Strikes Africa workers hold mass protests

S Africa workers hold mass protests

Strikes began last week and saw clashes between protesters and police

South African civil servants are marching across the country over a wage dispute, with more than one million people expected to participate in strikes.

Labour unions planned the action on Thursday as part of continued pressure on the government to agree to improved pay terms and benefits.

Around 1.3 million state workers have been on strike since Wednesday last week, picketing outside schools, hospitals and government offices.

A day after they began, the strikes became violent when police used rubber bullets and water cannons against teachers and other civil servants, who threw stones and bricks at them when trying to enter a hospital in Johannesburg.

The unions have set a deadline of September 2 for the government to provide a 8.6 per cent rise in salaries and a 1,000 rand ($138) monthly housing allowance, otherwise more state workers are slated to join the strikes.

The South African government is offering a seven per cent pay hike and 630 rand for housing.

Government services and the economy have already been disrupting by the strikes.

Patients affected

Doctors and activists warned on Wednesday that HIV and Aids patients are not receiving treatment because of the nationwide strike. An estimated 5.7 million people are living with HIV and Aids in South Africa, more than any other country.

One doctor, Ashraf Coovadia, said that his HIV/Aids clinic at a Johannesburg government hospital is receiving 20 to 30 patients whereas normally the figure would be 60 to 80.

He said that clinic staff have been calling patients to urge them to come in.

Patients typically receive three-month batches of drugs. They can develop drug resistance if they miss a few days of medication.

Coovadia said that people may fear encountering violence at state hospitals or think that they have been closed by the strikes.

He added that he has had to negotiate with strikers and security guards to ensure patients can enter the clinic safely.

"The situation is quite volatile," he said.

Under pressure
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photo: AP / Fernando Llano Bogota: Caracas hosts Farc rebels

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina has become the first Latin American country to let gay couples marry and adopt children, defying Catholic opposition to join the ranks of a few mostly European nations with similar laws. Argentine senators debate over a same-sex wedding equality bill which was approved in May by the Lower House in Buenos Aires,...

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Goldman paying $550M to settle civil fraud charges

WASHINGTON – Resolving a high-profile government case linked to the mortgage meltdown, Goldman Sachs & Co. has agreed to pay a record $550 million to settle civil fraud charges that it misled buyers of complex investments.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement Thursday with the Wall Street titan, just hours after Congress gave final approval to legislation imposing the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street firms since the Great Depresssion.
For Goldman, it was a chance to put behind it a case that had tarnished its reputation after it emerged relatively unscathed from the financial crisis. For the SEC, emerging from the embarrassment of a series of lapses, the charges and the settlement were a high-stakes opportunity to prove it could be tough on Wall Street.
And the agency's sweeping investigation of the conduct of financial firms in the run-up to the mortgage market collapse could bring more cases.
The deal calls for Goldman to pay a $535 million fine and $15 million in restitution of fees it collected. Of the total $550 million, $300 million will go to the government and $250 million goes to compensate two European banks that lost money on their investments.
The penalty was said to be the largest against a Wall Street firm in SEC history. But the settlement amounts to less than 5 percent of Goldman's 2009 net income of $12.2 billion after payment of dividends to preferred shareholders — or a little more than two weeks of net income.
Word that Goldman had settled began leaking about a half-hour before stock markets closed and appeared to please investors. Goldman had been trading at about $140 a share. The stock rose to close at $145.22, up $6.16, and shot up to $151.95 in after-hours trading.
The SEC had alleged that Goldman sold mortgage-related investments without telling buyers that the securities had been crafted with input from a client that was betting on them to fail.
The securities cost investors close to $1 billion while helping Goldman client Paulson & Co. capitalize on the housing bust, the SEC said in the charges filed April 16.
Goldman acknowledged Thursday that its marketing materials for the deal at the center of the charges omitted key information for buyers.
But the firm did not admit legal wrongdoing.
In a statement, Goldman said "it was a mistake" for the marketing materials to leave out that a Goldman client helped craft the portfolio and that the client's financial interests ran counter to those of investors.
"We believe that this settlement is the right outcome for our firm, our shareholders and our clients," Goldman's statement said.
Robert Khuzami, the SEC's enforcement director, called the settlement a "stark lesson to Wall Street firms that no product is too complex, and no investor too sophisticated, to avoid a heavy price if a firm violates the fundamental principles of honest treatment and fair dealing."


AP – Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami listens to a question after announcing
Goldman acknowledged Thursday that its marketing materials for the deal at the center of the charges omitted key information for buyers.
But the firm did not admit legal wrongdoing.
In a statement, Goldman said "it was a mistake" for the marketing materials to leave out that a Goldman client helped craft the portfolio and that the client's financial interests ran counter to those of investors.
"We believe that this settlement is the right outcome for our firm, our shareholders and our clients," Goldman's statement said.
Robert Khuzami, the SEC's enforcement director, called the settlement a "stark lesson to Wall Street firms that no product is too complex, and no investor too sophisticated, to avoid a heavy price if a firm violates the fundamental principles of honest treatment and fair dealing."
The SEC's wide-ranging investigation of Wall Street firms' mortgage securities dealings in the years running up to the financial crisis goes on, Khuzami said at a news conference at agency headquarters.
"We are looking at deals across a wide variety of institutions and a wide variety of circumstances," he said.
Though the fine won't make much of a dent in Goldman's finances, the settlement will have sweeping legal implications for future securities fraud cases, said John Coffee, a securities law professor at Columbia University.
"Even if the penalty was lower than the market expected, the fact that Goldman admitted that it made misleading and incomplete disclosures to its clients vindicates the SEC's legal theory for the future," Coffee said. "You have to understand that the defendant almost never makes such a concession in SEC settlements."
The settlement is subject to approval by a federal judge in New York.
The SEC said its case continues against Fabrice Tourre, a Goldman vice president accused of shepherding the deal.
Tourre is still employed by Goldman and remains on paid administrative leave, according to a person familiar with his status who wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Goldman is paying Tourre's legal expenses, the source said.
The Justice Department opened a criminal inquiry of Goldman in the spring, following a criminal referral by the SEC.
Of the $550 million Goldman agreed to pay, $250 million will go to the two big losers in the deal. German bank IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG will get $150 million. Royal Bank of Scotland, which bought ABN AMRO Bank, will receive $100 million.

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Congress, OKs, Wall, St. crackdown, consumer ,guards

WASHINGTON – Congress on Thursday passed the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression, clamping down on lending practices and expanding consumer protections to prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that knocked the economy to its knees.
A year in the making and 22 months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a worldwide panic in credit and other markets, the bill cleared its final hurdle with a 60-39 Senate vote. It now goes to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature, expected as early as Wednesday.
The law will give the government new powers to break up companies that threaten the economy, create a new agency to guard consumers in their financial transactions and shine a light into shadow financial markets that escaped the oversight of regulators. The vote came on the same day that Goldman Sachs & Co. agreed to pay a record $550 million to settle charges that it misled buyers of mortgage-related investments.
From storefront payday lenders to the biggest banking and investment houses on Wall Street, few players in the financial world are immune to the bill's reach. Consumer and investor transactions, whether simple debit card swipes or the most complex securities trades, face new safeguards or restrictions.
A powerful council of regulators would be on the lookout for risks across the finance system. Large, failing financial institutions would be liquidated and the costs assessed on their surviving peers. The Federal Reserve is getting new powers while falling under greater congressional scrutiny.
"I'm about to sign Wall Street reform into law, to protect consumers and lay the foundation for a stronger and safer financial system, one that is innovative, creative, competitive and far less prone to panic and collapse," Obama said.
"Unless your business model depends on cutting corners or bilking your customers, you have nothing to fear."
Republicans said the bill is a vast federal overreach that will drive financial-sector jobs overseas. Before the final vote was even cast, House Republican leader John Boehner called for its repeal.
At an eye-glazing 390,000 words — half the size of the King James Bible — the legislation doesn't offer a quick remedy, however. Rather, it lays down prescriptions for regulators to act. In many cases, the real impact won't be felt for years.
One of the top regulators who will be charged with implementing the law, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, said the Senate vote represents a "far-reaching step toward preventing a replay of the recent financial crisis."
The Senate's final passage of the bill, two weeks after the House approved it, is a welcome achievement for a president and congressional Democrats, both increasingly unpopular with voters four months from midterm elections that threaten to put Republicans in charge of Congress. Only three Republicans voted for it — Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, and Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, who has said the bill is not tough enough, voted with most Republicans against it.
The law has been a priority for Obama, ranking just behind his health care overhaul enacted in March. In its final form, the package hews closely to the plan unwrapped a year ago by the White House and in some ways is even tougher. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs promptly cast the vote in political terms.
"This will be a vote that Democrats will talk about through November as a way of highlighting the choice that people will get to make in 2010," he said.
The political benefits, however, stand to be overshadowed by lingering high unemployment. And Republicans were betting that public antipathy toward big government and worries over jobs would trump their anger at Wall Street.
"We're going to be driving jobs and business overseas with this massive piece of legislation," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who worked with Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut on certain aspects of the bill, denounced it as a "legislative monster."
Named after Dodd and Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, the Democratic committee chairmen who steered it to passage, the legislation ends a trend toward looser regulations that peaked in 1999 with the elimination of Depression-era walls separating commercial banking from riskier investment banking.
And though it calls for the biggest changes in generations, it does not approach the scope of the New Deal banking rules enacted under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That era saw the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to protect consumer deposits, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee the markets.

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BP finally stops oil spewing from Gulf gusher

NEW ORLEANS – The oil has stopped. For now. After 85 days and up to 184 million gallons, BP finally gained control over one of America's biggest environmental catastrophes Thursday by placing a carefully fitted cap over a runaway geyser that has been gushing crude into the Gulf of Mexico since early spring.
Though a temporary fix, the accomplishment was greeted with hope, high expectations — and, in many cases along the beleaguered coastline, disbelief. From one Gulf Coast resident came this: "Hallelujah." And from another: "I got to see it to believe it."
If the cap holds, if the sea floor doesn't crack and if the relief wells being prepared are completed successfully, this could be the beginning of the end for the spill. But that's a lot of ifs, and no one was declaring any sort of victory beyond the moment.
The oil stopped flowing at 3:25 p.m. EDT when the last of three valves in the 75-ton cap was slowly throttled shut. That set off a 48-hour watch period in which — much like the hours immediately after a surgery — the patient was in stable, guarded condition and being watched closely for complications.
"It's a great sight," said BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, who immediately urged caution. The flow, he said, could resume. "It's far from the finish line. ... It's not the time to celebrate."
Nevertheless, one comforting fact stood out: For the first time since an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers April 20 and unleashed the spill 5,000 feet beneath the water's surface, no oil was flowing into the Gulf.
President Barack Obama, who has encouraged, cajoled and outright ordered BP to stop the leak, called Thursday's development "a positive sign." But Obama, whose political standing has taken a hit because of the spill and accusations of government inaction, cautioned that "we're still in the testing phase."
The worst-case scenario would be if the oil forced down into the bedrock ruptured the seafloor irreparably. Leaks deep in the well bore might also be found, which would mean that oil would continue to flow into the Gulf. And there's always the possiblity of another explosion, either from too much pressure or from a previously unknown unstable piece of piping.

Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

More is spent on jobless in U.S., but benefits near end

Watches this More is spent on jobless in U.S., but benefits near end



By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
More than 3 million Americans could lose unemployment benefits by the end of July even as the government spends record amounts to compensate the jobless, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
The growing number of unemployed workers without benefits comes as Congress argues whether to again extend jobless benefits.

UNEMPLOYMENT: Long-term jobless fear loss of benefits
BOOST OR DRAIN? The debate over unemployment benefits
WHERE ARE THE JOBS? Forecast for 384 metro areas, 50 states
The number of people collecting benefits will fall from 10.5 million to 7 million at the end of July if Congress doesn't extend the payments.

About 400,000 Americans are exhausting their benefits every week, saving the government $2 billion since June and an estimated $34 billion through November.

Unemployment insurance has played a bigger role in this recession — the longest since the Great Depression— than in previous downturns, the USA TODAY analysis finds.

This extraordinary response has helped as many as 11 million people at one time — a record — while driving the program's cost to an annual rate of $145 billion in the first quarter. That's more than double what was spent in any previous recession, after adjusting for inflation.

Congress has extended unemployment benefits in every recession since the 1950s. The current extension — up to 99 weeks — far exceeds the previous longest extension of 65 weeks in 1975.

Economist Chris O'Leary of the non-partisan Upjohn Institute for Employment Research says jobless benefits have never been scaled back with unemployment near 10%. "An extension seems appropriate," he says.

Labor expert James Sherk of the conservative Heritage Foundation says a more limited extension is needed.

"Two years is excessive," he says. "If you've gone that long without work, there's a range of other anti-poverty programs available."

Copyright 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Israel blocks Libyan ship taking aid to Gaza

Israeli navy insists ship lands the goods outside Gaza for delivery by land



The Amalthea is loaded with supplies at Lavrio, near Athens last Friday before it set sail for Gaza. Photograph: John Kolesidis/Reuters
A Libyan ship carrying aid for Gaza docked at an Egyptian port today after the Israeli navy stopped it from reaching the Palestinian territory.

The Amalthea, flying under a Moldovan flag, will unload its cargo and transfer it to the Red Crescent for delivery to Gaza by land across the border, said Gamal Abdel Maqsoud, director of the Egyptian port of el-Arish.

Israeli missile ships stopped the ship yesterday from reaching the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas. Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamist group took control of the territory in violent clashes with the rival Fatah group in June 2007.

The Amalthea was the latest ship to attempt to break the embargo, six weeks after the Israeli navy's interception of an aid flotilla in which nine Turkish activists were killed. The assault prompted a wave of international condemnation and resulted in Israel agreeing to ease its blockade of Gaza. But it has maintained the naval embargo, insisting it is necessary and justified under international law to prevent weapons being shipped to Hamas.

The Amalthea sailed from Greece at the weekend carrying up to 15 activists and 2,000 tonnes of food and medicine, according to the organisers, a charity chaired by a son of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader.

Youssef Sawani, director of the charity, told Reuters it was a "peaceful mission". But Gabriela Shalev, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, wrote to Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, expressing concern "that the true nature of its actions remains dubious".

Following intense Israeli diplomatic efforts, Greece – from where the boat sailed – Moldova – under whose flag the boat is operating – and Egypt all agreed that the Amalthea should be directed to el-Arish, 40km (25 miles) from Gaza, where its cargo could be unloaded, inspected and transferred to Gaza, according to Israeli officials. Israel had also invited the activists to unload the shipment at the Israeli port of Ashdod, a similar distance from Gaza.

Despite ceding to calls for the blockade to be relaxed in the aftermath of the assault on the flotilla on 31 May, Israel has insisted the commandos who carried out the raids acted in self-defence. It has resisted calls for a UN-led inquiry but has appointed two panels, one military and one civilian, to review the raid.

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