Venezuela gate-crashes meeting with regional powers

Venezuela gate-crashes meeting with regional powers

2016-12-15 17:09:47.0

BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 15: (AFP) - Venezuela's top diplomat turned up uninvited to a meeting of the South America's Mercosur on Wednesday, despite Caracas' suspension from the trade bloc for failing to meet democratic and trade standards.

Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez pushed her way through a crowd of riot police and journalists to enter the Argentine foreign ministry in Buenos Aires where the extraordinary meeting was held.

"These (Mercosur) presidents insist Venezuela can't participate," she told reporters outside the building."Well we'll come in through the window because we're here to defend Venezuela's rights and also defend the rights of Mercosur."

She later tweeted a picture of herself inside the conference room.But her colleagues -- who had explicitly said Venezuela was not invited -- excluded her from the meeting, Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra said.

The other Mercosur countries -- Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay -- had suspended Venezuela earlier this month for failing to ratify rules on trade, politics, democracy and human rights.

In a surreal turn, Venezuela insists it still holds Mercosur's rotating presidency -- a claim Rodriguez repeated on Wednesday.But Malcorra said Argentina had in fact taken over the presidency at the meeting.

- Defiant -

Speaking in Havana, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro took a defiant tone.

"Nothing and nobody is going to remove us from Mercosur because Mercosur belongs to the people," he insisted, accusing an alliance of "ultra-right" governments in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay of trying to destroy the bloc.

Venezuela's neighbors are becoming increasingly wary of developments in the once-booming oil giant.Maduro has presided over an economic meltdown marked by food shortages, riots and looting.

The opposition accuses the deeply-unpopular president of trampling on democracy by throwing its leaders in jail and blocking efforts to remove him constitutionally.

Announced on December 2, the Mercosur suspension represents the international community's biggest rebuke of Maduro's government since the political crisis deepened this year.

Venezuela joined Mercosur in 2012 when fellow leftist governments held sway across the region.But the political tide has turned as a regional recession bites, with Maduro now facing sharp criticism from center-right presidents Michel Temer in Brazil and Mauricio Macri in Argentina.Wednesday's meeting was called to discuss the regional impact of the Venezuelan crisis and progress toward signing a trade deal with the European Union.

Russian leader Putin arrives in Japan for territorial talks

Russian leader Putin arrives in Japan for territorial talks

2016-12-15 17:10:02.0

NAGATO, Japan, Dec. 15: (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Japan on Thursday for a two-day summit that marks his first official visit to a G-7 country since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

His Rossiya Airlines plane touched down at 4:50 p.m. at Yamaguchi Ube Airport on the coast of western Japan, two hours and 40 minutes behind schedule.

After shaking hands with Japanese officials, Putin and his motorcade headed for a hot springs resort in Nagato city, the ancestral hometown of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

During two days of talks, Abe hopes to make progress on a long-running territorial dispute, while trying to bolster ties with economic projects. A major breakthrough is seen as unlikely.Abe has invited Putin even though the G-7 nations, including Japan, still have sanctions on Russia. The meetings will move to Tokyo on Friday.

"This really is an extraordinary development," said James Brown, author of a book on the Japan-Russia territorial dispute and a professor at the Japan campus of Temple University in Tokyo. "I think Prime Minister Abe is being really quite bold in announcing this new approach to relations with Russia, especially coming at such a difficult time in relations between Russia and the West."

Putin has shown up late before. He kept Pope Francis waiting at the Vatican for one hour and 20 minutes in 2015. Earlier this month, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida waited for two hours when he visited the Kremlin. Disagreements over four southern Kuril islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, have kept the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their World War II hostilities."I hope to negotiate thoroughly in quiet atmosphere, in the silence of the night," Abe told reporters in Tokyo ahead of his departure for Nagato. "I head into negotiations keeping close to my heart the long-cherished desire of the former islanders" to resolve the dispute.

Japan says the Soviet Union took the islands illegally at the end of World War II, expelling 17,000 Japanese to nearby Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main islands. Russia governs the islands and the Russians who now live there.

Putin told Japanese journalists earlier this week that progress hinges on Japan's flexibility to compromise, and that he doesn't mind the status quo. "We think that we have no territorial problems. It's Japan that thinks that is has a territorial problem with Russia," he said.But Russia wants to attract Japanese investment, particularly to its far east. Japan hopes that stronger ties through joint economic projects will help resolve the thorny territorial issue over time.

Nigerian inflation rises for 13th straight month

Nigerian inflation rises for 13th straight month

2016-12-15 17:09:30.0

ABUJA, Dec. 15: (AFP) - Nigerian inflation rose again in November, driven by higher food, petrol and electricity prices, data showed Thursday, with analysts saying that the upward trend may not be over.

It is the 13th consecutive monthly rise for the West African country, with the government struggling since August to pull the economy out of recession.The announcement comes six months after Nigeria's central bank let the naira float, causing a sharp decline in the currency's value against the dollar and pushing up the price of imported goods.

"The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 18.48 percent (year-on-year) in November 2016, 0.15 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in October (18.33 percent)," the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled a plan to spend 7.3 trillion naira ($23 billion) in 2017, a 20-percent boost over this year's spending, to "pull the economy out of recession as quickly as possible".

The statistics agency said food items increased by 17.2 percent (year-on-year) in the month under review, up 0.1 points from the October rise."During the month, the highest increases were seen in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, clothing materials and other articles of clothing, books, liquid fuel, passenger transport by air, motor cycles and shoes and other footwear," the NBS added.

The Nigerian economy has been hammered by the global crash in prices for oil -- worth 70 percent of its revenue and the bulk of its dollars -- and ongoing rebel attacks on oil infrastructure in the southern swamplands.In June, the central bank removed a 15-month peg on the naira.

The currency now trades at 485 to the dollar in the open market. Dollar scarcity continues to hurt businesses.According to Bloomberg, the central bank also left its benchmark lending rate at 14 percent in November in a bid to tame inflation.

"With the CBN's tight monetary stance, if there are no further structural shocks, inflation is likely to peak at a rate slightly above 20 percent in March 2017," Abuja-based Time Economics Ltd. said in an emailed note before the data were released.

"The inflation in the economy is largely due to structural factors."

Oil-rich Nigeria normally produces 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd), but output dropped to a low of 1.4 bpd this year as a result of rebels attacking pipelines, with no sign of the militants being ready to lay down their arms.

Notable deaths of 2016

Notable deaths of 2016

2016-12-15 21:00:22.0

PARIS, Dec 15, 2016 (AFP) - From legendary British singer David Bowie to Cuban leader Fidel Castro and American boxer Muhammad Ali, here are some of the notable figures who died in 2016.

- January -

- 5: PIERRE BOULEZ, 90, French conductor-composer.

- 7: ANDRE COURREGES, 92 French fashion designer known for his 1960s futuristic styles.

- 10: DAVID BOWIE, 69, legendary British singer and musician who died of cancer two days after his 25th album was released.

- 14: ALAN RICKMAN, 69, British actor who often played villains, such as professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.

- 19: ETTORE SCOLA, 84, Italian director who made "A Special Day" and "We All Loved Each Other So Much"

- February -

- 16: BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI, 93, Egyptian diplomat and UN secretary general from 1992 to 1996.

- 17: ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI, 75, Polish filmmaker who directed "The Third Part of the Night" and "The Devil".

- 19: HARPER LEE, 89, US author of "To Kill a Mockingbird".

- 19: UMBERTO ECO, 84, Italian writer and philosopher who wrote "The Name of the Rose".

- March -

- 6: NANCY REAGAN, 94, US first lady from 1981 to 1989 and a quiet influence on president Ronald Reagan.

- 8: GEORGE MARTIN, 90, British music producer nicknamed "The fifth Beatle".

- 24: JOHAN CRUYFF, 68, Dutch football star who led the powerful Ajax Amsterdam team in the 1970s.

- 26: JIM HARRISON, 78, US writer of novels and poems who explored the natural world in such works as "Legends of the Fall".

- 31: IMRE KERTESZ, 86, Hungarian author and 2002 Nobel laureate, who wrote "Fatelessness".

- 31: ZAHA HADID, 65, British architect of Iraqi origin who won the 2004 Pritzker prize.

- April -

- 21: PRINCE, 57, Groundbreaking US musician whose many hits include "Purple Rain", "Girls & Boys" and "Kiss".

- 24: PAPA WEMBA, 66, Singer and king of Congolese rumba.

- June -

- 3: MUHAMMAD ALI, 74, US boxing legend, triple world heavyweight champion.

- 16: JO COX, 41, British Labour Party MP, killed in the street a week before Britons voted in a referendum to leave the European Union.

- July -

- 2: ELIE WIESEL, 87, US writer, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor.

- 2: MICHAEL CIMINO, 77, US director who made the 1978 film "The Deer Hunter" based on the Vietnam War.

- 4: ABBAS KIAROSTAMI, 76, Iranian film director who won the 1997 Palme d'Or in Cannes for "Taste of Cherry".

- September -

- 2: ISLAM KARIMOV, 78, president of Uzbekistan from independence in 1991.

- 28: SHIMON PERES, 93, A founding father of Israel and a former president who won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize after signing the Oslo Accords with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.

- October -

- 9: ANDRZEJ WAJDA, 90, Polish film director who won the 1981 Palme d'Or in Cannes for "Man of Iron".

- 13: BHUMIBOL ADULYADEJ, 88, king of Thailand and until his death the world's longest reigning monarch.

- 13: DARIO FO, 90, Italian writer and actor who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1997.

- November -

- 7: LEONARD COHEN, 82, Canadian poet and musician who became an icon of the 1960s counterculture generation with songs like "Suzanne" and "Hallelujah."

- 25: FIDEL CASTRO, 90, the Cuban leader who is said to have survived multiple assassination attempts and survived the administrations of 11 US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama.

- December -

- 8: JOHN GLENN, 95, the first US astronaut to orbit the earth.