NEWS,21.12.2012

Obama nominates Kerry for Secretary of State

President Barack Obama has announced the nomination of US Senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, calling him the "perfect choice" to guide American diplomacy in the years ahead.Obama settled on Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, after UN Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew from consideration last week.He said he expected quick Senate confirmation of the Massachusetts lawmaker."As we turn the page on a decade of war, he understands that we have to harness all elements of American power," Obama said at the White House.Even as Obama put in place one important piece of his revamped national security team, he held off on naming a new defense secretary.The delay comes in the face of a growing backlash from critics of former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, considered a leading candidate to replace Leon Panetta at the Pentagon.Kerry, 69, a stalwart Obama supporter known to have long coveted the job of America's top diplomat, will take over from Clinton, who has been consistently rated as the most popular member of the president's cabinet.But he will also have to pick up the pieces after a scathing official inquiry found serious security lapses by the State Department in the deadly September 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya a report that has tarnished the final days of Clinton's tenure.Kerry's nomination follows a political firestorm that engulfed Rice, seen as the early favorite for the State job, spearheaded by Republicans fiercely critical of her role in the administration's early explanations for the Benghazi assault.Rice, defended by Obama, said last Thursday she was withdrawing her name from consideration to avoid a potentially lengthy and disruptive confirmation process.Kerry, known nationally through his presidential run and for his role as a Democratic power broker in the Senate, offers no such challenges.The selection of Kerry sets a pragmatic tone as Obama begins reshaping his national security team, which will include a new CIA director.Kerry will be the leading Cabinet member charged with tackling a range of thorny global challenges, including Middle East upheaval, Iran's nuclear standoff with the West and winding down the war in Afghanistan all at a time of fiscal austerity at home. 

US economy showing 'surprising' signs of resilience

The US economy showed surprising signs of resilience in November despite the approach of the so-called fiscal cliff, as consumer spending rose by the most in three years and a gauge of business investment jumped. Consumer spending rose 0.6% when adjusted for inflation, while new factory orders for capital goods outside the defence and aerospace sectorsa proxy for business spending plans jumped 2.7%, the Commerce Department said today.Economists had pinned earlier weakness in investment plans on worries lawmakers and the White House might fail to strike a deal to avoid the brunt of tax hikes and government spending cuts scheduled to begin in January.They also worried consumers would hold back as the end-of-the-year deadline approached with both parties far apart on how to avoid the potential hit to the economy. But today's data suggests both consumers and businesses had mostly shrugged off the cliff, at least in November."It appears that the looming fiscal cliff hasn't been nearly as disruptive as we had feared," said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics in Toronto. Still, another report provided ample reason for caution as US consumer sentiment slumped in December, with households apparently rattled by on-going negotiations to lessen the fiscal tightening that could easily trigger a recession next year. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final index of consumer sentiment in December tumbled more than expected to 72.9 from 82.7 a month before. US stocks fell sharply after a Republican proposal for averting the fiscal cliff was abandoned late yesterday, eroding optimism that a deal could be reached quickly. At the same time, US government debt prices rallied and the dollar gained ground as investors sought a safe haven. Economists still expect economic growth to cool in the fourth quarter as companies slow the pace at which they have been re-stocking their shelves, but the data suggests consumers are offsetting some of that drag. Consumer spending is on track to grow at a 2.2% annual rate in the fourth quarter, faster than during the prior three months, said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. Forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers raised its forecast for fourth-quarter economic growth by four tenths of a point to a 1.4% annual rate. In the third quarter, the economy expanded at a 3.1% rate. "The economy is holding in here at the end of the year despite the concerns about the fiscal cliff," said Gary Thayer, an economic strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis. Those concerns are not going away. In November, many analysts on Wall Street said they expected Washington would largely avert the fiscal cliff, and optimism had grown over the last week that a deal was within reach. Since Wednesday, however, negotiations have fallen into disarray. If Congress and the White House do not reach a deal in time, taxes will go up for all Americans beginning in January and the government will cut spending on a host of programs. Running off the fiscal cliff would slash the nation's trillion-dollar budget deficit nearly in half in just one year. The impact would only come gradually, but economists expect it would be enough to knock the country into recession in the first half of the year. So far, uncertainty over the talks appears to have had only a limited impact on the economy. New orders for durable goods, items meant to last three years or more, rose a greater-than-expected 0.7% in November due to gains in machinery, fabricated metal products, and computer and electronic products. Those increases were offset by a decline in volatile aircraft orders. The report also showed a rise in shipments, brightening the prospects for fourth-quarter economic growth. Shipments of non-defence capital goods orders excluding aircraft, used to calculate equipment and software spending in the government's measures of gross domestic product, gained 1.8%, after rising by a softer 0.6% in October.

Brazil to privatise airports

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Thursday announced that airports in Rio and Belo Horizonte, two host cities for the 2014 World Cup, will be privatized during a September 2013 auction."International experience shows that airports are good business," Rousseff said, recalling that last February, 20-year concessions were granted to manage three airports, two in Sao Paulo and one in Brasilia.Brazil, a continent-sized country of 194 million people, is seeking to upgrade its creaking infrastructure ahead of the 2014 World Cup.The previously granted concessions, valued at a total of $14bn, will upgrade congested terminals in preparation for handling the tens of thousands of tourists expected for the World Cup. Rousseff said Thursday that any private entities participating in the September auctions will have to include at least one international partner "with experience in running an airport handling at least 35 million passengers a year."This operator must have "at least a 25% stake" in the consortium.Companies with majority stakes in operations of other airports will not be allowed to take part in next year's auction. Rousseff said Brazil was now a "middle class country" in which more and more people will fly, including many of the "40 million Brazilians lifted out of poverty over the past decade".Civil Aviation Minister Wagner Bittencourt said the government hopes to raise $5.7bn through the concessions: $3.3bn for Rio's Tom Jobim airport and $2.4bn for Belo Horizonte's Confins airport.Brazil has announced huge investments in airport, highway and rail projects in partnership with the private sector to modernize its creaking infrastructure and jumpstart a sluggish economy expected to grow a mere one percent this year.Bittencourt said that in an initial phase, the government plans to invest $3.6bn to modernize 270 small airports. The longer term objective is to upgrade 689 public airports, he added.Experts meanwhile warn that the aviation sector has to contend with higher taxes and fuel costs, inadequate infrastructure and a leveling-off of demand."2012 can be seen as the worst year for commercial civil aviation," Paulo Kakinoff, president of Gol, the country's second biggest airline, said last week."This is due to a series of factors: a nearly 60 percent hike in fuel costs, the 10% depreciation of the real in relation to the dollar, higher taxes and new taxes."

NEWS,30.10.2012

Dozens dead as US reels from devastating superstorm

Millions of people have awoken to scenes of destruction wrought by monster storm Sandy after it smashed into the eastern United States, killing an estimated 35 people in seven states, cutting power to swathes of the nation's most densely populated region, swamping New York's subway system and submerging streets in Manhattan's financial districtSandy, one of the biggest storms to ever hit the country, dropped just below hurricane status before making landfall on Monday night in New Jersey.The storm interrupted the presidential campaign a week before Election Day posing both risks and opportunities for President Barack Obama as he seeks a second term in a tight race - and closed US financial markets for a second day.As a weakened but still massive storm system continued its trek inland, more than 1 million people in a dozen states were under orders to evacuate. Sandy left behind a trail of damage homes underwater, trees toppled and power lines downed - caused by epic flooding and fierce winds all along the Atlantic coast.The storm is expected to bring snow to eight US states, and Canada is bracing itself for the onslaught, even as its eastern areas have already experienced the storm's force.More than 100,000 Canadians were still without power on Tuesday after the huge storm Sandy toppled trees and power lines in Canada's most populous provinces, killed one person, and halted units at an Ontario refinery.In the storm's wake, Obama issued federal emergency decrees for New York and New Jersey, declaring that "major disasters" existed in both states. One disaster-forecasting company predicted economic losses could ultimately reach $20 billion, only half insured."It's total devastation down there, there are boats in the street five blocks from the ocean," said evacuee Peter Sandomeno, one of the owners of the Broadway Court Motel in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. "That's the worst storm I've ever seen, and I've been there for 11 years.Sandy, which was especially imposing because of its wide-ranging winds, brought a record storm surge of almost 14 feet (4.2 metres) to downtown Manhattan, well above the previous record of 3 metres during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.Two people in New York City reportedly died in the storm - a man in a house hit by a tree and a woman who stepped into an electrified puddle of water. Two other people were killed in suburban Westchester County, north of New York City, and two others were reported killed on suburban Long Island.A motor vehicle death in Massachusetts was blamed in part on the bad weather. Two other people were killed in Maryland in storm-related incidents, state authorities said, and deaths also were reported in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, CNN said.Toronto police also recorded one death a woman hit by flying debris.Sandy killed 66 people in the Caribbean last week before pounding US coastal areas.The unprecedented flooding hampered efforts to fight a massive fire that destroyed more than 50 homes in Breezy Point, a private beach community on the Rockaway barrier island in the New York City borough of Queens.New York University hospital was forced to evacuate more than 200 patients, among them babies on respirators in the neonatal intensive care unit, when the backup generator failed. Four of the newborns had to be carried down nine flights of stairs while nurses manually squeezed bags to deliver air to each of the baby's lungs, CNN reported.More than 8.1 million people in several US states were without electricity due to the storm, which crashed ashore late on Monday near the gambling resort of Atlantic City, New Jersey.Obama, who has made every effort to show himself staying on top of the storm situation, faces political danger if the federal government fails to respond well in the storm's aftermath, as was the case with predecessor George W Bush's botched handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.With Obama and Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney keeping campaigning on hold for a second day instead of launching their final push for votes ahead of the November 6 election, the storm's onslaught added a new level of uncertainty to an already tense, tight race for the White House.In an address on Tuesday local time, Obama said the federal government would do all it could to help local authorities cope with damage caused by the massive storm Sandy.The president, speaking at the national headquarters of the American Red Cross, said the storm, which slammed into some of the most densely populated areas of the eastern United States on Monday, was "not yet over" and that there were still risks."It is still moving north," he said. "There are still communities that could be affected. So I want to emphasise there are still risks of flooding, there are still risks of downed power lines, risks of high winds.""I want everyone leaning forward on this," an aide quoted Obama as telling his disaster-response team in the White House Situation Room. "I don't want to hear that we didn't do something because bureaucracy got in the way."Obama will travel to New Jersey to survey the damage and meet those affected on Wednesday local time.With politics cast aside for the moment, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, heaped praise on the Democratic incumbent for the government's initial storm response."The federal government response has been great," Christie, a staunch Romney supporter, told NBC's Today show. "I was on the phone at midnight again last night with the president personally ... and the president has been outstanding in this."Federal government offices in Washington, which was spared the full force of the storm, were closed for a second day on Tuesday, and schools were shut up and down the East Coast.The storm was plowing westward over south-central Pennsylvania, still packing near hurricane-force winds as strong as 105 km/h, the National Weather Service said.Wind gusts, rain and flooding were likely to extend well into Tuesday, but without the storm's earlier devastating power, said AccuWeather meteorologist Jim Dickey."Overall, the worst has past," Dickey said.The storm's wind field stretched from North Carolina north to the Canadian border and from West Virginia to a point in the Atlantic Ocean halfway to Bermuda, easily one of the largest ever seen, the National Hurricane Center said.Heavy snow fell in higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains inland.Water poured into the subway system and tunnels that course under the city, raising concerns that the world's financial capital could be hobbled for days."Hitting at high tide, the strongest surge and the strongest winds all hit at the worst possible time," said Jeffrey Tongue, a meteorologist for the weather service in Brookhaven, New York.Hurricane-force winds as high as 90 miles per hour (145 km per hour) were recorded, he said. "Hopefully it's a once-in-a-lifetime storm," Tongue said.As residents and business owners began the daunting clean-up effort, large sections of New York City remained without power, and transportation in the metropolitan area was at a standstill.It was the worst disaster to strike the storied New York subway system in its 108-year history, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it could take up to four days to get the water out of the flooded train tunnels.New York City's subway is likely to be out of service for another four to five days after monster storm Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg said on Tuesday.The mayor said at a press conference that the city was hoping to resume limited bus service on Tuesday and full bus service on Wednesday.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a separate press conference that all bus fares would be suspended on Tuesday.New York City experienced 23 fires during the storm, with a severe one in Breezy Point, Queens, that burned more than 80 houses.Throughout New York state, 15 people died in connection with the storm, which touched down in New Jersey late on Monday, Cuomo said.Three towns in New Jersey, just west of New York City, were inundated with up to 5 feet (1.5 metres) of water after a levee on the nearby Hackensack River was overtopped or breached, officials said. Rescuers were using boats to aid the marooned residents of Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt.In New York, a crane partially collapsed and dangled precariously from a 90-story luxury apartment building under construction in Midtown Manhattan.Much of the city was deserted, as its subways, buses, commuter trains, bridges and airports were closed. Power outages darkened most of downtown Manhattan as well as Westchester County, affecting more than 650,000 customers, power company Consolidated Edison said.Neighborhoods along the East and Hudson rivers in Manhattan were underwater, as were low-lying streets in Battery Park near Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood.US stock markets were set to be closed on Tuesday. They closed on Monday for the first time since the attacks of September 11, 2001.Most areas in downtown Manhattan were without power on Monday morning. As the sun rose, most of the water in Manhattan's low-lying Battery Park City appeared to have receded.A security guard at 7 World Trade Center, Gregory Baldwin, was catching some rest in his car after laboring overnight against floodwaters that engulfed a nearby office building."The water went inside up to here," he said, pointing to his chest. "The water came shooting down from Battery Park with the gusting wind."In Lower Manhattan, firefighters used inflatable orange boats to rescue utility workers stranded for three hours by rising floodwaters inside a power substation.One of the Con Ed workers pulled from the floodwater, Angelo Amato, said he was part of a crew who had offered to work through the storm."This is what happens when you volunteer," he said.

New York City floods as Sandy slams into eastern US

Millions of people in the eastern United States awoke this morning to flooded homes, fallen trees and widespread power outages caused by the giant storm Sandy, which swamped New York City's subway system and submerged streets in Manhattan's financial district.At least 15 people were reported killed in the United States by Sandy, one of the biggest storms to ever hit the country, which dropped just below hurricane status before making landfall yesterday night in New Jersey.More than 1 million people in a dozen states were under orders to evacuate as the massive system plowed westward.One disaster forecasting company predicted economic losses could ultimately reach $20 billion, only half insured.The storm interrupted the presidential campaign a week before Election Day and closed U.S. financial markets for two days.Sandy, which was especially imposing because of its wide-ranging winds, brought a record storm surge of almost 4.2 meters to downtown Manhattan, well above the previous record of 3 meters during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.Water poured into the subway system and tunnels that course under the city, raising concerns that the world's financial capital could be hobbled for days."Hitting at high tide, the strongest surge and the strongest winds all hit at the worst possible time," said Jeffrey Tongue, a meteorologist for the weather service in Brookhaven, New York.Hurricane-force winds as high as 145 kph were recorded, he said."Hopefully it's a once-in-a-lifetime storm," Tongue said.Large sections of New York City were without power, and transportation in the metropolitan area was at a standstill."In 108 years our employees have never faced a challenge like the one that confronts us now," Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota said in a statement.It could take anywhere from 14 hours to four days to get the water out of the flooded subway tunnels, the MTA said."The damage has been geographically very widespread" throughout the subway, bus and commuter train system, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said.The unprecedented flooding hampered efforts to fight a massive fire that destroyed more than 50 homes in Breezy Point, a private beach community on the Rockaway barrier island in the New York City borough of Queens, the Fire Department of New York said.Two people in New York City reportedly died in the storm a man in a house hit by a tree and a woman who stepped into an electrified puddle of water. Two other people were killed in suburban Westchester County, north of New York City, and two others were reported killed on suburban Long Island.A motor vehicle death in Massachusetts was blamed in part on the bad weather. Two other people were killed in Maryland in storm-related incidents, state authorities said, and deaths also were reported in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, CNN said.Toronto police also recorded one death a woman hit by flying debris.More than 7 million people in several states were without electricity due to the storm, which crashed ashore late on Monday near the gambling resort of Atlantic City, New Jersey.The storm was plowing westward over south-central Pennsylvania, still packing near hurricane-force winds as strong as 105 km per hour, the National Weather Service said.Wind gusts, rain and flooding were likely to extend well into Tuesday, but without the storm's earlier devastating power, said AccuWeather meteorologist Jim Dickey."Overall, the worst has past," Dickey said.The storm's wind field stretched from South Carolina north to the Canadian border and from West Virginia to a point in the Atlantic Ocean halfway to Bermuda, easily one of the largest ever seen, the National Hurricane Center said.Heavy snow fell in higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains inland.Three towns in New Jersey, just west of New York, were inundated with up to 1.5 metres of water after a levee on the nearby Hackensack River was overtopped or breached, officials said. Rescuers were using boats to aid the marooned residents of Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt.In New York, a crane partially collapsed and dangled precariously from a 90-story luxury apartment building under construction in Midtown Manhattan.Much of the city was deserted, as its subways, buses, commuter trains, bridges and airports were closed. Power outages darkened most of downtown Manhattan as well as Westchester County, affecting more than 650,000 customers, power company Consolidated Edison said."This is the largest storm-related outage in our history," said John Miksad, Con Ed's senior vice president for electric operations. The previous record was the more than 200,000 customers hit with outages last year during Hurricane Irene, the utility said.Neighborhoods along the East and Hudson rivers in Manhattan were underwater, as were low-lying streets in Battery Park near Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood.A security guard at 7 World Trade Center, Gregory Baldwin, was catching some rest in his car after laboring overnight against floodwaters that engulfed a nearby office building."The water went inside up to here," he said, pointing to his chest. "The water came shooting down from Battery Park with the gusting wind."Power and back-up generators failed at New York University Hospital, forcing patients to be moved elsewhere for care.In Lower Manhattan, firefighters used inflatable orange boats to rescue utility workers stranded for three hours by rising floodwaters inside a power substation.One of the Con Ed workers pulled from the floodwater, Angelo Amato, said he was part of a crew who had offered to work through the storm."This is what happens when you volunteer," he said.With a week to go before the election, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney canceled scheduled campaign events. Obama left the campaign trail to return to Washington to monitor the storm and Romney curtailed political events to show respect for the storm's victims.U.S. stock markets were set to be closed today. They closed yesterday for the first time since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.The federal government in Washington was closed for a second day today, and schools were shut up and down the East Coast. Sandy killed 66 people in the Caribbean last week before pounding U.S. coastal areas.