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from UK News:
Press Round-up – March 16
Osborne poised to cut top-rate income tax British finance minister George Osborne is poised to slash the top rate of income tax from 50 pence to 40 pence in next week's budget in a dramatic move that will delight business, but risks reinforcing the Conservatives' reputation as protectors of the super-rich. (Guardian)
Lloyds penalises former directors over HBOS deal Eric Daniels and a trio of fellow former directors at Lloyds Banking Group have missed out on a 2 million pounds payday after being further penalised for their stewardship of the state-backed lender. (Telegraph)
SFO set to contact BP over fraud allegations The Serious Fraud Office is to contact oil giant BP in connection with a "serious case of bribery and corruption" revealed by a whistleblower. (Telegraph)
Argos chief urges Osborne to aid shoppers' income The chief executive of Home Retail Group has pleaded with Britain's finance minister George Osborne to improve the incomes of lower and middle earners in next week's budget as the company continues to haemorrhage sales. (Times)
from FaithWorld:
Seeking pope’s help, Cuban dissidents occupy Havana Catholic church
(People walk near the Church of Our Virgin of Charity in Havana March 14, 2012. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan)
Cuban dissidents occupied a Roman Catholic church in Havana on Wednesday in what a Church spokesman said was part of a broader orchestrated action to get Pope Benedict to press for change when he visits later this month.
Thirteen men and women who said they were members of obscure political parties went into the Church of Our Virgin of Charity in central Havana on Tuesday and refused entreaties from Church officials to leave, according a statement from the archbishop's office in Havana.
It said similar incidents had happened in other churches in the country on Tuesday, but that elsewhere the dissidents had "abandoned the temples."
Human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said a group of 25 in eastern Holguin province was ejected from a church by the local archbishop and that in nearby Las Tunas dissidents were detained before they could occupy their target church.
"This has to do with a strategy prepared and coordinated by groups in various regions of the country. It is not a chance event, but well thought out and it appears with the purpose of creating critical situations close to the visit of Pope Benedict XVI," the Church statement said.
from UK News:
Press Round-up – March 15
Fitch warns that UK could lose coveted AAA credit rating Britain's hopes of retaining its prized triple-A credit rating were dealt a blow last night after Fitch put the country on watch for a downgrade. (Telegraph)
UK's austerity drive cut 270,000 jobs in 2011 More than 30,000 NHS workers and 71,000 in education were among more than a quarter of a million public sector staff who lost their jobs in 2011 in Britain as the government's austerity measures started to bite. (Guardian)
BP alerted to 'bribery' at its tanker division Oil giant BP is investigating a "serious case of bribery and corruption" alleged to have been taking place in the company's tanker chartering division. (Telegraph)
Pay-TV probe to include Netflix UK regulators examining British Sky Broadcasting's position in the pay-TV movies market have expanded the scope of their investigation to include online providers such as Netflix and Lovefilm. (FT)
MF Global clients' details published Private clients of MF Global reacted angrily on Wednesday to what several said was a severe breach of privacy, after KPMG, administrator to the UK arm of the failed futures broker, published their identities, home addresses and the sums owed to them. (FT)
Codelco steps up Anglo American legal conflict Codelco is preparing new legal action in its dispute with Anglo American that could inhibit the London-listed miner's ability to pay dividends. (FT)
MUFJ weighs up European bank assets Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has weighed up close to 100 billion euros of European bank asset portfolios that shrinking rivals are seeking to offload, according to the man in charge of the Japanese group's global expansion. (FT)
from FaithWorld:
Belgian mosque attack baffles both Brussels police and local Muslims
(Women stand outside the Rida mosque which has been set on fire in Anderlecht commune in the west of Brussels March 13, 2012. REUTERS/Yves Herman )
A firebomb attack on a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Brussels that killed a popular local imam triggered an anti-terrorist investigation on Wednesday, but police remained uncertain of the detained suspect's identity and local Muslims baffled about his motives.
Prosecutors have released few details about the suspect, a man in his 30s who locals said entered the mosque in a rundown quarter of the city shortly after evening prayers on Monday carrying an axe, a knife and a can of petrol, which he poured over the prayer mats and ignited.
"He is saying he is a Salafi Muslim," federal prosecutor Leen Nuyts told Reuters, adding that it was one of several explanations he had offered. "He is saying that Syria could have played a part, but we have to do further investigation" before reaching that conclusion, she said.
Nuyts said the suspect had provided three different identities and efforts were still being made to establish which was correct. Locals said he was a Sunni Muslim Moroccan from Tangiers.
Sunnis are at the forefront of a bloody uprising in Syria against rule by the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Salafis are a Sunni group advocating an especially strict form of Islam. They have been very active in parts of the Middle East but have no record of involvement in violence in Europe.
from FaithWorld:
Cuban cardinal says pope wants revival of Catholic faith on communist island
(Havana's seafront boulevard El Malecon at sunset March 13, 2012. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan)
Pope Benedict wants to help revive religious faith in Cuba when he visits the communist island later this month, the leader of Cuba's Catholic Church said in a nationally televised address. In a country that for years was officially atheist, Cardinal Jaime Ortega said the 84-year-old pontiff saw the stirrings of religious fervour in the crowds of people who paid homage to the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre when the icon of Cuba's patron saint was paraded around the country last year.
"There was great interest in this pilgrimage because the pope is committed to reviving the faith in countries that were christianised before who need a new evangelization," Ortega, who is the archbishop of Havana, said on Tuesday. "There was something in this mission that was the revival of a sleeping faith, maybe a faith a little suppressed, but that was present in the heart of the people."
"The pope feels that he comes to confirm us in this faith. He comes to reaffirm these Christian values," said Ortega.
The German-born pope will visit Cuba from March 26 to 28 at a time of change on the island, where President Raul Castro has undertaken reforms liberalizing the Soviet-style economy and improved long-rocky relations with the Catholic Church.
Ortega brokered a deal with Castro in 2010 to release more than 100 political prisoners and has been a forceful voice for economic reforms. In December, Castro released 2,900 prisoners, citing the pope's pending visit as one of the reasons. Most of those freed were convicted of common crimes, although some were believed to have been political prisoners.
from UK News:
Press Round-up – March 14
Osborne looks at 100-year bond The UK chancellor is aiming to launch an "Osborne bond" - a 100-year debt issue or even a perpetual gilt that never matures - to take advantage of the country's historically low interest rates. (FT)
Tesco becomes first major firm to move pension age from 65 to 67 Tesco, the country's largest private sector employer, is to raise its pension age from 65 to 67 in a move that could be followed by other major companies. (Telegraph)
FSA's Turner takes aim at City of London The head of the Financial Services Authority has launched a broadside against innovation in London's financial district, accusing parts of the City of London of developing complex products that mislead regulators and hoodwink consumers. (Times)
Brussels probes possible telecoms collusion Europe's biggest telecoms companies are facing the threat of a European Commission probe focusing on whether meetings between their top executives led to possible collusion. (FT)
Encyclopedia Britannica to cease print edition The Encyclopedia Britannica will stop publishing its 32-volume print edition after 244 years and instead focus on its digital efforts, a watershed moment that highlights the changing fortunes of content producers in the internet era. (FT)
Goldman Sachs eyes bid for Veolia water business Goldman Sachs <GS.N> is working on a potential bid for Veolia's UK water business, which supplies water to London and south-east England, in a deal estimated at about 1.2 billion pounds. (FT)
Carlyle used new money to pay dividend Carlyle, the private equity group preparing to go public on Nasdaq, raised money from a shareholder late in 2010 only to then pay most of the proceeds out to its shareholders in the form of a dividend, according to regulatory filings. (FT)
from FaithWorld:
New York police surveillance of Muslims appears popular, but is it legal?
(Hamzah Ali protests during a rally against the New York police in New York November 18, 2011. REUTERS/Andrew Burton)
New York City voters overwhelmingly support the New York Police Department's anti-terrorism campaign even as provisions of it have come under criticism from civil rights groups who question the legality how police target Muslims. The Quinnipiac University poll, released on Tuesday, found respondents approved by 63 percent to 31 the way New York police are doing their job and said by 82 percent to 14 percent the NYPD has been effective combating terrorism.
The poll of 964 New York City voters showed Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly won better than 2-to-1 approval ratings and voters said police act appropriately in how they deal with Muslims by a margin of 58 percent to 29 percent. Kelly won an approval rating of 64 percent to 25 percent, according to the poll, which was taken March 6-11 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent.
Support among New Yorkers comes as questions have been raised about the constitutionality of the anti-terrorism campaign, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the Justice Department was reviewing letters expressing concern over the NYPD's surveillance program.
Legal experts say any court challenge based on claims of racial or religious profiling would face high hurdles. Instead, they say, any successful case would likely come down to a single paragraph in a longstanding court order that governs the department's surveillance of political activity. The paragraph, part of the "Handschu guidelines," sets conditions for NYPD officers who visit public places or events during anti-terrorism investigations. It prohibits them from keeping records of their observations unless the information is related to "potential unlawful activity" - a ban that critics say the NYPD has ignored.
Read the full story by Joseph Ax here. See also Analysis: Is NYPD's monitoring of Muslims legal?? . Follow all posts on Twitter @ RTRFaithWorld
from FaithWorld:
U.S. Catholic bishops mull wider focus in birth control/religious freedom fight
(Bishops listen to proceedings during the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, Maryland November 14, 2011. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
Facing small but clear signs of discontent within their own ranks, U.S. Catholic bishops may be poised to rethink their aggressive tactics for fighting a federal mandate that health insurance plans cover contraception, according to sources close to influential bishops.
There are no indications that the bishops will drop their fight against the federal mandate. But dozens of bishops, meeting this week in Washington, are likely to discuss concerns that their battle against the Obama administration over birth control risks being viewed by the public as narrow and partisan and thus diminishes the church's moral authority, the sources said.
"They're going to have to look at not just what their moral theology tells them they should do, but at what political reality tells them," said Thomas Reese, a Catholic priest and Georgetown University scholar who has written extensively about the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "These are strategic and tactical questions."
One sign of a coming recalibration: A sweeping statement on religious liberty, now circulating in draft form, that aims to broaden the bishops' focus far beyond the contraception mandate.
The draft statement, slated to be released soon to a burst of publicity, condemns an array of local, state and federal policies as violations of religious freedom, said Martin Nussbaum, a private attorney who has consulted with the bishops.
from FaithWorld:
Belgian Muslim leaders urge calm after mosque attack, imam death
(View of the entrance of the Rida mosque which has been set on fire in Anderlecht commune in the west of Brussels March 13, 2012. REUTERS/Yves Herman)
Belgium's Muslim leaders called for calm on Tuesday after an attack on a mosque in a suburb of Brussels killed the imam and injured another man shortly after evening prayers.
Belgian media reported that the attacker was a member of the Salafis, a strict movement within the Sunni branch of Islam, and said the incident was linked to tensions within the Muslim community. This could not be independently verified.
Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo condemned Monday's incident in which an unidentified man armed with an axe and a knife entered a Shi'ite mosque in the district of Anderlecht and ignited a can of fuel, setting the building ablaze.
The imam, named by police as Sheikh Abdallah Dadou, died from inhaling toxic fumes. The second man escaped with minor injuries, authorities said.
Around 10 people were in the mosque when the attacker entered, police said. The assailant was overwhelmed and detained until authorities arrived.
