Denmark pays for Panama Papers data on own citizens

Yahoo – AFP, September 29, 2016

In April, media outlets published details of murky offshore financial dealings
gleaned from 11.5 million leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm --
the so-called "Panama Papers" (AFP Photo/Andreas Solaro)

Copenhagen (AFP) - The Danish tax authority said on Thursday it had paid an anonymous source almost six million kroner (0.81 million euros, $0.9 million) for leaked data from the Panama Papers on hundreds of Danes.

The government justified the payment earlier this month saying it needed to take all necessary measures to catch tax evaders.

"The material contains the number of files on Danes that we expected and the quality is on a par with the sample cases we were given before," Jim Sorensen, a division head at the agency, said in a statement.

The agency would now analyse the material in more detail, he said.

The Danish government said on September 7 that it would pay an amount in the "lower millions" of kroner to the anonymous source for information on between 500 and 600 Danish taxpayers from the Panama Papers.

In April, media outlets published details of murky offshore financial dealings gleaned from 11.5 million leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm -- the so-called "Panama Papers".

The leaks saw a host of high-profile politicians, celebrities and sports stars embarrassed over their assets in tax havens.

EU to 'suspend' Colombia's FARC from terror list

Yahoo – AFP, September 26, 2016

A member of the FARC serves soup for lunch at their camp in El Diamante,
Caqueta Department, Colombia, on September 26, 2016 (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

Brussels (AFP) - The European Union has decided to "suspend" Colombia's FARC rebel group from its terror group list, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced on Monday.

In a statement, Mogherini said the EU would "suspend FARC from its list of terrorist organisations. This decision will take effect upon the signature of the Peace Agreement."

The Colombian government and the leftist FARC rebels were scheduled to sign their historic peace agreement at 2200 GMT Monday in a ceremony in the colonial city of Cartagena.

The suspension will allow the temporary lifting of sanctions against FARC, including the freezing of its assets. FARC was added to the EU terror list in 2002.

"We are ready to continue our support, focusing on the implementation of the agreement," Mogherini said, adding that the EU was also ready to activate a 600-million-euro package to support the peace deal.

"Today peace is in the hands of the Colombian people," she said.

"An endorsement of the agreement would send positive shockwaves through the continent and the entire world. It would send a message of reconciliation. It would send the powerful message that all conflicts can come to an end."

Earlier, a diplomatic source said the sanctions would be suspended for an initial period of six months, after which they would be reviewed.

On Sunday, the EU's Colombia envoy Ana Paula Zacarias said the guerrilla group could be definitively removed from the blacklist after a six-month review process in which the bloc could have "political dialogue with guerrilla members".

FARC, a Marxist guerrilla group, launched its war on the Colombian government in 1964.

Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) celebrate

 the approval of the peace deal with the government during the closing ceremony

 of the 10th National Guerrilla Conference in Llanos del Yari, Colombia, on

September 23, 2016 (AFP Photo/Luis Acosta)

Related Article:

FARC ratifies Colombia peace deal, declares war over

China and Japan take a trip to Cuba

In the next few days, the prime ministers of Japan and China will visit Havana to talk about trade and investment. The two countries hope to gain a foothold in a market that is still off- limits to US companies.

Deutsche Welle, 22 Sep 2016

Cuba is all the fashion. After Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited Havana earlier this week, the prime minister of Japan and the Chinese premier are set to come to the Caribbean island - an expression of Asia's increased interest in Cuba.

On Thursday night (22.09.2016) Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will land in Havana. The first-ever visit by a Japanese prime minister on the Caribbean island opens a new chapter in their bilateral relations, which were established in 1929. Most recently, in May last year, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida visited Cuba shortly after the United States and Cuba began their rapprochement. In June this year, in turn, Cuban Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel was in Tokyo.

Strong economic partner wanted

As in many other countries, the US' new Cuba policy and the new economic dynamism in Cuba initiated by President Raul Castro's policy of economic openness sparked new interest in Cuba in Japan. Until then, ties were mainly focused on development cooperation.

While the rapprochement is proceeding more slowly than many expected - the US blockade remains in force and the outcome of the US presidential elections in November is far from certain - the arrival of a strong business partner like Japan comes at just the right time for the troubled Cuban economy, hit by reduced oil deliveries from its ally Venezuela.

Just ahead of Abe's visit, Cuba and Japan agreed to restructure Havana's debt of around 1.5 billion euros ($1.67 billion). The deal is part of Cuba's restructuring negotiations with the Paris Club and paves the way for Japanese loans and investment. What's more, as part of his visit Abe will give Cuba medical equipment, the Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported. While this is officially being described as development assistance, it raises hopes to later export orders for medical technology. A teaching center for Cuban doctors will also be set up in which they are trained on Japanese technology. Alongside tourism and infrastructure projects, medical tourism is an area likely to be of particular interest to Japanese companies.

'A market with potential'

Abe's visit could open new doors to Japanese companies, which want to do business on the island. In July, the Mitsubishi group opened an office in Havana. "We are trying to find new business opportunities to establish some infrastructure projects ... as well as new trading opportunities," Mitsubishi's senior vice president for global strategy told the Reuters news agency. The special economic zone established in Mariel just outside of Havana two years ago which provides tax advantages and other benefits to foreign investors is interesting because of its strategic location in the middle of the Caribbean between the US and the Panama Canal.

Cuba's and Japan's foreign ministers during a recent meeting

"From a logistics point of view, the Caribbean market has a big potential to grow," Takada said.

Despite this small-scale diplomatic offensive, relations between Japan and Cuba are far from being as good as those between Havana and Beijing. After Venezuela, China is Cuba's second-largest trading partner, albeit a distant second, and in some ways a model for Cuba's economic reforms. Ideologically, the two countries are close.

The friend from Beijing

After Abe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is expected in Cuba in the next few days. The trip has been confirmed, but exact dates are not yet available. During the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in July 2014 some 30 agreements were concluded "raising relations to new heights." These deals included health, biotechnology, education, agriculture, renewables, energy and tourism. The expansion of Cuba's internet infrastructure is happening with Chinese technology. Since December 2015, there have also been direct flights between Beijing and Havana.

Trade between the two countries amounted last year to nearly 1.6 billion dollars - an increase of more than 50 percent compared with 2014. However, there are only a few Cuban-Chinese joint ventures, and at an estimated 410 million euros, Chinese direct investment has been relatively low, especially in the tourism sector, even if the trend is increasing.

China supports Cuba primarily with loans. In February two credit lines were agreed - they allow Cuba to purchase Chinese tractors for the rice harvest, as well as 240 railway wagons for transporting passengers. In addition, the cargo port of Cuba's second largest city, Santiago de Cuba, is being expanded with Chinese funds - said to amount to more than 100 million dollars.

Economic agreements and cooperation agreements are once again likely to be key at the talks in Havana with Li Keqiang. Like Japan, China wants to strengthen its position in Cuba before the US blockade falls and US companies return to the Cuban market.

Brazil ousts lawmaker who pushed for Rousseff impeachment

Yahoo – AFP, Damian Wroclavsky, September 13, 2016

The former president of Brazil's lower house Eduardo Cunha delivers a speech
 during a session in the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia on September 12, 2016
(AFP Photo/EVARISTO SA)

Brasília (AFP) - Brazil's lower house of Congress voted Monday to oust its former speaker Eduardo Cunha, who spearheaded the drive to impeach president Dilma Rousseff only to suffer his own graft-stained downfall.

Cunha, who is often compared to the dark, manipulative villain Frank Underwood of the hit Netflix series "House of Cards," was stripped of his seat in the Chamber of Deputies by a resounding vote of 450 in favor, 10 against and nine abstentions.

"I declare lawmaker Eduardo Cunha stripped of office for conduct incompatible with lawmakers' duties," said the decision read out at the conclusion of the late-night session.

Cunha, a 57-year-old conservative allied with the Evangelical Christian right, was a central figure in Brazil's long impeachment drama.

His enemies accuse him of using his power to launch impeachment proceedings as a trump card to stave off his own prosecution for allegedly taking millions of dollars in bribes.

He resigned as speaker in July amid swirling accusations of corruption linked to the huge state oil company Petrobras.

He was forced to face the music in Congress for having "lied" to other lawmakers about his possession of secret Swiss bank accounts.

Cunha, who denies any wrongdoing, handled his own defense at Monday's session. He mainly displayed the cool and calculating persona he is known for, but occasionally his voice broke with emotion.

"I didn't lie. There's no bank account. Where's the proof?" he said.

"Don't judge me based on what public opinion says," he implored, reminding his colleagues that at least 160 of them also face judicial investigations.

But his appeals fell on deaf ears. The vote against him was well clear of the simple majority of 257 needed in the 513-member chamber.

Cunha was first suspended in May, less than a month after lawmakers voted to open impeachment proceedings against Rousseff, Brazil's first woman president.

Rousseff was definitively removed from office on August 31, and replaced by her vice president turned nemesis, Michel Temer.

The new center-right administration brought an end to 13 years of leftist rule in Brazil.

Evangelical 'gangster'

Cunha used a variety of stalling tactics to slow the proceedings that ultimately led to his ouster from Congress. The process dragged on for almost a year, the longest in Brazilian history.

Analysts had predicted he would continue to stall by asking his peers to delay a vote on his fate, arguing for a simple suspension or asking that lawmakers allow him to keep the right to hold public office.

But many of his onetime allies deserted him -- including in his own PMDB party, the biggest in Brazil and also Temer's party.

Rousseff, from the leftist Workers' Party, accused both Temer and Cunha of orchestrating a coup against her.

Thanks largely to Cunha's leadership, the lower house voted heavily in favor last year of opening an impeachment trial against Rousseff, on charges that she illegally manipulated government accounts.

On April 17, the day Rousseff's impeachment trial was authorized, Cunha was the target of a barrage of insults in Congress from leftist deputies, who shouted "Gangster!" and "Putschist!"

Cunha was long considered one of the best wheelers-and-dealers in Brasilia, building a considerable support base including the powerful agriculture lobby, fellow evangelicals and the so-called "bullet caucus" of politicians with police and army connections.

He won prominence promoting a conservative social agenda that included a "Heterosexual Pride Day" and restrictions on abortion. He has been reported to own no less than 150 Internet domains using the name "Jesus."

His defense Monday was sprinkled with religious references, as well as condemnation of Rousseff and her Workers' Party (PT).

In the end, he outlasted her by just two weeks.

"It's the price I'm paying so Brazil can be free of the PT. They're making me pay the price for impeachment," he said.

No matter his fate, he said, no one can take from him "the pleasure of seeing that criminal government go."

The shifting of the Earth’s poles means a change at Cork Airport

The poles ain’t where they used to be, apparently.

Thejournal.ie, Jan 20th 2016

Image: Sean Barry via Flickr/CC

CORK AIRPORT IS to change the numbers assigned to its runways for the first time ever.

The move comes after shifts in the earth’s magnetic poles.

Each airport runway is assigned a runway designator number. The runway designator is made up of a two digit number displayed at each side of the runway, which shows its magnetic heading nearest the full 10 degrees.

The main runways at Cork Airport have been numbered as runway 17 and runway 35 since 1961 and the drifting of the Earth’s magnetic poles has shifted the runways’ magnetic headings, which now stand at 164°M and 344°M, respectively.

Pole shift is a constantly occurring geological phenomenon, in which the Earth’s magnetic field shifts.

Nasa says:

Earth’s polarity is not a constant. Unlike a classic bar magnet, or the decorative magnets on your refrigerator, the matter governing Earth’s magnetic field moves around. Geophysicists are pretty sure that the reason Earth has a magnetic field is because its solid iron core is surrounded by a fluid ocean of hot, liquid metal.

The numbers are required to change in April 2016 in order to remain safety compliant and licensed by the Irish Aviation Authority.

Speaking about the change Ciaran Carton, General Manager of Operators at Cork Airport said:

This is an unusual occurrence for Cork Airport as an airport runway number only changes approximately once in every 50 years. The different runway numbers are crucial for pilots during take-off, landing and taxiing.

“There will also be an alteration of software systems, new airfield mapping and a change in communications with private and commercial pilots. Additionally, we will be replacing the taxiway signage and painting new designation numbers on runway thresholds.”

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