U.S. economic growth may not top 2 percent this year and a third round of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve would have little effect, said Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University.
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Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh left his battered nation Sunday on his way to the U.S. for medical treatment after passing power to his deputy and asking for forgiveness for any “shortcomings” during his 33-year rein.
But in a sign that Saleh’s role as Yemen’s top power broker is likely far from over, he said he would return to Yemen before the official power transfer next month to serve as the head of his ruling party.
Saleh’s departure marks a small achievement in the months of diplomatic efforts by the U.S. and Yemen’s powerful Gulf neighbors to ease the nearly year-old political crisis in the Arab world’s poorest country. An active al-Qaida branch there has taken advantage of the turmoil, stepping up operations and seizing territory.
After months of diplomatic pressure and mass protests calling for his ouster, Saleh signed a deal in November to transfer authority to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Still, Saleh continued to exercise power behind the scenes, sparking accusations he sought to scuttle the deal and cling to power.
His departure could help the deal go forward.
Presidential spokesman Ahmed al-Soufi told The Associated Press that Saleh left Yemen’s capital Sanaa late Sunday on a plane headed for the Gulf sultanate of Oman. He did not say how long Saleh would remain there, but added that he would make “another stop before heading to the United States of America.”
A senior administration official said Ali Abdullah Saleh would travel to New York this week, and probably stay in the U.S. until no later than the end of February. U.S. officials believe Saleh’s exit from Yemen could lower the risk of disruptions in the lead-up to presidential elections planned there on Feb. 21.
The Obama administration faced a dilemma in deciding whether to let Saleh enter the U.S. after he requested a visa last month. It has long seen getting Saleh out of Yemen as an important step in ensuring the power transfer goes forward.
But some in the administration worried that welcoming Saleh would spark charges from the Arab world that the U.S. was harboring an autocrat responsible for deadly crackdowns on protesters.
To protect against this, the administration has sought assurances that Saleh will not seek to remain in the U.S.
An official close to Saleh said Sunday the president would undergo medical exams in Oman before heading to the U.S. The U.S. has forbidden him from any political activity in the U.S., the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorize to disclose diplomatic talks.
Saleh is likely seeking treatment for injuries sustained in a blast in his palace mosque last June 3 that left him badly burned. After the attack, Saleh traveled to Saudi Arabia for treatment, leaving many to suspect his power was waning. A few months later, however, he made a surprise return to Yemen and resumed his post.
Under the power transfer deal signed in November, Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is to be rubber-stamped as the country’s new leader in presidential elections. The political parties that signed the deal agreed not to nominate any other candidates.
In a farewell speech Friday reported by Yemeni state media, Saleh said he was passing his powers to Hadi, whom he promoted to the rank of marshal.
Saleh portrayed himself as a patriot who “gave his life in the service of the nation,” called for reconciliation and apologized for any mistakes.
“I ask for forgiveness from all sons of the nation, women and men, for any shortcomings during my 33 years in office,” Saleh said according to Yemen’s state news agency.
He also called on Yemen’s youth, who have spearheaded the mass protests calling for his ouster and often faced deadly crackdowns by Saleh’s security forces, to go home.
“I feel for you and call on you to return to your homes and turn a new page with a new leadership,” he said.
Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen of Princeton University said Saleh’s departure could help the power transfer deal progress, though it will do little to address protesters’ demands for a fundamental change of how politics in Yemen works.
Throughout his rule, Saleh has put close members of his family and tribe in charge of key state institutions and security forces, Johnsen said. Leaving that network intact could allow Saleh to continue to shape events in Yemen, even without the title of president.
“I don’t think we have seen the last of President Saleh,” Johnsen said.
Inspired by popular uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world, Yemenis took to the streets nearly a year ago to demand Saleh’s ouster and call for democratic reforms. Saleh’s security forces have met them with often deadly crackdowns, killing more than 200 protesters. Many others have been killed in violent clashes between armed groups that support the protesters and security forces.
Al-Qaida’s active Yemeni branch has also taken advantage of the security collapse to seize territory in the country’s south, even taking control of a town 100 miles from the capital Sanaa earlier this month.
The protests have continued despite the power transfer deal, which many say falls far short of their demands. They also reject the immunity clause, saying they want to see Saleh tried for his alleged role in the protester deaths.
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A U.S. official has urged Romanians to avoid the violence that has tarred a week of anti-government protests that have swept the country, injuring more than 60.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in comments broadcast Friday by Romanian media that Washington supported people’s right to protest and express their views “peacefully.”
“But we call on both protesters and authorities to refrain from any violence,” she added.
A majority of the protests have been peaceful, but riot police official Aurel Moise said 100 protesters had been questioned Thursday on suspicion of throwing stones and using iron fences to break through police lines.
Police used tear gas after protesters started a fire and set up a barricade. Five people were injured.
Britain faces the
A study commissioned by Samsung into cancers among six of its semiconductor workers found they were unrelated to exposure to chemicals on the job but the electronics giant is not yet releasing the full results.
U.S.-based Environ International Corp. on Thursday announced the broad findings of a study it conducted over the past year of several Samsung chip manufacturing facilities.
Samsung commissioned the investigation last July to try and allay public anxieties. The company says that 26 current or former workers in production, research and development or office work at semiconductor facilities have contracted leukemia or lymphoma since 1998, while 13 have died.
The South Korean company said it had no plans to immediately publish the study as doing so could compromise the trade secrets of Samsung and its suppliers.
The six cases covered by the study have also been the subject of an ongoing court case in South Korea. Late last month, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled that two of them could be related to exposure to toxic chemicals on the job. Four of the people have died.
Samsung Electronics Co. is the world’s largest manufacturer of memory chips used in personal computers, mobile phones, digital cameras and other products.
Environ said in a statement that that Samsung’s current manufacturing operations fall “well within accepted standards” for exposure to chemicals and other substances.
Environ officials, including CEO Steve Washburn, appeared at a press conference held at Samsung’s Giheung semiconductor plant in the city of Yongin, south of Seoul.
“The study further concluded that the scientific evidence does not support a link between workplace exposure and the diagnosed cancers in six cases that underwent specific review,” the company said.
It said that in four of the six cancer cases it studied “there was no evidence” of exposure to an agent that would have caused the illnesses, while in the other two “exposures to cancer-causing agents were substantially below levels of exposure associated with an increased risk of cancer.” Those agents included formaldehyde and ionizing radiation.
Samsung, which has long said its facilities are safe, welcomed the results. Still, Kwon Oh-hyun, the Samsung executive in charge of semiconductors, said the company would not immediately release the Environ study.
“We will consider disclosing the report,” he said, after discussing the issue internally and with suppliers free credit score.
That stance disappointed activists supporting plaintiffs in the court case.
Kong Jeong-ok, an occupational health physician and a member of a support group, called for Samsung to act fast.
“First, disclose the full report,” Kong said after the presentation, which she attended. She also urged Samsung to consult with civil groups, experts and the government before doing so to ensure “transparency and reliability.”
Paul Harper, the Environ official who oversaw the study, said that releasing the report was up to Samsung. He also declined to disclose how much Samsung paid his company to carry out the probe, citing client confidentiality.
He also said that Environ focused on the six specific cancer cases at Samsung’s request.
Kwon denied that Samsung commissioned the study so it could be used as evidence in the ongoing court case.
The Seoul Administrative Court last month ordered the government’s Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service to compensate the families of two dead women. It ruled that while the exact cause of their deaths has not been determined, it could be presumed that they were exposed to toxic chemicals and radiation on the job.
It upheld the service’s findings, however, that the cancer cases of three other workers, two of whom are alive, were unrelated to their work at Samsung, though their attorneys are appealing the ruling.
Five of the six original cases are currently being contested in court as the family of another worker who died last year dropped out.
Samsung is not a defendant in the case, but has cooperated with the welfare service. Yonhap news agency reported that the agency has filed an appeal in the two rulings it lost.
Environ said it carried out the study with Samsung’s full cooperation. It also said the study’s design and implementation were reviewed by an independent advisory panel which included academic experts from institutions such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Yale, but that they were not asked to endorse the conclusions.
Separately, Samsung said Thursday that it plans to expand investments in a research institute it runs devoted to semiconductor health and safety and would also upgrade health programs for employees.
President Barack Obama says back-channel talks with congressional leaders last weekend have produced new progress in advance of a White House session Thursday on deficit reduction.
The president is siding with House Speaker John Boehner in insisting that negotiators resist the temptation to “kick the can down the road” and settle for a makeshift, short-term solution to stave off a first-ever U.S. default next month.
At issue is the need to raise the government’s so-called debt limit to avoid a default on its obligations to bondholders and Social Security beneficiaries. Republicans want deficit cuts in the range of at least $2.4 trillion over 10 years to offset the amount of new government borrowing needed simply to avoid another vote before 2013.
Obama met with Boehner on Sunday, the first session since Republicans last month abandoned negotiations being led by Vice President Joe Biden.
The Biden talks had produced a series of tentative understandings on potential spending cuts totaling at least $1.6 trillion under administration math and $2 trillion or more under GOP math. But negotiators say a true agreement on those cuts _ to day-to-day agency operating budgets, defense, federal pensions and farm subsidies, among other things _ would require further sacrifice in the political priorities of Democrats and Republicans alike.
The administration says that if the government’s borrowing authority is not increased by Aug. 2, the U.S. will face its first default ever, potentially throwing financial markets into turmoil.
Obama isn’t calling for increases in tax rates. On Tuesday, the president urged Republicans to agree to eliminate “certain tax breaks and deductions for the wealthiest of Americans.” The White House is pressing for the repeal of tax breaks enjoyed by the oil and natural gas industry and limits on deductions claimed by people in the 35 percent tax bracket.
On Tuesday, Boehner attacked the latter proposal as an assault on small businesses but was subdued on questions like oil and gas subsidies or a much-publicized tax provision that gives favorable treatment to companies that buy corporate jets business cards.
“We’re not dealing just with talking points about corporate jets or other `loopholes,’” Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “The legislation the president has asked for, which would increase taxes on small businesses and destroy more American jobs, cannot pass the House, as I have stated repeatedly.”
In his remarks Tuesday, Obama said he strongly opposes a stopgap, short-term debt-limit increase, as suggested by some lawmakers.
“We’ve made progress, and I believe that greater progress is within sight, but I don’t want to fool anybody. We still have to work through some real differences,” the president said.
Obama’s tone was less partisan than at a news conference last week, as were the responses from Capitol Hill Republicans.
“I’m pleased the president stated today that we need to address the big, long-term challenges facing our country,” Boehner said in a statement.
Obama said Republican and Democratic leaders from the House and Senate were invited to meet on the issue Thursday at the White House. That would bring the top eight lawmakers together with Obama, Biden and top administration financial officials.
“It’s my hope that everybody’s going to leave their ultimatums at the door, that we’ll all leave our political rhetoric at the door,” Obama said.
In the Senate on Tuesday, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., postponed a test vote on a Libya resolution amid increasing opposition from Republican lawmakers who insisted they should be working on financial security, not national security. Several Republican senators had indicated they would oppose using the week to debate the Libya measure.
Reid replaced the Libya measure with a nonbinding resolution calling on millionaires to pay a bigger share of the sacrifices needed to wrestle the deficit under control _ hardly a move that would eclipse any progress made at the White House.
In case you missed the recent media blitz, this week marked the one-year anniversary of Panera Bread Co.’s experimental pay-what-you-want nonprofit cafe in Clayton fast cash without a hassle.
Yes, one year later, the cafe is still kicking.
Based on its success, Panera’s foundation has transferred two more cafes to the nonprofit model
A loss of momentum on Wall Street, dropping commodity prices and worries over Europe’s debt problems caused Asian stock markets to sag Monday.
Oil prices fell below $99 a barrel as crude became more expensive for investors with other currencies amid gains in the U.S. dollar.
Doubts about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery have weighed on Wall Street and markets elsewhere recently. After sailing through their best first quarter since 1998, U.S. stocks are starting to lose some momentum.
The Standard and Poor’s 500 stock index, a broad market benchmark, is up just 1 percent this quarter after jumping 5.4 percent in the first three months of the year. That weaker performance is in large part because of conflicting data about the health of the U.S. economy.
Sluggishness on Wall Street was a sign that “investors continued to worry about slowing global growth and European debt concerns,” said Ben Potter of IG Markets in Melbourne.
Meanwhile, the arrest Saturday in New York of International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn on attempted rape charges was unlikely to directly affect Asian markets.
But the incident might prove a distraction in Europe, where the the IMF and Strauss-Kahn have been heavily involved in trying to resolve debt crises in countries such as Portugal and Greece, said Jackson Wong, vice president at Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.9 percent to 9,560.46 with banking shares incurring losses following comments last week by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano suggesting that Tokyo Electric Power Co. will need help repaying its debts. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. lost 1 percent. Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. both lost 1.5 percent.
Edano said Friday that TEPCO may need adjustments to its loans to help it cope with financial losses incurred following twin natural disasters on March 11 _ an earthquake and subsequent tsunami that smashed into one of the company’s nuclear plants in northeastern Japan.
The utility has been struggling for two months to bring a radiation leak from the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant under control. TEPCO has sought a 2 trillion yen ($24.8 billion) loan to tide it through the initial emergency period. It also expects to pay 50 billion yen ($620 million) in initial compensation to nearly 80,000 residents evacuated from around the plant. Overall damages are expected to be much higher.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.5 percent to 2,110.99, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.2 percent to 23,000.44. Benchmarks in Australia, Singapore and Taiwan were also lower, while those in New Zealand and the Philippines rose.
Falling commodities prices were keeping stock investors at bay, said Wong. Oil, for example, was nearly $114 a barrel at the end of April but is now below $100 per barrel. A slump on Wall Street on Friday also weighed on investor nerves.
On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 100.17 points to close at 12,595.75. The S&P 500 fell 0.8 percent to 1,337.77, and the Nasdaq lost 1.2 percent to 2,828.47.
Benchmark crude for June delivery was down 98 cents to $98.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract settled at $99.65 per barrel Friday, up 68 cents.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.4089 from $1.4110 in late afternoon trading Friday in New York. The dollar strengthened to 80.95 yen from 80.84 yen.
Spain’s underlying inflation rate accelerated in April at the fastest pace in more than two years, adding to evidence of pressure on prices as the European Central Bank signals it will continue to raise interest rates.
Core consumer prices, which exclude energy and fresh food, gained 2.1 percent from a year earlier, after a 1.7 percent increase the previous month, the National Statistics Institute in Madrid said today. That was the highest rate since December 2008. Headline inflation, based on European Union calculations, was 3.5 percent, matching an initial estimate on April 29.
ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said on May 9 the world’s central bankers are united in fighting inflation after the Frankfurt-based bank raised interest rates in April for the first time in almost three years us fast cash. Euro-area inflation is already in breach of the ECB’s 2 percent ceiling, accelerating to 2.8 percent in April, and Spanish inflation is outpacing the regional average even as the indebted economy struggles to emerge from a three-year slump.
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