Stories for January 30th 2009
Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News Update
Headlines: St Brandan loses contract Tamar steps in to fill gap; Audit puts hospital on the sick list; Kayaker makes epic journey.
Norway investment fund drops “non ethical” corporations
Norway's state investment fund has blacklisted US firm Textron, owner of top plane-maker Cessna, and Canadian mining firm Barrick Gold. The fund, an ethical investor, sold shares in the firms because Textron makes cluster bombs and because of environmental concerns about Barrick.
Rio Tinto sells mining assets in Argentina and Brazil
Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto Group is selling mining assets in Argentina, Brazil and Canada to Brazilian competitor Vale Doce for 1.6 billion US dollars in an attempt to reduce its 39 billion debt load y 10 billion. The group also admitted it was considering a big equity issue.
Five South American presidents spurn Davos meeting
While bankers and politicians met this week in Davos for the World Economic Forum a rival summit in the Brazilian city of Belem challenged them and blamed the capitalist system for the current global crisis.
Unemployment in EU: 18 million and another 3.5 m by 2010
Unemployment in the Euro zone countries climbed to 8% in December, the highest in over two and a half years, with the total number of jobless reaching 12.472 million in the Euro zone and 17.911 million in all the 27 EU member states according to a Eurostat study released on Friday
Topsy-turvy: US economy contracts 3.8%, below forecast
The US economy shrank at an annual rate of 3.8% in the last quarter of 2008, according to the latest report from the US Commerce Department. This is the worst performance of the US economy since 1982.
Ban Ki-moon urges Davos leader to forge “”Green New Deal”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the world's business and other leaders to use the current economic crisis to launch a global “Green New Deal” that creates jobs and fights climate change by investing in renewable energy and technological development.
Bankers at Davos call for a review of financial rules
The chairman of one of the world's leading banks headquartered in London, HSBC, Stephen Green has said that the current financial rules must be “fundamentally revised” as they had deepened the financial crisis.
Release of Colombian hostages planned for Sunday/Wednesday
A Colombian delegation headed by Senator Piedad Córdoba left for Brazil on the first leg of a multi-day journey to obtain the release of six hostages held by the FARC guerrilla group. The first stop is at San Gabriel de Cachoeira in Brazil's Amazon jungle, where the group will coordinate the hostage release
