Syria dismissed on Saturday an International Atomic Energy Agency recommendation to allow its inspectors unrestrained access, days after the agency said a bombed Syrian complex could have been a nuclear site.

An IAEA report said on Thursday that Uranium particles found at a Syrian complex destroyed by an Israeli air raid in 2007 suggest the possibility of covert nuclear activity at the site.

The report, by new IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano, prodded Syria to adopt the IAEA’s Additional Protocol, which permits unfettered inspections beyond a declared nuclear site to check out any covert atomic activity.

“We are committed to the non-proliferation agreement between the agency and Syria and we (only) allow inspectors to come according to this agreement,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said.

“We will not allow anything beyond the agreement because Syria does not have a military nuclear programme. Syria is not obliged to open its other sites to inspectors,” Moualem said after meeting his Austrian counterpart Michael Spindelegger.

Moualem did not address the findings of the latest IAEA report on Syria and repeated Syria’s position that its nuclear activities are peaceful and related mostly to medicine.

Suspicions

The United States said the site bombed by Israeli warplanes three years ago at al Kubar, around 60 km (37 miles) west of the city of Deir al-Zor, was a North Korean designed nuclear reactor geared to making weapons-grade plutonium.

The IAEA report lent public support for the first time to the U.S. assessment.

“Unlike Israel, our program is peaceful,” Moualem said, referring to the Arab view that Israel has a massive nuclear arsenal that contributes to Middle East instability.

Previous IAEA reports on its investigation into Kubar said lack of Syrian cooperation impeded the investigation.

U.N. inspectors examined the site in June 2008 but Syrian authorities has barred them access since and did not let them visit three military sites.

The IAEA has also been checking whether there could be a link between the particles uncovered at Kubar and similar traces detected in swipe samples taken at a Damascus nuclear research reactor later in 2008.

The report said Syria had refused a meeting in Damascus last month to address the issue. But inspectors now planned to visit the research reactor on Feb. 23.

Syria, is an ally of Iran, which is under IAEA investigation over its nuclear facilities. Moualem said Western proposals for fresh U.N. sanctions on Iran were counterproductive.

“We do not think sanctions will solve the issue,” he said. “They will complicated the chances for a constructive dialogue between Iran and the West.”

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on during a visit to Syria on Saturday that world powers would have to take new action against Iran if Tehran made no further gestures.

Source: Alarabiya.net | Middle East

The president of the New York Fed, William Dudley, said the central bank’s pledge to keep benchmark borrowing costs low for an extended period of time is still very much in place.

The Fed raised its discount rate by a quarter percentage point to 0.75% late Thursday, after the close of US financial markets. Three Fed officials on Thursday evening had also stressed that the move did not represent a tightening of US monetary policy.

The US dollar jumped, US Treasury bond prices fell and stock futures slipped immediately after the discount rate hike, as investors bet the change represented the start of the Fed’s retreat from its easy money policy. Stocks initially fell further, but reversed course as investors saw the rate hike as a sign of strength in the economy.

Dudley, speaking at a conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, described Thursday’s decision to lift the discount rate — at which banks can borrow from the Fed — as a small technical change that carried no broader signals about US monetary policy.

The benchmark federal funds rate for overnight inter-bank borrowing, the Fed’s chief monetary policy tool, remains pegged near zero percent, an all-time low.

Though Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last week had said that the US central bank could soon raise the discount rate, markets had not expected the Fed to act so quickly. The timing of the move on Thursday, after the US stock market had closed and well ahead of the central bank’s March 16 policy meeting, prompted investors to price in a greater chance of a rise in the federal funds rate late this year.

Thursday’s move was the first increase in any of the Fed’s lending rates since the financial crisis blew up in 2007 and the first rate change since December 2008.

The government reported that US consumer prices excluding food and energy fell last month for the first time since 1982, helping government bond prices reverse some of the losses booked after Thursday’s discount rate hike.

On Thursday, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said investors’ belief in the high probability of a rise in the Fed’s benchmark rate this year was overblown and that the discount rate rise should not be seen as a policy signal.

Also on Thursday Dennis Lockhart, president of the Atlanta Fed, said in a speech that monetary policy, as evidenced by the fed funds rate target, remains accommodative, which he said is necessary to support a recovery that is in an early stage and, in my view, still fragile.

Source: MercoPress — South Atlantic News Agency

Source: SETimes.com

State Auditor Radoslav Sretenovic refused to provide details of the case, saying it is up to the courts to decide how to proceed. The DRI plans to begin auditing last year’s budget on March 1st. (B92, Tanjug, Beta – 18/02/10)

Source: SETimes.com

Since acquiring the paddlewheeler Queen of the West, American Cruise Lines has been working to enhance the ship, which was built in 1996.

The project is now under way and includes the addition of more private balconies and renovations to increase the size of a number of suites. These changes will lower the ship’s passenger capacity from 150 to 120, making the dining room, lounges and decks even more comfortable.

“We were so pleased when the news became official that American Cruise Lines would start operating the Queen of the West on the Columbia and Snake rivers,” said Paul Taiclet, vice president of operations for American Cruise Lines. “The ship already has such a wonderful reputation, so we are very excited about taking it to the next level of comfort for our passengers.”

Source: News on the Caribbean and the Americas

Two Latin American airlines, Colombia’s Avianca and El Salvador’s Grupo TACA, closed on a merger agreement after receiving government approvals to combine their operations.

The new parent company, Avianca-TACA, will be based in the Bahamas, 67 percent owned by Synergy Aerospace, Avianca’s majority owner, and 33 percent owned by TACA majority owner Kingsland Holding. The company plans no short-term name or brand changes.

Source: News on the Caribbean and the Americas

Starwood Hotels & Resorts lost $107 million in the last quarter of 2009 but ended what is considered one of the worst years in industry history with a profit.

Starwood reported earnings of $73 million for the year, down 77.8 percent from 2008, but said that it is looking forward to a turnaround in 2010. The fourth-quarter loss included a $362 million writedown for canceled timeshare projects.

RevPAR was down 7.2 percent globally for the quarter, with the biggest declines in the company’s lower tier brand, Four Points by Sheraton, and its art-focused Le Merdien brand, which saw declines of 8.8 percent and 8.9 percent respectively.

W Hotels performed the best, with RevPAR down 2.3 percent. The company’s St. Regis and Luxury Collection brands posted RevPAR declines of 4.4 percent, and Westin and Sheraton had drops of 7.2 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively.

Total revenue for the quarter was $1.2 billion, down 1.2 percent from the same period in 2008. For the year, Starwood reported revenue of $4.7 billion, down 17.3 percent from 2008.

Source: News on the Caribbean and the Americas

The study offers a preliminary estimate of the potential damages resulting from the January 12 earthquake, using simple regression techniques employing data from past natural disasters and their damage estimates. It takes into account several variables including the magnitude of the disaster, the number of fatalities, and the affected country’s population and per capita GDP.

The new IDB study indicates the cost is likely to be larger than anticipated. The study calculates damages assuming either 200,000 or 250,000 people dead or missing (as of Feb. 11, the Haitian government had reported 230,000 dead).

IDB economists Andrew Powell, Eduardo Cavallo and Oscar Becerra calculated a base estimate of 8.1 billion USD for a 250,000 dead-or-missing toll, but they estimate this figure is likely to be at the low end and conclude that an estimate of 13.9 billion is within the statistical margin of error.

While the results are subject to many caveats, the study confirms that the Haitian earthquake is likely to be the most destructive natural disaster in modern times, when viewed in relation to the size of the Haiti’s population and its economy.

Indeed, in this respect the Haiti earthquake was vastly more destructive than the Indonesian Tsunami of 2004 and the cyclone that hit Myanmar in 2008. It caused five times more deaths per million inhabitants than the second-ranking natural killer, the 1972 earthquake in Nicaragua.

Powell, Cavallo and Becerra conclude that the scale of the damages in Haiti will require unprecedented coordination among the multiple bilateral, multilateral and private donors. To ensure the efficient use of billions of dollars in reconstruction funds, for example, individual donors may need to surrender the kind of control and conditionality they typically demand of projects they finance. This will in turn require extraordinary mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability.

Moreover, a separate forthcoming study by Cavallo and others indicates that countries hit by disasters on this scale suffer an economic setback that can take decades to reverse. In several such countries, investigators found that even with big inflows of outside aid, GDP per capita was up to 30% lower 10 years after the disaster than it would have been if the country had been spared.

“Of course this does not necessarily mean that aid does not work, perhaps the negative growth effect would have been even worse if aid had not increased,” the study notes. “However, this does underline the challenge ahead for Haiti and for the international community attempting to support the country”.

Source: MercoPress — South Atlantic News Agency

Among the countries to visit figure Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil and Chile for the taking office ceremony of conservative president Sebastian Piñera scheduled March 11.
Uruguay together with Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay is a founding member of Mercosur, which also includes Chile and Bolivia as associate members and Venezuela in the process of full membership incorporation.

“We must work a bit more on the political side, since closer political links always help to solve all other issues”, said Almagro in a meeting in Montevideo with foreign correspondents. “We must continue to strengthen our relation with Brazil, an indispensable, essential partner for Uruguay, and we must make our relation with Argentina to grow. Currently we are exporting to Argentina half of what I estimate we could be shipping to our neighbours”, said Almagro.

According to the latest data, Uruguayan exports to Brazil increased 10.5% between Jan and November 2009 totalling 997 million US dollars. However with Argentina trade has contracted 35% to 312 million USD.

“If we assess any bilateral relation in the world, always the basics is the political relation; from that relation other things in other fields can be built” argued Almagro.

Attempts to improve relations with Argentina are linked to an ongoing conflict over the construction of a pulp mill on the Uruguayan side of a shared river by the two neighbours, which ended in the International Court of The Hague, plus pickets on the Argentine side, impeding traffic along an international bridge.

The controversy begun over an environmental dispute but rapidly cascaded to a full blown diplomatic and political conflict (and personal animosity) between the Kirchner couple in Argentina and Uruguay’s outgoing President Tabare Vazquez.

Almagro said that the Mujica government expects to be able to work jointly with Argentina on the ruling of the international court.

Mujica so far has shown a far more fluid and candid contact with the Argentine government and has visited several times President Cristina Kirchner in Buenos Aires trying to set foundations for normalizing relations once he takes office.

When asked about the “protectionist” temptations of some Mercosur members Almagro said that the Mercosur is the “most backward of blocks in international trade matters and must seek out of the region accords to improve its competitiveness position”.

“We need greater efforts in achieving business deals with the US and Asia, and advance in the stalled negotiations with the European Union”, added Almagro.

President-elect Mujica also mentioned this week that he might be travelling to Mexico for the Rio Group two-day summit next week, with President Vazquez who originally had cancelled the trip but later desisted on a personal request from Mexican president Felipe Calderón.

“I would like to go but I have several jobs to finish. Don’t know maybe tonight I will have a better idea of my agenda, but I would like to travel to the meeting”, said Mujica.

Source: MercoPress — South Atlantic News Agency

PARAMARIBO, Suriname — Minister of Justice and Police, Chandrikapersad Santokhi, is to appear before a special panel of the Court of Justice in Suriname on February 25, in order for the court to establish whether the minister should be prosecuted for alleged corruption, forgery and human trafficking.

Suriname Justice Minister Chandrikapersad Santokhi

The hearing stems from allegations made in November 2008 by a former deputy-secretary of the ministry of Justice and Police, that Santokhi and other officials were involved in illegal activities to provide documents to foreigners to reside in Suriname permanently.

According to Diante van de L’isle-De Jong, former head of the Department for Foreigners Issues, officials within the ministry were accepting bribes of US$500 per person from Chinese immigrants to furnish them with residency documents, without going through the required legal process.

His former co-worker, who meanwhile in fear for her life sought refuge in the Netherlands, is claiming that Santokhi was aware of the illegal activities, but either turned a blind eye or he was part of the scam.

In 2008 legal advisers of Van de L’isle-de Jong, handed over several documents to the Prosecutor’s Office, requesting a criminal investigation against the minister.

According to the Prosecutor General, the inquiries that followed found no basis to launch a criminal investigation into the case. In 2008 the minister also established an independent commission to look into the matter, which also found no wrongdoing on the part of the minister.

However it was advised that several procedures and policies regarding legal residence for foreigners should be evaluated or improved to prevent corruption.

The former official, however, took the case a step further by presenting the case to the Court of Justice, with a request to order the Prosecutor’s Office to launch a formal investigation.

In parliament, legislators questioned on Thursday whether the minister should step down since he has to appear before the court, as was the case when in January 2006 when Trade Minister, Siegfried Gilds, resigned after he was named suspect in a criminal investigation.

In response to these questions, Santokhi argued that his case is totally different then the Gilds case. Officially he is not a suspect and the panel of judges only wants to hear his side of the story regarding the allegations, before it gives a ruling whether the prosecutor general should launch a judicial investigation into the case.

President Ronald Venetiaan said that, for now, he has no intentions to fire the minister.

While individuals have the right to address the Court of Justice if in their opinion the Prosecutor’s Office fails to launch investigations into a specific matter, it is not common that the Court of Justice will order such an investigation.

In 2000, however, in a high profile case, the court ordered prosecutors to start an investigation into the 1982 murder of 15 opponents of the then military government after the prosecution for 18 years failed to investigate the massacre.

The order came after a request from relatives of the victims who feared that the killers would go unpunished since the statute of limitations to prosecute the murders would have expired on December 8, 2000.

Source: Caribbean Net News