Strong quake jolts northeast Japan, no tsunami

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 jolted northeast Japan on Sunday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The quake, at 3:54am local time Saturday, was also felt in Tokyo.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, and no tsunami warning was issued.
The focus of the quake was off the coast of Fukushima prefecture. There were no abnormalities at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said.
A 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami on March 11 knocked out the Fukushima plant's reactor cooling systems, triggering a radiation crisis.
Police in Fukushima and neighbouring Miyagi prefecture said they had received no reports of damage or injuries
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
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The March 11 earthquake, the strongest in Japan on record, and a massive tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, since Chernobyl. The disaster left up to 23,000 dead or missing.

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the City star highlights Horn crisis

  

Oxfam Ambassador Kristin Davis visits Dadaab refugee camp

Actress Kristin Davis has been visiting the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya to help publicise the appeal for public donations to combat the effects of the drought in the Horn of Africa.

 

Oxfam Ambassador Kristin Davis visits drought stricken Horn of Africa

More than 10 million people are facing desperate food shortages in the worst food crisis of the 21^st century.

Kristin said: “I feel shocked to see what these people have gone through. I met women who have walked for 20 days through the desert, with children dying on the way, only to arrive at a camp where there is hardly any food and water to go around. We must not allow this to happen in this day and age. Anything that you can give will help people who have absolutely nothing.”

1,300 people a day are arriving in Dadaab, fleeing the drought and war in Somalia. The world’s largest refugee complex is severely overcrowded and now shelters 380,000 people – four times its intended capacity – with many more expected over the next few months. Many refugees arrive malnourished and in desperate need of water, food and healthcare.

 the City star was travelling in Tanzania with the charity as part of her long term commitment as an Oxfam Ambassador. When she heard about the scale of the disaster in the Horn of Africa, she decided to extend her trip and visit one of the worst hit areas.

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Yemen opposition shrugs off Gulf mediation offer

Members of Yemen's political opposition dismissed an offer from Gulf Arab neighbors on Wednesday to resume mediation in the political crisis, which has brought the country to the brink of civil war.

Gulf states, fearful of a war on their doorstep, have tried repeatedly to ease President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office after six months of protests against him and a bout of open war in the capital Sanaa.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a bloc of neighboring monarchies, did not say how their new offer was different to several previous efforts to end the Yemen crisis.

Sultan al-Atwani, a member of a group of opposition parties which had accepted a previous deal only to see Saleh reject it, called any new bid doomed from the start.

"It would have been better for the GCC to be braver, and specify who has rejected this initiative and brought Yemen to where it is now," he told .

Saleh, undergoing treatment in Saudi Arabia for wounds suffered in an attack on his compound last month, has backed out of several previous deals to step down.

In May, fighting erupted between his forces and those of tribal leaders and army units which had turned on him, reducing parts of Sanaa to ruin. A shaky ceasefire has held since Saleh left for treatment.

Youth groups over which the opposition parties have little influence have rejected main elements of past GCC deals, including the prospect Saleh could be immune from prosecution.

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Greek PM to reshuffle government to push austerity plan

 

 

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou plans to form a new cabinet on Thursday and seek a vote of confidence from his fractious Socialist party to try to push through an austerity package and avoid default.

Papandreou must pass the new 5-year campaign of tax rises, spending cuts and sell-offs of state property to receive a new EU/IMF bailout and a 12 billion euro aid tranche that Athens needs to pay back debt that matures in August.

Papandreou may seek to replace his finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, the main architect of hugely unpopular budget cuts demanded by the EU and the IMF as part of Greece's 110 billion euro bailout last year.

The reshuffle underscores the tenuous political and popular support for the new deal, but analysts say Greece has no choice but to carry on with the austerity measures or face default.

"If Papandreou gets the vote of confidence we will not go to elections and the chances that the mid-term plan passes will increase," Theodore Couloumbis of the ELIAMEP think tank said.

Nonetheless, world stocks and the euro slumped late on Wednesday as the upheaval fed fears of a default.

Papandreou had initially offered to step down and form a unity government with opposition parties, but he abandoned the idea after the conservative New Democracy demanded Athens renegotiate its year-old international bailout.

New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said the only way out of the crisis was early elections, but analysts said that would only happen in the unlikely event that the government failed to get a vote of confidence.

Political observers also said the reshuffle could persuade rebellious backbenchers in his PASOK party to back the measures despite widespread public anger.

"It's rare that deputies of a ruling party vote in favor of getting out of parliament," Couloumbis said.

Former ECB Vice-President Lucas Papademos is most frequently cited as a candidate to replace Papaconstantinou, who local media have said may be on his way to the Foreign Ministry.

But ALCO's Panagopoulos added that the prime minister may have a hard time convincing people outside the political arena to join his embattled government, which faced mass protests on Wednesday over the prospect of yet another squeeze.

TEARGAS

The new austerity package foresees 6.5 billion euros ($9.4 billion) in tax rises and spending cuts this year, doubling the effect of measures agreed with bailout lenders that have jacked unemployment up to a record 16.2 percent and extended a deep recession into its third year.

The plan includes new luxury taxes, a crackdown on tax evasion and tax rises on soft drinks, swimming pools, restaurant bills and real estate. The euro zone member's 750,000-strong public work force would be cut by a fifth. It also aims to raise 50 billion euros by selling off state-owned firms.

Thousands of activists and unionists converged on Athens's central Syntagma square on the parliament's front steps on Wednesday to try to stop lawmakers from debating the measures in committee that they hope to pass by the end of the month.

Stun grenades boomed around the square and plumes of smoke rose from burning garbage bins as police fired teargas and fought running skirmishes with scores of youths who fought back with rocks and long clubs.

"We want them out. Obviously these measures are not going to get us out of the crisis," Antony Vatselas, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer, crying from teargas. "They want only us to pay for it. And they are doing nothing. I want the debt to be erased. If this doesn't happen, there is no exit for Greece."

One group hurled petrol bombs and clashed with police at buildings housing the Finance Ministry, also on the square. Reuters witnesses saw flames in front of an entrance to the main building and a similar clash a few buildings down.

The vast majority of the crowd -- which included union workers, political party members, pensioners, and a wide array of Greeks upset at the new austerity measures -- only shouted at the parliament building and remained peaceful.

"Thieves, traitors!" many chanted. "Where did the money go?"

About 1,500 police closed a large part of the city center and created a corridor to hold back protesters as lawmakers drove up to the building in official limousines.

The Health Ministry said 33 people were injured. Fifteen people were arrested, police said. Police officials said the crowd reached around 30,000 but they often underestimate numbers. 

 

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African leaders launch talks on biggest free-trade bloc

South African president Jacob Zuma, centre, King Mswati lll of the Kingdom of Swaziland, left, and Namibia’s president Hifikepunye Pohamba sit together at the opening of the tripartite SADC summit in Johannesburg. 

African leaders Sunday agreed to a framework to guide the next phase of negotiations on creating the continent’s biggest free-trade bloc, in a communiqué issued after a day of talks.

The new bloc would integrate the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community, an idea first backed in 2008.
It would combine 26 countries home to 700 million people with a combined economy estimated at $875 billion.

The bloc aims to enhance connectivity among the nations and reduce costs of doing business, while increasing investment flows to address capacity constraints.

‘It is now well documented that regional integration is one of the four factors that have sustained Africa’s growth in the last decade, as well as the quick and robust recovery from the recent financial crisis,’ said Eratus Mwencha, the deputy chairman of the AU Commission.

‘We all know that trade can act as an engine of growth,’ said Mwencha. ‘For the people of Africa, this will mean a paycheque in their pocket.’

The International Monetary Fund expects Africa to grow faster than the global average in the coming years. Six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies were on the continent last year.

Mwencha added that it was projected that Africa would double its GDP in the next ten years, a growth expected to be propelled by the growing middle class.

The mega-bloc would bring together the continent’s most developed economies of South Africa and Egypt and some of its most energetic, such as Angola and Ethiopia.

It is expected to end the challenges presented by the current trade blocs which have different rules, with some countries belonging to more than one grouping, complicating efforts to streamline trade.

‘This Tripartite is blazing a path to be followed by other regions in Africa in realising the dream of a united Africa,’ said Sindiso Ngwenya, general secretary of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.
‘There are a number of areas where, by building on the work already done by member and partner states, working regionally, we can expect quick wins,’ he said.


But the pact faces immense hurdles: tariff barriers, poor infrastructure, weak supply chains, and economies often largely reliant on natural resources rather than manufactured products.


The three existing free trade areas — of which the five-member East African Community is the most advanced — have failed to meet intra-trade targets despite removing the bulk of trade tariffs.
And the bloc includes countries hit by conflicts, coups and political turmoil, such as Libya, Madagascar, Sudan and Zimbabwe.


New World Bank research says trade within southern African accounts for just 10 per cent of the total in the region — compared to 60 per cent in Europe and 40 per cent in North America.


Southern African Development Community exports increased from 20 to more than 30 per cent of combined GDP over the past decade, but regional trade made up a mere three per cent of the increase.

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