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U.N. calls for investigation into Qaddafi’s death

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — The United Nations and two major human rights groups called for an investigation into the death of Moammar Gadhafi on Friday amid questions over the last moments of the late Libyan strongman’s life.

“There seem to be four or five different versions of how he died,” the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement. “More details are needed to ascertain whether he was killed in the fighting or after his capture.”

Questions also persisted about what would happen to Gadhafi’s body. His family issued a statement Friday calling on the United Nations and Amnesty International to push Libya’s new leadership “to hand over the bodies of the martyrs of their tribe so they can be buried according to Islamic rites,” a pro-Gadhafi TV station reported.

Libya’s interim government, the National Transitional Council, has said Gadhafi’s burial will be delayed for few days to allow International Criminal Court officials to check the body in Misrata if they choose to do so.

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Greece to receive next round of loans from EU

BRUSSELS (AP) – Finance ministers from the 17 countries that use the euro approved the payment of Greece’s next batch of bailout loans Friday, avoiding a potentially disastrous default, but acknowledged the country’s debt remained too high.

Greece’s debts are only one piece of Europe’s economic puzzle, and the finance ministers were meeting in Brussels on Friday to address two more complicated — and arguably more important — issues: boosting the financial firepower of the eurozone’s €440 billion ($607 billion) bailout fund in order to prevent the larger economies of Italy and Spain from spinning out of control and forcing weak banks to boost their capital buffers to shore up their defenses against market turmoil.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos welcomed the news that Athens would get the next €8 billion ($11 billion) installment, calling it a “positive step.” A day earlier, Greek lawmakers approved new, deeply contentious austerity measures.

The new measures will ensure next year’s fiscal targets are met and “sets the basis for the necessary structural reforms,” he said.

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European Banks Pledge to Shrink Themselves by $1 Trillion

Essentially the banks of Europe have committed to shrinking themselves via asset sales. This will help them raise cash and reduce risks of their exposure.

Some analyst say this will be not enough and that they may need as much as  2 trillion Euros…

Full article

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Alert: Moody’s Downgrades Spain Two Notches to A1

Moody’s Investors Service has today downgraded Spain’s government bond ratings to A1 from Aa2. This rating action concludes the review for possible downgrade that Moody’s had initiated for Spain’s rating on 29 July. The ratings carry a negative outlook. The main drivers that prompted the rating downgrade are as follow:

(1) Spain continues to be vulnerable to market stress and event risk. Since placing the ratings under review in late July 2011, no credible resolution of the current sovereign debt crisis has emerged and it will in any event take time for confidence in the area’s political cohesion and growth prospects to be fully restored. In the meantime, Spain’s large sovereign borrowing needs as well as the high external indebtedness of the Spanish banking and corporate sectors render it vulnerable to further funding stress.

(2) The already moderate growth prospects for Spain have been scaled back further in view of (i) the worsening global and European growth outlook and (ii) the difficult funding situation for the banking sector and its impact on the wider economy. Specifically, Moody’s now expects Spain’s real GDP growth in 2012 to be 1% at best, compared with earlier expectations of 1.8%, with risks mainly to the downside. Over the following years, the rating agency continues to expect a very moderate pace of growth of around 1.5% on average per annum.

(3) Lower economic growth in turn will make the achievement of the ambitious fiscal targets even more challenging for Spain. Moody’s expects the budget deficits for the general government sector to be above target both this year and next. In particular, Moody’s continues to have serious concerns regarding the funding situation of the regional governments and their ability to reduce their budget deficits according to targets.

Moody’s is maintaining a negative outlook on Spain’s rating to reflect the downside risks from a potential further escalation of the euro area crisis. The rating agency expects that the next government to emerge after Spain’s parliamentary elections on 20 November will be strongly committed to continued fiscal consolidation. Spain’s rating would face further downward pressure if this expectation did not materialise.

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