Sunday, June 23, 2013

Former NSA contractor Snowden leaves Hong Kong for Moscow: paper by World News Review | Foreclosures Are Still a Concern - Wall Street Journal by Markets and Business News Review

Foreclosures Are Still a Concern - Wall Street Journal

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KSDK

Foreclosures Are Still a Concern
Wall Street Journal
The housing market is recovering in many regions, but new research suggests there's still some cause for concern: Foreclosures are on the rise again. "The foreclosure problem was not resolved; it was simply delayed," says Daren Blomquist, vice president at ...
Cities with the most abandoned homesUSA TODAY
Md. foreclosure activity high despite recovering marketBaltimore Sun
Agents target unlisted foreclosures with more successInman.com
Sioux City Journal -Winston-Salem Journal -Charlotte Observer
all 27 news articles »

The Nicaraguan Congress has approved a proposal to have a canal <b>...</b>

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Nicaraguan leaders have for centuries dreamt of building a canal linking its Caribbean coast to the Pacific. Several initiatives failed and the project suffered what seemed to be a final blow when the United States decided to ...

Gerald Warner: New perceptions of Putin - Scotsman

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Scotsman

Gerald Warner: New perceptions of Putin
Scotsman
For easy, read “facile”; for we have now reached such a pitch of disillusionment with and contempt for the Euro-American political class that there is a serious prospect of its mass rejection. All it would take would be a major financial catastrophe ... 

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US files charges against Snowden 

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The charges are the start of what is expected to be a lengthy process to extradite Mr Snowden from Hong Kong and return him to the US

U.S. Requests Snowden's Extradition 

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U.S. officials have contacted authorities in Hong Kong for the extradition of Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who says he leaked highly classified documents about two surveillance programs.

U.S. Petitions for Extradition in N.S.A. Case

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The State Department asked Hong Kong to turn over Edward J. Snowden, which is likely to set off a tangled fight over his fate, legal experts said Saturday.
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Snowden Alleges US Hacking in China - Wall Street Journal

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Boston Globe

Snowden Alleges US Hacking in China
Wall Street Journal
The U.S. government has been hacking Chinese targets that include the nation's mobile-phone companies and one of the country's most prestigious universities, former government contractor Edward Snowden alleged in a series of reports published over the ...
Snowden NSA-China Hacking Claims Complicate ExtraditionBloomberg
Edward Snowden case may spark long legal fightBoston Globe
US warns against slowing Snowden extraditionBoston.com
NBCNews.com (blog) -Los Angeles Times -USA TODAY
all 928 news articles »

Data show need for primary health care doctors - The Saratogian

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Data show need for primary health care doctors
The Saratogian
ALBANY — New York's medical community worries that adding 1.1 million people to insurance rolls under the federal health care overhaul will overwhelm primary care physicians, many of whom are already swamped. Federal data showed nearly 18,000 ... in ...

The Fed Ushers In the Return to Fundamentals

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For investors, Wednesday's Fed announcement isn't bad news.
    


China calls US a ‘villain’ over cyber claims

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Tough language in Xinhua editorial contrasts with previous cautious approach and is sign the case could add pressure to ties between the world’s two largest economies

Jeffrey R. Scharf, Everybody&apos;s Business: End of the bull market? - Santa Cruz Sentinel

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MiamiHerald.com

Jeffrey R. Scharf, Everybody's Business: End of the bull market?
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Yields on bonds have fallen steadily for more than thirty years. For example, the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds peaked around 16 percent in 1981. Earlier this year, yields fell to 1.6 percent. At its 2013 nadir, the 10-year yield was below the current rate ...
What happened to those historic low mortgage rates?Helena Independent Record
Stocks stabilize, Treasury yields at nearly two-year highReuters
What To Do If Bonds SlumpMorningstar.com
Bloomberg -Businessweek -USA TODAY
all 98 news articles »

Former NSA contractor Snowden leaves Hong Kong for Moscow: paper 

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HONG KONG (Reuters) - Edward Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency, left Hong Kong on a flight for Moscow on Sunday and his final destination may be Ecuador or Iceland, the South China Morning Post said.
  
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Snowden Leaves Hong Kong - Wall Street Journal

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New York Daily News

Snowden Leaves Hong Kong
Wall Street Journal
Edward Snowden has left Hong Kong "on his own accord" for a third country, the city's government announced Sunday, breaking its prolonged silence on a case that has roiled U.S.-China relations. Separately, the South China Morning Post, the city's leading ...
Former NSA contractor Snowden leaves Hong Kong for Moscow: paperReuters
US Petitions for Extradition in NSA CaseNew York Times
Fate of NSA leaker might hinge on whether US charges are politicalFortune
Fox News -ABC News -BBC News
all 973 news articles »

Sunday's Letters: Remember Puerto Rico in immigration reform legislation - Florida Times-Union

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Sunday's Letters: Remember Puerto Rico in immigration reform legislation
Florida Times-Union
Letters of about 200 words are preferred. Longer letters will be edited for space. Letters with a clear, concise message have the best chance of being published.You may submit letters using our submission form, or by e-mailing letters@jacksonville.com.

Caribbean becoming hotbed for film production « Real Film Career Forum for What I Really Want to Do

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic –Halfway through Godfather II, a tense scene unfolds in which Michael Corleone watches from the back seat of a taxi as a rebel blows himself up on a street in pre-revolutionary Cuba.
By the time the scene was shot in the early 70s, Fidel Castro had already taken over the island; filming in Havana was impossible. Standing in for Havana: Santo Domingo.
In the more than four decades since, the Dominican Republic has played small parts in U.S. films, serving as the backdrop for scenes inJurassic Park, The Good Shepherd and Miami Vice. But it never became the destination for filmmaking envisioned by the late Charles Bluhdorn, whose Paramount Studios produced the Godfather series.
That might be changing. The country, which last year appointed its first national film commission, is offering film companies major breaks in an attempt to lure productions. Makers of films, commercials and television shows who spend more than $500,000 can receive a tax credit worth as much as 25 percent of what they spent to film in the country. They are also exonerated from several taxes.
The country is heavily promoting itself in trade publications, such as the Cannes Film Festival producers guide, and touting the variety of its locations: from fine Caribbean beaches to mountains to colonial cities.
In trying to become a film mecca, however, the Dominican Republic faces stiff competition from within the United States and abroad. Since Canada became the first country to offer incentives two decades ago, 41 U.S. states — Florida among them — and dozens of international locations have offered their own packages, ranging from tax breaks and rebates to subsidies.
“The market keeps expanding, seeing more and more countries getting into the marketplace by offering incentives or credits,” said Benson Berro, a Los Angeles-based partner with consultancy KPMG LLP, which produces an annual taxation guide for the film and television industries.
In the Caribbean alone, locales including Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and the U.S. Virgin Islands offer some sort of financial incentives.
Millions of dollars in investment and thousands of jobs are at stake. Puerto Rico said in the first year after introducing its incentive program, it attracted 30 productions that invested a total of $80 million. Even small-budget films spend upwards of $1 million, hiring locals, renting out locations and hotel rooms and keeping busy production services like caterers and dressing rooms.
“The incentives and credits provide a significant portion of the financing for motion picture or television production,” Berro, who advises California studios, said.
The Dominican Republic believes a $70 million film studio under construction, which will be managed by Pinewood Studios, the maker of the Harry Potter films, will set it apart. One portion of the studio, the world’s second-largest water tank, which can be used for underwater filming, opened this month.
“We think the studio makes the Dominican Republic a preferred destination in the Caribbean and region,” Ellis Pérez, the film commissioner, told the Miami Herald.
An average of four or five films per year would shoot in the country in the decade before it started offering incentives in 2011.
“Last year, we granted permission to 23 films … including four from outside the country,” he said. “In just the first three months of this year, we’ve granted 16 including two from outside the country.”
A Dark Truth, a thriller starring Andy Garcia, was the first film to qualify under the program: Producers received a credit worth $300,000 of the $1.2 million they spent filming here.
Ellis said two more major Hollywood productions are likely to film in the country over the next couple years, but he declined to name the films because the negotiations are ongoing.
“The tax incentive that states and countries offer play a big role in determining where a film will get made,” said Caleb Duffy, a California-based location manager who has helped scout locations for films such as Traffic, The Artist and Into the Wild.
“I am starting prep on a film that submitted for the California incentive, and we did not get picked in the lottery, so, although it is a story that is about California, it will be filming in New Mexico and Puerto Rico with only two of the 12 weeks here in L.A.,” Duffy said.
Tax incentives have become standard for countries across the globe. But Caribbean countries are competing for a limited pool of films that are seeking a tropical setting.
The producers of Home Again, which will be screened Saturday morning at this year’s American Black Film Festival in Miami Beach, chose to shoot the majority of their film in Trinidad and Tobago even though they were making a feature-length film about Jamaicans deported to their home country.
“We went to Jamaica and interviewed more than 40 deportees. And I was born in Jamaica. It seemed natural to film there,” said Jennifer Holness, the film’s co-writer and lead producer in a telephone interview from her Toronto office.
But over the next four years and numerous negotiations with government officials, Holness was facing a budget shortfall because she had not been offered a dime to film in Jamaica.
She turned to Trinidad, where the government is trying to cultivate a film industry. Under the country’s incentives, she received a $320,000 cash rebate on the $1.2 million she spent to film there.
Although the film crews had less experience than Jamaican crews, the country was more than willing to accommodate requests.
“It was challenging. Home Again was the biggest film ever shot in Trinidad. But the willingness to help [from the local cast and crew] more than offset the challenges,” Holness said. “The fact that I’m able to make a film and help people of color to learn the business and grow professionally is tremendously gratifying.”
Jamaica Film Commissioner Kim Marie Spence said while her nation’s history with the international film industry dates back to 1914, Jamaica isn’t in a position to offer rebate incentives due to the impact of the global recession and its own financial hard-times that recently forced it to seek help from the International Monetary Fund.
“The offering of cash rebates has not been an option for Jamaica. Trinidad is an oil and gas-exporter and is in a very different economic situation,” said Spence. “Nevertheless, Jamaica continues to host a number of film projects — including marquee television productions, such as America’s Next Top Model — due to the quality of its crew and locations.”
In addition, she said, Jamaica remains a cost-effective country to film and since January, has benefited from more than 30 international film projects.
The example of Home Again underscores how filmmakers can easily switch between locations and still create the look they want for a film.
“A lot of times the [decision is] between the states and a foreign jurisdiction,” Berro said. Instead of choosing between Caribbean countries, “it really may be between Puerto Rico and Florida. … They can make the film look the way they want it to look.”
That makes the size and ease of using the incentive package all the more important. Companies often sell the credit to local brokers and receive cash, film industry professionals said, meaning even foreign exchange rates are considered.
Despite the proliferation of countries offering tax incentives, Hollywood has favored Puerto Rico in recent years. Hits such as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Fast Fivewere filmed there, leading trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter last year to publish an article, “Why Hollywood Loves Puerto Rico.”
The film industry is so important to the government that after the Dominican Republic announced its incentives in early 2011, it made substantial changes to its own program. The film commission now offers a 40 percent tax credit on some productions to a maximum of $350 million a year (instead of $15 million a year previously).
The destination has advantages, such as the fact that it’s a U.S. territory, uses the dollar and has an abundance of English speakers.
“In some ways, it’s difficult to compete with them. … The Dominican Republic has developed, but we’re often a stand-in for Cuba,” said Pérez, who was an extra in Godfather II. “The key to our next step is that the Dominican Republic has to start selling itself as its own destination.”
Miami Herald Caribbean Correspondent Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.
Read the whole story
 
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Russia Strengthens Ties With Latin America, Caribbean | Politics | RIA Novosti

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Russia Seeks to Restore Influence in Latin America | News | The Moscow Times

Russia Seeks to Restore Influence in Latin America | News | The Moscow Times

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Russia Seeks to Restore Influence in Latin America

Foreign Minister Lavrov meeting with counterparts countries in the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States.
Misha Japaridze / AP
Foreign Minister Lavrov meeting with counterparts countries in the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States.

Russia Seeks to Restore Influence in Latin America | News

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Misha Japaridze / AP
Foreign Minister Lavrov meeting with counterparts countries in the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States.
Russia has demonstrated its increasing leverage in Latin America with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovmeeting representatives of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Moscow on Wednesday.
The foreign ministers of Cuba, Costa Rica and Haiti and the deputy foreign minister of Chile discussed trade, political dialogue and a visa-free regime with Lavrov, with everyone in agreement that Russia's relations with the region are ripe enough to establish "a permanent mechanism for political dialogue and cooperation in a Russia-CELAC format," a statement from Russia's Foreign Ministry said.   
CELAC was founded in 2010 as a counterweight to the U.S.-led Organization of American States. It consists of 33 states representing almost 600 million people and producing $7 trillion in annual GDP.
"This is a serious attempt by Latin American states to counter U.S. economic and political influence in the region," said Mikhail Belyat, an independent Latin American expert and lecturer at the Russian State University for the Humanities.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discusses trade and a visa-free regime with the foreign ministers of Cuba, Costa Rica and Haiti.
In the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, the Soviet Union rapidly increased its economic and military influence in Latin America only to see that influence subside with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Apart from Latin America, Russia has recently reinvigorated its efforts to project its influence around the world, especially in other areas where its influence has declined.
To that end, Russia has been actively promoting the concept of a multi-polar world, playing an active role in such organizations as the BRICS and the Eurasian Economic Space, which is planned to be transformed into a full-fledged Eurasian Union in 2015.
"Our friends have expressed their desire to make permanent contacts between the CELAC and BRICS. Particularly on the sidelines of various meetings. We believe this is a very attractive suggestion and we will definitely discuss it with other states that are members of this association," Lavrov said at the news conference that followed negotiations.
BRICS consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, representing large, fast-growing economies with an increasing influence on global affairs.
Just like BRICS, CELAC countries have enjoyed strong economic growth of 4.5 percent on average over the last three years, which in turn drives these states to look to distant markets.
"Like Russia, these countries want to diversify their economies and export markets so that their goals complement each other," Belyat said.
Trade between Russia and Latin America reached $16 billion in 2012 alone.
In order to complement the exchange of goods with the exchange of people, the sides have agreed to put their efforts into establishing a visa-free regime between CELAC countries and Russia.
Although Russians already enjoy visa-free travel to most countries of Latin America, including Brazil, Argentina and Chile, Costa Rica and Panama still require Russian citizens to apply for entry clearance in advance.
Russia has been negotiating visa-free entry for its citizens for some time now, with the most well-known process taking place with the EU.
Russia has noted that the EU already grants visa-free access to such countries as Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela — countries which enjoy a similar level of economic prosperity as Russia.
As the bureaucratic process in the EU drags out visa-free negotiations, Moscow is looking to other regions to expand its influence.
"We used to have hectares full of Lada cars along the Panama Canal, while our tractors were plowing Mexican lands," Belyat said. "So I predict Russia will become more prominent in Latin America, and we will see more Latin American goods in our stores."