Saturday, 7 May 2016

Shots fired on University of Missouri campus: university

Two gunshots were fired on University of Missouri's flagship campus on Friday though no one was injured, the school said.
Police were investigating the shooting near a plaza on the campus, and were searching for a suspect, the university said.
"There is no indication of a current threat to campus," the school added.
About 35,000 students attend the University of Missouri in Columbia, 125 miles (200 km) west of St. Louis.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Croatian PM says not thinking about early polls -paper

Croatia's prime minister dismissed the possibility of an early election and said in an interview published on Saturday that his fractious coalition would deliver promised reforms to spur growth and cut debt.
Recent squabbles over appointments including that of an intelligence chief and reforms to the pension system and public administration have prompted questions about the stability of the government and the possibility of early polls.
Technocrat Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic told daily Vecernji List he had good relationships with other leaders of the coalition that took office in January and which comprises the conservative HDZ and reformist Most ("Bridge") parties plus several small allies.
"Sometimes our opinions differ and we can have unpleasant discussions, but it doesn't mean they are not healthy," Oreskovic said. "I don't even think about an early election as we have a lot of jobs ahead of us and all the ministers are aware of it and keen to focus on work."
HDZ parliamentary deputy Zeljko Dilber had said on Friday his party could reassess relations with Most -- at whose insistence Oreskovic was appointed as premier -- after an internal election in late May.
On Saturday, Most leader Bozo Petrov said his party would not accept "ultimatums" from HDZ for remaining in coalition.
Local media reported that the conservatives told Most this week they demanded a stronger say in the interior ministry, controlled by a Most minister, and change of policy in a dispute with Hungarian energy firm MOL over management and investments in Croatia's oil concern INA.
"If they aim to make ultimatums, they shouldn't have entered a coalition with us. We will not accept it, nor will we yield to such demands," Petrov told the state radio. HDZ officials were not available for a comment.
INA is jointly owned by Zagreb and MOL, but the two sides are at odds and involved in an international arbitration. Most insists Croatia must not withdraw from the arbitration.
A snap election would slow momentum for reforms needed to boost one of the European Union's weakest economies.
"We jointly as a government prepared reforms and we can implement them only if we stick together. I'm convinced we will deliver results," Oreskovic, formerly an executive at Israeli drug firm Teva, said in the interview.
The government adopted a package of measures last week aimed at fostering growth, cutting high public debt and avoiding corrective measures for macroeconomic imbalances from Brussels.
Oreskovic said the government would soon outline plans to privatize some non-strategic assets, including real estate and minority stakes in some firms.
"My first move now will be to reduce debt by up to 200 million euros ($230 million). In the next two weeks we will know in what companies we want to sell our share and in what way," he said.
(Reporting by Igor Ilic; Editing by)

Spain's Rajoy asks Brussels to forgo deficit fine: El Pais

Spain's acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy has asked Brussels to waive a fine that could be imposed on the country for missing its deficit target in 2015, El Pais newspaper reported on Saturday.
Citing a letter sent to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, El Pais said Rajoy had stressed Spain's efforts in the past four years to halve the public deficit, and offered up additional measures to control spending next year.
A source with the Spanish government confirmed the existence of the letter, though said it contained information that had already been sent to Brussels on Spain's latest plans to bring the deficit down.
The European Commission declined to comment.
The Commission is in charge of policing the budgets of the EU's 28 members to make sure they improve each year in line with recommendations set by finance ministers.
The rules were sharpened in 2011 to make financial sanctions for rule-breakers more automatic and harder to circumvent through political alliance-building as had happened in the past.
Spain missed its 2015 target of cutting the deficit to 4.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), after overspending by regions and a social security revenue shortfall pushed it up to 5 percent.
The Commission is considering penalising Spain as well as Portugal for missing their goals. Officials have told Reuters the fines - which would be unprecedented - could be symbolic and be set at zero percent of GDP, though even that would ramp up political pressure.
Spain's deficit tussle comes at an sensitive time for Rajoy's acting centre-right government, which faces a second election in six months after an inconclusive ballot last December which stripped the People's Party (PP) of its majority.
The PP has tried to sell itself as a safe pair of hands on the economy, after the country emerged from a deep recession under its administration.
The new election is now set for June 26. The Commission is due to issue its recommendations on whether or not to fine Spain and Portugal later this month, though the size of any fine may not be announced until after the vote, El Pais said.
The maximum penalty is up to 0.2 percent of GDP, or 2.16 billion euros ($180 million) in the case of Spain.
Brussels is also expected to give Spain more leeway to whittle its public deficit below its recommended 3 percent threshold, through an extension of one or even two years, sources have said.
By exercising better controls on regional spending and helped by an economic rebound, Spain aims to bring the deficit down to 3.6 percent this year - instead of the 2.8 percent originally envisaged - and sees it standing at 2.9 percent in 2017.
Brussels has projected the deficit will reach 3.8 percent of GDP this year and 3.1 percent in 2017.
(Reporting by Sarah White in Madrid and Robert-Jan Bartunek in Brussels; Editing by Toby Chopra)

German Vice Chancellor urges debt relief for Greece

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel urged euro zone finance ministers to start talks on debt relief for Greece, saying it made no sense to crush the green shoots of economic recovery with further austerity measures.
The finance ministers of the euro zone's 19 countries are due to meet in Brussels on May 9 to discuss Greece's debt and a new set of contingency measures that Athens should adopt to ensure it will achieve agreed fiscal targets in 2018.
"The euro group meeting on Monday must find a way to break the vicious circle," Gabriel, who is also Economy Minister, said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Saturday.
"Everyone knows that this debt relief will have to come at some point. It makes no sense to shirk from that time and time again," he added.
The International Monetary Fund wants Greece's European partners to grant Athens substantial relief on its debt, which it sees as vital for its long term sustainability.
But Germany's hardline Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble opposes any debt relief, arguing it is not necessary.
Thrice-bailed-out Greece needs to secure an overdue aid payment of 5 billion euros to repay IMF loans, bonds held by the European Central Bank maturing in July, and growing state arrears.
"It doesn't help the people and the country to have to fight every 12 months to get new credit to pay off old loans," Gabriel said. "Greece needs debt relief."
Gabriel spoke out against further austerity measures and said Athens had managed to achieve better economic growth than expected.
"It makes no sense to destroy these tender shoots once again with new austerity measures," he added.
(Reporting by Thorsten Severin; Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Treading cautiously, House's Ryan to meet Trump

Nicaragua sets November 6 for presidential, legislative polls

MANAGUA (AFP) - 
Authorities in Nicaragua on Friday set November 6 as the date for presidential and legislative elections widely expected to see leftist President Daniel Ortega vie for a third term.
Ortega's Sandinista National Liberation Front party, born out of the 1970s rebel movement he helped lead, has not yet officially declared its candidate.
But the 70-year-old incumbent leader, who was elected in 2006 and 2011 and previously ruled from 1985 to 1990, is tipped to try to hold on to office amid few apparent rivals.
In 2014, amid controversy, he had a law passed that scrapped a previous limit of two consecutive five-year terms for presidents. The legislation also gave him new powers.
Nicaragua's High Electoral Council has told the 17 registered parties in the country to present their candidates.
In addition to the president, the polls will choose the post of vice president and the lawmakers in the 92-seat National Assembly. Their five-year terms will begin in January 2017.
The date chosen, November 6, means Nicaragua's elections will be taking place two days before the United States holds its presidential election.
Ortega, a former rebel, has positioned himself as an anti-American leader, cultivating relationships with similarly minded leaders of Venezuela and Cuba.
© 2016 AFP

N. Korea's Kim defends nuclear arsenal as test fears grow

PYONGYANG (AFP) - 
North Korea's first ruling party congress since 1980 moved into a second day Saturday, after leader Kim Jong-Un opened with a defiant defence of his nuclear weapons programme and amid fresh signs Pyongyang is readying a fifth nuclear test.
The once-in-a-generation gathering of the country's top decision-making body is being scrutinised for signs of any substantive policy change or major reshuffle in the isolated state's ruling elite.
In his opening address on Friday, the 33-year-old Kim, dressed in a western-style suit and tie, hailed the "magnificent ... and thrilling" nuclear test carried out on January 6, which Pyongyang claimed was of a powerful hydrogen bomb.
The test and long-range rocket launch that followed a month later had "smashed the hostile forces' vicious manoeuvres geared to sanctions and strangulation, and displayed to the world the indomitable spirit, daring grit and inexhaustible strength of heroic Korea," Kim said.
North Korea has conducted a total of four nuclear tests, two of them since Kim came to power in late 2011 following the death of his father and former leader Kim Jong-Il.
Speculation that the North might be readying a fifth test, in defiance of toughened UN sanctions, was fuelled Saturday by recent satellite imagery of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast of the country.
- New nuclear test? -
Analysts at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said the presence of vehicles at the complex's test command centre signalled the possibility of a test "in the near future".
"While the historical record is incomplete, it appears that vehicles are not often seen there except during preparations for a test," they said.
Most experts have doubted the North's H-bomb claim, saying the detected yield from the January test was far too low for a full-fledged thermonuclear device.
However, they acknowledge the strides the North has made under Kim Jong-Un towards its ultimate goal of developing an inter-continental ballistic missile capable of striking targets across the US mainland.
Reacting to Kim's speech, Washington urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions altogether and rejoin the international community.
"We obviously are aware of the risk that is posed by North Korea's effort to develop nuclear weapons and systems capable of delivering those nuclear weapons," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
"There is a path .... North Korea can take to come out of the wilderness. But it will require them renouncing nuclear weapons," he added.
- Kim 'coronation' -
The ongoing party congress is widely seen as Kim Jong-Un's formal "coronation" and recognition of his status as the legitimate inheritor of the Kim family's dynastic rule which spans almost seven decades.
Giant portraits of his father and his grandfather -- founding leader Kim Il-Sung -- dominated the backdrop to the podium where he made his opening speech.
The congress agenda, published for the first time on Friday, included an item on electing Kim to the "top post" of the Workers' Party.
Kim is currently first party secretary, but may take on the post of party general secretary, a position held by his late father.
Other items on the agenda included revising party rules and elections to central party organs.
Since taking power, Kim has shown a ruthless streak, purging the party, government and powerful military of those seen as disloyal, and ordering the execution of his powerful uncle, and one-time political mentor, Jang Song-Thaek.
The congress will elect its central committee which will in turn select a politburo, with Kim expected to bring in a younger generation of leaders hand-picked for their loyalty.
The conclave may also enshrine as formal party doctrine Kim's "byungjin" policy of pursuing nuclear weapons in tandem with economic development.
Some analysts have suggested Kim might signal a shift in emphasis towards the economy and, in his speech, he mentioned the beginning of a new "leap forward" but offered no specific details.
by Simon Martin
© 2016 AFP