information.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Guardian, Reuters
Two die as high winds sweep the region
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Winds of up to 100mph in Scotland and other parts of Britain 3 January are causing considerable damage, with some areas suffering power cuts and transport disrupted, including the London-Edinburgh trains. A man died in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in southern England when a tree fell on his van and a sailor, one of three injured on a boat in the Channel, died after they were rescued.
Weather alerts remain in place, with strong winds expected throughout the night.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Financial Times wondered Sunday if the UK will drop out of the European Union, but most media weren’t willing to take it quite that far. Europe was nevertheless adjusting this weekend to a new set of relations after Britain vetoed a new EU treaty that would bind the members more closely financially. The UK was the only one of the 27 member countries to do so. UK Prime Minister David Cameron goes before parliament Monday 12 December to explain why he vetoed the treaty. He said after last week’s vote that it left the financial services industry unprotected.
Ireland has said it will start bilateral talks with London soon, with the Irish Times reporting that “The Government intends to launch an intensive diplomatic engagement with Britain to ensure London is not left isolated as a result of its refusal to agree strict new fiscal rules in the European Union.”
Links to other sites: Guardian, Irish Times, Le Monde interview with Nicolas Sarkozy (Fr), Telegraph
GENEVALUNCH – The most comprehensive study ever of the source of cancers in Britain according to its authors shows that smoking, drinking, poor eating habits and excess weight trigger 43 percent of cancers in the country and are responsible for half of all cancer-related deaths.
The study is published today in the British Journal of Cancer and is receiving considerable media attention in the UK.
The biggest lifestyle changes men should make, the report suggests, is to eat more fruits and vegetables and to smoke less. Women should keep their weight down.
The authors, in their introduction to the special supplement to the regular journal say the results show “a limited number of important factors that can, at least to some extent, be affected by personal or political choices. The most important among these is continuation of the significant reduction in tobacco exposure. Next in importance are reductions in obesity and in heavy alcohol consumption, and certain other dietary changes. Each of these four main strategies for cancer control would also substantially reduce the burden of other non-communicable diseases, particularly cardiovascular, diabetic, renal and hepatic disease.”
The UK had 134,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in 2010. Tobacco alone is responsible for about 20 percent of all cancers and 25 percent of cancer-related deaths.
“Over the past 40 years in the UK, the probability of death before the age of 70 years has been halved, and over the next few decades it could be halved again by continued improvements in the treatment of disease and by paying appropriate attention to the few major avoidable causes of disease.
Swiss photographer Michael Grob on his work with Cambodian landmine victims: "Unlike in Afghanistan which is still in a state of war, we had to learn to adjust to the reality of such an amount of mines still being in Cambodian soil so long after the fighting has stopped. It was at times very difficult for me to deal with the impression left by the very high number of mine inflicted casualties - especially those of injured children. The work of the UN in Cambodia is, in my eyes, of utmost importance. It is for some communities the only opportunity for some kind of future. The situation touched me deeply and profoundly...my work for the United Nations mine action - as insignificant as it might be in the bigger picture - shall go on as long as needed." (©2011 Michael Grob)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Efforts to get rid of landmines are making good progress in many countries and funding is being maintained despite government budget constraints, a key meeting in Cambodia that closed 2 December shows. But work remains, with 4,000 new victims of landmines each year: six people died in Pursat Province, Cambodia, which hosted the meeting, Thursday 1 December when their truck triggered a mine.
The 11th meeting of the States Parties, the 158 nations that are part of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention finished in Phnom Penh with several strong commitments.
The Netherlands stated that “despite cuts in other areas, the government remains convinced of this matter” and it will maintain its €15 million annual contribution to demining and victim assistance.
Austria is increasing its 2012 funding slightly, to €1.9 million.
Cambodia funding stepped up
Austria announced its first contributions to demining and victim assistance in Cambodia, totaling €400,000. New Zealand, too, will contribute to a demining project in northeastern Cambodia: more than US$ 1 million in 2012.
Burundi bright spot
Cheering news came from Burundi, which says it has completed demining, a full three years ahead of the deadline to which it was committed. It is the 19th country to be declared mine-free.
Myanmar told the landmine ban meeting in Cambodia at the end of November that it is carefully considering the matter (Photo, ©2011, AP Mine Ban Convention)
The meeting, with 1,000 delegates taking part, marked progress in a number of areas and made media headlines over the first-ever participation by Myanmar, as an observer.
The isolated nation has been making commitments to reform, and at the land-mine ban meeting it said that “thorough study of the treaty will be continued”.
Its actions will be watched closely; it is one of three countries, along with Qaddafi’s Libya and Israel, who have been accused of laying mines in 2011.
“Convincing evidence” Syria is using mines
There is also “convincing evidence”, the group says, that Syria has used mines this year.
Tuvalu and South Sudan took their seats as the Convention’s newest adherents. Finland announced that it is on the verge of becoming the 159th to join the Convention.
Fifteen States that have not yet joined the Convention attended as observers, “signaling their openness to engage in a discussion on the devastating impact of anti-personnel mines”, a meeting press release states. The US is one of these and it reported that it is continuing to review its landmine policy.
Other signs of progress reported by the meeting: “Turkey reported the destruction of all stockpiled anti-personnel mines: 3 million mines. Burundi and Nigeria declared completion of their mine clearance obligations. Guinea Bissau, Jordan and Uganda announced that they will complete their demining programmes in coming months.”
A major and often under-funded part of the States’ commitments is helping survivors. Meeting host Cambodia, one of the most affected countries, says it is “assessing its national action plan on disability with a view to preparing a revised plan in 2012.”
Britain, Germany fail to meet commitments to demine
Germany is one of four countries with new reports of mine contamination that are falling far behind on their commitments to demine.
The town of Koblenz, Germany is the site this weekend of a massive project to defuse a bomb with 3,000 tons of explosives left over from the second world war; 45,000 people are being evacuated from their homes to allow the army and experts to get rid of it. The bomb became apparent this year due to lower water levels in the Rhine, reports NPR.
Britain has failed to clear any mines in the Falklands for the second year in a row.
“The UK has consistently failed to meet their clearance obligations under the treaty, and now have to clear more than 110 mined areas across over 7km2 in less than seven years,” the group notes.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Some 2 million public sector workers are slated to walk out Wednesday 30 November in the UK, affecting schools, hospitals, government offices and public transport, among other services. The strike is over changes to government pension plans, with workers being asked to work longer hours to earn their pensions. The government announced Tuesday it wants to bring forward to 2026 a plan to move the pension age to 67.
Early reports indicate that 75 percent of schools in Britain are affected by the strike.
Prime Minister David Cameron lashed out early Wednesday at the union, holding them responsible for taking labour action while negotiations are going on. The BBC cites General secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers Russell Hobby, that “blame for any rise in union militancy – particularly among moderate unions – belongs fairly and squarely at the government’s door: A failure to negotiate in any meaningful sense until the last minute”.
The 24-hour strike is widely expected to involve up to two million workers, with the BBC labeling it “what is set to be the biggest walkout for a generation”.
Links to other sites: Daily Mail, Guardian, the Scotsman, Telegraph
Chinese tourists overtake Italians, catching up with French, British
Chinese tourists on Mt Saentis 29 October, next to Switzerland's first mountain peak weather station, commissioned in 1882: on a clear day six countries are visible from this point
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss franc continues to have a strong impact on European and US visitors to Switzerland, with the number of overnight stays by foreigners in September down 6.8 percent compared to the same month a year earlier.
Foreigners accounted for a little more than half of the industry’s 3.3 million overnight stays in September.
The overall figure for the year to date is down 2 percent, but in September overnight stays fell 3.4 percent.
The decline in European stays continued, with Bern attributing this largely to the over-valued Swiss franc against sterling and the euro. Visits by foreigners were down 6 percent, but European visitors’ stays fell by 11 percent.
German tourist numbers were down 13 percent, British 13 percent, Dutch 12 and Italian 11 percent. US visitors are down 9.4 percent, although the number of overnight stays by Canadians rose
Chinese tourists to Switzerland: rapid increase as Alps tug Asians
Mt Saentis 30 October: a popular destination for German tourists, is attracting Chiense visitors
Asian numbers and in particular overnight stays by Chinese tourists continue to rise, with a 12 percent overall increase that includes a 43 percent increase by Chinese visitors, some 20,000 overnight stays. For the year to date, Chinese tourists show a 58.6 percent increase.
Germany remains by far Switzerland’s largest tourist client country, with some 470,000 overnights to date in September. The US was second with 172,000, Britain third with 152,000, France fourth with 100,000 – and then the surprise of China, with 67,000 overtaking Italy, with 65,000.
Wanted: British skiers, snowboarders, holiday fans and winter hikers
The British figures are likely to cause particular concern, with the crucial ski season coming up. Swiss statistics show 1.43 million overnights from January to the end of September, and the fourth quarter tends to be low, but the industry is holding its breath looking at winter ski season reservations.
British statistics register “visits” by its citizens abroad rather than overnight stays, and in 2010 the number of visits was down to 896,000 from a 2008 figure of 1.16 million. The first quarter of the year, with the ski season, saw 294,000 British visitors in 2011, compared to 350,000 a year earlier.
British tourists travelled again in the second quarter of 2011, but with the weakening pound, travel increased to North America, remained stable in the European Union and dropped to countries outside the EU, which includes Switzerland. Travel outside the EU during April to the end of June was at a level last seen in 2009 and before that, iln 2005.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 27-vehicle pileup on the M5 motorway in Somerset, England, has killed an unknown number of people but initial reports list 5 dead, at least 43 injured. The accident occurred at 20:35 Friday 4 November at exit 25 northbound, near Taunton, with the crashes sparking a huge fireball. It appears that six trucks and at least 20 cars were involved in the huge crash.
Heavy rain earlier in the day Friday and patches of fog may have been involved in causing the accident, but police investigations have not yet clarified what caused the huge fireball.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, 2 November lost his high court appeal to avoid extradition to Sweden. His lawyers say they will decide in the next 14 days whether or not to appeal to Britain’s supreme court. Assange is wanted by Sweden for questioning over charges of sexual assault filed by two women in relation to an August 2010 visit by Assange to Stockholm.
ABC News in Australia reports that “his mother Christine told the Australian Associated Press news agency on Wednesday that her son was now ‘even closer to a US extradition or rendition. If [the Australian people] don’t stand up for Julian, he will go to the US and he will be tortured,’” she said.
Links to other sites: ABC News, Australia, Guardian, UK, Radio Sweden
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – British royals will be able to marry Catholics and older sisters of boys will take precedence for stepping up to the throne under new rules that will affect any children born to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who married in April.
The 16 nations that are members of the British Commonwealth with Queen Elizabeth as their monarch will seal an agreement, the royal equality act, that will change some aspects of current law affecting the monarchy. The 54 Commonwealth nations are meeting in Perth 28-30 October, with the queen opening the meeting of heads of government, held every two years, reports the Telegraph.
The Guardian writes, ”
Commonwealth leaders will pledge to amend legislation dating back to the 17th century to allow daughters of the monarch to take precedence over younger sons in the line of succession.
David Cameron will hail the agreement of the 16 Queen’s realms, the Commonwealth countries where the Queen serves as head of state, to amend ‘outdated’ rules that also prevent a potential monarch from marrying a Catholic.”
Catholics will still be barred from the throne, with the ruling monarch remaining the head of the Church of England.
TORONTO, CANADA – Tired but very happy after running the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 8 hours, 25 minutes and 16 seconds, Fauja Singh was willing to share his secret for living to a ripe old age. He had just become the oldest person, at age 100, to run a marathon, a dream he realized after he took up running about 20 years ago, following the deaths of his wife and son.
The elderly sportsman trains by running 10km a day.
The secret? “The secret to a long and healthy life is to be stress-free. Be grateful for everything you have, stay away from people who are negative, stay smiling and keep running.”
Singh was born in the Punjab in India, and he moved to Britain, becoming a British citizen in the 1960s, He already held a world record for over-90 runners before this weekend’s feat, observed by a team from the Guinness World Records. He broke several sprint records for 100-year-old earlier last week.
Singh’s coach says he attributes his stamina to a light diet of curry, tea and toast.
Links to other sites: BBC, CBC, Toronto Star
UK residents with Swiss accounts affected in 2013
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss and UK governments Thursday 6 October signed an agreement reached earlier, that will allow the British government to tax income on assets held in Swiss banks by UK residents.
The Swiss government announced that “Federal Councillor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf and the UK Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke signed a tax agreement. Under this agreement, persons resident in the United Kingdom can retrospectively tax their existing banking relationships in Switzerland either by making a one-off tax payment or by disclosing their accounts. Future investment income and capital gains of British bank clients in Switzerland will be subject to a final withholding tax, and the proceeds of this will be transferred to the British authorities by Switzerland.”
In addition, says Bern, the new agreement will give Swiss banks better access to the UK financial market.
The agreement is similar to one signed in September with the German government and to one being negotiated with France.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A journalist who works for the Observer and the Guardian has written a plea for police to stop trying to obtain information from his cell phone, amid a continuing row over journalists, their sources and the right of the police to obtain media images.
Henry McDonald, who covers Ireland, including Northern Ireland, for the media companies, was asked by police to hand over his cell phone following calls last weekend linked to possible violence in the north. He has been told by his management not to hand over the phone but the affair has reignited an old debate over police rights to information held by journalists. The incident follows earlier ones in August 2011 where police demanded film footage of riots in London.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Iceland’s president, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, is making waves by saying Europe bullied the country into bailing out Icesave bank, which had large numbers of UK and Dutch investors, a bailout that was hugely unpopular at home, while the US was “absent” and India and China were helpful as the country faced serious debt problems. His remarks were initially made at the end of last week in an interview with the Financial Times following news that Iceland’s government has agreed to allow a Chinese investor to buy a large chunk of the island for an eco-tourism resort. He then repeated his remarks during a key radio broadcast Sunday, and he is asking the European Union to investigate the role of the UK and The Netherlands in the bank bailout.
The IMF has been involved in helping sort out the country’s debt problems and Iceland is eyeing European Union membership.
Links to other sites: China Post, The Financial Express, VOA blog
William Fox-Pitt, Britain, made history with a record sixth Burghley victory when winning on Parklane Hawk with just a single jumping time penalty to add to his dressage score (Photo, ©2011 Kit Houghton/FEI)
Stamford, UK – British rider William Fox-Pitt “earned a standing ovation from the rain-soaked crowd as he clinched a record sixth title at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, second-last leg of the HSBC FEI Classics”, according to FEI, the Lausanne-based international equestrian sports federation.
He has now overtaken Britain’s Ginny Elliot and Mark Todd of New Zealand, who each have five Burghley victories to their names, and he has equalled fellow Brit Lucinda Green’s Badminton record of six wins on six different horses.
Fox-Pitt, 42, has been a member of the British team since 1993. He has won Olympic team silver (2004) and bronze (2008) medals, world team gold, silver and bronze, plus individual silver in 2010 on Cool Mountain.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The spread of London’s riots to more parts of the city and to other cities is the headline news Tuesday 9 August, not just in the UK but in most English-speaking countries, overtaking news of stock markets diving and the continuing fall of the dollar and the euro in currency markets. London’s Met Police are reported to be delivering people who are arrested to jails outside the city because it’s own are filled.
Stock markets:Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, is calculated by Bloomberg to have lost $6.7 billion in the past week as markets dived amidst gloomy debt and credit rating news in the US and Europe. Wall Street fell more than 6 percent in trading Monday, the first day of trading post-Moody’s credit downgrading, and Asian markets continued their downward spiral Tuesday before easing, with the Swiss franc holding strong ($1.32 and euro.93) in what Reuters describes as “a global rout triggered by fears that political leaders are failing to tackle debt crises in Europe and the United States.” Bloomberg notes that Asian markets responded positively to talk of the US Federal Reserve intervening.
Links to other sites: BBC, Bloomberg, The Globe & Mail, Guardian, Irish Times, Sydney Morning Herald
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Tottenham’s night of violence in the north of London, sparked by the death of a man shot by police, spread Sunday to several other London suburbs: Enfield, Walthamstow and Waltham Forest in north London, Brixton to the south, according to the BBC. Police have been the target of much of what the BBC calls the “disorder”, with 35 police officers reported to be wounded, police vehicles overturned and large gangs of youths looting shops, especially mobile phone stores. Some 100 people were arrested.
Links to other sites: BBC, Met Police statement, Sky News, Telegraph
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The arrest 20 July of 21 hackers, some of whom are part of the loose networks Anonymous and LulzSec, is part of a wider net to catch computer hackers that included 60 searches, according to the United States Justice Department, but reactions, mainly in the US and Europe, have been tempered by skepticism. Hacks on sites, possibly including Nato, have continued since the arrests and there are doubts that the 14 Anonymous people arrested are ringleaders. The group has close ties to Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and has been tied to attacks on PayPal’s eBay in retaliation for the company’s refusal to accept donations for WikiLeaks. Most of the arrests were in the US, but four people were arrested in The Netherlands and one in London, with police in both cases working with US authorities.
The US crime of conspiracy and intentional damage to a protected computer carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Each count of conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Links to other sites: Christian Science Monitor, CNET, IP Watch, Main Justice
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – It would be easy to believe nothing is happening in Britain except the phone hacking scandal, judging by UK headlines, with a fresh crop of details Tuesday about the sagging Murdoch news empire. British Members of Parliament are scheduled to question Rupert Murdoch, his son James and their former News International head Rebekah Brooks for three hours Tuesday morning, 19 July. Parliament has delayed its summer recess over the affair and Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a trip to Africa to return for an emergency Cabinet meeting. He is expected to deliver a statement to Commons Wednesday.
United States Attorney General Eric Holder has confirmed that his office is conducting a preliminary investigation into News International’s US operations under the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act, to see if bribery was part of the company’s practices in the US, as it reportedly was in the UK.
The first whistleblower in the News of the World phone hacking saga was found dead in London, but police are not treating it as a suspicious death. The Sun reports that Sean Hoare, 47, a former showbiz reporter, had a longtime drinking and drugs problem and had recently told a friend he was seriously ill.
Brooks’ husband, described by the Guardian as “a former racehorse trainer and close friend of David Cameron”, has been talking to police about a bag that was found in a bin near the couple’s home, with a computer, phone and papers in it.
Monday, a second top Metropolitan police officer quit, just hours after the head of the Met, Paul Stephenson, after learning he was to be suspended while Scotland Yard investigates allegations of bribery of London police by News International journalists.
In a bizarre twist, News International’s web sites for the Times and the Sun were down late Monday after the tabloid Sun‘s site was hacked by a hacking collective called LulzSec, which claims to have access to the newspaper’s emails. The hackers ran a fake story briefly, saying that Rupert Murdoch had died. Tuesday morning’s paper’s most read story has nothing to do with the hacking, “History made as nipple is found on foot”.
Links to other sites: BBC, Guardian home page, Irish Times, Scotsman, Sun, Telegraph
Tabloid scandal (© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte's web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Rupert Murdoch is reportedly looking for buyers for his British newspapers, including the fame and shame tabloid News Of the World, as the scandal over phone hacking, payments to police officers and the possible continues to unfold Wednesday 13 July.
Other reports suggest he is willing to pump billions into his ailing empire, with shares in News Corporation plummeting. Sky News reports that he and his son and News International chief executive Rebekah Brookes may be called before Parliament next week as part of the widening inquiry.
Murdoch’s News Corporation British stable includes the Sunday Times and Sky TV but the larger group includes major international media players such as Dow Jones, whose chief executive Les Hinton was photographed flying into London to join the emergency meetings.
Links to other sites: Daily Mail, Guardian, New Yorker, Scottish Daily Record
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 24-hour strike in Britain Thursday 30 June to protest planned pension cuts began to have an impact on flights in the UK Wednesday evening, as some UK Border Agency staff left their jobs. The strike is supported by three teachers unions and a public services union, so hundreds of schools, courts and job centres are closed Thursday.
Travellers are being told they will not be affected if leaving the UK, but arriving travellers using airports and ferry docks should expect delays Thursday.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – It took seven years to find him and another four to bring him in front of a judge, but the Bern man, now in his 60s, accused of breaking into the Aiglon college dormitories in Villars-sur-Ollon in 2000, is now on trial in Brig, canton Valais. He is charged, in the Aiglon case, with drugging then raping three students while they slept.
He is accused of sexually molesting more than 50 children between 1996 and 2007, most of them under the age of 16. He has admitted to some of the accusations.
The prosecution is demanding 10 years in prison, while the defense is asking for six years plus therapy.
The man was condemned to 10 years plus therapy in 1979 for sexual acts against children.
The Aiglon case was one of a series.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Nato forces pummeled the centre of Tripoli and the area around the Qaddafi compound early Tuesday 24 May, with 20 strikes in less than an hour, reports The Guardian. The attacks are being described by observers as the heaviest in the two months since Nato began hitting Libya. The extent of the damage is not yet clear, although one person was reportedly killed and a dozen people injured. France confirmed Monday that it will, along with Britain, send attack helicopters to help better target the air strikes. Nato says that since operations began in mid-March it has launched more than 3,000 strikes.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Guardian, Nato on Twitter
Escalating violence by Syrian government against its citizens drawing sharp rebukes
(video) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The United States Wednesday 27 April in Geneva initiated a special session of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Syria. France announced that it has called in the Syrian ambassador for an explanation of his government’s attacks on its own citizens, along with four other European governments: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Late Wednesday news agencies received a statement that 30 members of the ruling Baath party in the city of Banias, scene of protests, have resigned over deaths this week and the violence used on protesters.
Syria was accused by US ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, representative to the UNHRC in Geneva, of “the killing of hundreds of civilians in connection with peaceful political protests last week.” Donahoe stated, in initiating the special session, that “we strongly condemn the killing, arrest and torture of hundreds of Syrians by the Syrian authorities. It is entirely appropriate that the Human Rights Council condemn willful government violence against peaceful political protestors. At the Special Session we expect Human Rights Council members to call on the government of Syria to meet its responsibility to protect its population and stop these attacks.”
The Daily Telegraph in the UK reports that the failure of three government offices to properly black out secret information sections of some government documents has resulted in details being openly available online. The offices appear to have failed to follow government protocol for publishing the material, unwittingly, for example, names of officials involved in discussions about submarines and other information that by law should remain secret. The culprit in many cases is incorrect use of software, such as placing a black mask over text, using Photoshop: the same information, copied and pasted into another program, can be viewed.
The documents were published Sunday 17 April under the Freedom of Information Act in Britain.
