Tag Archives: Late Monday

News, Politics, Government

7 killed in post-election protests in Venezuela, chief prosecutor says

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Venezuela‘s chief prosecutor said Tuesday that seven people have been killed and 61 injured in protests following presidential elections in which the opposition candidate is demanding a recount.

Prosecutor Luisa Ortega did not provide any details about the deaths or injuries or how they occurred. But she said the seven killed were humble members of the working class, a suggestion that the opposition might be to blame.

Chavez’s chosen successor Nicolas Maduro was certified the winner of a presidential election Monday amid questions about his ability to lead after squandering a double-digit lead in the race despite an outpouring of sympathy for his party following Chavez’s death.

But protests across the country are posing a challenge even before he deals with Venezuela‘s mounting problems.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles is demanding a recount of Sunday’s election that he narrowly lost. As the National Electoral Council proclaimed Maduro the victor, people stood on their balconies in Caracas apartment buildings banging pots and pans in protest. Across town, thousands of students briefly clashed with National Guard troops who fired tear gas and plastic bullets.

Protests continued on Tuesday.

In the city center, a divided district, government supporters tried to drown out the noise by setting off deafening firecrackers. Some drove trucks with megaphones, shouting pro-Chavista slogans through megaphones. Pedestrians shouted “Chavez lives! Maduro continues!”

Anti-Maduro protests also broke out in other regions, including Chavez’s home state of Barinas.

Late Monday, Maduro announced he had met with a newly created “anti-coup” command at the military museum that holds Chavez’s remains. He accused opposition protesters of attacking government clinics and the house of electoral council President Tibisay Lucena, without offering details. He said the government was investigating a possible death.

Maduro isn’t without advantages. The presidency was made immensely stronger by the charismatic Chavez during his 14 years in power, and the ruling socialists will dominate the National Assembly for at least two more years before new elections are held.

Government leaders and military leaders closed ranks around Maduro on Monday in a series of television appearances to defend the official vote count and accuse Capriles of trying to foment violence.

Still, hours before the show of unity, a key Chavista leader showed a flash of discontent.

Diosdado Cabello, the National Assembly president who many consider Maduro’s chief rival within the “Chavismo” movement, expressed dismay in two Twitter messages after the electoral council president announced the election results. In the first, he called for a “profound self-criticism” within Chavista ranks. In the second, he wrote: “We should look for our faults under the rocks if we have to.”

Diego Moya-Ocampos, an analyst with the London-based consulting firm IHS Global Insight, said members of the ruling socialist party PSUV “realize that Maduro is not the man to guarantee continuity of the Chavista movement.”

Cabello expressed disbelief at Capriles’ strong showing, asking why “sectors of the poor population would vote for their exploiters of old.”

That might not be such a mystery.

Among Venezuela‘s problems are crumbling infrastructure, persistent shortages of food and medicine, and double-digit inflation. The nonprofit Venezuelan Violence Observatory estimates

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/UHYPHUYDcRs/

News, Politics, Government

Dollar mixed on weak British economic data

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The dollar is mixed against other major currencies following weak British economic data and the possibility for new stimulus in Japan.

The euro is up a fraction against the dollar, trading at $1.304, from its $1.3038 late Monday.

The British pound is recovering some of its earlier drop. It is down to $1.4860, after earlier falling as far as $1.4830, its lowest level since June 2010. The decline followed the release of weak British industrial production figures. Late Monday, the pound was worth $1.4929.

The dollar fell to 95.98 Japanese yen from 96.27 yen late Monday. The yen fell earlier as expectations increased that the Bank of Japan will soon announce a big stimulus program to get the Japanese economy going again.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Computers

Outlook.com dumps "Preview" tag, preps for mass Hotmail migration

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Hotmail users will be getting a new outlook on email before long. Late Monday, Microsoft announced that the preview phase for Outlook.com, the software giant’s new and improved Webmail service, is over after being used by more than 60 million people in its six months of existence. Now that’s it’s ready for prime time, Microsoft plans to migrate current Hotmail users over to the new interface by the time summer rolls around. Fear not; the transition shouldn’t be too painful, as your mail, contacts, and current account settings will come along for the ride.

There’s a lot to love about the Outlook.com migration if you’re a Hotmail user. First of all, you get a Webmail service with a clean, modern interface that is much easier on the eyes than the crowded 90’s-style look of Hotmail. Microsoft’s new Webmail service also integrates with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn so you can see social updates from your contacts right in your e-mail window. If you already integrated these accounts with Windows Live, these settings should also come with you.

Outlook.com includes some of the handy tools Microsoft integrated into Hotmail, including ‘Sweep’ and ‘categories’ for better message handling. The new service also integrates with other newly revamped online services from Microsoft, including SkyDrive and People, though regrettably, Calendar has not yet been overhauled.

Microsoft says you’ll also see 60 percent fewer ads on Outlook.com than on Hotmail thanks to social updates and messaging panes that take over space usually occupied by advertisements.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

News, Politics, Government

Senate panel to vote on Defense nominee Hagel

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Chuck Hagel — Republican, twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran and former Nebraska senator — faces his first major hurdle in his bid to become the nation’s defense secretary as a bitterly divided Senate Armed Services Committee pushes toward a vote on his nomination.

The panel is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon to discuss and vote on President Barack Obama‘s choice to succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is stepping down after four years as CIA director and Pentagon chief. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is pressing for a full Senate vote on either Wednesday or Thursday.

Hagel faces fierce opposition from Republicans who have challenged his past statements and votes on Israel, Iran, Iraq and nuclear weapons. Committee Republicans forced a delay in the expected committee vote last week when they pressed Hagel for more information about his personal finances.

The panel’s chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said the GOP demands were beyond the scope of those traditionally asked of previous nominees, Republican and Democrat — a point echoed by his Republican colleague, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Levin set a committee vote that will probably break along party lines — 14 Democrats for Hagel, 12 Republicans against their former colleague — just hours before Obama’s State of the Union address to Congress.

More critical to whether Republicans drag out the nomination is the closed-door, weekly Republican luncheon Tuesday where Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will determine whether GOP lawmakers have the inclination and votes to filibuster a president’s Cabinet choice. Such a move would be unprecedented in the Senate, where Republicans and Democrats have argued that a president’s nominee should get an up or down vote.

Late Monday, McCain met privately with several committee Republicans and urged them not to filibuster the Hagel nomination, arguing that it would set a bad precedent and pointing out that the roles could be reversed someday with a Republican president and GOP-controlled Senate.

“I’m encouraging my colleagues if they want to vote against Sen. Hagel that’s one thing and that’s a principled stand,” McCain told a group of reporters. “We do not want to filibuster. We have not filibustered a Cabinet appointee in the past and I believe that we should move forward with his nomination, bring it to the floor and vote up or down.”

McCain has not said how he would vote on the nomination, but has indicated he was …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

New pay cuts trigger transport strikes in Greece

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Striking subway workers in Athens defied a court order to return to work and continued their protest for a sixth day, as protests against new pay cuts escalated in Greece‘s capital.

A union representing workers at the Athens Metro continued their strike Tuesday, a day after a court declared their protest illegal. The court ruling would allow the government to activate emergency powers to force the strikers back to work.

Workers at the state-run city bus, trolley-bus and tram systems were also planning work stoppages Tuesday, that will likely cause extensive traffic problems around the city during the morning rush hour.

The government in cash-strapped Greece has imposed a new round of salary cuts by broadening pay scales in the public sector.

New austerity measures were approved by parliament last month and were needed for Greece to continue receiving money from bailout funds worth a total of 240 billion ($320 billion).

Late Monday, eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels backed the payout to Greece of a loan installment worth €9.2 billion ($12.3 billion), with most of that money earmarked for recapitalizing the banks. The decision has to be formally approved by the board of the bailout fund, known as the European Financial Stability Facility.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Documents indicate suspect in India gang-rape case is a juvenile

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Documents presented in a hearing Tuesday indicate that a suspect in the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus in December was a juvenile at the time of the attack, a court official present at the hearing said.

Two principals from the suspect’s elementary school showed paperwork indicating that the suspect was a juvenile at the time of the attack, which would make him ineligible for the death penalty, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of a gag order on the case.

A judge is expected to rule on the suspect’s age in a Jan. 28 hearing, the official said, adding that the suspect did not appear in court Tuesday.

The suspect, who is not being identified by The Associated Press because he says he is 17, would face three years in a reform facility if convicted as a juvenile. A conviction as an adult could lead to his execution.

Five other men also have been charged in the case, which has put an international spotlight on sexual abuse against women in India. One of the five now says he is also a minor.

Police say the 23-year-old victim and a male friend boarded the bus on Dec. 16 after seeing an evening movie. But the bus turned out to be off-duty and was being driven by a group of friends who, police say, attacked the couple and then took turns raping the woman. They also penetrated her repeatedly with a metal bar, causing massive internal injuries. The two were eventually dumped on the roadside. The woman died two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

Figuring out the young suspect’s age could be complicated. He is believed to lack a birth certificate — a common occurrence in India, where many people are born at home. In such cases, school records are often used as proof of age or identity.

The principal of the suspect’s former elementary school, who testified at the hearing, said earlier that the suspect quit school in the third grade, about eight years ago. He declined to provide details on the school’s records on the young man, but said few people from the school, in a rural, poverty-battered part of Uttar Pradesh state, have proof of their age.

“None of these people have documents,” said Shishu Pal Singh. “If the parents say he’s 6 years old (when he is first brought to school), we list him as 6 years old. If he looks older, we may say he is 7.”

There are also medical tests that can indicate a person’s general age, though it’s unclear if the technology would be able to give a precise age.

While sexual violence is believed to be a major problem across India, the issue has seldom been raised in a country where women are still often regarded as second-class citizens. Victims are often blamed for sexual attacks — by their families or authorities — and the shame of rape keeps many women from reporting such attacks at all.

The bus rape, though, has drawn protests and intense media attention. Rapes have become front-page news nearly every day across the country, with demands that police do more to protect women and that the courts treat sexual violence seriously.

Late Monday, more than 150 people gathered outside a school in the western state of Goa to protest the rape of a second grade student.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News