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Archive for December 20th, 2010|Daily archive page

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Authorities in Haiti delay final vote results

In Uncategorized on December 20, 2010 at 6:28 am

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 19, 2010 (AFP) – Electoral authorities in Haiti announced late Sunday they had decided to delay publication of final presidential election results until the Organization of American States finishes its probe of the controversial vote.


The results were initially expected on Monday, but the Haitian Election Council said it had decided to “postpone publication of the results of the first round of voting until the contentious phase of the electoral process is over and an OAS mission requested by President Rene Preval finishes its work.”


Haiti’s chaotic election was carried out last month amid widespread allegations of fraud and the disenfranchisement of thousands of people, who either couldn’t get the necessary papers to vote or weren’t on the register.


Preval has asked the OAS to assist Haitian authorities in verifying the results of the vote.


Preliminary results of the first round of balloting have placed opposition candidate Mirlande Manigat in the lead with 31 percent of the vote. She is followed by ruling party candidate Jude Celestin who had 22 percent.

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Source: SGGP

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Philippines defends error-filled peso notes

In Uncategorized on December 20, 2010 at 6:27 am

MANILA, Dec 20, 2010 (AFP) – The Philippines on Monday defended its new peso notes, mocked by critics for featuring error-strewn maps of the country and apparently inventing a new species of parrot.


The central bank started shipping the bills to banks last Friday and they should be publicly available by Christmas, deputy governor Diwa Gunigundo said.


He defended the artistic rendition of Philippine maps appearing on the 20-, 50-, 100-, 200-, 500-, and 1,000-peso notes (45 US cents-22.59 dollars), which excluded the Batanes islands near Taiwan and misplaced some of the country’s top tourist draws.

(AFP) Handout photo taken on December 16, 2010 and received from the Malacanang Photo Bureau (MPB) on December 18 shows Philippine President Benigno Aquino (C), Governor and Monetary Board Chairman Amando Tetangco Jr (L), and National Treasurer Roberto Tan displaying the new 500 peso notes.

“If we want to make the Philippine map that specific and accurate we would have had to draw all 7,000 islands,” Gunigundo said in an interview on DZBB radio.


“What we wanted to do was abstract the general location of all these important parts of the Philippines,” he said.


Map makers, including one of the experts drafted to delineate the boundaries of the Tubbataha Reefs natural park in 1994, have pointed out that the spectacular coral formation was misplaced by hundreds of kilometres (miles).


Gunigundo also defended the rendering of a rare native bird, the blue-naped parrot, on the 500-peso bill, saying it was patterned after the yellow colour scheme of the denomination.


The Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, a birdwatchers’ organisation, has insisted the yellow-beaked parrot on the note does not exist anywhere in the country, since in real life the blue-naped parrot has a red beak.


“It took us three years to research (the design),” Gunigundo said, brushing off allegations of slipshod preparation.


The head of the government’s National Historical Institute was an adviser to the bank’s numismatic committee, he added.


“Our local artists who designed our six denominations also did research and they consulted many of our experts in the Philippines.”


More important than the design are the new bills’ security features to make their duplication by counterfeiters much more difficult, Gunigundo said.


It is not the first time the central bank has been left red-faced over currency design. It was forced in 2005 to withdraw bills that misspelled the name of Gloria Arroyo, the predecessor of current President Benigno Aquino, whose signature appears on the new legal tender.


The 2005 bill, which called her Gloria Arrovo, became a much sought-after collectors’ item.

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Source: SGGP

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Euro falls as Irish credit rating cut

In Uncategorized on December 20, 2010 at 6:27 am

TOKYO, Dec 20, 2010 (AFP) – The euro fell against other currencies in Asia on Monday on worries over the eurozone’s public finances after Moody’s slashed debt-stricken Ireland’s credit rating, analysts said.


The euro fell to 1.3154 from 1.3185 dollars in New York late Friday and to 110.35 yen from 110.78 yen. The dollar firmed to 84.00 yen from 83.94 yen.


Moody’s Investors Service on Friday cut its credit rating on Ireland by five notches, citing uncertainties over the country’s economy and public finances.


It came a day after European leaders agreed at a Brussels summit to set up a permanent financial stability mechanism from 2013 to shore up the euro amid fears Portugal and Spain may need bailouts after Irish and Greek rescues.


But there was no decision to increase its size beyond the bloc’s temporary 750 billion euro fund or allow it to purchase government bonds, or introduce a common European bond, John Kyriakopoulos of National Australian Bank noted.


“As such, European sovereign debt concerns are likely to linger into the New Year,” he wrote in a note, adding investors needed to watch European bank funding costs.


The failure to enlarge the size of the bailout fund was disappointing “given worries that it is insufficient to cope with the bailout of larger eurozone countries if needed,” said Frances Cheung at Credit Agricole CIB.


The South Korean won fell after South Korea ordered civilians on five border islands to take shelter ahead of a live-fire exercise Monday despite North Korean threats of deadly retaliation.


The unit extended its early losses against the safe-haven US dollar, which in morning trade fetched 1,167.40 won from 1,163.40 earlier.


But the news hardly moved dollar-yen rates with the yen also drawing buying as a safe currency, analysts said.

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Source: SGGP

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UN Security Council fails to reach accord on Korea crisis

In Uncategorized on December 20, 2010 at 6:27 am

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 19, 2010 (AFP) – The UN Security Council failed Sunday to agree a statement on the Korean military crisis and Russia warned that the international community was now left without “a game plan” to counter escalating tensions.


China rejected demands by Western nations that North Korea be publicly condemned for its November 23 attack on Yeonpyeong island which killed four South Koreans, diplomats said.

South Korean marines patrol on the South Korea-controlled island of Yeonpyeong near the disputed waters of the Yellow Sea on December 20, 2010. AFP

About eight hours of formal talks by the 15 nation council and private discussions, which brought in the North and South Korean ambassadors, ended without accord.


“We were not successful in bridging” differences between the parties, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin told reporters.


He added that unofficial talks would continue, but Susan Rice, the US ambassador and Security Council president for December, said it was “safe to predict that the gaps that remain are unlikely to be bridged.”


She added that “the majority of council members made clear their view that it was important to condemn” the November 23 artillery attack and the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.


Rice called the incidents “unprovoked aggression” by North Korea on the South.


However China even rejected a version of Russia’s statement which did not mention North Korea or the Yeonpyeong name in a proposed paragraph on the November 23 attack, diplomats said.


Britain produced a rival draft statement which said the council “condemns the attack launched by the DPRK on the ROK on November 23.” The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of the North and the Republic of Korea is the South.


Churkin said Russia demanded the meeting on Saturday because of its “grave concern” about tensions between North and South Korea, a region right on Russia’s doorstep.


The South has vowed to go ahead with a live firing drill near Yeonpyeong. The North has threatened to retaliate.


Russia had wanted a call of “maximum restraint” to be sent to the two Koreas and for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to send a special envoy to negotiate with the rival states.


Churkin said the idea of a UN envoy had received “strong support” in the talks.


“I hope that this idea can still be pursued because now we have a situation with very serious political tension and no game plan on the diplomatic side,” said Churkin.


Six nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons have come to a standstill “and there is no other diplomatic activity, so we believe that there must be an initiative and this initiative of the secretary general appointing an envoy might be something which will set a political process in track,” Churkin said.


The foreign ministers of Russia and China have called on South Korea not to stage its military drills and this was reaffirmed by Churkin.


“We know that it is better to refrain from doing this exercise at this time,” he said.


South Korea has US backing however and Rice countered that it had a legitimate right to stage the exercises.

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Source: SGGP

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CNN: North Korea agrees to return of UN nuclear inspectors

In Uncategorized on December 20, 2010 at 6:27 am

SEOUL, Dec 20, 2010 (AFP) – North Korea has agreed with US troubleshooter Bill Richardson to permit the return of UN nuclear inspectors as part of a package of measures to ease tensions on the peninsula, CNN reported Monday.


CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer, who is travelling with Richardson in Pyongyang, said the North Koreans had agreed to let inspectors from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency go back to its Yongbyon nuclear facility.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak (L) speaks during a meeting for a duties report on Ministry of Public Administration and Security at the presidential Blue House in Seoul on December 20, 2010. South Korea ordered civilians on five border islands to take shelter ahead of a live-fire exercise on December 20. AFP

They had also agreed to allow fuel rods for the enrichment of uranium to be shipped to an outside country, and to the creation of a military commission and hotline between the two Koreas and the United States, Blitzer said.

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Source: SGGP