| EVENTS MONITOR |
R. Allen Stanford, another 'massive Ponzi schemer'
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| R. Allen Stanford executed a "massive Ponzi scheme" in which he misappropriated billions of investor dollars and made "bogus" personal loans to himself, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said today.
Stanford, 58, chairman of Houston-based Stanford Group Co., and James M. Davis the company's chief financial officer, falsified financial statements to investors who bought $8 billion in "self-styled certificates of deposit" in Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd., the SEC said in an amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Dallas. |
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US Economy 2009Q1
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| The U.S. economic contraction in the fourth quarter was deeper than the government first estimated, with other reports today signaling little prospect of relief until at least the middle of 2009.
Gross domestic product shrank at a 6.2 percent annual pace from October through December, the most since 1982, the Commerce Department said today in Washington.
Separate figures showed consumer sentiment and business activity dropped this month. Observers say "There has been no evidence that the pace of decline is slowing at all," |
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Warren Buffett on record
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| Billionaire Warren Buffett said the economy will be "in shambles" for the rest of this year as financial firms take losses tied to reckless loans made during the housing boom.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index will probably gain in three-quarters of the next 44
years, just as it did in the period since Buffett took over Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in 1965, he said today in his annual letter to the company's shareholders.
While Buffett and business partner Charlie Munger can't predict how stocks will perform in 2009, they're certain "that the economy will be in shambles throughout 2009 - and, for that matter, probably well beyond," he wrote.
Gross domestic product shrank at a 6.2 percent annual pace from October through December, the most since 1982, the Commerce Department said yesterday in Washington. Buffett said the consequences of the U.S. housing bubble are now "reverberating through every corner of our economy." |
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Turkey to stop oil, gas imports in 2023
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| Turkey plans to use newfound energy reserves in the Black Sea to become self-sufficient and end its oil and natural gas imports in 2023. |
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Venezuela is oiling its military machine
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| Venezuela launches a major military operation along its border with Colombia to protect its national sovereignty, Vice President Ramon Carrizales says.
Carrizales, who is also Venezuela's Defense Minister, said operation 'Sentinel' will involve the National Guard and three branches of the armed forces, along the entire 2,219-kilometer (1,379-mile) border with Colombia. |
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Persia allies to make their own bank
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| Three Persian-speaking nations, Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, will set up a joint bank to reduce losses of the global economic crisis.
Tajikistan's presidential palace press office says the agreement was reached between the presidents of the countries last week on the sidelines of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit in Tehran. |
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US working with Turkey on Kurds issue
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| The US administration will urge PKK insurgents to put down their weapons as a way to end the current conflict between the militants and Turkey.
The US will also ask the Turkish government to pardon the former Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, Turkey's Aksam newspaper declared in a report on Sunday. |
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Red Cross report on US prisoners
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| The Washington Post reported on Monday that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) revealed the case from the long-concealed 2007 document.
The Bush administration's treatment of al Qaeda prisoners 'constituted torture' in violation of international law, a Red Cross secret report says. |
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Part I
Part II
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